"Here's the army rations I asked you to bring!"
At the top of Tianzhu Peak, Chen Lan stared at the trembling grain officer in front of him and asked in a stern voice.
"General... news came from down the mountain, saying... that there were mountain ghosts eating people at night. There was no more news after our army's dozen or so food teams set off. Later, when we checked, we found that the carts were all there, but the people, animals and food were gone. "
Chen Lan snorted coldly, "Mountain ghost? Isn't this an excuse for you to neglect my military orders?" He didn't believe in any mountain ghost at all. He only thought that his subordinates were incompetent and looking for excuses to escape punishment.
The grain officer knew Chen Lan's cruelty and whispered: "I don't dare. Everything I said is true! You can ask the soldiers at the foot of the mountain. Now the legend of the mountain ghost has spread throughout the camp."
"Humph, is everything true?" Chen Lan smiled cruelly, "Do mountain ghosts also eat food?"
Then he suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Tell me, how many hu of dendrobium are there left in the food supply?"
The grain officer trembled and said, "There's still a gap...there's still a gap of 4,500 dendrobium."
"Well, 4,500 hu." Chen Lan sneered again, "I gave you 10,000 hu of military rations within half a month, but you gave me 4,500 hu less. What should I do if the date is missed? What to do with you?"
The grain officer plopped down on the ground and cried: "How dare you neglect military orders? It's because..."
Chen Lan nodded, "Is it really because of the mountain ghost?" Chen Lan interrupted him with a smile.
Mei Cheng, who was on the side, leaned into Chen Lan's ear and whispered: "General Chen, I have also heard this rumor, but the truth about gods and ghosts is really unpredictable, and it may affect the morale of the army."
Chen Lan nodded silently, then looked up at Jun Zheng and said, "This grain officer delayed the date and ruined the morale of the army. He cut off his head and hung it on the camp gate. Cut his body into forty-five pieces and dried them in the sun." Use it as army rations."
"Ah! Sir, I was wronged!" The grain officer was shocked and kowtowed to beg for mercy, but no matter how he explained, Chen Lan would not pay attention to him anymore.
"If you continue to give me this order, whoever dares to spread the news about mountain ghosts attacking the grain team in the camp will suffer the same fate as this person!"
The grain officer was shocked and burst into tears, but the swordsman behind him didn't care about this and just stepped forward and dragged him out. Soon a human head was hung high on the camp gate.
Although Mei Cheng wanted to speak for the grain guard, his words were swallowed back. He still knew the importance of the military's moral stability and the grain guard's head.
In the next few days, Chen Lan used this method to kill several team leaders, and a row of heads were hung at the gate of the camp, and the rumors in the camp were finally suppressed. But no matter how he killed people, the army rations still couldn't be transported from the mountain. At this time, the more than 5,000 hu of army rations in his granary were about to bottom out.
Seeing how cruel he was, many people began to escape at night.
On this day, the sky suddenly became covered with dark clouds and heavy rain poured down. The dry well dug by the enemy on the mountain was soon filled with rainwater.
The river water at the foot of the mountain gradually rose. Mei Cheng frowned and came to the edge of the cliff to look down. He saw that the camp was still standing on the sandbar. The people around him told him that the river water had risen more than a foot deep and there was still a distance from the camp. More than two feet.
He was worried about the loss of the Shazhou camp, so he came to Chen Lan's camp and saw him drinking wine and eating meat.
Mei Cheng asked with a worried look on his face: "General, there is news from the mountain that the river is swollen. I'm afraid that the Shazhou camp has been lost."
Chen Lan put down the meat on hand, wiped her hands and asked, "How much has the diving water level risen?"
"The newspaper below said that I have grown a foot longer."
Chen Lan laughed loudly and said, "General Mei, don't worry. I have been running this place for many years and I know the water level of the river every year."
"The river water will rise at least two feet at this time every year. This year it has only risen one foot, so Brother Mei doesn't have to worry. My camp is built on a stone platform one foot high. Even if the river water rises two feet, it will still be flooded. If not, don’t worry.”
"If General Mei is willing, why not go to the foot of the mountain to supervise the transportation of food and grass? Our army is running out of food and grass."
After that, he continued to drink and eat meat.
Mei Cheng saw his mouth full of oil and suddenly felt puzzled. He sighed, shook his head and went out.
At the same time, in the Shazhou camp, a hundred-man supervisor rushed into the tent. There was a drinking general sitting inside, who had caused Yu Jin a big loss half a month ago. Next to him, Qu Hou was serving him with a flattering expression.
A hundred-man governor suddenly came in. The general raised his eyelids and asked, "How is it? How is the water level?"
"The water is one and a half feet deep," the Hundred People Supervisor reported back.
The general nodded, "Well, let the soldiers keep an eye on me at all times and report the news."
The hundred-man superintendent responded and prepared to go out. The general asked again: "Will the grain team arrive?"
"No, and it's raining heavily now. I'm afraid the mountain road will be muddy, making it difficult for carriages and horses to move." The Hundred Man Supervisor replied.
General Pian frowned and waved his hand impatiently, "Well, I understand, you can go down."
Rain poured down from the sky, making the tent crackle, and there was rolling thunder in the thick clouds, like the roar of a dragon.
But the general is full of doubts.
"With such heavy rain, why did the water level only rise by more than one foot? Is it because there is less rain this year?" He looked at Qu Hou and asked.
Qu Hou walked to the tent exit, gently opened a gap, and looked upstream. The river was rumbling outside the camp, no different from the past. The heavy rain obscured the scene in the distance. The general turned his head and said with a smile: "General, don't worry. In previous years, the water here would rise by three feet, but now it's only one foot."
After that, he came over and poured wine for the general.
Only then did he feel relieved and return to his tent. The pawn who served him brought wine and meat, but he took it and ate it.
During this period, soldiers kept coming in and reporting, "General, the water has risen by one foot or seven inches."
General Pian nodded and continued eating meat and drinking wine. And the Quhou scolded: "You're only one foot seven inches taller, why are you panicking? Didn't you see that the general is drinking?"
The general's face was still calm. He wiped the grease from his hands on his clothes, picked up the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp. "Repay me after you have passed three feet!"
The soldier glanced at the fat meat on the table, swallowed and went out again.
An hour later, a hundred-man general wearing a raincoat suddenly rushed in, "General, it's bad, the water level suddenly rose five feet!" He frowned and then relaxed his brows. He stood up slowly and said, "Our camp is ten feet high. What are we afraid of!"
He stood up as he spoke, and Quhou hurriedly came up and put the raincoat on him. As soon as they came out, they were shocked by the heavy rain.
When I walked to the river, I saw that the water was less than five feet away from the camp.
As he watched, bursts of rolling thunder reached his ears, complementing the thunder in the dark clouds. At this time, a white ripple appeared in everyone's eyes. This white ripple is two to three feet high, like thousands of white galloping horses rushing down from the upper reaches.
"No, flood!" When Bai Lian became clearer, Pian Jiang couldn't help shouting!
At the same time as he exclaimed, the soldiers observing the water level on the wooden fence almost simultaneously shouted, "The flood is coming! The flood is coming!"
More and more people in the camp saw the flood coming, and there were more and more frightened shouts. When Bai Lian approached, his jaw dropped in shock. In a moment, a white ripple more than three feet high was pushed by the flood in front of everyone.
They could even see that the yellow mud-colored flood was mixed with countless rolling logs, branches and stones, like a yellow mud wall, pressing down like Mount Tai!
The general's eyes were as wide as golden bells, "Quick, get out!"
He hurriedly ordered but it was already too late, his soldiers were already in chaos!
In the blink of an eye, a mountainous flood ruthlessly rushed into the camp amid the horrified expressions of everyone...
"It's over..."
These were the last words of the general's life. Immediately afterwards, the wall of water suddenly hit the camp wall, hitting the general with a huge force and instantly sucking him in.
Chen Lan had been running the camp for several years and thought it was a foolproof camp, but it was as fragile as a reed in the face of floods. Even half of the stone platforms piled up were washed away by the flood in an instant. The flood rolled up the stones effortlessly and killed many soldiers alive.
Countless soldiers, war horses, food, and ordnance were muddy
The water threatened to rush downstream, and the screams and horses' neighing were instantly swallowed up by the flood.
A few miles upstream, Song Xin looked at the broken dam, and the floodwaters were rolling downstream like thunder.
He asked people to prepare 1,500 sacks and filled them with earth and rocks to build embankments to block the river. Wait until the heavy rain falls and the river water surges before breaching the dike.
Song Xin looked at Zou Yi and said, "Push the raft down."
An hour later, the water flow slowed down, and the surviving soldiers in the sandbank camp saw countless rafts floating down from the upper reaches. On them were soldiers led by Song Xin, Zhou Zhong, Zhang Hu, and Zou Yi.
Seeing that the water level had fallen under the stone wall, Song Xin ordered the soldiers to dock the raft at the edge of the sandbar, jump off the raft, and climb up the stone wall. The soldiers rushed to the broken stone platform.
It was then discovered that the enemy camp had been washed to pieces, the wooden fences had all been washed away, and the thick wood had been broken off by the flood. The few soldiers who were lucky enough to survive were also swollen by the flood and lay in a pile of mud. They were exhausted and had no fighting spirit.
They just watched in despair as Song Xin's men approached. They wanted to resist with swords, but they couldn't stand up at all. They didn't even have the strength to surrender.
"Carry those who are not dead to the shore for me, and save them if you can. Give those who cannot be saved a break." Song Xin looked at the miserable situation in the camp and sighed secretly.
At this time, Zhang Hu's voice of surprise came from the distance, "We found the enemy general!"
As he spoke, several soldiers dragged a tall man to Song Xin. Zhang Hu pinched the man's chin and breathed, "It's a pity that he's dead."
Song Xin saw that there was a big empty hole in the enemy general's belly, and his intestines had been washed away by the flood. It seemed that he was pushed by the flood and hit a wooden pile, and his stomach was stabbed.
"Collect things that can still be used." Song Xin ordered, while looking at the tripod under the cliff of Tianzhu Peak.
"Tie up the corpses of these enemy generals and send this letter up with them." Song Xin took out a letter from his arms and stuffed it into the clothes of the general's corpse.
