My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 406 Li Tong, a common man! Gan Ning has been waiting here for a long time!

After Cai Yang succeeded in his first raid and harassment, he did not dare to wait any longer and wanted to repeat the same trick the next night for another big one.

After all, he had already made an appointment with Li Tong, and Li Tong would not reply to his letter. If Cai Yang broke the appointment and Li Tong came to meet him, wouldn't that be a mistake for Li Tong?

Of course, some of Cai Yang's generals still felt that such a major decision was too hasty and careless, and could not help but give some advice:
"General, we just succeeded in robbing Liu Bei's camp last night. How can Liu Bei not strengthen his defenses? If we go again tonight, won't we run directly into Liu Bei's sword?"

Cai Yang would of course use his absolute authority to block the slightest hesitation and doubt from his subordinates:
"Time is running out! Gan Ning has been fooled by us and has not returned to Huainan yet. But when Liu Bei knows that our army has arrived to provide support, he will definitely rush Gan Ning to come as soon as possible.

So if we delay for one or two days, it may cause trouble! Once Gan Ning's troops arrive, Liu Bei's forces will be strengthened, and it will be too late to attack him from both sides! We are grabbing this opportunity now!

Even though Liu Bei was somewhat alert now, tonight was very different from last night. Last night, our army only had a few hundred elite cavalrymen, and they were harassing Liu Bei on a small scale, coming and going like the wind, and they didn't kill many of Liu Bei's men.

Even if Liu Bei was alert, he was probably on guard against our further harassment. But could Liu Bei have anticipated that our army would launch a full-scale attack tonight, risking everything? Even if he had anticipated it, what would it matter?
Firstly, last night we attacked the siege camp outside the west gate, and tonight we are going to the north gate. The location has changed. Can Liu Bei predict which camp outside the gate we are going to attack?

Secondly, we are the main attacking party and can concentrate our forces to launch a fierce attack from the beginning. However, Liu Bei's troops are evenly scattered in the four directions of Yiyang, east, west, south and north. If we find that one of the gates is under attack, how long will it take to rush to support in the dark?
At that time, we and Li Fujun will attack from both sides. Even if Liu Bei's troops do not sleep tonight and are fully prepared, we are not afraid of him even if we are outnumbered! At most, we can just treat it as a fair battle, quickly defeat his northern camp, and then fight his reinforcements.

If we can kill Liu Bei, we will be extremely rich. Even if Liu Bei runs away, we cannot kill him, but as long as he runs away, the morale of the army will collapse, and it will be a great victory. What is there to worry about?"

When several generals under Cai Yang heard what the old general said, they thought it made sense and stopped saying anything to spoil the mood.

And to be honest, Cai Yang's move was definitely cautious and prudent enough.

He even took into account the factor of "what if Liu Bei runs away", so what can we expect him to do?
You know, the fact that "Liu Bei is good at running" is well known to later generations, but a large part of Liu Bei's reputation was actually accumulated through years of hardships after 196.

In this life, Liu Bei's misdeeds of fleeing after his entire army was annihilated only happened twice, both of which happened more than a decade ago when he was a county-level official. They were when he was the magistrate of Xia Mi County and the lieutenant of Gao Tang County, when the cities were breached by the Yellow Turban Army of Qingzhou, his entire army was annihilated, and both times, a wife died.

The third time in history when Liu Bei lost the game and barely escaped with his life should have happened in 196, after Lu Bu stole Xia Pi from him and his troops in Guangling County in front of him were wiped out by Yuan Shu's army. But because Zhuge Jin traveled through time at that point and subsequently turned the tide, Liu Bei could only be considered to have lost the half against Lu Bu and made a comeback against Yuan Shu's half.

Therefore, Liu Bei in this life was not actually famous for being "good at running". He only ran twice when he was in obscurity, and then he was cleared of all charges.

Cai Yang even thought of this, which is very impressive.

……

In the late night, or early morning of the next day, Liu Bei’s army camp was located in the north of Yiyang City.

What is coming will eventually come. After making up for some sleep during the day, Cai Yang's army got up in the middle of the night, had a snack, put on armor and prepared themselves, and left the camp before four o'clock in the morning.

When he arrived outside Liu Bei's camp, it was just past four o'clock.

Cai Yang originally thought that he could get his troops closer before triggering a battle, but he did not expect that they would encounter Liu Bei's scout cavalry team when they were still five or six miles away.

Liu Bei's scout team was small in number, and they had to conserve horsepower and patrol for a long time, so it was impossible for the soldiers to wear heavy armor. So they only resisted slightly and then retreated.

But while running away, the scouts did not forget to set off a few yellow fireworks made of earth gunpowder and salt into the sky - this kind of thing had been used by Zhao Yun's cavalry scouts in the battles of Fuli and Qi County before. So if it was Cao Ren in person, he would probably recognize him immediately.

Unfortunately, Cai Yang was not on the Fuli battlefield at that time, so he only heard about this from General Zixiao when he later supported Cao Ren, but did not see it with his own eyes.

After a moment of confusion, he realized, "This is the nighttime fireworks used by Liu Bei's army in Huaibei! It seems that Liu Bei's defenses are indeed tight! But this is normal. The camp was just robbed last night, so they must have used all their best skills!"

After the initial shock, Cai Yang immediately shouted to his generals not to panic: "Don't be afraid! This camp is so well defended, which means Liu Bei is still in the camp. We are going to kill Liu Bei tonight! Follow me and charge forward! When we enter the enemy camp, Lord Li will see what's happening and will immediately open the gates to attack us!"

Cai Yang boosted morale and calmed the people in a very concise manner, and then he led the calmed troops to launch a general attack.

At this moment, there was no such thing as a sneak attack. It was just a matter of taking advantage of the time difference and fighting an open and aboveboard pincer attack on the camp.

Thousands of Cao's troops swarmed towards the camp north of Yiyang City, with the cavalry in the lead, followed by groups of infantry and archers following in a black mass, so dense that there was no formation to speak of.

Soon, Cai Yang's vanguard rushed to the layers of barricades and deer horn positions. Some cavalrymen began to stumble and fall heavily into the pits, being stabbed by the deer horns and bleeding profusely, and some even had their limbs pierced through.

But Cai Yang had no time to slowly fill the pit, so he could only let his soldiers rush forward regardless of anything, and at most use their spears and halberds to try to push away the antlers and chop down the barricades. The soldiers behind could only advance along the safe path paved by the soldiers in front. The formation of Cao's army changed from a flat charge at the beginning to a jagged and crisscross attack with many arrows.

All the soldiers in the back row were gradually gathering together, trying to unite into one group and follow the path taken by their comrades in front, which was safer.

The front row of soldiers quickly rushed to the camp gate and the wall. Liu Bei's camp was not very strong. The wall was just a temporary picket fence and a few feet of rammed earth wall, which was made of earth dug out from the pit.

Cao's army rushed up the rammed earth slope in rows like a tide and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Liu Bei's army.

Liu Bei's army's steel-filled halberds and horse-slaying swords were extremely powerful, and they stifled Cao's army's momentum in the hand-to-hand combat. However, Cai Yang showed no mercy and ordered his troops to attack to the death regardless of casualties.

"It seems that the sneak attack was quite effective. Although the enemy has reacted, they have only organized their soldiers to fight hand-to-hand against the wall. The archers of the large group should not have had time to assemble, so we have to fight." Cai Yang thought to himself as he watched the battle situation.

The soldiers of Liu Bei's army seemed to have high personal combat power and determination to fight, but the number of people defending was small.

It could be that they did not have time to organize in such a hurry, or it could be that Liu Bei's army had to be divided into four camps to guard the southeast, northwest, northeast and southwest gates, and the number of people in the north camp was not enough.

Cai Yang piled up his men with such confidence that even if he had to pay several times the exchange ratio, any price would be worth it as long as he could break through the enemy's central army tent.

……

At the same time, in Liu Bei's camp.

When Gan Ning heard the shouting and killing outside, he was already eager to try and wanted to rush out to kill Cai Yang.

But Liu Bei sat upright in the central army tent, and insisted on dragging Gan Ning to drink some light wine together, and wait quietly - the alcohol content of the wine was of course not high, he just drank it for fun and to stimulate the blood circulation, so as not to get drunk and miss the battle.

Zhuge Liang was also waving his feather fan, and advised him kindly: "Xingba, don't be anxious. Tonight is your chance to make achievements. If you rush out now and kill Cai Yang without leaving a single piece of armor, the enemy will know that they have fallen into a trap and kicked on an iron plate. How can you seduce Li Tong to open the city gate and send troops out to attack us and kill us?

Therefore, we should pretend that the front camp has a harder time fighting, and the archers should hold back a little, so as to give Cai Yang hope, and thus better lure the enemy. Don't worry, we have 30,000 troops, more than half of which are stationed in the north camp alone. What can Cai Yang do to break the camp? It won't be delayed for the time being."

Gan Ning had no choice but to rub his hands together and drink bitterly, the anger in his heart growing more and more agitated.

Finally, there was some movement in the direction behind them, which was the direction of the north gate of Yiyang in the south.

Soon, a lookout scout ran into the central army tent and reported to Liu Bei: "Report! The enemy troops on the north tower of Yiyang have secretly opened the city gate and let a group of cavalry out of the city. There are also infantrymen on the left and right walls who are lowering down the city walls with ropes in the dark and are gathering."

Gan Ning heard this and rushed forward immediately.

But Zhuge Liang stopped him again: "Xingba! Be patient! What if Li Tong has arranged people to guard the Qianjin Gate and open the gate when they see any unusual movement? Counting on us to seize the city is a bit of an underestimation of the enemy.

Let's pretend that our army is focused on the north and didn't notice the unusual movement in the south, and let them send more people out of the city. In this way, even if Li Tong decides to "open the gates if the situation is not right", we can still kill more Cao troops guarding the city!

Cai Yang's troops are worthless and can be defeated at any time. However, the enemy soldiers guarding the city are valuable. After tonight, there will be no more such a good opportunity to annihilate all the enemy soldiers guarding the city at such a small cost."

In a siege, the enemy soldiers outside the city and those inside the city have different values. After the siege is secured, killing one soldier inside the city is worth three or five outside the city.

Gan Ning had no choice but to suppress his frenzy again and waited for about one or two cups of tea. The scouts came back to report that Li Tong's troops, who were leaving the city from the south, had gathered a lot of people and were about to launch an offensive.

Zhuge Liang then relaxed his control over Gan Ning and waved his fan firmly: "It seems that we can't wait for Li Tong to give away more results. It's time, Xingba, first Li Tong, then Cai Yang. We must not let Li Tong's people who have left the city run back!"

"I obey your order!" Gan Ning, who was getting impatient, jumped up, turned around and rushed out of the tent like a storm, of course, he did not forget to pick up the iron halberd placed at the door.

A few seconds later, the sound of people shouting and horses neighing could be heard outside the tent. Gan Ning's troops marched straight towards Li Tong's pincer attack.

"Li Tong, you bastard! You have fallen into the trap set by my military advisor! Your father Gan Ning is here! I have already rushed to Yiyang and have been waiting for you for many days!"

(End of this chapter)