The day after Zheng Bu's division of the Han army crossed the Yellow River in Baimajin and joined the main force of the Han army, the Han army with a total strength of more than 150,000 troops finally arrived at the Puyang battlefield, and the 120,000 Western Chu army had already been in the deep ditch and high base under Puyang City, ready to meet the largest counterattack of the Han army since the start of the Chu-Han War.

This is also the third time that Xiang Kang has led the army to the Puyang battlefield, and he has long been familiar with the terrain and geography of the Puyang battlefield, so Xiang Kang did not spend too much effort to explore the terrain and find a suitable camping site, and directly ordered the main force of the Han army to camp on the plateau ten miles northwest of Puyang, next to the Yellow River, which was not a hanging river on the ground in this era, and then immediately led a team of cavalry to Puyang City with Guan Ying to personally explore the situation of the enemy camp.

Limited by the terrain, although the Western Chu army camp built in the south of Puyang City is not as easy to defend and difficult to attack as the main battalion of the Han army on the Xingyang battlefield, it is obviously much stronger than the Qin army camp that Zhang Han hastily repaired, and all kinds of camp fortifications have also been built and perfected, leaving no flaws and loopholes, and using wide and deep trenches to divert the water of the big river five or six miles north of Puyang City to the outside of the camp, forming an artificial river, protecting the east and west south three gates of the Western Chu army camp, which greatly increases the difficulty of the Han army's attack on the camp. It also offset the superiority of the Han army's strength and overall combat effectiveness to the greatest extent.

Fortunately, Xiang Kang was mentally prepared for such a situation, and he was not in a hurry, but patiently observed the various situations of the Western Chu army, and arrogantly and arrogantly directly under his own banner, climbed the gentle slope high ground southeast of the Western Chu army camp, and condescendingly peeked at the movements in the West Chu army camp, completely ignoring the soldiers of the West Chu army pointing at him in the camp, and he was already a little far away from the Han army camp.

At the same time, seeing that Xiang Kang was so arrogant that he dared to come to explore the camp of the army in person under the banner of the King of Han, all the generals of the Western Chu army were furious, and they all asked Cao Kang to allow him to lead a team of cavalry into battle and raid the cavalry team of the Han army led by Xiang Kang himself. Even Kui Che couldn't hold back a little, and said to Cao Ji: "Da Sima, Xiang Kang's rebel thief came to the outside of our military camp in person, peeping at the movement in our military camp, although he was obviously provoking and luring the enemy, but he was too arrogant, too far away from his main camp, we might as well send cavalry out of the camp to attack, and strive to create a miracle, and take down Xiang Kang's rebel thief in one fell swoop, even if it doesn't work, our cavalry can quickly withdraw to the camp before the Han thief sends troops to intercept it, and there will be no danger." ”

"So soon you forgot the king's instructions before leaving?" Cao Zhi glared at Kui Che, and said angrily: "When the king was leaving, he repeatedly told us to only defend the camp and not fight, Xiang Kang reversed and made it clear that he was deliberately luring the enemy, we knew that it was a plan, should we be deliberately fooled?" ”

"But we can't be static, we can adapt to the situation." Kui Che said unconvinced: "Xiang Kang's rebel thief is so far away from the Han thief camp, and the surrounding terrain is open, it is impossible to hide the Han thief ambush, what can we do if we only send part of the cavalry to try our luck?" ”

The same is true for the generals of the Western Chu army, they all feel that even if they have a small grasp, they might as well go out to try their luck, maybe they will really buy a lottery ticket and win the jackpot, but Cao Ji is worthy of being Xiang Yu's most trusted military deputy, saying that he will not agree to send troops to anything, and he also ordered viciously: "Pass the order, without the order of the commander, who dares to lead a soldier and a pawn out of the camp without authorization, no matter what it is, it will be immediately killed!" ”

In fact, Xiang Kang is really trying to lure the enemy, and wants to see if Cao Ji, who is kind to the old Xiang family, can calm down, and whether he will really not send troops out of the camp no matter what happens - with the protection of the elite cavalry of the Han army led by Guan Ying, and with the horse war weapon and sabre in hand, Xiang Kang is really not afraid of the Western Chu army sending cavalry to launch a surprise attack. Therefore, he deliberately tossed outside the Western Chu military camp for a period of time, and never saw a single soldier from the Western Chu army, Xiang Kang left the high ground with the Han cavalry and returned to the Han army camp on horseback.

On the way back, Xiang Kang instructed Guan Ying: "General Guan, starting tomorrow, you will personally command, let the cavalry under your command fight a scout strangulation battle for me, as long as there are scouts of the Western Chu thief army out of the camp, no matter what I can do, I must take him down or kill him, and if it is not good, the scouts of the Western Chu thief army must be driven back to the camp, no matter what, the scout activities of the Western Chu thief army must be limited to a radius of ten miles from their camp!" This is very important to our military, are you sure? ”

"The king is at ease." Guan Ying replied confidently: "The last general will arrange it when he goes back, and it will start tomorrow morning, but if there are scouts from the Western Chu thief army who can get out of the radius of ten miles from their camp, the last general is willing to accept military justice!" ”

"Very good, you can move the cavalry in the army at will, and you don't have to ask me for instructions on military supplies, just go and get whatever you want."

Xiang Kang nodded with satisfaction, relieved to hand over this important task to the baby, and after returning to the camp, Xiang Kang was not in a hurry to return to the Chinese army's big tent and discuss the tactics of attacking the camp with the Han army's civil and military forces, but went directly to the Han army's rear camp construction site to personally check the manufacturing of the Han army's new trebuchet - no matter how bad Xiang Kang's history is, he also knows that a certain trebuchet that appeared in later generations uses the principle of levers to drop bombs, and he has long asked Zhou Zeng and Chao Zhi and others to organize people to develop and study this kind of trebuchet in the rear of Guanzhong, and it has been successful. Now that the Han army has started a counterattack in the overall strategy, Xiang Kang certainly has no need to hide this kind of sharp weapon.

From the early morning of the next day, the poor scouts of the Western Chu army also fell into bad luck because of Xiang Kang's instructions to Guan Ying, under the instruction of Xiang Kang, Guan Ying divided more than 14,000 Han cavalry into two parts, carrying dry food, drinking water and horse feed to attack in turn, and in view of the fact that the scouts of the Western Chu army were divided into multiple teams in groups of twenty people, they kept wandering around the periphery of the Western Chu army camp, as long as they found that the Western Chu army scouts were out of the camp, they immediately rushed up to pursue without hesitation, We will not stop until we kill the scouts of the Western Chu army or drive them back to the camp.

The open area around the camp of the Western Chu army has thus become a hunting ground, and the scout patrol of the Western Chu army can be seen at any time not far from the camp, and immediately a team of Han cavalry rushed to the horse, holding a saber directly to meet the Western Chu army scouts, the Western Chu army scouts were forced to fight, and soon the second, third and even fourth Han army cavalry rushed to help, surrounded and annihilated the scouts of the Western Chu army with numerical superiority, until all the Western Chu army scouts were killed or forced to flee back to the camp.

There are also some Western Chu army scouts who are more intelligent, relying on their own horses, rushing to escape from the horses, and trying their best to shake off the pursuit of the Han cavalry, but this is a hornet's nest, the farther away the Western Chu army scouts from their camp, the more Han cavalry chasing them in front of them, and the Puyang area is open, there is no good terrain to hide and dodge, no matter how the Western Chu army scouts gallop wildly, there is never a way to get rid of the pursuit and interception of the Han cavalry, and in the end they can only be forced to fight.

In the era when there were no stirrups and high bridge saddles, the cavalry of the Western Chu army with spears and swords in their hands fought on horses, and of course they suffered very much in the face of the Han cavalry with sabers in their hands, and almost all of them were at a disadvantage in the immediate battle, and several Western Chu army scout patrols were forced to dismount and fight on foot in fierce battles, and they once relied on the temporary organization of the defensive circle formation, which once made the Han cavalry who fought on horses helpless, but what made these Western Chu army scouts frightened was that they did not fall behind even if they fought on foot, It still couldn't stop the Han cavalry from coming in an endless stream of reinforcements, so that there was a situation where one or two hundred Han cavalry besieged a Western Chu army scout.

"The Han thief cavalry is crazy, we are only such a small number of people, we just want to explore the surrounding situation, is it worth sending so many cavalry to fight us?" Many of the Western Chu army scouts were so exclaimed.

"Did the thief take the wrong medicine?" Cao Ji and the generals of the Western Chu army were also very surprised by this, and they all said in surprise: "In order to deal with our scouts, as for sending so many cavalry to fight the scout battle?" Even if they can gain the upper hand in this fight, how much can they win in a day? ”

In order not to be trapped in the camp by the Han cavalry and lose control of the outside situation and the movements of the Han army, both Kui Che and Li Zuoche suggested that Cao Zhi should not consider what the price should be, and resolutely continue to send cavalry out of the camp to investigate the changes in the enemy's situation, and Cao Zhi also adopted their suggestions, even if the number of scout losses has risen in a straight line, Cao Zhi still continues to send scout rangers out of the camp and continue to listen to the situation of the Han army at any cost.

However, on the second day, Cao Ji faintly regretted it, because on the second day, the Han army still dispatched a large number of cavalry, divided into countless squads to wander outside the Western Chu military camp and wait, frantically killing the Western Chu army scouts who dared to go out of the camp to patrol the sentry, the strength was stronger and more fierce than the first day, some of the Western Chu army scouts who were lucky enough to escape back to the camp also reported that they heard the Han cavalry shouting with their own ears, saying that they had obtained the head or prisoner of a Western Chu army scout, which could be exchanged for a high price of twenty gold, and at the same time, the casualties of the Western Chu army's scouts were getting bigger and biggerIn less than two days, more than 200 scouts of the Western Chu army were buried under the swords of the Han cavalry, and they also lost about the same number of valuable war horses.

This loss is not very big for the Puyang Western Chu army, which has a huge strength of 120,000 troops, of course, although Cao Zhi is distressed, but in order to grasp the enemy's movements, he still does not plan to give up sending scouts to investigate, but Kui Che still refuses to give up, and when it is just dark, Kui Che ran to Cao Zhi and said something unpleasant, and said: "Da Sima, the lower officer just went to ask our scouts out of the camp, and found that the situation was very wrong. ”

"Something is wrong there?" Cao Qi asked rhetorically.

"The exploration range of our scouts has been tightly sealed by the Han thief cavalry within a radius of ten miles of our camp, and it is even more difficult to get close to the Han thief camp ten miles away, let alone cross the Han thief camp and go to the rear of the Han thief camp to investigate the situation."

Kui Che first gave a general introduction to the situation, and then said: "This point is quite dangerous, we can't closely monitor the movements around the Han thief camp, we can't grasp the military situation of the Han thief, we don't know how their offensive weapons are prepared, how the delivery of grain and grass and military supplies, and I don't know why the Han thief cavalry is like crazy, desperately strangling our camp scouts, I have been secretly the enemy for so long, I am afraid that we will fall into complete passivity." ”

"What can I do?" Cao Ji helplessly spread his hands and said: "There are fewer scouts sent out, and they can't beat the Han thief cavalry, and there are more scouts sent out, which will allow the Han thieves to eat away at the opportunity to weaken our army, and send a large number of cavalry out of the camp, and it will give the Han thieves the opportunity to take the opportunity to fight with us, what can you tell me to do?" ”

"Da Sima, for the sake of prudence, we'd better arrange it like this." Cuicher proposed: "Send scouts out of the camp every night, under the cover of night, sneak to the rear of the Han thief camp and the perimeter of our camp to ambush in the distance, observe the enemy situation during the day, and come back at night to report, although it is troublesome, but at least we can grasp some changes in the enemy situation." ”

Cao Zhi was only a little moved, but after a little calculation, Cao Ji shook his head and said: "There is no need for that, the Han thieves only arrived in Puyang the day before yesterday, and they must be hurrying to make offensive weapons in the past few days, there will not be any big changes in the military situation, there is no need to spend so much effort to investigate their logging situation, let's wait for the Han thief cavalry to pass this strength, if the Han thief cavalry still blocks our scouts in the camp like this after a few days, we will find another way to investigate the enemy." ”

"But there must be a reason why the Han thief cavalry is so crazy to strangle our scouts." Kui Che insisted: "Da Sima, don't you worry about what tricks the thief wants to play, don't you want to quickly figure out the reason for the matter?" ”

"What else could be the reason?" Cao Ji replied quite confidently: "The Han thief cavalry is crazy like this, it must be because Xiang Kang's traitor wants to establish his prestige, wants to use the scout war to boost his morale, and by the way, provokes us and lures us to send troops to a decisive battle, apart from these, what other reasons can there be?" ”

Of course, Kuaiche would not agree with Cao Zhi's arbitrary analysis, and when he insisted and persuaded, Cao Zhi had already waved his hand and ordered the eviction of customers, and said: "Okay, Doctor Kuai, let's stop here, it's not early, Ben Shuai has to go to patrol the sentry in person, and if there is anything to say tomorrow morning." ”

Seeing that Cao was not persuaded to blame, Kuaiche had no choice but to retire in disappointment, but when he left the big tent of the Chinese army, Kuaiche met Li Zuoche, a guest minister of the Western Chu army in a hurry, and saw Kuaiche coming head-on, Li Zuoche hurriedly stopped him and said: "Doctor Kuai, it just so happens that the foreign minister has a very important situation to tell you, and the foreign minister has taken the liberty to inquire about the situation with your camp scouts, your army scouts have been blocked by the Han thief cavalry within a radius of ten miles of the camp for two consecutive days, which is very strange, and please be careful with your army." ”

"Guangwujun, you also found out?"

Kuaiche smiled bitterly, and then told Li Zuoche about what he had just negotiated with Cao Zhi, Li Zuoche stomped his feet and complained: "This Cao Da Sima, why is he so stubborn? Even if he decided that the thieves were deliberately provoking us and sent some scouts out of the camp at night to investigate, what did it matter? ”

"Shhhh Kuaiche hurriedly gestured to remind Li Zuoche, and said in a low voice: "This is our Chinese army camp, Guangwujun needs to guard against the wall and ears." ”

Li Zuoche hurriedly shut up, first thanked Kui Che for his kind reminder in a low voice, and then said: "Otherwise, I'll go and persuade Da Sima again, both of us put forward similar suggestions, Da Sima may adopt them." ”

Kuaiche was about to agree, but he didn't think that the night sky full of dark clouds suddenly turned white, and then there was a loud thunderclap, and then the raindrops quickly began to fall, Kuaiche saw helplessness, and said: "Guangwujun, let's talk about it tomorrow, it's raining, our big Sima prides himself on loving soldiers like a son, and he won't agree to send troops out of the camp on a rainy night." ”

Li Zuoche thought about it, so he had to sigh helplessly, and then hurriedly returned to their respective camps with Kui Che to avoid this sudden summer night thunderstorm.

…………

If Kuaiche and Li Zuoche insisted, maybe they would have made a great contribution to the Western Chu Army, because at the same time, Xiang Kang, who heard the thunder in the sky and saw the rain falling, was personally leading the team to patrol the camp, and he was so happy that he immediately jumped three feet high, and shouted, "God help me!" ”

After cheering, Xiang Kang's unprecedented battalion stopped patrolling, and while returning to his Chinese army tent quickly, he couldn't wait to order: "Quick, immediately go and select ten five hundred lords to meet me, and I want to do things well." Also, don't call me Yang, who is in charge of supervising the construction of offensive weapons, right away! ”

The soldiers followed the order, and then soon, not long after Xiang Kang returned to the Chinese army's tent, Yang Bu, the former apprentice of the Lingting blacksmith shop and the current Han army examination order, who was drenched in heavy rain and wet, was led to Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang didn't talk nonsense with him, and said with a wave of his hand: "No need to salute, listen well, give you a day and two nights, and before three o'clock in the morning (ten o'clock in the morning) the day after tomorrow, be sure to make all the weapons I gave you to attack, and there must be no mistakes!" If you don't have enough manpower, just ask, and I'll send it to you right away. ”

"Before three o'clock the day after tomorrow?" Yang Bu was a little dumbfounded, and said tremblingly: "King, it's not that your subordinates are making excuses, it's that there is absolutely not enough time, and there is not enough wood, and your subordinates can't make so many offensive weapons anyway?" ”

"How many do you think you can make?" Xiang Kang hurriedly asked.

"At most, more than fifty percent, I have to ask the king to allocate at least three thousand more soldiers to me to help." Yang didn't hesitate for a moment before replying.

Xiang Kang pursed his lips, and then said: "Seventy percent, I will allocate five thousand soldiers to you, and before three o'clock in the morning the day after tomorrow, at least seventy percent will be made for me!" ”

Yang Bu hesitated again, and then reluctantly agreed, Xiang Kang immediately waved his hand and said, "Then what are you doing?" Don't go quickly, I'll send the army to help you immediately, but remember, the quality must be reliable, dare to use defective products to fill me indiscriminately, be careful of your head! ”

Yang Bu bowed his hand and sang a promise, and then rushed down to organize the sappers to rush to work overnight, working overtime to make weapons for Xiang Kang. And then, ten Han army and five hundred lords were also led to Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang quickly explained to them, and then ordered: "Go back and prepare immediately, and when I get to the third watch, I will go out of the camp and go west, ten miles to the west, and bring back all the things I want, the more the better!" After the deed is completed, this king has his own reward! ”

"Remember two things, one is that the picked things must be packed in a wooden urn or bamboo basket, covered with a cloth, and must not be dried. The second is to issue a ban order, don't ask the king what he wants to do with those things, even if he comes back, don't tell others what you have done, if you leak the news, the king will punish you severely! ”

Ten Han army and five hundred lords hugged their fists and sang a promise together, and then hurried down to prepare, and then it was at this time that Xiang Kang remembered to give an order to Guan Ying, so that Guan Ying would further strengthen the scout strangulation battle tomorrow, and he must not let the Western Chu army discover the small movements of his own army. As a result, when someone was sent to give the baby an order to come to see him, a report suddenly came from outside the tent that Xu Cheng wanted to see him, and Xiang Kang immediately ordered to be summoned.

After a while, Xu Cheng, who was also a little wet in his clothes, was led to Xiang Kang, but after saluting, he only glanced at Xiang Kang, Xu Cheng smiled and said: "King, it seems that His Majesty has run for nothing this time, the King is full of joy, and his expression is still so excited, he must have thought of it with His Majesty, and made arrangements to send someone to collect those things." ”

"Mrs. Xu wishes that he is really a god, and sure enough, everything is expected by you." Xiang Kang gave Xu Cheng a thumbs up, and couldn't wait to ask: "Xu Taizhu, help this king take a look, after this thunderstorm, what is the weather tomorrow and the day after tomorrow?" Will it be a sunny day? ”

"The king forgives his sins, and his subordinates will only meet each other, not divinate the weather."

Xu Cheng shook his head and replied that Xiang Kang was disappointed, but fortunately, Xu Cheng smiled lightly and said: "But please rest assured, although your subordinates will not tell the weather, you can basically conclude that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow must be sunny." ”

"Really?" Xiang Kang's joy was not trivial, and he rushed over and grabbed Xu Cheng's little hand, and asked excitedly, "How did Xu Taizhu know?" ”

"Because the king has a good complexion and a light in the hall, things must be going well during this time." Xu Cheng replied with a smile: "So Your Majesty can determine that since the king hopes that the weather will be sunny tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, then the weather tomorrow and the day after tomorrow must be as good as your complexion, the king." ”

"Thank you, Mrs. Xu, for wishing good luck." Xiang Kang laughed, took Xu Cheng's little hand and shook it a few times, and praised in his heart: "It's so soft, and the skin is tender enough, it's no worse than my mothers-in-law there." ”