Daqin Engineering Corps

"In the end, it's just a waste of troops."

Xiang Liang took the letter and read it, and then fell silent.

Because Xiang Yan was right, the Chu army was blocking the Qin army here in order to capture Ruyin.

If Ruyin cannot be conquered... everything will be meaningless.

But of course, Xiang Yan wouldn't say that she gave up voluntarily.

In fact, Xiang Yan's ability to defend by this time has exceeded the previous estimate.

He wrote a letter to Zhang Qi, saying that the defense line of Taocheng had been breached by the Qin army, and his troops would withdraw all the troops, so that Ruyin should also prepare for withdrawal.

After seeing the letter, Zhang Qi was still not reconciled, and shouted:

"Two days, it will take two more days for the Qin army to reach Ruyin."

"We can capture it within two days."

How could Zhang Qi have thought that his siege was doomed to fail at this time.

Because Xiang Bo's army was in charge of attacking three sides, if Xiang Bo didn't support it, Zhang Qi's army's attack would only increase casualties in vain.

Chapter 242 Withdrawal

The benefit for the Black Armor Army is a sudden drop in pressure.

On the one hand, the Heijia army can rest at night, because Xiang Bojun has never dared to attack the city at night since the last infiltration battle, and even if he attacked the city, it was just a show to deal with it.

On the other hand, the Heijia Army can concentrate its forces on the east for defense, and they can even rest in batches.

But even so, the Black Armor Army, which has been fighting hard for days, is still hovering on the verge of breaking the city.

After an unknown amount of time, Chen Duan standing on the top of the wall suddenly shouted:

"Cavalry, cavalry from the west!"

The reason why Chen Duan was so excited was that Xiang Yan's army was unlikely to retreat in this direction because Ruyin was to the south, so if there was a cavalry army appearing on the west side, it was likely to be the Qin army.

Sure enough, soon a black "Yang" flag appeared in everyone's sight, and the soldiers cheered immediately.

The Chu army under the city wall were all downcast like wilted cabbages.

There were not many cavalry troops who came, only dozens of them. They should be spies placed in front of the troops by the Qin army, so they just waved a few flags in the direction of Ruyin from a distance and did not approach.

But this is enough, because the arrival of the spies means that the main force will not be too far away.

Uncle Xiang flew to report to Zhang Qi at the first time... According to Uncle Xiang, it was time to withdraw the troops long ago, but it was Zhang Qi who insisted on not withdrawing.

Now that the spies of the Qin army have arrived at Ruyin, there should be no doubt about the withdrawal.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Qi still ordered:

"Send cavalry to disperse them and continue to attack the city."

As a result, even the captains under Zhang Qi refused to agree:

"General, Xiang Yan withdrew his army from Rushui, and the Qin army must take Ruyin in order to break through the defense line of Rushui."

"If our army continues to attack the city, we will face the Qin army's main force of hundreds of thousands!"

"General, I have waited for several days without building defenses other than to attack the city, and the morale of my troops is less than [-]. If I fight against the Qin army here, I'm afraid..."

In fact, Zhang Qi also knew that he had to withdraw at this time, he just couldn't swallow this breath.

Seeing that Zhang Qi was still unmoved, Xiang Bo persuaded him with a roll of his eyes:

"My subordinate, General Zhizhu, intends to fight the Qin army."

"The general of Ranzhu Kingdom is led by the guard army of the capital, and the cavalry and chariot soldiers are the main elite of the guard army."

"If the general makes a mistake here, who will defend Shouchun?"

"Yes, my subordinates implore to attack the city here, and the general leads the army one step ahead!"

What Uncle Xiang said sounds good, but you must know that Xiang Yan is in charge of the army at this time, and Zhang Qi, even if he is the general of the Zhu Kingdom, would not dare to withdraw first and leave Xiang Yan's son here in the rear.

But Zhang Qi found a step to go down, he sighed and said:

"That's all, this trip is cheaper for Shen Bing, and I will come to take his life later."

"General Xiang's courage is commendable, but the battle situation has been decided and there is no need to attack again. Your troops will retreat to Shouchun with me!"

All the generals were overjoyed and promised.

So not long after, the Chu army receded like a tide, leaving only abandoned tents, siege equipment and corpses.

Seeing this, Shen Bing and a group of black armor soldiers didn't even have the strength to cheer, and just sat down on the city wall.

When people are tense, the secretion of adrenal hormones is accelerated, so they don't feel tired. Now when they relax, they feel like the bones of the whole body are falling apart.

After a while, Wang Ben laughed:

"This battle is fun!"

"With 3000 manpower against the [-] elite Chu army, Wang Ben didn't even dare to think about it before."

"But under the leadership of the deputy general, this battle has come true..."

Chen Duan took a sip of wine with the water bag, then handed it to Shen Bing, and said:

"I still can't believe it until now, I really repelled the Chu army, [-] Chu army?!"

Wang Ben asked back:

"Do you still hope that the Chu army will win?"

"If the Chu army wins, I'm afraid that Zhang Qi will have to tear us into pieces to vent his hatred."

Chen Duan smiled weakly:

"If there is such a battle, what regrets will there be if the body is broken into pieces..."

Before he finished speaking, a mouthful of blood spewed out of his mouth.

Seeing that something was wrong, Shen Bing hurried forward and tore off Chen Duan's leather armor...and found two sword wounds on his abdomen wrapped in sackcloth, and judging from the degree of suppuration of the wounds, it had been some days.

It turned out that Chen Duan had been fighting with injuries in order not to affect the command of the Heijia Army.

Looking at his injury, it might be okay if he recuperated a few days ago, but now the wound is seriously infected, and in the era without antibiotics, he can only wait to die.

Shen Bing sighed, and only asked:

"Do you have a family?"

Chen Duan answered intermittently:

"There is an old mother, Wang Lieutenant..."

Shen Bing nodded:

"Don't say anything."

"Don't worry, I will treat her like my own mother."

Chen Duan breathed a sigh of relief, then shivered a few times as if he had caught a cold, and then fell silent.

The surrounding soldiers all bowed their heads to pay tribute, and the rain became heavier and heavier, and it was not known whether it was rain or tears that fell on everyone's faces.

Shen Bing slowly picked up Chen Duan's body, walked to the bottom of the city step by step, and then laid him flat on the ground... There were more than 1000 corpses there, the corpses of the soldiers of the Black Armored Army who died in battle.

The ancients were very taboo about dying in a foreign land, because they believed that if they died in a foreign land and were buried elsewhere, the soul would not be able to find a way back home, so they would not be able to reincarnate.

Therefore, all these corpses were not disposed of, so as to have the opportunity to be transported back to Daliang for burial.

Looking at the corpses on the ground, Shen Bing didn't know what it was like.

They believe in themselves and follow themselves through life and death, but in the end this is the result.

Although they won, they also got credit.

But what do these victories and credits mean to them?

Sometimes Shen Bing doesn't know whether he is right or wrong to participate in the disputes in this world.

Just when Shen Bing was in a daze, a soldier at the top of the city shouted excitedly:

"Vice general, reinforcements, reinforcements are here! It's the general's troops!"

It was Yang Duanhe's troops who came. Knowing that the battle in Ruyin was tense, he personally led [-] light cavalry and [-] chariot soldiers to come for reinforcements... The Qin army paid more attention to footsteps than cavalry. Not bad.

Originally, Yang Duanhe thought that he would have to fight a battle in Ruyin to get out of the siege, but obviously he was worrying too much.

When the Qin army arrived, the Chu army had already withdrawn.

Due to time constraints, the Chu army didn't even have the time to remove the corpses or bury them... Part of the reason for this was that there were too many casualties during the infiltration war. More than [-] people were killed and injured in one night, and it was too late to bury them even if they wanted to.

Another part of the reason is that the Chu army is chaotic and unfamiliar with each other. They have no relatives and reasons, and there are so many of them, so naturally they can't take care of them.

The corpses all over the place stunned Yang Duanhe and his cavalry.

Yang Duanhe even asked Li Yan beside him:

"Is there anyone else from our army to reinforce Ruyin?"

"Otherwise, with three thousand soldiers, how could the Chu army suffer such casualties?"

Chapter 243 Shouchun

In fact, if there are other people to reinforce Ruyin, how could Yang Duanhe not know.

He just couldn't believe the battle was going to end like this.

But when Yang Duanhe walked into Ruyin City and saw the corpses of the Heijia Army all over the ground and the exhaustion on the faces of the survivors, he believed it.

Although more than a thousand casualties were nothing to Yang Duanhe, he had never seen any army so exhausted, those soldiers, including Shen Bing, were almost inhuman.

Quite a few of them did not cheer when they knew the reinforcements were coming, but immediately found a dry place to fall down and sleep. Many of them, like Chen Duan, never stood up after falling down.

Yang Duanhe found Shen Bing immediately.

Shen Bing couldn't wait to see Yang Duanhe fell asleep in the battlements, so Yang Duanhe immediately asked the witch doctor accompanying the army to come forward to have a look, and only after the witch doctor reported that Shen Bing had only a few skin traumas did Yang Duanhe relax tone.

He was worried that Shen Bing would fight with his will and wounds like many people in the Heijia Army, and it would be bad to suddenly relax at this time.

Yang Duanhe didn't wake up Shen Bing, he just let the Qin army settle in, and on the other side reported the battle situation to Handan with flying pigeons.

After receiving Yang Duanhe's battle report, Ying Zheng was so excited that the wine in his hand fell to the ground.

Before that, no one knew the situation of Ruyin, because at that time Ruyin had been besieged by the Chu army and the main force of the Qin army was hundreds of miles away.

Even Yang Duanhe, who was commanding the battle on the front line, was not sure whether Ruyin was in the hands of Shen Bing or had been captured by the Chu army, let alone Yingzheng.

At this time, Ying Zheng knew the details of the battle and couldn't help sighing:

"With [-] soldiers, face the Chu army with more than [-] troops."

"Not only keep Ruyin intact, but also kill tens of thousands of enemies. Only Shen Bing can do it, and only the Heijia Army can do it."

"Li Si, what is your contribution to this battle?"

Li Si cupped his hands and replied:

"My lord, if you kill tens of thousands of enemies with three thousand soldiers, you can be promoted to the first rank."

"Protecting Ruyin will render the Chu army's Rushui defense line useless, and then make Shouchun lose its barrier, which is of great benefit to destroying Chu, and can be promoted to two ranks."

"The subordinates think that the whole army will be promoted to the third rank."

Ying Zheng responded without thinking:

"Okay, the whole army will be promoted to the third rank."

"Another reward of one hundred taels will be announced to the whole army as an example, and the name will be given... Shenwu Army!"

Yingzheng's approach is wise, especially when the Qin army is in urgent need of troops, rewarding an army like the Heijia army for its outstanding achievements will encourage other troops to follow suit.

In particular, the Black Armor Army was formed by soldiers from the State of Wei.

So this is actually announcing to the world: No matter what country's army it is, Qin or Wei, or even Chu, Yan, or Qi, after surrendering to Qin, as long as they make meritorious service, they can be rewarded and reused.