It's not that Zhao Wuxian doesn't want to chase after Fucha, but after entering Huaibei, the army has completely entered the territory of the enemy country, and he is not familiar with the place. Although there were many detailed works depicting www.biquge.info the map and sending it back to Zhao in the past year, because there were no accurate drawing tools, let alone careful investigation, the road trend on the map was too different from the actual situation, so that the cavalry of the Zhao army took the wrong path several times. The pursuit of the army is even more difficult, in this era the mountains and wilderness are all over the country, and once they strayed into the swamp woods, it was easy to delay the fighters.

Therefore, the army is advancing very slowly, and he is afraid that the Wu people will come to an ambush, so he has to take one step and see three steps. In this way, the pursuit stopped, so that the main force of the Zhao army has been pulled behind, and only the forwards of Zhao Jia and Tian Ben caught up with the rear team of the Wu army twice under Lingbi and Yuan, killing and scattering more than 10,000 enemy troops.

When they arrived at the Huai River, the Zhao army, which had been hurrying for days, was already exhausted, and there was no way to cross the river to stop Fucha from escaping.

After hesitating by the Huai River for a long time, the banner of the Zhao army slowly receded, as if it had given up. Seeing this situation, Zhong Liyi's Wu General Xu Menchao suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

However, although Xu Menchao was right, Zhao Wuxian would not kill his husband, but he also expected one thing wrong.

That is, Zhao Wuxian realized the importance of Zhong Liyi more than him, and he was determined to win this place!

In order to paralyze the opponent, the Zhao army stopped by the Huai River for a while, and then made a gesture of returning north, but what Xu Menchao did not expect was that the main force of the Zhao army made a detour to Zhouqu, dozens of miles to the west, built a pontoon bridge on the sandbank, and quietly crossed the Huai, and then when the enemy army just found out, it launched an attack in the direction of Zhongli.

The Zhao army is menacing, although there are still more than 10,000 Wu troops in Jiangbei, but they are scattered in Yihu, Qunshu, Hangou and other places, Zhongli defenders are only thousands, and they were also taken away by the husband to take away some of the grain, at this time encountered ten times the Zhao army attack, Xu Menchao suddenly lost the fighting spirit, had to abandon the city and retreat to the southeast, after all, not every Wu army can be as fierce as the rhino armor guards, willing to give up their lives to defend the territory and dignity.

On the night of August 18, the Zhao army occupied Zhongli without a fight.

When driving into Zhongli Eup, Wuxian found that it had become almost an empty city, with the garrison and residents fleeing. But Zhao Wuxian doesn't care, what he values more is the strategic value here.

As Xu Menchao said, Zhongli this place was called "Fengyang" in later generations, although it was a little poor, but it was also an important place, connecting Chen and Cai in the west, and Xu and Si in the east, which was the gateway to the south of the Yangtze River. Since Zhao Wuxian was worried that his husband would make a comeback, he simply crossed Huai to occupy here, without Zhongli, there would be no barrier in Jiangbei, and Huai could not defend it, and Jiang could not defend it. If the Zhao army wants to attack the state of Wu, it can gather troops here at any time, and if the state of Wu wants to counterattack Huaibei, every move is under Zhongli's nose.

But when the army was resting here, Tian Ben and other brave and ruthless people suggested that it was better to fight all the way to the river, or even cross the river to the capital of Wu and destroy Wu with Yue!

In this regard, Zhao Wuxian categorically vetoed it.

"That's right, if the army stays here for a few days and then continues to move south, attacking the Jiangbei Zhuyi, it may be able to attack the river, and even defeat Fucha's army again, so that the Yue State can successfully capture the Wu capital, plus the Chu State will advance eastward, and after a year and a half, the Wu State can be destroyed. But in this way, in addition to being quick for a while, what are the benefits of Yu Zhaoguo? ”

Tian Ben, who was eager to make meritorious contributions, said without hesitation: "Your Majesty can occupy the land north of the Wu River!" I heard that this place is thousands of miles away, which is equivalent to several counties in Zhao Kingdom! ”

Zhao Wuxian shook his head and said: "But the people of Jiangbei in Wu State are not as good as half a county in Zhao State. ”

Jiangbei, that is, the Huaiyang region of later generations, the terrain here is flat, there are many rivers, the lakes and ponds are dense, the Chu State in the late Warring States period took this as the East Chu, the Huainan Kingdom was also a rich kingdom in the Han Dynasty, after the Tang and Song dynasties, Jiangbei became a heavy place for taxation, the land of fish and rice, not Jiangnan, similar to Jiangnan.

However, in the Spring and Autumn Period, Jiangbei was very different from later generations, for example, there was no Hongze Lake in Jiangbei in this era, but hundreds of large and small lakes, and the water network was staggered, which was not conducive to cavalry action. Because of the humid and warm climate, the river here is rich in water and grass, the plains are reckless and grassy, the low mountain platform is densely forested, looking out from Zhongliyi, you can see a large area of primeval forest, after nightfall, the tiger roars and the ape cries, telling everyone from the north that outside the city, it is the land outside the territory.

If this place is well developed for several generations, it has a lot to do, but unfortunately the use value is not much in a short period of time, and there are no ready-made cities and people to obtain, far inferior to Huaibei, which already has many ripe fields and cities, and Huainan, which is composed of Ying, Liu, and Qunshu Zhuyi a little south.

Therefore, if Zhao Wuxian led tens of thousands of troops to chase and kill Fucha regardless of the situation, he was afraid that before he reached the river, the army would go hungry halfway, because in the Jiangbei of this era, even if he wanted to fight the enemy because of food, there was nowhere to grab it.

What's more, for Zhao Wuxian, since the forces of the Wu State have withdrawn from Huaibei and the Zhao army is also on the Huai River, then he has to face another problem: the Chu State.

Last year, because of the death of King Zhao of Chu, the eastern border of Chu was bitten hard by Wu State, and hundreds of miles of land were lost, and this year with the defeat of Fucha in the north, Chu State also began a counteroffensive, it is said that the Sima Zi period of Chu State attacked Huaishang and surrounded Chen State. And Wang Sunsheng, who defected from the Zhao army, turned into the right Sima of the Chu State, and the Shuai army attacked Qunshu, and it seemed that he was about to hit the vicinity of Cai State.

At this time, to chase and kill Wu Jun, isn't it a precursor for the people of Chu?

"Therefore, in the land north of the river, the Zhao State can not defend it, and abandon it and enrich the Chu State, what is the benefit?"

As for the previous worries about whether the husband could "make a comeback", Zhao Wuxian couldn't help but think of a poem in his previous life.

"A hundred battles are tired and the strong men mourn, and it is difficult to return from the defeat of the Central Plains.

The disciples of Jiangdong are still here, willing to make a comeback for the king? ”

The defeat in the Central Plains has been severely damaged, the Wu army has lost all its baggage, and even the armor and weapons have been almost abandoned.

Even if there is no Yue Guo, just the pressure of Chu State is enough to drink a pot.

In such a situation, we don't have to worry about whether Fucha can make a comeback, but we should think about whether the Wu State can survive for a few years without perishing under the attack of Chu Yue and the withering of the people's livelihood inside.

Therefore, Zhao Wuxian denied the idea of Tian Ben and others' request to seize Jiangbei and bring troops to the river, and he personally demarcated that the end point of this southern expedition was Zhongli!

"With Zhongli as the fortress of the bridgehead, leave a division of soldiers here in Tuntian, in order to control and choke the Huai River, from then on Zhao State can remotely monitor the movements of Wu State, sit back and watch the battle between Wu, Chu and Yue, and prevent the Chu army from taking Huainan and Jiangbei lightly."

But that wasn't enough, and Zhao Wuxian's fingers slid to the east of the map again.

"Except for those who stayed behind in Zhongli, the army was divided into two parts, and 30,000 people marched east with me to attack Wu Guoshan Daoyi."

Good road, is the end of the northern section of the ditch, connecting Huaisi, is an extremely important node on the ditch, here later generations are called "Xuyi", and Zhongli one east and one west, are the important towns of the Huai River Basin, the north can overlook the south of the Yangtze River, the south can get the north expedition to the Central Plains, seize the good road, and seal the gateway of Xudi, Zhao Wuxian can return to the division to take Huaibei.

Those who do not seek the overall situation are not enough to seek a domain, Zhao Wuxian is especially not satisfied, and his fingers are focused on Zhongli more than 100 miles to the west.

"Another 10,000 people, marching west with Zhao Jia's cavalry! You wait to go to Cai Guo! ”

"Cai Guo?" Zhao Jia and the others couldn't help but be shocked.

"Not bad." Zhao Wuxian said with a smile: "Cai Hou has a mortal enmity with the Chu State, and he has lost the protection of the Wu State, he must be very nervous at this moment, if he can get a strong neighbor to lend a hand, Cai Guo will definitely be attached!" ”

(To be continued.) )