Chapter 13: The Dark Clouds of Deception Fail First
In fact, the sensation caused by Ji Wan's order was greater than anyone had imagined.
You have to know that in this era, soldiers who can carry armor are not ordinary people. Those grassroots officers who can lead a small team are grassroots nobles with fiefs.
The grassroots soldiers are also full-time elite soldiers. These nobles have been trained since childhood in order to serve the emperor, and their military literacy is quite high.
When Ji Wan's order was passed down, it caused an uproar when it reached the grassroots level.
No one knew why such an order was given to the elite of the emperor's six armies. They were already tired from marching for days. How could they cross the river and attack under such circumstances?
However, faced with the emperor's authority accumulated over decades, these emperor's vassals had no choice but to obey.
The generals who commanded the troops were all ministers of the emperor, and their status was comparable to that of princes, but no one dared to contradict the angry emperor.
The Marquis of Handan soon met the most important person on the list—Yu Boxiu, who was also a descendant of King Su.
The ancestor was the eldest son of King Su, who was granted the title of Lord of Yu. He was also the general who commanded the two armies in this expedition.
"Uncle Yu, the king has issued an order that is out of control. We must not follow it. Otherwise, the whole army will be destroyed."
The voice of the Marquis of Han was somewhat anxious, and Yu Bo comforted him, "The Marquis of Han does not need to be so anxious, the Grand Tutor had informed Xiu before leaving Luoyi.
If there is a disorderly order, I will pretend to do it and seek an opportunity to save myself. Now the king is in a state of extreme anger, I will naturally not obey the order, does the Marquis of Handan have any solution?"
Hearing that Luo Su had already told Yu Bo, the Marquis of Handan felt relieved and said thoughtfully, "The army must not cross the river. We must rest well. I don't know how to command troops. I don't know how many days it will take for our army to rest well."
Yu Bo thought for a moment and said, "We should march for three days at most."
The Marquis of Handan murmured, "Three days, that is to say, we must delay for three days, so that the emperor can see that our army is crossing the river to attack, but we cannot actually let our army attack."
Suddenly his eyes lit up and he said happily, "Uncle Yu, I have a plan. Do you think it can be implemented?"
"Oh? Lord Handan, please feel free to speak."
The Marquis of Handan then expressed his strange idea: "There are many auxiliary soldiers and slaves in the army. Why not send a young general to dress them up in our army uniforms, carry flags and banners, and cross the river day and night. There will be only a few people on the boats, just to create an illusion of a large army. Our army will camp by the Han River and let the soldiers rest. The emperor does not understand military formations, so he will be able to deceive them."
"Han Hou has a good plan. I will send someone to do it." Yu Bo said happily, "The Grand Tutor once told me that Han Hou has quick wits in times of chaos. Now it is true. The two of us must cooperate sincerely this time. Yu Ji and the other two have no talent. We will rely on Han Hou for this southern expedition."
The Marquis of Handan sent another messenger to communicate with the people on the list. From then on, all they could do was leave it to fate to see if Xiong Dun was really as unstoppable as Luo Housu said.
The envoy of Chu State took advantage of Ji Wan's rage and quietly slipped away, and headed towards the royal capital without a moment's rest. Xiong Dun learned from the envoy that Ji Wan had sent troops in a rage, and learned from the generals stationed in two places that the vanguard of the royal army was setting sail on the opposite bank, apparently intending to cross the river.
Seeing that Ji Wan had indeed fallen into the trap, Xiong Dun smiled and said to his attendants, "Ji Wan is indeed an ignorant child. How can a monarch who does not know how to sympathize with his soldiers gain their loyalty? I guess the people in the Zhou army must be unsettled and resentful.
Pass on my order. All division commanders should follow the previous instructions and let the Zhou army's front troops cross the river. When their central army crosses the river, they can attack. Remember to be cautious. There must be capable people among the Zhou army. If the situation is impossible, they should retreat first and wait for me to personally go into battle before the decisive battle."
Xiong Dun was very cautious. He believed that there must be capable people in the Zhou army who would not resist Ji Wan's orders. After all, if they disobeyed orders, they would at most be demoted by the emperor and could enjoy wealth and glory when they returned to their country. If they really obeyed Ji Wan's orders, they would really lose their lives.
There are now 15,000 elite soldiers in the State of Chu, all of whom were trained by Xiong Dun, and 5,000 of them are the elite among the elite.
The composition of these people is relatively simple. They are mainly descendants of meritorious officials who followed the ancestors of Chu to establish the country, descendants of the Shang Dynasty who migrated south in recent years, and people who were plundered from other vassal states. In this place full of southern barbarians, these people are closely surrounded by the Xiong family and are the basic base of the King of Chu.
The largest number of soldiers in the army are naturally slaves. Xiong Dun has conquered many southern barbarian tribes over the years, so there are a lot of slave soldiers in his army.
These barbarians were mainly used as cannon fodder and coolie laborers. There were a large number of slave soldiers in the armies of various countries. If they performed well, they would be rewarded and become free men. Even if they could not obtain the status of nationals, they would no longer be commodities to be killed at will.
Xiong Dun divided the slave soldiers under his command among the other two generals, and he himself led his elite troops to confront Ji Wan. If he could defeat Ji Wan's side in advance, or even capture the Zhou emperor alive, the other two armies would naturally win without a fight.
Even if Ji Wan was more cautious, he could still attack the other two Zhou armies when they were coming to rescue the emperor. Encircling a point and attacking the reinforcements has always been a very useful tactic.
The climate in the south is humid, the land is softer than that in the north, and there are many streams and forests. Xiong Dun has prepared this great gift for Ji Wan. He will let the emperor of Luoyi understand that war is never a simple competition of the number of soldiers.
After Xiong Dun and Ji Wan ordered their troops to go out respectively, Yu Boxiu stationed in Deng State began to pretend, while Qi Zi stationed in Lu State and Cheng Bo of Yu State began to reorganize the army, preparing to let the vanguard army lead a division of troops to cross the river to explore the way first, and then send two divisions of troops to cross the river, so that the entire vanguard army can cover the troops that will cross the river later.
The tired soldiers sat on the big ship. Most of them were from the north. They had been traveling all the way and were already having trouble acclimatizing to the climate there. Then the ship rocked them and many of them became seasick. They felt drowsy and powerless, but they could not disobey military orders and could only move forward. However, there were more and more complaints among the soldiers.
Ji Wan naturally didn't know about these things. He stood on the city wall of Deng State, looking at the endless army with flying flags. He couldn't help but feel proud in his heart and had long forgotten about Xiong Dun's provocation.
In his current view, Xiong Dun was just a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered, and that provocation was nothing more than his arrogance before death.
In this somewhat strange atmosphere, the vanguards of the three royal armies basically crossed the Han River, two of them were elite troops and one was a slave soldier.
After the three armies landed, they saw many hills and jungles and did not see any trace of the Chu army, so they began to search forward for a place to set up camp.
After crossing the Han River and walking along the gravel mudflats a short distance away, there are rolling hills. This is especially true because this cannot be considered a completely real world, as there are more hills and jungles here.
The generals of the front army believed that there might be an ambush of the Chu army in the jungle, so they specifically ordered their troops to avoid the jungle.
Although chariots were the mainstream combat method in this era, there were still some horses in the army that served as scouts, and they were sent out in batches.
As for dispersing the army, there was no way around it. As more and more soldiers landed, they could no longer form their previous formations. When they were in the Central Plains, it was a vast plain that stretched as far as the eye could see. Not to mention a few thousand people, even tens of thousands of people could be deployed in a line.
But now they could only move out in groups, and try their best to avoid wasting energy by climbing over the hills. They didn't have a map of the place, so they could only go to places with less jungle. Even so, many soldiers still had their trouser legs caught by the bushes, or even had their skin scratched, leaving a trail of blood marks.
"Woo~"
Loud trumpets suddenly sounded everywhere, and soon after, a large group of Chu soldiers rushed out from the back of the hill. They were familiar with the terrain and hid in the blind spots of the landing troops. They also lay in the low bushes, and the soldiers lifted up the grass and other debris that they used to cover their bodies.
"Form a formation!"
Seeing a large number of Chu troops rushing out from a high position, the generals were scared to death. Most of the front troops were responsible for reconnaissance and dealing with small-scale battles, and the most powerful troops in the legion had not arrived yet.
However, Wang's army was a well-trained army after all. Although the soldiers were a little panicked, they were still able to follow military orders and formed circular battle formations according to their training.
The Chu army formed a battle formation and fired three arrows at Wang's army from various angles. Taking advantage of the high ground, they caused considerable casualties.
Wang's army naturally fought back, but the Chu army was already in a high position and had been prepared. They especially brought large shields to defend against bows and arrows. When Wang's army shot arrows, they all raised their shields as ordered. The arrows had lost force when they flew to a high altitude, and the bows and arrows brought by Wang's army were not strong enough to break shields. Apart from the stray arrows, they did not cause any major damage to the Chu army.
The morale of the Chu army was even higher now. They shot out waves of arrows and threw out the rolling logs they had prepared. However, it was an ambush after all, and they were worried that the Zhou army would discover it, so they did not prepare too much. The soldiers of the Chu army followed the rolling logs and rushed down together.
When the two armies came into contact, almost instantly, the front row of Wang’s army was killed in the battle and was completely unable to resist!
Many soldiers of Wang's army were scared to death. They could feel their whole bodies were still weak. It was absolutely impossible for them to stop the high-spirited and energetic Chu army.
The officers of the Chu army also discovered this problem, and shouted in surprise: "The Zhou army has physical problems, the whole army is pressing forward. All the slave soldiers are also pressing forward, and notify all slaves that if they can perform meritorious deeds, the king will release them from slavery!"
Although the damage caused by the rolling logs was not great, they further disrupted the formation of Wang's army. The army in the front was completely thrown into chaos. The generals of Wang's army tried their best to maintain the formation of the army and try their best to keep the smallest units assembled.
Having participated in many wars, he knew very well that when facing an army in formation, scattered soldiers were like pigs and sheep waiting to be slaughtered.
"withdraw troops!"
Looking at the situation on the field, the general keenly realized that this was a losing war launched at the wrong time and in the wrong place.
He was a descendant of the Ji clan and was deeply influenced by King Su. From the moment he joined the army, he had thought about dying on the battlefield, but he did not want to die here in vain. As he ran, he prayed to the two kings in the dark, "King Wu, King Su, please bless the Zhou Dynasty. Many Zhou people will die in this battle."
The three landing sites encountered the same thing. The Chu army chased these weak and powerless soldiers and killed them. The ships that originally carried them here were continuing to sail with their comrades. Only a few people were able to board the ships and escape.
Seeing that the remaining Zhou soldiers were fighting stubbornly because they were fighting with their backs to the water, the Chu generals stopped their attack and began trying to recruit those low-ranking officers. They did not do this in order to recruit them for their own use, because that was impossible because these people's territories were all fiefs directly belonging to the emperor.
The main purpose of recruiting these people to surrender is to extort ransom later, which is also a feature of this era.
Along the banks of the Han River, from the hilly jungles to the banks of the Han River, countless corpses lay everywhere. Most of them were soldiers of Wang's army. Their blood soaked the sand and stones on the river bank, and even the waves that came from time to time were stained with bright red blood.
Ever since Ji Zhao rebuilt the six armies of the emperor and led them on an expedition to the east, this was the worst loss for the six armies in decades.
They had the most powerful chariots and were unstoppable on the battlefield, but they could not use them here. They were all strong warriors, and the rapid marches over the past few days had exhausted their physical strength.
No one knew what the dead soldiers were thinking, but the living soldiers were filled with rage, and the low-level nobles could not accept that they had become cannon fodder to die.
Traitor!
There must be treacherous ministers around the emperor!
Otherwise, why would he issue such a chaotic order and disregard our lives to fight in such a situation? If I could go back, I would definitely expose the treacherous ministers to the emperor.
At this point in time, surrender was the only outcome. As a group of low-level nobles laid down their weapons, the soldiers who followed their lord into battle also laid down their weapons.
…
The news of this unconcealable defeat soon reached Ji Wan's ears.
The Marquis of Handan was holding the recently calculated loss count in his hand. He had not expected it to be so tragic. He was shaking all over and said in a trembling voice, "Your Majesty, according to the results just counted, more than 5,000 people died in this battle and 5,000 were captured. Basically, the entire army is gone."
"What?" Ji Wan couldn't believe his ears.
The Marquis of Han handed the battle report to Ji Wan, and then could not help but say: "Your Majesty, King Su once said in the military book that victory in war depends on the right time, right place, and right people.
Most of the soldiers in my king's army are from the great country of the Central Plains. They are not used to the land of the southern barbarians. This is because the time is not in our favor. We don't know the hydrology, geography, mountains, rivers, forests and lakes in the Chu State. This is because the terrain is not in our favor. The soldiers have been marching for days and are exhausted. They are not good at water battles. This is because the people are not in our favor.
With the weather, terrain and people not being favorable to our army, does Your Majesty still think that our army can win? I advise Your Majesty to withdraw the troops and continue with the old policy of Master Luo, enfeoff the five kingdoms to Chu, wait for Xiong Dun to die of old age, and Chu will be in civil strife, and we can naturally defeat them easily. "
Ji Wan was still in disbelief with the battle report in his hand. He quickly glanced at it and threw it to the ground. When he heard what Handan Hou said, it was as if Luo Su was slapping him in the face. He drew out his sword and roared, "I have 100,000 elite soldiers! You incompetent trash, how could we lose with 100,000 elite soldiers? It must be that you did not seriously implement my strategy. I will personally wear armor and command, and we will definitely win. If you dare to mention retreating again, I will kill you with one sword for the crime of collaborating with the enemy!"
(End of this chapter)
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