Chapter 12: Meteor Rain

The two of them cooperated very well in doubles, and a large amount of charcoal and grain were transported by boat from the south bank to the north bank.

Seeing this fact, Beichen's soldiers and generals were stunned.

After the military advisor Xie Chong sighed repeatedly, he raised his hands and said: "I thought I had some knowledge and wisdom. But today it seems that I am not even comparable to Your Highness."

Zhou Shengchen quickly held his arm and said: "Military advisors must not be too humble. Without your guidance, how could I have such a bold idea?!"

Returning to the main tent, Zhou Shengchen issued a general order: "The military advisor will stay at the main camp, not only to guard against the attack of the Nan Xiao Navy on the south bank, but also to expedite the supply of logistics."

Xie Chong quickly asked: "If the old minister stays here, what will Your Highness do?"

"I am going to assist Ruyin County. We must win it before spring!" Zhou Shengchen's tone was firm.

After pondering, Xie Chong said again: "I would like to follow His Highness."

"The weather is cold now, and the fighting there is fierce. Whether it is for the health of the military advisor or for your safety, I cannot let you take risks."

When Xie Chong wanted to say something else, Zhou Shengchen then said gently: "I compare the military advisor to Xiao He, but the military advisor is Han Xin?"

Happy by his words, Xie Chong smiled and held his hands in his arms and said: "Your Highness is brave and brave. The old ministers should provide support and dispatch from the rear."

"Even if you stay in the military camp, the military advisors must not be overworked and must not imitate Zhuge Kongming. From now on, punishments ranging from beheading to beheading in the army can be handled by General Gan Huagan." Zhou Shengchen said immediately.

Xie Chong still wanted to argue, so Gan Hua hurriedly came forward and saluted and said, "Thank you, Your Highness, for your cultivation, and thank you, the military advisor, for your advice!"

Xie Chong couldn't say anything else, so he could only praise and said: "Those who follow His Highness are all young heroes."

"The military advisor also knows that everyone is still young, so he needs to give more guidance." Zhou Shengchen said immediately, "General Gan will temporarily take over the post of military commander from now on. He must learn more from the military advisor."

Gan Hua responded again, and Xie Chong stroked his beard and nodded in approval.

Everything was ready here, and Zhou Shengchen immediately led 200,000 soldiers, took advantage of the darkness to leave the base camp, and rushed towards Ruyin County in the northeast.

Passing through Yiyang County first, Zhou Shengchen met Hong Xiaoyu, who was out of the city to pay a visit, at the camp outside the city.

Chen told how he captured Yiyang County, and Hong Xiaoyu raised his hand and begged, "Please let the general follow your highness and wipe out Ruyin County!"

Waving his hand, Zhou Shengchen said with a smile: "I am most at ease if you guard here. As for Ruyin County and Huaiyang County, they will be conquered in the near future."

Hong Xiaoyu knew that guarding the newly occupied city would have to face many tasks, so he had no choice but to accept the order: "Bury, diagnose and treat the dead and wounded soldiers; appease the common people inside and outside the city; arrange the original and current officials, and finally the generals" You must strictly abide by His Highness’ orders!”

She spoke clearly and clearly, and Zhou Shengchen felt very pleased: "General Hong is indeed a heroine, and together with General Feng, we can be called the pride of the army!"

Hong Xiaoyu felt happy and bowed again to express his thanks.

Zhou Shengchen divided some grain, grass and charcoal to stay, and then led his troops to Ruyin County.

At this time, it was Xu Zheng and Zhang Xiaoheng who were attacking Ruyin County. The two of them were worried because they encountered an enemy who was stubbornly resisting and their own side was in a dilemma of lack of food and grass.

They were immediately encouraged when they learned that King Xiao Nanchen personally led the army.

"We will continue to boost morale, and we must capture this damn city before His Highness arrives!" After Zhang Xiaoheng said this, he picked up a sharp long sword and was about to attack the city again.

Xu Zheng hesitated and said: "Although morale is useful, it is not as useful as waiting for His Highness to arrive in person."

When Zhang Xiaoheng was about to forcefully attack the enemy as the commander-in-chief of several generals, a scout hurried into the tent to report: "His Highness ordered the two generals not to be impatient for the time being, and wait until he arrives to discuss the matter."

The two men immediately obeyed the order and first mobilized the soldiers and generals besieging the city, first ensuring that the enemy would not break through.

That night, the two generals were inspecting the camp separately when they suddenly heard a continuous sound of restlessness coming from the northeast corner.

Screaming secretly, Zhang Xiaoheng ordered Xu Zheng to guard the camp, and he hurried over with the soldiers.

Sure enough, an enemy force of several thousand people came from the Huaiyang County area in the east, hoping to break through the royal army besieging the city and enter the city to coordinate defense with the rebels.

Zhang Xiaoheng ordered people to find out clearly and immediately led his soldiers to fight back.

The two sides started a bloody battle in the dark night. After the enemy soldiers in the city learned about it, they also sent hundreds of death squads out of the city. Xu Zheng quickly led his troops to stop the attack.

Inside and outside the city of Ruyin County, there was a chaotic killing spree.

The enemy soldiers defending the city had been surrounded for a long time, and their food and grass were basically cut off. They thought that they could either fight to the death and take this opportunity to repel the king's army, or they could simply abandon the city and flee to Huaiyang County.

Seeing the loud shouts of killing outside the city, the enemy general who defended the city cruelly ordered: Get out of the city to receive reinforcements!

Because these enemy soldiers are fighting to the death, their momentum can be described as ferocious.

Xu Zheng and Zhang Xiaoheng suddenly seemed to be in a hurry because they suddenly accepted the challenge and because they were not familiar with geography.

Just when they were feeling anxious, they suddenly heard a continuous muffled sound of huge thunder from the horizon.

The soldiers on both sides couldn't help but be frightened by such a noise in this dark night. Later, tens of thousands of people came to their senses: Where did the thunder come from in winter? This is the sound of thousands of troops stamping on the earth!

This is like the sound of a god beating a huge drum, making it difficult for both the enemy and us to distinguish whether it is an enemy or a friend.

"Clarify the world, anyone who stands in my way will die!" Continuous loud shouts came, making Xu Zheng, Zhang Xiaoheng and other Wang Jun soldiers excited in the dark night.

"The royal army has arrived! His Highness has arrived in person!" They told each other one after another, and their infinite courage arose.

If King Xiao Nanchen had not come in person, so many war horses would not have appeared at the same time. After the enemy heard clearly, they immediately ran like wolves and squirrels, and their wails echoed through the dark night wilderness: "It's him who's coming! King Xiao Nanchen is here!"

When the enemy army wanted to return to Ruyin County's city at night, they found that several city gates were all brightly lit with fire.

In the light and shadow, there are countless vanguard cavalry of the Wang Army!

The enemy could see clearly, and it was useless to regret going out of the city to receive reinforcements at this time. They had no choice but to beg God to allow them to fight their way out and escape.

The fighting continued in the dark night, and the roars and wailings were endless. This is the struggle to get rid of the old and welcome the new, and this is also the inevitable process of stabilizing the world. The hopes of the enemy soldiers disappeared as the sky gradually turned brighter.

There is always hope. But if everything can be realized, it is no longer hope.

When the dawn sky, which represented hope, descended on this vast wilderness, thousands of rebels had turned into cold corpses, lying in disorder on the roads, ravines, and beside the woods and grass.

The rising sun is like blood. Zhou Shengchen is covered in iron armor and holds a long sword dripping with blood.

A drop of blood fell on the tip of the grass, immediately melting the frost covering the night.

Zhou Shengchen raised the long knife in his hand and shouted loudly: "You are fighting with blood, what do you mean?"

Countless Wang Jun shouted in unison: "May our people in Beichen live and work in peace and contentment, and the smoke from cooking fires in the world stretch for thousands of miles!"

The sound of this question and answer shook the wilderness, and the heaven and earth became clear.

Xu Zheng was left here, settled according to the pattern of Yiyang County, and after reorganizing the surrounding counties, villages and towns, Zhou Shengchen immediately led the army and rushed directly to Huaiyang County.

Lu Wanshan fought many times with the rebels defending the enemy here, and the two sides fell into a stalemate for a while.

When news of the fall of Ruyin County came, the defenders of Huaiyang County were immediately frightened and all the soldiers in the camp outside the city returned to the city, hoping to hold on for a long time until reinforcements arrived.

The 200,000 troops led by Zhou Shengchen surged in, spreading everywhere like a glacier meeting the beginning of spring.

The defenders on the city were horrified, but they always thought that with the high walls of the city, Zhou Shengchen's troops would be able to hold off the king's army since they were short of food from afar.

Zhou Shengchen was sitting in the camp, and the officials and generals were talking about suggestions for attacking the city.

"Our previous soldiers may be tired. Starting from tomorrow, each unit will rest for ten days, and then take turns to attack the city!" He gave the order.

The generals looked at each other and anxiously came forward and saluted and said: "Your Highness, please give the order now! We always have a large number of reinforcements arriving, and they will definitely be able to destroy the city with one blow!"

Looking at the excited generals, Zhou Shengchen first nodded in approval, and then smiled indifferently: "The king's army is certainly powerful, but I don't want the lives of the king's soldiers to be wasted by those bastards!"

The generals were about to argue again, and Zhou Shengchen immediately revealed his plan, which caused cheers to reappear in the tent.

The enemy troops guarding the city were originally trembling with fear, fearing that the royal army would rush to the city at any time. But for many days in a row, they only saw the king's army camping far away, just standing there.

Thinking that maybe the king's army was short of food, the mood of defending the enemy improved slightly. They prayed that the king's army's supplies would come slower and their own reinforcements would come faster. Or, let the weather get warmer as soon as possible, so that the nearby rivers can swell and plunge the king's army into swamps and mud.

Their expectations were delusional after all. More than ten days later, the king's army divided into dozens of groups and slowly approached their city.

This momentum was already frightening, and the enemy defenders were even more shocked to find that hundreds of catapults were arriving surrounded by the soldiers of the royal army, either lifting or pushing them to the ground.

The defending enemy was immediately frightened, but they did not dare to go out of the city to disperse the large number of royal troops. They could only watch the opponent stop in the distance and assemble the catapult in an orderly manner.

Several wooden stakes were erected, huge rubber ropes were tied, and piles of stones of various sizes were delivered to the catapult by carts and carriages.

The defending general had no choice but to shout in horror: "Tell us to take shelter everywhere!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the royal army outside the city seemed to have heard the order and began to throw stones.

Lighter stones weigh twenty or thirty kilograms, and heavy stones weigh up to one hundred or ten kilograms. These stone shells were like meteorite rain, drawing parabolas of destruction in the sky, flying from the catapult to the city head of Huaiyang County.

When the stones reached the city head, the defenders did not even take precautions to hide. Even the guard who hid in the tower widened his eyes in fear as he saw stones being thrown in one after another.

Because of the large number of the king's army, the actions of repairing catapults and leather ropes, collecting stones, and throwing stones were carried out in an orderly manner.

Outside the city, it was like a group of robots operating, just repeating the same actions silently; while on the city, and even the defenders inside the city, they could only resist these stones with their flesh and blood.

From morning to night, there may be more or less of these stone cannonballs, but they never stop. Such continuous heavy blows are irresistible to the lives and psychology of the enemy defenders in the city.

In just one day, the city ultimatums all over the city were beaten to pieces. It was said that emergency repairs were needed, but during the day, shells came at any time, and at night, as long as a torch was lit, rocks would still fly towards the light.

The general was mentally unbearable. He reluctantly supervised his subordinates until dawn. It was daybreak, and such a blow was as usual.

Black rocks kept flying in. The guard wanted to retreat into the city to hide, but he was worried that if he left, his subordinates would immediately disperse and surrender to King Xiao Nanchen.

He had no choice but to huddle in the tower, and the guard burned incense and prayed: The royal army outside the city could no longer find any stones! Or maybe all the catapults were destroyed!

Such expectations are certainly useless. Hundreds of thousands of Wang's troops were mobilized by Zhou Shengchen in an orderly manner. It was very easy to do these things.

At noon on the third day, the guard rarely saw that the meteorite rain had stopped. He quickly walked out of the tower and saw stones everywhere and wounded soldiers who were wailing.

More soldiers in Flesh Mold Lake could no longer make a sound and had long since died.

The guard general had no choice but to suppress his fear and ordered the soldiers to quickly clear the city and take advantage of this rare interval to eat and drink.

He also had bowel rumblings in his stomach, and he walked back to the tower with a sigh. Soldiers had already done the cleaning here - the smaller stones were moved away, while the larger stones had to be left in place in a mess.

The tables, chairs and benches were all smashed to pieces. The guard simply found a big stone and sat down with a wry smile. He took a steamed cake from the attendant and ate it hungrily.

"Here we go again! Here we go again!"

Soldiers from all over the city were shouting in panic, looking for possible shelter.

The guard had not yet swallowed the steamed cake in his mouth. When he turned to look from the hole in the tower to the top of the city, he saw a stone weighing more than twenty kilograms flying accurately towards him!

With a "pop" sound, the guard put his mangled head on the ground without even saying a word.

His general was frightened at first, and then as if he had been prepared for such a situation, he risked his life and ran quickly to the city.

He pulled out a piece of white cloth from the secret place in the corner, and then picked it up with a long gun he picked up next to him.

The white cloth immediately fluttered in the wind, and the general shouted loudly: "The governor is dead, and we are ordered to surrender to King Xiao Nanchen!"

He shouted several times in succession, and the other soldiers understood immediately, and each found white silk cloth, made it into a surrender flag, and waved it again and again.

Wang Jun outside the city saw it and immediately reported it to Zhou Shengchen.

When he reached the catapult, Zhou Shengchen looked up and saw countless white flags flying under the bright white sun.

Raising his right arm, he stopped the soldier from continuing to throw stones.

"Order the enemy to discard their weapons and line up out of the city to be reorganized!" Zhou Shengchen ordered.

Lu Wanshan had been full of anger recently. Although he had a catapult to relieve his hatred, it was difficult for him to arrange the matter himself.

He immediately took the order and galloped out of the camp on horseback.

Zhang Xiaoheng quickly followed with a large group of troops.

Rushing to the bottom of the city, Lu Wanshan shouted loudly: "Come out of the city and surrender!"