The Wei army, led by the general Jin Cong, began to advance towards Handan. After the whole army advanced for three hundred li and entered Dangyin, the king of Wei ordered Jin to stop advancing and only send the front to Yecheng to echo Handan, because he found that the Qin troops in Tao County had begun to assemble, and the Chu army had also stopped advancing.

The 100,000 troops taken away by Jin Contempt were carefully cultivated by the Wei State in the past ten years. After the Battle of Huayang, the Wei warriors, who had been almost completely annihilated, did not resume the establishment, and the remnants of the warriors were assigned to various towns as teachers to train the people. The king of Wei wanted to learn from the experience of Qin in Wei and train a team of all soldiers.

However, Wei's efforts to train the Yi people were progressing with great difficulty. The first problem that arises is that the customs of the Wei people are very different from place to place. The people around Daliang have a tradition of engaging in military training during their off-seasons, thanks to the Wei king's annual spring and autumn field hunting; Elsewhere, the people of the Euphores preferred to engage in business or handicrafts when they were not working, and they were often employed by certain large merchants or large handicraft owners to work in their shops, caravanserais, or workshops. Secondly, although the Wei State had a large population, there was a shortage of arable land, and the people of Yi were nominally farmers, but in fact they did not engage in agriculture and were very mobile. The people who remained on the land also had to work more to make ends meet, and there was virtually no obvious slack season. As a result, the training can hardly be carried out in areas where there is still plenty of arable land around the beams, and almost all of the 100,000 people come from the areas around the beams.

This immediately raises a question: the defense of the girder is empty!

In fact, this situation has occurred more than once in the history of Wei, and the so-called "encircling Wei to save Zhao" is aimed at the weakness of Wei, and that was during the strongest period of Wei. Now that the Wei state is in decline, the problem will only become more serious and obvious. Therefore, the king of Wei was very sensitive to the threats around Daliang, especially the state of Chu: it had both the will and the ability to invade the state of Wei!

It was at this time that the envoys of the Qin State arrived and threatened: If anyone dares to send troops to save the Zhao State, the Qin State will definitely not forgive him! The king of Wei pushed the boat down the river and told the Qin envoy that his army was only stationed in Dangyin and Yecheng, and would never set foot in the territory of Zhao! Although Yecheng is currently occupied by the Zhao state, it is the former land of the Wei state. Taking advantage of people's danger to snatch back the previously lost territory is a normal operation among princes! The king of Wei said that he just wanted to take advantage of the war in Zhao to recapture his hometown of Yecheng, and the Qin envoy could not say anything.

After the return of Pingyuanjun, the situation in Zhao deteriorated dramatically. Not only was there no food in Handan City, but even some people in the royal city began to run out of food. From time to time, the son of the Zhao family went to Pingyuanjun to ask for a loan, and Pingyuanjun could only give one or two stones at will. As the bazaar of Handan City gradually lost its function, gradually, the communication between Handan City and the royal city was also interrupted. Those ministers who shouted and shouted at Zichu also lost interest in continuing to investigate, after all, Zichu, who was in Handan City at this time, was also having a hard time!

At the beginning of September, before Pingyuan Jun returned, Zhao sent rations to Zichu as usual, but Qin's material support had been completely cut off for several months, and it was impossible to rely on Zhao's routine rations to support the expenses of more than ten people in the family. However, Lü Buwei is a merchant after all, and in such a difficult situation, there is still a way to get enough supplies for Zichu and his entourage, including eggs and meat for Zhao Zheng, who is still a baby.

October was the New Year of Qin, and Lü Buwei worked hard to prepare a more sumptuous New Year's food for the house. Although people have been starving to death every day in Handan City, the smell of meat still wafts from Zichu's mansion.

The intensified patrols of the Zhao army kept the irrelevant Zhao people out of the house. This made Zichu Mansion a hellish Handan City, a pure land. The Qin people in the Lu family's shops, those who should have retreated, have already retreated. Only the entourage of Zichu Mansion, only Jun Cao left, and now there are twenty men and women in Zichu Mansion, including Zhao Ji's mother and son. It's not easy to maintain a distribution of twenty people in the current environment, let alone a New Year!

A bad omen appeared during the New Year: Zhao did not send the usual rations again. Due to the chaos of the war, the city gates were opened and closed, and it was impossible to determine whether this was the intention or just an accidental negligence. But one thing is for sure, in the current environment, Zichu can no longer stay in Handan City, and must leave. If it is deliberately not to send rations, it shows that the upper echelons of Zhao no longer attach importance to Zichu and want to attack Zichu; If it was unintentional negligence and left the protection of Zhao State, Zichu would almost be able to protect himself in Handan!

Lü Buwei began to plan to escort Zichu Gongzi out of the city.

At this time, Pingyuan Jun naturally didn't care about Guan Zichu's affairs, and he successively sent envoys to urge the King of Wei, the King of Xinling, and the Jin Dynasty, asking them to march into Handan as soon as possible and fight against the Qin army. But the king of Wei just didn't agree to march, and his eyes were fixed on the Chu army: if the Chu army did not advance, he would never advance. This is not only an unwillingness to play a striker for the Chu State, but also a deep wariness of the Chu State. This time, the Chu army of 100,000 marched north from Suiyang, and Yin Huangxi and Sima Jingyang jointly led the troops, which could not help but make the King of Wei suspicious. What's more, they are still grinding and even stopping!

The Chu army went north to Handan from Suiyang, and the most convenient road was naturally through Tao County. But Tao County is the land of the Qin State, so naturally the Chu army will not be allowed to pass through. When the Chu army assembled in Suiyang, Tao County also began to prepare for war.

With the acquiescence of Jingyang Jun, Tao County's military power implemented a dual-track system: Tao Cheng Cai donated a "mercenary" army centered on merchants to defend the city; Tao Wei Zhang Tang centered on the late Qin prisoners and formed a traditional militia team. Although October is the New Year of Qin, and Taojun is also considered the land of Qin, the people of Taojun are not used to the October New Year, they have their own calendar, and the first day of the lunar month is the beginning of the new year every year! Even the convicts of the Qin State followed the customs of the countryside and followed the lunar New Year. In September and October, there was no New Year's atmosphere in the whole Tao County, but a full atmosphere of war preparation.

It seems to feel that the Qin army is fighting, and the Chu army, after crossing the Suishui, stopped at the periphery of Tao County and did not advance, which made Tao County even more nervous. At this time, a Chu envoy arrived at Tao County and made it clear to Jing Yangjun that he was only going to Handan to rescue King Zhao, and had no intention of making Tao County an enemy, hoping that Tao County would disband his troops and let him go.

At this time, Jing Yangjun was already very ill and barely supported to meet with the envoys. Then he discussed with Zhang Tang and Cai Yuan how to deal with the Chu army. Zhang Tang said that the Chu army obviously went to Handan to fight the Qin army, and if he took a detour, he could still ignore it; If it passes through Tao County, it naturally can't be released! Cai Yuan believes that the Chu army of 100,000, with Ling Yin and Sima as commanders, is unstoppable, and Tao County guards the city and does not have to fight a decisive battle with the Chu army. If the Chu army goes around the city, forget it. When the two were arguing, the Qin envoy arrived, and in view of the fact that Wei sent troops to rescue Handan, he ordered Tao County to levy troops and attack Wei.

King Qin's order completely crushed Jingyang Jun. When he was dying, he ordered Zhang Tang to lead the Qin people to crusade against Wei, and ordered Cai to hold on to Tao.

The Qin prisoners in Tao were only more than 30,000 people in total, plus the original natives, the total number of farmers was only 50,000, and Zhang Tang recruited 20,000 soldiers, almost all the farmers in Tao County were emptied. However, this will not be a source of distress for Tao County, as the largest population in Tao County is from commerce, with more than 100,000 households engaged in commercial activities. Cai donated the tax money to recruit a force of more than 10,000 people, plus the caravan, there were also 20,000 or 30,000 people, which was used to garrison Tao County and defend the Chu army, which was no problem.

After receiving instructions from Jingyang Jun, Zhang Tang immediately led 20,000 men from Tao to attack Wei westward. A few days later, Zhang Tang's forces captured Zhengcheng, a border town of Wei.

Zhengcheng was originally called Daicheng, which was the capital of the ancient Dai Kingdom, but the Dai Kingdom had been destroyed by the Zheng State hundreds of years earlier. Now, although Zheng Guo has long been wiped out by Korea, Dai Cheng still considers itself a Zheng person because of its remote location, and calls this place Zheng Cheng. After Zhang Tang occupied Zhengcheng, he was ready to rest for a few days before continuing his westward advance.

At this time, a military envoy suddenly came to report that there was a mutiny in Tao County, and Cai Donation fled from Tao City and was coming here. Zhang Tang was shocked and immediately led a thousand people to greet him. Received Cai Donation ten miles away from Zhengcheng. Cai's crown belt is crooked, described as haggard, and has almost collapsed! When I asked, I found out that as soon as Zhang Tang left, those merchants forced Cai Donation to open the city gate and resume commercial activities. Cai Donation said that the Chu army was just outside the city and could not open the city, and ordered the troops to suppress it. But those merchants colluded with Cai Don's troops, clamored together, and opened the city gates. Cai donated the bullet and couldn't hold it down, so he only took a few relatives and fled with him who abandoned the city.

Zhang Tang asked, "Where is Jingyangjun?" ”

Cai Yuan said: "Trapped in the city!" ”

Zhang Tang was shocked. On the one hand, he ordered Zheng Cheng's troops to return to Taocheng immediately, and on the other hand, he led his own 1,000 soldiers to rush back to Taocheng in the starry night. Two days later, Zhang Tang broke into Taocheng like a divine soldier descending from heaven, and a thousand people quickly controlled the soldiers in the city and seized all the vital parts. The guards of the shop wanted to resist, but were dispersed by Zhang Tang's chaotic arrows. A thousand people quickly took control of the entire city and declared a vigilance!

But Jing Yangjun had already died in his own mansion.

It seems that after getting the news that Taocheng is out of control, the Chu army began to march towards Taocheng. The Qin envoy who was still in Taocheng and Zhang Tang jointly decided to behead Cai Don, who abandoned the city and fled! But there are only 1,000 people left in Taocheng, and it is definitely impossible to defend the city both internally and externally. Under the pretext that Zhang Tang's mission was to crusade against Wei, the Qin envoy ordered Zhang Tang to withdraw from Taocheng and continue to return to the army to crusade against Wei.

After Zhang Tang withdrew from Taocheng, he returned to the army. When he was about to continue to return to Zhengcheng, he got information: after the fall of Zhengcheng, the king of Wei quickly sent a garrison, and the current defense of Zhengcheng has 5,000 people, far from the 20,000 people of Zhang Tang can attack. Zhang Tang was in a dilemma, so he had to wave his army north first and occupy the place where he thought he was a garrison, but he had another strategy.