Wu Ju obviously knew this was a great idea. Therefore, as soon as Li Rangang proposed his plan, Wu Ju immediately agreed after thinking about it briefly.
And the last words he said were also very intriguing.
What does it mean to "don't be greedy for merit, sir, your name will be known all over the world?"
It's still a commonplace question. This is obviously to use military exploits to directly "force Li Ran to the top".
Once Zhu Fan was captured alive due to Li Ran's plan, not only would Wu Ju be able to take advantage of such a miraculous feat, but if it were publicized again, it would be equivalent to tying Li Ran to the Chu State in the same boat.
If you, Li Ran, are not used by Chu State, where can you go?
Speaking of Li Ranlai's arrangement of this Wuju, there is no ambiguity at all.
So, he quickly allocated another 5,000 elite troops to Sun Wu, and also gave the military talismans to Sun Wu, so that he could control himself and no longer need to report to him for all actions.
After Sun Wu took over the military talisman, he did not leave the camp immediately. Instead, he and Wu Ju further elaborated on a specific strategy to lure the enemy...
After Li Ran and Sun Wu all withdrew, Wu Ju immediately summoned the generals to discuss.
"What?! Not only do you want our main force to retreat, but you actually want us to give up this hard-won Shujiucheng?!"
"Yes! Not only must Shu Jiu be abandoned, but also all the defenders deployed in Qunshu must retreat thirty miles to respond."
"What? Crazy, crazy, how can we fight like this! Since the two of them are not from Chu, they are obviously trying to harm our army! If those Zhufans are not fooled, then we will fall short of our success!"
"Yes! If the king finds out, he will definitely not be able to spare me from waiting!"
It turns out that Sun Wu's strategy of luring the enemy was a strange move to mediate between the two parties! On the one hand, it can make the Chu army retreat across the board, and it can also take this as an opportunity to capture Wu King Zhufan alive! Let the State of Chu achieve full success and then return to the army and return peace to the two countries.
The Chu army's comprehensive retreat also gave Li Ran enough reasons to prevaricate the crowd:
I, Li Ran, have tried my best to make the Chu army retreat. Now it is Wu Wang Zhufan who does not know the right measures, underestimates the enemy and mistakenly falls into the Chu people's trap. This is entirely his own fault.
But obviously, Sun Wu's move was well-intentioned. However, the key to this plan still lies in Wu Ju!
It depends on whether he can suppress the other generals of Chu State. After all, pretending to be defeated across the board is the most important step in luring the enemy to advance, and even luring Wu King Zhufan to show up.
"I have made up my mind, no need to say any more! Generals, just control your ministries and retreat together, without making any mistakes!"
Wu Ju also knew the key here very well. Therefore, the general immediately ordered that all the garrison troops currently in Qunshu retreat thirty miles to respond.
A few days later, the Chu defenders in Shujiu City also received the secret order and all withdrew directly from the city.
The original strength of the Chu army dispersed in Qunshu was not large, but these days they were played around by the Wu army's boat soldiers. Therefore, its morale can be said to have dropped to the extreme.
These Chu soldiers no longer wanted to stay in the land of right and wrong, so as soon as they received the military order to retreat across the entire front, they just assumed that the Wu people were about to kill them, so they were panicked for a while.
Fortunately, the generals of the Chu army everywhere were able to enforce orders and prohibitions and exercise restraint. Most of the Chu soldiers had the prestige of their commanders, and the qualities they had practiced in daily life were quite good. Even after a lot of trouble, they barely made any big troubles.
However, the weather is getting colder and colder, and it's New Year's Day soon, so everyone hopes to go back soon. Therefore, although the order was to retreat thirty miles, some troops actually retreated fifty miles directly.
In this way, the Chu army's front seemed more like a real defeat, completely out of order.
In mid-November, the main force of the Chu army, under the command of Wu Ju, also falsely retreated for more than ten formations. Seeing that the Chu army in the entire Jianghuai area was almost wiped out at the same time.
All of this naturally gave Wu Jun insight into the "opportunity".
Generally speaking, on the battlefield, if one party suddenly retreats in such a hurry, it is either because there is a big trouble in the rear or because the logistics supply has collapsed.
Obviously, Wu Wang Zhufan also considered this.
Therefore, the morale of the armies of the two countries suddenly changed drastically. The Wu army began to be ready to take the initiative, frequently taking the initiative to attack, constantly harassing the retreating Chu army, and even brazenly attacking the Chu army's camp.
The Chu army's defense line retreated again and again, and the number of earth stoves dug by the Chinese army camp led by Wu Ju himself continued to decrease every time they cooked.
When the retreat first began, there were still four to five thousand earthen stove pits for making rice in the main camp. However, after more than ten retreats, there were only more than a thousand stoves left in the camp.
Obviously, this was also a strategy laid down by Sun Wu.
King Wu Zhufan personally led an army to pursue him, and he naturally observed this phenomenon along the way. Seeing that the number of the Chu army was inexplicably getting smaller and smaller, King Wu Zhufan didn't know what the plan was, so he became even more unscrupulous.
At the end of November, when the Chu army once again retreated twenty miles to the rear, King Zhufan of Wu saw this and could no longer hold back. He led 10,000 men and advanced all the way, and actually directly attacked the Chu army at The last stronghold in the Jianghuai region - under Chaoyi City.
Chao State was originally a vassal of Chu State. After Shu Jiu was destroyed, Chao State became Chu State's only stronghold in the Jianghuai region.
Obviously, it exists as the "Chu tail and Wu head" in the Jianghuai River Basin. The capture of Chaoyi was also of extremely great strategic significance to the State of Wu.
When Sun Wu learned that Wu King Zhufan personally led the troops all the way to Chao Kingdom, he knew that he had fallen into a hard-to-capture strategy. So, he led five thousand infantry and rushed to Chao Kingdom for reinforcements at starry night.
Originally, before Sun Wuchi came to Chaoyi's aid, there were only 3,000 defenders in Chaoyi, so it was impossible to defend against Zhufan's attack. When Chao Niuchen, the city guard general of Chao Kingdom, learned that Sun Wu had given Wu Ju the order and specially led troops to rescue him, his confidence doubled.
"Hurry! Open the gate to the outer city tonight! Things will change later!"
Unexpectedly, as soon as Sun Wu arrived at the city tower and met Chao Niuchen, he directly asked Chao Niuchen to open the city gate and let Wu Wang Zhufan enter Wengcheng without saying anything. When Chao Niuchen heard this, he was immediately confused.
"What? How to do this?! How to let the Wu people come in? The urn city is low and the gate is small. It can be said that it can be broken with one attack. This is tantamount to seeking death!"
Chao Niuchen refused Sun Wu's proposal without even thinking about it.
Seeing that Chao Niuchen was so ignorant, Sun Wu hurriedly shouted:
"The King of Wu personally led his troops here, and this man is brave but not wise. If we open the outer city gate, he will definitely think that there is a heresy in Chaoyi. He doesn't know this is a trick, and he will definitely lead his troops to rush in!"
"At that time, if we close the city gate and rely on the urn, he will become the thing in the urn!"
"As the saying goes, "Capture the thief and capture the king. As long as Zhufan is captured, what do these Wu troops have to worry about?"
After all, Chaoyi is the capital of Chao State, and it is also the largest military stronghold of Chu State in the east. Therefore, the city's defenses are extremely complete, and every city gate has an urn.
There was an outer city and an urn city, so Sun Wu just asked Chao Niuchen to open the gate of the outer city. Even if Zhufan entered the inner city, it was obvious that he would not be able to break the urn city in a short time.
As long as the Wengcheng is not broken, Zhufan, who has the habit of personally charging into battle, will become the meat on Sun Wu's chopping board.
But after Chao Niuchen heard this, he just thought it was too unbelievable. After all, Zhufan led more than 10,000 Wu troops with high morale, and the total number of soldiers guarding the city was only 8,000. They had to disperse their forces to deploy defenses in other places.
With these manpower alone, how could they withstand the more than 10,000 elite Wu troops in Zhufan's hands, if not for the powerful city fortifications?
Moreover, he has heard about Zhufan's bravery for a long time. The main force of your Chu army was able to withdraw more than ten formations in succession. I let him in now? Doesn't that mean that we just surrender?
"It's necessary. This method is too dangerous. The safety of our entire city now depends on this city. I can never take such risks."
Chao Niuchen thought about it repeatedly, but finally did not agree to Sun Wu's suggestion.
Although Chao State is a vassal state of Chu State, Chao State is still a country and has a certain degree of autonomy. So in this matter, if he doesn't agree, Sun Wu really has nothing to do.
Seeing this, Sun Wu had no choice but to take out his trump card.
I saw him taking out another bronze token from his arms, with two bright characters - Wang Ling - engraved on it in Chu script.
"Can the general recognize this object?"
He sent the token to Chao Niuchen.
Chao Niuchen took it with both hands and took a look. His hands suddenly shook and the token almost fell to the ground.
"This is...this is King Chu's token!"
How could Chao Niuchen not recognize this token?
Every year when the Chao Kingdom pays tribute to the Chu Kingdom, the people who come to receive the tribute hold this token that represents the highest royal power of the Chu Kingdom!
It turned out that before Li Ran went to Shujiu with Wu Ju, the King of Chu secretly sent someone to give Li Ran a token of the King of Chu to express his trust in Li Ran.
On the one hand, of course it is to further win over Li Ran. On the other hand, he also hopes that Li Ran can act according to the situation and that the Chu State can win with a cunning plan on his behalf.
The King of Chu is surrounded by Xiong, how can he not recognize people? He knew very well that although Wu Ju was able to control his troops well, he often lacked ingenuity.
Of course, the King of Chu also knew that the difficulty of Chu's expedition was no less than pulling a tooth out of a tiger's mouth. If it weren't for a cunning plan, it would be extremely difficult to win. Therefore, he certainly hopes that with Li Ran's "fantastic ideas", he can win Shu Jiu for him!
After Li Ran and Wu Ju came to the front line, due to the complicated battle situation on the front line and Wu Ju's commanding ability, and Li Ran himself didn't really want to take action, this token had no use.
Now that Sun Wu led his army to Chaoyi for rescue, Li Ran expected that the defender of Chaoyi might not listen to Sun Wu, so he directly asked him to bring the token with him, just in case.
As expected, he actually used it at this time.
"Seeing this token is like meeting the King of Chu!"
Sun Wu took the token from Chao Niuchen and turned it around towards the soldiers defending the city.
Immediately, everyone including Chao Niuchen knelt down on the ground.
"General, are you willing to open the gate of the outer city now?"
Sun Wu asked Chao Niuchen in a dignified manner.
When Chao Niuchen heard this, he immediately nodded in agreement without any hesitation.
Therefore, under the command of Sun Wu, Chao Niuchen immediately made arrangements. First, he arranged all the city defenders to lie in ambush on the tower of Wengcheng, and then erected a lowering flag on the tower. Finally, he placed all the soldiers in the outer city in ambush. The city gate was immediately opened.
