Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 456 Forced betrayal

If it weren't for the soldiers of the Han army who sacrificed their lives to rescue them with limited ships, then Zang Yan, the son of King Yan Zang Tu, would definitely have to break the record and become the highest-ranking general killed by the Han army since the start of the Chu-Han War.

However, even so, after Zang Yan was rescued back to the north bank of Jishui in a small boat by the soldiers of the Han army, more than a dozen wounds of varying severity and depth were found on his body, and he passed out just after being carried in front of Uncle Zhou. When he came back, even the military doctors of the Han army and the Yan army couldn't guarantee it.

Even if Zang Yan himself is like this, let alone the army of the Yan State, because the Jishui River, which is in the flood season, blocked it, and among the more than ten thousand soldiers of the Yan Army who crossed the river overnight, less than a thousand people fled back to Jishui from various river sections. On the north bank of the water, most of the remaining soldiers were killed, more than [-] soldiers were captured, and all the rest were lost and scattered, almost the entire army was wiped out.

Ling Jing's headquarters of the Han Army was also severely damaged. Nearly 5000 people were killed, missing, and captured. Kyung himself was wounded in the battle.The fast-flowing Jishui River was densely packed with corpses of soldiers from the Han and Yan armies.

Faced with such an unprecedented fiasco, the generals of the Han army were of course solemn and silent, and their morale was frustrated. The civil and military officials at the decision-making level of the Han army were all heartbroken, turning their heads and couldn't bear to look at the river and Jishui. In the tragic scene on the South Bank, Uncle Zhou, who was caught in the trap by accident, had tears in his eyes, his hands were clenched white, and his heart was so regretful that he couldn't describe it.

After confirming that there were no surviving soldiers from the Han and Yan armies on the south bank of Jishui, Li Shiqi, who had witnessed the disastrous defeat from the beginning to the end, struggled to get out of the carriage and walked to Uncle Zhou with a gentle tone. He said: "General Zhou, victory or defeat is a common matter for military strategists. Although our army suffered a disastrous defeat in this battle, our overall strength has not been affected, so we don't need to worry about it. We will cross the river when Qi State sends enough ferries. It's not too late to take revenge."

Uncle Zhou nodded, and said with a strong spirit: "I am responsible for this battle. I was careless for a while and fell into the tricks of the bandits, which led to the current consequences. Pass on the order so that our wounded soldiers can be treated. Tell our soldiers clearly, and say that I will take the initiative to report to the king, and ask the king to send an order to deal with it."

"General Zhou, there's no need for that, right?" Li Shiqi forced a smile and said, "Didn't the old man just say that winning or losing is nothing but a common thing in military affairs, and it's normal to suffer a loss occasionally. Why do you blame yourself so much, General?"

"If I don't do this, I will have no face to meet the families of these fallen soldiers." Uncle Zhou sighed a long time and said, "Let's withdraw troops, and go back to the camp to discuss how to avenge the Chu Ji bandit army."

After the order was conveyed, the dejected soldiers of the Han army began to retreat in line. Li Shiqi, Zhou Shu and others also drove back to the camp expressionlessly. The cheering crowd of the Chu Army Allied Forces.Then, as if they were connected with each other, a middle-ranking general of the Western Chu Army rode out more and trotted to the bank of Jishui River and looked at Uncle Zhou across the river. When he was in the Young Marshal Army, he had very few meetings with Han Xin, but Uncle Zhou still guessed that that person was probably Han Xin whom Xiang Kang had repeatedly asked him to deal with carefully.

"That's right, you're really good, but don't get too excited, our battle has just begun." After saying this to the man, Uncle Zhou turned his horse and rode towards the camp of his own army. His expression gradually returned to his usual resolute and calm appearance.

"Send people to contact Qi State and ask them to send more troops to escort the fleet to Licheng to help in the battle, so as to prevent the Chuji bandits from sending out their fleet and intercept their fleet." This was the order issued by Uncle Zhou on the way back to the camp.

Correspondingly, after watching Uncle Zhou leave across the river, Han Xin returned to Xiang Zhuang, and the first sentence he said was this: "Zuo Sima, next we must immediately select skilled sailors, form a temporary navy, and send more people. Monitor the lower reaches of the Jishui River, and if you find that the bandit army of Qi State is sending a fleet to the Han bandits, you must stop it with all your strength, and you must not allow the bandit army of Qi State to successfully send enough ferry boats to the Han bandits."

Let's look at the situation on the side of the Han army. After returning to the camp, Li Shiqi, an important official of the Han army, insisted on coming to the central army's tent to meet with Uncle Zhou despite his unhealed illness. He said to Uncle Zhou: "General Zhou , although our troops are sufficient, in order to ensure victory and reduce the pressure on us to cross the river, we'd better urge Qi Wang Tianjia to send the main force of Qi to march westward from Chidao as soon as possible to attack the Chuji bandit army. flank, and also take our troops across the river."

"That's exactly what I mean." Uncle Zhou replied, "But I'm very worried about Tian Heng right now. We want Qi to dispatch the main force to help us. Tian Jia will definitely ask us to transfer Tian Heng from Qi." Well, that idiot was originally forced to raise troops by our tricks, and now we want to force him to give up the city and land he has already obtained, and leave Qi to accept our reorganization. On the one hand, the bandit army of Western Chu, in turn, temporarily restrained the army of Qi State on behalf of the bandit army of Western Chu."

"Don't worry, general, I have a plan. I can guarantee that Tian Heng will obediently obey his orders." Li Shiqi, a supporter of the enfeoffment system, offered his advice: "We only need to promise Tian Heng and seal him as Jinbei after we defeat Tian Da. King, he will definitely go west from Qi State immediately, and then he will fight to the death with the Chu Ji bandit army for the throne, and the Qi State army can also rest assured and help us defeat the enemy with all our strength."

Fortunately, Zhou Shu and Cui Guang, the old men from Shangshan next to them, are not only opponents of the enfeoffment system, but also have a more long-term political vision, and immediately said: "General Zhou, you must not act like this. Doctor Li, don't blame the old man, let's refute You, let’s not say that our king has always disliked enfeoffment and wanted to follow the example of the first emperor to unify the world. Even if we can temporarily make a grievance and make peace with Tian Hengpifu as the king of Jibei first, I’m afraid it will be difficult for Tian Hengpifu to do it for us. Use it."

"Why?" Li Shiqi asked in surprise, "We gave him the throne for nothing, and he doesn't think it's enough?"

"It will definitely not be enough." Zhou Shu replied very directly, and said, "Because the mere land of Jinbei County is absolutely impossible to satisfy Tian Heng's appetite, all the old land of Qi State is what Tian Heng wants. The goal to win."

"The State of Qi was originally recreated in the hands of Tian Heng's elder brother, Tian Dan. After Tian Dan's death, he was controlled by Tian Rong and Tian Heng brothers. Later, Xiang Yu was divided into three parts. The Tian Rong brothers would rather fight Xiang Yu to the end than obey their orders. This has proved that This point." Cui Guang also said: "Besides, in order to win over Tian Heng, the Western Chu bandit army will definitely agree without hesitation to make Tian Heng or Tian Guang king of Qi and send troops to help them restore their country. So we Promised to make Tian Hengpifu King of Jibei, he may not be determined to use us for us, maybe he might defect when the two armies are fighting, and help the Chuji bandit army suddenly stab us in the back. "

Recalling the past of Tian Rong and Tian Heng brothers' tenacious resistance to the Western Chu army for the land of Qi State, Li Shiqi certainly did not dare to deny this possibility. Uncle Zhou also nodded and said: "What Mr. Luli and Xia Huanggong said is very true. Tian Heng is too ambitious, and he must be resenting us for sacrificing his interests to please Tian Jia. Even if we are really forced to join the battle at the front line, it may become a hidden danger for us, so in comparison, don't let him It would be better for him to come to Licheng to join the battle."

After agreeing with Zhou Shu and Cui Guang, Uncle Zhou frowned and said: "But this matter is still a bit difficult to handle. We promised Tian Jia that as long as he surrenders to our Han army, we will immediately order Tian Heng to lead the army." Leaving Qi State, now we not only failed to fulfill our promise, but also asked Tian Jia to send troops and ships to help us, Tian Jia might not agree to it?"

"General Zhou, if you can make up your mind, then this old man has a solution once and for all." Cui Guang said darkly: "If you want, you can deliberately not give Tian Hengpifu any reward, and directly order to force him to leave. Qi Di came to Licheng to join the war, so Tian Heng will definitely refuse to obey, and there is a very high possibility that he will directly rebel, and then we can justifiably declare him a rebel and help Tian Jia kill him directly."

"Of course, there is a drawback to doing this." Cui Guang hurriedly added: "Once Tian Hengpifu is really forced, Tian Jia will definitely not be able to mobilize all the main forces to help us. Fortunately, the impact is not very big. Big, there are at least [-] troops in the mainland of Qi, even if half of the troops are left to deal with Tian Hengpifu, the remaining half of the troops can still go west to reinforce us."

At the beginning, in order to alleviate the resistance of the self-armed army to cross the Yellow River, they tried every means to force Tian Heng to rebel in Qidi immediately. Now that Tian Heng gradually loses his use value and is in danger of becoming a hidden danger, he wants to deliberately force him to rebel and give himself an excuse Kill him directly to eliminate hidden dangers. If such a shameless thing is placed on Xiang Kang or Liu Laosan, there will definitely be no problem, but if it is placed on the kinder Uncle Zhou, Uncle Zhou will inevitably feel a little embarrassed And can't bear it anymore.

Fortunately, after being an accomplice to Xiang Kang, Uncle Zhou learned a lot, that is, he has a thick skin and a dark heart, so after thinking about it for a while, Uncle Zhou nodded and said, "Well, anyway, Tian Heng is unrighteous, and dared to threaten us in order to become the king of Qi, so let's do this, just give him an order, forcing him to immediately lead the army westward along Chidao, and come to the front line of Licheng to help us. Also, I would like to say hello to Tian Jia and tell him to get ready, if Tian Heng resists the order or even openly opposes it, he will allow Tian Jia to send troops to fight against this rebellion for us."

"Don't worry, General Zhou, Tian Jia will never refuse your request." Cui Guang stroked his snow-white beard and said with a sinister smile, "Tian Heng rebelled in Chengyang, and Tian Jia must have chewed him alive. , we allow him to attack Tian Hengpifu, and he can definitely make his mouth crooked."

Uncle Zhou smiled bitterly, and once again understood Xiang Kang's painstaking efforts to send Zhou Shu and Cui Guang, two old men from Shangshan, as his accomplices.Although Li Shiqi next to him did not object to Uncle Zhou's adoption of the shameless trick of the two Shangshan old men, he raised a new possibility and said: "What if Tian Heng swallowed his anger on purpose and really came to the Licheng battlefield?" ? At that time, with his gnashing of teeth and hatred for us, it is more likely that he will suddenly rebel against us?"

There is no need for Zhou Shu and Cui Guang to answer this question. Uncle Zhou himself answered: "Let Tian Hengpifu stand alone in the front, and the Qi army set up the camp behind. Give the Qi army a good greeting in advance, and be careful to guard against them." If there is any change in him, we will join forces with the army of Qi to kill him. If he is really obedient and obedient, after the Chuji bandit army on the Licheng battlefield is wiped out, his army will be broken up and reorganized, and the king will seal him up. That's it for Hou."

"That's all we have to do." Li Shiqi nodded, and said, "Let him run the south bank of Jishui alone. Even if he has a different intention, he will not be able to threaten the safety of our main force. As long as our main force is safe, we don't have to worry about it." There will be too much danger from the national army."

In this way, after repeatedly weighing the overall pros and cons of the Qi battlefield, for the sake of tactical safety, Uncle Zhou quickly wrote a book himself, explaining his plan to his more important ally Qi Wang Tianjia, and asked Tian As soon as possible, I sent myself a fleet of ships to help me launch a rush to cross the river, and I also asked Tianjia to dispatch half of Qi's army westward to meet my own army to cross the river, leaving half to guard against Tian Heng, who might be unreliable.At the same time, he directly ordered Tian Heng, who had basically lost his use value, to ask Tian Heng to immediately lead his troops west out of Qi State to help the self-armed army on the front line of Licheng without making any promises.

Because the land connection has been dredged, the messenger sent by Uncle Zhou detoured to Di County and sent his letter to Linzi within a few days. The traitor left Qi immediately, and allowed himself to leave half of the army to guard against Tian Heng's further rebellion. Tian Jia was really overjoyed, and immediately agreed to all the requests made by Uncle Zhou, except to step up the organization of the fleet and prepare to send troops to the west , and couldn't wait to arrange a light car escort to escort Uncle Zhou's messenger to Jiaodong, to contact Tian Heng who was entrenched in the Chengyang area.

The Han army messenger sent by Uncle Zhou to contact Tian Heng certainly knew how dangerous his trip was, and he had to prepare early on to kneel down to Tian Heng and beg for mercy when the situation was wrong. However, what surprised the Han army messenger was After repeatedly reading Uncle Zhou's order carefully, although Tian Heng's face was obviously full of anger, he unexpectedly suppressed his anger in the end. Please go down and be polite.

What surprised the messenger of the Han army was still behind. On the second day, Tian Heng told him face to face that he would follow the order, and that he was already preparing to lead the army to retreat, and that he would lead the army to retreat within three or two days. The more than 6000 troops of the Chinese army marched westward along the Chidao, left Qi State and went to Licheng to participate in the war. He asked the messenger of the Han army to return to Linzi immediately, and asked Tian Jia to order the Qi State army to give way to his own army.The envoy of the Han army was overjoyed when he heard that, and quickly thanked Tian Heng repeatedly, and then immediately returned to Linzi from Chidao to report to Tian Jia.

After the messenger of the Han army brought Tian Heng's reply back to Linzi, Tian Jia was of course overjoyed, and immediately went to Ling Qi's eastern front battlefield, and asked the Qi army there to allow Tian Heng's army to withdraw from Qi from Chidao. Be prepared to take over the land and city abandoned by Tian Heng—of course, for safety reasons, Tian Jia naturally arranged [-] troops to follow and monitor Tian Heng's army leaving the country.

At this time, the main force of the Qi army, who had already started preparing for the westward expedition long before Mr. Uncle Sun arrived in Linzi, had also completed preparations for the expedition. In addition, the ships and sailors recruited in Di County and Bochang had also been assembled. Uncle Sun, who was in charge of the liaison work between the Han army and the Qi army in Linzi, asked Tian Jia to let the fleet and the army set off immediately in order to share the pressure on Uncle Zhou as soon as possible, and rushed to Licheng first to help the Han army.

Because Tian Heng's rebel army has not left Qi State, Tian Jia is of course somewhat hesitant on this matter, but to Mr. Shusun's surprise, there are several Tian family members in the Qi State court. He helped and persuaded Tianjia to send troops as soon as possible to prove his sincerity in subjugating the Han. He also pointed out that if the Han army's flattery is comfortable, maybe the Han army will return Jibei County, which originally belonged to Qi, after taking Jibei. Give field leave.Tian Jia, on the one hand, was full of sincerity in Jiang Han, and on the other hand, he really wanted to praise Uncle Zhou and Xiang Kang behind Uncle Zhou, so he also nodded and agreed to Mr. The army and the fleet of Qi State set off westward.

Then, after another few days, Uncle Zhou knew that Tian Heng had really obeyed his orders unconditionally. Aside from being surprised and worried, Uncle Zhou sent troops west to meet the army and fleet of Qi State. Two more orders were sent to the Qi army. One was to let the fleet sent by the Qi army sail as close to the north bank as possible, and the other was to ask the general of the Qi army, Tian Si, who was in charge of the Qi army, to be careful to guard against the coming Tian Heng army. In the event of an accident, the priority is to stick to the camp. As long as Tian Heng's sudden attack is survived, the Han army will immediately squeeze out Tian Heng's egg yolk and feed it to the flies!

As expected, it was Han Xin, who had just received a report from the scouts, saying that the Han army had dispatched troops to move eastward from the north bank of Jishui. The temporary navy fleet of the Chuji Army formed by the remaining soldiers of the Pingyuan Navy left the port on the same day and rushed downstream at full speed to block the Qi fleet.At the same time, [-] troops were resolutely divided, and they rushed westward to set up camp on Chidao, fifty miles away, to prevent the Qi army from approaching the Licheng battlefield.

It is also thanks to Uncle Zhou who also took precautions and told the Qi State to send troops to escort the fleet early on. The Chuji coalition fleet did not complete the blocking task. However, after regaining consciousness, the fleet of Qi State immediately assembled on the north bank, using the soldiers who sailed westward to fight hard, and tried their best to protect the precious ships that were crucial to the Han army. Reinforcements from the Han army arrived.

In the end, among the more than [-] large and small ships sent by the Qi State to the Han Army, more than [-] of them successfully arrived at the Licheng battlefield, providing enough ships for the Han Army to rush across. Uncle Zhou was overjoyed when he saw this, In addition to rewarding the sailors of the Qi army and the soldiers who escorted the fleet, they said excitedly: "Okay, when the weather improves a little and the water level of Jishui drops a little, we can launch a rush to cross. As long as our troops pass He, you don’t have to worry about anything.”

"General Zhou, please be cautious." Li Shiqi warned worriedly: "No matter whether Tian Heng arrives before us or later, after we cross the river, we'd better find an excuse to move Tian Heng's army far away. , so as to prevent accidents.”

When Uncle Zhou nodded, Zhou Shu, who had been planning to deduce the situation of the battle, suddenly had a heart move and hurriedly opened his mouth to speak. Unexpectedly, another old man from Shangshan, Cui Guang, suddenly pulled him away and pulled him away slightly. Whispering in his ear, he asked in a low voice: "Mr. Luli, do you want to remind General Zhou to guard against...?"

After Cui Guangfei finished speaking quickly, Zhou Shu was extremely surprised, and hurriedly asked in a low voice: "Duke Xia Huang, since you have already considered this point, why didn't you remind General Zhou?"

"Why do you want to remind?" Cui Guang smiled ferociously, and said in a low voice: "The fleet has already been obtained, and the [-] Qi army will soon arrive at the Licheng battlefield. Why do we need to remind so many things? ? Let that idiot succeed, wouldn't the future situation be more beneficial to us?"

Zhou Shu raised his long snow-white eyebrows, and secretly gave Cui Guang a thumbs up.

(End of this chapter)