Zhu Nao

Yueyang City.

"What did you say?!" Sun Xiang jumped up suddenly, and rushed forward in three steps and two steps, frightening the soldiers who were kneeling to report the military situation and backed away.

"Fu Fufu, Fu Yin please calm down..."

Sun Xiang realized his gaffe, took a few deep breaths, and suppressed the violent wind and rain.He gritted his teeth and asked, "Tell me clearly, why did you fall into an ambush by the Jingzhou Army?!"

The soldiers trembled like they were sifting chaff, and tremblingly reported what happened.Sun Xiang's face became more and more ugly when he heard this.

Wait until you hear what happened.Sun Xiang knew how bad the situation was.He was trembling with anger: "Idiot! Idiot!! How many troops does the Jingzhou Army have?!"

"Return to Fu Yin, they have a five-story building boat, Meng Chong and the first boarded seventeen or eighteen boats, and some small red horse boats..."

Sun Xiang frowned tightly.According to this calculation, the strength of the Jingzhou army is about four to five thousand, which is two or three times the number of troops brought out by Fang Ji's troops.

The soldiers wept and said: "General Fang is struggling to resist, please send reinforcements quickly! No matter how late, I'm afraid it will be too late!"

It was clearly a critical moment, but Sun Xiang remained silent.

The soldiers were so anxious that they were sweating profusely, and urged: "Fu Yin?"

But Sun Xiang took a deep breath, shook his head and said, "I see, you go out first. How to rescue, I have to discuss with the generals before making a decision."

The soldier bravely begged: "I beg the governor to hurry up, I'm afraid General Fang and the others won't last too long!" He kowtowed and was taken out by the guards.

After a while, several people were recruited into Sun Xiang's tent.However, what is strange is that Sun Xiang recruited not generals, but several of his staff.

Sun Xiang succinctly told his staff about the current situation. When they heard about the strength of General Jingzhou, they all looked at each other in blank dismay.

Those who can be staff are naturally smart people, especially good at trying to figure out Sun Xiang's mind. They immediately understood what Sun Xiang was in trouble for - the strength of the Jingzhou Army caused them a very embarrassing situation.It was a situation they could save, but not easily.

If Huang Dongxuan had more people and crushed Fang Ji by seven or eight times, then there was no need for them to save them, and it was too late to save them.But now Huang Dongxuan has the advantage, but the advantage is not too great, which gives them hope to rescue Fang Ji, but this hope may require them to send out a large army.

All out?Isn't it against Sun Xiang's wish to stand still!Seeing that Tao Bei's army was about to arrive, how could they have any reason to go to war with Huang Dongxuan now!

Immediately someone realized: "Fu Yin, I'm afraid that Huang Dongxuan did it on purpose! He doesn't want to drink alcohol, he traps Fang Ji, and he wants to lure us to send an army to rescue him!"

"That's right! He must still have a backup, he wants to gather around to help!"

After suffering so much under Huang Dongxuan, Sun Xiang's staff has learned to be smart, and they are not afraid to speculate Huang Dongxuan with the most astute ideas.

But everyone quickly fell silent again.

If this is really Huang Dongxuan's design, can they just sit back and ignore it?If they refused to save Fang Ji and those thousand soldiers, they would surely fall into Huang Dongxuan's hands today.And the loss of thousands of people is not the worst. The worst thing is that the fact that they will die will chill the hearts of the soldiers of the Changsha Army.Who will be willing to rush to the forefront in the future?Who would risk their lives to fight for Sun Xiang?

Huang Dongxuan's move is really vicious.

Sun Xiang closed his eyes and buried his face in his palms.After a while, he put down his palm wearily: "Fang Ji, the rebellious general, dared to violate the military order, open the city gate without permission, and lead the troops to fight. If my army is lost, this crime must not be lightly forgiven!"

Everyone was slightly taken aback.Is Sun Xiang going to rescue Fang Ji, and then punish Fang Ji after he is rescued?

But they quickly realized that wasn't the case.Sun Xiang wouldn't go to save him, Fang Ji couldn't come back, and neither could the thousand soldiers.It's just that someone must be responsible for such a heavy loss, and that person is undoubtedly Fang Ji.He cannot be tortured himself, but he still has relatives and cronies, and these people will be punished on his behalf.

Sun Xiang had already issued an order to let the Changsha army avoid the battle, but Fang Ji still led the troops out of the city. On the face of it, all this seemed to be Fang Ji's fault.But in fact, how could such a major event be hidden from Sun Xiang?Without Sun Xiang's tacit consent, Fang Ji couldn't even open the city gate.

Fang Ji didn't ask Sun Xiang for instructions, and Sun Xiang pretended not to know, it was just a tacit understanding between them.Sun Xiang was also moved by those war horses, but he didn't want to change his order, and he was also worried that the matter would not succeed, so he adopted an ambiguous attitude.This was just his usual practice, but he never expected that the worst result would happen.

The staff finally understood Sun Xiang's intention of recruiting them - they decided that Sun Xiang had already done it, and they didn't need to make plans.What Sun Xiang needs now is for them to quickly come up with a set of soothing rhetoric, how to make the remaining soldiers not feel scared and chilled by this defeat, how to put the responsibility on Fang Ji alone In the end, how can Sun Xiang win some prestige and love in this defeat...

Some people could not help but sigh silently in their hearts.After sighing, he hastened to eat Junlu Zhongjun.

……

……

After the strong wind passed, the surface of the river gradually calmed down again.

On the general ship, a group of drenched Changsha soldiers shivered together.They just got up from the river, and their faces turned purple from the freezing cold of the river.

"General Fang, what should we do now?" The soldiers obviously lost their backbone, and asked Fang Ji repeatedly, "When will the reinforcements come? How long are we going to hold on?"

"We can't fight out on our own! If the reinforcements don't come, we won't die here today..."

Fang Ji's face was pale.

Just now he ordered the soldiers to attack several times, trying to tear a gap in Jingzhou's encirclement so that they could escape.But Huang Dongxuan had been prepared for a long time. He used the Mengchong boat to hit their warship, and also used the pole on the building boat-it was a warship weapon composed of uprights, crossbars, boulders tied to the head of the pole, and wheels, which could be rotated at will. , Hitting the enemy ship with a boulder-sinking their warship, those wet soldiers were rescued back to the ship after falling into the water by chance.

In this situation, the strong attack is impossible to attack anyway.Soldiers can only pin their hopes on reinforcements.However, the strange thing is that as long as they don't try to rush out of the encirclement, the Jingzhou army just throws stones and shoots rockets to scare them from time to time, and is not in a hurry to encircle them-but in such a situation where their lives are hanging by a thread, those who scare them The tricks are enough to make them tense and on the verge of collapse.

The soldiers were still looking forward to the arrival of reinforcements. Only Fang Ji could see the whole situation clearly—from the very beginning, the Jingzhou Army had deliberately sent their scouts back to report.And now the relaxation of the Jingzhou Army confirmed Fang Ji's conjecture: Huang Dongxuan was also waiting for their reinforcements, and Huang Dongxuan wanted to surround them to fight for reinforcements!

In the past few years, Fang Ji has always regarded Huang Dongxuan as his opponent.He wants to get rid of Huang Dongxuan's shadow, and wants to do better than Huang Dongxuan!However, this was only their first confrontation, and he suddenly realized that he had underestimated Huang Dongxuan all along.

Today's situation can be described as interlocking. First, they used war horses to deceive their patrol soldiers, and then trapped their patrol soldiers to attract reinforcements led by him.Now, Huang Dongxuan still wants to use them as bait to trick the Changsha army into dispatching...

Even as an opponent, Fang Ji had to sigh, Huang Dongxuan's plan is very clever.But he was not reconciled to losing.

It's not that he is not as good as Huang Dongxuan, it's just that Changsha soldiers don't understand horses.If there were a few more people on the patrol who knew horses and saw the strangeness early on, they would not have fallen into such a situation.He wanted more opportunities to prove himself, but because of this small mistake, would he be doomed?

He is really, really not reconciled!

……

……

On the upstairs boat, Huang Dongxuan crossed his legs, glanced at the clepsydra next to him from time to time, and then looked up at the sky.

"Tsk..." The wrinkled brow and the quick shaking of his legs showed his impatience.He lowered his legs and asked, "I said, it's been more than an hour, right? Is there no news from Yueyang?"

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.

Just as Fang Ji expected, Huang Dongxuan had great ambitions, and by setting up this series of tricks today, he was not only planning to harvest the thousand Changsha troops.He wished that Sun Xiang could mobilize all his troops and let him wipe out the whole army, that would be a joy.

But the reinforcements didn't come for a long time, Huang Dongxuan was bored, so he could only let people smash a wave of stones into the center of the river from time to time, and then send the mighty and sharp Mengchong boats to go around, enjoying the trembling Changsha soldiers to relieve fatigue.

Finally, a small boat sailed by the stream.The sharp-eyed soldier hurriedly said: "Look, brother, the scouts are back!"

Huang Dongxuan regained his energy immediately, stood up and said, "Pull him up quickly."

The scouts who came back from Yueyang were pulled onto the building boat and came to Huang Dongxuan's side.

Huang Dongxuan asked: "How is it? Have they sent troops yet?"

The spy shook his head and sighed: "No. They closed the water gate and sent more troops to defend the city. Now the city gate is covered with machine crossbows, and we dare not approach."

"...Girl's!" Huang Dongxuan cursed angrily.

Close the city gates and strengthen the city defenses, Sun Xiang's attitude has already been shown - he does not intend to send troops to rescue, he is even afraid that the enemy will pretend to be the fleeing troops, so he set up all the machine crossbows, and refuses the arrival of uninvited guests.

Fang Ji's team has been completely abandoned by Sun Xiang.

"That guy surnamed Sun is such a coward!" The officers in Jingzhou were also disappointed and spat at Sun Xiang one after another.On the one hand, they hated themselves for taking the bait, but the fish refused to take the bait; on the other hand, they had also been Sun Xiang's subordinates, and seeing Sun Xiang abandon his subordinates so happily, they didn't even try. How not to empathize?

Huang Dongxuan spat and looked back at the Changsha warship trapped in the middle of the river.After a while, he shook his head: "Forget it, if you don't come, don't come."

It was people who were upset first, but he was also the one who recovered calm the fastest.Although regrettable, the result was not beyond his expectation.

He sat back to his original position, raised his legs, and said, "Send an envoy to find Fang Ji."

All eyes turned to him.

"Go and persuade him to surrender." Huang Dongxuan lifted his chin and ordered calmly, "Tell Fang Ji the situation in Yueyang City, and their reinforcements will not come. If he is willing to surrender, I promise to treat all surrenders well."

After the order was issued, in the blink of an eye, a small wooden boat descended from the deck of the building ship onto the river.It wobbled towards the Changsha warship that was forced into a ball.

……

……

After a stick of incense, the messenger boat came back.

The envoy was dragged onto the upstairs boat, drenched and shivering.The guards hurriedly took blankets to cover the messenger.

Huang Dongxuan asked in shock: "What's going on? What does Fang Ji mean?"

The envoy wiped the water from his face, and tremblingly said: "General, that Fang Ji is like a stubborn rock, smelly and hard. I just explained why I came, and he ordered someone to throw me overboard. He said he would never Maybe I surrendered to the general... I wanted to persuade him again, but he found a bow and arrow and almost shot me to death in the water. I had to run back quickly..."

"What? This bastard, I don't want to live anymore!" Huang Dongxuan was annoyed and puzzled: "Is he related to Sun Xiang? He is so loyal to Sun?"

"It's...not necessarily..." The messenger said cautiously: "I, I just saw Fang Ji's face, and heard his tone, it seems that he...is dissatisfied with you, General, and that's why he refuses to surrender... "

"Ah? Me?" Huang Dongxuan pointed to his nose blankly, completely inexplicable.

Fang Ji was not his old army, but Sun Xiang was promoted from other armies to control his old army.Before leaving Changsha Mansion, Huang Dongxuan had almost no contact with Fang Ji, so why was he hated?

But he was not in a hurry to find out why.He thought for a while, then sneered, "Aren't you willing to surrender? All right, then leave Fang Ji alone! Send a few more ships to approach the other Changsha warships, and ask the others if they are willing to surrender, or if they want to be killed." Chop it up and feed it to the fish!"

Soon, several small boats were put on the river and sailed to the Changsha Army again.

……

This time Huang Dongxuan waited longer.About half an hour later, the sun was setting and the sky was much darker. Finally, several small boats came back.Not only the boat sent by Huang Dongxuan came back, but several wooden boats from the Changsha Army also followed.

Standing on a high place, Huang Dongxuan saw a man on the boat coming back, tied up into a rice dumpling, his eye sockets were bruised, his mouth was bleeding, his hair was in a mess, he was in an embarrassing situation.

Not long after, the bound man was lifted to the deck with a rope.

Huang Dongxuan walked over with his hands behind his back, looking down at the man from above.The man was extremely ashamed and angry, he turned his face away desperately, wishing he could wring his own neck and pull him down.

Huang Dongxuan gloated and said, "Oh, who is this? Let me see, isn't this General Fang Jifang? Why was he tied up like this? Who tied it up?"

Fang Ji was stiff all over.

Huang Dongxuan pretended to be suddenly enlightened, and said louder: "Could it be your subordinates who mutinied?"

Fang Ji gritted his teeth so loudly that he almost broke his teeth.

Huang Dongxuan was right, Fang Ji was beaten and tied like this by the Changsha army.

The arrival of reinforcements was delayed. Even if the Jingzhou Army did not send people to lobby, the Changsha soldiers knew that they had been abandoned.Their last glimmer of hope was shattered, and what was shattered was their trust and obedience to the coach—it was already at the end of the road, should they still be sacrificed?

Therefore, when the Jingzhou army came to surrender and pointed out a way of life for them, but Fang Ji insisted on cutting off this way of life, the Changsha soldiers were the first to be angry.After experiencing some chaos and internal strife, Fang Ji became what he is now.

Seeing that Fang Ji was stubborn and refused to speak for a long time, one of Huang Dongxuan's subordinates suddenly pulled out his saber, and said loudly: "Brother, since this surname Fang is only thinking about it, let's stop talking nonsense with him! Kill him with a knife! "

The veins on Fang Ji's forehead twitched, and he closed his eyes tightly, still not making a sound.

Huang Dongxuan silently observed Fang Ji's reaction, and seeing that he was not afraid of death, he waved his hand to make his subordinates retreat.

He leaned back in his chair and asked curiously: "General Fang, if I remember correctly, we have had no grievances in the past, and have no grudges in the present, right? Is it possible that I have offended you?"

Fang Ji sneered and said: "Stop talking nonsense! Shameless yellow thief, kill or cut, give it a good time!"

Huang Dongxuan's guards were furious, and were about to step forward to teach the guy who didn't know what to do, but Huang Dongxuan stopped him with his eyes.

Huang Dongxuan was not annoyed by being scolded for being shameless, and he never felt ashamed.He asked with great interest: "How shameless does General Fang think I am? Let's hear it."

Fang Ji didn't expect Huang Dongxuan to ask such a question, so he couldn't help being taken aback.The two sides stalemate for a moment, Fang Ji blushed, and said angrily: "You... you are unfaithful, you are a villain who crossed rivers and demolished bridges! You have repeatedly betrayed, voted for a new master, and then deceived the old master! Do you know how many people have been killed by you? Harm? How dare you have the face to ask such a thing!"

Huang Dongxuan narrowed his eyes.

Regarding the two apostasy, he didn't mean to explain, and there was no need to explain.He just smiled lightly and said: "General Fang is inferior to others on the battlefield, so he used this pedantic rhetoric to save himself... Isn't it embarrassing?"

Fang Ji was furious, and was about to scold again, when Huang Dongxuan suddenly said: "How did Governor Sun invite me from Jiangling Mansion to Changsha Mansion, I guess you don't know, there is nothing to say about it. As for how I surrendered General Fang of the Shu Mansion, are you really ignorant?"

Fang Ji was taken aback again.

After Huang Dongxuan's rebellion, Sun Xiang naturally blamed Huang Dongxuan and Wang Zhan for all his faults, saying that it was their betrayal that caused the army's defeat.But in fact, it is impossible for Fang Ji, who is also an officer, to be ignorant of Huang Dongxuan's situation at that time.he just...

Before he could answer, Huang Dongxuan said again: "I won't say that anymore. Maybe you really don't know. But there is one thing, I believe General Fang must know - you think Sun Xiang is a man worth following and working for him." Lord?"

Fang Ji's eyes flashed, but he couldn't answer.

After a while, he shivered and brought the topic back: "Yellow dog thief! You...you don't lie here to deceive the crowd! Back then, the soldiers followed you on the battlefield, risking their lives for righteousness, but you died because you were greedy for life and afraid of death. You betrayed easily! Do you know how many people have been implicated by you, lost their lives, and ruined their futures! How dare you say that you are not a shameless villain?!"

Huang Dongxuan raised his eyebrows, and suddenly understood why Fang Ji hated him so much.He looked left and right, and waved to a Changsha soldier next to him: "Come here."

The soldier stepped forward blankly: "I, me?"

"It's you." Huang Dongxuan asked, "I ask you, how will Sun Xiang treat you after I leave?"

The soldier didn't know how to answer, but Huang Dongxuan continued to ask and answer: "Is it because he dared not withdraw you all, and he refused to make good use of you, so he suppressed you everywhere and pushed all the mistakes to the bottom of the mountain?" On your heads?"

Thinking of the suffering of these years, the soldier immediately frowned as if he had eaten bitter melon, and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes!"

Huang Dongxuan asked again: "Is it true that General Fang led the rest of my troops, so he was angered by that surnamed Sun, and has been depressed? So he hates me? He thinks he was implicated by me?"

Fang Ji's face changed, and before he had time to refute, the Changsha soldiers had already answered in a low voice: "We all think so..."

Fang Ji: "..."

There was a sudden silence on the deck, Fang Ji's face turned purple first, then blue and then pale, his lips squirmed several times, and finally remained dumb.In the end, he closed his eyes, grief, indignation, pain, embarrassment, unwillingness... all kinds of emotions surged in his chest, making him sway.

Looking at him like this, Huang Dongxuan didn't feel gloating, just thoughtful.

After a while, Fang Ji opened his eyes, only to see a magnified face in front of his eyes, which made him tremble with fright.

Huang Dongxuan squatted in front of him, his hippie smile had been suppressed by him, and his expression was indifferent: "Fang Ji, if I were you, someone in front of me would leave such a mess to me and hinder my future, I might wish to let him Swallowed it alive. But there's another bastard you should chop him up more than hate me—you know who that is, without me telling you?"

Fang Ji remained silent.

Who is the person who really hinders his future and makes him depressed?Not Huang Dongxuan, but Sun Xiang.It's just that he is a minister and Sun Xiang is the master, so he can't direct this anger at Sun Xiang, but Huang Dongxuan.

Huang Dongxuan said again: "I asked you just now whether Sun Xiang is a wise master worth following. You didn't answer. You don't need to tell me. In addition, I can tell you clearly-the one I follow now, he A wise man. He deserves it. Do you understand?"

Fang Ji stared at him blankly.

Huang Dongxuan straightened his back, tugged at his sleeves, and said calmly: "You don't have to pretend to be loyal, you might as well think about what Sun Xiang is doing now. When you led the troops out of the city, he didn't give you orders? He didn't send anyone either. Stop you? Do you think he will not know what you are doing? Do you think you can go back?"

Fang Ji's eyes trembled violently again.

What is Sun Xiang doing now... I'm afraid he is discussing with others how to assign responsibility for this defeat...

Whose responsibility will it be?Who else but myself...

Although he already knew Huang Dongxuan's intention to fight for aid, perhaps Sun Xiang had already guessed it.He didn't shirk his responsibility, but seeing that Sun Xiang really didn't even try to rescue them, it was impossible for him not to hate them if he decisively regarded them as abandoned children.

After a while, Fang Ji finally opened his mouth and asked in a low voice: "If it was your wise master, would he send someone to rescue him knowing that it was a trick?"

"Yes, of course." Huang Dongxuan said without hesitation, "He will not send people to die in vain, but he has to try and find a way to break the situation. Isn't all battles fought by humans? Don't try How do you know? At least, the first thing he does is not to close the door to see whose crime it is."

Fang Ji remained silent.

For a long time, he often sighed, as if his strength had been drained, and he collapsed on the deck.

……

……

The night wind gradually picked up, and the dew became deeper and heavier.

At this moment, Sun Xiang's camp was still illuminated by candles like daylight.He paced back and forth in the tent anxiously, and his staff members were also sitting in the tent, they were all waiting for the final news.

The defeat is already doomed, and how to make good use of this defeat, the staff have also discussed the results-they intend to use this defeat to stir people's hearts and boost morale.

They will publicize the brutality of this battle in the army, and publicize how the Changsha soldiers resisted tenaciously and were brave and unyielding.It is best to select one or two heroes, and write a special book about how they defeated one hundred and frightened the enemy, but in the end they accidentally fell into the enemy's tricks and died regretfully.They also want to lament the cruelty and shamelessness of the Jingzhou army, so as to arouse the soldiers' hatred of the enemy and make the soldiers determined to avenge their comrades.

The most difficult problem for the Changsha Army right now is the extremely low morale.If this defeat can really be used to inspire fighting spirit, then the defeat will become a victory, and the sacrifice of more than a thousand soldiers will be worthwhile.

The plans of the staff have been drawn up, but the situation on the battlefield has not yet been resolved.Sun Xiang received the news that Huang Dongxuan had been besieged by Fang Ji's army and he seemed to be hoping to use these baits to catch more Changsha troops.How could Sun Xiang not be in a hurry?

The tent was so quiet that only the sound of Sun Xiang's irregular footsteps and the crackling of the candles remained.

Finally, another spy who reported the letter came.

"Report-"

Before the spies entered the account, the anxious Sun Xiang heard the footsteps and had already greeted them.

"How is the battle going?" Sun Xiang dragged him into the tent.

The spy looked terrified, and carefully broke free from Sun Xiang's hand: "Fu, Fu Yin, Fang Ji and the others...they..."

"How are they??!!"

"They...surrendered..."

As if a thunderbolt hit the spirit cover of the sky, Sun Xiang's body shook suddenly, and he fell backwards straight.The quick-witted staff rushed up and quickly grabbed his head, but half of his body still hit the ground heavily.

Sun Xiang is not afraid that Fang Ji's entire army will be annihilated, nor that they will win more with less. No matter what the result is, he can make people play it well and use it to drum up people's hearts.But he is absolutely not afraid, the only thing he is afraid of is this surrender.

When the soldiers of the Changsha Army found that they didn't have to fight hard, they had other ways to go, then the low morale would lead to even more dire results...