The fiasco of the chasm ferry almost made Xiang Yu angry, so that after Zhou Lan fled back to Xiang Yu with the remnants of the defeated army, Xiang Yu once wanted to put Zhou Lan to death for questioning, but fortunately Xiang Zhuang stopped him and persuaded: "King, victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, and this fiasco has little to do with General Zhou Lan. Also, General Zhou's loss this time was so miserable, and it had a lot to do with the fact that the Han thief army suddenly used that kind of strange weapon like thunder, so it's really no wonder to him. ”

Considering that if Zhou Lan hadn't volunteered to cross the river first, the person who was ambushed this time would probably be himself, Xiang Yu rarely held back his anger and roared at Zhou Lan: "Get out of the way!" Next time you dare to lose so badly, watch your head! ”

Zhou Lan hurriedly retreated, but Xiang Yu suddenly remembered something and hurriedly shouted: "Slow!" How did you just escape the chasm? ”

Zhou Lan hurriedly replied, saying that the army found a shallow section of the river downstream, which could probably only be flooded to the chest and neck, and the water flow was relatively gentle, so he could cross the river with the defeated soldiers. Xiang Yu was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly ordered: "Quickly lead the way for this king, and we will cross the river there." ”

Xiang Zhuang stopped Xiang Yu again, pointed to the sky and said: "King, it's not early, after the water crosses the river, the clothes of our soldiers will definitely be wet, and now it is early winter, the weather is cold, and we will sleep in wet clothes overnight, I am afraid that it will freeze our soldiers, and it will be unfavorable to the war, so let's wait for tomorrow." ”

Xiang Yu thought about it, so he had to reluctantly agree again, and instead asked Zhou Lan about the situation of the original grenade of the Han army, Zhou Lan replied truthfully, saying that the explosion of the original grenade of the Han army was amazing, and it was very easy to frighten the war horse, but the specific explosion power of the original grenade was not known, Xiang Yu heard it and scolded Zhou Lan again, and he was also a little worried.

Ding Gu, the famous cavalry general of the Western Chu Army next to him, was quite brainy, and analyzed very calmly: "King, it is estimated that the strange weapon of the Han thief is also a good effect of scaring people and scaring horses, otherwise, just now the Han thief army went out to besiege General Zhou Lan, and General Zhou Lan would not have come back so easily." Also, the thieves occasionally use that kind of strange weapon, and it is estimated that the number of strange weapons in their hands is not too much, and they are only willing to use it at critical moments, so we should not worry too much. ”

Feeling that Ding Gu's analysis was quite reasonable, Xiang Yu turned his anger into joy, and seeing that it was not early, he led the Western Chu cavalry to temporarily retreat ten miles, and went to the open area far away from the Aocang ferry to rest, planning to wait for the next day when the sky was completely bright, and then cross the river from the shallow water found by Zhou Lan.

The plan did not change quickly, although the Han army did not make any action this night, but it happened that on the night of this day, the north wind in the area of Xingyang Aocang was blowing strongly, and the temperature suddenly dropped sharply, which made many Western Chu cavalry who had slept overnight frozen to the point of snot and sneezing, and had cold symptoms. Xiang Zhuang was very worried about this, and found Xiang Yu as soon as it was dark, and made a suggestion: "King, the weather suddenly turns cold, should we not cross the river for the time being?" First wait for the king of Henan to bring our military baggage, so that our soldiers have military tents to keep out the cold at night, and then it is not too late to cross the river? ”

Xiang Yu was never ambiguous in terms of fighting, and it was inevitable that he would be a little shaken after listening to Xiang Zhuang's suggestion, but he was a little unwilling to waste time so much, and said hesitantly: "We are here lightly, and the advantage is to fight quickly, just do it and wait, it is too much waste of time." ”

"King, I don't fight for this day and two days." Xiang Zhuang persuaded again, and said: "Besides, Zhongli is still holding on to the sour date, and it is possible to send troops to prevent the king of Henan from escorting us with military supplies, for the sake of safety, we had better divide an army and go back to meet the western ...... of the king of Henan." ”

"Report ——!"

The sudden sound of an urgent report interrupted Xiang Zhuang's good words and persuasion, and then, two Western Chu army scouts escorted a man to Xiang Yu's face, and one of the scouts came forward and said: "King Qiyu, the little one caught a suspicious man on the bank of the chasm, who claimed to be the confidant of Li Yao, the former minister of the king of Henan, Xingyang County, and had confidential matters to report to the king in person. The younger ones also found a letter from him and asked the king to look at it. ”

Saying that, the scout also presented a letter written on white silk, Xiang Yu hurriedly took it and took it carefully, but saw that Li Yao, who claimed to be Sima Wei's former minister, said in the letter that he was forced to surrender to the Han army because of the destruction of Xingyang City, but fortunately, the Han army trusted him and still let him continue to serve as the commander of Xingyang County, but he always missed the old master, and only hoped to be able to abandon the darkness and turn to the light as soon as possible, and said that Uncle Zhou was currently relying on the high trenches and deep trenches of Xingyang City, and deployed all the main forces in Aocang and Guangwu Mountain City, and there were only about 3,000 defenders in Xingyang City. suggested that Xiang Yu first attack Xingyang and seize the foothold of the city, and said that he was willing to take on the internal response, and opened a Xingyang city gate to welcome Xiang Yu into the city with the fire as the signal this night, so as to atone for his sins.

was worried about not having a military tent to keep out the cold overnight, but he didn't expect a big pie to suddenly fall from the sky, Xiang Yu was of course secretly happy in his heart, but out of caution, after turning the letter over and over for a long time, Xiang Yu suddenly drew his sword in his hand, pretending to intimidate the messenger sent by Li Yao, forcing him to explain whether he surrendered by fraud, and the messenger Li Yao was directly frightened to pee on the crotch of his pants, and quickly knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, swearing that he absolutely did not have the courage to dare to play the overlord of Western Chu for Li Yao. Xiang Yu believed it at this time, and was overjoyed and hurriedly ordered the army to cross the chasm and march to Xingyang, west of Aocang.

Seeing this scene, Xiang Zhuang of course reminded Xiang Yu to be careful that this was Uncle Zhou's trick and tricked Xiang Yu into crossing the river to get something from it, but Xiang Yu asked proudly and said, "How does Uncle Zhou get something out of it?" As long as this king crosses the chasm with the main force, even if his rabble is poured out, this king is sure to kill them all! ”

Xiang Zhuang thought about it carefully and found that it was also the information provided by Sima Wei before, which had been very clear that Uncle Zhou only had more than 20,000 troops in his hands, and most of them were infantry, and the number of cavalry was very small, and he divided his troops to guard Aocang, Guangwu City (that is, the current Han Wangcheng) and Xingyang, and there was indeed no extra strength to play any big tricks, and as long as Xingyang City was quickly taken, the Western Chu army could not only solve the problem of overnight stay, but also obtain a lot of manpower and material resources to help the army attack Aocang and Guangwu City. Therefore, Xiang Zhuang no longer dissuaded, and honestly followed Xiang Yu's troops to the west, and under the leadership of Zhou Lan, he came straight to the shallow section of the chasm.

After arriving at the scene, in addition to repeatedly exploring the hydrology to confirm that the river can be crossed, the Western Chu army also sent a large number of scouts to closely monitor the movements of the upstream and downstream, and then carefully launched the river crossing, leading the horse to cross the chasm with the cold and biting river water, and immediately formed a formation to protect the ferry every time he crossed the army, and did not dare to have any negligence.

The ferry port chosen by the Western Chu army is a full seventeen or eighteen miles away from the Han army camp, and the infantry attack is too late to stop it, on the contrary, it is destined to die in vain, so although the Han army scouts also quickly reported the movements of the Western Chu army to Uncle Zhou, Uncle Zhou didn't pay attention to it, and did not send a soldier to intercept it, but just asked the Han army scouts to closely monitor the movements of the Western Chu army, and carefully prevent the Western Chu army from suddenly dividing their troops to go back to meet Sima Wei, or after confirming that more than 20,000 Western Chu cavalry had all crossed the chasm, Uncle Zhou breathed a long sigh of relief, knowing that Xiang Yu had still fallen for his own trick of luring the enemy, and had been deceived by the death he had forced Li Yao to send, and he really planned to steal Xingyang City.

After breathing a sigh of relief, Uncle Zhou turned his gaze to the direction of the sour jujube in the east, and said secretly in his heart: "General Zhongli, I created an opportunity for you." Counting the time, Sima Weipifu should be able to rush to the vicinity of the sour jujube within today, and it depends on you whether you can seize the opportunity to burn the military baggage of the Western Chu thief army. ”

…………

On the side of the sour date, Uncle Zhou's urgent letter to Zhong Liwu was sent to Zhong Liwu last night, but after reading Uncle Zhou's letter, Zhong Liwu frowned, because the scouts of the Han army had found out the accurate situation, Sima Wei had put together a patchwork and had reassembled an army of about 26,000, although the weapons and equipment were not as good as the Han army, the number of troops was more than double that of Zhong Liwu's department, and it was certainly not so easy to burn the grain and grass that was protected by so many enemies.

What's even more troublesome is not only this, the east of the sour date is all open plains, and even the hills are very pitiful, there is no place to arrange ambushes, and all kinds of tactics such as luring the enemy to go deeper, blocking the waist and cutting off the waist, and sneak attack and ambush cannot be used. In addition, the intelligence of the Han army also clearly shows that the famous old fox Li Zuoche has always been by Sima Wei's side, so even if the Han army uses any conspiracy, there is almost no possibility of success.

No matter how difficult it is, there is no way, Uncle Zhou made it very clear in the letter that whether or not he can successfully burn the military baggage escorted by Sima Wei is directly related to the life and death of the Han army of Ao Cang and Sanchuan, so Zhong Liwu can only convene all the generals under his command overnight and discuss with everyone how to complete the instructions given by Uncle Zhou.

The result of the discussion in the middle of the night was that the Han army had absolutely no chance of victory, and the only way could only be to meet it head-on, defeat Sima Wei in a strong battle, and force him to take the initiative to give up the military supplies and flee for his life, but a new problem came again, what if Sima Wei resolutely took the defensive? If the Henan army meets the enemy with a strong formation, will the 10,000 Han soldiers who have just come to the fore be sure to defeat the 26,000 Henan army?

"General, it doesn't matter if he's sure or not! Just go out and fight! ”

The general Luo Huan proposed the most simple and direct method, and said loudly: "First tell our soldiers clearly, this battle is only allowed to win, not defeated, if it fails, all 100 generals and above will be beheaded!" When fighting, he doesn't care about any tactics, and directly launches a general attack as soon as he fights against the thief army! If you don't break the thief army, you swear not to collect the army! ”

After that, Luo Huan, who was obviously a brave man, added: "When we went out to fight, we first burned our camp with a fire, leaving not a single soldier to guard the camp, and all the soldiers went out of the camp to fight, so that our soldiers understood that if we couldn't win the battle and capture the enemy's military baggage, we wouldn't even have a place to rest and spend the night!" ”

The rest of the generals were in an uproar, and they all scolded Luo Huan for being ridiculous, but after Zhong Liwu carefully calculated, he suddenly slapped the case in front of him and shouted: "This plan is feasible!" The generals listened to the order, and when Sima Wei arrived, our army burned the camp and attacked, leaving no way to retreat! If you can't defeat Sima Wei's thief army, all 100 generals and above will be killed! ”

The generals of the Han army were in an uproar again, but Zhong Liwu shouted angrily: "What are you yelling about? General Ben is no exception, if he can't defeat Sima Weipifu, General Ben will also kill himself to thank King Han! ”

After saying that, Zhong Liwu also pulled out his sword, cut the case in front of him in half with a sword, and roared angrily: "If General Ben breaks his promise, there will be such a case!" ”

Seeing that Zhong Liwu came this time, of course, all the generals of the Han army were shocked, so they could only obediently accept the order, and immediately made Zhong Liwu's decision public after returning to the camp, and then the sky was just dawn, Zhong Liwu's crazy order had already spread throughout the whole army, and at the same time, all the generals of the Han army of 100 people and above also released cruel words to threaten their subordinates, "Sima Wei's thief army is here, if you can't win the battle, Lao Tzu will definitely have to fall to the ground, but before Lao Tzu is executed, Lao Tzu will definitely kill his back!" On the battlefield, who dared to take a step back, Lao Tzu cut him with his own hands! ”

…………

It's time to pay attention to the poor Henan King Sima Wei, who was escorting the military quartermaster to the west on the same afternoon as Uncle Zhou's calculations, and arrived near the sour jujube on the afternoon of the same day that Xiang Yu crossed the chasm. As a result, as soon as he entered the boundary of twenty miles away, Li Zuoche, who was old and treacherous, immediately made a suggestion to Sima Wei, and said: "King, we are only twenty miles away from the Han thief army, and it is not early in the sky, it is difficult to bypass the sour jujube and go west today, it is better to set up camp on the spot to rest, and wait until tomorrow after the sky is all bright, and then protect the grain and grass and the army will slowly advance westward." In addition, for the sake of prudence, it is best for us to send messengers to advance westward first, and ask the king of Western Chu to send an army to meet us and cover our westward advance around the sour dates, so as to prevent any eventuality. ”

He had suffered many times before and had suffered a big loss of not listening to Li Zuoche's good words and advice, and the time stipulated by Xiang Yu for Sima Wei was relatively lenient, so Sima Wei, who knew that he had lost his life, nodded immediately, and immediately ordered the army to stop advancing, seize the time to set up a camp to rest and spend the night, and also protected the military baggage, which was vital to the Western Chu army, to the predetermined camp early, and did not give any outsiders a chance to contact.

The time is not early, it is not too late, the soldiers of the Henan Army are of course not very busy when they set up the camp, Sima Wei and Li Zuoche did not pay special attention to this, but at this time, many soldiers of the Henan Army suddenly found that there was gradually thick smoke in the direction of the sour jujube in the west, as if a sky-high fire was ignited, Sima Wei and Li Zuoche quickly found out about this, and they also felt very strange, and said: "What happened?" Why did the sour jujube suddenly catch fire? ”

The mystery was soon revealed, and a Henan army scout took the lead in rushing back to the Henan army camp that was still under construction, and shouted to Sima Wei: "King Qiyu, the Han thief army seems to be crazy, and even set fire to their camp by itself, and all the soldiers are out of the camp and are killing our army." ”

"What?" Sima Wei almost suspected that his ears had heard it wrong, and asked in surprise, "The Han thief army set fire to their camp by itself?" What madness do thieves have? ”

"Oops!" Of course, Li Zuoche immediately understood that something was wrong, jumped up and exclaimed: "The thief is leaving no way back, desperate, and wants to come over and fight with us directly!" If you don't defeat us directly, you will never retreat! ”

"Zhong Li'er, there is still such a hand?!" Sima Wei also immediately came to his senses and hurriedly asked, "Guangwujun, what should we do now?" ”

"Hurry up and fix the camp!" Li Zuoche shouted: "At least put up the fence first, and then defend it with the camp and resolutely repel the strong attack of the Han thief army!" Also, immediately organize the Warlord team, and when the battle comes, whoever dares to take a step back will be executed immediately! ”

Sima Wei nodded, and hurriedly ordered the soldiers to give up digging trenches and building walls, and rushed to build camp fences with all their might, and hurriedly organized a number of supervision teams, preparing to force the Henan soldiers to fight to the death. And then not to mention, under the full rush of work, the Henan army really built a wooden fence to protect the whole camp before the arrival of the Han army, and hurriedly deployed the army to guard every inch of the defense line of the self-army camp.

Shen Shi will be over, more than 10,000 Han troops under the leadership of Zhong Liwu rushed to the west of the Henan army camp, quickly lined up the formation, and looked at the camp hastily built by the Henan army with a gloomy face, Zhong Liwu casually called a 500 general of his direct army, drew his sword and pointed to the west gate of the main camp of the Henan army's key defense and ordered: "You, lead the people and horses of the headquarters as the vanguard, attack the front of the thief camp, do not break the thief camp, do not retreat!" ”

"General, you let the last general lead five hundred men to storm the front of the thief camp?"

The answer to the unlucky five hundred general's exclamation was Zhong Liwu's sword slashing, and then Zhong Liwu blushed again, and ordered his head to be passed on to the army, so that the soldiers of the Han army knew the fate of refusing to immediately carry out their military orders, and then shouted loudly: "Luo Huan, get out of here!" ”

"The last general!" Luo Huan hurriedly came out and hugged his fists.

"You came up with the idea, of course you have to fight the vanguard!" Zhong Liwu said coldly: "Take your headquarters people to go immediately, don't break the thief camp, don't retreat!" ”

Luo Huan agreed loudly, and immediately rushed to his headquarters of 1,000 people, and led a thousand troops to directly attack the front of the Henan Army camp.

The rain of arrows in the sky soon caused the Han soldiers who shouted and charged to be killed and wounded, but they were deterred by Zhong Liwu's strict orders, and almost none of the Han soldiers dared to let go of their feet when charging, and when the three thousand teams of the Han army rushed to the near of the fence and started a fierce battle with the Henan army across the thin fence, Zhong Liwu shouted loudly: "Beat the drums, general attack!" All the armies, give it to Lao Tzu! If you don't break the camp of the thief army, you swear not to collect the troops! ”

Dozens of cowhide drums sounded at the same time, and the remaining more than 7,000 Han soldiers shouted one after another, following the banner of the army to which they belonged and launched a charge————! ”

At the same time, seeing that Zhong Liwu had just taken over the battle and launched a general attack, Sima Wei was dumbfounded, in addition to scolding Zhong Liwu's crazy behavior, he hurriedly asked Li Zuoche: "Guangwujun, what should we do now?" ”

"What else can I do? Pinbei. Li Zuoche replied with a wry smile: "The lives of the Han thief army are gone, and no tactics can work, except to fight to the end and defend the camp, what else can we do?" ”