Chapter 040: Zhao Gao's Traces
Li Zuochelan: "According to scouts, Meng Tian's army slowed down after leaving Shangdang's territory. I don't know what conspiracy is. I ask my king to make a decision early."
At this time, the seventh-point soul of King Zhao had been scared away, and only three-point soul was trembling. What else could he make a decision? King Zhao said incoherently: "Cheng...... save me!"
When Li Zuoche saw that all the ministers were trembling and silent, he was helpless. After all, he was the back of the general and had a lot of strategies, and said slowly: "The king can lead the civil and military ministers to retreat to Qi County in the northeast direction. I will lead the army to resist Meng Tian and buy time for the king to evacuate. Then I will go to meet with the king."
When King Zhao and the ministers heard Li Zuoche say it, they quickly responded: "Okay... OK..." They dispersed everywhere and went home to pack up their things.
Li Zuoche returned to the Prime Minister's Mansion and discussed strategies with his staff against the enemy. It did not disperse until late at night. He planned to start transferring the army outside the city into the city after dawn and putting in close defense. When the people in Julu City were asleep, the soldiers who had been practicing outside the city for a day were tired and slept more sounds. Suddenly the earth began to shake, and the huge vibration sound was getting closer and closer. Peng Yue, who was guarding the military camp, instantly understood what was going on. It turned out that the Qin army was swaying and slowly marching was confused, and sneak attack was their true intention.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Han Xin's main cavalry force entered the military camp. Peng Yue knew that organizing resistance was useless because the military camp was already in chaos. So Peng Yue made a quick decision to lead the five thousand troops of the central army to retreat directly, enter Julu City, and head to the Prime Minister's Mansion to protect Li Zuoche to escape.
King Zhao had already ordered the guards to pack up their things in the day. Although he was sleepy, he heard Li Zuoche's order to escape immediately. He got up in panic and fled in the car prepared by Li Zuoche for him.
Han Xin used a trick to dress Qin soldiers in the form of Zhao army. The difference between enemies and us was the weapon in his hands. After entering the Zhao army camp, he rushed to the scene. At this time, the Zhao army was in chaos and could not distinguish between enemies and us, and they started to kill each other.
Han Xin did not stay in the military camp for more time, and led 5,000 cavalry to rush into the city to capture the King of Zhao. Unfortunately, King Zhao had already fled, and none of the civil and military ministers of Zhao State had escaped and were arrested. When Meng Tian led his army to arrive, everything was over. Han Xin apologized for not being caught by King Zhao and Li Zuoche. Meng Tian comforted and praised Han Xin with no intention of blame.
So Meng Tian left 50,000 troops to Wang Wei, Meng Zhi continued to hunt down King Zhao and Li Zuoche, and he led the rest of the troops and Han Xin and Ji Bu back to Xianyang together. Han Xin shocked the world through this battle. After the affirmation and publicity of Meng Tian and others, he had become a famous general in the Qin court.
After Feng Jie entered Wuyang City, Xiang Yu surrounded Wuyang City and attacked for half a month day and night. Both sides suffered heavy casualties and still had no choice but to win. On this day, Xiang Yu followed Fan Zeng's proposal and temporarily stopped the attack. Fan Zeng suggested that he divided his troops to attack Xingyang and prepare to seize Hangu Pass, and the troops headed straight to Guanzhong.
Xiang Yu was already furious by Wuyang's desperate defense. He refused to listen to Fan Zeng's proposal and insisted on continuing to attack the city in the afternoon. After a battle to defend the city, Feng Jie here had only more than 20,000 troops. He was about to be unable to defend it. Just today, the Chu army stopped attacking and discussed breaking through.
Feng Jie divided the army into two groups. He and Meng Xin each led more than 10,000 yuan. Meng Xin led Li Wen and Wang Xiao to break through the west gate together. Feng Jie led his army to break through the north gate, and agreed to join Xingyang City after breaking through and then ask for help from Xianyang and Meng Tian.
In the afternoon, Xiang Yu was about to launch a general attack, and suddenly news came that the Qin army broke through from the west gate and the north gate. Fan Zeng quickly ordered Xiang Yu from the east gate to support Long Ji to the north gate, intercepted the breaking army, and then led the South Gate troops to the west gate to intercept the breaking army.
Because Meng Xin had experience in confronting the Chu army outside the city last time, he arranged crossbow archers on both sides, and the cavalry and infantry rushed to the central army. The crossbow archers on both sides shot arrows in front of the central army to cover the central army to kill the enemy formation.
When Fan Zeng saw that the formation he arranged to restrain the Qin army to break through the Central Army was not effective, he quickly changed the formation. However, Meng Xin's Jiuyuan cavalry had already rushed out and turned back to rescue some of the troops in the crossbow arrow formation. After Meng Xin broke through, only more than 5,000 troops fled to Xingyang.
Feng Jie was not so lucky. He was surrounded and strangled by Xiang Yulong and these two famous generals from all over the world. He was unable to break through the siege after several charges. Finally, Xiang Yu pierced his chest with a spear and sent him to see Qin Shihuang.
After Xiang Yu entered Wuyang City, he carried out a tragic massacre of the city with the anger of being stubbornly resisted by the Qin army, regardless of the dissuasion of Fan Zeng and others. The news came out and the world was shocked.
The news of Feng Jie's death in the country was sent back to Xianyang, and the ministers of the Qin court burst into tears, and Feng Quji fainted three times.
Before Meng Tian's army returned to Hangu Pass, he received an order from Fusu and immediately led his army to support Xingyang. Meng Tian ordered Han Xin to lead 5,000 troops to cooperate with the original defenders to guard Hangu Pass. The general of Hangu Pass was changed to Han Xin, and Fan Jie was the deputy general. He led Ji Bu and led 100,000 people to turn eastward to support Xingyang.
Xiang Yu lost 150,000 troops when attacking Wuyang, but Fan Zeng was full of wisdom and made many plans. In a short period of time, he captured the strong men and added 200,000 troops. Xiang Yu's army besieged Xingyang reached 350,000.
When Meng Tian led his army to Xingyang, Meng Xin and Li You stayed deputy generals organized military and civilians to defend the city, which was already shaky. Fortunately, Meng Tian's tooth flag appeared from the west, and the morale of the entire army was boosted.
It is said that generals are the courage of soldiers, the skin of human beings is the tiger. Meng Tian’s reputation is well known throughout the world. Meng Tian’s arrival allowed the defenders of the Qin Dynasty to see hope for victory from the brink of collapse.
Fan Zengke was so angry that he was almost consuming Meng Tian. Seeing that Xiang Yu was about to capture Xingyang and headed towards Hangu Pass, Meng Tian's arrival changed everything.
Meng Tian listened to Meng Xin's report on the confrontation between Feng Jie and Xiang Yu's army in the city. Meng Tian observed a long time of silence for Feng Jie, affirmed Meng Xin's progress and dispatch, and pointed out Meng Xin's shortcomings. He should learn to predict the enemy first.
Meng Tian then ordered the new army to replace the exhausted defenders and continue to defend. As Meng Tian led his army to the arrival, the soldiers and civilians in the city felt very comforted as if they had won a battle. Meng Tian also ordered them to go to Xianyang to send more reinforcements, and at the same time suggested that Wang Li come out to guard Hangu Pass and let Han Xin come to Xingyang.
Fan Zeng also knew that at this moment, he would only increase casualties by attacking Xingyang City, so he asked Xiang Yu to withdraw his siege troops to discuss countermeasures. Xiang Yu despised the world and did not take Meng Tian seriously at all. However, Fan Zeng had the authorization of Xiang Liang, and Fan Zeng's Tibetan army strategy when sending troops, so he could not expose his strength, so he had to suppress his anger and stop the attack.
Fan Zeng and the others discussed for a long time but couldn't figure it out. When they were planning to find a way to lure the Qin army to attack, a mysterious man suddenly came...
Two days later, Hangu Pass received an imperial edict, ordering Han Xin to leave two thousand defenders, and the rest were led by Han Xin to Xingyang to reinforce the city. Fan Jie was a veteran. He had seen the imperial edicts many times and checked the seal to confirm that it was correct, so he asked Han Xin to execute it.
When Han Xin was mobilizing his troops, he looked at Hangu Pass and found that this pass was easy to defend but difficult to attack and was extremely dangerous, which determined the fate of Xianyang to a certain extent.
So Han Xin ordered the door to be closed and blocked the door with stones after he led his army to leave. The Qin general who had not known him was not allowed to open the door. Fan Jie felt it was strange and still implemented it.
On the night after Han Xin led his army to leave, tens of thousands of soldiers suddenly appeared under Hangu Pass. They took advantage of the night to knock on the gate and let the defenders open the door.
Fan Jie was shocked and felt that Han Xin was really good at predicting things. Fan Jie ignored the army under the control and directly asked the soldiers to shoot arrows and kill them.
Seeing that there was no hope of opening and closing the door, the generals under the lockdown had to raise the banner to attack the situation. It turned out that Zhonglimei was leading the Chu army.
That night, the mysterious man who visited Xiang Yu's camp was sent by Zhao Gao, and gave Fan Zeng a blank imperial edict with seals... Fan Jie knew that he had been deceived by the imperial edict again this time, and also knew that his troops could not defend Hangu Pass. He immediately lit a wolf smoke and sent a fast horse to ask Xianyang for help. Zhong Limei followed Fan Zeng's strategy and launched a crazy attack. The defending Fan Jie was miserable.
In Xianyang Palace, Fusu received Meng Tian’s suggestion and transfer order. Fusu asked Yu Wei Liao for advice. He affirmed Meng Tian’s suggestion and added several arrangements, suggesting that the calm Zhang Han lead a 50,000 army north to inspect the old place of Yan and Zhao, to shock the remnants who were about to move; and to join with Wang Wei’s army to go east to inspect Qi State and search for Zhao Gao’s traces.
Fusu ordered General Wang Li to immediately lead a 100,000 army from Lantian Camp to lead a 100,000 troops to Hangu Pass. On this day, Wang Li's army encountered the quick horses sent by Hangu Pass to seek help while advancing, and Xianyang also saw the wolf smoke signal from Hangu Pass.
Wang Li ordered the army to advance at full speed, and Xianyang also sent envoys to Hangu Pass. When Wang Li's army arrived at Hangu Pass, the closing gate was just broken by the Chu army. The Chu army was about to rush into the gate to seize the gate.
Wang Li immediately ordered the front army to start to protect the pass and drive the Chu army out of Hangu Pass. The Chu army, who had secretly marched to Hangu Pass, hid in the morning and went out at night, and was exhausted at night. The Qin army brigade of reinforcements suddenly arrived, and the Chu army was instantly depressed. In less than half an hour of fighting, they withdrew from the pass.
General Wang Li entered the Hangu Pass, and Fan Jie was also injured. Fortunately, his life was safe. The defenders basically lost their combat effectiveness, so Wang Li took over the defense. Then Fan Jie told Wang Li about the cause and effect of the matter, and Wang Li also sent a message to Fusu.
When Zhonglimei saw that the Qin army had reinforced and the sneak attack plan to capture Hangu Pass and advance to Xianyang was failed, he decisively sent an order to retreat from the original route.
Wang Li is not a genius like Meng Tian and Han Xin. When he saw Zhong Li Mei retreating, he did not pursue the victory, because the army still had to rush to Xingyang! He left 20,000 troops to guard Hangu Pass. Wang Li and deputy general Feng Guangli (son of Feng Jie, who asked the emperor to not stay at home to keep mourning, but went to the national crisis to avenge his father) led 80,000 troops to rush to Xingyang.
Chapter completed!