Chapter 119 Sun Jian: So you weren't bragging
The fifth day of September.

At the east gate of Changsha County, the bandit general Qu Xing and his elite troops looked nervously toward the camp five miles away.

Yesterday, Jin Mao led the vanguard to arrive. At that time, Qu Xing's men were supervising the villagers in Changsha to harvest autumn crops.

When the enemies met, they were extremely jealous of each other and a fight broke out immediately.

Jin Mao had traveled a long way and had not yet gained a firm foothold, so he ended up fighting the bandits on equal terms.

Now, the bandits were excited. They were beaten so badly last time, and they must take revenge this time!

So, someone went back to the city to call for help, hoping to wipe out Jinmao's two thousand men in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, the bandits had poor eyesight, and although Jin Mao looked very embarrassed, he was not actually killed.

Since everyone was wearing armor, the bandits could at most injure but not kill. When a soldier in the front was knocked down, his comrades behind would make up for it, and the knocked-down soldier could rejoin the battle after a short buffer.

So, although it seems that Jinmao suffered heavy losses, in fact there was no loss of staff.

By the time Qu Xing in the city got the news and rushed to the east gate, Jin Mao had already established a foothold. A round of volleys reminded the bandits of the past terror.

They all retreated.

But Jinmao would never let go of such an opportunity and chased after him.

"Close the city gate! Close the city gate quickly!"

On the east city gate tower, Qu Xing shouted in fear: "Whoever dares to disobey will be killed!"

Qu Xing's cronies pounced on the city gate like wolves and tigers, chopped down all the bandits who refused to close the gate, and then closed the gate regardless of the lives of the bandits outside.

Now, the thousands of bandits locked outside the door cursed, begged for help and used all the means they could, but Qu Xing remained unmoved and gave the order: "Shoot! Drive them all away!"

When Jin Mao led his troops to attack, thousands of bandits were killed, escaped, or surrendered, and the battle was quickly over.

Today, Qu Xing received the report.

Wave after wave of reinforcements arrived at the enemy camp, and the last wave consisted of a cavalry unit of a thousand men.

Qu Xing couldn't help feeling despair.

They lost a small half of their men yesterday, which made the remaining 7,000-odd men in the city very dissatisfied.

After a night of bloodbath, Qu Xing barely suppressed the restlessness, but he lost more than a thousand people, leaving only more than 6,000, and his strength was greatly reduced.

...

The main military tent in the camp.

Jin Mao sat at the upper left, and Sun Jian sat at the upper right. The two exchanged information while eating.

"Yesterday, our army annihilated 1,130 enemies and captured 2,888 prisoners. Qu Xing suffered heavy casualties. If it was a field battle, there would be nothing to be afraid of."

Jin Mao drank some hot soup to moisten his throat and said worriedly, "But Changsha is a strong city. If Qu Xing holds on, it will be difficult."

Neither of them mentioned the bet. The march to Jinmao had already been won, and half of the enemies killed and the spoils seized were also won. Unless Sun Jian could kill half of the remaining 6,000 people in Qu Xing, he could turn the game into a draw.

That's impossible. If Qu Xing was really that stupid, Jin Mao would be able to kill all the enemies without Sun Jian taking any action.

Therefore, Jinmao has essentially won this bet.

Sun Jian was depressed but also very happy. The two of them were from close hometowns and had similar backgrounds. Now Jinmao was showing its amazing energy. In the future, the two families would help each other, which would be a beautiful story.

This is also the reason why Sun Jian was willing to sit on the right seat, admit defeat and correct his attitude.

"Haha!" Hearing Jin Mao's words, Sun Jian laughed heartily and said, "It turns out there are things that Junior Brother is not good at!"

"I thought my junior brother was omnipotent!"

"Brother, you are too kind to me. I am originally a country bumpkin. I learned the skills of marching and fighting from Marquis Qiantang."

"Junior brother, why are you being so modest?" Sun Jian sighed, "I am thirty-three years old, a generation older than you, but now I am not as good as you. Isn't it even more embarrassing to be so modest?"

I want to be your brother, but you want to be my elder. Jin Mao said without hesitation: "Brother, you are making fun of me."

Sun Jian smiled but did not answer, returning to the main topic.

"Since Junior Brother has already won the first place, I can't hide my incompetence, so I will show him a few tricks."

Dinner is over.

Sun Jian and Jin Mao rode outside to observe. Changsha City is a square city with a length and width of about three kilometers. The thickest part of the city wall is five meters high and two meters wide, and horses can run on it. The weakest part is only three meters high and one meter wide.

To the east of the city is the Xiangjiang River. If the bandits had attacked immediately after Jinmao crossed the river yesterday, the casualties would have been incalculable.

There are hills to the north and south of the city, and a flat road to the west.

After observation, Sun Jian came up with a plan to attack the city, but he still needed Jin Mao's cooperation.

"Brother, you see the enemy generals do not understand military strategy and are simply afraid of you, which is why they have concentrated their forces at the east gate, leaving the other three gates unguarded."

Sun Jian drew a simple diagram of Changsha City on the ground, pointed at the west gate with his ancient ingot knife and said, "If I take advantage of their unpreparedness and rush in from the west gate, I can win in one battle!"

Jin Mao clapped his hands and said excitedly: "Then what are we waiting for, brother, start killing!"

Suddenly, Sun Jian pointed at the thousand cavalrymen with a wry smile and said, "It's not that I don't want to, but I can't."

Jin Mao thought it made sense. Sending cavalry to attack a city was not something a normal person could do.

"This matter still requires Junior Brother's efforts."

Following Sun Jian's advice, Jin Mao divided the 500 archers into two groups, sending them to harass and attack outside the north and south city gates respectively.

Jin Mao is needed to lead his men to attract firepower from the front, while Sun Jian will lead his men to attack the city through the west gate.

Originally, Sun Jian meant to lead 600 personal guards and 1,900 main forces, a total of 2,500 people, to attack the west gate.

Jin Mao led Sun Jian's thousand cavalry on the front line.

However, Jin Mao did not agree, so Sun led a main force of 1,900 people to attack the west gate, while Jin Mao led 1,000 cavalry and 600 personal guards to attract firepower on the front.

The plan was finalized, and Jin Mao ordered people to learn from Sun Jian how to build ladders and battering rams.

Fortunately, when the bandits were dispersed earlier, there were nearly 20,000 Changsha county residents outside the city. With their help, twenty ladders and battering rams were built in just three days.

In order to cover up the movement of Sun Jian's transport of ladders and battering rams, Jin Mao led four of Sun Jian's generals, totaling 1,600 people, to attack the east gate.

Next, Sun Jian and his four generals were surprised to find that Jin Mao could answer questions fluently and communicate without any obstacles, no matter which dialect they spoke.

This made the thousands of cavalrymen under Sun Jian's command as easy as using one's own arms, and their combat effectiveness was raised to a higher level. Although it was of little use, the four generals were shocked by Jin Mao's command and dispatch capabilities.

After a simple command, Jin Mao also discovered that the abilities of the four generals under Sun Jian varied.

Putting aside the martial arts value, Cheng Pu is first, Zhu Zhi is second, Han Dang is third, and Zu Mao is the worst.

Therefore, Jin Mao temporarily ordered Cheng Pu and Zhu Zhi to lead the left and right divisions, dragging branches behind the horses' tails and moving back and forth in the southeast and northeast directions.

This trick really worked.

Qu Xing once again dispatched additional personnel to the East Gate.

Immediately afterwards, a messenger cart came out, leading five hundred archers to spread out to the north and south of the city.

At this time, Qu Xing's attack efficiency was the best and he could easily take out these two groups of archers.

Jin Mao knew it, so the role of the cavalry was revealed.

Once Qu Xing goes out of the city to fight, Jin Mao will order the cavalry to turn the fake play into real action and change from harassment to attack.

This was the first time that Jinmao applied the theory he learned from Zhu Jun in practice.

Sun Jian also saw this and led his troops to the west gate with all his might.

"Hurry up!"

"The first great achievement is just around the corner. If you go too late, you won't even get to drink the soup!"

With just two simple words, the 1,900 men led by Dong Xian, Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin rushed forward shouting.

It would be a lie for Sun Jian to say he was not envious, but he also knew that he could not afford to support these "expensive soldiers".

Ever since he learned about the food standards of Jin Mao's army, Sun Jian wanted to curse. He didn't even have to work so hard to raise cavalry!
I have never seen such a "tycoon" style of play.

Therefore, it was not surprising to Sun Jian that Jin Mao could defeat the cavalry without taking off his armor during the march.

If the cavalry were raised according to this standard, Sun Jian would dare to lead a thousand cavalry to attack the central army, kill the general and seize the flag!

(End of this chapter)