webnovelfull Chapter 266 Are the Han soldiers treated so well?
Chapter 266 Are the Han soldiers treated so well?
Upon hearing this, Shen Yi's expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly said, "Old Ning is right. Xu Sheng is a man, not a stone. He can't just stay in one place and wait for us to attack. He is very likely to take the initiative to attack and give us a warning."
"So we can't just think about attacking; we have to defend ourselves and protect our own safety first. But we can't not attack either, because we still need to retreat and dig traps. If Xu Sheng launches a full-scale attack at dawn, when will we have time to dig traps, right?"
"Therefore, we should take the initiative to attack Xu Sheng and hurt him badly, so that he will not dare to pursue recklessly, thus buying us time to dig a trap. What do you think?"
Deng Hongning and Huan exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously; Shen Yi's summary was spot on.
Shen Yi continued, "That's simple then. Order the army to retreat five miles and set up camp to prevent the Wu army from attacking. Then..."
"General Deng, you take a small force to harass Wu's army in the first half of the night to keep them awake. Harass them until 1-3 AM, then find a place to go into the mountains. I will take over the rest. Tonight, we will take turns to teach Xu Sheng a lesson. Tomorrow morning, I will launch another attack and then retreat."
"But remember, harassment should not enter Wu's camp. I'm worried that Xu Sheng has also laid an ambush in the camp to wait for us to take the bait."
As the saying goes, a person's reputation casts a shadow on a tree. These new recruits were somewhat intimidated by the well-known Xu Sheng. Intimidation leads to caution, and while caution prevents underestimating the enemy, it can also cause them to miss opportunities. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages.
Fortunately, they didn't need to be reckless; they only needed to retreat slowly and engage in stealthy ambushes. In this situation, fearing Xu Sheng's tyranny was not a mistake but rather an advantage.
Deng Hongning and Huan nodded in agreement, and Shen Yi turned around and led the army to retreat and set up camp.
Setting up camp is hard work that scouts don't need to do. Instead, they move into the tents set up by others first. That's how scouts are treated.
Li Gousheng handed his younger brother over to his subordinates and turned to leave. When he returned, the tent had already been set up. Li Gousheng walked into the tent, threw the clothes and shoes he had just received at Li Gouyan, and said, "Take off that Wu army skin and put this on."
Li Gouyan instinctively caught the clothes and shoes, then looked at the brand-new clothes and shoes in his arms and asked in astonishment, "I just arrived and they're already giving me clothes and shoes?"
Li Gousheng said proudly, "We are the scout battalion that gets priority in all supplies. We all have three sets of clothes or more. Hurry up and change. Your Wu army uniform is really an eyesore."
Li Gouyan was speechless, internally cursing, "It's like you've never worn this before. Why didn't you complain when you were with Wu's army? Now that you've defected to the enemy, you're complaining? What a load of crap."
While complaining, his hands moved quickly, changing his clothes and taking off his straw sandals under the guidance of the other scouts.
Only then did they discover that inside his straw sandals was a pair of cloth shoes. The soles of the cloth shoes were separated from most of the uppers, and many parts were almost worn through, especially the heels, which were directly in contact with the ground.
One of the scouts couldn't help but ask, "Brother Gouyan, how long have you been wearing those cloth shoes? They look quite old."
Li Gouyan laughed awkwardly, "My mother made these for my brother and me when we joined the army. We've worn them for at least seven or eight years. We changed to a new pair of straw sandals every two months to protect them, but they still wore through more and more. My brother has a pair too. What about yours, brother?"
Without turning his head, Li Gousheng said, "I threw it away a long time ago. Who the hell would wear that piece of junk?"
Li Gouyan: "..."
You've only had a few good days, and you're already complaining about this and that, acting like a spendthrift landlord.
Li Gouyan, now wearing new shoes, paced back and forth on the ground, admiring them for a long time before picking up straw sandals to put over his new shoes to protect them.
Li Gousheng kicked the straw sandals away and said, "Don't bother. General Guan said that our scout battalion is the elite of the army. All supplies are given priority. We can get a pair of shoes every two months. If they break before the two months are up, we can take the broken shoes to exchange for new ones. So don't try to do something like that. It's embarrassing."
Li Gouyan: "I'm fucking..."
When did your Han army become so rich? This is too extravagant!
Li Gousheng ignored him and instead took out a stack of papers from the box, sat down at the table, and began copying military regulations. This action once again shocked Li Gouyan, who asked in surprise, "Brother, what are you doing?"
Li Gousheng replied irritably, "Isn't this all thanks to you for copying the military regulations?"
As they were talking, Li Gouyan came to Li Gousheng's side. Seeing Li Gousheng skillfully writing black characters with a pen, he asked in astonishment, "I mean, when did you learn to read? I didn't know that."
His whole family were illiterate, unable to read a single character. Yet, those who were originally illiterate, just like him, started writing, and writing so fluently. This greatly shocked Li Gouyan.
When did he learn this? Who did he learn it from? Is this really the older brother I know? When has the Li family ever produced a cultured person?
Upon hearing this, Li Gousheng immediately burst into laughter. He looked at Li Gouyan with the eyes of a nouveau riche looking at a poor relative and said arrogantly, "Of course I learned it from General Guan. Moreover, my grades are among the top thirty in the scout camp, so I have received personal instruction from General Guan. General Guan said I have the potential to be a county magistrate. Brother, you will be a scholar in the future."
Li Gou felt very uncomfortable listening to this and said irritably, "So what if you were captured by the Han army a little early? What's so great about that? I'm going home to farm tomorrow morning. I'm not going to associate with you, this county magistrate."
After saying that, he went back to bed and sulked. Li Gousheng continued copying, and only rested after handing it over to Qu Chang.
He rested, but the high-ranking officers of both the Han and Wu armies suffered from insomnia and began to take action on their own.
Intelligent people often have a tacit understanding and easily think in the same direction.
Shen Yi, Deng Hongning, and Huan discussed a defensive counter-attack strategy, deciding to ensure their own safety first before seizing an opportunity to attack. Unfortunately, Xu Sheng thought the same thing.
Therefore, after dark, both sides were busy setting up camp and appeared to be at peace, and this tranquility lasted until midnight.
Just as midnight arrived, Deng Hong led a thousand elite troops to attack the Wu camp, where they ran into Xu Sheng, who was also attacking the Han camp.
There's no other way; both armies are currently in the corridor, and this is the only road between them. Neither can bypass the other.
Deng Hong led his troops less than ten miles when the scout who had relieved Li Gousheng on night duty hurriedly returned and said, "General, the Wu army is attacking from this side. They are less than five miles away from us. It's so dark that we can't see their faces, only their shadows. Judging from the shadows, the Wu army probably numbers about two thousand. We don't know who is leading them."
Deng Hong sneered, "Since we've run into each other, let's fight. Go back and inform General Shen to prepare for our retreat. If I'm no match for the Wu army and forced to retreat, ask him to come out of the camp to cover my safe withdrawal."
"Heavy armored soldiers, change into your armor immediately and prepare to charge. Tonight we must teach Xu Sheng a lesson and let him know how powerful our Han army is."
Deng Hong was Guan Yu's personal guard. Influenced by Guan Yu, he was much bolder than those two cowardly guys, Shen Yining and Huan. He was not afraid of the Wu army at all.
Besides, he also has thirty suits of heavy armor. With that treasure in hand, how could he let you, Xu Sheng, bully him?
Heavy armor is good, but it has a drawback: it can't be used for long battles, and it's even less suitable for traveling. You can't waste your precious energy on the road, can you?
The heavily armored soldiers quickly changed into their armor, and Deng Hong ordered the army to form a battle formation, with shield bearers holding shields in front and archers hiding behind them, ready to fire a volley of arrows at any Wu soldiers they saw.
After setting up their formation and walking less than two miles, the Wu army arrived. Both sides advanced simultaneously in perfect unison, and once within each other's firing range, they released their arrows at the same time. A rain of arrows fell from the dark sky, accompanied by the whistling sound of arrows cutting through the air as they hurtled towards each other.