Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 60: Seducing the other party to invest
After a brief rest, Liu Bei led his army to Qucheng County in early May.

Although the city walls here are higher and thicker than those of the previous three counties, they cannot withstand the increasingly skilled digging operations of Chaiying under Liu Bei's command.

There was no moat to block the city wall, and in just seven or eight days, many parts of the city wall collapsed.

At dawn, with a loud roar, the Han army rushed in from the crack at lightning speed, and the defenders were defeated in a hurry.

The soldiers who fled in a hurry were also caught up and killed by the Tiger Cavalry.

After the soldiers had carefully cleared out the bandits that might be hiding in the city, Liu Bei moved the camp into the city.

All the military equipment, supplies and food that they brought were stored in the county town. At the same time, he ordered the craftsmen accompanying the army to recast the arrowheads that were no longer usable.

He ordered his assistants to find harder trees, and to use knives to cut the branches into thick spears with sharp barbs without removing the bark.

Then he ordered Chaiying to fill the tunnel and the collapsed city wall with soil.

The war horses were fed with beans, while the soldiers were fed with rice and meat soup.

Thanks to the horse meat sent by the Xianbei people, Changle, the cook of Chaiying, was very happy. The food was poor during the march, and everyone filled their stomachs with naan and fried rice, millet and wheat.

Meat should only be eaten occasionally, not every day.

The auxiliary soldiers carried the meat of the horses killed in the battle to the firewood camp, and a group of cooks immediately gathered around, talking in great joy.

If the soldiers ate poorly, they would follow suit. If everyone could eat good meat, the cook would naturally have a share.

What chef would treat himself badly?

A group of people were happily separating the horse's skin and meat, pickling what needed to be pickled and cooking what needed to be cooked.

The envoy ordered people to eat meat for three days. Everyone was craving for horse meat, but they had no chance to eat it on other days and it was extremely precious.

Liu Bei distributed another batch of food and wages. As the war was approaching, the soldiers could not carry any food or wages with them, so he recorded their names and weighed the wages they received in person. The wages were then temporarily stored in the county treasury. After the war, they were sealed with mud and mailed back home via a relay station.

The morale is high right now, which is perfect for a decisive battle with Gongsun Du.

Outside Chengqu City, Liu Bei personally checked whether the gap filled with rammed earth was strong enough. When he saw that it could withstand the impact of heavy weapons, a smile appeared on his face.

Even if Gongsun Du brings weapons to attack the city, we are not afraid.

Together with the deep trenches in front, we can also hold the enemy back for some time.

Qian Zhao was in charge of the auxiliary soldiers, including Chaiying. When Liu Bei came, of course he had no choice but to follow him.

Although the gap was filled, if the Liaodong army did not attack the city, but instead followed their example of digging tunnels to destroy the city walls, how could they hold on?

Concerned, Qian Zhao asked, "Xuan De, it is good to defend the city and wait for the enemy to tire themselves out, but it would be dangerous if the enemy army copied our tactics."

"How about sending out scouts to find out where the enemy is, just like when we fought the Yellow Turbans, and then advancing with light troops to launch a surprise attack and gain merit?"

Liu Bei withdrew his gaze from the city wall and said, "Zijing, you still have little experience in military affairs. Gongsun Du is different from the Yellow Turban Army."

After brushing off the dust on his hands, Liu Bei saw that it was not yet dark, so he simply analyzed it to Qian Zhao: "The Yellow Turbans are not united, and Gongsun Du is a ruthless leader, so the soldiers are all afraid of him. We captured four cities in a row, which was beyond his expectation. After hearing the news, it is impossible for him not to be vigilant."

"Moreover, he has recruited a large number of cavalrymen who come and go quickly and are easy to find. If he leads a large army to attack, it will easily make his relatives sad and his enemies happy."

Liu Bei said earnestly: "Zijing, the experience summarized from the war cannot be applied directly. We need to think more about the details between the two so as to adapt to local conditions." Qian Zhao still has a long way to go to grow into a famous general.

Most generals are trained through experience, and the wealthy families in the countryside do not have any precious military books in their homes. They rely entirely on their experience gained from fighting on the battlefield.

But we only have one life, and we don’t always have the opportunity to make mistakes. It is better to point out the shortcomings than to act rashly and lose our life.

Although Liu Bei's generals were experienced in battle, they were still lacking in terms of strategy and decision-making.

Qian Zhao was naturally quick to comprehend. After realizing it, he changed his mind and said, "Attacking is not a good strategy, and defending the city is not a good strategy either. Xuande has hidden the method of defeating the enemy, and is still hiding it from others to make a fool of himself. Don't you regard me as a close friend?"

There are only two of us and your personal guards in this place now, and you are still hiding, watching me and worrying when I encounter a powerful enemy.

Xuande is going a bit too far. He only bullies honest people, doesn't he?
Liu Bei lowered his voice and said, "I want to erect the army's banner in front of the city gate, and then form a chariot formation to defeat the enemy..."

"No! It's too dangerous." Before he finished listening, Qian Zhao directly objected.

I had told myself before that I should not put the army in danger, but now I have put my commander in chief in danger. If anything goes wrong, that would be disastrous.

Now that we have finally built a foundation, we must not mess around.

Liu Bei smiled and explained, "Zi Jing, please listen to me first. The main force of this battle lies in the cooperation between the three battalions and the cavalry. We will open one gate, dig a trench in front of the chariot formation, and spread caltrops all over the road in front of us. We will set up a formation to lure the enemy to shoot with strong bows and crossbows, and then place the heavy crossbows we brought on the city wall behind the formation to guard against shield soldiers.

The first batch of soldiers to enter the camp held shields and spears behind the chariots, the sound-shooting camp stood up and drew their bows, the armored camp put on armor and filled in the gaps at any time, the heavy crossbows shot from the top of the city, and the auxiliary soldiers with stronger throwing skills were selected to leave the city in batches.

When the battle situation is unfavorable, throw short spears with thick shafts to prevent the enemy from approaching the chariot formation. This method is intended to wear down the enemy. "

Qian Zhao said: "Gongsun Du was repelled by arrows and could not attack the city. What if he turned to the city wall? Or he did not charge the chariot formation?"

Liu Bei chuckled and said confidently: "Gongsun Du has come from afar and is going to fill up the ditch. I can see that there are no less than 10,000 auxiliary soldiers and civilians on the city wall.

There is a gate under the city that is suddenly opened..."

At this point, Liu Bei pointed at himself and said with a smile: "The banner of Liu Bei, the governor of Qingzhou, is erected under the city, which means Liu Xuande is inside. Even if the enemy has a Wugang chariot formation, as long as the formation is broken, the soldiers will flee into the city. However, the city gate is narrow, and there seems to be a glimmer of hope, but it is actually a dead end."

If Liu Xuande is captured and killed, Qingzhou can be secured. If it were you, would you choose to attack the chariot formation of 3,000 people, or would you be willing to spend several times more casualties to attack the city wall?"

Whenever the enemy attacked, they would suffer considerable losses after passing through the trenches and caltrops in front of the formation.

The caltrops can lift the shield so that the infantry can slowly clear it and then continue to test.

After several failures, they thought of dividing their troops to test the city walls, but they found that they also had bows and arrows, so they had to continue attacking the chariot formation. If they stopped now, the deaths of the soldiers would be in vain.

Although it was difficult to deploy the superior military force due to the city walls, Gongsun Du would only continue to increase his bets, thinking that if he won, he could take over Qingzhou in one battle.

Qian Zhao didn't know what sunk costs meant, and it would be difficult to stop even if he wanted to.

The reason why Liu Bei dared to do this was that he led the troops by example and encouraged his soldiers to sacrifice their lives for four years.

And brought hundreds of thousands of arrows.

There had been no war in Qingzhou last year, so making arrowheads was enough to supply this battle.

　Thanks to the book friends "Amnesiac Swordsman" and "Call Me the Devil King" for their rewards.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)