Chapter 109 The Cheating Defenders
Next, Zhang Chunjun, who was attacking the city, felt deeply how difficult it was.
As they launched the charge, thick crossbow arrows and huge flying stones came pouring down on them like they were free.
The pace of the attack was not only extremely fast, but also well-organized and clearly differentiated.
Depending on the battle situation, they sometimes concentrated their firepower and sometimes dispersed their attacks, and their attacks were quite accurate. Whenever Zhang Chunjun's soldiers gathered together, they would always be subjected to a small-scale saturation attack.
This resulted in heavy casualties, with soldiers falling down in large numbers. Many of the siege equipment that had been moved up the city were damaged halfway, either being pierced by crossbow arrows or smashed by flying rocks.
Zhang Chun and others frowned as they watched these scenes.
It would be fine if there were just a large number of city defense equipment, but the attack was so precise and orderly, which was completely against common sense. How did the other side do it?
Tian Ze chose Zang Ba to garrison Liaoxi Pass with him, which naturally had its deep reasons. Zang Ba's presence in the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period may not be high, but his ability is actually very strong, and he even has certain potential as a general.
In history, he was famous in Jiangzuo and controlled Qingxu. Although he later surrendered to Cao Cao, he was more like a small separatist force like Ma Teng.
In the Cao-Lü War and the Cao-Yuan War, he almost decided Cao Cao's life or death. He served in several dynasties of Cao Wei and finally had a good end.
When Tian Ze was recruiting Zang Ba, although Zang Ba became a fugitive for saving his father, he also became a small bandit leader in Donghai, causing great trouble to the local government.
Zang Ba's talent "Gathering Crowds" can improve the obedience and cooperation of his soldiers to a certain extent. This talent is not only very suitable for defending the city, but also a perfect match with Tian Ze's "Small Map" talent.
Based on the process alone, military command can be roughly divided into five stages: detecting battlefield changes, thinking about response strategies, arranging combat tasks, receiving command information, and executing action orders.
Taking the route of "extreme micro-control", relying on the "mini-map", the leading general can have a detailed insight into the entire battlefield, and can arrange and convey combat orders to the soldiers almost at the same time, solving the problems in three stages almost perfectly.
If you want to maximize the role of the "mini-map", the key lies in the remaining two stages, namely the leader's own reaction speed and response ability in thinking about response strategies, and the soldiers' execution ability.
The former depends on the general's own qualities. The generals under Tian Ze are not inferior in this respect, while there are certain differences in the latter.
Zang Ba's talent enables soldiers to take action instinctively the moment they receive orders, and to fully utilize their "small map" advantages to coordinate combat with surrounding friendly forces.
Whenever he noticed that the enemy troops were gathering towards a certain point on the "mini-map", Zang Ba would quickly make a prediction and issue orders at the first opportunity.
The soldiers who received the order did not need to think at all, they would instinctively join forces with friendly forces to launch an attack.
This created an almost dreamlike effect, as if the enemy was actively gathering in the direction of Zang Ba's attack.
As for other generals, although the soldiers under Tian Ze were all elite troops with excellent obedience and mobility, their instinctive reactions were still a little slower than those brought about by Zang Ba's talent.
If it were a normal battle, Zang Bajun's half-beat speed would result in a certain gap in combat power, but it would not be particularly huge.
However, when combined with the "mini map", an extremely terrifying qualitative change occurred.
On the city wall, Tian Ze looked at Zang Ba's calm and composed command and smiled slightly.
I didn't expect that my best partner in combat command would be this person!
With Zang Ba's ability and the help of the "mini-map", he can easily carry out micro-management to the village level, and even achieve detailed command at the tenth level at critical moments.
This is something that ordinary people simply cannot imagine.
With the close cooperation of nearly 2,000 defenders operating the city defense equipment, the attacking Zhang Chun's army suffered an extremely terrible blow. Before rushing to the city wall, nearly half of the soldiers had been killed, and many siege equipment were damaged and scrapped.
But Zhang Chun did not give up.
Instead, he continued to launch crazy attacks and even sent a supervision team to stand in the rear and ruthlessly kill those soldiers who dared not charge.
He can still afford this loss!
He knew very well how many soldiers and horses a county could support. He had an army of 60,000 under his command, which was definitely more than five times the enemy's strength. Even if he used piles of heads to defeat the enemy, he could still pile them up to death.
Because he had looted the government offices of various counties, his soldiers were not short of weapons, armor, and siege equipment. Looking at Zhang Chun who was so crazy and determined, Tian Ze frowned slightly.
As expected, the person before him was no ordinary person as he was able to lead such a massive rebellion.
Zhang Chun in history can definitely be called a great man. As the initiator of the rebellion, he was able to keenly perceive the changes in the Wuhuan and successfully win over Zhang Ju and the three counties of Wuhuan. This method was indeed not simple.
Moreover, he was willing to give up the throne of the emperor, recommend Zhang Ju, and take a lower position himself. His overall view and character are amazing.
They plundered various counties and had no success along the way. Later, they even galloped across Qing and Ji provinces, repeatedly defeating the government troops that came to quell the rebellion.
Even Gongsun Zan suffered at his hands and nearly lost his life.
Fei Ru's decision to station his troops in a remote area that was easy to defend but difficult to attack also shows his foresight.
If he had not later met Liu Yu, who had great prestige in Youzhou and Wuhuan, and had not used "soft tactics" to make Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju deserted by their friends and relatives, he might have really been able to achieve great things.
After all, it was not far from the Dong Zhuo Rebellion.
As early as when he decided to attack the city, Zhang Chun had already thought of everything.
The terrain here means that it is impossible to bypass the checkpoint. If we take a detour from the north, the journey is too long and the disadvantages are huge. The only way is to attack by force.
In a siege war, it is best to win in one battle, otherwise the attacking side will only suffer more and more losses until the enemy reveals a flaw or collapses on its own.
Therefore, during this attack, although Zhang Chun was shocked by Zang Bajun's strength, he still resolutely insisted on attacking.
After a crazy charge regardless of sacrifice, Zhang Chunjun finally arrived at the city wall.
However, this is just the beginning.
The logs and boulders that had been prepared long ago fell down mercilessly, and countless arrows and crossbow bolts seemed to have eyes. Whenever they climbed up the ladders, they would be shot down by the archers who suddenly appeared.
When a soldier of Zhang Chun's army climbed up the city wall, he was faced with a joint attack from three defenders. He was slashed vertically with a knife, and two spears were stabbed at his chest and lower abdomen respectively.
When he saw this scene, three fierce attacks had already come within a few feet of him. He had no time to react at all. Before he could even raise the knife in his hand, his body had been pierced and split. With a muffled groan, he fell directly under the city wall.
It seemed as if he had taken the initiative to run head-on into the attack of the three people. The scene was very strange.
However, this is not an isolated case, but the norm.
For Zang Ba, the "mini map" allows him to control the overall situation and quickly dispatch soldiers, and is a powerful tool for commanding operations.
For squad leaders and ordinary soldiers, the "mini map" is a close-range perspective plug-in and telepathic device.
They had already cooperated well with each other and were able to quickly take the most appropriate response based on the enemy's movements, and jointly kill the enemy before he could react.
Especially in this kind of city defense battle, the soldiers climbing the ladders and the soldiers defending the city are blocked by the city wall.
The attackers had no idea what was happening behind the city wall, but Zang Bajun could see the enemy's movements clearly with the help of his perspective, and was able to prepare in advance and strike half a beat faster.
In this situation, even a fraction of a beat could mean the difference between life and death, let alone half a beat, so the attacking soldiers faced a huge disadvantage.
Except for a few quick-witted and cautious soldiers of Zhang Chun's army who barely escaped the first round of attack, the rest of the soldiers were killed on the spot and fell off the city wall.
However, most of Zhang Chun's soldiers who had managed to escape the first round of attack were seriously injured and were soon surrounded and thrown off the city wall.
(End of this chapter)
