My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 616 Fa Zheng: It doesn't matter if Zhang Ren ran away. I didn't plan to attack Luocheng.

You can't have your cake and eat it too; this is the law of nature.

In order to discourage the defenders of Mianzhu from fighting to the end and to prevent them from engaging in a desperate struggle, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan surrounded the city on three sides and left one side open for more than a month, leaving the entire south side of the city wall open for the enemy to retreat.

Such a deployment could certainly shake the defenders' will. Once they were at a disadvantage in a frontal fight, or the attackers gained a foothold on the city wall, the defenders would panic and think of escaping.

However, the disadvantage of such a deployment is also obvious, that is, once the defenders really collapse and flee, the attackers will not be able to surround and annihilate them.

At most, they could send light soldiers and fast horses to chase after them for a while and capture as many as they could. But if the retreating enemy army chose to flee in all directions, the attackers could only choose a few teams to chase, and most of the others would still successfully escape.

Of course, readers who are well versed in the art of war may think: Couldn’t Wei Yan have set up some ambushes thirty or fifty miles south of the city in advance, and suddenly rushed out to intercept the fleeing defenders and kill them all?
This idea is of course a good one. When Luo Guanzhong wrote Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he often arranged this kind of exciting plot. But unfortunately, combined with the geographical environment near Chengdu Plain, this trick does not work.

Mianzhu City is located at the gap where the Qingcheng Mountain Range and the Longquan Mountain Range meet on the north side. It is a strategic pass that cannot be bypassed 200 miles north of Chengdu. Once you pass Mianzhu City, the south is a completely flat plain.

Moreover, Chengdu has been a land of abundance since ancient times. During the long period of peace, there were many people and little land, so the land that could be cultivated had long been fully and thoroughly developed. With Chengdu as the center, the core plain within a radius of 200 miles was all flat and fertile farmland.

It would be difficult to find some hills or dense forests in this place. You can't ambush in an endless field, right? Moreover, it is the coldest time of the year now. There is no grass or straw in the field. It is all bare. Even a wild boar can't hide.

If Wei Yan wanted to set up an ambush in advance, he would have been discovered by the enemy long ago, and would have ended up making things worse.

Objective conditions did not allow an ambush, and the final result was obvious.

After Zhang Fei and Wei Yan's vanguard troops entered the city, Zhang Ren quickly collapsed and fled. Wei Yan's reaction was already quick. He quickly sent people to go around the south gate to stop as many as possible. After stopping them, he also divided his troops to pursue them for 20 to 30 miles. Only when the enemy army completely fled did he reluctantly withdraw his troops.

On Zhang Fei's side, within the past few hours, he had broken through and controlled all the gates in Mianzhu, and carried out street fighting to clear the streets.

The remaining enemies in the city did not put up much resistance, and by nightfall, they were basically forced to land in an organized manner. There were only a few scattered guerrillas who were still taking advantage of the situation to loot, and it would probably take a few days to completely restore order.

Zhang Fei and Wei Yan both stayed up all night, one clearing the way and restoring order, the other chasing the enemy until they could no longer pursue them and then turning back. The next morning, the two met and roughly counted the results of the battle.

The total number of soldiers defending Mianzhu City was about 16,000 to 17,000. In the previous bloody battles, the casualties were about 3,000 to 4,000. When the city was finally breached, there were still more than 4,000 remaining enemies in the city, among whom hundreds of thousands were killed or wounded in the final chaos, and the rest surrendered.

The total number of enemy troops that escaped from the city was about 7,000 to 8,000, but 2,000 of them were blocked by Wei Yan at the city gate and forced to land, and more than 1,000 were killed or captured during the pursuit. In the end, about 5,000 people managed to escape.

It’s a pity that Zhang Ren was not found among the captives. He must have escaped with one of the remaining troops.

At that time, Wei Yan was afraid that Zhang Ren would flee directly back to Chengdu and affect the difficulty of subsequent battles, so after leaving the south gate of Mianzhu, he chased him all the way to the southwest. Most of the fleeing enemies captured by him also ran in this direction, that is, to Chengdu.

Now that I think about it, Zhang Ren did not choose to escape directly back to Chengdu, but fled due south, towards Luocheng, to join Wang Lei.

Not all of the more than 5,000 soldiers who escaped would return to the army, and it is estimated that a considerable number of them would take the opportunity to desert. However, there would always be 2,000 to 3,000 loyal soldiers who would follow Zhang Ren and flee all the way back to Luocheng in order to fight again.

After learning of the result, Zhang Fei was helpless and could only sigh for a while and put the matter aside for the time being.

There is no point in regretting what has already happened. Besides, taking Mianzhu was already a great achievement, it just wasn't done to perfection.

They hadn't slept for a whole day and night and were extremely tired. So they decided to eat and rest for a day and discuss the next strategy tomorrow.

Zhang Fei opened several treasuries in Mianzhu City, rewarded the soldiers with a feast, and then went to rest.

……

The next day came in a flash.

Zhang Fei, who had slept for six or seven hours, woke up refreshed. After washing, eating and drinking, he called Wei Yan, Fa Zheng and Wu Yi to discuss the subsequent countermeasures.

The fact that Zhang Ren ran away could be a big deal or a small one. The key lies in how we use it.

After everyone arrived, the atmosphere was quite harmonious. After all, they had just won a great victory, and the escape of some enemy generals was just a small problem.

Wu Yi, who had not had much opportunity to show his abilities before, was the first to say: "Our army was able to capture the important town of Mianzhu in just over a month, all thanks to the courage of General San and General Wei, and the proper planning of Xiaozhi.

After this great victory, even if Zhang Ren escapes, he will certainly be terrified. Moreover, the soldiers under his command who escaped back will certainly spread the word of our army's swift and fierce offensive among the Luocheng defenders. Our army will continue to move south step by step. After arriving at Luocheng, we will besiege and deter the enemy, and then use the same old tactics again. The enemy will feel that they are no match for us and will inevitably waver, and the city will be easily captured. "Zhang Fei and Wei Yan looked at each other after hearing this, and their mood became a little better.

Indeed, the defeat and retreat of the army would certainly be a blow to the defenders in the rear. In particular, those retreating troops would publicize the power of Liu Bei's army, which would be equivalent to helping the attacking side to shake the enemy.

Of course, it is still a bit difficult to expect to replicate the tactics used in Mianzhu and make the enemy despair. And we need to analyze specific issues specifically.

Fa Zheng, who was standing by, knew more about the geography and situation in Shu than Wu Yi did. He also realized that Wu Yi's words were more to comfort Zhang Fei and Wei Yan and boost morale, but not to put them into practice.

Therefore, Fa Zheng quickly pointed out the problem with Wu Yi's "transplantation and replication" idea:
"What Ziyuan said is indeed useful in inspiring the soldiers. But it is not feasible to imitate the city-breaking tactics in Mianzhu and use them in Luocheng.

When we defended Fucheng before, we couldn't use the tactics of filling the trench with weirs and attacking the corners of the city, because Fucheng is close to the Fu River, and the trench is wide and deep with abundant water. But near Mianzhu, there is only the Mianshui River, which is just a small river.

The Luocheng that was to be attacked now also had the Luoshui River outside the city. Although the Luoshui River was not as wide and deep as the Fu River, it was not to be underestimated. It was the second largest river on the Chengdu Plain after the Minjiang River. The amount of water provided by the Luoshui River to the Luocheng moat was also sufficient, and it was impossible to expect to fill the entire river after the cofferdam was built.

In my opinion, we should besiege Luocheng without attacking it, and do not use too many troops to besiege the city, so as to reduce the long-term pressure on military food. Then, we can divide a part of our troops, use troops that do not need to worry about military food and supplies, bypass Luocheng and go straight to Chengdu to deter Liu Zhang.

If Liu Zhang surrenders directly because of the light troops approaching the city, that would be the best. Even if Liu Zhang sees that our small army is unable to attack the city and refuses to surrender for the time being, that's fine. We can cut off the communication between Luocheng and Chengdu for a long time, so that Liu Zhang's army will not be able to communicate with each other, and will not know whether Luocheng has been breached.

If it continues for a long time, it will mislead Liu Zhang into making a wrong judgment. Given his weakness, he may surrender. As long as Liu Zhang surrenders, why bother to attack Luocheng, such a strong fortress? "

Fa Zheng's words and strategy showed full respect for the solidity of Luo City.

The reason why he said this was because he knew very well that Luocheng was indeed very strong, and before attacking Luocheng, they had to cross the Luo River first. In terms of the difficulty of attacking, this place was even more difficult than Chengdu.

Although the city walls of Chengdu were high, the moat outside the city was not wide or deep. The city of Chengdu was also a certain distance away from the Minjiang River and was completely located on a plain. In addition, the city of Chengdu was too large, so it was difficult for the guards to cover all aspects. As long as one point was breached, it would be the end.

In comparison, Luocheng is as strong as Chengdu, but its river terrain is more favorable than Chengdu.

The existence of Luoshui can save Luocheng the pressure of defending two of its walls, and only need to focus on defending the other two sides. The city is small in area, so the defense line that needs to be defended is also short, and it is less likely to have loopholes.

Needless to say, in history, Pang Tong was shot dead by the defenders when Liu Bei's army failed to capture Luo City after more than a year of attack. The status of "the city where Pang Tong was shot dead" alone is enough to prove that this city is difficult to attack.

Fa Zheng knew all of this too well, so naturally he thought of the method of besieging but not attacking, bypassing Luocheng and taking Chengdu directly.

Zhang Fei listened and compared the map repeatedly. Finally, he couldn't help scratching his beard and raised a few doubts and difficulties:
"Xiaozhi's method is certainly brilliant, but it still requires two points of coordination. First, Liu Zhang must be as weak as Xiaozhi expected. Seeing that a small army is approaching the city and Chengdu is under long-term blockade, he will surrender without a fight.

Secondly, I looked at the map and found that Luocheng is not that far from the straight line between Chengdu and Mianzhu. If we go to Chengdu from Mianzhu, we still have to cross the Luo River and go around in a circle. How can we ensure the supply of food for our troops who go around it?"

Fa Zheng answered the two precise questions fluently, revealing a hint of "General Zhang is really knowledgeable and can get to the point with just one question":

"General Zhang, don't worry. Whether Liu Zhang is cowardly or not, whether he has the idea of 'only fighting outside and surrendering if he is really beaten to Chengdu', others may not be able to guess, but I have been with Liu Zhang for ten years and I know him too well.

This time he sent Wang Lei and Zheng Du to lead reinforcements to the north and south to defend Luocheng and Nan'an, obviously not wanting Chengdu to be caught in the flames of war. It can be seen that he just wanted to continue to gamble, but if he lost this time, he would have to hold back for surrender and seek a rich and prosperous old age.

As for the detachment that bypasses Luocheng and directly threatens Chengdu, whether it is easy to cross the river and how to ensure the food supply, I think we can choose a force that is more refined than numerous. As long as we can ensure that the patrols block all the gates of Chengdu, and once the enemy army leaves the city to pursue us, we can withdraw in time and avoid fighting with the enemy army.

In this way, with a small number of people, they would need less food, and there was a possibility that they would lose food to the enemy. If they really needed to resupply, they could just return to the Luo River and resupply once every ten days or half a month, relying on their own food during the period. This would be enough to ensure that Chengdu was blocked and their communications were cut off. As time went on, Liu Zhang would surely suspect that Luo City had also been lost, and thus despair."

"General Zhang, why don't you let me take some cavalry to blockade the city? I would like to go deep into the enemy's rear alone! You are the commander-in-chief, and you will definitely stay in Luocheng to preside over the siege." Wei Yan heard that Fa Zheng's plan seemed quite feasible, so he quickly volunteered to fight.

Zhang Fei thought about it, but did not agree rashly: "If we want to use cavalry to blockade, our troops are too few. Moreover, we are a benevolent and righteous army, and the soldiers and civilians around Chengdu are not afraid of us. My elder brother has repeatedly reminded us not to harm the people, and it is not good to take food from the enemy.

It would be better to find a general with a slightly fierce reputation and more cavalry to preside over this matter. After the Battle of Hanzhong last year and the retreat of Cao Cao in Chencang Road, Ma Mengqi had been in Jiameng and had not had many opportunities. This year, his cavalry was not needed in the two consecutive offensives.

It is now deep winter and the Qishan Road between Dazhong and Tianshui is as difficult to cross as the Chencang Road in the Qinling Mountains. There is no need to leave cavalry to defend Dazhong. Let Ma Chao blockade Chengdu and make Liu Zhang fearful and suspicious.

I will discuss the transfer order with Shi Yuan. Meng Qi will not need to bring too much military rations with him. He can just bring more money, gold and silver to force the counties around Chengdu to buy food. I believe that by then, the surrounding counties will realize that the situation is hopeless, and the local tyrants and powerful families will be willing to sell food to avoid disaster. Whoever refuses to sell will be attacked!"

(End of this chapter)