Ju Su's attempt to find Xun Chen to offer advice was hindered, so he had to find another way, but it would take at least a few days to find another way. At the moment, he could only temporarily watch the situation move forward along the existing inertia for a while.

Especially Yuan Shao is famous for being indecisive. You cannot give him a lot of advice at the same time, especially when he just made a new decision, you say that he made the wrong decision, which can easily anger Yuan Shao.

Ju Su knows this very well.

During the Battle of Guandu in history, Yuan Jun's strategists also gave a lot of specific tactical suggestions for combat, but these suggestions were basically "the previous one was proven to be really not good, and then try the next one". In this way, if there is a fact, it will help Yuan Shao wake up first, so that he will not have to make a fuss to criticize the leader directly.

Tian Feng is a typical example of "not waiting for facts to prove that Yuan Shao's previous decision was wrong, he jumped out and started to argue", and then was imprisoned.

The next day after Ju Su and Xun Chen discussed with Xun Chen, on June 26th, Xun Chen was indeed anxious to offer advice to Yuan Shao.

He never mentioned Ju Su's reminder last night, but only told Yuan Shao in detail the part he thought of "digging Qinshui to change the way to prevent Guan Yu from using the benefits of the warship to break through when the Yewang City was finally unfavorable."

Yuan Shao was not very satisfied with Wen Chou and Zhang He's previous record. After all, 7,000 people had already died in such a small battle, and there were still 12,000 wounded people who couldn't survive. Listening to Xun Chen's plan seemed to be able to ensure that at least Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang were killed. It would be worth it if there were more people who died.

Yuan Shao immediately sent an order: "Let Kuo Yi lead his troops to be responsible for dozens of miles east of the Yewangcheng, dig canals and dig water in the low-lying areas around, and pile up soil to block the original river channel. Wen Chou and Zhang He continued to attack Yewangcheng and Wen County."

Tuo Yi is not very trusted now, so he asked his troops to be responsible for digging the river. This is not a head-on battle. Even if he is dissatisfied, it will not affect the situation of the war.

Of course, the task of diverting the river is not enough in one or two days. The workload of building a river dam is not large, but the excavation of the new river channel is large.

If you want to be quick, if you can't wait to directly introduce Qinshui into the Yellow River, you can only find a low-lying place next to it, dig the river and break it, and then divert the water to form a dam, which can temporarily cut off the river for a period of time.

But this is only a temporary measure. Once the water level of the dam is rising and level as smooth as a breach, the extra water will continue to flow along the original river channel to the Yewang City.

So while Tuo Yi digging on the other side, the siege did not slow down at all, and the daily fighting was very fierce.

While trying hard to speed up the time to build a lever-type catapult outside the Yewang City, Yuan Shaojun created many wooden shields, urging the archers to suppress the enemy. The cannon fodder man caught the cannon fodder man filling the trenches with arrows on the top of the city under the supervision of the trenches and the destroyer walls of red deer antlers and sheep and horses.

In order to destroy the periphery of the city defense facilities, the total number of casualties and injuries of the attacking party exceeded 1,000 per day, and it is estimated that all of them will be completed in five days.

In contrast, during this period of siege preparation, Guan Yu's troops were almost negligible because a considerable number of his crossbow soldiers were equipped with divine arm crossbows that the enemy could not imitate so far. The effective range was nearly a hundred steps away from Yuan Shao's stepping on Zhang crossbows, which was another magical weapon to defend the city. Therefore, when killing the soldiers of Yuan's army who destroyed the peripheral fortifications, the efficiency was surprisingly high.

In the early winter of the year, Guan Yu had less than three or five thousand pairs of equipment. However, during the six-month stalemate, Liu Bei's camp was the general, and the five subordinate schools and other imperial military workshops were fully opened for production. Until now, Guan Yu had nearly 10,000 divine arm crossbows.

From this perspective, although Ju Su's stalemate tactics are correct in military considerations on the front battlefield, they do not count that Liu Bei is not afraid of farming with Yuan Shao at all. The more stalemate, the greater the advantage of Liu Bei's new weapons mass production equipment.

Liu Bei's technological and productivity advantages are there. Even if he relied on a population of 17 million to face the 23 million Yuan, Cao and Sun coalition forces opposite, Liu Bei's total productivity still has obvious advantages, unless Yuan Shao and Cao Cao also carry out a comprehensive technological revolution.

In this way, Xu You strongly advised Yuan Shao to fight and decide quickly, which is not a complete stupid move, because the truth is that Yuan Shao has no hope, whether he fights or delays. If he doesn't engage in a technological revolution, everything else is just repairing and can only seek survival in death.

At the same time, because it is a city defense battle, there is no need to consider the mobility of soldiers, and the crossbowmen do not need to move their positions and just stand in a stance to output. Guan Yu can even let the crossbow soldiers wear heavy steel breastplate and steel helmets. If they think it is heavy, they cut down some logs and put them on the top of the city, so that the crossbow soldiers can sit as stools and shoot arrows.

This kind of fighting style is quite similar to the later World War, when the German army once passed the heavy machine gunners with fixed firepower points through the steel armor eight millimeters later, but because the steel armor was too heavy, the machine gunners were allowed to sit and fight.

During the shooting process, seven or eight of Yuan Shao's crossbowmen were killed or injured, so that they could exchange the shooting and injuring a crossbowmen under Guan Yu. Moreover, due to the protection of heavy armor, unless they hit the face or the front of the neck, most of them were only slightly injured.

The war of attrition lasted for three days. On June 28th, when Zhuge Liang was patrolling the battlefield after the afternoon war, he suddenly discovered some problems - Zhuge Liang keenly noticed that the water level of Qinshui had dropped significantly.

After all, Zhuge Liang is one of the few magical people in the world who is good at using natural forces such as water and fire to assist in combat. Qinshui also has the role of a moat on the north side of Yewang City. It is difficult for him not to notice the changes in water levels.

However, Zhuge Liang did not expect that Xun Chen would whisper and suggest that Yuan Shao ask Qinshui to change the route to ensure that Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang's entire army were killed and preventing breaking through. Zhuge Liang thought that Yuan Shao's army was just blocking the river and storing water, and when there was too much water in the future, it would directly flood the city.

Of course, Zhuge Liang was not afraid of flooding the city because the Yewang City had stuck in Qinshui. Yuan's army had no warships upstream east of the Yewang. Even if the Yewang was flooded in the future, Guan Yu had the advantage of a ship, so he would just take a boat and leave the city and escape.

However, Zhuge Liang keenly noticed another abnormality: Yuan Shao's army is now siegeing the three sides of the Yewang City, frantically creating a comprehensive and complete siege equipment. The posture is to attack in every direction without a feint.

But if Yuan Shao wanted to flood the city, this preparation would be a bit too much, because after the water level soared, some of the east and west of the city might be flooded. Aren’t the catapult positions built outside the city also flooded?

Therefore, the normal approach should be that Yuan Shao only sets up encirclement camps on the east and west sides, or even if he builds heavy siege weapons, it should be mobile rather than fixed. In the south of the city, he will strive to build the heaviest siege equipment.

"Is it possible that Yuan Shao's plan to break up the water and flood the city for a long time? He had to store water in the upper reaches of the east of the city for ten or eight days? So he felt that it didn't matter if he shared the defensive forces for the sake of this strong attack during the middle period and created more things that would be flooded in the future?"

Zhuge Liang couldn't help thinking in his heart.

He didn't know that Xun Chen had no intention of letting the water flood into the city at all, he planned to lure Qinshui away directly. Since there was no water in the city at that time, Yuan Shao was of course not afraid of flooding his own people, and he was not afraid of the siege weapons he built in low-lying places were wasted.

Ju Su did not evaluate the risks in this regard at all because these risks were newly created temporarily and did not exist, so he did not have time to take care of them all.

After Zhuge Liang figured it out, he immediately reported to Guan Yu that night and explained his analysis.

Guan Yu was still reading the Spring and Autumn Night at the time with candles. He heard the news and put down the book, stroked his beard and squinted his eyes, and said with a murderous intent: "Yuan Shao wanted to numb us with a strong attack? At the same time, cooperate with the water attack. If the strong attack does not work, it will flood the city? Zhuge Xiannie, can you roughly estimate the location of Yuan's army building a dam and blocking rivers, how far is the upper reaches of the Yewang City?"

Zhuge Liang opened the map he made and calculated the homework on the map: "It should be only twenty miles upstream. If it is calculated as the straight-line distance by land, it is only fifteen or sixteen miles, because the Qinshui River in the middle is turned north and then south back."

Guan Yu touched his beard and said, "How did you calculate it?"

Zhuge Liang pointed to the map: "Qinshui is fifteen miles away from the straight line west of Yewang, and there is a turning point to turn north first. Our army is stationed here and stalemates Ju Su for half a year, and I have already clearly surveyed the surrounding geography.

There is a small hill south of the turning point, blocking the river water, but in fact, just dig a hole in the hill, the river water can pour south to the depression in the south to accumulate.

If the water level is high, it may even allow Qinshui to seize Ji and enter the Yellow River, and flow into the Yellow River from Wenxian and Pinggao. But since Yuan Shao was going to flood the Yewang City, he probably wouldn't be so far-reaching. Otherwise, the water would be directly flooded into the Yellow River and would not be able to flood us."

Zhuge Liang's words may not be easy for people who do not understand the local geography. I explained a few words: south of Qinshui, there is a small river that flows into the Yellow River, which is called Yanshui and the lower reaches are called Jishui.

Wen County, which is still under the guard of Guan Yu Army, is bordered by the Ji River in the north and the Yellow River in the south. However, the Ji River does not enter the Yellow River in Wen County. It has to flow eastward for dozens of miles, and enter the Yellow River in Pinggao County in Henei County. Pinggao is now occupied by Yuan Shao.

The other side of Pinggao is Chenggao, the Yin of Henan, Luoyang. Pinggao and Chenggao have been military fortresses since ancient times.

Because these two cities are responsible for blocking the Yellow River and preventing the troops coming from the east to attack Luoyang, they use the Yellow River surface to bypass the Hulao Pass on the land on the Chenggao-Xingyang line.

While slowly clarifying his thoughts, Guan Yu also secretly praised Zhuge Liang's homework in his heart. The battle map he made himself actually had a simple circle line. It is said that Li Su taught him, called "contour line".

Of course, the picture was not painted by Zhuge Liang alone. He is now in a high position and has great responsibilities. He has gradually begun to learn from Master Li, and he has to maintain a technical team with special division of labor.

For example, when drawing a map, Zhuge Liang trained several new officials who had good academic performance in the Ming and Calculation Science to come over, and trained them to use trigonometric functions to measure the elevation, and then sent them out to conduct field surveys. Zhuge Liang himself was responsible for summarizing and inspecting, and the workload was greatly relaxed.

This kind of map looks annoying at first glance, but at this moment, when Zhuge Liang used a quick calculation of the question "If Yuan Shao wanted to break the water, where would he store water?", Guan Yu fully realized its exquisiteness - the water flowed to a low place, look at the contour lines near the two banks of Qinshui on the map, and you can guess the location of the opening where the river was blocked and the water was broken.

Guan Yu pondered: "Although he doesn't know what Yuan Shao sold in the gourd, when will he start it. But judging from his current appearance, he is very relaxed in his guard and does not seem nervous as if he is about to start it soon.

I want to figure out his true purpose. I plan to arrange a night attack on the camp that blocks rivers and dams tomorrow, and destroy the part of his embankment before it has been completed. Maybe Yuan’s army in the camp besieged in the northwest of the city will be caught off guard and cannot retreat to a high place and be flooded by himself. We can also see the reality and reality, see Yuan Shao’s subsequent deployment and adjustments, and find out his true intentions."

Zhuge Liang was also slightly ashamed when he heard this: I didn’t fully guess the specific purpose of the other party blocking rivers and water. When the launch time, would the Taiwei be ready to use this method to figure it out?

Although... it is indeed simple and crude, and very effective. I have destroyed your dam, but what you want to do is not clear at a glance? If you look at your remedies, you can't hide any conspiracy.

Similar to Zhuge Liang's saying, "I realized that a general in the enemy camp had a conspiracy, but I don't know what the conspiracy was." Then Guan Yu said rudely, "Then I will break through that camp and capture the conspiracy general. If you torture it slowly, the truth will be revealed."

He is really bold and arrogant.

Zhuge Liang advised him slightly unbearable: "Who will the Grand Marshal go to send? How many troops will bring? If the troops are slow, they will not act closely. If they are intercepted and dragged by Yuan's army halfway, the army will be surrounded and consumed by field battles, our army will be in danger. After all, there are only 20,000 to 30,000 defenders in Yewang City, and within dozens of miles opposite, there are more than 100,000 troops."

Guan Yu stroked his beard and thought: "Our army now has 5,000 cavalry, so I will lead the cavalry. If I still feel that I am afraid of being unable to move, three thousand can do it. After breaking through Yuan Shao's besieged camp in the west of the city, he went straight to the place where the dam was built and the river was blocked. Kill the soldiers who built the dam, destroy the embankment, and wait until the water flows down first, and I will retreat slightly to the army while the water is in full swing.

Nephew Zhuge, you must send someone to observe and respond at the west gate and the north gate of the city. If the water you put down is deep enough and even the west gate is more than a few feet long, and it is difficult for infantry to interfere, you can directly drive the small boat out of the west gate and pick me up and return to the city.

If the water level is not deep enough, you will still go to the north gate to sail and respond. My cavalry will march along the south bank of Qinshui after rising. After your boats meet me, we will board the boat and ferry back, and we will definitely break through the blockade that Yuan Shao came to hear the news."

Zhuge Liang thought about it over and over again, although he felt a little whimsical, it could still be implemented from a military theory.

The key is whether the generals in charge have the courage and whether they can remain calm when the enemy is panicked, so that the horses of his cavalry will not be frightened by the rising water level and run around.

"Since that's the case, the Taiwei decided to take it by himself." Zhuge Liang knew that he could not persuade him. After all, Guan Yu was not yet at the age of being completely mature and steady. The thirty-seven-year-old Guan Yu had the element of taking risks and radicalness in his blood, which had not been completely diluted.

He became the Grand Marshal at the age of thirty-seven, and he was still a little younger.
Chapter completed!