My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 146: The Capital of Being Crazy
Zhuge Jin knew that Chen Lan could not be persuaded to surrender, so he did the opposite and used intimidation instead.

Moreover, the letter was detailed and concise at the right time, and was consistent with other circumstantial evidence such as the increase of stoves, camps, and smoke, which shocked all the enemy generals including Chen Lan.

Within just one night, although Chen Lan had tried his best to suppress the spread of rumors, countless middle-level officers and ordinary soldiers began to spread the rumor that the subsequent enemy force was large, perhaps more than 100,000.

Moreover, many phenomena were seen by Yuan Jun’s soldiers from the beginning. Now that they were confirmed by the rumors, the effect was doubled:

In the two days after the Han army arrived at Wancheng, more and more camps were built outside the city. At first, there were only camps in the south of the city, and the next day they slowly spread to the east and west gates. Now they have spread to the northeast and northwest corners of the city, which means that the three sides of the city are surrounded, and only the north gate is open for entry and exit.

This clearly showed that the rear troops of the Han army were still arriving upstream along the Wan River. At this rate, if the siege continued for another two days, they would probably completely surround Wancheng on all sides, like an iron barrel.

This situation obviously made the defenders most panicked.

By the evening of that day, some Yuan soldiers had already begun to sneak out of the city and surrender.

Among these deserters, some fled from the north side of the city wall, because the Han army had not yet surrounded that direction, so they were able to escape easily.

However, many of the fleeing soldiers were not assigned to the north gate as their defensive positions, and they had no authority to go to the north wall. They could only climb over the wall on the spot. Most of them were then captured by the Han army's siege patrols and then sent to Liu Ye or Gan Ning. After interrogation, if they had any valuable confessions, they would be sent to Zhuge Jin.

Seeing these deserters falling off the wall, Gan Ning suddenly felt their morale was boosted. General Zhuge's psychological attack and deterrence strategy was so effective.

……

In the early morning of the next day, the Han army camp had already started cooking, preparing to organize an attack after the soldiers had eaten and rested for a while.

In the central army tent, Zhuge Jin also got up early, washed up, ate and drank, and before dawn, he continued to read military books by lamplight.

Gan Ning should have rested for a while longer to conserve his energy for the final attack.

But he learned early in the morning that many enemy deserters had been captured last night, so he couldn't help but check the confessions himself, then picked out some and brought them to Zhuge Jin to report the good news:
"Great joy! The general's strategy of attacking the enemy's heart has frightened the enemy's soldiers into panic. Many prisoners captured by our army confessed that they were not afraid of being surrounded from all sides, nor were they afraid of a large army attacking the city.

They are just afraid of our army's reinforcements arriving several battalions every day and extending the siege camp hundreds of feet north every day. When the escape route to the north of the city is about to be blocked, but not completely blocked, the defenders are most frightened. "

Zhuge Jin put down the military book and smiled calmly, not seeming surprised at all, as if everything was under control:
"That's natural. Since ancient times, a retreating army should not be stopped, and a besieged army must be left with a gap. After being completely surrounded on all four sides, the enemy army will be desperate and will fight to the death. If we only stabilize the siege on one or three sides, it will seem that our army is not sure of completely annihilating the enemy, and we really want to drive them out.

Therefore, since our army wants to attack quickly, we must make full use of these few days, calculate the rhythm, pretend to match the speed of the arrival of reinforcements, and move the camp northward at a uniform speed as each reinforcement arrives. This moment of slowly tightening the noose is the most torturous. "

When it comes to a life-and-death situation, many people will forget about their fear.

But the moment when the death row inmate is waiting for death is definitely the most frightening moment. Zhuge Jin has much more experience in psychology than the ancients, so he can attack the heart with his acting skills which are more exquisite than those of the ancients.

After listening to Zhuge Jin's explanation and corroborating it with the confessions of the enemy soldiers who had fled after the city collapsed, Gan Ning and Liu Ye immediately respected him even more.

"What is scary is not death, but waiting for death... The general's words sum it up so succinctly." Gan Ning was fascinated and felt that the aftertaste was endless.

Zhuge Jin also patted Gan Ning on the shoulder appropriately, signaling him to be modest and cautious, and also showing his trust: "However, this method of mine cannot be used casually. It must be used in conjunction with a fierce and aggressive general like Xingba.

If we try to tighten the noose slowly but don't put any force into it until it's completely tightened, the enemy will see through our bluff - that's why I asked you to launch a general attack just before the noose is completely tightened."

Gan Ning was stunned for a moment, then he thought about it again and reviewed the whole situation. Finally, it became clear to him. He had a new understanding of how to attack swiftly and give full play to the miraculous effect of attacking the heart.

Under Zhuge Jin's advice, Gan Ning's psychological warfare skills were improving visibly.

Looking back on the past, Gan Ning suddenly felt that when he was a Jinfan thief, those tricks he used to intimidate the robbed merchants to hand over their property and surrender were really not worth mentioning.

If General Fu Bo was willing to be a pirate, he probably wouldn't even have to kill anyone, as the targeted customers would just hand over their money and goods.

……

After more than an hour, the sky had brightened up.

Lu Gongche and other siege weapons were all assembled and pushed to the front of the battle line. It was finally time for the general attack.

Before launching the final charge, Gan Ning suddenly came up with an idea - he gathered all the enemy prisoners who had escaped from the city during the entire night and lined them up several hundred steps outside the city to ensure that they would not be shot by the enemy's bows and crossbows on the city walls.

Then, in front of the soldiers who were about to launch a general attack, the origins of these captives were announced.

"... Soldiers! The enemy is so timid! In just one night, so many people would rather risk being seriously injured than fall out of the city and surrender! Our Han Dynasty will punish the rebels with obedience and destroy the usurpers. How can we not win?
You may never meet another fool like Yuan Shu who rashly proclaimed himself emperor and made his subordinates panic in your life! This battle of Lujiang may be the easiest time in our lives to gain credit!
If you don’t work hard now, when will you? If you can get ahead, decades or even centuries from now, your descendants will thank you for seizing the opportunity today and fighting for it! "

Gan Ning's final pre-war mobilization was very effective. He spoke in plain language, which ordinary soldiers could understand. He also asked the scolds to shout in unison, amplifying the sound so that the defenders on the city wall could also hear it.

The defenders were already in a state of shock because they saw several incredible heavy siege machines standing far outside the city. They were taller than ladders and seemed to have solid defenses on all sides, making it more difficult to kill the soldiers hidden inside than ladders.

It was hard to imagine that this kind of siege equipment could be made by a siege force that had just been under siege for three days. Normally, it would take at least half a month of siege to produce such a large device.

The defenders were not mentally prepared and had no idea of the enemy's strengths and weaknesses. But when they saw such a shocking thing at the first sight of the battle, how could they not be shocked?
The ordinary soldiers were completely at a loss, but there were some knowledgeable officers, and those above the rank of Marquis of Qu Jun had heard about it and knew that this was a new trick that Liu Bei's army had come up with.

Previously, the reason why Liu Xun was forced by His Majesty to withdraw veteran soldiers to the north for reinforcement was because this mysterious new siege weapon of Liu Bei’s army had broken through a number of small cities along the Huai River in the northern battlefield and was approaching Shouchun.

However, according to the information they had received, this mysterious siege weapon of Liu Bei's army should not be very tall, and they had never heard of one that was more than two meters high.

Wancheng was the first-tier strong city in Lujiang County, on par with Hefei, and its walls were relatively high. They originally thought that such weapons less than two meters long might not be able to harm Wancheng, but they miscalculated in the end.

As Yuan's army was in a state of panic, the Han army finally launched a general attack. First, more than a dozen trench bridge vehicles and a large number of archers carrying large rattan shields approached and began to shoot.

During the three days of siege, although the Han army did not launch a forceful attack, they did drive prisoners to carry soil to fill in some of the gaps in the trenches outside Wancheng, and sent archers to suppress and cover.

Therefore, before today's general attack, the outer trenches were already partially destroyed. The Han army was just worried that the hastily bulldozed position would not be solid enough and the heavy siege equipment would sink, so they used trench bridges made of thick wooden boards to cushion the bottom and reduce the ground pressure. "Shoot! Shoot! Don't let those cars get close!"

Among the Yuan army's direct troops who were loyal to Chen Lan on the city wall, the officers were still yelling at the top of their lungs, urging the soldiers to shoot arrows in advance to cover up their inner fear.

The Yuan army's archers followed orders numbly and mechanically, not realizing that their actions had been led astray by the wrong orders.

Under normal circumstances, the Yuan army's archers should first suppress the Han army's archers who were shooting at them. Even if the Han army's archers had large rattan shields as cover, suppressing them would at least prevent them from showing their heads.

As a result, out of fear of the unknown, Yuan Jun wasted most of their bow and crossbow firepower on things they had never seen before. Arrows hit the thick wooden boards with a clang, but caused almost no damage.

The Han army's archers had never encountered such a low firepower density when shooting at the enemy on the top of the city. The morale of the Han army was greatly boosted, and everyone dared to take aim and shoot boldly.

Fortunately, a strong city like Wancheng is still equipped with crossbows, and the number of them is more than that of the cities that Zhao Yun had attacked on the northern front before.

Chen Lan directed the crossbows to shoot at Lu Gong's cart, and finally shot a few holes in it and killed some soldiers pushing the cart, but it was completely unable to stop the Han army's overwhelming momentum.

Whenever there was a vacancy among the soldiers pushing the carts, the siege officers would urge the surrendered prisoners to take their place. It was obviously not enough to rely on the firepower density of the crossbows to kill the soldiers pushing the carts hiding behind the carts.

When Lu Gong's chariot approached within 20 or 30 steps of the city wall, the defenders' defense began to become a little threatening. The soldiers on the top of the city wall began to throw logs and rocks at Lu Gong's chariot, smashing the chariot with a loud bang and shaking it.

Unfortunately, the angle of impact was not enough, and most of them bounced off after impact. In addition, in order to throw the wood and stones far away, the guards had to stick their entire upper body out of the city wall, making it easy for them to be shot by the Han army's crossbowmen.

Finally, Chen Lan had to use his last killer weapon - the swallowtail torch that Liu Ye helped Liu Xun invent last fall.

"Throw the swallowtail torches! Burn these huge cars!"

As the officers on the city wall shouted at the top of their lungs, a group of torches with wooden handles and forked iron hooks at the end were finally thrown out from behind the parapets. They flew across the arc like wooden-handled grenades and hit Lu Gong's carriage.

These dovetail torches were Chen Lan's last trump card against heavy siege weapons. He even went to great lengths to soak the hemp fibers wrapped around the tops of the torches with oil, just to make the flames burn more fiercely and longer, and not be easily extinguished by the wind.

However, the swallowtail torch, which was quite useful in tying up boats in naval battles last year, now had a shockingly effective actual combat effect when facing Zhuge Jin's improved Lu Gongche.

A considerable number of dovetail torches were not nailed to the wooden board at all and simply slid down. Only a few of them stuck, but the flames did not spread as quickly as expected.

At this moment, Liu Ye was standing not far from Zhuge Jin on the siege position. When he saw Chen Lan take out the swallowtail torch, he felt ashamed and timid, fearing that the new master would scold him for this invention of his past.

In his mind, he had even thought of an excuse like "We each served different masters at that time. I had actually thought of this invention before Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor. It was not after Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor that I helped him to commit atrocities."

However, he saw that Zhuge Jin's expression remained calm. When he turned around, he realized that the swallowtail torch he invented was completely useless.

Liu Ye was convinced, and he rode his horse to Zhuge Jin, bowing and asking for advice:
"General, your plan is brilliant. Ye is truly impressed. I wonder what method you used to make it so that the swallowtail torch is difficult to pierce, and even if it is pierced, it cannot spread quickly?"

Zhuge Jin raised one corner of his mouth expressionlessly: "It's a commonplace. Before the battle, can't we just smear a few buckets of wet mud on the wooden boards? You didn't see it last night because it wasn't applied at that time. This kind of stuff is only useful when applied right before the battle. If you apply it too early, it will dry and fall off."

Liu Ye's heart moved, and he remembered that after Liu Xun was defeated in the Battle of Qiao Ruishui last year, he seemed to have mentioned that "although the Yanwei Torch was able to hold the fire in the water battle, the Han army also put out the fire quickly."

However, in the Battle of Ruxu and the Battle of Chungu last year, Liu Ye, as a counselor, did not go to the battlefield in person and did not directly witness the scenes at that time. After returning, Liu Xun reprimanded him, but he could not understand what he was saying.

Now that I've seen it with my own eyes, the mystery has finally been solved.

Zhuge Jin used a special bentonite clay and water to form mud! Bentonite has very good water absorption, the mud has a high water retention rate, and it is not easy to dry out quickly.

As for which soil is bentonite and can be used as the base material for oil-proof fire-fighting mud, Zhuge Jin will certainly not tell outsiders. He can keep this secret for a long time. Unless the hostile princes also study and summarize chemical knowledge, Zhuge Jin will continue to take advantage of this.

Moreover, even if hostile forces send spies to Yuzhang County in the future, it will not be easy to find out this result - because Zhuge Jin is in Yuzhang, and is now trying to start another industry to cover up the real purpose of his bentonite mining.

Zhuge Jin opened several earthen kilns to fire primitive porcelain in Jingdezhen, Poyang County, and planned to improve them to fire celadon with kaolin and Guanyin clay.

Even if someone finds out that he is mining these two types of soil in the future, they will only think that Zhuge Jin is thinking about new revenue-generating businesses and improving porcelain, and will not think that Zhuge Jin is thinking about military fire-proof materials.

Moreover, it is not fake that Zhuge Jin is engaged in the porcelain business. He will really make money by shipping the products in the future. The products can be used for both military and civilian purposes.

Chen Lan used up his last tricks, but was unable to stop the steady advance of the attackers. The huge Lu Gong chariot would not stop no matter how hard they tried, and finally brought the morale of the Yuan army to the brink of collapse.

"Put down the planks! Follow me and charge!"

As the planks of Lu Gong's carriage were lowered with a bang, the Han soldiers swarmed up along the stairs inside the carriage under the supervision of Gan Ning.

Gan Ning himself also took up the flail and shield that he used in naval battles and sieges, and charged forward with the soldiers.

The Lu Gong car improved by Zhuge Jin has a little more on the head board than Zhuge Liang's car -

The front board of Zhuge Liang's Lu Gong car was just a thick wooden board. Zhuge Jin also added several large iron spikes at the bottom of the board, which could be directly driven into the rammed earth of the city wall or the battlement once it was dropped by gravity potential energy.

If the guards were unlucky and were hit by the iron spike mounted on the top of a large wooden board weighing several hundred kilograms, they would definitely be turned into powder.

At this moment, there were five or six Yuan soldiers who were holding spears to block the entrance, but due to their lack of experience, they happened to block the position where the planks were put down and were hit directly.

This is equivalent to a big hammer. The wooden handle weighs several hundred pounds, and the head weighs hundreds of pounds of iron. It falls freely along the axis from a height of three meters. The five or six spearmen are instantly turned into meat paste, and blood plasma splatters for more than ten steps away.

The spearmen of Yuan's army, who had originally intended to block the entrance, were so frightened by the power of this blow that they took several steps back, leaving a large space on the top of the city wall in vain. As a result, the Han army soldiers took advantage of this gap and rushed to the top of the city wall without any casualties.

(End of this chapter)