In early November, Deng Ai led more than 10,000 infantrymen to carry food and grass, and went down the Yangtze River, passed through Zhongdu River, and transported to Pengcheng.
Upon learning that the food and grass were transported, Lu Xun sent Wei Feng to lead five thousand cavalry to escort the whole process to ensure safety.
When Deng Ai and others entered the boundary of Xiapi County, Xiahou Ba also received the news and was very disappointed. The two sides confronted each other, and he and Lu Xun were in a stalemate in Qiao County, and Wei Ba and Zhang He were playing near Pengcheng, and no one could do anything to anyone
.Now that Wei Ba has reinforcements and food and supplies arrived, the situation is very unfavorable to the Wei army.
Whether it is Zhang He, Sima Yi, Wei Ba, or Lu Xun, the two sides sent the strongest lineup this time, and neither of them had any obvious advantages. It was expected that the battle situation would enter a stalemate. But Xiahou Ba knew very well that now
Wei State is no longer the former Wei State. Half of its country has been lost and has been fighting for years. The country is weak and the people are poor, and its strength has been greatly weakened. The entire battle formation is maintained by Qingzhou and Jizhou, and it is already in a dilemma.
Wei Ba could spread the grain supply in Jiangnan, but Wei could no longer find more sources of supply. If the battle could not be resolved in the short term and gained a decisive advantage, Wei would be defeated.
If the opponent changes another person, Xiahou Ba will use cavalry to raid the opponent's supply line. Long-distance raids are the tactics that cavalry is best at. Cutting off the opponent's supply line can not only attack the opponent, but also eat from the enemy, which is a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.
Whenever the battle is in a stalemate, both sides will consider this tactic.
Judging from the number of cavalry, Xiahouba obviously has a better advantage.
But he didn't dare because his opponent was Lu Xun.
They fought fiercely in Qiao County for more than half a month. Judging from the situation, Xiahou Ba and others were attacking. Lu Xun had been defending, but Xiahou Ba knew that he had not taken any advantage. It would be too much to find Lu Xun's flaws.
It's hard. Compared with the apparent offensive, Xiahou Ba and others were actually very careful, for fear that Lu Xun would find the flaw and be caught off guard.
Rather than saying that the army under Lu Xun made Xiahou Ba afraid, it is better to say that Lu Xun made Xiahou Ba afraid.
Xiahou Ba could only watch this opportunity slip away from his eyes. He hoped that Zhang He could stop Wei Ba and trap Pengcheng to death. In fact, he himself knew very well that with Zhang He's troops, this task was already difficult to complete.
He just hoped that Zhang He, a veteran, could create miracles. Pengcheng was too important to let him control it in Wei Ba's hands.
Xiahou Ba really wanted to rush to Pengcheng. At least some of the people rushed to Pengcheng to support Zhang He, but he couldn't. Compared with Pengcheng, Qiao County's strategic position was not important, but its political position was very important. He could not leave easily, so he could only go with
Lu Xun confronted him here until the emperor's edict or the general's military order arrived.
...
Deng Ai and Wei Feng quickly walked into the central army camp. When the tent door was lifted, Wei Ba walked out of it, clapped his hands and smiled, "The two brothers came together, and they were welcomed by mistake. Please forgive me more.
.”
Although Deng Ai was Wei Ba's distant cousin, he never dared to regard himself as a cousin in front of Wei Ba. After hearing Wei Ba's words, he subconsciously took a step back and let Wei Feng walk in front.
Wei Feng laughed happily, held Wei Ba's shoulder, lowered his voice and said, "Ziyu, your sister-in-law asked me to tell you, your move is indeed too high. Now that Iron Made is sufficiently funded, the progress has been greatly accelerated.
It is estimated that the start-up time will be six months ahead of schedule.”
"That's a good thing." Wei Ba said with a wicked smile: "It's because my sister-in-law is well-organized. Her ability to make money is three points better than Yuanrong."
"Where are there." Wei Feng said a few humble words with a smug look, and was so happy that he couldn't stop talking.
Everyone thought that Weijia Tiezuo had developed a new technology for horse armor, so they were waiting for the order to start production. In fact, Weijia Tiezuo only developed a new alloy technology and completed trial production. It was still a long time before the real mass production.
The distance and development funds required are even more amazing. Without the deposit investment of several large orders, it is impossible to officially put into production in a short period of time.
So Wei Ba came up with a solution. He showed off his horse armor in Liaodong, showed his might and tried his best to exaggerate the power of the new horse armor, forcing all parties to avoid being at a disadvantage, so as to buy horse armor from the Wei family Tiezuo in order to avoid being at a disadvantage.
, without even seeing a piece of armor, I paid a huge deposit first. They had no idea that it was these deposits that supported the production of Wei's ironworks. Without these deposits, it would be impossible for the entire army to have a large area of new horse armor.
accomplish.
The reason for this misunderstanding is that they do not understand the technical development model of Weijia Tiezuo at all, do not know the difference between experimental production and mass production, and of course they did not expect that Wei Ba would use such shameless tricks to make a fortune.
From beginning to end, the only people who really know the inside story were Wei Ba and Wei Feng, and even Wei Yan didn't know it. He kept complaining that Mrs. Xi would not give priority to equip his cavalry. If all the cavalry under his jurisdiction were equipped with horse armor, where would he still have to do it?
It will make Xiahou Ba arrogant.
Only Wei Feng understood that if Wei Ba could do this, he would never be stingy with these ten thousand sets of horse armor. The problem is that the Wei family Tiezuo can't produce so many horse armors at all now, so how can he equip him?
The two brothers laughed knowingly, and Deng Ai sat quietly aside. Wei Ba and Wei Feng said a few family matters and turned to Deng Ai and said, "Brother Shi Zai, what's the situation in Jiangnan?"
Deng Ai bowed and took out a letter and handed it to Wei Ba. This was written by Changsha Prefect Zhang Biao to Wei Ba. The main content was to report the harvest situation in Changsha this year.
Changsha is the most populous county among the four counties in Jiangnan. If we do not count the foreign household registrations attracted by Wei Ba after he entered Jiangnan, but based on the population at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the population of one county in Changsha is comparable to that of the other three counties.
Total. Even now, Changsha County is still the most populous among the four counties in Jiangnan, half of the number of Lingling, which ranks second. Changsha County was included in the rule of Wei Ba, which plays an important role in Wei Ba's growth in strength.
Zhang Biao understood this very well, so he knew the important task on his shoulders very well. Wei Ba asked him to be the prefect of Changsha not because he did a good job in his article, but because he hoped that he could take on this important task. And Zhang Biao
I also hope to use this opportunity to revive the Zhang family in Guanghan and to clear my father Zhang Song's name.
Zhang Song was one of the heroes of Liu Bei's entry into Shu, but because Zhang Song was killed by Liu Zhang before Liu Bei succeeded, and Liu Bei himself died a few years ago, so the status of the Zhang family in the Shu Han court was a bit embarrassing. They were Yi
The people of the state were rejected by the people of the Dongzhou, but they were not accepted by the Jingxiang Group. If this were not the case, Zhang Biao would not have decided to come to join Wei Ba at the beginning.
Now that Wei Ba has given him a chance, he must perform well. Every August, after the autumn harvest, it is time for each county to count the population, money, grain and taxes. Before the end of the year, each county will send officials to the capital to the prime minister and go to the capital to
The report of the government was harvested. As the military commander of the commander of the counties in Jiangnan, Wei Ba of course also had to receive a report, but this report was usually not so fast and he could not see it until the end of the year. Zhang Biao asked Deng to
Ai brought the report to Wei Ba in advance, and also took advantage of Deng Ai's advantage.
Wei Ba roughly scanned a few numbers and was very satisfied. "Borda's ability is enough to be a qualified prefect, what is his official voice?"
"It's okay." Deng Ai said two briefly, directly bringing the topic to the war. "General, Pengcheng has been surrounded for four months, right?"
Wei Ba was so amused and cried, thinking that this guy was indeed a person who didn't understand human relationships. No wonder he was killed by Zhong Hui in the end. He asked back: "Brother Shizai, what are the good suggestions?"
Deng Ai said without hesitation: "The general is in Pengcheng and cannot play the strengths of the navy. After all, he will not be safe at sea. Tens of thousands of troops confront each other, and the Wei army's cavalry is dominant. Once they find an opportunity to break through...
…Attack is likely to be a defeat…a situation of defeat. Soldiers are more important than victory, but not long. In the opinion of Ai, it is better to break Zhang He’s wall as soon as possible and send food, grass and weapons to Pengcheng.”
Wei Ba smiled and said, "Brother Shizai thought who could take this important task?"
Deng Ai stood up and bowed: "The general led the... navy and the general led the bandits as cavalry, are not good at stairs and... infantry battles, so... I will be the vanguard."
"I knew you were not kind." Wei Feng jumped up and cursed with a smile: "You are unwilling to rest along the way, just because you are so bored in Changsha. You want to come to Pengcheng to enjoy it."
Deng Ai smiled awkwardly and explained: "I really don't...that's not what I mean, okay, I do have...a little bit of this, but, quick fight...to make a quick decision to avoid long dreams...more, this
It is indeed the military...the art of war is important."
Wei Feng also wanted to say that Wei Ba waved his hand and signaled them to sit down. "What Shi Zai said is very much, and you are the vanguard, which is the most suitable one. Zirou, you lead the cavalry to cover the flanks."
"Here." Wei Feng put away his smile and responded seriously.
"Shizai, you come from afar and work hard. Take a rest for two days before fighting again." Wei Ba pointed at Deng Ai: "Zhang He is a famous veteran, rich in experience and has no gaps to attack. You must be careful."
"Here." Deng Ai bowed and took the order.
...
Under Pengcheng, in the Wei army camp, Zhang He paced back and forth in the tent with his hands behind his back. Zhang Xiong and Tian Fu knelt in front of him, his face gloomy.
They just received news from Tian Yu that Wang Ling was still stationed in Lu County and refused to go south to support him. However, Wei Ba's reinforcements had already arrived in Pengcheng, with a force of more than 23,000, which was nearly 10,000 more than them.
.
Their advantage is that they have more cavalry, but considering that Wei Ba's cavalry may be equipped with horse armor with strong defense capabilities, the advantage of cavalry number may be offset, and Wei Ba's attacks and their defenses cannot fully utilize the advantages of cavalry.
They are already at a disadvantage due to the big discount.
If Wei Ba starts attacking now, breaking their encirclement and sending food, grass and weapons to Pengcheng, all their hard work will be in vain.
"I'll send Xiahouba to let him move closer to me and set up a camp in Xiaoshan." Zhang He was silent for a long time and ordered: "Jinjiang, write another letter to your father, let Wang Ling stay in Lu County, and ask him to go south to support our army,
Take Pengcheng together.”
Zhang Xiong reminded: "General, Xiahou Ba wants to protect Qiaodu."
"Luoyang can't be defended anymore, so why should I defend Qiaodu?" Zhang He waved his hand: "Only by taking back Pengcheng can you defend Qiaodu. If Pengcheng is lost, my Great Wei will probably only be left to defend Yecheng."