The arrival of Lian Po and his troops came a few days later than Wang Lu expected.
Obviously, at this stage, both sides have basically made it clear: Zhao Kuo knows that Wang Lu wants to fight him, and Wang Lu also knows that Zhao Kuo already knows that he wants to fight.
The determination of both sides to fight decisively was also tacitly expressed in the silent waiting center.
It seems that both Zhao and Qin want to decide the outcome in an upright battle on the land of Han.
But in fact, both sides are using their brains. Just like Zhao State, not to mention his back-up, Zhao Wei's three thousand heavy cavalry are the best killing weapons, and Qin State is not that easy to deal with. At the same time, the troops from Hexi have already gathered towards Hedong, and a full 50,000 troops are about to pounce on Zhao's Shangdang.
Yes, after King Qin received Wang Lu's letter, he almost without hesitation began to deploy his troops according to Wang Lu's ideas.
The entire Qin State once again burst out with an amazing will to unite.
Soldiers, horses, ordnance, food and grass were all assembled in just a few days.
Just like the Battle of Changping, the old Qin people, including the King of Qin, always gave the most trust to the frontline generals at the most critical moment.
This was true for Bai Qi in Changping back then, and it is also true for Wang Lu today.
Just when Lian Po rushed to Xinzheng with the main army of Yanbei, the Qin army in Hexi and Hedong also gathered in place, and then they met the 20,000 Zhao army coming towards them.
Fortunately, before the Battle of Hedong started, Lian Po brought his 120,000 troops to the battlefield in Xinzheng.
After receiving the exact news, Wang Lu led 200,000 Qin troops to the north.
The two armies soon met in the fertile fields south of Xinzheng City. Yes, it was the fertile fields where 30,000 Korean troops were buried.
It's not that the Qin army is unwary, it's just that except for the south of the city, the terrain on other sides is either mountains and forests that are beneficial to Qin, or highlands that are beneficial to Zhao's army.
Only the south of the city is a fertile field that is fair and reasonable to both parties.
Naturally, the two sides, who had a tacit understanding, set the location of the decisive battle in the south of Xinzheng City.
What, why does it have to be near Xinzheng?
After all, in this way, the Zhao army's supply line will be much shorter than that of the Qin army.
However, considering that this war was started by Qin after all, it is reasonable for Zhao to take advantage, and the supply line may be the only advantage that Zhao can take. ..
Of course Qin can not come to Xinzheng, then Zhao can also choose not to fight!
The northern army has returned and is directly defending Xinzheng. Isn't it a sure win?
Only when the Qin army attacks in a large scale will Zhao have the need to fight.
Therefore, the choice of Xinzheng can be seen as a tacit understanding between the two parties, or as a request for a decisive battle that Zhao has not put on the table.
But no matter what, with the passage of time, the armies of Qin and Zhao finally opened up their posture in the south of Xinzheng City. After six years, the hundreds of thousands-level war between Qin and Zhao finally kicked off.
For this war, both sides invested in their respective countries, almost more than 70% of the field elites. If the secondary battlefield in Hedong is also included, the participation rate of the elite troops of Qin and Zhao could even reach astonishing Eighty percent.
It can be said that although the scale of this war was not as huge as the Battle of Changping, it was already a battle that determined the fate of the country.
Once any party fails in this battle, it will lose the initiative on the battlefield in the next five to ten years at least, and completely lose the qualifications for hegemony and unification at worst.
Therefore, both Qin and Zhao also sent their most capable generals to preside over the war.
Needless to say, as for the Qin Army, after Bai Qi and Sima Cuo were killed one after another, Wang Hao almost shouldered the burden of the Qin Army. As the future star of the Qin Army, Meng Ao naturally followed Wang Hao. In the decisive battle.
Compared with the Qin army, which was somewhat idle, Zhao Jun's general lineup was luxurious.
Zhao Kuo, now recognized as the number one general among the six nations,
Needless to say, his subordinates Lian Po and Li Mu were also revered as the four famous generals of the Warring States Period by later generations.
Of course, because of the "bright stars", it is difficult to determine the choice of coach.
It stands to reason that Zhao Kuo should be the best choice for the commander-in-chief, but Zhao Kuo himself knew that he won the battle of Changping entirely because he knew all Bai Qi's actions well in advance, and that he defeated the Yan army mostly because of Yan's actions. The army is too weak.
If Zhao Kuo really wanted to command hundreds of thousands of troops to fight against the Qin army, he would be exposed in less than two hours.
At the same time, Zhao Kuo is now the king of Zhao State after all, and fighting with the King of Qin Army with the dignity of King Zhao is obviously a bit price-deprecating.
For this reason, Zhao Kuo openly vacated the position of coach.
According to general principles, since Zhao Kuo is not the coach, it stands to reason that General Lian Po, who is more senior and experienced, should be the coach.
In particular, the main force of this army, a total of 120,000 troops, was brought over from Yan by Lian Po. Even judging from his familiarity with the military situation, Lian Po should be the coach.
However, to everyone's surprise, including Wang Lu, on the battlefield, next to the large banner set up by Zhao Jun, the flag with the word "李" in it was actually a flag with the character "李" flying in the air.
Yes, Zhao Kuo defied all opinions and handed over the position of coach to Li Mu.
It is said that he was fighting against all opinions, but in fact the main person Zhao Kuo needed to persuade was General Lian Po.
Fortunately, starting from the Battle of Changping, Zhao Kuo was able to convince Lian Po almost every time he spoke.
"The future always belongs to young people." This was Zhao Kuo's first and only sentence to Lian Po regarding the coaching issue.
This simple sentence contains a double meaning.
First of all, because the future will eventually be handed over to Li Mu, it is better to test whether the future can be handed over to the hands of Li Mu while you are still here.
Secondly, the future belongs to young people, but what about the past? Thinking again about the land of Yan State that Lian Po just won, this is already a great contribution to the world, although this credit needs to be shared with Tian Dan. It would be somewhat unethical to claim the credit for defeating the Qin army. (The credit for destroying Han belongs to Zhao Kuo.)
So, after a series of beatings, just one word was enough to make Lian Po give up his talents to Li Mu.
However, Zhao Kuo's consideration in handing the position of coach to Li Mu instead of Lian Po was not only due to the issue of credit distribution. It is not even just the inheritance of Zhao Jun. The next generation of Li Mu needs a huge victory to completely establish his position in the army.
More importantly, Li Mu would be more suitable to fight Wang Lu.
Without him, Lian Po and Wang Lu had been facing each other by the Bishui River for three years, and they had already become the most familiar strangers.
To put it bluntly, when these two fight against each other, if they move their butts a little, the other party will know what they want to do. Therefore, this battle is very likely to become a protracted war and a war of attrition between the two.
However, it is different when Li Mu is replaced as the coach.
Because of the presence of Lian Po, Zhao Jun could almost easily figure out his opponent's intentions, but his opponent Wang Lu couldn't figure out Li Mu's tactics at all.
With calculated calculations done intentionally or not, naturally, Zhao Guo's winning rate will become higher.
Lian Po may have figured this out, so he readily gave up the position of coach to Li Mu, and then became a bystander with Zhao Kuo.
Faced with the trust of the king and the entrustment of his seniors, the pressure on Li Mu's shoulders was heavy, but Li Mu was Li Mu after all. He quickly turned the pressure into motivation and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the upcoming battle.
So, on a sunny morning, the battle between the two armies officially began.
There are no surprises. The formations of the two armies are almost mirror images.
A large number of infantry were divided into several square formations and concentrated in the center of the formation. The spaces between the square formations and the left and right sides were filled by cavalry.
Within the infantry square formation, the equipment of various arms types was almost identical between the two armies.
Needless to say, those at the front are all shield soldiers holding long shields.
The long shield is made of hardwood as the base and the upper
The surface is covered with a thick layer of cowhide, and the cowhide is surrounded by iron sheets. The center is reinforced with rivets. The dual function of the iron sheet and the rivets not only firmly sticks the cowhide and the wooden core together, but also makes the wooden shield More defensive in nature.
Of course, if it can be completely covered with iron sheets, or simply made of iron as a shield, the defense will be improved.
However, in this era of scarcity of iron tools, rivets and iron sheets were already very luxurious. Even the Qin State was not rich enough to make an all-iron shield.
What's more, the defensive power of an all-iron shield is sufficient, but its weight will also reach a terrifying figure, which may not be suitable for today's battles.
Perhaps only by waiting for the emergence of steel can we have a lighter and stronger steel shield.
Of course, these are all things for later.
After the almost identical shield soldiers, there were naturally a large number of infantry holding spears.
The long spear can easily cross the barrier of the shield to attack the warrior behind it. It can also repel the shield soldier by stabbing, piercing, etc., thus providing other friendly forces with opportunities to kill.
As the saying goes, one inch is longer and one inch is stronger, and situations where a single sword can defeat a gun often only appear in movies.
In actual situations, a single sword attack with a spear is almost a crushing one. The cost of training a spearman is almost the cheapest among all arms.
Cheap and easy to use, this kind of unit has naturally become the "darling" of the battlefield. Therefore, among the many types of arms, spearmen are always the most numerous.
Similarly, in every battle, the spearmen suffered the most losses.
There is no way, rather than saying that they are the "darlings" of the battlefield, these spearmen are the "cannon fodder" of the battlefield.
But often it is the "jumping soldiers" who line up behind several rows of spearmen who can really make the final decision on the battlefield.
They are certainly the elite among the elite, and their armor is the most easily distinguishable feature.
Their mission is to break into the enemy's formation and open a gap in the enemy's formation. At the same time, they are also to block the gap if there is a problem in their own formation.
Of course, although they ranked behind the spearmen, they often did not appear on the battlefield for the first time.
After all, good steel should be used on the blade.
After the elite jumping soldiers, there are the long-range attack forces of both sides...
