Although the various units of the Han army, which had long been full of bad water, under the remote command of the Han Ting, were rushing to Yandi from different directions to participate in the battle at the fastest speed to extinguish the largest rebellion of Xiang Kang since he ascended the throne, the top priority of the counterinsurgency battlefield was still the Dongyuan battlefield in Hengshan County.

If the Han army can successfully defeat the Yan army that took the initiative to cross the border to attack on the Dongyuan battlefield, then needless to say, the Yan army, which has no danger to defend, will definitely only be left to be passively beaten in front of the Han army, but if the Yan army can create a miracle and take advantage of the opportunity of the Han army to attack separately, and create a time difference to break the Han army from all walks of life, not only can it buy a lot of time for the Yan army, but other opportunities are not without hope. - At the very least, the eloquent Mao Dun will never let go of this opportunity to meddle in the Central Plains, and he will definitely not count such a trivial matter as the border tribe being attacked by the 'Yan Army'.

Zang Quan, who was in a hurry to make great achievements, of course wanted to create such a miracle, so after resolutely choosing to besiege the city and send reinforcements, Zang Quan not only sent a large number of scouts to closely monitor the movements of the Han army, but also sent people to explain the reasons to Zang Di and ask for follow-up reinforcements.

Zang Quan does have the capital to fight to the death with the Han army, although the Yan rebels under his command have only maintained a scale of about 20,000 people after the loss and replenishment, but the cavalry strength has reached an astonishing more than 9,000 people, or a hundred veterans who have been trained in the frontier war for many years, and the combat effectiveness is definitely not comparable to the ordinary army, and there are more than 4,000 elite infantry to help, no matter the foot war and horse battle, there is a reliable backbone to rely on, if it were not for the Hengshan Han army in the previous war, There are fortifications to follow, and I don't know how many times I have been destroyed by the Yan army!

Of course, this kind of reliance made Zang Quan more anxious to fight, but fortunately, Xia Shuo, the first opponent who came from the south, did not let Zang Quan wait for a long time, only three days later, Zhou Shu said for Xiang Kangfeng's Zhao Xiangxia, who had already led the 36,000 Han army he assembled in Handan to cross the Yuan clan, and hurriedly approached the vicinity of Dongyuan with the banner of the Zhao army.

Of course, the Zhao army also sent scouts to investigate the enemy first, and the Zhao army scouts also reported the news of the Yan army's initiative to meet Xia Shuo at the first time, but the generals under Xia Shuo's command spoke one after another, suggesting that Xia Shuo immediately line up the battle formation and fight to the death with the Yan army on the spot. However, Xia Shuo didn't even blink his eyelids, and immediately pointed to the small Tianshan Mountain near the east of the road with a horsewhip, and shouted: "Go up the mountain and set up camp immediately!" Hurry up, the sooner the better! ”

"Why is Sangkook?" General Feng Ding asked puzzledly: "Our strength is more than twice that of the Yan State thief army, and we are in full swing when we first arrived, why do we still avoid fighting and set up camp on the mountain?" ”

"Our army is from afar, and the soldiers are tired, but the Yan State thief army is waiting for work and has full physical strength, and it is not good for us to fight at this time." Xia Shuo replied very directly, and urged: "Be careful to sail the 10,000-year-old ship, don't waste time, hurry up and set up camp on the mountain, this is a military order, and you must not disobey it!" ”

No one dared to risk killing their heads to disobey the military order, and was forced to have no choice, the Zhao army, which had a huge advantage in troops, could only quickly change its route to the east, seize the time to board the small Tianshan Mountain, which was not too high to the east of the road but also had a large geographical advantage, and took advantage of the geographical advantage to rush to build defensive fortifications, and prepared to take a defensive position to meet the attack of the Yan army. During this period, the generals of the Zhao army discovered a dangerous situation one after another, and hurriedly sent people to Xia Shuo to report: "Qi Xiangguo, there is no water source on Xiaotian Mountain, and we are afraid that it will be difficult for us to stay for a long time." ”

"Hurry up and collect the ice and snow that has not yet melted, turn the snow into water, save it, as long as you deal with the withdrawal of the swallow thief, you don't have to worry about running out of water."

In the face of Xia Shuo's decisive and concise answer, all the generals of the Zhao army were helpless, and they could only obediently bow their hands and sing promises, only Xia Shuo nodded and smiled for Uncle Le, the grandson of Le Yi, the famous general of Yan State who was excavated by the Han Dynasty in Zhao State, and praised it, "Xiangguo is wise." ”

Busy preparing for the war, the Yan army team led by Zang Quan has approached the foot of Xiaotian Mountain, seeing that the Zhao army is so shameless that it slipped to the mountain to set up camp without letting go of an arrow, Zang Quan in addition to being proud of his sharp soldiers, but also has a sense of emptiness that his fist hit the cotton, after a little calculation, Zang Quan, who was unwilling to take the main cavalry force to attack the mountain, simply sent a team of scolders, rode his horse to the foot of Xiaotian Mountain, and opened his voice to greet Xia Shuo's mother and sister-in-law of the eighteenth generation, sister-in-law and brother-in-law of the nineteenth generation, By the way, he asked Xia Shuo if his wife had any concubines and adulterers, in a vain attempt to provoke Xia Shuo and let the Zhao army risk going down the mountain for a decisive battle.

"Xia said Piff! Shameless rats, there is a kind of coming down the mountain to fight us to the death! ”

"Zhao Guoxiao is small, Xia said Xiao'er, apart from betraying your King Zhao, what else can you do? Have the ability to come down and fight with us! ”

"Xia said dog thief! Sell Zhang Er first, then sell Zhao Xie, and then don't come down the mountain, are you going to sell your wife too? Sell to where? You're the first to greet you! ”

There are many heroes in the land of Yan Zhao, hearing these unbearable insults, it is inevitable that many of the generals of the Zhao army are blue and black, their fists are clenched, but the main target Xia Shuo laughed and said: "The dog thieves of Yan Country should really learn more from the army of our imperial court, this kind of scolding may be useful in the past." Now, after so many years of fighting with the imperial court, such a scolding is completely useless to the prime minister. ”

"It's true, since you Xia Xiangguo followed the imperial court, your cheeks have been countless times thicker."

The generals of the Zhao army slandered one after another, but Uncle Le remained silent and said to Xia Shuo: "Xiangguo, since the Yan thief is trying to provoke us to go down the mountain with shouting and scolding, then we might as well do the same, and also send a team of scolders to scold back, so that we don't have to extinguish our prestige, maybe we can also provoke the Yan thief to take the initiative to attack and touch our stones with eggs." ”

"It is worthy of General Le, this sentence has gone to the heart of the prime minister, so I will do it." Xia Shuo laughed and said: "This matter will be handed over to you, if the scolding hand you arrange can provoke the Yan thief to attack the mountain, Benxiang will give you a credit immediately." ”

Le Yi's grandson Uncle Le did not miss this opportunity for meritorious service, he arranged a scolder rushed to the side of the mountain and scolded for a while, threatening to catch Zang Quan's wife into the Zhao army's camp after the round camp, the thunderous Zang Quan really ordered the infantry to step forward and attack the Zhao army's camp fortifications that were still under construction, and the result was needless to say, the overwhelming dense feather arrows of course shot the Yan army soldiers to the devil crying wolf, and suffered heavy losses, even if they paid a heavy price, they reluctantly rushed to the front of the Zhao army's hastily built defense line, It was also killed and retreated by the soldiers of the Zhao army by taking advantage of the geographical advantage and the superiority of troops, without giving the Yan army any chance to attack the top of the mountain.

After all, the Yan army has limited troops, no matter how arrogant Zang Quan is, he does not dare to consume too many troops in the battle, seeing that he can't attack for a long time, Zang Quan has no choice but to quickly order Mingjin, and then after a little calculation, Zang Quan also sent a messenger to go up the mountain with a white flag, and sent Xia Shuo his own handwritten battle document to Xia Shuo, inviting Xia Shuo to line up at the bottom of the mountain the next day and fight to the death in a dignified manner. As a result, Xia's answer made Zang Quanqi crook his nose, "Get out of the calf!" The nature is not a decisive battle, see if you can bite the eggs of the true phase! ”

It was really useless to say that Xia, who was taken by Xiang Kang, Uncle Zhou and the Han army, and seeing that it was not early, Zang Quan had no choice but to lead the army back to the camp to rest in a huff, and tried to find another way to provoke Xia to say a decisive battle. As a result, Zhao shot off his tail and shook his head when he heard it, and said: "The eldest prince, there is no possibility, Xia said that the purpose of this puppet to avoid fighting is very clear, that is, to entangle us and not give us the opportunity to attack Dongyuan and Jingcheng, and to buy time for his follow-up reinforcements, no matter what we think, he will definitely not fight a decisive battle." ”

Zang Quan, who refused to give up, still refused to listen to Zhao's persuasion to shoot off the tail, and still racked his brains to figure out how to force Xia Shuo to fight a decisive battle as soon as possible, but what made Zang Quan and Zhao shoot off the tail was very surprising was that when it was dark, Xia Shuo actually sent a secret envoy to the Yan army camp with a letter of persuasion and gifts to secretly contact Zang Quan's deputy Zhao Shoot off the tail, and persuade Zhao to shoot off the tail and kill Zang Quan to lead the army to surrender, in exchange for life and keep the glory and wealth, at the same time, Xia Shuo also mentioned in the letter that Xiang Kang shot off the tail and made the Yuan Marquis, promised that as long as Zhao shot off the tail and defected, he would definitely ask for continued sealing Zhao in front of Xiang Kang as the Marquis of the Yuan clan.

Unfortunately, because of a little bad luck, Xia Shuo's envoy was unable to directly contact Shang Zhao and lost his tail, and was taken down as soon as he arrived near the Yan army's camp, and all the letters and gifts were presented to Zang Quan. Needless to say, even though Zhao shot off his tail and repeatedly swore to show his loyalty, Zang Quan still kept this matter in mind, and at the same time sent someone to secretly report the matter to Zang Di without mentioning it.

Early the next morning, Zang Quan, who was not a thief, deliberately sent a small group of cavalry to the foot of Xiaotian Mountain to scold, attacking and harassing the Zhao soldiers who transported water uphill to supply the army, in a vain attempt to lure Xia Shuo to send troops to pursue, and took advantage of the rapid mobility of the Yan cavalry to find a decisive opportunity, but Xia Shuo still refused to be fooled, and also just sent a small group of cavalry down the mountain to protect the waterwheel, and launched a number of small-scale cavalry contact battles with the Yan cavalry, and at the same time ordered the Zhao cavalry to only expel the Yan cavalry and not to pursue, and each time the Yan cavalry was beaten away, never chased out ten miles away, let the heavily armed superior cavalry of the Yan army wait in vain in the camp for a day, and also made Zang Quanquan so angry that he scolded again, but there was nothing he could do with the brazen Zhao army.

The sun came out from the west, just when Zang Quan was helpless with the Zhao army that resolutely avoided the war, when the Zhao army arrived in Dongyuan on the morning of the third day, Xia said that he suddenly took the wrong medicine and his head was watered, and he only left more than 5,000 troops to defend the camp, and led 30,000 troops out of the camp to the north, and took the initiative to kill the Yan army camp, and at the same time, the Zhao army was still out of the camp, and the Zhao army's war envoy had already rushed to the Yan army camp on horseback, and handed over Xia Shuo's handwritten war letter to Zang Quan in person - I want to fight, and I will accompany you to the end today! Never die!

Of course, Zang Quan was overjoyed by Xia Shuo's initiative to seek war, and after letting the guards drive Xia Shuo's envoy back to restore his life, Zang Quan immediately decided to personally lead 15,000 cavalry out of the camp and go to the south of Dongyuan City to fight a decisive battle with the Zhao army in the wilderness. It's better for us to keep our temper down, first stick to it, and wait until we find out why Xia said that the puppet suddenly asked for battle. ”

"Less nonsense!" Zang Quan roared angrily: "It's hard to catch this decisive opportunity, can we miss it?" Regardless of what he said about the horseman, why should he be in a hurry to fight, he will fight first! ”

Zhao shot off the tail after retiring and had a suspicious position, Zang Quan didn't even blink his eyelids, and immediately urged the Yan army to hurry up and assemble out of the camp again, and then relying on the full preparation in the past few days, it didn't take much time for the 15,000 Yan army infantry cavalry, including 8,000 elite cavalry, to complete the camp assembly, lined up in a neat team, strode south, and marched head-on with the Zhao army from the south, and met in the early spring wilderness in the southern suburbs of Dongyuan.

When the two armies met, they immediately sent their own formations, Zang Quan, in order to play up his strengths and avoid his weaknesses, of course, let the Yan army line up a cone formation based on attack, but what made Zang Quan dumbfounded was that Xia Shuo, who had been a turtle with a shrunken head for two days, actually ordered the Zhao army to send a cone formation, and put on a posture to attack the Yan army. Zang Quan was surprised when he saw it, and couldn't help but say, "Xia said that Pifu is crazy? His cavalry only has more than 2,000 people in total, and he dares to fight against me? ”

"Report ——!"

Zang Quan hurriedly turned his head to look, but saw that it was a knight rushing to the direction of his camp, and he rushed directly to the flag array he had just arranged, and dismounted and saluted: "The eldest prince of Qiqi, Fanwu urgently, in the second half of the night yesterday, the tyrant army suddenly marched eastward from Jingcheng, and rushed to Fanwu at dawn, and launched an attack on the alert army stationed there by our army. ”

"The thief from Jingcheng is here?" Zang Quan suddenly understood the reason why Xia Shuo took the initiative to seek battle, and hurriedly asked, "How many of Jingcheng's tyrant army are coming?" ”

"Returning to the eldest prince, for the time being, I haven't figured out the size of the strength of the Jingcheng tyrant army, but it must be more than 20,000, and it is very likely to reach 30,000!"

The report of the envoy of the rear camp made Zang Quan and the generals of the Yan army present all face change, and several Yan army generals directly exclaimed, saying, "How can there be so many? How could the army of the thugs have such an army in Jingcheng? ”

"Oh! Fooled! No wonder Xia said that Piff suddenly dared to fight! Zang Quan scolded a swear word, and completely understood the reason why Xia Shuo was in a hurry to fight. However, after a little calculation, Zang Quan quickly mustered up his courage and said loudly: "Don't panic, the tyrant army only arrived in Fanwu this morning, at least before the afternoon, we just need to hurry up and defeat the Xia Shuo Pifu on the opposite side as soon as possible, and we can turn around and calmly deal with the ...... of the tyrants from Jingcheng." ”

Knock knock knock! The sudden sound of the marching war drum interrupted Zang Quan's impassionedness, and when Zang Quan quickly turned his head to look, he saw that it was the Zhao army that had already sounded the marching war drum, and one army came out on each side of the battle array, rushing to his two wings first, Zang Quan couldn't help but be dumbfounded again, and said in confusion: "Won't it?" Xia said Piff, why does it seem to be more anxious than me? He must have known that he had reinforcements to count on, so why was he so eager to attack us? It stands to reason that he should be on the defensive first to buy time for his reinforcements? ”

At the same time, in the Yan Army banner array, Xia Shuo, the chief general of the Zhao Army, changed his hippie smile in the first two days, and his eyes were sharp and he just stared at the Zhao Army infantry attacking from both wings, and when he saw the Yan Army cavalry on both wings shouting and charging, launching a counterattack on the two wings of the Zhao Army, Xia Shuo didn't even blink his eyelids, and shouted decisively: "Hit the flag, the Chinese army sent 4,000 troops, and directly hit the front of the Yan Thief Army formation!" ”

"Xiangguo, you're in a hurry, aren't you?" General Zhao Feng Ding hurriedly said: "Our soldiers on both wings have not engaged the enemy yet, and the situation is still unclear, so there is no need to attack from the middle lane so quickly, right?" ”

"It has to be so urgent." Xia Shuo replied quietly: "If it's too late, if we wait for Tao Xi's army to arrive, and we haven't defeated the Yan Thief army, our credit will be divided by others." ”

The generals of the Zhao army who were present looked at each other, Feng Ding was even more confused, and couldn't help but whisper to Uncle Le who was standing next to him: "General Le, listen to the tone, Xiangguo seems to be more anxious to grab credit than us?" Why didn't he dare to fight the Yan thief yesterday and the day before yesterday? ”

"General Feng, this is the key reason why Xiangguo can sit firmly in the phase of Zhao State."

Uncle Le smiled and said in a low voice: "Yesterday and the day before yesterday, we haven't confirmed that the reinforcements are about to arrive, and the cavalry of the Yan Kingdom is indeed more difficult. But now it is different, we are sure that reinforcements will arrive within today, and even if there is anything that goes wrong in this battle, we still have reinforcements to hope for remedy, and we don't have to worry about the dangerous consequences. But if we win this battle before our reinforcements arrive, the credit will be ours. Now that we are in an invincible position, we don't have to worry about other consequences, if Xiang Guo still has any scruples, and then he doesn't hurry up to grab the credit, then he is not worthy of sitting in the position of Zhao Xiang. ”

Feng Ding was stunned, and after a while, he scolded his boss again, and said secretly: "It was indeed completely damaged by our imperial court." ”

Xia said how bad it was, in fact, it was still on Feng Ding's imagination, the Zhao army attacked in three ways, and the Yan army was in full swing, and when the killing was flesh and blood, a Han army herald also rushed outside the Zhao army's banner array, bringing Tao Xi, a famous Han army general who likes to compete for merit, asking the Zhao army to give priority to entangled the Yan rebels, and wait until the Han army reinforcements arrived before joining forces to attack. Xia Shuo laughed and said, "No problem, General Tao's request, I remember it." Come on, quickly take General Tao's messenger back to the camp to rest, and be entertained! ”

Sent away the envoy sent by Tao Xi, and looked at the situation in front again, Xia Shuo's expression was hideous, and he shouted: "Beat the flag, step up the drums, and attack on both wings!" In any case, we must give Benxiang a frontal defeat of the Yan State thief army before our reinforcements arrive! Take the lead in counterinsurgency! ”