Qin Official

"The Waihuang Order is going to fight to the end."

Seeing that the two or five hundred people sent by Lord Yang Xiong to shout for surrender were shot back by a burst of arrows at the bottom of the city, Hei Fu shook his head and said to the few chiefs beside him.

They arrived in Waihuang County yesterday evening. Waihuang was originally a city of the Song Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn Period, but returned to the Wei Kingdom during the Warring States Period. The size of this county is similar to that of Anlu County. Because it is located in the hinterland of Wei State, it rarely encounters wars. Waihuang's defense capabilities are far inferior to Chenliu. The walls are only three feet high. At this time, the city gates are closed and the city is crowded. , preparing for defense.

When everyone heard this, they were not worried but happy, because if the city surrendered without attacking, they would not get any credit. "Looking at the preparations at the top of the city, Waihuang's morale is not low. This may be our first tough battle."

After saying that, Heifu looked back at his own camp. After they arrived yesterday, in addition to a thousand soldiers, there were also a thousand prisoners and garrison soldiers who came from Daliang to join them, a total of two thousand people. Then, under Yang Xiong's order, he dug up soil and cut trees, and hurriedly built a camp for the soldiers to settle down.

After establishing a foothold and the enemy city refused to surrender, fighting became the only option. Soon, messengers came to find Heifu and asked him to go to the big tent with other commanders and generals to listen to orders...

This kind of large tent for thousands of people is actually a little wider than ordinary tents. Yang Xiong, who can also be called the "leader", is sitting in the middle. On his left and right hands are two five hundred masters from Nanyang. Zhang Yan from Wancheng, and Cheng Wuyou from Nanjun Yidao.

More than a dozen generals and commanders were sitting at the bottom. Heifu's position was far away from the main seat but very close to the tent door. It can be seen that his status in this army was not high.

Although Yang Xiong is a member of the clan and likes to be particular about clothes and accessories, he doesn't talk too much. He quickly asked: "I was ordered by Zhong Geng to recruit Waihuang from the north. However, Waihuang ordered did not know the general trend. The soldiers and disciples in the commandery city are fighting stubbornly. Therefore, the people have gathered together and will not disperse, and the soldiers have left without returning. This city must be taken! Do the two or three sons have a strategy to destroy the city?"

Wancheng Wei Shi Zhang Yan was always good at planning, so he held up his hands and said: "The method of using troops is to surround an enemy ten times and attack it five times. But now our army only has more than 2,000 people, but there are thousands of strong men in Waihuang City." After the scouts went around the city to investigate, they said that on each of the southeast and northwest walls, there were soldiers in armor, guests with swords, and people from the market with farm tools, at least 500 people. In total, the enemy and our forces were of equal strength. I am afraid that the method of siege and siege will not be effective."

Yang Xiong said: "Oh, what do you think the five hundred masters should do to attack the city?" "The Art of War says that you don't have to win a battle, you can't talk about fighting, you don't have to pull out to attack, you can't talk about attacking." According to the officials, it's better to ...Luring the enemy out of the city! "

Heifu listened below and shook his head secretly.

Zhangjiu was born in a school and learned a lot of laws and wars, but he had never fought in actual battles a few times, so he was quite following the plans.

He had previously proposed to march all night and launch a night attack on Waihuang, and Yang Xiong also adopted his suggestion. But when Heifu and the others arrived in Waihuang after running for thirty miles panting and wearing armor, they discovered that Waihuang Ling in the city was not a fool. He was very vigilant and had long detected the approach of the Qin army. The city gates and city walls are brightly lit with torches, and the knights and county soldiers are patrolling all night, waiting for them!

At this time, Zhang Ye was still saying excitedly: "We pretended to be tired from running fast, and asked the prisoners and garrison soldiers to disperse and challenge the city, while the elite soldiers were hidden in the camp. The number of strong soldiers, soldiers, and retainers in the city were equivalent to our army. , Waihuang ordered to see that our army was tired and scattered, and might go out of the city to fight. He could first let the garrisonmen fake defeat, lure them to pursue them, and then set up an ambush. After annihilating the enemies who left the city, they would then attack the county seat. In this way, the remaining enemies in the city would be destroyed. Already timid and demoralized, it’s easy to take out the outer yellow!”

He was thinking happily, but Hei Fu found it funny. Since the commander in chief in the city was not stupid, it was undoubtedly a fool's errand to rely on poor acting skills to lure the enemy out to fight in the field.

Besides, if you can defend the city, why risk going out of the city to fight in the field?

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the nobles paid attention to fair and square battles. Everyone would set up a posture in the wild and decide the winner or loser within a day. Even Sun Tzu's epoch-making Art of War rarely talked about siege because of the limitations of the times, and even said that siege was the next best thing.

But by the Warring States Period, siege was already something military strategists had to face.

The population density and land development level during the Warring States Period were very low compared to the era after the unification of the Han Dynasty. The low population density means that the main population and resources are concentrated near the main cities; the low degree of land development means that the transportation conditions are limited. Before the Qin State vigorously carried out transportation construction, even in the Central Plains, the main roads were very limited, and counties There is often only one post road connecting it to the county.

The above two points determined the style of war attack during the Warring States Period, which could only be based on a flat push, that is, conquering cities one by one along the post road, with at most a few encirclement points to block reinforcements.

Because the concentration of population and resources determines that the attacker must capture city strongholds, and it is meaningless to occupy an undeveloped land that is empty of birds and animals; and limited road transportation has a negative impact on the advancement of the army and the transportation of logistics supplies. This imposes great restrictions, and it is destined that the attacker cannot bypass the enemy's frontline cities and engage in leapfrog operations.

Therefore, the attacker's offensive route can basically be determined, and the defender only needs to concentrate all its main forces on a major city on the enemy's offensive route and defend it tightly. Even in the Battle of Yanying, the Qin army had a huge advantage, but it was still unable to bypass Yancheng and attack the hinterland of Chu State, so Bai Qi had to struggle to pull out the city.

Therefore, at a strategic level, the battlefield environment during the Warring States Period was indeed beneficial to the defender.

In terms of tactics, in the era of cold weapons, the defenders had a great advantage in attacking the city. A few thousand people could often hold back tens of thousands of soldiers, unless there were a few who were not afraid of death and opened the city gate to fight hard.

That Huang Ling Zhang Er is obviously not this kind of person. He is also afraid that the Qin army outside the city is just the forward, with a large force behind it.

This is what Heifu thinks in his heart, but he is not stupid enough to refute his superior's proposal in public. He can only hope that General Yang Xiong can reject this plan.

However, what is surprising is that Yang Xiong adopted it again and asked everyone to go down immediately to make preparations, either to lure the enemy or to hide in the camp as an ambush. "What does this leader want to do?" Hei Fu was a little confused. Judging from his words, Yang Xiong was not a stupid person who didn't know how to fight.

Sure enough, as Hei Fu expected, after letting the prisoners and garrison troops leave the camp casually and pretending to challenge them for a day, the gate of Waihuang was still closed, and the Waihuang order had no desire to attack. The county knight Zhang knew what he wanted. He could defend for three to five days, repel an attack and prove that he had not let down the Wei State, and then he could run away.

Seeing that his strategy failed again, Zhang Ye looked a little ugly. At this time, the leader Yang Xiong comforted him and put forward the real battle plan. "It seems that this foreigner must be attacked by force!"

Looking at Yang Xiong's smiling face, the man behind the tent finally figured it out.

The leader, Yang Xiong, who was born in a clan, seemed to have no independent opinions. He called everyone to ask for advice every time he fought, but in fact, he was a very scheming person. He seemed to always want to deliberately let Zhang Ye, who liked to make suggestions and steal the limelight, come up with some ineffective strategies. After Zhang Ye was slapped in the face, Yang Xiong stood up again and put forward what he thought.

In this way, on the one hand, he can be praised as being good at listening to the opinions of his subordinates, and on the other hand, he can make decisions at critical moments every time and reverse wrong strategies.

Sure enough, after Captain Yang expressed his true thoughts, everyone in the tent immediately aroused admiration. "In the past two days, although I seemed to have sent people to lure the enemy to attack, in fact, this was just a trick. The real purpose was to let the craftsmen build siege equipment. Now that the siege equipment is ready, the enemy's first few attacks The morale of the enemy has also slackened. From tomorrow on, the second and third sons will attack the city with all their strength!"

Finally, Yang Xiong concluded with a sentence from Yi Zhong, expressing his determination to go outside.

"The Art of War says that soldiers are better than the court, better than the wilderness, and sometimes better than the market. Only those who dare to fight can win, but those who surrender will fail! Second or third son, may I ask who is willing to climb the city first tomorrow?"

While talking, Yang Xiong turned his attention to Heifu!