My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 281: Conquer Changsha, kill Zhang Xian, and conquer Jingnan
As Liu Biao distanced himself from Cai Mao, Wu Ju and Lai Gong also felt for the first time Liu Bei's sincerity in giving up power, and Liu Bei's army's rule over Jingnan was basically consolidated.

There is only one chess piece left to be placed, and that is the city of Changsha.

As mentioned earlier, in June and July, due to the hot weather, the soldiers could not bear the scorching heat in the south and many of them were sick. They could not undertake heavy and high-intensity attack tasks, so Zhao Yun chose to first encircle the land and roughly conquer the surrounding counties.

After entering the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the weather turned slightly cooler, and Zhao Yun re-intensified his attack on Changsha.

After more than ten days of fierce attack, the assault on this core fortress that Zhang Xian had managed for eight years finally reached the final stage.

It was already late August. A siege force of nearly 20,000 people had surrounded Changsha tightly.

There were guardrails, catapults, ladders and chariots at the four gates of the city.

The outer trenches and sheep-horse walls had also been completely destroyed, replaced by temporary wooden battlements, large rattan shields and other shelters built by the besiegers to block the defenders' arrows.

After several months of trial and error, although the defenders were still running out of food, they were already short of medical care, medicine, and arrows.

The original battlements and turrets of the city were also badly damaged, with only some temporarily repaired rammed earth piles filling the gaps in the city's defense line.

However, these temporary rammed earth substitutes did not have arrow holes, and the inclination angles on both sides were often not in compliance with the standard, making it impossible for the defending archers to hide behind the battlements and shoot crosswise. The defending soldiers could only stick their upper bodies out to shoot at the siege troops, which undoubtedly greatly increased the casualties of the defending archers.

Moreover, after being suppressed by the wells for more than half a month, the well-trained archers in the garrison had suffered heavy losses. The new recruits who were filling in now were mostly local militiamen randomly recruited from the city. They were sent into battle with just a bow. Their archery skills were terrible, not only were they not accurate enough, but they also did not have enough strength to draw the bow.

The arrows shot out were crooked and fell to the ground not far away. The decreased arrow speed also greatly reduced its armor-piercing ability.

Then starting from yesterday, Zhao Yun suddenly discovered that the elite soldiers in steel-laminated armor he sent out to advance were completely immune to damage from bows and arrows, even with steel armor-piercing cone arrows.

Only a small number of crossbows can pose a threat to the brave warriors who first climb the mountain.

……

"Soldiers, Zhang Xian is already at the end of his rope! They can't even draw the bow! Today is the day to achieve success!"

With the arrival of another morning, the siege troops, after sufficient rest and rotation, launched another high-spirited offensive under the command of Zhao Yun.

The archers of Zhang Xian's army could not even show their heads to shoot arrows because the chariot built by Zhao Yun was very complete.

There were four main gates, each with four siege towers, for a total of 16. The height of the siege towers was ten feet higher than the city wall, and the Changsha defenders had no catapults to destroy the siege towers, so they could only be suppressed in vain.

Under the suppression of the rain of arrows from the siege towers and the gravel from the catapults, the brave warriors who first climbed the city walls once again put on their steel-filled armor and filed up. After a bloody charge, they gained a foothold on the top of the city wall.

Zhao Yun is now in a high position, so of course he will not personally participate in the siege.

But Wei Yan, who was only the Marquis of Qu Army, took the initiative to ask for battle, hoping that Zhao Yun would give him this opportunity and let his Qu be responsible for a position corresponding to Ge Gongche.

Zhao Yun agreed to this request, and Wei Yan assigned fifty soldiers to push the cart, and the other four hundred soldiers lined up at the back waiting. Among them, the first one hundred soldiers were mostly elite veterans such as squad leaders and sergeants, all equipped with steel-filled armor.

Wei Yan also cherished this opportunity to show off, and he stood behind this group of elite soldiers in steel armor, ready to rush up the city wall with them. This would not be too risky, but would give him a chance to make achievements.

Since he joined Liu Bei's camp, his first achievement was by helping Xiang Lang and Huang Chengyan to lead the way. That could only prove his position but not his ability.

After studying hard for half a year, he offered a strategy to Zhao Yun during the Battle of Bazhou, which proved that he knew military knowledge and had potential for training.

Wei Yan was also confident in his personal bravery, but he never had the opportunity to demonstrate his prowess.

During the Battle of Baqiu, he participated in the final ambush and cover-up, but he didn't gain much in the dark, as the enemy fled at the first touch, and there was no fierce resistance, nor did he show his ability. Now that Changsha City is about to be captured, if he doesn't show his ability, he will have no chance during the entire Jingnan Campaign.

"Wealth and honor are sought in danger. Now I am just a general. If I don't fight hard while I am young and in a low position, do I have to wait until I can lead the troops in the future?" Wei Yan tightened the steel knife in his hand and encouraged himself in this way.

Soon, the Ge bus he was leading made good progress, and dozens of armored soldiers successfully carved out a foothold on the top of the city.

Wei Yan also jumped up with a shield in one hand and a sword in the other, and the sword flew, killing several rebel soldiers.

The defenders hastily sent in the reserve troops to try to block the entrance, all of them wielding spears made of hawthorn wood and with inferior cast iron tips.

Wei Yan used a large hardwood shield wrapped in wrought iron to push and collide with the enemy. He blocked five or six spears with great force and leapt forward to hack left and right.

The brave warriors around him who were the first to climb the mountain were also inspired by this and realized that they should use various tactics to deal with it, and they all raised their shields and charged forward.

Although some of them were not skilled enough and failed to block completely, and were stabbed in the calves by the defenders through the gaps under their shields, causing them to fall to the ground, most of the warriors who charged with their shields successfully broke through the defenders' spear formation and engaged in a chaotic fight.

Subsequent siege troops came in an endless stream. As the archers on the city walls had been completely suppressed and more and more positions were occupied, the subsequent siege soldiers no longer needed to hold shields, and the weapon combination became more balanced.

As the siege troops, with the coordination of multiple arms, formed increasingly solid battle formations on the city walls, the Changsha rebels’ doomsday finally arrived.

Zhang Xian knew he had no way out, so he personally brandished his sword and supervised the battle from the city wall.

When Wei Yan led his troops to the front, he also swore to fight to the death and refused to be captured. He knew that he had no chance of survival and did not want to be humiliated, so he chose to commit suicide. Seeing that the governor was dead, the remaining troops completely collapsed. The four towers surrendered and were captured one after another. The city gates were opened, and the reserve troops of Zhao Yun outside the city also swarmed into the city and occupied various key points in the city.

Huan Jie, who had managed to break out of Bachu and escape to Changsha, had to seek another opportunity to break out.

He brought a team of Zhang family servants who had a strong desire to survive and were too close to Zhang Xian, and instigated them that "Zhao Yun will definitely slaughter all those who are close to Zhang Xian when he enters the city, even slaves and servants will not be spared", and then used this group of people to fight to the death to help him break out.

Unfortunately, the siege troops surrounded the city too tightly this time, and Huan Jie had no chance to repeat his previous success. In the end, he had to take his personal guards and find a section of the moat outside the city that had not been filled up, hoping to jump off the city and swim across the river to escape.

Even if the siege troops wanted to destroy the moat, they couldn't fill up the entire river, as that would be too much work. Usually, they would fill up a little bit where siege weapons were needed. There was no need to fill up the position where they were not going to launch an attack.

Huan Jie was not good at martial arts and broke his leg when he jumped off the city wall. Despite the severe pain, he begged his guards not to abandon him. The guards then carried him into the moat and swam across the river to escape.

How did Huan Jie swim with a broken leg? He eventually drowned and passed out, only to be pulled out by the besieging soldiers patrolling along the river.

……

An hour later, Zhao Yun initially suppressed the situation in Changsha City.

Zhang Xian's head was also cut off from his body, pickled and sealed separately with lime, and prepared to be sent back to Wuchang to show his merit.

When counting the spoils of war, captured prisoners and surrendered prisoners, Zhao Yun made some inquiries and finally found Huan Jie.

But when he saw Huan Jie, he had already become a useless and stupid person.

"How did it become like this? I wasn't fooled, was I? Is this really Huan Jie?" Zhao Yun couldn't believe it.

The officer who captured Huan Jie patted his chest and assured: "General, don't worry, this is definitely Huan Jie. At that time, he led dozens of Zhang Xian's family servants to try to jump over the wall and swim across the river to break out, but we intercepted them! More than a dozen of Zhang Xian's family servants died in the fight, and the rest were captured alive.

I interrogated them separately, and they all said that this was Huan Jie, but he broke his leg when he fell from the city wall, and drowned when crossing the moat. When we learned that he was a noble man, we quickly had someone carry him upside down and let him choke on the water. I guess he became stupid because he was drowned for too long. "

The ancients did not understand medical knowledge such as "If the brain is deprived of oxygen for five minutes, it will suffer irreversible damage, and if it is deprived of oxygen for a quarter of an hour, it will definitely lead to death", but common sense also told them that if the time after drowning is too long, the brain will be damaged.

It is estimated that Huanjie was deprived of oxygen for between five and ten minutes and ended up like this.

Zhao Yun was helpless and had to have him taken to prison and taken back to Wuchang for execution: "It's a good deal for him. He won't have to experience the fear of execution."

……

Zhao Yun spent several more days in Changsha to clear up the resentment. It was not until the third day of September that the Jingnan Campaign was completely ended. He then withdrew his troops and returned north.

In the Battle of Jingnan, Liu Bei's army mobilized a total of 40,000 soldiers, which was a large number. However, most of the battles were not fierce, mainly because the area was vast and manpower was spent on enclosing land and clearing up the local area.

They also had to fight against the extreme heat of the southern subtropical region in summer. The non-combat attrition rate of soldiers was relatively high, and at any given moment, 20% to 30% of the soldiers were recovering from illness and unable to participate in operations. However, this was the only time that many soldiers were able to develop a certain level of resistance after recovering from their illnesses, which was also a gain.

If it is possible to use troops against Jiaozhou in the future, these veterans who have been baptized by the Battle of Jingnan will be able to adapt better than other troops. At that time, we will specially transfer troops from these places to participate in the war. This is all a story for later.

After Liu Bei confirmed the results of the battle, he also held a banquet in Wuchang to welcome all the generals and celebrate their success. In this battle of Jingnan, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun had equal achievements, with Zhang Fei slightly better - although Zhao Yun conquered more territory, Zhang Fei fought two annihilation battles and killed the enemy's main force in the field.

Zhang Fei was unable to continue to expand his territory because of his reckless personality. He was needed to patrol the river defenses and play the bad guy to prevent Liu Biao from being impatient and infiltrating.

In the end, Liu Bei gave Zhang Fei the first credit, Zhao Yun and Gan Ning the second, and Xu Shu and Wei Yan also performed well.

Xu Shu's original official position was only the magistrate of E County. Liu Bei planned to transfer him to Guiyang County to be a county magistrate next year to monitor Zhao Fan. In fact, he would act on behalf of Zhao Fan to handle a considerable part of local government affairs. This could be considered a training for Xu Shu.

Given Xu Shu's qualifications and merits, it was a bit difficult for him to be promoted to the position of county magistrate in a wealthy area in the inland area, and it was not easy to convince people.

But Guiyang is the most southern and hottest of all the counties, and its population and land are far less than Lingling and Changsha, so no one is jealous of it.

In addition, Li Yan and Dong He, who had previously surrendered to Zhang Fei and in turn made contributions to assist in the elimination of Xing Daorong, were also given the highest promotion among the Guiyi civil and military officials as representatives of the Guiyi ministers, and were promoted from county magistrates to county chancellors respectively.

Li Yan went to Lingling County to assist Lai Gong, and Dong He stayed in Wuling to assist Wu Ju. They were all loyal to Liu Biao, so there was no question of "surveillance", but in fact it was obvious that Li Yan and Dong He were more loyal to Liu Bei than Lai Gong and Wu Ju.

At least for now. Whether Lai Gong and Wu Ju will be slowly pulled over in the future is another matter.

Wei Yan made contributions in Baqiu and participated in the attack in Changsha. However, the strategies he made in Baqiu were not perfect, and it was Zhao Yun who improved them and succeeded.

In addition, Wei Yan was promoted to Qujun Hou at the beginning of the year, and he had no other qualifications accumulated in the meantime. At present, his merits were still not enough to be directly promoted to Jun Sima.

After all, Qu Junhou is only a middle-level officer leading 500 people, while a military Sima can lead thousands of soldiers. The gap is a bit big, and he needs to accumulate more merits.

Liu Bei then paid the full reward and recorded the progress of Wei Yan's merits, and made it clear that if Wei Yan made more merits next year, he would be promoted to the position of military commander.

After retreating to Wuchang, Zhao Yun's troops rested for a while, left the wounded and sick soldiers behind, picked out the remaining ones in good condition, and then went down the river to the east, preparing to take part in the final battle against the Sun family of Jiangdong.

(End of this chapter)