As soon as the words fell, Zhao Kuo immediately knew that he had made a mistake.
He immediately raised his head and looked at Li Mu. Without waiting for Li Mu to speak, Zhao Kuo took the initiative and said: "This matter has nothing to do with you. The order for Sun Gu's troops to go east was agreed upon by everyone. The Chu State has defected, and no one can do anything about it." unpredictable."
Hearing this, Li Mu was suddenly moved.
Although Chu's defection was indeed unexpected, if Li Mu hadn't spread Zhao Jun's stall too much, Zhao Jun would not be so helpless at this time.
Originally, according to Zhao Kuo's arrangement, Sun Gu's army of at least 80,000 troops was going south to Xinzheng City.
This means that at least 80,000 troops can be mobilized to Huaisi County to fight the enemy at this time. Although it is still not enough, at least it can still fight.
If we include the 30,000 to 40,000 troops left behind in Zhicheng, Luocheng and Wei territory, that would be 120,000 troops. If commanded properly, it may not be impossible to repel the Qi and Chu coalition forces in Huaisi County. Xiu Shuzhu
Unfortunately, all of this was ruined by Li Mu's greed.
Faced with such a situation, it would be reasonable for a different monarch to reprimand Li Mu for causing all this, or even to directly resign and be imprisoned.
However, Zhao Kuo not only did not accuse Li Mu, but instead took all the blame on himself. How could this not move Li Mu deeply?
"There is no need to recall the past. The most important thing now is the next war." Zhao Kuo quickly continued to comfort him as if he was afraid that Li Mu would be immersed in self-blame and unable to extricate himself.
"Yes." Li Mu, who was quite touched, nodded quickly.
Then the two of them were immersed in the mountains and rivers of the map together.
Li Mu, who returned to the "battlefield", quickly found the key to the problem from the complicated battle situation: "Now that it has been determined that the Chu army's sneak attack direction is most likely to be in Huaisi County. Then we must first determine , this is Huaisi County, should we save it or not?"
After hearing this, Zhao Kuo also nodded, and after thinking for a while, he replied: "This time is different from the Qi army's attack. Firstly, the strength of the army has more than doubled, and secondly, the Chu army's combat power is higher than that of the Qi army." Therefore, it is not advisable to continue to trade space for time."
"An army of 320,000 can sweep through the entire Huaisi and Dong counties in less than half a month. After that, the Qi and Chu armies can go their separate ways. The Qi army will attack Hejian County to the north, and the Chu army will attack the Wei territory to the west. This will be a devastating blow to our army." Zhao Kuo continued to add: "Even if our army withstands the Chu army's attack in Wei territory, it will lose Huaisi, Dongjun, Hejian and Jibei. County, the price is too high."
"Huaisi County must be saved!" Li Mu felt that it made sense and nodded immediately.
"Must be saved." Zhao Kuo repeated.
"In this case, it's just a question of where to mobilize the troops." Li Mu then continued to unravel the problem.
"Yeah." Zhao Kuo also nodded.
"The closest one." Li Mu casually drew on the map and said, "Of course it's the army near Daliang. We still have 20,000 troops. I don't know if the surrendered Wei army can use them."
"We received a letter from Lu Buwei the day before yesterday. The reorganization of the Wei army is already halfway through, and it will take shape in a few days." Zhao Kuo immediately replied, "But now it seems that we can't wait for these few days. No matter whether it can be used or not, we have to pull it up." . It may not be possible to attack, but it is still possible to defend the city."
With a narrowed look, Zhao Kuo gave a direct answer. Indeed, once the main force of the Zhao army evacuates Daliang, but the surrendered troops of the Wei army remain in Daliang, who can rest assured?
Listening to Zhao Kuo's words, Li Mu was slightly happy. This was the only good news he had heard in half a day.
As for how many days Lu Buwei said it would take to take shape, judging from the time of sending the letter, it should have been sorted out by now.
With these tens of thousands of troops, Li Mu finally felt a little more confident.
"In this way, our army has its first support force - 70,000 people." Li Mu then concluded briefly.
"It's still a drop in the bucket." Zhao Kuo shook his head slightly and said, "One hundred and forty thousand versus three hundred and twenty thousand, it's still hard to defend."
"Zhicheng
And Luocheng, Quyang? Li Mu then suggested again: "There are still nearly 20,000 troops stationed in these three places. Maybe they can move eastward?"
"No." Zhao Kuo refused almost without hesitation: "Not to mention that the 20,000-strong army is a drop in the bucket, and the key points of the three places cannot continue to transfer the army. Among the three places, Zicheng and Luocheng are related to the food route, and cannot be tolerated. Lost; Quyang is the only way for Sun Gu's army to retreat, and an army of 20,000 is already the limit. The loss of Zhe City cannot be repeated. This strategy of treating headaches, head pain, and feet pain is not enough. "
"Hey." Li Mu nodded and said, "Yes."
With a "yes", the barracks fell into silence again.
There are only a few places where large armies are stationed. After dispatching the Wei army, the remaining places are the Xinzheng front line and Hedong County.
Even if Sun Gu from Hedong County were to fly, he would still have to fly for more than a month, so the only thing left was Xinzheng City in front of him.
However, if we want to break the siege of Huaisi County, we will need at least 120,000 troops based on the combat strength of the Zhao army and the coalition forces. A hundred thousand troops.
Will the 360,000 Qin troops in front of them let this opportunity pass?
It was obvious that both Zhao Kuo and Li Mu were in a situation where it was difficult for a clever woman to make a meal without straw.
"It's absolutely impossible to defend simply by defending."
After a long time, Zhao Kuo suddenly said this.
Li Mu, who was staring at the map for a moment, raised his head. Li Mu seemed to have grasped some possibility, but he could not grasp the key point.
Zhao Kuo did not mean to show off, and immediately pointed to the east of the map.
"Huaisi County is about to become the second battlefield." At this time, Zhao Kuo clearly had his wits about him: "But now there are only 140,000 troops on this battlefield, and there are nearly two troops in one east and one in the west. Not to mention that the Chu army has just captured Chendu and has probably not yet marched towards Huaisi County. From Chendu to Huaisi County, it will take seven days at the earliest."
"In other words." Zhao Kuo stared at Huaisi County on the map and said, "There are at least seven days left, and there are only two lone soldiers on the Huaisi battlefield."
"What is my king's intention?" Li Mu finally understood Zhao Kuo's intention, and then frowned and asked: "While the enemy's troops have not yet assembled, concentrate their forces to eat one of these two lone armies?"
"It's best to eat both!" Zhao Kuo said coldly: "It's best to eat both. At least eat one of them and defeat the other."
"Hiss." Li Mu was obviously shocked by Zhao Kuo's layout: "However, our army only has 70,000 troops in Huaisi County, and it will take at least four or five days to mobilize troops from Wei.
Xiu Shuzhu's time, plus the fact that 50,000 Wei troops may not be available, even if General Tian Dan gathers 60,000 troops in advance and uses 80,000 troops to eat up 70,000 Qi troops, there is not much certainty! "
"Indeed." Zhao Kuo nodded and said, "It is indeed difficult to eat 70,000 from 80,000 in two days, but what about 180,000?"
"180,000?" Li Mu looked at the map in surprise, trying to find the remaining 100,000 troops among the mountains and rivers.
Zhao Kuo naturally understood Li Mu's surprise and immediately gave the answer: "On the Xinzheng front line, there are exactly one hundred thousand cavalry troops now."
As soon as the words "Xin Zheng", "Cavalry" and "One Hundred Thousand" came out, Li Mu immediately understood.
Your Majesty wants to give the Qin army a time lag!
Taking advantage of the high mobility of the cavalry, they quickly mobilized troops from the Xinzheng front line and rushed to Huaisi County. Before the Chu army arrived at Huaisi County, they killed the two lone troops of the Qi army.
Indeed, with a force of 180,000, they could really devour the Qi army's lone army in one go.
But the problem is that the Qin army is not a fool. Not to mention the mobilization of a hundred thousand troops, it is difficult to hide it from the Qin army. Even the departure and march were lucky enough to be hidden from the Qin army. Once the battle of Huaisi County breaks out, the Qin army will He will also know the situation immediately. When the Qin army launches its 360,000-strong army, how long can it hold on with only 200,000 troops left inside and outside the city? .Ь.
One day, two days, three days or four days?
What if the Qin army dedicates another part of its force to intercept the cavalry returning to the city?
Once the army fails to return in time, Xinzheng City will inevitably be destroyed. Li Mu can hardly imagine the consequences.
This is simply gambling on your life!
But Li Mu had to admit that this was the only way at the moment.
Gritting his teeth, Li Mu clasped his fists and replied, "Don't worry, my king, but I still have one breath left, so the Qin army will never be allowed to cross the threshold."
"Hahaha." Zhao Kuo smiled when he heard this: "If we want to defend the city, we have to defend it."
Suddenly, Li Mu panicked.
Zhao Kuo did not give Li Mu a chance to argue, saying: "First, if I am here, I can attract the attention of the Qin army as much as possible. If I leave, I am afraid that the Qin army will immediately launch troops to find out where I am; secondly, , charging on the battlefield, especially the cavalry formation, a few people are not as good as a large number of ministers.
Therefore, if you defend the city, I will come; if you encircle and annihilate the Qi army, then Ai Qing will go. "
"This?!" Li Mu was speechless for a moment.
However, Li Mu was still thinking quickly and immediately suggested: "Should we order the reorganized Wei army to go south to reinforce Xinzheng? In this way, the number of troops in Xinzheng city will not be too sparse."
Hearing this, Zhao Kuo still shook his head and said: "If this is the case, when your army returns, Huaisi County will still only have an army of 890,000 or 90,000, and will still be controlled by Chu's 180,000 army. If you cannot destroy the two If we support the whole army, the situation will be worse. Such risks will be meaningless."
Listening to Zhao Kuo's explanation, although Li Mu was still unwilling, he could only nod silently.
Xu Shi saw clearly the worries in Li Mu's heart, and Zhao Kuo also smiled and comforted: "Actually, there is no need to do this. As long as you can quickly deal with the Qi army, the news will be spread from Huaisi back to Qi, and then from Qi to the Qin army, and It’ll take some time. It’s actually very safe here.”
Having said that, anyone who is not a fool knows the dangers of this move.
But it is a pity that Zhao Guo has to take risks in order to maintain this hard-won victory.
After finally weighing it up, Li Mu nodded.
"but......"
