After receiving the general's order, Mu Sheng's 7,000 men had no choice but to set up camp and go to Lingxi to garrison. Fortunately, they were not far from the main force.
After marching for a day, the troops arrived at the garrison the next morning. The garrison was also one of the important grain and grass transfer stations. There were originally three thousand garrison troops. When the general heard that Mu Sheng's troops had come to replace him on the front line, he immediately rejoiced and happily dealt with him. After completing the handover procedures, he led three thousand troops and rushed to the front line to gain military glory...
Doing this made Mu Sheng scratch his head and didn't know what to say. He looked back and saw Yan Kun, the second-in-command in the army, also had a dejected look on his face. He seemed to have known for a long time that he would not be able to gain anything by following this man. Decent military exploits. They are destined to follow the army behind them, and anyway, the current situation is better than standing on the front lines.
Mu Sheng had nothing to do and walked around the military camp a few times. He felt that the defense was still a bit crude, so he called Feng Wei and said: "Feng Sima, take your people to chop some nearby wood to strengthen the camp and dig trenches. "
"No." Marching Sima Feng Wei accepted the order and left.
Anyway, there are so many trees in this place that we can't even count them. Mu Sheng estimated that this battle would only be a siege of Yucheng but not a fight. It might take several months, just waiting for the food and grass to be almost exhausted. Then you can successfully return without success again.
However, as far as the city defense of Yucheng was concerned, Mu Sheng observed for a long time that there were cliffs on all sides and only one path leading to the top of the mountain. It was comparable to the Diaoyu City where God broke his whip in later generations. The large number of soldiers was completely useless and the geographical advantage was too great. The only option is to besiege the city and trap the defenders in the city.
However, the food and fodder of the Jin army was only enough to support the battle for more than five months. Presumably the southern barbarian defenders in the city also knew the situation of the Jin army. Mu Sheng also heard about the experience of attacking this city in the past. He came to besiege Yucheng three times. They called for reinforcements, wiped out many mountain puppet troops, and then hastily withdrew their troops. Taking this city was something that was unthinkable.
In the evening, after arranging the soldiers to take turns on duty, Mu Sheng went to rest in the camp. The day after tomorrow, there would be several grain transport ships passing Lingxi, so he would have to be careful at that time.
A few days later, three slowly moving grain ships appeared at the source of the river. It was not until the grain ship reached the station that it slowly stopped. The soldiers on board rowed small boats to unload some of the grain and grass from the grain ship and headed to Mu. Shengsuo's camp will be used for transportation, and after landing, the grain transport team will be dispatched to transport grain and grass to the main force.
At this moment, a scout broke into the camp and reported: "Report! Report to the captain, a large number of unknown enemy troops were found fifteen miles to the south and east, marching towards us."
When Mu Sheng heard this, he stood up and said with a serious face: "Did you see clearly? How many people are there?"
The scout said: "Captain Qi, my subordinates don't dare to get too close. From a distance, it looks like there are about ten thousand people."
After hearing this, Mu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief. He had 7,000 men under his command, and his back was a fortress, so he was not afraid of whoever came on the other side.
Thinking of this, Mu Sheng still worried and said: "We are exploring."
"No." The scout took the order and rode away.
Mu Sheng opened the camp tent and summoned the generals to be on alert immediately. The camp immediately began to take action. The soldiers put aside what they were doing and picked up their weapons to assemble outside the camp, waiting for our army to form a square formation and prepare to fight.
The enemy troops had also slowly emerged from the dense forest. Mu Sheng climbed up to the watchtower and took a look from a distance. He took a breath of cold air. He saw that the figures were at least 20,000 men.
Mu Sheng thought to himself, weren't the main forces of Shan Puppet suppressed near Yucheng? How could there be so many people coming to cut off the grain road?
When the enemy army approached, he saw clearly that it was his old enemy, the Xi clansman whom he had met in Yue County back then. A bad feeling slipped through his heart...
Mu Sheng immediately called for scouts and ordered: "Break through the encirclement and report the military situation here to General Deng of the Left Route Army immediately. Quick, right away."
The scouts followed the order and Mu Sheng sent out three waves of scouts in one go. He hoped that the main force would receive the news!
The enemy's horn sounded, and the two wings of the Xi army slowly moved to encircle this small group of Jin troops. At this time, there were only 3,000 troops arrayed outside the camp. Mu Sheng stood on the watchtower to observe the enemy army, and saw the enemy troops sending out A group of people occupied a hill, and there were a few people standing on the top of the hill vaguely observing their camp.
Mu Sheng speculated that he was a commander like an enemy general.
Seeing this, Mu Sheng immediately ordered the brothers in the camp to enter the tent and hide themselves. He estimated that the people on the other side did not know how many people there were on his side. When the time came for a close encounter, he would give them a big surprise.
If the enemy knew that there were 7,000 people here, they would probably send more troops to eat up the Jin army and cut off the food road. However, the Jin army's food road was not limited to the place where Mu Sheng was stationed. There were also two food roads that kept moving towards the front line. The army delivers supplies.
At this moment, the first Nanman general on the top of the mountain drew his sword and swung it forward. Suddenly, the Xi tribesmen rushed towards the Jin army camp like a tide, holding up their swords and shields and roaring. This group of troops did not have any strange troops, and they were quite regular. .
At this time, Mu Sheng shouted to the watchtower: "Yan Kun, Feng Wei, our army must not take the initiative to attack. We must first defend the camp."
The two agreed, their eyes full of fighting spirit. It was finally their turn to perform meritorious service, and there were many people coming from the opposite side.
Military Marquis Yan Kun waved his hand, and the crossbowmen hidden in the camp immediately stood up and greeted the enemy arrows rushing forward. Immediately, the offensive of the Xi people came to a halt.
Mu Sheng stood on the watchtower and watched and couldn't help but secretly praise. This Jin army's arrow array is really powerful. It is a three-stage attack method. The first row of crossbows squats down to load arrows after firing, and the second row continues to shoot, and then loads arrows. The third row then stood up and fired. The coordination was perfect. It could be said that arrows rained down like rain. Every step forward by the enemy was costly.
The enemy soldiers were shot down in rows like mowing grass, but they had not yet reached the front of the Jin army.
Finally, the enemy arrived in front of them with their numerical superiority, but what greeted them would be the sharp long swords of a thousand heavy armored infantry and the sharp blades of the axemen.
Mu Sheng ordered the troops to alternately go to the battlefield in two shifts, and left two thousand reserves in the rear army to maintain the state of the Jin army at its peak.
There were shouts of killing. After the two armies fought for an hour, the enemy finally left Yi's body and temporarily retreated. Now the enemy finally realized that the Jin army was far more than these people, and it seemed that they were elite troops of the Jin army. The enemy Obviously they did not expect this. They wanted to use their numerical superiority to overwhelm the Jin army's camp, but they did not succeed. Instead, they suffered heavy losses.
Seeing that they were retreating, Mu Sheng also ordered the troops to withdraw their troops and withdraw them to the camp. As such, he had not yet relied on the defensive advantages of the camp to fight against them. If the enemy really wanted to take them down at any cost, it is estimated that their losses would not be small.
Mu Sheng sighed in his heart. Fortunately, he strengthened the defense of the fortress on a whim at that time, which gave him the confidence to hold on.
Mu Sheng carefully reviewed his own advantages in his mind. The military camp did not occupy a favorable position and could not be condescending, but it was backed by a river and there was no shortage of water, and there was no shortage of food and grass. This place was originally a food and grass transfer station. The only thing he was afraid of was the water attack from the other side. Cut off the water flow upstream, and then use water instead of troops to destroy your own camp. It would be so cold that the gods would not be able to stop them.
However, if you want to use water to attack them, they definitely don’t have enough people. This requires a lot of manpower and engineers to build dams upstream, and it also takes time. This method is usually considered only in large-scale battles involving hundreds of thousands of people. Now the enemy If you want to take down your own camp, you can only attack people.
In the evening, when Mu Sheng saw that there was still no movement from the other side, he called Feng Wei and Yan Kun to the Chinese army's tent to discuss countermeasures. After a bloody afternoon, Yan Kun still looked very energetic and not tired at all.
Mu Sheng said: "Yan Kun, what do you think of the enemy troops today?"
Yan Kun carefully reviewed today's battle and said: "Reporting to the captain, I just think they are eager to capture our army's position, so they charged our camp at all costs today. If it weren't for us who happened to switch defenses, based on the previous The helper probably won’t last a few days.”
Feng Wei also said with a serious face: "Your Majesty, I suspect that there may be a problem with the main army. I think the mountain puppets are very likely to use themselves as bait and want to join forces with the Xi clan to completely eat our army."
Mu Sheng asked doubtfully: "Isn't it possible? Shan Puppet's main force in Yucheng is only 70,000 or 80,000 people, including all the defenders in the city. If they join forces with the Xi tribe to defeat our army, the Xi tribe must prepare at least 200,000 troops. Only then can it be realized. For the people of the past, this is basically equivalent to an overwhelming number of people. Would the people of the past be so willing to do so at all costs?"
Feng Wei also had some doubts when he heard this: "What the general said is that even if it is to help others, it is not this kind of help. What major benefits can the Shanpup people offer to persuade the people of the past to act like this?"
Yan Kun said: "Feng Sima is right. Unless the Xi clan's brains are caught in the door, they will fight against our army at all costs."
Several people discussed it for a long time but couldn't come up with a reason. They simply came to block it with soldiers, covered it with water and soil, and continued to divide the work and cooperate tomorrow.
Yan Kun commanded the troops outside the camp, and Feng Wei commanded the troops inside the camp. Mu Sheng still stood on the watchtower to take charge of the overall situation and observe the enemy's situation at any time in order to prepare for tomorrow's battle. He felt that the enemy would not give up just like that.
The next morning, the enemy troops were indeed in darkness again, but this time a strange instrument appeared in the enemy camp. It was a raft-like piece of wood that was more than ten feet high. It was tied together with wooden planks, row after row. The row was like a huge wooden shield wall, slowly approaching its own camp.
A group of soldiers followed behind. Seeing this, Feng Wei gave an order and shot arrows at the enemy formation like locusts. Sure enough, his own arrows could not penetrate the thick wooden board. Seeing this, the enemy pushed forward even harder.
Feng Wei sneered when he saw this, waved his hand and shouted: "The crossbowmen in the camp obey the order and shoot into the sky."
At the command, the Jin army's arrows rained down, and the barbarians holding shields behind the wooden shields cried out and fell to the ground. The thrown arrows plus the downward impact energy would actually be more powerful and penetrating. Sometimes, Even a shield may not be able to defend against it.
Even so, the barbarians' casualties were much smaller than before, and they would not be knocked down in rows.
Seeing this, Feng Wei ordered and shouted: "The crossbowmen are ready to release rockets."
For a moment, a row of rockets flew out of the Jin camp like locusts, and the giant shields of the barbarians slowly advancing were burned into a bonfire.
However, the barbarians still relied on this defense to approach the Jin army camp. Drums and trumpets sounded in the Xi army formation, and the southern barbarian soldiers roared and charged around the giant shield.
Seeing this, Mu Sheng admired the brains and execution ability of this group of people, who actually built this crude temporary siege equipment in one night.
