Ni Chu

The attack of the Chu army ended in failure again. After a whole day of fighting and the loss of thousands of men, Xiang Yu finally gave the order to retreat.

During this day, the Chu army under Yingbu launched seven attacks on Yongqiu City. Every time, officers and soldiers climbed the city wall, but every time the Chu army who climbed the city wall was wiped out by the tenacious Qin army.

Xiang Yu stood in front of the big formation of the Chu army, and his eyes never moved away from the Qin army fighting tenaciously on the city wall.Since he sent troops from Jiangdong with his uncle, he has experienced dozens of battles, and he has never encountered such a tenacious enemy as in Yongqiu City.

For the Qin army in Yongqiu, Xiang Yu felt an inexplicable respect in his heart.

There is no soldier who does not respect heroes, even Xiang Yu is no exception. The Qin army in Yongqiu won Xiang Yu's respect with their bravery and tenacity.

He hated the Qin people, who took away the infinite country of Great Chu and ruled Chu for 15 years.

When Xiang Yan was defeated and the Qin army captured Shouchun, the capital of Chu State, and captured the king of Chu, Chu State moved its capital to Lanling, but the Qin people did not leave Chu State a chance to breathe. In the same year, Lanling was attacked again, and Xiang Yan died in battle.

National hatred and family hatred planted the seeds of hatred in the young Xiang Yu's heart. He hated the Qin people. It was the Qin people who made their Xiang family suffer 15 years of humiliation, and it was the Qin people who took away his grandfather Xiang Yan and father Xiang Yan. Chao's life also allowed him to experience the humiliation of the country's destruction and family destruction in the past 15 years.

He wants to return all this humiliation to the Qin people, and let the Qin people also taste the taste of the ruin of the country.

In previous battles, he had always regarded the Qin people as aliens, killing and slaughtering whenever he wanted, but today, he had an inexplicable respect for the Qin army guarding Yongqiu.These Qin troops were able to repel the strong attacks of the Chu army repeatedly when they were obviously at a disadvantage in numbers, and caused the Chu army to suffer such a huge loss, which was impossible to imagine when Xiang Yu led his army here.

"Retreat, fight again tomorrow!" The low morale of Yingbo's Chu army made Xiang Yu feel that he could not continue fighting today. He waved his hands to Zhong Limei beside him, turned his horse's head, and left the battle formation first.

Following Zhongli Mo's order to withdraw his troops, Xiang Ye followed the army and withdrew towards the camp. His troops belonged directly to Xiang Yu and had not participated in the battle.He didn't even think about participating in the battle of the first two days. He knew very well that Yongqiu City would hold on for four days in total. What he hoped most was that Xiang Yu could order him to fight on the fourth day. He wanted to use Yongqiu to become famous and master the battle. Staying in the military power, and finally led the army to crusade against Liu Bang, erasing Liu Bang from history.

Although he hoped to fight on the fourth day, things would not develop as he imagined. As soon as he returned to the barracks, Xiang Yu sent someone to call him to the big tent to discuss military affairs.

Xiang Ye came to Xiang Yu's big tent. To his surprise, there were only Xiang Yu and Xiang Qing in the big tent, and none of the other generals came.

Xiang Yu gestured to him to sit down and said: "General Xiang Ye, oh no, I should call you brother-in-law! Please sit down first, I want to hear your opinion on today's battle."

Xiang Ye did not deny that Xiang Yu called him brother-in-law.Now that he has promised to marry Xiang Qing, he will not go back on his word.Although in his heart, Mengsu is always the first choice of his original partner, but since he has agreed to Xiang Yu's marriage proposal in front of everyone, he will not regret it.

Xiang Ye always believes that reputation is the foundation of being a person in the world.So he will not regret anything he has promised, even if he knows that it will do him no harm but no benefit, he must do it.

After bowing and giving Xiang Yu a boxing salute, he sat on the seat opposite Xiang Qing and looked at Xiang Yu with a serious expression.

"In today's battle, our army climbed the city wall several times, which has proved that your strategy of burning the city is effective. However, the enemy army on the city is too tenacious. Although our army climbed the city wall, it has no achievements. It has never been able to break through the city. , What can I do?" As soon as Xiang Ye sat down, Xiang Yu couldn't wait to ask him.

Hearing Xiang Yu's question, Xiang Ye frowned and pondered for a moment before saying: "Reporting to the general, the general has been observing the situation of the battle today. Although our army charged with great momentum, it didn't have the upper hand at all. Bring it to our army. The biggest problem is the crossbows and bows of the Qin army, followed by the boulders falling from the top of the city and the boiling oil on the city gate. With these weapons of mass destruction, our army suffered great casualties .According to what the general sees, we can only be effective if we take drastic measures!"

"How to get rid of the bottom line? I still hope that my brother-in-law will express it!" Xiang Yu obviously trusted Xiang Ye, so he simply changed his title to "brother-in-law" instead of "general"

Xiang Ye frowned, nodded first, then shook his head and said, "It's easy to say, but it's very difficult to actually do it."

"Brother-in-law, tell me what kind of difficult method it is?" Xiang Yu sat up straight and said quite sincerely: "As long as you can break through Yongqiu, even if you need to get a thousand carts full of hay, elder brother will get it for you! "

Xiang Ye smiled and said: "There is no need for a big cart. Yesterday we set fire outside the city, but now our army needs to set fire inside the city to make the Qin people mess up."

"Set fire in the city?" Xiang Yu was stunned for a moment, and then asked in puzzlement: "Our army didn't plant spies in the city before, how did we set the fire?"

"Bows and arrows!" Xiang Ye looked into Xiang Yu's eyes and said decisively: "Use bows and arrows, wrap the arrows in tarpaulin, ignite them and shoot them into the city. However, the number of bows and arrows needed is so many that our army may not be able to prepare them all."

"How many do you need?" Xiang Yu sat up straight, and said to Xiang Ye in a very sure tone: "How many arrows are needed, brother-in-law just ask, even if I take all the arrows from the army, I will definitely prepare them .”

Xiang Ye licked his lips, and said to Xiang Yu: "One hundred thousand sticks, in addition to that, we need three thousand pieces of straw on the front, wooden boards on the back, and haystacks inlaid with copper behind the wooden boards. If we can get them ready at the second watch tonight , Brother, give me another three thousand archers, and I will definitely make Yongqiu City a sea of ​​flames!"

"Okay, let's do it like this!" As soon as Xiang Ye's words fell, Xiang Yu slapped the table and immediately shouted outside the tent: "Come here, buy haystacks according to General Xiang Ye's instructions, and collect arrows and divide them into pieces." Allocate three thousand archers to General Xiang Ye!"

Xiang Ye heard a reply from a soldier outside the tent, and then heard footsteps gradually going away.

He let out a long breath, and said to Xiang Yu: "If elder brother is fine, younger brother will leave first!"

Xiang Yu nodded, and did not keep Xiang Ye, but said to him: "Go back and prepare, I plan to let you take charge of the main attack on Yongqiu tomorrow, you have to remember, under my account, no one can seal the title without an inch of merit." Guan Jinjue, although you are my brother-in-law, you are no exception! You have to use your strength to convince everyone, I don't want Xiang Qing to marry someone who does nothing, understand?"

Xiang Ye nodded, clasped his fists to Xiang Yu and said, "Don't worry, big brother, little brother will never live up to his expectations!"

When leaving Xiang Yu's big tent, Xiang Ye's mood was very complicated. He was worried because Xiang Yu had arranged such an important task for him one day in advance, and at the same time felt a little happy that Xiang Yu called him his brother-in-law.

Ever since Xiang Ye knew that there was a Xiang Yu in history, he has had an inseparable admiration for Xiang Yu.

According to historical records, Xiang Yu was a brutal person. He slaughtered captives and civilians, and he was a little headstrong, and finally died of these shortcomings.

But Xiang Ye, but no matter what, he couldn't feel the slightest disgust towards Xiang Yu.

He didn't understand what kind of emotion it was, and he didn't know why he had such a strong affection for Xiang Yu.But he was really excited for a long time because he could call Xiang Yu big brother, this kind of excitement has nothing to do with Xiang Qing!

After returning to the tent, Xiang Ye ordered Bai Fu and Wei Feng to be called.

When the two came, Mengsu followed into the camp.

Xiang Ye looked up at Mengsu, only to see that Mengsu's face was pale, as if he had suffered from a serious illness, his usually rosy lips also looked a little gray, and his mental state was very bad.

"Mengsu, why do you look so bad?" After Xiang Ye signaled the three to sit down, he didn't immediately discuss military affairs with Bai Fu and Wei Feng, but looked at Mengsu with concern and asked.

Meng Su smiled bitterly, bit his lips and shook his head, hesitated for a while before saying to Xiang Ye: "General, let's talk about military affairs first, and I will talk to the general in detail later."

Xiang Ye knew that she had something to say that she couldn't say in front of Wei Feng and Bai Fu, so she nodded in understanding, and then said to Wei Feng and Bai Fu: "I called you here tonight because I want to discuss something with you. General Xiang Yu ordered me to take charge of the main attack on Yongqiu tomorrow, but I think that the possibility of capturing the city tomorrow is not very high, so I proposed a plan to set fire to the city. This requires the use of bows and crossbows. Arrows of fire have shot into the city, and I came to you because you are masters of bow and crossbow respectively, so I want to ask your opinions."

Bai Fu and Wei Feng glanced at each other, and Wei Feng said first: "It's not impossible to use a crossbow to shoot fire into the city, but the Qin army's crossbows and arrows in the city are very powerful. If we want to shoot arrows into the city, considering the wind speed , the fire resistance and the weight of the tarpaulin tied to the arrow, the range must be much closer than the Qin army's crossbow, and our army's machine crossbow is different from the Qin army's. Our army's machine crossbow can only shoot more than a hundred steps, while the Qin army can shoot three A hundred paces, not to mention bows and arrows, except for my bow, I am afraid that the bows of the entire army can only shoot fifty or seventy paces away. If this is the case, I am afraid that our army will be completely exposed to the range of the Qin army, and the casualties will be around Inevitable."

"That's right!" Bai Fu went on to say, "My crossbow is also made of the thousand-year-old rosewood wood specially picked by Lu Ban's descendants. The crossbow spring is made of Nanban silk thread with extremely high toughness. Designed and manufactured, the shooting range is naturally longer than that of ordinary Qin crossbows, but the ordinary machine crossbows in the military are rough in workmanship, it is difficult to compare with Qin crossbows, I think this fire is very difficult to fire!"