Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 215 Forced surrender of Zhang Han

Quite a coincidence, on the same day that the Young Marshal took Wuguan by shameless means, Xiang Yu's fierce generals Yingbu and Chaiwu also succeeded in crossing the Jinshan area upstream of the flood by relying on a surprise attack, breaking through Zhang Han's painstaking efforts to maintain the Wuguan Pass. The flood defense line also defeated the reinforcements sent by Zhang Han, and successfully gained a firm foothold on the west bank of the flood.

The news came back to Xiang Yu, who led the anti-Qin coalition army to confront the main force of Zhang Han. Naturally, Xiang Yu was overjoyed, and immediately dispatched the Qi army to reinforce Yingbu Chaiwu, and helped Yingbu and Chaiwu continue to attack the Qin army's flanks. The main force of the coalition forces launched a forced crossing and attacked Chaoge Ferry, which Zhang Han's main force was defending.

This time, Zhang Han finally couldn't hold on any longer. His army had been out of customs for nearly two years, and the soldiers were exhausted. The sentiment of homesickness and war weariness was very common, and he failed to gain any benefits from the war. In addition, Zhang Han was suspected by the Qin court again, and his soldiers had not been replenished, and his military power had been separated by Wang Li. Zhang Han himself was extremely depressed, and no one wanted to fight to the death. As soon as Wu's army appeared on the flank of Zhang Han's army, the Qin army's beachhead quickly fell. The anti-Qin coalition army took the opportunity to rush through the flood, completely smashed Zhang Han's flood defense line, and aggressively entered the hinterland of Hanoi County.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhang Han had no choice but to flee for his life. At the same time, he sent someone to ask for help from Wang Li who was stationed in Zhihuai County, Hanoi County. He planned to withdraw directly to the west of Shaoshui and continue to confront the anti-Qin coalition forces. Zhang Han also resolutely gave up Chaoge County, which hoarded a large amount of food, grass and military supplies. He would rather use food, grass and military supplies to support the enemy than to preserve the only [-] to [-] troops left in his hands.

When retreating westward to the vicinity of Jidi, the main force of Zhang Han was overtaken by the main force of the Chu army who was chasing lightly, and was forced to turn around and fight the main force of the Chu army. Still not the opponent of the Chu army's tiger and wolf division, they were defeated by the Chu army and fled to Xiuwu after throwing down thousands of corpses. Fortunately, the main force of the Chu army who pursued them lightly was afraid that Wang Li would send troops to meet Zhang Han, so they did not dare It was too lonely to go deep, and stopped advancing after winning the ground, which gave Zhang Han a little breathing time.

Although he could take a breather, after fleeing to Xiuwu, Wang Li's response made Zhang Han so angry that his chest almost exploded—Wang Li, who was hiding in the back, refused to send troops to respond under the pretext of protecting Huai County and Aocang. Zhang Han, in turn, asked Zhang Han to stay on the spot in Chaoge and continue to protect the hinterland of Hanoi County.

That's not counting, because it was Zhang Han who met in Xiuwu, and Wang Li's envoy asked Zhang Han very rudely: "General, where is Chaoge? We sent the food and grass to the front line of the flood from the rear. They are all hoarded in Chaoge City, if you are not stationed in Chaoge, why did you withdraw directly to Xiuwu?"

"What are you, you dare to talk to this general like this?" Zhang Han couldn't bear it anymore, kicked the case in front of him away, and roared: "This general is a general of the Qin Dynasty, and his official position is higher than Wang Li. Don't dare to talk to this general like this, and you also dare to act presumptuously in front of this general?"

Seeing that Zhang Han was really angry, Wang Li's envoy didn't dare to say anything, but hurriedly prostrated himself on the ground to plead guilty, while Zhang Han shouted angrily, "Go back and tell Wang Li that since he doesn't want to send troops to support my army, Hurry up and prepare a boat pontoon for me at Huai County Ferry, don't waste my time crossing the river!"

The envoy Wang Li obediently agreed, and hurriedly took his leave and left. As a result, as soon as the envoy Wang Li left, Sima Xin who was next to him immediately said to Zhang Han: "General, the situation is not good. If there is no accident, we will take the initiative to give up Chaoge and store food. Wang Li will definitely report to the court immediately."

"Just play the report." Zhang Han said with a livid face, "I don't believe it anymore, the imperial court will punish me for such a trivial matter."

"General, it's better to be careful." Sima Xin reminded: "The imperial court handed over all the newly conscripted troops in Hanoi and Sanchuan to Wang Li, and later let Wang Li stop accepting your orders and form an army of their own. , who is in charge of the battlefields on the north and south wings of Sanchuan County, it is clear that he no longer trusts you, and even wants to use Wang Li to monitor you, and now that we have voluntarily given up Chaoge to stockpile food, the court may not be held accountable."

Zhang Han bowed his head, sighed after a while, and said, "Retreat to the west bank of Shaoshui to save our army, and then we can talk slowly."

After more than a day, Zhang Han's main force, who was retreating lightly, withdrew westward to the shore of Shaoshui. When he saw the city of Huai County on the west bank of Shaoshui from a distance, Zhang Han heaved a long sigh of relief, thankful that he escaped from death again, He successfully led the army to get rid of the pursuit of the anti-Qin coalition forces.But at this time, Nei Shibao, who was in command of the former army, suddenly sent someone to report that not only was there no pontoon bridge on the Shaoshui River, but also no boats coming and going, and the soldiers of the Qin Army had no way to cross the river.

"No pontoon? Not even a boat?" Zhang Han was taken aback and shouted, "What is Wang Li doing? I asked him to prepare a boat and pontoon, why didn't he prepare it for me?"

"I'm afraid he deliberately didn't want us to cross the river." Sima Xin said with a gloomy face, "He wants to force us to continue to stand in front of him and continue to serve as a shield for him."

The situation was predicted by Sima Xin. After Zhang Han personally led the army to the ferry of Huai County, Wang Li sent an envoy across the river to contact Zhang Han, and asked Zhang Han to lead the army to move to the downstream Wude County on behalf of Wang Li. He also said eloquently: "General, our general Wang asked you to move the army to defend the Shaoshui line of defense. If you lead the army across the Shaoshui, then the initiative in the Shaoshui battlefield will be controlled by the bandits. We It will also fall into a complete passivity, and sooner or later it will repeat the mistakes of the flood. Only if you move to Wude, can our Daqin army win the situation of both offense and defense, so that the bandits dare not rush across easily."

"Wang Li is ordering this general?" Zhang Han grinned grimly, and said word by word: "If I don't listen, will I have to drink too much water?"

"The general misunderstood, our general Wang is discussing with you." Wang Lijun's emissary replied tremblingly: "If the general must cross the Shaoshui, of course our general Wang will not object, but just for the sake of caution, the superior General, if you pass Shaoshui, we General Wang may have to consider moving to the south bank of the Yellow River, otherwise, once the Shaoshui defense line is breached by the bandits, the two main forces of our Daqin army may have nowhere to go."

After that, Wang Li's envoy added another sentence, saying: "But our General Wang still hopes that you, General, will put the overall situation first and choose to move to Wude. Otherwise, our Daqin army will be too passive."

From a tactical point of view, Wang Li's words are actually very reasonable. If they want to defend the defense line of Shaoshui, Zhang Han's army must drive a nail on the east bank of Shaoshui, so that the anti-Qin coalition forces will not dare to cross the river with all their strength. , Only in this way can it be possible to hold the water-less defense line for a long time, so as not to repeat the same mistakes, a river defense position is breached, and the entire defense line is completely scrapped.And if Zhang Han insisted on too little water, Wang Li would have to quickly move to the south bank of the Yellow River. in danger of total annihilation.

After all, the Yellow River is much more difficult to cross than lack of water and floods. Even if there are enough floating bridges, more than 20 Qin troops will not be able to cross the Yellow River overnight. It is difficult to kill a mountain of corpses and a river of blood.

Because of this, after forcing himself to calm down, Zhang Han pondered over and over for a long time with a livid face. Out of duty and loyalty to the Great Qin court, Zhang Han gritted his teeth and ordered: "Order the whole army to go down the river." , moved to Wude to set up camp."

"General, our soldiers are very tired and need time to rest." Nei Shibao, Zhao Ben and other generals said with grief and indignation: "We have moved to Wude, and the bandit army must fight Wude first. In our current situation, How are you going to fight the bandits?"

"Don't talk too much, the overall situation is the most important thing." Zhang Han shook his head in pain, and said: "Retreat to Wude first, keep the defense line with little water, and I will go to the court to ask the court to allow us to move to the south bank of the Yellow River, and then we can rest in peace .”

Seeing that Zhang Han's determination had been made, the generals of the Qin army did not dare to object, so they could only swallow their breath and Zhang Han led the army down the Shaoshui to the downstream Wude County. At the same time, Zhang Han also wrote a memorial in his own hand, and sent people to Xianyang to ask Qin Ting to allow him to cross the Yellow River directly, so that Wang Li's army could temporarily stand in front and buy time for his own army to rest.

When the anti-Qin coalition army reported the movement of Zhang Han's army to Xiang Yu, the anti-Qin coalition army easily captured Chaoge County, which had a large stockpile of military supplies, and marched westward to the city of Xiuwu, forcing the Xiuwu defenders to abandon the city and flee. As soon as he learned that Zhang Han moved his army to Wude, Xiang Yu immediately summoned the leaders of the anti-Qin coalition forces from all walks of life and announced that he would let the anti-Qin coalition army directly march into Wude. Wang Li behind Han.

"What the former general said is very true. The only strategy for now is that we should advance our military virtues, annihilate Zhang Han's ordinary people, and then break through Shaoshui."

The princes all nodded their heads in agreement, scrambling to agree with Xiang Yu's decision, but a scribe suddenly stood behind Chen Yu, General of the Zhao Kingdom, and cupped his hands to Xiang Yu and said, "Former general, we should directly attack Wude, but we may not We must blindly attack, and I believe that if we use both soft and hard methods against Zhang Han, and use both kindness and force, we will definitely be able to obtain the greatest victory at the lowest cost."

Xiang Yu turned his head to look at the scribe, and saw that although he didn't wear an official uniform and didn't know his official position, he had an extraordinary demeanor. When he was about to ask his identity, he never thought that Xiang Bo who was next to him would rush to speak, and shouted arrogantly: "What do you mean?" What, dare to talk nonsense in front of our former general?"

Both Xiang Yu and Xiang Bo were very surprised. Before the scribe could answer, Chen Yu, the general of Zhao State in front of him, had already stood up, and said to Xiang Bo: "Master Xiang calm down, let me introduce you, this Li Mr. Zuoche Li is not only Guangwu Lord proclaimed by our King Zhao, but also the grandson of Li Mu, the famous Zhao Gao general Wu Anjun. He has a great reputation in our Zhao State. He was ordered by our King to come to our Zhao State Army yesterday. The Chinese government works, so you don’t know the master.”

Uncle Xiang quickly shut his mouth - Uncle Xiang's father, Xiang Yan, is well-known, but compared with Li Mu, one of the four famous generals in the Warring States period, his fame is more than 01:30 points away. Uncle Xiang, who is still somewhat self-aware, of course Don't dare to touch an egg against a rock, and be infamous for neglecting a famous family.

The same is true for Xiang Yu. Seeing Li Mu's face, Xiang Yu not only got up immediately to return the salute, but also asked Li Zuoche to set up a seat, and then asked Li Zuoche, "Dare to ask Mr. Guangwu, how can I play both soft and hard, Enwei?" Use it together?"

"It's very simple. While marching into Wude, at the same time, we sent people to secretly recruit Zhang Han, promised him a high-ranking official and rich salary, persuaded him to change his flag and surrender, and help the six countries outside the pass to destroy the Tyrant Qin." Li Zuoche replied.

Xiang Yu smiled, and said with a smile: "Mr. Guangwu, it's not that I haven't tried this before. To tell you the truth, before you, the general of your country, Chen Yu, once persuaded me to recruit Mr. Zhang Han, and I also sent someone there , but it’s useless, that man is stubborn, he is determined to be buried by the Tyrant Qin court, and he won’t listen at all.”

"The former general, this time is the same as the other time." Li Zuoche replied calmly: "The former general failed to recruit Zhang Han before because the time was not ripe enough, so he failed. But now the time is ripe, the former general General, if you send someone to recruit someone to surrender, even if you can’t guarantee that you will succeed, you are at least [-]% to [-]% sure.”

"Mr. Guangwu, please explain the reason in detail." Xiang Yu said doubtfully.

"Former general, didn't you find that Mr. Zhang Han's marching route this time is very strange?" Li Zuoche asked back, and said with a smile: "If Mr. Zhang Han is determined to retreat directly to Wude, let us not dare to directly rob Du Shao Water, he should have entered Wude directly from the city of Xiuwu, but why did he go to Huai County Ferry first, and then follow Shaoshui eastward to Wude?"

"Why?" Xiang Yu asked strangely.

Li Zuoche smiled but did not answer, and then said: "Also, we Zhao Gao's army sent to Huai County to investigate the details of the enemy's situation, and reported a very important detail, that is, before Zhang Han's army arrived at the ferry in Huai County, The tyrant Qin General Wang Li who was stationed in Huai County suddenly dispatched men to confiscate all the ferries on both sides of Shaoshui, leaving no boats or boats for Mr. Zhang Han, what does this mean?"

"What does it mean?" Xiang Yu was really not good at this, and couldn't help asking again.

"It means that Mr. Zhang Han didn't want to move to Wude at all before, and he was forced by Wang Li to garrison in Wude." Liu Laosan stood up and said loudly: "Otherwise, Mr. Zhang Han's marching route would not be so strange. Wang Li will not take away the Shaoshui ferry boat, and deliberately prevents Zhang Han from crossing the river!"

When Xiang Yu finally came to his senses, Li Zuoche also said: "So, now, the former general, the time is ripe for you to recruit Zhang Han to surrender. Attitude, now Wang Li deliberately prevents Zhang Han from crossing Shaoshui, and forces Zhang Han to continue to stand in front of our offensive. Houlu, are you afraid that he won't waver? As long as he wavers, we will try to add fuel to the fire, and there is great hope for recruiting him."

After careful consideration, seeing that Li Zuoche's suggestion was reasonable, old man Fan and Cao Jiu and other absolute confidants also advocated giving it a try, Xiang Yu then nodded and said: "Okay, let's try again, anyway, even if it doesn't succeed , we have nothing to lose, but if we succeed, we gain a lot."

"If the former general does not give up, I would like to write a letter for the former general to persuade Zhang Han to surrender."

Li Zuoche volunteered, and Xiang Yu agreed. Li Zuoche immediately took up his pen and wrote a letter to Zhang Han in Xiang Yu's honor, clearly pointing out that Zhang Han had lost the trust of the Qin court, and Wang Li was determined to surrender. He wanted to force Zhang Handing to take the place of the dead in the front. At the same time, Zhang Han had no chance of defeating the anti-Qin coalition forces. He would die if he fought, and he would die if he fled. Zhang Han's wife and children would definitely be affected. Only Yi Zhi surrendered. Helping the anti-Qin coalition army enter Guanzhong is the only way out for Zhang Han at present.Then he made a promise for Xiang Yu, saying that as long as Zhang Han surrendered, he would help the anti-Qin coalition forces to destroy Qin. , Let Zhang Han sit on an equal footing with the princes outside the pass, and the south is called Gu.

After reading Li Zuoche's letter carefully, he saw that the writing was beautiful, the pen and ink were like a knife, and every word and sentence went straight to Zhang Han's heart, penetrating into Zhang Han's heart, so Xiang Yu didn't hesitate any more, immediately signed the letter and sent someone to Send it to Wude and hand it over to Zhang Han.But Li Zuoche refused to give up, and said: "Former general, if your letter can impress Zhang Han, Zhang Han will send someone to contact you and discuss with the former general. At that time, the former general must inform you next time. Ways to help Zhang Han make up his mind to surrender."

"Okay, I will definitely send someone to inform Mr. Guangwu when the time comes." Xiang Yu agreed casually, and Li Zuoche also thanked him with a smile.

It's a pity that Li Zuoche's letter still failed to achieve the desired effect. When the envoy of the Chu army sent the letter to Zhang Han, after Zhang Han read it carefully, although he began to waver in his heart, Zhang Han was after all Qin Qin. The old minister of Ting, who has a deep relationship with Qin Ting, cannot make this difficult decision no matter what.So after much thought, Zhang Han still ordered to the Chu army envoy: "Go back and tell your former general, and say that I appreciate his kindness, but I, Zhang Han, are not the kind of unrighteous people, so we are still on the battlefield." Speak."

The envoy of the Chu army brought the news back to Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu shook his head helplessly. He could only urge the army to speed up and rush to Wude as soon as possible to prepare to fight the Qin army. Li Zuoche was not discouraged when he heard about it. After Wude, Li Zuoche took the first time to survey the terrain in person, and then ran to Xiang Yu and put forward two suggestions. Build fire rafts so that they can set fire to the pontoon bridge built by the Qin army on the Shaoshui River at any time; the second is to organize soldiers to shout outside the Qin army camp, declaring that Qin Ting and Wang Li are determined to force Zhang Hanjun to die in vain , Zhang Han's army could not escape the annihilation of the whole army, so he persuaded the soldiers of the Qin army to leave the camp and surrender, so as to shake and attack the morale of Zhang Han's army.

Li Zuoche's grandfather, Li Mu's reputation is still alive, and Old Man Fan and Cao Jiu once again stood by Li Zuoche's side, strongly advocating that Xiang Yu accept Li Zuoche's suggestion, Xiang Yu also nodded, agreeing to carry out Li Zuoche's proposal Tactics, send people on the spot to follow the plan.

This time, Li Zuoche finally didn't embarrass his famous grandfather. First, the anti-Qin coalition army kept sending people outside the Qin army camp to shout, claiming that Zhang Han's army had been abandoned. , and then the anti-Qin coalition army quickly built some fire rafts, and immediately released the fire rafts to set fire to the Shaoshui pontoon bridge that Zhang Han's army had worked so hard to build before. Of course, the generals of the Qin army were in a great uproar. They all understood that if they were defeated in this battle, the entire army would be wiped out. The morale of the army was also greatly panicked, and their morale was seriously affected.

On the same day, Li Zuoche persuaded Chen Yu, too lazy to ask Xiang Yu's opinion, and wrote another letter to Zhang Han in Chen Yu's honor to persuade him to surrender, and sent someone directly to the Qin army camp to hand over to Zhang Han.But this time, Zhang Han, who had nowhere to retreat, was finally shaken because the army's morale had already begun to fluster. With an attitude of checking the situation, he secretly sent his confidant Shicheng to Chuying to ask Xiang Yu if he could give him a What kind of surrender terms.

Knowing that Zhang Han sent an envoy to the camp, Xiang Yu, who was overjoyed, of course immediately ordered an interview. Then Xiang Yu suddenly remembered that he had promised Li Zuoche that if Zhang Han sent someone to contact him, he must inform Li Zuoche. , In order to fulfill his promise, Xiang Yu said casually: "Send someone to the camp of the Zhao army and invite their Guangwu Lord, and say that Mr. Zhang Han sent someone to contact us."

(End of this chapter)