Chapter 53: Meng Zhu Leads the Troops Under the City Walls

  Chen Da was also a straightforward person, seeing Shi Jin's stubborn appearance, he knew that it would be useless to persuade him to return. He couldn't calm down and treat his injuries either. It would be better for them to come up with a plan together, whether it was retreating or breaking through the siege, as long as they could send Shi Jin back to the mountain to treat his injuries, everything else would fall into place.

  Chen Da stopped persuading him and pointed to the map, saying: "Big brother, you see, the government troops have surrounded us in all eight directions. They fought for an entire afternoon but couldn't break in. Now they're each setting up camp and guarding outside the city. But now there's not a single movement."

  Shi Jin listened and was slightly surprised: "Oh? How can there be no movement at all... Where is their main camp, according to your observation?"

  Chen Da pointed to the map, which was at the foot of a mountain outside the west gate of the city. "It's right here," he said. "They set up their big camp, and when we looked from afar, we didn't see even half a patrol or sentry. It's really strange."

  "By the mountain and beside the water, it's actually a good place to set up camp. But they must have their reasons for guarding the camp like this." Shi Jin said as he began to ponder.

  "Unless I lead a team to launch a surprise attack and see what they are up to in their camp." Chen Da looked at Shi Jin's face, said with a hint of sarcasm, his tone full of disdain for the government soldiers.

  "This won't do. Now, it's hard to say who has the upper hand. But if I had to say, the one who can't sit still at this moment is definitely not us." Shi Jin also looked into Chen Da's eyes and said seriously: "He wants to hide, we'll let him hide, when he can't sit still, he will naturally 'float' up. Why bother going to probe his true intentions now and fall into their trap?"

  "Big brother is right, if they want to suffocate, let them suffocate. If they can't bear it, they'll really choke to death and return to the west." At this moment, Shi Qian found it interesting and couldn't help but interrupt with a sentence.

  But then Shi Jin said: "If I remember correctly, the corner of the city wall at the west gate was burned down by the fire, can we send more troops to guard it?"

  Chen Da nodded and said, "Wu San led the troops to defend there, but a breach was formed due to the collapse. It's not a big deal. The previous waves of attack were mostly directed at that place, and Wu San blocked them all. At this moment, they are using wooden boards and stone slurry to repair it hastily." He paused for a moment and scolded angrily, "That dog official Liu was ordered to reinforce the city wall ten years ago, but he must have embezzled some silver. The reinforced city wall can't even withstand a fire, damn it! It's causing us brothers to trouble ourselves like this." As he spoke, he gritted his teeth and wished he could find that dog official's corpse to poke seven or eight holes in it.

  Chen Da scolded here, but Shi Jin listened and felt that there must be some ulterior motive. At this moment, the government troops should concentrate their forces to attack the place of Tan Fang, how could they allow us to repair the city? What's going on?

  "Brother, when the government troops first arrived, how many men and horses did you see?"

  Chen Da looked at Shi Chong and said, "There are about ten thousand of them, a vast black mass rushing forward like ants. Their momentum is fierce, but when they reached the city walls, our brothers shot a few rounds of arrows and they didn't look so impressive."

  Shi Jin pinched his chin, and couldn't figure it out: "With tens of thousands of soldiers, it's not a small number, but putting aside such a good opportunity, could it be that the government troops want to wait for us to repair the city before coming to attack? They're not so upright, are they?"

  "It's not. At first, I was also puzzled, but after running around the city for a while, I didn't think it was strange either. Big brother, you see, after several battles, each side has suffered losses. Let's assume he has 10,000 troops, divided into eight camps, with only 1,500 people in each camp. And my garrison at each gate, including the surrendered soldiers and defeated generals, also has more than 2,000 people, and they occupy the advantageous terrain, so naturally they don't dare to attack easily."

  "So your meaning is that we should take advantage of the current situation where their forces are scattered, launch a surprise attack and defeat them one by one?" Shi Jin thought to himself according to his usual habit.

  "We've just made this plan. Brother, take a look." Chen Da drew a circle on the map and said: "We'll send out 3,000 cavalry from the west gate to directly attack the government army's camp, catching them off guard. Once we cut down their flag, we'll also cut off half of their morale. We'll split our troops and launch a pincer movement. I'll attack the south gate from the left side in reverse order, while brother, you lead your troops to attack the north gate in regular order. If everything goes smoothly, we'll meet up at the east gate. If there's any unexpected situation, we'll retreat through the nearest gate and regroup inside the city to make new plans. Brother, what do you think?" Chen Da explained his plan with gestures and calculations, full of confidence as he looked at Shi Jin.

  Shi Jin listened and nodded his head in agreement with the general strategy. However, his sharp eyes remained fixed on the map, staring at the mountain foot where the government troops were camped, and a sense of foreboding gradually crept over him, causing him to shake his head slightly. After some thought, Shi Jin slowly said: "This plan is indeed a good one, but have you noticed that they don't seem to be in a hurry to attack the city, and instead have even withdrawn their guards? In normal warfare, this wouldn't happen. It's likely that there are ambushes around them, deliberately putting on this appearance to lure us in and kill us all. What do you think?"

  Chen Da also propped his arms on the table, leaned forward and looked carefully. The mountain foot where the government soldiers were camping was surrounded by grass, with no shrubs or forests. It would be a heavenly difficult task to hide thousands of people. If the so-called ambush troops came from the two side camps, they could not achieve the effect of timely gathering, and it would be difficult to play the role of ambush. What is the only possibility? Chen Da thought deeply. The city tower was as silent as death, and everyone was deeply immersed in thought.

  Before long, Chen Da suddenly muttered to himself: "I suppose it's like this...hmm..."

  Chen Da took a last look at the map, then raised his eyes and looked at Shi Jin, saying: "Brother, I've figured it out. This bunch of Sun's is just playing an empty city trick, only not as sinister as Zhuge Liang's in those days."

  At this point, Shi Qian didn't understand. Although he couldn't recognize many characters, he had heard the story of the Empty City Strategy from a storyteller. Just now, Chen Da personally said that each battalion has at least 1,500 people, and the large battalion will not have fewer. Such a battalion, how can it be considered an empty city? So he wanted to ask for clarification: "What is this 'Empty City Strategy'? Didn't you just say..."

  "Yes, I just said that his troops are scattered and can't get to me, but I've got him cornered instead. So he's deliberately putting on a show to conceal his weakness. By now, he's probably sent out fast horses to summon reinforcements. If more troops arrive, we'll really be trapped, not to mention we're running low on food and fodder, and when the time comes, we might fall into chaos without even fighting. If the government troops move quickly, there should be a group of soldiers arriving right about now."

  "Ah!" Shi Jin was inspired by Chen Da, and suddenly realized the trick of the government soldiers. He hastily ordered his men: "Quickly, quickly, tell our brothers on the city wall to prepare more arrows, those government soldiers are treacherous, they will attack the city soon!"

  Just as the messengers had just stepped out of the city gate, they ran into a returning scout. The scout was in a hurry and covered in sweat, and before he could even see who it was, he was knocked to the ground by the people rushing out the door. He scrambled to his feet and squeezed through the doorway, shouting: "Master! It's not good! The government troops have divided into eight routes and are attacking suddenly!"