My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 273 Zhao Yun: Oh no! The military merits are rolled up!

The fifth year of Jian'an, the second day of the fifth month, Baqiu County, Changsha Prefecture.

Five days ago, Zhang Fei and Gan Ning worked together to kill Xing Daorong in Chanling County of Wuling Commandery. Then Liu Bei's army spent another two or three days eliminating the remaining enemies, hunting down the defeated soldiers, and restoring order.

After making sure that the situation in the counties along the river in Wuling County was clear, Gan Ning also sent a speedboat down the river to report back to Baqiu at the mouth of Dongting Lake.

Early this morning, Zhao Yun, who was still besieging Baqiu County, received news of victory from friendly forces.

"What? Yide is progressing so fast? In less than half a month, they took over Zuotang, Chanling, and Yidao counties, and wiped out Xing Daorong's troops that Zhang Xian sent to attack Nanjun? I besieged Baqiu County for more than ten days, but I didn't capture a single city!"

After hearing this, Zhao Yun was stunned and felt a rare sense of crisis.

In the past three years, he had been working under his lord, and his speed of making achievements was faster than Zhang Fei. Especially after becoming the brother-in-law of the Zhuge family, his elder and younger brothers-in-law would give him advice whenever they had the chance, which benefited him a lot and occasionally gave him some inspiration when deploying troops.

It was just because Zhang Fei had a higher starting point than him, and when he first came, his official position was far higher than his. So after three years of hard work, the official positions of the two were just barely equal -

Before the Yidaizhao incident broke out, the final official position Zhao Yun obtained from the court in Xudu was Lieutenant General, and Zhang Fei was a Lieutenant General, which were exactly the same level.

But in this battle of Jingnan, Zhang Fei's achievements clearly surpassed himself.

Zhao Yun was very depressed, but after calming down and thinking about it, he felt that there was nothing he could do.

As a die-hard follower of Cao Cao and the Sun family, Huan Jie was very determined to follow Zhang Xian to the end. Moreover, Huan Jie had some knowledge, was relatively knowledgeable about military affairs, and had solid basic skills.

As the enemy was defending the city, Zhao Yun was concerned about casualties, but also wanted to make sure Huan Jie was killed in Baqiu. He did not want to allow this thief to continue to cause harm, so he adopted a tactic of encircling the enemy from all sides.

As a result, the enemy soldiers fought to the death, and it was difficult to break through for a while.

There is always less room for maneuver in siege warfare than in field warfare or mobile warfare, so one can only build a stronghold and fight a static battle.

The past is past. How can we speed up the process of conquering the city?

Zhao Yun threw the victory report on the desk and fell into new contemplation.

Zhao Yun's constant hesitation also attracted the attention of Wei Yan, the Marquis of Qujun, who was responsible for leading the way and scout for Zhao Yun.

Wei Yan surrendered from Liu Biao and was more familiar with the local situation in Jingzhou, so Zhuge Liang sent him to Zhao Yun to be responsible for the scout battle.

The patrol boat sent by Gan Ning to deliver the victory report this morning was also intercepted by Wei Yan's scout team on the way. After understanding the situation clearly, it was sent to Zhao Yun.

At this moment, seeing his commander in trouble, Wei Yan, who had been studying history books and ancient war history in Wuchang Academy in recent months, could not help but feel the desire to seek credit and make progress, so he bravely offered a suggestion:
"General, I have something to say, but I don't know whether I should say it or not..."

Zhao Yun glanced at him and was silent for a few seconds, but he was able to guess the other person's mentality.

This young man is eager for quick success and instant benefits. Although this is not a bad thing, I am afraid that he will become arrogant in the future.

However, his enthusiasm for offering suggestions could not be dampened. Zhao Yun finally nodded, indicating that he could speak freely.

Wei Yan said cautiously: "My idea... is not very mature. I have observed the deeds of the two Zhuge Lords in deceiving the enemy in the past few months, and I have imitated them. It may be a mistake, but I still want to ask for your advice."

(Note: "Painting a tiger to resemble a dog" is from Ma Yuan's "Letter to My Brother's Son Yan Dun". This idiom already existed in the late Han Dynasty.)
Seeing that Wei Yan was so careful in his words, Zhao Yun stopped scolding him and just signaled him to continue with his eyes.

Wei Yan pursed his lips and continued, "I heard that the princes tricked Sun Ce into going to war in Jiangdong. The key point is, 'It is obvious that the lord's army has not yet killed the Jingnan rebels and cannot be transferred to Jiangdong quickly, but Mr. Ziyu tricked Sun Ce into thinking that the lord's army is about to go there. When the two armies join forces, Sun Ce will have no chance.' Therefore, Sun Ce lost his patience and took the initiative to ask for a field battle.

The key to Zhuge Changshi's tricking Zhang Xian into raising an army in Jiangxia was that "there was obviously no danger in Jiangdong, and the lord did not withdraw the garrison in Jiangxia to reinforce the princes, but he deceived Zhang Xian into thinking that we had withdrawn them, allowing Zhang Xian to fight boldly."

These two tricks, one is to show the enemy that you are weak and you are about to become strong, the other is to show the enemy that you are strong and you are about to become weak. In the end, both of them make the enemy lose their patience. They are really similar in nature.

If this tactic had been used in today's battle, General Zhang and General Gan would have defeated the Changsha-Lingling coalition and killed Xing Daorong. However, Huan Jie in Baqiu City does not know this news yet.

General, you have surrounded the city tightly, so it is easy to block the news for a few more days. In this case, why don't we try to trick Huan Jie, such as withdrawing one or two or three of the four encirclements, leaving only the remaining sides to continue the attack.

Then pretend to use the withdrawn troops to return to the mouth of Dongting Lake to intercept Xing Daorong. If Huan Jie was really deceived and mistakenly believed that Xing Daorong had successfully broken through General Gan's blockade and successfully returned to Changsha County, then is it possible for him to get out of Baqiu City and cooperate with Xing Daorong from inside and outside?
As long as Huan Jie dares to come out, he will be ambushed and lose many soldiers and generals. We can then take advantage of the situation to kill him. It will be much easier to capture Baqiu than to surround and attack from all sides like we are doing now."

After hearing this, Zhao Yun finally interrupted and said, "Huan Jie is quite knowledgeable and will not be deceived so easily. But your trick can be considered as making money without any investment. Even if it fails, there is no loss. It doesn't hurt to give it a try." When Wei Yan saw that the commander-in-chief affirmed his point of view, he immediately became energetic and his confidence increased a lot.

This was the first time he offered suggestions on a specific battle plan after joining Liu Bei. It could be said that his hard studies in the Wuchang Academy for several months had finally paid off and he wanted to show them off.

During these few months, he not only studied war history rotely, but also often wrote down the parts he did not understand, compared them with contemporary war examples, and asked Xu Shu or someone else for advice whenever he had the chance.

On the other hand, Zhao Yun saw that Wei Yan was somewhat complacent because his suggestion was adopted, and he also wanted to give him some advice, so he also pondered over Wei Yan's plan and soon found some variations of his strategy.

Then Zhao Yun muttered to himself, "You are trying to imitate Ziyu and Kong Ming's trick of showing weakness to lure the enemy, but you haven't imitated it well enough. In my opinion, this trick can be further modified - when Xing Daorong is dead and Huan Jie doesn't know about his death yet, we can show weakness to lure the enemy.

If this step is ineffective, we will take the next step, and when the news of Xing Daorong's death can no longer be concealed, we will use threats to force the enemy to abandon the city. For example, we can pretend to withdraw from several sides and use part of our forces to attack Xing Daorong.

If Huan Jie neither comes out of the city to support nor flees, we will make a big fuss in a few days, saying that Xing Daorong was killed by me personally, and that my army killed Xing Daorong's 20,000 men with only a few thousand troops. By then, Xing Ba should be here soon, and we will borrow Xing Daorong's head and carry it on the pole to go around the city of Baqiu.

After the enemy army confirms Xing Daorong's head, their morale will surely be greatly damaged, and they will most likely break out and escape while our army is encircling them again, and in this way, the city will be easily captured."

After listening to this, Wei Yan pondered over it carefully for a long time and had to admit that Zhao Yun's change of tactics was also very feasible, at least its sophistication was not inferior to his own.

I only studied for half a year in Wuchang Academy and asked Xu Shu for guidance, but it was still not enough! I studied the battle experience of my own masters a little bit, but I didn't have the opportunity to directly learn from Zhuge's family like Zhao Yun did.

We are still at a disadvantage in terms of educational resources!

They are equivalent to the little Taoist children on Mount Wudang, who learned a few moves from Master Zhuge and got a bit of immortal energy. When they come down the mountain to fight against mortals, their skills are already quite impressive.

……

Zhao Yun and Wei Yan worked out a deception tactic and put it into action in the next few days. On that day, Zhao Yun pretended to withdraw the siege on the southeast sides of Baqiu City and spread the word that he was going to fight against Xing Daorong's returning army.

Even if Huan Jie saw Zhao Yun retreating, he would not dare to send scouts too far away from the city, so as to create a short information time difference of a few days.

During these days, Zhao Yun was not idle either. He sent cavalry to the south to Luo County, showing off his power and intimidating others in various ways.

His people in Luo County said something different. They tried their best to spread the word that Xing Daorong was dead, Huan Jie had been killed, and Ba Qiu had been captured. In short, they were just trying to intimidate the troops and disrupt the morale of the army.

In this way, after Bachu is really eliminated, Zhao Yun can expand the victory with great momentum and force these panicked defenders to surrender or flee. Zhao Yun does not want to slowly attack the counties one by one at the key hub nodes.

After three or four days of panic, the morale of the defenders in Baqiu City was shaken, and they began to resist Huan Jie's order to hold on to the city.

Huan Jie tried his best to suppress the attack, saying that Zhao Yun's withdrawal must be a trick, and he might just want to lure them out of the city. Thanks to Huan Jie's determination and composure, he actually broke through the first stage of Wei Yan's deception strategy.

However, when the four days were up, Zhao Yun evaluated and believed that the news of Xing Daorong's downfall could no longer be concealed, so he proceeded with the second phase as planned.

Early in the morning of May 7th, Zhao Yun returned to the west gate of Baqiu City with thousands of reinforcements in a grand manner, allowing the defenders in the city to see with their own eyes that Liu Bei's side had reinforcements arriving.

Then Zhao Yun had his men carry Xing Daorong's head on a spear and go directly to the city of Ba Qiu to show off their might, telling the defenders: Xing Daorong was killed and his entire army was wiped out when our army withdrew to meet the enemy a few days ago.

Many people in the Changsha army recognized Xing Daorong's head, so it could not be faked. Moreover, Zhao Yun's men also showed Xing Daorong's armor seal.

The other defenders in Baqiu City were immediately filled with resentment and pointed their spearheads at Huan Jie:
"Doctor Huan! You said that Zhao Yun's withdrawal of the siege and the division of troops to attack General Xing was a trick, and that he was determined to watch him die without helping. Now Zhao Yun has taken advantage of these few days to attack and destroy General Xing. Why didn't we take advantage of the enemy's empty siege troops to go out of the city to counterattack and support General Xing!"

Huan Jie was depressed and couldn't help sneering after hearing this criticism: Even if I opened the city gates and let the army out of the city, would you rubbish dare to go to support Xing Daorong? I'm afraid you want to take the opportunity to break out and escape!
But Huan Jie couldn't say this anymore. If he had to say it out loud, it would probably provoke a mutiny among the Changsha army.

Finally, those generals who were causing trouble showed their true colors and stated their alternative demands: Since the big mistake has been made and there was no time to rescue General Xing, it is not too late to mend the situation. Doctor Huan, please take advantage of the fact that Zhao Yun has just returned and has not had time to re-encircle the other sides of Ba Qiu City and command the brothers to break out!

Zhao Yun is coming again with the power of a great victory. This time, Baqiu City will definitely not be able to be defended! Anyone who stays will die!
Huan Jie could no longer control his troops, whose morale was boiling, and was forced to open the east gate in an attempt to break out.

However, that night, he had only walked about twenty miles out of the east gate in the dark when suddenly an ambush appeared in the woods beside the road. Zhao Yun led his cavalry and charged out, killing Huan Jie's troops who had broken through the encirclement in pieces.

These troops were already frightened birds fleeing for their lives, and seeing this, they did not dare to resist at all, and simply knelt down and surrendered. Except for a small number of them who fled in the dark, the rest were annihilated.

After Zhao Yun destroyed the Bachu defenders who were frightened and broke out, he turned back to attack Bachu City and captured it almost without bloodshed.

(End of this chapter)