A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 21 Retreat
The soldiers of the Huai state waited for work with leisure, and they were full of food and drink, and their armor was complete. The soldiers of the Zhou army had just woken up from a dream, and they were powerless to resist the sudden rush of the Huai state army.

Chen Yue took the lead and led the army to charge. The Zhou army's corpses were everywhere. The Zhou army's camp was quickly destroyed.

Finally, when the sun rose, there were corpses of Zhou people everywhere in the camp, and a large number of Zhou people became prisoners on the other side.

After a great battle, all the Zhou troops outside Siyang City were captured.

But now, the strategic intentions of Wang Zhao, Wei Yi, Wang Tao and others have all been realized. Bangzhou's [-] troops have been besieged by Huai State Xu State in the land of Huaisi, and Bangzhou's army is cut off, and food and grass are only available. With half a month left, it was already at the critical point of life and death.

Under the city of Huai'an, banners and flags are unfurling, and camps stretch for ten miles.

Countless soldiers are like ants, waving weapons, carrying ladders and attacking the city.This method of siege is the most brutal and brutal.After Ji Bi exhausted all kinds of siege methods, they were all resolved one by one, and finally he could only use ants to attack the city.

Tens of thousands of troops attacked in rotation, but the city of Huai'an was high and deep, and Zijue deliberately stored a large amount of food and grass, all kinds of defense equipment, rolling logs and stones, and there was no shortage of water in the city. For a strong city, even if it has ten times as many troops, it will have a chance until the food in the city is exhausted.

After three consecutive days of attacking, Bangzhou's army suffered heavy casualties, but the result of the battle was only to attack the top of the city, and then was soon pushed down again.

Standing on the chariot, Ji Bi looked very ugly when he saw the defeated army return in rout.

In the big tent, everyone dared not make a sound, for fear of offending the emperor, but at this moment, the herald hurried in, dragging a bamboo tube in both hands, and knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, there is an emergency Information sent!"

The eunuch next to him stepped forward to take the bamboo tube, and then respectfully sent it up.

Ji Bi tore off the wax seal, opened the bamboo slips to check, just took a look, and suddenly stood on the spot, the bamboo slips in his hand fell to the ground with a bang.

The expression of Yu Qing who was next to her changed, and she hurriedly stepped forward to support Ji Bi to sit down, then picked up the bamboo slips, and only glanced at it. Yu Qing's expression changed slightly, and then she forcibly restrained her expression, and then said to the ministers around: " Your Majesty is a little tired, everyone, step down first!"

"Yes!" These ministers didn't dare to ask any more questions, and all bowed their hands and retreated.

Immediately afterwards, Yu Qing rushed to the messenger and said: "Take care of all the messengers, and no one is allowed to approach without the king's order."

Soon everyone retreated, leaving only Yu Qing and Ji Bi in the big tent.

"Your Majesty, the army's retreat has been cut off. I can no longer fight under the city of Huai'an. I must take advantage of the food and grass in the army to open up a retreat as soon as possible and retreat! Otherwise, I will die as a young man. There must be no loss!" Yu Qing couldn't care about anything else at this time, she just wanted to bring Ji Bi back as soon as possible.

"Yes, yes, we can't wait any longer, go back, go back, the army has to return to the division and cross the Huai River again!" Ji Bi also recovered at this time, and said hastily.

"Order the army to return immediately!" Ji Bi wanted to order immediately.

"Your Majesty, don't do it!" Yu Qing said: "The army can't move lightly when it returns. The army's rear will be cut off. Once it spreads, morale will plummet. I'm afraid the army will collapse. And once the Huai people know about it, the Huai people's army will chase after it. The six armies of the Son of Heaven are all buried!"

"This..." Ji Bi was also taken aback by the consequences, and did not dare to give orders.

"Yu Qing, does Yu Qing have a clever plan?"

Looking at the panic-stricken emperor, Yu Qing sighed again in her heart. This emperor is completely different from King Kang. But he was flustered, but he couldn't ignore it, the emperor deserved to die, but outside the big tent, the hundred thousand Zhou people didn't deserve to die!

"Your Majesty, you should order the front army to advance to the rear, and then the central army to escort the emperor to retreat, and the rear army to take a step forward, return to the Huai River, open the rear road, and rebuild the pontoon bridge."

"Yu Qing is really a great talent, just do what Yu Qing says!" Ji Bi said immediately.

Ji Bi seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw, and quickly asked Yu Ke to do it.

Yu Ke was also polite, and immediately sent someone to call several generals to assign tasks.It is not easy for a [-] army to retreat, and it cannot be noticed by the Huai people, otherwise the retreat of the army may become a defeat.

Yu Ke ordered the front army to line up, and the rear army quietly pulled out their camps. After the sky darkened, they took advantage of the night to leave, while the central army retreated slowly at night with a large army of food and grass.The former army continued to stay and attack the city, but instead of attacking the city with ants, they used bows and arrows to shoot at each other.

According to Yu Ke's request, the former army had to attack under Huaiyang City for at least three days to cover the retreat of the army. At the same time, the tents in the barracks would not be reduced. There would be more banners during the day and more torches at night to confuse the Huai people.

The next day, Bangzhou's army continued to besiege Huaiyang City.It's just that the intensity of the attack couldn't be compared with before. This change was immediately sensed by the city guard general, and he immediately notified Wang Zhao.

After getting the frontline information, Wang Zhao immediately felt that there was a ghost in it.Immediately handing the bamboo slips to Wang Tao, Prime Minister of the State, he said, "Prime Minister of the State, take a look at this information."

Wang Tao took the bamboo slips and looked at them, then bowed to Wang Zhao and said, "Your Majesty, I am overjoyed! Calculating the time, it should be Wei Yi who cut off the Huai River, and Bang Zhou's back road was cut off."

"This is an old way of setting up doubts, trying to confuse us so that the army can retreat!"

"Hahaha, Bangzhou's [-] troops have no way out, food and grass are low, morale is low, and they still want to evacuate? Wishful thinking!" Wang Zhao laughed.

At the same time, the envoy sent by Wei Yi also rushed to the bottom of the city, and was hoisted by the sergeant on the city wall with a hanging basket, and a bamboo tube was quickly sent to Huai Palace.After getting the exact news, Wang Zhao did not hesitate, and immediately ordered:
"Bang and Zhou's army has been cut off by our naval forces from Huai and Xu countries, food and grass have been seized, and Emperor Zhou has already fled in a hurry. I have ordered the army to go out of the city, defeat Zhou's army, and capture Emperor Zhou alive!"

"The army attacks and captures the Emperor Zhou alive!"

"The army attacks and captures the Emperor Zhou alive!"

The order was passed on, and the [-] troops in the entire Huaiyang City responded immediately.Having been hiding in the city for two months, these soldiers could no longer hold back, and now that the order to attack was issued, they immediately cheered in unison.

Hearing the shouts outside the palace, Wang Zhao laughed loudly and said, "The military spirit is available, our army will surely win this battle!"

Soon the Huai army was ready. Immediately afterwards, the gate of Huai'an city was opened wide, and [-] troops rushed out on horseback, heading straight for the camp of the Zhou army.

At this time, Bang Zhou's army never thought that the Huai people would dare to rush out of the city and head straight for the camp.Without the slightest precaution, the camp was empty and was penetrated directly.

The Battle of Zhouhuai was a classic battle in which the weak defeated the strong in ancient Chinese battles. During the battle, Huai King Zhao and Wei Yi first fortified the wall and cleared the field to show the enemy's weakness, and used their weak troops to lure the enemy to go deep three times. Cutting off the Zhou army's food route, and then dividing and annihilating it was an important turning point for the Western Zhou Dynasty's royal power to turn from prosperity to decline. ——"History of the Rise and Fall of the Zhou Dynasty·Western Zhou Dynasty"

(End of this chapter)