Chapter 8 Jingzhou News

As mentioned last time, Guo Youzhi contacted the people of the "CIA" branch in Changsha County, and they sent a young man named Zhou Xu over to report to Liu Hou what happened in Jingzhou during this time.

What Liu Hou didn't expect was that this time Guan Gong actually resisted in Jingzhou City for four months. When Liu Hou was in Jingzhou, he organized the excavation of the moat of Jingzhou City, built the urn city, strengthened the city wall, and added some fortifications.

These efforts he made back then paid off handsomely at this time. Although Guan Gong only had 50,000 soldiers who were not very well trained, he temporarily conscripted the people from all over the country into the army, increasing the number to 7 or 80,000.

It was with these 70,000 or 80,000 people, relying on the strong city walls and fortifications, that he resisted the crazy attack of the 300,000 allied troops of Wei and Wu like a tide.

Of course, there are three and a half key points in this, and the first key point is that he received the news of the dispatch of troops from Wei and Wu in advance, so he made preparations in advance.

Especially the reserves of grain and materials, Jingzhou is the transit place for the smuggled grain from the other two countries by the Shu State, where a large amount of grain is stored all year round, and a large amount of grain is intercepted under the advance of Guan Gong, which allows him to hold on for so long without a shortage of food.

This is the most crucial point, and it can be said that the "CIA" has made a great contribution to this war. The second key point is firearms and gunpowder. Liu Hou established a firearms assembly workshop in Jingzhou, and later a gunpowder production workshop.

That is to say, there was a certain stock of firearms and gunpowder in the city, and these firearms and gunpowder helped a lot in defending the city, they killed and injured a large number of soldiers of Wei and Wu, and often relied on firearms and gunpowder to save the defeat when the city was about to be breached.

The third key point is what I just said, the moat, urn city and city fortifications that Liu Hou established in Jingzhou back then. These things made the siege several times more difficult, and Wei and Wu also paid a lot of casualties for it.

The last half of the key point is Guan Gong, after the last fiasco, his proud character has been reined in, and he has not made any irrational excesses in the whole process of defending the city. He was repeatedly insulted and agitated by the soldiers of Wei and Wu, and he was unmoved, neither went out to fight with others, nor did he lead his troops out of the city to attack the enemy camp.

In the face of the turtle-like Jingzhou City, the allied forces of Wei and Wu were like rats pulling turtles, unable to start, and could not capture the city after besieging it for 4 months. Four months later, Zhuge Liang's reinforcements finally arrived.

Zhuge Liang's reinforcements were only 30,000 people. Just these 30,000 people are already the only strength of Shu that Chengdu squeezed out like toothpaste. Now that there are wars going on the border of Shu, the troops have long been insufficient.

Liu Bei continued to recruit troops, recruit soldiers and recruit soldiers, and now the people are very short of young and middle-aged people who cultivate, if Zhuge Liang is defeated, Shu will no longer be able to send even a single soldier to support.

However, Zhuge Liang did not disappoint, he first used his best fire to break through Zhang Liao's troops and horses, and then set up an ambush in a dangerous place to trap and kill Cao Ren's remaining 30,000 troops.

Although Zhang Liao and Cao Ren escaped with their lives, the men and horses under their command suffered heavy losses and were unable to fight again, so they had to retreat to Xiangyang City to rest.

Before the Eastern Wu soldiers could react, Zhuge Liang took the remaining 20,000 soldiers and horses from the successive battles and took advantage of the chaos to enter Jingzhou City and join Guan Gong. The defenders of Jingzhou, who had suffered heavy losses after four months of defending the city, injected a new force.

However, the Dongwu people who reacted quickly re-besieged Jingzhou City, surrounding Zhuge Liang and Guan Gong in the city. After four months of attrition, there are still 120,000 or 30,000 Dongwu troops outside the city, and there are still 50,000 or 60,000 new troops in the city plus Zhuge Liang.

The ratio of forces between the two sides is about two to one, which seems to be much better than at the beginning of the war, however, this is not the case.

At this time, many of the materials of the Shu army to defend the city have been exhausted, especially the gunpowder that has repeatedly saved the Shu army in danger is gone, the moat has also been filled in a large section, and many city fortifications on the city wall have also been destroyed.

As for the Eastern Wu side, it seems that this time it is really moving, and it still continuously dispatches troops and siege materials to Jingzhou City, and it looks like it will not give up if it does not seize Jingzhou City.

Liu Hou asked Zhou Xu about the grain and grass reserves in Jingzhou City, and Zhou Xu told him that there should be no problem with the grain and grass in Jingzhou City in two or three months, and it would be difficult to say how long it was.

Then, Liu Hou asked about the current military strength of Changsha County, and Zhou Xu told him that Changsha County had gathered at least 200,000 troops from Eastern Wu, as well as a large amount of grain, grass and war materials. This is close to the Jingzhou front, and it seems that these troops and supplies are ready to go to Jingzhou at any time to support the siege troops of Eastern Wu.

After sending Zhou Xu away, Liu Hou fell into deep thought, the current situation is neither good nor bad. He didn't expect that the Battle of Jingzhou would be fought for half a year and not finished. At present, Jingzhou City is related to the Duke and Zhuge Liang, and there are 5 or 60,000 troops defending the city, so there should be no need to worry about it in a short time.

But after a long time, it will definitely not be able to hold on, Jingzhou is besieged, cut off from the outside world, grain, grass, and ordnance will be exhausted sooner or later, and Dongwu can continue to transport soldiers and materials over, so if they are allowed to go on like this, Jingzhou City will be broken sooner or later.

Chengdu can't count on it, and now if you want to relieve the siege of Jingzhou, it's up to you to do it.

"Mr. Guo, what do you think of the current situation?" Liu Hou decided to ask Guo Youzhi's opinion first.

"Since Jingzhou is not in danger for the time being, we don't need to rush to risk attacking Changsha. In my opinion, Lingling should be quickly recaptured. If the people of Eastern Wu reacted and sent troops from Changsha to reinforce Lingling, it would be difficult for us to plot Lingling again at that time. ”

Since the analysis was very clear before, Guo Youzhi did not ramble anymore and said his plan straightforwardly. ”

"It's okay, anyway, all the counties in Guiyang have been recovered, and it's time for the sons and daughters to move."

Liu Hou agreed with Guo Youzhi's construction, and asked, "Mr. Guo, who do you think should be asked to recover Lingling?" ”

Guo Youzhi thought for a while and said: "The recovery of Lingling must be done quickly, in my opinion, why don't you let General Zilong walk?" ”

"It's definitely no problem for the fourth uncle to go out, but he's not young, and I don't want to make him work too hard." Liu Hou also knows that at present, there seem to be a few fierce generals under his command, but they are either too young or rough people like vulture bones, and there are really few people who can take on great responsibilities with both wisdom and bravery, maybe Guan Suo can be counted as one.

Thinking of this, Liu Hou's eyes lit up and said, "Mr. Guo, what do you think about letting you go to Guan Suo?" ”

"General Guan Xiao is indeed extraordinary, his martial arts are high, and he is calm in trouble, which can be of great use. However, I don't know if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has thought about it, once you raise a large army to the north to conquer Changsha, who can stay in Guiyang to ensure the smooth flow of grain routes? "Guo Youzhi.