The sky gradually became darker the next day.

When dusk fell, the gate of Fuyang County City suddenly opened.

Yuan Shaojun's scout outside the city noticed this situation, and with an originally relaxed expression, he almost climbed on his horse and rushed back to the camp.

At this time, Gao Lan's army included counselor Xin Ping, governor Li Li, as well as generals such as Ma Yan, Jiao Chu, Zhang Nan, Han Xun, and Ma Kai.

When Gao Lan heard the news, except for the generals who were patrolling outside, he immediately summoned others to discuss the matter.

When everyone came to the general's camp, Gao Lan looked around and said, "Gentlemen, I just came to report that the Fuyang City Gate suddenly opened. What do you think?"

Xin Ping pondered for a moment and asked, "Is there any movement in the city?"

"There was no movement."

Gao Lan shook his head. Tan Ma originally thought that the enemy was going to attack, but one person went to report the news. The others stayed there for a while, and no one came out after waiting for a while. The second wave of Tan Ma came back to report the situation.

"This must be a tactic to lure the enemy."

Xin Ping said: "As I expected, the news of Nanpi's fall has reached Fuyang. Gongsun Zan was very anxious and wanted to fight us in a decisive battle. But we couldn't hold on, so he opened the city gate wide to lure us to take the initiative to attack."

Li Li, the governor, also nodded and said: "I think that's the case as well. The information we learned yesterday should be almost the same time as when Gongsun Zan learned it."

"Um."

Gao Lan thought for a moment and then asked: "Then what should we do now?"

Xin Ping smiled and said: "Of course we are waiting strictly in the camp. The one who is anxious now is not us, but Gongsun Zan. As long as we are not fooled, he has only two choices. One is to abandon the city and go north and flee in embarrassment. The other is to take the initiative to attack

Our camp forces us to fight decisively, otherwise he will definitely die when Ming Gong’s army comes and surrounds him with nearly six times the force.”

To encircle an enemy ten times, to attack it five times, and to fight if it is doubled is a rule of thumb for almost all military generals and counselors.

Now Gongsun Zan's army is 20,000, and Gao Wang's army is 50,000. The gap between the two sides is not obvious. If the troops are divided and besieged the city, the troops will be scattered, making it impossible to siege the city.

And Yuan Shao led 60,000 people. When he went north to make peace with Gao Lan, the Jizhou army had 110,000 troops, almost six times the enemy. Not to mention besieging Fuyang, there would definitely be no problem in attacking the city from all sides.

If everything goes well, we can quickly break through the city and attack Gongsun Zan. Even if it doesn't go well, we can still surround him to death.

However, one thing is still very important to Gao Lan.

That means Gongsun Zan is anxious, and Yuan Shao is also anxious.

After all, this move will lead Liu Bei to the Yuzhou battlefield. The time that can be gained is less than a month, and even if the march is accelerated, it is not impossible to return to Qingzhou from Runan within half a month.

Siege warfare is not a simple matter. If the defenders are properly prepared and there is sufficient food and grass, it is common to be besieged for several months or even a year and a half.

For example, in history, Yuan Shao's tens of thousands of troops besieged Zang Hong with only a few thousand men, and they fought for a year without defeating him. That's it.

Although Gao Lan didn't know about Zang Hong, he knew how difficult it was to attack the city.

Therefore, he still felt that it was necessary to remind Xin Ping, so he said: "Military advisor, please don't forget that before Ming Gong set out, he asked us to fight quickly. Liu Bei may come back at any time."

Xin Ping thought for a while and said: "Well, I was negligent in this regard. I was only thinking about how to win, but I forgot that Ming Gong was also competing with Liu Bei for time."

"Then how should we deal with the enemy?"

Gao Lan asked again.

Li Li said: "Since the enemy's city gate is open, why not just lead the army to attack?"

"That won't work either. This is an obvious trap."

Xin Ping pondered for a long time and then said: "The general can lead the army to feign an attack and at the same time have an ambush in the north of the city. When the army pretending to attack is defeated and retreats, the enemy will surely pursue us. At this time, we will hold on to the camp and deal with the enemy until the enemy attacks for a long time.

If it doesn't fall, if the army attacks, it is possible to capture Fuyang."

"If we capture Fuyang, it will be a great achievement."

Gao Lan perked up when he heard this plan.

Gongsun Zan was scrambling for time and wanted to return to Youzhou as soon as possible to stabilize the situation.

Yuan Shao was also scrambling for time, hoping to kill Gongsun Zan in the Bohai Sea before Liu Bei returned.

Historically, he was very successful. He defeated Gongsun Zan several times in Jizhou, Qingzhou, Youzhou and other places. The two sides fought for seven or eight years, and finally trapped the powerful Gongsun Zan to death in Yijing.

At that time, Gongsun Zan was supported by Liu Yu and commanded about 20,000 infantry and cavalry. Later, the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou resurrected and gathered 300,000 people. He defeated them and captured most of the troops and baggage. As a result, his strength increased greatly and he no longer obeyed Liu Yu's orders.

However, because Yuan Shao had just conquered Jizhou and had not yet digested it, he only had tens of thousands of people, and his strength was far inferior to Gongsun Zan.

There was a huge disparity in strength between the two sides. In the end, impulsiveness broke out due to Gongsun Yue's incident. As a result, Gongsun Zan suppressed Yuan Shao in the early stage. It was not until the Battle of Jieqiao, the Battle of Longcuo, and the Battle of Baoqiu that the situation was reversed.

But this time it was a two-level reversal.

Yuan Shao obtained all of Wang Fen's inheritance, so from the beginning he had the military strength of Jizhou close to its heyday during the Battle of Guandu.

Gongsun Zan's basic base is the 20,000 cavalry that Liu Yu supported him in the early stage, and the Qingzhou Yellow Turban.

As a result, Liu Yu is now the emperor in Luoyang, and the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans have all returned to Liu Bei. The elites among them are currently on the front line, so their strength is far behind what they were in history, and they cannot fight against Yuan Shao at all.

But Gongsun Zan has one good thing. Although he doesn't know that all his original infantry team has been taken away by his good brother Liu Bei, he has another basic base, that is, he does not have a very bad relationship with the surrounding foreigners like in history.

Except for Qiu Liju, who had a history of rebellion, he had a good relationship with Xianbei Wuhuan.

After all, in the past, I fought desperately to get promoted. Now that I can not only get promoted, but also make a fortune, why do I still have to fight them to the death, do business openly, maintain good relationships, and use their military strength to do things?

Doesn’t it smell good?

But they are still outsiders, and they need to be hired with money.

Therefore, a good relationship is a good relationship, but it cannot be used as a standing army. Therefore, after a large number of infantry were assigned to Liu Bei, it only seemed that Gongsun Zan's strength was greatly weakened.

But as soon as a war breaks out, tens of thousands of cavalry can be mobilized from the north to go south.

This is Gongsun Zan's biggest trump card.

It's just a pity that Yuan Shao used a cunning trick and used Xianbei in central China to raid his hometown in Youzhou. As a result, Gongsun Zan was unable to contact his Xianbei and Wuhuan allies immediately, and suffered a hidden loss.

What the Qingzhou Army has to do now is to send Gongsun Zan out of the Jizhou battlefield while allowing him to retain this basic base and continue to fight against Yuan Shao.

In this way, when Qingzhou and Jizhou start a full-scale war in the future, Gongsun Zan can at least help contain the harassment.

This is the case with the entangled interests and strategic arrangements of the three parties.

Yuan Shao is eager to destroy Gongsun Zan and capture Youzhou. At least he cannot let Youzhou behind him become a shackles for him when he fights his old enemy Liu Bei in the future.

Gongsun Zan was eager to return to Youzhou and stabilize his basic position in Youzhou.

Chen Mu hoped that Gongsun Zan would return to Youzhou and stay there. He would not be allowed to be too strong and threaten Liu Bei in the future, and he would not be allowed to be too weak because he would have to play a role in Yuan Shao's war in the future.

Each has its own considerations, and war becomes the last resort. The three families fight to see who can have the last laugh and successfully complete their strategic goals.

The sun has not set yet, it is about five or six o'clock in the afternoon, and it is not completely dark yet.

The ancients were not willing to fight in the dark, but both sides were fishing. This late night was just to give people a sense of urgency - if we don't fight, there will be no chance.

The gate of the Gaolan camp was opened wide, and general Zhang Nan led five thousand elite troops out of the camp in a mighty manner. Except for Zhang Nan, all the generals led their own troops out. Ten thousand people were left behind in the camp, and the rest set up a suspicious formation.

They were scattered on the road between the camp and the city, forming a fighting formation.

But behind the camp, there were five thousand men and horses sneaking towards the north.

Tian Yu stood on the city gate and saw from a distance a large number of troops heading towards the city on the vast official road to the west.

According to the original plan, lure the enemy to attack, and then unite with the Qingzhou Army to launch the attack together.

Now that the enemy has come out, they have to cooperate with us.

"Close the city gate!"

Seeing that the enemy was less than a mile away, Tian Yu immediately issued an order.

The city gate slowly closed.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Nan immediately ordered: "Attack!"

The sound of the war drums was like thunder.

Countless soldiers carrying ladders rushed to the forefront and began to attack the city head.

"Fire the arrow!"

Following Tian Yu's order, arrows fell like raindrops from the top of the city. The soldiers held up their shields and braved the rain of arrows to put up the ladder and began to climb the ladder.

Soon, rolling stones and trees were smashed down, and hooks and sickles were used to pull up the ladders. At the same time, the city wall was lowered to prevent the soldiers who were attacking from the front from coming up.

For a time, Zhang Nanjun suffered heavy losses.

In ancient times, siege warfare was said to be easy to fight, but difficult to fight.

For some cities, such as Yuan Shao's attack on Zang Hong, Zhang Xun's defense of Suiyang, and Lu Wenhuan's desperate defense of Xiangyang, the defenders responded calmly, plus some other factors.

For example, Zang Hong relied on Yuan Shao's main force to deal with Gongsun Zan, and there were not many soldiers and horses besieging Dongwuyang. Zhang Xun and Lu Wenhuan relied on the high walls of the city.

As for those cities that were destroyed in an instant, there were even more.

What the two sides are fighting for is not their ability to attack fortresses, but their wisdom. To defend a city, there are ways to defend it, and to attack it, there are ways to attack it.

Catapults, ladders, rams, crashes, tunnels, what stops people is the city wall, but if they want to destroy the city wall and survive over the city wall, people can always come up with better ideas.

The defenders of the city must actively respond. If the response is not enough, like Gongsun Fan, who is dug into the city and breached, they will naturally be unable to resist.

It's just that compared to the party attacking the city, the party defending the city is always more passive. For example, the supply of food and grass in the city will be a problem.
To be continued...