Chapter 1065: Fame and Honor
After days of sieges, the outside of Jinzhou City has changed a lot. In addition to the more solid and thick long wall, there is a long gully in the west of the city that connects from the city wall to the Fen River. At the same time, a dirt hill in the east of the city has been piled up to the same height as the city wall.
It is midsummer now, and the Fen River should have ushered in the flood season, but this year's climate is abnormally hot and rainy, and the water flow of the Fen River has not increased significantly, making the siege method of digging canals to divert water very ineffective, and as for building dams and diverting water to irrigate the city, don't even think about it.
The only more effective way to attack the city at present is to launch an attack on Jinzhou City from the dirt hill in the east of the city. After a fierce battle, the elite soldiers can jump onto the enemy's city wall. Although the enemy army killed the Wei army soldiers on the city wall at all costs every time, its own casualties were also increasing day by day.
After the siege battle fell into a stalemate, Li Tai did not stay at the city all the time. He handed over the task of commanding the siege to Liang Shiyan and other generals, and he took this opportunity to inspect the surrounding areas.
The war in Jinzhou City has not made much progress. Wei Xiaokuan has been very efficient since he went north. He has already selected the site for building the city and started construction. Li Tai simply went north to take a look. When he arrived, the generals in the north had been waiting for a long time on the bank of Fen River.
"This city is really dangerous. It's hard for you to capture it quickly!"
When he looked up and saw the Yong'an City built on the top of the plateau, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh and praised Gao Le and other vanguard soldiers.
Gao Le and others were so praised that they couldn't help but smile. While leading Li Tai to the plateau for a tour, they vividly talked about their previous experience of capturing the city. In particular, Ruo Feng, who combined the strategy and execution, was praised.
Li Tai looked at Ruofeng, who was smiling innocently in the entourage, and felt relieved. He pointed at him and sighed, saying, "I still remember that the old Lord Changle often regretted the failure of the Mangshan Campaign in the past. Now the young generation is brave enough to follow his father's will and fight against the bandits. Such heroic deeds are enough to comfort the heroic spirits of our ancestors!"
After hearing this, Ruofeng hurriedly crossed his hands and said, "I have been blessed by the Lord for a long time. I should be more loyal and diligent to serve the Lord! At present, I have only reached the border town of the bandits, not the heart of the bandits' nest. In the future, when we fight in Jinyang, we will fight harder to kill the bandits!"
The two of them talked and talked because of the envy of the people who followed them. He Ruobi, who followed behind his father, looked at his father frequently, hoping that his father could also seize the opportunity to praise his deeds, so that Lord Tang would look at him differently and recruit him into the Three Guards. However, He Ruodun was very calm and just waved his hand to signal his son to be patient and wait for the right time.
The location chosen by Wei Xiaokuan for building the city was not the Yong'an City on the cliff, but an area between Gaobi Ridge and Jiqiyuan, more than ten miles northwest.
"Although the location of Yong'an City is dangerous and solid, building a city here can defend the dangerous place, but it does not achieve the purpose of being concise. It is inconvenient for the army to advance and retreat here, and it is even more difficult to take into account the surrounding garrisons. If the army is stationed in a dangerous place, it will be redundant and useless, and the army will be unimportant. Once attacked by a strong army, it will inevitably be defeated separately, and it will be difficult to stay and defend for a long time."
As a first-class tower defense master of the time, Wei Xiaokuan naturally has his own set of methods and experience in choosing the location of the city. He did not seek to build the new city in a dangerous place, but a place that is convenient to advance and retreat and take into account all parties.
This new city is of average size, with a circumference of only a few miles. The city wall has been rammed several feet above the ground, forming the prototype of a city. The inner wall and other buildings are built with rocks from the nearby mountains. With the labor of thousands of soldiers and servants, it will only take a few days for the city to be roughly built, which will initially meet the needs of garrisoning. It can be gradually improved according to the needs later.
"After the city is built here, we can rely on it to arrange the defense line. Both mountain paths are rugged and difficult to walk, and it is not convenient to supply and exit. There is no need to garrison all the way. Just choose two or three dangerous places along the way..."
Although he is good at defense, Wei Xiaokuan is not keen on building garrisons, especially for aimless and indiscriminate construction of cities. He believes that doing so will only waste people's money and time and is not very meaningful.
Long before Li Tai arrived, he had traveled back and forth to Queshu Valley many times. In the end, he decided to build a garrison in the middle of Queshu Valley in the south area, stationing about a hundred soldiers. In addition to monitoring the movement in the valley, he was also responsible for burning the bridge and retreating when the enemy attacked in large numbers.
Because in his opinion, the cost of guarding Queshu Valley throughout the whole process was too high. The distance of nearly 100 miles from north to south was very low in efficiency of information transmission, and the pressure of personnel consumption and replenishment of supplies was very high.
In the current war, it was only necessary to stop the enemy in Jinyang, so there was no need to bear such a high defense cost. It was only necessary to hold this port, and the enemy would naturally find it difficult to get out. Instead, the enemy would be exhausted because of the long-term crossing of the rugged mountain road, and would lose their fighting spirit in the second half.
Therefore, the defense here only needs to radiate to the second half of Queshu Valley. No matter what kind of attack the enemy made during the thirty or forty miles of mountain roads, the army in the south would have enough time to make a suitable response.
Of course, such an arrangement is based on the fact that the soldiers stationed here can fully perform their garrison duties. However, if the soldiers themselves neglect their duties, no matter how solid and reliable the defense line is, no matter how much the garrison cost is, it will be difficult to stop the enemy from coming south.
Li Tai also agrees with Wei Xiaokuan's idea. All he needs is to stop the enemy from Jinyang from coming south at present. When the war develops further and some of the goals set in the early stage are achieved, he will not only not take a defensive position here, but will even take the initiative to rush into the Taiyuan Basin to seek a decisive battle, so there is no need to spend too much to build a solid defense line here.
Since the formulation of this series of strategic plans, Wei Xiaokuan has been the main staff member. He has a deep understanding of Li Tai's intentions and needs, and cooperates with him tacitly during the operation.
After talking about the defense of Queshu Valley, they arrived at Qianlijing. In fact, although the Qianli Trail is short, the traffic conditions are worse than those of Queshu Valley, and it is not suitable for full-time garrison. It can be defended in a similar way to Queshu Valley, and there is no need for special explanation.
But Wei Xiaokuan just turned to this topic and had no time to explain it in detail, He Ruo Dun suddenly jumped out from behind with something in his hand. Li Tai was immediately happy when he saw it. It turned out that the guy was holding a staggering young man.
"I have been in and out of Qianli Trail. Since the Lord has asked, I am willing to explain it in detail!"
He Ruo Dun took advantage of this topic to grab his son and give himself a chance to speak.
Li Tai nodded after hearing this, indicating that he should continue, but He Ruo Dun did not continue. He raised his hand and patted He Ruo Bi, who was barely standing, and then said: "I have seen and heard so many things on the journey that I don't know where to start. But I also followed you in and out of the mountain roads, so I can tell you in detail what I have seen and heard!"
While speaking, he turned his head and gave his son a look, indicating that this was the right time to show himself.
He Ruo Bi naturally did not expect that the timing his father mentioned was so awkward and hardcore. When everyone present, especially Tang Gong, the idol in the boy's heart, looked at him, the unprepared boy suddenly became more nervous.
He clenched his fists, forced himself to calm down, and then said: "My lord, I did follow my father to attack the bandit territory. I saw that the bandits were quite busy in the north of the mountain. There is nothing to say about the thousand-mile path. Before the army advances, we can just guard the southern end of the valley. There is another passage that can lead to Queshu Valley, which also needs to be guarded. But, but General Wei mentioned the matter of Queshu Valley before, and I think there is still a plan. This summer, there is a drought, and the water in the river and canal has dried up. I Entering Queshu Valley, I saw that the water flow in Fenjin was not abundant. It might be because of what I said before, but we must also be on guard against whether the enemy army set up a dam upstream to block the flow of water. Queshu Valley has long been an important route between the north and the south, and the waterways in the valley also flow along the mountain terrain. If the enemy army sets up a dam upstream and waits for the rain to break the dam, the Fen River downstream will inevitably flood. This situation must also be prevented..."
The boy was still stumbling at first, but soon became fluent, and at the end he even raised a question that even Li Tai did not realize. After hearing this, Li Tai was stunned at first, then he looked at Wei Xiaokuan and said, "Does such a hidden worry exist?"
After hearing this, Wei Xiaokuan nodded and said, "This summer is indeed dry and rainy, but the weather changes rapidly after the summer. When I was planning for defense, I did not take this into consideration."
While speaking, he turned to look at He Ruobi who pointed out this loophole, and said without hiding his admiration, "This young disciple has clear insights and detailed thoughts. He is really talented!"
He Ruodun originally frowned when he heard his son's free play, but when he saw Wei Xiaokuan speak When praising him, he couldn't help laughing and said, "This boy was just raised in the family. I have been in office in recent years and gradually feel that he has inherited some talents. However, his talents are still not very impressive. I originally planned to train him and then present him to the master. But then I thought, who in the world can compare to the master in terms of training talents and teaching by words and deeds? So I simply present him to the master, and beg the master to adopt him and give him two meals!"
"Please take him in!"
After hearing this, He Ruobi also knelt on the ground with a plop and shouted to Li Tai.
Li Tai was already happy that He Ruobi had shown his outstanding talents at a young age. After hearing this, he couldn't help laughing. He walked forward and pulled up the still immature general. Looking at the nervous expression of the young man, he smiled and said, "Young talents, if you don't join my school, where else can you realize your ambitions? Your talents and strength are presented to me, and your fame is given to you. It is a perfect match!"