Gou writes entries in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 117 Attack on Jianye
Gu Ji got the answer he wanted and left Guangling with satisfaction.

After Gu Ji left, all the generals under Liu Xuan gathered together. Cheng Hu asked,
"Lord, do we really want to listen to Gu Ji's suggestion and attack Jianye immediately?"

"Why not?" Liu Xuan said with a smile, "Such a good opportunity is rare."

"Without the internal support of these aristocratic families, our army could still capture Jianye. Why would my lord allow them so many benefits?" Cheng Hu was obviously a little disgusted with Gu Ji's greed.

Liu Xuan was noncommittal.

"I believe that with the bravery of the Tiger Camp, it will not be a problem to enter Jianye, but attacking the city by force is a bad idea. Now that we have an insider to open the door, our brothers can avoid taking a lot of risks. Why not?"

"As for the benefits that Yun gave to the family," Liu Xuan said, his eyes turned cold.
"As long as they can catch it, I will never break my promise."

The decision has been made, Liu Xuan no longer hesitates,
"The generals listened to the order and immediately reorganized their troops and horses, stepped up the construction of siege equipment, and prepared to send troops to build Ye."

"Follow the order!"

. . .

Jianye Mansion is located at the intersection of Jiangshui River and Qinhuai River.
Connecting Ruxukou to the east and going downstream of the river is Qu'a.

The terrain here is gentle and the river is wide. It is an important road connecting Jiangdong and Jiangxi.

As the capital of Yangzhou, Jianye City is solid and has a huge area.

Sun Ce guarded Jianye with [-] soldiers, and the city walls did not feel crowded.

Starting from Qu'a, you can reach the east gate of Jianye within three days of rapid march.

The four walls of Ye were built, and the west side was adjacent to the river. It was not suitable for large armies to attack the city.

One day after Liu Xuan's army set off from Qu'a, Sun Ce got the news in Jianye.

"Liu Xuan, you are so deceptive. A mere 5 people dare to attack me and build Yefu. Do you really think that I have no one in Jiangdong? Who dares to fight with me out of the city and frustrate Liu Xuan's spirit?"

When Sun Ce heard the news of Qu'a's attack, he was furious.

He has always been warlike. He had already tolerated a lot by following Sun Quan's advice and holding on to Jianye.

I never expected that Liu Xuan would dare to continue sending troops less than a year after he captured Qu'a.

"Brother, please don't get angry yet," Sun Quan hurriedly stepped out to persuade him.

"Although Liu Xuan only has 5 men, he sent out all the elite troops this time. According to reports from scouts, the number of the Qianxian camp that previously captured Qu'a has increased to 3000 this time."

"And the Tiger Battalion, which my brother fought against in the last battle of Guangling, is also on the expedition. There is also Liu Xuan's newly formed cavalry unit of 5. If compared, Liu Xuan's combat strength of [-] is still higher than our army. Foolish brother believes that only by relying on the convenience of the city can we improve our army's advantage."

Sun Quan's analysis was very clear, and the new military advisor Lu Su also suggested,

"My lord, what the second general said is absolutely true. Our Jiangdong strategy was originally to stick to Jianye and wait for the times to change. Since Liu Xuan took the initiative, let him attack. Building Ye City is not a good idea. He wants to fall into the camp. It's impossible to get to the city in such a clever way."

The Jiangdong generals all nodded, and the 1000 people trapped in the camp captured the battle of Qu'a. The Jiangdong generals were almost frightened at first. If this kind of tactics could be copied, the city would become useless.

Fortunately, after Lu Su's analysis, the generals also understood that the strategy of falling into the camp and attacking Qu'a cannot be replicated.

Because Qu'a is just a county town, and the city wall is only seven or eight meters long, even if they don't have crossbows and steel cables like theirs, and they can throw ropes manually, they can still climb to the top of the city.

The wall of Jianye City is more than ten meters high, almost twice as high as that of Qu'a. Climbing up such a high city wall depends on steel cables. Let's not talk about whether the steel cables can reach that high. It is only a dozen meters high, and it takes a lot of effort to climb up. Time, with this time, the defenders can calmly shoot down the attackers.

Everyone agreed to occupy the city to defend it and wait for work in leisure. Although Sun Ce was unwilling to do so, he had no choice but to agree.

Order the defenders in the city to strengthen the city's defenses and prepare enough rolling stones and wood to prepare for a battle with Liu Xuan.

Liu Xuan's [-]-strong army walked all the way to the west gate of Jianye without encountering any attack from Jiangdong soldiers.

The army was arrayed outside the city, flags were fluttering, there were countless ladders and chariots, and the siege was vigorous.

"Shoot on the left and right to secure the position, and the shield soldiers begin to fill the moat."

Liu Xuan took charge of the Chinese army and began to command the soldiers to prepare for the siege step by step.

For a large-scale siege like this, a path needs to be filled in the moat outside the city wall first.
Then when the army charges, they can push the siege equipment and rush under the city wall.

The work of filling in the moat is generally the work of cannon fodder troops.

Because the moat will be within the shooting range of the archers on the city wall, if you want to carry sand, gravel and soil to fill the river, you have to be exposed to bows and arrows.

In the military of this era, armor is more valuable than weapons. Cannon fodder troops are not qualified to wear it. At most, a small piece of wooden breastplate on the vital part of the chest is better than nothing in protection, so most cannon fodder troops have to use their lives to fill it.

In the era of cold weapons, it often required five or even ten times the number of troops to successfully attack a city. This was because there were so many places where the attackers needed to lose their troops before they could get to the top of the city.

Only a big player like Liu Xuan, who has exhausted his resources, would equip the entire army with armor.

The shield troops filling the moat were not wearing alloy steel armor, but ordinary mail armor.

Most of the elite members of Liu Xuan's army have already replaced them with alloy steel armor and steel shields. The previously eliminated shields and armors will be given to troops with lower combat capabilities first.

Even so, the equipment of these troops is no worse than the elite equipment of other forces.

The soldiers have shields to protect themselves, and it is much safer to fill up the moat.

The troops in the city were determined to defend, and there were no cavalry out of the city to attack. The shield soldiers only needed to protect themselves from the arrows fired from the city wall, and the casualties were almost negligible.

Sun Ce stood on the tower, watching Liu Xuan's soldiers below methodically filling in the moat, his palms itched.

"Zijing, if I lead the cavalry out at this time, I can kill at least half of these soldiers filling the river. How about that?"

Lu Su hurriedly tried to dissuade him: "My lord, do you remember the defeat of Qu'a Panzhang?"

When Sun Ce was reminded by Lu Su, he immediately remembered the battle before the fall of Qu'a.

Pan Zhang took the initiative to open the city gate, lowered the drawbridge and went out to attack, but was defeated by the trapped camp. The trapped camp followed Pan Zhang's defeated army across the drawbridge.

If Pan Zhang hadn't abandoned the soldiers outside the city, the trapped camp would have followed the soldiers directly into the city.

It was precisely because more than 2000 soldiers and horses were lost in the battle out of the city, resulting in insufficient troops on the city wall, and the city was eventually captured by the trapped camp.

"Although what Zijing said is reasonable, I feel uneasy if I allow Liu Xuan to attack the city so easily."

Lu Su instead smiled and said,
"My lord, we can feel relieved that Liu Xuan has set up a frontal attack like this. For a frontal attack on the city, no matter how elite Liu Xuan's army is, he only has 5 people after all, and he is out fighting again."

"Our army of [-] soldiers is stationed in Jianye and we can afford to fight Liu Xuan."

"Ordinary soldiers are exchanged for one, and elite troops are exchanged for five or even ten, which is a good deal for us. My lord has been running Jiangdong for so long, and there are nearly [-] soldiers in other counties in Yangzhou, who can supplement Jianye's losses at any time. Liu Can Xuanda, a mere county in Guangling, afford it?"

After Sun Ce was reminded by Lu Su, he suddenly felt like he was seeing something from the clouds.

"I feel at ease after listening to Zijing's words. Yes, Liu Xuan took the initiative to attack Jianye. It seems that it is a chance for me, Jiangdong, to win."

Twenty thousand soldiers filled the moat quite quickly without much interference.
In the afternoon, the moat had been filled with a dirt and stone road several meters wide, allowing troops and siege equipment to rush to the edge of the city wall.

Everything was ready, Liu Xuan gave an order, and the forward army roared towards the gate of Jianye City.

Cloud ladders, wells, rams, and countless siege equipment rushed to the bottom of the city, crowding under the wide city wall.The trapped camp took the lead, wrapped in alloy steel armor to protect all vitals of the body.
The archers on the city wall were sore from shooting that their arms gradually gave up archery.

There was no other reason. When they shot at the troops filling the moat in the morning, the archers did not achieve much success because of the protection of their shields and armors.

Although there are still a lot of arrows in the city, they cannot withstand such continuous shooting, not to mention that when shooting arrows from such a high wall, the archer must draw the bow far enough to cause damage to the soldiers below.

Now Liu Xuan's side of the well has been pushed over, and the archers on the well are waiting for work, causing a lot of damage to the defenders on the Jianye city wall in a short time.

After all, Sun Ce's army did not have as complete armor as Liu Xuan.

Those fighting on the ladder are mainly soldiers trapped in the camp.

They have rich experience in climbing the city and can effectively avoid rolling stones and trees falling from above.

And this time, Liu Xuan didn't seem to be in a hurry to attack the city at once. Three thousand soldiers from the trapped camp took turns to fight, marching step by step.

While completely resisting the bow and arrow attack, the trapped soldiers on the ladder did not rush upward. Once a large number of rolling stones fell, these soldiers would decisively give up the siege and protect their own safety first.

An offensive and defensive battle involving tens of thousands of people lasted for more than an hour, but Liu Xuan finally failed to get on the wall.

Sun Ce's soldiers who defended the city failed to cause much damage to Liu Xuan's soldiers.

Night fell quietly.

The siege troops temporarily retreated beyond the range of bows and arrows, and made a fire to cook outside the city.

It looks like they are preparing for a night battle.

Liu Xuanjun's fragrant rice, large pieces of pork, chicken, fish soup and some vegetables made the defenders on the city drool.

I can only bite the black flour pancake in my hand bitterly.

After dinner, it was completely dark, and torches were lit among Liu Xuan's troops. The soldiers rested for a while and immediately went into the night battle.

However, the defenders on the city wall did not notice that Liu Xuan, who was commanding the Chinese army to attack the city during the day, had disappeared.

And the two tall and mighty generals beside him also disappeared.

Even if someone notices it, they probably won't care too much. After all, all three thousand members of the trapped camp wearing silver helmets are still in front of the formation.

For the defenders of Jianye, what they needed to be prepared for the most was the capture of Qu'a's trap by 1000 men in one day.

As long as all the soldiers trapped in the camp climbed up the ladder during the day, they would immediately be greeted by countless stones and wood.

In the evening, it was still the trapped camp who led the attack on the city. Gao Shun personally went to the city to supervise the battle. Dozens of ladders and wells were so powerful that the defenders on the city wall did not dare to be distracted at all.

At this time, under the north wall of Jianye City, in the shadow at the base of the wall, a black figure was slowly moving against the wall.

The situation at the west gate was so intense that it attracted the attention of almost all the defenders in the city, and the defenders on the north wall were no exception.

There are not many defenders deployed here, and the torches at the top of the city are not as dense as those at the west gate.

Anyway, the city gate was closed. If Liu Xuan wanted to send troops to attack the north gate, it would be impossible without the equipment to climb the city.

The soldiers in the shadows wore black shields and wrapped in black cloaks. The swords in their hands were also wrapped in black cloth, without any reflection.

At this time, Liu Xuan and Lu Bu Cheng Hu led the three thousand tiger camp, taking advantage of the darkness, and successfully lurked near the north gate along the base of the wall.

According to the agreement reached between Liu Xuan and Gu Ji, when the Ximen offensive is at its peak at night, it is the time for the internal response to take action.

There are no stars in the night sky today, and even if there were, no one could see them under the light of countless torches.

The black tiger hides in the night, waiting quietly.

Ximen Zhentian's shouts of killing suddenly arose, and Liu Xuan's army of nearly [-] suddenly launched an all-out attack.

The archers approached the city and fired at the soldiers on the wall.

The entire Three Thousand Traps camp went into battle and climbed crazily along the ladder.

"Reinforce Ximen quickly, the enemy has launched a general attack."

"Brothers, cheer up and kill me hard."

"After surviving tonight, they won't be able to attack the city tomorrow."

The garrison officers also became nervous. These tens of thousands of people were attacking the city at the same time, and the momentum was really scary.

The reserve troops and horses in the city were also quickly mobilized, with messengers and small groups of troops running around everywhere.

At this time, at the north gate of Jianye, a team of dozens of people rushed to the north gate. The centurion headed by him said to the gate guard,

"We are here to guard the North Gate on the orders of General Gu Yu. You will quickly lead troops to reinforce the battle at the West Gate."

The captain stationed at the north gate knew Gu Yu's name, but he still cautiously extended his hand and said,

"Do you have General Gu's troop deployment talisman?"

The centurion took out a military talisman from his waist and handed it to the north gate guard.

"The war in Ximen is urgent. My lord has mobilized troops from all over to support us. You should go quickly and don't miss the military plane."

The captain took the military talisman and took a look at it. There was no doubt that it was Gu Yu's military talisman, so he handed it back.

"In this case, I will trouble my brothers."

After that, he led the two thousand soldiers stationed at the north gate and hurried towards the west gate.

When the centurion saw the soldiers walking away, he quickly winked at his soldiers. The soldiers understood and immediately rushed to the city gate and opened it.

However, the heavy city gate opened, and the creaking sound immediately alerted the defenders on the tower above.

The battle is raging, but the soldiers below are trying to open the city gate. No matter how stupid the guard on the city tower is, he should be alert.
"Here comes someone, he has some tricks up his sleeve! Brothers, follow me and kill him."

The defender immediately rushed down with the soldiers on the city wall. Seeing that he had been exposed, the centurion immediately ordered dozens of his men to use the city gate as a stronghold to protect the city gate.

Outside the city, Liu Xuan, Lu Bu, Cheng Hu and others heard the movement on the city tower and knew that the city gate was open. They no longer hid their figures, jumped up and rushed towards the city gate.

There was no shadow to hide under the city gate. The place where Liu Xuan and the others were hiding was still some distance away from the city gate.
However, the battle at the city gate had already broken out. Facing the attacks of hundreds of soldiers on the city towers, most of the dozens of soldiers had fallen in an instant, and there was a steady stream of soldiers supporting them above.

The city's garrison also knew that once the city gate was opened, those who guarded the north gate would be punished by death, so they launched a desperate attack.

In a few breaths, all dozens of internal agents were killed.The guard quickly ordered the soldiers to close the door again.

Seeing the city gate closing slowly, Liu Xuan and others happened to arrive.

The dragon gun shot out and instantly grew longer, with the dragon head barely getting stuck in the crack of the door.

(End of this chapter)