Chapter 1147: Carrying on the Past and Opening up the Future (Thirty-Seven)

Sixi, the main camp of the newly-formed First Army of the Han State.

In just over a month, the once ambitious and high-spirited commander of the New First Army seemed to have aged by dozens of years. Recalling the battle a month ago, Zhang Hongyu was still full of regret.

When Dong Zhuang's Third Division began to launch the attack, everything went smoothly. Although they encountered stubborn resistance from the opponent in Tucheng, the Third Division still marched forward, defeated the opponent, and pressed towards Tucheng. The encounter of He Dong's troops in Sixi by the First Regiment of the Third Division was the beginning of the disaster. They encountered not the local guards shown in the intelligence, but the real elite of the Chu State, and their number was several times more than theirs. He Dong was trapped and could not escape, and the disaster began from that time. In order to rescue He Dong, Dong Zhuang put all the remaining troops into the battle in Sixi, and then was surrounded. In order to rescue Dong Zhuang, Cui Chengxiu's troops of the First Division and Gao Chengdong's troops of the Second Division successively rushed into this bottomless battlefield, until the entire army was surrounded on the narrow battlefield of Sixi.

First of all, in retrospect, the opponent had already made full preparations, secretly mobilized a large army to hide around Sixi, and lured the New First Army into the encirclement little by little, but he was caught in this desperate situation without any mental preparation.

Zhang Hongyu did not hate his opponent. On the battlefield, if he lost, he lost. He hated himself for underestimating the enemy and hating himself for easily ignoring a series of signs that appeared earlier. In the final analysis, he was too proud, too confident in the New First Army, and disdained the combat effectiveness of the Chu Army. When Cui Chengxiu of the First Division was also surrounded and sent a warning to himself, he should not have led the Second Division and the troops directly under the military to step into this trap again. At that time, he thought that as long as the reinforcements led by him arrived at the battlefield, he could defeat the opponent without suspense and rescue the trapped army. Now it seems that it is really too naive.

For a long-planned conspiracy, the other party needs him to do this, and he jumped off the cliff without hesitation without noticing.

More than 50,000 troops tried in vain to break out of the battlefield chosen by the enemy in Sixi, but failed repeatedly due to the limitations of the terrain until Zhang Hongyu could no longer fight.

Of the 50,000 New First Army, there are still more than 30,000 people left. Most of them fell on the battlefield in previous battles and repeated breakouts, and some injured soldiers died slowly and painfully due to the severe lack of medicine.

It was all his own fault.

Zhang Hongyu would certainly not surrender. If Wu Qi had not arrived in Sixi that day, he would have gathered all the remaining edible things in the army and prepared to assign them to the most elite part of the army. When other units launched a desperate attack to attract the attention of the opponent, let them break out from another direction. At least the fire of the New First Army can be preserved, and the whole army will not be destroyed here.

Regardless of whether this plan can succeed or not,

it is always an attempt, because if it is delayed any longer. There is no need for the enemy to attack, and he will be trapped and lose his combat effectiveness due to hunger.

Wu Qi's arrival stopped Zhang Hongyu's final breakout plan, because even if the breakout was successful, there would not be many people left in the New First Army, and most of them would be buried in Sixi.

Seeing Wu Qi, Zhang Hongyu knew that the country had begun to prepare for negotiations with the State of Chu, and his New First Army had become a bargaining chip on the negotiating table of the Chu people.

From that day on, the enemies who surrounded him sent a thousand kilograms of rice every day, which was not enough to fill the teeth of tens of thousands of troops, but they could still hang on and not starve to death.

It was painful to be given alms by the enemy, especially for a proud general like Zhang Hongyu. His subordinates saw that Zhang Hongyu was aging at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Zhang Hongyu knew that in order to save the fate of the New First Army this time, the Han Dynasty would have to pay a high price, and this had never happened before. It had always been the Han Dynasty that threatened its opponents at the negotiation table, and it had never been threatened by its opponents. He would set this precedent, and in the future military history, this heavy stain that he would never be able to wash away would inevitably be left.

"How is the morale now?" Zhang Hongyu asked, looking at Cui Chengxiu, who was also a little haggard.

"Commander, the middle and senior officers are still okay, but the grassroots officers and ordinary soldiers are all asking for a breakout. Even if there is only one soldier left, it is better than being trapped here to death."

"Do you think so too?"

Cui Chengxiu shook his head: "Commander, the problem now is probably not a military one. The other side is surrounding us but not fighting. It is obvious that they want to use us to bargain with the court. Didn't Wu Yizheng come a while ago? I'm afraid it's for this matter, right?"

Zhang Hongyu nodded, "Yes, it's not a military problem now. The court has its own considerations. Wu Yizheng went to Yingcheng this time to seek a political solution, which is also what the Chu people expect."

"Will you ask us to surrender?" Cui Chengxiu raised his head, and a trace of rebelliousness flashed in his eyes.

"If that's the case, what will you do?"

Cui Chengxiu was silent for a moment, "I will do what the commander asks, but it's hard to say about Dong Zhuang."

Zhang Hongyu nodded, "Gao Chengdong is the kind of pure soldier. He will take obeying orders as his bounden duty. Dong Zhuang is different. He will not accept this outcome. So I have ordered him to be summoned to the Chinese Army. , came to you and asked you to go to Caijiaji to take over his army and temporarily integrate it with your first division. "

"You want to arrest him?" Cui Chengxiu asked in shock.

"I am worried that he will cause trouble. This time the Third Division suffered heavy losses and was basically disabled. This guy only wants revenge. If the superiors ask us to surrender to the Chu army, he will not agree, so I will first Lock him up in the military headquarters and release him when he returns."

"Commander?" Cui Chengxiu was confused, "Is this the final result? If the Young Guards Corps is mobilized from Jicheng, it will take at most ten days for their two cavalry corps to get here from Jicheng. This battle It’s not like there’s no need to fight.”

"The key is that the imperial court does not want to fight now and cannot fight! Wu Yizheng made this very clear to me when he came last time. After years of war, we big men have no foundation and cannot afford to waste it. Now the country needs Recuperate and recuperate. We originally thought this would be a short and quick war, but we messed it up. If the imperial court sent troops to rescue us, it might lead to a long and continuous war with the Chu State. This is obviously not what the imperial court wanted. have witnessed."

"Are you really going to surrender?" Cui Chengxiu didn't say anything.

"Let me bear all the blame. From the beginning, I have underestimated my opponent. Since the formation of the New First Army, we have fought many tough battles and bitter battles. We all went smoothly. It was so smooth. Let me His heart also grew bigger, and he regarded the world's heroes as nothing. This time, the Chu army's trap was not traceable. From the moment Dong Zhuang's three regiments of Mao Afu began to attack Tucheng, many bad omens appeared, but I was too optimistic and turned a blind eye, which was the root cause of the catastrophe. If I had not been greedy for credit, maybe it was only Dong Zhuang's two regiments that were trapped at that time, instead of our entire New First Army. "

"This is not the commander's fault." Cui Chengxiu whispered.

"It's my fault. After you got trapped, you sent someone to warn me. If I had listened to you, the Second Division and the military headquarters would not have gotten trapped. If we were still outside, we would never have fought like this. With this look, Chengxiu, you are better than me."

"Commander!" Cui Chengxiu looked at him in shock.

"You were once my student, and I know you saved my face!" Zhang Hongyu smiled bitterly: "Chengxiu, I have issued orders to the officials at regiment level and above in the three divisions. If anything happens to me, Xinyi You will temporarily take over the position of Army Commander until the court makes a new appointment."

"Commander, it's not time to despair yet, how can you give such an order? Do you have other plans?"

"It's just a precautionary measure. As long as I'm fine, you, the acting commander, will not be able to perform your duties." Yang Hongyu suddenly laughed: "Wu Yizheng said he would fight for a decent way for us to withdraw from the war, and I am pointing at him now. ”

"Commander, if we are really required to lay down our weapons, we will not be able to accept it. This is not only Dong Zhuang, but also me and Gao Chengdong."

"If you save people and lose land, you will gain them. If you save people and lose people, you will lose people and land. Have you forgotten the king's teachings?" Zhang Hongyu said calmly, "The most important thing now is to bring the remaining people back. Only people can go back. Now, if there is another chance to take revenge, Chengxiu, if we all die here, even if we get revenge in the future, it will not be done by the Xinyi Army himself. Do you understand what I mean? This time we lost the battle related to the destiny of the country, but we can still wait for the next opportunity.”

"But this time's failure is only due to the senior generals of our New First Army..." Cui Chengxiu sighed.

"It doesn't matter, all the responsibilities will be borne by me. I won't let you be implicated. Your performance in this war is remarkable. This is the reason why we still retain most of the soldiers. I've already written the excerpt. Your Majesty is a great expert in military affairs. You will understand at first sight that you are affected by me."

"Commander!" Cui Chengxiu stood up immediately.

"It's better for me to suffer alone than for everyone to be unlucky together. What's more, this time is something I should be responsible for." Zhang Hongyu looked at him and shook his head.

"Commander, Commander Dong is here!" A guard raised the curtain and walked into the tent to report to Zhang Hongyu.

Zhang Hongyu nodded, "Chengxiu, go ahead."

"Yes, Commander, take care of yourself!" (To be continued...)