My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 489: The Empty City Strategy
Three days passed in a flash, and it was already late September.

The people in Dianjiang County had been urgently relocated. This small county originally had only more than 2,000 households and about 8,000 people, which was less than the number of troops brought by Wei Yan.

Therefore, the elderly, the weak, women and children among the people only needed one trip to be transported by the returning troop transport fleet. Including the valuables they took with them, it would take at most two trips.

Liu Bei's army had good military discipline and order, Wei Yan's control was also strict, and Liu Bei himself was still supervising in Jiangzhou. Therefore, there was no chaos like when Dong Zhuo's army or Cao's army migrated the population, when the army robbed the people's food and money. The sailors and seamen on the ship were very restrained, and some even helped the people load and unload heavy objects.

After the people left, within three days, most of the wood, stone, brick and tile building materials in the city were dismantled, ferried to the south bank of the Fu River, and piled up at the newly built "Diaoyucheng" construction site for use in the construction of the new fortress.

As for the rammed earth, there is no need to transport it. Soil is available everywhere, and the cost of transporting it across the river is no less than digging it on the south bank.

Moreover, Dianjiang County on the north bank was not abandoned permanently, but had to be temporarily abandoned this year due to the war. After Cao's army was driven away in the future, it would still have to be rebuilt, and the rammed earth building materials would be left in place, so that the city could be rebuilt next year.

When Wei Yan was supervising the project, he also thought of a problem, that is, the camp on Diaoyu Mountain on the opposite bank did not have a solid gatehouse.

Earth walls can be temporarily rammed, but gate towers cannot be made entirely of earth, otherwise they will collapse and be unable to bear the weight, and there is no time to build a solid city gate.

Wei Yan suddenly had an idea and ordered people to dismantle the east gate of Dianjiang County and ship it to the other side of the river in its entirety. He then stripped off the bluestone near the gate tower and shipped it to the new city on the south bank.

Then, on the uphill side of the east side of Diaoyu Mountain, they used the dismantled city gates and stones to rebuild a gate tower, and directly dismantled the original simple camp gate to leave no defensive loopholes.

In this way, the eastern slope of Diaoyu Mountain formed a defense line running from north to south and cutting off the Diaoyu Mountain Peninsula. Only the entrance and exit gates were built with stones, and the rest of the wall sections were simple temporary rammed earth with some wooden stakes inserted on them.

The wall was less than ten feet high at the moment, and a few feet of drop was formed by temporarily digging trenches in front of the earth wall and using the excavated soil to build the wall. There was no other way, after all, there was no city here before, only a camp. It was already very good that Wei Yan could build a simple and low earth wall in just a few days.

Anyone who has seen the later Chongqing map or Baidu map knows that the peninsula is narrowest in the Diaoyu Mountain area, with a north-south width of less than 1.5 kilometers. Moreover, this 15 kilometers is not all flat, with steep mountains accounting for a small half of it.

Therefore, the width of the earth wall that really needs to be built at the entrance and exit is less than 300 zhang. A 300-zhang long and 10-zhang high earth wall can be built by digging the earth on the spot. With 10,000 soldiers and several thousand local men, it can be completed in three days.

Of course, while Diaoyu New Town was being built at a rapid pace, the old town of Dianjiang County was also demolished. The arch stone and gate of the East Gate were gone, leaving only an empty gate hole with rammed earth exposed.

Although Dianjiang County was prepared to abandon it for a period of time, Wei Yan took into consideration that Cao's army could arrive at any time and the transfer and repair work had not yet been completed.

There were still so many wood and stone materials in the city. If they were abandoned immediately when the enemy arrived, these materials might help the enemy. So Wei Yan made use of the waste materials and asked the soldiers who were dismantling the building materials in the city to transport the remaining rammed earth from the demolished houses to the east gate and pile them up on the spot to form an earth wall.

In this way, a defense facility similar to the "inner city wall" was rebuilt inside the East Gate, which had become an empty gate. Even if the enemy rushed into the empty gate, they would not be able to break through immediately.

……

The defensive fortifications were being arranged and improved in such a rapid pace that time soon came to the evening of that day.

Wei Yan originally thought that even if Xiahou Yuan came quickly, it would take at least two or three days for him to arrive. If he came slowly, it might take five or six days or even longer.

However, at the beginning of the third hour of the day, the guards on the lookout on the west gate tower of Dianjiang County suddenly saw a cloud of dust approaching from the upper reaches of the Fu River.

The officer guarding the west tower immediately ordered the signal fire to be lit.

Wei Yan, who was at the east gate, didn't see it at first, but his personal guards happened to see it and immediately reminded him: "Captain! The west gate is burning signal smoke!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Yan immediately turned his head and took a closer look. He quickly became alert: "Let all the soldiers in the city go up to the wall to guard! Put up more flags! Quickly!"

At this moment, more than half of his 10,000 soldiers were building fortifications in Diaoyucheng on the south bank. Only three or four thousand people remained in the old city of Dianjiang County, most of whom were demolishing houses and transporting building materials.

Of course Wei Yan would be nervous, fearing that with such a small number of people, Xiahou Yuan would take advantage of the situation.

After the military order was issued, it was implemented at the fastest speed. Soldiers put down the stones and wooden pillars at hand, picked up their weapons and climbed up the wall. Wei Yan himself went directly to the East City Tower and waited for the enemy - although the enemy came from the west, the West Gate was still intact, but the East City Tower was demolished, and the gate was moved to the New Diaoyu City on the opposite bank, so of course the East Gate needed the commander to be in charge. Wei Yan knew very well that once the situation became a positional war, the key to whether the earthen wall like the "inner urn city" inside the East Gate could be defended was morale. If he personally supervised the battle and warned the soldiers not to panic, then the chances of winning would be great. If he did not care and let the soldiers defend themselves, they would lose their backbone because there was no city gate.

"Don't panic, everyone! This inner city was deliberately set up by me to lure the enemy in! If Xiahou Yuan dares to rush in through this gate, he will be surrounded and killed by us on three sides! I have placed crossbows on the earth wall directly behind the doorway, firing directly at the doorway, so the enemy can't rush in!"

Wei Yan shouted loudly to encourage the morale, and when he saw the trembling soldiers, he went over to pat them on the shoulders and asked them to stay calm.

Wei Yan had only fought with Cao Jun generals of the same level as Cai Yang, Qin Qi, and Li Tong before, and he was only a supporting role when fighting against Cai Yang, who was killed by Gan Ning. Today, he finally met a top Cao Jun general, so Wei Yan was naturally excited and wanted to give it a try.

After a while, the enemy's situation became clear. After the enemy arrived outside the west gate of Dianjiang along the Fu River, as soon as they got close, arrows flew from the city wall. The enemy found out the enemy's strength and had to retreat slightly. Then they went around the city, seemingly observing the city's defenses and looking for flaws.

It was at this moment that the defenders discovered that the enemies were actually all cavalry, and their number was not large, only one or two thousand at most.

Wei Yan saw the situation clearly from the top of the city wall. After a brief thought, he loudly encouraged the other officers around him: "Don't panic! Xiahou Yuan's main force hasn't arrived yet! We didn't miscalculate the time!

This must be because Xiahou Yuan had advanced too easily before, and Liu Zhang's old subordinates in Mengtou, Dangshi and other camps did not dare to fight to the death, so Xiahou Yuan underestimated the enemy! He wanted to use light cavalry to go first, intimidate and force the subsequent small counties to land!
Today, let's teach Xiahou Yuan a lesson in Dianjiang, so that he knows that not all the people who came here from Brazil are cowards!"

The soldiers, who were originally a little panicked, quickly calmed down after hearing Wei Yan's analysis.

It turns out that it is just the enemy's cavalry vanguard who underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly. There is no need to worry about it!
It is impossible for cavalry to attack the city, so as long as the east gate that has been demolished is blocked, it will be impossible to break through from other directions.

Even though the city wall of the small county of Dianjiang was only a little over ten feet high, it was not something that the cavalry could climb up directly without siege weapons.

Soon, after circling the city, the Cao army on the opposite side also discovered that something was wrong.

The defenses in the west and north of the city were very tight, the south of the city was impossible to attack because of the river, but when we went around to the east of the city, we found that there was not even a city gate, and the gate was wide open.

The cavalry vanguard general under Xiahou Yuan was named Gao Zuo. He had also made great contributions when Xiahou Yuan attacked Zhang Lu before. At that time, Xiahou Yuan pretended to be defeated and lured Zhang Wei to chase him out of Yangping Pass. Then he used two detachments to attack Zhang Wei's rear to prevent Zhang Wei from retreating to Yangping Pass.

In that battle, Gao Zuo was one of the two generals sent by Xiahou Yuan to go around the rear and played a key role in blocking Zhang Wei. So after defeating Zhang Lu, Xiahou Yuan was very confident that he would lead a cavalry division to plunder and force landing in those small places first, saving time for the main force.

At this moment, Gao Zuo saw the strength of Dianjiang County and ordered his men to come forward and shout at the defenders, demanding that they surrender. At the same time, he also forced Yang Ang, a surrendered general of Zhang Lu's army who was serving as a guide, to prepare for the attack:

"Yang Ang, you have not achieved anything since you surrendered. I will give you a chance today. Dianjiang County doesn't even have a city gate, so it's easy to take it. I will have people scold them to surrender. If they dare not surrender, you will lead 500 cavalry as the vanguard and rush directly into the gate to seize the city. I will lead the central army and the rear army to follow."

Yang Ang was not a famous general, nor did he have much courage. When Zhang Wei was killed by Cao's army in the Battle of Yangping Pass, he and Yang Ren surrendered to Cao's army. Just because they were locals of Yizhou and were familiar with the geography of Shu, Xiahou Yuan let them lead the way and they had never fought any hard battles.

Having been assigned a task by Gao Zuo at this moment, Yang Ang did not dare to resist, but he could not help but mutter in his heart: "If it is so easy, will you give the credit to me? Isn't it because you want me to try to see if the enemy army is deceiving...

However, Dianjiang County is so small and narrow. I remember that there should be no urn city, not even a thousand-jin gate. It can't be a trick, right? But why did the enemy even dismantle the city gate? This must be a trick..."

Wei Yan's "Empty City Plan" was so obviously empty that even the stupid enemy generals, whose IQ was at most 40 or 50 in the game, felt scared and started to wonder.

Unfortunately, the military order from the superiors cannot be disobeyed, so no matter how much I grumble, I have no choice but to go ahead with it.

Before Yang Ang could finish his ideological struggle, Gao Zuo's attempt to persuade him to surrender and curse him was shot back by a volley of arrows from Wei Yan.

However, Wei Yan was also cautious. After confirming that the other side had no famous generals and was not very strong, Wei Yan did not raise his own banner, and he himself did not show his face.

He had the defenders use the flags left by Liu Zhang's army, appearing harmless.

Gao Zuo was furious when he saw that several of the cursing fighters had been shot dead. He shouted, "Liu Zhang's dog slaves, if you are tired of living, I will send you to see the Lord of Mount Tai early! Yang Ang, come on!"

(End of this chapter)