Ji Han Liu Zhang

Shu army camp.

Gan Ning clapped his hands and sighed, "Jia Wenhe is indeed a man of both good and bad qualities."

Lou Fa nodded in agreement. He was now impressed by the strategist Jia Xu who had just joined his army. Just as Gan Ning had said, Jia Xu possessed the same extraordinary talent and strategy as Zhang Liang, Chen Ping and other wise men.

There was no other reason, it was because the Liangzhou captives released this morning, just as Jia Xu had inferred, rushed to Chang'an as soon as they were released, but when they arrived at the gate of Chang'an, the city refused to let them in. Instead, arrows were shot from the top of the city walls at those Liangzhou captives who intended to re-enter Chang'an and serve under Li Jue and Guo Si.

This group of captives from Liang Province were like chess pieces being played by Jia Xu. Every step they took fell into the grid pre-determined by Jia Xu. They had no control over their own destiny and could only let Jia Xu manipulate them.

Now, these Liangzhou captives were met with the cold shoulder of Li Jue and Guo Si. They were not allowed to enter Chang'an City, and were unwilling to return to Liangzhou. They were hesitant and full of resentment towards Li Jue and Guo Si for ordering people to shoot them.

Therefore, some of the Liangzhou captives who escaped from the rain of arrows on the top of Chang'an City returned to the Shu army camp, knelt down at the camp gate, and shouted slogans of obedience.

"We are willing to serve you and fight for our country."

"I wish to surrender to Liu Yizhou and kill the two thieves Li Jue and Guo Si."

The captives from Liang Province were filled with resentment towards Li Jue and Guo Si, but were even more grateful for Liu Zhang's generosity, so they changed their minds and asked Liu Zhang to submit to them, hoping to abandon their evil ways and join the good path.

"Open the camp gate and let them in." Gan Ning gave an order and instructed his captain Gan Jiu: "Set up another camp to house them. Don't let them stay together. Don't give them the opportunity to rebel."

Although these Liangzhou soldiers kept saying they would surrender, now was the time for his wise lord to fight Li Jue and Guo Si to the death. He had to be careful and not give Li Jue and Guo Si any chance to take advantage of him.

"Yes." Gan Jiu nodded in agreement. He led more than a hundred elite soldiers, led the soldiers from Liangzhou who had returned to surrender, and placed them in another camp, and had them guarded by careful people.

When Wen Pin saw Gan Jiu escorting the Liangzhou soldiers away, he smiled and said, "Li Jue and Guo Si didn't even dare to let their own soldiers into the city. It shows that Li Jue and Guo Si have lost their courage and will. At this time, they are suspicious of everything, and those who are too suspicious will surely fail."

"Li Jue and Guo Si are forced by you, my Lord. The vast Guanzhong area is now left with only one isolated city. If we lose Chang'an, Li Jue and Guo Si will be like lambs, at your mercy... At this moment, no matter who they are, as long as they are related to the survival of Chang'an City, Li Jue and Guo Si will naturally have to deal with them with caution. They would rather kill someone by mistake than let him go." Gan Ning looked relaxed, and he said in a brisk tone.

Lou Fa was always cautious. He said calmly, "Even so, we still need to be careful. Li Jue and Guo Si are like two wild beasts. Now that the two beasts have been forced into a desperate situation, there is no guarantee that they will fight like trapped beasts and end up in a situation where both sides suffer losses."

Wen Pin nodded: "The heads of Li Jue and Guo Si are already in our pockets, but when we behead them, we still need to be careful of being bitten by them."

After the dust settled on the matter of the captives returning from Liang Province, Gan Ning began to make arrangements for today's battle. Today he needed to capture the enemy camp outside Chang'an City, eliminate the peripheral forces of Li Jue and Guo Si, compress the sphere of influence of Li Jue and Guo Si, and put more pressure on Li Jue and Guo Si.

This was a plan Liu Zhang made after discussing with Xun You and Jia Xu. The troops stationed outside the city by Li Jue and Guo Si would cooperate with those in Chang'an City from afar, forming a pincer attack. If he did not eliminate the spies planted outside the city by Li Jue and Guo Si, he would not be able to attack the city. He needed to send a force to keep an eye on the troops stationed outside the city by Li Jue and Guo Si.

The order has been given and the matter is to be carried out.

Here, Gan Ning, Lou Fa, Wen Pin, and the thunder captain Yin Pu, who came as a reinforcement, led their troops to the camp of Li Jue and Guo Si outside the city. According to spies, the garrison outside the city was not Li Jue and Guo Si's direct subordinates, but Li Kan, a general from Guanzhong who led his troops to assist Li Jue and Guo Si.

Li Kan was standing behind the camp gate at this time, secretly groaning in his heart. He saw the Shu army surrounding him from all sides, as if a mountain was pressing down on his head, and he knew that he would be in great danger today. He hurriedly called on his soldiers to light a smoke signal for help to inform Li Jue and Guo Si in Chang'an City, asking Li Jue and Guo Si to quickly lead their troops to rescue him.

However, Liu Zhang's side had already responded to Li Kan's idea. Gan Ning served as the main attacker to attack Li Kan's camp, while Liu Zhang personally led the army to form a battle array outside Chang'an City, blocking the way for Li Jue and Guo Si to leave the city to rescue Li Kan, so that Gan Ning did not have to worry about the rear and could attack Li Kan's camp with peace of mind.

"Lord Yin, we're in trouble." Gan Ning said to the Thunderbolt Captain Yin Pu.

Yin Pu smiled and said modestly, "It's no trouble at all. This is what I should do... General Zhonglang, just wait and see. I will break down Li Kan's camp gate right away."

Facing Gan Ning, who was highly valued by Liu Zhang, although Yin Pu was originally from the Yin family of Nanyang and had a little reputation in the army, he did not dare to easily accept Gan Ning's flattery, but just pretended to be a good gentleman and talked to Gan Ning.

Without saying much, after a few words between Yin Pu and Gan Ning, he immediately commanded his Thunderbolt Hands. 'Thunderbolt Hands' - this was the title given by his master to the soldiers who operated the Thunderbolt Chariots, a resounding title.

Not long after, Li Kan saw the weapons used for siege yesterday placed at the gate of his camp, one hundred and twenty steps away from the gate, which was out of reach of his archers. Of course, he could open the gate and charge forward, but he didn't have the courage.

Li Kan felt a little regretful. He had stationed his troops outside Chang'an City, forming a pincer attack with the city. Yesterday when the Shu army attacked Chang'an City, he should have led his troops out of the camp to harass the flank or rear of the Shu army. Who knows, that would have given Li Jue and Guo Si a chance to rush out of the city and burn the flying stone carts of the Shu army.

However, Li Kan wanted to sit back and wait and see, and did not want to lose his soldiers. In addition, more than a thousand Shu knights had been hanging outside his camp gate yesterday, so he simply closed the camp gate and acted like he was sitting on the mountain watching the fight between tigers.

However, Li Kan never expected that the flying stone cart used to attack the city yesterday would be used on him today.

"It's bitter." Li Kan secretly groaned. Although they were far away from each other yesterday, he had a sharp eye and saw the power of the Shu army's flying stone carts. The flying stones flew 150 steps and hit the top of Chang'an City. The power was undiminished, just like thunder rolling across the sky.

"Hold the gate, hold it with wood." Although Li Kan was complaining in his heart, he was busy all the time. He didn't want to go to war, he just wanted to hold the camp and wait for Li Jue, Guo Si, and his friends Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Liang Xing and others in Chang'an to come to rescue him. So when facing the powerful flying stone carts, he ordered his soldiers to use wooden pillars to hold the gate, making a fixed posture to prevent the gate from being worn or even broken by the flying stones thrown by the Shu army.

After completing the preparations for defense, Li Kan looked forward to the city of Chang'an, hoping that reinforcements would arrive quickly to harass the Shu army's rear so that he could cooperate internally and externally to defeat the Shu army that came to attack the camp.

Li Kan was ready for defense, and the Thunderbolt men under Yin Pu were also prepared accordingly. The twenty Thunderbolt chariots were divided into two rows. The boulders loaded on the front row were larger, like a millstone, while the boulders loaded on the back row were smaller, but more in number.

Yin Pu made a plan. The Thunderbolt chariots in the front row were used to concentrate fire on the gate of the enemy camp, and the Thunderbolt chariots in the back row were used to disperse the offensive and kill the defending enemy troops.

When everything was ready, Yin Pu waved his hand and gave the order to start the attack. As Yin Pu's order was conveyed, the Thunderbolt men opened the triggering device of the Thunderbolt Chariot. In an instant, the tail end of the Thunderbolt Chariot lifted up, and a series of exciting sounds like thunder rang out.

"Bang, bang, bang..." The sounds of dozens of Thunderbolt cars firing mixed together and fell into Li Kan's ears, causing Li Kan's body to tremble.

But what made Li Kan even more panicked were the black spots that filled his eyes. Those black spots were clearly huge rocks shot from the stone carts. These black spots gradually grew larger and in a moment, landed on the gate of his village.

The sturdy village gate was hit by flying stones as big as millstones and began to sway like ripe fruits on tree branches. Li Kan's body swayed slightly along with the village gate. He stared at the shaking village gate without blinking, worried that it would not be able to withstand the impact and fall down.

Fortunately, the reinforced gate of the village stabilized after shaking a few times. Li Kan's heart was finally at ease and he breathed a sigh of relief.

However, the gate of the village was stabilized, but the debris shot from the Shu army's stone carts hit many of his soldiers. The stones flying with huge potential energy would inevitably cause fractures and bleeding when they hit people. Some extremely unfortunate soldiers were hit on the head by the flying stones. Without even uttering a moan, they fell to the ground and were unable to get up again.

In this situation, the soldiers under Li Kan's command were driven by their inner fear and moved backwards, gradually moving away from the village gate. They did not dare to approach the village gate for defense, for fear that they would become the next beneficiaries.

At this time, the Thunderbolt Soldiers under Yin Pu started the second round of offensive. As technical soldiers, these Thunderbolt Soldiers were treated much better than ordinary soldiers on weekdays. Therefore, they had more training sessions than ordinary soldiers and were familiar with the operation of the Thunderbolt Chariot.

Soon, the thunder warriors under Yin Pu's command fired a second round of flying stones.

The third round...

Round 4…

Round after round of attacks fell on the enemy camp like waves crashing against the shore.

"Where are the reinforcements? Why haven't they arrived yet? Where is the promised pincer attack?" Li Kan looked at the crumbling gate of the village, with a look of wanting to cry but not being able to. If the reinforcements didn't arrive soon, his gate would be breached by the Shu army, and he would become a prisoner of the Shu army.

But Li Kan was thinking about the reinforcements, and wanted Li Jue and Guo Si to lead troops out of the city to rescue him. However, Li Jue and Guo Si were standing calmly on the top of Chang'an City, without any anxious look on their faces, just quietly watching the situation of Li Kan's camp being attacked.

"General Li, the situation in the camp outside the city is critical right now. Please send troops to rescue as soon as possible." Li Kan's friend Hou Xuan could no longer sit still, so he spoke up to ask for orders.

"General Hou is right. The camp outside the city forms a pincer attack with Chang'an City. Now is the time to attack the Shu army from both sides and implement the pincer attack strategy." Cheng Yin, who had a good relationship with Li Kan, said this and analyzed the situation.

Liang Xing followed up on Cheng Yin's words and added: "If the camp outside the city is breached, our army will only be left with the isolated city of Chang'an, and the situation will be extremely critical."

Several people were talking, all with one purpose, which was to ask Li Jue and Guo Si to send troops to rescue Li Kan outside the city. They did this out of friendship with Li Kan and consideration of the situation. After all, if Li Kan's camp outside the city was broken, it would not be a good thing for them, as they would have to guard the isolated city.

Everyone was extremely anxious, but Li Jue had a cheerful smile on his face. He comforted them, "The camp outside the city is solid and safe, and General Li Kan is even more brave. The Shu army will not be able to capture the camp outside the city in a short time. Generals, please be patient and wait until the Shu army is exhausted. Then we will lead the army to attack and achieve complete success."

"Zhiran is right. If we charge out now, the Shu army will be full of morale and we will have to fight hard. But if we wait for a while, the Shu army's morale will disappear. At that time, it will be like a tiger driving sheep, and a great victory is in sight." Guo Si responded.

Although Guo Si said this, he did not think so in his heart. What he wanted was to make Li Kan suffer. After all, when the Shu army attacked the city yesterday, Li Kan did not even lead his troops out of the camp to intimidate the Shu army's flank. Therefore, he was a little resentful towards Li Kan.

After hearing what Li Jue and Guo Si said, Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Liang Xing and others looked at each other. After exchanging glances, Hou Xuan stepped forward and said, "Although the camp outside the city is strong, the Shu army has powerful weapons such as flying stone carts. I am afraid that Li Kan will find it difficult to deal with it. It is better to rescue him as soon as possible."

"General Hou, how come you don't even believe in Li Kan's ability as a general? If Li Kan hears what you said, he will probably say that you underestimate him.... Attacking a city and capturing a stronghold is a time-consuming task. I think we should wait another three to five hours, and then lead the troops out of the city." Guo Si shook his head and teased. From his words, he showed that he was unwilling to lead the troops to rescue Li Kan now.

Li Jue glared at Guo Si nonchalantly. At this time he needed to build good relationships with Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Liang Xing and other generals in Guanzhong, and work together to fight against Liu Zhang. He had to be careful in his words and should not be as frivolous and indifferent as Guo Si.

Li Jue came forward and comforted the impatient Hou Xuan, saying, "General Hou, wait for another half an incense stick of time. By then, the Shu army's fighting spirit will have died down a bit. We will go out together to rescue Li Kan and kill some of the discouraged Shu soldiers at the same time... It is somewhat disadvantageous to go out at this time."

Hou Xuan nodded. Li Jue's words made sense, so he had no choice but to agree. (End of this chapter)