Wu Qi said: There is no danger in Germany.

Mencius said: The time is not as good as the place, and the place is not as good as the people.

Some people say: The most dangerous thing in the world is better than people's hearts.

These words may sound a bit Confucian pedantic, but you have to admit that people have always been the most important factor. If people don't have the heart to defend, even a strong city will not help.

Therefore, Uncle Li, a master of thieves, said that the hearts of the people are scattered, and the team is not easy to lead.

This is exactly the case in Wuguan.

Suddenly blocked the retreat by the enemy from Nanyang, and the leader of the army was Wei Ba, who was born out of thin air and had an almost mythical record, which was tantamount to a bolt from the blue for the Wei soldiers in Wuguan. Wei Ba fought with the hussar general's father and son in Wuguan Road, and the incident of beating them to the ground is vivid, he set a fire in Wuguan, and the anxiety on the city wall has not dissipated until now, he actually came again.

And it's from behind.

Wei Ba has not attacked the city, but the Wei soldiers in Wuguan City did not dare to relax because of this, on the contrary, their mood became more nervous because of the long wait. When they found that more than 20,000 people had come from the direction of Shangxian and blocked the way to Wuguan with Wei Ba, they were even more devastated.

There is a strong city, but there are only more than a thousand remnants, the enemy is behind him, and the reinforcements have not arrived for a long time, all of which are squeezing the confidence of the Wei soldiers. Not everyone has a strong and resilient heart, and when they don't see any hope of success, most people choose to live in secret.

When Ma Tan wrote a letter of persuasion to surrender and sent it to the city, the Wei army guards wisely chose to surrender. Since Cao Yu and Wu Qiu Jian can surrender. There was no reason for him to fight to the end.

Wuguan was self-defeating, and Ma Jian recovered Wuguan without much effort, regained control of Wuguan Road, and got a lot of grain and grass stored here, and was in a good mood. He immediately wrote a joint letter to Li Yan with Wei Ba and Deng Zhi, Wuguandao had already started, and next, their 30,000-strong army would go straight to Daoyang, wanting to join forces with the hussar generals. Kill Cao Rui. Cleanse the Central Plains.

Ma Yan's letter was written impassionedly, and although Li Yan didn't like his tone very much, he was still very happy that so many reinforcements had arrived. He then sent a letter back to Ma Yan. That's to put it mildly. I hope to recover Jingxiang with Ma Youchang. Realize the unfulfilled wishes of Guan Hou back then, and make a modest contribution to the revival of the Han Dynasty.

This sentence was intentionally or unintentionally courted to Wei Ba. Who is Guan Hou? The idol of Wei Ba's father. Lady Wei Ba's father. Taking Guan Hou as a banner is undoubtedly the most face-saving for Wei Ba.

While they were politely tempting, Cao Rui was a little anxious. The loss of Wuguandao was expected, but it did not alleviate Cao Rui's anxiety. Ma Jian led more than 20,000 people from Guanzhong to help, which was undoubtedly worse for Wei Guo, which was already in a bad situation.

Cao Rui's hatred for Ma Jian was no less than Wei Ba, and his beloved daughter Cao Shu was frightened to death because she was attacked by Ma Jian in Fancheng. After two years, when Ma Jian appeared again, he was no longer a military strategy, but a heavy general with an army of 20,000 in his hands, how could he not be frightened if he wanted to stab him in the right rib?

Cao Rui immediately convened the ministers to discuss the matter, and soon set up blocking positions in Lixian, Champion, and Suixian along the turbulent water, as the western defense line of Wancheng.

Wei Ba and Ma Jian soon came to the city of Lixian.

Lixian was on the west bank of the turbulent water, and the Wei army set up a large camp on the east bank of the turbulent water, and erected a pontoon bridge in Lishui for countermeasures. The big camp on the east bank and the county seat of Lixian on the west bank supported each other, although the Shu army was fierce, but it could not travel long distances by land, and when Xiangyang and Xinye were in the hands of the Wei army, it was impossible to transfer from Danshui to turbulent water. The naval superiority of the Shu Han army could not be brought into play, so they could only rely on the attack of foot soldiers to break this line of defense.

In this way, the Wei army has the advantage of both strength and geographical advantages, if the Shu Han army does not make a surprise move, it will be difficult for them to really get close to Wancheng, and the two sides can only stalemate, which is in line with Liu Ye's plan for Cao Rui. Since the offense is insufficient, and the rules are more than enough, then the offense is replaced by defense, and the two sides face off to see who can outweigh whom. Once the Shu Han army could not support it, the Wei army could enter the counterattack, at least to keep the entire territory of Nanyang.

Ma Tan started victoriously, but there was still a long way to go to turn the tide of the battle.

In the big tent, Wei Ba, Ma Yan, and Deng Zhi surrounded the sand table, planning how to attack Lixian, while analyzing the entire situation.

"Ziyu, the prime minister has surrounded Ji County for two months, once the Qiang people are assembled in place, the total strength of the prime minister will be seventy or eighty thousand, while Ji County only has five or six thousand people, ten times the number of troops, and it will take about a month to break the city."

Ma Yan twisted his fingers, his tone soothing, but there was some nervousness in his eyes. He was forced to this point by Wei Ba, and joined forces with Li Yan to attack Nanyang, in fact, he had broken with Zhuge Liang, although he didn't like Li Yan, but he didn't want to be dragged by Li Yan to defeat miserably.

"I don't think it's that fast." Wei Ba stared at the terrain around Wancheng with his eyes, and said lightly: "Ji County is a big city, Hao Zhao has been guarding Hexi for more than ten years, and he is quite popular, and the preparation for this battle is too long, there is no suddenness at all, Hao Zhao is only afraid that he has made sufficient preparations." The prime minister wants to break the city quickly, I'm afraid it will not be easy. ”

"The prime minister has prepared a lot of siege equipment, do you think he has been idle for the past two months?" Ma Tan glanced at Wei Ba: "His preparation will not be worse than Li Yan's preparation outside Xiangyang City, and Ji County is far less solid than Xiangyang." ”

"There is a person in Jicheng who may cause a lot of trouble to the prime minister." Wei Ba retracted his gaze and looked at Ma Jian with a smile: "You have been in Guanzhong for so long, don't you know that the Fufeng Ma family also has a genius in mechanics?" ”

Ma Jian raised his eyebrows: "Ma Jun? ”

"Well, he should be in Ji County." Wei Ba chuckled: "The ships that the prime minister used to transport grain from Hanzhong were built by Ma Jun and were ready to enter Guanzhong from Shangqi and Weishui. It's just that I don't know weishenme, Hao Zhao zuihou didn't dare to come in, otherwise Cao Zhi might not be so passive. ”

Ma Tan rolled his eyes: "Can this person's mechanical skills compete with Cheng Xiang?" ”

"It should be on par." Wei Ba said with a smile: "The prime minister has a lot of opportunities, how much energy can he put on machinery?" Ma Jun is a Jishu expert, he has no distractions, he is dedicated to studying mechanical skills, and his achievements are not low. I've seen his modified ballista and thunderbolt, and they're much stronger than Zhang Fen. ”

"How do you compare?"

Wei Ba was silent for a moment: "I stand taller than him, my vision is wider, that's all." ”

Deng Zhi didn't interject, and when he heard this, he sighed lightly: "If that's the case, there is Ma Jun inside, Tian Yu outside, and the prime minister's advantage is very limited." If the war cannot be resolved before spring ploughing, wouldn't it be a dilemma? ”

"Then it depends on how the prime minister copies." Wei Ba waved his hand and changed the topic: "Cao Rui is determined to defend Nanyang, if we blindly attack, not only will the progress be slow, but the casualties will inevitably be not small." In my opinion, Sun Quan also needs to step up his efforts and stab Cao Rui from the left. If Lu Xun could occupy Kunyang, Cao Rui probably wouldn't be so confident. ”

Ma Jian and Deng Zhi nodded in agreement. Ma Jian pondered for a moment, glanced at Wei Ba again, and said with a playful smile: "However, Cao Rui retreated to Wancheng, and Sun Quan may also have ideas in his heart." If you don't give him a weighty guarantee, I'm afraid you won't be able to tempt him. ”

Wei Ba scratched his head and sighed: "Don't hide it from Brother Chang, I'm also worried about this." ”

Deng Zhi looked at them, and then at Fa Miao. Fa Miao's face did not change, as if he had not heard anything. Deng Zhi sighed secretly, although everyone was an alliance of abandoned children, he could clearly feel that there was obviously some tacit understanding between Ma Tan and Wei Ba, which he had no chance to contact at all.

……

Zhuge Liang stood on a mound as high as the city wall, looking at Jicheng in the distance, sighing secretly, and a trace of anxiety passed through his heart. The Qiang people came one after another, and the total number of troops had reached 70,000, and under his deliberate management, the city of Jicheng was besieged to the ground, and it seemed that there were about 100,000.

He thought that under such circumstances, it would be a matter of course to send Jin Xiang into the city to persuade Hao Zhao to surrender, but he never thought that all his good intentions would be in vain. Hao Zhao not only refused to surrender with righteous words, but pointed out several disadvantages of the Shu Han army.

Hao Zhao said that although there are many Qiang people, the Qiang people do not understand the method of battle formation, and they are a group of rabble, which is easy to move and difficult to settle. It is even more undesirable to use them to attack the city, as it is very easy to cause a large number of casualties and even demoralize.

The Qiang people are not good for attacking the city, but the food is no worse than the people, and the arrival of a large number of Qiang people will aggravate the food supply difficulties of the Shu Han army. Even if grain is transported from Hanzhong, it is difficult to meet the food needs of nearly 100,000 troops for a long time. More importantly, the Shu Han army did not have a formed cavalry, although Tian Yu was defeated in Xianqin, the cavalry did not suffer any losses, and they would inevitably cause great trouble to Zhuge Liang's baggage transportation.

Zuihou a little, Jicheng is strong, people's hearts are stable, there is Tian Yu policy outside, Zuihou deer is dead, it is not yet known. Therefore, the matter of persuasion to surrender will be spared, and you should save some spirit to attack the city.

Zhuge Liang had to admit that Hao Zhao's reliance was exactly what he was worried about. The reason why he was unwilling to recruit Qiang people to help him unlimitedly was because the food supply was a big problem, and even if there were newly built wooden oxen and horses to transport grain, it would be a heavy burden to supply an army of about 100,000 for a long time. The longer the time drags on, the worse it is for him.

Especially when there is Li Yan competing with him.

"Prime Minister, let me go into the city." Jiang Wei looked at Zhuge Liang's lonely back and plucked up the courage to say.

"You can't go, Hao Zhao is resolute, if you go, he won't surrender because of this, but may ruin your life because of it, I am a general in vain."

Jiang Wei's eyes were red and he was a little choked. Wei Yan on the other side heard this, but he couldn't help but snort. Although Zhuge Liang didn't look back, he also knew that it was Wei Yan, and he was stunned, and he couldn't help but regret it. He knew that this sentence gave Wei Yan an idea, but it was not easy to explain, otherwise he could only describe it more and more black.

He was secretly sad, he didn't know how he had come to this point, as if the harder he worked, the more Jing Xiang crossed away from him, and now not only Ma Yan went to cooperate with Li Yan, but even Wei Yan was a little distracted.

How did things come to this?

The human heart is indeed the most elusive thing...... (To be continued......)

PS: The second update, ask for a monthly pass!