The Han army's partial division was smooth sailing and invincible on the northern front, and the southern front of the Han army, which was the leader of the ally Shenyang Army, was also in a good situation - at least it seemed.

In addition to Xiang Kang himself, including the decision-making level of the young marshal army, all believed that the Shenyang army had no possibility of failure, and among the two enemies on the southern front of the young marshal's army, the strongest Yingbu army had been standing still, and was not in a hurry to mix and enter Chu and Han to fight for hegemony, only Liu Laosan's army chose to go against the Han army, and later although Xiang Yu divided an army to go south to help Liu Laosan attack Shenyang, but Xiang Kang had just confirmed this situation, and immediately dispatched the Han army stationed in Chenggao to go south from the Wu clan to help Shenyang resist the Western Chu army's partial division. So that Shen Yang can deal with Liu Laosan, an opponent, alone, without distractions, and don't have to worry about the safety of his rear.

In terms of strength, the Shenyang Army is definitely not inferior to Liu Laosan, like Liu Laosan, it is a total strength of 356,000, and there is the Han Army as the backing, even if the territory of Yingchuan County has been broken and disabled before this, there is no need to worry about money, food and logistics, how can it be stronger than Liu Laosan, who must be self-sufficient, even if it is a confrontation consumption, Shenyang Army is sure to win Liu Laosan.

In addition, the Shenyang Army also has a very obvious advantage, that is, the Shenyang Army is expanded from the original Zhao Army's partial division as the main body, and there are a large number of elite veterans, Liu Laosan's army, but there are only less than 3,000 veterans of the old department, and the second-line army of the Western Chu Army presented by Xiang Yu of less than 10,000 people, and the rest are all recruits recruited after Liu Laosan arrived in Nanyang.

Because of this, even if Xiang Kang's warning was sent to Shen Yang first, Shen Yang, who was on his way south to Ye County, did not think so, but instead sneered and said, "Does King Han look down on people too much? Liu Ji Pifu is just a group of rabble, which can be broken with a snap of his fingers, and the king of Han even wants the king to lead the army to retreat to Yangzhai, only to defend without fighting, and concentrate on protecting the hinterland of Sanchuan for him, so he looks down on the king's ability to use troops? ”

"Yes." The general next to him, Guo Xuan, echoed and said: "The King of Han treats us well, but he looks down on people too much, Liu Jipifu is only a soldier in Yexian, and he doesn't even have the courage to attack Kunyang first, and he even wants us to fully retreat to Yangzhai, and he only defends Liu Jipifu without fighting, which is really underestimating us." ”

After snorting heavily, Shen Yang decisively shouted: "Order the whole army, continue to advance, this time we must destroy Liu Jipifu in Ye County, so that King Han can see the strength of our army!" ”

A few days later, the main force of about 30,000 Shenyang Army successfully arrived at Kunyang City, and what made Shenyang sneer was that during this period, the main force of the Nanyang Army stationed in Ye County not only never dared to send a soldier to the north to attack Kunyang City, the gateway of Yingchuan, but on the contrary, it was also in the deep ditch and high base under Ye County, overhauling the camp fortifications, and put on a posture of hiding in the turtle shell early on, so Shenyang had no advantage, just a little rest in Kunyang, and immediately continued to raise troops to the south, and advanced to a place only ten miles away from Ye County to establish a camp, On the same day, he sent an envoy to the Nanyang Army camp to send a letter to demonstrate to Liu Laosan.

Liu Laosan received the envoy of the Shenyang Army very warmly, with good wine and meat and the hospitality of beautiful women, and clearly told the envoy of the Shenyang Army, saying that the reason why he stationed troops in Yexian County was just to give Xiang Yu an explanation, in fact, he had absolutely no intention of going to war with the Shenyang Army, and hoped that Shenyang would understand his own hardships, not misunderstand his intentions, and clearly said that he would only choose to stick to it this time, and would not take the initiative to attack the Shenyang Army no matter what.

In addition, Liu Laosan not only gave Shen Yang a generous gift to apologize for the accident, but also gave Shen Yang a bad idea, persuading Shen Yang to be with himself in Ye County.

For the sake of Liu Laosan's hospitality, after returning to the camp, the envoy of the Shenyang army reported the envoy to Shen Yang as it was, but fortunately, Shenyang was quite calm, and did not fully believe Liu Laosan's nonsense, but still asked the soldiers to build the camp fortifications very strongly, and then sent the army to the Nanyang army camp to fight, insisting on driving Liu Laosan away by force.

In the face of the Shenyang army's war, Liu Laosan of course couldn't hold out, no matter how the Shenyang army insulted and provoked outside the camp, he clamped his tail and refused to leave the camp, even if the Shenyang army launched an attack, Liu Laosan only held the camp and never sent troops to counterattack. After repeating this for more than ten days, Shen Yang basically believed in Liu Laosan's promise, and was greedy for preserving his strength, and was unwilling to really attack Liu Laosan's strong camp, so he chose to stand still and maintain a state of confrontation with the Nanyang army, and at the same time sent a messenger to contact Xiang Kang and ask Xiang Kang to support his own food and grass supplies.

After a period of confrontation, seeing that Shen Yang no longer attacked his camp, Liu Laosan was overjoyed, and also sent Lu Jia as an envoy to bring gifts to the camp to thank Shen Yang, promising that as long as the confrontation lasted for another month, he would take the initiative to withdraw from the battlefield in Ye County, although Shen Yang did not believe it all, but he was also relieved a lot, and gradually began to believe that Liu Laosan was in Ye County, really just to perfunctory Xiang Yu and give Xiang Yu an explanation.

Shen Yang is still the commander of the first army, naturally it is needless to say that he is a soldier of his army, seeing that the Nanyang army has always been unable to defend, and even the slightest scout encounter is avoided as much as possible, the Shenyang army is also very slack, military discipline is no longer so strict, and the night defense is also greatly lax, and there are often sentries lazy to sleep.

The Nanyang army was waiting for this opportunity, on a snowy night, under the cover of the heavy snow, the Nanyang army suddenly made a big move in the middle of the night, quietly sneaked to the outside of the Shenyang military camp, and took advantage of the opportunity that most of the Shenyang army sentry posts had fallen asleep, and broke through the gate of the Shenyang army's camp in one fell swoop, and rushed into the Shenyang military camp to kill people everywhere and set fire, the Shenyang army was caught off guard, and was suddenly in chaos, and was killed by the Nanyang army is a person turned over on his back, and the dead were innumerable, and the Nanyang army took advantage of the situation to kill their Chinese army camp, and smashed Shenyang's handsome tent, Shen Yang had no choice but to hurriedly get on his horse and run out of the camp, and fled to Kunyang in embarrassment to accommodate him temporarily.

The Nanyang army, which had been gaining momentum for a long time, soon took advantage of the victory to surround the small city of Kunyang, and then Liu Laosan first sent someone to pretend to be Xiang Yu's envoy into the city to persuade Shenyang to abandon Han and return to Chu, temporarily stabilize Shenyang, and let Shenyang give up the plan to break through as soon as possible.

After the big victory, Liu Laosan laughed, he was very proud, and he couldn't wait to send someone north to report to Xiang Yu, but Han Xin, the general of the Nanyang Army, who single-handedly directed the entire battle situation, was very calm and reminded: "King, please be sure to tell the King of Western Chu not to rush to launch a strong attack, we must wait until we take Yang Zhai and Yangcheng, open the road to enter the Sanchuan Gateway Wu Clan, and then send troops at the same time as us, so that the Han thieves can be difficult to care about, and I don't know how to resist." ”

Liu Laosan, who had already tasted the sweetness, laughed even more, and agreed: "Good idea, we have to try our best to persuade the king of Western Chu to march with us to make a force, only in this way can the king of Western Chu help us entangle the little traitor Xiang Kang, so that we can enjoy attacking the city and plundering the land behind the back of the little traitor Xiang Kang, killing people and setting fires, so that he will not be able to live in peace day and night!" If we're lucky, maybe we can take the lead in entering the customs and snatch Xiang Kang's little traitor money and food beauties into a fine light! ”

Fortunately, the main force of the Shenyang Army was not completely annihilated by the Nanyang Army, at least the general of the Shenyang Army, Guo Xuan, led a defeated army and fled back to Xiangcheng directly, and immediately sent people to Sanchuan to report to Xiang Kang, which gave Xiang Kang time to respond in advance, so as not to be like the unlucky Shenyang, who was also suddenly killed by Liu Laosan.

But this is almost the same, after receiving the news of the fiasco of the main force of the Shenyang Army in Ye County, although he had been mentally prepared for a long time, Xiang Kang's face was still pale, and he said after a while: "The southern front is in trouble, and Yingchuan can't be saved." ”

"King, it's not so dangerous, is it?" Chen Ping said: "At present, Shenyang's life and death are unknown, as long as he is alive, he will definitely be able to regroup, even if he can't defeat Liu Ji, he can hold Yingyang and Yangzhai for a long time, and don't give Liu Ji a chance to enter the hinterland of Sanchuan." ”

"Don't be so optimistic." Xiang Kang shook his head and said, "Liu Ji has capable people under his command, and with him, even if Shen Yang can save his life, he will definitely not last long." ”

After saying that, Xiang Kang didn't even blink an eyelid, and immediately ordered the Han army Zheng Busuo, who was requisitioned to serve as a strategic reserve in Hanzhong Bashu, to send a letter to Guguan to the west, and rushed to Sanchuan to reinforce the front line, and then ordered Long You, who had already entered the territory of Yingchuan, to stop marching, and led the army to retreat to the Yangcheng area to wait for his life, almost without thinking about giving up the plan to launch a counteroffensive in Yingchuan County. The Han army raised objections, feeling that Xiang Kang had to retreat too quickly and too quickly, Xiang Kang also shook his head and didn't listen, and said: "You don't know how powerful Liu Ji is, fighting in the hinterland of Yingchuan in Pingchuan, and with the help of the partial division of the Western Chu thief army, Long and he has no chance of winning." ”

I don't understand why Xiang Kang became so afraid of Liu Laosan, the Han army had to keep his mouth shut, but fortunately, this matter did not affect Xiang Kang's prestige, just two days later, Guo Yu sent someone to send an urgent report again, confirming the news that Shen Yang had died in Kunyang City, the Han army was shocked by the sharp edge of the Nanyang army, but also had to admire Xiang Kang's foresight, and all admitted that they did underestimate Liu Laosan and the Nanyang army.

Of course, Xiang Kang would not be complacent for such foresight, and after careful consideration for a while, Xiang Kang made two more decisions, one was to seal the general of the Shenyang Army, Guo Xuan, as the Marquis of Wan, and let him temporarily take over the state affairs of the Shenyang Army, and lead the remnants of the Shenyang Army to retreat to Yangzhai City, waiting for his own troops to rescue. The second was to order Long He to divide part of his forces and urge the people of the Wu clan to build a camp at the throat of the mountain road directly south of the Wu clan, and repeatedly told him to build as strong as possible, and at the same time to draw grain and grass from the hinterland of Sanchuan County to hoard the Wu clan so that they could have a long-term confrontation with the enemy on the southern front in the future.

After making these two conservative decisions, Xiang Kang counted the time, frowned and said: "If nothing else, within three or two days, my brother's side should also receive the news that Shen Yang has died in battle, if he feels that he can't hold his face, he can't hold his breath and come to attack the fortification, it's okay to say, we can easily deal with it." But if he calms down and waits patiently until Liu Ji and his southern division join forces to go north, take Yangcheng and march to the Wu clan, and then attack with force, then we will be in big trouble. ”

"King Han, don't blame the ministers for making bad luck, this time the King of Western Chu is probably impatient and can't do it at all." Zhang Liang interjected and said: "Before he repeatedly attacked our Guangwu battalion, he lost more than 30,000 troops successively, and later divided 30,000 troops to reinforce the Yingchuan battlefield to help Liu Ji, and now there are 1340,000 troops left in his hands, although we also lost about 20,000 troops during the period, but later supplemented 20,000 new recruits in Guanzhong, and the strength has always remained above 90,000, and the relative strength has not decreased but increased. ”

"Therefore, the foreign minister thinks that as long as the king of Western Chu has a little brain, he will definitely not be unable to hold his breath and attack us again, even if he feels that the main force led by him is not as beautiful as Liu Ji's other troops, and he can't hang his face, at least he must wait until his follow-up army arrives at the front line and replenishes enough troops before it is possible to attack."

Zhang Liang's reasonable analysis made Xiang Kang's brows furrow even tighter, and also made Xiang Kang have to worry about a fatal problem - if Old Man Fan and the others grabbed Xiang Yu and asked him to wait until Liu Laosan entered the Wu clan before launching an attack, or said that he was unlucky, when the reinforcements of the Western Chu army arrived at the front line, it was just in time for Liu Laosan to enter the Wu clan, how should he deal with the problem of being attacked by the enemy? Among the generals under his command, who can be Han Xin's opponent?

Vaguely guessing Xiang Kang's worries, Chen Ping opened his mouth to comfort: "Don't worry, the king, even if the remnants of the Shenyang Army led by Guo Wei can't resist Liu Ji and the partial division of the Western Chu Thief Army, there will definitely be no problem in holding on for a while, and then General Zheng Bu should also lead our strategic mobile force to the hinterland of Sanchuan, we only need to let General Zheng Bu immediately lead the army to reinforce the Wu clan, and we will be sure to be able to block the joint efforts of Liu Ji and the Western Chu Thief Army." ”

"I'm not sure, whether it's Zheng Bu or Long Ji, neither I can be sure that I can stop Liu Ji's army, and if I'm not careful, there is a danger of rapid collapse."

Xiang Kang's answer made Zhang Liang and Chen Ping stunned again, and they couldn't understand why Xiang Kang looked up to Liu Laosan so much, and Xiang Kang said casually: "In our army, apart from me, only General Zhou Shu can fight against Liu Ji's thief army, but unfortunately he is on the northern front and shoulders a more important task, so he can't spare himself to go south to help us." ”

Speaking of this casually, Xiang Kang's heart suddenly moved, and an extremely bold idea jumped into his mind, and he said secretly: "Uncle Zhou can't be born, but I can?" Although my brother's strength far surpasses Liu Laosan, he is muscular and simple-minded, and he doesn't know how to use tricks at all except for being brutal, as long as I make careful arrangements, it is entirely possible for Zhong Liwu and Ding Ji to block him for me, so that I can free up my hands to deal with Liu Laosan and Han Xin in person? ”

After giving birth to this bold idea, Xiang Kang hurriedly carefully calculated the possibility of doing so, and then combined with the current strength of the main force of the Han army, as well as the objective factor that the follow-up army of the Western Chu Army is definitely not as brave and good at fighting as the previous army, Xiang Kang gritted his teeth and made up his mind, and ordered: "Take advantage of the time there is still now, adjust the garrison, let Zhong Liwu come to Guangwu to help me defend the main camp, and let Gongsun Tong go to guard Xingyang!" ”

I don't understand why Xiang Kang suddenly adjusted the army garrison, Zhang Liang and Chen Ping were of course puzzled, but Xiang Kang refused to explain, but took advantage of the current serious decline in the main force of the Western Chu Army, and immediately began to adjust the garrison, so that the old man of the young marshal army Gongsun Tong went to replace Zhong Liwu to garrison Xingyang, and transferred Zhong Liwu to his side to listen to it, and also let Zhong Liwu seize the time to familiarize himself with the various internal conditions of the Guangwu camp, so that he could take over to guard the Guangwu camp at a critical moment, so that he could free up his hands to deal with more dangerous enemies.

Two days later, when Liu Laosan's messenger finally got in touch with the Western Chu army, Xiang Yu did feel a little embarrassed to have a face, and felt that he was too embarrassed to fight beautifully with the main force and the servant army, and once had the idea of wanting to regain face, but considering the current strength comparison between the main force of the Western Chu army and the main force of the Han army, Xiang Yu still forcibly pressed the impulse in his heart, patiently just waited for his rear army to reinforce the front line, and did not recklessly launch an attack.

In the following period, the situation on the battlefield in the Central Plains also continued to change, first of all, the envoy sent by Xiang Kang finally contacted the wandering army Peng Yue's department on the south bank of the Yellow River, and also successfully persuaded Peng Yue to accept Xiang Kang's canonization, and as a general of the Han army, he took on the important task of guerrilla warfare in the rear of the Western Chu army, adding countless uncertainties to the Chu and Han struggles.

At the same time, the envoy of the Western Chu army also succeeded in persuading Zhang Er, the real ruler of the Zhao army, to help Chu with all his might, coveting the throne that Xiang Yu secretly promised, Zhang Er ignored Zhao Xie's careful opposition and insisted on sending troops to reinforce the Hanoi battlefield, which greatly increased the strength of the Hanoi Zhao army and the northern division of the Western Chu army, and once again exerted great pressure on the flank of the main battlefield of the Han army.

During this period, Liu Laosan and the southern division of the Western Chu army were also in the hinterland of Yingchuan, quickly captured Xiangcheng, Yingyang, Weishi, Yuanling and Changshe and other places, and advanced to Yangzhai from the southeast two directions, fortunately, the general of the Shenyang army, Guo Xuan, still had a little conscience, mourned the death of Shenyang and vowed to avenge the old master, categorically rejected the persuasion of Liu Laosan and the Western Chu army, and resolutely led the remnants of the Shenyang army to defend Yangzhai, so that the situation on the southern front of the Han army did not deteriorate rapidly to the extreme. It also gave the Han army's strategic mobile army Zheng Bu's troops time to advance westward to reinforce the Sanchuan battlefield.

In addition, there is also a huge uncertain factor buried in the Chu and Han hegemony, that is, Yingbu behind Liu Laosan, if Yingbu accepts Xiang Kang's persuasion and defects to the side of the Han army, then he only needs to take advantage of the situation to send troops to the hinterland of Nanyang, and the southern front of the Han army will immediately be able to reduce the pressure and turn the danger into a disaster. And if Yingbu insists on going against Xiang Kang, then whether he directly sends troops north to help Liu Laosan, or sends troops to attack Hanzhong Bashu, the strategic situation of the Han army is destined to deteriorate further. In this regard, Xiang Kang was absolutely worried, but there was no way out, and he could only hope that Chen Hui, who made a detour to Hanzhong to contact Yingbu, could establish a surprise attack and persuade Yingbu to abandon Chu and join Han.

I couldn't hide from what I should have come, and I waited for a while worriedly, and the reinforcements of the Western Chu Army led by generals such as Huan Chu, Xiang Han and Xiao Gongjiao finally arrived at the chasm battlefield, and brought 120,000 reinforcements to Xiang Yu in one go, expanding the main force of the Western Chu Army to more than 250,000 at once, and once again giving the Western Chu Army an absolute upper hand in terms of troops!

Standing on the top of Guangwu Mountain, looking at the spectacular scene of the 120,000 Western Chu army crossing the river, most of the Han army's civil and military forces were worried, but Xiang Kang did not think so, because Xiang Kang knew very well that no matter how reckless the troops were, the troops were poorly transferred from the rear, and the newly transferred reinforcements were definitely not comparable to the previous front-line army of the Western Chu Army in terms of combat effectiveness and experience, and the main force of the 90,000 Han Army must have a great deal of confidence in blocking the attack of the Western Chu Army as long as it was in danger.

Xiang Kang's real concern was still the Yingchuan battlefield, and after turning his gaze to the direction of Yingchuan in the southwest, Xiang Kang muttered and said softly: "General Guo, fight for some energy, give me another ten days and half a month, let me find a way to frustrate the sharpness of my brother's reinforcements first, and then free up my hands to meet you." ”

It's a pity that the unpredictable luck was not on Xiang Kang's side this time, on the same day, relying on the continuous strong attacks, the Nanyang Army and the Western Chu Army finally entered Yangzhai City, Shenyang Army General Guo Jian saw that the situation was extreme, so he could only quickly flee north with the remnants to join the Han army Longhe Division, Liu Xiang's coalition army successfully took Yangzhai City, the main force of the Han army on the eastern front battlefield and the southern front battlefield, and at the same time in an emergency.