The more Zhang Qi fought, the more irritated he became, and the angrier he got, the more he attacked indiscriminately.
To be honest, this capital guard army is far superior to other troops in terms of equipment, quality and individual combat capabilities... As mentioned before, the so-called elite soldiers in this era are often the rich soldiers.
While other troops are malnourished and even worried about starving to death after eating plain food all day long, the guard troops are well-nourished and well-trained and can immediately see the difference.
If Zhang Qi prepares step by step and then attacks, although he still cannot break through Ruyin, he can at least cause some pressure and casualties to the Black Armored Army.
The weakness of the Black Armored Army is its insufficient strength, with only three thousand men.
In this way, if the Black Armored Army fights less and less, and the number drops to a certain level, it is really possible for the Chu Army to capture it within ten days.
But attacking like this, the Chu army is just wasting its troops.
All it can do is consume the arrows and stone bullets of the black armored army.
The arrows and stone bullets in Ruyin City were piled up like mountains. Shen Bing wished that every soldier could shoot ten arrows.
At this time, Xiang Bo's army also launched an attack.
In fact, Xiang Bo's army had arrived for more than a day, but Xiang Bo was not as impatient as Zhang Qi. He first cut down trees to build trebuchets and siege ladders... Xiang Bo's attack direction was to cross the Ru River, so he wanted to move quickly. I can't get up quickly either.
During this time, Xiang Bo crossed the river to discuss the attack with Zhang Qi.
After all, the two armies are attacking Ruyin from both sides, so coordination and information sharing are still necessary.
Xiang Bo noticed the problem as soon as he saw Zhang Qi's offensive, and he suggested:
"General Zhuguo, you have a fortified city with water behind it. There are countless arrows and equipment in the city."
"If our army continues to attack like this, I'm afraid it will be hard to achieve anything."
But how could Zhang Qi listen? He just replied with a "hum":
"Why am I attacking like this just to waste the enemy's arrows and equipment?"
"The Qin army only has three thousand men, while our army has tens of thousands. Even if we exchange ten for one, we will annihilate all the enemies!"
Xiang Bo advised again:
"But General Zhuguo, if this continues, I'm afraid I won't even be able to exchange ten for one..."
Before Xiang Bo could finish speaking, Zhang Qi raised his hand and interrupted him:
"This battle is about time. The general may only be able to hold off the Qin army for ten days."
"If our army cannot capture Ruyin within ten days, all our efforts will be in vain."
"Therefore, your troops should attack the city as soon as possible to disperse the enemy's forces."
Xiang Bo was speechless for a moment.
But as his deputy general, his official position was far below that of General Zhu Guo, so he had no choice but to agree and command the troops to attack after returning.
Although Xiang Bo was always out of tune on issues of strategic direction, he still had some skills when it came to tactical issues, otherwise he would not have been able to save Liu Bang from Xiang Yu again and again.
Xiang Bo's offensive strategy was to send people to contact the city father upstream and ask him to organize troops and workers to intercept the Ru River.
It is not difficult to do this. Although Chengfu has only two thousand soldiers, he has also accumulated a large number of laborers just like Ruyin.
As the saying goes, when everyone gathers firewood, the flames are high. The Chu army only had to work hard to submerge the crops and introduce Ru water into the irrigated fields. The amount of Ru water soon became small.
But then again, if this Ruyin is lost, even the Chu State may be destroyed, so why bother about crops?
The risk is that once the Ru River stops flowing, the Qin army may easily cross the river bed and attack the east bank where the Chu army is stationed on the other side. By then, even Ru Yin will not be important.
But at least the Chu army doesn't need to worry about this problem these days.
As soon as the Ru River was exhausted, Xiang Bo's army moved soil under the city to fill the river.
Xiang Bo's method of filling the river is somewhat similar to the method used by Shen Bing when he attacked the beams, that is, pushing carts to transport soil, and then dumping the cartloads of soil and gravel into the dry river bed.
All the Black Armored Army could do was to use trebuchets to fire stone projectiles at them.
Although many carriages were smashed to pieces by stone bullets and the Chu soldiers suffered heavy casualties, Xiang Bo's army successfully filled the riverbed two days later.
This surprised Shen Bing. Zhang Qi's army, which he thought was a big threat, was not a threat. Xiang Bo's army, which he thought was not a threat, put a lot of pressure on Ruyin from three sides.
The situation became even more severe when Xiang Bo's army arrived with 20,000 infantrymen and Zhang Qi's 10,000 chariot troops.
There are only more than 2,000 black armored troops in Ruyin City, but there are more than 50,000 elite Chu troops outside the city.
This was only the Chu army that Shen Bing knew about. In addition, there were garrison troops and laborers transferred by Zhang Qi from the Ru River line, plus reinforcements sent by the nobles, there were more than 70,000 people, and Ruyin was completely surrounded.
Moreover, the Chu army's offensive continued day and night.
The Chu army can do this easily because the Chu army has many soldiers.
The more than 70,000 people can be divided into three groups of 20,000 to 30,000 each, and then the three groups will take turns to attack.
This is the wheel tactic, also called the enemy-weary tactic.
Compared with the Chu army, which could be divided into groups, the black armored army guarding the city was originally lacking in strength, so of course it could not be divided into several groups to fight the enemy.
So after a few days, he was so tired that he almost collapsed from exhaustion. Even Shen Bing didn't sleep a wink for several days.
Chen Duan staggered to Shen Bing and said:
"Lieutenant, this is the seventh day!"
Shen Bing replied:
"It should be the eighth day."
Chen Duan asked again:
"Are you sure the general will arrive on the tenth day?"
Shen Bing smiled bitterly and replied:
"Who can be sure?"
"If the general doesn't come on the tenth day, you can surrender later!"
Shen Bing knew that he should not say this at this time. He should rather say, "The general will definitely arrive", "You and others will all be meritorious officials by then" and so on.
But Shen Bing really didn't want to deceive these brothers who had been with him through life and death at this last moment of life and death, so he simply told the truth.
Chen Duan handed the wine bag in his hand to Shen Bing and replied easily:
"The deputy general is joking. If we have the intention to surrender to Chu, how can we stay here until now?"
Shen Bing was stunned for a moment, then nodded slightly.
Chen Duan was right. The Black Armored Army was besieged by dozens of times the strength of the Chu Army and suffered heavy casualties. The original number of more than 2,000 people had dropped sharply to 1,100, and almost everyone was injured.
According to common sense, an entire army with more than half casualties should have collapsed long ago, but the Black Armored Army did not.
Not only did it not work, but the more I fought, the more courage I got.
Shen Bing just sighed, shook his head and said:
"Fame, wealth and wealth are nothing but external things..."
Chen Duan interrupted Shen Bing:
"Vice-general, do you think we are here for fame and fortune?"
Shen Bing was speechless.
He didn't understand that if it wasn't for fame and fortune and not for the merits of the 20th Army, why bother doing this?
Chen Duan took the wine from Shen Bing's hand, raised his neck and drank a few sips, then wiped his mouth, looked around at the soldiers who were resting against the city wall during the battle break, and said thoughtfully:
"As the saying goes, a scholar will die for his close friends."
"The deputy general doesn't know something. They are just like their subordinates. The reason why they can fight until this point without surrendering is because they feel so comfortable following the deputy general in killing the enemy."
"Fighting like this, we can fight with 3,000 troops against 70,000 elite Chu troops. How heroic and amazing is this?"
"What regrets do we have in this battle in life? How can we surrender the enemy and end the problem?"