From the Chen Sheng uprising in May of the first year of the second year, it has been in chaos for nearly four years. The rapid war not only caused the people's livelihood to wither, but also caused the domestic population to plummet. Large numbers of people died either directly from the war, or from famine and displacement caused by the war.

In the 37th year of the reign of the First Emperor, the household registration of Daqin was about 5.6 million, with a population of about 30 million. Five years later, in the first year of Daxing, the population had plummeted to less than 20 million, and in the Central Plains and other major warring places, there were even ten rooms and nine empty images. Compared with the endless fighting in the eastern part of the country, the old Qin places such as Guanzhong and Bashu have been much calmer in recent years, and under Han Xin's hard work, they have gradually recovered their vitality and returned to the prosperity before the unification war of Qin.

However, Kwantung was caught in a series of wars, first the three kingdoms of Qi, Zhao and Wei rebelled against Chu, and then Liu Bangdong returned to form the mighty Seven Kingdoms to attack Chu. Although Xiang Yu achieved a fabulous victory in the first battle of Pengcheng, his own losses were indeed extremely serious, and the war caused extremely serious damage to the densely populated areas of Jianghuai, among which the population of Chu was sharply reduced by nearly half, and the young and strong were almost exhausted.

The Qin State has already occupied Hebei, the Central Plains and Qi Land, and in addition to the previous Guanzhong and Bashu, both in terms of population and geography, they far exceed the strength of the Xiang Chu State, and the only hope of the Chu State is in Xiang Yu's elite Chu army of nearly 300,000.

Since Yongqiu became famous in the first battle, Xiang Yu has gone through four years of bloody battles, more than 200 large and small wars, except for the invincible defeat under Xianyang City, there has never been a defeat. Blade Li You, forced Wang Li to death, forced Zhang Han to land, captured Tian Rong alive, broke Liu Bang under Pengcheng, and Xiang Yu's martial arts are famous all over the world.

Now the prosperity of the former Chu State has gradually come to an end, and the situation of being attacked on all sides makes Xiang Yu exhausted.

On the eighth day of April in the first year of Daxing, Han Xin, the new emperor of Daqin, moved to Luoyang, and took Luoyang, the capital of Zongwu for a hundred years, as the capital. The Qin State made full preparations for this huge battle to destroy Chu, scraped all the grain and grass available in the country, and borrowed grain from the merchants and clans in various places at the cost of double repayment. Because the Qin State was in full swing, most of the merchants were optimistic about the national fortunes of the Qin State, and the Tao family and other wealthy families donated everything, and the Qin State quickly gathered enough grain and grass for an army of 500,000 for several months.

In this battle, the Qin State was mainly elite, removing the old and weak. The army of 500,000 was divided into three routes, the north road was the commander of Mengshi, followed by Zhang Er, and more than 100,000 troops went out from Qidi to capture Pengcheng from north to south; The south road was led by Wang Jing and followed by Zhang Liang, and the 100,000-strong army was inserted into the hinterland of Chu along the Rushui to the east, cutting off the Chu state along the Huaishui waist, cutting off the way for the Chu army to retreat south to Jiangdong, and then going north to make peace with the main force; The middle road was the main army of 300,000 of the Qin army, led by Han Xinqin, followed by Li Zuoche and Zhao Wuji, who sent troops from Yingchuan County to attack Shouchun, the gateway to Pengcheng.

The three armies all took Pengcheng as their goal, striving to completely annihilate the Chu army in one battle.

In the face of such a predicament, Xiang Yu quickly responded, he decisively gave up all the cities north of Pengcheng, ordered Yin Yuqi to stay behind, and the general Cao Qi to be the general, leading tens of thousands of old and weak to defend Pengcheng, relying on the tall walls of Pengcheng to resist the offensive of the Qin army's northern route army. The task given to them by Xiang Yu was to delay as much time as possible, and he would lead the main force of the Chu army to come to the rescue before the city was broken.

Xiang Yu personally commanded the main army of 280,000 and rushed to Shouchun day and night.

A heavy rain came suddenly, and the Chu army, which was hurrying, had to stop and camp on the spot against the nearby woods to avoid the rain.

The heavy rain soon stopped, but the ground was already muddy, and although it was already summer, and the weather was a little hot, it was still very easy to catch a cold in wet clothes. After the soldiers of the Chu army set up camp, they lit bonfires one after another, and baked their clothes by the fire.

Under a towering tree, Xiang Yu stirred up the flames with the branches, the sky was already darkening, and the jumping flames were imprinted on Xiang Yu's face, which was uncertain.

"King Xiang, wouldn't it be too risky for us to do this?" Zhong Liwei on the side finally couldn't help but say.

Xiang Yu glanced at him, "Then do you have any other good ideas?" ”

Zhong Liwei suddenly choked, his face turned red and his mouth opened, not knowing what to say.

"Big brother, Zhongli is worried that we will fall into Han Xin's trap." This is Yu Ziqi, who came back from inspecting the camp, just in time, and when he saw that the atmosphere was a little stiff, he opened his mouth to relieve Zhong Wei.

Xiang Yu retracted his gaze, still concentrating on stirring the flames, thoughtful.

Yu Ziqi sat down beside Xiang Yu, Zhong Liwei gave him a look, Yu Ziqi nodded knowingly, and said carefully; "Big brother, the Qin army is powerful, but it divides its troops to attack my Chu land, this is not like Han Xin's style in the past, I suspect that there is fraud in it, Han Xin may have other plans."

The relationship between Yu Ziqi and Xiang Yu is obviously closer, so he does not shy away from angering Xiang Yu at all, and said bluntly.

But he didn't expect Xiang Yu to actually nodded, his expression unmoved, "You guessed right, this is a trap, the reason why Han Xin besieged Shouchun and didn't attack it was because he wanted to wait for us to go." ”

Yu Ziqi and Zhong Liwei looked at each other, and they both saw the surprise on each other's faces, and Yu Ziqi was surprised; "Then why do you ......?"

Xiang Yu replied lightly: "Because this may also be our only chance to win, and I have no other better way to save the decline." ”

"Han Xin's intentions are not difficult to guess, he besieged Chu on three sides, but his real intention was to achieve it through the Southern Route Army. If he wants to cut off our Chu State and cut us off from Jiangdong, this is his real purpose. If we retreat to Pengcheng, Jiangbei will be lost, and Pengcheng will be surrounded on all sides, and we will run out of energy; If you go out of the city to fight a decisive battle, you will be in his arms. ”

Zhongli stopped talking, his face still a little disbelieving. "But dividing troops is a taboo for soldiers, Han Xin, isn't he afraid that he will be broken by us one by one if he does this?"

A smile appeared on the corner of Xiang Yu's mouth, "This is exactly where his confidence lies, he used himself as bait to lure me to go to the first battle in person, and then the three-way army surrounded us." At that time, our retreat was broken, Peng Cheng was lost, and we could only sit and wait for death, which was his real purpose. ”

Yu Ziqi said in a deep voice; "Then we might as well just take the plan and ignore his main army, but reroute north and quickly eat his northern route army."

Xiang Yu smiled and shook his head, "If the opponent wasn't Han Xin, I would really be like this." But what kind of person is Han Xin, since he led the army, he has been known for his exhaustive strategy, and since he arranged it like this, he naturally thought of the possibility of us sending troops. I guess that if we go north, Meng Shi will definitely be alert in advance and surround the army, and the infantry phalanx of the Qin army is the best in the world, and we may not be able to quickly take this Qin army. Moreover, even if we succeeded in eating Mengshi's department, it would only be a partial division, and the overall advantage of the Qin army would not suffer much loss. Han Xin will also take advantage of the time difference to quickly rush to Pengcheng, if Pengcheng is lost, you and I will really die without a place to be buried. This is the next step. ”

Yu Ziqi was silent for a while, and then said slowly; "Big brother, now that Qin is strong and Chu is weak, my Da Chu's foundation in Huaibei is no longer stable, if you give up Pengcheng and retreat to Huainan, it may not be impossible to rely on Jiangdong to protect yourself. King Gongzhu of Linjiang was once the Shangzhu State of my Chu State, and his parents died at the hands of the Qin people, and he was never willing to sit back and watch the Qin army grow bigger. Wu Rui, the king of Hengshan, is also a Chu person, and it is impossible for him not to understand the truth of cold lips and teeth, and now that we are weak, he will definitely help. ”

Xiang Yu's face was cold, a trace of fierceness flashed in his eyes, and he shouted; "It's impossible."

"If I let me flee without a fight, and even Peng Cheng is thrown to others in vain, then I Xiang Yu will face the father and elders of Chu State, and how Yan will face the world!"

In fact, before he said this, Yu Ziqi already knew the answer. According to Xiang Yu's pride, how could he retreat without a fight, let him abandon Pengcheng and retreat to Huainan without a fight, it would undoubtedly be more difficult than him killing him.

Xiang Yu's gaze swept over the faces of the two of them, and he said in a deep voice; "The plan of the day, the best strategy is to plan the plan. Since Han Xin uses himself as bait, then we might as well take the opportunity to swallow him in one fell swoop, although we take the risk, we still have a chance of winning. If it succeeds, the Qin army will inevitably be greatly injured, and nothing else is to worry about, and the momentum of the Qin State has also gone seven or eight times out of ten, and we can take advantage of the situation to sweep the world. ”

Xiang Yu clenched his fists, his eyes flashed with a strange look, and his tone became more and more excited. Huo De stood up suddenly, looked up and said proudly; "This is also our best chance to fight back, and we will fight it out!"

Zhong Liwei's mood was agitated, and he knelt down on his knees and echoed loudly: "King Xiang, I am willing to be the vanguard of breaking the enemy and swear to break through the Qin army." ”

Xiang Yu laughed and said, "Okay, I'll allow you to be a pioneer." ”

Yu Ziqi still said worriedly: "It's just that it's still far away to go to Shouchun, and we are mainly foot soldiers, so the itinerary is not fast, and it will inevitably be discovered by the scouts of the Qin army, so the whereabouts of the army will naturally be exposed." ”

Xiang Yu raised his eyebrows, but said categorically; "It's okay, I didn't plan to hide my whereabouts, Han Xin must be waiting for us to go. As long as we take Han Xin's main army before the other two Qin armies join forces, then we will be the victors, otherwise we will be encircled. ”

"Success or failure is here, and we must do our best!

At dawn on the second day, the sky cleared, and Xiang Yu ordered the army to move quickly. After two days of forced marching, the mighty army of Chu finally arrived at the city of Qixia in the north of Shouchun. Sure enough, the scouts of the Qin army soon discovered the traces of the Chu army, and Han Xin's army quickly marched north and met the Chu army. When they met on a narrow road, the vanguard fought chaotically, and each led his troops to retreat. At the same time, Feiqi passed orders to Meng Shi and Wang Jing, so that the two immediately abandoned their opponents and quickly came to outflank.

The Qin army and the Chu army each set up camp and looked at each other. A big war about the belonging of the world is about to break out!