After Xiang Kang personally led the main force of the Han army to Xiangcheng, Han Xin actually did not find anything abnormal, because considering that Yexian County had suffered repeated military disasters and frequent wars, the timber in the surrounding decent points had already been seriously cut down, and the throwing arm of the counterweight trebuchet had strict requirements for materials, in order to take precautions, Xiang Kang sent people to Lingwu Mountain and Ziyun Mountain around Xiangcheng in advance to cut suitable timber, preparing to transport it to the battlefield in Yexian County rather than find qualified timber after getting Yexian.

The Nanyang Army, which had the home advantage, soon discovered this situation, and according to Han Xin's request, he quickly reported this suspicious situation to Han Xin, which not only immediately aroused Han Xin's vigilance, but also immediately reminded Han Xin of the legendary mysterious weapons of the Han army that had appeared on the Puyang battlefield.

Although it is thousands of miles away, the road traffic is extremely inconvenient, and the transmission of information is difficult, Han Xin, who has been on the southern front, still heard some rumors about the Puyang battlefield, and knew that the Han army used poisoned shameless means to shake the military heart of the Western Chu army, and invested a powerful new weapon, which broke the main force of the Western Chu army in the middle, and forced Xiang Yu's most trusted Cao Jiao in military affairs to death, and won a complete victory.

In this regard, due to the restrictions of the times, Han Xin has always felt that it should be the shameless poisoning of the Han army that has played a key role, which has severely damaged the morale and fighting spirit of the Western Chu army, so that he can easily kill Cao Yao, who is actually mediocre, and is quite disdainful of the legendary new weapons of the Han army, thinking that the so-called terrorist weapons are the same as the original grenades used by the Han army before, just to scare and scare people, and in fact there is not much lethality. However, when he heard that Xiang Kang had sent people to cut down thick trees around Xiangcheng in advance, Han Xin immediately thought of that new weapon.

"The thieves started cutting wood in Xiangcheng, could it be that they were trying to make the rumored kind of weapons? What exactly is that weapon? What exactly does it do? Is it really as powerful as the legend says, and can beat the Western Chu army to the point that it can't be parried? ”

After thinking about it for a long time, Han Xin could only take two countermeasures, one was to let the officers and men of the Nanyang Army seize the time and continue to make every effort to strengthen the city defense and barracks, and to meet the fierce attack of the Han army with as strong fortifications as possible, and the other was to divide a thousand troops and go north to enter Kunyang County, which was originally intended to be tactically abandoned. Stick to Kunyang to lure the Han army to use new weapons, and take the opportunity to understand the real situation of the Han army's new weapons, so as to have a clear understanding of it.

In order to achieve this goal, Han Xin not only selected an absolutely reliable old man of the Nanyang Army to lead the troops north, but also called the old man who followed Liu Laosan when he started the army from Pei County to the front before leaving, took his hand and advised: "In any case, we must hold it for ten days, and give our king to personally lead the troops north to reinforce Ye County to buy time, and the fate and future of our army on the northern front will all be entrusted to you." ”

"Please rest assured, General." The old man of the Nanyang Army was really fooled, immediately bowed to the ground, and replied solemnly: "Even if it is the last soldier in the battle, the last general will definitely hold Ye County for ten days, and buy time for our king to go north to Ye County!" ”

When this unlucky old man of the Nanyang Army rushed to Kunyang (now Yeyi Town) with the cannon fodder army to enter the city and station, the main force of the Han army, which had already rested a little, was also under the personal leadership of Xiang Kang, and set off from Xiangcheng, and violently killed Ye County to find Han Xin to settle accounts, and Long and Zhong Li, who had suffered a big loss in the hands of the Nanyang Army, fought with Zhong Li, and rushed to serve as the pioneer, forcing Xiang Kang to choose another Han army general Ding Ji as the vanguard for the sake of safety - after all, it is not a joke to fight against Han Xin, If the forward general is too revengeful and reveals any flaws and is caught by Han Xin, the sharpness of the Han army will be frustrated immediately.

Not to mention, Han Xin's move to increase troops in Kunyang once really made Xiang Kangsheng misunderstand, suspecting that Han Xin did this to buy time for Liu Laosan's main force to go north, or when Long He shouted to raze Kunyang to the ground with a counterweight trebuchet, Xiang Kang suddenly woke up and hurriedly said: "You can't be in a hurry, it's easy to use our new trebuchet to take down Kunyang, but as soon as our new trebuchet is exposed, with Han Xin's treachery and cunning, we either slipped away in advance, or we can find a way to weaken the power of our new trebuchet, At that time, it was not so easy for us to take the Kunyang land. ”

"What should I do, my lord?" Long asked busily.

After thinking about it for a while, Xiang Kang made up his mind and said: "Attack the city with the previous methods, not only to give us time to build a new trebuchet, but also to temporarily retain our strength, so that Han Xin Pifu can wait for death in Ye County with peace of mind!" ”

After arriving in Kunyang, Xiang Kang asked the Han army craftsmen to hurry up to build a counterweight trebuchet, as well as the trench bridge car that was preparing to attack Liu Xiang's coalition army camp by the way, and let the Han soldiers take ordinary siege weapons to attack the city, causing many Han soldiers to die in vain under Kunyang City, and also fought for two days and failed to take the small city of Kunyang that the Nanyang Army soldiers defended with all their might. Fortunately, the battle of Zhu Jishi's division of the Han army was very smooth, and he easily took the small town of Yangzhai with a thin army, and captured the Yingchuan County of the Nanyang Army to guard Zhou Chang, and during this period, he also went south to Kunyang to join the main force, and once again strengthened the strength of the main force of the Han army.

Under Xiang Kang's deliberate reservation, after learning about the specific situation of the Kunyang battlefield through the scouts, Li Ji, Zhou Bo, Lu Jia and others suddenly became more confident in holding the fortifications than Yexian, which was far stronger than Kunyang, and was also more determined to defend Yexian and wait for reinforcements. Only Han Xin was extremely suspicious that the Han army was deliberately preserving its strength, and thought of giving himself another surprise during the decisive battle in Yexian.

At this time, the Han army scouts, who had already begun to operate near the Yexian battlefield, made Han Xin suddenly come up with a way to understand the specific situation of the Han army's mysterious new weapons, and soon arranged special personnel to make every effort to capture the Han army's scout sentry horse, scratch his tongue and ask for a confession, and on the same day that the Han army finally relied on the ant attachment to attack the city and take Kunyang, he caught a Han army scout who unfortunately fell off his horse and was injured.

It's a pity that Han Xin's luck is not very good, the Han army scout that the Nanyang Army cavalry finally caught is a warrior with extremely hard bones, no matter how the Nanyang Army officials in charge of interrogation threatened and lured, tortured and tortured, and tossed until the night of the day, they were unable to ask for any useful information. After the situation was reported to Han Xin, Han Xin only thought about it a little, and immediately ordered: "Tie him to the shelf, take off his shoes and socks, apply honey to the soles of his feet, and lead two sheep to lick the soles of his feet until he confesses." ”

The next morning, when Han Xin was still having breakfast, the Nanyang Army official in charge of interrogation came to Han Xin with a smile on his face, and as soon as he met, he gave up his hands, nodded and said: "The general is smart, the general is really smart, he can come up with such a clever trick to interrogate the confession, the lower official has really learned, and there is no need to worry about not being able to ask for a confession in the future." ”

"Less nonsense, did you ask it?" Han Xin interrupted impatiently.

"The question came out, the question came out, and before the second half of the night, the puppet couldn't stand the torture and opened his mouth to tell the truth."

The Nanyang Army official in charge of the confession replied with a smile on his face, and then hurriedly presented the confession of the Han Army scout recorded by himself, but to the surprise of the Nanyang Army official, after carefully reading the confession record, Han Xin not only did not praise him for his ability to do his job, but also gave him any reward and compensation for staying up late to ask for confession, but on the contrary, he asked angrily: "Such an important confession was asked in the middle of the night yesterday, why did you present it to me now?" ”

"Didn't you already rest at that time, General?" The confessor hurriedly replied: "The confession of a thief soldier is not very important, and the lower official dares to disturb the general's rest in the middle of the night." ”

"Fart! You are a pig's head, such a confession is not important, what kind of confession is important? Han Xin was furious, first scolded the confession official, and then hurriedly shouted: "Quick, send someone to invite Zhou Bo and Lu Jia to meet with General Ben in the big tent of the Chinese army." ”

According to Han Xin's instructions, Zhou Bo and Lu Jia, who had just finished eating, hurriedly came to the Chinese army's tent to meet Han Xin, and Han Xin was not polite to them, and directly handed them the confession that recorded the situation of the Han army's new trebuchet, and asked them to take a closer look, but Zhou Bo and Lu Jia were inevitably extremely surprised when they saw it, and they both said: "How is it possible?" A large stone weighing more than 100 pounds can hit a long distance, and it can also hit a fire bomb into the city? Really fake, can there be such a powerful weapon in the world? ”

"I'm afraid it won't be fake." Han Xin replied with a gloomy face: "Otherwise, how could Puyang Jiancheng, which Xiang Liang couldn't take alive at the beginning, and Julu City, which King Zhang Han couldn't take down with an army of 400,000, be taken by Han thieves so quickly?" ”

Zhou Bo and Lu Jia opened their mouths, still unable to believe that there could be such weapons in the world, and Han Xin said with a calm face: "It seems that the only way to adjust the strategy is to withdraw the main force from the Yexian battlefield, leaving the army to defend Yexian County, and then divide the northern cities of Nanyang to exchange space for time for the king of Western Chu to personally lead the army to reinforce us." ”

"General, you're kidding, aren't you?" Zhou Bo jumped three feet high and shouted: "Kunyang, where the main force of the Han thieves is currently located, is only twenty miles away from Ye County, if we retreat at this time, the Han thieves will definitely launch a pursuit immediately, so don't we have to be chased by the Han thieves all the way like we were in Xincheng before?" ”

"That's better than the annihilation of the whole army!" Han Xin said with a gloomy face: "If the new trebuchet of the Han thief is really as terrifying as the Han thief captives say, our fortifications in Ye County are ten times stronger and useless, and when the Han thieves break through our camp, we want to retreat, and the losses are destined to be even heavier!" ”

"General, that's ridiculous, isn't it?" Lu Jia also objected: "Just based on the confession of a thief pawn, we have to take the initiative to give up the Yexian stronghold that we built with great difficulty, if that Han thief captive is exaggerating to scare us, and we take the initiative to give up the important land and strong camp in Yexian County, which is easy to hold, the thief must not laugh out his teeth?" ”

"That's right." Zhou Bo added: "How do you explain to the Western Chu Army?" How could Leckey believe such a ridiculous confession? ”

Considering that the Han captives may indeed have deliberately exaggerated, Han Xin was inevitably a little shaken, but for the sake of prudence, Han Xin was still extremely inclined to retreat quickly, exchanging space for time and holding on to the northern cities of Nanyang one by one. However, at this time, there was a quick horse report, saying that the 20,000 reinforcements led by Liu Laosan had successfully arrived in Yangcheng (the city of the same name in Nanyang), and they would arrive in Yexian County within tomorrow at the latest.

Hearing this good news, Zhou Bo and Lu Jia of course cheered, and they also more firmly opposed Han Xin's cowardice, and resolutely asked Han Xin to wait until Liu Laosan arrived in Ye County before making a decision, Han Xin was helpless, and knew that Liji would definitely be more difficult to convince, so he had to reluctantly agree with the opinions of Zhou Bo and Lu Jia and others, and said with hatred in his heart: "Sooner or later, I will be killed by you stupid pig colleagues!" I hope that the thieves have not had time to build that new trebuchet, and that the king will listen to my advice and make the right decision. ”

On the same day, because he was afraid that Han Xin would slip away first, Xiang Kang personally led the main force of the Han army from Kunyang to the south, and arrived at the outskirts of Ye County very easily in the afternoon of the same day, and quickly set up a camp ten miles north of Ye County, ready to fight with Liu Xiang's coalition army at any time, and basically shattered the last hope of Liu Xiang's coalition army to escape first.

At this time, although the counterweight trebuchet of the Han army had been basically completed, because there were not enough shells collected, Xiang Kang of course had no way to launch an attack immediately, so he could only continue to make pre-war preparations, and also gave Liu Laosan the opportunity to arrive in Ye County the next day and join the second army of Han Xin and Liji.

is already an old sparrow on the battlefield, the first thing after arriving in Ye County, Liu Laosan of course hurried to check the pre-war preparations of Liu Xiang's coalition army, and what made Liu Laosan smile from ear to ear was that Liu Xiang's coalition army had not only built two strong barracks comparable to a city outside Ye County, but also built countless fortifications such as arrow towers, guard towers and horse rejecting antlers, and the camp trench was buried with sharp wooden stakes, and a sheep and horse wall was built to protect the trench. The strength of the defense is definitely comparable to that of the big city under the county government.

Because of this, after the army he brought was set up in the south of Yexian County, when he came to meet Han Xin in front of the Han Xinjun camp, Liu Laosan also opened his mouth and praised: "Well done, build the camp and city defense so strongly, don't say that the total number of Han thieves is less than 100,000 troops, even if there are 300,000 Han thieves, don't want to take our Yexian portal!" ”

Han Xin smiled bitterly, and didn't dare to say anything in front of the camp to shake the army's heart, but politely invited Liu Laosan into the camp to sit down, and then presented the confession to Liu Laosan in person, Liu Laosan was naturally extremely surprised after reading it, and couldn't believe that the Han army would have such a powerful attack weapon in his hands, Han Xin hurriedly reminded Liu Laosan not to forget the situation that the Han army quickly took Puyang and Julu, and put forward his own suggestion of exchanging space for time for Liu Laosan's reference.

After listening to Han Xin's words, Liu Laosan was also a little shaken for a while, but after thinking about it for a long time, Liu Laosan shook his head and said: "Han Xin, this king also knows that you are saying such things for the sake of prudence, but it is too hasty for us to make such a major decision based on the confession of a thief pawn." Let's watch for a while, if the situation is really not right, it will not be too late for us to decide to withdraw our troops. ”

"But my lord, I'm afraid it will be too late then."

Han Xin hurriedly persuaded again, but Liu Laosan waved his hand to interrupt and said: "Needless to say, I know that you are thinking about our army, but don't forget, we are now only ten miles away from the Han thieves. ”

After saying that, Liu Laosan had another idea, and hurriedly said to Han Xin: "By the way, haven't you always looked down on Xiang Kang's traitorous soldiers? Do you think he doesn't have any real talent other than being opportunistic? Now the opportunity has come, our total strength has reached 60,000, and the Han thief is not much different, quickly take out your true ability, and help this king defeat the Han thief head-on. ”

"Your Majesty do your best." Han Xin replied helplessly, and said even more helplessly in his heart: "Xiang Kang's traitor's use of troops is actually average, and it is not difficult to deal with, but the problem is that if I want to defeat him head-on, I must build on the basis of being able to block his attack." If we can't stop the attack of the thieves, I have no way to break the enemy, no matter how many good strategies I have? ”

There is also the threat of Xiang Yu behind him, and the grain road is too long, of course Xiang Kang will not give Han Xin this opportunity, but in the early morning of the fourth day after Liu Laosan arrived in Ye County, Xiang Kang couldn't wait to personally lead the 60,000 army to dispatch, and slaughtered the people of Ye County to settle accounts with Liu Xiang's coalition army. As a result, when receiving this news, Han Xin and Liu Laosan, who was somewhat worried in their hearts, of course, secretly prayed, hoping that Xiang Kang would choose to attack the camp of the Western Chu army first, so that the Western Chu army could first be cannon fodder to expose the true strength of the Han army, so that the self-army could have time and opportunity to make a new choice.

Of course, Liu Laosan and Han Xin's dream came to naught, there is no doubt that the main force of the Han army of course directly drove to Yexian County to take the battle, and aimed the spearhead at the poor Han Xin's army camp, just departing 20,000 troops to monitor and contain the Western Chu army camp in the west. Seeing this, Han Xin of course lamented again and said, "Xiang Kang traitor, how did General Ben offend you?" Why are you just holding on to me? ”