It seems that in conjunction with the arrival of the Qin envoy, Zichu's entourage began a round of intensive diplomatic activities. The ministers of the Zhao State and the Central Committee, all who can be contacted, have envoys to visit, know with reason, move with affection, and advise Zhao to dedicate the six cities as soon as possible, so that the country of the two brothers of Qin and Zhao can turn into jade silk, and do not be counted by the plans of the princes! And Zhao Chen's reply is also the same, Zhao is willing to make friends with Qin, but if you want to sacrifice the land of the first king, thank you Bumin! The two sides insist on their own words and do not give in to each other.

In the intensive diplomacy of Zichu, the Qin envoy arrived in Handan. The Qin envoy did not go to the royal city to visit the pedestrians first, but entered Handan City and lived in Zichu's house. He brought ten ships of goods, and Lü Buwei hired fifty cars, and it took three days to transport all the goods back and forth, and the Qin envoy lived in Zichu's mansion for three days. Three days later, the Qin envoy officially reported to Zhao Xingren's Mansion and waited for the King of Zhao and his ministers to receive him. In the few days of waiting, the Qin envoy still lived in Zichu's house.

Pingyuan Jun originally wanted to avoid the prestige of killing the Qin envoy. But seeing that the Qin envoy lived in Zichu Mansion, he didn't seem to be in a hurry to return to China to resume his life, and he had doubts in his heart, fearing that there was some conspiracy in it, so he hurriedly arranged an official meeting.

When the Qin envoy saw King Zhao, he repeatedly stated that he had come to claim the Six Cities. King Zhao resolutely refused to admit that the peace agreement included the matter of dedicating the city, and made it clear that he had dedicated Wei Qi's head to the king of Qin, and that what he had done was benevolent and righteous, and that he had fully demonstrated his friendly sincerity, "If the king does not forgive, the widow will not dare to resign!" ”

King Zhao made the final decision and announced the breakdown of the negotiations. The Qin envoy then asked to send back Proton Zichu. King Zhao replied: "Zichu is in Zhao, there are many widows who have asked for advice, and I am willing to slow it down!" ”

Seeing that King Zhao was strong and left his son Chu, the Qin envoy was shocked, so he had to say: "What the king did is not a gentleman." I will show it to the world. ”

King Zhao said: "The king of the plains stayed in Qin for half a year, and the prince of Chu stayed in Qin for ten years. ”

After the banquet, the Qin envoy returned to Zichu's mansion with a bitter face, reported to Zichu that the mission was not achieved, and explained that King Zhao would keep his son for maybe a year and a half, maybe ten years or eight years. Zi Chu said: "I wish to repay the king, and if you don't raise a soldier, you will be lucky; If righteousness raises troops, don't think of Chu. ”

Qin envoy said: "The minister is willing to sacrifice his life to protect the son's return to the country!" ”

Zi Chu said with a smile: "Without the king's order, how dare you return!" Don't fall into my sin! ”

The Qin envoy went to the king of Zhao with twelve gifts, and the king of Zhao gave twelve carts of gifts in return, all of which were left in Handan according to the instructions of the king of Qin. The Qin envoy and his entourage took the things used on the way, as well as the goods that Lü Buwei had purchased in Handan, and returned to Xianyang by boat. And the things given by King Zhao were applied to the extreme by Lü Buwei......

After the Qin envoy left, Zichu and his entourage no longer had intensive diplomatic actions, and their every move was very cautious, and they didn't even go out easily. The ministers of Zhao State also did not dare to communicate openly with Zichu anymore. Everyone tacitly knows that a big war is coming, and this war will determine the life and death of Zhao State, and even the general trend of the world!

August has passed, September is coming, and there is a bumper harvest scene outside Handan. The people of Zhao Guo also brought the offerings of the month early. - Since Zichu returned from Wu'an, there has been no shortage of routine offerings, two to two points, and there are other rewards. Under Lü Buwei's operation, the value of the rewards of the kings of Qin and Zhao doubled; And Lu Buwei is very strict in housekeeping, and his expenses are moderate, and Zichu's daily life is completely guaranteed.

Zhao Ji has been pregnant for four or five months, and the pregnancy is obvious, and she walks in the courtyard every day with the support of the servant woman. The wooden flute is spread all over the courtyard, and the servants clean it three times a day, and they can't do it all.

The Zhao army in the city obviously strengthened the surveillance of Zichu's house, and even blatantly sent people to stand on the city wall and look down, day and night. The prime minister sent someone to find a pedestrian to protest, and the pedestrian said: "He is on duty, and it is not enough to blame!" Zichu was helpless.

Lui's shop is still open as usual and does not seem to be affected by the situation. Those merchants who had connections with the upper echelons of the Zhao State already knew that a war between Qin and Zhao was inevitable, and they were all looking for their own way out. The merchants, who intended to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, strengthened their ties with the Lu family's merchants, hoping to find an opportunity to make a fortune during the war. Those merchants who had properties outside the city also frequently visited Zichu, hoping that their properties outside the city could be taken care of by the Qin army. Zichu's mansion was feared by the officials of Zhao State, but it was broken by those market merchants.

After the Qin envoys left, the road to the party began to extend rapidly to the leather prison, and the Zhao army also repeatedly patrolled the leather prison, and the soldiers of the two sides often met in the leather prison. Although there was no conflict, the vigilance was palpable. Behind the leather prison, Zhao Jun relied on the Nanzhuo water to build a strong barracks: it is said that Lian Po personally surveyed and assigned the construction master in Handan City to guide the construction.

The situation is very obvious, if Qin Zhao wants to fight, the first battle will definitely be carried out on the front line of Pigao and Wu'an.

The spies sent to Xianyang by various countries kept an eye on the prisoners in Xianyang. The prisoners did begin intensive training around the autumn harvest, but they did not intend to distribute weapons and send them to the front.

Under the nervous gaze of the people of the world, the New Year of Qin has arrived!

According to the custom of the Qin people, after the New Year, it is the time to set out on the expedition. When the people of Qin celebrated the New Year happily, the princes of various countries held their breath, nervously, eagerly, and urgently...... With mixed feelings, they observed the movements of the Qin army. Almost everyone is sure that when Qin sends troops, the target must be Zhao; Moreover, the Qin State will definitely send troops, otherwise the prisoners accumulated by the Qin State for several years will have no way out. Finding a way to reduce the sentences of prisoners who violated the Qin law was the lowest motivation for the Qin people to send troops.

However, everyone waited until the full moon day of October 15, and did not expect the news of the Qin army's expedition. Just when the princes were about to despair, news suddenly came that the Qin army and the Zhao army were fighting in the leather prison!

Li Bing selected 20,000 people from the Qin prisoners who went to Taiyuan and Wu'an to form an assault force; From the 20,000 people who participated in the Battle of Changping, 10,000 were selected to form a baggage team. From Shangdang to Handan, there are mountain roads along the way. After two months of construction, Li Bing repaired the road to the vicinity of Pigao, but there were not many towns along the way, and there was little chance of local supply.

Since receiving the preparatory order, Wang Ling has gone to Pigao many times to survey the terrain. Zhao did not build a city in Pigao, but built a camp behind the Pigao Pass, choking the way out of the pass. It seems that the Zhao army learned the lesson of the loss of the pass at the beginning of the year, strengthened the defense line of the water, and updated the defensive idea: while stabilizing the first-line defense of the pass, the Qin army was allowed to occupy a small number of starting positions, rather than completely blocking the Qin army on the other side of the pass. Due to the limited frontage, it was almost impossible for the Qin army to concentrate superior forces locally. Faced with such a defensive position, Wang Ling thought hard about how to break the defensive line, and felt that he had no way to start. Probably there is only one way to come here!

Wang Ling roughly estimated that the front-line soldiers might not even need 10,000. The 30,000 soldiers and 20,000 combat troops prepared by Li Bing didn't even need to appear together. He rigorously calculated the width of the road, the speed of travel, the amount of passage of the road and the capacity of the battlefield, and found that in fact, 5,000 people were enough to deal with this assault battle, but the key was that it was difficult for 5,000 people to break through the current defense line, let alone assault under the city of Handan.

In September, Xianyang officially sent an order that the alliance with Handan had been annulled, and ordered him to immediately send 30,000 troops to attack Handan after the New Year! At the same time, Xianyang returned to him a tiger talisman, which was in line with the tiger talisman kept by Wang Ling himself, so that he could mobilize the Shangdang army. Although Wang Ling is still only the fifth master, he has a tiger talisman in his body, and his status is equivalent to that of a general.

At the same time as the battle order was issued, the corresponding knights were also sent from Hedong County, and almost all the knights in Shangdang County were sent to the task. Nanyang in Hanoi was fully mobilized at the last moment of the Battle of Changping, and all Ding Zhuang who enlisted in the army were given the first rank, and this time there were many knights from Nanyang in Hanoi.

It stands to reason that such a large-scale reorganization of the armed forces will not go unnoticed. However, due to the fact that most of the princes' attention was in the direction of Xianyang, and the geographical environment of Shangdang was closed, far away from the main transportation routes, and there was a lack of commercial contacts with the central cities, the whole month of preparation for the war did not take special secrecy measures, and it was rarely known to the outside world.

After the New Year, after a full last breakfast and a month's worth of fried millet, the Shangdang Qin army set foot on the road to Handan.

Others don't know, Handan knows, after all, Li Bing is not a joke when he builds the road to the leather prison. Although the goods were only exchanged in Licheng, and the merchants of Handan could not actually enter the Shangdang, the atmosphere and environment could be felt, not to mention the businessmen who were particularly sensitive to changes in the outside world.

The atmosphere in Handan is becoming more and more severe, the curfew in Handan City is becoming stricter and stricter, there are more and more Zhao troops patrolling the streets, and the fences of the neighborhoods are locked before it is completely dark. Zichu's mansion is an independent mansion and is not in the neighborhood, so after the curfew, the front and back doors are guarded by soldiers, and the mansion is stricter than the neighborhood.

In the tense atmosphere, Zichu's family lived as usual: after Lu Buwei lifted the ban, he went to the shop to check the business, and each entourage performed its own duties, or accumulated firewood and grass, or purchased goods, or carried water, or herded horses and cattle, leaving only one or two people at home to do housework. In this environment, Zichu lived in a simple house, usually locked himself in the house to study, stabbed and archery in the courtyard, and accompanied the beautiful Zhao Ji to stroll in the courtyard in his spare time.

Zhao Ji has a shy belly and a smile on her face, as if she has nothing to do with the coming war, she just needs to think about how to raise her children.

In a tense atmosphere, the family spent the Qin New Year. They invited the nobles and ministers of the Zhao State, as well as the princes of Zhao and the merchants of Handan City, to have a banquet on a daily basis. The banquet lasted until October 15.

Three days later, the news came that the prison had been occupied by the Qin army, and the Zhao army's defense line was attacked......