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The prospect of the walls collapsing was completely stress-free for Chen Xi; anyway, in another seven or eight days, they would have dug to the well mentioned by the cloth bag, after which they would send someone in to open the city gates, and then let the cavalry into the city to beat the unsuspecting Qiao Rui—that was the King’s Way.
Speaking of Liu Bei’s cavalry, although each man had one horse, they totaled over ten thousand in number. Of course, they could not compare with the likes of the tycoon Gongsun Zan, but they were more than enough to trounce the Feudal Lords of the Central Plains without any stress. Just look at how envious, jealous, and hateful Cao Mengde was of Liu Bei’s cavalry.
Indeed, the reliability of cavalry charges wasn’t strong, but you must acknowledge their mobility, especially when the cavalry disrupted enemy formations—it was simply a crushing dominance! n𝚘𝚟𝚙𝚞𝚋.𝚌o𝚖
Elsewhere, Guan Yu found several men with loud voices to taunt Chen Ji, the Guard General of Chen State, from afar. Along the way, he had fought Chen Ji several times, each resulting in either a head-on rout or a successful ambush that dispersed the enemy.
In their march westward, Guan Yu had not lost once. No matter what strategy Chen Ji employed, he was ultimately outmaneuvered and defeated by Liu Ye’s counter-strategies. However, due to the long distance, they had barely reached the outskirts of Chen State Commandery City.
Having traveled with Liu Ye, Guan Yu was also rendered speechless. Although Liu Ye could easily detect Chen Ji’s arrangements, he always provided a multitude of counter-strategies, and clearly, he had been led astray by Chen Xi’s influence—everything had to be written down for later use, which meant handing over thick stacks to Guan Yu.
The methods were excellent, and had there been only one, Guan Yu would have had no other choice. But now, with so many options, Guan Yu, as someone who cherished a perfect image, needed to pick out the best one. Even Liu Ye couldn’t decide, let alone Guan Yu. As a result, Guan Yu was increasing his knowledge reserve while battling Chen Ji. Lately, as someone who read the Spring and Autumn Annals at night, Guan Yu had even begun to study the history of the Han dynasty, though his habit was never to read during the day, but to practice martial arts and then study by lamp light late into the night.
"Ziyang, what do you think—shall we continue to attack the city today?" Guan Yu, feeling refreshed after a morning of practicing with his Great Sword, asked Liu Ye, who had two dark circles under his eyes.
It was true that Guan Yu was somewhat dismissive of the scholar-officials, but thankfully, those he dismissed were noted scholars like Liu Yan. But lately, Guan Yu would no longer dismiss Liu Yan, as he was someone who also boosted Guan Yu’s reputation—a good man. Even the often reticent Guan Yu would nod at Liu Yan when he saw him.
As for a capable figure like Liu Ye, just as with Xu Shu in history, he had completely won over Guan Yu, so Guan Yu held a lot of respect for such literary men.
"Let’s try something different with our projectiles today; after all, we never planned to take the city. Our goal is to force Yuan Shu to come to its aid. If we were to take down the Prefecture City, forcing Yuan Shu to recklessly attack Jiangling wouldn’t be ideal. I imagine that after more than a month, the morale of Yuan Shu’s Army under Jiangling City must have dropped." Liu Ye indicated there was no need to attack the city—they were just there to cause trouble.
"What are we throwing today?" Guan Yu asked with a chill in his voice, having witnessed Liu Ye’s sense of mischief. Ever since they had acquired the Stone Thrower, aside from the first day when Liu Ye had thrown normal rocks, every other day had been spent tormenting the enemies.
"I had people catch a lot of wasp nests on the mountain, including those of earth wasps, hornets, and gourd wasps. We’ve got about a hundred of them by now. The big ones are around two inches long—throwing them over should be interesting," Liu Ye said, stroking his beard, "Lately we’ve had less Tung Oil, or else I’d suggest lobbing fireballs over to annoy them." Liu Ye was clearly disappointed as he said this.
"Come, prepare to launch what Military Advisor Liu has requested!" Guan Yu commanded the messenger.
After more than a dozen hornet nests were hurled over, the city wall was thrown into chaos. The buzzing sound made Guan Yu himself shudder, while Liu Ye beside him watched the situation on the city walls with great excitement.
"It seems that Chen Ji doesn’t have the hearts of his men, and their morale is so low that deserters will soon appear," Liu Ye said, touching his goatee.
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Guan Yu remained silent, continuing to listen but internally mockingly thought, "How could anyone’s morale stay high after being messed with like this? First, it was the catapult, then the next day thick smoke, the third day they added feces and some kind of unidentified vile stench, and now it’s a hornets’ nest. Being tormented like this, it would be odd if morale could be high!"
Speaking of controlling the wind to blow toxic smoke, Liu Ye had almost played it too far and nearly nauseated Guan Yu. Who knows what Liu Ye had added to it, but as the wind wasn’t controlled well, a wave of it rolled back and almost made Guan Yu vomit out his breakfast.
Originally, attacking the city under such good circumstances should have been without pressure, but Guan Yu, with a piece of cloth soaked in water tied around him, rushed into the smog, prepared to storm the city with his subordinates. However, before they even made it, his men started to vomit, which showed just how disgusting Liu Ye’s poison smoke was.
Even now, Liu Ye was still lighting that kind of smoke, whose ingredients were unknown. It seemed he intended to thoroughly nauseate the guards of Chen State to death.
Of course, Liu Ye was unaware of Guan Yu’s internal mocking, as he was currently in a state of endless brainstorming.
"Yunchang, do you see those Yuan Shu’s soldiers scurrying on the city walls, looking like they really don’t want to defend it? It seems that if we add a bit more fire to the situation, there won’t be any problem," said Liu Ye as he stroked his beard with an excited expression. He had just had a major brainstorm and thought of a strategy quite suitable for the enemy army opposite them.
"Catapult, change the projectiles," Liu Ye ordered loudly.
"..." Guan Yu did not respond. He had given full responsibility for the catapult to Liu Ye, knowing that this fellow might want to throw anything.
"Go, get me a dozen boxes of money from the supply train, and drag over some gold cakes and pearls as well," Liu Ye commanded Sunx Kang.
Soon, several dozen boxes of money were carried over, and it was clear that not all of it belonged to Liu Ye; some was Guan Yu’s. However, Guan Yu was very interested to see what Liu Ye had in mind this time.
"Yunchang, when you see chaos on the city walls, lead your elite sabre bearers and take down the city with full force. This might be the best opportunity," Liu Ye turned and said to Guan Yu.
"Alright!" Guan Yu was first startled but, accustomed to Liu Ye’s wonders, he instantly ordered his trusted aides to prepare.
Boxes of money were poured into the catapult’s basket and then hurled fiercely onto the walls of Chen State City, which had only just regained some semblance of normality. Suddenly, it was raining money, and in the next moment, the entire gate tower was thrown into chaos, with all the soldiers scrambling to pick up the money.
In this era, why did one become a soldier? Isn’t it just for a meal to eat, for the hope of clutching a few copper coins in their pockets? These foolhardy soldiers weren’t trusted aides. If there was a rain of money from the sky and they didn’t pick it up, then the problem would be with their brains!
"Smack!" A gold cake landed on the ground, and suddenly, the troops that were already chaotic from the scramble for money now bloodily turned their eyes towards their waistbands. Soldiers of Yuan Shu’s army, already demoralized by Liu Ye’s torment and lacking allegiance to their unit, started to brawl right then and there. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to qi dian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
