In ancient times, was it easier to siege a city or to defend it?

In ancient times, it must have been the defense of the city.

It's a little easier, otherwise why would everyone go to great lengths to build a city? Of course, there is still a big difference between the real siege warfare in history and what we see in film and television works, and under normal circumstances, the besieging side needs to dispatch more men and horses, at least more than three times the strength of the defending side, in order to successfully capture the city. <>

In the ancient battlefield, the city wall is not just a simple wall, it should be regarded as a defense system, usually these walls are not more than 5 meters high, but they are particularly thick, and they are also particularly wide, and there will be a lot of configurations on the city wall, for example, there are usually some high platforms on the city wall, and on these high platforms there will be long crossbows, or some archers. On the horse face of the city wall.

There will also be a lot of shooting towers on it, and there will be a lot of shooters hidden inside. There will be a lot of sheep and horse walls under these walls, and there will be a moat around the perimeter.

The second is that there is usually not only one city gate, there will be many of these city gates, and the city gate is very small, so that it is convenient for the defenders inside to go out of the city to help. <>

In ancient times, the besieging side would pile up a hill of earth outside the city, so that they would have an advantage in vision when they stood on top of it, and then they would throw some fireballs into the city wall based on this high point, or shoot some crossbows directly. When the siege officially began, the soldiers would start the attack along the horse wall under the wall, and the troops of both sides would fight under the sheep and horse wall, and when the corpses of the soldiers had filled the trench, the troops on the besieging side would trample on the corpses and begin the official siege. <>

Usually want to take a city, mortality.

It is very high, so in ancient times, the war was also very cruel, which is why there is a saying that "one will make ten thousand bones dry". In other words, when any generation of emperors established their regimes, they were full of blood.

I think it's easier to defend the city, because in most cases the city to defend is not an isolated city, there will always be reinforcements to come to the rescue, all you have to do is to hold on to the city and wait for rescue, and the siege of the city has a lot to consider, you need to resist reinforcements to prevent being cut off from supply.

It's easy to defend the cityAs the saying goes, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, there are relatively few siege engines in ancient times, except for the battering ram, there are only rope ladders, defending the city and releasing arrows, and the attacks are much easier, so it is much easier to defend the city.

Defending a city is a bit easier, as a siege exposes itself to enemies and can be easily shot by them.

Defend the city. If you have enough troops, you can directly project weapons down from the city wall, and there is also the cover of the wall.

"Attacking the city for the bottom" comes from Sun Tzu's Art of War "Planning for Attack", the original text says: Therefore, the army is attacked, the second is the enemy, the second is the army, and the city is attacked.

The Art of War, also known as the Art of War, the Art of War, the Book of War, the Book of Soldiers, the Book of Soldiers, the Book of the Soldiers, etc., is the earliest existing military book in China and the earliest military work in the world, and is known as the "Holy Book of Military Science". There are about 6,000 words in total, and there are thirteen articles in total.

The Art of War is a brilliant treasure in the ancient Chinese military cultural heritage, an important part of the excellent traditional culture, its content is broad and profound, the ideology is rich and rich, the logic is meticulous and rigorous, and it is the concentrated embodiment of the essence of ancient military thought. The author is Sun Wu, a general of Wu who was originally from Le'an in Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period.

The Art of War is regarded as a military classic. It has a history of 2,500 years and has been studied throughout the ages. Li Shimin said, "Looking at the books of soldiers, there is no Sun Wu."

The art of war is strategy, and strategy is not a small trick, but a grand strategy and great wisdom. Today, Sun Tzu's Art of War has gone global. It has also been translated into many languages and also has an important place in the military history of the world.

Sun Tzu's Art of War bamboo slips were unearthed in Linyi in 1972.

The Art of War is one of the earliest military books in China, and has always been highly regarded and studied by many people. According to the "Hanshu Art and Literature Chronicle" recorded in the "Art of War of Wu Sun Tzu" eighty-two articles, Sima Qian's "Historical Records" recorded, (Sun Wu) with the art of war in the Wu Wang Lu. He said:

The thirteenth article of the child, I have seen it all, can I try to strangle the soldiers? "The Art of War" is known as the "Holy Book of Military Science" and "the First Book of War in Ancient Times".

To be clear, this is not necessarily the case.

The difficulty of a siege depends mainly on the terrain and siege**. To attack a fortified city, you must go to siege**, otherwise you will not be able to take advantage no matter how many people you have. But the siege also involves the problem of street fighting, and it is definitely better to besiege than to attack only one side, so the superiority of forces is always good, but it is not the decisive factor.

Sun Tzu mentioned in the Art of War that the siege was the bottom, mainly because the siege ** at that time was very backward. Ancient Chinese engineering technology was backward, and there was no counterweight stone throwing machine. The first time this thing appeared, it was used by the Mongol army to attack Xiangyang City, and the Mongols called back the cannon, which was made by Arab engineers.

After the late Middle Ages, both the East and the West were generally equipped with relatively mature siege artillery, and the city walls at this time were difficult to solve.

During the Imjin War, the Ming army besieged Pyongyang, and its strength was less than twice that of the defenders. The more than 20,000 Japanese troops defending the city were heavily armed with arquebuses, and the firepower pouring down from the city walls was simply terrifying. But the Ming artillery bombarded the city gates, and it only took one day for the game to end.

On the other hand, in the later Battle of Ningyuan, the strength of the Houjin army was more than ten times that of the defenders of the Ming army, but there was nothing to be done because of the lack of siege. During the Battle of Songjin, the Qing army also besieged Jinzhou for a year before finally forcing the defenders to surrender.

Ten and surround it, five and attack it, and divide it twice. Usually the attacker needs 10 times more troops than the defender to force a siege. If it is a barbarian who does not have siege technology to attack a civilized city, it can only be used to attack the city by ants. 10 times may not be successful.

Not necessarily, because morale was also important in ancient times, and there was a lot of variation between soldiers and soldiers, such as the Taiping Army and the Manchu Green Battalion. But it is indeed difficult to siege the city, and many miracles were created during the defense of the city in ancient times.

That's usually the case. As the saying goes: ten will attack it, and five will surround it. The examples of winning more with less are basically not replicable.

No, there are also many battles in which less wins more. The allusion to the grass and trees is from a battle where less wins more.

Generally speaking, yes, and two or three times more. Sun Tzu's Art of War, the law of siege, is a last resort. That's it.

There are no absolutes in anything. Generally speaking, there are several times more sieges than defenders, but there are also many sieges in which fewer wins more. For example, Chen Qingzhi used 7,000 troops to resist 100,000 enemies and captured Luoyang.

The Battle of Jingkang. After the foreign enemy, Jin captured Shenyang, which was defended by the Ming army. Xinhai GE hit, more than 10,000 GE ordered the army, attacked Nanjing, where 20,000 Qing troops (including the die-hard Zhang Xun) were stationed, and won.

And so on, some are siege battles where less wins more.

1. There are city walls on all sides, that's for sure, you can recall the section drawings of Sui Daxing City, Tang Chang'an City, Song Lin'an City, and Yuan Dadu in middle school history textbooks.

2. The siege is easy, but it is not easy to achieve practical results. People may have sufficient food and grass, foreign aid at any time, and so on. The siege of the city is inherently a dangerous thing, and the siege is easy to be broken by the defenders of the city due to insufficient troops, so Sun Tzu's Art of War will say "the method of using soldiers, ten will besiege it, five will attack it, and the multiple will divide it".

A siege of tens of thousands of troops does not mean that it can be tightly besieged.

3. The ancient city will generally have buildings such as attached cities, that is, urn cities, which are mainly used for military purposes, as you said (with pictures).

<>4. Whether the main general is in the main city or not, not necessarily, depends on the war. Famous generals are usually on the front lines of the war or in the places where the war is most intense.

5. The nine counties of Jingxiang are Guide County, Lingling, Wuling (owned by Liu Bei, guarded by Guan Yu), Jiangxia, Guiyang, Changsha (returned to Sun Quan), Nanyang, Xiangyang, and Nanxiang (returned to Cao Cao). Liu Bei's Jingzhou was governed in Nanjun, and the county was governed in Jiangling, which is today's Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, and Guan Yu was seated in Jiangling.

Ancient Chinese cities are generally surrounded by city walls, some of the terrain may be close to the mountains and rivers, so the city walls may be less, the larger city may also have a moat, the city, the larger like the capital and the like will also have an inner city, for example, the Forbidden City in the capital is the inner city in ancient times.

It is actually very difficult to besiege the city, and it is clearly stated in the ancient art of war that it will be surrounded by ten and attacked by five, and it is very difficult to besiege it without more than ten times the number of troops. Generally, if the siege is not fought, it is a war of attrition, it can be understood that the scope of the ancient city wall is the city, the outside of the city wall is the village, and the farmland is outside, that is to say, once it is besieged, the city can only survive by storing food, and if the supply outside the city is unfavorable, it may fail to support the siege of the city.

The so-called main city plus a number of small cities, generally like the example you gave later, every county is like this, just like a province now, the ancient county town is the provincial capital, the county guard is in the county town, and the county town is generally the largest city in the county. The extent of the county is generally limited, so neighboring cities can take care of each other in war. Generally, every city will have a general who is responsible for guarding the city.

For example, Guan Yu is the chief general of the county, and he is also responsible for the city guards of the entire county.

Although it is nowhere to be seen, it is not silent. In the wars that followed, the defenders of the city would have someone in charge of "listening" to confirm whether the enemy was digging tunnels. Once the location is detected and confirmed, the soldiers are subjected to sniping.

At the same time, the defenders will release toxic fumes into the tunnels and fill them in. After the appearance of the moat, the use of cave sieges became less and less. On the contrary, "hollowness" is becoming more and more common.

Because the ancient city was actually very small. Nowadays, there are many cities that have moats, and the original city is actually the part of the moat. Some of the castles were surrounded by moats, which were also used for defense.

In addition, the siege you mentioned, in normal times, you can contact other cities, in case of siege, there is land and granaries in the city, which can support for a while, but the soldiers, horses, grain and grass outside the city may not be able to keep up.

First of all, ancient castles had walls on all sides, and in ancient times, most of them were four-sided (because if they were square, they could be seen from one corner to another, which was convenient for defense) and four gates (extending in all directions, making it easy to communicate). Each city is equipped with a military general, a civil official, and a number of soldiers and horses. If the city is too small, or if it's not important, keep it simple.

In addition, due to the general small population in ancient times, especially in wars, the population was even less than 10 million, so the city was naturally not very large. In addition, the siege only needs to block the city gates, and send more soldiers to patrol back and forth. Otherwise, the half moon will not let people live.

In ancient times, there would indeed be a small city of Nuogan next to the main city, but since it was a small city, there would naturally not be many soldiers and horses. In addition, due to the small population in ancient times, it was scattered widely, and it was possible to be dozens of miles away, and there were very few people who could really take care of each other, and most of them were camped outside the city in order to take care of each other.

As for the nine counties of Jingxiang in the Three Kingdoms, it is actually a considerable range, accounting for about one-sixth of the place at that time, and it was divided by three parties, Jingzhou originally had seven counties: Nanyang County, Nan County, Jiangxia County, Lingling County, Guiyang County, Wuling County, and Changsha County.

Map of the Nine Counties of Jingxiang After the Battle of Chibi in 208, Cao Cao, who had briefly possessed Jingzhou, only kept part of Nanyang County and Nanjun in the north of Jingzhou, while the central and southern parts were divided by Liu Bei and Sun Quan's forces. After Cao Cao, Xiangyang County and Nanxiang County (Zhangling County) were separated from Nanjun and Nanyang County, and Jingzhou became a three-division situation: Nanjun, Lingling, and Wuling belonged to Liu Bei, Jiangxia, Guiyang, and Changsha belonged to Sun Quan, and Nanyang, Xiangyang, and Nanxiang belonged to Cao Cao.

It is generally believed that the situation of three families occupying three counties at this stage is the first of the word "Jingxiang Nine Counties".

Maicheng was near present-day Dangyang City, so Guan Yu should have been guarding Wuling County at that time.

Sieges are usually not easy.

In ancient times, there were often walls of more than 2 meters high, and the walls were either earthen or brick, and moats or trenches were dug outside the city walls to prevent siege equipment (such as rushing cars) from approaching the city walls.

Usually the siege of the city is either to besiege the city to consume the food and grass in the city and wait for it to kill itself, or to directly attack the city.

In the case of besieging a city, because a lot of grain and grass are usually hoarded in the city, after many years, the soldiers are tired of the disadvantage of the battle, and a large number of troops are wasted in the encirclement and waste of food, so most of the time they have to attack as a last resort.

Usually the assault is nothing more than several:

1. Set up a ladder to forcibly climb the city and break through.

In the face of a city wall that is more than two meters high, the inefficiency of this attack method can be imagined: first, the soldiers must brave the bows and arrows on the city tower, each soldier first carries a bag of earth, throws it into the moat or moat, and fills it up to be able to get close to the city wall, so that the soldiers need to turn back countless times to fill it, and some city moats are too large to be completed. Even if you are close to the city, it is easy to be smashed by the defenders on the city wall and splashed with oil.

2. Use siege engines (rushing cars) to destroy the city walls or gates, and then rush into the city;

In fact, the big log is sharpened and erected on the cart, and countless soldiers push it to hit the city gate, this attack, the defenders on the city tower can use ropes to suspend very heavy instruments, throw down from the city wall and smash the cart, often not hit a few times, the cart is destroyed, and the soldiers of the cart are also very badly killed and injured.

3. Dig tunnels to break into the city.

Usually start digging tunnels from a distance, dig all the way to the city, and then the attacker directly enters the city from the tunnel, and the defender's response is to dig a horizontal tunnel, once it is found that there is a tunnel dug into the city, then gather heavy troops to attack more and less, after all, the tunnel is usually impossible to dig too big, at most several soldiers can rise at the same time.

Moreover, the soldiers defending the city made noise during the day so that the attacking side could not rest (for fear of suddenly killing troops in the city, they needed to be on guard at all times), and at night they could also send death squads down the city and attack the attacking party's camp at night.

War itself is good for defense and not for attack, and cities are by no means so easy to attack.