Chapter 41: Defending the City

Who is the adversary? Jia Xu? Sima Yi? Zhang Ji? Guo Zhun? Zhang He? Or even Deng Ai? Zhong Hui?

No way, no way.

I denied them one by one in my heart, although Jia Xu and Sima have their talents, they are both in Luoyang, and it is impossible for them to appear here; The Yongzhou assassin Zhang Ji, the Zhenxi governor Shi Guohuai, and the general Zhang He were confronting Mr. Kong Ming on the eastern front; As for the other two rising stars, my favorite is the little stammerer Deng Ai, who is only ten years older than me - he was born in Nanyang, Jingzhou, and may have sung the children's rhyme taught by Mr. Kong Ming "Heaven and earth are like a chess game" with his mother in the fields, or maybe he was also one of the hundreds of people mixed with his father when he crossed the river with the people, he may have been the one who was likely to have an intersection with me, but he and his mother were moved to Runan when Cao Cao immigrated, I asked the fourth uncle to help me find him, but finally did not find out - but he is only twenty-five years old this year, He was not taken seriously because of his stuttering, and he may still be a straw keeper somewhere; Zhong Hui? He wouldn't be born until five years later, and now it's doubtful whether his father knew his mother.

But is my above information really correct?

Who is the adversary?

It is true that the adversary is terrible, but no matter how terrible the enemy is, he must face it.

"Since we can roughly infer the other party's intentions, we can do it." I gritted my teeth, yes, I despised the other party, and the other party did have a layout master who was far beyond my reach. But if it's not as good as him, it doesn't mean that I'll be afraid of him, since his goal is me, let me meet his challenge, "The original attack plan remains unchanged, you all go, I'll defend the city!" ”

Jiang Wei was also taken aback when he heard my decision: "Is the young master going to use himself as bait to lead that person to attack?" It was a perfect method - for we had intended to do so - the army pretended to leave, and the young master used the lone army as bait to lead the enemy to attack, and then we fought back, and we were sure to win a great victory. But young master, do you really intend to risk your life? You know, this small city is not impregnable, and our army is not very fast, if the city is broken before we return, then the safety of the young lord ......"

"Hehe," I laughed dryly, "the enemy's target is me, and if you capture me, then he will win the battle without fighting." This secret enemy is so calculating, it must be the moment to find me alone. Therefore, even if I go with the great army, he will be full of tricks, divide my forces, and then lead the elite to the middle army, and the enemy will have the advantage of the plains, and the danger to me will be greater than that in the city. At that time, the time and place of the attack, and the military forces to be invested were all in the hands of the enemy. Although we have the advantage of being well-trained and having more bows and crossbows, it will be a fierce battle, and the outcome is uncertain. And outside the city, even if the enemy misses a single blow, he can fly high and far away, and he can't chase him, and for us, the gains outweigh the losses. But if I am in the city, the enemy's tricks will not work, only a hard attack on the city, we will occupy the advantage, this is the enemy's short, attack my strength, as long as you return to the defense on time, our army will win! ”

The plan has been decided, the generals are recalled, and everyone agrees with Jiang Wei's analysis. Guan Ping was ashamed, and Huang Hansheng said: "I always feel that something is wrong, but it turns out to be like this, and then it is terrifying!" "At that moment, Guan Ping and Jiang Wei led the army out of the city respectively, and Huang Hansheng and I led 2,000 troops to stay and defend the city. Two thousand troops is not much, but for the elite Chinese army, it is enough, not to mention that there are a thousand white ear troops among them.

The White Ear Army is my father's personal guard, everyone is the elite selected from each army, and they rolled over with my father in one battle after another, all of them are warriors who are used to seeing stormy waves. In the official history, when his father was defeated in the attack on Eastern Wu, his commander Chen Zhi commanded the Baier army to break off, and hundreds of guns blocked the pursuing soldiers, and the combat effectiveness was really extraordinary.

In the eastern sky, a round of red sun is about to burst out, painting a layer of pink oil paint on the small quail county. Fierce battles may be coming soon.

After some free time, I was finally in the mood to see the small city. This small city is an earthen city, not solid, and the walls are not very thick, but the terrain is very good, the position is high, and it is close to the mountains and rivers. Legend has it that this city was built from the Qin Dynasty, the first emperor's eldest son Fusu and the general Meng Tian, led the troops to the north mountain to the side, saw the high and shallow water, and established the city here. At the time of building the city, there are quails and birds smell the fragrance and fly on the goblet, so the quail goose is the name of the county.

The whole Anding County, located between the Jing River and the Wei River, the terrain is flat and open, just the mouth of Xisai, has always been the place where soldiers must be recruited, here the Han and Qiang are mixed, and the people are still martial. When Mr. Shui Jing taught me the "Hanshu Geographical Chronicles", he said: "Tianshui, Longxi, Anding, Beidi, Shangjun, and Xihe are all approaching Rongdi, and they are all practicing war preparation, high strength, and shooting and hunting first. "These counties have always been the main source of troops for the Yulin Army and the Qimen Army, and they have always had many famous generals.

This small town is no exception, even some old people often have a fierce air on their faces. However, due to the looting of natural and man-made disasters over the years, there are only 1,700 households in this city, and the actual number of people left behind is less than 2,000, and all of them are old, weak, sick and disabled.

"Uncle, why are there no young people here?"

Huang Zhong arranged for the defense of the city, and I once again implemented my own policy of appeasing the people. This matter has been practiced for a long time, but it is familiar with the road.

But the old man in front of me ignored me, holding a crockpot in his hand and walking with his head bowed. One of the guards next to him was a little dissatisfied, he had never seen a commoner so unreasonable to his noble young master. Just as I was about to have a seizure, I stopped him early, thinking to myself, maybe the person in front of me or the Qiang people didn't understand the Chinese language, so I said "Hello" in the simple Qiang language that I had just learned. The old man glanced at me, but remained silent and slowly left.

I sighed in my heart, I couldn't imagine that this person was so unreasonable. However, seeing that if he was old, it would be so difficult to carry a water jug, and there were many such families in the city, anyway, there were few things at this time, so I arranged for one of my guards to go out of the city to carry water in the Heishui River, and every household had to fill all the water tanks. In doing so, I bought the hearts and minds of the people, and second, once the enemy army arrived, there was no way to replenish water, so that I could hide water for the people, so that I could support it for a little longer.

I have read too many books on the tricks of power and conspiracy, and I have become accustomed to thinking about everything from the word "profit", and it was a long time before I realized how wrong it was. But at this time, I like to apply everything to the trick of conspiracy, even if it's actually sincere.

When he finished the order, he heard a "bump", and when he turned back quickly, it was the old man who slipped under his feet, fell, and smashed the crockpot to pieces. I hurriedly ran over, and was about to help him up with the guards, and touched my hand, but I couldn't help but sigh that he was so old and brittle that he broke his leg.

I instructed, "Doctor Cui is coming to the camp." ”

Dr. Cui is a bone-setting doctor, and it is said that he learned willow wood bone grafting from Hua Tuo.

"Yes, young master." The guard said yes and turned to go.

The old man's cloudy eyes flashed with a strange light, and he snorted: "He called you young master, you, you are Liu Adou?" ”

I didn't think that my nickname was more popular than the tuba, so I smiled and said, "Yes." Only then did I realize that the old man in front of me was also Han.

"I listen to nursery rhymes: Beidou light, bright and pure, shine on the four fields, all stable. Could it be that this Anding County really wants to fall into your hands? ”

He actually said that everything was settled? I shook my head and said, "I haven't heard this nursery rhyme." ”

As he spoke, Doctor Cui had already arrived, and he and the guards carried the old man back to the courtyard. The old man kept looking back, as if he had something to say, but at last he didn't say it.

The army left, the small city seemed empty, I walked on the street, in my heart to check my recent mistakes, in Chang'an, I also said that others are too frivolous, hard to stop the signs of complacency, how to know that since the army alone, I am the same, it seems that the world is really easier said than done. If he can't defeat him completely this time, then the pacification of Yongliang Erzhou will have to be delayed, and Mr. Kong Ming's pressure in the east will be even greater. I don't know when Cao Pi sent troops, what the scale of the troops was, if the scale was too large, then the grain that was only planted in the Guanzhong Plain would be seedling.

Thinking about the chaos in the west in recent years, people's fear of war has reached the extreme, those places that cannot be publicized, heard of the team, villages and towns are immediately emptied, men, women and children flee into the mountains with large bags and small bags; Outside the walls of some cities, there were often hungry and cold beggars and wanderers, some of whom were still trembling and dying, and some of whom had become lifeless pieces of meat for crows and birds to peck at; Many once prosperous cities have experienced the catastrophe of war, leaving only the ruins of the cold moon, bleak as ghosts.

In fact, I hate war the most, but in order to escape the war, I first took up arms and went north to Yongliang. If you don't want to be drowned by huge waves, you must first learn to swim and make the tide. I only hope that this time I can successfully defeat the enemy, pacify the north, give me thirty years, recuperate, and then maybe I can compete with Cao Wei.

My talent is still insufficient, except for knowing some history inexplicably, and a few excellent teachers, I am still just an ordinary person, although not stupid, but in this elite world, it seems that the gap is so big, and my goal is so far away from me.

I don't need help, I have to stand up, but how far do I have to go to stand up?

Unify the world? Is it famous in Qing history?

Forget it, think ahead, don't think about it, and focus on the enemy in front of you.