In truth, when Deng Ai heard that Bashu was sending troops, he had already led his troops to the prefecture city not far from Bashu.
They were resting up and preparing for the enemy.
Deng Ai's actions were really secretive, such that even Cao Cao did not know.
When Cao Cao sent the letter, Deng Ai directly led his troops to Bashu.
Since ancient times, Bashu had always been a place that military strategists fought for.
There was no other reason other than the fact that Bashu was rich.
Bashu's grain was enough to feed many of the people in the prefecture cities.
Cao Cao also knew that Bai Feng had planted celestial grain. However, before seeing the results, Cao Cao decided to wait and see.
After all, five thousand stones per mu was just too magical. It exceeded Cao Cao's knowledge.
However, Cao Cao had already made his decision. Not to mention five thousand stones, two hundred stones per mu was enough.
However, after they were planted and the specific yield per mu was determined, they could then make inferences based on this.
Fa Zheng's guess was right. In just three days of sieging, the Cao Army did not have enough grain.
As a result, the Cao Army stopped chasing the Bashu army and waited for their supplies to arrive.
However, it was also because of this that the Cao Army slowed down their attacks. This gave Liu Zhang some peace of mind.
To prevent the Cao Army from counterattacking, Liu Zhang sent out all of the remaining hundred thousand troops.
Liu Zhang had already thought it through. Cao Cao leading fifty troops did not mean that Cao Cao wanted to leave some troops to defend the other prefectures.
Instead, he wanted to use his full strength to take down Hanzhong without holding back.
As for the motive, Liu Zhang felt that it was because of Xiliang.
Xiliang had already been taken down by Cao Cao. Ma Teng and Han Sui had both died, and Ma Chao had joined the Cao camp.
Strictly speaking, Ma Chao had joined the white camp.
Xiliang was not close to the mid plains, and the closest place was Hanzhong.
Hanzhong was also an important military location. After taking it down, it would be like taking down the entire north.
This should be the reason why Cao Cao would send out 500 thousand troops to attack Hanzhong under such circumstances.
Hence, Cao Cao probably did not have enough troops to ambush Bashu.
However, what Liu Zhang didn't expect was that two days after he sent out the 100,000 troops, Deng Ai led the Cao Army over.
However, Fa Zheng and Zhang Song were still negotiating with Liu Bei in his camp.
It would take at least three to four days for Liu Bei Army to reach Sichuan!
However, there weren't many soldiers in Bashu, only a few thousand city guards.
City Defense Army? Is that even an army?
At most, they would be equivalent to the current security guards. They would have no combat power at all.
They belonged to the yamen, which was the county yamen. Most of them came here to earn a living. How could they have experienced the battlefield?
On the other hand, Deng Ai had 20,000 elite soldiers under his command!
This kind of disparity in strength directly made Liu Zhang despair.
"Tell Liu Zhang to quickly open the city gates and surrender. If he does, he can be spared!"
Deng Ai pointed at the city gate and called for a battle with her soldiers.
This time, the entire Sichuan was instantly in chaos.
Liu Ba frowned and said,
"My Lord, I said that this is not reliable!"
"Fa Zheng must have colluded with Liu Bei to lure Liu Bei into Sichuan. That's why he sent all of our troops away!"
"Now, Liu Bei didn't come, but the Cao Army did!"
Although he said that, Liu Ba was also thinking of a plan to deal with the enemy.
However, it was easier said than done to find a plan to deal with the enemy.
Cao Cao's army was not made of paper.
Moreover, although this commander, Deng Ai, was not a general, it was the first time he was appointed to attack a city.
However, he was Bai Feng's direct disciple. Moreover, he had brought Bai Feng's three fierce generals with him!
If that was the case..,
There was no way they could resist!
Unless they ordered the soldiers who had already been sent out to return.
However, these soldiers had already left for two days. They had already arrived in Hanzhong and were fighting with the main force of the Cao Army.
There was no way they could make it back in time!
Liu Zhang fell into despair. However, he still ordered the city defense army to defend the city and not come out.
He had placed all of his hopes on Liu Bei.
As long as Fa Zheng and the others moved fast enough and lured Liu Bei's soldiers over, they would be able to fight against the Cao Army!
It would take about three to four days for the army to arrive.
As long as they could hold on for four days, they would see the light at the end of the tunnel!
As long as Liu Bei's army arrived, the 20,000 soldiers under Deng Ai's command would not be able to do anything in the face of absolute strength.
Deng Ai shouted for a long time but did not get any response. He immediately rode his horse back.
"Shi Zai, what do you think?"
Li Cunxiao was the first to ask.
Deng Ai immediately shook his head:
"It seems that they want to defend to the death."
"Generals, we can only attack by force!"
"Bashu must be waiting for reinforcements to arrive."
"But what reinforcements can they have?"
"Bashu's 400,000 soldiers have all been sent out. They are currently being held down by Wei Emperor's army. They cannot escape."
"If they want to wait for Bashu's army to return, they will have to give up on Hanzhong. Furthermore, the prime minister is stopping them. It will take at least ten days."
"If they have reinforcements, it would be Liu Bei who is closest to them!"
"Liu Bei's army will arrive in four days at the earliest."
"We will take down Bashu within four days!"
Hearing Deng Ai's words, the soldiers opened their eyes wide. They could not believe what Deng Ai had just said.
Take Bashu in four days?
If this was not crazy, what was?
Bashu was easy to defend and hard to attack. It had many natural barriers.
Although Bashu only had a few thousand city defense soldiers defending it, they did not have much fighting power.
However, it was impossible to take down Bashu in such a short time. It was simply wishful thinking.
However, their commander was Deng Ai.
If Deng Ai said to attack by force, they would not be able to resist.
Along with the beating of the war drums, bugles sounded.
Twenty thousand soldiers held their weapons and charged towards the city gates.
This time, Liu Zhang was dumbfounded.
He did not expect Deng Ai to not follow the plan!
Originally, if he closed the gates and did not fight, even if Deng Ai came, he might not be able to take down the city.
After all, even if they were the city defense army, the Bashu border was heavily guarded.
It was simply impossible for a mere 20,000 soldiers to break into the city.
However, Liu Zhang did not expect this at all. It could be said that he had underestimated the abilities of Li Cunxiao, Li Yuanba, and Qin Liangyu.
The three of them made use of the ballistae to fire the ballistae and led the army to climb up the city walls.
In just 15 minutes, the three generals had reached the top of the city walls.
How could the city defense army win against them? Behind them, more and more Cao Army entered the city.
In an instant, the city defense army suffered many casualties. They could not stop the Cao Army's advance.
Within an hour, the first line of defense of Bashu was taken down!
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
