In the wilderness, thousands of soldiers scattered and borrowed the cover of the hills outside the city, and slowly approached the west of Chang'an City.

The Chang'an city wall is too long and too big.

The key is that its city wall is not a straight line, there are many curved paragraphs, and outside the west city is the water, the water and grass on both sides are abundant, the forest is forested, and there are many high slopes and hills, and there are many bunkers.

Therefore, it is difficult for the sentry on the city wall to detect their existence in the first place.

The only problem was that they had to cross the river first, but fortunately it was a small river, and it coincided with the dry winter season, so even if the bridge over the river had been destroyed, they were allowed to cross it smoothly.

But just after crossing the river, there is still a buffer area from the moat of the Ximenzhang City Gate to Chang'an City, which is about a mile away, about four hundred meters, and there are relatively few bunkers, so Commander Ma Dai wants to force it over.

As a result, he never expected that Zhong Xuan sent thousands of scout cavalry to rush back and forth on the vast city wall to patrol, and one of the cavalrymen had sharp eyes, noticed a movement in the distance, and hurriedly blew the bone whistle to alert the enemy.

After realizing that the city had discovered them, Ma Dai gritted his teeth and launched the order to attack, and the soldiers carried the moat bridge and cloud ladder, and rushed towards the west gate of Chang'an, which was not far away.

It's just too late, the melodious sound of the horn sounded for a long time, and the nearby Wei army and the large number of cavalry sent out by Zhong Xuan before quickly gathered more than a thousand people, and the rain of arrows frantically washed down.

In the salvo of the crossbow, Ma Dai was beaten back and forced to evacuate.

However, in contrast, the other two departments, Liu He and Deng Tong, who were also in charge of the raid, were lucky enough to rush to the city wall, but when Zhong Xuan came back to his senses, he immediately sent a team to drive them down.

This is the disadvantage of Shen Chen's lack of superiority.

If he has 200,000 troops in his hands, there will only be 50,000 in the city, and the southeast, northwest, and northwest gates will directly attack it, and the interception area of 26 kilometers long, the 50,000 Cao army will not be able to defend at all, and it will definitely leak out like a sieve.

But now he is only one or two hundred thousand more than the city, and it is still very reluctant to rely on this method to break through to the city, so this plan to attack the east and west obviously failed.

At the end of the afternoon, after learning that several sneak attacks on the soldiers and horses had failed and returned, Shen Chen ordered the withdrawal of the troops.

With the sound of tinkling gold, the Han army began to retreat like a tide, and under the cover of the wooden curtain, the catapults and the bed crossbows on the cloud tower stopped their attacks one after another, and then retreated backwards.

The Wei army at the head of the city was less suppressed by bed crossbows and catapults, so they began to shoot bows and arrows downward, but due to the distance problem, most of them were shot on the wooden curtains, and there were almost no casualties, so they could only watch the Han army leave like this.

After the investigation, there were more than 1,000 casualties on both sides. The Wei army has the strength of the city wall, and the Han army has the advantage of catapults and bed crossbows, and no one can help anyone on both sides.

The same was true of the north side of the city, although Zhao Yun and Pang De also launched an attack, their scale was not as good as Shen Chen's, so they were still forced to retreat under the complete defense of the Wei army in the city.

After returning to the camp, Shen Chen held a new meeting.

Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, Pang De and their subordinate generals were absent from this meeting, because they were now divided into three main camps, Zhao Yun and Pang De alone were twenty kilometers away from the camp on his side, and Huang Zhong's side was forty kilometers away, so it was not easy to come here.

Therefore, there are only more than ten generals below such as Ma Dai, Lei Ding, Dou Mao, Liu He, Deng Tong, Huo Yang, Wu Dang, Wu Tao, Shan Yi, etc., and the closed disciple Jiang Wei still does the paperwork, and Deng Ai becomes the military staff officer.

Shen Chen sat on the main seat and listened to the reasons why Ma Dai, Liu He, Deng Tong and others failed to sneak attack today, and after summing up, he said: "Xiahou Mao, the main general in Chang'an City, is a straw bale, and he has no great talent, so his mother has to worry. But Cao Pi probably understood Xiahou Mao's ability, so he sent Zhong Miao over. ”

"Zhong Xuan has been in Chang'an for Cao Cao for many years, and he knows the advantages and disadvantages of Chang'an City well, and this time we failed, it is very likely that Zhong Xuan noticed our strategy, so he sent a large number of scouts to patrol the city wall and carry out targeted defense."

Shen Chen looked at them and said, "If our troops are more than three times that of the city, it will be easy to break Chang'an City. However, the troops are insufficient, even if Chang'an City is large, they can barely defend it, and it is still quite difficult to attack. ”

"But it seems like the only way we can do it."

Deng Ai got up and arched his hand and said, "Master, we ......"

Shen Chen interrupted him: "Shizai, how many times have you said that you have to be called a position in the army." ”

"Yes, Grand Duke."

Deng Ai hurriedly changed his words: "Chang'an City is too tall, and it is impossible for us to capture it with conventional siege methods, so we can only take advantage of the weakness of its city wall being too broad." ”

"Yes."

Shen Chen nodded and looked around at everyone: "Do you know why we can't take advantage of this weakness?" ”

Soldiers, look at me, I look at you, who knows where to go?

After a while, a voice suddenly came from the corner: "Governor, it's because we don't have enough pressure on them, so they still have the strength to rush to other walls." ”

"Exactly."

Shen Chen glanced approvingly at the corner, waved his hand to signal Jiang Wei to sit down, and then continued: "Although we have been preparing for this battle for a long time, it is still difficult to build large siege equipment in Hanzhong and then transport it all the way to Guanzhong, we can only assemble it temporarily, and the number of catapults and bed crossbows is insufficient, so we can't give the city a sense of oppression." ”

Ma Dai said: "Governor, should we stop and wait for the manufacture of large siege engines?" ”

"Nope."

Shen Chen shook his head, glanced at everyone, and then said: "From tomorrow, the city will be attacked once every two to three days, and the craftsmen in the camp will make every effort to build equipment, so that the number of catapults will increase significantly, and I will make the Wei army not stop for a moment." ”

"The art of exhausting the enemy?"

Deng Ai was puzzled: "But in that case, we will also be very tired, the morale of the soldiers is high, and if we attack for a long time and fail to achieve results, it will not only make the soldiers and horses tired, but also make the morale slack, which is not a good thing." ”

"Hmm."

Shen Chen nodded: "Yes, but there are benefits to doing so." We have to analyze the pros and cons so that we can make a decision about whether to continue attacking or rest and wait for the equipment. ”

Ma Dai asked curiously, "Governor, what are the benefits?" ”

"Benefit one."

Shen Chen raised a finger: "The continuous attack will keep the people in the city in a highly nervous state all the time, and they will also be worried that we will send a small force to attack at the same time." When the time comes, in a month or two, we will suddenly launch a sneak attack, and we will be able to break through the city if we can't say it. ”

"This is what the Metropolitan once said about the psychology of war?"

Deng Ai said thoughtfully: "If we continue to attack, they will always be vigilant against us attacking from other city walls. If something like this doesn't happen for a long time, they might let their guard down? ”

"Not bad."

Shen Chen nodded: "This is the so-called truth that there are only a thousand days to be a thief, and there is no thousand days to prevent thieves." ”

"I see."

Everyone suddenly realized, and immediately felt that the Metropolitan Governor was right.

"Benefit two."

Shen Chen raised a second finger: "Now that Your Majesty has launched an attack from Nanyang, we must put pressure on Cao Wei on the Western Front, if Cao Wei feels that Guanzhong is in danger and Chang'an is in turmoil, it is possible to continue to send reinforcements to reinforce, so as to clear the obstacles for Your Majesty." ”

"Hmm."

The soldiers nodded one after another, this is the most basic military knowledge, and they can naturally understand it.

"Benefit three."

Shen Chen looked at the south and said: "Old General Huang is attacking Lantian now, Cao Zhen is afraid that we are sheep attacking Chang'an, but in fact we want to annihilate him, so as to open the passage between Guanzhong and Nanyang, so there is a high probability that he will not leave Lantian Valley and continue to hold the dangerous place." But if we continue to attack Chang'an, and Chang'an feels dangerous, he may come to support if it is not good. ”

"Once Cao Zhen comes to support Chang'an, our Liangzhou Iron Horse will be defeated in one fell swoop?"

Ma Dai stretched out a fist and punched out.

He was now the commander of half of the Liangzhou heavy cavalry, and the other half was commanded by Shen Chen's disciple Shan Yi, so he was full of confidence in the combat effectiveness of the heavy cavalry.

"Exactly."

Shen Chen said with a smile: "Now Cao Wei already knows that we have cavalry, but he would never have thought that we also have a heavily armored knight hidden. If Cao Zhen goes out of Lantian Valley to aid Chang'an and uses the method of dealing with light cavalry to deal with us, then I will definitely let him understand what Jin Ge Iron Horse is! ”

"The Governor of the Metropolis is wise!"

When Ma Dai heard that he could lead the heavy cavalry to fight again, he suddenly became energetic.

What military general wouldn't want such a day?

Shen Chen looked around at everyone, and finally said: "Therefore, with three benefits, we should continue to attack Chang'an and increase the pressure on the Cao army in the city." Zhong Xuan is also old, I don't believe it, under the offensive of my set of combination punches, he can do not leak, and he can defend all his moves, and he ordered the three armies, telling Pang De and Zhao Yun to rest tomorrow and continue to attack the city the day after tomorrow. ”

"Yui!"

The soldiers responded with a bang, and their morale was still very high, at least at the level of generals.

When Shen Chen's side did not make much progress on the first day of the offensive, he rested for a day, and on the third day, he continued to launch the Meng's attack.

Moreover, catapults and bed crossbows are still being built, and new catapults and bed crossbows are put into the battlefield every day, and at the beginning, the number of bed crossbows of the Wei army crushed the Han army.

Later, when the number of catapults and bed crossbows of the Han army increased significantly, in the long-range offensive, the Wei army was almost only cowering behind the female wall, and it was difficult to return fire with long-range fire like in the previous defensive battles.

The main thing is that the catapult is too strong, the bed crossbows on the city wall are fixed crossbow platforms, under the fierce bombardment of the catapults, many crossbow platforms have been smashed, and the crossbowmen have not even dared to approach the crossbow platform anymore, because the catapults of the people are staring at the direction of the crossbow platform to smash, one smash misses, ten times should always hit.

So most of the time, the Wei army at the head of the city was running around, either hiding behind the female wall and shivering, or running a little farther, and when the Han infantry launched an offensive, they would regroup on the city wall and use their bows and arrows to repel the enemy who climbed the wall.

The two sides have reached a stalemate.

And just when Shen Chen's side was still continuing to attack Chang'an City, in late December, Zhang Fei's front army had also fallen into a standoff with Cao Wei's main force in Henan.

Cao Pi's strategists believed that after Liu Xie was taken away in order to prevent Xu Du and Chen from being attacked, the defense of Kunyang and Wuyang would lose its strategic significance.

Therefore, they felt that they could take advantage of the vast depth of Henan to lure the enemy into depth, retreat the defense line to the area of Yingchuan and Runan, and lengthen Liu Bei's supply line, just like Emperor Wu once defeated Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu, which would make it easier for the enemy to fall into passivity.

Cao Pi felt that it made sense, so he adopted their suggestion, not only after learning that Liu Bei was personally conscripted, but also personally went south from Luoyang to Chenliu to supervise the battle, and also asked Xiahou Yuan to take the initiative to retreat and pull the defense line apart.

Xiahou Yuan was ordered to act according to the plan. As the vanguard army, Gan Ning led 8,000 people all the way to the front line fortresses of the Cao army, such as Kunyang and Wuyang, and then fought a battle with Wang Ling, the Jianwu general of Cao Wei, in the area of Dingling, and Wang Ling was repulsed to Linying.

The main army of Cao Wei revolved around Yingchuan, Runan County and Henan County, such as Yangcheng, Changshe, Yangzhai, Yanling, Fugou, Changping, Ruyang and other places, all of which were Cao Wei's army, forming an encirclement network, as if waiting for Liu Bei's main army to rush out of the Nanyang Basin and drill into the net.

Cao Wei's initiative to retreat naturally also aroused the vigilance of Liu Bei's strategist group, Pang Tong, Xu Shu, and Fa Zheng were not vegetarians, and immediately thought that this was Cao Wei's plan to lure the enemy into depth, so he persuaded Liu Bei to take the camp step by step, first occupy Linying and other places, and then go north to fight with Cao Wei's main force.

Liu Bei took the advice of the strategist group and acted carefully, so the main army had just left Nanyang, and it had not yet begun to fight with them in the area of Yanling and Fugou, where Cao Wei's main forces had gathered.

Now in the three-way Northern Expedition, the middle lane is the top priority, and once there is a problem in the middle lane, it is very likely to radiate the two wings and cause a total rout.

Therefore, even if Liu Bei is impatient, he will not make low-level mistakes.

Guan Yu was also not in a hurry to attack Hefei, he went to Hefei first, ordered the army to set up camp, and naturally personally led the troops to inspect the city.

A few days later, the camp has basically been built, he personally led the army to try to attack the city, but Hefei is not better than Chang'an, the city wall is high, easy to defend and difficult to attack, 20,000 people are enough to defend Hefei City, so the tentative attack did not achieve good results.

Guan Yu could only choose to surround Hefei on three sides, and at the same time send a fleet to the north from Shishui in the west of Hefei to block Hefei's grain route, hoping to wait until the city ran out of food, and Zhang Liao was forced to break through or surrender.

This is a very conventional siege method, after all, it is not a large river like the Han River during the dry season in winter, and it is still very difficult to flood the city.

However, these days Guan Yu and the city's exchanges are still very frequent, seeing Zhang Liao also reminded Guan Yu of his original eventful years, although the two sides are their own masters, but the friendship remains the same, so they write letters to each other to reminisce, and there is often a sense of persuasion.

Xue Yi saw in his eyes that the letter written by Guan Yu to Zhang Liao was a private letter, so Zhang Liao would never show it to Xue Yi, causing Xue Yi to say nothing, but he still had some guilt in his heart, so he reported the situation to Cao Xiu, and Cao Xiu, the current supreme commander of the Huainan region, decided.

Cao Xiu didn't make any moves over there, Zhang Liao was a front-line general after all, and his prestige in the army was very high, even if he was suspicious, he couldn't be dealt with immediately, so it was like this for the time being, Chang'an was under fire, Henan was stable and victorious, and Huainan was extremely quiet.

The three wars have fallen into stalemate and confrontation, and this confrontation has lasted for half a year!