Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 297 Uncle Zhou VS Xiang Yu

The disastrous defeat at Honggou Ferry almost made Xiang Yu so angry that after Zhou Lan fled back to Xiang Yu with the remnants of the defeated army, Xiang Yu once wanted to execute Zhou Lan for questioning, but fortunately Xiang Zhuang stopped him firmly and persuaded: "Your Majesty, victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs. Besides, this disastrous defeat has little to do with General Zhou Lan. It was because of our carelessness that we accidentally fell into an ambush by the Han bandit army. Also, General Zhou lost so badly this time. It also has a lot to do with the sudden use of that kind of weird weapon like thunder by the Han bandit army, I really can’t blame him.”

Considering that if Zhou Lan hadn't volunteered to cross the river first, he might be the one who ambushed this time, Xiang Yu suppressed his anger and roared at Zhou Lan: "Go away! Next time you dare to lose so badly, be careful! head!"

Zhou Lan resigned quickly, but Xiang Yu suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly shouted: "Wait! How did you escape the chasm just now?"

Zhou Lan hurriedly replied, saying that the army had found a shallow river section downstream, which probably could only flood the chest and neck, and the water flow was relatively gentle, so she was able to cross the river with the defeated soldiers.Xiang Yu was overjoyed when he heard that, and hurriedly ordered: "Lead me the way, let's go there and cross the river."

Xiang Zhuang stopped Xiang Yu again, pointed to the sky and said: "My lord, it's getting late. After crossing the river, our soldiers' clothes will definitely be wet. It's early winter, and the weather is cold. We sleep in the open in wet clothes. , I’m afraid it will freeze our soldiers, which will be disadvantageous in the battle, so let’s wait until tomorrow.”

Xiang Yu thought about it, so he had no choice but to agree again. Instead, he asked Zhou Lan about the original grenade situation of the Han army. The specific explosive power of the grenade is unknown, and Xiang Yu is somewhat worried after hearing Zhou Lan's trash again.

Ding Gu, a well-known cavalry general of the Western Chu Army next to him, was quite intelligent and calmly analyzed: "Your Majesty, it is estimated that the strange weapons of the Han bandits are also effective in scaring horses. General Lan and General Zhou Lan will not get away so easily. Also, the Han bandits only occasionally use that kind of weird weapon. It is estimated that the number of weird weapons in their hands is not too many, and they are only willing to use them at critical moments. Once used, we shouldn’t have to worry too much.”

Feeling that Ding Gu's analysis was quite reasonable, Xiang Yu turned his anger into joy. Seeing that it was getting late, he led the Western Chu cavalry to temporarily retreat ten miles and sleep in the open area far away from the Aocang Ferry. He planned to wait until the next day. When the color is completely bright, cross the river from the shallow water found by Zhou Lan.

The plan did not change quickly. Although the Han army did not make any moves this night, it happened that on this night, the north wind blew hard in the Aocang area of ​​Xingyang, and the temperature suddenly dropped sharply. Long flow, sneezing, cold symptoms appeared.Xiang Zhuang was very worried about this, and found Xiang Yu just after dawn, and offered a suggestion: "Your Majesty, the weather has suddenly turned cold. Should we not cross the river for now? Wait for the King of Henan to bring our military supplies and supplies, and let our The soldiers have military tents to keep out the cold at night, and then it’s not too late to cross the river?"

Xiang Yu was never ambiguous in war, and he was unavoidably shaken after listening to Xiang Zhuang's suggestion, but he was a little unwilling to waste such time, hesitatingly said: "We came here with light clothes, the advantage is to win the battle quickly, just wait and see. , would be too much of a waste of time.”

"Your Majesty, don't fight for this day or two." Xiang Zhuang persuaded again, saying: "Besides, Zhongli Mopifu is still holding on to Suanzao, and he may send troops to prevent the King of Henan from escorting us with military supplies. To be on the safe side, we'd better allocate one Army, go back to meet Henan Wangxi..."

"Report—!"

The sudden sound of an urgent report interrupted Xiang Zhuang's good advice, and then, two scouts from the Western Chu Army escorted a man to Xiang Yu, and one of the scouts stepped forward and said: "Report to the king, my little one!" On the bank of the chasm, a suspicious man was caught. He claimed to be the confidant of Li Yao, the former minister of the Henan King, and he wanted to report to the king face to face. The younger one also found a letter from him, Please take a look, Your Majesty."

As he said that, the scout also presented a letter written on white silk, Xiang Yu quickly took it and opened it for a closer look, only to see that Li Yao, who claimed to be the former minister of Sima Ang, said in the letter that he was killed because of the destruction of Xingyang city. He was forced to surrender to the Han army. Fortunately, the Han army still trusted him and still let him continue to serve as the county magistrate of Xingyang. , all the main forces were deployed in Aocang and Guangwu Mountain City. There were only about [-] defenders in Xingyang City. He suggested that Xiang Yu should attack Xingyang first to gain a foothold in the city. Xingyang City Gate welcomes Xiang Yu into the city, in order to atone for his crime.

I was worrying about not having a military tent to keep out the cold overnight, but I didn’t expect a big pie to fall from the sky. Of course Xiang Yu was secretly happy, but out of caution, after reading the letter over and over for a long time, Xiang Yu suddenly drew his sword and threw it at him. Hand, pretending to intimidate the envoy sent by Li Yao, forcing him to confess whether he would pretend to surrender, Li Yao's envoy directly peed in his crotch in fright, knelt down and kowtowed, swore that he would never have the guts to play against the overlord of Western Chu for Li Yao, No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like a dead soldier who risked his life to deceive the enemy.Only then did Xiang Yu believe it, and overjoyed, he hurriedly ordered his troops to cross the chasm and march towards Xingyang, west of Aocang.

Seeing this scene, Xiang Zhuang of course reminded Xiang Yu that this was Uncle Zhou's trick and tricked Xiang Yu to cross the river to get something out of it. Xiang Yu asked proudly, "How can Uncle Zhou get something out of it? I just need to take the main force to cross the chasm." , even if all his mobs are mobilized, this king is sure to kill them all!"

Xiang Zhuang thought about it carefully and found that it was true. The information provided by Sima Ang had made it very clear. Uncle Zhou only had more than 2 troops, and most of them were infantry. The number of cavalry was very small. , Guangwu City (now Hanwang City) and Xingyang, there is indeed no extra power to play any big tricks, but as long as Xingyang City is quickly captured, the Western Chu Army will not only solve the problem of staying overnight, but also get a lot of money. The manpower and material resources help the self-army to attack Aocang and Guangwu City.Therefore, Xiang Zhuang no longer dissuaded him, and honestly followed Xiang Yu to lead his troops westward, and under Zhou Lan's guidance, they came straight to the shallow river section of the chasm.

It was only yesterday that I suffered a big loss. This time, Xiang Yu certainly learned a lot. After arriving at the scene, the Western Chu Army, in addition to repeatedly surveying the hydrology to confirm that the river can be crossed, also sent a large number of scouts to closely monitor the movement upstream and downstream. Only then cautiously initiated the crossing of the river, leading the horses to cross the chasm through the icy cold water, and every time they crossed an army, they immediately formed an formation to protect the ferry, not daring to have any negligence.

The ferry chosen by the Western Chu army was seventeen or eight miles away from the Han army camp, and the infantry had no time to stop it. On the contrary, they were doomed to die in vain. Therefore, although the Han army scouts quickly reported the movement of the Western Chu army to Zhou. In front of Uncle Zhou, Uncle Zhou ignored him and did not send a single soldier to intercept him. Instead, he asked the scouts of the Han army to closely monitor the movement of the Western Chu army, carefully preventing the Western Chu army from suddenly sending troops back to meet Sima Ang. After all the Doxi Chu cavalry had crossed the gap, Uncle Zhou let out a long sigh of relief, knowing that Xiang Yu had still fallen for his trick to lure the enemy, and was tricked by the dead man he forced Li Yao to send, and really planned to steal Xingyang city.

After heaving a sigh of relief, Uncle Zhou turned his gaze to the direction of Suanzao in the east, and said in his heart: "General Zhongli, I have created an opportunity for you. Counting time, Mr. Sima Ying should be able to reach the vicinity of Suanzao within today. It is up to you whether you can seize the opportunity to burn down the military supplies of the Western Chu bandit army."

…………

On the Suanzao side, Uncle Zhou’s urgent letter to Zhongli Mo was delivered to Zhong Limo last night without any trouble, but after reading Uncle Zhou’s letter, Zhongli Mo frowned, because the Han army The scouts had found out the exact situation, and Sima Yang had assembled an army of about [-]. Although the weapons and equipment were not as good as the Han army, the number of troops was more than double that of Zhongli Mo's. Of course, it is not so easy to burn the food, grass and supplies protected by so many enemies.

What's more troublesome is that the east of Suanzao is full of open plains, and there are very few hills. There is no place to set up ambushes, and all kinds of tactics such as luring the enemy deep, cutting them through the middle, and sneaking ambushes cannot be used.In addition, the intelligence of the Han army also clearly shows that the famous old fox Li Zuoche is still by Sima Ang's side, so even if the Han army uses any conspiracy, there is almost no possibility of success.

No matter how embarrassing it is, there is no way. Uncle Zhou made it very clear in his letter that whether the military supplies escorted by Sima Yang can be successfully burned is directly related to the life and death of Ao Cang and the Sanchuan Han Army, so Zhong Limei can only call his subordinates overnight All generals, discuss with everyone how to fulfill Uncle Zhou's entrustment.

After discussing in the middle of the night, the result is that the Han army has absolutely no certainty of winning by surprise. The only way can only be to face it head-on, defeat Sima Ang in a fierce battle, and force him to voluntarily give up his military supplies and flee for his life. But a new problem arises again. If Sima Ang is determined What to do if you are on the defensive?If the Henan army met the enemy with a solid formation, would the [-] Han soldiers who had just begun to break through be able to defeat the [-] Henan army?

"General, don't care if he is sure! Just fight it out!"

General Luo Huan proposed the simplest and most direct method, and said loudly: "First, tell our soldiers clearly that in this battle, we are only allowed to win and not to lose. At that time, I didn't care about any tactics, and launched a general attack as soon as I confronted the bandit army! If I don't break the bandit army, I vow not to withdraw my troops!"

After all, Luo Huan, who was obviously brave, added: "When we go out to fight, we will burn down our camp first, without leaving a single soldier to guard the camp, and all soldiers will go out to fight, let our soldiers understand If we can't win the battle and capture the enemy's military supplies, we won't even have a place to rest overnight!"

The rest of the generals were in an uproar, and they all scolded Luo Huan for being absurd. However, after Zhong Limei made careful calculations, he suddenly slapped the table in front of him and shouted: "This plan is feasible! All generals obey the order. When Sima Yang arrives, our army will Burn the camp and attack, leaving no retreat! If Simaang's bandit army can't be defeated, all generals of a hundred or more will be killed!"

The generals of the Han army were in an uproar again, but Zhong Limo yelled angrily: "What are you shouting about? This general is no exception. If you can't defeat Sima Yupifu, this general will kill himself to thank the King of Han!"

After saying that, Zhong Limo pulled out his own sword, cut the case in front of him in half with one sword, and shouted angrily: "If this general breaks his promise, there will be such a case!"

Seeing that Zhongli Mo was coming for real this time, all the generals of the Han army were of course shocked, they could only accept the order obediently, and immediately announced Zhong Limo's decision to the public after returning to the camp. It spread throughout the entire army, and at the same time, all the generals of the Han army with hundreds of men and above also threatened their subordinates with cruel words, "Simaang's bandit army is here. If I can't win the battle, my head will definitely fall to the ground, but before I am executed , Lao Tzu will definitely kill him! On the battlefield, whoever dares to take a step back, Lao Tzu will kill him with his own hands!"

…………

It's time to pay attention to the poor Henan king Simaang. At the same time as Uncle Zhou calculated, Simaang's troops escorting the military supplies to the west did arrive near Suanzao on the same afternoon when Xiang Yu crossed the chasm. .As a result, as soon as he entered the boundary twenty miles away, the treacherous and treacherous Li Zuoche immediately made a suggestion to Sima Ang, saying: "My lord, we are only twenty miles away from the Han bandit army, and it's getting late. It's very early today." It is difficult to bypass Suanzao and go west. It is better to set up camp and rest on the spot. After the sky is bright tomorrow, we will protect the food, grass and military supplies and slowly move west. In addition, for the sake of caution, we had better send messengers to go west first, and ask the king of Western Chu to send An army came over to support us and cover us to go westward around Suanzao, so that we can prevent everything in case."

He had already experienced the great loss of not listening to Li Zuoche's good words and advice many times before, and Xiang Yu's time limit for Sima Ang was relatively loose. Sima Ang, who still knew how to make up for it, nodded immediately, and immediately ordered the army to stop advancing, and seize the time to build The camp rested overnight, and the military supplies that were crucial to the Western Chu Army were protected in the predetermined camp early on, and no outsiders were given the opportunity to contact them.

The time is not too early, and it is not too late. Of course, the soldiers of the Henan Army were not very rushed when they established the camp. Sima Ang and Li Zuoche did not pay special attention to this. The soldiers suddenly noticed that there was thick smoke rising from the direction of Suanzao to the west, as if a fire had ignited into the sky. When Sima Ang and Li Zuoche quickly discovered this, they also felt very strange and said, "What happened? Suanzao Why did it suddenly catch fire?"

The mystery was soon revealed. A Henan army scout rushed back to the Henan army camp that was still under construction, and played loudly to Sima Yang: "My lord, the Han bandit army seems to be crazy, and even set fire to their camp. , All the soldiers have left the camp and are heading towards our army."

"What?" Sima Ang almost suspected that his ears had misheard, and asked in surprise, "The Han bandit army set fire to their camp by themselves? Why are the Han bandits going crazy?"

"Oops!" Of course, Li Zuoche immediately understood that something was wrong, jumped up and exclaimed, "The Han bandits are putting all their eggs in one basket. If they want to come here, they will fight us with their lives! If they don't directly defeat us, they will never retreat. !"

"Zhongli Mo, you still have such skill?!" Sima Ang immediately came to his senses, and hurriedly asked, "Mr. Guangwu, what should we do now?"

"Hurry up and repair the camp!" Li Zuoche yelled: "At the very least, erect the fence first, and then use the battalion to defend to the death, and resolutely repel the strong attack of the Han bandit army! Also, immediately organize a supervisory team. If you dare to take a step back, you will be executed immediately!"

Sima Ang nodded, and hurriedly ordered the soldiers to give up digging trenches and building walls, and tried their best to build the fence of the camp, and hastily organized several supervising teams, preparing to force the Henan soldiers to fight to the death.Not to mention, under the rush of work, the Henan army really built a wooden fence to protect the whole camp before the arrival of the Han army, and hurriedly deployed the army to guard every inch of defense line of the self-army camp. .

When Shenshi was about to pass, more than ten thousand Han troops under the leadership of Zhong Limei rushed to the west of the Henan Army camp, quickly lined up, and looked sullenly at the hastily built camp of the Henan Army. Zhong Limei casually called a member of the army directly under him Five hundred generals drew their swords and pointed at the west gate of the Henan Army's key defensive camp, "You, lead your troops as the vanguard, and attack the front of the bandit camp. If you don't destroy the bandit camp, you are not allowed to retreat!"

"General, do you want the last general to lead 500 people to attack the front of the bandit camp?"

The one who answered the scream of the unlucky five hundred generals was Zhongli Mo's sword, and then Zhong Limo's face was livid, and he ordered to show his head to the army, so that all the Han soldiers knew that they would not execute their military orders immediately. Then he shouted loudly: "Luo Huan, get out of here!"

"The last general is here!" Luo Huan rushed out and clasped his fists.

"You came up with the idea, of course you have to fight the vanguard!" Zhongli Mo said coldly: "Take your headquarters immediately, and don't let the bandits retreat if you don't destroy the bandit camp!"

Luo Huan agreed loudly, and immediately rushed in front of his headquarters of a thousand-man army, leading a thousand-man army to directly attack the front of the Henan Army camp. The two wings attacked and joined forces to attack the Henan Army's camp.

The rain of arrows all over the sky soon killed and wounded the soldiers of the Han army who shouted to charge, but they were deterred by Zhong Limei's strict orders, and almost no Han soldier dared to take full steps when charging, and when the three thousand soldiers of the Han army When the team rushed to the fence and started a fierce battle with the Henan army across the thin fence, Zhong Limo shouted loudly again: "Beat the drums and attack! All the troops, let me go! If you don't destroy the camp of the bandits, you will not withdraw!"

Dozens of cowhide drums sounded at the same time, and the remaining [-] soldiers of the Han army shouted one after another, and charged behind the banner of their own army. Zhong Limo took the lead and led the soldiers of the Han army to charge, shouting loudly, "kill----!"

At the same time, Sima Ang was dumbfounded when he saw that Zhong Limei launched a general attack just after joining the battle. Apart from yelling at Zhong Limei for his crazy behavior, he hurriedly asked Li Zuoche, "Guangwu Jun, what should we do now?" ?”

"What else can we do? Let's fight." Li Zuoche replied with a wry smile: "The Han bandit army is dying, and no tactics will work. What else can we do except fight to the end and defend the camp?"

(End of this chapter)