Chapter 1229 Battle of Xiangyang (2)

As Zhu Ran launched a fierce offensive against Xiangyang in the southeast, Bu Zhao followed closely and launched an attack from the due south.

 The news soon reached Pu Zhong'er, who was personally supervising the battle on the southeastern section of the city wall.

"It doesn't matter, I have already made arrangements, just let the soldiers act as ordered."

Pu Zhong forcibly controlled the changes in the expression on his face and pretended to calmly give instructions.

 But in fact, Puzhong had some illusions in his mind before. The Wu invaders could not fight on land, let alone attack the city.

Sun Quan, the leader of the bandits, repeatedly led 100,000 troops to attack Hefei, but failed to capture it.

Therefore, facing a big city like Xiangyang, the opponent may be afraid and dare not let go and attack the city with all his strength.

Moreover, Puzhong has been in Xiangyang for so many years, so he naturally knows what the Wu invaders in the south are like.

There is still something to be said for defending one’s territory, but what about taking the initiative to conquer foreign countries...

The generals of the bandits are indeed eager to cross the border and plunder the people's property for themselves.

But if they were really allowed to fight tough battles and attack fortified cities, they were not very active.

It was precisely because he knew the habits of the Wu invaders that Pu Zhongcai immediately refused the Wu invaders' persuasion to surrender - between losing and defending, the odds were 50-50, so why not take advantage?

 After all, my family is in the north.

　　If he surrenders without a fight, his wife, children, and mother will be implicated.

What he didn’t expect was that just half a day later, the defenders of the southern city wall quickly sent a message:

“General, there are many thieves in the south. They have already built a pontoon bridge on the moat. I am afraid that the strength of the southern section of the city wall is insufficient.”

 The moat in the southeast of Xiangyang is connected with the Han River, so it is deep and wide.

 But it is different in the south. That direction is close to Xian Mountain and the terrain is not gentle enough.

 So the moat on that side is shallower and narrower than in other directions.

However, Puzhong was surprised that the Wu invaders crossed the moat in half a day:

 “How could it be so?”

As he spoke, he hurried towards the southern city wall.

"The thieves are very powerful and their offensive is very fierce. The southern section of the city wall is not strong enough to stop the thieves from crossing the river."

Puzhong still wanted to focus his defense on the southeast, but when he got to the south, he took a look.

But I saw war drums rumbling below the city, and the shouts of killing shook the sky.

Countless thieves were carrying light ladders and pushing cloud ladders, braving the rain of arrows and pushing towards the city wall regardless of casualties.

Seeing this, Pu Zhong finally couldn't help but show worry in public:

“The thieves are so determined to attack the city!”

He thought about it again and again, and finally gave the order:

 “Come here, send me an order to bring over the battalion from the west!”

 “Here!”

Someone around reminded Pu Zhongdao:

“General, that battalion is just in case. If we transfer it now, if something unexpected happens later, why should the general be there?”

Puzhong smiled bitterly and pointed to the city:

"If we hadn't transferred here, I might be a little unstoppable now."

At this time, the last bit of luck in Puzhong's heart had disappeared.

 It's right to think about it. The person in charge of the siege this time was Lu Xun.

As the most knowledgeable thief general among the Wu invaders, how could Lu Xun be an easy person?

As he was talking, he saw that Wu Kou's light ladder had been set up on the city wall.

The long gun sticks out of the parapet, preventing the iron hook of the light ladder from catching on the parapet.

When the Wu soldiers at the bottom of the city had climbed halfway, they gave an order and the soldiers with their guns shouted in unison and pushed the light ladder hard out of the city.

As the light ladder overturned, Wu Jun on the light ladder fell to the ground like falling dumplings, screaming.

At the same time, arrows rained down from the city head, and logs and rolling stones roared down, making the Wu army attacking the city feel like they were in hell.

 It's just that all this did not make Wu Jun retreat at all.

 They are still like a tide, coming in wave after wave.

Puzhong’s eyelids jumped when he saw it.

 He realized that he had really underestimated the strength of Wu Kou's siege this time.

Even the people on the left and right were silent for a while, and then they spoke again:

“As the general said, the thieves are very determined to attack the city, which is very different from the past.”

 This is also where Puzhong has doubts.

What he didn’t know was that in order to capture Xiangyang City, Lu Xun not only issued strict military orders:

Those who fail to attack the city this time will be killed!

Moreover, the military order that "the first to attack the city can give priority to the wealth and silk of the women in the city" has long been spread throughout the Wu army.

 Heavily punished to avoid slackness in fighting, heavy rewards to encourage brave men.

 Wu Jun's situation this time was naturally very different from the past.

Not to mention, Wu State also received food assistance from Ji Han and "rented" a batch of weapons for this battle.

 For Lu Xun, it was a pity that this batch of weapons from Han were used for siege, rather than for field battles.

But as long as Xiangyang is captured, a defense line along the Han River is built to protect Nanjun, so that the south of the Han River will no longer be threatened by the Northern Army.

Then this little regret is insignificant.

Standing on the highest point of the building ship, Lu Xun looked at Xiangyang City in the south with a deep gaze. No one knew what he was thinking at this time.

The city wall of Xiangyang City is about ten feet high, less than eleven feet high.

 But for this era, this is already extremely tall.

 Changan City and Luoyang City are said to be only about twelve feet tall.

But in cities like Chang'an City and Luoyang City, no matter how tall the city walls are, they are just to reflect their majesty and set off the majesty of the imperial power.

 In fact, even if Chang'an and Luoyang have high city walls, they will not have much strengthening effect on defense.

 Because Chang'an and Luoyang are too big and cover too much area.

 This will make the defenders unable to take care of it at all.

 If you want to cover everything, you must deploy enough troops in the city.

In this case, a large number of defenders will not only consume too much food and grass - of course you can save enough food and grass in advance.

 But what about water supply?

 The water sources in the city are basically fixed.

It would be even more uncomfortable if the enemy troops outside the city dug into the ground and cut off the water source.

Also, there may be no firewood growing in the city.

Especially the sudden increase of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of defenders, which can be said to be an extremely heavy burden on the city.

 Therefore, in history, it is not unreasonable for a city to be besieged for a long time and plague to easily appear in the city.

 Because even clean drinking water may not be available in the city.

 Without firewood, we had to demolish the house and burn the doors, panels, windows, frames, beams and columns.

 The people in the city may not even be qualified to heat their own houses.

 When a minor problem such as a headache or fever occurs, it may easily turn into a major plague that cannot be treated.

 Hence, a city that is conducive to defense either occupies a strategic location or is strong and deep.

The city is strong and the pool is deep, which does not mean that bigger is better. On the contrary, the scale of the city cannot be too large—at least the areas that need to be defended cannot be too large.

Xiangyang City perfectly meets this condition.

Its walls are high enough and strong.

 Its moat is wide enough and its pool is deep.

Although it is a big city, because it is surrounded by water on three sides, there are not many places that really need to be defended.

 So even though Xiangyang City was besieged with ten times the force, Lu Xun still looked solemn.

 A messenger boat took advantage of the wind and came under the boat where Lu Xun was.

“Reporting to the general, General Zhu has sent a military report. The flag of the rebel army has been staying in the southeast for the past few days and has not left.”

“General Qiebu also said that the main force of the bandits in the city has now been deployed to the south and southeast.”

Upon hearing the report, Lu Xun’s expression did not change, he just nodded slowly and ordered:

 “Send my military order to the two generals Zhu Bu and ask them to continue to increase the intensity of the siege and not to relax even a little bit.”

 “Here!”

 After receiving the military order sent by the general, Bu Zhi could not help but murmur in his heart:

"Such an offensive was carried out with all our strength from the beginning. As the saying goes, it will be full of energy, then weaken again, and then it will be exhausted. If we continue to attack like this, the soldiers will probably become exhausted."

“By then, the city has not yet been conquered, but it has damaged the morale of the officers and soldiers. They will not be able to advance or retreat. Are we afraid that we will have to retreat again?”

“How could the general, who knows the strength of the army so well, make such a decision?”

It's just that since Bu Zhao agreed to Lu Xun and let the Jingzhou Army fully cooperate to capture Xiangyang, no matter how many doubts he had in his heart, he could only bury them in his heart for the time being.

A few more days passed, and as Bu Zhao had expected, the Wu army suffered a lot of casualties after all the soldiers attacking the city took turns.

 Plus, after the excitement passed, he finally calmed down.

 The offensive was no longer as desperate as it was at the beginning.

Seeing this, Bu Zhi finally couldn't sit still anymore and told Lu Xun his worries.

Hearing this, Lu Xun asked:

“Now in the army, are the soldiers afraid of fighting?”

 “Not yet, but the morale is not as good as it was at the beginning.”

“Then boost morale, inspire the soldiers, and continue to attack the city!”

 “Here!”

 A few more days passed like this.

Wu Jun has been attacking the city for days and days, and it has been more than half a month, without stopping for a day.

Even Zhu Ran couldn’t help but send someone to ask Lu Xun for instructions:

“General, the soldiers have been sieging the city for a long time and have suffered too many casualties. Can we suspend the siege for three days and then fight again?”

Lu Xun’s face was not angry but happy, and he even smiled:

"General Zhu has said so. The soldiers must be exhausted and have no intention of fighting anymore, so let the soldiers rest for three days."

After the order was completed, he ordered his bodyguards:

“Go, take your people with you immediately, go there in person, tell General Ding, and ask him to lead his army immediately!”

 “Here!”

 The so-called General Ding was none other than Ding Feng, who was then a partial general.

At this time, Ding Feng, who had been ordered by Lu Xun from the beginning, had been leading the army and stationed on the Han River in Yicheng, downstream of Xiangyang City.

 After receiving Lu Xun’s military order, he immediately asked people to set sail.

The main force of the naval force led by Ding Feng was only four ships.

 These three ships may be the four largest warships in the world: Izumo, Feiyun, Gaihai, and Changan.

 These four large ships are all built ships.

 The largest of them, the "Chang'an", was the ship of the Emperor Wu.

There are five floors in total. Each floor is surrounded by parapets. There are a number of sword holes and spear holes on the parapets and battle grids, which can be used for long-distance attack and close-range defense.

The ship has a large space and can carry three thousand soldiers, and the deck can drive and move horses.

 The hull of the ship floating on the water is thirteen to fourteen feet high.

 The reason why such a tall ship can float smoothly on the water without capsizing is because Wu State used a secret weapon: the anchorage.

 Actually, they are anchors and ballast stones.

This kind of water fortress sailed to the foot of Xiangyang City with the help of wind. The originally tall Xiangyang City Wall finally lost its height advantage in front of this five-story ship.

Lu Xun moved to the building ship Chang'an and climbed up to look at Xiangyang City. He could even see that the garrison of Xiangyang City, which was originally out of strength, had to transfer some of the defenders to guard the northern city head.

 Let the Chang'an approach the head of Xiangyang City as much as possible.

Lu Xun showed a calm smile on his face and ordered:

 “Send my military order, shoot arrows!”

The tall building ships, like chariots approaching a city, shoot arrows at the top of Xiangyang City from a high position.

The guards at the head of Xiangyang City had to hide behind the battlements and bend down while holding up placards.

Seeing this, Wu Jun on the boat couldn't help laughing.

Puzhong had less than three days of respite. He did not expect that such a large warship would appear in the north where there would be least problems.

After hearing the report from the soldiers below, he was so frightened that he quickly went to the northern section of the city wall to inspect it himself.

Looking at the Wu warship which was more than one foot and nearly two feet higher than the city wall, his face turned a little pale:

 “Wu Kou’s navy is the strongest in the world, and he is truly worthy of his reputation!”

 Fortunately, such a large building ship cannot directly approach the city wall to attack the city like Linche and Yunladder. Otherwise, how can we defend it?

Several of the largest buildings and ships in Wu State all appeared on the Han River. Not to mention Xiangyang City, even Fan City on the north bank was so frightened that they stopped moving.

Looking at the darkness that reaches the top, it looks like a water fortress that towers into the clouds and is extremely oppressive.

The soldiers of the Wei State on both sides of the Han River couldn't help but think of the battle where hundreds of thousands of Emperor Wu's elite troops were lost in Chibi.

“General, what should we do?”

 The people on the left and right asked calmly.

"Don't panic!" Pu Zhong forced himself to calm down, "Although the thieves' warships are huge, they can only show off their power on the water. How can they attack the city?"

"As long as the bandits on board cannot use the boat to board the city, what's the point of fear?"

"Instruct the soldiers at the top of the city not to fight back, so as not to waste arrow feathers. It is business to use these arrow feathers more for the south."

Hearing the words left and right, I felt a little at ease.

 Just when no one was paying attention, Pu Zhong's face became even uglier than half a month ago:

Wu Kou is putting pressure on you!

 After all, if you want to defend the city, in addition to making the city strong and deep, you must also make the soldiers in the city determined to defend it.

How to strengthen the determination of the soldiers in the city to defend the city?

  Naturally, I wanted to let them know that the imperial court would send reinforcements.

Based on the current situation, the reinforcements sent by the imperial court have arrived, but if they are blocked to the north of the Han River, they will be unable to cross the water.

Then the morale of the officers and soldiers in the city will become even lower!

Now that Wu Kou has sent such a large ship to float on the Han River, it is clear that he wants to completely cut off any hope of reinforcements from the north.

Lu Xun saw the Wei bandit commander's flag appear in the north and ordered:

 “Send an order to let General Zhu and General Bu continue to attack the city from tomorrow.”

 “Here!”

The Wu army resumed their offensive in the south, leaving Puzhong no time to stay on the northern section of the city wall near the Han River. He hurried back to supervise the battle.

 Let alone have any thoughts to consider what Lu Xun intended to do with this formation.

Even because the war situation was urgent, after he saw that the tall ships on the Han River posed no other threat except for the daily suppression of arrows against the city, he transferred the garrison sent back to the south.

 And Lu Xun was waiting for this moment.

 (End of this chapter)