Traveling back in time to Liu Feng, starting with rescuing soldier Guan Yu.

Chapter 108 Siege and Counterattack

Wu Jun abandoned hundreds of corpses and retreated in panic. Guan Ping did not pursue them, knowing that his forces numbered only a little over a thousand and could not afford to entangle with Wu Jun outside the city.

Guan Ping dismounted and strode into the east gate of Yiyang City. The city walls were stained with blood, and in the morning light, fresh marks of sword and axe blows could be seen everywhere on the crenellations.

Several wounded soldiers leaned against the wall, panting heavily. Some of them had blood still dripping from their severed arms, but their faces wore smiles of relief.

The magistrate of Yiyang County was directing the militia to move the stones and broken wood piled up at the city gate. When he saw Guan Ping enter the city, he quickly wiped the blood off his face and stepped forward to pay his respects.

Guan Ping helped him up and asked how much food and how many wounded soldiers were left in the city. The magistrate answered in detail, his voice tinged with shame: "There are only eight hundred county soldiers left in the city, and the defensive equipment is almost exhausted. If General Guan had not arrived in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable."

"It is already quite remarkable that eight hundred men could withstand several thousand elite troops from Eastern Wu in their attempt to seize the city."

Guan Ping patted him on the shoulder, his voice low but steady and powerful.

"The magistrate need not blame himself. Although the Wu army has retreated, they will surely return. Issue the order to reinforce the city walls before the Wu army can completely surround the city, prepare more stones and boiling oil, and organize the city's militia into teams to go up the walls. Reinforce the chevaux-de-frise outside the east gate and add more deer antlers. Also, bury several large urns under the city gates to listen for the Wu army's movements and prevent them from digging tunnels to attack the city. The Po Shuo Flying Army is still on its way; we must hold out until they arrive."

Yiyang City quickly became busy again.

Soldiers and local militia worked together to reinforce the city walls, carrying stones and boiling oil from below to the crenellations. Several strong women carried loads of porridge and dry biscuits to the defenders on the city walls.

Guan Ping climbed the arrow tower on the east side of the city, looked towards the Xiang River, and gripped the long sword in his hand tightly.

After Li Yi withdrew his troops, he did not retreat far.

The Eastern Wu fleet withdrew from the ferry crossing east of Yiyang City and regrouped in a bay on the west bank of the Xiang River.

Thirty ships lined up in a row on the river, their crossbows aimed at the walls of Yiyang, sealing off any possibility of a counterattack from within the city.

The defeated soldiers gradually returned to their ranks. Li Yi counted the casualties and found that more than 600 men had been lost in the battle last night, most of whom were members of the ramming squad who were unable to retreat in time when Guan Ping launched a surprise attack from the flank.

Li Yi's face turned ashen, but he did not lash out. He simply ordered his men to record the casualty figures and then summoned his deputy generals to discuss countermeasures.

Most of the lieutenants advocated continuing the offensive.

A bearded captain slammed his fist on the table and said, "General, last night the spies failed, not that we couldn't take it. Today, we'll reorganize our troops and launch a daytime assault. There are only a thousand or so men in Yiyang; they can't withstand our five thousand men's relentless attacks!"

Li Yi did not answer immediately. Standing at the bow of the boat, he looked at the "Guan" banner fluttering in the wind atop Yiyang city wall, his brows furrowed.

He knew that the opportunity from last night would not come again. Guan Ping's reinforcements had arrived, the city's defenses had been reinforced, and the attempt to raid the city had turned into a direct assault.

But as Zhu Ranmo's most capable vanguard, how could Li Yi be deterred by a single setback?

"Order the water fortress to form a defensive formation, and the warships to blockade the ferry crossing."

Li Yi turned and walked off the bow of the boat.

"Each unit should take turns landing and attacking the city. There is no need to aim to break through the city in one go, but to keep attacking day and night, exhausting the defending army and depleting their arrows and stones."

He only had a little over a thousand men in the city. Once they ran out of men and arrows, the city fell.

Wu Jun's naval stronghold was quickly established on the west bank of the Xiang River.

Thirty warships were linked end to end with iron chains, forming a floating city wall on the river.

Li Yi divided his 5,000 men into five teams of 1,000 each, taking turns to land and attack the city. Once one team finished its attack, it would retreat to rest, and the second team would immediately take over.

This cycle continues, day and night.

The siege began at dawn the following day. Wu's army erected siege ladders on the walls of Yiyang, and soldiers, holding shields, climbed the ladders. Stones and boiling oil were poured down from the walls, and screams of agony echoed throughout the city.

Guan Ping stood on the arrow tower on the east side of the city, his long sword held horizontally in front of his knees, his face calm and composed.

Behind him stood the magistrate of Yiyang County and several garrison commanders, all with solemn expressions.

Guan Ping also divided the city's garrison into three shifts, each with three hundred men, to take turns guarding the city.

One squad engages the enemy, one squad stands by, and one squad rests.

Women, children, and the elderly in the city were all mobilized to carry arrows and stones to the city walls and to heat oil in pot after pot.

In the afternoon, Wu's offensive intensified.

Li Yi personally supervised the battle, mobilizing all the crossbowmen on the warships to fire a concentrated barrage at the east gate of the city.

The rain of arrows was as dense as a swarm of locusts passing through, and the city walls were covered with arrow shafts. In some places, the arrow shafts were so dense that people could climb up them.

Several soldiers had just poked their heads out of the crenellations when they were shot through the throats by crossbow bolts, their bodies hanging on the city wall and no one could retrieve them.

The ladder was pushed down and then put back up; the battering ram was smashed and then replaced with a new one.

Wu's soldiers climbed up the ladder, stepping over the corpses of their comrades. Halfway up, they were scalded with boiling oil, screamed, and fell down the ladder, crashing onto the mountain of corpses piled up at the foot of the city wall.

Guan Ping remained standing on the arrow tower on the east side of the city without moving.

After observing for half a day, he discovered that although Wu's offensive was fierce, there was a pattern: each time the attack took place, the offensive would weaken briefly, and there was always a period of chaos between the attacking soldiers and the soldiers taking over.

Guan Ping immediately adjusted the deployment, ordering the garrison to concentrate on throwing stones and boiling oil when the Wu army changed ranks.

After several rounds, the intervals between Wu Jun's troop changes became longer and longer, and the pace of the siege slowed down significantly.

However, by evening, the defenders on the city walls had used up most of their stones, and had very few arrows left.

The blacksmiths in the city were working through the night to make arrowheads, and women and children were dismantling their own iron pots and smashing them for the blacksmiths to melt down.

As Guan Ping was patrolling the city wall, a county soldier sergeant with three missing fingers was bandaging himself with a bandage in his teeth. When he saw Guan Ping coming over, he stood up and saluted, but Guan Ping pressed his shoulder down and made him sit down.

After nightfall, Wu's army finally withdrew and returned to their ships.

Fires flickered in the water fortress as Wu soldiers cooked meals on their boats. The smoke drifted with the river breeze toward Yiyang city, carrying the aroma of fish soup and baked flatbread.

The soldiers guarding the city walls were munching on dry biscuits. Some leaned against the crenellations and closed their eyes to rest, while others used whetstones to sharpen the dull edges of their blades.

The wounded soldiers groaned in the makeshift camp below the city. The healers were so busy that they didn't have time to rest. They used liquor to clean the wounds and applied crushed herbs to the wounds, which emitted a bitter smell.

Guan Ping, however, did not rest.

He sat in the arrow tower, with his long sword across his lap, closed his eyes to rest for a moment, and when he opened them, his gaze was clear as usual.

He ordered all the cavalrymen in the city who could still ride horses to be gathered together, and personally selected one hundred of the most skilled warriors from his troops.

These one hundred men were all lightly armed, without heavy armor, carrying only short swords and fire tweezers, and wearing soft-soled cloth boots, so they moved silently.

Upon seeing this, the lieutenant exclaimed in alarm, "General, are you going to launch a counterattack out of the city? The Wu army's naval camp is brightly lit; our troops will be discovered as soon as we leave the city gates, and we may be in grave danger!"

Guan Ping slowly sheathed his long sword and stood up: "There is no moon tonight, and the fog on the river is thick. The Wu army has been fighting all day and has just returned to their ships. They are at their most relaxed. They will never expect us to dare to launch a counterattack. If we don't burn a few of their ships tonight and crush their morale, this city will be difficult to defend tomorrow."

That night, Guan Ping led a hundred warriors out of the city through the west gate under cover of darkness.

A hundred men crept along the banks of the Xiang River toward Wu's water fortress, the reeds along the riverbank providing excellent cover.

The river fog thickened, the moonlight was swallowed by the clouds, and visibility on the river was less than a hundred paces. The Wu army's naval camp was brightly lit, and the sentries on night watch sat on the gunwale of the boat, dozing off, completely unaware of the danger approaching from the shore.

Guan Ping divided the hundred men into three teams: the left team of thirty men crept along the riverbank to the upper reaches of the water fortress, the right team of thirty men crept to the lower reaches of the water fortress, and he himself led the middle team of forty men to break in from the front.

The three teams agreed to use a fire as a signal and launch simultaneously.

Guan Ping was the first to leap out of the reeds, silently approaching the outermost ship of the Wu army through the shallow water. A sentry was dozing against the ship's railing when Guan Ping covered his mouth with one hand, and a short knife had already slit his throat.

The sentry collapsed silently onto the deck. Guan Ping waved his hand, and forty warriors, like raccoons, scrambled onto the ship's side and quickly occupied the bow and stern.

Several closely packed ships were connected by gangplanks, and Guan Ping led his men along the gangplanks to sneak towards the next ship. He killed the sentries on two ships, but the Wu army's naval camp remained completely unaware.

On the third ship, a soldier named Wu, who was getting up to relieve himself, bumped into him and screamed on the spot.

Screams pierced the night sky, alarm gongs sounded loudly in the water fortress, and Wu soldiers rushed out of their cabins from their sleep, causing chaos on the deck.

Guan Ping no longer concealed himself and shouted sharply, "Light the fire!"

Forty warriors simultaneously lit their fire tinderboxes and threw the resin torches they carried into the cabin and onto the canvas.

The dry sails ignited instantly upon contact with fire, and flames shot up the masts into the air. With a gust of river wind, the fire spread rapidly, and several neighboring warships were also ignited in succession.

The left and right teams launched their attacks simultaneously upstream and downstream, causing fires to break out at both ends of Wu's water fortress.

Li Yi's flagship was located in the center of the water fortress, where the fire had not yet spread. He rushed out of the cabin in his armor and saw flames rising simultaneously upstream and downstream, his expression changing drastically.

Li Yi had no idea how many Han soldiers had come to the shore; all he saw were flames and shouts of battle everywhere.

The river fog was thick, obstructing visibility. Wu's soldiers scrambled about in the darkness and firelight, some of them knocking over fire pits, turning the entire deck into a sea of ​​fire.

Guan Ping led forty men, charging left and right through the Wu army's naval camp. His long swords flashed like dragons in the firelight, and with each strike, a Wu soldier fell to the ground.

A hundred warriors charged like tigers into a flock of sheep, their battle cries echoing across the river.