Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 102 The entire army was wiped out
At this time, there were shouts and screams in Yuntai Village, arrows were flying like locusts, and a fierce army was attacking the village.

The general who attacked the stronghold was Li Chou, a general under Yan Yi, and the general who defended the stronghold was Zou Kuang, a Sima from another army stationed there.

Each side led 500 infantrymen, one attacking and one defending, and the battle was fierce.

At the west gate of the camp, which was at the center of the battle, the four or five-meter-high wooden walls were full of arrows, hundreds of corpses lay on both sides of the gate, and blood dyed the ground crimson.

Zou Kuang still hasn't figured out where this enemy force that launched a surprise attack on him from behind came from.

You must know that when Zou Ta was on the march, he sent people to search Daochang Mountain and Yunchao Mountain carefully. Not to mention 500 soldiers, he didn't even see the shadow of an enemy soldier.

So where did this group of troops that raided Yuntai Village come from?
This has to start with Yan Yi organizing the evacuation of the people.

In fact, Yan Yi never thought of withdrawing his troops. Rencheng was a thorn buried under the noses of Wuyun and Ercheng, and it was extremely threatening. He had to remove it before Wu Jingjun arrived.

The so-called withdrawal was just to escort the people of Rencheng to Yuncheng and at the same time try to lure the enemy into a field battle.

In order to remove the thorn in Rencheng, Yan Yi prepared two plans.

If Zou He remained indoors, he would personally lead his army south to stop Zhu Zhi's army. The task of conquering Rencheng would be accomplished by Yan Baihu leading the Wucheng army, and Xu Zhao would be invited to join the battle if necessary.

Although Xu Zhao was unwilling to confront Zhu Zhi head-on, he was very happy to participate in the capture of Rencheng.

The second plan was based on the premise that Zou Ta would go out of the city to fight in the field. Once Zou Ta led his troops out of the city, he would look for an opportunity to annihilate them, and then take advantage of the situation to capture Rencheng.

To this end, when Yan Yi organized the evacuation of the people of Rencheng, he hid a group of troops in a remote village in Yunchao Township to intercept Zou's army's retreat and ensure that the enemy could be completely wiped out.

Because he was worried that Zou Ta would find out, he only hid 500 people, which was the troops led by Li Chou.

In order to protect Li Chou's troops, Yan Yi's army did not completely evacuate Rencheng until dusk, in order to prevent Zou He from having enough time to search Xiangting.

Zou was thinking about attacking Yan Yi, and since it was already late, he did not send troops to search Xiangting. Instead, he focused on searching the marching area of ​​Yan Yi's army.

After Zou Ta personally led the army to leave Yuntai Village, Li Chou waited for two hours. Estimating that the time was almost up, he resolutely led his troops to raid Yuntai.

This involves a huge risk. Once Yan Yi fails to severely damage Zou Ta, Li Chou's troops may be attacked by Zou Ta's main force at any time.

However, for the sake of military merit, Li Chou could not care about so many things. Yan Yi gave him such an important task, which clearly showed that he had high hopes for him and intended to promote him. Whether he could seize the opportunity depended on himself.

He almost succeeded. If Zou Kuang had not been absolutely loyal to him and fought to the death, Yuntai Village might have changed hands long ago.

Now, Li Chou is in a difficult situation. In order to capture Yuntai Village as soon as possible, he has personally put on armor and gone into battle.

Zou Kuang had a hard time resisting.

In order to prevent any accidents, Yan Yi actually tampered with the gate of Yuntai Village, allowing Li Choujun to push down the gate effortlessly.

The soldiers guarding the village lost the protection of the village gate and had no place to defend. They had to use their flesh and blood to resist the enemy's attack.

The two sides fought repeatedly at the west gate of the camp, and the battle became increasingly intense.

Li Chou's left arm was hit by a stray arrow, his clothes stained with blood, but he still led his troops in a fierce attack.

Just when the defenders were gradually losing their strength, Zou Ta fled to Yuntai Village with dozens of riders.

Zou Kuang never expected that the troops he had left behind on a whim would actually save his life at a critical moment. If he had immediately led dozens of cavalry to support Zou Kuang, he could have easily turned the tide of the battle at Yuntai Village and saved the defenders.

However, Zou Ta had lost his courage and only wanted to escape. After giving the order to Zou Kuang to intercept and cover his retreat, he hurriedly fled to Rencheng with dozens of his personal guards and cavalry.

Zou Kuang was eager to protect his master and fought desperately, and he actually forced back Li Chou's army that had rushed into the camp.

Half a quarter of an hour later, Si Qing and Fan Yi arrived with a thousand soldiers and immediately launched a fierce attack from the east gate of the camp.

The defending army was attacked from both front and back and collapsed instantly. The defending general Zou Kuang was killed in the battle.

At this point, the 4,000 troops that Zou Ta led out of the city were completely wiped out.

This night attack and ambush battle that determined the fate of Rencheng finally came to an end. Zou's army suffered more than 2,500 casualties, with more than 1,400 surrendering, while Yan Yi's army suffered only 500 casualties.

After Zou Ta fled back to Rencheng, he first arrested Xie Rui and put him in prison, then recruited slaves, laborers, and criminals in the city, barely gathering 2,500 soldiers, and closed the city gates to defend it.

Yan Yi once again led his troops to besiege Rencheng, but since the siege equipment had not yet arrived, he was temporarily unable to attack the city.

At this time, Zhu Zhi's army was less than forty miles away from Rencheng.

Yan Yi immediately ordered Xu Sheng, Chen Gan, Han Yang, Zhao Cuo and other generals to lead 2,000 elite troops to Lion Mountain, 15 miles south of Rencheng. Together with the 3,000 troops led by Yan Yu and the 1,000 troops brought by Fan Yan from Yuncheng, a total of 6,000 troops were to set up camp at the foot of the mountain to block Zhu Zhi's army.

He personally led 4,000 troops, including surrendered soldiers, to besiege Rencheng.

In addition, two thousand troops led by Yan Baihu's generals Xu Shou and Wang Chao were also setting out from Wucheng to rush to Rencheng for reinforcement.

In the Zou Mansion in Rencheng, Zou sat dejectedly on the couch, his face pale and his eye sockets sunken. The clothes under his armor had long been soaked with cold sweat and stuck to his back, freezing cold. He tried to untie the lacquer with trembling hands, but found that his fingers were too stiff to move.

After escaping back to Rencheng, he forced himself to stay awake and summoned He Gong and other generals in the meeting hall. After finishing the defense, he sat alone in the house in a daze for half an hour.

A maid walked in cautiously and said softly, "Master, the bathing bath is ready. Please wash yourself first."

"Get out!"

Zou He suddenly took off his helmet and smashed it on the felt carpet, frightening the maid so much that she quickly retreated out of the house.

He has not yet recovered from the shadow of defeat and his heart is filled with regret and resentment.

In just half a night, the 4,000 troops that he had painstakingly built up over many years were completely wiped out. This cruel reality was hard for him to accept.

Recalling the entire process of the battle, Zou He couldn't help but feel a little scared.

He originally thought that even if the surprise attack failed, he would still have a chance to lead his troops to retreat, but the enemy never gave him this opportunity from beginning to end. They were like a bloodthirsty beast that, once biting its prey's throat, would never let go until the prey was completely dead.

If he had known that he was facing such a formidable enemy, he would never have tried to fight against it with a fussy effort.

At this time, the military officer Zou Ping came hurriedly, his face as gloomy as water: "Brother, Yan Yi has sent an envoy."

Zou was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Go set up the cauldron outside the hall and bring the person in."

Zou Ping nodded, walked out of the house, and ordered people to bring in a large cauldron. He piled firewood under the cauldron and filled the cauldron with water. As the firewood was ignited, flames rose into the sky, and the water in the cauldron quickly boiled, making a gurgling sound.

(End of this chapter)