Under Pingcheng, the Han army had besieged the city for nearly three months.
After Tuoba Jiefen successfully escaped from the siege, Liu Bei thought that the defenders in the city were greatly reduced and their strength was even more disparate. They would be unable to face the Han army's siege from all sides. He immediately ordered the troops to launch a general offensive the next day in an attempt to attack before the Xianbei reinforcements arrived.
He went to Pingcheng. But he did not expect the power of Chanyu's death. Shanyu died heroically in front of his subjects. All the Xianbei in the city, regardless of gender, old or young, went crazy and shed tears.
Before the war, Chen Chong sent people to shoot books in the city, claiming that as long as the city was open, everyone in the city could be let go. However, the Xianbei people refused sternly at the top of the city, saying: The city is here and the people are here, but the city is dead and everyone is dead.
So the Han army went to war. Although most of the strong men in the city were gone, Bu Dugen was still able to recruit the elderly and women in the city. After all, they were a people on the grassland. They grew up on horseback and hunted wild animals all day long. Waiting for these Xianbei people to wear skins
Jia walked up to the city wall and brandished his sword and shot arrows in front of the Han army. When the Han soldiers reached the wall, they saw the old man and women with their eyes wide open and shouting indescribable sounds. They couldn't help but feel a little discouraged.
Fight back.
After attacking for more than ten days, the Han army still could not make progress. Liu Bei was concerned about casualties, so he continued to dig trenches, build ramparts, build mountains, and plan to besiege Pingcheng for a long time. On the third day of November, Deputy Fuluo went to Pingcheng.
Bin obtained 20,000 reinforcements from Danhan Mountain, and together with his own troops and horses, the total number was more than 30,000. He went south to Daijun, and arrived at Gaoliu on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, he arrived at Baishan Mountain.
Set up camp.
When Linghu Yuan of the Eastern Front saw the guests arriving, the Xianbei army occupied the top of the mountain, and the mountains and plains were as dark as a crow's roof. He was shaken in his heart and quickly reported to the commander's camp. Liu Bei heard the report and wrote directly back.
: "We have discussed this situation since we came here, so why are we panicking? Just dig trenches on the back to prevent them from going down the mountain to charge into battle. Xianbei's reinforcements have not yet arrived, and then it will be the decisive moment!
”
Sure enough, as he said, on the seventh day of the eleventh month, another group of troops arrived from the north. The leader was Tuoba Jiefen. After breaking through, he went straight to Chengle and sent his envoys to circle back and forth in Yunzhong, Wuyuan, and Yinshan.
, called on all Xianbei tribes to rescue the royal court. Hearing that the Chanyu was in danger, those who responded to his call included Moruo, the leader of the Zhigan tribe, recommended his ministers by the Rilu tribe, Guzhihou, the leader of the Liyou tribe, and Dou Bin, the leader of the Wuluhui tribe.
Bajiefen was able to regroup 40,000 men and stationed himself in the Yungang Mountains, forty miles northwest of Pingcheng.
The 70,000 Xianbei troops were on the left and right of the Han army. Together with the foothold inside Pingcheng, they forced the Han army under the city to attack the city and retreat. However, Tuoba Jiefen saw from a distance the densely packed fences and fences under Pingcheng.
He thought of the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Shaling and did not dare to attack rashly. He ordered his troops to rest and recuperate on the spot, and then personally went to deputy Fuluo to Bin's headquarters to discuss the attack plan with him, and set the two armies at ten
On the tenth day of the first lunar month, we marched from east to west to attack the Han army.
During the siege of the city, the Han army was also intensely discussing the decision to attack the enemy. They were roughly divided into two groups. One group, such as Linghu Yuan and Gu Yi, proposed withdrawing and returning, while the other group, such as Guo Daguan Yu, advocated withdrawing the siege and fighting decisively.
The two were at a stalemate, and the only consensus was to retreat first. Being attacked from both sides was a taboo in battle. During the Battle of Kunyang, Wang Yi led an army of 400,000 to besiege Kunyang. He declared the sky with thunder and drums, and suppressed troops thousands of miles away, but it was only Shizu.
The defeat of more than 10,000 people is believed to be due to the difficulty in coordinating the internal and external battles in the capital. Now the Han army's military strength is similar to that of the Xianbei people. If a decisive battle were to take place under the city, the outcome would be disastrous.
Liu Bei also tended to withdraw from the siege and fight decisively. He has always been very arrogant. He has won and lost in the past ten years of the campaign, but he didn't care at all. He just thought that there were only more than ten thousand old and weak people in Pingcheng, and his siege for more than a month was in vain. This was really disappointing.
He couldn't breathe. He waited for the generals to finish speaking and was about to decide on a strategy. Chen Chong kicked him secretly, so he changed his words and said: "It's a very important matter and let me think about it." Let the generals leave the camp to take a rest.
, he stayed in the tent together with Chen Chong, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
Liu Bei first asked him: "Ting Jian, what do you think? Why don't you speak out at the meeting?" Chen Chong explained: "My opinion is different from that of other generals, and it is even different from yours, Xuande. Now that my status is sensitive, I should not undermine your authority."
, I’ll discuss the decision with you before deciding on the war.” Guan Yu reacted the fastest, he said in surprise: “Ting Jian, don’t you advocate withdrawing the siege?”
Chen Chong nodded and expressed his stance. He stood in front of the newly drawn map with his hands folded and said to the current war situation: "Now our army is divided into ten formations and surrounded Pingcheng on all sides. If the enemy cavalry comes when the siege is withdrawn, the five formations in the north and west of the city will be destroyed."
It is extremely difficult to evacuate the formation, and we have to fight a decisive battle with the Xianbei people. The enemy has a large number of horses, and our army is fighting away from home. As for the decisive battle, I don't feel that I am 50% sure.
It's better to hold on under the city. Since the siege, we have been digging trenches and building fences every day. It is now comparable to a small city. It is a good location for our army. It is just a protracted war. Our camp has stocked up.
We have enough food and grass for two months. At worst, we will withdraw when we are almost done with it. By then, the enemy has been unable to attack the camp for a long time and will be unable to stop our army from withdrawing."
At this point, the three of them all agreed with Chen Chong's opinion, but Liu Bei still had a question: "I'm just being attacked from both sides, so it may not be easy to do anything during the war!"
Chen Chong finally explained: "In the Battle of Kunyang, there were still 8,000 warriors in Kunyang City, but now in Pingcheng, most of them are women and old people. They are still sufficient to defend the city. If they go out to attack the city, they will be at odds with the soldiers."
The world is so different that it is nothing to worry about. Xuande, if our army withdraws from the siege now, and the Xianbei people do not fight a decisive battle with our army, but go straight into the city to avoid the battle and defend themselves, what will we do? If this happens, our hard battle for this month will be over.
It’s truly a waste of effort.”
These words successfully convinced Liu Bei, so he reconvened the military meeting and conveyed the new arrangement to the generals: the entire army continued to besiege Pingcheng, and the battle formation remained unchanged. The only change was to transfer all the antlers of the siege to the outer formation to prevent Xianbei
The reinforcements charged and ordered the entire army to step up repairs.
On the tenth day of the lunar month, the Xianbei reinforcements made their first charge against the Han army's formation. Tuoba Jiefen did not conduct a full-scale attack. He observed the Han army's formation on the mountain and felt that the Han army was like a snake coiling around the mountain. He only needed to cut it into two.
The whole army would be difficult to intercept, so that day he and his deputy Fuluo Qubin set out from the plain north of the city, gathered the Xianbei cavalry and rode against the Han army's third northern formation.
The leaders of the Northern Third Formation were Baibo Colonel Guo Da, Yuanyin Colonel Yang Feng, and Sanchuan Colonel Hu Cai. After Yang Feng experienced the Battle of Shaling, he was still frightened by the power of armored cavalry equipment. Afterwards, he and Guo Da and others
After discussing the countermeasures, they came to the conclusion that the armor of a horse can cover most of the horse's body, but it is difficult to cover the horse's feet. If he wants to defeat the armored cavalry head-on, he must start from the horse's feet. Therefore, after receiving the order to continue the siege, the Baibo Army went to the ditch
Sprinkling cold water back and forth for several feet, the cold winter was over, and after just one night, a thin layer of white ice formed in front of the trench. Behind the ice layer, Bai Bojun covered the antlers with their antlers. The sharp spikes of the antlers were bright, and they were Bai Bojun himself.
I felt quite frightened after watching it.
The Xianbei armored cavalry rushed forward, not paying attention to the ice. When the horses' hooves stepped on it, they suddenly realized something was wrong. The horses were unstable due to the force. The first few dozen riders all slipped and fell to the ground, and the knights were also dizzy after falling.
While they were confused, the Baibo people on the front line emerged from the antlers with ropes, tied up the knights, and dragged them back to the Han camp as prisoners.
Seeing this, the Xianbei armored cavalry in the rear had no choice but to dismount and go forward to fight the Han army. The cavalry lost their horse power and dismounted, but they were just ordinary armored soldiers. They stepped forward to fight among the antlers, and their flanks were exposed to the rain of arrows from the Han army's watchtower.
After two hours of fighting, reinforcements from other formations of the Han army arrived. Tuoba Jiefen saw this scene on the mountain and was extremely unwilling to do so, but he had no choice but to order
The trumpeter blew the trumpet to silence the troops.
During the two hours of fighting, Bu Dugen in the city saw the reinforcements coming, and sent some of the remaining strong men in the city out of the city to respond. However, their number was too small, with only about 500 people, and they still could not break through the Han Dynasty.
The trenches dug in front of the military. Seeing that the reinforcements were withdrawn, they had no choice but to withdraw into the city, just as Chen Chong expected.
In the next more than a month, the Xianbei reinforcements attacked every three days, but failed during the day. Tuoba Jiefen ordered his knights to attack at night. If the assault on the plains failed, Tuoba Jiefen ordered the army to dismount and shoot at the hills, but they were all defeated.
The Han army fought back. Finally, he thought that it would be dry in winter, so he might as well set fire to the antlers of the Han army. But it didn't work. The Han army poured water on the antlers every day, and a layer of ice formed on the antlers. The Xianbei people rushed forward.
Later, they failed to light the antlers, but the wind ignited their fur coats to keep out the cold, burning a dozen people to death.
The strong attacks day and night could not shake the Han army's defense line, but Bu Dugen in Pingcheng could not hold on. Pingcheng had previously transported grain and grass to Juyang, and the food in the city could only last for two months. Bu Dugen reduced his share several times and delayed
At this time, he could no longer delay. He could only light Mayun in the city and use yellow smoke to order Tuoba Jiefen to launch a general attack in the near future.
The Xianbei reinforcements had no choice but to abandon their original plan and plan to engage in a head-on battle with the Han army on December 24. Tuoba Jiefen and the Xianbei commanders repeatedly deliberated. During this month, they tested almost every position of the Han army.
Now that I think about it, the Gu Yi Formation in the east of the city is the weakest. Both the north and the east of the Gu Yi Formation are smooth roads, but there is a small hill in the Gu Yi Formation, and there is a stream of water under the hill. This divides the Han army here into
Three troops and other Han army camps were unable to support quickly. The Xianbei people decided to start the battle here.
The location of the battle is the most important. When Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty was besieged by Maodun Shanyu at Baideng, he suffered a disadvantage due to the unfavorable terrain. Now Baideng Mountain is at the feet of the Xianbei people. They use it as a symbol of good luck and sacrifice to the mountain gods at night.
, the soldiers looked at the sacrificial bonfire and encouraged each other: Bless the king, bless the gods, and Xianbei will live forever.
The Han army at the foot of Pingcheng did not know that the decisive battle was coming. They were just counting the days in the cold wind, looking forward to returning to their hometown to reunite before the New Year.