"Wu Anjun has done this, it is easy to solve the difficulty of Taoyi, and Jin Cong is here to congratulate Bai Qiqi on his victory." Jin Contempt's eyes were respectful, and he bowed his hand to Bai Qi with great respect, but he didn't think much of Bai Qi in his heart.

If 30,000 iron horsemen want to attack Linzi from Tao County, it is as difficult as climbing to the sky, not to mention that Bai Qi's Qin army is far away from the Qin country, and it is even more difficult to supply.

Although Bai Qi once led 100,000 Qin troops deep into the territory of Chu and directly attacked Yingdu, Jin did not think that Bai Qi still had such good luck now, Chu and Qin were approaching, and they went south directly from Danshui, and the speed was extremely fast, and Chu did not react.

In 279 B.C., in the same year of the "meeting of the pond", Bai Qi raised 80,000 troops and went south to attack Chu.

In fact, a year before the "Meeting of Michi", the Qin army had already fought against the state of Chu and won. The commander at that time was the famous General Sima Cuo. It's just that Bai Qi performed too well before, capturing dozens of cities and killing hundreds of thousands of people seemed easy to him, and as soon as he made a move, it was like chopping melons and vegetables, but he left Sima Cuo, the oldest veteran general, behind the scenes.

In fact, speaking realistically, in terms of tactics, Sima is far worse than Bai Qi; But when it comes to strategic vision, Sima Cuo wants to win in vain. This can be seen from his lifelong dedication to Shu, and it is also a strange person to be able to debate with Zhang Yi without falling behind.

The state of Shu, as well as the nearby Ba and Tho, had been pacified by him earlier, and later rebelled many times, each time Sima Cuo led the army to quell the rebellion. After coming down again and again, at this time, it finally stopped, and the Qin State finally successfully digested this vast land in the southwest. After digestion, the huge effect of Shu was immediately apparent.

The first is the economic aspect. Since it is under the jurisdiction of the Qin State, it is necessary to pay taxes, and it is necessary to act according to the laws of the Qin State. Although Shu is sparsely populated and cannot be compared with the large countries of the Central Plains, it is not small because of its area, so this contribution is also considerable. Secondly, it is more critical to the strategic significance. As early as the first time he cut down Shu, Sima Cuo once put forward a bold view: if you get Shu, you will get Chu; If you get Chu, you can settle the world!

In this year, Sima Cuo led 100,000 Qin troops to pacify Shu, as well as tens of thousands of Bashu natives, and took a pre-built warship from Fushui (a tributary of the Jialing River) to the east and invaded the territory of Chu. The state of Chu has always only worried that the Qin state will send troops south from Shang Yu and other places, and has never been wary that the Qin army will be killed from Shu, and it still uses a new weapon-warship, which is the patent of Chu, Yue and other countries. Therefore, he was caught off guard for a while and was quickly broken into by the Qin army.

When the king of Chu Xiang hurriedly mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops stationed on the northwestern border of Qin and Chu to meet the battle, Sima Cuo suddenly turned his sword and changed to land, directly into the southernmost area of Chu in central Guizhou (present-day Hunan). This area, which has bordered the previously mentioned Baiyue and other tribes, belongs to the sparsely populated and wild land of the Chu State. It is precisely because it is a wild place that even the Chu people themselves are not very familiar with the terrain in this area, and they are shouting everywhere to find the Qin army, but they have never been able to find it. The most infuriating thing is that Sima Coo took this opportunity to instigate the local Baiyue people and Dian people to raise troops against Chu - he has been busy settling the ethnic minorities (Bashu people) for many years, so he naturally understands the key points.

In the end, the Chu people were busy for most of the year, and there was nothing they could do about the Qin army, until Shangyong and other places north of the Han River were ceded to the Qin state, and Sima Cuo led the troops back to Shuzhong. As a result, the Qin army finally left, and the king of Chu had to report that the tribes in the south had rebelled, so he had to send a large army to rebel. The opportunity for Qin to attack Chu head-on came.

Originally, before the meeting of Michi, King Qin Zhaoxiang was still hesitant between attacking Zhao first or Chu first, and then saw that the monarchs and ministers of Zhao were single-minded and could not be attacked suddenly for a while, so he made up his mind to attack Chu. This time, the commander of the attack was replaced by Bai Qi. A year ago, when Sima attacked Chu by mistake, the military force used was roughly 1230,000, and he took advantage of the waterway to attack the side of Chu and achieved fruitful results; This time, Bai Qi's troops were even smaller, only 80,000, and there were no ships, so he had to attack from the front.

The difficulty of the battle can be imagined!

But Bai Qi is full of confidence, because he is already good at winning more with less, not to mention, Sima Cuo has won a key city for him, so that he is more confident to win this battle. The name of this city is called: Shangyong (now Zhushan County, Hubei).

The reason why Shangyong is key is because there is a big river in its northwest, and the name of this river is called Hanshui. When Sun Wu invaded Chu, he almost couldn't cross the Han River because he wanted to, and suffered a big defeat. Now, because Sima Coo, the Chu State was forced to cede Shangyong to the Qin State, Bai Qi could easily lead his army to occupy the southeast bank of the Han River, and he no longer had to worry about the Han River moat.

Shangyong is about a thousand miles away from the Yingdu of Chu, because it has avoided the Han River, there is no big river in the middle. Yingdu is right in front of you.

Bai Qi wants to surpass Sima Cuo and take this place! Well, that's the end of the pre-war analysis, let's take a closer look at the war.

But after saying that after Bai got the order, he led an army of 80,000 and set off from Xianyang to attack the Chu State. He knew the key of Shangyong, and as soon as he made a move, he sent a large army to enter this place, and the noise greatly shocked the Chu State in the east.

At this time, Bai Qi passed the "Battle of Yique" and was already famous all over the world, so King Chu Xiang was deeply frightened when he learned that Bai Qi sent a large army to Shangyong. If the Qin army rushed to Yingdu from this place, it would only take more than a month to reach the city of Yingdu, so he hurriedly ordered: All cities, quickly lead troops to Yingdu for reinforcements!

At that time, the total strength of the state of Chu was about 600,000 people. Among them, 100,000 people are distributed in Wu, Yue and other places in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River; 100,000 troops were stationed in the north to be the two kingdoms of Qi and Han; In addition, tens of thousands of people were stationed in Xiling (now Yichang, Hubei), Wujun (now Wushan, Chongqing) and other places to serve as Sima Cuo. The rest is the main force of 300,000, gathered in the core area of Chu - the central part of Jingzhou (Hubei, Hunan) to control the Quartet.

Since it is the core area, it is naturally full of cities and fortresses - there are dozens of large and small cities in total. Among them, three cities are the most important. These three cities, from south to north, are the three cities of Ying, Yan and Deng. Among them, Yingdu is the capital of Chu State, which has appeared many times before, so there is no need to go into detail. The cities of Yan and Deng were built on both sides of the Han River—Yancheng (present-day Yicheng, Hubei) was south of the Hanshui, and Dengcheng (present-day Xiangfan, Hubei) was north of the Hanshui. From the location of these two cities, it can be seen that the state of Chu has been well aware of the importance of the Han River, so it has built two large cities around the Han River, one south and one north, to prevent the recurrence of the tragedy of "Sun Wu destroying Chu".

These three cities were garrisoned by large armies, each of about 100,000 people, forming a trend of mutual aid. It is a defensive chain that the Chu State has painstakingly built for many years. However, now that Bai Qi has sent troops from Shangyong, south of the Han River, he can bypass the two cities of Yan and Deng and go straight to Yingdu. Once Yingdu is breached, the two cities that defend Hanshui are meaningless even if they are well defended.

So, seeing this, King Xiang of Chu hurriedly ordered the defenders of Yan and Deng to assemble in Yingdu, and gathered 300,000 troops in one place. In this way, no matter how much he has the ability to reach the sky, it will never be possible to capture the capital of Chu State, which has so many defenders and is so strong.

Unexpectedly, this is what Bai Qi wants.

Previously, when he sent troops to Shangyong, he did not rush with the army, but sat quietly in the rear to watch the deployment of the Chu army. When he learned that the Chu army had rushed to Yingdu to defend to the death, he led an army of 30,000 to march east from Shangyu, and at the same time, with an urgent letter, let the 50,000 troops stationed in Shangyong cross the Han River, join with him, and attack Qiang Chu together.

So, what is his real goal? - Deng Cheng.

To put it simply, Bai Qi wanted to win by surprise, and wanted to attack all the way to Yingdu with only 80,000 troops from north to south. However, because the two ends of the Han River were heavily defended and could not be attacked, he made a trick and showed a posture of going straight to Yingdu from above.

This move was extremely risky, of course he couldn't do it, but Chu Jun thought he wanted to do it because he was afraid of his prestige. As a result, for a time, the Chu army at both ends of the Han River panicked and collectively went south, leaving an undefended open space to the Qin army.

This is the same as Bai Qi wanting to go straight to Linzi now, forcing the army of Qi State Zaitao County to come back to help, so as to break the deadlock.

In a trance state of the monarchs and ministers of the State of Chu, Bai Qi personally led a large army from Shangyu in the north of Hanshui, and summoned the Shangyong army south of Hanshui to Dengcheng. At this time, the defenders of Deng Cheng were already gone, and when they saw the Qin army killing on a large scale, they were in chaos, and within a few days, Deng Cheng fell into the hands of Bai Qi. After taking Dengcheng, Bai Qi did not stop and ordered the Qin army to cross the river and attack Yancheng. At this time, the Chu army learned that Dengcheng was lost, and had initially figured out the intentions of the Qin army, so they hurriedly rushed to Yancheng, and when Bai Qi led the army to find a bridge and cross the river, 100,000 troops had arrived in Yancheng one after another, and this defense line was filled in time.

In the "Art of War", there is a saying that "the siege of the city under it" is to surround it ten times and attack it three times, and if the forces of the attacking and defending sides are equal, it should be the defender who has an absolute advantage. Why was the Qin army given an advantage? It turned out that after Bai Qi led the army to capture Dengcheng, he hurriedly looked for a bridge to cross the river. The lower reaches of the Nahan River are extremely wide, and they cannot be crossed without boats; Upstream, however, there were several narrow waterways with wooden bridges built on them, so that the Qin army could cross the river. After crossing the bridge, Bai Qi gave an order: Tear down the bridge! Soon, the retreat of the Qin army was extinct, and unless the Chu army could be defeated, the 80,000 Qin army would be trapped and killed on the south bank of the Han River! What's even worse is that in order to make the march fast, before crossing the river, Bai Qi only asked the soldiers to bring a few days' rations each, and did not need to be followed by slow baggage troops. By the time they arrived at the city wall of Yancheng, the soldiers had already eaten half of their rations, and if they did not take the city quickly, they would soon have to fight on an empty stomach.

Therefore, everyone worked hard to break through the city in a few days, so that they could have something to eat. Seeing the ferocity of the Qin army, the guards hurriedly gathered the soldiers to try their best to resist, although the situation was not good, fortunately, Yingdu was very close, and soon there was good news: tens of thousands of reinforcements were already on the way, and they would be able to come to help in a few days. Soon, this news was also learned by Bai Qi. He knew that if he continued to storm the city, he would not wait to break through the city, and the soldiers would starve to death. So he ordered the evacuation of Deng Cheng again.

This is the earliest mobile warfare fought by Bai Qi, using his own rapid movement to exert pressure on the enemy.

In Sima Fa, it was said, "Few profits are troublesome, and many are profitable." "Bai Qi's 80,000 Qin army is undoubtedly very small for the 300,000 army of Chu State, but Bai Qi gave full play to the military thinking of few profits and troubles, and constantly achieved his own military victory by transferring operations.

So the 80,000 Qin army quickly withdrew to the west of Yancheng, there were several small cities here, and the defenders were very few. Because of this, Qin Jun was finally able to eat his stomach for the time being. He sent people to investigate the movement of Yancheng, and soon learned that there were no less than 150,000 troops in the city, and if he turned around and attacked again, he still could not rush down.

Bai Qi didn't believe in this evil, and he was willing to attack it again. So after sweeping away several small cities west of Yancheng, he once again led his army to the city and attacked the city again. The guards in the city saw that he had gone and returned, and guessed the shortcomings of the Qin army: it came from afar, and although the front was strong, it suffered from the lack of food and grass, and it would not be able to fight for a long time. Therefore, the governor went down: the whole city tried its best to defend the city, and it was not easy to go out of the city to attack the Qin army. When its food and grass were exhausted, it was naturally forced to retreat. At that time, it was not easy for me to recover Dengcheng and other places. Sure enough, Bai Qi attacked for a few more days, seeing that the city defense was strong, and the Chu soldiers refused to go out of the city to meet the battle, so they had to retreat, retreating for hundreds of miles, and retreating to the area of Fengxiang (now Wu'an, Hubei) to prepare for a decisive battle.

Fengxiang is a small city, and the people in the city have long been scattered, with neither food nor grass nor defenders, so it is not enough to worry about. But the reason why Bai Qi retreated here was not to take food, not to rest, but to capture the city! There is a branch of the Han River, which flows just past the southern end of Fengxiang, only a few miles away from the city wall. When Bai Qi was robbing grain and grass before, he had already explored the terrain in this area. Therefore, he feinted for a while, and when he saw that the Chu army had made up his mind to defend it, he immediately gathered all the troops here, and ordered: Dig up soil and store water to irrigate Yancheng.

Within a few days, tens of thousands of Qin troops worked together to block the water level to more than ten zhang. For the sake of nothing, the sergeant was busy settling upstream, and then gave an order: release the water! The flood was surging, like a dragon horse galloping, rushing towards the direction of Yancheng. After a thunderous bang, the walls of Yancheng had collapsed, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city were dumped into the deep water with no power to resist. After the water passed, when Bai Qi's army arrived, the scene around Yancheng was already miserable - the soldiers and civilians died, the houses were all washed away, and there was a scene of Zeguo...... The soldiers of the Qin army, who have always been cruel and ruthless, and who take pleasure in competing for heads, were also shocked by this scene. At that time, within a radius of dozens of miles, the dead were everywhere, and the corpses were stinking. Hundreds of thousands of Chu people were wiped out in one fell swoop.

But to put it bluntly, seeing that Yancheng had fallen, he did not relent, and immediately ordered the soldiers of the Qin army to take advantage of the situation to attack. At this time, two of the three major cities in the core area of Chu have been lost, and although there are still more than 100,000 defenders in the city of Yingdu, they have long been in panic - the terrain around Yingdu is extremely similar to Yancheng. Bai Qi can irrigate Yancheng with water, how can it not irrigate Yingdu with water?

(End of chapter)