My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 15: The brave one wins when we meet on a narrow road
Although Guan Yu suffered minor injuries, the complete collapse of his army was doomed from the moment Liu Xun abandoned his troops and fled.

Guan Yu was extremely resolute. Even though he was hit by a crossbow arrow, he was protected by heavy armor so his internal organs were not injured and his arteries were not punctured.

So he simply asked his trusted lieutenant to pull out the arrow and bandage it, and then continued to pretend to be fine and command the battle.

He was also very talented in thinking of an improvisational tactic, which was to let his soldiers shout in unison to announce the news of Liu Xun's death.

Didn't Liu Xun change into a bronze helmet and wrap himself in a rag cloak when he ran away? The bronze helmet he left behind happened to be particularly conspicuous in the burning central army tent.

Guan Yu had someone pick up the head of a mid-level general of Yuan’s army that he had chopped off, cut the face of the head, put Liu Xun’s helmet on it, and shouted “Liu Xun’s head” before charging. The morale of the remaining troops in the camp completely collapsed.

Chen Lan, who like Lei Bo was born into a Huoshan bandit family, was originally leading his hundreds of cavalry to put out the fire and plug the leak. However, when he saw the head of the "Lord of the Mansion", he chose to preserve his strength and ran away, abandoning his infantry brothers who were still suffering.

After another cup of tea, the main force of 5,000 infantrymen in Liu Bei's rear army finally arrived at the battlefield south of the city on foot.

What they were facing was a completely collapsed Liu Xun camp, and the sky was beginning to brighten slightly, so there was no need to worry about the army trampling on each other and causing accidental injuries as they charged into the battle formation.

About 4,000 men were divided into two wings. One wing played the role of a hammer, charging fiercely into the camp, while the other played the role of an anvil, detouring to the south of the camp to intercept the shouting and drive away and annihilate the stubborn enemy.

Liu Xun's troops were killed, wounded or captured in this pincer attack, with more than a few thousand of them, and the rest fled in all directions like headless flies. Those who chose to flee south were severely killed by Liu Bei's army.

When Guan Yu saw Liu Bei arriving, he knew the outcome of the battle was set in stone. He finally breathed a sigh of relief after holding on for a long time and confidently handed over the subsequent task of expanding the results of the battle to his elder brother.

When the two brothers met, Guan Yu panted heavily and complained in a very polite manner: "Why are they coming so slowly? I have been fighting for an incense stick of time, and the rear army just arrived."

Liu Bei first casually expressed his concern for Guan Yu's injury, and then pointed to the south and said, "This is not about perfection. We need to annihilate more enemy troops. It is not enough to just defeat Liu Xun. If the remaining enemy flees south, we will not be able to catch up with them, and they will have to return to Guangling County to regroup, which will be a lot of trouble.

Therefore, I will first let half of the troops go around to the south of the camp to set up an ambush, and the rest will rush into the camp to attack. As long as Liu Xun's troops flee to the west, we will only chase their tail and never intercept them. It is best to lead them to the northwest.

If there are die-hard bandits fleeing south, we will do our best to kill them, surround them and capture them. In just a short while, we have killed thousands of fleeing soldiers and captured even more. They are all bandits who are loyal to Yuan Shu. "

Liu Bei made this deployment because he had learned from Zhuge Jin's thinking and treated the Battle of Huaiyin and the subsequent Battle of Guangling as a whole.

It is better to suffer now in exchange for ease later, and never let any more enemy escape back to Guangling County.

Guan Yu was relieved after hearing this, and quickly confirmed: "Are the remaining half of the troops ambushed on the way Ji Ling came to reinforce as planned?"

Liu Bei patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, this was planned before the war. With Shu Zhi on the left and Guo Rang on the right, Ji Ling came to help in a hurry and is panicked. There must be an opportunity for us to take advantage of. After we finish cleaning up here, let's go and reinforce them."

The two generals mentioned by Liu Bei are still unknown today.

Shu Zhi is Chen Dao, who had just joined Liu Bei's army over the past year since he was appointed Governor of Yuzhou. He came from a relatively humble background and had gradually risen to the top through his martial arts and courage. He was actually not qualified to lead two or three thousand soldiers at a time. This was the first time he had led so many troops, and Liu Bei was really left with no other choice in his dilemma.

Guo Rang is Tian Yu. Historically, Tian Yu defected to Liu Bei very early, but around the time when Liu Bei was defeated in Xuzhou and became the governor of Yuzhou, Tian Yu returned to his hometown on the pretext of his old mother and went to find Gongsun Zan again.

Because these two people are currently at a relatively low level, Zhuge Jin had not seen them in the short two days in Huaiyin, and did not even know that they were now under Liu Bei. These deployments and dispatches were made by Liu Bei himself.

Now history has changed, Liu Bei's army has not collapsed, and Tian Yu has not returned home. He and Chen Dao were both dragged into this battle that has changed, and they were hastily promoted, and they also got a chance to show their skills.

...After another quarter of an hour, the sky became a little brighter, but not completely bright yet. Converted to the time of later generations, it was about 5:30 in the morning.

In the southwest corner of Huaiyin City, a large group of Yuan Shu's soldiers were running wildly from northwest to southeast. It was obviously Ji Ling's army stationed in the east of the city. After receiving the news that Liu Xun's camp was raided and defeated, they hastily reorganized their troops and rushed to reinforce.

Liu Bei was very steady and did not choose to divide his troops to attack two enemy camps at the same time because he knew it would be difficult to ensure that the timing was exactly the same.

In this era, there were no accurate timekeeping tools that were easy to carry in the wild. At night, one could only estimate the time by looking at the angle of the moonlight, and the error was too large. If they chose to rob the camps of Ji Ling and Liu Xun at the same time, the final result would probably be that one side would act first, and when the other side acted hastily, the enemy would have been slightly alert, and the surprise would not be so good.

In this case, it is better to play it safe, rob one route, and then ambush the reinforcements coming from another route.

The simpler the tactics, the higher the tolerance rate. This is a natural law.

The camps of Ji Ling and Liu Xun were only a dozen miles apart, so when Liu Xun's entire camp caught fire in the dark, Ji Ling saw the fire. Without waiting for Liu Xun to come for help, he took the initiative to send troops to reinforce.

But Ji Ling didn't know how many enemies there were, or whether they were deceiving him, so he didn't dare to abandon his camp, so he could only send troops to help in the dark. This would undoubtedly weaken the fighting power, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Time does not allow Ji Ling to slowly gather more people.

There is not much terrain for ambushes outside Huaiyin City, because the northern Jiangsu plain is too flat, with no mountains or hills.

The only ambush location was in the small woods beside the field ridges.

It is impossible to hide in such terrain in broad daylight as the visibility is too good, but at 5:30 in the morning in autumn, there is no problem at all.

When Ji Ling's troops hurriedly passed through two woods in the southeast of the city, Chen Dao and Tian Yu were waiting for him on both sides respectively.

Chen Dao was very nervous. When he saw Ji Ling arriving, his soldiers almost lost their patience and were about to rush out.

But the earnest instructions from his lord before the departure made Chen Dao hold back. He enforced military discipline in a low and stern voice to prevent his men from being reckless.

"If Ji Ling is ambushed, do not rush out rashly. Wait until half of his troops have arrived before intercepting him. Unless Ji Ling discovers our ambush first, you are forced to counterattack."

This was the order Liu Bei gave him, in order to ensure that Ji Ling was dealt as heavy a blow as possible, rather than just being repelled.

Chen Dao didn't understand at first, but in the last quarter of an hour before the battle, Liu Bei chose to open his heart to him and told him part of the truth.

Tell Chen Dao, "Our army only has one chance. If Ji Ling refuses to retreat after being defeated and continues to besiege the city after returning to the camp, then after this battle, our army will no longer have the will to fight, so we must destroy the enemy in one blow."

Liu Bei knew very well that even if he didn't say it now, after this battle, as the encirclement of Huaiyin was dispersed and the food in the city was eaten up, the soldiers would know it sooner or later.

Telling the general half an hour in advance but not telling the soldiers is also a kind of trust in the general.

At least based on Liu Bei's ability to judge people and his emotional intelligence, and based on his observation, Chen Dao can be trusted in this regard.

Liu Bei was not wrong about this person. Chen Dao was indeed moved by this trust. He felt quite pressured and made up his mind silently:
You must hold back, don't rush, don't rush out immediately to scare off the enemy, and be sure to strictly follow the lord's orders...

(End of this chapter)