My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 514 It’s finally Zhang’s turn

As mentioned earlier, the pre-war preparations that Zhuge Liang planned for Liu Bei were a two-pronged approach that required both hands to be strong.

In the military, Gan Ning pretended to underestimate the enemy and made a rash advance, creating a scene where some ships were stranded and captured in the shallow water of Qujiang River. He also threw a bunch of convicts who didn't know the truth into Feng Kai's hands and deliberately spread false information to mislead Xiahou Yuan and Jia Xu to decide to move the camp.

In diplomacy, Liu Bei personally tried to win over Yan Yan and instigated Yan Yan to ask Liu Zhang to send troops to cooperate in the battle. He eventually took advantage of Liu Zhang's stinginess to further undermine Liu Zhang's prestige and undermine the loyalty of the military and civilians of Ba County to Liu Zhang.

By the way, he also abducted 4,000 defeated soldiers from Bashu and Bandun barbarians, as well as Bandun barbarian generals such as Wang Ping, and obtained a batch of food and military supplies from Yan Yan.

These two preparations were actually carried out in parallel, both taking place from mid-March to late March of the eleventh year of Jian'an.

The time for the final results to come was about the same. Basically, Yan Yan felt guilty, and Wang Ping and others vowed to take revenge; Gan Ning's deception was successful, and Xiahou Yuan began to give up the Diaoyucheng Gate Blocking Camp that he had dug for a winter.

All I can say is that Zhuge Liang's plan was too perfect. Not only was he a good planner, he was also a master of time management.

Even if the project managers in the 21st century can arrange such parallel projects, if they can achieve the goal of combining the various lines and completing them at the same time, they will definitely be considered as experienced and capable people.

What’s more, this was the 3rd century AD.

……

March 28th was the day after Yan Yan hosted a banquet for Liu Bei and apologized.

The main force of Liu Bei's army entering Sichuan formally rewarded the soldiers in Jiangbei New City in Jiangzhou and marched northward.

This army had a total of 30,000 people, led by Zhang Fei. Liu Bei was in charge of the rear army and did not give direct command. He just brought Pang Tong with him to help Zhang Fei find and fill in the gaps.

When Liu Bei's army entered Sichuan last year, there were only 30,000 people in total. At that time, they wanted to defend for a long time and wear down Xiahou Yuan. They didn't want too many people to come at once and cause excessive consumption of military rations. However, after the spring, since they were planning to fight a decisive battle, Liu Bei would of course draw some more people from Jingzhou, about 20,000 people.

So at this moment, the total strength of Liu Bei's army in Shuzhong has reached more than 50,000.

Among them, ten thousand men were left by Wei Yan in the encirclement of Diaoyucheng. After fighting for the entire autumn and winter, Wei Yan also suffered some losses, and now only eight thousand men are left able to fight.

Of the other 40,000 people, 5,000 should be left to guard Jiangbei City. In addition, some people should also be left to defend Yufu County, Baidi City and other areas behind the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River where people enter Sichuan.

After all, Liu Zhang was also on guard against Liu Bei, so Liu Bei must also be on guard against Liu Zhang and cannot completely leave his back to the so-called "friendly forces" - even if Yan Yan himself had been convinced by Liu Bei, Liu Bei could not take the risk, in case there were generals under Yan Yan who were commanded by Liu Zhang without authorization, or who acted alone impulsively.

Therefore, excluding these two parts of defensive forces, the total number of mobile forces that Liu Bei's army can mobilize is only between 32,000 and 33,000.

Gan Ning took with him a naval force of 7,000 men, responsible for providing cover, providing transportation, and cutting off Cao's camps across the river on the Jialing River.

Zhang Fei still had 26,000 veteran soldiers, as well as the 4,000 defeated soldiers from Bashu and Bandun barbarians that Yan Yan had just sent, which together made up a total of 30,000.

On the other side, Xiahou Yuan had always maintained an army of 50,000 veterans, of which about 40,000 were veteran Cao troops and another 10,000 were Zhang Lu's surrendered troops.

In addition to the emergency preparations for war in the spring, he also forcibly recruited vassal tribes in Baxi, and exhausted the resources in the rear to recruit Hanzhong civilians under Zhang Lu. These two parts added up to more than 10,000 people, so the number of people Xiahou Yuan had was about 60,000 to 70,000, but the quality was seriously reduced.

The combined forces of the three parts of Liu Bei's side were 45,000 men against more than 60,000. They had an overall advantage in terms of weaponry and morale. Liu Bei was of course very confident.

……

The army set out northward. Naturally, the pace was slower as they were marching against the current. It took them two days to reach the mouth of the Fu River.

Zhang Fei rested for a while, and after another night, he adjusted his condition and finally arrived at the Diaoyucheng battlefield on the first day of April.

Zhang Fei's timing was also very fortuitous, thanks to Gan Ning who kept harassing the front line and infiltrating by water all the time, and had a very clear grasp of Cao's army's movements.

So when Zhang Fei arrived, Xiahou Yuan's work of moving camps and combining troops was about to be completed, but not yet fully completed.

At that time, the main force of Cao's army had been concentrated in the new camp area on the north bank of the Jialing River and west of the Qu River to avoid being infiltrated and surrounded by Gan Ning through water.

However, Xiahou Yuan still left three to five thousand men in the strongest old camp south of the Jialing River, blocking the entrance to Diaoyucheng.

The reason for this situation was that, on the one hand, Xiahou Yuan was reluctant to leave his most solid old camp, which he had painstakingly built for four months, and always wanted to keep some soldiers on the flank to keep a hold and form a pincer attack.

On the other hand, there were still a lot of building materials in the old camp, such as deer horns and chevaux de frise, which could be removed and transported to the new camp on the north bank and then rebuilt. The trenches and rammed earth walls would have to be re-dug and re-built, but the processed wood could be reused, saving a lot of manpower.

Of course, Xiahou Yuan had to leave some "engineers" in the old camp to dismantle the wood, and then transport it to the new camp on the north bank in batches. It can only be said that although he was a famous general, he was stingy and liked to calculate small accounts, and he was prone to losing the big picture by losing the big picture. Otherwise, he would not have personally supervised such a small matter as reinforcing the antlers during the Battle of Dingjun Mountain in history.

This little problem brought him some trouble again this time. Even with Jia Xu's persuasion, he couldn't stop. Jia Xu didn't expect Zhang Fei to come so quickly and so suddenly.

Early in the morning of April 1st, Zhang Fei was carried by Gan Ning's fleet to the back of Cao's old camp east of Diaoyu City almost at the first light of dawn, and then landed in the dark in a very disciplined manner.

By the time Cao's "engineering corps" in the old camp in Jiangnan discovered Zhang Fei, he had already landed and formed his battle formation.

Cao's army hurriedly climbed up the wall to defend it, relying on the several layers of deer horns that had not yet been dismantled to resist.

Zhang Fei personally led the vanguard and launched a fierce attack. Liu Bei's army sounded drums and gongs, and shouted and killed to the sky.

"Soldiers! The enemy Cao has fallen into the trap set by the military advisor. Now people are in a panic and morale is low. Today is the day to kill him and gain merit!" Zhang Fei, wearing heavy black armor and waving a snake spear, shouted loudly.

Liu Bei's vanguard soldiers, wielding steel halberds and horse-slashing swords, rushed towards Cao's camp. Some auxiliary soldiers carried wooden pillars and door panels that served as trench bridges so that their comrades could pass through the pit.

When they reached the front of the camp, the auxiliary soldiers were very well-trained and could build trench bridges so that the armored soldiers could rush directly to the wall and fight the defenders.

Cao's soldiers fired arrows frantically, but unfortunately they were outnumbered and the defense line was long, so the firepower density was insufficient and the effect was not great.

At the critical moment, Wei Yan in Diaoyu City also saw the opportunity when Zhang Fei appeared, opened the city gate and sent out a death squad, which mainly used shouting and cheering, supplemented by strong attacks and diversions, and attracted the attention of at least half of the three to five thousand defenders in Cao's camp.

Cao's old camp was attacked from both sides, so they had to divide their troops to defend the east and west sides at the same time. Naturally, the crossbow firepower became increasingly sparse. Zhang Fei soon dragged the eastern defense line into a bloody battle.

On the other hand, in the west, Wei Yan did not know the enemy's strength, and he had the important task of defending the city, so he was afraid that the enemy would cheat. He did not dare to attack with all his strength, but just tried to attract the hatred and share the enemy's combat power.

The morale of Cao's army was already low, and Zhang Fei launched a resolute and fierce attack from the very beginning. After a fight that lasted for an incense stick, the two outermost deer antler defense lines were breached one after another.

It was all thanks to Xiahou Yuan's painstaking efforts over the winter, which were not achieved overnight. When Cao's army's Jiangnan camp was at its peak, there were "ten layers of deer horns and ten layers of trenches", so even if the outer defense line was lost, they could still withdraw their troops and continue to resist.

After Zhang Fei broke through several lines of defense, his troops began to show signs of weakness. This was mainly because there were not enough temporary trench bridges to break through Cao's trenches. The deeper they went, the easier it was for Cao's pits to cause casualties to the attackers.

Although those soldiers wearing forged steel breastplates had strong defense, they were not wearing iron boots after all. Once they fell into a pit full of bitter bamboo sticks, they might suffer greater damage because of their heavy bodies.

After some soldiers were killed or injured in the trench defense network, Zhang Fei realized that blindly attacking was not a solution. So after breaking through three lines of defense, he announced that he would temporarily switch to defense on the spot and hold off Cao's army across the defense line, and then sounded the horn to let the auxiliary soldiers carry away the wounded.

It was not that Zhang Fei was afraid of fighting, but that he was a rough but meticulous person. He thought of some precautions that Pang Tong, the military advisor who accompanied his elder brother in the army, had pointed out to him before the attack this morning.

"Cao's army has been operating in the old camp in Jiangnan for a whole winter, so their defense must be strong. We will take advantage of the moment when the enemy is about to move but has not yet completely moved their camp and attack them. We will use Xingba's navy to block the river and trap the remaining enemy in Jiangnan.

If we can defeat the enemy quickly, that would be the best. If the enemy is still determined to hold out, there is no need to rush. As long as we divide and surround them and establish communication with Wen Chang in Diaoyucheng, Cao's army in the Jiangnan old camp will sooner or later surrender in despair.

If we can trick Xiahou Yuan into sending Feng Kai's navy across the river to help these people evacuate, that will be exactly what our army wants. We can then let Xingba surround the enemy and attack their reinforcements, and then annihilate Feng Kai in the river."

This is the strategy that Pang Tong tailored for Zhang Fei before the battle this morning, based on the current actual situation and the actual enemy situation he observed.

There weren't many enemies in Jiangnan's old camp, so it would be best if we could swallow them all up. If we couldn't, it didn't matter, they were already in our bowl, so why would we suffer more casualties?
And once this small army of Cao's army is destroyed, the morale of Xiahou Yuan's main force in Jiangbei will certainly become even lower.

Since he had already made up his mind, Zhang Fei was no longer in a hurry.

Cao's troops in the old camp in Jiangnan soon noticed that Liu Bei's troops had stopped attacking after the outer defense positions had been captured.

Zhang Fei's soldiers spent their energy on re-clearing the trench traps in the rear and recovering the trench bridges used on the battlefield so that they could be reused when breaking through subsequent lines of defense.

This leisurely attitude made Cao's army most desperate.

Zhang Fei even personally tried to persuade them to surrender from a distance, using his hands to curse: "Listen, Cao thieves! You have been surrounded in the south of the Yangtze River. You are the abandoned pawns thrown away by Xiahou Yuan! Xiahou Yuan's navy is nothing but pigs and dogs in front of General Gan. Xiahou Yuan will never cross the river to rescue you and take you back to the north bank!

We don't mind if you have to hold on for a few more days. We can just use Feng Kai's navy to take the blame! When the time comes, Xiahou Yuan will definitely hate you for being such a waste for not surrendering! You've caused him to lose more money!"

No matter whether the enemy surrenders or not, Zhang Fei enjoys cursing with such a loud voice.

After holding back for several years, he finally made some money on his first try, and there are more big wins waiting for him in the future.

(End of this chapter)