Chapter 360 Meng Qi, you are useless to give you a chance
Under Chang'an City, there are a forest of flags.
The red sun sets in the west and turns the white clouds on the horizon into blood red. Thousands of golden lights shine through the gaps between the clouds and spread over the vast land of Guanzhong. The light and shadow are blurred and unreal.
Such a beautiful scene but no one appreciates it.
Teams of Xiliang cavalry, as majestic as tigers, held the unique red flag of the Xiliang army, galloping back and forth under Chang'an City, giving momentum to the friendly forces attacking the city.
Chang'an City is high and deep. The average width of the moat has exceeded 30 feet, and the height of the city has also exceeded 50 feet. Arrow stacks are distributed every other step on the city tower. Each Han army archer has already taken his place, waiting.
The master will give orders and give the invading enemy a head-on blow!
But it is a pity that the Xiliang army has been roaring under the city for two or three hours and has not yet crossed the moat. To be precise, it has not yet filled a road on the moat.
In the era of cold weapons, moats were almost insurmountable.
Even after crossing the moat, breaking through the city gates is a worldwide problem. In a big city like Chang'an, all four gates have a second line of defenses, which is the Wengcheng. This defense method makes it difficult for the enemy to break in through the city gates.
Full.
Therefore, in most cases, the siege party will choose to climb the city wall. Climbing the city wall requires the use of siege equipment, such as siege engines and ladders.
The most effective countermeasure for the defenders against climbing the city wall is the arrow stack. Many city defense methods are based on the arrow stack.
In the age of cold weapons, regardless of cavalry or infantry, generals were extremely reluctant to lead troops to attack a city unless absolutely necessary. Even though the soldiers were riding ladders and climbing up like ants, they were very brave, but what greeted them was like migratory locusts.
Rain of arrows, bright spear points, heavy rolling logs, huge rocks, even lime powder, plant ash, boiling water, boiling oil, gold juice...
The soldiers who attacked the city were almost like rushing to hell with shouts. The brutality of the battle against the city was much more brutal than the confrontation on the plains. Every time a city was captured, there were basically mountains of bones under the city.
Therefore, since ancient times, many generals, such as Bai Qi, Xiang Yu, Cao Cao, etc., would allow their soldiers to massacre and loot the city after breaking the city, venting the anger they encountered during the siege.
This is why Sun Tzu's Art of War says: Attacking the heart is the top priority, and attacking the city is the bottom priority.
Even when they have a huge advantage, most smart generals will deliberately leave a gap when attacking a city. They will shoot a few letters of arrows in advance to express their power and shake the enemy's morale, allowing the defenders a chance to escape and avoid death.
Only by knocking down can we win the city with the minimum casualties. This is the must-have for siege.
However, there are still some generals who are not very smart. They rely on force to show off their strength, or are provoked by the opponent's words. They ignore military common sense and just attack the city head-on...
For example, at this moment, Ma Chao is under Chang'an City.
For such stubborn generals, Ma Su's consistent principle is to teach them how to behave!
When it was still dark for an hour, the Xiliang army finally filled in a few ridges on the moat for soldiers to pass. Countless soldiers held up ladders and approached the city wall in darkness.
Upon seeing this, a young general in charge of dispatching archers immediately came to Ma Di and reported to him nervously: "Major General, the enemy has begun to attack the city. Do you want to take action?"
…
Ma Su glanced at him in surprise, shook his head, and made a calming gesture: "By the time their first soldier is about to climb up the city wall, the ladder will be full of people. At this time, there will be more people on the ladder."
Do it, do you understand?"
"Yes, the general will understand. Is that shooting arrows or rolling rocks?"
"Your first day in the army?"
Ma Su glanced at the general again in surprise.
You still have to ask? Of course, use the most lethal method.
"Back to Major General, I have been in the army for five years." The young general replied. Just as he turned to leave, he was stopped by Ma Di again.
"Tell all the soldiers not to panic, I will make sure they never come back in this battle!"
Having said this, Ma Di raised the corners of his mouth slightly, trying his best to show an expression of wisdom, conveying his composure and confidence to every soldier who could see his expression.
As a king-level general who has led troops in many wars, he knows very well that the performance of the generals in a war directly determines the performance of the soldiers.
Just like the able-bodied Zhuge Liang had to sit on a slow-moving wooden wheel to convey to the soldiers that "this battle must be won. If not, I, the commander, will be the first to suffer misfortune." When the Xiliang army arrived at Chang'an City,
From that moment on, Ma Di has been standing proudly at the top of the city, looking calm and composed. Not only did he convey confidence to the soldiers with his own actions, but he also let some of the soldiers spread his reputation around.
Who is a young general? He killed Dong Zhuo and put down Lu Bu's bloody men butchered Ma Su!
Once these two sentences spread, the eight thousand soldiers and hundreds of thousands of people in Chang'an City immediately had a backbone.
Speaking of coming to this era, this was not the first time Ma Su led troops. He had just driven away Lu Bu in Guanzhong not long ago. There was absolutely no need to use this method to instill confidence and boost morale in the soldiers.
However, among the eight thousand soldiers, five thousand were soldiers from the Northern Army of the imperial court and barely knew him; the other three thousand soldiers did know him, but they were all recruits recruited in Luhun County and were on the battlefield for the first time.
Therefore, Ma Su did this for no reason.
Soldiers have their own unique set of criteria for judging their generals. When they serve under a certain general, they will only look at what the general is doing and what he has done; rather than looking at his background or what he says. Only
When the general's performance meets their expectations of a good general, they will follow him to the death.
A general with a good background but no actual achievements may be admired in court, but he will never gain the heartfelt respect and trust of his colleagues and lower-level soldiers. This kind of trust is crucial in war, no matter what.
replaceable.
The defeat of the street pavilion in another time and space came from this. Rather than saying that "Ma Su" was defeated on the mountain road and cut off the water source, it is better to say that he was defeated because the order could not be implemented.
Whether it was the deputy general Wang Ping or the lower-level soldiers who were full of doubts about his orders from the beginning, and their execution ability was greatly reduced. Under such circumstances, how much combat effectiveness can the army have? How can it be invincible in this way?
Ma Di understood this very clearly, and because of this, he was particularly sensitive to changes in the soldiers' mentality and morale.
…
details make a difference.
Therefore, even if the opponent is just a bronze and silver-level reckless Jin Ma Chao, Ma Su not only shows contempt verbally, but also pays enough psychological attention to him.
Soon, the Xiliang army's siege began.
Under Ma Chao's urging, the Xiliang Army's siege operation was astonishing. Hundreds of ladders were deployed, and nearly a thousand people launched an attack at the same time - climbing the ladders.
The climbing operation went very smoothly at first. Ma Chao saw that the Han soldiers on the city seemed to be frightened and allowed thousands of soldiers to approach the top of the city step by step without any hindrance.
Seeing this scene, the corners of Ma Chao's mouth curled up slightly, as if he had seen the scene where after the city was breached, the young general who humiliated him with such nonsense was pinned to the ground and rubbed mercilessly...
Then he saw the Han soldiers on the top of the city grinning ferociously as they mercilessly dropped the rolling logs from the ladder.
The screams of the soldiers of the Xiliang Army resounded through Chang'an City in an instant. In just a moment, most of the more than a thousand soldiers who went to attack the city died, and the rest were basically disabled.
"Hahahaha, Ma Chao, I gave you a chance but you didn't use it..." Ma Di laughed up at the city top, and the pride in his laughter could be heard half a mile away.
The smile on Ma Chao's mouth suddenly froze, and his heart felt as if someone had punched him hard, making him miserable.
Ma Teng glanced at his young son and didn't say anything. He just waved his hand and gave the order to retreat.
