vrcanaries Chapter 737: Burning the Sichuan Army's Food and Grass
Chapter 737: Burning the Sichuan Army's Food and Grass
The Yan army suffered heavy losses from objects thrown from high altitudes, with many casualties. Their formation on the mountain was also scattered. Once they reached the top of the steps, they could hardly inflict much damage on the enemy from below.
The enemy had many troops, and the Yan army had only a few people able to attack at one time, so they were unable to break through the Sichuan army's defense line.
Su Wuan, who was standing on the hillside holding a telescope, waited for a quarter of an hour and then shook his head.
"Let the army withdraw, sound the retreat."
Su Wuan knew that it would be useless to continue fighting this battle.
Such terrain meant that they would not be able to attack no matter what, and would suffer heavy casualties.
A strong attack is not a solution. If we want to take Jiange, we have to find another way.
Wu Changge asked,
"What should we do now? The enemy has a really good advantage in terms of terrain. There's only one way to get to Jiange. If we can get through, it'll be a smooth journey. If we can't get through, we'll be stuck here forever."
Su Wuan shook his head and said,
"We can't do that. A strong attack won't work. Even if we send hot air balloons to drop bombs, the margin of error is too large. Our army and the enemy are in close combat, and it's easy for our troops to be accidentally injured.
Bombing the city wall from behind won't be very effective. They have too many people, and we can't kill them all even if we use up all our divine thunder.
This terrain is really a one-man-block pass against ten thousand.
Let’s think of other options.”
Suddenly, Wu Changge had an idea and said,
"Hey, I have an idea. Instead of blowing up their people, how about using our hot air balloon to blow up their food supplies?
Bring some kerosene up there too.
You must have heard that the prince used this method to burn down the hundreds of thousands of Wei troops on Weiyang Mountain.
This time we won’t burn the mountains, but their food supplies and their camps.
Without food and camp, how can they fight? How many days can they hold out? They will retreat without a fight!"
"Huh? That makes sense. Let's go, let's go back and get ready."
Su Wuan's eyes lit up and he immediately ordered the troops to withdraw back to the camp.
It was already afternoon, and after the army returned, they hurried to cook and eat.
After returning to the camp, Su Wuan and Wu Changge went to the scout camp and asked them to quickly prepare wooden barrels, hooks and ropes, etc. They also collected kerosene from the entire army and prepared several barrels.
Su Wuan warned,
"Look carefully! Find where their food is stored, then immediately pour kerosene and shoot a rocket to ignite the food inside. After the food is burned, burn the tents and other buildings. Remember, food is the most important!"
"As ordered!"
Soon, several hot air balloons were ready and slowly flew up with the help of others.
The people below immediately hung kerosene on the hot air balloon and hooked the bottom with a hook. As long as the people above pulled the hook, the bucket would tilt and then spill the kerosene out.
This idea was exactly the same as when Shen Changgong burned the Wei army. The only difference was that this time the area they burned was smaller, and it was inside the city wall. With the wall blocking the way, there was no need to worry about the fire spreading to the mountain.
This can be regarded as the Yan army's way of treating the enemy in his own way.
The Sichuan Army burned the Yan Army in the morning, and the revenge was not delayed overnight, so the Yan Army burned back in the afternoon!
Five hot air balloons slowly floated towards the south. After a few miles, they arrived above Jiange.
Jiang Wei, who was arranging soldiers to clean up the battlefield, looked at the hot air balloon in the sky and the barrels hanging below, and suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.
The Yan army swept across the world, and the generals of various countries naturally made detailed analyses of every battle of the Yan army, hoping to find ways to defeat the Yan army from its tactics.
The battle in which the Yan army burned the Wei army was naturally a case that other countries focused on studying.
When Jiang Wei saw those hot air balloons with buckets hanging on them, he immediately thought of that battle.
He felt like he was falling into an icy cave, and roared loudly,
"Everyone, stop what you are doing, and do your best to rescue the food and carry it out of the South Gate!
fast!
The Yan army is going to burn us, save the food! Quick! "
Jiang Wei roared loudly, and the soldiers also reacted and ran to tell each other.
Of course, the situation was so urgent that Jiang Wei did not move the thousands of people inside and outside the north gate. He was worried that the Yan army would take this opportunity to launch a sneak attack here, so he even sent another 10,000 people outside to stand on the steps.
In the sky, five Yan army scouts saw the Sichuan army soldiers below, like little ants, rushing towards the southeast corner, carrying bags of things, and immediately realized that they were going to take away the food.
They also knew that they could not delay any longer, so they all flew over.
The first hot air balloon pulled the rope as it flew, pouring kerosene onto the mountains of food and grass, while the other scouts fired rockets downwards.
Kerosene catches fire easily, and food and fodder are extremely dry and flammable.
Before the Sichuan Army could grab much food, the granaries caught fire.
Other Yan army scouts stepped forward one after another and poured more kerosene to make the food and fodder burn more vigorously.
Seeing that the fire below could no longer be stopped, the scout captain gestured to the last scout who had not yet poured kerosene, asking him to turn around and sprinkle kerosene on the tents, set them on fire, sprinkle slowly, and try to sprinkle kerosene on every tent.
Why only burn food and houses and not people?
Because people can run away, but houses can't.
If you pour kerosene on people, they will immediately scatter and run away. How many people can be burned to death by a rocket?
But the tents could not escape, and the last bucket of oil only spilled on a few tents.
Then a few scouts shot arrows, and the tents began to burn.
Jiang Wei looked at the forage area with flames rising to the sky, his heart was bleeding, and he roared loudly,
"Hurry, grab as much as you can, and be careful!"
"Bring water and put out the fire!"
As he shouted, he ran towards the burning granary himself.
However, as soon as he left, the tent area also caught fire.
"Marshal, it's bad, the tent is on fire!"
A soldier shouted,
"How much did it burn?"
"Probably just a few."
"Don't worry about it. Move everything that can burn away from you. Don't let the fire spread. Once those tents are burned, they won't burn anymore!"
After saying that, he continued running towards the granary.
When he was about ten meters away from the granary, Jiang Wei felt a heat wave coming from the sky, baking him so hard that his whole body felt hot and painful.
The soldiers rushed forward desperately and poured water on it, but they couldn't reach the fire at all.
Even if it is poured on, it will be of no use.
The scene before me perfectly illustrates what it means to be a drop in the bucket.
Jiang Wei's heart was bleeding, but he still gave the order despite the pain.
“Stop saving food and move all combustible materials around to prevent the fire from spreading.
Quick, throw the burning ones into the fire and move the unburned ones aside!"
Jiang Wei retreated more than ten steps to avoid the rising heat wave and billowing smoke.