My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 436 The Four Cais Fall into the Trap
Meanwhile, Cai Mao ordered Huang Zhong and Wen Pin to take command of their troops and garrison Yiyang, canceling the mission to attack Wangcheng.

Upon receiving this order, Wen Ping and Huang Zhong were immediately enraged.

We had already agreed on something, how could you change your mind so easily?

Cai Mao used the excuse that Huang Zhong and Wen Ping had failed to stop the troops in Yiyang.

However, the troops in Yiyang had already fled before they set off, so the responsibility clearly lay with Cai Mao.

If it weren't for his desire for stability, observing the situation at Baqiu for over ten days, the Yiyang troops wouldn't have been able to escape even if they had wings. But now it's their fault, how could Huang Zhong and Wen Ping accept this? Not to mention, they had to spit out the fat meat they had in their mouths and hand it over to those two useless Cai Zan and Cai Yan to eat.

Therefore, Huang Zhong and Wen Pin rushed back to Baqiu overnight, where a fierce argument broke out between the two sides in Cai Mao's tent.

However, Cai Mao ultimately managed to subdue Wen Pin and Huang Zhong by virtue of his status and position. After all, the Cai family was Liu Biao's maternal relatives, while Wen Pin and Huang Zhong were merely Liu Biao's subordinates.

However, Cai Mao was not only acting unilaterally, but also offered reassurance, promising that after Kuai Yue arrived in Baqiu, he would truthfully report the merits of Yiyang, and at the same time do his best to secure the vanguard positions for Wen Ping and Huang Zhong.

Huang Zhong and Wen Ping aren't fools. You already broke your promise before, and now you're making another one. Do you really think they're fools?

Moreover, they were now playing games, which made them extremely angry, but they still went through the motions.

Compared to Huang Zhong's stiffness, Wen Ping's perfunctory attitude seemed much more sincere, which made Cai Mao even more dissatisfied with Huang Zhong.

Old rogue, if Liu Biao hadn't had no one else to rely on, would he have taken a liking to you?

After Huang Zhong and Wen Ping made concessions, Cai Zan and Cai Yan were overjoyed and immediately led their 4,000 troops to Wangcheng.

The Wangcheng of the Eastern Han Dynasty is roughly the same as the Wangcheng District of Changsha City in later years, but with slight differences. The Wangcheng of this era was not located west of the Xiang River, but east of it.

Therefore, there is no need to cross the river from Luo County to Wangcheng; you can travel directly by land and arrive in just two or three days.

Cai Zan and Cai Yan thought it was just an armed demonstration; all the troops in Wangcheng had already withdrawn, and the Jingnan army was clearly demoralized. Otherwise, why would they have gone to such great lengths to snatch Wangcheng from Huang Zhong and Wen Ping?

Just as they had expected, spies kept reporting that Wangcheng was now completely empty. All the original troops had withdrawn in the past few days, and now only a dozen or so wealthy families had gathered their troops to maintain order in the city.

As soon as the army arrives, the gates will be opened to welcome them.

Cai Zan and Cai Yan never dreamed that they would be targeted by Sun Ce's men so soon after leaving Luo County.

While monitoring the movements of Cai Zan's army, Sun He continuously dispatched his personal guards to relay intelligence to Sun Ce in the rear.

Liu Feng sent a lot of people to Sun Ce this time, including Sun He, Sun Jiao and other members of the Sun clan.

These people were undoubtedly Sun Ce's confidants and were willing to serve him. Like Sun Ce, they all hoped to gain a foothold under Liu Feng through military merit.

Even Sun Jiao, whose elder brother had died, was no exception.

After receiving the intelligence, Sun Ce roughly formulated a battle plan.

The decisive battle took place outside Wangcheng City.

This place has natural defenses, and the terrain is extremely advantageous to Sun Ce.

The reason for choosing this location is that it is a plain, but it is sandwiched between mountains and rivers. Wangcheng is like a tempting fruit, hidden at the foot of the mountains and the confluence of the rivers.

Based on Wangcheng, to the east of the city lies a mountain range called Yuchi Mountain. Although not very high, it effectively blocks the west side of Wangcheng, with the entire mountain extending all the way to the Xiang River before leaving a land passage. However, this only passage is not easy to pass through, as it requires passing under the city walls of Wangcheng. If there is a troop of archers on the walls, it will inevitably cause heavy casualties to the army below.

The most ridiculous thing is that if Cai's army really wanted to break out from here, it would only send the entire army to the gates of Linxiang, which would be like throwing themselves into the tiger's den.

To the west of Wangcheng lies the Xiang River.

The Xiang River flows around the west of Wangcheng, turns to the south, and then echoes Yuchi Mountain in the southeast, forming a passageway.

Sun Ce's troops were lying in ambush on Yuchi Mountain at this time, while another thousand men secretly sneaked into Wangcheng under the cover of night and took temporary refuge in the homes of wealthy families in Wangcheng.

This battalion of a thousand men was divided into two parts. One part consisted of five hundred armored soldiers, including two hundred iron-clad soldiers, who were specifically tasked with defending the east gate of the city and preventing Cai Zan and Cai Yan from entering the city. The other part consisted of five hundred archers and crossbowmen, who would control the west and south walls of the city to block the Cai family army from escaping south.

Sun Ce's main force hid on Jade Pool Mountain, waiting for Cai's army to enter the ambush area. Then, he would flank them from the southeast to the northwest, driving Cai's army toward the Xiang River, and finally completely annihilating them.

Cai Zan and Cai Yan were not incompetent. On their way here, they did not rush to make a quick buck because Wangcheng was already undefended. On the contrary, they kept in touch with the spies and intelligence agents they had sent out to receive information. At the same time, they also sent out scouts to investigate the surrounding situation.

It can be said that Cai Zan and Cai Yan were 100% cautious.

The problem is, this is Jingnan. Although the Battle of Baqiu shocked the people of Jingnan, their resentment towards the people of Jingbei has not been eliminated.

Although the scouts and spies of the Jingbei Army could bring intelligence, it did not mean that they knew everything.

Taking the retreat of the Wangcheng army as an example, the scouts of the Jingbei army could only see the Wangcheng army leaving the city from the south and turning towards Linxiang from afar, but they could not follow and track them down.

This is the advantage of location.

You can spot the Wangcheng army leaving the city if you blend into the crowd, but once you track them down, your identity will be immediately discovered by the surrounding Jingnan people, thus exposing yourself.

In addition, the spies of the Jingbei army focused most of their efforts on Wangcheng, but neglected to scout Yuchi Mountain, so much so that they were unaware that Sun Ce's 7,000 troops had already secretly infiltrated the mountain.

In the Jingbei army, Cai Yan led 2,000 of her own troops as the vanguard, while Cai Zan led 2,000 of his own troops as the rearguard. The two units maintained a distance of two li (approximately 1 kilometer) between them, supporting each other from afar.

The distance from Luo County to Wangcheng is a little over 100 li. After leaving Luo County, Cai Zan maintained a marching speed of 30 li per day, and on the morning of the fourth day, he arrived at the northeast of Wangcheng.

Cai Yan looked at the tightly closed city gate and turned to order, "Send someone to tell them to open the gate immediately."

"Yes, General!"

After receiving the order, the captain charged towards the city gate alone on horseback.

"Listen up, people inside the city! General Cai Yan, a lieutenant general under the command of the General Who Punishes Rebels of Jingzhou, has arrived outside the city. If you do not wish for the entire city to be burned to the ground, quickly open the city gates and surrender."

The captain shouted three times from below the city wall, his voice loud enough to be heard clearly both inside and outside the city gate.

A moment later, the city gate creaked open and slowly opened.

The captain's face lit up with joy as he turned to look at the army behind him.

Cai Yan, standing in the army formation, waved her hand: "Tinggui, you lead your troops into the city first."

"Yes, General!"

The man Cai Yan summoned, Tinggui, was his cousin, Cai He, who was serving as a captain under Cai Yan at the time. Upon receiving Cai Yan's order, Cai He waved his hand and led five hundred men ahead towards the city gate. Their mission was to enter the city first, control the city gate and towers, and open a passage for the main army to enter later.

When it comes time to reward those who made contributions, they will undoubtedly be credited for being the first to act, since their actions were naturally quite risky. If there were any ambushes in the city, they would be the first to fall victim.

However, Cai He seemed quite relaxed. After all, in his mind, the Jingnan army in Wangcheng had already fled. How many troops could the wealthy families in the city possibly have? They would be lucky to gather a hundred or two hundred men. How could they dare to oppose their army of four thousand?

Cai He felt he had gotten a good omen and was secretly pleased with himself, already planning how to plunder the city after entering it.

Cai Yan had already discussed it with him: the looted goods would be split 40/60, with Cai Yan taking 40% and him taking 60%. However, this wasn't out of kindness from Cai Yan; rather, it meant that Cai Yan himself would have to bear the cost of the share with his subordinates, and Cai Yan wouldn't be involved in any of it.

Although Wangcheng is not large, it has more than a thousand households. Even if each household is squeezed out three or five hundred coins, that would amount to three or five hundred thousand in wealth, not to mention the wealthy households in the city would be calculated separately.

Just as Cai He was lost in thought, suddenly an ambush arose from all sides of the city wall. More than a hundred men stood up from the battlements, each armed with a bow and crossbow, and immediately unleashed a barrage of attacks on Cai He's troops.

In just one exchange, dozens of Cai and his men fell to the ground, while dozens more were hit by one or two arrows but did not fall because they were not in vital areas.

The reason for such a great victory was entirely due to Cai He's excessive carelessness. Normally, it would be impossible to launch a preemptive strike without being wary of arrows from the city walls. Cai He's troops, despite carrying shields, carelessly failed to use them, resulting in heavy casualties.

"Raise your shields! Raise your shields!"

Cai He was also hit by several arrows, but because he was wearing iron armor, he was not seriously injured. The deepest arrow only broke through the iron armor and was stopped by the silk inside, only biting through the skin.

Under Cai He's command, everyone lowered their shields to block the arrows from the city wall.

Meanwhile, the archers, under Cai He's command, began to fight back against the city walls.

Cai Yan, who was watching from a distance, was also greatly alarmed.

"What's going on? Didn't the garrison at Wangcheng evacuate?"

Cai Yan shouted and cursed, but no one answered.

Therefore, he could only put the problem aside for the time being and ordered the archers to advance to help Cai He retreat from the range of the arrows on the city wall.

After a period of chaos and fighting, Cai He finally managed to retreat, but his main force had suffered over a hundred casualties, and some of the wounded were not even brought back, remaining at the foot of the city wall, wailing in despair.

Cai Yan berated Cai He, arguing that the biggest reason for the casualties was Cai He's carelessness. Otherwise, even if they had been ambushed by the Wangcheng garrison, the losses wouldn't have been so severe.

Cai He knew he was wrong, so he lowered his head and remained silent, letting Cai Yan scold him.

After a long while, Cai Yan got tired of scolding and stopped, then began to give orders.

At this time, Cai Zan and his troops also arrived at the city of Wangcheng. They were surprised to see that the vanguard was still arrayed in the field and had not entered the city.

Cai Zan personally led a group to find Cai Yan. Upon learning that Wangcheng had feigned surrender and severely damaged Cai He's troops, Cai Zan was extremely shocked.

"Brother, what should we do now?"

Cai Yan originally wanted to attack, but now that his elder brother had arrived, he couldn't help but ask for his brother's opinion, especially since Cai Zan was the commander-in-chief.

Cai Zan's face darkened as he asked, "How many people are in the city?"

"do not know."

Cai Yan's face turned ashen, and she shook her head: "However, there shouldn't be many people. There were probably a hundred or so on the city wall just now. I couldn't see clearly at the city gate, but the figures were sparse, so there shouldn't be many. It's just that there are over a hundred crossbows, which is puzzling."

Cai Zhong, one of Cai Zan's subordinates, suddenly interjected, "Nowadays, most wealthy and powerful families in various places hoard bows and crossbows. There are also many wealthy families in Wangcheng, so it is normal for them to take out more than a hundred bows and arrows."

Cai Zhong's words made some sense, and the other three Cais also largely agreed.

Cai Zan pondered for a moment, then turned and asked, "Is there any police activity nearby?"

The scout leader hurriedly replied, "Reporting to the general, there has been no alarm."

The Jingbei army is currently on a plain, surrounded by plains on all sides, with the Xiang River on one side and Yuchi Mountain on the other, making a surprise attack on them quite difficult. It is precisely for this reason that Sun Ce is still lying in wait, intending to launch his attack only after the Jingzhou army is engaged in a siege.

In this way, even if Cai Zan wanted to escape, he wouldn't have time to gather his troops.

Cai Zan relaxed his guard slightly upon hearing that everything was alright, and immediately ordered: "Send more scouts in the direction of Yuchi Mountain, especially along the passages by the Xiang River. If anything happens, immediately raise the alarm."

Cai Zan was most worried about the waterfront passage in the south of Wangcheng, so he naturally had to make more preparations.

"Here!"

The scout leader immediately accepted the order and then made adjustments.

Cai Zan, together with Cai Yan and others, began preparations to attack the city.

Wangcheng was not a large city, nor even a county; it was just a town, located only a hundred paces east of the Jingzhou army's city. Four thousand men could not even deploy there.

Therefore, Cai Zan ordered Cai Yan to attack from the north of the city, while he himself attacked from the east. In addition, Cai He was transferred from Cai Yan's troops to guard the southeast of the city.

After the assignments were completed, the various units began to disperse, preparing to launch an attack.

More than a hundred archers appeared on the city wall of Wangcheng, clearly intending to defend it.

Looking at the sparse defenses in the distance, Cai Zan breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed that there were indeed not many people in the city.

Immediately, Cai Zan revealed a ferocious smile. A mere town magnate dares to resist the army of the regional governor; he is truly overestimating himself.

"Pass down the order: after capturing Wangcheng, the swords will not be sheathed for a single day."

Cai Zan's order immediately stirred up an uproar throughout the army, and morale soared.

Not sealing the sword means that one can plunder, rob, steal silver, and even kill at will.

However, in most cases, the military does not kill indiscriminately, because people are also a commodity and can be sold into slavery. Moreover, indiscriminate killing would only provoke unnecessary resistance and cause the loss of wealth.

In general, not being able to shelve one's sword means a great deal of wealth and women, which is an irresistible temptation for soldiers of any era (except the PLA).

Seeing the soldiers' soaring morale, Cai Zan smiled with satisfaction and waved his hand: "Attack!"

(End of this chapter)