dognovel Chapter 755 Shen Yi's Cruel Torture of Wen Pin
Chapter 755 Shen Yi's Cruel Torture of Wen Pin
Shen Yi's purpose in ordering Ding Feng and Zhou Shao to cross the river and persuade the Wei and Wu armies to defect was simple: the target of the defection was the Wu army, Ding Feng was a Wu general and a comrade-in-arms of these people, and Zhou Shao was the young master of these Wu soldiers. Their involvement would definitely be twice as effective.
As it turned out, Shen Yi was right. As soon as Ding Feng, Zhou Shaogang made contact with the surrendered Wei Wu army, they took the initiative to return to the Han Dynasty.
The reason for their initiative is quite simple. First, they were coerced by Lü Fan into surrendering to Wei, not voluntarily. Second, their parents, wives, and children were still in Jiangnan. Who wouldn't miss home?
Therefore, upon hearing that Ding Feng and Zhou Shao were going to take them home, they immediately grabbed their farm tools and brought their own food to work with Ding Feng.
Unfortunately, the surrendered Wei and Wu soldiers were scattered to various villages, and Ding Feng and Zhou Shao had only been across the river for a short time, so they could not contact too many people and could only gather this few in a short period of time.
But that doesn't matter. As long as they join forces with Shen Yi to defeat Wen Ping and successfully cross the river, and then spread the news, the scattered Wu troops will definitely come and gather under the banner of the Han Dynasty.
Ding Feng and Zhou Shao led their 3,000-strong army, carrying farm tools and biting tree branches as they hurried along. By the end of the Yin hour (3-5 AM), they finally arrived near the battlefield. Seeing the flames and hearing the sounds of fighting, Zhou Shao took the tree branch from his mouth and said, "The fighting has already started. When do we join the battle?"
Ding Feng spat out the branch and said, "Is there any need to ask? Of course, it's now. I'll lead two thousand troops to charge in first, and you can lead the remaining troops to wait for two quarters of an hour before attacking. This will give the Wei army the illusion that our reinforcements are coming in continuously, thus effectively damaging their morale."
Without waiting for Zhou Shao's response, he led two thousand troops to charge over. The battlefield was only four or five miles away, and they would arrive in the blink of an eye.
At this point, Shen Yi's main force had also crossed the river and joined the battle. Although they were temporarily at a disadvantage, they had tied up all the Wei troops in the camp. In other words, all the Wei troops in the camp had been committed to the battle and had no troops left to guard against others.
Given this situation, without external assistance, Shen Yi would inevitably be defeated in the end, but Ding Feng arrived just in time.
Ding Feng arrived at the camp and charged straight into the enemy ranks like a brute, breaking into the rear of the Wei army. The Wei army was caught off guard and panicked.
When Wen Ping received the news, his expression changed slightly, but he did not panic. Instead, he calmly dealt with the situation and transferred his last remaining force, his three hundred personal guards, to the rear to intercept Ding Feng. He did not expect these three hundred men to defeat Ding Feng; he only hoped that they could hold him off for a while until he could defeat Shen Yi.
Unfortunately, he didn't know that the Han army had a second fresh force. Zhou Shao, who was hiding in the rear, was anxiously watching the battlefield. Since he didn't have an instrument to measure time, he couldn't accurately judge the time. So he only waited for a little over fifteen minutes before leading his troops to charge forward. While charging, he left a hundred men to wait for him to break into the formation before charging. In other words, he was just putting Ding Feng's method to use.
Zhou Shao successfully charged into the battlefield and attacked the Wei army. The Wei army began to panic. Didn't the Han army just send reinforcements? Why are they sending more? How many reinforcements does the Han army have?
As soon as this idea came out, the morale of the Wei army began to decline visibly, while the main force of the Han army led by Shen Yi saw the arrival of reinforcements and their morale soared. With this shift in momentum, the balance of the battle began to tilt.
In a decisive battle where strategy fails and only bloodshed and violence remain, morale is paramount. The key to victory often lies in that last breath; once that breath is gone, defeat is inevitable.
So the Wei army, which had been as fierce as wolves just moments before, began to cower and was overwhelmed by the Han army.
Not only that, Zhou Shao, in the midst of the frenzied battle, did not forget to shout: "Brothers of Wu Army, I am Zhou Shao, I am here to bring you home on behalf of Commander Zhou Tai."
Of the 20,000 Wu soldiers who were coerced into surrendering to Wei by Lü Fan, some were incorporated into Wen Ping's army. This portion of Wu soldiers numbered about 3,000, which was ten to one of the Wei army.
This ratio is fine under normal circumstances, but it can easily cause problems at this crucial moment in a decisive battle, especially with the young master Zhou Shao present.
It's important to know that Zhou Shao was not a spoiled brat, but Zhou Tai's eldest son and the heir who had been kept by Zhou Tai's side for a long time. In other words, Zhou Shao was very familiar with the Wu army that had surrendered to Wei.
Therefore, after the soldiers behind him shouted in unison, spreading Zhou Shao's words throughout the entire army, some of the Wu soldiers who had been incorporated into the Wei army had their own ideas. A young man hesitated for only a moment before suddenly turning around and slashing his knife at the Wei soldier next to him, while shouting loudly: "To hell with the Wei army! I am a Jiangdong man, here to avenge Commander Zhou Tai!"
This caused an uproar. Some people joined the rebellion, while others who didn't rebel were targeted and even guarded against by the Wei army, completely disrupting the Wei army's formation.
Just then, the hundred soldiers left behind by Zhou Shao also joined the battle. Although a hundred soldiers were not many, their appearance at this time was a fatal blow to the Wei army. Like the last straw that broke the camel's back, it instantly shattered the morale of the Wei army, and the battle situation completely tilted in the favor of the Han army.
Wen Ping was extremely anxious about this and kept adjusting his plans in an attempt to reverse the decline, but how easy was it to win back the morale that had already been lost?
The two sides fought fiercely for more than an hour. As dawn broke in the east, the Wei army not only failed to reverse its decline but also completely collapsed. Wen Ping finally chose to accept his fate and led his army to retreat.
But the Han army had finally won, so Shen Yi could not let him leave. He ordered Hao Yu and Zhou Shao to stay behind and, together with Ding Feng, pursued the enemy with all their might.
Shen Yi and Ding Feng chased and slashed at each other for almost half an hour before finally turning back when they caught Wen Ping in the county town of Zhu.
Upon returning and taking inventory, the Han army had suffered over three thousand dead, nearly five thousand seriously wounded, and everyone had minor injuries.
The losses were heavy, but the results were also brilliant. Six or seven thousand Wei soldiers were killed and more than twenty thousand were captured. This effectively crippled Wen Ping, and at least for the time being, Wen Ping would not be able to retake Xiling City.
After taking inventory, Shen Yi gave another order, commanding Ding Feng to send all 20,000 Wei prisoners across the river to prevent them from being summoned by Wen Ping and turning against him. He also ordered Zhou Shao to go to the countryside again to recruit the remaining Wu soldiers who had surrendered to Wei. He personally took charge of the camp to arrange defenses to prevent the Wei army from counterattacking. As for Hao Yu, he was seriously injured while serving as the vanguard and could only rest for the time being.
Despite his great victory, Shen Yi did not immediately attack Zhu County. It was not that he did not want to, but that he could not. First, he suffered too many casualties in the battle and needed to rest. Second, although Zhu County was a county town, it was a border town. Under Wen Ping's leadership, it was not an impregnable fortress, but it was not something that could be taken in a short time. He could only plan for the long term.
Compared to Shen Yi's high spirits, Wen Ping's side was rather gloomy. Under the relentless pursuit of Shen Yi and Ding Feng, he only managed to escape back to Zhu County with two thousand soldiers.
Although Wen Ping was hungry and tired after fleeing back to the county town, he dared not rest. Instead, he immediately ordered all the other garrison troops in Wubao to be recalled.
His defensive line stretched for hundreds of miles, and he naturally had more than just the troops he fought against Shen Yi last night. The garrison at Wubao also numbered nearly ten thousand, all of which were deployed to prevent the Han army from launching a surprise attack. However, now that the Han army had crossed the river, it was pointless for these Wubao garrisons to remain. Not only was it pointless, but they might also be defeated and eliminated one by one by Shen Yi. Therefore, rather than being defeated one by one by Shen Yi, it was better to give up and recall all the troops to concentrate forces.
Although the idea was good, Shen Yi clearly did not want these troops to return to Zhu County smoothly and join up with Wen Ping. If they joined up, wouldn't it be even more difficult for him to attack Zhu County?
Therefore, although Shen Yi did not attack Zhu County, he sent troops to guard all the entrances to Zhu County and directly attacked any Wei troops returning to the county from various forts.
I'm not going to gnaw on those forts harder than tortoise shells; I'll just be waiting on the road. If you don't come, fine, but if you do, don't even think about going back.
Wen Ping was furious at Shen Yi's actions but there was nothing he could do. Before his anger could subside, he received news of the fall of Xiling, which made him so angry that he almost vomited blood on the spot.
Fortunately, along with the bad news came good news: Yang Tai and Tian Yu had successfully reunited and arrived in Zhu County. Wen Ping was overjoyed upon hearing this and immediately ordered the garrison troops of Wubao in various places not to return to Zhu County, but to turn around and find Yang Tai to join them.