Chapter 188: Prior Deployment
Jin Xuan could not reply to Huang Zhong. His son had just gone to surrender to Cao Ren. If he surrendered to the Yuzhang Army now, what about his son?
Jin Xuan expressed his attitude with silence.
Pang Tong squinted and sized up Linyuan County. He had lived in Linyuan County for a few months many years ago. He was very familiar with Linyuan County. The city walls were low and the city dilapidated, not having been repaired for at least a hundred years. It still looked the same now.
Pang Tong summoned Zhao Yun and smiled at him, “Zi Long General, you can use the battering ram to directly strike the southwest section of the city wall!”
Zhao Yun asked puzzledly, “May I ask the strategist, why attack the southwest section?”
Pang Tong smiled faintly, “The city walls of Wuling County have not been repaired for nearly a hundred years and are already fragile. The southwest section is the most vulnerable. Those bricks can be crushed by hand. They collapse with one strike. More importantly, rolling logs and rubble cannot be piled on the city wall.”
At this point, Pang Tong looked at the sky again. It was already dusk. Pang Tong smiled, “Under the cover of night, General, use the ironclad soldiers to give it a try. Lord’s order: those who surrender will be spared, those who stubbornly resist will be killed without mercy!”
This is called know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Zhao Yun was overjoyed, “Subordinate will arrange it right away!”
Pang Tong had already figured out how to breach the city when he requested the order. He brought a heavy battering ram at the same time. This was not a battering ram temporarily made by chopping down a large tree, but one meticulously crafted over a year by the crossbow workshop. The base was a thousand-year-old qinggang wood, repeatedly soaked in oil and dried, with a pig iron ram fitted at the front. The entire battering ram was eight zhang long, with a chest diameter that required two men to encircle, weighing eight thousand five hundred jin, and requiring one hundred fifty men to operate.
The force of one strike reached tens of thousands of jin. Not to mention the already decayed city wall—even a newly built one could not withstand its power.
The Yuzhang Army had rich experience using battering rams to attack cities multiple times. They used ironclad soldiers to operate them. The advantage was that they did not fear arrows, but they still could not defend against rolling logs and rubble from above, or incendiary bottles.
Pang Tong had also considered this problem. Rolling logs and rubble were not an issue; they dared not pile them on the city wall. But he had to guard against incendiary bottles.
At the first watch, Zhao Yun led fifteen thousand troops ambushed one li outside the city. The night was quite dark; one li away was already invisible.
What Pang Tong was counting on was a time difference. The Yuzhang Army’s main force was stationed outside East City. The fire oil camp soldiers on night duty must be defending East City. Once something happened at the southwest city wall, it would take the fire oil army some time to rush to the southwest city wall. That was the time Pang Tong wanted.
Of course, this also benefited from prior intelligence gathering, letting Pang Tong know that Jin Xuan’s army did not equip every soldier with fire oil bottles. Instead, they established a fire oil camp with five hundred soldiers. With such few numbers, even fewer on night duty, they were certainly prioritized for deployment in East City facing the enemy army barracks. The possibility of splitting some to defend West City was too small.
Over a dozen soldiers quietly advanced and laid wooden planks over the three-zhang-wide moat, with three large nails at each end of the planks to be inserted into the soil on both sides of the moat.
Just as the soldiers were installing the bridge planks, they were still spotted by patrolling soldiers on the city wall. The soldiers shouted loudly, “Enemy situation! Enemy situation!”
“Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!” The alarm bells on the West City tower rang urgently, followed immediately by alarm bells ringing throughout the city.
Hundreds of soldiers garrisoned in West City immediately rushed to the scene, drew their bows and nocked arrows together, shooting at the ironclad soldiers who appeared at the moat’s edge carrying the battering ram. The arrows hit the iron armor but fell to the ground one after another, unable to penetrate the soldiers’ iron armor at all.
Iron armor is a symbol of national strength. Each suit requires hundreds of guan qian and massive artisan energy. Hundreds of suits of iron armor are absolutely beyond what any small vassal lord can afford. Like Jin Xuan, only he himself and his commandant and above great generals had the strength to wear armor.
Knives cannot hack through it, spears cannot pierce it, ordinary bolts are even more helpless against it. Only heavy crossbows can penetrate iron armor at short range.
Guards deployed on other city walls rushed toward West City wall one after another, but it was already too late. The heavy battering ram gathered tens of thousands of jin of force and smashed ruthlessly into the decayed city wall. “Dong—” a muffled roar, and thousands of wall bricks turned to powder. The city wall collapsed like dominoes. Hundreds of soldiers on the city wall could not escape and were trapped in the collapsing wall, a chorus of wails.
At the same time the alarm bells rang on the city wall, Zhao Yun had already led his army rushing toward the city wall. Now he could see clearly that the city wall had collapsed. Zhao Yun shouted loudly, “Charge into the city!”
Fifteen thousand Yuzhang Army soldiers shouted as they charged into the city.
Jin Xuan rode his horse leading several thousand soldiers toward West City, happening to run head-on into Zhao Yun and his army. Jin Xuan swung his blade and shouted, “Thieves, take my blade!”
He swung his blade down, but while the blade was still in mid-air, his body had already gone rigid and still. Zhao Yun’s spear technique had only one characteristic: speed, speed beyond the ordinary. The sharp spear tip pierced Jin Xuan’s throat. All his strength vanished instantly. “Putong!” He toppled from his horse.
Life faded from his eyes. By the time he hit the ground, he was already a corpse.
Zhao Yun shouted loudly, “Those who surrender will be spared, those who stubbornly resist will be killed without mercy!”
Fifteen thousand troops shouted as they charged toward several thousand enemy soldiers. Seeing their lord dead, the soldiers had no will to fight and scattered in all directions. Those who could not surrender in time could only kneel and surrender, begging bitterly for their lives.
……..
With Linyuan County taken, basically the entire Wuling Commandery was taken by the Yuzhang Army. The rest could only
Pang Tong again divided the troops into nine routes to capture the various county towns. Pang Tong himself stationed in Linyuan County waiting for news from everywhere. Ten days later, Shi Tao and Lou Fa led three thousand troops to arrive at Linyuan County. Shi Tao was appointed by Gan Ning as Prefect of Wuling Commandery, while Lou Fa was appointed Colonel of Wuling Commandery, leading six thousand troops to garrison Wuling Commandery.
At this time, the nine detachments also returned one after another. Each county surrendered without a fight. Pang Tong handed over power to Shi Tao, then led the army away from Wuling Commandery toward Changsha Commandery. His next mission target was Lingling Commandery.
……..
Gan Ning had always been paying attention to developments in Nan Commandery. He soon received news that Cao Ren was fully attacking Yiling, but unexpectedly their logistics grain was burned by Liu Bei’s army. Cao Ren had no choice but to withdraw from Yiling County.
Cao Ren ordered Zhang Yun as commander of Jiangling and also shipbuilding commissioner, leading twenty thousand troops to build military ships in Jiangling with full effort. Only then did Cao Ren lead over one hundred thousand troops back to Xiangyang.
Gan Ning was reviewing documents in the official residence when Ma Liang said at the door, “General, Master Craftsman Lin is here!”
“Invite him in.
Shortly after, a tall, thin middle-aged man walked in. He was Lin Jia, a famous shipbuilding artisan in Changsha Commandery, currently one of the Yuzhang Army’s supervising shipbuilders.
“Subordinate pays respects to General!”
Gan Ning put down his brush and smiled, “Please sit!”
Lin Jia sat down. Gan Ning said, “I called you here this time for an important mission!”
“Please give your orders, General!”
“No need to be so tense. It’s not anything too difficult.”
Gan Ning pondered for a moment and said, “Zhang Yun has been appointed shipbuilding commissioner, responsible for building military ships in Jiangling. Their technical artisans must be very lacking. I want you to go to Jiangling and apply for shipbuilding.”
Lin Jia’s mind stirred, and he immediately understood, “General wants me to go undercover?”
Gan Ning nodded, “I want to know their shipbuilding progress. Take a few apprentices with you, then report orally once every month. Jiangling Commandery has our intelligence point; just tell the intelligence point directly. This infiltration is estimated to take one to two years. When you complete the mission, I will promote you to chief shipbuilding supervisor.”
Lin Jia prostrated himself in salute, “Subordinate will certainly not fail General’s heavy trust!”
