"Alas......" A sigh echoed in the Ming Hall of the Great Sima Mansion, and the news was gently thrown down on the low case painted with vermilion lacquer. This dwarf case is different from other dwarf cases, with copper horns and hooves, and the surface of the case is not drawn with clouds, thunder, birds and beasts, but a whirlpool the size of a feather, and there are as many as thirty-six of these whirlpools, which are arranged neatly like a military array.

The vortex is deep, just like the current battle situation. Even though the strategists of the War Division racked their brains in the hope of accurately judging the direction of the war, in the end everything was out of their grasp—not because they didn't calculate how the Qin people were, but because they didn't calculate how their own army was.

"Our army is advancing north, and the Qin people should give up Xianyang!" The news had just come in the morning, when the Chu army had just crossed the Changshui.

"If the Qin people don't save Xianyang and cut off my way back, it's dangerous." It is precisely because of this that Nao Cunning is worried. "Why did the king insist on going north? If case B is used, our army should attack Li Xin in Fangcheng......"

"Li Xinfei is not good at his generation." Li He shook his head, "Knowing what he said, Li Xin's army is moving more and more slowly, and now it is only thirty miles a day. If the B case fails, it is better to pull out Xianyang and deter the Qin people. ”

There must be a plan for the battle, but it is a pity that no matter how well the plan is planned, the enemy army will not go in the direction specified in the plan. Plans are always changing, because of the enemy, because of me, according to heaven and earth, from time to time. In Li's view, going north to Xianyang is the best choice.

"What's the use of deterrence?" Nao shook his head again and again, "Zhao Guo is hopeless, after the death of Zhao State, my Chu State will bear the brunt." Only shock, the Qin people will no longer attack me? ”

"Jutiefu has built 200 cannons, and the Qin people call artillery a witch weapon, and they are very afraid of it." Li said. "Tomorrow's artillery soldiers can succeed, if the Qin people attack me tomorrow, you can keep the artillery away. Later, the divisions of Jiuying, Hanzhong, and Nanyang became also successful, and at that time, our army should have more than 50 divisions, and the Qin people attacked me and defeated me. ”

"Easier said than done!" Nao is not as optimistic as Li. The Chu army did occupy Jiuying, Nanyang, Shangsi, and Hanzhong (not all of them yet). It's just that except for Jiuying, only after the end of the war, the two counties of Nanyang and Hanzhong, as well as the land of Shangyu, are owned by the Chu State.

It is easy to start a war, but it is very difficult to end. If the war continues, these counties will not only not be able to provide qualified soldiers, but will need the existing Chu soldiers to garrison. It has been a month since the war began, and according to the documents sent back by Zhao Huang from Jiuying, the situation in Jiuying is not optimistic. Most of the old Chu people only knew that there was Qin but did not know that there was Chu. In the past fifty years, they have become accustomed to the 'law' system of the Qin people, and are not accustomed to the Ao system of the Chu state.

This is still the case in the old Chu land, and the situation in Nanyang, Hanzhong, Shangyu and other places is even worse. Although there were people in the countryside who continued to defect to the Chu army, these people were not the mainstream. More people are still waiting to wait and see the final result of the battle of Qin and Chu. Chu Guosheng, of course, belongs to Chu State, and Qin Guosheng belongs to Qin State again.

Before this battle, the Chu army only needed to garrison Daliang and Xiayi, and at most Shangcai was enough. Now it's good that the troops in the east will not only be stationed in the east, but also in Shangyu, Nanyang, Hanzhong, and Yiling. Since the Battle of Qingshui, the state of Chu has never been so vulnerable. Thinking of this, Nao Cunning felt that the king should lead the army to the north, maybe it was really as Li He said, pulling out Xianyang or deterring the Qin people.

In the Yingdu Dasima Mansion, Nao Wei gradually had hope for Xiong Jing's northward advance, hoping that this would crush the Qin people's will to war, so as to deter the Qin people, so that the war could end as soon as possible. Xiong Jing, who had similar hopes to him, ran for more than a hundred miles, but saw a fire burning outside Xianyang City.

"Tell the king, the Qin people set fire to the millet!" The cavalry galloped in the land of Weinan, and Xianyang City did not dare to send scouts at all. The heart of the Qin State is now at the mercy of the cavalry of the Chu State.

"Burnt millet?!" Everyone, including Xiong Jing, was taken aback. It is said that there is a lot of Su in Aocang, but Aocang is still a big difference compared to Xianyang Cang. The millet of Aocang is measured in tens of millions of stones, but the Xianyang Cang is measured in hundreds of millions of stones, and the two are not an order of magnitude at all. It took Chu five years to accumulate more than 130 million stone corn, which is not as good as the accumulation of Xianyang Cang in one year.

"Yes, yes." Scout Rider Road. "There are people in the warehouses outside Xianyang City who set fires, and our army only disperses one."

"King, Xianyang millet is enough for our army to eat for a hundred years." Although Zhuang Wudi was surprised that the Qin people set fire to the millet, he was only surprised. "The Qin people don't burn millet, and our army should also burn millet."

"What else?" Xiong Jing nodded. The Chu army was short of food, but after defeating the Qin army the day before, they grabbed a batch of corn. Even if there is a fire in Xianyang Cang, it cannot be burned out in one or two days. When the time comes, just extinguish a few warehouses with an accumulation of 100,000 stones, which is enough for the Chu army to eat for a month.

"Not yet." The scout was about to retreat, but he suddenly remembered what he saw when he passed by Weishui, and said: "When the minister returns to the camp, I will see that our military engineers will build a bridge." ”

The sappers did not assume a pontoon bridge on the Ba River, and now they have finally built a bridge on the Wei River. Is it just that the bridge is ready to cross the bridge immediately? This is a problem. After the scouts retreated, the sappers came to report, and Xiong Jing looked at the shogunate generals: "How many miles away is the Qin army from me?" ”

The Qin army had already reported the previous reconnaissance cavalry, and Xiong Jing asked again just to confirm it. Nao Xin replied: "Three hours ago, it was reported that the Qin army was ninety miles away from me and had set up camp. ”

Lantian is one hundred and fifty miles away from Xianyang and about one hundred and twenty miles away from Tongdao. In other words, the Qin army only walked thirty miles a day today. Perhaps some of the soldiers were less than thirty miles. For example, Meng Tian's army on the White Deer Plateau was more than ten miles north of Lantian City, and today it has traveled at most twenty miles. Walking so slowly, it is naturally impossible to have a long march, which is equivalent to saying that the Chu army has no chance to take advantage of it.

"The Qin people abandoned Xianyang." Ole shouted, his words very unpleasant.

"Then our army will pull out Xianyang!" Pan Wuming glared at him and shouted.

"Nonsense!" Xiong Jing scolded Pan Wusheng, and then he looked at Zhuang Wudi, Dou Chang and others, "The Qin people abandoned Xianyang, what about our army?" ”

If the Qin army did not catch up closely, the next step was naturally to cross Weishui north and capture Xianyang. The king asked, obviously wanting another choice. Dou Chang shook his head for a while, he couldn't think of any other choice. Zhuang Wudi also had a wry smile on his face, and he finally said: "King, at this time, our army can only cross Weishui north and pull out Xianyang. ”

"There's no other way to do it?" Xiong Jing knew that this was the result, but he didn't give up on asking.

"There's no other way." Zhuang is not authentic. "And our army needs to pull out Xianyang quickly, and the minister thinks that the Qin army has sent troops to attack Shangluo to prevent me from returning."

The Chu army had more than 120,000 people, more than 7,000 four-wheeled carriages, one cart and four horses, and 30,000 horses in addition to war horses. It is equivalent to one horse for every four people, so that the march will not be tiring in a day. It's not that the Qin army can't reach this marching speed, but that the 300,000 old and weak soldiers can't reach it, which is the weakness of the Qin army.

If the Chu army's return route is cut off and they are waiting for work in Bailu Plateau, then this weakness will no longer exist, and the situation will form a solemn battle after the battle, rather than the battle without a battle as the Chu army wants. Therefore, the Chu army should act quickly, quickly pull out Xianyang, and then quickly return to Shangluo before the Qin army's careful deployment. Otherwise, you will have to change all the way back to Chu State.

"Yes." Xiong Jing nodded. He said uneasily: "Order all divisions, both into Xianyang, to guard military discipline." Raids can only be in the royal city and the eastern city, but not in the western city; You can only kill Ding Zhuang, not women and children. plunder, not arson......"

Xianyang is the capital of the Qin State, and the prosperity of a city can be imagined. The road is thirty miles away from Xianyang, there are countless cities, to the shore of Weishui, there are many shops on both sides. Plundering is the right of soldiers, and how not to affect the march and battle, Xiong Jing does not want to deprive them of their rights. It's just that looting should also be regulated, and what should be done and what should not be done must be stated in advance.

Xianyang is similar to most of the capitals in the world, the east city is where the nobles live, the west city is where the Su people live, the middle is the royal city, the back of the royal city is the big city of Xianyang, the back of the big city, and some places in the west city are the Shaofu workshop. Looting was only allowed in the eastern and royal cities, not in the western cities—and the common people actually had nothing to rob of.

Hearing that Xiong Jing issued an order to plunder the army, and said that it was not allowed to set fire, Cheng Tong hurriedly said: "It is necessary to burn the palace of the Qin people." ”

"What's the benefit of burning the palace?" Xiong Jing retorted. He suddenly remembered Xiang Yu.

"The Qin people burned me and destroyed my Ji Ying, and I should burn his palace!" Cheng Tong's face was bruised, and when he thought of this, he couldn't wait to burn all the eighty miles of Xianyang City.

"Instead of burning his palace, it is better to kill all the craftsmen of the Shaofu." Ele, who was disliked by the generals all the way, finally put forward a suggestion that impressed everyone. Xianyang is almost an empty city, and the most valuable of them is not the warehouse with hundreds of millions of stones outside the city, but the craftsmen of Shaofu. With the Dingkou of the Qin State, it is only a few years to accumulate hundreds of millions of stone grains, and it will take decades to train more than 100,000 craftsmen.

"Neither shall the officials be indulged." Zhuang Wudi added. "Take the sorcerer as the key."

"The Prime Minister's Mansion and the Governor's Mansion should also be burned." Nao Xin added. "The Governor's Mansion may have a Hou spy case to report ......"

"I thought Jiuding should be transported to Yingdu." Someone actually thought about Jiuding.

"King," Right Shi Yixian was inspired by Jiuding, and suddenly remembered something that was a thousand times more important than Jiuding. "The Qin people destroyed the Zhou, and they took away the history books of the Zhou people, which should be stored in the Xianyang Palace."

"I heard that the Qin people seized the history books of other countries, and destroyed them after reading them, so as to highlight the history of Qin." Two weeks and eight hundred years, if there is really a history of Zhou that the right history says, he will naturally take it away, but Nao Xin poured a basin of cold water on him.

"I ask the king's permission." Right Shi said again.

"The minister also asks the king's permission." Zuo Shi Candle Yong also said. "The Qin people burned books, if they got the history of Zhou, they must not stay in Xianyang."

"Take it with you." Xiong Jing didn't care about the history of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, he cared about the history of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the history of Shang and Xia that were earlier than the history of the Western Zhou Dynasty. If these things are really still there, they should be thousands of years old. Shang Dynasty Xia, Zhou Dynasty Shang, the place where these things may exist used to be Feng Hao, and now it is naturally Xianyang.

Xiong Jing didn't think too much about it, what he hoped most was for the Qin army to catch up, but this was obviously impossible. He could only order in a cold voice: "Order the whole army to cross Wei and set up camp." ”