Hidden in the court

Chapter 104 Playing tricks

Just a few days later, Lu Peng and Chen Ju's forces ambushed the cavalry attacking from both wings. Most of them were wiped out, but a small number of the defeated troops remained in the hinterland, but it was not expected that they would cause any trouble.

The biggest threat came from the front, led by Xihe Longyao himself and numbering 25,000 soldiers.

For these people, Lu Peng arranged several blocking attacks on the road they had to pass, and they ran away after fighting. Xihe Longyao didn't seem to care about their own casualties, and had no intention of staying or retreating.

"What on earth is he trying to do? He has already lost more than 5,000 people. If we continue to fight like this, we will win in terms of numbers."

In the central army tent, Chen Ju said puzzledly.

“I always feel like he has a trick up his sleeve.”

"What are you still thinking about? Now their 20,000 men are less than a hundred miles away from us. They will be able to set up camp opposite us tomorrow."

"Anyway, let's get ready to fight. Thirty thousand versus twenty thousand, the advantage is on me."

The next evening

The 20,000 men led by Xihe and Longyao set up a large camp in front of them.

The two sides were in a standoff, without any action. It was not until a few days later that Lu Peng gradually discovered something was wrong. Why didn't the troops sent out these days send back any intelligence? Could it be that they were all robbed by Xihe Longyao?

While he was thinking about it, urgent news came from outside the gate.

"You got news?"

Chen Ju rushed forward impatiently, snatched the military newspaper and started reading it. It was not a big deal, but it made him laugh out loud.

"Haha, you are worthy of being my son!"

It turned out that this military report was sent by Chen Xing, and it mainly explained one thing: "Captain Chen led a thousand men straight to Liu Dong's camp, sneaked into the camp under the cover of night, and killed the enemy marshal. The thousand men took advantage of the chaos to counterattack and broke through the siege of the enemy's camp of 5,000 defenders. Only a few dozen people were left, and Captain Chen was safe and sound."

The handwriting is not that of his son, it must have been written by some small soldier.

It also stated Chen Xing’s next plan, which was to gather the scattered remnants of the army and wait for an opportunity to act.

Lu Peng looked at the military newspaper with a frown on his face.

"This military report is so bizarre that we can't even confirm whether it's true or not."

Hearing this, everyone fell silent.

While he was thinking, another soldier ran in from outside the gate.

"Report——

A team of archers came out from the enemy camp, about two thousand men and horses."

"what!"

"Let's go out and take a look."

Everyone climbed up the camp wall and looked from afar. They saw a black mass of people walking away.

"That direction is..."

"Weishui?"

"It's a grain ship. Their target is our grain!"

"Damn it, they're shooting arrows, right? Immediately dispatch a thousand cavalrymen, and I'm going to meet them!"

While Lu Peng was still thinking, Chen Ju was already ready to lead the attack.

"Grand Marshal, this..."

"Let him go. We can't waste the food. Also, notify the navy to sail the ship further away and come back when the food is delivered."

But after Chen Ju left, they saw cavalry rushing out of the enemy camp again.

"Oh no! They are trying to lure the enemy. Tell Chen Ju immediately to scare off the enemy archers and then come back. Don't fight to the death."

At this time, the navy on the Wei River also discovered the aggressive enemy archers.

"Hurry up, quick!"

The Wei River, generally speaking, is near Chang'an, with a width of more than 800 meters at its widest point, so bows and arrows are absolutely useless. But at this moment, the grain ship is on a tributary of the Wei River in Suzhou, with a width of only more than 100 meters, and in order to prevent it from running aground, the ship is in the middle of the river.

Just a few dozen meters, archers are more than enough.

Seeing that the enemy archers had arrived, the grain and forage commander immediately gave orders.

"Fire arrows!"

However, there were too many things to consider on the ship, the weight of the food and fodder, the positioning of the soldiers, and the balance of the ship, which meant that the sparse arrows on the ship did not cause much damage to the enemies on the shore.

After a round of resistance, the general on the shore also shouted: "Shoot!"

In an instant, arrows flew by like locusts.

After four or five rounds of salvos, feeling the vibrations coming from the ground, he decided it was time to retreat.

When Chen Ju led the cavalry to charge forward, he could only see the backs of the enemy from afar.

Just when he was about to order a pursuit, he received news that there were pursuers, so he had no choice but to retreat.

At the same time, the grain ships were also instructed to sail further away. In fact, they only needed to sail far enough for the cavalry to outrun the archers, and secondly, the lower reaches were wider and easier to evade.

Today's game between the two sides has come to an end. They have been exhausted from guarding against the other side's night attacks on the camp these past few days.

Lu Peng was lying on the bed, and suddenly thought of the Gongwei Camp proposed by Chen Ju. That place was thirty miles to the left of the two army camps, and there were also 10,000 people there. If they were allowed to catch Xihe and Longyao off guard, they might really succeed.

Little did he know that the general of Gongwei Camp shared the same idea as him and launched a surprise attack that night.

Seven thousand troops attacked Xihe and Longyao's camp. As soon as Lu Peng discovered it, he sent ten thousand troops to support them.

But he didn't expect that when he rushed into the camp gate, he only saw a few hundred scattered soldiers, and the big tent was empty.

"Where could they go?"

Soon, they thought of a place, Gongwei Camp. As expected, Xihe and Longyao's entire army broke camp, wiped out the 3,000 defenders of Gongwei Camp overnight, and occupied Gongwei Camp.

"Damn it! We lost three thousand men for nothing!"

Compared to him, Lu Peng was much more relieved. "Well, he must have suffered a lot of losses after taking down 3,000 people. Now the intelligence sent by our various departments is reliable. Send a message to Chen Xing immediately and let him make his own decision. Don't send any more news."

What they didn’t expect was that just one day later, Chen Xing sent news again.

"Liu Dong's scattered troops fought with small groups of our army in various places. The news sent back from other units of our army can also prove this. And Chen Xing only gathered a few hundred people this time, and they were hundreds of miles away from us. He robbed some of the enemy's food."

The generals fell silent upon hearing this. If they robbed the grain at this time, Chen Xing would undoubtedly have exposed his position. They could only rely on themselves.

Lu Peng patted Chen Ju's shoulder comfortingly, "Don't worry, your son is better than you."

Little did they know that at this time Chen Xing was about to arrive in Chang'an to eat from the same pot with Xihe and Huchen.

The two sides remained in a stalemate for a while, and Liu Dong had almost wiped out the stragglers in the south.

However, Lu Peng and Chen Ju were somewhat exhausted from dealing with the constant harassment from Xihe and Long Yao, especially the state of the soldiers on both sides, which was almost reaching a critical point.

The stranded troops of both sides have almost found the base camp. Since Chen Xing delivered the last letter, he has never contacted the base camp again.

This also made them more certain that Chen Xing was still "alive".

On this day, Xihe Longyao suddenly received a military report.

Archers and cavalry were then sent out, still targeting local food and fodder.

This action proved that the navy's changes were generally effective. So, they ordered the ship to sail downstream again.

But this time, as soon as the navy arrived, they discovered an army of 10,000 people coming from the north of the Wei River!