Finally received affirmative answers from both Qi and Chu, and Chu, the grandson of Qin, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After regaining his courage, Zi Chu immediately gave Wang Lu on the front line the order to continue fighting.
In order to prevent the news from leaking, Zichu did not even use flying pigeons. Instead, he arranged for the leader of his personal guards to go to the front line of Xinzheng to give Wang Lu a dictation of the situation.
Now that we have chosen to continue fighting, although time is not insignificant at this time, it is no longer so urgent.
After all, whether it is the State of Qi or the State of Chu, it takes time to mobilize troops, and this time is enough for messengers to travel back and forth several times.
But what the Qin Army, or Qin State, has to do now is not to rush to a decisive battle with Zhao State, but to delay Zhao State as much as possible and wait for the arrival of reinforcements from the two countries.
Confidentiality is of course the most critical aspect.
However, the secret content is not that Qi and Chu will participate in the war, but Chu's side.
Obviously, no matter whether it was Qi or Chu, it was impossible for such a large-scale troop mobilization to be hidden from the eyes of Zhao. Zi Chu was betting that the State of Zhao would not think that the State of Chu would be on the side of the State of Qin.
In fact, the reason why Qi Guoguo agreed to send troops was that in addition to seeing the threat from Zhao, Chu's defection was also one of the important factors.
And this is also the biggest winner between Qin and Zhao.
Sure enough, with the actions of Qi and Chu, Zhao Kuo, who was on the front line of Xinzheng, soon received the news.
As expected, Zhao Kuo did not take the news to heart as Qin Guo thought.
This really cannot be blamed on Zhao Kuo. From his perspective, there is really nothing to worry about.
As for Qi State, Zhao Kuo has arranged for Tian Dan to lead an army of 70,000 to return for reinforcements. Even if he cannot defeat the Qi army, with Tian Dan's ability, he can at least delay the Qi army.
On the Chu side, the message given to Zhao Kuo was to attack Chendu in the rear of the Qin army. Zhao Jun had nothing to worry about.
On the western front, Sun Gu has led the army to attack the important town of Quyang, and is making final preparations to march into Hedong and Hexi.
On the eastern front, Tian Dan's troops have returned to Huaisi County and begun to reinforce the defense lines along the way.
In the middle, the 50,000 reinforcements led by Zhao Kuo and the 90,000 troops led by Zhou Qi and Zhao Wei have also arrived at Xinzheng City. On the front line of Xinzheng, although the Qin army has 360,000 troops, Zhao Jun's strength has also reached Reaching a terrifying three hundred and ten thousand.
Naturally, it was impossible for all the 310,000 troops to be locked up in the city, so according to Li Mu's order, Zhou Qi and Zhao Wei's troops and the 30,000 cavalry brought by Zhao Kuo, totaling 120,000 troops, were all ten miles southeast of the city. They set up camp outside and formed a rivalry with Xinzheng City.
With such a formation, not to mention that the Qin army only had a strength advantage of tens of thousands. Even if there were hundreds of thousands more, they would probably be able to do nothing.
Behind the middle road, in the newly acquired Wei territory, a series of families including the King of Wei were moved to Handan, and Lu Buwei also rushed to Daliang City with Lejian and the three thousand new recruits he had just recruited. Xiu Shuzhu
Facing nearly 70,000 Wei surrendered troops, Lu Buwei also hurriedly began to select and reorganize them.
Once the reorganization is completed, Zhao will immediately have an army of at least 50,000 people.
In addition, there are more than 20,000 Zhao troops in Wei's own territory, as well as Zhao troops stationed in Zicheng, Luocheng, Quyang and other places.
This will be another army of more than 100,000 people.
This army may not have many ripples when it is deployed on the current battlefield, but when the Qin and Zhao armies are engaged in a fierce battle for a long time, the effect will probably be no less than that of the Wei army in the Battle of Changping. .
It can be said that judging from the current information from all parties, everything is developing in a direction favorable to Zhao State. As long as he waits for time to develop, Zhao Kuo can get almost everything he wants.
However, what confuses Zhao Kuo and Li Mu is that such a development should not be unclear to Wang Lu on the opposite side.
However, the Qin army is still hoarding in front of Xinzheng City and has not been mobilized at all.
Judging from the battle report sent by Sun Gu, the Qin army
It only added a few more than 10,000 troops at Hangu Pass. As for the Qin army in Hedong and Hexi, it did not increase any troops at all. XiuShu.com
In other words, after the Zhao army's formation was clear, the Qin army made almost no moves.
Is the Qin army really so brave? Place all your hopes on the Qi army? Even the Chu State, which is about to move behind, is ignored?
Zhao Kuo obviously didn't believe that the Qin State was so stupid. But except for the direction of Qi State, where he might be at a certain disadvantage and in certain danger, Zhao Kuo really couldn't think of any loopholes.
Not only Zhao Kuo, but also Li Mu, Zhou Qi and Zhao Wei were also confused about the Qin army's intentions.
Immediately, Zhou Qi also suggested that some of the 20,000 troops in Wei territory and the reorganized Wei troops be transferred to Tian Dan to strengthen the defense of Huaisi County.
It should be said that there is nothing wrong with making up for your only shortcomings.
However, the position of Wei State is almost at the midpoint of all battlefields. Starting from here, we can rush to support various battlefields in the shortest time. If we leave, it will inevitably cause disadvantages to the reinforcements.
Therefore, it is obviously not a good idea to hastily mobilize when you are not clear about your opponent's intentions and when you have exhausted your available mobile forces.
Zhao Kuo naturally rejected Zhou Qi's suggestion.
As a result, Qin and Zhao even fell into a stalemate for a while.
The State of Zhao was waiting for the reorganization of the Wei army, waiting for Sun Gu to knock on the gate of Hangu, and waiting for the Qi army to invade Huaisi County.
Qin is also waiting, waiting for the moment when the armies of Qi and Chu arrive on the battlefield.
Finally, while the two armies were waiting, autumn quietly left and winter came quietly.
Fortunately, Yingchuan County, which is the main battlefield, is not as cold as the north, but it is still somewhat tainted with the breath of winter.
While the braziers were being lit one by one, Wang Lu finally waited for the news of the Qi army's westward advance. However, one day later, there was news of the Chu army's northward march.
In the winter of 253 BC, Qi State tore up its alliance with Zhao State and poured out all its troops, about 150,000 people, divided into two groups, the left and right, and attacked Huaisi County where Tian Dan was located.
It should be said that Qi State really took the risk this time.
An army of 150,000 is already the upper limit of the force that Qi State can send out today.
In this way, the 150,000 army was divided into two groups. It was not that the two groups were easier to contain, but the masters of the two groups were not from the same group.
Yes, the king and ministers of Qi State reached an agreement on sending troops to defeat Zhao, but the two sides still did not trust each other.
Naturally, the 150,000-strong army was forcibly divided into two groups by these two forces.
This is of course a huge benefit to Zhao Jun and Tian Dan. After all, there is a fundamental difference between two armies of more than 70,000 people and one army of 150,000 people.
In fact, if Tian Dan didn't only have 70,000 horses in his hands, Tian Dan would even have the intention to eat one of them directly first.
In fact, Tian Dan's arrangement is exactly the same.
Regarding the two armies of the Qi State, Tian Dan adopted the method of attacking one and letting the other go. That is, he strictly defended the Qi army on one route and did not allow him to move at all, while he gave way to the Qi army on the other route and left them alone. Go deep.
Obviously, Tian Dan wanted to stagger the two troops so as to divide and control them.
This kind of tactics is not clever. As long as there is a general, or even just a central coordinator, or even the two armies can report progress from time to time, this problem can be solved well.
It's a pity that the Qi army really doesn't have such a coordinator, let alone informing each other of the progress of the situation.
As a result, less than five days had passed since the Qi army entered Huaisi County, and the distance difference between the two armies had already reached a terrifying two days.
In other words, if Tian Dan starts to strangle one of the teams, it will take at least two days for the other team to catch up.
This obviously no longer has any cooperation and tacit understanding at all.
It's a pity that Tian Dan's troops are limited.
There are so many, and it is still impossible to kill 70,000 people in one fell swoop.
However, Tian Dan was not in a hurry at all. As time went by, the Qi army occupied more and more territory, so it was necessary to allocate more troops to occupy the city. When the strength of the Qi army on the front line dropped to a certain level, At that point, it was his turn to strike. .Ь.
With Huaisi and Dongjun in hand, Tian Dan had enough strategic space to fight the Qi army.
So after receiving Tian Dan's military report, Zhao Kuo was completely relieved about the battle situation in the east.
At the same time, good news came from the battle to the west.
After dozens of days of offensive, Sun Gu's 100,000 troops (all 20,000 troops from Kongcang Ridge also went south and returned to the armies of Zhicheng and Luocheng, numbering 100,000), finally completely occupied Hedong County, and in The important town Anyi was garrisoned and rested.
Of course, although Sun Gu had an army of 100,000, it was not impossible to seize Hangu, but Zhao Kuo did not give him such a difficult order.
After occupying Anyi, Sun Gu actually controlled the Qin army's reinforcement route from Hanguguan to Hexi.
Needless to say, the next move is to control Hangu in the south and then attack Hexi County in the west.
The only thing standing in front of Sun Gu was the surging river.
With the arrival of winter, not only the water volume decreases, but also ice begins to freeze in many places. There are ferries almost everywhere along the long river coastline.
In Hexi County, the Qin army with less than ten thousand people could not stop Sun Gu's troops at all.
According to Li Mu's estimation, even if everything does not go too smoothly, Sun Gu's troops will be able to resolve the battle before the year. Of course, if everything goes well, within one month, the two counties of Hedong and Hexi will be included in Zhao's territory.
Just when Zhao Kuo and Li Mu were discussing the war in Hexi in detail, an unexpected news finally came - the Chu army occupied Chendu.
This should have been a very happy thing, but what happened next gradually exceeded Zhao Kuo and Li Mu's expectations.
These accidents finally made Zhao Kuo and Li Mu see the seriousness of the situation in front of them.
