Is it possible to directly kill Xiang Yu in the territory of Zhao or Jibei and end the Chu-Han War that has lasted for nearly two years in one fell swoop?

Faced with the question raised by Xiang Kang, most of the Han army civil and military forces attending the meeting did not rush to speak, only Zheng Bu, a typical martial artist, immediately expressed his support, and immediately said: "King, no matter how great the hope is, we should already try our best, anyway, we now have an army of 150,000 on the Julu battlefield, it is better to take this opportunity to pursue Xiang Yu, the puppet king of Western Chu, with all our might, and it is of course best to be able to directly get rid of this tyrannical and unscrupulous thief king, even if we can't succeed, we will at most just let the army run hundreds of miles in vain, The losses will not be huge. ”

Xiang Kang is actually this idea, taking advantage of the two major corps to gather on the Julu battlefield, and also taking advantage of Xiang Yu's not going far, to pursue it with all his might, and to take the opportunity to kill Xiang Yu directly, of course, it is the best, if you can't get the right time to retreat, it will be great to lose a little food and grass time, and it will not cause any big consequences. So after listening to Zheng Bu's words, Xiang Kang first nodded, and then asked Uncle Zhou, Chen Ping, Zhang Liang and others, "Everyone, what do you think of General Zheng's proposal?" ”

After hesitating for a moment, Uncle Zhou spoke: "Your Majesty, from a tactical point of view, Your Majesty thinks that the Emperor's plan is a bit too radical, and there is no need for us to make such an attempt. ”

"Why?" Xiang Kang immediately asked the reason, and said: "General Zhou, let's talk about it in detail, and carefully point out the pros and cons for this king, you know that this king has always heard it and is happy, and it doesn't hurt to speak out." ”

"Then your majesty will be presumptuous." Uncle Zhou cleared his throat, and then said: "First of all, there is very little hope of succeeding in such an attempt, Xiang Yu, the puppet king of Western Chu, has a very short temper, and it is possible that we will return to the army for a decisive battle because we launched a pursuit, but he is not a fool, he must know that with the current 20,000 elites in his hands, it is absolutely impossible to be the opponent of our 150,000 army, so unless he is completely dizzy, he will definitely meet with his rear army first, and then turn around and fight with us." In this way, the possibility that we can directly kill the puppet king of Western Chu is almost impossible to exist. ”

"Secondly, now that we are taking the initiative to advance eastward and fight a decisive battle with the Western Chu army, the battlefield geography is too unfavorable for us." Uncle Zhou continued: "Zhao Qi and Qi are bounded by the big river, we wave our army to pursue, as long as the puppet king of Western Chu is not confused, he will definitely choose to confront us in the plain and fight a decisive battle, because the ferries and rafts in that area are all controlled by his subordinate Jibei Army, that is to say, in the decisive battle there, he can take the initiative on the battlefield, attack if he wants, and defend if he wants, and we do not have enough boats to cross the river, so we can only be beaten passively, and the consequences may be unimaginable if we are careless. ”

"Taking a step back, even if we transfer a fleet from the Puyang battlefield to cross the river as before, the situation will not be in our favor." Uncle Zhou continued: "Because no matter how many boats we transfer to cross the river, it is absolutely impossible to transport 150,000 troops across the river to fight a decisive battle with the Western Chu thief army at one time, but it will give the Western Chu thief army a chance to break us through, even if we barely rush across the river, the loss will definitely not be small there, and it will not be conducive to our decisive battle with the Western Chu thief army after crossing the river." ”

Xiang Kang nodded silently, and also admitted that if Xiang Yu chose to fight a decisive battle on the plain battlefield, his army would hardly have any hope of victory, after all, no matter which Han army was a fierce general, he was not sure to block Xiang Yu's fierce attack when crossing the river.

"In addition, the supply of food and grass is also a big problem for us." Li Zuoche opened his mouth and added: "Julu has just been broken, there are still many cities and lands in Zhao State that have not been surrendered, it is very difficult for us to raise grain on the spot, and the remnants of the Jibei thief army have cut off our northern grain route, and it is difficult for our 1560,000 army to hold on to the plain battlefield for a long time. As for the water transportation of the big river, our grain convoy must cross the eastern part of Dongjun and still controlled by the Western Chu thief army, and it is very easy to make mistakes and the danger is very great. ”

"Yes, that's a problem too." Uncle Zhou nodded, and said: "So Your Majesty thinks that we will now march eastward to take the opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Western Chu thief army, and the hope of winning is there, but the premise must be based on two foundations, one is that Xiang Yu is stupid, and he will fight a decisive battle directly if he does not meet with his rear army, and the second is that Xiang Yu is stupid, and does not choose to fight a decisive battle on the plain that is favorable to him, and it may be hopeful to expect Xiang Yu to make a mistake, but it is very unlikely that he will make these two fatal mistakes at the same time." ”

"Since Hope is pitifully small, then there is no need for us to try." Li Zuoche took over the conversation again and said: "Instead of wasting time and manpower and material resources to fight for this negligible hope, it is better to directly free up your hands and give priority to sweeping the land of the city of Zhao that has not yet surrendered and surrendered, annihilating the remnants of the Jibei thief army pinching on our northern grain route, consolidating our victory in Zhaodi, obtaining Zhaodi's manpower and material resources for battle, and then thinking about how to fight a decisive battle with the Western Chu thief army." ”

After listening to the words of Uncle Zhou and Li Zuoche, Xiang Kang, who was very able to listen to the correct opinions of his subordinates, of course, basically dispelled the idea of taking the opportunity to pursue the decisive battle, but Zhang Liang, who was good at strategy, also said: "King, from a strategic point of view, we can't take the risk of a full-scale decisive battle with the Western Chu thief army now, because our strategic time is not yet ripe." First of all, the two thief armies of Jibei and Qi are still firmly on the side of Xiang Yu, the puppet king of Western Chu, we will now launch a decisive battle with the Western Chu thief army, they will definitely fully support Xiang Yu, even if they are now seriously injured, and they will not pose a decent threat to us on the frontal battlefield, but as long as they organize the manpower and material resources of Qiji and Ji to provide support for the Western Chu thief army in terms of food, grass and military supplies, it will still bring us huge trouble, so now we will go east and fight a decisive battle with the Western Chu thief army on the border of Qi and Zhao, It's just too much for us. ”

"Secondly, there are two hidden dangers behind us." Zhang Liang continued: "One hidden danger is Zang Di in the north, and the other hidden danger is Liu Ji in the south, if these two hidden dangers cannot be eliminated, they may stab us in the back at any time, so that we will be attacked in the back of the Western Chu thief army in the decisive battle, and fall into strategic passivity." ”

had basically dispelled the idea of launching a decisive battle now, and then heard Zhang Liang point out that the strategic time was not ripe enough, Xiang Kang naturally didn't have any hope, and immediately smiled at Zheng Bu: "General Zheng, it seems that this king and you are a little taken for granted, forget it, let's wait until the future to find a way to clean up my tyrannical brother." ”

"The Great King's Holy Judgment." Zheng Bu replied very happily: "Your Majesty only likes to win battles, not to lose battles, since we are not sure of winning battles, then we might as well not fight, and also take the opportunity to let our soldiers rest for a while." ”

Xiang Kang smiled and nodded, and then officially denied the plan to take the opportunity to launch a pursuit and decisive battle, and decided to let the two major corps of the Han army, which had been tired for a long time, temporarily rest for a while, and then the Han army agreed together, and then Zhang Liang said again: "King, now the main force of our army is in Zhao Di, and the four thieves of Chuqi and Zhao Ji have been wiped out, and the military power is flourishing. In this case, we should seize the opportunity to send important ministers to the north to explain the benefits and disadvantages to Zang Di, persuade him to take the initiative to surrender, and send troops to help us crusade against the Western Chu thief army. ”

Before Zhang Liang's words were finished, Mr. Shusun Tong, who happened to be present, had already changed his face, and quickly shrank his head so much that he almost got into his clothes, but it was okay for Mr. Shusun, now Xiang Kang no longer needs to send him to Yan Kingdom to try his luck, just saw Xiang Kang nodded, agreed to adopt Zhang Liang's opinion, Li Shiqi immediately bowed his hand and said: "King, let the ministers go down, the ministers vouch, with the help of the power of our army's great victory, they will definitely be able to persuade Zang Tu to surrender the country with a three-inch tongue." ”

"Mr. Li, you don't have to work hard." Xiang Kang said with some distress: "You just got out of prison, and you are old and frail, so you should go back to our Guanzhong rear to recuperate for a period of time, and then come out to work." ”

"It's okay." Li Shiqi immediately waved his hand and said: "Your Majesty's old bones are not so delicate, and they have been imprisoned by the Western Chu Thief Army for so long, and they really want to have a good life, please let the king give permission, and let Your Majesty send an envoy to Yan Kingdom." ”

Seeing that Li Shiqi insisted, and knew that he was eloquent and sure that he could convince Zang Di, Xiang Kang also nodded, agreed to let Li Shiqi send an envoy to Yan State, and asked Zhang Liang to ghostwrite, and wrote a letter of state for himself to persuade Zang Di to abandon Chu and return to Han, and handed it to Li Shiqi to travel on a certain day, Li Shiqi happily took it, and officially restored his identity as the chief envoy of the Han army in the grateful eyes of Mr. Uncle Sun.

After agreeing on this matter, seeing that everyone had nothing new to say, Xiang Kang also announced the dismissal of the meeting, letting everyone go back to their accounts to rest, and planned to wait for Xiang Yu to withdraw from the river and then hold a celebration banquet to celebrate the victory of the giant deer. However, Li Zuoche did not leave the scene in a hurry, and after everyone dispersed, he bowed his hand to Xiang Kang and said: "King, there is a small matter, Your Majesty is presumptuous and wants to recommend a rare talent to you. ”

"A rare talent?" Xiang Kang became interested when he heard this, and said: "You can be praised as a handsome talent by Guangwujun, this person must be extraordinary, what is his name?" Where are you now? ”

"This man is currently in our army." After all, Li Zuoche was not very familiar with Xiang Kang, and said somewhat worriedly: "But after the king heard his identity, please don't think it's ridiculous, this person's name is Lou Jing, and he was a prisoner of the Qi army who was captured by us on the battlefield. ”

"Pro-soldiers?" Xiang Kang, who didn't know yet, was surprised and said, "Guangwujun, what is your identity, how could you notice an ordinary Qi soldier captive?" ”

"Because it was this person who made a plan to design a sneak attack on our camp and was successful, and it was also because this personal soldier made a statement to Tian through the Qi general Yu Ling, so that the Qi army saw through the plan designed by his subordinates for General Zheng Bu to lure the enemy. So after he was captured, out of curiosity, his subordinates had a deep conversation with him, and found that this person had unique views on the general trend of the world and military and civil affairs, and felt that it might not be a pity if he was buried here, so he took the liberty to recommend this person to you, the king. ”

Li Zuoche replied carefully, and roughly introduced Lou Jing's origin, saying that Lou Jing was originally just an ordinary soldier of the Jibei Army, after the Jibei Army was defeated by the Han Army Zhou Shu's corps in the water, Lou Jing was separated from the main brigade, almost buried in the wilderness, and was fortunately rescued by Yu Ling, the general of the Qi army who went south with the army, because he happened to be a fellow villager of Lu County, he was accepted by Yu Ling as a personal soldier, and gradually showed his talents under Yu Ling's account, won Yu Ling's trust, and helped the Qi army twice through Yu Ling to embarrass the Han Army Zheng Bu's corps. In addition, Yu Ling, who was also captured by the Han army, also confessed, saying that the Zhao army preemptively blocked the southwest two gates of Julu, and the Qi army set up camp on the high ground to make the Han army feel tricky, in fact, it was also Lou Jing's idea.

"Bring him here!"

Li Zuoche's introduction was not all finished, Xiang Kang, who never minded being from a family, couldn't wait to order a summons, and then it didn't take long for Lou Jing, who was still wearing the clothes of a Qi sergeant, to be escorted to Xiang Kang by the guards.

Lou Jing, who is about thirty years old, was actually born very ordinary, his appearance has no characteristics, and he belongs to the type that is difficult to find out when he is thrown into the pile, fortunately, Xiang Kang never judges people by their appearance, but after a cursory look at Lou Jing, he asked directly: "Some time ago, it was you who gave the Qi State thief army an idea, first successfully attacked our camp, and then saw through our plan to lure the enemy, so that the Qi Zhao thief army did not fall into our trap?" ”

"Hui Han Wang is a criminal pawn." Lou Jing was obviously very bold, and replied with a very calm expression: "The guilty soldier deserves death, but I also ask the King of Han to understand the hardships of the criminal pawn, at that time, the criminal pawn was not only a non-commissioned soldier of Qi, but also received the life-saving grace of General Yu, so he had to give him advice and help the army of Qi and the army of the King of Han to make it difficult." ”

"Don't worry, this king doesn't mean to blame you." Xiang Kang fed Lou Jing a reassuring pill, and said: "This king is just curious, I want to see with my own eyes how much ability you have, whether you really have real talent and learning." ”

"Please ask the king to ask the question." Lou Jing replied neither humbly nor arrogantly.

"A bit of guts." Xiang Kang smiled, thought about it a little more, and said: "Then let's talk about it, if this king wants to break the Western Chu thief army and dominate the world, how should he act?" ”

"King Han really gave the sinner a big problem." Lou Jing smiled bitterly and said: "How the King of Han can break through the Western Chu Army and dominate the world should be a major matter discussed by the King of Han and his important ministers, the villain is just a captured pawn, how dare he give advice to the King of Han?" But....... ”

After hesitating slightly, Lou Jing still mustered up the courage to say: "However, the sinner believes that if the king wants to break through Western Chu and dominate the world, he must first solve an important problem. ”

"What's the important question?" Xiang Kang immediately asked.

"The problem of family affection, that is, the problem of grievances and hatred between the king and his brothers."

Lou Jing's answer made Li Zuoche, who recommended him, couldn't help but change his face, Xiang Kang was also somewhat taken aback, he never thought that this Lou Jing would dare to mention this scar on his heart in front of himself that even Zhang Liang and Chen Ping didn't dare to touch easily, but Lou Jing was not afraid, and said directly: "Please forgive the King of Han, the sinner has the courage to speak out, if the King of Han does not solve this problem as soon as possible, then the Western Chu Army is not only destined to fight to the death with the King of Han, but the princes of the world, I am afraid that they will not be convinced by the King of Han, you are truly convinced, Even if you reluctantly surrender, I am afraid that sooner or later you will have a different heart in the future. ”

"Lou Jing." Li Zuoche hurriedly opened his mouth and shouted, "Don't be too crazy. ”

"It's okay." Xiang Kang waved his hand to Li Zuoche, and then instructed Lou Jing: "Go on, be blunt." ”

"King Xie Han." Lou Jing's expression became more calm, and said: "The criminal pawn heard that when the king raised the anti-Qin Yi banner under the prime minister, he got a lot of help from his brothers of the same clan, but later Wu Xinjun entered the Chu land and split the army under the command of the king at that time, and the king and the brothers of the same clan gradually drifted apart, and finally even turned against each other, and the situation was the same as fire and water. However, the criminal pawn believes that the king still owes his brothers of the same clan, and he did not show sincerity to make up for the flesh and blood of his brothers and sisters when he helped you raise the army, so the Xiang clan will do their best to help the king of Western Chu and the king to fight against you, and even if you are in a desperate situation, you are obviously bound to lose, and you are unwilling to choose to surrender to you, the king. ”

Xiang Kang's face gradually became gloomy, but he still said again: "Keep talking, keep talking." ”

"Great King, seeing with your own eyes that your flesh and blood brothers are unwilling to give in to you, what will Xichu Wenwu think? What will the other princes of the world think? Lou Jing asked Xiang Kang rhetorically and said: "Will they suspect that the king is mean and unkind, and does not remember the old affection, so even the brothers of the same clan who helped you raise troops at the beginning resolutely abandoned you and swore to be your enemy?" Do you suspect that the king treats your siblings like this, let alone treats outsiders like them? That being the case, how dare they easily turn their backs on the king of Western Chu and choose to submit to you, the king? They were forced to move closer to the king of Western Chu, how can you, great king, quickly break through Western Chu and dominate the world? ”

Lou Jing's words were asked to Xiang Kang's heart, so that Xiang Kang was completely speechless, and also made Xiang Kang, who really owed Xiang his brothers, couldn't help but hang his head, Li Zuoche next to him saw that something was wrong, and hurriedly said: "Lou Jing, don't be biased, do you know, when in Puyang, our king's soldiers captured Xiang Han, our king not only did not harm him, but also tried his best to appease him, and tried his best to persuade him to surrender to our Han army. Instead, he treated his injuries, gave him dry food and war horses, and asked him to return to the land of Xichu on his own. ”

"Not enough, far from enough." Lou Jing immediately replied: "Please put yourself in Guangwujun's shoes, if you are General Xiang Han and are captured as a prisoner after the battle, and the King of Han comes forward to persuade him to surrender, will you accept it easily?" Will you still hate King Han's old feelings? Cannibalism? ”

Li Zuoche closed his mouth, while Xiang Kang raised his head and said to Lou Jing: "Since you think that this king has done something wrong to his brothers of the same clan, then you say, what should this king do?" ”