Pingyuanjun secretly reported to Lian Po about the embarrassment of Handan's grain stockpile, and told him that he must save grain. Until the Qin army was repulsed, it was no longer possible to have a food supply. Lian Po then secretly ordered the adjustment of the grain supply standard: Except for the troops on combat duty, which were supplied with one and a half buckets of grain a day, the rest of the troops were only supplied with one and a half buckets of grain a day, with young and strong migrant workers providing six liters a day, the elderly and women four liters, and children two liters.

Since it was the people of Changping who were most affected, Lian Po's order had an impact on the morale of the combat troops, but it was not great.

Going up the mountain from Changping or going down from the mountain to Changping, which can only pass through one mountain pass, is a natural defense point. Lian Po sent 5,000 troops to garrison here, commanded by Zhao Qi. Zhao Ji used 1,000 men to build defenses along the mountain road, blocking layer by layer; He led 4,000 men to build three cities outside the mountain pass, which were miles apart, and could support each other and completely block the mountain pass. Lian Po also expressed satisfaction with this defense plan.

It took Wang Ji two months to clear Zhao Ji's defenses on the mountain road one by one, and Zhao Ji only symbolically sent troops out to harass him a little. The grassroots soldiers of the Zhao army exerted great initiative, and the resistance was both powerful and flexible.

The main body of soldiers brought by Wang Yi from Anyi was 40,000 people from Bashu, and they could not be arranged at all on the narrow mountain road. Wang Yi adopted the strategy of rotational warfare, sending 1,000 men to fight every day, and withdrawing after a day's fighting; Tomorrow another thousand people will come forward. The last 20,000 people did not fight for 20 days, so 10,000 people were assigned to the rear Yicheng to transport grain and grass to Duanshi for storage. Bai Qi now mainly organizes the production and transportation of grain, mainly fried millet. They know that the key to conquering the party is food; However, it is not possible to use the output of Hedong and Guanzhong to consume the output of Handan without taking some special measures.

Their main strategy is to boast about their forces, so as to induce the other side to concentrate a strong force, while they actually use it sparingly; The second is to economize on the use of food. Field combat units are free to eat fried millet. All the soldiers who camped in the euphori could only drink three liters of corn porridge per day. Even if this food is not military food, but comes from the people, it is not allowed to exceed it. In order to strictly enforce this, Wang Di even ordered that anyone who exceeded the standard of food supply should be beheaded by the gang commander and the people of the city, and the whole gang of soldiers should be flogged one hundred; There is a reward for reporting. And Wang Di really killed and beaten.

After two months, Wang Ji trained his troops in rotation and went out to the mountain pass, preparing to attack Zhao Jia's main position.

During these two months, Zhao Ji reported to Lian Po every day on the Qin army's attacks and his own defenses. He commented that the Qin army was not as brave and good at fighting as the legend; Although he lost a thousand people, the losses of the Qin army were even greater. Lian Po praised him for holding the Qin army in the mountains for two months at the cost of only more than 1,000 men, which created a good start for completely repelling the Qin army.

Zhao Ji, who was encouraged, was determined to take advantage of the Qin army's unstable foothold to create chaos for the Qin army and slow down the pace of the Qin army's attack. He quietly gathered five hundred elites and equipped them with henchmen. A few days later, the vanguard of the Qin army really appeared in the mountain pass. The pass is only five miles away from the city. The Qin army marched forward in battle formation very cautiously, as if looking for a place to camp. A drum sounded, the city gate was opened, and Zhao Ji led five hundred Zhao troops to roar out and rush straight towards the Qin army. When the Qin army saw the Zhao army attacking, it also stopped, reorganized its formation, and when it was a hundred steps away from the Zhao army, it shot three arrows in a hurry, and then the drums beat loudly and rushed forward with the Zhao army.

At this moment, the drums on both sides of the city were also beating, and the two captains each led 500 people to rush out, and together with Zhao Ji, they formed a three-sided attack on the Qin army. This situation seemed to be unexpected by the Qin army, the Qin army's position actually rang the bell, and the Qin army, which was charging forward, hurriedly stopped and retreated. Zhao Ji ordered the Zhao army to speed up the pace and rush towards the Qin army. The Qin army was in a chaotic formation during the retreat, and after a few dozen steps, it turned around and ran. Zhao Qi was overjoyed, this was the fighter he was waiting for, he ordered the charge, and the Zhao army changed from a fast step to a run, and quickly rushed towards the Qin army, and the formation began to scatter.

Suddenly, the drum behind him turned into a bell, and Zhao Ji's vision was blocked by the soldiers in front, not knowing what was happening in front, but knowing that the situation had changed. He subconsciously stopped, and ordered the soldiers to concentrate on him. Finally, he saw the countless Qin troops rushing out of the mountain pass, and they lined up in formation as they marched, and quickly rushed towards him. Zhao Ji ordered to form a circle formation, and looked back at the other side, and the troops of the other two cities had already retreated to the city under the order. Zhao Ji looked at the distance between himself and the city, and then looked at the Qin army that rushed over, and estimated that he could not escape back to the city. He is determined to die here!

One hundred shieldmen were outside, one hundred archers were protected by shields behind them, and behind them were one hundred spearmen and two hundred halberders. When the Qin army surrounded them, the archers quickly shot the arrows in their hands. At the same time, the Qin army also shot more arrows. The rain of arrows fell on the shields of the shield soldiers on both sides, crackling and crackling, and the shield soldiers with slightly weaker bodies. After a rain of arrows, the Qin army launched a charge, and the spearmen and halberders rushed up quickly under the cover of no shields. Zhao Jun shot arrows at them desperately. Because the Zhao army only had 100 arrow soldiers, and was suppressed by the Qin army's arrow rain, the damage to the Qin army was very small. The arrows were just scattered in the middle of the Qin army's position. The distance of a hundred paces was shortened by half in just a few breaths, and Zhao Jun was just enough to shoot three arrows. Zhao Ji knew that he couldn't wait any longer, so he shouted loudly: "Kill!" ”

Zhao Jun, who was lying under the shield, straightened up, moved forward firmly behind the shield, and then quickly submerged by the huge waves like a reef. There were loud shouts of killing and the clash of weapons from the reef, followed by screams and curses. After only a brief moment, all the sounds died down.

The three gates were closed, and the people who left the city gathered in front of them, nervously waiting for the inevitable but desperate outcome!

No one escaped, and the 500 people of the Zhao army were obviously wiped out. The cities were nervously counting how many corpses or wounded the Qin army would drag out of their positions. - They counted more than 600 people! Of course, they also saw a tragic scene: the Qin people cut off the head of the Zhao army. No Zhao army survived, including General Zhao Qi!

The previous war did not stop the Qin army from going out of the mountains, and there were still a large number of Qin troops coming out of the mountains one after another, they avoided the battlefield, along the foot of the mountain, and pounced on the bank of Danshui. Due to the large number of them, the people in the city naturally did not dare to go out of the city to block the attack, and they couldn't reach it with bows and crossbows, so they could only watch the Qin army bypass the three cities and appear at the mouth of the valley.

The three cities located at the exit pass were surrounded by the Qin army in this valley, and their connection with the base camp on the other side of the Danshui was cut off.

Before the Qin army camp could be closed, the three cities quickly sent military envoys across the river to report to Lian Po.

The biggest problem for these three cities is food.

Unlike the military camp on the east bank of Danshui that went to the granary every day to get food, Zhao Jia's army took ten days' rations at a time due to the long distance; And they are counted as combat troops, five thousand five thousand five hundred stones in ten days. The grain was stored in the middle city where Zhao Ji was located, and the other troops still went to get the day's rations every day. When the city was forced to close, it was almost impossible to get food every day, at least the two adjacent cities were facing the dilemma of running out of food, and the city with a granary in the middle did not last for a few days. The defenders suggested that Lian Po immediately lead his army across the river, attack inside and outside, and take the soldiers of the three cities across the river.

Of the nine military envoys in the three cities, one was captured by the Qin army. After interrogation, the envoy explained what he was going to pass to the other side. The king was overjoyed and immediately mobilized his army to surround the three cities with 10,000 men. 20,000 men fortified along the mouth of the valley, one inward and one outward. Another 10,000 people hid in the mountains, ready to deliver a fatal blow.

That night, both sides were arranging their troops to prepare for a life-and-death battle.

What made the Zhao army in the city feel strange was that from morning to night, they did not see the grain cart of the Qin army passing by. There were some wagons passing by, but it could be seen that the carts were loaded with various agricultural tools, antlers, branches, etc., and there was no food.

The sound of fortification in the direction of Qin Ying rang all night. But there were no envoys on the other side of the river.

The movements of the Qin army in Shaoshui did not attract much attention from Lian Po, and his focus has always been on the direction of Gaodu. Geographically speaking, Changping is actually an extension of Gaodu, and all of Lianpo's preparations are aimed at Gaodu. The Gaodu Plain is larger, can accommodate more troops, and can support the battle for a longer time. Therefore, he only put 5,000 soldiers in the west of Shaoshui Mountain Pass, giving Zhao Qi great autonomy. But in the south, the mountains stretched out three huge foothills to the Danshui side, and Lian Po relied on these three foothills to build three defense lines by the mountains and rivers, and the troops on these lines were uniformly dispatched by him and were the center of gravity of Changping's defense. In order to protect the safety of the party even when the three lines of defense were lost, Lian Po built a great wall almost continuously on the main mountain at the foot of the three mountains, which was hundreds of miles long. In case the war is unfavorable, the Zhao army can retreat to the mountains, relying on the high mountains and preset positions to block the Qin army from entering Shangdang, especially to defend the road to Handan!

However, the Qin army did not attack from the direction of Gaodu according to Lian Po's plan, but went east from the direction of Shaoshui. At first, the Qin army was making slow progress on the Duanshi-Changping line, and Lian Po believed that this was a partial division carrying out the task of containment, and that sending troops from the west would be difficult to mobilize troops and logistical supplies, and would not pose a major threat to Changping. But after the Qin army descended the mountain, they immediately blocked the valley mouth and began to build a fort for defense, which made Lian Po feel a little uneasy in his heart: Could it be that the troops going east were just a vanguard army, and the large army would enter Changping from here? If this is the case, won't the three lines of defense facing the south become a flank enemy army? At that time, only the walls along the Danshui will be able to resist one or two!