If the terrain is not too open, in the battle of the western suburbs of Lixian County, even if the young marshal army cannot completely annihilate the Sanchuan Qin army, at least it can beat the Sanchuan Qin army to the basic life can not take care of itself, and there is no hope of reorganizing the army, but it is a pity that the battlefield is too flat, and there are roads to escape in all directions, plus night falls, and the pursuit is difficult, so in the end, there are still more than 4,000 remnants of the Qin army defeated by luck to get rid of the pursuit of the young marshal army, and fled back to the small city of Kunyang, which is still controlled by the Qin army.

The losses of the young marshal's army in this battle are also quite small, holding the high ground and forcibly charging the battle are all hard battles that cannot be opportunistic, adding up to the total number of soldiers killed and seriously injured by the young marshal army more than 1,700 soldiers, and most of them are elite and strong soldiers, and the wounded soldiers have reached more than 2,000 people, and the casualties account for more than 10% of the total strength, so after the end of the pursuit battle, although he has received a detailed report, saying that Nanyang County Shou Lu Qi is rushing to the battlefield of Lixian County with the main force of the Qin army in Nanyang, Xiang Kang does not dare to take the initiative to fight again, Honestly, he hurriedly withdrew to Lixian County with the main force of the young marshal's army, intending to let the soldiers rest for a few days, and then think about how to deal with the Nanyang Qin army.

Xiang Kang's decision gave the Nanyang Qin army the opportunity to calmly adjust its tactical plan, and after receiving the news of Yang Xiong's disastrous defeat, Lü Qi, who had already rushed to Kunyang with the Nanyang Qin army, was shocked, in addition to ordering the army to temporarily stop advancing westward, he hurriedly summoned the army Chinese and discussed countermeasures with everyone, and the result was not to mention, because he had never fought with the young marshal's army, several Qin army generals suggested continuing to advance westward, taking advantage of the opportunity that the young marshal's army had also suffered certain losses, and then launched a head-on decisive battle with the young marshal's army.

Chen Hui, a disciple of Lü Qi, resolutely opposed the westward advance, and pointed out to Lü Qi: "Junzun, the strength of the thief army is as high as more than 36,000 people, and even if it suffers some losses today, the strength of the army will definitely be more than 30,000, and it still has an advantage in strength. Moreover, since the formation of our army, it has only conquered some rogue in Nanyang, and in fact it has not experienced much actual combat, but Xiang Kang's thief army has swept through Huaisi, never defeated, and in the Central Plains battlefield is the main force under the command of General Zhang Han, and has won many victories, the battlefield experience is far above us, and it is really a bit of a big risk to rashly fight with such a strong thief army, once it fails, the consequences will be unimaginable. ”

After pointing out the danger of continuing to advance westward, Chen Hui said: "The only way to do this is to gather the remnants of the Great Qin who fled from Lixian as soon as possible, further expand our strength, and then take advantage of the opportunity that the thief army has not had time to return to Kunyang, withdraw to Yexian as soon as possible, and rely on the favorable terrain of the Yexian battlefield to compete with the thief army for a long time, so it is the best policy." ”

Lu Qi twisted his beard and calculated, and only after a while did he ask, "What about Lixian County?" We have withdrawn to Ye County, and the thief army will definitely take the opportunity to attack Li County, do we want to watch Li County being broken by the thief army? ”

"Junzun, at this time, it should be the first thing to protect our army." Chen Hui said very calmly: "Keeping our army, even if Lixian County falls temporarily, we will still have a chance to recover Lixian County in the future, but if our army has any mistakes, don't say that it is a small Lixian County, even the entire territory of Nanyang cannot be saved." ”

Lu Qi is a person who can listen to persuasion, listening to Chen Hui's reasoning, and seeing that Yang Xiong has been defeated miserably, and there is no friendly army to share the pressure for him, Lu Qi quickly made up his mind and said: "Sir is reasonable, at this time, we should give priority to preserving the army, and we must not take the risk to take the initiative to fight a decisive battle." That's it, first gather the Great Qin soldiers who fled back from Lixian County, reorganize them into an army, and then withdraw to Yexian County as soon as possible, and go to the battlefield that is favorable to us to deal with the thief army. ”

Yang Xiong's death greatly facilitated Lü Qi's incorporation of the Sanchuan Qin army, and at the same time learned about the course of the battle of Lixian from the mouth of the defeated soldiers of the Qin army, Lü Qi, who was still a little self-aware, was also very glad that he obeyed Chen Hui's dissuasion, and did not go west directly to risk a decisive battle with the fierce and brutal young marshal army, and after quickly completing the reorganization work, Lü Qi left Yingchuan County Cheng Xu Wei to continue to guard Kunyang, acting as the outer barrier of Ye County, and immediately withdrew to Ye County with the Nanyang Qin army, and redeployed the defense on the Yexian battlefield where the terrain was favorable to the Qin army.

The matter is not over, on the way back to Ye County, Chen Hui, who has some brains, after some careful consideration, took the opportunity to take a temporary rest on the road, came to Lu Qi again, and said to Lu Qi: "Jun Zun, the villain has a rather bold idea, if Jun Zun follows the plan, our army may be able to defeat the strong with the weak and completely annihilate Xiang Kang's thief army, but I don't know if Jun Zun is willing to adopt it." ”

"Sir, has a clever plan to annihilate Xiang Kang's thief army?" Lu Qi was a little surprised, and hurriedly said: "Let's talk about it quickly, let the official hear what the clever plan is." ”

"I don't dare to be a clever plan, it's just a little rough plan." Chen Hui was modest, and then said: "The loss of Lixian County is basically a foregone conclusion, after the thief army takes Lixian County, there are three roads to go south to the hinterland of Nanyang, one is the big road in Ye County, the other is the small Hengshan road in the south of Lixian County, and the third is the small road in Dajianshan in the southwest of Lixian County. ”

"In that case, why don't we go with the flow? Take advantage of this to try to lure the thief army into the narrow path, and then take the opportunity to send troops to recover the county, hold the danger to block the exit of the path, and cooperate with the partial division we sent to the hinterland of Nanyang to fortify, and block the main force of the thief army in the deep mountains, it is entirely possible to completely annihilate the thief army. ”

Lu Qi thought about it, and quickly said, "It's a good idea, but how can we lure the thief army into the narrow path?" ”

"Surrender." Chen Hui said in a deep voice: "Let us deploy in the hinterland of Nanyang to come forward to surrender, falsely claiming that they are willing to surrender to the thief army, and lead the way for Xiang Kang's thief army to directly enter the hinterland of Guanzhong. ”

Just after a little pondering, Lu Qi immediately patted the case and said, "It's worth a try!" Even if we can't succeed, we will lose only one messenger at most, and if we succeed, the gain will be incomparably great! Gotta give it a try and see if it works! ”

"Since Jun Zun has decided to give it a try, then we must do it immediately, the sooner we send a surrender envoy to Xiang Kang's rebels, the easier it will be to win his trust." Chen Hui said quickly: "Also, it is best for us to lure the thief army into the relatively long Dajianshan path, in order to win the belief of Xiang Kang's rebels, our generals who came forward to deceive the thieves also have to deliberately leak the defensive deployment and some military information in the hinterland of Nanyang to Xiang Kang Xiao'er, and do their best to lure Xiang Kang's thief army into the mountain to take the path." ”

Lu Qi nodded again and again, and discussed carefully with Chen Hui, and soon arranged a fairly strict plan for fraudulent surrender, and on the same day, he sent a fast horse to the hinterland of Nanyang to contact Song Yang, the general of the Qin army stationed at the exit of the Dajianshan Road, and asked him to act according to the plan, and immediately send an envoy north to Lixian County to lure the enemy by deception.

The stubborn resistance of the military and civilians of Lixian County bought time for the Qin army to implement the fraudulent surrender plan, and inadvertently helped Lu Qi and Chen Hui in another aspect, and after resting outside the city of Lixian for a few days, it was found that the main force of the Qin army in Nanyang had taken the initiative to withdraw to Yexian, and Xiang Kang, who had no worries about the future, did not hesitate anymore, and immediately urged the army to launch a siege, and no longer like last time, only took some temporary flying ladders to attack the city and deliberately suffered defeat, using large siege weapons such as ladder vehicles, trebuchets and ramming vehicles, Killing chickens and using cattle knives to attack the small town of Lixian County, which has only more than 1,000 defenders.

Xiang Kang and the young marshal army were very surprised, in the face of the strong offensive of the young marshal army, the Qin army of Lixian County, which was weak in soldiers, not only did not give up timidly, but on the contrary, it fought extremely bravely and tenaciously, relying on the geographical location of the city wall to block the attack of the young marshal army several times, and the ordinary people in the city town were also of the same heart as the soldiers and soldiers of the Qin army, and the young and strong men went to the city with rudimentary weapons to participate in the battle to make up for the weakness of the Qin army's lack of strength, and the old and weak women and children continued to carry various weapons to defend the city, and did their best to share the work for the defenders of Lixian County. Leng is to help the defenders of Lixian County block the young marshal's army for a long time.

Fortunately, after all, the young marshal's army has strong troops, and its combat effectiveness also has an advantage, and the battalions and armies took turns to go into battle, and they still broke through the city wall of Lixian County in the evening of the same day and entered the city of Lixian County, but the soldiers and civilians of Lixian County still refused to raise their hands to surrender, and they fled out of the city from the west gate of Lixian County, which was deliberately released by the young marshal army, and fled to the direction of Luyang in the west overnight.

For this situation, Xiang Kang was of course very puzzled, and he was very puzzled why the isolated soldiers and civilians of Lixian County resisted so stubbornly? Puzzled, he sent Zhou Zeng to take someone to investigate the reason, and Zhou Zeng carefully interrogated the captured Qin army soldiers, and after going deep into the people to understand the voices of the people of Lixian County, he quickly returned to Xiang Kang and reported: "General Right, the situation is clear, the reason why the Li Shu soldiers in Lixian County resisted so strongly was because they felt that they were all Qin people, and they were worried that the armies of the six countries outside the Guanxi would take revenge on them, and they spread rumors that we would slaughter the whole city after breaking the city, so they would rather die than surrender, and they also resisted very strongly." ”

"Qin people?" Xiang Kang was confused and said, "How can the soldiers and civilians of Li County think that they are Qin people? If I'm not mistaken, during the Warring States period, Lixian should have belonged to Chu or Han? ”

"Lixian has always been Chu since the Warring States period." Zhou Zeng introduced: "But in the first year of the king of Chu Xiangxiang, the violent Qin army went out of Wuguan and seized the fifteen cities of the Chu State, including Lixian County, and it was also from that year that the Lixian County was incorporated into the Qin State, and was never recovered by the Chu State, and now ninety years have passed, the population has changed several generations, and the Lixian people who thought they were Chu people have all passed away a long time ago, and the Li Shu Qianshou of Lixian County has been ruled by the Qin State for several generations, so they have long felt that they are orthodox Qin people, and the six countries outside the Guanxi have no common hatred. ”

"I see, no wonder you fought so hard." Xiang Kang suddenly realized, and then said: "It seems that we have to deal with the affairs of Li County carefully, otherwise, when we go deep into the hinterland of Nanyang, we will definitely only encounter more stubborn resistance than Li County." ”

"Xia Guan thinks so too." Uncle Zhou nodded, and said: "When the city was broken yesterday, many soldiers and civilians from Lixian County fled to Luyang for refuge, but many of their parents, wives and children must have failed to escape, or were separated from them. ”

"Okay, it's troublesome for Uncle Ya to do it yourself." Xiang Kang agreed, and then advised: "Remember to tell them, no matter whether they are Qin people or not, our army will definitely not hurt innocent Qin people casually when it goes south, and will only settle accounts with those tyrannical Qin princes and magnates who oppress them and the six countries outside the Guanwai, and we will definitely let them live and work in peace and contentment in the future, and no longer suffer from war." ”

Zhou Zeng was not good at military affairs, but he was very good at internal affairs, and with the help of his uncle and grandson Tong, who had a lotus flower, the young marshal army and soldiers quickly found out some of the people of Lixian who had been separated from their relatives who fled westward, and first preached to them the lenient policy of the army towards the Qin people with good words, and then sent them dry food for the journey, and asked them to carry their belongings to Luyang to reunite with their relatives. At the same time, he repeatedly enforced military discipline, strictly forbade soldiers to loot civilian property and kill innocent people indiscriminately, and unscrupulously bribed the hearts of the people of Nanyang, who thought they were Qin people.

In the troubled times, such a hypocritical policy is always very effective, a day later, the young marshal sent out of the city of the people of Lixian County have come to Luyang to reunite with their relatives, determined to defend the small city of Luyang The military and civilians of Lixian County are really a sensation, scrambling to inquire about the situation after the destruction of Lixian County, and when they heard that the young marshal army and military discipline were strict, and there was almost no crime against the ordinary people, and there was no revenge for slaughtering the city as they feared, the soldiers and civilians of Lixian County were immediately relieved, and the county order of Lixian County, which fled west to Luyang, also made up their minds. Send an envoy back to Lixian County to ask for surrender to the young marshal's army.

Zhou Zeng was still responsible for receiving the envoy of Luyang, and when he learned of the envoy's intention, Zhou Zeng was of course overjoyed, first comforted the envoy of Luyang, and then immediately came to Xiang Kang happily to report the good news. But to Zhou Zeng's surprise, when he arrived in front of Xiang Kang, Xiang Kang was actually personally meeting a man dressed as an ordinary person, and he was still carefully reading a letter. Zhou Zeng saw the strangeness, and hurriedly asked Chen Ping next to him, "Mr. Chen Ping, what's the matter?" ”

"Nanyang Qin's envoy to Song Yang." Chen Ping first bowed to the messenger who was bowing in front of Xiang Kang, and then said in a low voice: "Come to ask for surrender, Song Yang wants to take the opportunity of guarding the Dajianshan path to surrender to us with his military cronies, so that we can directly enter the hinterland of Nanyang from the Dajianshan path." ”

"Really?" Zhou Zeng, who had been damaged by Xiang Kang a lot, was suspicious and said secretly: "Could it be a fraud?" The road in Dajianshan can directly enter the hinterland of Nanyang, but if we can't get out of it, we will be in big trouble. ”

At this time, Xiang Kang suddenly laughed, and greeted with joy on his face: "Your envoy, please hurry up, it's really hard for you, send me such good news from so far away, with General Song helping to open the way for our army, and also sent the army deployment map of the violent Qin army in Nanyang, it will be much easier for us to take Nanyang." Quick, set up a seat for General Xu's envoy. ”

Qin sent a messenger sent by Song Yang breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly thanked Xiang Kang, and then got up and sat down, Xiang Kang shushed him and asked him about the specific situation of Song Yang, and handed the letter brought by Song Yang's envoy to Chen Ping, Zhou Zeng hurriedly went up to see it, and saw that Qin General Song Yang claimed in the letter that he had already betrayed Qin, and was previously humiliated in public by Nanyang County Shou Lu Qi, determined to rebel and take revenge, and led the young marshal army from the Dajianshan road directly into the hinterland of Nanyang, and said many words that were willing to surrender to the young marshal army, He also reported to Xiang Kang some of the Nanyang military information that was difficult for the scouts to contact, and it was indeed very similar to the appearance that he sincerely wanted to surrender to the young marshal's army.

At this time, Xiang Kang had already made a promise to the envoy sent by Song Yang, promising to reward Song Yang heavily after entering the hinterland of Nanyang, and canonized Song Yang as a general on the spot, a marquis of a thousand households, and also made the envoy sent by Song Yang a captain, a hundred households, and rewarded the Song Yang envoy with a pair of jade walls and two hundred gold on the spot, and finally let the soldiers take the Song Yang envoy with a happy face to go down to eat, and casually ordered the envoy who must be good to entertain Song Yang.

Then, naturally, Song Yang's envoy had just been led out of the Chinese army's tent, and Xiang Kang, who turned his face faster than a book, immediately disappeared with a smile on his face, and immediately asked Chen Ping and Zhou Zeng: "Uncle Ya, Mr. Chen Ping, what do you think?" ”

"I can't tell the real from the fake for the time being." Chen Ping replied: "But it's best to be cautious, and don't take the road of Dajianshan." ”

"I also think it's better not to take risks." Zhou Zeng also said: "If the tyrannical Qin general named Song Yang came to trick us into the mountain road, and then held the danger or let us out of the mountains, and the tyrannical Qin army was blocked in the north, we would be in big trouble." ”

"Of course you can't take risks." Xiang Kang sneered and said: "Not to mention, I can't tell whether Song Yang's surrender intention is true or false, even if he really wants to surrender, I will definitely not risk taking the mountain path to go south, take such a dangerous move, as long as there is a little accident, how can we be in trouble?" There is a danger of total annihilation! ”

"Then why did General Right still agree to accept Song Yang's surrender?" Zhou Zeng asked very strangely: "Give back so many rewards, and waste our army's money and food in vain?" ”

"Uncle Ya, haven't you noticed that if we can use means to find out the truth of Song Yang's surrender intentions, and confirm that he is here to deceive and lure the enemy, many of our troubles can be solved?"

Xiang Kang asked with a smile and said: "The main force of the tyrannical Qin in Nanyang is holding Ye County, and the terrain in Ye County is also surrounded by high mountains, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, if we force the attack, even if we succeed, there will definitely be many casualties." But if we confirm that Song Yang is luring the enemy, we will plan and lure the violent Qin army in Nanyang to fight in Lixian County, and then try to break through the Yexian defense line of the violent Qin army, wouldn't it be much easier? ”

"But how can we find out the truth of Song Yang's intentions?" Zhou Zeng hurriedly asked.

"It's simple, just arrange someone to act in a play, and lie to that Song Yang envoy to tell the truth?"

Xiang Kang, who was full of bad water, didn't even blink his eyelids, and immediately said the idea of lacking morality that he had just thought of, Zhou Zeng and Chen Ping applauded together when they heard it, and they all admired Xiang Kang's cunning and viciousness, and they were able to come up with such a way to lure Song Yang's envoy to tell the truth. However, after Chen Ping carefully calculated, he still said with some worry: "General Right, what if that messenger is dead?" ”

"The dead room is not so easy to arrange, in addition to not letting him know the truth, you have to ensure that he is absolutely loyal, and he will not choose to betray because of a misunderstanding, I don't believe that the nobody named Song Yang can have such a great ability to send out the dead room."

Xiang Kang snorted confidently, and said casually: "Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if he is dead, it doesn't matter, anyway, we must not take the path to the south, he refuses to explain the truth, and asks our people to kill him with a knife, and take back the jade wall and gold?" Our gold and jade artifacts were all snatched from the Tyrant Qin, so can they be wasted casually? ”