Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 304
When the main force of the Western Chu Army with a force of up to 20 marched to the west bank of the chasm, they stood on Guangwu Mountain and looked eastward. The huge army of the Western Chu Army could not see the end at a glance. The waves gushed out from the horizon, with swords and guns like forests, flags like seas, and countless horses and vehicles. It was like a tide rushing unstoppably westward. The momentum was astonishing and huge.

Although the main force of the Han army and the Hanoi partial division are combined, it is a huge army of more than 10 people, but facing such a large-scale Western Chu army, the main force of the Han army is still completely at a disadvantage in terms of momentum. Many inexperienced soldiers of the Han army couldn't help feeling timid before they officially started fighting.

Fortunately, the decision-makers of the Han army and the core backbone of the Han army, the young commander-in-chief and the old man, are already used to seeing big scenes. Although the momentum of the Western Chu army is huge, it is at most roughly equivalent to the main force of Zhang Han back then. At that time, Zhang Han's main force hadn't frightened the young commander, let alone the Han army whose strength has greatly increased now.Looking at the huge team of the Western Chu Army, Xiang Kang also said with a smile: "Brother still looks down on me after all, so he didn't go all out and pull all the troops he left behind Huaisi to the chasm battlefield. Bring the main force, isn't this a chance for me to defeat him one by one?"

"If Your Majesty must annihilate the main force of the Western Chu bandit army on the border battlefield, it is not without this opportunity." Chen Ping said with a smile: "The more than 20 troops consume a lot of food and grass, and it is definitely not enough to collect on the spot in Dongjun and Dangjun. In a short time, the King of Western Chu will definitely let his army behind to escort food and grass to the front line for use, and then we will have the opportunity to wait for work and completely wipe out the main force of the Western Chu bandit army on the chasm battlefield."

Xiang Kangda nodded his head, his face full of approval, and he said with a smile to the generals of the Han army present: "Have you heard that? This battle must be fought slowly, and first all the bandits from Western Chu will be killed." Only when the army is lured to the chasm battlefield, can we defeat the enemy with all our strength. Whoever loses composure beats off the main force of the Western Chu bandit army ahead of time, or whoever captures my elder brother first and presents him as a prisoner to me, and then goes east to crusade against him. I will deduct the extra money and food consumed by the Western Chu bandits from their salary! This point must be clearly explained, so that every one of our soldiers knows, do you understand?"

Ding Ji, Zhong Limei, Zhang Zhong and other generals of the Han army laughed wildly, scrambling to be the first to say: "Don't worry, your lord, we will never be complacent! Good fellow, all the money and food for the Eastern Expedition will be deducted from our salary, and we must not give it to you." Your Majesty, you have been a job for 100 years for nothing?"

All joking aside, Xiang Kang still didn't dare to be careless in terms of defensive deployment. In addition to asking the Han soldiers to make deep ditches and high forts to closely guard important military areas such as Xingyang, Aocang, and Guangwu, he also adopted Chen Ping's suggestion and took the lead. Build dams at the water inlet of the chasm to force more water from the Yellow River into the chasm, expand the water volume of the chasm, and increase the difficulty of crossing the river for the West Chu army, making it impossible for the West Chu army to cross the river as before, forcing the West Chu army Temporarily set up camp on the east bank of the divide.

Xiang Kang's shameless tricks really succeeded. It was only when he reached the bank of the chasm that Xiang Yu realized that the chasm suddenly widened and the river water suddenly deepened. Impassable.Seeing this scene, Xiang Yu, who knew nothing about water conservancy, was taken aback, and blurted out: "It's strange. How could the water in the chasm suddenly increase so much? It wasn't like this before?"

"It must be the traitors who tampered with the water inlet of the chasm."

Kuai Che guessed the reason, and suggested that Xiang Yu send someone who is familiar with water conservancy to check the situation upstream, and soon confirmed that the Han army had indeed built a dam at the water inlet of the chasm, forcing more water from the Yellow River into the chasm.Xiang Yu was furious when he heard the news, but he had no choice but to adopt the suggestion of Old Man Fan and others, let the Western Chu army set up camp on the north bank of the chasm temporarily, and at the same time send people to the water inlet of the chasm to break the dam and let the water flow back to the Yellow River. Reduce the difficulty of crossing the river for the Western Chu army.

Therefore, the battle first started at the mouth of the Honggou River. The soldiers of the Han army camped on the west bank of the river estuary shot with strong bows and covered the soldiers of the Western Chu army who were trying to dig the embankment. , It also forced the West Chu army to use long shields to build temporary fortifications on the east bank of the chasm to cover the crossbowmen and shoot back with arrows. The long-shieldmen and crossbowmen were smashed to pieces, their tendons were broken, and their bones were broken. The Western Chu army paid a lot of money, but they failed to dig out the dams that the Han soldiers had rushed to build.

In the end, it was Xiang Yu who was forced to mobilize [-] troops to dig the dams, and with great difficulty, he completely destroyed the forced water dams built by the Han army and reduced the amount of water in the chasm. However, in order to do this, the Western Chu army not only paid a heavy price , and wasted more than two days before and after, and his spirit was frustrated.

The matter is not over yet, after working so hard to destroy the damned dam, before the Western Chu army initiated the crossing, that night, Xiang Kang took the opportunity of the water level drop in the chasm and took the initiative to send troops to cross the river. They attacked the Western Chu army camp at night. Fortunately, the Western Chu army was closely guarded and the night guards issued an alarm in time. The Han army's shameless sneak attack failed, and they had to retreat in a hurry from the original road.

Could the Overlord of Western Chu be willing to miss such an opportunity?As soon as the order was given, tens of thousands of Western Chu soldiers immediately launched a pursuit, crossing the chasm from the shallow water, chasing and killing Han soldiers who dared to disturb their rest with red eyes, but the Western Chu army had just crossed the river and did not go far. During the process, Guan Ying led the cavalry of the Han army to charge out suddenly, wielding a saber and directly charged at the waist of the Western Chu army. In a big defeat, they were killed by the Han army and turned their backs on their backs. There were many dead bodies, and countless people fell into the water and drowned.But when Xiang Yu, who was furious and furious, sent troops to reinforce him, the Han army had already fled back to the Guangwu camp, and after taking advantage of it, he stopped entangled with the Western Chu army.

The continuous setbacks made the Western Chu army lose their spirit, and it also made Xiang Yu furious to the extreme. It was only the next morning when Xiang Yu couldn't wait to mobilize the army to launch a rush to cross. Standing on the west bank of the chasm, relying on the fortifications built in advance to attack the Western Chu army head-on, the battle was extremely fierce.

In the end, relying on their absolute superiority in military strength, the Western Chu Army finally managed to cross the damned chasm and gained a firm foothold on the west bank of the chasm. However, in order to do this, the Western Chu Army paid more than [-] soldiers. At the price, the loss of the Han army was no more than a thousand people, and it suffered a big loss again.Therefore, Xiang Yu's face was still extremely ugly, and he shouted with a livid face: "Rush to build a pontoon bridge, the more the better, within tomorrow, we must let all our troops cross the chasm!"

"Your Majesty, this is probably within the expectation of Xiang Kang's traitor." Kuai Che said: "If there is no accident, Xiang Kang's traitor is likely to make moves tonight, before our main force has time to cross the river." Opportunity to attack our troops who have already crossed the river."

Knowing the bad character of his wicked cousin, Xiang Yu nodded, and immediately ordered Gong Ao, the general of Western Chu who led the army to cross the river first, to rush to build fortifications on the west bank of the chasm, and strictly protect the floating bridge ferry. He also clearly explained that if the Han army attacked at night, The Chu army on the west bank could only retreat the enemy with random arrows, and could not take the risk of launching a pursuit.

There was an accident, Xiang Kang seemed to have changed his temper this time, the whole night passed, and the Han army did not make any moves, which made the soldiers of the Western Chu army who crossed the river first spend a whole night on guard in vain, but at dusk At that time, just as the soldiers of the Western Chu Army breathed a sigh of relief, the Han army suddenly released hundreds of fire rafts full of firewood from the foot of Guangwu Mountain. Up and down were caught off guard, so they had to quickly send people to the pontoon bridge to block the fire raft, and after a lot of hard work, twenty pontoon bridges were built.

After all, the raging fire cannot be stopped by manpower. After all the hundreds of fire rafts burned down by themselves, most of the pontoon bridges of the Western Chu Army had been burned. But before the Western Chu Army could breathe a sigh of relief, Xiang Kang personally led As the main force of the Han army broke out from the Guangwu camp, they lined up to fight in front of the Gong Ao army. Gong Ao quickly ordered his own army to take a defensive position, and Xiang Yu also hurriedly sent Xiang Zhuang to lead his army across the river to reinforce Gong Ao.

The result of the battle surprised Xiang Yu and the Western Chu army. Relying on the good scaring results of the original grenade, the Han army only used a primitive grenade to blow up the front team of the Communist Ao army, and successfully defeated the Communist Ao army. A gap was torn in the position, and the rear of the Han army seized the opportunity to attack, and forced Gongao's central army into chaos, broke through the interception of the Gongao army and went straight to the floating bridge ferry. Indissoluble.

At this time, the sudden killing of the heavy armored soldiers of the Han army has of course become a nightmare for the Western Chu army. The heavy armored soldiers of the Han army led by Zhang Zhong are like five hundred human tanks, rampaging on the battlefield, invincible, and soon helped the Han army. The infantry brigade of the Western Chu Army cut off all the pontoon bridges of the Western Chu Army, countless soldiers of the Western Chu Army fell into the water, and the Communist Ao Army was also isolated on the west bank of the gap. Xiang Kang took the opportunity to launch a general attack.

Xiang Kang did not take advantage of the victory to launch a pursuit, because the scouts of the Han army had already sent an urgent report, saying that the furious Xiang Yu had led the Western Chu cavalry to detour to the downstream and cross the river, knowing how powerful his cousin was on the battlefield Xiang Kang also resolutely retreated as soon as he saw it, and immediately rang the golden bell for withdrawing troops, and withdrew the army back to the Guangwu camp before the Western Chu cavalry rushed to the battlefield.

The Han army did not achieve great results in this battle, only more than [-] heads were beheaded, but the morale blow to the Western Chu army was extremely huge. I saw the defeat of the friendly army on the west bank of the chasm in broad daylight, and I have long been used to it. Under the leadership of Xiang Yu, all the victorious soldiers of Western Chu were at a loss. They didn't know how to fight the next battle. How much did the Han army have to pay to break through the gap defense line?There are also strong camps of the Han army, and the stronger Aocangcang City, Xingyang County City and Guangwu Mountain City. How can we win?
Of course, the Han army was on the contrary. Seeing that Xiang Kang was just using some tricks, he beat the Western Chu army to the ground. It was miserable. Of course, the confidence and morale of the Han army officers and soldiers increased greatly, and many grassroots soldiers still They joked with each other and said: "Remember the king's will, if anyone captures the king of Xichu first and offers him prisoners, or rushes to drive away the Xichu bandit army, in the future we will attack the army behind the Xichu bandit army. At that time, money and rations have to be deducted from our rations."

In the end, it was still under Kuai Che and Li Zuoche's begging, as well as Cao Jiu and Fan's persuasion, that Xiang Yu reluctantly changed the location of the river crossing, and moved to the shallow water of the chasm twenty miles downstream. After crossing the river, they first nailed countless wooden stakes in the gap to protect the pontoon bridge, and then built thirty pontoon bridges, allowing the main force of the Western Chu army to cross the damn gap and move their camp to the west bank of the gap.

Not to mention, the series of setbacks still made Xiang Yu calm down a lot. He stopped acting impulsively and rushed to attack the Han army camp as soon as he crossed the river. Instead, he first summoned the Chinese and military soldiers to discuss the next tactical plan. The study should first attack which Han army.However, during the meeting, Cao Jiu and old man Fan had a serious dispute with Li Zuoche and Kuai Che.

The focus of the dispute was whether the Western Chu army should attack the Han army's Guangwu camp or Aocang first?Among them, Cao Jiu and old man Fan insisted on attacking the Guangwu camp of the Han army first, and pointed out: "Your Majesty, we can only follow your last attack plan and attack the Guangwu camp first, so that Xiang Kang's rebels can't spare their hands to steal chickens and dogs. , destroy the main force of the Han thieves, and then consider how to take Aocang and Xingyang."

"Your Majesty, we can't stay the same." Li Zuoche objected, "Last time, the ministers agreed to attack the Guangwu camp first, because the total strength of the Han rebels is at an absolute disadvantage, and the soldiers are not as good as ours. We are absolutely sure that we can win. The Guangwu camp of the Han bandits. But the situation is different now. The strength of the Han bandits has increased greatly. Although our troops still have an absolute advantage, our soldiers are mixed with old and new soldiers. The main camp of the Han bandits will only fall into a difficult battle. Only by cutting off the wings of Xiang Kang's bandits and capturing the grain stored in Ao Cang to supply the army, can we wipe out the main force of the Han bandits without distraction."

"The ministers also agree to attack Ao Cang first." Kuai Che also said: "Our main army is as many as 20, and we have to eat up grain and rice every day. We have to take down Ao Cang first and solve our food and grass supply problem on the spot. , and then we can settle down to deal with the main force of the Han thieves. Otherwise, we will soon be in danger of food shortages just relying on supplies from the rear.”

"Speaking nicely, Ao Cang is so easy to take down?" Cao Jiu sneered and said, "Ao Cang is only ten miles away from the Guangwu camp of the Han bandits, and it can be reached in no time. When we stormed Ao Cang, the traitor Xiang Kang suddenly What if we send troops to sneak behind us?"

"Let's attack Guangwu first. Isn't it possible that the Han thieves in Xingyang and Aocang suddenly sent troops to attack us behind? If so, why don't we just take precautions?" Kuai Che retorted bluntly, and said: "Now The most important thing is food. As long as we take Ao Cang first at any cost, we will be invincible immediately. The Guangwu camp of the Han bandits doesn't even need to attack by force. We are sure to consume food just by fighting Destroy the traitor's main force!"

"Scholar's pedantic views, dare to show off here?" Old man Fan got angry and said, "Just be careful and take precautions? Do you know how treacherous and cunning that traitor Xiang Kang is? We just need to show a little flaw, Immediately there is a possibility that he will be tricked and tricked, and we will not close our eyes even if we sleep without destroying his main force first!"

When the dispute became entangled and Xiang Yu gradually showed displeasure, a scout outside the tent suddenly came in to report the military situation, and played to Xiang Yu: "Report to the king, the Aocang Han bandits suddenly sent an army to escort Many vehicles full of food were transported to the Guangwu camp of the Han bandits."

Hearing this, the Chinese military tent that was still noisy just now was suddenly silent, Xiang Yu also raised his head in surprise, and said, "The Han bandits transported grain from Ao Cang to Guangwu Camp? Have you confirmed that the carts are full of grain? "

"Reporting to Your Majesty, it should all be grain." The scout from Xichu truthfully replied: "The villain can see very clearly that the bandit military vehicles are all loaded with grain bags with the seal of the Tyrant Qin government, and the rut marks are also very deep. It's definitely a grain truck."

"It's a strange thing." Xiang Yu said suspiciously: "Before this, my traitor brother hasn't hoarded enough food in the Guangwu camp, and there is still a need to rush to transport it at this time?"

After a little calculation, old man Fan quickly laughed out loud, and said, "My lord, the traitor Xiang Kang is just throwing bricks to attract jade. With his treachery and cunning, how could he have not stockpiled in the Guangwu bandit camp before that?" Sufficient food, there may be an urgent rush to transport it? He did this just to make us feel that his Guangwu camp is short of food and grass. As long as we first take down Ao Cang and cut off his food and grass supplies, it won’t be long before he will He will destroy himself without a fight, and use this to lure us to attack Aocang first, so that the main force of his bandit army can free up his hands to steal chickens and dogs, and suddenly stab us in the back."

"Your Majesty, that's definitely true." Cao Jiu hastened to chime in, "This is also Xiang Kang's usual trick of rebels, deliberately revealing flaws, making us feel that his main force is short of food, and tricking us into killing Ao Cang first. food, and then he can take the opportunity to sneak up on us with despicable tricks behind our backs."

As soon as Xiang Yu nodded his head, he immediately made up his mind, and immediately said: "Yes, we must not be fooled by that traitor again, we must attack his Guangwu camp first, so that he can't get out to steal chickens and dogs, and make troubles." Disturb the rain! That's it, first attack the Guangwu bandit camp, annihilate the main force of the Han bandits, and then free up your hands to attack Aocang Xingyang!"

Li Zuoche and Kuaiche laughed wryly together, completely helpless, but they each said in their hearts: "I'm afraid this is the real purpose of Xiang Kang's traitor, right? We won't believe his Guangwu camp after all. He decided that he deliberately grabbed grain and grass to lure us into attacking Ao Cang first. In order not to be fooled by him, we could only be led by the nose by him and hit Guangwu first so that he would have greater confidence in dragging us into consumption. war."

…………

At the same time, in the Guangwu camp of the Han army, Tang Bing, one of the old men in Shangshan, was worried when he watched the soldiers of the Han army transport grain into the camp from the height of the camp. Will it work? Will it be counterproductive, making the Western Chu bandit army think that our main force is really short of food, and go to fight Ao Cang first, and not come to Guangwu camp to fight us head-on?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Dongyuan." Chen Ping said with a smile: "Our king is very famous for using tricks, even our king's violent brother, the king of Xichu, will never believe that our Guangwu camp is real. If we are short of food, we will only think that our king is throwing bricks to lure jade, luring him to attack Ao Cang first, so that our main force can hide behind his back and make a sudden plot. In order not to fall into our scheme, the Western Chu bandit army will definitely not let us do what we want , will definitely only come to attack our Guangwu camp first, and will not take the risk of attacking Aocang first."

Tang Bing nodded suspiciously, while Xiang Kang smiled and said, "I can't be so sure. Fortunately, I just hope that brother will come to our Guangwu camp first, and try to attract him. If I really can't, I won't be able to attract him." It doesn't matter, the big deal is that when my elder brother made the right choice and went to attack Aocang first, we will find a way to stab him in the back a few times."

(End of this chapter)