novelhk Chapter 886: Fell into a trap, Yi Xiaochuan’s scheming!
Chapter 886: Fell into a trap, Yi Xiaochuan’s scheming!
But he never expected that his seemingly correct and timely reaction would fall step by step into the carefully woven plan of Yi Xiaochuan who was far away in the Chu army camp.
At this moment, the atmosphere within the Chu army's central tent was starkly different from the tense atmosphere on the walls of Xianyang. Xiang Yu sat upright in the main seat, his face resolute and his eyes sharp. Although he didn't fully grasp the subtleties of Yi Xiaochuan's strategies, he still trusted him immensely. At this moment, he was strictly following the strategy Yi Xiaochuan had laid out beforehand.
Generals under his command shuttled back and forth, relaying news from the front. Upon hearing that the Xianyang defenders had indeed begun a fierce counterattack with arrows and slingshots, one impatient officer immediately clasped his fists and pleaded, "Your Majesty! The enemy's counterattack is fierce, and many of our men have been injured! Please allow me to lead a select group forward to cover the excavation team, or perhaps launch a direct exploratory assault on the city!"
Xiang Yu raised his hand, slowly shook his head, and said in a deep voice, "No rush. Everything will proceed according to your plan, sir. Send a message to the front line: the excavation team need not advance rashly. When encountering a fierce enemy attack, they can retreat slightly to avoid the enemy's attack, but overall, the excavation cannot stop, especially... those areas where the defenders are attacking most intensively and are trying their best to stop them. Keep a close eye on them and mark them secretly!"
"Yes!" The messenger left quickly.
Xiang Yu's gaze drifted toward the misty Xianyang outside the tent, a flicker of admiration for Yi Xiaochuan's strategy in his eyes. The first batch of Chu soldiers sent to dig were intended as decoys and pawns; their mission wasn't to actually find all the gunpowder—that would be like looking for a needle in a haystack in such a vast area.
Yi Xiaochuan had already grasped Gao Yao's strategy by putting himself in his shoes. He analyzed: Gao Yao is a meticulous and decisive man, never fighting a battle without confidence. Since he dared to leave only 30,000 southern border troops to garrison Xianyang, a city easily isolated if surrounded, he must have been nearly 100% certain that Xianyang would not be captured.
Adequate food and fodder reserves were certainly an important aspect, but they were by no means the only factor. More crucially, the city had to be equipped with a powerful, "trump card" defensive weapon capable of changing the tide of battle and responding to large-scale attacks.
In this era of cold weapons, what could be more revolutionary than the "black powder" that Gao Yao had already mastered and secretly developed for many years? Yi Xiaochuan was almost certain that Gao Yao would definitely use this substance in the attack and defense of Xianyang.
The best way to use it wasn't to cram at the last minute. Given Gao Yao's character, he would have deployed it at key strategic points outside the city, creating a minefield of death. He would wait for the Chu army to charge, then detonate it at the perfect moment, causing maximum casualties and psychological shock.
This wasn't because Yi Xiaochuan underestimated Gao Yao's technological prowess. He was fully aware of Gao Yao's boundless potential. He even mentally anticipated the worst: if Gao Yao's research into black powder had transcended simple explosives and reached the point where they could produce even the most rudimentary firearms, then this war wouldn't be necessary; surrender might be the best option.
In the era of cold weapons, once the prototype of hot weapons appeared, especially the large-scale musket team or even artillery, it was simply a dimensionality reduction attack. Not to mention the 100,000 elite cavalry under Xiang Yu, even if there were another 200,000, they would just be moving targets.
It was only after ruling out this extreme possibility that Yi Xiaochuan chose the most probable one among the limited possibilities - Gaoyao used the method of pre-buried black powder bags to strengthen the city's defense.
Therefore, he devised this strategy of alerting the enemy and testing the waters. He ordered the Chu army to conduct a large-scale, seemingly futile excavation. This in itself had multiple purposes:
First, there is certainly an extremely small probability that a blind cat will stumble upon a dead mouse and actually destroy one or two gunpowder points, thus weakening the strength of the defenders.
Second, and more importantly, this was a psychological tactic and reconnaissance tactic. Such a high-profile operation would have been impossible for the defenders to fail to detect. Once they realized the Chu army's intention was to destroy the black powder, their commanders would subconsciously mobilize resources for a focused defense.
And Yi Xiaochuan was betting on this very point! He cleverly exploited the defender's psychology: the more you value something, the more you fear losing it; the more desperately you protect a place, the more crucial it is!
Although Li Zhao possessed exceptional abilities and had experienced assassination attempts, he was still young and lacked sufficient experience in commanding large-scale battles and accurately understanding people's hearts. The sudden assassination attempt within the palace had already made him nervous; the Chu army's unusual and purposeful digging outside the city further threatened him, fearing that his carefully planned assassination plan would be destroyed.
Anxiety and urgency overwhelmed his calm judgment. He was obsessed with stopping the enemy, but overlooked a crucial strategic principle: the more heavily you deploy defenses and the more desperately you try to conceal them, the more clearly you reveal your weaknesses and vital points to the enemy!
His arrows and stone bullets, like precise markers, clearly "pointed" the approximate burial area of the black gunpowder, and even the core points, to the Chu army observers who were observing carefully in secret.
Facts ruthlessly proved that Yi Xiaochuan had once again accurately predicted his opponent's reaction. Li Zhao's defensive actions not only failed to effectively stop the Chu army, but also handed over crucial intelligence. Standing on the city wall, watching the Chu army appear to be somewhat disorganized and retreating under the attack, he thought his strategy had worked. However, he was unaware that in the distant Chu army camp, a detailed map was being rapidly drawn up, marking the key defensive areas outside Xianyang.
The areas most heavily targeted by the arrow rain and the stone bullets were meticulously recorded by the Chu spies. This intelligence, gained at the cost of countless arrows and the lives of a few Chu soldiers, was a thousand times more accurate than blind digging. Yi Xiaochuan's psychological game was undoubtedly a resounding success, laying a solid foundation for how to circumvent and even exploit this black powder in the final assault. Li Zhao, however, unknowingly handed his opponent the most lethal key.
This battle, which resulted in only a few dozen casualties, lasted just over half an hour before the Chu army's temporary retreat. Watching the enemy retreat like a tide, Li Zhao leaned against the battlements and let out a long, stagnant breath. His rain-soaked battle robe clung to his armor, and the chill seeped through the iron sheets into his skin, yet he was oblivious. He felt only a slight shift in his heart, a sense of faintness.