Si Mang entered the Ni Brigade after the meal and explained his plan to rest in Tangcheng for a few days. He also said that he had not communicated with Daliang since he entered Shangdang. Now that the Wei army's situation has improved and he is unable to protect himself, he has overcome the crisis. Someone should be sent to Daliang to inform Lord Xinling and request the next step. Finally, Si Mang said: "The soldiers in the camp all trust the people of Lingyi. They don't know the roads, rarely go to Daliang, and don't know Mr. Wei's house. I dare you to ask Sir to work hard and go to Daliang in person!"
There was a little silence during the dinner. Later, Mr. Jin said on behalf of everyone: "We, the humble concubines, accept the command of the captain. However, there may be some gentlemen who are weak and have difficulty in walking. When I was young, I allowed my minister to recommend three or five sons, who will definitely achieve this feat!"
Si Mang said: "With your help, sir, everything will be done! Sir, I would like to go to Daliang for a while!"
Mr. Jin said: "I will take orders from the general!"
Having settled the matter, Si Mang took his leave and was sent away by everyone. Then he closed the door. Several people had already been crouching in all directions to guard against eavesdropping. Others sat in front of the steps and formed a circle, surrounding Mr. Jin and Mr. Cao. Mr. Jin said: "I believe that I should do my best to repay you. Since I joined the Shangdang, I have exchanged secret letters with you, but I have not gotten Si Mang's intention. Now that I have an order, I cannot disobey it."
One of the retainers said: "We should report it secretly to you first, and then make a decision."
Mr. Jin said: "On the one hand, I will report the secret, and on the other hand, I will listen to the order and wait to return."
A guest said: "Your Majesty may not have promised to return."
Mr. Jin said: "There are three or five people who report secretly and return home, but no one listens."
Mr. Cao said: "The envoys sent during the reign of the Duan clan have not returned yet. Some people say that the Qin people were defeated by Zhao and Hu Yang died. If this is true, our Wei Dynasty should also change!"
Mr. Jin said: "I heard it from hearsay, but it is not true. Now that the captain has a destiny, he is Angelica, and it may be true."
Mr. Cao said: "The Qin army was defeated ten days ago. Now we have sent five troops back, but they have not received your order. Why?"
Mr. Jin said: "I don't want the Wei army to know about it."
After a secret discussion, the disciples recommended five people to return to the country to report - in fact, they were the disciples who had come to Daliang to report military information in the past, but this time they were officially Si Mang's envoys. Si Mang met with these five disciples and explained to them in detail what needed to be reported. Those retainers who had been in contact with each other for a long time were responsible for intelligence circulation tasks and had good memories. They immediately repeated what Si Mang wanted to report. Si Mang said it was correct and paid the travel expenses, festival symbols and other items. The five people returned to the reverse journey, changed their clothes, packed the necessary items, and set off immediately.
When all the former troops of Hu Yang and Wang Lu rushed out of the valley, Hu Yang found that there was smoke everywhere inside and outside Handan City, drums were beating, and groups of townspeople had formed up in their respective villages. Under the leadership of the village and town elders, they marched towards Set out everywhere. Gongzi Zhen pointed to a road leading to the south at the foot of the mountain and said, "This road leads directly to the Great Wall."
The road that leads directly to the Great Wall lies in front of you, but if you want to set foot on this road, you must first go down the mountain. After going down the mountain, you will inevitably come into contact with the defenders of the cities around Handan. Although the walls of these cities are short and thin, they are victorious everywhere. There is no real meaning in conquering one. You must attack continuously to open a passage.
Now that the matter was at this point, there was no time to think too much. Hu Yang and Wang Hao discussed it and asked Wang Hao to lead 2,000 people to attack the nearest city. Wang Hao rushed down the mountain with a drum sound from the front.
The city at the foot of the mountain facing the mountain road seemed to have expected this, and all the strong men retreated into the city to defend themselves. After Wang Lu came down from the mountain, he drove his troops closer to the city, but did not attack the city. He only ordered the troops to set fire to the houses near the city. The old and weak in the house were driven out, lined up hand in hand in front of the Qin army, and marched towards the city driven by the Qin army. The Qin army followed up about fifty steps away.
As the buildings were set on fire, the old and the weak were driven out everywhere, and groups of Qin soldiers followed the old and the weak, and the defenders on the city became nervous.
Under the cover of fire and smoke, Hu Yang's troops completed their assembly and descended the mountain, bypassing this city and rushing towards the next city. The civilian army in that city saw the fire here and the Qin army was in a hurry to attack, so they sent a small team out to rescue, and they encountered Hu Yang's troops. After a shower of arrows, the Qin army rushed forward. The civilian army of more than a hundred people was caught off guard and retreated in a hurry. The Qin army followed closely behind and took advantage of the situation to rush into the city. Hundreds of civilian troops in the city resisted desperately, but they could not withstand the Qin army's continuous incoming troops. They were so numerous that arrows rained down like rain. They lost the cover of the city and had to retreat to each courtyard. Hu Yang ordered the army not to attack, but set fire to all parts of the city. The rest of the troops marched around the city, still setting fire to houses along the way. When Wang Hao saw that Hu Yang had captured the city, he raised gold and retreated his troops, leading his soldiers to rush to the next city.
In this way, the two armies advanced alternately, not seriously attacking the city, but only wreaking havoc outside the city. If the defenders went out to fight, they would either fight back or take advantage of the situation to seize the city, killing Zhao Jun in fear. Half a day later, the Qin army had all descended from the mountain and embarked on the road south. At this time, Handan City also sent 30,000 people to attack the Qin army.
Hu Yang got rid of the shackles of the city on the outskirts of Handan and reorganized his troops three miles away from the city. They fought all the way out without fighting hard, and only a few people were slightly injured; and in order to rush on as quickly as possible, no heads were taken along the way. Hu Yang was very satisfied with the result of this battle: it severely shocked the Zhao people but did not cause huge casualties. At the beginning, I had thought about the two armies going straight to the Great Wall through the Fu River. Although it would be helpful to escape, the attack on Wu'an became a meaningless move. If he had been huddled in Wu'an and fled Wu'an immediately after Zhao Jun left, it would have been better to retreat directly with Wang Ling. The reason for invading the outskirts of Handan was to teach Zhao a lesson! Now this goal has been initially achieved.
Hu Yang looked at the tall Handan Tower and could still feel its majesty even from twenty miles away. The clouds of dust above the city tower indicated that a large number of troops were being mobilized. Since he has now entered the plains, Hu Yang cannot know the size of this force, but his strength is almost completely exposed to the opponent's sight, and the opponent will definitely send a force far exceeding his own strength. Hu Yang felt a little excited: If he could drag this huge Zhao army for a few days, making him unable to fight and unable to escape, it would definitely cause huge damage to the morale of the Zhao army. He looked at the dust on the tower, estimated the opponent's strength and his own, and planned further actions.
After a while, Wang Lu came over and said: "The army has been organized, ready to start!"
Hu Yang said: "You lead the front troops to the Great Wall first and tell Doctor Sima to prepare for battle. If Zhao Jun or Wei Wu come, they will be killed in a sudden attack, and then they can cross Zhang."
Wang Hao looked at the dust in the sky above the Handan city tower and said: "There are probably 30,000 to 50,000 people. It may be difficult to kill them all at once."
Hu Yang said: "The Great Wall is not a wilderness. Tens of thousands of troops have no place to arrange their formations, but they have thousands of strong soldiers to attack it."
Wang Lu thought for a while and said: "I would like to lead the advance army to lead the army to attack the enemy. I would like to lure the enemy to the Great Wall."
Hu Yang said: "I am not as good as you in arranging the troops. Please discuss this with Dr. Sima. Don't make any mistakes!"
Wang Lu said: "Zhao's army is tens of thousands, and I only have a few thousand. How can I defeat them? I hope that Zhong Geng will go first, and Zhao's army and ministers will be able to cope with it."
Hu Yang said: "According to the situation, you are not as good as me. Although there are many enemies, why don't we fight? The doctor cannot slow down, otherwise the opportunity will be lost." Wang Hao had no choice but to leave with polite words. Hu Yang asked Prince Zhen and his entourage to follow Wang Lu. When Gongzi Zhen wanted to resign, Hu Yang said: "You must get the master, and you will get the land of soldiers and cavalry." Gongzi Zhen and others followed Wang Zhen and left.
Hu Yang is in a grassland. The withered grass is yellow, with a little fresh green in between. Hu Yang asked the soldiers to cut down the dead grass and retreat slowly. So slowly exiting Rich. The figure of Handan Zhao Jun can already be seen at Yikou in front. Hu Yang ordered the troops to light torches and throw them into the haystacks. Instantly the flames shot into the sky. Hu Yang ordered a public official to lead a thousand men to retreat ten miles and set up a formation, preparing to intercept the enemy. At the same time, he tried to bring up as much dust as possible to make it look like there were many people. The official ordered each of the thousand people to drag a branch and move forward quickly. When Hu Yang looked at the sky, he saw that there were indeed tens of thousands of them.
The remaining one thousand people were still mowing the grass and retreating. But due to the strong north wind in winter, the fire soon burned not far from the Qin army. Hu Yang then led his troops to turn around and retreat.
Although there is no straw mat in the north, there is still a lot of dead grass. The fire is not as strong, but the smoke is bigger, filling the air and lingering for a long time. Zhao Jun followed Huo and advanced slowly; the road was smoky and smoky, his eyes were red, and he couldn't help but shed tears. The fire was still burning in front, and the sky was getting dark. Suddenly, the bowstrings sounded in the grass thirty steps away, and a row of crossbow arrows roared out. The soldiers in front fell down. When Zhao Jun looked over there, another row of crossbow arrows flew towards him. This time I was prepared and the damage was less. A hundred-man general led his men to rush towards him. Fifty soldiers jumped out of the grass, ran away, and soon disappeared into the smoke. The hundred-man general did not dare to pursue him, so he had to come back.
Suffering from this setback, Zhao Jun's actions became even slower. And the fire finally burned to the end, leaving only a few small flames. Looking from a distance, Hu Yang's troops were still slowly retreating three to five miles ahead. Zhao Jun wanted to catch up, but it was very inconvenient to move in the ashes, and the slightest movement would send up smoke all over the sky. After finally getting out of the fire-burned grassland and entering the normal wilderness, it was already dark. Zhao Jun set up his camp beside the pile of ashes and prepared to rest. Looking from a distance, there were dots of fire ahead, and the Qin people seemed to have set up camp.
Zhao Jun sent out warnings in the direction of Qin's camp, dug pits and set up stoves to cook food and porridge. The temperature was extremely low at night, and the soldiers gathered around the campfire, hunched their necks, and took a nap with their sleeves rolled up, and their weapons were placed next to them.
It is very dangerous to set up a camp on dry grassland. If you are not careful, the sparks from the campfire may ignite the surrounding dry grass and cause a small fire. Several people were severely punished for this with more than a dozen blows from the military stick, holding their buttocks and groaning.
The firelight flickered little by little among the crowd, warming the bodies of those around them. Drowsiness hit, and many people staggered into sleep.
