The Prodigal Son

Early the next morning, Qin Yu followed Qin Fumeng and led his troops to Wangzhou Prefecture.

They traveled light, without any siege equipment, only some rope hooks.

As for supplies, they can only last for about three days.

Including the day of advancing troops, they only have two days to besiege the city.

Qin Fumeng left them absolutely no way out.

We must either capture Wangzhou Prefecture within two days, or we will be cut off from supplies and exhausted. Even if we manage to retreat, we will inevitably be pursued by the enemy.

Zong Bi also sent people to keep a close eye on the movements of the Ning army in the direction of Shangxing.

Less than two hours after Qin Yu and his group set off, Zong Bi of Wangzhou Prefecture received the news.

"They're pouncing on us?"

Zong Bi frowned and began to think carefully.

He received intelligence last night that another large force of cavalry was attacking from the direction of Pengzhao.

The Ning army is advancing towards Wangzhou Prefecture from two directions at the same time. Is this a strong attack on Wangzhou Prefecture?

Or perhaps Qin Yu was merely there to support the cavalry force attacking from the direction of Pengzhao?

Hmm, it should just be a backup plan!

Based on his understanding of Qin Yu, Qin Yu always preferred to win through unconventional strategies and rarely chose to attack cities proactively.

Even when attacking a city, the enemy would be lured into a corner first, their forces would be weakened and their morale damaged, before the attack could proceed.

Soon, Zong Bi made a judgment in his mind.

However, with this judgment, Zong Bi secretly began to have a headache.

"General, this is a bit troublesome!"

"If we send troops to simultaneously intercept the Ning army on both sides, Wangzhou Prefecture will inevitably fall as soon as one side is breached by the enemy!"

"It's definitely impossible to send troops to block both sides. We don't have that many troops. The result of blocking both sides would be that we can't block either side, and in the end we'll even lose Wangzhou Prefecture."

"But even if we only block the enemy from one direction, it will inevitably allow the enemy from the other direction to attack our troops who went to block the enemy."

"If we don't send someone to intercept them, these two forces will merge, making it even more difficult for reinforcements to break through Shangxing!"

"Yes, by then, let alone breaking through Shangxing, even the reinforcements themselves will probably be in danger..."

The group of generals were discussing it amongst themselves, and everyone was having a headache.

Let's not worry about the enemy's objective for now.

In any case, once these two enemy forces join forces, it will definitely not be a good thing for them!

But they only have 20,000 troops, so it's not easy to stop them!

No matter how I try to type it, it seems to be wrong.

This outcome left everyone shrouded in gloom and despair.

Zong Bi pondered quietly for a moment, then quickly made up his mind: "Abandon the attack and defend the city!"

"But once they reunite, we'll be in big trouble!"

He sighed softly.

He Cong was not surprised by Zong Bi's choice.

However, Zong Bi's choice forced them to confront long-term issues.

Zong Bi raised his eyelids. "Therefore, I will send men to Pangzhou via mountain roads to contact Prince Su! I will ask Prince Su to advance his troops to Luzhou and occupy Luzhou Prefecture as quickly as possible, looting all the grain from the surrounding cities! Any grain that cannot be carried away will be distributed to the people so that they can take the grain and flee to the mountains!"

"Does the General intend to cut off their supplies?" He Congming realized.

"right!"

Zong Bi nodded and said, "The enemy cavalry from the Pengzhao direction can't possibly be carrying much food! Judging from their speed of advance, they can only carry enough rations for two days at most! Even if they regroup, what can they do if they don't have enough food?"

If Ning Jun wants to cut off Yan's food supply, then they will cut off Ning Jun's food supply lines!

In the end, everyone ran out of food!

Let's see who can't hold out any longer!

Once the troops from Shangxing are forced to retreat due to lack of food, both sides will essentially be back to square one.

His previous mistakes due to misjudgment can be rectified!

Conversely, if they were to launch a defensive battle now, and suffer heavy losses that leave Wangzhou Prefecture vulnerable, the enemy would inevitably seize the opportunity to attack Wangzhou Prefecture.

The forces of Rock Fortress are trapped.

Once Wangzhou Prefecture falls, the troops at Panshi Fort will be plunged into despair, giving the enemy an opportunity to breach the fort!

Therefore, defending Wangzhou Prefecture is equivalent to defending Panshi Fortress, which means cutting off the enemy's supply lines.

"This subordinate understands!"

He Cong stood up. "This subordinate will immediately arrange the defense!"

"Um!"

Zong Bi nodded, then reminded He Cong, "Although we won't stop them, we can cause them some trouble! Once they show a weakness, we might find an opportunity to tear a piece of flesh from them!"

After a moment's thought, He Cong realized and said, "This humble general understands!"

Soon, He Cong went down to make the arrangements.

in the afternoon.

When they were about fifty miles away from Wangzhou Prefecture, Qin Yu and his men were harassed by a small group of Yan cavalry.

They didn't engage them directly in battle. Instead, they would ride alone or in small groups, hiding in concealed spots along their advance route, and shoot an arrow. Regardless of whether it hit the Ning soldiers, they would immediately ride away.

There are usually only one or two people on the other side, and sometimes only three or five.

Their men gave chase, but the other party had usually already run far away.

Only a few unlucky individuals were caught or captured because they were discovered in advance.

According to the captured people, they had a thousand riders who were scattered along the way.

Their mission is to harass and harass again!

Faced with this situation, Qin Yu naturally could not send a large number of troops to pursue those few enemy soldiers, nor could he stop the army. He could only order his men to be more vigilant and continue forward, while ordering Zhao Wu to lead a hundred elite cavalry to take the lead and clear away obstacles in front of them as much as possible.

After giving the orders, Qin Yu asked Qin Fumeng, "If you encountered this situation, how would you handle it?"

"It's similar to how you handled it."

Qin Fumeng smiled calmly, "The enemy is simply trying to annoy you with constant harassment and slow down our advance!"

"Once you focus your energy on dealing with these scattered enemy forces, you've fallen into their trap!"

"If you're constantly harassed by enemy troops, you can freely capture some civilians from enemy countries and add them to your army!"

"If they wound one of you, you will kill ten civilians..."

Qin Fumeng spoke of it casually.

It was as if this was no big deal at all.

Qin Yu was taken aback and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Qin Fumeng glanced at him sideways and said calmly, "Do you think that my killing of civilians is inhumane and violates..."

No, not at all.

Qin Yu interrupted him, "I just feel that you're different on the battlefield than you are on ordinary days."

To be precise, it's not that the old man has a problem, it's that his mindset is the problem.

However, he himself doesn't understand where this mental state problem lies.

"On the battlefield, no means are too ruthless!"

Qin Fumeng said indifferently, "We don't need to care too much about the lives of the enemy's civilians. This is one of the few advantages we have as the attacking side! If the Yan Kingdom invades our Great Ning, do you think the Yan army will care about the lives of our civilians?"

"I see!"

Qin Yu nodded. "If I wanted to be a pushover, I wouldn't have come up with such a vicious scheme as Snow Cotton!"

Qin Yu smiled slightly and said no more.

Although Qin Yu said that, he clearly still didn't realize the true cruelty of the battlefield.

wait!

He'll understand once this battle is over!