In the south of Shangshui County, on that flat plain, tens of thousands of Chu troops were launching a surprise attack on the Wei army camp closest to them.
The Chu army's tactics were very direct and brutal. The reason was that there was almost no danger to defend the Wei camp, except for an unknown river that was probably less than ten feet wide.
However, even such an almost undefendable Wei camp caused the Chu army to suffer heavy casualties - the vast majority of the Chu soldiers could not even reach the river and were killed by the Wei army's crossbowmen on the other side of the river.
They shot them to death, causing corpses to litter the other side of the nameless river. The bright red blood gradually gathered to form small streams and merged into the river, causing the water surface of the river to gradually become dyed red with blood.
This is simply a one-sided massacre.
Seeing this scene, Xue Le, the vanguard general of the Chu army, frowned.
"Is this the strength of the elite Shang Shui army under the command of Wei Gongzi Run, the elite of the Wei state?"
Chu general Xue Le raised his head and stared at the Wei camp in the distance on the other side of the river, looking at the flag with the word "Shangshui" fluttering in the wind above the Wei camp.
Once upon a time, the State of Wei had only one Shang Shui army, but later, as Shang Shuiyi gradually became Wei's first line of defense against Chu, the Wei State also expanded the army of Shangshui, and gradually formed the "Shang Shui" army.
"Shang Shui Army Department", such as Wumajiao who besieged the city, Guliangwei who fought in Fenxing Fortress, and Zhaoling Army in Zhaoling, these were all classified as Shang Shui Army Department, and flags with the word "Shang Shui" were hoisted.
However, the flags of these armies with the word "Shangshui" are all white with black characters. There is only one army whose flag is with white characters on a black background. This is the army that has not had a single flag in the past twenty years since its founding.
The loser was the Shangshui Army, which was personally commanded by Wei Gongzi Run.
At this moment, the flag flying on the Wei camp blocking the Chu army's advance direction was the flag of the Shang Shui army with white characters on a black background.
This Wei army can definitely be regarded as one of the top three elite divisions in the Wei state, both in terms of the combat capabilities of the soldiers and the war weapons.
Looking at the neat and orderly appearance of the Wei army on the opposite side, there were obviously four to five thousand people, but there was almost no noise.
I saw the sword and shield soldiers of the Wei army lined up neatly on the front line of the river bank, each one staring at the river bank, as if waiting for their prey.
Behind these sword and shield soldiers, the crossbowmen of the Wei army repeatedly fired and loaded the crossbow arrows. Under the command of their respective thousand-man generals, they launched free and diffuse attacks on the Chu army on the other side of the river. Even if the bows among the Chu army
The crossbowmen also launched a counterattack desperately, but they were unable to affect the Wei army's crossbowmen at all, let alone panic them.
As for the two wings of the Wei army's formation, each had a cavalry of about several hundred men standing far away, probably preparing to take on the task of disrupting the Chu army's formation or even dividing the Chu army when necessary.
It has to be said that this Wei army has a clear division of labor, as if every soldier has his own mission in mind.
Turning around to look at his own soldiers, Chu General Xue Le sighed slightly.
Because in his eyes, the soldiers of the Chu army were rushing to the river bank in an unorganized formation, scrambling to try to jump into the river and rush to the other side - maybe they felt that jumping into the water was far safer than staying on the bank.
In order to fight for this glimmer of hope, the Chu soldiers did not care about their comrades in the charge, causing them to push each other and trample on each other frequently.
In the end, these soldiers were easily killed by the Wei army on the other side of the river with crossbow arrows.
Even those Chu soldiers who tried to jump into the river to fight for a chance of survival ended up being mostly turned into lifeless floating corpses, with their eyes open as they were mercilessly washed downstream by the river.
It is undeniable that some of the Chu soldiers did rush to the other side. However, in front of the Wei army's sword and shield soldiers, these soldiers were unable to break through the Wei army's defense line, let alone put pressure on the Wei army's crossbowmen. They could not even protect themselves.
He had no ability, and within a moment, he was all killed by the Wei army's sword and shield soldiers.
As the saying goes, one has to die when comparing with others, and one has to throw away when comparing goods. Maybe Xue Leshan doesn't think so on ordinary days, but at this moment on the battlefield, comparing the combat capabilities and fighting qualities of the soldiers of Wei and Chu, he had to admit that in front of the Wei army, he
Chu's army was simply a mob.
The Wei army in front of them are truly elite warriors who specialize in warfare.
"We've almost reached our limit..."
Seeing that among the soldiers under his command who had been sent out earlier, there were already shouting and fleeing soldiers, Xue Le let out a long breath and sent out the supervising team mercilessly.
"The general has an order, anyone who retreats will be killed without mercy!"
After receiving Xue Le's order, the general supervising the battle team personally stepped forward and hacked several deserters to death. Then he pointed at the bewildered grain recruiters with the bloody sword in his hand, and roared fiercely: "Turn around,
Attack!...Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed!"
At the same time, the soldiers from the Chu army's regular army, led by this man, also raised their long swords to resist the retreating deserters, and advanced step by step, forcing the deserters to attack again.
Attack on the north bank of the river.
Under the ruthless persecution of the war team, those soldiers who set foot on the battlefield for the first time panicked, and some even cried timidly on the spot.
But no matter how timid and howling these food recruits were, the war supervisors showed no mercy and forced these deserters to continue the attack.
In the chaos, one by one the grain recruiters who tried to escape were mercilessly killed by soldiers from the regular army's supervising team. After killing hundreds of deserters, they finally suppressed the trend of fleeing.
Poor those poor soldiers, young or old, under the threat of death, with tears in their eyes, roaring and launching a desperate charge towards the river bank as if they were abandoning themselves.
They should be desperate, because they can't threaten the Wei army on the other side of the river. The gap between them and the Wei army on the other side is really too big.
In the end, they all fell in the middle of the desperate charge, with their eyes open and unwilling to close their eyes.
However, the successive deaths of these grain recruits could not awaken the kindness of Chu General Xue Le. He quickly continued to invest troops and pushed the second battalion of five thousand grain recruits onto the battlefield.
"attack!"
Following the loud shouting of a thousand-man general under Chu general Xue Le, the second battalion of five thousand soldiers carrying crude weapons rushed towards the river bank with shouts and shouts.
Generally speaking, when soldiers roar before a battle, it is mainly to increase their own momentum or to embolden themselves. But looking at the frightened expressions on the faces of these soldiers, they probably roared to cover up their guilty conscience.
Either to suppress the fear of death, or simply to give up on oneself in despair when knowing that one is bound to die.
"Fire the arrow!"
From the other side of the river, orders came from a group of thousands of Wei army generals.
Immediately, crossbow arrows like a tide of locusts once again covered the entire south bank of the river, causing ripples of blood in the desperate charge of Chu's army to recruit soldiers.
In just one stick of incense, most of the 5,000 soldiers of the second battalion were lost under the attack of the crossbowmen of the Wei army on the other side.
What is disappointing is that even though the Chu army suffered up to seven or eight thousand casualties, it still could not pose even the slightest threat to the Wei army on the other side of the river.
But Chu general Xue Le was neither surprised nor disappointed by this.
As the vanguard general selected by Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu, Xue Le shouldered the honor of the first battle, but he knew in his heart that this so-called "honor of the first battle" was purely to fool the grain recruiters under his command, and to lure these people into a
Go and die.
Yes, die.
Paying the price with his life to consume the Wei army's crossbow bolts was the only mission of the vanguard army he led.
This sounds cruel - and in fact it is indeed cruel, but there is no way. The weapons, equipment and war weapons of the Wei army are the best and most sophisticated in the Central Plains. Take the military crossbow, for example, the crossbow in the hands of the Wei army's crossbowmen
, its range is almost twice that of the Chu crossbow. Under this absolute disadvantage, if the Chu army did not try to consume the Wei army's crossbow arrows first, then this battle would not have to be fought.
Because it is impossible to win.
That's Wei Jun!
They are currently the most powerful elite in the entire Central Plains!
Not to mention food and soldiers, even the regular army of the Chu State would have no advantage when facing the elites of the Wei State on the opposite side. At best, it could only compete with the second and third line local armies of the Wei State.
That’s all.
"...What a terrifying army."
After paying attention to the Wei army on the other side of the river for a while, Chu general Xue Le said secretly in his heart.
Like most of the generals of the Chu army, he also felt confused about this battle. After all, the Wei State today is no longer the Wei State that could be manipulated by Chu State twenty years ago. Take this battle in front of him.
For example, based on his understanding of the Wei army in Shangshui County, he felt that it would be really difficult to win this battle.
Of course, this does not mean that there is no chance of winning, but the premise is that the Chu army must continue to consume the Wei army's physical strength and crossbow arrows and other consumables regardless of casualties.
But having said that, even if the Wei army's crossbows and other supplies were exhausted by recruiting soldiers with food, it is not certain that the Chu army can easily defeat the Wei army.
After taking a look at the neat array of Wei army sword and shield soldiers on the other side of the river, Xue Le let out a long breath.
Perhaps the terrifying lethality of Wei's crossbowmen will inevitably lead to the misunderstanding that crossbowmen are the most powerful arm of Wei. But in fact, Wei's most powerful arm is infantry. Regardless of whether Wei can develop more terrifying weapons.
The military crossbows, regardless of the fact that Wei also has cavalry with powerful combat capabilities such as Shangshui Youma, Nanyan Cavalry, Sanchuan Cavalry (Jiejiao Cavalry), etc., cannot change that Wei's infantry is the real support of this country
.
Thinking that after exhausting the crossbow bolts of the Wei army on the other side, they would personally experience the power of Wei's infantry, Chu general Xue Le inevitably felt a little guilty.
He shook his head, throwing away these random thoughts in his mind, and repeatedly reminded himself of today's task: to consume the Wei army's crossbow bolts.
Having said that, as far as this task is concerned, the Chu army has actually achieved its goal. The 10,000 grain recruits who shot and killed the Chu army deliberately pushed to the front line to die, and the Wei army's crossbow arrows have indeed consumed a lot.
This is also the reason why Xu Jiong, the general of the Shang Shui Army in the ranks of the Wei army on the other side of the river, clearly saw that his side had a huge advantage, but there was no joy in his face or eyes.
"General, the general is here."
Suddenly, the guard beside Xu Jiong reminded him in a low voice.
The general of the Shang Shui Army was Wu Ji. Although he was from Chu, he had been hailed as the most valiant general in Wei in recent years. He had killed countless generals from other countries on his own.
Even the equally brave Yan Wang Zhao Jiang and Shangdang Shou Jiang Bi were not as famous as Wu Ji in this regard.
The only exception was General Lian of Wei who was stationed in Yunzhong County.
"General!"
Looking back, he saw Wu Ji wearing armor and walking towards him with long strides. Xu Jiong immediately turned around, cupped his hands and saluted.
Wu Ji smiled and waved his hand, his movements were somewhat similar to those of King Zhao Run of Wei.
"General, why are you here?"
After giving the salute, Xu Jiong asked in surprise.
Because in the strategic deployment of Shen Yu, the governor of Shangshui County, Wu Ji, the number one general in his Shangshui Army, was responsible for Shangshui County. After all, Shangshui County was an important part of the entire Shangshui defense line. If this place is captured by the Chu army, the Chu army can go north along the Cai River and attack Daliang.
Such an important strategic place naturally needs strong generals to guard it, and the most courageous general in the Shang Shui Army is undoubtedly Wu Ji.
"I just came to take a look...how is the battle going?"
Wu Ji explained with a smile.
Hearing this, Xu Jiong pointed to the other side of the river in the distance and said with a bit of ridicule: "Even after twenty years, the Chu people still haven't made any progress. They foolishly think that they can defeat me just based on their numerical superiority." military."
"..."
Wu Ji squinted his eyes and observed the other side of the river, looking at the tragedy on the other side of the river where corpses were strewn across the river, as well as the soldiers who had been forced by the supervising team to launch a desperate charge.
He could understand the irony in Xu Jiong's words.
Because both of them were born in Chu, before defecting to Wei, they were accustomed to Chu's fighting method of purely using human lives to build victory.
In fact, Wu Ji was demoted back then and was promoted to a Thousand-Man General in charge of food and army recruitment - to put it nicely, he was a Thousand-Man General, but to put it worse, he was just cannon fodder with the title of Thousand-Man General.
When the Wei State annexed the two countries Zheng and Liang, it absorbed the culture of the two countries and emphasized that "it is a crime to punish those who do not teach". Therefore, even the most ordinary soldiers will undergo rigorous training before setting foot on the battlefield. Unless it is facing the danger of the country's collapse, the Wei State will never use militia - even if the militia is recruited during the war, it will only be responsible for escorting grain and grass, etc., and will not be used directly on the battlefield.
The reason is that Wei State initially had a small population, so it paid special attention to this aspect.
The same goes for South Korea at this point - South Korea has been invaded by many foreign races and its national population has never been able to grow rapidly, so it also attaches great importance to this area.
But Chu State is just the opposite. Chu State’s territory is too broad. Even today’s Wei State may not be able to catch up with Chu State in terms of land area. Unfortunately, although Chu State has a wide territory, there are many swamps in it. , dense forests, coupled with the underdeveloped agriculture of Chu State, this resulted in the excessive population becoming a burden.
Precisely because of the burden, the Chu State was very indifferent to human life. In addition, the local kings were reluctant to spend money on their armies and tried to use numbers to make up for the low combat effectiveness of the army. These various reasons contributed to Chu's China’s method of war in which human lives are purely used to build victory.
Wu Ji had never thought of this before, but over the years, he followed the king of Wei Zhao Run to fight in the north and south, and gradually saw the war methods of various countries. Only then did he realize that in the entire Central Plains, maybe only Chu State was so careless about human life - besides this
, even the Qin State in the west only used the "military merit system" to stimulate the desire of the irregular army soldiers for war, and did not use the supervising troops to force the friendly troops in front to attack the enemy like the Chu State.
military.
"Chu's concept of war is distorted." Such a sentence suddenly came out of Wu Ji's mouth, which made Xu Jiong open his eyes in surprise.
"What are you looking at?" Wu Ji rolled his eyes and said angrily: "Although I have only been to the Daliang Military School for a few days, he has also read books written by Xu Yin, Baili Ba, and Zhu Hai.
Please read..."
Hearing this, Xu Jiong grinned and said: "General, your force alone is enough to deter other countries. Why are you reading military books? Isn't this a waste of time?"
"Hmm."
Seeing that Xu Jiong seemed to be praising him, Wu Ji smiled somewhat complacently, but when he thought about it carefully, he suddenly felt that Xu Jiong's words might not be good words.
Yes, General Wu Ji's force alone is enough. This is not a good thing at all.
"You're so brave."
Wu Ji glared at Xu Jiong angrily.
Seeing that Wu Ji had a fierce look in his eyes, Xu Jiong quickly apologized and quickly changed the subject: "General, Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu, most likely intends to consume our army's crossbow arrows first. In this moment, my subordinates
The soldiers fired nearly 20,000 crossbow bolts, which consumes too much..."
Seeing Xu Jiong mentioning business, Wu Ji also put away his playful anger and frowned as he looked at the Chu army on the other side of the river.
To be fair, at the cost of nearly 20,000 crossbow bolts, the Chu army on the opposite side suffered at least 8,000 casualties. Logically speaking, this should be a complete victory for the Wei army, but in fact, the Wei army did not actually take advantage of it.
How much cheaper.
"No need to worry."
Wu Ji said in a deep voice: "Lord Shen Yu has ordered the workshops in Shangshui City to speed up the production of crossbow arrows. He has also notified Anling and other places, asking them to work together to make crossbow arrows..."
That's what he said, but in fact Wu Ji himself couldn't guarantee whether the production of the crossbow arrows could keep up with the consumption speed. After all, Xu Jiong's consumption speed was too exaggerated, and it was consumed in less than two hours.
There are nearly 20,000 crossbow arrows. Even if those crossbow arrows are made of wooden materials, their production cannot keep up with the consumption rate.
"How many crossbow bolts do you still have in your camp?" Wu Ji asked with a frown.
"There are only more than 10,000." Xu Jiong explained: "When the general led his army to leave the city, he only received 30,000 crossbow bolts from the munitions office. I'm afraid there won't be many left after today's shooting..." At this point
, he glanced at the Chu army on the other side of the river, shook his head and said: "The general never thought before that the Chu army's... offensive would be so... crazy."
What he actually wanted to say was that he did not expect that the Chu army's death-defeating tactics would be carried out so crazily and thoroughly, and that they did not take the lives of the soldiers recruited seriously at all.
"Well——"
Wu Ji pondered for a moment and said: "In this case, you can ask the camp behind to transport the crossbow bolts to you. If it is still not enough, it is not a bad idea to retreat temporarily..."
The "Chen Shu" he refers to is Chen Shu, the general of the Shang Shui army stationed in the next Wei camp.
Upon hearing this, Xu Jiong's face tightened and he quickly said: "General, even if the crossbow bolts are exhausted, my camp will never let the Chu army cross this river..."
"It's not necessary." Wu Ji interrupted Xu Jiong's words and said seriously: "Don't forget your Majesty's past teachings. If you can use "dead objects" like crossbow arrows to exchange for the casualties of "living objects" of the enemy, there is no need.
Tell the soldiers to risk their lives, they can't break through my Shangshui. Don't forget, there are Youma troops in the plains outside the city... Remember, as a general, you must not care about the gains and losses of one city or one place..."
At this point, he saw Xu Jiong tilting his head and looking at him, so he added angrily: "This is what I also read in the book. Is there any problem?"
"Don't dare." Xu Jiong quickly apologized with a smile.
Everyone in the Shangshui Army knows that their general Wu Ji is the best in the world in terms of personal force. But unfortunately, this general's mind is not quick. Even though he has read countless art of war over the years, when commanding a war,
, at best, it can only be mediocre, without any outstanding features, and at best, it can only make no mistakes.
General Wu Ji was not good at it, like Zhai Huang and Sun Shuke, who suddenly had an idea when commanding and came up with clever plans to lure the enemy into making mistakes.
Not to mention compared to their monarch Zhao Run of Wei.
Of course, for General Wu Ji, force alone is enough.
Xu Jiong had no doubt that even at this time, as long as he helped the general beside him attract the Chu army's attention, and the general led a cavalry to suddenly join the battlefield, he might be able to defeat the Chu army's commander-in-chief.
Jun Xionghu was captured alive or beheaded.
Of course, the premise is that Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu is on the battlefield at this moment.
But it is a pity that Xu Jiong looked here for most of the day and did not see the flag of Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu, let alone the figure of the person.
Thinking about it, the king of Chu State probably learned the lesson when he was surrounded and captured alive by Zhao Run, the king of Wei State, and hid far behind.
On that day, Chu general Xue Le, under the command of Lord Pingyu Xiong Hu, led an army to launch a four-hour attack on the camp of Xu Jiong's army. Unfortunately, it still failed to shake the Wei army's defense line. Instead, it cost nearly 15,000 soldiers.
human casualties.
On the other hand, the Wei army suffered only a few hundred casualties, mainly from the Chu army's crossbowmen.
It has to be said that the ratio of casualties between the two armies is really very different.
But having said that, despite paying such heavy casualties, Chu general Xue Le also achieved his goal, which was to effectively consume the Wei army's crossbow arrow reserves.
In the next few days, the Chu army refused to give up. Even though the morale of the grain soldiers was so low that deserters frequently appeared, Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu still ordered all armies to send grain soldiers to continue attacking the Wei camp in front of them. Later, even
So there was one in the morning and one in the afternoon, giving Wei Jun no chance to breathe at all.
Faced with Chu's rogue human sea offensive, the soldiers under Xu Jiong, the general of the Shang Shui Army, were greatly depleted in energy. In order to avoid unnecessary losses, they had no choice but to abandon the camp and retreat backwards.
On the second day of March in the first year of Wei Zhaowu, the army of Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu broke through the first Wei camp on the outermost plain south of Shangshui City.
This difficult 'victory' slightly restored the morale of the Chu army.