The Yin Army Wing, composed of day and night rangers, set out from the underworld and set out again for a distant destination: the Salt Desert.

The salt desert is farther away from the location of the prefecture than the city of Hanchang, and the direction is reversed. In particular, it takes at least a month and a half to lead such a large army through the ground. This was another arduous march for the 8th Battalion of the Night Tour Army, which had just returned from the expedition.

Fortunately, I was accompanied by Liu Han along the way. Every night, the two of them secretly had a tryst in my officer's tent and staged a "silent action movie", which made the days of the march quite ecstatic.

After forty-eight days of marching, the Yin army finally reached the periphery of the salt desert. The top of the salt desert is actually very close to the surface, separated only by a thin layer of soil, and many large underground caverns are scattered underneath, connected together.

Due to the thick saline-alkali soil above the surface and the lack of groundwater, the underground caves in this area cannot cultivate any plants suitable for shady edibles, nor do they have any valuable minerals, which is equivalent to an underground desert. Because of the high salt content of the soil, it is called "salt desert".

After entering the salt desert, we found that a layer of white salt-containing minerals was growing on the cave wall and the top of the cave, and there were no lush plants to be seen on the way, only a few underground strange willows. It was a low, shrub-like plant with strange purple branches, but there was not a single leaf on it, like ghost claws sticking out of the ground, very abrupt and intimidating.

Animals in the salt desert are even more scarce, with little to no large animals, except for some strange-looking, monotonous insects that sometimes burrow in and out of the soil. Such a desolate place is naturally inaccessible, perhaps because of this, the ghost army will choose to build its base camp here.

At this point in the march, the two Yin Commanders of the Day Tour and the Night Tour were also more cautious, spreading scouts in all directions, constantly reporting back and forth on the enemy situation in front of them. This approach is to be discovered by the ghost army in advance, and try to avoid falling into the ambush circle again.

However, along the way, not a single ghost soldier has been found. On the contrary, due to the large area of the salt desert, it took a lot of time for the scouts sent to finally find the base camp of the ghost army: the ghost town!

It was a large city built on the edge of a valley. The three sides are closed, leaving only one wall to enter and exit, which is similar to the structure of the underworld. Although the height and thickness of the city wall are not as good as those of the Ghost Gate, they are not inferior to the Zemen Gate of Zuoqiu City. It seems that Ghost Shuai has really made a lot of money in order to build this city.

On the head of the ghost town, there are hundreds of black flags, all embroidered with a big word "ghost". This is the flag of the ghost army, simple and straightforward. In addition, the highest part of the city tower also hangs a big pure black "handsome" word flag. The soldiers of this banner Night Parade Army are no strangers, it is the handsome banner of the ghost handsome!

Since they came to the base camp of the ghost army, the Yin army did not dare to be careless, so they first set up camp three miles away from the ghost city and prepared for a protracted war.

In this expedition, although the two armies of day tour and night tour were jointly dispatched, and the two Yin marshals were also dispatched, the order of the king of Yama clearly stated that the marshal of the day tour was fully responsible. Moreover, because of the defeat of Hanchang last time, Marshal Night Tour is now quite unable to raise his head in front of Day Tour, so he simply shut up at the pre-war meeting and left it completely to Marshal Day Tour to arrange tactics.

"This city is very strong by his eyes. If you attack it in a hurry, you will not be able to get it! Marshal Riyou pretended to be posturing, shook his fat and round head, and muttered: "Generals, do you have any clever plans? ”

The strategy of attacking the city, throughout the ages, is nothing more than water attack, fire attack, earth attack, bombardment, seizure of the door and the unreasonable "ant attached siege".

Water attack is easy to understand, that is, when the target city is close to a water source and the terrain is low-lying, it can divert water from the city by destroying rivers and lake dams. This can be said to have been tried and tested repeatedly in ancient China, but because it was too domineering and hurt the peace of heaven, it was despised by the history books.

Because once water is brought into the city, it will often drown the entire army and civilians in the city, and even the common people will suffer together. Moreover, the captured city is basically a ruined city, unless the river is rebuilt, and the water in the city is dried up when a great drought falls. Even then, cleaning up the thick silt brought by the flood is a huge undertaking.

It's just that there is a shortage of water in the salt desert, and even the drinking water that the Yin army needs every day has to be transported in from outside, so where can it attract floods?

Fire attacks are generally used against some small cities or walled cities made of wood, and there are also those that directly burn the city gates. However, a large city like a ghost town has high walls and few wooden buildings, so I am afraid that the effect of fire attack is not good. Moreover, the two gates of the ghost town were built with a single boulder, and the fire did not serve any purpose at all.

When the Yin army fights, it generally rarely uses the tactics of fire attack. It's not that there is no fuel (stone grease is a good fuel for fire attack, and it was used to make fierce fire oil in ancient times), but that the underworld is very humid and cold, and the effect of fire attack is not good. It is likely that the fortifications at the head of the city were set on fire with great difficulty, and they were extinguished by a gust of wind blowing. Especially for ghosts, ghost fire is much more lethal than open fire, but ghost fire can't burn buildings.

Soil attack is actually digging tunnels, which are most suitable for dealing with high walls. The tunnel can directly bypass the defense of the city wall, and attack the city by surprise from below, and the inside and outside can capture the city, which is a strange move.

However, there are also many restrictions on soil attack, one of which is that the requirements for soil quality are very high, too hard to dig, too loose and easy to collapse; Second, it is very time-consuming, often digging for several months, the tunnel has not been dug well, and the grain and grass are almost exhausted; The third is that it is too risky, once the tunnel is discovered by the opponent, the army that enters the tunnel is likely to be wiped out and directly buried alive collectively!

Bombardment was a siege method that only appeared at the end of the Cold Weapon Age, and it was almost an insoluble weapon for restraining castles and armor. The red-coated cannon of the Ming Dynasty was a breech cannon with great lethality, completely relying on the explosive power of ** to blast the heavy iron ball to the city wall, and then destroy these seemingly impregnable fortifications.

In modern times, the technology is more advanced, and it is not difficult to blow up a city wall. But when these thermal weapons reach the underworld, they almost become weapons that will die together. Imagine that the walls of the ghost town have collapsed into a large hole, but the power of the explosion and the violent shaking caused by the loud sound are no less than a small earthquake, and it is very likely that the roof of the cave will collapse directly. At that time, I am afraid that not only the ghost town, but also ourselves will be buried deep underground!

So, there are actually only two options left: taking the gate and attacking the city with ants.

To take a gate is to storm the gate, and at least one battering ram is required. The rudimentary and primitive battering ram was a thick log, which was carried by a team of soldiers who were not afraid of death, and ran over from a distance and slammed into the city gate. If you can't do it once, you will come a second or third time, and you may eventually break the latch behind the city gate, and then rush into the city to fight the enemy.

This is also the tactic used by Gan Sheng when he led the night tour army to the town of spades to exterminate the ghost bandits, although it was simple and crude, but it was very effective. But the only problem with the goal-grabbing tactic is how to get close to the walls quickly and safely, and how many lives do you have to pay to be effective?

And the ant siege is even more unreasonable!

In ancient siege warfare, if the besieging side had a complete advantage in troops and could not be attacked for a long time, the violent commander would make a desperate bet and order the ants to attack the city. In fact, the name has been described vividly enough, that is, people use ladders or build earthen platforms under the city walls like ants, and climb directly to the top of the city to engage the defenders.

This siege tactic is one of the most tragic, especially since the besieging side will inevitably pay a huge price for casualties. Therefore, once the city is captured, the victorious side will often massacre the city and take revenge on the defenders and the people in the city. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongol army often used this siege tactic, in which the pioneers made prisoners of war and migrant workers carry the earth to build earthen platforms, and then sent their own death squads to force the city. After the city is broken, nine times out of ten, the city will be slaughtered.

But the number of the Yin army did not have an advantage in this siege battle, and there were not so many troops to waste. Losing valuable soldiers in order to capture such a ghost city is definitely not worth the loss for the Yin army. Therefore, after the choices are eliminated one by one, it seems that the only suitable thing for the Yin army to adopt is to storm the city gate.

The generals and colonels of the Yin Army quickly reached a consensus on this. However, there were other suggestions made. For example, Zhang Pu proposed that he could first send a sergeant with a loud voice to the city to scold the formation, and try the "thickness of the skin" of the ghost handsome. If it can't stand the loneliness and angrily leads the army to attack, field fighting in the open field is the strength of the Yin army.

Marshal Riyou felt that although this plan was not a good plan, it would not hurt to try, so he agreed. So, three days ago, the Yin army sent several sergeants with loud voices and strong "scolding" to go out of the range of the ghost town and shout and scold.

However, some people in the Yin Army will scold their mother, and the ghost army is also full of ghosts!

Moreover, the ghost army also occupies the advantage of high terrain, and standing on the head of the city and scolding can also make the voice spread farther. Therefore, even if the two marshals of the day tour and the night tour hide in the military tent, they cannot escape this invisible long-range "psychological attack".

On the third day of the "scolding war", because they were not accustomed to the dry and salty environment in the salt desert, the soldiers of the Yin Army had already had dry mouths and sore throats. And the ghost army, which is obviously more skilled, the higher the morale.

If you can't make a plan, you will have another plan. Marshal Riyou sent an envoy to the ghost city and sent a message to the soldiers defending the city: I hope that the ghost marshal can come out to meet him, and the commanders of the two sides will talk about recruiting peace in front of the two armies.