Although I was very sorry for the ordinary people in the Yongliang area, the severe reduction in autumn grain production caused by the severe drought in Yongliang in the eighth year of Yanxing did indeed help the Han army.

After leading the main force of the Han army back to Linwei, Zhang Zhi seized on this and tried his best to bribe the hearts of the people in Longxi. The first official document was to order the exemption of corvee and taxes this year and the coming year, so as to win people's hearts and reduce the burden on corvee and taxes for the people in Longxi.

The second official document is to open porridge sheds in Xixian and Chengji, where the most severe disasters are Qingshui, Xixian County, to compress dry food and cook porridge to help the victims, and to open official markets so that the people in these places can sell bronze ancient relics for food and help the people overcome the famine.

The third official document encouraged men of appropriate age in Longxi to join the army, eat food and earn military pay, and use military pay to solve the food and clothing problems of the whole family. At the same time, Zhang Zhi also sent envoys to the west early to contact the Qiang people, taking advantage of the opportunity that the Qiang people were also suffering from food shortages, using instant noodles, lunch meat, compressed dry food and other items to buy horses from the Qiang people, and also hire Qiang soldiers to expand cavalry.

These decrees soon received the effect of seeing the shadows. Although the Han army's flag had disappeared in Longxi for fifty years, only some people in their seventies still remember that Longxi was actually the land of the Han Dynasty. However, in this era when the country was not very strong, the Han army's benevolent politics was immediately warmly welcomed by the people of Longxi. Not only did there not respond to the rebellion of the Jin army's counterattack, but in turn, they hoped that the Han army could gain a foothold in Longxi, so that they could enjoy more than a year of tax-free and labor-free periods, and quickly put the Han army's new land in Longxi on the right track.

In addition, after seeing the Han soldiers with their own eyes, men of appropriate age in Longxi also took the initiative to join the army. In the Linwei area alone, the Han army recruited more than a thousand new soldiers. At the same time, the surrendered Guangwei County soldiers also joined the Han army with confidence because their families were all in Longxi. In addition, the Tianshui County soldiers who had changed their banners were formed, the total strength of the Han army in Longxi quickly exceeded the 65,000 mark.

During this period, the Han army's partial division led by Cuan Gu also advanced rapidly on the western front. Taking advantage of the empty opportunity of Longxi, they quickly captured Xinyang, Xinxing and Zhongtao, which refused to surrender, and then captured Yuandao, the Nan'an County. However, just when Zhang Zhi thought there was no need to worry about the western front, unexpected news suddenly came. The Han army's partial division was defeated when it attacked Xiangwu, Longxi County.

This is also related to Cuan Gu's underestimation of the enemy. After Han Zhi, the prefect of Longxi of Jinting, was rejected, Cuan Gu wanted to save trouble and took advantage of Xiangwu's characteristic that it was easy to dig tunnels on the Loess Plateau and directly adopted the tactics of tunnel blasting to attack the city. However, the miners hired by the Han army were wrongly positioned and did not bury the gunpowder in the correct position, resulting in the failure to blow down the city wall after the blasting. Afterwards, Cuan Gu was unwilling to waste time, manpower and material resources, and forcibly urged the army to launch an attack. As a result, he was defeated and forced to retreat by the tenacious Xiangwu defenders, losing some troops and a large number of siege weapons.

After the situation was reported to Zhang Zhi, Zhang Zhi couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head, saying: "The arrogant soldiers will be defeated. Cuan Gu underestimated the enemy this time. If the gunpowder explosion failed, we should decisively retreat and find another way. Now, the morale is not enough. If we attack Xiangwu, everything will start over."

"Victory and defeat are common in military affairs, just small setbacks. The generals don't have to take it to heart." Yan Yu comforted: "Anyway, we have enough time now and can afford to wait, so let Cuan Gu start over."

"Report——!"

As if to slap Yan Yu in the face, at this moment, a personal soldier suddenly rushed in outside the tent and told Zhang Zhi: "Report to the next general, Lueyang urgently reported that two days ago, 60,000 Jin thieves' army suddenly arrived at Jieting for reinforcements. At present, the Jin thieves' army in Jieting area has reached 120,000!"

"Sixty thousand Jin bandit reinforcements?!"

Zhang Zhi and Yan Yu were both shocked. After quickly exchanging a glance, Zhang Zhi said in surprise: "How is it possible? Why do the thieves in Jin still have so many mobile forces? Logically speaking, the thieves in Jin should have been almost exhausted by us."

"I don't know." Yan Yu shook his head and suggested: "The latter general, it's better to contact Yizhou quickly to learn about the situation on the Yangtze River battlefield and the Eastern Wu, and see if the Jin bandits and the Eastern Wu reached a reconciliation, so the Jin bandits were able to mobilize so many troops to reinforce the Western Front."

Zhang Zhi nodded and quickly asked Xue Rang to Huo Yi and Zhu Xiang to write a letter to them to inquire about the situation in the rear. Then Zhang Zhi frowned and said, "It's trouble. The Jin thieves have suddenly come so many reinforcements, and Cuan Gu is restrained in Longxi. We are now insufficient. The commander of the Jin thief is Chen Qian, who is experienced. It is very dangerous to take the risk of going north. If the Jin thief seizes this opportunity and takes advantage of the situation to attack Lueyang, then we will have great trouble."

"I can only hope that Mao Jiong can defend Lueyang." Yan Yu said: "The latter general should contact Mao Jiong immediately and tell him the situation on Cuan Gu, so that he can prepare for a long-term battle of the lonely army, and also ask him to defend Lueyang with all his strength, and buy time for Cuan Gu to take down Longxi and return to the main force of aid."

Zhang Zhi nodded and said helplessly: "I'm not careless. I underestimated the war potential of the Jin thieves. Whether we can take Longxi now depends on whether Mao Jiong can defend Lueyang."

…………

This time, he commanded 60,000 Jin troops to reinforce Chen Qian, Sima Yi's seventh son Sima Jun and the ninth son Sima Lun. After successfully meeting, Chen Qian immediately ordered Wei Guan to lead 20,000 troops to guard Jieting to protect the grain road, and then led his 100,000 troops to go south in a mighty way, directly towards the small city of Lueyang where there were a large amount of food and grass. He arrived at the city of Lueyang one day earlier than the messenger sent by Zhang Zhi, and then immediately surrounded Lueyang City, which had only 4,000 defenders.

The evil Feng Shui of Zhang Zhi's ancestor tomb also left him at this moment. Because the Jin army took the lead in besieging the city on all sides, the messenger sent by Zhang Zhi not only failed to send the letter to Lueyang City, but was also intercepted and captured by Jin soldiers. As a result, the letter Zhang Zhi wrote to Mao Jiong was transferred to Chen Qian. Chen Qian immediately knew that the Han army's partial army was blocked on the western front, and he was immediately happy and said: "Okay, now we have plenty of time to attack the city."

"The general, the last general believes that he should imitate the handwriting and seal of Zhang Zhi's thief, write a letter ordering Mao Jiong to burn grain to break through, and then shoot it into the city of Lueyang with a bow and arrow to shake the morale of the thief army." Wang Hun suggested: "If this plan is successful, we can quickly take down Lueyang, and then go south to fight with the main force of the thief army before the partial army returns to Linwei, and use our strength to eat up the main force of the thief army."

"Try it." Chen Qian nodded immediately to agree, and then asked someone to forge a letter ordering Mao Jiong to break through the siege, while asking the soldiers of the Jin army to seize the time to build siege weapons, preparing to take down Lueyang first to ensure the smooth flow of food, and then go south to Linwei.

A day later, the fake letter was shot into the city of Lueyang. Seeing Zhang Zhi ordering him to break through the direction of Shangji, Mao Jiong was of course skeptical. He was afraid that the letter would be fake, and he was worried that in order to meet Cuan Gu as soon as possible, Zhang Zhi had really given up on Linwei and retreated westward, completely turning himself into an isolated army.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, Chen Shou, who stayed to help Mao Jing in charge of civil affairs, saw the pros and cons and spoke to Mao Jing: "General Mao, you must not take the risk of breaking through. Not to mention that this letter was shot into the city with arrows. I don't know whether it is true or not. Even if it is true, we are too dangerous to break through now. The thief army has strong forces and only needs to divide 10,000 or 20,000 troops to pursue it to the end, it is entirely possible to annihilate us on the way to break through. Only by continuing to stick to it is the best strategy."

"What if the latter general really took the initiative to retreat westward? Wouldn't we become an isolated army?" Mao Jiong asked.

"Then we have to continue to stick to Luyang." Chen Shou said: "Luyang is a must-pass place for the Jin thieves to go south. As long as we station here, we will be nailed to the throat of the Jin thieves' food channel. We can threaten the safety of the Jin thieves' food channel at any time. Let the Jin thieves either attack the city and pull out the nail, or leave heavy troops to surround us. No matter how the Jin thieves choose, the situation will only be beneficial to the rear general. As long as the rear general reverses the situation, they will definitely come back to rescue us."

After hearing Chen Shou's opinion, Mao Jing made up his mind to stick to it and said, "Okay, we will do our best to stick to Lueyang and share the pressure for the latter general."

"For caution, we'd better find a way to boost morale of the army." Chen Shou suggested again: "After this letter was shot into the city, someone must have seen it. If you ignore it, it will affect the morale of the army sooner or later. The subordinate advises, General, you might as well follow Cao Ren who guarded Fancheng back then and summon all the troops to show that it is powerful, so that our soldiers will know the importance of Lueyang and the significance of our persistence in Lueyang, and then kill your war horses in public and swear to live and die with Lueyang City."

Mao Jiong nodded and immediately followed the plan. He first summoned all the soldiers of the army and explained to the Han army soldiers the significance of their own army's persistence in Lueyang. Then he killed his war horses in public and announced that they would survive and die with Lueyang City. As a result, this move was indeed effective. Seeing that Mao Jiong had already taken the initiative, the Han army soldiers also swore to live and die with Lueyang in public, waiting patiently for the main force of the Han army to go north to counterattack.

Next, of course, it was a fierce city offensive and defensive battle. Under Chen Qian's personal command, 100,000 Jin troops took turns to fight and launched rounds of fierce attacks towards the small city of Lueyang. The soldiers of the Han army calmly responded to the battle under Mao Jiong's leadership, and used the city walls to launch a earth-shaking and bloody battle with the Jin army. They also repelled the crazy attacks of the Jin army many times. Not only did the Jin army not allow the Jin army to attack the city, but also caused quite a lot of casualties to the Jin army.

After the large-scale failure, Chen Qian, who was experienced, immediately adjusted his tactics. In addition to filling the soil outside the city into a mountain and shooting arrows from a high place, he also imitated the Han army's tactics to attack Linwei and built a large number of pointed wooden donkeys to dig the Lueyang city wall, which was also made of loess. Mao Jing adopted Chen Shou's suggestion, using gunpowder to restrain the pointed wooden donkeys and delay the progress of the Jin army's excavation, while urgently organizing the people in the city to help, and building the inner wall inside the city wall to reach the Jin army.

The power of junk food is infinite. Everyone knows that once the Jin army breaks the city, it will definitely grab all the delicious junk food. Seeing that the Han army took out a large amount of junk food to hire manpower, the people in Lueyang City decisively joined forces to fight together. Finally, before the Jin army used a pointed wooden donkey to dig the city wall, they built a new city wall inside the city wall to defend Lueyang. At the same time, they also used the deep pit dug when seizing soil to resist the remaining siege weapons of the Jin army.

During this period, the thousand elites left by Zhang Zhi to Mao Jiong also played a crucial role. The city wall was dug and the gap was exposed, leaving two gentle slopes in the upper city. The elite Han army completely blocked the gentle slopes with the Great Wall of Flesh and Blood. Not only did the Jin army fail to take advantage of the momentum to rush to the city, but also killed the Jin army with heavy casualties and corpses everywhere, and stubbornly survived this difficulty.

He failed to succeed in two consecutive large-scale sieges, but on the contrary, he paid thousands of casualties. Chen Qian, who originally thought he could easily take down the small city of Lueyang, couldn't help but feel panicked. At the same time, he didn't know the follow-up situation of the Han army's side division on the Western Front. Chen Qian naturally had to worry that he was really supported by Mao Jiong to return to the Han army's side division to reinforce the Eastern Front. He couldn't help but have the idea of ​​following Zhong Hui, intending to leave an army to surround Lueyang, and lead the main force to go south to deal with the main force of the Han army first.

Wang Hun firmly stopped Chen Qian and pointed out: "General, you must not divide your troops anymore. The bandit army has the advantage of not having to carry food and grass. Seeing our main force going south, Zhang Zhi's rebel thieves are very likely to take the initiative to retreat westward and lengthen our grain route. Longxi is also severe this year, and we cannot replenish local supplies. We can only rely on the rear to transport grain. Once the supply line is extended by the bandit army, once the grain and grass cannot be supplied, we will be in danger of being wiped out. Only by continuing to attack Yang can we be invincible."

Thinking about the current serious shortage of food in Longxi, Guanzhong, and thinking about the long road from transporting grain from the Central Plains to supplying supplies in Longxi, Chen Qian nodded and said, "It makes sense, let our soldiers continue to build siege weapons. The more the number, the better. Continue to attack Yang with force. Even if Lueyang City is iron-clad, we must break through it!"

The third large-scale siege of the Jin army was on the tenth day of the first lunar month of the ninth year of Yanxing. After a long and careful preparation, nearly 100,000 soldiers of the Jin army took turns to fight again, carrying a large number of siege weapons, and launched a crazy attack on Lueyang again. They were also ready for night battles early, intending to use their military strength to destroy the Lueyang defenders of the Han army alive. At the same time, in order to boost the morale of the army, Chen Qian announced early that the military discipline would be disbanded for three days after the city was broken, so that the soldiers of the Jin army could be free at will in Lueyang City.

The Han army soldiers led by Mao Jing and Chen Shou also ushered in the biggest challenge in their lives. The Jin army's offensive never stopped from morning to night, and the howling feather arrows continued to cover the city like raindrops. The red-eyed Jin army soldiers continued to roar forward, stepping on the corpses of their companions, roaring forward again and again, repeatedly rushing to the top of the city of Lueyang, and fighting with the Han army soldiers. Before the sky was dark, the city was covered with corpses nearly one person tall.

Even after dark, the war did not end. After lit a torch like a starry sea, the Jin army continued to carry and push various siege weapons forward to attack. The Han army reserve team, including Mao Jiong's personal soldiers, had all gone to the city. They continued to fight with the Jin army with fatigue, hunger and thirst. During this period, Mao Jiong also went on the battlefield to kill the enemy himself, constantly shouting, "The city is in, the people are in! The city is dead! Kill!"

"kill!"

The soldiers of the Han army were also shouting hoarsely, using broken spears and steel knives that cut out countless gaps to fight against the Jin army. Countless soldiers were covered with blood, and the wounded soldiers were gritting their teeth to continue fighting. The soldiers who supported the Han army until now had both tenacious fighting spirit and the instinct to survive. The war reached this point, once the city was broken, would the soldiers of the Jin army be so merciless that they would show their mercy?

The Han army soldiers resisted stubbornly on the city, while senior Jin army generals such as Chen Qian, Wang Hu and Hu Lie were trembling in the distance outside the city, because they knew very well that their battle was not an inexperienced new recruit, nor was it a local army with poor equipment. Instead, Sima Yan used the elite border troops to exchange from Jing, Yu, Xu and other places. Not only did they have sufficient practical experience, but they were also very well-equipped. But what they never expected was that after paying such a heavy price, such an elite army could not win a small city of Lueyang with less than 4,000 defenders.

"Even if we take down Lueyang, our casualties will be more than 10,000!"

Hu Lie suddenly said something, and Chen Qian's face turned gloomy and said after a while: "If there are more than ten thousand casualties, more than ten thousand casualties will be. After the city is broken, the city will be massacred and revenge!"

"Report——!"

A personal soldier suddenly rushed over from a distance and clasped his fists to Chen Qian and said, "Report to the general, Linwei urgently reported that the bandit army's partial division has returned to the city of Linwei and met with the main force of the bandit army!"

Hearing this, Hu Lie, Wang Hun, Sima Jun and others all changed their faces, while Chen Qian's lips trembled for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Continue to attack the city, take down Lueyang first!"

Unfortunately, under the mad desire of the Han soldiers to survive, the Han army still withstood the crazy attack of the Jin army for a day and night, and persisted until the next day, the sky was clear and the Jin army did not allow the Jin army to attack the city. Then, although Chen Qian wanted to continue the attack, his weapons of siege were exhausted. In the end, Chen Qian had no choice but to order his retreat helplessly, and withdrew the Jin army with heavy casualties and retreated to the camp to rest.

After returning to the camp, Chen Qian, whose face was extremely gloomy, ignored the casualties and just immediately summoned the generals to discuss the next strategy and tactics. As a result, although some generals of the Jin army suggested taking a risk to fight head-on with the main force of the Han army, Chen Qian shook his head and rejected the proposal, saying: "You can't take risks. You have seen the battle situation of Lueyang with your own eyes. The combat power of the thief army is far above our imagination. If you take a risk and decisive battle, we are not sure of winning."

"If there is no decisive battle, you can only use the old method of Emperor Xuan." Sima Jun said: "The deep ditch and high base, the strong walls will not fight, and the thieves will fight against the thief army to consume food and grass."

Chen Qian nodded slowly and said, "Although Yongliang is famine, the other seven states of our Great Jin Dynasty are in normal years. The bandit army now has more burdens for the four counties in Longxi, so we can take a gamble. Let's continue to surround Lueyang City, take a defensive stance in deep ditches and high bases, and fight against the bandit army to consume food and grass, and see who can't stand it first."
Chapter completed!