Chapter 474 Kuai Liang's Worry
When it comes to defending a city, the key is often not whether it can be defended or not, but the mentality of the soldiers defending the city.
In history, the number of cities that were captured through violent attacks probably accounted for less than 20% of siege battles.
The reason why most of the defense battles ended in failure was not because the attacking army was too strong and could break into the city by relying on brute force.
Rather, the city ran out of ammunition and food, or the soldiers saw no hope of winning, their morale was low, their mentality collapsed, and they suffered internal defeat.
From a bird's eye view, many city defense battles can be easily defended. The soldiers defending the city clearly have a great advantage, and they can win by just doing nothing and holding on for a while, but they just don't hold on, which looks stupid.
But only when you are actually there can you truly feel the inevitability of the city's fall.
Because people are people after all, not machines or NPCs who would be afraid or timid.
When there is no news from the outside world, the enemy's offensive is getting more and more fierce, and comrades around you fall one by one, even the most firm belief will be shaken.
Although Liu Bei could not fight a truly desperate siege, he had no problem changing the mentality of Pang De's soldiers. After all, he had more troops, and Pang De's army was indeed an isolated force now.
An isolated army that can only passively take the beating.
Pang De was a man of steady temperament. After being ambushed by Wei Yan, he realized that there were many capable people in Liu Bei's army, so he had long given up the idea of counterattack or counter-ambush.
He knew very well that Zhang He would not sit idly by and watch him, and as long as he held on, he would win.
He knew better that Ba County was much more important to Da Qi than Quren County. The moment he saw Huang Zhongjun appear, he was relieved.
As long as he could hold on, even if it was just for a little while, Yizhou would be stable. Even if he was sacrificed here, the strategic goal of the Great Qi would have been achieved.
It's a pity for these nearly 10,000 engineers. It is not easy to train engineers who are both educated and capable. For Da Qi, it is almost like losing 100,000 troops.
Liu Bei naturally knew that taking Quren County and losing Ba County would not be worth the loss, so he was anxious to take Quren County at this time.
After all, he was well aware of the strength of the Da Qi siege force. Even with Tian Yu leading nearly 10,000 soldiers to garrison and block the enemy layer by layer, they would not be able to hold out for too long.
If he failed to capture Quren County before then, Liu Bei could prepare to return home.
After all, Quren County is just an ordinary county town. Who knows whether Zhang He has the ability to build a "second one".
Although he was in control of Ba County, Liu Fan had not handed over several county towns along the Yangtze River in the county to him for sovereignty considerations. Now they had been taken over by Zhang He. Otherwise, Zhang He's engineers would not have been able to arrive smoothly.
In the western part of Quren County, there are Linjiang, Pingdu, Zhixian and other county towns that must be passed through.
It wouldn't be difficult to attack these places, but what if one of them was strengthened by Zhang He...
Liu Bei found it hard to accept this ability to turn ordinary terrain into a natural barrier.
This also made Liu Bei a little annoyed that he did not pay enough attention to Yizhou in the beginning. If he had realized the problems under Liu Fan's command in advance, he could have guarded Jinniu Road and Micang Road by himself, and let Yan Yan hold the fort in Jiange.
It’s a pity that it’s too late to regret now. There is no medicine for regret in this world.
He felt helpless about the ability of the Great Qi to utilize and transform its geographical advantages.
After Tian Ze's army entered Shu, Zhang He felt relieved and stepped up his attack on Ba County, which made Tian Yu miserable. Although he was good at defense, he felt powerless in front of siege weapons such as the Thunderbolt Chariot.
Sir, times have changed!
The emergence of the Thunderbolt Chariot meant that defenders no longer had to lean against the city walls and stand still, but had to pull them up and down.
At the same time, Tian Ze's army was steadily advancing towards Qunin County.
Lu Xun already had a plan for how to deal with Liu Bei's army, and he did not rush to Quren County. Instead, he stayed in Zhi County, which was far away along the Yangtze River, for several days to build warships.
Thanks to the fact that Yizhou already had some warships, and Tian Ze came here well prepared, not only did he have all the necessary supplies, but he also brought three thousand engineers.
In just a few days, they managed to build a ship capable of carrying tens of thousands of troops.
Of course, due to the urgency of time, these ships could basically not be used for naval warfare, but were only used for temporary troop transportation.
Afterwards, when everything was ready, Lu Xun commanded his army down the Yangtze River.
Relying on Tian Ze's "small map" talent, Lu Xun was reckless and had no worries about being discovered by Liu Bei's scouts. Whenever he discovered scouts in advance, he would send a small group of elite troops off the ship to attack and kill them.
Although Huang Zhong would notice something was wrong sooner or later, as long as the army's marching speed was fast enough, Huang Zhong would definitely not be able to react in time.
After all, these scouts are far away from Quren County, so it is impossible for them to report every day. They must be stationed on the spot and report only when they find a problem. At most, they can only report once every few days.
When they got closer to Qunin County, facing the dense scouts, Lu Xun stopped his advance and began to prepare for a night attack.
At this time, Liu Bei had not yet noticed the problem, but Kuai Liang felt vaguely uneasy.
"My lord, is there no news from Chang'an?" Kuai Liang asked again.
Liu Bei, who was discussing the next offensive with Pang De, frowned when he heard this: "No."
"Zi Rou, you also know that Chang'an is more than a thousand miles away from here, and there are many checkpoints set up by Tian Ze along the way. Hanzhong is under martial law, and we need to take a detour through Jingzhou. It will probably take at least half a month for the news to arrive."
The road to Shu is difficult not only because of the difficulty of marching, but also because of the difficulty of transmitting information. Therefore, under normal circumstances, both the attacker and the defender should be completely in the dark about the external situation and can only rely on pure speculation. By the time they get confirmed news, it is too late.
However, this does not include the cheating Tianze.
"Zirou, are you worried that Tian Ze will use his talent to detect the situation in Yizhou in advance and send troops from Chang'an to support us?" Pang Tong heard the hidden meaning in Kuai Liang's words and asked.
Kuai Liang nodded slightly, his expression solemn: "Shi Yuan, now we have gathered a large number of troops around Quren County. If Tian Ze leads a large army to come, I am afraid the situation will be extremely unfavorable to us."
Pang Tong nodded slightly, but still shook his head and said, "Zi Rou, if we are worried about this, we will have no choice but to give up Shuzhong and defend Ba County to the death."
"But although Ba County is easy to defend and difficult to attack, logistics is a problem! If we can't take over the Yangtze River waterway, all the supplies can't be delivered from Jingzhou to Ba County, and it will be difficult to hold on for a long time."
Pang Tong had considered the possibility of Tian Ze sending troops, but he had no other choice.
No matter what, Quren County must be taken. Otherwise, we can only retreat to Jingzhou in disgrace, which is unacceptable in any way.
(End of this chapter)
