If it weren't for the Han soldiers who used the limited ships to sacrifice their lives to rescue, then Zang Yan, the son of Zang Tu, the king of Yan, would definitely have to break the record and become the highest-ranking general killed on the Han side since the start of the Chu-Han War.

However, even so, after Zang Yan was rescued by the soldiers of the Han army back to the north bank of Jishui in a small boat, more than ten wounds of varying severity and depth were found on his body, and he was unconscious just after being carried in front of Uncle Zhou.

Zang Yan himself is still like this, of course, not to mention the Yan army, because the Jishui River is blocked during the flood season, among the more than 10,000 Yan soldiers who crossed the river overnight, less than 1,000 people fled back to the north bank of Jishui from various river sections, and most of the rest were killed, more than 2,000 soldiers were captured, and the rest were all missing and scattered, and almost all the troops were wiped out.

Ling Jing's headquarters of the Han army was also heavily damaged, with a total of nearly 5,000 killed, missing and captured, one lieutenant was killed, six generals were killed, and countless grassroots generals including many young marshals and old men were killed, and Ling Jing himself was also wounded in the battle. The surface of the Jishui River, where the water is flowing rapidly, is densely packed, and the corpses of the soldiers of the Han and Yan armies are all floating around, and the dead bodies on the ground on the south bank of the Jishui are also mostly the remains of the soldiers of the Han and Yan armies.

In the face of such an unprecedented fiasco, of course, the officers and men of the Han army were generally solemn and silent, and the morale of the army was frustrated together, and the civil and military officials at the decision-making level of the Han army were all twisted like knives, and they turned their heads and couldn't bear to look at the tragic scene on the river and the south bank of Jishui.

Still after confirming that there were no surviving officers and soldiers of the Han and Yan armies on the south bank of Jishui, the Han army Li Shiqi, who had witnessed this fiasco from beginning to end, struggled to get out of the carriage, walked to Uncle Zhou's side, and said in a gentle tone: "General Zhou, victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, although our army suffered a fiasco in this battle, but our overall strength has not been affected, there is no need to take it to heart, wait for the Qi country to send enough ferries, we will cross the river to take revenge It is not too late." ”

Uncle Zhou nodded, and said with a strong spirit: "The responsibility for this battle is me, it was my carelessness and mistakenly fell into the thief's trick, which caused the current consequences." The order will go down, and the wounded soldiers will be treated in good life, and then tell our soldiers clearly, and say that I will take the initiative to go to the table, explain the reason to the king, and ask the king to send an edict to deal with it. ”

"General Zhou, there's no need for that, right?" Li Shiqiqiang smiled and said: "Didn't the old man say just now, victory and defeat are just a common thing in soldiers, and it is normal to suffer a loss occasionally, why do you blame yourself so much, general?" ”

"If I don't do this, I don't have the face to see the families of these fallen soldiers." Uncle Zhou let out a long sigh and said, "Collect the troops, go back to the camp to discuss how to find the Chuji thief army to take revenge." ”

After the order was delivered, the dejected Han soldiers began to retreat in formation, and Li Shiqi, Zhou Shu and others also rode back to the camp with expressionless faces, but Uncle Zhou did not rush to turn the horse's head, but continued to look at the crowd of Chu allied troops who were cheering on the south bank of Jishui. Then, as if it was a heart-to-heart connection, a middle-level general of the Western Chu Army beat his horse and crossed the crowd, trotted to the bank of Jishui and looked at Uncle Zhou across the river, although the distance was extremely far, he couldn't see the appearance of that person clearly, and he also met Han Xin very few times when he was in the young marshal army, but Uncle Zhou still guessed that that person was Han Xin who Xiang Kang repeatedly asked him to deal with carefully.

"Yes, you're a great horseman, but don't get too excited just yet, our battle has just begun." After saying this to the man, Uncle Zhou turned his horse's head and rode his horse to the camp of the army, and his expression gradually returned to his usual resolute and calm appearance.

"Send people to contact the Qi State, and ask them to send more troops to escort the fleet to Licheng to help in the battle, and prevent the Chuji thief army from dispatching a fleet to intercept their fleet." This is an order issued by Uncle Zhou on the way back to the camp.

Correspondingly, after seeing Uncle Zhou leave across the river, Han Xin returned to Xiang Zhuang's front and said in the first sentence: "Zuo Sima, next we must immediately select skilled sailors, set up a temporary sailor, and send more people to monitor the lower reaches of Jishui. ”

Let's look at the situation on the Han army's side, after collecting the troops and returning to the camp, the important minister of the Han army, Li Shiqi, despite his illness, insisted on coming to the Chinese army's tent to meet with Uncle Zhou, and said to Uncle Zhou: "General Zhou, although our troops are sufficient, in order to ensure victory and reduce the pressure on us to cross the river, we had better urge Qi Wang Tian to leave, and let him send the main force of Qi to the west from Chidao as soon as possible, attack the flank of the Chuji thief army, and also receive our army to cross the river." ”

"That's what I mean." Uncle Zhou replied: "But I'm very worried about Tian Heng now, we want Qi to send the main force to help us, Tian Jiao will definitely ask us to transfer Tian Heng from Qi first, that puppet was originally forced by us to raise troops, and now we want to force him to give up the city land that has been in his hands, and leave Qi to accept our integration, I am afraid that this puppet will not only refuse to obey orders, but may also fall to the side of the Western Chu thief army, and in turn temporarily contain the Qi army for the Western Chu thief army." ”

"Don't worry, general, I have a plan that can guarantee that Tian Heng will obey his fate." Li Shiqi, a supporter of the sub-feudal system, said: "We only need to promise Tian Heng Pifu that after defeating Tian Da, he will be crowned the king of Jibei, and he will definitely go west from his fate immediately, and when the time comes, he will definitely fight to the death with the Chuji thief army for the throne, and the Qi army can also worry about the future and help us break the enemy with all our might." ”

Fortunately, Zhou Shu and Cui Guang, the old men of Shangshan next to them, were not only opponents of the feudal system, but also had a more long-term political vision, and immediately said: "General Zhou, you must not act like this." Doctor Li, don't blame the old man for refuting you, let's not say that our king has never liked to divide the feuds, and wants to follow the example of the first emperor to unify the world, even if we can temporarily grieve and seek perfection, and first seal Tian Heng Pifu as the king of Jibei, I'm afraid it will be difficult to let Tian Heng Pifu be used by us. ”

"Why?" Li Shiqi asked in surprise: "We gave him a throne for nothing, is he not enough?" ”

"It's definitely not enough." Zhou Shu replied very directly, and said: "Because it is absolutely impossible to satisfy the appetite of Tian Heng Pifu in the land of Jibei County, all the old land of Qi Country is the goal that Tian Heng Pifu wants to take." ”

"Qi Guo was originally recreated in the hands of Tian Heng's brother Tian Dan, after Tian Dan's death, it was mastered by Tian Rong and Tian Heng brothers, and later Xiang Yu was divided into three points, and Tian Rong's brothers would rather fight to the death with Xiang Yu than obey their fate, which has been proved." Cui Guang also said: "Besides, in order to win over Tian Heng Pifu now, the Western Chu Thief Army will definitely agree without hesitation to make Tian Heng or Tian Guang the king of Qi and send troops to help them restore the country." Therefore, even if we agree to make Tian Heng Pifu the king of Jibei, he may not be desperate for us, and maybe he may turn against us when the two armies are fighting, and help the Chuji thief army suddenly stab us in the back. ”

Recalling the past when Tian Rong and Tian Heng brothers stubbornly resisted the Western Chu Army for the land of Qi, Li Shiqi certainly did not dare to deny this possibility, Uncle Zhou also nodded, and said: "What Mr. Lu Li and Xia Huanggong said is extremely true, Tian Heng's puppet is too ambitious, and he must be resentful of us sacrificing his interests to curry favor with Tian Jiao, even if we are really forced to the front line to participate in the war, it is likely to become a hidden danger for us, so in contrast, it is better not to let him come to the front line of Licheng to participate in the war." ”

After agreeing with Zhou Shu and Cui Guang's views, Uncle Zhou frowned again and said: "But this matter is still a little difficult to do, we promised Tian Jiao, saying that as long as he surrenders to our Han army, we will immediately order Tian Heng to leave Qi with the army, and now we not only do not fulfill our promise, but also ask Tian Jiao to send troops and ships to help us, Tian Jiao may not agree?" ”

"General Zhou, if you can be ruthless with this heart, then the old decay has a way to do it once and for all." Cui Guangyin said: "If you want, you can deliberately not give Tian Heng any reward, and directly order him to leave Qi and come to Licheng to participate in the war, so Tian Heng will definitely refuse to obey his orders, and it is very likely that he will rebel directly, and then we can justifiably declare him a rebel and help Tian Jiao kill him directly." ”

"Of course, there is a downside to that." Cui Guang hurriedly added: "Even if we really force Tian Heng Pifu, Tian Jiao will definitely not be able to dispatch all the main forces to help us, fortunately, the impact is not very great, there are at least 80,000 troops in Qi Province, even if half of the army is left to deal with Tian Heng Pifu, it is more than enough, and the remaining half of the army can still go west to reinforce us." ”

At the beginning, in order to alleviate the resistance of the self-army to cross the Yellow River, he tried every means to force Tian Heng to immediately rebel in Qidi, and now Tian Heng is gradually losing his use value and is in danger of becoming a hidden danger, and he wants to deliberately force him to rebel, giving himself an excuse to kill him directly to eliminate the hidden danger, if such a shameless thing is placed on Xiang Kang or Liu Laosan, there will definitely be no problem, but if it is placed on Uncle Zhou, who is more kind, it makes Uncle Zhou inevitably a little embarrassed and unbearable.

Fortunately, after being Xiang Kang's accomplice, Uncle Zhou learned a lot from other things, that is, he was thick-skinned and black-hearted, so after thinking about it for a while, Uncle Zhou still nodded and said: "Okay, anyway, Tian Heng is unrighteous first, in order to become the king of Qi, he dared to blackmail us, so let's do it, give him an order directly, and force him to immediately take the army west along the Chi Road and come to the front line of Licheng to help us." By the way, I also gave a greeting to Tian Jiao's side, telling him to be ready, and if Tian Heng Pifu resisted the order or even openly opposed it, he would allow Tian Jiao Pifu to send troops to fight this rebellion for us. ”

"General Zhou, rest assured, Tian Jiao will never refuse your request." Cui Guang stroked his snow-white beard and said with a smile: "Tian Heng Pifu rebelled in Chengyang, Tian Jiao must have chewed him alive, we allow him to attack Tian Heng Pifu, he can definitely smile crookedly." ”

Uncle Zhou smiled bitterly, and once again understood Xiang Kang's painstaking efforts to send Zhou Shu and Cui Guang, the two old men of Shangshan, to be his accomplices. Although Li Shiqi next to him did not object to Uncle Zhou's adoption of the shameless tricks of the two old men of Shangshan, he proposed a new possibility and said: "What if Tian Heng's puppet deliberately swallows his anger and really comes to the Licheng battlefield?" When the time comes, with his bitter hatred for us, it is more likely that he will suddenly turn against us? ”

This question didn't need to be answered by Zhou Shu and Cui Guang, Uncle Zhou himself replied: "Let Tian Heng Pifu be in the independent camp in front, and the Qi army in the back, greet the Qi army in advance, be careful to guard against him, if he has any changes, we will join forces with the Qi army to kill him." If he is really well-behaved and obedient, when he destroys the Chuji thief army on the battlefield of Licheng, he will break up his army and ask the king to give him the title of marquis. ”

"That's all there is to it." Li Shiqi nodded and said: "Let him camp on the south bank of Jishui alone, even if he has any different intentions, he will not be able to threaten the safety of our main force, as long as our main force is safe, there is no need to worry about any great danger on the side of the Qi army." ”

In this way, after repeatedly weighing the overall pros and cons of the Qi battlefield, for the sake of tactical safety, Uncle Zhou quickly wrote a book himself, explaining his plan to the more important ally Qi Wang Tian Jiao, asking Tian Jiao to send a fleet to him as soon as possible to help him launch a rush to cross, and asked Tian Jiao to send half of the Qi army west to meet the army crossing the river, leaving half of Tian Heng to guard against Tian Heng, who may not be reliable. At the same time, he directly ordered Tian Heng, who had basically lost his use value, and asked Tian Heng to immediately lead his army west out of Qi and go to the front line of Licheng to help his own army without giving any promise.

Because the land connection has been dredged, the messenger sent by Uncle Zhou detoured to Di County, and it didn't take a few days to send his letter to Linzi, and then it was not as expected by the two old men of Shangshan, seeing that Uncle Zhou not only asked Tian Heng to leave the country of Qi immediately, but also allowed himself to leave half of the army to prevent Tian Heng from continuing to make trouble, Tian Jiao was really overjoyed, and immediately agreed to all the requests put forward by Uncle Zhou, in addition to stepping up the organization of the fleet and preparing to send troops to the west, and couldn't wait to arrange a light car to escort Uncle Zhou's messenger to Jiaodong, Go and get in touch with Tian Heng, who is entrenched in the Chengyang area.

The Han army messenger sent by Uncle Zhou to contact Tian Heng certainly knew how dangerous his trip was, and he had to be prepared to kneel down to Tian Heng and beg for mercy when he saw that the situation was wrong, but to the surprise of the Han army messenger, after repeatedly reading Uncle Zhou's order, although Tian Heng was obviously full of anger, in the end he unexpectedly suppressed the anger in his heart, not only did not shout and kill the Han army messenger, but on the contrary, he also asked the Han army messenger to be invited down to treat him politely.

The next day, Tian Heng actually told him in person that he would act according to the order, and said that he was already preparing to lead the army to retreat, and within three or two days, he would take more than 16,000 troops under his command to march west along the Chi Road, leave Qi and go to Licheng to participate in the war, and asked the Han army messenger to return to Linzi immediately, and asked Tian to order the Qi army to make way for his army to let go. When the Han army messenger heard the great joy, he hurriedly thanked Tian Heng again and again, and then immediately returned to Linzi from Chidao to return to Tian Jiao.

After the Han army messenger brought Tian Heng's reply back to Linzi, Tian Jiao was of course overjoyed, and immediately went to the eastern front battlefield of the Qi State, so that the Qi army there allowed Tian Heng's army to evacuate the Qi State from Chidao, and was ready to take over the land and city abandoned by Tian Heng - of course, for the sake of safety, Tian Jia naturally had to arrange for 20,000 troops to follow and monitor Tian Heng's army to leave the country.

At this time, the main force of the Qi army, which had already begun to prepare for the western expedition before Mr. Shusun arrived in Linzi, had also completed all the preparations for the expedition, and the ships and sailors requisitioned in Dixian and Bochang and other places had also been assembled.

Because Tian Heng's rebels have not yet left the Qi State, Tian Jiao is of course somewhat hesitant in this matter, but to Mr. Shusun's surprise, there are several Tian clan relatives in the Qi court to help him, persuading Tian Jia to send troops as soon as possible to prove the sincerity of the Han Dynasty, and also pointed out that if the Han army's sycophants are comfortable, maybe the Han army will return Jibei County, which originally belonged to the Qi State, to Tian Jia after taking Jibei. Tian Jiao was full of sincerity in surrendering to the Han Dynasty, and secondly, he really wanted to support Uncle Zhou and Xiang Kang behind Uncle Zhou, so he also nodded and agreed to Mr. Sun's request, and on the same day, he ordered the 40,000 Qi army and Qi convoy that had completed the assembly to set off westward.

Then, after a few days, Uncle Zhou knew that Tian Heng had really obeyed his orders unconditionally, strange and worried, in addition to sending the army west to meet the Qi army and fleet, Uncle Zhou gave two orders to the Qi army, one is to let the fleet sent by the Qi army to travel as close to the north bank as possible, and the other is to let Tian Wei, the general of Qi who commands the Qi army, be careful to guard against the upcoming Tian Heng army, if there is an accident, give priority to the camp, as long as Tian Heng's sudden sneak attack is survived, The Han army immediately pinched out Tian Heng's egg yolk and fed it to the flies!

Sure enough, it was Han Xin, who had just received a scout report that the Han army had sent troops to advance eastward from the north bank of Jishui, and Han Xin immediately understood that the fleet of Qi had set off, and then under his persuasion, the temporary fleet of the Chuji Army formed with the remaining soldiers of the Plain Naval Division of the Jibei Army as the backbone left the port on the same day and rushed downstream to block the fleet of Qi. At the same time, he decisively divided 10,000 troops and rushed west to set up camp on the galloping road fifty miles away, preventing the Qi army from approaching the battlefield of Licheng.

Thanks to Uncle Zhou, who also took precautions, he told the Qi side early on to send troops to escort the fleet, and the Chuji coalition fleet was not able to complete the blocking task, although it also relied on the speed advantage of going downstream, and killed dozens of Qi ships in a surprise attack, but after coming to his senses, the Qi fleet immediately assembled on the north shore, and used the soldiers who went west by boat to fight hard, and made every effort to protect the precious ships that were vital to the Han army, and persisted until the Han army's reinforcements arrived.

In the end, among the more than 500 large and small ships sent by the Qi State to the Han army, more than 400 successfully arrived at the Licheng battlefield, providing the Han army with enough ships necessary for the crossing. As long as our army crosses the river, there is nothing to worry about. ”

"General Zhou, be cautious." Li Shiqi said uneasily: "Regardless of whether Tian Heng arrived earlier or later than us, after we cross the river, it is best to find an excuse to transfer Tian Heng's army far away, so as to prevent accidents." ”

When Uncle Zhou nodded, Zhou Shu, who had been thinking about deducing the battle situation, suddenly moved in his heart, and hurriedly opened his mouth to speak, but Cui Guang, another old man from Shangshan next to him, suddenly pulled him away, pulled him away slightly, and whispered in his ear: "Mr. Luli, do you want to remind General Zhou to guard against ......?" ”

After Cui Guangfei finished speaking, Zhou Shu was suddenly extremely surprised, and hurriedly asked in a low voice: "Xia Huanggong, since you have already taken this into account, why don't you remind General Zhou?" ”

"Why do you want to be reminded?" Cui Guang smiled a little hideously, and said in a low voice: "The fleet has arrived, and the 40,000 Qi troops are about to rush to the battlefield of Licheng, why should we remind us of so many things?" Wouldn't it be more beneficial for us to let that puppet get his hands on it? ”

Zhou Shu's snow-white long eyebrows raised, and then secretly gave Cui Guang a thumbs up.