The Jin State raised an army of more than 100,000, and then eighteen states including Zheng, Chen, Qi, Yan, Ying, Dai, Cao, Xing, Bei, Zeng, and Lu responded.
The coalition army reached an astonishing 400,000, of which the Jin and Qi armies combined exceeded 250,000, and the rest were the armies of other small countries. In the end, the princes gathered in Chengpu. The army of the princes was on the side, and the princes of Wei quickly provided food and grass and sent troops to join them.
Hundreds of thousands of troops gathered here, and the sense of oppression made Marquis Wei sleep with his eyes open. How dare you think of having both sides. If he dares to do this, Weiguo will be divided up the next day.
Not even two days later, even the Song Dynasty obediently came to join the alliance, and swore that he was loyal to Bang Zhou, the emperor, and the Jin Kingdom. He also said that my parents are the ones who gave birth to me, and Bang Zhou is the one who lives me. , completely drew a clear line with the Huai State, and became sworn in with the Huai State.
That statement made even Wei Guo feel that he was shameless and ashamed!
After the alliance ended, the Jin State sent its army south to prepare to attack Huai State again. At the same time, the Chu State also prepared its troops and prepared to send troops.
The Huai State got the news immediately about the Jin's grand alliance and began to recruit large armies.
After Wang Yue's order was issued, General Wei Hong began to recruit soldiers and horses. After decades of development, the Huai State, especially the successful construction of Yong'an Canal, had a bumper harvest and accelerated population growth.
According to Huai State's military service system, under full operation, an army of 300,000 can be mobilized. Of course, Wang Yue would not do this unless it was a matter of life and death.
The Huai State conscripted an army of 200,000 people. At the same time, in order to deal with the Chu State, it sent a messenger to the Zhong State to ask it to recruit a large army to prepare for the Chu State.
The four kingdoms of Zhong, Huang, Cai, and Jiang recruited a total of 20,000 troops, while Huai sent 50,000 troops to garrison Han, and Wu also recruited militiamen to protect themselves.
Jin's army is indeed the strongest in the world, not much worse than Huai's army. More importantly, Jin's territory is vast, bordering Beidi, Loufan and other nomadic peoples, and they often trade horses with them. Therefore, Jin's The war horses are the best in Zhou Dynasty, and only Qin can compare with them.
The war horses of Huai State were only average in Bangzhou. After all, Huai State was not suitable for raising horses. Although the Huai Kingdom also has horse farms, the horses are somewhat stronger than those of the Chu Kingdom.
Due to the disparity between the horses and the large number of Jin troops, Huai could only hold on.
In the south, the Chu army recruited a large army and divided it into three groups. One group once again went down the Yangtze River to attack Wu, and the other group went south from Chao State to merge with Yue State to attack Huai State, and some of them annexed Huang State. , near Zhongguo to prevent them from attacking Chu.
The leader of the Chu army was Qu Lie, Qu Wan's son. When Qu Wan attacked Huang Guo, he was defeated and committed suicide. Now his son came to take revenge.
Qu Lie was a famous general in the Chu State. He was invincible in the Chu State's campaigns against the Nanman and Jingman. It can be said that the Marquis of Chu sent him out with great hope this time.
He wanted to defeat Huai State this time and take back the land of Zhongli and the old land of Wu State to avenge his previous humiliation.
This is not the first time for Qu Lie to go here. He has always wanted to seek revenge from the Huai Kingdom, so he often comes to the Huai Kingdom to survey the terrain. It can be said that I am very familiar with the terrain from here to Huai State.
"General, will our army attack Huaiguo directly?"
"No, the Huai State is powerful. Even if the north is now fighting against the Jin State, it still has enough troops to deal with our Chu State. Moreover, the Huai Army is strong in frontal attacks, and it also likes to cut off the retreat of the army's food and grass. If our army goes deep into Huai The land was easily surrounded by it."
"When we go to fight in the Huai Kingdom, we can easily be attacked by them. We can lure them out and then fight them decisively!"
"Then how to draw out the Huai army?" Xiong Tao asked.
"Attack Zhongguo! Force it to ask for help from Huaiguo!" Qu Lie said: "If Huaiguo goes to war, our army will cross Jianggonghan and cut off Huaiguo's retreat. If Huaiguo does not rescue, then we will directly annex and destroy Zhongguo." country! No matter what, it will be beneficial to our country of Chu!"
"General, you are worthy of being our general of Chu!" Xiong Tao said sincerely.
When the Chu army arrived near Chao Kingdom, they camped on the spot and stopped moving forward. Instead, they gave way to another road.
The army began to attack Zhongguo and Huangguo.
Zhong Guo, Huang Guo, Cai Guo and Jiang Guo gathered more than 20,000 troops to retreat to Zhong Guo.
The commander of the southern army of Huai State was Xu Yong, the son of Huaiyin Lord Xu Mao. Although he was not as good as Xu Mao in using troops and was invincible, he was cautious and used troops in a regular manner. Wang Yue sent him to command the southern army of Huai State for the sake of stability and to compete with Chu State for attrition.
Chu State mobilized a hundred thousand troops to attack Huai State this time. It can be said that this battle destroyed all Xiong Yun's savings over the years regardless of the outcome.
Chu State sent a large army to attack Zhong State, hoping to force Zhong State to ask for help and let Huai State send troops. But what Chu did not expect was that Wang Zhong actually blocked the attack of 40,000 Chu troops.
As Wang Yong's younger brother, Wang Zhong's skills in governing the country and fighting for power were average, but he was excellent at commanding an army. He adapted to local conditions and relied on the city wall to set up the Queyue Formation. The Chu army's 40,000-strong army attacked but could not break the formation. On the contrary, the losses to oneself are not small.
Seeing this situation, Chu State was unable to open up the situation for a while.
...
In the north, the Jin army moved south, and the Huai Kingdom made several attacks, but failed to achieve any results. With the advantage of chariots, the Tan Kingdom could be said to be a flat area from Xiapi, with almost no danger to defend.
Wang Yue wanted to follow the strategy of his ancestor Wu Zhaogong and go back to the rear of Jin to cut off its food routes. However, the Jin State had already taken precautions, and the army's grain and grass were transported in several routes. Even if one grain route was cut off, other grain routes would not be affected.
Wang Yue's idea of cutting off his food and grass was completely bankrupt, and because Huai's war horses were not as good as those of Jin's, the army suffered heavy losses due to detours.
Sun Shuao suggested that the army retreat to show the enemy's weakness and allow the Jin army to penetrate deep into the Huai region. By then our army is familiar with the terrain, but the Jin army is not, and it will be easier to cut off its retreat, but Wang Yue disagreed.
The state of Jin and the state of Huai had been in confrontation for a month. The two sides fought hard, with each other winning or losing. However, generally speaking, the coalition forces of the princes of the state of Jin suffered more casualties.
Hu Qing and Zhao Qing suggested to the Marquis of Jin that Qi should go south from Ju to attack Huai, bypass Xiapi and attack Huai'an directly. The Marquis of Jin and Shang the Marquis of Qi felt that this strategy was feasible, so they sent a large army to attack from Ju State.
After learning about this situation, Wang Yue had no choice but to lead his army to retreat. Directly abandon a large area of land north of the Huaihe River and re-build a defense line along the Huaihe River.
At this time, Huaiguo's intelligence network hurriedly came to report.
"Your Majesty, I have a plan to make Qi withdraw its troops!"
"What's the plan? Tell me quickly!" Wang Yue asked quickly.
"Your Majesty, Lu Yuan, the younger brother of Qihou Shang, has returned to the country!"
