My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 615: Breaking Mianzhu with Force and Impressing the World

Faced with Fa Zheng's offensive to poach his talents, Zhang Ren struggled to find ways to resist for a whole night, but ultimately failed to stop Fa Zheng's sabotage.

It was not until dawn, when several square meters of earth had been dug away and a layer of the outer walls and battlements had collapsed, that the attackers' excavation efforts gradually slowed down, giving Zhang Ren some time to catch his breath.

The reason for the slowdown was certainly not because Wei Yan or Fa Zheng had a change of heart, but because too much earth had been dug, and the area around the seven or eight wooden donkeys in the neighboring city had already been piled up with dug and collapsed earth.

The four wooden donkey carts that were at the forefront were even half buried alive by the collapsed earth. Fortunately, the carts were relatively long and the rear part was not buried very deeply, so the soldiers inside the carts could easily dig up the loose earth at the rear part and then move backwards to evacuate.

The city walls in ancient times were often several zhang high and thick. Even cities like Mianzhu had walls that were two or three zhang high and more than three zhang thick. The base on the inner side of the city was particularly thick, which was consistent with the structure of gravity dams built in later generations.

Because the city walls of this era were mostly made of rammed earth, without bricks or bluestone coverings, if the difference between the narrow top and the wide bottom was not big enough, the soil layer would easily collapse on its own.

It is naturally a complicated project to completely dig down such a large amount of earth. Initially loosening the wall is only the first step. The excavated earth must be continuously transported back to free up space around the wooden donkey cart, so that sustainable construction can be achieved.

So from this perspective, being dug up by Wei Yan for most of the night was not a big problem. As long as Zhang Ren could think of a way to stop the continued bleeding, there was still hope.

The next morning, when he saw that the enemy had to send some people to transport the earth back because of the excessive earth pile, and also used some carts, Zhang Ren's originally dazed eyes finally showed a few glimmers of hope.

He ordered hastily: "Quick! Concentrate the crossbowmen and shoot at the enemy soldiers carrying soil. If rolling logs and rocks are not enough, go dig up soil from the city and dump it directly down. Kill as many as you can, but bury them alive if you can't!"

Zhang Ren finally figured it out. Anyway, throwing stones down would easily bounce off the top of the slope. Unless it was a huge rock, it would be difficult to be effective.

In this case, stones are precious, so it is better to pour baskets of soil down. If they hit someone, they will die anyway. If they don't hit anyone, we can bury more people and increase the enemy's workload. They can keep digging soil over there and pouring soil over here.

Moreover, Zhang Ren also drew inferences from his experience, thinking that since he could not stop Wei Yan from digging and destroying the city, he would have people build a second simple wall on the inner side of the city corner to ensure that the enemy could not directly enter the inner city after breaking through. Or he could simply dig outside and repair inside to see which side could be constructed faster.

After making up his mind, Zhang Ren felt relieved and was mentally prepared to engage in a protracted battle of attrition with the attacking side.

A large number of crossbowmen were quickly dispatched, and auxiliary troops were also assembled in large numbers to build walls and pile up earth.

At first, Zhang Ren's deployment did work, because most of the wooden donkey carts were half-buried under the city wall and could not be moved. Later, the soldiers of Wei Yan's army who were transporting soil had to risk getting out from under the carts. If they were caught, they would be shot with arrows.

However, the good times did not last long, as Zhang Ren discovered that this killing efficiency was not good. Because this position was in a corner of the city wall, the crossbowmen on the walls on both sides could not cover this area, so he had to let more and more crossbowmen squeeze into the top of this corner.

There were not enough shooting holes on the parapet, so the following soldiers could only stand on the open space on the top of the wall and shoot arrows randomly.

……

"Zhang Ren has already gathered a large number of crossbowmen and auxiliary soldiers who were transporting soil to build the wall at the corner of the wall, and they are standing on the open ground shooting arrows. Even the battlements have been damaged by the excavation and landslides.

It's time to use our catapults. Remember to change all the stone bombs or mud balls. Before launching, remember to use flags to warn the soldiers digging the city and transporting soil to take cover temporarily. Hide under the wooden donkey or in the dry trench.

Our army's archers were also ready, rushing forward to the rattan shield bunkers behind the trenches and shooting arrows at the top of the city walls."

Fa Zheng was far away. After confirming Zhang Ren's deployment adjustments through a telescope, he was ruthless enough and immediately gave Wei Yan new suggestions.

He was quite familiar with Zhang Ren's defensive ability. Almost before he made a move, he had deduced what Zhang Ren might do in response.

Now Zhang Ren's reaction did not exceed his expectations, so Fa Zheng's solution was as easy as strolling in the garden.

Wei Yan immediately followed the deployment, and the attacking crossbowmen and catapults soon began to show their power.

Suddenly, a rain of rubble and earth bullets rushed over the top of the city corner. The attacking crossbowmen also blindly fired at the top of the wall.

Soon, screams of ghosts and wolves howling were heard from the top of the city wall. Countless crossbowmen and auxiliary soldiers under Zhang Ren had bloody heads and incomplete limbs. They fell down like wheat being cut and rolled down the city wall. All the previous firepower coverage on the top of the city wall by the besiegers had never caused such tragic casualties.

So much so that when Zhang Ren himself saw this scene, he could hardly believe his eyes.

After being stunned for a long while, he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Don't send any more reinforcements to the wall! Scatter! Shoot arrows from the battlements! Don't show your heads!" It took the defenders a long time to gradually recover from the chaos and execute Zhang Ren's orders, but the losses in this process were not to be underestimated.

Zhang Ren was filled with regret and secretly blamed himself. He felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife. "Why didn't I think that if I piled too many soldiers at the corner of the city, the enemy would use catapults to target me? Oh, it's also because the enemy is too cunning. They reacted so quickly. I'm afraid they had planned to plot against me a long time ago! How could Zhang Fei and Wei Yan be so sharp in their tactics when they attacked the city?"

It turned out that both the attacker and the defender were smart people, so they quickly figured out the reason for this tragic scene.

Why did the city walls of later generations have corner towers? This is because when the corners of the city are attacked, the firepower of the left and right walls can hardly support the corners. Therefore, in order to defend the corners well, they have to station heavy troops at the corners to ensure the density of defensive firepower.

Some people may ask, if there is no corner tower, wouldn't it be just as effective if we densely packed people on top of the corner of the city wall, shooting arrows and throwing wood and stones? Building a corner tower can concentrate the number of people, but it's not much more, right?
The problem is that we ignore the difference in defensive power between standing directly on top of the wall and standing in a building.

In real ancient city defense wars, the density of soldiers on the top of the city walls could not be as dense as in movies and TV dramas.

In that case, the defenders' cover advantage cannot be brought into play at all, and they cannot gain much advantage in a shootout with the attackers. At most, they can only have a kinetic advantage from being high above.

In real ancient city defense battles, the archers on the top of the wall stood relatively sparsely, with basically only two archers hiding behind a parapet. They would never show their heads, and their arrows were shot crosswise and obliquely at the inclination of the back of the parapet. It was rare for them to shoot at the enemy in front of them.

This is the only way to maximize the city’s cover effect, which is why the city is so difficult to attack.

If there is a corner tower, first of all, the corner tower can have several floors, and each floor can have shooting holes, so that the number of archers that can be stacked per unit length of the city wall will increase several times.

Secondly, the lower floors of the corner tower are equivalent to having a roof, so they are not afraid of arrow rain and stone bullets falling from the sky. Therefore, no matter how many soldiers are hidden inside and how densely they are, they will not be killed on a large scale.

However, the cities of the Han Dynasty did not have corner towers. Zhang Ren was forced to temporarily pile up a large number of troops at the corners of the city. The battlements were not enough, and the soldiers standing on the open ground could not stop the attacks from the sky. Naturally, the rate of casualties increased by more than ten times, making it impossible for him to withstand the long-range firepower of the attackers.

Real war is not like playing Age of Empires 4, where a crossbowman standing on top of a wall will get a BUFF that reduces health loss by 50% when attacked from a distance. If you are not standing behind a battlement but on an open ground, you will not get any BUFF.

Both sides were familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the tactics of the era. Fa Zheng also knew Zhang Ren well, and also knew the characteristics of Mianzhu's city defense. He was unintentional and had no intention of tricking Zhang Ren, no matter how good he was at defense.

Being suppressed by Fa Zheng, Zhang Ren could no longer effectively disrupt Wei Yan's digging and transportation of earth. The density of crossbowmen on the city walls also decreased sharply, and they were unable to quickly repair and raise the city walls.

In contrast, Wei Yan was vigorous and energetic. He continued to work hard and created two small surprises in the subsequent stages:

Seeing that it was not easy to transport the excavated soil back and to clear the excavation site, Wei Yan threw in a few more wooden donkey carts, which were pushed up and connected end to end with the carts in front, forming a hardwood sloping corridor that was more than ten feet long and directly connected to the dry moat construction site, connecting the base of the wall and the moat together.

Then, the soldiers sent by Wei Yan to dig the wall directly poured the extra earth into the trench that had not yet been filled through the secret passage, which was a kind of "three tasks in one go". They not only destroyed the city wall, but also filled the trench with the waste earth produced by the destruction of the city wall.

After two days of such offensive and defensive warfare, Zhang Ren's guards became increasingly weaker, and the crossbowmen and auxiliary soldiers were unwilling to fight. They were repeatedly consumed by the enemy's catapults, and their morale was almost broken.

On the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, a large section of the city wall collapsed again, and a steep slope formed on the outside of the wall at the corner of the city.

Fa Zheng discussed it with Zhang Fei and Wei Yan and felt that it would take too long to completely dig it out, and the more they dug down, the more the top would collapse, and the amount of direct earthwork would become larger and larger.

Therefore, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan also responded improvisationally and once again sent out ladders and Ge Gongche, passing through the completely filled and compacted corner moat, and directly approached the southwest corner of Mianzhu City, which had been shortened by half, and launched a full-scale and general attack.

Zhang Ren still wanted to rely on his crossbowmen to hold out, but the attacking side's catapults used "slow-advancing barrage" to lure the defenders several times, making the defenders dare not show their heads or concentrate too many troops at one point.

Finally, after several rounds of bloody charges, Wei Yan's troops finally gained a foothold on the wall at the corner of the city. After an afternoon of fierce fighting between the two sides, Zhang Ren gradually became exhausted.

Although there were still tens of thousands of soldiers in the city, he knew that it was only a matter of time before the enemy advanced along the top of the city wall and seized each gate. Moreover, the enemy had left the South Gate unsieged in order to undermine the morale of the defenders and make them dare not fight back in despair.

While Zhang Ren was still hesitating whether to abandon the city and break out, the south gate of Mianzhu City was secretly opened by his subordinates.

Thousands of defenders seemed to know that the city could not be defended, so they abandoned the city and fled under the leadership of the captain in charge of the defense of the South Tower.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Zhang Ren could only curse Zhou a few times, secretly blaming himself for not disciplining his troops strictly, and tried to find a way to escape and retreat.

(End of this chapter)