Four Seas Cloud Moon

General He Liang brought an army of 400,000 and came to Chaozhou County in a mighty force. More than 100,000 of the defeated troops returned one after another, and together with his own troops, there were 500,000 troops in total!

He Liang led his men to investigate Lu Xiaotian's camp and discovered that Lu Xiaotian was stationed in a low-lying area of ​​a valley. It was surrounded by mountains on all sides and had roads on three sides, making it easy to attack but difficult to defend.

Lu Xiaotian brought 600,000 troops to guard here, and he could attack or defend. After all, there were too many soldiers. If he encountered danger, he could retreat in time!

"General, do you think there's anything wrong with that?" The person speaking was Lü Shuai, the deputy general assigned to He Liang by the Empress. He was a direct relative of the Empress. His father, Lü Jierui, was a fierce general. He had also followed his father for many years, practicing martial arts and learning the art of war! Some second-generation military men, not as good as their superiors, but better than their inferiors, were overly arrogant!

General He Liang said, "The formation is well-organized, and the patrols are on three sentries and five posts, without any slackness. They must be commanded by a good general! Otherwise, General Li Ningde wouldn't have suffered such a devastating defeat! We'd better be careful."

Oh? Really? I don't think this army is anything special. While this location offers easy access to water, it's easy to attack and hard to defend. We now have a force of 500,000, roughly the same size as the enemy! Victory is definitely in our favor!

He Liang didn't say anything. After they came back, they began to discuss the battle plan.

General Lu said, "We suffered a crushing defeat last time, and morale is low. This time, we should take the initiative and catch the enemy off guard. The enemy is currently stationed in Dawa, which is well connected. We can launch a surprise attack at night, catching them off guard. Even if we can't annihilate the enemy, we can at least inflict some damage! Then, our morale will surely be high!"

General He Liang said, "General Lu's words are true, but we must not send troops rashly. Since the enemy has stationed troops in Dawa, they must have expected us to launch a surprise attack. They may have been prepared and are deliberately luring us into a trap. We should be cautious!"

He Liang was the commander-in-chief, and Lü Shuai was the deputy commander, so there was nothing to say! The next day, the spies reported that the enemy had no more than 300,000 men stationed in Dawa, and 100,000 each in Zhe County, Xiaying County, and Baoji County.

He Liang led the army, and General Lu was overjoyed after hearing this. Have you completed the investigation?

The villain saw it clearly!

General Lu slapped his thigh and said, "I understand, I understand everything."

He Liang and others looked at Lu Shuai!

General Lu went on to say that the Luoshen Kingdom’s garrison could not be stationed in three counties, nor could it be stationed entirely in one county, so they had no choice but to do so.

First, to defend the three counties, we must divide our forces. We can capture and defeat them!

Second, defending a county with 600,000 people would be a real crowd! Once surrounded, they would have no choice but to surrender!

Third, they divided their troops into three counties and also stationed troops in Dawa. This was just for show.

Yesterday, General He Liang and I went to explore the camp and discovered that there were military tents in Dawa that could accommodate 500,000 people. Since there were not so many enemy troops in Dawa, why did they pretend to have them?

There's only one reason: they're afraid we'll launch a surprise attack! So we're going to raid the enemy camp at night!

General Lu's words were convincing, but General He Liang remained unmoved, thinking that the enemy would not make such a low-level mistake.

For several days, the spies' reports were exactly the same as before! General Lu was frantic. He felt He Liang was being too cautious. Such a good opportunity. If he missed it, it would be gone. The opportunity to fight was fleeting!

Marshal Lu is the empress's direct descendant, so naturally he doesn't take He Liang seriously. He thinks He Liang has been delaying the opportunity to fight, and he has argued with him countless times in just a few days!

In the morning, General Lu arrived and said to He Liang, "General He Liang, are you delaying the battle this whole time just to repay Yue Heng's kindness?"

Or have you already defected to the enemy and are acting as an insider here?

General Lu, please don't talk nonsense without any evidence. I am loyal to Your Majesty and the Moon God Kingdom, and the sun and the moon can bear witness to that!

Then why don’t you send out troops and just hide in Chaozhou County?

He Liangdao, I just feel that the time is not right and we cannot send troops rashly!

Hahaha, General Lu laughed, it’s a good opportunity, the time has not come yet. If the time has come, we will have the same fate as General Li Ningde!

General He Liang said helplessly, "We can send troops, but we need to make pre-war deployments. To confirm the authenticity of the matter, we should first send three troops around Dawa to feint and attack the three counties. If the three counties are empty, we will definitely not send troops. If we do, it will be a trap."

Okay, let’s do as you wish. General He Liang will divide his troops into three teams, each with 50,000 men, to attack the three counties respectively. He himself will lead an army of 300,000 to wait here.

General Lu said, General He Liang has received the order!

He Liang thought, where did the imperial edict come from? But he still knelt down.

General Lu read out the imperial edict. The general meaning was to dismiss He Liang and let General Lu take the position of general. General Lu glanced at He Liang and said.

General He Liang, I order you to lead 50,000 troops to attack the city. Do you have any objections? He Liang was speechless now! He could only nod and agree.

After the preparations were completed, the three teams secretly arrived in front of the county city. With a single order, they attacked the city directly, rolling logs and stones on the city wall, and using archers and spearmen. All three teams suffered heavy losses. The battle report was delivered to General Lu, who felt that it was similar to what he had imagined.

Then, at the command of General Lu, 300,000 men launched a surprise attack, knocking Lu Xiaotian to the ground. Seeing this, General Lu was overjoyed, thinking that he deserved the credit.

The defenders here were only 200,000 strong. Lu Xiaotian could no longer hold on and retreated repeatedly until he reached a mountain. Seeing that the situation was almost over, General Lu recalled the other three teams and concentrated their forces to eliminate Lu Xiaotian!

At this time, General Lu's 450,000-man army was stationed in Dawa. After Lu Xiaotian was driven away, they set up camp in the mountains! Everyone knows that it is natural to station troops in high places, but living in the mountains is not the same. As for water resources, you can't make up for it. Water resources are sometimes more precious than food!

General Lu recalled the three generals. This time it is our turn to show our abilities. Lu Xiaotian has been trapped on the mountain by me. We only need to allocate 300,000 troops to attack the mountain and 200,000 to ambush to prevent anyone from escaping.

Before General Lu could send out his troops, the weather changed and it started to rain heavily. This was the rainy season in the south, so General Lu had no choice but to keep his troops in place. Seven days passed, and the heavy rain showed no sign of stopping. It kept taking turns from heavy rain to light rain.

After another seven days, water began to accumulate in the big pond, and most of the tents in the military camp were flooded!

Weapons began to rust, armor began to rot, food began to mold, some soldiers began to suffer from diarrhea, and chronic enteritis spread through the army.

Heavy rain and muddy roads trapped the 450,000-strong army in Dawa. Gradually, the army ran out of food, and the soldiers had to eat their food raw. They wanted to leave but couldn't, and the only thing they could do was wait for death!

Fortunately, the heavy rain gradually stopped and the accumulated water slowly receded. General Lu looked at the soldiers and groaned secretly. One-fifth of the soldiers had diarrhea. He reorganized the army and began to withdraw from Dawa and return to Chaozhou County first!