In 233 B.C., the general of the Qin State, Huan Qi, took advantage of the victory to attack again, led the army east out of Shangdang, crossed the Taihang Mountain from the north road into the rear of the Zhao State, captured Chili and Yi'an (now twenty miles southwest of Artemisia City, Hebei), attacked the rear of the Zhao State, and marched straight to Handan.

Less than three days after the Qin army set up camp, the envoy of Qin Wang Yingzheng rushed to the front of the army and brought a large amount of rewards from Qin Wangzheng to almost half of the national treasury. Countless gold and silver coins were rewarded like a tide, and the Qin troops who had achieved outstanding military exploits in the previous battles were all filled with bowls and bags of fat. The smug appearance of the spring breeze and the wealth of the wealthy made the eyes of some unlucky Qin soldiers so red that they almost glowed blue.

In addition to the Central Army, the rest of the Qin army has no military salary, except for food and armor, clothing, and daily living expenses must be provided by themselves, so grabbing military merits to obtain rich rewards is almost the best and almost only way for the Qin army to survive or get rich overnight!

Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that the Qin army fought for the enemy's head in front of the battle, and even fought for it. Because the head of the enemy army means a lot of wealth or a prominent title to them, for the civilians of the Qin State who are at the bottom of society, obtaining military merit is almost the only way for them to get rid of their humble status! That's why there is such a record in the history books: whenever the Qin people heard that they were going to fight, they would beat their chests and be impatient, and they didn't care about life and death......

The situation in Zhao was immediately critical.

Zhao Qian, the king of Zhao, hurriedly transferred back to Li Mu from Yanmen, appointed him as a general, led his troops south, and commanded all the Zhao troops to counterattack the Qin army.

King Zhao appointed Li Mu, a famous general in the northern frontier, as his commander, which put tremendous pressure on the Qin army. Li Mujun once annihilated 100,000 Xiongnu invading troops, shocked the frontier, and his combat effectiveness was quite strong.

After Li Mu, the general of Zhao, led the main force of the border guards to join the Zhao army sent by Handan, he confronted the Qin army near Yi'an. He believed that the Qin army had won consecutive victories, and its morale was very high, and it would be difficult to win if it was rushed into battle. Therefore, he adopted the policy of building fortifications and holding firmly, avoiding a decisive battle, waiting for an opportunity to counterattack when the enemy was exhausted, and refused to fight.

The general of the Qin State, Huan Qi, believes that in the past, Lian Po used a strong base to resist Wang Di, and now Li Mu also uses this strategy; The Qin army is far away, which is not conducive to long-lasting. He led the main force to attack Feicheng, trying to lure the Zhao army to come to the rescue, and waited until the Zhao army broke away from the camp, and then annihilated it in the movement.

Outside the city of Yi'an, the Qin army camped.

The general of the Qin State, Huan Qi, also regretted it at this time, because after he captured Yi'an, he ordered his troops to burn and slaughter the city, resulting in the destruction of a fortified city. Yi'an was destroyed by the fire, so it could not be garrisoned.

"Dashuai, do you want to think about it again? If the whole army attacks, what will happen to the battalion? Adjutant General Yang Duanhe said.

"The Zhao army has 200,000 elites, while our army only has 300,000, leaving 50,000 Qin troops to stay in the camp, which is already the biggest limit." Qin State General Huan Qi explained impatiently, "What's more, our army is secretly dispatched, and the Zhao army cannot know the reality of our camp, so they will not dare to attack our camp." ”

"But in case ......" Vice General Yang Duanhe saw that the coach was arrogant and careless, so he could only continue to persuade patiently.

"No in case! When the commander ambushes and encircles the main force of the Zhao army, he can come to the city of Handan. The general of the Qin State, Huan Qi, interrupted the words of the deputy general Yang Duanhe.

"The last general still thinks it's too risky! It is better to ask the king for help, wait for our army to be twice as large as the enemy, and then make a strategy to lure the enemy, which is safe. Deputy General Yang Duanhe was also angered by the boss's arrogance, and desperately contradicted him.

"Hmph, in that case, you should go and ask the king for help. As for the guards of the large battalion, the commander has his own arrangements. Seeing this, the general of the Qin State, Huan Qi, simply revoked the authority of the deputy general Yang Duanhe.

Seeing this, the deputy general Yang Duanhe reluctantly took the order to return to Xianyang.

The general of Qin, Huan Qi, secretly led an army of 200,000 to move to the mountains and forests near Feicheng in batches, and at the same time asked his nephew Huan Ba to lead 50,000 to defend the camp, and his nephew Huan Xiong to lead 50,000 to feint Feicheng.

But everything, how can it be concealed from the scouts of Zhao State, who are good at detecting the enemy's situation.

Although it was the era of cold weapons in ancient times, it was never blind to war. "Scouts" are the eyes of the army, and these people not only need to be good at escaping, because once they are discovered, it is futile to pass the information back without life; It is also necessary to have the ability to assassinate, understand the landform, determine the water source, draw a map, and have the ability to open a mountain and build a bridge when encountering water.

How do scouts judge the number of opponents?

First, scout the enemy camp. The ancient army was very particular about stationing, and the number of people who could sleep in a tent was generally prescribed, and scouts only needed a little reconnaissance to know. For some experienced scouts, it is generally not necessary to count the number of camps and tents, but to observe the size of the enemy's garrison and the sparseness of the tents.

Secondly, look at the amount of smoke that the enemy army cooks. The three armies did not move, and the grain and grass went first. Detect how much cooking smoke the opponent ordered at the meal, how often the grain transport team comes, and how much it will be transported at one time, and you can also roughly calculate the number of opponents.

Finally, check the strength of the enemy's army. In order to facilitate management, the ancient army had a fixed formation, and each establishment also had its own banner, so the number of ancient scouts could be calculated by counting the number of flags.

Officially, because of these common reconnaissance methods, both sides of the enemy are clear, so many times in order to confuse the opponent, they will carry out fake camps, build empty stoves, erect false flags, and so on. For example, Sun Bin is an expert in this area. The famous "Sun Bin reduces the stove and destroys Pang Juan wisely" in history comes from this.

After Sun Bin first arrived in Qi State, due to his physical disability, he served as a military advisor for Tian Ji behind the scenes. One day, Pang Juan led the Wei army to attack Korea, and Korea and Qi were adjacent to each other. Sun Bin led the Qi army to a decisive battle with Pang Juan's Wei army, Sun Bin adopted the strategy of wanting to capture the old man, and retreated in a panic when he saw the Wei army, while Pang Juan was anxious to capture Sun Bin alive, and when he saw the Qi army retreating, he desperately pursued.

On the first day, Pang Juan sent "scouts" to reconnoiter the stove traces in the Qi army camp, and found that the number of Qi troops was as high as 100,000! The pursuit was slowed down, fearing an ambush. The next day, he sent people to reconnoiter and found that the traces of the Qi army were less than 50,000. Pang Juan is overjoyed! On the third day, the Wei scouts detected that there were only 30,000 traces left in the Qi army. Pang Juan personally led 20,000 light cavalry to pursue.

When Pang Juan chased him to the Malingdao Valley, Sun Bin cut down a big tree, wrote on the tree, "Pang Juan died under the tree", and ambushed 5,000 archers around.

When Pang Juan arrived, he found that he was blocked by a big tree, and personally led the army into the canyon. Before the words fell, he was shot into a hedgehog by the Qi army.

In the era of cold weapons, marching and fighting pay attention to wisdom and strategy, not a single hand-to-hand combat, and the "wisdom" in it is still worthy of our reference today.

Li Mu had already sent a large number of scouts to repeatedly reconnoiter within a radius of two hundred miles near Yi'an. The scouts of Zhao, especially those of the northern border army of Zhao, often engaged in guerrilla warfare with the Huns, and were more handy at detecting the enemy. Soon, the Zhao scouts discovered a large number of hidden Qin soldiers.

Outside the city of Yi'an, the Zhao army camped.

Li Mu had insight into the enemy's situation and was unmoved.

Zhao general Zhao Cong suggested: "Dashuai, if you don't rescue Feicheng at this time, the Qin army can still attack Handan City." ”

Li Mu smiled and said: "Sun Tzu said: Therefore, those who are good at fighting will cause people but not others!" What's more, the scouts reported that the Qin army hid a large number of soldiers outside Feicheng. After the main force of the Qin army went to Feicheng, the remaining troops in the Qin army's camp were weak; And because our army has been on the defensive for many days and refuses to fight, the Qin army is accustomed to it and is negligent in guard. At this time, if our army attacks the Qin army's camp with all its might, it will definitely be taken by surprise and unprepared. ”

"Those who are good at fighting will cause people but not others" is a phrase from "The Art of War: Fiction and Reality", which refers to a person who is good at commanding battles, always mobilizing the enemy without being mobilized by the enemy.

Li Mu had been paying attention to the movements of the Qin army's camp, and when he saw that the Qin army's defense was lax and there was an opportunity, he gathered a large number of cavalry.

"Kill! Killing ......" accompanied by the protrusion of the firelight, the thunderous sound of iron hooves and shouts of killing suddenly sounded in the wilderness of the southern land, like a huge wave rushing down from a high place.

The stunned Qin army sentry was stunned for a moment, suddenly woke up, and saw the cavalry of the brigade sweeping in the firelight, and was immediately frightened, slammed the alarm bell, and shouted desperately: "Oh no, the Zhao army is here!" Oh no, Zhao Jun is here......"

The cavalry of the Zhao State was followed by a large number of carriages, carrying hundreds of trebuchets. These trebuchets had shone in the last time when the generals of the Zhao State attacked the Qin army. Although these trebuchets were still in their most primitive state, with a range of only 100 paces and limited power, they were still very effective against the wooden camps of the Qin army.

Huan Ba, the left-behind general of the Qin army, was a brave general, but unfortunately he lacked strategy and was arrogant to his soldiers, resulting in an extremely lax defense of the camp. When the Zhao army attacked, he hurriedly ordered the crossbow archers of the Qin army to line up to meet the enemy.

It's a pity that Zhao Guo not only brought hundreds of trebuchets this time, but also tens of thousands of thick and heavy shields.

In a short time, the fire bombs fired by the trebuchet smashed the fence of the Qin army's camp, and the Qin army's crossbow arrows were blocked by Zhao's thick shield before they even played their due role.

The Zhao army relied on a thick shield and approached the Qin army camp. However, the Qin army lost the defensive advantage of the trenches and camps, and what was even worse was that the Qin army only had 50,000, while the Zhao army had 200,000!

"Kill! Kill ......" 10,000 Zhao Guotie cavalry poured into the barracks like a white torrent. And the crossbow arrowmen of the Qin army saw that the situation was not good, so they could only retreat to the rear.

"Whoosh...... "Regardless of the three, seven, twenty-one, Zhao Guotieqi threw the torches in his hands indiscriminately, and suddenly the military camp was lit into a sea of fire!

In the blazing firelight, many Qin soldiers screamed and ran around. They were covered in flames, like moving torches, making terrifying cries for help. It's just that in the end, they were either killed to the ground by the Zhao soldiers who followed, or they were burned to the ground, and the skin was rotten and charred black!

Groups of white knights were wielding black rays to kill frantically, and the green rays flashed wildly, bringing up streams of flying blood arrows and scattered internal organs...... Everywhere the eye could see, apart from the red flames, there was red blood!