The news of the complete collapse of Zhang Chu's army on the battlefield on the Western Front was directly sent by Chen Sheng's Zhang Chu court, and in addition to satisfying Xiang Kang's request to exchange news with Zhang Chu's court, Chen Sheng, who had almost zero control over foreign generals, was still whimsical, and actually ordered Xiang Liang and Xiang Kang's uncle and nephew, who were only honorably subordinate to Zhang Chu's small court, to send troops to reinforce Chen County to help his rabble resist the attack of Zhang Han's army.

Of course, Xiang Kang will only send troops to Chen County to die in vain if he is stupid, but for the sake of his hypocritical reputation, and in order to quickly grasp the movements of Zhang Han's army through Zhang Chu's small court, Xiang Kang still promised to contact Xiang Liang immediately, and send troops to reinforce Chen Sheng as soon as possible after obtaining Xiang Liang's consent, so as to send away Chen Sheng's envoy, and then Xiang Kang immediately shifted his attention to the western front, closely paid attention to the situation of his own army's western expedition, calculated when to withdraw the western expedition horses, and made every effort to deal with the attack of Zhang Han's army.

Xiang Kang was quite surprised, Xiang Zhuang took Xiang Guan's western expedition to the west and did not go as smoothly as he expected, although Xiang Zhuang's troops bypassed the first line of Mangdang, which was the key defense of the Qin army in Dangjun, and avoided the strong attack on the weak attack on the empty Xiayi town of the Qin army, but it still took five full days for the young marshal army to take this small county town guarded by the Qin army's county soldiers, and at the same time, it also lost nearly 400 soldiers in the siege battle, and the battle was quite difficult.

After carefully studying Xiang Zhuang's military intelligence report, Xiang Kang found that Xiang Zhuang's department was not progressing well, which was probably related to his reorganization some time ago, when in order to strengthen his direct army, Xiang Kang incorporated many elite veterans into the directly subordinate army, but handed over to Xiang Zhuang were mostly recruits recruited by himself in Fuyang and Pengcheng, and Xiang Guan's army was even more miserable, more than seventy percent of the young marshal's army were recruited in Xiaxiang, Lingxian and Huaiyin, and the overall quality of the army declined. That's why it was so difficult to fight in the tough battle.

But fortunately, Xiang Kang still has some time to train these recruits, and he also has the opportunity to experience and improve Xiang Zhuang and Xiang Guan's army in actual combat, and at the same time, Zheng Bu and Ding Ji's two armies are also facing off against the Mangdang Qin army in Xiangxian, so there is no need to worry about Xiang Zhuang and Xiang Guan falling into a bitter battle. Therefore, Xiang Kang neither blamed Xiang Zhuang and Xiang Guan for their ineffective fighting, nor did he dispel the idea of continuing the western expedition, and patiently continued to observe the situation of the western expedition.

At the same time, in accordance with the original plan of the young marshal's army to march westward, after taking the small city of Xiayi with difficulty, Xiang Zhuang and Xiang Guan's troops quickly turned to the southwest and launched an attack on Li County, which is behind the second county of Mangdang. After hearing the report, Dong Ke, the county supervisor of Dangjun County, who commanded the Mangdang Qin army, immediately understood that the young marshal army wanted to cut off the connection between himself and the rear of Suiyang, and then joined forces with the Xiangxian young marshal army to flank the self-army before and after.

Dong Ke made a smart choice, because of the restrictions on the speed of message transmission on road traffic, when Xiang Zhuang's troops entered Li County, the young marshal army of Xiang County, who had not had time to prepare, was not ready to attack, and after discovering that Dong Ke had withdrawn through the exploration of the scouts, Zheng Bu and Ding Ji hurriedly sent troops westward, missing the opportunity to bite Dong Ke's tail. At the same time, at this critical moment, Xiang Zhuang made a wrong choice, after finding out the news that Dong Kejun returned to aid Li County, Xiang Zhuang did not choose to let the army advance slowly to retain his strength, and waited for Zheng Bu and Ding Ji to come to help, on the contrary, he also let the army speed up, intending to break through Suishui first, and then wait for reinforcements to come over to flank the Mangdang Qin army.

Strictly speaking, in fact, Xiang Zhuang's choice is not too wrong, he broke through Suishui first, and then waited for reinforcements to come to help, Xiang Zhuang's troops did not need to cross the river first to attack the Qin army, and the certainty of success was much greater. However, people are not as good as heaven, and Xiang Zhuang's troops, who were carrying a large amount of grain and grass, were relatively slow, and they were rushed to the south bank of Suishui by the Mangdang Qin army, blocking the southward road of Xiang Zhuang's department.

Although Xiang Zhuang did this without consideration, he also inadvertently blocked the road of the Mangdang Qin army across the river and shattered the hope of the Mangdang Qin army to achieve a quick victory. However, Dong Ke, the chief general of the Qin army, was quite scheming, and expected that the grain and grass of the young marshal's army would be difficult to guarantee, and he did not dare to confront him for a long time, so he asked the Mangdang Qin army to deliberately repair the fortifications on the favorable terrain on the south bank of Suishui, and posed to be stationed here for a long time.

Fortunately, this fiasco finally woke up Xiang Zhuang and made Xiang Zhuang understand his weaknesses, there are too many recruits in the army, and his combat effectiveness has declined, and at the same time, it is the first time he has commanded this kind of battle of more than 10,000 people, and it is also the first time to deal with the main force of the county soldiers of the Qin army alone. Therefore, Xiang Zhuang quickly forced himself to calm down, and while completely dispelling the idea of a quick victory, he sent people to contact Ding Ji and Zheng Bu, asking them to enter Li County as soon as possible and help him work together to deal with the Mangdang Qin army led by Dong Ke.

It was finally Dong Ke's turn to scratch his head, although he had just won a battle and his morale was high, but he was blocked by Suishui, and if he wanted to cross the river for a decisive battle, he would definitely be attacked by Xiang Zhuang Bandu, and after a long delay, the reinforcements of the young marshal's army arrived, and the Mangdang Qin army would definitely fall back into the disadvantage. After racking his brains, Dong Ke simply deliberately wrote a contemptuous war letter, and sent people to cross the river to fight Xiang Zhuang, wanting to provoke Xiang Zhuang and lure Xiang Zhuang to cross the river for a decisive battle.

But it's a pity that Xiang Zhuang was originally known for his steady personality among the children of the Xiang family, and he had returned to normal after calming down, and he had been with Xiang Kang for a long time, and he had already thickened his face a lot, so after reading Dong Ke's deliberately provocative letter, Xiang Zhuang not only did not get angry, but on the contrary, he smiled at the Qin army envoy and said: "Go back and tell Dong Kepifu that you can fight a decisive battle, as long as he dares to cross the river, Lao Tzu will accompany him to the end, but let Lao Tzu cross the river and fight a decisive battle, Lao Tzu is not in a hurry, our reinforcements will arrive soon, When the time comes, it will be up to whom. ”

Xiang Guan had a different opinion, and after the Qin army envoy left, Xiang Guan immediately asked Xiang Zhuang: "Brother, it is safer to confront and wait for reinforcements across the river, but what if the violent Qin army builds strong fortifications on the south bank of Suishui?" We have no food supply to replenish food, if we can't defeat the camp of the Tyrannical Qin army, and the food is eaten up again, then how can we fight? ”

"It's better to run out of food than to risk the army." Xiang Zhuang replied: "You have also seen the situation of the Tyrannical Qin army in Dangjun with your own eyes, it is much stronger than we expected, and there are too many new recruits in our army, and the combat effectiveness is insufficient. ”

After finishing speaking, Xiang Zhuang also comforted Xiang Guan again: "Don't worry, we don't dare to confront the Tyrannical Qin army for a long time, but if we really can't attack the camp of the Tyrannical Qin army, we will have a big deal to turn around and fight Mangxian and Dangxian. ”

Seeing that his brother had already made up his mind, Xiang Guan, who lacked more military experience than Xiang Zhuang, didn't say anything more, and honestly followed Xiang Zhuang to command the army to carefully guard the camp on the north bank, closely monitor the Suishui ferry, and patiently just wait for the arrival of reinforcements, no matter how insulting and provocative the Qin army was on the south bank of Suishui, he just didn't take the risk of rushing to the crossing.

Before that, because of the relatively dense population of Dangjun, the people of Dangjun, who were unwilling to endure the rule of the tyrannical Qin, enthusiastically joined the army, and almost every day one or two hundred people came to the camp of the young marshal army to take the initiative to join the army, so that the young marshal army could choose men of appropriate age to supplement the soldiers as they liked. However, after being blocked by the Suishui Ferry and accidentally suffering a defeat, the number of people in Dangjun who took the initiative to join the army decreased rapidly, and at the end of the day, they could only recruit a dozen or so qualified soldiers at most, and the gap was quite obvious.

In this regard, Xiang Zhuang, who had accumulated a lot of experience, did not care, knowing that as long as the self-army could defeat the Mangdang Qin army, the situation would definitely improve immediately. Xiang Guan, who finally got the opportunity to go out, was quite worried, and was very concerned about this matter, and on the evening of the second day, Xiang Guan also personally came to the recruitment office outside the camp to understand the situation, but unfortunately, this day was actually less than the previous days, and only twelve qualified soldiers were recruited in one day.

"Why is it getting less and less?" Xiang Guan asked the recruiting officer with some dissatisfaction: "Is it that your subordinates are lazy and don't go to the surrounding township pavilions to publicize and persuade the villagers here to join our young marshal army?" ”

"Captain, no." The recruiting officer shouted injustice: "The subordinates of the subordinates go to the surrounding township pavilions every day to persuade the villagers to join the army, and their voices are almost hoarse, but those people are afraid of death and can't come, and the subordinates have no choice." ”

Xiang Guan was more and more disappointed, and was ordering the recruiter to end today's recruitment task, but unexpectedly, a fast horse suddenly came from afar, and came directly towards the camp gate of the young marshal army at great speed, Xiang Guan thought that it was the scout of the army who found the enemy situation and came back to report, but when he looked closely, Xiang Guan was quite surprised to find that the knight was just an ordinary person's attire, Xiang Guan immediately opened his mouth and ordered: "Stop him." ”

Xiang Guan's personal soldiers led the order to step forward, shouting loudly to order to ride and stop, but what surprised Xiang Guan's snack was that the man had just heard the shouts of his own soldiers, and suddenly reined in the high-speed sprint, and the horse raised its hooves to stop, but the man was as if he had taken root on the horse's back, and he was not affected in any way, only clamping the horse with his legs, until the horse's inertia disappeared and the front hooves landed, and then he calmly turned over and dismounted, leading the horse on foot. - You know, there are no Takahashi saddles and stirrups in this era, and there are not many people who can do such difficult movements in this era.

"Generals, don't get me wrong, the villain is here to join the army." At the same time as leading the horse over, the man said loudly: "I heard that your young marshal's army has entered Dangjun, so I came from Suiyang to join the army, I want to join you and fight against the tyrannical Qin with you." ”

It was only after the man walked in front of him that Xiang Guan found that the person who came was only in his twenties, and although his appearance was mediocre, his temperament was very high, and he couldn't help but ask: "The riding skills are good, when did you start learning equestrianism?" ”

"Last year." The man gave an answer that surprised Xiang Guan, saying, "Last June." ”

Qin Shi is the end of the year in September, and now it is December, and Qin Shi's June last year is actually June this year, so Xiang Guan was inevitably even more surprised when he heard it, and said: "Only studied for six months? Can you have such riding skills? ”

"The general has won the award, and the villain has just practiced and played, which is far from those real book riding masters." The person who came also knew how to be modest, and couldn't wait to ask: "General, can you let the villain be a soldier for you?" The villain not only knows how to ride, but also can shoot a bow and arrows, and can shoot a bow with one stone. ”

"Can you shoot a bow with one stone?" Xiang Guan, who could barely do this, was a little surprised, and simply asked his own soldiers to bring his own bow and arrows, handed them to the man and said, "It's exactly one stone and eight bucket bows, put one arrow and I'll take a look." ”

The man was not polite, he immediately took the bow and arrow when he said a word of offense, pulled the bow and arrows and stretched the strings like the moon, and with a light movement of his fingers, the arrows immediately flew out and disappeared into the depths of the twilight. It's getting dark, and if you want to shoot a target, you can only ask someone to prepare a brazier as a target. ”

"No need, take it, it's so good at riding and shooting, let's join my direct horse team." Xiang Guan replied with a smile, and asked casually, "By the way, I forgot to ask your name." ”

"The villain is infantile." The man replied respectfully.

The arrival of the baby is just a small episode in the battle of Suishui, the main theme soon sounded, it was the third watch of the night, and the Mangdang Qin army, who was in a hurry to break the young marshal's army, suddenly boarded the boat and rushed to the crossing, intending to attack the department of Poxiang Zhuang with surprise. Fortunately, sneak attacks at night have always been the young marshal's forte, the Qin army's ferry has just landed on the north shore, the young marshal's army arranged at the ferry immediately sounded the gong to alarm, Xiang Zhuang also immediately got up to organize the army to meet the battle, although he did not dare to venture out in the middle of the night, but also relied on the camp fortifications, successfully repelled the Qin army's sneak attack, and never gave the Qin army any chance. And as the sky became brighter, the Qin army, whose physical strength had declined, had no choice but to obediently flee back to the south bank of Suishui, killing and wounding more than 200 sergeants in vain but gaining nothing.

The sneak attack of the Qin army also proved the correctness of the young marshal's strategy of sticking to the strategy of waiting for reinforcements, and in the next two days, Xiang Zhuang and Xiang Guan's second generals also became more and more cautious, no matter how the Qin army provoked and lured, life or death was to stand still. At noon on the third day, the reinforcements led by Zheng Bu and Ding Ji finally rushed to the south bank of Suishui after getting rid of the entanglement of the Mangdang County soldiers, completely reversing the situation on the Suishui battlefield, not to mention, and completely shattering the dream of the Mangdang Qin army to break the young marshal's army.

In order to fight for the last chance, the main general of the Qin army, Dong Ke, fought in danger, and let the 1,000 Qin army be responsible for intercepting Xiang Zhuang's troops to cross the river, and led the main force to start a decisive battle with Zheng Bu and Ding Ji's two armies. In vain, he tried to defeat the reinforcements of the young marshal's army by relying on the battle that the Qin army was better at, and then turned back to deal with Xiang Zhuang.

No matter how dying and struggling it was, Zheng Bu and Ding Ji, who saw through the purpose of the Qin army at a glance, decisively took a defensive position and carried the Qin army's attack in a tight formation, while Xiang Zhuang relied on the advantage of troops to constantly impact the south bank ferry, and the Qin army soldiers who were responsible for intercepting it were only barely able to support it at first, but after a long time, they were quickly stretched thin, and the defense line was broken through one after another, even if the county soldiers of Lixian County hurriedly sent troops to help, it did not have much effect. Dong Ke was anxious, and constantly urged the main force to attack the strong position of the young marshal's army, but the young marshal's army, which was sure to win, stood still and persisted until the brigade of Xiang Zhuang's department successfully crossed the river.

Next, Xiang Zhuang, who had regained his composure, was much smarter, knowing that it would be difficult for the main force of the Qin army to retreat to the city and then take Li County, so he decisively chose to avoid the real and take the young marshal army east to fight Mangdang Ercheng, Dong Ke, who was already at a disadvantage, did not dare to move anymore, so he had to watch the young marshal's army calmly return to the division, easily take down the Mangdang Ercheng that he had held for several months, and expand the territory to Dangjun.

The war report was sent to Pengcheng, but Xiang Kang did not have any joy, the reason is that the army of the Western Expedition did not complete the established purpose of annihilating the main force of the Qin army in Dangjun, leaving hidden dangers on the side, and the second is that the young marshal army also exposed a lot of weaknesses and shortcomings in this Western Expedition, the main general Xiang Zhuang lacked flexibility, and he still needed to continue to hone if he wanted to be alone. If after Zhang Han's army defeated Chen Sheng, the main force directly killed him, how could he resist? How can you resist it?

What made Xiang Kang even more worried was Xiang Liang's attitude, after Xiang Kang sent the urgent letter to Jiangdong, Xiang Liang, who had not had time to completely pacify the land in Jiangdong, not only did not consider immediately sending troops north to reinforce Xiang Kang, a precious nephew, but also comforted Xiang Kang and said that Chen Sheng would not be able to fall so easily for a while and a half, and he would definitely be able to buy enough time for the young marshal's army to respond, so that Xiang Kang could give himself a little more time, and then send troops to help Xiang Kang after he freed his hands.

"No matter how heroes of the world are, there are times when you are confused, if you are also a traverser, you will know how vulnerable Chen Sheng's soldiers and horses are in front of Zhang Han."

When he sighed and was worried, bad news suddenly came, Chen Sheng sent a messenger to Pengcheng again, telling Xiang Kang that Zhang Han's army had easily swept away Zhang Chu's army in Yingchuan with a momentum like a bamboo, and had entered the army of Chen County, and asked Xiang Kang to quickly send troops to Chen County to help Chen Sheng. As a result, hearing the news, Xiang Kang, who had always been quite calm, suddenly turned a little pale, and said secretly: "If Zhang Han kills Chen Sheng and comes directly to me with the main force, with my current strength, how can I resist it?" What am I going to do? Do you have to be ready to run away, and if the situation is not right, you will immediately take the army to Xiangliang? ”