The morning sun was rising, and now we could finally clearly see the tragic battlefield on the nameless plain southeast of Mengshan Mountain.
After yesterday's brutal night battle, only about 60% of the 40,000 Xiangcheng Chu troops left alive, led by Chu generals Nanmen Jue and Nanmen Huai.
At this time, these prisoners of war had had their weapons and equipment confiscated, and had been gathered together to receive the "righteous indoctrination" of Shangshui soldiers.
The so-called "righteous indoctrination" can be summed up in three points.
First of all, the soldiers of Shangshui revealed their identity and revealed the fact that they were also from Chu people, so that the more than 20,000 Chu troops in Xiangcheng could feel at ease.
Secondly, he vigorously praises the benevolent government of the Wei State, criticizes the rule of the Chu State by the Xiong family of the Mi family, and gives examples of various tragedies of "nobles overpowering the common people" in Chu East, in order to arouse the more than 20,000 Chu troops in Xiangcheng to attack the aristocrats of Chu.
of allegiance.
The third is to define the "Qi, Lu, Wei and Three Kingdoms' attack on Chu" as "the liberation of the civilians of Chu" and characterize this battle as a "war of righteousness".
All in all, he was praising the Kingdom of Wei while constantly speaking ill of the Xiong nobles.
I have to say that if these words came from the mouths of the Wei people, such as the Fenxing Army, the more than 20,000 Chu troops in Xiangcheng would only be angry. But now these words came from the mouths of the Shang Shui Army, who were also from Chu.
From what the soldiers said, this shook the minds of the more than 20,000 Xiangcheng Chu troops.
Because it is undeniable that the Xiong nobles of Chudong are indeed not worthy of the soldiers of Chu State to shed their lives and blood for them, but in the past, almost no one has considered this issue, and no one dared to consider this issue.
"It looks like the effect is pretty good."
Zhao Hongrun took Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao and several Shang Shui Army generals to inspect the brainwashing, no, righteous indoctrination, of the 20,000 Xiangcheng Chu troops by the Shang Shui Army. When he saw the prisoners of war listening quietly one by one,
Zhao Hongrun smiled slightly when Sergeant Shang Shui spoke and showed a pensive expression from time to time.
At this time, the deputy general of the Shang Shui Army, Zhai Huang, had already returned to the army and was following Zhao Hongrun. Hearing this, he chuckled and said: "Your Highness (King Su) clearly knows that the Xiong family is not popular in the Chu State.
P.S., but in the past few people dared to come forward to resist..."
Zhao Hongrun was a little surprised when he heard this. He turned around and asked curiously: "Is Vice-General Zhai (Huang) from Chu Dong?"
I saw continued pain on the face of the veteran general Zhai Huang, who nodded bitterly: "The last general... is originally from Zhangyang in the east of Chu."
"Oh." Zhao Hongrun responded without asking in detail.
After all, he could see that Zhai Huang didn't want to mention the past, so why bother to find out the painful past buried deep in others' hearts out of curiosity.
So, he quickly changed the topic and asked with a hint of ridicule: "Wu Ji, how do you plan to arrange the more than 20,000 Chu troops?"
After hearing this, Wu Ji said honestly: "Reporting to Your Highness, I will divide the plan into two and divide it into the establishment of our Shangshui Army and Yanling Army. The Fenxing Army... I think it is inappropriate, please forgive me.
.”
"He is really an honest man..."
Zhao Hongrun smiled and said nothing, because he knew very well that if it were Qu Cheng or Yan Mo, they would definitely not think of the Shang Shui Army, and would definitely absorb these soldiers to enhance the Yanling Army's combat power.
As for Wu Ji's statement that "the Fenxing army is not suitable", Zhao Hongrun can naturally understand it.
"Well, it's up to you to arrange this matter." Zhao Hongrun told Wu Ji: "The state of Chu is vast, rich in resources, and densely populated. You don't need to remind me to understand this... Although I am assisting King Lu Xi of Qi this time
The crusade against the Chu State is only aimed at the Xiong clan and does not concern the general public. As for the soldiers of the Chu State, I also hope to minimize each other's casualties, and will mainly recruit and persuade them to surrender..."
There are some things that Zhao Hongrun can't say clearly, but he can sum it up like this: grab the population for me, whether soldiers or civilians of the Chu State, and get the merchant water for me!
Wu Ji and Zhai Huang naturally understood this.
It has to be said that Zhao Hongrun's re-education of these generals who were born in Chu State was very effective. He told these generals: Chu State is a country established by the Xiong nobles of Chu State. Therefore, Chu State is not the same as Chu State.
For the Chu people, therefore, their crusade against Chu was actually just a crusade against the nobles of Chu, headed by the Xiong family, and could not be regarded as killing compatriots.
Even conversely, they were doing it to liberate the common people who were oppressed and persecuted by the cruel nobles of the Chu State. This was actually a heroic act.
Let’s not say whether these words were enough to convince every soldier of Shangshui Army and Yanling Army, but at least, after putting forward this slogan, these two Wei armies composed of Chu people had almost no private objections.
During the inspection, Zhao Hongrun also saw five other Zongwei including Gao Kuo, Zhongzhao, and He Miao. The last five joined the Shangshui Army in order to hone themselves, and then served as generals of a thousand men in the army.
Now he looks decent, as if he is changing from a "guard" to a "general leading troops", which makes Zhao Hongrun feel even better.
He had heard that in the night battle last night, Gao Kuo and other five Zongwei took the lead, piercing through the Chu army several times, and made great achievements.
The only thing that made Zhao Hongrun feel bad was probably the casualties of the three Wei armies in the night battle last night.
More than 50,000 Wei troops attacked the 40,000-year-old Chu army in Xiangcheng from three sides. It was obviously a good situation, but the casualties were as high as more than 5,000. This made Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but secretly sigh: If we can fight at night, it is better not to fight in the future.
.
You must know that if this battle had been fought in daylight, the sacrifices of the Wei army would have been insignificant.
But night battles are like this. The first factor is to fight with more people. If Zhao Hongrun hadn't used a feint attack last night to deceive Chu General Doulian's nearly 10,000 troops back to Mengshan, this battle would have been really difficult to fight.
After all, if Dou Lian also participated in last night's night battle, it would mean that the forces of the Wei and Chu armies were close, and the Wei army would also lose the advantage of attacking the Chu army from three sides. Even if the Wei army could still win the final victory, it would have to pay a heavy price.
I'm afraid it will reach the point where Zhao Hongrun is heartbroken and collapsed.
Therefore, it is undeniable that night fighting is a double-edged sword. Unless victory is certain, it is better not to use it.
While Zhao Hongrun and others were inspecting the collection of prisoners of war, several scouts from the direction of Xiangcheng hurried over, knelt on the ground and clasped their fists in front of the former, and reported the battle situation.
"Report! Our army has captured Xiangcheng!"
"Really?" Zhao Hongrun's eyes lit up when he heard this.
To be fair, although he was at least 80-90% sure about attacking Nanmen Jue and Nanmen Huai with the 40,000 Chu troops, he was somewhat less confident about "taking advantage of the situation to capture Xiangcheng".
After all, he didn't know much about the situation in Xiangcheng. Although he secretly deployed the elite thousands-man troops of Xiang Li, Zhang Ming, and Ran Teng as a killing move, he also asked Yanling Army to be responsible for attracting the attention of the Chu people in Xiangcheng.
, but to be honest, Zhao Hongrun is not very sure whether the city can be conquered in the end.
Unexpectedly, the soldiers under his command were so powerful that they actually captured Xiangcheng. This made Zhao Hongrun wish he could laugh three times.
However, due to the countless pairs of eyes watching here, His Royal Highness King Su finally endured it considering the majesty of the coach.
He nodded and said: "Okay!...How is the battle going?"
Hearing this, the scout said with some pride: "Shangshui Army suffered a number of casualties. We, the Yanling Army, captured Xiangcheng without a single blow!"
"A weapon without bloodshed?"
Even Zhao Hongrun was stunned. After looking at each other with Wu Ji and Zhai Huang, who were also stunned and puzzled, they frowned and asked: "The defenders in Xiangcheng... didn't resist?"
The scout proudly said: "Nanmen Chi, the guard of Xiangcheng, was persuaded by my Yanling Army deputy general, General Yan Mo, to surrender the city. All the nearly 20,000 Xiangcheng Chu troops under his command surrendered!"
"What?"
Zhao Hongrun was shocked and speechless.
Then, after thinking for a moment, he frowned and said: "Wu Ji, take three thousand soldiers and follow me to Xiangcheng immediately. Zhai Huang, I will leave the matter here to you. If the situation in Xiangcheng is true, I will
We will send someone over to summon you, and then you can introduce troops to move in."
"Yes!" Wu Ji and Zhai Huang responded with clasped fists.
After finishing the instructions, Zhao Hongrun took Wei Jiao and other five Zongwei and more than a hundred King Su's guards, and was escorted by 3,000 merchant navy troops led by Wu Ji himself, and hurried to Xiangcheng.
To be honest, he didn't quite believe the scout's report.
After all, in his opinion, even if Xiangcheng can be successfully captured, it will still cause some losses to the three thousand-man troops of Yanling Army Yan Mo and Shang Shui Army Xiang Li, Zhang Ming, and Ran Teng. How can they capture Xiangcheng without a fight?
Woolen cloth?
But when Zhao Hongrun rushed to Xiangcheng with his troops, he discovered that the walls of Xiangcheng were covered with flags of the Wei army.
To be precise, it is the military flag of the Yanling Army.
"Is it really possible to win it without bloodshed?"
Zhao Hongrun muttered in his heart and slowly approached Xiangcheng with some caution.
Out of caution, he did not enter the city directly, but asked Yan Mo to come out to greet him, because he was not sure what was going on in Xiangcheng at the moment.
Unexpectedly, a moment later, Yan Mo of the Yanling Army led three people dressed as generals to greet him outside the city. These three people were all new faces that Zhao Hongrun had never seen before.
At the same time, these people were followed by Xiang Li, Zhang Ming, and Ran Teng, three thousand-man generals of the merchant navy. These three thousand-man generals waved to Wu Ji, the general of their merchant navy.
Wu Ji was puzzled, so after asking Zhao Hongrun for instructions, he walked towards the three thousand-man generals under his command. The four of them stood there muttering without knowing what they were talking about.
But at this moment, on Zhao Hongrun's side, Yan Mo had led the three fresh-faced generals to Zhao Hongrun. His face was filled with unconcealable joy, and he clasped his fists and said, "Your Highness (King Su), the Yanling Army is fortunate to have lived up to its mission!"
"
As soon as he finished speaking, three unfamiliar-looking generals behind him clasped their fists and knelt down on one knee, saying in unison: "A certain Nanmen Chi (南门jue, Nanmenhuai), pays homage to His Highness King Su. We are willing to lead the 20,000 troops in the city.
The soldier surrenders to His Highness and hopes that His Highness will take him under his wing."
"Is this... really a piece of cake in the sky?"
Zhao Hongrun was so surprised that he was speechless: Just now, the Shang Shui Army gathered more than 20,000 Chu defeated troops. Unexpectedly, when they arrived at Xiangcheng, another 20,000 Chu troops voluntarily surrendered?
Although he was pleasantly surprised, Zhao Hongrun's movements were not slow. He turned over and dismounted, personally helped up Nanmen Chi, Nanmen Jue and Nanmen Huai, and comforted them and said: "The three generals follow the righteousness and surrender to our army.
I am deeply gratified... Don't worry, you three, I will definitely not treat you badly."
After saying that, Zhao Hongrun, who was secretly happy, glanced at Wu Ji from the corner of his eye, and was surprised to find that Wu Ji's face was as dark as water, and there was a hint of displeasure in his eyes.
"What's wrong? What happened to make Wu Ji, an honest man, angry?"