Chapter 469: Layers of Blockade
If you ask which soldiers are the most valuable among the tens of thousands of troops under Zhang He's command, apart from Zhang He's few personal guards, it is the nearly 10,000 engineers.
An archer who is not strong in close combat is not a qualified archer, and an engineer who is not strong in fighting is not a qualified engineer.
Due to the limitations of this era, Tian Ze did not refer to later generations and light up the elite attributes of the cooks, because the cost-effectiveness was really not high.
However, Tian Ze gritted his teeth and highlighted the elite attributes of the engineering corps.
You know, Tian Ze has an army of more than one million, but there are only more than 30,000 qualified engineers.
Most of these engineers are scattered among the various armies. They are usually hidden and will only be used in emergencies.
Although these engineers are not numerous, they are treated like treasures by the generals of various departments.
After all, being able to fight is the foundation, and being dexterous is a must. These engineers are highly coordinated and organized, and they are all well-educated and have their own skills. When they work together, they are a panacea on the battlefield.
It was just a basic operation for them to quickly create large siege equipment such as thunder chariots and well traps with the help of the equipment cores prepared in advance.
Repairing armor, crossbows and other weapons and equipment is also no problem.
Their real strengths are the ability to quickly carry out earth-digging operations, build camps, and other skills according to the battlefield situation.
Relying on these means, they can always play a huge role on the battlefield, and their role is even more important than that of the elite guards of each general.
"This time we brought a lot of improved cement and a lot of refined iron." Guo Jia said in a deep voice.
At this moment, he was extremely grateful to Tian Ze for his "saturation" combat method.
Although the battle went smoothly all the way south, the logistics troops under Zhang He's army did not relax at all.
Large amounts of food and various supplies were continuously transported to the front line with the idea of being prepared for any eventuality.
Even though they will hardly use most of the supplies, they still have to be prepared. This is Tian Ze's requirement for the logistics troops of each unit.
You don't need these things, but you can't live without them. As long as you can use them once, it's worth it.
And all of this just happens to be useful.
"Send these things, along with all the engineers, to Qunin County immediately. If nothing goes wrong, they should arrive in five days."
"Before Liu Bei's main army arrives at Quren County, we can buy at least a month or so. For them, it's enough!"
……
When these nearly 10,000 engineers arrived in Quren County, a strong sense of confidence suddenly surged in Pang De's heart.
He also had a small number of engineers under his command. Although not many, they played a crucial role in the previous sieges and camp defenses.
Now, with 10,000 engineers and a large amount of material support, he believes that these people can create a miracle.
There were only a few thousand people around Quren County, and Pang De had already mobilized them.
At this critical moment, Pang De no longer cared about anything else and made various promises. As long as he could defend Quren County, the Ministry of War would cover for him in the future.
Because the paper money of the Great Qi Dynasty had not yet been popularized here, Pang De distributed the large amount of silk he had brought with the army to the local people as wages, and promised each person a hundred acres of fertile land, and food and other things were also freely available.
Pang De distributed all the supplies that were not needed for the war to the people.
At the same time, the strong military discipline of the Da Qi army also played its role.
Because they did not harm the people at all, and they also carried out customary propaganda and distributed some food when passing through this place in the past, these actions left a very good impression on the local people in advance and laid the foundation for their trust and support.
Under the combination of kindness and force, the local people were very cooperative with Pang De's orders. Under the command of the engineers, all the people and soldiers took action and quickly devoted themselves to the intensive construction.
They shuttled between the mountains around Quren County like a group of tireless worker ants.
Based on the terrain surveyed in advance by Pound, the engineers were divided into two groups.
A part of them dispersed and began to build roadblocks along the possible land routes around Quren County, and set up camps and arrow towers in dangerous places to prepare for layers of obstacles.
The other part was busy working on the city wall of Quren County, and began to reinforce the wall with large amounts of cement and fine iron.
Seeing the precious iron being wasted like this, Pang De turned his head away with some pity.
These refined irons were originally used to manufacture some precision instruments, build water conservancy facilities and construction equipment, but now they are directly used as building materials, which is really a waste.
Thanks to the joint efforts of tens of thousands of people, Quren County is changing almost every day.
More than half a month later, the city wall, which was originally only two meters high, was directly raised to five meters and became extremely thick.
The dense trenches around the city were deep and wide, and even the water from the Yangtze River was used to create a moat.
A large number of chevaux de frise, city defense equipment, arrow towers, etc. have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, standing around Qunin County.
The many small paths around have changed drastically. Many have been blocked by rocks, while others have been built with trenches and walls along the mountainside.
There are countless traps hidden along the mountain paths.
It can be said that these engineers have used the method of stopping the enemy to the extreme.
As the defensive fortifications of Quren County became increasingly strong, the main force led by Liu Bei himself was gradually approaching.
After learning the news of the fall of Chengdu, Liu Bei was struck by a bolt from the blue. The huge blow made him unable to recover for a long time.
He knew exactly what this meant.
Even if he invaded Yizhou, the battle would not end peacefully.
Without the natural obstacles of mountains and rivers, even if he was entangled with Tian Ze's army in the Yizhou Basin, both sides would suffer losses and would not gain much benefit.
But he had to come, and there were even more reasons to fight this battle.
Because if he didn't come, Yizhou would completely belong to Tian Ze.
The population of nearly three million may be just icing on the cake for Tian Ze, but it is crucial to Liu Bei.
Even if we can snatch away 20% or 30% of the population, it would be a huge profit.
Now, as the living space becomes increasingly narrow, Liu Bei becomes more and more eager for population and territory.
As the army continued to march, Liu Bei soon received another good news.
Wei Yan, who was arranged by him to garrison in Baidi City, did not disappoint his expectations, but instead brought him a huge surprise.
Liu Bei thought it was already a great success that Wei Yan could defend Baidi City, but he did not expect that Wei Yan would dare to launch a surprise attack on Pang De, and actually succeeded.
Not only did it inflict a heavy blow to Pang De, but it also completely destroyed the possibility of Pang De's army taking Baidi City, and bought him an extremely precious opportunity to fight.
(End of this chapter)
