Bang Zhou's army still used the same techniques to attack the city. Although there were only 5,000 soldiers in Huai'an City, there were 20,000 strong civilians, which was more than enough to defend the city.
There are not many ways to attack the city, but there are many ways to defend the city. Bangzhou's 80,000 troops took turns besieging it for three days, but Huai'an City was as stable as Mount Tai.
Ji Bi personally led an army to besiege, but was unable to break through Huai'an. Instead, he lost his troops and generals, and the morale of the army became increasingly low. After seeing that Huai'an was stable, several generals of Bangzhou had no choice.
The attack failed to break the city, resulting in heavy casualties, and the troops were withdrawn. However, this southern expedition achieved nothing. Ji Bi was unwilling to give up. More importantly, if he retreated, wouldn't it tell the world that his expedition was in vain?
In the big tent.
Yu Ke once again advised: "Your Majesty, the army has been on a campaign for two months. It has suffered heavy casualties, little harvest, and low morale. Why don't we retreat first and wait for the next year to conquer again?"
"No!" Ji Bi said with a gloomy face: "Our Zhoutian soldiers are invincible, how can we not conquer this small Huai'an?"
"Someone must have disobeyed my order. Tomorrow the army will attack again. After the city is broken, the rich women in the city will be left to you to take for yourself!"
After hearing Ji Bi's words, the morale of Bangzhou's army finally improved, but Yu Qing's face turned pale. He knew very well that the army could not conquer Huai'an at all. If it were defeated again tomorrow, the morale of the army would definitely decline even more, and the army would be in danger by then.
Just when Bang Zhou's army was besieging Huai'an, Wei Yi looked at the lazy Zhou army outside the city and sneered in his heart. Then he waved his hand and said: "It has been a month since the Zhou army left. The Zhou army outside the city has lost its vigilance. Order the army to make food at the third watch and go out at the fifth watch to break through the Zhou camp early tomorrow morning!"
"In addition, I will personally command the navy. I will notify Xu State's navy to join us and cut off the Huai River pontoon tonight! Keep all these 100,000 troops!"
Upon hearing Wei Yi's military order, the surrounding generals looked happy and immediately bowed and said: "No!"
That night, more than a dozen ships from Huaiyang City sailed into the Surabaya River. At the same time, in a hidden water village downstream of the Surabaya River, three thousand sailors also sailed upstream to join Wei Yi.
More than 4,000 navy troops were dispatched. The navy of Huai Kingdom had long been very familiar with the rivers of Huaisi and could sail even at night. What's more, the current Si River and Huai River are deep, and the army flows down the river directly into the Huai River.
Xu Guo's navy was also waiting on the Huai River. After the two sides met, there were tens of thousands of troops immediately. Immediately afterwards, the army went down the river and headed towards the Zhou army's floating bridge on the Huai River.
The Zhou army set up a pontoon bridge on the Huaihe River and left a large army to guard it. At this time, the army had gone to bed and only a small number of night watchmen were guarding it.
It was not until the naval forces from Huaixu and Huaizhou came nearby that they discovered it. Unfortunately it's too late. In order to destroy the pontoon bridge, Wei Yi and Xu Guo prepared dozens of small boats. The boats were filled with firewood and kerosene, and the sails were set up and tied to the stern.
Wei Yi saw the scattered lights on the Huai River in the distance, about two miles away from the pontoon, and immediately ordered: "Zu Ke, light the fire!"
With an order, dozens of sailors who had been prepared cut the ropes, put up the sails, and rushed to the front of the fleet. At this time, the southeast wind was blowing on the Huaihe River. Walking along the current, the boat was flying. arrow.
Halfway through the journey, he raised the fire at the same time, and the flames rose instantly. The wind helped the fire spread in just a breath, and dozens of boats were on fire.
The sound of war drums rang out from the Zhou army camps on both sides of the Huai River. A large number of soldiers ran out of the camp and tried to stop the fire ships. However, the fire ships were extremely fast and crashed into the pontoon in the blink of an eye. The pontoon caught fire.
The Zhou army could only watch helplessly as the pontoon bridge was burned down. At the same time, the naval forces of Huai and Xu followed behind and rushed in quickly. Tens of thousands of troops attacked the camps on both sides in two groups.
At this time, the Zhou army's camp, which had been burned by the fire attack, was in a panic and was in a state of panic. The two armies took advantage of the situation to attack. The Zhou army was scattered and unable to deal with it, and was easily defeated by the two armies. Countless men and women fled in all directions, and the fire dyed the sky red.
By the time it was getting dark, Huaixu's army had completely wiped out the Zhou army, and at the same time captured the Zhou army's logistics on the bank of the Huai River.
The Zhou army's 100,000-strong army marched south and needed a large amount of food and grass. This food and grass was provided by the surrounding state Zhou Fang and then transported here. As early as a month ago, the Huai army had discovered that the Zhou army's food and grass were stored here, and this was also Another goal after cutting off Zhou Jun's retreat.
After the tens of thousands of troops defeated the Zhou army, they directly captured a large number of Zhou army prisoners and slaves, carried the grain and grass to the ships, and filled all the ships. If there were any that could not be loaded, they would burn them all. Not a grain of food was left for the Zhou army.
...
The sky is dark and the white star is rising in the east.
Outside Siyang City, the Zhou army camped.
"What did you say?"
"General, the Huai people's navy attacked the Huai River camp at night. The Huai people used fire boats to go first and burned the pontoon bridge. Then the army captured it and all the camps on both sides of the Huai River were lost..."
Hearing this, Marquis Ruo, who was sitting in the main seat, looked defeated. Then he seemed to suddenly remember something and asked quickly: "What about the food and grass? Did you keep the food and grass?"
"The food and grass were burned..."
Ruohou suddenly felt as if he had been struck by lightning, and he stood stunned on the spot.
"Hurry up and block the news. Anyone who dares to speak out will be killed!" Ruo Hou also experienced a lot of ups and downs. He quickly reacted and gave the order directly.
Then he took out a bamboo slip, quickly wrote some words on it, rolled up the bamboo slip and put it into the bamboo tube, calling for the messenger to say
"You immediately rush to the king with the secret order and hand it over to the king. Remember, it can only be given to the king!"
After saying that, he asked a team of people to escort him and leave quickly.
At the same time, in Siyang City, the well-prepared army stood in the school field. Chen Yue gave an order, the gate of Siyang City opened, and the army immediately rushed towards the Zhou Army camp.
Five thousand Huai troops came out in full force, leaving only an empty city in Siyang City.
Five thousand Huai soldiers, with their horses bound and hooved, quietly moved towards the Zhou army's camp. It was the darkest moment before dawn, and the Zhou army's night watchmen also relaxed their vigilance.
Chen Yue asked people to tie five torches to tree trunks. When they were within a few miles of the Zhou army's camp, everyone raised the fire together. Twenty-five thousand torches were like a fire dragon, rushing towards the Zhou army's camp.
The killing cry rang out. In the Zhou army's camp, the sleeping Zhou army was inexplicably frightened. A large number of Zhou army rushed out of the tent in embarrassment. When they saw an endless 'fire dragon' rushing towards them, they suddenly thought that the Huai people were endless and were frightened. Paled face.
In a panic, the Zhou army was uncertain. When Hou Hou heard the killing cry, he came to prepare his army as soon as possible. However, the time of the Huai army's attack on the camp was so good that a large number of Zhou troops had no time to put on their armor and were killed by the Huai army.
The Zhou army, which had no armor and was in disarray, was a well-prepared opponent of the Huai army. However, it was dispersed in just a moment, and the Marquis of Ruo had no choice but to break out of the encirclement and escape with some of his soldiers.
