Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1174 Siege
Liu Bei led his troops westward, trudging for many days on extremely difficult mountain roads before finally arriving in Yiling. He then hid in the nearby dense forests for three days.

During these three days, a spy came to report that Yiling City had sent a fleet to support Jiangling. Liu Bei was overjoyed when he heard this and was about to send troops to attack Yiling, but was persuaded by Pang Tong.

Pang Tong said, "It is true that Yiling did send reinforcements, but it is hard to say whether it notified other surrounding cities."

"If the lord is in the city at this time, and other reinforcements pass by and outflank the lord, then the surprise attack on Jiangling will surely fail."

"If the enemy has reinforcements coming later, it is best to let them go and give priority to attacking the city."

"Even if there are no reinforcements, the defenders in Yiling City are still in an extremely alert state, so it's not easy to attack."

"So I suggest waiting and watching. After making sure there are no follow-up reinforcements, we can take advantage of the defenders' complacency and launch a surprise attack on the city to capture it in one fell swoop."

Liu Bei listened, thought for a moment, and said: "Military Advisor, what you said makes sense, but in this case, won't my second brother and the King of Jin have to face more reinforcements?"

"If they attack Jiangling, they will probably encounter the same dilemma that the military advisor mentioned. Wouldn't that mean we are harming them?"

Pang Tong waved his feather fan lightly, "Tong thought that they should be able to foresee this situation and prepare in advance."

"To lure the enemy into a feint attack, the priority is naturally to attract as many enemy troops as possible. Moreover, the reinforcements from Yiling were already expected. One force is also reinforcements, and ten forces are also reinforcements. They will not be surprised."

"The most critical point in this battle is Yiling. As long as we take Yiling, we can revitalize the entire situation. Otherwise, nothing can be done."

Liu Bei said, "That being said, we must still inform him. Send someone to deliver a letter to Boyan."

Pang Tong agreed immediately, and the letter was delivered to Lu Xun one day later.

At that time, the fleet led by Lu Xun took advantage of the opportunity to attack Wen Pin's fleet formation, broke through the defense line, and then fled all the way. Wen Pin naturally would not let Lu Xun go, and immediately led his troops to chase him.

After the two sides fought several times, Lu Xun pretended to be defeated, abandoned his boat and went ashore from the south bank of the river, and fled into the dense forest. Wen Pin rushed to the shore and found that Lu Xun led his troops to flee to the east. Only then did he feel relieved and turned back to support Jiangling.

However, Lu Xun made a circle in the forest and followed Liu Bei's army, also heading towards Yiling.

Now he was camping in the mountains dozens of miles away from Liu Bei, with the two sides supporting each other, waiting for an opportunity to raid Yiling. At this time, Lu Xun received the letter from Liu Bei. After reading a few sentences, he knew it was Pang Tong's plan.

In fact, Lu Xun didn't quite agree with Pang Tong's idea. Lu Xun had always been a warrior of speed in all the wars he had fought in recent years. Now that he was lurking next to the city, he should have broken through the city with lightning speed. Otherwise, who knows if the other side would send spies to search? If he was exposed, wouldn't his lurking be meaningless?
Another reason why Lu Xun disagreed with this strategy was that this approach was equivalent to placing the success or failure of the entire battlefield on the gain or loss of Yiling. But if Yiling could not be taken, would there be any backup plans for the follow-up?

When Lu Xun thought of this, he immediately wrote a reply letter, stating his thoughts and suggesting that they attack the city as soon as possible. If they failed to take it, they could also delay the subsequent reinforcements. Once Yiling became a mess, Jiangling would certainly not be able to be defended, and they could just as well succeed by pushing forward from Jiangling to Yiling.

The next day, after Pang Tong received the letter, he immediately understood that this was a fundamental disagreement between the two men in their fighting methods, so he said to Liu Bei: "Although the Army Division has become famous at a young age, he is still a little impatient."

"This method is feasible, but it can easily turn into a large-scale battle with the enemy. What should I do, my lord?"

Liu Bei thought for a long time, then resolutely said: "Although Bo Yan and I are related, there is something he said that I agree with."

“When you’re waiting, there are too many variables.”

"So I decided to cross the river within three days and attack Yiling at night!"

"If the enemy has reinforcements, block them on the shore and prevent them from getting any reinforcements!"

Since Liu Bei had an idea, Pang Tong immediately obeyed his orders. He immediately ordered the soldiers to carry out the simple flying boat that had been prepared in advance. When the preparation time came, they crossed the river in the dark and arrived at the city of Yiling.

When Lu Xun heard about it, he also ordered his soldiers to cut down trees and build ships, because Yiling was on the north bank of the river and it was impossible to attack Yiling without ships.

This is also the reason why Liu Bei and Lu Xun chose to hide from the south bank, so as to paralyze the Yiling defenders to the greatest extent.

However, just as Lu Xun had guessed, an accident still happened. The Yiling defenders sent a team of scouts to investigate the surrounding enemy situation, and they happened to encounter Liu Bei's army.

Naturally, Liu Bei's army could not let them go, and after a round of pursuit and interception, they wiped out all the scouts.

However, the fact that the scouts failed to return on time indicated that they had encountered the enemy. Liu Bei had no choice but to launch the attack early and cross the river to attack Yiling that night.

This frightened Huo Jun, who was guarding Yiling. He thought the enemy had already occupied Jiangling and Maicheng in the east and were coming upstream, so he quickly mobilized soldiers to garrison on the city walls.

The two sides immediately launched a fierce attack and defense on the city wall. Because Liu Bei launched the attack hastily, Lu Xun did not have time to cross the river. Liu Bei's army was essentially attacking the city alone, and the number of casualties among the soldiers soon began to increase significantly.

Lu Xun had just received the letter, and he quickly summoned his soldiers to cross the river. At the same time, he secretly sighed that Liu Bei's army's reaction was not slow, but the timing was not good. They rushed to attack the city before the siege equipment was ready, which was also a big problem. He thought that this was the difference in experience. In Lu Xun's eyes, Pang Tong, as Liu Bei's military advisor, was not bad, and even had unique advantages compared to himself.

But Lu Xun believed that there was a key gap between Pang Tong and himself.

There is really too little experience in battle.

Pang Tong has been following Liu Bei since he came out of the mountains. Except for a few battles to defend the city, he spent most of his time being beaten by Liu Bei, which resulted in Pang Tong's relatively insufficient experience in siege.

But Lu Xun was different. He went into battle several years earlier than Pang Tong, and most of the time he was suppressing others, especially gaining a lot of experience in Jiangdong. Therefore, Lu Xun had precise calculations about the need for more soldiers and equipment to capture Yiling.

He suggested to Liu Bei that they fight quickly and decisively, not because Lu Xun liked taking risks, but because he had made plans in advance.

But Liu Bei's actions now seemed a little hasty. He started the war before Lu Xun's equipment was delivered to the city. Although the momentum seemed strong, it could not pose a big enough threat to the defenders of Yiling.

A slight mistake can lead to a huge error. If the offensive is not enough to threaten the defenders, the casualties of the attacking army will increase rapidly. Therefore, when Lu Xun led the vanguard troops to the city of Yiling, Liu Bei's army had already suffered heavy losses.

When Lu Xun saw this, he suggested that they take a short rest. Liu Bei saw that it was getting light and many soldiers were injured and could not go into battle, so he had to call back his troops and sent people to surround Yiling.

After dawn, Lu Xun's siege equipment had been transported here. He immediately ordered the catapults to be set up and to smash the top of the city wall for a whole day and night.

The effect was immediate. The defenders of Yiling were so badly beaten that they had to flee in all directions. Seeing this, Lu Xun desperately consumed his reserves, striving to completely destroy the defenders' confidence in the shortest possible time.

The power of Yuan Xi's army's new siege equipment could not be ignored. The defenders on the top of Yiling City were unable to raise their heads. When Lu Xun thought that it would be a good opportunity to attack the city after fighting for another day, he got news that another fleet had arrived from the west. They had a large number of people and were flying under the flag of Zhang's family in Jingzhou.

After Lu Xun and Pang Tong discussed it, they guessed that it was most likely Zhang Yun's navy that came. Zhang Yun was a naval commander as famous as Cai Mao. If he intervened in the battlefield, the situation would be bad!

When Liu Bei heard this, he was also worried. His camp was still on the south bank of the river. As long as Zhang Yun's fleet blocked the way on the river, he would be unable to advance or retreat. Seeing that the war was not going well, he began to think of retreating. But he understood that if he retreated, the siege of Yiling would be a complete failure!

He said to Pang Tong, "I didn't expect the fight to turn out like this. Now we are stuck in a dilemma. How do we choose?"

Pang Tong now understands that his lack of experience has led to many unsatisfactory performances, and he said: "I only talk about war on paper and miss the opportunity to fight."

"Although I have an idea in mind, I still need the cooperation of the Army Division. I can invite them to come and discuss it together."

After hearing what Pang Tong said, Lu Xun rushed over and said decisively: "We can't split our forces into two sides. We can only choose one side."

"If it were me, I would have all the soldiers in the main camp cross the river and besiege the city together."

"Because if we retreat to the south bank, it means that the siege of Yiling will fail completely. If we focus on attacking the north bank, we still have a chance."

Pang Tong said: "But if we fail to capture the city and the enemy blocks the shore, won't we be surrounded?"

Lu Xun said, "It is possible that we cannot take the city."

"At that time, the worst that could happen is that we would break up into smaller groups and retreat in different directions, just like the guerrilla warfare in Qingzhou back then."

Pang Tong listened to these unfamiliar terms and thought to himself that although the other party was younger than him, he had more experience in combat than him. In comparison, he was really embarrassing.

Thinking of this, he said decisively: "In this case, take the soldiers of the main camp across the river, and I will personally go into battle and attack Yiling with all my strength. I swear to take Yiling for my lord!"

Lu Xun said, "I will find a way to stop Zhang Yun. We can at least hold him off for three days. These three days are crucial. I will leave all the siege equipment here. I hope the king can succeed immediately!"

Seeing Lu Xun going away, Liu Bei was worried and said to Pang Tong: "Soldiers, can Boyan stop the navy with his infantry?"

Pang Tong shook his head. "I don't know either, but whether it's the siege equipment or tactics of the Jin army, there are things we can learn from them. I was too arrogant at first."

"In the next few days, Tong will definitely try every possible way to break the city for the king!"

In the next two days, Liu Bei's army attacked the city with all their might. Even Pang Tong went into battle in armor and was shot by stray arrows, but after a simple bandage, he continued to command the soldiers.

Under the intensive attack of siege weapons, the people in the city finally could not hold on. Seeing that the top of the city was in danger, Huo Jun climbed up to the top of the city to command personally when he saw the situation was not good.

(End of this chapter)