Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 193 Two Strategies
A quarter of an hour later, Zhu Zhi arrived at the east gate of Guzhuang and saw flags fluttering and spears and halberds like a forest below the city, indicating that a great battle was about to begin.

Yan Yi rode his horse and stopped five hundred paces outside the city. Seeing him approach, he dismounted and said softly, "I'm sorry for wronging you, General. I had no choice but to do this."

Zhu Zhi glanced at him and snorted coldly, "Don't be so hypocritical."

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately attracted hostile glances from the people around them.

Chen Gan shouted, "Young Master, you've already shown mercy by sparing your life. If you behave like this again, I'll kill you immediately and then apologize to you!"

Yan Yi glared at him and smiled at Zhu Zhi, saying, "General, if you are dissatisfied with what I did in the past, I am willing to apologize to you in public, as long as you are willing to surrender."

Zhu Zhi sneered and simply closed his eyes and stopped talking.

Yan Yi sighed and said slowly, "While the general was recuperating, two more groups of assassins came to assassinate him. If I hadn't ordered his men to strictly protect him, the general would have been killed. Come, take him to the city!"

After hearing this, a trace of heartache flashed across Zhu Zhi's face, and he was brought to the front of the battle in a trance.

"Am I seeing a ghost? That person seems to be Captain Zhu."

"Wasn't he killed by Yan Yi?"

"You know nothing. I heard it was an assassin sent by Wu Jing."

Some of the defenders on the city wall were from the Sun family, some were from the Yuan family, and many were from Guzhang. They were all familiar with Zhu Zhi, and when they suddenly saw him appear, they were all shocked and talked a lot.

Zhu Zhi was awakened by the commotion on the city wall. He slowly raised his head, his eyes sweeping over the defenders one by one, and said in a deep voice, "I am Zhu Zhi. The person who assassinated me was not the Young Master of the Yan family."

The soldier beside him reminded: "Louder!"

Zhu Zhi took a deep breath and said it again loudly, but he kept silent about the words of persuasion.

His words were like a thunderclap, exploding on the city wall and quickly spreading in all directions.

"Bang the drum!"

Amid the unrest among the defenders on the city wall and a strange atmosphere, Yan Yi issued the order to attack the city.

Since siege equipment such as flying towers had not yet arrived, the soldiers could only rely on ladders to climb the city walls.

More than a thousand soldiers pushed the ladders, braved the rain of arrows, and rushed towards the city wall shouting.

Bang bang bang! Clank clank clank! Puff puff puff!
The sound of arrows hitting shields, armor and piercing flesh was endless.

Most of the arrows were blocked by shields, a few hit the armor, leaving a small dent, and only a very small number of arrows hit the arms or legs of the lightly armed infantrymen that lacked armor protection, causing some injuries.

As for the heavily armored infantrymen, they were almost unharmed under the protection of a full set of two layers of armor.

Yan Yi and the generals looked at each other and smiled, very satisfied with the result.

It's money well spent.

In comparison, Han You's army suffered much greater casualties, but Han You was a smart guy. Seeing that the situation was not right, he immediately ordered to reduce the intensity of the siege.

He turned and glanced at the supervisory team sent by Yan Yi, muttering to himself: "It's just a tentative siege, Yan Yi shouldn't blame me, right?"

A quarter of an hour later, Yan Yi had a preliminary understanding of the defenders' situation and ordered a full retreat. Just as the intelligence had predicted, half the defenders in Guzhang were old and weak, while the other half were exhausted troops withdrawn from the Wucheng front, many of whom were wounded and their combat effectiveness was poor.

The walls of Guzhang were only comparable to those of Wucheng, not as tall and strong as those of Qiantang. As soon as the siege equipment arrived, we could launch a general assault. We should be able to capture the city within a day or two.

Looking at the enemy troops retreating like a tide, the defenders on the city wall breathed a sigh of relief.

The defenders at the east gate, in particular, felt as if they had woken up from a nightmare. The enemy's equipment was so sophisticated that it was hard to imagine how the swords in their hands could pose a threat to them.

It was already three quarters past midnight, and the sunset glow was spreading all over the earth. In another half hour, night would fall.

Yan Yi led his army back to the camp. As soon as he took off his armor, he saw Yin Li hurriedly coming with a scroll of bamboo slips.

"Young Master, the Wucheng reinforcements have set out. Wu Jing is leading the troops himself, and they number approximately 10,000."

After reading the brief plan, Yan Yi ordered, "Immediately summon all the generals to my tent to discuss matters. Send out more scouts to see if Wu Jing will march tonight."

Yin Li took the order and left.

Soon, all the generals gathered in the commander's tent.

Yan Yi sat down on the upper bench, his eyes sweeping around him as he asked with a smile, "Wu Jing has personally led an army of 10,000 from Wucheng. We have two strategies for you generals to discuss. The first is to stop the reinforcements and capture the city. Generals Zhou Ang and Chen Gan can lead 5,000 elite troops to intercept Wu Jing's army, while the rest of the troops will capture Guzhang within two days. The second strategy is to surround the city and attack the reinforcements. Han You's army will intercept the Guzhang defenders, while our army will select a favorable location, wait for them to tire, and then engage Wu Jing's army in a decisive battle."

The generals discussed the matter and split into two factions.

More than a dozen generals, led by Fan Yan, supported the strategy of blocking the reinforcements and then conquering the city. They reasoned that the terrain between Wucheng and Guzhang was mostly flat, lacking suitable ambushes. A head-on battle with Wu Jing's army, even if they were evenly matched, would likely result in heavy casualties, precluding the ability to capture Guzhang in a short period of time. It would be better to capture Guzhang first, then unite the various armies and erode the enemy's forces.

Those who agreed with the strategy of besieging the enemy and attacking the reinforcements were Xu Sheng, Zhou Ang and other generals, also more than ten people.

Xu Sheng stood up, clasped his fists, and said, "Young Lord, I have been fighting in Wucheng for over a month and am well aware of the enemy's situation. Wu Jing's army is strong and his soldiers are quite elite. However, after more than a month of fierce fighting, most of the soldiers are exhausted and many are wounded. Many of them are newly recruited soldiers. Their combat effectiveness is only 60% of what it was a month ago. On the other hand, our army is well-rested and well-equipped. All the soldiers are willing to fight to the death for you, Young Lord. If we choose a place suitable for heavy cavalry and heavy infantry as the decisive battle site, I believe we can defeat the enemy in one battle!"

Fan Yan and others looked at him in surprise, and then showed a thoughtful look.

Xu Sheng continued, "If we try to stop the reinforcements and capture the city, the intercepting troops will have no strategic defenses and will likely be surrounded and outnumbered. Even if they can inflict heavy damage on the enemy, they themselves will be in danger of being destroyed. And how can we guarantee that the 5,000 troops responsible for the siege can capture Guzhang in a short period of time? Whether Han You's army will exert its full strength is a major question. In my opinion, he will act when favorable and remain inactive when unfavorable. With our forces outnumbered, he will most likely hesitate and wait and see when attacking the city."

After hearing this, Yan Yi pondered for a moment and asked, "If we were to have a decisive battle with Wu Jing's army, where would we choose as the battlefield?"

His question was very biased, and he clearly agreed with Xu Sheng's point of view. The generals immediately stopped talking about stopping the reinforcements from Ke Yi.

There was another round of discussion in the commander's tent. It was obvious that everyone was having a headache over the choice of the place for the decisive battle.

After all, it is not easy to find a battlefield with obvious geographical advantages on the vast plains.

In this kind of terrain, the warring parties often compete with each other on the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, the number of soldiers and the command ability of the generals.

Zhou Xin turned to look at Zhou Ang and gave him a questioning look.

Zhou Ang understood what his brother meant, which was that he should seize the opportunity and show his talents in front of Yan Yi.

He first nodded slightly to Zhou Xin, then slowly stood up under everyone's gaze.

(End of this chapter)