Yang Longyan didn't get the answer they wanted, so they were naturally not very satisfied, but seeing Zhu Siqing's silent appearance, they could only give up.

At this time, a guard outside came in and said: "General, there are some defeated soldiers outside, claiming to be soldiers of our army stationed in Xiangxiang, saying that the Chu army raided them five days ago. ”

"What? Xiangxiang was raided? Zhu Siqing was surprised.

Wang Twist was raided, which is not good news.

But on the other hand, it is also good for Zhu Siqing and them, what he is worried about is that the Chu army will not show up, as long as they show up, then their final advantage will be gone.

Compared with the Wu army, the Chu army did not have an advantage in all aspects, and its only advantage was that it was more familiar with the terrain and could rely on the geographical advantages to sneak attack the Wu army.

Previously, a messenger from Liu Xin's side came to report that Ma Ye and Liu Chongjing's troops stationed in Qiaokou Town had been attacked by enemy troops, and as a result, Ma Ye was captured; However, in the end, the Wu army, under the command of Liu Chongjing, still repelled the Chu army.

This time the enemy attacked again, but the target became Wang Twist.

"It seems that the Chu army also knows where its advantages lie, and knows that it can't defeat our army in a head-on battle, so it's bent on sneak attack!"

"There are still fewer mountains on this side of Hunan, especially on the Tanzhou side, and there are more rivers, but the further you go to the southwest, the more deep mountains and old forests there are, and the less familiar our army is with the terrain there."

"In the future, if the enemy army is bent on sneak attack and does not engage our army head-on, this will also be a headache!" Zhu Siqing frowned and thought.

Prior to this, no matter which side of the enemy army was, it was generally based on head-on engagement, and the so-called sneak attack was a tactic used in a few cases.

It's like what the Chu army is doing now, not confronting the Wu army head-on at all, but hiding and trying to sneak attack everywhere.

"Oh, that's not right!" Suddenly, Zhu Siqing woke up.

"General, what's wrong? Could it be that the identities of those defeated soldiers are fake? Yang Long said.

"Of course not! However, there should be no problem with the identities of those defeated soldiers, I believe that they have been interrogated repeatedly after arriving at our camp, and if they are fake, they will definitely be discovered! ”

It was not so easy to disguise other people as Wu soldiers to infiltrate the camp.

In Zhu Siqing's camp, there are long sword agents with the army who are responsible for intelligence gathering, and at the same time, they are naturally responsible for interrogating prisoners and other tasks.

Those few people who claimed to be the defeated soldiers would definitely have to undergo strict interrogation after arriving at the Wu army's camp, and only after the interrogation confirmed their identities would the news be reported to Zhu Siqing.

Otherwise, if a few of the routs were faked by the enemy, the joke would be a big one.

"Since the general thinks that those defeated soldiers are indeed our people, then what's the problem?"

"Does the general suspect that they have been bought?"

Yang Longyan and the others hurriedly asked.

Zhu Siqing shook his head and did not answer directly, but ordered Chen Fan, Fan Sicong and other generals to be summoned.

After the generals arrived, Zhu Siqing briefly introduced the situation, and then said: "Those few defeated soldiers should indeed be our people, but there is still a big problem in this, that is, why did they come to us?" ”

"This is Hengzhou! It is two hundred miles away from the station of Xiangxiang Wang Twist, and a few defeated soldiers can flee to such a far place in five days, is it possible? ”

Yes, it was this question that aroused Zhu Siqing's suspicions.

The distance between Xiangxiang and Hengzhou is too far, not only separated by Nanyue Hengshan in the middle, but also blocked by many rivers, coupled with the possible pursuit of the enemy, how did these people come to Hengzhou without supplies on the way?

You must know that compared to such a long distance in Hengzhou, Liu Xin's camp in Tanzhou is not far from the garrison of Wang Twist in Xiangxiang, and these defeated soldiers have the energy and ability to run to Hengzhou, so it is better to flee directly to Tanzhou.

No matter how you look at it, it is all strange.

"General, maybe there are enemy troops chasing them behind, or their road to Tanzhou is blocked, so they fled here in desperation, right?" Chen Fan asked with some uncertainty.

"It's possible what you said! However, if you are a rout, after you lose contact with the army, will you choose to try to hide and wait for the opportunity to return to Tanzhou, or will you choose to flee more than 200 miles to the camp of another army? Zhu Siqing asked rhetorically.

"This ......" Chen Fan was dumbfounded.

At this time, the long sword who was in charge of interrogating the defeated soldiers secretly said: "According to what the defeated soldiers said, they have been being chased by the enemy all the time, and they can't get rid of it, so they have no choice but to flee to us in one go." ”

"Then it is even more strange why the enemy is chasing after a few of the routs, and even seems to be deliberately driving them to us?"

When Zhu Siqing said this, the generals were also a little puzzled.

In fact, after Wang Huan defeated Wang Twist, in order to let the news reach Zhu Siqing as soon as possible before the loss of Hengzhou, he did deliberately drive a few defeated soldiers here.

Although he also knew that this was too deliberate and easy to find loopholes, he could only do so because of the urgency of time.

Later, after intercepting the three messengers sent by Liu Xin, the letters found from them also showed that Liu Xin and others saw the flaws.

So Wang Huan became even more worried.

This is also something that cannot be helped, and it is easy to go wrong with the plan made in a hurry.

"Anyway, there's always something strange about it, so I'd better be cautious! In the future, all ministries must not slacken their efforts and must continue to remain vigilant. Zhu Siqing ordered loudly.

"The last general obeys!" The congregation will answer.

"Fan Sicong, tomorrow it's your turn to attack the city, I hope you can break through the city in one fell swoop, don't delay any longer!"

"Yes! The end will be the destruction of the city! Fan Sicong hurriedly bowed down and replied.

According to Zhu Siqing's arrangement, Chen Fan and Fan Sicong's two divisions will take turns to be responsible for attacking the city, and one side will be responsible for attacking for three days, and then rotate until the city is broken.

And the one who finally breaks through the city will get the first credit, and the other person will naturally only be subordinated to the second merit.

In this way, the two of them invisibly formed a competition, and they had to work hard to attack the city.

Zhu Siqing nodded, and then said: "Okay, don't worry about the affairs of Xiangxiang, after breaking through Hengzhou as soon as possible, we will quickly go north to join the national army in Youzhen, everyone should not be careless!" ”

……

"This Zhu Siqing is also too cautious, and now he is still attacking the city unhurriedly, and there is no change at all! Isn't he in a hurry at all? ”

In the north of Hengzhou, in the Chu army camp, even Qin Yanhui couldn't help but complain in a low voice.

The operation of dividing troops to raid Wang Twist was indeed successful, but compared with Xiangxiang, the battle on Hengzhou's side was more important, but unfortunately Zhu Siqing was still cautious, so Qin Yanhui could only cry out in vain.

At this point, Hengzhou may be lost at any time.

As long as Hengzhou is lost, Zhu Siqing will be able to lead his troops north, and at that time, just relying on this little force in his hands, even if he joins Wang Huan again, it will only be less than 10,000 people, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to stop Zhu Siqing's pace of going north.

And when Zhu Siqing rushed to Tanzhou to join Liu Xin, they were able to concentrate their forces and start attacking Tanzhou.

What's more, now the Wu army has only dispatched two armies of 40,000 people, but with the huge size of the Wu army, who can guarantee that they will not further increase their forces?

Therefore, the Chu army either did not move, or it had to obtain enough victories, and try to defeat Zhu Siqing or Liu Xin before the enemy army had increased its troops, so as to lift the siege of Tanzhou.

As for whether the Wu army will be angry and send more troops to attack after the defeat, that is a matter for the future.

Seeing that Qin Yanhui's face was extremely bad, the generals also lowered their heads and pondered one by one, not daring to discuss loudly.

It was a long time before someone asked, "General, what should I do now?" Will our army continue to wait? ”

Qin Yanhui nodded and said, "Wait, wait!" ”

"Wait any longer, I'm only afraid that Hengzhou ......"

Qin Yanhui frowned and glanced at the man, and then replied, "Even if Hengzhou is lost, so what?" There are only so many troops in our army, and the number of troops that Zhu Siqing used to attack the city is only 10,000, and he still has 10,000 people left to defend our army! Even if our army is all pressed up, it will not be able to relieve the siege of Hengzhou, but it may allow us to fall into it! ”

A general proposed: "General, although the enemy army has besieged Hengzhou, it is not without loopholes, if our army breaks into the city at night, and then holds the city with the defenders, Hengzhou may still have hope to continue to hold on!" ”

Qin Yanhui was obviously stunned for a moment, and then sneered: "Yes, it's possible!" But even if, as you said, we manage to break into the city, we will be caught in an urn by then! ”

Now that the situation in Hengzhou is extremely critical, perhaps their 7,000 people do have a little hope of breaking into the city at night, but that also means that they have lost their secrecy and mobility.

At that time, the Wu army will be able to attack the city more calmly, until the city is broken and they are completely wiped out in the city.

However, for the Chu State, the most important thing for them now is not the territory, but the army.

Hunan and other places are basically hopeless now, but the army is Ma Yin's capital.

If the army is wiped out, even if there is still territory, it will only be a dish prepared for the state of Wu.

In this big battle, although Ma Yin invested 40,000 troops, hoping to win a beautiful battle in Tanzhou, but this premise is not to lose too many troops.

According to Ma Yin, he could accept a defeat with only a small number of troops, but he could not accept a victory with a large number of troops.

So if they can't do anything, they can only give up Hengzhou, and even Tanzhou, and then their task will be to take Xu Dexun to break through.

In short, you can lose your territory, but you can't lose too many troops, this is Ma Yin's supreme instruction.

"That's it, Zhu Siqing is too cautious, if he can't do anything, then he can only give up Hengzhou!"