Following several long trumpets that resounded through the sky, 50,000 merchant navy troops and 20,000 Sichuan and Luo coalition troops lined up in formation at the foot of Hangu Mountain, and dozens of catapults were pushed to the front of the array.
It is obvious that the Wei army is preparing to storm the "Hanshan Qin Army Company Camp".
After learning about this urgent military situation, in the Qin camp in Hangu, Wuxinhou Gongsun Qi immediately ordered all the soldiers in the camp to prepare for battle. Then, he took Qin Shaojun to an observation deck at the gate of the camp and climbed up to look at the Wei army at the bottom of the mountain.
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To be fair, Gongsun Qi, Marquis of Wuxin, has never encountered an army of tens of thousands. Even when the Qin State went to war with the Western Qiang and the Wei clan in Longxi, an army of hundreds of thousands, let alone tens of thousands, was not seen.
This is not a rare case.
Of course, the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands mentioned here refer to the army including the "irregular army".
The so-called "irregular army" covers a very wide range, such as Qin's "tattoos", Qi's "martial arts warriors", Chu's "grain-recruited peasant soldiers", Sanchuan's "slave soldiers", etc.
These irregular troops are poorly dressed and equipped, and their strength varies greatly. They are as fierce as the "tattoos" of the Qin State. Even the regular soldiers of the Qi State with complete armor may not necessarily be the former's opponents, but more
Others are like the Chu State's "Grain Recruiting Peasants and Soldiers" who bully the weak and fear the strong, and can almost only fight with the wind. Once their own war situation is not good, this group of people will not only be unable to turn the tide, but will even accelerate the defeat.
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But there are also countries that adopt the rule of "no conscription without teaching", such as South Korea and Wei.
It is undeniable that the Wei State does not have the "four million maximum levy resources" like the Chu State, and can easily raise a million-strong army. However, the Wei State's army basically needs to be trained for a year.
The army that dares to enter the battlefield makes the quality of Wei's infantry very proficient in battlefield combat - of course, the same is true for South Korea's army.
For example, at the foot of Hangu Mountain, although they are both commanded by Wei Gongzi Ji Run, the Wei Shang Navy and the Sanchuan-Sichuan Luo Allied Forces have completely different military appearances.
Compared with the chaotic Sichuan-Luoyang coalition forces, the 50,000 merchant navy troops lined up neatly and kept silent. Just standing there made the Qin army peeking on the mountain feel inexplicable pressure.
Even Gongsun Qi, the Marquis of Wuxin, could not help but praise in his heart: This is a terrible opponent!
"Shang Shui Army..."
Looking at the Wei army at the foot of the mountain, Qin Shaojun, Wang Lu and other generals who had participated in the "Wei Qin Sanchuan Battle" the year before last, all showed extremely solemn expressions at this moment, while the other Qin army soldiers and generals who had not participated in that war said with
With curiosity and scrutiny, he looked at the Wei army, as if he wanted to see if the Wei army was as invincible as the rumors said.
Not to mention, "Wei Gongzi Run" and his subordinates "Shang Shui Army" and "Yan Ling Army", these three are very well-known in the Qin State.
The vast majority of Qin people don't know the name of the contemporary King of Wei or how many sons he has. However, at least 80% of Qin people know the name of "Wei Gongzi Run" - Ji Run.
Without him, it is just because during the "Battle of Sanchuan between Wei and Qin" the year before last, this young master of the Wei State caused too many Qin people to hate Sanchuan and bury their bones in a foreign land.
It is precisely because of this that the Qin army, which has always had a strong desire to attack, this time obeyed the tactical arrangements of Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi and adopted a tactic of "combining offense with defense".
"Note: There is a certain difference between attacking and defending, and "defensive counterattack". The former is simply to be ready to attack at any time during the defensive period. Once the enemy's flaws or major mistakes are caught, a decisive attack will be carried out to severely damage the enemy.
One sentence is used to establish an advantage or destroy the enemy's advantage; while the latter focuses on using tight defense to make the attacker lose his energy, and then suddenly exerts force to defeat the attacker before and after the attacker is preparing to evacuate, and then pursues the victory and kills an enemy.
Wave."
Otherwise, it is unimaginable that the army coming from a country that "supports war with war" will adopt weak tactics.
At the same time, the Wei army at the foot of the mountain had pushed dozens of catapults up to the front of the array and was adjusting the direction. It seemed that they were preparing to bombard the Qin Camp in Hangu.
"This distance..."
The 2,000-strong Shang Shui Army general Gu Tao visually measured the distance from the Qin camp in Hangu, and calculated it secretly in his mind.
Gu Tao is the best at commanding catapult troops among the Shangshui Army, because he has commanded catapult troops more times than any other general. Especially during the attack on "Pilao Pass" last year, Gu Tao commanded the catapult troops.
The catapult troops cooperated with the elite infantry team of the thousand-man general Qu Cheng and others, and completely crushed the Korean general Jin Pao tactically.
But the problem is that last time the Valley Pottery Department used sophisticated catapults built by the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau, but this time due to time constraints, inconvenient transportation and other issues, the Shangshui Army did not carry the catapults built by the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau.
The dozens of catapults he bought were just inferior products that he made by imitating the blueprints. In this case, even though Gu Tao had a lot of relevant experience in commanding catapults, to be honest, he felt a little uneasy.
Fortunately, Zhao Hongrun's order was to "burn this mountain forest", and Han Valley is a stretch of mountains that stretches for dozens of miles and is very deep, so as long as the location is not too remote, it is still acceptable.
"put!"
Following Gu Tao's order, a catapult made a loud bang and threw a stone bullet as heavy as an oil barrel high into the air. Then, it hit the mountainside of Hanshan with a loud bang, causing people to startle.
A flock of flying birds.
"The catapult built by the soldiers in a hurry is not as accurate as the catapult built by the craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau... The range is almost half, and it misses too much."
Gu Tao frowned in dissatisfaction. He still missed the catapults built by the Smelting Bureau that could shoot up to nearly two miles. That was called a war weapon.
"Barrel bombs!"
While grumbling in his heart, Gu Tao ordered.
Immediately, several Shangshui soldiers took down a barrel filled with oil from the horse-drawn cart, placed it on the catapult's ladle, and then lit the cloth on fire.
"put!"
Following Gu Tao's order, the oil barrel bomb was thrown in the direction of Hanshan with a roar. Then, with a loud bang, it landed in the forest outside the Qin Army's company camp.
"whispering sound!"
Gu Tao clenched his fists, not knowing whether to cheer or be depressed, because he accidentally hit the petroleum bomb to the outside of the Qin Army's company camp, which was more threatening than the test bomb just now.
But the embarrassing thing is that although the stone bombs and the oil barrel bombs are obviously the same weight, the positions of the two bombs are obviously different. This shows that the stability of this catapult is quite poor, and it cannot be compared with the catapult built by the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau.
Comparable.
"This time it really depends on God's will."
Shaking his head helplessly, Gu Tao ordered the other catapults to adjust their angles based on the first catapult and release the bombs freely.
But to be fair, the hit of ancient catapults was actually just a matter of "doing your best and depending on God's will." Fortunately, the Wei army used petroleum bombs this time. The fire caused by the petroleum would ignite the forest and spread the fire outward. Otherwise, if
Using the irregular stone bullets commonly used in the world as projectiles, the hit rate is really impressive, and it can only be said to be a scary-looking paper tiger.
It is precisely because of this that when generals from other countries attack a city, they at most use the catapult as a "speculative" object, betting on whether it can destroy the enemy city or the gate of the enemy city.
At the same time, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi looked solemnly at the small area of fire that suddenly broke out outside the camp in the distance.
"Is that the 'fire oil bomb' that destroyed the Jiejiao tribe?" he asked Qin Shaojun.
"Most likely." Qin Shaojun nodded. Seeing the puzzled expressions on the faces of several generals nearby, he explained in a deep voice: "Wei Gongzi Run has a very terrible fire oil, which is black and viscous.
Five years ago, Wei Gongzi Run used this object to burn down the Jiejiao tribe's settlement "Henan", and it remains to this day.
, there is still no grass growing on the outer wall of the city...According to detailed inquiries, this thing is called "black water" or "black oil" in Sanchuan, while the Wei army calls it "fierce fire oil". The fire caused by this thing cannot be extinguished with water.
It can continue to burn even in heavy rain, so Sichuan people call it "Sky Fire" or "Sacred Fire"..."
It has to be said that after the tragic defeat at the hands of "Wei Gongzi Run", a friend he had met many years ago, Qin Shaojun learned from the pain and sent out spies many times to find out information about Zhao Hongrun, including information about the Shangshui Army and the Yanling Army.
Therefore, we are more or less aware of the existence of a killer weapon like oil.
It's just that Zhao Hongrun is very strict about the existence of oil, so that so far, other countries, including Qin, still don't know how this terrible kerosene is produced.
"Can't put it out with water?"
"Even the heavy rain can't extinguish it?"
After listening to Qin Shaojun's story, the expressions of some nearby Qin army generals changed slightly: Since they cannot extinguish such terrible flames, how can they defend this mountain?
About a quarter of an hour later, because the Shang Shui Army threw oil barrels arbitrarily, Hanshan Mountain was on fire. However, because the hastily built catapults of the Wei Army had a short range and low accuracy, most of the oil barrels were destroyed.
Bombarded the outside of the Qin army's company camp.
Of course, this is not a problem. After all, Hanshan Mountain is full of vegetation, and even the Qin Army's company camp is a wooden structure. Therefore, sooner or later, the fire will spread to the Qin Camp. It is just a matter of time.
The only regret is that due to the range of these catapults, the Wei army could not directly throw the oil barrels into the Qin army camp, causing actual casualties to the Qin soldiers.
But even so, the rapidly expanding but unstoppable fire still caused panic in the Qin army. In just a short moment, hundreds of soldiers who did not know what was going on tried to put out the fire.
The high temperature directly bakes it into char.
However, during this period of time, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi also calmly analyzed one of the most critical weaknesses of the Wei army's fierce firepower: the small attack surface.
Yes, after an oil barrel bomb explodes, the fire that explodes quickly can only spread to a radius of about five feet at most.
Of course, this does not mean that the fire will not spread. After all, the high temperature generated by the burning of such fierce fire oil will quickly bake the nearby trees and dry them up, so that in the end, only a few sparks can burn those trees.
The long-dried branches and leaves ignited, and then spread to the trunk.
But in general, the threat to the Qin army in this way of spreading fire is actually very small - unless some Qin soldiers foolishly approach to extinguish the fire, or they are unlucky enough to be directly hit by an oil barrel, otherwise, as long as the Qin army
The soldiers evacuated quickly, with minimal losses in strength.
"I'm afraid this camp can't be defended..."
Qin General Wang Lu frowned and said solemnly.
Compared with the overwhelming crossbow attack of the Wei army in the "One-day Battle of Hangu" the year before last, the "killing weapon" of the Wei army this time was actually acceptable to Wang Lu.
After all, kerosene is not a rare thing. Even if the Wei army's kerosene is black, even if the fire caused by this kind of kerosene is unstoppable, in general, it is not separated from the Qin generals such as Wang Hao.
cognition.
Presumably, only the Sichuan people, who are ignorant and worship gods and ghosts, would subconsciously attribute this kind of fire to divine fire or heavenly fire due to their own inability to understand it.
But having said that, although Wang Hao did not break away from Wang Hao's knowledge, Shi Wang Hao also understood a truth: since that kind of fire cannot be resisted, then the impregnable camp built by their Qin army must not be able to defend it.
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After hearing Wang Lu's words, Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi said calmly: "It doesn't matter. Since it is difficult for people to approach this fire, I believe the same is true for the Wei people. I don't believe that the Wei army has the ability to attack the top of the mountain with such fire... Pass the order
Go down and ask the sergeants of each battalion to retreat one after another. Remember, retreat is only allowed when the fire is approaching."
After saying that, he turned his gaze to the royal flag of "King Su of Wei" in the Wei army at the foot of the mountain, and raised an inexplicable smile at the corner of his mouth.
"The fire attack strategy is not a clever move, Wei Gongzi Run..."
He said secretly in his heart.
At the same time, Zhao Hongrun was at the main line of the Wei army at the foot of the mountain, watching the movements on Hanshan Mountain with his naked eyes.
Beside, the Zongwei had already assembled a "telescope", which was being used by Lu Mu, the Zongwei. Under the curious gaze of Que'er, who was pretending to be a Zongwei, he carefully watched what was going on in the Qin camp.
Suddenly, Zongwei Lu Mu shouted: "Your Highness, several battalions of the Qin army have withdrawn!"
"..." Zhao Hongrun was stunned when he heard this, then he got off his horse and walked a few steps to the far-sighted mirror, using it to spy on the movements of Qin's camp on Hanshan Mountain.
Just as Zongwei Lu Mu said, the Qin army seemed to be retreating on a large scale in the Qin camp that stretched for more than ten miles on Hanshan Mountain, because the number of flags with the word "Qin" on the camp decreased rapidly. It was obviously that the Qin army was
Taken back.
But the strange thing is that only the Qin soldiers in the partial Qin camps that were about to be hit by the fire would choose to retreat, while in those partial camps that were temporarily far away from the sea of fire, the Qin soldiers in the camps did not move.
"..."
Frowning, Zhao Hongrun raised his head and looked in the direction of Hanshan.
His reason was that burning Hanshan would force Wuxinhou Gongsunqi to fight him, but it turned out that Wuxinhou Gongsunqi was not fooled at all. The other party calmly made a judgment - you want to set fire to Hanshan? Let you burn it, I
Retreat. You won't be able to survive the mountain fire anyway.
"No way? Could it be..."
Muttering in his heart, Zhao Hongrun had a bad feeling in his heart.
He immediately ordered: "Send the order to Gu Tao to suspend the attack."
"Obey the order!" The ordering soldier followed the order and left.
Immediately, Zhao Hongrun summoned several Green Crows, pointed to the distance in the direction of Hanshan that was not affected by the fire, and ordered: "Go to the end of Qin camp, go around, climb to the top of the mountain, and see if there is anything behind Hanshan."
The other camp of the Qin army."
"As you command!"
A dozen Green Crows immediately led the troops and galloped toward the southwest on their horses.
Faintly seeing a group of more than a dozen knights walking away from the Wei army's main formation, Gongsun Qi, the Marquis of Wuxin in the Qin camp, was slightly stunned, with a somewhat unpredictable expression on his face.
"The reaction is really fast, Wei Gongzi Run... Yes, I had expected that you would use fire attack, so I have already built several backup camps behind Hanshan. After you led your army to arrive here a few days ago, I
He also ordered some of the general's baggage to be transported back to other camps... If you think that burning this camp will give you a chance to defeat our army, haha, I'm afraid you will be disappointed."
Stroking his beard, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi looked like an old god.
Thinking of this, he glanced at the sea of fire halfway up the mountain and said to everyone on the left and right: "Everyone, let's evacuate to the rear as well."
The generals nodded and followed the words of Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi to leave. Only Qin Shaojun stayed for a moment and looked at the royal flag of "King Su of Wei" in the distance with a complicated expression.
In his opinion, his good friend Wei Gongzi Run had already lost in the contest with Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi.
It is not the difference in intelligence or military use, but the situation of both sides - Wei Gongzi Run's situation is so disadvantaged that Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi can defeat the former without fighting as long as he adopts delaying tactics.
In Qin Shaojun's view, if Wei Gongzi Run's opponent this time was not Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi, then the Wei army still had a chance of winning this battle. But unfortunately, Wei Gongzi Run faced Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi, a man with great wisdom and skills.
The Qin army commander with impeccable strategic vision.
"Shaojun?" Guard Peng Zhong reminded softly from the side: "It's time for us to evacuate."
"..." Qin Shaojun nodded and left with complicated feelings.
If possible, he really didn't want his good friend Wei Gongzi Run to be defeated in this situation and in this way.
After all, in his heart, Wei Gongzi Ji Run can be called a hero, even though he is a hero of Wei.
Therefore, not to mention Qin Shaojun, even Peng Zhong, Wang Lu and others lamented the defeat of this hero in this way.
In fact, when Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi proposed his tactics, many Qin army generals felt angry - how could the proud Qin people ever use such despicable means to win victory?
But there is no way. The opponent of Wei Gongzi Run is too terrifying. His intelligence can see through the strategy of Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi, and the army under his command can also make the powerful Qin soldiers feel afraid. There is such a figure in Wei State.
, the Qin State had no chance of expanding eastward.
The disastrous defeat in the "Battle of Sanchuan between Wei and Qin" the year before last caused turmoil in the entire Qin State, because at that time the Qin State lost 200,000 young men without gaining almost any war benefits. This was simply a loss for a country.
A devastating disaster.
It is precisely because of this that "Wei Gongzi Run" became famous in the Qin State; and precisely because of this, when the Qin court and the nobles in the country learned that they would face Wei Gongzi Run again in this war, they acquiesced to Wu Xinhou Gongsun.
To win this war in an ugly way.
Not only the Wei State cannot afford to lose, but in fact the Qin State cannot afford to lose either. The Qin State, which advocates the "military merit system" and adopts the "fighting to support war" approach, if it is defeated by Wei Gongzi Run again this time, then the "military merit system" will
"The nobility system" may completely collapse, and Qin will suddenly fall from power as a powerful country.
Therefore, Qin must win this battle!
Even if it looks ugly, we still have to win!
The Qin State needs to obtain a large number of war benefits to make up for the resource consumption of various classes in the country.
Finally, when the last Qin Army flag disappeared from Hanshan Mountain, the Qin Army's ten-mile-long company camp had been completely engulfed by fire.
However, there was no trace of joy on the face of King Su Zhao Hongrun. Instead, he frowned and tightened the reins.
After a long time, he took a deep breath, raised his arms and shouted: "Very good! The Qin army was timid and abandoned their camp and retreated. This is a victory for our army!"
After hearing this, the 50,000 Shangshui soldiers shouted joyfully, and even the 20,000 soldiers of the Sichuan-Luo Allied Army showed signs of joy.
Only some people have almost no joy of victory on their faces, or in other words, even if they do, their smiles are very forced.
Just like Zhai Huang, the deputy general of the Shang Shui Army.
In his eyes, the Qin army was at best a strategic retreat. Was there any actual loss?
Although their Wei army seemed to have the upper hand, what about in reality? Did they cross Hanshan Mountain? No, the Wei army were also mortals of flesh and blood, and there was no way they could forcefully occupy that mountain top despite the sea of fire.
Just as Wuxin Hou Gongsun said in his heart to slander Zhao Hongrun: Since you clearly know that I am adopting delaying tactics, what is the use of setting fire to the mountain? The fire will burn the mountain for several days, but your Wei army will still be unable to get through?
Therefore, fundamentally speaking, the situation of the Wei army has not changed at all - the fire sealing the mountains is actually no different from the Qin army sealing the mountains.
Of course, all generals can only think about this kind of "truth" in their hearts and will never reveal it to their soldiers.
It is precisely for this reason that even if Zhao Hongrun knew that they had not won, he had to pretend to have won the battle to boost the morale of his soldiers.
In the evening of that day, Zhao Hongrun met the dozen or so returning Green Crows in the commander's tent of the military camp.
Those green crows brought back bad news. Just as Zhao Hongrun guessed, the Qin army still had several military camps west of Hangu.
"As expected..."
After sending away the dozen or so Green Crows, Zhao Hongrun lay with his head on the sheepskin blanket inside the tent, closing his eyes and thinking.
Once upon a time, the most difficult opponent he encountered was Shouling Jun Jingshe of the Chu State, but now, Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi, the commander-in-chief of the Qin State, must be added to this list.
"...Qin cannot afford to lose. If the Qin army is defeated again, the military merit system will most likely collapse, and Qin will become extremely weak. Therefore, no matter how ugly the victory is, we must win... and
Our situation is quite similar.』
Sighing secretly, Zhao Hongrun sat up suddenly, summoned two Green Crows, and told them: "You must go to Luonan as quickly as possible, ask for an audience with General Sima An in the name of this king, and order him to lead the army immediately.
The army crossed the Qinling Mountains and invaded the territory of Qin. During this period, all military affairs will be decided by General Sima An!"
"Yes!" The two Blue Crows followed the order and left.
Looking at the swaying tent, Zhao Hongrun's slightly confused eyes gradually became firm.
"...Qin cannot afford to lose, but I, the Wei Dynasty, can't afford to lose either. No matter how ugly the victory is, I will win!"
Clenching his fists, Zhao Hongrun's eyes flashed with a hint of indifference.