The land of Guanzhong is the land of the Great Qin Longxing, which mostly refers to the land of the plains formed by the impact of Weishui.

Guanzhong is surrounded by mountains and many passes, there are Hangu Tianwei in the east, there are Yaowu in the south, Sanguan in the west, Xiaoguan in the north, these four places and become the four stops, so Guanzhong is also called the country of the four stops. After the construction of the Zhengguo Canal, Guanzhong became the largest granary of the Qin State, providing a foundation for the Qin army to advance eastward and unify.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period Qin Mugong entered the east to dominate the world, the Qin State gradually had a small border country into the most powerful country of the Warring States, after 400 years of hard work and struggle of the Qin people, finally swept away the six countries and unified the world during the period of the First Emperor. With the blessing of the four passes, the Qin people relied on the geographical advantage, entered and exited the Kanto region to compete for hegemony in the world, and retreated to retreat to defend themselves to resist strong enemies. In addition to deliberately opening and closing the Chu army to enter the customs during the period of King Huiwen, the Qin State has never lost the checkpoint.

In February of the third year of the Second Emperor, after an earth-shattering internal reshuffle took place in the Qin State, the pass on which it relied was easily broken by the rebel army. After Liu Bang captured Wuguan, he rested in place for a few days, and after the follow-up supplies and reinforcements arrived, he marched all the way west, and the mighty 150,000 troops were under the pass.

Zhao Gao is not a fool, after learning that Wuguan was lost, he also realized the seriousness of the situation, there is only one pass in the south of the entire Guanzhong that can be relied on, if the Guanguan is also lost, then the next is the Guanzhong Plain of Pingchuan. Therefore, he sent 20,000 elite Qin troops, and the original 5,000 defenders refused to defend the pass to prevent Liu Bang from continuing to penetrate into the pass.

Although Zhao Gao likes to play yin, his ability to recognize and employ people is still very strong, which makes him gather a large number of talents, or many of the guys with bad water have defected to him. However, although Zhao Gao is shrewd, it does not mean that his subordinates are also very good, and the guard Sima Da sent to guard the pass was recommended by his younger brother Zhao Cheng.

Sima Da is a gentleman who does not learn and has no skills, and the reason why he can get Zhao Cheng's strong recommendation is only because he is good at juju, so he is deeply appreciated by Zhao Cheng, who likes this. In addition, his appearance is quite powerful, and his eloquence is excellent, and when it comes to the art of war, he is entrusted with a heavy task by Zhao Gaozhi as a confidant.

At this time, this young man's proud general was panicked all day long, and the news of Zhao Gao's ambush from Xianyang made him tremble, he was Zhao Gao's confidant and favorite general, and Ziying would definitely find him if he was liquidated in the future. Although the will of the imperial court did not punish him, but greatly rewarded him, he also guessed that this was an expedient measure of the imperial court, just to stabilize the border general.

Although he is Zhao Gao's confidant, he has no idea of being loyal to Zhao Gao, if he is asked to take the army back to Xianyang to avenge the old master, he will never dare. Self-reliance? That's also unrealistic, Yaoguan is just a small pass with dangerous terrain, and the grain, grass and ordnance depend on the supply of Xianyang, if he stands on his own, it will definitely kill himself.

That's why Sima Dacai was extremely distressed, panicked all day long, and even threw all the things of the city defense to his subordinates, he just sighed in the room all day long.

On this day, he was drinking in the room again, thinking about the future, but the soldiers outside the door came in to report that an old man wanted to see him, and brought a heavy box, saying that it was a gift for the general.

Sima Da was a little strange, thinking to himself how someone would come to give him a gift at this time, the pro-soldier was his confidant, and when he saw his expression, he naturally guessed his thoughts, so he approached and said; "General, I see that man is acting strangely, and his words are flickering, maybe he is a lobbyist sent by the rebels, why don't we ......" After speaking, he made a 'card rub' gesture.

Sima Da's mind was a little lively, and he waved his hand; "The person who comes is a guest, since the gift is given, we must use the hospitality to bring it to me to see."

Dressed in a Confucian robe, Li Shi walked into Sima Da's camp with only a boy carrying a suitcase. When I entered the door, I saw Sima Da sitting on a high seat, and there was a row of fierce and vicious armor soldiers standing neatly next to him, and he was not afraid of it, but just bowed with a smile; "Chen Liuru is a general."

Sima Da wanted to put on a posture to scare and scare him, but seeing that Li Shiqi was unmoved, the corners of his mouth rose slightly, as if there was some ridicule. couldn't help but be very discouraged, and waved his hand to signal the armor to retreat, leaving only a few henchmen and soldiers.

"Old man, let's talk about it, what is the matter with General Ben."

Li Shi one arched his hand; "The old man has admired the general's prestige for a long time, and today I have come to offer some thoughts, please accept the general's smile." After saying that, he waved his hand, and Xiao Tong put down the box in his hand and opened it.

Sima Da's eyes widened instantly, and what appeared in front of him was a piece of jewelry, and the small box was full of rare treasures, and he was used to seeing jewelry, and he couldn't help but be dumbfounded. Sima Da's expression changed naturally did not hide from Li Shiqi's eyes, he admired it slightly in his heart, thinking that the military advisor was really like a god, in order to collect these rare treasures, he even did not hesitate to turn his face with Pei Gong, who liked property, and now it seems that it is indeed the military advisor who is right, Sima Da He is indeed a money-loving life.

Sima Da slowly walked to the box of money, his eyes flashed with greed, and he said in a trembling voice: "Are these all for me?" ”

Li Shiqi smiled slightly; "General, these are just a little thoughts of my family Pei Gong, if the general is interested in making Pei Gong a friend, there will be a heavy gift later."

'Pei Gong'! Sima Da was stunned for a moment, then understood, the heat in his eyes subsided a little, and asked suspiciously; "Are you Liu Bang's man?"

"Exactly." Li Shiqi nodded happily in acknowledgement, still looking at Sima Da with a smile.

"What did Liu Bang ask you to do?"

"Pei Gong knew that the general was in trouble, so he deliberately asked the old man to come to help."

"Help!" Sima Da was stunned for a moment and asked rhetorically; "What do you mean?"

Li Shiqi flicked his sleeves and talked eloquently. "General Sima, you are in a big disaster now, you were originally a close confidant of Zhao Gao, but now Zhao Gao was killed by Ziying, and I will not tolerate you in the future."

This sentence happened to Sima Da's heart, he opened his mouth and said with some dejection; "It's a big deal, I'll hand over the military power and become a rich man."

Li Shiqi suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed, Sima Da saw him so frivolous, he couldn't help but flash a flash of anger and roared; "Old man, what are you laughing at?"

Li Shiqi shook his head and sighed with a smile; "I laugh at General Sima, your idea is too naïve, do you know that Zhang Han has surrendered to Xiang Yu, and Xiang Yu's 500,000 army plus 200,000 Qin troops are approaching Hangu Pass, do you think your Qin State can still hold it? Since the Qin State can't be preserved, then how can the rich man say. Xiang Yu hates the Qin people very much, if he enters the customs, he will definitely kill, and none of you Qin generals will survive at that time. You have heard of the name of Pei Gong's benevolence and righteousness, and many of the generals of the Qin State have been knighted, would you rather Xiang Yu be called Wang Guanzhong or Pei Gong be called Wang Guanzhong? “

Sima Da's face turned pale, he knew that what Li Shiqi said was true, and Li Shiqi saw that he had already moved, and took the opportunity to say; "Don't talk about it far away, just say now, general, do you think you can hold the pass with your more than 20,000 soldiers, you must know that Pei Gong came with more than 300,000 troops this time, but he is just benevolent and righteous, so he has not tackled the problem for a long time. If the general is stubborn, then Pei Gong has only one way to attack, and when the time comes, the blood will flow like a river, and the general will definitely die. ”

Sima Da's complexion changed constantly, and he finally stomped his feet and said with determination; "If I return to Pei Gong, what good will I do?"

Li Shiqi's eyes flashed with joy, and he said continuously; "In the past, the king of Chu once had an agreement, the first to go down to the Guanzhong Wangzhi, Pei Gong has the Guanzhong, and he will definitely reward you meritorious ministers to reassure the people, and when the time comes, how about sealing the general as the Marquis of Wanhu?"

"Okay, that's it, you go back and tell Pei Gong that I'll switch and surrender early tomorrow morning."

The smooth lobbying of Li Shiqi made Liu Bang smile, he patted Li Shiqi's shoulder very happily, thinking that Lao Tzu's vision is really not bad, this old boy's mouth kung fu can be worth 100,000 male soldiers, it seems that his big bloodletting will take all his savings and not lose money.

squinted at Zhang Liang, who was pondering on the side, and asked curiously; "Zifang, since your plan has succeeded, we can get the pass tomorrow without a single soldier, why do you still look sad?"

Zhang Liang shook his head slightly; "Pei Gong, what you think is too simple, this Sima Da is indeed greedy for life and afraid of death, and likes money, but his subordinates are all Qin people, how can he willingly follow him and surrender to us."

Liu Bang's body was shocked, and he said angrily; "Then you still let me do everything to plot against him, aren't you cheating me?"

Zhang Liang smiled slightly, didn't care, and said; "Pei Gong is a little restless, listen to Liang carefully. The reason why I want to rebel against this Sima Da is to make the Qin army infighting, he will definitely gather his generals tonight to force them to surrender, and most of his subordinates will verbally promise to go back and then assemble their troops to kill Sima Da. This is our chance, since the Qin army has civil strife, it has no intention of defending, we only need to send a surprise army to cross the mountain and attack the pass from behind, and we will definitely succeed. ”

Liu Bang slapped his thigh and laughed; "Seconds, seconds, worthy of my ovary, hahaha, good strategy."

Sure enough, as Zhang Liang expected, Sima Da summoned his generals that night and announced that he would surrender Liu Bang tomorrow morning, and his generals were all shocked. Seeing Sima Da's own soldiers holding sharp blades around him, he pretended to promise that after returning to the camp, he would immediately gather his soldiers and announce Sima Da's treason, and the Qin soldiers were furious when they heard that the main general was going to rebel against Qin, and immediately killed the Chinese army under the leadership of the general.

At this time, Fan Xu led a force of 5,000 people to secretly climb over the mountain, and suddenly appeared at the back gate of the pass, taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the Qin army to capture the city gate in one fell swoop, and opened the door to let Liu Bang's army enter the city. The Qin army that reacted was only then blocked in the city, but it was no longer able to return to the sky, and by ten minutes of dawn, all 26,000 Qin troops were killed and captured, and the last gateway in the pass fell into the hands of Liu Bang.

The news of the loss of the pass soon spread throughout Xianyang, and Han Xin did not hide the crisis at all, but on the second day, the court was still early, and everything was as usual.

It may be that Han Xin's calmness has infected many ministers, and the sense of crisis that the end is coming has suddenly eased a lot. Daqin has a set of efficient government operation system, under the efforts of hundreds of officials, the war machine of Daqin is operating rapidly, grain, grass and money and silk have been moved out of the treasury, weapons workshops are working overtime to build strong crossbow blades, adult men and strong women are registered in batches.

Han Xin also plans to mobilize the whole country for the time being, because his opponent is only Liu Bang, and Xiang Yu, who is about to enter the customs soon, will be a big problem for Qin State, as for Liu Bang, he naturally has a way to deal with it.

He only stepped up the reorganization of the city defense army in the past few days, and the 50,000 city defense army lost more than 10,000 people in the bloody battle that day, and after removing Zhao Gao's henchmen and dead soldiers, the remaining 36,000 people were divided into three battalions, respectively, Tian Shi, Zhao Wuji and the original lieutenant Gan Xiao commanded, with Wang Qi as the commander of the guard. Counting the Huangfu Gui Department that had already arrived, Han Xin had more than 54,000 people in his hands, and it was naturally not difficult to defend Xianyang.

However, what he wants is not just to hold Xianyang, if Liu Bang can't capture Xianyang, he will definitely divide his troops to capture the county, at that time, even if Qin State holds Xianyang, it is still a lonely city, how to deal with Xiang Yu's army that is about to knock on the pass.

And there is a very important reason, since the Battle of Julu, the Qin army has been defeated again and again, losing cities and land along the way, coupled with continuous internal strife, first Zhao Gao killed Hu Hai, and then he himself was killed by Ziying. The foreign enemy has not yet arrived, and the Qin people have already messed up, which has dealt a very big blow to the morale of the Qin people, and the most direct result is that the Qin people no longer support their royal family that they have been loyal to for hundreds of years, but turn to an indifferent attitude.

Therefore, the Qin State urgently needed a big victory to arouse the desire for victory in the blood of the Qin people, and Han Xin also urgently needed a big victory to establish his prestige in the army.

Liu Bang's army left the pass, camped in Bashang, 300 miles east of Xianyang, looking at Xianyang from afar, and at the same time sent his general Xiahou Ying with 30,000 soldiers to attack Hangu Pass from the rear.

Liu Bang is a cunning man, he doesn't want his army to shed blood under Xianyang City, he wants to preserve his strength to think about what happens after the destruction of Qin. He already knew that Zhao Gao was killed in Xianyang City, and now there are few soldiers in the entire Xianyang City, and Ziying is a cowardly person. So he was waiting, waiting, he still wanted to enter Xianyang without blood and get the support of the Qin people.

At this time, Han Xin also received a report from Wang Qi that his soldiers were available, and he carefully selected 30,000 elite soldiers, put on the best weapons and armor in Xianyang City, and secretly left Xianyang City at night.

Prior to this, he had already sent an envoy to meet Liu Bang, a lobbyist recommended by Wang Qi, and a famous master Yan Shidao who was known for his eloquence among the hundreds of princes.