Yushugou Hefei Battle - 5: The Deluge Breaks
Shwaaaaa—
Rain pours down in sheets. The downpour intensifies. The once-clear river turns muddy yellow. It churns violently, as if screaming in agony.
Rumble-crash!
Lightning cracks the sky—a harbinger of even fiercer rain to come. Our 25,000 troops hold the high ground, camp fortified, gazing down at Hefei.
The river is dammed, swelling with fury.
"It'll start soon," I murmur.
If all goes to plan, Xu Shu and Liu Feng should be releasing the logs any moment now.
The enemy's dikes are holding back the flood to protect Hefei, but the same water control tactic that captured Lü Bu will now strangle them.
"They're coming!!!"
The messenger shouts. Sharpened logs float downstream, barreling toward us with terrifying momentum.
The dikes aren't just one—four layered barriers open and close to prevent Hefei's inundation.
Four? No problem. Once the primary barrier crumbles, the rest will topple like dominoes.
Break the first one, and Hefei drowns for sure.
Sploooosh!
Floating siege rams slam into the city gates.
Boom! Boom! Kwang!
The first ram strikes in time with thunder. The enemy dike holds—sturdily built.
But the follow-ups come fast. These momentum-driven rams hit harder than any man-powered siege engine.
Enemy troops camped near the dike panic, fleeing to higher ground.
They know.
The soldiers who've maintained these dikes for years know.
It's gonna break.
The battering logs approach relentlessly.
No wall, no matter how sturdy, can withstand endless heavy impacts.
I prepared far more rams than planned. This op cannot fail.
The plan: breach Hefei's east and north gates, flood the city.
Soak the enemy. Drown them thoroughly.
Hefei serves as a logistics hub, ferrying grain from Shouchun and Xiaopei.
I've pegged it as Cao Cao's granary. Even Yuan Shao crumbled when his supplies were cut—why would Cao Cao be different?
The difference? Cao Cao's granary is inside the city.
So I built rams to smash that city.
"It's going to collapse," Zhuge Liang mutters to himself, raising his white feather fan. His eyes are on me.
"How did you predict such a downpour?"
I answer honestly.
"I didn't."
"Then heaven aids us."
No sooner do the words leave his mouth than the next barrage hits.
Logs smash into the dike, splintering and piling up, only for more rams to pile-drive the wreckage.
In the end, the impacts don't outright demolish it.
The dike simply buckles under the raging current and the logs' crushing weight—it topples on its own.
Blooooomph!!!
A tiny crack forms, and the dike explodes in an instant.
Muddy water surges over. Joining the mountain's momentum, it triggers a landslide—mud and water blending into a torrent hurtling toward Hefei.
"Not enough," I say, trudging through the rain. Zhao Yun unfurls an umbrella to shield me.
"But it's only a matter of time. It'll flood soon."
"The moment the rain lets up, we encircle Hefei and force surrender. Their cavalry will be helpless in the mud—we take the city first, then plan our next move."
Zhuge Liang gives me an inscrutable look.
"Such certainty—how?"
"I'm getting help from a spy network. Reliable intel. I can't trace their roots myself, but I vouch for the quality."
The top brass knows, but Zhang Lian follows strict compartmentalization. Even I can't bypass him to the underlings.
"Soyoung? Don't worry 'bout that. Ga's solid, y'know."
Zhuge Liang perks up at Father's words.
"Who is this 'Ga' you speak of, my lord?"
"Zhang Lian."
Zhuge Liang sighs—an "ah." Not quite satisfied.
More importantly, when did this become such open knowledge? At this rate, it won't be a secret anymore.
"Anyway, that's fine. More importantly... get ready. I believe in you."
I'd assigned Father a role. He'll nail it, no doubt.
"What's with ya? Gettin' all mushy."
I'd asked him to lead the vanguard assault.
Vanguard's the most dangerous spot, but I don't see myself as a bad daughter for it.
Father's never commanded troops before. Leading men takes experience.
This battle's no training exercise. So vanguard or not, I gave him a different job.
"The water's overflowing!"
The breached channel rears like a water dragon.
With the primary dike gone, the backups collapse like dominoes. The muddy flood swells into massive waves, slamming against Hefei's east wall.
Hefei's a triple-walled fortress—small, medium, large ramparts. No breaching those, no claiming victory.
Kwaaaang!
Earsplitting roars as dikes successively crumble. The flood surges fiercer.
"Aaaagh! Water! The walls are shaking!"
Cao Cao's defenders scream from the ramparts, drowned out by rain. Nature's impartial—generals or grunts, all leaves in the deluge.
Hefei, fortress of the realm. Despite the initial shock, the inner citadels hold. Water rises, but the gates stay shut tight.
"Time to get started."
Father rolls his shoulders.
The inner citadel's already waist-deep in muck (head-high for me). We can flood Hefei, but no landslide buries it outright.
"Current's brutal."
Father descends the slope toward the raging riverbank, his back impossibly calm, almost unreal.
"Ya think yer old man's gonna drown? Lighten up. Yer lookin' more girly by the day."
"No, I trust you."
"Then watch close. I'll bust that gate wide open."
I nod.
"Your voice is loud enough, at least."
"That so? Heard Zhang Lian's got eyes inside Hefei. Lemme ask him to do me a favor."
Splash-splash!
Father charges through the mud. Rain swallows his form. The enemy's sole advantage in solo action: they can't spot him.
Torrents blind them; thunder masks his steps.
Mud rises to necks, but Father rides the current, dashing forward.
He vanishes from sight. Moments later—a bellowing shout.
"Open this damn gateeee!!! "
Thud!
A heavy crash. Hefei's gate rattles.
Someone's unlatched the bar.
Zhang Lian's network.
The outer wall's already half-lost—defenders fled the flood long ago. Mud seeps through the unbarred gate.
With the bar gone, only a dozen men hauling ropes keep it shut against its massive weight.
"The gate's opening!!"
Zhao Yun yells.
The gate creaks wide. A colossal muddy wave surges into the first inner ward.
"We've taken the outer gate. Medium and large remain—before the storm clears, smash their remaining dikes."
East channel's easy with rams, but this flood's still shy of total. Quick—collapse north gate dike, west if possible. Maximize chaos, seize total control.
Zhuge Liang, eyeing Hefei, calls out.
"East outer breached—they'll block at the medium gate. This current makes retreat tough."
I draw my feather fan, staring at the city.
"Signal advance on north gate. East flood herds them; north overflow cuts retreat."
If Zhou Yu holds, we annihilate. Cut supplies, pursue retreating foes, inflict deep wounds.
"Gan Ning. Take 5,000—breach north gate fast."
"Leave it to me!"
Gan Ning charges.
Then—something's off.
Hefei feels wrong.
A throat-hold city demands ironclad defenses, right?
Enemy numbers are suspiciously low. Ambush, or...
"Urgent dispatch! Wu's fleet routed! Yushugou braces for last stand—requests immediate reinforcements!"
Ah.
"Enemy strength?"
The messenger hesitates, gasping.
Too few troops indeed. Someone commanding a host must've committed everything.
Retreat?
...No. Pull back now, and it's the opposite—we're encircled, annihilated.
"We do our job. No Hefei, no next steps. Yushugou's a natural fortress—our generals will hold."
The messenger pants at my plan.
"Enemy host: over 500,000! Massive army!"
...!
"Say that again. Certain?"
"Over 1,000 warships!"
If true, Wu falls the moment they land.
"Reinforcing Yushugou is suicide."
Zhuge Liang asks.
"In this fog of war, one path emerges. You see it too?"
"...Yes. We flood Hefei, posture north."
"How so?"
"Even 500,000 won't steamroll Wu. Naval and amphibious ops differ. From their view, breaching Yushugou's no cakewalk."
Assuming no chain-link ploy from Pang Tong. Cao Cao's troops seasick, delaying the fall.
Prolonged naval war favors whom?
Wu routed? Pivot.
Enemy horde tied at Yushugou—swiftly take Hefei, then eye Wei.
"Threaten Xu Chang. Force their retreat."
25,000... drop Hefei, march on Xu Chang.
Future's murky, but with Wu's defeat locked, no other way.