Chapter 144 The Battle of Changping II

Style: Historical Author: Uncle Tangjia SaltWords: 3097Update Time: 24/01/12 05:50:11
After Bai Qi arrived at the military camp, the Qin army seemed to be on the surface as usual, without any changes. But in fact, in the past few days, the Qin army had sent a large number of additional manpower to conduct reconnaissance of Zhao's army to the east and west. Based on the intelligence sent back, Bai Qi analyzed: Zhao Kuo came here this time eager to make meritorious deeds. However, it was this eagerness for quick success that made Zhao Jun's army unstable. In order to win quickly, Zhao Kuo will inevitably adopt central breakthrough tactics. A series of evidence shows that Zhao Kuo hates defense. He believes that the best defense is to attack. To win, he must launch continuous attacks. After wedged into the Qin army's position, he spread it left and right, causing it to collapse across the board.

As the saying goes, if you know yourself and the enemy, you will never be defeated in a hundred battles. After Bai Qi conducted a detailed analysis of Zhao Kuo and his military strategy, he formulated a grand and detailed plan. At this time, Zhao Jun's hundreds of thousands of troops and horses, in Bai Qi's eyes, have become his own meal and meat on the plate.

The first step in the plan is to lure the enemy deeper. Bai Qi sent 3,000 troops across the Dan River to Zhao Jun's camp. Naturally, these troops were just bait, and Bai Qi wanted to use this bait to get Zhao Kuo's troops out of the camp. Zhao Kuo didn't know that this was Bai Qi's plan. Without any hesitation, he took the lead and led tens of thousands of troops to fight. In the blink of an eye, Qin's thousands of troops and horses were wiped out, and the scene was horrific. Zhao Kuo was overjoyed to see hundreds of remaining soldiers fleeing in panic to the west bank of the Dan River. This Wang Lu is indeed a man with a false reputation. He actually wants to challenge Zhao Ying with just thousands of soldiers. Don't you know that this is tantamount to hurling an egg against a stone?

If we don’t pursue the Qin army now, when will we wait?

So Zhao Kuo ordered his army to pursue the remaining Qin army. Soon, they arrived at the Qin army's camp. Seeing that the Qin army was waiting in full formation, Zhao Kuo could only send people to send a letter of war.

At this time, Bai Qi did two things. One was to inform Zhao Jun that he would fight with him tomorrow; the other was to give Wang Lu an order to prepare to withdraw his troops tomorrow. Miraculously, these two things were accomplished at the same time the next day. Of course, the people fighting the Zhao army were not the main force of the Qin army, but the 10,000 Qin army led by generals Wang Ben and Wang Ling. The main force of the Qin army had retreated long ago and prepared a large pocket formation.

Bai Qi gave Wang Bi and Wang Ling a death order: defeat is meritorious, victory is guilty. As long as he can lure Zhao Jun deep into the Qin army's camp, the matter will be half done; on the other hand, Bai Qi asked Sima Cuo and Sima Geng's father and son each led 15,000 troops, and quietly detoured behind Zhao's army through mountain trails, completely cutting off his food routes. General Hu Shang led an army of 20,000 troops and stationed himself between the two wings of the Qin army and the Zhao army. When the two sides were fighting to the death, he took advantage of the situation to cover up the attack. By then, he would definitely be able to cut the Zhao army into two parts in one fell swoop. . In order to prevent emergencies from happening, Bai Qi also ordered Meng Ao and Wang Jian to each lead 5,000 light cavalry in mobile combat to wait for changes.

However, Bai Qi himself and Wang Lu remained motionless in the Chinese army's tent. Zhao Kuo knew nothing about all this. Even if he knew it, he would still have to shoot when the arrow was on the string.

Shangdang Feng Ting repeatedly advised Zhao Kuo not to replace generals and merge camps without authorization, but Zhao Kuo could no longer listen. Because he believed that as long as he took action, Zhao Jun would definitely be able to win.

As he expected, on the second day, tens of thousands of vanguard troops, led by Fu Bao, encountered Wang Ben's army just after walking less than 5 miles. The two sides immediately started a battle. Wang Ben was defeated and fled. Zhao Kuo was overjoyed and ordered his troops to take advantage of the situation to march forward; after about 5 miles, the Zhao army's forward met Wang Ling's army, but the outcome was the same, the Qin army was defeated and fled. Zhao Kuo's army was victorious in consecutive battles, and Zhao Kuo was immediately excited. He believed that his opportunity to make a contribution was right in front of him. Feng Ting and others knew that something was wrong, because every small victory seemed to be deliberately arranged, and with these insignificant victories, Zhao Jun was getting farther and farther away from his base camp, so Feng Ting and others knew that something was wrong. Ting risked his guilt and gave Zhao Kuo advice again. Unfortunately, Zhao Kuo was so overwhelmed by the victory that he could no longer listen to the unfavorable advice.

Zhao Kuo ordered the Shangdang Army under Feng Ting to stay at the East Base Camp to guard the grain, grass and baggage, and then personally led 450,000 Zhao troops across the river to attack the Qin West Base. When they arrived at the Qin Army's defense area, Wang Bi and Wang Ling were hiding directly. When he came out, he was the same as Lian Po had been on that day. Until this moment, Zhao Kuo still didn't know that the person he was facing was not Wang Lu at all, but Bai Qi, who even made him fear and awe. He never thought that this would be a strategy arranged by the Qin army to surprise the Zhao army with a pocket formation. You must know that Zhao Jun has a total of 450,000 troops. To encircle him, not only must he have the commanding ability of an unconventional horse and the courage of a hero who is proud of the world, but he must also have the strength of at least one million soldiers and horses.

Obviously, Wang Hao did not have the spirit of a general, and the Qin army did not have such strong strength.

In addition, the Zhao army's attack and the Qin army's retreat went smoothly. The Qin army at the foot of Danxi Mountain collapsed at the first touch and fled just like when it was chasing the Wei and Korean armies. The so-called tiger and wolf army of Qin was invincible. In the eyes of Zhao Kuo, Yu Tianxia has simply become a joke.

In fact, at this time, the supreme commander of the Qin Army had already become Bai Qi, and Bai Qi was an extraordinary genius with a genius commanding art. In order to determine the outcome in one fell swoop, he was willing to take extraordinary risks and prepared to spend 500,000 yuan. The Qin army went to surround the 450,000-50,000 Zhao army.

At this time, although the Qin army's camp seemed to be defeated by the Zhao army, it was like a desperate stagnant water. But behind the stagnant water, there is an undercurrent. The 30,000 soldiers and horses led by Sima Cuo and Sima Geng quickly crossed north along the Xiaodongcang River, then turned southeast and circled behind Zhao Jun's camp, cutting off the connection between Zhao Jun and Handan, allowing Zhao Kuo's army ran out of food and grass; the 10,000 light cavalry led by Meng Ao and Wang Jian easily avoided the 450,000 Zhao army in the Dan River Valley, quickly forced their way across the Dan River, and faced Feng Ting's defenders from the front. Attack Zhao Donglei's base camp. The Qin army made full use of the flexible characteristics of the light cavalry, which caused a lot of trouble to the Zhao army; in addition, the 20,000-strong army led by General Hu Shang came from the strategic hub of Duanshi (now Qinshui, Shanxi), and the starry night They marched northeast along the Qinchuan River bed, and soon arrived at the source of Qinchuan, Dongyu (today's Gaoping, Shanxi). They threatened the Zhao army at Xiangong Mountain (today's Changzi Jieshan, Gaoping, Shanxi), making it difficult for the Zhao army to start and end. Take care of everything. Soon, this Qin army rushed to attack Guguan and Ma'an Valley along the north side of Zhao's Baili Stone Great Wall.

In this way, the Qin army divided the Zhao army into two parts. One part was Zhao Kuo's tribe in the Danhe Valley, which had 450,000 troops but no food and grass. The other part was Feng Ting's left-behind tribe, which had a large amount of food and supplies but only 50,000 troops. After Wang Jian's cavalry stabilized, Bai Qi began to continuously increase troops on both lines. After a deadly battle, the Qin army finally captured a large number of Zhao army's positions east of the Dan River, officially completing the division and encirclement of the Zhao army. Bai Qi breathed a sigh of relief. As long as there was no big accident, the overall situation was settled.

At this time, Zhao Kuo discovered that he had made the mistake of going deep alone and fell into the enemy's siege. However, according to Wang Lu's conservative fighting methods, it was impossible to be so grand. Could it be that the top general of the Qin army was not Wang Lu but Bai Qi?

Thinking of this, Zhao Kuo suddenly felt a chill in his heart.

As a last resort, Zhao Kuo had only one way to restore Zhao Jun's defeat: a quick battle. Before they ran out of food and grass, they defeated the main force of the Qin army on the east bank of the Dan River, and then returned to attack the two strange Qin troops with Feng Ting. Judging from Bai Qi's past combat style and the current battle situation, the Qin army must have a large number of troops to seize the Zhao army's retreat. This is a decrease in the number. As long as the Zhao army attacks the west of the Dan River with all its strength, it will definitely be able to gain the upper hand in terms of numbers. The advantage of the Qin army is that as long as a breakthrough is found, the Qin army will be defeated.

However, in the many battles in the past, people only saw his attack that rose and went like the wind, and used his troops like a god, but no one saw his way of defending the city, which was as stable as a mountain and as fast as thunder. I have to admit that Bai Qi is a perfect genius on the battlefield. When attacking, he moves above the nine heavens; when defending, he hides under the nine earths. Bai Qi successfully surrounded Zhao's 450,000-strong army with almost the same number of troops, which became a miracle in the world's military history. He saw Zhao Kuo coming with the power of landslide and tsunami, just like Lian Po, unable to retreat. They continued to build more barriers day and night, and defended Danxi impeccably, even better than Lian Po before. When Zhao Kuo saw that the entire Qin army camp was heavily fortified, he could only sigh to himself. Maybe the Qin army in the past was as helpless as he felt when facing Lian Po.

Fortune has its way with people. In the past, Zhao Kuo also laughed at Lian Po's incompetent tactics as the work of a coward. Unexpectedly, the Zhao army he led today would be trapped alive in the Qin army's pocket formation. Seeing that the Qin army's Danhexi camp could not be captured, and the lack of food and grass for the Zhao army became the biggest problem. , in desperation, Zhao Jun had to move his army to regain the Qin Army's east base. And Bai Qi once again played to his strengths - he must chase the poor. What he was waiting for was the moment when the Zhao army could no longer hold on. The Qin army happened to hold a spear in hand and set out from the camp on the west bank of the Dan River to attack the back of the Zhao army in order to contain the Zhao army's offensive against the east barrier.

The number of Qin troops on the east base was much smaller than that on the west base. Seeing the Zhao army coming, they could only build forts and defend them, with crossbow cavalry attacking on the flanks. Just as the reinforcements of the Qin Army arrived at the west base, Zhao Kuo was attacked from both sides. He was confused and disoriented, and Zhao Kuo's army was also confused. Finally, the Zhao army led by Zhao Kuo was caught in the Dan River Valley and was in a dilemma. The Shangdang army led by Feng Ting was trapped on Daliang Mountain. It was not until this time that the Qin army sent an order from Bai Qi, asking Zhao Kuo to surrender as soon as possible. Zhao Kuo sighed, it was indeed him! The nightmare of the entire Six Eastern Kingdoms is also the nightmare of Zhao Jun, and it is the opponent that Zhao Kuo values ​​the most in his heart. It's just that Zhao Kuo didn't expect that the peak showdown between the two sides would be in such an unbalanced situation.

Zhao Kuo was unwilling to give in and ordered to fight to the end.

There should be two people who know the most about the historical background, political environment, diplomatic situation, troop allocation, and strategies and tactics of the Changping War - King Qin Zhaoxiang and King Zhao Xiaocheng. Unfortunately, the latter is incompetent and cannot compete with the talented and arrogant people. King Zhaoxiang of Qin was compared to him. Bai Qi, on the other hand, knew everything about the military, but he was not as good as Fan Ju in politics and diplomacy. On the contrary, Fan Ju only had a clear understanding of the international and domestic environment of Qin and Zhao. When it came to fighting, he had to rely on Bai Qi.