The Zhao reinforcements came faster than the Han army expected, just arrived at noon, and the surrendered Zhao soldiers had just completed the screening and dismissal, and the Zhao army soldiers who volunteered to stay had not even had time to complete the reorganization, and the Han army scouts sent to the east to explore the enemy situation had already discovered the traces of the Zhao reinforcements, and it was initially speculated that the Zhao reinforcements could at least enter the Jingcheng Basin before Shen Shi.

During this period, the county seat of Jingcheng, located at the foot of Beiling Mountain, accepted the persuasion of Xia Shuo very simply, and chose to take the initiative to open the city to surrender to the Han army, but Uncle Zhou did not send troops to camp under the city of Jingcheng, but only transferred 1,000 troops to the county seat and controlled the city.

In addition, Uncle Zhou ignored the careful reminder of the Han army, and hurried to return the weapons to the 4,000 Zhao soldiers who volunteered to stay, and asked them to let Xia Shuo lead and move to the south of the Xiguan camp to set up a camp five miles away, and change the banner of the Han army to cooperate with the Han army, while the 30,000 Han army was fully stationed in the Xiguankou camp left by the Zhao army, and used the strong camp left by the Zhao army to contend with the enemy.

After Uncle Zhou quickly made arrangements and deployments, not to mention the veterans of the Han army such as Worm Da, Ling Jing and Yang Xi, even Zhou Shu, the old man of Shangshan who came with the army, saw that Uncle Zhou's deployment was very problematic, and asked very strangely: "General Zhou, don't blame the old man for talking too much, why are your wings full of flaws in such an arrangement?" The county seat of Jingcheng is located on the other side of the Mianmanshui River, you only send a thousand troops to garrison, once the thief army of Zhao State attacks the city, as long as you hold the river bank, it will be difficult for us to send troops to rescue? ”

"There are also Zhao Guo's pawns, they just surrendered and can't be relied on at all, you let them just have an independent battalion, why do you still let them set up a camp to the south of our battalion to directly suffer the enemy? If the thief army of the Zhao State sent troops to attack their camp, it would be easy to win the battle in one battle, affecting the morale and morale of our army? ”

"Mr. Luli, what if we don't have many flaws and the Zhao State thief army runs away?" Uncle Zhou asked with a smile and said, "There are all plains to the east of Jingcheng, once the thief army of the Zhao State escapes, wouldn't it be much more difficult for us to think of a decisive battle against them?" ”

"The general deliberately exposed the flaws to lure the Zhao State thief army to enter the army with confidence?" Zhou Shu guessed what Uncle Zhou meant.

Uncle Zhou nodded and said: "On the battlefield of the Central Plains, the main force of the thief army of Zhao has gone south to Hanoi to attack the flank of our main force, I estimate that they can currently draw the thief army to meet us in Jingcheng, which should be the 40,000 troops brought by Zhang Ao, if we can seize the fighter and annihilate this thief army, Zhao Xie and Zhang Er will have no troops available on their northern front, and they can only draw troops from the southern front to aid the northern front, and ask for help from the Western Chu thief army, as long as they do this, The pressure on our main forces will be much less. ”

Explaining this, Uncle Zhou smiled slightly, and said: "Therefore, Zhang Ao must not run away, he must be allowed to see that there is a chance to win, so that he can dare to enter the Jingcheng Basin with confidence and fight to the death with us in the Jingcheng Basin!" ”

Because I don't know if Xia Shuo will be shameless enough to surrender to the Han army with the Jingcheng Zhao army, or when it is close to the first moment, when the Zhao army's reinforcements are about to enter the Jingcheng Basin, Zhang Ao, Guan Gao and Tian Shu, who led the Zhao reinforcements, only learned this amazing news from the Zhao army's soldiers who were dismissed by the Han army. Taken aback, Zhang Ao immediately ordered the Zhao army to slow down the pace of his advance, and hurriedly sent scouts to step forward first and enter the Jingcheng Basin to listen to the enemy's situation.

During this period, in order not to waste manpower, Zhang Ao of course had to order his team to make every effort to collect the Zhao soldiers who were dismissed by the Han army, and persuade and force these soldiers to return to the team, and then not to mention, when Zhang Ao's army came to the edge of the Jingcheng Basin, nearly 10,000 Zhao troops who were dismissed by the Han army were actually collected by Zhang Ao's army by more than 8,000 people, and quickly expanded the strength of Zhang Ao's army to nearly 50,000 people.

At this time, the deployment of the Han army had also been basically discovered by the scouts of the Zhao army and reported to Zhang Ao......

"Is it really such a deployed army for the Han thieves? Are you sure you're not mistaken?! ”

Born in a famous family, his father is Zhang Er, a famous man in the world that even Qin Shi Huang knows, he has received a good education since he was a child, Zhang Ao has always been a good child who is modest and cautious, but after confirming the deployment of the Han army on the battlefield of Jingcheng, Zhang Ao still couldn't help laughing out loud and said: "Are the Han thieves making stupid? The county seat of Jingcheng is located on the east bank of the Mianmanshui, and the camp of the Han thieves is at the west pass on the west bank of the Mianmanshui. ”

"Xia said that the traitor is probably regretting it now." Uncle Tian also gloated and said: "Uncle Zhou asked him to lead an independent battalion of 4,000 soldiers, making it clear that he did not trust him, preventing him from defecting again, and also letting his camp be directly attacked by the enemy, obviously wanting him to die in vain, so that we can easily take his camp." ”

"Don't underestimate the enemy." Guan Gao, who was nearly sixty years old, scolded: "Uncle Zhou's puppet entered Hedong, but in a few days, he took Anyi Jiancheng, captured Wei Bao, the king of Wei, and defeated Zhang Han, Dong Fei and Sima Xin in one fell swoop. Although his deployment is flawed on both flanks, there must be a deep meaning in it, and if we underestimate the enemy, we are in danger of falling into his trap! ”

Zhang Ao was indeed well-behaved and humble, and quickly thanked Guan Gao for his suggestion, and then adopted Guan Gao's suggestion, quickly found a favorable position at the east exit of the Jingcheng Basin, established a strong camp and prepared to confront the Han army, and at the same time sent people back to Julu to report the situation to Zhao Xie and Zhang Er, and asked Zhao Xie and Zhang Er and others to make a decision. It's just that because the Han army seems to be too easy to bully, whether it is Zhang Ao or Guan Gao, none of them have considered taking advantage of the fact that the Han army's foothold is not stable, and the backup grain and grass are not yet visible, so they hurriedly ran away and withdrew from the Taihang Mountains.

During the establishment of the camp, Zhang Ao and others also encountered an unexpected problem, that is, there were many Zhao soldiers who had just returned to the team to make small reports, saying that many Zhao soldiers who had just returned to the team had accepted the Han army's bribes, and there was a possibility of defecting at any time and even acting as an internal response for the Han army.

In addition, Zhang Ao also adopted Guan Gao's suggestion, arranged for people to clearly tell the returning soldiers to surrender, saying that they would never be held accountable for those who accepted the bribes of the Han army, and let them confess their own affairs, and also clearly requested that the bounty of the Han army accepted by the returning soldiers should not be confiscated, so as not to cause dissatisfaction with these soldiers and leave more hidden dangers.

Zhang Ao and others' handling of this matter is actually quite good, at least it did not intensify the internal contradictions, but it is inevitable that after completely breaking up and reorganizing the return to the team, the grassroots generals who were demoted to the rank of the affected were still somewhat dissatisfied, and felt that they were too wronged by the demotion adjustment for no reason, and at the same time, after the sudden addition of more than 8,000 returned to the team and demoted, there was still some chaos in the Zhao army's ranks, and the new demoted soldiers and the generals were not familiar with each other, and there was no time to run in. Naturally, the problems of internal management are increasing rapidly.

Those Zhao Jun's soldiers who chose the Han army's bounty in vain were also affected, and those who confessed and admitted were naturally jealous and excluded by their peers to varying degrees, and there were all kinds of cold words, those who did not confess and admit it, and they were afraid that the East Window incident would be discovered and reported by their companions, and they were worried in their hearts, and those who were directly discovered were scolded and questioned by their companions. Therefore, even if Zhang Ao and others did not pursue it, the contradictions and problems at the grassroots level of the Zhao army would inevitably appear in large numbers, and it was even more difficult for the new and old soldiers to quickly integrate into one, which indirectly affected the overall combat effectiveness of the Zhao army.

Located at the top of the food chain of the Zhao army, it is of course difficult for Zhang Ao and Guan Gao to immediately discover these grassroots problems, Zhang Ao and Guan Gao are still most concerned about the next tactical choice, whether to take advantage of the Han army's unstable foothold, march into the army as soon as possible to drive the Han army away, and regain control of the Jingcheng Heavy Land? Or did the deep ditch and high fortress confront the Han army, waiting for reinforcements from Zhang Er and the Western Chu army?

Uncle Zhou's nonsense deployment played a role at this moment, except for Guan Gao, all the generals of the Zhao army thought that they should take advantage of the opportunity of the emptiness of the two wings of the Han army, and take the initiative to send troops to take the county seat of Jingcheng and the camp of Xia Shuo, cut off the soldiers on both wings of the Han army, and strengthen the morale of the army, and then take the opportunity to lure the Han army to send troops for a decisive battle.

Guan Gao resolutely opposed taking the initiative to send troops, and said: "Don't take risks, the main force of our Zhao State has gone south to Hanoi to fight, the rear is empty, and it is all up to our army to guard the east entrance of Jingcheng to prevent Han thieves from entering our hinterland. The best way is to hold on to the danger, confront the thieves for a long time, and force them to take the initiative to attack. ”

Guan Gao is Zhang Er's absolute confidant, he is extremely trusted by Zhang Er, and his age is here, he spoke out against it, and the generals of Zhao Jun naturally did not dare to refute it too much. However, Zhang Ao, who has always been obedient to Guan Gao's words, had a different opinion this time, and said: "Mr. Guan, if it is said that it is a risk to cross the Mianmanshui to attack the camp of the Han thieves, the younger generation admits that if the thief army chooses to attack halfway, we will be more troublesome. However, the county seat of Jingcheng is located on the east bank of the Mianmanshui, and we sent troops to attack the county seat of Jingcheng, not only did there be no danger, but on the contrary, there was hope that the Han thieves would cross the river to reinforce the county seat of Jingcheng, and in turn we could win the opportunity to attack the thief army halfway? ”

Mianmanshui is the place where the famous backwater battle took place in history, the river is difficult to cross, forcing Han Xin's army to fight to the death, and now it is spring rain, the river is rising, and it is of course even more difficult to enter the army. So considering this favorable terrain, Guan Gao hesitated, but nodded and said: "If you don't cross the river and only attack the city, then the old man will not object." ”

"Then it's decided." Zhang Ao clapped the board and said: "Immediately start to build siege weapons, march into attack Jingcheng County, it is best to lure Han thieves to cross the river for reinforcements, if we can't lure Han thieves to cross the river, we will first take Jingcheng County, relying on the city to confront the Han thieves." ”

In this way, in view of the current favorable situation, under the condition that the strength did not have any advantage, the Zhao army not only did not consider retreating and slipping away, but also did not choose to defend according to the danger, but chose to go all out to build siege weapons, preparing to launch an active attack on Jingcheng County, which had few defenders of the Han army.

After two days of hurried preparations, the siege weapons of the Zhao army were quickly prepared, but what made Zhang Ao and others vomit blood was that just when they were about to launch a siege the next day, Uncle Zhou actually dispatched 2,000 troops to cross the Mianmanshui overnight that night and stationed in Jingcheng City to help defend the city, which instantly shattered the hope of the Zhao army to quickly take the county seat of Jingcheng.

"Shameless thief, how do you know that we are going to launch an attack today?"

After thinking angrily for a moment, Zhang Ao once planned to ignore the fact that the Han army had increased troops in the city, and insisted on continuing to attack the city, but Guan Gao stopped him and said: "The young general is calm, Uncle Zhou suddenly increased his troops in Jingcheng, and it is clear that he wants to use the favorable terrain of the city to consume a lot of our military strength, and we insist on continuing to march into the army. Anyway, the county seat of Jingcheng is just a small city, there is not much population in the city, and there is not much food, even if it is taken, it is not meaningful, it is better to give up the attack for the time being, and wait patiently for our reinforcements to come. ”

The good boy Zhang Ao didn't dare to disobey Guan Gao's intentions, so he could only nod and accept Guan Gao's suggestion, and ordered the soldiers to stop building siege weapons and no longer covet to quickly take Jingcheng County. And Zhang Ao's choice did disappoint the Han army, the Han army scouts found that Zhao Jun did not rebuild siege weapons, and after reporting the situation to Uncle Zhou, Uncle Zhou couldn't help but sigh and said: "I underestimated Zhang Ao's shaft, he was so calm, and the fat on his mouth could not be eaten." ”

"General, what then?" Worm Da asked a little anxiously: "The thief army of Zhao State refuses to send troops, we have no chance of a decisive battle, how can we break the enemy?" ”

"Don't rush." Uncle Zhou sneered and said: "Zhang Ao can't hold his breath and don't eat this piece of fat in Jingcheng County, and when another bigger piece of fat is placed in front of him, I don't believe he can still hold this breath." ”

"Another big piece of fat? Over there? Worm asked in confusion.

Uncle Zhou pouted to the south and said, "Of course, Xia Shuo is there, and some of the people in his camp should definitely be unable to hold their breath." ”

As Uncle Zhou expected, after two more days of confrontation, some people in Xia Shuo's camp finally couldn't hold their breath, and quietly elected a representative, sneaked out of the camp of Zhao Guo's soldiers overnight with a blood book, and ran to meet Zhang Ao in the Zhao army camp, asking Zhang Ao to send troops to attack Xia Shuo's camp, and took the initiative to ask to serve as an internal response to help Zhang Ao clean up Xia Shuo's shameless traitor, and also sold Xia Shuo's military intelligence to a low level, and even the topographic map of Xia Shuo's camp was dedicated to Zhang Ao.

Of course, Zhang Ao had to suspect that this was the Han army's plan to lure the enemy, but it really couldn't be fake, and after repeatedly interrogating the Zhao army who took the initiative to come back to surrender, Zhang Ao still confirmed that this situation was true, and immediately understood that Xia said that the camp could be broken at once, and it could be captured. Moved by his heart, Zhang Ao naturally had to convene the generals of the Zhao army to discuss the tactical plan of attacking Xia Shuo's camp.

Out of hatred for Xia Shuo, of course, the generals of the Zhao army were extremely in favor of sending troops to clean up the gate and clean up Xia Shuo's shameless traitor, but Guan Gao still continued to oppose it, insisting: "We can't take risks, even if Xia said that there are really countless soldiers in the camp of the puff Anyway, we can't risk entering the army." Xia said that the camp of Pifu is only five miles away from the camp of the Han thieves, and we must cross the river when we enter the army, once the Han thieves immediately send reinforcements, and at the same time send troops to cross, cut off the retreat of our army crossing the river, and our army crossing the river will not be in danger? ”

Zhang Ao finally did not restrain the desire to swallow fat this time, and after thinking for a while, Zhang Ao said: "Since it is too dangerous to send a partial division to cross the river and march to attack Xia Shuo, how about we send the main force to cross the river to attack?" When the time comes, the Han thieves will not send troops to fight a decisive battle, and we will take Xia Shuo's camp and capture and kill the shameless rebel! If the thieves send troops, we will take the opportunity to launch a decisive battle with them, and use our military advantage to destroy the thieves in one fell swoop! ”

"Major General's clever plan!" Uncle Tian applauded, and said with flying eyebrows: "If the Han thief really sends troops to fight with us, our advantage is not only in the number of soldiers, the Han thief sends troops to fight the decisive battle, Xia said that the puppet will definitely send troops to help, when the time comes, as long as we give priority to attacking Xia Shuo, with the help of our internal should be, we will definitely be able to win easily, Xia Shuo is defeated, the morale of the Han thief will inevitably be affected, Xia said that the defeated army of the puppet is likely to disrupt the queue of the Han thief, so that we are more sure of a complete victory!" ”

Zhang Ao nodded quickly, and admitted that there was indeed this possibility—strictly speaking, this possibility was really not small!

"And how do we cross the river?" Guan Gao poured cold water and said: "If we make a big move, we will definitely not be able to hide the eyes of the Han thief scouts, and when the time comes, the Han thieves will send troops in time and give us a half-cross attack, how sure can we be of victory?" ”

Uncle Tian closed his mouth, but Zhang Ao was a newborn calf who was not afraid of tigers, pinched the slight whiskers on his chin and pondered for a long time, and suddenly said: "There is a way, we will dispatch 10,000 troops at night, cross the Mianmanshui at night, line up on the west bank of the Mianmanshui, and at the same time grab a number of pontoon bridges to open up the road to the army as much as possible, and then at dawn, we will send the main force to cross the river, and we will be foolproof." ”

"The young marshal's military trick." Uncle Tian complimented again and said: "It is not easy to be discovered by the Han thieves when crossing the river at night, and even if it is discovered, our partial division can quickly withdraw to the east bank of Mianmanshui, without worrying about suffering too many losses." As long as our partial division successfully crosses the river and forms a strong formation to protect the ferry, the Han thieves will send troops in a big way, and they will not be able to stop our main force from crossing the river! ”

After that, Uncle Tian also took the initiative to ask Ying, asking to lead the army to be the vanguard, smuggling across the Mianmanshui overnight and covering the main force to cross the river, Guan Gao wanted to oppose it, but considering that he couldn't rely too much on the old and sell the old, and Zhang Ao's arrangement was more appropriate, even if there was any danger, it was easy to retreat, so he nodded reluctantly, and advised: "It's feasible, but while crossing the river to attack, you must leave an army to guard against the Han thief army in Jingcheng City." ”

Zhang Ao, who was afraid of Guan Gao's opposition, was overjoyed when he heard this, so he hurriedly discussed with the generals of the Zhao army and carefully discussed a decisive battle plan for the absolutely safe march of troops across the river, and arranged for the generals to start implementing it. After the deployment of troops was completed, Zhang Ao rubbed his hands excitedly and said to himself: "Uncle Zhou, I heard that Xiang Kang's traitors did not hesitate to leave the army and chase dozens of miles alone in order to keep you. Is it in vain?! ”