Lord Pingyuan secretly reported to Lianpo the shortage of grain in Handan and told him that he must save grain. Before the Qin army is defeated, there will be no more food supply. Lian Po then secretly ordered to adjust the food supply standards: except for troops with combat missions who were provided with one and a half dou of grain a day, the rest of the troops were only provided with one dou of grain a day, six liters a day for young migrant workers, four liters a day for the elderly and women, and two liters a day for children.
Since the people who were most affected were the people of Changping, Lian Po's order had an impact on the morale of the combat troops, but it was not significant.
There is only one mountain pass to go up the mountain from Changping or down the mountain to Changping, which is a natural defense point. Lian Po had already sent 5,000 troops to garrison here, commanded by Pianbi Zhao Qie. Zhao Qie used a thousand men to build defenses along the mountain road to block the attack at all levels. He led four thousand men to build three cities outside the mountain pass, several miles apart, which could support each other and completely block the mountain pass. Lian Po also expressed satisfaction with this defense plan.
Wang Lu spent two months clearing out Zhao Qie's defenses on the mountain road one by one. Zhao Qie only sent out troops to harass them in a symbolic way. The grassroots soldiers of the Zhao Army exerted great initiative and resisted step by step with both strength and flexibility.
The majority of the soldiers Wang Lu brought from Anyi were 40,000 from Bashu, and they could not be arranged at all on the narrow mountain road. Wang Lu adopted the strategy of rotating battles, sending a thousand men forward to fight every day, and then withdrawing after one day of fighting; another thousand men would come forward tomorrow. The last 20,000 people had no fighting for 20 days, so 10,000 people were sent to Yicheng in the rear to transport grain and grass to Duanshi for storage. Bai Qi is now mainly organizing the production and transportation of grain, mainly fried millet. They know that the key to conquering Shangdang lies in food; and if the output of Hedong and Guanzhong is to be consumed by the output of Handan, it will not work without taking some special measures.
Their main strategy is to brag a lot about their military strength, thereby inducing the opponent to concentrate a strong force, while they actually use their troops sparingly; the second is to use food sparingly. Field combat troops can eat fried millet freely. Soldiers who camped in the city could only drink millet porridge at a daily quota of three liters. Even if these grains are not military rations but come from the people of the city, they are not allowed to exceed the limit. In order to strictly enforce this, Wang Lu even ordered that if the food supply exceeds the standard, the gang leader and the people of the town will be beheaded, and all the soldiers in the gang will be flogged a hundred times; those who report will be rewarded. And Wang Hao actually killed and beat him.
After two months, Wang Hao trained his troops in rotation and went to the mountain pass, preparing to attack Zhao Qie's main position.
During these two months, Zhao Qie reported Qin's attacks and his own defense to Lian Po every day. He commented that the Qin army was not as heroic and skillful as the legend; although he lost a thousand men, the Qin army suffered even greater losses. Lian Po praised him for holding the Qin army in the mountains for two months at the cost of only more than a thousand men, which created a good start for completely repelling the Qin army.
Encouraged, Zhao Qie was determined to take advantage of the Qin army's unstable foothold to create chaos for the Qin army and slow down the Qin army's attack. He quietly gathered five hundred elite men and equipped them with his trusted generals. A few days later, the leading troops of the Qin army appeared at the mountain pass. The mountain pass is only five miles away from the city. The Qin army moved forward in battle formation very cautiously, as if looking for a place to camp. With the sound of a drum, the city gate opened wide, and Zhao Qie led five hundred Zhao troops to roar out and rush towards the Qin army. When the Qin army saw the Zhao army attacking, they also stopped and reorganized their formation. When they were a hundred steps away from the Zhao army, they fired three arrows. Then they rushed towards the Zhao army with loud drum beats.
At this moment, drums were beating loudly on both sides of the city. Two captains each led 500 men and rushed out. Together with Zhao Qie, they formed a three-sided pincer attack on the Qin army. This situation seemed to surprise the Qin army. A bell rang in the Qin army's position. The Qin army, which was charging forward, hurriedly stopped and retreated. Zhao Qie ordered the Zhao army to speed up and rush towards the Qin army. The Qin army's formation was in chaos during the retreat, and they turned around and ran after a few dozen steps. Zhao Qie was overjoyed. This was the opportunity he was waiting for. He ordered a charge. Zhao Jun changed from brisk walking to running, and quickly rushed towards the Qin army. The formation also began to scatter.
Suddenly the drums behind him turned into bells. Zhao Qie's sight was blocked by the soldiers in front. He didn't know what was happening in front, but he knew that the situation had changed. He subconsciously stopped and ordered the soldiers to gather towards him. Finally, he saw countless Qin troops rushing out from the mountain pass. They formed a formation while marching and quickly rushed towards him. While Zhao Qie ordered to form a circular formation, he looked back and saw that the troops from the other two cities had already been ordered to retreat into the city. Zhao Qie looked at the distance between himself and the city, and then looked at the Qin army rushing over. He estimated that he would not be able to escape back to the city. He is determined to fight to the death!
One hundred shield soldiers are outside, one hundred archers are protected by shields behind the shield soldiers, and behind the archers are one hundred spearmen and two hundred halberdiers. When the Qin army surrounded them, the archers quickly shot out the arrows in their hands. At the same time, the Qin army also shot more arrows. The rain of arrows fell on the shields of the shield soldiers on both sides, making a crackling sound. The weaker shield soldier. After a shower of arrows, the Qin army launched a charge. Spearmen and halberdiers rushed up quickly without the cover of shields. Zhao Jun fired arrows at them desperately. Since the Zhao army only had a hundred archers and was suppressed by the Qin army's arrow rain, the damage to the Qin army was very small. The arrows were only sparsely scattered in the middle of the Qin army's position. The distance of a hundred steps was shortened by half in just a few breaths, and Zhao Jun was only able to shoot three arrows. Zhao Qie knew that he could not wait any longer, so he raised his halberd and shouted loudly: "Kill!"
Zhao Jun, who was lying under the shield, straightened up and moved forward firmly behind the shield. Then he was like a rock that was quickly submerged by the huge waves. Loud shouts of death and the clash of weapons came from the reef, followed by screams and curses. After only a short time, all the sounds disappeared.
The three city gates have been closed, and people leaving the city gathered in front of the city gates, nervously waiting for the inevitable result that they really want to avoid!
No one escaped, and all 500 Zhao troops were apparently wiped out. All the cities were nervously counting how many corpses or wounded the Qin army would drag out from the position. ——They actually counted more than 600 people! Of course, they also saw a tragic scene: the Qin people cut off Zhao Jun’s head. No Zhao army survived, including General Pi Zhao Qie!
The battle ahead did not stop the Qin army from coming out of the mountains. There were still a large number of Qin troops coming out of the mountains one after another. They avoided the battlefield and rushed along the foot of the mountain to the bank of Danshui. Because there were so many of them, the people in the city naturally did not dare to go out of the city to stop the attack, and they could not reach them with their bows and crossbows. They could only watch helplessly as the Qin army bypassed three cities and appeared at the mouth of the valley.
The three cities located at the exit of the mountain were surrounded by the Qin army in this valley, and their connection with the base camp on the other side of Danshui was cut off.
Before the Qin army's camp could be closed, all three cities quickly sent envoys across the river to report to Lian Po.
The biggest problem in these three cities is food.
Unlike the military camp on the east bank of Danshui, which went to the granary every day to get food, Zhao Qie's army had to get ten days' rations at a time due to the long distance; and they were counted as combat troops, with five thousand people and seven thousand five hundred stones for ten days. These grains are stored in the middle city where Zhao Qie is located, and other troops still go to get the day's rations every day. When the city was forced to close, it was almost impossible to get food every day. At least the two nearby cities were immediately faced with a shortage of food, and the city with a granary in the middle could not last more than a few days. The defenders suggested that Lian Po immediately lead his troops across the river, attack from inside and outside, and connect the soldiers from the three cities across the river.
Among the nine military envoys from the three cities, one was captured by the Qin army. After interrogation, the military envoy confessed what he would deliver to the other side. Wang Lu was overjoyed and immediately mobilized his army and surrounded the three cities with 10,000 people. Twenty thousand people were fortified along the valley entrance, one facing inward and the other facing outward. Another 10,000 people were hiding in the mountains, preparing to deliver a fatal blow.
That night, both sides were arranging their troops and preparing for a life-and-death battle.
What surprised Zhao Jun in the city was that from morning to night, no grain carts from the Qin army were seen passing by. There were some carriages passing by, but it could be seen that they were loaded with various farm tools, antlers, branches and other items, but no food.
The sound of fortification in the direction of Qin camp rang all night. But no military envoy came across the river.
The Qin army's movements in Shaoshui did not attract much attention from Lian Po. His focus has always been on the direction of Gaodu. Geographically speaking, Changping is actually an extension of Gaodu, and all Lian Po's preparations are aimed at invading Gaodu. The Gaodu Plain is larger, can accommodate more troops, and can sustain operations for a longer period of time. Therefore, he only placed five thousand soldiers at the Shaoshui mountain pass in the west, giving Zhao Qie great autonomy. But in the south, the mountains stretched out three huge foothills towards the Danshui River. Lianpo relied on these three foothills and built three defense lines along the mountains and rivers. The troops on these defense lines were uniformly dispatched by him, and they were the focus of Changping's defense. In order to protect Shangdang's safety even if all three lines of defense were lost, Lian Po built a nearly continuous Great Wall on the main mountain at the foot of these three mountains, which was hundreds of miles long. If the war goes unfavorably, the Zhao army can retreat to the mountains and use the high mountains and preset positions to prevent the Qin army from entering Shangdang, especially to defend the road to Handan!
However, the Qin army did not attack from the direction of Gaodu according to Lian Po's plan, but went east from the direction of Shaoshui. At the beginning, the Qin army made slow progress on the Duanshi-Changping line. Lian Po believed that this was a partial division performing a containment mission. Moreover, it was difficult to mobilize troops and provide logistical supplies from the west, so it would not pose a major threat to Changping. . But after the Qin army came down from the mountain, they immediately blocked the entrance of the valley and began to build fortifications for defense. This made Lian Po feel a little uneasy: Could it be that the troops coming out from the east were just a vanguard, and the larger troops would enter Changping from here? If this is the case, wouldn't our three lines of defense facing the south become flanking enemy forces? At that time, only the barriers along the Danshui River can withstand one or two!
