My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 476: Kill a fence-sitter to establish his authority

When Shen Dan made the decision to sit on the fence and watch the show, Huang Zhong's army was still more than ten miles away from Shangyong City.

Therefore, even if Huang Zhong had wings, he would not be able to stop Shen Dan from sending the letter for help.

However, Shen Dan was not stupid. Even if he sent a letter for help, he would not tell Liu Biao’s army that he had sent a letter for help. Otherwise, wouldn’t he be making things difficult for himself?
It's like a person who is planning to change jobs, but he won't tell his current boss in advance that he is going to submit his resume. He has to wait until the next employer clearly wants him and it's a done deal before he can reveal his cards.

Just half an hour later, Huang Zhong's troops rushed to the city of Shangyong, looking quite exhausted. Huang Zhong did not hesitate and immediately deployed his troops and ordered his men to beat drums to challenge Shen Dan to open the city and surrender.

"Shen Dan, Lord Shen is here! I am Huang Zhong, the General of the Central Army who was appointed by Liu Jingzhou to pacify the barbarians! Now I have the eldest son of Jingzhou and Governor Su, leading 30,000 troops to take Shangyong! Now that Zhang Lu has been destroyed, you have no master to rely on, why don't you surrender early! As long as the city is opened, my lord Liu Jingzhou will naturally keep your old positions!"

After shouting several times, Shen Dan did not respond, but just stood there waiting. Huang Zhong gradually became anxious when he saw this.

Huang Zhong's marching rules actually violated some major military taboos. As the saying goes, those who pursue profit at a distance of a hundred miles can become generals. He came to Shangyong along the Dushui River from Yang County, and did not rest well in the two days.

We have been traveling for most of the day and are exhausted. It doesn't seem like we can join the battle right away.

But Huang Zhong dared to do this because he had something to rely on. He only had 1,500 cavalrymen, who were just the vanguard and did not expect to directly engage in battle and siege the city.

He was betting on the importance of speed, and used the news that Liu Qi and Su Fei's 30,000 troops would arrive that day to scare Shen Dan and force him to surrender without a fight. Then it didn't matter if his cavalry was a little tired and their combat effectiveness temporarily decreased, because he had no intention of really using knives anyway.

Seeing that soft tactics had no effect, Huang Zhong ordered his scolds to speak harshly: "Shen Dan, if you insist on not changing your ways, after we capture the city, don't blame the Shen family for not having a good death!"

Shen Dan, who was standing on the top of the city wall, saw that the other party had finally torn their faces apart, so he also let the scolding player answer: "You old man! If Liu Biao had sent an envoy to ask for mercy with courtesy, I would have considered it. You led your troops into my territory without authorization, fought without declaration, and killed my scouts. How dare you persuade me to surrender?
We are just people from the countryside, and we don't know the general situation of the world. If you have the ability to defeat Xiahou Yuan, I will look at you differently. Now you are showing off your power with just these cavalry, but you have come to the wrong place!"

Shen Dan still left room for maneuver when he spoke. Even though he had fallen out with Cao, he still did not forget to transfer his hatred to Cao's army as much as possible.

Regarding his decision, he only said that "the barbarians do not know the general trend of the world", which is the same as the rebels in later generations who responded to Cao Wei in the Later Han Dynasty, who often said that they were "people from afar who were confused and did not know the right path".

If you have the ability, you should first fight for the "legitimacy". Once the victory or defeat of Cao and Liu is decided, he will naturally surrender to the winner.

This is not an excuse, Shen Dan really thinks so at the moment.

In history, Shen Dan surrendered to Liu Bei soon after he entered Hanzhong, which shows that he was not a stubborn person. In this life, he hesitated to surrender because he was afraid that he would surrender to the wrong master and would have to surrender again soon. That would make his reputation even worse, and he might even be deprived of his power. It is better to wait until he is sure before surrendering.

As for him calling himself "that old man", it is not surprising. Although Huang Zhong is now the General of the Central Army, that position was conferred by Liu Biao himself. Huang Zhong has not had any outstanding military achievements over the years, so Shen Dan does not know his abilities.

On the contrary, although Shen Dan had no special abilities, his position as the governor of Shangyong was real, so Huang Zhong valued him very much.

At this moment, Huang Zhong saw that Shen Dan's true intention was exposed. He wanted to play along and choose sides between Cao Cao and Liu Biao, so of course he couldn't tolerate him.

Huang Zhong immediately gave an order, dividing the cavalry into three teams, and surrounded the east, south and west gates of Shangyong, leaving only the north gate as the approach.

Then the cavalry immediately dispersed, cut some branches, dismounted, dug some earth to build a low wall, and set up a simple camp.

During this process, Huang Zhong did not forget to send his scolds to continue flexing his muscles, repeatedly warning the defenders: "Lord Liu of Jiangxia will bring Governor Su with 30,000 troops and arrive within two days! You have no choice but to surrender, don't even think about breaking out! If you don't surrender, you will die!"

Shen Dan was standing on the top of the city wall watching Huang Zhong setting up camp, and he felt quite aggrieved.

This old man is going too far!

At first, he thought that he had a lot of troops, and felt insecure. At this moment, Huang Zhong directly blocked the gate and set up camp, just a few miles outside the city gate, and Shen Dan had completely seen through his strength.

Huang Zhong only had about 1,500 cavalrymen! There were three city gates, and 500 people were blocking each gate! The northern route should be the route of Liu Qi and Su Fei's advance, and it was impossible to break out from there, so Huang Zhong did not surround them, but used the method of surrounding three and missing one.

After Shen Dan had found out everything, he couldn't help but think to himself, "Huang Zhong said that Liu Qi has 30,000 men, maybe that's true. To attack Shangyong, they certainly don't need 30,000 men. They must be worried that Xiahou Yuan will completely get rid of Zhang Lu and then go downstream to fight, so these 30,000 men are prepared to guard against Xiahou Yuan.

If the enemy's morale is really high and 30,000 people are approaching the city, my Shangyong County may not be able to hold on until Xiahou Yuan arrives. In this case, why not take advantage of the fact that Huang Zhong is alone and annihilate a part of him to defeat Liu Qi's spirit? This old man actually dared to leave only 500 people outside each gate to block the gate, which is simply rampant! As long as our army wins the first battle, the morale of the local militia recruits in the city will be high, and the people will be excited, so that we can hold on for a long time. "

Shen Dan knew very well that there were only more than 20,000 households in the entire Shangyong County, and the number of soldiers that could be supported at ordinary times was at most a few thousand. If it was a life-and-death battle, the whole county could mobilize 10,000 or 20,000 people to defend the city, and his Shangyong County could also mobilize several thousand. Together with the soldiers, the total number could be close to 10,000.

Four thousand combat soldiers plus temporary militia, a total of nearly ten thousand, it is difficult to hold off thirty thousand regular troops for a long time. Only by taking the initiative and winning a battle, and the morale of the two sides will be strengthened, can we ensure the stability of the situation.

After going over all these details, Shen Dan suddenly felt that his idea made sense. He decided that he should win a small victory first to establish his prestige. So he immediately issued an order for the main combat troops in the city to rest in the evening and to open the south gate to attack the camp in the middle of the night.

When the elite troops went out for a night attack, they would let the temporarily recruited militiamen guard the city.

……

Shen Dan had never fought a war in his life. It was only because Shangyong was a poor and mountainous place with bad water and inconvenient transportation for outsiders that the Shen family was able to rule this place for decades.

It was normal for him to be ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth. It could be said that the Shen brothers' combat experience and knowledge of military tactics were even worse than those of Zhang Lu and Zhang Wei. So he did what he said. In the middle of the night, he led three or four thousand soldiers, opened the South Gate, and rushed directly to Huang Zhong's camp in the dark.

There are only 500 cavalrymen in this camp, and Huang Zhong has another 1,000 men scattered outside the east and west gates. They have to take a detour to rush over, and they can't figure out the situation clearly in the dark, so they may not be able to rush to help immediately.

Shen Dan thought to himself that he had a six or seven times greater military force advantage, so wouldn't it be easy to kill Huang Zhong by surprise?

"Kill!" When they were only two miles away from Huang Zhong's camp, Shen Dan's troops were discovered by Huang Zhong's night patrol scouts, and several of them were shot dead by a burst of cavalry bows. Shen Dan no longer concealed himself and directly urged the entire army to charge.

Shen Dan's troops lit torches to illuminate the road, and then launched a general attack.

Even if the sneak attack turned into a frontal assault, it didn't matter. It was only two miles away, and it was lucky that Huang Zhong's cavalry could get up and mount their horses, but it was impossible for them to form a battle array. It was only in July now, the weather was hot and people wore fewer clothes. If it was winter, Shen Dan estimated that Huang Zhong's troops would not even have time to put on clothes.

Just when Shen Dan rushed forward with full confidence, Huang Zhong's troops on the opposite side moved.

That’s right, Huang Zhong’s cavalry did not have time to complete the army formation, but Huang Zhong himself, with only a hundred or so cavalrymen following him, opened the camp gate and launched a counterattack in the shortest time possible.

"With such a small number of people, they dare to counterattack my army? He didn't even have 500 men in a strict battle array, and he brought a few personal followers to die?" Shen Dan was quite surprised when he vaguely saw a group of cavalrymen charging towards him in the dark night. He guessed that it must be Huang Zhong who was leading the team himself, and quickly gave his orders to surround them.

But the next moment, the scene before him made Shen Dan completely stunned.

Hundreds of cavalrymen were so powerful and advanced courageously. With the sound of their iron hooves, they tore a bloody hole in the formation of Shangyong Army.

In order to be flexible for night attacks, Shen Dan's troops did not choose to equip the entire army with spears, but instead equipped them with a number of flexible sword and shield soldiers.

The night march relied on torches in the front row for lighting, and the formation could not be too dense, otherwise it would easily lead to confusion and trampling. Such a loose formation would certainly not be able to withstand the cavalry charge.

Shen Dankong had many times the advantage in military strength, but on the local battlefield he was unable to unite into an iron fist to confront Huang Zhong head-on.

Huang Zhong charged forward fearlessly, his sword flying, and personally killed more than a dozen mediocre soldiers and several officers. His personal guards were also inspired by him and bravely moved forward.

In the darkness, the fighting distance between the two sides was shortened to the shortest. Neither could see the opponent's moves clearly, so they could only fight with their lives in exchange for theirs, focusing only on attacking without knowing how to defend themselves.

The swords and spears of the cavalry under Huang Zhong stabbed at Shangyong's soldiers, and each blow was fatal.

The ring-handled sword of the Shangyong soldier chopped on Huang Zhong's breastplate, but it could only leave a white mark. As long as the spear was not stabbed straight, it would be deflected and slid away.

"what happened?"

"Do all these Jingzhou soldiers have iron armor?"

As the Shangyong soldiers fought on, they soon began to doubt their lives and were killed so badly that they cried for their parents.

How could they know that Huang Zhong's cavalrymen were all wearing iron armor provided by Liu Bei's army, and the generals and officers were even given breastplates forged by hydraulic forging hammers.

Although Liu Qi had few cavalrymen under his command, their equipment was definitely not ambiguous. Except for stirrups, all other cutting-edge equipment of Liu Bei's army was complete - although there were only about a thousand soldiers of this standard in the entire army, and other main forces were not treated so well.

This time, Shen Dan has hit a wall.

After a short and bloody battle, although the Shangyong soldiers did not collapse, their formation was torn in half by Huang Zhong, and they were penetrated all the way.

While Huang Zhong was fighting, he suddenly saw the flag of Shangyong Army in front of him in the darkness. Naturally, he did not show any mercy and just spurred his horse and charged forward with his sword in hand.

The layers of personal soldiers around Shen Dan were about to risk their lives to cover his retreat. Huang Zhong was an expert archer and naturally had good eyesight. He could see where a group of armored soldiers were gathered and knew that there was a big fish there.

Huang Zhong also knew the importance of the situation. Seeing that it would be difficult to charge in, he hung his broadsword on the saddle, picked up the five-stone sturdy Bao Diao bow, pulled out several armor-piercing conical arrows with fine steel arrowheads, and fired at the group of people in rapid succession.

At a distance of dozens of steps, Huang Zhong often shot at the enemy's exposed parts such as the back of the neck guard, wrists, elbows and armpits. For a while, there was continuous screaming, and the guards around Shen Dan became sparse.

After a series of rapid shots, one arrow actually hit Shen Dan's vest. Unfortunately, Shen Dan was wearing Liangdang armor, and the arrow deflected and slid into the gap between the iron bars before piercing into the flesh, but did not penetrate deeply.

Shen Dan just screamed, dropped his knife and subconsciously raised his hand to cover his wound. Unfortunately, the arrow hit the spot too hard and he was wearing iron armor, so he couldn't cover it at all.

The guards around him hurriedly stopped to check on him, and during this delay, Huang Zhong was getting closer and closer. The group of cavalrymen around Huang Zhong also rushed forward and trampled on Shen Dan's flag formation, completely breaking it apart and destroying it.

In the melee, Shen Dan picked up a weapon and fought desperately, but after a few rounds, he was finally knocked to the ground by Huang Zhong's sword.

(End of this chapter)