My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 140 Zhao Yun: Marrying a wife from the Zhuge family, of course the intelligence value will increase

It seemed that by making his identity clear and loudly persuading the enemy to surrender, thus disrupting the enemy's morale, it was entirely possible for Lu Gongche to approach the wall of Zhongli County without any harm.

Zhao Yun of course gave strict orders to all the officers who led the archers under his command: "As long as the enemy does not shoot, we are not allowed to shoot! Archers are also not allowed to get within the range in advance! Once the enemy shoots first, our archers are allowed to move forward and shoot immediately."

Letting the enemy fire the first arrow does not mean being cowardly or getting hit in vain. It is entirely for the purpose of buying more time to fish in troubled waters.

And Zhao Yun's order really worked wonders. Originally, when Lu Gongche was pushed more than a hundred steps away from the city wall, it would gradually be covered by a rain of arrows.

Now they are relying on Hui Qu's personal testimony to delay the battle. In addition, there are also the surrendered Yuan army soldiers from Huailing County, wearing Yuan army uniforms, except for white linen tied around their necks and arms, who are pushing carts and holding shields.
All this made the defenders hesitate, and they could not make up their minds to shoot arrows at the cart pushers who were friendly troops a few days ago. In addition, they did not know the Lü Gong cart and did not know how it worked. Before the planks were lowered, the Lü Gong cart did not look like a traditional ladder.

All in all, the Han army was pushed back at least eighty steps.

It was not until they were only about thirty steps away from the city wall that some of the defenders could not help but start shooting arrows. Moreover, they shot arrows sparsely and without unified command, and the density of firepower was at least half as sparse as a volley.

After pushing forward for more than ten steps, the defenders finally opened fire at full force.

Zhao Yun also immediately ordered his archers to fight back, and due to this delay, Lu Gongche had already firmly leaned against the wall, and the casualties were much smaller than those suffered in Huailing two days ago.

Another surprise attack similar to the one in Huailing was staged, and this time it was even easier.

The defenders, who were deceived into giving up more than half of their output distance and output time, were unable to organize an effective resistance.

Zhao Yun had the experience from the last time, so he was even bolder this time. He went to the front line in person, mixed in with the crowd, commanded the escort of one of the Lü Gong carriages, and asked the military commander Zhang Zhuo to personally escort another Lü Gong carriage.

The high-ranking generals' leading by example boosted the soldiers' morale.

The planks were dropped with a bang, and the Han army rushed up first. After a dozen soldiers went up, Zhao Yun also rushed to the top of the city wall.

This time he was more skilled and did not bring a spear or a sword, but a five-foot-long thick-backed horse-slashing sword. In this way, whether he was charging on the plank or after he had already rushed onto the city wall, he did not need to change weapons, and this one trick was enough to defeat everyone.

The horse-slaying sword flew left and right, causing gusts of bloody wind and rain, and was invincible wherever it went.

After killing dozens of people, without waiting for Zhao Yun to attack the city wall, the captain Li Cai on the city wall directly ordered surrender.

County Magistrate Yuan Shi was shocked when he heard the sound and was about to turn around to question him, but he couldn't even complete the action of turning around. He only felt a flash of a knife in the corner of his eye, and his neck was chopped directly by Li Cai, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

Yuan Shi's eyes were wide open, and he died with his eyes open. Li Cai pulled the blade several times before he chopped off his head.

With Yuan Shi's death, the fighting gradually stopped after a while, and Zhao Yun rushed up to the city wall with his personal guards without bloodshed.

Li Cai hurriedly greeted him at the stairs with a bow and a respectful attitude:

"General Zhao! I have long wanted to surrender to the light! I only regret that the city guard is a distant relative of Yuan Shu and a traitor. I am under his control and cannot surrender.

Fortunately, the general's mighty power led the way, and Yuan the thief was able to dispatch his personal guards to block the entrance. This gave me the opportunity to kill him and force his men to surrender!"

Zhao Yun thought the other party's attitude was okay, but he still had to go through the necessary procedures. He just ordered coldly: "Officers don't have to surrender their weapons, soldiers, all put down your weapons and wait for the handover! Anyone who acts recklessly will be treated as disobeying military orders!"

The Han army swarmed in and first disarmed the reinforcements on the north gate tower and nearby city walls to ensure that the situation was under control.

Zhao Yun then calmly asked Li Cai's name and official title, and then jokingly said, "Oh? You said that the county magistrate of this county was stubbornly resisting, but Hui Qu told me that he has a good relationship with both the garrison commander and the county magistrate of this county, and is confident that he can persuade them to surrender?"

Li Cai exposed it without hesitation: "Hui Qu must be afraid that the general will think he is of no use, so he deliberately lied to bluff! Yuan Shi is a distant relative of the Runan Yuan family, how could he surrender?

General, don't be fooled by Hui Qu and let him gain more credit! I surrendered voluntarily, not because he persuaded me to do so! "

Li Cai was not stupid. How could he let Hui Qu help him at this time? He would be treated differently if he surrendered to the Han Dynasty on his own initiative or was persuaded to surrender.

Zhao Yun sneered in his heart when he heard this, but he didn't intend to point it out. The morale and loyalty of Yuan Shu's civil and military officials were so low, no wonder his sneak attack was so successful.

The more the enemy behaves like this, the better it is for us, so there is no need to hurt their face.

……

After conquering Zhongli County, Zhao Yun was a little tired. It took him half a day to occupy the county and count the prisoners.

Although the soldiers under his command had plenty of time to rest after fighting in the previous few days, sleeping on a bumpy boat was definitely not as peaceful as spending the night in the camp.

After four days of continuous fighting and marching, the troops were already somewhat exhausted. Even though Zhao Yun had greater ambitions in his heart and wanted to spy on Yicheng, an important town on the Huai River, reason told him that he had to stay in the city tonight and reward the soldiers generously with wine and meat.

Of course, the direct reason that prompted Zhao Yun to make this decision in the end was that after he broke into the city, he learned that the murdered county magistrate Yuan Shi had sent a messenger for help to the rear before the Han army attacked the city.

Even if Zhao Yun stayed up all night and marched there, the defenders of Yicheng County must have been fully prepared. There would be no chance of a sneak attack, and they would not allow the surrendered general's nonsense to shake people's morale and miss the opportunity to shoot arrows to intercept.

This can be considered the greatest contribution made by Yuan Jun of Zhongli County to their comrades in the rear. After all, they sent out the urgent military information.

Unlike Hui Qu in Huailing, there was no messenger when the city was lost, and the military intelligence could only be conveyed if the defeated soldiers were captured by friendly patrol scouts in the rear.

That night, Zhao Yun, who never liked to disturb the people, had to resort to some tough measures. He asked the petty officials who had just surrendered to forcibly requisition all the remaining poultry and livestock in Zhongli County to reward the three armies and ensure that all 4,000 infantrymen and 1,000 cavalrymen had meat to eat, and if all else failed, even fish, shrimps and clams would be needed.

The land under Yuan Shu's rule was now extremely poor and desolate, and this behavior would basically not harm the farmers, because the farmers had no livestock or chickens and ducks to raise. Those who could still allocate pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks these days were definitely local tyrants with some power.

However, Zhao Yun did not want to rob these powerful people openly, so he asked them to write IOUs. If nothing unexpected happened, Liu Bei would allow these IOUs to be used to directly deduct this year's autumn tax after the war.

Given the level of governance at the end of the Han Dynasty, it was impossible to expect every household to settle their accounts clearly.

In ancient times, taxation was originally a form of tax-sharing. Each township and village had to pay a certain amount of tax, and the tax was finally collected by the county. As for how the townships and villages were divided, and whether there were powerful families who oppressed the weak and forced them to pay more, this problem was not completely solved in the Han Dynasty, let alone the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Zhao Yun gave the order, and the minor officials could only make a rough calculation based on the villages. The amount of pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks that a village head had to hand over would be used to offset the village's autumn tax this year.

After solving the problem of providing salaries to soldiers, it will be easier to distribute rewards to those who are the first to reach the border.

This was all thanks to Zhuge Jin's invention of the "helping soldiers keep accounts and save money" system in Yuzhang last year, which was quite popular among the soldiers. So this method was also learned by Liu Bei and promoted in Guangling this year.

Liu Bei was considered to have relatively good credit among the princes. He set up new Gongcao Jili below each captain, who was responsible for keeping accounts and stamping the rewards that had not yet been paid to the soldiers. After the war, they could settle the money and receive it in a unified manner, or settle the money with the land after returning to the garrison.

Overnight, while the soldiers were still resting, the clerks had stayed up all night to list the merits of everyone, and displayed them in the parade grounds early the next morning, including the rewards for those who died in battle and the families who benefited, all of which were filled out in great detail.

After the announcement, morale did improve.

……

After a good rest and recovery in Zhongli County, Zhao Yun saw that the army's morale was good and their physical strength had almost recovered, so he ordered the troops to continue their march.

And as usual, the surrendered soldiers with local origins were picked out and taken away, while those with non-local origins were disarmed and left behind to serve as auxiliary troops in defending the city.

In addition, Zhao Yun also had to separate nearly a thousand men from his own direct line of soldiers to serve as the backbone of defending the city, leaving behind all the wounded and sick soldiers from the Battle of Zhongli.

As a result, his main force was reduced to only 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. This number was already less than the Yuan army's garrison in Yicheng, so it was a pipe dream to capture the city.

Military commander Zhang Zhuo couldn't help himself and advised Zhao Yun to calm down: "Captain, the lord only asked us to feint. We not only captured Huailing, but also Zhongli. We have already exceeded our goal.

Our army is getting more and more exhausted, while the enemy is getting more and more alert. The advantage of surprise attack has been exhausted. And we only have 3,000 infantrymen left. How can we attack the city? Although the siege equipment has not been destroyed, it has been repeatedly shot and hit by crossbows and rolling logs and stones. There are also many collapsed wooden boards and stairs. They are in urgent need of repair. "

Zhao Yun wanted to try again, patted Zhang's shoulder and said earnestly: "You don't know, when you were resting last night, I questioned Li Cai strictly and learned a new military situation - Yicheng County is indeed an important town in Shoudong, with a large number of troops stationed there, and the usual garrison commander is our old rival Ji Ling himself.

Last year, Ji Ling would not be stationed in such a backward position. If we had attacked at that time, we would have definitely encountered Ji Ling in Huailing and Zhongli. It was only because Lu Bu and Yuan Shu turned against each other in December last year that Yuan Shu moved Ji Ling to Yicheng at the beginning of this year.

Because Yicheng is the hub of Huaibei, Woshui flows into Huaihe River from here. Yangxia, Wuping and Kuxian in the upper reaches of Woshui River have been occupied by Cao Cao, and the important town of Qiaoxian has also been attacked by Lu Bu.

Only if Ji Ling is stationed in Yicheng can he take care of the two important defense lines of Huaihe River and Woshui River at the same time. If Lü Bu invades Qiao County again, Ji Ling will go northwest along Woshui River from Yicheng to stop Lü Bu. If our army advances westward from Xuyi, we will also run into Ji Ling in Yicheng.

I learned a piece of news from Li Cai: just over ten days ago, Lü Bu, who was defeated last year, was unwilling to accept his defeat and sent cavalry and a small group of elite troops to harass the area around Qiao County, trying to swallow up Qiao. Ji Ling has led about half of the garrison troops in Yicheng to the north to intercept Lü Bu's detachment, and is not in the city now.

Although we cannot launch a surprise attack before the Yicheng defenders react, it will be enough for our army to arrive before Ji Ling returns to defend. In this way, our army will have the opportunity to block Ji Ling in the north of Yicheng County and fight a field battle.

I never planned to fight a third siege battle, but as long as I can win one battle in the wild, even if it ends here, I will be satisfied. "

Zhang Zhuo had not known about the surrendered general's explanation before. Last night, he was busy helping Zhao Yun with rewarding the soldiers. Now, after hearing this, he hurriedly looked at the map and felt that what Zhao Yun said made some sense.

But he was still a little worried: "However, we only have 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. Who knows how many troops Ji Ling will have after he comes to support us? Can we guarantee victory in a field battle? If we advance alone and encounter disadvantages, how can the infantry retreat quickly?"

Zhao Yun patted his shoulder and reminded him, "You didn't participate in the battle of Xuyi last year, so it's normal that you don't understand the situation. How can Yuan Shu's army underestimate our current warships? Once the battle is unfavorable, all the infantry will board the ships and retreat downstream, and Yuan Shu's warships will not be able to stay!

On those small rivers, the small boats may have a chance because they have more people, but on a big river like the Huai River, the quality of the boats is decisive. "

Zhang Zhuo thought about it and raised another concern: "What if Ji Ling doesn't want to fight with us and goes around the city? Even with 3,000 soldiers, we can't surround the Yicheng Group and leave no gaps, right?
If the siege is really that tight, the troops must be divided, and each side will be very weak, and then they will be defeated one by one by Ji Ling and the city defenders. "

Zhao Yun: "Of course I won't divide my troops. I will gather all 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry and set up camp in the north of the city, on the south bank of the mouth of the Woshui River and the Huai River! But I believe Ji Ling will fight me.

Last year he was in Xuyi, but he was so angry that he wanted to have a battle with me in the field. Finally, I followed the orders of my lord and defended the city for two months without fighting for fear of angering Yuan Shu. At that time, Ji Ling was shouting and cursing outside the city every day.

"I can only kill Liang Gang and Le Jiu by surprise, but how dare I fight a great general like him in an open battle? I ignored him at that time, but this year I gave him the opportunity!"

Seeing that Zhao Yun had thought it through so thoroughly overnight, Zhang Zhuo certainly would not say anything else. He just resolutely carried out Zhao Yun's order and immediately prepared the troops to board the ship and attack.

Zhao Yun's troops once again embarked on a journey of rapid advancement, and this time, in order to facilitate advance and retreat, Zhao Yun pretended not to bring those Lu Gong chariots and other heavy siege weapons on the ship.

These siege weapons were too tall and heavy. After being transported by ship, the ships themselves would move very slowly. If they turned too quickly or the wind and waves were too strong, they might capsize or at least cause the siege vehicles to fall into the river.

Zhao Yun was not sure of breaking the city this time, he just wanted to trick Ji Ling into a field battle, if he couldn't win, he would have to retreat. Only by unloading the carts could the speed advantage of the Han army's ships be brought into play and they would be invincible.

As for whether he could still threaten Yicheng County without Lu Gongche, and whether Ji Ling would return to defend, Zhao Yun was not worried - because he had already captured two cities with Lu Gongche, and when he captured the second city, Zhongli County, the county magistrate Yuan Shi who was killed sent the official military situation report back to the rear.

Therefore, as long as the defenders of Yicheng saw Zhao Yun appear so quickly and saw the result of "two cities being captured so quickly in a row", they would believe that Zhao Yun must have brought some kind of powerful siege weapon.

Even if he didn't bring it, the deterrent effect was enough. Ji Ling didn't dare to gamble and not return to defend.

The idea of using this kind of siege equipment, "making the enemy appear real when they are empty and appearing fake when they are real, combining practicality with deterrence", was something Zhao Yun heard when he was chatting with Zhuge Liang before the battle. Of course, it was not put into practice.

At that time, Zhuge Liang was just modifying the siege vehicle while chatting and looking forward out of boredom.

Zhao Yun was confused after listening to it. Now that he had used it in two actual combat battles and had more practical experience, he seemed to have suddenly grasped something and roughly summarized this deterrence method that combines the real and the fake in his mind.

Siege vehicles were real in the first two battles, and although they didn’t actually come in the third battle, their deterrent effect was so great that the enemy dared not fail to come to the rescue.

Zhao Yun felt that after marrying a wife from the Zhuge family and having a brother-in-law from the Zhuge family, after communicating with him for several months, his intelligence seemed to have grown a little bit.

(End of this chapter)