The Chu army's attack ended in failure again, and after a full day of fighting, after losing thousands of men, Xiang Yu finally gave the order to retreat.

On this day, the Chu army under the Yingbu Department launched seven attacks on Yongqiu City, and each time there were officers and soldiers on the city wall, but each time the Chu army on the city wall was annihilated by the tenacious Qin army.

Xiang Yu stood in front of the Chu army's large array, and his eyes never took his eyes off the Qin army that was fighting stubbornly on the city wall. Since he followed his uncle to send troops from Jiangdong, he has experienced dozens of battles, large and small, and has never encountered such a stubborn enemy as on Yongqiu City.

For the Qin army in Yongqiu, Xiang Yu had an inexplicable respect in his heart.

There is no warrior who does not revere heroes, not even Xiang Yu, and the Qin army of Yongqiu won Xiang Yu's respect with their bravery and tenacity.

He hated the Qin people, who took away the infinite rivers and mountains of Great Chu and ruled Chu for fifteen years.

When Xiang Yan was defeated, the Qin army broke through the capital of Chu Shouchun and captured the king of Chu, Chu moved the capital to Lanling, but the Qin people did not leave a chance for Chu to breathe, and in the second year of Shouchun, they broke through Lanling, and Xiang Yan also died in battle.

He hated the Qin people, it was the Qin people who made their Xiang family suffer humiliation for fifteen years, and it was the Qin people who took the lives of his grandfather Xiang Yan and father Xiang Chao, and let him taste the humiliation of the country's ruin and family destruction in these fifteen years.

He wants to return all this humiliation to the Qin people, and let the Qin people also taste the taste of the country's ruin.

In the past battles, he has always regarded the Qin people as an outlier, killing and slaughtering if he wants to, but today, he has an inexplicable respect for the Qin army guarding Yongqiu. These Qin troops were able to repel the strong attacks of the Chu army one after another when they were obviously inferior in numbers, and let the Chu army suffer such huge losses, which was impossible to imagine when Xiang Yu led the army here.

"Collect the troops and fight again tomorrow!" The low morale of the Chu army under Yingbu made Xiang Yu feel that he could not continue to fight today, so he waved his hand at Zhong Liwu beside him, turned his horse's head, and took the lead in leaving the battle formation.

With Zhong Liwu's order to withdraw his troops, Xiang Ye followed the army and withdrew in the direction of the camp, his troops were subordinate to Xiang Yu and had not participated in the battle. He didn't think about participating in the battle in the first two days, he knew very well that Yongqiu City would hold on for a total of four days, and what he hoped most was that Xiang Yu could order him to fight on the fourth day, he wanted to become famous through the battle of Yongqiu, grasp the military power, and finally lead the army to crusade against Liu Bang and erase Liu Bang from history.

Although he hoped that he would only go to war on the fourth day, things would not develop as he imagined, and as soon as he returned to the barracks, Xiang Yu sent someone to summon him to the big tent to discuss military affairs.

Xiang Ye came to Xiang Yu's big tent, and to his surprise, there were only two people in the big tent, Xiang Yu and Xiang Qing, and none of the other generals came.

Xiang Yu made a gesture to him to sit down and said, "General Xiang Ye, oh no, I should call you brother-in-law!" I would like to hear your thoughts on today's battle. ”

Xiang Yu called him brother-in-law, Xiang Ye did not deny it. Since he has promised to marry Xiang Qing, he will not regret it again. Although in his heart, Meng Su has always been the first choice of the original partner, but since he has agreed to Xiang Yu's proposal in front of everyone, he will not regret it.

Xiang Ye always believes that reputation is the foundation of standing in the world. So he doesn't regret anything he's promised to, even if he knows that it's going to do him more harm than good.

After bowing down and giving Xiang Yu a fist salute, he sat down opposite Xiang Qing and looked at Xiang Yu with a serious expression.

"In today's battle, our army has climbed the city wall several times, and it has proved that your strategy of burning the city is useful. However, the enemy army in the city is too tenacious, although our army climbed the city wall, but it has not achieved anything, and it has never been able to break through the city. As soon as Xiang Ye sat down, Xiang Yu couldn't wait to lean over and ask him.

Listening to Xiang Yu's question, Xiang Ye frowned and muttered for a moment before saying: "General Hui, the last general has been observing the battle situation today, although our army is quite imposing when it charges, it does not have the upper hand at all. The most troublesome thing for our army was the crossbow arrows and bows of the Qin army, followed by the large stones falling from the city and the boiling oil on the city gates, and they inflicted great casualties on our army with these weapons of mass destruction. According to what we will see, we can only work if we take a salary draw from the bottom of the kettle! ”

"How do you get paid? I hope my brother-in-law will make it clear! Xiang Yu obviously already trusted Xiang Ye, and simply changed his title to "brother-in-law" instead of "general"

Xiang Ye furrowed his brows, first nodded, then shook his head and said, "This matter is easy to say, but it is very difficult to really act. ”

"Brother-in-law, tell me what kind of difficult method it is?" Xiang Yu sat up straight and said quite sincerely: "As long as you can break through Yongqiu, even if you need to get a thousand more carts full of hay, the eldest brother will get it for you!" ”

Xiang Ye smiled and said, "The cart is not necessary, yesterday it was set on fire outside the city, but now our army needs to set fire to the city to make the Qin people mess up." ”

"Set fire to the city?" Xiang Yu was stunned, and then asked puzzledly: "Our army did not plant spies in the city in advance, how did we set the fire?" ”

"Bow and arrow!" Xiang Ye looked at Xiang Yu's eyes and said categorically: "Use bows and arrows, wrap oilcloth on the arrows, light them and shoot them into the city, but the number of bows and arrows needed is very large, I'm afraid it will be difficult for our army to prepare them." ”

"How much do you need?" Xiang Yu sat up straight and said to Xiang Ye in a very certain tone: "How many arrows are needed, brother-in-law just asks, even if I collect all the arrows of the whole army, I will definitely be ready." ”

Xiang Ye licked his lips and said to Xiang Yu: "One hundred thousand, in addition, you need three thousand straws on the front, wooden planks on the back, and a haystack inlaid with copper behind the wooden board." If the second watch can be prepared tonight, and the eldest brother gives me another 3,000 archers, I will definitely make Yongqiu City a sea of fire! ”

"Okay, that's it!" As soon as Xiang Ye's words fell, Xiang Yu slapped the table and immediately shouted outside the tent: "Come on, go and buy haystacks according to what General Xiang Ye said, collect arrows and allocate three thousand archers to General Xiang Ye!" ”

Xiang Ye heard a personal soldier outside the tent answer, and then heard a sound of footsteps gradually moving away.

He let out a long sigh and said to Xiang Yu: "If the eldest brother is fine, the younger brother will retire first!" ”

Xiang Yu nodded, didn't keep Xiang Ye, just said to him: "Go back and prepare, I plan to let you be in charge of the main attack on Yongqiu tomorrow, you have to remember that under my account, no one can be crowned an official and promoted to a knight without an inch of merit, although you are my brother-in-law, you are no exception!" You have to use your strength to convince everyone, I don't want Xiang Qing to marry a person who has done nothing, understand? ”

Xiang Ye nodded, and said to Xiang Yu with a fist salute: "Big brother, don't worry, little brother will never have a heavy hope!" ”

When he left Xiang Yu's big tent, Xiang Ye's mood was very complicated, he was worried that Xiang Yu had arranged such an important task for him a day in advance, and at the same time felt a little happy that Xiang Yu called him his brother-in-law.

Ever since Xiang Ye knew that there was a person like Xiang Yu in history, he had an inseparable admiration for Xiang Yu.

In historical records, Xiang Yu was a brutal person, he slaughtered prisoners, killed civilians, and was a little stubborn, and finally died on these shortcomings.

But Xiang Ye couldn't have the slightest dislike for Xiang Yu no matter what.

He didn't understand what kind of emotion this was, and he didn't know why he had such a strong affection for Xiang Yu. But he was indeed excited for a long time because he could call Xiang Yu a big brother, and this excitement had nothing to do with Xiang Qing!

After returning to the camp, Xiang Ye ordered someone to call Bai Fu and Wei Feng.

When the two arrived, Monsu followed them into the tent.

Xiang Ye looked up at Meng Su, and saw that Meng Su's face was pale, as if he had a serious illness, his rosy lips on weekdays also looked a little gray, and his mental state was very bad.

"Monsu, why is your face so bad?" After Xiang Ye motioned for the three of them to sit down, he did not immediately discuss military affairs with Bai Fu and Wei Feng, but looked at Meng Su with concern and asked.

Meng Su smiled bitterly, bit his lip and shook his head, and hesitated for a moment before saying to Xiang Ye: "The general still talks about military affairs first, and I will talk to the general in detail later." ”

Xiang Ye knew that she had something to say in front of Wei Feng and Bai Fu, so she nodded very considerately, and turned to Wei Feng and Bai Fu and said, "I called you here tonight because I wanted to discuss something with you." General Xiang Yu ordered me to be responsible for the main attack on Yongqiu tomorrow, but I thought that the possibility of capturing the city tomorrow was not very large, so I proposed a plan to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle and put a fire in the city. This requires the use of bows and crossbows to shoot arrows with tinder into the city, and I have come to you because you are masters of bows and crossbows, respectively, so I would like to ask for your opinions. ”

Bai Fu and Wei Feng glanced at each other, and Wei Feng spoke first: "It's not impossible to use a bow and crossbow to fire to the city, but the Qin army's crossbow arrows in the city are powerful, if we want to shoot arrows into the city, considering the wind speed, fire resistance and the weight of the tarpaulin tied to the arrows, the range must be much closer than the Qin army's crossbow, and our army's crossbow is different from the Qin army's crossbow, our army's crossbow can only shoot more than 100 steps, and the Qin army can shoot 300 steps, not to mention the bow and arrow, except for my bow, I am afraid that the bows of the archers of the whole army can only shoot fifty or seventy paces away. If this is the case, I am afraid that our army will be completely exposed to the range of the Qin army, and casualties will be inevitable. ”

"yes!" Bai Fu continued: "This crossbow of mine is also made of thousand-year-old yellow sandalwood specially picked by the descendants of Lu Ban, the crossbow spring is made of Nanban silk thread with extremely high toughness, and the process is completely manufactured in accordance with the design of the Qin crossbow, and the range is naturally farther than the ordinary Qin crossbow, but now the ordinary machine crossbow in the army is rough in workmanship, and it is difficult to compare with the Qin crossbow, I think this fire is very difficult to put!" ”