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The attack seemed to be an attempt to break down the city gate by both a scattered and concentrated approach.
The corner gate was almost breached.
Unfortunately, it did not succeed.
Shangguan Jinghao personally led 150,000 soldiers to fight at the city gate. Later, he became so excited about killing that he even opened the city gate for the first time to kill the enemy.
It seems that this corner gate is also a city gate that he values very much.
In this battle, Hong's army suffered heavy casualties. Hao's army suffered 7,000 to 8,000 casualties, and Shangguan Jinghong lost nearly 50,000 soldiers and horses.
Shangguan Jinghong was defeated and 50,000 soldiers died at his hands.
Gun smoke filled the space between the two cities, and the bloody smell of corpses filled the entire sky and earth.
The night crows cried loudly, and the desolate smell of death was everywhere.
…
At night, the generals of Hong army were in the military tent.
Everyone in the tent had a solemn look on their faces. Finally, the emperor said in a deep voice, "Old Eight, you must stop acting recklessly. If you don't trust me, I will temporarily hand over the military power to your fifth brother and let him supervise the battle."
When everyone heard this, they looked at each other. General Lang was the first to kneel down. He laughed a long and sad laugh, but said slowly: "Your Majesty, I am willing to saddle the horse for King Rui, regardless of life or death."
The people in the Rui Palace knelt down without saying anything. Zong Pu and Ning Wang smiled at each other and knelt down as well, saying, "Let me share the same opinion with General Lang."
The princes and several ministers looked at each other, but the emperor froze for a long time before he smiled bitterly and said, "Okay, okay, even if we lose the battle tomorrow, with these loyal people, Jinghong, your life will not be in vain."
"What you have, I have never had."
Maybe, it existed, but it has been lost.
He shook his head and smiled as he looked at Xia Haibing and Zuo Bing. The former gave a bitter smile, while the latter lowered his eyelids slightly so his expression could not be seen clearly, but he bowed humbly.
Dong Ning stared at Shangguan Jinghong in a daze. Since the day he got the secret of Concubine Chang from Qiaochu, Shangguan Jinghong spoke less and less, but the wrinkles between his eyebrows became deeper and deeper.
His eyes were as quiet and calm as a piece of jade.
At this time, he still said nothing, quietly looking at the tent fluttering in the wind in front of him.
Has the wound in his heart healed? It's because his focus is entirely on this world that he's become so crazy.
That's fine.
At least there is no need to be so desperate. It is better to die in battle than to die in despair.
How can a dead woman compare to this world
What's more, he still has Concubine Lang who has always supported him, and his first love Qingling.
Looking at Lang Linling and Shen Qingling standing below, looking at Shangguan Jinghong with the eyes of a wife and a lover, Dong Ning chuckled in her heart, a sad smile.
The tent was filled with an atmosphere of desolation and depression. Suddenly, there were hurried footsteps outside the tent, and a soldier reported in a trembling voice: "Something big has happened. Please, Prince Rui, come out and see."
418
Everyone followed Shangguan Jinghong out in a hurry. Zuo Bing walked behind, his eyes still looking at the huge furnace in the corner of the tent. When he started forging the weapons, Shangguan Jinghong also began to boil a kind of medicinal liquid and asked people to apply it on the weapons. After wiping the weapons, the sharpness of the weapons became stronger.
Although we suffered a crushing defeat today, when we faced the enemy, we saw that our weapons were very sharp. With just a slight scratch, the enemy's skin and flesh were torn.
…
Outside the tent, one could see fireworks rising into the sky from the city opposite, Dongxiao County, like a flaming phoenix.
Is the other party going to set off fireworks to celebrate
But it doesn’t seem like it. If it was a celebration, the fireworks seemed a little thin and fleeting.
Shangguan Jinghong spat out a mouthful of blood foam, and everyone was shocked, realizing that he was stimulated. The tents were very quiet, and the soldiers were still immersed in the death of their companions and the unknown of tomorrow.
The soldiers outside were all looking at this general angrily. This man who disregarded the lives of his soldiers, in the attack on the diagonal gate, he watched countless soldiers being killed, yet he still ordered attacks again and again...
Seeing this, everyone felt a little relieved, but at the same time they were still afraid of this man.
I don't know who actually said "OK".
"Whoever dares to gossip will be beheaded."
The Minister of War shouted in a deep voice - during the war, he was also a general, and he and Prince Ning, Xia Haibing, Zuo Bing, the Seventh Prince and others were also responsible for commanding a part of the troops.
Jing Ping and Jing Qing hurriedly supported Shangguan Jinghong. Shangguan Jinghong stared at a nearby soldier holding a blade, but a smile appeared on his lips. "General Lang, you will lead 20,000 soldiers to pass through several counties in the north and south and make a detour to the Jiaxue Mountains. You will be stationed at the exit. Lord Zuo will be the deputy commander and assist you. Lord Zuo is good at using spies. Send a large number of spies all the way from the mountains to investigate whether there is any trace of the Hao army. If there is, please send someone back to Ye to report as soon as possible."
"We must not launch any more attacks in Yecheng. We must defend it with all our might. Without food and fodder, Shangguan Jinghao won't be able to hold out for long..."
As he spoke, his head tilted and he fainted.
Everyone was shocked, knowing that his old wound had not healed yet and he had suffered new wounds in the war. Although he had taken the remaining fox pill, he could not resist the anger at this time. They immediately ordered someone to call a military doctor. The military doctor was diagnosing the patient inside, while everyone was outside, worried and puzzled by Shangguan Jinghong's words.
How could Shangguan Jinghao suddenly run out of food and supplies? How is this possible
What is Shangguan Jinghong talking about
Amidst the confusion, Zuo Bing's eyes suddenly lit up, and he asked the soldiers to inform the officials in Yecheng immediately.
Everyone was getting more and more confused, but he asked, "When the Eighth Master summoned you secretly, what did he discuss with you?"
"Your Excellency, King Rui once asked about the arrangement of agricultural products in Dongxiao County."
After hearing the officials' answers, Zong Pu was slightly shocked and blurted out, "Due to the terrain here, the rice is just beginning to mature and has not yet been harvested. He had previously looked around Yecheng, not at the city's defenses, but at the harvesting of crops. Yecheng and Dongxiao are adjacent to each other and are in the same region. If the grain in Yecheng is not fully ripe, then the same must be true for Dongxiao."
"He ordered an attack on the city. Could it be that the corner gate is where the agricultural products of Dongxiao County are stored?"
When everyone heard this, they were inspired and ordered someone to get a map. Some of them lived in the imperial court in Chaoge, while others lived far away at the border. They were not familiar with the topography of Dongxiao. However, the officials of Yecheng and Dongxiao were only separated by a city wall. They had traded with each other in the past and knew each other's situation very well. After marking the circle, they found that the corner gate was actually a place where grain was grown.
Did Shangguan Jinghong want to break through the city gate, advance from there, and destroy the grain and grass that had not yet been harvested
The tenth prince said angrily, "That's good, but the other side still has enough food and grass. What's more, it would be better if we could attack the city and burn the food on the ground. Now, my brother has lost more than 40,000 lives, but... got nothing."
The Sixth Prince and the Seventh Prince did not say anything, but they also agreed with the Tenth Prince's statement.
"Fifty thousand soldiers, what do you think that is?" King Ning shouted, then shook his head and said: No, he never does anything without confidence..."
Zong Pu pursed his lips and thought hard. The emperor closed his eyes tightly. He... didn't understand his son's thoughts at all. He never loved him well. In fact, he was not as steadfast as his brothers and friends...
General Lang paced back and forth thinking, but Lang Linling had no intention of thinking. No matter what time, Shangguan Jinghong was always Shangguan Jinghong, the Shangguan Jinghong who led everyone, and she did not question it.
She stared at the curtains, waiting for news from the military doctor—Jing Ping and others were with her inside. Jing Qing drove her and Qing Ling out like a savage calf, not letting them get close.
Shen Qingling has also become very quiet these days.
She suddenly realized that Shangguan Jinghong didn't seem to have said a word to Shen Qingling for some reason. She asked calmly, "Are you okay?"
Shen Qingling looked at her, smiled self-deprecatingly, still looking at the military tent, and said nothing.
It was Zong Pu's angry rebuke that aroused Shen Qingling's idea.
It was Dong Ning who had just come out of the military tent and suddenly asked Zuo Bing to hold her hand. Although Zuo Bing finally spared her, Dong Ning remembered their past intimacy and her face suddenly became hot. She struggled in front of everyone and everyone was shocked to see how intimate they were. The emperor also looked at them several times. Zuo Bing bowed to the emperor, put his arm around Dong Ning's slender waist, and then used his Qinggong to leave.
Dong Ning heard a voice behind her, feeling embarrassed and anxious, and said angrily: "Zuo Bing, why did you bring me here? Put me down quickly, I want to take care of Brother Jinghong."
Zuo Bing did not withdraw his hand, but led her straight to a valley and threw her into a rice stack. Dong Ningfang sat up angrily, but he held her shoulders again and said in a teasing voice, "Qin Dong Ning, the two armies are fighting, your father and sister are over there, and you are over here, aren't you sad?"
Dong Ning's heart sank. Over the past few days, except for Shangguan Jinghong who asked her, no one had asked her again because everyone's mind was on the war.
She bit her lip and raised her hand to wipe her eyes, but saw Zuo Bing's eyes darken and two pieces of warmth covered her lips. Her mind buzzed and she froze in place. Until he pushed her lips open without hesitation and slid his tongue in...
"Let her go,"
Dong Ning was startled until a deep shout came from behind, and she pushed Zuo Bing away with force. Zong Pu's chest heaved violently, his eyes were filled with anger, and he reached out to grab Dong Ning with one hand. Zuo Bing lowered his brows, stretched out his hand to pick a bunch of ears of corn from the valley, hugged Dong Ning, and left using his lightness skills.
The emperor said that Zuo Bing was doing a good job and no one was chasing him, except him...
Zong Pu laughed at himself and stood still for a long time before slowly turning back along the same path.
When he returned to the big tent, he saw Dong Ning pulling out a sword from the waist of a soldier outside the tent and gently waving it towards the left soldier's arm. The left soldier was still holding an ear of corn in his hand. Blood dripped onto the ear of corn, and the whole stalk of corn turned black instantly.
Zong Pu was startled, and everyone cried out in a hushed voice: "Bone erosion."
"No, this poison is definitely not bone-eroding. It should be harmless to the human body. Yes, King Rui can refine poison, but this large-scale death and injury, corpses everywhere, will definitely cause a great plague. Such a plague is enough to massacre the city. In the end, no one will be spared."
Zuo Bing raised his eyebrows slightly and spoke word by word.
General Lang suddenly remembered something, glanced around at everyone, and said in a low voice: "I understand. The food and grass that General Qin transported that day must not be as much as we thought. There is actually a flaw here. Except for the troops that he and I led to Jiangnan for rescue, our troops at the border were withdrawn from the border and rushed to Chaoge at almost the same time. They were just one step ahead of my troops. If they had a lot of food and grass, they could not have marched so fast and arrived in Chaoge before us. I think the Eighth Master has noticed this a long time ago."
At this point, everyone was stunned for a moment, and finally understood everything Shangguan Jinghong had done.
Starting from General Qin's fake grain carts, Shangguan Jinghao was reluctant to take the initiative to attack. The most important purpose was that he was waiting for the grain harvest.
He was a cautious man, and he wanted to first secure food supplies - the most important thing in war.
In the Battle of Jiaomen, Shangguan Jinghong intended to let him know that he would attack Jiaomen at all costs and destroy his food supplies. Shangguan Jinghao must have been worried after his great victory, fearing that Shangguan Jinghong would attack again immediately after taking a break. The safest way was to not wait for the grain harvest, but to harvest it overnight and even reduce the yield.
How much food would be needed to feed this large army? How could the people in the city harvest the food in just one night
In the end, it is the entire military and civilians who will reap the harvest.
During the day, with such a frenzied attack, not many soldiers died, but many were injured. If the wounds were to infect the seedlings, the seedlings would be destroyed...
Moreover, during the war in the daytime, Shangguan Jinghao opened the corner gate wide. If Shangguan Jinghong's secret guards changed into Haojun uniforms and went in when the prince sounded the retreat, yes, it would be difficult for the secret guards to get into the prince's body to gather intelligence, but what if they just observed in the dark whether the grain was harvested
So, there were fireworks.
Shangguan Jinghao soon ran out of food.
Two hundred and thirty thousand soldiers were out of food.
Fifty thousand to fight for twenty-three thousand—
This battle was later called the "Battle of Jiaomen", and it is one of the most talked-about wars in the history of Dongling.
…
Everyone was shocked. At this time, people from the Rui Palace rushed out of the military tent in a panic. Jing Qing cried, "The master's wound is very serious. The military doctor said that the master did not take the fox pill at all... He kept shouting the master's name..."
*
At the same night, the border was to the northwest.
The military tent of King Xia.
The woman carefully put down the man's strong arms around her waist and slowly got out of bed.
Sitting on the carpet, I gazed at the curtains slightly opened by the breeze. Outside the window was the vast starry sky.
Her name was Xiaoman, and she was the daughter of an ordinary farmer in this city.
Everything happened so suddenly. She fell seriously ill and when she woke up, she became the woman of King Xia.
During the war, soldiers needed some women. She was lucky to be favored by King Xia. Everyone in the village said so, and many women were envious.
————————————
419
She didn't know whether it was lucky or not, but she was very happy to be with King Xia, even though she had completely forgotten about the past after her serious illness.
The only thing she cared about was that King Xia already had a wife.
She longed for a clean mirror of emotions.
King Xia told her that he had never touched his princess and that their marriage was a political one.
He has escorted the princess back to her country, which belongs to her. There is a war going on here and it is not safe.
This was the only thing he could do for the princess.
There was a deep scar on his abdomen, left by the princess.
She laughed at him and asked if he would dare to let a woman down again in the future.
He smiled but said nothing.
After a long time, I said, no, never.
He said, Xiaoman, you are my forever.
She thought, those were the most touching words of love, especially when they were said to you by a man who was so handsome and held military power.
Because such men are often not loyal.
But she had no doubt, his eyes told her that he loved her, loved her very much.
Their acquaintance seemed simple and fateful.
A few months ago, she was driving her sheep and horses to the mountains to graze, and she accidentally fell into a deep ditch and was rescued by the passing King Xia. The King of Xia took a liking to her at first sight, and did not take her back to the village, but brought her back to Chaoge instead.
Later, she fell ill and forgot everything.
King Xia said, as long as he didn't forget it, it's good.
He was now even stationed in the city where her village was located.
She has been doing the same thing these days.