Three Kingdoms Eschatology

Then, these captives were interrogated overnight.When Feng Yu and Zhuge Liang learned of Mo An's true identity from other prisoners, they were overjoyed.

However, Feng Yu thought about it all day, and did not interrogate Mo An himself until the third morning.During this period of time, Feng Yu has been thinking about what to do in order to maximize the value of Mo An, an important bargaining chip.

The value of Mo An is not just as simple as being able to ask out some core secrets.He is even related to the situation after the Liang army completely occupied Hongshawadi.

Because Feng Yu had already learned from the other captives that the third fleet was stationed on Andaman Island, hundreds of miles away from the mouth of the Dulong River.The location of this island is extremely important for controlling the western sea routes.

Mo An, who was shackled and shackled, was taken into the hall. Mo An narrowed his eyes slightly, and looked at the three people sitting in the hall.One of them recognized Zhuge Liang who had met face to face when the two armies confronted each other.

He didn't know who the other two were, one of them was a young man in his thirties, and he exuded the aura of a king from top to bottom.The other one was bald on the top of his head and had a few ring scars on his face.Apparently a recluse who was ordained by a bhikkhu.

This surprised him quite a bit.The bald-headed Samana is not surprising, because although the state religion of Chula is Brahmanism, Buddhist Samanas are often seen.Not only Chula, but Buddhist and Sana believers are very common in various countries in the Shendu area.

What surprised Mo An was that this person was obviously an oriental Han Chinese.He had never seen a shaved Han.

In fact, this person is a Buddhist disciple, Zhu Shixing from the White Horse Temple, Feng Yu brought him out because he is proficient in several major languages ​​in the Shendu area.Feng Yu was naturally the young man sitting on the first seat.

At this time, Feng Yu had already opened his mouth to ask: "You are Mo An, the commander of the Third Fleet of the Zhu Luo Empire?"

Chapter 270 No credit

Mo An always felt that Feng Yu was imposing, so he didn't dare to look at him, avoided the latter's gaze, and muttered words that Feng Yu didn't understand.

When Zhu Shixing finished translating Feng Yu's words to Mo An, Mo An's eyes showed a trace of fear.He also planned to pretend to be an ordinary Zhuluo general to get through the customs, maybe he could escape back to Zhuluo after a period of hardship.He didn't expect his subordinates to sell him so soon.He had no choice but to snort, expressing his acknowledgment of his identity.

Mo An's mood swings did not escape Feng Yu's eyes, Feng Yu thought to himself, it seems that this person is also a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death, so things will be much easier.

Feng Yu continued with a smile on his face, "General Mo An, as long as you are willing to cooperate with our Liang army, not only will your life be safe, but we can even guarantee your future. You have a bright future in Zhu Luo."

After listening to Feng Yu's words, Mo An continued to remain silent.But Feng Yu knew that he was repeatedly weighing the pros and cons in his heart, so Feng Yu said while the iron was hot: "It doesn't matter if you don't cooperate with us, we have plenty of ways to get information from you, and then your body will be buried in this wild jungle Among them, Zhu Luo officials should treat you as a traitor. Your relatives will also be implicated by you."

Mo An was shocked. He knew very well that he had privately dispatched more than a dozen warships to help Galava this time. Although this matter was not a big deal, if he could not return to the station safely, he would be reported as "missing" by the fleet. If he goes to the royal court, then he is likely to be treated as a traitor, and it is not impossible for relatives to be implicated.

At this time, the sound of torture and the miserable wailing of torture came from the room next door.Mo An had heard all kinds of torture legends in the Han Dynasty for a long time, and his heart trembled again.

"How do you want me to cooperate with you? How can I trust you? Who knows if you will kill the donkey in the end?" Mo An asked cautiously, biting his lip.

Feng Yu chuckled and said, "This is Feng Yu, Liang Wang of the Han Kingdom, you must have heard of my name."

Mo An was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth from ear to ear: "Ah, so you are Liang Wang Feng Yu... You actually, you came to Hongshawadi in person..."

……

In Zhu Luo's camp, Galawa jumped up from his seat in shock when he heard the news that Mo'an might be killed.

A Zhu Luo fleet found the stranded battleship on the Dulong River. The deck of the ship was covered with blood and corpses. Mo An was not found among the corpses.But no one knew whether Mo An was alive or was washed away by the river after death.

This news dealt a huge blow to Galava psychologically, but it still did not prompt him to make up his mind to withdraw.

The trebuchet was finally transported from Sawady, and Galawa immediately ordered the whole army to launch a general attack on Mande City.The Zhu Luo army and the Seguliu mercenary group set up a large formation outside Mande City, and [-] giant counterweight trebuchets lined up behind the formation.Dozens of ballistas brought by the army were also placed under the city.

However, before Galawa "fired", countless stone bombs and fireballs flew down the city.And the projectiles were so precise that almost every one of them hit Chola's trebuchet or ballista.Each "fireball" incendiary dropped right next to Cholo's trebuchet and ballista.

In a short time, with the crisp sound of wood breaking and the hunting sound of flames flying into the sky, dozens of Zhu Luo army's catapults and ballistas were either scattered or swallowed by the flames.

Some Zhuluo soldiers were unfortunately shot by stone bullets and died on the spot. Some were splashed with naphtha and then ignited by flames, turning into burning men running around.

Liang Jun's ballista players are not comparable to Zhu Luo's ballista novice.They had drawn out grids in front of the city wall before, set coordinates for each grid, and determined the shooting parameters of all the grids.When Zhu Luo's army approached the city, they could naturally point out where to fight.

After Liang Jun succeeded, he turned the ballista to the Zhu Luo army's formation, and the captains of the archers also drew their bows and fired arrows, and launched intensive shooting at the Zhu Luo soldiers below the city.Galawa knew at this time that he had made a big mistake, and if he didn't withdraw his troops at this time, he could only let Liang Jun be a living target.

"Send our military order, withdraw troops, and return to the camp! Cut off Seguliu's mercenaries!" Galava said with a sad face.Zhu Luo's army was howling, and in the chaos, they retreated towards the camp fifty miles away like a tide.

Seguliu's mercenaries still lined up in front of Mande City motionless, and the spears in the hands of the soldiers stood like a dense forest.It wasn't until Zhu Luo's main force completely withdrew from the battlefield that they retreated slowly in an orderly manner.

Strangely, Liang Jun never pursued Galava, nor did he attack Seguliu, and let them retreat back to the camp safely.

At nightfall, Galava summoned Seguliu into the general's tent, and said to him: "General Seguliu, all our siege equipment has been destroyed, and it is impossible to attack Mande City, so we must retreat immediately. To Sawady. This important task after the end... still needs you, an elite soldier, to complete it."

Seguli replied blankly: "King Jarawa, please rest assured. It is the first creed of our mercenaries to obey the employer's arrangement and complete the tasks assigned by them. We will use our blood and lives to maintain our reputation. .but…"

Seguliu just paused for a second, and then said bluntly: "However, you paid us two months' remuneration before, and now there is still a week before the deadline. When will the next payment be paid?"

Galava laughed dryly and explained: "This...we are marching and fighting outside, how could we bring so many gold coins. When you return to Shawady Port, I will definitely pay you the money for the next installment."

Seguliu shook his head, and said in a cold voice: "The rules of our mercenary group do not accept credit. Not only us, but also the rules of all mercenary groups in Bactria. Of course, we will still give our all before the deadline. Do your best to fulfill your employer's mission."

Galava had no choice but to say: "Okay then, when you get to Sawady, I will pay you and let you continue to work for me."

Seguulu added: "If the contract is terminated or terminated, we have no obligation to renew the contract, which is clearly written in the contract."

Galava shrugged helplessly and said, "I know this, but I hope and believe that you will still come to renew my contract."

At dawn on the second day, Zhu Luo's army camp began to get busy. The soldiers formed a queue, withdrew from the camp in an orderly manner, and headed south along the bank of the Dulong River.The dozen or so warships of the Third Fleet also went downstream, and the last one to evacuate was Seguliu's mercenary group.

What surprised Galawa was that Liang Jun in Mande City still did not "difficult" them.Sit and watch Zhu Luojun retreat calmly.But this is only a superficial scene. In fact, two hundred elite Liang Jun scouts have sneaked into the southern jungle of Hei Niyuan.

Chapter 271

To the south of the Black Niyuan is a tropical rainforest with undulating surface.The Dulong River runs through it.

In the early years, there were human settlements on both sides of the Dulong River, and it was indispensable to cut down trees and burn wasteland to open up fields.So the rainforest here cannot be called a dense forest.Although the large group of people cannot pass through, it does not prevent the small group of people from walking through it.

On the bank of the Dulong River, there is a road clearly cut down by humans.At this time, the Zhuluo army retreating south meandered forward on this road, like a winding giant snake.On the surface of the river, more than a dozen warships were also sailing downstream in an orderly manner.

Galava was riding on a war elephant of the Chinese army, dozing listlessly.A sharp whistle came from the forest, waking Galava awake.Hearing this sound, Zhu Luo's soldiers turned pale with fright. Many of them were familiar with this sound—it was the sounding arrow used by Liang Jun's scouts.

Before Galava could speak, dozens of arrows shot out from the forest densely.With the sound of puffing arrows piercing the flesh, Zhu Luo soldiers fell down one after another.These arrows are all heavy arrows shot from longbows, no matter what armor Zhu Luo soldiers wear, they will be pierced by these heavy arrows.The only exception is the bamboo armor on the elephant, which is nearly an inch thick.

"Ambush, there is an enemy army ambushing in the forest!", "Hurry up and form a shield wall!", "Find some people to rush into the forest, hurry up!" Zhu Luo's soldiers will recover from their panic, shouting one after another .

"咻---Peng", with two sounds in a row, a heavy arrow was shot on the head of the Garava war elephant impartially.The arrow tail was still trembling.Immediately afterwards, the elephant soldiers riding the elephants on Galawa's war elephant were also pierced by heavy arrows, and fell headlong, which shocked Galawa.

Some Zhu Luo soldiers held their shields and held their blades, and began to touch the depths of the forest.The shooting of arrows finally stopped, and when the Zhu Luo soldiers who searched in the forest came out of the forest, Jialawa asked and found out that they didn't even see each other.

Galava thought to himself, this must be a small group of enemy troops going around to the rear to harass our army in an attempt to delay the speed of our army's withdrawal.

Thinking of this, he said loudly: "Send my military order, ignore the harassment of the enemy's small troops. The whole army speeds up and quickly leaves this forest. The warships in the river patrol repeatedly along this river bank to cover our army's evacuation !"

Following the issuance of the Garava military order, the "giant python" of Zhu Luo's army suddenly increased its peristaltic speed and fled to the southeast.

But at this time, the Seguulu mercenary group after the battle was broken could not speed up.Because they were bitten by hundreds of Liang Jun stragglers, they needed to stop from time to time to disperse the trailing enemy and start on the road again.In this way, the distance between the main force of Zhu Luo's army and them became wider and wider.

On the Dulong River, more than a dozen Chula warships cruised back and forth on the river near the marching column according to Galawa's orders.

Suddenly, they discovered that layers of sail shadows were exposed in the sky above the upper reaches of the Dulong River, and hundreds of Liang Jun Viking ships were chasing down the river.Admiral Zhu Luo, who commanded this small fleet, felt his heart tighten, and his pupils suddenly searched for one point.

"Soldiers on the deck, ready to fight!" He yelled loudly, and then a dozen warships lined up and rushed towards Liang Jun's fleet side by side.

When the distance between the two fleets was less than a hundred battles, the soldiers on the Chu Luo battleship found that something was wrong. They found many wooden barrels floating on the river.These barrels are also connected in strings with ropes, so they can be easily hooked to the hull of the ship.

"These are some ghosts, there must be ghosts in them! Quickly pick them up with a spear." Commander Zhu Luo on each battleship issued the same order at the same time.

At this time, in the forest on the other side of the Dulong River, dozens of archers of Army Commander Liang suddenly appeared.They fired rockets with their longbows at these Chora ships, or more precisely, at the barrels floating beside the Chora ships.

With a muffled "boom", a wooden barrel was first shot by the rocket and exploded, and then the flames rose into the air, and the side of the Chula battleship that was close to the wooden barrel burned instantly.

In fact, instead of burning the ship's side, the naphtha in the barrel was splashed on the ship's side.In addition to the ship's side, even the surrounding water began to burn.

Amidst the dumbfounded Zhu Luo soldiers and generals on the battleship, one after another the wooden barrels exploded.Not long after, the entire river became a sea of ​​flames, and more than a dozen Zhuluo warships were trapped in the sea of ​​flames.

The people on the deck were crying and wailing in panic.After a while, the ship's side, deck, and sails were all on fire.Zhu Luo soldiers on the deck jumped into the rapids of the Dulong River one after another.

Galava had already known this situation, and his only response was to send his horses to speed up their march and flee south.He knew very well in his heart that after the destruction of more than a dozen warships, Liang Jun soldiers could easily use waterways to cut off their retreat.Only by getting the army out of the forest before that can he avoid being trapped between the forest and the Dulong River by the Liang army.

Sure enough, the hundreds of Viking warships landed on the bank of the Dulong River after sailing past the burning wreckage of the Chula warship.As soon as they landed, they arranged military formations, built fortifications, and cut off the passage along the river.

But at this time, Galava's main force had already passed here, so their target of interception could only be the broken Seguulu mercenary group.

……

Seguliu didn't know what was going on on the river, he only knew that he was getting farther and farther away from Zhu Luo's main force.

While he was marching, he suddenly saw a scout of his own army, covered in blood, stumbling towards the marching ranks, and fell to the ground as soon as he came to him.There were two feathered arrows sticking out of the armor on his back, and he didn't know how deep the arrow clusters penetrated into the flesh.

Seguulu personally checked the scout's injuries, and shouted loudly: "He's dehydrated, get him some water to drink, and treat his wounds."

After the scout was given two sips of water, he regained his composure, regained consciousness, and said intermittently: "The... passage ahead has been cut off by the enemy. There may be an ambush in the forest!"

Hearing this, Segusu seemed to be caught by something in his heart.Immediately afterwards, another soldier stepped forward to report: "General, the enemy army from behind is catching up again, less than five miles away from here..."

Before the soldier could finish his sentence, he fell to the ground with a thud, and a three-foot-long arrow pierced his helmet and stuck in his temple.The rest of the arrows also came from the forest densely.The mercenaries immediately stood up their shields with their swords, and set up a shield wall on the side facing the forest.

Another fifty mercenaries rushed into the forest, and like the previous Zhu Luo soldiers, they found nothing.But this also proves that Liang Jun's ambush cannot stop the mercenaries in the forest.

Chapter 272

"General, what should we do? There are prepared enemies at the front and rear, why don't we escape from the forest!" a lieutenant general of Seguliu suggested.

For others, it would be very difficult for a team of more than a thousand people to pass through such a jungle, but it is not difficult for Seguliu's mercenary group.They once fought in the tropical jungle at the southern tip of the body.Even if there are a few Liang Jun scouts in this jungle to attack them, they should be able to deal with it.

Seguliu's eyes changed, and he replied in a firm tone: "No, we can't escape. Our contract with the employer is not yet over. The task he gave us is still being carried out, and our current task is to break the line. To delay the enemy's pursuit."

After hearing his words, everyone fell silent.Seguliu scanned the surrounding area with his eyes, pointed to a crescent-shaped Gaogang that was five to twenty feet away from the river bank, and said:

"Pass my military order to let the soldiers build fortifications on this high ground. Prepare to stand firm! Note that the construction of fortifications must take into account the convenience of our water intake."

Seguliu's soldiers moved after hearing the order, and took out their portable spades and picks to dig up and down the high ground.

This crescent-shaped highland, with two sharp corners facing the water, is only five battles away from the Dulong River.As a result, two gaps, one south and one north, were formed. They also built trench barriers on this gap to prevent the enemy from breaking through and cutting off the water source.

After Seguliu's mercenary group was busy for more than an hour, Liang Jun's chasing vanguard appeared in their field of vision. These Liang Jun soldiers found that Seguliu had built a position and did not dare to move forward, so they stationed nearby and waited for the rear At the same time, a large group of people monitored Seguliu's army.

Soon, Liang Jun, who landed in the lower reaches of the Dulong River in the south, also outflanked and approached Seguliu's position.

The Liang army around the crescent-shaped highlands gathered more and more, and they were not in a hurry to attack, but just tightened and stabilized the encirclement.Even the jungles in the west are equipped with lower layers of defense.In addition, a large number of Viking warships also sailed to the nearby Dulong River.

Liang Jun's only siege but no attack surprised Seguliu, but he soon became clear --- the enemy's original target might be his mercenary group.He sneered in his heart:

"You really think you can trap my army. I just stayed here on purpose to complete the mission. After the contract expires in a few days, I will let you see the power of the Bactrian Lions."

Time passed day by day, and on the fourth day, two days before the end of the contract between Seguliu and Galava, the two armies were still in a state of confrontation at the Crescent Heights, without any movement.

On the side of Crescent Heights, dozens of mercenaries were fetching water with buckets. Suddenly, hundreds of heavy arrows fell from the sky. Many mercenaries carrying buckets were shot by the arrows. clean.The mercenaries were caught off guard, hurriedly took off the shields on their backs, put them on their heads and retreated.

At the same time, more than a dozen fireballs flew from the opposite bank, hitting the gap between the two sharp corners of the crescent and the river bank.Flames soared into the sky, and several mercenaries crouching in the trenches suddenly turned into burning men. They wailed and crawled out of the tunnel, and jumped into the river.

Fifteen ballistas were set up on the other side of the Dulong River at some point, and incendiary bombs continued to hit the river bank here.The strange thing is that these incendiary bombs were only projected on the river bank and the two gap positions, and did not hit the Crescent Heights.

Segouliu only said that the range of the opponent's ballista was limited.When he looked down from the high ground, he found that a large number of Liang Jun sailors and soldiers were landing on the river bank with large shields, and had already entered the positions at the two gaps.

He murmured in his heart that it was not good, so that the enemy would be able to cut off the water source.Once the water source is cut off, it will be a disaster.

Segouli hurriedly shouted an order: "Hurry up, take back the two gaps under the high ground, or our water source will be cut off!" Following his military order, a large number of servants with spears and knives on their waists Soldiers and shields launched a counter-charge.There are also mercenaries condescending and throwing stones at the two gaps.

The nearby river was already full of Viking ships, and the heavy arrows of the longbowmen on the ship were almost continuously shooting in dense numbers.The ballista on the shore also fired incendiary bombs at any cost, and these fireballs were poured into the open space between Crescent Heights and Dulong River.

Because the two sharp corners of "Crescent Moon" are cliffs, the mercenaries on the crescent moon heights need to rush down to the high ground in the middle if they want to regain the gap, and then attack the gap.Therefore, these mercenaries were all in the open space between the high ground and the river, and were attacked by Liang Jun's arrows and incendiary bombs.

In this case, it is difficult for them to rush to the gap, how can they capture the position at the gap.After leaving dozens of corpses in disorder, they fled back to the high ground.

Seeing this, Seguliu twitched the corner of his mouth a few times, and then sent an order: "Divide the remaining food and water, let the soldiers eat and drink enough, and break out tonight."

The deputy general asked in confusion: "Isn't our contract with the employer not yet expired?"

Seguliu nodded and said: "But our mission has been completed. Now the main force of Galava has gone far away, and these Liang troops can no longer catch up. Now our water source is cut off, and when the soldiers are dehydrated, we will go back to the water. If you don’t have the strength to break through, you can only wait to die.”

Even in winter, the sun does not set until very late in Hongsawady.The soldiers of the Seguulu Legion discarded their spears and a lot of cumbersome equipment, only carrying round shields, javelins and dogleg knives, and quietly groped towards the high ground.

Segouliu knew that Liang Jun's defense lines at the north and south ends were indestructible, not to mention the support of ballistas.So he chose to break out directly from the jungle to the west.There may be some Liang troops ambushing in the jungle, but when it comes to individual combat in the forest, Seguliu believes that the opponent is no match for his soldiers.

Sure enough, Seguliu and the soldiers sneaked into the forest smoothly, which didn't seem to arouse Liang Jun's vigilance.The Seguulu mercenaries walked southwest by relying on the stars and the moon in the sky to locate them.

Suddenly, there was a low bark in the darkness, followed by the scream of a soldier.I saw a black shadow hanging on the soldier's arm.It turned out that the mountain dog of Liang Jun's scout was biting the soldier's arm firmly.No matter how hard the soldiers beat, the hound would not let go.

Seguliu happened to be next to this soldier, he swung his knife, the light of the knife flashed, and the head of the mountain dog was separated.It's just that the dog's head still didn't let go, it was pried off by the soldiers and thrown on the ground.

At the same time, there were already loud arrows in the forest, and random arrows shot towards this side one after another, and the screams of being injured by the arrows could be heard endlessly.

"Let's go!" Seguliu shouted loudly, and led the soldiers to continue to rush to the southwest, not taking two steps.Some soldiers fell into the trap that Liang Jun had already set up.

Chapter 273 Another Contract

In the chaos, Seguulu's mercenaries continued to suffer casualties.Amidst the noise, they blindly threw javelins forward, trying to drive away the enemy troops hiding in the dark.

Seguliu suddenly smelled a strange smell, which he was very familiar with. It was the smell emitted by Liang Jun's incendiary bomb when it exploded.

Seguliu shouted loudly: "It's not good, everyone back up!" As soon as he finished speaking, flames burst into the forest.A mile-long wall of fire blocked the mercenaries.

Liang Jun took advantage of these few days to arrange a large amount of dead wood, hay and other flammable materials in the forest, and sprinkled naphtha on them.Under the threat of the flames, the mercenaries had no choice but to retreat the same way, and the Liang army continued to attack on the two wings, shooting arrows and throwing javelins at them.