Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

Although Bashu is surrounded by mountains and mountains and rugged roads, the Chengdu Plain in its core area is flat and open, with crisscrossing rivers and fertile land that is suitable for farming and living. It is worthy of the reputation of a land of abundance.

Chengdu City is located on the west side of the Chengdu Plain. As the core and essence of Shu, the city walls of Taicheng and Shaocheng, which are the main cities, have a perimeter of more than ten miles. In addition, there is Jinguan City in the south of the city. Small cities such as Cheguancheng and Cheguancheng are separated from the main city by the Jinjiang River.

With such a large-scale city complex, Yuchi Jiong's more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry soldiers alone are far from enough to form an encirclement. Even if the tens of thousands of Di soldiers and troops recruited later are added, it is still insufficient. .

Therefore, the so-called siege is to build a long siege outside the city to restrict the access of soldiers and civilians in the city, and to carry out key fortifications on some main roads and key places to isolate the entire area.

The Wei army arrived outside the city and set up a long siege. In the blink of an eye, it had been more than a month. The time had also changed from early summer to midsummer, and the climate was extremely hot. There was a nauseating stench near the city wall. The Wei army outside the city had organized several attacks before. Although they were all repelled, the defenders in the city also suffered heavy casualties.

The corpses of those who died in battle were thrown up and down the city wall. Since the outside of the city was blocked by the Wei army, even if the defenders wanted to clean up the battlefield, they had to risk being exposed to the sharp edges of the Wei army's arrows. In this sweltering heat With a little delay in the environment, the corpses immediately became rotten, and the strong smell made humans and animals afraid to approach them.

In the evening, a team of hundreds of fine armors suddenly rushed out of the southern city gate and rushed towards the Jinjiang Bridge. There was a military camp of the Wei army a few miles away. After noticing this change, the sound of drums and horns suddenly sounded in the military camp, and the sergeants in the camp hurriedly put on their armor and mounted their horses to prepare for battle.

Both sides were racing against time. Although the Shu soldiers who rushed out of the city had the upper hand, their legs were not as strong as the galloping horses. Although they arrived at the bridge head first, they were about to slash the fence erected at the bridge head to stop the horses. However, a Wei army squad with hundreds of riders had already rushed over. A hail of arrows shot and killed a dozen Shu soldiers who destroyed the fence to resist the horses. Then the other soldiers held horses and jumped forward to continue the fight.

Although the Shu soldiers inside the fence were also fighting back, they were no more powerful than the enemy soldiers who were united with men and horses. Seeing enemy soldiers charging towards them from other directions, they had no choice but to abandon their wounded and wounded companions and retreat before the Wei soldiers arrived elsewhere. In the city.

Similar scenes occurred frequently during the siege of the city. Especially in the recent period, the number of breakthroughs by the defenders in the city has increased greatly, day and night, almost several times a day.

Such frequent actions also revealed that the situation in the city was not good. Although the Wei army has not yet conquered the city, such a long-term siege has also brought great psychological pressure to the defenders and residents in the city.

In particular, the city of Chengdu is one of the most densely populated areas in Sichuan. There are tens of thousands of people including scholars, slaves, and maidservants between the cities. With so many people gathered in the city, the daily food consumption is very huge.

Since Xiao Ji led the army to the east before, the rice reserves left in Chengdu's treasury were not expected to be too much. Now after more than a month of siege and consumption, the food in the city must have been exhausted. This should be the reason for the defense. One of the reasons why the army tried repeatedly to break out of the encirclement was that they would have to sit and wait for death in the trapped city.

"Although the Wei army is elite, it is small. The people coming from afar are not carrying heavy weapons, and they are helpless against our fortified city of Chengdu. We only need to hold on to the city until the supreme army returns to support and force the enemy troops under the city!"

Although Xiao Ru, the governor of Yizhou who was responsible for guarding the city, was wearing a rich suit, it was wrapped in wrinkles. He had not taken off his clothes for many days, and his robes were no longer bright. He was also very tired mentally, but he still fought hard. The spirit came to inspect the city's defenses, and repeatedly spoke out to encourage the soldiers defending the city.

While patrolling the city, Xiao Rui was also recruiting warriors who still had the courage and courage to go out of the city to harass the enemy. He personally arranged for these people to be entertained with wine and meat, and then sent them out to fight.

Now that the food reserves in the city are almost exhausted, even the food for the defenders cannot be supplied as usual. A feast of wine and meat can already attract many starved defenders to go out of the city to work. The reason why the city defense can still be maintained is, firstly, out of fear of the warriors of the Western Wei Dynasty, and secondly, because it still hopes that the army from the previous Eastern Expedition can return for rescue.

When Xiao Ru returned to the city, he saw the streets full of chaotic crowds. Some of the defenders were so hungry that they simply left the defense area, rushed into people's houses in the city with knives, drove the people into the streets, and then He rummaged through boxes and cabinets in search of food and belongings.

Xiao Ru couldn't stop this, fearing that if the punishment was too strict, it might further arouse the ferocious anger of these hungry soldiers, so he could only turn a blind eye to these scenes and face the people who rushed up to cry and complain. , he just hid his face and walked away. If anyone was entangled too much, he would have his soldiers drive them away with swords. He really couldn't see anyone suffering.

When he returned all the way to the state capital, he saw Xiyang King Xiao Yuanzheng wearing a military uniform and walking around in front of the palace.

"It's just a good time for your envoy to come back. I have something to discuss with you!"

When Xiao Yuanzheng saw Xiao Ru returning, he hurriedly came up to greet him, cupped his fists and said to Xiao Ru.

Although he was Xiao Ji's second son and closer by blood, he was not favored by his father. Shortly before Xiao Ji's expedition, he was severely punished for interfering with the business of brocade goods in the mansion.

Although he remains in the city now, Xiao Yuanzheng has not been appointed to any official position. Even his younger brother Xiao Yuansu, who is only a teenager, has been appointed as the prefect of Shu County and as Xiao Lu's deputy. This shows that Xiao Ji has great influence on the city. The alienation and distrust of this second son.

It was after the Wei army invaded and successfully entered Shuzhong that Xiao Yuanzheng was appointed by Xiao Lu to defend Shaocheng because the city was in urgent need of people.

Since Shaocheng was not the main attack direction of the Wei army, and Xiao Yuanzheng himself also had experience in civil and military service, he was able to gather tens of thousands of troops in the middle reaches of the river when he was taking orders from the Jiangling Military Mansion. This shows that his ability is not high. It is a pity that he encountered a tough opponent like Li Boshan of the Western Wei Dynasty and lost everything in one battle. As a prisoner and hostage, he was exchanged back to Shu in despair.

But today Xiao Yuanzheng did a very good job in defending Shaocheng. He is a rare person in the city who can share Xiao Ru's worries. So when he heard what Xiao Yuanzheng said, Xiao Yu was also looking forward to it. He first introduced Xiao Yuanzheng into the state hall, and then said: "What is your plan, please speak frankly. The enemy is fierce now." , the situation is critical, it’s time to work together to overcome the difficulties!”

Xiao Yuan was getting a rare recognition from Xiao Zhu, and he was very happy. He immediately said: "That's it. I inspected the Great Wall the day before yesterday and saw that there were thousands of criminals in the Chengdu County Prison, including many If these brave men can free these criminals, they will be another fighting force."

The Chengdu County Office is located in Shaocheng to the west. The Chengdu County Magistrate also serves as the city supervisor and manages the shopping malls in the city. There are many unruly, evil, evil and slippery people who are captured in the city. However, a considerable number of the prisoners held in the county jail were family members of Shuzhong officials who had previously opposed King Wuling's proclaimed emperor and the Eastern Expedition, so only a few thousand people were imprisoned.

Originally, the city was under siege, so it was an expedient measure to release prisoners and sinners to help defend the city. But when Xiao Ruo thought of all the chaos he had seen in the city before, he felt that releasing these prisoners might aggravate the chaos, so he frowned and said: "Right now, there is a lack of reserves in the city and there is no food for feeding. Those vicious people Once the disciple is released, I’m afraid he won’t obey the control!”

"I have also thought of this, so I do not intend to keep these criminals to defend the city. Now that the city has been besieged for a long time, it is only a bad idea to wait for reinforcements. I think the Wei army in Xishan is weak in defense. If we can break out from there, we can Go into the mountains to attract the Di Qiang and other barbarians to come to the rescue."

Xiao Yuanzheng spoke again and said that he was currently responsible for the defense of Shaocheng, but he had only a few thousand soldiers under his command, and they would be transferred elsewhere from time to time. Even if he had any ideas, it would be difficult to execute them.

After hearing this, Xiao Ru hesitated and said, "But wouldn't it be too dangerous to do this? The government has entrusted me with this foundation and the king. How can I bear to drive the king to take risks!"

After hearing this, Xiao Yuanzheng said seriously: "No matter how dangerous it is, can I avoid being a prisoner of the Wei people? I was humiliated by the Wei people before, and I endured the humiliation just to dedicate my life and effort to my father and brother! Now I am trapped in the city without any counterattack. , once the Wei people break the city and take advantage of it, they will probably die without a burial place. "

He was previously defeated and captured by Li Tai's army outside Runan City. Although he was not tortured, he was not given any preferential treatment, so he was very resistant to being a prisoner again. And because he had been away from Shu for a long time, he also felt that there was really no need to die with the city. If the city could not be defended, it would be better to fight elsewhere and fight again when the time came.

Xiao Ruo still hesitated after hearing this. After all, he was still worried that he would not be able to explain to His Majesty the Emperor, so he comforted Xiao Yuanzheng several times with gentle words, but still did not agree to the proposal.

More than ten days passed like this, and the expected reinforcements were nowhere to be seen, and the chaos in the city became worse day by day. Sometimes even when Xiao Ru wanted to dispatch the city's defense troops, he couldn't find them. In order to defend the city where the troops were located, even some official slaves were driven to the top of the city.

Faced with this situation, Xiao Ju also felt mentally and physically exhausted, but a bigger blow came again.

In the evening of that day, the Wei army suddenly started shouting in the long siege. Xiao Ju climbed to the top of the city to take a look, and saw hundreds of dejected and ragged soldiers who were forced forward by the Wei army. These people turned out to be those who had accompanied Xiao Ji on the eastern expedition. The soldiers fled back to Shu from the mouth of the gorge, and were captured by Wei army scouts, who brought back the news that the Eastern Expedition army had been completely destroyed.

After learning about this situation, Xiao Ru felt that all his energy had been drained. He fell softly on the city wall and was hurriedly carried off the city wall by his cronies. After returning to the state capital, he slowly woke up, but But his eyes were filled with despair.