Chapter 182: The Second Fight

Throughout the history of warfare, including both Chinese and foreign, before the advent of artillery, a sharp weapon that has a significant destructive effect on the city, there is no doubt that the defending side has an absolute advantage in the offensive and defensive battles of the city. As long as there is enough food and troops corresponding to the size of the city, it is not uncommon to defend the city for half a year or even a year, and it is not uncommon for it to successfully hold on for more than a year.

In siege warfare, the ratio of casualties between the attacking and defending sides is usually 4 to 1 to 5 to 1, in other words, as long as the ratio of troops does not exceed 10 to 1, the attacking side does not have an absolute advantage. In fact, even a 10-to-1 superiority in strength would not be enough to conquer a city without effective large-scale siege engines.

Zhuge Liang has 80,000 soldiers in Longyou, Guo Huai has more than 20,000, the ratio of the two sides is four to one, if the field, Zhuge Liang has enough advantages, but in the siege war, this advantage is not enough to rely on. Two months have passed, and Zhuge Liang has not yet received good news, not even the news of taking all the counties of Longyou, there is only one possibility, he has not yet conquered Shangqi, so there is no good news worth reporting to the whole army.

Although this result is not ideal, it is not surprising, after all, Guo Huai is also a well-known Wei general, but half of the soldiers led by Zhuge Liang are recruits, and it is not surprising that he can't take Shangqi in a hurry. From another point of view, no news is not necessarily a bad thing, at least not bad, if Zhuge Liang is not besieging the city, but storming, it will be bad news.

In the case of not being able to quickly break through the city wall, relying on superior forces, besieging the city and waiting for the enemy to run out of food and chaos is the safest way, and it is also the best method that Zhuge Liang can take at present. Therefore, it is not surprising that Wei Ba and Deng Zhi invariably thought that Zhuge Liang's current situation should be to besiege the city and wait for the enemy to collapse by himself.

But the problem is that what Deng Zhi wants to say is not actually a matter of siege, but has another deep meaning.

Deng Zhi promised Wei Ba to write to Zhuge Liang. asked for the soldiers to be recruited in the pass, and thus got the opportunity to lead the troops to defend the Wuguan. They are only temporarily allied, each taking what he wants. But it is impossible to talk about how strong this relationship is, and it is even more impossible for Deng Zhi to leave Zhuge Liang's circle of interests and join Wei Ba's circle of interests because of this. In fact, even Wei Ba doesn't dare to make it clear now that he wants to compete with Zhuge Liang for power. He still holds the title of joining the army in the Prime Minister's Mansion, but he just took advantage of Zhuge Liang's lack of time to meddle in Guanzhong to seize the real power in his hands first. It's just a matter of seizing the time to cultivate your own liliang, and it's far from breaking with Zhuge Liang.

In this case, Deng Zhi is concerned about Zhuge Liang's progress and worries about Zhuge Liang's safety, which is a very normal thing. And what Wei Ba wants to remind him is that we hold Guanzhong, which is the greatest help to the prime minister.

Deng Zhi could not dispute Wei Ba's statement. So he could only acquiesce in the fact that Wei Ba was unwilling to help Zhuge Liang with his troops Longyou, because in his opinion, Wei Ba had already done his best to hold Guanzhong, and he had no spare strength to help Zhuge Liang at present.

A tacit decision. It was in their words of emotion that they did it. On the surface, the clouds are light and the wind is light, but in fact, there is a hidden murderous intention.

Wei Ba is very uncomfortable with this way of speaking, but he also knows that this is the way it is in officialdom, and it is impossible to say anything so clearly, if you can't even understand this, just don't mix in this circle.

Fortunately, they didn't have much time to think about these things, and Sima Yi's army soon arrived at Wuguan.

Knowing that the striker was defeated, even the main general Hu Zun himself was lost in the city, and the city government such as Sima Yi couldn't help but be surprised.

"Deng Zhi? Who is he? ”

Jin Dongliu was speechless, who knows who Deng Zhi is, he only knows that he is an old man about fifty years old, he has never led soldiers, he should be a civil servant, God knows how he turned into a general who led the troops, and in the first battle, Hu Zun and more than 4,000 elites of the Wei army were pitted.

This point is related to the official system of Shu Han. The Shu Han attached great importance to military affairs, and even civilian officials often gave military titles, which were much more serious than Cao Wei and Eastern Wu. Cao Wei also had civil officials and military ranks, for example, Chen Qun never led troops, but he was a general of the Fu army. However, it is only a high-level honorary title, and it is far less serious than Shu Han.

In Shu Han, many civilian officials will hold official positions such as generals and captains, which does not mean that these people will really lead troops to fight, it is just a political slogan, so from Cao Wei's point of view, they only pay attention to those generals who really lead the army to fight, like Deng Zhi, although he has the title of general, he is actually a civilian official, and he generally does not enter the scope of attention.

Jin Dongliu and they knew Deng Zhi, just because Deng Zhi appeared in Wuguan City, what Deng Zhi's deeds were before, they didn't know, only one thing was certain, he should not have led troops before, at least not to lead an army alone.

Sima Shi immediately found Peng Heng, he had the most opportunities to enter and exit Yizhou, and he should know Deng Zhi.

Peng Heng did know Deng Zhi as a person, but he didn't believe that Deng Zhi had such ability. No matter how great his ability is, he doesn't know that Zhang Yu once met Deng Zhi and said that he would be a general after he was seventy years old.

This question was answered by Peng Xiaoyu. Peng Xiaoyu also has a limited understanding of Deng Zhi, but she provides information that Jin Dongliu cannot provide.

Peng Xiaoyu said: Judging from various signs, Wei Ba should have arrived at Wuguan. He even brought more men and horses, bent on holding on to the military pass. Otherwise, with a relatively small number of troops, Deng Zhi may not dare to take this risk. You must know that the combat effectiveness of the Wei army's infantry has always been above that of the Shu Han army.

Hearing this, Sima Yi's father and son's faces were a little ugly.

This is the second time they have played against Wei Ba, and it is less than a year since the first one. At that time, Wei Ba was just an insignificant prime minister's mansion to join the army, but he led the Wu army into Fangling, completely ended Sima Yi's surprise attack on Fangling, made his thousand-mile raid a negative teaching material, and captured the general Jin Dongliu alive. This time, they faced each other again in Wuguan, but before they met, Wei Ba first ate his four thousand forwards, and even Hu Zun was captured.

Sima Yi and Sima Shi glanced at each other and smiled bitterly in unison. Sima Yi shook his head, looking a little helpless, but Sima Shi was a little angry. After Peng Xiaoyu came, the news about Xiahou Hui being captured by Wei Ba naturally reached Sima Shi's ears, and he also learned from Peng Xiaoyu that Wei Ba likes beautiful girls. Needless to say, Xiahou Hui, who became a prisoner, must have been ruined by Wei Ba.

As soon as he thought of this, Sima Shi felt very uncomfortable, as if he had eaten a fly. He may not necessarily have to marry Xiahou Hui, but his wife who has not passed through the door has been occupied by Wei Ba, which makes him unable to consider the problem calmly.

"Wei Ba went to Wuguan in person, it seems that he wants to defend Wuguan to the death?"

Sima Yi pondered for a while and shook his head: "It's hard to say now." Although he defeated Hu Zun, in the face of the main force of our army, he did not have the strength to hold the Wuguan, at most he just bought a little time. Of course, whether he defends it or not, we must storm the martial pass, if we can't even go all out in this pass, Bixia there, we can't explain. ”

Sima Shi pursed his lips disdainfully: "Cao Zhen is incompetent, he was actually attacked by Wei Yan and destroyed those boats, so he could only sit on the east bank of the big river, but he handed over the heavy responsibility of attacking Guanzhong to his father." Is Wuguan Road so easy to walk? Now that Wei Ba himself has arrived at Wuguan, it is obvious that he has put the focus of his defense on Wuguan Dao. ”

Sima Yi stared at Sima Shi, and suddenly said, "Ziyuan, you have been a little impetuous in the past two days, is it because of Xiahou Hui?" ”

"Father, how can you ......" Sima Shi said halfway, and felt a little weak-hearted, in front of his father, he was far from having the confidence in front of others. Knowing his son Mo Ruo's father, he knows very well that his father can understand his psychology. He lowered his head and muttered, "I'm a little uncomfortable." ”

"What's so uncomfortable about this." Sima Yi laughed silently, his eyes narrowed. "A woman, even if she is beautiful and smart, is not worthy of your affection for her. At the beginning, I hired the Xiahou family for you, but because Xiahou was still favored by the first emperor, and I had the intention of the first emperor, I had to be wronged. Do you think I don't know the intentions of the first emperor? Ziyuan, I thought you knew this and wouldn't mess up. I didn't expect to have such an idea now. ”

Sima Shi blushed: "Father, it's me who is impetuous." ”

"Well, this incident, let's just assume it never happened." Sima Yi said lightly: "If she can't come back, then that's fine." If she comes back, you can marry her as usual. It would be even better if she had self-knowledge and took the initiative to withdraw from her family. When the time comes, I will choose another good woman for you. The most important thing at the moment is how to break through the martial arts. Even if we don't want to make meritorious contributions, we can't sit back and watch Wei Ba occupy Guanzhong, let alone let him keep us out of Wuguan. This is the second time we've played each other, and we can't afford to lose at his hands again, no matter what. ”

Sima Shi pondered for a moment: "Father, what should we do?" ”

"What's good?" Sima Yi sat up: "With the right fit, with the odd victory." Since he is good at using Qi, then I will use it in a dignified array to see how he still uses Qi. ”

Sima Yi looked at Sima Shi with blazing eyes: "Ziyuan, Cao Xiu has not been in good health for a few days, Cao Zhen is not in good health, this time he suffered a defeat in Pucheng, and he can hold out for a few days, it's really hard to say." If you want me to go one step further with Sima Shi of Wen County, this is a rare and good opportunity. ”

When Sima Shi heard this, he immediately became energetic. He heard what Sima Yi meant. Among the top leaders of the three major theaters of Cao Wei, Cao Xiu is about to die, Cao Zhen has been sick all the time, Guanzhong is lost, and the world is in danger, even if the Son of Heaven is afraid of their Sima clan and considers the overall situation of the world, at this time, they can't suppress the Sima family, the only general who can still be counted on. This is a great opportunity to get more hands on the military.

"Father, when are we going to start the siege?"

"There's no hurry." Sima Yi stroked his beard: "If you want to attack the city, of course, you must first prepare for the siege." Immediately sent a letter to Bixia, reported the battle in Wuguan, and asked him to send some more soldiers and horses, and it was best to transfer more warships. Of course, he should also be reminded to pay attention to the abnormal movement in the direction of Fangling and Gangneung. ”

Sima Shi understood, smiled and agreed.

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The first update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for a recommendation! (To be continued.) )