In addition to a slight advantage in troops, the Dai Jin Zhai coalition army also has a very inconspicuous but quite important advantage, that is, the special terrain in the Jinyang area.

The topography of Jinyang is probably like this, Fenshui flows from the east of Jinyang City, protects the east gate of Jinyang, Luliang Mountain Range is located in the west of Jinyang City, only a few miles away, the east and west are narrow, the north and south are long and narrow, and in the southwest of Jinyang City, there is another river Jinshui that is very famous in history flows out of the mountain, flows southwest to northeast, flows through the south gate of Jinyang City and joins Fenshui, forming a natural ditch, cutting off the narrow terrain between Fenshui and Luliang Mountain Range.

The result of this is that whether it is the Han army stationed ten miles south of Jinyang City, or the Zhang Han army stationed twenty miles north of Jinyang City, if they want to send troops to attack each other, they must first cross the Jinshui before they can enter the army. Or take a rather troublesome method, first cross the Fenshui to the north or south, to the east of the opponent's camp, and then cross the Fenshui to the west again, and then to reach the opponent's camp.

Prior to this, of course, the Jin Zhai coalition army had destroyed all the bridges in the upper reaches of Jinshui, leaving only the bridge near Jinyang City untouched, which allowed the Jin Zhai coalition army to rely on the cover of the defenders in the city bow and arrow, easily cross the Jinshui, and directly march south to attack the Han army camp, if the Han army wants to directly attack Jinyang City or Zhang Han army camp, but there are only two ways, one is to grab a bridge to cross the river in the upper reaches of Jinshui, and it is to force the bridge under Jinyang City to cross the river at the risk of being covered by the defenders' bows and arrows, and it is much more difficult to enter the army. Tactically it is therefore more passive.

Of course, Zhang Han, an experienced battlefield veteran, would not ignore such a favorable terrain, especially when it was necessary to decide the victory or defeat of the Han army's division as soon as possible, Zhang Han carefully scrutinized the current psychology of Zhou Shu, the commander of the Han army, and quickly formulated a detailed and thorough tactical plan, deciding to use this advantage to fight poison with poison, and use the Han army's best intrigues and tricks to compete with Uncle Zhou.

Zhang Han's initial shot was also very confusing, guessing that Uncle Zhou would expect that he would be in a hurry to fight with him, he deliberately sent a messenger to the camp with a book, and invited Uncle Zhou to send troops to a decisive battle on the east bank of Fenshui on the next day, and then did not expect Zhang Han, and designed and arranged Wang Ling in advance to sneak attack the rear of Zhang Han's army. Zhang Han personally led more than 20,000 troops to cross the Fenshui to the south the next day, pretending to be eager for a decisive battle, and led the army to the bank of Fenshui outside the east gate of the Han army camp to fight.

"Uncle Zhou, timid as a mouse, has the courage to come out and fight us to the death!"

"Uncle Zhou, do you want to avenge your original master, Wei Qi? If you want to, you will be fulfilled, and come out and fight us to the death! ”

"Shameless rats, flatterers who only give women to Xiang Kang's children, if they have the courage, they will come out to fight! Shameless dog, do you only rely on women's nepotism to get promoted? Come out and fight us! If you have the courage, come out and fight us! ”

The scolding of the soldiers of Zhang Hanjun was also very ugly, and he also took out the matter of Uncle Zhou being a matchmaker for Xiang Kang and Bo Zhanzhi to make a fuss, insisting that Uncle Zhou was the commander of the Han army who became the commander of the Han army by nepotism, and scolded and humiliated Uncle Zhou in every way, desperately angered Uncle Zhou, and lured the Han army to cross the Fenshui to fight. Not to mention the result, the generals of the Han army, who were far less cheeky than Xiang Kang and Liu Laosan, really ate this trick, and ran to Uncle Zhou to ask for battle, hoping that Uncle Zhou could send troops to cross the river and go to the west bank of Fenshui to fight to the death with Zhang Han's army.

Fortunately, although Uncle Zhou's face is not as thick as Xiang Kang and Liu Laosan, his personality is quite calm, and he categorically rejected the Han army's generals' request for battle, and said: "Don't be fooled, if we cross the river for a decisive battle, we are not sure if we send fewer troops, and if we send more troops, the camp is empty, and Dong Fei and Sima Xin may take the opportunity to send troops to attack our camp, making us uneasy. ”

After trying to appease the generals of the Han army, Uncle Zhou ordered people to select high-pitched soldiers from the ranks of the Han army to go to the shore to scold Zhang Hanjun, and strictly forbade a soldier to cross the river to fight, and then hid back in the tent of the Chinese army, and turned a deaf ear to Zhang Hanjun's shouting and scolding. During this period, Zhou Shu, one of the old men of Shangshan, asked very strangely: "General Zhou, since you guessed that the thief army might release a fire raft to burn our pontoon bridge, why don't you nail a few rows of wooden stakes upstream of the pontoon bridge to prevent the thief army's raft from approaching our pontoon bridge?" ”

"If I do this, Zhang Han will have no chance to win by surprise, he will have no chance to win by surprise, and our chance will be calculated to achieve the greatest victory at the lowest cost?" Uncle Zhou's answer was meaningful, there was a sound outside the strings, and Zhou Shu, whose name was the same as him, understood it, so he simply closed his mouth and never mentioned it again.

Because of Uncle Zhou's calmness and restraint, Zhang Han's first day of insulting and fighting was of course in vain, but Zhang Han refused to give up, and changed his tricks on the second day, sending 2,000 troops to cross the Fenshui River to the south in the morning and afternoon, and took turns to run to the Fenshui River to shout and scold the war, Uncle Zhou continued to ignore it, and always refused to send a soldier to fight across the river, and always sent a loud soldier to the bank of the Fenshui River to scold Zhang Han's army across the river, so as not to blindly be scolded and frustrate the military prestige.

Even Uncle Zhou didn't expect that his arrangement would be effective, two days later, in the afternoon, because the Han army scolded too badly, Zhao Ben, the general of the Zhang Han army, who was known for his short temper, was impulsive, and directly urged the army to launch a charge, and raided the Han soldiers guarding the pontoon crossing. After the news was reported to Uncle Zhou, Uncle Zhou was not surprised, but just smiled and said: "Good thing, the thief army has begun to make noise, and the more they are noisy, the better it will be for us." ”

The matter was not over, and in the afternoon of the next day, the Han army scouts suddenly caught a man on the Luliang Mountain path west of Jinyang City, who also claimed to be the personal soldier of Zhao Ben, the general of the Zhang Han army, and had confidential matters to report to Uncle Zhou in person. When Uncle Zhou personally interrogated, Zhao Ben's personal soldiers presented Zhao Ben's letter of surrender, saying that Zhao Ben was reprimanded by Zhang Han after returning to the camp yesterday, and he was angry in his heart, and he always missed his hometown relatives, so he had the idea of surrendering to the Han army.

In addition, Zhao Ben also reported an important situation to Uncle Zhou in the letter of request, saying that Zhang Han's daily battle was just to paralyze Uncle Zhou, and he was going to suddenly send troops this night, cross the Jinshui River and go south directly, and attack the Han army camp, and also said that Sima Xin and the remnants of Dong Fei in Jinyang City would also participate in this night attack, so please make preparations for Uncle Zhou as soon as possible, and don't give Zhang Han and Sima Xin and others a chance to take advantage of it.

After reading Zhao Ben's letter requesting surrender, of course all the generals of the Han army were very excited, and they all advised Uncle Zhou to give it a try, prepare in advance, and surprise Zhang Han's soldiers who stole the camp at night. Uncle Zhou, who was familiar with military books and knew the tricks, had reservations, although he did not believe in it, he still quickly arranged a response plan, and waited suspiciously for Zhang Han's army to come to attack at night.

Facts have proved that General Zhao Ben did not deceive Uncle Zhou, it was just half a night watch, Uncle Zhou arranged the Han army outside the camp to send a signal, informing the Han army soldiers that the enemy was coming, Uncle Zhou was busy urging the army to meet the enemy, and the Han army ambush under Luliang Mountain in advance also suddenly killed, and the Zhang Han army that sneaked to attack the Han army camp overnight was defeated and fled, and then chased to the bank of the Jinshui River, and met the Jin Zhai coalition army that secretly opened the south gate and went out of the city to attack the Han army.

It's a pity, because Uncle Zhou didn't fully believe in Zhao Ben and didn't dare to take risks, the night battle plan arranged by the Han army was not very strong in terms of counterattack strength, and the Jin Zhai coalition army was quite cunning, just found out that it was ambushed, and immediately retreated and fled north, and the bridges on the Jinshui River were all covered by the bows and arrows of the defenders in the city, and soon quickly escaped from Jinshui under the cover of friendly troops, and did not give the Han army a chance to expand the results of the battle. Therefore, although the Han army won the victory this time, it was very regrettable that it only beheaded hundreds of corpses and only achieved a small victory.

In this regard, of course, all the generals of the Han army were full of regrets, and Uncle Zhou couldn't help but regret it, and said with some regret: "It's a pity, I'm too conservative this time, if I were bold and arrange an ambush on the bank of the Jinshui River in advance, and cut off the retreat of the thief army first, the situation would definitely be completely different." ”

"It's a bit of a pity, but it's okay." Zhou Shu, the old man of Shangshan, cheered up Uncle Zhou and said: "At least we can confirm that General Zhao Ben is sincere in asking for surrender, and we can rest assured that we can trust the news of the thief army provided by him in the future, and next time there is a similar opportunity, we will definitely not miss it again." ”

Uncle Zhou was silent, because Uncle Zhou clearly remembered that there was such a sentence in the book of war - like to lure it, and to beat Meng!

After the failure of the night attack, Zhang Han lived very peacefully for a few days, and did not come back to fight for several days, honestly hiding in the camp to lick his wounds, Uncle Zhou also calmed down, and patiently waited for Zhang Han, who was being turned upside down by Wang Ling, to make a new move. The result was not what Uncle Zhou expected, four days later, Zhang Han really sent a messenger to the camp, sent a set of women's clothes and a letter of appointment to Uncle Zhou, inviting the Han army to fight to the death on the south bank of Jinshui the next day, and said eloquently: "If the general still has no courage to fight a decisive battle, we will not force it, a set of women's clothes, please accept it." ”

Uncle Zhou laughed directly and said, "Can His Royal Highness the Acting King have some novelty and use women's clothes to provoke the opponent to fight a decisive battle, this hand seems to be the first of our Han King, right?" If the king does this, he is not afraid of being ridiculed for his imitation? ”

"Our king is indeed emulating this to His Royal Highness the King of Han." The envoy of Zhang Hanjun was clearly a dead soldier, and said very directly: "Although it is an imitation, as long as it has an effect, our king has to be afraid of what others are talking about behind his back?" ”

Uncle Zhou smiled, then put pen to paper, and wrote the words 'decisive battle in the coming day' on Zhang Han's war book, Zhang Han's envoy was overjoyed, and hurriedly thanked Uncle Zhou, and left with a big farewell. Uncle Zhou didn't pay attention to it, but immediately asked left and right: "The scouts who steal some of the thief army's cooking cigarettes every day, have you come back?" ”

The left and right replied, saying that they hadn't come back yet, and Uncle Zhou was not in a hurry, but just ordered: "After coming back, let them come to see me immediately." ”

At noon, the Han army scout who was responsible for stealing some smoke from Zhang Hanjun's breakfast returned to the tent, saying that Zhang Hanjun's cooking smoke today was nearly half more than usual, and the duration was much longer than usual. ”

After that, Uncle Zhou immediately ordered all battalions of the Han army to ask the soldiers of the Han army to take out the charcoal they had accumulated at ordinary times, make a fire with charcoal that would not smoke, make more dry food such as steamed buns, pancakes, etc., and prepare a sufficient number of torches for night battles. Then it was at this time that Cui Guang, the old man of Shangshan, and Zhou Shucai asked Uncle Zhou: "General, what are the thieves going to do while sending people to make an appointment for battle, and secretly rushing to make dry food?" ”

"It's not clear yet." Uncle Zhou replied: "But there should only be two possibilities, one is that the thief army intends to attack our camp at night, and the other is secretly preparing to retreat. ”

"Secretly preparing to retreat?" Zhou Shu was surprised and asked, "How is this possible?" Why did Zhang Handpifu retreat? He doesn't plan to pay attention to Jinyang? ”

"I can't rule it out." Uncle Zhou replied: "Estimate the time, if it goes well, our partial division of General Wang Ling's department should have taken Shanwu, I have previously explained to Wang Ling, as long as Shanwu's grain and grass are successfully captured, immediately give me to march along the gallop road to Dai County, attack the national capital of Zhang Handip, his rear is in an emergency, of course, he will give birth to the idea of saving Dai County first." During this period, as long as Dong Fei and Sima Xin dealt with it carefully and made every effort to stick to Jinyang City, which had sufficient grain and grass, it was not impossible for them to hold out until Zhang Handpifu went south to rescue again. ”

"So what should we do?" Cui Guang hurriedly asked.

"There's no rush yet." Uncle Zhou shook his head and said extremely calmly: "I can still determine whether Zhang Handpifu is preparing to launch a night attack, or pretending to fight and actually playing the golden cicada shell, waiting for our scouts to collect some more clues, and then I can guess his true intentions." ”

It's a pity that although Zhang Han, who had killed Xiang Liang in a sneak attack, was not as good as Uncle Zhou and Xiang Kang and other traitors in the world, it was not much worse, although the Han army scouts had been closely monitoring every move in Zhang Han's camp, but there were no more suspicious clues, and they could no longer provide useful relevant information for Uncle Zhou, Uncle Zhou's heart began to be anxious, but there was nothing he could do - after all, Uncle Zhou was not a roundworm in Zhang Han's stomach.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, Zhao Ben, the general of the Dai Army, who had betrayed Zhang Han once, suddenly sent his henchmen and soldiers to get in touch with the Han army, and reported to Uncle Zhou that Zhang Han decided to secretly withdraw from the Jinyang battlefield this evening, and led the main force of the Dai Army back to aid Dai County, intending to first clean up the Han army's partial division Wang Ling's headquarters that had taken Shanwu, and then go south to aid Jinyang. In addition, of course, Zhao Ben suggested that Uncle Zhou prepare for interception and pursuit in advance, not to give Zhang Han a chance to escape smoothly, and promised to act as an internal response, and then cooperate with Uncle Zhou and break Zhang Han!

"Good! God help me! ”

After reading the letter, Uncle Zhou couldn't help but be overjoyed, in addition to rewarding Zhao Ben's messenger, he quickly ordered to gather the generals, and quickly arranged a tactical plan to block the front and chase after the rear, and annihilate Zhang Han's main force at night.

Seeing the high morale of the generals of the Han army, Uncle Zhou was of course overjoyed, and was ready to hurry back to the tent to rest, seize the time to sleep for a while, and let himself have enough energy to command the battle at night. But just when Uncle Zhou got off his seat and returned to the account, Zhou Shu, an old man from Shangshan who had the same name as him, reminded him and said: "General, for the sake of safety, do you want our soldiers to hurry up and nail a few rows of wooden stakes upstream of our pontoon bridge to prevent the thieves in Jinyang City from suddenly releasing a fire raft and burning our pontoon bridge?" ”

"You can't do that." Uncle Zhou shook his head and said casually: "At this time, grab the nail stake, Zhang Handpifu will definitely understand immediately, we have already guessed that he is going to retreat overnight." When the time comes, he may be able to kill us by surprise ...... us. ”

casually said this, Uncle Zhou's face suddenly changed, because Uncle Zhou suddenly thought about an important issue, and said secretly: "I refuse to grab the nail stake to protect the pontoon, will it be expected by Zhang Handpifu?" As long as he is a slightly more rational army commander, he will definitely make the same choice as me! ”

Born of this suspicion, Uncle Zhou quickly settled down again, reorganized his thinking, and gradually found that he was eager to win this time, and neglected a very dangerous possibility - what if Zhao Ben's previous surrender was throwing bricks and attracting jade? With a failed night raid that is destined not to lose much, to deceive yourself into trusting him, and to unconditionally believe the important information he provided the second time?

"I can't rule it out." Uncle Zhou quickly came to this conclusion and said in his heart: "If I am Zhang Han, the rear is in an emergency, and the enemy insists on not fighting, and the patience is against me, I can only try my best to win by surprise, as long as I can fool the enemy, even if I deliberately fight one or two defeats, it is definitely worth it!" If I am now in the position of Zhang Han, I must also hope that the enemy's main force will cross the Fenshui and create an opportunity for me to take the opportunity to sneak attack the enemy's fortified camp. ”

"What if my calculation is wrong, and Zhao Ben is not a fraud?" Uncle Zhou closed his eyes again, and quickly calculated in his heart, "The consequence is that I missed the opportunity and gave Zhang Handan the opportunity to withdraw the main force of Zhang Handan from the Jinyang battlefield smoothly, but it is extremely safe to do so, in addition, my cavalry is sufficient, and all of them can fight on horseback, and their mobility is far superior to that of Zhang Handan Thief Army, and it is very easy to bite Zhang Handan and make him unable to withdraw quickly, giving my infantry brigade a chance to catch up with Zhang Hand's thief army." ”

"It's better not to take risks, the king handed over the partial division to me, hoping that I would sweep through the north of Jin, and then march into the Zhao State, cutting off the wings of the northern line of the Western Chu thief army, not to give me a risk to gamble, since I have the certainty of winning the peace, and I can't determine the specific tactics of the enemy, I can only give priority to the victory of the peace!"

It was only after coming to this conclusion that Uncle Zhou opened his eyes and decisively ordered: "Come on, immediately call Lu Kuang, Ling Jing and Worm Da all of them back, I will rearrange the night battle plan for tonight!" ”