The blocked water runs through the Wudang Mountains and merges into the Mianshui River between Xi County (Baihe County) and Wudang County. The east bank of the river mouth is flat and open, while the west bank is rugged and narrow.
The Han army's camps were also divided into west and east facing each other.
Among them, Zheng Pu personally supervised more than 8,000 soldiers to guard the east bank, while the western camp only had 2,000 soldiers from Pang Hong's tribe.
But the Wu army had no intention of attacking Xiying.
The terrain there is too steep!
Although the garrison strength is not large, it is more difficult to capture than the camps on the east coast.
Yes, Zhu Ran and Zhang Liang, who were uneasy, still started to let the soldiers attack the enemy with all their strength.
As for the fact that they could not find any traces of Zheng Pu's possible plot, while supervising the troops to attack the enemy, they also sent scouts to guard the surrounding areas to guard against unknown dangers.
Likewise, after attacking for several days, they could not see the slightest glimmer of victory.
It just adds many corpses to the already desolate water-blocked river valley, telling the sadness of the cold winter.
However, Zhu Ran's hope of rescuing the Tang Counseling Department was not pinned on overcoming the Han army's obstruction, but rather on giving him a chance to save himself.
Gein Zhuran knew that it was impossible for him to break through the Han army camp.
At the southern end of the blocked river valley, there are still more than 10,000 people from the Prime Minister's Department stationed!
Even if the attack by Zheng Pu's troops here was in danger and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, the prime minister could still send two or three thousand soldiers to help in the battle.
The casualties of soldiers on both sides of the attack and defense were disparate.
He used more than 20,000 troops to attack Zheng Pu's tribe of more than 10,000 people. How could he hope to break the camp?
He did it knowing that he couldn't do it, not because he didn't care about the lives of his soldiers, but because he wanted to contain Zheng Pu's troops here so that the Prime Minister's troops could not leave the Dushui River Valley calmly.
Because he had already sent his trusted people to Shangyong City and Ziwu Valley respectively.
He sent people to Shangyong because he knew that the Han army's siege of Shangyong left an opening in the direction of the west city gate. If the Tang Dynasty's troops broke out, they could pass through the west city and return from the south road of Qinling Mountains to join him.
In this way, Zhu Ran's strategic purpose has changed from attacking difficulties to supporting them, which will naturally be easier to achieve.
The only concern was how the Tang Counselor's Department could escape the pursuit of the Prime Minister's Department.
This is also the reason why Zhu Ran sent people to look for the Wei army in Ziwu Valley.
He wanted to ask Xiahou Ba to send two or three thousand soldiers to the abandoned Xunkou garrison, set up banners in the mountains and forests, make loud propaganda, etc., to pretend that the Wei army was coming to respond, so as to prevent the Han army from pursuing them.
Staying a little longer will make it easier for the Tang Dynasty's troops to break out of the encirclement.
As for the distance from Shangyong to Xicheng to break through the siege, and how many soldiers are needed to break the siege, Tang Zhi can only act according to the situation.
The only guarantee Zhu Ran can give is that as long as the Tang Counseling Department enters the South Qinling Road, even if he uses up all his soldiers or even dies in battle, the Tang Counseling Department will return to Jiangdong unscathed.
After Tang Zi received such a message, he was filled with emotions.
Having been on an expedition to the east of the Yangtze River for many years, he certainly knew that Zhu Ran meant what he said; he was also very grateful to Zhu Ran for his bravery in saving his own life at the expense of his subordinates.
Therefore, even though he didn't have much hope of breaking through, he was still willing to give it a try.
If the breakout failed and he died on the journey from Shangyong to Xicheng, it would be considered inevitable as "a general will die in a hundred battles".
However, it's a pity.
He had thoughts of death, but Xiahou Ba was unwilling to fulfill the story of him and Zhu Ran risking their lives to support each other.
Xiahou Ba rejected Zhu Ran's request.
He claimed that the general order he received was to invade the golden garrison of Hanzhong County and contain the Han army's troops that might be sent back from Hanzhong County. It was not to create suspicion for the Tang Dynasty Ministry and put his own soldiers in danger!
For example, if he sent troops as Zhu Ran wished, what if the Han Army's Prime Minister's Department simply abandoned the Tang Counseling Department and came to attack the Wei Army instead?
How to resist two to three thousand suspicious soldiers!
But these suspected soldiers were defeated and the Han army came in pursuit. How could he hold on to the camp in Ziwu Valley?
Xiahou Ba refused and also questioned the people sent by Zhu Ran.
Said: "Your army, Shangyong County's five thousand soldiers cannot be abandoned, so the lives of our soldiers are regarded as nothing!"
Such a reply was brought back by the messenger. After hearing this, Zhu Ran immediately became furious and furious.
Because Xiahou Ba is using strong words to make excuses.
Use two to three thousand soldiers as suspects. If the Han army turns around and attacks, just turn back!
How could the Han army catch up?
How come the accusation of "helping the Wu army break through at the cost of the lives of Wei soldiers"!
This is obviously because the Wei army is unwilling to contribute force and wants to see Han and Wu attack each other in order to reap the benefits.
However, even though he knew that Xiahou Ba was trying to evade, he could not refute anything.
The State of Wei had no obligation to contribute to the State of Wu.
Sending the envoys over to negotiate was just a matter of humiliating themselves.
His deputy general Zhang Liang proposed the next best thing - it is better to seek help from others than from yourself. He wanted to lure more than 4,000 people from his headquarters to Xicheng to meet the return of Tang Counseling Department.
Zhu Ran was quite moved by this.
He could not capture Zheng Pu's camp, but he could still contain Zheng Pu's troops with his own troops.
Even if the Prime Minister of the Han army learned of their intentions in advance and led troops directly to join forces with Zheng Pu's tribe, he was confident that he would be able to contain them for some time to prevent Tang Zi and Zhang Liang's return route from being cut off.
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But sometimes, things in the world tend to come up again and again.
When Zhu Ran sent people to Shangyong City to inform Tang Zi about Zhang Liang's support, Tang Zi had no intention of breaking out.
The reason also made Zhu Ranbu unable to refute.
Tang Zi felt that such a breakthrough would inevitably cause heavy casualties to the Wu army; even if he was not careful, Zhang Liang's tribe was buried with him!
After all, Zheng Pu and the Prime Minister's Department were not the only Han troops in the East Three Counties.
And if the Han army dispatched five or six thousand soldiers from the Guanxing tribe guarding the north road of Bashan to block the river valley, break through the obstruction of Zhu Ran's tribe and cut off his return from Zhangliang's tribe, Lu Xun's tribe would not be able to stop it.
Moreover, the journey for the Han army to mobilize troops was not too far.
At least it was much closer than when he broke through from Shangyong City to Xicheng and took the North Road of Qinling Mountains to Duoshui River Valley!
Therefore, Tang Zi was unwilling to break out of the encirclement.
He felt that it was undesirable for Zhu Ran to let more soldiers die for the sake of Shangyong's five thousand soldiers.
All right.
In desperation, Zhu Ran could only continue to attack Zheng Pu's camp.
He also began to think in his mind that Sun Quan and Lu Xun had previously included the five thousand soldiers in Shangyong City as a "price". Perhaps they had anticipated his current difficulties?
He has no answer.
I just try to use this kind of speculation to comfort my helplessness of being unable to save Shangyong.
The deceased is like a man who never gives up day and night.
Unknowingly, time has come to the first month of the sixth year of Shaowu (243).
The Wu army, which had been attacking for more than a month, stopped as expected.
Among them, Zhu Ran's tribe, which was originally expected to suffer heavy casualties, suffered more than 4,000 casualties; but Lu Xun, who could advance and retreat freely, achieved shocking results.
