Chapter 617: Withdrawal
Since Huangfu Chaobo entered his camp and told him about the situation of the princes' army and Zhang Han's army, Su Jiao has been thinking about whether to stay or go to the Great Wall Army. After thinking for so long, Su Jiao also felt that the army's breakout was the only way to solve the current predicament, but how to break out, the time and place of the breakout still need to be carefully considered.
After listening to Su Jiao's opinion, Wang Li once again turned his attention to Shejian next to him.
Shejian was straightforward and said, "I will follow the lead of Wucheng Hou, but I think the food supply has been cut off, and it seems inappropriate for our army to stay here."
Seeing that the three generals under his command all suggested retreating, Wang Li actually tended to retreat in his heart. First, the food supply had been cut off, and even if he took the initiative to retreat, the court would have nothing to say. Second, although he followed Zhang Han's arrangements for the sake of the overall situation, he would not just throw away the lives of hundreds of thousands of warriors here in vain. It was just how to arrange this retreat. . .
After a little hesitation, Wang Li told everyone his thoughts. Huangfu Chaobo was relieved to see Wang Li finally willing to retreat, and said, "Since you have decided to retreat, the sooner the better." Then he arranged for the troops to meet him in Xindu, and reported his plans to Wang Li one by one.
After listening to it, several people had a brief exchange and felt that Huangfu Chaobo's plan was feasible, and then discussed the details. Wang Li was also a decisive person. Since he decided to break through, he immediately ordered the soldiers in each camp to prepare.
Since the Wei-Han coalition army already knew that Su Li's troops had obtained a large amount of food, then other princes must have known it, so they simply let the soldiers have a full meal in broad daylight, and then let some soldiers reinforce the camp with great fanfare, giving the illusion that the princes' army was defending and waiting for help.
At the same time, let other soldiers quietly prepare to retreat. Since they were preparing to break out, many of the seriously injured soldiers of the Great Wall Corps could not be taken away. In desperation, they had to leave these soldiers in the camp and take away the soldiers who could move by themselves or were not seriously injured. In fact, the seriously injured soldiers also knew their own results.
While the Qin army camp was preparing in full swing, Xiang Yu also summoned all the generals in his central army tent to discuss matters.
In the evening, Xiang Yu also knew what happened to the Wei-Han coalition army. He was furious about it. After summoning all the generals of the princes' coalition army, he scolded the generals of the Wei and Han armies in public. In Xiang Yu's plan, the Great Wall Corps had been cut off from food, and after today's battle, they could be annihilated under the city of Julu tomorrow.
Who knew that due to the negligence of the two armies, the supporting Qin army successfully broke through the encirclement and brought thousands of stones of food, which brought many variables to the war. This was something that all the Chu army generals, especially Xiang Yu and Fan Zeng, did not want to see. However, since things had come to this point, the two could only wait and see.
Later, after the news of the Qin army camp's reinforcement of defense came back, Fan Zeng was almost certain that Wang Li was trying to cover up, but because it was late, he could not finally confirm the movement of the Qin army. Moreover, because it was late, the coalition forces could not detect whether there were other Qin army reinforcements around Julu, all of which completely disrupted Fan Zeng's plan.
After thinking for a long time, Fan Zeng had to suggest to Xiang Yu that all the princes should stick to the camp and wait and see.
In fact, Huangfu Chaobo did not agree with Wang Li's approach of reinforcing the camp, because he knew that there was an old demon beside Xiang Yu. The Black Mountain Old Demon would definitely think of Wang Li's attempt to cover up his crime, but later he changed his mind. Although the old demon could completely control the Chu army through Xiang Yu, there were probably a few people who really took his words to heart for the other armies of the princes.
Although Huangfu Chaobo did not persuade Wang Li about reinforcing the camp, he strongly requested not to play those twists and turns for the arrangement of breaking out, but to break out directly from the west without giving Fan Zeng and Xiang Yu time to react. After all, it was still the time when Xiang Yu listened to Fan Zeng the most. With the habits of these old demons,
Everything needs to be turned around three times in the head, then I will do the opposite and catch you off guard.
After working hard in the middle of the night, the Qin army finally prepared for the retreat, and all the soldiers on duty were gradually replaced by straw men wearing armor.
Of course, the night patrol soldiers were real, and each unit would not replace them until the last minute. However, the interval between night patrols was gradually lengthened. According to the agreement of several people, when retreating in the second half of the night, the interval would be gradually lengthened to two quarters of an hour, that is, half an hour. In this way, when the allied forces of the princes discovered it, at least half an hour had been bought for the army.
Sure enough, when retreating in the second half of the night, the Chu army also arranged soldiers to carry out a night attack, but was repelled by the Qin army that had been waiting for it.
At the middle of the Yin hour, the Zhao army in the east finally discovered that something was wrong with Shejian's camp. Chen Yu immediately sent troops to attack tentatively. Who knew that they suddenly broke into Shejian's camp, but found that the camp was empty except for some wounded soldiers.
Chen Yu, who was furious, sent people to report to the Chu army camp, and at the same time sent people to advance along the Qin army camp towards Wang Li's camp. However, before leaving Shejian camp, his army was caught off guard by the Qin army's crossbowmen. When he tried his best to break through the Qin army formation blocking him, he found that there were only thousands of wounded soldiers blocking his army. However, because they were hiding behind various barricades and trenches and using gongnu to block them, they caused considerable losses to the Zhao army.
When the Shejian camp began to engage in battle, the Qin army in the Sujiao camp to the west also suddenly launched an attack on the Wei army camp. Under the cover of Huangfu Chaobo's 1,000 Yuanrong crossbowmen, Sujiao's troops launched a fierce attack on the Wei army camp.
The art of war says: Do not stop the returning army. At this time, the Qin soldiers were like tigers coming down from the mountains. The Wei army, caught off guard, only lasted less than a quarter of an hour before the front camp was broken by the Qin army. The generals of the Wei army urgently transferred troops from the central army to prepare for support, while sending people to the Han army camp for help. Who knew that before the central army reinforcements set off, there were earth-shaking shouts of killing from the rear camp, and then there was fire in the rear camp.
The sudden change made the generals of the Wei army stunned. The front and rear camps were all asking for help, but they had less than 40,000 soldiers in total. But now there were more than 10,000 Qin soldiers in the barracks, and there was no telling how many there were in the front camp. So, he was suddenly confused. Which direction should he send reinforcements to, or should he just stay in the center and wait for reinforcements from the Korean army?