sweeping the world

Chapter 420 The old man is very stable

If possible, everyone including Huan Wen hopes to go to Puyang County to participate in what is destined to be an unprecedented war, instead of staying on the periphery to do something meaningful but difficult to pay attention to.

The Battle of Puyang will definitely be remembered in the annals of history, even if it is a dry war of attrition, all because it is a war that will determine the fate of the country, future generations will add some imagination based on real combat experience, There are countless versions of the story in Romance.

Huan Wen's inner urgency was manifested in action. He ordered all but the [-] troops that surrounded Xincai to go out and sweep the surrounding area.

That kind of extermination war where those who follow me prosper and those who oppose me perish, no matter what ethnic group it is, there are only two choices once the document arrives, either submit or resist.

The big action of the Han army is sweeping out from Xincai as the center, and some of the previous signs have finally taken effect. It is to destroy some local tyrants who are considered to be strong and famous as an example to scare other weak people. By.

Chu Po, who was trapped in Xincai, first learned that there were at least 16 Han soldiers approaching the city. Two days later, he found that there were only about [-] Han troops left outside the city. He has been thinking hard about what countermeasures should be taken. The poem is A lot of proposals have been brewed, but it is at a loss as to how to launch military operations.

"Talk about it." Chu Po looked that there was no imminent disaster, and he asked in an extremely calm tone: "Is there any good strategy to defeat the enemy?"

In the lobby, on the right side, there are several rows of scribes kneeling on their knees. They all look very dignified. Some of them are literati serving in the Jin army, and many of them came to play with Chu Ling and were trapped. There are great calligraphers, great poets, great painters, etc. in Xincai; on the left side are about twenty generals sitting on their knees. They are undoubtedly from aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River. generation.

Facing Chu Pei's expectant inquiry, whether they were civil or military, their first move was to look at each other with familiar people, and then they all looked at Chu Pei, but no one said anything.

Before, many people gave Chu Po advice.

For example, at the beginning, someone proposed to "let go all the way, lead the Han army to go south, and mobilize troops to encircle." This suggestion was rejected by Chu Ling's "brake with static".

When the outlying strongholds around Xincai were wiped out one by one by the Han army, some people suggested that "all the strongholds should resolutely resist on the spot, and the Jin army in Xincai moved to the middle of Ruyin, making Xincai, Yeyeyingpan, and Ruyin a corner. Unsurprisingly, it was once again rejected by Chu Po's "stopping with static".

Well, waiting for the Han army to enter Ruyin in a big way, Chu Po finally accepted a suggestion according to his own will, that is, to dispatch all the troops that can be contracted to Xincai, and to concentrate a superior force to stick to one point, and wait for the arrival of the southern reinforcements. .

Now, apart from Xincai, what Chu Po knows is that only Runan County still has the Jin army.In fact, he didn't even know that Huan Wen had landed from the Yangtze River, and after conquering Xinxi, he wrote a letter of praise. At the same time as Huan Wen went north, it was Wang Pu who swept the rest of the cities in Runan County.

This is the information inequality brought about by being trapped in one city.The city was completely blocked, and what happened outside could only be guessed by one's own imagination.

Precisely because he was completely ignorant of the situation outside, when Chu Po asked, no matter who it was, he couldn't answer a single question.

Chu Po was not annoyed when he saw that no one spoke up. He even had the mood to smile for a while before saying: "The Han army has not attacked the city, obviously because they know that Xincai city is not easy to attack. We have enough food and fodder, everyone You can think about it slowly."

At that moment, more than one person in the lobby admired Chu Po's demeanor in his heart, such as his calmness, or his calmness, in short, he felt that he was very general.After thinking about it, those who were anxious because the whole city was besieged felt inexplicably relieved.

After finishing the business, according to the social habits of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Chu Po prepared the banquet very responsibly, waiting for food, water and wine, five stone powder, including Meiji, actors and other playthings to come on stage, and a carnival in the besieged city was staged.

The social habits of the Wei and Jin Dynasties can be summed up with some simple descriptions. During the Cao Wei period, the aristocratic family reached its peak, and extravagance formed a trend in the upper class.During Sima 1's Jin Dynasty, the Western Jin Dynasty was still the social habit of Cao Wei. After the "Clothes and Crowns Crossing to the South", it became a kind of self-abandonment of social elites who had no hope of restoring the Central Plains after repeated Northern Expeditions. , there is no better way to forget your troubles.

Huan Wen didn't know what his opponent was doing. What he was doing was trying to find the weak points of Xincai City. After wandering around day after day, he was surprised to find that Chu Ling had really turned Xincai into a strong city. .

"How many people are there in the city?" Huan Wen found that Xincai was not connected to the canals outside the city, so he asked, "About how many wells are there in the city?"

Li Mai was taken for a walk. Facing Huan Wen's question, he answered honestly: "Except for the army, there are about [-] residents in the city. The wells...haven't calculated it specifically, there should be several hundred?"

Seriously speaking, the war between Han and Jin can be said to be a civil war. The two sides will not do things such as abusing generals and captives. It is actually not too difficult to make them serve after being captured.However, Li Mai did not surrender, and he would answer that it was because Huan Wen treated him well.

"How much firewood did the patriarch prepare in advance?" Huan Wen felt that this question was very important. He looked at Li Mai with a smile and asked, "This should be clear, right?"

Li Mai shook his head silently, and said after a while: "The Xincai defenders didn't collect firewood before I left, and I don't know after I leave."

Huan Wen had been thinking about the odds of winning a strong attack, and how much troops would be lost by a strong attack.

The city wall of Xincai is square in shape, about four feet high, and eight horse crossbows can be found on the city wall. The Jin army will not lack strong bows and crossbows. If they really want to attack by force, they will definitely suffer heavy losses.

According to ordinary military common sense, the best way to face a fortified city is to surround it without fighting, relying on the siege to cut off the opponent's food and fodder, but any siege will take a long time, which is exactly what Huan Wen does not want to see of.

Xincai's side spent time under siege and observation and being besieged and observed, but the battles on the periphery broke out very fiercely.

The headquarters of the Han army is to supervise the slave army's launch of those local tyrants who are unwilling to submit, because it is to pick a strong local tycoon to kill others, and the barbarians of the slave army are not good at siege, so it must be very difficult to attack Wubao. .

The wanton attack on local tyrants was not without side effects for the Han army, that is, the attitude of the neutral local tyrants towards the Han army turned hostile, which was tantamount to Huan Wen's order to attack the local tyrants to force more people to defect to the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

The situation of Xincai County and Ruyin County spread to Runan County. The news that the Han army was aggressively attacking the enemy's powerful forces allowed Xie Shi to persuade a large number of powerful forces relatively easily. The defeated soldiers and the armed forces of the enemy managed to gather a motley army of about 2 people.

By this time, Xie Shi already knew the situation in Xincai County and Ruyin County, and also learned about the news that the Yangtze River was being closely guarded by the Han fleet.He knew very well that before the Jin army navy south of the Yangtze River seized control of the Yangtze River, it was impossible for the southern reinforcements that the head of state wanted to see through to go north.

There is also other information, such as the recruited Ran Min Army, they attacked Nanyang County about a month ago.In this case, as far as Xie Shi knew, the Han army was not only fighting with the Shijie State of Zhao, but also making a large-scale invasion of the State of Jin.

"It's so powerful!" Xie Shi looked more mature after the attack. He said to the local heroes who had taken refuge in him: "But it is precisely because the Han army is fighting everywhere, which proves that the number of troops they have in Runan County will not be too much."

The local tyrants who took refuge in the small imperial courts of the Eastern Jin Dynasty had their own reasons. The main reason was that the Han Dynasty was relatively harsh on the local tyrants. For example, the Han Dynasty would conduct the most detailed population statistics and registration. No matter how powerful the old man is, there are other measures.

There are indeed too many places where the Han State fought. The news is not so closed and most of them know that the battle of Puyang will be related to the fate of the Han State and Shijie Zhao State, so it is impossible for the two sides not to work hard.

Just because they knew the importance of the Puyang battlefield, more than one local tyrant believed that it was impossible for the Han army to spend too much force or time to deal with them. Most of them felt that a delay would usher in an opportunity to change the situation.Furthermore, they have another plan. For example, the Han army won on the Puyang battlefield, and betraying the same powerful or the small court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty at Jieshi is also a means of meritorious service. (similar to the puppet army transformed into a revolutionary warrior)
Time passed bit by bit. From the time when Huan Wen ordered the surrender of local powerful people to the Han army camp outside Xincai City, about 40 prisoners of war had gathered. He finally besieged Xincai No. [-] for six days. The first siege order was issued.

Chu Po, the patriarch of the state who has been in a state of intoxication, learned that the Han army was attacking the city. He was taking drugs with a group of acquaintances and friends a moment ago. of the city wall.

"This Zongzi can't hold back enough!" Chu Po's face flushed, which was the prelude to Wushisan's medicinal power.He shouted to the left and right: "We have a tall and strong city wall, sharp defense equipment, and soldiers who are united as one. The Han army will surely be beaten to death!"

First, the generals and a group of literati cheered for Chu Po's face, then the guards of the Jin army were led to shout, and then the war drums joined in the chorus, looking at Xincai City, the morale was really high.

Zhang Mi is a general with a miscellaneous name. Unlike Chu Po and many other "dressed southward crossing" families, he was born in an authentic southern family. The aboriginal families in the south have always had conflicts, which is the status quo of the aboriginal families in the south being suppressed by the aristocratic families who migrated from the north.

"Boss, it looks like..." Zhang Mi didn't want to speak at all, because he was excluded from the banquet held by many aristocratic families just now, and he was very upset in his heart.The problem is that everyone in the city has become a grasshopper on a rope. He has to remind: "The people who are about to attack are the people who were forced to come here?"

Chu Po didn't know if he heard it, but he just said "huh" and closed his eyes.

Chu Po was not the only one who was in the wrong situation. All the people who attended the drug banquet just now seemed relatively weird. They were either being supported to close their eyes, or they were dancing and running around like a madman, adding to the serious and tense atmosphere. Added a kind of...bewitching?
Amidst the sound of beating drums, Huan Wen gave the order to attack. In a moment, nearly [-] mobs who were forced forward by the servants ran towards Xincai.

It should be said that those who were captured and brought to Xincai City to be cannon fodder were slave soldiers, and there were almost any ethnic groups among them, so that whether it was clothing or shouting "kill", the language was quite confusing.

The slave army that launched the attack did not have any siege equipment except the city ladder. It was impossible for them to have sophisticated weapons or armor. Even their shields were made of crudely assembled wooden boards. They ran to the top of the city and the Jin army's crossbowmen When within the shooting range, the city defenders fired long-range attack weapons, including eight-horse crossbows, strong crossbows, and strong bows. The screams were endless the moment the arrows fell.

The Jin army defending the city already had a high advantage, and they still had relatively sophisticated equipment. Under the constant rain of arrows, the 150 slave army didn't even get 300 steps closer to the city wall. After two or [-] people died, they turned around and fled.

Huan Wen, who was sitting on the high platform with the Da Ma Jin Dao, frowned when he saw the slave army's damage and retreat. He ordered sullenly: "The supervisor team warns the archery first, and if they don't turn around and kill the city, then shoot all of them." die."

Yuan Qiao opened his mouth to speak, but before he could speak, Huan Wen had already given the order, so he had no choice but to say nothing.

There was such a scene on the battlefield. The slave soldiers were first shot to pieces by the Jin army defending the city. When they ran back, they were warned by the servants to shoot arrows. The warnings were invalid and the servants immediately covered them.

Those scenes made the soldiers of the Jin army on the top of the city stand upright, which also caused an uproar from the slave army.

The uproar and restlessness of the slave army in the camp did not bring about any good things. Where the noise was the loudest, they were shot by arrows, and if there was organized resistance, they were divided and killed.

"Uncle Yan." Huan Wen's demeanor looked a little cold, and he said depressedly: "We need more slave soldiers."

Yuan Qiao's response was merely to nod in agreement.He actually thinks that Huan Wen has become more and more impetuous recently, and his murderousness is also bullish day by day. Of course, it is because of the new news from other battlefields. The friendly troops in Nanyang County also completed their goals and marched to Puyang.

Seeing others doing things one after another that he was eager to participate in, Huan Wen was dragged in place and couldn't move.

(End of this chapter)