My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 13 I have been waiting for this night for so long

The words are divided into two parts.

Zhuge Jin, Mi Zhu and Zhang Fei were in Haixi County in the rear, working tirelessly and making various plans for the subsequent counterattack.

However, there is a major prerequisite for their plan to be implemented, that is, Liu Bei and Guan Yu must defeat Ji Ling and Liu Xun on the main battlefield, and then Zhang Fei can pursue the victory and expand the results of the battle.

Otherwise, even if Zhuge Jin helped Zhang Fei come up with a brilliant plan for the subsequent pursuit of Guangling, it would be tantamount to suicide.

Fortunately, the day of the decisive battle on the front battlefield of Huaiyin County is finally approaching. Liu Bei and Guan Yu have done a very good job in the past few days.

On the eve of the decisive battle, everything was abnormally quiet.

Liu Bei and Guan Yu defended the city to the death, strictly preventing the enemy from making any small moves. At the same time, they provided generous rewards to the soldiers, blocked the news, and maintained morale.

On the day Zhuge Jin arrived in Haixi, Liu Xun's troops of the Yuan army still had one day's journey to reach Huaiyin County.

Ji Ling, who had been at it for four days, finally calmed down after initially trying all kinds of tricks but suffering setbacks repeatedly.

As mentioned earlier, on the second day after arriving in Huaiyin, Ji Ling made various calls in order to let Liu Bei's army know the bad news of "Xia Pi was stolen" as soon as possible. In the end, Liu Bei managed to defend himself, and hundreds of people were killed, which greatly damaged the morale.

In the next two days, Ji Ling tried twice more.

One time, they built hundreds of flying ladders and some rattan shields and wooden barriers to protect the archers from the rain of arrows, and launched a tentative ant-like attack.

This time, his army succeeded in getting very close to the enemy, and the soldiers followed his orders.

While charging and fighting, they shouted lines like "Xia Pi has been lost! The Xuzhou army should flee back to their hometown!" to the people on the city wall.

Unfortunately, Liu Bei had already mastered the trick of counting and measuring sand taught by Zhuge Jin the day before, and had also given the soldiers extra meals for two days.

So when Ji Ling came back to spread the rumor, no one believed it at all.

Liu Bei's army strictly told the soldiers that these were all tricks of the enemy to shake the morale of our army.

If there were really a few people who insisted on spreading rumors, Liu Bei had no choice but to take severe measures and enforce military law.

This cannot be blamed on Liu Bei for being unkind, after all, a kind person cannot command an army.

In any ancient dynasty, anyone in the army who dared to spread rumors that were unfavorable to his side and undermined the morale of the troops would be executed immediately.

Such cautious blocking, using both kindness and force, and supplemented by deception.

In short, all of Ji Ling's attempts to spread unfavorable information ended in failure.

During the whole process, Ji Ling also lost a lot of men.

During the two-day siege, more than 1,000 to 2,000 people were killed or wounded.

And because Ji Ling's army attacked hastily with very simple siege weapons, the casualty exchange ratio between the two sides was very high, with the total casualties of Liu Bei's army on the opposite side being less than a hundred.

Considering the strong city defense, this ratio is not exaggerated at all and is a normal performance of Guan Yu.

Moreover, compared with the casualties of one or two thousand people, Yuan’s army suffered a greater loss in terms of invisible morale.

When Ji Ling first arrived, Yuan's army learned that Xia Pi had been robbed, and their morale was high for a while.

Even the sentries who were responsible for night patrols and guarding against robberies could see their eyes wide open and looked alert.

Over the past few days, the strong attack has been fruitless and the enemy has not been tempted by spreading the news.

Instead, Yuan's army began to suspect that all this was fake news deliberately spread by Liu Bei to lure the enemy!
The purpose was to trick Ji Ling, the fool, into thinking he had an opportunity and then storm the Huaiyin city wall, wasting the lives of the soldiers on these rammed earths!

The wounded soldiers in the camp, taking advantage of the absence of outsiders, all complained about Ji Ling's nonsense. Even the sentinels who patrolled the camp at night to prevent robbery began to doze off and could not muster up any energy at all - this was the first series of real losses that Ji Ling suffered at the hands of Zhuge Jin.

Although when he suffered the loss, the old villain who caused him to suffer the loss was no longer in Huaiyin City.

But who can blame him for his high level? His shadow is lingering around the city, and he can continue to harm you even after everyone has left.

At this point, Ji Ling was completely out of ideas.

I'm tired. I don't want to struggle anymore. Let's just stay surrounded like this.

……

After Ji Ling calmed down, another day passed, and on the afternoon of August 5th, Liu Xun's army of 13,000 to 14,000 people finally arrived.

The reason why there were only thirteen or fourteen thousand was, of course, because Lei Bo's troops under his command were severely damaged and most of them were annihilated by Zhang Fei, and more than a thousand cavalrymen were lost.

Ji Ling hastily set out some wine in the central army tent to welcome Liu Xun. After three rounds of drinks, the two men talked about their experiences in the past few days and couldn't help feeling depressed.

"This battle is not easy to fight. What on earth is Liu Bei up to? We sent messengers to Lu Bu, but we haven't heard back yet. Lu Bu doesn't seem to be willing to help us attack Liu Bei. Is this really a trick?"

Ji Ling and Liu Xun quickly reached a consensus and almost agreed with this possibility.

They didn't know that the reason why Lu Bu in Xia Pi did not reveal any accurate information and did not respond to Ji Ling's scouts was entirely because Lu Bu also hoped that Liu Bei could continue to fight with Yuan Shu and both would suffer losses.

This was beneficial to Lu Bu, otherwise he would not have performed the "Gate Shooting Halberd" event in history.

Chen Gong, Lu Bu's chief strategist, also took a wait-and-see attitude towards Liu Bei at this moment. Seeing that Liu Bei had been half-surrounded by Ji Ling, they were not in a hurry to catalyze Liu Bei's collapse.

As a result, the complete silence from Lu Bu's direction made Yuan Shu's army even more suspicious.

The final result of Ji Ling and Liu Xun's discussion was naturally to continue to keep the troops in place and surround and wait and see. Fortunately, on the first night after Liu Xun arrived, the night patrol troops were still very vigilant.

After all, Liu Xun's troops had not been worn down by the siege like Ji Ling's troops had been.

They regarded the losses in field battles as accidents and tried their best to block the news to reduce the impact.

However, this kind of vigilance cannot be maintained for long.

Nothing happened on the first night, and the same thing happened on the second night. The night patrol sentries of Liu Xun's unit were soon assimilated by Ji Ling's unit and gradually became lazy.

If Liu Bei and Guan Yu had chosen to attack that night, they would have actually had a considerable chance.

But unfortunately, it was impossible for Liu Bei and Guan Yu to open their third eye, and they didn’t know how long the other party could remain vigilant, so they had to wait a little longer.

As the granary became emptier day by day, the corn covering the sand in the "singing and measuring sand" became thinner day by day, and if we dug deeper, the sand would be exposed.

Liu Bei knew that he only had one chance, and it was a fight for his life.

Finally, on the fourth night after Liu Xun arrived, Liu Bei made up his mind.

He asked the soldiers to have a good sleep and rest during the day, and then ordered them to cook at the third watch and attack at the fourth watch.

……

August 8th, midnight.

Guan Yu, who had been sleeping since the afternoon before, got out of bed in high spirits.

He washed, dressed, and had a hearty meal with the help of his attendants. He then drank a bowl of ginger and garlic tea to refresh himself and help digest the food. Then he slowly put on his clothes, picked up his sword, and mounted his horse.

Liu Bei's army still had a total of one thousand cavalrymen left in Huaiyin.

The vast majority of them were Turks brought by Liu Bei from his hometown in Youzhou, including the "Wuhuan and mixed Hu cavalry", but the Wuhuan people among them were also completely naturalized into the Han Dynasty.

There are also a few who are from Xuzhou.

But tonight, no matter whether it was the Xuzhou cavalry or the Wuhuan and miscellaneous Hu cavalry, these one thousand cavalry were all under Guan Yu's direct command, and Liu Bei did not hold back at all.

Before opening the city gate, Liu Bei personally poured wine for Guan Yu to send him off:
"Second brother, these 1,000 cavalrymen are all in your hands tonight. First, you must do your best to launch a surprise attack and destroy Liu Xun's camp. I will lead 10,000 main infantrymen and follow up to fight the enemy!"

When fighting at night, if there are too many people, it will cause chaos, and the noise will be too loud, which will greatly increase the probability of being discovered by the enemy in advance.

Therefore, since ancient times, the main force of the army was rarely used to raid a camp.

They had to first use a small group of elite troops with quick reactions to disrupt the enemy, and then the main force would take advantage of the chaos and dawn to attack with all their might.

Gan Ning's raid on Cao Cao's camp with a hundred cavalrymen is a typical example. It did not require many people at all, and instead caused the enemy to kill each other in panic.

Liu Bei's men are now running out of talent, even Zhang Fei has been sent away, so he and Guan Yu are the only ones left to hold up the show tonight.

Guan Yu also read a hint of sadness from his elder brother's seriousness, but he was not worried.

He just drank three bowls of wine in a row and wiped the wine dripping on his beard with his sleeve:

"Don't worry, big brother! Ji Ling and Liu Xun have been exhausted by our army for many days, and have suffered several defeats and thousands of casualties. Although there are many of us, we don't need to be afraid!

Moreover, the autumn rains have continued for days, and Huaiyin is low-lying. The enemy troops stationed outside the city must be suffering. How can their combat effectiveness be compared with our well-rested troops?

When the fire breaks out in Liu Xun's camp, Big Brother will charge out with all his might! "

After saying this, Guan Yu smashed the wine bowl and rushed out of the city gate on his horse.

……

Guan Yu's 1,000 cavalrymen held their mouths shut, their horses' hooves were wrapped in tattered linen,
He rushed out of the south gate of Huaiyin City and galloped towards Liu Xun's camp, which was seven or eight miles away.

The weather tonight is actually not suitable for arson and camp robbery.

Because the autumn rain has not completely stopped, there is still mud and water in the low-lying areas, so even if you throw down a torch, it may not burn immediately.

More importantly, in this kind of weather, the cavalry had to carry torches with them and march secretly for more than ten miles with the torches extinguished. If they wanted to light a temporary fire when they needed it, it was very likely that they would be damp and unable to light.

However, although it is not conducive to setting fire, the sound of rain is surprisingly effective in concealing the movements of the surprise attacking party.

When Guan Yu galloped to the last mile or two outside Liu Xun's camp, there was still no movement on the opposite side, and he did not encounter any cavalry patrols at night.

Guan Yu was very puzzled. He felt that even if Liu Xun was incompetent, he should not allow his cavalry to be so lazy.

In a siege, the cavalry is idle, but the infantry has to constantly build fortifications, build siege weapons, and shoot or attack. During the day, the cavalry only needs to supervise the battle and is not tired at all. Shouldn't they patrol at night and provide security for the army?
But Guan Yu had no idea that five days ago, nearly 60% of Liu Xun's cavalry had been killed by Lei Bo, the impatient bandit from Huoshan.

He was killed in an ambush by his third brother Zhang Fei.

At the moment, Liu Xun had less than a thousand cavalrymen on hand, so he had no choice but to relax the night patrols.

In that case, Guan Yu will not be polite.

　I’m asking for votes and collections for my new book. I’ve finally promoted it, although it’s only the first small promotion.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)