After defeating Liu Bei, Xu Rong did not take advantage of the victory to pursue him, but chose to return to Chang'an immediately.
Where is Cao Cao, Bao Xin and Sun Jian at this time?
Their combined troops totaled 20,000 men. Taking advantage of Xu Rong's pursuit of Liu Bei, they quietly crossed the Wei River and attacked Chang'an directly from the plain northwest of Chang'an.
But when they arrived outside Chang'an and saw the towering city, they realized the seriousness of the problem.
Because outside Xuanping Gate has turned into a sea of fire, countless people are crying in the fire. Some people are at a loss when facing their burned homes. Some people drag their families with them and slowly move towards the south. Others
Fight vigorously against the saboteurs.
Countless soldiers shuttled through the fire, some were slaughtering the people, and some were setting fires everywhere. There was a chaos of war. The entire outer city of Chang'an and the streets and lanes were filled with killings and disasters.
When they found that the Kwantung Army's soldiers and horses were quietly approaching, under the shouts of officers at all levels, Dong Jun withdrew into the city one after another, and the soldiers marched into the city in an orderly manner.
The drawbridge was pulled up, the city gates were closed, the gate tower, the watchtower, the main tower, the turrets, the parapets, the crenels, and all the defense facilities were densely packed with soldiers, holding the weapons in their hands tightly and looking warily at the distance.
Kwantung Army.
The five-foot-tall, twelve-meter-high city wall blocked the Kwantung Army like a natural chasm.
Seeing this situation, everyone had solemn and bitter expressions on their faces.
Why did Cao Cao, Bao Xin, and Sun Jian think that Chang'an could be attacked by surprise?
First, Chang'an is empty and has insufficient troops.
Both, Niu Fu may return to the army at any time to increase the strength of the Chang'an garrison, and the opportunity will not come again if it is not missed.
The third is that their food pressure is actually not as great as imagined.
In ancient times, when marching and fighting, food and grass were very important.
At that time, the Kwantung Army said that it could still guarantee a supply of food and grass for seven or eight days. In fact, it meant that each soldier in the army ate 12-14 kilograms a day and was full.
However, everyone should know that during the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao was short of food, so he began to use Dendrobium as bulk food. He gave the soldiers 6-8 kilograms of food every day, giving them half-full food so that they could barely maintain their strength.
Then Cao Cao killed the grain transport officer to stabilize the morale of the army. Finally, with the help of Xu You, he made a surprise attack on Wuchao and burned Yuan Shao's grain and grass. Only then did he defeat Yuan Shao and win.
Many people think this incident is a fiction in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but it is actually something recorded in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
It's just that the grain transport officer who was killed at the beginning had no name, but "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" named him Wang Wei.
So if you eat sparingly, you can eat for seven or eight days for more than ten days.
When the time comes to launch a surprise attack on Chang'an, if you feel that the situation is not right, you can still choose to retreat, and there will not be any big problems.
But that is when Chang'an can indeed be invaded.
Cao Cao had been to Chang'an, and he knew very well that in Chang'an City, just like Luoyang, most of the buildings were palaces, with only a small area where dignitaries and wealthy people lived.
Real common people generally live outside the city without the protection of city walls, which is the so-called outer city.
As long as the troops arrive at Chang'an City, they can get food on the spot.
It doesn't matter even if we can't attack Chang'an for the time being.
But none of them expected that Dong Zhuo would do such a ruthless thing. He would directly move a large number of Chang'an people into the city or drive them south, and burn all the buildings outside the city to the ground, without giving any chance to the Kwantung Army.
Opportunities to get food locally.
After seeing this scene, Cao Cao should have understood that his plan had completely failed.
They dared to attack by surprise, but Dong Zhuo did it even more ruthlessly than them.
You know, the people of Luoyang migrated to Chang'an. After they came, they had no land and no money. They were left with nothing, and the food on hand would soon be exhausted.
Therefore, the people who came from Luoyang had no food and grass in their hands, unless the Kwantung Army killed these people and used them as military rations.
Unlike these common people, Chang'an itself has a population of five to six million. Excluding the powerful, aristocratic families and their servants in the city, the permanent population of Chang'an living outside Xuanping Gate amounts to three to four hundred thousand.
Most of them have food in their hands.
Cao Cao's original idea was to attack Chang'an with an army of 70,000 men, and get food from these people, whether by buying it or by other means.
But now it seems that Dong Zhuo is obviously more skilled and ten times more ruthless than they imagined.
Just thinking about it carefully, it seems that Dong Zhuo has never done this kind of thing.
When he was in Luoyang, he burned the entire city and moved all the people to Chang'an.
Now, it's just happening again.
Cao Cao's face was livid, and he sighed: "It's a pity that Liu Xuande is so benevolent. If he were here, 70,000 troops would attack Chang'an right now, and the outcome would be 50-50."
"Mengde, you can't blame Xuande. He probably just doesn't dare to take risks anymore. He wants to wait for the food and grass to arrive and meet up with General Wei before sending troops together."
Sun Jian said something to Liu Bei.
Cao Cao shook his head: "The city of Chang'an is wide, and Dong's army is empty. It is impossible to defend all the city walls. As long as he is here and our army divides our troops to attack him, everything will be done. Liu Xuande is too hesitant to look forward and backward, how can he accomplish something big?"
Bao Xin said: "You still can't say that. Xuande still attracted Xu Rong Duan Xuan's soldiers and horses to pursue. Only then did we get to Chang'an City. Otherwise, Xu Rong Duan Xuan defended the city and it would be difficult to attack."
"That's why I said it's five to five."
Cao Cao explained: "Even if Xu Rong and Duan Xuan's troops enter the city, the defenders in the city are still inferior to us. If we can contact the court officials as internal responders, we will get twice the result with half the effort and capture Chang'an. A 50% chance is enough."
This is to pass the blame to Liu Bei.
But Liu Bei had to take the blame because Cao Cao was right.
If they concentrate their forces and the 70,000-strong army immediately attacks Chang'an, there is indeed a 50% chance of breaking into Chang'an when its troops are very empty.
Xu Rong felt that their supplies of food and grass had reached their limit, so he designed to lure the enemy deeper in order to bring down the Kwantung Army.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! But with the help of the court princes, they can survive for at least four or five days.
If they can reach Chang'an City, the strength of the troops will be stronger, plus there are internal forces in Chang'an City, as well as various other factors, the Kwantung Army will not have no chance.
but now.......
certainly.
If the terrain was like Hulao Pass, maybe Cao Cao wouldn't have said that.
It's just that Chang'an is not as good as Hulao Pass.
Although the city is tall and the city walls are extremely deep, this is Chang'an's advantage and disadvantage.
Unlike Hulao Pass, which only needs to be defended on one side, if enemies are besieging it from all directions, then with the small amount of troops Dong Zhuo currently has, it is impossible to cover all the city walls, and they will be easily broken.
After all, the length of the city wall of Chang'an City is measured in kilometers.
According to historical records, the total length of the Chang'an City Wall in the Western Han Dynasty reached 25.7 kilometers.
This means that the average length of each city wall in the entire Chang'an City, southeast, northwest and northwest can reach 6.4 kilometers.
If you want to defend such a long city wall without any loopholes, the garrison strength in the city must be at least 200,000.
For example, when the Red Eyebrow Army attacked Chang'an at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, it was because the Gengshi Emperor Liu Xuan's troops were too small to defend. In the end, the city gate captain opened the city gate and surrendered, and everything was lost.
So Liu Bei does have to bear a lot of responsibility for this incident.
Because if he didn't leave, the Kwantung Army would have 70,000 people, and Dong Zhuo's veterans in Chang'an City would only have 20,000 people.
The comparison of military strength is basically that Dong Zhuo's 20,000 men guard 70,000 men, and at most Xu Rong's 30,000 troops and horses are added, which is almost 50,000 to 70,000.
Therefore, with Chang'an City so empty of troops, the Kwantung Army really had a 50% chance of capturing Chang'an before Niu Fu and Lu Bu returned.
Now that he is gone, facing the already prepared Chang'an City, Cao Cao, Bao Xin, and Sun Jian have few soldiers, and the chance is gone.
in addition.
It is worth mentioning that Dong Zhuo did recruit some new soldiers.
For example, there are currently 20,000 veterans of the Xiliang Army in the city, and 40,000 new troops from the Three Auxiliary Lands.
But these new armies are actually unstable factors. They have no loyalty at all, and many soldiers join the army just for a meal, and many even hate Dong Zhuo.
Once the Kwantung Army comes over, these new troops will surrender and rebel immediately, opening the city gates to lead the way for the Kwantung Army.
Therefore, Xu Rong did not dare to bring the war to Chang'an.
Once the Kwantung Army arrives at Chang'an City, there may be riots everywhere in the city. At that time, Dong Zhuo's 50,000 troops will have to defend the 70,000 Kwantung Army outside the city, and they will have to guard against rebellion that may appear at any time inside the city.
Internal issues.
certainly.
The premise of all this is that the Kwantung Army can really reach Chang'an City smoothly.
After all, Xu Rong's plan is to fight the decisive battle at Weiqiao. As long as they can resist for a few more days, the Kwantung Army's food shortage problem will eventually be exposed, and the Kwantung Army will still be defeated in the end.
Therefore, Liu Bei's sudden retreat, no matter whose plans it disrupts, the final result will probably not change.
"Meng De, Thief Dong is on guard now. Although Xu Rong and Duan Xuan are pursuing Xuande, they may return to the army at any time. What should we do?"
Now that Cao Cao was vaguely the leader of the three, Bao Xin couldn't help but ask.
Cao Cao sighed: "How can we not fight when we arrive in Chang'an? First, we cut down trees outside the city and make ladders. Chang'an has only two moats, located at the Hengmen in the north and the Zhicheng Gate in the west. I led my troops and Wentai from the east city.
Xuanpingmen attacked, and Yuncheng led his troops to attack from Xi'anmen and Anmen in the south."
"It can only be the."
Sun Jian also sighed and shook his head: "Xuande this time..."
Several people stopped talking.
Liu Bei's decision this time is indeed unexpected.
Looking forward and backward, he no longer looks like a hero.
A bit like Yuan Shao.
In the early stage, the wind is against the wind and it is amazing, and in the later stage, the wind is like a dog.
But if you think about it carefully, Liu Bei's character seems to be somewhat similar to Yuan Shao.
Throughout history, we have been wandering around for many years, but we have become more courageous and perseverant with every setback.
As a result, he finally made a fortune, occupied Xichuan and planned to conquer the world. The battle at Yiling directly ruined the overall situation.
Now Liu Bei, with the help of Chen Mu, everything is going very smoothly.
On the contrary, I no longer had the courage I had at first to be barefoot and not afraid to wear shoes, and to dare to risk my life.
At least on this point, Chen Mu had already foreseen this when he was in Quliang.
He once thought about what Liu Bei would become under his intervention.
People will change.
Liu Xuande in history was brave, fearless, fought against repeated defeats, and never let go of his resolve.
Liu Bei now has too much and worries too much, so he is wavering.
If Chen Mu knew about it, he might also lament his dereliction of duty and fail to properly train his big brother.