Liu Bei was surprised for a moment, but then he thought about it and realized that what Zhuge Liang said seemed reasonable.
It was only a matter of time before Yecheng was besieged. Once Liu Bei and the main force of the Han Dynasty were all surrounded in Yecheng, and lost contact with the outside world like Li Yang, the collapse of the entire Han Dynasty would be irreversible.
Thinking about the situation where Li Yang was besieged and Guan Yu was forced to eat people, Liu Bei felt extremely sick in his heart.
"Yes, I must leave Yecheng, I must!"
Liu Bei had an idea in mind, but he was worried: "What the Prime Minister said is absolutely true, but Yecheng is the capital of the Han Dynasty. If I give up here, I'm afraid it will also have a big impact on the morale of the army and the people."
Zhuge Liang took a deep breath and said seriously: "If your majesty trusts me, I am willing to lead one army to defend Yecheng, while your majesty will lead another army to station in Handan to ensure food routes for me. With this kind of internal and external coordination, we will be able to persist until the end of the war."
The Yan thieves retreated."
This time, Zhuge Liang chose to take the initiative and defend Ye City.
Because Zhuge Liang knew very well that Yecheng was the core of the Han Kingdom. Once Yecheng was lost, even if Liu Bei was still alive, he would never be able to recover.
Only by guarding Yecheng can the Han Dynasty survive.
Given the current situation, Zhuge Liang thought to himself that no one under Liu Bei was capable of the task of defending Yecheng. At this time, he had no choice but to step forward and take on this important task.
Zhuge Liang was extremely confident in himself. He believed that as long as he commanded Yecheng and Liu Bei's support from outside, he would be able to defend this strong city.
Liu Bei was also a little surprised. It seemed that he did not expect that Zhuge Liang, who always sought stability, would take the initiative to defend this isolated city this time.
At this point, there seemed to be no other better way. Liu Bei thought for a moment and wanted to agree to Zhuge Liang's request on the spot.
But just a second before he agreed, Zhuge Ling's letter of surrender suddenly appeared in Liu Bei's mind.
Liu Bei's heart suddenly became more worried.
His thoughts were racing, and after weighing for a long time, Liu Bei's eyes moved slightly, but he had an idea again.
He stroked Zhuge Liang's shoulder and said: "The Prime Minister understands the righteousness and is willing to stand up for me at this time. I am really pleased. However, I cannot let the Prime Minister carry this burden alone."
Zhuge Liang was happy at first, and then surprised again, not knowing what Liu Bei meant.
"Let's do this. I will leave Cao Ren in Yecheng. I will share the army and horses with the prime minister and support each other to defend the city. I will move my troops to Handan to defend the food road for you."
Liu Bei did not let Zhuge Liang guard Yecheng alone, but chose to leave Cao Ren in Yecheng. It was clearly to assist Zhuge Liang, but in fact it was to divide Zhuge Liang's military power and prevent him from acting arbitrarily.
Although Liu Bei believed in Zhuge Liang's loyalty to him, Zhuge Ling's letter of surrender somewhat undermined his trust in Zhuge Liang.
It was for this reason that Liu Bei decided to leave a general to restrain Zhuge Liang.
Cao Ren was the number one general of the Cao family. Not only was he proficient in military tactics, but he also hated Yan Liang deeply. Based on this alone, Liu Bei absolutely believed that Cao Ren would not surrender to Yan Liang.
With Cao Ren and Zhuge Liang, Yecheng will be safe.
Zhuge Liang didn't know about the letter. He only thought that Liu Bei felt that since he had never led an army before, he was worried about leaving him alone to defend the city, so he left Cao Ren behind as well.
Zhuge Liang had no doubts at all, and just cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty is wise, I and Cao Zixiao must do their best to protect your Majesty and win the throne."
"Well, I believe in you. If there is only one person left in the world who I can trust, that person is the Prime Minister." Liu Bei looked directly at Zhuge Liang, his face full of trust.
Zhuge Liang's figure was shaken, and his eyes also showed relief and emotion.
Two days later, Liu Bei led 40,000 soldiers and horses out of the city at night and retreated north to Handan City, dozens of miles away.
Following Liu Bei out of the city were his queen Liu Shi, crown prince Liu Chan, and numerous concubines from the harem.
Zhang Xiu, Han Meng, Xu Huang, Chen Dao and other generals also left with the emperor.
Of course, it was impossible for Liu Bei to explicitly say that he withdrew from Yecheng to avoid danger. He gave himself a high-sounding reason: hunting in the north.
Since ancient times, emperors have had the tradition of leaving the capital for hunting tours, and it is normal to take their wives, children, and children with them during this period. However, Liu Bei announced his hunting trip to the north at this time, and anyone with a discerning eye could see that he was avoiding danger.
The information that Liu Bei was retreating to Handan soon reached the Chu camp.
The civil and military personnel of the Chu State were a little surprised by this information and could not believe that Liu Bei would choose to leave Yecheng at such a critical time.
Yan Liang sneered: "Have you forgotten? What Liu Bei is best at in his life is escaping. This man has never put himself in danger. Now that he has escaped from Yecheng, what's so surprising?"
Yan Liang knew Liu Bei so well that he could reveal Liu Bei's thoughts with just one word.
"Your Majesty is right. If Liu Bei stays in Yecheng, he can only wait to be surrounded by us. If he is surrounded, it will be strange if the other states and counties of Han State do not fall apart." Fazheng also agreed with Yan Liang's judgment.
In this way, the ministers were no longer so surprised by Liu Bei's escape.
At this time, Pang Tong stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Liu Bei retreated to Handan himself, but left Zhuge Liang and Cao Ren to guard Yecheng. Apparently he wanted to echo the internal and external response and hold on until our army could not attack for a long time and retreated."
"Huh, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang still don't understand me. This time, if I don't take Yecheng, I will never retreat."
At this time, Yan Liangteng stood up, looked around the generals, and said boldly: "Everyone, Liu Bei has escaped now, and there are only tens of thousands of remnants of the enemy left in Ye City. From today on, I want you to do your best not to break Ye City.
Don’t give up.”
Yan Liangqiantian's heroic spirit inspired the generals. The blood of these good generals was burning crazily.
"We will never give up until we destroy Ye City——"
"We will never give up until we destroy Ye City——"
The generals with high fighting spirit waved their fists, roared and roared, and their fighting spirit burned crazily in the big tent.
The military meeting was concluded that day, and Yan Liang made new arrangements.
Yan Liang ordered Wen Chou and Fazheng to lead 60,000 troops and fortify themselves near the water in a small town fifteen miles north of Ye City to stop Liu Bei in Handan.
Yan Liang then led an army of 140,000 troops and ordered his generals to encircle Yecheng on all sides.
The encirclement was completed, and in order to capture Yecheng as soon as possible, Yan Liang ordered the army to launch a violent attack on Yecheng for ten days.
All kinds of siege methods were exhausted, and the Chu army suffered countless casualties, but the city of Ye still stood firm and motionless.
Yecheng's city wall was twice as thick as before, and the powerful city-breaking artillery bombardment caused no substantial damage to Yecheng's city wall.
Cao Ren's army commanding ability was extremely strong, and with Zhuge Liang's advice, he repeatedly defeated the Chu army's earth-mountain and tunnel attacks, and thwarted several of the Chu army's strong attacks.
The attack lasted for ten days. Yan Liang realized that it was obviously unrealistic to capture the strong city of Yecheng by force.
At dusk that day, another strong attack failed. Yan Liang stood on his horse and looked at the majestic Yecheng from a distance. After pondering for a long time, he ordered the entire army to retreat.
On the top of the city, Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan lightly and looked down at the Chu army retreating, with a sneer on his lips.
"Tie Yan, if you want to capture Yecheng, Zhuge Liang is here. Don't even think about it." Zhuge Liang murmured to himself, with a look of contempt on his face.
Not far away, Cao Ren also had a proud look on his face and snorted coldly: "Yan thief. Although I, Cao Ren, can't kill you now to avenge my Cao family, but this time, I will try my best to let you have a taste of military service."
What it’s like to be under a defeated city!”
The two Han ministers were very proud. The low morale of the Han soldiers who had repulsed the Chu army also rose sharply. They shouted and cursed at the retreating Chu army, all of them were proud and arrogant.
Yan Liang withdrew his troops and returned to the camp, and went straight back to the imperial tent, where he summoned all the civil and military officials to discuss a new strategy for breaking the city.
"The city of Ye is extremely strong, and Cao Ren is also very capable of commanding the army. In addition, there is Zhuge Liang. I think that if our army continues to attack forcefully, it will only be a loss of soldiers." As soon as the meeting began, Zhao Yun stood up.
Come out to oppose the continued attack.
At this time, Pang Tong also said: "Our original strong attack was only tentative. I think the result is now obvious. The strong attack can be stopped and it should be changed to siege tactics."
Yan Liang nodded slightly and agreed with the proposal of the two civil and military forces, and then said: "Since we can't attack by force, we can only trap Yecheng to death. The Han army will run out of food and civil strife will arise. What strategy can you use to siege food."
When Yan Liang asked this question, all the ministers immediately expressed their opinions.
The opinion of most people is naturally to follow the example of the Liyang battle and build earthen walls around Yecheng to completely cut off Yecheng's connection with the outside world.
Pang Tong raised objections to everyone's plan.
Pang Tong believed that the situation in Yecheng was very different from that in Liyang at this time and that the same method may not achieve the same effect.
First of all, the city of Yecheng is extremely wide. Its area alone is three times larger than that of Liyang City. This means that a wall that is at least five or six times longer than that of Liyang must be built to completely isolate Yecheng from the outside world.
Five or six times the length, that is, at least forty to fifty miles, it is obvious that the amount of work required to build such a long wall is huge.
It would be enough to simply build the wall, but the key lies in how to ensure that when the wall is being built, the Han troops in the city will not come out to destroy it.
At the time of Liyang, it was because Guan Yu had lost his troops and generals and did not dare to send troops. Now in Yecheng, Cao Ren and Zhuge Liang still have at least 30,000 troops. With their abilities, they will not sit back and watch the Chu army show off in a majestic manner.
The wall will be destroyed by troops.
Furthermore, even if the wall is repaired, on the forty-mile long wall line, even if the Chu army has 140,000 besieging troops, there is no guarantee that troops and horses will be deployed everywhere outside the wall.
In this way, the Han army could still send troops to destroy the wall at will.
The same method of building walls and besieging a city is suitable for Liyang, but it is obviously not suitable for besieging a super large city like Yecheng.
After Pang Tong explained, everyone realized that their proposal was inappropriate. For a while, they had no other choice. The originally heated atmosphere quickly fell silent.
Although Pang Tong raised objections, he had no better way for a moment.
Yan Liang's brows also wrinkled slightly.
In the silence, someone coughed dryly and said slowly: "Your Majesty, I have a plan, which may be able to completely surround Ye City."
Yan Liang perked up and looked up, only to see that the person who spoke was none other than Jia Xu.