When the sun set that day, the army under Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo had already built a tentative camp on the site of the ruined village.
To be precise, the Chu soldiers only built a camp wall on the north side to guard against the sneak attack of the Wei army from the Yanshui camp, and then they were busy setting up tents. After all, they had to spend the night in the cold weather.
In the wilderness, this winter at the end of October is just like seeking death.
As for the work of improving the camp, the Chu soldiers planned to wait until sunrise tomorrow.
After setting up tents for the night, the Chu soldiers began to bury pots and cook rice. At this time, Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, was in the commander's tent with his three trusted generals, Zaifu Gen, Zi Cheyu, and Lian Bi, discussing how to conquer the Wei army.
Matters at Yanshui Camp.
It has to be said that the Wei army's Yanshui camp was an impregnable fortress-like military camp. However, Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo and others could not help but feel frustrated and frustrated. After all, the turtle shell of the Wei army was too strong, and what's more terrible was that it was overgrown.
The sharp thorns are as sharp as hedgehogs. If one of them is not good enough, instead of crushing the turtle shell, it will break the teeth, and even the turtle will be stabbed in the ground with holes all over its body.
"Otherwise, how many siege engines should we build?" Lian Bi asked tentatively.
The siege weapon he mentioned refers to the siege vehicle. According to the purpose, these siege vehicles can be divided into stone-throwing (throwing) vehicles, door-ramming vehicles (city gate ramming vehicles), well-land vehicles, etc.
Wait, these crafts originally originated from Qi and Lu. Nowadays, they are no longer secrets. Every country knows how to build them. It is just that the siege equipment they build has different advantages and disadvantages in terms of craftsmanship.
"Siege vehicle..." Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo thought for a moment after hearing this, shook his head and said, "I'm afraid I won't be able to wait until it's completed."
It is not unreasonable for Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo to say this.
Because it is already the end of October, it is not certain that it will start snowing in Yingshui County in a few days. By then, heavy snow will block the roads and the roads will be inconvenient. Even the infantrymen of the Chu State will find it difficult to travel on their own legs.
Let them push and pull the heavy siege vehicles to attack the Wei army's Yanshui camp?
To say the least, even after they built the siege vehicle, they had to go through all kinds of troubles to transport it to the Yanshui camp of the Wei army. But as a result, just as they were preparing to attack the Wei army camp, the siege vehicle was in trouble due to the cold weather.
The parts are frozen, what should I do?
Wouldn't it make Wei Bing laugh out loud?
So, it's just a waste of effort.
"How about crossing the Yan River and attacking Anling?" General Zaifu thought about his plan and said: "If our army crosses the Yan River, there is no guarantee that the Wei soldiers from the Yan River camp will emerge from the turtle shell..."
"If you are a smart man, you won't." Xiong Tuo smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Yanling City has been burned down by the order of Su Wang Ji Run of the Wei Kingdom. The winter cold has arrived, and it is not easy to capture Anling...
If it were Ji Run, he wouldn't have fallen into your trap of luring the enemy!"
The three generals looked at each other after hearing this.
There is no way, fighting in winter is so troublesome and there are too many factors to consider. This is one of the fundamental reasons why wars have rarely happened in winter since ancient times.
"Otherwise, we will spend the cold winter in this camp and wait until next spring to fight again?" General Zi Cheyu said helplessly.
Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, nodded slowly and was about to say something when he suddenly heard a report from a soldier outside the tent: "Your Majesty, General Yan Mo has urgent news."
"Yan Mo?" Yangcheng Jun Xiong Tuo frowned and called the Chu soldier into the commander's tent. Then he asked in a tight voice: "But the Wei army is attacking our camp?"
It turned out that Yan Mo was the general on duty arranged by Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo to guard the only camp wall to prevent the Wei army from taking the opportunity to sneak attack when they saw that the Chu army had not built the camp yet.
But to Xiong Tuo's surprise, the Chu soldier shook his head and said with a strange expression: "It's not the Wei army that's coming, but our army."
"What?" Xiong Tuo was a little confused: "What is our army?"
"Reporting to your Majesty, it is the vanguard army led by Lord Xiong Hu... The Wei army put them back."
"..." The three generals Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, and Zaifu Gen, Zi Cheyu, and Lian Bi looked at each other in shock upon hearing this.
"Let's go and have a look."
Without saying a word, Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo put on his fur cloak and hurriedly came to the north wall of the camp with his three confidants.
Sure enough, near the only camp wall in the Chu camp, Chu general Yan Mo was commanding thousands of Chu infantry, blocking tens of thousands of soldiers wearing only thin clothes outside the camp.
"Yan Mo."
Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo shouted from a distance and quickly walked towards him.
Chu General Yan Mo looked back. He seemed to be relieved. He quickly clasped his fists in salute and said with a wry smile: "If your Majesty doesn't come again, I really don't know what to do."
Xiong Tuo glanced at the soldiers wearing only thin clothes, frowned and asked, "What's going on?"
Yan Mo replied in a low voice: "The general has repeatedly identified them, and they indeed look like Lord Xiong Hu's vanguard... For some unknown reason, the Wei people put them back."
Xiong Tuo frowned when he heard this and asked in surprise: "Are you sure?"
Seeing that Xiong Tuo was still a little suspicious, Yan Mo simply stopped explaining and shouted to the Chu soldiers who were stopped outside the camp: "Lord Qu Cheng, please come here."
Qu Cheng? He is also among these people?
Xiong Tuo was stunned. You must know that Qu Cheng is a familiar face among the generals under the command of Lord Pingyu Xiong Hu. He is also a member of the Qu family, so he naturally recognizes this person.
Under Xiong Tuo's astonished gaze, Qu Cheng, who was also wearing only thin clothes, came to Xiong Tuo, followed by two thousand generals, Gu Liangwei and Wuma Jiao.
"Qu Cheng (Gu Liangwei, Wuma Jiao), pays homage to Mr. Yangcheng." The three of them saluted Xiong Tuo with their fists clasped and the ground kowtowed.
"Get up." Xiong Tuo waved his hand to signal the three of them to get up, then pointed at the dense crowd of soldiers outside the camp and asked: "What... is going on?"
When Gu Liangwei and Wuma Jiao heard this, they looked at Qu Cheng. They seemed to be respectful and let Qu Cheng answer. Only Qu Cheng knew what was going on.
Qu Cheng sighed secretly in his heart, and said with a wry smile: "It was Ji Run, King Su of Wei, who released these 30,000 people."
"Are they all soldiers under Xiong Hu's command?"
Qu Cheng smiled wryly, spread his hands, and raised his hand to point at the thirty thousand soldiers: "More than thirty thousand people, none of them have weapons or armor, and what's more terrible is that everyone is hungry and cold... That Su Wang Ji Run fought
What the hell is your idea, can’t you, Your Majesty, still not see it?”
Xiong Tuo, the Lord of Yangcheng, frowned when he heard this. After a long time, he took a long breath, gritted his teeth and said bitterly: "Ji Run... is indeed Ji Si's son, which makes people angry!"
"Your Majesty..." Chu General Yan Mo asked in a low voice: "Will we accept these people?"
Xiong Tuo struggled for a long time, and finally said through gritted teeth: "Take it!"
After that, he thought for a moment and then said: "Qu Cheng, the three of you are coming with me to the commander's tent. I have something to ask you...Yan Mo, you are responsible for taking care of these soldiers, be careful among them..."
Having said this, Xiong Tuo glanced at the soldiers who were wearing only thin clothes and walked towards the commander's tent angrily.
Think about it, a group of soldiers without weapons or armor. They were simply sent back to create trouble for Xiong Tuo, the Lord of Yangcheng. Would the Wei army have wasted some time and mixed some spies among them?
Qu Cheng, Gu Liangwei, and Wuma Jiao looked at each other and followed Xiong Tuo to the handsome tent respectfully.
As soon as he arrived at the commander's tent, Xiong Tuo asked Qu Cheng about the defeat.
Qu Cheng did not hide anything, nor did he add any exaggeration. He truthfully told Xiong Tuo what had happened.
There was no way, what could Xiong Tuo say? After all, the Chu general Shen Kang, who was leading the army at that time, made the right decision: since the Wei soldiers set fire to Yanling, and the people of Yanling were not very far away from them, it was natural that they should be followed.
Take it up and try to see if you can take down Anling. Are you really stupid enough to save the fire in Yanling City?
What's more, Shen Kang has already died in the battle, so it would be meaningless to blame a dead man now.
"Why did Ji Run let you back?" Xiong Tuo asked with a frown.
Qu Cheng carefully replied: "He wanted to strengthen the camp at that time, but because of the lack of manpower, he used 30,000 captives like us as labor... and promised us that if we obeyed, we would be released in six days...
…Including today, it happens to be the sixth day.”
"Child Ji Run, how treacherous!"
Yangcheng Jun Xiong Tuo couldn't help but cursed loudly.
It's no wonder, after all, those 30,000 Chu army prisoners had been drained of all use value by Zhao Hongrun: weapons and armor were all confiscated. They also served as laborers to help the Wei army strengthen the camp and help the Wei army build such an impeccable fortress.
.
What was even more vicious in Xiong Tuo's opinion was that in the end, Zhao Hongrun just let the 30,000 prisoners back intact.
This is undoubtedly causing trouble for Xiong Tuo!
What are these 30,000 people for?
There are no weapons or armor, and everyone is hungry, cold, and extremely weak. What use does Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, have such soldiers?!
And "evil" is "evil". He, Xiong Tuo, couldn't shut out these 30,000 people.
Otherwise, what should we do? Can we still kill all 30,000 people?
If he, Xiong Tuo, really dares to do this, not to mention that the 30,000 freed Chu soldiers will undoubtedly riot. Even the more than 80,000 soldiers under his command, Xiong Tuo, will feel chilled by this, and even do all kinds of things that he does not want to see.
thing.
"It doesn't make sense! It doesn't make sense!"
Xiong Tuo paced back and forth in the tent angrily.
Seeing this, Qu Cheng, Gu Liangwei, and Wuma Jiao looked at each other calmly, and couldn't help but admire the new lord they had surrendered to.
Logically speaking, when Wei and Chu were at war, the Wei army released 30,000 Chu prisoners back to the Chu army. This was undoubtedly an act of letting the tiger return to the mountain.
But the fact is that Zhao Hongrun's behavior of letting the tiger go back to the mountain made Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo suffer more losses and made him passive.
Think about it, if Zhao Hongrun killed all the 30,000 Chu prisoners, it is undeniable that this is a good way to weaken the Chu army once and for all, but does this have anything to do with Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng? Does the latter suffer any losses from this?
No!
Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo still has 80,000 troops under his command, and he still has an absolute advantage in terms of military strength!
But now, Zhao Hongrun has released those 30,000 prisoners. Although Xiong Tuo's troops have suddenly increased to 110,000, he has to lose a full 30,000 people's rations.
What's even worse is that even if he loses 30,000 people's food rations to feed those 30,000 prisoners, those 30,000 prisoners will not be of much help to the battle unless Xiong Tuo finds a way to get 30,000 weapons and armor.
, otherwise, those 30,000 people would just be for show.
Just when Xiong Tuo was furious, General Zai Fugen looked at Qu Cheng, Gu Liangwei, and Wuma Jiao solemnly, with suspicion in his eyes. (To be continued.)