In fact, the number of Han troops who came to reinforce the plain battlefield was not much, and the scouts of the Jibei Army and the Western Chu Army quickly confirmed through exploration, and found that the Han army reinforcements that suddenly appeared on the west bank of the Yellow River were only about 3,000 cavalry, and they did not even carry heavy camp tents, so they could only sleep in the open field.

There is a more critical point, that is, the ships in the plain area have basically been controlled by the Chuji coalition army, and almost all of them are docked on the east bank of the Yellow River, and the Han army scraped the ground on the west bank, but only found a few small fishing boats, and the shipping force is even difficult to carry 30 soldiers across the river at a time, let alone break through the interception and defense of the Chuji coalition army, and rush into the plain city to help Feng Zhongjun.

But fortunately, this point is enough for Feng Zhongjun for the time being, the cohesion of the army is quite good, and there is a city to defend, which will clearly see that the reinforcements have arrived, the dawn of rescue has appeared, Feng Zhongjun immediately broke out more than the heyday of combat effectiveness, first Leng Shengsheng repelled the Chuji coalition army has been about to succeed in the ant attack, and then relying on the condescending advantage, with stones, ash bottles and wood, the Chuji coalition soldiers under the city wall were smashed to the devil crying wolf, dead and wounded, had to take the initiative to retreat and regroup.

Immediately afterwards, the Chuji coalition army, which refused to give up, used the remaining siege weapons to launch two strong attacks on the plain county, but in front of Feng Zhongjun, who was determined and concerted, the two attacks of the Chuji coalition army could only end in failure, and both times there were almost no soldiers who could rush to the city wall, and they were directly killed and retreated by the high-morale Feng Zhong army, and paid countless casualties in vain, but in the end it was in vain.

When it was dark, seeing that there was no way to rush to the plain again, and seeing that the siege weapons prepared before had also been exhausted, Tian Du, Ding Gu, Zhou Lan and others had no choice but to let the soldiers ring the retreating golden cymbal, and take the army back to the camp in despair. Needless to say, seeing that the Chuji coalition army was forced to retreat, the Han army officers and soldiers on both sides of the Yellow River were all cheering, and Feng Zhongjun in the plain city also hurriedly sent people to go down to the city with ropes, smashing the trench bridge car that the Chuji coalition army had erected on the moat before, cutting off the enemy's road to the city to protect the safety of the city.

After withdrawing the troops and returning to the camp, Tian Du seized the time and discussed the next plan of action with his henchman Liu Hua, and as a result, Liu Hua put forward two suggestions to Tian Du, saying: "King, when things come to this point, we have only two choices, the first is to take this opportunity to abandon Chu and join the Han, help the Han thief clean up the Western Chu army in Jibei County, return the family of the Han thief's important minister to the Han thief, sell a great favor to the Han thief, and also take the opportunity to fully turn to Xiang Kang, and from now on the king of Western Chu will be the enemy." ”

Before Liu Hua's words were finished, Tian Du had already shook his head and said: "You can't do this, the king of Western Chu treats this king as kind as a mountain, and the throne of this king is not only sealed by the king of Western Chu, but also the king of Western Chu who personally brought the army to save the king when he was in the rebellion of Tian Rong. ”

After that, Tian Du added, "Besides, the overall strength of the King of Western Chu is far better than that of the Han thief, can we have the reason to abandon the strong and surrender to the weak, and turn our backs on Chu and return to Han?" We betrayed the king of Western Chu, and in the future he will win the world, do we still want to live? ”

Seeing that Tian was unwilling to consider defecting, Liu Hua didn't dare to insist, so he could only change his words and say: "King, then we only have one last choice, which is to take advantage of the natural danger of the river to temporarily prevent the Han thieves from crossing the river and directly reinforce Feng Zhongpifu, while continuing to attack the plains, and help the King of Western Chu capture the family of the Han thief at all costs, and show the King of Western Chu that we are loyal to him." In addition, we must be prepared with both hands, we must immediately ask the king of Western Chu for help, and ask him to send us reinforcements as soon as possible, so as not to jump over the wall in a hurry and send too many troops to reinforce the plain battlefield, which will make it difficult for us to deal with it. ”

"Yes, you should immediately ask the king of Western Chu for help." Tian Du immediately nodded and said: "Our main force has penetrated deep into the hinterland of Zhao State, and it is difficult to withdraw back to our homeland, only by hurrying to the King of Western Chu for help and asking him to send us reinforcements as soon as possible to help, we can be sure to stop the Han thieves from further reinforcements on the plain battlefield." ”

After making up his mind, Tian Du did not hesitate, and personally wrote a letter to Xiang Yu that night, reporting to Xiang Yu the current situation on the plain battlefield, and asking Xiang Yu to send reinforcements to help his army as soon as possible. In addition, for the sake of prudence, Tian Du also wrote a letter to Tian Jiao, the king of Qi supported by Xiang Yu, and asked Tian Jiu to quickly send reinforcements to himself, so that he could be more sure of blocking further reinforcements from the Han army.

On the morning of the next day, Tian Du invited Ding Gu and Zhou Lan to his camp again, and discussed the next battle plan with them, needless to say, seeing that Tian Du was determined to help the Western Chu army and the Han army fight to the death, Ding Gu and Zhou Lan of course raised their hands to support, and also agreed to rely on the Yellow River natural danger to temporarily block the Han army from directly reinforcing the plain, free up their hands to attack the plain with all their might, and take the plain at all costs before the Han army's follow-up reinforcements arrived, and at the same time seek reinforcements from the Western Chu army led by Xiang Yu himself. Prepare for a large-scale decisive battle with the Han army on the plains.

After unifying the tactical decision, the Chu-Ji coalition army immediately went its separate ways, and the Jibei Army took advantage of its own army's advantage in land and water power to collect and dock all the surrounding ships on the east bank of the Yellow River as much as possible, so that even if the Han army had follow-up reinforcements to arrive, there was no way to cross the river by boat to directly reinforce the plain. At the same time, learning the lessons of the siege battle on the first day, the Chuji coalition army did not dare to continue to be careless this time, in addition to rushing to build various siege weapons, while organizing manpower, wantonly filling the moat outside the plain city that was neither wide nor deep enough, and directly opened the road to the plain city, and refused to stop the work no matter how Feng Zhongjun blocked it with arrows.

Tian Du's refusal to take this opportunity to abandon Chu and return to Han may be right, because during this period, the Chuji coalition army found two situations that were very favorable to the self-army, one is that on the second night when the Han army reinforcements arrived on the west bank of the Yellow River, the patrol soldiers arranged by the Chuji coalition army outside the plain city robbed a Han army reinforcement soldier who tried to sneak to the city to deliver a letter, although because of the stubborn resistance of the Han army soldier failed to catch the mouth alive, but after stabbing the Han army messenger to death with a spear, The soldiers of the Chuji coalition army searched from him for letters written by Han reinforcements to Feng Zhong.

The content of the letter written by the Han army reinforcements to Feng Zhong was very simple, that is, to ask Feng Zhong to hold on, and more Han reinforcements would arrive soon, but they did not tell when the new reinforcements would arrive, and how many reinforcements would come, it was obvious that the Han army on the west bank of the Yellow River was also uncertain about the follow-up reinforcements, so they could only feed Feng Zhong a reassuring pill first, so that Feng Zhong had the confidence to hold on for a longer time. Tian Du, Ding Gu and others were also secretly happy after seeing it, and they were more and more confident that they would successfully take the plain.

On the afternoon of the third day, the Zhao army of Dongwu City on the west bank of the Yellow River got in touch with the Chuji coalition army, which not only proved that the Dongwu City and Cuo County between Julu and the plain were still in the hands of the Zhao army, but also introduced the latest situation of the Julu battlefield to the Chuji coalition army, saying that Zhang Er was still holding Julu City with the army, and contained the main force of Zheng Bu of the Han army for the Chuji coalition army, and at the same time, the main force of the Qi army and the Zhao army was also on the way south to aid Julu City. At the same time, the Northern Front Army of the Western Chu Army and the main force of the Jibei Army also blocked the Northern Front Army of the Han Army, and the anti-Han coalition army in the territory of Zhao still had the upper hand, and the Han Army had absolutely no possibility of sending too many troops to the plains to reinforce Feng Zhong!

After confirming these circumstances, Tian Du and the others were even more determined in their hearts, and Tian Du also openly scolded: "The Han thief raised by the maidservant girl, after a long time, your situation on the battlefield of Zhao State is not so good that it is there?" How dare you so arrogantly shout to kill this king, and cause this king to have a false alarm! Wait for this king to take the plain, see how Lao Tzu cleans up your family?! ”

Under such circumstances, on the fourth day, even if the general of the Han army, Guan Ying, rushed to the west bank of the Yellow River with 5,000 cavalry and baggage supplies to reinforce and strengthen the strength of the Han army on the west bank, Tian Du and Ding Gu and others did not think so at all.

Not only that, but in front of the envoys of the Han army, Tian Du shouted even more arrogantly: "Didn't your General Zheng Bu say that if this king does not withdraw his troops, he will kill this king's entire family without leaving chickens and dogs?" There is no need for him to lead troops to fight Boyang, this king is waiting for him to kill him on the plains, as long as he can cross this big river, this king will accompany him to the end! ”

"King, have you really thought it through?" The words of the Han army envoy were obviously threatening, and he said with a sneer: "This is the opportunity given to you by our Han army, if you are still obsessed and insist on helping the Western Chu thief army to poison the old and weak women and children of our Han army, in the future, we will cross the river and enter Jibei, and revenge will not be doubled or doubled." ”

"Bold! What kind of thing are you, and you dare to threaten this king? Tian Du was furious and roared: "Come, give this king this thief messenger out with a stick, escort him to the shore and drive him across the river, and don't allow him to get close to the next step in Pingyuan City!" ”

"Don't bother! I don't need to go near the Plains! The envoy of the Han army hurriedly said: "Don't be afraid of the king, you know, in fact, we have already made contact with General Feng Zhong in Pingyuan City, needless to say that he will also fight to the death, waiting for the arrival of our main reinforcements." In short, please remember that if you leave a line in life, you will meet in the future, if the king does everything, it will definitely be too late to regret it in the future. ”

After that, the envoy of the Han army turned around arrogantly and left, Tian Du was even more furious when he saw it, and hurriedly ordered the guards to come forward and beat him with sticks, expelling the envoy of the Han army from the camp, and then shouted and ordered: "Pass the order, hurry up and fill the river, and hurry up to build siege weapons, within three days, we must completely fill in the moat of the plain city for this king, and prepare enough siege weapons!" ”

The reason why the Chuji coalition army spent six days preparing to launch a second large-scale siege was due to two reasons: one was to learn the lesson of the last siege weapon was insufficient and too simple, in addition to building a sufficient number of ladders, it was also necessary to manufacture some large-scale siege weapons such as crash trucks and ladder vehicles with complex technology, which naturally consumed more time. The second is that the plain is located in the galloping road, it has always been a place where soldiers must fight, years of war have cut down the surrounding suitable timber, and if you rush to build siege weapons on a large scale again, you must go far away to cut down suitable timber and send it to hear, which is also a waste of time, so even if you know that you should take the plain as soon as possible, the Chuji coalition army must also settle down and prepare for the attack with time and effort - after all, siege warfare is different from field warfare, there are not enough offensive weapons, that is, there are millions of troops, It's also hard to help a small county town.

Fortunately, relying on the joint efforts of the Chuji coalition army, in the afternoon three days later, the Chuji coalition army still completely made all the pre-war preparations, in addition to completely filling in all the moats in the plain city except for the west gate, but also rushed to build twelve ladder cars and fifteen crashing vehicles, flying ladders are countless, not to mention the total number of siege weapons to fight a small county town, that is, to attack a county-level city is more than enough.

The situation report arrived in front of Tian Du and Ding Gu and others, Tian Du and others were overjoyed, and immediately ordered a feast tonight to boost the morale of the army, in addition to Tian Du and Ding Gu and others also held a meeting in the Chinese army tent of the Jibei Army, and decided to launch a full-scale siege early the next morning, and never retreat if the plain county town was not taken!

"Yes, if you don't take the plain tomorrow, you will never retreat!"

Tian Du's proposal made Ding Gu, Zhou Lan and others applaud unanimously, and then Ding Gu said with a cruel smile on his face: "We just want to take the plain under the nose of the Han thief reinforcements, capture all their families and family members back to Pengcheng to be cooked alive, and see what the Han thieves can do to us!" ”

"Report ——!"

Before General Ding's words fell, there was a sudden emergency report outside the tent, and then immediately after, a guard of the Jibei Army rushed into the big tent of the Chinese army, knelt down on one knee to Tian Du and said: "King Qiqi, the dock is urgent, and there are Han thief reinforcements on the other side of the river." ”

"Again?" Tian Du's brows furrowed slightly, and he was not very worried, but asked casually, "How many are here?" ”

"Back to the king, about 10,000 infantry."

The guard's answer only made Tian Du, Ding Gu and the others frown again, and then Ding Gu said very easily: "This is probably the most troops that the Han thieves can draw, anyway, there is a big river in the way, and we don't need to worry that they can cross the river to reinforce, and it will not affect our siege battle tomorrow." ”

Tian Du nodded yes, first waved his hand to let the guards go down, and then said with a smile: "It's okay, it doesn't matter much, at most, it just makes the thief army in Pingyuan City a little more bold to defend it, it won't affect our siege tomorrow, let's eat first, and when the Han thief lights the torch in the evening, let's go and see the situation of the Han thief." ”

Everyone agreed, and Tian Du also asked the guards to send a banquet that had been prepared a long time ago, and enjoyed the good wine and food carefully prepared by the chef in the army with the important civil and military officers of the Chuji Coalition Army, while discussing how to attack the city the next day, while discussing how to clean up these old and weak women and children who dared to flee after capturing the families of the Han army, and even discussed whether to deliberately let some Han troops cross the river tomorrow, so that the Chuji Coalition Army, which has sufficient troops, can attack halfway, and teach the Han army reinforcements who do not know the height of the sky.

"Report ——!"

The guards who rushed into the big tent of the Chinese army again disturbed the Yaxing of King Tian and General Ding Lao, and knelt down to Tian Du with a very nervous expression: "King Qiyu, there are reinforcements from Han thieves arriving, and the number of troops is not known for the time being. ”

"Rubbish!" Tian Wu scolded angrily: "Standing on the high ground on the east bank, I can't see how many reinforcements the Han thieves have come?" ”

"The king forgives the sin, I really can't see it clearly, because there are too many Han thieves, the front team has already reached the west bank of the river, and the back team has not finished yet, so our scouts can't quickly find out the number of reinforcements from the Han thieves."

The guard's sad answer made the bronze wine lord in Tian Du's hand fall on the desk with a bang, and the old general Ding Guding was so surprised that he jumped up directly and yelled: "What? So many thieves came? How can it be? What about the Zhao army? And the army of Qi, the army of Jibei and the main force of our northern front, where did they go? How could so many Han thieves be allowed to directly kill the plains for reinforcements? ”

No one could answer General Ding's question, and after exchanging glances with each other, Tian Du, Zhou Lan and the others could only hurriedly put down their chopsticks and get on their horses, leading a team of cavalry to the west of the Yellow River, and ascending to the high ground on the east bank of the Yellow River to check the situation.

Needless to say, when they arrived at the scene, of course, there was already thunder of joy in Pingyuan City, resounding throughout the city, and countless soldiers of Feng Zhongjun jumped and jumped on the city wall, frantically celebrating the arrival of the main force of the rescuers. On the land on the west bank of the Yellow River, the crimson banner of the Han army is all over the mountains, the soldiers are like ants, the spears are like forests, and the dense ones cannot be seen at a glance.

"At least another 50,000 troops!"

The first to come to this conclusion was Zhou Lan, the general of the Western Chu Army, the old general Ding Guding nodded silently, agreeing with this judgment, Tian Du swallowed a mouthful of saliva with difficulty, and said with a face full of disbelief: "The thief is crazy? Unexpectedly, so many armies went deep alone and drove directly to the door of this king's house? ”

"Who told you to surround the countless family members of the Han thieves and Xiang Kang's wife and son at your doorstep?"

Zhou Lan and Ding Gu muttered in their hearts together, and then Zhou Lan comforted: "Don't worry, the king, there is a big river to block it, as long as the thief army can't cross the river, there will be a million troops, and we don't need to be afraid, it won't affect our siege battle tomorrow." ”

Tian Du didn't dare to talk about it this time, because Tian Du was already thinking about an important question - what if the Han army was determined to take revenge? Even if he relied on the temporary blockage of the Yellow River to take the plain city, if the Han army was determined to take revenge, sooner or later it would be able to find a way or enough boats to cross the river, and when the angry Han army entered the territory of Jibei, what kind of fate the Jibei army would be, Tian Du did not dare to imagine at all.

At this time, the old general Ding Guding suddenly had an idea, slapped his thigh and shouted: "Opportunity! That's a good thing! The Han thieves came to save the plain at any cost, the lone army went deep, the grain and grass were difficult to transport, and there were big rivers blocking the way, we just need to hold the ferry so that the Han thieves could not pass, and then wait for our main force to go north to reinforce, maybe we can kill the main force of the Han thieves on the battlefield of the plains! ”

"Yes, it's an opportunity." Zhou Lan woke up and hurriedly said: "Our king has always hoped to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Han thieves, but the Han thieves just hid in the city or in the camp and did not come out to fight, and now we have trapped their families, they just can't fight if they don't want to, we just need to hold the ferry for a period of time, and wait for our king to personally lead the troops to come to the rescue, not only can we reverse the situation, but also win the opportunity for our king to fight a decisive battle with the Han thieves." ”

Things have come to this point, Tian Du, who has offended the Han army to death, has no choice, so he can only quickly nod his head and agree, and can't wait to send people to Xiang Yu for help, but the matter is not over, at this time, another fast horse of the Jibei Army rushed to Tian Du, and said to Tian Du: "King Qiqi, the county urgent, in the early morning today, a Han thief cavalry suddenly rushed to the county ferry, and hired local people to the west bank of the river with a lot of money, and it is possible to launch a river crossing at the county ferry!" ”

"Mustache?!" Tian Du's heart sank, and he said secretly: "It's only about seventy miles away from the plain." ”