More than ten miles away from the northern suburbs of Xuanhu City, on the banks of the Rushui River, a group of soldiers were picking woodcuts, that is, harvesting reeds from the mudflats and taking them back as firewood. Wang Yuwen of Xiyang was surveying the terrain next to him.

Autumn is here, and it is the flowering period of reeds. The reed marshes on both sides of the Rushui River are full of reed flowers. Looking up, the white area is white. The breeze blows, and the behind-the-scenes flutter in the wind, and the scene is charming.

From time to time, wild ducks were startled and flew out of the reed marsh. This was an excellent prey, but Yuwen Wen had no intention of hunting at this time. He looked at the scenery on both sides of the Rushui River and thought about how to retreat to the enemy.

The current situation is not as good as expected. The emperor kept sending envoys to call on the surrounding powerful people and local officials to serve the king. As a result, the number of people serving the king was zero, which was unexpected but reasonable.

Is there anything wrong with Yuwen's family, which has become a junk stock, no one cares about it?

To put it bluntly, if Yuwen Wen is a bystander, he will not buy this junk stock at the risk of losing all his money. Even if he wants to take action, he will have to wait until the junk stock "bottoms and rebound". So at this time, Yuwen Wen is planning the next big favor and reversing the current embarrassing situation.

From north to south to Xuanhu, it is just east of the Rushui River. If you want to ambush the enemy, in terms of terrain, it is very appropriate to set up an ambush in the reed marsh by the river. Once the enemy teams lined up in a column that stretched for several miles, and the ambush suddenly came out, it would be twice the result with half the effort.

But unless the enemy commander is a fool, he will definitely send a ranger to stand in advance to check whether there are ambushers in the reed marsh on the roadside, and even set fire. Once such a large reed marsh is burned, many soldiers hidden inside will be ruined.

So Yu Wenwen was not thinking about his ambush location, but simply carefully inspecting the terrain around Xuanhu, actively preparing for the battle, and preparing for the next Xuanhu attack and defense battle.

It was expected that the scene of heroes from all over the world enthusiastically resuming the king did not appear. In the embarrassment, they could only rely on the Anzhou army and the Yuzhou army absorbed to guard Xuanhu. The problem facing Yu Wenwen was how to defend Xuanhu as much as possible, and all factors must be taken into account.

Or think about it from the perspective of others, imagine how to break through Xuanhu as the commander of the enemy.

Now Li Yunxin is in charge of the city defense matter, and Yang Su and his son are in charge of the training of the state soldiers. Therefore, Yuwen Wen has time to think from the perspective of others, figure out the ideas of the enemy's commander, and roughly think about the means of siege that the opponent can use.

The defense of the city cannot be defended by just defending the dead. This is just a symptom. The root cause is to win the decisive battle in the field. However, in this Henan plain, the Yuwen family can invest far less than the Yuchi family.

The decisive battle in the plains mainly depends on cavalry. After all, infantry cannot be chased, and defeated cannot be retreated. The Yuwen family, whose number of cavalry is at a disadvantage, is not easy to defeat the Yuchi family in the decisive battle in the plains.

Overall, Xuanhu is the "protrusion" of Yuwen's territorial territory in the Yuchi family. It is like a dagger pressing on the opponent's abdomen. Without pulling out the dagger, Yuchi family could not calm down and organize a full-scale attack.

It is conceivable that the opponent sent another large army, and the Yuwen family's troops will be at a disadvantage in comparison.

But no matter how few soldiers are, you have to support it. For Yuwen, using Xuanhu as bait to attract the main force of Yuchi's attack can gain valuable respite for other areas of his side.

Therefore, for the upcoming next round of Xuanhu offensive and defensive battle, Yu Wenwen must delay time anyway. According to the strength comparison between the enemy and us, the tactic formulated is "defensive counterattack".

If you want to counterattack, you must first defend it. Yu Wenwen must use all means to defend Xuan Hu. After several months, the opponent's soldiers were exhausted and their spirits were lost. His reinforcements were waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, so that the opponent retreated when he saw the difficulties.

This kind of thing is easier said than done, but Yuwen Wen is not blindly confident. He invented the counterweight siege and the sky-blasting thunder, so there are also corresponding restraint methods when defending the city. The problem is that the other party adopted another method of siege in addition to this.

Yuwen Wen stood on a slope, looking at the slowly flowing river water in front of him, and asked Yin Shishi Master beside him: "In Yin Sima, in your opinion, if the enemy attacks with water, what is the chance of success?"

"King, if the enemy cannot attack quickly, they will definitely think of building a dam to store water, and the invading troops will definitely not be short. At that time, the Xuanhu defender will be unable to stop it."

"I just circled the city for a while and saw the foundation of Xuanhu City Wall. How long do you think Xuanhu's city wall can last?"

"The king, the seniority of the officials is still very low and has never guarded the city, so I really don't know."

Master Yinshi is telling the truth. Although he was unwilling to have too much contact with Yuwen Wen, there was no other way now. For example, today Zi appointed him as Sima of Yuzhou to help strengthen city defense, so he had to deal with Yuwen Wen.

"The rammed earth city wall is afraid of being soaked in water for a long time. If the rammed earth wall is of poor quality or even collapses after heavy rain. The Xuanhu city wall was just repaired last year, so Sima can ask the relevant personnel."

Yuwen Wen talked freely, and he didn't care whether Yinshi Master hated him. Now that public is public and private is private, he certainly has to explain what he should explain. If Yinshi Master dares to disobey him, Yuwen Wen doesn't mind killing the chicken and scaring the monkey.

"Ask them where the city walls have hidden dangers, especially the craftsmen. Most clerks are cunning and talk clichés all day long. If you say something, you need to be more careful."

"The lower official obeys the order."

Yin Shishi Master is not a newcomer who has just entered the officialdom. Of course, he knows that clerks are not easy to deal with. Regardless of whether he was willing or not, he is now a person on the ship of the emperor. No matter what, he has to be a monk and a bell for a day.

"I heard that Sima of the underworld is skillful in martial arts? Have you ever killed someone?"

"When you come back to the king, you will naturally kill the thief."

"Have you ever led a army to gallop on the battlefield?"

"The officials are ashamed of having never seen one yet."

Yuwen Wen looked at Master Yin Shi, and his peers with a good facial features, and then smiled: "Famousness and fame must be won immediately, but not just anyone can make achievements on the battlefield."

"The emperor is covered with dust and the country is about to fall. This is a good opportunity to make achievements. Sima, what do you think?"

"What the king said," said the Yinshi Master after saluting, looking as normal as he was, but he didn't know what he was thinking about.

What should be said has been said. If the other party is ungrateful and bears the consequences, Yuwen Wen focused his attention on Rushui again. He had asked the locals carefully that Rushui may have flooded during the rainy season, and Xuanhu City has not been flooded in the past.

Of course, this situation is rare and has not happened in recent years, but for Yu Wen Wen, the probability of Xuan Hu being attacked by water in the subsequent war will not be small, so beware of it.

Today he went out of the city to survey the terrain, first went to the lower reaches of the river section, and then turned to the upper reaches, to understand the terrain of the Rushui River Basin and roughly estimate how high the water level would be if there was a lot of water.

The terrain around Xuanhu is generally a plain, but Xuanhu City itself is surrounded by Rushui and its tributaries. As a defensive party, it is a natural moat. However, for the offensive party, this is both a trouble and a good opportunity to launch a water attack.

The Ru River flows through the Xuanhu from north to south. If there is a bird's eye view, you can see the Xuanhu that is surrounded by the Ru River. It is probably like the word "Zhong". You can regard the Xuanhu as a large river island in the Ru River.

If the Ru River has not dried up and the enemy has plenty of time to attack, you can use water to attack.

A common water attack method is to build dams upstream to store water. After the amount of water is sufficient, the dam can be broken. The surging water can swallow downstream enemy troops or camps.

There is another water attack tactic called "Flooding" which is mainly used to attack cities, which is to build a dam downstream of the river city, and to form a reservoir upstream by storing water to soak the upstream city.

Over time, the foundation of the rammed earth wall was soaked and naturally collapsed. Before that, the city had turned into a terrible country, which was wet everywhere, directly affecting the daily life of the military and civilians in the city. Morale would be severely damaged and even lead to the spread of diseases.

In plain areas, most of the main cities are located next to rivers because they can obtain important water sources and can be transported by water, and the excrement in the city also has catharsis channels.

It is precisely because the city is surrounded by water that it is very common to use hydraulic power when siegeing cities in this era. One of the more famous battle examples in the past century is the Battle of Yingchuan in the East and West more than 40 years ago.

The Western Wei army defended Yingchuan, and the Eastern Wei army attacked. After besieging the city, it built a dam outside the city to store water, directly forming a large reservoir, soaking Yingchuan City in the water and turning it into a country of marsh.

The water in the city was deep and there were no reinforcements outside. After almost a year of persistence, the defenders had no choice but to surrender.

This is a successful example, and another example happened when the confrontation between Yuan and Wei and Xiao and Liang.

The Wei army occupied Shouyang, the important Huai River. The Liang army located downstream wanted to recover Shouyang, but was struggling to fight wildly and waves that could not defeat the Wei army with many cavalry. So Emperor Liang Xiao Yan thought of a solution, that is, flooding Shouyang.

Shouyang is located on the south bank of the Huai River. There is a valley called Fushan Gorge hundreds of miles downstream. Xiao Yan mobilized manpower and material resources to build a dam in Fushan Gorge to block the Huai River, increase the level of the Huai River, and flood Shouyang with return water.

The river-blocking dam built by the Liang army is called Fushanyan. It is said that more than 200,000 military and civilians have been used as labor force. The main body of the Fushanyan is an earth dam, and tens of millions of kilograms of iron are placed at the bottom. There is also a spillway. It took two years to complete the construction.

At 100% of the Fushan Imperial, a huge reservoir was formed upstream of it. Shouyang, hundreds of miles away, was immediately flooded. The Wei army guarding the city had to abandon the city and went to Bagong Mountain to station. The soldiers of the Liang army were excited when they heard the news, saying that it was just around the corner to recover Shouyang.

However, the Wei army had not retreated, and the rainy season came, the water level of the Huai River soared, and the water level in the upper reaches was almost the same as that of the Fushan Imperial Palace. As a result, the tragedy occurred, and the Fushan Imperial Palace collapsed, and the downstream victims were 100,000 people, and the Huai River traversed into the sea.

Liang's army tried to return to the water to flood Shouyang, but the Fushan weir, which was built with countless manpower and material resources, collapsed, which harmed the people of his country. It was a failed water attack. Yu Wenwen was thinking, if the enemy army built a dam and drown a dam, would God favor him?

I'm afraid not. It's already autumn, and the rainy season is getting farther and farther away. Once the Xuanhu is surrounded and the other party uses the method of "flooding and irrigation", I'm afraid there will be no situation where the river bank collapses after heavy rain.

The flow of Huai River is large, while the flow of Ru River, which is its tributary, is much smaller, and the river dam is not so easy to collapse. Yuwen Wen felt that burning incense and praying for the collapse of the enemy's dam is unreliable every day, so he had to find another way to solve it.

What is the solution? It is very simple. If the soldiers come to block the water and soil, they will transfer grain and other materials to a higher place in the city in advance, and then stockpile sandbags in the city, which is considered as flood prevention and control.

We also need to solve the problem of water source. Some people may ask, if we are really flooded and there is water everywhere, why are we still afraid of not drinking water?

Having water does not mean that the water can be drunk. If the hanghu is really flooded by water, all kinds of garbage and even the excrement of humans and animals will be soaked in the water. Such water is no different from manure water, and humans and animals will definitely get sick if they drink it.

Therefore, water wells are necessary, and the wellhead must be raised. Although the well water will inevitably be turbid at that time, there is no such much material except for mud and sand.

Li Yunxin, who is in charge of the city defense, is arranging people to do these things. In addition, there is an equally important thing that is also being carried out simultaneously, that is, picking wood (cutting wood).

When it comes to defending the city, many people's first reaction is to have sufficient food, and on the basis of it, the more soldiers the better, but one factor is often overlooked, that is fuel.

The fuel of this era of course refers to firewood. A city with only food and people cannot be kept without firewood. The reason is very simple. How can you cook without firewood? You can't chew wheat, millet, and rice?

Not to mention that in the rainy season, wet clothes and bedding need to be made to make fires, and in winter, we also have to make fires to keep warm and keep the cold. In winter, it will snow in the hanging gourd!

Yuwen Wen wanted to guard Xuanhu and try to delay time, so the siege would last until winter or even the spring of the next year. Without fuel (firewood), the defenders could not hold on.

When history enthusiasts talk about the battle between Xiangyang in the Song and Yuan dynasties, they will say that it was the use of the "Hui Hui cannon" (combined with heavy stone catapults). In addition, the food was exhausted, which led to the surrender of the Xiangyang defenders. In fact, this view is too one-sided.

There are two important reasons for the surrender of the Xiangyang defenders. One is that reinforcements have been extinct, which means that the Yuan army completely surrounded Xiangyang. The Xiangyang defenders knew that there would never be reinforcements coming in the short term.

The second is the lack of firewood in the city.

The Xiangyang defenders were short of food, but they would not be out of food in the short term. The problem was that they were even short of firewood. Without firewood (fuel), there would be no way to make a fire and cook, and no amount of food was used.

Therefore, Yuwen Wen has now mobilized the soldiers and civilians in the city to go out to collect woodcutters, and brought back all the things that can be burned back to the city. As long as the soldiers who left the city are not allowed to be empty-handed when they come back, this is also an important task in preparing for war.

He checked the terrain by the river, and his entourage was holding a knife to cut reeds on the mudflats. Yuwen Wen took dozens of cavalrymen out of the city this time, one was to ensure safety, and the other was to pick wood.

The Yuchi army would have troops to the city in about a month. At that time, the Xuanhu would be surrounded like an iron barrel. The various materials needed by the defenders could only survive by consuming inventory.

If we can survive the initial fierce attack, winter will be in a few months, and then the demand for firewood will be greater. If we don’t actively prepare for war now, prepare more firewood, what will we burn at that time?

Seeing that everyone gained a lot, Yuwen Wen also knew the terrain of the area. He was about to get back to the city, but he saw a horse galloping from the official road in the north. Yuwen Wen took out a thousand-mile mirror and looked at it. After a moment, he was overjoyed:
Chapter completed!