"Our army has won a great victory!" Sima Pengzong, who had previously faintly opposed the immediate attack, sighed after putting down Lu Lijing. It was not for nothing that he opposed an immediate attack: after days of marching, the soldiers were already tired; There is no siege ladder, so you can only rely on human lives to fill the moat; And twilight is approaching, and it is extremely inconvenient to attack at night. He didn't expect that the generals of the Qin army would actually take the initiative to go out of the city to meet Chengtong's two thousand people.

"The Qin people are still the same." The corpses of the Qin army outside the east gate were piled up, and when the last ray of light fell, the soldiers of Chu had already stepped on the corpses and rushed to the city wall, fighting with the Qin army in the city. Xiang Yan also put down the Lu Lijing and put it away carefully, he began to feel that this Lu Lijing was more important than he thought before, it was of great help to understand and judge the enemy's situation and command the battle.

"Unchanged?" Peng Zong looked at him with a smile, a little puzzled.

"The Qin people fought to the death, just to be knighted. If you die in battle, what is the use of being knighted? Xiang Yan said a few more words.

"The general means that the Qin people will also be afraid of death?!" Peng Zong was very surprised, he was the Sima of the Chengyang Army not long ago, and he had only heard how brave the Qin army was in battle.

"Who is not afraid of death?" Xiang Yan asked solemnly, and when he wanted to say something, the rider who summoned the message suddenly came.

"General Bao: Our army won a great victory, and the Qin people opened the west gate widely, abandoned the city and fled." The knight was sent by Xiang Zhi, and the Qin people who fled west happened to fall into the encirclement of Xiang Zhi on the other side of the mountain, and there was no suspense about Jiyi taking it.

"Urgently order Xiang Zhi to quickly march to the city, pull it out if it can, and surround it if it can't, and it should be necessary to hold the mountain road." Xiang Yan instructed.

"Yui!" When the cavalry was ordered, they jumped on their horses and ran for a dozen paces before disappearing into the night. Not far away, the fire in Jiyi City was burning bigger and bigger, and the shouts of all sizes were getting more and more poignant.

Under the same night, Xie Yi, eighty miles east of Xiang Yan, was also taken by the Qin army. Unlike the Chu army, which was stealthy and lured the enemy, although Xie Yi was in danger of Huaishui, Meng Wu concentrated those in the army who had strange tricks to build a bridge from upstream the day before to make the Qin army cross the river - swimming was originally an insignificant skill in later generations, but in this era it was called a strange trick by the soldiers, saying that it could 'cross the river over the deeper water'. In autumn, the Huaishui is very shallow, when hundreds of strange tricks build bridges in the shallow water, and more than 10,000 Qin troops cross the Huaishui eastward, there will be no suspense in the war. Now, Meng Wu is worried about the rear.

"General: Jing people are good at attacking from afar, but their travel is far away, their momentum is urgent, and there are 6,000 soldiers and horses in Jiyi, if they can defend to the death, they will be safe. Our army is only thirty miles away from Chengyang, and we should take Chengyang as the key. "As a county lieutenant, Li Xin is very young and full of sharp words.

"General: Jiyi is related to grain and straw, and I am willing to ask for orders to return to Jiyi." Yang Duanhe, the general of the right army, said that he understood Meng Wu's concerns.

"General: Jing people are afraid of me, and they don't dare to pry me. The main general Xiang Yan has already led the army to disturb my Jiyi, and Chengyang is naturally empty, and the last general is willing to take the lead and attack Chengyang overnight. Another one jumped out, this is Feng Zheng, as young as Li Xin.

"If you don't pull out the grass, where will Xiang Yan go?" As if he hadn't heard the words of his subordinates, Meng Wu was talking to himself.

"General Meng, I thought ......" it was Sikong Ma who spoke, "If Xiang Yan doesn't pull out Jiyi, he should go south and climb over Dafu Mountain (a certain section of Tongbai Mountain) to Tang County, Jingguo; If you pull it out, you should burn all the grain and grass of our army, and defend it according to the city. ”

"Yes." Meng Wu's brows tightened. The siege is not a field battle, but it is decided in a few days, and the loss of grain and grass is not large; A fortified city like Chengyang may be surrounded for several months, and although grain and grass can be looted on the spot, baggage and other items cannot be looted.

"I thought that whether it was a siege or a return of reinforcements, it was necessary to move quickly." Sikong Ma also has an identity as a protector, or a supervisor. The military system of the Qin State is completely different from that of the Chu State, and the Chu State is thought to be an army formed by each county and each city, with Xiang Division, Cai Division, and Xi Division; However, the Qin State formed an army with counties as units, including soldiers from Nanjun, Sanchuan County, and Hedong County;

Most of the generals of the Chu Army County Division are from their own county, not from their own county, but also from their own county and their cronies or protégés; The generals and lieutenants of the county soldiers of the Qin army were uniformly appointed by the State Governor's Office. The counties of Chu and Qin were two orders of magnitude – when the Jianghan Plain belonged to Chu, there were dozens of counties; After being returned to the Qin State, these dozens of counties all belonged to a county in the South County - the soldiers of the Qin County were ten times that of the county division of the Chu State, so there was a guard army or a supervising army, although the main general had a military charm, but the guard army had the right to arbitrarily supervise.

When Sikong Ma made a suggestion, everyone was listening carefully, and Meng Wu was not lazy, but said: "Xin Sheng." ”

"The last general!" Probably for the sake of training, most of the people who accompanied Mengwu to attack Chu this time were young generals, and the same was true for the cavalry general Xin Sheng.

"I want you to rush to the aid of Jiyi with 4,000 horsemen tonight, and you must arrive tomorrow morning and dawn." Xie Yi went to Jiyi for about 100 miles, and although it was difficult for the cavalry to rush to Jiyi overnight and immediately put into battle, it was not impossible. Qin cavalry is strong, not weak Zhao army.

"The last general commands!" Xin Sheng came out of the ranks and drank.

"If Xiang Yan is pulling out the city, he should take advantage of his unpreparedness and attack his flank; If Xiang Yan is prepared, he will cover his food and cut off his military path. "It's a little reluctant to send Xin Sheng back to help Jiyi Mengwu, this cavalry should have been used in the Chengyang battlefield, but if you want to go back, you can only send cavalry." If Xiang Yan has pulled out Jiyi......"

When these words came out, Meng Wu suddenly felt that it was very impossible. The border guards found out that the border people did not return in the afternoon, and since they found out, they would notify Jiyi, and the 6,000 defenders of Jiyi only needed to survive two or three hours before it was dark. Benefiting from the Mo family, whether it is a county seat, a county seat or a border town, the city defense of the Qin State is extremely precipitous. There is a lot of water in the south, and the widest part of the city is more than eight zhang, and the city wall is also four zhang high, so how can it be possible to attack the city in one afternoon?

"If the Jing people have pulled out the Yi, don't stop, your troops should go to Fuyi as soon as possible to help." Meng Wu finally instructed, and this was the arrangement for the rescue of Jiyi. "Feng Zheng and Li Xin obey orders!"

"The end will be." The two county lieutenants who wanted to take Chengyang immediately jumped out excitedly and were eager to try.

"Feng Zai, use the troops of your headquarters to get to the city of Chengyang as soon as possible. Remember! You can only cut off its traffic and rivers, and you can't attack the city without permission. Violators will be dealt with by military law! "Meng Wu's order is very clear, and there is no room for accommodation.

"The last general, ......may I ask the general, if the Jing people go out of the city to attack me, what will happen?" Feng Zheng wanted to take advantage of the night to pull out the city and take the empty Chengyang, and the main general ordered so, he still relied on the friendship between his father Feng Quji and the Meng family, and asked more.

"Jing people should fight with them when they go out of the city, but your troops must not take a step beyond the city." Meng Wu glared at him, and when he saw that he had received the order, he looked at Li Xin: "The defenders of Chengyang are only 30,000, and in just a few days, the Jingren reinforcements are too late to arrive, Xiang Yan went to Jiyi again, and there was no defender on the Magu line." You led your troops and horses to a small town fifty miles north of Chengyang. This is a pivotal place, and General Xin Wu has not arrived, so he must not be lost. ”

Stimulated by the rush of the Chu army, the pace of the Qin army's siege did not slow down but accelerated. When Meng Wu issued the military order in Xie Yi, in Chengyang City, the guard general Chen Qi was inquiring about the military situation of the Qin army of Xie Yi's guard general Jin (Jin) Gu. Jin Gu was subordinate to Cai's division, and although Xiang Yan allowed him to retreat when the Qin army attacked, the 500 people who defended Xie Yi were still bitten by the Qin cavalry when they retreated, and only a few dozen escaped.

"It's not that I don't dare to fight, it's really the speed of the Qin army, I haven't arrived yet, and there is no way back!" After entering the city and sitting down for a while, Jin Gu, who was covered with sweat and dust, still had lingering fears about the Qin cavalry. After his skin was removed, he actually wore a southern crown, and the high crown was like a common tablet for sacrificing the dead, which was inserted on top of his head.

"Jin Gongzi only saw the Qin people's horse army?" Chen Qi squinted his eyes, secretly wondering how much of his words were true.

"No, no." Jin Gu shook his head again and again, "The Qin people cover the sky and the sun, and there should be 200,000 people. I crossed the river from the upper reaches and went down, and I got the order of General Xiang, so I led the army to withdraw from Xie Yi, who expected to meet the Qin army halfway, more than 500 people and more than 500 people......"

Jin Gu was so frightened that he was about to cry, and Chen Cheng had to ask someone to take him to rest first. After he left, one of the soldiers who sat down under Chen beggar scolded: "Servant! Five hundred people are gone, and he still has the face to come back. If I were him, I would have known my fate before I entered the city. ”

"If I were him, I would have withdrawn from Xie Yi as soon as possible. The strength of the Qin army is not as strong as the Zhao army. Another commander spoke out.

"Fortunately, my Chengyang is adjacent to Huaishui, and although the Qin army is strong, it cannot cut off my way back." Master Chen Sima Chen could also express his feelings, and this statement was very much agreed by everyone. The Qin army originally had no boats, and no matter how strong the cavalry was, it could not cut off the Huaishui.

"That's true." A cadre immediately agreed, and suddenly felt embarrassed after echoing - the Qin army of 200,000 people is coming, how long can this city be defended? Then there is Huaishui, the water is shallow in autumn, who can guarantee that the Chengyang boat will continue?

"Where is the king?" Chen Qi was also secretly worried, all he could think of was Wang Paw. If the king arrives, the county divisions will also be almost there.

"The king's pawn...... The king has arrived in Tateyi (now north of Gushi County). Sima Chen's face changed a few times, but he didn't dare to talk nonsense. He saw that Chen Qi's face was even darker, and said: "However, within ten days, the divisions of Pingyu, Xincai, Fanyang (now northwest of Huang County), Mengqiu (now Linquan County), and Jiangyi (now south of Zhengyang County) will arrive in Yiyi; The divisions of Qisi, Liyi, Yiyang (northwest of present-day Huangchuan County), and Yanlou (present-day south of Gushi County) will arrive in Xi County. The two places are not below 100,000 people. Retreat from the enemy and dare not speak, and self-report is acceptable. ”

Although Sima Chen's words were comforting, what he said was also the truth. Chengyang is an important place, and although the mobilization of the Great Sima Mansion is slow, the Sima in each county and each city has their own sense of proportion, and there are also things similar to the plan:

If the Qin army invades Chu, the Chu army will assemble the county divisions north of Huaishui and west of Rushui, and cross Rushui to Yiyi (now Zhengyang County); Second, the county divisions along the Huaishui line and south of the Huaishui River gathered in Xixian County to aid Chengyang by land and water. However, the date of the assembly depends on the speed of mobilization, and 10 days is an estimate, but in fact, because there has never been a drill or actual combat since the eastward migration, only God knows how long it will take.