Li Mu had finished reading the silk book, and Zhao Kuo naturally followed it accurately, and the Longtai Palace was also immersed in a burst of laughter.
At this moment, another urgent sound came from outside the hall.
"My king, General Sun Gu and Lord Zhao Ping are asking for an audience outside the palace." An eunuch reported respectfully outside the palace.
Everyone who heard this was slightly stunned. Although several people present were not familiar with Zhao Ping, they were still familiar with Sun Gu, the commander of the Yulin Guard.
Habayashi Wei, who is in charge of military intelligence, asked for a meeting late at night. It was obvious that something big had happened. Everyone immediately stopped smiling and waited quietly for King Zhao's order.
"Passed." Zhao Kuo frowned slightly when he heard this. The leaders of the Yulin Guards and the Secret Guards have arrived together, which is definitely not a small matter, and in today's world, there are only a few things that can bring the two intelligence chiefs under him to come at the same time. Zhao Kuo had almost guessed the possible situation.
"Yes." The eunuch outside the palace heard the order, immediately agreed, and then quietly retreated.
Not long after, Sun Gu, who was dressed in military uniform, and Zhao Ping, who was dressed as a doctor, came to the political hall together.
"I have met my king." They both paid homage to Zhao Kuo.
"Ping Sheng." Zhao Kuo helped the two of them up with one hand and said, "Come here at Weiye, but something happened to the Qin State?"
Hearing this, the two looked at each other and then nodded one after another.
"How is the situation? Report as soon as possible." Zhao Kuo's heart sank and he said immediately.
"Report it to my king." Sun Gu took half a step forward and replied: "Hangu Pass sent out a message that the Qin army, nearly 250,000 strong, left Hangu in the east five days ago and disappeared in the Xiaohan Passage. In the process, I did not find any trace of it even if I worked carefully along the way."
"There are also detailed reports in Hedong. About 50,000 Qin troops are passing through, and their target is Shangdang." Zhao Ping on the side also added.
"An army of two hundred and fifty thousand." Zhao Kuo frowned deeper and deeper. Sure enough, although his move to the north to destroy Hu was carried out covertly, it was still detected by Qin.
Of course, this is expected. After all, my intelligence system can know the movements of the Qin army. Qin's Black Ice Platform is not a vegetarian. I have been able to hide such a large-scale operation from Qin until now. The intelligence department is pretty good.
It can be said that Qin Guo's eastward departure has always been expected by Zhao Guo.
But even so, Qin's generosity still deeply shocked Zhao Kuo and everyone present.
Although it is not known whether the 50,000 troops in Hedong are divided into the 250,000 troops, the 250,000 troops alone are enough for the current Zhao State to drink a pot.
You know, the 150,000 troops in the north are almost all the elites of Zhao State today. In order to gather these 150,000 troops, Zhao's Handan County and Zhongshan County were almost wiped out. In addition to facing Qin's Shangdang County, which still retained strong military strength, even facing Yan State, Shangdang County still had strong military strength. There are only more than 10,000 troops stationed in Hejian County of the country.
The Qin State, which also experienced the depletion of the Changping Battle and even lost troops and generals in it, actually raised another 250,000 or even 300,000 troops five years later.
This is shocking.
Today's Qin State is not the former Qin State. Everything will be fine if the Han Valley is defended. Because of Bai Qi's great efforts, Qin State annexed the Yanying land of Chu State, which actually has a large number of ties with Chu State. Land borders.
In other words, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of troops in the direction of Hangu, Qin also had at least one hundred thousand troops in the southern Yanying land.
Counting on one's fingers, in just five years, Qin State expanded its troops by at least two to three hundred thousand, which was almost twice that of Zhao State. This family background is obviously much richer than that of Zhao Guo.
Of course, family background is one thing, and daring to reveal family background is even more courageous.
More than 200,000 yuan was pushed onto the card table. Even if it was just coins, Zhao Kuo's heart would tremble, not to mention that these were living lives!
Not only Zhao Kuo, but also several people present were shocked by Qin Guo's generosity.
"Is the news confirmed?" Mr. Pingyuan on the side couldn't help but ask.
"After multiple verifications, it is confirmed to be correct." Sun Gu replied immediately.
Zhao Kuo waved his hand and then asked: "A few questions. First, has this news been conveyed to General Lian Po of Shangdang? Second, is the Qin army in Hedong 250,000 strong, or does it have other troops? ?Third, who will be the leader of the Qin Army?"
Listening to Zhao Kuo's question, Sun Gu and Zhao Ping looked at each other, and then Sun Gu, who had a slightly higher status, came forward to answer: "My king, this news has been passed on to General Lian Po, and General Lian Po also confronted the party at the same time. The army, including the army of 100,000 in the field, issued instructions to prepare for war."
After a brief pause, Sun Gu continued: "Since the main force of the Qin army entered the mountains and forests after leaving Hangu, it was difficult to detect carefully along the way. Therefore, it is not yet known whether the fifty thousand Qin army in the east of the river is part of it. . Judging from the time of its appearance, it is indeed possible that it was divided into 250,000 troops."
"Third, the main force of the Qin army will be General Wang Lu." Sun Gu continued to answer.
After hearing Sun Gu's words, Zhao Kuo felt mixed feelings.
Fortunately, the news has reached Lian Po's ears. With General Lian Po's ability, he will definitely not be attacked by the Qin army;
The worry is that the enemy's situation is unknown - the number of enemy troops, their marching route, and even the target of the operation are not known at all.
Under such circumstances, besides passive defense, there seems to be no better way. But the problem is that because they went north to destroy Hu, the main force of the Zhao army was far away in the Daidi grassland, and there were only a mere 100,000 troops in the entire Shangdang County.
One hundred thousand versus two hundred and fifty thousand, or even three hundred thousand, you know what the chances of winning are.
"My king." Tian Dan on the side also frowned and said: "Now that Beihu has been defeated, should we order General Li Mu to quickly lead his army south to help Shangdang? One hundred thousand against the Qin army's 250,000, even if it is General Lian Po may also find it difficult to fight against the enemy."
"In addition, there are about 20,000 field troops in Handan County, Zhongshan County and Hejian County. Should they be sent to Shangdang County together?" Pingyuan Jun on the side obviously realized the seriousness of the situation and immediately suggested to Zhao Kuo road.
"The Qin army is so powerful that none of our Zhao family can fight." Lu Buwei was not to be outdone, and immediately put forward his own suggestion: "I think we should send envoys to various countries as soon as possible to ask for help, especially Chu and Wei. The two countries will, on the one hand, contain the Qin army’s southern armies and wait for opportunities to recapture the land of Yanying and weaken Qin’s national power; on the other hand, they will join forces with the Party to fight against the Qin army.”
After hearing this, Zhao Kuo did not rush to express his position. He tapped his fingers on the table and fell into deep thought.
The few people who saw this certainly knew that this was a sign that their King Zhao was thinking, and immediately everyone held their breath and concentrated for fear of interrupting the King's train of thought.
In terms of military affairs, everyone is still very convinced of their king.
After a long time, Zhao Kuo finally stopped tapping his fingers, slowly raised his head, shook his head and said: "Only by knowing yourself and the enemy in everything can you be victorious in every battle. Now our army knows at least two things about the actions of the Qin army. Outside of the 150,000-strong army heading east, almost nothing is known. This battle cannot be fought."
"Sun Gu, Zhao Ping." Zhao Kuo then looked at the two people standing at the foot of the steps.
"The general will be here." They both replied in unison.
Zhao Kuo immediately ordered: "Pass a letter to the sentinels along the way and make careful investigations. We must find out the whereabouts of the main force of the Qin army as soon as possible. If necessary, we can seek help from General Lianpo's sentry cavalry. Within three days, we must know the whereabouts of the main force of the Qin army." where."
"Yes." The two people who heard the order immediately agreed.
After finishing going back and forth between Sun Gu and Zhao Ping, Zhao Kuo then looked at Tian Dan aside and said slowly: "The north has just been pacified, and the army is in urgent need of rest and reorganization, and the Hu people have newly arrived, and they also need a large army to deter them from the side, so Li Mu's army cannot be taken lightly. Move. At least its main force will continue to stay in Daijun to intimidate Daibei."
"My king." Tian Dan immediately became anxious after hearing this. You must know that although Daibei is important, no matter how important it is, it is not as important as Shangdang. The loss of Daibei is nothing more than a rebellion, but once Shangdang is lost, Qin The army will completely take the initiative on the battlefield, and even Handan may be attacked from both sides by the Qin army. Zhao cannot afford this consequence.
When Zhao Kuo heard this, he waved his hand calmly and said: "I know the importance of the party."
"However, it is not wise to mobilize the power of the whole country to respond to the enemy when the enemy's situation is not clear. In addition, there are still 100,000 troops in the Shangdang territory. Although it is not enough to retreat the enemy, it is not a problem to hold on to the strong city for a period of time." Zhao Kuo then explained briefly.
Tian Dan couldn't hold on any longer after hearing this.
"As for the troops stationed in the field, we have already estimated that the number of soldiers stationed in the fields in each county has reached the limit. If it is reduced further, it will inevitably affect the autumn harvest. The matter is not critical yet, so we cannot mess up the position." Comfort the field Dan. , Zhao Kuo then said to Lord Pingyuan.
"But it's okay to send an envoy." Zhao Kuo then looked at Lu Buwei and said: "The Qin army is launching a large-scale attack. Whether it is directed at our Zhao country or not, all countries should be informed so that they can take some measures." 33
"Pingyuan Lord." Zhao Kuo then turned to Pingyuan Lord aside and said: "Ai Qing and Yu Qing will discuss the matter of sending envoys and come up with a plan tomorrow. Before noon, the envoys to various countries will set off."
"Yes." Lord Pingyuan immediately agreed.
"The Qin army has such a large-scale attack, and our army has to be prepared." Zhao Kuo thought for a while and then said: "I sent an order to Zhou Qi to lead his own cavalry of 3,000, and supervise the 20,000 newly recruited Hu cavalry to go Shangdang General Lian Po's tent is under command. In addition, there are 20,000 infantry stationed in Daidi and 10,000 Hu infantry as the second echelon to rush to support Shangdang."
"In this way, in a short period of time, the Shangdang can increase its troops by more than 50,000." Tian Dan nodded silently, but then he was a little worried and asked: "Just these 30,000 barbarians?"
Of course, Zhao Kuo knew what Tian Dan was worried about. Zhao Kuo still understood the lesson of "Those who are not of my race will have different hearts."
"It doesn't matter." Zhao Kuo waved his hand and said: "First, the Hu people have just seen the combat power of our army, and they dare not have evil thoughts in the short term; second, I have control of the grain, grass and military supplies, which is enough to contain the Hu people's army; third, , the grasslands of Daidi are in the hands of our army, but if there is any abnormal movement, their families and children will be killed by them. Tiger poison will not eat its seeds, how about the barbarians."
"I would like to be taught." After hearing this, Tian Dan felt relieved a little.
"In addition, send an order to General Lian Po." Zhao Kuo then continued: "Now that the Hu people on my behalf have newly attached themselves, and there are insufficient troops, I have to go to the party's land and be on the defensive. If the Qin army really invades, guard Yewang City and the line of Kongcang Ridge. , it is a victory; if the Qin army invades another country, it will not be able to escape easily and rescue it for the time being. In a word, holding back and holding on is a great achievement."
"Yes." Tian Dan immediately accepted the order.
Some people died, but not completely...
