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Chapter 51: Attacking Xiangfan

It was mid-May of the 14th year of Jian'an

Gan Ning, the governor of the Taiping Army, swore an oath in Jiangling, and almost poured out his nest to lead an army of 100,000 to attack Xiangfan in the north, leaving only Pang Tong and Jiang Qin in Jiangling. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info//Fast update//txt e-book download**

This arrangement is in line with the Taiping Army's usual marching deployment, and there must always be a person in the rear to dispatch.

Guo Jia went on an expedition, there was Xi Zhicai in the rear, Zhang Liao in Guanzhong went to Hanguguan to fight, Xu Shu in Chang'an, and now Ganning attacked Xiangfan in the north, and Pang Tong in the rear.

The sun is shining, the warm breeze is slow, and outside the city is a scene of soldiers coming to the city.

The Taiping army crossed the Han River safely and came to Fancheng, besieging the city on three sides, but there were no soldiers and horses to the north of Fancheng.

Riding a horse with his head held high, Gan Ning was majestic, looking up at the head of Fancheng, and shouted loudly: "Cao Zixiao, do you dare to fight?" ”

Cao Ren, who was covered in armor, pinched the city wall stubbornly, looking down at the arrogant Gan Ning outside the city, and was angry.

Many years ago, Cao Ren and Gan Ning had a face-to-face, the location was in Guanzhong, that time, Gan Ning led Yinling to ride, Cao Ren led the tiger and leopard to ride, the two sides Jiāo Feng, Cao Ren successfully rescued Cao Cào, that is also the only knot in Gan Ning's horse for 20 years.

Cao Ren's strength is to lead the cavalry to come and go like the wind and the battle is quick to decide, often after Cao Cào is deadlocked in the frontal battlefield, Cao Ren opens the victory by surprise in the second battlefield, but now facing the Taiping army of 100,000 troops, Cao Ren has no generals available except for a fortified city and 70,000 defenders around him, and no cavalry can play a miraculous effect.

"Cao Zixiao, where did the fierce general who led thousands of tigers and leopards to ride thousands of miles go? Why can you only be a shrunken turtle now? Get out of town and fight a certain battle! ”

Gan Ning rode his horse proudly in front of the formation, and seeing that Fan Cheng still didn't have any reaction, Gan Ning sneered, took his longbow, put on the arrow, and his eyes were suddenly sharp.

The arrow breaks through the air, like electricity shè goes.

Cao Ren, who was standing at the head of the city, did not change his face, and the Shi Wei beside him held a shield to block the front.

An arrow knocked down the banner of Cao Ren at the head of the city and pierced it on the eaves.

The defenders at the head of the city hurriedly fired arrows at Gan Ning, but the arrows rained down twenty or thirty steps in front of Gan Ning.

How can the shè Cheng of an ordinary archer be compared to Gan Ning?

And Gan Ning had already calculated the shè of the enemy, and the master of the art was bold and fearless in front of the battle.

The banner was fell, and Cao Ren's suppressed anger wanted to explode, and he planned to go out of the city to stand, but Man Chong stopped him.

"General, this is the other party's shogun."

I don't want to say it, but on the battlefield, the method of Ji generals seems superficial, and most of the bloody and brave generals still eat this set.

Cao Ren's eyes were full of struggle, and he slammed his fist against the wall.

He also knew that this was a general, but the clamor of the enemy army made him angry.

Fancheng is the most critical link in the defense line of Cao Wei's Central Plains, if Fancheng is lost, it will cause a chain reaction, and the most deadly is the fall of the entire Central Plains.

Therefore, Cao Ren tried his best to maintain his sanity, followed the advice of Man Favor, and neither paid attention to Gan Ning's provocation, nor did he consider taking the risk of sneaking up on the enemy, and honestly defended it.

"Gan Ning led an army of 100,000, and our army defended the city with 70,000, and the Taiping army will inevitably lose a huge number of soldiers in the battle.

Man Zhong told Cao Ren everything that should be said, and let him understand that in this battle, although the enemy army is outnumbered, the chances of victory are not necessarily high, as long as he holds on, Fancheng can still be saved.

After hearing this, Cao Ren asked rhetorically, "What if the enemy army has reinforcements?" ”

This kind of siege warfare, Cao Ren followed Cao Cào to fight a lot, now the grain and grass in Fancheng is abundant, there is no possibility of being exhausted by the siege, after all, when Cao Cào captured Jingzhou, all the military baggage in Xiangyang fell into the pocket of Cao's army.

Gan Ning wants to break Fancheng, and the battle loss will inevitably be greater than that of Cao Wei in the distant dynasty, but considering the importance of Fancheng, it is difficult to guarantee whether Gan Ning's 100,000 army will be the first Bo's soldiers and horses, and whether there will be reinforcements in the future, no one can predict.

Manzhong's words were bitter, and he said lightly: "Let's wait and see what happens, if the enemy army has reinforcements, then you can only ask the King of Wei for help." ”

Gan Ning called for a battle outside the city for an hour, but Cao Ren of Fancheng did not respond a word.

Gan Ning ordered Zhou Tai and Meng Da on the left and right: "Start the siege according to the previous plan." ”

Zhou Tai Mengda clenched his fists and led the order, one to the west, the other to the east, and the two generals rode away.

The city was besieged on three sides, Gan Ning personally presided over the siege of the south of Fancheng, the west was commanded by Zhou Tai, and the east jiāo was given to Meng Da.

The flag was waved, the military order spread, and the Taiping army was majestic, first the soldiers with shields stepped forward, followed by a row of archers, and the third row was a dozen catapults.

When Gan Ning gave an order, the Taiping army on three sides launched in unison.

In this battle, Gan Ning did not arrange the first landing troops, because the high walls of Fancheng City were thick and the garrison was strong, and no matter how many people went to the first board, they were sent to death.

The original jiāo feng, is consumption, is temptation.

When the archers reached the limit distance, the whole army stopped, and the soldiers in front of them held their shields to resist the rain of arrows, and when the gap was received, the archers released arrows to kill the defenders at the head of the city.

Behind the archers, side by side catapults neatly launched to throw boulders at Fancheng, some smashed into the wall, some smashed into the city, and some flew into the city.

Cao Ren, who was standing at the head of the city and commanding the battle, listened to the reports from all sides, and his heart was heavy.

Screaming, wailing, shouting for killing, deaf ears.

Cao Ren stared at the Ganzi banner fluttering in the wind outside the city.

What is Gan Ning going to do?

In this way, the Taiping army killed the defenders of the city from a long distance under the rain of arrows, and the two sides damaged the Taiping army more heavily, but because there were sword and shield soldiers blocking it with shields, it was not necessarily how many casualties the Taiping army would have.

But the Taiping army didn't even have the first troops, or they didn't appear, let alone the rushing troops who set up ladders or pushed rushing carts, which was too unbelievable.

With such a long-distance confrontation, can Fancheng be breached?

Such casualties are not light or serious, I am afraid that the two sides will consume energy for a year.

The siege lasted only two hours before the Taiping army died down.

After the collection of troops, the Taiping army returned to the large camp outside the city, the camp was built very firmly, the outer wall was strong, the inside echoed each other, the virtual and the real were combined, and the connotation was mysterious at a glance.

Cao Ren returned to the army in a daze, observed the soldiers, ran over with full favor, and pulled Cao Ren aside.

"Did the general think of Gan Ning's strategy?"

Man Pet asked tentatively.

Cao Ren scratched his head and shook his head frankly.

Man Chong's expression was heavy, and he said in a low voice: "It is very likely that Gan Ning wants to exhaust our army's arrows. ”

When Cao Ren heard this, he was shocked.

Although there are many ways to prevent the enemy from climbing the city, such as boiling oil and falling rocks, there is no doubt that the most effective way to kill the enemy army from a long distance is to use a bow and arrow.

The combined war consumption of more than 150,000 troops on both sides is unimaginable.

Like today, the Taiping army released arrows under the rain of arrows under the city, and the Cao soldiers fired arrows at the head of the city to kill, and the arrows consumed were at least tens of thousands.

Even if the battlefield is cleaned and recycled, there will inevitably be more arrows outside the city than inside the city, in other words, the Taiping army consumes less arrows than Cao Bing.

The more severe situation is that it is not easy to build the right track of arrows, the selection of materials, the workmanship is detailed, there is no military mill in Fancheng, when the arrows in Fancheng are exhausted, the Taiping army will use the first troops to attack the city, then the casualties will be reduced a lot.

And won't the Taiping army run out of arrows? Yes, but the follow-up war materials of the Taiping army can be transported at any time, and Fancheng is besieged, so it is difficult to say, especially if there is no enemy army in the north, who can guarantee that Gan Ning did not deliberately stay and wait for an ambush?

Cao Ren gritted his teeth, and after saying that he was full of favors, he suddenly realized that the grain and grass in Fancheng were abundant, even if the city was closed, it could support more than a year, but the war equipment may not last long.

According to today's situation, within two months, Fancheng will lose the ability to defend against the enemy from a distance.

Sighing silently, Cao Ren said, "Let's wait and see what happens later." ”

Today's situation is just a guess, whether it will be confirmed, it is difficult to say, if the next battle, the Taiping army has been fighting with the defenders of Fancheng at a distance, it can prove Gan Ning's intentions.

The Taiping army besieged Fancheng, and after the news spread, the world was shocked!

When the battle report reached Yecheng, Cao Pi was having a headache about another matter.

In the simple and elegant palace of the King of Wei, Cao Pi often paced in the study and pondered.

Since successfully succeeding to the throne and stabilizing the situation of Cao Wei half a year ago, Cao Pi is not very worried about military matters now, after all, Cao, Guo, Sun, and the three families are in a delicate balance, and Liu Bei, who captured Heféi, although Cao Pi hated it, but he didn't take it to heart, with Liu Bei's 20,000 soldiers and horses, it was not worth mentioning.

When he ascended the throne, Cao Wei was in danger, if Cao Wei fell, the Central Plains and Hebei Shi clan was afraid that they would be flattened by the Taiping army, so the Shi clan supported Cao Pi at that moment.

But now that peace has entered a period of calm, the scholars have become restless.

In terms of power and strategy, Cao Pi is self-aware, he is not as good as his father Cao Cào, and Cao Cào's political line of struggle all his life is to suppress the scholars, and in the Cao Pi era, the scholars began to rebound.

Some people even dared to secretly report that Cheng Yu intended to rebel!

An old minister who is nearly seventy years old, Cheng Yu has worked hard for Cao Wei, and has been following Cao Wei since he started the army, and he rebelled? Don't say that he doesn't have military power, even if he is given military power, Cao Pi is a hundred rest assured!

But some people dare to point the finger at Cheng Yu, this matter is obviously a political dump, wanting to overthrow Cheng Yu and divide power.

Cao Pi thought about it, he couldn't suppress the scholars, he couldn't control the imperial party, and his prestige was not as good as Cao Cào, so the situation after he took the throne was that Liu Xie's face of the emperor might do more harm than good.

How to get the scholars to support themselves and the Cao family is a difficult problem that Cao Pi racks his brains day and night.

People outside Cao Wei's forces do not recognize that Cao Wei is now coercing the princes of the Son of Heaven, and Liu Xie's value is far less dazzling than that of Cao Cào in the era of princes.

Under Cao Wei, everyone knew who was the real owner of the land.

Abolish Liu Xie, Cao Pi dares, but he is afraid that he will face the Shi clan against him!

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