My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 551 General Xiahou is in urgent need of help. Are you still wasting time here?

Pang De tried to capture Hechi County in one fell swoop, relying solely on the surprise of the attack. However, he lost the first battle because his siege weapons were too crude, and the morale of the entire army was slightly dampened.

He had no choice but to slow down the offensive tempo and take a long-term view.

On the one hand, they sent people to cut down bamboos, trees and vines, and built ladders, battering rams and a large number of vine shields placed on the ground to block arrows. When the siege equipment was more complete, they would launch a decisive general attack.

On the other hand, Pang De continued to maintain moderate pressure on the defenders of Hechi County. For example, every time a batch of large Teng shields were made, he sent people to stand in front of the city and build bunkers in advance.

Then, from time to time, they would send some archers to hide behind rattan shields, shoot arrows at the top of the city walls, and fight back against the defenders.

The crossbowmen on the defending side were protected by the city walls, and the parapets on the top of the city walls were definitely much more defensive than Pound's shield. So in this kind of shooting, if we only look at the kill exchange ratio, Pound would definitely suffer a huge loss.

But Pang De didn't care, because he just wanted to see whether Wei Yan would really spare no effort in defending the city and cover him with massive firepower.

The result of Pang De's test also proved that Wei Yan was indeed such a person.

Sometimes Pang De only arranged a hundred or so archers scattered behind the rattan shield formation, all of whom were the troops of Yang Qiu and Liang Xing. Wei Yan still sent out several thousand people to shoot at them.

Pang De's archers could only huddle and hide behind Teng Dun, crouching down, not daring to attack at all. Even so, they were eventually killed by some particularly tricky arrows.

Wei Yan's archers suffered almost no casualties, but their output efficiency was very low. It might take a huge amount of arrows to kill one of Pang De's soldiers.

The generals on both sides felt that such consumption was meaningful to their side.

Wei Yan felt that he had consumed Pang De's fighting power, while Pang De felt that Wei Yan was not frugal and that the subsequent general attack would be easier to launch when supplies were scarce.

This war of attrition, in which heavy equipment was built and harassment was exchanged, lasted for four or five days.

Before Pang De could make a breakthrough, the main force of Cao's army had gradually arrived at Hechi.

The main force of Cao's army was led by Cao Cao himself, with a large group of generals under his command. The first general to arrive at the battlefield was Xu Huang, who was known for his courage, and he also had 20,000 to 30,000 troops under his command.

Xu Huang in this life has a worse reputation than his historical counterparts, but also a better one.

The main reason was that when Cao Cao attacked Yuan Shu, Xu Huang's former master Yang Feng and Han Xian had defected to Yuan Shu. Later, in the Battle of Chenjun, Xu Huang fought hard and made great contributions, and personally killed Yang Feng on the battlefield.

(Note: Originally in history, Yang Feng was killed by Liu Bei because Liu Bei surrendered to Cao and helped Cao Cao fight Yuan Shu after Liu Bei was defeated by Yuan Shu and Lu Bu. In this life, Liu Bei changed his fate in the Battle of Xia Pi and did not surrender to Cao, so Cao Cao needed other generals to kill Yang Feng and fought harder. This is a very reasonable butterfly effect)
This butterfly effect caused Xu Huang to more or less bear the stigma of "killing his former master" and was alienated by those who were a bit morally obsessed.

But because of his resoluteness and courage, and his eagerness to make achievements, he was more trusted by Cao Cao, who only promoted people based on their talents, and his authority to lead troops was also greater than at the same time in history.

Such similar experiences made Xu Huang and Pang De feel more sympathetic to each other.

So when the two generals met, seeing that Pang De was unable to break through, Xu Huang kindly gave him some advice:
"Why is General Pang so obsessed with the gains and losses of a remote county? Although Hechi County is close to our army's route, it is after all where two valleys intersect, the basin is wide, and the city is not built right in the middle of the road.

If it is difficult to attack, we only need to divide our troops to siege the city and ensure that the enemy troops in the city cannot sneak out of the city to attack our army's food supply in the future. There is no need to delay here for a long time. The primary purpose of our army's coming here is to contact General Xiahou first, which is the most important thing. "

Although Xu Huang didn't understand any strategies, he was able to distinguish the priorities.

He also wanted to gain merit, but he didn't have the same obsession as Pang De to "defeat famous generals and quickly become famous by stepping on other people's reputations." At this time, the bystanders saw clearly and pointed out Pang De's small problem.

Pang De was awakened, and indeed felt a little regretful and ashamed, but he was reluctant to give up the resources he had already invested, and sighed:
"Gong Ming is right. I was greedy for merit. This is because Wei Yan is one of the most powerful generals in Liu Ni's army who defended the city alone for more than half a year.

I was angry for a moment, so I wanted to capture the city he was guarding and remove a big threat for the Prime Minister. Moreover, with Wei Yan's talent, if he guards other important passes in the future, how easy would it be to kill him? Taking advantage of Liu Bei's incompetence and wasting his talent by letting him guard Hechi, this is a good opportunity to kill him!"

Xu Huang found it difficult to debate with him for a moment. After hesitating for a while, he just sighed:
"That's true, but Liu Bei had Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong by his side, so how could he be so stupid?
Maybe this is another trick of Zhuge Liang to lure you into attacking the city, so that our vanguard will be consumed in vain in the siege, and by the way, it will also dampen our army's morale and delay time."

At this point, Pound finally came to his senses and had to seriously evaluate alternative plans and make deployment adjustments.

……

Coincidentally, it was the afternoon when Pang De and Xu Huang discussed and planned to adjust their deployment.

Some more news came from the "enemy-occupied area" on the southeast side of Chencang Road, which added fuel to the fire and helped Pang De.

The news was brought by a group of Cao's prisoners who claimed that they had just seized the opportunity and escaped from Wu Yi's camp of Liu Bei's army two days ago.

The prisoners had no weapons and were in rags. It was obvious that they had traveled a lot of mountain roads and had suffered a lot. They probably didn't even have food to eat along the way, and when they arrived at Pang De's camp, they were all starving.

After all, as a captive, how could he possibly save up food before escaping? At most, he would find an opportunity to escape right after dinner, and he would only eat one meal in two days.

When Pang De heard that some friendly prisoners had escaped from the enemy camp, he hurried to check the situation in person.

After arriving at the shelter tent, the first thing Pang De saw was a group of skinny soldiers who looked like starving ghosts, frantically eating sticky millet dumplings. They were so full that their food stuck in their throats, but they still gulped down tonnes of water to wash it down.

Pang De frowned slightly, subconsciously feeling that something was wrong: Liu Bei was not slack in his military discipline, and the Chencang Road was three or four hundred miles long, with narrow valleys. Even from Yangping Pass to Hechi, there were still more than one hundred and forty miles. In such a narrow terrain, how could the captives escape so easily and return to the team smoothly?
He asked cautiously: "Whose subordinates are you? Where were you captured? How did you escape?"

The leading captive, who seemed to be a captain in Cao's army, quickly put down the sticky rice dumpling, swallowed his saliva and said, "Reporting to the general, we are under the command of General Xiahou. Half a month ago, when we were defending the city at Yangping Pass, we were attacked fiercely by Liu Bei. We were injured and fell into the city and were captured.

There were a few of them who were captured earlier, when General Xiahou set up camp in front of Yangping Pass and besieged Wu Yi. Later, we were all imprisoned in Wu Yi's camp, helping to dig soil and cut wood, helping Liu Bei's army to build more siege equipment and besiege Yangping Pass.

In recent days, more and more soldiers in Wu Yi's camp have been withdrawn. The enemy has been saying that the attack on Yangping Pass was too brutal, and Liu Bei has issued a death order to break through Yangping Pass and kill Xiahou Yuan before the prime minister leads troops to support Xiahou Yuan. Therefore, most of Wu Yi's soldiers were withdrawn to the front line to attack, and we took the opportunity to escape. "

After listening to it, Pang De couldn't find any flaws for the time being. What these prisoners said could be explained in terms of cause and effect.

If what they said was true, it meant that Xiahou Yuan was in a critical situation at Yangping Pass. However, he had delayed for so long in Hechi County to kill Wei Yan, which really missed the opportunity and failed to distinguish the primary from the secondary.

Pang De couldn't help but feel a little panicked when he thought that this might cause the Prime Minister to doubt his execution ability. He knew very well the position of General Xiahou Yuan in the Prime Minister's mind, and he absolutely could not afford to make any mistakes. If he missed this important matter, his future would be completely ruined.

However, Pang De was, after all, a newly surrendered general from Xiliang, and was completely unfamiliar with the personnel of Cao's direct troops. He could not judge the authenticity of the identities of these escaped captives.

He thought about it calmly, and quickly asked someone to find Xu Huang, and pleaded:

"I have only been with the Prime Minister for a short time, so I am not familiar with General Xiahou's old comrades. Gongming has been with the Prime Minister for ten years. I wonder if you can help me identify these captives and see if there are any I know. Even if Gongming cannot recognize them, please ask the officers under your command who have a wide range of contacts to take a look at them as well."

"How difficult is that?" How could Xu Huang refuse such a request? He immediately cooperated with all his strength.

He immediately found some middle-level officers in the army who had wide knowledge of people, as well as Gongcao who was specifically in charge of personnel assessment.

After some identification, Xu Huang's men actually recognized the identity of the Cao army commander Qu Chang who had escaped. He was indeed an officer of Feng Kai's unit under Xiahou Yuan. The identities of several lower-level officers among the other captives were also confirmed.

Now Pang De had no doubts anymore, he truly believed that Xiahou Yuan was in a critical situation.

However, I had previously failed to distinguish the importance of things and was obsessed with attacking Hechi, which delayed time. I really should make up for it.

"No wonder Liu Bei sent a general like Wei Yan, who is good at defense, to defend the small county of Hechi! He is in a hurry to attack Yangping Pass and wants to buy more time for the troops attacking the pass! In this case, we should speed up the advancement and let General Xiahou's troops know as soon as possible that the Prime Minister's army has come to rescue him!"

Pound finally came to such a "correct conclusion".

After discussing it with him, Xu Huang also felt that it made sense and helped him improve the plan: "In this case, you can divide your troops and advance westwards tomorrow, and advance to Yangping Pass as soon as possible. I will keep a part of my troops here to besiege Hechi County.

The assault on Hechi County can also continue in parallel. Anyway, the craftsmen who make siege weapons work slowly, so we can just lay siege while waiting for the equipment to be completed. It won't take many people.

And I guess, since Liu Bei is so wary of us reinforcing General Xiahou, the defense line he left on the Chencang Road is definitely not limited to Hechi County. Further southeast, there may be more blockers camped on the road. If the enemy can be defeated, then defeat them. If the enemy is too powerful to be defeated for the time being, you can contact us at any time, and the rear army will also send troops to reinforce. "

The entire Chencang Valley Road is nearly 400 miles long, and many of the defenses are narrow and difficult to pass, and the army cannot be deployed, so Pang De led 20,000 to 30,000 people to go ahead, which is enough. Such terrain is easy to use the tactics of adding fuel to the fire. The two sides fought a war of attrition and a war of rotation, and the troops were deployed one by one.

Pang De also thought that this tactic made sense, so he led his troops to continue forward.

……

Pang De was eager to open a road to rescue Xiahou Yuan, so when he bypassed the city and headed east again, his marching speed was much faster than before.

After walking for two days and resting for a while at night, they finally completed the 90-li mountain road and arrived at the "Wu Yi Camp" behind Hechi County - the camp where Wu Yi was stationed more than a month ago when he was besieged by Xiahou Yuan in Chencang Road and his food supply was cut off.

Ninety miles, in a normal plain march, it is impossible to walk so slowly in two days. But this is the Qinling Mountains, Chencang Valley Road, Pang De's speed is already very fast.

He started his journey early in the morning on June 19th and arrived here in the evening on June 20th, already a little out of breath.

On the other side, Wu Yi, the "chief general" of Liu Bei's army, was leisurely hiding behind the trenches and earthen ramparts, setting up all the bows and crossbows, waiting for Pang De to come and fight.

When Pang De arrived in front of the army, he also carefully observed Wu Yi's fortifications. He saw that this large fortress was made entirely of rammed earth, with only simple earth walls and dry trenches formed by digging earth when ramming the earth walls.

There were no chevaux de frise, no antlers, and no wooden picket fences atop the earth walls. It looked like the camp was very economical with wood, or perhaps the wood was dismantled and reused elsewhere.

In terms of strength, such a camp can be breached. Pang De thought to himself that he was the bravest general in Xiliang, and he even defeated Ma Chao. On the other side was a mere Wu Yi, who was said to have risen to power because of his relationship with Liu Zhang. His actual combat power was nothing.

Pang De immediately ordered his troops to quickly build some simple rafts and battering rams in preparation for a violent attack.

At the same time, he also rode his horse, drew his sword, and led a group of abusive men. He ordered the abusive men to hold up long shields and began to insult Wu Yi, provoking him to fight. By the way, he could also detect the enemy's strength and undermine Wu Yi's morale.

Pang De shouted arrogantly, "Wu Yi, you bastard! You are just relying on being a relative of Liu Zhang, and you are just a drunkard, yet you dare to resist the imperial army! Liu Bei is sending you to die in vain. Why do you, the soldiers of Yizhou, do such a foolish thing and die for outsiders?"

Wu Yi on the opposite side was also well prepared and immediately asked the curser to curse back:

"Pang De, you bastard! When it comes to sacrificing your life for others in vain, who in the world dares to compare with you? I have always known that you are a traitor and a wolf in sheep's clothing.

In order to prevent his comrades in Xiliang from dying in vain, General Ma Mengqi took the lead in raising the banner of resistance against Cao. However, you betrayed your master and friends, assisted Cao in his atrocities, caused the elders of Xiliang to kill each other, and served as a vanguard for Cao for nothing.

My lord Liu Xuande, whose reputation for benevolence and righteousness spread throughout the world, heard that our army was trapped, and rushed thousands of miles to attack Xiahou Yuan, and then rescued us. After rescuing us, he did not force us to attack Yangping Pass, but only let us camp here to block reinforcements.

Our army does not need to face Xiahou Yuan's troops, we only need to stop incompetent pigs and wastes like you. Where else can we find such an easy job in the world? My lord is really too kind to us new soldiers. "

Pang De didn't expect that Wu Yi was actually quite eloquent and had strong logic in responding to situations. He was so angry that he was fuming.

So Liu Bei asking you to "only take on the task of stopping me" is Liu Bei's "great grace" to you, right?

These remarks showed the utmost contempt for Pound.

How could Pang De know that Wu Yi actually had many backup excuses, which were all prepared by Zhuge Liang before the war, so that he could use them as the situation dictated.

It is just like in later debates, where one debater would write down a bunch of cheat sheets in advance based on the other party’s possible responses.

Pang De and Wu Yi were the representatives of the surrendered generals of both sides. Pang De was a former general of Xiliang who surrendered to Cao Cao, and Wu Yi was a former general of Liu Zhang who surrendered to Liu Bei. The two of them exposed each other's scars, which was very interesting to watch. Zhuge Liang used the pre-prepared lines to add fuel to the fire, and Pang De exploded instantly.

"Attack the camp with all your might! Wu Yi is just a general relying on his in-laws. This idiot is only good at talking! Let those Yizhou pigs and dogs know the might of our Xiliang warriors!"

Pang De didn't care whether he was fully prepared or not, and just went straight in based on his contempt for Wu Yi.

(End of this chapter)