Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

It was night.

Zhou Xin personally led his guards, carefully approaching a certain range of Yangxian City, observing the movements of the defending soldiers patrolling the city walls, preparing to find a relatively weakly defended area as the main direction of attack.

What made the heart in Zhou Xin's chest beat faster was that the situation on the city wall of Yangxian was almost no different from what he had expected.

Although there were defending soldiers stationed every certain distance on the city wall of Yangxian, there were not many soldiers patrolling back and forth, which was enough to show that Jia Xu had indeed transferred a large number of Wu Commandery garrison troops to concentrate in Yangxian, but he was obviously quite relaxed and vigilant.

As the superiors behave, so do the subordinates...

Naturally, the frequency and density of patrolling soldiers are not high.

The only thing that made Zhou Xin feel a little regretful was that he didn't find any obviously weakly defended areas.

However, Zhou Xin was not surprised by this, and can even be said to have been prepared for it.

Even if there are no obviously weakly defended areas, as long as Xu Gong, Zuo Rong, and a group of aristocratic families' guards or confidants are mobilized to approach a certain distance from the city wall under the cover of night.

Then, they can climb the city wall in one go, occupy a certain area, and let the subsequent allied soldiers climb the city wall.

Relying on the absolute numerical advantage of the allied soldiers, that moment has already determined the victory or defeat.

As Zhou Xin's message was transmitted back to the anti-Wu allied forces, most of the anti-Wu allied forces also began to act according to the established surprise attack plan.

If it were a frontal battle, the anti-Wu allied forces would naturally appear to be fighting on their own and harboring their own thoughts.

However, acting separately, with each leading their own soldiers to be responsible for a section of the city wall to attack, this is actually an advantage.

Time passed little by little.

When it came to midnight, the anti-Wu allied forces almost completely mobilized their elite troops to secretly approach Yangxian...

Until the anti-Wu allied forces had approached the city to a distance of less than twenty steps, they were discovered by the defending soldiers, who issued a piercing warning sound.

"Kill!"

Immediately, most of the anti-Wu allied forces staying at a greater distance moved with a roar, carrying more siege equipment and rushing towards Yangxian City.

The elite allied forces who had already touched the city of Yangxian quickly built cloud ladders and attacked the city wall of Yangxian first.

Faced with the sudden surprise attack, the reaction of the Yangxian defenders, in Zhou Xin's view, was very similar to that of the allied soldiers who had faced Gan Ning's surprise attack a few days ago, and they were almost in chaos.

"The overall situation has been decided, it's done!!"

At this moment, Zhou Xin only had this one thought surging in his mind, ecstatic.

Compared with the sudden chaos and shouting that erupted in all directions of Yangxian City, the Yangxian County Office at this moment was brightly lit.

Sitting in the main seat, Jia Xu was holding a teacup and savoring the tea beautifully, as if he had not heard the noisy shouts of killing outside the city.

On Jia Xu's left and right were Gan Ning, Jia Mu, and some military school lieutenants and small officials.

Among them, Gan Ning was still naked on his upper body, with thick layers of bandages wrapped around his left shoulder, and he was chewing meat in big mouthfuls, as if preparing for an upcoming fight.

Soon, soldiers came to report that a large number of enemy troops were attacking the north, south, and west gates of Yangxian City, and they had already occupied a part of the city wall.

In terms of siege warfare, as long as the allied soldiers who have climbed the city wall can stabilize the situation.

Then, little by little, they will capture the city tower and open the city gate from the inside, which means that one side of the city wall has been breached.

However, for such a critical news, Jia Xu didn't even lift his eyelids, and didn't even mean to send troops to support, but instead was quite leisurely to pick the snacks on the table and send them into his mouth.

The rest of the people in the county office also did not mean to ask for orders, only Jia Mu asked.

"Father, there are enemy troops attacking on the north, south, and west sides, so shall we break through the east gate later?"

Surround three sides and leave one open.

This is a very conventional siege method, in order to avoid the defending side having no way out and resisting desperately, and finally having to carry out a brutal street battle.

Therefore, in order to avoid excessive casualties, the besieging side often leaves a clear retreat route for the defending side, thereby disintegrating the defending soldiers' fighting spirit to resist desperately.

"The enemy soldiers' plan is not only Yangxian, but also to eliminate the few remaining troops of Wu Commandery on the surface as soon as possible, so there must be an ambush outside the east gate..."

Jia Xu smacked his lips, chewed the few remaining tea leaves in his mouth and swallowed them into his stomach, and said.

"So we can't go through the east gate, wait patiently for the other three gates, whichever gate has the weakest offensive, then break through from this gate and it will be foolproof."

Speaking of this, Jia Xu did not forget to look at Gan Ning, showing a concerned smile, and said.

"Xingba's injury has not yet healed, you can stay in the central army later, you must not rush to the front to fight again, otherwise if something goes wrong, I will have difficulty explaining to Zikun."

Hearing this, Gan Ning paused in chewing the meat, raised his left shoulder, and said. "Jia Changshi, my injury is no longer serious, there is no need to stay in the central army, please allow me to be the vanguard to clear the way for retreat..."

It's just that Jia Xu is naturally not really concerned about Gan Ning, but feels that leaving a fierce general by his side to be vigilant is more reassuring under the dim night, even though Jia Xu has already made heavy preparations.

Therefore, before Gan Ning finished speaking, Jia Xu silently took out Li Ji's seal from his sleeve and placed it in front of Gan Ning.

Gan Ning is free and unrestrained by nature, and even dared to tie up his uncle and lead a hundred riders to rob the camp...

But looking at Li Ji's seal placed in front of him, the corner of Gan Ning's eyes twitched fiercely, and he abruptly swallowed the rest of the words back.

After a long while, Gan Ning, who only felt that the meat in his mouth was like chewing wax, simply spit out the meat that he hadn't swallowed, and replied in a low voice.

"Gan Ning, receive the order!"

Seeing this, Jia Xu couldn't help but show a smile on his face while taking Li Ji's seal back into his sleeve.

Zikun's seal is still easy to use...

Jia Xu suddenly discovered that on the land of Wu Commandery, as long as he took out this seal and put it in front of others, no one dared to speak loudly to him.

'Borrowing power... is really easy to get addicted to...'

Jia Xu stroked Li Ji's seal and muttered to himself.

'Before Zikun comes back, I have to find a time to hold this seal and get some good tea back.'

Influenced by Li Ji, this new tea ceremony first spread within Liu Bei's group, and then gradually became popular among the aristocratic families, scholars, and merchants under his rule, and finally even the common people were crazy about it.

This also led to the fact that tea leaves made by frying tea can be called a luxury in Liu Bei's rule, and people without a certain status and status cannot get it at all, and countless aristocratic families and scholars regard it as elegant.

Jia Xu certainly knows the scarcity of tea leaves, on the one hand, it is indeed the limited production at present, and on the other hand, it is a means of collecting money that Li Ji has formulated through the Mi family.

Luxury goods are not terrible, the most terrible thing is a consumable luxury goods.

Of course, Jia Xu doesn't care about any status symbols or elegance, but he really likes and is used to drinking tea, and he feels uncomfortable all over his body if he doesn't drink tea for a day.

Some rare good tea leaves are even rarer in Wu Commandery, and even Jia Xu can hardly get them through normal channels...

Just when Jia Xu was a little distracted and racking his brains to find a way to use this seal to hide some good tea leaves from Li Ji...

Several more soldiers came to report the latest battle situation.

Most of the city walls on the north and south sides have been occupied...

At this point, Jia Xu no longer waited, drank all the remaining tea in the cup, got up unhurriedly and tidied up his clothes, and then asked his guards to bring a set of armor and quickly put it on, and said.

"Break through from the west gate, everyone act according to the plan!"

"Yes!"

Immediately, everyone who had been waiting in the county office for a long time also acted.

The treasury, granary, county office...

These important places in the city soon caught fire.

Most of the defending soldiers in the city were trying their best to break through in the direction of the west gate.

Jia Xu was right, the anti-Wu allied forces deployed on the west side were undoubtedly the fewest, and most of them were vagrants and scattered brave men.

Zhou Xin's plan was to mainly attack the north and south sides, and set up an ambush outside the east side of the city to eliminate the remaining forces of Wu Commandery as much as possible.

The west side is the direction of Danyang Commandery, Zhou Xin expected that Jia Xu would not dare to break through to the west, so he adopted the method of making the real seem false and only deployed some scattered soldiers and rangers.

It's a pity that Jia Xu had already seen through Zhou Xin's thoughts, and understood that the west gate was the best direction to break through.

Therefore, when Zhou Xin learned that a large number of defending soldiers had broken through from the west side, even if he wanted to stop it, it was too late.

More importantly, the anti-Wu allied forces were already in a state of exhaustion, and tonight's siege was already a forced morale boost by a group of commandery chiefs and aristocratic families who had promised heavy rewards.

Wanting the anti-Wu allied forces to pursue the retreating defending soldiers along the way after experiencing a siege, even Zhou Xin understood that this was impossible.

"Damn it!"

Zhou Xin couldn't help but whip the ground fiercely with his horse whip to vent his anger, and said.

"That Jia Xu is so incompetent, but he was lucky enough to escape, hateful!!"

However, after Zhou Xin vented for a while, he could only quickly order his soldiers to occupy the city as soon as possible, and then make a fire in the city to cook and rest.

It only took half an hour from the night attack and siege to completely occupy Yangxian.

The escape of a large number of defending soldiers made Zhou Xin quite unwilling, but after all, he completely took down Yangxian, which was the gateway to Taihu Lake, which made a group of commandery chiefs and aristocratic families, including Zhou Xin, happy.

The allied soldiers were exhausted from marching to Yangxian for many days, and then they camped, built siege equipment, and even forced a siege at night...

Not to mention the low-ranking soldiers, even Xu Gong, Zhou Xin, Zuo Rong, and a group of aristocratic family representatives felt exhausted. They didn't even have the energy to hold a celebration banquet.

Instead, they kept urging for food to be delivered as soon as possible so they could have a good meal and then sleep soundly.

If Xu Gong and the others were like this, the state of the many allied soldiers could be imagined...

Jia Xu, who had already broken through the encirclement, didn't go far at all. Instead, he stood not far from Yangxian, watching the large amount of smoke rising from the city, which could be vaguely distinguished even in the dark night.

‘It seems they are really starving...’

Jia Xu had a harmless smile on his face, but his tone was somewhat sympathetic.

“Confucius said: Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life, and a gentleman has the beauty of helping others. I am not an uncompassionate person. Everyone, enjoy your meal, so you can be a well-fed ghost on the road to the Yellow Springs.”

The smoke continued for quite a while...

Just as the smoke subsided, Xu Sheng led the 50,000 military household soldiers stationed behind Yangxian to arrive outside the city. Along the smooth official road leading to Yangxian, there were also twenty catapults slowly approaching.

(PS: Some believe that the catapult was invented by Liu Ye, but in essence, Liu Ye improved the catapult and renamed it "Thunder Cart."

Catapults already existed during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Li Xin once led 200,000 Qin troops to attack Chu and suffered the first large-scale catapult attack in Chinese war history, causing the 200,000 Qin troops to collapse on the spot.)

Soon, under Xu Sheng's command, the 50,000 military household soldiers were divided into three groups and lined up outside the south, north, and east gates of Yangxian. As for the west gate, Gan Ning led the garrison that had just broken through the encirclement to reorganize and line up again.

Unlike Zhou Xin's petty trick of leaving one side open in an encirclement, Jia Xu had no such merciful thoughts of leaving the enemy a way out.

“This is… changing defense into offense.”

Jia Xu said with a smile, his hands behind his back.

In the next instant, not only Jia Xu, but even the more than ten thousand allied soldiers in the city who were gobbling down their food heard the neat, thunderous sound of the twenty catapults.

“Boom!!!”

However, the twenty catapults, carefully crafted in advance by the artisans of Wu Commandery, were not releasing stones, but jars of kerosene bombs made using the principle of oil lamps.

At this moment, all the common people in Yangxian City had been evacuated in advance. There were only the allied forces who had just entered the city not long ago.

Of course, in Jia Xu's opinion, if some common people were left in the city, the plan would seem even more seamless. Even a top strategist entering the city would not necessarily suspect that this was a pre-prepared "furnace."

(End of this chapter)