When watching ancient wars, we often hear a word, that is, siege, in many ancient wars, siege is undoubtedly the most difficult thing, the Xiang Army in order to break through Tianjing, in Tianjing for two years to achieve victory.
Since the siege is so difficult, many people are more curious, obviously it is just a city, too difficult to go to the siege, directly bypass the city tower, from other places to enter can not be? Why do you have to do your best to attack the city?
It is easy to be copied by the other party
The siege battle, originally is more interesting, need to take into account the number of troops on both sides, if the number of troops on the besieging side occupies an absolute advantage, and the city pool is indeed too difficult to capture, it is possible to consider bypassing the city pool, using the large army to directly seize the rest of the place, such as Wu Qi of the State of Wei during the Warring States period, in order to quickly occupy the Western region of the Qin State, he chose to bypass Hangu Pass, cross the Yellow River from the Longkou ferry in Shanxi, directly into Guanzhong, and then occupy Linjin, Yuanli and other areas.
This is a measure that can be taken only when the troops occupy an absolute superiority, but where there is no absolute superiority in their own troops, once such a plan is adopted, it may lead to their own being surrounded by the defending side to the death, and eventually the regiment will be destroyed, for example, when Zhuge Liang sent Ma Mo to the town to guard the street pavilion during the first Northern Expedition, the result was that Ma Mo was delayed because the itinerary was not carried out according to Zhuge Liang's plan, and when he went to the street pavilion, Zhang Guo had already arrived first, and at this time Ma Mo was facing the attack on the city.
Originally, Ma Mo could face Zhang Hao head-on, using some guerrilla tactics and the like to delay time and win time for Zhuge Liang, but as a result, Ma Mo was self-righteous and wanted to directly lead his army around the city gate to the high ground, and use the terrain to attack Zhang Gao.
However, after Ma Mo finally ascended to the high ground, Zhang Hao directly cut off all the back roads of Ma Mo in one fell swoop, and then formed an encirclement of Ma Mo, Ma Mo's strength was only 20,000, compared with Zhang Hao's more than 50,000 troops, it was obviously in a disadvantageous position, and finally was surrounded by Zhang Hao's regiment and directly destroyed.
This is a typical self-inadequacy behavior, obviously his own strength is not enough, the disparity between the strength of the troops and the other side is huge, but also want to opportunistically bypass the city gate to attack the other side from other roads, you know that as the defender of the city, is he not better than you about the surrounding terrain and traffic routes?
Once your own strength is not as good as the other side or the strength of the troops does not have an overwhelming advantage, blindly bypassing the city to attack the rest of the place, you may be found by the defender of the city to find your location, and then the joint army forms a comprehensive encirclement of you, at this time, you yourself can not break through the siege, you can only wait for death on the spot, the possibility of being destroyed by the regiment is very large, not to mention want to continue to make meritorious achievements, I am afraid that after the First World War, the light army will be destroyed and escape, and the heavy will also die in it.
Considering such factors, in the siege war, there are very few people who want to opportunistically bypass the city to attack the rest of the place, after all, the risk of doing so is too great, but we look at it in another way, if their own troops have an overwhelming advantage, why should they bypass the city, and directly capture the city is also completely victorious.
It is easy to be blocked by the grain route
In addition to being surrounded by groups and destroyed by groups, there is also a relatively bad situation that once you blindly attack the city, because you are not particularly familiar with the traffic roads of other people's cities, it may lead to a more tragic ending, that is, directly blocking the grain route by the other party, resulting in your own eventual failure due to lack of food.
For example, in the Rebellion of San Francisco, Wu Sangui's subordinate Wang Fuchen, in the end, because he was blocked from the grain route in Pingliang, he was living and suffering inside, others could not enter, he could not come out, after a period of suffering, Wang Fuchen finally surrendered to the Qing army in the despair of no support outside and no grain and grass inside.
Just as the so-called people take food as the sky, in all wars, grain is very important, there must be grain channels for external transportation of grain supplies, in order to let the war continue normally, in the siege tactics, there are many successful examples, are by blocking the grain routes, let the other side starve to death or surrender themselves, Zeng Guoquan's Battle of Tianjing, the use of this tactic.
Once the other side lacks food, the soldiers simply can not fight, the final result is bound to be failure, in the siege war, to defend their own food and protect the grain road, is absolutely the top priority, must not be ignored or taken lightly, otherwise failure is only a matter of time, in their own home situation is still so, if you go to the other side's home, let alone go to the other side's home.
It is difficult to contain the main force of the other side
If the strength of their own army is also enough, and the grain route can be protected from being blocked by the other side, then what we need to consider at this time is another problem, that is, to contain the main force of the other side, bypass the city and go around the city, and take the most critical places, this tactic has been many in history.
For example, Deng Ai's smuggling of Yinping during the Three Kingdoms period is a typical example of bypassing the city to attack the city and achieve victory, when Zhong Hui led a hundred thousand troops to tie down The main army of Shu Han, Jiang Wei, so that Jiang Wei and Shu Han did not have enough troops to support the rest of the place, at this time Deng Ai led the elite troops, from Mianyang to Mianzhu, bypassing the Sword Pavilion and directly approaching Chengdu, although the middle also encountered zhuge Zhan and others, but these are not the main forces after all, Deng Ai can successfully reach Chengdu and turn the danger into victory.
There is a key point in this tactic, that is, you must contain the main force of the other side, so that the other side has no extra army to support the rest of the place, so that you can bypass the city to attack the rest of the place, the effect will be more significant, once you misestimate the number of the other side's army, resulting in being surrounded by the other side halfway, the situation is tragic.
For example, in the Battle of Tianjing between the Xiang Army and the Taiping Army, at the very beginning, Li Xiucheng thought that the main force of the Xiang Army had been contained by himself, so as to attack the relatively weak western army of the Xiang Army, but later found that the main force of the Xiang Army was not contained by himself, so that Zeng Guoquan freed his hands to catch Li Xiucheng by surprise.
There are many wars like this, I will not list them one by one, but from these wars, it is absolutely not difficult for us to find a problem, that is, if we want to contain the main force of the other side, it is definitely not a simple thing, and the other side's city has some traffic arteries, I am not clear at all, in case I think that I have contained the main force of the other side, the result is another secret road, and there are reinforcements from the rest of the city to support, then their own end will eventually be surrounded by the other side, so that the whole army is destroyed.
In any case, it is not an easy thing to opportunistically bypass the city, so the ancients rarely adopt such a way of fighting, we look at the entire history of the river, choose this way of fighting and win, it is really very few, most of the time, people still choose to attack the city in a disciplined manner, wait until after the capture of the city, and then occupy the rest of the place, step by step, steady and steady, is the way to win.
epilogue
The ancients actually thought of bypassing the city gate to attack the city from the rest of the place, but unfortunately under the actual conditions, many times this practice is not feasible, both to consider whether they will be suddenly surrounded by the other side, but also to consider whether their own grain routes will be blocked by the other side, the most important thing is how many troops the other side has, or whether there will be foreign aid, it is completely difficult for them to figure out, once blind opportunism, the losses they face will be immeasurable!
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