Bai Qi was still not at ease, and asked, "What will you do with the swordsman to cut off his help?" ”

Meng Fu said: "There is no need to defend it. But it can also disturb Zhao Yingke. The Zhao army is overwhelmed, and its helpers cannot be far away, but they must also be close to the camp. But the surprise battalion did not dare to come out, and if you did not dare to fight, it would be a good thing! ”

Bai Qi thought for a while and said, "You can be cautious and plan your way!" ”

Since Dongling was occupied by the Qin army, Li Bing's Beidi Army and Bai Qi's Nanjun Army had been connected. With them as a link, the two groups of Shicheng and Taniguchi can also be united as a whole, and the strategic encirclement of the Zhao army has in fact been completed.

At the same time that Bai Qi inspected Li Bing's battalions, Zhao Kuo and Zhao Junzhong's generals also had a long discussion in the big tent.

Twenty-five people, old and new, will unanimously express their pessimism about the situation. With only two or three days left before the scheduled ten days, the situation not only did not open, but worsened day by day. More than 400,000 people, concentrated in a narrow valley that spanned no more than dozens of miles, had to watch in despair as the Qin army on the mountain moved freely, and he was at a loss. At present, even if they want to fight, there is no room for fighting: Qin and Zhao are entangled, and they can only hug and tear each other, and they can't use punches and kicks.

They also criticized Zhao Kuo's practice of concentrating the elite of various armies to fight to the death a few days ago. In a few days of fighting, the Zhao army lost tens of thousands of elites, and there is not one out of ten soldiers in the battalion who can fight, although it retains an empty shelf, in fact, it has no combat effectiveness. If it had been possible to fight according to the establishment at the beginning, it would have also lost tens of thousands of soldiers, and now it will at least have the strength to fight.

Listening to the complaints of the generals, Zhao Kuo was naturally unconvinced, but he did not refute, but asked everyone to fully express their opinions. When everyone's anger was almost over, Zhao Kuo said: "Including obscenity, vain as a national weapon." The king does not count the ignorant, but knows that there is a loyalty available. Today, Qin is strong, there is a lack of food and grass inside, and there are no reinforcements outside, so things are urgent. Do you think that the plan will be released? Or to bracket incompetence, there is a wish to protect the army, bracket the wish for partiality! ”

Naturally, all the tens of thousands of people did not dare to take the stubble, and they all knelt down and said: "The ministers are all under the orders of the general, and they dare not disobey." ”

Zhao Kuo said: "If you dare to give up." If the Changping army is defeated, he will die in Changping and dare not leave. ”

Everyone said: "Everyone is willing to follow the general underground!" ”

Zhao Kuo said: "When the time comes, the plan will be released!" ”

A 10,000-strong general said: "Each camp lacks food, and the plan for today is to count the grain first." The former general gave ten days' food to boost the morale of the army. This battle is unfavorable, and it should be delayed. did not stick to the old order. ”

Zhao Kuo knew in his heart that there was no food in the granary. It's all dirt in it. At the beginning, in order to create the false impression that a large amount of military rations had arrived, Zhao Kuo mixed a large amount of soil with the transportation and passed it off as grain. But only a few young officers who came with him from Handan knew about it, and no one else knew about it. Zhao Kuo didn't say anything, and said: "What the general said is very true. However, the Qin army forced Cangcheng, how could it be opened? They will be driven away, but they will receive bread. ”

Everyone felt that Zhao Kuo was reasonable, so they stopped talking again.

Driving away the Qin army and recovering the six lost mountains is easy to say! Zhao Meng contributed almost ten battalions to Zhao Kuo's strong attack, all of which were disabled, and now the soldiers under him are all weak soldiers transferred from other battalions. And because he was closest to the Qin army and occupied the territory of the battle, only he could fight if he wanted to fight. And with his current situation, it would be good to be able to hold his camp and not lose it again, how could he still have the ability to counterattack.

Zhao Meng knelt up and said: "If you have a thousand archers and 100,000 arrows, you are willing to fight!" ”

Zhao Meng felt bitter. His troops were personally trained by him and were very capable of fighting. So Lian Po put him north of Cangcheng and guarded the granary. After Zhao Kuo came, he repeatedly transferred his troops and fought to the death with the Qin army. Although his troops fought valiantly, fighting was not something that could be fought by bravery alone. Needless desperate efforts will only result in a large number of casualties and no results. His old units were wounded one by one, and most of the junior officers were lost, and they almost lost their combat effectiveness. The soldiers who were replenished to him lacked training and were not in order, so he had to start again and again.

During the day, Zhao Meng launched an attack with new soldiers, and although he could not win, he achieved the goal of containing the Qin army. The Zhao army defending the city went out of the city to fight, and the granary was not in danger. He felt that if he attacked seriously, it was possible for the Qin camp to be taken. After all, he had twenty battalions, while the Qin army had only six. Therefore, when Zhao Kuo proposed to drive the Qin army away from the grain mountain, he took the initiative to ask for help. - Actually, except for him, no one else is qualified, after all, it is his combat territory!

Zhao Kuo actually wanted to block everyone's mouths with words, and didn't want to be picked up by Zhao Meng. He patted his knee and said, "Great! But 100,000 arrows are difficult to prepare...... Each army declares its own number! ”

Of the 25 10,000 generals, 20 were reported by one army, which was enough for 500 people. Zhao Meng expressed his gratitude to everyone and said that he would definitely live up to everyone's expectations and capture the enemy camp to be ashamed!

Due to the large amount of arrows used some time ago and the difficulty of recycling, the number of arrows in the various armies of the Zhao army dropped sharply. Zhao Jun did not have craftsmen. This question was also raised.

Not only the arrows, but also other weapons were damaged to varying degrees, especially the shields, which were particularly badly damaged. In the previous days of fighting, when retreating, they could only drag back wounded soldiers, and their weapons were discarded on the battlefield, which caused an embarrassing situation in which many soldiers had no weapons.

Zhao Kuo could only ask the tens of thousands of people to find craftsmen from among their soldiers who were responsible for repairing weapons. As for arrows, in addition to enhancing recycling, unnecessary consumption should be reduced. All archers are under the unified command of 10,000 generals, and are no longer delegated to the command of each battalion.

The most difficult food problem, everyone unanimously suggested that Zhao Kuo urgently send a document to report to King Zhao and ask for support! Many tens of thousands of people also had relatives and nobles in the court, and they all expressed their willingness to come forward to write letters or bring oral messages to their relations, asking them to come forward to suggest or support King Zhao to send troops to support. Zhao Kuo knew that it was impossible, but he also took it one by one.

Due to the current shortage of troops and weapons, it can only support an offensive war. Tomorrow's attack will start with Zhao Meng. Zhao Kuo stipulated that only the soldiers participating in the attack could eat enough, and the rest of the soldiers were all half-fed. Compared with the previous order, half a meal was changed from two meals to one meal. He knew that in fact, many tens of thousands of people would have already let the soldiers eat half a meal, but he still issued a clear order to bear the grievances of the whole army himself.

That night, Zhao Kuo and those 10,000 people who had access to the door each wrote a good letter, or asked their confidants to carry a message. After the modification, he quietly set off, sneaked out of Changping from the mountains under the Danzhu Mountains, and went to Handan.

Zhao Kuo silently calculated: There is still one month and eight other days. He didn't know if he should have hoped that day would come sooner or later. He only hoped that he would live to that day, because it meant that he had completed the task given to him by King Zhao, an impossible task.

Many messengers were captured by the Qin army's patrol posts, and letters to the king of Zhao and other dignitaries were recovered from them. There were also people who claimed to be residents of the Shangdang and let them go without finding any paperwork from them.

After Bai Qi captured the first line of Shicheng by the Qin army, he ordered Guanzhong, Shangjun, and Beidi to send a battalion each, stationed in Changzi, Lucheng and Licheng respectively, each about 100 miles apart, mainly responsible for inquiring about the surrounding news, monitoring the surrounding movements, and discovering the Zhao army that might come to help in time; At the same time, the connection between Changping and Handan and Taiyuan was isolated. This time, the multi-way messengers parted ways, and most of them still took the avenue, after all, if they forcibly passed through the no-man's land, they might be attacked by poisonous snakes and beasts, which was much more terrifying than the Qin people!

It should be said that Zhao Kuo is still very careful. He wrote his own writing on a piece of silk, cut it into more than ten small strips of cloth, and gave it to different people to take out. Some of them were unsophisticated, some of them wrote only a few words, or sewed into the corners of the messenger's clothes, or hidden in their hair, and the message was easily exposed.

Although Zhao Kuo's documents were intercepted incompletely, indicating that some people still slipped through the net, most of them were intercepted and spliced together, and the meaning should be more complete than what King Zhao obtained. In general, it is reported that he has suffered heavy losses to the Qin army in battle, but has not been able to push the Qin army back, and Shicheng has been lost and is struggling to recapture it. At present, there is a shortage of food and grass, and it is difficult to replenish the arrows, so please send reinforcements to King Zhao quickly. The other people's meanings were similar, but they didn't have as much detail as Zhao Kuo.

Bai Qi smiled coldly, and asked people to ride a shortcut to inform the defenders of Lucheng and Licheng, so that they could search, and sooner or later there would be enemy messengers through. He also sent someone to inform the King of Qin that an envoy had leaked to Handan, and that there was any movement in Handan, and we should pay close attention to it. Chen Si, who was stationed in Wencheng, immediately strengthened his forces in the direction of Handan.

With Zhao Kuo's report, Bai Qi felt even more confident in his heart: there is no need to fight too much, as long as he fights against Zhao Jun, Zhao Jun will inevitably collapse! He also asked the Hedong side to count the grain stocks in Hedong, and the work of the concubines to fry millet should be stepped up, and it was necessary to ensure that the army was not short of food; The Anyi side should step up the manufacture and repair of weapons, especially the casting of arrowheads, and supply the front line in a timely manner. On the contrary, there was no further urging for the work of the Nanjun Lieutenant to supervise the construction of the oars.

Zhao Meng returned to his big tent, gathered all the officers of each battalion of 500 men and more than 500 generals into the tent, and announced to them the order to attack the Qin army on the whole line tomorrow. informed them that since the Qin army had blocked the door of the granary, the grain in the granary could not supply the whole army, and they must all be driven away; Now that the whole army is short of food, driving away the Qin army is not only a war achievement, but also self-help. Then he announced his battle plan: all battalions were to be put into battle tomorrow, five of them launched a diversion attack on the five battalions of the Qin army in front of them, and concentrated the strength of four battalions to launch a strong attack on the Qin battalion closest to the granary, so as to be defeated; Two battalions act as mobile to reinforce the parties at any time; The remaining nine battalions serve as a reserve to transport heavy loads, treat the wounded, and replenish the shortfall of combat units at any time. The direction of the assist will be in charge of a general, and the main direction of attack will be supervised by himself. Anyone who cowers and does not former, immediately behead! A general was in charge of the reserves.

He did not let the officers express their opinions, and forcibly assigned the task.

Officers