Chapter 4 Jinyang War of Attrition

Although Wuxie was mentally prepared, he was still at a loss in the face of the menacing three coalition forces.He summoned his retainers and wanted to hear what everyone had to say.Everyone was chattering, some said that they should retreat to Daidi, some said that it would be better to borrow troops from Qi State, and some said that if you can't bear it, you will mess up and make big plans, so it is better to agree to Zhibo's request.Only one person remained silent until everyone was tired, then he stood up and said to Wu Shi: I think we should quickly retreat to Jinyang and use Jinyang's city wall to resist Zhibo for one to two years.

The man's name was Zhang Mengtan, who was then Zhao's family chancellor.In "Historical Records", Zhang Mengtan was recorded as Zhang Mengtong, because Sima Qian was poor and fastidious, and changed it to avoid his father Sima Tan's taboo. Wuxie immediately asked Zhang Mengtan two questions: First, why do you think Jinyang can resist Zhibo for one to two years?Second, what will happen after two years? Zhang Mengtan replied: Jinyang was built by Dong Anyu, the former master.Dong Anyu has outstanding talents, Jinyang was managed by him in an orderly manner, and later officials followed his method of management. The city walls there are strong, the money and food are sufficient, and the war preparations are complete. Five years is also unknown.As for what will happen two years later, you also know that Han, Wei and Zhibo are not on the same page, and they followed him to deal with us only under pressure.As long as we can resist for two years, there will be divisions among them, and then we will have a chance to fight back.

Wuxie adopted Zhang Mengtan's suggestion, so he ordered the retainers and clan soldiers to gather and march to Jinyang. After arriving in Jinyang, I patrolled around without a shirt, and when I came back, I scolded Zhang Mengtan: "Well, you are a big liar. It is all nonsense to say that Jinyang has enough money and food, and is fully prepared for war! I went to see it, and the granary was clearly empty. , There is no money in the treasury, the city wall is tall and thick, but it has been in disrepair for a long time. Tell me, what can I use to resist the three armies, take your head?"

Zhang Mengtan was still not in a hurry, and waited until Wuxie had lost his temper before he said: "I heard that when a sage governs a country, he keeps wealth among the people, not in the treasury; Repair." "Bullshit!" Shirtless said angrily, "What time is this, and you're still talking about saints, morality, and pedantry!" Zhang Mengtan said: "Please issue an order now, ordering the people in the city to keep food for three years, and send all the rest of the money and food to your warehouse, and recruit volunteers to repair the city wall." "Okay, I'll give you three days to fill the warehouse; I'll give you ten days to repair the city wall. If you can't do it, I'll cut off your head!" Wu Shirt finished and left angrily.

The next morning, Wu Shirt came to inspect the granary with blood-red eyes staring at him. The scene in front of him made him think he was still dreaming—more than a dozen huge grain bins (qun) had been piled up to the brim, and the delivery man People are still queuing in long lines, waiting for the food to be brought in.When I went to the treasury to see, there was too much money to hold it; the arsenal was full of weapons and armor, and they lined up at the gate of the yamen. Five days later, the city wall was also repaired, all kinds of defense equipment were repaired, and the guards were refreshed, and they accepted the inspection without shirts.

Wuxie was happy and ashamed, summoned Zhang Mengtan and praised him greatly. Zhang Mengtan said modestly: "This is not my credit, but the foresight of the First Lord. After Dong Anyu passed away, the First Lord sent Yin Duo to manage Jinyang. Yin Duo asked the First Lord, do you want me to go?" To extract taxes, or to turn Jinyang into a guarantee for the Zhao family? The Former Lord said without hesitation, of course, it is to become the guarantee for the Zhao family. Therefore, since Yin Duo, all the officials in Jinyang have followed the instructions of the Former Lord , reduce taxes, and develop people's livelihood. The life of the people in Jinyang is better than that of any other place in the world. Now that it is a time of crisis, how can they not help you with all their strength?"

Hearing this, Wu Shi felt his heart warm, and tears almost fell down.He quickly wiped the corners of his eyes, and said to Zhang Meng: "The city wall has been repaired, and the money and food are sufficient, but we still lack enough arrows to defend against Zhibo's attack, what should we do?" Zhang Mengtan said: "This is not difficult. When Dong Anyu built Jinyang City, he had already saved his hand. The walls of the government office were reinforced with high-quality vitex wood, and the bases of the pillars were cast with copper water. You only need to order people to demolish the palace office, pull out the wood from the walls, and melt the bases of the pillars, and you can get a lot of materials for making arrows."

Needless to say, Zhao Yang's hiding wealth in the people and Dong Anyu's precautions laid a solid foundation for Zhao Wuxie to fight against Xun Yao. In June 455 BC, the allied armies of Zhi, Wei and Han surrounded Jinyang tightly and attacked day and night.However, three months later, Jinyang City stood still.Seeing the corpses of the siege soldiers piled up into a hill below the city, Xun Yao had to change her strategy and postpone the attack. Although the first battle was unfavorable, Xun Yao still felt that he had the chance to win.He had plenty of time, no matter how much food Zhao Yang left for his son, there would be a day when he would finish eating.In order to stabilize Han Hu and Wei Ju, two unreliable allies, Xun Yao promised them that once Jinyang was captured, the Zhao family's territory would be divided into three equally, and each family would get one share.

Xun Yao's promise is very attractive, but Han and Wei have lingering fears about Xun Yao's ups and downs.Wasn't it a good idea to carve up the Zhongxing and Fan's lands back then?But in the end, the Zhi family took advantage of it, and cleverly set up a name to plunder 10,000 households from each of the Han and Wei families.Whether he will repeat the old trick this time is anyone's guess. War is like a chess game, the key to winning or losing is to find the chess eye.For this game of life and death between Zhi and Zhao, the eyes of chess are Han Hu and Wei Ju.Zhang Mengtan saw this clearly, and Xun Yao also saw it clearly to a certain extent, but he didn't put in more effort to do the work of Han and Wei.

One day, someone went to the camp of Zhijun to ask Xun Yao to see him. As soon as Xun Yao saw this person, her face turned dark, and she said coldly: "Didn't you already change the genealogy and deny our Zhi family? Why are you still looking for me? Did you see that I was about to conquer the Jin Dynasty?" Yang, do you want to return to the Zhi family?" This person is Zhiguo, and now he should be called Fuguo. Fu Guo ignored Xun Yao's cynicism and said, "Whether Jinyang can be conquered is still unknown. I came here to remind you that keeping Han and Wei is the key to victory in this war. If you secretly buy Duan Gui He Renzhang promised that after the capture of Jinyang, he would give each of them 10,000 households of land, so as to ensure that the Han and Wei clans will not change their minds."

After Fuguo finished speaking, he turned and left.He had no illusions about getting any benefits from Xun Yao, but out of affection for Zhi's clan, he hoped to give Xun Yao a hint at this critical moment, that's all. However, Xun Yao was indifferent to this suggestion.He counted the big bill with his fingers: After conquering Jinyang, the three families divided Zhao's land equally, and now they have to give 20,000 households to reward the retainers of Han and Wei. Wouldn't he get less than them? Not worth it, not worth it.