With a "bang", Yuchi Jing kicked over the desk and walked back and forth in the tent angrily. The generals in the tent dared not let out because the coach is in a very bad mood now. If he is not careful and provokes the other party, he will be in great trouble.

"Hongnong has so many defenders! He was just earned into the city and occupied the granary! He occupied the city."

"Hundreds of thousands of hu of food are finished like this! That is the army's food for several months, it's finished like this!"

"Incompetent, waste! Even Hongnong can't defend it!"

Yuchi Jing roared, his face turned pale, and his emotions were very excited. The generals were naughty and didn't know how to persuade him, so they could only agree with the coach. At this moment, not only the coach got angry, but they were also very angry.

Early this morning, Hongnong reported to the direction of the defeated soldiers, saying that someone in the city had caused trouble last night, not only captured the granary but also captured the military camp. In the chaos, the defenders suffered heavy casualties and were defeated by the thieves and fled in all directions. Hongnong was already controlled by the other side.

This news is like a bolt from the blue for the generals of the government army who are attacking Tongguan, because most of the supply of food and grass in the entire army is supported by the Hongnong granary. If the grain reserves are only relied on the army, the next batch of food will not be supported.

Now that Hongnong has lost his life, even if he is taken back immediately, the other party will lit the granary with a fire before the city is broken, and the official army will face the dilemma of shortage of food when it enters the city.

Tens of thousands of troops, including the military and civilians, consume a lot of money by eating horses and chewing them. They have to eat more than 100,000 hu of grain every month. Without the support of Hongnong Grain Store, the battle would not be maintained at all.

The official army attacked Tongguan for several months, relying on Hongnong's grain storage to support huge consumption. The grain and grass transported from Henan to the east of Hongnong were also transferred through Hongnong, and most of them will be temporarily stored in the city's granary.

Now all is gone, where are the officials and soldiers eagerly allocating so much food?

According to the Hongnong defeated soldiers, the rebellion should be the Hongnong Yang family. The other party has been a major Hongnong clan since the Han Dynasty. It has a large clan and a large number of Tianke and tribes. Now that it has successfully occupied Hongnong City, the official army will probably find it difficult to recover the city in a while.

Although other counties in Shanzhou are still under the control of the court, Hongnong guards the food route, which means that the main food route of the official army outside Tongguan has been cut off. If the measures cannot be taken decisively, something may be wrong.

Seeing that the commander Yuchi Jing got angry, his anger was slightly reduced. Some generals quickly came out to offer suggestions. Their opinion was that once the food supply was cut off, the army would be in chaos, so they quickly mobilized some troops and civilians to cross the Yellow River.

The official army camp is located in the eastern suburbs of Tongguan, with the Yellow River to the north, and the opposite of the river is Fenglingjin. The official army also has camps in Fenglingjin, and there are floating bridges between the north and south banks. If you cross the river now, you can set off immediately.

Fengling Daying has stored grain, which is the grain transported from the Heyang General Administration west of Fenglingjin. The amount is far less than that of Hongnong’s stored grain, but at least it can help the army for a period of time, and stabilize people’s hearts while helping the emergency.

The generals made such suggestions because since the enemy can plan to attack Hongnong and succeed, they think there will be a later move. The floating bridge connecting the north and south sides of the Yellow River is most likely to be the next target of the other party.

The Yongzhou Army stationed in Tongguan is located upstream of the official army's floating bridge. As long as the other party releases a fire boat to burn the floating bridge, as long as the bridge is broken, the official army on the south bank will lose foreign food and grass supply, and it will be out of food in just a while.

At that time, the morale of the army will be in chaos and the enemy will take the opportunity to attack again. Maybe everyone will be ruined, so we must quickly transfer some troops to cross the river to reduce the pressure on the food supply on the south bank and appropriately reduce the troops to avoid crowding when withdrawing troops from behind.

Regarding this suggestion, Yuchi Jing replied: "If the weather is cold today and the water flows less and less in the Yellow River, it is impossible to say that the river surface will freeze after a while, so it doesn't matter whether there is a floating bridge or not."

"Mainstead, although the air is cold today, when will the Yellow River be frozen? I'm afraid no one knows what to do, if so..."

"Then build a new pontoon bridge downstream, just in case."

Yuchi Jing said this, but in fact he had already expressed his attitude: I want to persuade me to withdraw my troops? There is no way!

The generals' suggestions just now were actually very tactful. On the surface, it was suggested that some troops be transferred to eat after crossing the river to reduce the food and grass consumption of the officials on the south bank. In fact, it was to advise Yuchi Jing to make plans early and retreat quickly if it was time to retreat, otherwise he would not be able to leave.

What is the most difficult battle to fight? It is the general who retreats in front of the enemy and can calmly complete the retreat in front of the enemy. Even if it is not a first-class general, it is almost the same.

The difficulty of retreating in front of the enemy lies in who will cut off the rear. If the enemy's army is powerful, the number of troops that cut off the rear cannot be small. These troops are actually going to die, because after they cover their comrades withdrew, no one will cover them to retreat, and the enemy will not let them go.

Therefore, when the enemy retreats, even if the arrangements are made appropriately at the beginning, the army responsible for the severance of the rear will be basically defeated soon after the battle, which will lead to the entire army being chased by the enemy and being defeated like a mountain.

In the current situation, if the official army wants to retreat, they can only retreat to the north bank of the Yellow River. Now the Yellow River has not been frozen yet. If you want to cross the river, you can only take a boat or take a pontoon bridge. However, there are only two pontoon bridges, and tens of thousands of troops and civilians cannot cross the river safely in a short period of time.

At that time, the enemy will take advantage of the situation to cover up the killing, and someone will probably be squeezed into the Yellow River and drowned, not to mention that once the floating bridge is burned, the official army on the south bank will be cut off again and will not be able to leave. It is impossible to eliminate the entire army by then.

Many generals mean that they must make a quick decision and save the army first. The official army moved to the north bank and left elite troops to establish villages on the south bank, so that the Tongguan defenders could not attack and support Hongnong.

It is safe to ensure that the main force of the army is not lost, but also to buy time for friendly forces to recover Hongnong. This is a safe plan. Yuchi Jing is not unaware of it, but in this way, the fighter will be gone. I don’t know when the next time will be there.

The opportunity cannot be missed, and no more mistakes will come. Yuchi Jing has already taken the small pass, and it is not far from breaking through Tongguan.

That night, the government army set up an ambush and captured all the enemy troops who had sneaked out of the Xiaoguan. Then he asked the order and sent elite troops to pretend to be the elite Yongzhou army to "return the same way", earning the door and successfully seizing the Xiaoguan.

After the plan was successful, Yuchi Jing immediately increased his troops to Xiaoguan, preparing to go around Tongguan and attack him with something. At this time, news of Hongnong's loss came.

In this way, there are two choices before Yuchi Jing: the entire army immediately retreats to the north bank of the Yellow River, or breaks through Tongguan before the food is exhausted.

Retreat now means that the offensive has failed for several months. He and his brother Yuchi Qin have been working for a long time, but in the end they are in vain. Once Yuwen recovers, they may not be able to attack Guanzhong again.

Another option is to take a gamble. As long as you take down Tongguan, Guanzhong will be shaken and people will be in chaos. Those families that are swaying from side to side will completely abandon the Yuwen family and the overall situation will be settled.

Yuchi Jing learned in detail about the current situation of grain storage in the military camp. His side could last for about ten days by retaining grain. So as long as Tongguan is broken during this period, all problems will be solved.

Even if the food is cut off as soon as Tongguan is captured, it doesn't matter, because it can still transport some food and grass to the south bank by relying on the Fenglingjin River Bridge. Although Fenglingjin is separated from Pujin in the upper reaches, it is less than a hundred miles away.

It is not difficult for Pujin's friendly troops to send ships to Tongguan downstream. If it were other generals, Yuchi Jing would be worried that the other party would do anything badly. In order to compete for me, he deliberately blocked the food, so that he could not continue to march due to lack of food. But now his brother is in Pujin, so this kind of thing would not happen.

So, the conquering Tongguan is about to be imminent, do you ask me to withdraw my troops?

Yuchi Jing focused on the overall situation and hoped to seize the opportunity to conquer Tongguan as soon as possible, and never give Yuwen a chance to breathe. Therefore, even if his own losses are greater, it doesn't matter. He thought it very clearly. The gap between the family will be discussed in the future. The most important thing is to kill the external enemies first.

The Erzhu family had intrigue before the powerful enemy Gao Huan was resolved. The consequence was that the Zhuerzhu family's children each held their own troops to watch, and they were defeated one by one by one by the other party, and then they could not escape.

Yuchi Jing did not want his family to repeat the same mistakes, so he had to put the overall situation first. Even if he suffered heavy losses, his brother Yuchi Qin had the elite troops in Bingzhou and was not afraid of being taken advantage of by the Wang family.

The concubine of Shu was not only partial to her two sons, but also to her family. The son of Yuchi worked hard to lay a foundation, but actually made the mediocre Wang's children benefit a lot.

Yuchi Jing couldn't swallow this, just like his brother, and he would have to settle the score sooner or later, but not now.

Let’s talk about the future. Yuchi Jing disagreed with the opposition and chose to take risks and break through Tongguan before the food was cut off. However, he also adopted the suggestions of the generals to build a new floating bridge just in case, and then sent troops to Hongnong to prevent the situation from worsening.

Of course, the most important thing is to increase troops to small passes, and at the same time, step up the frontal attack on Tongguan, and strive to break through this Guanzhong portal as soon as possible and give Yuwen a fatal blow.

After abstaining from anger, Yuchi Jing quickly completed the deployment. When the generals dispersed, he wrote a letter asking his confidant to send it to Pujin. As soon as Yuchi Jing learned of the news of Hongnong's loss, he sent someone to Pujin to report. Now, he still has to discuss some key things with his brother.

As the situation develops to the present, one thing is beyond the expectations of Yuchi Qin and Yuchi Jing, that is, their niece, Wang Yuwen Wen of Xiyang, rushed back from the distant Lingbiao, and became a disruptor, causing the situation to get out of control.

However, Yuwen Wen's heroic performance in a certain direction could not reverse the overall disadvantage of Yuwen's family. Yuchi Jing planned to discuss with Yuchi Qin how to divide his troops after attacking Guanzhong so as to stabilize the situation in Guanzhong as soon as possible.

By then, the Yuwen family will only be left with Shannan and Xinfu Ba, Xiang and Jiangzhou, and will be finished sooner or later.

Their brothers sit in Hedong and Guanzhong, and then support Yuchi Shun, who is in Yecheng, with great fanfare, and at that time, Yuchi Dun will not ignore the opinions on family matters.

The concubine... No, by then, she may be the queen mother, and she cannot unscrupulously promote the Wang family's children to take advantage of the Yuchi family.

But that was the future. Yuchi Jing was concerned about Xiaoguan now. He turned out the big tent, looked southward, and watched the army exit the camp and headed south. This was the reinforcement of Xiaoguan's troops, which not only guarded the pass, but also repelled the enemy.

Then, there were already troops stationed with Xiaoguan to encircle Tongguan.

After learning that Xiaoguan had changed hands, the Yongzhou army immediately transferred its troops to try to retake the pass. However, the terrain in the Xiaoguan area was a bit broken and was not suitable for the large-scale development of the army. Yuchi Jing sent a team to guard Xiaoguan and successfully repelled the opponent's several invasions.

And next, it’s time for them to take the initiative!

......

Li Mulin has now experienced the life of a mouse in the cave on his own. He couldn't stretch his legs and feet as much as possible, let alone eating, drinking, defecating and urinating in the cave. All kinds of smells made him feel bad.

Of course, no matter how smelly the feces and urine he was, he had long been used to it. The key is that the smell from the cesspool outside could smell it even if it was blocked. Whenever he ate dry food, he would feel nauseous and even vomited.

Fortunately, the stench pit was stenching around the sky, and people outside would not notice that there would be people in the wall. The enemy soldiers who occupied the small pass were only concerned with defending against the Yongzhou soldiers who were invading the west, but unexpectedly, there was a Yongzhou soldier in the wall next to the stench pit.

Li Mulin seems to be 35 years old this year. The reason why he said it was because his parents died since childhood, so he couldn't remember when he was born. Fortunately, the neighbors helped him. He grew up eating a hundred-storey meals, wearing a hundred-storey clothes, and then joined the army.

After fighting for many years, he made some small contributions, saved money and returned the kindness of his neighbors. Later, he married a wife and had a son. Although he was still an ordinary soldier and lived a tight life, he was a family at least.

With a family and a son, Li Mulin had thoughts. When he went to the battlefield, he no longer rushed forward stupidly. He did everything to make contributions, but instead tried to save his life. He wanted to go home alive. As the pillar of the family, if he died, his family would collapse.

So, at that time, should we ignite the fire?

Taking advantage of the sunlight leaking from the cracks in the wall, Li Mulin looked at the fire sickle in his hand. This was a gadget that could make fire. It consists of flint, iron sickle, and fern. Li Mulin was able to use the fire sickle skillfully and ignite the fire in a short time.

Then ignite the fire twist, and the fire twist ends...

Thinking of this, Li Mulin shivered, and the fire sickle in his hand almost landed on the ground. The space of the wall he was hiding was small and the light was poor. If the fire sickle really fell to the ground, it would take some time to pick it up.

Or, just pretend that the scythe fell and couldn't be found?

A thought flashed through Li Mulin's mind. This thought had appeared several times. Coupled with the strong family-losing mood, Li Mulin was less and less willing to die. Even though Shangguan promised that he would have generous pensions at the time, he would not care about it now.

He just wanted to live, go home alive, live with his wife and children. If he died, his wife remarried with a pension, and his son was named after his stepfather, then what was he?

What is "stand up", no one burns incense and worships me even if I die!

When Li Mulin thought of his wife remarrying and his son following his stepfather's surname, he was bleeding. This time the enemy easily captured Xiaoguan. Of course, it was not because of his own negligence, but because Shangguan set up a trap to kill all these people.

A large number of thunder were buried in the ground inside the pass. As long as the ignition was ignited, all the troops stationed in the pass would be gone.

This is a vicious plan, and a dead soldier needs to "stand up" and hide somewhere in the pass. When the time comes, it will ignite the fire, detonate the sky thunder, and die with the enemy.

The dead soldier would hide with dry food, waiting for a harsh sound of horns to come outside, and then use a scythe to ignite the fire twister. His family would have generous pensions, including 200 acres of fertile land.

The selection of dead soldiers was carried out in secret, and Li Mulin became the candidate. He was unwilling to do so, but he did not dare to disobey Shangguan's will. He was also worried that his family would be implicated, so he could only grit his teeth and pat his chest to agree.

The reason why Shangguan chose him was that he had a family and performed well on weekdays; the other was that he never snores when he was sleeping, and even if he was tired, he would not snore after falling asleep. In this way, even if he hid in the wall, he would not be exposed because of snoring.

So, Li Mulin became a dead soldier, hiding in the wall next to a cesspool in the Nei Camp in Xiaoguan, waiting to hear the harsh trumpet outside, detonating the sky thunder, and dying with everyone in Xiaoguanzhong.

In this way, the official army can turn defeat into victory, and his family will receive 200 acres of fertile land and generous pensions.

My wife will definitely remarry after taking the pension and fertile land. My son will follow his stepfather's surname and no one will worship me!

The more Li Mulin thought about it, the more excited he became. His breathing began to be rapid. Then a voice came from outside the wall: "Ouch! Why are you gasping for a lot of shit? How hard is that shit?"

Another voice sounded: "Who are you talking about? Who is breathing heavily? Who is your shit hard!"

It turned out that the two enemy soldiers who were shitting in the pit heard the movement inside the wall and began to wonder. Li Mulin was shocked and shut up quickly. He didn't want to die, so he must not expose his position, otherwise he would be done.

But hiding in the wall is not the same as the amount of dry food he brought is limited, and it will be gone for two days at most, so he has to come out of the wall and be captured at that time.

Thinking of this, a sudden flash of inspiration in Li Mulin's mind was that he felt better than surrender and confessed honestly. Maybe the enemy would be rewarded and his life would be saved.

Then I found a way to go home. As for whether his actions to surrender to the enemy at the last minute would implicate his family, it didn't matter: Yuchi's attacked Guanzhong and Yuwen's family was finished, so how could he have to settle the score with his family?
To be continued...