At the end of the Han Dynasty: a stingy husband from his hometown

Chapter 387 Burning Xutai
Xutai, as the main garrison of the Chu army, has now become an important city for storing food and grass for the Yuan army.

Yuan Jun's grain and grass were originally stationed in Ling County, which is located in Xuzhou north of the Huaihe River and is very tightly guarded.

Ever since Yuan Shao captured Dongcheng, his army has been unstoppable, winning consecutive battles and is now besieging Shouchun.

Once Shouchun is captured, it means that the entire Jiujiang County will be lost. If Yuan Shao cuts off the connection between Jiangdong and Xiangyang at that time, Yangzhou will change hands.

In order to ensure a sufficient supply of food and grass for the frontline soldiers, Chunyu Qiong also changed Yuan Jun's food garrison from Ling County to today's Xutai.

Xutai is located on the south bank of the Huaihe River, and is connected to the vast Hongze Lake in the north.

Through the Huaihe River, Xutai's grain and grass can be easily transported to Yuan Jun's camp in Shouchun, which can save a lot of manpower and material resources.

As for the Chu State's Huaihe River Navy, they did not pose any threat at this time.

As the main force of the Chu army retreated steadily, without the support of infantry, the morale of the Chu navy also dropped sharply.

The Zhao navy, which had been trained for a long time and had superior strength, broke out in a battle with the Chu navy in Hongze Lake. In the end, it defeated the Chu navy and captured many of the Chu navy's advanced warships.

The defeat of Chu's navy meant that Chu lost control of the Huaihe River. Only then could Yuan's grain transport fleet be able to sail unhindered on the Huaihe River.

It was Chunyu Qiong who originally suggested to Yuan Shao to tear up the peace treaty and launch a sneak attack while Zhou Qi was away from the front line.

Chun Yuqiong, smelling of alcohol, was lying on the bed, her face full of anger and unwillingness.

Logically speaking, Chunyu Qiong, as the person who provided the advice, should have the priority to lead the assault.

Only Chunyu Qiong, the general who Yuan Shao relied on most, was assigned to transport grain and grass to the rear.

This is a typical example of ups and downs.

In such bad weather, more than twenty small warships suddenly appeared in the dry reeds in Hongze Lake.

On this day, the weather suddenly changed, and it snowed again near Xutai. Then a strong northwest wind blew, and the weather suddenly became very cold.

Especially after the navy of the State of Zhao defeated the navy of the State of Chu, and the entire Huaihe River was controlled by the State of Zhao, Chunyu Qiong, who no longer had any worries, left everything to his generals, but he himself was drunk all day long.

The defenders in Xutai City were already lax on their guard because their general Chun Yuqiong was drunk every day. Now facing such cold weather, there were not many Yuan troops on the city wall at all.

Chunyu Qiong was naturally unhappy because he could not gain military merit by transporting grain to the rear, and drank to drown his sorrows every day.

Yuan Jun now fought consecutively and successfully. Not only did he capture Zhengege Guangling County, he even invaded Jiujiang County and surrounded the capital of Jiujiang County.

As for Yuan Jun, who was in charge of night patrol in the city, he sneaked back early.

These warships are small and cannot even seat ten people, but they are very fast.

Seeing that the situation on the battlefield was excellent, many generals took the opportunity to gain a lot of credit.

At this time, Gan Ning no longer looked as luxurious as in the past, but his face was haggard, his figure was miserable, and even his hair was a mess.

On the warship at the front, a general stood facing the snow. It was General Pingxi under Zhou Qi, Gan Ning Gan Xingba, who was worshiped as the Marquis of Guannei.

Although it is very important to ensure smooth food routes, military merit is still the key to becoming a general in the army.

Unexpectedly, Ju Shou's hidden words made Yuan Shao suspicious of Chun Yuqiong, so that he gave up the vanguard position to Zhang He and Gao Lan.

If Chunyu Qiong was not drunk every day, but handled military affairs seriously, these Yuan soldiers would not dare to be so presumptuous even if the weather was so cold.

Inside the largest mansion in Xutai City.

Not only Gan Ning, but almost all of his hundreds of soldiers looked like this.

The difference is that at least Gan Ning's body is very clean and has no odor, but many of his soldiers are smelly.

Gan Ning turned to look at the slightly embarrassed soldiers under his command, and said in a deep voice: "We were just Jinfan thieves in Bajun before, but we gained the Lord's trust and were promoted to important positions. We have also received many rewards over the years."

"Now, my lord has entrusted the life and death of the entire Chu Kingdom to our hands."

"A scholar will die for his confidant!"

"We hid in the reeds for more than a month, and finally waited for the heavy snow and the northwest wind."

"Brothers, even if one of you enters Xutai, if we succeed in this battle, whether we live or die, we will all be able to make great achievements, be granted the title of wife and son, and our names will go down in history!"

"Brothers, would you like to go to Xutai with me?"

All the soldiers said in unison: "I am willing to follow the general and rush to Xutai, and I am willing to die for the Lord!"

Looking at the expressions of the soldiers, Gan Ning immediately ordered more than a hundred of his men to speed up the march.

Why are Gan Ning and others here?

It turned out that after Jia Xu learned that Yuan Shao's health was not as good as one day, he understood Yuan Shao's weakness, that is, the opponent was eager to destroy the Chu Kingdom.

Once a person has a weakness, it is easy to be targeted.

Ever since, there has been a drama of Zhou Qi returning to Xiangyang and the Chu army retreating steadily.

Yuan Shao, who was eager for success, really fell into the trap, and his successive victories almost made all the civil and military personnel of the Zhao country dizzy with victory. Even if only a few people led by Ju Shou vaguely felt that something was wrong, they could not change Yuan Shao's destruction in one battle. Chu State’s determination.

As expected by Jia Xu, after Yuan Shao besieged Shouchun, he moved his grain garrison from Ling County to Xutai.

As for Gan Ning and others, they took enough dry food and clean water early and hid in the reeds beside Hongze Lake.

Since Hongze Lake is very huge and there are many reeds near the shore, it is not difficult to hide two hundred people.

Although it is winter now, the reeds have long since dried up, and the remaining dry leaves are enough to cover their tracks.

The real difficulty Gan Ning and others encountered was this extremely cold winter.

They were hiding here as surprise soldiers. In order not to reveal their identity, they naturally did not dare to use fire. If they had not prepared cotton clothes, even if many of these soldiers had lived on the ship, they might not have been able to hold on for so long. Even so, due to the cold weather and disease, in just one month, more than 30 people of the two hundred soldiers and horses were lost.
Even in the face of such huge losses, Gan Ning and his soldiers, who were already determined to die, still did not choose to retreat. Instead, they hid silently in the reeds of Hongze Lake.

Their shouting now is not only to shout out their own feelings, but also to shout out all the grievances they have suffered from being dormant for such a long time.

Just like when Yuan Jun sneaked across the Huaihe River on a snowy night and attacked the Jingzhou military camp, Gan Ning and others were not discovered by anyone when they reached outside Xutai City at night.

They came to an extremely remote location overgrown with weeds, lifted up the turf, and got into a dark hole.

More than a hundred people entered a house through the tunnel, changed into the clothes of Sergeant Yuan, and then tied white towels on their left arms and headed towards the location of the food and grass.

The snowy night was very quiet, not even the barking of dogs could be heard, only the cold wind whistling by.

Even if someone heard the noise occasionally, they would think it was Yuan Jun's patrol soldiers.

In this way, Gan Ning and others traveled unimpeded and arrived at the place where Yuan Jun's grain and grass were piled up before dawn.

Most of Yuan Jun, who was responsible for taking care of the food and grass, also went to rest.

Some of Yuan's soldiers saw Gan Ning and others wearing Yuan's clothes and mistook them for patrol soldiers in the city.

If Chunyu Qiong did not get drunk every day, but was a little more responsible, he should at least give commands to his soldiers.

Unfortunately.

Ever since the Chu navy was deliberately defeated by the Zhao navy, which allowed the Zhao navy to seize control of the Huaihe River, Chunyu Qiong and his generals naively believed that Xutai was as stable as Mount Tai and that there would be no trace of the Chu army.

"This is an important place for storing food. You can't move forward without receiving military orders!"

The few Yuan troops guarding the granary saw Gan Ning and the others still walking forward on their own, and finally spoke out to stop them.

Gan Ning curled up slightly and said shiveringly: "This damn weather is really too cold. It's not easy for me and my brothers to patrol at night. I saw a stove at the entrance of the camp. It's almost going to be here today." It’s bright, I want to warm up by the fire, brothers, it’s convenient.”

"As soon as we get warmer, we'll leave right away!"

As Gan Ning spoke, he continued to walk forward with more than a hundred people under his command.

After listening to Gan Ning's words, those Yuan soldiers did not doubt it, but they still refused: "This is an important land for food storage. No idlers are allowed to enter, so you should leave quickly..."

"puff!"

Before Yuan Jun could finish his words, Gan Ning had already rushed forward, drew his knife and cut the opponent's throat, blood spurting out immediately.

at the same time.

More than a hundred soldiers behind Gan Ning broke out together, and they all rushed forward to kill.

"Puff puff!"

Yuan Jun, who was already lax in his defense and few in number, was quickly killed.

"Enemy attack!"

However, after all, Sergeant Yuan still shouted before dying.

Fortunately, the north wind was howling now, and these shouts were quickly swallowed up by the howling north wind. Even if someone nearby heard the movement vaguely, they did not want to do it in the cold winter when they did not think that the Chu army would appear in the city. Come out and explore.

"Start setting fire from the northwest!"

After killing the Yuan Jun guards at the door, Gan Ning hurriedly led his soldiers straight to the northwest.

The place where Yuan Jun stored grain and grass was very large. Even if the defense inside was lax, it would still take a lot of time for everyone to run to the northwestmost place.

After everyone ran to the northwest of the granary out of breath, the weather just started to get brighter.

"Enemy attack!"

"Enemy attack!"

"Enemy attack!"

At this moment, the bodies of those Yuan Jun were finally discovered, and screams suddenly rang out in the grain depot. ,

"Boom boom boom!"

Immediately afterwards, the war drums roared, and people in the entire county could hear it.

"Set fire quickly!"

After Gan Ning heard the sound of the drum, he knew that time was running out and hurriedly shouted to his soldiers.

"Wow!"

As Gan Ning issued the order, the soldiers began to set fire everywhere.

Because the northwest wind was howling at this time, and everyone was setting fires in the northwest, the wind helped the fire, and grain and grass were all flammable, so the fire quickly spread to the entire grain depot. .

The food for marching and fighting in ancient times was not just food.

There is food and fodder. If you don't prepare enough fodder for the war horses and the cattle responsible for transportation, there will be no need to march and fight.

In addition, it is now a cold winter, and the soldiers also need a lot of straw and firewood for heating. Therefore, in addition to food, there are also a lot of flammable materials piled up here.

The fire spread quickly.

When all Yuan's troops gathered in the granary, it was already too late. Not only was it difficult to stop the huge fire, but they were even choked by the thick smoke and forced to evacuate the warehouse.

There were also some unlucky soldiers from Yuan who were caught off guard by the fire and were eventually burned to ashes.

(End of this chapter)