Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 24 Ring first knife?Cross knife?

The Huai River meanders from the north of Shouchun City, and the nearest point is even less than twenty miles away.

Although it is mid-winter now, the Huai River is still full of water. Standing by the river and looking around, Zhong Limei saw the vastness of the river and the endless waves rolling towards the east, and his heart couldn't help but sigh I felt an indescribable sense of desolation, and I couldn't help but whispered softly: "The son said on the river, is it like this for the dead?"

Jiang Ji, the Sima of another department standing behind him, didn't have the same state of mind as Zhong Limo, and asked puzzledly: "General, General Li Zuoche of the Han Dynasty came to invade the country with fifty thousand troops. The general decided to defend Shouchun to the death. Why did the general want Take us away from Shouchun, and run to this barren mountain to drink the northwest wind?"

"What do you know?" Zhong Limo put away his emotions and said coldly, "We are not here to see the scenery, we shoulder the heavy responsibility of the life and death of the Chu army!"

Jiang Ji's face changed slightly and he said, "What important task?"

"Dig the embankment!" Zhong Li said in a daze, "Flooded Shouchun!"

"Ah!?" Jiang Ji was shocked when he heard the words, "Flooded Shouchun? Didn't even the general be drowned?"

"Don't worry, we won't be flooded by the flood." Zhongli said, "Otherwise, what do you think the moso bamboos that moved into the city last night are for?"

"It turns out that's the case, and it's not in vain that we moved the moso bamboo all night." Jiang Ji paused, and then said, "But since we are going to dig the Huai River embankment, why are we running so far? Shouchun is less than twenty miles northwest. It’s the Huaihe River, it’s easy to dig it from there, so why bother to travel more than 50 miles? Besides, if we dig the Huaihe River from here, will the Han army be flooded?”

"What do you know? If the general says it can do it, then it will work!" Zhong Limo paused, and then said, "Besides, Li Zuoche is not Fan Kuai. It is a dream to dig a dike near Shouchun!"

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In the east of Shouchun City, Li Zuoche camped.

The army has just arrived today, and the soldiers are exhausted, so Li Zuoche does not plan to attack the city. Li Zuoche has even made a decision. If the remnants of the Chu army are still fighting and resisting fiercely, he will give up the strong attack and change to a long-term siege strategy. , and wait for their food to be exhausted, and then lure them to break through from the west gate. When the Chu army is exhausted and lacks fighting spirit, they will be able to wipe them out.

Li Zuoche's only worry now is whether Hanwang will give him this chance.

One must know that Fan Kuai was the King of Han's confidant. Hearing that Fan Kui was beheaded, the King of Han would be furious. In order to avenge Fan Kui, it is entirely possible that the King of Han would personally lead an army to attack Shouchun.

Li Zuoche was thinking about something on his mind when Xia Houren, Sima from another department, suddenly strode in.

"General!" Xia Hou made a bow and said in a deep voice, "When the general was observing the terrain outside the city just now, he found that the terrain of Shouchun City is far lower than the Huai River in the north, and the whole is a large depression. If the Huai River embankment is diverted and poured backwards, the consequences will be disastrous!"

"Don't worry, General Xiahou." Li Zuoche smiled and waved his hands, "This general has already noticed it."

After this pause, Li Zuoche said again: "The general has already sent patrol cavalry to patrol the northwest of Shouchun day and night. If the Chu army is found digging dikes, they will report back immediately. Therefore, they don't want to dig dikes! Besides, if the Chu army really If they dug up the Huai River embankment, wouldn't they also drown themselves? Could it be that the Chu army really dared to burn everything?"

Only then did Xia Houren heave a sigh of relief, and said softly, "The general is worrying too much."

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In Shouchun City, the Chu army camp.

Moso bamboos as thick as bowls almost filled the entire school yard, and hundreds of Chu soldiers were busy tying bamboo rafts.

Not far away, more than a hundred female soldiers were busy picking up the soles of their shoes. From time to time, some male soldiers winked at the female soldiers and whistled, but the female soldiers didn't care. It's fun.

Xiang Zhuang didn't bother to pay attention to all this, he was busy supervising the manufacture of weapons.

In the blacksmith's shop, Yu Ziqi and the two blacksmiths were sweating profusely, but the weapon Xiang Zhuang needed was finally forged. In the eyes of Yu Ziqi and the blacksmiths, it was a "strange-shaped" weapon. Weapons, it is obviously not a sword, because a sword is double-edged, but it only has one edge, but it is not a knife, because a knife is curved, but it is straight.

Xiang Zhuang weighed the weapon in his hand. It weighed about [-] catties and was about six feet long. It was actually a ring-headed knife without a ring head, or a reinforced horizontal knife with a narrow blade. It's straight, with a thick back and a single blade, and it's air-conditioned. Just putting it there, it exudes a fierce murderous aura.

As a time traveler, Xiang Zhuang had of course heard the reputation of Huan Shou Dao.

In a sense, the Han Empire defeated the Huns with the sharp Huan Shou Dao, and the later Tang Empire also defeated the Turks with the Heng Dao that inherited the legacy of the Huan Shou Dao. After 2000, Japan People even derived the Taidao on the basis of the horizontal sword, and carried forward the fierce power of the sword to the extreme!
Xiang Zhuang turned his head and winked, and Jing Qian drew his sword and slashed at Xiang Zhuang.

Xiang Zhuang raised his sword to meet him, only to hear a "clang" explosion. The big sword in Jing Qian's hand had already been broken in two, and the broken half fell to the ground with a bang, while the "clang" in Xiang Zhuang's hand The "horizontal knife" was unscathed, and there was not even a single gap left on the blade. The guards and blacksmiths who were watching around immediately cheered loudly.

"That's it!" Xiang Zhuang said happily, "But it only needs to weigh ten catties and be four feet long, and it will cost five thousand!"

"General, I'm afraid this won't work." Yu Ziqi shook his head with a wry smile. To make five thousand such knives, the raw materials are not a problem. A knife is extremely time-consuming and energy-intensive. First, the original weapon needs to be melted, then the blank is cast, and then the blank is repeatedly folded and forged, and then quenched. After each process, two blacksmiths can only make two at most in a day!
Even if hundreds of blacksmiths are called together, they can only make one hundred knives a day!

It will take at least fifty days to make five thousand knives, not to mention that the army simply can't get together a hundred blacksmiths, and there are not so many stoves and tools, so even if it takes three months, Yu Zi period may not be able to complete the task.

"Then try your best." Xiang Zhuang also knew that the processing technology of horizontal knives is complicated and expensive, so he said to Yu Ziqi immediately, "General Ziqi, you don't have to worry about other things these days. Mr. Wu, you only need to make weapons, and all the blacksmiths in the general will gather together and go all out to make weapons!"

"No!" Yu Ziqi bowed, and hurriedly summoned the blacksmith.

The blacksmiths who had gathered together also dispersed one after another. The blowing of the wind, the casting of the casting, and the blacksmithing of the iron, the whole blacksmith shop was soon filled with the clear and clear sound of tinkling.

Xiang Zhuang walked out of the blacksmith's shop slowly, looked at the horizontal knife in his hand, and couldn't help sighing.

There are not enough horses now, so there is really no need to build stirrups on a large scale. However, it is really urgent to replace the double-edged sword with the horizontal knife as the melee weapon of the Chu army's infantry. His fighting power is bound to rise to a new level!
Unfortunately, conditions do not allow it.

At this moment, Xiang Zhuang really hoped that the Chu army could have a solid base.

However, the reality is cruel. The Chu army is now water without a source and a tree without roots. It is said that this Shouchun will be abandoned in a few days. After giving up Shouchun, the Chu army will enter the Dabie Mountains to fight against Han. The army has hidden the mystery, so where is the time, where is the condition to build horizontal knives on a large scale?

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The next day, after an overnight rest, the Han army launched a tentative attack on the east gate of Shouchun.

Amidst the endless sound of horns, groups of armored soldiers of the Han army swarmed out of the camp and entered the wasteland outside the east gate of Shouchun to form formations. The ladder and the siege engine slowly drove out of the gate, followed closely behind the ladder and the siege engine were teams of light archers.

The last ones to appear were Li Zuoche's two thousand soldiers.

Under the protection of the banners covering the sky and the sun, a chariot slowly drove into the formation of the Han army. Li Zuoche stood proudly on the chariot like a vigorous century-old pine tree.

All of a sudden, Li Zuoche raised his right hand and pressed it forward lightly, at the same time he said flatly: "Attack."

In an instant, the continuous sound of horns stopped abruptly. After a momentary pause, the dense sound of war drums rose into the sky. Then he roared, and while roaring, he struck the shield with his sword rhythmically, or stamped his halberd on the ground: "Roar! Roar! Roar..."

The next moment, the soldiers in the front row shrunk their formation one after another and made way for passages. The archers who had been waiting for a long time held bows and arrows, and walked casually through the passages made by the soldiers to the front of the formation. With a long and mournful howl, all the archers drew their bows and set their arrows in unison, Leng Sensen's arrows were already aimed at the front of the city.

"Aw...ha!" There was another mournful howl, and the two thousand archers let go of their bowstrings almost at the same time.

In an instant, two thousand feathered arrows flew up into the air, and then flew across the sky with a sharp sound of piercing, and finally turned into endless rain of arrows, and fell towards the head of Shouchun City.

At the head of Shouchun City, veterans who have experienced many battles have already hid behind the battlements, or under the shields, but the recruits who have just joined the army do not know how powerful the Han army's archers are, and they are still sticking to the top of the city. Watching the excitement, a recruit even lifted up his shirt and urinated outside the city in order to show his contempt for the archers of the Han army.

The veterans looked on coldly, and no one stopped or reminded them. The ability to save life cannot be taught by others. You have to go to the battlefield to learn it yourself, and you have to trade your life for it!If these recruits are not allowed to see blood, they will never know the cruelty of war, and they will never be able to grow into real soldiers. ##########PS: Thank you Gao Gaoshan Dingli, Pure Love Little Pig, Xia Miliang, № Xiaosheng, Ah Jin No. [-], Xu Xu Xu Xu Many, Yun Yun Life, BUCK, Lonely Outsider, Thank you very much for the generous rewards of book friends such as Naked Running Man and You Long Xi Feng abc.

(End of this chapter)