At the insistence of King Zhao, the Zhao ministers established their determination to fight to the death against Qin. But when they heard that King Zhao decided to send another 100,000 troops, the ministers were shocked again - the tragedy of Changping had too deep a psychological shadow on the Zhao people.

The Qin envoy, who had originally agreed to come to Handan, did not come. However, King Zhao still frequently sent envoys to visit Zichu and expressed his willingness to make friends with Qin: as long as the Qin army retreated, the Zhao army would never pursue and was willing to make peace with Qin! Zichu did not refuse, and only said to report to Xianyang. But Zi Chu proposed to go to Wu'an in person to discuss with Wang Di, but was rejected by Zhao Envoy!

The war in Handan was confined to a corner of Wu'an, and the surroundings of Handan were still a busy scene of spring ploughing. As the weather warmed up, so did the merchants. Throughout the winter, the Lu firm only maintained a business route with Luoyang, in fact, it communicated with Xianyang. Caravans are now also sent to commercial centers to transport goods back and forth. But now, the road out of Wu'an, straight to Shangdang and Hedong is impassable, and both Qin and Zhao have cut off this trade route. Lü Buwei had an idea and suggested that Zichu let Zhao restore the trade route of Shangdang, so that the mountain goods from Taihang Mountain and the salt from Hedong could go out of the mountain.

Zichu naturally went to Li Ji and talked about it privately. However, the prime minister went on a trip, and Li Ji avoided it. Zichu and his entourage all felt that something might be serious. When the envoys of the king of Zhao came, Zichu also proposed to the envoys of Zhao that they should be able to pass through the military and the merchants. A few days later, the envoy of Zhao came back and said that the king of Zhao had agreed, but only for the caravan that the king of Zhao had issued special charms.

With King Zhao's answer, Lü Buwei immediately began to organize. He said that he moved the richest man in Handan, led by Guo's shop, and pulled a large group of large and small merchants to form a large caravan of hundreds of people, and placed the personnel of his Lu shop. Guo Shi applied to King Zhao, and it was quickly approved. Hundreds of cars marched towards Taihang Mountain. After passing through the Zhao army's defensive line, the people from the Lu family's shop came forward to contact the Qin army. The person sent is naturally Zichu's confidant, a person that Wang Yi can trust. Several people talked secretly overnight, exchanged information with each other, and each benefited. After two days of secret talks, Wang ordered the opening of trade routes. So hundreds of carts drove along a designated road into the mountains.

The caravan of Zhao was able to pass through the Qin army's station, and the news naturally spread quickly in Handan, so rumors of Qin and Zhao's inevitable peace flourished again.

However, more than ten days later, the situation changed, and the Qin army began to besiege Wuji. There were only 5,000 soldiers in Wuji, and Wang Ji sent 30,000 men to besiege from three sides, leaving only the east gate opposite Wu'an City, obviously to force the defenders of Wuji to retreat.

Li Chong secretly communicated with Wang Di, hoping to reach a non-aggression gentleman's agreement with him as he did last year. Wang took a hard line and said that the military security situation must be completely overcome, but as a concession, the Zhao army could be allowed to withdraw from the besieged city. Li Chong hurriedly asked Handan for instructions and gave up the noon. But Handan did not respond. Ten days later, Li Chong made a decisive decision and ordered the Wuji garrison to retreat, leaving all the baggage to the Qin army in exchange for the safe entry of the whole army into Wu'an. But report to Handan: Wuji fought hard and conquered for the Qin army; In addition to the casualties, the defenders of the city have retreated to Wu'an. This time, Handan reacted quickly and sent an envoy to severely reprimand Li Chong! But the envoys failed to pass through the Qin army's defenses......

A month after entering the mountain, the Taihang caravan returned with a full load, and the cart was full of mountain goods and salt. The caravan successfully passed through the defensive lines of Qin and Zhao, which were fighting, and entered Handan. After the caravan was disbanded, each faction invited the inner line of the caravan they had sent to their mansions and inquired in detail about what they had seen along the way, as well as the confrontation between the Qin and Zhao armies.

When I went, it seemed to be calm, but when I returned, it was stormy, which was the news from all the merchants. The merchants of the Lu family's shop even conveyed the shocking news: Qin Xiang had ordered Hedong and Shangdang to prepare to support Wang Yi in the war for a year! Hearing this news, Zi Chu felt like he had fallen into an ice cave, and he cooled down from the bottom of his heart: he had finally given up!

When the Taihang caravan left Wu'an, Wang Yi immediately ordered the siege of Wu'an City.

There were 1,000 local soldiers in Wu'an City, and when Wang Ling attacked Pi Prison, Wu'an mobilized for the first time, and in addition to the whole army attacking Wang Ling, 5,000 people were left to garrison Wu'an. When the news of the Qin army's increase came, Wu'an mobilized 20,000 men again. Before these 20,000 people could enter the position, Wu'an was attacked from both sides of Yan and Hepijiao, and the entire defense of Wu'an collapsed, and the Qin army rushed into Wu'an. The newly mobilized 20,000 people gathered outside the city of Wu'an took advantage of the situation to enter Wu'an. After the peaceful settlement of Wuji under the tacit understanding of Wang Ji and Li Chong, Wuji's 5,000 also entered Wu'an, and there are now more than 30,000 soldiers in Wu'an, which is about the same as the number of all residents. 30,000 people defending a city with 10,000 households is obviously overkill. But it undoubtedly also created obstacles for Wang Ji to attack the city.

After Wang Ji besieged Wu'an City, he also patiently made all kinds of siege equipment outside the city, and did not immediately launch an offensive. Li Chong also went to the city every day to inspect the city's defenses, but he did not send troops to counterattack, leaving Wang Yi to calmly prepare for the siege.

At this time, the spring ploughing of the Wu'an realm was not delayed, and the people who returned home, although they were old and weak, were also trying their best to cultivate with the permission of the Qin army, but after all, they were unable to do so. So in the evening, many old people and women called their husbands outside the city of Wu'an, and asked them to come out to plough the land, if it was too late and the harvest was missed, the whole family would definitely starve to death. Many soldiers wept secretly when they heard the call of their father and wife, and war-weariness quietly spread in the city. Seeing this scene, Li Chong had nothing to do except strengthen inspections and strictly guard the four gates.

A few days later, some of the soldiers, with the help of other soldiers, returned home. At first, there were more than a dozen people a day, and it grew to dozens of people, and even fled in formation: on the night of the Shangcheng guard, the hundred people who were Zhao Gongzi would be tied up by his subordinates, stuffed with rags in their mouths, and then the whole team marched out of the city in an orderly manner and quickly disappeared into the night; The ropes they used were left on the walls, swaying in the wind.

Li Chong ordered that all the gates used for transportation inside and outside the city should be confiscated. But this can only temporarily prevent Zhao Jun from escaping, and it cannot stop the call of Wu An's father every night. After only a few days of silence, the soldiers of Zhao found a solution: they formed a group, each took off his clothes, formed a rope, and went to the dungeon in groups. The soldiers who defended the city pretended not to see it, and when they went down, they thoughtfully threw down their clothes and returned them to them, and then ,...... Nothing happened.

The soldiers in Wu'an City are all Wu'an Yi people, and the call of the fathers and elders and the cultivation of their fields are hopeless temptations! Li Chong asked a group of Zhao Gongzi, who had lost his subordinates, to form a patrol team with a group of soldiers to patrol the city day and night in order to detect deserters in time. But soon, the patrol team also joined the ranks of releasing water, after all, they are all their own villagers, who is willing to tear their faces? A small number of soldiers who are tough and unwilling to give in and cannot do anything will have their bodies inexplicably appear under the city......

In just one month, the number of soldiers in Wu'an City was reduced by half, and there were less than 20,000 people left. Although they did not flee, they were also clearly unwilling to fight. Seeing the Qin army calmly manufacturing siege equipment outside the city, those 10,000 generals were anxious and asked Li Chong to hurry up and find a way. Li Chong asked 10,000 people to command hundreds of people to go out of the city to harass the Qin army, but the Qin army shouted loudly: "Abandon your soldiers and return to your hometown to cultivate the land!" Abandon your soldiers and return to your hometown to farm! "Many soldiers really abandoned their weapons and walked out of the queue, and the companions next to them did not stop them, and the 100 generals and 500 generals who supervised the battle behind did not dare to kill them, so they had to withdraw their troops. So those 10,000 generals didn't dare to persuade Li Chong to take the initiative anymore.

Wuji was conquered, which was the last news of Wu'an received by Handan. Since that day, the connection between Wu'an and Handan has been completely severed. Wang Yi also built a continuous defensive line along the river, and was not merciful to the captured Zhao army patrol posts, and all of them were beheaded. Naturally, Lian Po also used color to increase his strength to deal with the Qin army patrol posts, and he also beheaded the Qin army patrol posts when he caught them.

King Zhao asked Lian Po to recruit 100,000 soldiers, and the quota was sent to various places, but the cities in the far suburbs of Handan had many places, and the nearby cities had few places, and most of the soldiers recruited were dozens or hundreds of miles away from Handan City, and it took several days to arrive. Someone suggested that Lian Po should recruit troops near Handan, and Lian Po said: "Under the city of Handan, everyone is close to the nobles, so it is difficult." When you encounter the Qin army, you can still fight, and you can have a pawn without levy. ”

Due to the distance of the soldiers, and it was late spring, the soldiers from all over the country were grinding and grinding, and it was not until the Qin army began to surround Wuji that 100,000 soldiers arrived one after another. Lian Po formed them into a queue and designated Zhu Zhao Gongzi to lead the troops; If it is insufficient, it will be served by the elders of the villages. There are 200,000 in Changping and nearly 50,000 in Wu'an, and the soldiers are all Zhao Gongzi, and there are 100,000 soldiers, and even Zhao Gongzi in Handan has a shortage. In addition to the 10,000 guards in Wangcheng, all the other Zhao Gongzi in Wangcheng were evacuated, and even Zhao Gongzi, who was closer to the blood in Handan City, was also transferred to lead the army. Zhao Gongzi of Wangcheng is okay, he usually trains in the Wangcheng Guard, and he is not an expert in marching and fighting, and he is still familiar with it; When did Zhao Gongzi of Handan City lead soldiers and fight, he had not heard the sound of the golden drum for several generations, and he was suddenly recruited into the army, and his eyes were all black.

Compared with the Handan soldiers in Changping, the current Handan soldiers are not only inferior in physical strength, but also very weak in the allocation of cadres at all levels, and their combat effectiveness has been greatly reduced. But even such a Zhao army is very precious, after they were requisitioned, their families fell into despair almost at the same time, and people hugged their heads and cried.

Leading such an army, Lian Po naturally would not rashly put his troops into battle, but fortified from Wu'an to Handan. In order to avoid interfering with spring ploughing, they did not build ditches on a large scale, but used the Yili and small cities outside Handan to send troops to garrison them, and tried not to interfere with the agricultural activities of the people. But they are required to devote themselves to defensive operations once the war is launched.