AWB Chapter 98: Admit defeat, or you'll have nothing to eat...
Chapter 98: Admit defeat, or you'll have nothing to eat...
Huyan Liancheng stepped forward and asked, "Tell me clearly, what happened to Xiling?"
"The Xiling city gate was tricked open, and our army's stored food and fodder was burned. The enemy took advantage of the chaos to escape the city and attacked our army's team transporting food and fodder, and then..."
"Bastard!"
Huyan Liancheng angrily said, "Even if the Great Xia army knew that we were storing food in Xiling, how could they know when we would transport it? Besides, the Great Xia border troops haven't made any unusual moves in recent days..."
"This, this, this... maybe it's a coincidence!"
"coincide?"
Huyan Liancheng glared at him, and Nangong Shouyi frowned and said, "Alright, why are you arguing with a messenger for no reason?"
At this time he had regained consciousness, unlike before.
"General, every move of the Great Xia army is under the surveillance of our scouts. How could we not know that they rashly dispatched a force of thousands of people? It must be the fault of the quartermaster, that's why..."
Nangong Shouyi was silent for a while, then suddenly said, "They have another group of people who are not under our surveillance!"
"???"
Huyan Liancheng was stunned for a moment, then as if he had thought of something, he asked, "The Great Xia Mission Guard?"
Nangong Shouyi nodded slightly. He closed his eyes and sighed, "The Great Xia delegation's camp is only ten miles away from here. I thought they wouldn't dare to act rashly, but I didn't expect them to be so bold. I was negligent!"
Huyan Liancheng was furious: "How dare a mere guard attack us? Are they tired of living? I will gather my men and bring them back!"
With that, he walked out angrily.
Nangong Shouyi shouted, “Come back!”
Huyan Liancheng turned around, still looking furious, and said, "General, this Great Xia delegation is publicly carrying the banner of an envoy, but secretly they are cutting off our army's food supplies. How can we tolerate this?"
"Can't stand it? If you can't stand it, are you going to attack the Great Xia delegation?"
Nangong Shouyi was also furious. He scolded, "We have an army of over 100,000 guarding the border, but our food supply was cut off by a mere 2,000 men. As a general at the border, it's fine if you don't reflect on your own mistakes, but are you still going to drag Beili into a situation where we are attacked from all sides?"
"Can……"
"What do you mean by 'yes'? Are you going to raise your general's flag and openly attack the Great Xia delegation?"
Nangong Shouyi was also angry.
As a famous general ranked among the best in the world, he allowed the food supplies of hundreds of thousands of troops to be burned right under his nose. Is there anything more shameful than this?
The Daxia delegation camp was ten miles away from them, and any movement might alert the scouts.
However, the guards of the Daxia delegation successfully prevented them from discovering anything unusual. No matter what, they lost this round.
Under normal circumstances, he would have avenged the burning of the food supplies, but unfortunately, the other party was the Daxia delegation, representing the reputation of Daxia.
Right now Beili and Liyue are at war again. If things go wrong... the entire Beili will be attacked from both sides by Liyue and Daxia, and the country may be in danger of being destroyed.
Even though he has been making things difficult for Gu Jingzhi, he is just trying to use this opportunity to delay the situation and maybe force Daha to make some concessions.
But I didn't expect that Gu Jingzhi would be so tough.
He had only two thousand men under his command, yet they dared to attack his grain storage area.
He asked silently, "How much food and grass does our army have now?"
Huyan Liancheng heard this and gritted his teeth: "There is not enough food for two days!"
"What? How could there be less than two days' worth of food?" Nangong Shouyi couldn't believe it!
Huyan Liancheng's face turned grim. He said, "Though yesterday was the day our army was transporting food, it should have arrived today. However, the Great Xia army burned our food supplies in the early hours of yesterday morning. Now..."
Nangong Shouyi's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.
"Yeah!"
Nangong Shouyi sighed, "With such meticulous calculations, if we didn't have accurate information, I'm afraid we wouldn't have been able to grasp the timing so accurately! I underestimated our opponent!"
The transportation of food and fodder for the army was a secret. Over the years, even Li Sheng had no chance to cut off his food supply.
Firstly, both sides have deployed a lot of spies and scouts, so any movement on either side can be detected in time.
However, when Gu Jingzhi first arrived, he directly destroyed the food supplies of his army of more than 100,000.
There was indeed an element of carelessness in this matter. He thought that a guard under his nose could not do anything at all, not to mention that the leader was just a mere captain.
How could a captain be taken seriously by him?
In addition, Gu Jingzhi...
Even Prime Minister Beili reminded him to be extra careful with this person, but he didn't take him seriously.
He is just a young man of about twenty years old, and a young civil servant who has just entered the court of Daxia through the imperial examination. How dare he make small moves in his territory?
As a result, they did it and succeeded!
He sighed softly, "Please help me arrange a meeting with the Daxia delegation!"
"General! Are we just going to accept it like this?"
Huyan Liancheng said, "Our food supplies have been destroyed, and so many people have died in Xiling City. Are we just going to accept this?"
"So what if they don't recognize us? Even if we transport food and fodder from other places, it's like distant water can't quench immediate thirst. Li Sheng has a hundred thousand troops marching north, and our army is cut off from food and fodder. What can we use to fight him?"
"The people in the city have food, and Yunzhou is about to be handed over to Daxia. Why don't we..."
Huyan Liancheng's face turned grim!
Nangong Shouyi cursed, "Even if you rob the people of their food, how long can you sustain them?"
"Li Sheng has sent troops to surround the entire Yunzhou and block all the important roads. After a few months of siege, the entire Yunzhou military and civilians will starve to death in Yunzhou City."
"Believe it or not, if you dare to steal a grain of food from the people today, Li Sheng will completely blockade Yunzhou."
"Now that our army has lost the initiative, do you still want to destroy my army of over a hundred thousand?"
He looked at Huyan Liancheng with some anger.
As a deputy general, I am brave and know how to lead troops in battle, but I am too narrow-minded. If I continue to be like this, when will I be allowed to lead an army on my own?
And let the soldiers rob food?
I'm afraid I don't know how I died.
Not to mention that Li Sheng's army will arrive soon, just robbing the people's food, what's the difference between this and forcing people to die?
If they really did this, they would not only force the people to rebel against them, but would also directly help Daxia quickly take control of these states.
Once Daxia quickly absorbs the five states, if it develops other thoughts about Beili, how can Beili, who is still fighting with Li Yue, withstand the double-sided attack?
"Don't worry about this anymore! If I find out that there are any soldiers in the city who are robbing the people's property, regardless of their military rank or merit, any soldier who commits a crime will be beheaded, and any sergeant who commits a crime will be beheaded... and so on!"
Huyan Liancheng's expression changed: "Then my army's food and fodder..."
Now the army only has two days' worth of food. If they don't speed up the preparation of food, even if they surrender the city, these 150,000-strong army will not be able to return!