On April 5, the 19th year of Hongde's reign in the Great Wei Dynasty, the military camp of the northern Sichuan cavalry was basically completed. Zongwei Mu Qing dragged his tired body and looked aggrieved to the commander's tent where His Royal Highness was to return to duty. Seeing that Zongwei Commander
Wei Jiao laughed secretly in his heart.
After sending Mu Qing down to rest, Zhao Hongrun invited Wu Ji, Nanmen Chi, Lu Zhan, Xu Jiong from the Shang Shui Army, Bosile from the Northern Sichuan Cavalry, and three captains of ten thousand men to the commander's tent to discuss the upcoming attack on Shou Ying.
offensive matters.
The generals of the Shangshui Army are already familiar faces and there is nothing to introduce. Here we will introduce some of the ten thousand captains of the Northern Sichuan Cavalry.
The so-called ten thousand captains generally refer to the ten thousand generals of the Chu army and the general level of the Wei state. Although there are differences in the number of soldiers in charge, the essence is the same.
At this time, Bosile had five captains of ten thousand men under his command. These five men were:
Hechahaqi, a former warrior of the Jijiao tribe, is a man in his thirties who is as strong as an iron tower from the prairie. It is said that he has never met an opponent in wrestling.
Nuhar, the former warrior of the Wujiao tribe and the younger brother of the clan leader Gorgan, is said to be an expert archer who can easily hit wild geese in the sky.
Former Grayhorn tribe warrior, Hagar.
The original warrior of the Bloodhoof Tribe, Chahartu.
And the warrior of the Meng tribe, Keli Dan.
This time Bosile only brought three captains of ten thousand, namely Hechahaqi, Nuhar and Kelidan. The other two remained in Xinyang, Juyang and Fangzhong areas, and were ordered to cut off the local Chu army.
transportation lines.
It is worth mentioning that among these five captains, Kelidan is a bit interesting, because he is not a member of the original Jijiao Tribe Alliance, but a great warrior in the Lun tribe of the Yi tribe. Presumably he is the leader of the Lun tribe.
A person that Balon placed in the Northern Sichuan Cavalry in order to monitor Bosile.
In a sense, this person is more worthy of Zhao Hongrun's trust than Bosile. After all, the current Lu Balong is the only one whom His Royal Highness Prince Su can trust.
No, after meeting Zhao Hongrun, Kelidan immediately gave Zhao Hongrun the highest grassland etiquette, and on behalf of their clan leader Lu Balong, conveyed the most respectful greetings to Zhao Hongrun.
Zhao Hongrun accepted Ke Lidan's greetings with a smile. At the same time, from the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the other two captains whose faces seemed a little ugly. They even vaguely muttered something, which was probably the word "flattery" in the Wei dialect.
Kind of like that.
"Sit down, sit down."
After introducing each other, Zhao Hongrun invited the generals to sit down in the tent, and ordered King Su's guards to bring in several jars of wine brewed from Qi.
Since ancient times, drinking is not allowed during wars. This is a rule, but today Zhao Hongrun made a rare exception. Firstly, he knew that the warriors from Sanchuan liked to drink. Secondly, it was also to commend them for their actions in the past few days.
The military exploits on the "Thirty Mile Battlefield".
After all, this great victory could be said to have completely reversed the situation in the western suburbs of Shoying, making the Chu army, which was originally able to compete with the Wei army, now almost unstoppable.
Unfortunately, there was wine but no food. The only dish that could be considered a dish was the dried mutton, which was donated to Zhao Hongrun by the Northern Sichuan Cavalry. This was a bit embarrassing.
Fortunately, none of the generals here care about food. Perhaps for them, wine alone is enough.
While tasting Qi's wine with the generals, Zhao Hongrun told the generals about the situation in the western suburbs of Shoying at the moment. When he talked about the situation on the Chu army, Zhao Hongrun turned his attention to Wu Ji. After all, in the "thirties"
In the recent days after the Battle of Li, Wu Ji was in charge of forcing the Chu army outside Shoying City.
Under the gaze of everyone, Wu Ji clasped his fists and narrated in a deep voice: "...After the great victory a few days ago, our Shang Shui army took advantage of the victory to pursue it and pressed forward step by step...The good news is that the Chu army on the opposite side
General Gongsun Po, imitation
The Buddha died in the rebellious army, which greatly reduced the morale of the Chu army. The bad news is that Gongsun Po had a deputy general named Sun Shuao.
Trapped and stubborn to the end..."
"Sun Shuao?"
Zhao Hongrun was slightly stunned. After all, as far as he knew, the surname "Uncle Sun" could not be said to be a big clan in Chu State. Therefore, he could not help but think of Sun Shuke, the general of the third battalion of the Yanling Army.
"Send someone to ask Sun Shuke later to see if Sun Shu'ao is from his clan." Zhao Hongrun turned back and said to Wei Jiao, the chief of the Zongwei, who nodded to indicate that he had taken note of it.
There was nothing much to talk about in the subsequent discussions. They were nothing more than discussing how to make the Shang Shui Army and the Northern Sichuan Cavalry cooperate tacitly to attack the Chu King's capital Shouying, which was just around the corner.
After all, although there are still hundreds of thousands of Chu troops resisting in the western suburbs of Shouying under the command of Gongsun Po's deputy general Sun Shuao, to be honest, when Gongsun Po and his 780,000 Chu army were almost completely wiped out, the Chu army
The remaining combination of peasant soldiers and local county divisions was no longer taken seriously by Zhao Hongrun.
Finally, Zhao Hongrun made the decision to formally launch a full-scale attack on the west side of Shoying city wall one day later, on April 6.
On the other side, Xiang Yan, a veteran of the Xiang clan, finally accepted the embarrassing request from King Xiong Xu of Chu, replaced the general Gongsun Po who had died in the battle, and took over the war at the western city wall and even the western suburbs.
After learning about this, Sun Shuao immediately went to the city and asked to see the newly appointed veteran general.
Since the old general might not be aware of the recent battle situation in the western suburbs, Sun Shuao told Xiang Yan the history of the recent battles in detail and put forward some good suggestions accordingly.
But listening to Sun Shuao's story, Xiang Yan felt very uncomfortable.
He knew that the young man in front of him named Sun Shuao, even though he had been defeated by Wei soldiers, still maintained a firm fighting spirit and was willing to risk everything to defend the royal city of Shoying. But the problem was that King Xiong Xu of Chu
He doesn't want to win.
"Retreat to the royal city."
Xiang Yan rejected Sun Shuao's request for help, and instead ordered the latter to transfer the remaining hundreds of thousands of troops outside the city back to the city.
Hearing this, Sun Shuao was greatly surprised.
You know, after the defeat at the "Thirty-mile Battlefield", he was harassed and attacked by the merchant navy every day. At the cost of tens of thousands of peasant soldiers, he dug trenches in the western suburbs and built a series of buildings.
fortress.
Although these defense facilities alone are not enough to keep the Wei army out, they can at least delay the attack. As long as a steady stream of troops are invested, regardless of casualties and sacrifices, the Wei army may not be able to attack the city.
But the old general in front of him didn't know what he was thinking. He actually asked him to give up the defensive facilities he had finally built. Wouldn't this be giving up the western suburbs to the Wei army in vain?
Thinking of this, Sun Shuao was shocked and said: "Old General Mingjian! ... There are countless catapults in the Wei army. Although the walls of the royal city are strong, it is still difficult to guarantee that they will not be broken by the Wei army. At present, try to hinder the Wei army's advance as much as possible, and send a few more
It is a good strategy to use strange troops to harass the food and fodder in the rear of the Wei army..."
Listening to Sun Shuao's shouting, Xiang Yan felt even worse.
Of course he understood that the suggestion put forward by this young man was the best strategy to retreat from the enemy at the moment, but who told... who told him that his task was not to defend Shoying, but to let the Wei army attack the royal city!
With mixed feelings, Xiang Yanyan said insincerely: "Do you think a few shallow ditches can stop the Wei army from advancing?"
"Old General!" Sun Shuao begged, but Xiang Yan always refused.
At the end, Sun Shuao was furious and cursed loudly: "Old man!... If you don't listen to good advice today, if the royal city falls in the future, it will be too late for you to regret it!"
"Presumptuous!" Xiang Yan's generals scolded him one after another, but Sun Shu'ao still scolded him angrily, as if he wanted to wake Xiang Yan up.
But how could he know that Xiang Yan, a veteran, was feeling conflicted at this moment.
In the end, Xiang Yan arrested Sun Shuao and took him into custody on the charge of "the following crimes."
That night, Xiang Yan returned to his mansion in the city and drank a night of gloomy wine. During this period, he lost his temper to the slaves in the mansion for the first time, which surprised the people in the mansion: This usually amiable old master, today
How come you have such a bad temper?
The next day, the Wei army dispatched troops from the Beishan military camp to formally attack Shoying, the capital of the King of Chu.
During this period, Zhao Hongrun was puzzled to find that the Chu army in the western suburbs had abandoned those trenches and other defensive facilities for unknown reasons, and inexplicably retreated to the royal city.
"Chu Army...what's going on?"
Even Zhao Hongrun was a little confused.
Because as Sun Shuao suggested to Xiang Yan, although Zhao Hongrun didn't care about the Chu army using trenches, fortresses and other defensive facilities to fight positional warfare with the Wei army, in the final analysis, this would be a trouble for the Wei army, wouldn't it?
After all, this kind of positional battle, where every inch of ground is contested, is the most time-consuming and the easiest way to weaken the spirit and morale of the two soldiers.
If the Chu army fought a positional battle with the Wei army at the cost of casualties, it would be quite a headache to be honest.
But the Chu army on the opposite side didn't know what they were thinking, and actually ordered to retreat to the royal city.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is an extremely stupid tactic in Zhao Hongrun's opinion. After all, although the city wall of Shouying is strong, the Wei army also has many catapults. How can it be impossible to destroy Shouying under indiscriminate bombing?
city wall?
"Is there some fraud in this?"
With a suspicious attitude, Zhao Hongrun ordered the catapults in the army to successively try to bomb the Shoying city wall indiscriminately.
During this period, he ordered the northern Sichuan cavalry to pay close attention to the movements on all sides - in such a high-stakes war, he did not dare to underestimate the Chu general on the opposite side. Maybe the newly appointed general planned to retreat in order to advance.
When the Wei army used catapults to bombard the city wall of Shouying, they used a surprise force to destroy those catapults.
The siege is imminent. If a large number of catapults are accidentally lost, the Wei army will be blind.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun only dared to dispatch one-third of the catapults in the first battle, intending to test the waters first.
But to his surprise, even though he ordered the catapults from the army to bombard the city wall of Shouying indiscriminately, the Chu army on the Shouying side never responded at all.
Furthermore, according to the news sent back by the cavalry in northern Sichuan, there were no surprise troops of the Chu army ambushed in the surrounding areas.
"This...what's going on?"
Zhao Hongrun, who had always been able to grasp the battle situation accurately in the past, felt confused for the first time.