My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 69: Breaking Chaisang (First day of listing, thank you for supporting the first order)
When Zuo Yuan in Chaisang City discovered that the surrendered soldiers who had been released were spreading what they had seen and heard in Pengze at will because of the collapse of their faith, he finally panicked.

Zuo Yuan was a man who acted decisively. After discovering the clues, he immediately isolated all the released monks and surrendered soldiers.

Whenever there was evidence that someone had indeed gossiped, he would torture them without hesitation, and harshly interrogate them about how those people had been corrupted and bought off in Pengze County.

The soldiers who were released after being tortured were not ambiguous. They had no intention of concealing anything and confessed directly.

But they insisted that they were not bribed by the enemy. It was because they saw the confiscated property of the monks who had embezzled money and the accounts calculated for them by the court generals that they confirmed with their own eyes that the monks were enriching themselves in the name of Bodhisattva, so they voluntarily gave up their faith in the Zuo family.

Especially those monks who were found to have embezzled money, their deaths were so miserable, with pus oozing from their injuries and eventually dying of festering.

Their bodies were even more severely festered than those of normal combat wounds. They completely believed that this was a punishment from heaven, which was why they could not pass away in a dignified manner.

These words, one after another, were like heavy hammers hitting Zuo Yuan's heart. His eyes were bloodshot and he roared in a suppressed voice:

"Zhuge bastards! What's wrong with you? You're so vicious! Not only do you kill people, you also destroy their hearts, ruin their reputations, and even throw dirty water on them after they die. Our Zuo family and your Zhuge family will never stop fighting! We can never reconcile!"

Even though he kept scolding, he had no other choice but to quietly order the monks who had been in charge of the torture to kill all the prisoners.

Those in charge of the torture all felt a chill in their hearts, but they did not dare to resist for the time being. After all, the Zuo family had accumulated power for a long time, and more than three years of repeated brainwashing could not be shaken by a momentary ugly act.

The torturers finally carried out the order, but they didn't know that Zuo Yuan didn't trust them at all. Not long after, he ordered people to kill the torturers who heard the confessions under torture.

Fortunately, there were only a few torturers in this batch, so they didn't have to commit too many crimes. In addition, in order to prevent the cycle of "using new torturers to kill old torturers", Zuo Yuan took care of the "second batch of torturers" this time: Don't ask anything before killing people, because those in the first batch of torturers were incompetent and deserved to die.

All we can say is that once an idea emerges, its spread is often more difficult to contain than a plague.

Even though Zuo Yuan tried so many times, he ultimately failed to stop the monks and soldiers in Chaisang City from wavering in their morale. This precarious situation made it impossible for him to sleep at night.

And Zhuge Liang obviously had no intention of letting these bandits fall asleep.

Late that night, when Zuo Yuan, who had been sleepless for most of the night, was just beginning to doze off, one of his trusted monks rushed into his bedroom and hurriedly woke him up.

"Why are you disturbing me? Can't we talk about it in the morning? I finally fell asleep!" Zuo Yuan was so angry that he almost drew his sword because of his bad temper.

The monk shrank back a little, but didn't dare to leave, pointing at the sky in fear. Zuo Yuan had no choice but to rub his eyes and run to the yard to see that there were dozens of bright spots in the sky that were as flickering as ghost lights, but they were definitely not stars because they were moving.

"What monster? Don't panic! Even if it is a monster, it can't hurt us!" Zuo Yuan shouted at the guards and monks around him. His words seemed to come true soon, because within a cup of tea, they saw two of the ghost lights in the sky falling down.

These things, of course, are the "Zhuge Lanterns" that Zhuge Liang had just made "by replicating himself with the reminder of his elder brother."

Because it only uses lightweight gauze coated with wax to ensure airtightness, it is light and more airtight than paper in a short period of time, but its durability is extremely poor.

Wax melts easily when heated, and even if it doesn't flow down, it will leak due to uneven gravity and wind. The best quality Zhuge lanterns can only fly in the sky for half an incense stick of time before they start to fall down.

If we really want to make Kongming lanterns that are as durable as those in later generations and do not need to be coated with wax, the key is to innovate and improve papermaking technology.

Even the best Zuo Bo paper of the Han Dynasty was not enough to make a Kongming lantern with excellent airtightness.

But no matter what, this little noise tonight is enough to scare people.

As the Kongming lanterns gradually fell down, fires broke out in several places in Chaisang City. All of them were because the lanterns happened to fall on the thatched houses and could not be taken down for a while, directly igniting the roofs.

One or two fires in one night might not cause panic, but three or five or even more fires in a row would be enough to make people wonder if it was a punishment from God.

Just when Zuo Yuan was feeling dry-mouthed and personally ordered his personal soldiers to assemble and patrol the city to suppress the rebellion, new pieces of bad news and strange changes soon arrived.

As soon as he patrolled near the South Gate, he saw a lieutenant who was a former monk among the gate guards take a few pieces of silk and hand them to Zuo Yuan, saying that they were floated down from the fairy fire in the sky.

Zuo Yuan took it and looked at it, his eyes suddenly went dark: Isn't this clearly imitating Chen She and Wu Guang's trick of using fish belly and letter to sow discord?

There were very few words on those silks. Either it said "Zao Yuan died, Chen Heng lived" or "Chen Heng died, Zuo Yuan lived". It was such a blatant attempt to sow discord between the two!
"Put them all away! Let me burn them together! Don't look at them!"

After all the trouble, it was said that all the silks released by the sky lanterns were collected. No one looked at them, but there was no way to verify whether they were real or not. The more Zuo Yuan thought about it, the more he couldn't sleep, but he could do nothing about it.

……

"Is it time to persuade them to surrender again? If that doesn't work, then how about a violent attack? If you really have to, I think we can light another batch of lanterns before attacking the city tomorrow night, and use the fire to cause confusion among the soldiers in the city, which will be enough to achieve twice the result with half the effort."

Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang outside the city did not sleep well that night, but it was not because of nervousness, but because of excitement, and a little nervousness in the excitement.

Zhuge Jin really wanted to confirm whether the Zhuge Lantern that his second brother had made in advance by "replicating himself" could have the effect of undermining the enemy's morale and shaking people's hearts.

However, when he saw the many fires in the city and the noisy sounds of firefighting coming from afar at night, Zhuge Jin knew that he had received an unexpected surprise.

He felt that it was time to attack.

Zhuge Liang, who was standing beside him, also agreed with him and analyzed, "Brother, you are right. Although our army can continue to besiege the city to undermine the enemy's morale, the enemy troops in the city will probably think the same way.

Our army has been trying to persuade the enemy to surrender by using insults on a small scale for three days. Every day, the enemy retreats after a little insult and does not want to fight any more. This will inevitably form a habit for the enemy.

I think if we scold again tomorrow night, it will be nothing more than a repetition of the old tricks, and there will be no additional actions. We can just mix one truth among the nine lies and kill the enemy by surprise!"

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Jin nodded with satisfaction. He was very happy with his second brother's rapid growth.

But since he was still playing the role of a random checker, he certainly wasn't satisfied with just his brother's "correct conclusion".
He also wanted to take the opportunity to conduct more in-depth research to see whether his brother knew the facts and the reasons behind them, and how thoroughly he had mastered them.

So he asked casually, knowing the answer: "But since the enemy has no countermeasures against our continuous attack on morale, why can't we continue to attack for a few more days?

Then maybe we won't have to attack by force, or even if we still have to attack by force, the resistance will become weaker and weaker, isn't that good?"

Zhuge Liang smiled calmly, pointed at the map and told his elder brother's thoughts: "Of course we can't just wait. Although Xingba repelled the enemy reinforcements from Haihun after two days of siege, the enemy has suffered a loss and will come back in a different way sooner or later.

Their first wave of reinforcements was not large enough, and they did not know our advantage in naval warfare, so they chose to advance lightly by water. After suffering a loss, if the second wave of reinforcements comes, the scale will definitely be several times larger. They will also take a steady approach and come via the land route of Mount Lushan, instead of rushing across the Pengli Lake.

Counting the days, if the water reinforcements were defeated that day, they could return to Haihun County within two days, and then give the enemy another day to reorganize their troops and horses, and three days to march. Adding up to six days at the fastest, we can gather a large army to attack, and then we may be attacked from both sides. And now we have already spent another three days, and we can't take any more risks.

The enemy in the city didn't know this because our army had been so powerful and defeated their reinforcements very cleanly. Then, I was idle for a few days, so I deployed tricks such as increasing the number of camps and stoves, and letting the fleet go out at night and return during the day.

These tactics may cause the bandits in the city to misjudge that our reinforcements are coming in continuously, and they may think that they can no longer count on them. If reinforcements really come from Haihun County, they will not be able to see these tricks of ours. "

Zhuge Liang was very organized and had clearly analyzed the speed of action and the deployment potential of the enemy and our own armies. It seemed that the date he chose to attempt the assault was not a random guess, but a well-thought-out answer.

The means he just mentioned, such as increasing the number of camps and stoves, were also the ones he learned from watching the Gan Ning army camping these days. While learning the basic knowledge, he tried to use some ancient military tactics to emphasize the large scale of Zhuge's army and further oppress the psychological disadvantage of the Chaisang defenders in the city. For example, "let the warships secretly leave the water fort at night and return during the day", which is similar to Dong Zhuo's "let the Xiliang cavalry quietly leave Luoyang at night and return in a big way during the day" seven years ago.

These strategies are not particularly clever, nor are they rare. But they can be a good training and a way for novices to fill in the gaps.

So Zhuge Jin let him explore and practice on his own these days. As long as it was not too outrageous and there was no obvious risk, Zhuge Jin would not stop him.

After all, Zhuge Liang had no military career before. He just read the Art of War and combined his own understanding, imagination and what his elder brother said.

However, the ancients before the Han Dynasty wrote about military strategies in a broad sense, discussing principles rather than techniques.

Commanding the army, marching, setting up camp, besieging cities, and all kinds of little knowledge in management practice and engineering application can only be slowly practiced by the generals in practice.

Who made bamboo slips too troublesome to use? The military strategies before that were all written by people in the bamboo slip era. In the hundreds of years after the invention of paper in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were few wars in the world, and almost no new military strategies were produced.

It is impossible for those ancient military strategies to be as detailed as the "Wujing Zongyao" and "Jixiao Xinshu" written by people in the Song and Ming dynasties when paper was cheap and printing was common.

While the enemy is not strong yet, let Zhuge Liang give it a try, even if it is a low-cost trial and error.

……

Seeing that his brother had finally figured out everything, rather than just guessing the answer, Zhuge Jin was relieved to agree to his request and decided to light the Zhuge Lantern again tonight.

Then, taking advantage of the same opportunity, he gave his last scolding to persuade them to surrender.
And let the siege troops prepare siege equipment, ready to shoot at any time.

Everything was progressing in an orderly manner, and time soon came to the night of the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month.

A new wave of torture came on time again. Under the cover of Chen Dao's round shield cursers and crossbowmen, Zhuge Liang came to the south gate of Chaisang again and shouted to persuade the enemy to surrender. The cursers also spread his words accurately into the city.

There is no need to repeat the content of the call in full, because most of it is similar to the rhetoric used to persuade Pengze County to surrender that day.

The only new information added was to emphasize that the General who was in charge of the Southern Expedition had a large number of soldiers and generals, and that reinforcements were constantly pouring into Yuzhang. They had already captured all the counties except Chaisang, Haihun and Nanchang. The three counties left in Zuo Rong's hands were already trapped.

In addition, they continued to spread the stories of monks in Zuo Rong's army who secretly amassed wealth in the name of Buddhism and were punished by heaven. However, there was no need to say more about this part, because the captives with collapsed faith who were released by Zhuge Liang into the city had already done it for them.

Zhuge Liang simply couldn't verify the results and didn't know whether they had done a good job or not, so he could only talk about the same old things in a haphazard manner.

Whether it was Zuo Yuan or Chen Heng in the city, facing this kind of torture, they felt endless and inexplicable uneasiness in their hearts.

They feel very uneasy, but they cannot tell where their uneasiness comes from. They just feel that anyone could be an enemy, and anyone could be suspicious of them and stab them in the back.

Zhuge Liang was still there, trying to persuade the county soldiers to surrender and tear apart the relationship between the county soldiers and the monk soldiers. The Zhuge Lanterns in the sky were still dropping silk or falling out of control, causing fires.

Finally, with suspicion stretched to its limit, Chen Heng, the former county soldier general in the city, could no longer bear the psychological pressure. Taking advantage of the opportunity of commanding the army to put out the fire, he launched a mutiny in the city!

Zuo Yuan had been suspicious of him before, so he did not let his troops guard any of the city gates. This was considered a lesson learned from Pengze County, as he ensured that only monk soldiers were guarding the four gates, and the county soldiers could only serve as a reserve force.

But with so many fires in the city, no matter how cautious Zuo Yuan was, he couldn't stop Chen Heng from putting out the fires. Chen Heng knew that the other party was becoming more and more suspicious of him, so he finally decided to go all out and join the light, regardless of how successful it would be.

According to the released captives, the highest-ranking officer in the county soldiers in Pengze County was only a Qu Junhou, but after surrendering, he was not held accountable by the court. Captain Zhuge even promoted him to the rank of military Sima.

This news was very good news for the former county soldiers who were being held hostage. This thorn had been piercing for several days and had finally sprouted at this moment.

As more and more fires were put out in the city, shouts of killing were heard. Zhuge Liang, who was scolding and supervising the battle outside the South Gate, immediately grasped this situation.

"It must be that the county soldiers have abandoned the dark and joined the light! Or perhaps some of the monks who have seen the true face of the Zuo family have figured it out! Xingba, quickly organize a strong attack, the opportunity cannot be missed!"

As soon as Zhuge Liang gave the order, Gan Ning was about to launch an attack. Zhuge Jin also noticed the signs that the army was about to move out, and hurried over from the central army tent to remind them:
"Xingba must not underestimate the enemy. Looking at the chaos today, it is still worse than that of Pengze County a few days ago. On that day, the county soldiers were able to seize the gate and open it. Today, it is estimated that there will only be chaos in the city. You will have to attack the wall first."

"It doesn't matter. Whether we rush through the gate or climb the wall first, it won't make much difference. The wall is already in chaos. At worst, we don't climb up the tower guarded by the monks. Instead, we can climb those less-important sections of the wall in the corners of the city." Gan Ning had good eyesight. He keenly observed the density of torches on the wall in the dark and determined the point suitable for attacking in the chaos.

"Okay, Xingba, be careful. If Chaisang is captured again, you will definitely be the main contributor. I will immediately promote you to captain. I will guarantee it first. I will write a letter to General Zhengnan later and tell him that I have already promised it and there is no reason for him to refuse." Zhuge Jin also promised generously.

Then, Gan Ning grabbed the shield of the curser, and holding two shields, he began to command the newly built ladder truck to rush against the wall.

Well, it may not be accurate to say "hand-held". It should be that both the left and right shields are tied to the elbows with ropes, so that the palms are free and can be used to climb and hold the crossbars of the ladder.

If you think this action is not intuitive enough, just imagine Shiryu's Dragon Cloth and shield in "Saint Seiya" and you will understand.

When the bandits on the city wall saw the Han army begin to attack, they also quickly began to resist. However, due to internal strife, the arrows were shot sparsely and the threat was much less than usual.

Only when Gan Ning's army broke through to the base of the wall did the defenders' firepower density begin to increase, and rolling logs, rocks, and sheep's head stones began to join the sequence of smashing down.

However, the Han army was also using a covered ladder today, not a simple flying ladder. The rolling logs were not strong enough to break through the ladder's protective wall, and the rocks were thrown too close to hit the main body of the ladder, which had a lower slope.

Only relatively light sheep's head stones, each weighing no more than two or three pounds, can be thrown far and are hard enough. Soldiers hit by such things will suffer from bleeding heads at best, or die on the spot at worst, and even their helmets will be dented.

Fortunately, there were not many soldiers throwing sheep-head stones, and they were not as accurate as the players in Mount & Blade. After paying the price of the death of three or five of his fellow thieves, Gan Ning still found an opening and flew up to the top of the wall to kill them.

"General, spare us! We are the county soldiers! We are fighting the monk soldiers! Don't get me wrong!"

There was chaos on the top of the city. After Gan Ning killed a monk general and several monk soldiers, his hand slipped and the Danyang County soldiers nearby were so scared that they immediately knelt down and begged for mercy and gave way to avoid being affected, all of them emphasizing that they had turned from darkness to light.

After the initial chaos, Gan Ning finally organized the rebel soldiers on the top of the city wall, and when they were on their own, they would not get in the way. Gan Ning himself led more and more soldiers to the top of the city wall and rushed towards the tower.

The surroundings of the tower were filled with monk soldiers, and no soldiers from the original county were dared to be deployed. Zuo Yuan was personally guarding the tower at the south gate, and when he found that Gan Ning had broken through the flank of the city wall and gained a firm foothold, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and let the most die-hard and most loyal monk soldiers launch a counterattack, and he personally supervised the battle.

He was also afraid of death, but he knew there was no way out. Once the South Gate Tower was captured, they would all be doomed.

"There are not many enemies! While they are still unstable, we must charge forward and push them off the city wall!" Zuo Yuan shouted at the top of his lungs, waving his sword wildly to urge the monks to charge forward and kill.

"How dare you do this, you villain! Prepare to die!" Gan Ning was furious when he saw the monk general commanding the left and right in the crowd. It was these guys who had misled so many people to commit evil. Their crimes were unforgivable.

After a bloody fight, Gan Ning managed to fight his way out and waded along the city wall for at least a hundred steps. Finally, he and his comrades hacked Zao Yuan to death.

The monk soldiers on the tower of Chaisang's south gate were gradually killed and dispersed. The Han army opened the city gate and welcomed the rear army to rush in.

The morale of Sima Chen Heng's troops, who had defected from the city, also rose sharply, and they brandished their sharp knives at the monk soldiers who usually acted arrogantly.

Two hours later, the noise in the city gradually died down, and Chaisang was finally completely captured. There were only some scattered tasks left to search for and hunt down the escaped bandits, which was expected to continue for a long time, but it would not affect the overall situation.

(End of this chapter)