The sun was covered by thick clouds and the smiling faces were darkened.

The warm breeze also seems to change the mood and gradually becomes cooler.

An autumn rain seemed to be about to strike, but it was delayed.

The air grew dreary, suffocating everyone's nerves.

The gloom above his head swayed through the sky, pierced the flesh and skin, and sank into people's hearts, adding a wisp of melancholy to the original anxiety.

Ying Zheng, who was staring at his brows, sat in the imperial study and read the battle report three times in a row.

"Your Majesty, it's just a defeat in a battle, don't be too depressed." Li Si comforted him and said, "This is not necessarily a bad thing for the next battle situation."

These words sound familiar, and they seem to be Zhao Gao's spoken words.

Ying Zheng raised his head, looked at Li Si and said, "Tell me what you think."

Li Si spread out the map next to him, put it on the table, and gestured with his hand and said, "After Li Mu learned that we attacked Zhao in two ways, he also divided his troops into two ways to resist, but he used the strategy of Tian Ji horse racing. That is, use the main force of the Zhao army to deal with Huan Qi, and use the rear army to resist Wang Qian."

He pointed to the direction of Fanwu City: "The factor of Huan Qi's defeat is obvious, he has attacked deeply, not to mention whether the supplies behind him can keep up with or not, even if the reinforcements can't be reinforced for a while."

"Moreover, he did not detect Li Mu's intentions, nor did he spy on the other party's movements, so it can be said that his vigilance is also insufficient."

"Besides, the king clearly asked him to keep dealing with the Zhao army, but he went to attack Fanwu, which can be regarded as disrespect."

Ying Zheng sighed: "In this way, it should be defeated!"

Li Si nodded and said, "Weichen thinks that even if it is not Huan Qi who leads the army, but someone else, if he insists on going his own way, it will be roughly the same result."

"I'm to blame this time." Ying Zheng reflected, "Those who cannot implement the overall strategic intent in the future, and those who are blindly greedy for merit and recklessness, will never be appointed as the commander-in-chief."

"This is what Wechen wants to remind the king." Lees added, "There shouldn't be two managers on a battlefield."

Ying Zheng's brows moved, and he pondered Li Si's words.

"That's right." He nodded, "If Huan Qi was just a general and not a commander, and he obeyed Wang Qian's dispatch in everything, maybe the result would not be like this."

Li Si smiled and said, "If you can sum up your experience and realize your mistakes, then this battle will not be lost in vain."

It's not scary to lose, it's scary to not know why you're losing.

Many people attribute their failures to many objective factors, and never reflect on their own mistakes and shortcomings, so they will continue to fail next time.

It's not easy to pick others, but it's hard to recognize your own shortcomings, especially for an emperor.

But Yingzheng is different.

He will not be arrogant and arrogant like other emperors, nor will he complain about a failure, nor will he even anger anyone.

For decades, Daqin has been smooth sailing, especially after Yingzheng succeeded to the throne, he almost never suffered a big loss.

And this time, it was also a wake-up call to the unification battle that had just begun, telling Qin Ting that it was not an invincible existence, and the opponent was not as unbearable as imagined.

However, instead of being carried away by anger and self-blame, Ying Zheng was calmer than before.

"What should we do next, sir?" Ying Zheng asked.

Li Si said: "In Chen's view, Huan Qi's defeat is not a bad thing, nor is it unfounded. Since Li Mu gave up Yecheng and saved Fanwu, Wang Jian can also be regarded as cheap."

"And once Huan Qi is dead, the morale of the Zhao army will inevitably be high, and Li Mu will definitely take the opportunity to attack Wang Qian's army, if that happens, he will also fall into the strategy we set up at the beginning."

"Sir, you just took this opportunity to let Wang Jian stalemate with him?" Ying Zheng asked.

"Exactly." Li Si said, "If there is no defeat of Huan Qi's army, maybe Li Mu will retreat in the city, which will not play a role in consuming his troops and food and grass."

Ying Zheng said: "Now he raises troops to attack

If Wang Jian can lead him in circles, the matter will be more than half."

"Didn't the king want to use Guo Kai to make some fuss before?" Li Si said, "As long as Wang Jian doesn't have a head-on conflict with Li Mu, and then the grain and grass are consumed quickly, let's take the opportunity to hijack some of Zhao Jun's grain and grass, then Guo Kai will definitely be able to participate in Li Mu in front of Zhao Qian."

"Then it's decided." Ying Zheng said, "If you can really attract Li Mu to raise troops to attack, even if Huan Qi is dead, it will be worth dying."

The two discussed properly, Yingzheng asked Zhao Gao to grind, and then wrote a few secret letters.

One was addressed to Wang Qian, Ying Zheng ordered him not to hold the city, not to rush for revenge, and to make full use of the terrain to engage Li Mu, if Li Mu held on in the city, then attack his supply lines.

The other was addressed to Yang Duanhe, who ordered him to lead the state soldiers of Shangdang County to bypass the north side of Huashan and move eastward to put pressure on Handan.

The third letter was written to the two brothers, Qiang and Suolin, asking them to put all the boats they had built into the Yellow River, giving the Zhao army the illusion that they were going to cross east at any time, and sending two not too big ships down the river to test the road, once the Shangdang side fought, they could quickly reinforce and directly threaten Handan.

The last letter was addressed to Tou Mandanyu.

Ying Zheng asked him what the current state of the confrontation with Yan Guo was, and if Yan Guo did not dare to send troops, then help Great Qin attack the northern territory of Zhao State again.

Immediately, he calculated with Li Si and others, made a rough list of the grain, grass and military salaries needed by the soldiers and horses in various places, and then allocated them separately.

After the military affairs were handled, Ying Zheng asked Li Si again, "Is there any news from Meng Tian on the Yin Mountain?"

Li Si said: "The news that just came back yesterday, everything is fine, and he also asked when he could send the ghost hand over."

"I'll have to discuss this with Uchan, and I'll go to her in a moment." Ying Zheng said, "By the way, I may have to go to Kunlun Mountain in a few days, you can help me prepare."

"The king is going to Kunlun Mountain?" Li Si asked in surprise.

Ying Zheng nodded: "If you defeat Zhao next year, you may not have time, I want to go there to find out, otherwise I will always be curious."

Li Si saw that the King of Qin had made up his mind, so he said, "Does the king plan to lead the army there, or only bring a few retinues, I want to accompany the king forward, but I have no choice but to ...... the government."

Ying Zheng smiled: "You can help me control the government, this time I will take the little beast, and before I go, I will go to the king of Xiqiang to accompany me, you must know that it is the territory of the Qiang people."

"Have you asked the master?" Li Sidao.

Ying Zheng nodded: "I asked before I went to Luoyi, and he also said that there are some things that should be clarified."

"But I'm still a little worried." Lees still has concerns.

"Don't worry, when it comes to escaping now, I won't lose to you." Ying Zheng said with a smile.

Li Sixin said the same, when he was in Huashan, Zhao and Wei sent so many people to assassinate the King of Qin, but they didn't even see a single figure.

But the problem is that the biggest danger of Kunlun Mountain is not people, but the abnormal climate and geographical environment.

Ying Zheng knew that he still had to open his mouth to persuade him, so he changed his words and said, "That's it, I won't go to King Xiqiang this time, after all, it's not convenient to take the Nian Beast to meet him, so it's better to let Twenty-seven give me another ride."

"Let's go directly to the magma red vein, no matter how dangerous Kunlun Mountain is, it can't compare to the Nine Shadows."

Hearing him say this, Li Si was relieved.

At the mention of Twenty-seven, Ying Zheng remembered one more thing, and then said: "By the way, when I went to Jiuyou this time, Twenty-seven asked me for benefits again, there is no way, we have to make a plan to make the zodiac plan officially implemented."

"Okay, Wechen will start planning."

After this discussion, Ying Zheng finally calmed down, and strengthened his belief that he must respond to the battle calmly and see the move.

——————

The capital of Chu State, Shouchun Palace.

This young

The palace is not too quaint, nor does it have too much heavy heritage, because the royal court of the Chu State had moved out of Yingcheng not long ago, and the capital was set in Jiangling at that time, and it didn't take long to move over.

Li Xin stood upright on the main hall of the palace of the king of Chu, with his head held high, looking at the king of Chu.

In contrast, the King of Chu on the king's chair had a sickly face, slowly put down the letter of state handed over by Li Xin in his hand, and let out a long sigh.

"Nansu is a widow's sister, and if people are separated forever today, the widow is also very heartbroken." As he spoke, King Chu's eyes were gradually moistened.

Li Xin arched his hand and said: "Now that Princess Nansu has been buried by the King of Qin in the ancestral tomb of Qishan, the culprit behind the whole incident has also been identified, and it is the conspirator of Yan Dan, the prince of Yan State, and Fan Yuzhi, the rebel general of the Qin court."

"Right now, Great Qin is using troops against Zhao to force it to hand over Fan Yuzhi, but Zhao has no intention of handing over Fan Yuzhi until now, I don't know what the King of Chu thinks about this matter, and when will he help my Great Qin recover his blood debt?"

The King of Chu looked at Xiang Yan who was standing below, and sighed softly: "Why don't you want to send troops to avenge Nansu, but it's a pity that there is a Wei State in the middle, which is really beyond the reach of the whip."

Li Xin did not back down, and said: "If the king really wants to send troops, he can borrow from my army, now that Xinzheng is in the hands of my Great Qin, the Chu army can go north from Xinzheng, and it is not a detour."

The already sallow King of Chu was even more embarrassed, and his face was helpless.

Xiang Yan took a step forward and said to Li Xin: "Lord Li, at the moment, our Chu army is at the moment of the replacement of the old and the new, and the combat strength of the army is not high.

Li Xin said: "Then according to General Xiang, does the Chu State want to stand by and watch?"

Xiang Yan smiled: "No, no. Although my Da Chu is far away and can't get out of people, I can support some grain and grass."

"Yes, yes, yes." The King of Chu said repeatedly, "I, Chu Ting, will provide some grain and grass to supply the Qin army, so let my brother-in-law send more soldiers and horses, and we will avenge Nansu together."

Li Xin had no choice but to sigh lightly, and pretended to be reluctant: "Since the king is indeed in difficulty, and the foreign ministers are not reluctant, but I don't know when the grain and grass will be handed over to me?"

The king of Chu looked at his brother on the side and said, "Xiong You, you can do this matter as soon as possible."

The bear still answered the order.

Seeing that one of the goals had been achieved, Li Xin changed the topic and said, "Although the matter of attacking and killing the main culprit who murdered Princess Nansu has been decided, his accomplice Chang Wenjun is said to have fled back to the Chu State, I wonder how the king will deal with him?"

"He fled back to the state of Chu?" The king of Chu coughed twice and said, "The widow only saw that Changping Jun abandoned the official title and returned to the Chu State, but he never heard that Chang Wenjun came back with him."

He looked at Xiang Yan and said, "General Xiang, you immediately arrest Chang Wenjun and come back, and hand it over to Lord Li Xin."

Xiang Yan arched his hand and said, "The last general will take orders!"

The king of Chu gasped a few more times, and said to Li Xin, "The widow is a little tired, Lord Li has something to do, just look for the two of them, and I am out of company."

After that, the king of Chu was carried by the chief eunuch beside him and returned to the palace.

Li Xin said a few words to Xiang Yan and Xiong You, then left the palace gate and returned to his post house.

But I didn't want to enter the door as soon as I saw a square wooden box on the table.

Looking left and right, there was no one else in the room, Li Xin came to the table, and saw a pair of bamboo sticks on the box, on which were written a few words crookedly:

Fan Hao Dai Liu Lang respectfully!

Li Xinsheng was puzzled, and carefully opened the lid of the wooden box.

Although Li Xin was not small, he couldn't help but exclaim.

What is placed inside is the head of Chang Wenjun!