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"Fang Cheng has an order, ordering all armies and battalions to immediately stop besieging the Qin army outside the city, and our army has won a complete victory tonight!"

"Fangcheng Order has an order......

In an instant, Meng Zhong's order spread to all the Wei troops outside the city, making these old and new Wei soldiers puzzled.

Because in their opinion, his Wei army has not yet caused a serious battle against the Qin army outside the city, that is, the 20,000 Qin troops under the command of the Qin general Jin Kuang, how can it "win a big victory"?

For example, Deng Shu, who had just defected to Fangcheng for a few months, was very puzzled by this.

So he couldn't help but ask the herald who came to deliver the order, and asked, "This brother, aren't we ambushing the Qin army tonight?" But the Qin army outside the city has not yet been defeated, so why did it win a big victory? ”

Perhaps because they learned that their side had achieved a great advantage, the heralds were in a very good mood, so one of them said with a smile: "Who told you that you ambushed the Qin army tonight?" …… When the Qin and Chu armies mistakenly thought that our army would fight a decisive battle with them tonight, the cavalry of our city had already attacked their camp and burned the grain and grass of the Qin and Chu armies......"

"Cavalry, cavalry? They attacked the grain and grass of the Qin-Chu coalition army? Deng Shu and the nearby recruits were shocked.

"Hey, hey."

The heralds laughed strangely, and then someone urged: "Okay, quickly withdraw into the city, the Qin army has not yet reacted, and when they learn that their camp has been attacked by our city, they will definitely be angry and attack our army, if you don't want to lose your lives, quickly retreat into the city, without delay!" ”

With that, the heralds walked away quickly.

Looking at the backs of these heralds leaving, Deng Shu still couldn't calm the shock in his heart.

Like all the new soldiers on the side, he originally thought that tonight was a decisive battle for the Qin army - if it was not a decisive battle, it was at least a fierce confrontation, who let the Fang Cheng Commander take the army Sima of Fang Cheng in the daytime today, in front of all the new soldiers and old soldiers of the Fang Cheng army, and used words such as "Fang Cheng and Yeyi are our hometowns, and we must fight to the death against the Qin army" to motivate the officers and soldiers in the army, so that the soldiers up and down Fang Cheng thought that they were going to fight to the death with the Qin army tonight.

Unexpectedly, this battle was over before it happened.

Well, a little disappointed.

According to the order, Deng Shu and other new soldiers retreated to the west gate of Fangcheng and lined up to slowly enter the city from the city gate.

During this time, he vaguely heard the soldiers in the group making fun of each other.

"Huh? Regretful? Hahahaha, I was so scared that I was about to pee my pants, and you told me that you hadn't killed enough at this time? ”

"Shut up, shut up! Who was scared to pee their pants? I was ...... excited."

"Excited to control your big bird?"

"Hahahaha......"

The nearby Wei pawns also burst into laughter.

"This voice ......"

Deng Shu padded his feet and looked at them a few times, and shouted forward, "Zhu Yi? Is it Zhu Yi? ”

"Huh?"

In the procession, the soldier who had made fun of the new pawn turned his head, saw Deng Shu waving at him by the light of the torch, and walked towards him.

Zhu Yi is Deng Shu's Tongze when he was a soldier in Lixian, when both of them were mixed with the positions of two Sima, that is, the general who managed twenty-five soldiers, and later after Lixian was breached, Deng Shu fled to Sui County with Zhu Yi and several others, but later Zhu Yi first defected to Fangcheng, and Deng Shu was for Deng County's mother and younger brother, which also made Deng Shu defect to the Fangcheng army much later than Zhu Yi, so that now Zhu Yi has become an uncle, and Deng Shu is just a military commander.

Of course, Zhu Yi is not the luckiest of the old acquaintances that Deng Shu knows, the luckiest guy is called Cai Tong, Fangcheng who went with Zhu Yi, was selected for a while ago, and turned into a cavalryman, which made Deng Shu and Zhu Yi both envious.

"Cai Tong, that kid has a long face this time."

After chatting with Zhu Yi for a few words, Deng Shu said with some envy.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Yi was stunned when he heard this: "What do you say?" ”

"You don't know?" Deng Shu said strangely: "Didn't he follow a few military horses to attack the camps of the Qin and Chu armies?" ”

"Huh?" Zhu Yi was stunned, and then laughed and said: "You said this, it was the tiger horse who attacked the camp of the two armies of Qin and Chu, what does it have to do with Cai Tong's kid?" ”

"Tiger riding? You said that this sneak attack on the camp of the two armies of Qin and Chu was only the old cavalry of the tiger horse? Deng Shu really couldn't hide the shock in his heart: "Aren't they only about a thousand people?" ”

Hearing this, Zhu Yi exhaled and said in a tone of admiration and longing: "After all, it was a cavalryman from Wei Wushu, and he once killed the Qin army in the Battle of Jingyique and abandoned his armor, how can it be compared to ordinary soldiers......

Deng Shu nodded thoughtfully.

Today's Fangcheng armies, the highest status is the tiger cavalry, that is, the three cavalry directly under the command of Sima Menghu, Huahu, and Mu Wu - although the cavalry under the command of Mu Wujun Sima often calls themselves "martial cavalry", but the soldiers of Fangcheng are still accustomed to using tiger cavalry to refer to these three cavalry with only more than 300 people.

Compared with this tiger cavalry battalion, the strength of the newly recruited and trained 5,000 cavalry is much inferior, although there are many generals in the army who are from Wei Wushu, but the overall average strength is indeed still some distance from the tiger cavalry.

According to Deng Shu's knowledge from Cai Tong, the old cavalry of the Tiger Cavalry could easily knock the new cavalry of the cavalry battalion off their horses, even if each other's weapons and armor were actually almost the same.

As they chatted, the conversation shifted from cavalry to tonight's battle.

In Zhu Yi's words, tonight's fight with the Qin army was simply anticlimactic, as far as he was concerned, before he could kill the third Qin pawn, a herald came to announce the order to retreat, which made him unsatisfied.

However, those new pawns in the army who had never killed anyone had gained good battlefield experience tonight, and even many of them were lucky enough to kill one or two Qin pawns, passing the most difficult hurdle when the new pawns stepped on the battlefield in one fell swoop, and the process during the period was very easy.

"Qin Jun, is it so weak?" Zhu Yi couldn't help but express his opinion to Deng Shu.

Hearing this, Deng Shu shook his head and corrected: "I'm afraid it's not that the Qin army is weak, but that we occupy a favorable form......"

Speaking of this, he couldn't help but think of that Fang Cheng Order.

He knew very well that the Qin army that rushed to the outside of the city tonight was obviously out of order, if the Qin pawn when he attacked Lixian was used as a yardstick, then tonight's Qin pawn did not even give full play to half of his strength.

The reason is very simple, because from the very beginning, a situation of "fighting more and fighting less" has been formed on the side of Fangcheng, with tens of thousands of Wei troops to add momentum, bluffing those Qin soldiers to lose their fighting spirit, and then surrounded by the armies of their Fangcheng, surrounded by enemies on all sides.

Although Deng Shu hadn't read any military books, he also knew that it was really remarkable that Fang Cheng Ling could use stratagems to put his Wei army in such an advantage.

But what I never expected was that even so, Fang Cheng's side was still just a feint, and the real purpose of that Fang Cheng Commander was to attack the camps of Qin and Chu's armies.

"What a terrible scheming......

In this regard, Deng Shu was secretly frightened.

At this time, he finally understood that the Qin general Bai Qi, who didn't even give face to Jun Jinghao at the beginning, and ordered the Qin army to attack Lixian and other cities without hesitation, would sell face to Meng Zhong, the main general of Fangcheng.

I remember that Wei Shu, who had old seniority at that time, laughed and said that the commander of the Qin army was afraid of their city order, and Deng Shu still had doubts about this at that time, but now that I think about it carefully, this assertion may not be unreasonable.

However, when he thought of this Fang Chengling with terrible scheming, he was now the coach on their side, and Deng Shu also felt quite relieved.

At this time, several more heralds came to convey the order: "The order of Fangcheng is ordered, the Qin army has not retreated, all the soldiers will temporarily rest in the city, support the city wall at any time, wait for the Qin army to retreat, distribute wine and food, and reward the whole army!" ”

"Wow——!"

Hearing this, the Wei pawns all raised their arms and cheered.

In fact, the vast majority of them do not know how their side has inexplicably won a big victory, but they do not reject this kind of victory in the slightest.

Who doesn't like a victory without many casualties?

Yes, don't look at the huge momentum of the Wei army on Fangcheng's side, in fact, neither the Wei army nor the Qin army under the command of the Qin general Jin Kuang actually did not have too many casualties.

No, after the retreat of the Wei army in Fangcheng, Jin Kuang immediately counted the entire army, and he found that he had only lost more than 4,000 people under his command.

In all fairness, the casualties of more than 4,000 people are not small, but considering that the 20,000 Qin troops under Jin Kuang's command have been surrounded by tens of thousands of Fangcheng legions, and these tens of thousands of Fangcheng troops have also put on a posture that they are destined to annihilate their entire army, the casualties of more than 4,000 people of the Qin army are actually not serious—at least they are much better than the annihilation of the entire army.

By the way, when the Wei army in Fangcheng retreated on a large scale, the Qin general Jin Kuang also thought of the reason: it must have been the national lieutenant Sima Cuo who led the reinforcements to arrive, and it was the old Fangcheng who immediately withdrew his troops.

Therefore, he also tried to lead his Qin soldiers to pursue the Wei army, trying to bite the tail of the Wei army's retreat, making it difficult for them to retreat into the city.

But unfortunately, the Qin soldiers under his command were frightened by the Wei army before, and because at night, the line of sight was blocked, so that the Qin soldiers cowered and did not dare to pursue hard.

What's even more hateful is that when the Wei army withdrew into the city, it also set fire to the rice in the farmland outside the city, so that a large number of Qin soldiers were stopped by the fire, and the Qin generals had to give up the pursuit of the Wei army.

Thinking about it, Jin Kuang could only surrender to Sima Co first.

At the same time, Sima Cuo also saw the fire in the farmland outside Fangcheng City, and his face was extremely ugly.

Of course, the reason why he looked ugly was not because he found out that Fang Cheng had burned the rice in the farmland outside the city, but because he had already discovered that the camp of his Qin-Chu coalition army had been attacked by a sneak attack.

It was discovered by his guards, and his guards discovered the skyrocketing fire behind him, and hurriedly reported it to Sima Cuo.

At that time, Sima Cuo looked back, okay, the direction where the fire loomed was not the direction of the main camp of his Qin-Chu coalition army?

At this time, where would he not understand Meng Zhong's intentions?

"I've been tricked......

With this awakening, Sima Cuo's face also became extremely ugly.

Meng Zhong, who mistakenly thought that Fangcheng was unable to hold his breath and was ready to confront them head-on, so he moved the Xing division to come to the battle with 20,000 Qin troops and tens of thousands of Chu troops, but he didn't expect that the other party just shook a shot and burned the main camp of his Qin-Chu coalition army while he was unprepared.

What's even more hateful is that the Wei army on Fangcheng's side also burned the rice in the nearby farmland before retreating, so that Sima mistakenly stole chickens and rice, and instead of calculating to Meng Zhong according to his original expectations, Meng Zhong earned his own camp.

This is really a heavy blow to Sima Cuo, who has been in Rong Ma for half his life.

"Hey! Told you to underestimate the enemy, this time you suffered a big loss, right?'

Glancing at Sima Cuo, who had a gloomy face, Qin Jiang sneered secretly in his heart.

In all fairness, in fact, Bai Qi didn't expect Meng Zhong to make a huge noise on Fangcheng's side, and his purpose was actually to divert the attention of his Qin army in order to sneak attack the main camp of his Qin-Chu coalition army, which meant that even if he was in charge of the army in vain, there was a chance that he would suffer in the hands of Meng Zhong.

But even so, it didn't prevent Bai Qi from looking at Sima Cuo with a gloating mood, who made Sima Cuo say that Fang Cheng was vulnerable before?

Meng Zhong, the Wei general who had defeated him in vain, was he the kind of enemy general who could be defeated casually? Who are you looking down on?!

And now, seeing Sima Co being played around by Meng Zhong, I have to say that Bai Qi is really relieved in his heart.

As for the other side, Zhao Ju's mood was more complicated than Bai Qi's.

He knew that the camp of his Chu army had also been attacked by the Wei army, and he believed that the Chu soldiers in the camp also suffered a lot of casualties, but in comparison, he was more inclined to see his Qin-Chu coalition army frustrated on the side of Fangcheng, after all, in his heart, he was still resisting and assisting the Qin State to attack Wei and Han.

It must be said that the two lieutenants both have ghosts, and Sima Cuo can be regarded as bad luck.

"Ahem."

At this time, Bai Qi coughed, and said to Sima Cuo with a seemingly expressionless face: "What are the plans of the national captain next?" Is it to attack Fangcheng? Or is it a return ...... Or do you want to go back to the camp? ”

Hearing this, even Zhao Ju felt that Bai Qi was mocking Sima Cuo, and Sima Cuo, as a party to the party, how could he not know?

Even though Bai Qi's opinion had changed a lot before, Sima Cuo couldn't help but glared at Bai Qi fiercely at this moment.

can stare back, in fact, Sima Cuo is also a little confused in his heart.

yes, what's next?

Meng Zhong of Fangcheng shook a shot, and after successfully sneaking up on the main camp of his Qin-Chu coalition army, he retreated into the city again, not giving him the slightest chance for the Qin-Chu coalition army to retaliate.

But the question is, at this moment, the army under his command only carries some simple siege ladders, and it is in the middle of the night, is it really going to attack the city at this time?

To tell the truth, this time he came to support Jin Kuang, in fact, Sima Cuo was also ready to attack Fangcheng, so he asked his corporal to bring some siege ladders.

As long as he inflicted heavy losses on the Wei army in Fangcheng while supporting Jin Kuang, he would immediately take advantage of the situation to attack the city and see if he could make some breakthroughs.

But the problem is that the Wei army in the city below has almost no casualties, and at this time, it is not uncomfortable to storm the city?

But just retreat back to the camp......

Sima Cuo also felt unwilling.

Thinking about it, Xingshi mobilized everyone to support Jin Kuang, and originally wanted to take this opportunity to inflict heavy losses on the Wei army, but instead of finding an opportunity, his main camp was ended by the Wei army, which no matter how you think about it, you can't swallow this bad breath.

However, Sima Cuo deserved to be a veteran of Rong Ma for half his life, even if he was panicked at the moment, he was not carried away by anger at all, only to see him staring at the Fang City where the cheers of the Wei army came for a long time, and with difficulty burst out a few words from his mouth: "Let's ...... Withdraw first! ”

Hearing this, although Bai Qi pursed his lips, he must also admit that this is indeed the most rational judgment.

In this way, the 20,000 Qin troops under Sima Cuo and the army under the Qin general Jin Kuang converged, and together with the 30,000 or 40,000 Chu troops under the command of Zhao Ju, these nearly 70,000 or 80,000 coalition troops, silently returned to the main camp.

About two hours later, when they returned to the main camp to take a look, Sima Cuo, Bai Qi, and Zhao Ju were not surprised to find that the two camps of his Qin-Chu coalition army had indeed been attacked by the Wei army.

On the side of the main camp of the Qin army, the soldiers' tents, baggage, grain and grass in the army were all burned by the cavalry of the Wei army, so that when Sima Cuo and others led the soldiers and horses back to the main camp, they could still smell the obvious smell of burning.

But in general, the loss of troops in the main battalion of the Qin army was not serious, and there were probably only six or seven hundred casualties, after all, there were not many soldiers left in this Qin battalion.

Compared with the Qin camp, the losses of the Chu camp were more serious, according to the situation that Zhao Ju knew, in addition to the grain and grass in the camp was burned by the Wei army, there were probably more than 3,000 people killed, more than 10,000 wounded, more than 8,000 soldiers escaped, and only 30% still returned to the main camp.

Of course, not all of these casualties were caused by the Wei army, most of them were caused by the Chu soldiers colliding with each other and trampling on each other in a panic.

I have to say that even though Zhao Ju had been prepared in his heart, he still couldn't help but tremble in his heart after hearing this casualty figure.

However, Zhao Ju also understood that Meng Zhong was not to blame for this, who made him Chu State have already sided with Qin State and become the enemy of Wei State?

Because the two camps were burned by the Wei army, and countless burdens, grain and grass were lost, Sima had no choice but to temporarily settle in the wilderness outside the camp.

After the guards around him lit a bonfire, Sima Cuo instructed the guards Ding Bao to invite Bai Qi and Zhaoju over.

A moment later, Bai Qi and Zhao Ju heard the news and sat around the bonfire with Sima Cuo.

At this time, Sima Cuo said to Zhao Ju with an apologetic face: "Doctor Zhao, this time it is the old man who is short and wise, and it has affected your army......

Zhao Ju hurriedly said: "The national lieutenant is serious, victory and defeat are common things in soldiers, and besides, how can the short-witted national lieutenant be alone?" I didn't expect that Meng Zhong pretended to ambush General Jin Kuang and lured us to lead heavy troops to support, but it was actually to sneak attack the camps of your and our armies......"

Hearing this, Sima Cuo couldn't help but nodded.

Indeed, in response to Meng Zhong's ambush of Jin Kuang, Sima Cuo once thought that Meng Zhong might have wanted to use the strategy of "winning more and more in the local area" to gather all his forces to cut off the arm of his Qin army first, so not only did he pour out the Qin army under his command, but also invited Zhaoju's Chu army, just to stop Meng Zhong, and to plan against the Wei army and cause heavy losses.

Subsequently, he also thought that Meng Zhong wanted to follow the Qi general Tian Ji's strategy of "encircling and sending reinforcements" when he ambushed the Wei general Pang Juan, pretending to surround Jin Kuang, but in fact it was to ambush his Sima Cuo's army, so he was also careful on the way to Fangcheng with his army.

But he never expected that Meng Zhong would use tens of thousands of square city troops as a feint army, and his real intention was to ask a few thousand cavalry to sneak attack the camp of his Qin and Chu armies.

Let at least 40,000 or 50,000 Wei troops cover up the real intentions of a thousand cavalry, who would want to do this!

According to common sense, shouldn't it be the other way around, right?

"The old man really didn't expect that Fangcheng would use tens of thousands of Wei troops as a feint, and order a thousand cavalry as the main force......"

Shaking his head, Sima Cuo said with a wry smile.

I have to say that this veteran made a mistake in this matter and mistakenly thought that the Wei army of the forty or fifty thousand square city was the "main force of the Wei army" tonight, which made him be played by Meng Zhong ruthlessly.

Hearing this, Bai Qi rarely stopped mocking Sima Cuo, because he could understand Sima Cuo's mood at the moment, just like when he won a fierce battle with more than 200,000 Wei and Han coalition troops in the Battle of Yique, he thought that the overall situation had been decided, but he was shocked to see Meng Zhong leading more than 20,000 Wei troops to defeat and come to fight when his Qin army was exhausted.

Looking at the whole world, how many generals dared to lead their troops to seek out the enemy again after just a few hours after their own defeat? Even if you have a chance of winning, you have to hesitate at the very least, right?

But that Meng Zhong did not hesitate.

Since that time, Bai Qi has realized that Meng Zhong, like him, is a general who can't be deduced by common sense.

Just like this time, Meng Zhong asked forty or fifty thousand Wei troops to cover for a mere thousand cavalry, such an incredible thing, put it on that Meng Zhong, but Bai Qi felt unobtrusive, even he didn't expect it in advance.

So, what's next?

At the mention of this question, Sima Cuo fell into deep thought.

After half a ring, he said in a deep voice: "A large number of baggage has been destroyed by the Wei army, I think even Chu Ying, it will be difficult to re-collect a sufficient batch of baggage in the short term, which means that we must find another way to let the soldiers survive the approaching winter ...... safely" [Baggage: that is, it generally refers to the military materials needed during the war, such as ordnance, grain and grass, cotton clothing, quilts, and military tents. 】

When he said this, Sima Cuo also had a headache about it.

Compared with the loss of troops, he is more distressed that a large number of baggage has been destroyed by the Wei army tonight, you must know that it is already the beginning of October, the weather is gradually getting colder, and it may be another half a month before it will really enter winter, when the sky will fall ice and snow, how should the soldiers of the Qin-Chu coalition army survive this winter?

After thinking about it, Sima Cuo could only ask Chu for help: "Doctor Zhao, although I am ashamed to say it, I still hope that Doctor Zhao can contact the king of Chu and collect a batch of winter clothes ......for our coalition army."

Zhao Ju was silent for a moment and asked, "How many bodies does the national captain want?" ”

Sima Cuo pondered for a moment and said, "Counting your army, the old man thinks about it, at least 20,000 ......."

"20,000 ......"

Zhao Ju's heart sank when he heard this.

He knew very well that Sima Cuo was giving him face, so he would ask him to send someone to contact Chu Ying, otherwise the other party could completely bypass him and directly contact Xiong Heng and Ling Yin Zilan, the monarchs of Chu State.

And according to Zilan's personality, that guy will definitely try his best to collect winter clothes in order to curry favor with the Qin army, if the inventory in the treasury is insufficient, Zilan may send someone to find him to buy it by the civilians of Chu State, or even forcibly plunder it in the name of "military endowment".

Otherwise, how could the tens of thousands of winter clothes he had before the 100,000 Chu Army be gathered in just a few months?

Thinking of this, Zhao Juhui couldn't help but think of Zhuang Xin's words: If Zilan is not removed, the virtuous ministers will have no return, and the country cannot be saved!

Unfortunately, there is nothing he can do about it at the moment.

After being silent for a while, he nodded: "I understand, and I will immediately send someone to contact Chu Ying." ”

"I'm tired."

Towards Zhao Ju with a fist and seeing the latter leave, Sima turned his head to look at Bai Qi by mistake, and said in a deep voice: "Bai Zuogen, the old man thinks that for the sake of long-term consideration, you and I must have a good talk, and we must reach a consensus on some things...... For example, Fang Cheng. ”

Hearing this, Bai turned his face slightly, looked Sima Cuo up and down a few times, and then a few faint smiles rose at the corners of his mouth.

"I want to hear about it."