The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"This guy can't sit still again."

Hei Fu sighed, lifted the curtain and went in. It was indeed Dongmen Bao who was furious.

It turned out that after arriving in Daliang, Dongmen Bao calculated the time and found that his wife's due date had passed and his child was already born. So he gave up the idea of returning to Nanjun immediately, and instead thought about gaining military merit in the war against Wei, so as to fight for a good background for his "son" whom he had never met.

The title and the corresponding land and house treatment can be passed on to sons, so most of the Qin family members sent their children to the battlefield with tears in their eyes and said, "Don't return if you can't."

Fighting, beheading, making merit, and being promoted to a higher title are the only ways for most people in Qin to advance in society.

But the current war method made Dongmen Bao's plan go awry. After digging ditches under Daliang City for half a month, he completely turned into a raging beast trapped in a cage...

Looking at the others, Ji Ying was pinching lice in his clothes, Bu Cheng was still calculating tomorrow's weather, Li Xian was mending his clothes, and the others were lying on the straw mat, enjoying a rare rest.

These days, they were all used to Dongmen Bao's roar, and no one paid attention to him.

So Dongmen Bao could only come and pester Hei Fu, complaining to him: "Hei Fu, tell me, what exactly is the plan of General Wang? It's been half a month, and the city has not been attacked, and the war has not been fought. What does he want to do?"

"Want to know?" Hei Fu raised his eyes, and Dongmen Bao nodded quickly: "I want to!"

Hei Fu had not told everyone the truth before because he was just guessing according to historical records, but after observing for a few days, he had seen through General Wang Ben's plan.

"Do you remember the Yan County we passed by?" Hei Fu asked Dongmen Bao to sit down.

"Yes." Dongmen Bao certainly remembered that Gong Ao, who lived in the shack next door, was from Yan County.

"The northeastern wall of Yan County is newly built, and the color is different from the other walls. Did you notice it?"

Dongmen Leopard Head shook like a rattle: "I didn't notice it."

Hei Fu knew that this reckless guy would not care about such details, so he continued: "That section of the earthen wall was soaked and washed away by floods more than 50 years ago. At that time, Wu Anjun attacked Chu and was unable to capture Yancheng for a long time. He used the nearby water flow to build embankments to store water, and built a long canal directly under Yancheng, and then opened the canal to irrigate the city, and Yancheng was broken..."

At this time, others also stopped their work and gathered around. Li Xian asked first: "What you mean is, the reason why General Wang is besieging Daliang but not attacking it, and asking us to dig ditches, is he planning to follow Wu Anjun's method?"

"Yes, Daliang has plenty of granaries. If we defend it, we can hold out for a year or so. There are more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the city. If we attack by force, our army will suffer heavy losses. Therefore, the most reliable way to attack the city is to attack with water!"

Most of the city walls these days are made of rammed earth and are very thick, so the various catapults in movies and TV shows are actually not very useful. Instead, water and fire are often useful in attacking the city. There is an article in Sun Tzu's Art of War that specifically talks about fire attacks, and water attacks were also widely used by military strategists in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The most famous one is probably the story of Zhi Bo flooding Jinyang City, and Zhao Wuxiu almost didn't survive.

Hei Fu continued, "I wonder if you have noticed that the terrain of Daliang City is low-lying, and not far to the north is a surging river. I asked several Wei people who were captured and forced to do hard labor, and they said that the terrain of the river is actually several feet higher than the ground! It is all thanks to the earthen wall in Xingyang that there has been no flood in the past ten years."

"Just imagine, if General Wang asked the garrison soldiers and prisoners to dig up the river defenses in Xingkou, and then use a long canal to divert water here to block the Honggou..."

Bu Cheng is a feng shui superstitious fortune teller who is more sensitive to the terrain. He immediately took a breath of cold air: "In that case, Daliang will be flooded back!"

"Yes, in this case, this city will be destroyed by the flood without any casualties of Qin soldiers!"

Heifu was also full of emotion. This Wang Ben was really the son of the veteran Wang Jian. From the way he attacked the city, it could be seen that Wang Ben had learned his father's special skills.

When the Wang family went to war, when there was no need to take risks, there was only one word: steady!

And Wang Jian was as steady as an old dog. The key was that besides being steady, he would also come up with some surprises, some tricks, and some conspiracies. The last famous general of Zhao, Li Mu, was killed in this way...

He won on the battlefield, but lost in the conspiracy of the court.

When Heifu said this, Dongmen Bao blinked his eyes: "So, we came to Daliang not to fight, but were specially recruited to dig ditches and do corvée?"

"You are finally right."

Dongmen Bao stamped his feet in anger.

Ji Ying also said: "Heifu, if this is the case, as long as the river water pours in, won't Daliang fall quickly?"

Heifu shook his head and said: "No, although this method is stable enough, it is also slow. I have taken a good look outside Daliang these days. It is indeed a great city in the Central Plains. No matter which side, the walls are very thick. It will not be soaked and broken without two or three months. Even if the flood pours into the city and submerges the ground, the Wei people inside will not surrender immediately, so this battle is still far from over..."

"When the city is broken, the Wei people will be surrounded by the flood and have been cooking for a long time. They may even breed diseases, and their morale and fighting spirit will have long been exhausted. Once the city is broken, the King of Wei will probably surrender directly, and there will be no war in the city at that time."

"Therefore, if you stay here, you will definitely not get a meritorious title!"

When everyone heard this, their faces suddenly turned bitter. They had been away from their hometown for more than three months. They had come all the way here. The money they brought was gradually spent, and their clothes and shoes became tattered. They also worked hard with the prisoners for many days. It was not easy. If there was no merit to earn in the end, this trip would be a big loss.

Hei Fu was of course aware of this. He was also thinking about seeking merit and promotion. If he was still a hairpin pavilion chief after the battle, and returned to Anlu County, Zuo Wei Yunman, who had a grudge against him, would not know how to harm him.

For the Wei people in the city, Daliang was already a place where the country was destroyed. For Hei Fu, who was pursuing achievements, this place was also a place of death.

He looked at the expressions of the people in the shack. Except for a few people with mediocre martial arts, they were relieved when they heard that staying in Daliang would end the war safely. The rest of the people were a little unwilling...

This kind of unwillingness was what Hei Fu wanted!

So Hei Fu said: "But now, there is an opportunity! Let us leave Daliang and seek opportunities to make meritorious deeds!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone's eyes lit up!

...

Half an hour passed, and after discussing with everyone, Hei Fu took off his worn brown clothes for work, changed into a new robe that he had put at the bottom of his luggage, tied his red cap badge as a pavilion chief, and walked out of the tent.

Among the gray and black people, Hei Fu stood out.

"Ting... Pavilion Chief, the willow branch you want."

At this time, Xiao Tao ran over breathlessly and handed Hei Fu a willow branch soaked in a bowl. This was what Hei Fu asked him to find.

Heifu was not polite. He took the willow branch and bit it open with his teeth. However, he looked at the not-so-clear water in the bowl and asked suspiciously, "Isn't the water in this bowl from the moat?"

The moat has tens of thousands of people peeing in it all day long, and it has become a stinky toilet.

"No." Xiao Tao's face turned red with nervousness, and he waved his hands stutteringly, "Absolutely not! This... is well water."

The old wells were filled with dead animals thrown into them by the Wei people to fortify the walls and clear the fields. The well water that Xiao Tao mentioned was newly dug by Heifu and other garrison soldiers in the past half month.

Xiao Tao was an honest man and would not lie to Heifu, so Heifu did not suspect anything and rinsed his mouth with the bitten willow branch.

Although the conditions were limited when fighting outside, Heifu would still clean his mouth every day. In this day and age, there is no way to fix broken teeth. Heifu did not want to be in his thirties with a mouth full of rotten teeth like the prisoners.

Besides, it is not polite to talk to your superior with bad breath, right? Heifu was helpless. The county lieutenant of Fangcheng, who was in charge of their group, was a clan member, and he was a bit of a clean freak, which was rare in this era...

After finishing, he exhaled and sniffed, and then walked deep into the tent, all the way to the largest tent in their small camp where a thousand people were stationed, and asked the soldiers guarding the gate, who said that the county lieutenant was indeed inside.

Heifu heard a piece of news that General Wang Ben, in addition to the large-scale water conservancy project in Daliang, finally planned to send a detachment to capture the eastern counties of Wei State, and the county lieutenant inside was one of the commanders...

This was an opportunity to leave this desperate place, and Heifu didn't want to miss it!

So Heifu stood outside the tent and said loudly: "Heifu, the hairpin of Anlu County, please see the second five hundred masters!"