Xuande

Chapter 735
Compared with the high mood and generous treatment of the soldiers of the Han army, the Yellow Turban Army surrounded by the Han army was in a gloomy state.

In order to fight against the Han army, they paid a high price and sacrificed a lot, but the losses to the Han army were very small, but their own losses were huge.

The strange fire attack tactics of the Han army burned their defenses to pieces and almost failed.

It has been raining and snowing for the past few days, and the Han army stopped the fire attack. The fine weather for more than ten consecutive days before has become the biggest reliance of the Han army.

They didn't know why those flames burned so fiercely, and it was difficult to extinguish them with water, and they had to be smothered with sand—but the efficiency was too low.

Fire extinguishers can't keep up with the speed of others' arson. Sometimes a gust of cold wind can blow the fire violently, and all the work done before is in vain. If you don't want to be burned to death, you can only abandon the fortifications and run for your life.

Fleeing and fleeing quickly became a habit. Seeing the advance of the Han army, they did not dare to resist. They turned around and ran away, almost losing the courage to fight.

For more than half a month, they had lost consecutive battles and never won a single victory. The biggest "victory" was Sima Ju personally leading troops to attack the Han army's logistics, but he did not do his best.

After that time, not only did the Han army not shrink the front line, but instead strengthened the offensive, the more violent the attack, the Huangjinshan Yue coalition army couldn't resist, retreating again and again, and the strength to attack actively was exhausted.

Seeing that the Han army has compressed them to the vicinity of their old nest, as long as they continue to attack, they can be completely wiped out. At the critical moment, it rained.

There was a rain in the sky, and then heavy snow fell, making the road muddy and the air humid. Only then did the Han army slow down their offensive pace, and instead of continuing the fire attack, they set up camp on the spot and began to besiege.

This is of course a good thing, the Yellow Turban Army was able to take a breather, but after the respite, their mood was very low, and the negative effects of consecutive failures burst out all at once.

There were fierce internal conflicts within the Yellow Turban Army over the failure of the battle, and the command status of Xu He and Sima Ju was strongly questioned.

They believe that since the defeat of Xuzhou, the Yellow Turban Army has been in a slump all the way south, and can't even achieve any effective victory against the Han Army. Isn't this a mistake at the command level?

I think when they were in Xuzhou, they beat the Han army under Liu Yan to the ground. At the peak, one-third of Xuzhou was their territory, but now?
They believe that Xu He, Sima Ju and others need to reflect on themselves and realize their mistakes.

Danyang Shanyue also suffered excessive losses due to the wrong tactical guidance of the Yellow Turban Army. Fei Zhan was extremely dissatisfied and demanded compensation from the Yellow Turban Army, otherwise he would no longer help them fight.

Sima Ju was angry at the time, and he spoke thoughtlessly, mocking Fei Zhan's wishful thinking, and asked Fei Zhan to think about the situation now. Now he has no other way out except to stand with the Yellow Turban Army and fight to the death.

What's more? !
There are still benefits at this time, are you planning to take the benefits into the coffin?

Fei Zhan's face was livid with anger, he shook his hands and left, and the relationship between the two parties became stiff.

In the past few days when the Han army stopped attacking, the weather was very cold, and people's hearts were also very cold. What's more, the supplies began to be short.

In order to supply the war, the materials previously stored on the mountain were consumed, and many of them were burned or seized by the Han army. The mountain area controlled by the Yellow Turban Army fell into a state of slight famine. In order to deal with this situation, Xu He had to order a material rationing system.

Soldiers who are fully supplying the frontline battles eat two meals a day, so that they have the strength to fight, and the commanding staff of the Yellow Turban Army can also eat two meals a day.

The rest of the people, regardless of gender, old or young, can only eat one meal a day, and the food is still rationed. Anyway, it is winter, and they are not expected to do farm work. They just lie down to reduce the consumption of energy if they have nothing to do.

Unless there is a need to deliver supplies to the front line, the person who delivers them can have an extra meal.

That's it.

Some people worried that this would not work, so they suggested to buy grain from Feizhan. He must have a lot of grain in stock, but Feizhan ignored them and drove their people back.

The angry Sima Ju almost didn't lead his troops to grab it.

It was Xu He who stopped Sima Ju.

"If you didn't talk too impulsively, Fei Zhan wouldn't be like this. Now you still want to fight with him? Is it possible? Do you want to die? The Han army is still besieging us, and you are going to fight?"

Sima Ju lowered his head, stomped his feet hard, and left.

The days approaching the fifth year of Jian'an were the most difficult days for the entire Yellow Turban Army group. The weather was extremely cold, but they lacked food and clothing.

The frontline soldiers said that they could eat two meals a day, but the food was mainly porridge, and the rice grain content was greatly reduced. A bowl of thin porridge could be drunk as soup, and the salt could only be added a little, and the body gradually became weak.

Seeing that this was not going to work, Xu He became more and more anxious. He felt that he had to do something, otherwise if he continued like this, he would not be able to survive this New Year's Eve, and everyone would be doomed.

So he called Sima Ju and some other generals to discuss taking advantage of the few days when the Han army could not use fire attack to launch a strategic counterattack to reverse the decline in one fell swoop.

"Can it work? Everyone has no food to eat, no salt to eat, no strength, and people are useless. How can we fight?"

"Unless you take out all the leftover food, eat a big meal, build up your strength, and then win the last fight and everything will be fine. If you lose, we will all die. Are you betting?"

"Isn't this too big a gamble?"

"In this situation, what can we do if we don't gamble? Waiting to die? Or waiting for the Han army to starve to death before us?"

A group of people discussed and discussed, but there was no result. Xu He had no choice but to order everyone to inspect their respective defense areas. Xu He also went to the front line with Sima Ju to inspect the movements of the Han army.

Two days before the critical New Year's Eve, Xu He and Sima Ju were patrolling the front line. Before reaching the frontier hills, they smelled a faint fragrance.

"Where does the smell of meat come from? Someone caught a wild animal? Are you grilling meat?"

Xu He sniffled, smelling the increasingly obvious smell of meat in the air, and curiously asked the subordinates around him.

The subordinate showed a bitter smile.

Return wild animals?
These days, the soldiers have used up all the edible food in the mountains, and they are only three feet away from digging the ground. Even the mice and snakes in the caves have been caught and eaten up, and the bark of the trees has been stripped off.

"It's the Han army. The Han army camp has been steaming for a long time. They have been cooking all the time. The aroma comes from there. The aroma of all kinds of meat, when the wind blows, floats towards us. Everyone is so greedy that their saliva is about to flow into a river."

When Xu He heard this, he and Sima Ju looked at each other, and they both saw the seriousness in each other's eyes.

So the two quickly arrived at the front hill, and under the protection of the soldiers, they climbed up and looked into the distance. They could see the steaming appearance of the Han army camp around another hill.

"Are they eating stew?"

"Maybe, it will be New Year's Eve after that. It seems that the Han army plans to celebrate the New Year here."

"…………"

Xu He remained silent.

Seeing the soldiers around him twitching their noses and swallowing their saliva, Xu He lowered his head, turned around and walked back.

Sima Ju heard it for a while, and followed Xu He's footsteps.

"What should we do now? The Han army doesn't seem to be able to disarm at all, and the supply of supplies is also sufficient. We can eat stewed meat. We have eaten here and there is no next meal. Just like this, I dare not say how long we can last. At most ten days and a half months, we will run out of food."

Xu He was silent for a while, walked slowly for a while, and then stopped slowly.

"The Han army is showing off, demonstrating, and using the aroma of meat as a weapon to attack our defense line. We have already lost before hand-to-hand combat."

"This……"

"Persist in the past few days. After the New Year's Eve, send someone to discuss with Fei Zhan, apologize, and buy some food from him. He is sensible, and he should also know that without us, he will not end well. Let's persevere, and we should be able to carry it through."

"Ok."

Sima Ju didn't say anything, and left the frontier with Xu He.

Although their mood is very low, but I have to say——

The smell of meat from the Han army is really delicious.

(End of this chapter)