The Han army team that suddenly appeared on the battlefield of Yutai Pavilion, of course, was the main force of the Han army in the middle led by Xiang Kang himself, and lied about the consequences after Zhao Xie rebelled and evacuated the Dingtao battlefield, the main force of the Han army in the middle of the road first went north overnight and returned to Chidao, and the next day in Chidao to rush to Qiu Xiaoting to quickly cross Jishui, and then rushed along the flat Chi road that was tens of meters wide, and arrived at Kang's father in only two days, and continued to venture south to Yutai Pavilion, fully crossed Surabaya, and opened the road to directly march into Huling.

Crossing Surabaya at Yutai Pavilion is definitely one of the most risky decisions Xiang Kang has made since he proclaimed himself king, for two reasons, the first is that before crossing the river, Xiang Kang simply did not have time to confirm whether the main force of the Western Chu army led by Xiang Yu had discovered the situation of the army, and whether he was ready to attack in advance, if Xiang Yu had prepared in advance, he arranged an ambush in the complex terrain and dense forest directly east of Yutai Pavilion, or suddenly rushed to the Yutai Pavilion battlefield when the Han army crossed the river, and launched a surprise attack by taking advantage of the opportunity when the Han army crossed the river. Then even if the main force of the Han army in the middle will not be wiped out, it is doomed to heavy losses, and it will no longer be able to entangle the main force of the Western Chu army, so as to win time for the northern line of the Han army led by Zhou Shu to rush to reinforcements.

The second reason is that even if the Han army successfully crossed Surabaya, the situation is also very dangerous, Xiang Yu was invincible in the field, and the troops under his command were above the main force of the Han army in the middle, and it was impossible for the Han army to build a strong enough camp in a hurry, so it was only possible to rely on the Great Wall of flesh and blood to resist the crazy attack of the main force of the Western Chu army, and Xiang Kang could not get in direct contact with Uncle Zhou's corps, telling Uncle Zhou that he was waiting there for him to come over with the army, once Uncle Zhou's corps could not arrive in time, the consequences would definitely be unimaginable! It is not impossible for the Western Chu Army to flip the strategy in one fell swoop! - For example, if Xiang Kang himself is unfortunate enough to be directly killed by the Western Chu army.

However, in order to strive for the opportunity to eliminate the main force of the Western Chu army as soon as possible, Xiang Kang still resolutely made the decision to cross Surabaya in Yutai Pavilion in an all-round way, and the result was not bad, during the adventure crossing the river, the Han army not only encountered any enemy blocking or sneak attack, after the full crossing of the river, it also immediately got in touch with the defeated troops of the Peng Yue army who fled to Yutai Pavilion before Yongya and others, and received important information related to the main force of Peng Yue Army and the Western Chu Army, and arranged an ambush in the mountain forest road leading to Huling, Severely damaged the Liu Laosan Department of the Western Chu Army that followed the pursuit, and while weakening the Western Chu Army again, he also avenged Peng Yuejun's evil breath by the way.

Immediately afterwards, Yongya, who worshipped Xiang Kang to the ground when they first met, of course, quickly led it to the Han military camp, and re-met with the idol Xiang Kang after a few years, and then the excited Yongya immediately cried in front of Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang was also moved to tears, first picked up Yongya with his own hands and comforted him, and then gave a heavy reward to his number one fan very generously.

In the end, it was under the persuasion of Zhang Liang and Chen Ping that Yongya accepted Xiang Kang's pearl and jade money reward with tears in his eyes, and Xiang Kang was not too polite with Yongya, and soon said directly: "General Yong, the military situation is like fire, we will talk about other things later, I will ask you the most important thing now, before you and Jing Jia and Peng Yue were separated, did you get in touch with General Zhou Shu?" Do you know where General Zhou's army hit? ”

"Returning to the king, no." Yongya hurriedly shook his head and said truthfully: "The last general did not dare to deceive the king, in fact, we never got in touch with General Zhou Shu, and we didn't even have time to confirm whether General Zhou went south to the hinterland of Xue County, but the King of Chu and Peng Zhuguo did not dare to disobey your order, so after receiving your order, we hurried to the hinterland of Xue County." (See Chapter 483 of this book for details)

"But please rest assured, judging from the reaction of the Western Chu thief army, General Zhou's side is basically certain that troops have been dispatched."

Seeing Xiang Kang's disappointed face, Yongya hurriedly added, and then told Xiang Kang about the situation of the Chuji coalition army carrying a large amount of money and food and military supplies to the south by land, indicating that Peng Yue deduced that Uncle Zhou had already done it based on this, Xiang Kang nodded, first recognized Peng Yue's speculation, and also felt that the Chuji coalition army had no time to transfer materials through the waterway must be because Uncle Zhou's side had already moved, and then frowned and said: "But it's still troublesome, I don't know the specific movements of Uncle Zhou's side, the messenger we sent to contact him, When will the news be delivered to him, no one dares to guarantee, and no one knows how long we will last here in Yutai Pavilion. ”

"The king is at ease." Zhang Liang, who was excellent in geography, comforted: "The area of Xue County is not large, and General Zhou and they must be marching along the gallop road, no matter how delayed or difficult, the messenger sent by our father should also get in touch with General Zhou's army within five or six days, and General Zhou will be able to come and join us in about ten days as long as he steps up to the south." ”

"King, don't blame the old man for making bad luck, Zhang Fu's analysis may be a little too optimistic." Tang Bing, the old man of Shangshan, said: "Because of the calculation of time, Peng Yue judged that General Zhou had already sent troops to the south, and the order you gave to General Zhou to send troops should have only just been sent to Boyang, which means that General Zhou may have only sent a partial division to the south, and whether the main force was dispatched south to the hinterland of Xue County, we are still uncertain." ”

After being reminded by Tang Bing, and quickly and carefully calculating the time, Xiang Kang and Zhang Liang were very surprised to find that Uncle Zhou was indeed sent out before the order to destroy Chu and send it to Boyang, and it was absolutely impossible to rule out the possibility that Uncle Zhou would just send a partial division south to the hinterland of Xue County - because in order to deal with the remnants of the Chuji coalition army, Uncle Zhou's side actually only needed to send a partial division. So Zhang Liang quickly changed his words and said: "What Dong Yuangong said is extremely true, the analysis of the younger generation is indeed a little too optimistic, if General Zhou's side only sent a partial division to the south, then we are likely to hold on for more than half a month, before it is possible to wait until General Zhou's main force comes to meet us." ”

"Our army is advancing alone, and it is best to prepare for the worst in everything." Chen Ping opened his mouth and said: "Regardless of whether General Zhou's main force can arrive within ten days or half a month later, it is best for us to prepare for a hard battle for more than half a month in advance. His Majesty's suggestion is that, for the sake of prudence, we had better seize the time to make preparations for holding on to the deep ditch and high base here in Yutai Pavilion, and at the same time find a way to provoke the grumpy Xiang Yu and lure him west from Huling to come to Yutai Pavilion to fight us in a decisive battle. ”

"That's all there is to it." Xiang Kang nodded, and then said: "Sacrifice another messenger, Mr. Chen Ping, you have a good writing, immediately help me write a letter to my brother, deliberately ridicule and ridicule, persuade him to cede the land and city north of Huaishui in exchange for a truce with us, and provoke him to come to Yutai Pavilion to fight a decisive battle with us." ”

Chen Ping immediately agreed, and Zhang Liang, Li Zuoche and the others had no objections, because everyone knew that with Xiang Yu's fiery temper, he would definitely be furious when he saw such a letter, and he would definitely not be able to listen to any contrary advice, and he would take the initiative to come to Yutai Pavilion to find Xiang Kang for a decisive battle regardless of it-especially now that Old Man Fan has been angry with Xiang Yu. However, what Xiang Kang and the Han army's decision-makers miscalculated was that a dangerous person who was more able to control and restrain Xiang Yu than Old Man Fan was about to return to Xiang Yu's side......

…………

This dangerous person is of course Liu Laosan, after the fiasco in the dense forest east of Yutai Pavilion, although the losses are quite heavy, but relying on the sacrifice of Fan Hao and Zhou Bo and other fierce generals, Liu Laosan finally took nearly half of the army to get rid of the pursuit of the Han army, and returned to Huling City in the evening of the same day, and joined the main force of the Western Chu army. Then needless to say, of course, Liu Laosan immediately sent a messenger to contact Master Xiang Boxiang as soon as possible, saying that he would let Xiao He, who is currently in Pengcheng, send a generous gift to Master Xiang's mansion, first patted the sycophants of Master Xiang, who loves money like life, and finally entered the camp to meet Xiang Yu when it was dark.

At the same time, it was also at this time that Liu Laosan knew that Old Man Fan had been taken away by Xiang Yu, and then before Liu Laosan could analyze whether Old Man Fan's departure would have more advantages than disadvantages or more disadvantages than advantages, the scouts of the Western Chu Army had already reported the important situation of Xiang Kang leading the main force of the Han Army in the middle of the Yutai Pavilion to the main camp of the Western Chu Army. As a result, this inadvertently helped Liu Laosan a lot, so that Xiang Yu no longer had any mind to investigate the responsibility of Liu Laosan's pursuit of Zhongfu, and just roared with red eyes: "What is Huan Chu doing to eat?" Didn't he say that Zhao Xie rebelled in Zhaodi, and Xiang Kang's traitor personally led his army to Zhao to quell the rebellion? How could Xiang Kang's traitor suddenly appear in Yutai Pavilion? How could such a major military intelligence report be so wrong? ”

"The king is angry." Wu She, a strategist of the Western Chu army who was only reused after Old Man Fan left, plucked up the courage to comfort him: "Xiang Kang is a traitor and a thief, and General Huan Chu must have fallen for his plan, so he reported the wrong military situation." Fortunately, Yutai Pavilion is still nearly fifty miles away from Huling, and the road is not very easy to walk, as long as we cross Surabaya immediately, we can get rid of the entanglement of Han thieves. ”

"Fart!" Xiang Yu immediately roared, "We crossed Surabaya, what should Xiang Zhuang's army do?" Stay on the north bank of Surabaya and let the Han thieves annihilate them all? ”

Wu Shi hurriedly closed his mouth, and Xiang Yu hurriedly walked around the Chinese army's tent with his hands behind his back, and then when he suddenly saw Liu Laosan, Xiang Yu hurriedly opened his mouth and asked, "Liu Ji, my brother, where are they retreating now?" Uncle Zhou's army, chased where again? How many troops are there? ”

"The King forgives sins." Liu Laosan replied with a sad face: "After the subordinates defeated the Peng Yue thief army in Chengqiu, in order to implement Zuo Sima's order to let his subordinates bite the Peng Yue thief army to cover the retreat of the main force, they have been closely chasing Peng Yue's thief army, and they have lost contact with Zuo Sima and them since then, so his subordinates don't know Zuo Sima's current situation, and they only know that Zhou Shupifu sent Li Shang to lead 40,000 troops to the south first, I don't know how many troops Zhou Shupifu sent in total, let alone where the Han thief army in the north has arrived. ”

"Rubbish! Idiot! Xiang Yu was furious and roared: "There is still a partial division commander like you in the world, who can not know the enemy situation and the situation of the main force!" ”

The generous gift from Liu Laosan's hands played a role at this moment, and Master Xiang Boxiang stood up in time and excused Liu Laosan: "The king forgives the sin, and the right Sima is also because he resolutely carried out the orders of Xiang Zhuangxian's nephew, so he cut off contact with the main force, and the responsibility is not the right Sima." ”

After snorting heavily in dissatisfaction, Xiang Yu first kicked a case table, and then pondered for a moment, and then said with a blushing face: "You say, what should we do in the current situation?" ”

Knowing Xiang Yu's fiery temper, although he had an idea in his heart, Liu Laosan didn't dare to speak nonsense, Master Xiang and Wu Shi couldn't think of any countermeasures because of their lack of ability, and they also didn't dare to say anything. Xiang Yu was even more angry when he saw it, and roared again: "Why don't you speak?" What do you dare to eat? The king asks you, what shall we do next? ”

Liu Laosan, Kuai Che and Wu Shi and others still didn't dare to say anything, and Master Xiang Boxiang was afraid that Xiang Yu would be even more angry, so he had to take the initiative to ask for advice very rarely, and said to Kui Che: "Doctor Kuai, don't you usually have the most ideas?" Why didn't you talk today? Tell me about it, what are your ideas? ”

Seeing Xiang Yu turn his one-eyed eye to himself, Kui Che had no choice but to bite the bullet and say: "King, Master Xiang, Your Majesty is foolish, since Xiang Kang's traitors have designed to deceive General Huan Chu and suddenly rush to Yutai Pavilion to cross Surabaya, their purpose must be to entangle our main force, wait for Uncle Zhou's reinforcements to arrive, and work together to defeat our main force." Even so, we now have only two choices, and we don't know what the king intends to do. ”

"Tell me, those two choices?" Xiang Yu hurriedly asked.

"First, the poisonous snake eats the bowl, and the strong man breaks his arm." Kui Che replied cautiously: "Taking advantage of the fact that Xiang Kang's traitors have just crossed Surabaya, and it is too late to enter Huling to threaten us to cross the river, our main force will immediately cross Surabaya south and withdraw to Pengcheng, not giving Xiang Kang traitors a chance to bite us, and let General Xiang Zhuang and them break through the siege and go south on their own, so as to keep General Xiang Zhuang's army as many as they want, and give priority to ensuring the safety of our main force." ”

Gritting his teeth heavily, Xiang Yu asked again, "What about the second option?" ”

"Take the initiative to go west, go to Yutai Pavilion and fight to the death with Xiang Kang's traitors!" Kui Che replied: "Although Xiang Kang traitor has deceived General Huan Chu, but he left 20,000 troops in Dingtao to contain General Huan Chu, it is absolutely impossible for General Huan Chu to misreport. That is to say, Xiang Kang's traitor's current army in Yutai Pavilion is only 100,000 at most, and the strength is at a disadvantage in front of the main force of our army, and Xiang Kang's traitor has just arrived, and there is no city wall to defend on the Yutai Pavilion, no matter how he rushes to work day and night, it is impossible to build a strong camp in a short time, as long as our army seizes the time to move westward, there is a great hope to get the opportunity to fight a decisive battle with Xiang Kang's traitors in the wild. ”

As Kuaicher expected, before he finished his words, Xiang Yu was already overjoyed, and immediately patted his legs and said, "Wonderful plan!" That's it! Let our army prepare overnight, and tomorrow we will send troops to Yutai Pavilion to find Xiang Kang, the traitor, to fight to the death!" ”

"Think twice." Wu Shi hurriedly reminded: "Take the initiative to go west to Yutai Pavilion to find Xiang Kang's traitors for a decisive battle, of course it is best to win, if it is still as long as before, the Han thief reinforcements led by Uncle Zhou suddenly arrived, I am afraid that we will ......." ”

Wu She's voice became smaller and smaller, because Xiang Yu's one-eyed eyes had already breathed fire, and he had already stared at him, Liu Laosan next to him saw it, and immediately understood that Xiang Yu had made a mistake again, even if it was nine cows, he couldn't pull back his determination to take the initiative to go west for a decisive battle, so he hurriedly said: "King, if you are determined to fight to the death with Xiang Kang's traitors, then your subordinates have a way to let Xiang Kang's traitors take the initiative to send troops from Yutai Pavilion to Huling to find us for a decisive battle, let us take the initiative, and don't have to work hard for our main force to pull out the camp and raise troops, Go west to Yutai Pavilion to seek war, and give Xiang Kang the traitor a chance to wait for work. ”

"Do you have what it takes?" Xiang Yuru listened to the myth and said with a face full of disbelief: "Don't you know how treacherous that traitor Xiang Kang is? Are you sure that he will take the initiative to go west and take the initiative to come to us to fight to the death? ”

"If the king gives his subordinates this opportunity, his subordinates will definitely be able to do it." Liu Laosan replied confidently.

"Tell me, then, what can you do to do that?" Xiang Yu hurriedly asked.

"My lord, this matter is actually very easy." Liu Laosan immediately pointed at Master Xiang Boxiang and said: "Just ask Master Xiang to personally pick up the pen and write a letter to Xiang Kang's traitor, and clearly tell Xiang Kang's traitor that if within two days, Xiang Kang's traitor does not send troops to Huling for a decisive battle, our main force will immediately cross south to Surabaya and withdraw to Pengcheng, and at the same time let General Xiang Zhuang divert them to retreat in the East China Sea, and then send a messenger to Xiang Kang's traitor, then before sunset the day after tomorrow, Xiang Kang's traitor will definitely take the initiative to leave Yutai Pavilion and go to Huling City to come down to die." ”

"It's as simple as that?" Xiang Yu asked in surprise: "With just such a letter, can Xiang Kang's traitor obediently come to the door to die?" ”

"Rest assured, the king will do it." Liu Laosan replied more confidently: "Xiang Kang's traitor is willing to take risks, in order to entangle our main force at the expense of advancing alone, he will definitely not watch us retreat south and retreat to Pengcheng first, so as long as we threaten him with retreating troops to avoid battle, he will definitely risk coming to Huling to bite us in order not to lose his previous achievements." At that time, we will wait for work, and Xiang Kang's traitors will not have the opportunity to build a strong camp, and the situation is far better than our army's westward march to Yutai Pavilion to take the initiative to seek battle. ”

"Is it really possible?" Xiang Yu was still skeptical.

"Your Majesty, this plan should work." Kui Che opened his mouth and said: "Pei Gong's words are very right, Xiang Kang's traitor is rushing to attack lightly, the biggest purpose is to entangle us and not give us a chance to withdraw to Pengcheng, as long as we openly threaten to retreat, Xiang Kang's traitor is likely to take this risk in order not to lose his previous achievements." ”

Xiang Yu hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Then give it a try and see if it can succeed." ”

Liu Laosan was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly asked Master Xiang Boxiang to immediately write a letter to Xiang Kang, but Master Xiang Boxiang didn't want to bother with this, and said very dissatisfied: "Why does the old man personally pick up the pen?" This kind of trivial matter, can't you just find a small official to write? ”

"Master Xiang's forgiveness, this letter must be written and signed by you personally." Liu Laosan smiled and said: "The reason is also very simple, Master Xiang, you are the elder of the king, and you are also the most respected person of our king, only if you personally come forward to threaten Xiang Kang's traitor, saying that if he does not send troops, we will retreat, Xiang Kang's traitor will understand that the king's words are definitely not a joke, if he does not act according to our requirements, we will definitely take the initiative to retreat." ”

After that, Liu Laosan hurriedly added another sentence and said: "If the master is not willing to bother polishing, then the subordinates can also draft a letter for you, please copy a copy." ”

"Uncle Ji, don't bother so much." Xiang Yu said impatiently: "Just write a letter for you, just ask Liu Ji to guide you." ”

Seeing that Xiang Yu personally opened his mouth, and read it on the generous gift that Liu Laosan promised to give him, Master Xiang Boxiang was extremely reluctant to sit down and personally pick up the pen, and under the guidance of Liu Laosan, he wrote a letter to Xiang Kang in his own tone about blatantly playing hooliganism, in addition to clearly pointing out the vicious purpose of Xiang Kang's lone army, and directly released cruel words - if the Han army does not take the initiative to come to Huling for a decisive battle within two days, the Western Chu army will immediately cross the river and go south and withdraw directly to Pengcheng!

It was also a coincidence that the letter had just been written, and the envoy of the Han army, who was determined to die, had already come to the Western Chu military camp with Xiang Kang's letter, and presented the original provocative letter to Xiang Yu, but Liu Laosan of course pulled Master Xiang to persuade Xiang Yu to calm his anger, clearly pointing out that this was just Xiang Kang's provocation and provocation, and strongly advised Xiang Yu not to be familiar with Xiang Kang, and persuaded Xiang Yu to let the Han army envoy bring back the letter of the Western Chu army to Xiang Kang.

The matter is not over, after sending away the envoy of the Han army, after thinking about it repeatedly for a long time, Xiang Yu also made up his mind again, and ordered: "Give Xiang Zhuang an order, tell him to give up retreating immediately after receiving the order, stick to the spot, block Uncle Zhou's husband with all his might, and buy time for our side!" ”

Liu Laosan and Kuaiche laughed bitterly when they heard it, and then they understood that Xiang Yu had actually made up his mind a long time ago, if he failed to play hooliganism, he would take the initiative to go west to find Xiang Kang for a decisive battle, but considering that there was no burden to Xiang Zhuang, it would definitely be easier to persuade Xiang Yu to give up the decisive battle and retreat first, Liu Laosan and Kuaiche still did not object, and chose to let Xiang Yu toss blindly - anyway, it is the Xiang family's own business, as long as the main force can be kept, it is also a good choice to take the initiative to give up the remnants of the Chuji coalition army.

Not to mention, at noon the next day, when the Han army envoy delivered Master Xiang's letter to Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang was really taken aback, and blurted out: "The sun is coming out of the west?" My overlord brother, has he actually learned to play hooligan? It's really fake, if he really plays this hooligan with me, my affairs are really not easy? ”

"King, don't worry about Xiang Yu's coercion." Chen Ping said: "Our army is small, and the camp is not strong enough, Xiang Yu Pifu will definitely not be willing to give up this decisive battle opportunity, as long as we ignore it, Xiang Yu Pifu will definitely not be able to hold his breath the day after tomorrow, and take the initiative to come west to Yutai Pavilion to find us for a decisive battle." ”

Considering Xiang Yu's survival performance after the battle of Xiaxia, Xiang Kang didn't dare to easily agree with Chen Ping's opinion this time, and after careful consideration for a while, Xiang Kang shook his head and said: "It's hard to say, the current situation of the Western Chu thief army is here, as long as my brother still has a little brain, plus the encouragement of others, it may not be that he will really cross the river to the south, and give priority to ensuring the safety of the main force, if this is the case, we will completely abandon our previous efforts." ”

"And what is the king going to do?" Chen Ping raised questions and reminded: "King, if we take the initiative to march into Huling according to the requirements of the Western Chu thief army, our situation will be too passive, and the certainty of winning the decisive battle is very small. ”

Xiang Kang pondered carefully for a long time before he said: "Now let Ding Ji lead 30,000 troops first, go to Laoqi between Yutai Pavilion and Huling, and build a camp that can accommodate our main army." In addition, step up the preparation of the fire raft in the Yutai Pavilion, arrange for skilled sailors to be on standby at all times, and once it is found that the Western Chu thief army has crossed the river and retreated to the south, immediately dispatch the fire raft to burn their pontoon bridge! The sun is coming out in the west, and since my brother is a hooligan, we can only be prepared to fight him hard. ”

"My lord, I'm afraid it's useless to do this." Li Zuoche, who is proficient in tactics, said: "Seeing that our army is building a camp in Laoqi, Xiang Yu will definitely understand that we are not in a good position to fight and immediately enter the camp to hold on, and he will definitely not give us the opportunity to set up camp in Laoqi." ”

"I know." Xiang Kang immediately replied: "This is also my purpose. ”