Chapter Thirty: Sudden Night Attack with a Knife in the Back (4)
Shi Jin led a team of men and horses to meet the group in the direction from which they came. The team lined with torches was like a prairie fire, and they soon met Shi Jin head-on.
Shi Jin used the other party's firelight to look at the leading man. His white beard was fluttering in the wind. Who else could it be if it wasn't Liu Quantian? In order to prevent the other party from misunderstanding, Shi Jin immediately raised his voice and said: "Shi Jin Come in, the person coming is Liu Quantian,"
"The general's response is late," Liu Quantian shouted back.
Shi Jin slowly reined in the horses and stopped the team. He watched Liu Quantian walking from far to near, and then came to the front. Liu Quantian saw Shi Jin coming back. He was so excited that he immediately turned over and dismounted. Bye, he said: "Brother, you are finally back. Brothers... brothers are all waiting for you to come back." Liu Quantian's emotions suddenly emerged from the bottom of his heart, and he choked slightly with excitement.
"How are you, brothers?" Shi Jin was very emotional when he saw Liu Quantian. He quickly got off his horse and helped him up, and asked, "I have made you suffer..."
"Brothers from top to bottom are looking forward to your return. As long as you come back, brother, brothers will have confidence in their hearts," Liu Quantian said with tears of joy: "You don't know, those officers and soldiers are waiting for you to come back." You are shitting on our necks. If you don’t come back, brother, Liu Tang, Chen Da and the others..."
Liu Quantian's words hit everyone's pain point, and he couldn't bear to say it, but Shi Jin knew it in his heart. Shi Jin held Liu Quantian's hand tightly and said, "I'm back, I'm here again A bunch of good guys, it's time to deal with those Eagle Claw lackeys from the Northern Song Dynasty." After saying this, Shi Jin patted Liu Quantian on the shoulder and said, "Let's go, come with me to meet them," and the two of them remounted their horses. , the brothers worked together all the way to the camp in Shaanzhou.
At this time, Wu Yong, Lin Chong, Gongsun Sheng, Yang Zhi, and Lu Zhishen had all gathered together, and captured more than 3,000 fast horses and countless soldiers.
Shi Jin took Liu Quantian to see the generals one by one. After everyone visited each other, Liu Quantian couldn't help but sigh: "The soldiers and horses in Shaanzhou are so awesome. When I guarded Guanxi Town, they relied on Ma Kuai, you bullied me, the small town of Guanxi, and attacked the city in circles. Later, when I retreated to Huayin, these guys never fought head-on, they only fought guerrillas in roundabout ways. I went out to fight again and again, but all returned without success. , it’s really a headache. We wanted to go west for rescue, but we didn’t dare to send troops easily because of this thorn in our side. Now it’s better. As soon as the big brother came back, we defeated this army so easily. The news spread immediately. Going back to Huayin will definitely boost the morale of the army,"
"It's all thanks to everyone fighting to the death. It's all their credit," Shi Jin said, "This is not the place to talk. The loot is almost packed. Let's go back to Huayin first and talk about it slowly."
"Guanxi Town is right in front of them. They heard that we have captured the entire camp outside the city. It is estimated that the few poor defenders in the city have also escaped. Who should we leave to guard now?" Yang Zhi asked .
After hearing this, Wu Yong shook his feather fan and said: "Who will defend it? It doesn't matter. There is no need to defend it now. Just put an empty city here. When the overall situation of Huazhou is taken back, this small Guanxi Town will Of course there will be no less,"
"If the officers and soldiers come to attack again, wouldn't it mean that our backs are left to others, just like what we did tonight? They can also repeat their old tricks and quietly sneak under Huayin City and make a surprise attack. This Guanxi Town is Huayin City. There is a portal in front of Yinhou, which has to be fortified," Yang Zhi said.
Wu Yong smiled and shook his head and said, "Let me ask Brother Yang a question. If you were the supervisor of Shaanzhou, how many troops would you bring with you this time?"
"It depends on how many soldiers and horses are available in the state capital. If it is enough to defend the city, the more the better. Naturally all the best soldiers and generals will go into battle to kill the enemy," Yang Zhi said.
"Yes, that's it. I expected that the governor of Shaanzhou is accustomed to using cavalry and is good at horse fighting, so he brought five thousand light cavalry here. These soldiers and horses must be the core force of his Shaanzhou, and tonight we will defeat them With this defeat, the supervisors and generals were killed by our swords, so what ability does Shaanzhou have to send troops to fight again?" Wu Yong said here, and then said: "Shi Qian also mentioned before that Shang The state's soldiers and horses have also been defeated, and their vitality is severely damaged now. If they want to regroup and make a comeback, I'm afraid it won't be easy. And we see that Guanxi Town is throwing away this. Even if they want to attack, they will definitely not attack rashly. Huayin, but first surround Guanxi Town,"
"Why is this?" Lu Zhishen asked.
"Have you ever heard of the 'empty city strategy'?"
Shi Jin didn't know what Wu Yong's intention was, so he continued: "The Empty City Strategy was a strategy used by Prime Minister Zhuge of the Shu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period. It confused the real with the fake and made it difficult for the enemy to distinguish the real from the fake."
"Yes, that's it. Those officers and soldiers don't dare to take Huayin rashly. They will definitely be worried that we have hidden a cavalry in Guanxi Town, because they will not believe that we have recovered the city but did not send troops to garrison it. If If they take Huayin directly, they will definitely worry that the 'surprise army ambushing the people in Guanxi Town' they think of will definitely come out from behind and attack from both sides with the soldiers and horses of Huayin County," Wu Yong said: "We just need to return to Huayin. Now is the time when we need manpower. Don't scatter our troops easily. We concentrate our strength on one point. Only when our fists are strong can we start."
"The military advisor is right, let's go back to Huayin first," Shi Jin said, and then said to himself: "We have been away from Huayin for dozens of days, but I feel like I have been away for a long time."
Together they exchanged the captured fast horses, loaded the grain, grass and military supplies that had just been transported from the Shaanzhou camp onto the cars, and headed for Huayin County together.
Shi Jin saw this car and immediately said: "Isn't this the food and grass we visited that night? Fortunately, they worked so hard to transport it, and it just suits our wishes. We can take it back to Huayin County. Enough for brothers to enjoy it for ten days and a half,"
"Brother Shi, you don't know. When we packed up the military supplies for these three camps, we felt that something was missing. Yang Zhi suddenly thought about it and realized that the batch of grain and grass that had just arrived was missing. We are waiting for a closer look. When I thought about it, I realized that I had never found the whereabouts of the food and grass since I came in. I thought it was that guy who hid the food and grass in Guanxi Town, and I was thinking of taking someone to the city to get it, but Military Master Wu But he said, "Shaanzhou soldiers and horses have placed all their heavy troops outside the city. Those who will not safely place food and grass inside the city must be in this camp. However, we don't know where this group of people can hide them." Later you know "Why," Lin Chong said here, looking at Shi Jin as if he was telling a strange anecdote: "We searched around, and sure enough, we found clues. They actually buried all the food and grass underground."
"Buried in the ground," Shi Jin rode forward at a constant speed while looking at Lin Chong who was running alongside him in surprise, and asked: "Grain and grass are easy to dry but not easy to get wet. If they are buried underground, won't they become moldy and rot? This governor What did the supervisor think?"
"This guy really has some brains. He dug several large square pits in the ground, paved them with sand below, and piled stones on the four walls. He used wood to set up many tic-tacs horizontally and vertically from bottom to top. The grain and grass were piled layer by layer on the wood. Because there were wooden tic-tacs between each layer of grain and grass, there was enough ventilation inside. They were put on top with branches, covered with tents, and then spread with A layer of sand is inserted into the ground from all sides to allow ventilation to the outside world." Lin Chong said as if he had discovered a shocking secret: "I never heard of it during the years I was an instructor in the Forbidden Army. "No one has ever been able to hide food and grass in such a hidden way, so you don't have to worry about anyone coming to burn the food and grass. It's absolutely foolproof."
"This is the first time I know of such a method. It's really a strange person. I wonder if you still keep the trap. One day, I will open my eyes again," Shi Jin said.
Lu Zhishen, who was walking on the side, said: "Those big pits are interesting. Let's transport the food and grass away and then bury the corpses of the officers and soldiers in them. This saves us the effort. This is really convenient."
Wu Yong, who was following behind on horseback, also spoke at this time: "Don't mention it, although the Shaanzhou Soldiers and Horses Supervisor failed miserably in our hands, he is not a fuel-efficient lamp. Buried underground like this, It’s really amazing. You don’t know if you can imagine it. In short, I can’t do it even if I try to break my head.”
After hearing this, Shi Jin turned around and asked, "If the military advisor said this, is there something mysterious about it?"
"The officers and soldiers buried the grain and grass here. Not only can they hide it and prepare for someone to attack the grain and grass in a sneak attack, but the grain and grass are also a bait," Wu Yong said, "Brother Shi, think about it, if we come from Huayin County Troops were sent out to pursue, but this group of officers and soldiers turned around and ran away when they saw something was wrong. So what to do with the food and grass? Aren't they afraid that we would find it? How could they just leave such important supplies casually? They stayed here just to let us We found that in such a war, food and grass are the most precious things. We will definitely try to get them away, but while we are carrying them, they will suddenly rush over from all directions with the advantage of quick strikes. ,At that time, we were like the yellow birds caught in the trap because of a few grains of yellow rice,"
After Wu Yong said this, everyone secretly thought, if it were him who found this large amount of food after driving away the enemy, who would not be tempted, of course he would order his soldiers and horses to carry the food. At that time, If the officers and soldiers really come back, there will be no time to reorganize their formation. If they rush to the battle, they will only take advantage of them. Thinking of this, no one dared to think about it anymore. They just scolded the Shaanzhou supervisor for being as smart as a ghost. , I am also glad that I failed miserably in killing this guy,