Five thousand cavalry could inflict fatal casualties on the infantry in a duel on the plain, but in the face of the Chu army, which was protected by a chariot array, the cavalry was at a loss. To the west of Jiyi, he forcibly crossed the Yue River and traveled about fifteen miles, and Xin Sheng finally caught up with Xiang Yan's headquarters. Because he knew that the Qin army cavalry was going to chase after him, on the wide Qin Road, nearly 10,000 Chu army soldiers were divided into five columns, and 600 double-wheeled chariots were divided into two, escorting the army on both sides, and the more than four miles long team stepped out of a smoke and dust that could be seen for several miles on the avenue.

Horses have no stirrups, and it is difficult to open a bow, so the knights of the Qin army are equipped with arm crossbows, while the Chu army is equipped with longbows. The range of the bow was far greater than that of a crossbow, and whenever the Qin knights approached, the Chu archers would open their bows and drive them away. This is not Xin Sheng's biggest headache, the most headache is the car formation, although the double-wheeled car is not as wide as the single-wheeled car, but it is not something that the horse can cross. Even if Xin Sheng made up his mind that the five thousand cavalry would not be able to break through the chariot formation without all the casualties, he could only choose another target.

Huaishui descends from Dafu Mountain, follows the mountain, crosses the Fuyi Mountain Road under the mountain, and then turns to the east and parallel to the mountain road, and enters the Jiyi Basin at the position of Tongbai County in the later generations. From Jiyi to Fuyi, cross the Moon River and walk 20 miles to cross the Huaishui again, and then travel more than 10 miles along the mountain road to Fuyi. Last night, Xiang Zhi's troops had already occupied the Huaishui Ferry, but they also alarmed the defenders of Fuyi.

The ferry was in the hands of the Chu army, and it was impossible for Xin Sheng to assist Fuyi, and it was impossible to even engage the Chu army - the mountain road was narrow, and even if the cavalry crossed the Huaishui, it would be difficult to give full play to its advantages to engage the Chu army. Therefore, after crossing the Chu army's vehicle formation, which was difficult to break away, Xin Sheng chose the target at the ferry.

"Dismount!" Two miles from the ferry, Xin Sheng's order spread throughout the army.

The "dismount ......" 5,000 knights were similar to dragoons, and were better at foot combat than cavalry combat. With Xin Sheng's military order, after the continuous exchange of swords and leather, all the five thousand knights dismounted.

"Column—array!" The bell rang, the bell fluttered in the ears of the soldiers, and the commanders, chiefs, and captains shouted to form formations. Soon, an army formation of 500 men in a row, 500 in depth, 500 horsemen on each side, and 300 men wide and 5 men in the rear was formed. The height of the knights of the Qin army is required to be more than seven feet five inches, strong and swift, and they are called martial knights. Once the military formation formed by them was formed, the murderous aura naturally overflowed. To the sound of drums, they slowly walked towards the ferry.

"The Qin people are here, retreat into the camp!" The main general went west, and there were chasing soldiers at the end, and Xiang Zhi of the division of Xiang County personally led 2,000 people to the ferry to meet them. Seeing that the Qin warrior knights abandoned their horses and fought on foot, and came with great momentum, his method was very simple, that is, not to fight with him. Even if there is a battle, it is necessary to delay as much time as possible to wait for Xiang Yan's headquarters, if the Qin people do not retreat, the two armies can attack them on their backs.

"Withdraw!" The plan to deal with the enemy had been arranged long ago, and most of the ships on the east bank of the ferry had withdrawn to the west bank, and the Chu army only occupied the original camp of the ferry. Xiang Zhi gave an order, and all the Chu troops outside the camp entered the base and did not fight with the Qin army in the field.

"General, the Jing people have retreated into the camp, and our army is ......" In the sound of the drum, the Qin army was still moving forward slowly, but the Chu army outside the camp retreated into the camp one by one, completely avoiding the war.

"Drumming!" Xin Sheng naturally also saw the Chu army retreating into the camp at the ferry, but he had no choice at this time - if he didn't seize the east bank of the ferry before the two Chu armies met, then they would hide in the Fuyi Mountain Road and defend according to the danger. At that time, if you want to destroy these two Chu armies, the price is not to attack such a small camp.

"Hey!" A rider will say yes loudly. At this time, the sound of the drums became denser, and the martial knights who stepped on the drums tightened the crossbows in their hands, and everyone's crossbows had been wound, and the camp of the Chu army in front was only three hundred steps away.

"Order: Take the Jingren camp within the ten drums." The drums stopped for a while, and Xin Sheng gave the last military order.

"Respectfully!" The cavalry generals, tun commanders, even chiefs, and army commanders shouted in response, and after that, the drums beat loudly again, and Xin Sheng personally beat the drums.

"Shoot ——!" The Qin army was getting closer and closer, and seeing them enter a hundred steps, Xiang Zhi ordered the archers to release their arrows. Fuyi was not taken, and the sparse rain of arrows of dozens of archers fell into the Qin array, and also knocked down many knights in the military array.

And a hundred steps is also the distance at which the Qin army began to attack, and at the same time as the Chu army released its arrows, with the shouting of the commander of the Qin people at the front of the entire column, the entire attacking army array ran up. While running, the Qin soldiers held crossbows and fired arrows at the Chu camp, but they didn't have time to wind up and put the second arrow, and the crossbows were immediately discarded, and everyone held their weapons and followed the commander to the Chu army camp in front.

The Chu army occupied not so much a barracks as a wooden fence. These wooden fences were originally used to enclose the heavy grain and grass piled up on the east side of the ferry to prevent traitors from stealing and destroying them.

The Qin army attacked the wooden fence and tried to push it to it, while the Chu army guarded the wooden fence and used long soldiers to constantly stab through the fence. The corpses gradually piled up on both sides of the wooden fence, but the Qin army could not attack them until the corpses were higher than the fence. And because of the isolation of the wooden fence, the two sides could not form a staggered situation, only the soldiers with long soldiers stabbed each other through the fence, and the short soldiers could not use their strength at all.

In the fierce battle, both armies were beating drums, especially the Qin army's drums. How the battle situation is Xin Shengquan in his eyes, according to such a method of warfare, not to mention ten drums, even twenty drums can't take the ferry.

"Pick up the gavel." Xin Sheng returned the drumsticks to the drummers and wanted to go into battle in person to break the Chu army camp.

"General, look!" Xin Sheng did not put down the drum of the car, and the sergeant next to him pointed behind him in shock, where it was the car formation of the Chu army.

"General Xiang is here! General Xiang is here! Xin Sheng, who was standing on top of the car, saw Xiang Yan's car formation, and Xiang Zhi, who was stationed at the ferry, also saw it. For a while, the Chu army was excited, and they were about to rush out of the fence and annihilate the Qin army in front of them with friendly troops.

"Collect the troops!" Xin Sheng, who felt that what he had done was beyond reproach, ordered the troops to be withdrawn, and before Xiang Yan's chariot array arrived, he led the cavalry to retreat to five miles downstream of the ferry, not far away.

"The last general meets the general." Xiang Zhi, who wanted to smile but didn't dare to laugh, saluted Xiang Yan under the double car.

"How's Fuyi?" Xiang Yan was not surprised by the retreat of the Qin army, and his first sentence was to restore the city.

"Please atone for the general's sins, and the city has not been uprooted." This is the reason why Xiang Zhi didn't dare to laugh, he didn't take Fuyi.

"How much is the Qin soldier geometric?" It was all luck to be able to take Jiyi: the Qin army was defeated, and the soldiers who wanted to enter the city not only filled in the moat, but also got the head of the city on the mountain of corpses. It is impossible for Fuyi to repeat the incident of Jiyi, and it is normal for the Chu army, which has no siege equipment, to be unable to take it.

"Back to the general, there may be two thousand Qin soldiers in Fuyi." Xiang Zhi could only say 'or'. The defenders of the Qin army in Fuyi closed their doors without fighting, so he had to order people to guard the narrow part of the mountain road and wait for Xiang Yan's arrival.

"Two thousand Qin soldiers......" Xiang Yan nodded first, then shook his head. How much has our army lost? ”

"Our army did not suffer much loss." Xiang Zhi replied. "However, there are 100 casualties among the soldiers, and there are still 8,000 capable warriors."

"Good." Half of Cai's division, half of Xi's division, and the number of soldiers who can fight is only 5,000, and with these 8,000, it is 13,000 people. "Our army has sufficient food and grass, and the water source in the mountains is not worried, and after the food is exhausted for 15 days according to the mountain road, it retreats into Tang County." Xiang Yan ordered.

"Fifteen?" Pan Wuming, Cheng Tong, Peng Zong and others were also there, and they had not yet spoken after hearing Xiang Yan's order to 'guard the mountain road for 15 days', and the first one to jump out was Su Ke in the army, that is, the military food officer, he said: "General, our army's military food is not enough!" We must not forget that our army still has more than 1,300 horses. ”

When he left Xieyi, there were more than 16,000 soldiers and 4,000 servants; At present, there are more than 13,000 soldiers capable of fighting, plus the wounded and servants, the total number is 18,000. If we add the captives who fled westward, the number is more than 20,000. 20,000 people have two meals a day, and a minimum of 20,000 stone is needed on the 15th, but in wartime they must have three meals, and on the 15th day it is 30,000 stone.

And horses can eat five times as much as a man, that is to say, more than 600 pack horses and 730 military horses, which is equal to 6 or 7,000 soldiers. Based on two stones per soldier per day, it is 7,000 stones for half a month, plus 37,000 stones for the previous one. When evacuating Jiyi, although most of the wounded were loaded on the double carts, the horses and camels carried their husbands and took away 22,000 stone of military rations.

"The mountain road is guarded, it is necessary to build a wall, the Qin army prisoners know that I have arranged it, and the envoys cannot be released after the service, so they can only be executed." Xiang Yan's face was expressionless, and one sentence decided the life and death of more than a thousand Qin army prisoners.

"The servant is not a soldier, and when he retreats into Tang County before our army with injuries or illnesses, the same is true for military horses." Xiang Yan said again. "13,000 soldiers, 22,000 stone of military rations, when the Qin army did not attack us, find some wild vegetables, hunt some wild animals, or can last for fifteen days."

"Fuyi Tang County is only a mountain away, but 4,000 servants and injured people go to Tang County here, and there are also forty miles. The mountain road is rugged, and I am afraid that it will take four or five days to reach Tangxian Avenue, which will have to carry four or five days of military rations. If Tang County is unable to respond, it may need to bring 10 days of military rations. "Military Sima Peng Zong is not without worries. The Dafu Mountain at the ferry is low, and from here it retreats into Tang County, if you abandon your baggage and go south, it is not unavoidable, but these people still take a lot of military rations.

"I know that Da Sima is a person, and Tang County will respond." Xiang Yan was sure in his heart, "The servant will return south with injuries and illnesses, and he can bring the four military rations." So, is there enough food? He asked Xiang Junke.

"If someone in Tang County answered...... More than 5,000 people, 1,350 horses, need 960 stone of grain every day, take away 3,840 stone......" Su Ke made a silent calculation, and finally nodded and said: "General, 4,000 soldiers carry 9,000 stone of military rations, and pack horses cannot be taken away, but 300 horses need to be kept." A horse has 20 stone of grain on the top, and 300 horses are 6,000 stones, which is enough. ”

Horses consume food, but horses can eat it. Xiang Yan felt sorry for the horse, the muscles on his face twitched a few times, and finally said: "There are few horses in the Chu country, just pick two hundred inferior horses and leave them to pull grain, and the rest will be brought back to Tang County by the military horse, and you will cross the ridge from here today." ”

"My dignified army Sima returned to Tang County before the war?!" Peng Zong glared and pointed to his nose, word by word, and finally waved his sleeves: "Let Xiang Chao go, he should have gone home." ”