As Zhao Hongrun predicted before, as the war was delayed for several days, the Jiejiao people's poor military food problem was gradually exposed.
According to the matters narrated by the chiefs of the tribes in Luocheng, the Jie tribe's cavalry basically only carried about three days' worth of food, and the rest of their food sources depended on plundering from hostile forces.
As for Jiejiao's slave soldiers, their treatment was even more miserable.
These slave soldiers, who are regarded as battlefield consumables by the Jiejiao people, have no stable way to obtain food. It is very common to go hungry.
What? Will not having a full stomach affect combat effectiveness? This will greatly increase the casualty rate?
In fact, the Jiejiao people didn't care about the casualties of the slave soldiers at all, or to put it more cruelly, the Jiejiao people never considered whether these slave soldiers could return alive in the end.
Of course, not caring about the casualties of the slave soldiers does not mean that the Jiejiao people will not give food to the slaves. Due to the experience of the Yi people, in fact, the Jiejiao people do not dare to really push these slave soldiers to death, lest they
These slaves from the Hu people, like the Yi people in the past, fought hard and pulled the Yi and Jie people from their positions as slave owners and killed them.
Therefore, today's Jie tribe people have learned to give slaves a humble hope, just like the promise the Jiejiao tribe made to the slaves before the war started that they would release you free once the Wei people are defeated.
What does it mean to defeat the Wei people?
This can be understood as defeating the Wei people in one battle, or as conquering the entire Wei state. It all depends on how the Jiejiao people interpret this sentence in the end.
But it was this humble hope that once supported the slave soldiers to launch a frantic attack on Luocheng.
But in fact, any smart person can predict that the Jie people will not let go of their slaves so easily unless the latter dies.
Giving meager amounts of food one after another is also an act of giving some hope to the slave soldiers. After all, once a person becomes unbearably hungry, he is more terrifying than a wild beast.
Because of this, while Jiejiao's army was advancing towards Luocheng, Bitatu asked the small and medium-sized tribes that were attached to him, including the small and medium-sized tribes that he conquered along the way, to bear the daily feeding problem of the more than 200,000 slave soldiers.
In fact, the food given to the slave soldiers every day was not much. Sometimes there might only be one piece of sheep cake in the whole day. Even Zhao Hongrun could eat two to three pieces of that kind of sheep cake in one meal.
However, just the food consumption of one piece of sheep cake per person per day put the small and medium-sized tribes into the embarrassing situation of running out of food in just a few days.
No wonder, after all, there were more than 200,000 slave soldiers.
You must know that in order to supply the Dangshan Army and the Shang Shui Army, the Wei State has almost emptied the grain warehouses stored in the interior of Chenggao Pass. Currently, the warehouses under the Wei State's imperial household department are urgently collecting food from counties and counties in the country that are full of food.
Grain was purchased and transported to Chenggao Pass in a hurry.
In other words, the Wei State had already used state power in this war, allowing several local counties to "support" the Dangshan Army and the Shangshui Army; and the Jijiao Tribe's military strength was clearly nearly ten times that of the Wei Army.
, but some weak small and medium-sized tribes supplied military food. These tribes have not been completely defeated yet, which is already quite a remarkable thing.
On August 23, the sky was dark, but it did not rain.
On this day, several chiefs of small and medium-sized tribes asked to see Bitatu and bluntly revealed that their tribe could no longer afford to feed more than 200,000 slave soldiers every day.
Bitatu agreed to the request of these people and quickly summoned the die-hard tribes such as Wujiao, Huijiao, Wutu and others to discuss the matter of attacking Luocheng again.
To be honest, a cloudy day after a heavy rain is not the best time to attack the city. After all, the slippery muddy ground outside the city is not conducive to siege.
But Bitatu could no longer care so much, because he knew that if the army continued to delay and the food was completely exhausted, they would no longer be able to defeat the Wei army and capture Luocheng. At that time, they would have no choice but to retreat to their respective tribes.
A way out.
However, this kind of behavior of raising a large number of troops to attack the Wei army, only to withdraw in embarrassment without achieving any results, will make these tribes the laughing stock of the other tribes in Sanchuan, and become the object of ridicule by the Wei State and the Luoshui Alliance.
"(In the language of the Yi people) Fight, patriarch!"
"(In the language of the Yi people) we can't delay it any longer."
"(In the language of the Yi people) Yes, now is not the time to worry about casualties. We must defeat the Wei army and capture Luocheng at all costs."
After some discussion, the tribal chiefs expressed their support for attacking the city immediately.
Because they know very well that once the small and medium-sized tribes responsible for the slave soldiers' food these days gradually withdraw, then the huge daily food consumption will obviously fall on them.
Instead of asking those slave soldiers to consume food every day, it is better to let them consume the Wei people in Luocheng City. In the current situation, even if ten or twenty slave soldiers are killed in exchange for one Wei person, in their view
You're all here to make money.
And just when the tribal chiefs were indignantly agreeing with the strategy of attacking Luocheng at any cost, bad news came from behind their army.
"(In the language of the Yi people) Chief, something bad has happened, something has gone wrong!"
Following a loud shout from far and near, a young Jiejiao man broke into the felt tent and shouted breathlessly: "The Wujiao tribe was attacked and destroyed by the Wei people!!"
Bitatu was going to scold this ignorant young man, but he was stunned when he heard this.
At this time, a person stood up from the banquet in the felt tent. It was Gorgan, the leader of the Wujiao tribe. He looked at the young man with a blank expression and asked in shock: "You said... you said that I am Wujiao?"
What happened to the Horned Tribe?”
"Destroyed!" The young man from Jiejiao took a few deep breaths and said with a heavy expression: "A Wei army sneak attacked the tribe of Wujiao and killed all the men in the tribe..."
Here, he glanced at Gorgan, the leader of the Wujiao tribe.
, added in a low voice: "There are also sheep...all the sheep were killed."
…
At first, when he heard that all the men in the tribe had been killed, Gorgan, the leader of the Wujiao tribe, was just shocked. However, after hearing that all the sheep of his tribe had been killed by the Wei army, he seemed to be shaken.
He slumped down as if he had lost his bones, his eyes were dull, and he looked like he was out of his mind.
It's no wonder, after all, sheep are the most important wealth of the Sanchuan tribe, and its significance is beyond the understanding of the Wei people.
The entire felt tent was completely silent.
After a long time, a tribe leader spoke cautiously: "The one who would do such shameless and evil acts must be the Wei army, right?... the Dangshan army!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a tribe leader next to him frowned and said, "Didn't the Dangshan Army... be forced into the woods in the north and dare not show their faces?"
"..." Bitatu's expression changed slightly.
Only then did he realize that Luocheng and Zhao Hongrun had attracted all his attention these days, so much so that he had not even paid attention to the Jiejiao cavalry sent out to block the Dangshan Army.
Could it be that all the more than ten thousand brave warriors of our Jiejiao tribe were killed by the Dangshan army, and not one of them escaped?
Bitatu was secretly frightened.
He didn't know that Sima An, the general of the Dangshan Army, had escaped some of the survivors when he lured the cavalry from the tribes in Luocheng into the forest to hunt, so this time he deliberately took away the more than 10,000 Jiejiao cavalrymen.
The cavalry was lured deep into the northern forest and waited until nightfall before starting to hunt.
Moreover, in order to keep the next surprise attack on the Jiejiao Tribe camp a secret, he did not hesitate to let his soldiers risk the attack, which resulted in heavy casualties that had never occurred so far.
All of this was to kill the more than 10,000 Jiejiao cavalry, so that Bitatu could not detect the movements of his Dangshan army, so that the Dangshan army could attack the hinterland of the Jiejiao tribe in a roundabout way.
"Crack-"
A croissant cup fell to the ground, and the milky white goat's milk wine spilled all over the floor.
Everyone in the tent subconsciously looked at the man who had lost his hand, only to discover that this man was not the leader of the Black Horn Tribe, Gorgan, but the leader of the Black Hoof Tribe, Lil Haqi.
The tribal land of the Wujiao Tribe seems to be not far to the northwest of the Wujiao Tribe... Now that the Wujiao Tribe has suffered, I'm afraid it will be the Wujiao Tribe's turn next...
Chelarhe, the leader of the Ubian tribe, glanced at them and couldn't help but sympathized with the two chiefs.
In addition to sympathy, Ceralhe also made a firm judgment again, believing that Wei was no less powerful than Qin.
"(In the language of the Yi people) The despicable Wei people unexpectedly attacked the tribe..."
"(In Shen language) Damn it! Damn it!"
"(In the language of the Yi tribe) What should we do? There are not many warriors left in our tribe..."
"(In Chinese) Shut up! Who doesn't?"
Gradually, the noise in the felt tent became louder and louder, and almost 90% of the tribal chiefs expressed their intention to return to the tribal area.
Seeing this chaotic situation, Bitatu had veins popping up on his forehead. He slammed the croissant cup in his hand to the ground and shouted: "Shut up!"
"..." The faces of the tribal chiefs froze, and suddenly the tent became silent again.
At this time, Bitatu looked around at the tribal chiefs present, and said in a serious tone: "We were negligent. I'm afraid the despicable Wei people had already planned a sneak attack on our tribal camp...
Just like the sentiments of all the clan leaders, I am also worried about our Jiejiao tribe. If nothing else happens, the target of the Wei army will be our Jiejiao tribe. However, if we withdraw our troops and return reinforcements, it will really
If we lose, we will lose everything... Not only will we lose our tribal land, but we will also become weak because we run out of food on the way back to aid, and eventually we will be killed by the Wei people who wait for work..."
After hearing this, the tribal chiefs who were clamoring for help gradually calmed down.
"(In Shen language) Chief, what do you mean..."
"Only the Wei army in Luocheng can be defeated..." Taking a deep breath, Bitatu stood up, with a flash of awe in his expression, and said in a deep voice: "In Luocheng, there is a young boy named Ji Run.
The son of the king of the Wei people, since the Wei people want to force us to return to aid by attacking our tribal camp, then we can also use that boy named Ji Run to force the Dangshan army to return to Luocheng to aid... If you all
The clan leader still believes what I say, Bitatu, so let’s go together and attack the city!”
The clan leaders looked at each other and nodded one after another.
On that day, more than 200,000 Jiejiao troops were dispatched. At the same time, troops were stationed in the western suburbs, southern suburbs, and northern suburbs of Luocheng. The merchant navy soldiers who sensed the enemy's situation also stepped onto the city wall to prepare for the attack.
The atmosphere that seemed to have solidified before the confrontation seemed to reveal a message.