Knowing that Qi did not lend grain to Zhao, Qin Wang Yingzheng was overjoyed, and hurriedly arranged troops and decided to continue to attack Zhao.

In 232 BC, the Qin army attacked Zhao again. This was the fourth attack on Zhao after King Yingzheng of Qin ascended the throne, and its troop deployment was: 250,000 Southern Route Army, led by Wang Jian, a general of Qin, advanced to Pingyang in Yeyi and threatened Handan, the capital of Zhao, from the south; The 150,000 Northern Route Army, led by General Yang Duanhe, advanced to Taiyuan and attacked the important place of Fanwu through Taihang Mountain.

Handan, King Zhao's Palace.

In the face of the menacing Qin army, Zhao Qian, the king of Zhao, was not very flustered, because he still had the general Li Mu by his side, and in the battle of Yi'an and the battle of Feicheng, it was this general who was famous for his good fighting and fame at the time who made miraculous achievements for Zhao Guo. However, Zhao Wang and Zhao Qian are also a little worried.

"General Li, because of the drought in Zhao this year, the farmland has been greatly affected, and the crops have died in some places, and it is difficult to harvest the grains. In addition, the domestic situation is not stable enough, and people are panicking. Therefore, it is hoped that General Li will try his best to carry out a strong counteroffensive and strive to win the first battle, and not drag on the war for too long. "Zhao Qian, the king of Zhao, was originally a mediocre and incompetent king. He asked Li Mu to fight a quick victory, because he was afraid that the war would drag on for a long time and it would be difficult to receive grain and grass, and if the grain was too urgent, it might induce a rebellion and affect the consolidation of the throne.

Li Mu, the general of Zhao State, understood King Zhao's intentions, and said in a deep voice: "Don't worry, the old minister has decided to concentrate his forces to attack the Qin army from the north first, and then attack the enemy in the south after victory. The war won't last long. ”

The fierce battle was about to begin on an open field in the territory of Zhao State.

The 150,000 Northern Route Army, led by the Qin general Yang Duanhe, advanced to Taiyuan and attacked the important place of Fanwu through the Taihang Mountain. Fanwu, the south of Handan in Zhao State, now Cixian County, Hebei Province, facing Zhangshui, backed by the Great Wall in the south of Zhao State.

The Zhao army camp, the commander of the big tent.

"The old man has asked the king to send General Sima Shang to garrison the Great Wall along the Zhanghe River, and it is expected that the Great Wall fortress and the Zhangshui natural danger will be enough to stop the Qin army. General Sima Shang also promised that if the old man could not hold out, the Qin army would be helpless in a short time. The key is that the Qin army in the north is almost to Fanwu. Zhao General Li Mu pondered, and then made up his mind, "The old man is too cautious in observing the battle of the Qin general Yang Duan and the marching army, we may be able to fight for fighters from it." ”

"Dashuai, if you have any clever plans, just give orders, and the general will definitely obey orders." Deputy General Zhao Cong is now convinced by Li Mu, thinking about how to learn more about the art of war from Li Mu.

"The old man came back from the northern zone with a horned bow, which was fifty meters farther than the ordinary Qin crossbow. It's a pity that there are only a thousand, but it's enough for Qin Jun to suffer a meal. Therefore, the old man decided to send cavalry first to harass the Qin army day and night, and wait until the Qin army is exhausted and it will be the day of the decisive battle. ”

"High, really high. In this way, the advantage of Qin Crossbow is no longer there, and we have one more chance of winning. Deputy General Zhao Cong did not forget to pat himself and said.

"Then, find a way to cut off the water source of the Qin army, the worst, at least to ensure that the Qin army has difficulty replenishing water. When the Qin army is hungry and thirsty, then we have one more chance of winning. Recently, the weather has been getting hotter and hotter, and even in late autumn, there are dry wells and ditches everywhere, presumably the Qin army is also underprepared. Li Mu, the general of Zhao Guo, stroked his long beard and said slowly.

"The last general obeys the order, this water source and terrain will naturally make the Qin army suffer." The deputy general Zhao Cong admired Li Mu's old scheming more and more, because even if the Qin army was strong, Li Mu was able to rely on the existing resources at hand to fight the enemy.

The Qin general Yang Duanhe led the 100,000 Northern Route Army to march slowly and slowly approached Fanwu.

According to the plan of Wang Qian, the general of the Qin State, as long as the two armies of the north and south converge on the north and south banks of Zhangshui, they can flank the defenders of the Great Wall in the south of Zhao on both sides. Indeed, if the Qin army completes the tactical plan, then the Zhao State will have no danger to defend, and Li Mu will be helpless in this situation, because the difference in military strength between the two sides is too great.

However, Li Mu would not let the northern and southern Qin armies converge as he wished!

Because Yang Duanhe, the Qin general who had just arrived in Fanwu, was in big trouble.

At the beginning, when Zhao Guotie's cavalry came to harass, the Qin army ignored it, just stuck to the camp and did not fight. Later, Zhao Guotie rode in a hurry, and took turns to attack the Qi camp with a bow and crossbow, but he always wandered on the edge of the range of the Qin army's crossbow arrows, so that he quickly shot and killed many Qi sentinels, which led the Qin general Yang Duanhe is thunderous jump, and finally couldn't hold back and lead the troops out to battle.

Who would have thought that as soon as the tens of thousands of troops came out, Zhao Guo's iron cavalry immediately turned into cunning foxes: they did not want to fight head-on, but simply retreated slowly to the west, keeping a distance of one or two hundred steps from the Qin army, and fiercely attacked the Qin army with cavalry crossbows from a distance. It's just a pity that the cavalry of the Qin State is less than 10,000 people, the number is far less than that of the Zhao Iron Cavalry, and the combat power and speed are greatly inferior to the Zhao Iron Cavalry, so they dare not break away from the main force of the infantry and fight a decisive battle with the Zhao Iron Cavalry. As a result, how could the cavalry of the Qin army, which was advancing with the infantry, catch up with the iron cavalry of the Zhao State, but they were quickly shot all over the head, defeated, and retreated in disgrace.

Once the Qin army was defeated and demoralized, the Zhao Iron Cavalry became a fierce and vicious wolf pack: they chased after the Qi army, constantly recording the outer strength of the Qin army layer by layer with bows and crossbows like peeling fruit, and even launched one or two fierce assaults from time to time to intercept the Qin army's infantry units that seemed panicked due to the withdrawal.

For a time, the casualties of the Qin army increased rapidly, but they were not enough for Zhao Guotie's cavalry, and they did not dare to chase them, so they had to flee back to the village in embarrassment and guard the door.

Since then, Zhao Guotie's cavalry has become more and more rampant, constantly wandering around the Qin army camp, seizing an opportunity to kill the general, taking advantage of it and immediately fleeing every day, so angry that the Qin general Yang Duanhe is thunderous, but he is also helpless! In this way, Zhao Guotie rode for a day and a half of the night, and then reluctantly retreated.

However, during this period of time, the casualties of the Qin army were very large, more than 10,000 people were killed and wounded in battle, while the casualties of the Zhao State Iron Cavalry were negligible, so now when the Zhao State Iron Cavalry is mentioned, the Qin army is all talking about the tiger color change: this is a hundred battles that can match the grassland elite cavalry!

Faced with this situation, the Qin general Yang Duanhe was also helpless, but he didn't expect that Zhao Jun actually had a long-range angular bow, which was fifty meters farther than Qin's crossbow arrows.

As the saying goes, "an inch is long, an inch is strong".

During the pre-Qin period, the variety of bows and arrows in China began to be enriched, and a new bow-recurve bow, that is, the horn bow, appeared.

The horn bow is made of the horns of bovids (sheep and antelopes also belong to the bovidae family) as a bow, because of its pressure resistance; use tendons to make a bowed back, because of its tensile resistance; It is made of bamboo and wood as a frame for a bow. These materials are glued together (or with extended bow tips), reinforced with filament, and lacquered to resist moisture, resulting in a very effective projectile weapon.

As a composite bow, the angle bow is relatively not limited by a single material, and it can be designed as a combination of recurves to increase the pre-tension; The tension of the bow body can be improved by adding the reverse of the bow tip; Therefore, it can be made relatively short, but still maintain the pulling feeling, pulling distance and pulling force of the longbow, and at the same time it is stronger, and its comprehensive performance is much greater than that of a single bow made of bamboo, wood and other materials.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, while the Zhou Dynasty was declining, various large and small vassal states mixed with each other for war hegemony. In this context, the manufacturing process of bows and arrows has made great progress.

At that time, each vassal state had a special weapon manufacturing department, and established official standards to guide the production of weapons in order to obtain more sophisticated weapons of uniform specifications.

It is clearly pointed out that the six materials required to make the bow are dry, horn, tendon, glue, silk and lacquer, "the six materials are gathered, and the coincidence is combined", and only when the six materials are ready can they be combined into a bow. For the selection standards of six materials, there are also more detailed provisions in the book. For example, the seven raw materials for selecting the bow stem are listed, and their advantages and disadvantages are ranked: "Where the seven ways to take the trunk are: Zhe is the top, the second is the second, the mulberry is the second, the orange is the second, the papaya is the second, the wattle is the second, and the bamboo is the bottom." "Of the seven types of trees, it is believed that the best material for making bows is made of oak wood, while the worst is bamboo. When choosing horns, pay attention to the season of killing cattle (it is best to slaughter cattle in autumn, when the horns are thickest), and the strength of the old and young cattle. The selected horn should be "green and white and plump", "the horn is two feet long and five inches, and the three colors do not lose its reason, and the cow wears the cow for it" (the three colors refer to the white root of the horn, the middle is green, and the end is plump. And the cow wears the cow means that the price of a pair of good horns is equivalent to the price of a cow). For glue, the darker and drier the color is required, the better; The finer and longer the tendons, the better; The lacquer should be so clear that it seems to be bottomed out; The silk should be shiny and bright.

As for the combination of six materials into a bow, it is not possible to complete it in a short time, and different processes need to choose different seasons to ensure the quality of the bow. "All bows are dried in winter, and the spring liquid horn, summer smelting tendons, autumn three materials, cold laying body, ice lysis jue", that is, in the winter of the first year, the bow is completely dry and cut into shape; In the spring, the horns are made into pieces of the right size; In summer, the tendons are combed and formed, and then steamed, hammered, tightened, and torn by hand so that they no longer shrink into thin strips; In autumn, glue the tendons on the outside of the bow trunk and the upper corners on the inside of the bow trunk; In winter, the silk is delicately wound around the bow joints; Paint when it's extremely cold; The spring of the third year was stringed. In this way, it took 4 years for ancient craftsmen to make a good bow, including the selection of materials. During this period, you can imagine the effort expended by craftsmen, and the time and effort required to make the good bows used by the princes and kings at that time was even more important, so the princes at that time valued the good bows as much as the swords. According to historical records, after the king of Chu Ling was drunk, he sent the treasure bow "Da Qu" hidden by Chu to Lu Hou, and after he woke up, he repented, and sent envoys to claim the bow back, regardless of the name of unbelief. In the Book of Poetry "Xiao Ya Horn Bow", there is a sentence "The Horn Bow is the opposite." Brothers are married, and there is no way to go. Translation: The angular bow is carefully adjusted, and the string is flipped to the opposite side. Brothers marry a family, don't be too distant from each other.

It can be seen that the preciousness of the horn bow at that time and the love of the horn bow were people.