Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 349 Against Cao Jiu
Zheng Bu's troops of the Han army crossed the Yellow River at Baimajin and joined forces with the main force of the Han army on the second day. The Han army with a total strength of more than 15 finally arrived at the Puyang battlefield. The 12 Western Chu army had already arrived in Puyang. Under the city, there are deep trenches and high fortifications, ready to face the largest counterattack of the Han army since the start of the Chu-Han War.

This is also the third time that Xiang Kang has led his army to the Puyang battlefield, and he has long been familiar with the terrain and geography of the Puyang battlefield, so Xiang Kang did not spend much effort to survey the terrain, find a suitable camping place, and directly ordered the Han army The main force set up camp on the plateau ten miles northwest of Puyang, and set up camp by the Yellow River, which was not a river hanging on the ground in this era, and then immediately led a team of cavalry to the city of Puyang with Guan Ying, and went to the site to personally investigate the situation of the enemy camp.

Restricted by the terrain, although the Western Chu army's camp in the south of Puyang City is not as easy to defend and difficult to attack as the Han army's main camp on the Xingyang battlefield, the Guangwu camp, it is also obviously stronger than the Qin army's hastily repaired Zhang Han's camp. Many, various camp fortifications have also been well built without leaving any loopholes, and wide and deep trenches are used to divert the water from the big river five or six miles north of Puyang City to the outside of the camp, forming an artificial river that protects the west. The three gates in the east, west, and south of the Chu army's camp greatly increased the difficulty of the Han army's attack on the camp, and also offset the strength and overall combat effectiveness of the Han army to the greatest extent.

Fortunately, Xiang Kang was mentally prepared for such a situation, and he was not in a hurry. He just patiently observed the various situations of the Western Chu Army, and even arrogantly and domineeringly directly used his own banner to board the Western Chu Army Grand Prix. On the gentle sloping highland to the southeast of the camp, he watched the movement of the Western Chu army camp condescendingly, completely ignoring the soldiers of the Western Chu army pointing at him in the camp, and that he was already a little too far away from the Han army camp.

At the same time, when they saw that Xiang Kang was so arrogant that he dared to personally visit the camp under the banner of the King of Han, all the generals of the Western Chu army were furious and asked Cao Jiu to allow him to lead a team of cavalry to attack Xiang Kang. The cavalry team of the Han army led by himself.Even Kuai Che couldn't help himself, and said to Cao Jiu, "Great Sima, the traitor Xiang Kang came outside our barracks to spy on what's going on in our barracks. Although he was obviously provoking and luring the enemy, he was too arrogant. It's too far away from his main camp, so we might as well send cavalry out of the camp to attack, try to create a miracle, and take down the traitor Xiang Kang in one fell swoop. any danger."

"Did you forget your majesty's instructions before your departure so quickly?" Cao Jiu glared at Kuai Che, and said angrily, "When your majesty left, you repeatedly instructed us to only stay in camp and not to fight. Xiang Kang's reversal has been made clear again. It’s deliberately luring the enemy, we know it’s a trick, so why are we going to deliberately fall for it?”

"But we can't stay the same, we can adapt accordingly." Kuai Che said unconvinced: "Xiang Kang's rebels are so far away from the Han bandit camp, and the surrounding terrain is open, it is impossible for the Han bandits to hide in ambush. We only dispatched part of the cavalry What can you get if you try your luck?"

The generals of the Western Chu Army were also like this. They all felt that even if their chances were small, they might as well go out and try their luck. Maybe they really won the first prize by buying a lottery ticket. However, Cao Jiu was worthy of being Xiang Yu's most trusted military deputy. He refused to agree to send troops, and ordered viciously: "The order continues. Without the order of the commander, whoever dares to lead a soldier out of the camp without authorization, no matter what he says, he will be killed immediately!"

In fact, Xiang Kang is really trying to lure the enemy, he wants to see if Cao Jiu, who has been kind to the old Xiang family, can hold his breath, and whether it is true that no matter what happens, he will not send troops out of the camp - led by Guan Ying With the protection of the elite cavalry of the Han army, and the sharp weapon of horse warfare and saber in hand, Xiang Kang is really not afraid that the Western Chu army will dispatch cavalry to launch a surprise attack.So I deliberately tossed around outside the Western Chu army camp for a while, but after seeing no soldiers from the Western Chu army, Xiang Kang left the high ground with the Han army cavalry and rode back to the Han army camp.

On the way back, Xiang Kang told Guan Ying: "General Guan, from tomorrow onwards, you will personally command the cavalry under your command to fight a scout strangulation battle for me. Whatever method I think of, he must be captured or killed. If it doesn’t work, the scouts of the Xichu bandit army will be driven back to the camp. In any case, the scope of activities of the scouts of the Xichu bandit army must be limited to their camp within a radius of ten miles! This is very important to our army, are you sure?"

"Your Majesty, don't worry." Guan Ying replied confidently, "I will make arrangements when I return home, starting tomorrow morning. As long as any scouts from the Western Chu bandit army can walk out of the ten-mile radius of their camp, the General is willing to accept military law. !"

"Very well, you can move cavalry in the army at will, and you don't need to ask me for military supplies, just go and get what you want."

Xiang Kang nodded in satisfaction, and rest assured that he handed over this important task to Guan Ying. After returning to the camp, Xiang Kang was not in a hurry to return to the Chinese army's tent to discuss the tactics of attacking the camp with the Han army's civil and military personnel, but went directly to the Han army's camp. At the construction site in Houying, I personally went to check the manufacture of the new Han army trebuchets—no matter how bad Xiang Kang’s history is, he knew that a certain trebuchet that appeared in later generations used the principle of leverage to drop bombs, and Zhou Zeng, Chao Zhi, etc. People organized people to develop and research this kind of trebuchet in the rear of Guanzhong, and it has achieved success. Now that the Han army has started to counterattack in the overall strategy, Xiang Kang certainly has no need to hide this kind of attacking weapon. .

From the early morning of the next day, the poor scouts of the Western Chu Army also had bad luck because of Xiang Kang's order to Guan Ying. Under Xiang Kang's instruction, Guan Ying divided more than 4000 Han cavalry into two divisions. , carrying dry food, drinking water, and horse fodder to attack in turn, and aiming at the fact that the scouts of the Western Chu Army are based on the Shi team, after the attack, the cavalry is divided into groups of 20 people into multiple teams, and they are constantly in the West Chu Army. Wandering around the camp, as soon as you find the Western Chu Army scouts out of the camp, you will immediately rush to pursue them without hesitation, and you will never stop until you kill the Western Chu Army scouts or drive them back to the camp.

The open area around the camp of the Western Chu Army has also become a hunting ground. At any time, you can see the scout patrol team of the Western Chu Army not far from the camp. Immediately, a group of Han Army cavalry rushed forward, holding their sabers high. Directly facing the scouts of the Western Chu Army, the Western Chu Army's scouts were forced to fight. After a short battle, a second, third, and even fourth cavalry of the Han Army rushed to help, encircling and annihilating the Western Chu Army's troops with numerical superiority. Scouts, until all the scouts of the Western Chu Army were killed or forced to flee back to the camp.

There are also some Western Chu army scouts who are smarter, relying on their own horses, they are the first to hit the horses and flee, trying their best to throw off the pursuit of the Han cavalry, but doing so is poking a hornet's nest, the farther the West Chu army scouts are from their camp , the more Han cavalry chasing after them, the terrain around Puyang is open, there is no good terrain to hide and avoid, no matter how the Western Chu army scouts galloped wildly, there was still no way to get rid of the pursuit and interception of the Han cavalry , In the end, he could only be forced to fight.

In the era when there were no stirrups and Takahashi saddles, the cavalry of the Western Chu Army with spears and swords in their hands fought on horseback. Of course, they were at a disadvantage when facing the cavalry of the Han Army with sabers in their hands. Almost all of them were at a disadvantage in immediate combat. The scouts and patrols of the Chu Army were forced to dismount and fight on foot during the fierce battle. They even relied on the temporarily organized defensive circle, which once made the Han cavalry on horseback helpless against them. However, what frightened the scouts of the Western Chu Army was However, even if they did not lose the wind in the infantry battle, they still couldn't stop the Han cavalry from coming for reinforcements in an endless stream, so that one or two hundred Han cavalry besieged a Western Chu army scout team.

"The Han bandit cavalry is crazy. We only have so few people, and we just want to check the surrounding situation. Is it worth sending so many cavalry to attack us?" Many Western Chu army scouts exclaimed.

"Did the Chinese thief take the wrong medicine?" Cao Jiu and the generals of the Western Chu army were also very surprised by this, and they all said in amazement: "In order to deal with our scouts, why send so many cavalry to fight scouts? Even so They can gain the upper hand, but at the end of the day, how much can they gain?"

Only Kuai Che and Li Zuoche knew very well that Xiang Kang would not be aimless. In order not to be trapped in the camp by the Han cavalry and lose control of the external situation and the Han army's movements, both Kuai Che and Li Zuoche suggested that Cao Jiu should not go. Considering the cost, he resolutely continued to send cavalry out of the camp to investigate changes in the enemy's situation. Cao Jiu also adopted their suggestion. Even though the number of scout losses had skyrocketed, Cao Jiu still continued to send out scouts to continue to investigate at any cost. The situation of the Han army.

But on the second day, Cao Jiu regretted it a little bit, because on the second day, the Han army still dispatched a large number of cavalry, divided into countless small teams, wandered outside the Western Chu army camp, and frantically suppressed those who dared to go out to patrol the camp. The scouts of the Western Chu Army were stronger and fiercer than the previous day. Some Western Chu Army scouts who managed to escape back to the camp also reported that they heard the cavalry of the Han Army shouting with their own ears, saying that they got a Western Chu Army scout. The heads or captives can be exchanged for a high price of [-] gold. At the same time, the scout casualties of the Western Chu Army are also increasing. In less than two days, more than [-] scouts of the Western Chu Army have been buried in the cavalry sword In addition, about the same number of precious war horses were lost.

This loss is of course not a big loss for the 12-strong Puyang Western Chu Army. Although Cao Jiu felt distressed, he still did not intend to give up sending scouts out to investigate in order to grasp the enemy's movements, but Kuai Che But still refused to give up, when it was just dark, Kuai Che ran up to Cao Jiu again and said something unpleasant, "Great Sima, I just went to ask our scouts who came out of the camp and found that the situation is very serious. Something is wrong."

"Is something wrong there?" Cao Jiu asked back.

"The range of our scouts has been tightly sealed by the bandit cavalry within a ten-mile radius of our camp. It is even more difficult to get close to the bandit camp ten miles away, let alone cross the bandit camp. , Go to the rear of the Han bandit camp to investigate the situation."

Kuai Che first briefly introduced the situation, and then said: "This is quite dangerous. If we cannot closely monitor the movement around the Han bandit camp, we will have no way to grasp the military situation of the Han bandits. What is the transportation situation, let alone why the bandit cavalry went crazy and strangled our camp scouts desperately, if we continue to hide the enemy for so long, I am afraid we will fall into complete passiveness."

"What can I do?" Cao Jiu spread his hands helplessly, and said, "The fewer scouts we send out, we can't beat the Han bandit cavalry. If we send out more scouts, the Han bandits will take advantage of the opportunity to weaken our army, and send a large number of cavalry. Going out of the camp will give the traitors a chance to fight us, what do you want me to do?"

"Da Sima, just to be cautious, we'd better arrange it like this." Kuai Che suggested: "Send scouts out of the camp every night, under the cover of night, sneak to the rear of the traitor camp and the surrounding area of ​​our camp to ambush. Observe the enemy's situation and report back at night, although this is troublesome, at least it will allow us to grasp part of the enemy's changes."

Cao Jiu was just a little bit moved, but after a little calculation, Cao Jiu shook his head and said, "There is no need for that, the Han bandits just arrived in Puyang the day before yesterday, and they must be hurrying to make weapons to attack the fortress these few days, there won't be any problems. There is too much change in the military situation, so there is no need to go to such great lengths to detect the situation of their logging. Let’s wait until the Han bandit cavalry has passed this level. If the Han bandit cavalry still blocks our scouts in the camp after a few days, Let's find another way to detect the enemy's situation."

"But the Chinese bandit cavalry strangled our scouts so frantically, there must be a reason for it." Kuai Che insisted: "Don't you worry, Da Sima, what kind of tricks the Han bandits are trying to play, and you don't want to find out the reason?"

"What else could be the reason?" Cao Jiu replied quite confidently, "The traitorous cavalrymen are going crazy, it must be because the traitor Xiang Kang wants to build up his prestige and use scouting to boost his morale and anger us by the way. , to lure us into a decisive battle, other than these, what other reason could there be?"

Of course Kuai Che would not agree with Cao Jiu's arbitrary analysis, and when he persisted and tried to persuade him, Cao Jiu had already waved the order to evict the guests and said, "Okay, Doctor Kuai, let's call it a day. , If you have anything to say, let’s talk about it tomorrow morning.”

Seeing that Cao Jiu couldn't be persuaded, Kuai Che had no choice but to leave in disappointment, but when he left the tent of the Chinese army, Kuai Che ran into Li Zuoche, a guest official of the Western Chu army who was hurrying, and saw Kuai Che walking towards him. Li Zuoche hastily stopped him and said: "Doctor Kuai, it just so happens that the foreign minister has something very important to tell you. Just now, the foreign minister took the liberty of asking your scouts out of the camp to inquire about the situation. Your scouts have been there for two consecutive days. It is very strange to be blocked by the Han bandit cavalry within a radius of ten miles of the camp, so please be careful and be on guard."

"Guangwu-jun, you also found out?"

Kuai Che smiled wryly, and then told Li Zuoche roughly what he had just done in negotiating with Cao Jiu. What does it matter if you deliberately provoke us and send some scouts out of the camp at night to investigate?"

"Shh, keep your voice down." Kuai Che hurriedly gestured to remind Li Zuoche, and said in a low voice: "This is our Chinese army camp. Mr. Guangwu needs to guard against the walls having ears."

Li Zuoche quickly shut up, thanked Kuai Che in a low voice for his kind reminder, and then said: "Why don't I go to persuade Da Sima again, we both put forward similar suggestions, and Da Sima might accept them. "

Kuai Che was about to agree, but he never thought that the night sky full of dark clouds would suddenly turn white, and then there was a loud thunderbolt, and then the raindrops began to fall quickly. Seeing his helplessness, Kuai Che said, "Mr. It's raining, and our chief Sima claims to love soldiers like sons, and he won't agree to send troops out of the camp on a rainy night."

Li Zuoche thought it was the same, so he had no choice but to sigh helplessly, and then hurriedly followed Kuaiche back to their respective camps to avoid the sudden summer night thunderstorm.

…………

If Kuai Che and Li Zuoche persisted, perhaps they would have made great contributions to the Western Chu Army, because at the same time, Xiang Kang, who was personally leading a team to patrol the camp, heard thunder from the sky and saw raindrops falling. , I was so happy that I immediately jumped three feet high, and shouted, "God help me!"

After the cheers, Xiang Kang stopped patrolling the battalion for the first time, and while quickly returning to his large tent of the Chinese army, he couldn't wait to order: "Quickly, go and pick ten five hundred masters to come to see me immediately. .Also, call me Yang Bu, who is in charge of supervising the manufacture of fortified weapons, immediately!"

The soldiers obeyed the order, and soon after Xiang Kang returned to the Chinese army tent, the former Lingting blacksmith apprentice who was drenched by the heavy rain, and now the Han army examiner Ling Yang Bu , was led to Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang didn't talk nonsense with him, and said with a wave of his hand: "There is no need to salute, listen carefully, I will give you a day and two nights, and the day after tomorrow morning before [-]:[-] ([-]:[-] am) , Be sure to make all the fortified weapons I entrusted to you, without any mistakes! If you are short of manpower, just ask, and I will send them to you immediately."

"Before three o'clock in the morning of the day after tomorrow?" Yang Bu was a little dumbfounded, and said tremblingly: "My lord, it's not that I'm making excuses, it's because there is absolutely not enough time, and there is not enough wood. I can't make so many fortifications no matter what. Weapons?"

"Then how many do you estimate can be produced?" Xiang Kang asked quickly.

"It's more than [-]% at most, and I have to ask the king to allocate at least [-] soldiers to help me." Yang Bu thought for a while before answering.

Xiang Kang pursed his lips, and then said: "Qicheng, I will allocate [-] soldiers for you, and at least [-]% of them will be built for me before the morning of the day after tomorrow!"

Yang Bu hesitated again, and then reluctantly agreed, Xiang Kang immediately waved his hand and said: "Then why are you still in a daze? Hurry up, I will transfer the army to help you immediately, but remember, the quality must be reliable, and dare to take defective products." Give me a lot of money, be careful with your head!"

Yang Bu clapped his hands and sang promises, and then rushed down to organize engineers to rush to work overnight, working overtime to make weapons for Xiang Kang.And then, ten five hundred masters of the Han army were brought in front of Xiang Kang. Xiang Kang quickly explained to them, and then ordered: "Go back immediately and get ready. I will go out of the camp at three o'clock." Go west, go ten miles to the west, and bring back all the things I want, the more the better! After the matter is done, the king will have a great reward!"

"Remember two points. One is that the things you pick must be packed in wooden urns or bamboo baskets, covered with cloth, and must not be dried in the sun. The second is to issue a password prohibition, and you are not allowed to ask the king for those things. Whatever you do, even if you come back, you are not allowed to tell others what you have done, if you leak the news, this king will punish you severely!"

Ten five hundred masters of the Han army clasped their fists and sang promises together, and then hurried down to prepare. It was only at this time that Xiang Kang remembered to order Guan Ying to further strengthen the scout strangulation battle tomorrow. The army discovered the small movements of its own army.As a result, when someone was sent to send an order to Guan Ying to see him, a report came from outside the tent that Xu negative wanted to see him, and Xiang Kang also ordered to be summoned immediately.

After a while, Xu Negency, whose clothes were also somewhat wet, was led to Xiang Kang, but after saluting, he only glanced at Xiang Kang, Xu Neg smiled sweetly, and said, "Your Majesty, it seems that this time I ran for nothing this time." Come on, the king's face is full of joy, and his expression is still so excited, he must have thought about it with his subordinates, made arrangements first, and sent people to collect those things."

"Xu Taizhu is really a man of gods, and you really expected everything." Xiang Kang gave Xu negative a thumbs up, and asked impatiently: "Xu Taizhu, help me take a look. After this thunderstorm, What's the weather like tomorrow and the day after tomorrow? Will it be sunny?"

"Your Majesty, forgive me. Your servants only know how to meet each other, but don't know how to predict the weather."

Xiang Kang was greatly disappointed by Xu Negative's answer of shaking his head, but fortunately Xu Negative smiled again and said, "But please rest assured, Your Majesty, although I don't know how to predict the weather, I can basically conclude that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow must be sunny."

"Really?" Xiang Kang's joy was no small matter, and he rushed over and grabbed Xu negative's little hand, and asked excitedly, "How did Xu Taizhu know?"

"Because your complexion is very good, your majesty, and your seal is bright, you must be doing well during this time." Xu negative replied with a smile: "So I can believe that since your majesty hopes that the weather tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will be sunny, then the weather the day after tomorrow will be fine." It must be as good as your complexion, Your Majesty."

"Thank you Mrs. Xu for your auspicious words." Xiang Kang laughed loudly, shook Xu negative's little hand a few times, and praised in his heart: "It's really soft, and the skin is tender enough, not worse than my wives. .”

(End of this chapter)