Shu Han Confucian General of the Three Kingdoms

164 Psychological Tactics
"General, Sun Jiao is in Poyang City, not in the water village." In the evening, after setting up camp twenty miles east of Poyang City, the scouts sent out came back to report.

"Since this is the case, we must break Poyang City as soon as possible. If Sun Jiao can be captured alive, the event will be settled!" Zhao Feng said to Pang Tong.Pang Tong nodded and thought for a while, then Pang Tong suddenly smiled: "General, if everything goes well, Jiangdong may not have been captured years ago."

"Why did Shi Yuan say that?" Zhao Feng felt that Pang Tong was a little dazzled by the victory again, and he was afraid that he would repeat his old habit of underestimating the enemy.

Seemingly guessing what Zhao Feng was worried about, Pang Tong smiled slightly and said, "According to what we saw and heard in Xindu County the day before yesterday, the Sun family reoccupied Jiangdong, but the hearts of the people have not returned. Most of the troops in its garrison are recruited by us in the past. The sergeants were reorganized. Such an army is self-sufficient on weekdays. Once a battle starts, it is easy to lose the morale of the army. In the battle of defending the city, the most feared is the instability of the people. After we take Poyang, the defenders of Wujun and Kuaiji must be scared , if it can be done in one go, it may not be impossible to solve it quickly."

"It's good to be fast, but it's better to be safe." Zhao Feng has always been more inclined to take the safe route. Seeing that Pang Tong felt a little too good, he quickly pointed out.Pang Tong repeatedly nodded and agreed not to mention it, and Zhao Feng then ordered the army to rest for the night and attack the city again the next day.

While Zhao Feng's army was soundly asleep, Sun Jiao in Poyang City couldn't sleep all night. "Ah!" After a long sigh, Sun Jiao put on a coat, walked out of his room and went to the yard to get some air.Looking at the half-circle moon in the sky, Sun Jiao wondered whether he would see the moon tomorrow or not.

Zhao Feng's army came, without any cover, they just came to Poyang city with such a big fanfare, it was clear that they were bullying you for lack of troops.Sun Jiao also knew his own affairs, he had only thousands of defenders under his command, half of them were just recruited soldiers from the county, and they had been trained for less than three months, relying on them to resist Zhao Feng's tens of thousands of elite soldiers, Sun Jiao You can figure out with your toes what the result will be.

In fact, at this point in the matter, Sun Jiao already had an ominous premonition in his heart, feeling that Sun's rebellion this time would most likely not be acceptable.But now there is no turning back. From the moment I hijacked Zhang Zhao, it means that I can't stay out of it like Sun Fu. I can only connect the fate of the entire Sun family with my own.

"Husband, the weather is very cold, be careful of the cold!" A cloak was draped over the back of Sun Jiao who was in a trance. Sun Jiao turned around and saw that it was his newlywed wife Xu.Looking at the beautiful wife in front of him, Sun Jiao's restless mood also eased a little.The couple were very affectionate after marriage, but unfortunately now that they are facing a catastrophe, they may only be able to be a couple for less than a year.

No matter how melancholy Sun Jiao is, this night will eventually pass.In the early morning of the next day, Zhao Feng's army, Shi Shiran, set up a formation outside the city and prepared to attack the city.Nearly [-] latest trebuchets were set up [-] steps away from the city wall of Poyang.But what is strange is that the soldiers in charge of manipulating the trebuchet did not load the stone bombs, but shoveled soil blocks to fill them in place.

"My lord, what are they doing?" A school lieutenant beside Sun Jiao asked in surprise.The trebuchet is no longer a secret that no one knows. Everyone knows that Liu Bei has a trebuchet and Cao Cao has a thunderbolt chariot.But I have never seen anyone put soil into the trebuchet for throwing. After all, even if the soil is thrown on the top of the city, at best it will make the enemy army look ashamed, and it is not easy to smash their heads.

"I don't know, but Zhao Botao is good at using soldiers, we still need to be careful." Sun Jiao also had no idea, so he could only take a step and watch.I don't know if it was luck or misfortune, Zhao Feng didn't make him wait too long.Two hundred trebuchets threw the rammed soil, and the target was not the defenders on the top of the city, but the moat below the city.

The sound of "plop" sounded continuously, and the 200 yuan clod was thrown into the river, and then the next round continued.After two or three rounds, Sun Jiao understood what Zhao Feng wanted to do: "He wants to use the trebuchet to fill the moat?" Sun Jiao really laughed angrily.Although the speed of doing so will be slower, the defenders will not be able to interfere with their behavior in any way, so unless something happens to them, the siege troops will not cause any casualties during the entire river filling process.

"General, you are truly amazing!" Pang Tong was also very surprised to see Zhao Feng resorting to such methods. "Ashamed, it's better to kill less people in war." Zhao Feng laughed.Zhao Feng really can't accept that tens of thousands of people will die if they fill up the moat.

"But I think the general's purpose is not only to reduce casualties, right?" Pang Tong said meaningfully.

"I knew I couldn't hide it from you, Shi Yuan. That's right, I did have other intentions." Zhao Feng said with a smile, without denying it.

"What's the general's intention?" Gao Lan on the side couldn't help but wondered when he heard this.Zhao Feng pointed to the helpless defenders on the top of the city, and said to Gao Lan: "Look, General Gao, most of these defenders are recruits. I filled the river with such fanfare, but they have no way to fight back at all. Just watch us fill the river. This will deal a huge blow to their morale. Once the morale of these recruits is low, their combat effectiveness will be nothing to fear!"

Zhao Feng's move was actually a psychological warfare in a nutshell. Through the steady and long-lasting blow of the trebuchet, the defenders were frightened, which made the subsequent siege battle smoother.At least for now, the effect is not bad.

"Indeed!" Huang Zhong nodded in agreement when he heard the words, and everyone raised their eyes to look at the defenders on the top of the city. Many people have already started whispering and commotion.Although some small officers tried their best to restrain their subordinates, the effect was not very good, and the bewilderment on many people's faces was obvious.

Just filling the river leisurely and leisurely, in the afternoon, a large section of the moat was finally filled.During this period, except for the sergeant operating the trebuchet and the scouts scattered around just in case, the rest of the people were very leisurely, sitting on the ground in twos and threes and chatting, and some even urinated on the defenders on the top of the city, showing disdain It can be seen.

"My lord, these guys are so arrogant, I would like to lead a group of people to fight out of the city and destroy all the catapults!" A school captain was filled with righteous indignation, and finally couldn't hold back and challenged Sun Jiao.

"Lieutenant Li, don't act rashly. Zhao Botao has been prepared. If he sends troops, he will be ambushed!" Although Sun Jiao was also very anxious, he still tried his best to restrain him.

"But let them fill up the river so easily, the morale of the defenders is really a problem! General, you see that the enemy army is extremely slack now. I am willing to lead hundreds of dead soldiers out of the city, destroy all the catapults, and then Frustrate!" Li Xiaowei was obviously not reconciled to watching the other party fill the river like this, and continued to beg for his life.

"The opponent seems to be loose and tight now. Once we act rashly and go out of the city to meet the enemy, we will be immediately surrounded and wiped out. Lieutenant Li, we should stick to it!" Sun Jiao said solemnly.Captain Li knew that he had made up his mind, so he sighed and stopped talking.

"General, do you want to go to the city wall over there to fill the river again?" Seeing that this side of the city wall was almost filled, Gao Lan seemed to have more ideas, so he asked proactively.

"No need, pass down the order and prepare to attack the city!" Zhao Feng said suddenly.Gao Lan was a little surprised when he heard the words, but when he turned his head and looked at the defenders on the top of the city, their morale was indeed low and they were unwilling to fight.At that moment, Gao Lan sent two thousand elite soldiers to rush directly to the top of the city with ladders on their shoulders.The defenders didn't expect that the opponent suddenly stopped playing river filling and began to attack the city with real knives and guns. This time, they were in a hurry and threw the rolling logs, rocks, arrows and hot oil down.However, the strength and accuracy of the hastily shot arrows were greatly reduced; the hot oil that was originally boiling was now cold.Just relying on rolling wood and rocks, how effective can it be under the premise of long-range fire suppression by the Xuzhou Army?

Just as Zhao Feng expected, this defending army is now not even considered to be strong in the outside world.Under the premise that people's hearts are broken and morale is plummeting, their fighting power, which was not very useful in the first place, has to be discounted again now.As a result, Gao Lan's siege team only suffered hundreds of casualties, and the rest of the thousand people climbed to the top of the city and fought fiercely with the defenders.Then, Gong Du and Liu Pi also led more people to kill the city, and the pressure on the defenders was even greater.

"Dang!" With a sound, Sun Jiaoge slashed at Liu Pi's chest, but Gao Lan's sweeping legs couldn't dodge after all, and he was kicked to the ground. .

"The kid is good at martial arts, better than that Ma Zhong!" Gao Lan nodded.Although Sun Jiao was captured, he couldn't laugh or cry when he heard that Gao Lan actually compared his martial arts with Ma Zhong's two knives.

The city gate opened with a "creak", and Zhao Feng immediately led his army into Poyang City.Liu Bei ruled the army very strictly, and Poyang was also under his rule before, so there were not many unpleasant things happened after entering the city. On the contrary, the common people saw the Xuzhou army break through the city, and some people came to work spontaneously. "With such a heart, Sun Zhongmou will definitely lose this time!" Zhao Feng sighed.

"General, that Sun Jiao has been captured, and his family is under control. What are you going to do?" Gao Lan asked at this time.Before the battle, Zhao Feng had told them that it would be best to capture Sun Jiao alive.Although Gao Lan didn't understand why, he still did as he said.

"Prepare a quiet room for me, I have something to ask this kid." Zhao Feng ordered upon hearing this.Gao Lan nodded and said, "There's no other quiet room, just Sun Jiao's own home?"

"Okay!" Zhao Feng nodded in agreement.Since he didn't want to harass the residents, Zhao Feng naturally wouldn't expropriate the people's houses to interrogate Sun Jiao, so he simply did it in his house.

Now Zhao Feng brought Niu Jin and a hundred guards to Sun Jiao's residence.Sun Jiao's family members were already confined in the room and were not allowed to go out without authorization. Zhao Feng sat down in Sun Jiao's study by himself, and Sun Jiao, who was tied up, was brought to him not long after.

Looking at Sun Jiao who looked at death like home in front of him, Zhao Feng said slowly: "Sun Jiao, I have something to ask you, if you can answer it. Even if the lord wants to kill you in the future, I will give you a good time. Answer If you don’t come up, then I won’t be polite.”

(End of this chapter)