Competing

Chapter 642 Breaking the City Easily
Chenggao faces the Yellow River in the north and west, and deep streams in the south and east, so the name Chenggao means that the mountains are high and close to the Yellow River.It can be said that it is a city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it has a history of being captured by the Chu army before that.

Now Xingyang has fallen, and Chenggao has completely become an isolated city.Even under such circumstances, Zhou Bo still chose to stick to it and became a nail behind the Vietnamese army.

After taking care of Peng Yue, Yin Xu's goal was aimed at Qi State, and Cheng Gao's nail must be pulled out.Yin Xu started planning early in the morning, but Cheng Gao's terrain was indeed difficult to attack.At the beginning, the Chu army also took the city after paying a lot of casualties, obviously Yin Xu didn't think about it.

So if you want to break the city, you need to outsmart it, you don't need to think hard, God has already helped arrange it.Cheng Gao is very strong in terms of objective conditions, but other aspects are not very good. Food shortage is a serious problem that needs to be solved urgently.

The state of Han was in the Central Plains, and its grain and grass mainly depended on the supply of Ao Cang. Cities like Xingyang and Chenggao did not have a lot of grain storage.However, the distance is not very far, and there is no major problem, but the attack of the Han army is so fast that the Han army has no time to transport enough food into the city.

Even if it is transport, it is mainly transported to Xingyang. After all, where is the main capital, the original plan of the Han Dynasty was to retreat to Xingyang at the end.

However, the development of the matter was quite different from what was expected. The Yue State actually captured Xingyang first, and Cheng Gao was the one who trapped the isolated city in the end.There is not much food stored in Chenggao City, but now there are 12 troops in the city, and they can't hold on for a while.

Zhou Bo was very troubled by this, and the morale and confidence of the Han army were almost lost when Xingyang fell.The morale of Chenggao's generals in the Han army was low, and people were in panic. If it wasn't for the sign that Liu Ying was still alive, coupled with Zhou Bo's repression and restraint, they might have fallen into chaos.

But going on like this is not an option after all. The longer the siege lasts, the faster the confidence and spiritual support of the soldiers of the Han army will disintegrate.Zhou Bo didn't expect to be able to hold on, he just hoped to be able to hold on for a longer time, so as to hold back the Vietnamese army.Perhaps he still hoped for some miracle to bring the Han Kingdom back to life again.

However, the emergence of the food and grass crisis made him have to pay attention to it, and he was even devastated.The Han army is maintained like this for the time being, if there is no food and grass in the city, and if the soldiers are hungry, the army's morale will immediately be chaotic, and Chenggao will fall immediately.Therefore, how to raise food and grass became the most urgent issue before Zhou Bo.

The food in Chenggao City is limited, and the food stored in the common people's homes has been exhausted by the Han army, and all of them are collected and distributed rationed.After all, there is a certain amount of food stored in the city. Naturally, there will not be a lot of storage in the war years. It is not enough at all. We must find a way from outside the city, and the only way outside the city is Ao Cang!
Ao Cang is located in Ao Mountain in the northeast of Xingyang, at the diversion of Dahe and Jishui, and it was built in the Qin Dynasty.The purpose is to collect the grain from Jishui and the lower reaches of the Dahe River in the Central Plains and gather it here, so that it can be transported to Guanzhong and nearby cities by water and dry roads.The purpose of the Qin Dynasty building Ao Cang itself was to deal with wars that might break out in the East at any time, and grain could be transferred from Ao Cang at any time to support the counter-insurgency war.

In the beginning, most of the food and grass used in Zhang Hanping's rebellion campaign were transported from here, but Zhang Han was defeated in Julu early on.The food in Ao Cang is abundant, and the quantity is beyond imagination.Qin Chao did not make good use of his savings, but instead benefited the later Han King Liu Bang.

In the battle between Chu and Han, the reason why Liu Bang was able to persist for so long and finally won was because of the support of Ao Cang grain.Even now, after fighting for many years, Ao Cang's grain and grass still remain.This is also the reason why Zhou Bo made the idea of ​​Ao Cang. Near Chenggao and Xingyang, the only place where food can be obtained as soon as possible.

If you want to obtain food and transport it to Chenggao, the biggest threat is naturally the Vietnamese army.

But at this time, the mobilization of the Vietnamese army and some geographical advantages made Zhou Bo feel that it was not impossible.

Chenggao is close to the Dahe, and Aocang is also close to the Dahe. Is it possible to bypass the army of the Yue Kingdom by water and capture Aocang to obtain food?What's more, it is a good opportunity for Yue's army to concentrate on coercing Liang.

So Zhou Bo sent a group of troops to attack Ao Cang by the Dahe waterway, and their actions went surprisingly smoothly.There is no need to attack Aocang at all. The Vietnamese army has just shipped out a batch of grain and grass, which is ready to be shipped to Hanoi.

The Han army thought they were getting a big deal, and planned to transport these ships directly back to Chenggao.It's a pity that they found out that they had been fooled as soon as they boarded the boat. To be precise, they fell into the surveillance of the Vietnamese army the moment they set off from Chenggao.

As a result, most of the generals of the Han army were killed and dragged into the vast river, only a small number of generals were left behind.In this way, a grain escort army quickly transported grain back to Chenggao.

Zhou Bo was quite excited when he saw the food and grass coming back. With the food and grass, he could have no worries.At the gate of the city, the generals sent came to report to him happily. Zhou Bo saw that there was no problem, so he sent people to open the gate of the city and came to carry the grain.He had no idea that his generals had already turned against each other under the coercion and lure of the Vietnamese army, and most of his soldiers were buried in the belly of the fish in the river.

The soldiers in Chenggao City were naturally very excited when they saw the grain and grass brought in, and hurriedly opened the city gate to carry it.But when they opened the city gate, what greeted them was not bags of corn, but sharp ring-headed knives.

Han soldiers pretending to be grain transporters of the Han army occupied the north gate of Chenggao in an instant while carrying grain.At the same time, the Yue State ships that had been prepared for a long time came from the upper reaches, and there were countless Han soldiers on the ships.

Only then did Zhou Bo realize that he had been duped and that everything was over.

In fact, Feiying of the Yue Kingdom planted bad influence in Xingyang, and also instigated many generals of the Han Dynasty.Cheng Gao's side is no exception. This time, the strategy of capturing Ao Cang by water and transporting the grain back is the strategy offered by a lieutenant general, and this strategy itself comes from Yue Wang Yinxu.

Hence, Yin Xu arranged intentionally or unintentionally, after a period of time, to transfer the army away without any trace, giving Zhou Bo an illusion.

In fact, the elite had already ambushed around Chenggao, especially transporting soldiers through the river to attack Chenggao's North Gate.Cheng Gao's military morale was still unstable compared to Xingyang's. As soon as the news spread that the city gate was seized, coupled with the overwhelming news of food shortage in the city, the whole line collapsed immediately, and he no longer had the intention to resist.

It can be said that the Vietnamese army occupied Chenggao without any effort. Zhou Bo knew that the situation was over, so he led his own soldiers to break through the siege, and prepared to flee to Qi.As a result, he was intercepted and killed by Peng Yue while walking on the road.The only luck is that Fan Kui took Liu Ying and Lu Yuan directly to Linzi, and was able to escape.

(End of this chapter)