Under the cover of shields, the Qin army approached Zhao Jun step by step, and extended its wings to both sides, all the way to the mountains and rivers. At the same time, the second echelon of the Qin army also entered the valley and came for reinforcements. While the Zhao army stabilized its own camp, it also mobilized troops from another battalion to harass the Qin army's flanks. The Qin army took advantage of the higher terrain and tried their best to maintain it.
When two battalions of the Zhao army concentrated on attacking one of the Qin army's battalions, Qin troops appeared all over the mountains and plains on the top of Nanshan Mountain. They held halberds in their hands and rushed down from the mountain in a row, shouting.
In the mountains, the bulky weakness of the phalanx is fully exposed, while the flexible skirmishers can exert higher mobility. In particular, the Qin army sent as many as 5,000 surprise troops, five times as many as the Zhao army. No matter how brave they fought, they could not offset the numerical disadvantage. First, the Zhao army that went up the mountain to attack the flanks of the Qin army's formation was defeated, and then it involved the Zhao army's formation that confronted the Qin army's formation. After relying on the camp to resist for a period of time, Zhao Jun's two battalions on the south bank of the Ming River were completely defeated. Due to the relatively independent terrain on the south bank of the Ming River, it was difficult for the reinforcements in the rear to cross the river. The troops on the north bank were restrained by the Qin army and could not move at all. The two battalions further north were unable to fight due to the small area and could only watch helplessly. The battle on both sides of the Ming River was completely ineffective.
After defeating the Zhao army on the south bank of the Ming River, the Qin army immediately followed the defeated army across the Ming River. This side of the Ming River is the command post of the Zhao army. Five thousand stragglers swarmed up the hill. There was indeed a reserve of two thousand people behind the mountain, but one thousand of them had been ordered to cross the river to reinforce the troops on the south bank of the Ming River (but there were no There was still time), while they were in motion, the other group hurriedly climbed up the mountain. Before they could get into formation, they were surrounded by skirmishers. After a shower of arrows, more than half of the Zhao army on the top of the mountain was killed or wounded.
This battalion bought time for Lian Po to retreat down the mountain and directed the remaining troops on the north bank of Mingshui River to retreat one by one. Since the main force had not yet come up, Wang Hao's assault group also suffered heavy losses. He did not pursue excessively and only allowed one battalion to be stationed three to five miles away from the Zhao army as a warning. The rest of the troops occupied defensive positions, firmly controlled the valley entrance, and covered the passage of the large forces. .
Exiting the mouth of the narrow valley, there is a trumpet-shaped slope. After going down the slope, there is a large area of countryside, dotted with countless streams and lakes. Wang Lu felt relieved and finally broke out.
Since he had never been to this area before, Wang Lu was unable to determine the deployment of various ministries. When a battalion came over, he asked them to occupy the nearby towns and strengthen their vigilance. By night, thirty battalions were finally arranged.
After the Zhao army was defeated in Pi Lao, they immediately retreated northward along the Ming River. They retreated for more than thirty miles, crossed a river, and entered a city. The following Qin army saw that the place was heavily guarded and did not dare to get too close, so they sent someone to report to Wang Lu. When Wang Lu came over, he saw that a complete defensive position had been built with the city as the center and along the river. Wang Lu had to withdraw the camp ten miles and set up camp in a settlement.
The ten battalions of skirmishers who first attacked rested in the camp left by Zhao Jun and bandaged the wounded. In order to quickly break through the valley entrance, this unit rushed fiercely and suffered heavy losses. Almost a thousand people were injured, and two to three hundred people were seriously injured. Wang Hao planned to let these thousand people return to Shangdang tomorrow.
The next day, the entire army gathered. Wang Hao re-designated the defense areas of each battalion and led the front army to continue to advance. Since this is a relatively flat field and close to Zhao Jun's city, the front army led by Wang Hao consisted of a phalanx of 5,000 men. After advancing for more than ten miles, I saw that Zhao troops were withdrawing one after another in many towns in front. Wang Lu urged the troops to speed up and tracked the retreating Zhao army until they reached the city.
The city in front of you is not small in size, three miles square, tall and solid. A small stream flows through the south of the city and flows into Mingshui not far away. There are barracks outside the city, echoing the city. There is a tall city ten miles away, similar in size to the one in front of you, and there are also camps outside the city.
Wang Lu sent out several battalions to clear out the remaining settlements of the Zhao army and occupy them. Stretch your troops on the main road yourself. At the same time, military envoys were sent to ask each battalion to recruit laborers to build forts!
It was a very risky move to build a fortress under Zhao Jun's nose. Moreover, the distance Wang Lu required to build the fort was only a hundred steps away from the river, which was only one mile away from the opponent's camp. This was equivalent to building the fort into the opponent's face.
Wang Hao controlled 5,000 elite troops by the river and personally covered and built fortifications. Driven by the soldiers of the Qin army, a large number of people arrived with farm tools and began to dig trenches at the feet of Wang He and others. The dug soil was piled on the edge of the ditch, and other people rammed it layer by layer to form the camp wall. . There were many people recruited from various places, and the Zhao army did not come out to interfere. The fortification work was completed very smoothly. In just one hour, the fort, which was about a thousand steps long between the two towns, was built. Wang Lu immediately transferred his troops and went to the next area to build fortifications.
For a whole day, under the supervision of Zhao Jun, the Qin army completed the fortification work in the entire area, with the total length of the fortification reaching more than ten miles. These barriers are intermittent and only defend the weakest links. If Zhao Jun wants to attack, he can always infiltrate, but he has to pay some price. Wang Lu was very satisfied with today's results. He sent the people back to rest and continue tomorrow. After arranging the remaining troops, Wang Lu led the elite troops and moved into several towns arranged by the five guardsmen. One day was enough for them to get familiar with the area and arrange their troops.
Therefore, with the tacit understanding between the two sides, Qin and Zhao faced off on this land. The Zhao army was content to confine the Qin army to a harmless area far away from Handan, while the Qin army was content to have a place to spend the winter and eat, without having to sleep in the open and eat fried millet in the middle of winter.
Both Wang Lu and Lian Po reported the battlefield developments to their respective capitals. Wang Lu's report is that the Qin army has occupied Wu'an Pilao. Lian Po's report is that the Qin army has been blocked at the gate of Wushi City.
As time goes by, past memories gradually return to Wang Lu's mind. He remembered that this was the place where he had followed Hu Yang ten years ago. The difference was that at that time, their position was on the north side of this defense line, roughly equivalent to Zhao Jun's defense line.
After reconnaissance, it was found that the Zhao army had about 10,000 people, which was roughly the same as the Qin army. However, it was supported by two strong cities and was close to Handan, so reinforcements could be made at any time. And he was far away from the rear. Even Shangdang was three to five hundred miles away, and Shangdang was just an empty city in name only.
After several days of inspection, Wang Lu also roughly understood his location: in a triangular area formed by the Ming River flowing from the southeast to the northeast. To the south is a half-high mountain where Lian Po's command post was once located. After crossing this mountainous area, there is a larger settlement on the other side of the mountain. It doesn't have much food, but it mainly smelts iron! This made Wang Lu very excited.
Since he followed Hu Yang to Wu'an last time and witnessed with his own eyes the large number of iron smelting workshops in Wu'an, Wang Hao became aware of how wonderful it would be if he could have an endless supply of iron farm tools! The fortification went very smoothly this time. In addition to the fact that Zhao Jun did not come out to interfere, the fact that the people of the town had iron farm tools was also an important aspect. If you use wood, you have to water the ground first and then dig, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It's different with a shovel. When you dig straight down, the soil is cut out like tofu!
He asked a public servant who was responsible for making and transporting iron tools to tell them that they could exchange them for salt!
A few days later, the public transport reported that he had learned that there was a commercial route to Shangdang from here. This road used to be very busy, but due to the war, the commercial route had been cut off for several years. Wang Hao immediately asked him to restore this trade route and report to Xianyang, and also informed Wang Ling and Pi Wan. So every few days there would be a car going up the Ming River to deliver the iron to Licheng; Wang Ling sent people to trade salt in Licheng, and then returned each other.
On the road from Handan to Luoyang, messengers came and went. On the road from Luoyang to Xianyang, galloping riders could be seen from time to time. Wang Lu's reports passed through Shangdang and Hedong every day and were reported to Xianyang. Supervisor Pi Wan led 10,000 prisoners to repair the roads from Anyi to Shangdang, Anyi to Yuancheng, and between Shangdang counties. The governor of Wangling led 10,000 soldiers to renovate the fields and houses in Changzi, Tunliu, Lucheng, and Xiangyuan. They reorganized them according to the Qin system, dug ditches and streets, and burned wasteland to reclaim the land. The Shangdang, which had been cut off from the population, regained its vitality.
Wang Ling sent soldiers to Tongshan, Nishi, Licheng and Shaoshui cities to collect taxes from them. Unlike Qin who celebrated the New Year in October, these places still celebrated the New Year in the first month; because Qin law had not yet been implemented in the royal tombs, the people in these cities were hardly aware of the change of political power, and still paid the taxes for that year according to the practice of previous years.
Although there are taxes from a dozen cities, these cities have small populations and little arable land. The food paid is not much, which is only enough to feed 20,000 people for half a year. While Piwan was building roads, he also sent people to transport salt here. Salt was more valuable than grain. One stone of salt could usually be exchanged for three stones of grain. Under Hedong's strategy of exchanging salt for grain, one stone of salt could also be exchanged for two stones of grain. Wang Ling ordered people to buy salt and grain in each city, and they bought and sold it fairly, and also purchased a lot of grain. Hedong has sent seeds again, so there will probably be no problem with sowing this spring.
After several haggling, Zhao Hao finally completed the peace agreement. Zhao offered six cities and Qin withdrew its troops. However, the six cities presented were not the six insignificant cities proposed by Su Li, but the cities located in Taiyuan and Wu'an. Qin wanted to use a peace treaty to solidify the results of the war. As part of the peace treaty, the King of Qin sent a young master to Handan as a hostage, while the State of Zhao sent Lord Pingyuan to Xianyang to form an alliance!
Since the King of Qin only had one son, the prince, he decided to let the prince's son, Gongzi, come to Handan as a hostage. In mid-December, Young Master Yiren set foot on the road to Handan...
