This is not a particularly brilliant or difficult tactic, but for Salihe, who almost grew up in the army, its effectiveness is clear at a glance.
However, the problem is that no matter how clear Salihe is, he cannot change the fate of his soldiers being slaughtered by this execution-style attack!
Fighting for days, suffering casualties for days, the failure of the night attack the day before yesterday, counterattack by the Song army yesterday, and today seeing headless naked corpses scattered on the roadside, and being waited for like this... The young Salihe could no longer hold on, but burst into tears behind the hill. The Jin army commander, who had been trying to be a cold-faced man before, turned into a crying man in an instant.
But none of the Jin officers around laughed at him, and some even cried along with him.
Just like that, before noon, hundreds of Jin soldiers were finally effectively slaughtered by the Song army. The Jin army had suffered unprecedented casualties... In the previous two days, including yesterday's rout, the Jin army only lost five or six hundred people, and most of them were just wounded. But on this day, facing the revelation of the Song army's last trump card, the Jin army lost five or six hundred lives in one go, and completely lost the will to fight.
At this point, at least here on the front line, no one is thinking about taking down this city, this mountain, or this stronghold anymore.
After crying bitterly, Salihe wiped away his tears and ordered the entire army to withdraw to a safe distance. He also set up crossbows and bows and arrows to build a defensive formation, and then sent a messenger to the river mouth camp for the third time.
This time, Wu Jie did not attempt to attack again. On the contrary, he began to order his soldiers to throw the heads of people who had been cut off yesterday and just now from the mountain to anger the Jin army, but no one in the Jin army went to fight.
Lou Shi also did not force Salihe to continue the war, but instead led thousands of troops here with his deputy commander Wanyan Balisu before dusk.
Lou Shi asked about the battle situation and took a look at the terrain and battlefield situation from a safe distance, but he did not blame Salihe for anything, and of course did not comfort him. He just immediately sent a surrendered general to persuade him to surrender, and promised that Wu Jie would be the governor of Jingyuan and Huanqing routes, and his brother Wu Lin would be the governor of Yanfu route.
The surrendered general left in a hurry and returned in a hurry. As expected, Wu Jinqing rejected the proposal.
"He said that the only way for him to surrender is for General Loushi to defeat him in a duel." The surrendered general's face turned pale, as if the dense concentration of Jin army heads and corpses on the road had caused him a severe psychological shock.
"It's not impossible..." Lou Shi smiled slightly and actually wanted to agree.
But immediately, as Balisu looked at him in shock, Lou Shi, who had regained his consciousness, immediately shook his head.
After this exchange, everyone realized that this undefeated general of the Jin Dynasty was not as calm as he appeared. He was also shocked by Wu Jie's unstoppable killing methods and determination to go to war. He also realized that there was really no hope of capturing the city in the short term.
But as the commander-in-chief, Lou Shi also knew how great an impact this nail in this sensitive position would have on his strategy.
Therefore, at that moment, Lou Shi was really forced to kill Wu Jie in a one-on-one fight.
"What do you think?" Coming back to his senses, Lou Shi no longer cared about his brief gaffe and asked Balisu in a serious tone.
"Unless it rains and the bowstrings of the Song Army's Shenbi bows become ineffective, otherwise I will have to exchange my life for the Song Army's crossbow arrow reserves." Balisu was frank.
"It won't rain in the next few days." Lou Shi shook his head repeatedly, but immediately ordered the tearful Sali. "One last try..."
Salihe was almost in despair, but burst into tears again on the spot.
"I'm not asking you to attack the mountain again, but to set it on fire." Lou Shi pointed to the mountains in the north. "See if we can force them down the mountain with the fire."
Salihe felt relieved and immediately took the order and left.
As soon as the man left, Balisu turned to Lou Shi again and said seriously: "It's useless to burn the mountain... The mountain village can be seen clearly from afar, the surrounding trees have been cleared, and there is not much wind at the moment, so the fire can't spread over, and even the smoke can hardly get through."
"I know." Lou Shi tightly grasped the reins of the warhorse in his hand, not even looking at Balisu. "But is there any other way at this time?"
Balisu was silent for a moment before continuing, "Then let's burn the mountain... but we should make a decision sooner rather than later! If we can't take down this city quickly, does that mean we can't leave Yaozhou or Huazhou?"
This time it was Lou Shi's turn to remain silent.
Just like that, the two of them immediately stood at a safe distance of six or seven hundred steps away from Fangzhou City and the mountain. They watched in silence as the fire started from the hilltop around Xiaoqiao Mountain, and then quickly gained momentum with the help of the high summer temperature, scorching half the sky.
Once the fire started, it was unstoppable, rolling towards the surrounding hills, as if it had become a natural disaster. But just as Balisu said, the wind was not strong today, and Wu Jie had been prepared. Although the fire was fierce, it never reached the village with proper fire prevention measures.
Not only that, Wu Jie responded immediately after seeing the movement, which was to have soldiers carefully light a fire on the other side of the isolation belt where the trees were cut down, forming a fire belt in the opposite direction for escape. This move also worked quickly, and the fire easily passed the nearest hilltop and then burned directly into the deep forest in the north.
Lou Shi watched from afar for a while, and saw the fire go away with his own eyes. He finally sighed in his heart, and then turned his horse around and headed east without hesitation. But he suddenly reined in his horse and looked back: "Yelü Mawu attacked Baishui quickly and succeeded. Let Salihe lead 5,000 soldiers and the wounded in this battle to hold the camp at the river mouth. Let's move forward!"
Balisu calculated the military strength in his mind, his face turned dark for a moment, but he said nothing. He just glanced at the unmoved stronghold and turned around to follow.
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