At the beginning of October of the fourth year of the reign of the King of Chu, seeing the black color on the map as the symbol of the Qin army approaching the border of Chu State day by day, Xiang Yan felt that his chest seemed to be oppressed by a black cloud, which made people breathless.

In the past half month, the information sent back by the front-line scouts has been constantly refreshed, and the number of the Qin army has continued to rise from the initial 200,000 and 300,000, until the recent "suspected to be 560,000"!

"More than 600,000 people ......"

Just hearing this number, Xiang Yan's son Xiang Rong let out an exclamation.

"Huaibei, Ludi, Huainan, Jiangdong, and Jiangnan in Chu together are only more than 600,000 households......"

Of course, there is water in this number, and many Yue barbarian settlements in the Jiangdong area of the south of the Yangtze River are unable to count the household registration, and the nobles including Xiang, Zhao, Jing, and Qu also have a lot of dependent population, but in general, the number of people in Quanchu is only five million.

"Qin will attack with the strength of the country, and the state of Chu can only know that the soldiers in the country will resist Qin."

If you want to use the same army against the Qin army, then, each household has to conscript one soldier, which means that the state of Chu wants to get at least one-tenth of the population out of labor and rush to the front line, in the state of Qin, this may not be difficult, but in the state of Chu, it is absolutely impossible!

Because the system of Chu is very different from that of Qin, its army is composed of three parts, the essence is the "left and right two Guangzhou" stationed in the national capital, this army of 20,000 people is the standing army of Chu State, and the king of Chu only transferred the right wide to Xiang Yan to use.

In addition, there were county divisions, which were the local troops of the state of Chu. It was mainly deployed in the border areas of the Chu State, led by the county officials, and mostly Huainan and Huaibei, and these county divisions constituted the main force of the Chu army.

But more than that, it was the private servants of the nobles in various places, and after the nobles of the feudal monarchs were called by the king of Chu, they gathered together with the temporarily conscripted territorial arms. Although the combat effectiveness of the soldiers of Xiang, Zhao, Jing, and Qu was not inferior to that of the county division, most of the private soldiers were complex and their combat effectiveness was worrying, and because of the different enthusiasm of the nobles for the war, some people supported the clan, while others hid half of the armament.

So at present, in Xiang Yan's hands, there are only more than 100,000 soldiers, and 200,000 people are available, which is already the limit of the load of the Chu State.

At this moment, with a notification, the door of the big tent was opened, and a middle-aged nobleman in his thirties entered the tent and bowed to Xiang Yan.

"Zhaohua was ordered by the king to lead a private pawn! I haven't seen it for half a year, and Shangzhu Country is still vibrant! ”

Xiang Yan hurriedly helped him up: "Zihua is hard! I don't know how many people Zihua brought from Jiangdong? ”

Zhaohua responded: "Thirty thousand! ”

"30,000 ......"

Xiang Yan nodded, the three major princes of Chu State, Zhao, Jing, and Qu, the Zhao clan came from Ziliang, the son of King Zhao of Chu, and many famous ministers of Chu State, such as Zhao Xixi, Zhao Yu, Zhao Ju, and Zhaoyang, are all from the Zhao family, and now they have been inherited for three hundred years, but they have declined after moving east, and they are no longer as prosperous as the Jing family, and the territory is not as big as the Qu family, but the people brought by Zhaohua are more than the Jing family.

Zhaohua knew the soldier, and he was also a young general that Xiang Yan was very optimistic about, so he pulled him to the map, pointed to the situation above, and said: "In such a situation, which big battle did Zihua think of?" ”

Zhaohua looked at the situation of the two armies on the map, and was a little worried: "It is very similar to the battle of Qin and Zhao Changping......

They are all big battles that determine the fortunes of the country, and they are all large armies of both sides gathered on the border, and fierce battles may break out at any time.

"Yes, but when Qin and Zhao fought in Changping, the strength of the Qin army was far less than today, and the Chu State couldn't even muster 450,000 people." Xiang Yan shook her head helplessly.

The eighteenth in-laws of Qin and Chu were originally equal, but in the past hundred years, the strength of the country is now high, low, and weak, which can be seen from the strength of the army.

The Art of War: One is the degree, the second is the quantity, the third is the number, the fourth is the weighing, and the fifth is the victory. The degree arises from the breadth and narrowness of the land, the vast territory of the land determines the amount of materials, the amount of military endowment determines the number of soldiers, the number of soldiers determines the combat effectiveness of the troops, and the combat effectiveness of the troops determines the merits of victory or defeat. Therefore, the victorious army is like a pole against a baht, attacking a weak enemy with great military strength; And the army of the defeated army is like fighting against Eridium, using weak military strength against a strong enemy.

Last time, the Qin State was in a hurry to attack Chu, and the two sides were still baht-to-baht, but now, they are baht-to-e-yi......

The past cannot be changed, Xiang Yan can only hope that this battle can repeat last year's miracle, so that the Chu State can get a chance to revive and slowly reverse the disadvantage!

So he smiled and asked Zhaohua and Xiang Rong, the two juniors: "Then according to you, how should our army deal with it now, is it a good scholar?" Or do you want to learn from Zhao Kuo? ”

Xiang Rong replied: "At present, the Qin army is numerous and the Chu army is outnumbered, according to the boy, the troops should be concentrated in Chen Ying and other important places to defend, stay up for several months, and wait until the snow falls, and the Qin army will retreat ......."

Zhaohua thought otherwise: "The mountains in the area of Shangdang Changping are vertical and horizontal, with ravines and many passes, so Lian Po can build a barrier and hold it for several months." However, Qin and Chu confronted each other in Huaibei, a horse and a flat river, the boats and vehicles were smooth, as long as the Qin army was willing, they could drive straight into it at any time like last time, so Shangzhu State could not follow Lian Po, and there was nothing to defend! ”

"Moreover, Shangzhu State ordered me to coordinate the grain and grass in the country, if the 400,000 people are counted, the grain stocks in Huainan, Huaibei, and Jiangdong are only enough for 400,000 soldiers to eat until February and March of the next year, maybe before the Qin army retreats, our army will run out of food first......

This is also one of the reasons why Xiang Yan is distressed, a large amount of land and population are concentrated in the hands of various clans, and there are not many handed over to the treasury, plus the extravagance of the monarchs and ministers of the Chu State, there is always no way to save a lot of food.

"On the other hand, the Qin State, which uses cattle fields and water to feed the grain, orders the strict government, and after a year of rest, it will wait until the domestic harvest to send troops, if it is a long war with it, the first to hold on to it is the Chu State!"

Xiang Yan groaned, and Xiang Rong asked, "That Zihua thinks that he should attack?" ”

"There is nothing to defend and nothing to attack, although the battle line of the Qin army is long, it echoes from beginning to end, and it can be saved by attacking Cai Zeyang City, and no matter which point is attacked, the number of Qin troops is more than our army, and it is not good to attack rashly."

"So what?"

In the current situation, Zhaohua has no good way: "I can only hope that the Qin army will take the initiative to attack, and the advantage of our army is to wait for work ...... leisure."

To put it bluntly, the initiative in this war is not on the side of Chu.

"Zihua is right."

Xiang Yan first affirmed Zhaohua's suggestion, but shook his head and said, "It's a pity that Wang Jian is not Li Xin!" He would never rush into action! ”

Xiang Yan's prediction was soon confirmed, and a few days later, a sentinel reported that Wang Jian had stationed 600,000 troops separately on a two-hundred-mile front from Yangxia to Shangcai. After those troops arrived, they did not immediately send troops to attack Chu, and they spent the whole day overhauling the walls outside the city camp at the junction of Qin and Chu, with the posture of staying for a long time......

"Sure enough."

Although Xiang Yan saw through Wang Qian's plan, she was helpless about it, so she could only say hatefully:

"It seems that Wang Jian Lao'er doesn't plan to compare with me this time, whose military struggle is more subtle, what he wants to compare with me is the national strength of Qin and Chu, and each other's patience!"

……

In the first month of the twenty-fourth year of the reign of King Qin (October), after several days of rushing to build, the Qin army camp outside Shangcai City has begun to take shape.

The people led by Heifu were all ready to enter the Chu realm to start a war, but Li You once again issued an order from the old general Wang Qian: "Each leader supervises the people and builds a barrier in front of the camp......

The so-called barrier is a defensive wall, after learning this order, the anxious Dongmen Leopard suddenly became a little crazy: "Are we here to attack Chu or to defend against the enemy?" Why did the Chu army build a barrier first before they saw it? Isn't that a sign of cowardice? ”

"The art of war cloud, the invincible, defend also."

Heifu had already expected everything, and said with a smile: "When the fighter plane is immature, it is a safe way to choose to defend first, which is better than in the last battle, General Li Xin rashly divided his troops and attacked, and the result was that the army was defeated and the general was killed." ”

It was not only the soldiers of Nanjun who were ordered to build the barriers, but also the 150,000 soldiers and men of the entire "Southern Army" commanded by Meng Wu must complete the construction of the more than 10-mile-long barrier this month, and the "Chinese Army" stationed in Yangcheng and Ruyang and the "Northern Army" stationed in Yangxia are at a whirlwind.

This kind of thing naturally has a professional counterpart official to command, in charge of the general project is a "supervisor of the imperial history" from Xianyang, named Linglu, and there is a Qin State official in charge of civil engineering "Sikong", 10,000 soldiers in Nanjun, ordered to protect the operation of 10,000 people, and there is also a military secretary to supervise the work......

Heifu is no stranger to the position of Sikong, because the county Sikong is under the management of the county lieutenant's office, and even if he is a subordinate, he also has the position of "military secretary" in the army, responsible for the civil work in the marching camp and siege and defense operations.

The Qin army was very efficient, Wang Qian's order was issued in the morning, and in the evening, a military commander went down to the camp.

It was getting dark outside, and Heifu was delivering military affairs in Li You's tent, when a short soldier came in and whispered a few words beside Li You, and Li Duwei threw away the small chess piece in his hand to identify the enemy's strength, and said with a smile: "I never thought that I could meet the old man here, Heifu, go out with me to meet this military commander!" ”

When the account was issued, Heifu smiled and said, "Could it be that the old acquaintance of the captain happened to come?" ”

"It's not just old knowledge."

Li You didn't have to hide a henchman like Heifu, and said in a low voice: "He is a talent discovered by my father, and he was recommended to Shaofu as an official, and when he was in Xianyang, he often came and went to my house......"

While speaking, one of them also came to him with the short guards, and although Heifu saw that although he was tall and burly, quite like a martial artist, his face was very gentle, like a scribe, wearing a double crown on his head, and his title was at least an official doctor, because he was in charge of the affairs of the earth work camp for several days, and the black official uniform was dusty.

This person stepped forward a few steps, waved at Li Youzuo, and said in a pure Guanzhong accent: "The subordinate has seen the captain!" ”

"Zhang Jun, what is the relationship between you and me, and what are you called?"

Li You laughed, helped up the military officer, pointed to Heifu, and introduced the two of them to each other.

"This is Captain Pontus's most powerful captain, Hef!"

"This is the military secretary from Xianyang Shaofu, Zhang Han!"