My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 351 Qu County: Xuzhou Verdun
Two days later, September 11th.

Xiahou Yuan's main force finally arrived at the outskirts of Qu County.

Xiahou Yuan's original camp was only about 80 miles away from Qu County. He could reach the camp in just one and a half days, traveling 50 to 60 miles a day. The next afternoon, he could still leave two hours for the troops to cut wood, dig trenches and set up camp.

Moreover, before Xiahou Yuan arrived, Zang Ba and Sun Guan's 6,000 cavalry had been patrolling and harassing here for four days, cutting off all land communications between Qu County and the rear.

In order to please the commander-in-chief, Zang Ba and Sun Guan also asked their troops to spend a lot of time every day cutting wood and reinforcing the camp. When Xiahou Yuan arrived, at least enough temporary tents for 20,000 to 30,000 people to live in had been built, and they also captured a lot of local people to do odd jobs and hard work for the army.

Xiahou Yuan was quite satisfied with the camping preparations. At the beginning of the afternoon, before it got dark, he led the generals and cavalry troops to patrol the city and observe Mi Zhu's defense arrangements in various places.

After seeing it with his own eyes, Xiahou Yuan's assessment was indeed similar to that of Zang Ba and Sun Guan. He could not help but point his whip at Liu Bei's fortifications and laughed:
"Mi Zhu is incompetent after all. He doesn't know that you can only gain something if you give up something. He wants to keep everything, which will only hurt him. The city and the earthen walls of the corridor outside the city have to defend a seven or eight li long defense line in the north and south. How many people are needed to defend it? Let the soldiers rest tomorrow, and send some soldiers to speed up the construction of siege equipment, and then attack the day after tomorrow!"

Guo Jia, who was accompanying him on the inspection, felt that Xiahou Yuan was a little reckless, so he poured some cold water on him and suggested:

"General, I think we should be a little more cautious. If we attack tomorrow, our siege equipment will be insufficiently prepared, and Mi Zhu will know that we can't attack the city of Qu County, and can only attack the camp and trench east of the city.

In this way, he could leave fewer soldiers and not make any defenses on the seven or eight li long wall of Qu County, and gather the main forces and even civilians in the trench and fortification defense areas six li long in the north and south. The density of the troops could be increased by at least half, which would be difficult for us to break through.

If the initial offensive fails, it will easily dampen the enemy's morale and make Mi Zhu arrogant. In this case, it is better to slow down for three to five days and at least build enough flying ladders, battering rams, and wooden donkeys. Regardless of whether we attack the city of Qu County by force or not, we should make a gesture that can threaten the city wall of Qu County and force Mi Zhu to divide his troops and not gather them in one place. "

Xiahou Yuan just said it out of excitement at first. Guo Jia's suggestion was indeed reasonable, so he adopted it:
"Since you are respectful and prudent, how can I not accept your advice? Just wait for three to five days and hurry up to build more ladders and wooden donkeys. You too, how come you have only cut so little wood in four days? It's barely enough for camping! Why don't you cut enough wood for siege equipment in advance?"

The second half of Xiahou Yuan's sentence was to blame Zang Ba and Sun Guan. The two could only nod and explain in a tactful way after being scolded:
"General, please forgive me. It's not that we didn't help, but there are few trees around Qu County, which is very different from the past. We have worked hard to cut wood from dozens of miles away and transport it here. The hills and mountains along the coast have long been bald by Mi Zhu."

This was the first time Xiahou Yuan and Guo Jia heard about this situation, and they couldn't help but feel curious.

Guo Jia was especially thoughtful, so he took the initiative to ask, "Could it be that Mi Zhu had a plan, foreseeing that there would be a war in Donghai County sooner or later, so he deliberately chopped down the area around Qu County to create trouble for those who would attack the city in the future?"

Zang Ba quickly replied: "How could Mi Zhu have such foresight? It was because after Liu Bei occupied Qu County, he frantically expanded the workshops and shipyards for five or six years and built all kinds of new ships. All the big trees around Qu County were cut down and used for shipbuilding.

Some of the wood needed for shipbuilding had to be dried in the shade for several years to remove moisture and prevent it from rotting. So not all of this wood had been used up, and a lot of it was still drying in the shipyard in Qu County. There were only some small trees that had not grown within dozens of miles around the county.

This time, Mi Zhu wanted to build a camp to defend the shipyard and port in the east of the city, and he even cut down all the small trees to use as the pillars of the towers and the pointed stakes. When we came, there were no trees available. "

After hearing this, Xiahou Yuan finally said in amazement: "So, there are good things in Qu County. Liu Bei's navy is so powerful, all thanks to the unique skills and ingenuity to build powerful ships. I wonder how many shipyards and workshops in Qu County are worth robbing -

"Pass on my order: after the fall of Qu County, if Mi Zhu does not set fire to the shipyard and workshops, I will spare his life. All armies should also pay attention: any craftsmen and laborers who do not burn down the workshops on their own should not be killed or looted after the fall of the city."

……

Xiahou Yuan adopted Guo Jia's suggestion and finally spent five days preparing thoroughly before launching the attack on Qu County.

The plan was to spend three to five days, but it would definitely take five days - because all the trees had been cut down.

Even so, the siege equipment finally built was of poor quality. For example, some wooden donkey carts, which normally should have used thick trees as load-bearing beams, ended up being made of a few thin saplings tied together.

Xiahou Yuan was very dissatisfied with these delays and became a little impatient on the day of the first general attack. He asked his soldiers to get up early in the morning and line up for the attack after breakfast.

Hundreds of war drums beat with earth-shaking force, and they sounded simultaneously on the battle line that stretched seven or eight miles from the south to the north of Qu County. Forty thousand infantrymen were on standby, and nearly ten thousand cavalrymen were patrolling and supervising the battle, creating a spectacular scene.

In Qu County, Mi Zhu has been quite nervous these days.

Of course, the rumors like "Mi Zhu was unwilling to give up and wanted to keep everything, and forcibly dragged his teammates into the water to defend the difficult-to-defend Qu County" did not exist.

As long as Guan Yu ordered Mi Zhu to retreat in an orderly manner, how could he not retreat? In Liu Bei's camp, even if Mi Zhen gave birth to a son for Liu Bei, Guan Yu still had more say than Mi Zhu in military affairs.

Therefore, all of this was secretly told to Mi Zhu by Guan Yu before the war, and Mi Zhu knew that he was just playing the role of someone who "didn't know how to let go".

However, in order to prevent the plan from being leaked, Mi Zhu had to bear the psychological pressure alone and dared not leak out in advance that "it was General Guan who told me not to retreat and to rush to repair fortifications as if he wanted to keep everything."

The soldiers under him all thought that all this was caused by the arrogance of the Lord, and their morale was quite low.

However, when the time came, Mi Zhu was not nervous anymore.

The resentment of the soldiers below also subsided a little. Perhaps it was because they were completely surrounded and everyone needed to fight for themselves and for survival, which gave them courage again.

When the battle becomes really stalemate, Mi Zhu will naturally reveal the secret letter Guan Yu gave him to the soldiers at an appropriate time, so that everyone will firmly believe that General Guan will not abandon them and boost morale.

But there is no need for that now, and morale has not dropped to that level.

Good steel should be used on the blade.

Early in the morning, Mi Zhu himself showed a rare attitude of being close to the people and personally went to the camp east of Qu County to inspect the defense and boost morale. He not only gathered 7,000 to 8,000 soldiers in Qu County, but also brought in thousands of Mi family servants and local civilians who were temporarily recruited to defend the city together.

The Mi family's method of strengthening their body was indeed very unique, it was nothing more than spending money.

Boxes of Wuzhu coins and other precious goods from the north-south sea trade were carried directly to the parade ground, where able-bodied civilians who were fit enough to pass the physical test lined up and were given a batch of them before they even went to the battlefield.

As long as they were willing to help defend the city, regardless of whether they had military merit or not, they would be given 500 coins each as a base payment - this was what they would get if they stood behind the earth wall to fill in the lines. If they were injured or had military merit, they would receive additional money, and after each day's battle, they would receive daily pay, as well as good food and drink as a reward.

Qu County was originally a prosperous sea trade port, and there was plenty of dried salted fish in the city. As long as you helped defend the city, each person would be given two dried fishes a day during the war, and regular soldiers would be given one more dried fish than the strong men, and there was plenty of staple food.

With such encouragement, the soldiers and civilians of Qu County were full of fighting spirit when they really went to the battlefield, and all their initial resentment and fear were thrown behind them.

……

After noon, Xiahou Yuan had completed all preparations for the attack. With the thunderous sound of drums, the vanguard of Cao's army, numbering more than 10,000 people, launched an attack simultaneously from the south and north of the city.

Thousands of troops also launched a diversionary attack in the direction of the main city of Qu County in the east.

The Cao army soldiers carried battering rams, held up huge rattan shields, as well as short ladders and wooden boards, and rushed towards Liu Bei's camp.

The main city wall of Qu County is 18 feet high, and the fortress connecting to the port area in the east of the city is only a low rammed earth pile four or five feet high, with bamboo and wooden stakes inserted in the earth.

Because the camp was large and long, and there was not enough wood, many places used sharpened bamboos and stuck them into the soil with the tip facing upwards. Including the bamboo and wood parts, the total height would not exceed ten feet.

For such low fortifications, the attackers certainly didn't need ladders. All they had to do was smash the tops of the bamboo and wooden stakes and make them slightly flush so that they could be laid on top. Then they could lay thick wooden boards on top and the attacking soldiers could charge up the gentle slope of the boards.

Compared with climbing a ladder using both hands and feet, this method of attack frees up both hands, making it easier to hold a shield, greatly reducing the chance of being stabbed by the guards' spears while climbing.

It can be seen that the Cao army's soldiers were very confident in this way of attack. The soldiers responsible for the first climb had no awareness of being cannon fodder at all. They seemed to sincerely believe that they could charge forward in one go and achieve great success.

"Release! Don't worry about not having enough arrows!"

On Liu Bei's side, countless archers began to shoot arrows with all their might as soon as Cao's army came into range. There was no consideration of "shooting when they are closer, increasing the hit rate and saving arrows". Their main purpose was to show off their wealth and power, which was very much the Mi family's style of defending the city.

Thousands of arrows were fired at once, like rain. The first wave of arrows alone caused more than a hundred casualties among the front-line charging soldiers, which immediately halted the momentum of the attacking Cao army.

The second and third waves of arrows that followed were also impenetrable, leaving no gaps at all. The density of firepower shocked Cao's army for a time.

After the first batch of Cao's soldiers rushed over, they began to use battering rams to ram the camp gates and wooden fences despite the long-range fire. After making a slight gap, they tried to put wooden boards on top.

In some places, the fence was completely collapsed by the battering ram. Cao Bing didn't even wait to put up wooden boards, and directly climbed up the rammed earth slope using his hands and feet.

However, the opposite side soon came with a long steel-filled halberd with a one-piece forged halberd head, which stabbed over fiercely, and those reckless Cao soldiers were immediately turned into a hornet's nest.

Even some of the first-line warriors wearing iron armor could easily be stabbed in the armor seams by the long spears with steel tips, breaking the leather belts that tied the iron bars, and then stabbing into the flesh. Blood instantly spurted out along the blood grooves, spraying the wooden fence next to it with blood red.

The first batch of Liu Bei's melee warriors who were responsible for plugging the mouth mostly wore steel armor and cast iron helmets, and their defense was much stronger than Cao's vanguard. If there were any leaks in the mouth of the halberd soldiers, there were also squad leaders holding horse-slashing swords to help their comrades plug the leaks side by side.

These veterans, who were the best treated in Liu Bei's army, generally had small soldiers equipped with long spears, and the most basic officers such as sergeants and squad leaders were equipped with five-foot horse-cutting swords. This equipment ratio was also very consistent with the needs of blocking gaps in actual combat.

Cao's army always paid a heavy price, risking the lives of seven or eight soldiers who were killed or injured while crashing into the wall, to create a small gap in the fence. Even if at least four halberds were stabbed to block the gap and they managed to rush through, they could not stop the finishing blow of the horse-slaying sword.

Cao's army had no choice but to try to widen the gap to prevent the defenders from having too much opportunity to concentrate fire and stab the enemy with more numbers against a smaller force.

But to widen the gap, that meant sending in more soldiers carrying battering rams to knock down the wooden fence.

These soldiers were unable to carry long weapons, at most they slung a ring-handled sword around their waists and carried a large piece of wood on their shoulders. Because they moved slowly, they were the best live targets for Liu Bei's crossbowmen. Every time a battering ram successfully rushed to the front of the camp and rammed it, at least two groups of soldiers were shot down halfway.

The battlefield soon turned into a meat grinder. The rammed earth walls and wooden fences were like meat grinders, gradually turning red at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Xiahou Yuan, who was personally supervising the battle behind the formation, looked at the situation and couldn't help but become a little serious: "Didn't they say that the troops in Qu County are not strong? How come Mi Zhu has so many soldiers? Especially the crossbows are too dense."

Guo Jia, who was standing by, observed carefully and analyzed with a grim expression: "Perhaps they are not all soldiers. I see that the proportion of crossbows used by Liu Bei's army is very high, far higher than that of a normal army.

Could it be that because crossbows are easy to train, and the captured young men only need a few days of discipline and training to defend the camp, so Mi Zhu recruited a large number of young men as crossbowmen? As long as the crossbowmen are composed of young men, the combat soldiers can be more responsible for close combat blocking the entrances, no wonder the defense is so tenacious.

However, the crossbow uses the tendons of cattle and camels as strings, which is much more expensive than a bow. How much money has Mi Zhu spent over the years to buy cattle tendons to make powerful crossbows? He is really a wealthy businessman, and he relies on spending money to defend the city. "

After hearing this, Xiahou Yuan became even more indignant: "Humph, you foolish man! If these money, rare goods, and various craftsmanship fell into my hands, I would be able to help my lord to rule the world. In the hands of a man like Mi Zhu, it's really a waste! After the city is captured, I will take everything that is not burned down!"

(End of this chapter)