Zhao Kuo really did not expect that the remaining three kingdoms of Qi, Chu, and Qin would be the first to fall in his hands. Neither the Qin Kingdom, which he regarded as his only opponent with hundreds of thousands of troops, nor the only one county left. The land was not the vulnerable Qi State, but the Chu State, which still had a vast territory and military resources.
There was no other way, but quietly, the King of Chu mobilized an army of 250,000 men to try to fight Zhao to the death.
However, the King of Chu had not yet set off, and his marching plan had already been put in front of Zhao Kuo's case.
Faced with the King of Chu's self-destruction, Zhao Kuo had only one reply: "Fight."
So, Li Mu took Zhao Wei and Zhou Qi and led 200,000 troops to the battlefield preset by the King of Chu, and had a "evenly matched" decisive battle with the King of Chu.
It wasn't that Zhao Kuo was reluctant to give Li Mu more troops, it was actually that Li Mu only wanted so many troops. Even in the initial "outcry", Li Mu only wanted 100,000 troops.
One hundred thousand versus two hundred and fifty thousand, this is really outrageous.
What's even more outrageous is that all the generals who heard Li Mu's "bid", including veterans Tian Dan and Le Yi, as well as new generals Zhou Qi, Sun Gu and others, all thought it was reasonable!
Seeing this, Zhao Kuo almost cursed.
Wang Jian required an army of 600,000 to conquer the Chu State. Hey, are you telling me that an army of 100,000 can conquer it?
Li Xin and Meng Tian, with an army of 200,000, failed to capture Chu State, and even had seven captains beheaded. It was a huge defeat!
However, to say that a arrogant soldier will be defeated, others may do so, but can Li Mu really know how to be arrogant?
And Tian Dan, Le Yi, such veterans, can they really make misjudgments?
Involuntarily, Zhao Kuo also began to reflect.
Speaking of which, Li Xin's defeat was very strange.
Not only was the battle process very strange, but the results of the main generals' handling were even more strange.
Let’s talk about the battle process first.
The content recorded in "Historical Records: Biography of Bai Qi and Wang Jian" is: Li Xin attacked Pingyu, Meng Tian attacked Xi, and defeated the Jing army. Xin attacked Yanying again and defeated it, so he led his troops to the west and met Meng Tian with the father of the city. The Jing people followed them and stayed there for three days and three nights. They defeated Li Xin's army and entered the two walls. They killed seven captains and the Qin army left.
Translated, it means that Li Xin and Meng Tian each led a large army and attacked Chu State (Jing) in two directions: east and west.
At the beginning, everything went smoothly. The attacks on Pinghe and Bedou were all "big defeats". It was obvious that they had made a lot of gains, so they could be called "big";
There was no problem immediately. After Yan Ying was defeated, the two armies joined forces.
But then something went wrong. The army had already arrived at Chengfu. Wasn't Shouchun the next step? Why was it "followed"?
What does "follow" mean?
It also means following.
What is tailing?
Obviously, it was not the Chu army that followed the Qin army in attacking Shouchun, but the Chu army in Shouchun that followed the Qin army.
In other words, the Qin army retreated inexplicably after the city father!
Why retreat? Seeing victory right in front of you, why did you retreat?
King Qin must not have given the order, otherwise the history books would not have mentioned it at all. This kind of retreat written in Spring and Autumn style is obviously not a bright retreat.
Combined with the speculations of later generations, it is very likely that the army was forced to retreat when it went deep alone and was cut off from food routes.
But it is clear that the Chu army has been "bigly defeated", and it still has to defend Shouchun. Is it still capable of cutting off the Qin army's food route?
Moreover, even if Li Xin and Meng Tian were slightly inferior to the veteran general Wang Jian, they were still famous generals. How could they be so easily cut off by the Chu army who had "big defeat"?
Forget it.
Occasional mistakes are not incomprehensible, but what is outrageous is that there is no mention in history of King Qin's treatment of the defeated general Li Xin.
Judging from his subsequent appointments to destroy Han and Qi, this tragic battle does not seem to have affected his status in the Qin court and army at all.
You know, Qin rules the world by law, and even the King of Qin cannot openly protect guilty people.
Not to mention that in the army that values the law most, even with the cover of King Qin, the defeated Li
It would be difficult for Xin to continue to gain a foothold in the military, let alone continue to lead the army to destroy the country.
Unless, the reason for this defeat is not Li Xin.
Combined with the rebellion of Lord Changping at the time when Chu was destroyed, a reasonable guess can be formed: Li Xin and Meng Tian's army was approaching Shouchun, ready to take down Chu in one fell swoop, but Lord Changping in Yingchen suddenly rose up in rebellion. Qin captured Yingchen and cut off the retreat of Li Xin and Meng Tian's army.
The grain road was cut off, and Li Xin and Meng Tian's army had no choice but to withdraw.
The most likely result is that Li Xin asked Meng Tian to go first in the name of the general, and then led his army to block the Chu army from Shouchun's attack. Only then was the Chu army beheaded seven captains.
Even though he was attacked from both sides, Li Xin still led his army back to Qin, and also preserved the strength of Meng Tian's troops.
In this way, the defeat was not Li Xin's responsibility. As the commander-in-chief, Li Xin also took the initiative to assume the responsibility of the queen. If such a commander-in-chief loves that, who can blame him harshly.
The King of Qin still had great trust in Li Xin, and it is not difficult to understand that Li Xin was still quite prestigious in the army.
Of course these are just family opinions.
However, judging from the fact that Li Xin and Mengtian's army was able to attack Chengfu with an army of 200,000 and threaten Shouchun, at least 200,000 troops were enough to destroy the Chu State.
As for what Wang Jian said, 600,000 were needed to capture Chu.
Zhao Kuo boldly guessed that the old man was afraid of doing this. After all, after the Battle of Changping in history, Bai Qi had the opportunity to wipe out Zhao in one fell swoop, but he was stopped by King Qin.
Even later, when Bai Qi didn't think there was a chance to destroy Zhao, he was urged by the King of Qin to destroy Zhao. In the end, he had no choice but to waste his troops and food, but he was sentenced to death by the King of Qin.
Past experience guide for the future.
In order to avoid being manipulated by the court, Wang Jian directly asked for all the troops in the country.
As long as the country's military strength is in Wang Jian's hands, no matter what unreasonable things the court wants to arrange, it will have to weigh his weight.
You know, at this time, Wang Jian can rebel if he really wants to.
Even if Wang Jian showed just a hint of dissatisfaction, King Qin would immediately find ways to satisfy the old general, and the method would naturally include borrowing the heads of certain people.
In other words, the 600,000 troops reported by Wang Jian were not actually used to deal with the Chu army, but more likely for self-protection.
Therefore, the actual number of troops needed to attack Chu should still be around the 200,000 mentioned by Li Xin.
After making this judgment, Zhao Kuo also repeatedly persuaded and finally got the 200,000 troops into Li Mu's hands.
Of course, in order to strengthen Li Mu's strength, the Qin army's heavy cavalry armor was collected, and the expanded 5,000 heavy cavalry also followed Zhao Wei to Li Mu's command.
After all, judging from the intelligence, the King of Chu placed the battlefield of the decisive battle on the plain near Shouchun.
Is there any force on the plains that can compete with the heavy cavalry?
Therefore, at Zhao Kuo's insistence, Li Mu also brought an army of 200,000 people and 5,000 heavy cavalry to the battlefield set by King Chu.
However, although Zhao's heavy cavalry is invincible in the world, the only one who has truly seen its power is the Qin army. Qin will obviously not report such information to Chu.
Therefore, the King of Chu was very excited about the arrival of Zhao's army, especially the news that Zhao's only 200,000 troops had arrived on the battlefield.
But even if he didn't know the existence of Zhao Jun's heavy cavalry, the King of Chu should have some understanding of Zhao Jun's combat power.
But I don’t know who gave him enough courage. King Chu actually chose to go out of the city to have a field battle with Zhao Jun. Even though the comparison in strength was 250,000 to 200,000, Li Mu looked at the Chu army as if he were looking at a group of dead men.
The battle soon began after the two armies arrived.
At the beginning, the two armies were still cautiously testing, and only eliminated a few ten or twenty thousand people to start the attack.
It's just that after the battle started, it was no longer completely controllable by the two of them.
As the war became more intense, the two of them invariably invested more troops.
From ten thousand to twenty thousand, from twenty thousand to fifty thousand, and from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand.
It should be said that in just one day, the two armies had already started fighting, and it was even more difficult to control the situation.
The coalition forces, which had been unable to retreat, burst out with impressive combat effectiveness, and for a while they were really at loggerheads with the Zhao army.
But overall, Zhao Jun was still able to do it with ease.
It's just a pain for Zhao Wei. He clearly has heavy cavalry in his hand that can instantly turn the battlefield, but it has never been put to use. Can you not be annoyed?
After several days of fighting, Zhao Wei had been asked to fight by the soldiers below countless times, and he himself had asked Li Mu for orders countless times.
It's a pity that Li Mu ignored the heavy cavalry battalion's request to fight.
Of course, Li Mu would not use the heavy cavalry as his trump card so easily. The effect of changing the battlefield was not what he wanted. What he wanted was always the final word.
In this way, the fierce battle between the two armies lasted for more than 20 days, without a winner.
Even the Zhao court had gradually begun to stir up trouble, suspecting that Li Mu was trying to support his troops.
Zhao Kuo laughed angrily at these people. Their reason was that Li Mu had previously captured Hanzhong, Dashan Pass, and Yangping Pass, as well as hundreds of thousands of Qin troops. It only took more than ten days. Now there is only one Shouchun and 250,000 Chu troops, but Li Mu still hasn't captured it after more than 20 days?
It can also be blamed that Li Mu captured Hanzhong too quickly, which Zhao Kuo never expected.
Of course, Zhao Kuo not only ignored such a memorial, but even secretly noted the person who submitted it in his notebook.
As for Li Mu on the front line, Zhao Kuo even sent a letter of comfort: Fight slowly, fight for as long as you want, and fight for as long as you should.
It is really an honor for Li Mu to have such a king.
This is of course based on Zhao Kuo's strong self-confidence. Apart from him, no one else in the world dares to be so confident.
There is no way, a battle in Changping has completely established its status in Zhao Junjun.
Not to mention one Li Mu, even ten or eight Li Mu are just the icing on the cake, and cannot be compared to him, the man who turned the tide from the fall.
However, Li Mu did not keep the meeting waiting.
Just one month after the war started, Zhao Wei was finally dragged onto the battlefield by Li Mu...
