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In the autumn of that year, more than 400,000 Han troops attacked Wei on a large scale. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

On the north road, Fang Shao sent 80,000 Han troops from Guanzhong and joined the Jinyang Wei Yan Department out of Jingcheng. Wang Ping's 50,000 troops marched south from Youzhou, with a total of about 170,000 soldiers and horses on the three routes, and then attacked Yecheng in the south.

In the middle of the road, the hussar general Zhang Fei led an army of 70,000 east out of Tongguan and took the road to attack Luoyang.

On the south road, Guan Yu, the general of Shangda, led an army of 90,000 troops from Wancheng, joined up with 30,000 horses of Liu Feng's department in Hanzhong, and attacked Runan and Xudu.

Obviously, the Han army's strategy of destroying Wei was still to take the previous strategy of first north and then south, concentrating the main force to capture Hebei, and then taking the Central Plains.

However, this time is different from the previous one.

At the strategic meeting before the start of the war, General Guan Yu made it clear that the Southern Army should no longer be used as a feint force, and he believed that under the current situation, the focus of the offensive should be concentrated in the central Henan Plain.

Therefore, after repeated consultations, both the imperial court and Guan Yu made corresponding compromises, and the number of soldiers and horses on the central and southern routes attacking the Central Plains was increased accordingly, reaching a total of nearly 200,000, while the number of the northern route army, which was nominally the main attack group, was reduced to 170,000.

According to the analysis of the high-level of the Great Han Kingdom, the chances of winning the battle to destroy Wei are extremely high, and who can achieve greater military achievements in the destruction of Wei obviously has a great effect on enhancing his prestige and influence, which is also the reason why Guan Yu increased the number of soldiers and horses attacking the Central Plains.

As early as the Han army was assembled, the Wei side had already reacted accordingly, according to the detailed information, the scale of the Han army's assembly was unprecedentedly large, and Cao Ying realized that the Han army was planning to launch a decisive battle with the strength of the country.

After the previous defeats and losses, Wei can now mobilize no more than 200,000 troops, of which the elite army is only more than 100,000, and most of the rest are county soldiers and newly trained troops. The Han army numbered nearly 400,000, almost twice as many as the Wei army.

The disadvantage in troops made Cao Ying have to carefully deploy his troops.

According to the judgment of intelligence, Cao Ying judged that the focus of the Han attack was still in Hebei, so he personally sat in Yecheng and commanded 70,000 elites from Xiahou Shang to guard the Hebei line.

The general Cao Ren was ordered to command 40,000 soldiers and horses to garrison the Luoyang line, while the left general Yu Ban commanded 60,000 soldiers and horses to garrison the first line in Runan, with a total of 100,000 soldiers and horses in the Central Plains to resist the attack of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's troops.

Although the newly proclaimed state of Wu showed a considerable degree of friendship with Wei, and secretly stated that in the event of a war between Wei and Han in the future, Wu would be neutral. However, Cao Ying obviously did not trust his cunning junior, so in the case of insufficient troops, he still ordered the hussar general Cao Zhen to lead an army of 30,000 to sit in Xuzhou and monitor the Wu army in Huainan.

This is the first time that Fang Shao has gone out as a commander in name and substance, an army of 170,000 is already a fairly large army in such an era of cold weapons, but in Fang Shao's eyes, 170,000 is actually about 1,700 people.

After so many years of practical and theoretical research, Fang Shao's leadership art has reached a very high level, in Fang Shao's view, fighting a war is actually similar to being a chef to stir-fry, a clever chef, for every process of cooking, every condiment used, every point of heat is well understood, as if out of instinct at hand.

Fang Shao's current state of mind is like this, at least he thinks so.

In a few days, the 170,000 army crossed the no-man's land of more than 100 miles, which was originally a rich and prosperous plain area, but in the last war, hundreds of thousands of people here were moved to Guanzhong by Fang Shao, and Cao Ying did not replenish too much population after the war, so this area gradually formed an empty no man's land, and it was also the natural dividing line between the two countries in Hebei.

According to the intelligence, the defensive deployment of the Wei army had already been completed a month ago, and about 30,000 soldiers and horses led by Xiahou Shang, the Wei general of the Central Wei State, and Sima Yi and Chen Qun, who were guarding Yecheng.

Cao Yingzi led 30,000 troops, sat in Anyang, southwest of Yecheng, and formed a horn with Yecheng, and the remaining 10,000 horses were deployed in Liyang to prevent the Han army from carrying out the last attack on Liyang and cutting off the north-south communication. The other part was deployed to Hanoi and Yangping counties on the west and east flanks to prevent the Han army from sparing Wei County, which was part of Yecheng, and crossing the Yellow River south through these two counties.

The so-called Ten Dynasties were bitten by snakes, and he was afraid of the well rope for ten years, Cao Ying was obviously afraid of the intrigues and tricks of the Han army, and such a cautious defensive strategy was really not in line with his style of using troops.

However, Cao Ying was a little worried this time, this time he led the army to come, Fang Shao didn't plan to play any more tricks, with such an absolute superiority of troops, Fang Shao was ready to take Yecheng in a dignified manner.

After the 170,000 Han troops arrived at the enemy's territory, they quickly moved according to the pre-war deployment.

Fang Shao ordered Wang Ping to lead an army of 20,000 to attack Yangping County in the east, and Huang Zhong to lead an army of 20,000 to attack Shangdang and Hanoi County in the west.

At the same time, Fang Shao ordered Wei Yan to lead an army of 30,000 to bypass Yecheng and attack Anyang to contain Cao Ying's tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, while Fang Shao himself led 110,000 soldiers and horses into the siege of Yecheng.

This time, after inspecting the city defense of Yecheng, Fang Shao couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "I haven't seen you for a year, Yecheng is much stronger, it seems that Cao Ying expected us to come back, and he has not been idle this year." ”

"According to the detailed report, since last year, after our army retreated, Cao Ying ordered to strengthen Yecheng, for more than a year, Yecheng is at least nearly twice as thick as last year, and if you want to attack, I am afraid that it will not be easy." The first to show concern was Deng Ai.

"Last year, our army had the advantage, and the city was still besieged for several months without being able to go down, this time the Wei State had already prepared, and it was indeed not easy to attack." Jiang Wei also expressed concern.

At this time, Wang Jun said: "The emperor's order is imminent, we can only attack the city with all our strength, according to Jun's opinion, it is better to dig the water of the Zhanghe River to flood Ye City." ”

Deng Ai objected: "It's not like we didn't try this trick last time, but what is the result?" At this time, in autumn, the water level of the Zhanghe River plummeted, so the trick was repeated, and I think it will still be in vain. ”

The generals talked a lot, although they had their own opinions, but generally they all had little hope for the short-term breakthrough of Yecheng.

Fang Shao listened to the suggestions of the young generals, his thoughts flowed, and suddenly he had an idea, and said with a smile: "Put the Zhanghe River next to it, don't use it in vain." ”

"Da Sima, have you decided to flood the city by the Zhanghe River?" Wang Jun thought that Fang Shao had taken his suggestion.

Fang Shao smiled secretly: "The water of the Zhanghe River must be used, but this time we are not flooding the city, but in a different way." ”

On the same day, Fang Shao issued an order, ordering Wang Jun to lead an army of 20,000 and start "operating" on Zhanghe and Yecheng night and night.

As Fang Shao said, he did not intend to flood Yecheng, he ordered Wang Jun to dig a trench along Yecheng, and it was not an ordinary trench, its depth was two zhang, and its width was three zhang, which was converted into a modern unit, which was equivalent to a large ditch with a depth of five meters and a width of eight meters.

After the ditch is completed, the water of the Zhanghe River is poured into it, forming an artificial river around Yecheng. At the same time, a wooden wall as high as two zhang was set up on the north bank of the artificial river, and the Han army connected dozens of villages around the city on both sides of the artificial river, and the two banks were connected by pontoon bridges.

As a result, Yecheng was veritably surrounded by "water leakage", completely cutting off contact with the outside world. That is to say, from this time on, Yecheng will not receive any news about the outside world, and Xiahou Shang's orders from the emperor will only stop before the siege, and as for how to act in the future, he can only rely on his own judgment.

In the blink of an eye, the siege had been nearly three months.

Cao Ying of Anyang tried to open up contact with Yecheng, and launched several attacks in March, but they were all cracked by Wei Yan without exception, and the longer he lost contact with Yecheng, the more complicated the situation in Hebei became.

In the past three months, Cao Ren of the Central Plains has not had a quiet time, and in the face of the joint attack of Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, Cao Ren has a hard time coping. On the front line of Luoyang, because of the natural danger of Hangu Pass, Cao Ren was under acceptable pressure, while Yu Ban in Runan and other places needed to face the pain and the attack of Guan Yu's army, which had been equipped with cavalry.

Fortunately, after famous generals such as Xu Huang, Xiahou Yuan, Zhang He, Zhang Liao, and Le Jin were killed, deceased, or betrayed one after another, there were still famous generals like Yu Ban in the Wei State. Although facing Guan Yu's unprecedentedly powerful attack, Yu Banran only relied on tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to stubbornly resist Guan Yu's fierce attack, and the two sides launched a tragic offensive and defensive battle in the Runan area, which took more than three months, but Guan Yu was helpless.

Yu Ban's outstanding performance in Runan gave great encouragement to the Wei State, but unfortunately, the hundreds of thousands of people in Yecheng did not receive any news.

More than 100,000 people were consumed, and after three months, Yecheng, which was known as "accumulating grain for several years", also had to ration food. As the commander-in-chief, Xiahou Shang ordered the grain of the whole city, whether it was the common people or the powerful and powerful, to be forcibly nationalized, and then distributed by the state in a unified manner.

According to the principle of giving priority to servicemen in wartime, the food supply for military personnel was still sufficient for two-thirds of the original amount, while the daily food supply for ordinary people dropped sharply to less than one-third of the original.

"Changwen, let's eat some bit, this is the most sumptuous meal I can serve you." Sima Yi pointed to the few dishes on the case, which were extremely shabby compared to Ping, and sighed with emotion.

Xiahou Shang enforced the law quite strictly, even if he was an important minister like Sima Yi, his home was "looted", in order to deter people's hearts, Xiahou Shang also personally beheaded several powerful people who did not obey orders.

Chen Qun, whose eyebrows were furrowed, had no appetite at all, and was silent for a long time before he sighed: "It seems that even if Your Majesty is resurrected, he still has no power to return to the sky, Zhongda, it's time for us to choose again." ”

(To be continued)