My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 807: Attack Luoyang, Fight with Cao Ren

In the rear, Cao Cao focused on dealing with matters such as Xiahou Dun's abandonment of Yecheng and Pang Hui's killing of Ma Teng's entire family, in order to stabilize the rear of Guanzhong and Bingzhou.

These things are neither difficult nor exhausting, but they do take up a lot of time and energy. More than half a month passed in a flash, and Cao Cao focused his main energy on stabilizing the internal situation.

If it is not handled properly, once Cao Cao dies in the future, with Cao Pi's current prestige, he will not be able to maintain his position even if he personally sits in Guanzhong.

On the other hand, more than half a month had passed in a flash, and it was almost late September of the 18th year of Jian'an.

After days of preparation, on the Luoyang battlefield, Liu Bei's army had finally made full preparations for the attack on Luoyang.

After more than half a month of working day and night, thousands of bulldozers with anti-arrow shields finally filled the Luoyang moat with at least a dozen gaps large enough for crossing the river. The width of each gap was at least several feet, making it easy for larger teams to pass through at the same time.

If it was an attack on another city, there would be no need to fill so many gaps in the moat, and each gap would not have to be so wide. But the Battle of Luoyang was different. Cao Ren still had more than 60,000 soldiers who were fighting stubbornly. If the attack front was too narrow, the troops would not be able to deploy.

Cao Ren could pile up a large number of reserve troops behind the gap to engage in a shootout with Liu Bei and roll logs and rocks at him. If Liu Bei's army attacked in that way, they would surely suffer heavy losses.

So after the Zhuge brothers evaluated, they all agreed that they must sharpen their knives before cutting wood, and expand the front of the attack before the strong attack. Pang Tong, Lu Su, and Zhou Yu also agreed with this, so Liu Bei did not hesitate to spare manpower and military rations.

This is like the hardcore players in later generations who are truly well versed in military strategies. They are not satisfied with just playing so-called "strategy games" such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition. The real hardcore guys have to play the "Hearts of Iron" series.

Anyone who has played Hearts of Iron knows how unwise it is to put a large number of troops in one frame with F2A. The "battlefield width" is insufficient, the troops cannot be deployed, and the "stacking penalty" is severe enough that only or of the millions of soldiers are working, while the rest are just standing there and eating supplies for free.

Anyone who likes F2A will be taught a lesson by dozens of percentage-based debuffs when entering the world of realistic strategy games like Hearts of Iron.

Zhuge Jin has fought for so many years, of course he would not make such a low-level mistake. He must complete all the necessary construction steps before the battle begins.

In addition to filling the river, using catapults to destroy the sheep and horse walls and deer horns, and building a large number of wooden plank houses in front of the formation to serve as cover for their own archers, Liu Bei's army also had to work extremely hard to build siege weapons in the Battle of Luoyang, which far exceeded any previous battles.

The main thing is that many of the siege equipment needed to attack Luoyang had to be customized on-site. Their sizes were too large and their structures needed to be redesigned and adjusted, so everything had to be constructed on-site.

Unlike many previous battles, Liu Bei’s army could use prefabricated panels, beams and column parts and assemble them on site, which was much faster.

But no matter what, after more than half a month of hard work, Liu Bei's army built more than a hundred special siege vehicles that were "four zhang long at the bottom like a Ge Gong cart, able to withstand rain of arrows and rolling logs and rocks, and three zhang long at the top like a ladder with a folding ladder", which were enough to attack a big city like Luoyang.

Other equipment that was easier to prepare, whether it was a catapult, a trap, or a watchtower, were also all available.

As for the watchtower, because Luoyang was too high, in order to observe and suppress the city, the watchtower had to be built higher. So after personal evaluation, Zhuge Liang thought it would be better to abandon the mobility of the watchtower and directly pile up a hill of earth underneath to form a rammed earth platform, and then build a tower on the top of the platform.

This construction method was actually used by Yuan Shao’s army during the Battle of Guandu more than ten years ago, so it is not new.

The weakness of this tactic is also obvious. First, the watchtower loses its mobility and can only be used as a fixed observation post. Second, the fixed target is easily targeted by the enemy's catapults.

At that time, Yuan Shao's trebuchet production technology was not as good as Cao Cao's, so he could not fight against Cao's army efficiently, so his method of piling up large amounts of earth to build watchtowers failed.

But the same trick would have no problem for Liu Bei to use, because Liu Bei's army's catapult technology was far superior to that of Cao's army.

Whether considering output, production cost, accuracy, power or other aspects, the catapults designed and improved by the Zhuge brothers themselves are much better than those of Cao's army.

A few days ago, when Cao Ren saw Liu Bei's army building a large number of wooden battlements and watchtowers, he responded quickly and used the catapults of the Luoyang defenders to suppress Liu Bei's army's construction positions.

However, the Zhuge brothers personally deployed and adjusted their own trebuchets to engage in a bombardment with Cao's army. The skills of Liu Bei's artillerymen and the sighting and calibration techniques of the observation posts far surpassed those of Cao's army. After just two or three days of bombardment, Cao Ren had lost dozens of heavy trebuchets and had to stop.

Therefore, before the formal offensive began, Cao's army had already lost the long-range firepower bombardment phase, and its morale was also low.

Not only were the catapults no match for Liu Bei, but even in a duel with archers, Cao's army was no match for him.

Although Cao's army had the advantage of being on high ground, and the walls of Luoyang were among the highest and thickest in the world, Liu Bei's army already had tens of thousands of elite soldiers, and they had popularized the Shenbi crossbow, whose range and power far exceeded Cao's crossbows.

At first, Cao's crossbowmen tried to suppress Liu Bei's civilians who were pushing shield bulldozers to fill the river, as well as the auxiliary soldiers who were building the formation houses. But as soon as Cao's crossbowmen showed up and started shooting arrows, Liu Bei's crossbowmen hid behind the formation houses and shot arrows through the shooting holes on the wooden boards.

Liu Bei's army had an endless supply of supplies, sufficient manpower and soldiers who could get rotation and rest. With a numerical advantage of three to four to one, it only took a few days to exhaust Cao's archers.

……

After many days of consumption and negotiation, on September 20, Liu Bei's army finally launched its first full-scale offensive.

There were hundreds of heavy siege vehicles, each of which was pushed by at least dozens of people, and sometimes by over a hundred.

Even thousands of cows and donkeys were pulled onto the battlefield, placed inside the vehicle, and fixed to the vehicle with lassoes temporarily designed by Zhuge Liang. The siege vehicle was driven forward by the soldiers.

As mentioned above, the Gegong Cart was originally covered on all sides to protect it from rain of arrows and rolling logs and rocks. However, the Gegong Cart was originally driven by human power, which made it more flexible and easier to control, so no one had designed a shaft, a railing, or other rigging for the Gegong Cart.

The siege vehicles used in the attack on Luoyang were particularly tall and heavy. Zhuge Liang had already customized them for special occasions, so he did not hesitate to make some more optimizations. The cows and donkeys hid inside the vehicle body, and through the special force-bearing structure of the shaft, they could pull the chariot, which also made these machines move faster than people pushing them.

Cao Ren on the city wall hadn't slept well for seven or eight days, and the daily war of attrition made him very tired.

Today, Cao Ren finally saw Liu Bei start to attack, and he also forced himself to be in high spirits. However, when he saw those weird things that were neither Ge Gongche nor ladders in the strict sense being pushed up, Cao Ren felt a little scared.

"How come these carts are so tall and heavy, but they seem to be pushed faster than the Ge Gong carts we encountered during the battles of Xiang and Fan? There shouldn't be enough space inside these carts for more soldiers to push them. Could it be that all those soldiers are extremely strong?"

Although Cao Ren was worried, he did not forget to order the catapults and crossbows to fire frantically at these siege weapons.

Liu Bei's army also used catapults to counterattack. Because they were about to reach the city, Liu Bei's army's catapults took advantage of the last opportunity to quickly throw a few waves of gravel rain. After the two armies came into close combat, this weapon that could easily injure their own people could no longer be used, and they had to switch back to using single-headed bullets.

Continuous waves of rubble rain made the defending archers unable to raise their heads, but Cao Ren was used to it. Having defended many famous and fortified cities, Cao Ren was very experienced and had already asked all his archers to hide behind the reverse slope of the battlements to avoid being directly covered by the rain of stones.

However, when the rubble falls on the top of the city wall, it will still bounce back. This movement is completely irregular, similar to the shrapnel damage after a shell hits the ground. It cannot be avoided no matter where you hide.

A large number of Cao's archers and auxiliary troops who threw logs and rocks were scratched by the splashing and bouncing rain of gravel, and the scene was hideous for a while.

However, the rebounding gravel had limited kinetic energy after all, and it was difficult to kill Cao's soldiers. Most of them only left shallow and bloody wounds on their skin. The scene looked quite scary and it also dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the defenders.

"Don't be afraid! Those rubbles won't kill you!"

"The enemy is approaching the city. Everyone, get up and throw the logs! Anyone who shrinks back will be punished by military law!"

As Liu Bei's siege vehicles approached, the rain of gravel gradually stopped in order to avoid accidentally injuring their own people. Those Cao soldiers who were still afraid and refused to show their heads were also beaten by officers at all levels and forced to stand up and throw logs and stones down.

Large rocks slammed against the side walls of the heavy siege vehicles. Most of them bounced off due to the bad angle of incidence, and only a few happened to break the wooden boards and fracture the beams.

Some of the soldiers on the spiral staircase inside the vehicle lost their balance and fell down screaming. The heavy armor on their bodies aggravated their injuries, but they were unable to attract their comrades around them to stop and rescue them even for a moment.

All the attacking soldiers had only the city walls in their eyes. Only by rushing up as quickly as possible could they survive and gain merit.

"Brothers, capture Luoyang! Take back the capital of the Han Dynasty! The lord will reward you handsomely!"

"If we don't make achievements now, when will we? This is the military achievement of recovering the capital. In the future, the Han Dynasty will be revived for the third time, and our descendants for hundreds of years to come will remember this battle!"

Officers at all levels of Liu Bei's army also boosted their morale as if they had been injected with chicken blood. They completely ignored the dead and wounded comrades around them and continued to charge forward with all their might.

Because the siege vehicles were so well protected, before the planks and ladders were put on top of the city walls, the rolling logs and rocks were not very effective, and most of them were bounced off. Cao's army began to lose patience and began to throw down ash bottles of gold juice, boiling water and even grease.

Fortunately, Luoyang was the heart of the country, and Cao's army had sufficient supplies stored in the city. If it were any other city, except Chang'an, the defenders would not be able to come up with so much lime and grease to kill the enemy.

"Why rush? Wait until the enemy's ladders are up before pouring the boiling oil! If you pour it now, it will just splash onto the car body! Isn't that a waste?"

Some Cao army officers saw that the soldiers were too anxious and couldn't help but scold them to be frugal.

But since it had already fallen, they had no choice but to make the best of it. Many officers immediately improvised and ordered the soldiers to throw down countless ordinary torches and dovetail torches.

The grease stuck to the outer surface of the siege vehicle was quickly ignited by the dovetail torch, the temperature inside the vehicle suddenly rose, and the wood of the vehicle body was gradually ignited. Several heavy siege vehicles had to be abandoned.

However, most siege vehicles were covered with a thin layer of mud before attacking, which could somewhat block the flames of the grease. Often the oil burned out, but the wood inside had not yet been ignited, so the boiling oil was poured in vain.

The few vehicles that were burned were only because the mud was too thin or dried by the wind, which could not be helped. These siege vehicles were already tall and heavy, and a thin layer of mud would increase their weight. If the fireproofing cost was added, they would not be able to be pushed.

There is always a trade-off between mobility and defense. It is impossible to sacrifice mobility in pursuit of absolute defense.

Seeing that the fire was ineffective and a lot of supplies were wasted, the officers of Cao's army had to stop temporarily. When the planks and ladders were finally put on the top of the city, Liu Bei's elite soldiers rushed out of the cars and began to climb. Only then did Cao's army continue to open fire with full force, pouring down ash bottles, gold juice, rolling wood, rocks, boiling oil and boiling water.

The crossbowmen of Liu Bei's army also exerted their firepower to the extreme at this moment. All of them shot arrows frantically, as fast as they could, trying to suppress the enemy soldiers on the top of the city who were throwing things down with their upper bodies exposed.

Hundreds of Cao's auxiliary soldiers were often shot through the chest by an arrow just as they threw a piece of stone or wood, and fell dead beside the battlements with their heads tilted.

The soldiers of Liu Bei's army who were hit by them also screamed and fell down the city wall, but the comrades who followed them continued to climb up with knives in their mouths, not daring to slow down at all.

Occasionally a soldier would rush to the top of the city wall, and the two sides would soon engage in a desperate fight.

Unfortunately, because Liu Bei's army climbed up the ladder after all, unlike the original classic Ge bus that ran up along the planks, it was difficult to quickly form a small cluster.

Even if a lone soldier was wearing fine armor and holding a fine steel sword, he might be able to kill one or even two or three enemies with a desperate fight, but he would often be stabbed and killed by spears coming from all directions and become a bloody gourd.

The bloody fight continued, and soon the bodies of the dead soldiers from both sides piled up at the foot of the city wall.

……

"I didn't expect that after Cao Ren had completely given up the thought of survival, he would be so brave in defending the city. He is indeed a famous general who is good at defense."

Liu Bei himself was on a watchtower on an earthen platform several hundred steps away, watching the fighting scene in the distance through a telescope. After watching for a long time, he silently put down the telescope, climbed down the watchtower, and sighed with compassion.

On the same earthen platform, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhuge Jin were also present.

Zhuge Liang was not there. He was in the rear camp at the moment, responsible for raising and dispatching siege supplies to ensure that the army's advance could be uninterrupted and there would be no shortage halfway through the battle.

After listening to Liu Bei's sigh, Guan Yu also nodded and had to admit: "Back then in Xiangfan, I took advantage of Cao Ren's attempt to break out and survive, and I was able to capture it after a few months of siege.

Now, it has finally come to the day when Cao Ren has no more room to retreat and no longer wants to live. One man is fighting for his life, and no strategy can work. We can only attack with all our might. It seems impossible to break through today, but if we kill as many enemy soldiers as possible to shock their courage, we should be able to make a breakthrough in a few days when Cao's army is running low on kerosene and quicklime."

Liu, Guan and Zhang were also very clear in their minds that when they found out that Cao Ren really didn't care about life or death, Luoyang City would definitely not be conquered in just a few days of attack.

You can't attack someone who doesn't want to live.

However, the world is almost conquered, and it is normal to have a few enemy generals fighting to the death in the battle for the capital. This is the price that must be paid.

Zhuge Jin also agreed with Liu Bei's opinion, but he was still unwilling to give up and helped to find some measures:
"My lord, although Cao Ren himself cannot persuade the enemy to surrender, his soldiers can still try harder. I don't think many of the Cao soldiers in Luoyang know that Cao Cao has fled.

Although Cao Cao has not yet made a public appearance elsewhere, I firmly believe that Cao Cao must have fled, either to Hangu Pass, Tongguan or Chang'an. The next time our army attacks, we will shout to the guards that Cao Cao has fled. No matter how many people believe it, it will at least create a little chaos. "

Liu Bei was also slightly surprised when he heard this: "What? There are so many enemy soldiers in Luoyang City who are so naive. Do they actually think that Cao Cao will live and die with the city?"

Liu Bei had never thought about this problem, mainly because he felt that the war had reached this point and the enemy soldiers should not be so stupid as to expect Cao Cao to share the joys and sorrows with them.

Zhuge Jin also corrected his mistakes and encouraged others to do the same, kindly reminding: "No matter how many people in the enemy army know, there are definitely some who don't know. It doesn't take much effort to shout. Let the soldiers in the front row fight, and the soldiers in the back row waiting to climb up shout in unison to cheer them up."

Liu Bei nodded without any doubt about the decision. He quickly sent a messenger to convey the message, and the siege troops immediately fine-tuned their deployment.

While the soldiers were charging frantically, the soldiers waiting in line below began to shout, repeatedly saying that Cao Cao had escaped.

There was no way to count how many of the enemy soldiers on the city walls believed it, but it seemed that the defenders' courage in hand-to-hand combat had indeed decreased slightly. More and more soldiers of Liu Bei's army were able to stand on the city walls, and although they were still inevitably pushed down by the huge number of enemies, at least the kill-loss ratio in hand-to-hand combat was better.

While the battle on the city wall was fierce, Liu Bei's army, relying on their large numbers, used all kinds of siege equipment and rushed up like crazy.

Some people pushed traditional battering rams and took the opportunity to ram the city gates. However, the gates of Luoyang were extremely heavy, and even a battering ram pulled by hundreds of people might not be able to break them open.

But the battering rams approaching the city could at least make the defenders a little nervous. On several towers, Cao's army had assembled a large number of archers, pouring down arrows like crazy, and throwing all kinds of materials down crazily.

Some generals on the attacking side, seeing that the opportunity was good, ordered their catapults to throw intensive single-headed bullets at the city wall, killing the exposed archers and auxiliary soldiers who threw wood and stones.

For example, Wei Yan, who was attacking the east gate, found that the enemy had deployed too many long-range forces to block the battering rams, and they all showed up directly. Because if they hid in the arrow tower and shot arrows through the shooting holes, they would not be able to hit the battering rams directly below the tower.

Wei Yan immediately ordered his own catapults to bombard the East City Tower intensively. After all, the chariot soldiers would not climb the city walls, and even if they rained stones in close combat, they would not accidentally injure their own people.

Gravel rain continued to fall on the city wall, and some of it hit the roof of the battering ram, making a crackling sound, as well as the unusual sound of hardwood beams breaking, but the battering ram soldiers of Liu Bei's army hiding in the rams would not suffer any casualties, at most the rams would be accidentally damaged.

Seeing that this tactic had a good consumption effect, Wei Yan quickly asked more wooden donkeys to dig the city wall.

The wooden donkey for digging cities is not used to ram the city gates, but it can be used to dig at the base of the city walls on both sides of the gates with a shovel.

Liu Bei's army also had far more advanced gunpowder technology than Cao's army. Even if the power was far from enough to blow down the city wall, they could dig a few holes at the base of the wall, bury some gunpowder in them, stuff them tightly, and then detonate them to create some minor chaos and landslides.

The Cao army soldiers on the city wall had no idea of the strength of Liu Bei's army. They saw people banging on the doors everywhere, and the walls in several places were dug out and blown up, and the rammed earth on the ground was shaking.

In the chaos and fear in their hearts, they ignored all protection and madly threw wood, stones and boiling oil at the battering rams and wooden donkeys. Instead, they were killed in large numbers by Liu Bei's army's crossbowmen and catapults and rain of gravel.

Although all this was not enough for Liu Bei to immediately capture Luoyang, it greatly accelerated the consumption of Cao Ren's supplies, manpower and morale.

It is estimated that within three or four days, the oil and fat materials for defending the city will be exhausted. In another five or six days, even poisons such as aconite and monkshood and quicklime will be used up.

At that time, the only things left are ordinary arrows, rolling logs, stones, boiling water, and various torches to resist the enemy.

-

PS: After all, this is Luoyang, and I don’t want to appear too hasty. This book is always going to be about a real battle without any fancy tactics, so I can’t finish it today.

We guarantee that the city will be captured tomorrow and Liu Bei will enter Luoyang.

(End of this chapter)