"The Waihuang Order is going to fight to the end."
Seeing that the two or five hundred people sent by Lord Yang Xiong to shout for surrender were shot back by a burst of arrows at the bottom of the city, Hei Fu shook his head and said to the few chiefs beside him.
They arrived at Waihuang County yesterday evening. Waihuang was originally a city of the Song Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn Period, and returned to the Wei Kingdom during the Warring States Period. The size of this county is similar to that of Anlu County. Because it is located in the hinterland of the Wei Kingdom, it rarely encounters wars.
, Waihuang's defensive capabilities are far inferior to Chenliu, and the wall is only three feet high. At this time, the city gate is closed tightly, and the city head is crowded with people preparing for defense.
When everyone heard this, they were not worried but happy, because if the city surrendered without attacking, they would not get any credit." Looking at the preparations at the top of the city, Waihuang's morale is not low. This may be our first hard battle.
."
After saying that, Heifu looked back at his own camp. After they arrived yesterday, in addition to a thousand soldiers, there were also a thousand prisoners and garrison soldiers who came from Daliang to join them, a total of two thousand people.
Yang Xiong ordered them to dig earth and cut trees, and hastily built a camp for the soldiers to settle down.
After establishing a foothold and the enemy city refused to surrender, fighting became the only option. Soon, messengers came to find Heifu and asked him to go to the big tent with other commanders and generals to listen to orders...
This kind of large tent for thousands of people is actually a little wider than an ordinary tent. Yang Xiong, who can also be called the "leader", is sitting in the middle. On his left and right hands are two five hundred masters from Nanyang.
Zhang Yan from Wancheng, and Cheng Wuyou from Nanjun Yidao.
There are more than a dozen generals, and the commander of the camp is sitting at the bottom. Heifu's position is far away from the main seat, but very close to the tent door. It can be seen that his status in this army is not high.
Although Yang Xiong is a member of the clan and likes to be particular about clothes and accessories, he doesn't talk too much and quickly asks: "I was ordered by Zhong Geng to recruit Wai Huang from the north, but the Wai Huang Order didn't know the general situation.
The soldiers and disciples in the commandery city are fighting stubbornly. Therefore, the people have gathered together and will not disperse, and the soldiers have left without returning. The city must be taken! Do the two or three sons have a strategy to destroy the city?"
Wancheng Wei Shi Zhang Yan was always good at planning, so he raised his hand and said: "The method of using troops is to surround an enemy ten times and attack it five times. But now our army only has more than 2,000 people, but there are thousands of strong men in Waihuang City."
After the scouts went around the city to investigate, they said that on each wall in the southeast and northwest, there were soldiers in armor, guests with swords, and people from the market with farm tools, at least 500 people. Taken together, the enemy and our forces were of equal strength.
I am afraid that the method of siege and siege will not be effective."
Yang Xiong said: "Oh, what do you think the five hundred masters should do to attack the city?" "The Art of War says that you don't have to win a battle, you can't talk about fighting, you don't have to pull out to attack, you can't talk about attacking." According to my officials, it's better to do so.
...Luring the enemy out of the city!"
Heifu listened below and shook his head secretly.
Zhang Jie was born in a school and learned a lot of laws and military tactics, but he had not fought in actual battles many times, so he was rather following the pictures.
He had previously proposed to march all night and launch a night attack on Waihuang, and Yang Xiong also accepted his suggestion. But when Hei Fu and others, wearing armor and armed with weapons, panted for thirty miles and arrived at Waihuang, they discovered that there were many enemies inside the city.
Huang Ling was not a fool. He was very vigilant and had long detected the Qin army's approach. He closed the city gate tightly, the torches were brightly lit at the top of the city, and the Qingxia county soldiers patrolled all night, waiting for them!
At this time, Zhang Ye was still saying excitedly: "We pretended to be tired from running fast, and asked the prisoners and garrison soldiers to disperse and challenge the city, while the elite soldiers were hidden in the camp. The number of soldiers, soldiers, and retainers in the city were comparable to our army.
, Waihuang ordered to see that our army was tired and scattered, and might go out of the city to fight. He could first let the garrisonmen fake defeat, lure them to pursue them, and then set up an ambush. After annihilating this group of enemies who left the city, they could then attack the county seat. In this way, the remaining enemies in the city would be destroyed.
Already timid and demoralized, it’s easy to take out the outer yellow!”
He was thinking happily, but Heifu found it funny. Since the commander in chief was not stupid, it was undoubtedly a fool's errand to rely on poor acting skills to lure the enemy out to fight in the field.
Besides, if you can defend the city, why risk going out of the city to fight in the field?
In the Spring and Autumn Period, the nobles paid attention to fair and honest battles. Everyone would set up a posture in the wild and decide the winner or loser within a day. Even Sun Tzu's epoch-making Art of War rarely talked about sieges because of the limitations of the times.
The city is below.
But by the Warring States Period, attacking cities was something military strategists had to face.
The population density and land development level during the Warring States Period were very low compared to the era after the unification of the Han Dynasty. The low population density meant that the main population and resources were concentrated near major cities; the low land development level meant that transportation
Conditions were limited. Before the Qin State embarked on transportation construction, even in the Central Plains, the main roads were very limited. There was often only one post road connecting counties.
The above two points determined the style of war and attack during the Warring States Period, which could only be based on a flat push, that is, conquering cities one by one along the post road, with at most some encirclement points for blocking.
Because the concentration of population and resources determines that the attacker must capture city strongholds, and it is meaningless to occupy an undeveloped land that is empty of birds and animals; and limited road transportation has a negative impact on the advancement of the army and the transportation of logistical supplies.
This imposes great restrictions, and it is destined that the attacker cannot bypass the enemy's frontline cities and engage in leapfrog operations.
Therefore, the offensive route of the attacker can basically be determined. The defender only needs to concentrate its main forces on a major city on the enemy's offensive route and defend it tightly. Even in the Battle of Yanying, Qin
The army already had a huge advantage, but it was still unable to bypass Yan City and attack the hinterland of Chu State, so Bai Qi had to struggle to capture the city.
Therefore, at a strategic level, the battlefield environment during the Warring States Period was indeed beneficial to the defender.
In terms of tactics, in the era of cold weapons, the defending side had a great advantage in attacking a city. A few thousand people could defend the city and often be able to block tens of thousands of soldiers, unless there were a few who were not afraid of death and opened the city gate to fight hard.
That Huang Ling Zhang Er was obviously not this kind of person. He was also afraid that the Qin army outside the city was just the vanguard, with a large force behind it.
This is what Heifu thinks in his heart, but he is not stupid enough to refute his superior's proposal in public. He can only hope that General Yang Xiong can reject this plan.
However, what is surprising is that Yang Xiong adopted it again and asked everyone to go down immediately to make preparations, either to lure the enemy or to hide in the camp as ambushes." What did the leader want to do?" Hei Fu was a little confused.
Judging from his words, Yang Xiong is not a stupid and ignorant person.
Sure enough, as Heifu expected, after letting the prisoners and garrison troops leave the camp casually and pretending to challenge them for a day, the gate of Waihuang was still closed, and the Waihuang order had no desire to attack. The county knight Zhang
If you know what you want, you can defend it for three to five days, repel an attack, and prove that you have not failed the Wei State, and then you can run away.
Seeing that his strategy failed again, Zhang Ye looked a little ugly. At this time, the leader Yang Xiong comforted him and proposed a real battle plan. "It seems that this foreigner must be attacked by force!"
Looking at Yang Xiong's smiling face, the man behind the tent finally figured it out.
The leader Yang Xiong, who was born in a clan, seems to have no independent opinions and calls everyone to ask for advice every time he fights. But in fact, he is a very scheming person. He always seems to deliberately let Zhang, who likes to make suggestions and steal the limelight, deliberately
Yan proposed some ineffective strategies. After Zhang Yan was slapped in the face, Yang Xiong stood up again and expressed what he thought.
In this way, on the one hand, he can be praised as being good at listening to the opinions of his subordinates, and on the other hand, he can make decisions at critical moments every time and reverse wrong strategies.
Sure enough, after Captain Yang expressed his true thoughts, everyone in the tent immediately aroused admiration. "In the past two days, although it seems that I sent people to lure the enemy to attack, in fact, this is just a way to blind the eyes. The real purpose is,
The reason is to let the craftsmen build the siege equipment. Now that the siege equipment is ready, the morale of the enemy army, who shared the same hatred in the first few days, has also slackened. From tomorrow on, the second and third sons will attack the city with all their strength!"
Finally, Yang Xiong concluded with a sentence from Yi Zhong, expressing his determination to go outside.
"The Art of War says that soldiers are better than the court, better than the wilderness, and better than the market. Only those who dare to fight can win, but those who surrender will fail! Second or third son, may I ask who is willing to climb the city first tomorrow?"
While talking, Yang Xiong turned his attention to Heifu!