『PS: Happy New Year everyone~』

————The following text——

Is there any general who can compete with the Chu general Xiang Mo and Xiang Pei?

The answer is no.

Therefore, after the beginning of spring this year, when Qi general Tian Dan led the three elite Qi troops of Jimo, Beihai and Langya withdrew from Lu and retreated to the land for corrections to prepare for a comprehensive decisive battle with the Chu army, Lu could only resist the Chu army's offensive alone, and the pressure increased dramatically.

I remember when Tian Dan was still in Ningyang, he used his three Qi troops to guard the important road from Ningyang to Qufu, the capital of Lu King. The Chu general Xiang Mo led his troops several times, but he failed to break through Tian Dan's blockade.

After Tian Dan and his troops retreated from Ningyang, the general guarding this place became the general "Ji Wu" of Lu. Tian Dan's previous defense line was suddenly broken through by Xiang Mo.

In just three or four days, Xiang Mo, the general of Chu State, pushed the front line to the upper branch of Sishui on the west side of Qufu - let's call it "Qushui".

This river, which is about fifteen feet wide, is already the last line of defense for the King of Lu. Once this river is broken through by the Chu army, the people of Lu can only rely on the city walls of Qufu to resist the Chu army's offensive and make the final desperate battle.

To be fair, the river water about fifteen feet is not called a natural barrier at all, especially when facing the Chu army with good water. Fortunately, although Lu lacks both generals who are good at fighting and brave soldiers, the mechanisms of Lu can have unexpected results in this defensive battle.

Now, taking advantage of the entire winter of last winter, Lu State vigorously built many war weapons, such as crossbows, mechanical crossbows, etc., which filled the Qushui River. Even the craftsmen of Lu State also learned from the Wei State's crossbows.

These war weapons became the biggest problem for the Chu army to attack Qushui.

On March 18, the Chu general Xiang Mo organized an offensive for the third time and prepared to attack Qushui.

"Dongdong-Dongdong-Dongdong-Dongdong-Dong-Dong-Dong-Dong-Dong-"

Amid the rumbling drums, thousands of Chu grain recruiters rushed to the river bank with the wooden boards needed to build the floating bridge.

However, at this time, on the other side of Qushui, the Lu army had launched crossbows and fired crossbows. The overwhelming arrows were pouring over the sky as if they were raining rain. In that scene, even though Xiang Mo had experienced many wars in his life, he felt his scalp numb.

It was nothing more, just because the volley of crossbows of the Lu army was so dense that even a bird might not be able to cross the Qushui defense line, let alone the soldiers of the Chu State.

"ah--"

“Ahhh—”

"I don't want to die..."

"Mother……"

On the west bank of Qushui, the Chu army's grain recruits fell on the river bank one after another, or fell halfway through the construction of the floating bridge, and turned over and fell down the river, and were swept downstream by the slightly turbulent river water. On this battlefield, the Chu army was killed and injured.

Of course, for the Chu army, the losses of recruiting troops from thousands or tens of thousands of grains can be completely negligible. Even at critical moments, even the main army of Chu can be used as victims of victory. This kind of war method that "losses one thousand of itself and only kills eight hundred enemies" has always been the characteristic of the Chu war.

But the problem is that in this battle to attack Qushui, the Chu army has reached the standard of "destroying one thousand of themselves", but "killing eight hundred enemies" is far away.

At this moment, General Xiang Mo of Chu State personally experienced the helpless feeling of the Qin army in the "Battle of Hangu" during the "Battle of Hangu" period: No matter how brave the army under your command is, I only use long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows to deal with you, so that you can't even touch the corners of our army's clothes.

This is the case now. In the face of the unreserved crossbow volley tactics of the Lu army, the Chu army not only suffered heavy casualties, but also made no progress.

As one of the newly promoted "Three Heavenly Pillars" of Chu State, Xiang Mo never imagined that one day he would lead his army to attack the weak Lu State and would fall into such a situation.

He never imagined that a river that was only a dozen feet wide would be as difficult as a natural chasm.

"General."

Xiang Mo's brave general "Miyu" came to the formation and held his fists and volunteered: "General, this is not a solution. Please allow General Mo to lead a regular army to attack and open up the situation for our army."

Hearing this, Xiang Mo glanced at Miyu, then turned his eyes on the battlefield again, and asked calmly: "Are you sure to break through the Lu army's defense line?"

"Uh." Miyu hesitated for a moment and whispered: "Only fight to the death!"

"..." Xiang Mo shook his head slightly and said lightly: "Since you are not sure, then go back..."

"General?!" Miyu opened his eyes wide and wanted to argue, but saw Xiang Mo glaring and shouting in a deep voice: "Get back!... When will the main army be sent? This general has his own responsibility, and it is not your turn to take his own decision!"

Miyu opened his mouth, but in the end he could not resist Xiang Mo's power and left the formation with a little annoyance.

After glanced at the back of Miyu leaving, Xiang Pei, the Xinyang Jun, chuckled and said, "This young man is so brave. After seeing the crossbow volley of Lu Jun, he not only did not have any timidity, but instead took the initiative to fight... It's a pity for such an outstanding boy to die here, right?"

Xiang Mo smiled faintly.

As Xiang Pei, the king of Xinyang, said, Xiang Mo, was so strict that he was careful of the talent of the young general, who stopped Miyu from leading his troops to attack, because he knew very well that in the face of the dense rain of arrows such as the Lu army, even if Miyu's martial arts are outstanding, his fate would probably not be much better than those who recruited soldiers with food.

You should know that the various war weapons of Lu were originally developed for the Chu army.

For example, the mechanical crossbow box. In the war between the Lu army and the Wei army, this weapon has fully proved that it has not much lethality to the soldiers of the Wei army, because most of the regular troops of the Wei State were covered with iron armor and holding iron shields. Their powerful defense ability could completely use shields to resist the Lu army's mechanical crossbow box. However, the Chu army's army could not do this. Most of the shields of the Chu army were made of wood, and the better ones were wrapped in a layer of cowhide. Therefore, facing the Lu army's mechanical crossbow box, a few crossbow arrows might be shot and the shield would be shot.

And even the food recruitment of soldiers who may not even have a shield, the Lu State's mechanism crossbow box is simply their nemesis.

After breathing a long sigh, Xiang Mo frowned and said, "The soldiers are starting to feel a little impetuous..."

"It's inevitable." Xinyang Jun Xiang Pei replied casually, then turned his eyes to the other side of the river.

On the other side of the Qushui River, deer antlers made of hardwood can be seen everywhere, one after another. After these deer antler defense areas, there are tall earth platforms, which are filled with crossbows of the State of Lu.

Even siege weapons like Jinglan are densely packed across the river.

To be honest, this kind of defensive position really makes people a little desperate.

"Damn Tian Dan!"

Xiang Mo couldn't help but curse again.

He knew very well that from winter to spring this year, it was precisely because Qi general Tian Dan in Ningyang that blocked his advancement that Lu had a whole winter to build various war weapons and build the defense line on Qushui as solid. If it weren't for Tian Dan's obstacles, Xiang Mo would have already captured Qufu at this moment.

You know, the beginning of the Chu army this time can be said to be 50% of the victory rate - Zhao Run, the prince of Wei, captured Ningyang for their Chu army, and left the city, which was only a few dozen miles away from the capital of Qufu, Lu, to them intact. What else should I do?

However, Tian Dan destroyed the advantages of the Chu army inherited from the Wei army and dragged the war here until the beginning of this year, giving Lu more than two months to arrange the defense line.

The most disgusting thing is that afterwards, Qi patted Tian Dan and left, leaving Xiang Mo to face the Qushui defense of Lu State. It was simply outrageous!

I believe that Xiang Mo's mood at this moment is quite similar to that after Tian Dan learned that Mr. Wei had confronted him for several months, he suddenly patted his butt and led his troops away.

After calming down, Xiang Mo whispered to Xinyang Jun Xiang Pei: "Defense like the Lu army cannot be long-term. When the arrows in his army are exhausted, it will be the time when our army captures Qushui."

Xinyang Jun Xiang Pei nodded in agreement.

In fact, they had frequently set out in recent days and were trying to cross Qushui. They were aware of the guilt and fear of Ji Wu, the general of the Lu army on the other side of the river. As long as the Chu army launched an offensive against Qushui, Ji Wu, the general of Lu, ordered the crossbow soldiers and war weapons in the defensive position to launch a volley, for fear that the Chu army would break through this line of defense.

Although this move did make it difficult for the Chu army to advance, the consumption of arrows on the Lu army was also extremely serious - after all, these arrows either shot to the other side of the river or fell into the river water, which was almost difficult to recover.

It is precisely this reason that Xiang Mo and Xiang Pei, who knew that they were almost impossible to break through the Qushui defense line of Lu's State, still persisted in attacking every day in order to consume the arrows of the Lu army.

After all, in terms of the number of arrows consumed by the Lu army in the past few days, even if the craftsmen in the entire Lu Kingdom work day and night to polish the arrows, they cannot keep up with the speed of consumption on the front line.

Once the crossbow arrows in the Lu army generals on the other side of the river are exhausted, haha, what awaits them will be a massacre by the Chu army.

Therefore, although Xiang Mo and Xiang Pei and the others are currently unable to defend the Qushui defense of Lu State, from the overall strategy, they seem to have seen the dawn of victory.

At the same time, on a ground platform about three miles away from the Qushui battlefield, Huan Hu, the former thief who had been in the new Lu Kingdom, was taking Chen Shou and Jin Gou to observe the battle up close.

"It's so stupid..."

Looking at the battlefield with both hands in his arms, Chen Shou frowned and said, "Don't he see that Ji Wu, isn't he deliberately consuming the crossbow arrows in his army?"

Hearing this, Huan Hu smiled and said, "I guess, Ji Wu was not unexpected. I don't think he was so stupid. He probably panicked... After all, this is the last line of defense of Lu. Once Qufu is broken, the young masters of the big family, like them, will probably be reduced to prisoners of Chu and lose everything... How can you not panic?"

After saying this, he secretly added in his heart: In fact, it was not just Ji Wu who was panicked in the face of the Chu army?

Before winter last year, Huan Hu had abandoned Pi County and crossed Weishan Lake with his Sui Yang army and entered Xuecheng.

Originally, he planned to garrison Xuecheng. On the one hand, he used the "Ji Yichang" to defend Xuecheng, "Ji Yichang" to repel the Chu main force led by the young master Yangcheng, Xiong Tuo. On the other hand, he would see if there was a chance to let Ji Yichang die at the hands of the Chu army, so that he could just occupy Xuecheng and become his stronghold in the Lu State.

But unexpectedly, before the beginning of spring this year, Huan Hu received an order from Qufu. The King of Lu and the Three Huans unanimously asked him to lead the soldiers under him to retreat and defend Lu County.

The Lu State had only two counties, one was Lu County and the other was Xue County. The land area was not much larger than that of Wei State. Now, the King of Lu and the Three Huans unanimously asked him to lead his troops to retreat and defend Lu County. This clearly told him that Xue County was likely to be abandoned.

After realizing this, Huan Hu had to give up his original plan and honestly led his soldiers to retreat to Lu County. After all, he did not want to face the hundreds of thousands of troops of Xiong Tuo, the king of Chuyang City, alone when the whole country of Lu adopted conservative defensive tactics.

After watching for a while, Huan Hu chuckled and said, "No matter what, the Chu army can't capture Qushui today, and it will be of no use to continue watching. Go back."

Chen Shou and Jin Gou nodded, followed Huan Hu down the Tutai, and then returned to Qufu.

Back in Qufu, Huan Hu brought Chen Shou to the Palace of Lu and presented him to the King of Lu and Duke Shu Pan.

After seeing Prince Lu, Duke Pan, the monarch of Lu could not wait to ask Huan Hu: "General Huan Hu, what is the situation in Qushui?"

Huan Hu told King Lu truthfully the result of the two armies he saw in Qushui Defense, and pointed out: "Although the Chu army is difficult to surpass Qushui at the moment, as far as I see, the troops under General Ji Wu's command, arrows, crossbows, etc. are probably consumed extremely heavily. If this continues, it will not last long..."

Hearing this, Prince Lu Shu Pan said with a sad face and said sadly: "What should I do?... What is General Huan Hu's opinion?"

Before Huan Hu could speak, Chen Shou said in a deep voice: "King Lu, Chen believes that at this time, he only takes the initiative to attack..."

King Lu Shu Pan turned his head to look at Chen Shou, but he didn't know whether it was because of Chen Shou's name "King of Lu" or because of the latter's "take the initiative".

"Take the initiative?" King Lu frowned and looked at Chen Shou, as if waiting for the following text.

Seeing this, Chen Shou said seriously: "Chen only knows that "it will lead to a loss after a long period of time", but he has never heard of it. Passive defense alone can win..."

King Lu opened his mouth and murmured: "This sentence seems a bit familiar..."

Chen Shou smiled faintly and said calmly: "This is the remarks of His Highness, the Crown Prince of Great Wei."

"Yes, yes." King Lu nodded, and all the contacts with Zhao Hongrun flashed in his mind, and he said with a little melancholy: "Young Master Wei is indeed a commander who advocates active attack. Even if he can only defend due to the situation, he is always waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, but..." He raised his head and said with a wry smile: "But the national conditions of Wei State are different from our country. Our country does not have the elite and brave soldiers like the Wei army. Even if he is determined to fight back, he is still not capable of it."

This is true. After all, during these years, whenever Qi organized an expedition to Chu, the army of Lu could not be said to be purely a army responsible for logistics, but it is far from fighting hard on the front line.

In the war in which Qi cooperated with Qi to attack Chu in the past 30 years, the soldiers of Lu almost only operated various war weapons in the central position, and rarely fought with the Chu army with real swords and guns.

An army that has long been used to this war model, now you want it to take the initiative to attack the Chu camp. Isn’t this a force to force it?

You should know that without the assistance of various war weapons, both the Qi army and the Lu army will inevitably be greatly reduced. Could it be that the generals of Lu will still have to bring those heavy war weapons to attack the Chu army?
To be continued...