Volume 1 Chapter 117 Preparing for Battle
On the grassland.
The three Khans once again assembled their army. This time they sent out a total of 380,000 troops. The last time, Bai Qi had inflicted heavy losses on them.
This is now the maximum force they can mobilize.
In order to succeed this time, they also listened to the instructions of the leader of the Tianji Sect and each cavalryman brought enough dry food for one month.
Only then did he lead his large army and march towards Honghua City in a mighty manner.
After several days of marching, the 380,000-strong army soon arrived at Honghua City.
They adopted the same battle plan as last time. They first sent a large army to surround Honghua City, and then sent 10,000 elite troops led by people from the Tianji Sect to cut off Honghua City's logistical supplies.
And the person leading the team this time is not Tiansuanzi, but an elder of the Tianji Sect.
Because the Tianji Sect opened up more roads in the mountains and forests this time, they could bypass the rear faster and cut off the logistics more easily.
In the blink of an eye, Honghua City became an isolated city again.
Yang Wudi also adopted the strategy of defending the city. He did not go out of the city to fight, but continued to waste time with the enemy.
Three days later.
The third Xiongnu Khan rode to Honghua City and shouted to Yang Wudi on the city wall: "Surrender!"
"Who will come to rescue you this time?"
Now the three khans have already agreed that no matter what happens in the rear, they will not lose their composure.
Nor will they attack each other.
After all, more than 100,000 Xiongnu cavalry died last time. If another large-scale internal conflict occurs, their military strength will be equal to that of the defenders of Honghua City in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
This way, there is absolutely no advantage in numbers.
So this time, Yang Wudi must be forced to death.
Yang Wudi stood on the top of the city wall, looking at the mighty Hun army below, a sneer flashed across his mind.
I thought that this time I would make you lose all your weapons and armor, so as to avenge the siege last time.
But Yang Wudi's face immediately showed a sense of solemnity and sadness, and he said:
"I, Yang Wudi, will never surrender even if I die for my country!"
"All the soldiers and civilians in our city will defend Honghua City to the death, even if we starve to death."
When he said this, the leader of the Tianji Sect laughed.
With his keen eyesight, he could see the subtle expressions on Yang Wudi's face, and even the worried looks on the faces of the soldiers in the city.
After all, not many people knew about Yang Wudi and Bai Qi's plan.
The head of the Tianji Sect said to the Khans beside him:
"Khans, I have observed the expressions of Yang Wudi and others and I guess that Honghua City does not have much food. As long as we besiege the city and compete with them for food consumption, they will be killed soon!"
But several khans were still worried, and the fifth khan asked, "What if they are deceiving us?"
"We competed with them in terms of food consumption, but they still had plenty of food."
"What if we run out of food?"
This is actually what they are most worried about.
The last time we attacked Honghua City, we unexpectedly cut off the enemy's food supply, which led to the situation where the soldiers of Honghua City almost starved to death.
But this time it was obvious that they were prepared.
It would be very difficult to repeat the same trick again.
They have to prepare for the worst.
In fact, several Hun Khans still wanted Yang Wudi to go out of the city to fight, so that they could rely on their military advantage to directly defeat Yang Wudi's army.
Isn’t this more straightforward?
The leader of the Tianji Sect smiled, and then all the internal energy in his body surged out, and lines of internal energy like silk threads connected to the bodies of several khans.
Then, something magical happened.
The three Khans also found that they had sharp ears and eyes.
Not only can you see the expressions on the faces of the soldiers above Honghua City, you can even hear the whispers of those people on the top of Honghua City.
This is exactly the practice of the Tianji Sect.
At this moment, the other three Khans hurriedly listened attentively.
Then they discovered that a dispute had already occurred above Honghua City.
When the tens of thousands of generals around Yang Wudi heard that Yang Wudi was going to defend the city to the death and not go out to fight, they became extremely anxious.
Many people suggested at that time:
"Marshal, we can't make the same mistake again this time."
"Our logistical supply must have been cut off. We must fight hard this time! Bai Qi can't let them quarrel among themselves."
"And we really don't have much food left."
"Last time they took our food and fodder, the whole Great Zhou was at war, and they didn't transfer much."
"If we continue to defend the city, we will surely die!"
These tens of thousands of generals are well aware that the food and fodder currently stored in Honghua City will not last long.
When the three Khans heard this, they were all surprised.
At least it can be concluded that Yang Wudi and Wanrenjiang seem to have different ideas, and the other side really has little food and grass left.
This is exactly what they speculated.
After all, they have joined forces with Beiliang and Xichu to fight against the Great Zhou at the same time. The Great Zhou is fighting on three fronts, so the pressure on food and grass must be very great.
In addition, a large amount of food and grass was burned last time, which resulted in a shortage of food reserves in the Great Zhou.
This is also the reason why they are eager to start a war, just to kill you while you are sick.
If we wait until next year to fight again, Da Zhou will harvest another batch of crops, and by then we will have more or less replenished food and grass.
Even if the Emperor of the Great Zhou was a little more ruthless and frantically plundered food and grass from the people, regardless of the lives of the people, the food and grass of the Great Zhou could be even more abundant than it is now.
Then they heard Yang Wudi sigh and say:
"Do you think I don't want to fight the Huns? But our strength doesn't allow it!"
"The last time the Huns set up a trap, our soldiers starved for how many days? Many of them even got injured and developed chronic diseases."
"It's only been a month, and I haven't recovered at all."
"Although our soldiers' spirits have improved a lot during this period, their combat effectiveness has declined greatly, and they are unable to fight a protracted war."
Yang Wudi's tone was bleak and his face was full of sorrow.
The tens of thousands of generals on the city wall were also filled with indignation. The last time the Huns besieged the city, it was a huge blow to them.
Although the Huns withdrew their troops, many of them were injured.
The head of the Tianji Sect smiled and said, "Three Khans, what do you think? Do you still think Yang Wudi has a conspiracy?"
After the three Khans looked at each other, they all smiled, because what Yang Wudi said was so reasonable.
If a person is suddenly hungry for a few days, serious problems will occur in his body. If he does not take good care of his body, he will develop a chronic disease or even ruin his body.
Even though these Great Zhou soldiers have undergone long-term and arduous training, their physical fitness is much better than that of ordinary people.
But it is also impossible to reach the peak state in more than a month.
Besides, there are not enough medicinal herbs in Honghua City to allow these people to recover their strength quickly.
They continued to listen.
Then the tens of thousands of generals on the city walls could be heard groaning one by one. Some even pounded the city walls with their fists, shouting:
"It's all the fault of those bastards from the Tianji Sect. If they hadn't cut off our logistical supplies, how could we have starved for so long?"
"Last time, more than 10,000 people died of starvation alone."
"Many of my soldiers chose to retire directly because they could no longer fight. They couldn't even complete basic training because their physical strength had declined too much."
A general beside him also sighed and said:
"I don't dare to train the soldiers too much now. I can only keep them in the camp to recuperate."
"Fortunately, we sent troops to hunt on the top of the mountain these days, and killed a lot of wild boars."
"Then come back and replenish these people."
"Otherwise they won't even be able to complete the basic mission of defending the city."
These tens of thousands of people will be complaining and grumbling like crazy.
This is also the current actual situation in Honghua City. If they want their soldiers to fully recover, it is absolutely impossible without a year or two of nursing them.
If you want these troops to fight tough battles, it will definitely cost them their lives.
But now the Hun army is besieging the city. If we don’t fight, the situation will return to the same as before.
They sighed one by one and could only pray that the war between Yue Shenqiang and Qin Guogong would end quickly so that they could return to provide support.
At this time, the three Khans laughed loudly, their eyes full of excitement.
"It turns out that they are really at the end of their rope!"
"Now they are defending the city, waiting for Yue Shenqiang and Duke Qin to rescue them."
"Yang Wudi doesn't even dare to leave the city to fight!"
"It seems that this time we will definitely destroy Honghua City and then attack the Great Zhou Imperial City in one fell swoop."
"As long as we capture Honghua City, we can also cut off the logistics of Yue Shenqiang and Duke Qin."
"The day when the Great Zhou will be destroyed is not far away!"
The Khans were all extremely happy.
You know, the Huns had been fighting with the various dynasties for so many years, but there had never been a precedent of a Hun Khan destroying a dynasty in the Central Plains.
If they just rob in the northwest, they will become rich.
If we go to the capital to loot, it would be even more unimaginable.
Several Khans even saw mountains of gold and silver and crowds of women.
"Now you can rest assured, right? As long as we besiege the city for a dozen days and use up all their food supplies, we can break into the city just as easily as last time."
The head of the Tianji Sect stroked his beard and laughed. He had waited for this day for too long.
The Tianji Sect also paid a heavy price for this day.
More than ten days have passed, and Tian Suanzi, the Great Elder and others have not returned.
In fact, he already had a guess in his mind, that is, these people were killed. After all, if they could think of kidnapping Miao'er, Bai Qi and the royal family of the Great Zhou would definitely be able to think of it as well.
That's why he sent the Great Elder instead of going himself.
If it succeeds, that would be great. But if it doesn't, he won't die there.
It’s a pity that so many elite members of the Tianji Sect were killed there.
After the three Khans looked at each other, they were afraid that Yang Wudi was cheating, and they carefully looked at the expressions of everyone on the city.
With their ability to read people's expressions, they found that none of these generals were lying.
After all, these people don't know that they can see their conversations.
You can see their expressions.
There's no need to act deliberately.
They also went to look at the soldiers guarding the city and found that they all looked pale, many of them had sallow complexions, and their steps were unsteady.
It is obviously the situation of someone who has just recovered from a serious illness.
This is consistent with what Yang Wudi and Wanrenjiang said.
Moreover, for such an important task as defending the city, they actually pulled out such a group of soldiers who were obviously physically exhausted and used them as elite troops.
It can be seen how exhausted the people and horses in Honghua City have become.
"Then let's wear them out!"
Although they didn't bring much food and fodder, at least they had more than the people in Honghua City, and they brought beef jerky and mutton jerky.
These things are the best for resisting hunger.
And most importantly, after the army set out, they continued to collect food and supplies in the rear and transport them to the front line.
As long as the second batch of logistical supplies arrives, they can besiege the city for another month or two.
The one who will die then will definitely be Yang Wudi!
…………
And at this moment, deep in the grassland.
Two war horses came slowly over, and sitting on the horses were Bai Qi and Choro Khan who followed them.
"The General is back, the General is back!"
Da Zhuang and others immediately cheered loudly.
During this period of time, they wandered around the grassland. Even if they encountered the enemy, they could not fight. They were already very frustrated.
As soon as Bai Qi came out, everyone knew that it was time to go to war!
Yang Paifeng also came over immediately, bowed to Bai Qi, and then quickly asked: "What should we do next?"
Bai Qi smiled, looked around and said:
"Last time, they cut off our logistical supply. This time, let's just cut off his logistical supply first!"
After finishing speaking, Bai Qi looked at Chuluo Khan and asked, "Can you tell me about their logistics supply lines?"
Chuluo Khan nodded solemnly, his eyes full of ambition and desire. He licked his lips and said excitedly: "Of course I know!"
As a native of the grassland, I know the things about the grassland best.
Which route is the most convenient to reach Honghua City, and which route is the least likely to get lost?
The grassland people all have fixed routes.
Of course, this route will also change with the season, wind direction, and the lushness of aquatic plants.
But in the end there are only a few paths, if you don’t take this one, take that one.
It is not what Bai Qi and others thought, that there are roads everywhere on the grassland and you can go wherever you want.
Many people choose their path out of habit.
“If the three khans want to gather food and fodder from the rear and escort them to Honghua City, they will definitely take the same route they have taken before.”
"We did a count and excluded those dangerous places, those places where rabbits often burrow, and those places with swamps."
“In fact, there are only 15 roads in total.”
Choro Khan told all he knew.
15 roads!
This may seem like a lot, but it is actually very little. It is better than running around like a headless fly.
Bai Qi hesitated for a moment, then called all the generals together and said:
"Now let's divide our forces into 16 groups!"
"Each elite thousand men will lead them and try to ambush the enemy on every road and kill all their logistics teams."
"There's no need to burn the food and fodder. Bring back what you can, and find a place to store the ones you can't bring back."
"Then I will bring some people with me and guard not far from Honghua City. If any of you fail to find their grain transport team, I will intercept them in the end."
"My mission for you is to cut off their logistical supplies."
"Wait until they have been hungry for three or four days, then we will launch the general attack!"
After Bai Qi finished speaking, he immediately assigned generals to lead the troops, and Bai Qi also mixed the Huns and the soldiers of the Great Zhou together.
The leader of each team is chosen to be a general from the Great Zhou.
And each team was equipped with a local Xiongnu guide.
At Bai Qi's command, these people immediately led their men and charged deep into the grassland.
Choro Khan looked towards the direction of Honghua City with excitement, and he shouted wildly in his heart: Die, die all of you!
It would be best if all three Khans died!
As the Khan of the grassland, he actually hoped that the Huns would be defeated more than Bai Qi!
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