Camps built near water have natural advantages such as the danger of the river and abundant water resources.
But the disadvantages are also obvious.
Water will seep out after digging for more than ten feet. The soft sand cannot support the stability of the foundation pillars, making it impossible to build the camp too high. Once the enemy approaches the low wall in front of the camp, it will be a short-blade fight.
Already.
However, as a veteran general, Xia Houru tried his best to use his advantages when building the camp.
For example, in addition to leaving an eight-foot-wide passage within a hundred steps of the camp, countless pits of different sizes were dug on both sides, and densely packed iron caltrops were buried.
The biggest support is to dig a trench more than one foot wide and divert river water into it to form a river to protect the "zhai".
According to common sense, even if the Han army attacked the fortress day and night regardless of casualties, under the condescending Wei army's suppression with bows and crossbows, it would have taken at least a thousand men and one or two days to destroy these fortifications.
At least, Xia Houru is so sure.
In his estimation, the complete defense fortifications could delay the Shu troops for two days, and then relying on the superior force to fight hard for three days, they could wait for the return of reinforcements from the Guo Huai tribe and force the Wei Yan tribe back.
As for taking advantage of the return of reinforcements to attack from both sides and achieve a great victory, he had no extravagant hopes.
Defending the camp without losing it was a great victory for Wei's strategy and his responsibilities.
No need to be greedy.
However, it only took Wei Yan half a day to erase his extravagant thoughts.
Or in other words, how could Wei Yan, who was also experienced in the battlefield, not prepare in advance a plan to attack and destroy the camp when Xia Houru was supervising the soldiers to build the camp and fortifications?
The nearly three months of standing still were enough to make him fully prepared!
When the drums urging the battle sounded like thunder, and all the Han troops filed out, Xia Houru discovered that there were five Han troops in the vanguard, all of which were slowly approaching with armored men with large oars in front, and many leather-clad troops following closely behind them.
A soldier without a sword or spear in his armor, holding a wooden board in his hand.
The progress is extremely slow, like a turtle speed.
Every time a soldier with a large oar takes a step forward, he has to wait for the soldiers behind him to stretch out the plank from under his feet and spread it on the ground, and stamp his feet to test whether it is strong before continuing forward.
In other words, Wei Yan actually planned to pave five attack roads that could reach directly in front of Wei Jun's camp.
This method is very clumsy, but it is also very effective.
At least the iron caltrops buried under the sand by the Wei army and the pits they dug out with great time and effort caused damage to the Han army; the trenches that were more than one foot long could not hinder the progress of the Han army.
Therefore, for a moment, Xiahou Ru was dumbfounded.
Although he had been thinking to himself before, and had repeatedly deduced how to deal with the Han army when they came to attack, he never expected that Wei Yan would resolve it so lightly.
Don't blame him for being surprised.
Who would have thought that the Han army who came to attack the city did not cut down the trees to make siege equipment, but chopped them into wooden planks to pave the way?
Moreover, even if he understood the Han army's plan, he could not stop it.
Although Wei's strong bows and crossbows were powerful, they could not penetrate the large oars, which were fixed with iron rivets and wrapped in rawhide more than three inches thick. Only the thunderbolt chariot and the big yellow crossbow could cause damage.
However, the rhubarb crossbow, which is worth a lot of money, does not come with too many equipment.
After being assigned to the Guo Huai tribe to take to Yuwei County and left for guarding on the Hanpingchuan side, there were only a dozen or so soldiers in the camp at this time, which was a drop in the bucket for the Han army that was merging with five routes.
As for Pili cars, he has more than a hundred.
Out of caution, he placed all the thunderbolt chariots that had previously besieged Manyin City here.
But it's also of no use.
Based on his usual experience in using thunderbolt chariots, Gein can throw stones the size of millstones to destroy the enemy's siege equipment, such as siege towers, wells or large yellow crossbows; throwing gravels the size of goose eggs can kill swarms when attacking.
The enemy soldiers came.
Therefore, because the camp built by his army was not high, he deduced that Wei Yan would not go to great lengths to build siege equipment and did not transport stones as big as millstones.
However, it’s right to think about it.
No matter how incompetent the general is, he will not let his soldiers do useless work on the eve of a war and make the soldiers fall into fatigue!
Therefore, Xia Houru's heart was full of melancholy at this moment.
When the Han army did not act according to common sense, they instead trapped themselves in a cocoon because it was too late to send the soldiers back for relocation.
But he didn't feel upset for long.
A momentary misstep and being counterattacked does not mean that everything is lost.
On the contrary, it would be a mistake to direct the war if you are too worried and unable to maintain a calm mind.
"Strong Bow Camp, throw!"
"Order the big yellow crossbows to focus on attacking the Shu soldiers!"
He gave orders quickly and loudly, making the most appropriate arrangements at the moment.
right!
At this moment, only the thrown bows and arrows can disrupt the Han army arrays that are paving the way. Only by concentrating a small number of large yellow crossbows to fire all the way can the containment effect be achieved.
Injuring ten of his fingers is worse than cutting off one of his fingers.
The Pili car is no longer in use for the time being.
Instruments assembled with riveted wooden wedges would be damaged during frequent use. Since sharp stones the size of goose eggs cannot effectively kill, they should be saved for use when the Han army swarms to attack.
This kind of dispatch cost the Han army more than 500 casualties.
But it was unavoidable that when the setting sun reluctantly escaped into the mountains, four boardwalks appeared from the Han army's formation to the trench in front of the Wei army camp.
Well, the trench should be renamed "trench section".
It had been flattened by the Han army with countless earth and rocks, and broken into five sections.
At this time, Wei Yan's scheduling once again made Xia Houru secretly sigh at the difficulty of his opponent.
When the soldiers who were paving the way for the Han army faded away like a tide, the thunderous sound of war drums sounded again in the Han army's formation.
Countless torches were lit, displaying Chinese character flags blowing in the wind between heaven and earth; the elite Han army, which had not participated in paving the way, and had been preparing for a long time, marched out of the formation with high morale.
General Wei Yan will attack at night!
It also made Xia Houru's thoughts stillborn.
He originally planned to take advantage of the darkness to hang the soldiers out of the camp with ropes and dig and widen the trench again.
Moreover, what surprised him even more was that when the Han army completed its formation and marched forward slowly to the beat of small harpoons and drums, the flags standing in the military formation also slowly moved forward!
Is Wei Yan going to risk his own life and attack the enemy first?!
For a moment, Xia Houru's pupils shrank sharply, and even his breathing became a little faster.
It was not that Wei Yan acted recklessly and showed off his bravery regardless of his status as a governor; nor did he feel that he had ushered in a turning point in the battle - he could order his subordinates to use strong bows and powerful crossbows to kill Wei Yan, causing the Han army to die in battle.
A collapse of thousands of miles.
But feeling uneasy.
Since the Han army came out of Longyou, Wei has suffered too many defeats in battles!
In the Wei State, too many generals who had made great military exploits and were known as the best generals of the time were defeated or were killed in battle.
Even the late left general Zhang He and the great Sima Cao Zhen died with regrets.
Here, Xia Houru, who believed that his generals could not leave a name in history, no matter how much An Neng looked down on him, would think that Wei Yan, a former general who rebelled against Shu, had done nothing wrong.
Therefore, he felt that since he dared to take the lead personally, he must have someone to rely on.
However, how could he come to defeat my stronghold in a single battle?
Xia Houru was very upset and thought carefully about whether there were any oversights in his own arrangements, but to no avail.
And the war did not allow him to continue thinking.
"Commanders, follow me to defeat the enemy camp!"
Wei Yan, who was fully equipped with armor and holding a sword and shield in front of him, gave an order to let the Han army move forward bravely. It also announced that the two armies were in close combat, and the battle to attack the enemy officially began.
