My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 139 Come to cheat, come to sneak attack
"Puff!" Zhao Yun stood at the end of the springboard of Lu Gong's carriage, wielding his sword and casually killing a Yuan soldier.
He then blocked the spear thrust by another Yuan soldier and pulled it back diagonally. The Yuan soldier, who was charging forward at full speed, suddenly lost his balance and stumbled forward.

Zhao Yun took advantage of the situation and slashed with the sword in his other hand, cutting the throat of the spearman, who fell off the city wall without even a scream.

Zhao Yun killed several people in a row, finally cleared the obstacles in front of him, and jumped onto the top of the city wall.

When Zhao Yun jumped up, a Yuan army garrison commander holding a spear five steps away saw that Zhao Yun was in mid-air and could not dodge, so he rushed forward and tried to take advantage of the opportunity to attack. Zhao Yun quickly threw the ring-handled sword that had a crack on it. The Yuan army garrison commander subconsciously turned his head, but was still stabbed in the shoulder, and his move was immediately interrupted.

If the ring-handled sword was not a professional stabbing weapon, this throw would have been enough to kill the opponent.

But it was no big deal. He had just taken the sword when he killed the first commander of Yuan's army. It was no pity to lose it. In contrast, the sword belonged to Zhao Yun, so he was reluctant to throw away his sword to kill such a weak enemy.

After this obstacle, Zhao Yun had already gained a firm foothold on the wall. He then picked up the spear tied behind his back and swept left and right, killing several people in a row. The remaining surviving Yuan soldiers were also frightened by his power and retreated five or six steps away.

Long weapons were not originally suitable for infantry combat. Even the long spears commonly used by infantry were mostly used in formations for stabbing, and rarely were they used to charge and fight alone.

But these obstacles obviously did not exist in front of Zhao Yun. No matter how fast he swung his spear, the spear shaft would never be too long and would never hit the ground or the battlements.

"Follow me to capture Hui Qu! Those who surrender will not be killed!"

After Zhao Yun stabilized the situation, he took a quick glance and saw the flag on the city wall. He waved his spear and led his troops to charge forward.

He killed more than ten Yuan soldiers in a row, and they lost their courage for a moment. Unfortunately, they were trapped on the narrow city wall, and the following friendly troops blocked their escape route, so they had to fight to the death.

Several Yuan soldiers chose to kneel down and surrender, but were immediately hacked to death or trampled to death by friendly troops in the rear in the chaos.

Zhao Yun continued to fight for a while, killing dozens of people. The morale of the Yuan army on the opposite side finally collapsed completely, regardless of whether there were comrades blocking the way behind them. Some of the Yuan army soldiers who were mentally broken began to shout "surrender" while drawing their swords and turning back to kill and seize the way, but they were quickly killed by their comrades a second ago.

Seeing that they were facing death ahead of them, more Yuan soldiers gritted their teeth and quickly cut off the straps of their armor, then took off their armor and jumped over the wall lightly.

The wall of Huailing City is only 15 to 16 feet high, plus the parapets of the parapet are more than 3 feet high. Jumping from the outside of the wall is only 4 meters, and jumping into the city is only 3.5 meters.

As the first few soldiers who jumped over the wall did not fall to death, the Yuan soldiers behind them also followed suit and started jumping over the wall when they saw Zhao Yun leading the ferocious elite Han army charging towards them.

The Yuan soldiers on the Huai Ling city wall were like boiling dumpling soup, overflowing from the edge of the pot, but Zhao Yun had no intention of turning off the fire, but continued to increase the fire and make it boil violently.

"General, spare our lives! We are willing to surrender! I am willing to recruit my troops to surrender!"

As Zhao Yun attacked and climbed up the steps of the tower, Hui Qu completely collapsed when Zhao Yun was still dozens of steps away from him, and took the lead in shouting that he was willing to surrender. The Yuan soldiers nearby also scattered like birds and beasts.

Zhao Yun divided his troops to take over each gate. The entire Battle of Huailing lasted no more than an hour, with the actual fighting and attacking taking only about half an hour before it was all over. It would have taken even more time to take over territory and encircle the land.

When Zhao Yun saw the seal Hui Qu presented when he surrendered, he couldn't help but laugh at him: "Xuzhou Mu? You are worthy of being Xuzhou Mu? Weren't you the governor of Xiapi last year?"

Hui Qu begged for mercy with a bitter face: "General, it's none of my business. It was that shameless Yuan Shu who insisted on promoting me. In fact, I also know that he can't last long, but I am trapped in a den of thieves and have no way to escape."

Zhao Yun couldn't help but feel sick and kicked him to the ground. "How dare you call Yuan Shu shameless, you shameless fellow? It's a pity that he is only the pseudo governor of Xuzhou. Yuan Shu only occupies the last county of Huailing in Xuzhou."

Hui Qu quickly followed his tone and said, "Yes, yes, it's all my fault that I'm incompetent. I only manage Huailing County and a few thousand troops. If I could manage a few more counties in Xuzhou, I would help you persuade them all to surrender! But now I really can't do anything. Please let me go, General."

Zhao Yun was still cautious. He knew that killing the surrendered was unlucky, but he was reluctant to let this useless man go, so he drew his sword to scare the other party:
"Really? Then what's the point of keeping you here? I don't want to kill the surrendered, but my army is in a hurry to go to the next county. If you stay here, it will inevitably cause more trouble. I have to let you down."

Hui Qu was so frightened that blood rushed to his head, and he said quickly:
"Although I am only the governor of Xuzhou, I have a good personal relationship with the county magistrate and the captain guarding Zhongli County! I am willing to try to persuade the general to surrender! The general is worried that it will be unstable if I stay in the rear, so you can take me with you! I am still useful!"

Zhao Yun then put away his sword:

"If you had surrendered when our army arrived, you would have been forgiven for your previous crimes. But you surrendered only because our army had already climbed up the city wall and killed everyone on it. You can only be considered a prisoner!
In this case, I will spare your life. If you can persuade Zhongli County to surrender, your previous crime will be forgiven and you will be treated as a surrenderer. If you cannot persuade them to surrender, you will be treated as a prisoner!"

"Thank you, General, for your mercy! Thank you, General, for your mercy!" Hui Qu kowtowed repeatedly, and whatever Zhao Yun said was his own business.

……

Zhao Yun did not delay, and did not even have time to count and receive the treasury of Huailing County. He just took advantage of the time when the troops were divided into four gates and occupied the government office to move several thousand bags of military rations back to the ship, and took some new swords and guns from the surrendered soldiers to facilitate the supply of subsequent operations.

Afterwards, Zhao Yun continued to march towards Zhongli County, the next county upstream of the Huai River.

Of Zhao Yun's 5,000 soldiers, 1,000 were left to guard Huai Ling, including several hundred seriously wounded soldiers from today's siege. These people also had to guard the treasury and the captured weapons.

The Huailing Yuan army that had just surrendered had a total of two to three thousand people. Zhao Yun quickly screened them and let those who were from Huailing stand out. According to Hui Qu's report, he originally had four thousand soldiers under his command, but there were casualties and escapees during the siege just now, and there should be a certain amount of idle pay at normal times. In the end, Zhao Yun actually counted the remaining soldiers and found that there were only more than two thousand.

After hearing Zhao Yun's request, the captives didn't know what it meant. They had little education, could not read a single word, and did not understand any strategy, so they were divided into two groups according to their hometowns without any intention of deceiving others.

After Zhao Yun had made the division, he returned the weapons to the soldiers from the local area and asked them to follow the army to attack the next county.

As for soldiers who are not locals, as long as their families still live in the area controlled by Yuan Shu, their weapons will be confiscated and they will be detained.

Zhang Zhuo, the military commander under his command, was puzzled and asked, "These surrendered soldiers are of mixed quality and low combat effectiveness. General, are you not afraid of dragging down the morale of the army by using them to attack the subsequent cities?"

Zhao Yun was very confident:
"I specifically picked out the soldiers whose families were in the local area and those whose families were in Xuyi, so that they would not dare to surrender easily. Besides, everyone knew that Yuan Shu was on the decline, so his army was so demoralized.

Our army gave the soldiers a large reward and told them that this was a return to the Han Dynasty, and that killing the rebels would surely stabilize them. Even if they could not be used to fight first, they could still be used to carry soil to fill the trenches, push carts and build ladders.

There is another deeper meaning. These people still retain the uniforms and flags of Yuan’s army. When the time comes, I will only let them tie white scarves around their necks and arms to show that they have rebelled. When the defenders of the subsequent counties see that there are so many surrendered soldiers from the front-line counties in our army, their morale will definitely be even lower, and we can coerce them into victory.”

Zhang Zhuo thought about it. Although he was not sure whether Captain Zhao's plan could be implemented, it seemed to make sense.

Many times, surrender is prone to a chain avalanche. With the surrender of the first batch of comrades, the subsequent troops will also be shaken. Huailing is the city at the forefront of Yuan's army against Liu, and the troops here are supposed to have high fighting spirit and vigilance. Once Huailing is suddenly lost, the counties behind that were not originally on the front line will suddenly be exposed to the enemy's front, and see so many comrades who were the backbone of the friendly defense a few days ago suddenly become enemies and return to the Han Dynasty. This psychological blow is definitely very huge.

The officers and generals of the Han army quickly reached a consensus and carried it out.

Zhao Yun stayed in Huailing for only half a day. At noon that day, he set out on his journey again and attacked against the current by boat.

The soldiers continued to sleep as usual when they boarded the boat, while the temporarily recruited auxiliary soldiers and sailors were responsible for rowing the boat so that the soldiers could recover their strength and prepare for the next battle.

……

If you go upstream from Huailing for another 140 li, you will reach Zhongli County. If you go upstream from Zhongli for another 100 li, you will reach Yicheng.

But in fact, the straight-line distance between Huailing and Zhongli is less than 100 miles, but the Huaihe River has 140 miles of waterway. The Huaihe River does not flow in a straight line between Huailing and Xuyi, but has dramatic north-south twists and turns. After reaching Zhongli, the river course becomes very straight going upstream.

For a normal troop to march this distance, two days would be considered a forced march, while three days would be considered a slightly slower normal speed.

Zhao Yun continued to make use of the characteristic of "separation of combat soldiers and sailors" and, relying on the advantage that rowers could row without sparing their physical energy, he arrived in Zhongli on April 11th.

When Hui Qu lost Huai Ling, he did not even have time to sound the alarm and call for help from the rear. After Hui Qu surrendered to the enemy, it was even more impossible for him to call for help.

Therefore, the defenders and officials of Zhongli County had to rely on the soldiers who fled from other gates when Huailing City was broken and spontaneously brought back the news of defeat. Zhao Yun broke through the east gate at that time, and Hui Qu surrendered directly, and then the troops were divided to take over the north, south and west gates.

During the process of Zhao Yun's taking over, it was impossible for him to capture all of Yuan's soldiers. There must be some die-hard soldiers who were loyal to Yuan Shu, or some who simply wanted to escape because their families were still in the rear of Huainan and were unwilling to follow Liu Bei.

However, these deserters were not professional scouts, and they would not think of going to Zhongli County or even Yicheng County to report the news. Most of them would have to be captured by the patrolling garrison in the rear before they would reveal the truth. This further increased the slowness of the Yuan army's response.

When Zhao Yun attacked Zhongli County, he had already occupied the dock and unloaded siege weapons. The county magistrate and the captain in the city had just learned from scattered sources that "Huai Ling might be lost or under attack, and it is unknown whether Envoy Hui is alive or dead." Because the news was too confusing, they had to distinguish and confirm which ones were true and which ones were false.

Yuan Shi, the magistrate of Zhongli County, was an insignificant member of the Yuan family of Runan. He was almost five generations distant from Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao, and was also a concubine's son. If Yuan Shu had not proclaimed himself emperor, he would have become a "second-class relative" and might not have been able to get an official position.

At this moment, faced with so many half-true and half-false news, he could only bite the bullet and beg Captain Li Cai to confirm:
"Captain Li, I beg you to send out scouts as soon as possible to find out whether Huailing has been captured or is merely under siege, and whether it is possible for Envoy Hui to escape to us.

We are a small county in the rear, with only 2,000 soldiers. If the remnants of Envoy Hui had not retreated here and joined forces with us, how could we defend ourselves if we were attacked by the enemy?"

Li Cai agreed and instructed the county magistrate: "It is important to scout the movements of Lord Hui, but Magistrate Yuan should also force the civilians to be deployed as soon as possible. If Zhao Yun really attacks, the county soldiers will definitely not be enough."

Li Cai's tone of voice was even more impolite than Yuan Shi's, but this was reasonable, as the rank of a captain was higher than that of a county magistrate. He did not even address Yuan Shi as "County Lord", but simply as "County Magistrate Yuan". Yuan Shi was begging him, and he was giving orders to Yuan Shi.

The two of them gave each other face and immediately went to carry out the task separately.

Fortunately, Zhao Yun was kind-hearted and quickly took the initiative to reveal the answer, saving these people the work of verifying the answer.

Just as Li Cai called a scout officer to give him instructions on the plan, the scout officer took the initiative to crawl into the government office and said, "Captain! Zhao Yun is already at the dock outside the city preparing to attack the city! Our army has even seen our own flags! The governor of Xuzhou has surrendered, and he was even taken to the city by Zhao Yun's men to persuade them to surrender!"

Li Cai's courage sank, his momentum immediately subsided, and his eyes began to roll around.

Yuan Shi, who was standing by, jumped up in shock and quickly ordered, "What? Hui Qu was granted the title of Governor of Xuzhou by His Majesty, but he surrendered? Even if he was defeated, shouldn't he have fought and died for his country? Captain Li, this guy is so hateful!"

Li Cai responded by making nodding and ah sounds on the surface, but in his heart he was thinking of other ways out.

It seems that Yuan Shi will not agree to surrender. He is probably the "Zhongshi clan relative" who got his official position because of this, and he feels that he will have no way to survive if he surrenders.

Li Cai didn't want to be at a disadvantage, so he didn't rush to express his opinion and took Yuan Shi to the city to watch the battle.

……

When they arrived at the city tower, they found that Zhao Yun had already begun attacking the city.

Zhao Yun did not want to give the defenders more time to prepare, so he pushed out his siege vehicle and immediately moved forward after deploying the position. On the other side, Hui Qu was still trying hard to persuade the defenders to surrender by revealing his identity.

Because of Hui Qu's shouting, the defenders' move to shoot arrows to block the siege vehicles seemed to be quite hesitant.

Zhao Yun also seized this opportunity. At the beginning, he did not let his archers step forward to suppress the enemy by shooting arrows. Instead, he only let the soldiers pushing the carts push slowly and be on guard with shields.

Zhao Yun knew very well that if his side shot arrows first, the defenders on the city wall would definitely shoot arrows in retaliatory response, and there would be no point in persuading them to surrender.

If the attackers just pushed their carts forward and didn't shoot arrows, it wouldn't be considered an act of war. If the defenders didn't give consistent orders and the soldiers didn't know what to do, they might be deceived.

　Thank you very much for the reward from the leader "Brother Yun's FANS"!

　　I am really ashamed that I made a mistake yesterday and had to rewrite it. I really don't deserve this.

　　These days I am still updating three times as planned to make up for it. I don't know how to face it. I am not worthy of it. After I pay off these debts, I will pay it back to the leader.

　　In fact, sometimes I really feel that this book does not deserve a leader, because compared with the original book, this book is obviously less profound. In order to make more people understand it, some professional details have been sacrificed, which is actually quite unfair to in-depth readers.

　　Since everyone is just watching for fun, I'd be very grateful if you could keep subscribing. I haven't helped anyone in any way, so I don't deserve to be the leader.

　　I would also like to thank the two book friends with the first number "202308" for their rewards. I am really ashamed.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)