My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 613: A tough battle to establish your authority
November 24th, at the gate of Mianzhu City.

Layers of arrow-proof rattan shields and battle formations built with logs were arranged on an open space about seventy to a hundred steps away from Mianzhu City.

There were occasional messy arrows stuck between the bunkers and the ground. From a distance, the white feathers of the tail swayed slightly in the wind, like reeds that had not yet withered.

There were several gaps filled with earth on the crude moat, and a dozen bulldozers with anti-arrow shields were scattered around nearby, as well as some corpses of civilian laborers and auxiliary soldiers, all of whom were pierced with arrows.

It can be seen that the defensive firepower of the defenders in Mianzhu City is still very fierce.

Even though the attackers adopted the same tactical configuration as in the previous feint attack on Fucheng and tried to destroy the outer fortifications of Mianzhu City, they still suffered a lot of casualties from the dense crossbows of the defenders.

The anti-arrow shields of some bulldozers did not seem to work very well, and had to be pulled back and reinforced after the initial battle, and modified with thicker and more comprehensive shields.

However, in this way, the vehicle body itself will inevitably become heavier. In order to ensure that the auxiliary soldiers who are filling the river can push the cart quickly, they can only reduce the amount of earth carried each time, which will undoubtedly slow down the efficiency of the attack.

Zhang Fei and Wei Yan spent two days destroying Mianzhu's outer defenses, but the effect was not very good. After returning to the camp, they had to reconsider the tactical deployment and try to make adjustments.

To this end, he specially sought out Fa Zheng, who had been living in seclusion for the past few days, to discuss tactics together.

Up to now, Zhang Fei has not brought any senior advisers with him to the front line. As the Chief Clerk of the Taiwei Mansion, Pang Tong still has to stay in Zitong in the rear and be in charge of the overall situation on the northern front. This was also the deployment made by Liu Bei himself before the war, and Pang Tong did not dare to disobey.

But Pang Tong didn't know that this deployment was actually secretly suggested by Zhuge Jin to Liu Bei. The reason Zhuge Jin gave at the time was naturally that "the upper and lower levels have their own masters, and those who are in charge of the responsibilities of the prefect should not personally handle the details."

In fact, only Zhuge Jin himself knew clearly that he was worried that defenders like Zhang Ren and Yan Yan had some kind of fate BUFF. When attacking the city guarded by these people, it would be better not to let high-level civil and military officials lead the way.

Since Pang Tong could not go to the front line, Zhang Fei could only talk to Fa Zheng, who had just joined him, about specific tactics.

At first, Zhang Fei did not dare to expect that a civil servant like Fa Zheng would have much military accomplishments. But before the war, Zhuge Liang had written to Zhang Fei to remind him that Fa Zheng, as a former military supervisor of Liu Zhang's army in the north, must have a deep understanding of Liu Zhang's army's defense and the characteristics of his generals.

So no matter how talented Fa Zheng was in military affairs, it would be a good idea to listen to him more, as it would at least provide great intelligence value. Zhang Fei thought this made sense, and he developed the habit of asking Fa Zheng first when he encountered something he did not understand.

After working together for a few days, Zhang Fei was surprised that he had found a treasure, because Fa Zheng not only knew the enemy's details well, but also really understood the art of war.

It's a pity that in order to maintain his own image, Fa Zheng has not yet openly participated in military meetings to offer suggestions, and has only been chatting privately with Zhang Fei and Wei Yan behind closed doors.

At this moment, Zhang Fei, as usual, built a bonfire outside the big tent, cooked a wild boar and a wild wolf, and warmed a jar of muddy wine. As soon as Fa Zheng arrived, he pulled Fa Zheng to sit down and solemnly asked for advice:
"Please teach me, Xiaozhi! How should we capture Mianzhu? I underestimated the enemy a few days ago. I thought Zhang Ren had some friendship with Xiaozhi, and that he could be frightened as we did in Fucheng. If the attack was fierce and swift enough, we could use both kindness and force to capture the city.

I didn't expect Zhang Ren to be so stubborn. And how could there be so many powerful crossbows in the city? Before the war, didn't you use your authority to transfer the military supplies here?"

Facing Zhang Fei's complaint, Fa Zheng could only point out his difficulties in a tactful way: "I was only the military supervisor before, and the command and dispatch of the army is not beyond my authority. Even when I persuaded Zhang Ren to divide his troops and return to Mianzhu, it was only to transfer him away so that I could take action in Fucheng.

I have always known Zhang Ren, he is very loyal to Liu Zhang, and it is not easy to win him over. We got an advantage in Fucheng, so we will have to fight a hard battle in Mianzhu, and we will have to pay it back sooner or later.

As for the number of military supplies and crossbows in this city, they are indeed quite a lot, but they were not transferred when I was in office. It should be that after the conflict between the two armies last month, Liu Zhang transferred them from the Chengdu arsenal to the cities ahead. The war started before they were even delivered to the front line of Fucheng, and I was unable to intervene - in the final analysis, it was because the timing of the war was not sudden enough, which gave Liu Zhang time to prepare for the war. "

When Fa Zheng said this, he couldn't help but reveal some complaints. After all, Fa Zheng was as flexible as Pang Tong in terms of moral bottom line, or even slightly more flexible than Pang Tong.

So in his opinion, since all is fair in war, then the goal should be to maximize actual benefits. The lord was still too soft-hearted. After the relationship with Liu Zhang fell out, he delayed the formal battle for more than 20 days, which gave the rear a chance to prepare for reinforcements.

If the war had started immediately, the defense preparations in Mianzhu and other places might not have been so sufficient.

Moreover, after Fa Zheng and Pang Tong played a double act and destroyed the relationship between Liu Bei and Liu Zhang, Liu Zhang's trust in Fa Zheng had already decreased. Fa Zheng had no say in the subsequent preparations and reinforcements arranged by Liu Zhang, as Liu Zhang arranged them directly from Chengdu. What else could he do?
After hearing all the causes and consequences, Zhang Fei could no longer blame Fa Zheng for not setting up more traps and internal collaborators in advance. He could only give up all illusions and fight a tough battle seriously.

Wei Yan, who was standing by, was quite able to understand the leader's intentions. He took this opportunity to comfort Zhang Fei with some of the admonitions he had heard before the battle: "General San, there is no need to worry. Before the battle, the Minister of War taught us that in the battle in Shu, we cannot cause too much destruction, but we cannot avoid fighting at all.

If we kill too many people, we will destroy the people's strength and war potential in Shu. This will be the lord's territory in the future, so we should be more considerate. However, if we rely entirely on the enemy's surrender, it will be difficult to establish our authority. If we want to implement various reforms after the war, there will inevitably be stubborn people who will stand up and obstruct us.

The new laws implemented by Si Tu and Ling Jun, whether it was the labor service fee or the rent and labor service, would damage the interests of the local powerful families, and would also cause the people of Shu to send more money and materials to reinforce the outside than during Liu Zhang's rule.

As long as the money of the people of Shu is touched, they will never obey obediently. If they want to resist in the future because they were not afraid at the beginning, it will be bad."

After these years of experience, Zhang Fei's military growth is very obvious, but he is still relatively weak in politics. He didn't pay much attention to Zhuge Jin's pre-war teachings, let alone learn them. It was only after Wei Yan's reminder that he listened a little and was able to understand from his own perspective.

Zhang Fei couldn't help but sigh in admiration: "Zi Yu also said this? He is far-sighted. If you think about it carefully, it is indeed true. Who would be willing to pay money out of their pockets to spend elsewhere? The people of Yizhou have been under Liu Zhang's rule for more than ten years and have never had to pay tribute to places outside Shu. In the future, they will have to ship Shu money abroad. No matter how enlightened and good the policy is, there will inevitably be people who oppose it. It is better to shock those who oppose it first!"

Zhang Fei didn't know that Zhuge Jin's judgment before the war was based on so many profound historical lessons of later generations.

In today's world, only Zhuge Jin, a time traveler, knows about the order, chaos and resistance that occurred in successive dynasties in Shu over the next one thousand years.

Whenever Shu was annexed by the central court, if the annexation process was completely successful, it would be easier to transport the materials of the separatist regime in Shu after the war, and it would also be easier to implement new reforms.

However, if the central government's army had just crossed the mountains and entered the Chengdu Plain, and the Shu separatist lords' troops surrendered without a bloody battle, then there would be only two long-term outcomes:
Or simply give up the economic and financial integration of Shu and let it go. In this case, the people of Shu will indeed be convinced for a long time. For example, when the Western Jin Dynasty destroyed the Later Han Dynasty, Liu Chan surrendered. Sima Yan did not do anything to Shu at the beginning, and allowed local people to serve as local officials and gradually govern themselves. Everyone lived in peace for a while.

However, after the Rebellion of the Eight Kings and the collapse of the Western Jin Dynasty, once the Jin Dynasty needed money and grain and supplies from the southern Shu region and levied heavy taxes to transport them abroad, separatist regimes like the Cheng Han Li family emerged, and they would not be willing to obey the small Eastern Jin court.

Similarly, at the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms in later generations, when Zhao Kuangyin's army reached Hou Shu, things went smoothly at the beginning, with "140,000 people taking off their armor" and surrendering directly.

However, the Northern Song Dynasty court continued to transport the money and silk accumulated in Shu out of the country for many years to support the central court's finances and subsequent military expenses. As a result, rebellions in Shu broke out one after another throughout the early Northern Song Dynasty.

Even if you have never read a history book and don't know about the dozens of rebellions before and after, you have at least heard of the stories of Wang Xiaobo and Li Shun in your junior high school textbooks.

In the end, they had to split up the country and set up the "Four Routes of Sichuan and Xia", adding several sets of redundant official teams to check and balance each other to prevent the emergence of a single dominant force in Shu. This is the origin of the place name Sichuan.

Therefore, in Liu Bei's army, only Zhuge Jin has enough foresight.

He knew that in order to advance reforms, as long as the pressure on the people of Shu to ask for money in the future would be higher than in the middle period of Liu Zhang's reign, and to avoid armed rebellion in Shu, Liu Bei would have to fight a bloody battle to establish his authority that was controllable in scope and limited in degree.

Now that Mianzhu and other places have coincidentally become a tool for establishing authority, we should decisively fight the battle beautifully without any hesitation.

Among the generals of the western route, others were not very enthusiastic about learning Zhuge Jin's political foresight, but Wei Yan was very fond of learning. This might be related to his experience of studying hard and improving himself in Wuchang for several years after he defected to Liu.

In Wei Yan's mind, he always thought that the Zhuge family was like gods, and everything they said was the truth. He believed in any new theory without a doubt. Unexpectedly, he was learning and applying it at the moment, which strengthened Zhang Fei and others' determination to attack and establish their authority.

……

The generals adjusted their mindset and reaffirmed their determination to fight a tough battle.

No longer complaining about the various problems and delayed opportunities left over from the past, we have finally achieved unity.

After everyone looked forward, things became smoother. Zhang Fei humbly asked Fa Zheng how to optimize the current offensive tactics to better suit the actual situation in Mianzhu City.

Fa Zheng also combined the problems Zhang Fei encountered when he forcibly filled the gap in the trench and tried to pave a road to the city two days ago, and made a careful analysis and suggested:
“The tactics our army is currently using are similar to those used in Fucheng. We are trying to directly fill the ground with earth and use trench bridge vehicles to open a few holes in the moat, push the Ge Gong vehicle through, and directly reach the city wall.

The advantage of this tactic is that it is quick and you only need to focus on filling a few points. The gap after filling does not need to be too wide, as long as the ground is solid enough for cars to pass through.

But Zhang Ren was good at defense, had many powerful crossbows, and was very good at deploying crossbows, far better than Ling Bao and Deng Xian in Fucheng. We concentrated on digging at a few points, and Zhang Ren was able to focus on these points, focusing on cross-shooting with powerful crossbows, so there were many casualties among the auxiliary soldiers and civilians filling the river.

Considering that Zhang Ren is good at using crossbows and has a lot of crossbows, I think our army should adjust the direction of attack and not be too eager for speed.

Previously, the river filling points we selected were relatively close to the city tower, mostly within a hundred steps on the left and right sides of the city tower. This was so that once we climbed up the wall, the soldiers could fight along the wall, seize the city tower as soon as possible, and then open the city gate.

However, if you choose to attack from a position close to the tower, you will be particularly vulnerable to crossfire. Since Zhang Ren is good at using crossbows, it is better to re-select the attack point at the four corners of the city. The biggest weakness of attacking from a corner is that after attacking, you have to fight on the wall along the entire width of half the city to reach the tower, so it is basically impossible to capture the tower. It will be slower to capture the city, and there will be more casualties. It is impossible to break through quickly and scare the enemy into surrender.

But the biggest advantage of the angle of attack is that there are very few enemies on the left and right wing walls who can reach our army with bows and crossbows, so the density of the crossbows' concentrated fire can be reduced to a minimum."

After hearing this, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan looked at each other and both felt that it made sense.

Indeed, if you want to launch a quick attack and achieve immediate results, it is most efficient to position the Ge Gong bus near the city gate and tower.

But since we are fighting a tough battle and we are not trying to quickly defeat the enemy or force them to land, it is time to consider the issue from the perspective of tactical difficulty.

During the Han Dynasty, there were no "corner towers" in the cities, so there was no additional key protection at the four corners, and there were prone to blind spots in firepower.

When attacking from the outside of the four corners, the troops on the walls on both sides that are a little further away will have difficulty in reaching the attacking troops due to the range of their bows and crossbows. Only the soldiers who happen to be standing at the corners of the city can effectively shoot arrows.

And how many crossbowmen could stand in a corner of the city without a corner tower? Even if Zhang Ren had a lot of crossbowmen, they would be useless.

"Xiaozhi is indeed well versed in the art of attack. It seems that when he was a civil official, he was also familiar with military books. Okay, I'll follow your plan and attack the corners of the city tomorrow. However, we can still make a feint attack in the heavily protected front to tie down Zhang Ren, as long as we make sure that the measures for shooting arrows are complete."

Zhang Fei made a decisive decision and also decided temporarily that the pressure from the front should not be relaxed. He had already modified a batch of earth-moving and trench-filling vehicles, which had a greatly reduced earth-moving capacity but were very effective in preventing arrows.

These chariots could not be wasted. They were idle anyway, so they continued to pretend to fill the trenches slowly near the tower, luring Zhang Ren's crossbowmen to gather here. The attackers could also use archers and crossbowmen covered by rattan shields, or even catapults, to consume Zhang Ren's crossbowmen in return.

However, after hearing Zhang Fei's decision, Wei Yan became more careful. He soon discovered that there was still a small problem with Fa Zheng's strategy, so he reminded him:

"I also have a question that I don't understand, and I'd like to ask Xiaozhi to explain it. If our army turns to attack the corner of the city, how should we fill the trench? Should we also fill the trench diagonally according to the attack route?
Wouldn't that increase the amount of earthwork to be filled? If we still fill the river perpendicular to the trench, we will not be able to avoid being shot at by the crossbowmen on the wall. Even if we fill the river in the future, we will have to push the Ge Gong cart and the ladder across the river. When we reach the bottom of the city, we will have to turn around and connect it to the corner of the city at an angle, which is probably not easy."

Zhang Fei had not thought about this problem at first, but when Wei Yan brought it up, he suddenly realized it and couldn't help but look at Wei Yan with approval.

Wen Chang’s reaction is still quick. It seems that Yi Zhan Xue Zhan has learned very quickly and can find the problem so quickly.

However, Fa Zheng also revealed a trick at the right time. He did not look panicked, but just said calmly: "This is actually not difficult. The reason why I chose Zhang Ren to return to Mianzhu to facilitate our army to steal Fucheng is because Mianzhu's city defense and geography are not as strategic as Fucheng.

Fucheng is close to the Fu River, and the moat is wide, deep and full of water. We can only fill a small gap, and it is impossible to fill a large section. Although there is a river next to Mianzhu City, which can also lead water into the moat, the Mian River is countless times shallower and narrower than the Fu River. Moreover, it is now the end of November, and the water level is low in winter. We can completely use earth to pile up two cofferdams at the corners of the moat.

The cofferdam does not need heavy equipment such as a bus that can pass directly through it, as long as it can slightly block the water flow. Then, we dug deep pits and water diversion trenches outside the corners of the city, leaving only a few feet of distance between them and the moat.

After the water flow is blocked by cofferdams at both ends of the moat, we will dig a few feet of space between the diversion trench and the moat, and then drain the water from the moat into the lower water storage pit.

Once the trench at the corner of the city is dry, we can slowly work at the bottom of the trench to create a path for heavy equipment to pass through. Moreover, the path can be much wider, making it impossible for Zhang Ren to suppress us with his crossbows.

Moreover, as long as a section of the trench is dry, we don’t even have to use the Ge Gongche to attack, we can use other means to break into the city.”

After hearing this, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan were completely impressed and immediately implemented this tactical deployment.

Fa Zheng also made full use of his understanding of Mianzhu's geographical advantages and disadvantages.

Even if Pang Tong were to come up with this specific tactical plan, he might not be able to think of it. Even if Zhuge Liang were to come up with it, he might be able to think of it, but he wouldn't be able to do it as quickly as Fa Zheng.

After all, other people's understanding of Mianzhu's geography was far inferior to Fa Zheng's. This was once a defense zone where Fa Zheng had supervised the army, so he certainly knew what loopholes this city had that could be fully exploited.

……

After adjusting the offensive tactics, starting the next day, the pace of Zhang Fei and Wei Yan's attacks slowed down, but it also gave people a more stable feeling.

Zhang Ren continued to defend the city as usual. On the first day of the first month, he saw Zhang Fei still using a bulldozer to fill the moat with earth, but he did not care and continued to arrange for archers to concentrate their fire.

In particular, they used cross-fire coverage and tried to break through the anti-arrow shield on the bulldozer by side shooting.

However, after shooting for a while, Zhang Ren also noticed something was wrong. After he covered the area with the original firepower density, none of the bulldozers stopped, and it was obvious that the auxiliary soldiers pushing the bulldozers were not shot dead.

"Has Zhang Fei reinforced those bulldozers again? He is quite a man who knows how to adapt to changing circumstances. This enemy is not easy to deal with." Zhang Ren thought to himself.

Fortunately, not long after, when Zhang Ren saw from afar that the bulldozers had pushed the dirt to the edge of the trench and the amount of earth pouring down was far less than before, he laughed in relief.

"I thought they had some skills, but it turns out that they wasted so much weight on reinforcing wooden boards to protect against arrows. A cart can only push this little bit, which is not much faster than carrying soil on a shoulder. How long will it take to fill it up?"

In view of this, Zhang Ren no longer worried or suspected anything, and continued to defend according to the old method. He only reminded the officers in charge of the crossbowmen to save arrows and shoot at a closer distance.

When Wei Yan arranged for trench-filling soldiers to push earth carts to pile up earth embankments perpendicular to the direction of the moat at the four corners of the city wall, Zhang Ren did not think much about it. He just thought that the enemy wanted to prepare more roads through the moat and more future attack points, so he defended evenly.

In Zhang Ren's opinion, the direction of these gaps in the trenches did not pose a risk of "fire blind spots". Even if the enemy pushed the Ge Gongche over from here in the future, it would not pose much of a threat if it did not adjust its direction.

So for several days, the attackers took steady steps, building three or four narrow dikes at the corners of the city, which barely reached the other side. However, because the top of the dike above the water was too narrow to allow vehicles to pass, Zhang Ren, after being alert for a while, did not pay much attention to it.

He simply ordered his subordinates to keep a close eye on the situation, and once they found that the attacking side had widened the cofferdams to the point where ladders could pass through, they would then focus on defense.

However, Wei Yan was slow to widen the cofferdams.

At the same time, because the attackers had to fill the trenches, they needed to dig a lot of soil from the rear, so even though many large pits were dug two or three hundred steps behind the position, Zhang Ren was not alert. He just thought that these pits were for digging soil.

Finally, it was already the beginning of the twelfth lunar month. After the attacking and attacking sides had been in a stalemate for half a month, unexpected events suddenly occurred at the southeast and southwest corners of Mianzhu City.

Wei Yan took advantage of the night before to speed up the construction work and dug through the large earth pit in the rear for taking soil, the connected water diversion trench, and the moats in the southwest and southeast corners of Mianzhu City.

Winter is the dry season, and the amount of water provided by the Mianshui River to the moat of Mianzhu City was originally small, and the source was blocked in advance. The water storage pit dug by Wei Yan was much deeper than the bottom of the moat. After the moat was dug through, the section of the moat that was blocked from top to bottom was naturally emptied quickly and became a dry moat.

After the release, Wei Yan's soldiers were able to move and work directly along the bottom of the dry trench. When daybreak came, Zhang Ren realized that something was wrong and sent heavy troops to the corner of the city, trying to suppress the enemy troops working under the trench with bows and crossbows, but he was unable to do so.

Because the enemy was hiding in the trenches, it was like the trench network and communication trenches in modern warfare, which greatly shielded the arrows. Zhang Ren's powerful crossbows all hit the ground.

Of course, in theory, Zhang Ren also has two ways to break this tactic.

The first is to use a rain of arrows, shooting blindly from the sky. But the problem is that Zhang Ren relies on a powerful crossbow, and the arrows' strong kinetic energy is the only way to penetrate the armor.

Once the arrow is thrown, its speed and kinetic energy will be lost too much when flying in the air, and it will have little killing power against the armored soldiers of Liu Bei's army.

Moreover, the threat source was too singular, and the attacker could completely use the shield to block it. In short, Zhang Ren's long-range firepower had been greatly reduced.

Another tactic Zhang Ren used was to send out a death squad to attack the attackers' construction sites. He could even tear open the cofferdam to allow water from other sections of the river to rush over, which would drown all the attackers at the bottom of the trench without bloodshed!
But the difficulty of this move is also obvious. If Zhang Ren had the ability to send a suicide squad to counterattack, he would have won the decisive battle with Zhang Fei and Wei Yan in the field long ago, so why would he retreat and defend the city?

Unfortunately, whether you can win the fight is one thing, but whether you have to fight is another.

Zhang Ren knew very well that if he did nothing and just watched the noose around his neck get tighter and tighter, then the morale of his troops would surely collapse.

After Wei Yan continued the construction recklessly for two days, Zhang Ren finally made up his mind.

"Since the full moon night a few days ago has passed and the moonlight is getting darker every night, tonight we will use ropes to release a group of assassins from the city wall, let them descend from the city wall and attack Wei Yan's water-blocking cofferdam! Kill the enemy soldiers guarding the cofferdam, break the earthen embankment, and Wei Yan's construction troops will be completely destroyed!"

(End of this chapter)