Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 148 Siege
Yan Yi's decision to attack the city late at night was not random, but a decision made after careful consideration based on the current actual situation and reference to many battle examples.

Night sieges were common in this era. For example, Zhuge Liang's night attack on Chencang, Lü Meng's night attack on Jingzhou, Sun Jian's night attack on Yangren, Cao Cao's night attack on Puyang Xitun, and Sun Ce's night attack on Lujiang are all examples of battles that have been passed down to later generations.

Sun Jian's night attack on Yangren is even more well-known in Jiangdong. Hua Xiong was killed by Sun Jian in this battle.

Yan Yi had to face the Qiantang garrison of 6,000 soldiers at home and Wang Lang's 20,000 troops abroad. He couldn't afford to lose too many soldiers in the siege, lest Qiantang be lost. After much deliberation, he concluded that launching an attack late at night was his only chance to capture Qiantang.

Most of the Qiantang defenders were newly recruited and lacked combat experience. If the city was attacked during the day, they might have been able to cope with it with prior preparations. However, a sudden attack at night would have thrown them into panic. Furthermore, their almost zero night combat experience would have exacerbated their already weak combat capabilities.

Many of Yan's men were born into bandits, having engaged in numerous nighttime robberies and looting, making them familiar with nighttime combat. Yan Yi's elite troops had also conducted numerous nighttime drills, and with these advantages balanced against each other, a nighttime attack was the perfect opportunity.

Of course, this alone is not enough!

Qiantang City is tall and strong, and there are many defenders. If they cannot take it down in one go and allow the defenders to gradually adapt, the surprise attack will become a protracted war. The attackers will inevitably suffer heavy losses and will also be attacked from both sides by Wang Lang's army.

Therefore, Yan Yi had to gather all his soldiers under his command at the foot of Qiantang City. As soon as he attacked the city, he had to put all his strength into launching the most fierce offensive, so that he could conquer Qiantang in the shortest time and at the lowest cost.

How to withdraw the troops stationed on the western front from under the nose of Wang Lang's army became an extremely critical issue.

To this end, Yan Yi did not hesitate to abduct 3,000 civilians, and secretly replaced the 2,000 elite soldiers in the fort with a cat instead of a prince.

These civilians were all wearing the leather armor of Yan's soldiers. Under the cover of night, the enemy would find it difficult to notice anything wrong from a distance.

The dense forest to the north of the fort became an ideal place for Yan Yi to exchange the fake for the real.

So, three thousand civilians replaced the two thousand elite soldiers and staged an empty city plan in the fortress, which was not really an empty city.

In fact, this was a very dangerous thing to do. If Wang Lang's army attacked the fort midway, they would immediately notice something was wrong. If they were not so panicked when they were suddenly attacked by an "ambush", there was a certain probability that they would find something wrong.

Regardless, this matter was finally completed without any major incidents.

At least tonight, they should be able to deceive Wang Lang's army. After a long day of arduous siege, Wang Lang's soldiers were not only exhausted but also deeply war-weary. Having also experienced an "ambush," the probability of launching a night attack should be extremely small.

Since Yan Yi led his troops south, he has been maneuvering in an extremely complicated situation and finally found a chance to attack the city.

However, he still didn't have much time left, because once he started to attack the city, the flames in the sky would be enough to make Wang Lang's army more than ten miles away notice it, and then they would surely rush to Qiantang with all their strength!

For Yan Yi, this siege was much more difficult, dangerous and complicated than conquering Yuncheng. It was like teetering on the edge of the abyss. Any mistake would lead to defeat.

This also made him think over and over again on his way to Qiantang, wondering if there were any omissions.

With a nervous feeling of walking on thin ice, he led his troops to the camp two miles west of Qiantang City.

The soldiers in the camp were making intensive preparations, proceeding with extreme caution, so as not to alert the Qiantang defenders. At 1:15 pm, the entire army formed up in the camp. At 2:15 pm, the troops began their march towards Qiantang City. All inaccessible areas between the camp and the city, including the moat, had been leveled.

The moon was dim and the stars were sparse, its bright light pouring down like water around the city, casting a faint silver glow. Looking down from the sky, one could see four faintly visible armies slowly approaching Qiantang City from the east, west, south, and north.

Among them, the army in the north of the city was the largest, with about 4,500 people; the army in the west of the city was the second largest, with about 3,000 people, but they were all elite soldiers. The army in the east and south of the city each had more than a thousand people.

Since some of the leather armor was allocated to the 3,000 civilians in the fort, many soldiers under the city were still wearing leather armor seized from Zhou Xin's army and Zou Ta's army.

When the army reached a few miles outside Qiantang City, it began to attract the attention of the city's defenders.

Han Zhong was a servant of the Zhao family in Qiantang. Due to a locust plague, his family had sold all their land and was in debt to the Zhao family. With no other options left, he sold himself to the Zhao family, where he had been a slave for two years. When the enemy army laid siege to the city, he was immediately drafted into Zhao Rui's army and assigned to patrol the northern city.

The day before yesterday, the enemy army passed by the city with such impressive force that he watched from the city wall, his legs almost shaking with fear, thinking he would die. But two days passed, and the enemy army still did not attack the city. Yesterday, he heard that reinforcements were coming, which made him feel much more at ease and saw hope for survival.

However, just now, he had inadvertently glanced outside the city and witnessed a shocking scene. Rows of figures had suddenly appeared on the previously deserted wilderness. Under the moonlight, they surged toward the city walls like a moving black forest.

Han Zhong's heartbeat instantly accelerated, threatening to burst through his chest. He wanted to shout, but he was afraid of being punished for lying about military intelligence. He stood there for a moment, until the forest in front of him became clearer and clearer, and he could faintly see the cold gleam of spears and halberds. Then, trembling, he shouted to a passing captain, "There are so many enemy troops!"

Then, a sharp gong sounded from the gate tower, like a drop of water falling into a frying pan, which quickly attracted more gong and drum sounds, resounding throughout the city.

In an instant, Qiantang City was lit up and in chaos.

Everyone in the city was stunned. They had never expected that the enemy would attack the city at this time. Screams one after another broke the silence of the night sky.

After the gongs sounded, the soldiers of Yan Yi's army immediately lit torches, quickened their pace, rushed towards the city wall, and quickly lined up three hundred steps away from the wall.

Yan Yi glanced at the hourglass and saw that there was very little sand left at the top of the hourglass, and it was almost four quarters past Yin time.

He urged coldly, "Push the ladders over here quickly! Light more bonfires!"

A ladder was originally pushed by three soldiers, but at this moment, hundreds of soldiers rushed over and pulled and pushed twenty or thirty ladders to the front of the formation.

Because of their large size, the building car and the flying building are moving slowly and are still halfway there.

"Beat the drums! Attack the city!"

Almost as soon as the sand began to drain away, most of the ladders had been pushed to the front of the battle. Yan Yi suddenly drew his sword and gave the order to attack the city.

(End of this chapter)