The sailors commanded by Li Quan broke through the water city of Yingdu, and knocked a gap in the strong turtle shell of Yingdu, and the 5,000 sailors expanded the scope of the breakthrough along this gap all the way to the left, and in their rear, the 12th Army commanded by Zheng Xiaoyang and the 13th Army commanded by Tie Hyun also poured in from this gap, and the 15th Army commanded by Hutou and the 16th Army commanded by Hengdao attacked back and forth, breaking the Chu army of Xinye County, the outer barrier of Yingdu, and hundreds of thousands of Chu troops were gathered and annihilated in Xinye, and the solid defense of Yingdu was completely broken. Most of the Han army was under the city of Yingdu.

As a last resort, Qu Zheng withdrew all the remaining 200,000 defenders on the periphery into Yingdu, and the battle in Jingzhou began in October, and by the beginning of December, more than 300,000 of the 500,000 troops gathered by the Chu State had been defeated, killed, fled, or captured. The entire perimeter defense collapsed, and Yingdu became an isolated city in the true sense of the word.

Qu Zhong stood on top of the city tower, the howling north wind raised his full head of white hair, the wrinkles on his face were deeper than before, 200,000 people guarding the Yingdu City, it looks like a lot, but Qu Zheng is very clear, the current war is completely different from the past, the appearance of the heavy artillery of the Han army has made all the fortified cities no longer impregnable, and the war mode of relying on the number of people to win is gone forever.

The Chu people on the city wall are busy, piles of sandbags are lifted from under the city, and they are built on the city wall, in case the city wall is shattered by the artillery outside and there is no way to remedy it, countless bed crossbows, trebuchets are nervously debugging, but it is very clear that these long-range weapons are useless on the battlefield today, and the Han artillery far beyond their range can destroy them first without difficulty and make them unable to exert half of their strength at all.

By now, Qu Zhong has been well aware of the new tactics of the Han people, and when the infantry attacks, it must be a long time of fire preparation and whistling shells. It will destroy most of the defenders' long-range suppression weapons, and under the cover of the rear artillery, the infantry charges forward, and before the defenders can react or be in place, their infantry has already climbed to the top of the city, and some cities on the outer defense line are easily broken by the Han army.

The defenders of Yingdu learned these lessons. On top of the city walls, some hiding holes began to be laid out to hide soldiers, and during the shelling, these soldiers could hide in them, and as soon as the shelling stopped, they immediately rushed to the wall as fast as possible to prevent the enemy from ascending the city. But at this time, all they had at their disposal were the weapons in their hands and the simplest bows and crossbows and grenades.

I don't know how long Ying's can be kept. His only hope now was that Qu Wan would make a breakthrough, and that the Qin army would be able to enter the Han mainland as quickly as possible and force the Han army to return to the army to save itself.

"Captain!" Bi Xuan walked to Qu Zheng's side, his face was also very solemn. Bi Xuan was promoted after the first battle in Pengcheng and is an extremely experienced veteran. In this defensive battle, Qu Zheng also played a very important role. "The Han army was building a fort, and the general had carefully observed it, it was their heavy artillery, and the range could reach almost the center of the city. I was worried that the Han Chinese would bombard the city desperately and cause panic among the people. ”

"Don't worry, Gao Yuan prides himself on benevolence. He would never have done that. Qu Zhong shook his head, "Moreover, by doing so, he will get nothing but arouse the stronger hatred of the Chu people and a more resolute determination to defend Yingdu." General Bi, can you figure out any way to deal with these heavy artillery? Their threat to the walls was too great. ”

"It would be nice if the renovation work of Yingdu was a few years in advance, if the reinforced concrete structure was used to wrap the outer wall, the defense of the artillery attack would be greatly enhanced, even if it was to build more caves in the city!" Bi Xuan said with some pain: "But we didn't do anything. Now when the enemy came, we found that the city wall of Yingdu was too old, and some places were dilapidated, and these places that were repaired were the biggest hidden dangers! ”

"Who would have thought that Gao Yuan's strategy would actually be Chu first and then Qin!" A wry smile appeared on Qu Chong's face: "This is our biggest mistake, if Qu Wan's 200,000 army doesn't go out, the ending won't be like this, fortunately, now the Qin people also understand, if they don't make a move, everyone will be finished together, now, we can only hope that Qu Wan and the Qin people can beat the Han people's homeland into chaos, forcing Gao Yuan to return to the division to save himself, and then we take advantage of the situation to counterattack, so that Gao Yuan can ignore the tail." As long as we can do this, let the Han Kingdom completely fail once, we can at least win a few years or even more than ten years of recuperation time, with this time, Qin and Chu will join forces, and they will definitely be able to compete with the Han people. ”

Bi Xuan was silent for a moment, "Captain, I have a very bad conjecture, but I don't dare to say anything to people casually, for fear of messing up the morale of the army, but it is very sad to hold it in my heart." ”

Qu turned his head and looked at Bi Xuan: "When is it, what else can't be said, can the situation be worse than now?" ”

Bi Xuan hesitated for a moment, and finally said: "Tai Lieutenant, since the Han army began to attack our Great Chu, which lasted more than a month, it defeated our Great Chu troops from all over the country and occupied most of our land. If the Han army wanted to stop the Taiwei, their cavalry could completely intercept some local troops from entering Jingzhou. But they didn't. ”

Qu Zheng's face changed slightly: "What do you want to say?" ”

"At first, I thought, is Gao Yuan thinking that after we transfer troops from all over the country into the Jingzhou Theater, he will destroy the last essence of my Great Chu in one go, so that we will be devastated from now on, and there will be no strength to resist, and we will solve the problem once and for all, so as not to make them feel troubled by the appearance of resistance forces in various places after the war." Bi Xuan said.

"Or maybe he just has this kind of thought, but he may not have thought that we will unite the forces of the Qin people and attack it to save it." Qu said.

"Captain, what if Gao Yuan had thought of this? Could it be that Gao Yuan naively thought that a peace agreement could make Lu Chao honestly be a turtle with a shrunken head in Xianyang? Bi Xuan asked rhetorically.

Qu Zhong took a deep breath: "The wise man has a thousand thoughts, there must be a mistake, the Han army has been invincible since the day it became an army, and the defeat in Pengcheng is one of the few defeats they have ever seen, and the arrogance of the victorious division must be there, and furthermore, the internal turmoil in the Qin State has just been quelled, or Gao Yuan did not expect that Lu Chao would calm down the domestic turmoil in such a short time." ”

"Yes, it's one possibility, but I'm worried about another." Bi Xuan said heavily.

"Another possibility?"

"Yes, Gao Yuan and Lu Chao grew up together, and later fought many times, if there is anyone in the world who knows each other best, I am afraid that it is none other than the two of them. What worries me is that what Gao Yuan wants to do once and for all is not only for us Chu people, but also for Qin people. ”

"What do you mean by that?" Buckling the color-changing tract.

Bi Xuan's face was as white as the snow that was flying: "Captain, I've been thinking about this question for the past few days, if things are really as I thought, Gao Yuan has thought about everything, we are waiting for the Qin people to send troops, and he may be waiting for the Qin people to send troops." If the Qin people retreat in the country, the Han army will have to attack city by city, which will take a long time and the losses will be great, but what if the Qin people come out? What if Gao Yuan had already set a trap for the Qin people to get into? That battle, as long as Gao Yuan wins, it will be a real one-and-done, destroying our Chu State and eliminating the last strength of the Qin State. ”

The bent face also turned pale, his hands clenched involuntarily, and his nails were deeply embedded in his palms, "You, how did you have this idea?" ”

"The speed of the Han army's attack." Bi Xuan sighed: "Since entering the Jingzhou Theater, the Han army's attack has been unhurried, and it seems that it is moving forward every day, but in fact, their attack is to change the troops, today's one, understand that one, and attack in turns, which is also what I found after I was idle in the past two days, thinking of this possibility, and reading the previous military newspapers." They didn't do their best at all, but since the Qin people came out of the division and Qu Wan entered Yingzhou County, the attack of the Han people suddenly accelerated, Taiwei, they are like a bamboo, the water division fights, let us see the strong offensive ability of the Han people, our water division is not an opponent at all, since this is the case, why didn't Gao Yuan open the gap from where before? Could it be that a hundred battle generals like Gao Yuan couldn't think of it? Even if Gao Yuan couldn't imagine that there were so many generals under him, no one could not think of it? ”

"The sudden acceleration of the attack speed is obviously that Gao Yuan wants to speed up this battle, because he has already obtained what he wants, and now the Qin people must have made a large-scale sortie, entered the Han realm, and began to fight, since the snake has come out of the hole, Gao Yuan naturally wants to take us down as quickly as possible, and then turn back to clean up the Qin people."

The bowed head was raised high: "Or you are right, but we still have 200,000 troops in Yingdu, are we muddy, he can take it if he wants to?" Let him attack, we Chu people will let him see, what is the Great Wall of Flesh and Blood! ”

Bi Xuan nodded silently, what could he say? If everything is as he said, if the Qin army suffers a devastating defeat, the state of Chu will also be finished, and he is willing to make all this his own delusion.

When Qu Zhong and Bi Xuan were standing on top of the city tower, in the Han army position in the distance, on top of the tower erected high, Gao Yuan was also slowly retracting the telescope in front of him: "Xu Yahua sent a letter to Guguan, Wang Changyong went out of Shannan County, Qu Wan, Meng Yong attacked Yingshui, the enemies who should come out almost came out, and the task of Yingdu was completed." In the early hours of tomorrow morning, the general offensive begins! ”

"Yes!" Above the tower, dozens of generals bowed in unison. (To be continued.) )