Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 169

Yijing is adjacent to Yishui in the south. Earlier, Gongsun Zan had his soldiers dig dozens of deep ditches to surround it, and diverted water into them to keep the enemy away.

When Yuan Xi was in Beixincheng, Yuan Shao had attacked Yijing several times, some tentatively, and some wanted to break the city in one fell swoop, but they were all repelled by Gongsun Zan.

It wasn't until the Black Mountain Army rebelled and attacked Yecheng that Yuan Shao withdrew his troops and began to focus on attacking the Black Mountain Army. It wasn't until last year that they fought so hard that they dared not go out of Taihang Mountain. Then he made room to attack Yijing.

Of course, Gongsun Zan would not sit still, and would definitely cooperate with the Black Mountain Army, but it has to be said that the cooperation between the two sides was really not very good, otherwise Yuan Shao would not have been able to defeat each other and be forced to the current situation.

It was late autumn at this time, and the Yishui was exhausted. Previously, Jizhou mobilized 10,000+ civilians to dig and divert the Yishui, or block the upper reaches. The army took the opportunity to cross the river.

The dozen or so deep ditches outside Yijing City, since there is no river water, are just ordinary deep ditches, and almost all of them have lost their function.

Yuan Shao ordered the peasants to cover the soil and fill it up one by one, approaching the city of Yijing step by step.

If there were airplanes in this era, if you look down from a high altitude, you will see a spectacular scene.

On the vast land with a radius of dozens of miles around Yijing, countless ants-like peasants are busy digging, loading, filling, felling, building villages, and building walls.

The camps are densely packed like mung beans, on the hills and beside the river, they are continuous, the dots are connected into lines, and the lines are connected into planes, and tens of thousands of soldiers are patrolling back and forth inside.

If the field of vision is raised a little higher, you can see hundreds of scouts patrolling in all directions within a range of hundreds of miles, listening to the movements of enemies from all sides at any time.

Then there are a series of long lines, these are the grain trucks transporting grain from various places. They set off from Jizhou, Qingzhou, Youzhou and other places, like long twisting snakes, heading straight for Yuan Shaojun's camp.

Yuan Shao claimed to have mobilized an army of 20 this time, but in fact there were not so many, but there were [-] to [-] soldiers, and at the same time they were followed by several times more civilians.

Calculated in this way, the number of people mobilized did exceed 20. This is a war that only the wealthy Jizhou can wage in today's world.

Not to mention Youzhou, Yuan Xi's three cities, including soldiers and civilian husbands, are just over [-].

Although Qingzhou, where Yuan Tan lives, was once very prosperous, with a population of up to 300 million at most, but during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, millions of people joined the Yellow Turban Army. In the past ten years, they suffered natural and man-made disasters, people's livelihood declined, and the population plummeted.

Moreover, just after the battle in Qingzhou, the vitality was seriously injured, and Yuan Tan vigorously recruited Qingzhou for the battle of Yijing, which also aroused a lot of backlash, and finally managed to mobilize tens of thousands of people.

So the real big head is still Jizhou.

In today's world, Jizhou is the most powerful state outside of Jingzhou, and it is as good as the sum of other states in terms of population and economy.

Even in later generations, Cao Cao attacked Jizhou for several years and slaughtered a lot. After taking Yecheng, he could still find 30 mobilizable population in Jizhou household registration.

That's why Yuan Shang wants to occupy Jizhou. Even if he only has Jizhou, he can remain invincible, even if Qingzhou and Youzhou are combined, it is far behind.

This is also Yuan Shao's confidence in daring to fight a big war. Jizhou hides its strength and bides its time for a year, just for today's battle!
In the encirclement of the Jizhou army all over the mountains and plains, the lonely city of Yijing seemed so small.

Of course, this is from a high-altitude perspective, but only when you are actually on the battlefield will you understand how difficult Yi Jing is to fight.

On the watchtower above the mound, Yuan Xi stood holding a telescope, watching carefully the city wall of Yijing in the distance.

In the past few days, more than a dozen deep ditches have been filled, forming several passages leading directly to the Yijing city wall. Hundreds of catapults were gradually pushed forward under the guard of soldiers, and stones were continuously thrown at the Yijing city wall. .

However, Yi Jing's city wall is quite strong, and the watermelon-sized stone bullets hit the city wall, leaving only a shallow pit.

What's even more troublesome is that this city wall is not only higher than ordinary cities, but also has at least five or six walls inside and out!
However, Yuan Shao's counselors soon discovered the weakness. There were too many walls, which led to the weak defense of the front wall.

The catapults began to change directions, and concentrated bombardment on several city heads, where Gongsun Zan's soldiers scattered to avoid them.

Yuan Shaojun was not in a hurry to climb the city, but began to roll out one after another. These are wooden carts with huge wooden wheels and a large space underneath, enough for soldiers to stand on.

The difference is that its top is covered by a row of logs, very much like the usual delivery cart turned upside down.

The soldiers and civilians hid below and slowly approached the city wall until they completely reached the city wall.

The rear trucks followed and arrived at the rear of the front truck, and then the rear trucks followed one by one, forming a smooth passage.

The folks under the front truck began to take out the digging tools, aimed at the root of the wall and started digging, and the dug out soil was transported out along the long passage.

Dig a tunnel!
The reason why Yuan Jun chose to dig the ground instead of storming the top of the city was because even if he attacked the city wall, there would still be several walls guarding behind him, and they could only fill in one by one with human lives.

In contrast, digging tunnels and directly crossing these walls has become the safest method at present.

Seeing this, the defenders at the top of the city hurriedly poured down the rolling stone, wood and gold juice, trying to prevent the opponent from digging the city.

However, the top of Yuan Jun's cart was covered by heavy logs. When these things fell on it, the cart only vibrated slightly, and the people below were not affected at all.

Seeing Yuan Jun's unscrupulous digging, the soldiers on the city wall were anxious, and the rolling stones smashed down desperately, but with little effect.

At this time Tian Kai came to the top of the city, saw the situation and shouted: "Use tung oil, set fire to the eucalyptus and throw it down!"

The soldiers at the top of the city suddenly realized, and quickly acted in accordance with the law, pushing the burning lumber down the city wall and smashing it on the chariot.

Not long after, the front truck was smashed with more than a dozen burning lumber, and it also started to catch fire.

The defenders at the top of the city cheered, but they saw the civilian soldiers driving below the cart struggling to push the burning cart far away, and the cart behind took the opportunity to push up and blocked the place where the digging was done!
Seeing this, Tian Kai ordered to collect damp firewood, ignite it and throw it down the city wall. For a while, smoke billowed under the wall, and Yuan Junminfu was so choked that he couldn't stay under the cart and fled in all directions.

The defenders at the top of the city took the opportunity to stick their heads out and shot them one by one with bows and arrows.

As a result, there was a whistling sound, and Yuan Jun's catapults began to attack the city head again, suppressing the archers so that they did not dare to come out.

Yuan Jun took the opportunity to climb the city with a ladder, ready to cooperate with digging tunnels and suppress the enemy together.

Gongsun Zan's army at the top of the city knew that if they lost the top of the city, the opponent would dig tunnels more brazenly, and the archers would shoot at Yuan Jun's soldiers desperately.

Yuan Xi saw the offense and defense clearly through the binoculars, watching the two sides constantly adjust their strategies to deal with it, he thought that the battlefield is the best teacher for the generals.

Talking about war on paper can never really learn how to fight.

Guo Jia beside him was also watching with a binoculars. Yuan Xi did not hide this binoculars. He asked craftsmen to make some binoculars in Ye City, and gave them to his most familiar advisers and generals.

Seeing Guo Jia nodding and shaking his head sometimes, Yuan Xi was curious and asked, "What's Mr. Feng Xiao thinking?"

"Could it be that the way this city is played is wrong?"

Guo Jia shook his head and said, "No, this siege strategy is not a problem, it can be said to be quite good."

"But what I don't understand is that according to this style of play, it can only be called a war of attrition."

"Even if the offensive is so urgent, it is far from exhausting the tens of thousands of soldiers in the city within a month. On the contrary, the siege army will consume a lot."

"Then there is only one possibility. It is safest to encircle the city and let the defenders escape, and wait for an opportunity to break through."

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "That's true. The north, south and east are blocked, and only the west gate is left. Is there anything wrong?"

"If it is in other directions, it is all territory controlled by our army. If it is left out, the enemy is likely to continue to stick to it."

"The west is the direction from which the Black Mountain Army is coming to help. Leaving this door aside will make Gongsun Zan think that if he breaks through, he may turn back with the Black Mountain Army, so he will be determined to escape."

"At that time, our army can take advantage of the opponent's breakthrough, intercept and pursue, and completely defeat the Black Mountain Army before it arrives. Isn't this the best choice?"

Guo Jia said: "The truth is this."

"But if it were me, the south gate would be reserved, and most of the soldiers would be transferred from the central army."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi immediately understood and laughed.

Guo Jia is ruthless to others, and he is also ruthless to himself.

In the history of later generations, Guo Jia once suggested that Liu Bei, who had defected to Cao Cao, be placed under house arrest and flooded with water, which shows that he has a fierce and decisive side.

This kind of person can be even more powerful if he uses it well, but if he doesn't use it well, it will affect his heart.

However, Guo Jia's risky strategy of vacating the central army this time to lure the opponent out of the city to attack and kill the coach might have been adopted by Yuan Shao five years ago, but it should not be possible now.

Moreover, Guo Jia's statement is very subtle, why does it seem to have other intentions?

He looked sideways at Guo Jia, and found that his expression was as usual, wondering if he was thinking too much?
When Yuan Xi turned his head and continued to watch the battle situation in the telescope, Guo Jia sighed regretfully.

My own thoughts are still a bit too outrageous.

It would be best if the enemy rushed into the camp and killed both Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan, or if Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan died accidentally during the chaos of looting the camp.

The son can command the army of Jizhou, then attack Gongsun Zan, return to Yecheng and kill Yuan Shang, and he will be the master of the Northland.

This is the fastest way. Since the young master is pretending to be stupid, he should pretend that he didn't say it.

The attack and defense at the top of the city lasted for three days and three nights.

There were more than a dozen soil-digging passages under the city wall, and they never stopped. Gongsun Zan's army began to dig deep trenches behind the city wall to stop them.

At first Yuan Jun dug the tunnel downwards, and Gongsun Zan's army also dug downwards. As a result, Yuan Jun began to dig horizontally.

Finally, one night, the first city wall collapsed in several places, killing many civilians on both sides of the tunnel.

There was a gap in the first city wall, and Yuan Jun took the opportunity to break in through the gap and got under the second city wall.

At this time, Tian Kai in the city came to his senses. Yuan Jun rushed to dig the city wall from the beginning!

(End of this chapter)