We can often see the plot of the war in the costume drama, and we can find that the ancient war is often in the struggle for the city. Those historical gods of war are good at siege warfare, such as Le Yi in the Warring States period, who once commanded the 5-nation coalition army to capture more than 70 cities in the State of Qi; for example, Wu'an Jun Baiqi, who once led the Qin army, also conquered more than 70 cities in other countries.
"Sun Tzu's Art of War" says: "Attacking the heart is the top, and attacking the city is the bottom." "Even so, not every battle can play tricks, and some wars have to really fight strength and fight cities. So why did you have to occupy the city in ancient times? Isn't it okay to go around? If you ask historians this question, they will laugh and say that they will die if they go around.
Let's take the example of a well-known battle in Chinese history. In 228 AD, Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition sent Ma Mo to guard the street pavilion, warning him that although the street pavilion was small, it had a lot of stakes. Ma Mo did not listen to Zhuge Liang's golden jade good words, and took all the soldiers and horses to the South Mountain to garrison, only to be cut off by the Wei general Zhang Guo and surround the entire mountain.
Ma Mo was cornered and eventually defeated, and was beheaded by Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang misused people, lost important strongholds, and returned from the First Northern Expedition without success. Ma Mo played a little clever and cut off the back road of the Shu army, so it can be seen that although the siege of the city looks tiring, it is indeed a way that must be chosen, why?
For example, in the Battle of the Street Pavilion, Ma Mo did not defend the city at the foot of the mountain, but "found another way" to show his superb talent, but unfortunately he forgot how important the strategic location of the street pavilion was. Therefore, the first reason why in ancient times wars had to fight cities and pools was that most of these cities and pools were built on key transportation routes, and only by occupying them could they be attacked and defended.
The second reason is that the city is like a natural arsenal, all the logistics materials needed for marching and fighting in ancient times are stored in the city, we know that logistics is very important when fighting, many times, the materials carried by an army can not support long-term battles, so they need to capture the city, grab the materials to replenish their own strength.
In history, Xiang Yu's battle of "breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat" was to let the soldiers abandon their original materials and grab new materials, and the soldiers bravely marched forward and indeed won the victory. The third reason is that the people living in the city are the objects that both sides need to appease, and whoever occupies the city for a long time can naturally have more opportunities to win the hearts and minds of the people.
The last reason is that every city is defended, if you don't capture the city and go around, it means that you have to take a long detour, and the enemy will be so honest to let you go around? As long as they attack unexpectedly, their own troops will certainly be in chaos; and if they do not occupy this city and go around to the back, are they not waiting to be attacked by the enemy forces of the two cities and kill themselves?