Traveling the Heavens in Thunderbolt

Chapter 191 Unexpected Changes
Although the Zhang Chu regime was destroyed, it also provided time for the development of other rebel forces.

Among all these forces, the Xiang clan of Chu was the most powerful, with many famous generals under their name, including family generals, the remnant soldiers of the Long Xie Legion, the commander of the Tenglong Legion, and the former commander of the Chu Thunder Leopard Legion Ying Bu, the commander of the Chu Shadow Tiger Legion Ji Bu, who was known for his "keeping his promises and being as firm as a mountain", and Yu Ziqi, a guard of Yu Yuan from Mount Shu.

Duke Chu Nan told Long Qie his prophecy for the Xiang family: if they want to achieve hegemony, they must find four people who inherit the military tradition and symbolize "wind, forest, fire and mountain".

At this point, all four people were present. After that, Xiang Liang listened to Fan Zeng's words and found the grandson of King Huai of Chu, Mi Xin, from the people and supported him as King Huai of Chu to comply with the wishes of the people. Chen Ying was appointed as the Supreme General of Chu, granted five counties, and followed King Huai to build the capital in Xuyi. Xiang Liang called himself Wuxin Jun.

After Zhang Han defeated Chen Sheng, Emperor Hu Hai II sent additional chief secretaries Sima Xin and Dong Yi to assist Zhang Han, and transferred the 200,000-strong Great Wall Corps stationed in the northern grasslands to the south under the leadership of Wucheng Hou Wang Li, to cooperate with him in suppressing the resurgent forces of the six states in Shandong.

During this time, Zhang Han also led the Lishan Prisoner Army to suppress the resurgent Wei State. King Wei Ju of Wei committed suicide, Wei Bao escaped, killed King Qi Tian Dan, and pursued Tian Rong, forcing Xiang Liang to lead his troops to rescue.

Finally, Xiang Liang defeated Zhang Han in Dong'a, and then defeated Zhang Han again in the east of Puyang. But just as Xiang Liang continued his pursuit and was ready to defeat Zhang Han once and for all in one go, he encountered a nighttime sneak attack by Zhang Han in Dingtao and was killed in battle.

As soon as Xiang Liang died, the anti-Qin situation, which had been slightly improving, took a sharp turn for the worse, and a power struggle broke out within the alliance.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Han thought that the Chu troops were not a threat, so he led his troops north across the Yellow River. After crossing the Yellow River, he completely annihilated the remaining Wei forces, and continued north to join Wang Li's 200,000 troops, preparing to take over the entire Zhao State.

At this time, Wang Li devised a plan to recruit Zhao's general Li Liang by forging a letter to the Second Emperor. Li Liang killed Wu Chen's sister because Wu Chen's sister was rude to him, and defected to the Qin army, killing Wu Chen.

Afterwards, he defeated Zhang Er and Chen Yu who came to support him.

At this time, Zhang Han arrived and surrounded the King of Zhao in Julu together with Wang Li's army. Zhang Han's army camped in the southern part of the city, escorting food and grass for Wang Li's army while guarding Wang Li's flanks with a fierce eye, forming a pincer attack.
In desperation, the King of Zhao sent envoys to King Huai of Chu and other lords to ask for help. At that time, the Qin army was very strong, and the troops to rescue Zhao were stationed in the north of Julu City, and no one dared to go to fight.

At this time, the internal power struggle in Chu had just ended. Xiang Yu volunteered to fight in order to avenge the Qin army who killed his uncle Xiang Liang. So King Huai of Chu appointed Song Yi as the general, Xiang Yu as the second general, and Fan Zeng as the last general, and led an army of more than 60,000 north to relieve the siege of Julu.

After the army supporting Zhao reached Anyang (now southeast of Caoyang, Shandong), Song Yi was frightened by the arrogance of the Qin army and stayed there for many days without daring to move forward. Xiang Yu denounced Song Yi's cowardly behavior and killed him.

After receiving the news, King Huai of Chu realized that the matter could not be changed, so he appointed Xiang Yu as the general, and ordered Ying Bu and Ji Bu's two Chu armies to be under his command.

After the army was united, he led all the troops across the river. After crossing the river, he let the soldiers have a full meal and each of them took three days of dry food. Then he issued an order: the boats for crossing the river should be pierced and sunk into the river, the cooking pots should be smashed to pieces, and all the houses nearby should be set on fire. This method was used to show his determination to advance and not retreat and to win the victory.

After that, they fought nine battles with the Qin army. Zhang Han was defeated and Xiang Yu led his army to continue north to attack Wang Li. The Chu soldiers fought ten to one, and their shouts shook the sky. After repelling Zhang Han, the princes' army was greatly encouraged and attacked Wang Li together with Xiang Yu and killed Su Jiao.

But just when Wang Li was about to be captured alive, the Qin general Zhongli Mei suddenly arrived with his troops, rescued Wang Li from Xiang Yu, and deployed his troops to block the attack of the princes' army that followed, buying Wang Li precious time to reunite the fleeing Qin army.

After receiving the signal that Wang Li had led the remaining Qin army to safely withdraw from the battlefield, he ordered the activation of the domineering mechanism built by Gongshu Jia. Suddenly, countless earth-breaking Saburos and mechanical snakes appeared on the battlefield, and coordinated with the attack of the catapults, temporarily disrupting the formation of the Chu army and the coalition forces of the princes. Zhongli Mei took the opportunity to retreat and went to join the armies of Zhang Han and Wang Li.

Finally, they found Zhang Han and Wang Li who were retreating and resting in Jiyuan. Then the three armies merged into one and had a long standoff with Xiang Yu's army stationed on the south bank of Zhangshui. During this period, Xiang Yu led his army to attack the Qin army many times, but was repelled every time. Finally, he had to give up and kept sending people to harass Zhang Han's food supply in the hope of cutting off the Qin army's food supply.

On the other hand, people were constantly sent to inquire about the latest situation of the Tenglong Legion led by Long Qie.

It turned out that Long Ju, who had never appeared on the battlefield, had led the Tenglong Legion under the instruction of Xiang Yu before the Battle of Julu, with Zhang Liang as his military advisor. While the main forces of the Qin army were attracted by Zhao State and Xiang Yu successively, he went straight to Xianyang.

They recruited surrenders and rebellions along the way, their military strength continued to grow, they captured cities and seized territories, and finally restored the Kingdom of Korea. When they arrived at Wuguan, the army had already reached 100,000 people.

Finally, under Zhang Liang's strategy, they captured Wuguan, defeated the Qin army at Zaixi, and advanced to Lantian near the Qin capital Xianyang.

But it was here that the troops led by Long Ju encountered an ambush by the Qin army of an unprecedented scale. In the end, they were defeated and killed, and Zhang Liang was captured.

It was not until Zhang Liang was forced into the camp and met the commander-in-chief that he realized that the commander who commanded the rapid annihilation of General Long Ju's Tenglong Legion was none other than Han Xin, whom he had met once before in Sanghai.

The troops led by Han Xin were the troops of Han King Chengqiao.

It turned out that during the period from the battle between Zhang Han and Xiang Yu in Julu to the time when they were defeated and stationed in Jiyuan, the Qin court also underwent earth-shaking changes.

Because the war in Shandong had not stopped for a long time, Hu Hai repeatedly sent messengers to question Zhao Gao, "Didn't the Prime Minister always say that the bandits in Guandong would not be able to succeed? How did it come to this?"

Zhao Gao knew that the Second Emperor had doubted and was dissatisfied with him, so he secretly discussed countermeasures with his younger brother Zhao Cheng and son-in-law Yan Le.
Plans were drawn up for a regicide coup.

After everything was arranged, he pretended that the coalition forces of the princes had reached Xianyang, tricked Hu Hai out of the palace, and then ordered his son-in-law Yan Le to lead troops to surround and kill him.

Just when Zhao Gao was preparing to choose another puppet emperor from among Ying Zheng's children, Han King Chengqiao, who was supposed to be in Lingnan, suddenly showed up and killed him with one move. Then he ordered the masters of Yin-Yang School and Taoist Tianzong who were accompanying him, together with Luowang Tianzi killer Jingniu who had long since defected to him, to kill all of Zhao Gao's core members in Xianyang city.

After he secretly crossed Chencang from Hanzhong and entered the city with his army that had been stationed outside the city and completely controlled Xianyang, he convened a court meeting and made his son Ziying the emperor, calling him Qin III.

After ascending the throne, Ziying immediately issued an edict, asking Cheng Qiao to mobilize the troops in his fiefdom to assist Zhang Han, Wang Li and others in destroying the coalition forces of the princes.

At this time, it was reported that Wuguan was breached by Long Ju, so Cheng Qiao ordered Han Xin to lead a large army to wipe out Long Ju's rebel army that had broken into Guanzhong, which led to the Battle of Lantian.

(End of this chapter)