As for the so-called full set of acting, Shen Bing then sent someone to send a letter to Yan, explaining this and that.
Then, a group of Pu Lei troops returned to the army just before the Qin army arrived at Loulan. He patted the water bag on his horse and shouted:
"I've brought some drinking water back, let me enjoy the attack on Loulan for a few days!"
For a moment, the officers and soldiers of the Qin army burst into cheers, and their morale increased a little.
Li Yan didn't see anything wrong, but Wang Ben felt something was wrong. He moved closer to Shen Bing and lowered his voice:
"General, that water..."
Shen Bing glared at Wang Ben, and then Wang Ben understood.
Wang Ben saw it right. The water bags in the row were not actually filled with water, but were filled with weeds and looked bulgy.
The reason why Wang Ben could tell what was wrong was that he noticed that his lips were chapped with thirst and were wilted, looking like they had just returned from carrying water.
Fortunately, most of the soldiers of the Qin army were not so careful. If someone came forward to take a look, they would be exposed.
Shen Bing's estimate was correct, because the Qin army traveled overnight to reduce water consumption, allowing the Qin army to arrive at Loulan one day ahead of schedule.
Loulan is well known to modern people because of the nearly square ancient city with a side length of more than 300 meters excavated in modern times.
However, Loulan at this time is not the location where the ancient city was unearthed...
Just like Yuezhi and Wusun migrated with the war, Loulan also migrated, but its migration was because the water source dried up and had to change its route and move south.
The Loulan City that appeared in front of Shen Bing at this time seemed to be somewhat similar to the one unearthed. The city wall was also a square with a width of more than 300 meters.
More than three hundred meters... If it were placed in the Central Plains, it could be said to be a village instead of a city. It is no wonder that the Huns could only station 10,000 troops here.
Seeing the Qin army approaching from a distance, horns were blown and smoke was lit at the top of Loulan City.
Then the whole Loulan became tense. The Xiongnu who were walking in the distance hurried towards Loulan. Another two groups of about 2,000 people each left the city and dispersed to the two wings.
From this point of view, the Xiongnu's city defense tactics have been improved. They know that the city cannot be defended to the death and "combine offense and defense".
For example, in Loulan at this time, if the Xiongnu gathered all 10,000 people in the city, then the Qin army could safely block and surround the city gate without worrying about the other side or even a night attack... The Xiongnu were all defeated. Sealed in the city, the Qin army would quickly detect any movement.
But if six thousand were left to defend the city and the other four thousand left the city... it would put a lot of pressure on the Qin army.
Because we don’t know when the four thousand Xiongnu will suddenly appear behind the Qin army and launch an attack, or when the Qin army climbs the wooden ladder to attack the city, the Xiongnu will suddenly attack from the flanks and join forces inside and outside to defeat the Qin army.
From this we can see that the Huns were planning a protracted war.
Wang Ben seemed to realize this, and he said to Shen Bing:
"The Huns may have reinforcements, and they should be on their way!"
Shen Bing nodded in agreement.
Although the Huns divided their forces outside the city to "combine offense and defense", it had a weakness, that is, once it was blocked by the Qin army, it would not be able to supply supplies, especially water.
Of course the Huns cavalry also knew this, but they still divided their troops outside the city and did not bring much supplies.
Then there are only two possibilities, one is that there is a water source outside the city, and the other is that there are reinforcements.
It is almost impossible to have a water source outside the city.
Yan and others are no strangers to this area. They know that Loulan is surrounded by deserts that are short of water... Even Loulan doesn't have much water source, only a small oasis.
This was also the reason why Loulan had to abandon the original city and move.
So there is only one possibility left: the Huns have reinforcements, these reinforcements bring a large amount of supplies, and will arrive in the next few days.
Shen Bing and Wang Ben guessed correctly, the Huns did have reinforcements.
This was what the Xiongnu did when they discovered that the Qin army was taking the southern route.
The Qin army took the southern route to take Loulan, which was unexpected by Xunxun and even Maodun Shanyu.
Because when they wanted to come, Gushi was close, there was enough water, and more importantly, the road was easy to walk... unlike Loulan where there were sand mountains everywhere, and they had to go around the foot of the mountain and climb over the mountains.
This is also the reason why although Loulan and Gushi are adjacent to each other in the north and south, the distance from the north to Gushi is only a thousand miles, while the south route to Loulan is 1,500 miles.
Fifteen hundred miles, which would take thirty days at normal marching speed. If the water supply points were destroyed along the way, it would be difficult to cross, let alone capture Loulan.
So Maodun and Xunxun managed their aunt with peace of mind, thinking about how to fight the Qin army after they entered their encirclement.
As a result, spies came to report that the Qin army was taking the southern route.
At this point, all Xunxun's plans came to nothing. He reported to Maodun Shanyu and urgently mobilized troops to reinforce Loulan.
Xunhuang sent 20,000 reinforcements.
The reinforcement method adopted is the relay tactic commonly used in the Central Plains.
That is to say, 20,000 troops and horses were divided from the main force to rush to Gushi, and at the same time, Gushi sent 20,000 troops and horses to Loulan.
In this way, the strength of the army's troops did not change, but the reinforcement time doubled.
The reason why the Xiongnu arrived late is because the Xiongnu encountered the same problem as the Qin army: going deep into the desert required a large number of camels and preparations.
The national strength of Gu Shi's country certainly could not support the Xiongnu's march of 20,000 people, so the Xiongnu first went to the surrounding areas to plunder.
After gathering enough camels and supplies, we hurried to Loulan.
Shen Bing felt that he was relatively lucky, because if the 20,000 Xiongnu reinforcements arrived in Loulan in time, the strength comparison would be huge.
The Xiongnu army numbered 30,000 and the Qin army numbered 10,000.
Moreover, the Qin army traveled a long distance and was seriously short of water.
The most important thing is that the water shortage situation will continue.
On the contrary, the Xiongnu occupied the water source and waited for work.
Even if the Qin army has artillery, it will be of no use.
But it was different now. The Xiongnu reinforcements had not yet arrived, and at the same time they had sent four thousand cavalry out of the city.
These four thousand cavalry will not appear around the Qin army for a while... because what they want is to be surprised, what they want is to put psychological pressure on the Qin army, and what they want is to cooperate inside and outside when the Qin army attacks the city.
If you fight the Qin army as soon as you leave the city, there will be no such effect.
So there were only 6,000 Xiongnu in the city, and the Xiongnu who were not good at defending the city guarded a city wall that could only be regarded as an earth wall.
If there are any improvements to this earth wall, it is that an urn was added at the city gate, beacon towers were added at the four corners, and a large number of trebuchets were installed on the other side of the wall.
Shen Bing had reason to believe that these arrangements were learned by the Xiongnu when they were guarding Wuyuan City, because the Loulan people did not know how to build a city or arrange it in this way.
If it were before, it would be really difficult for the Qin army to capture such an arrangement.
but now……
The Xiongnu must have never imagined that once the Qin army began to attack the city, they would capture the city at a speed that they could not even catch up with.