On the sixth day of the seventh month, the scouts released reported that the army of the dome began to march towards this side, but there were many of their scouts, and they walked very carefully, controlling the place about thirty miles near the army, and it was impossible to ambush them. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

And the ships returning downstream also reported on this day that they had already attacked the city of Dongyi, and the other party had sent someone to report the news.

The people of the Construction Division have also selected the support point in the hinterland of Dongyi, and the construction is underway, and the people of the Transportation Department have also begun to transport a large amount of ordnance materials and grain along the river to the support point in the hinterland of Dongyi.

Chen Jian calculated the speed of the other party's travel, estimated the speed of the messenger, and estimated that he would be able to stay here for two or three days at most.

At that time, no matter what Qiongxi thinks, he will not follow Qiongxi's footsteps. Qiongxi wants to continue to attack the city here, and if he refuses to retreat, he will toss the troops, and he will also go east along the river according to his strategic intentions. You fight yours, I fight mine, anyway, you can't beat Yucheng, I, Chen Jian, am not the leader of the Great River Tribes, there is no baggage, if you break the rest of the cities, it is Su Yue who is blamed and not me, as long as I get a victory, it is enough to usher in enough prestige.

The propaganda department began to make final propaganda preparations, conveying Xia Cheng's strategic intentions to the ears of every soldier, so that they were confident in the upcoming big war, and they were not going to fight to the death here.

Compared with the confidence of the soldiers, the children of the rest of the cities and nobles who followed the expedition were more curious, Chen Jian left them at the end, did not give them the task of impacting and fighting, and only said that when they arrived in the hinterland of Dongyi, there was an opportunity for them to make meritorious contributions.

Most of the noble children are actually just children, so they are full of enthusiasm, but some of them are full of vigilance with wide eyes.

As far as Xia Cheng's strategy is concerned, in fact, everyone can think of it, and in their opinion, it is nothing. The problem is that when you think about it, no city has the organizational power to accomplish its strategic intentions, and that's the most important problem.

Everyone knows that the soldiers are fast, and everyone knows that they will be saved by attacking the enemy, but what they think is that if they put it in their own city, can they complete the mobilization and rapid response within half a month? If you put it in your own city, can you cross hundreds of miles to complete the battle and still maintain the integrity of the system?

Obviously, no, they are waiting and seeing, if Xia Cheng does it this time, he must follow the change after returning to the city, otherwise no one will be able to compete with Xia Cheng in more than ten years.

In the past, they just thought that the system of Xia Cheng was very strange, and the power structure did not look like any other city, but when the war came, the efficiency of this bureaucratic system quickly threw off the old clan politics of the rest of the cities, and the whole city was cohesive from top to bottom, and everyone was preparing for the war, busy but not chaotic.

At least now it seems that they are busy and not chaotic, the only thing these people suspect is the combat effectiveness of those soldiers who used to be fugitive slaves, in their opinion, slaves are the most ineffective group of people, is it really okay for Xia Cheng to put his hope on this group of people?

Perhaps, the result can only be declared by war.

…………

On the thirteenth day of July, Qiongxi's army had approached fifty miles away, and Jian Chen withdrew all his riders.

These riders would not follow the army eastward, because the horses were not well transported.

This expedition was all infantry, he would not lead cavalry and charioteers, and he would not choose to fight in the field or ambush in the hinterland of Dongyi.

The riders had set up camp upstream, about a dozen miles away from the bun, and they basically did not participate in the battle, but only needed to appear at the right time as a deterrent, ready to run back to Yucheng by tactical mobility at any time.

The day after the rider gave up the reconnaissance, there were already scouts from Dongyi approaching Bao, Chen Jian also slaughtered the last batch of sheep in the city to reward the soldiers, and Shi Camellia and others, who accompanied the army's propaganda, performed one last performance and went east along the river first.

The singing in the night was a little free and exciting, but not nervous. The veterans who participated in the war followed Chen Jian all the way from Caohe to here, and most of the recruits were fugitive slaves who were desperate to survive, and death was already a little numb to them.

In the early morning of July 15, a layer of mist hung over the riverbank.

After the mist cleared, the army of the Dongyi people stopped at a distance of three or four miles from the bun and began to build their own camp. A large number of soldiers were on the periphery to guard against the Xiacheng people who took advantage of their unstable camping to sneak attack, but it was a pity that they waited until the mist cleared, and the Xiacheng people on the opposite side seemed to be asleep, silent.

Dome looked at the strange camp in front of him from a distance, and was sure that there were people there, as there were soldiers guarding outside, and black and white flags were flying.

There were boats coming and going on the river behind him, and he had heard the name of the sailboat, but it was the first time he had seen it. When I saw a boat sailing against the current, I couldn't help but praise it, and I seemed to think of something in my heart but couldn't grasp it.

The leaders of several clans looked at the Xia City camp in the distance and said with a smile: "I heard those people say that this person named Ji Xia is very resourceful and good at fighting, but it seems that this is the case." They didn't attack while we were on a shaky footing, and they gave up the advantage of their summer city horses and chariots, and shrank there like turtles. Will this defeat us? If I want me, I can break them before dark. ”

Qiongxi also felt weird, if the other party didn't want to fight with him, just retreat back to Yucheng, why send troops here? If you want to fight with yourself, what's the point of shrinking there? Time spent with yourself? Tail attack when you run out of food and retreat? If you really want that, you don't need to do this, their scouts have horses, and the range of inspection is very large, so it's good to go out when you want to withdraw your army.

He had never seen such a way of warfare, and he was a little unclear for a while, but he did not underestimate the enemy, but was more careful.

First, some scouts in the army approached the Xiacheng military wall, and then let the people who could speak the language of the river shout insults, only saying that the people of Xiacheng were like turtles who did not dare to fight, and by the way, they cut off the heads of several slaves in an attempt to provoke the other party.

But after a morning of shouting and scolding, there was still no movement on the other side, everything entered, and the soldiers guarding handed over normally. Jian Chen had already told each soldier of his strategic intentions, and he only felt ridiculous about the other party's insults to the soldiers, these stupid guys did not know that soon the army would enter the empty hinterland of Dongyi, and there was no restraint in their hearts.

By noon, Qiongxi had finally decided to make a tentative attack, he really couldn't understand what the other party was doing, and he didn't dare to gamble all the troops in one go.

After eating, the army began to move forward slowly. Qiongxi divided the army into six parts, and one remained in the camp.

Sanfen surrounded the military fortress of Xia Cheng and stopped at a distance of six or seven hundred paces; The other two were after the three armies, as mobile forces, and also to prevent the cavalry or chariots of the summer city from raiding.

He didn't know how many riders there were on the opposite side, and he didn't know which side the chariot would hit, so he was careful. Ever since he started fighting, he had never seen such a strange way of warfare.

As the Dongyi army slowly approached the Xiacheng military wall, the Xiacheng soldiers guarding outside began to retreat, which made Qiongxi feel even more uneasy.

Faced with their own army, these Xia people could retreat into the earthen walls in an orderly manner, instead of retreating to routing.

In the past, in the face of the rest of the city, as long as the city wall was taken, it was considered a complete collapse of the defense, because the city wall was the commanding height of the city, and the entire city was surrounded by the city wall into a lonely city. When the time comes, a gap will be left, and those who will break up will run through the gap, unable to organize an effective defense at all. The city wall is not only a commanding height, but also a passage connecting the inside and outside, but this military wall or city town does not even have a city wall, what is going on?

"Maybe there aren't many Xia Cheng troops in there at all? Are they just scaring us? ”

A clan leader put forward such an idea, Qiongxi thought about it, shook his head, and ordered all the departments to strictly abide by it, and at the same time, the three departments that came out of the front organized three or five hundred people to prepare for a tentative impact.

The opposite city is destined to be unable to deploy all the people, and all the deployment means that the defense line is weak, and once the opponent chooses a little counterattack, it is likely to be a rout on the whole line. Although he was not afraid of Xia Cheng's chariots and riders, it did not mean that he would not take this into account.

At the same time, let the scouts disperse dozens of miles away and closely observe the movements in the vicinity, especially the movements in the flanks and rear.

There was a wall of earth on the perimeter that blocked the view, and the archers began to slowly move forward to suppress, and the spearmen moved slowly forward to the sound of the drums, keeping a distance of fifty paces from the archers.

In order to deal with the chariots of Xia City, the spearmen in charge of pressing the formation were arranged in a tight line, with small gaps and dense densities.

Dongyi's best archers are armed with double-bent recurved bows, but they don't take too long to make, and only some people have them, and the rest use ordinary bamboo bows.

When the battle is approaching, the average archer will shoot a dozen arrows, and the arms will be sore, and the best archers may be able to shoot for a while, but the feather arrows are not infinite.

The problem now is that there are no Xia Cheng people on the other side, only earthy yellow walls or rammed earth, and the Dongyi archers are very helpless.

Soldiers armed with daggers and axes were selected, led by elite warriors, and rushed towards the eerie military fortress opposite after the drums sounded.

The narrow place could not be unfolded, and when it hit the vicinity of the wall, a pile of feathered arrows flew out of the city and scattered over the heads of those Dongyi warriors, with few casualties, but it stimulated their blood.

Dongyi's archers didn't dare to get too close, the situation inside was unknown, and once the opponent counterattacked, the archers who lost the protection of the spearmen would collapse.

It is even more impossible for the spearmen to follow up and rush up, in case those people hide in the rear, and the impact will be rout on the whole line when the formation is scattered: marching, defending, and attacking are different formations, and the spearmen must give up mobility if they want to resist the possible chariot impact of Xia City, and when the formation is changed, it is the easiest to be attacked and scattered, and Qiongxi is very careful and will never make such a mistake.

There was a gap in the simple wall on the periphery, and there were obviously several roads, and the Dongyi people who howled and rushed to the vicinity of the earthen wall found that there was no defense on the other side, and the leader felt that something was wrong, so he restrained everyone from quickly dispersed, and formed a formation to move forward slowly.

After thirty or fifty steps, there was another earthen wall, and then there was a hurried whistle from inside.

From behind the earthen wall, many black balls, dozens of them, were suddenly thrown, accompanied by a pungent smell. (To be continued.) )