The Tian Heng rebels miraculously completed the beheading operation and took the Qi capital Linzi in one fell swoop, of course, adding many variables to the intricate Qi battlefield, and also bringing a glimmer of hope to the Chuji coalition army, which was completely at a disadvantage, - if the Chuji coalition army could hold out until the subsequent Western Chu army reinforcements arrived and blocked the northern line of the Han army on its own, then under Tian Heng's response, it would definitely not be difficult for the Western Chu army to recapture the Qi state.

However, not all the good luck was on the side of the Chuji coalition army and the Tianheng rebels, because what the Tianheng rebels didn't know was that just when they relied on the traitors of the Qi State to take Linzi City, the situation on the battlefield of Licheng, two hundred and seventy miles away, had a new change......

After the Han army finally obtained a sufficient number of boats to cross the river, although the climate was not good and the water level of the water rose, it was unlikely that the Han army would immediately launch a rush to cross, but the Chuji coalition army, which was at an absolute disadvantage, immediately felt the huge pressure, and had to immediately strengthen the river defense. Always guard against the sudden launch of the Han army's rush attack.

Uncle Zhou, a military genius, also immediately adjusted his tactics, and from that night onwards, he asked the soldiers of the Han army to sound trumpets and beat drums on the north bank of Jibei Water every once in a while, disturbing the Chuji coalition army stationed on the south bank of Jishui, so that the soldiers of the Chuji coalition army could not live in peace all night; In the daytime, Uncle Zhou selected the Han army soldiers who were familiar with the water to drill boats to and from the Jishui coast, exploring the hydrology to find a suitable place to cross the river, and at the same time let the Han army take turns to go out in units of 10,000 people, taking turns to practice at the wharf, pretending that they might cross the river by boat at any time, bluffing to intimidate the enemy, so that the nerves of the Chuji coalition army were tense, and they did not dare to relax for a moment.

In this regard, not to mention Xiang Zhuang and Tian Da, even Liu Laosan scratched his head, and couldn't think of any way to deal with Uncle Zhou's despicable methods, but Han Xin still looked relaxed and said very confidently: "Don't worry, Uncle Zhou's puppet is just bluffing, the Qi thief army that is advancing westward by land is about to arrive, and the weather is not too good these days, Uncle Zhou will definitely not take the risk of crossing the river before this, we just need to strengthen our precautions a little, and we don't need to be trembling all day long, walking on thin ice." ”

The military genius Uncle Zhou quickly gave the soldier Han Xin a slap in the face, and the next night when it was close to the fifth watch, taking advantage of the opportunity that the enemy on the south bank had been exhausted by the disturbing tactics of the army, more than 600 selected Han army soldiers suddenly crossed the river by boat, and attacked a Jibei army camp located on the bank of the Jishui River, rushed into the enemy camp to kill people and set fire, beheaded the generals and captured the flag, killed and injured the Jibei army by surprise, and retreated by boat before the rescue of the Chuji coalition army arrived. At a small price, it caused a lot of losses to the Chuji coalition army, and also avenged the previous fiasco.

Although the scale of this battle was small and destined to not affect the overall situation, it also made the Chuji coalition army understand that the Han army really had the ability and determination to cross the river and sneak attack, so even Han Xin did not dare to oppose Xiang Zhuang and Tian Da to urge the Chuji coalition army to strengthen their vigilance, and the nerves became more and more tense. What made the Chuji coalition army even more worried was that at noon on the same day, Tian Zhi, the general of the Qi State, also led 40,000 Qi troops to the periphery of the Licheng battlefield by land, and met head-on with the 10,000 Western Chu troops who had taken the initiative to march 50 miles east to set up camp.

Seeing the arrival of the Qi army, Xiang Guan, the general of the Western Chu Army, who led 10,000 troops to intercept it, immediately commanded the troops to meet the attack, and took the initiative to face the Qi army head-on with weak troops - don't look at the disparity in strength, if you fight hard, the 10,000 Western Chu army with strong combat effectiveness may not be afraid of the 40,000 Qi army. However, to Xiang Guan's great surprise, the Qi army, which was four times his strength, actually chose to fight in a circle and take a defensive position to compete with the Western Chu army, and no matter how the Western Chu army attacked and lured, it was unwilling to change the formation to attack, so that the Western Chu army, which was eager to fight, was like a tiger gnawing on a hedgehog, and could not find a place to put it down, on the contrary, it suffered a lot of losses when it attacked the tight battle formation of the Qi army.

Seeing that the Qi army insisted on defending to the death, and did not break the strict battle formation of the Qi army, Xiang Guan had no choice but to withdraw his troops and withdraw to the camp with the army to rest, but what made Xiang Guan even more surprised was that he had just withdrawn with the army, and the Qi army took the initiative to leave the spacious and smooth gallop road, trampling on the farmland (of course, the farmland of the Jibei Army) to the direction of Jishui in the north, and directly camped in the wilderness in the evening, and was on strict guard.

Vaguely understanding that the situation was not good, Xiang Guan had to quickly send a fast horse back to the main battlefield of Licheng to report the situation to Xiang Zhuang and Liu Laosan, Han Xin learned of this situation, and immediately complained, and said: "Oh no, Uncle Zhou's horseman is too stable with his troops, and it must be his order that the Qi army only defends and does not fight, he doesn't expect the Qi army to break through our interception at all, and go directly to Licheng to meet the main force of the Han thieves to cross the river, he wants the Qi thief army to occupy a downstream ferry first, and build strong fortifications to protect the ferry, Then he will meet his army of thieves and cross the river from downstream! ”

"At that ferry will the thief cross the river?" Xiang Zhuang hurriedly asked.

"I don't know." Han Xin replied helplessly: "After all, Jishui is not as good as the Yangtze River, as long as the weather is slightly better, there are places suitable for crossing the river everywhere, so I have no way to predict that the Han thief will cross the river at the ferry port downstream." The only thing I can be sure of is that this ferry port will definitely not be too close to the main battlefield of Licheng, at least more than forty miles away from Licheng Ferry. ”

"Why is it so far away?" Xiang Zhuang asked puzzledly: "The distance is too far, it is difficult for the army of the Han thieves to echo each other?" ”

"Because Uncle Zhou wants to force us to divide our troops and defend it." Han Xin replied even more helplessly: "Although the 10,000 troops we monitored the southward movement of the former army of the Qi thieves have returned, our total strength is still only 70,000, which is still less than half of the Han thieves. ”

"In other words, Uncle Zhou's husband is the Xiang Kang rebel who attacked Nanyang before." Han Xin added: "If we don't want to be opportunistic and win by surprise, we will use more troops to bully us with fewer soldiers, force us to dilute our own forces to defend the river, and use our strength advantage to pile us to death." ”

"How do you crack that?" Xiang Zhuang asked again.

"Can't crack." Han Xin replied with a wry smile: "Unless our reinforcements can arrive in time to reverse our disadvantage, there is no way to crack the shameless means of Uncle Zhou, at most we can only use some small means to increase the difficulty and loss of crossing the river for the Han thieves, and there is also the hope that the water level of Jishui can rise again, the climate has always been so bad, so that the Han thieves have no way to cross the river as soon as possible." ”

Xiang Zhuang was silent, and only said after a while: "Then try to find a way, how much time can you stop the thief, how much time." ”

In this way, in the case of too much disparity in the ratio of troops, even Han Xin could only take a compromise approach, discussed with Xiang Zhuang and others and decided to increase the number of troops on Xiang Guan's side by 20,000, help Xiang Guan prevent the Han army from crossing the river from downstream, and leave 40,000 troops to deal with the main force of the Han army and protect the grain and grass in the main battlefield of Licheng. At the same time, he asked the soldiers to secretly prepare fire boats between the main battlefield of Licheng and the downstream ferry, so that they could attack at any time and set fire to the pontoon bridge of the Han army as they did last time. - Of course, Han Xinxin also knows very well that Uncle Zhou will definitely learn a lesson this time and try his best to protect the bridge.

During this period, there is one thing worth mentioning, that is, Liu Laosan volunteered, hoping to lead the army to help Xiang Guan, and cheekily hoped to obtain the command of Xiang Guan, but unfortunately Xiang Zhuang kept in mind the advice that Old Man Fan gave him before leaving, and refused to give Liu Laosan the opportunity to command the troops alone, and insisted on transferring 10,000 troops from the Western Chu Army and the Jibei Army to reinforce Xiang Guan, so that Xiang Guan continued to serve as the commander-in-chief of the flank battlefield. Of course, Liu Laosan was very dissatisfied with this, but he was helpless.

The next day, a lot of things happened, first of course, before the Chuji coalition army could divide its troops downstream, Zhou Shu had already ordered Lu Kuang, Wang Ling, Xia Shuo and other generals to lead 60,000 troops down the river and rush downstream to join the Qi army. At the same time, the Qi army continued to move north to approach the south bank of Jishui, during which Xiang Guan sent troops to fight again, but the Qi army still formed a circle to hold on, and retreated the Western Chu army, which was far inferior to its own army, with a defensive position, and successfully arrived at the Jishui Tucheng ferry about forty-five miles away from the main battlefield of Licheng on the same day, and immediately built a deep ditch and high fortress to establish a solid defense. In the evening of the same day, the Han army and the Chuji coalition army also rushed to the vicinity of the Tucheng ferry.

That night, the Han army suddenly dispatched 150 boats down the river and rushed to the Tucheng ferry to the north bank to accept the strict protection of the Han army, and the remaining 270 boats were still stuck in the main battlefield of Licheng, which also made it more difficult for the Chuji coalition army to judge the first place of the Han army's first crossing.

The next situation mainly occurred in Tucheng Ferry, from the early morning of the second day after arriving at Tuchengdu, the Han army began to build a temporary wharf and prepare a pontoon bridge in Tuchengdu, during which Xiang Guan, who had obtained reinforcements, also commanded the army again, and attacked the Qi army camp before he had time to build a perfect one, in a vain attempt to kill the Qi army and not give the Han army a chance to cross the river, and the Qi army soldiers were under the leadership of Tian Private to defend the camp with all their might, and the Chuji coalition army fought very fiercely.

Fortunately, although the combat effectiveness of the Qi army is not very good, the defensive battle is easier to fight after all, relying on the simple fortifications built overnight, the Qi army still blocked the all-out onslaught of the Chuji coalition army, and did not give the Chuji coalition army a chance to directly enter their camp. To the surprise of the Qi soldiers, during this period, the Han army not only sent them a batch of precious primitive grenades by boat, helping them to suddenly create a big surprise for the Chuji coalition army on the battlefield, but also sent the only 500 heavy armor soldiers in the hands of Zhou Shu to the south bank of Jishui, and the counter-charge killed the Chuji coalition army, which had almost broken through the gate of the Qi army's camp, and greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the Qi army.

After two days of fierce fighting, relying on the strength of the Qi army and the soldiers, the Han soldiers finally prepared five solid pontoon bridges with the floating fortress as the main floating load at the Tucheng ferry, which can connect the two banks to launch a river crossing at any time, and also prepared a bronze giant chain of sufficient length, which can be erected urgently to block the Chuji coalition army ships that may rush from the upstream, and basically completed the preparation for crossing the river.

In the past few days, Han Xin, who is good at water attack, of course, observes the celestial phenomena and hydrology every day, hoping that the gods will bless him and make the water level of Jishui rise again, but it is still the same sentence, luck cannot be on the side of the Chuji coalition army every time, although the water level of Jishui is still much higher than usual during this time, there is no sign of continuing to rise, on the contrary, there are signs of decline.

Seeing this scene, Han Xin of course also understood that the Jishui defense line was difficult to hold anymore, but Han Xin still refused to give up, in addition to suggesting that Xiang Zhuang and Tian Da force the people of Licheng to step up the construction of a camp in the area of Jinjiling, the highest point on the south bank, he sneered and said: "Uncle Zhou, what if you can't hold the Jishui defense line?" As long as I can find out where you cross the river in advance, even if I can't stop you from crossing the river in the end, I will pay you a heavy price! ”

On Uncle Zhou's side, when the news that the pontoon bridge at the Tucheng ferry had been prepared was delivered to Uncle Zhou, Li Shiqicai next to him asked curiously: "General Zhou, can you say it now, which ferry should we cross the river first?" ”

"Doctor Li, do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"

Uncle Zhou's smile made Li Shiqi dumbfounded, and after a pause, Li Shiqi hurriedly asked, "General Zhou, what do you mean by this?" Of course, the old man wants to hear the truth. ”

"Truth be told, I haven't made up my mind either." Uncle Zhou smiled and said, "In other words, until now, I didn't know that we should cross the river there first." ”

Li Shiqi's eyes widened completely, and Uncle Zhou explained with a smile: "I also deliberately did this, only if we were ready to cross the river at the same time in the main battlefield of Tuchengdu and Licheng, and temporarily decided to cross the river at that ferry first, my dangerous opponent Han Xin could not judge my true intentions, and there was no way to judge our rush to the crossing location through clues, and prepare in advance, so that when we suddenly launched a river crossing, we could kill him by surprise, so that he could not concentrate his forces in advance and severely damage our river-crossing army." ”

"And when did we decide to cross the river there?" Li Shiqi hurriedly asked again.

"Tonight." Uncle Zhou replied, "Tonight, I will take a closer look at the weather conditions before making a decision. ”

It was the second watch of the night, not only Uncle Zhou personally came to the wharf on the north bank of Jishui to observe the weather and hydrology, but also more than a dozen fishermen and boatmen invited by the Han army from nearby also came to the scene to help Uncle Zhou predict the weather and hydrology of the next day. Send fast horses to Lu Kuang and give them an order, and tomorrow is the right time, cross the river in Tucheng! ”

That's not all, after returning to the camp, Uncle Zhou also sent another 5,000 troops to go out overnight to set up an ambush in the narrow part of the Jishui River downstream, carrying more strong bows, hard crossbows and rockets, preparing to intercept the fireboat raft suddenly sent by the Chuji coalition army.

In order not to give the enemy time to prepare in advance, in addition to not making a final decision until close to midnight, Uncle Zhou also calculated the time very accurately, estimating that the enemy in Tuchengdu could find that the army was preparing to cross the river before the halfway point, and quickly whipped up about half an hour to send the news to the Licheng battlefield.

Of course, it is also possible to really launch a direct rush at Lichengdu, because the main force of the Han army has not only prepared more ships at Licheng Ferry, but also prepared five pontoon bridges with pontoons as the main floating load, which can really launch a beach landing battle at any time and build a pontoon bridge to cross the river.

Han Xin's side, just received the news of the main force of the Han army, Han Xin understood that Zhenzhang had come, so he could only quickly calculate, while hurrying to the Chinese army's big tent to wait for his life, but after arriving at the Chinese army's big tent, Xiang Zhuang and Liu Laosan, who leaned on him as the Great Wall, immediately asked: "How is it?" Where are the thieves most likely to launch a robbery? ”

"The last general can't tell." Han Xin replied with a rare lack of confidence: "The Han thieves are ready to cross the river at both Lichengdu and Tuchengdu, and the troops of the two ferries can ensure the success of the crossing, and there is no sign that they will launch the rush there first, so the last general has no way to judge this time." ”

"It's still a disadvantage because there are too few troops." Han Xin sighed and said: "Originally, the Han thieves were received by the Qi State thief army in Tuchengdu, and the possibility of crossing the river there is very great, but if there are too many troops on the Licheng side, and the Han thieves really launch a rush in Lichengdu, not only will we not be able to stop the Han thieves from rushing to cross, but even the main camp and military grain and grass will be in danger, so we must not take this risk." ”

"It seems that the only way to change is to change without change." Xiang Zhuang said even more helplessly: "Send troops, go to defend the Licheng ferry first, and then see the opportunity to act." ”

Uncle Zhou's tricks are not only that, when Xiang Zhuang, Tian Da and Liu Laosan and others took the main force of the Chuji coalition army, hurried to the Licheng ferry where the Han army was assembled to prepare for the battle, the other side of the Jishui was like magic, suddenly thirty counterweight trebuchets appeared, and directly used expensive incendiary bombs to bombard the defensive position of the Chuji coalition army on the shore of Jishui, and the officers and men of the Chuji coalition army who had entered the combat position were caught off guard, and were immediately smashed by the incendiary bombs of the Han army. The hard-built arrow towers and guard towers also soon ignited into a sky-high fire, and the officers and soldiers of the Chuji coalition army complained bitterly, so they could only quickly abandon these fortifications and quickly retreat to avoid bombs.

It was also at this time that Xiang Guan also sent a fast horse to Xiang Zhuang to send an urgent report, saying that he had found that the Han army's partial division had signs of crossing the river in Tuchengdu, but Xiang Zhuang did not dare to continue to increase the number of troops in Tuchengdu, so he could only reply: "Tell General Xiang Guan, tell him to fight on his own first, and if it is confirmed that the Han thieves really launched a river crossing in Tuchengdu, then send someone to report to me." ”

If Xiang Zhuang can be decisive and send enough reinforcements to Xiang Guan's side in time to take a risk, then the Western Chu army has the hope of causing huge losses to the Han army's partial division crossing the river in Tucheng, but there is no way, because the main force of the Han army in Lichengdu may also immediately launch a rush to cross, but Xiang Zhuang, who has insufficient troops in his hands, does not dare to take this risk, so the Han army's partial division is on the Tuchengdu side, and naturally it will cross the river smoothly as planned.

This is a textbook-like cold weapon era rush war, the Qi army that has not been able to shrink out of the previous suddenly made a big move, protecting the beachhead of the ferry, and the Han ships are racing against time to transport ropes across the river, and the pontoon bridge built on the north bank is pulled across the Jishui fixed, during which the Chuji coalition army is also like crazy to storm the ferry, in a vain attempt to destroy the Han army pontoon bridge that is being fixed, but it is still firmly blocked by the Qi army soldiers, and when the first pontoon bridge is built, the Han army soldiers immediately lined up to cross the river, Charge over to reinforce the friendly forces of the Qi State.

At this time, of course, Xiang Guan also understood that the Han army was really going all out to rush to Tuchengdu, in addition to urging the army to attack with red eyes, he sent people to Xiang Zhuang again for help, and at the same time sent people to contact the fire fleet ambushed in the reeds upstream, so that they could rush down and burn the Han army's pontoon bridge, and cut off the Han army's river crossing road with all their might.

It is a pity that it has already suffered a loss, of course the Han army will not be fooled a second time, not long after the fireboat fleet of the Chuji coalition army attacked, it was immediately ambushed by the Han army ambush in the narrow section of the river to meet the head-on, dense rockets not only drove the fireboat of the Chuji coalition army soldiers to shoot heavy losses, but also directly ignited many of the fireships of the Chuji coalition army, and turned into a huge fire ball floating on the river in advance.

Of course, the Han army's ambush will never wipe out all the fireships of the Chuji coalition army, and there are still some fireships of the Chuji coalition army that rushed through the ambush river section of the Han army, and continued to sail downstream to threaten the Han army's pontoon bridge, but the ships sent by the Han army before were full of sailors and set out to establish a second line of defense to protect the pontoon bridge, and once again destroyed and intercepted a large number of Chuji coalition fireships. Then he was pulled away by the Han military ships that rushed to the rescue with hooks.

In the end, none of the fireboats could get close to the pontoon bridges of the Han army, and the five strong pontoon bridges prepared by the Han army were all urgently built under the cover of the officers and men of the Han and Qi armies.

When this situation was reported to Xiang Zhuang, Xiang Zhuang's face was of course extremely blue, Liu Laosan and Tian Da's faces were like ashes, but Han Xin smiled bitterly again, and then said to Xiang Zhuang: "Zuo Sima, it is a loss again because of the lack of troops, there is no need to die and struggle, please let General Xiang Guan withdraw immediately, try to keep the army, retreat to Jinjiling to hold the danger, and then act at the opportunity." ”

"Even if there are 50,000 more troops, we are sure to stop the Han thieves and make them unable to cross the water!" Xiang Zhuang shouted with a dark face.

"If it weren't for Uncle Zhou, I would not only be sure to be able to defend Jishui, but also be sure that the weak will defeat the strong, and the less will win more!" Han Xin also said helplessly in his heart: "But there is no way, this puppet is too stable in using soldiers, he doesn't take the slightest risk, and he blindly relies on more soldiers to win, so I don't have the slightest chance to catch it." ”