Nearly half a month has passed since the first day of the siege.
The walls of Xiacai City have been riddled with holes by catapults, but they still stand firm between the sky and the earth.
Under the city, there was no trace of water in the moat, and it was covered with the corpses of Yuan Shujun.
As the siege party, according to custom, the bodies of our fallen soldiers should be recovered at sunset every day when the troops withdraw.
Yuan Shu has obviously fallen into madness.
Not to mention recovering the corpses, Yuan Shu now wished he could just use the corpses to build a broad road that could go directly to the top of the city.
You must know that in the past half month, Yuan Shu's forward battalion has been completely eliminated, and at the same time, the Chinese army has also lost 50,000 troops.
Half of the 300,000 troops that Yuan Shu brought with him when he launched the Shouchun campaign have now gone.
Although the Xuzhou Army as the defender of the city suffered far less losses than Yuan Shu's Army, it had already lost over 10,000 people.
Xia Cai has truly become a bottomless pit-like meat grinder.
Every night, it seems that the unyielding wails of countless fallen soldiers can be heard.
"Your Majesty! Let's withdraw. Too many people have died. Moreover, the morale of the army is low and there are many complaints among the soldiers."
Looking at Yan Xiang who spoke to him, Yuan Shu felt deeply betrayed.
You short-sighted guys.
Retreat? Where to retreat? The battle has reached this point. Does it mean that we can retreat if we retreat?
If we withdraw here, wouldn't we be admitting our failure?
You know, Yuan Shu had just founded the country and proclaimed himself emperor.
All the princes in the world are watching.
If you have an army of 300,000 and attack someone else's army of 50,000, and in the end suffer one casualty and nearly half of them run away in embarrassment, how can you still have the dignity to stand in this world?
Moreover, if other princes saw that he was so cowardly, how could they not attack him to get a share of the pie?
In today's situation, we must win. Even if we fight to the death, we must persevere until the end.
The furious Yuan Shu had already woken up, but it was too late, and now he was in a dilemma.
"Come here! Drag this Yan Xiang down and kill him. In the midst of a war, you dare to cholera the morale of the army!"
Now, the only right path is to eliminate all anti-war voices.
"Your Majesty! Think twice!"
Seeing the soldiers escorting Yan Xiang away, Zhang Xun and other generals knelt down to plead for Yan Xiang.
But their pleas only resulted in Yuan Shu's aloof back.
Looking at Yuan Shu who said nothing, the generals felt their hearts become cold.
Is this still the lord we once swore to serve?
Ignoring all the voices pleading for Yan Xiang, Yuan Shu only felt that his heart was filled with sadness.
Why, no one understands me?
The generals are not Yuan Shu, and they cannot see the overall situation that Yuan Shu sees.
And Yuan Shu was not a general under his command, so he also ignored the morale of the army.
This is also a kind of sadness.
"Send the order! Remove the ladders, divide the entire army into four groups, and surround Xiacai. Not even a fly will be allowed to fly in."
The loss of military strength forced Yuan Shu to compromise.
Now, there is no longer the ability to maintain the previous intensity of attack.
Otherwise, even if Xiang Ji is destroyed, Yuan Shu's family fortune will be completely wiped out.
However, as the siege party, Yuan Shu still believed that the advantage was on his side.
I'm going to surround you so much that I don't believe you can supply enough food and grass in the city.
When you run out of food, humph, I want you to die!
It's just that Yuan Shu doesn't know that his own food supply is now facing a huge crisis.
"General, it has been confirmed that the grain transport team from Shouchun has already set off. The current distance to our army is calculated to be reached tomorrow."
Upon hearing the lieutenant's report, Zhao Yun, who was still combing his horse's hair, stood up immediately.
It’s here! It’s finally here! I have been waiting for half a month, and the grain transport team is finally here.
This means that Yuan Shu's army is out of food. As long as I intercept all the food teams, the strategic purpose set by Jia Xu's military advisor will be achieved, and the lord's great cause will be accomplished!
"Instruct the whole army to prepare for war immediately and check all the traps that have been set before. Don't miss anything."
The attentive Zhao Yun began to make final preparations for giving gifts to the belatedly arriving grain transport team.
Shu said.
The slowly approaching grain transport team finally appeared in Zhao Yun's field of vision.
Looking at the endless teams transporting grain, Zhao Yun couldn't help but sigh, this Yuan Shu is really wealthy.
These military rations are probably enough to feed millions of people for a month, right?
But when he sent out troops, he only had an army of only 300,000 people. Now that he and his lord have been fighting for half a month, there are not enough 300,000 people. He actually transported so much food and grass at one time.
This is what Zhao Yun didn't know, because Yuan Shu had changed his strategy and was preparing to carry out a long-term siege of Xia Cai, so this time, Shouchun City was able to transport his army enough food and grass for more than 100,000 people for half a year.
And this almost wiped out Yuan Shu's family fortune.
But Yuan Shu is not worried. This is Yangzhou, his hometown.
Except for Xiang Ji, there are no foreign enemies.
As long as Xiang Ji is destroyed, Xuzhou can be captured.
Then both soldiers and food and fodder will be greatly replenished.
It was precisely because of this belief that Yuan Shu made a desperate move and ordered his people to transport all the grain stored in Shouchun to the front line.
Not only do I want to destroy your Xiang Ji, I also want to seize Xuzhou directly!
"Send the order to light the whale oil and block the road."
After a long while, the grain transport team of nearly 10,000 people finally entered the ambush circle set by Zhao Yun.
After giving the order, Zhao Yun mounted his war horse and rushed toward the rear of the grain team with a thousand Canglong Riders.
Since the lord's request is that not even a grain of rice is allowed to enter Yuan Shu's military camp, then Zhao Yun, as a military model, naturally has to perfectly complete the tasks assigned by Xiang Ji.
"Your Highness, there is a fire ahead!"
As the leader of the grain transportation team, Yuan Shu's eldest son Yuan Yao obviously did not have any strategic vision.
Seeing a fire ahead, I didn't feel any vigilance.
After all, this is Yangzhou, his father's base camp, and his army is still besieging Xiang Yu from the front. How can there be enemies?
"Go and arrange for people to put out the fire quickly. If the food and grass are burned, I will definitely kill your dogs."
This damn weather is so hot that it can spontaneously catch fire.
But just when Yuan Yao thought it was just a trivial matter, the thunderous sound of horse hooves suddenly came from both sides of the road.
"What happened? What happened?"
Yuan Yao, who had zero strategic vision, still did not understand the situation.
"Whoosh!"
As the first feather arrow was fired, the Canglong Cavalry officially appeared in front of Yuan Yao's food transport team.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
The sudden attack of cavalry completely disrupted the position of the grain transport team.
Not only Yuan Yao did not expect, but also the soldiers transporting food did not expect that a cavalry unit would come out from behind them.
[Author's digression]: Book club group: 557269581
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