Three hours later, it was early morning on the second day of August.
While Zhuge Jin was still sleeping soundly at home in Huaiyin City, in the Yuan Shujun camp in the west of the city, the commander-in-chief Ji Ling had just eaten the imperial meal and was leaning on the tiger-skin couch in the Chinese army tent with a shiny face. The sharpened willow branches were picked hard against the teeth.
Ji Ling was obviously not in a good mood. Since arriving in Huaiyin yesterday, he had suffered two minor setbacks in a row.
First, a small group of elite soldiers he sent to fish in troubled waters were discovered and eliminated by Guan Yu.
Guan Yu also used a trick to set fire to the north gate, seducing him into thinking that there was a chance of seizing the gate. He underestimated the enemy and rushed forward, killing many cavalry with crossbows. Even Ji Ling himself was injured by a stray arrow.
Fortunately, he wore double-layered armor. When the arrow was deflected by the iron rod and penetrated the rhinoceros skin, it was already at the end of its strength and failed to break his ribs.
This flesh wound is estimated to heal in ten days and a half, but the impact on morale is not small.
"We can't wait like this. We have to find a way to achieve a small victory. Otherwise, the morale that was finally boosted after conquering Xuyi will be low again."
Ji Ling was picking his teeth and thinking in his mind.
Six days ago, he had just conquered Xuyi, which is located further upstream of the Huaihe River, so that he could go down the river to Huaiyin.
But the actual situation was very clear to Ji Ling: when Liu Bei gave up Xuyi, he retreated completely in an orderly manner, leaving no food for him in the warehouse.
Obviously, Liu Bei felt that Xuyi was dilapidated and should not be kept for a long time. Therefore, after fully exhausting the exhausted enemy, they took the initiative to retreat to Huaiyin City, which is taller, stronger and has convenient transportation to defend it.
At present, everything is still under Liu Bei's control, and this battle is not easy to fight.
However, just when Ji Ling frowned and couldn't think of a countermeasure, a general suddenly stumbled into the Chinese army's commander's tent.
Ji Ling looked up and saw that it was Lieutenant General Liang Gang.
Liang Gang didn't waste any time and shouted directly:
"General! God is really helping me! The scouts captured some of the defeated troops heading south along the Si River!
After being tortured, I learned that Lu Bu had secretly attacked Xiapi! Liu Bei has even lost his old nest and has no backup, so he will definitely die! "
"What? There can't be any fraud, right?" When Ji Ling heard this, he couldn't help but feel ecstatic. At the same time, he couldn't believe it, fearing that it was Liu Bei's trick to lure the enemy.
Ji Ling suppressed his impulse and asked Liang Gang to send more scouts to investigate again.
An hour or two later, at noon that day, after careful verification from many parties, Ji Ling felt that this information was most likely true.
In this case, Ji Ling finally couldn't help but ponder:
"The lair was stolen, why didn't Liu Bei respond? Could it be that no one reported it to him? It's impossible. Huaiyin City is bordered by water on several sides. Outside the north gate is the Huaihe River, and the east water gate leads directly to Hangou. Our troops on those two sides have been Unable to surround.
As long as the Xiapi defenders in the upper reaches can seize the boat and sail down the Si River to Huaihe River, they can bypass our army's obstruction. Unless Liu Bei himself had strictly ordered the city gates to be tightly closed in advance and was not allowed to open the doors when his own people called him, would it be possible to isolate the news..."
Ji Ling thought for a long time and couldn't understand why Liu Bei didn't respond. But as he pondered this line of thought, an idea suddenly struck him:
"Why am I so stupid! I don't care why he didn't respond!
Anyway, as long as this news spreads among the defenders, Huaiyin will be in panic and will be defeated!
Since he doesn’t know yet, I will find a way to help him know! "
After making up his mind, Ji Ling's response strategy was ready to come out.
He quickly ordered Liang Gang: "Quickly call up a battalion of soldiers and horses, divide them into several teams and go to each gate to scold the formation, shouting in unison that Xia Pi is missing, and shake Liu Bei's military morale."
Liang Gang immediately accepted the order, and quickly gathered 3,000 men and horses in three groups to fight outside the southwest and north gates. Ji Ling and Liang Gangle each led a group.
Unfortunately, after the troops set up their formation outside the west and north gates, the city was silent and there was no reaction at all.
When Ji Ling and Liang Gang saw this, they had no choice but to select a hundred scolding players each. They lined up horizontally with swords and cards, and approached a hundred steps outside the door, ready to yell in unison.
However, before they could say anything, crossbows fired from the top of the city and a dozen arrows were shot down immediately. The others dropped their weapons and ran away like crazy. Ji Ling and Liang Gang each spent a lot of effort to restrain them.
But the scolding players didn't dare to step forward any more, and in the end they could only shout from an absolutely safe distance.
Unfortunately, they didn't have loudspeakers, so they couldn't be heard in the city.
After scolding for a while to no avail, Ji Linglianggang had no choice but to withdraw his troops and return to the camp. He said that he would be more prepared tomorrow and rush to make some simple siege weapons such as flying ladders. He would also build more large shields and wooden barriers. If that didn't work, he would just attack on one side. Cheng shouted.
After returning to the camp, Ji Ling suddenly discovered that the situation between the two groups of people shouting was pretty good.
Le who went to fight at the South Gate was even worse than them. Le even lost his helmet, and the soldiers were scattered and injured.
Ji Ling was surprised and asked the reason, and Le Jiucai explained sadly: "I was arrayed 200 steps outside the city, but Liu Bei's army dared to open the door. I thought I had a plan and could answer the enemy general.
Unexpectedly, after the enemy had only left the city with more than 200 cavalry, they dared to launch a surprise attack and charge towards me. Guan Yu was also among them. I was unprepared for a moment, and Guan Yu killed dozens of people in a row. The position was in chaos, and I had to order a retreat. "
"Trash! You are timid in the face of battle, drag this guy out and engage in military law!"
Ji Ling was furious when he heard this. One thousand cavalry were chased and chopped by Guan Yu's two hundred cavalry. He didn't even dare to fight and just ran away. How could such a piece of iron trash come back alive?
Hearing this, Le immediately knelt down and begged for mercy, and Liang Gang beside him also helped to say good things:
"General! The war is about to begin. It would be unfavorable to kill the general! Give General Le a chance to make a difference!"
It is true that our army was not well prepared today, and it was agreed that we were only going to fight. The soldiers must have no intention of fighting. Who would have expected that the enemy would dare to fight back? "
After Ji Ling listened to the advice, he calmed down some of his anger and had to admit that it did make sense.
Because when they hurriedly ordered the troops to leave the camp just now, they were really in a hurry. They also explained the purpose of the trip to the soldiers, so that everyone did not have to worry.
If not, it would have taken half an hour to prepare, such as letting the soldiers eat enough and get some heavy shields that could cover their whole body before setting off.
After all, the coach is also responsible for pushing too fast.
Ji Ling had no choice but to intensify the preparation of siege weapons in order to spread bad news to the enemy in different ways tomorrow.
He felt aggrieved in his heart: It was Liu Bei's side who had obviously encountered a major disadvantage, so why did he need to pay such a high price to remind Liu Bei to synchronize information? Is this still justified?
…
By the time Ji Ling completely gave up on the day's struggle, it was already afternoon time.
In Huaiyin City, Zhuge Jin, who went to bed early in the morning, finally got up after sleeping until this point, washed and dressed, and had breakfast and lunch.
Then he had nothing to do, so he asked Fan Jiang and Zhang Da, who Liu Bei sent to protect him, to lead the way to the treasury.
Just think of it as a way to check and fill in any gaps before leaving, or to give a reminder and be more favourable.
Fan Jiang and Zhang Da escaped from Xiapi with Zhang Fei, and like Shiren who guarded the north gate last night, they are also in need of isolation. Liu Bei sent them to protect Zhuge Jin.
Along the way, they all wore bamboo hats and kept them low, lest they be recognized by the people passing by on the street.
When Zhuge Jin arrived at the treasury, Liu Bei was indeed there. As soon as he saw Zhuge Jin, he happily pulled him aside to a quiet place and reported in a low voice:
"Sir, what you expected is true. Ji Ling must have known that something is going on in Xiapi. Just now, the three sects sent people to challenge and scold the formation. Most of them wanted to deliberately spread the news and shake the morale of our troops.
Fortunately, our army used crossbows to repel the enemy. Nanmen Yunchang took advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to open the door to cover up the enemy. He used the 200 dead soldiers who knew the inside story of Xiapi and made a lot of gains. Ji Ling suffered this setback and was bound to have to rest for a day or two.
I have already made arrangements to collect sand, and the soldiers responsible for digging sand have finished digging and quarantined before dawn. The sergeants who are planning these points at the moment are all unaware of the inside story. Tomorrow at the latest, our army must know that the army has sufficient rations. Even if Ji Ling comes to spread the news again, he will be sure to denounce it as a false report. "
Upon hearing this, Zhuge Jin felt slightly comforted and had a full understanding of Liu Bei's basic skills in commanding troops.
It seems that Liu Bei's commanding ability is not weak, and his daily basic skills are quite solid, but he lacks ingenuity and the ability to adapt to major changes.
After hearing about Ji Ling's behavior, Zhuge Jin was temporarily inspired and gave Liu Bei some advice:
"If I were as eager to spread rumors as Ji Ling when I was using the army, I would definitely carve more wooden tablets and throw them into the Huaihe River and Hangou, so that the news of the fall of Xiapi could be carried to the water gate in the east of the city by the water. If there are soldiers draining water from the canal , it is possible to see..."
Huaiyin County faces many rivers and has extremely rich water systems.
Zhuge Jin has more than two thousand years of experience at home and abroad. He has never seen any conspiracy. Of course, it is easy to think of throwing bottles into the water connected to the moat to demoralize the enemy.
Later, when Zhu Yuanzhang destroyed the Mingxia regime in Sichuan at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Fu Youde of the North Road had already sneaked into Yinping and captured Chengdu, but Dai Shou, the prime minister of the Mingxia Dynasty of the East Road, still fought to the death in Chongqing, so Fu Youde threw a lot of writing into the Minjiang River. With a wooden sign saying "Chengdu has fallen",
Finally, they floated thousands of miles downstream to the Qutang Gorge and were salvaged. This caused the morale of the Xia army that defended the Three Gorges on the East Road to collapse. Tang He, who was in charge of attacking Baidi City by waterway, had a great morale boost and finally broke through the Qutang Gorge in one fell swoop.
When Liu Bei heard this plan, he was quite happy just now. He suddenly broke out in a cold sweat and kept chanting: "I will immediately issue an order to prohibit drawing water from the water gate! And we must strictly investigate and prohibit soldiers from salvaging foreign objects in the moat." !”
While talking, Liu Bei secretly said he was lucky: Fortunately, Ziyu is from our side. It would be unthinkable if she were from the enemy's side...
It is estimated that this move was mostly prepared in vain. With Ji Ling's mind, he should not have thought of such a detailed poison move.
But it's not a big mistake to be careful. After all, it costs nothing to ban soldiers from fishing.
After Liu Bei broke out in a cold sweat, he naturally had a higher opinion of Zhuge Jin and asked him about many details of his measures.
Zhuge Jin also answered every question, and he was able to show off his tactics as he saw them. According to Ji Ling's latest trends, he gave such targeted instructions, which Liu Bei deeply agreed with.
