Roaring and giving the order for the whole army to assemble and wait, Zhou Yin, who had not slept all night last night, completely forgot about his fatigue and sleepiness, first hurriedly put on his clothes and armor, and then immediately hurried to the big tent of the Chinese army to dispatch troops, preparing to launch the decisive battle on the northern front that he dreamed of.

When he came to the big tent of the Chinese army, more than half of the Wen Wu of the Western Chu army had already rushed to the tent to wait for orders, and were still discussing the issue of the Han army's Zhou Shu Corps finally having the courage to launch a decisive battle, and Zhou Yin was excited and excited when he saw it, and did not pay attention to everyone's salute, but walked quickly to the front of the handsome seat, and couldn't wait to see the leaky pot, and complained very much in his heart about those military Chinese soldiers who still failed to come to Hou Zhi.

Then, Xiang Guan, an important general in the northern line corps of the Western Chu Army, and a pro-soldier who reported to him entered the account almost at the same time, and the pro-soldier also rushed to give up his hand and said: "Qiqi Da Sima, the scout of our army has just come to report and confirmed that the strength of the Han thieves out of the camp is about 68,000 people, of which the number of cavalry is close to 10,000. ”

"So many?" Xiang Guan hurriedly spoke, and said in surprise: "The total strength of the thief army is only about 80,000 people, and nearly 70,000 decisive battles are dispatched in one go. ”

"That's the best!" Zhou Yin said with a cruel smile: "If it goes well, within today, we can all annihilate the Han thieves on the northern front!" ”

With a cruel smile, Zhou Yin first waved his hand to let the soldiers go down, and then quickly glanced at the leaky pot in the corner of the tent, and said angrily: "Why haven't you arrived yet?" Tell the knife and axe hand to prepare, and if you can't come to wait for your life within a pillar of incense, no matter who it is, you will not be forgiven! ”

Fortunately, although the mass discipline of the Western Chu Army was corrupt, the military discipline was very strict, and all the commanders and generals still rushed to the big tent of the Chinese army on time, and the result was quite surprising to everyone, Xiang Sui, who had the best reputation among the children of the Xiang family, was the last commander to arrive, and as soon as he entered the tent, he asked Zhou Yin: "Da Sima, the thief army is in a big move, and you asked all our troops to assemble and wait for the order, should you want to send troops to fight a decisive battle with the thief army?" ”

For Xiang Sui's sake of supporting him, Zhou Yin didn't care about Xiang Sui's questioning, and asked with a smile: "Do you still need to ask?" Uncle Zhou finally wants to fight to the death with us in a dignified manner, how can this commander miss such an opportunity? ”

"The last general is against it!" Xiang Sui's loud answer made Zhou Yin and everyone stunned, and then Xiang Sui hurriedly said: "If it were in normal times, the last general would definitely support taking the opportunity to launch a decisive battle, but not today, we must not risk a decisive battle today!" ”

"Why?" Zhou Yin asked.

"Because today we are seriously underprepared for the decisive battle!" Xiang Sui immediately said: "Yesterday we mistakenly thought that the thieves would come to rob the camp, and we did not prepare our soldiers for a full-scale decisive battle at all. The army of thieves is the complete opposite of us, not only did they feast on the soldiers yesterday, but they also got enough rest at night, and the soldiers' physical strength and morale were at their peak. At this time, the situation will only be unfavorable to us, so the last general thinks that it is best for us not to risk a decisive battle with the Han thieves today! ”

Zhou Yin's face immediately became gloomy, but he was afraid of the background behind Xiang Sui, so he could only continue to hold his temperament, and said with a pleasant face: "Brother Xiang Sui, the situation you said, this commander knows it all in his heart, but the fighter plane is rare and fleeting, if we don't seize this opportunity to fight to the death with the main force of the Han thieves, I'm afraid it will be difficult to have such an opportunity in the future." ”

"Da Sima, it's better to have no chance than to take risks." Xiang Sui arched his hand and said: "Forgive the last general, yesterday Uncle Zhou deliberately took the initiative to send a letter to the battle, and disturbed our army's camp twice at night, the purpose of which is probably to let us only care about night defense, not to prepare for today's decisive battle, and also to consume the physical strength and morale of our soldiers, now his sinister intentions have been basically achieved, if we still insist on sending troops to fight a decisive battle, we are afraid that he will fall into his hands." ”

Xiang Sui's analysis is extremely clear and reasonable, Zhou Yin has not been reckless to the point of incorrigibility, listening to Xiang Sui's persuasion is inevitably a little shaken, Xiang Sui hurriedly said: "Da Sima, the last general knows that you have long wanted to fight to the death with the Han thieves, and the last general actually hopes to annihilate the main force of the Han thieves on the northern front as soon as possible and completely reverse the situation in the Central Plains, but the frontal decisive battle is really too important, as long as we make a slight mistake, the consequences will be unimaginable immediately, and even directly affect the overall battle situation between our Western Chu and the Han thieves." Therefore, the last general thinks that it is better for us not to take risks, and we should temporarily take a defensive position, avoid the edge of the Han thief, and wait for the thief's spirit to be frustrated, and then try to break the enemy before it is too late. ”

Zhou Yin hesitated, and only said after a while: "If we don't fight this decisive battle today, what if the thieves refuse to fight us in the future?" There is a flood blocking the road to the south of us, and we cannot withdraw, and there is no way to fight, how is it good? ”

"It's okay!" Xiang Sui replied categorically, and said: "As long as we endure for one day and avoid the current unfavorable situation, we can rest assured that we can send troops to settle accounts with the Han thieves tomorrow, if the Han thieves do not fight, we will storm their camp, and within one day, it is impossible for the Han thieves to build their camp very strongly, and we are still sure that we can take it!" Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if we fail to take the camp of the Han thief, we don't have to worry, the water is not far from the giant deer, and our grain and grass supply is easier than that of the Han thief, even if it is a confrontation and consumption, we can also consume the Han thief with a long grain road! ”

Zhou Yin was even more hesitant and wavering, but at this time, there was suddenly a personal soldier outside the tent, and he said: "Da Sima, the Han thieves sent dozens of cavalry to fight loudly outside our military camp, saying that Da Sima You promised to send troops to fight a decisive battle today, if you don't keep your word, you are ......, you are ......." ”

"What's it?" The crown next to him asked curiously.

"The villain doesn't dare to say it." The soldier replied with tears in his face.

"It's the maid's!" Zhou Yin said with a dark face: "Ben Shuai said to the Han thief envoy yesterday that if anyone who does not believe his word today and repents of his word, he will be a maidservant!" ”

Even Xiang Guan didn't dare to say anything, but Xiang Sui looked calm and said: "Da Sima, soldiers are not tired of cheating, a joke, why bother to take it to heart?" Why not endure a momentary humiliation in exchange for our army to be invincible? ”

Zhou Yin's expression was extremely complicated, and after thinking about it for a long time with a blue face, Zhou Yin still gritted his teeth and shouted: "Order the whole army, guard the camp, and not allow a single soldier to fight!" ”

Xiang Sui breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly thanked Zhou Yin, and comforted Zhou Yin so that he didn't have to take yesterday's promise to heart, but Zhou Yin's face became more and more dark, and he couldn't listen to it at all, just waved his hand to let the generals go down to guard the camp, and kept saying to himself: "The big husband can bend and stretch, endure, endure, must endure!" ”

Want to hold back? Is it that easy? When the main force of the Han army advanced to a few miles south of the camp, and seized the favorable terrain in advance to line up the formation, seeing that the Western Chu army still had no signs of sending troops to fight a decisive battle, Uncle Zhou just made a big mouth, and immediately dozens of horsemen surrounded a soldier wearing a maid's clothes out of the battle, beat the horse and ran to the outside of the Western Chu military camp to insult and fight, and a funny drama was soon staged in front of the camp of the Western Chu army.

In front of everyone's eyes, the Han soldier in the clothes of a servant girl scratched his head and gestured, and claimed to be the mother of Zhou Yin, the great Sima of Western Chu, while greeting Zhou Yin's whole family in a loud voice, while pretending to take care of the baby made of straw, humiliating and mocking Zhou Yin in every way, and the other Han cavalry laughed while scolding Zhou Yin, and threatened that as long as Zhou Yin stood up and admitted that he was a maidservant, the Han army would immediately withdraw and return to the camp, and no longer care about Zhou Yin's promise yesterday.

People in this era attach great importance to dignity, and when they saw the soldiers of the Han army insulting themselves so much in the camp, Zhou Yin was of course so angry that his whole body trembled, and he wanted to convene the generals of the Western Chu Army again to fight a decisive battle, but fortunately, Xiang Sui was also prepared, and insisted on staying by Zhou Yin's side from beginning to end, and held Zhou Yin to death, so that Zhou Yin did not take the risk of fighting under impulse.

After tossing for more than half an hour, seeing that the Western Chu army still had no signs of sending troops, even Zhou Shu, the old man of Shangshan, who was Uncle Zhou's staff officer who went to war with the army, was inevitably a little worried, and couldn't help but say to Uncle Zhou: "General Zhou, if Zhou Yinpifu endured this breath and insisted on not fighting with us today, then what should we do?" ”

Uncle Zhou was silent, and said with a wry smile after a while: "Then I can't help it, I can only admit that I underestimated Zhou Yinpifu, I didn't expect him to be so calm." ”

"Calm down, wait a little longer, the generals brought out by Xiang Yu are more and more irritable than the other, even if they are temporarily calm, they may act impulsively at any time." It was only after comforting the old man Shangshan that Uncle Zhou added in his heart, "I hope so." ”

It's a pity that at the same time in the Western Chu military camp, Zhou Yin has been forcibly pulled back to the Chinese army tent of the Western Chu army by Xiang Sui, and he can neither hear the insults and provocations of the Han army, nor can he see the performance of the Han soldiers dressed as women outside the camp, although his face is still terrifyingly blue, but his anger is controlled a lot, Xiang Sui also took the opportunity to persuade again: "Da Sima, that's right, the Han thieves are so unscrupulous to provoke you to fight, it means that they are already in a hurry, as long as we hold back this breath, by tomorrow, the initiative on the battlefield will definitely be able to return to our hands." ”

Zhou Yin nodded sullenly, and Xiang Sui persuaded again: "Da Sima, you didn't sleep all night last night, why don't you take a rest, there are generals in the camp watching, it will be fine, if there is any situation, it will be ......." ”

"Report ——!" The pro-soldier who suddenly walked in quickly suddenly interrupted Xiang Sui's patient persuasion, and while kneeling down to Zhou Yin on one knee and saluting, he presented a military emergency report with chicken feathers to Zhou Yin, and said loudly: "Qiqi Da Sima, the giant deer urgent report was sent by Zhao Xiang Zhang Er." ”

The mood was extremely unhappy, of course Zhou Yin was extremely angry and snatched the urgent report forwarded by the guards, but when he opened it and looked at the content of the military emergency report, Zhou Yin opened his mouth wide all of a sudden, and his face was full of disbelief shock......

After a long time, Zhou Yin suddenly asked Xiang Sui, "Brother Xiang Sui, are you still opposed to me sending troops to fight a decisive battle?" ”

Xiang Sui was silent, and only after a while did he reply in a gloomy voice: "I can only fight, and I will definitely not have time to know if I take Uncle Zhou's husband, and I will do my best to win the decisive battle with him." ”

In this way, because of the sudden change in the battle situation, without adequate preparations, the main force of the Northern Front Corps of the Western Chu Army suddenly went out, and under the personal leadership of Zhou Yin, 90,000 troops were dispatched to the north in one go, and they came to find the main force of the Zhou Shu Corps of the Han Army for a decisive battle. At the same time, at the request of Zhou Yin, Tian Xin, the commander of the Jibei Army, also led 30,000 troops out of the camp and joined forces with the Western Chu Army to drive north to help the Western Chu Army fight a decisive battle with the Han Army.

Without God's perspective, after receiving the report that the Western Chu army was finally dispatched, Uncle Zhou of course thought that it was the insulting and provocative provocation of the Han army soldiers that played a role, and also ordered to reward the Han army soldiers who fought outside the Western Chu military camp. However, before the Western Chu army arrived at the battlefield, Uncle Zhou still told the generals of the Han army: "The Western Chu thief army is coming in anger this time, and the initial offensive will inevitably be fierce, and if our army rashly launches an attack, it will definitely suffer a big loss." Therefore, in this battle, we must first take a defensive position, wait until the morale of the Western Chu thief army is exhausted, and then launch a counterattack, so that we can be sure of victory! ”

Because the time of sending troops was too late, it was not until nearly half of noon that the Western Chu Army and the Jibei Army joined forces and slowly moved to the vicinity of the battlefield, and after quickly observing the battlefield terrain, seeing that the terrain was open and the troops were easy to deploy, Zhou Yin immediately decided to fight this decisive battle on the northern front with the Han army in a wild goose formation suitable for giving full play to the advantages of troops, but when considering how to deploy the troops, Zhou Yin suddenly remembered the letter written by Uncle Zhou to Tian Xin, the commander of the Jibei Army, yesterday......

"Be careful, the Jibei Army is not very reliable, it's better to guard against them."

After this thought quickly flashed in his heart, Zhou Yin immediately made up his mind and ordered: "Lie Yan marching formation, Brother Xiang Guan, you lead 30,000 troops to line up to the west of our left flank, give Tian Xin an order, and ask him to lead the Jibei Army to line up to the east of our right flank, and the rest of the army is personally commanded by the commander, the middle army in the array, Brother Xiang Sui, you are in charge of the front team of the Chinese army, and the main force of the chariot soldiers is also handed over to you to command. ”

The generals hugged their fists and sang a promise together, Xiang Sui also hurriedly hugged his fists to receive the order, and after hesitating for a moment, Xiang Sui cautiously reminded: "Da Sima, is it a little dangerous to let the Jibei Army line up alone on our right flank?" The combat effectiveness of the Jibei Army is not very reliable. ”

"I did it on purpose." Zhou Yin replied very directly, and said, "You will understand the reason in a while." ”

Seeing that Zhou Yin refused to answer, Xiang Sui, who had already contradicted Zhou Yin many times today, did not dare to continue to ask, so he could only honestly organize the army to line up in front of the Chinese army's position, and took on the important task of confronting the main force of the Han army.

On the side of the Han army, Zhou Yin's formation layout had just seen the clues, and Uncle Zhou had already understood his tactical intentions, and couldn't help but praise: "No wonder Zhou Yin has been desperately seeking a decisive battle with our army, and he has a bit of ability to fight a formation battle, not to mention all the things that should be considered, and he actually arranged a trap for me to drill, this battle has to be fought, and it will definitely not be able to tell the winner if it is not completely dark." ”

"General, can you advise, what kind of trap did Zhou Yinpifu set for us?" Zhou Shu, an old man from Shangshan who didn't understand the battle, asked curiously.

"The Jibei thief army arrayed alone on their right flank is a trap arranged by Zhou Yinpifu." Uncle Zhou directly pointed to the Jibei army in the east and said: "The combat strength of the Jibei thief army is not as good as that of the Western Chu thief army, and their position is also the easiest position for us to make a breakthrough. ”

"In addition, the Western Chu Thief Army and the Jibei Army are arrayed on the east and west flanks respectively, and there are also great mysteries in them." Uncle Zhou pointed to the sun in the sky again, and said: "It's already noon, the sun will soon gradually set in the west, Zhou Yin Pifu let the Western Chu thief army line up in the west, and when the attack is launched, attacking the Western Chu thief army on the flank of our right flank, you can get the advantage of the light with your back to the sun, so that our right wing army is at a disadvantage of fighting against the light." ”

Zhou Shu tried to taste Uncle Zhou's guidance, and then said: "So, the Western Chu thief army wants to outflank us and defeat us by assaulting from west to east?" ”

"There is a plan, but Zhou Yinpifu did not bet all his bets on our flanks." Uncle Zhou replied: "His real killing machine is still in the front of our Chinese army, even if he storms our right flank for a while, the purpose is only to force us to increase the flank and create fighters for him in the frontal battlefield of the Chinese army." ”

After finishing speaking, Uncle Zhou smiled slightly and said: "Fortunately, these arrangements of his are all expected by me, especially the fact that he let the Jibei Army line up alone on the eastern flank, and it must be because of our anti-Tian Xin's letter, so he didn't dare to be completely at ease with the Jibei Army, and deliberately used the Jibei Army as a bait." ”

"So what should we do?" Zhou Shu hurriedly asked again.

"Of course, it's the first to keep." Uncle Zhou replied very directly, and then instructed the soldiers next to him: "Go and give our right wing General Worm Da an order, just say that the Western Chu thief army will definitely attack his position with all its might, and tell him to defend the position for me, and not to take a step back!" Also, tell him clearly that I have no reinforcements for him, and his first task in this battle is to hold our right flank, and as long as he can hold out to the end, I will give him the first credit! ”

As Uncle Zhou expected, after the formation was arranged, in the sound of war drums, the Western Chu army was indeed the first to send troops from the left flank, and took the lead in attacking the right flank position of the Han army. …

"Hold your ground! No one is allowed to take a step back! The middle-level generals of the Han army on the front line shouted one after another.

"Kill! Kill all the thieves to Lao Tzu! The generals of the Western Chu Army, who led the charge, roared even louder.

At the same time, in the banner formation of the Western Chu Army, Zhou Yin, the commander of the Western Chu Army, did not pay any attention to the western battlefield, but turned his eyes to the east of the battlefield, and secretly gritted his teeth and said: "Uncle Zhou, this commander asked the Jibei Army to line up the right wing alone for you to fight casually, such a good opportunity is placed in front of you, you must seize it." ”