Zhou Bo, Lu Jia and Xi Juan and other Nanyang army civil and military arrangements were good, and Liu Laosan had already explained to them before the expedition, so that they could obey Han Xin's orders and commands in addition to discovering Han Xin's rebellious intentions, so although he felt that Han Xin's tactical prediction of the Han army's attack on Xiangcheng was a bit arbitrary, and it was a pity to abandon the camp and retreat with only grain and grass weapons, but seeing that Han Xin's mind had been decided, Zhou Bo and others still obeyed the order without hesitation, and immediately began to organize the soldiers to retreat overnight.

But the commander of the Southern Front Corps of the Western Chu Army, Li Ji, was not so easy to speak, after being invited to the Nanyang Army, before he heard Han Xin finish all the situation, Li Ji was already furious, shouting and asking Han Xin if he was crazy, why did he think that the Han army that attacked Xinzheng was to attack Xiangcheng, which was two hundred miles to the south? And shouted again: "Tell your army to stop retreating at once, or you will be responsible for all the consequences!" ”

Han Xin no longer held back this time, and replied categorically: "General Li, this time I will not take back the order no matter what!" If you don't want to go, you can stay, but you're responsible for all the consequences! When I see the King of Western Chu in the future, don't say that I didn't warn you, and I didn't persuade you to seize the opportunity to retreat quickly! ”

"What do you say? Have the guts to say it again! ”

Li Ji was so angry that he grabbed Han Xin's clothes in front of him, but Han Xin was not afraid, stared into Li Ji's eyes and said: "General Li, you can say it a few times, if you don't retreat, you will be responsible for all the consequences!" ”

"You!" Li Ji's eyes were red with anger, if he didn't consider that he was in the Nanyang Army, he would have even slashed Han Xin's heart with a sword.

"General Leigh, this is your only chance to keep the army!" Han Xin said coldly: "You are also a veteran of the battlefield, you should know very well that with Zhong Li's status in the Han thief army, how can it be that you personally lead the army to the south, just for an inconsequential Xinzheng town?" Yang Zhai is the county ruler of Yingchuan, the city is high and the moat is deep, he is lightly armed and successful, and the success may not be very large, and even if Yang Zhai is taken, it will not affect the overall battle between us and the Han thieves. ”

"General Leigh, please think again." Han Xin continued: "If we don't hurry up and retreat, and the Han thieves successfully attack Xiangcheng and cut off our grain route, what kind of fate will we have?" Of course, it is a dead end, retreat in a hurry, the dragon and the horseman are chasing after us, and the thieves are intercepting in front of us, how many of our 50,000 troops can withdraw to Nanyang? ”

also knew that once Xiangcheng was lost, it would definitely lead to a desperate situation for the army, so Li Ji could only slowly let go of Han Xin's clothes, and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Then we don't need to be in such a hurry, right?" Dragons and Puffs are only half as strong as ours, so wouldn't it be easier for us to defeat him first and then retreat? ”

"Thieves are not fools." Han Xin immediately replied: "I dare to conclude that the order given by Xiang Kang's traitors to Long and Pifu must be to entangle us and bite us, and drag us back to Shixiangcheng. ”

"It's ......." Li Ji gritted his teeth and said, "But isn't it a pity to give up the baggage of the camp and retreat with only grain, grass and weapons?" ”

"Is it the weight of the camp that is important, or is it our army that is important?" Han Xin asked rhetorically: "The camp tent is gone, we can find a way to replenish it, but the army is gone, how can we deal with the large-scale southern expedition that the Han thieves have already launched?" ”

Li Jitie blushed and pondered for a long time before yelling: "You won!" Remove! When I returned, I ordered the army to retreat overnight! ”

"Thank you, General Leigh, for a wise decision." Han Xin replied expressionlessly, and said: "Please be careful, since the dragon and the puppet are ordered to entangle us, it is very likely that they will be able to wait and monitor the movements of our camp, as long as we are found to have retreated overnight, we will definitely immediately send troops to pursue, and please also ask the general to arrange the elite soldiers to die in the palace, don't be caught off guard by the Han thief." ”

Han Xin's kind reminder caused trouble for himself, thinking of the important events of the palace, Li Ji immediately said: "Okay, since your army has made preparations first, then tonight by my palace, but after tonight, after Yishui, your army will be the queen of your palace!" ”

Han Xin sighed helplessly, nodded and said, "Okay, but after arriving in Liang County, you have to ask General Li to lead the army to the rear of the palace, and we will take turns to fight behind the palace, so that the loss of the soldiers can be reduced to the minimum." ”

Li Ji is not the kind of selfish villain who only takes advantage and never suffers, so he immediately agreed, and then hurried back to the camp and issued orders like Han Xin. Let all the Western Chu soldiers who had fallen asleep get up and assemble, give up the camp tents and all the baggage that was not urgently needed, and retreat lightly with only food, grass and weapons. Then, naturally, before the Western Chu army loaded all the grain and grass, the Nanyang army, which was the first to move, had already begun to cross the river and go south, and quickly withdrew from Yishui, which had a considerable amount of water.

Expected by Han Xin, when the Western Chu army began to cross the river, the Han army Long He, who received the scout report, really dispatched urgently, and quickly killed the new city, fortunately, the Western Chu army had a certain preparation, and Li Ji just gave an order, and the eight thousand Western Chu army immediately dispatched to protect the Yishui ferry and cover the main force to cross the river to the south.

Thanks to Han Xin's reminder, the prepared Western Chu army relied on the advantage of fighting in formation, firmly protected the Yishui ferry, and successfully covered the transfer of the Western Chu army to the south bank of Yishui, but when the rear army of the Western Chu army crossed the river and retreated, the situation was completely different, Long He not only decisively ordered a comprehensive general attack, but also personally led the army to kill the first line, inspiring the Han army soldiers to fight with all their might, and the soldiers of the Western Chu army were in a hurry to cross the river to flee for their lives. Pushing each other into the water, there were countless dead, and they finally barely escaped Yishui to count the losses, and the 8,000 rear troops of the Western Chu Army lost nearly half, not to mention the heavy casualties, and almost all of the sacrifices were the main soldiers.

The loss was reported to Liji, of course, Liji's face was pale, but there was no way but to quickly take the army south to retreat to Liangxian County, and rotate the Nanyang Army to cover the palace, while Han Xin divided the Nanyang Army into two, leaving Xi Juan to lead the 5,000 troops to the palace, hold the ferry to buy time for the main force, and lead the main force to retreat south.

Originally, in Han Xin's plan, Xi Juan's army would definitely have no problem holding on to the last day, but to Han Xin's surprise, after retreating southward, it was only around the time of Shen in the afternoon that Xi Juan chased after him with a rear army with a loss of nearly 1,000 yuan. The thief has no boat or boat, how can he break through Yishui so quickly and beat you like this? ”

"Back to the general, the thieves are too cunning." Xi Juan replied with a sad face: "The Han thief loaded the baggage cart we left behind, pushed the river to block the river, and after the water level dropped, Long and that horseman personally led the army to launch a surprise attack, and the last general was not their opponent, so they could only retreat quickly to chase you." ”

"Raised by a handmaid!" Han Xin rarely scolded a dirty word, and said hatefully: "It is worthy of being Xiang Kang's traitor, and he can actually train a brave and unscrupulous puppet like Long He to be able to find a way to adapt to the situation!" ”

Hate is useless, without the Yishui River to block, the Nanyang army can only hurry up the speed, and the Han army to compete with the speed of the foot, the result of this period, Han Xin's tactical genius has also been played to a certain extent, using the characteristics of many mountains and forests along the way, temporarily arranged an ambush on the retreat road and successfully succeeded, first suddenly killed the ambush to cut off the Han army that pursued with all its might, and the Nanyang army that deceived and lured the enemy also turned back and killed, under the attack on three sides, the front army of the Han army suddenly suffered a big loss, if it were not for the Han army rear team to come in time to respond, The front team of the Han army was almost defeated by the Nanyang army.

But even so, Han Xin is still extremely worried, because even if the Han army was ambushed and suffered losses, it still chased very closely, and always bit the rear team of the Nanyang army, obviously made up his mind to entangle the Nanyang army at any cost, and the military god Han Xin had no choice but to grit his teeth and lead the army to full speed, and his footsteps did not stop going south to Liang County.

Thanks to Han Xin's commanders, he has always had a good habit, that is, no matter what time it is, his army must prepare enough dry food for three days, and the dried rice can be eaten immediately as long as it is soaked in water, which saves countless precious time for the soldiers of the Nanyang Army to march quickly, so even if the Han army that pursued afterwards was also well prepared, it also relied on dry food to satisfy hunger and did not waste time by burying the pot to cook, and it was never able to catch up with the main force of the Nanyang Army. Just a few contact battles with the Nanyang army behind the palace in turn, the Nanyang army did not stop, just in the afternoon of the next day, it rushed to Liang County almost at the same time as the Western Chu army that retreated first, and successfully crossed the Rushui before being caught up by the Han army, temporarily getting rid of the threat of the Han army.

Then after the rotation of the Western Chu Army, after agreeing with the Western Chu Army to meet in Jiaxian, Han Xin immediately took the Nanyang Army to the southeast and rushed to Jiaxian County, leaving the Western Chu Army to guard the Rushui Ferry and temporarily block the Han army's pursuit. Then needless to say, seeing that the Nanyang Army retreated first, the generals of the Western Chu Army, who had always been riding on the head of the Nanyang Army in normal times, were of course very dissatisfied, and said to Li Jijin: "General, why do you want to let the Nanyang Army go first?" Why not let them continue with the Queen? We're here to help the Nanyang Army, so they should be the queen all the way? ”

"It's okay, we won't suffer." Li Ji comforted the generals and said: "Why don't you want to think about it, the Han thieves launched a pursuit in a hurry, how much dry food can the army bring to eat on the road?" They also came lightly, certainly did not carry the retort, at least it was necessary to pass through the Rushui into Liangcheng before it was possible to grab the cooking utensils to make rice, we only need to take advantage of the current Rushui temporary blockage, seize the time to make more rice with the army, and then destroy all the cooking utensils, so that the thieves can not find enough cooking utensils to make rice, and then at most a day, the thieves just want to continue to chase and have no strength to chase again. ”

After pacifying the generals under his command, Li Ji immediately ordered the soldiers of the Western Chu Army to seize the tense time to bury the pot and make rice, and at the same time sent troops into the city to rob all the civilian cooking utensils in the small town of Liang County and take them out of the city to make dry food. During this period, the generals of the Western Chu army secretly rejoiced that in the Han army camp that was temporarily blocked by Rushui, there was really no cooking smoke rising, and it was obvious that the Han soldiers were still relying on the dry food carried by the army to satisfy their hunger, and the dried and soaked rice had no good taste, and at most barely coaxed their stomachs, far less than the corn and wheat rice that had just been made to satisfy hunger......

Of course, if Li Ji and others could go deep into the Han army camp and see the current situation of the Han army soldiers, Li Ji and the others would not be so happy - at this moment in the Han army camp, the dry food taken out by the Han army soldiers is all dried wheat flour flatbread, not only seasoned with salt and peppercorn, but also more hungry and hungry than the staple rice corn of this era, easy to digest, and can be compared to more than twice the weight of freshly steamed rice if you eat one. And such a half-pound pancake, not only every Han army soldier carries six emergency on his back, but also a lot of the Han army's military vehicles, enough to eat for more than five days......

…………

Let's look at the situation on Han Xin's side, after rotating the palace of the Western Chu Army, without distractions, the Nanyang Army that retreated lightly was naturally faster, but it only took less than two days, and on the night of the third day, it rushed all the way from Liang County to the city of Jiaxian, and then Han Xin didn't even have time to take a breath, and immediately asked the Jiaxian county commander who came out of the city to greet him: "Xiangcheng, what is the news?" ”

"Is there any news from Xiangcheng?" The county magistrate of Jiaxian County was asked by Han Xin for a while, and then replied: "No?" There's no news from Xiangcheng these days? ”

Han Nobunaga breathed a sigh of relief, but Lu Jia and the others next to him muttered in their hearts, and they all secretly said in their hearts: "Don't make a false alarm, if the Han thieves didn't come to attack Xiangcheng, then we would have lost too much this time." ”

"Rest for the night, set off at dawn tomorrow, and continue to retreat to Xiangcheng." Han Xin didn't bother to pay attention to the strange gazes of Lu Jia and the others, but directly ordered the army to sleep on the spot, and pointed to the Jiaxian county order and ordered: "You, immediately organize people to make a fire to make rice, before dawn, you must prepare breakfast for us, and dry food for the day." ”

"General, it's the second watch, how can the lower officials prepare so much food and dry food with this little manpower in their hands?" Jiaxian County ordered to scream like a pig.

"That's your problem!" Han Xin replied coldly: "Our army's dry food has been eaten, and the soldiers have to rest and have no time to cook, this task can only be handed over to you, if you can't do it, come and see you!" ”

In order to meet Han Xin's requirements, he had to force the people in the city to get up in the middle of the night to help cook, and soon made the Jiaxian county town jump. Han Xin sighed softly again, turned his gaze to the direction of Xiangcheng in the southeast, and prayed to the sky in a very rare low voice, "God bless, you must be in time." ”

Not to mention, relying on the joint efforts of the soldiers and civilians of Jiaxian, at dawn, the Jiaxian county commander really sent a hot meal to the Nanyang army, as well as barely enough food for a day, Han Xin took the lead and had a full meal with the officers and soldiers of the Nanyang army, and then immediately ordered the army to set off to the east. It was also at this time that Lu Jia remembered a major event, and hurriedly said to Han Xin: "General, please wait, when we were in Liang County, we made an appointment with the Western Chu Army to meet in Jiaxian, and we went directly to Xiangcheng without waiting for him to come, isn't it right?" ”

"Leave a message to him, saying that the military situation in Xiangcheng is urgent, and we must go to Xiangcheng first, and ask him to meet us in Xiangcheng again." Han Xin replied quietly - I must explain that in the early stage of the battle of Qixia in history, Liu Laosan was unfavorable in the war, and was surrounded by Xiang Yu in Guling, Han Xin refused to send troops to help, or Liu Laosan listened to Zhang Liang's suggestion and officially sealed the territory east of Chen Di to the sea, and Han Xin sent troops to help Liu Laosan win the battle of Qixia.

"General, this is no joke." Lu Jia hurriedly reminded: "What will be the consequences of doing this, you must also know in your heart, not to mention that doing this will definitely anger the Western Chu army, if the Han thieves are really in hot pursuit, the situation of the Western Chu army is critical, and our army cannot respond in time, we will immediately lose an important help." ”

Han Xin had no choice but to change his mind, and arranged for Xi Juan to lead 3,000 troops to stay in Jiacheng temporarily, preparing to meet the Western Chu army that might be closely pursued by the Han army, and explained that Xi Juan would go to Xiangcheng to meet him immediately after receiving the Western Chu army, and then led the main force of the Nanyang army to march on foot and rush to Xiangcheng, fifty miles to the southeast, at the fastest speed, and also ordered the army to continue to advance at a rapid marching speed, without the slightest delay and perfunctory.

Fortunately, the east of Jiaxian County has been full of open plains of Pingchuan, so although the physical strength of the Nanyang Army soldiers who marched continuously and rapidly has dropped greatly, it is still much easier to walk quickly, and it has just passed noon, and the Nanyang Army has already walked more than 30 miles to the east, and there are only a dozen miles away from Xiangcheng. At the same time, at the same time, the scout of the Nanyang Army who went to the outpost suddenly galloped back, and reported loudly to Han Xinzuo: "General Qiyu, the little ones can see clearly, Xiangcheng City is still our military flag, and there is no army of Han thieves around!" ”

"Finally caught up!" Han Xin breathed a long sigh of relief, and finally showed some smiles on his face that had been tense for several days, and after nodding with satisfaction, he still urged: "Hurry, speed up and move forward, only when we enter Xiangcheng, we can really rest assured." ”

According to Han Xin's order, the Nanyang army accelerated its pace again, and then moved forward for several miles, when the low and old Xiangcheng city finally appeared in the field of vision of Han Xin and others, and saw clearly that the yellow military flag of the Nanyang army was still floating on the Xiangcheng city, Han Xin of course quietly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that even if the Han army suddenly arrived at this time, it would be impossible to take the crucial Xiangcheng small city.

Contrary to Han Xin, who was completely relieved, Zhou Bo and Lu Jia and the others next to him had complicated expressions, and Zhou Bo couldn't help but whisper to Lu Jia: "It can't be in vain, right?" If the Han thieves hadn't come to attack Xiangcheng, we would have lost too much in this emergency retreat. ”

"Be careful to sail the ship of ten thousand years." Lu Jia turned his head and whispered to Zhou Bo: "Xiangcheng is our grain and grass transfer place, and the grain that we can mobilize in Nanyang and Yingchuan is currently hoarded in Xiangcheng City, regardless of ....... ”

Lu Jia couldn't go on when he said this, because Lu Jia, who turned his head to speak, suddenly saw that Zhou Bo, who was facing forward, suddenly opened his mouth wide, and his eyes were completely round, and his face was full of incredible shock.

"What's wrong?"

Lu Jia hurriedly turned around and looked ahead like Zhou Bo, and then immediately, Lu Jia immediately opened his mouth wide, his eyes widened, and he also showed a shocked look of disbelief. Because Lu Jia had clearly seen that the yellow Nanyang Army flags on Xiangcheng City were quickly falling down one by one, and in their place, they were replaced by crimson military flags - Han Army Flags!

At the same time, of course, Han Xin also clearly saw the crimson Han army flags that were suddenly erected, and at the same time, Han Xin also muttered, "Sure enough, I expected it, the Han thieves really came to attack Xiangcheng." ”

Or at the same time in Xiangcheng City, Zhong Liwu, the general of the Han army, was laughing wildly, and roared proudly: "Nanyang dog thief, are you surprised?" Not surprised? What does it feel like to see a little hope and then suddenly despair? The original revenge in Wancheng, Lao Tzu is going to repay it with interest this time! ”