Chapter 56 This Liu Fu who commands the troops is a complete incompetent fool; watch me capture him alive!

There are always deaths in war.

Moreover, the Han army numbered only 20,000, while the rebel army numbered 130,000.

The Eighth Prince in front of us actually boasted that he could use 20,000 troops to quell the rebellion and that he would not lose a single soldier on the day of his success.

How is that possible?

Thinking this through, Zhou Zhenguo assumed Liu Fu was just being stubborn and showing off, so he cupped his hands and said to Liu Fu:

"Your Highness claims that you quelled the rebellion of 130,000 men and managed to ensure that not a single one of your 20,000 soldiers died in battle. This humble general simply cannot believe it."

"If Your Majesty can achieve a minor victory over the rebels, with casualties not exceeding one-third, this humble general is willing to apologize to His Highness the Eighth Prince and plead for my life. Even if His Highness were to execute me then, I would have no complaints!"

"good!"

Liu Fu immediately agreed, and the two made a vow by striking a high five.

"Dismissed. Tonight, all Han soldiers should rest well. Tomorrow, they shall act according to military orders."

Only after the generals had left the military tent did Prince Shan and Prince Fu, standing behind Liu Fu, nervously ask him:

"Eighth brother, your eldest brother spent half his life farming and eventually became a prince. You wouldn't expect us to know anything about warfare, but how can you expect to defeat 130,000 rebels with only 20,000 men while leaving our 20,000 men completely unharmed?"

Liu Dai, the second brother, also stepped forward to persuade Liu Fu:

"Isn't this a bit too much boasting? You never used to exaggerate like this before."

Liu Fu tucked the gold medal back into his pocket and told his eldest and second eldest brothers:

"You guys just go back to sleep. I can do what I say, don't worry."

Liu Fu said that, but when the eldest and second eldest brothers went back and thought about it, they still realized it wouldn't work!

"Second brother, hurry back and find our father, and ask him to send the seventh brother to provide support, otherwise I feel like we are going to be wiped out."

Prince Liu Dai sighed:

"Now we can only go to Seventh Brother. Eighth Brother's temper is so bad that even ten oxen couldn't pull him back. He also has the gold medal given to him by our father. I'll go back and ask Seventh Brother for help right now."

"Go quickly! If we suffer a defeat, we must rescue Lao Ba. He's our own brother!"

Prince Liu Dai rode back to the Han capital overnight.

In the dead of night, after all the Han soldiers had rested, Liu Fu and Qiongqi were already flying in the air, heading towards their destination.

An army marches on its stomach.

Fighting a war relies on the courage and skill of the troops and the command of the generals, but the most basic thing is money and food, especially food supplies.

In the past few days, Liu Fu has come to Dongjun and has already thoroughly investigated the rebel army's several grain storage locations.

Upon reaching their destination, the steppe ground otter led the way, while Liu Fu secretly infiltrated the granary and emptied the rebels' supplies.

These rebels were recruited by wealthy merchants, who had no shortage of food.

The military rations that Liu Fu collected that night totaled 300,000 shi (a unit of dry measure).

Liu Fu then went to the rebels' supply route and released Gorilla King Kong—the one who had followed Liu Fu the longest, wielding a 50-meter-long sword.

What does a 50-meter-long broadsword mean?

With a single swing of his blade, Xing Da cut at least dozens of grain transport soldiers in half at the waist.

The other grain transport soldiers, who were terrified and about to run away, hadn't even gone three meters when they saw a large group of giant tigers and lions surrounding them.

That night, nearly a thousand grain transport soldiers vanished without a trace, and Liu Fu took back the tens of thousands of shi of grain that had been transported to the pasture.

In this case, the rebels' food supplies will not last until tomorrow, and the grain being transported along the supply route has been intercepted. It will take at least a month for new supplies to arrive.

People will die if they don't eat for five or six days. If they can survive for a month, the rebels will have no choice but to eat people.

After the military rations were taken away, the balance of power had already shifted in Liu Fu's favor.

At dawn the next day, the 20,000 troops were divided into four teams and marched to the location designated by Liu Fu.

It has been almost ten days since Liu Fu arrived in Dongjun, and the gorillas have already made more than 40,000 barricades.

Liu Fu distributed these chevaux-de-frise, and the Han army set up camp at the pass and road intersection, then placed the chevaux-de-frise in front of them.

These barricades were densely packed together, forming an obstacle zone that was over thirty meters wide and several hundred meters long.

With this barrier as a buffer, enemy cavalry cannot charge forward, and infantry cannot break through the barrier in a short time.

But the Han army's arrows could shoot down the rebels who were blocked from afar.

In Zhao Kang and Zhou Zhenguo's view, Liu Fu's tactics were a complete mess, but military orders were absolute, so they had no choice but to follow them.

From that day on, Liu Fu sent out all the treasure-hunting rats and his little rat brothers.

They infiltrated various rebel camps to gather intelligence.

Dongshan Prefecture.

This place was originally the capital city of Dongjun, but since the rebellion, the governor of Dongshan was killed and the entire city was occupied by the rebels.

In this Dongshan city alone, there are 50,000 rebel troops stationed, and the rebel leader Ouyang Fang lives here.

But today, things are not looking good.

"Your Majesty...Your Majesty, something terrible has happened!"

A rebel scout rushed in, covered in sweat and looking extremely flustered.

Ouyang Fang, who had declared himself the Prince of Pingding, was now holding two heavily made-up women and looked displeased. He scolded them:

"What's the matter that you're so panicked?"

"Your Majesty, our military rations have been lost!"

Upon hearing that the military rations had been lost, Ouyang Fang assumed that the Han army had intervened and intercepted the grain transport convoy on the supply route.

Upon further inquiry, it was discovered that all the military rations had been stolen, leaving them with not a single grain of food.

Suddenly, with a loud crash, the glass wine cup in Ouyang Fang's hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

"My dear brothers, this is an urgent matter. Let's go and see what's going on."

The other deputy leaders here are all sons of wealthy families who rebelled in Dongjun.

These people were not ignorant or incompetent; many of the wealthy families were officials in the imperial court. Ouyang Fang and the other deputy leaders had all led troops into battle a few years ago.

All their military rations were lost, and they certainly knew what that meant for the 130,000 rebels who had risen up in rebellion.

When Ouyang Fang arrived at a granary, she was immediately stunned.

The granary was perfectly intact, with not a single footprint in sight, yet the tens of thousands of bushels of grain hidden inside had vanished!

What happened?

They immediately rushed to the next granary, only to find that the tens of thousands of bushels of grain stored there had also vanished.

Ouyang Fang is numb!

Arriving at the last two grain storage sites, they found them indeed empty. Ouyang Fang was drenched in sweat, but he forced himself to remain calm and did not show his panic.

If the commander-in-chief panics at this moment, the morale of the army will immediately collapse, and how can he fight the war then?

Not long after, a scout from the rebel army suddenly arrived on horseback with news:

"Your Majesty! The Han army has been mobilized!"

ah?

Ouyang Fang was taken aback and hurriedly asked:

"How many of them came? Where did they set up camp? Who was in command?"

"Your Majesty, the Han army numbers approximately 20,000 men, divided into four routes of 5,000 each. They have cut off all our retreat routes from all sides, forming a pocket formation."

So it turns out they were planning to besiege their Pingding Army, turning them into dumplings.

But when Ouyang Fang heard that the Han army only numbered 20,000, he laughed instead:

"Is Liu Laowu, this rough and uncultured man who has been a farmer for half his life, really unable to muster any men to quell the rebellion, so he's just trying to intimidate me with these 20,000 men?"

Ouyang Fang laughed loudly:

"This Liu Fu who commands the troops is a complete incompetent fool. If I just raise an army to break out, do you think he can hold me back?"

It was too late to investigate the loss of military rations.

The opportunity was fleeting. Ouyang Fang needed to take advantage of the soldiers' lack of opportunity to break through the Han army's encirclement and wipe them out before they mutinied. This would allow him to seize the Han army's supplies and resolve the food shortage crisis.

"Issue my order: capture Prince Liu Fu alive! I will use his head as a sacrifice for my flag!"

But Ouyang Fang was unaware that Liu Fu had already laid an ambush of a large army of ferocious beasts on his only escape route.

Moreover, Liu Fu discovered another way to use the animal breeding ranch, and he has already prepared a powerful weapon for Ouyang Fang!