My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 648: Lure the Enemy Step by Step and Defeat Xu Huang

Because Huo Jun used a large amount of fish paste and other oils to set fire to the enemy and interrupt Xu Huang's offensive.

The first day's assault naturally ended with Xu Huang's temporary defeat, and Cao's army also suffered some additional casualties.

But both sides knew that Xu Huang didn't care about these casualties at all.

Isn't it just a few hundred deaths? In front of him, it was Huo Jun's main force. Huo Jun took the initiative to gather a considerable number of combat troops in Shangyong area into such a weak city.

As long as they break through here, it means annihilating Huo Jun's main force. This is a matter of getting twice the result with half the effort and a matter of first suffering and then sweetness.

Once the city wall is dug down or the city gate is smashed, Cao's army will rush into the city and engage in street fighting. Even if Huo Jun still has thousands of people under his command, he will collapse instantly. By then, the exchange of casualties will more than make up for all these losses.

You need to take a longer-term view.

……

However, the evolution of the war situation obviously cannot be so straightforward.

That night, after temporarily repelling Xu Huang, Huo Jun summoned his main generals and military officers in charge of logistics and military affairs. While reviewing the day's battle situation, he calmed the people's hearts and adjusted countermeasures.

Huo Jun is now 30 years old, with a resolute face and an upright figure. He is originally a local noble family in Jingling County, Jiangxia Prefecture, and his family has hundreds or even thousands of private soldiers.

In his early years, his elder brother Huo Du surrendered to Liu Biao and was willing to work for him, and was given an official position. After Huo Du died, Huo Jun directly inherited and led the Huo family's soldiers.

He had been following Liu Biao and Liu Qi for nearly ten years, but he had never had the opportunity to make great achievements before, so others thought he was just a local tycoon who got his military position by relying on his family's capital.

So Huo Jun has been holding his breath in his heart, wanting to prove himself through a real battle.

At this moment, several of his subordinates, including the military commanders, music commanders, merit officers, and grain officers, all had gloomy faces and were at a loss as to what to do.

Especially the clerk in charge of logistics and food, looking at the amount of supplies Huo Jun used to defend the city today, couldn't help but feel distressed and reminded him:

"Captain Huo, in order to set fire to block the enemy and burn the wooden donkey used to dig the city, we have used up 40% of the fish paste in the city.

According to this strategy, within three days, Wudang County will be destroyed due to the exhaustion of arrows and oil! Perhaps, our army should have defended the dangerous place in the first place..."

Huo Jun looked at the logistics clerk expressionlessly. The clerk was only about 20 years old and had just joined Liu Qi in the past one or two years. His name was Zong Yu, and he was a native of Nanyang.

Huo Jun knew that Zong Yu did not understand military tactics and could only calculate the accounts of money, food and supplies, so he did not blame him.

However, Huo Jun noticed that the other generals were also somewhat uneasy, so he took this opportunity to induce everyone to speak out their opinions:

"Do you agree with Zong Cao's opinion?"

The two military commanders and several Quchang looked at each other, then interrupted with a few words in agreement, with similar meanings.

Huo Jun nodded, and then ordered: "Even you think so, then Xu Huang will think so even more.

Don't worry, I don't plan to keep defending Wudang County forever. I just plan to stay here for a few days, dampen Xu Huang's spirit, kill more Cao soldiers, and make the enemy army waver.

Then, I will retreat by water at night and head directly to Shangyong to lure Xu Huang to chase me.

Now that things have come to this, I will not hide it from you. Ten days ago, a messenger sent by the Grand Commandant crossed the mountains from Linju to Fangling to contact me, saying that he would ask Hanzhong Commandant Wang Ping to send 3,000 shield-armed barbarians to help me soon.

These reinforcements arrived the day before yesterday, and I had already made arrangements to have them set up an ambush in Yundu Valley upstream.

At that time, we can just retreat upstream along the Han River. If Xu Huang pursues us, we can ambush him in the deep and narrow valley of the Han River."

After hearing the commander finally explain the overall plan, Zong Yu and several other officers stopped questioning.

However, some subordinates who had a good relationship with Huo Jun could not help but complain: "If we had known this earlier, why didn't we tell everyone earlier so that they wouldn't be frightened."

Huo Jun knew how to be relaxed and tense. He immediately put on a serious face and said:
"If you don't keep things secret, you'll suffer. If you tell the generals in advance, what if it leaks out and the army loses its will to fight? Of course, you can only tell them when you decide to retreat.

Just continue to carry out my military orders, don't ask any more questions. Although Xu Huang retreated after the strong attack today, he must have been alert and guarded against our retreat.

We have to do the opposite and pretend that we can hold out for a few more days, and continue to do so tomorrow. We will not let him see any signs that we intend to withdraw, and then we will suddenly take advantage of his unpreparedness and withdraw overnight, this will achieve the best effect!"

When the generals heard that this was indeed the truth, they no longer questioned it and all of them confidently and resolutely carried out Huo Jun's tactical arrangements.

Only Zong Yu was somewhat curious and admired, and could not help asking: "Captain Huo is so well aware of the enemy's inner thoughts, it is really admirable."

Huo Jun was a little embarrassed by this kind of admiration: "I can't say that I'm good at guessing the enemy's generals. It was the order sent by the Taiwei last time that reminded me to take the enemy by surprise.

If we want to retreat to lure the enemy and cooperate with Wang Ping, we must not retreat when the enemy thinks it is easy for us to retreat. We must try to bluff first and then do the opposite. "

Although Huo Jun, who is thirty years old, has rich military experience, he is not a wise general after all.

Let him actually command the battle and respond to situations on the spot. But if he wants to cooperate with the psychological warfare, he will need guidance from the people above.

Fortunately, Huo Jun is now also under the remote control of Liu Bei's camp. Shangyong is not far from Nanjun. Liu Bei's camp has Zhuge Jin in Dangyang and Xu Shu to flexibly dispatch.

They can all help to find and fill in the gaps and provide Huo Jun with the best tactical support remotely.

Huo Jun is not fighting alone.

……

Huo Jun successfully stabilized the morale of the troops, and the next day his troops performed even better when defending the city.

Xu Huang initially thought that since Huo Jun realized how powerful he was on the first day, he might just run away and give up on the second day.

Unexpectedly, the final result was contrary to expectations. Huo Jun's troops became more brave in the battle, which really puzzled Xu Huang.

However, Xu Huang was confident in his ability to attack with all his might and held nothing back, only wanting to crush the enemy's morale as quickly as possible. As a result, he urged his troops to attack the city even harder, resulting in greater losses.

At the end of a day's fighting, when the losses were counted, it was found that Cao's army had suffered more than 200 casualties than the first day. Although the absolute numbers were still acceptable, it did deal a slight blow to the morale of the army.

After withdrawing the troops again at nightfall, Xu Huang calmed down and reviewed the situation. He was sure that the improvement in Huo Jun's troops' performance was mainly due to the increase in their fighting spirit and morale.

Faced with the hand-to-hand combat after Cao's army climbed up the wall first, Huo Jun's troops were obviously more daring to counterattack on the second day than the day before.

As for why the enemy's morale did not decrease but increased, Xu Huang really couldn't figure it out, so he decided not to think about it for the time being.

However, after this setback, Xu Huang temporarily stopped thinking about whether Huo Jun would retreat. He subconsciously believed that Huo Jun really wanted to concentrate all his efforts to fight him to the death in Wudang County.

As mentioned earlier, Wudang County is located in a low-lying area where two rivers converge, and is surrounded by a complex network of waterways and dense swamps.

When Xu Huang first arrived the day before, he was still worried that Huo Jun would run away after his defeat, so that he would not be able to surround and kill Huo Jun's main force here.

So that night, Xu Huang sent out some boats to explore the way upstream so as to bypass the city and completely surround the city from all directions.

But unfortunately, many of the patrol boats he sent out on the first night ran aground because they were unfamiliar with the nearby swamp terrain.

Moreover, many of these waterway obstacles that caused the grounding were not even natural - they were caused by Huo Jun's temporary dredging and refilling to change the terrain before the war.

It is normal for people who are not familiar with the hydrology of the area to get stranded if they rashly explore the way in the dark.

If they chose to sail during the day, because the water blockage was close to the county town, the crossbows and catapults on the city walls could block the river, and Xu Huang's boats could not withstand Huo Jun's smashing and shooting.

After going through so much trouble and paying the price of more than a dozen patrol boats, and believing that Huo Jun would not run away, Xu Huang gave up the plan of "going around the city and completely surrounding it" the next day.

Just surround the two gates and two defenses and attack normally.

This will also help Huo Jun collapse faster, and after he collapses, we can slowly consider the issue of pursuit.

……

Time soon came to the third day after Xu Huang's attack on Wudang County.

After Huo Jun's resolute resistance in the previous two days, Xu Huang had made full mental preparations that day. He had planned to fight another real and fierce battle and then completely kill Huo Jun.

If that still doesn't work, he is even mentally prepared to give another day or two of flexibility.

However, early that morning, as Xu Huang prepared to attack and sent another row of wooden donkeys to press towards the already half-broken and half-collapsed wall of Wudang County, he felt an abnormal silence.

The fighting on the city walls had died down, only the torches that were lit last night were still burning.

The wooden donkey for digging the city did not encounter any resistance. It went straight to the base of the city wall and started digging.

At this moment, no matter how cautious Xu Huang was, he should have known that the enemy was not trying to lure him closer before attacking, but was really running away.

"Huo Jun actually retreated? Immediately send the flying ladders up to the city walls, seize the towers and open the gates! Stop ramming and digging!"

Xu Huang couldn't help but feel a little furious. He really didn't expect that Huo Jun would slip away so easily after causing considerable casualties to him.

But Huo Jun happened to be familiar with the nearby swamp waterways and was a local garrison, so he could prepare enough suitable boats in advance. In this case, if Huo Jun wanted to leave, he really couldn't stop him.

Cao's army immediately followed Xu Huang's order and captured Wudang County.

After entering the county town, there were many things that made Xu Huang even more angry - this county town was smaller and poorer than Shangyong or even Fangling, and it didn't have many people.

Huo Jun had obviously planned to abandon this place a long time ago, so when Xu Huang entered the city, he found that there were no civilians here at all. They must have been moved away by Huo Jun before the war.

He also wanted to see if there were any supplies in the county's official warehouse. However, when a team of his soldiers rushed into the treasury, they triggered something and started a fire.

The few heavy items that were left and could not be taken away were mostly burned in the fire, and some of Cao's soldiers who were in charge of the looting were burned and suffocated.

But these are all trivial matters, and Xu Huang has neither the time nor the energy to care about them.

After taking down the almost empty city of Wudang County, a strong thought almost immediately occupied his mind. "Hurry up and send scouts on fast horses to continue scouting along the west coast! We must find out which road Huo Jun retreated from before noon!"

Xu Huang gave the order without question, and then the cavalry scouts of Cao's army were sent out.

As we all know, further upstream from Wudang County, the Han River will fork, with a tributary leading to Fangling.

Until this moment, Xu Huang didn't even know whether Huo Jun, who had escaped in the dark last night, had gone to Fangling along the tributary or to Shangyong along the main stream.

The above sentence will break your legs if you run away.

The area near Wudang County is densely covered with swamps, which is not suitable for large-scale and rapid maneuvers of cavalry.

The troops brought by Xu Huang were unfamiliar with the terrain and were forced to cast a wide search. As a result, within half a day, dozens of scouts had their horses' hooves stuck in the swamp.

More than thirty war horses were lost, and twenty cavalrymen were swallowed up by the swamp.

However, such losses also brought Xu Huang the news he wanted. Before noon, he confirmed that Huo Jun had led his troops to retreat to Shangyong.

"Hurry and chase him! We must not let Huo Jun escape back to Shangyong! Shangyong City is quite solid, and the surrounding mountains are relatively steep. If he escapes to Shangyong, it will take a lot of effort to attack. We must annihilate Huo Jun in the field pursuit!"

Xu Huang decisively issued an order, immediately urging the troops to march faster.

Of course, this order could not be completely unquestioned. So right after it was issued, several generals reminded Xu Huang:
"What about Fangling? Should we divide our forces to take it?"

"If we don't divide our forces, if there are still defenders left in Fangling, they will go down the Dushui River and cut off our food supply and retreat. We must also defend ourselves!"

After hearing these suggestions, Xu Huang accepted all of them.

The terrain of Shangyong counties is rather disgusting, and they can only be distributed along the river valleys of the Han River and its tributaries.

If a county town along a tributary is not cleared, the enemy can turn around and block the junction where the river meets the Han River, which will be a great blow to the enemy who advances alone.

Therefore, Xu Huang really didn't have the courage to leave Fangling alone and chase after Shang Yong directly.

Who knows whether Huo Jun has left any troops in Fangling or any reserve troops to counterattack and cut off the retreat? This risk cannot be taken.

"In that case, we can just send 5,000 men to take Fangling. According to Cai Mao, Huo Jun had less than 10,000 soldiers at the beginning of the war. His main force has already advanced to Wudang, so even if he leaves some men in Fangling, it will definitely not be many.

Sending 5,000 men is enough. If the enemy forces in Fangling are few, just capture the city. If the enemy forces are still a bit weak and cannot be defeated in one blow, just surround them but do not attack, and just block the river valley. "

Xu Huang gave such an order and assigned a captain to carry out this task on the spot.

The captain immediately obeyed the order respectfully and led his troops to separate from the main force.

Xu Huang himself, with the remaining main force, about 20,000 people, continued to chase in the direction of Huo Jun's retreat.

……

Since Huo Jun had already sneaked away at midnight,

In addition, after Xu Huang discovered that Huo Jun had escaped, he had to spend another half a morning confirming the direction in which Huo Jun ran and temporarily deploying a pursuit strategy.

Therefore, Huo Jun was ahead of Xu Huang in retreat by at least one day, which was enough to create a distance difference of more than fifty miles.

Of course, Xu Huang also has his advantages compared to Huo Jun.

That was the initial part of the journey of Huo Jun's army, which was to retreat by boat. Moreover, they had to carry a lot of weapons and equipment, and they were reluctant to discard anything, so the march was relatively slow.

In comparison, Xu Huang's army had to carry less with them, so they could leave their unused baggage carts in Wudang County and pursue the enemy with light equipment.

The Han River flows rapidly in this section, and marching upstream can be faster on foot than by boat, but all soldiers will consume more physical energy.

If they take a boat, the soldiers responsible for rowing and paddling will naturally be exhausted, but those soldiers who are not rowing and just sitting on the boat can save energy and stay in good condition.

If you calculate carefully, marching against the tide by boat is roughly equivalent to giving up the combat effectiveness of one-third of the soldiers in exchange for keeping the remaining two-thirds in good condition.

Marching on foot is faster, but all soldiers in the army will suffer a certain degree of physical exhaustion.

Xu Huang pursued the enemy in this way for two days, going upstream for more than a hundred miles.

Finally, on June 18th, the fleeing Huo Jun's troops were discovered in the Han River Valley near Yunyang - to be exact, on the morning of that day, they caught up with Huo Jun, who had temporarily set up camp there and had not yet continued his westward advance.

In other words, Huo Jun was waiting for him in this temporary camp. It should be that Huo Jun also scouted in advance that the enemy was not far away and could not escape even if he ran, so he rested in advance and fought on the spot.

Xu Huang had been holding back for several days, and finally got a chance to defeat the enemy in a field battle. He could no longer hold back and immediately ordered the entire army to get ready and then launch an attack.

Before the pursuit, Xu Huang personally rode his horse to the front of the battle line and shouted loudly to boost morale:
"The soldiers of Jingzhou have not been trained for a long time, and Liu Biao and Liu Qi are just sitting around talking! As long as we catch up with them and fight them in the field, the enemy army will surely collapse at the first touch! Today is the time to make achievements, so why should you hesitate!"

After hearing Xu Huang's encouragement, the morale of Cao's soldiers was indeed high, and it seemed that all the fatigue from days of marching was swept away, and they shouted and launched an attack.

Huo Jun on the opposite side seemed to know that he could not escape, so he ordered his soldiers to form a battle formation to fight back.

Huo Jun has a temporary camp to rely on, which naturally increases his combat power during defense.

One side of the camp is close to the Han River, which is impossible to cross, and the other side is close to the Qinling Mountains, which are steep.

The river valley where the camp was set up was not very wide. There were only a few hundred steps from the steep slope of the Qinling Mountains to the Han River beach. Huo Jun must have chosen this place before setting up camp, specifically choosing the narrowest river valley within dozens of miles to block the enemy.

Such terrain is not conducive to the deployment of troops by the side with more people. Xu Huang's troops are two or three times that of Huo Jun, so naturally they will be more restricted.

There was a three-foot-deep dry trench and a four-foot-high rammed earth breastwork in front of the camp, but no picket fences. This level of defense was not enough to make Xu Huang suspicious.

Xu Huang quickly rushed to a position less than two or three hundred steps in front of Huo Jun's camp. Before officially charging, Xu Huang still wanted to damage the enemy's morale. He immediately held his axe and shouted at the enemy camp:

"Huo Jun! I heard that you got your position with the help of your clan, but in fact you have never won a victory!

We have been caught up by the imperial army today. If we do not surrender early, not only will the lives of the soldiers of Jingzhou be wasted, but also the lives of our own family members will be wasted! I advise you to take care of yourself!"

Huo Jun didn't want to talk too much with Xu Huang, but since the other party gave him a chance to hurt his morale, he wouldn't hold back. Before the fight even started, he verbally responded:
"Xu Huang, you lord-killing thief! How dare you still live in this world and advise others? Yang Feng was so kind to you in the past!
In order to please Cao Cao, you killed your former master in public in front of the two armies. You are such a shameless person, rarely seen in the world!

You have fallen into Zhuge Situ's ambush! Since you dare to chase me here, this place will be your burial place!"

Xu Huang felt a little panicked for no reason and looked around quickly, but saw nothing unusual. He forced himself to calm down, suppressed his anger, and ordered the entire army to attack.

"Huo Jun is such a despicable fellow that he still wants to cheat me at this time. But why do I still get nervous when I hear the words 'falling into Zhuge Situ's trap' even though I know it's just the enemy's bluffing?"

Xu Huang was actually sweating a little in his heart.

However, he did not have more time to think about it, because the vanguards of the two armies soon engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat.

Huo Jun's troops who were guarding the camp relied on the camp wall to fire crossbows and arrows at the enemy, forcing Cao's army, which had just rushed forward, to suffer several waves of casualties.

Of course, Cao's army also fought back with bows and crossbows, but the enemy had a rammed earth breastwork as a cover, and the part below the waist and abdomen was directly hiding behind the cover, so the area that could be hit was reduced by more than half.

In this kind of shooting contest, Cao's army would definitely suffer a great loss.

After much difficulty, they managed to get close and engage in hand-to-hand combat. Although the Jingzhou soldiers were not very strong in combat, they were still able to hold the front line with the advantage of being on high ground.

Xu Huang spared no expense and kept urging the attack. Cao's army had just entered the battle, their morale was still high, and their physical strength could still hold up, so they gradually gained some advantages.

However, Huo Jun's tenacity was also extraordinary. He took advantage of the narrow terrain on the battlefield to divide his troops into several groups, taking turns to replace them and fight Xu Huang in a round-robin battle.

After the bloody battle lasted for about two incense sticks, the physical endurance gap between the Cao army and the Jingzhou army soon became apparent because of their long march on foot and their lack of energy recovery from camping and rest.

For people with reduced physical strength, short-term explosive power can still be maintained, but the real problem is endurance.

After the initial breath of energy that supported Cao's army was lost, Xu Huang quickly showed signs of decline once the battle entered a stage of endurance warfare.

"There's still a chance! There's still a chance! Huo Jun's camp is about to be breached! This isn't a siege, it's just a camp attack and defense. Huo Jun's troops have never experienced a bloody and bitter battle, so they will definitely collapse by then!"

Xu Huang was also a little nervous inside, but he kept encouraging himself. At the same time, he appeared to be calm as if facing a collapse of Mount Tai, making sure to provide his subordinates with the confidence that would stabilize the sea.

However, this kind of concentration did not last long.

Because soon, a decisive change occurred.

Hundreds of flags were suddenly erected on the steep slopes of the Qinling Mountains on the north side of the battlefield.

Thousands of barbarian soldiers dressed strangely, shouting in bizarre ways and with shrill voices, suddenly rushed out from the side of Xu Huang's troops and rushed down from a high position.

Although the barbarians were rough, the scimitars in their hands were gleaming and sharp, and they were obviously made of high-quality steel. There were also those holding maces and round shields, who rushed straight towards Cao's army with a whistle.

When rushing to the front, these barbarians did not forget to use their crossbows to fire a volley of poisonous arrows.

Originally, this type of hand crossbow was only good in terms of flexible and convenient shooting and quick loading, but the power and range of the arrows were definitely not as good as those of large-sized crossbows.

When the barbarians fought with crossbows, they mostly relied on the poison on the arrows to kill the enemy. In this way, even if the arrows were not strong enough to penetrate the flesh, as long as the poison took effect, they could still kill people.

However, in today's ambush situation where we are in a commanding position, the arrows from the crossbow can be boosted by the gravity caused by the height difference and can naturally shoot dozens of steps further.

Even if the kinetic energy of the arrow is very weak in the end, for a poison arrow, as long as it can penetrate the skin, the effect will be great.

The barbarians shot arrows from above and shouted strangely. Most of them were in barbarian language that Xu Huang could not understand. Only one sentence seemed to have been specially rehearsed and the pronunciation was very close to Chinese:

"Wang Ping of Hanzhong is here! Xu Huang, you bastard, you have fallen into Situ's trap again!"

(End of this chapter)