002 This place can't be kept for a long time, pursued, and sprayed)
Half a day later, Ma Su stood beside the ruins of the dilapidated Tucheng in the street pavilion and fell into deep thought.
Jieting is located at the west end of Longdi Road, in the open space between the two mountains. It is a large fan-shaped alluvial plain where five intersections converge. You can attack from all directions when entering, and disperse in all directions when retreating. The terrain is easy to attack but difficult to defend.
This is the only place from Guanzhong to Liangzhou.
Although there is also the Chencang Wei River Valley route from Guanzhong to Liangzhou, this route is too difficult and dangerous and is not suitable for large troops to march.
Therefore, the Jieting area became extremely important. As long as the Han army defended this place, it could block the Wei army's support route.
As long as the Wei army can be kept out, within a month, the cities on the right side of Longyou will collapse without being able to wait for reinforcements.
Therefore, whether the rescue is successful or not is actually the key to this battle. Both Ma Su before and Ma Su now are very clear about the current situation.
but……
If the 20,000 Han troops, mainly infantry, were to hold off the 50,000 Wei troops, mainly cavalry, for a month here, the difficulty would be no less than climbing to the sky.
If the Han army chooses to camp on the main road, the pressure will be very great. Zhang He can completely concentrate his superior forces and choose any point to break through.
Not only was the terrain of Jieting very unfriendly to the Han army, but the strength of the two sides was also very different.
The combat effectiveness of one cavalry is approximately equal to seven or eight infantry.
In other words, the combat effectiveness of 50,000 Wei cavalry is approximately equivalent to 400,000 infantry.
The Han army only had 20,000 infantry.
Twenty thousand versus four hundred thousand.
The gap is so big that it makes my scalp numb...
But that's not the worst.
In order to quickly rush to Longyou's aid, Zhang He divided the large army into two. He led the front army 50,000 times in march, and another 50,000 troops and horses carried food, grass and baggage behind.
The longer the stalemate at Jieting lasts, the more serious the situation facing the Han army will be.
Moreover, the disadvantages don’t stop there.
There are also fortifications.
Although there is an old city in the street pavilion, it has long been dilapidated due to disrepair and collapsed walls.
Ma Di knew that soon after he arrived at the street pavilion, Zhang He would attack and kill him.
Three days.
If the Han army cannot build a strong city as a support within three days, the 20,000 infantry will face the attack of 50,000 cavalry...
The ending can be imagined.
Even if the Han army could build a three-foot-high earthen city in three days, Zhang He's 50,000 rear troops would arrive in less than ten days.
At that time, the comparison of combat strength became 20,000 infantry versus 100,000 cavalry.
There is a saying in the art of war: if you are ten, besiege it, if you are five, attack it, if it is doubled, fight it. If the enemy is strong, you can fight it. If you are small, you can run away. If you are weak, you can avoid it. Therefore, the small enemy is strong and the big enemy can be captured.
The translated meaning of this passage is: If we are ten times larger than the enemy, we can carry out encirclement and annihilation; if we are five times larger than the enemy, we can launch an offensive; if we are twice larger than the enemy, we must work hard to defeat the enemy; if we are evenly matched, we must try to disperse the enemy.
The troops must be defeated one by one; if the troops are weaker than the enemy, head-on combat must be avoided. The party that is too weak cannot defend to the death, otherwise it will become a prisoner of the powerful enemy.
Facing 100,000 cavalry, 20,000 infantry are too weak.
Maybe one charge and the battle would be over.
When the gap in military strength reaches an unimaginable level, a mere earthen city can provide little protection.
Because Jieting is located in a valley, three rivers pass through the valley and merge into the Wei River.
The Wei army only had to block the rivers and divert water into the city, and they could easily overwhelm the Tucheng.
The most terrible thing is that when he took charge of the army for the first time, his prestige in the army was seriously lacking, and the soldiers could not serve him to the best of his ability.
Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the more than 20,000 infantrymen is further reduced.
Such a situation...
Ma Su cursed in his heart, turned his head, and looked at an independent hilltop south of the street pavilion.
For a moment, the idea of stationing soldiers on the mountain slowly took shape in his mind, ready to come out.
Because even if we set up camp and have the support of earth cities, we can only resist the Wei army for ten days at most.
The time Prime Minister Zhuge needs is one month.
Because this Northern Expedition was the prime minister's first expedition against Wei, it came suddenly, and Zhao Yun was used as a suspect to contain Cao Zhen's strength, so Wei was unprepared.
Previously, the Prime Minister led his army out of Qishan and marched straight into Longyou. As a result, Nan'an, Tianshui and Anding among the five counties rebelled against Wei Yinghan. The governor of Nan'an and Tianshui fled, and the governor of Anding and Jiang Wei surrendered.
Only Guangwei County, Longxi County and Qishan Fort refused to surrender and held on. Guo Huai, the governor of Yongzhou, fled to Shanggui and refused to defend. Xu Miao, the governor of Liangzhou, and the prefect of Jincheng defended Jincheng.
It will take at least a month to capture these places.
Therefore, ten days is not enough!
In other words, it is not advisable to set up camp and take control! Even if an earth city can be built within three days, it cannot stop the Wei army!
It was only then that Ma Su suddenly realized why his predecessor chose to camp on the mountain instead of stationed on the road.
Because standing on the road is like mantis trying to use a chariot.
Although the decision to go up the mountain directly led to the defeat of the Han army.
However, stationing troops on the mountain is not a bad idea.
First of all, it is certain that when there are not many troops and insufficient fortifications to rely on, it is an impossible task for 20,000 infantry to resist 50,000 cavalry.
Unless each of these infantry can have the combat effectiveness of Lu Bu, one can be equal to a hundred, otherwise the best choice would be to place them on the mountain and rely on the mountain's strength to offset the impact of the cavalry.
Secondly, even if he was not stationed on the road, it would be impossible for Zhang He to lead his army through the river valley and rush to Longyou's aid.
If Zhang He ignored the 20,000 Han troops on the top of the mountain and marched directly westward along the valley between the two mountains, then the 20,000 Han troops could calmly go down the mountain and follow Zhang He's rear.
What if one shot is not enough?
Then one more shot.
In other words, encamping on the mountain can also achieve the purpose of blocking the Wei army, and the mountain is safer than the road, and the cavalry cannot rush up.
Ma Su was in a dilemma.
He really didn't have many resources to deploy. The Han army was originally small. If he defended both the mountain and the important road, Zhang He could concentrate his forces and use his elite cavalry as the spearhead to break through the defenders on the road.
No matter how you arrange it, it can never be guaranteed.
Therefore, leading the army up the mountain was on the basis of saving troops to the greatest extent, so that Zhang He did not dare to rush all the way west for reinforcements without any scruples.
However, after the predecessor urged the army up the mountain, he was still defeated, and the defeat was very clean.
Zhang He surrounded the mountain and sent troops to cut off the water source. Although his predecessor (Ma Di) sent Huang Xi and Li Sheng to protect the water source in advance, Zhang He sent troops to repel Huang Xi and Li Sheng and controlled the water source.
After that, the Wei army surrounded them without fighting. After seven days, the Han army was demoralized due to lack of water, and then they launched an attack. The Han army was defeated.
It can be seen that the key to this battle is not the camp, but the water source.
After Ma Su made up his mind to set up camp on the mountain, he secretly called the system.
The system responded at the speed of light.
[Ding, the Three Kingdoms Life Simulator starts.]
[One day later, you led your army to Nanshan and found a natural Tianchi with a radius of several hundred meters on the top of the mountain, so you decided to transport water from the bottom of the mountain to the top for storage. Deputy General Wang Ping believed that this was a waste of military power and was not helpful, and camping up the mountain was too risky.
We insist on dividing our troops and stationing them at the foot of the mountain ten miles away.]
[You rejected Wang Ping, and in the name of "disobeying the general's orders", ordered the soldiers to beat Wang Ping twenty times with sticks to enforce military law.]
[Your prestige is -1, the soldiers are all dissatisfied, and secretly protest for the king.]
[Three days later, with the concerted efforts of 20,000 soldiers who were so tired that they vomited blood, the Nanshan Tianchi, which was tens of meters deep, was filled to capacity.]
[Your prestige is -1, the general's command is seriously unsatisfactory, and the sergeants are complaining.]
