Just when Qin Xuan was incompetent and furious in the palace hall of the Xuancheng Palace, Wei Zhonghui of the Thorn Gate Camp had already received the news of the loss of the Xiliu Battalion, and in desperation, he had to return to the city with the Yong army, and at the same time ordered the Yong army of the Bashang camp to withdraw to the city.

At this point, the city was completely surrounded, and Lang Zeqing, Ma Yuansi, Wu Xinghan and Shao Hongxuan were in the big tent of the Chinese army five miles away from the north gate of the city at this time.

Several people looked at the sand table in front of them with sad faces, with bitter faces. Originally, it should be a gratifying thing to break the Yongjun army and occupy the three large camps of Thorn Gate, Xiliu and Bashang, but when everyone led the troops to the city of Xu, they found that things were far from being as optimistic as they imagined.

The city wall is ten meters high, and the surrounding area is more than 70 miles long, and such a large city, 200,000 people spread around, just like water drops in the sea, and sand thrown in the desert. Everywhere is like no encirclement, everywhere there are flaws.

What made several people even more speechless was that the number of Yong troops in Xushan City was 100,000 more than them, and there were 300,000 people. Looking at the city, it was densely packed with human heads.

In desperation, the few men had no choice but to besiege but not attack, and at the same time report to the castle about the problems they encountered.

Wei Zhonghui stood on top of the city, looking at the Bingzhou army outside the city, he had a plan in his heart, he hurriedly got down the city wall, rode the war horse under the city wall, and then went straight to Jing Yao's mansion.

Wei Xing rode behind Wei Zhonghui and asked, "Father, we just left the city, can we do it?" Look at these rotten people, as well as the gray-haired old man, and the toddler who is breastfeeding, is this still the Yongjun who galloped across the battlefield back then?"

Wei Zhonghui turned his head and glared at him, and scolded: "As far as you kid talk a lot of nonsense, you don't look at what time it is, the city is so big, can it be done with fewer soldiers?" Even if they are old, weak, sick and disabled, they can be frightened by this group of state troops who dare not attack the city."

Wei Xing was scolded and didn't dare to speak, so he had to silently follow behind his father. The group came to Jing Yao's mansion, and when the porter saw Wei Zhonghui, he didn't dare to stop him, and directly ordered someone to go inside to inform his master.

When Wei Zhonghui entered the gate, he saw Jing Yao coming out of the inner door, Wei Zhonghui stepped forward and saluted, "General Jing, why did you come out to greet you?"

Jing Yao smiled and said, "General Wei, you are my Dayong's Optimus Prime, and the old man should greet him at the gate."

Jing Yao led Wei Zhonghui to the main hall, the door was closed, Wei Xing and Jing Yao's guard captain and his personal guards were separated by more than ten meters, and no one could approach the main hall at will.

In the main hall, Jing Yao stood in front of the map of the city and asked, "Zhonghui, there are no outsiders here, and the old man doesn't play those twists and turns with you, do you think the city can be defended?"

When Wei Zhonghui heard Jing Yao's inquiry, he chuckled in his heart, Jing Yao was the top class of the Dayong Imperial Court, and he didn't even know the bottom of his heart, so he could imagine what kind of mentality the bureaucrats in this city should have.

Wei Zhonghui said helplessly: "Brother Jing, you know that I am a person, although I have some success in my heart, but I don't dare to pack a ticket, this state army is coming from afar, and the offensive is fierce, I really don't know what this state army will do to attack the city. The walls of the city are high and deep, and it is still very difficult for the state army to break in."

Jing Yao shook his head lightly and said, "Does it mean that it can't, I have carefully watched the battles of the Bingzhou army all the way, they have their own set of methods for siege, and the craftsmen of the Bingzhou army are very skilled, and the cumbersome and complex siege equipment, such as nest cars and Linchong cars, can be made."

Wei Zhonghui was speechless, at this time, they were like turtles in an urn in the city. He looked at Jing Yao and said, "Now that the morale in the city is very low, it is not possible to go on like this, we must find a suitable time to defeat the Bingzhou army outside the city to boost the morale of the army."

Jing Yao sat on the chair, lifted the teacup, took a sip of tea, and sighed: "Zhonghui, brother, I will tell you the truth, there are only 60,000 soldiers in this city who can take up arms and fight immediately, and most of the other 240,000 are old, weak, sick and disabled."

Wei Zhonghui listened

Jing Yao's words were incredulous, and he said incredulously, "Brother Jing, you're not wrong, right? These 60,000 people, but I brought them back, that is to say, the army in the city has always been supported by these old, weak, sick and disabled?"

Jing Yao nodded helplessly, the situation in the city made him very helpless, he had wasted so much effort and recruited so many people. But the training can't keep up at all, and there are less than 100,000 people who can be regarded as pawns.

And now there is one more thing that makes Jing Yao more troublesome, and that is Liang Cao. Although the official warehouse in the city was full of food, it was not enough for so many troops to eat for three months, and after three months, the whole city would have to go hungry. c

The two looked at each other speechlessly, and they really didn't know what to do in such a dead end.

When Wei Zhonghui and Jing Yao were speechless, Wang Rong in Zhanghua City had already received a military report jointly signed by Lang Zeqing and several people.

Wang Rong looked at it, then handed it to Huang Fu Jian, who was sitting below, and said, "Mr. Huang Fu, this is the information that the old wolf has sent back from Xuzhen City."

Huang Fujian looked at the military newspaper and said, "Old wolf, they are in a problem, the city is tall and wide, and the 200,000 people can't besiege the city at all, and the current situation is very unfavorable for us to attack the city."

Wang Rong nodded and said, "Sun Tzu said: Therefore, the army is attacking, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the army, and then the next is to attack the city. Now Lang Zeqing is in a problem, sir, how should we deal with this situation?"

Huangfu Jian thought about it, this military strategy was actually not his strong point. He shook his head and said, "I don't have any good ideas in my heart, Su Jie, what do you think?"

Li Sujie looked at the map, he pondered for a moment, and said to Wang Rong, "Zhong Ming, do you remember the earthwork you explained to the generals?"

In fact, the history of civil engineering is very long. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Wenzhenggong formed the Hunan Army and suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In order to prevent a sneak attack, six trenches were dug outside the barracks of the Hunan army. In this way, the Taiping army broke through the first two trenches at most.

In the textbook compiled by the Hubei Jiangwutang in 1900, it was clearly proposed that in front of the fortress or in the interval, intermittent trenches should be dug as the combat positions of the field army. In some unfortified areas, the construction of fortresses was no longer advocated, but the digging of trenches and communication trenches to form positions was also advocated.

Wang Rong once said that there is an army that uses earthwork in war, which is one of its magic weapons for winning wars. And this magic weapon was also learned in blood and fire, because the strongest in the earth work industry at that time was the devil.

The devil's army has a very strong ability to do its work, and they once had an army of more than 500 people, which burned and plundered in the base area, and was originally going to retreat according to the original plan. Coincidentally, they passed by the Yellow Cliff Cave on the way to retreat.

There was an arsenal hidden in the mountainside of Huangyadong, which was the largest arsenal of the army in North China at that time, with an annual output of weapons and ammunition that could equip sixteen regiments.

The devil's army routinely swept and launched an attack on Huangya Cave, and the garrison troops resisted stubbornly, but they were finally occupied by the devil's army.

In this battle, the rabbit army suffered 228 casualties, two ammunition silos were blown up, and a large amount of supplies were burned and damaged. Thankfully, the arsenal was not discovered by them.

When the commander of the rabbit army heard the news, he decided to surround and annihilate this hateful enemy who had gone deep alone. The commander of the rabbit army knew that the Japanese army was well-equipped and extraordinary, so he kept in mind the strategy of "ten rules to encircle it, five to attack it" in the Art of War, and sent ten times the strength of the troops.

In other words, the rabbit army gathered a force of 5,000 people to encircle this devil army of more than 500 people. However, the battle was fought extremely hard.

On the first day of fighting, the rabbit army launched an attack on the devil army that had been repaired on the devil's position. Under the cover of the artillery regiment, the soldiers charged upwards with a roar, but they were beaten back again and again.

In just one day, the rabbit army launched as many as seven charges, the most recent of which was in front of the devil army's position, but it still failed to really reach their core position.

The next day

In the morning, the reinforcements of the devil's army were approaching this battlefield. The rabbit army decided to launch a final attack. This attack, the soldiers of the rabbit army used their lives to break through the defense line of the devil army, smashed into the position, and fought bayonets.

In the trenches of the devil's army, the soldiers on both sides were red-eyed, fighting with bayonets, biting with teeth, headbutting, and comparing the will to fight.

The battle was fierce, and the battle continued until noon, and the reinforcements of the devil's army immediately arrived on the battlefield. Unable to avoid being counter-encircled, the rabbit army had to start retreating, and this positional battle ended.

In terms of battle teleology, the rabbit army failed to achieve the expected results in this battle, and did not completely annihilate the devil army. The devil's army suffered about 300 casualties. The casualties of the rabbit army were heavier, reaching more than 600 people, which was twice the battle loss of the devil army.

The reason why this is the case, in addition to the fact that the combat effectiveness and equipment of the devil army are stronger than the rabbit army, is that the devil army occupies a favorable position, so that the rabbit army has ten times the strength of the army, but only a small number of troops can be invested on the frontal battlefield, which has become a taboo for soldiers.

Moreover, the strong earthwork ability of the devil army allowed them to build a textbook-level military position very quickly.

Since then, the rabbit army has been practicing hard in earthwork, learning from the enemy and allies, and also independently researching and developing, making its earthwork ability stronger and stronger.