My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 716: Kill Zhu Bao and pacify Zangke
Zhu Bao was so frustrated by Zhang Song's psychological warfare that he had no choice but to fight back hastily.

Because he knew very well that as long as there was no decisive battle and the battle was dragged on, Gan Ning might not become tired and lazy quickly, but his own strength would decline rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Zhang Yi severely damaged the detachment sent by Zhu Bao to rob grain with a small number of soldiers. The detachment was led directly by Zhu Bao's own son. This news dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the barbarians in Zangke.

With Zhang Song's eloquence and ability to mediate and publicize, every day this matter ferments, more barbarians will tend to Liu Bei's camp out of fear.

Zhu Bao must fight a battle to establish his authority immediately in order to stop the continued loss of prestige.

However, making the decision to seek a decisive battle immediately does not mean that all the details have been finalized and you can rush in directly.

No matter how foolish Zhu Bao was, he knew that he had to pay attention to the tactical details of the enemy and he still had to think about how to fight specifically.

In particular, his eldest son Zhu Wen, who was defeated by Zhang Yi in the Battle of Yelang Mountain and lost several thousand soldiers, was lucky enough to escape.

When the chiefs of various tribes were discussing, Zhu Wen was too embarrassed to speak, but after things were finalized and the door was closed, he was still able to provide his father with a lot of experience and lessons.

After all, those were first-hand intelligence he obtained on the battlefield with the lives and blood of his soldiers.

After Zhu Bao decided to fight a quick battle, Zhu Wen found an opportunity that night to offer advice and remind him, "Father! Gan Ning's fighting power should not be underestimated. Even if our army must take the initiative to fight, we must play to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses, otherwise we will suffer losses in vain!
Although the army under Gan Ning seemed to be mainly composed of old soldiers and Han surrendered troops under Liu Zhang, their morale and military discipline were far from comparable to the old army of Liu Zhang that we are familiar with.

Moreover, their armor and weapons were so sophisticated that it was unimaginable. They could even sew thin iron sheets into the linen armor! Our poisonous arrows could not penetrate them at all. Those old soldiers who used short weapons and shields also used new steel battle axes. Our warriors were no match for them in close combat.

Moreover, they used not only cattle and horses to transport baggage, but also carts that could move freely on rugged hillsides. They could be pushed by people or pulled by animals, and were very flexible.

It was because I didn't know they had these secrets that I was defeated by Zhang Yi with a small number of troops. Father must find a way to at least restrain one or two of them, and then seek a decisive battle, so that the chances of winning will be greater. Otherwise, even if our army of 30,000 or 40,000 people rush forward and Gan Ning only has 10,000 people, it will only be a replay of the battle of Yelang Mountain that day!"

When Zhu Wen talked about his experiences and lessons, he couldn't help but burst into tears, and every word he said was heartbreaking.

How could Zhu Bao not be moved after hearing this? Those were the most tangible lessons learned through blood.

But he lacked strategy, and after thinking it over again and again, he could not come up with any good way to fully control these problems.

As for the enemy's possession of wooden oxen and flowing horses, all Zhu Bao could think of was to avoid fighting with the enemy's chariot formation, which was relatively easy.

When fighting Zhang Yi at Yelang Mountain, the enemy had so many vehicles because he was responsible for transporting food. If it was a high-speed encounter, both sides would have fought once or twice before the battle. Gan Ning could not have brought so many vehicles with him, so this point could have been avoided.

As long as the enemy loses their chariot sticks, the Han army will be in a melee, and the output environment for archers and halberd soldiers will not be so good.

The remaining problem is the Han army's excellent armor and weapons, which is really unsolvable. Zhu Bao thought about it and finally came up with a trick: "Since the enemy's armor is made of cloth, it is probably to prevent the steel from rusting. Then our army can find a way to replace the poison arrows with rockets. Even if the rockets cannot penetrate the iron armor, they can still burn the linen wrapped outside."

After thinking about this, Zhu Bao felt that he had taken the enemy seriously enough and even thought of such a difficult tactic as the rocket.

Rockets were not a common sight in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Some extreme theories even say that the first large-scale use of rockets in combat with clear evidence was during the Three Kingdoms period, when Zhuge Liang went to Qishan and Hao Zhao of Wei defended Chencang City. He used rockets to burn many of Zhuge Liang's siege equipment and blocked Zhuge Liang's attack.

Of course, this statement may not be reliable. In fact, Zhuge Jin has seen many occasions where rockets were used since he traveled through time. Even if the enemy army used them less at the beginning, the Zhuge brothers used rockets more often and invented gunpowder arrows for communication. Other ordinary rockets became more and more popular, and every prince knew how to use them.

However, the technological conditions of the barbarians in the south are really backward. Even if rocket technology is introduced from outside, it is still considered a relatively rare high-tech weapon for them and is already their most powerful weapon.

Zhu Baolian had even thought of this trick. He thought that he had done all he could and the rest was up to fate.

……

After solving the problem of "how to fight", the only problem left for Zhu Bao to solve before the decisive battle was "where to fight".

In Zhu Bao's original idea, he did not take this point too seriously.

Since they have decided to fight as quickly as possible, doesn't that mean they will fight wherever they catch him? It depends on where Gan Ning catches up with him. It is not something Zhu Bao can decide on his own. He should just let nature take its course.

However, after discussing so many tactical details with his son, Zhu Bao gradually realized that he might be able to gain some additional advantages in battlefield selection.

After all, the biggest advantage of the Zangke barbarians over the Han army is that they are more familiar with the roads in Zangke County and have greater mobility. Before, Zhu Bao could always lead Gan Ning for a walk. As long as he didn't want to be caught up by Gan Ning, he could drag it out for half a month without any pressure.

If Gan Ning wanted to force Zhu Bao into a decisive battle, he had to choose to attack the enemy's lair, such as besieging and capturing Guangtan County or even Qielan County, and destroying Zhu Bao's lair.

However, even if the defenses of Guangtan County and Qielan County were broken and the city defenses were low, the Gan Ning army could not carry siege weapons over long distances and had to build them on site, so these two counties could still be easily held up for more than half a month. Only when Gan Ning built the siege ladders and even the Ge Gongche on the spot could these counties be defeated in seconds.

Therefore, Zhu Bao’s greatest advantage is that “within half a month, he can delay the battle as much as he wants, and he can be caught up by Gan Ning whenever he wants. The initiative to choose the time and place of the decisive battle is in his hands.”

Now, Yan Yan and Zhang Song are besieging Guangtan County, and have ordered the soldiers who remain in the area to step up logging and build siege equipment, while Gan Ning is chasing Zhu Bao all over the mountains.

In view of this situation, Zhu Bao suddenly thought of a move that seemed to be able to give full play to his advantage of "concentrating troops and defeating the enemy one by one".

That is, he could make a feint, bypass Gan Ning, and then lead the main force of the Zangke barbarians back west, directly attack Yan Yan outside Guangtan County, and then cooperate with the Guangtan County defenders to eliminate Yan Yan's several thousand men first.

After Gan Ning found out that something was wrong, he could of course follow Zhu Bao and continue chasing him. But Gan Ning's mobility in the mountainous area was not as good as his, and it was normal for him to be left behind for two days on a long march.

Gan Ning could also choose not to be led by Zhu Bao, but to change his home and ignore Yan Yan and just besiege Qilan County. But Zhu Bao felt that Qilan County, as a county seat, had a city wall after all, and even if he took most of the main forces away and only left a small number of soldiers to guard the home, he could still delay Gan Ning for a while.

Therefore, Zhu Bao was confident that "before Gan Ning replaced his hometown Qilan County, he would first concentrate his forces to defeat Yan Yan." With this calculation, Gan Ning was still at a disadvantage, and he would have to be led by himself.

That's it! We'll trick Gan Ning in the mountainous area around Qilan County, bypass Gan Ning's main force, and then speed up to Guangtan County in the direction of Gan Ning's arrival, and destroy Yan Yan first!

Starting from the next day, after figuring out all possible means of turning the situation around, Zhu Bao finally put his life on the line and carried out the plan.

It’s no wonder that everything went quite smoothly. The operations in the first three days were proceeding exactly as Zhu Bao had planned.

Gan Ning was indeed stunned by his feint, and was bypassed by him. After realizing that something was wrong, Gan Ning could only turn around and chase Zhu Bao in the direction he came from.

But Zhu Bao's troops marched fast. First, Zhu Bao's troops had a higher proportion of mountain soldiers, so they were not a burden. Second, his troops lacked armor, so they carried much less weight. Compared with heavy infantry, light infantry definitely had an advantage in mountain marches.

……

A few days later, it was already the end of November.

Zhu Bao's army once again approached Guangtan County. He did not bring any food or supplies, but relied on the dry food carried by his troops and attacked Yan Yan directly.

As a veteran, Yan Yan was certainly not too careless. He set up camp and besieged the city of Guangtan, and sent out scouts far away every day to keep abreast of the enemy situation in the surrounding areas.

Therefore, when Zhu Bao's vanguard was at least fifty miles away from Yan Yan's camp, it was discovered by Yan Yan's scouts.

It’s a pity that the mountainous terrain is complex, and Yan Yan’s scouts cannot use cavalry, only mountain light infantry.

After the scout discovered the enemy, he hurried back to the camp to report the news. Zhu Bao would not be idle during this period.

So when Yan Yan heard the news, the enemy had come much closer, estimated to be only thirty miles away from him.

Fortunately, the thirty-mile time difference was enough for him to think of countermeasures and prepare for battle.

Yan Yan immediately ordered each camp to gather troops for defense and preparation for war. After giving the order, he immediately called Zhang Song to discuss and fill in the gaps.

"Zhu Bao actually circumvented General Gan in the mountains for ten days, and finally shook General Gan off and ran towards us first. General Gan has more than 10,000 troops at his disposal, while we only have more than 5,000 people here, and that already includes Zhang Yi's grain transport team.

For now, does Ziqiao have any good plan? If not, then we can only fight hard. "

Zhang Song had no good idea about this head-on confrontation and could only persuade Yan Yan to hold the camp and buy time.

He briefly sorted out the current situation in his mind, cleared his throat and said:

"Zhu Bao came prepared. This battle is unavoidable. We have no choice but to fight to the death. All our army can do is to reinforce the camp as soon as possible and strengthen the formation. In addition, we were short of one man when we surrounded Guangtan County before, and our forces were too dispersed.

Now we can temporarily withdraw the camps on the south and north sides of the city, move everything that can be moved to the camp at the east gate, gather all the troops together, and burn anything that cannot be moved in time.

After Zhu Bao arrives, if he wants to get in touch with the defenders in Guangtan County or even enter the city, he can do it. Even if he wants to attack our army from the east and west with the defenders, I believe the old general can hold out until General Gan's main force arrives. "After Zhang Song finished talking about his layout ideas, he stopped talking nonsense.

He was very clear about the limits of his abilities. He was good at diplomatic mediation and other tactical deceptions, but when it came to actually understanding military affairs and discussing warfare, he was not so good. He was even far behind his good friend Fa Zheng.

That was all he could remind Yan Yan of, the rest depended on Yan Yan himself.

Yan Yan also knew this, and quickly sorted out his thoughts, drawing on all the parts of Zhang Song's words that were worth learning from. While the enemy still had the last thirty miles to go, he withdrew the two camps and concentrated all his forces together.

Only half a day later, Zhu Bao's army appeared on the horizon.

Yan Yan camped in a valley in the eastern suburbs of Guangtan County. In order to facilitate water and the original siege plan, he chose to camp on the road instead of pursuing "looking down from a high place and being unstoppable" - that was something Ma Su was capable of.

Therefore, when facing the enemy's attack, Yan Yan's camp did not have much defensive advantage.

However, the large camps in the south and north of the city had been evacuated within half a day, which gave Yan Yan a lot of extra "building materials" out of thin air. So he built two more wooden fences in front of the camp and dug some shallow trenches, which seemed to be able to delay the enemy layer by layer.

Zhu Bao came from afar and carefully observed the camp before finally making up his mind to launch a violent attack.

It was nothing more than a few wooden fences and some temporary obstacles piled up by wooden oxen pushing carts. With a force advantage of nearly ten times, why couldn't he destroy Yan Yan?

However, he also knew that the weapons and equipment of the Han army were too sharp, and even if he fought head-on in the field with a single sword and a single gun, the price he would have to pay would not be small. If coupled with the environment of defending the camp, it should definitely not be underestimated.

If he didn't have to fight quickly to establish his authority, he wouldn't want to take the initiative to take on a tough task.

So after a brief thought, he immediately gave the order: "Have all the troops prepare firewood and grass. When the time comes, let the archers with rockets clear the way. Then the light soldiers will hold shields and throw torches and firewood bundles to set fire. Burn the several wooden fences outside Yanyan one by one, and then our army will slowly advance."

Faced with this order, the several troops selected as vanguards quickly followed the order.

But some generals seemed worried, especially his son Zhu Wen, who could not help but remind him: "Father, doing this will expose our army's rockets in advance. Will it cause Yan Yan to be on guard? Moreover, the fire attack is a bit slow to remove the antlers of the outer wooden fence. What if Gan Ning catches up?"

Zhu Bao thought about it and decided to carry out the original plan: "Choose the lesser of two evils. Gan Ning should be two days away from me, so we can make it in time. Setting fire to the outer defenses is not as slow as you think. As for the rockets, the people in the Central Plains are tired of using them, so there is nothing to keep secret."

Everything quickly began to move forward according to Zhu Bao's idea.

Archers from both sides fired at each other from a distance across the fortifications. Zhu Bao's soldiers were obviously at a great disadvantage. The hardness and range of their bows were not as good as those of the Han army, and their armor defense was also weak. Fortunately, he also brought a lot of large rattan shields as cover, which prevented his own archers from suffering too many casualties.

While the archers were shooting at each other, the melee troops of the Zangke barbarians rushed forward in a disorderly manner, with scimitars and hammers hanging from their waists, a shield in one hand and a torch or a bundle of firewood in the other.

Thanks to the arson of rockets, the outer fortifications gradually burned up, and time passed by hour by hour.

Yan Yan, who was on the opposite side, was also slightly surprised at first when he saw Zhu Bao actually using rockets to set fire. This was the first time he saw barbarians using rockets since entering Nanzhong.

Gan Ning and Yan Yan had been instructed by Zhuge Liang and Zhang Yi before the war that the new cloth armor was afraid of fire and that they should be careful to guard against fire attacks.

Therefore, before this battle, Gan Ning and Yan Yan urgently practiced firefighting in the army, and even let them learn the experience of naval firefighting, such as how to find bentonite, how to prepare fireproof mud that can last and not dry out, etc.

Whether it is Guanyin clay or kaolin, these soils that the Zhuge brothers often used to mix fire-proof mud in naval battles were too heavy and of course they would not be carried with the army for long distances, and they might not be used even if they were carried.

However, Gan Ning and Yan Yan could cram some geological knowledge before the battle and ask the craftsmen in the army to teach them how to identify these soils. If they encountered them during the march and camp, they could use them locally. Even if they really couldn't find them, the craftsmen around Zhuge Liang also summed up a set of experience on how to use local materials as much as possible to improve firefighting capabilities.

At this moment, seeing the enemy starting to fire rockets and set fires, Yan Yan of course began to respond immediately. After the first and second lines of defense, wooden fences and deer horns, were burned and captured by Zhu Bao, Yan Yan was finally ready.

He took advantage of the water and soil in the camp and the convenience of using local materials to prepare many barrels of fireproof mud with a very high expansion rate, and temporarily poured it on the third wooden fence and the main camp wall.

Soldiers wearing cloth armor were also asked to soak their armor in advance - even though doing so would easily cause the armor to rust in the long run, it was no big deal. Anyway, the armor could be dried after the battle.

As both sides upgraded their tactics, Zhu Bao's various attempts at sabotage became much less efficient. The time it took to destroy Yan Yan's camp was also much slower than expected.

It was soon dark on the first day, and Zhu Bao became anxious as he saw that they had not yet reached the main camp.

Although he was far ahead of Gan Ning, if it was delayed until tomorrow, Gan Ning might still arrive at the battlefield at any time.

He had no choice but to intensify the attack regardless of casualties. He also tried to take advantage of the poor vision of the defenders at night so that his arson team could get closer to set fire and destroy at a lower cost.

However, Zhu Bao soon realized that he had underestimated the enemy again.

The night vision of the Nanman soldiers of this era was obviously worse. The diet of the Nanman soldiers mainly consisted of fruits and vegetables. There were very few soldiers who could eat meat, especially animal liver. The proportion of night blindness caused by lack of corresponding vitamins was also very alarming.

In comparison, the Han army sent by Zhuge Liang to the south had a much better nutritional level than the Zangke barbarians.

Moreover, the Zhuge brothers knew some common knowledge of nutrition. Even if Zhuge Liang did not know it at that time, he knew it all after being taught by his elder brother over the years.

Even though Han soldiers still ate less animal livers, there was some rice bran oil in their diet, and the generals also paid attention to feeding the soldiers coarse grains. In recent years, Linyi double-season rice has been fully promoted in Shu, and the vitamin A in rice bran can make up a considerable part of it.

As the night vision of the Han soldiers was obviously better, Zhu Bao's hope to secretly fire rockets and rush up to throw torches and firewood in the night battle was naturally much more difficult. When the two sides exchanged fire, Zhu Bao's Zangke barbarians suffered a very high casualty rate and their efficiency was very low.

Finally, the two sides consumed each other until the late night. Zhu Bao knew that he could not drag it on any longer, so he gritted his teeth and decided to launch an all-out attack.

The intensity of the battle became more and more intense. When the sky was dawning in the east, tens of thousands of Zangke barbarians launched wave after wave of charges towards Yan Yan's camp.

They covered the area with various rockets, trying to defeat the Han soldiers wearing cloth armor.

However, the cloth-armored soldiers under Yan Yan's command had their armor soaked in advance, and the rockets that Zhu Bao thought were very powerful actually had little effect.

The Han army's sharp soldiers with steel-clad battle axes and shields firmly held the line in the front row, while the long-halberd soldiers in the back row, relying on the cover of chariot poles, wooden fences and their comrades in the front row, also launched crazy attacks on the Zangke barbarians.

The long spear was swung horizontally to sweep and cut with all its might, always from the most tricky angles, leaving deep and long terrible wounds on the barbarians who rushed up.

The archers of the Han army rained arrows madly, shooting down the Zangke barbarians in the back row one by one, and the wailing sounds echoed throughout the valley.

Zhu Bao responded by changing his tactics one after another, using those tactics that he thought could counter the Han army.

In the end, he found that there seemed to be no change on the battlefield, and it was still developing towards the situation his son encountered during the Battle of Yelang Mountain ten days ago.

The father and son actually fell into two similar traps. They clearly thought they would learn from the lesson, but they only learned from it in vain. It was actually useless.

The bloody battle lasted until about noon that day. Zhu Bao's mouth was dry and his eyes were red. He was so upset and mad by the heavy casualties and the stalemate in the battle.

At this moment, shouts and drums were heard from the east side of the battlefield.

The various tribes of the Zangke barbarians under Zhu Bao were quite shocked when they heard the sound, and their entire spirit and mental state collapsed in an instant.

Gan Ning’s main force has finally caught up!

Gan Ning gave Zhu Bao more than a day's time difference, but Zhu Bao did not have the ability to capture Yan Yan, so he could not blame others.

Zhu Bao's army was already exhausted and had failed in its attack.

He originally wanted to cooperate with the Guangtan County defenders to kill Yan Yan from inside and outside, but in the end, Yan Yan cooperated with Gan Ning to attack him from both sides.

When Gan Ning arrived at the battlefield, the battle had completely lost its suspense.

Gan Ning's nearly 10,000 Han soldiers were like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, and launched a general attack on Zhu Bao's rear army. Thousands of Zangke barbarians fled in panic, and those who dared to block them were ruthlessly crushed.

Gan Ning rushed straight towards Zhu Bao's central army flag formation, and Yan Yan on the other side also launched a counterattack.

The two forces combined, Zhu Bao completely collapsed and was killed in the chaos.

(End of this chapter)