Sixi, the new first army of the Han Dynasty.

In just over a month, the commander of the New First Army, who was full of ambition and high spirits in the past, was as if he was dozens of years old, and recalling the battle a month ago, Zhang Hongyu's heart was still full of regret.

Dong Zhuang's third division began to launch an offensive at the beginning, a qiē are still smooth, although in Tucheng encountered the opponent's stubborn resistance, but the third division still moved forward, defeated the opponent, towards Tucheng, the third division and a regiment He Dong encountered a strong enemy in Sixi is the beginning of this disaster, they encountered not the local guards shown in the intelligence, but the real elite of the Chu State, and the number is several times as many as them, He Dong fell into a heavy siege, can not get out, and the disaster also began at that time, Dong Zhuang to rescue He Dong, In order to rescue Dong Zhuang, the 1st Division Cui Chengxiu and the 2nd Division Gao Chengdong successively stuffed into this bottomless pit-like battlefield, until the whole army was surrounded on the narrow battlefield of Sixi.

In retrospect, the opponent had already made full preparations, secretly mobilized a large army to hide around Sixi, and lured the new army into the encirclement little by little, but he himself fell into this desperate situation without any mental preparation.

Zhang Hongyu does not resent the opponent, the battlefield is against each other, if he loses, he loses, he hates his own light enemy, hates himself for a series of signs that appeared before, all ignore himself, in the final analysis, he is too proud, too confident in the new first army, disdain for the combat effectiveness of the Chu army, when the first division Cui Chengxiu also fell into the encirclement, sent a warning to himself, he should not take the second division and the troops directly under the military department to step into this trap again, at that time, he thought that as long as the reinforcements led by himself arrived on the battlefield, You can defeat your opponent without any suspense and rescue the trapped army. Now it seems that it was too naïve.

For a long-planned conspiracy, what the other party needs is to do it himself, and he jumped off this cliff without hesitation.

More than 50,000 troops, on the battlefield chosen by the enemy, tried in vain to break through the siege, but failed repeatedly because of the restrictions of the terrain, until Zhang Hongyu could no longer fight.

Of the 50,000 new troops, there are still more than 30,000 left. Most of them fell on the battlefield in the previous battles and repeated breakouts, and some of the wounded soldiers died slowly and painfully due to the lack of medicine.

It's all your own fault.

Zhang Hongyu would certainly not surrender, and if it weren't for Wu Qi's arrival in Sixi that day, he would have gathered all the remaining food in the whole army, and was ready to assign it to the most elite part of the army, so that they could break out from the other direction when the other troops sent a decisive attack to attract the attention of the opponent. At least it can keep the fire of the new first army and prevent the whole army from being wiped out here.

Whether this plan succeeds or not, it is always an attempt because it will drag on. If you don't need the enemy to attack, you will be starved and lose your combat effectiveness.

Wu Qi's arrival stopped Zhang Hongyu's final breakthrough plan, because even if the breakthrough was successful. There are not many people left in the new army, and most of them will be buried in Sixi.

Seeing Wu Qi, Zhang Hongyu knew. The country has begun to prepare for negotiations with the Chu State, and its new army has become a bargaining chip on the negotiating table of the Chu people.

From that day on, the enemy who surrounded him sent a thousand catties of rice every day, which was not enough for tens of thousands of troops, but they could still hang their lives without starving to death.

It was painful to be given alms by the enemy, especially for a high-minded general like Zhang Hongyu, whose subordinates saw that Zhang Hongyu had aged at a rate that was almost visible to the naked eye.

Zhang Hongyu knew that this time in order to save the fate of the new army, the Han Dynasty was only afraid of paying a lot of money, and this had never been done before, only the Han State had to coerce the opponent at the negotiating table, and had never been coerced by the opponent, and he would set this precedent, and in the future military history, he would inevitably leave this heavy stain that he would never be able to wash off.

"How's the morale going now?" Looking at Cui Chengxiu, who was also a little haggard, Zhang Hongyu asked.

"Commander, middle and senior officers are okay to say, but grassroots officers and ordinary soldiers are asking to break through, even if they fight until there is only one soldier left, it is better than being trapped here like this."

"Do you think so?"

Cui Chengxiu shook his head: "Commander, I'm afraid the problem now is not military, the other party surrounds but does not fight, obviously wants to take us to bargain with the imperial court, some time ago, didn't Wu Yizheng come, I'm afraid it's just for this, right?" ”

Zhang Hongyu nodded, "Yes, it is no longer a military problem, the imperial court has the consideration of the imperial court, and Wu Yizheng went to Yingcheng this time to seek a political solution, which is also what the Chu people are looking forward to." ”

"Will we be asked to surrender?" Cui Chengxiu raised his head, and a trace of unruliness flashed in his eyes.

"If that's the case, what would you do?"

Cui Chengxiu was silent for a moment, "I will do what the commander asks, but Dong Zhuang is not easy to say." ”

Zhang Hongyu nodded, "Gao Chengdong is the kind of pure soldier, he will take obedience to orders as his duty, Dong Zhuang is different, he will not accept this ending." So I have ordered him to be summoned to the Chinese army, to find you, and also to let you go to Caijiaji to take over his army, and temporarily reorganize with your first division. ”

"You're going to arrest him?" Choi Chengxiu exclaimed.

"I'm worried that he will make trouble, this time the third division has suffered heavy losses, basically disabled, this guy is bent on revenge, if the boss asks us to surrender to the Chu army, he decided not to agree, so I will first lock him up in the military headquarters, and then release him after he goes back."

"Commander?" Cui Chengxiu was mixed with Chen, "Is this the final result?" If the Young Guards Regiment is mobilized from Jicheng, their two cavalry corps will take ten days at most to get here from Jicheng, and this battle is not unfought. ”

"The point is that the imperial court doesn't want to fight now, it can't fight! This point, Wu Yizheng has made it very clear to me when he came last time, we have been in war for many years, our Han has no foundation, and we can't afford it, and now the country needs to recuperate, I originally thought it was a short and fast war, but we made it messy, if the imperial court sent an army to rescue us, it might be a long-lasting continuous war with the state of Chu, which is obviously not what the imperial court wants to see. ”

"If you surrender?" Choi Chengxiu did not speak.

"All the blame is on me, from the beginning, I underestimated the opponent, since the new army became an army, there have been a lot of hard battles, hard battles, we are all smooth sailing, too smooth, let my heart also up, regard the heroes of the world as nothing, this time the trap of the Chu army is not without a trace, from Dong Zhuang's three regiments of Mao Afu began to attack Tucheng, there have been many bad signs, but I am too optimistic, turn a blind eye, is the root cause of the disaster, if I am not greedy for merit, Maybe it was only Dong Zhuang's two regiments that fell into it at that time, not our entire New First Army now. ”

"It's not the commander's fault." Choi Chengxiu whispered.

"It's my fault, after you got trapped, you sent someone to warn me, if I listened to you, the Second Division and the military headquarters wouldn't have been trapped, and if we were still outside, we wouldn't have been like this. Chengxiu, you are stronger than me. ”

"Commander!" Choi Chengxiu looked at him with some shock.

"You used to be my student, I know you saved my face!" Zhang Hongyu smiled bitterly: "Chengxiu, I have already issued an order to the officials above the regimental level of the three divisions, if anything happens to me, the post of commander of the new First Army will be taken over by you for the time being, until the imperial court makes a new appointment." ”

"Commander, it's not time to despair yet, how can you give such an order, do you have any other plans?"

"It's just a rainy day, as long as I'm okay, you, the acting military commander, won't be able to perform my duties." Yang Hongyu suddenly laughed: "Wu Yizheng said that he would fight for a decent way for us to withdraw from the war, and I will point to him now." ”

"Commander, if we really want to lay down our arms, we can't accept it, not only Dong Zhuang, but also me and Gao Chengdong."

"If you save people and lose land, you will gain all people, and if you lose people, you will lose people, and all people and land will die, have you forgotten the king's teachings?" Zhang Hongyu said indifferently, "The most important thing now is to bring the rest of the people back, only people go back, and then there will be a chance to take revenge, Chengxiu, if we all die here, even if we take revenge in the future, it will not be done by the new army personally." Do you see what I mean? Sooner or later, Hanchu will have a big battle related to the fortunes of the country, and this time we lost, but we can wait for the next opportunity. ”

"But this time I am afraid of the failure of our new army, the senior generals ......" Cui Chengxiu sighed.

"It's okay, all the responsibilities are borne by me, I won't let you be implicated, I want to oppose your performance in this war, it's remarkable, this is the reason why we still have most of the soldiers, I have already written the excerpt, the king is a great expert in military affairs, and I naturally understand it at a glance. You are under my influence. ”

"Commander!" Choi Chengxiu stood up suddenly.

"It's better for me to be unlucky than everyone else, not to mention, this time it's something I should be responsible for." Zhang Hongyu looked at him and shook his head.

"Commander, Division Commander Dong is here!" A personal guard lifted the curtain and walked into the tent to tell Zhang Hongyu.

Zhang Hongyu nodded, "Chengxiu, you go." ”

"Yes, Commander, take care!" (To be continued......)