My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 397 There is no trick that the princes can't think of

Zhuge Jin said that he already had some ideas, so Gao Shun, Zhou Tai and Chen Dao naturally stopped rushing to give advice and just waited quietly for him to make a decision.

Everyone knows that the person they really want to recruit is Zhuge Jin, and it would be an honor for others to be able to provide him with any ideas.

Zhuge Jin was not a person who worked in isolation. There were some things that he could not figure out by just staying in the camp and daydreaming about them. After he had an idea, he was eager to conduct a field investigation to verify the feasibility of his idea. He ordered Chen Dao to prepare the horse, and he wanted to go out of the camp, patrol around the city, and observe the terrain.

Chen Dao quickly prepared war horses and guards, and together with Zhou Tai, he protected Zhuge Jin on his patrol.

Gao Shun was not known for his personal bravery, nor was he good at being a bodyguard. He had more important things to do, so he stayed in the camp and supervised the troops to continue to build siege weapons.

Zhuge Jin, along with Chen Dao and Zhou Tai, did not dare to go too close to the city wall. They only focused on observing the terrain at the northeast corner of Pengcheng County bordering the Si River and the southwest corner bordering the Huo River.

He came prepared. He took out a simple level, stood on the river bank seriously, and made a careful observation.

The spirit level was something that was invented by his second brother Zhuge Liang six years ago when he asked him to return to Guangling County to control floods and build the sluice gates of the Han Canal.

Later, during the construction of the Jiangnan Canal gates and other Jiangnan water control projects, this thing was used whenever it was necessary to measure the water levels between multiple unconnected water systems, and it was gradually improved several times.

Chen Dao had a lot of seniority in Liu Bei's camp and had experienced all those events back then. When Zhuge Liang was invited to Guangling to control the flood, it was he who escorted him to his post. So when he saw Zhuge Jin taking out the spirit level, he was not surprised.

Zhou Tai had only been here for two or three years and had never seen anything like this. Seeing Chen Dao's knowledgeable expression, he asked secretly, "Brother Chen, what is this?"

When Chen Dao was asked, he immediately felt a sense of accomplishment: "You don't even know this? This is an instrument for measuring water levels. It was created by the ingenuity of the princes. When I was in Guangling, I first saw Mr. Kong Ming using a compass stone to control floods.

You don't even know the compass stone? The stone in the cross passage in the middle of the twenty-four emperors' tombs that is used to determine the altitude and prevent flooding is this stone. It is very heavy. Mr. Kong Ming later changed it into a light one like this, so you can carry it with you and measure the 'altitude' anywhere. "

When Chen Dao was showing off, he had a bit of the posture of Stationmaster Wu who was learning Studebaker on the spot, but of course he did not forget to look around and be alert.

While they were chatting and bragging, Zhuge Jin had already finished the survey. With an expression of "just as I expected", he turned around and knocked on Zhou Tai and said:

"Youping, a general should know geography, especially when preparing to offer advice and change tactics, otherwise you won't even know when you've caused a disaster!"

Zhou Tai was still a little confused, but he quickly admitted his mistake and said, "Please give me some advice, lords!"

Anyway, since Zhuge Jin pointed out his mistake, it must be his fault, so he should admit it first.

Zhuge Jin put away the simple level and pointed at the surface of Sishui River: "The rivers in the south have abundant water flow all year round, so they can guide water to attack sand, are not easy to accumulate, and rarely form hanging rivers with water levels higher than the shore.

The northern rivers, such as the Yellow River and Zhangshui River, are all suspended rivers. Although the upper reaches of the Sishui River are slightly better, near Pengcheng, the river has just left the Jiuli Mountain and Mangdang Mountain area, and the water flow suddenly slows down, which is also easy to deposit silt.

I have measured it just now. The surface of the Si River is much higher than the base of Pengcheng city wall, and also much higher than Pengcheng's moat. Therefore, since ancient times, when Pengcheng was built, no one dared to directly dig through the Si River and the moat, otherwise the whole city would be flooded!

If I rashly use your strategy, dig through the Si River and the moat, and let the warships enter the moat and sink, I am afraid that Pengcheng will suffer the same disaster as Yecheng! Isn't it playing a joke on the people? "

Zhuge Jin was so sure, on the one hand, because of the result of field survey, and on the other hand, it was because he just thought of a historical allusion - in history, when Cao Cao defeated Lu Bu, he finally besieged Xia Pi City, didn’t he use water attack?
(Note: Cao Cao's flooding of Xiapi is also an official history, not just a plot in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The original text of Records of the Three Kingdoms: Emperor Wu is "At that time, the Duke had fought continuously, and his soldiers were tired and wanted to return. He followed the plan of Xun You and Guo Jia, and then opened the Si and Yi rivers to flood the city.")
Although in this life, due to Liu Bei's butterfly effect, Cao Cao had no chance to capture Xia Pi when fighting Lu Bu, and Xia Pi was stolen by Zhao Yun sent by Liu Bei. However, Xia Pi and Pengcheng are both cities along the middle reaches of Sishui River, and their hydrological environments are relatively similar.

It can be seen that the middle reaches of the Sishui River have had a certain problem of hanging rivers since ancient times. In the northern part of Xuzhou City in later generations, siltation such as Weishan Lake was formed, which was formed when the Sishui River suddenly slowed down after rushing out of Mangdang Mountain and Jiuli Mountain Area, and the sediment settled, causing the water to become shallower and the water surface to become wider.

After receiving the lesson, Zhou Tai felt a little scared. Fortunately, the princes did not adopt his reckless strategy, otherwise wouldn’t he have become a sinner who brought disaster to the people?

The power of water and fire really had to be handled with caution. When it came to the application of these natural forces, science had to be respected. Even a man as smart as Zhu Hou knew to seek truth from facts and had to personally investigate.

Fortunately, after Zhuge Jin had beaten his generals, he had almost come up with a new strategy, so he continued to order:

"But this expedition was not just about destruction without construction. We also gained something else. I have thought of a new strategy. We can use carts instead of boats. Starting tomorrow, let Zhongda build siege equipment as usual and let the soldiers hold shields and fill the river.

At the same time, we will assign some elite soldiers to carry plumb bobs and roughly measure the depth of the moat while the river is being filled. When we come back, we will tally up the numbers and make adjustments in this way..."

Zhuge Jin gave the order, and Chen Dao and Zhou Tai both took it in stride and went to prepare without mentioning it.

...Early the next morning, Gao Shun led the siege troops and, in accordance with Zhuge Jin's instructions, they came to the Pengcheng River to carry out construction, carrying hundreds of huge rattan shields, protecting the soldiers who were carrying earth and shovels to fill the river, as well as the archers who provided fire suppression.

The defending general Zhu Ling was quite nervous at first, but after listening to the report from his subordinates, he personally went to the edge of the city to inspect the defense and urged the defenders to shoot arrows to harass the enemy.

However, Zhu Ling felt relieved when he saw that Gao Shun had changed from the high-spirited man he was yesterday and became slow and slow in filling the river. He neither sent out flying ladders nor used simple trench bridges with poor load-bearing capacity to force a crossing.

"It seems like Gao Shun has finally realized how powerful he is. He plans to slowly fill the river and break the city. This will at least delay the enemy for another month, and it will be worthy of Cao Gong." Zhu Ling thought to himself.

The archers of both sides fired at each other. Although Cao's army had the advantage of being on high ground, they were not as well-armored as Liu Bei's archers, and they were protected by large rattan shields. The two sides fought evenly. Both sides were afraid of each other, so the pressure on the soldiers filling the river was much less.

A team of elite soldiers led by Zhou Tai took advantage of the chaos to put a plumb line into the river to measure the depth of the moat, and then pulled the hemp rope back. These small actions were not particularly noticed by Cao's army in the chaotic battlefield.

After returning to the camp, Zhuge Jin ordered Gao Shun: "Assign more soldiers to cut wood and cut the trees into sections that match the depth of the moat measured today.

Then I divided the parts and plates for assembling the Gegong bus prepared before the war and cut them into the same height as the depth of the moat. I calculated that one Gegong bus could be cut horizontally into two earth-moving trucks.

The original Gegong car had no rear guard plate to allow soldiers to enter and exit. We temporarily modified it and covered the back of the car - we simply used newly cut trees to form a raft wall to block the back of the car.

Then let the soldiers fill a cart with soil far away from the city wall in advance, and then push it directly into the river to sink to the bottom, and then carry soil and stones to fill the gaps and potholes to level them, so that they can cross the river directly. "

When Gao Shun and other generals heard this, they suddenly understood and their eyes brightened.

The princes had a brilliant plan! Although they couldn't just drive the tower ships into the moat and sink them to fill the river like they did during the Battle of Xiakou, they could just shorten the siege vehicles to the same depth as the moat and push them down, wouldn't that have the same effect?
The only difference is that the siege vehicle is not as big and wide as a tower ship, so it will probably take more construction work horizontally.

Zhuge Jin had also calculated that when assembling this kind of earth-filling vehicle, it could be built according to the dimensions of more than three meters in length and width, which was basically equivalent to one-third of the width of Pengcheng's moat. By repeating this three times, they would reach the other side - at least several times faster than carrying earth one load at a time, and they would not be as easily killed by the defenders' bows and crossbows as the civilians carrying earth.

……

It would normally take Zhuge Jin's men seven or eight days to assemble the Ge Gong car. Now they changed their strategy and cut the wooden boards into shorter pieces, making them into earth-filling cars in batches, which would take at least four or five days.

So for the next four or five days, the besiegers rushed to make equipment while continuing to use the old method to pretend to fill the city with soil from time to time in order to paralyze the defenders and prevent them from being alerted.

On the fifth day, the real purpose was finally revealed.

Early in the morning, Gao Shun had people push more than a dozen earth-filling trucks that were more than three meters long and nearly two meters high. Each truck was pushed by a large group of laborers and slowly moved towards the moat.

The soldiers defending the city had never seen such a thing before, and were quite frightened at first sight. Some of the defending officers who were slightly knowledgeable pretended to be knowledgeable and tried to calm the troops:

"Don't panic! This is the Ge Gongche that Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang usually use! It is a plank that is fastened to the top of the city wall, allowing the siege soldiers to directly enter the city to fight! But they can't cross the river, don't worry!"

Although there was no need to worry, the gatekeeper still notified Zhu Ling immediately.

Zhu Ling, who had not personally come to supervise the battle for four days, also hurried to the North City Tower and went up to check it out in person.

Due to time constraints, when Zhu Ling climbed the building, the first batch of earthfill trucks had almost reached the river. Zhu Ling just watched for a while, and before he could figure out Gao Shun's intention, Gao Shun revealed the answer himself.

"Boom! Boom!" With a few loud noises, the front wheels of the landfill truck were already hanging in the air, the center of gravity tilted, and the whole thing fell into the river. There was even a little bit of broken wood and earth and rocks on the roof that was exposed above the water, which showed that it was firmly seated.

"Is this Zhuge Jin's new method of filling the river? Pushing this giant cart into the river will instantly cut off one-third of the river's width? So... Gao Shun has been trying to build a cart these days?"

No matter how slow Zhu Ling was to react, he finally came to his senses at this moment. When he realized this, he felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave.

At this rate, how could we expect Zhuge Jin to spend more than half a month filling the river? I'm afraid it would only take one-third of the original time to get the heavy equipment to the base of the city wall.

Zhu Ling couldn't help but feel frightened, and a thought flashed through his mind: I thought my life could buy Cao Gong one or two months, but now it's probably only worth ten days... This death is too worthless!

If I died, and only delayed for such a short time, I'm afraid Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin would still have the strength to attack again, and Xiaopei would not be able to be saved... It's really not worth it!

(End of this chapter)