Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 143 137. Battle of Fancheng (VIII) (Two in One)

These scouts did not dare to be negligent. They carried the scarecrow on their shoulders and rode back to the Wei army camp at full speed. They immediately met Cao Ren and did not dare to be negligent in the slightest.

"What have you gained? Why are you carrying this scarecrow?"

Cao Ren sat in the tent with his horse and sword in his hands, looking at the people kneeling on the ground and asking.

"Reporting to the general, we were ordered to investigate. Because the drums in the Shu army camp were deafening, we could not determine the Shu army's defense, so we shot a few arrows, and unexpectedly this thing fell from the wall."

The scouts told Cao Ren everything that had happened. Cao Ren frowned, stood up, looked around the scarecrow, folded his arms and thought for a moment, his eyes flashed with a sharp light.

"Come here! Pass on my order. Order Xu Shang, Lu Jian and the other two to lead 10,000 troops each to attack the Shu army camp. Niu Jin to lead 10,000 troops to search along the bank of the Han River downstream. The Shu army must be boarding ships somewhere! If found, the main force of the Shu army must be killed immediately!"

Cao Ren only thought about it for a moment before making a decision. The messengers immediately took Cao Ren's order to the generals.

When everyone received Cao Ren's military order, they did not dare to neglect it and immediately acted according to the plan.

Xu Shang and Lu Jian attacked from the north and northeast of the Han army's main camp respectively. Because Cao Ren had given instructions in advance, the two men already knew that the Han army's main camp was empty at this time and there was almost no one on duty.

"Follow me and charge into the Shu army camp!"

As soon as Xu Shang waved his hand, Ma Shuo, the morale of the Wei army suddenly became high. After all, beheading a general and capturing a pass was a huge achievement no matter how you looked at it, especially the achievement of being the first to reach the border.

On the other side, Lu Jian saw Xu Shang like this and was not willing to be outdone. He ordered his men to rush into the Han army camp first.

As the scouts had reported, there were many straw men in the Han army's camp, and several sheep were hanging on the square in the middle. The rumbling drum sounds were made by these sheep.

"Hahaha, the Shu general is so incompetent that he actually adopted such a childish plan! Fortunately, the general is wise and sees through this clumsy plan. Follow me to search around, and then meet up with General Niu Jin!"

Xu Shang couldn't help laughing when he saw this scene.

Although Lü Jian was more relaxed, he was still cautious against the Han army's plot. However, the Han army's camp was filled with the stench of feces, but Lü Jian looked around and found that apart from some black unknown liquid and some white powder, there was only a small amount of straw thrown on the ground in a mess, which should not be enough to cause a big fire.

“Swoosh—Pah”

With the sound of an arrow, several objects flashing with fire flew in the air, fell to the ground in front of Lu Jian's puzzled eyes, and a ball of fire exploded instantly.

The black liquid that Lu Jian didn't recognize suddenly burned violently the moment it came into contact with the flame. Even the straw stained with the black liquid caught fire, and the fire was extremely fierce.

"Oh no! We've fallen into a trap! Let's go!"

Lu Jian and Xu Shang hurriedly called on the soldiers to return the same way they came, but they did not expect that the arrangement of these flammable materials on the ground had a trick. A line of fire followed an inconspicuous path and led directly to the trench outside the wall.

"Whoosh!"

Before the Wei soldiers could react, the wall of fire that had shown its power yesterday was ignited again, and at some point the trench at the entrance that was originally unconnected was dug through, leaving them with no way of survival.

"Quick! Go through the Han army camp and leave from the east gate!"

The two generals reacted quickly and without even caring about the crying Wei soldiers, they turned around and fled towards the east gate.

"kill--!"

To make matters worse, there were shouts and screams coming from the east gate, and countless torches were flashing. It was obvious that the Han army had set an ambush.

At this moment, the Han army occupied the advantageous terrain and guarded the narrow gate of the village. Any Wei army that tried to escape from here would be shot back by arrows, or if they were unlucky, they would be shot into sieves.

"Go through the south gate, let the soldiers swim across, and we'll go back to the west side."

The Han River is to the south of this big village, and the southwest corner is also divided by the Han River, so to get from the south gate to the west side, you have to swim for a while if you walk along the outer circle.

If they went directly from the east gate to the west gate, they would have to pass through the burning Han army camp. The risk of being burned to death was too great, so the two men did not consider it.

It just so happened that everyone was exhausted from the smoke and fire at the moment, so wading in the water could provide some relief.

There was total silence in the south, which formed a sharp contrast with the blazing Han army camp behind them, and the two generals couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Ahhh! It's scalding me! The water is hot!"

Many people screamed in pain as soon as they entered the water, leaving the soldiers nearby puzzled. How could the cold river water in the summer be hot?

Xu Shang and Lu Jian thought it was a psychological effect of the soldiers who had just escaped from the fire, so they didn't pay too much attention to it. However, soon someone's hands and feet were burned alive, which made Xu Shang and Lu Jian take it seriously.

"I, Xiang Chong, have been waiting for you all here for a long time! May God bless our Han Dynasty! This Han River has been cast a spell by our Grand Commander Feng Xi. Those who touch the river and feel hot should leave quickly! This means that you still have the emperor of the Han Dynasty in your hearts, and your life should not end!"

Dozens of ships lying in wait in the river lit up their torches and showed their claws. Xiang Chong's words made the Wei army even more confused. After all, most of the soldiers were low-class people with little education and were very superstitious.

Now that they heard that the Han army commander-in-chief could cast magic spells, if the officers had not been watching, they would have probably dispersed and rushed to the shore first.

"Alright! Since you are so stubborn, don't blame me for being cruel! Come on, use the Grand Commander's magic to boil the rivers and seas!"

The Han army threw many packages from large and small boats at the Wei army, covering their faces with white powder. Many Wei soldiers simply took advantage of the situation and wiped their faces with river water.

But something went wrong with this touch.

"Ahhhh! The water is boiling! Help! Help me! Great Immortal, please retract your magic power!"

These Wei soldiers held their faces and screamed in pain. There was actually a smell of barbecue emanating from their faces and bodies, which made the Wei army terrified.

Now many soldiers simply ignored the officers' jurisdiction and scrambled to escape back to the shore. Even Xu Shang and Lu Jian had no choice but to follow them ashore. Fortunately, the two were in the back and did not suffer any injuries.

"Come on, cast the Palm Thunder spell!"

At Xiang Chong's order, several familiar cans were thrown down, making explosive sounds, scaring the Wei army into fleeing.

At this time, Generals Xu Shang and Lu Jian could only command more than 10,000 people. The other soldiers had either scattered long ago or were so frightened that they no longer obeyed orders.

Now the East Gate and South Gate are guarded, and only Niu Jin has a chance of survival by searching the West Gate.

However, the fire had already spread and the road leading to the west gate was blocked by flames. In desperation, the two men had to order the soldiers to dig on the spot and force their way out.

"Cough cough..."

The Wei army soldiers who managed to escape were all covered in dust. Xu Shang and Lu Jian counted their number and found that the number of soldiers under their command had dropped to about 10,000. The fire had killed at least a thousand people, but many of the remaining soldiers were deserters, who would probably return to the army at dawn, so the actual loss was not as great as it seemed.

"Look! There's a fire over there. Could it be General Niu's troops?"

Xu Shang pointed to a fire not far away. It was pitch dark at the moment and all living things had the instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm, so the two of them decided to go and take a look.

Unexpectedly, when the two men approached with more than 10,000 soldiers, they found that these were not Niu Jin's troops, but the Han army that was actually evacuating.

Several boats were moored by the river, and the lights were dim. No wonder only a faint light spot could be seen from a distance. The Han army was also shocked when they saw the Wei army coming from their camp.

The two sides were in a stalemate for a while.

The Wei army had just escaped from a fire, and the soldiers were all covered in dust and their morale was extremely low.

The Han army seemed to be caught off guard and was equally unprepared. Both sides held their weapons and were on guard against each other, but neither dared to strike first.

Xu Shang's eyes rolled. Although he was short of troops and had low morale, he was not alone now. Niu Jin was still leading his troops to search for the Han army.

"Quick, light more torches quietly to let General Niu Jin notice this place!"

Xu Shang immediately whispered to Lu Jian, and the two of them hurriedly ordered the soldiers to light more torches to attract Niu Jin, who was still wandering around in the dark.

Hard work pays off. In less than half an hour, Niu Jin really followed the light. However, the strange atmosphere in front of him left Niu Jin confused.

A group of Wei soldiers and a Han army actually lived in peace and glared at each other?

Fortunately, the generals of the Han army reacted quickly when they saw the reinforcements from the Wei army coming. They immediately shouted to Lü Jian, Xu Shang and others:
"General, hurry up! We must not let the Wei army discover our plan!"

"???"

Xu Shang and the other man were immediately confused. Who was plotting with you? How could you, a bird, slander me?
"What's the plan? Is there another rebellion?! Never mind, brothers, kill them!"

Niu Jin couldn't figure out what was going on for a moment, but his brain gave the answer in less than a moment.

No matter what they do, just beat them all.

"General Niu Jin! I am Xu Shang! This group of Han soldiers are trying to escape! Let's wipe them out together!"

Xu Shang felt a headache when he saw Niu Jin's stupid behavior, so he hurried to shout at him, but Niu Jin's men had already started to charge, so it was unknown what the result of this shout was.

"Brothers! Reinforcements are coming, follow me and kill them!"

Seeing the chaos, Lu Jian had no choice but to follow Niu Jin and attack the Han army position.

The Han army was not panicked at all when they saw the Wei army's appearance. They used carts as cover and formed a semicircular circle to resist the Wei army.

As we all know, in this situation, the circular enemy contact surface is the smallest, and the maximum number of enemies that the attacking side can contact is also very low, which leads to the fact that the numerical advantage cannot be fully utilized when facing the Queyue formation.

For a time, the battlefield was in chaos, with shouts of killing, the clanging of weapons, and screams. The Han army was defending the river, and Niu Jin had poor communication with Generals Xu and Lu, which led to the extremely chaotic pace of the Wei army's attack, and even hindered it.

"Kill!"

Just when the three generals were not working together to take down the Han army on the river bank, countless Han soldiers appeared from nowhere and surrounded the three generals, shouting and killing.

"Where did the enemy come from? Why didn't we discover it beforehand?!"

As the smarter one among the three, Xu Shang quickly asked his subordinates, but they all looked at each other and could not explain it.

At this point, the three generals can only make one choice: retreat in time and break out of the encirclement of the Han army, or take a gamble and bet that they can eat up the Han army in the circle and then hold on until Cao Ren finds out?
Unfortunately, the three of them had their own choices.

Lü Jian and Xu Shang were already defeated soldiers. They had been burned by the Han army's fire for a while and tortured in the Han River for a long time. At this moment, they were extremely exhausted. How could they have the energy to eat up the Han army in the circle? Naturally, they thought about how to get out of the battlefield as soon as possible.

But it was different for Niu Jin. After nearly an hour of paddling, his soldiers were still full of energy and naturally thought about how to achieve success.

In addition, although both sides were Wei generals, there was no hierarchical relationship among them, which led to a split in the behavior of the Wei army on the battlefield and caused a riot.

"Lü Jian, Xu Shang, what are you two doing? Have you surrendered to the Shu army? Why don't you join me in taking down these Shu troops?"

Niu Jin noticed the strange movement of the Wei army and shouted loudly, but the battlefield was so noisy, who could hear him? Even if Niu Jin wanted to find the second general, he couldn't find him.

This chaos gave the Han army an opportunity. The Han army inside the circle knew that reinforcements had arrived, and their morale was high. They defended the river bank and did not give Niu Jin any chance. The Han army outside the circle also made great progress and surrounded Niu Jin's troops.

The two sides fought fiercely, but the Han army had the advantage of surprise attack, morale and numbers, so Niu Jin's troops were soon defeated and the Wei soldiers fled in all directions.

Niu Jin did not dare to fight and fled back to the camp with more than a hundred soldiers under the cover of night. Lu and Xu also did not suffer much loss and fled back with more than 8,000 people.

When it was dawn, they gathered the remaining soldiers and took inventory. They found that the total number of troops under Lu and Xu was 20,000, and a total of more than 14,000 returned. The actual loss was only more than 5,000 people, which was not particularly serious.

However, only more than 3,000 of Niu Jin's 10,000 men escaped, which was even greater than the losses of the two generals combined.

"Tell me. What happened?"

Cao Ren looked unhappy. In the night battle last night, he should have been the one with the advantage, but how come he was beaten so badly?

"General! I, Lao Niu, came here exactly as you requested! When I saw the Han army was about to retreat, I immediately followed them and fought.

It was the two of them who were acting suspiciously. When I approached them, they were not fighting with the Han army, but were still communicating with each other. Then when the fight started, they turned around and ran away, leaving me alone to face more than 20,000 Han soldiers. "

Niu Jin felt extremely wronged. The war turned out this way, and it had nothing to do with him. No matter how you looked at it, it was all the fault of Generals Lu and Xu.

"General, please understand! We are waiting... this and that..."

Xu Shang did not dare to slack off and immediately told Cao Ren everything that happened last night. Only then did Cao Ren look better.

"It seems that our army has fallen into a trap. The Han army has used a series of tricks. The so-called 'retreat' last night seems to be false news."

Cao Ren touched his beard and felt a headache.

(End of this chapter)