My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 138 Did Zhuge Liang come to Huailing? Tathagata (Three updates, rewritten chapters)
After Zhao Yun explained his request for improved siege towers to Zhuge Liang, he felt relieved.

After the historical sedimentation of the past two years, the surname "Zhuge" will give a sense of security to those seeking advice in Liu Bei's camp.

Everyone has reached a consensus on the psychological expectation level that as long as someone from the Zhuge family takes action, the situation will be improved to some extent.

In the following ten days, Zhao Yun made increasingly meticulous preparations for the attack, striving to have strong soldiers and horses so that he could hit the target with one strike.

At the same time, he did not forget to have a private talk with his officers before the battle, telling them that "although the lord has given us the task of a feint attack in this battle, Mr. Kong Ming has personally helped us improve the ladder vehicle, so everyone must have the confidence to capture Huailing."

Just this piece of news boosted the morale of Zhao Yun's army and garrison commanders, and they felt more motivated to charge into battle.

……

Time quickly came to the last two days before the war. Although Zhao Yun was very confident in Zhuge Liang, he couldn't help but go to the workshop again to inspect the final completion level.

After arriving at the workshop, Zhao Yun immediately saw two new ladders that refreshed his eyes—they shouldn’t even be called ladders anymore.

Half of the area around the car body was surrounded by wooden boards to block arrows. All the wooden boards were long and thin, running straight from the top to the bottom, without any vertical joints. Obviously, they could bear a certain amount of weight, which was considered to be a balance of protection and structural strength.

Anyway, the whole tower is not high, less than two feet, and two feet long wooden boards are easy to find. If a taller tower is built in the future to deal with a taller wall, perhaps this design will not be used, because longer wood will be more difficult to find.

The rear half of the vehicle body is not covered, apparently in order to reduce the weight of the vehicle body as much as possible, making it easier to push and load and unload from the new flat-deck ships.

The supporting wooden columns on the rear side are obviously thicker than those on the front half, and the load-bearing of the spiral staircase is mainly borne by the mortise and tenon joints on the wooden columns on the rear side.

The purpose of doing this should be to balance the center of gravity and avoid the "Lü Gongche" being too obviously heavier at the front and lighter at the back. After all, there are more wooden boards at the front than at the back to block arrows.

However, Zhao Yun certainly could not understand these intentions. He would not realize the usefulness of this design until he used it, and he still did not understand the principle behind it - unless his wife helped him interpret it.

In the workshop, most of the work has been completed, with only a few craftsmen still there polishing the wheels of "Lu Gongche" to make it smoother, easier to push and reduce resistance.

The craftsmen used a processing technology that fixed the tool but allowed the wheel axle to rotate actively and send the wheel to the tool for cutting.

If someone in the future saw this, they would definitely be surprised. Isn't this processing technology just the idea of a lathe? It can make the big wooden wheel rounder.

Of course, it was only the "idea" that was used, and it was still a long way from actually making a lathe, even a lathe for cutting wood. That thing did not appear in the West until the end of the Renaissance, and Europeans used it to turn gun barrels.

Zhao Yun was amazed at this and praised sincerely: "Is this also the ingenuity of Mr. Kong Ming? Mr. Kong Ming is really a genius. Until the last moment, he was able to think of a technique to improve the siege vehicle. I wonder where Mr. Kong Ming is?"

The last half of Zhao Yun's sentence was directed to the wheel makers.

However, the craftsmen all looked at him with strange expressions. After a while, an old craftsman answered: "General Zhao is wrong. This is not what Mr. Kong Ming ordered. The day before yesterday, he went to Sheyang to inspect the irrigation and seedling pulling. He has already modified the siege vehicle and put it aside. The polishing of the past two days was instructed by Mrs. Zhuge."

Zhao Yun was stunned, and subconsciously thought that the other party was talking about his wife Zhuge Zhi, then he realized that it should be Huang Yueying.

"What? Even the Huang family's wife has this ability? Not only are the women of the Zhuge family quick-witted and well-versed in all kinds of studies, but even the wives they marry into the family are so knowledgeable?"

Zhao Yun was really shocked this time. He had never experienced Huang Yueying's abilities before.

Huang Yueying and Zhuge Liang had been married for just over two months, so it was normal that outsiders did not know about their abilities.

When Zhao Yun came to visit, he thought that everything he had asked of him would be completed by Mr. Kong Ming, but in the end, even his wife shared the small task of making the wheels. After further questioning, he found out that Huang Yueying had also participated in the design of the center of gravity balance and the analysis of some force-bearing structures...

Zhao Yun was completely confused, he didn't understand anything at all.

Finally, Huang Yueying got the news and went to the workshop to meet Zhao Yun. The two chatted for a while.
Only then did Zhao Yun learn that "the pile of secret scrolls that Mr. Kong Ming's elder brother gave him, including the secret techniques of craftsmanship and mathematics, were actually shared and studied by Huang Yueying after they got engaged."

Zhuge Liang would certainly not hide such things from his wife. Although Huang Yueying did not have the ability to understand all the "Zhuge Secret Volumes", she was still able to pick out three or five volumes that were most relevant to her profession and take a look.

Unconsciously, the young girl Huang Yueying was also strengthened by the secret scroll to be stronger than the same period in history. Many things that she had only vaguely perceived before now suddenly became clear to her.

It was only at this moment that Zhao Yun realized that Huang Yueying had contributed some ideas to Mr. Kong Ming's improvements on the three technologies: the new fishing boat, the axle wheel for trawling nets, and the new gillnet for catching marine fish.

Although it is still insignificant compared with Mr. Kong Ming's contribution, Kong Ming probably accounts for 80% on average, while Huang Yueying only accounts for 20% at most.

After returning from the workshop and inspecting the final product, Zhao Yun felt extremely relaxed. He was no longer worried about taking Huailing and was even thinking about more distant goals.

……

Time soon came to the eighth day of April. Zhao Yun, full of confidence, finally fired the first shot of Liu Bei's army's attack on Yuan Shikai. Liu Bei had instructed that an attack on Huailing should be launched on the tenth day of April, but it would take time to travel from Xuyi, so it was no problem to set off two days in advance.

Zhao Yun brought 5,000 elite infantrymen and 1,000 cavalrymen, plus civilians and auxiliary soldiers who were not counted as combat soldiers, boarded a ship from Xuyi and sailed upstream on the Huai River.

In order to save time and increase the suddenness of the attack, it would not be enough to rely on sails alone, after all, we are rowing against the current.

Therefore, Zhao Yun also arranged a lot of oars in advance, and asked the temporarily recruited auxiliary soldiers to act as rowers, rowing in batches to ensure speed.

These auxiliary soldiers were selected from boatmen and fishermen on the Huai River, dock workers and boat trackers on the Han Canal. They were very skilled in their craft and rowed much faster than professional sailors in other armies.

After all, the Huaiyin-Guangling line was the busiest area for canal business in China at that time. Liu Bei had the most skilled water transport workers and laborers among all the princes.

It took Zhao Yun just over a day and a night to travel hundreds of miles by water, and he successfully arrived upstream.

We set out at midnight on April 8th and arrived before dawn on April 9th.

Zhao Yun used a large number of ships, three times more than the size required to accommodate the soldiers, in order to accommodate more siege supplies and auxiliary soldiers and laborers, so as to ensure that the soldiers could get enough sleep and rest on the ship, so that they could be full of energy and immediately go into battle after getting off the ship.

Anyway, Guangling County doesn't have much but a lot of ships. As an important county on the canal, it can temporarily requisition as many auxiliary transport ships as it wants.

Zhao Yun had no intention of attacking the city in the dark, as that would be too difficult.

However, it is very appropriate to attack the dock before daybreak, go ashore to unload cargo, push the siege equipment to the edge of the city in advance, and then launch the attack directly after daybreak.

Perhaps the defenders on the city would react and try to organize a defense, but Zhao Yun felt that these difficulties could be overcome.

……

Zhao Yun was fully prepared, and fate was indeed kind to him.

He had been prepared to encounter resistance from Yuan's army when docking at the pier east of Huailing County, or at least to encounter beacon towers and sentries on the pier.

But the situation of Yuan’s army was even more dilapidated than he had imagined. Although there was an old beacon tower, there was no sentry on it.

It was unknown to what extent Yuan's army had been weakened by the withdrawal of troops. Not a single scout was sent out, and all the defenders retreated into the city, completely abandoning the strategic depth of defense.

It seems that Liu Bei's wait over the past few months was not in vain. Yuan Shu's main forces have been transferred to deal with Cao Cao and Lu Bu, and the eastern border has become extremely weak.

I heard that in Runan County, Yuan Shu's old nest, Cao Cao has been besieging Shangcai, an important town in Runan, for almost three months.

It was just that the city was strong and there were many soldiers in the city, so Cao's army was weak in a strong attack. So they still relied on the old method of attacking Chen County and Ku County last year, first depleting Yuan's army's food. When Yuan's army was too hungry to support so many troops in the city, they would naturally collapse and break out, without wasting too many lives on a strong attack.

However, this kind of blunt-knife-pulling-flesh fighting method undoubtedly greatly restricted Yuan Shu's manpower. "God help me, the whole army will land immediately! Seize the dock and unload the siege equipment! We must rush to the city at dawn and start the assault!" After Zhao Yun realized his luck, he sternly ordered his soldiers not to slack off and to go all out.

The soldiers were also deeply encouraged and completed Zhao Yun's requirements with quality and quantity guaranteed.

……

At dawn, in the Xuzhou governor's office in Huailing city, Hui Qu, an old acquaintance of Zhao Yun and former official of Yuan Shu, was awakened from his sleep by the screams of one of his officers.

"General! It's bad! Zhao Yun and Zhuge Liang suddenly came from Xuyi! They are already at the city and are about to attack! Please deploy the city defense!"

Hui Qu rubbed his eyes, looking confused. It was only until the maid brought him some water to wash his face and quickly wiped it that he sobered up a little.

Hui Qu forced himself to gather his common sense and asked in astonishment: "What? Zhao Yun is here to attack the city? How is that possible? He rushed from Xuyi, could it be all cavalry? How can cavalry attack a city!"

The report was made by Qu Junhou, who stamped his feet anxiously. "It's not cavalry, but at least tens of thousands of infantry! And they are carrying a kind of siege vehicle that I have never seen before!"

The Naqu military marquis had obviously misreported the enemy situation, mistaking the auxiliary soldiers, civilians and sailors that Zhao Yun had temporarily recruited for the regular army. There were only 5,000 combat troops, but he said there were more than 10,000.

Hui Qu groaned in his heart, but there was nothing he could do. He didn't even bother to change his clothes and rushed into the carriage to inspect the defenses at the East Gate Tower.

Last summer, he had two generals under his command, Liang Gang and Le Jiu, who were the garrison commanders of Xuyi and Huailing respectively. But weren't they both killed instantly by the "fledgling" Zhao Yun?

Zhao Yun was not famous at that time, so Liang Gangle and others underestimated his enemy and wanted to kill Zhao Yun to seize his Ferghana horse that was rewarded to Zhuge Jin by the emperor. However, they were killed in an instant.

Now Hui Qu no longer has any capable general whose name is recorded in history books, and the territory he governs is half the size of last year. During its peak period, Yuan Shu's army occupied two counties in Xia Pi County, namely Xuyi and Huailing. Xuyi was taken back by Liu Bei's army, leaving only Huailing.

Last year, if Zhuge Jin had not been afraid of provoking Yuan Shu and causing Yuan Shu to fight to the death with Liu Bei, he would have actually had a chance to capture Huailing.

But taking Huai Ling would mean that Yuan Shu's territory in Xuzhou would be shaved off. This would be a huge loss of face, so for the sake of Yuan Shu's face, Zhuge Jin advised Liu Bei to hold back.

This year, this concern no longer exists. Yuan Shu's main forces have already been defeated by Cao Cao and Lu Bu, so Zhao Yun doesn't need to hold back.

On the other hand, Hui Qu on the opposite side saw his territory getting smaller and smaller, his generals and troops getting smaller and smaller, but his official position getting higher and higher.

Last year, when there were still two counties left, Yuan Shu only conferred on him the title of "Grand Administrator of Xia Pi", which was already quite shameless.

This year there is only one county left, half the number of last year, but Hui Qu's official position was promoted to "Xuzhou Mu".

Perhaps in Yuan Shu's eyes, as long as he occupied one county in Xuzhou, he could set up the governor of Xuzhou.

Hui Qu was promoted exactly one month after Lü Bu betrayed Yuan Shu. Yuan Shu might have thought that Lü Bu might be able to win him over, so he wanted to save some face for him. But now that Lü Bu was his enemy, what was there to be stingy about?
This is also a helpless move. The war is getting worse and worse, and you still want others to continue to fight for you. How can you not get promoted? If you don't get promoted, others will surrender to the Han Dynasty long ago.

……

The useless Hui Qu went to the top of the city wall to inspect the defense, and Zhao Yun quickly launched an attack.

In order to boost morale and undermine the enemy's morale, he very carefully raised two flags on the battlefield at the same time. Not only his own "Zhao" flag, but also "Zhuge" flag to further scare the enemy.

In Zhao Yun's opinion, this was not a lie, because although Zhuge Liang himself taught the people how to raise rice seedlings in the rear, the siege vehicle he came up with appeared on the Huailing battlefield.

Siege warfare doesn't require any strategy, all the effort goes into preparation before the battle.

The arrival of a car is like the arrival of a person. It is not wrong to say that Zhuge Liang has come.

Although not everyone in Yuan's army knew Zhuge's name like Liu Bei's army did, many knew how powerful he was. Seeing that these siege weapons were made by Zhuge, they felt inferior before they even started to show their strength.

Two modified "Lu Gong carts" were pushed by dozens of soldiers and moved slowly towards the city wall. Most of the soldiers hid in the cover of the carts.

A few soldiers who lagged behind and were exposed outside the protection of the vehicle body also carried large shields in one hand and pushed the axle with the other.

In addition, several traditional battering rams and trench bridge vehicles also rushed forward in an orderly manner to share the attention and defensive firepower of the defenders, while ordinary ladders and flying ladders were on standby further back.

Yuan Bing on the city wall had never seen such a device before, and just treated it as an ordinary defensive ladder. They frantically shot arrows at "Lü Gongche", but it was obviously to no avail.

Although the speed of this vehicle is slower than that of a traditional ladder, it is unstoppable. No matter how you shoot, it will move forward slowly and steadily.

In panic, Yuan's army used the only two crossbows on the city wall to shoot. This time they did penetrate the protective wooden boards, but that was all. No more damage was caused. The arrows flew into the distance without hitting any soldiers.

Seeing the effectiveness, the defenders immediately ordered to lower the firing angle of the crossbows, preparing to shoot through the wooden boards of the strange cart and injure the soldiers behind it. Unfortunately, there were too few crossbows, and they were slow to load. By the time they were pushed to the wall, they only slightly killed three or five Han soldiers, which was of no help at all.

Huailing County was short of kerosene, so they could only throw down torches made of hemp fiber, and add ordinary rolling logs and rocks. Unfortunately, the rolling logs and rocks were at the wrong angle, so they had no power at all, and the torches could not stick to the car body, and they slid directly to the ground.

This also shows how serious the factions within Yuan's army were. If Yuan's army in Lujiang County and the reinforcements in Xiapi County could exchange the latest military experience, this situation would never have happened.

Because as early as last autumn, Liu Ye, the official of Liu Xun, the governor of Lujiang, invented the "swallowtail torch", a new type of arson tool that could be stuck on a wooden wall after being thrown out. If Hui Qu had Liu Ye's intelligence, or even copied the swallowtail torch, he would have been able to prevent this strange car.

If the defenders had a swallowtail torch, Zhao Yun would have to work harder and would have to cover the outside of the vehicle with wet mud before attacking the city.

Zhao Yun used this weapon for the first time today, and he didn't have much experience, so he made many mistakes. Unfortunately, the enemy had more mistakes than him, so he couldn't exploit his mistakes.

"Kill! The first one to reach the top will be rewarded with 20 gold coins!"

As the car finally stabilized against the city wall and the heavy wooden boards were directly placed on the parapet of the city wall, the Han army soldiers swarmed up in an instant.

Normally, the first person to scale a city using a ladder would be rewarded with 20 gold coins.

Today I changed into easier equipment and ran up directly on the thick wooden planks with a slight slope. It also earned me 20 gold. Of course I have to seize the opportunity!

A Han army general named Qu Junhou bravely took the lead, waving a round shield and a flail, and rushed forward at great speed.

The Yuan army on the other side was on high alert as if facing a formidable enemy, stabbing at the wooden boards on the battlements with swords and spears. The Han army's Qu Junhou ducked his body, hiding most of his body behind his shield, and used the weapon's ability to turn to swing his flail wildly.

Although the iron chain above was blocked by the two gun barrels of Yuan’s army, the iron ball at the top of the chain continued to spin and hit the chest of an unlucky Yuan soldier, causing him to vomit blood and fall to the ground.

The Han army behind also took the opportunity to charge forward with heavy shields, rushed past the side of Naqu Junhou, and knocked away two Yuan soldiers. At this time, it can be seen that Lu Gongche has an advantage over the ladder.

The ladder of the ladder truck is only wide enough for one person to climb to the top at the same time. However, the platform of the Lu Gong car can be as wide as the car body, so there is more than ten feet of width for people to step on, and there is no problem for three people to rush side by side.

The Yuan army defenders had never encountered such a wide attack surface, and they were a little uncomfortable for a while. In addition, their morale was low and they were panic-stricken. In a moment, the Han army rushed to the top of the city.

The Han army only suffered seven or eight casualties before some of them managed to gain a firm foothold on the city wall. When the casualties reached 20 or 30, some of them were able to form a back-to-back formation on the city wall.

Zhao Yun saw this from below the city, clenched his fists, drew his sword and shouted, "Follow me quickly! We can break this city in one blow!"

-

PS: I made a mistake this morning. The rewrite of Chapter 135 wasted everyone's reading time, so I will make up for it with three chapters. This chapter is also words, and today's chapter is words.

(End of this chapter)