Yijing is adjacent to Yishui in the south. Previously, Gongsun Zan had his soldiers dig dozens of deep ditches around it and divert water into them to keep the enemy at bay.
While Yuan Xi was in Beixin City, Yuan Shao had already attacked Yijing several times, some tentatively and some wanting to break the city in one fell swoop, but they were all repulsed by Gongsun Zan.
It wasn't until the Black Mountain Army rebelled and launched a sneak attack on Yecheng that Yuan Shaofang withdrew his troops and began to focus on attacking the Black Mountain Army. It wasn't until last year that the Black Mountain Army was so beaten that they dared not leave the Taihang Mountains, and then he freed up space to attack Yijing.
Of course, Gongsun Zan will not sit still and wait for death, and will definitely cooperate with the Black Mountain Army. However, it has to be said that the cooperation between the two sides is not very good, otherwise Yuan Shao would not be able to defeat each other and be forced to the current situation.
It was late autumn at this time, and the Yishui River was drying up. Previously, Jizhou mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to dig out the Yishui River and divert it, or block the upper reaches, so the army took the opportunity to cross the river.
The dozen or so deep ditches outside Yijing City are just ordinary ditches since there is no river water, and almost all of them have lost their use.
Yuan Shao also ordered the people to cover the ground and fill it up one by one, approaching the city of Yijing step by step.
If there were airplanes in this era, looking down from a high altitude, you would see a spectacular sight.
On the vast land with a radius of dozens of miles around Yijing, countless ant-like civilians were busy digging, carrying soil, filling landfills, cutting down trees, erecting villages, and building walls.
The densely packed camps, as dense as mung beans, are continuous on the hills and beside the river. The dots are connected to form lines, and the lines are connected to form surfaces. Tens of thousands of soldiers are patrolling back and forth inside.
If you raise your field of view a little higher, you can see hundreds of thousands of scouts patrolling and galloping in all directions within a range of hundreds of miles, monitoring the movements of enemies on all sides at any time.
Then there are the long lines, which are grain trucks transporting grain from various places. They set off from Jizhou, Qingzhou, Youzhou and other places, like long twisting snakes, heading straight to Yuan Shaojun's camp.
Yuan Shao claimed to have mobilized an army of 200,000 this time. In fact, there were not that many, but there were 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers, followed by several times more civilians.
Calculated in this way, the number of people mobilized did exceed 200,000. This is a war that only the wealthy Jizhou can launch in today's world.
Not to mention Youzhou, Yuan Xi's three cities only had more than 10,000 soldiers and civilians.
Although Qingzhou, where Yuan Tan is located, was once very prosperous, with a population of three million at most, during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, millions of people joined the Yellow Turban Army. In the past ten years, it suffered from natural and man-made disasters, the people's livelihood was ruined, and the population plummeted.
Moreover, Qingzhou had just gone through a great war and its vitality was severely weakened. Yuan Tan vigorously recruited Qingzhou for the battle of Yijing, which also aroused a lot of backlash, and finally managed to mobilize tens of thousands of people.
So the real big head is still Jizhou.
In today's world, Jizhou is the most powerful state after Jingzhou. In terms of population and economy, it is comparable to several other states combined.
Even in later generations, Cao Cao attacked Jizhou for several years and slaughtered many people. After conquering Yecheng, he could still find a mobilizable population of 300,000 in Jizhou's household registration.
That's why Yuan Shang is determined to occupy Jizhou. Even if he only has Jizhou, he can still be invincible. Even if Qingzhou and Youzhou combined, he is still far behind.
This is also the reason why Yuan Shao dared to fight a war. Jizhou kept a low profile for a year, just for today's battle!
And surrounded by the Jizhou army all over the mountains and plains, the lonely city of Yijing seemed so small.
Of course, this is a perspective from a high altitude, but only when you are actually on the battlefield will you understand how difficult Yi Jing is to fight.
On the watchtower on the mound, Yuan Xi stood with a telescope and carefully watched the city wall of Yijing in the distance.
In the past few days, more than a dozen deep trenches have been filled in, forming several passages that lead directly to the city wall of Yijing. Hundreds of catapults are gradually advancing under the guard of soldiers, and they continue to fire stones, hitting the city wall of Yijing.
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However, the city wall of Yijing is quite strong. Stone bullets the size of watermelons hit the city wall, leaving only a shallow dent.
What makes it even more troublesome is that this city wall is not only taller than the average city, but also has at least five or six walls inside and outside!
However, Yuan Shao's counselors soon discovered the weakness. There were too many city walls, which resulted in weak defense of the front wall.
The catapults began to change direction and focused on bombarding several city walls. Gongsun Zan's soldiers where they were located scattered to avoid them.
Yuan Shaojun did not rush to the city, but began to roll out carts one after another. These were wooden carts with huge wooden wheels and a large space underneath, enough for soldiers to stand.
The difference is that its top is covered by a row of logs, much like an ordinary baggage cart turned upside down.
The soldiers and civilians hid below, slowly approaching the city wall until they completely reached the bottom of the city.
The rack trucks at the back followed up and got behind the front truck, and then the trucks at the back followed in turn, forming a smooth passage.
The farmer under the front truck began to take out the digging tools and started digging the soil at the base of the wall. The excavated soil was transported out along the long passage.
Dig a tunnel!
The reason why Yuan Jun chose to dig the ground instead of storming the city wall was because even if he attacked the city wall, there would still be several walls of defenders behind him, and they would have to fill them with human lives one after another.
In contrast, digging tunnels directly over these walls has become the safest method at present.
When the defenders at the top of the city saw this, they hurriedly poured down the golden juice from the rolling stones to prevent the enemy from digging the city.
However, Yuan Jun's cart was covered with thick logs. When these things hit it, the cart only vibrated slightly, and the people below were not affected at all.
Seeing Yuan Jun's unscrupulous digging of soil, the soldiers on the city wall became anxious and rolled rocks down desperately, but with little effect.
At this time, Tian Kai came to the top of the city and shouted: "Use tung oil to light the wood and throw it down!"
The soldiers at the top of the city suddenly realized what they were doing and quickly acted according to the law. They pushed the blazing wood down the city wall and smashed it onto the cart.
Not long after, the front truck was hit with more than a dozen burning logs and started to catch fire.
The defenders at the top of the city cheered, but they saw the civilian soldiers below the driver pushing the burning cart far away. The cart behind took the opportunity to push it up, and blocked the digging area!
Upon seeing this, Tian Kai ordered to collect wet firewood, lit it and threw it down the city wall. Smoke billowed under the wall for a while, and Yuan Jun and the civilians were so choked that they couldn't stay under the cart and fled in all directions.
The defenders at the top of the city took the opportunity to poke their heads out and shoot them one by one with bows and arrows.
As a result, roaring sounds were heard, and Yuan Jun's catapults began to attack the city head again, suppressing the archers and preventing them from coming out.
Yuan Jun took the opportunity to carry the ladder and climb up to the city, preparing to dig tunnels and suppress the enemy together.
Gongsun Zan's army at the top of the city knew that if the city was lost, the other side would dig tunnels more unscrupulously, and the archers would risk their lives to shoot at Yuan's soldiers.
Yuan Xi clearly saw the attack and defense through the telescope, watching both sides constantly adjusting their strategies to deal with it, and he realized that the battlefield is the best teacher for counselors and generals.
You can never truly learn to fight by talking about war on paper.
Guo Jia beside him was also watching with a telescope. Yuan Xi did not hide this telescope for himself. He had some craftsmen make some in Yecheng and gave them to his most familiar counselors and generals.
Seeing Guo Jia nodding and shaking his head sometimes, Yuan Xi was curious and said, "What do you think, Mr. Fengxiao?"
“Is this city’s strategy wrong?”
Guo Jia shook his head and said: "No, there is nothing wrong with this siege strategy. It can be said to be quite good."
"But what I don't understand is that this way of fighting can only lead to a war of attrition."
"Even if the offensive is so urgent, it is far from exhausting the tens of thousands of soldiers in the city within a month. On the contrary, the siege army will consume a lot of money."
"Then there is only one possibility. It is safest to surround three people but only one is missing. Let the city defenders escape and then wait for an opportunity to defeat them."
Yuan Xi nodded and said: "That's true. The north and southeast are all blocked, and only the west gate is left. Is there anything wrong?"
"If it goes in other directions, it is all territory controlled by our army. If it is left, the enemy is likely to continue to hold on."
"The west is the direction from which the Montenegrin Army will come for reinforcements. Leaving this door open will make Gongsun Zanjun think that if he breaks through, he will be able to fight against the Montenegrin Army, thus firming up his intention to escape."
"At that time, our army can take advantage of the opponent's breakout, intercept and pursue it, and completely defeat the Montenegrin army before it arrives. Isn't this the best choice?"
Guo Jiadao: "This is the truth."
"But if it were me, I would have left the south gate open and at the same time transferred most of the soldiers away from the Central Army."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi understood and laughed.
Guo Jia is cruel to others and also to himself.
In later history, Guo Jia once suggested that Liu Bei, who had defected to Cao Cao, be placed under house arrest and flooded Xia Pi, which showed that he had a fierce and decisive side.
If this kind of person uses it well, it can be more powerful than a tiger. If it is not used well, it will affect the original intention.
However, Guo Jia's dangerous strategy of leaving his central army free this time to lure the opponent out of the city to attack and kill the coach might have been adopted by Yuan Shao five years ago, but it is probably unlikely now.
Moreover, Guo Jia's statement is very subtle. Why does it seem that he has other intentions?
He looked sideways at Guo Jia and found that his expression was as usual, wondering if he was overthinking it?
When Yuan Xi turned his head and continued to look at the battle situation in the telescope, Guo Jiacai sighed with regret.
My own thoughts are still a little too outrageous.
It would be best if the enemy stormed into the camp and killed both Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan, or if Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan accidentally died in the chaos of the camp robbery.
The young master can command the Jizhou army, then attack Gongsun Zan, return to Yecheng and kill Yuan Shang, and he will be the lord of the North.
This is the fastest way. Since the young master is pretending to be stupid, he should pretend that he never said it.
The attack and defense at the head of the city lasted for three days and three nights.
There were more than a dozen tunnels dug under the city wall without stopping, and Gongsun Zan's army began to dig deep ditches behind the city wall to stop them.
Yuan Jun initially dug the tunnel downwards, and Gongsun Zan's army also dug downwards. As a result, Yuan Jun began to dig horizontally.
Finally one night, the first city wall collapsed in several places, killing many civilians on both sides of the tunnel.
A gap appeared in the first city wall, and Yuan Jun took the opportunity to attack through the gap and reached the bottom of the second city wall.
At this time, Tian Kai in the city woke up. Yuan Jun was rushing to dig beds on the city wall from the beginning!