Li Ran's move of playing hard to catch was actually extremely clever. The troops led by Gan Loach were already unstable in morale. If there was another shortage of food and grass, there would naturally be internal strife due to uneven distribution, and there would be chaos within the army.
And if you don't give them any food and grass, they might end up sharing the same hatred with the enemy, burning rivers and burning boats, which will in turn stimulate their fighting potential.
Wang Zichao suddenly understood after hearing Li Ran's explanation.
"I really admire Sir's wisdom! Then we will do everything according to Sir's words! Oh, you and General Sun and others will discuss how to proceed!"
"promise!"
After Wu Ge accepted the order, Sun Wu and Fan Li went to one side with him to discuss the matter. Although Wu Ge was a Qiang, he had lived in Zhou for a long time, and his attitude seemed to be extremely sincere.
The crowd worked together, and for a while it seemed that the monarch and his ministers were in harmony.
When the prince looked at this scene, he couldn't help but feel secretly happy. Now that the great sage was by his side, and everyone from top to bottom was so united, he became more and more confident in his great wish.
The soldiers acted according to the plan. Within ten days, Gan Loach's food supply was indeed unsustainable, and the food left by Sun Wu and others was getting less and less. How to distribute it became a big problem.
The ambush arranged by Li Ran outside the city was even more like a ghost, becoming a major trouble that always lingered in the minds of everyone in the Gan army.
And Gan Loach's army, just as Li Ran said, gradually began to become chaotic.
Some rebelled, some fled, and even some gathered to mutiny and cause trouble. Seeing that the time was almost up, Sun Wu asked for orders to launch a final attack on Gan Loach.
The prince looked at Li Ran, and Li Ran gave him a positive nod, bowed his hands, bowed his head in respect, and did not speak.
Wang Zichao knew that Li Ran wanted him to give orders personally, and he was not very grateful for a moment:
"General Sun, are you confident in this battle?"
"The other side is short of food and grass, and civil strife has arisen. Two generals couldn't bear it, so they came with hundreds of followers. According to the descriptions of these two men, and through the detailed investigation sent by the subordinates, Gan Loach's army was already in a state of disarray.
At the moment of collapse, we only need to attack for a while, and the enemy will be defeated!"
After hearing this, Wang Zichao couldn't help but nodded.
"Well, what General Sun said makes sense. What do you think?"
I saw him bowing and saying:
"Back to Your Highness, the enemy army has been defeated, there is no need to say anything more. Your Highness just gives the order. If the general is willing to charge and kill for a while, just make them fall on their backs!"
After Wang Zichao heard this, he couldn't help but say "Zeng" and drew the sword from his waist.
"In that case, I will personally lead the troops as queens! Sun Wu, Wu Ge, and Fan Li, each of you will lead an army of five thousand and launch an attack on Gan Loach Camp immediately!"
Li Ran didn't say a word during this. All he did was silently support Wang Zichao. Now that the tone had been set, there was no need for him to step forward and steal Wang Zichao's limelight.
Wang Zichao wanted to go out of the city to fight in person. Li Ran originally wanted to stop him with words, but then he thought about it. Although this move was dangerous, it could boost his own morale, and secondly, it could establish Wang Zichao's prestige as a pioneer.
During the previous attack on the city, Wang Zichao had lost all face in order to seduce Gong Jian, but now he was counterattacking with high spirits. This was the time to turn his image around.
What's more, this battle came at a time when the morale of Gan's army was low. If nothing unexpected happened, he should have won a complete victory. Therefore, Li later did not worry too much about it.
Li Ran was even planning the follow-up matters at this time. After all, what they had to face was the Dan and Liu families who had been entrenched in the Zhou royal family for a long time, and the other party was still relying on the name of the King of Zhou, and was more likely to persuade other princes.
, and even the Seven Secret Lords came to help.
Only then will it be the real test for the princely dynasty and them.
Therefore, Li Ran finally only told Chu Dang to protect Wang Zichao's Zhou Quan, and let him do the rest.
The three generals led the left, center and right armies respectively, with a total of 20,000 troops. Wang Zichao led another 5,000 troops to the rear, opened the city gates, and charged away.
The five thousand ambush troops who had been set up outside now also learned that the flags on the city wall suddenly changed. According to what was previously agreed, the black flag was to attack the grain road, while the red flag was the signal to launch a general attack!
As a result, four groups of people rushed into Gan Loach's camp. At this time, Gan Loach was also troubled by the problem of food and fodder, and had already begun to think about retreating.
At this moment, they were suddenly surrounded by an army of 20,000 men. The already unstable morale of Gan's army was even more demoralized. Even if Gan Loach personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, it would be of no avail. Defeat was inevitable.
And this sweet loach actually had the word "locus" in his name. Seeing that something was wrong, he immediately changed into uniform clothes like a loach in the water and disappeared among the crowd.
The whereabouts of the commander were unknown. As a result, the officers and soldiers of the Gan Army naturally lost their fighting spirit and fled in all directions, becoming nothing more than a rabble.
Sun Wu and the others easily captured the enemy's camp without much effort. They wiped out thousands of enemies and captured thousands more.
】
The only flaw was the loach. He ran so fast that he didn't even know where he was.
This battle was fought so smoothly, which was certainly within Li Ran's expectation, but it still made Wang Zichao extremely happy. Apart from being overjoyed, he admired Li Ran even more. Moreover, Li Ran was also satisfied this time.
It cost him face, and Wang Zichao knew this very well.
Wang Zichao personally went to arrange for the prisoners, and after all, those prisoners were all subordinates of the Zhou Dynasty, and they had no deep hatred against Wang Zichao. Now that Wang Zichao came in person to persuade them to surrender, why should they refuse?
And since it is now the time for Wang Zichao to employ people, it is natural that he can take advantage of them all.
Later, Wang Zichao found Li Ran in person and expressed his gratitude to him, while Li Ran returned the favor in a very sensible manner:
"In terms of merit, all of this was actually done by His Highness. However, he just followed the trend. How dare he take such a greedy merit? What's more, His Highness's current situation depends on the lives of all the soldiers. If Your Highness really
When it comes to rewards for merit, it should be the soldiers. They are the ones who have done the most great work!"
When Wang Zichao heard this, he laughed heartily:
"Hahaha, what you said is absolutely true. All the soldiers have worked hard. But as the saying goes, a thousand troops are easy to get, but a general is hard to find. If you didn't have your husband to advise and strategize for the government, I'm afraid the government would not know where it would be now!
"
Li Ran said calmly:
"Your Highness is too modest, but... the next situation is still not optimistic!"
When Wang Zichao heard this, he immediately stopped laughing and bowed respectfully to Li Ran.
"Please sir, please give me some advice!"
Li Ran reached out and helped Wang Zichao up.
"Your Highness, there is no need to be polite, but Gong Jian and Gong Jian have already spoken in advance. If we can defeat Gan Loach, he can tell Cheng Zhou's situation and Shan Qi's next deployment. The only way is to grasp these situations first.
, we can make a better layout!"
"However... if nothing goes wrong, this time we have defeated the armies of Gong Jian and Gan Loach one after another, and secured the capital. Danqi will never give up, and may even ask the Jin State for help.
I think the Liu family has always been married to the Fan family of the Jin State for a long time. And since Fan Yang now takes an important position in the Chinese army to take charge of Jin affairs, it is probably impossible for the Jin State to send troops to intervene!"
