My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 832: Unstoppable
After Liu Bei's army crossed the river, it took only three days to reach the outskirts of Chang'an.

However, it took a full half month to build the siege camp and create siege equipment.

Finally, it took another half month to destroy the moat, set up forward positions, and advance to the point where they could attack the city.

There is no other way. These technical jobs require a lot of physical labor and there is no way to speed up the progress by taking shortcuts.

Cao Cao on the other side only had one capital left, and he didn't expect reinforcements or a breakout. Cao Cao just wanted to live a few more days and buy more time for Cao Zhang and Cao Pi, so he wouldn't fall for any fancy tricks.

Liu Bei's army could only prepare for the siege.

Of course, during the period of preparation for the attack on Chang'an, Liu Bei's army, which was really idle on the periphery, also found some things to do, such as going upstream along the Weishui and Jingshui rivers to pacify and conquer more county towns.

Previously, Liu Bei's army had mainly recovered the counties along the way to Chang'an, as well as Tongguan and Lantian in the southeast. To the west and north of Chang'an, there was a large amount of land in Guanzhong under Cao Cao's rule, enough for the army to run around and encircle the land for a month or two.

I'm just sitting around anyway, and these things will need to be done in the future, so I might as well do them in parallel.

Although Chang'an had not yet been captured, the officials under Cao Cao's rule were all smart people. By this time, they had already realized that Cao Cao's situation was hopeless.

Therefore, wherever Liu Bei's army went, there was basically no resistance. At the end of May, Mei County and other places in Youfufeng were conquered by Liu Bei.

Mei County was the place where Dong Zhuo built Meiwu. It was located between Chang'an and Chencang, and was also a hub along the Wei River. There was also a mountain road, Baoxiadao, to the south of Mei County that connected to Hanzhong in Yizhou. After taking Mei County, Cao Pi in Chencang would have no way to rescue Cao Cao, although Cao Pi had never expected to rescue his father.

By June, many people in Beidi and Shangjun in the north had surrendered, and the mountainous counties south of Lantian County in the south also surrendered one after another.

Lantian is located at the entrance of Ziwu Valley, so taking Lantian is equivalent to opening up Ziwu Road. However, Liu Bei does not need to go through Qinling Mountains to fight north now. Even Chencang Road is not used, not to mention the worse road conditions of Baoxia Road and Ziwu Road.

In addition, Shangluo and Shangxian, southeast of Lantian, were also originally controlled by Cao Cao. In mid-June, the garrisons in these places were also forced to surrender by Liu Bei's army through both kindness and force.

These counties are mainly located between Yaoguan and Wugu Pass, which is the Wugu Pass Road, one of the four barriers of the Qin Dynasty, connecting Nanyang and Chang'an.

This road is 600 miles long, almost the same length as the Qiaohan Road between Chang'an and Luoyang. The end near Chang'an is Yaoguan, and the end near Wancheng, Nanyang is Wuguguan.

When Liu Bang first rose to power, he was ordered by King Huai of Chu to attack Guanzhong and Xianyang to destroy Qin, and he took this route.

Although Liu Bei no longer needed to open up this road, when he thought of the political significance of his ancestors when they started their career, and since there were so many light cavalry troops idle and no need to use them in sieges, he decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

If he took over the entire Wugu Pass before the capture of Chang'an, it would be possible to add an extra chapter in history books in the future to let people know how "Emperor Gaozu-like" Liu Bei's battle to conquer Guanzhong was.

……

Time passed quickly and it was the end of June in the second year of Zhangwu. The moat outside Chang'an City was finally broken to a large enough gap. The repeatedly reinforced trench bridge and filled earthwork were enough to allow heavy siege equipment to directly attack the city.

Liu Bei's army built special siege tower vehicles that were tall enough on the spot, and the number was just enough, so Liu Bei decided to formally launch a strong attack in the last few days of June.

When Liu Bei's army attacked most other cities before, they used Ge Gongche with prefabricated parts, which were transported to the front line by water vessels and then assembled, which made the preparations for the siege much faster.

However, this method of prefabricating siege vehicles is not applicable to large cities of the level of Chang'an and Luoyang, because the city walls of these two cities are uniquely high, both more than 20 feet high. Siege vehicle parts that can be used in other places are not applicable in such occasions.

When Liu Bei attacked Luoyang before, it took a lot of time, so it was naturally unavoidable to come to Chang'an this time.

It is impossible for Zhuge Jin to develop a set of standardized manufacturing processes and prefabricate in large quantities in advance just for these two cities. The cost would be lower than special on-site construction.

But no matter what, with the experience of the previous battle of breaking Luoyang and killing Cao Ren, the siege tower vehicle used by Liu Bei's army to attack Chang'an this time was more mature in design and craftsmanship, and should be easier to use.

The height of the tower car is slightly higher than the same model used in the Battle of Luoyang, but the center of gravity is more stable. The slope of the folded ladder is also gentler, and there are thin wooden boards on both sides to block arrows and provide handholds, allowing soldiers to exert more force when climbing quickly.

This change was also the lesson learned from the Battle of Luoyang.

The original Gegongche was a nearly horizontal plank tied to the top of the city wall, and the soldiers would run and charge directly to it. The ladder required the soldiers to use their hands and feet to climb up one step at a time.

The siege tower used in the Battle of Luoyang had a ladder with a slope somewhere in between the two. Zhuge Jin originally thought that it would at least be easier to climb than a ladder, but the final actual combat effect feedback showed that was not the case.

Because if the soldiers climb straight up or down, their weight can be supported by their legs, which can stabilize their center of gravity. When the slope of the ladder is as low as 50 degrees or even 40 degrees, it is the most difficult, because you can't hold the horizontal bars of the upper steps with your hands, so you have to lean over to climb down. If you don't support yourself with your hands, you rely on your legs, and your center of gravity will be unstable.

Therefore, during the Battle of Chang'an, Liu Bei's army's new siege tower vehicle had baffles added on both sides when the slope slowed down, and wooden strips were nailed on the baffles as handrails, making it much more convenient to use.

The only disadvantage of doing so is that the construction will be more difficult and the manufacturing cost will also increase. However, since it is the last battle, we are not afraid of spending money on materials and labor. Moreover, since everything is made on site, there is no need to consider prefabrication. Everything is done in the safest way.

On the day of the official siege, tens of thousands of Liu Bei's crossbowmen entered the wooden battle formations that had been set up in advance. Amid the loud drums and horns, they took turns shooting arrows at the enemies on the top of the city.

The rain of arrows was not dense, but it was continuous, with one wave after another connected very closely.

Hundreds of catapults also used fist-sized medium-sized gravel bombs, which were thrown in piles at the top of the city walls using net bags.

The Cao army soldiers on the top of the city wall were suppressed to the point that they could not raise their heads. Although they tried their best to shoot back and smash back, they were completely outnumbered by Liu Bei's army in terms of consumption. The catapults they had previously stored were also smashed one after another, so they could only retreat and defend temporarily.

Cao Cao even came up with the idea of letting most of the soldiers hide on the reverse slope under the city wall, or try to hide in the towers, horse faces, and soldier caves. When the enemy army really rushed up, they would urgently reinforce the defense on the city wall, throw rolling logs and stones, or prepare for hand-to-hand combat.

This kind of fighting style was only used in later generations when the enemy's "firepower preparation" was very strong and sending soldiers to the wall in advance would only increase casualties in vain. But now it appeared on the battlefield at the end of the Han Dynasty. It can only be said that the influence of the Zhuge brothers made Liu Bei's army's "long-range firepower" during the siege crush the enemy.

Cao Cao had only more than 30,000 regular troops defending the city. Chang'an City was so large, and the front line was so wide, which resulted in Cao's army's firepower being much weaker than in other previous siege battles.

In contrast, Liu Bei was able to muster an offensive force at least five times that of Cao's army, and he had a large number of long-range weapons and equipment. He was so rich that he could use the Divine Arm Crossbow at will, which led to the current situation.

"Hurry up to the wall! The enemy's siege tower has already pushed across the moat!"

As Liu Bei's melee troops approached, officers at all levels of Cao's army no longer cared to avoid arrows and stones, and urged all soldiers to fight to the front line, withstand the enemy's rain of arrows, and began to fight back by throwing rolling logs and stones.

At the beginning, some inexperienced Cao army soldiers would lean out their upper bodies to smash the stones, but when those people were shot like hedgehogs by arrows, their comrades next to them naturally learned their lesson.

They only dared to hide behind the parapets of the parapets, and threw wood and stones blindly outside the wall in a similar posture to that of Sakuragi Hanamichi shooting free throws, and their hit rate became more and more touching. Many times, even because of excessive tension, the guards threw wood and stones randomly before Liu Bei's siege tower vehicles were pushed into the striking distance of the rolling wood and stones, wasting a lot of supplies and physical strength in vain.

However, a war involving more than 100,000 people could eventually be fought back and forth on any local battlefield. Cao's resistance was not completely meaningless.

Under the unremitting counterattack of Cao's army, more than a dozen of the nearly 100 siege towers were completely destroyed, and many more were slightly damaged. In order to achieve this result, Cao's army also paid the price of at least four digits of soldiers being killed and injured by the rain of arrows.

But all this could not change the overall situation. At least more than 70% of the siege tower vehicles successfully reached the base of the wall without any hindrance.

A huge plank with an iron spike on the top slammed heavily on the wall, and Liu Bei's army's elite melee soldiers quickly launched a charge.

Cao Jun also tried to tie a thick hemp rope to the tail of the crossbow, connecting the huge stone and the pulley, and after shooting through the siege tower vehicles, they threw the huge stone off the city wall and used gravity acceleration to pull down the siege tower vehicles.

These tactics had all been used by Liu Bei's army before, and Cao Cao also knew that Liu Bei had ways to restrain them. But things had come to this point, and Cao's army could only try every possible means of resistance, regardless of whether they were useful or not.

If you don't use it now, how can you expect to save it for the New Year? Or use it in the next life? This is the last battle to destroy the country, and all means of resistance must be used to the extreme. Moreover, Cao's army blocked all the crossbows and iron feather arrows to cross fire, but it cannot be said that it was completely ineffective. Of the remaining seventy or eighty siege towers, five or six were indeed pulled down.

Some of them were caused by the poor choice of attacking positions and the uneven terrain, which led to the unstable center of gravity of the tower car. Others were previously hit by the Cao army's catapults and rolling logs and stones, which had already caused some damage and unstable structure. After being hit so hard, they finally broke down.

This tiny bit of success made the Cao army soldiers feel a little better, at least they were not doing completely useless work.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

"The Han Dynasty will rise, and Cao Cao will fall!"

"Don't work for Cao thief! Cao thief will die in these few days!"

The soldiers of Liu Bei's army shouted and rushed up the ladder.

As Liu Bei's army charged, a small number of veteran soldiers among the defenders who had participated in the Battle of Luoyang finally realized the problem.

"How come the enemy's speed of climbing the ladder this time is much faster than in the Battle of Luoyang? Fast and steady! The wall of Chang'an is obviously much higher than the vehicles on the other side. How did they manage to climb so fast while attacking from above?"

When the enemy climbed the ladder, they were extremely agile and courageous, catching Cao's soldiers off guard.

Cao's soldiers became more and more panicked. Generals and officers at all levels hurriedly gathered reserve troops and fought desperately to block the entrance. Only then did they temporarily avoid the collapse of the defense line through bloody hand-to-hand combat.

The speed at which Liu Bei's soldiers rushed to the top of the city was at least twice as fast as they expected. Once a siege tower vehicle was firmly set up, several armored soldiers would rush up in a few breaths, and their numbers kept increasing.

Cao's army fought in confusion for a long time before some sharp-sighted officers discovered the problem.

"Oh no! The planks used by the enemy this time have handrails on both sides! Those planks are not just for blocking arrows! No wonder they can rush so fast!"

Any tiny improvement in equipment, as long as it appears for the first time and is sudden enough, can create a huge advantage on the battlefield.

Cao's army had originally planned to rely on the strength of the city to fight a protracted war of attrition, but they were caught off guard. The reserve troops that were originally expected to hold out for a long time were quickly consumed, and the reinforcements of the troops also became weak.

The high and thick city walls played a certain condescending role in the initial stage, dealing a wave of damage by smashing logs and rocks. Later, it became a melee slaughterhouse, except that Cao's army had more people on the top of the city and could use more people to defeat fewer people.

But this kind of hand-to-hand exchange ratio is obviously not what should be seen in a normal city defense battle.

Cao's army counterattacked several times but failed to push down Liu Bei's soldiers who were climbing up the wall, and the situation became increasingly critical.

The bloody battle lasted less than half an hour before the critical situation on the front line was reported to Cao Cao himself.

When the battle broke out, Cao Cao did not immediately go to the top of the city wall to supervise the battle in person.

After all, he was the emperor emeritus, and he was 62 years old. Liu Bei had been besieging the city for almost a month, and his physical condition did not support him to patrol the city in person every day, so he just waited for news in the palace.

After hearing that the situation was critical, Cao Cao came in person and had people carry him on the imperial sedan chair. After seeing the situation on the battlefield with his own eyes, even Cao Cao himself couldn't help feeling sad.

"Zhuge Jin Zhuge Liang always finds something new for me. The Ge Gongche that has been used for so many years has been improved. The ladder has handrails on both sides, which allows the soldiers to charge so fast.

Our army is so small, and Liu Bei is so well prepared, and relying on hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, he attacks from all sides, and it is really hard to resist..."

Just as Cao Cao was thinking about countermeasures, he heard with his own ears that the enemy soldiers attacking the city were shouting some words that would undermine their morale.

It was nothing more than "The Cao thieves will perish! You will not get any reinforcements! Le Jin has surrendered to our army! Sima Yi has also abandoned his army and fled! The defenders of Yaoguan and Tongguan have also surrendered!"

The enemy soldiers also shouted these words when the battle just started, but the effect was not obvious at the time.

Now, as the situation tilted more and more towards Liu Bei's army, more and more Cao soldiers became increasingly shaken as they saw that they could not win.

Cao Cao was an experienced warrior, and with his sharp vision, he could of course see that his side was about to collapse.

"Immediately gather the soldiers who can still be spared and rush back to defend the inner city and the palace city in the north. I'm afraid the outer city of Chang'an can't be defended for this day. Also, gather all the war horses after you return and be ready."

Cao Cao gave the order very decisively.

He knew that if he continued to hold on like this, his army would be destroyed today. He was not afraid of death, but he wanted to die calmly and honorably. He had not thought about the details yet, so he tried to hold on as long as possible.

Don't think that Cao Cao was being pretentious - at a time like this, let alone Cao Cao, even Chongzhen, when the capital had to be captured, would still struggle and let the eunuchs buy time so that he could think of a decent death for himself, or kill his wife and daughter.

Cao Cao had already realized that because Liu Bei's offensive was too fierce and Chang'an City was too large, his small number of troops were spread out on such a long city wall, and Liu Bei would be able to gain an absolute military advantage at any point.

But Chang'an had inner and outer cities, and the inner city contained the imperial palace.

The inner city is much smaller. If the remaining troops decisively abandon the outer city and retreat to the inner city, they can still fill the defense line. However, Liu Bei's army will not be able to deploy its troops because the battlefield is not wide enough, and the local numerical advantage will not be as obvious as in the outer city.

Moreover, Cao Cao controlled the imperial palace, and he felt that Liu Bei would not be willing to let him burn down the old palace, which was once the western capital of the Han Dynasty.

Therefore, as long as he retreated to the inner city, Liu Bei would be more cautious and tolerate him for a few more days, hoping to resolve the issue through negotiations. By then, Cao Cao himself would definitely have to die, but if he was willing to take the initiative to break out, or go out to fight in the field, and then die,

Then perhaps Liu Bei would spare the lives of a few of his close friends and confidants, or humiliate his corpse less or not torture and humiliate it, in consideration of the fact that he did not defend the palace to the death or destroy the palace city.

These may all be hints of negotiating terms, but I don't know if the person on the other side can understand his hints.

It would be impossible to negotiate openly. No one would negotiate with a traitor, and Liu Bei himself could not afford the bad reputation. So Cao Cao could only hope that there was someone with good eyesight on the other side who was willing to reach a slight understanding with him.

Under Cao Cao's command, the remaining troops of the Cao army, which were gradually wavering, began to retreat quickly. Those troops that were not stuck immediately rushed to the inner city. Those reserve troops that had not yet been deployed to the front line were not used at all and turned around to the vicinity of the palace.

Naturally, Cao Cao's actions could not be concealed from the front-line soldiers.

When the abandoned Cao army officers saw the friendly forces retreating, they soon guessed the situation. Their morale collapsed further and soon they surrendered in an organized manner in a chain reaction.

Liu Bei's army was unstoppable and captured the gate towers along the city wall. Soon they had breached the east, west and south sides.

Only the north city was left, because the north gate was close to the Wei River, and Liu Bei's army had not organized a strong attack from that direction before. Moreover, the inner city and the imperial palace of Chang'an were also in the north of the outer city, which was the last place heavily guarded by Cao Cao, so naturally it was impossible to break through for a while.

The bloody battle lasted until the evening of that day, and Cao's troops on the outer city walls and between the inner and outer cities were basically wiped out in an organized manner.

After being surrounded, Cao's soldiers stopped struggling and surrendered in large numbers. Only the scattered stragglers were still running around in confusion.

Liu Bei also quickly confirmed the news of victory and felt very proud.

The outer cities on the east, south and west sides were all captured, and at least 20,000 of Cao's 30,000 to 40,000 troops were annihilated. Only the last 10,000 or so were left, and they were just trying to defend the inner city and the palace, so they were no longer a concern.

(End of this chapter)