In this realistic war game, only I understand the course of the battle.

After the great victory at Gaocheng, the Yan army rested for two days on the south bank of the Hutuo River. The captured weapons and provisions filled the warehouses of the Gaocheng county government. The muskets abandoned by the Southern army were meticulously inventoried and numbered by Zhu Neng's ordnance officer; over six hundred were still usable and were all added to the firearms battalion. Along the official road from Gaocheng to Zhengding, the Yan army's supply convoys formed a long line—Zhu Di's military order consisted of only four words: "Supplies first." He did not intend to repeat the mistakes made after the Battle of Dongchang, where the supply lines were cut off, nearly trapping the entire army on the Hebei plain.

On the morning of the third day, Zhu Di spread out a map of the entire Shandong region in his central command tent. The generals lined up on either side of the tent, with Zhu Neng standing first on the left, Chen Mao beside him, and Huo Zhen leaning against the tent entrance, whittling another new horse bone with a dagger. Shen Du was summoned into the tent; the mud on his armor was still wet—he had just returned from outside the west gate of Gaocheng, leading a scout team that had covered the entire retreat route of the Southern army's remnants.

"Dezhou." Zhu Di placed his finger on the location of Dezhou on the map, his tone as calm as if he were talking about the weather. "After Sheng Yong retreated from Jiahe, he has been fortifying the city's defenses. Wu Jie's remnants retreated to Jinan, and Ping An retreated to Jining. Sheng Yong is now defending Dezhou alone. He has 50,000 troops in the city, and his reserves of muskets and crossbows are enough for half a year. Tie Xuan is urging reinforcements day and night in Jinan, but Jianwen's forces have been scattered several times by us, and he cannot muster a second army of 200,000 in a short time."

"Therefore," Zhu Di raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the generals in the tent, "Dezhou must be taken as soon as possible. Once Dezhou is taken, Jinan will be completely isolated. No matter how capable Tie Xuan is at defending, an isolated city cannot hold out for more than three months. Our army has won a series of great victories since marching south, and morale is high, but our food and ammunition cannot withstand a prolonged siege. The battle of Dezhou must be won quickly."

Zhang Yu and Tan Yuan's seats were empty. Their ghost-head sabers and goose-feather sabers were enshrined in a side hall of the Prince of Yan's mansion in Beiping, but their battle was not yet over. Zhu Neng tightened the bandage on his right arm again—his burns had repeatedly ruptured during the days of marching, and the army doctor had warned him many times, but he never listened.

"Your Highness," Shen Du began. He walked to the map, offering no further pleasantries, and pointed to the location of Dezhou City. "Dezhou's defenses have three layers—the outer layer is the antler-shaped moat and the inner layer is the brick wall, and the inner layer is the barbican. Sheng Yong suffered from the sandstorms at Jiahe, so this time he will definitely position his muskets in a sheltered spot. The west of Dezhou City is adjacent to the canal, which itself is a natural barrier; the east of the city is a plain, suitable for cavalry deployment but not for siege weapons; the north of the city is where Sheng Yong's main force is deployed, with the densest concentration of muskets and crossbows. If we attack from the south, there is an old river embankment outside the south side of the city, behind which is a gentle slope, and at the top of the slope is the city wall. This gentle slope looks the least conspicuous, but it is the only blind spot in Dezhou's defenses—muskets firing from the city wall will have their line of sight blocked by the slope's angle. Lead bullets won't hit the bottom of the slope, only the middle section."

Zhu Neng's eyes lit up. Zhu Di didn't speak immediately; he looked down at the map, his finger repeatedly tracing the location of the old river embankment south of Dezhou City. Then he looked up at Shen Du. "Continue."

"Sheng Yong will deploy his main forces to the north and east. The west is right next to the canal, which we can't cross. He won't put too many men on this gentle slope to the south—because below the slope are open wheat fields, which are clearly visible from the city walls. He thinks we won't choose to attack from the most conspicuous spot." Shen Du drew an arc on the slope with his finger. "But if we push the battering rams behind the riverbank and hide them, sneak up to the bottom of the slope at night, and launch an attack at dawn, it's less than three hundred paces from the bottom of the slope to the city walls."

Zhu Neng slammed his ghost-headed saber on the ground: "Three hundred paces, a fast runner can reach it in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea."

"Yes." Shen Du straightened up. "But there's a prerequisite—the deer antlers in the south of the city must be cleared first. Sheng Yong has laid at least two layers of deer antlers in the south of the city, and there's a shallow moat behind them. Before attacking the city, someone needs to sneak over and dismantle the deer antlers. The dismantling of the deer antlers can't be too noisy, otherwise Sheng Yong will notice."

Huo Zhen peeked out from the tent entrance and interjected in broken Chinese, "Remove the deer antlers, do it quietly. We Mongols are good at this."

Zhu Di turned to look at Huo Zhen. Huo Zhen pulled the dagger from the horse's bone, grinned, revealing teeth yellowed from being soaked in mare's milk wine. "At night, we'll sneak past, the horses' hooves wrapped in hemp cloth, and all the bells on the deer antlers cut off. My men can reach the city walls with their eyes closed."

Zhu Di remained silent for a moment, then stood up. He took his sword from the table and hung it at his waist, the scabbard striking the corner of the table with a crisp sound. "Issue the order: the entire army will set off for Dezhou tomorrow. The strategy for attacking the city will be as Li Jingzhong proposed—a feigned attack on the north gate from the front, with the main attack chosen on the gentle slope south of the city. Zhu Neng will lead the city-breaking battalion, attached to Li Jingzhong's centurion unit, to lead the main attack from the south. Huo Zhen will lead mounted archers to outflank the city from the south, cutting off the route from Dezhou to Jinan. Chen Mao will lead light cavalry to make a feint outside the north gate, holding back Sheng Yong's main force."

The Yan army arrived in Dezhou three days later. Zhu Di set up his main camp ten miles north of Dezhou, with banners stretching as far as the eye could see and smoke rising from cooking fires. From the city walls, the Yan army's formation to the north was even more imposing than before the Battle of Jiahe—battering rams, ladders, and cannons were all positioned outside the north gate, ready for a frontal assault. Sheng Yong stood on the north gate tower of Dezhou, scanning the Yan army's northern positions with his binoculars, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. He had been outflanked by the Yan army at Jiahe, but he wouldn't fall for it again this time. He left his main force entirely in the north and east, deployed crossbow formations along the canal to the west, and stationed only two thousand-household units—less than three thousand men—to the south of the city.

"Send someone to check the deer antlers on the gentle slope south of the city again," Sheng Yong said to his adjutant behind him, putting down his binoculars. "Don't let them sneak up the slope."

The deputy general accepted the order and left. But Sheng Yong did not go to the south city himself. He trusted his judgment—all of the Yan army's siege equipment was placed on the north side, and Zhu Di's main cavalry force was also on the north side. Although the gentle slope on the south side of the city was a dead end, as long as the antlers were intact, the Yan army's infantry could not charge up.

What he didn't expect was that the antlers wouldn't heal on their own.

On the eve of the siege, at the fourth watch of the night, Huo Zhen led dozens of mounted archers selected from the Doyan Three Guards, bypassing the canal on the west side and crossing the waist-deep water in the dark. Their horses' hooves were wrapped in thick linen, and leather bridles were used to prevent them from neighing. Each rider carried two daggers at their waist and a short-handled axe on their back—not for killing people, but for cutting down deer antlers. Shen Du walked at the very front, gripping his broadsword tightly. The old wound on his left leg throbbed with pain from the icy river water, but his pace did not slow.

Below the gentle slope south of Dezhou City, two layers of deer antlers were laid out. Each antler was tied with a warning bell and a tripwire, the tripwire connected to a gong at the foot of the city wall. Sheng Yong had witnessed the Yan army's night raid capabilities at Jiahe, and he believed these bells would ensure the safety of the south of the city. Huo Zhen cut the tripwires with a dagger more lightly than a cat. The bells were removed and placed on the ground, the tripwires were cut one by one, and the first layer of deer antlers was silently cleaved by the mounted archers with short-handled axes. A sliver of moonlight peeked through the clouds, illuminating the movements of this small group—swift, quiet, each axe strike precisely hitting the most vulnerable spot at the base of the antlers.

The second layer of antlers consisted of thicker wooden stakes, driven three feet deep into the ground, impervious to even a short-handled axe. Shen Du touched the cracks at the base of the stakes, tightly encased in rammed earth, and gestured to Zhao Laoliu. Zhao Laoliu, with an unlit pipe in his mouth, unloaded a bundle of small gunpowder canisters from his back—not the large bundles used to blow up city gates, but miniature canisters he had specially modified after the Battle of Zhen Ding, each only the size of a fist, tied together with hemp rope to fit into the gaps at the base of the antlers. "Retreat," Shen Du whispered. Everyone crawled back along the bottom of the slope, the fuses hissing in the night as they burned into the base of the antlers. Several muffled thuds were mostly drowned out by the night wind, but the antlers on the south side of the city were blasted open with several gaps.

At dawn, at the hour of Chen (7-9 AM), the Yan army launched a feigned attack on the north gate. Zhu Neng's deputy general, leading a thousand infantrymen, pushed battering rams towards the north gate, the drums thundering and the shouts of battle so loud that Sheng Yong was certain Zhu Di's main attack was aimed at the north gate. Sheng Yong transferred reserves from the city to reinforce the north gate, and all the musketeers on the city wall moved into position. Then, Shen Du stood up behind the river embankment at the foot of the gentle slope south of the city, drawing his sword.

"Breakthrough Camp—Charge!"

Zhao Laoliu pushed the battering ram out from behind the riverbank with a roar. The new, wide-bladed iron-rimmed wheels of the ram crushed the remaining antler-shaped stakes, barely slowing down as it pushed through the gaping hole in the antler-shaped structure torn open by the night raid. The defenders on the south city wall were mostly distracted by the drums at the north gate. By the time the first sentry saw the Yan army surging up the gentle slope below, short-handled axes and muskets were already aimed at his crenellations. The alarm gongs blared wildly on the south city wall. Sheng Yong's reserves had just been transferred to the north gate, and the two thousand-household garrisons on the south side of the city were hastily engaged in battle. The musketeers fired down from behind the crenellations, but the slope's inclination, as Shen Du had predicted, blocked their downward line of sight—lead bullets flew over the top of the slope, unable to hit the accelerating battering ram at the bottom. Shen Du charged at the very front of the assault. The passivity of a soldier crossing the river was activated with every step on the gentle slope. Power flowed into his right arm, and he raised his sword overhead. Gu Zhang's swordsmen and shieldmen followed closely on either side of the battering ram, while the spearmen's spears protruded from the gaps in their shields, pointing towards the city wall. When Zhao Laoliu pushed the battering ram against the south gate's panel, the veins on his thin arms bulged. With his pipe clenched between his teeth, his cheeks puffed out like he was sucking on a walnut, he braced himself against the ram's shaft, slamming the door hinges with a deafening crash, like bones breaking. After three rounds of concentrated impact, the south gate collapsed with a thunderous roar.

When Zhu Neng led his main cavalry force up from behind the riverbank, Shen Du was already standing beneath the south gate. Leaning on his sword, his old left leg wound throbbed with pain, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Huo Zhen's mounted archers had outflanked the city from the west, cutting off the south gate garrison's retreat route into the city. When Sheng Yong received the urgent report of the south gate's fall at the north gate, his expression froze for a moment. He immediately pushed aside his flag bearers and personally led his personal guards towards the south gate, leaving the last musket-wielding force at the north gate. But it was too late—the Yan army surged into the south gate like a tidal wave. Sheng Yong's personal guards were scattered by Zhu Neng's cavalry in the street fighting, and their muskets were useless in the alleys. The guards fought desperately to escort Sheng Yong out of the east gate, retreating along the official road towards Jinan. As they charged out, several arrows shot from horseback by Yan cavalry were embedded in their backs.

Shen Du didn't participate in the street fighting. He sat down in the south gate archway, resting his sword on his knees. Zhao Laoliu leaned against him; the battering ram lay askew outside the archway, its axle completely broken. Zhao Laoliu had his pipe in his mouth, unlit, trembling all over—whether from exhaustion or excitement, it was hard to tell. He looked down at his left hand, where he'd broken a fingernail while pushing the battering ram, then at Shen Du, and suddenly laughed. Shen Du laughed too. Their faces were streaked with black and white from gunpowder smoke; only their teeth remained white when they laughed.

The shouts of battle in the city gradually subsided. Sheng Yong had fled, and Dezhou had changed hands. The gates of Shandong had been completely kicked open.