My father-in-law Guan Yu, I persuaded Liu Bei to launch a surprise attack on Xiangyang at the beginn

The sky gradually turned a pale white.

At this moment, below the cliff, the raging fire of the previous night had quietly been extinguished, leaving only wisps of smoke rising and slowly dissipating.

Just then, a sudden shout shattered the quiet and oppressive atmosphere.

"The bucket is moving! The bucket is moving!"

The sudden shout instantly erupted among the soldiers.

Upon hearing the sound, Wang Shuang suddenly leaped up, quickly scanning his surroundings. He saw that the ropes hanging from the cliff edge were all trembling slightly.

A sense of anticipation welled up within him:
Could it be that the soldiers below are filling the buckets with water?
Could the fire at the foot of the mountain last night really have been nothing more than an accident in Jiang Wei's army, and not something the Han army was aware of?

This filled Wang Shuang with immense joy, and he suddenly saw a glimmer of hope.

So he shouted impatiently:

"Pull the bucket up, quick!"

The soldiers immediately perked up and worked together, shouting slogans as they lifted the buckets of water up.

Wang Shuang stared wide-eyed at the buckets that were about to reveal the answer, her eyes filled with anticipation.

If there is water in the bucket, it means that everything is safe and the alarm is off.

Just then, a terrified scream suddenly rang out.

The Wei soldiers' faces changed drastically, and they all cried out in terror.

Wang Shuang's expression froze instantly, and the light of hope in her eyes was quickly replaced by despair.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at the buckets—which contained not water, but… bloody severed heads!
Buckets upon buckets of human heads—the severed heads of Wei soldiers from the detachment!

Wang Shuang felt a sudden dizziness, and his body involuntarily staggered back several steps. He felt as if all his strength had been drained, leaving him utterly exhausted.

He stumbled a few steps and almost fell to the ground, but fortunately his personal guards caught him in time.

The last glimmer of hope that remained in my heart vanished completely at this moment.

He understood that the detachment had indeed been breached by the Han army.

The Dark Spring has also been captured by the Han army.

The Han army brought up these heads as evidence to declare to the Wei army that the water supply had been cut off, thereby completely crushing their morale.

"How did they discover my Dark Spring?"

Wang Shuang gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, his hands clenched into fists.

"Jiang Wei, you useless piece of trash! Why couldn't you guard the Dark Spring?"

A roar of extreme anger echoed through the camp.

News of the breach of the camp and the cutting off of the water supply spread like wildfire throughout the entire camp.

Upon hearing this, the Wei soldiers all showed signs of panic, and their morale plummeted to rock bottom.

The entire camp was plunged into chaos and despair.

at this time.

In the Han camp at the foot of the north slope, Deng Ai was leisurely sipping his wine.

He glanced coldly at the Wei army camp atop Maiji Mountain, a mocking smile playing on his lips.
"Wang Shuang, are you surprised? Unexpected?"

Last night, he personally led his elite troops and, under the cover of darkness, launched a surprise attack on Wei's camp.

Although Jiang Wei was a capable general and skilled in martial arts, the Wei army was too small and unprepared, making it impossible for them to withstand the fierce offensive of the Han army.

Unsurprisingly, the Han army quickly ended the battle, annihilating most of the Wei army's forces.

Jiang Wei also managed to break through the encirclement with only a hundred men.

In order to thoroughly intimidate the Wei army, Deng Ai ordered the Wei camp to be burned, so that Wang Shuang and his soldiers could witness the cruel reality of their water supply being cut off.

Before returning to camp, he specifically ordered that the heads of Wei soldiers be placed in a bucket and that Wang Shuang lift it up, in order to completely shatter the Wei army's courage.

If you listen closely now, you can faintly hear the screams of Wei soldiers coming from Maijishan.

Clearly, the Wei army already knew that the Dark Spring had been cut off, and the entire camp was in chaos.

He could almost see Wang Shuang's angry and desperate face, and the panicked expressions of the Wei soldiers. Everything was as he had predicted, and it was the outcome he wanted to see.

"We need to add fuel to the fire."

Deng Ai gave a cold laugh, then shouted:

"Order the mountain to be burned!"

At his command, the Han soldiers, holding torches, lit the firewood and grass around the mountain.

The fire spread rapidly, turning into a sea of ​​flames.

Moments later, a raging fire broke out at Maijishan, with thick smoke billowing into the sky and obscuring the sun.

Within an hour, the Wei camp on Maijishan was completely shrouded in thick smoke.

The Wei soldiers coughed incessantly from the smoke, their eyes watered, and their vision became blurred.

They fled in all directions, but had nowhere to escape.

Cutting off water would kill the Wei army too slowly. In order to shorten the time to destroy the Wei army and reduce the pressure on Ma Chao, he decided to take more ruthless measures.

He not only wanted to make the Wei army unbearably thirsty, but also to use raging fire and thick smoke to cruelly torture them until they could no longer endure it and collapsed.

Deng Ai himself, meanwhile, leisurely sipped his wine, enjoying the horrific sight of the Wei army being ravaged.

Two days later, the Wei army had not drunk a drop of water for two whole days.

They were all so thirsty that their mouths were parched, their throats were burning, and even breathing became extremely difficult.

Each breath felt like inhaling flames, causing them immense pain.

The Wei soldiers' bodies also became weak and powerless; a gust of wind could blow them over.

Under the torment of the smoke and heat, Wei Jun's body and mind reached their limits.

"General, let's break out before the soldiers' morale completely collapses!"

"If we keep holding on like this, we'll all die of thirst on the mountain. By then, even if we want to break out, we won't have the strength!"

Unable to bear it any longer, the generals knelt before Wang Shuang and begged him to order a breakout.

Wang Shuang gritted his teeth, his face contorted with grief and resentment.

Recalling the time when he made that boast to Cao Pi, he felt utterly ashamed.

Reality, however, was cruel. Not only did he fail to defend Jieting, he also put the Wei army in such a desperate situation.

If he were to break through the encirclement now, even if he survived, how could he face Cao Pi?

Once Jieting falls, the Longshan defense line will collapse.

Liangzhou will also fall.

The kingdom and state of Wei will also perish!
And he will become the culprit in the destruction of the Great Wei!
How can he possibly live on in this world?

"General, our inability to hold Jieting was entirely due to Jiang Wei's abandonment of the camp and cowardice, not your fault!"

One of the generals saw through Wang Shuang's concerns and quickly paved a way out for him.

Wang Shuang was startled by these words, then his eyes lit up as if he had grasped at the last straw, and he cried out:
"That's right! It wasn't my fault! It was that coward Jiang Wei who abandoned Dark Spring because he was afraid of death!"

"The loss of Jieting was not my fault; it was entirely Jiang Wei's fault!"

"I must live! I must fight for Great Wei! His Majesty cannot live without me!"

Wang Shuang's worries vanished, and he immediately shouted:
"Soldiers, follow me and charge down! We're breaking through!"

At his command, the Wei army was instantly invigorated as if granted a pardon.

"kill--"

"kill--"

A deafening battle cry rang out, and the exhausted and thirsty Wei soldiers poured out of their camp and charged towards the Han camp down the slope.

They will fight like cornered beasts. (End of Chapter)