The Three Kingdoms: The Cold Gate World

Chapter 398 Attacking Xiangfan
Until mid-May of the 14th year of Jian'an
Gan Ning, the commander-in-chief of the Taiping Army, set out in Jiangling and led an army of [-] troops northward to attack Xiangfan. Only Pang Tong and Jiang Qin were left in Jiangling.

This kind of arrangement is in line with the Taiping Army's usual marching deployment, and there must always be a prudent person in the rear to dispatch.

Guo Jia went out to fight, and there were opera talents in the rear. Zhang Liao in Guanzhong went to Hangu Pass to fight, and Xu Shu in Chang'an. Now Ganning is attacking Xiangfan in the north, and Pang Tong is in the rear.

The sun was shining brightly, and the warm wind was blowing gently. Outside Fancheng, there was a chilling scene of soldiers approaching the city.

The Taiping army safely crossed the Han River and came outside Fancheng, besieging the city on three sides, but no soldiers and horses went to the north of Fancheng.

Riding his horse with his head held high, Gan Ning looked up at the top of Fancheng and shouted loudly, "Cao Zixiao, do you dare to fight?"

Cao Ren, who was covered in armor, held on tightly to the wall of the city, and Gan Ning, who was looking down at the arrogance outside the city, was furious.

Many years ago, Cao Ren and Gan Ning met face to face, and the place was in Guanzhong. At that time, Gan Ning led the silver-feathered flying cavalry, and Cao Ren led the tiger and leopard cavalry. The only knot in the army and horses for 20 years.

Cao Ren's forte is to lead the cavalry to come and go like the wind, and make quick battles. Often, Cao Ren would open the door to victory by surprise on the second battlefield after Cao Cao was deadlocked on the frontal battlefield. Outside the ten thousand city guards, there are no generals to use, and no cavalry can exert miraculous effects.

"Cao Zixiao, where did the fierce general who led thousands of tigers and leopards ride for thousands of miles go? Why can he only be a turtle now? Go out of the city and fight a certain man!"

Gan Ning rode his horse in front of the formation, and when he saw that Fan Cheng still had no reaction, Gan Ning sneered, took his longbow, put it on the arrow, and his eyes suddenly became sharp.

Snapped

The arrow pierced through the air and shot away like lightning.

Cao Ren, who was standing at the top of the wall, did not change his expression, while the guards around him held up their shields to block the front.

嗡

An arrow shot down the banner of Cao Ren at the top of the city, and it clanked on the eaves.

The defenders at the top of the city hurriedly shot arrows at Gan Ning, but the arrows rained down twenty or thirty steps in front of Gan Ning.

How can the shooting range of ordinary archers compare with that of Gan Ning?

However, Gan Ning had already calculated the range of the enemy's range, and the Yi Gao dared to ride his horse before the battle without any fear.

The banner was shot down, and Cao Ren wanted to burst out of suppressed anger, planning to go out of the city to stand, but Man Chong stopped him.

"General, this is the opponent's aggressive method."

Man Chong didn't want to say it, but on the battlefield, the aggressive generals seemed superficial, and most of the bloody and brave generals still practiced it.

Cao Ren struggled with his eyes wide and smashed his fist against the wall.

He also knew that this was an aggressive general, but the yelling of the enemy made him very angry.

Fancheng is the most critical link in Cao Wei's Central Plains defense line. If Fancheng is lost, it will cause a chain reaction, and the most deadly is the fall of the entire Central Plains.

Therefore, Cao Ren tried his best to maintain his rationality, listened to Man Chong's advice, ignored Gan Ning's provocation, and did not consider taking risks to sneak attack the enemy, and just stuck to it.

"Gan Ning led an army of [-], and our army defended the city with [-]. The Taiping Army will inevitably lose a large number of soldiers. If the Taiping Army has no backup, Fancheng will be in danger."

Man Chong told Cao Ren everything he needed to say, and let him understand that in this battle, even though the enemy soldiers were numerous and powerful, the odds of winning were not necessarily high. As long as they persisted, Fancheng could still be saved.

After hearing this, Cao Ren asked back, "What if the enemy has reinforcements?"

Cao Ren fought a lot of this kind of siege with Cao Cao. Now the food and grass in Fancheng are abundant, and there is no possibility that the food and grass will be exhausted after being besieged. After all, when Cao Cao captured Jingzhou, all the military supplies in Xiangyang fell into the In Cao Jun's pocket.

If Gan Ning wanted to break through Fancheng, a strong attack would definitely cause more damage than Cao Wei in the distant dynasty. However, considering the importance of Fancheng, it is difficult to guarantee whether Gan Ning's [-] troops will be the first wave of soldiers and horses, and whether there will be reinforcements in the future. No one can predict.

Man Chong's words were bitter, and he said lightly: "Just wait and see what happens, if the enemy has reinforcements, they can only ask the King of Wei for help."

Gan Ning called for a battle outside the city for an hour, but Cao Ren in Fancheng did not respond.

Disappointed, Gan Ning rode his horse back to the formation. Gan Ning ordered Zhou Tai and Meng Da to his left and right: "Start attacking the city according to the previous plan."

Zhou Taimengda accepted the order with fists in his arms, one to the west and one to the east, and the two generals rode away on horseback.

The city was besieged on three sides, and Gan Ning personally presided over the siege of Fancheng in the south, while Zhou Tai commanded the west and Meng Da in the east.

The flag was waved, the military order was spread, and the Taiping Army was in a majestic formation. First, the soldiers holding shields stepped forward, followed by a row of archers, and the third row was a dozen catapults.

When Gan Ning gave an order, the Taiping armies on three sides mobilized together.

In this battle, Gan Ning did not arrange troops to ascend first, because the walls of Fancheng were thick and the defense force was strong, and any number of first ascenders would be killed.

The initial confrontation was consumption and temptation.

The rain of arrows shot from the towers of Fancheng covered the sky, and the Taiping army advancing towards Fancheng held up their shields to resist. When the archers reached the limit range, the whole army stopped, and the soldiers in front held up their shields to resist the rain of arrows. The archers shot and killed the defenders at the top of the city.

Behind the archers, the side-by-side catapults launched neatly and threw boulders towards Fancheng. Some hit the wall, some hit the top of the city, and some flew into the city.

Cao Ren, who stood at the top of the city and commanded the battle, listened to the reports from all parties, with a heavy heart.

Screams, howls, shouts to kill, turned a deaf ear.

Cao Ren stared at the Ganzi flag fluttering in the wind outside the city.

What is Gan Ning going to do?
The Taiping army shot and killed the defenders at the top of the city from a long distance under the rain of arrows. The Taiping army suffered more damage from both sides.

But the Taiping Army didn't even have the first ascending troops, or they didn't show up, let alone rushing troops with ladders or carts, which is incredible.

With such a long-distance confrontation, can Fancheng be broken?

With such moderate casualties, I am afraid that the two parties will consume energy for a year.

The siege battle lasted only two hours, and the Taiping Army died down.

After the troops were withdrawn, the Taiping Army returned to the camp outside the city. The camp was built very firmly, with solid walls on the outside, echoing each other on the inside, and the combination of virtual and real.

Cao Ren returned to the army in a daze. After observing the soldiers, Man Chong ran over and pulled Cao Ren aside.

"Has the general thought of Gan Ning's strategy?"

Man Chong asked tentatively.

Cao Ren scratched his head and shook his head frankly.

Man Chong's expression was heavy, and he said in a low voice: "Gan Ning is most likely trying to exhaust our army's arrows."

When Cao Ren heard this, he was startled and confused.

Although defending the city can use many methods to prevent the enemy from climbing to the top of the city, such as boiling oil, falling rocks, etc., it is undoubtedly the most effective to kill the enemy with bows and arrows from a long distance.

The war consumption of more than 15 troops combined by the two parties is unimaginable.

Like today, the Taiping Army fired arrows under the city against the rain of arrows, and the Cao soldiers fired arrows at the top of the city to kill each other, and the consumption of arrows was at least tens of thousands.

Even if the battlefield is cleaned and reused, there must be more arrows outside the city than inside the city. In other words, the Taiping army spent less on arrows than Cao soldiers.

The more serious situation is that it is not easy to make regular arrows. In terms of material selection and fine workmanship, there is no military mill in Fancheng. Casualties will be reduced a lot.

And won't the Taiping army run out of arrows?Yes, but the follow-up war materials of the Taiping Army can be transported at any time. Fancheng is surrounded, so it is hard to say, especially since there are no enemy troops in the north. Who can guarantee that Gan Ning did not deliberately stay and wait for an ambush?
Cao Ren gritted his teeth. After Man Chong talked, he suddenly realized that the food and grass in Fancheng is sufficient, even if the city is closed, it can last for more than a year, but the war equipment may not last long.

Calculated according to today's situation, within two months, Fancheng will lose the ability to defend against the enemy from a distance.

With a silent sigh, Cao Ren said, "Let's just wait and see what happens."

Today's situation is just a guess, whether it will be confirmed, it is hard to say, if the Taiping army keeps fighting with the defenders of Fancheng from a long distance in the next battle, it will prove Gan Ning's plan.

The Taiping Army besieged Fancheng. After the news spread, the world was shocked!

When the battle report reached Yecheng, Cao Pi was having a headache for another matter.

In the simple and elegant Wei Wangfu, Cao Pi often paces and thinks in the study.

After successfully succeeding to the throne and stabilizing the situation in Cao Wei half a year ago, Cao Pi is not very worried about military affairs now. After all, Cao, Guo, and Sun are in a delicate balance, and Liu Bei who captured Hefei, although Cao Pi I hate it, but I don't take it to heart. With Liu Bei's [-] troops, it's not worth mentioning.

When he came to power, Cao Wei was in danger. If Cao Wei fell, the gentry in the Central Plains and Hebei would probably be crushed by the Taiping Army, so the gentry supported Cao Pi at that moment.

But now that everything is peaceful and entering a period of peace, the gentry became restless.

In terms of strategy and tactics, Cao Pi is self-aware. He is not as good as his father Cao Cao, and Cao Cao's political line of struggle all his life is to suppress the gentry. In Cao Pi's era, the gentry began to rebound.

Some people even dared to secretly report Cheng Yu's intention to rebel!

An old minister who is nearly seventy years old, Cheng Yu has made great contributions to Cao Wei. He has been following Cao Cao since he started his army. He plotted against him?Not to mention that he has no military power, even if he is given military power, Cao Pi will be at ease!

But some people dared to point the finger at Cheng Yu. This incident was obviously a political strife, and they wanted to bring down Cheng Yu and divide the power.

After Cao Pi thought about it, he couldn't hold down the gentry, nor could he control the imperial party. His prestige was not as good as Cao Cao's, so the situation after he came to power was that Liu Xie, the son of heaven, might do more harm than good.

How to get the gentry to support him and the Cao family is a problem that Cao Pi racks his brains day and night.

People outside of Cao Wei's forces do not recognize that Cao Wei is now coercing the emperor to order the princes, and Liu Xie's value is far less dazzling than Cao Cao's in the era when there were many princes.

Under the rule of Cao Wei, everyone knows who is the real owner of this land.

Cao Pi dared to abolish Liu Xie, but he was afraid that what he was facing was that the gentry would rebel against him!
(End of this chapter)