My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 773: Can't Swallow, Can't Spit

After the first day of fierce fighting, late that night, there were cries of pain and pain from both the Cao and Liu camps.

Apparently, there were countless wounded soldiers receiving emergency treatment for their wounds, and the medical staff on both sides probably couldn't finish treating them all night.

But there is no way around it. War is so cruel that even if the side with a slight advantage in equipment is well-rested and waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out, it is impossible to avoid it.

Cao Cao's camp began to move forward after the fighting stopped in the afternoon. The reserve soldiers who did not participate in the battle that day were responsible for dismantling the original tents, wooden fences and other items in the camp and transporting them forward, and then moved forward another 15 miles to set up the camp again.

The disassembly and transportation work was completed before it got completely dark. Although the remaining reassembly and piling work was delayed until after dark, it didn't need to be moved, and a few bonfires could be lit on the spot and the work could be done in the dim light.

In order to save trouble and to establish roots faster and more steadily, Cao Cao ordered his troops to rely on the wall and fence of the first outer camp of Zhuge Jin's troops that had just been captured today as their first line of camp wall. This would also save a lot of work in setting up camp.

Zhuge Jin and Zhou Yu's original camp was already very large. The distance between the first and second camps was far beyond the reach of an arrow and also exceeded the range of a catapult.

There were originally a large area for setting up tents in the middle, but when Zhou Yu withdrew his troops, most of the tents were dismantled in advance and transported back. Those that did not have time to be dismantled and transported were burned during the retreat.

So after today's battle, even if Cao Cao moved his camp forward, there was still nearly a mile between Cao's army and Zhuge Jin's troops.

This distance can be ignored from a strategic point of view. However, from a tactical point of view, it can also prevent the long-range firepower of both sides from directly hitting each other, so they can still fight in formation.

After Cao Cao moved his camp, the soldiers began to rest. The extremely tired soldiers fell asleep immediately.

But Cao Cao himself, some of his trusted generals, and his staff and advisers could not rest at all. They had to think about tomorrow's battle plan, weigh the pros and cons, and see whether they needed to make adjustments based on the circumstances.

Xiahou Dun personally came to Cao Cao's central army tent and asked, "Prime Minister! Should we continue to attack the second camp from the southwest to the southeast of the enemy camp tomorrow, or should we make other adjustments?"

Cao Cao thought carefully for a while, looked at Xun You, and decided: "Time is running out, let's continue to attack the front. Before dark today, I inspected the enemy camp's second line of defense, which seems to be more orderly than the first.

It seems that Zhuge Jin and Zhou Yu are well prepared for resistance. It may also be that Zhuge was cautious throughout his life. In any case, how can we know the enemy's strength without trying? Liu Bei's army in Yanzhou and Qingzhou will not arrive so quickly. Our army still has a few days to try to defeat Zhuge Jin directly. "

After hearing this clear instruction, Xiahou Dun said nothing more and was about to pass it down and prepare for execution.

However, Xun You, who was beside Cao Cao, still helped to come up with some ideas: "Prime Minister, although that is true, now we hear that Taishi Ci, Zhang Liao, and Gao Shun are all in Yanzhou. They will definitely know that Zhuge Jin and Zhou Yu are under siege within two or three days, and then lead their troops to rush over. If the enemy forces force a march, they will definitely arrive in four or five days at the fastest, and seven or eight days at the slowest.

If our army fails to attack the second layer of the enemy camp tomorrow, we should consider the next move. At that time, we may be able to expand the encirclement and launch a full-scale attack on the first layer of defense from the southeast corner to the northeast corner of the enemy camp. At that time, we can also seize their outer camp, and then transform it into our camp like here, and confront the enemy army one or two miles away.

In this way, even if Taishi Ci returns, our army will be able to completely encircle Zhuge Jin without spending any money. Moreover, the fortresses surrounding him were all built by him. Our army only needs to repair and reinforce them slightly, which will be much faster and more labor-saving than building a new one on flat ground. It will also have stronger defensive power. "

Upon hearing this, Cao Cao nodded subconsciously.

The tactical deployment he had just given to Xiahou Dun focused on the idea of "narrower attack surface, but more able to penetrate the enemy's depth". He wanted to completely penetrate the enemy's first and second layers, no matter how many layers there were, from the south, and make Zhuge Jin collapse directly.

However, the tactics suggested by Xun You were like peeling an onion. If we broke through the outer camp on the south side today, we could break through the outer camp on the east side the day after tomorrow. Although this would weaken the breakthrough in depth, it would be very beneficial for besieging a point and attacking reinforcements.

By that time, when the enemy reinforcements arrived, it would be difficult for them to join forces with Zhuge Jin from any direction, so they could only attack the outer camp that Cao Cao had newly occupied and originally belonged to Zhuge Jin.

Xun You advised him to pay attention to this aspect because he keenly observed that the inner defense facilities of Zhuge Jin's layers of fortifications were not weaker than the outer ones at first glance, and this situation was relatively rare in the military history since the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Because most people build the first line of defense as the strongest when setting up camp, directly keeping the enemy out of the camp gate. The second and third layers inside are not expected to be used. If the enemy really breaks through the first layer, there will be no hope for the following layers.

Zhuge Jin's arrangement was so unusual that Xun You's first reaction was that there was a trick. Then he thought that maybe this second line of defense would be stronger and more difficult to attack than the first, but it was not obvious on the surface at the moment.

If that is the case, we cannot count on a quick victory, but must allocate resources more towards a relatively protracted war to defeat reinforcements.

Cao Cao knew Xun You too well. There was no need for these two to say everything. He could understand what was being said with just a little hint. So Cao Cao also made arrangements: no matter what, we will try to do as Cao Cao said tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. If there is really a trick, there is still buffer time to adjust. We can then do as Xun You said.

Cao Cao felt that he had the financial resources and the time to make trial and error, and that it was impossible for the enemy's reinforcements to arrive so quickly.

……

While Cao Cao and Xun You set the pace for the attack on the camp,
Late that night, in Zhuge Jin's central army tent, Zhuge Jin was also discussing the battle situation with Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu by candlelight.

All I can say is that heroes all do similar things.

This time and this place are just like that time and that place.

What Cao Cao was doing was so similar to what Zhuge Jin was doing.

It was the middle of September and the chill of late autumn was growing stronger. In the tent late at night, Zhuge Jin ordered people to light a charcoal brazier to warm the wine, venison and mutton.

He was poking the charcoal fire with a stick in one hand while chatting with Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu.

Among the three, Zhao Yun was the least intelligent and spoke more directly. If he didn't understand something, he would just ask directly.

Zhao Yun held a lamb leg bone in his hand, took a few bites, washed it down with a large cup of warm wine, wiped his mouth, and sighed:
"Today, thanks to Ziyu's foresight and Gongjin's good command, when we abandoned the first line of defense, we thought of setting fire to block the enemy and create chaos. Otherwise, with the ability of my generals to lead troops, I'm afraid they would not be able to seize the opportunity to defeat the enemy in chaos."

The reason why Zhao Yun said this was naturally because in today's battle, the cavalry under his command was not led by him personally.

The cavalry units under Zhao Yun had already been pulled to Guantao before the battle and were now stationed in the camp.

But on the battlefield of Handan, there were still some troops under Zhao Yun's command, mainly slow-moving infantry units, who fought and retreated northwards relying on the remaining ranges of Taihang Mountains.

In order to create confusion and disrupt Cao's army's judgement, Zhuge Jin had no plans to let Zhao Yun and Ma Chao show up in person in the past few days.

In this way, Cao Cao might think that "part of Zhao Yun's troops have been pulled here, but because Zhao Yun's troops are still in Handan, Zhao Yun himself may not have arrived yet."

With Zhao Yun himself unable to play, and even Ma Chao temporarily unable to play, Liu Bei's cavalry commanders seemed to be somewhat short on talent.

In today's battle, the cavalry unit did not perform well on the spot, and the generals were unable to command as perfectly and easily as Zhao Yun.

But it was also thanks to the fact that Cao's army was disrupted by the fire set by Zhou Yu during the pursuit, that they were able to achieve the goal by accident. Even if the command was not very sophisticated, they could still win easily.

However, Zhuge Jin did not take Zhao Yun's thanks and compliments seriously. He also realized that Zhao Yun did not understand his real purpose, or main purpose, for setting the fires. Zhao Yun thought that Zhuge Jin had Zhou Yu set those fires just to delay the enemy and create chaos.

However, things are not that simple. The strategies that Zhuge Jin could come up with must be to tap the potential as much as possible and kill three birds with one stone.

Zhuge Jin explained to Zhao Yun, "Zilong only knows one thing, but not the other. I used this strategy not only to deliberately create some confusion and delay the enemy when I withdraw my troops, but also has other uses."

Zhao Yun was alerted when he heard this, and asked humbly, "Oh? I'd like to hear more about it."

Zhuge Jin fiddled with the fire stick, stirred up a few sparks, and said, "I think Cao Cao is suspicious and likes to keep a back-up plan. Before he goes to war, he must have considered defeat before considering victory.

Therefore, he must have thought that it would be best if they could quickly attack and capture our main camp, but if there was a delay until the reinforcements from Ziyi, Wenyuan and others arrived, he would have to make other preparations.

Therefore, Cao Cao would definitely think about how to encircle the point and attack the reinforcements, and I left an outer abandoned camp for him to induce him to use the abandoned camp I left as a base to encircle my army.

Otherwise, if he just built a new camp on the ground, he would put more energy into building the camp and less energy into the attack. How could he be careless and attack for a few more days? How could I bleed him? Moreover, if he built the camp on the ground, although it would be laborious, he could also build the camp more solid. Cao Cao has always been strict in military discipline. When Ziyi and his men arrived, if they wanted to cooperate with each other from inside and outside, our army would have to attack Cao Cao's newly built camp.

It would be better to give him a broken camp that is like chicken ribs, tasteless and a pity to throw away, and it has been burned. He wants to keep it, but it feels wasteful. If he wants to rebuild, he has to tear down the ruins first. So it is better to use it as it is, and the defensive power of the camp is not as good as that of a new one. "

Zhuge Jin's guiding idea was to let Cao Cao put more energy on the offensive, and attack for one or two days longer than originally planned, and put less energy on building camps.

As we all know, it is definitely more expensive to demolish abandoned illegal buildings and build new ones than to build new ones directly from the ground. But if you don't demolish the previous "dangerous buildings", there will be many safety hazards. Who knows how strong the debris that has been burned is?

Some of the wooden fences and camp gates may look intact, but in fact they will collapse when pushed because of the fire. Also, the Cao army may not repair the broken or burned wooden fences, so it is easy for them to become lazy and just use whatever they can get.

Zhuge Jin gave them a way out, and their internal "quality inspection standards" would be lowered.

In this way, Cao's army can suffer more damage in the first stage, and will not have strong fortifications in the second stage, thus getting the best of both worlds.

Moreover, all this was combined with the previous disguise of "pretending not to know that Cao Cao was coming to attack Guantao, so he did not build camp in advance", which was killing three birds with one stone.

After listening to Zhuge Jin's comprehensive analysis, Zhao Yun could not help but sigh in admiration: "Zi Yu's calculations are indeed brilliant. It seems that before Zi Yi and other reinforcements arrive, Cao Cao will be exhausted by our army and will be caught in a dilemma.

I just don’t know how Cao will arrange the war in the next few days.”

Zhuge Jin did not intend to answer Zhao Yun's question directly, but looked at Zhou Yu beside him.

Because he is not as good as Zhou Yu in terms of tactics, and Zhuge Jin is very self-aware, he knows that he has the right to speak only after investigation. Today's front-line command was personally handled by Zhou Yu. Zhuge Jin did not face the enemy directly, so his judgment basis was not as sufficient as Zhou Yu's.

Zhou Yu understood what he meant, and after a moment's thought, he quickly said confidently: "In my opinion, Cao Cao will definitely continue his frontal attack tomorrow. He must think that our subsequent defense line is not as solid as the first camp.

Cao will not stop until he is beaten to a pulp. After that, he will most likely attack from another direction and try to surround our army from multiple directions as soon as possible..."

Zhuge Jin nodded: "It's pretty much what I predicted. Thank you for your continued support over the next two days."

Zhou Yu gladly accepted the order and said that all the frontal defense matters would be left to him.

……

The next day, Cao's army launched a new offensive, and their fighting style was just as Zhou Yu had expected.

The kind of person who won't cry until he sees the coffin and won't give up until he hits his head against the wall.

Li Dian and Le Jin still played the role of pioneers in the attack. Before the battle, they tried their best to boost morale and encouraged the soldiers by saying, "Yesterday we even captured the strongest first layer of the camp. Now what we have in front of us is only the enemy's inner camp. Usually, when a large army sets up camp, the inner camp is not as strong as the outer camp, so it will definitely be easier to capture."

This logic is definitely correct according to common sense, so even though many Cao army soldiers were hit hard yesterday, and many of them were a little shaken after seeing the tragic casualties of their comrades, they were inspired by these words and mustered up their courage to fight again.

Cao's army rushed up in a black mass, and their tactics were basically the same as yesterday.

However, what awaited them was a more intensive rain of divine arm bows and arrows, as well as more solid wall fences, rammed earth foundations and deeper trenches.

Some trenches had deer antlers and bitter bamboo sticks buried at the bottom, and the fences were all in the shape of chevaux de frise, with sharpened stakes on top.

Behind the fortifications, halberd soldiers holding long halberds forged with molten steel patrolled back and forth. When they encountered a fierce hand-to-hand combat, they would block the attack and repel wave after wave of Cao's soldiers.

The only thing Zhou Yu did worse than yesterday was that he did not set fire to stop the enemy. Because Zhou Yu had no intention of giving up any position, how could he set fire to his own things if he did not give up? This was not a one-time deal.

Wave after wave of Cao's offensives were repelled, and more and more soldiers fell under the crossfire of the Shenbi bows and arrows.

The barricades on the stockade wall were soon covered with corpses, so that those who came later no longer had to fear the sharp stakes on the barricades and could just step over them. However, the tragic sight of corpses piled on top of each other was enough to shock, shake, and make countless soldiers shrink back.

The bloody battle lasted from early morning to morning. Zhou Yu saw that his men had repelled three or four waves of attacks from Cao's army. He also seized the opportunity and sent soldiers everywhere to shout messages to undermine the enemy's morale.

"Cao has fallen into your trap again! Zhuge Situ had long expected that you would attack, and our army was only defending the interior and leaving the exterior empty. We deliberately let you see the flaws so that you would come and die!"

"Li Dian, Le Jin, you good-for-nothings, it's useless no matter how many times you attack! If Situ wants to seduce you to break into the camp, you can break into it. If he doesn't want to seduce you, you won't be able to break into the camp even if I give you ten thousand years!"

The soldiers on Liu Bei's side were fighting hand-to-hand while shouting these words according to their pre-war instructions.

The morale of Cao's army was indeed hit, and it became weaker and weaker. They suffered more casualties than yesterday, but still failed to break through the camp.

After a whole day of attack and fighting, at least four-digit lives were lost, and thousands were killed in battle. Even if Cao's military law was strict, it could not prevent such casualties.

In the end, Cao Cao could only withdraw his troops in frustration, ending the day's battle. And from then on, Cao's army was never able to organize such a fierce and fearless offensive again.

Some things, you try hard at first, then they decline and then they are exhausted. If you don't succeed in such a fierce attack in one day, there won't be a next time.

At the end of the day, the wailing in Cao's camp was even louder than the night before. Cao Cao had to think it over and decided to choose the backup plan.

Starting from the third day, Cao's army gave up attacking the second layer of the camp from the south, and instead went around to the east and continued to attack the first layer of the camp on the east, trying to peel off the outermost layer of Zhuge Jin's camp from all directions like peeling an onion.

After recognizing the reality, Cao's army finally recovered some of its progress.

Zhuge Jin's first outer camp was indeed not as solid as the second inner camp. Cao's army fought hard and it was possible for them to break through some positions within a day.

Zhou Yu continued to follow suit. When he retreated and abandoned the outer camp on the east side, he set fire to the enemy as usual to delay them and create chaos.

However, Cao's army also learned a lesson this time, and when they were chasing, they were always on guard against Liu Bei's camp's cavalry counterattack and flank attack. So they all advanced in formation.

However, Cao's army became cautious, which did not make their situation much better.

Because when Zhou Yu was organizing the retreat that day, he sent out cavalry to cover the retreat, and the general leading this cavalry was actually Zhao Yun himself.

With the support of Zhao Yun's combat power and the cavalry tactics that Zhao Yun had been immersed in for twenty years, no matter how tightly organized Cao's army was during the pursuit, it was still inevitable that Zhao Yun would find an opportunity to attack them, resulting in an additional one or two thousand casualties.

The morale of Cao's army was hit very low, and for a while they were no longer able to attack Zhuge Jin's second camp, either from the east or the south.

On the fourth and fifth days, after Cao's army tried and failed again, they turned their attention to strengthening the camp, apparently shifting their full strength to besieging the enemy and attacking the reinforcements.

Zhuge Jin also observed the changes in Cao's army deployment through the copper tube telescope and grasped several characteristics of Cao's army deployment.

"We tricked Cao Cao into changing his strategy several times and became indecisive between the strong attack and the siege. Not only did he lose so many troops, but he also lost time in building the camp. Seeing how he is building the camp so hastily, our army will be able to find some unexpected opportunities to fight..."

After observing and analyzing Cao's army's shift from offense to defense, Zhuge Jin quickly found a point where he could play a role.

He didn't waste any words and directly asked his staff to prepare paper and pens: "Prepare pens and ink! I need to give Ziyi an additional emergency military order. It doesn't matter if he comes a little late, but he must make full preparations according to my instructions."

(End of this chapter)