"The Chu army is defeated, and the general has conquered Huaiyang."
"A large number of defeated soldiers of the Chu army are fleeing towards Qiyi."
The scouts sent by Zhao Tuo to the west came back and brought news of the Qin army's victory on the main battlefield.
It is now the beginning of spring. As the cold winter gradually fades away, spring begins to spread across the land. Although it is still chilly, it is getting better day by day.
"It's finally here, this is the right time."
A smile appeared on Zhao Tuo's face.
Previously, a Chu army pretended to be defeated, intending to lure him to Qiyi to besieged and killed.
Fortunately, Zhao Tuo noticed that the opponent's arrival was at the wrong time and did not act rashly. He sent cavalry to investigate and found something strange.
Upon closer inspection, the scouts discovered that the Chu army numbered forty or fifty thousand men. Moreover, the soldiers are all fully armed and look neat when walking around. At first glance, they are not a miscellaneous army.
When the Chu army knew that the traces had been leaked, they stopped pretending and walked eastward.
Under such circumstances, Zhao Tuo did not dare to act rashly, and was even prepared to lead his troops to retreat to Pengcheng as long as the opponent went north to Suishui. Fortunately, the tens of thousands of Chu troops had no intention of crossing the Suishui River to attack by force. They stayed in Qiyi and then left east.
Zhao Tuo didn't know the purpose of these tens of thousands of Chu troops going east, but he didn't dare to pursue them because there were too many enemies. Secondly, judging from the flags of the Chu army, the Chu general on the opposite side was most likely Yin Xiangyan, the commander of the Chu State.
"What happened on the Huaiyang battlefield? Why did Xiang Yan abandon hundreds of thousands of Chu troops and take only tens of thousands of people to the east?"
Zhao Tuo was confused.
But out of caution, he still chose to stay in camp and only sent cavalry to explore the situation to the west.
Zhao Tuo did not dare to take it lightly, let alone follow the Chu army. Xiang Yan was a veteran on the battlefield, and he could plan a rout to trap the Qin army. How could he know that he would not pretend to leave eastward, but actually lay an ambush in the rear specifically to ambush him?
Under such circumstances, nearly twenty days passed, winter turned to spring, and the news of the outcome of the battle between Qin and Chu came.
"In the past two days, Xiangyi was also captured by the friendly forces from Suiyang. We have no worries about our retreat. I will lead the princes south, directly to Cai, cross the Huai River from there, and march to Shouchun, the capital of Chu! "
During the military meeting in the big tent, Zhao Tuo announced the next battle plan with a proud face.
He looked down upon the defeated Chu troops who were fleeing in all directions. This time when he went south, his goal was to go straight to the capital of Chu and make a big killing.
In the military tent, the generals were extremely excited.
Hei Butt even shouted and laughed: "I heard that the King of Chu ordered a reward of a hundred gold to capture me, Hei Butt alive. Now Mr. Nai has come to Shouchun in person. I wonder if he can give me the reward of one hundred gold?"
"Hahaha, then it depends on whether you are willing to let King Chu poke your butt with a bamboo. I heard that King Chu said that he would poke you with a thousand bamboos."
Bai Rong's face was full of jest, and the generals also laughed.
With the morale of the Qin army ready, Zhao Tuo no longer hesitated and left some soldiers to guard the cities along the way. He led 25,000 men across the Suishui River and headed south.
It is worth mentioning that Zhao Tuo's troops were supplemented by 5,000 men from Dongjun.
The reason was that Li Shiqi was sent to Qi as an envoy and achieved a major breakthrough. Dongjun no longer needed 10,000 men to garrison, and half of them could be sent south to support General Zhao.
Under the deterrence of the Battle of Zhencheng, the Qin army was tempted to return Zhencheng and release thousands of prisoners, coupled with Li Shi's eloquence, Qi Wang Jian and Qi Prime Minister Tianjia were persuaded by him on the spot and decided to submit to Qin. And openly broke with those from the Four Kingdoms.
To show their sincerity, Qi Wang Jian and Qi Prime Minister Tianjia sent troops to encircle and suppress the people of the Three Jin and Yan states who were still in Qi.
Tianjia also mobilized public opinion and placed the blame for the defeat of the Qi army on the people of the Four Kingdoms, causing many Qi people to feel bad about the people of the Four Kingdoms and join the encirclement and suppression.
"How could our 100,000-strong Qi army be defeated so miserably? It must have been caused by you people from the four kingdoms! If it weren't for your assassination, the Qin army would not have attacked at night. If they had not attacked at night and fought openly and honestly, our Qi army would not have been able to Losing so miserably!”
Under such circumstances, the people of the four countries became street rats in Qi State, and many people were killed and injured. The Qi army even captured some big shots.
The remaining people from the Four Kingdoms are either hiding their names in Qi State, or they are fleeing from the past and Chu State, and they will no longer be able to stir up the situation in the world in a short period of time.
Therefore, Zhao Tuo had no worries at all and immediately led his army across the Suishui River to take Qi Yi first.
When Duke Qi heard that the Qin army was marching south, he was already frightened. However, when he thought that his son Dou Yuan would be captured by the Qin army last year and must have lost his life, he decided to resist to the end and die for the sake of Chu.
"The King of Qin was benevolent and did not kill the Duke's beloved son. He only demoted him to a subordinate and still survived. If the Duke surrenders the city, General Zhao will repay Xianyang with this merit, redeem the Duke's beloved son, and reunite the father and son. , isn’t it beautiful?”
When the envoy sent by the Qin army said these words, Qi Gong immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
He defended the city and was killed by the Qin army. His son was always a servant and suffered every day.
Kaesong surrendered and father and son were reunited.
There are two outcomes, do you still have to think about which one to choose?
Qiyi surrendered without a fight, saving Zhao Tuo a lot of siege losses. After replenishing grain and fodder in Qiyi, Zhao Tuo marched toward the southwest.
Along the way, they encountered a large number of defeated Chu troops.
Some of the defeated Chu troops came from the Huaiyang battlefield, some fled from Xiangcheng, Huyi, and even Pingyu and Xiqiu. They also brought the latest news one by one.
The Chu army was defeated, and Chu general Zhaoyuan committed suicide in defeat.
Qin general Feng Wuze has defeated Kuyi.
Qin general Qiang Yu has defeated Xiangcheng.
Qin general Yang Duan and his army have captured Qinqiu.
The Qin army went to Cai for a great victory, and the partial army captured Ye Sheng, the right Sima of Chu state, by the Ru River.
…
The good news one after another made all the 25,000 soldiers under Zhao Tuo's command energetic and high-spirited.
The overall situation in the battle between Qin and Chu has been decided.
The next battles the Qin army will fight will all be victorious, and they will all be smooth battles!
There is no danger at all, and even the most timid person becomes full of courage.
This is a free achievement, who wouldn't be happy!
More than ten days later, this Qin army arrived north of Xiacai.
Because the main force of the Qin army in Huaiyang and Shangcai needed to hunt down Chu's defeated army, check their captures, and capture Chu's cities along the way, their marching speed was slower than that of Zhao Tuo's troops.
Zhao Tuo's troops were actually the first Qin army to arrive near Xiacai.
"Last year, General Lee was defeated here."
Zhao Tuo stood on the chariot and looked at the wide flat land around him. If he looked carefully, he could even see fallen arrows and broken weapons in the grass. Zhao Tuo couldn't help but sigh.
Last year, Li Xin attacked Chu and led 30,000 elite troops from Guanzhong to attack Shouchun, the capital of Chu. However, due to the betrayal of the traitor Xiong Qi, Li Xin was blocked by Chu general Xiang Yan. In the end, the Qin army was defeated in a great battle. , stopping in the wilderness outside Xia Caicheng.
That battle was a shame to Qin and a pain in the hearts of Qin people.
Now, the Qin army came to Cai again, but the situation was very different from last year.
Zhao Tuo looked back and looked at the rows of mighty black-armored troops behind him.
As well as the hundreds of thousands of Qin troops who have not yet been seen in the west and north, but are constantly coming.
This time, the Qin army no longer made a surprise attack and took a detour, but defeated the Chu army head-on and led its troops in an upright manner.
They want to destroy Chu State with absolute superiority.
Under such circumstances, the Chu army in Xia Cai collapsed without a fight, allowing the Qin army to easily capture this important city across the Huai River.
Zhao Tuo stood on the bank of the Huai River, looking at the mist-shrouded south bank, and whispered: "I'm back."
"This time, I will complete General Li's regrets for him."
"The Kingdom of Chu must perish!"
…
South of the Huai River is Shouchun, the capital of Chu.
King Chu of Chu had received the news that Xia Cai had fallen and the Qin army was approaching the Huaihe River. Especially according to the report from Tan Ma, the flag of the Qin general made King Chu tremble.
"Zhao Tuo?"
