Chapter 234: Battle Of Wangmei
Bu Zhi led Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci’s army of thirty thousand soldiers and more than two hundred artisans southward. Under the guide’s lead, they had already entered the Jiaozhi Valley Pass.
The Jiaozhi Valley Pass is today’s Friendship Pass, but it has not yet formed a pass; it is just a valley path between two large mountains. This is the necessary route for Jiaozhi to and from the Central Plains. The valley path inside is relatively flat and wide, and the road is easy to travel.
The weather was very hot, but the Western Chu Army had already stayed in Jiaozhou for nearly two months and had gradually adapted to the climate here. Plus, every soldier was equipped with a cloth pouch to ward off poisonous insects, which emitted a smell that poisonous insects and mosquitoes disliked, so they were basically not harassed by poisonous insects and mosquitoes.
The general walking at the very front was named Zhou Guang, an extremely experienced Scout Commandant. He was Zhao Yun’s subordinate. As early as the Gongsun Zan era, he was the most outstanding Scout Tooth General under Gongsun Zan. Later, he followed Zhao Yun southward and finally pledged loyalty to Gan Ning. He performed remarkable feats many times in the attack on Jiangxia Commandery and was promoted to Commandant.
Zhou Guang was about thirty years old, tall and thin, with outstanding archery skills. He was a very calm and wise Scout general, and Gan Ning valued him highly.
Zhou Guang led five hundred soldiers as the vanguard, scouting the safety along the way to prevent ambushes by the enemy army.
Zhou Guang was very experienced. He knew that many times there were no ambush soldiers when he passed through, but after he left, the ambush soldiers would quietly appear.
To deal with this situation, there were two methods: one was to send troops to double back and strike, and the second was to travel a distance and then hide two scouts to surveil whether enemy troops would quietly appear.
However, the road had been relatively safe all along. At noon this day, they were less than a hundred li from Wangmei County.
Zhou Guang began to heighten his vigilance; this was the time most prone to encountering ambush soldiers.
Soon, a subordinate came to report that there was a valley ahead, about seven or eight li long, with bushes and waist-high weeds growing thickly on both sides.
Although no enemy army was seen, Zhou Guang had a Scout’s unique intuition that enemy army soldiers were definitely ambushed on the hillsides on both sides.
He did not act but sent someone back to report. Not long after, a subordinate ran back and said, “Sima Bu agrees with the Commandant’s plan!”
Zhou Guang immediately ordered, “Throw fire oil bottles and ignite!”
The soldiers quickly threw more than a hundred fire oil bottles onto the hillside. The bushes and weeds were immediately ignited, and the fire burned fiercely. Hundreds of soldiers ambushed on both sides of the hillside climbed up and fled, but many soldiers could not escape in time and were surrounded by the fierce fire, burned to death in despair.
Soon, the main army arrived at the valley mouth. The fires were still burning on both sides of the valley, igniting the pine forest on the mountaintop as well.
The fire burned for more than one hour before slowly extinguishing. The Jiaozhi Army had ambushed a thousand soldiers here, but unexpectedly, a fire burned over three hundred to death. The remaining more than six hundred fled in panic. They had not even seen the enemy army’s faces and had already taken a blow to the head.
Shi Zhi became somewhat fearful and did not dare to harass the main force army anymore. Instead, he decided to follow the original plan and raid the logistics supply teams.
Without harassment, the main force army proceeded smoothly southward and arrived at Wangmei County the next morning.
Bu Zhi gazed at the county town several li away. He smiled to Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci and said, “I thought it was such a tall and sturdy city, but it’s really nothing special.”
Zhao Yun also smiled and said, “Perhaps compared to the other county towns of the Three Commanderies of Jiaozhi, this is already quite tall.”
The city walls were about two zhang five chi high, and the moat was about two zhang wide. Compared to the grand passes and key points of the Central Plains, Wangmei County was indeed not worth mentioning, equivalent only to the defense level of a medium county town.
However, there were clearly a large number of catapults on the city wall, so preparations needed to be made for that.
Bu Zhi immediately ordered the soldiers to go around and fell a large number of trees, mainly selecting straight and tall pine trees.
Soon, the soldiers felled thousands of tall, straight trees and dragged them back. Two hundred artisans began working busily to manufacture some simple and effective siege weapons.
First were the rafts, that is, twenty large trees bound tightly together. Pine trees are straight and long, each four or five zhang tall. Retaining their branches and bundling them densely created temporary rafts, which could serve as pontoon bridges to cross the moat. After nailing small logs on top, they became very powerful siege weapons: raft ladders.
However, the raft ladders had no barbs and could not hook onto the city wall. The only way was to make them as large as possible, immensely heavy so that the soldiers on the city wall could not push them. Anyway, there was enough wood, so the artisans made them as large as possible, finally creating ten massive monsters.
Each raft ladder was about six zhang high, four zhang wide, and seven chi thick, weighing several thousand jin, requiring two hundred soldiers to carry and run with it.
It could help the Western Chu Army rush across the moat. Two hundred Western Chu soldiers carrying one raft could also resist the Jiaozhi Army’s arrows and bed crossbows.
Next were the shields, essentially giant shields simply made of wood, carried and run with by more than ten soldiers. This was originally used by Central Plains armies to defend against arrows and catapults, and now the Western Chu Army also used it to defend against fire attacks.
The so-called shield was a frame made of thick wood, covered with several layers of cowhide. The cowhide was coated with thick oil, making it extremely slippery, and it had a certain angle. When a boulder hit the cowhide, it was easily deflected. Although not every boulder could be defended against, at least sixty percent of flying boulders could be blocked.
But now there was no cowhide, so the artisans directly used thick vines to cover the surface, which had some elasticity.
Two days later, at dawn, the Western Chu Army launched the offensive.
Amid thunderous shouts, twenty thousand Western Chu troops advanced toward Wangmei City like an avalanche and tsunami, with more than ten large raft ladders and hundreds of shields among the crowd.
In the war drum sounds, twenty thousand Western Chu troops attacked. The vast army converged into a spectacular black tide surging toward the city.
On the city wall, the Jiaozhi Army was already prepared. Fifty medium catapults on each of the east and west sides creaked open, with a thirty-jin large stone placed in each leather pouch. Each catapult required only twenty men to pull, operated by two thousand Jiaozhi troops.
The Western Chu Army drew closer and closer, entering the three hundred pace line. However, Wangmei City’s catapults were slightly small, with a range of only one hundred fifty to two hundred paces. The Jiaozhi Great General commanding the catapults was named Shi Kuang, son of the Commander Shi Wu.
Shi Kuang watched the Western Chu Army’s offensive wave approach the city step by step. The vanguard had reached three hundred paces, entering the range of the heavy crossbows’ lethality. Shi Kuang gave the order, “Heavy crossbows, fire!”
The Jiaozhi Army’s heavy crossbows instantly fired, two thousand four-chi-long hard arrows shooting together at the Western Chu Army. The Western Chu Army’s shields were hit by the heavy crossbow bolts with popping sounds.
Dozens of Western Chu Army soldiers had their legs shot, screaming and falling. The strong urge to fire the catapults tempted Shi Kuang, but he kept his red flag from waving down. Without the red flag waving, the Jiaozhi Army command hands did not dare to issue the launch orders.
At two hundred paces, the Western Chu Army finally entered the catapults’ range. Shi Kuang finally waved down his red flag. “Fire!” Twenty Jiaozhi Army command hands shouted hoarsely almost simultaneously.
