My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 342: It is better to be a thief for a thousand days than to be a thief for a thousand days
"A bunch of idiots! They were so slow to withdraw their troops, reluctant to give up this and that, and were actually chased by Zhou Yu. I warned them, yet they still lost so miserably!"

Outside the city of Ju County, in Cao's siege camp.

When Xiahou Yuan heard the bad news from friendly forces in the upstream counties, saying that Li Dian's troops were defeated by Zhou Yu in Jiaoshan Water Fort and had to abandon their weapons and cross nearly a hundred miles of mountain roads to escape to the counties, Xiahou Yuan was extremely angry.

Although he has not suffered any disastrous defeat recently, the successive small defeats have made Xiahou Yuan extremely depressed, and the morale of his troops is also very low.

Ju County lost about 2,000 men in the attempt to attack the city, and even more in other counties. Along the coast, Sun Guan and Li Dian were defeated one after another.

Coupled with subsequent sporadic small defeats, the accumulation of small defeats resulted in the loss of nearly 10,000 troops out of the 40,000-plus troops Xiahou Yuan sent to Langya County.

How can I explain to Lord Cao when I go back after the battle turned out like this?
Xiahou Yuan was furious. He threw the report of defeat onto the table and looked around, instinctively wanting to find a scapegoat to vent his anger.

The generals around him all knew his temper, and they couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts and retreated slightly, even Zhang He was no exception.

Only the military strategist Guo Jia remained calm and composed, obviously knowing that the defeat could not be blamed on him, but was entirely due to Li Dian and Sun Guan's poor execution. However, Guo Jia also cooperated very well and put on a solemn expression to show that he shared the joy and sorrow with his commander.

After Xiahou Yuan calmed down a little, Guo Jia put himself in his shoes and said:

"General, please don't be angry. Although we lost this battle, it was also because our army was not familiar with the coastal defense. Victory and defeat are common in the military. As long as we learn from our mistakes and understand the key points, we will not put ourselves in danger in the future and will not suffer such losses again.

For example, in the future, when we encounter narrow coastal areas where mountains and seas meet, we should not march deep into the country alone and divide our troops to guard the place. We should also pay more attention to the enemy's navy coming from the distant sea and landing accurately to intercept us. As long as we summarize these lessons and write to the prime minister, he will forgive us. "

After being comforted and relieved by Guo Jia, Xiahou Yuan finally felt better. He was still angry and ignored politeness. He just glanced at Guo Jia and asked, "Then Fengxiao must be very good at summarizing the gains and losses of this battle? You can write the memorial to the Minister of Works!"
Oh, there is one more thing. Li Dian abandoned his armor, horses and baggage and retreated over the mountains to Zhuxian to join Gao Lan. The battlefield in Zhuxian suddenly added several thousand mouths. The military rations that were originally enough for Gao Lan's troops are now a little short. We have to rush to transport several more batches of military rations to the front line. This matter also needs to be coordinated immediately!"

Guo Jia immediately accepted the order and said that he would write a good report on the war when he returned, making sure to thoroughly analyze the lessons and gains and losses.

As for the urgent transportation of additional grain, he would immediately borrow and move, raise a fleet, and arrange ambushes as usual.

In the past month, Guo Jia had arranged ambushes to protect the grain transport team three or four times. They were waiting for Gao Shun to break out of Ju County and intercept Cao's grain fleet passing through the Shushui River in the west of the city. In this way, the ambushes arranged by Guo Jia could take advantage of the situation and bite Gao Shun to death in the field battle.

But Gao Shun never left the city to rob food. He was not worried at all that the counties in the rear could not be defended, so Guo Jia's ambushes were arranged in vain.

As time went on, although Guo Jia remained as cautious as before, the soldiers under his command who were responsible for carrying out military orders might not be so patient.

……

Two days later, in Ju County.

Gao Shun had been under siege for more than a month and a half, but he remained diligent and cautious. Every day he went to the city wall of Ju County, especially to the west gate tower not far from the Shushui River, to inspect the defense and observe the enemy situation.

Although not many military details could be obtained through this long-distance observation, clues could be revealed from the enemy's large-scale mobilization and the movement of fleets.

Therefore, since Li Dian retreated over the mountains to Zhuxian and joined forces with Gao Lan, as Xiahou Yuan increased the frequency of grain transportation to the front lines of Zhuxian, this abnormal situation was soon noticed by Gao Shun.

"The scale of Cao's army transporting food to the front line has suddenly increased in the past two days, but no large group of Cao's army has been seen marching to the northeast to reinforce. It seems that there are only two possibilities: either the Cao army in various counties has received reinforcements from other directions, and there are more people to eat, so more food needs to be transported.

Or maybe Lord Lu launched a counterattack against Cao's army in various counties, severely damaging Cao's army and burning Cao's stored food and supplies, which required emergency transportation to the rear. In either case, it means that Cao's army is under great logistical pressure now. If they take action at this time, they may be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort..."

After observing the enemy situation, Gao Shun analyzed it to himself and ordered the troops to make preparations in order to act according to the circumstances.

The deputy general beside him was a little nervous and couldn't help but remind him:

"General, this is not a trick of Cao Cao, is it? Cao Cao has always been cautious in deploying troops. When the grain fleet passes outside the city, there must be an ambush. If we open the city to rob the grain, won't we fall into the trap?"

Gao Shun looked solemn and calm, stroking his short beard and said calmly: "There may be an ambush, but the enemy has been besieging the city for more than a month, and must have suffered many small setbacks, and their morale is low.

There are only thieves who can steal for a thousand days, but there are no thieves who can guard against thieves for a thousand days. They have been on guard so many times, but they have never seen our army robbing food, so they must be slacking off. Our army is well-rested, and we have not had to worry about guarding for more than a month. Now is the time to give it a try, just to let Xiahou Yuan know that my ability to command troops is still as good as before! "

Gao Shun dared to make this decision because he relied on the five or six thousand elite soldiers under his command.

He was also a veteran who had fought with Lu Bu for many years, and his military exploits before Lu Bu were not weak. When Lu Bu and Cao Cao were in a bloody stalemate, Gao Shun had defeated Cao's generals several times, allowing him to attack Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He at ease. Gao Shun still had a certain psychological advantage.

Even if the enemy was prepared and a night battle or field battle broke out between the two sides, Gao Shun was confident that he could escape unscathed.

The only thing we must pay attention to is that we must never let the soldiers become greedy and want to rob Cao's food and supplies for our own use - as long as the troops leaving the city start looting property, there will definitely be chaos and loss of order, and then they will be ambushed by Cao's army and will be in great danger.

Therefore, Gao Shun had made up his mind at the beginning of the planning: when the time comes, let the soldiers advance in the dark, and when they get close to the enemy's grain fleet, they will directly light torches and set fire quickly, burning as much as they can, and never think about snatching it back.

In this way, we can ensure our own military discipline, disturb the enemy's morale with fire, and delay the enemy with fire.

When Gao Shun made all these decisions, he did not communicate with Lu Su or Zhou Yu in real time about the battle situation. Ju County was surrounded by Cao's army, and no news from outside could come in, so Gao Shun made all these decisions based on his own observation of the enemy situation and his own decisions.

……

The next night, another fleet of Cao's grain ships passed by the outside of Ju County. Everything seemed so natural and no different from the past month and a half.

In the past, Guo Jia would deliberately choose to transport grain through Ju County at night, just to seduce Gao Shun and think that there would be an opportunity.

Although it was still passing by at night today, the intentional seduction was much less. It was more because there were only so many grain ships that could be mobilized in the Yishui and Shushui River basins in a short period of time. As the demand on the front increased, the fleet had to speed up the transportation frequency.

The crew could only rest but the boat continued to move. Two groups of sailors and trackers took turns to transport the boat, ensuring that it was never idle.

These grain transport auxiliary soldiers have been doing this job for a month and a half, and nothing has happened before, so they are relaxed and not worried about enemy attacks. At most, they just complain that the physical work is too heavy and their bodies can't bear it.

But tonight, the accident finally happened.

At four o'clock in the morning, the fleet was slowly sailing upstream in the west of the city. The west city gate of Ju County was not opened, but was tied down from the top of the city with more than a hundred thick hemp ropes.

Then, there were more than ten to dozens of soldiers on each rope, who slid down the city wall one by one, gathered briefly, and then charged towards the direction of Cao's grain fleet.

Gao Shun also equipped the soldiers with arm guards tied with thick cloth, which were specially lengthened to ensure that the palms were also wrapped when they were wrapped. This way, when they were rubbing against the hemp ropes and descending from the city wall, their palms would not be cut by the hemp fibers.

It was precisely because Gao Shun did not open the city gate at night, but instead sent troops out from the corner of the city in the dark with a hemp rope, that the Cao army besieging the city on the other side of the city failed to notice the abnormality in the first place. It was not until Gao Shun came close that the Cao army reacted and quickly sounded the alarm and called for the ambush troops to come out.

The Shushui River is very narrow, and the river channel in Ju County is less than 20 meters wide. As soon as Gao Shun's death squad reached the river, they quickly lit the torches they carried with them.

There were no tinder sticks or tinder rolls during the Han Dynasty, so it was difficult to light the first few torches.

But as long as the first batch of torches are lit, they can borrow light from each other, and within a cup of tea the light will spread to hundreds or thousands of torches.

Then Gao Shun's death squad frantically threw torches soaked in fish oil at Cao's grain ships on the Shushui River.

The torches were thrown by the soldiers with strong arms and flew easily over a distance of about ten feet. Most of them fell on the river, but a few of them fell on the grain ships, which was enough to cause chaos.

"Gao Shun has left the city to rob food, follow me and kill him!" The Cao army general in charge of the ambush that night, seeing that the enemy attack had finally arrived, hurriedly led his troops to charge out.

The two sides soon engaged in a fight. Gao Shun's army was not at an advantage in terms of numbers, but they had been accumulating strength for a long time.

Before leaving the city, Gao Shun repeatedly rewarded his troops with wine and meat to boost morale. For a while, Gao Shun's troops shouted and fought fiercely, vowing to move forward to the death.

Among these soldiers, those responsible for the vanguard attack were equipped with steel-filled armor and steel-filled horse-cutting swords, while the reserve light infantry and fire-setting soldiers were lightly equipped with swords and shields. Gao Shun did not use his most skilled spearmen to break through the enemy lines, because spears were too clumsy and unsuitable for sneak attacks when falling out of the city.

When soldiers use hemp ropes to descend, they need to carry their weapons on their backs. A five-foot-long horse-cutting sword with a scabbard is already the maximum length. If you carry a long spear, it is easy to get into an accident.

However, in the chaotic scene of tonight's fighting, neither side was able to form a tight battle array, and the advantages of the spears could not be brought into play.

As long as the weapons are sharp enough, the armor is strong enough, and a small number of elite soldiers are brave enough to move forward, they can create a powerful momentum and tear apart the enemy's formation.

Although Cao's army's ambush to protect the grain was well prepared, their momentum was suppressed as the battle progressed.

After a month and a half of paralysis and crouching, their fighting spirit had already been largely eliminated, and the continuous small defeats of friendly forces in recent days had caused panic among the people.

Guo Jia has been reminding them to stay vigilant and not let their guard down, but the problem is that Guo Jia can't lead the troops himself.

It is really questionable how much of those old-fashioned words will still be true when they reach the front-line executive level.

As the flames on Cao's grain ships burned more and more fiercely, Gao Shun continued to charge and shout, bluffing. Zhang He's ambush troops guarding the grain were finally killed and more than half of the grain was burned, and the ships suffered heavy losses.

After Gao Shun won a complete victory, he retreated in an orderly manner before dawn.

The next morning, Xiahou Yuan heard the news that the grain fleet had been burned and the ambush troops protecting the grain had been defeated.

Upon learning that Zhang He was defeated by Gao Shun again, Xiahou Yuan completely lost confidence in Langya, a tough place with poor mountains and bad waters, and gave up the idea of conquering it.

"What kind of evil spirit have I offended? I have to fight for my life in such a poor and bad place! How are Zang Ba Sun Guan Changxi preparing? Switch to the backup strategy as soon as possible, and the whole army will raise the banner of Taishan bandits and invade the East China Sea in the south! Don't waste time with these Langya bandits!"

Xiahou Yuan finally realized the situation and knew that Cao's army was no match for Liu Bei's army whether in mountain warfare or naval warfare. He decided to give up his illusions and just fight a field battle on the northern Jiangsu plain.

(End of this chapter)