Since the soldiers had already experienced the despair after water was cut off, when Ma Su asked them to pretend to be sick, everyone imitated it perfectly.
But after Ma Su made a tour, he felt that their acting skills lacked some soul.
So the soldiers stationed in the outer camp were ordered to drink only a small sip of water every day, not to wet their lips when drinking water, and not to lick the corners of their mouths with their tongues while on duty.
After such operations, every soldier on duty had dry lips after being exposed to the wind and sun all day long.
By the second day, some of the soldiers' lips began to crack. Coupled with their dejected expressions, the whole situation seemed to be complete.
This is a group of soldiers who have lost their fighting spirit due to extreme lack of water.
Ma Su nodded secretly after seeing this, and immediately ordered all the soldiers to hide in the camp and prepare for the attack.
He knew that Sima Yi was a man blessed by destiny and was extremely difficult to deal with. Not to mention that he had the four "Heaven" talents, which basically eliminated all possibilities of failure.
However, Ma Su wanted to try to see if man could defeat heaven.
…
After Sima Yi learned that the Shu army was short of water, in order to prevent fraud, he personally led his generals to observe closely.
Sima Zhao raised his whip, pointed at a soldier in the Shu army camp diagonally above, and whispered to Sima Yi: "Father, look, the Shu soldiers have chapped lips and have no fighting spirit!"
Sima Yi spurred his horse to stop five feet away, squinted his eyes, and stared sideways for a long time, then closed his eyes and began to think.
He has experienced the feeling of dehydration.
More difficult to endure than physical thirst is psychological despair. Faced with the dilemma of extreme water shortage, few people can maintain a calm mind and an optimistic attitude.
From what he saw, the morale of the Shu soldiers stationed above was low and they were about to collapse. And this desperate atmosphere would quickly spread to all the soldiers. It was foreseeable that the current Shu army must be in a mess.
If we raise troops to attack at this time, the chance of winning is 70%!
No, 80%!
Although the chance of victory was so great, Sima Yi felt a little uneasy for no apparent reason.
He quickly put himself into Ma Su's position and thought about it. What would he do if he led his troops and were trapped on high ground with an extreme shortage of water?
The answer is: break out or fight to the death.
In short, I will never sit still and wait for death.
So the question is, why did Ma Su remain on hold?
Isn't he afraid of being thirsty to death on the Wuzhang Plain?
Sima Yi raised his head and looked at the scorching sun, pondering for a moment.
After a long while, he sighed and turned around to return to camp.
The generals looked at each other and were greatly surprised, and quickly rode their horses to follow.
Sima Zhao caught up with Sima Yi and asked in confusion: "Father, why didn't you give the order to attack? I am willing to lead an army, kill on Wuzhangyuan, and capture Ma Su alive!"
"Don't act rashly!" Sima Yi said without looking back, "Wait a little longer!"
Sima Zhao reined in his mount, stopped in place, and muttered: "Wait a minute, when will we send out the troops! Wouldn't it be a pity to miss such a good opportunity?"
Sima Yi also reined in his mount, turned around and stared at his second son, and said earnestly: "My grandson said: To be a general..."
"Sun Tzu said: A general should be calm and measured, how can he act on impulse?" Sima Zhao took over the topic and muttered dissatisfiedly: "Father, you have said it eight hundred times, when will our army attack?"
Sima Yi laughed dumbly, shook his head, turned around and rode away.
In the distance, a word came in the air: "Three days later!"
…
On the eighth day of the siege of Wuzhangyuan, 20,000 Wei troops, led by Zhang Hu, Han De and other generals, began to launch a tentative attack.
This is an order from Sima Yi.
Seven days have passed since he discovered that the Shu army was short of water. Sima Yi believed that the Shu army had almost reached its limit and it was time to launch an attack.
He was worried that there would be other variables if the situation continued any longer, especially since Zhuge Liang, who was currently entrenched in the Longyou area, still had more than 100,000 troops under his command and should not be underestimated.
If Zhuge Liang leads his army from Longyou into Xiaoguan, the Wei army's advantage in strength and situation will no longer exist.
Although this possibility is very small, Sima Yi had to guard against it.
Early in the morning, the Wei army's general attack officially began. Twenty thousand Wei troops held up special wooden shields and marched up the gentle slope to the west of Wuzhangyuan. They launched a charge against the Shu army camp on Wuzhangyuan.
"General! The Wei army is coming!"
Zhang Xiu suddenly opened the curtain, limped into the handsome tent, and shouted at the top of his voice.
Previously, with Ma Su's explanation, the misunderstanding between the two generals had been solved. Ma Su said, "I beat you because I regard you as one of my own.
You hit others because they are not as close as you to me." This deeply touched Zhang Xiu, making him feel honored even though he was beaten for no reason.
Ma Su quickly put away the "Jade Girl's Heart Sutra" that Huang Xi had recently given him, stood up, picked up his helmet and put it on, held the sword in his hand, and strode outside. As he walked, he asked:
"Where are the Wei troops fighting now?"
There was a lot of activity outside the camp. Groups of soldiers, led by various generals, ran quickly past Ma Su and took up positions according to pre-arrangements.
"We have broken through the second line of defense and are currently attacking the third line of defense." Zhang Xiu replied truthfully: "Our army has already positioned the fifth line of defense."
Ma Su said "hmm", stood under the observation tower at a high place, and looked up.
I saw that the densely packed Wei army had already ascended a third of the gentle slope, and the battle situation had changed from a tentative attack at the beginning to a close-quarters confrontation, and the shouts of killing resounded through the sky.
The Shu army fought, retreated and fired. Countless iron arrows shot out and shuttled between the two sides.
Since the gentle slope in the west was two kilometers wide, the Wei army was divided into eight teams, spread across the eight gates of the Shu camp, and charged upward bravely.
Looking from a distance, it looks like a large black ant with big heads swarming up in waves.
Ma Su smiled slightly and waved to the soldiers on the observation deck. The soldiers quickly waved the triangular flag in their hands, shaking it three times to the left, then to the right three times, and then waved it suddenly forward.
Only then did the Shu army's war drums and horns sound.
The counterattack began.
The soldiers of the Shu army, who were being defeated by the Wei army and were suffering a lot, heard the sound of their own horns and war drums, quickly cheered up, straightened their backs, and their decadent expressions were gone.
At the same time, his hands stopped shaking, and even the crossbow began to aim at the enemy's vital points and fire, instead of firing randomly towards the sky.
The Shu army's sudden and deceptive reaction greatly exceeded the Wei army's prediction. The leading generals were immediately shot into hedgehogs and rolled to the ground.
Faced with such a determined counterattack, Wei's advance was halted and they were forced to retreat.
Han De was eager to avenge his son, and despite the rain of arrows, he took his other three sons and rushed forward with their shields raised.
From the beginning, he believed that the Shu army, which had been short of water for several days, had lost its combat effectiveness. This counterattack was just a last ditch effort before death. As long as it was suppressed forcefully, the Shu army would surely collapse quickly.
As long as they rush to the fifth camp, it means that the Shu army is no longer in danger and it means that the Wei army is in sight of victory.
As he rushed forward, Han De was full of enthusiasm, and what he was thinking in his heart was,
Success, fame and fortune are calling him!
Make a name for yourself today!
However, as soon as he rushed out ten or so steps, the light wooden shield was filled with iron arrows. It weighed more than a thousand pounds and was difficult to hold.
With a "pop", the wooden shield fell to the ground. As soon as Han De's body was exposed, he was immediately surrounded by a hail of arrows. His cheeks were filled with arrows and he fell to the sky.
Immediately afterwards, under the fierce attack of the Shu army's crossbows, the Wei army's offensive momentum was frustrated again. Originally, the Wei army attacked from the rear, and had no way to hide in front of the condescending Shu army crossbowmen. It was forced to move forward by the rain of arrows. Now,
The general died, and he had no intention of fighting and retreated hastily.
Sima Yi stood outside the battlefield and witnessed with his own eyes another wave of attacks by the Wei army being repelled. His face was as calm as water, and it was hard to tell what he was feeling in his heart.
Sima Zhao realized that he had made a serious error in his previous judgment. The Shu army was far from collapse, and the Wei army's launch of a general attack at this time would be a loss of lives.
So he turned to Sima Yi with a look of shame on his face and said, "Father, withdraw your troops."
Sima Yi shook his head. His view was exactly the opposite of his son's. From the Shu army's offensive, he saw the dawn of the Wei army turning defeat into victory.
Sima Yi took a deep breath, calmly analyzed the situation, and waved his hand: "Send my general's order and the whole army will attack!"
After hearing this, all the generals were very puzzled, but they still obeyed the order and led the troops away.
Sima Zhao asked in surprise: "Father, before, the Shu army was weak and our army was strong, but you did not approve of sending troops to attack. Now that the Shu army is strong and our army is weak, you want to attack. Why?"
"
Sima Yi watched more Wei troops rushing towards Wuzhangyuan and sneered: "The weakness of the Shu army is just an illusion. It is just to lure our army to attack and try to annihilate them with continuous crossbows."
"If our army fails to attack, this repeating crossbow will always be a threat. For this reason, my father ordered an army of 20,000 to launch an attack to attract the Shu army to fire arrows and consume their repeating crossbows. When the Shu army ran out of crossbow arrows,
Its defensive strength will become very empty. At this time, I will order the army to attack, and it will be easy to attack Wuzhangyuan."
"The strength of the Shu army at the moment depends on the power of the repeated crossbows, but the iron arrows used in this repeating crossbow must not be many in the Shu army's formation. As expected, the Shu army's repeated crossbows are now on display, and our army can arrogantly mount the
Wuzhangyuan."
Sima Zhao suddenly understood and praised repeatedly: "My father has a great opinion, and my son admires it, but I wonder if our army can capture Wuzhangyuan today?"
Sima Yi pondered for a moment and shook his head: "Ma Di cannot be judged by common sense."
"In this battle, we don't know who will win."
Sima Zhao nodded. In the past two years, he had been stationed on the border with his father, often fighting and killing. His military ability had grown rapidly.
In short, compared with Ma Su, his father was not better in terms of strategy and tactics, but his father's advantage was still huge. As long as he continued to fight steadily and did not make fatal mistakes, Ma Su's failure was inevitable.
How can a mere general of a partial army defeat the commander of a country?
But advantages are advantages. In just a few months, Liangzhou Longyou was lost one after another, which was beyond Sima Zhao's expectation. Even his father Sima Yi did not expect it at the beginning.
However, although Ma Di repeatedly won the battle in Guanzhong, he failed to defeat Guanzhong with thunderous momentum and help the Shu Kingdom achieve the strategic goal of "to completely conquer Yongliang and restore the foundation of Gaozu's hegemony". This left a legacy for the Wei state.
Got a chance to make a comeback.
Maybe, today's battle.
This was the beginning of Wei's all-out counterattack.
