After a while, Sun Sheng involuntarily shook his head and whispered: "No, Gongsun Jian's old trick will definitely not be repeated, because this king will definitely not be fooled." But what's the point of him doing that? ”

As soon as Sun Sheng's words fell, the shouting of killing was remembered again outside the camp, and another rocket and bow and crossbow attacked. Soon silence returned. Because the Wu army got the news, there was no large-scale dispatch to meet the battle, and at night, those bows and crossbows basically did not threaten, unless the Wu army was shot in the middle of the special point, and the entire battalion suffered less than 50 casualties.

"Gongsun Jian's move must have his purpose, although this king doesn't know what he wants to do yet. But it's not as simple as trying to harass us. Sun Sheng looked at the generals around him and said: "Han Dewei, you take a thousand people to quietly leave the camp, go to the direction of Dingxi County to investigate, if you encounter an ambush on the other side halfway, don't fall in love, quickly return to the camp." ”

"Yes, my subordinates will go." Han Dewei clenched his fists and agreed.

And Sun Sheng looked at a general on the other side and ordered: "Liu Quancai, you take 3,000 men and horses to follow Han Dewei and ambush five miles outside the camp, if Han Dewei is attacked and can't retreat, you will go to meet it, if Han Dewei leads people to escape back, you will wait for the ambush of the opponent's pursuers." ”

"Yes, my subordinates understand."

"Hou Kun, you take a thousand of your subordinates, patrol around the camp, and rush out if you find another shouting in that direction, remember to prepare more rockets and don't get too close, just shoot me in the direction."

"Yuan Derang, you bring 3,000 people to meet He Kun at any time, lest he be ambushed by the other party."

"Yes, lord."

After Sun Sheng's order, all the generals went to prepare. Then Sun Shengcai looked at the night in the distance in a daze, stroked his beard and muttered slightly: "Gongsun Jian, it seems that the decisive battle is not daytime, but tonight." ”

Before he could speak, there were shouts of killing outside the camp again, but this time there was no attack. And the momentum is faster than the previous two times.

"Hehe, Gongsun Jian Xiao'er is quite familiar with this trick, but can you really break through the king's camp?" Sun Sheng sneered disdainfully.

In the time that followed, the vicinity of Wu's camp was unusually calm, and the teams that had been assigned also sent back one after another to report back. No ambushes or other anomalies were found in the vicinity of the camp. This result made Sun Sheng even more uneasy.

When it was time for the third watch, after the last army of Han Dewei, who had gone out to reconnoiter Dingxi County, came back to report, Sun Sheng suddenly thought of something, and stood up violently and shouted: "Not good." Gongsun Jianxiao'er of the dog day took people to rob the town and pass away. ”

"Huh? The prince won't be, right? The generals of the Wu army were stunned. Qi Qi looked at Sun Sheng.

"Ding Feng's Fourth Division never appeared. If this king is Gongsun Jian, he will also raid Zhenyuan Pass after our war, not to mention whether he can take it, but as long as Zhenyuan Pass is attacked, then we will definitely go to the rescue. ”

"But Lord Wang, doesn't Gongsun Jian want this Dingxi County?" Han Dewei asked with some confusion.

"Idiot, what if we take Dingxi County? The walls of Linshui County are tall, isn't it more difficult to fight than here. The rest of Gongsun Jian's men and horses only need to hold on to Linshui County and delay us, and when Zhenyuan Pass is lost, then all our logistics will be over. Sun Sheng scolded angrily.

"Lord Wang, what are you waiting for? Let's send someone back immediately to help garrison the far pass of the town. He Kun, another general on the side, proposed.

"No." Sun Sheng couldn't help shaking his head, pondered for a moment and said, "Gongsun Jian, that kid may be waiting for us halfway?" If we don't come back to help, he will go to support the 4th Division attacking Zhenyuanguan. This kid's trick is really ruthless! ”

"Lord Wang, what do you say we should do now? It's not to save, it's not to save. ”

Oh, yes! What now? Sun Sheng's heart was also worried.

At present, there are two ways in front of Sun Sheng, one is to immediately go back to the rescue of Zhenyuan Pass, which may be attacked by Gongsun Jian, and keep his way back. The second is to attack Dingxi County head-on, and then look for an opportunity to fight to the death with Gongsun Jian.

However, neither road is easy to walk, for the simple reason that the first road is likely to be attacked halfway, and all the losses of the first battle during the day today are in vain. And the second road is more dangerous, if you don't get the back road right, the back road will be cut off, and the Zhenyuan Pass, which you have worked so hard to occupy and hold for almost two years, will be lost, but this is not the most important thing, the most important thing is that he may have to face the danger of the destruction of the whole army.

After a fierce ideological struggle, Sun Sheng still did not dare to take risks, so he ordered that the whole army except for enough manpower to be left as a night guard, all the others rested, and the whole army rushed back to Zhenyuan Pass as quickly as possible after dawn.

Finally survived until dawn, and all the men and horses of the Wu army began to retreat back in a hurry. But the road was no easier than a night march. The constant harassment of small units, especially the heavy grain and grass troops at the back of the team, was impossible to march very quickly because of their own reasons, coupled with the constant harassment of Gongsun Jian's troops, which made Sun Sheng very annoyed. But if you are annoyed, there is no way, you have to stop and deal with it, people will immediately run faster than rabbits, but if you don't deal with it, it will be like flies flying in your ears.

In the end, Sun Sheng had to let Han Dewei lead 5,000 troops to protect the baggage, while he led the army to rush back non-stop. Because he knew very well in his heart that the purpose of this senseless harassment was to slow down the return of his army. It can be seen that Gongsun Jian is really attacking Zhenyuan Pass.

Halfway through the journey, Sun Sheng finally waited for Zhenyuanguan's request for help, which also confirmed his guess. He was even more anxious, so he ordered his troops to speed up. Seeing that it was already noon, the army had not rested for a moment since the rapid march from early morning to now, so a general stepped forward to persuade Sun Sheng to let the horse rest and replenish some water and food, otherwise even if it could rush back to Zhenyuan Pass in time, the team would have no combat effectiveness.

Although Sun Sheng was anxious in his heart, he still understood this. So he ordered the whole army to rest for half an hour, and the soldiers who had been running for a long time were tired and collapsed on the ground one by one after receiving the order, panting and drinking water desperately.

But not long after everyone lay down to rest, with the sound of an explosion, the shouts of killing shook the sky, and countless arrows were shot. Immediately afterwards, Gongsun Jian's soldiers who had been in camouflage and had been waiting for a long time appeared in front of Wu Jun like a trick.

It can be said that this was not a battle at all, but a one-sided slaughter. Those Wu Jun, who had just relaxed after running for a long time, had no power to fight back at all. Even some were frightened by the sudden appearance of the enemy, and the army was in chaos.

Fortunately, the quality of the generals of the Wu army was quite good, and they shouted loudly in time to gather their subordinates to resist together. But Gongsun Jian's Zhou army is not stupid, especially the soldiers of Gongsun Jian's personal guard independent garrison regiment, armed with bows and crossbows, as long as they find people shouting and directing the Wu army to fight, they will immediately concentrate their firepower and shoot fiercely. In a matter of moments, many of the generals of the Wu army died on the battlefield. This time, the Wu army was even more chaotic, the generals who led the troops were shot, and the Wu army, which had no one to command, fled for their lives.

The battle has reached this point, in fact, there is not much point anymore. Thousands of Zhou troops also dispersed according to their squads, platoons, and companies to pursue and kill the fleeing enemies as they had been trained on weekdays.

Gongsun Jian did not participate in the next pursuit, but asked Wei Meng to gather more than 1,000 people from the independent garrison regiment and more than 1,000 people from the reserve brigade temporarily transferred from Linshui County, and walked back to meet the baggage team that Han Dewei was lagging behind.

With the news of the defeat of the army in front, the Wu army, which followed Han Dewei to protect the grain and grass, did not have much fighting spirit at the moment, although it had a certain numerical advantage, but it was only after a few rounds of parrying, it was also scattered. Almost without much loss, Gongsun Jian led people to capture a large number of grain, grass, baggage and other goods in one fell swoop. It's also a little rich.

Looking back at Sun Sheng, he never thought that Gongsun Jian would actually ambush himself in the middle of the day. And the location of the ambush was calculated so accurately. Finally escaped the pursuit of the Zhou army under the protection of his personal guards, and when he was relieved to collect the remnants of the army, he found that less than 20,000 of the 80,000 horses that followed him on the expedition returned.

In fact, it was not only so many people who escaped, but the Wu army scattered and fled after the attack, and the Zhou army chased and killed behind them, so many people had no direction, so many people ran away. Some people didn't return to the Wu army camp until almost half a month later, and some ran back to Wu directly. Long after the war, according to the internal statistics of the Wu army, less than 30,000 people came back intact. That is, only in the first battle of Dingxi County, and later attacked halfway, the Wu army lost a total of almost 50,000 horses, plus a large number of grain and grass and other baggage. It can be described as a great loss of vitality.

And Zhenyuan Pass was fine at all, the Zhou army under Gongsun Jian did not send people to attack at all, and as for the Wu soldier who went to report the news halfway, he couldn't find this person at all afterwards. No need to ask, it must be a fake by Zhou Jun. Sun Sheng was so angry. Not only did they not take advantage of any advantages, but they also suffered heavy losses. Half a month later, Sun Sheng had to return to the capital of Wu in person to plead guilty to his imperial brother in person.

Besides, Gongsun Jian, although he defeated the Wu army and dealt a powerful blow to the other party, his own losses were not small. According to statistics after the war, all the participants except for Ding Feng's Fourth Division, which only suffered more than 200 casualties, suffered minor losses, and the losses of the other three divisions reached half. Even if some of the lightly wounded sergeants were able to rejoin the team after recovery, the overall loss was more than a third.

Fortunately, in the hands of today's Gongsun Jian, there is food and food, and there are people. With a wave of his hand, the whole army was expanded.

The original field division was expanded from four to seven. In addition, the independent garrison regiment was also expanded into a garrison division, Xie Wu's reconnaissance battalion was abolished, and each field division set up its own subordinate reconnaissance unit.

Ma Teng was transferred from the field division to be responsible for the establishment of a rapid reaction support force, which to put it bluntly means riding horses when marching and fighting on foot during battles. This was determined by the topography of the area where the Zhou Kingdom was located. Because the Zhou, Wu, and Southern Han states were all located at the southern end of the entire continent, with many mountains and rivers, the cavalry could not play much role here. And Gongsun Jian used the resources in his hands to form such a team, the purpose of which was to quickly support the battle at any time when needed.

Ding Feng was also transferred to form an amphibious warfare division in view of the large number of rivers and lakes in various places. Xie Wu was appointed by Gongsun Jian alone to be responsible for the formation of special operations forces, which were temporarily organized into brigades, and Gongsun Jian was personally responsible for command and training.

In addition, Hu Tianyi was also instructed by Gongsun Jian to set up an internal security force, which was responsible for protecting the security of all officials and institutions in Gongsun Jian's territory, as well as the task of internal purge. It is also directly under the name of the Zhou Wangfu and is directly under the direct command of Gongsun Jian.

The conscription of the Zhou royal palace did not need to notify anyone, not even the Zhou court did not need to be notified and approved. Anyway, the current Gongsun Jian can be said to have become a state of China within the territory of the Zhou State. Neither paid taxes to the Zhou court nor was it under the jurisdiction of the Zhou court. It's just that nominally he is still subordinate to Emperor Yue.