"呜 (wǔ) – 呜 (wū) – "

"呜 (wǔ) – 呜 (wū) – "

With a few long horns that resounded in the sky, 50,000 merchant and naval troops and 20,000 Sichuan and Luo allied troops lined up in formation at the foot of Hangu Mountain, and dozens of catapults were pushed to the front of the array. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Obviously, the Wei army is preparing to storm the "Hanshan Qin Army Company Camp".

After learning of this emergency military situation, in the Qin camp in Hangu, Wuxin Marquis Gongsun immediately ordered the soldiers of the whole battalion to prepare for battle, and then he took Qin Shaojun to a lookout at the gate of the camp and climbed to look at the Wei army under the mountain.

In all fairness, the military strength of tens of thousands of people, Wuxin Marquis Gongsun Qi has not encountered it, and even, when the Qin State went to war with Xiqiang and the Wei clan in Longxi, not to mention tens of thousands of people, even if it was hundreds of thousands of troops, it was not uncommon.

Of course, the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, referred to here, refer to the army, including the "irregular army".

The so-called "irregular army" has a very large range, such as the "black noodles" of the Qin State, the "technical fighters" of the Qi State, the "grain recruited peasant soldiers" of the Chu State, the "slave soldiers" of Sanchuan, and so on.

These irregular troops, the armor is uneven, the equipment is backward, the strength is also uneven, fierce like the Qin State's "black face", even if the regular soldiers of the Qi State with complete armor and armor will not necessarily be the opponent of the former, but more are like the Chu State's "grain recruiting peasant soldiers", bullying the soft and afraid of the hard, almost can only fight a tailwind battle, and once their own battle is not good, these people will not only fail to play a role in turning the tide, but even will promote the rout.

However, there are also countries that adopt the rule of "no levy without religion", such as South Korea, such as Wei.

It is undeniable that Wei does not have the background of "four million extreme conscription sources" like Chu State, and can easily pull up an army of one million, but Wei's army is basically an army that dares to enter the battlefield after a year of training, which makes the quality of Wei's infantry very proficient in battlefield combat - of course, the same is true of the South Korean army.

For example, at the foot of Hangu Mountain, although they are both under the command of Ji Run, the prince of Wei, the Wei Shangshui Army and the Sanchuan Chuan Coalition Army, there is a completely different scene in terms of military appearance.

Compared with the chaotic Sichuan and Luo coalition army, the 50,000 merchant and naval troops lined up neatly and remained silent, just standing there made the Qin army peeping on the mountain feel inexplicable pressure.

Even if it was the grandson of Wuxin Hou, he couldn't help but praise in his heart: This is a terrible opponent!

"Shang Shui Jun ......"

Looking at the Wei army at the foot of the mountain, Qin Shaojun, Wang Di and other generals who had participated in the "Wei-Qin Sanchuan Campaign" the year before yesterday all showed extremely solemn expressions at this moment, while the rest of the Qin army generals who had not participated in the war that year looked at the Wei army with curiosity and scrutiny, as if they wanted to see if the Wei army was as invincible as rumored.

Not to mention, "Wei Gongzirun" and his "Shang Water Army" and "Yan Ling Army" are very well-known in the Qin State.

The vast majority of Qin people don't know what the contemporary King of Wei is called, and how many sons he has, but at least eighty percent of the Qin people know the name of "Wei Gongzi Run" - Ji Run.

Without him, just because the year before last, during the "Battle of Sanchuan of Wei and Qin", this son of Wei made too many Qin people hate Sanchuan and bury their bones in a foreign land.

It is precisely because of this that the Qin army, which has always had a strong desire to attack, obediently obeyed the tactical arrangement of Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi this time and adopted the tactic of "attacking and defending".

"Note: There is a certain difference between offense and defense, and "defensive counterattack". The former is simply to be ready to attack at any time during the defensive period, and once the enemy's flaws or major mistakes are grasped, they will decisively attack and inflict heavy damage on the enemy's army, and lay down the advantage or destroy the enemy's advantage in one sentence; The latter, on the other hand, focuses on using tight defense to make the attacker lose its sharpness, and then before and after the attacker is ready to withdraw, suddenly exert force to defeat the attacker, and then take advantage of the victory to chase and kill a wave."

If not, the army that has come out of a country that "feeds war with war" will adopt weak tactics? It's unimaginable.

At the same time, the Wei army under the mountain had pushed the dozens of catapults in front of the array, and was adjusting the direction, seemingly preparing to use the Hangu Qin camp as a bombardment target.

"This distance ......"

The 2,000 people of the Shang Water Army measured the distance between Gu Tao and the Hangu Qin camp, and secretly calculated in their hearts.

Gu Tao is the best at commanding catapult troops in the Shang Shui Army, because he has commanded catapult troops more times than any other general, especially during the attack on "Pigao Pass" last year, the catapult troops commanded by Gu Tao cooperated with the elite infantry team of the thousand-man general Qu Cheng and others, and completely crushed the Han general Jin Huang tactically.

But the problem is that last time the Gu Tao Department used a sophisticated catapult built by the Smelting Bureau, and this time due to the rush of time, inconvenient transportation and other problems, Shang Shuijun did not carry the catapult built by the Smelting Bureau, and the dozens of catapults in front of him were just inferior products created by his imitation drawings.

Fortunately, Zhao Hongrun's order was to "burn this mountain forest", and Hangu is a mountain that stretches for dozens of miles and is very deep, so as long as it is not too far away, it is still acceptable.

"Put!"

With Gu Tao's order, a catapult made a loud bang, throwing a stone bullet as heavy as an oil barrel high, and then, with a bang, smashed on the halfway of Hanshan, startling a group of birds.

"The catapult that was rushed by the soldiers was not as accurate as the catapult built by the craftsmen of the Metallurgical Bureau...... The range is almost half of it, and it's too far off."

Gu Tao frowned dissatisfied, he still missed the kind of catapult built by the Smelting Bureau with a range of nearly two miles, which was called a war weapon.

"Barrel bomb!"

While complaining in his heart, Gu Tao ordered.

Immediately, several merchant soldiers removed a wooden barrel filled with oil from the horse-drawn cart, placed it on the throwing spoon of the catapult, and immediately lit the strips of cloth.

"Put!"

With Gu Tao's order, the oil barrel bomb was thrown in the direction of Hanshan with a boom, and then, with a loud bang, it landed in the outer mountains and forests of the Qin army's company camp.

"Whoa!"

Gu Tao clenched his fists, not knowing whether to cheer or be frustrated, because he had inadvertently hit the outskirts of the Qin army's company camp, which was more threatening than Fang Cai's test bomb.

But the embarrassing thing is that the stone bomb is the same weight as the oil barrel bomb, but the position of the two bombs is obviously different, which shows that the stability of this catapult is quite poor, and it cannot be compared with the catapult built by the Metallurgical Bureau.

"This time, I really can only depend on the will of heaven."

Shaking his head helplessly, Gu Tao ordered the rest of the catapults to adjust their angles based on the first car and throw bombs freely.

But in all fairness, the hit of the ancient catapult is actually just a matter of "doing one's best and seeing the will of heaven", fortunately, the Wei army used oil bombs this time, and the fire caused by oil will ignite the mountains and forests and spread the fire outward, otherwise, if the irregular stone bullets commonly used in the world are used as throws, the hit rate is really touching, and it can only be said that it looks like a terrifying paper tiger.

Because of this, when the generals of other countries attacked the city, they at most used the catapult as a "speculative" object, gambling on whether it could smash the enemy city or the enemy city gate.

At the same time, the Marquis of Wuxin, Gongsun Qi, looked solemnly at the small area of fire that suddenly broke out outside the camp in the distance.

"That's the 'fire oil bomb' that destroyed the Kajiao tribe, right?" He asked Qin Shaojun.

"Probably so." Qin Shaojun nodded, and saw that there were several generals nearby with puzzled expressions, so he explained in a deep voice: "Wei Gongzirun, there is a very terrible fire oil, black and viscous in color, five years ago, Wei Gongzirun used this thing to destroy the station of the Qianjiao tribe 'Henan', and to this day, that city is still empty. …… According to careful investigation, this thing is called "black water" or "black oil" in Sanchuan, and the Wei army called it "fierce fire oil", the fire caused by this thing cannot be extinguished with water, even if it is in heavy rain, it can continue to burn, so the Sichuan people call this "heavenly fire", "divine fire" ......"

I have to say that after the disastrous defeat in the hands of "Wei Gongzirun", a friend who met many years ago, Qin Shaojun learned from the pain, and sent detailed and secret agents many times to find out the news about Zhao Hongrun, including the information of the Shang Shui Army and the Yan Ling Army, so he also learned more or less about the existence of oil as a big killer.

It's just that Zhao Hongrun is extremely strict about the existence of oil, so far, the rest of the countries, including Qin, are not clear about how this terrible oil is produced.

"Can't be extinguished with water?"

"Can't even put out the rain?"

After listening to Qin Shaojun's story, the faces of some Qin generals nearby changed slightly: Since they couldn't extinguish this terrible flame, how could they defend this mountain?

About a quarter of an hour later, because the Shang army wantonly threw oil barrels, which caused fires everywhere on Hanshan, but because of the short range and low accuracy of the hastily built catapults of the Wei army, most of the oil barrels bombarded the periphery of the Qin army's company camp.

Of course, this is not a problem, after all, there is vegetation everywhere on Hanshan, and even the Qin army company camp is a wooden structure, so it is only a matter of time before the fire will spread to the Qin camp sooner or later.

The only regret is that due to the range of these catapults, the Wei army could not directly throw oil barrels into the Qin army company camp, causing actual casualties among the Qin soldiers.

But even so, the rapidly expanding but unstoppable fire still caused panic in the Qin army, and in just a few moments, hundreds of unknown soldiers tried to extinguish the fire, and when they approached the sea of fire, they were directly baked into charcoal by the high temperature far beyond the normal flames.

However, during this period of time, Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi also calmly analyzed one of the most critical weaknesses of the Wei army's fierce fire oil: the small striking surface.

Yes, after an oil barrel bomb explodes, the fire that explodes quickly can only affect a radius of about five zhang at most.

Of course, this does not mean that the fire will not spread, after all, the heat generated by the burning of this fierce fire oil will quickly bake the nearby trees and dry them out, so that in the end, it only takes a few sparks to ignite the already dry branches and leaves of those trees, and then spread to the trunks.

But in general, this way of spreading the fire is actually very small to the Qin army - unless a Qin soldier stupidly takes the initiative to approach in order to extinguish the fire, or is very unlucky to be directly hit by an oil barrel, otherwise, as long as the Qin soldiers evacuate quickly, the loss of troops is minimal.

"I'm afraid this camp can't hold ......"

Qin General Wang Yi frowned and said solemnly.

Compared with the overwhelming crossbow attacks of the Wei army in the "Hangu One-Day Battle" the year before last, the "killing weapon" of the Wei army this time is actually acceptable to Wang Yi.

After all, this kind of thing is not a rare thing, even if the fire oil of the Wei army is black, even if the fire caused by this oil is unstoppable, but in general, it is not out of the cognition of Wang Yi and other Qin generals.

I think that only the Sichuan people, who are ignorant and worship gods and ghosts, will subconsciously classify this fire as divine fire or heavenly fire because of their own incomprehension.

But then again, although he did not depart from Wang Di's cognition, Shi Wang Di also understood a truth: since that kind of fire could not be resisted, then this impregnable camp built by their Qin army would definitely not be able to hold it.

Hearing Wang Di's words, Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi said calmly: "It's okay. Since it is difficult for this fire to be approached, and I believe that the Wei people are also the same, I don't believe that the Wei army has the ability to attack the mountain with such fire. …… The order went down and told the sergeants of the battalions to retreat one after another. Remember, retreat is only allowed if the fire is approaching. ”

After saying that, he looked at the vicinity of the Wang Banner of 'Wei and Su Wang' in the Wei army under the mountain, and the corners of his mouth raised a little inexplicable smile.

"The plan of fire attack is not a clever move, Wei Gongzi Run......

He said secretly in his heart.

At the same time, Zhao Hongrun was in the main formation of the Wei army at the foot of the mountain, watching the movement on the Han Mountain with the naked eye.

On the side, the Zongwei had already assembled the 'Telescope (Telescope)', which was being used by Zongwei Lu Mu, carefully peeping at the movements of the Qin camp under the curious gaze of the finch pretending to be Zongwei.

Suddenly, Zong Wei Lu Mu shouted: "Your Highness, several battalions of the Qin army have withdrawn!" ”

"......" Zhao Hongrun was stunned when he heard this, then turned over and dismounted, walked to the telescope in a few steps, and peeked at the movements of the Qin camp on Hanshan with the help of this object.

As Zongwei Lu Mu said, the Qin camp on Hanshan that stretched for more than ten miles, the Qin army seemed to be retreating in a large area, because the "Qin" flag planted on the camp was rapidly reduced, and it was obviously taken back by the Qin army.

But the strange thing is that only the local Qin camps that are about to be inked by the fire, the Qin soldiers in the camp will choose to retreat, and those local camps that are temporarily far away from the sea of fire, the Qin soldiers in the camp have no movement.

『……』

Frowning, Zhao Hongrun raised his head and looked in the direction of Hanshan.

His reason was that burning Hanshan could force Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi to fight him a decisive battle, but it turned out that Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi was not fooled at all, and the other party calmly made a judgment - you want to set fire to Hanshan? Let you burn, I'll retreat. Anyway, you can't get over the wildfire.

"Wouldn't it? Isn't it ......?"

muttering in his heart, Zhao Hongrun had a bad premonition in his heart.

He immediately ordered: "Tell Gu Tao to suspend the attack." ”

"Obey!" The herald obeyed.

Immediately, Zhao Hongrun summoned a few green crows, pointed to the distance in the direction of Hanshan that had not been affected by the fire, and ordered: "You go to the end of the Qin camp, go around, climb to the top of the mountain, and see if there is another camp of the Qin army behind Hanshan." ”

"Yes!"

More than a dozen green crows immediately led the troops and galloped away on horses in the southwest direction.

Faintly seeing that more than a dozen knights in this line were far away from the Wei army's main formation, Gongsun Qi, the Marquis of Wuxin in the Qin camp, was slightly stunned, and his face showed a slightly elusive expression.

"The reaction is really fast, Wei Gongzirun...... Yes, I had expected you to attack by fire, so I had already built a number of spare camps behind Hanshan, and when you arrived here with your army a few days ago, I ordered some of the generals' baggage to be transported back to the other camps...... If you think that if you burn down this camp you will have a chance to defeat our army, hehe, I am afraid you will be disappointed.'"

Brushing his beard, the grandson of the Marquis of Wuxin looked like an old god was there.

Thinking of this, he glanced at the sea of fire halfway up the mountain, and said to the people on the left and right: "Everyone, let's evacuate to the rear as well." ”

The generals nodded, and followed Wuxin Marquis Gongsun Qi to leave, but Qin Shaojun stayed for a moment, looking at the royal flag of 'King Wei and King Su' in the distance with a complicated expression.

In his opinion, his friend Wei Gongzirun had already lost in the contest with the Marquis of Wuxin.

It was not the difference in resourcefulness and the use of troops, but the situation of the two sides - Wei Gongzirun's situation was so disadvantageous that Wuxin Marquis Gongsun Qi could defeat the former without a fight as long as he adopted delaying tactics.

In Qin Shaojun's view, if Wei Gongzirun's opponent this time was not Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi, then the Wei army still had a chance to win this battle, but unfortunately, Wei Gongzirun faced Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi, a Qin army commander who was impeccable in wisdom and strategic vision.

"Shaojun?" The guard Peng Zhong reminded softly, "It's time for us to evacuate." ”

"......" Qin Shaojun nodded, and left with mixed feelings.

If he could, he really didn't want Wei Gongrun, a good friend, to be defeated in this situation and in this way.

After all, in his heart, Ji Run, the son of Wei, can be called a hero, although he is a hero of the Wei State.

Therefore, to defeat this hero in this way, not to mention Qin Shaojun, even if it was Peng Chong, Wang Yi and others, they all sighed.

In fact, when Wuxin Marquis Gongsun Qi proposed his tactics, many Qin generals were indignant - how could the proud Qin people use such despicable means to win the victory?

But there is no way, Wei Gongzirun's opponent is too terrifying, this person's wisdom can see through the strategy of Wuxin Hou Gongsun Qi, and the army under this person's command can also make the powerful Qin soldiers feel jealous, Wei has such a person, and Qin does not want to expand eastward at all.

The fiasco of the "Battle of Sanchuan of Wei and Qin" the year before last caused turmoil in the entire Qin State, because at that time, the Qin State lost 200,000 young men and women with almost no war benefits, which was simply a catastrophe for a country.

It is precisely because of this that "Wei Gongzirun" shocked the Qin State; It is precisely because of this that the Qin court and the nobles in the country, when they learned that this war would face that Wei Gongzi Run again, acquiesced to the victory of Wuxin Marquis Gongsun Qi in an ugly way.

Not only can Wei not afford to lose, in fact, Qin cannot afford to lose, and if the Qin State, which respects the "military merit system" and adopts the method of "fighting to support war", if it is defeated again by Wei Gongzirun this time, then the "military merit system" may completely collapse, and then the Qin State will fall from a powerful country all at once.

Therefore, in this battle, the Qin State must win!

Even if it's ugly, win it!

The Qin state needed to gain a lot of war benefits in order to make up for the consumption of resources by all classes in the country.

Finally, when the last banner of the Qin army disappeared from Hanshan, the ten-mile company camp of the Qin army was completely engulfed in flames.

However, there was no joy on the face of King Zhao Hongrun, he frowned and tightened the reins.

After a long time, he took a deep breath and raised his arms and shouted, "Very good! The Qin army was cowardly and abandoned the camp and retreated, this is the victory of our army! ”

Hearing this, the 50,000 Shangshui soldiers shouted with joy, and even the 20,000 soldiers of the Sichuan-Yu coalition army showed joy.

There were only a few people who had little joy of victory on their faces, or rather, even if they were, the smiles were reluctant.

For example, Zhai Huang, the deputy general of the Shang Water Army.

In his eyes, the Qin army was at most a strategic retreat, did it have any actual losses?

And although their Wei army seems to have the advantage, what is it in fact? Have you crossed Hanshan? No, the Wei army is also a mortal of flesh and blood, and there is no way to forcibly occupy that mountain with a sea of fire.

Just as the Marquis of Wuxin scolded Zhao Hongrun's words: Since you know that I am using delaying tactics, what is the use of you setting fire to the mountain? The fire burned the mountain for a few days, and your Wei army still couldn't come?

Therefore, fundamentally speaking, the situation of the Wei army has not changed at all - the closure of the mountain by fire is actually no different from the closure of the mountain by the Qin army.

Of course, this kind of "truth", but all generals can only think about it in their hearts, and they will definitely not leak it to the soldiers under their command.

It is precisely because of this reason that even if Zhao Hongrun knows that they did not win, he must pretend to have won the battle to boost the morale of his subordinates.

In the evening of the same day, Zhao Hongrun met with the dozen or so returning green crows in the marshal tent of the barracks.

Those crows brought back bad news, as Zhao Hongrun had guessed, there were still several military camps in the Qin army west of Hangu.

"That's ...... so."

After expelling the dozen or so green crows, Zhao Hongrun lay on the sheepskin blanket laid in the tent with his head in his hands, thinking with his eyes closed.

Once upon a time, the most difficult opponent he encountered was only Shouling Jun Jingshe of the Chu State, but now, this list has to add Wuxin Marquis Gongsun Qi, the commander of the Qin State.

『…… The Qin State can't afford to lose, if the Qin army loses again, most of the military merit system will collapse, and then the Qin State will become extremely vain, so even if the victory is ugly, it must be won...... It's quite similar to our situation.'"

Sighing secretly, Zhao Hongrun sat up suddenly, summoned two green crows, and instructed them: "You wait for the hurry to go to the south of the country, in the name of this king, ask to see General Sima An, and order him to immediately lead the army across the Qin Mountains and invade the territory of Qin, during which all military affairs will be decided by General Sima An!" ”

"Yes!" The two crows followed the order.

Looking at the swaying tent, Zhao Hongrun's slightly confused eyes gradually became firm.

『…… The Qin State can't afford to lose, but my Great Wei can't afford to lose either, no matter how ugly the victory is, I will win!"

Clenching his fists, Zhao Hongrun's eyes flashed a little indifference.