My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 191: A trick that was ineffective against Sun Ce in history, and now you want to use it against Zhuge Jin?

Xu Qian prepared himself mentally and was willing to carry out the task assigned by Pang Tong. There is not much to say about the subsequent execution phase.

Xu Qian spent two days having his troops learn how to use mountaineering equipment from the elite veterans in Guan Yu's army who had participated in mountain special operations. This was like sharpening one's weapons before the battle, which was a good idea at least.

In order to ensure that everything went smoothly, he also seconded several grassroots mountain soldiers who had climbed the cliffs of Mount Linli in the past to serve as front-line technical instructors during the operation to help control the situation.

Pang Tong was also busy. He used these two days to do a good job of intelligence work, investigating the people's sentiments in Qichun, especially looking for merchants traveling to and from the local counties, because they were more well-informed.

Then he took a look at the towns and villages across the mountain, north of Zhu County and upstream of the Ju River, to see which powerful people had bad reputations, bullied men and women, and their defense conditions, and selected the final targets for action.

On April 12, which was also the sixth day after Guan Yu's army began to attack Jiangxia and the third day after Pang Tong requested for more time to use his strategy, Xu Qian finally embarked on this strategic deception mission.

He led a small force of about two thousand people and, using special equipment, successfully crossed the watershed between the Ju River and the Xi River. He appeared in the deep mountains behind Zhu County, nearly a hundred miles upstream of the Ju River, without anyone noticing.

Xu Qian had once been summoned to peace by Liu Xun, who was under Yuan Shu's command, so he was very good at being a Danyang bandit and pretending to be Yuan Shu's army.

Although Xu Qian could not bring siege weapons with him when he crossed the mountain, the most he could do was to temporarily cut down some bamboo and wood to build a few simple flying ladders and two battering rams after he crossed over.

But it didn't matter, because the mountain strongholds under the jurisdiction of Zhu County upstream of the Ju River had no defense at all. They were deep in the mountains and had never thought that they would be suddenly threatened, so they were very relaxed.

Xu Qian even climbed the mountain during the day, then went down the mountain in the evening to find a place to hide, and took action after dark. He also specially picked a weak target who looked relatively relaxed - anyway, Pang Tong's intelligence work was very solid, and he had picked several alternative targets for Xu Qian.

It would be enough for Xu Qian to defeat one or two of them, and then send some of them alive to return to Zhu County to report the news.

This kind of task is the easiest to complete because it does not require a specific solution. If the first one you encounter is not enough, you can always change to another one. There is always one that suits you.

So, Xu Qian easily broke into two of the fortresses on the shortlist and killed hundreds of local tyrants and bullies.

Then he deliberately spared those poor slaves who were unwilling to die with their masters, and deliberately left a few small boats for them. He drove them to escape onto the boats and float downstream along the Ju River to Zhu County to report the emergency.

Of course, not all slaves scatter like birds and beasts. There are always a small group who are happy being slaves, and there is nothing we can do but to fulfill their wishes.

The Ju River is very turbulent in the upper reaches of Zhu County. Due to the steep mountains in the Dabie Mountains and the large drop in the river, ships have to go very fast downstream.

The fort was attacked at night, and the escaped slaves had drifted to the county seat of Zhu County, nearly a hundred miles downstream, by the next morning. The Zhu County defenders Zhang Hu and Mei Qian also learned of the situation immediately.

"What? Yuan Shu's army has also entered the country? They also looted the fort to replenish their rations? Could it be that they were beaten to the point of losing their foothold in Runan in the north, so they were not afraid of the steepness of Huoshan Mountain and forced their way over?" Zhang Hu was a little shocked when he heard the news.

It seems that the rumors I heard these days are not all rumors, they may be true! Lord Huang Zu may really be targeted by several princes. If this is the case, no matter how hard I try, I will die in the end.

However, Zhang Hu was a slow-witted person after all. He did not see things so quickly and did not respond immediately. He just sent people to collect information and sent a boat across the river to E County on the other side to report the situation to Su Fei, the general who was guarding E County.

The Yangzhou army on the opposite side did not stop him.

Guan Yu's navy had only blocked Zhang Hu's warships from going to Qichun and Xishui. But as long as Zhang Hu did not go downstream of the Yangtze River, but only crossed the river to the other side near Zhu County, Guan Yu could not stop him.

Su Fei on the other side of the river quickly got the news and realized that Huang Zu's situation was becoming more and more critical.

However, Su Fei has not yet seen how strong Liu Bei's army's frontal offensive is, so he cannot make up his mind to withdraw his troops immediately. So he asks Zhang Hu to investigate further and report back. If there is any more information, he must inform him as soon as possible.

Just one day later, Zhang Hu received two more pieces of bad news:
First, early the next morning, reports came from the direction of Zhu County that not only did Yuan Shu's defeated troops appear in the north, but there were also scattered traces of the vanguard scouts of Cao's pursuing troops.

Secondly, in the evening of the next day, Zhang Hu received news that Qichun County downstream had fallen.

Qichun was captured after Guan Yu's army blocked the mouth of Xishui River. Therefore, no defenders in Qichun County escaped to report the news. Even if they were still alive, they must have chosen to surrender. Therefore, Zhang Hu did not know what specific tactics Guan Yu used to capture Qichun, and how fierce the battle was.

He could only get some clues from the reports of the scattered scouts and defeated soldiers left on the periphery by the Qichun garrison commander.

Then Zhang Hu heard that "after Liu Bei's army arrived in Qichun, they were not in a hurry to attack for the first five or six days. They seemed to be destroying fortifications, filling trenches and pits, and building equipment.

But after the evening of April 13, Liu Bei's army changed its previous idle attitude and suddenly launched a desperate attack that night. It was so fierce and swift that Qichun was broken overnight.

Because the Qichun garrison commander refused to surrender despite repeated warnings and threats from Liu Bei's army, he was hacked to pieces by Liu Bei's army and hung on the city wall after the city was captured.

This news really shocked Zhang Hu completely.

The enemy's rage is not in itself the most terrible thing.

What is even more terrifying is that the enemy was very quiet at first, and tried to attack in a methodical way to reduce losses, but was suddenly stimulated by some external news and became furious.

This is like the game of bravery in game theory. If both parties drive a car towards each other and neither of them turns the steering wheel, they will collide head-on and die together. At this time, how can you convince the enemy that you are determined to die together, so as to force the enemy to turn the steering wheel to avoid the collision?

The best way is to pull out the steering wheel of your car and throw it out of the window. You must let the enemy see that you have pulled out the steering wheel. You can no longer turn the steering wheel. If the enemy does not turn the steering wheel, then you will both perish! At this time, the probability of the enemy turning the steering wheel will increase greatly.

During the Cold War in later generations, the psychological research on this kind of life-and-death game between both sides was very developed, in order to make the enemy country firmly believe that "if I am finished, I will definitely drag the whole world to die with me by dropping a nuclear bomb."

How to pull the steering wheel in a way that the opponent can see has become a popular subject.

And the life-and-death mentality change that Pang Tong asked Guan Yu's army to rehearse today, "before and after hearing that Yuan's army and Cao's army entered Jingzhou", is obviously a simple move of "pulling the steering wheel before collision".

Tell Zhang Hu and Su Fei clearly: We have no way to retreat, and Liu Biao will not watch Cao's army enter the country. If you don't steer the wheel, you will die!

Moreover, what Zhang Hu heard this time was not a rumor spread by the enemy, but a true report from his own defeated soldiers, which could not be false.

Zhang Hu was of course terrified, and immediately sent another person across the river to synchronize these two pieces of latest intelligence with Su Fei, and also asked the messenger to attach his own judgment:
"Commander-in-chief! Commander Zhang thinks that Guan Yu's sudden and swift attack at all costs must have been because he heard that Yuan Shu and Cao Cao might enter the country, and they want to kill us before Cao Cao and Yuan Shu do! If we are really besieged by multiple armies, how can we defend ourselves? How should we deal with it now? Commander Zhang suggests that we should either gather our troops together to block the key defense pass of the river, and prevent Guan Yu's navy from going upstream to cut off the communication between the north and south banks of E and Zhu. Otherwise, once we are divided and surrounded, we will be defeated one by one and there will be no way to survive."

After Su Fei heard the whole situation, his expression became more serious.

Since the remnants of Yuan Shu and even the pursuing Cao army have entered the mountainous area north of the Yangtze River, there is really little value in defending Zhu County on land. At that time, we can only concentrate our naval forces and have a decisive battle with Guan Yu on the river.

If the enemy can be defeated in a naval battle and the Yangtze River waterway is firmly in the hands of the Jiangxia Army, then it will not matter whether there are Yuan Army and Cao Army on the land north of the Yangtze River. These troops will not be able to threaten other places through the Yangtze River.

But if the naval battle was lost, or there was no confidence in winning the naval battle, once the Yangtze River pass between E and Zhu was completely controlled by Guan Yu, the troops here would have to withdraw to Xiakou, Shaxian, and Xiling to fight the enemy in the final battle.

After Su Fei figured these points out, he shared his thoughts with the generals around him.

However, just as Su Fei was hesitating, his naval generals Chen Jiu and Deng Long suddenly stepped out from the crowd and advised him: "General, if we want to make full use of our navy to stop Guan Yu, we don't necessarily have to fight him on the river.

Although Guan Yu came from afar with a large number of elite soldiers and horses, he heard that the Yangzhou navy rarely built tower ships, but instead preferred to use a new type of short and thin warships. These warships are said to have a faster speed and are more stable, but they are not as tall and steep as tower ships in close combat, and can not shoot down enemy ships.

We have so many tower ships. Why don't we let Zhang Hu use two tower ships to cross the river at the narrow mountainous area at the mouth of Ju Shui River, and then use thick cables to tie the tower ships to the huge rocks on both sides of the river, so that Guan Yu's ship cannot go upstream, and perhaps we can stop him from attacking Zhu County.

As for the area north of Zhu County, we can also choose a place with narrow water and narrow mountains on both sides, and do the same thing, so that Yuan Shu's defeated troops and Cao Cao's pursuing troops cannot pass through. By then, we can set up rolling logs and stones on the mountains on both sides of the river, and the river will be blocked by tower ships, and there will be many bows and crossbows on the ships. How can the enemy army pass through the river valley?"

When Su Fei heard this, his eyes lit up slightly, and he felt that this old method might still be useful.

The reason why Chen Jiu and Deng Long were able to come up with this trick was not because of their high IQ, but because Huang Zujun’s navy had been doing this for the past seven or eight years.

Historically, they fought against the Eastern Wu navy's entry into the small counties and tributaries along the river at the junction of Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui. They repeatedly used large-scale tower ships to tie them sideways to large rocks on the shore in the narrow part of the river, and then dropped anchors to block the river's advance route.

Combined with the mountains on both sides, a natural checkpoint terrain can be formed, which is equivalent to using the building ship as a mobile fortress or mobile city wall.

Historically, Sun Ce also attacked Huang Zu in this year. In the end, it was Dong Xi who led a suicide squad rowing warships, wearing double iron armor, and rushed forward against the tower ships and crossbows hidden on the mountains on both sides. Then, they faced the powerful crossbows and used swords and battle axes to cut off all the cables that tied the tower ships of Huang Zu's army, as well as the ropes for the anchor stones.

After Huang Zu's army's tower ships lost their anchorage, they could no longer cross the river and block the river like two city gates. They were directly washed downstream by the turbulent water, and then the Eastern Wu navy could go upstream.

Therefore, if there was no suicide squad to get the ship away, this trick of Huang Zu’s navy would still be very effective.

Now that the enemy has changed to Guan Yu, he may not necessarily think of finding someone like Dong Xi who is not afraid of death and does not value his life to organize a death squad to cut the cables. He can't let a senior officer of a distinguished status like Gan Ning organize the Jinfan Battalion to do such a hard task, right?

After all, Su Fei had fought with Huang Zu for many years, and he had developed a path dependence on how to defend Jiangxia. He knew that the move mentioned by Chen Jiu and Deng Long had worked against famous naval generals including Sun Jian and Sun Ce.

In this case, Su Fei always felt it was a pity not to use this trick to consume the enemy and go straight to the naval decisive battle.

After a moment of hesitation, Su Fei made the decision: "In this case, we should prepare for both situations. First, let Zhang Hu continue to defend Zhu County. Don't be frightened by Guan Yu's violence in Qichun. We still have the advantage of the terrain! Assign four of the largest ships to Zhang Hu. They should be located upstream and downstream of Zhu County. Find a narrow valley in the mountains and tie up the ships to block the river and prevent the enemy from advancing...

You can even go as far as to lay more earth and rocks at the bottom of the riverbed to ensure that when the tower ship passes by, it will be stranded with just enough water! In this way, even if the subsequent battle situation is unfavorable, you can choose to let the tower ship sink directly to the bottom of the river, and the upper ship building can still be exposed on the river surface for archers to station, completely cutting off the river channel! "

When Su Fei made the decision, he couldn't help but add one more thing, thinking that this should be foolproof.

In history, when he dealt with Sun Ce this year, he did not include the backup plan of "sinking the tower ship to block the waterway when necessary". If he had included this plan, then even if Sun Ce still sent Dong Xi's death squad to cut the cables and anchors, it would be completely ineffective.

Because even if the ship lost all the ropes that fixed it, it would not be washed away by the water! What's the point of washing away the ship if it sank?

Su Fei fully respected Guan Yu's power and used every trick he could.

After hearing this, the generals under his command also felt that Commander Su was really an expert in using troops! He even thought of such a cruel trick, so there should be hope of stopping Guan Yu this time!
However, not all of his generals were as belligerent as Chen Jiu and Deng Long. Another naval warrior, Zhang Shuo, was worried and said, "General, if you plan ahead, you will succeed. If you don't plan ahead, you will fail. Our strategy of defending Zhu County and testing the enemy's tactics is good, but have you ever thought about what will happen to our army if Guan Yu still breaks through this strategy?"

Su Fei: "If this can't stop Guan Yu, then Zhu County will have to be abandoned. We will concentrate our navy and fight a naval battle with Guan Yu on the Yangtze River. If we can win the naval battle, we will still control the river channel and there is still room for improvement.

If we lose the naval battle again, we will have no choice but to retreat to Xiakou and Shaxian to join the lord. After losing Zhu County, it is meaningless to defend E County alone. "

Zhang Shuo thought about it and felt that it made sense, so he did not object.

Therefore, Su Fei's strategy is to proceed in three stages: first use the tactics of positioning or even sinking the ships to test Guan Yu's ability to attack and see whether Zhu County can be defended.

If you can’t defend, fight a naval battle.

If we cannot win the naval battle, we can retreat and join forces with Huang Zu himself. There is no need to defend other places.

Pang Tong's strategy at least undermined Su Fei and Zhang Hu's determination to "defend each county to the death", and also facilitated the decisive battle.

Because Su Fei and Zhang Hu were both convinced that if they tried to defend one county after another, they would surely die, with no chance of survival.

……

Su Fei's order was quickly carried out.

Zhang Hu on the other side of the river did not want to give up Zhu County directly. He heard that Su Fei had sent him a tower ship and was willing to spend a lot of money to allow him to use the tower ship as a fixed artillery position to block the river surface, and even allowed him to sink the tower ship to block the Ju Shui River when necessary. Zhang Hu finally regained some confidence.

Let's make one last attempt and see if the tactic of sinking the tower ship can stop Guan Yu.

If they can't stop it, there's no need to defend the city. The tragic plight of the Qichun defenders has already taught them a lesson. When the time comes, they can just think of a way to break out and escape.

(End of this chapter)