Chapter 2620: Chai Rong defeats Shi Gonghu, Zhu Rong aids Shengjingguan
Chi You and Zhu Rong, brothers and sisters, both had bad tempers. When they refused to give in to each other, they started to quarrel when they disagreed, and then started fighting again.
Seeing this, the guards next to him became more and more afraid to step forward. After all, Chi You and Zhu Rong had been fighting since childhood, and it was quite normal for them to fight between siblings.
However, Chi You was seriously injured at this time and naturally could not be Zhu Rong's opponent.
Zhu Rong was angry, but he was also measured and did not dare to hit his brother hard. Without using his internal strength, he knocked off several of Chi You's armbands, knocking Chi You unconscious.
"A slap in the face is too much." Chi You said angrily.
Zhu Rong sneered and said, "I even saved your life, so what's wrong with slapping you in the face?"
"I……"
Chi You was so angry that he couldn't speak.
Zhu Rong also accepted the offer, but she felt extremely happy in her heart. After all, his brother didn't know how to show mercy to her. She had been beaten by her brother since she was a child, and now she finally got over it.
Seeing his brother staring at him without saying a word, Zhu Rong became even more happy, and said sarcastically: "Brother Wang, being angry will hurt your body. You are injured now. If you are angry to death, then only I can inherit Nan Now that I have become the king, I don’t want to take over this mess.”
"Hmph, don't worry. Even if I really die, it won't be your turn to inherit the throne of Southern King." Chi You snorted coldly.
Zhu Rong looked at Chi You with a faint smile: "That's not necessarily the case."
Chi You immediately wanted to refute, but then he thought about it, it was really possible, and the possibility was not low.
After all, the Southern Kingdom is not the Central Plains. Strength is respected, and the status of women is not low. In the previous tribal era, it is not that there were no female leaders.
Currently, the Zhu Rong family only has two siblings, their brother and sister. He had previously focused on martial arts and had no heirs. If he were to die, his sister would be the only woman who could succeed him.
After all, my sister has made a lot of contributions and her prestige in the military is not low, and Gonggong, that licking dog, will definitely be willing to support her to become the queen in order to please her.
At this thought, Chi You felt more and more helpless, and at the same time, he also wanted to get married and have children more urgently. After all, besides himself, the only member of the huge Southern King's royal family was his sister. This was indeed a bit too dangerous.
I hope the princess sent by Da Qin to marry her is a good woman.
Chi You secretly thought that he naturally hoped to marry a wife with pure character and noble blood, but if the princess had bad intentions, then he could only provide her with a high price and keep her in his concubine. descendants.
"snort."
Chi You snorted coldly and said to Zhu Rong angrily: "You really want to piss your brother off to death and become the Queen of the South, right?"
"As long as you don't interfere in my lifelong affairs."
After saying this, Zhu Rong turned around and left.
Hearing Zhu Rong's words, Chi You said with a headache on his face: "But sister, you are not young anymore. Zhong Gui wants to get married, and among the young talents of our southern country, besides Gonggong, who else is worthy of him?" you?"
Chi You was right when he said this. Apart from Gonggong, there really was no one in the Southern Kingdom who was a good match for Zhu Rong. It was precisely because of this that he brought the two of them together.
What Chi You didn't expect was that Gonggong, who was excellent in all aspects, had no feelings for him at all. Could it be that he was really incompatible?
After Zhu Rong heard this, she rarely refuted and fell into deep thought in front of everyone. She knew that it was impossible for her to marry outside, but there was really no one she liked in the southern country.
Zhu Rong left without saying a word. Chi You neither stopped nor could stop him.
Since Zhu Rong did not agree with the plan of marrying and taking a double break to help Gonggong break through, even Chi You could not force his sister to sacrifice his life, so he could only look for a breakthrough in other ways.
Fortunately, this time he severely wounded Xing Tian, preventing him from participating in the battle. The morale of the Shu army also plummeted, and they would no longer be able to pose a fatal threat to the Southern Army in the short term.
On the other hand, on the Southern Army side, although Chi You is still absent, there are still Zhu Rong, Gonggong, Feilian, and Pingyi. Their high-end combat power has surpassed that of Shu, which can completely offset part of the lack of military strength.
In the next few battles, Chi You discovered that not only Xing Tian, but also Lu Ya did not participate in the battle. He guessed that Lu Ya's injury was more serious than expected, so he immediately organized Da Qin to counterattack.
But Liu Yu seemed to have expected this, and he reduced his troops in advance and gave up many strongholds, so he did not suffer many casualties.
But when Chi You regrouped and prepared to pursue the victory and regain the lost territory in one fell swoop, he received news of an emergency on the eastern front.
The 50,000 Chu troops of Li Xiucheng and Cao Shen had not yet reached Shengjing Pass. They lost no less than 3,000 troops due to miasma, wild beasts, mosquitoes, etc., and they also lost their way several times in the jungle.
If it weren't for Cao Shen's rich experience in jungle warfare, the 50,000 Chu troops attacking the southern country might have collapsed due to lack of food.
Under the leadership of Cao Shen, the Chu army moved in the right direction, approaching Nanguo Shengjing Pass little by little. However, the army's marching speed was not fast, and the harsh environment made morale continue to decline.
Both Cao Shen and Li Xiucheng knew that this was not the way to go. The morale of the army was so low that even if they arrived at Shengjing Pass, facing the Nanguo army waiting for work, it would be difficult to break through Shengjing Pass.
Just when Cao Shen and Li Xiucheng were feeling in trouble, Shengjing Gatekeeper Shi Gonghu provided an assist.
Shi Gonghu saw that the Chu army had reached the territory, so he eliminated several small-scale troops and constantly harassed the Chu army on the way, slowing down the Chu army's march, and at the same time using the harsh environment to defeat the Shu army.
Shi Gonghu's decision was not wrong, but it was a pity that not only Cao Shen was in the Chu army, but Chai Rong was also there.
Chai Rong proposed a plan to show weakness and deliberately defeated several battles in order to draw out the Southern Army in the victory pass and encircle and annihilate them with an ambush.
As Zeng Jin's Southern Barbarian elder, Shi Gonghu was naturally a man of both civil and military skills, but his opponent this time was indeed too strong. He could handle one, but three would be a bit too much.
Shi Gonghu saw that the three attacks were successful and the Chu army's grain carts were burned. However, the Chu army's morale was indeed low, so he lowered his guard and prepared to lead eight thousand defenders to attack the Chu army at night and completely defeat them. rout.
Shi Gonghu was full of confidence in this night attack, but he only managed to break through an empty camp. Although he realized that this was an ambush by the Chu army, it was obviously too late.
The Chu troops who were ambushing all around rushed out together. Although the morale of the Chu troops was low, their strength was more than five times that of the Southern Army. Who could be their opponent among the eight thousand defenders? Soon they were beaten back and forth until they were completely defeated.
Shi Gonghu decisively chose to break out. Relying on his understanding of the terrain, although he fled back with more than a thousand soldiers, the remaining nearly 7,000 troops died in the Chu army's ambush.
After this great victory, the Chu army's morale immediately recovered and they marched toward Shengjing Pass in a swaggering manner.
On the other hand, the Nanguo Army had 10,000 defenders at Shengjing Pass. Seven thousand were killed in the battle, leaving only 3,000 defenders. The situation instantly became extremely critical.
Shi Gonghu quickly ordered the abandonment of surrounding camps and Wu forts, and took back a thousand soldiers to defend the city. At the same time, he sent a letter to Chi You via flying pigeons to ask for help.
Chi You, who was on the battlefield in southern Shu, was naturally very anxious when he learned the news that the Eastern Front was in danger. Shi Gonghu was defeated by a trick. There were only 4,000 defenders left in Shengjing Pass, but he had to face more than 45,000 Chu troops.
After some deliberation, Chi You decided to send only 3,000 reinforcements back, and at the same time led 10,000 troops from the rear, for a total of 13,000 troops to support Shengjing Pass.
The reason why Chi You only sent 3,000 men there was naturally because the troops on the northern front were tight and unable to send more troops to support the eastern front.
As for who to send to lead the army? Just when Chi You was hesitant, Zhu Rong took the initiative to lead his army to support the Eastern Front.
Chi You did not alienate his sister because of the previous fight. He knew that the Eastern Front was not only short of soldiers, but also lacked a strong general to boost morale. Although Zhu Rong was a female general, her strength ranked among the top three in the Southern Kingdom, so he agreed. Zhu Rong's leadership request was met.
Zhu Rong led three thousand troops southward and turned back to support Shengjing Pass. However, the Chu army that had arrived at the pass had already launched a fierce attack on Shengjing Pass.
Although Shengjing Pass is not very majestic, it was built in a dangerous place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It occupies an advantageous location. Even if the Chu army is ten times larger than ours, it will take a lot of effort to break it.
For the Southern Army, the real problem in defending Shengjing Pass is actually an internal morale problem. After all, the entire army has been reduced by 70%. With low morale, the Southern Army's military morale is already very fragile.
Fortunately, the elder Shi Gonghu was very loved by the lower-level soldiers. Every time the Chu army attacked the city, he would personally participate in the battle, relying on his personal prestige to calm the turbulent military morale.
Zhu Rong led 13,000 reinforcements and marched for ten days before finally arriving at Shengjing Pass.
But at this time, the pass was full of smoke. It was obvious that the Chu army had entered the pass, but it had not completely captured the pass. There were still Nanguo troops resisting in the pass.
Shi Gonghu defended Shengjingguan for ten days. He had completely run out of ammunition and food. More than half of the city's defenders had suffered casualties, but they still refused to retreat.
Seeing this, Zhu Rong was extremely happy. He was just a little bit away from losing Shengjing Pass to the Southern Army, so he decisively led his troops into the pass to provide support.
The Chu and Southern armies fought fiercely for a whole day in Shengjing Pass, and both sides also suffered heavy losses. Zhu Rong defeated Fan Kuai, Wei Wentong, Gai Yan and other Chu generals in succession, and killed many of them. There are many Taiping Heavenly Kingdom generals, including: Yan Wang Lin Qirong and Mu Wang Tan Shaoguang.
Li Xiucheng and Cao Jian couldn't take down Zhurong with so many strong generals, and their own army's casualties were getting bigger and bigger, and their morale was getting lower and lower. If they continued to fight, they couldn't take Shengjing Pass, and they would suffer more casualties. Only then took the initiative to retire and rest.
Although Zhu Rong expelled the Chu army from Shengjing Pass, he also lost nearly 5,000 troops, and Shi Gonghu also died at the hands of Chai Rong after being wounded by Bei Fan Kuai. Both sides of Chu and South suffered a loss.
Just as Zhu Rong was fighting with the Chu State at Shengjing Pass, Yang Xiuqing also broke out in a war with the Ruan-Vietnam coalition in Jiaozhou.
Yang Xiuqing did not obey Liu Xiu's order and defended Rinan County with 15,000 Chu troops. Instead, he took the initiative to abandon the five counties of Rinan County and the two southern counties of Jiuzhen County, a total of seven counties, and concentrated his troops to defend Jiuzhen County. There are three counties: Xupu, Jufeng and Wugong in the northern part of the county.
The reason why Yang Xiuqing did this was naturally because after seeing the military appearance of the Ruan and Yue armies, he knew that the Ruan and Yue armies were no longer what they used to be. If he still wanted to fight five thousand against seventy thousand, ten thousand against one hundred thousand, as before, I am afraid that he has already It doesn't look like it anymore.
If Yang Xiuqing follows Liu Xiu's order and sticks to Rinan County and waits for reinforcements from Ma Yuan and Zeng Guofan, he may not be able to wait for the reinforcements even if he uses up all his troops. It is better to abandon the barren Rinan County and the southern two counties of Jiuzhen County to ensure that he lives in the state. The essence of Jiaozhi County, while lengthening the logistics supply line of the Nguyen-Vietnam coalition.
The Ruan-Vietnam coalition gained the land of two counties and seven counties without spending a single soldier. Naturally, they were overjoyed.
Although these two counties did not have much population, it was an unprecedented victory to seize territory from the Chu State. However, the Ruan-Vietnam coalition did not pursue the victory and pursued it. Instead, they had a dispute due to the uneven distribution of the spoils.
If it weren't for the envoys from Qin and Nan to dissuade them, Ruan and Yue might have been able to fight each other.
After the Ruan and Yue countries divided the two counties, they continued to lead their troops north to attack Xupu City, the seat of Jiuzhen County.
This time the Chu army did not give up, but defended the city.
After the Ruan-Vietnam coalition attacked Xupu City for ten days and lost nearly 10,000 troops, Yang Xiuqing voluntarily abandoned Xupu City and retreated to Jufeng City.
The Ruan-Vietnam coalition attacked Jufeng City for another 15 days, and after losing more than 10,000 troops, Yang Xiuqing gave up Jufeng City again and chose to retreat to Juwugong City.
