Chapter 746 How About We Build a City? The Hardest Shield Is the Most Fragile Shield!

"Shield wall cover! Everyone is short!"

"Mr. Chang'an treats our captives kindly. As long as we can fill up this river, we will be freed from our captivity. From now on, we will calculate military merits like the Qin army. My dear fellows! You must all repay the Lord Chang'an with your lives!"

"Brothers, work harder!"

"The Zhao army is attacking! Hurry! Retreat!"

Under the bright sunshine, more than 5,000 Zhao Diqingzhuangs, wearing no armor and only short batons, stabbed hard at the loess with copper shovels in their hands, and put handfuls of loess into baskets.

Then more than ten thousand young people from Zhao Di picked up bamboo baskets filled with loess and moved forward quickly.

At first glance, it looks like a scene of spring plowing in the fields repairing canals.

But if you look closely, you can see that the more than 15,000 young men are actually captured soldiers of Sergeant Zhao.

And the place where the loess on their shoulders went was the moat of Handan City!

In front of the Qin army's formation, Ying Chengyu looked around the battlefield and kept shouting orders: "Send the order to Captain Qiang Huai to advance eastward immediately to intercept the Zhao army!"

"Commander Mengtian's command immediately retreated to lure the enemy. Commandant Xifeng's command waited for an opportunity to cooperate with Commandant Mengtian's command to flank Zhao's army!"

Orders came out of Ying Chengyu's mouth one after another, constantly guiding the Qin army's various units to resist the invading Zhao army.

The blood of the soldiers of both armies gradually dyed the loess under their feet red.

But correspondingly, a large amount of sand and gravel was dumped into the moats on the west and south sides of King Zhao City, turning the originally clear Zhu River into a dim yellow!

When the Golden Crow fell to the west, the Qin and Zhao armies finally called for gold and retreated.

The candidates who were active around Handan City finally found the opportunity to join forces with Ying Chengyu.

Standing one step behind Ying Chengyu, the waiter said in a deep voice: "Commander Qi, Handan City consists of four cities."

"Among them, Dabeicheng is where the people of Handan and Guizhou Province live, and it is also where Handan's workshops are located."

"Xiaobeicheng is where all the government offices of the Zhao Kingdom are located, and it is also the residence of the royal family's children and nobles."

"Dongwang City is where Handan guards practice and station, and it is also where the arsenal and grain depot are located."

"Xiwang City is known as Zhao Wang City, which is where Zhao Longtai Palace is located. King Zhao, his concubines, and the Queen Mother of Zhao all live in this city."

"The four cities are all surrounded by city walls. Among them, Xiaobei City, East King City, and West King City are in the shape of 'pin'. The inner city walls are connected and there are inner city gates for communication between the cities."

"Dabeicheng is located to the east and north of Xiaobeicheng. The walls of the two cities are about 25 feet (57.75 meters) apart and are heavily guarded."

"The weakest city defense among the four cities is Dabeicheng. The city wall is about four feet (9.24 meters) high, the base of the wall is about seven feet (16.17 meters) wide, and the top of the wall is about one foot (2.31 meters) wide."

"The most heavily defended city is the Western King's City. The city wall is about five feet (11.55 meters) high and the wall base is about eighteen feet (41.58 meters) wide. The west city wall and the south city wall are the largest, with the wall base being twenty-three feet (53.13 meters) wide. meters), the top of the wall is about one and a half feet wide (3.456 meters).”

"The West King City has a gate..."

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods when productivity was low, it was normal for a capital city to be composed of multiple adjacent cities. This was the case for Linzi, the capital of Qi, and Xinzheng, the capital of Han.

And Handan, the capital of Zhao, is the best among them!

Whenever the Zhao State is relatively strong, the contemporary King Zhao will have the same idea:

Otherwise, let’s build a city!

From the time when Marquis Zhao Jing moved the capital to when King Zhao moved to the throne, there were only eight generations of princes, and no more than five of them had the energy to expand the capital.

As a result, three new cities rose from the ground!

Today, these three new cities surround the old city of Dabeicheng and together form what the world calls Handan City!

However, the situation of these four neighboring cities is by no means extravagant and wasteful. It is the legacy of the past kings of Zhao to today's Zhao country.

Even though he was already familiar with these information, Meng Tian still said with enthusiasm: "Handan City has many gates, many city defenses, a wide moat, and four cities standing side by side."

"At the time of war, these four cities can reinforce each other and provide cover, supporting the Handan garrison to plan various strategies."

"Even if one of the cities falls, King Zhao and his courtiers can quickly retreat to the other three cities and continue fighting."

"No wonder Lord Wu'an has been unable to attack this city for a long time."

"Handan City is very strong!"

However, Ying Chengyu's expression did not change, and he even asked with a smile: "After I destroyed Wei, King Qi of Chu tried his best to build Helu City."

"However, the walls of the cities in Handan City have not been increased, and they are still the same as in previous years."

"It seems that Zhao Guo is quite confident in the thickness of Handan City's walls!"

The waiter smiled and said: "It's just a lack of will."

"After all, Zhao State is very poor!"

Ying Chengyu could not help but feel a cheerful smile.

Although Da Qin was poor, Zhao State was even poorer!

It really makes people feel happy to laugh at the poverty of their worldly enemies!

Ying Chengyu turned to ask: "How many troops are there in Handan City?"

The waiter immediately said: "Since Lord Chang'an attacked King Zhao's city and almost captured Longtai Palace in one fell swoop, Zhao has paid more and more attention to the defense of Handan City."

"Although Zhao State sent 600,000 troops to attack Da Qin in this battle, it still did not use the Handan garrison."

"There are currently more than 50,000 defenders in Handan City, including pavilions, pavilions, and soldiers who have exterminated thieves and Cao. There are about 20,000 palace guards in each department. If the situation is desperate, more than 3,000 elite eunuchs, ministers, etc. can be sent to the battlefield."

"In addition, there are more than 40,000 Chinese households in Handan City. Considering the enmity between Qin and Zhao, Zhao may be able to get 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers and 100,000 civilians if they mobilize a large army!"

"My subordinate Pao Ze who is staying in the city is inquiring about the details. Once he finds out the details, he will report it to the coach as soon as possible!"

Hearing the words of the waiter, the smiles on the faces of all the Qin army generals disappeared, replaced by a solemn expression.

The systems of Qin and Zhao are similar, and all those who can be stationed in the capital are the elite of the elite.

And there are 70,000 such elite soldiers in Handan City!

In addition to the 70,000 elite soldiers, Zhao State may also recruit 50,000 or 60,000 regular soldiers.

In addition, if all the dignitaries of Zhao State support this war with all their might, Handan City can still gather at least 20,000 soldiers and horses composed of rangers, family soldiers, servants and clan children.

All in all, all the Qin army generals found that Handan City in extreme cases could mobilize at least 150,000 troops, and more than half of them were elite!

Relying on the four neighboring cities of Handan City and the solid city defense line, if you want to attack Handan City and break it, you need at least a general leading 700,000 or 800,000 troops to have hope.

Even if you use the strategy of besieging the city, you will need at least 400,000 troops and horses!

But how many soldiers does Ying Chengjiao have at the moment?

Only 100,000!

Even with the captives, there are only 150,000!

How to fight? !

This is simply delivering takeaway to Handan City!

All the generals couldn't help but focus their attention on Ying Chengjiao.

Ying Chengjiao's smile also slowly faded, and he asked solemnly: "Are there any updated military reports from General Jian's troops?"

The fortune teller immediately said: "I just received the military report from General Jian's troops. General Jian said that he will launch a decisive battle within three days!"

Ying Chengjiao felt a little relieved: "General Jian led 230,000 troops into Jingxing, and this battle will definitely be a great victory."

"As long as General Jian defeats Zhao Wuxiangjun's troops, he can lead our main force to support."

"According to the time, General Jian should have started the battle."

"It should not be long before General Jian joins forces with our army!"

Although the Qin generals were still worried.

But Ying Chengjiao had already put his mind at ease and continued: "Handan City and the other four cities are close to each other. They can certainly rely on each other, support each other, and serve as retreat routes in wartime. They even form four extremely stable camps for generals to paint."

"However, there is no perfect formation in the world."

"Just like the shield, the harder the shield, the more fragile it is."

"The formation of four cities close to each other is extremely strong if it is strong, and extremely weak if it is weak!"

Hearing this, Meng Tian was surprised: "If it is strong, it is extremely strong, and if it is weak, it is extremely weak?"

"Chang'an Jun thinks that the four cities of Handan City are extremely weak?"

Ying Chengjiao nodded slightly: "That's right!"

"The four cities of Handan standing side by side seem to be beneficial to the city defense. No matter which city our army attacks, it needs to face the threat of four cities at the same time."

"No matter which city falls, it will not lead to the fall of Handan."

"But correspondingly, no matter which city our army attacks, the four cities of Handan need to do their best to rescue!"

"Zhao cannot accept the fall of any city!"

The generals of the Qin Dynasty were afraid of the four neighboring cities of Handan because even Bai Qi had no way to deal with this city, and the city defense system of Handan City seemed to be perfect.

But Ying Chengjiao understood a very simple truth.

The development of things always rises in spirals and advances in waves!

If the coexistence of multiple cities can make this city invincible, the Chinese people in the future will definitely be able to build a capital city with ten or even twenty cities standing side by side, and will also develop various forms of city layouts such as honeycomb, hexagram, and bib pants.

But the fact is that the layout of a capital city with multiple cities only existed on a large scale during the Warring States Period.

Although the capital cities of later generations may also have satellite cities to protect them, there will never be a large number of cities that are only a few dozen meters apart or even directly connected by city walls!

This is enough to show that the city defense system of Handan City is by no means perfect, and it can even be said that it has embarked on a wrong path.

Meng Tian frowned and said, "I think otherwise!"

"If I guard Handan City, even if it is as important as Xiwang City, I can give it up, or even use it as bait to lure our army deeper."

"What about other cities!"

Ying Chengjiao smiled softly: "Although Xiwang City is the residence of King Zhao and the location of Longtai Palace, it is precisely the most insignificant city!"

"Kill the concubines and maids in the palace and even the princes and princesses."

"As long as King Zhao can escape to other cities, Xiwang City will be given up!"

"But does Captain Meng dare to hand over Xiaobei City to our army?"

Meng Tian said hesitantly: "Xiaobei City is the residence of the powerful in Zhao State."

"Unless the war situation is extremely bad and there is enough time to evacuate the people in the city first."

"Otherwise, I really dare not give up Xiaobei City easily."

Not to mention the consequences after the fall of Xiaobei City, the order to give up Xiaobei City alone is difficult to execute.

That is where all the nobles and ministers of Zhao State live with their families!

If the families of all the ministers in the court were sent to the Qin army to be killed, then there would be no need for the Qin army to attack the city. The ministers of Zhao State could throw the King of Zhao and the commander of the Zhao army to Ying Chengjiao!

Ying Chengjiao asked again: "What about Dabei City?"