Chapter 43 The Wei army is coming

As mentioned last time, after Liu Hou took the position of Jingzhou pastor, the first thing he did was to rectify military affairs, and the second thing was to rectify the city defense.

For the rectification of the city defense, Liu Hou still handed over to Pan Jun to be responsible, but there were really few people at hand to use, so he had to let him do this kind of not so important thing. And the main way to rectify the city defense was to drive the remaining 20,007 Dongwu prisoners to work. After this period of hard work, the two Soochow wrecks have been salvaged, and now craftsmen are being recruited to work day and night to speed up the repair of them.

This allowed Pan Jun to free up manpower to rectify the city defense, and Liu Hou explained two projects: one was to dig the moat, and connect the moat to Taihu Lake in the west and Changhu Lake in the east to make it a living water; The second is to build ancillary defense structures such as urn cities, enemy towers, war houses, forts, hidden soldier caves, and city gates.

The earth used to dig the moat was just enough to ram the city walls, which solved most of the building material problems, and with 27,000 free laborers, the construction speed was very fast, and it was expected that it would be completed in half a year. Don't be too slow, in ancient times, they were carried on their shoulders and hands, and there were no electric, petrol, or pneumatic tools, and this speed was only the result of Pan Jun's leather whip and stick.

With these city defense structures, coupled with his own firearms troops, Liu Hou was confident that even if he had another 100,000 enemy troops, he would not want to break through Jingzhou City. The problem is that the enemy does not give himself time for this construction.

In this way, Liu Hou's life in Jingzhou was full and dull, until this dullness was broken by a piece of news. Less than two months after sending Guan Gong away, Liu Houxin's team had not yet been successfully organized and trained, and the firearms factory had not yet produced enough muskets to equip them, Liu Hou received a return from Tanma: 100,000 Wei troops slaughtered Benjingzhou, and the banner of the vanguard was "Xu".

Liu Hou really wants to smoke his mouth, his mouth is so cheap, saying that there are 100,000 enemy troops to attack, he really comes to 100,000, is he the legendary crow's mouth?

Nima, 100,000 at every turn! Wasn't the Three Kingdoms era sparsely populated? Isn't it true that there is not one in a hundred people? I tried to recruit the left and the right, but I couldn't recruit a few people, so many people from the enemy army?

Thinking about it, Liu Hou had to urgently convene a military meeting to discuss countermeasures. The generals couldn't help but be taken aback when they heard the news, 100,000 against 10,000, the difference in strength between the two sides was too great. Most of them were unable to hold on, relying on Jiancheng and the Wei army to slowly wear out.

Although the moat and urn city have not yet been repaired, Guan Gong has strengthened the city defense in Jingzhou in the past few years, and Jingzhou City is still a high wall. Jingzhou City is also a transit point for trade between Yizhou and other two countries, and the grain and grass hoarded in the city are still sufficient, as long as they rely on Jiancheng, it is not impossible to guard him for three months or even half a year. At that time, Liu Bei will definitely send reinforcements to rescue, and the siege will naturally be lifted.

Fei Yi and Wang Fu are both supporters of the Stickers. Guo Youzhi and Guan Ping mentioned that they couldn't just defend like this, they should go out to attack and harass them before the Wei army was encircled, and they couldn't let them come to the city so lightly. Liu Hou gave them the name Impulsive.

The two factions expressed their own opinions and had their own reasons, Liu Hou listened to them as if they were all reasonable, and he couldn't make a choice for a while, so he had to cast a gaze to Zhao Yun for help. Zhao Yun has been in battle for a long time, first followed Gongsun Zan and then took refuge in Liu Bei, fought in the south and the north, and was a veteran with extremely rich war experience, which is also one of the reasons why Liu Bei was so relieved to let his baby son take risks in a dangerous place like Jingzhou, because of this super nanny and bodyguard.

What scenes has Zhao Yun never seen in his life? Hundreds of thousands of Cao Ying have broken through alone, and now this situation is not the most difficult time for him, so he seems calm and relaxed, and speaks calmly, which is very different from the rest of the generals:

"Xu Zi banner, it seems that Xu Huang should come. Xu Huang was one of Cao Wei's "five good generals", who originally followed Yang Feng and had a meritorious role in protecting Emperor Xian's eastward journey. Later, he descended to Cao Cao, followed Cao Cao to fight everywhere, led troops to kill Wen Chou in Yanjin, led troops to intercept and burn grain and grass in Guandu, took the lead in crossing the river in Pingma overtime, and defeated our army Chen Shi when defending Hanzhong, and had many military exploits.

Especially in the battle to relieve the siege of Fancheng before, Xu Huang led the army commander to drive in, repelled Guan Gong in one fell swoop, and made a great contribution. Since this person is coming, we have to be careful to deal with it. Also, if the striker is Xu Huang, then who is the coach? You have to listen as much as you can, so that you know yourself and your opponent. ”

Zhao Yun told Xu Huang about the situation, and pointed out that if Xu Huang can be used as a striker, then the person who leads the troops may have a greater background, which must be observed. Then, he changed his words and said:

"Of course, it is very important to hold on to the city, and Nanjun (that is, Jingzhou City) is the foundation of our army in Jingzhou, and there is no room for error. Therefore, it is advisable to send a capable man as the main general to defend this base camp. When everyone heard this, they could basically confirm that he was an "impulsive faction" who advocated taking the initiative. Sure enough, I only heard him continue:

"However, whether you are defending or besieging a city, you should not defend or attack. The reason is very simple, if we don't find something to do for the other party, and if we don't have some problems to give the other party a headache, the other party will definitely come up with a moth and come up with some problems that give us a headache, and then we will be mastered by the other side The rhythm of the war will be led by the other side. ”

Everyone was a little dizzy by his tongue twister-like rhetoric, and he deserved to be a "professor" who often lectured to military cadets.

"So, I think it's still necessary to be proactive. However, we have too few troops, and we must leave enough men and horses to defend the city and protect our foundation, and only on this basis can we attack. In this way, the number of people who can be used to take the initiative will inevitably not be large. Then, these attackers will have to be carefully selected. And the targets of their attacks must also be carefully chosen. This paragraph is relatively easy to understand, and everyone listens carefully to Professor Zhao's lecture like a primary school student.

"Let me first talk about the choice of targets, obviously we can't go head-to-head with the Wei army, I believe everyone knows the truth, the disparity between the forces of our two sides is too great. We try to choose targets that are of high value and weak in defense. Of course, this statement may be a bit contradictory, but generally speaking, high-value targets will be relatively tightly defended. It depends on how to strike a balance between the two. ”

This passage is a bit difficult to understand, and Liu Hou is the only one who can fully understand him.

"For example, burning grain and grass is a good choice, but with Cao Cao's cunning and cunning, it is very likely that the defense of grain and grass is very tight, and this needs to be decided by spies to find out the specific situation. For another example, the enemy's Chinese army is usually where the enemy's command is located, if the enemy's command headquarters can be destroyed in one fell swoop, then we can basically declare victory in this war, and the left commander called this, called this......"

"It's called the beheading operation." Liu Hou helped him and said, it is conceivable that this beheading action was also taught by Liu Hou to Zuo Ci.

"Yes, this is the so-called decapitation operation, cutting off the head of the enemy's army, the snake can't do it without a head, and the entire army is facing the possibility of collapse."

"However, the enemy's Chinese army is often the most heavily defended place." Zhang Bao couldn't help but understand.

"That's right, so we still have to look at the opportunity, see if the enemy has a chance to show a flaw, and if there is a chance, we will kill with one blow."

"So, let me talk about the selection of the sortie: in view of the fact that there will be so many problems in the attack, the person who leads the troops is very important, he must be a person who can adapt to changes, a person who can grasp the fleeting opportunity of a fighter, and a person who is full of wisdom and eclecticism. We'll talk about this later, and I'd like to talk about the requirements of the soldiers who attacked. ”

Zhao Yun only said the requirements, and did not give who the specific person to lead the troops was, and continued:

"The requirements for the soldiers to attack are also very high, they must be the elite of the elite, the attack power must be strong, and they must have the ability to kill with one hit. The key is that the mobility must be strong, and it can meet the requirements of leaving after the fight and being able to walk away, otherwise, it is easy to be surrounded and surrounded by people. ”

"Uncle Zhao, what are you talking about? Why can't I understand? Zhang Bao asked with a confused expression. Zhao Yun couldn't help but have a few black lines on his forehead, feeling that he was playing the piano to the cow just now? Thankfully, not all of them are cattle. Liu Hou understood what he said very well.

"Uncle Zhao means that we are going to fight guerrilla warfare, we want to use a dip-and-go style of fighting, and our purpose is to harass their army and slow down their advance. They can't reach the city so easily, and even if they do, they will harass him so much that he can't attack the city with peace of mind. Liu Houdao.

Zhao Yun stroked his beard approvingly and nodded, obviously very satisfied with his proud disciple.

"If you have a strong mobility, then you can only be cavalry, but in our Jingzhou City, we can only make up 500 horses when we are full, but what is the use of 500 people going out?" Guan Ping Road.

"Brother Guan doesn't need to worry too much about this, my 5,000 musketeers carry out long-distance training all year round, not to mention other skills, just this running ability, it is the best in the world, except for cavalry, I believe that no other army can catch up with them." Liu Hou said proudly.

Zhao Yun also agrees with this, because these soldiers were trained by him, and he knows the roots. Therefore, it was tentatively decided that 3 battalions with a total of 4,500 musketeers would participate in the sortie, and the remaining 500 guards battalions would stay behind to assist in defending the city.

In addition, 500 skilled horsemen were selected from the army to serve as cavalry and attack together. In this way, the 5,000 people who attacked were settled. There are enough 7,500 soldiers and horses left to defend the city, although 1,000 are captured by Eastern Wu, but they are also elite soldiers in a hundred battles, and they can still be used at a critical juncture. With such people and some firearms, Liu Hou believes that the city can still hold on for some time.

Then it is necessary to determine the general of the attack, Zhao Yun said so many requirements just now, it is obvious that he means that only he is suitable to be the main general of this attack. Also, who can compare with him in terms of experience in the battle array, and who can compare to him in terms of martial arts and the ability to break through the battle. And he has never been a reckless general who only knows how to attack and fight, and he is not bad at changing opportunities.

However, there are still people who have different opinions, this person is Liu Hou, since he has trained more than 5,000 musketeers in the Hong Army, he has never had the opportunity to find the enemy to fight well, and he has been eager to try for a long time, and now it is rare to have so many "targets", how can he not be excited? Although impulsiveness is easy to be punished, but at this time he didn't think so much, he wasn't impulsive when he should be impulsive, is he still a man?

Liu Hou proposed to everyone that he could also take on the task of attacking. The reason is that the top priority of Jingzhou City is the fundamental place of the Shu army in Jingzhou, and it must be guarded by a mature and stable general, and this candidate is none other than Zhao Yun. And he is most familiar with the tactics of the musket unit, and he does not lack the ability to change the machine, so it is most suitable for him to do this.

"Never!" Before he could finish speaking, several people came out to oppose it.

"If a gentleman does not stand under the dangerous wall, how can the prince be willing to take risks...... "As expected, it was Fei Yi who jumped out first to oppose it, and the reason why he wanted to say it was those few words, Liu Hou's ears were almost cocooned.

Finally, after he finished his tirade, Guo Youzhi and Wang Fu also expressed their objections one after another.

After they all finished speaking, Liu Hou said unhurriedly: "Is it dangerous in a lonely city besieged by 100,000 enemy troops and only a few thousand defenders, or is it dangerous to lead the troops outside, you can escape quickly at any time, and you can board the Jingzhou at any time to escape?" ”