My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 469: Brother Fu V Me at to See My Strength

Bing Yuan abandoned Lelang and Daifang and surrendered to Zhou Yu in April or May of the tenth year of Jian'an.

Those soldiers who were still loyal to the Gongsun family went on an expedition to the south, discovered Jeju Island and Busan Basin, established a firm foothold, and then took Gongsun Huang away. All this happened in the autumn of that year.

Of course, Zhou Yu himself did not have that much time, so he stayed on the Chaoxian Peninsula to deal with these trivial chores.

Therefore, Zhou Yu directly handed over the local civil affairs to Bing Yuan and Liu Zheng, and he trusted them. This year, he temporarily let them handle all the daily affairs until Liu Bei from the Central Plains sent other officials to take over and assist.

Guan Ning, who had lived in seclusion in Liaodong for many years, had never wanted to be an official. Zhou Yu did not make things difficult for him, but only advised him to temporarily move to Lelang for a period of time, which could be regarded as helping to educate and enlighten the Dongyi people. Guan Ning had been studying ritual and music order all his life, which was also a professional match, and he also had a sense of accomplishment. If he did not want to be an official, he would not do it well.

Of course, Bing Yuan, Guan Ning and others had no military talent. After the large-scale war, they still needed to keep people to maintain daily order. Zhou Yu thought about it and left Jiang Qin among his generals, and gave him 3,000 sailors as the backbone, and also commanded the surrendered troops of the Gongsun family who remained in the area.

Such a force is sufficient to carry out "security warfare" type missions on the peninsula.

After Zhou Yu made all these arrangements, he set sail again northward in late May and arrived at the Xiangping front again in early June.

……

On the Xiangping and Liaoyang fronts, the winter snow melted completely in March of the lunar calendar, and once the ice flood was over, the land began to turn into mud.

Because the vast Liaohe Plain had been captured by Zhao Yun, Gongsun Kang's army mainly huddled in a few cities and did not dare to go out of the city to counterattack or harass. Therefore, Zhao Yun was not in a hurry to attack immediately.

On the one hand, he needed time to further consume and soften the enemy, and did not want to attack directly and cause additional casualties.

After all, there were still tens of thousands of troops in the city, which meant "too many soldiers and too little food", which was similar to the situation when Sima Yi attacked Gongsun Yuan's Xiangping in history.

On the other hand, since the vast black soil of the Liaohe Plain had been enclosed by Zhao Yun, he did not want to delay the spring ploughing of that year, so that even if he took over the entire Liaodong region in the future, there would be famine that year.

These black soils belong to Liu Bei's camp, so of course they must be cultivated well. How could they be left idle for a year during the war?

So Zhao Yun did not launch a war during the busy spring farming season. Instead, he sent the infantry and surrendered prisoners to farm, leaving only the cavalry to patrol and monitor Gongsun Kang.

There were two times when Gongsun Kang's army felt really aggrieved staying in the city. Seeing that Zhao Yun was so arrogant and bullying that he dared to leave only a small number of cavalry to monitor, he organized the army to bypass the city gate in the early morning, climb out of the city wall in batches from the corners, and assemble the whole team, intending to launch a surprise attack and counterattack.

As a result, the troops that went out of the city to counterattack were defeated by Zhao Yun, and fled back in panic. Zhao Yun's cavalry chased after them like chopping melons and vegetables, as if they wanted to take advantage of the chaos to seize the city.

The defenders of Xiangping and Liaoyang could only immediately lower the gates to block the retreating friendly forces blocking the city gates. These abandoned soldiers could only surrender directly, crying and screaming, and the defenders in Xiangping were also weakened by Zhao Yun by several thousand people at one time.

After suffering two setbacks, Gongsun Kang gave up the idea and dared not do anything rash again. The morale of the defenders in the city also dropped visibly every ten days or so, and gradually people became demoralized.

In early June, Zhou Yu returned with his troops that had been sent south, and Liu Bei's army on the Xiangping front increased its strength again. Zhou Yu also brought back the good news that the two counties of Lelang and Daifang on the peninsula had been completely eliminated and pacified, which boosted the morale of the attackers.

In order to shake the defenders, Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu decided to bring some generals who surrendered in Lelang to the foot of the city and let them speak out and announce the news that the peninsula had changed hands to the defenders on the city.

Let them know that their external aid has been completely cut off, and no garrisons from other counties will come to rescue them. Xiangping and Liaoyang have become isolated cities.

Including Bing Yuan, who was temporarily appointed by Zhou Yu as the temporary person in charge of the internal affairs of Lelang and Daifang counties, was also pulled along on the ship by Zhou Yu - anyway, the management of local internal affairs was not urgent, and it was nothing to be "on a business trip" for more than a month. It would not be too late to send a ship back to Lelang County after giving the order.

Bing Yuan was considered one of the top civil servants in Liaodong, and many people knew him.

When Gongsun Kang saw Bing Yuan's face from afar on the top of Xiangping City, he was also horrified and shouted:
"Bing Juli! My father treated you well! I entrusted Huang'er to you, and you surrendered without a fight! You hypocritical celebrities usually boast of your integrity and reputation, but you are so weak when the time comes!"

Bing Yuan did not defend himself, but said in a loud voice: "The General of Chariots and Cavalry is benevolent and has punished the violent barbarians and has never harmed the Han people. Since he took over Youzhou last year, all the scholars and common people have admired his actions.

Young Master, please listen to me. The old master called himself the governor of Pingzhou and established the imperial ceremonial guard. Although he did not establish a country, his usurpation was obvious. The court was in a turbulent time and could not take care of Liaodong, so we have had a stable life for more than ten years. Now that things are impossible, you should seek a way out as soon as possible. "

After Bing Yuan finished speaking, Gongsun Kang was of course furious. However, the two sides were still far apart, Bing Yuan had rows of large shieldmen to protect him, and a group of cursers to help amplify the sound. Gongsun Kang's archers could not shoot at the other side, so he could only curse back.

Wang Lie, the top civil servant and counselor of the Gongsun family, also helped his master to scold his colleagues who had surrendered, but there was nothing he could do. After scolding, he had to persuade Gongsun Kang privately that he should break through. Gongsun Kang hesitated for a few days, and Zhao Yun saw that he was not moved by soft or hard tactics, so he decided to use both kindness and force to forcefully capture a key city - otherwise, after months of siege, he still refused to forcefully attack, and Gongsun Kang would have the illusion that Zhao Yun really had no ability to break through.

After all, siege weapons such as the Ge Gongche and the catapult had never been used in actual attack on the Liaodong battlefield before. These people in remote areas were ignorant and did not know how powerful these things were, so they were not afraid of them.

In that case, let them see it once.

After Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu discussed it, they decided to leave Xiangping, the largest city with the largest garrison, alone and attack Liaoyang next door. As long as they could take Liaoyang in a few days under the eyes of the Xiangping defenders, the Xiangping defenders would naturally recognize the reality.

This idea is actually similar to the later battle in the Pingjin area, where the Jinmen Gate was captured in dozens of hours to open the eyes of the defenders in Pingcheng.

Faced with the resolute Twin Cities system, of course they had to pick a relatively soft target to establish their power.

Anyway, Zhao Yun has been besieging the city for several months, and all the siege weapons that need to be built have been sufficient. It would be a waste if they are not used.

……

After making up their minds to capture a city to scare the enemy, Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu launched a general attack on Liaoyang after just two or three days of final preparations.

Dozens of catapults were pushed to the front of the formation. There were tall and tough wooden shields on both sides of the front of the catapults to block the arrows, leaving only a gap in the middle for the catapults to swing their arms and throw stones.

After several years of improvement, this protective structure is now similar to the artillery bulletproof shield of later generations.

The Liaoyang defenders had been in a remote area for a long time and had never seen this siege weapon that had been widely used in the Central Plains in recent years. Out of fear, they just blindly shot arrows at the catapult position. But at least eight out of ten arrows either missed or hit the shield.

Only one or two out of ten bullets could enter through the gap left by the trebuchet's arm. And even if they did enter the gap, there might not be anyone standing behind it. More often, they would hit the machine and the ground.

The catapult troops under Zhao Yun's command completely ignored this futile attack and poured bags of gravel onto the city wall.

Zhao Yun knew very well that it was impossible to expect the large stone bombs to cause the city wall to collapse in a short period of time. It would take a very long time. Since he wanted to attack quickly to establish his authority and end the battle in a short time, he let the catapults focus on killing the defenders.

The Liaodong Army had never seen such a rain of gravel, and they were smashed into pieces and cried for their parents. Countless soldiers who were originally holding rolling logs and stones, bows and crossbows, dropped their weapons and ran away with their heads in their hands.

The key point was that they didn't know where on the city wall was safe. After being hit and running around for a long time, they finally figured out the pattern. They just huddled in the shadows behind the parapets, keeping their bodies close to the parapets.

These people had not fought against the armies of other Central Plains princes for twelve years. The 400-mile uninhabited area of the Liaoxi Corridor made the Liaodong princes isolated from the world in the chaotic times.

In times of war, when you reconnect after being disconnected for twelve years, and your enemy is still the kind of being that is constantly upgrading technology, who knows how far behind your equipment will be.

While the Liaodong soldiers were knocked dizzy, seven or eight Ge buses had already been pushed up.

The trench outside the city had already been filled in many places during the months of preparation for the siege. So there was no need to deal with it temporarily during the attack, and Ge Gongche could push it directly and steadily all the way to the base of the city wall.

"What kind of siege vehicle is this? How can there be such a huge siege vehicle in the world? Is it used to ram the city gate? Or the city wall?"

The middle-level officers under Gongsun Kang had no such insight and could only mechanically and numbly command the archers to shoot arrows at random at the hard wooden body of the car, but it did not slow down Ge Gongche's pace at all.

"Boom! Boom!" With a few loud noises, the planks with iron spikes on top fell down with a bang. The iron spikes wedged into the rammed earth and were firmly fixed on the battlement. Then the armored soldiers who climbed up first rushed towards the top of the city.

The Liaodong soldiers fought bravely, relying on their spears to stab and stab, and relying on their numbers and strength, they pushed the first seven or eight armored soldiers down to the city. But as more and more armored soldiers rushed forward, the spear array was torn open.

The first batch of brave warriors gained a foothold and immediately began to attack and charge fiercely, tearing and widening the gap.

Zhao Yun was standing at the foot of the city, watching all this with a serious expression. When he saw the soldiers gaining a firm foothold, he knew that Liaoyang City had already been captured.

Gongsun Kang in Xiangping City should also consider abandoning the city and escaping as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)