When the long night was about to pass, the Chu army pulled out the camp and prepared to march as usual, and the Wei soldiers, although they were reluctant, could only collect the tent and pull out the camp under the strict orders of the officers. Unlike the previous days, after two 'turns to the left', the direction of the army's advance was no longer west, but east. The 150,000-strong army marched in the darkness before dawn and retreated along the road they had come to the Qi country. After arriving in Pingyin after dawn, the whole army received the order to camp on the spot and put the whole army on guard.

If you don't pursue, you just retreat fifty miles and camp in Pingyin, and the soldiers are a little panicked. Sima Shang, Gongsun Mao and other generals were also puzzled at first, in fact, the Three Kingdoms Alliance could pursue the Qin army an hour earlier, and maybe they could kill some Qin people, but they didn't think that Xiong Jing's order was to retreat, and they would stop after retreating fifty miles.

Except for Xiong Jing himself, no one knew why he ordered to retreat, but the fox baby felt something, but it was difficult to say because there was no evidence. Soon, the generals also guessed the meaning of the fox baby: the king of Chu did not believe in the Qi people.

It's a chilling idea, but it's not necessarily wrong. In any case, at present, this army of only 159,000 people due to attrition is the only mobile force to resist Qin, and if there is any accident in this army, the Three Kingdoms will really die.

The rising sun shone on both sides of the Jishui River, and although the whole army was on guard, most of the soldiers in the battalion were basking in the sun to catch lice, and a small number of people were out to practice charging spears. The soldiers have been ordered to camp here today and leave the camp after the morning eclipse to-morrow.

The Chu army set out at Danming, and the Qin army, which was more than 20 miles away, had already set out before Danming. When they didn't see the coalition chasing after them at noon, everyone from Wang Jian to the repulsion cavalry breathed a sigh of relief. On the 4th, the army advanced 480 miles, and the whole army was seriously reduced under the wind, food, and sleep, and more than 50,000 soldiers froze to death on the road alone, and more than tens of thousands of wounded people who barely accompanied the army.

The coalition army no longer rushed, just in case, Wang Jian did not order the whole army to stop advancing, nor did he inform the whole army that the coalition army had stopped in Huyi, and the more than 400,000 troops were only camped an hour earlier than the previous day. After arriving at Fanyi, there was hot water and hot food, and on the second day, he set camp an hour late, camped an hour earlier, and waited until he advanced to Puyang, where there was plenty of grain and dry firewood, and then he did not retreat.

The high-intensity march drains the human body of its potential, and once there is no threat, the person will quickly collapse and become seriously ill, some can recover, and some people cannot afford to get sick. Although the Qin army did not engage the coalition army, it had more than 100,000 non-combat attrition due to the march, and the losses of chariots, horses, baggage, and equipment were countless, which was equivalent to a defeat.

It's just that for the general Wang Qian, what is more serious than the defeat is the trust of Zhao Zheng, the king of Qin. The king's order asked to take the Qi country in winter, and this task would definitely not be completed. If the king was furious, even if the entire battle of the Qin army was won on the books - the whole army entered the Qi State and killed more than 200,000 heads, the Qin army died more than 60,000 people, plus only 120,000 people who could not enlist due to frostbite - he could not escape the guilt.

With apprehension, Wang Jian, who was ordered to return to Xianyang, set off early one morning. Obviously, the king's order was not urgent, except for the days when he left Puyang, the carriage began to enter Shangdang County from Baicheng, and he no longer traveled three houses but only two houses every day, and it was March more than 20 days after arriving in Xianyang. In the early spring of March, the frozen Weishui gradually thawed, and most of the willow trees on both sides of the river sprouted and branched. Zhao Zheng did not summon him in Zhangtai and Qutai, but in the garden in Weinan.

"The minister has insulted the king's order and has not destroyed the Qi country, please punish the king." Zhao Zheng was dressed in a bright red Wei Ben suit, his face was neither happy nor angry, and there were Guo Wei Wei, Lord Bai Di, Yan Wuyi, the great engineer Yan Wuyi and others standing beside him. As soon as Wang Jian saw Zhao Zheng, he bowed down and listened to the punishment.

With a slight cough, Zhao Zheng squeezed out a smile on his face, "The general retreated with the whole army, what is the crime?" ”

Zhao Zheng's words made Wang Qian's hanging heart slightly relaxed, but he still didn't dare to be completely relieved, and bowed down again: "The minister is guilty." The minister did not dare to fight with King Jing, and he did not succeed in his mission, which was a big crime. ”

Wang Jian was sincere in pleading guilty, he really didn't dare to fight a decisive battle with the coalition army, so he could only be driven away by the coalition army, and finally drove out of Qi State. If it were a conceited general like Bai Qi, he would probably die in Puyang. rushed to Xianyang, more than a thousand miles away, to plead guilty to Zhao Zheng, because he didn't want to die.

"The general is worried." Zhao Zheng took a few steps forward to help Wang Jian up. "King Jing saves Qi, can you save it once, can you save it twice? Is it okay to save it twice, but can it be saved three times? The coalition army stopped at Hubyi, which was the intention of the Qi State and not the meaning of the King of Jing. Jing Qi has a grudge, and if the general attacks Qi again, the Qi country will die. ”

Zhao Zheng said words of relief, Wang Jian withdrew from Qi without a fight, he was indeed furious at first, but considering the reality, his anger gradually stopped. After the Battle of Weinan, he was no longer the King of Qin who wanted to compete with King Jing in everything, and there was only one thing he wanted to do now, that is, to destroy the Kingdom of Jing by all means and make King Jing and his subjects submit to him.

"Last month, the Governor's Mansion had received confirmed news, and King Jing was furious when he was in Hubyi, saying that he would no longer save Qi, and the general would attack Qi again, and Qi would die." Zhao Zheng comforted Wang Qian, and Wei Yi also comforted Wang Qian. The battle of Qi did not meet expectations, but Qi also lost the army of the Gao Tang Dynasty after this blow, and the Qi people re-stationed in Jixi, but Jibei was no longer a place for the Qin army to defend.

"If the ministers attack again, if they are not destroyed, if they are like a day." Wang Jian made an oath on the spot, and then he withdrew. It was only after retreating outside the garden that he was greatly relieved. The warm March wind blew, and his back was cold and cold, and his dark clothes were all soaked.

Wang Jian was cold, Zhao Zheng rarely had some joy today, not only because Wang Jian swore to destroy Qi, but because it took more than two months for the Qin State to finally cast twenty witch weapons.

The Jing people were cunning, and the witch weapons given to the Qin State were all problematic and inferior. These inferior products were blown up every ten or twenty shots, and the engineers and soldiers who set off the witchcraft suffered heavy casualties. However, it was at the cost of blood that the Qin State gradually became familiar with the performance of witchcraft and knew the construction and use of witchcraft. It is precisely because of this understanding that it is possible for Shaofu to imitate witchcraft.

As Chen Tang said two hundred years later, 'one Han enemy and five Hu (the exact one should be Rong)', the closed Guanzhong has not been a military and technologically developed area since ancient times. The bronze technology of the Zhou people directly inherited the merchants, and the political system and military technology of the Qin State originated from the Kanto region, and imitation was the housekeeping skill of the Qin State. Although the imitation cannot be compared with the Kanto, it is not necessarily the technology that determines the outcome of the war, but more importantly, the scale.

The two-winged and three-winged arrowheads of Yan and Zhao are of the same origin as the Xiongnu, which is an extremely excellent and suitable for riding and archery, and the arrow collar part is still made of iron. It is technically superior to the nations, but it is also more difficult to produce. The triangular arrow of the Qin State does not have the edge, wing, and blade of the three-winged arrow of Yan and Zhao, and it is a simple triangular pyramid; There are no aerodynamic curves, no blood grooves, and some arrowheads don't even have barbs, but they are easy to produce and quick to cast, and can meet the large-scale consumption of the national war.

The same is true of arrows, and the same is true of witchcraft. At this time, the imitation witch weapons placed on the grassland of the garden could not be compared with the inferior witch weapons given by the Chu State. The surface of the copper witchcraft imitated by Shaofu is pitted, and it is difficult to touch; The witch weapons of the Chu State are natural, the surface is smooth and flat, and there are no concave and convex burrs from beginning to end.

Touching each other is also different in length. The imitation witch weapons should be short, especially the witch weapons cast by the Mo family craftsmen next to Yan Wuyi are the shortest, and the length is rarely more than eight feet; Although the length of the witchcraft cast by the Bai Di engineer brought by Aristotle IV is not as long as the witchcraft of Jingguo, it is one to two feet longer than the witchcraft cast by the Mo family engineer, and one of them is even close to or more than one zhang.

As soon as the connoisseur stretched out his hand, he knew that there was none. Looking at the witch weapons lined up side by side on the ground in the morning, Zhao Zheng, a technical layman, could also intuitively feel the skill gap between Bai Di craftsmen and Chu State craftsmen, as well as the skill gap between Shaofu craftsmen and Bai Di craftsmen.

Zhao Zheng did not say a word about this. Whether it is the Shaofu engineer or the Bai Di engineer brought by Aristotle IV, they are all the engineers of Daqin. The reason why Great Qin can be strong is precisely because he is good at learning, which has made him from a small state in the west to an overlord who is about to dominate the world.

"Can you shoot?" Zhao Zheng looked at all the more than 20 witch weapons and asked.

"Tell the king, you can shoot." Yan Wuyi and Wuji hurriedly confessed.

Although the king did not say a word, Bai Di and Shaofu have been secretly competing. Bai Di craftsmen cast twelve five-zhang high gold figures, and Shaofu craftsmen also cast a five-zhang high gold figures. The five-zhang high-gold man is stationary, except for its own weight and is not subject to external force, and the four walls of the witch weapon are subjected to huge force when the witch potion is ignited and explodes. It's not just a matter of casting, it's also about the solidity of casting. Aristotle IV and Bai Di were fully convinced that the Shaofu Engineer would definitely lose this competition.

Previously, the school of witchcraft that attacked Linzi with the cavalry Zhong dared to be ordered to step forward with the witch weapon pawn, Zhao Zheng and the others took a hundred steps back again and again, and the uneasy Wei Wei Tu also asked the guard to squat in front of Zhao Zheng with a shield to beware of the witch weapon explosion.

Even if it is a test launch, then there is Hou. A hundred paces away, two big tiger skin marquis were erected, and the witch pawn dragged out two of the witchcraft imitated by the Shaofu Engineer and Bai Di Engineer, and quickly played the prepared order flag after loading the ammunition. Zhao Zheng nodded slightly, and the order flag that was ordered to be launched was raised at Tu Sui's signal.

The witch weapon given by the Jing people was deliberately used to deceive, and according to the news of Dachu, King Jing's statement to deal with the courtiers of the Zheng Dynasty was: '...... (Witch weapons) are cast from pig iron, and more than a dozen rounds are exploded, and the best ones are only forty-one rounds, all of which are unusable. ’

The news was in January, and Zhong Dare learned of this news only three days ago, and he was not very embarrassed when he thought of the engineer and soldier who had been killed in the bombing before, so that now when he saw the launching of the Ling Qi, he suddenly felt a little dazed, and only when he coughed left and right to remind him, he came back to his senses.

"Bullet in front, medicine in the back?" He asked routinely.

"Yes." The soldier said.

"Test shoot one." Trying his best not to look at the clearly visible particles and holes in the witch weapon, Zhong dared to order.