Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 106 Xu Sheng's Crisis
The messenger cavalry sent by Xu Sheng traveled day and night without stopping and arrived at Yan Yi's military camp at Chou time of the next morning.

Yan Yi was awakened from his sleep and when he heard that it was Xu Sheng's military report, he immediately lost all sleepiness.

After reading the military newspaper, a solemn look appeared on his face.

Xu Sheng's army arrived at Shishan before the enemy, and the news that he had successfully stopped the enemy made him feel relieved. However, the abnormal behavior of Zhu Hai's army and the whereabouts of Zhu Zhi's army made him feel a little confused and worried.

Unlike Xu Sheng, who was on the front lines and had limited intelligence, Yan Yi had a comprehensive intelligence-gathering system in place. Besides the scattered scouts constantly bringing back news, the entire Inspectorate also provided him with intelligence around the clock.

In terms of intelligence gathering, the scouts sent by the Censorate and the army have two completely different styles.

Scouting is done in the open, and investigating matters is done in secret.

Between Rencheng and Qiantang, there are many death squads of the Chashifu hiding.

These assassins included both men and women, young and old, and they disguised themselves as merchants, peasants, hunters, woodcutters, beggars, refugees and other people of all kinds, and used the methods they were good at to gather information.

Therefore, when Xu Sheng was blind, Yan Yi received news from Yan Yu, Fan Yan and the Procuratorate before dawn.

Yan Yu and Fan Yan's march was not smooth.

In order to reach Shishan as quickly as possible, Yan Yu and Xu Sheng, like each other, marched along the official road west of Rencheng. Fan Yan, starting from Yuncheng, took the official road east of Rencheng.

When Yan Yu's troops reached Qichi Pavilion, eleven miles southwest of Shishan, the vanguard was ambushed by hundreds of cavalrymen of Zhu Zhi's army. Caught off guard, the vanguard of 500 soldiers was directly defeated.

Yan Yu was so frightened that he did not dare to move forward rashly. He went to support the defeated army while trying to find out the enemy situation around him. By the time he confirmed that there was only this one enemy force nearby, it was already dark, so he had to set up camp.

When Fan Yan led his troops to the vicinity of Maozhu Mountain, they were blocked by more than a thousand Zhu Zhi troops. The two armies fought repeatedly for the key roads of Maozhu Mountain, and both suffered heavy casualties.

Yan Yi compared the two military reports repeatedly and became strongly dissatisfied with Yan Yu.

Yan Yu's troops could have reached Lion Mountain yesterday, but due to the harassment of hundreds of enemy cavalry, the entire army was stopped and three hours of precious marching time wasted.

After all, they are not your own troops, so you cannot rely on them at critical moments.

Yan Yi closed the battle report with a somewhat gloomy expression, paced back and forth in the military tent, secretly thinking about the intentions of Zhu Zhi's cavalry.

It was at this time that Yin Li brought news about the main force of Zhu Zhi’s army.

After listening to Yin Li's report, Yan Yi was shocked: "Why did Zhu Zhi's main force appear in Xipingli?"

Yin Li said solemnly, "Based on the time calculation and the intelligence transmitted along the way, the main force of Zhu Zhi's army must have made a large detour, crossing the hilly area on the west side of Shishan Mountain, marching all night to Xipingli, and then going around behind Xu Sheng's troops."

"Yan Yu, this idiot, ruined my plan!"

Anger instantly surged across Yan Yi's face, no longer as calm as before. He suddenly kicked over a Hu bed, which rolled over and hit a table with a dull sound.

Originally, it would have been extremely risky for Zhu Zhi's main force to cross the hills and get behind Xu Sheng's forces. As long as Yan Yu successfully reached Shishan Mountain and joined forces with Xu Sheng, controlling the key roads around Shishan Mountain, they could immediately cut off Zhu Zhi's food supply. They would only need to hold him back for half a day or a day, and then, when Yan Yu personally led the Rencheng army south, he could use his superior forces to attack Zhu Zhi's army from both sides, threatening their destruction.

But now, Xu Sheng and Yan Yu's troops were separated by Zhu Zhi. Zhu Zhi could attack Yan Yu's troops, and he could also work with Zhu Hai to attack Xu Sheng's troops from the north and south. The situation suddenly became precarious.

Si Qing frowned and said in a deep voice, "Xu Sheng's retreat has been cut off. Zhu Zhi's real target should be Xu Sheng." Yin Li agreed, "Indeed, if Zhu Zhi attacks Yan Yu's forces, even if Yan Yu is defeated, he can retreat to Rencheng. Zhu Zhi has no chance of annihilating Yan Yu's forces. The real danger lies with Xu Sheng's forces. With only Xu Sheng's current 1,500 troops, it would be difficult to withstand the siege of Zhu Zhi's 5,000. I'm worried that Yan Yu won't risk his life to save Xu Sheng."

Yan Yi subconsciously clenched his fists. Xu Sheng's troops were the core elite under his command. If anything went wrong, it would be a fatal blow to him.

Si Qing asked worriedly, "Young Master, should our army immediately march south to rescue Xu Sheng's forces?"

Yan Yi pondered for a moment and sighed deeply, "I'm afraid it's too late. Our army won't reach Lion Mountain until 11:00 or 13:00 in the afternoon at the earliest. Given Zhu Zhi's abilities, he won't miss such an opportunity and will surely launch an attack this morning. By then, not only will Xu Sheng be in danger of destruction, but our army will also fall prey to Zhu Zhi's strategy of "encircling Wei to save Zhao." If any further changes occur later, I'm afraid even Rencheng will be saved by Zhu Zhi."

Si Qing and Yin Li looked at each other, both extremely anxious.

Yan Yi frowned and remained silent for a long time. Suddenly, he looked at Si Qing and said in a deep voice, "Zi Yue, I will write a letter immediately. You must hurry back to Wucheng and have my father go to Yan Yu's camp immediately. I must make sure Yan Yu fully restrains Zhu Zhi's army. Tell Yan Yu that I will fully compensate him for all his losses afterwards. I will rush to Shishan as soon as I capture Rencheng!"

Si Qing nodded solemnly.

Yan Yi spread out a piece of silk on the table, hurriedly wrote a letter, stamped it with the seal, and handed it to Si Qing.

Si Qing took the silk and strode away.

Soon, the sound of hurried horse hooves was heard outside the tent, and it quickly faded away.

Yan Yi immediately called the messenger and ordered, "Call all the generals and come to my tent immediately."

After a while, the sound of hurried footsteps and the metallic collision of armor plates rubbing against each other could be heard outside the tent. One after another, neatly armed generals came to the commander's tent. There were more than thirty of them, most of whom were military marquises.

Including the 2,000 reinforcements from Wucheng, Yan had already gathered 6,000 troops in Rencheng.

Without waiting for the generals to sit down, Yan Yi announced in a decisive tone, "Order the entire army: prepare dinner at dawn and attack the city at dawn. I will capture Rencheng within the hour!"

The generals were slightly startled and their eyes all fell on Yan Yi's face. Seeing his solemn expression, they all nodded heavily.

For the attackers, it is not too difficult to capture Rencheng within an hour, but the losses will be relatively large.

In fact, as early as yesterday afternoon, when the siege equipment arrived, Yan Yi's army launched a round of offensive.

There was only one hour left until dusk, so Yan Yi did not rashly launch a general attack. Instead, he led the surrendered troops led by Li Bian to launch a tentative attack on Rencheng.

Among all the generals in the tent, Li Bian was the one in the worst mood.

In yesterday's siege, his troops suffered 600 casualties, which was a serious blow.

Yan Yi was obviously using his troops as cannon fodder, but given the current situation, he was powerless to resist.

Fortunately, Yan Yi did not go too far. He gave him some compensation in terms of money and food, and also transferred another 400 surrendered soldiers to his command as a way of appeasement.

Originally, Li Bian's troops were bound to be cannon fodder again, but this guy was lucky. The crisis of Xu Sheng's troops indirectly saved him from the fate of becoming cannon fodder.

(End of this chapter)