In fact, after the Qin army in Wancheng was forced to lay down their weapons and surrender, it was not only Song Yang and a dozen of his personal soldiers who quietly fled, because they were seriously brainwashed by the Qin court, and because of war weariness or homesickness and other emotions, the escape of the Qin army's soldiers was quite serious, and dozens of people fled by night every night, but the identity of these people was humble, and they were not like Song Yang, and they had to leave a letter to insult Xiang Kang after they ran away, so the impact was not so serious.

However, these fleeing Qin soldiers soon found out that they had taken risks in vain, and as soon as the situation in Wancheng stabilized, Xiang Kang issued a clear decree to allow the Qin soldiers who laid down their arms and surrendered to choose their own way out.

Originally, he was worried that the young marshal army would force him to continue to serve in the army, and he might be forced to raise a butcher's knife to his fellow Qin people in the future, but he never expected Xiang Kang to be so benevolent and generous, so after hearing this order, more than 7,000 Qin soldiers who laid down their arms and surrendered immediately shook the sky with joy and were grateful to Xiang Kang. Then, although most of the Qin army soldiers chose to receive dry food and return to their hometowns, the strict military discipline of the young marshal army and Xiang Kang's magnanimity were soon brought to all parts of Xianyang by these Qin army soldiers, and even brought into the Guanzhong Plain, which caused a lot of repercussions.

Xiang Kang, of course, has no way to be so pretending to be generous and releasing people, as mentioned earlier, because it has been ruled by the Qin court for decades, the local people in Nanyang have generally recognized their Qin identity, and their hostility to the six countries outside the Guanxi is very deep, if Xiang Kang forces the Qin army in Nanyang to join the young marshal army, no matter how they are broken up and reorganized, it will be difficult to digest all these Qin soldiers, and it is very likely to affect the unity and combat effectiveness of the young marshal army, and become a hidden danger within the young marshal army, so Xiang Kang can only learn from a certain party, and would rather let the tiger return to the mountain, He did not force the strong men, and forced the soldiers to fight for their own army by force.

Fortunately, the deliberate Huairou means are quite effective, after all kinds of means of buying people's hearts are used, the local people in Nanyang are still hostile to the young marshal army, and there are beginning to be poor people who take the initiative to join the young marshal army in order to eat, and at the same time, the Nanyang city around Wancheng is also persuaded by the Qin army to surrender under the persuasion of the officials, and the Li County in the north first sent the surrender table, and then Yangcheng and Lu County also took the initiative to surrender, and then the strategically important Deng County (Xiangfan) also surrendered under the persuasion of Lu Qi's letter, closed the south gate of Nanyang for the young marshal's army.

During this period, Qi Gill was afraid that there would be no place to stay, and because of the repeated persuasion of his daughter Qi Min, he also reluctantly took the initiative to ask to accept the incorporation of the young marshal army, and gave up the unrealistic dream of continuing to be unique, and Xiang Kang saw Qi Min's gentle service to himself, and he also generously named Qi Gill as Nanyang County Cheng, and asked him to help Lu Qi govern Nanyang for himself, which is also worthy of Qi Gill. But behind the scenes, Qi Gill still quietly complained more than once, "Sure enough, it's a girl who is outgoing, I really didn't expect the old man's daughter to help outsiders talk like this." ”

In addition, following Zhang Liang's suggestion, Xiang Kang also selected a lieutenant named Ren Kai from the ranks of the young marshal's army, and asked him to lead 3,000 troops combining the old and new to return to Yexian to garrison and guard the north gate of Nanyang, not giving the Qin army a chance to calmly go south to the hinterland of Nanyang. At the same time, he also sent people to the north to inquire about the news and understand the current situation on the battlefield in the Central Plains, so as to grasp the opportunity to enter the military pass.

The distance is far away, the road is not smooth and dangerous, of course, it is difficult for the young marshal army who went north to inquire about the news to send the news quickly, on the contrary, it was Danshui in the west that first came the news, saying that the Danshui Qin army rejected the persuasion of the young marshal army, and also beat the young marshal army's persuasion messenger out of the city. Xiang Kang was furious when he heard the report, and immediately summoned the young marshal's generals to discuss sending troops to retaliate, and planned to personally lead the main force to crusade against the Danshui Qin army, which did not know how to lift.

Uncle Zhou stopped Xiang Kang's decision and persuaded: "General Right, dispatching our main force for the sake of a county town is inevitably a knife to kill chickens, too much waste of our military strength and grain and grass, and now the cities of Nanyang have just surrendered and surrendered, and the people's hearts are unstable, our main force is better to continue to sit in Wancheng to prevent just in case, Danshui, we only need to send a partial division to crusade is enough." ”

Considering the current situation in Nanyang, Xiang Kang quickly adopted Uncle Zhou's suggestion and decided to send Uncle Zhou and the second general of Li Shang to lead 8,000 troops to attack Danshui, and also casually experience Uncle Zhou's ability to command troops alone, so that he can be of great use in the future. Then the next day, Xiang Kang was extremely glad that he had adopted Uncle Zhou's suggestion, because Ren Kai, who had fortified Ye County in the north, suddenly sent someone to send an urgent report, saying that there were 10,000 Qin troops who had gone south from Xiangcheng to Kunyang, and they might attack Ye County.

Fortunately, after being puzzled, Xiang Kang asked very strangely: "Why did so many violent Qin troops emerge from Yingchuan again?" Yingchuan's main force of Tyranny Qin has been wiped out by us, and the territory has basically been destroyed, how can we organize so many troops so quickly? ”

"Could it be a tyrannical Qin division from the Central Plains battlefield?" Chen Ping analyzed: "Counting the time, the news that we have entered the hinterland of Nanyang, Zhang Han and Wang Li must have known about it for a long time, and they are also likely to send troops south to reinforce it, and this tyrannical Qin army is not good because they sent it." ”

"If that's the case, this is an opportunity for us to directly grasp the situation in the Central Plains." Xiang Kang calculated, and quickly ordered: "Give Ren Kai an order, and ask him to send more detailed work to inquire about the situation of the violent Qin army." In addition, we temporarily moved our grain and grass baggage into Wancheng to hoard, so that our main force could travel north to reinforce Yexian with light equipment. ”

According to Xiang Kang's order, the young marshal army officers and soldiers soon temporarily moved most of the grain and grass into the city to hoard, and then Xiang Kang left the veteran of the young marshal army Zheng Bu to lead 6,000 troops to defend the city to protect the grain and grass, and personally led the main force of the 20,000 young marshal army to reinforce Ye County, preparing to kill the Qin army coming from the south and eliminate the hidden dangers on the northern front, so as to avoid the rear fire when the young marshal's army entered Wuguan, and also took the opportunity to understand the current situation of the Central Plains battlefield.

When the troops arrived in Yangcheng, Ren Kai sent someone to get in touch with Xiang Kang again, and reported the general situation of the Qin army from the south, which turned out to be the same as Chen Ping's suspicions, and the sudden southward movement of this Qin army was indeed the army that Zhang Han sent south from Ao Cang to reinforce the army, and the main general of the Qin army was Qi Ben, the deputy of Sima Duan, and said that this Qin army had gone south from Kunyang and was preparing to attack Yexian. When Xiang Kang heard the great news, he immediately ordered the whole army to speed up its advance, and asked the army to travel for two days in one day, and be sure to rush to Yexian County before the evening of the next day.

Xiang Kang's decisive decision succeeded in catching the Qin army by surprise, and the next day was close to the evening, when the main force of the young marshal's army suddenly killed near Yexian, because he never dreamed that the main force of the young marshal's army would come so quickly, the Qin army, which was still cutting down trees to make siege weapons, was suddenly panicked and fled back to the camp to hide. Xiang Kang, who successfully bit the Qin army, was not in a hurry to attack, but while letting the army set up camp to rest, he sent messengers to the enemy camp to deliver the war letter, and asked the Qin army to fight to the death the next day.

Qi Ben gritted his teeth and agreed to a decisive battle with the young marshal's army, but as soon as the envoy of the young marshal's army left, Qi Ben immediately secretly assembled the army, and personally led the army out of the camp at the second watch of the same night and launched a sneak attack on the main camp of the young marshal army, in a vain attempt to take advantage of the opportunity of the young marshal's army to be tired from afar and kill the young marshal's army by surprise.

It's a pity that Xiang Kang, who is good at stealing chickens and dogs, has long been guarding against Qi Ben's coming, and has long ordered the young marshal soldiers not to disarm and weapons when they are resting, and at the same time arranged a large number of secret posts to lurk around the camp, and also went to Lingye County, so that Ren Kai could immediately send troops when he found that the main camp was attacked, and attack the Qin army camp by taking advantage of the situation. Therefore, as soon as the Qin army touched the vicinity of the camp of the young marshal army, the secret post of the young marshal army immediately sent out a signal and warning, and the soldiers of the young marshal army who were always ready for war also immediately got up and assembled, and the young marshal army in Yexian County also immediately assembled and went out of the city to attack the camp of the Qin army.

Xiang Kang's full preparation turned the Qin army's opportunism into self-defeating, and the sneak attack failed to succeed, Qi Ben, who was still a little experienced, did not rush to retreat, and did not give the young marshal army the opportunity to immediately send troops to pursue, but after seeing the young marshal army in Yexian County take the opportunity to send troops to attack his camp, the Qin soldiers were still inevitably shaken and began to panic, Xiang Kang also took the opportunity to urge the army to go out of the camp to counterattack, and started a night melee with the Qin army.

After more than a year of fighting, the Qin Army's Zhanghan Corps, which was mainly composed of Lishan prisoners, had been exhausted in repeated tug-of-war battles, and it was difficult to see any hope of returning home, nor was it difficult to obtain actual benefits in the war, so the will to fight had dropped very seriously. The young marshal army is diametrically opposed, it has always relied on all kinds of shameless means to fight a good war, and can get various rewards through the war, and get a lot of oil and water, morale has always been relatively high, plus the mentality is superior, and the troops are also superior, so it didn't take much time for the young marshal army to kill the Qin army and flee in defeat.

After the defeat, the Qin army still dreamed of returning to the camp to protect itself, but when they were chased and killed by the main force of the young marshal army and fled to the outside of the military camp, the young marshal army of Ye County had already taken advantage of the situation to enter the Qin army camp, Qi Ben saw that the situation was not good, so he could only flee directly to Kunyang with the defeated army, and the main force of the young marshal army pursued closely, completely defeated the Qin army in the pursuit battle, captured a considerable number of prisoners, and pursued until it was completely dark before collecting the troops.

After the victory, Xiang Kang didn't bother to pay attention to how many military weapons he had grabbed and how many captures he had made, but he just brought all the captured civil and military officials of the Qin army to the first time, and asked Chen Ping to interrogate them separately with the civilian officials of the young marshal's army, so as to understand the current situation on the battlefield in the Central Plains. Then in the afternoon, Chen Ping returned to Xiang Kang with a large stack of confessions, and said: "General Right, the question is almost done, the lower officials have sorted it out and made a summary, please take a look." ”

Xiang Kang nodded, first praised Chen Ping, and then took the confession compiled by Chen Ping himself and watched it, and then only read the first sentence, Xiang Kang's eyes widened, and he said in surprise: "The tyrannical Qin court let Zhang Han and Wang Li unify their armies?" Let Zhang Han be in charge of the frontal battlefield, and let Wang Li be in charge of the two flanks of Sanchuan County, is this news reliable? ”

"Reliable, that's what all the captives do." Chen Ping replied: "Qi Ben, the violent Qin army, had just entered Yingchuan from Ao Cang's south, Wang Li gave him the following information, told Qi Ben the decision of the violent Qin court, and asked Qi Ben to obey his orders and commands instead. ”

"The Tyrannical Qin Court is crazy?" Xiang Kang was even more surprised and said: "The front line is so tight, they actually want to divide the army outside the border into two and mess up their own command?" ”

"If the lower official didn't guess wrong, it should be the right general when you went south from Baima, and the discordant trick you used worked when you went south." Chen Ping smiled and said: "The tyrannical Qin court was suspicious of Zhang Han, but it was afraid of forcing Zhang Han to rebel, so it slowly took away his military power and prepared to let Wang Li replace him. (See Chapter 186 of this book.)

"If this is the case, it won't be long before the Central Plains battlefield will definitely be able to distinguish the winner and loser, and we will win!"

Xiang Kang came to a conclusion, and hurried to see the summary of confessions sent by Chen Ping, and only then did he know that his overlord cousin did not stare at Zhang Han's flood defense line stupidly, and retreated more rationally for the time being, confronting Zhang Han from afar, and at the same time assigned troops to attack Shangdang, successfully cutting off the connection between the main force of the Qin army and the Qin army in northern Jin, and the new conscription army of the Qin army was all handed over to Wang Li's command by the Qin court, and Zhang Han, who was on the front line, had not been supplied with troops, and Wei Bao took the opportunity to re-raise the banner of Wei in Wei and other Central Plains situations.

It was still when Xiang Kang finished summarizing the information and put down the calculations of the slips, Chen Ping spoke again, and said to Xiang Kang with some hesitation: "General Right, there is one more thing, because there is no way to confirm it, I didn't write it on the slips, according to the confession of the Qi Benzuo officials we caught, it seems that Xiong Xin, the king of our Chu State, has issued an edict, saying that among the anti-Qin righteous divisions, whoever can lead the army to enter Guanzhong first will be crowned the king of Guanzhong." ”

"The one who enters the customs first is king?!" Xiang Kang's heart froze, and he hurriedly raised his head and asked, "Where did that assistant official hear the news?" ”

"He heard from the envoy who contacted the Tyrannical Qin army and Qi Ben." Chen Ping replied: "Qi Ben led the army south this time, because of the difficulty in collecting grain and grass along the way, he ran out of grain when he arrived in Yingyin, and was forced to move to Yangzhai to get food, and wasted a lot of time before and after, and then Wang Li sent someone to urge Qi Ben to hurry south, and he came forward for Qi Ben to entertain Wang Li's envoy, which he heard when talking. But according to his confession, Wang Li's envoy was also hearsay, so he didn't dare to confirm whether it was true or not. ”

"If that's the case, I'm afraid my brother will be jealous of me." Xiang Kang snorted coldly.

Chen Ping didn't dare to provoke the relationship between Xiang Kang and Xiang Yu, so he closed his mouth and didn't answer the conversation, and after Xiang Kang thought about it for a while, he quickly made up his mind and said: "The violent Qin army has been defeated, and the supply of grain and grass is difficult, Qi Ben's defeated army will definitely not dare to stay in Kunyang and wait for death, and we don't need to waste time, let our soldiers rest for two days, and then immediately withdraw to Wancheng." ”

As Xiang Kang expected, it was only the next day, and news came from Kunyang, saying that the Qin general Qi Ben had been defeated with the remnants and would continue to retreat north, fleeing to the hinterland of Yingchuan, Xiang Kang did not delay any longer, and after explaining that Ren Kai was guarding Ye County, he soon went south with the main force lightly and returned to Wancheng to continue to command the overall situation.

As soon as he returned to Wancheng, there was new good news immediately, Uncle Zhou, who went west to crusade against Danshui, not only easily took the city, but also successfully persuaded Nanyang, which was active in Danshui, to accept the incorporation of the young marshal's army. Xiang Kang was overjoyed when he heard this, and in addition to ordering Uncle Zhou to move his army to attack Xixian, he immediately began to prepare for the westward expedition to Wuguan.

During this period, Xiang Kang also summoned Zhang Liang alone, handed over the information he had collected on the battlefield in Yexian County to Zhang Liang to watch, and asked Zhang Liang for his opinion on the entry of his own army into the Wuguan, and then learned that the Qin court actually let Zhang Han and Wang Li not belong to each other, and each formed an army, Zhang Liang immediately said: "General Right, the time is ripe for you to enter the Wuguan, not to mention that the violent Qin army has been divided and chaotic, Zhang Han may suffer a crushing defeat at any time, even if you enter the Wuguan at this time, the violent Qin court will send the violent Qin army under Wang Li's command back to the division to rescue." , Zhang Han will also be defeated soon, and when the time comes, the princes' army will take advantage of the victory to enter the Hangu Pass, and the king will be difficult to care about, and he will also be defeated. ”

Seeing that Zhang Liang, who was good at strategy, also believed that the time was ripe to enter Wuguan, Xiang Kang, of course, did not hesitate anymore, and immediately began to mobilize the army, and officially made public the strategic plan of the young marshal's army to prepare from Wuguan to Guanzhong, so that the officers and men of the young marshal army could be psychologically prepared, made various promises to boost morale, and satisfied the habits of the world in this era, carefully selected an auspicious day of the zodiac, and decided to send troops to the west on the 25th day of the first lunar month, and officially marched to Wuguan.

The plan did not change quickly, at noon on the twenty-third day of the first lunar month, the little girl Qi Min suddenly ran in front of Xiang Kang, first asked Xiang Kang about the preparation of the day after tomorrow, and after getting Xiang Kang's accurate answer, the little girl mustered up the courage again, and asked to go with Xiang Kang with a red face. Xiang Kang was moved by her shy appearance, first let the soldiers in the tent go out, and then pulled Qi Min's little girl into his arms with great skill, took advantage of her with ease, and asked with a lewd smile: "What do you have to do with me to Guanzhong?" Are you reluctant to be by my side and want to be by my side at any time? ”

Trying to hold down Xiang Kang's claws swimming in his underwear, Qi Min's face was already red to the base of his neck, but his mouth was very tough, and he said angrily: "Who can't bear you?" People have never been to Guanzhong, and they want to go to Guanzhong to see the scenery there. ”

"Then forget it." Xiang Kang smiled even more obscenely and said, "If you can't bear me, I can take you with me." If you just want to go to Guanzhong to see the scenery, then you still wait in Wancheng, and when I enter Guanzhong, then ask you Ah Weng to send someone to send you to Guanzhong to see the scenery. ”

"Then I'm not going."

Qi Min struggled, got up and wanted to leave a little angrily, but unfortunately Xiang Kang hugged her very tightly, Qi Min not only struggled all the time, but was also touched and kissed by Xiang Kang, taking advantage of countless advantages, but unfortunately when Qi Min's body slowly softened, the voice of Xu Ji, the captain of the pro-soldiers, suddenly came from outside the tent, "General Yuyou, Ren Kai Ren Duwei sent someone to send a messenger from Ye County to a former general, saying that it was a letter from the former general, and he wanted to present it to you in person." ”

"Finally remembered to take the initiative to contact me." Xiang Kang snorted coldly and said casually, "Bring him here." ”

Xu Ji, who was outside the tent, agreed, and was about to give an order, but Xiang Kang's heart suddenly moved, and he hurriedly shouted: "Slow! Go and tell the messenger of the former general, that I have gone into the city, and I do not know when I will return, and tell him to wait at the guest tent. Also, immediately go and invite Mr. Chen Ping, the lieutenant of the escort army. ”