My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 182: Sun Bofu is in a Difficult Position

A fleet consisting of 800 large warships and nearly 100 merchant ships that were larger than the warships sailed into the mouth of the Minjiang River and reached the outskirts of Dongye City.

Sun Ce stood at the bow of the boat with great satisfaction, looking around proudly. He saw the Minjiang River flanked by mountains in the distance, winding its way into the sea before his eyes. Sun Ce suddenly felt a sense of heroism in his heart.

He was already twenty-five years old, had been in the army for eight years, and had seen countless battles.

From Huaishui to Jiangdong to Jingchu, he has experienced all kinds of battlefield environments.

But it was also the first time that Sun Ce had seen such a scene of sailing thousands of miles with mountains along the coast.

Only one or two small rivers can be seen occasionally, winding out from the mountains. The river mouth is often the location of a county town that is as small as it can be. From Linhai to Dong'ou, and then to Dongye, the county town becomes smaller as you go south.

Looking at the low city built directly with raw earth in front of him, Sun Ce could not help but laugh: Wang Lang fled so far, did he expect to use such a broken city to stop my army?

The so-called raw soil is soil that has not been boiled with water, nor has it been screened or pre-treated, which results in a lot of black mud and fertilizer in the soil.

Using raw earth to build a city wall directly would easily lead to creepers and plants growing in the soil in the future, causing the walls to crack and weaken due to the roots of the plants. This kind of thing would never be tolerated in the civilized land of the Central Plains. Even if all rammed earth could not be boiled, it must at least be washed.

The Dongye County city before us has walls covered with vines, which looks lush and green. In some places, there are even small trees growing!

When Sun Ce saw the greenery, he was very confident. Although he could not bring heavy siege equipment with him after crossing the sea, he was confident that he could break through such a short city even if he built simple ladders and battering rams on the spot!

"The entire army is setting up camp and preparing to cut bamboo and wood immediately to build ladders and ramming wood. We will give everyone three days to build and rest. On the third day, you must launch a strong attack early in the morning!

Wenbiao (Qin Song), you write a letter and bring it into the city in person, letting Wang Lang know that my army is strong and powerful, and the thousands of miles of sea he relies on cannot protect him at all. If he opens the city and surrenders directly, I can spare his life!"

Qin Song, a military strategist accompanying the army, immediately took orders and went to persuade the enemy to surrender.

However, this attempt was obviously a waste of time. That evening, Qin Song returned dejectedly, saying that he only met He Qi, the commander of the city, and did not even see Wang Lang. He Qi refused to surrender, so he drove him out.

Sun Ce could not help but get angry, and the lines on his cheeks twitched slightly: "What did He Qi say? How dare he interfere in other people's affairs? Isn't he afraid that Wang Lang will blame him in the future? It must be old Wang Lang who ordered it!"

Qin Song didn't want to repeat He Qi's answer, but Sun Ce insisted, so he could only tell the truth: "He Qi actually said: Even if Wang Fujun is guilty, it is not the turn of Wujun to take care of Kuaiji. As the commander of Kuaiji, he has the responsibility to defend the territory for the Han Dynasty. If Wang Fujun is unable to perform his duties, he will only obey Liu Yangzhou."

Sun Ce was so angry that he slammed the table and said, "It must be that Bu Zhi left us, went south to meet Wang Lang, and bribed the generals around Wang Lang to join Liu Bei!
Our army has spent energy, suffered casualties, raised warships, and consumed money and food to drive Wang Lang into a desperate situation, but Liu Bei is planning to take over the land of Minzhong without bloodshed. This is intolerable! Since you don't want to give them a chance to live, attack the city on time!"

……

In a rage, Sun Ce ordered the army to build simple siege weapons while allowing most of the soldiers to rest. Three days later, he launched the siege.

But in fact, the soldiers basically didn't get any rest during these three days.

Firstly, after a long sea voyage and having just arrived in the hot and humid south, many soldiers were not used to the climate and were tired and had some minor illnesses.

It was also thanks to the fact that it was only the first month of the year, the coldest season of the year, which greatly suppressed the heat problem in central Fujian. Otherwise, the disease and plague in the army would have been several times more severe.

However, even if the problems of miasma and disease were not too serious, the work of felling bamboo and wood to build flying ladders and battering rams was unexpectedly troublesome, and it took at least several times more manpower than Sun Ce had initially expected.

Of the last 10,000 soldiers, almost no one had a good rest in the three days. They had to carry bamboo and wood for a long distance every day to transport the wood. The reason was simple: the army defending the city would cut down trees too close to the city when they were clearing the countryside, so as to prevent the siege troops from using local materials to cut down trees and build equipment and shelters.

But He Qi's troops had been frantically building bamboo fixed gill nets and placing them on the banks of the Minjiang River to catch tidal fish, and they were also cutting trees to reserve materials for building large fishing boats. In addition, the area around Dongye County was originally a river valley farmland, and the forests were already some distance away from the city.

As a result, the bamboo and trees within thirty miles around Dongye County had just been cut down, and Sun Ce's soldiers had to walk more than forty miles upstream along the Minjiang River to cut down the bamboo and trees, then float them down by rafts, and then build flying ladders and other equipment.

On the 16th day of the first lunar month, when Sun Ce's army launched its first formal attack, the soldiers were in very weak physical condition, and their physical strength and energy were at a low point.

It was only because of their contempt for the enemy, their feeling that this battle could be easily won, and the encouraging price Sun Ce offered, which allowed them to plunder at will after breaking into the city, that the soldiers of Sun Ce's army mustered the courage to fight to the death.

After all, "Slaughtering Dongye" is the only clear record of Sun Ce's massacre in the "Records of the Three Kingdoms". This kind of expedition across the sea thousands of miles away is difficult to sustain logistics. Even if there is no massacre in this life, looting is necessary. Otherwise, it will take a long time to conquer, and there will not even be enough food for the return trip.

"We have broken through Dongye County and killed old man Wang Lang. The general promised to plunder for three days! Whoever gets it will own it! Kill!"

After giving a final encouragement before the charge, the soldiers of Sun Ce's army rushed forward carrying ladders and battering rams.

Dongye is a small county without even a moat or sheep and horse walls, so people can climb the city walls directly, which saves a lot of trouble.

However, just as the soldiers carrying the ladders were about to rush to the city, some minor accidents occurred.

“Ouch! Ah!”

"Oh no! There's a trap! And there's a bitter bamboo spear stuck in it!"

"How despicable! They even put sod on it!"

"Don't be afraid! There are not pits all around the city, just go around them! Send the auxiliary soldiers carrying soil to fill up the vital points!"

It turned out that since more than a month ago, when He Qi knew that Sun Ce was preparing ships and would launch a general attack when he had enough, he had not been idle either. He asked the surplus labor in the city to dig many pits near the wall outside the city.

These pits cannot be dug too close to the wall, because the soil of Dongye’s city wall is too rotten. If pits are dug near the base of the wall, there is a high possibility of wall collapse.

Therefore, the pit should be at least ten steps away from the wall. This distance will not damage the wall, but it can barely be hit by sheep's head stones and fallen wood, ensuring that the enemies who fall into it will suffer secondary damage.

Because of the time constraints, He Qi couldn't dig all around the city, so he had to dig selectively and at the same time strengthen the concealment work and cover it with grass. If he really dug all around the city, the target would be too big and it would be impossible to cover it up.

Sun Ce's army suffered a bit and their morale was lowered, but there was nothing they could do.

These fortifications only caused Sun Ce's army to suffer an extra loss of hundreds of casualties before the battle, and there was no need to even remove them. As long as they used human lives to test where the pits were, they could temporarily bypass them and attack the city. After all, most of the places without pits were without pits.

"Don't be discouraged! These pits are useless if you find them! Just go around them! The soldiers who follow are all safe! Go ahead!"

Sun Ce's brave generals Zhou Tai and Chen Wu both brandished their swords and held shields in one hand. They personally supervised the battle on the front line and urged Sun's soldiers to climb up regardless of their own safety.

One of them supervised the battlefield on the south side of Dongye East Gate, and the other supervised the battlefield on the north side of Dongye East Gate. Later, Dong Xi and Jiang Qin were also there to support them, ready to attack at any time. It can be said that there were many brave generals.

The arrows from the crossbows on the top of the city were not very dense, which gave Sun Ce's army, which was charging, some unnecessary expectations - it seemed that Wang Lang's troops were not very sufficient! It turned out that not many soldiers could be mobilized in such a wild place as Minzhong!

However, although the ladders were easily placed on the top of the city wall and there were not many casualties during the charge, once Sun Ce's soldiers began to climb rapidly, the resistance of the defenders suddenly became fierce.

Although the defenders had few bows and crossbows, they had an unusually large number of rolling logs and rocks, and the key was that the number of soldiers throwing logs and rocks was beyond Sun Ce's imagination. Every ladder was hit by at least a dozen defenders throwing logs and rocks down. Even though Sun Ce's troops were all holding shields and the climbing distance was only seven or eight steps, they still suffered huge casualties.

Even if some soldiers took advantage of the speed of the surprise attack and rushed to the top of the city wall, giving Sun Ce a glimmer of hope of being the first to reach the top, a dense swarm of bitter bamboo spears like hedgehogs would immediately stab at them from the top of the city wall, knocking down Sun Ce's soldiers who were not yet stable.

Once the hand-to-hand combat reached a stalemate, the defenders would quickly bring in large boiling pots and pour boiling water and golden juice into them. Sun's soldiers were forced to give up climbing the ladders while screaming in agony. Those who had managed to climb the wall were surrounded and killed one after another in the fierce fight.

As the fighting on the city walls became more and more brutal, He Qi calmly and sternly sent out teams of reserve troops to block the entrances. Every time he sent out a team, he loudly encouraged the leading officers or Shanyue tribal chieftains:

"The Sun thief has come a long way, so he must be short of food and grass! We can win as long as we hold on!"

"Besides, Sun the thief only has so few ships and transports so many people. If he breaks into the city, he will definitely massacre the whole city and steal our life-saving food to save himself! Dongye only has this little food. Only one of us and them can survive!"

Not everyone might believe these encouraging words, but if they did, it counted. Many people were indeed given more courage, and teams of them climbed up the wall to guard the entrance.

……

"What's going on? The city wall is only more than ten feet high, and the elite soldiers with nimble feet can climb up in seven or eight steps. How come the battle is so fierce after reaching the top of the wall?" Sun Ce was far away and could not see the situation on the wall clearly. He felt depressed and surprised, and quickly sent the messenger to urge and question.

After a while, Zhou Tai came running over and bowed his head to apologize: "My lord, although there are few bows and crossbows in this city, the number of defenders seems to be very large! I don't know where Wang Lang got so many people to fight for him! It's simply a ghost!
If he had been able to get so many people to fight for their lives in Shanyin, he would not have been chased to Dongye by us! I have urged all the troops to fight forward, but even if we rush to the top of the city, the enemy is too numerous and powerful, and they will fight to the death! "

Although Sun Ce's face was grim, he did not think the situation was out of control. He just patted Zhou Tai on the shoulder to encourage him: "It's just that there are too many people. The morale of these rabble will not last long. How can they be a match for our brave warriors who have fought for hundreds of battles! As long as a hole is torn, the morale of the army will collapse no matter how many people there are!"

Zhou Tai wiped the blood of the soldiers off his face, roared in response, and rushed to the front line again.

However, the situation that Sun Ce had anticipated, "the enemy's morale would quickly decline," did not occur.

His elite troops repeatedly charged and climbed the city wall. It was obvious that the city wall was so low that it was not difficult to climb up to the top of the city wall. However, even if they engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the defenders fought to the death.

The battle lasted for about a quarter of an hour, and even the second-tier team members such as Dong Xi and Jiang Qin joined in the attack, expanding the attack surface.

Zhou Tai, Chen Wu and others finally couldn't hold back any longer, and found a position where the fighting was bloody and fierce, where their own soldiers had occasionally gained a foothold on the top of the city, and then they climbed up the city wall at a high speed, holding swords and shields.

The defenders mostly used spears, but many of them were of poor quality, some were just sharpened bitter bamboo spears.

Although Zhou Tai could not bring long weapons with him when climbing the ladder and could only fight with his sword, and was suppressed in terms of the length of his weapon, he was wearing black armor, and the inferior long spear without a steel tip did not threaten him.

There was no brave general among the defenders, and He Qi also needed to supervise the overall situation, so he would not personally lead the team to charge and block the entrance, so Zhou Tai immediately created a gap.

The defenders rushed up and tried to shove him off the wall, but Zhou Tai wielded his sword and shield like the wind, knocking away countless spears and charging hard to make a hole. He swung his sword and killed more than ten people in a row. Only after he killed a commander of the defenders holding a steel spear did he abandon his sword and switch to a spear, immediately making up for the disadvantage of the length of his weapon.

While Zhou Tai was charging, a dozen or so soldiers of Sun Ce's army rushed to the top of the city wall using the two ladders and were about to gain a foothold.

But the defenders reacted after seeing how brave he was. Several Shanyue barbarians carried a jar of boiling water from the nearby position and poured it directly in Zhou Tai's direction.

Zhou Tai was quick-witted and used his left arm to block the water, while his right arm shot out and stabbed the two soldiers to death. However, the shield only protected his upper body, and his legs were still splashed by the boiling water, and he couldn't help but scream.

The other soldiers nearby were also splashed with water. Although the scalds did not kill them, the formation was disrupted.

The Han army took advantage of the chaos in Sun's army and formed a spear formation and rushed forward, stabbing Zhou Tai's shield and armor with seven or eight spear heads.

No matter how strong Zhou Tai was, he could not withstand the charge of seven or eight people after his legs were splashed with boiling water and became weak, and he was finally knocked off the city wall. Fortunately, the city wall was only a dozen feet high, so he was not killed or maimed.

On the other side, Chen Wu also fought desperately, but was ultimately defeated by the defenders' various weapons, and retreated with injuries.

His eyes were still blinded by the lime that splashed out when the ash bottle broke. After he was carried back, the soldiers washed them with precious sesame oil, and only then was his eyes saved.

Sun Ce's face turned pale. Seeing that two brave generals were injured and that they had killed so many people but were unable to break the defenders' will to resist, he finally realized that something was wrong.

It seems that the number of these defenders is not much less than that of ours? After all, the enemy has a wall more than ten feet high to rely on, and the projectiles are endless. We can't just throw more than ten thousand troops on this useless county, right?
Sun Ce even felt a little regretful. If he had let Wang Lang fend for himself in Minzhong, there wouldn't have been so many problems. Given Wang Lang's incompetence, a counterattack would have been absolutely impossible. Minzhong was so far away from the Central Plains. Even if he had gained two counties, the local money, grain and taxes could not be transported to Wu. Why bother?
It's a pity. Now that we are here and have invested so much money in shipbuilding and military supplies, we have to make a profit, otherwise how can we convince the people?

But no matter what, it seems that we can't fight today.

Sun Ce gritted his teeth and finally gave the order: "Sound the horn to call back the troops! The army must have just arrived and the soldiers are tired and sick because they did not get enough rest. Let them rest for ten days or eight days to recover their morale and fight again! Surround Dongye in the next few days! Cut off their food supply! Don't let Wang Lang, the old villain, get even a grain of food from outside the city!"

Sun Ce did not bring many advisers with him on this expedition. After all, it was a long expedition, so he wanted a quick victory. He was also afraid that too many important officials would come and their hometown would be stolen by Liu Bei.

Therefore, at this moment, only Zhou Yu and Lu Fan, two trusted men who knew a little bit about military strategy, could advise Sun Ce. Other scholars, such as the chief clerk Qin Song, did not know how to fight a war at all.

Zhou Yu did not think it was inappropriate for Sun Ce to temporarily withdraw his troops and postpone the battle. He just added a reminder:
"Bofu, our army has come a thousand miles, so it is better to fight quickly. Even if we want to besiege the city and cut off its food supply, we must first divide our troops to plunder the surrounding areas and kill the weak Shanyue tribes that do not have strong camps to raise food! This is a long-term strategy!
And we can also get some information from these Shanyue tribes, which may explain why there are so many defenders in the city! I suspect that Wang Lang must have made some arrogant promises and benefits to seduce a group of Shanyue people to fight for him! Otherwise, Dongye would not have so many county soldiers!"

Sun Ce nodded subconsciously after hearing this: "Gongjin is right. We must not relax our efforts to search and kill the surrounding Shanyue tribes in the next few days! We must not only rob them of food and torture them for military intelligence, but also see if we can capture some people and have them carry ladders and battering rams to share the casualties of the defenders."

Since Sun Zhou and the other two had already made their plan, the rest of the people naturally had no right to interfere. Sun's army quickly withdrew, ending the day's bloody battle, and returned to the camp to recuperate and recover.

……

On the other hand, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu's plans were quickly implemented.

After Sun's army moved to besiege the city and rest, they spent five or six days building a simple defense facility, a mixture of bamboo and wooden fences and rammed earth corridors. Although they were unable to encircle the entire city, they did surround the three side gates of Dongye, ensuring that the defenders could not break out.

Afterwards, Sun Ce began to divide his troops to plunder the surrounding areas, capture Shanyue people, and collect food and intelligence.

However, just two or three days later, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu realized that something was wrong.

Surprisingly, within a hundred miles of Dongye County, no Shanyue tribe was found! Especially when searching upstream along the Minjiang River, no tribe with more than a thousand households was found after walking 130 or 40 miles.

Zhou Yu finally captured some individual investors and tortured them severely, only to find out that Wang Lang had previously come up with a secret method to catch large numbers of sea fish, which most of the Shanyue people wanted very much. As a result, most of the tribes within a hundred miles were persuaded to join the court.

"What should we do? How could Wang Lang be so strong and clear the countryside? We don't have enough ships to begin with, and we only brought a month's worth of food. We were still hoping for a quick victory, or to survive by looting. Now there's nothing to rob from the Shanyue people around Dongye, so how can we fight a long battle?"

After Sun Ce learned about this, his face became even gloomier. His intuition told him that he was probably in crisis this time.

Should I give up? Sun Ce was unwilling to do so.

(End of this chapter)