My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 320 The atmosphere has become so intense that it is impossible to end it without a beating

After Xin Pi brought back the battle plan requested by Taishi Ci to Yuan Tan, although Yuan Tan was not very satisfied with it, he finally agreed after weighing the pros and cons.

Taishi Ci was so slick that he insisted on only participating in naval battles and never going ashore for land battles. He was only responsible for acting as bait to escort the grain transport fleet through the Zhang River to Nanpi City and lure Cao's army to intercept him.

Such a deployment made it impossible for Yuan Tan to carry out any small moves and successfully drag Taishi Ci to bear the damage.

Cao's army had no navy in the north, only some grain transport ships at most. It was impossible to capture Taishi Ci on the Zhang River.

Even if Yuan Tan wanted to create hatred between Cao Cao and Liu Bei, he would not succeed. He would only offend one more ally, which would be harmful rather than beneficial. From Cao Cao's perspective, before Yuan Shao died, he wanted to devote all his energy to attacking Yuan.

Even if Liu Bei's army was defeated, as long as it was not fought directly under Liu Bei's own banner, Cao Cao would have been able to save face and cover up the situation. In this way, both sides could have an extra step to back down and delay the outbreak of the conflict.

Those who think that "Cao Cao also wants to go to war with Liu Bei now" have overlooked a key factor, that is, Yuan Shao is still alive.

If Yuan Shao had died, Cao Cao might have hoped that "Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan would start a civil war for the throne." But Yuan Shao was still alive, so a civil war was out of the question. Cao Cao was not stupid, so how could he hold back at this time?

Since it was impossible to increase the hatred between Cao Cao and Liu Bei, why did Yuan Tan bother to be a villain? Moreover, Liu Bei was holding back the subsequent batches of military aid.

In later generations, even people like Dong Shu who were engaged in illegal business would say when they reprimanded their tribesmen who made inferior products: "How can I have the nerve to give such things to customers? Is this the last sale? Are you not going to do business anymore?"

Integrity is required in any scenario where repeated games exist. How can you sell out your teammates casually? Otherwise, how can you survive in the future?
In the end, Yuan Tan agreed to deploy supporting tactics and improve the battle plan based on Taishi Ci's plan.

He allowed Taishi Ci to only be responsible for the battle on the surface of the Zhang River and not go ashore, as long as Taishi Ci promised to be the first to go.

Both sides adjusted their troop deployment based on the final pre-war reconnaissance and the number of enemy forces.

According to reconnaissance, Cao's army originally had as many as 50,000 to 60,000 combat troops in the direction of Bohai Sea, more than half of whom were former members of Yuan's army who surrendered in the Battle of Guandu and the Battle of Cangting, as well as a considerable number of logistical support troops and civilian laborers who transported food.

But after Le Jin and Xu Huang were transferred away, the number of Cao's troops besieging Nanpi was reduced by more than half.

Now there are only seven or eight thousand direct descendants of Cao's army under Cao Hong. These people have followed Cao Cao before the Battle of Guandu. They are absolutely loyal to the Cao family and have good combat capabilities.

There are also 10 to 20,000 surrendered troops from the Yuan family at Guandu, that is, the troops that Zhang He and Gao Lan led to surrender to the enemy, and now they turn around and attack their former master.

The total number of Cao's combat soldiers was about 26,000. In addition to the newly captured able-bodied men, the newly forced-surrendered recruits, the laborers who transported grain, and the combat soldiers after Cao Cao entered Hebei, the total number was nearly 40,000 to besiege the city.

In Nanpi City, Yuan Tan left Zhang Nan to defend the city. At the beginning, there were less than 20,000 soldiers. After three months of fighting, casualties and diseases temporarily reduced the number of troops, and now there are less than 15,000 soldiers left.

The counties behind Bohai County had five to six thousand soldiers under Wang Men's command who could be deployed at any time. Guan Tong could also pull in 20,000 new troops from Qingzhou, and he was also Yuan Tan's main force in Qingzhou.

In this way, excluding Taishi Ci, the main combat troops of Yuan's army had about 40,000 people, which was quite an advantage over Cao's army's 26,000 people. If Cao's auxiliary troops and civilians were included, the total number of people on both sides was about the same.

Taishi Ci only sent out 4,000 troops, which was 1,000 less than the Wang Clan, the smallest force of the Yuan Clan. But considering that Taishi Ci came from a thousand miles away to help, he could not bring more people with him in the first batch, and he had to leave some people in Langya County to help Zhuge Jun defend his home. Moreover, the troops sent by Liu Bei were all elite, which could not be underestimated.

The number of troops left by Taishi Ci in Langya was once as low as only two thousand. Fortunately, during the more than half a month of preparation period before the start of the battle, Taishi Ci was able to ask for help from Guan Yu in Xia Pi, and asked Guan Yu to send troops to Ju County and other counties in Langya County to take over the defense and share some of the pressure. He was also able to borrow some deputy generals from Guan Yu.

Finally, in order to ensure that everything went smoothly, Taishi Ci borrowed Tian Yu from Guan Yu to help in the battle, and also pulled Chen Dao, who came with him, from the various counties to the Bohai front to participate in the front-line battle.

Chen Dao came with Taishi Ci, so he didn't need to borrow from Guan Yu. But Chen Dao's initial task was just to defend the counties, because Liu Bei attached great importance to the feelings of Zhuge's family.

The third brother of the Zhuge family was sent to Zhu County as the county magistrate, responsible for the junction of the Yuan-Liu border. In order to further win over Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei would of course place Chen Dao, who was good at defense and protection, in Zhu County to show that he would absolutely ensure Zhuge Jun's personal safety.

Taishi Ci temporarily transferred Chen Dao away, and Guan Yu sent another general, Gao Shun, to the counties to take over the defense, which could also ensure that nothing could go wrong.

Gao Shun had surrendered to Liu Bei for a year and a half, but he had no chance to make achievements before that. On the one hand, it was because Gao Shun was a serious and awe-inspiring person, not very greedy for achievements and promotions. On the other hand, it was because Gao Shun hated Cao Cao's camp.

The opportunity for him to join Liu was when the Yidaizhao incident just happened. After joining, Gao Shun also needed to live up to his conscience and establish his own image, so he always advised Liu Bei to attack Cao in the north, support the Han Dynasty, and avenge Dong Cheng and Lu Bu.

But Liu Bei had to make a decision on Sun Ce first to solve the problem of being attacked from all sides. Gao Shun understood this, but said he was unwilling to participate in the campaign against Sun Ce in Jiangdong. He was willing to help Liu Bei guard the border between Jiangxia and Lujiang and Cao Cao's Runan County, and defend the Dabie Mountain area. When Liu Bei had time to attack Cao Cao in the future, he would naturally do his best.

Considering the long border between Liu Bei and Runan County occupied by Cao Cao, he really needed someone to keep an eye on it. Since Gao Shun was willing to stay in this position where it was not easy to make contributions, Liu Bei would not object.

So in the following year, Zhang Liao followed Guan Yu and made many contributions in the war against Sun, while Gao Shun just guarded the northern line, which can be regarded as "a good fighter has no great achievements". Cao Cao did not attack for more than a year, just like the Huns were too lazy to attack when they saw Li Guang guarding the border.

Now, Gao Shun's military rank is one level lower than Zhang Liao's. Zhang Liao was promoted to General of the Central Army for his great contribution in blocking Sun Ce in the battle to destroy Sun Ce, while Gao Shun was only a lieutenant. Now that the south has been pacified, Guan Yu returned north from Yangzhou and returned to Xuzhou. He also recruited Zhang Liao and Gao Shun as his generals and placed them in Xuzhou.

Guan Yu was personally responsible for the defense zone of Xia Pi County, Zhang Liao was responsible for the defense zone of Donghai County, and Gao Shun was responsible for the defense zone of Langya County.

The three generals lined up along the Yishui and Sishui lines. The west of Yishui was Cao Cao's territory, and the east of Yishui was Liu Bei's. The two counties of Donghai and Langya were divided by Yishui, with Cao and Liu occupying half each.

Although Yishui was not wide or deep, it was defended by famous generals like Zhang Liao and Gao Shun. In addition, they had been in Xuzhou for many years when they followed Lu Bu and were familiar with the terrain. Even if Cao Cao had several times more troops in Xuzhou, it was impossible for him to break through.

The junction between Liu Bei and Yuan Tan, which seems to be the weakest in depth, is actually as solid as a rock. There is no need to worry about being "broken through and cut off" by Cao Cao, and there is no need to worry about the front and rear being unable to take care of each other. There will be no problem in transferring Chen Dao to the front line.

When Chen Dao and Tian Yu met up with Taishi Ci, they would not have gone alone and would have brought some personal soldiers with them. Each of them brought nearly a thousand reinforcements, which expanded the number of troops that Taishi Ci could ultimately mobilize to six thousand.

……

November 24, the sixth year of Jian'an.

More than half a month had passed since Taishi Ci proposed the battle plan to Yuan Tan, and Yuan's army was fully prepared to counterattack and break the siege.

At the same time, in the siege battlefield of Nanpi City, Zhang Nan had not yet contacted Yuan Tan because Cao's army had surrounded Nanpi City very firmly on all sides, and there was no news from inside and outside.

However, Zhang Nan was not affected by this predicament and still stood firm and unwavering.

He knew that Bohai County was originally wealthy and the city had enough grain reserves. Even if some of the people from the four counties upstream of the Zhang River fled to Nanpi before the war, the grain reserves in Nanpi could at least survive the famine next spring.

Cao's army attacked from southwest to northeast. The south side of Nanpi City was naturally the most fiercely attacked, followed by the east side.

Although the west side is closer to the direction from which Cao's army is coming, the Zhang River is not far to the west of Nanpi City, and the river barrier makes it difficult for the attacking troops to deploy.

Therefore, Cao Cao only built two trenches and earthen ramparts along the two sides of the river, connected them with tunnels, and then built arrow towers and watchtowers to ensure blockade.

Cao's army's earthen towers on the southeast bank of the Zhang River could even exchange fire with the archers on the city walls. Both sides were within the direct shooting range of the other, and this distance was already considered a tit-for-tat situation.

Because the south of the city is most vulnerable to attack, Zhang Nan, who patrols the city’s defenses every day, naturally pays the most attention to the south of the city.

Early that morning, he personally went to the South City Tower to inspect.

As far as the eye could see, there were the wreckage of three or four collapsed siege vehicles used by Cao's army, lying not far from the base of the city wall.

Two of them had been burned black by the fire, with only a few wooden frames left. The other two were not burned by the fire, but were also severely deformed when they collapsed.

These were the results Zhang Nan achieved by following the city defense tactics brought back by Xin Pi. Although it took Xin Pi three months to ask for help, when Xin Pi first arrived in Danyang, Yangzhou, Zhuge Jin very generously made the decision himself and handed over to Xin Pi the technical information on how to defend against Ge Gongche's siege and how to build a genuine Ge Gongche.

At that time, Xin Pi sent a trusted confidant to bring back the information as soon as possible, and then he went to Wuchang to meet Liu Bei and conduct various inspections. Therefore, Zhuge Jin's information on attack and defense tactics was sent back one and a half months earlier than Xin Pi himself.

At that time, Yuan Tan also paid a lot of price. He organized the army to launch a small-scale relief battle and sent these materials to Nanpi City, allowing Zhang Nan to study them on the front line and immediately deploy tactics to restrain Ge Gongche's siege.

They got a bunch of pulleys tied with thick hemp ropes and boulders, and used them together with the bed crossbow, and tried various ways to pull the unstable Ge bus down.

There were also some other sophisticated city-defending techniques, which were synchronized with Zhuge Jin's level, allowing Zhang Nan to defend Nanpi for two months and remain standing.

Cao Hong on the opposite side was a bit impatient. After Le Jin and Xu Huang were withdrawn, he initially listened to Cao Cao's instructions and laid siege obediently. But recently he became impatient and began to not believe in evil, trying all kinds of tricks to attack the city, but they were all cracked by Zhang Nan.

Cao Hong gained nothing, and lost two to three thousand soldiers, which further lowered his morale. Zhang He and Gao Lan were also worried, thinking that Cao Hong was worried about them and wanted to use them to consume them, thus causing losses to both him and Yuan Tan.

At this critical juncture, Taishi Ci's troops finally escorted a fleet of grain ships, under the flag of Yuan Tan's army in Qingzhou, from the Bohai Sea into the mouth of the Zhang River, went upstream for more than 150 miles, and approached the city of Nanpi.

Taishi Ci's movements were immediately discovered by Zhao Rui and Lu Weihuang, the generals of Cao's army who were in charge of the siege on the northwest sides, and they quickly reported it to Cao Hong.

Cao Hong quickly summoned all his generals to discuss the matter, and also called Zhang He and Gao Lan, who were in charge of besieging the southeast sides of Nanpi, to come and deploy strategies to repel the enemy on the spot.

(End of this chapter)