Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 102 Qu County Recruits
Xiang Kang used his troops cautiously and steadily as always. Although no decent Qin army was found in the east of Zhuang County, at the same time, Liu Laosan, who had just started his army, dared to besiege the county in the south of Xue County, which clearly proved Xue County's strength. The main force of the Qin army must not be on the southern line. It was the opportunity for the young commander to enter Qilu. However, for the safety of the rear hinterland, Xiang Kang resolutely decided to turn around and go south to attack Fuyang and Pengcheng in the northeast of Sishui County. Consolidate your flanks so that the rear of Xiaxiang, Xiapi, and Qulu can be completely worry-free, and also wait for an opportunity to annihilate the remaining main force of the Sishui County soldiers of the Qin Army, and lay the foundation for annexing the entire Sishui County in the next step.

After finalizing this resolution, Xiang Kang made a series of military personnel adjustments in the northern part of the East China Sea. He appointed Sun Gong, the former prime minister who had proved his loyalty through practical actions, to act as the deputy governor of Donghai County to preside over the civil affairs and affairs of the northern part of Donghai County. For financial work, Xiang Xian, a son of the Xiang family, led the army to guard Tancheng, and Bao Wen, a general with a different surname, led the army to guard Zhuang County, responsible for resisting the enemy from Xue County's counterattack to the northern part of the East China Sea.Xiang Kang handed over the command of the army in the northern part of the East China Sea to Xiang Sui, Xiang Bo's unfilial son who was attacking Qu County. He not only rewarded Xiang Sui for helping him contradict Xiang Bo several times before, but also used it to block Xiang Bo's plans. Mouth—I don't treat you very well, but I'm so mean to your son, what else do you want?
Two days later, the temperature in the Huaibei area dropped sharply again, the cold wind was like a knife, and the face was painful. The main force of the Young Marshal Army, which had exceeded 9000 troops, was not afraid of the severe cold, and still went south according to the original plan, and first went to Lanling to replenish A certain amount of food, grass and military supplies, and then continue to go south along the county-level road, preparing to take down the small city of Fuyang that guards Qinchi Road first, and then go west along Qinchi Road to Pengcheng to capture this big city with the largest population of money, grain and population in Sishui County.

According to the usual practice, Xiang Kang sent envoys to Fuyang to try to surrender while the army was still marching. However, the magistrate of Fuyang flatly rejected Xiang Kang's kind offer to surrender. He not only actively asked for help from the rear, but also openly called out that the city was The arrogant slogan that people are alive and the city is dead.After Xiang Kang received the reply, he was not in a hurry, and calmly marched to Fuyang City, and quickly built a batch of siege weapons for Fuyang City Defense. started a siege battle.

It has to be admitted that the resistance of Fu Yang's garrison is indeed quite tenacious. The two ant attacks launched by the Young Marshal's army have been bravely repelled by Fu Yang's garrison by virtue of their condescending superiority.However, it is a pity that the huge gap in strength doomed the performance of Fu Yang's defenders to be only a flash in the pan. With the full force of the young marshal's third siege, Fu Yang's defenders, who had less than a thousand soldiers, gradually lost their strength. The people who were forced by the officials to go to the city to participate in the war kept fleeing, and the main force of the inexperienced county soldiers also panicked. They retreated steadily in the face of the fierce offensive of the young commander. What a decent counterattack to expel the soldiers of the Young Marshal who had already boarded the city.

In the end, the Zhujishi Department of the Young Marshal Army, who had not had many opportunities to perform before, made its first contribution. Under the personal leadership of Zhujishi, who took the lead, it became the first Young Marshal Army to rush to the top of Fu Yang's city. The soldiers in Fuyang County collapsed, and the vehicles of the Young Marshal's Army smashed through the gate of Fuyang City and rushed into the city. The soldiers of the Qin Army knelt down and surrendered one after another. The soldiers of the Young Marshal captured them alive, tied them up in front of Xiang Kang, and offered them as prisoners.

"Let go of me! Let me go! I will leave by myself! You goddamn thieves, what are you so proud of? When our Zhao Junzun's army arrives, I will kill you all and leave no one behind! Ouch! Dog thief! A soldier can be killed but not humiliated. If you have the guts, kill me. I am waiting for you to accompany me on Huangquan Road! You wait, our Zhao Junzun's reinforcements will arrive soon! They will arrive soon!"

What's interesting is that after being brought in front of Xiang Kang, Fuyang County Magistrate, who refused to surrender even after being severely beaten by the young commander in chief, was still stubborn and kept saying that Zhao Zhuang, the governor of Sishui County, Xiang Kang was puzzled, and couldn't help asking: "Where are your reinforcements? The scouts sent by the young marshal to Pengcheng, why haven't they seen your reinforcements until the day before yesterday?" Half a shadow?"

"I want you to take care of it! Dog thief!" The magistrate of Fuyang continued to yell, but he couldn't help but said: "Don't use this to lie to me! Zhao Junzun personally told me below that his reinforcements will be here in a few days We will rush to Fu Yang within a few days, and kill all of you thieves."

Xiang Kang suddenly realized, and sneered: "Old man, Zhao Zhuang is just kidding you. He was defeated by my commander in Fuli, and the main force has almost been lost. It must be used first to guard the important places of Surabaya, such as Pengcheng and Xiangxian. How could it be possible to waste troops for your innocuous small city of Fuyang? He told you that there are reinforcements, but he just tricked you into defending the city and buying him time to survive. If you don’t understand such a simple truth, it’s a waste of your forty years!”

"You are talking nonsense! Junzun Zhao is the governor of our Sishui County, how could he lie to me?" The magistrate of Fuyang yelled hoarsely, almost desperately shouting: "The official document given to me by Junzun Zhao is in our county temple. How could he lie to me? He won't lie to me! No!"

Unwilling to waste any more saliva with this paranoid magistrate of Fuyang County who was almost naive, Xiang Kang decisively ordered him to be beheaded on the spot, and ordered people to go to the city to find the official document that Zhao Zhuang used to deceive him, and arranged for envoys to carry Fuyang County Ling's head and Zhao Zhuang's official document went south first, and rushed to Pengcheng to hand it over to the county magistrate there as a warning.Zhou Zeng who was next to him laughed when he saw Xiang Kang's arrangement, and applauded: "Young commander, the magistrate of Pengcheng, seeing this document and this head, will definitely know what kind of guy Zhao Zhuang is. Wait until our soldiers come to the city. At that time, it would definitely be much easier to recruit Pengcheng."

"You can't be careless." Xiang Kang said very cautiously: "Pengcheng is the most important place for money and food in Sishui County, rich and prosperous, and it is still above the important sub-pi in the East China Sea. That ordinary man Zhao Zhuang can choose to give up Fu Yang, but he will definitely not. I will give up Pengcheng easily, and we will go south to Pengcheng, I am afraid there will be a big battle to fight."

When Zhou Zeng hurriedly nodded and said yes, the soldiers outside the flag formation suddenly came to report, saying that Xiang Sui had sent a messenger, and there was an urgent military situation that needed to be reported face to face. Xiang Kang also said that Xiang Sui had successfully captured Qu County. , also immediately ordered to summon.However, when Xiang Sui's envoy came to Xiang Kang, his face did not show any joy. On the contrary, he knelt down on the ground as soon as they met, and said in a nervous tone: "Young commander, this villain is here to plead guilty for Captain Xiang. of."

"What? The siege is not good?"

Xiang Kang guessed the result, and Xiang Sui's emissary really nodded and said: "Reporting to the young commander, the battle was indeed not going well. The Tyrant Qin army in Qu County refused to fight, and desperately defended the city. Xiang Duwei supervised the troops several times. The siege failed to capture Qu County, on the contrary, there were many casualties. Besides, our food and grass are not much."

Xiang Kang didn't speak, but just took the military emergency report brought by Xiang Sui's emissary and opened it to watch. He saw that the situation reported by Xiang Sui was similar to what the emissary introduced. The army refused to surrender or go to war, forcing Xiang Sui to launch a frontal attack, but because the city of Qu County is strong, the defenders are tenacious, and the young commander's army only has more than [-] people, the force is not too large. Advantage, three large-scale sieges were launched three times in thirteen days, all of which were killed and retreated by the Qin army, and more than [-] soldiers were killed or injured successively.What's worse is that there is not much food and grass with the army, Xiang Sui has no choice but to send someone back to report the situation to Xiang Kang and ask Xiang Kang to make a decision.

In addition, Xiang Sui, who had always respected Xiang Kang, took the initiative to plead guilty, blaming himself for his ineffective command of the army and lack of skill in attacking the city. He could not even take down a small county town, and asked Xiang Kang to be punished.

Not to mention that Xiang Sui didn't make any serious mistakes, just because he would rather offend Xiang Bo but also support his own decision-making, Xiang Kang is of course reluctant to convict Xiang Sui.What's more, Xiang Kang is very clear that the main force of Xiang Sui's direct line was defeated by Gongsun Qing's main force in the battle of Yishui. Many new recruits in the army are insufficient in combat effectiveness. , and his performance is better than that of Xiang Bo's other son Xiang You-at least the camp of the Young Marshal Army was not broken by the enemy.

It is precisely because of these objective factors that after reading Xiang Sui's military report, Xiang Kang not only did not feel annoyed at all, but also kindly asked Xiang Sui's emissary to stand up, and then smiled and said: "It's okay, victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs, Battles of fortified battles are difficult to fight, and it is not uncommon for them not to be able to take down a city. Go back and tell you Captain Xiang that if you can’t win, then don’t fight, and return to Tancheng to regroup first, and when you recover, expand your army. Then it will not be too late to go to the Tyrant Qin army in Qu County to take revenge."

Xiang Sui's envoy breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly thanked him and stood up. Xiang Kang asked Zhou Zeng to write a letter to Xiang Sui immediately, ordering Xiang Sui to withdraw immediately and return to Tancheng to regroup. At the same time, Xiang Kang also taught Xiang Sui a lesson. Just a few words, saying that the commander-in-chief outside the country will not be accepted, you must learn to judge the situation and make your own decisions, and you don't need to ask yourself for instructions on everything.Then the envoy who handed the letter to Xiang Sui sent it out immediately. The envoy thanked him and said goodbye.

After more than two days, Xiang Sui's envoy returned to the city of Qu County smoothly, and reported Xiang Kang's reply to Xiang Sui. Xiang Sui, who was worrying, also received an amnesty, and immediately ordered the camp to retreat. The young marshal whose morale had been frustrated The soldiers of the army were also very happy when they heard the news. They hurriedly loaded the military supplies and the few remaining grains into the trucks, put away the military flag tents, and prepared to return to Tancheng to rest happily.And the Qin Army in Qu County saw the Young Marshal's army preparing to withdraw from a distance from the city, and of course cheered, knowing that their own army had won the battle to defend Qu County.

There was an accident, when Xiang Sui was rushing to pack his luggage and military documents with his own soldiers, there was a sudden noise outside the tent, and at the same time, some soldiers entered the account to report, saying that the Young Marshal was in the local area of ​​Qu County. The recruited soldiers came together, clamoring against the retreat and asking to meet Xiang Sui.Xiang Sui was afraid of a mutiny, so he could only quickly put the army on alert, and at the same time lead his own soldiers out of the tent, and went to the gate of the Chinese army camp where recruits gathered in Qu County to learn about the situation.

"Don't retreat! Don't retreat!"

"Can't go! We're gone, what about our parents, wives and children?"

"Lieutenant Xiang, we can't retreat! We really want to follow you to overthrow Tyranny Qin and rejuvenate Chu! But we can't rest assured if we leave without taking down Qu County!"

"You can't retreat! Keep fighting! Fight to the death with the Tyrant Qin army!"

There was a lot of noise at first, but seeing Xiang Sui in armor coming out, the recruits from Qu County immediately became even more noisy, insisting on opposing the retreat.Xiang Sui yelled hard, and managed to calm them down for a while, and then Xiang Sui, who had roughly understood why these recruits were making trouble, said loudly: "Soldiers, I understand how you want to fight to the death with the Tyrant Qin army, but There is no way, our food, grass and military supplies are running out. We have to retreat temporarily and return to Tancheng for food. But don’t worry, we will be back soon. Captain Ben promises you that I will definitely take it with me before long. You come back, fight Qu County together with you, and save your parents, wives and children!"

"Lieutenant Xiang, it's too late!" A big recruit from Qu County said with the loudest voice, almost roaring, "Lieutenant Xiang, you don't know how vicious the Qin officials in Qu County are. If we leave like this, our soldiers, parents, wives and children will be finished! We can’t retreat, we can only continue to fight!”

"But there is no food, what can I do?" Xiang Sui spread his hands helplessly, and said, "If there is food, why would I choose to retreat? Don't you see that we have killed and injured so many soldiers these days, Don't I want to avenge them?"

"Lieutenant Xiang, there is food and grass!" Another tall recruit from Qu County was startling, and he squeezed out of the crowd and said loudly: "Lieutenant Xiang, the food and grass are in Qu County! Earlier, the Tyrant Qin army forced us The grain and grass from the pavilions in the township have been transferred into the city, and Qu County has been conquered, as much grain and grass as you want!"

"Then you have a way to conquer Qu County?" Xiang Sui asked with a wry smile.

"I have it!" The tall recruit from Qu County said surprisingly, "I'm afraid you won't accept it, Captain Xiang!"

Xiang Sui glanced at the recruit in surprise, seeing that besides his tall stature, he also had a fierce expression, not like the kind of reckless man who only knows violence, then Xiang Sui couldn't help but feel a little interested, and asked: " Then what is your siege method? Let me hear it, if it is feasible, I will definitely adopt it!"

"It's very simple, burn down the camp, and even our camp!" The recruit said loudly: "Then send out all the troops and attack the city with all your strength! If you don't take Qu County, you will never withdraw!"

"Hahahahahaha!"

Hearing this, the veterans of the Young Marshal Army next to him of course burst into laughter, and Xiang Sui couldn't help laughing, but the recruit was extremely unconvinced and said loudly, "Why are you laughing? Am I right? Burn down the camp." The tents can no longer be conquered in Qu County, and everyone will have to suffer from the cold. Who else dares not to fight? Also, how could the Tyrant Qin army not be afraid when they saw us burning camps and attacking the city without leaving a retreat? They were afraid, Isn't our chance here?!"

Xiang Sui was stunned, because Xiang Sui suddenly found out that the suggestion of the recruits from Qu County was indeed very feasible. Burning the camps and attacking the city with all their strength, the young generals would have nowhere to hide. Really, the only option left is to attack the city with all your strength. If you keep going forward, it is really hard not to explode your combat power.

"Captain, this is an opportunity, you must seize it, or it will be too late to regret it in the future!" The recruit from Qu County pointed to the city of Qu County in the distance, and said loudly: "Look, Captain, the Tyrant Qin army will see you!" By the time we pulled out the camp, we were already cheering for victory. When we suddenly launched an attack at this time, we would definitely catch them off guard and make them hard to keep their morale low. How could we take advantage of this opportunity to attack the city with all our strength? Don’t go down to the city of Qu County?!”

Xiang Sui looked up and down the recruit in front of him in disbelief, and after a while he asked, "What's your name?"

"Report to the captain, my name is Zhong Limei!" The recruit replied loudly, and then said: "You just arrived here, captain, the villain came over to join the army. As a recruit, he took part in three siege battles, but every The last time I pushed a car that crashed into the city and rammed it into a door, I never had a chance to fight with ants, so I didn’t get the decapitation.”

"Then do you have the guts to join the Death Squad and lead the Death Squad to attack the city?" Xiang Sui stared at Zhong Limo and asked.

"Why don't you dare? I've longed to go up and fight against ants!" Zhong Limo replied loudly, his tone extremely firm.

After hesitating for a while, Xiang Sui, whose temper was completely opposite to that of his father and brother, made up his mind and said loudly: "Okay, I will promote you to a hundred generals now! I will let you randomly choose 100 people from the recruits in Qu County, and serve as siege vanguards. Attack the city of Qu County!"

"The last general takes orders!"

Zhong Limo happily clasped his fists and agreed, and the big, loud recruit from Qu County quit and said loudly: "Lieutenant Xiang, one death squad is not enough, we should form another one, the villain is willing to lead this death squad to attack the city! If I can’t win Qu County, I will never come back!”

"What's your name?" Xiang Sui asked casually again.

"Longju!" The big recruit answered decisively.

"Very good, from now on, you are also a hundred generals." Xiang Sui replied more bluntly, and said, "Just like Zhongli Mozhong, you also randomly select 100 recruits from the recruits in Qu County. I will give you the best." The best weapons, the best armor, let you attack the city with death squads!"

Long Ju cheered and agreed, and the high-morale Qu County recruits also cheered, and they couldn't wait to run to Zhong Limei and Long Ju to volunteer and ask for the death squad led by them.But the matter was not over yet, Zhong Limo cupped his hands to Xiang Sui and said: "The last general has the courage to ask you one more thing, give us a 200 yuan wooden sign and let us write our names on it!"

"What are you doing?" Xiang Sui asked suspiciously.

"If we can't come back from the siege, please be kind to the captain and give us a bowl of wine!" Zhong Limei replied loudly, "Let us go to Huangquan Road and have a bowl of wine!"

The recruits from Qu County cheered again, and asked Xiang Sui for permission, and Xiang Sui, no matter how mediocre his military talent was, of course he understood how great this would be in boosting the morale of the army, so he agreed immediately and followed Zhong Limei's instructions on the spot. He ordered the young generals to stop cleaning up the camp, launch the siege weapons left over from the siege a few days ago, and the whole army went out of the camp to prepare for departure, and launched an attack on the city of Qu County again.

In a short while, the army was ready, Xiang Sui first ordered the soldiers to set fire to all the camp facilities and the tents used by the soldiers to rest, and destroyed the ground by himself, and then led the army forward, and once again attacked the city of Qu County.The result was exactly as Zhongli had expected. Seeing the young commander who was about to retreat came again and set himself on fire without leaving a camp, the guards of the Qin army in the city were really in a commotion. They all understood what the young commander had done this time. The siege was absolutely no small matter, and the morale of the army was immediately affected.

After the formation was set up, the long shieldmen and crossbow teams of the Young Commander's Army stepped forward first, and set up temporary fortifications under the moat. During this period, Zhong Limei and Long Ju, who had already formed a death squad with fellow soldiers, came to Xiang Sui again. Handed the wooden plaque with the names of [-] Death Squad warriors to Xiang Sui, Xiang Sui was excited when he saw it, he left the table and came to greet him, encouraged Zhong Limei and Long Ju Zhuang, and promised that before the Death Squad was dispatched, he would be there Before the toast, let every warrior of the Qu County Death Squad drink a bowl of hot wine before going on the road.

Together with Zhong Limei, he thanked Xiang Sui for his encouragement, Long Ju picked up another wooden card from the pile, and said, "Captain, this is the name card of the general, if it is convenient for you if the general does not come back, please Send someone to deliver my name tag to my home and let my family know how I am."

Xiang Sui immediately agreed, glanced at the name tag in Long Ju's hand, and said in surprise: "So General Long is your name written like this, I thought it was the residence where you lived."

"Ha, it's a homonym, and people often get it wrong." Mr. Long laughed, and his real name was clearly written on the name tag in his hand. His name was...

(End of this chapter)