Chapter 1016: Success in the East and Success in the West (Part 9)

There had just been a heavy rain on the grassland. The rain washed the blood-stained grass clean, revealing its green color again. The rich smell of blood was swept away by the spring breeze, and the slightly sweet smell lingered again. In people's noses, as the sun begins to clear after the rain, various small insects crawl out from the ground and are active at the bottom of the grass or at the tips of the leaves. A fluffy dragonfly flies around in the sun, stopping at the tips of the leaves from time to time. , tremblingly rising and falling with the leaf tips.

A spring rain brings infinite vitality to the grassland.

However, Wang Xiao's face was extremely defeated. Shang Kexi not only ran away, but the five thousand cavalry pursued by Wang Jian were almost eaten up by He Lanxiong. Before Wang Xiao's army arrived, He Lanxiong had already left. Without a trace.

Rows of corpses of Qin soldiers were placed on the grass. Thousands of corpses were a spectacular sight.

The sound of hoofbeats rumbled in the distance, and the banner with the word Li appeared in Wang Xiao's field of vision. He sighed and stepped forward to meet him. Although they were both generals, Li Xin's status was obviously not comparable to that of Wang Xiao.

"I've seen General Li!" Wang Xiao cupped his fists and saluted Li Xin.

Li Xin nodded, turned over and dismounted, and looked at the headless corpse of the Qin army on the grassland with a sad expression. "Have you heard about the whereabouts of He Lanxiong's main force?"

"The scouts reported that He Lanxiong's main force has retreated towards Jishi City." Wang Xiao said.

"Where are his cavalry?" Li Xin then asked.

Wang Xiao was stunned, "Should he be with his main force?"

Li Xin glanced at Wang Xiao, shook his head and said, "Definitely not. If my prediction is correct, He Lanxiong should have withdrawn his infantry to Jishi City, and his cavalry troops would definitely be hiding like wolves at this time. It's watching us from somewhere, ready to pounce and bite us at any moment."

"But I have sent out scouts for dozens of miles around and found no trace of them." Wang Xiao defended.

"He Lanxiong was born and grew up on the grassland. His familiarity with this land is much better than ours!" Li Xin said: "I just speculated on his actions based on his temperament. He will never be willing to retreat to the Qinghai-Tibet Autonomous Region. For those who guard Shicheng, the grassland is their home, but for us, it is very dangerous. It was a big mistake on our part not to block him in Daijun. The sky is high and the birds can fly. The sea is wide and the fish can swim. Now let him slip away. I don’t know how much effort it will take to catch him again.”

"This is my dereliction of duty!" Wang Xiao said with some shame: "After capturing Feng Fayong, I originally thought that Shannan County could be defeated in one go. Who could have imagined that the Han army would be so fierce and stubborn, and our army paid a huge price. This We just took Shannan County, but time did not wait for us, and He Lanxiong was as cunning as a fox. He actually ran away when he saw that the situation was not going well."

"Now is not the time to discuss responsibilities." Li Xin shook his head and said: "Since He Lanxiong has not been blocked, the next step will naturally be a hard battle. Jishi City is the most important military town in Han Dynasty, and most of his The military industries are all distributed in Jishi City, so we must win this goal. The Hetao area is his grain-producing area. If we capture these two areas, the Han Kingdom will lose its powerful wings. If it can fall back to the previous level of the Yan Kingdom, then there is nothing to fear. General Wang, you go to Hetao, and I will attack Jishi City. This time, there will be no mistakes."

"Wang Xiao understands!" Wang Xiao nodded heavily, "It's just that this time the journey is far, and the tens of thousands of civilians I recruited in Jiuyuan are not enough. I wonder if General Li can send a message back to the country and ask the king again Recruit civilian men to transport food and grass for you and our armies."

"No need!" Li Xin smiled faintly, "Gao Yuan has been working hard to manage Jishi City and the Hetao area over the years. Gao Yuan, among other things, has a way of paying attention to people's livelihood. The Hetao area has a good harvest every year. I heard It is said that the food there cannot even be piled up in warehouses, and the caravans cannot transport it. There is a lot of food in these places, and we fight to support the war, so we use the enemy's food to feed our army."

"Robbing?" Wang Xiao said in shock.

"Zhengfa!" Li Xin corrected. "From now on, they will all be the subjects of Da Qin. It is their right to make some contributions to Da Qin now. It is their blessing."

"That's true!" Wang Xiao laughed.

"It is enough for tens of thousands of civilians to guarantee us a certain amount of food. We will raise the rest in the Han Kingdom ourselves." Li Xin looked at the vast grassland, "And no matter how many civilians are recruited, on this grassland, the cavalry will The traffic is like wind, how many troops can we send to protect the grain road? I'm afraid He Lanxiong is staring at our grain road now!"

"We can also force Zhao Ren to raise food for us!" Wang Xiao said.

"That's natural. Let Zhao people raise food for us and protect it for us." Li Xin said with a smile: "Zhao Qi is scared out of his wits now. As long as we don't march to Handan, he will agree to anything. Hahaha, I have a hundred thousand troops here, and Meng Tian and Lu Chao also have a hundred thousand troops. If he dares to raise his teeth and the two armies turn around, they can destroy his Zhao country in an instant."

"It's just a matter of time!" Wang Xiao said.

"The State of Zhao is probably still hoping that we will fight with the State of Han and both sides will suffer, right?" Li Xin smiled confidently: "But their hope is doomed to fail."

Wei Guo, Daliang. Zhou Changshou overturned a major case. His beard and hair were spread out. He sat on the ground, covered his face with his hands, and cried loudly. Although it was said that he had betrayed Zhao Guo and joined the Han Dynasty, but in his In his heart, he always thought that it was Zhao Qi who forced him to take this step. His heart was still thinking about Zhao. One hundred thousand soldiers of the Hedong camp were wiped out, which made him feel like death. The army is the foundation accumulated by General Zhao Mu, Zhao, Wu Zeng and others through hard work for many years. It is precisely because of the existence of this 100,000 army that Zhao has been able to contend with Qin for so many years.

"Asshole, I knew Jing Rufeng was not a good person. Otherwise, why would General Zhao have been suppressing him for so many years and not letting him have a chance to get ahead in our army? Our army of 100,000 people is just gone. ." A big man in hiding burst into tears in the room. In the Hedong camp, almost none of the senior generals of Zhao Mu's line were cleaned, but the countless grassroots officers could not be cleaned. Many of them were. They were his old subordinates of Zhou Changshou, but now they are all gone, and they died in a confused and unclear manner.

A pair of big hands pressed on Zhou Changshou's shoulders, "Brother Zhou, please send me your condolences!"

Zhou Changshou raised his head and saw the haggard faces of the infantry, "The deceased is gone. Now we must brace ourselves to deal with the powerful enemy in front of us. We have just received news that the armies of Meng Tian and Lu Chao have merged into one. Under Meng Tian's unified command, more than 100,000 troops have already rushed towards our defense line."

Zhou Changshou jumped up and said, "I will fight them to the death. If I don't avenge these 100,000 soldiers of the Hedong Camp, I will never be a human being."

The infantryman nodded: "The Qin people are our common enemy. I just received the news that Zhao Qi opened Shanggu County. Li Xin led an army of 100,000 people out of Shanggu and captured Dai County. Wang Xiao led another army to attack After leaving our Shannan County, General Feng Fayong died in battle, and General He Lanxiong had to withdraw from Dai County and retreat to Jishi City. Now, it has reached the most critical moment, whether it is Commander He Lanxiong or our side, anyone If there is a problem on one side, the Qin army can march straight into the heart of our Han Dynasty."

"They have an army of one hundred thousand, but the troops we have now are not much less than theirs, and the King of Han will definitely send reinforcements." Zhou Changshou said loudly.

"That's natural." The infantryman nodded, "But something happened suddenly. This time, the King of Han probably couldn't have expected it in advance. It always takes time to send out reinforcements, but before that, he had to inform We have withstood it. Brother Zhou, you now have 20,000 people, I have 10,000 people, and the new Wei army has 30,000 people. This is all our strength. In terms of military strength, we are not as good as The other party may not be able to compete with the other party in terms of combat effectiveness. The main force of the 100,000 Qin army came from Meng Tian's troops. Even under Lu Chao's command, they were elite divisions that captured the entire Han Dynasty and most of the Wei state. Both sides The balance of power is still very disparate.”

"Since ancient times, there are countless examples of battles in which the weak defeated the strong." Zhou Changshou said.

The infantryman laughed, "General Zhou is right. If you really want to say it, our Han army has been fighting at a disadvantage in terms of strength over the years, but it has never lost, even if it suffered a small setback at the front." , but in the end, we will always win, but Brother Zhou, there is one thing I want to say up front. Our three armies now need to unify their powers and can only have one voice."

"Of course there is no problem. My subordinates, Zhou, will obey your orders, General Bu, and they will only follow your lead."

"Thank you so much, Brother Zhou!" the infantryman said.

"I don't ask for anything else. I just want to be able to reach Xianyang as soon as possible, capture Li Xin, Meng Tian, ​​Wang Xiao, and Lu Chao, beat their muscles, and peel off their skins!" Zhou Changshou was filled with fear.

"General Zhou, a senior official from our Oversight Council has come and wants to talk to you alone." The infantryman suddenly changed the subject and said.

"Senior official of the Supervisory Council, who is Niu Ben?" Zhou Changshou, a senior official of the Han Dynasty Supervisory Council, only recognized Niu Ben.

"No, the rank is much higher than Niu Ben. He is the deputy director of the Overwatch Council, Yi Bin, who specializes in foreign affairs." The infantryman smiled.

Under the dim oil lamp, Yi Bin, dressed in black, was like a ghost. The position where he sat happened to be in the blind spot of the oil lamp, and his whole person seemed to be blended into the darkness. And the position where Zhou Changshou sat happened to be In the brightest place of the oil lamp, this feeling made Zhou Changshou feel a little uncomfortable.

"General Zhou, I believe you already know the affairs of Zhao State very well." Yi Bin said quietly.

"Of course." Zhou Changshou said through gritted teeth. "Zhao Qi is a lone man and a traitor. If the Zhao Kingdom dies, he will surely perish at his hands."

"Zhao Qi now dominates the country with one hand, and the failure of Hedong Camp on the Guanzhong Plain has made Zhao Qi tighten his control over the country, because he knows very well that Zhao Jun's defeat has put his position in jeopardy Now, in Zhao State, an undercurrent against him is raging, but they lack a leader now." Yi Bin said.

Zhou Changshou's eyes narrowed slightly, "You mean..."

"Yes, I'm talking about you, General Zhou. You were General Zhao Mu's deputy at the time, and you also had a high prestige in the army. Although Zhao Qi has been purging General Zhao's forces over the years, he has always been a low-level officer. It cannot be cleaned. Our Supervisory Council hopes that you, General Zhou, can return to Handan, secretly of course, and that you will come forward to gather the forces of the Handan Guard Wu troops who oppose Zhao Qi, so as to overthrow Zhao Qi's rule." Yi Bindao.

Zhou Changshou swallowed his saliva, "If I go to Handan, then here?"

"Here is the infantry general." Yi Bin said: "General Zhou, Handan needs you more now." (To be continued)