kingnovel Chapter 1228: Losing Unjustly
Chapter 1228: Losing Unjustly
The setting sun was as red as blood, dyeing the mess in the Qin army camp red.
There were incessant wails in the wounded camp. Several medical officers hurried through with basins of blood in their hands. The brown medicine soup was poured on the muddy ground and was swallowed up by the yellow earth in a blink of an eye.
"Hold it steady! This is General Meng Ao's personal guard!"
Two soldiers with soot-covered faces staggered past, carrying a half-charred corpse. The broken tibia poked out from the burnt armor, shining white in the twilight.
The young recruit suddenly knelt down and vomited, and was kicked over by the veteran soldier: "Useless! Why didn't you show any mercy when we massacred the villagers in Longxi?"
Inside the central army tent, Wang Jian sat alone at his desk.
The dim tallow lamp cast half of his face on the tent cloth, and the distorted shadow swayed with the torches outside the tent, as if countless ghost hands were tearing at his outline.
The blood-stained defense map on the table had been rubbed repeatedly and had frayed edges. The crow's feet in the corners of the parchment scroll were also embedded with bronze fragments from the arrowheads of the Chu army.
"General!"
The curtain was suddenly opened, and Zhao Tuo rushed in, smelling of blood.
The commander of the heavy armor battalion was still wearing his armor. There was a fresh cut on his visor from his forehead to his jaw, and blood was dripping from the gaps in the iron sheet onto the ground.
"I just inspected the forage camp and found that three carts of corn had been replaced with sand!"
Before he finished speaking, Li Ran followed him into the big tent.
The commander of the crossbow battalion still had his fingers wrapped in blood-soaked linen, but he pressed firmly on the hilt of his sword: "General Zhao, what do you mean by this? The dispatch of food and grass has always been the responsibility of our army. Is this a hint..."
"Shut up, everyone!"
Wang Jian suddenly shouted, and when his one eye swept over everyone, the temperature in the tent dropped sharply.
He slowly stood up, the sound of armor and leaves hitting each other was like a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue: "Today's meeting is only about the war situation."
Seven generals stood on both sides, and the candlelight stretched their shadows on the tent like seven sharp blades dripping with blood.
"Why can the Chu army go straight to our camp?"
Wang Jian knocked his knuckles on the defense map, making a dull sound. "The location of the secret passage to the Chongcheying Camp is clear as day."
Zhao Tuo suddenly slammed the table, causing the flame in the copper lamp to jump up violently. "There must be a traitor! Yesterday, before General Wang Wei charged into the chariot formation, I saw with my own eyes a servant from the grain and grass camp heading towards the south gate..."
"General Zhao, be careful with your words!"
Li Ran stood up suddenly, the sword on his waist clanging against the table: "We have been eating and sleeping together since we left Hangu Pass. Are you doubting the personal soldiers who have followed the general for ten years?"
There was a sudden silence in the tent.
Wang Jian narrowed his one eye, and his gaze was like a knife cutting across Li Ran's tense neck - there was a fresh scratch there, which was the unique barb mark of the Chu army's mingdi arrows.
He remembered that the battle report said that Li Ran's archery battalion was the only unit that was not attacked by the Chu cavalry.
The location of the arrow wound on Li Ran's neck was strange. If he was facing the enemy head-on, the arrow mark would be on the breastplate... Unless he was shot when he turned around and fled
"I have something to say."
The commander of the scout camp, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke.
The scarred man took out a bloody bronze waist badge from his bosom and said, "I found this among the corpses of the Chu army."
The Qin seal on the waist badge made everyone's pupils shrink suddenly - it was the logo of Meng Ao's personal guard.
“Impossible!” Zhao Tuo smashed the corner of the table with his fist: “All members of General Meng’s personal guards were killed in the battle, and their bodies…”
"The bodies are incomplete." The scout leader said sinisterly, "Seventeen bodies are missing from the East Gate battlefield."
The candle flame suddenly burst into sparks, casting a shadow on Wang Jian's face.
He saw Li Ran's fingers unconsciously rubbing the hilt of the sword, Zhao Tuo's Adam's apple rolling up and down three times, and the scout leader's one ear twitching slightly - this was his habit when he lied.
Wang Jian frowned. The scout battalion had just received three hundred new recruits last month. Could it be that Chu Ning had arranged the personnel in advance?
"Report——"
Suddenly, a sharp scream was heard outside the tent. The guards rushed in, holding a whistling arrow that was still dripping with blood:
"The Chu Army... the Chu Army sent a declaration of war!"
The moment the parchment scroll was unfolded, Wang Jian's pupil suddenly shrank.
Chu Ning's handwriting was so powerful that it could be seen through the paper. The last stroke was like a knife blade pointing directly to a certain place - it was the position of the Qin army's secret sentry marked on the defense map.
"I will take your head in three days." Li Ran's voice suddenly trembled when he read out the contents of the declaration of war.
Wang Jian looked up suddenly and saw the scout leader quietly reaching for the dagger at his waist.
Suddenly, a strong wind blew outside the tent, blowing out all the candles. In the darkness, the sound of sharp blades being drawn was heard, followed by the muffled sound of flesh being torn.
When the guards relit the torches, the scout leader had already fallen in a pool of blood with the whistling arrow stuck in his throat.
Wang Jian slowly put away his hidden crossbow and scanned everyone's shocked faces with cold eyes: "The spy has been eliminated, but Chu Ning definitely has more than one spies."
After the generals left, Wang Jian sat alone in the dark.
He dipped his finger in the scout leader's blood and drew seven circles on the back of the defense map - exactly where the seven generals had stood just now.
The scene in Hecheng, thirty miles away, was quite different.
Eighty-one bronze Vermillion Bird lamps illuminated the watchtower as bright as day. Chu Ning sat high on the main throne, with three hundred Qin prisoners kneeling at his feet.
Guan Yun swung his sword to cut the ropes that bound them, and the wine jars shattered, and the bloody wine flowed along the stone steps into a river.
"Drink the blood of my enemies to sacrifice to the heroic spirits of the Great Chu!"
When Chu Ning raised his glass, Kuipi war drums suddenly sounded from the top of the city wall. Eight thousand soldiers roared in unison, and the sound waves made the stars and the moon pale in comparison.
Ran Ming, with his eyes half drunk, picked up the head of Qin general Meng Ao and poured wine into his angry mouth and nose:
"It's great! It's all clear now!"
The surrounding generals laughed and smashed wine bowls at the prisoners, and the broken porcelain left bloody marks on their pale faces.
Chu Ning suddenly clapped his hands, and twelve strong men carried a three-meter-long black cloth and walked into the arena. The moment the cloth was opened, everyone in the arena exclaimed - it turned out to be a modified three-bow crossbow, and the bronze gears embedded on the capstan were emitting a faint cold light.
"This crossbow is called 'Po Jun', and it can penetrate armor from eight hundred steps away."
Chu Ning's fingers stroked the inscription on the crossbow, and suddenly turned to look at Guan Yun: "Three days later, I want you to take it and nail Wang Jian's head on the Qin army's flag."
The drunken soldiers suddenly became quiet.
Chu Ning's voice suddenly rose, like a sharp blade in the night wind: "Do you think today's victory was due to luck? I planted seventeen nails in the Qin army three years ago! Every Chu man who died in the battle used his intestines to guide the crossbow arrows!"
He picked up the wine bowl and smashed it down. The bowl shattered to the ground and the amber liquid seeped into the cracks between the bricks.
"It's time for the Qin people to experience the feeling of having their hearts pierced by sharp arrows!"
The night wind blew over the top of the city with a burning smell. Chu Ning looked in the direction of the Qin army camp with a sneer on his face.
He deliberately spared Wang Jian's life so that this old rival could witness with his own eyes how the 150,000 Qin troops were forged into a stepping stone for him to conquer the world.
Thinking of this, Chu Ning turned to look at Jia Yu and sneered, "Send this battle record to the Han Emperor Liu Che, let him know that our army has won a great victory, and ask him to immediately send troops to attack Sima Yi of Wei."
"If he sends out troops now, he can still gain something. Otherwise, once our army defeats the Qin army, it will be too late for him to take action!"