In the battle of Xingyang Aocang, Xiang Kang felt that he was just a miserable victory, but he didn't know that his unlucky cousin, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, was already vomiting blood, so that after fleeing east to Puyang, Xiang Yuleng lay in bed for a whole day without eating, drinking, or talking, looking at the roof in a daze, a pro-soldier who kindly persuaded him to eat was also seriously injured by his kick and almost died.

I can't help Xiang Yu to be so sad and angry, the 20,000 Western Chu cavalry lost in Xingyang and Aocang are 100% of the elite and strong soldiers of the Western Chu army, and there is no elite soldier who has not crawled out of the pile of dead countless times.

However, because of the shameless tricks and despicable tricks of the Han army, as well as the influence of weather and logistics, so many veterans of a hundred battles who were the backbone of the army died on the battlefield of Xingyang Aocang in just over ten days, and finally made the Western Chu army almost nothing.

I almost forgot, there are also war horses, there is no horse-producing land in the territory of Western Chu, the Western Chu army worked hard, relying on trade purchases and war captures, and finally accumulated more than 30,000 cavalry, and lost more than half of them at once, which was also enough to make Xiang Yu vomit blood!

Because of this, in addition to frustration and despair, there is only one thought left in Xiang Yu's heart - revenge! No matter how much it costs, we must make up for the losses suffered in this defeat! No matter how much it costs, you must hand over Xiang Kang and Uncle Zhou, a group of despicable villains, shameless rats, and avenge their 20,000 elites!

"Give Cao Qi, Gongao and Ji Bu an order to them, tell them to speed up their westward march, and the sooner they come to meet this king, the better!" This is the first sentence Xiang Yu said after being in a daze for a whole day, when he said this, Xiang Yu's finger joints were white, and he directly tore the bedclothes (quilt) into pieces!

Fortunately, Xiang Yu was also a little relieved that while waiting for the main force to come to rendezvous, good news suddenly came from the north bank of the Yellow River, saying that the Han army had moved with its ally Zhao army in Hanoi County, and the Zhao army was forced to abandon the Chaoge County town that had been shamelessly seized by taking advantage of the fire to retreat to the east bank of the flood to confront the Han army across the river. After hearing the good news, Li Zuoche, who fled east to Puyang with Sima Wei first, also ran to congratulate Xiang Yu at the first time, suggesting that Xiang Yu send an envoy north to contact Zhao State, persuade Zhao State to abandon Han and return to Chu, and directly help the Western Chu army crusade against Xiang Kang.

"I'll talk about it when Cao Ji and Ya Father come." This was Xiang Yu's heart-wrenched answer, and he was also very reluctant to be defeated just now, so he couldn't wait to send someone to contact Zhao Guo, who had already betrayed Western Chu twice, so that Zhao Guo felt that he was asking for them.

Li Zuoche refused to give up, and persuaded: "King of Western Chu, the opportunity is rare, not to be missed, our detailed work has found out the accurate news, Xiang Kang and Zhu Jishi sent two thieves to lead the army north across the river (Yellow River) and the Zhao army to fight in the flood, the flood and Baimajin are close at hand, if we can persuade the Zhao army to pretend to temporarily withdraw westward, and lure the Han thief army to fight in the Baimajin area, then when our main force arrives, we can immediately cross the river to flank the Han thief army, and it is easy to break the enemy. ”

Xiang Yu was a little shaken, and only said after a while: "Is it too late?" Zhao Xie Pifu is far away in Julu, far away, and may not immediately make up his mind to abandon Han and return to Chu, and when we convince Zhao Xie, I am afraid that Chaoge's side will already decide the winner. ”

"The king has absolutely no need to worry about this." Li Zuoche also had no way to retreat, so he could only go to the Black Death Ting Xiang Yu and said: "The king can send someone to Julu to contact Zhao Xie and persuade him to abandon the Han and return to Chu to completely break with the Han thief, and on the other hand, send him to go directly to Chaoge, persuade Zhang Huang and Chen Ze to lead the Zhao army to lure the enemy eastward, the Zhao army has already exchanged hands with the Han thief army, and it is difficult to ease, Zhang Huang and Chen Ze will not fail to accept our proposal for their own interests." ”

After thinking for a long time, Xiang Yu reluctantly accepted Li Zuoche's suggestion, and selected two Western Chu officials from Puyang City on the spot, and asked them to carry their letters to the north to Julu to win over the capricious Zhao army, and the other went to Chaoge to contact the Zhao army on the front line, and persuaded the Zhao army to act according to the plan and lure the Han army to Baimajin for a decisive battle.

The distance was not very far, and the envoy of the Western Chu army rushed to the area of Chaoge in the afternoon of the next day, and got in touch with Zhang Huang and Chen Ze, the generals of the Zhao army, who were facing the Han army across the flood, and presented Xiang Yu's letter, explaining that the Western Chu army was actively contacting Zhao Xie and Zhang Er to seek a joint attack on Han, and strongly persuaded Zhang Huang and Chen Ze to lure the enemy eastward, lure the Han army's partial division to the Baimajin battlefield, and create an opportunity for the upcoming main force of the Western Chu army to break the enemy.

As Li Zuoche guessed, Zhang Huang and Chen Ze were really moved by the proposal of the Western Chu Army, and secretly discussed: "We have taken advantage of the fire to rob and provoke the Han thieves, and the Han thieves have already turned their faces against us and started a war, and our king will definitely make a choice between the King of Western Chu and the Han thieves, and will never remain neutral." In this case, why don't we accept the kindness of the Western Chu army, first retreat to Baimajin to confront the Han thieves, and then the king decides to return to Chu, and we will join forces with the Western Chu army to crusade against the Han thieves, and if the king decides to reconcile with the Han thieves, we will join forces with the Han thief army to attack Baima. It is better to take the initiative in this way than to take the risk of confronting the Han thief in the flood and taking the risk of victory or defeat alone. ”

With the help of the cover of the flood and natural danger, they led the army to retreat east to Baimajin the next day, and the angry Han army was really successful, and immediately crossed the flood to launch a pursuit, and was successfully lured by the Zhao army to the Baimajin battlefield to continue the confrontation.

Fortunately, the flood battlefield is not very far from Xingyang, and the road is controlled by the Han army, more than a day later, the messenger sent by the Han army also reported the changes in the battle situation to Xiang Kang, but Xiang Kang heard the bitterness, and couldn't help but pat the case in front of him, and said hatefully: "Why don't Long Ji and Zhu Jishi have brains?" Baimajin is so close to Puyang, the Zhao State thief army dares to take the initiative to retreat there, it must be secretly colluding with the Western Chu thief army, if the main infantry force of the Western Chu thief army suddenly arrives and suddenly crosses the river under the cover of the Zhao State thief army, how can they parry? ”

"Your Majesty, there may still be time." Chen Ping hurriedly said: "Quickly send someone to give an order to Long He and General Zhu Jishi, telling them to immediately withdraw to the flood and establish a defensive line to prevent the Western Chu thief army from advancing from the north bank of the Great River and killing into our hinterland of Hanoi." ”

Xiang Kang didn't think much about it, and quickly adopted Chen Ping's suggestion, and immediately sent someone to order Long He and Zhu Jishi to evacuate the dangerous place of Baimajin, but the messenger had just received the order, and before he had time to say goodbye and set off, Xiang Kang suddenly stopped and said, "Wait, let me think about it again." ”

"King, what's wrong? Is there something wrong with that? Chen Ping asked strangely.

"It's very inappropriate." Xiang Kang replied: "The flood defense line is too close to Puyang, but it is a little remote from Xingyang, and we have built the defense line to protect the hinterland of Hanoi on the flood. ”

Considering that the flood defense line was only a day's march from Baimajin, and the main force of the Han army sent troops from Xingyang to reinforce the flood defense line, but it would take at least four days to march, Chen Ping immediately nodded and hurriedly asked, "King, what should we do?" ”

"Take the initiative to give up the flood and the song." Xiang Kang said in a deep voice: "Let Zhu Jishi withdraw the big and small Xiuwu defenses, and establish a defense line in the big and small Xiuwu to protect the hinterland of Hanoi." Long and withdraw to Wude and serve as our strategic reserve. ”

After that, Xiang Kang first retracted the order he had written before, and re-ordered Zhu Jishi to directly withdraw from the large and small Xiuwu to establish a defense line, and let Long He withdraw Wude to be responsible for mobile preparations, and then calculated the time, and found that the main force of the Western Chu army was about to rush to Puyang, so he personally picked up the pen and wrote a letter to Xiang Yu, doing everything possible to lure Xiang Yu to directly send troops from Puyang to attack the gap defense line guarded by the Han army. ——The reason why he chose to do it now is because Xiang Kang is very aware of Xiang Yu's fickleness, and he is worried that it will be too early to make a move, so that time will dilute Xiang Yu's anger and give others the opportunity to persuade Xiang Yu to adopt the right strategy.

…………

Fortunately, the Han army messenger finally took the lead in sending Xiang Kang's order to the Han army's partial division, and Long Ji and Zhu Jishi did not dare to hesitate after seeing the order, and immediately took the initiative to evacuate Baimajin and retreated westward. Then when Xiang Yu knew about this situation, Cao Qi, Old Man Fan and Gong Ao and others led the main force of 220,000 Western Chu to Puyang and joined Xiang Yu.

Xiang Yu's attack had just suffered a fiasco, of course, there was no festive atmosphere when the Western Chu army met, but fortunately, time did dilute a lot of Xiang Yu's anger, so Xiang Yu was rare not to be angry, and vented the anger of the Xingyang fiasco to the main force of the infantry of the Western Chu army, and just said to Cao Ji and others: "It's good to come, rest in Puyang for a day, and the day after tomorrow we will set off to the west to find Xiang Kang to take revenge." ”

Xichu Wenwu hurriedly agreed, only Kuaiche didn't have a long look, and asked Xiang Yu: "King, your majesty asks more, how do we plan to enter the army?" ”

"We'll talk about it in the evening." Xiang Yu's answer made Kui Che breathe a sigh of relief, and said: "You first understand the situation of the Han thief army, and after dinner in the evening, we will discuss how to enter the army." ”

Only then did Kui Che agree, and quickly asked Xiang Yu's military Chinese officials to ensure the summary, carefully understand the deployment of the Han army and the latest changes in the military situation, and study the march route and westward strategy for Xiang Yu, as did Cao Blame and Old Man Fan, and during the period, Li Zuoche also came in, and several of Xiang Yu's henchmen worked together, and they were always discussing in a low voice how to help Xiang Yu replace Tianxingdao and kill Xiang Kang, a giant traitor and evil thief who did many evils.

It's a pity that before Xiang Yu's confidants and Li Zuoche and others can make up their minds to unify their opinions, an urgent report suddenly came from outside the city, saying that Xiang Kang sent a messenger to Puyang to meet Xiang Yu, saying that there was a letter written by Xiang Kang to be presented to Xiang Yu in person. Xiang Yu did not hesitate when he heard the news, and immediately ordered to summon him, but Kui Che hurriedly stopped him: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty thinks that it is better not to see it." Xiang Kang is a well-known thief, and he suddenly sent someone to send a book, he must have had another plan, and he rushed to meet his messenger, just afraid that he would fall into his calculations. ”

"Will this king be afraid of him?" Xiang Yu snorted coldly, and shouted categorically: "Go, bring in the Han thief messenger!" ”

Everyone did not dare to disobey, and the Han army envoy was quickly escorted to Xiang Yu, and presented Xiang Kang's letter to Xiang Yu with both hands. Then, just as Kui Che was worried, after reading Xiang Kang's letter, Xiang Yu really had to be angry, laughed wildly, and said with an extremely hideous expression: "Okay! Good! is worthy of my brother, the courage is really not small, he dared to persuade this king to call him a minister, and the following offenses, bullying his brother with his brother, have grown a lot! ”

"King, Xiang Kang, that little evil animal, actually dares to ask you to be a vassal to him?"

Master Xiang Boxiang screamed with surprise on his face, and couldn't wait to ask for the letter from Xiang Yu's hand to watch, Cao Ji and Old Man Fan also hurriedly came up to look at it together, and Kui Che helplessly glanced at Li Zuoche, who had the most talk to him just now, and saw that Li Zuoche was also full of helpless wry smile, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "It's troublesome, and I've been provoked again, no matter what advice I have now, I'm afraid I won't be able to listen to it anymore." ”

The content of Xiang Kang's letter to Xiang Yu is actually very simple, that is, he falsely describes the brotherly love, saying that he should not kill each other and other high-sounding nonsense, and then persuades Xiang Yu to return his wife, son and sister-in-law, and pay tribute to himself, and also promises that as long as Xiang Yu agrees to bow to himself, he will never send troops to attack Western Chu, and Han and Chu will always be brotherly countries and will not start a war.

The simpler the letter, the more effective it is, needless to say, the short-tempered Xiang Yu, after carefully reading Xiang Kang's letter that does not know the height of the sky, even Xiang Bo couldn't help laughing wildly, and said: "Little evil animal, sure enough, he is getting bolder and bolder, and he dares to persuade us Xichu to call him a vassal, as if he has already won, the old man has lived for almost fifty years, and he has never seen such a vertical man who does not know the height of the sky!" Evil animals! ”

"King, Xiang Kang's traitor is clearly deliberately provoking you, please be cautious and don't fall for his tricks." Kui Che persuaded very helplessly.

"Can't this king see such a superficial agitation, and still need you to remind him?" Xiang Yu sneered, and didn't bother to continue talking nonsense with Kui Che, so he directly pointed at the messenger sent by Xiang Kang, and shouted: "Go back and tell Xiang Kang that he wants to provoke this king to fight with him, and this king will fulfill him, and tell him to wash his neck and wait for death!" Get lost! ”

The envoy of the Han army hurriedly said goodbye and left, but Xiang Yu did not think about it, and immediately said: "Order the whole army, prepare to continue to march, rest for a day tomorrow, and continue to march west along the road the day after tomorrow, and go directly to Xingyang to fight to the death with the Han thief army!" ”

"King, our march route shouldn't be to go west directly along the gallop road." Kuaiche hurriedly stopped and said: "Xiang Kang's rebel thief deployed his main force on the front line of the chasm, and our army marched directly westward, which would only hit his hands and fall into a series of hard battles. ”

After that, Kui Che hurriedly added: "Our best choice at the moment should be to divide our troops into two routes, all the way to the chasm to confront Xiang Kang's rebels, contain his main force, cross the Yellow River all the way in Baimajin, enter the hinterland of Hanoi, and then cross from Pingyin to the south, capture Henan and Xin'an, and cut off the road connection between him and the rear of Guanzhong, so it is the best policy." ”

The minister agreed. Li Zuoche also hurriedly said: "The army of Zhao State took advantage of the fire to rob Xiang Kang's rebels, Xiang Kang's rebels fought back, and the Han and Zhao cracks are imminent, our best choice at present should be to actively win over Zhao State for our use, while dividing troops to march to the hinterland of Hanoi, bypassing the defensive front of the main force of the Han thieves, and crossing the river in the south of Pingyin, cutting off the connection between the Han thieves and the rear, so that in two months at most, the Han thieves will be defeated!" ”

"It doesn't have to be that much trouble!" Xiang Yu waved his hand and refused, and said with a sneer: "Xiang Kang's rebel thief currently has less than 80,000 troops in the Xingyang area, and this king's army is 230,000, and it only takes a big battle to kill the thief army, so why waste time and divide troops in Hanoi?" ”

Kuaiche and Li Zuoche smiled bitterly, both of which knew that Xiang Yu had still fallen for Xiang Kangming's agitation plan, so they could only continue to persuade Xiang Yu to act calmly and not bet all his bets on the frontal battlefield, but Xiang Yu didn't listen at all, and was persuaded by Kuaiche and Li Zuoche in a hurry, and couldn't help but lose his temper.

In the end, it was Xiang Yu's most trusted Cao Zhi and Old Man Fan who spoke to persuade Xiang Yu to reluctantly calm down, and then Old Man Fan said again: "King, the words of Guang Wujun and Doctor Kuai are actually quite reasonable, Xiang Kang's traitor and Zhao Guo are about to turn their faces, and it is a pity that Zhao Guo's external forces are not used." Otherwise, while we are trying our best to win over Zhao State, we will divide a partial division to cross the river at Baimajin and march into the hinterland of Hanoi, without seeking to break the enemy, as long as we can contain the Han thief partial division led by Long He and Zhu Jishi in the hinterland of Hanoi, we can alleviate countless resistance on the frontal battlefield. ”

"My lord, there's another benefit to doing this." Cao Zhi also said: "That is, after we win over the Zhao State, we can immediately let our partial division and the Zhao army join forces to attack the western city of Hanoi County in the west, so that the Zhao army can help us more effectively contain the Han thief army, and make Xiang Kang's rebel thieves even more difficult to care about." ”

Old man Fan and Cao Jiao's words Xiang Yu was still able to listen to them, and after nodding very reluctantly, after thinking for a moment, Xiang Yu suddenly remembered a past incident, and hurriedly asked Xiang Bo: "Uncle Ji, if I remember correctly, Long and that puppet seems to have been Xiang Sui's subordinate, right?" ”

"The king has a good memory, and the dragon and that puppet are indeed your brother Xiang Sui's former generals." Xiang Bo replied with a smile, and said hatefully: "It's a pity that the puppet is ungrateful, forgetting that it was the old man's son who personally promoted him and recommended him to Xiang Kang's little evil animal, and now he is still helping that little evil animal to do evil, and he will take revenge." ”

"With this relationship, you can give it a try." Xiang Yu made up his mind and said: "Brother Xiang Sui is still collecting grain and grass in the East China Sea of Xue County, and he can't catch up with the front line for a while, so ask Brother Xiang You to lead 30,000 troops north to Hanoi to contain the Han thieves and thieves for us, and also try to recruit the dragon and that puppet to come over." He and Brother Xiang Sui are brothers, and with this relationship, there should be a lot of hope. ”

When Xiang Bo heard the great joy, he hurriedly thanked Xiang Yu for his precious son, and the old man Fan was good-looking, but he knew that he was intimate, and he didn't dare to oppose Xiang Yu's indiscriminate use of people, so he could only recommend Xue Gong, the general of Western Chu, to Xiang You as his deputy, helping Xiang You lead the army to contain the Han army's partial division, but fortunately, Xiang Yu also trusted Xue Gong and immediately agreed.

Xiang Yu made a wise personnel arrangement, and after the Han army carefully reported the news that Xiang Yu sent Xiang Yu to lead the division north to Hanoi to Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang not only laughed ecstatically, but also directly laughed and crooked his mouth, and then laughed and ordered: "Quick, call the Hanoi county guard to come forward and send a few beauties to my brother Xiang You, my brother is fighting outside, he must be lonely and boring, and there must be no less beautiful women to serve around." ”