My brother Ying Zheng, who dares to kill me?.

Chapter 770: The world's greatest hero? He's nothing but a rat! There is only one goal in this battle!
May 20th, the 14th year of the reign of Qin Shi Huangdi.

Four full days had passed since Yan Dan issued the order to join forces.

However, only six troops succeeded in joining forces with Yan Dan, and the only person that could be sent back from the remaining troops was a messenger!
"Report! Our troops were surrounded and attacked by the Qin Duwei Su Jiao and Qin Duwei Li Xin. The enemy has nearly 40,000 troops. We request support!"

"Report! My troops were attacked by Qin Duwei Ren Xiong, Qin Duwei Qiang Huai, and Qin Duwei Li Xin. The enemy has more than 40,000 soldiers. My troops request support!"

"Report! Our troops encountered Qin Duwei Xifeng and Qin Duwei Li Xin..."

Yan Dan suddenly interrupted the messenger and asked in a deep voice: "Who did you just say surrounded your troops?"

The messenger quickly replied: "Qin Duwei Xifeng, Qin Duwei Li Xin!"

Yan Dan looked at the other messengers and said, "You just said that you were also attacked by Li Xin, the commander of the Qin army?!"

The three messengers looked at each other, then anxiously clasped their hands and said, "Indeed!"

"Li Xin, the commander of the Qin army, may have divided his troops into different places and made fake flags to confuse our army."

"Whether it is Li Xin's troops who are besieging our army or not, our army is facing more than 40,000 Qin troops. We beg the prince to reinforce us!"

There was deep shock in the eyes of all the Yan generals.

Yan Huan spoke with a difficult voice: "If the Qin army had the rest of the Qin army raise the flag of Li Xin, then how many Qin troops are there in the north of our army now?!"

"If the Qin army had not asked other Qin troops to raise the flag of Li Xin, the commander of Qin, then where exactly is Li Xin?!"

If the former is the case, then the biggest advantage of the Yan army in this battle has been declared invalid!

If the latter is the case, it means that the movements of Li Xin's troops are completely beyond Yan Dan's control. The battlefield in the north of Neihuang will be like a fog of war for the Yan army, and the various northern troops will be able to fight on their own!
No matter which situation arises, it will be extremely disadvantageous for the Yan army!
Yan Dan sighed deeply: "I have fallen into a trap!"

"As Deputy General Yan said, Qin Chang'an Jun doesn't care about the ownership of the old Zhao cities at all, but just wants to induce our army to split up."

"I think my joining forces was already within Qin Chang'an Jun's calculations. Qin Chang'an Jun had just summoned Li Xin's troops and ordered them to lead the troops to intercept and kill our troops and block the opportunity for our troops to return!"

"You are worthy of being Lord Qin Chang'an! You are worthy of being my best friend!"

Yan Dan understood!
He finally understood!

Unfortunately, he understood it too late.

The battlefield in the north of Neihuang was completely beyond Yan Dan's control, and it was difficult for the troops from various units to join forces with Yan Dan in a short period of time. Yan Dan's strategy of ignoring baggage and troops and deciding the outcome in one battle was becoming increasingly difficult to achieve!
Just at this moment, more than ten scouts covered in blood ran back.

Without even the time to dismount, the scout leader rode his horse to within five feet of Yan Dan and shouted in a panic, "Report!"

"We have learned that the Qin army is crossing the Yellow River from Tunshi Port!"

Yan Dan looked at the scout leader with a look of excitement and asked anxiously, "Have you found out the number of Qin troops that crossed the river?"

The scout commander shook his head bitterly: "I am incompetent!"

"All I saw was the Qin army's flags on the other side of the Yellow River, but I was unable to cross the river to investigate."

"My troops originally wanted to hide on the east bank of the Yellow River and observe secretly, but they were discovered by Qin's scouts. We fled back after a bloody battle and were unable to obtain more intelligence!"

Looking at the scout captain whose left arm was cut off at the root, Yan Dan was unable to say a word of blame.

Suppressing his anxiety, Yan Dan patted the scout leader's horse and said gently, "Let's go find a doctor to treat the wound first."

"After this battle, all of you will come to my house."

"I will never let the soldiers who fought for me shed blood and tears!"

More than a dozen scouts bowed their hands in gratitude and said, "Thank you, Prince!"

After making a promise, Yan Dan turned around and looked at the generals: "Qin Chang'an Jun is crossing the river at this moment, I think he wants to attack our army while our troops have not yet returned!"

"Do you have any good advice?"

Gongsun Gao's voice was particularly solemn: "Our troops have not returned yet, but according to the messages sent back by the troops, we know that the troops under Qin Chang'an Jun's command have not returned either."

"Today, our army has a total of 150,000 soldiers, while Qin Chang'an Jun may only have 80,000 soldiers under his command."

"The advantage is still on our side!"

"The only weakness of our army is that we only have enough food and fodder to last us for another half a month."

"I think our army should take the initiative and attack Qin Chang'an's troops while they are crossing the river!"

The badger shook his head decisively: "No!"

"Although Qin Chang'an Jun only has 80,000 soldiers under his command, don't forget that there are more than 40,000 Qin troops under Meng Wu in Neihuang City!"

"Once the two Qin armies join forces, the difference in strength between the enemy and us will be negligible."

"The king has sent an additional 200,000 troops south to support our army, but it is difficult for Qin to provide reinforcements to Qin Chang'an Jun."

"I think we should continue to dig deeper into our fortifications, resist the Qin army on the spot, and wait for our reinforcements to return!"

A group of Yan army captains argued endlessly about passive resistance and active attack.

Yan Dan also frowned, listening to the advice of the generals while thinking carefully. After a while, Yan Dan finally made up his mind: "Qin Chang'an Jun ordered Qin Duwei Li Xin to roam in the north of our army and intercept our troops."

"However, both the troops under Qin Chang'an Jun and Qin Duwei Li Xin are inferior to ours in strength."

"Send the order for the orphan!"

"Give up the siege of Neihuang City."

"The whole army will break camp and cross the river to the north!"

"Send messengers to each unit. If the troops are still facing the Qin army's strong attack, they should hold their ground and wait for me to lead the army to rescue them."

"I will join forces with other tribes, even with the reinforcements from the court, and then choose a surrendered city as a base to fight Qin Chang'an to the death!"

Yan Dan proposed a path that no other Yan general had ever proposed.

Does this strategy make sense?

Of course it makes sense.

The troops of various units were blocked by the Qin army and could not return, so I led the army to meet up with the troops of various units to complete the joining. It was like the saying "if the mountain does not come to me, I will go to it."

After joining forces with the troops of various other units, Yan Dan's troops will once again be far superior to Ying Chengjiao's troops, and Yan Dan will be able to crush Ying Chengjiao's troops with superior forces!
Gongsun Gao said worriedly: "But our army's food and grass are only enough for us to last for half a month!"

Yan Dan said without hesitation: "When we pass by a surrendered city, we can go to the city to seek food and supplies."

Gongsun Gao wanted to persuade him again, but Yan Huan had already sighed in his heart.

He knew that once Yan Dan stated his strategy, he would not give others the opportunity to question it.

All Yan Hu and other generals could do was to bow and shout: "Yes!"

Under Yan Dan's order, the Yan army's central army did not wait until sunrise the next day to set out, but immediately broke camp and turned northeast.

The next morning, Yan Dan's troops boarded the warships "borrowed" from the Zhao army, broke through the waves and headed north, rushing towards Guanshi City (now Guan County) on the north bank of the Yellow River!
-
May 21st, the 14th year of the reign of Qin Shi Huangdi.

In the dense forest southwest of Guan County, birds circled in the sky, not daring to land for a long time.

On the south side of the dense forest, a hundred knights stood on the bank of the Yellow River, gazing into the distance.

When he saw a Zhao warship flying the Yan flag, Ying Chengjiao smiled mockingly: "Yan Prince Dan is heading north indeed!"

Meng Tian looked at Ying Chengjiao in disbelief and asked, "Prince Dan of Yan actually never camped in the camp northwest of Neihuang City to wait for the troops to return, nor did he actively attack our army."

"But as Chang'an Jun expected, they crossed the river to the north?!"

Like the generals of the Yan army, the generals of the Qin army were also thinking about the next strategy that the Yan army could formulate in order to anticipate the enemy.

However, no Qin general had considered that Yan Dan would abandon the camp that had been operating for several months and march north after Ying Chengjiao sent decoy troops across the river!

The sneer in Ying Chengjiao's words became more and more obvious: "Yan Prince Dan seems to be a luxury hero."

"But in fact, although this person is courageous, he is just a coward. Although he is magnanimous, he is just a small-minded person. Although he is praised as the world's number one hero, he is just a coward."

"Although I am not considered a great general, I have come with the power to destroy Zhao."

"How can someone who can send assassins to kill my king dare to take the initiative to fight me head-on when the difference in military strength is not that big!"

In Ying Chengjiao's opinion, although Yan Dan was regarded as a hero by the knights all over the world, it was only because Yan Dan gave money, official positions and women generously and with loyalty.

In terms of courage and character, Yan Dan is far from being a hero, let alone a wise leader!

Whether it is the original Qin Dynasty in history or the current Qin Dynasty, there is already a huge gap in national strength between the Qin and Yan countries.

The failed assassination attempt by Yan Dan was tantamount to pushing the two countries of Qin and Yan to the point of a life-and-death struggle. There was no possibility of peace talks between the two countries. If Ying Zheng did not want to face assassins every day when he opened his eyes in the future, he had to destroy the State of Yan and make it pay the price it deserved!
What if Yan Dan's assassination was successful? This would undoubtedly be great news for the remaining vassal states, but no matter who inherited the throne, such as Ying Chengjiao, Fusu, or even Hu Hai, the successor would have to attack Yan State whether he was willing or not, and Yan State would still have to perish!

A true hero would never assassinate Ying Zheng and provoke the State of Qin under such circumstances. Instead, he would accumulate national strength, expand territory through foreign wars, accumulate young and strong people, and seek out good generals like King Zhao of Yan. In the end, he would avenge the previous humiliation and eliminate foreign threats with a grand and irresistible victory!
Therefore, in Ying Chengjiao's opinion, Yan Dan, who tried to reverse the country's decline with a retainer and pushed the responsibility for the country's survival to a small assassin, did have some courage, but definitely not much.

When the Qin army rushed over with the momentum to destroy Zhao, Yan Dan's first reaction would definitely not be a head-on battle!
Facts have proved that Ying Chengjiao's judgment was correct.

Meng Tian and other generals all nodded in agreement at Ying Chengjiao's evaluation: "That's right! The Crown Prince of Yan is nothing but a rat!"

Ying Chengjiao looked deeply at the galloping warship and said in a deep voice: "Pass on my order!"

"Order Captain Cen Bian to lead his navy to the battlefield immediately. When the smoke of war appears on the north bank of the Yellow River, immediately intercept and kill the Yan army's navy!"

"Order all troops to retreat another two miles, and do not let them be spotted by the enemy scouts."

"Order General Meng Wu to lead the main force here and cooperate with our army to block the retreat of the Yan army."

"Send a message to the captains of each unit."

"There is only one goal in this battle, and that is..."

"The head of Yan Dan!"

(End of this chapter)