Catapults aimed at the city of Changguo and bombarded it indiscriminately for a whole day.
It was not until dark that Liu Bei's army withdrew.
The next few days were almost the darkest days for Xu He's Yellow Turban Army.
New catapults joined the battlefield every day, and after four or five days, the number of catapults doubled.
Nearly forty catapults bombarded the city. Although not many people were killed, there were only hundreds of unlucky souls so far.
However, it was a huge blow to the morale of the Yellow Turban Army. This feeling of humiliation that they could only be beaten without being able to fight back almost crushed everyone's nerves.
Under this situation, after persuasion from left and right, Xu He finally made up his mind to abandon Changguo and fled into Mount Tai.
In fact, this was his expected last resort, and there was no psychological barrier to doing so.
On the fourteenth day of the siege, which was late August, close to the late autumn of September, Xu He quietly opened the west gate at midnight and led his soldiers to flee into the mountains.
When the officers and soldiers got up the next day, they saw an empty city. There was almost no supplies and food left in the city, and they were all taken away by Xu He.
"Prince, we have searched the whole city, and there is not a single person, nor anything useful left."
Taishi Ci, who went into the city to search, came back to report.
Chen Mu nodded: "What was expected has just begun."
Guan Yu said silently: "If we attack forcefully from the beginning, we may be able to leave some enemy troops behind."
"In that case, our army will suffer heavy casualties. I have a better way."
Chen Mu's eyes revealed confidence.
Indeed, if he directly attacked by force the next day, without giving Xu He time to evacuate the people, and carried out the siege battle, and suffered thousands of casualties, he should be able to capture the state of Chang.
But again, in the era of cold weapons, don’t expect many people to die in large-scale wars. Cao Cao was defeated in Chibi, and there were very few direct deaths in the war. The biggest casualty was the plague, which is obviously a irony.
Therefore, there is no point in paying thousands of people to occupy a city that must be abandoned. Since there is no need to die to achieve the same goal, why increase casualties?
"Since the fourth brother has a mysterious plan, why not tell him about it?"
Liu Bei asked.
He didn't believe Chen Mu's lies and his fourth brother's words were deceitful. Anyone with a discerning eye could see it now? Xu He fled into the mountains? Forming a stronghold and defending it was much more difficult to attack than a city.
The city is on the plain? The rumbling catapults are raining down? They will always knock Xu He out of the city.
But in the mountains, catapults can’t get in? Even if they are disassembled and assembled, the terrain is narrow and there are not many units to place.
And the stones thrown were blocked by the trees in the mountains? They couldn’t hit other people’s cottages at all.
As for a strong attack?
Do you know why Zhang Yan was able to hold on to Taihang Mountain for so long?
Zhang Yan claims to have millions? In fact, there are only hundreds of thousands of people, and most of them are old, weak, women and children, so there are very few soldiers to fight.
According to "Three Kingdoms" records, Yuan Shao once formed an alliance with Lu Bu to attack Zhang Yan together.
Zhang Yan's army at that time was only tens of thousands of people? It was barely a tie with Yuan Shao. When he later surrendered to Cao Cao, the total population was only more than 100,000.
It can be seen that one million is definitely an exaggeration, and Zhang Yan does not have such a strong force.
But this is the case in mountain warfare. First, the formation cannot be extended, and second, the terrain is too narrow? It is easy to encounter the kind of pass that cannot be opened by one man.
So when Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was forced to compromise with Zhang Yan, it was not because he was incapable of destroying him? It was because he was unwilling to put in all the effort.
If we forcibly attack the mountain, it will cost countless financial resources? No matter how rich Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was, he would not want to spend it like this.
Everyone looked at Chen Mu, expecting him to come up with an idea.
Chen Mu winked at Zang Ba.
Zang Ba understood. He took out a piece of white cloth from his body and spread it out on the table in front of Liu Bei.
Everyone gathered to watch.
You see the appearance of the nearby mountains clearly outlined on the white cloth? Although it is only a rough outline without specific details, it is almost the map standard of this era, and there is no way to delve into it in detail.
"Please look at the governor, this is Changguo, and this is Banyang. The mountain behind Changguo is called Qiaoling, because it is the place where the woodcutters of Changguo cut firewood, so it got its name."
"The mountain behind Banyang is called Matou Ridge, so named because it looks like a horse's head. These two ridges are two branches of Mount Tai, connected to each other. There are more than ten hills in the middle area. According to my experience in the mountains
Brothers come to report, then Xu He will build a stronghold among these more than ten mountains."
"However, the more than ten hills distributed are relatively small, and there are very few people who can be stationed there, so Xu He only arranged hundreds to thousands of soldiers on each hill. The main troops and troops are on the highest and largest Snail Mountain.
There are more than 100,000 people."
"Woniu Mountain is steep and easy to defend but difficult to attack. There is only one road into the mountain, and both sides and the back mountain are steep cliffs. I heard from my brothers who were observing in the mountain that the rebels occupied the mountain pass and were condescending, making it difficult to attack.
"
Zang Ba pointed at the largest mountain among more than a dozen large and small hills between Qiaoling and Matouling and drew a circle, indicating that Xu He's main force was in this mountain.
Chen Mu noticed that Zang Ba only drew a small hill on the other mountain tops, while Woniu Mountain drew a large circle, which looked like a lying cow. Although he did not know how big the area was, since it could hide more than ten
With ten thousand people, I'm afraid it's definitely not a small mountain. At worst, it would cover several square kilometers.
Jushou muttered: "I'm afraid it's difficult to fight in Wo Niu Mountain."
Chen Mu was also a little surprised: "I didn't expect that Xu He is quite capable and has tactical vision."
Zang Ba pondered: "I heard that Xu He is from Chang State and a woodcutter in the mountains. He is as familiar with the terrain of this generation as I am."
"I see."
Chen Mu looked at Zang Ba: "How does Xuan Gao think we should attack?"
Zang Ba frowned, thought hard for a long time, and finally said with a wry smile: "In my opinion, we can only take one step at a time, remove the surrounding hills, and then surround Niutou Mountain, and slowly plan for it."
It's still the same old siege tactics, there is no other way.
"Um."
Chen Mu nodded: "Then let's follow Xuan Gao's method and do it step by step."
Liu Bei wondered: "Don't my fourth brother have a good idea?"
Chen Mu smiled mysteriously: "My method needs to wait for the right time. Now is not the time. Xu He must be surrounded before it can be effective."
Jushou thought for a while and said: "The weather is nothing more than rain, wind, heat, humidity, fog, thunder, hail..."
Chen Mu rolled his eyes and said, "Okay, okay, okay, sir, if you continue talking to me, what secrets do I have left?"
Jushou smiled and joked: "It's probably just these kinds of things. In late autumn, it's hot and cold sometimes, windy and rainy sometimes. Zigui probably wants to plan for snow this winter, and wait until the yellow turban thieves in the mountains freeze to death."
.”
Everyone laughed happily.
Chen Mu said with a smile: "How can a sparrow know the ambition of a swan? Please be patient, everyone. There are still a few tough battles to be fought. Today we will enter the city first, rest for two days, then go into the mountains to clear out the surrounding hills, and move Woniu Mountain into the mountains."
Under siege, I only need to say a few words to discipline Xu He and surrender, and the Yellow Turban thieves will retreat without a fight."
"oh?"
Liu Bei was surprised and said: "Is this really possible?"
"Of course."
Chen Mu patted his chest and promised.
Liu Bei nodded: "In that case, let's follow the arrangements of my fourth brother and enter the city."
"Enter the city!"
The army set out and settled in Changguo County in a mighty manner.
At this time, autumn clothes were sent from the logistics department. The nights in the mountains were extremely cold. If the soldiers were still wearing summer and autumn single clothes, the soldiers would freeze to death.
Two days later, it’s almost September.
Liu Bei's army officially entered the mountain, preparing to attack Liuquan Mountain, the first hilltop outside Qiaoling where Xu He was stationed.