Although these words were said a little late, Sun Hao was still moved. He quickly stood up and bowed, saying, "How can I bear the Second Prince's words? Now we share the same hatred and the enemy. The only correct way is to strive to lead the entire army to retreat safely, and then fight the enemy to avenge the humiliation after accumulating strength..."
Zheng Yu nodded vigorously and replied, "General, this is a wise saying. But retreating with the whole army may not be an easy thing. If we want to leave here and go to Jinling now, we have Qiu Yizhi, the little thief, harassing us in front of us, and we are afraid that there are still tens of thousands of soldiers guarding the city who will rush out of the city to chase us. It is really difficult to take care of both ends!"
Sun Hao thought for a moment and said, "Although this matter is difficult to handle, it is not completely impossible. I remember when the Prince of Lingnan first entered Lingnan Road and attacked the barbarian strongholds that refused to obey the imperial court's teachings, he also encountered such occasional small defeats. I remember that the prince did this at the time..."
The next day, the lifeless siege camp in Shanyin County suddenly became agitated. The soldiers who had originally surrounded the small county town gathered one after another and assembled at the northeast corner of the city. The camp also took out all the stored food and let the soldiers have a full meal.
Zhang Qi, who was guarding the city, had already noticed the unusual movements of the Lingnan Army below the city. He thought that they would launch a large-scale offensive with such a large fanfare, and might even attack Shanyin County with their entire army. So he quickly sent out an order to all the defenders in the city to gather in the northeast direction of the city where the enemy troops were gathered, and to resist the enemy's full-scale attack.
As expected, after eating and drinking their fill, the Lingnan army under the city immediately formed a team to attack Shanyin County from the northeast. The momentum and strength of their attack far exceeded any previous attack.
Zhang Qi did not dare to be negligent at all. He threw down the boulders, wooden sticks and other objects that he had prepared long ago without hesitation, using all his strength to block the enemy's attack.
The Lingnan army under the city also mustered their strength. Even the commander-in-chief Zheng Yu personally braved the arrows and stones to supervise the battle under the city, showing an attitude of determination to win.
Qiu Yizi, who was far away in the mountains outside the county, was also alarmed by the huge noise. He quickly gathered 18 personal guards and climbed up to a sentry post facing the county to look into the distance. As expected, he saw that the Lingnan Army's attack was very fierce and Shanyin County was already in danger.
Qiu Yizhi was a little surprised, and hurriedly called over the "Black Neck Toad" and said, "Send a message to Zhao Chengxiao and Wu Changxi, and tell them to reorganize the army immediately. I'm going to lift the siege of Shanyin County!"
Black Neck Toad heard the military order, but before he could agree, he heard someone say, "Wait a minute! Sir, your order is wrong."
Qiu Yizi has always been a man of his word in the army, and he has led the troops in battles with more victories than defeats. Therefore, no one in the army has ever dared to refute Qiu Yizi's orders in public. Even the "Black-necked Toad" curiously poked his head out to see who had dared to speak so arrogantly just now.
However, when the "Black Neck Toad" saw the person who spoke, he immediately accepted it. The person who spoke was none other than Lin Shuhan, the counselor hired by Qiu Yi. He smiled and said, "I know your feelings, but it is not the time to send troops yet."
Qiu Yizi glanced at Lin Shuhan and said, "The county town is about to be attacked. If we don't rush to rescue it, it will be a small matter for Zheng Yu to break through the city and lose soldiers and generals. But the poor people in the city will be tortured by the enemy. Moreover, the enemy's full attention is now on the siege. As long as these hundreds of men under my command charge behind them, they will definitely be able to disrupt the enemy's formation. The defenders in the city can counterattack and win a great victory!"
Qiu Yizi said a long string of words in one breath, but at the end she did not forget to add: "Isn't this also the plan when we left the city?"
Lin Shuhan laughed and said, "Your Excellency thinks too highly of Zheng Yu. In my opinion, whether Zheng Yu can capture Shanyin County is secondary. I'm afraid he himself may not have such confidence!"
Qiu Yizhi was a smart man, and he always preferred to fight with wits rather than courage on the battlefield, so Lin Shuhan's few words made him suddenly enlightened, and he asked, "Mr. Lin, do you mean that Zheng Yu's current attack on Shanyin County is fake, and he is actually preparing for a full retreat?"
Lin Shuhan smiled and nodded, "Your Excellency is indeed smart. Although the enemy's offensive is strong, I think it is just bluffing. Your Excellency only needs to look at the soldiers clinging to the city wall, but none of them has been able to climb up the wall. In a general attack, everyone will risk their lives, rush forward, and fight bravely. How can there be such a reason to be timid and worried about gains and losses?"
After listening to Lin Shuhan's words, Qiu Yizi looked at the enemy's offensive on the distant city wall, which suddenly seemed unusually slow and hesitant. It was obvious that the troops knew that retreat was imminent and therefore did not dare to use their full strength.
Seeing this scene, Qiu Yizhi thought: It seems that Zheng Yu is really planning to make a feint and then retreat with his entire army. Although this play is superb, it happened to encounter "Mr. Bansong" Lin Shuhan who understands people's hearts and minds, so it can only be exposed. When the enemy army is determined to retreat, the hundreds of people attacking the enemy from behind will only speed up their retreat. There is no way to stop them. The only correct way is to choose a critical terrain on the mountain path to completely cut off the enemy's retreat.
After figuring this out, Qiu Yizhi had already forgotten the tension and anxiety he had felt before. He said to the "Black-necked Toad" who was still waiting for orders, "You should go down and inform Zhao Chengxiao and Wu Changxi to let the brothers eat and drink enough. Gather the troops within half an hour. There is a battle to be fought."
"Black-necked Toad" has been delivering orders for Wang Laowu these days and has learned a lot of tricks of the trade. He asked Qiu Yizi with a smile, "Sir, is the enemy trying to escape? We must give him a good beating and grab more gold, silver and food!"
Qiu Yizi was in high spirits, and he was not angry when he heard this. He also smiled and said, "Well said. I didn't expect you to learn your lesson. But this time we are not robbing money and food, but a living person. Okay, why don't you send me a message?"
Sure enough, less than an hour later, the Lingnan Army's massive attack on Shanyin County suddenly weakened without any signs. Not only did they not continue to send reinforcements to the city walls, the soldiers who were already on the ladders also climbed down one after another and stopped climbing up.
Zhang Qi, who was personally supervising the battle on the city wall, saw this scene and felt that it was his own resistance that forced back the attacking troops of the Lingnan Army. He was feeling proud and relieved when he heard a deputy general beside him remind him, "General, look quickly, there seems to be something wrong with the Lingnan Army under the city."
Zhang Qi was startled when he heard this, and hurriedly lay down on the edge of the city wall to look down. Sure enough, he saw that the Lingnan Army had assembled under the city, forming a neat formation. However, they did not continue to attack the city wall, but gradually retreated to the mountain path in the northeast direction.
Although Zhang Qi was not a good general like Cui Nan and Wei Hu, and was even more inferior to Dai Luanxiang, he was still an experienced veteran. When the situation developed to this point, he should have been able to realize that the opponent was pretending to attack the city and actually wanted to retreat.
However, he was defending an isolated city in Shanyin County and was besieged by the Lingnan Army for a month. Although he had made sufficient preparations beforehand, he was almost captured several times. Therefore, although he saw the movements of the Lingnan Army clearly on the city wall, he did not think that the enemy was retreating. He thought that the Lingnan Army wanted to lure him to relax his vigilance and then attack the city in a large scale.
Zhang Qi recognized this truth, and hurriedly gave orders, asking the soldiers to continue to defend the city, not to leave their posts without permission, and absolutely not to open the city gates without permission to pursue the enemy.
This was originally a very safe and feasible order, but it was this military order that made Qiu Yizi lose the best opportunity to intercept the enemy.
It turned out that the Lingnan army under the city had made up their minds to leave and had no intention of fighting. At the command of their commander, they retreated one after another along the mountain path to the northeast. Their sharp actions and clear goals were enough to make others admire them from the bottom of their hearts even though the entire army was retreating.
Qiu Yizi, who was lying in ambush on a mountain path, did not expect the Lingnan Army to retreat so quickly and decisively. After hearing the information from the front post, he quickly ordered Zhao Chengxiao and others to line up on the path to block the enemy's troops in the mountains.
However, the enemy was determined to retreat, and tens of thousands of troops rushed into the mountain road like a flood that broke through the dam, which was even more unstoppable. Although the more than 200 people under Qiu Yi were extremely elite, they were afraid that they would be difficult to stop in front of such an army driven by such a strong will to survive.
However, Qiu Yizi was afraid that his trusted soldiers would suffer casualties in the battle to stop the fleeing army, so he hurriedly changed the order, not wanting the soldiers to use their flesh and blood to block the mountain road, but to immediately push the mountain rubble, wood, etc. onto the road, in an attempt to delay the Lingnan Army soldiers.
However, Qiu Yizhi's deployment was very hasty, and the debris temporarily piled up on the road was not much, far from being enough to block the road. The Lingnan Army was retreating this time, and the deployment was sufficient. They had expected Qiu Yizhi to make such a move, and the leading army immediately threw all kinds of obstacles to the roadside and quickly cleared the road for the army to move.
Seeing this, Qiu Yizi became anxious, and hurriedly ordered the crossbowmen among his elite soldiers and the archers among Wu Changxi's troops to shoot all the stored arrows down the mountain.
However, the number of archers that Qiu Yizi could mobilize now was less than two hundred, and the crossbow's winding speed was very slow. Although a volley of fire could knock down a hundred or so enemy soldiers, the enemy had a large number of people and was determined to retreat. When they saw someone shooting at them on the mountain, they did not hide or fight back. Instead, the soldiers in the rear team immediately carried the bodies of the dead and the injured comrades and continued to move forward without any hindrance.
When Qiu Yizi saw this scene, he really hated himself for not calculating the scale and determination of the enemy's retreat after all his calculations. With such a large army acting in unison, how could he, with less than a thousand men under his command, stop them
He secretly blamed Zhang Qi in the city again - before he left the city, he had clearly agreed with him that defending the city was only part of this battle, and when the enemy's morale was exhausted and the entire army retreated, then leaving the city to pursue them would be the crucial killing move in this battle - but the enemy retreated to such an extent, and Zhang Qi in the city still did not take any action, which really disappointed him.
Although Zhang Qi in the city reacted slowly, he saw that the Lingnan Army, which had surrounded Shanyin County tightly, had fled away completely in the blink of an eye. He suddenly realized that the opponent was truly retreating and was not trying to lure the enemy.
He finally remembered that Qiu Yizhi had told him that if the enemy army retreated and scattered, he must wait for an opportunity to go out of the city and pursue them. At that time, he thought Qiu Yizhi was talking nonsense - the Lingnan army was large in number and skilled in attacking cities. After the uprising, all the cities in Jiangnan, except Jinling, were defeated. How could they retreat for no reason