Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 226

It's time to turn around and take a look at the battlefield of the Central Plains. After the anti-Qin coalition forces successfully surrendered Zhang Hanji's subordinate Qin army, in order to get the chance to become king, Liu Laosan, who is extremely clever, made a decisive move to cut off the king of Qin army. Under the banner of retreating from the headquarters, he led a group of iron buddies and nearly ten thousand troops to attack Mengjin, and went directly to Weihan Road to seize a favorable position in Jinbing Pass in advance.

By doing this, Liu Laosan is of course making a big gamble with his own army. If Liu Laosan's army cannot successfully capture one of Xin'an, Mianchi or Shan County, then within a few days, it will only be ten days before the departure Liu Laosan's army with food and grass is in danger of running out of food; or if Wang Li moves fast enough and immediately sends troops to launch a pursuit, and cooperates with the Qin army defenders in Xiaohan Road to attack, then Liu Laosan's army will definitely be wiped out even if it is not completely wiped out. The loss was heavy, and he withdrew from the competition for the Guanzhong throne ahead of schedule. It was either one or the other, and there was no third possibility.

Fortunately, Liu Laosan’s luck is notoriously good in history, and it’s the same this time, because the Qin army under Zhang Han surrendered too suddenly, and the troops stationed in Weihan Road, which had been hiding in the rear, were seriously neglected. Taking precautions, they were not mentally prepared for a fierce battle at all. Even when Liu Laosan's soldiers approached Xin'an City, the Xin'an Qin Army stationed outside the city did not have time to withdraw to defend the city. Liu Laosan seized the opportunity and launched a decisive attack , broke through the camp of the Qin army in Xin'an in one fell swoop, defeated the Qin army in Xin'an, and seized Xin'an County. The coalition forces completed the strategic encirclement of Wang Li's troops of the Qin Army.

Liu Laosan's good luck is not limited to this point. At the same time, Wang Li's main force has just retreated to Mengjin Ferry, and the army of Qi State who took the lead in chasing after them followed like a hungry wolf that smelled blood, and successfully bit him. Wang Li's tail also took advantage of Wang Li's eagerness to cross the south to escape, severely damaged Wang Li's rear team, and snatched all the military supplies and grass that Wang Li's troops were too late to transfer. Wang Li had no choice but to give priority to it. Sticking to Mengjin Ferry, arrived at the chasing army, and after finally obtaining supplies from the Qin army in Luoyang, they sent [-] Qin troops westward to pursue Liu Laosan, giving Liu Laosan time and time to gain a firm foothold in Xin'an. Chance.

Then, on the Xin'an battlefield, relying on the brave performance of Cao Can, Zhou Bo, Fan Kui and other powerful generals in the late Qin Dynasty, Liu Laosan's army successfully repelled the attack of the partial division of the Qin army, and abruptly defeated the partial division sent by Wang Li. Forcing Wang Li to withdraw back to Henan County, once again disrupted Wang Li's wishful thinking of relying on Xiaohan Road, and became a hindrance to Wang Li's retreat to Guanzhong. Xiang Yu's suspicions disappeared, and he said that Liu Laosan's risk of entering Xiaohan Road was really for the sake of the overall situation of the anti-Qin army, so that the main force of the anti-Qin coalition forces could calm down and deal with Wang Li, and calmly and patiently searched for the weaknesses of the Qin army's Yellow River defense line and breakthrough.

After a stalemate across the Yellow River for a period of time, Zhao's army also showed bravery. Relying on some ferries hastily collected, Zhao Jun's partial division Shenyang successfully crossed the lower reaches of Heyong, took the lead in breaking through the Qin army's defense line, and persisted until Zang Tu led the army of Yan State to come to reinforce, and then the strong generals Yingbu and Chai Wu of the Chu army also crossed the Yellow River, completely shattering the hope of the Qin army to seal the gap. It became increasingly meaningless for Wang Li's main force to stick to Mengjin, so he had to decide to abandon the Mengjin ferry and go to other battlefields to deal with the anti-Qin coalition forces.

Logically speaking, it is undoubtedly the safest strategic choice for Wang Li's main force to abandon Mengjin and directly retreat to Hangu Pass. Wang Li, who has lost contact with Guanzhong, also plans to fight to the death, risking being trapped to death in Xiaohan Pass by the anti-Qin coalition forces In view of the danger and the consequences of being held accountable by the Qin court in the future, he led the army to withdraw directly to Xiaohandao, but the anti-Qin coalition forces moved too fast. Wang Li's troops had just started to retreat, and Xiang Yu decisively urged the army to initiate a rush to cross The armies of Chu, Zhao, and Yan from the lower reaches also rushed to respond immediately. Leng once again disrupted Wang Li's tactical plan, and even made great achievements by partial division, defeating Wang Li's troops who were eager to retreat on the way south.

Wang Li's troops, who had been defeated in a row, were depressed, their morale was extremely low, and their soldiers were separated. Forced to do so, Wang Li had no choice but to take the remnants of the defeated generals and retreat to Henan County west of Luoyang to regroup. , and joined forces with the Qin army who had fled back from Xin'an before.At this moment, the strength of the Qin army under Wang Li's command is less than [-]. The soldiers are exhausted, there are many wounded, and most of the food and supplies are lost. The overall strength is extremely weak. Let alone continue to lead the anti-Qin coalition army with Xiang Yu When the main forces fought against each other, even if they pulled out the main forces of the Zhao army or the Qi army who were not as powerful as the Chu army, Wang Li did not dare to say that he could deal with it with confidence.

To make matters worse, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, was incapable of doing other things, but he was very good at fighting and seizing opportunities. Wang Li's troops only delayed a little under the city of Henan. The Dao Kuan Da Floating Bridge brought the main force of the Anti-Qin Allied Forces across the river to catch up, and arrived at the Henan battlefield at noon the next day, forming a crushing trend for Wang Li's troops. Wang Li had no choice but to command the army at the same time. Rushing to repair the camp, relying on fortifications to temporarily resist the attack of the anti-Qin coalition forces, while sending people back to Guanzhong to report to Qin Ting, asking Hu Hai and Zhao Gao to send him reinforcements as soon as possible.

Xiang Yu was also quite patient, knowing that when he launched an offensive hastily at this time, although he was sure to defeat Wang Li, he was not sure to wipe out Wang Li, the last main force of the Qin army outside the pass. In a small town in Henan, Wang Li was completely trapped outside Wang Li's headquarters, so he sent envoys to contact Wang Li with letters, and persuaded Wang Li to follow Zhang Han's example and lead the army to lay down their weapons and surrender.

Xiang Yu made a wrong calculation. Although Wang Li did many things very dishonestly, he never wavered in his loyalty to Qin Ting. Get out of camp.Xiang Yu was furious when he heard the news, and immediately wanted to urge the army to attack, but Cao Jiu, his absolute confidant, stopped Xiang Yu and persuaded him: "The former general should not be angry, Wang Li is already a softshell in the urn, and he can be caught with his hands, but after all, this fellow is still alive. There are [-] to [-] tyrants in the Qin army, and if they jump over the wall in a hurry, they will still pose a serious threat to us. In my opinion, we should use both grace and power, so as to annihilate Wang Li, the tyrant of the Qin court outside the pass, at the lowest cost. Last but not least."

"How to use grace and power together?" Xiang Yu asked.

"The former general forgot to surrender our Zhang Han army?" Cao Jiu asked back, and then said with a smile: "Anyway, this army has no weapons, so it won't be of much use. Why don't we let them take turns to fight against the Tyrant Qin army?" Call outside the camp to call for surrender to shake the morale of the soldiers of Tyrant Qin, and select one or two envoys from among them who are sufficient to carry Zhang Han's letter of persuasion to surrender, and then go to the camp of the Tyrant Qin army to persuade Wang Lipifu to surrender."

As soon as Xiang Yu felt that it was quite reasonable, he immediately ordered the implementation. He ordered Sima Xin, who succeeded Zhang Han to command the surrender of the Qin army, to organize people to go into battle outside the Qin army camp to call for surrender.Not to mention, Cao Jiu's method really had a certain effect. Seeing the former comrades-in-arms shouting outside the camp in groups to persuade them to surrender, the soldiers of Wang Li's army who were heavily surrounded were really affected a lot. That night More than a dozen local soldiers of the Qin Army in Sanchuan County escaped from the Qin Army camp, ran to the anti-Qin coalition forces and knelt down and surrendered.

Hearing that the persuasion to surrender was effective, Xiang Yu was overjoyed and immediately stepped up his actions. While ordering Sima Xin to send more soldiers to run outside the Qin camp to shout for persuasion, he forced Zhang Han to write a letter to persuade Wang Li to surrender, ordering the Qin army to surrender. When Shi became an envoy, he took Zhang Han's letter and went to the Qin army's camp to persuade him to surrender. Zhang Han and Shi Cheng looked up to them, but of course they didn't dare to say a word, they could only obediently obey the order.

After the hopeful dispatch of Shicheng to the enemy camp, Xiang Yu once believed that even if he failed to surrender today, it would definitely shake the Qin army's determination to resist, but what made Xiang Yu furious was that before noon, there were scouts flying Ma Lai reported that Wang Li actually sent a cavalry of the Qin army out of the camp to surprise the surrendered soldiers of the Qin army who were outside the camp to persuade them to surrender. They scattered the unarmed soldiers of the Qin army and killed dozens of them.Xiang Yu was furious and hurriedly asked, "What about our envoy? How is Shi Cheng doing now?"

Before the scouts could answer, another soldier walked in quickly from outside the tent, clasped his fists to Xiang Yu and said, "Report to the former general, the Tyrant Qin army sent someone to send over the head of our envoy, if you say it is the former general, if you dare If you send envoys to persuade them to surrender, they will end up like this.”

"My husband Wang Li, I swear to kill you!" Never thought that Wang Li would be so stubborn that even the envoys would beheaded directly. Xiang Yu didn't hesitate in his rage, and immediately shouted: "Send an order to Ji Bu and Huan Chu, tell them to kill you!" Lead your troops out of the camp and attack the camp of the Tyrant Qin army for me! Then send orders to the troops of Qi and Zhao to send troops to attack the camp of the Tyrant Qin army!"

"Former general, our preparations are not perfect enough, so we can't be in a hurry." Cao Jiu's kind persuasion failed to achieve any effect, Xiang Yu, who was so angry that he still insisted on sending troops to attack the camp immediately, and even went out of the camp to watch the battle in person, urging the anti-Qin The coalition forces stormed the Qin camp.

The result of the frontal attack made Xiang Yu even more angry. The Chu army, Zhao army and Qi army went into battle together, dispatching more than [-] troops to attack the camp in turn. It was because they failed to break through the fortifications that the Qin army hastily repaired. On the contrary, there were quite a lot of casualties.Although this has a lot to do with the lack of preparation of the Anti-Qin Allied Army, Xiang Yu still hated Wang Li to the extreme in desperation. In order to avenge his shame, Xiang Yu even sent an order to the various anti-Qin Allied Army departments, announcing: "Who can do that?" Obtain the head of Wang Lipifu, and be crowned king after the Qin Dynasty is destroyed! Establish the country of Nanyang Nanjun!"

Wang Li's head can be exchanged for a king!There are also large tracts of land in Nanyang and Nanjun!The heavy reward announced by Xiang Yu immediately boosted the morale of the anti-Qin coalition army. The generals of the six countries who coveted the throne were all gearing up, and they all desperately urged their soldiers to prepare weapons for the attack. Xiang Yu also ordered Sima Xin to take the Qin army to surrender. Time prepared a large number of fortified weapons, and launched a frontal attack on the Qin army camp again two days later.

Drawing lessons from the previous failure, Xiang Yu launched a strong attack this time. Not only did he mobilize more than 15 combat troops in one go, but he also adopted Yingbo's suggestion and ordered Sima Xin to dispatch [-] Qin troops to assist in the battle, forcing the Qin army to surrender. The soldiers carried soil and rocks, and risked their lives to fill up the trenches of the Qin army's guard camp, opening the way for the anti-Qin coalition forces to advance. Wang Li did not show any weakness, and also organized the Qin army soldiers to defend the camp without hesitation. Order the soldiers of the Qin Army to shoot arrows at the soldiers of the Qin Army who had just surrendered.

This scene was very tragic and desolate. Under the persecution of the armies of the six countries, the soldiers of the Qin army who had not even changed their uniforms and flags were forced to carry heavy earth and rocks to open the way for the anti-Qin coalition forces to attack their former comrades-in-arms. The soldiers of the Qin Army raised their crossbows and set up arrows one after another, silently shooting sharp feather arrows at the brothers and feet of their former comrades-in-arms. Countless soldiers of the Qin Army screamed and fell into a pool of blood, and were buried in tears by the arrows of their former comrades. Now, the soldiers of Wang Li's army, who had little military supplies, were also forced to have no choice but to continuously release crossbow arrows with a heavy heart, killing unarmed comrades in arms.

The tragic situation of the Qin army's surrender is not just that. After the Qin court unified the six countries, it stationed heavy troops in the northwest region all the year round. Every year, countless soldiers were recruited from outside the pass to serve in the pass. Palaces, mausoleums, and civilians outside the pass are recruited to serve in the pass every year. They are often treated differently by officials and soldiers of the Qin State, insulted and bullied. Now their status is reversed. The soldiers of the six countries outside the pass will naturally not miss their revenge. A chance to vent your anger.

"Move it! Move it! You Guanzhong Qin dogs, move it for me quickly! Move the stone straw bag up for me!"

Roaring in a majestic manner, the soldiers of the Six Kingdoms armies kept brandishing their whips and beating the soldiers of the Qin army who were moving rocks and soil. The procrastinating soldiers of the Qin army did not suffer less whips and fists. Among them, those who gritted their teeth and swallowed their anger were better, but were just beaten and scolded. Some unconvinced Qin soldiers responded with words and eyes, but immediately attracted more Because of the violent beating and abuse, it is not uncommon for people to be beaten to the point of bleeding. Some who dared to fight back were chopped down and stabbed to death immediately.

For the anti-Qin coalition army, the Qin army's surrender was certainly not in vain. When it was close to noon, the Qin army's surrender finally filled up many of the Qin army's guard camp trenches after leaving corpses and seriously wounded all over the ground. , Xiang Yu no longer hesitated, and immediately urged the troops of the six countries to come forward and launch a strong attack on the Qin camp from four directions at the same time.

Relying on the weak fortifications, the generals of the Qin army gritted their teeth and fought hard, but the offensive team of the anti-Qin coalition army was ups and downs like the waves of the sea. As soon as one army retreated, another army rushed forward shouting, slapping on the ground. On the Qin army camp like an isolated island, the corpses of soldiers from both sides of the war were strewn all over the Qin army camp, with blood pooling in puddles.

Coveting the reward promised by Xiang Yu, the princes of all walks of life did not hold back in this battle, and all dispatched the most valiant and elite troops under their command. Bu and Chai Wu and other strong generals of the Chu army have become strong, and even Feng Zhong, who is not famous for his ambition, has made a rare effort to win one. He led an army into the Qin army's camp—although he was quickly driven out by the red-eyed Qin army soldiers.

Face it head-on, even the Young Commander-in-Chief will never be able to withstand such a fierce offensive, let alone the Qin Army Wang Li's troops who are at the end of the road. When the fierce battle came to dark, the Qin Army's barracks had been stormed by the anti-Qin coalition forces. There were more than a dozen gaps of different sizes. These soldiers of the Qin Army on the battlefield could only rely on their flesh and blood to fight desperately. The number of casualties rose sharply. Lighting the torch calmly, he put on a posture early on that he would never withdraw his troops until he took down the Qin army's camp.

When it was completely dark, Su Jiao, a general of the Qin Army who was in charge of the west camp, was shot in the neck by a stray arrow and died on the spot. The soldiers of the Qin Army were in chaos. The death knell of the fall of the Qin army camp sounded, and the anti-Qin coalition army cheered like thunder, and their morale was boosted, but the tired and hungry Qin army soldiers were noisy, and their morale plummeted again.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Wang Li's other deputy, She Jian, ventured out of the east gate position he was in charge of, and rushed to Wang Li who personally commanded the main battlefield of the north gate, and said loudly: "General, there is no hope, we can only be Hurry up and break through, take advantage of the darkness of the sky, and take as many troops as you can."

Wang Li's face was livid, he first looked at the hopeless battlefield in Xiying, and then asked Shejian, "Where are we going to break through?"

"Northwest!" She Jian hurriedly pointed to the direction he had long been optimistic about to break through, and said, "Just now, the general noticed that the traitors who were forced to fill in the trenches by the bandits gathered at that location. If we break out there, they will definitely not If we resist desperately, we will definitely have the greatest chance of breaking through."

Looking at the location where the Qin army's descendants were gathered, Wang Li nodded decisively, and then immediately sent someone to send an order to contact the generals of the Qin army, agreeing to use the fire in the central army's tent as a signal, and work together to break through to the northwest.

In no time, the large tent of the Qin army's central army was set ablaze by Wang Li's personal soldiers, and the fire soon ignited. The generals of the Qin army who received the order also commanded the army to break through, shouting and rushing out of the camp, red The eyes are directed towards the northwest direction where the breakout is most likely to succeed.

At the same time, seeing the fire of the Qin army's central army, and the four Qin troops abandoning their camps one after another, Xiang Yu also immediately understood that the Qin army was about to break through, and quickly ordered the anti-Qin coalition army to prepare for interception and pursuit, but after confirming When the Qin army broke through, Xiang Yu was stunned again, and said strangely: "How could the Qin army break through to the northwest? To the north is our Chu army, and to the west is the Zhao army. Both are the most powerful troops. Why did the Tyrant Qin army break out in the most difficult direction?"

"Ex-general, that's bad! That's where the soldiers of the Tyrant Qin army gathered!" Old man Fan was the first to come back to his senses, and said loudly, "The Tyrant Qin army wants to use their surrender troops as a breakthrough point to break through!"

"Oops!" Xiang Yu groaned in his heart, regretting that he didn't drive the soldiers of the Qin army who had completed the task of filling the trench back to the camp in advance, and shouted decisively: "Go and send an order to the soldiers of the Tyrant Qin army, telling them to stop the violent soldiers no matter what." Qin army, if Wang Lifu is allowed to slip away, this general will not spare them!"

(End of this chapter)