My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 677: Fancheng Iron Wall Cao Zixiao

Some people are still alive, but they are equivalent to being dead.

Although some people have not surrendered yet, they have already surrendered.

Yu Jin is such a person.

Under the repeated oppression of Zhuge Jin's strategies, Yu Jin had completely lost his temper.

He only asked for some conditions on the time and prerequisites of surrender out of fear that it would be obvious that he surrendered too early.

He was also willing to make a verbal gentleman's agreement without leaving any written evidence: before surrendering in the future, he would not harm or oppress the people of Xiangyang or set fire to the city's facilities.

I believe Yu Jin will not break these promises, because there is no need. Not only will he not gain any benefit from Cao Cao, but he will also be retaliated by Zhuge Jin for not keeping his promise. Why bother?

Therefore, Yu Jin was just a "person waiting to surrender with conditions and a time limit."

Zhuge Jin no longer had to worry about what was happening on the Hannan battlefield.

Of course, necessary vigilance is still necessary. For example, Huang Zhong originally spent more than 20,000 people to surround Yu Jin's 35,000 people.

After such a long siege and war of attrition, Yu Jin's troops have been reduced to barely 30,000 men, while Huang Zhong's siege works are much stronger than they were a month ago.

Therefore, even if the number of troops besieging the city was reduced to 10,000, it would be more than enough to keep the city under control and prevent Yu Jin from suddenly changing his mind and causing any unexpected trouble.

After Zhuge Jin sorted and archived the negotiation gains in Xiangyang, he sent two groups of trusted and reliable people to the front line in Fancheng and Yicheng respectively.

Let Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei all know the latest developments and how to deploy the next focus.

Liu Bei, who was in Yicheng, was quite relieved to learn that Yu Jin had secretly surrendered.

He immediately took time out to inspect the siege camp on the Xiangyang front line, and also met with Huang Zhong, Xu Shu and Deng Zhi.

Liu Bei said: When Xiangyang is successfully taken over in the future, he will immediately reward the three people according to their merits and fulfill his promise, and promote them to a higher rank. He will also not be stingy in giving titles and fiefs to those who deserve them.

Huang Zhong and others expressed their gratitude repeatedly and stated that they would do their best to restore the Han Dynasty.

……

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

While Liu Bei was personally visiting Huang Zhong, Deng Zhi and the others to offer his condolences, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei also had a rare gathering in the Fancheng siege camp in northern Han, where they were reading Zhuge Jin's secret letter of instructions together.

Since Liu Bei's army began to cross the Han River to the north, besiege Fancheng, and harass the southern counties of Nanyang nearly a month ago, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have rarely been stationed in one place.

Most of the time, they divided their troops and fought separately. When Guan Yu was responsible for setting up camp to besiege Cao Ren and Xu Huang, Zhang Fei took a part of his troops to plunder the surrounding small counties, carry out harassment and cut off the communication of Cao's army.

Later, when the siege camp of Fancheng was gradually completed and the noose around Cao Ren's neck was gradually tightened, Zhang Fei's main force reunited with Guan Yu. The two brothers worked together and focused on the tough battle.

Cao Ren and Xu Huang should feel honored to have Guan and Zhang's joint attack.

Ever since Liu Bei gradually became powerful and expanded his territory to span two states, no other famous general in the world has enjoyed the treatment of being beaten by Guan Yu and Zhang Fei at the same time.

The last time in history that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei besieged Hefei at the same time was in the third year of Jian'an, before Yuan Shu's demise, when his general Liu Xun defended the city to the death.

In that battle, Zhuge Jin deployed four generals, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Taishi Ci, and Gan Ning, each responsible for one side of Hefei City, and attacked from the southeast, northwest, and northeast, and finally annihilated Liu Xun completely. Liu Xun himself was also killed by Zhang Fei in an ambush when he tried to leave the city to destroy the dike and flood Liu Bei's army.

Today, because Zhuge Jin sent a letter with some important matters to tell Guan and Zhang, they came here in tacit understanding.

……

"Has Yu Jin secretly surrendered to Zi Yu? He even promised that as long as Fancheng is captured by our army and Cao Ren is expelled, he will lead his army to surrender?"

"Tzuyu has done everything she can do, the rest is up to us? Then we must not let big brother and Tzuyu down! Second brother, let's speed up the attack. We can't delay any longer, you tell me how to attack, I will listen to you, let's work together with all our strength!"

After reading the contents of the letter, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's first reaction was naturally shock, and then they felt tremendous pressure on their shoulders.

Zhuge Situ's victory over the enemy depends on their victory over the enemy here, so they can't afford to let it go.

However, Fancheng was also very strong, with the height and thickness of its walls being no less than those of Xiangyang. At the same time, the city was smaller in area, making it easier to concentrate troops and defend it, leaving almost no defensive loopholes.

The forces at Cao Ren and Xu Huang's disposal far outnumbered Yu Jin on the south bank. Fancheng also had the Baihe waterway, which connected it to the counties behind Nanyang County, and could receive continuous reinforcements and supplies from the rear.

In this way, the relative disadvantages of Fancheng, such as its small area, the small number of people that can be stationed in the city and the small amount of stored supplies, can also be compensated.

Therefore, even though Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's land encirclement of Fancheng is now very tight, it is still extremely difficult to break into the city by force.

Guan Yu stroked his beard thoughtfully, then flipped through the recent reports from various military units and reviewed the progress of the preparations for the siege.

"We have been besieging the city for more than 20 days. The moat of Fancheng has been damaged and filled with several gaps. The soil is also compacted enough for the Ge Bus to pass directly.

The sheep and horse walls on the inner side of the moat were also smashed by catapults. Although the deer horns and pits at the base of the remaining walls were not completely destroyed, the wooden donkeys used to dig the city could be arranged to go ahead of Ge Gongche and clear the last obstacles.

But Cao Ren has a strong military force, and he is not afraid of wasting lives against us - the Baihe waterway is in Cao Ren's hands, and even if many of him die on the city wall, he can get reinforcements from the rear.

Even though our army has elite soldiers and excellent weapons, we still suffered a loss in the face of the disadvantages of siege and the loss of lives. The previous several tentative attacks have also proved this point. "

Guan Yu thoroughly analyzed the pros and cons of an all-out attack now, and reluctantly came to this conclusion.

Fancheng's fortifications were strong and the morale was high. Guan Yu had encountered these unfavorable factors before when he attacked other strong cities, and he was able to overcome them. But the last point was difficult to overcome.

Zhang Fei was listening anxiously. He took a few gulps from the wine jar and growled, "What's the point of thinking more? These difficulties cannot be overcome by tricks. No matter how much you think, you still have to fight a hard battle in the end! Tomorrow I will attack with all my strength again! Maybe I can find Cao Ren's weakness!"

Guan Yu pondered and slowly stroked his beautiful beard, unable to think of any words to stop his third brother.

……

The next day was already the ninth day of October.
At noon in the morning, Zhang Fei gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and deployed them on the north side of Fancheng.

Last night he and Guan Yu finally discussed the matter and decided to attack the north side as the main attack while also attacking the west side to disperse the enemy's forces.

Under the warm sun of early winter, the mud of late autumn had just faded away, and the ground had become hard again, making it very solid to step on. Heavy siege weapons were no longer so easily stuck in mud when advancing on flat ground.

In the previous twenty days, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei could only besiege the city and destroy the outer fortifications and the city moat, and could not launch a sustained large-scale assault. This was also related to the weather and geographical environment.

After all, the rainy season in late autumn is very severe around the Han River Plain. Heavy rain will not only cause the Han River and Baihe River to surge, but also make the land extremely soft.

High-pressure equipment such as Ge buses and ladders cannot be pushed at all.

The tall watchtowers and trap cars could only be converted into fixed types, and deep wooden piles had to be driven in to ensure a stable center of gravity.

Now that the ground is hard, the mobile well gates and Ge buses can come into use.

As drums and horns sounded, tens of thousands of soldiers pushed hundreds of siege weapons forward one after another.

Thousands of crossbowmen also carried large shields and advanced to the temporary wooden formation house outside the moat, shooting arrows at the Cao army on the top of the city wall and suppressing them with firepower.

The catapults of both armies were also firing at full power, desperately hurling single-headed bullets or a rain of gravel.

The stone bullets fired by Zhang Fei's army hit the top of the city wall, causing bricks, stones and soil to fly everywhere, and the parapet of the parapet was hit, leaving a big gap.

The stone bullets fired back by Cao Ren's army, as long as they hit the wooden arrow-proof shelter built in advance by Zhang Fei, would also cause the wooden shelter to shatter directly, and the archers and crossbowmen of the attacking party hiding behind it would also be greatly threatened.

In the fierce exchange of fire, both sides soon suffered a lot of casualties, but both sides gritted their teeth and held on, fighting with all their might.

Zhang Fei's first batch of light ladders used in the exploratory attack were severely hit by Cao Ren while being pushed up.

Because the ladders were heavy and the targets were large, Cao Ren was a very good defensive general, and he had the full technical and weapon support of Cao Cao's camp, and there were many catapults in the city. So he focused on the ladders and smashed them directly, breaking several of them.

There were even more ladders that were smashed to pieces with broken pillars and pierced boards, and they were all tilted and unusable.

Moreover, Zhang Fei's troops had only a few attack routes and only a few gaps through the moat. Several ladders were smashed when passing through the moat, resulting in the debris blocking the road.

The following friendly troops immediately crowded there and were hit by the concentrated rain of arrows from Cao's army. They had to send people to push the smashed ladders to both sides into the river to clear the way before they could continue the attack.

Fortunately, most of these ladders were destroyed during the process of advancement, rather than when they were already close to the city wall. Therefore, there were not many soldiers climbing on the ladders, and even if the ladders were broken, it would not cause the soldiers to fall to their deaths, and at most only some wooden machinery and craftsmen would be lost.

Zhang Fei was so angry that his eyes were about to burst, but there was nothing he could do. In his anxiety, he just couldn't understand why Cao Ren's trebuchet had such a high hit rate.

After a long while, several soldiers and staff members around him realized the problem and explained it to Zhang Fei, who was not good at mathematics:

“General Zhang, it seems that Cao Ren is good at locating the landing point of the catapult’s stone bullets in advance, so he can hit it so accurately - it’s just that when our army destroyed the moat before, we had limited manpower and could only slightly destroy a few gaps to form a passage.

So our army's ladders and catapults can only pass through these narrow passages if they are pushed to the city. Cao Ren must have tried it in advance and adjusted the angle and distance of the catapult to hit these positions. So every time our ladders pass through here, they will be hit by a rain of stones. "Zhang Fei didn't quite understand what he heard, so he asked a few more questions. The technical staff cited the battle between Cao Ren and Gao Shun at Yuliangzhou Water Fort before Zhang Fei came to help as an example to explain Cao Ren's ability.

When Cao Ren attacked the Yuliangzhou Water Fortress that Gao Shun had seized from Cai Mao, didn't he also deploy trebuchets after taking control of the high ground, and then block the berths of the water fortress? The warships that Guan Yu brought to Gao Shun to transport reinforcements and military supplies would be hit by stones whenever they docked for loading and unloading.

Zhang Fei arrived late and did not experience these things personally, so he did not intuitively understand the power of Cao Ren's "trebuchet hitting fixed targets".

Some of his technical staff were temporarily assigned to him by Guan Yu. They had participated in previous battles and were more familiar with the situation.

"It turns out that before I came, my second brother and Zhongda had suffered losses in this regard. Cao Ren is good at using catapults to defend. He is indeed quite capable. What should we do now?" Zhang Fei scratched his beard anxiously, thought nervously for a while, and then asked his staff along the way.

"Can we use our army's trebuchets to counterattack and smash all of Cao Ren's trebuchets? Don't our trebuchets have a longer range and are more accurate?"

The technical staff thought for a moment and said carefully, "The trebuchets of our army have all been taught by the Minister of War and the Lord, so they know how to calculate ballistics. We should be able to do it after a few more attempts.

However, although Cao Ren's catapult has a short range, it can be deployed on the wall and shoot from a high position. The difference in range between the enemy and us is not so obvious.

Moreover, we cannot directly see the location of the catapult hidden in the wall or behind the wall, and we cannot accurately judge its distance.

We also have to use the ledges that are higher than the city walls to provide a field of vision, firstly to confirm the exact position of the enemy's trebuchets, and secondly to observe the distance of the previous rounds of shooting, and then make adjustments. "

Zhang Fei didn't care about the specific technical details of how to achieve them, he just wanted the results. When he heard that this thing could be done, he immediately waved his hand:
"What are you hesitating about? Fight back immediately! Smash all of Cao Ren's catapults! Hold off on pushing the ladders and Ge Gongche up!"

Zhang Fei's order was quickly executed, and the trebuchet troops under his command quickly changed their tactics and began to focus on countering Cao Ren's trebuchets.

At the same time, heavy melee equipment such as the Ge Gongche will no longer be pushed up to avoid giving away heads before the threat is lifted.

The situation on the battlefield was chaotic and no one noticed anything unusual. But gradually, the details of the battle were changing little by little.

Cao Ren did not immediately notice the dangerous change, and his catapults were still throwing stones crazily. After the enemy's ladders were out of range, Cao Ren's army focused on smashing Zhang Fei's wooden formation houses that provided shelter from arrows.

After a long while, as Zhang Fei's trebuchets slowly completed their calibration and counterattacked and destroyed two of Cao Ren's trebuchets positions, Cao Ren realized that something was wrong.

"Zhang Fei's trebuchet is so accurate? Can he instantly calculate how to smash my trebuchet?" After Cao Ren realized this, he took a breath of cold air.

"Have all the trebuchets stop throwing stones! Zhang Fei's ladders and Ge Gongche have all retreated! Wait until he rushes up again before smashing him!"

Cao Ren quickly countered the enemy's move and first ordered the catapult position to stop firing, trying to observe the enemy's situation.

Those wooden battle formations were too worthless, so there was no need to expose the location of one's own battle formation just to smash those pieces of junk.

After Cao Ren stopped forbearing, the efficiency of Zhang Fei's trebuchets' observation and calibration really dropped a level. Cao Ren thought that he would be fine, but then he found that he was still being beaten unilaterally.

Zhang Fei did not completely lose his target because of his stopping and shifting. His counterattack just became slower and less efficient, but he was still able to maintain his counterattack.

"What's going on? Our troops have stopped, and some of the trebuchets have even moved. How can Zhang Fei still hit them?"

Cao Ren was filled with anger, and after a long time of trying all sorts of medical advice like a headless fly, he finally found out what the problem was.

"General, look! It must be Zhang Fei's well gate that is sending a signal to the catapult! Look, there is a faint flag on Zhang Fei's well gate!"

The generals around Cao Ren suddenly observed a situation and quickly reported it to Cao Ren.

This man is a technical officer in charge of the catapult unit. When Cao Ren attacked the Yuliangzhou Water Fort controlled by Gao Shun, he also helped Cao Ren block the berths of the water fort. He is very skilled in his job, which is why he has such a sharp vision.

Cao Ren suddenly realized what was going on and quickly responded: "Use your catapults to smash Zhang Fei's chariot! Gouge out Zhang Fei's eyeballs! I want Zhang Fei to become blind!"

The remaining catapult troops of Cao's army, which had just ceased firing, soon opened fire again, and this time their target was the well guard deployed by Zhang Fei at the forefront.

Cao's army was very professional in using catapults to smash watchtowers and other facilities. After all, they had smashed the earthen platform and arrow tower formation deployed by Yuan Shao at Guandu eight years ago.

Now he was back to his old job, familiar with the process, and the rain of stones soon flew towards Zhang Fei's well formation.

However, the well guardrail built by Zhang Fei was not like Yuan Shao's earthen platform after all. The earthen platform relied on its own gravity dam structure for weight, so it was easy for stones to hit it.

The well guardrail only has a few wooden pillars and cross-diagonal trusses for support, and most of the structure is hollow. As long as the stone cannot hit the wooden pillar accurately, the threat is not great.

Cao Ren had to put in twice as much effort and ammunition, slowly relying on luck. After a long time of fighting, he finally achieved one or two victories.

The two wooden pillars of the well were hit by the huge stones and broke instantly. The lookouts and archers on top also screamed and fell, and the momentum of the attackers was also suffocated.

Zhang Fei soon discovered that the situation had changed, and immediately ordered his own chariots to retreat and get out of the attack range of the enemy's catapults.

These chariots were originally responsible for firing arrows at the top of the city walls, and observing the enemy situation on the top of the city walls was just a side job. Therefore, they had to get close to the city walls to within the range of the crossbows, making it easy for the catapults to hit them.

Now that they had retreated hastily, the task of suppressing with bows and crossbows naturally could not be carried out, and the observation field on the top of the city wall had also become much worse, but at least their survivability was ensured.

In order to save time, hundreds of auxiliary soldiers, as well as a small number of strong men selected from the combat soldiers, pushed the high well gate with all their strength and retreated desperately.

The enemy's rain of arrows followed like a shadow, pouring down on the group of people pushing the carts.

Although most people were wearing armor, with such a high density of attacks, some people were still shot in the hands, feet, faces and other weakly protected parts of the body, causing them to scream and fall to the ground.

The bloody tug-of-war and technical confrontation between the two sides escalated alternately, and casualties continued to rise. Zhang Fei and Cao Ren gritted their teeth and fought to the death.

After the siege tower was safely retreated, although the observation efficiency was a little lower, thanks to the telescope polished with crystal pieces, Liu Bei's army could still see something more or less, and could still maintain a certain low intensity and continue to kill Cao's catapults.

When Cao Ren discovered that something was wrong, he ordered the catapults to stop firing and hide, trying to avoid Zhang Fei's observation.

Seeing that the enemy's catapults had ceased operations, Zhang Fei deployed ladders again, preparing to launch an ant-like attack close to the city.

It was at this time that Cao Ren once again chose not to release the eagle until he saw the rabbit. As soon as he saw the ladder or the Ge Gongche, he ordered the catapult to throw stones at the points where the moat was dug.

Several ladders were once again destroyed by this kind of "fixed target" artillery fire, and the siege road was once again congested. The auxiliary troops had to push away the wreckage to clear the road, and the Cao army's archers also seized the opportunity to shoot again.

There seems to be no end to the rounds of consumption.

However, with such consumption, Cao Ren had fewer and fewer catapults, and the casualties among archers were also considerable.

It’s a pity that the number of siege towers and ladders stockpiled by Zhang Fei was also decreasing sharply. As they were being consumed, they were no longer enough for a full-scale general attack.

In the end, the bloody attack of that day had to be temporarily withdrawn and came to an end.

……

Zhang Fei's all-out attack on the first day did not yield any decisive results. It only cost Cao Ren a lot of personnel and supplies, and also destroyed many of Cao Ren's heavy city defense equipment.

Guan Yu's offensive was similar to Zhang Fei's, but Guan Yu's attack was a feint to divert the enemy's attention, so the loss of engineering equipment was less, and the exchange ratio was better, but there was no qualitative difference.

After a whole day of bloody fighting, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei met again and discussed the lessons learned overnight.

Zhang Fei also thought a lot, and while drinking a little wine, he recounted a few lessons:

"We still don't have enough Ge Gongche and siege ladders. If we had known that Cao Ren would use catapults and crossbows to destroy our engineering equipment and fight a war of attrition with heavy equipment, we should have stockpiled two or three times more equipment before starting the war! That way, we might have exhausted Cao Ren until he had no more catapults to use today!"

"Also, the number of river crossings created by destroying the moat and filling it up is still not enough! Cao Renfei is incomparable to the Cao generals he has encountered before. He is better than other Cao generals at blocking and bombarding certain fixed locations with catapults. When he was at the Yuliangzhou Water Fort, he was very good at blocking the berths.

We have too few crossing points, so he has completely targeted us. We need to dig several times more crossing paths, and then take turns attacking. We must not let Cao Ren figure out the pattern of the attack route, so that his trebuchets will be hard to defend against and unable to aim in advance."

"Our trapezoidal chariots must be withdrawn 200 steps from the city wall before they can be used for observation. At this distance, the trapezoidal chariot's arrow-releasing function is no longer useful, so it is purely used for observation.

But it is too far away, and the view is too blocked by the city wall, so the well has to be built higher! Just build a fixed watchtower. If the craftsmen don’t have the technology, build a rammed earth platform first, and then build the watchtower on the platform! As long as it is outside the maximum range of the enemy’s trebuchet, there is no need to worry. "

Zhang Fei recited so many experiences and lessons in one breath, all of which were direct lessons from the failure of this assault.

Guan Yu thought these were all correct and could be adopted immediately.

However, after thinking about it, he still noticed some concerns and couldn't help but point out: "These can all be changed, but each of them will take more time.

Filling a few more gaps across the river and adding more attack routes would take at least half a month. The new watchtower would have to be built on a rammed earth platform, which would take even longer to build.

These days, it is a good time for the craftsmen to build more ladders and Ge Gong carts. But Cao Ren has the Baihe waterway to communicate with the rear, so he can also get a steady supply of wood and craftsmen. He will definitely continue to replenish catapults and stone bullets and repair the city walls. Crossbowmen and arrows are also inexhaustible. We must find a way to reduce Cao Ren’s heavy city defense equipment. ”

Zhang Fei knew that his second brother was right, but he and his second brother had no choice but to solve the part of the problem that they could solve with their own abilities.

Zhang Fei couldn't help but sigh: "I know what my second brother said, but what can we do? How about sending someone to Hannan to ask Ziyu if he has a good plan to deal with it?

It is already mid-October. After completing a new round of preparations and launching a full-scale offensive, it will probably take until November. If winter really comes, it will be very disadvantageous for us to attack.”

(End of this chapter)