Shu Han Confucian General of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 292
Just when Zhao Feng led his army into the Meridian Valley Road, in the west of Jicheng, Ma Chao led 8 Xiliang iron cavalry, together with tens of thousands of horses from various Qiang tribes, a total of 3 troops were stationed in the small city of Beiyuan. [-] horses confronted here.

Ma Chao knows the terrain of Jicheng area very well.At the same time, Meng Jian also relied on the Longshan Mountains to defend against Ma Chao.Meng Jian knew that he didn't have a general like Ma Chao under him, and his troops were at a disadvantage. Although he would not be able to hit a stone with an egg, it would basically be a dead end.

"The city walls of Jicheng are very dangerous. If you attack with a large army, the casualties will be heavy, and you need to think of a perfect plan." After inspecting the terrain of Jicheng, Tian Feng, who accompanied the army to plan for Ma Chao, had basically given up on the plan to attack .After hearing Tian Feng's words, Jiang Jiong, who came with the army, knew that he was interested.

"Then according to your opinion, what's the best way?" Jiang Jiong asked.After pondering for a while, Tian Feng said: "Although there are not many good strategies at the moment, you can still try it. General Ma, just now I inspected Jicheng for a week. The water used by the people in Jicheng comes from the Weihe River. A tributary. If it is cut off, the people in the city will definitely be confused due to lack of water!"

"It's so good!" Ma Chao had a carefree temperament, so he naturally didn't notice these problems, so he dispatched [-] troops to start work overnight, cutting off the waterway of Jicheng.As Tian Feng expected, after two days, Jicheng became a little unstable.

Although Meng Jian has also been active in the Yongsi area these years, he doesn't know Xiliang very well after all.In his opinion, Jicheng is not a mountainous area. Even if you cut off my river, I can still dig deep wells in the city to get water.However, the land of Xiliang was extremely dry, so Meng Jian ordered people to dig wells to fetch water several times. Finally, the mouth of the well was dug to a square of one foot, but they could only get a few pots of muddy water.The tens of thousands of people and the army outside the city can barely survive on this little water.

"Well, Ma Chao, you actually thought of cutting off my water source. I underestimated you. This time I have lost the game." Meng Jian said bitterly.He knew that Ma Chao didn't have much food and grass. Although Yin Shang, the prefect of Longxi, had defected to Ma Chao, he had already sent people to harvest all the immature wheat greens in Longxi. The army is about a month.Guanzhong has a good harvest of grain this year, so Jicheng can continuously transport grain from Chang'an and several large granaries nearby. Even if Meng Jian sticks to it for a year, grain and grass will not be a problem.At present, Meng Jian sent people around the city to appease the hearts of the people, saying that the enemy army would retreat in ten months, and then they could dig the river and continue to divert water.After repeated reassurances from him, the people in the city finally calmed down a bit.People, as long as they can see hope, there is still hope after all.But Meng Jian also vaguely sensed that something was wrong at this time. With Ma Chao as a person, how could he not rush forward and attack with force.It seems that in the Xiliang army who came to attack this time, besides Ma Chao himself, there should be someone else who made suggestions for him.At present, while Meng Jian is defending the city, he has sent agents to inquire about the news many times without mentioning it.

Two days later, Xizuo brought him two amazing news: Ma Chao sent general Pang De to lead a partial division to attack Jieting City, and Pound led another partial division to go south to Wudu County to contact the Di people tribe, preparing to encircle and wipe out The Hande tribe entrenched in Wudu County.He was defending Jicheng, but it seemed that Ma Chao didn't come to fight him at all.

"Sir, if the street pavilion is lost, then everything is in danger!" General Zhao Ang exclaimed when he heard Ma Chao's actions.No one will forget that when Ma Chao regained Xiliang a few years ago, the truly tragic battle took place in Jieting.Zhao Feng was here at the time, blocking Xia Houyuan and Cheng Yu's westward advance, and then Ma Chao was able to regain Xiliang.Times have changed, and if Ma Chao captures the Jieting now, he will not necessarily have to go to Jicheng when he marches into Guanzhong in the future.Once the Xiliang iron cavalry stepped into the Guanzhong Plain, Meng Jian and Sima Yi couldn't stand it anymore.

Compared with a few years ago, Jieting has been greatly improved now. The small city of Jieting has been abandoned. Zhao Feng ordered people to build a big city at the key point of the five-road intersection to guard the key point.But even so, Meng Jian wasn't sure whether Jieting could hold against Ma Chao's attack with the five thousand defenders.

Of course, Meng Jian didn't dare to deploy troops to rescue Jieting easily, because among the 3 defenders under his command, there were also about [-] cavalry, and the rest were infantry.Of the more than [-] cavalry in the entire Guanzhong, almost half were transferred to myself to guard against Ma Chao.And Ma Chao has a full [-] Xiliang iron cavalry under his command, plus the Qiang cavalry. Once he acts rashly, it is quite easy for the opponent to make a long-distance surprise attack, encircle and annihilate them.

After thinking and thinking, Meng Jian finally said, "General Zhao, you lead [-] cavalry from Jicheng to the east and pass through the pass to guard the street pavilion. When you arrive, defend the city to the death, and don't fight lightly!" Meng Jian said It is also relatively safe to do. If you go outside the pass to rescue Jieting, although the distance can be shorter, you are likely to be surrounded and wiped out by Ma Chao. With Zhao Ang's ability, you will definitely die.It is a little farther to walk through the pass, but under the footsteps of the cavalry, this distance will only take less than a day.To be on the safe side, it's better to go this way.

"The end will save you!" Zhao Ang also knew his own affairs, and knew that if he encountered Ma Chao in a field battle, he would definitely die, so his advice to Meng Jian was also good.After a pause, Zhao Ang asked again: "It's just that sir, General Han De in Wudu County, I'm afraid someone still needs to come to meet him!"

"As long as Sanguan and Jieting are guarded, then the pass will be as safe as Mount Tai!" Meng Jian pointedly said. Although Zhao Ang is not very smart, he can also hear the meaning of Meng Jian's words: Han De is basically an abandoned son. .Wudu County is easy to attack and difficult to defend, and it is also the place where the Di people live together. In recent years, there have been frequent wars, and the Han people have basically migrated to Hanzhong. It would be no pity to lose it.

What Meng Jian didn't expect was that Ma Chao and Tian Feng's goal was neither Wudu, nor Jieting, nor Yinping, but Jicheng.After He and marched into Wudu County, Tian Feng and Jiang Jiong led their troops from Wudu County to the north, bypassing Jicheng and going straight to Shangbang County.

Shangbang County is located in the center of Guanzhong and Jicheng, and the county magistrate is Liang Qian, Liang Xu's younger brother.After his elder brother's friend came to the city and read Liang Xu's letter of persuasion, Liang Qian immediately surrendered without any psychological pressure.Tian Feng led his people to settle in Shangbang County, and without doing anything else, he immediately cut off the grain road from Guanzhong to Jicheng.

From Jicheng in Guanzhong, most of the places are flat plains, so it is very convenient to transport grain.Now that Shangbang County is strangled to death, the food in Guanzhong will not be transported immediately, and the tens of thousands of defenders in Jicheng will only be hungry.Of course, Shangbang County is not a dangerous place. Even if it is defended, as long as Guanzhong sends troops to attack, it will be difficult to defend if there are insufficient troops.But now there are not many soldiers and horses in Guanzhong except for the various pass stations.Even if Jingzhao Yin Zhongyou wanted to send troops, he could only send soldiers and horses from the pass to attack Shangbang.

In a word, Tian Feng is now blatantly bullying Sima Yi's lack of troops, so he uses this seemingly unreasonable strategy to cut off the food road by occupying Shangbang.It's also because Sima Yi was too supportive. In history, when Cao Cao defended Ma Chao, he just relied on Sanguan to hold on. How could he deploy the defense line to the front line of Longxi.But Sima Yi couldn't do it. He already had little capital. If he lost Longxi again, he would really have to stick to Guanzhong.Now every inch of land lost is like cutting a piece of meat to Sima Yi.Humans, once personal interests are involved, it is difficult to make accurate judgments.

Of course, there are other benefits to occupying Shangbang.Zhao Ang, who didn't know that Shangbang had fallen, led his 1 horses who were preparing to rescue Jieting, and rushed to the city of Shangbang.Under Tian Feng's instruction, Liang Qian did not play Liu Bei's banner, but welcomed Zhao Ang into the city, and when he hosted a banquet, he caught Zhao Ang by surprise.Almost without bloodshed, Tian Feng solved Zhao Ang.Now only Meng Jian was left in Jicheng with neither food nor water to drink, and had to face Ma Chao, the evil spirit.

Thirst is tolerable, but hunger is unbearable.But on the tenth day, the defenders of Jicheng could no longer hold back.In the past few days, the defenders could only eat a little bread every day, and they were already hungry.Although all the wheat greens in the three counties of Longxi had been harvested, the April wheat greens could not be used to satisfy hunger.While Meng Jian had no water or food, Ma Chao didn't understand his situation and began to attack the city with a large-scale army.In fact, during Tian Feng's feigned attack on Wudu these days, Ma Chao was not idle. He sent people to cut wood everywhere, built nearly a hundred simple Perak chariots, and began to attack Jicheng day and night, almost Meng Jian was not given a chance to breathe.

The result is self-evident, how long can the defenders with no food and water hold out against such a strong attack.Three days after the siege, the exhausted defenders left the city to surrender despite Meng Jian's repeated yells to stop.Ma Chao was overjoyed and sent people into the city to arrest Meng Jian.Finally, Ma Chao, under the influence of his brother-in-law, is more measured in his work now, unlike before, the people of Jicheng escaped a catastrophe.

When the tied-up Meng Jian was sent to Ma Chao, the famous Runan scholar did not kneel down and beg for mercy.Glancing at Ma Chao contemptuously, Meng Jian asked directly: "Good strategy, cut off my drinking water first, then pretend to attack Wudu and Jieting, and finally cut off my food roads and force me to fight to the death. This series of tricks is by no means Ma Chao. You, a martial artist, can come up with something, but who came up with it?"

"Hey, it's a good strategy to win you!" Ma Chao is a good-looking person, so naturally it cannot be said that it was Tian Feng's strategy.Seeing Meng Jian's arrogance, Ma Chao didn't bother to continue entanglement with him, and directly led the army to Shangbang to join Tian Feng and others.At about this time, Zhao Feng had already entered Meridian Valley Road for four days.

"If all goes well, we will be able to walk out of this valley in at most seven days!" Wang Ping reported after walking through the most dangerous section of the mountain road.After hearing this, Zhao Feng ordered people to take out four carrier pigeons that accompanied the army, wrote four letters and tied them to the legs of the pigeons, and then let them fly.

"General, did you inform General Zhang that you can mobilize troops?" Zhang Ni who was on the side could see clearly and couldn't help asking.

"Almost!" Zhao Feng replied.Looking up at the sky, the pigeons have become smaller and smaller. After turning into small black spots, they are finally invisible. The blue sky and white clouds are very clear. Finally, I am lucky. rain.

(End of this chapter)