My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 155: The Fall of Hefei, Yuan Shu's Death Knell

Two hours after the Battle of Xiaoyaojin, Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin were chatting in Guan Yu's central military tent when they suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves outside.

Liu Bei showed a little surprise, and Guan Yu beside him noticed it keenly, and his face suddenly became a little embarrassed.

He bowed silently to Liu Bei, then quickly walked out of the tent, wanting to reprimand the soldiers who were in charge of patrolling the camp today.

Is there anything that cannot be reported first? How can the central army allow the horses to ride without reporting?
Liu Bei watched Guan Yu leave the tent, then turned to Zhuge Jin, his eyes revealing a desire to seek advice.

The weather in July was still hot. Zhuge Jin slowly waved his folding fan, but smiled without saying a word, pretending to be profound.

Although he had no idea why there were so many clattering sounds of horses heading straight for the central army, it was broad daylight, the camp was well defended, and Guan Yu was a good commander, so it definitely couldn't be a bad thing.

Zhuge Jin's pretense of being profound was not in vain, because a few seconds later, a thunderous roar came from far away and revealed the answer to all the mysteries.

"Brother! Brother! I have captured that thief Liu Xun for you! Alive! You must be promoted to General of the Central Army this time!"

"It's my third brother!" Liu Bei's eyes lit up, and he jumped up instantly, rubbing his hands and running two or three steps towards the tent door, then suddenly stopped, turned around, and bowed to Zhuge Jin.

"Sir, you are really smart! I am really sorry for my worrying these days!"

It turned out that during the days when Zhang Fei sent people to ambush on the Xiaoyaojin Dam every night, Liu Bei also wavered, thinking that "will the ambush for so long be in vain, Liu Xun did not dare to go out of the city to fight, and let the soldiers feed so many night mosquitoes by the river in vain."

Zhuge Jin always encouraged people to "stay careful and you won't make big mistakes", and he said this several times.

After all, there wouldn't be much loss in an ambush, except that the soldiers would be a little tired from working day and night. If Liu Xun really dared to counterattack without making any preparations, resulting in the flooding of Guan Yu and Gan Ning's troops in the low-lying area in the southeast of the city, the loss would be great.

Zhuge Liang was always cautious when using troops!

However, now that everything has come true, Zhuge Jin can be more modest. He smiled calmly and said, "My lord, you are too kind. If I were really smart, I should have notified Yide to set up an ambush last night, and I wouldn't have waited for six more days in vain."

As soon as Zhuge Jin finished speaking, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu rushed into the tent. Zhang Fei first saluted and congratulated Liu Bei, then saw Zhuge Jin and hurried over to kowtow:
"Sir! If you have any ambush in the future, just come to me. I can stand it no matter how long you wait!"

There was a happy atmosphere inside and outside the tent.

After some pleasantries, everyone finally got back to the topic.

Liu Bei asked excitedly: "Sir, do you think we can immediately tie Liu Xun up and take him to the city to persuade the Hefei garrison to surrender?"

Zhuge Jin thought for a moment and said: "Today our army is not ready to launch a new round of assault. Let's go and persuade them to surrender tomorrow morning, so that we can use both kindness and force.

If the enemy army does not surrender, our army will immediately launch an attack, and we can also tie Liu Xun up in front to make the defenders afraid to act rashly. "

Liu Bei did not question it and immediately nodded in approval of the plan.

Afterwards, Liu Xun, who was seriously injured and still vomiting blood, was given a simple first aid by the medical officer of Liu Bei’s army. His condition was stabilized a little and he did not die on the same day.

Liu Bei and Zhuge Jin also went to personally check the situation. With Liu Bei's authorization, Zhuge Jin also told Liu Xun his opinion on how to deal with him:
"Liu Xun, you are so stubborn that you should be executed immediately, but I can give you one last chance.

Tomorrow you will go to the battlefield and persuade the defenders of Hefei to surrender. If they are willing to surrender, I will spare your life, but strip you of all your official positions and powers, and keep you in confinement for retirement.

If your generals still dare to continue to resist and defend the city, then after the city is captured, you will still be killed!"

All that needed to be said had been said, and there was nothing more to say. The various units of the Han army went on to prepare for tomorrow's attack.

The news of Liu Xun's capture, as well as the news that Zhang Fei annihilated 2,000 cavalrymen of Yuan's army, forced 1,000 of them to surrender, and obtained more than 1,400 war horses, quickly spread to the four camps of the Han army, boosting the morale of the Han army and making them full of confidence in the final attack tomorrow.

……

After half a day of training and preparing for battle, the soldiers were given more food and rewards.

The next morning, hundreds of war drums sounded again, and Guan Yu led the army to form a battle array outside the south gate of Hefei.

The siege towers, catapults, battering rams, and ladders were all still available, but the battering ram had long been useless and did not appear on the battlefield this time.

Compared with previous days, the only additional thing today was a prisoner van carrying Liu Xun.

Guan Yu ordered the abusive fighter to step forward and shout, "Listen, defenders on the city wall. Yesterday, your commander Liu Xun failed in his attempt to break out of the siege and has been captured alive by the imperial army! Those who surrender will not be killed!"

The defenders on the city wall were immediately panicked when they saw this. Although they could not completely tell the truth from the falsehood for the time being, many generals knew Liu Xun's plan yesterday and knew that Liu Xun had not returned. They just didn't know whether Liu Xun had failed or gave up the mission and broke through.

Guan Yu also wanted to force Liu Xun to speak in person, but Liu Xun was seriously injured and his voice was weak, so the people on the top of the city could not hear him clearly. The voice of the scolding guards was not Liu Xun's own voice, so the effect was somewhat discounted. But no matter what, the morale of the commander being captured was too great, especially since the Han army even picked up Liu Xun's golden bronze helmet with a spear and waved it under the city to show off.

Guan Yu saw that the enemy was not going to surrender for the time being, and he did not want to wait any longer, so he followed the plan discussed last night and had the soldiers tie Liu Xun to the outer wall of a Ge Gong cart with thick hemp ropes, and then had the soldiers push the Ge Gong cart to attack the city as usual.

The defenders couldn't tell clearly whether this was Liu Xun, so let them take a closer look.

As expected, the defenders were in great chaos, and most of the archers did not dare to shoot, not knowing how to respond.

The Han army climbed the city wall this time, which was the easiest in history. On one hand, they prepared firepower by firing arrows and stones, and on the other hand, they suppressed the enemy from above. The planks of the Ge Gongche were lowered heavily, and the iron spikes were driven into the rammed earth on the top of the city wall. Then, the Danyang soldiers, like wolves and tigers, rushed up the wall swiftly.

Yuan's army had no choice but to shoot arrows in retaliation. During the random shooting, Liu Xun, who was tied to the outer wall of Ge Gong's car for public display, was naturally shot into a hedgehog by Yuan's own crossbows. It was quite ironic.

The Han army was full of vigor and charged forward with unprecedented ferocity. The melee lasted only half an hour before Yuan's army completely collapsed and the Han army captured the South Gate Tower.

The total number of Yuan's troops killed and wounded was no more than a thousand, so they surrendered one after another. The Han army spread to the other gates and fought sporadic street battles for half a day, and everyone they passed surrendered.

Hefei was a strong city. Starting from the first day when the Han army arrived at the city, began to build siege weapons and attempted to besiege the city, the city finally fell after forty-two days of holding out.

When the city was broken, there were still nearly 15,000 Yuan troops in the city, including thousands of wounded soldiers, but these troops had completely lost the will to fight and surrendered in an organized manner.

Liu Bei gave Guan Yu full responsibility for recruiting and screening the inmates, and for sending the old and weak who were forcibly brought in to fill the numbers back to farming.

Some seriously injured soldiers had no choice but to give up treatment, and those with minor injuries who were left disabled had no choice but to return to farming.

After a thorough screening, seven or eight thousand people were retained and incorporated into the Han army, and the rest were all resettled elsewhere.

……

After more than forty days of siege, the fortified city was finally captured, and the celebration was naturally unambiguous.

Liu Bei ordered a great feast for the soldiers, and rewarded those who had made military contributions and distributed land accordingly.

At the same time, because it was approaching the end of July and the autumn harvest season was getting closer, Liu Bei ordered to pacify the people and resume production as soon as possible.

Although this year's offensive slightly delayed the people's farming time, fortunately it avoided the spring ploughing season and the autumn harvest season.

The only thing that happened was that the days of weeding, fertilizing and irrigation were delayed. In some areas of Lujiang County and most areas of the pseudo-Huainan Yin, agricultural production will definitely decrease, but it will not be a total harvest. It's just that the crops are not well taken care of, and about 50% to 70% can be harvested.

Out of consideration for restoring people's livelihood, after Liu Bei captured Hefei, he immediately announced that the people in the pseudo Huainan Yin and Lujiang County would be exempted from taxes this year.

Because he didn't know when the last Shouchun City could be captured, and whether he could force Yuan Shu to give up the breakout from Shouchun, he announced this benevolent policy to benefit the people before the autumn harvest in order to appease the people to the greatest extent and prevent them from fleeing again.

After celebrating the victory and pacifying the people, Liu Bei also remembered the plan he had discussed with Zhuge Jin last time, and began to implement the plan to force Yuan Shu to flee westward. The two of them discussed in secret for several days, perfected some details of the plan, and then began to use both kindness and force, civil and military, to gradually tighten the noose around Yuan Shu's neck.

In order to force Yuan Shu to abandon Shouchun and flee westward, some auxiliary tactics were definitely needed. The most direct auxiliary tactic was to eliminate the remaining weak small counties on the periphery to further undermine Yuan Shu's confidence and create fear in his heart.

Fortunately, Hefei was captured, Liu Xun's army was completely annihilated, and more than 10,000 of Yuan's 27,000 soldiers were killed or wounded, more than 15,000 surrendered, and 8,000 were incorporated. Such a dazzling record was enough to deter the remaining surrounding counties.

Therefore, within just ten days, Chengde County between Hefei and Shouchun was captured almost without bloodshed. As soon as the Han army launched the offensive, the defending general raised the flag and surrendered.

In addition, Zhao Yun and Zhuge Liang also made very smooth progress along the lower reaches of the Huai River in the east. Taking advantage of the great victory in the south and the panic of Yuan's army, Zhuge Liang attacked the hearts of the people and forced the surrender of Quyang County, and approached Xiacai.

At this point, Yuan Shu only had Shouchun and Xiacai, a pair of cities facing each other across the Huai River, and Bagua Mountain sandwiched between the two counties in the territory of the pseudo Huainan Yin, forming a three-way interdependence.

The reason why Liu Bei was not in a hurry to take over Xia Cai was just to gain the trust of Yuan Shu and allow him to completely control the north and south banks of this section of the Huaihe River waterway at the same time.

The status of Shouchun and Xiacai is like that of Xiangyang and Fancheng. Once the other side is captured, the defenders will lose the sense of security of controlling the waterway. When Liu Bei wants to force Yuan Shu to flee, Yuan Shu will probably be afraid of being chased by the Han army on the Huai River and will not dare to run.

On the Han army's side, after suppressing Yuan Shu to the last two counties, Zhao Yun and Zhuge Liang's army finally joined forces with the three main forces in the south. The military momentum further increased and the deterrent power grew day by day.

Liu Bei had Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang as his subordinates, and Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Gan as his military advisors. If this news were revealed to Yuan Shu, Yuan Shu would definitely think twice.

However, negotiations would definitely take time, and Zhuge Jin estimated that it would take at least a month to resolve the Shouchun issue. If things didn't go smoothly, it might take forever.

While Liu Bei was waiting to negotiate with Yuan Shu, Ni Heng, the angel sent by the court to mediate the conflict between Zhuge Jin and Huang Zu, finally arrived in Shouchun in early August after more than a month of slow journey.

(End of this chapter)