My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 321: Rescue of Nanpi - Part

"Zhangnan has been under siege for three months. Suddenly, Yuan Tan's reinforcements arrive. Scouts report that the enemy is only thirty miles away from the city. How can we repel the enemy?"

South of Nanpi City, inside the central military tent of Cao’s army camp.

Cao Hong took the urgent report from the scouts, waved it in front of Zhang He, Gao Lan and others, and asked for advice from them without any hesitation.

Before the Battle of Guandu, Cao Hong was appointed "General Lifeng", which was just a miscellaneous general title temporarily created by Cao Cao. After his meritorious service in the battles of Guandu and Cangting, he was promoted to General Duhu.

In terms of military rank, Cao Hong was ranked relatively low among the miscellaneous generals of Cao's army.

When Cao Cao granted titles of generals, he often gave priority to those who surrendered from afar over his own people with the same military merits in order to win their hearts. For example, Zhang Xiu and Xianyu Fu, whose merits at Guandu were similar to Cao Hong, were able to get titles such as Protector of Qiang and Cross Liao.

But no one in Cao's army dared to look down on Cao Ren, Cao Hong, or Xiahou Yuan because of their positions. Everyone knew that these people were low-ranking but powerful, and their words carried a lot of weight in front of Cao Gong. The three ministers in the court were no match for Cao's cousins.

Zhang He and Gao Lan had already betrayed their master once, and were experiencing a "convert frenzy" and needed to show their loyalty to their new master.

"General, rest assured! I heard that Yuan Tan's fleet is quite large, but the rest are grain ships, so their combat power is not worth mentioning! It should be that there are many people in Nanpi City, and they are short of food and grass for the winter. They want to transport a last batch of supplies before the Zhang River freezes.

We only need to intercept their vanguard and strike hard, and the fleet behind them will retreat. If they retreat too slowly, we might be able to intercept them with light cavalry and take their ships and food with us!"

As soon as Cao Hong finished asking, Zhang He took the initiative to ask for a fight, and gave a very clear and logical analysis, not daring to slack off at all.

Even though they had just lost two to three thousand men in a siege last month, their morale was somewhat low.

Cao Hong was a perverse person, always greedy and arrogant. Hearing this, he just stroked his unshaven chin and said: "Our army has no navy. How can we cut off the enemy's retreat with only cavalry? Can you let the cavalry cut off the Zhang River?
According to the scouts' report, the warships used by Yuan Tan's reinforcements are very different from the usual grain ships. They can carry more than a hundred people and have strong masts. Could it be that Yuan Tan has always traded with Liu Bei and exchanged what he has with him? Could it be that he got Liu Bei's ships to fight with? "

Zhang He was about to answer when Gao Lan beside him quickly interrupted and explained, "Don't worry, General! When fighting in Hebei, the rivers are mostly narrow and the ships are only used to transport military supplies. Without a navy, it is okay for our military to temporarily use our food ships to carry people to fight the enemy!"
The Zhang River is only a few dozen feet wide, only 30% to 40% of the Yellow River. In winter, when the water level dries up, it is only two feet deep. If it is delayed for some time, it may freeze over at any time in the twelfth lunar month. In such a place, even if you want to fight on the river, the key is to see the number of soldiers and their bravery in fighting.

What's more, our army is still going downstream, and the enemy has nowhere to move. We just need to rush forward and cut down the enemy on board. No matter what kind of boats they have, they won't be able to use them, and there's no need to shoot at them!
In my opinion, the river surface was a little frozen a few days ago, and it has warmed up a little in the past two days. The enemy's sudden arrival must be to take advantage of the opportunity when the floating ice of the Zhang River has eased. If we intercept and delay the enemy, and wait a few more days until the twelfth lunar month, when the weather turns cold again, they may freeze directly on the river!"

After listening to Zhang He and Gao Lan's words, Cao Hong felt that they made sense.

According to the scouts' reports, these enemy ships were different from the civilian ships commonly used in the north, but they were not the giant warships with high towers in the south. At most, they were equivalent to the large warships in the south.

When transporting troops, there are only 100 or 200 people on board, but in naval battles, there may be less than 100 people. Because there is no ship tower, there is no advantage of being high above in close combat. The side masts are stronger and there are professional shooting holes on the side walls that can lower the cover, but they are only used for long-range shooting and are of little help in boarding battles.

Looking at the size of the reinforcement fleet and the number of people, Cao Hong only needs to rush forward and engage in boarding combat, and it will be a competition of martial arts and ruthlessness between the two sides, with victory by numbers, and it has nothing to do with water skills and warships.

This can also be considered as playing to one's strengths and avoiding one's weaknesses.

……

Two hours later, it was the morning hour of Si.

Taishi Ci's fleet finally sailed the last thirty miles upstream and arrived at the section of the Zhang River outside Nanpi City.

Cao Hong, along with generals including Zhang He and Gao Lan, also made full preparations and launched the attack as planned.

Zhang Nan, who was on the top of Nanpi City, also rushed from the south gate to the west gate and prepared his reserve troops. Once he found that the friendly reinforcements had the upper hand, or at least entangled the enemy, he planned to open the city to meet the enemy and support the friendly forces.

Zhang Nan also has 15,000 soldiers under his command. In terms of the size of the army, he has the largest number of troops among Yuan Tan's three armies. Since the eldest son has sent people to rescue, how can he just sit back and watch?

Of course, until this moment, Zhang Nan didn't know who the friendly generals who came to help were, and Cao Hong on the opposite side didn't know even more. Taishi Ci did not fly his own flag, but still flew the flags of Guan Tong and Wang Men.

Under Zhang Nan's distant watch, Taishi Ci rushed straight to the river section not far from the west gate of Nanpi.

Cao Hong did not immediately send Zhang He and Gao Lan to meet the enemy in action. Instead, he first ordered Lü Weihuang and Zhao Rui to rely on the siege camps along both sides of the Zhang River to engage in a series of interception and exchange of fire with Taishi Ci's troops.

Suddenly, arrows and stones flew across the surface of the Zhang River and between the earthen ramparts on both sides of the river, pouring down like rain. The Zhang River west of Nanpi City was only about 30 to 40 feet wide, and any bow or crossbow that was not of too low quality could shoot arrows to the other side at full draw. It was even easier to shoot at the warships in the middle of the river from the shore.

Cao's army had been besieging the city for several months, and the earthworks along the river were already well built, stretching for more than ten miles. At this moment, Lü Weihuang was guarding the east bank, and Zhao Rui was guarding the west bank. The two surrendered generals from Guandu each led 3,000 archers, as well as a number of reserve troops and auxiliary troops, and they crossed and fired wildly at Taishi Ci's fleet in the middle of the river.

They did not have many elite close combat troops under their command, because Cao Hong also predicted that we were outnumbered and the enemy generals would definitely not dare to abandon their ships and land to fight, so it would be a waste to leave elite close combat troops in the earthen fortifications on the east and west banks.

It would be better to assign as much as possible to Zhang He and Gao Lan, and have the cavalry harass from behind, while on the water they can directly ride on the grain ship and rush downstream and engage in hand-to-hand combat.

On Taishi Ci's side, Taishi Ci himself did not rush to the first line.

In this battle, due to the limitations of the river terrain, Taishi Ci's troops had to form a long snake formation. The fleet stretched for several miles, with a total of more than 80 warships and 6,000 soldiers.

In order to prevent the fleet from being delayed for too long and causing accidents that would make it difficult to respond in time, Taishi Ci himself sat in the center of the army, and let Chen Dao, who was known for his bravery and courage, take the lead, and Tian Yu, who was steady and tenacious, cover the rear.

Chen Dao's army consisted of more than a thousand men, all of whom were the best-equipped and had a very high rate of armor. Even the archers had to wear armor on at least the upper body and were equipped with steel helmets. During the shootout, they all hid behind the side masts, opened the covers of the side shooting holes, and shot out.

However, the firing range of the shooting holes is relatively narrow, which is not suitable for archery, so the crossbowmen on the outermost side are all aiming directly. The archers are closer to the inside, shooting blindly into the sky, forming a ladder of firepower.

Most of Cao's arrows hit the sides of the ships. The sides of the fast keel warships of Chen Dao's vanguard were soon covered with white grass like reed marshes. When the river breeze blew, the tail feathers swayed, which was a spectacular sight.

Unfortunately, this kind of output did not have much effect. Even if arrows were occasionally thrown onto the ship or penetrated into the shooting holes, most of them were blocked by the armor of Chen Dao's troops.

Cao Hong knew that it was useless to shoot straight at the ships, so he had to use projectiles, so he assigned archers to Lü Wei, Huang, and Zhao Rui, and very few crossbowmen. Even if the infantry bows were equipped with arrowheads with armor-piercing cones, the kinetic energy was not enough to break the steel armor.

In contrast, the troops of Lu Weihuang and Zhao Rui suffered increasing casualties in the continuous shooting.

Especially as Taishi Ci's central army also rushed forward and squeezed towards the position on the east bank of the Zhang River, aiming and shooting at close range, the archers of Lu Weihuang's troops behind the earthen ramparts on the shore would be hit head-on in an instant if they dared to show their heads.

Taishi Ci was indeed a famous general. He had a keen observation ability on the battlefield. After shooting at close range for a while, he soon discovered a clue.

"It seems that Cao Hong did not assign many elite heavy infantry to Zhao Rui and Lü Weihuang, so when I approached so close to the shore, they only dared to shoot at me and did not make any other moves. In this case, why don't our army pretend to land and attack, and join Zhang Nan in a pincer attack to defeat Lü Weihuang, and force out Cao Hong's rear army reserve?
Cao Hong must have prepared elite soldiers to board the grain ships to engage in a boarding battle with me. He has not released them yet because the situation is not critical enough and our army is in high spirits. He is counting on the archers behind the earthen ramparts of the siege camps on both sides to consume our physical strength and morale. "

Since Cao Hong has reserve troops but does not use them, and wants to wait until "the first attack is strong, the second is weak, and the third is exhausted", Taishi Ci will certainly not let him get his wish. The situation that the enemy most wants to see is what our army wants to avoid.

Taishi Ci acted decisively and sent twenty warships to venture towards the shallow waters on the east bank of the river. Some ships were almost stranded, and it was all thanks to the skilled sailors who were constantly using the poles to test the water depth and support the boats to prevent them from hitting the shallows.

The warships also began to beat drums and shout, showing that they were ready to land and charge. Some ships even sent heavy armored soldiers to put down the springboard and wade into the water to test the water.

Cao Hong, who was in the distance, was on the commanding height of the watchtower in the Cao army's siege camp, looking at the overall progress of the battlefield. He was also shocked to see from afar that Yuan Tan's army, with only a few thousand naval forces at the front, dared to directly suppress Lü Weihuang's concentrated shooting, and then pretended to land under the firepower of the beach.

The camp of Lu Weihuang's troops was very weak, with only two earth ramparts and trenches, the Zhang River to the west and the city wall of Nanpi City to the east. If Taishi Ci really landed and Zhang Nan broke through the gate of Nanpi City, I couldn't say anything else, but it would be more than enough to cut Lu Weihuang's troops in two.

Cao Hong was shocked: "When did Yuan Tan have such brave generals? Although Lü Weihuang has only a few thousand soldiers, our army has no less than 40,000. Even if they are deployed on both sides of the Zhang River, they would not dare to land and attack our weak points with only 5,000 or 6,000 people, right? Zhang He and Gao Lan, we can't wait any longer, attack immediately! Gather all the grain ships, go downstream to board and kill Yuan Tan!"

At this time, we can't care whether the enemy is in high spirits or strong, we have to fight even if it's a head-on confrontation. Otherwise, if the enemy breaks through and cuts off Lv Weihuang first, the morale of our side will only be further reduced.

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PS: I think each chapter will be 4,000 to 5,000 words each in the next two days...

The main reason is that my mother was knocked down last week and has been bedridden ever since. There is already a lot of housework at home. The flu has been rampant in Hangzhou in recent days. I wouldn't have taken a leave if there was no flu at all, but more and more people have been infected at home and I'm too busy to handle it.

So, I will reduce the number of words a little bit every day, but I will still keep updating. I will try to get better within two days.

When it comes to chapters involving war strategies, my mind is dull and I can't think of any novel tactics no matter how hard I try, and it's easy to fall into clichés.

(End of this chapter)