Chapter 730: The Contest of Experience and Insight (2)
Biogas, this is the method Zhao Hongrun used to solve the problem of the Wei army's lack of firewood.
As early as the night when Zhao Hongrun arrived at this land and took advantage of the night to call the Yanling Army, the Shang Shui Army and the tens of thousands of Chu troops in Nanmenyang to build the ice city, he ordered another group of soldiers to dig several holes in the ice city.
There were ten deep pits. After the inner walls of the pits were consolidated, the sergeants were ordered to dump their excrement into these pits.
At that time, the Wei army did not understand the true purpose of these pits and thought that His Highness King Su thought they were unclean. Who would have thought that more than twenty days later, they would actually be able to cook rice by relying on some kind of gas generated from these pits?
Warming.
Because of this incident, the generals of the Yanling Army and the Shangshui Army certainly admired and looked forward to Zhao Hongrun more and more, while the tens of thousands of soldiers under Nanmen Yang's command also became more awe and fearful of Zhao Hongrun because of this incident.
Why awe and fear?
Because in order to facilitate the recruitment of Chu people, the soldiers and generals of the Yanling Army and the Shangshui Army often spread various rumors in private that gave Zhao Hongrun a headache. Some said that he was the messenger of the God of Fire, and some simply said that he was the incarnation of the God of Fire.
, which made the Chu people who didn't know the truth even more awe of Zhao Hongrun.
After all, Zhurong, the God of Fire, and Gonggong, the God of Water, are the most famous gods in the Chu State. The status of these two gods in the hearts of the Chu people is no less than that of Father Heaven and Mother Earth in the hearts of the Wei people.
In this regard, Zhao Hongrun was helpless. Even he did not expect that because he tended to use fire attacks, and used fire attacks many times to nearly annihilate the enemy's army, which made many of his soldiers who were from the Chu Kingdom kill him.
It is related to the legendary god of Chu who controls fire.
However, he could not deny that because of this rumor, more and more surrendered troops from Chu State gathered under his command, and more and more people believed that the Wei soldiers led by Zhao Hongrun were really here to save the people of Chu State.
The messengers of gods thus greatly weakened the rebellious psychology of those surrendering soldiers.
For example, this time, Zhao Hongrun used biogas to replace firewood, which seemed to him to be a very common thing, but he asked his Wei soldiers, or to be precise, the soldiers of the former Chu state who were from Chu state, to give them
It caused a strong shock.
Because in the eyes of these soldiers, Zhao Hongrun was like lighting a flame out of thin air. How could this be achieved by human power?
But for this reason, Zhao Hongrun always felt that the soldiers and generals under his command who were from Chu people looked at him a little strangely, as if they wanted to kowtow and kneel down.
This allowed Zhao Hongrun to finally understand the power of superstition. Since ancient times, there have been many people who took advantage of this to recruit soldiers. The stories of ghosts, ghosts and ghosts are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Alas, after returning to China, I don’t know what kind of crime the officials in the Ministry of Rites will punish me for...
Zhao Hongrun sighed secretly in his heart.
But thinking about it, Zhao Hongrun would not let it go if he could use this to undermine the morale of the Chu army in Juyang County.
So, he summoned the Green Crows and the Black Crows, and ordered these two groups of hidden thieves to perform their respective duties while spreading rumors among the Chu army. It was probably that the Wei army had the support of gods behind it.
The clan practices tyranny and has been abandoned by the gods, etc.
Thanks to this, the Chu soldiers in Juyang County are now in a state of morale and panic, because they can't figure out how the Wei army can make a fire and cook rice without firewood.
After much deliberation, they could not come up with a clue, so many soldiers of the Chu army regarded this rumor as fact and began to believe that the Wei army was blessed by the God of Fire and was a magic soldier who came to rescue the people of Chu.
How can humans compete with gods?
As a result, the morale of several Chu armies in Juyang County was greatly reduced. Even when the Wei army was mentioned on weekdays, there was a vague sense of talking about it.
Of course, this only refers to ordinary soldiers who are illiterate. For Chu people like Shouling Junjingshe who are well-read in poetry and literature, how can the rumors about the Wei army shake their minds?
But the embarrassing thing is that even if Shouling Junjingshe tried his best, he could not figure out how Wei Jun used to make a fire to cook rice.
Because he could not think of a strong basis, even though Lord Shouling Jingshe had issued a strict order to prohibit his troops from spreading the rumor about Wei Gongzi Ji Run, the soldiers of the various Chu armies in Juyang County were still
Discuss this matter secretly in private.
In this regard, Shouling Junjingshe had no other good solution. After all, he couldn't kill all the Chu soldiers who discussed this matter, right? Wouldn't this mean that these Chu soldiers would be pushed towards the Wei Gongzi Ji Run?
Therefore, he just strengthened the control of his soldiers.
It was already mid-November and the weather was getting colder.
Because of the weather, the Chu and Wei armies temporarily suspended the war, which seemed to be a bit of a waste of time.
Even if the scouts from both sides encountered each other in the snowy field, they would just turn their heads and pretend not to notice, and then continue patrolling on their own.
It was really too cold, and the two soldiers were not willing to have any conflict in such cold weather.
Having said that, the situation on the Chu Army's side is pretty good, because Ju Yangjun Xiong Li is too greedy for money and afraid of death. Therefore, he has long made up his mind to defend Ju Yang County and has prepared a large number of supplies in the city.
of food and firewood.
The only thing missing was the cotton-padded clothes distributed to the soldiers to keep out the cold.
But it is true that even if the Chu State is rich in cotton, Ju Yangjun Xiong Li will not spend huge sums of money to purchase and prepare a large number of cotton clothes for the soldiers at the bottom. After all, in the Chu State, soldiers are just expendable war
Just a prop.
It is for this reason that the current strategy of the Chu army appears to be much conservative. Apart from sending soldiers to investigate the enemy situation in the Ice City area, almost no army will brave the cold and leave the city. They will all hide in the city or in the military camp.
Keep warm by the fire.
The same is true for the Wei army.
Due to the lack of wood, Zhao Hongrun used mud and stone to build many mud houses as military tents in the Ice City, and even dug cellars underground for the soldiers to live.
Similarly, cotton-padded clothes were also a very scarce material for the Wei army.
It's not that the Qi State was stingy and didn't prepare cotton-padded clothes for the soldiers to keep out the cold. Firstly, the army under Zhao Hongrun now far exceeded the 55,000 when he led the army when he arrived, and had already surged to nearly 150,000.
Secondly, heavy snow fell during this period, which blocked the roads with ice and snow, making transportation inconvenient. As a result, a large amount of materials transported from Qi State to Qi County are still halfway through.
But having said that, in terms of cotton-padded clothes, the situation of the Wei army is much better than that of the Chu army. At least those soldiers who go out on patrol, or those who stand guard on the ice city wall, will at least have a cotton-padded coat on them.
As for the Chu army, Juyang Lord Xiong Li was simply not prepared at all.
During this period of time, Zhao Hongrun also received news about 50,000 Sichuan Northern Bow Cavalry and thousands of Ranger Cavalry. According to the news from the Qingya Zong, these two Wei cavalry retreated to Xinqi due to the weather.
Moreover, there is a Xinyang in front of them defended by Xinyang Lord Xiang Pei, which can be ignored in the short term.
The cavalry is like this. There is no denying its powerful lethality, but it is also greatly affected by the weather and environment. In the current weather, the more than 50,000 cavalry under Bosile and Yuma can be ignored.
Only when spring starts in February or March next year can the cavalry once again exert their due strength.
For Zhao Hongrun, this is equivalent to not having this army for the time being.
Because God knows what kind of situation this battle will be like in February and March next year?
"You still have to take the initiative!"
At the military council meeting the next day, Zhao Hongrun said categorically.
You know, some time ago, Zhao Hongrun stuck to the Ice City because biogas fermentation could not supply the daily needs of the soldiers in the city. But now, this problem has been solved, and the Wei army has truly established a foothold here.
Now that he has established a firm foothold, Zhao Hongrun hopes to take a step closer and make some progress.
It has to be said that with Zhao Hongrun's prestige in the military at the moment, it is like making a decision. Once he has made a decision, the generals under his command will naturally comply with it.
Only Yan Mo euphemistically raised an objection: the cold weather and freezing ground were not conducive to fighting.
It is undeniable that Yan Mo's advice is very pertinent. After all, the reason why Shouling Junjingshe gave up attacking the Ice City and decisively chose to withdraw his troops more than ten or twenty days ago was because the weather was too cold, and now, the climate is close to the depth of winter.
, sending troops at this time is not a wise move.
If we forcefully attack Juyang County, all 100,000 Wei troops in Bingcheng may be buried under Juyang County.
Of course, Zhao Hongrun could not be so ignorant. What he said about taking the initiative was not Ju Yang, but Cai Xi.
After all, as far as he knew, Cai Xi County Duke Cai Hou led 30,000 county divisions to support Ju Yang and was currently stationed at a mountain pass more than 20 miles southeast of Bingcheng.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun decided to send an elite army over the hills to attack Cai Xi.
But what he didn't expect was that as soon as the elite soldiers he sent climbed up the hill, they were discovered by the Chu army who had been stationed on the hill for a long time.
It seems that Jing She has been on guard against this move from me for a long time...
After learning about this, Zhao Hongrun thought about it and instead of ordering the elite troops to retreat, he sent reinforcements.
On November 16, the Wei army attacked the military camp of the Caixi County Division.
On the same day, Shouling Junjingshe directly sent troops to attack Bingcheng, but was ambushed by the Wei army and returned in defeat.
At the same time, Zhao Hongrun calculated that Shouling Junjingshe would send troops to attack Bingcheng where he was located, and also wanted to take the opportunity to attack Juyang County. Unexpectedly, Shouling Junjingshe had also ambushed an army outside the city.
That day, the two of them fought to a draw and called back their troops with a tacit understanding. After all, neither of them was the kind of person who would fight a pointless war.
On November 18, Shouling Junjingshe got in touch with Xiang Mo of Fang Zhong, and deliberately exposed the route of transporting grain to Fang Zhong under the eyes of the Wei army, in an attempt to lure the Wei army to come for a sneak attack, so that he could lead an elite force.
Xiang Mo, who had troops and horses going out to fight, attacked the Wei army from both front and rear.
As expected, the Wei army fell into the trap, and the Wei soldiers from Yan Mo's tribe were ambushed thirty miles south of Huihe River.
However, when Shouling Jun Jingshe's general Wu Xi cooperated with Xiang Mo to pursue Yan Mo's tribe, they were ambushed by Wu Ji's tribe.
Seeing this, Xiang Mo and Wu Xi retreated decisively, but when they came back to take a look, they found that the hundreds of carts of grain and grass had already been burned by the Wei army who came out of nowhere.
Therefore, Xiang Mo had no choice but to take the grain truck that he had finally rescued and returned to Fangzhong in a depressed mood.
That month, the West Road battlefield was in a stalemate.
During this period, both Zhao Hongrun and Jing She deliberately tried to expand their advantages, but unfortunately they made little progress.
The West Road battlefield in November seemed to have become a stage for Zhao Hongrun and Jing She to display their respective strategies. It was a pity that these two people, one had seen a lot of people and had an insight into opportunities, and the other had been on the battlefield for a long time and had rich experience, so much so that no one could
Nothing can be done to anyone.
In this way, the West Road battlefield ushered in the cold winter of the twelfth lunar month. (To be continued.)