The Qin army is indeed good at field battles, and the Yan army is indeed good at defending the city by using its own strengths to attack the other's weaknesses.
Even King Wei had a small calculation in his mind:
Wei soldiers only need to defend the city.
When Chu's reinforcements arrive, wouldn't it be better for Qin and Chu to fight outside the city?
The snipe and the clam fight, and the fisherman benefits. Wei can preserve its strength and repel the Qin army, so why not?
However, these are just "ideals".
First of all, King Wei's strategy of giving up all initiative from the beginning and pinning his hopes on city defense was obviously too passive.
As mentioned before, the reason why Daliang Jiancheng is called Jiancheng is not only Daliang City itself, but also because the water network near Daliang is dense and easy to defend and difficult to attack.
It is usually a defense that combines internal and external reinforcements.
By pretending to give in like this, King Wei actually gave up Daliang's distinctive dynamic defense.
Secondly, the King of Wei at this time must not have known that the Qin army was going to flood Daliang.
If he knew that no matter how stupid he was, he would not choose to withdraw his troops.
If the Qin army does not attack the city, what use will the 200,000 troops in the city do?
Waiting for the water to come?
Again, how can the King of Wei pretend to be smart and the Chu State be a fool? The Chu State will foolishly fight bloody battles for you while the Wei State reaps the benefits?
You must know that this is the State of Wei, and it is very painful for the State of Wei.
But there really is such a "fool" in Chu State.
The general of the Chu State was named Xiang Yan. He had probably guessed the Qin Army's intentions since the Qin Army withdrew its troops from the Yan State.
He said to King Chu of Chu:
"The reason why Ying Zheng withdrew his troops and returned to the city after his great victory was definitely not because King Yan wanted to send Prince Dan's head to him."
"He must have other intentions."
"If Wei Chen's prediction is correct, Ying Zheng will definitely attack Wei first."
"If this happens, Wei will be in danger!"
The King of Chu didn't take Xiang Yan's words to heart when he first came to Chu, so he just let it go.
I didn’t want to hear that the Qin army was heading south after a while... Although the Chu State is located in the southeast, it has always been paying attention to the war between the six countries. There are spies from the Chu State in each country, and they will send important information to the Chu State as quickly as possible.
Therefore, before Wei's envoys arrived, Chu already knew the news.
The king of Chu sighed sincerely and praised:
"The general is a great talent, now the Qin army has really sent troops to attack Wei."
"General, do you think Wei can stop the Qin army?"
Xiang Yan shook her head and replied:
"The decline of national power is generally related to the evil habits of the king."
"This King of Wei pretends to love dogs as much as his life. It is said that for every dog he sells, he will allow him to tear up a living person as a memory."
"The common people and even the generals of the Wei State are worse than dogs. How can the Wei State be preserved?"
Xiang Yan’s analysis is this.
The reason why the king of Wei was so stupid was that he regarded the status of dogs too high.
He did not sell the dogs for money, but to promote his reputation for raising dogs... If all such ferocious Wei mastiffs were locked up in the Mastiff Palace, how could outsiders know about King Wei's fake dog-raising skills?
On the contrary, if you can see your dog looking majestic outside after selling it, it would not be a blessing!
So the King of Wei also sold dogs, and this Wei Mastiff was still the first choice of the princes and nobles.
It’s just that King Wei’s standards for selling dogs were very strict.
The buyer must be rich or noble, and must meet in person and conduct multiple inspections to ensure that the buyer can raise the mastiff well before selling it.
The most unacceptable thing is that there was a ceremony on the day when King Wei pretended to sell the dog, just like Xiang Yan said, letting the dog tear a living person alive and giving him a full meal as a farewell.
This is not a question of how many people died, but a question of how the common people and even the nobles of Wei lived without dignity and felt that they were not as good as dogs.
On the other hand, in the Qin State, as long as you work hard and perform meritorious service, you can be promoted to a noble title, and even be promoted to a noble...
The difference between coming and going is more than a thousand miles.
Therefore, let alone the Qin army attacking Wei, even if they did not attack Wei, many people in Wei secretly crossed the border and fled to Qin.
Under such circumstances, how could the Wei State stop the Qin Army?
King Chu frowned and asked:
"What should we do?"
"Qin has conquered all the land of Han and Zhao, and Yan has been beaten to the point of being unable to fight back."
"The state of Qi has always been in harmony with Qin."
"If the Wei State is destroyed by Qin again..."
"Qin can get a large area of cultivated land rich in corn, and then our country, Chu, will be next!"
The King of Chu was able to understand clearly that the survival of Wei State was not just as simple as the death of lips and teeth for Chu State.
If the wealthy land of Wei is included in Qin's territory, it will immediately become a food base for Qin to attack Chu.
Xiang Yan thought for a while and replied:
"Your Majesty is right, so we can only help Wei."
"For the current plan, I think our army should move to Chen first."
"When Wei Guo asks for help, our army will not be in a hurry."
Chen (now Huaiyang, Henan) was originally the capital of Chu State. Because it was too close to the border and worried about being attacked by enemy countries, it moved the capital to Shouchun more than ten years ago.
The king of Chu nodded and said:
"rational."
"Leave this matter to the general!"
Yang Duan and here knew nothing about this matter.
If the Qin army only had to deal with the Wei army, it might not be a problem.
But now there is one more Xiang Yan... which adds many variables.
Yang Duanhe only learned from Wei spies that the reason why there were no Wei soldiers outside the city was that the King of Wei pretended to bring his troops inside the city for passive defense.
This was exactly what Yang Duanhe wanted, so Yang Duanhe went south with confidence and marched to the mouth of the Yellow River and Bianhe River.
Seeing that Shen Bing was still a little worried, Yang Duanhe smiled and explained:
"Don't worry about this, miser."
"We have found out that the King of Wei is planning to send his troops back to Daliang to defend it."
Shen Bing couldn't help being shocked when he heard this.
In other words, voluntarily give up the water network outside the city?
There is something wrong with your brain!
Just arrange a few rows of archers and trebuchets randomly in the rivers and ditches, and when the Qin army crosses the river, they can kill many people by just smashing and shooting!
If you were really afraid of death, wouldn't you just run away?
After these layers of water nets were beaten, when the Qin army reached Daliang City, there would be at least tens of thousands of casualties!
Such a good opportunity was just let go?
Seeing the incredible expression on Shen Bing's face, Yang Duanhe laughed "haha":
"As Shicai said, not everyone has the talent of being a miser."
"Wei is in trouble this time!"
Shen Bing was a little embarrassed by the praise and quickly became humble.
After a pause, Yang Duanhe said:
"Come with me, stingy man. I am about to introduce someone to you."
After saying this, he told Li Yan and took Shen Bing to the river.
After passing through the camp, I saw a group of people not far away observing something on the bank of the Yellow River. Among them was an old man, leaning on a strange crutch and frowning in thought.
After getting closer, Shen Bing discovered that the crutch was an iron ruler with scales engraved on it, which seemed to be used to detect the depth of the water.
Yang Duanhe stepped forward and bowed his hands to the old man, and then introduced to Shen Bing:
"This is the waterman Zheng Guo. The general invited water to attack the beams!"
Shen Bing didn't react at first, but when he thought about it, his eyes widened.
Hydraulic engineer Zheng Guo?
Couldn't he be the one who built the Zheng Guo Canal?