In fact, not only King Yan Xi, but Sima Shang and others were also confused.
The trebuchets in front are clearly still smashing the wooden bridge that the Qin army is building!
The Qin Army's wooden bridge was obviously riddled with holes!
How could the Qin army suddenly appear in front of them to attack the camp?
Even crossing the river wouldn't be so fast!
Could it be that the Qin army emerged from the ground?
Sima Shangchu initially said that only a small number of Qin troops swam over to cause trouble...
Sima Shang thought there was no need to worry too much about this part of the Qin army.
On the one hand, this is because there are not many soldiers in swimming, and on the other hand, swimming usually requires giving up armor.
There are not many troops and no armor. Isn’t that a problem that can be solved in a few clicks?
Unexpectedly, soldiers from the Yan army hurried into the tent to report:
"Your Majesty, the army of Qin State has entered and killed its generals."
"At least tens of thousands of people..."
The Yan army was surrounded by soldiers in the dark night.
King Yan was so surprised that he didn't even put on his armor in a hurry. He just grabbed a cloak to keep out the cold and fled with his bodyguard.
In the blink of an eye, only Sima Shang and a few of his guards were left in the huge tent, staring with wide eyes. Even Sima Shang was astonished by the speed with which King Yan escaped.
After a while, the guard asked Sima Shang:
"General, do we dare to warn the king?"
Sima Shang sighed and nodded.
Sima Shang and Yan Wangxi were different people.
King Yan was happy to run away for a while.
But Sima Shang saw further...
He knew that if things continued like this, the demise of the Yan Dynasty would be a matter of time.
So what is the difference between escaping now and not escaping?
Escape is nothing more than trying to live a little longer.
Therefore, at that moment, Sima Shang was completely despairing and lost all desire to escape.
But considering that Dai Wang Zhao Jia was still full of expectations...so he had no choice but to rush back to Dai Kingdom's camp together with his bodyguards.
If we only look at the comparison of military strength, King Xi of Yan had 5,000 personal guards alone, and 50,000 main Yan troops were stationed around the commander's camp.
On the other hand, the Qin army only had the first batch of 3,000 people crossing the river plus the 2,000 personal guards led by Yang Duan.
In this battle, the Yan army could easily encircle and annihilate the Qin army.
But before the battle started, King Xi of Yan fled first, and the entire military camp was in chaos, but 50,000 people were defeated by 5,000 Qin troops.
At this time, Ji Dan had been assigned by King Xi of Yan to protect the army rations.
In this regard, he also inherited his father's style. As soon as he saw that the situation was not right, he immediately dropped the army rations and ran away.
Shen Bing and others did not cross the river until dawn the next day.
At that time, Chen Wei and other craftsmen were also moved to the pontoon.
Everyone could hardly recognize Chen Wei, because his face was black and purple, and his official uniform was burned with holes everywhere. He obviously suffered a lot.
As soon as he saw Shen Bing, he shouted angrily:
"Shen Bing, you are so brave!"
"I asked you to go to the other side of the river to build a bridge, but you were nowhere to be seen all night long."
"Disobeying military orders should..."
Chen Wei said that he was about to step forward and take action. He stepped forward and stood in front of him like a big mountain.
Chen Wei could only swallow the rest of the words with a gulp.
Shen Bing signaled Yan to get out of the way, then raised his head towards the floating bridge in front and said:
"Forgive me, stingy man."
"The artillerymen built a bridge here last night in response to the general's order."
"The general ordered us not to tell others, so..."
Only then did Chen Wei see the floating bridge on the river.
Shen Bing didn't know what Chen Wei was thinking at this time. He only knew that the muscles on his face were twitching and he looked like he was about to cry without tears.
If Chen Wei wasn't smart enough, he might have only seen and thought of the pontoon bridge in front of him.
But Chen Wei is not stupid. Of course he would think of:
If the pontoon bridge had been built last night, and the Qin army had passed through the pontoon bridge to reach the other side...
Why did the general ask him to risk his life to build a wooden bridge?
Therefore, Chen Wei is just a cover, a cover used to attract the Yan army's firepower and attention!
When Chen Wei thought about this, he felt that it was not worth his efforts to build the bridge last night.
Looking at the uninjured Shen Bing in front of him... Chen Wei felt as if he had a lump in his throat and was speechless.
Of course, Shen Bing ignored Chen Wei, and with a wave of his hand, he led the gunner onto the pontoon under the envious and jealous eyes of Chen Wei.
Not long after crossing the bridge, I heard bursts of cheers.
Shen Bing looked over and saw that the Qin army had pushed back the entire truckload of intact military rations.
The leading Qin general recognized Shen Bing, so he cupped his hands towards Shen Bing from a distance and said:
"Thank you, Engineer."
"If the engineers had not built a pontoon bridge for us to cross the river, we would not have been able to seize this batch of military rations."
Other soldiers of the Qin army also bowed their hands to pay tribute to Shen Bing.
Shen Bing quickly returned the gift.
Hui also asked:
"Are there any captured military rations ahead?"
General Qin replied with a smile:
“It’s piled up like a mountain to count!”
"This Yan army is here to bring food to us!"
The soldiers and craftsmen couldn't help laughing when they heard this.
Shen Bing and others continued to move forward, and sure enough they saw the chaotic Yan Army camp full of carriages filled with military rations, just like the headless corpses on the ground, they were in endless patches.
It's not surprising that there would be so much military rations.
Because the Yan army has 250,000 troops.
At the same time, the country's newly defeated army was short of food and grass, so the army's food for this war was also provided by the State of Yan.
So what Yan needs to prepare is food and fodder for an army of 280,000.
On the other hand, Yan's strategy was to besiege the three counties of Qin.
This siege will definitely not be captured in a short time. At least half a month's supply of military rations must be prepared first...
So what Shen Bing saw now was that the grain carriages were placed in rows on the roadside.
This was the Warring States Period, a time when food was the most important thing for the people.
Sometimes no amount of gold and silver can be exchanged for these military rations.
For example, when the city is besieged by the enemy, or when the Qin army is chasing the enemy now.
Therefore, this batch of military rations was a timely help to the Qin Army. It not only solved the Qin Army's combat problems, but also solved the urgent need for the people in the three counties to be short of food.
How could this not make the Qin army ecstatic?
However, Yang Duanhe led the Qin army to pursue the Yan army ahead.
At this time, Yang Duan and others were not trying to encircle and annihilate as many Yan troops as they could, but to grab as much military rations as possible...
The Yan army's command was chaotic and communication was underdeveloped in this era.
Therefore, when the Yan army had retreated on a large scale, grain and grass were still being collected from various parts of the Yan State and continuously transported to the three counties from all directions.
Therefore, Yang Duanhe's pursuit often failed to catch up with the Yan army. Instead, he always ran into several groups of grain transport teams on the branch roads.
Of course Yang Duanhe was not polite, he "received" them one by one and sent them out in batches.
Looking at these rations and sinking soldiers, I knew that the Yan Kingdom was doomed.
Yan Wangxi didn't know the importance of food and grass at all. Without food and grass... so what if he could escape back to the city?
In other words, King Yan knew these truths.
It's just that he was too frightened to take care of all this.