Traveling the Heavens in Thunderbolt

Chapter 193 The Smoke of War Has Cleared 2
As time passed, although the Chu army's attack was still fierce, the Qin army's numerical advantage began to emerge.

With the support of Gongshu Jia who worked hard to build boats to cross the river, more and more Qin soldiers crossed the river every day, while the numerical advantage of the Chu army was gradually eliminated due to the successive battles.

If it weren't for Xiang Yu, Ying Bu and other generals who led the troops several times to boost morale and ensure the morale of the Chu army, it would have been time for Han Xin to turn from defense to offense.

But even so, the situation was still not optimistic. The Chu army could not defeat the Qin army led by Han Xin, so naturally they could not free up their hands to deal with Zhang Han's troops, and ultimately destroy a large number of Qin's manpower and break the deadlock.

Since the Chu army was unable to break the deadlock and time was on the Qin side, this meant that the Qin army had basically grasped the victory.

Sure enough, the Chu army led by Ji Bu and the coalition forces of the princes, totaling more than 200,000 troops, were under imaginable pressure when facing the Qin army of more than 400,000 led by Zhang Han and Wang Li.

During a battle, Wang Li, who was required to avenge his previous humiliation, personally led the most elite remaining Qin soldiers and golden fire cavalry to break through the defense line of the coalition forces of the princes in one fell swoop. He cooperated with the six sword slaves of Luowang and a group of Luowang killers and shadow guards who arrived to implement a decapitation tactic and almost killed all the high-ranking officials of the princes.

The coalition forces of the princes, which were already weak and with low morale, would immediately fall into a rout mode after their command system was destroyed, leaving the front line of the Chu army led by Ji Bu wide open.

Zhang Han immediately seized the opportunity and led his army to fiercely attack the gap. Although Cao Ju came to the rescue in time, they were still unable to resist the Qin army that was pouring in like a tide. Cao Ju himself was killed by an old man with extraordinary martial arts skills at the critical moment, causing the defense line to be breached.

The Chu army began to disintegrate. Seeing that he was powerless to turn the tide, Ji Bu led the newly formed Chu Shadow Tiger Legion to make a final charge.

In the end, Ji Bu was killed by Zhongli Mei, and the Chu Shadow Tiger Legion under his command was completely wiped out.

After defeating Ji Bu's troops and the coalition forces of the princes, Zhang Han realized that the more urgent it was, the less time to rush. After resting for three days, he led his army straight to the final battlefield.

Xiang Yu had also learned from the defeated Chu soldiers that Ji Bu and Cao Ju had died in battle, and that the Chu army and the coalition forces of the princes in the direction of Jiyuan had been defeated.

The current situation is that even if Xiang Yu wanted to turn back, Han Xin's troops have already crossed the Yellow River and have the advantage in terms of military strength.

It was already very good that the Chu army could maintain the offensive under the leadership of Xiang Yu. Turning back now would only give Han Xin an opportunity to take advantage of them, and the entire army would be wiped out if they were not careful.

Just when Xiang Yu was in a dilemma, Han Xin helped him make a choice.

It turned out that after the entire army arrived, Han Xin was not just focused on defense, he was also observing Xiang Yu's weaknesses.

Even a man of steel could not withstand the repeated fierce attacks, let alone the flesh and blood Chu army?
Han Xin had been waiting for an opportunity to defeat the Chu army in one fell swoop, and this opportunity finally came when the news of the destruction of Ji Bu's troops was passed back to the Chu army.

On the same night when the news was passed back to the Chu army, Han Xin also received news from the Shadow Guard. He acted decisively and attacked the Chu camp at night, leaving Xiang Yu no chance to breathe.

Although Xiang Yu expected that the Qin army would suddenly rush out of the camp at this time, he still underestimated Han Xin's determination. The Chu army had been exhausted after many days of fierce fighting and a night attack. When facing the Qin soldiers who outnumbered them by several times, they showed signs of not stopping.

The battle line was penetrated by Han Xin at several places. Even with the presence of powerful generals such as Ying Bu and Yu Ziqi, the disadvantage of insufficient troops was already apparent. After a night of fighting, Xiang Yu realized that the game was hopeless and had to break camp and leave.

Han Xin selected elite cavalry and pursued the Chu army along the way, causing countless casualties.

Just when Xiang Yu had finally escaped Han Xin's pursuit, a large army suddenly appeared.

They blocked the Chu army's way back. When Xiang Yu saw who was coming, he found that it was the army led by Han King Chengqiao, who was supposed to go to Chu.

Cheng Qiao demonstrated his command ability in front of the world for the first time. The already exhausted Chu army was immediately divided into several sections and fought separately. Most of them were soon wiped out by the Qin army.

Xiang Yu had to flee in other directions with a small part of his remaining troops.

When Han Xin's troops joined forces with Cheng Qiao's troops, the two armies became one, and the strength of the Qin army increased again, reaching nearly 500,000.

After several major battles, Xiang Yu's military force was reduced from 400,000 to more than 40,000.

Knowing that his end was nigh, Xiang Yu did not want to sacrifice any more of his family members. After ordering his generals Ying Bu and Yu Ziqi to lead the remaining soldiers to surrender, Xiang Yu rode his black horse back into the Qin army led by Cheng Qiao, killing nearly a thousand Qin soldiers before dying of exhaustion. Xiang Yu originally wanted his father-in-law Fan Zeng and his confidante Yu Ji to surrender to the Qin army along with Ying Bu and others, but unexpectedly, the two did not want to live and drank poisoned wine to commit suicide.

Ying Bu and Yu Ziqi led 40,000 Chu troops to surrender to Cheng Qiao.

After accepting the surrender of the Chu army, Cheng Qiao did not make things difficult for them. However, he did not allow these 40,000 Chu troops to return to Chu, so he dispersed them and distributed them across the country.

After defeating Xiang Yu and the coalition forces of the princes and joining forces with Zhang Han, Cheng Qiao decided to divide his troops into three routes, one of which would still be led by Zhang Han to sweep Hebei.

Another route was led by Han Xin, who attacked and destroyed the State of Qi.

The last route was led by Cheng Qiao, who captured Emperor Yi of Chu.

The State of Zhao, which had not yet recovered from several previous wars, had just lost the King of Zhao and many of its key members. Faced with the approaching army of Zhang Han, the Zhao State was unsurprisingly destroyed.

Zhang Han then led his army north again and conquered the State of Yan without any effort. At this time, Wang Li also led the border guards back to the Great Wall to resist the Xiongnu who wanted to take advantage of the civil unrest to invade again.

Han Xin's troops crossed the Yellow River again and attacked Qi State directly. The King of Qi was also a member of the Tian family. On that day, the top leaders of the Nong family were slaughtered by Gui Tathagata, but Han Xin was spared because he was away on official business. This time, he participated in the uprising of the six states in Shandong just to join in the fun.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, he surrendered to Han Xin under the persuasion of Tian Yan.

As for the State of Chu, it was even simpler. Facing the extremely skilled Cheng Qiao, defending the city was meaningless.

Every time they attacked a city, Cheng Qiao would first knock open the city gate with one blow, and then the Qin army would charge in.

Within a month, the common leader of the princes, Emperor Yi of Chu, was captured and sent to Xianyang.

The grand plan of the six states in Shandong to restore their country completely failed.

Although the Qin State also suffered heavy losses, it completely wiped out the remnants of the six kingdoms. Even if there were some omissions, they posed no threat to the rule of the empire.

After Cheng Qiao led the army back to the capital, he formally announced that his fiefdom would be incorporated into the Qin State and completely handed over power to Qin III Ziying.

Ziying honored Chengqiao as the emperor emeritus and continued to build the Afang Palace for him to live in, which had been halted due to the war.

After the war was completely settled, Qin III began a ten-year policy of recuperation and rest.

Except for the Afang Palace, all other major projects were cancelled, greatly reducing the heavy corvee labor on the people. In addition, some overly harsh Qin laws were revised to make them more adaptable to the people of the six states in Shandong. After ten years of recuperation, the strength of the Qin Empire was restored.

In the autumn of the twelfth year of the reign of Qin III, Ziying appointed Han Xin as commander-in-chief to lead 300,000 Qin troops, with the goal of completely conquering the grassland and attacking the Huns who had been harassing Qin for a long time.

Han Xin won ten battles and finally shot and killed the newly appointed Huns' Chanyu Maodun in a decisive battle in the heart of Mobei, and captured countless cattle and sheep.

After completely solving the threat of the Huns, in order to resolve the threat of the grassland tribes to the Central Plains dynasty and ensure the establishment of the Qin Empire's rule.

After splitting and unifying the various tribes on the grassland, the Qin State reduced them into eight tribes and implemented a cruel policy of reducing the population of the eight tribes. That is, it stipulated that each tribe had a certain number of male adults. Once the number exceeded, they would either be killed or sent to the interior to be assimilated.

In the twentieth year of the reign of Qin III, Cheng Qiao took back the other four ministers, shattered the void and left.

I was delayed today because of something else, so I posted it late. I hope you can forgive me.

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(End of this chapter)