My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 749: Fire Attack Shangcai
After Xu Shu, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan secretly discussed the specific strategy for besieging Shangcai City, Zhang Fei's 50,000-strong army began to advance its deployment according to plan in the next few days.

After all, Zhang Fei's army had just arrived in Shangcai County, and they had not even completed the work of besieging the city and setting up camp. They had only set up camp in the south of the city, so there was still a lot of basic work to be done.

Therefore, from October 15 to 20, within these six days, Zhang Fei first expanded the camp northwards, and surrounded the east and north of the city. The west of the city was close to the Ru River, and there was Cheng Pu's water fort on the other side, so it was naturally impossible to surround it for the time being, so he could only leave it alone.

While expanding the scope of the siege, Zhang Fei also sent people to hastily build a corridor and dig a simple shallow trench.

The excavated earth was rammed into a low wall to strengthen the communication between the outer camps of each gate and further block the possibility of the enemy breaking out from land.

While doing all this, Zhang Fei also did not forget to arrange for the construction of siege equipment.

In order to attack Shangcai City, Zhang Fei also needed a large number of Gegong vehicles and heavy ladders, as well as other trench bridge vehicles and catapults.

Because they had prepared for several years in advance and transported military supplies from the lower reaches of the Ru River, Zhang Fei's army had built enough siege weapon parts before the war. After unloading at the temporary dock near Shangcai City, they could assemble them on the spot in the camp, so the construction progress was naturally very fast.

Zhang Fei did not hide all this from Sun Quan. He blatantly transported the siege equipment parts to the front camp and assembled them day and night in front of the defenders. All this was a kind of mental deterrence in the eyes of the defenders, allowing them to fully feel the killing of the war cloud.

In Shangcai City, Sun Quan and Ling Tong have personally patrolled the city in the past few days. When Sun Quan saw Zhang Fei's actions, combined with his understanding of Zhang Fei over the years, he quickly thought that Zhang Fei was planning to take a strong attack route.

Out of caution, Sun Quan also found Kan Ze and discussed with him for a few minutes to fill in the gaps.

Kan Ze's view was similar to Sun Quan's, and he also believed that a strong attack was the first choice. Sun Quan did not worry about it any more, but continued to ask soldiers and civilians to carry more earth, rocks and rolling logs to the top of the city every day to strengthen the city defense and store throwing materials.

After being delayed for four or five days by this sleight of hand, it was already late October.

On the 21st, Sun Quan received a message early in the morning. It was sent by General Cheng Pu from the water fort on the opposite bank via a patrol boat across the river.

When Sun Quan heard that Cheng Pu had sent a letter, he did not even have time to eat breakfast. He was very diligent and asked his attendants to bring the messenger up.

The messenger was brought forward and explained his purpose. He then presented the intelligence provided by Cheng Pu: "Reporting to the young master! The patrol boat sent by General Cheng the day before yesterday reported that after the enemy surrounded Shangcai City, they continued to extend their camp to the north and even set up camp across the river in a particularly wide and shallow section of the Ru River upstream.

Later, we found out that the enemy army was digging a lot of earth outside the camp to build a long trench, but the excavated earth was not used to build the earth wall behind the pit. So General Cheng suspected that the enemy army really filled the Ru River with the excavated earth to cut off the waterway.

Sun Quan just nodded slightly and read Cheng Pu's secret letter carefully. The content of the secret letter was much more detailed and complete than the dictation of the messenger. At the end, Cheng Pu's own analysis was attached, saying that this matter should not be a cause for concern. It was because the enemy was not familiar with the hydrology and geography of the Ru River that they made such an arrogant move.

After reading it, Sun Quan handed the secret letter to Kan Ze beside him, and said with a gratified smile: "Derun, you really got it right. Zhang Fei is indeed a foolish man, he does not know geography, and he acts blindly! With the flow and water level of the Ru River, if he wants to cut off shipping this season, he won't even see a splash in less than two months!"

After reading it, Kan Ze nodded silently, and then reminded him: "Indeed, but from this we can also see that Zhang Fei was a little clever. On the one hand, he pretended to build siege equipment and attack Shangcai, and on the other hand, he had people dig earth and build dams to block the river and cut off navigation. The purpose should be to use the former to cover up the latter.

It was only because our army was on high alert and General Cheng always sent patrol boats along the river that Zhang Fei's tricks were completely unsuccessful. But if Zhang Fei got angry and made a desperate move, he would still succeed two months later, when the twelfth lunar month arrived.

In addition, he has indeed built siege equipment and used bulldozers with anti-arrow shields to fill the moat. Once the Ru River is cut off, our army's retreat will be cut off, and he has the strength to storm the city. At that time, the defenders in the city will surely be in a panic... So, in two months, we may have to seize the opportunity before the voyage is cut off and withdraw our troops and give up Shangcai, otherwise we will be in danger of being surrounded and annihilated."

Sun Quan nodded without commenting: "It doesn't matter. Shangcai City alone can hold Zhang Fei back for two months, which is enough. If Zhang Fei wants to attack Yingchuan, we can also set up defenses in Dingying and Yancheng.

As long as we can hold out until the water level is the lowest in winter, and wait for the spring rains to increase again, he won't be able to rely on human power to block the Ru River. We are just using the two cities of Shangcai and Dingying in exchange for a winter, which is a good deal!

The day before yesterday, Cao Gong sent someone to deliver a letter by water, encouraging me to continue to hold on. He also said that in Hebei, General Zhang He might flatten Nanpi and Tianjin in three months and drive Zhou Yu into the sea.

I have also understood that the current situation depends on whether Zhang Fei breaks through our army first and reaches the city of Xu County, or whether Zhang He breaks through Nanpi first and drives Zhou Yu to the seaside. The side that can't hold on first will have to draw troops from another battlefield to support it, and thus have to give up its own offensive plan.

I was originally worried that I was not as good as Gongjin, but now it seems that thanks to Zhang Fei, who is far inferior to Zhang He, he did not learn geography at all and was so reckless. After this, everyone in the world will know that it was my eldest brother who gave Gongjin the opportunity, so that he could achieve success! It is not that our Sun family has to rely on him to rise! "

Sun Quan couldn't help but feel a little dazed as he muttered to himself till here.

He did have a friendship with Zhou Yu. After all, Zhou Yu and Sun Ce had a very close relationship, and Sun Quan once regarded Zhou Yu as his brother.

Moreover, it was because Zhou Yu covered Sun Quan's retreat and risked his life to block the enemy's retreat that he was captured by Bu Zhi and Lu Yi and sent to Liu Bei.

It was just that after Zhou Yu was captured, he was frustrated for a while, but for some reason, he finally chose to work for Liu Bei sincerely. And Sun Quan was trusted by Cao Gong and was recruited as his son-in-law, so he naturally followed Cao Gong wholeheartedly.

Now the two of them are thousands of miles apart, playing similar roles. In Hebei, Cao attacked and Liu defended, and Zhou Yu vowed to die and not surrender. In Henan, Liu attacked and Cao defended, and Sun Quan vowed to die and not surrender.

Let history witness who can last longer!

"Humph, my elder brother died at the hands of Liu Bei's army. Gongjin and my elder brother were sworn brothers, but in the end he joined Liu Bei. It must be Zhuge Jin who was despicable and shameless, marrying his sister to Gongjin, which made him surrender and betray! He had married a wife in Wuzhong before, but his first wife died in the war. He married Zhuge's sister and forgot about his old friends. How unrighteous!"

As Sun Quan pondered in his heart, he couldn't help but talk to himself aloud.

His judgment is actually based on his own experience, empathy, and assumptions.

Sun Quan devoted himself to Cao Cao because of his daughter, so Zhou Yu must have done the same for a woman.

After being aroused to compete with Zhou Yu, the traitor, Sun Quan's heart became more unstable. Therefore, it was more difficult for him to detect the minor flaws in Zhang Fei's series of deployments.

Everything was simply and crudely explained as "Zhang Fei is not good at geography and gives blind orders based on his impulse."

……

In the following days, Sun Quan let Ling Tong continue to deploy troops according to the original rhythm without any additional vigilance.

On Zhang Fei's side, in order to make everything more realistic, he dug earth and built a dam in the relatively shallow water area in the north of Shangcai. After the siege weapons were built, he began to destroy the outer defenses of Shangcai City.

This move was of course also taught to Zhang Fei by Xu Shu, so it seemed as if Zhang Fei really intended to "use the pretense of a serious attack to conceal his real purpose of building a dam to cut off the enemy's retreat route."

Who could know that the "real purpose" that Zhang Fei wanted to conceal was not the real purpose, but just another layer of cover-up.

Only the "purpose hidden beneath the cover-up" is the "real purpose".

Batches of bulldozers equipped with anti-arrow shields were pushed to the front of the battle by Liu Bei's soldiers, and they dumped cartloads of soil into the moat of Shangcai City.

The archers of Liu Bei's army carried a large number of large rattan shields, which they placed in front of the formation. They let the archers and catapults shoot at the top of the city walls and suppress the archers on the city walls, making it impossible for the defenders to leisurely attack the soldiers who were filling the river from a long distance.

As expected, Sun Quan and Ling Tong were not extra vigilant, and just played along with Zhang Fei, fighting against the enemy with their generals and covering the water with earth. The war of attrition was very intense, and both sides consumed a lot of supplies, but the proportion of casualties was not high.

After another seven or eight days of fighting, the moat of Shangcai City was damaged and many gaps appeared, so Zhang Fei's siege equipment could be successfully pushed to the base of the city wall.

However, Zhang Fei did not directly engage in hand-to-hand combat on Ge Gongche, but first used battering rams and wooden donkeys to dig the city wall, showing a posture of further destroying the city wall.

When Sun Quan heard about this, he ordered Ling Tong to counter the attack by throwing rolling logs and stones from the top of the city wall, and smashing the wooden donkey that was digging the city wall with swallowtail torches and sheep-head stones.

Occasionally, they would pour precious boiling oil on the most threatening wooden donkeys. But boiling oil was scarce, so most of the time they could only use boiling water or boiling gold juice as a substitute, which was not very effective for the wooden donkeys covered with leather and mud.

As the city walls continued to be destroyed, Ling Tong could only command the civilians to reinforce them.

After learning about the battle situation, counselor Kan Ze also suggested that Sun Quan quickly organize civilians to build an emergency rammed earth wall inside the gap where the city wall and gate were severely damaged. In this way, even if Zhang Fei opened the gap and rushed in in the future, he would face a second simple wall, and the situation would be almost the same as rushing into the city wall.

Sun Quan naturally accepted these obviously correct technical suggestions and followed them all.

However, these measures also consumed a lot of the defenders' energy, making them less prepared for other situations.

During those days, the patrol boats and scouts sent out by Cheng Pu also detected some other unusual movements of Zhang Fei's army.

For example, Cheng Pu's men finally discovered these abnormalities after Zhang Fei began to cut down trees on a large scale and transported a large amount of supplies to the Duanhe camp in the north of the city. After analyzing the intelligence, Cheng Pu once again warned the young master and asked for advice.

But Sun Quan, despite his busy schedule, took some time out to discuss the matter with Kan Ze. They both agreed that "this should be because Zhang Fei discovered that the water level of the Ru River is still high and the flow is still fast, and it is difficult to build effective cofferdams and shoals by simply dumping soil into the river."

Therefore, Zhang Fei's purpose of felling trees should only be to "use part of the wood to drive piles underwater, help limit the filling soil, and prevent the soil poured into the river from being washed away by the Ru River."

As for Zhang Fei sending people to transport supplies to the camp, this point was indeed a bit suspicious, so Sun Quan asked Cheng Pu to investigate again and report back.

However, Cheng Pu's scouts could only sail on the Ru River most of the time, and few dared to go ashore for reconnaissance, so it was difficult to collect accurate intelligence.

However, hard work pays off. After careful observation for a few days, Cheng Pu came to several conclusions:
First, he found that the goods Zhang Fei sent to the camp were very light, which could be seen from the weight of the oxcarts Zhang Fei sent to transport the goods.

The cargo was very large and was wrapped with straw mats on the outside. If it was heavy cargo with high density, the cart would be crushed by the large volume and it would be impossible for an ox to pull it.

However, simply knowing that these materials have a low density does not prove anything.

Fortunately, Cheng Pu's scout boats later conducted extensive investigations and discovered some abnormal cases.

For example, there were several times when Zhang Fei's freight car fleet went north along the flat mudflats by the river. Although it was out of the range of Cheng Pu's patrol boats' crossbows, Cheng Pu's patrol boats could still monitor the enemy from a distance.

During the transportation, the bundles of straw used to tie the goods on several vehicles broke apart, and the goods inside fell out. The transportation team had to work really hard to pack them up again and continue transporting them to the camp.

Cheng Pu's scouts observed that the scattered goods seemed to be just woven bamboo nets, that is, split bamboos were crisscrossed to form a net.

Naturally, this discovery was immediately reported to Cheng Pu by the scouts as if they had found a treasure.

Cheng Pu had a lot of experience in water battles. After a little calculation, he found that this thing could be used to prevent soil and rocks from being washed away by the river when building dams and cofferdams.

It may be difficult for laymen to understand this point, but you can roughly imagine the bamboo net as the steel cage used in building houses with steel-concrete structures in later generations.

The ancients did not have steel bars, but when constructing underwater, they first used rough wood to build pillars, and then used bamboo nets to block the space between the pillars. This made the things piled in relatively more difficult to be washed away by water.

Cheng Pu, who was good at water battles, of course understood this construction common sense, so he became even less prepared.

"Even if we add bamboo nets, it will take more than a month to cut off the navigation channel of Ru River. Zhang Fei has underestimated the difficulty after all." Cheng Pu thought to himself.

……

Because of this kind of complacency, the troops under Sun Quan lost their last chance to prevent Xu Shu's fatal move.

Another three or four days passed, and it was almost the end of October.

At midnight that day, Zhang Fei's army suddenly took action.

The soldiers who participated in the operation had a good sleep during the day and adjusted to the jet lag in advance.

The troops were divided into two routes, Wei Yan led the water route and Zhang Fei led the land route.

Before taking action, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan reviewed the specific action plan for the last time.

"Wen Chang, you will lead our warships to approach Cheng Pu's water fort from downstream, but don't get too close. Go to the shore five miles in advance and keep an eye on the movements upstream.

Once you see fire rafts coming from upstream to attack Cheng Pu Water Fort and burn down the fort walls and gates, causing Cheng Pu to fall into chaos, you should row the boat with all your might and fight your way upstream.

I will lead the cavalry and infantry to go upstream first, and then command the newly built fire rafts from the river blocking camp to attack Cheng Pu's camp downstream! After breaking through, I will attack the north of the camp from land. You and I will attack from both land and sea, and we will definitely defeat Cheng Pu tonight!"

"I obey your command! Don't worry, Right General!" Wei Yan responded with a low tiger roar, and immediately went to command the fleet and prepare for battle.

It turned out that Zhang Fei and Wei Yan had people cutting down trees these days and pretended to transport some processed bamboo into the camp. All this was a fake.

How could the wood be used to pile up and build a dam? It was obviously used to tie it up and make a fire raft.

Among the transported materials, there were indeed some bamboos, but only the trucks that overturned contained split bamboos. The rest of the bamboos used were whole bamboos with the joints intact.

Besides bamboo, there are other oily things that can be used as fire starters. As for the bundles of grass used to tie up the wagons, they can also be used as fire starters.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, when transporting large-volume goods that needed to be covered and tied up, most people would use bundles of straw, and very few people were rich enough to cover them with cloth.

How expensive is the cloth? Even the cheapest linen, few people can use it like this. So the bundles of grass on the surface of the truck will definitely not arouse suspicion.

All of this made Xu Shu's "double cover-up" flawless.

From Sun Quan to Kan Ze to Cheng Pu, they all seriously misjudged Zhang Fei's intentions.

In addition, it is winter now and it is almost the end of October in the lunar calendar. There are more northwest winds and less winter winds.

The Ru River flows from northwest to southeast, and finally flows into the Huai River in its southeasternmost section.

Previously, Cheng Pu and Sun Quan were in the upper reaches, while Zhang Fei and Wei Yan's siege camp was in the lower reaches. The naval warships that Zhang Fei could dispatch were also relatively in the lower reaches.

Therefore, Cheng Pu was in an advantageous position over Zhang Fei in terms of wind direction and water flow. He was not worried at all that Zhang Fei would attack with fire.

With headwinds and currents against him, Zhang Fei still expected to use fireboats to burn his water stronghold? I'm afraid that only Zhang Fei himself could be burned!

He never imagined that Zhang Fei had actually gone around behind him and made temporary construction by building a large number of fire rafts upstream using wood and bamboo used to pretend to build a dam, as well as oil, glue, straw bundles and other materials. He then rushed down with the wind and the current to attack his water stronghold.

Once the enemy attacks from behind, it will be Zhang Fei's turn to use his fire raft to occupy the advantageous position with the upper wind and water.

At four o'clock that night, Cheng Pu was still sleeping soundly in the water fort. As he was old and felt the situation was certain, he tended to relax and fall asleep.

Then, while Cheng Pu was in a daze, he suddenly heard the sound of wind and fire coming from outside, as well as the sound of dead wood being burned and sparks bursting.

(Note: There is no specific record of Cheng Pu's age, but he should be older than Liu, Guan, and Zhang. He had been a county official for many years before the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Later, when the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, he followed Sun Jian to fight.

I think it is reasonable that the old man is not energetic. The novel only emphasizes that Huang Gai is very old, but in fact, the history books do not record Huang Gai's age. Moreover, Huang Gai joined Sun Jian several years later than Cheng Pu. He joined during the campaign against Dong Zhuo. Cheng Pu should be older than him.)
(End of this chapter)