Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 410 Finally caught up!
Zhou Bo, Lu Jia, Xi Juan and other civil and military personnel of the Nanyang Army were well arranged. Before the expedition, Liu Laosan had explained to them that they should obey Han Xin's orders no matter what except discovering Han Xin's rebellious intentions. The tactical forecast of the Han army attacking Xiangcheng was a bit arbitrary. It would be a pity to abandon the tents and luggage and retreat with only food, grass and weapons. However, seeing that Han Xin had made up his mind, Zhou Bo and others obeyed the order without hesitation, and immediately started to organize the soldiers to retreat overnight.

But Liji, the commander of the Southern Front Corps of the Western Chu Army, was not so easy to talk about. After being invited to the Nanyang Army, Liji was already furious before Han Xin had finished explaining the situation. He yelled and asked Han Xin if he was crazy. Why do you think that the Han army who attacked Xinzheng was to attack Xiangcheng, two hundred miles to the south?He yelled again: "Tell your army to stop retreating immediately, otherwise, you will be responsible for all the consequences!"

Han Xin didn't hold back this time, and replied firmly: "General Li, I will not take back the order this time anyway! If you don't want to go, you can stay, but you will be responsible for all the consequences! See you in the future King Xichu, don’t say that I didn’t warn you, that I didn’t persuade you to seize the opportunity and retreat quickly!”

"What did you say? Have the guts to say it again!"

Liji was so angry that he grabbed Han Xin's front skirt, but Han Xin looked into Liji's eyes without any fear and said, "General Li, you can repeat it as long as you want. If you don't retreat, you will be responsible for all the consequences." !"

"You!" Liji's eyes turned red with anger. If he hadn't considered that he was in the Nanyang Army, he would have thought of killing Han Xin with a single sword.

"General Li, this is your only chance to keep the army!" Han Xin said coldly: "You are also a veteran on the battlefield, so you should be very clear, how could it be possible to lead the army to the south with Zhongli Mopifu's status in the Han bandit army? Just for an insignificant small city in Xinzheng? Yangdi is the governor of Yingchuan County, with high moats and deep moats. If he succeeds in attacking with light clothes, the chances of success may not be great. At the same time, even if Yangdi is captured, it will not affect us and the Han thieves Apart from the target of Yangdi and the target of Zhongli Mopifu, besides Xiangcheng, where we stockpiled and transshipped food, who else could there be?"

"General Li, please think again." Han Xin went on to say, "If we don't hurry up and retreat, and the Han bandits successfully attack Xiangcheng and cut off our food supply, what will happen to us? Of course it is a dead end, we retreat in a hurry, the dragons are chasing after us, and the Han bandits are in front to intercept us, how many of our [-] troops can retreat back to Nanyang?"

He also knew that once Xiangcheng fell, his own army would be in a desperate situation. Liji could only slowly let go of Han Xin's lapel, hesitated for a while before saying: "Then we don't need to be in such a hurry, right? It's only half of us, wouldn't it be easier for us to defeat him first and then retreat?"

"The traitors are not fools." Han Xin replied immediately: "I dare to conclude that the order that the traitor Xiang Kang gave to Long Qiepifu must be to entangle us and bite us, and delay our return to Xiangcheng. We take the initiative to attack, Long Qiefu will definitely stick to it and not fight. At that time, not only will we not be able to defeat Long Qiefu quickly, but we will also be doomed to waste time."

"But..." Liji gritted his teeth and said, "But it's a pity to give up the camp and retreat with only food and weapons?"

"Is the tent and luggage more important, or our army?" Han Xin asked back: "The tent and luggage are gone, we can find ways to supply them, but the army is gone, how can we deal with the large-scale southern expedition launched by the Han bandits?"

Li Ji pondered for a long time with an ashen face, and then shouted: "You have won! Withdraw! I will order the army to retreat overnight when I go back!"

"Thank you General Li, you made a wise decision." Han Xin replied blankly, and then said: "Please be careful, General, since the dragon and the man are ordered to entangle us, it is very likely that they will arrange scouts to monitor our camp." If there is any movement, as long as we find out that we have retreated overnight, we will definitely send troops to pursue it immediately, and please arrange for the best soldiers to be in the rear, so that we must not be caught off guard by the Han thieves."

Han Xin's kind reminder actually caused trouble for himself. Thinking of the important event of the queen, Liji immediately said: "Okay, since your army has made preparations first, then I will be the queen tonight, but after tonight, after Yi After the water, your army will be the rear!"

Han Xin sighed helplessly, nodded and said: "Okay, but after arriving in Liang County, I have to ask General Li to lead the army in the rear, and we will take turns fighting in the rear, so as to minimize the loss of soldiers."

Liji is not the kind of selfish villain who only takes advantage and never suffers. He immediately agreed, and then hurried back to the camp to issue orders like Han Xin.Let all the Western Chu soldiers who have fallen asleep get up and assemble, abandon the tents and all the supplies that are not urgently needed, and retreat with only food, grass and weapons.Naturally, before the West Chu army could load all the food and grass into the trucks, the Nanyang army, which took the lead, had already started to cross the river and went down the river, and quickly withdrew the Yishui River, which had quite a lot of water.

According to Han Xin's prediction, when the Western Chu Army began to cross the river, the Han Army Long Qie's troops received the scout report and sent out urgently, and quickly rushed towards Xincheng. With just one order, the [-] Western Chu troops were dispatched immediately, forming an array to protect the Yishui Ferry, and covering the main force to cross the south. Among them, a fierce battle was launched with the Western Chu Army.

Thanks to Han Xin's reminder, the Western Chu Army, which had been prepared for a long time, relied on the advantage of fighting in formation, firmly protected the Yishui Ferry, and successfully covered the transfer of the Western Chu Army to the south bank of Yishui. When the army retreated across the river, the situation was completely different. Not only did Long Qi decisively order an all-out general attack, but he also personally led the army to rush to the front line, motivating the soldiers of the Han army to fight with all their strength. The morale of the army fluctuated, and the Han army was soon defeated. The soldiers rushed to the pontoon bridge to escape, trampled on each other, pushed each other into the water, and lost countless lives. Not to mention the heavy casualties, almost all the main soldiers died.

When the report of the loss was reported to Liji, Liji's face was ashen, but there was nothing he could do. He could only quickly lead the army to retreat southwards to Liang County, taking turns to cover behind the Nanyang Army Palace, while Han Xin divided the Nanyang Army into two Second, leaving Xi Juan to lead the [-] troops to the rear, guard the ferry to buy time for the main force, and lead the main force to retreat southward.

Originally in Han Xin's plan, Xi Juan's army insisted that there must be no problem during the previous day, but to Han Xin's surprise, after retreating southward, it was only around Shen time in the afternoon that Xi Juan chased after him with nearly a thousand troops lost. When they came up, Han Xin was surprised and asked Xi Juan, "How did you fight? The Han thieves have no boats and boats. How could they break through Yishui so quickly and beat you like this?"

"Reporting to the general, the Han bandits are too cunning." Xi Juan replied with a sad face: "The Han bandits loaded our leftover luggage into the car and pushed it into the river to block the river. After the water level dropped, that man in Longqie personally led the army to launch Assault, the last generals are not their opponents, so they can only retreat quickly and chase you."

"A maidservant!" Han Xin swears a rare swear word, and said bitterly: "As expected of Xiang Kang's traitor, he can train a brave and foolish man like Long Qi to think of a way to adapt to the situation!"

Hatred is useless. Without the obstruction of the Yishui River, the Nanyang Army can only speed up quickly and compete with the Han Army. As a result, Han Xin's tactical genius has also been brought into play during this period. Temporarily set up an ambush on the retreat road and succeeded. First, the ambushes suddenly broke out and cut off the Han army who was pursuing with all their strength. After suffering a great loss, if the rear team of the Han army hadn't rushed to respond in time, the front team of the Han army would have been defeated and severely injured by the Nanyang army.

But even so, Han Xin was still extremely worried, because even if the Han army was caught in an ambush and suffered a loss, they still chased very closely, and they kept biting the rear team of the Nanyang Army. The price entangled the Nanyang army, and the military god Han Xin had no choice but to grit his teeth and lead the army forward at full speed, heading south to Liang County without stopping.

It is also thanks to Han Xin's commanding soldiers who have always had a good habit, that is, no matter at what time, his troops must prepare three days of dry food for the march, and the dried rice can be eaten immediately after soaking it in water. It saved countless precious time for the soldiers of the Nanyang Army to march quickly, so even if the Han army who pursued them was also well-prepared, they also relied on dry food to satisfy their hunger and did not waste time in cooking. They fought a few contact battles with the Nanyang army's rear team, which took turns in the rear. Successfully crossed Rushui before being overtaken by the Han army, and temporarily got rid of the threat of the Han army.

Then after the rotation of the Western Chu Army Hall, after agreeing with the Western Chu Army to meet in Jia County, Han Xin immediately led the Nanyang Army to the southeast, and rushed to Jia County against time, leaving the Western Chu Army to guard the Rushui Ferry and temporarily block it. The Han army pursued them.Needless to say, seeing the Nanyang Army retreating first, the generals of the Western Chu Army who have always been riding on the head of the Nanyang Army and domineering are of course very dissatisfied, and they all said to Liji: "General, why do you want to fight?" Let the Nanyang army go first? Why not let them continue to be the rear? We are here to help the Nanyang army, so they should be the rear all the time?"

"It's okay, we won't suffer." Liji comforted the generals and said, "You don't even think about it. The Han bandits are in a hurry to launch a chase. How much dry food can they bring along with the army to eat on the road? They also came lightly, and they definitely didn't bring a steamer. At the very least, we have to go through Rushui and enter Liangcheng to be able to grab cooking utensils to make rice. We just need to take advantage of the current Rushui to temporarily block the way, seize the time to make more rice and take it with the army, and then destroy all the cooking utensils so that The Chinese thieves can’t find enough cooking utensils to make a meal, and then at most one day, the Chinese thieves just want to continue chasing them, but they don’t have the energy to do so.”

After reassuring the generals under his command, Liji immediately ordered the soldiers of the Western Chu Army to bury pots and cook food in the tight time. At the same time, they sent troops into the city to snatch all the folk cooking utensils in the small town of Liang County, and took them out of the city to make dry food.During this period, Rang Liji and the generals of the Western Chu Army were secretly delighted that there was no smoke rising from the camp of the Han army temporarily blocked by Rushui. It was obvious that the soldiers of the Han army were still relying on the dry rations they carried with the army. To satisfy the hunger, the dried rice soaked in water has no good taste, and at most it barely comforts the stomach. It is far inferior to the freshly made corn and wheat rice to satisfy the hunger...

Of course, if Liji and the others could go deep into the Han army camp and see the current situation of the Han army officers and soldiers, Liji and the others would not be so happy—in the Han army camp at this moment, the dry rations that the Han army soldiers took out , all are dried wheat flour pancakes, not only seasoned with salt and pepper, but also more satisfying and resistant to hunger than the staple food of this era, corn and rice, and easy to digest. Eating one can compare to more than twice the weight Freshly steamed rice.And such pancakes weighing half a catty, not only did every Han army soldier carry six on his back for emergencies at any time, but there were also a lot of pancakes on the Han army's accompanying vehicles, enough to eat for more than five days...

…………

Let's look at the situation on Han Xin's side. After the rotation of the rear of the Western Chu Army, the Nanyang Army retreated at a faster speed without any distractions. He rushed all the way from Liang County to the city of Jia County, and Han Xin didn't even have time to catch his breath, so he immediately asked the magistrate of Jia County who came out of the city to greet him: "What news is there from Xiangcheng?"

"Is there any news from Xiangcheng?" The magistrate of Jia County was taken aback by Han Xin's question, and then replied: "No? There is no news from Xiangcheng these days?"

Han Xinchang heaved a sigh of relief, but Lu Jia and the others next to him were muttering in their hearts, and they all secretly said in their hearts: "Don't be a false alarm, if the Han thieves didn't come to attack Xiangcheng, then we would have lost too much this time." damn."

"Have a rest overnight, and set off at dawn tomorrow, and continue to retreat to Xiangcheng." Han Xin didn't bother to pay attention to the strange eyes of Lu Jia and others, but directly ordered the army to sleep on the spot, and pointed to the magistrate of Jiaxian County: "You, immediately Organize people to make a fire and make meals by hand, and before dawn, we must prepare breakfast and dry food for the day."

"General, it's the second watch. With this little manpower in my hands, how can I prepare so much food and dry food?" the county magistrate of Jia County screamed like a pig.

"That's your problem!" Han Xin replied coldly: "Our dry rations for the army have already been eaten, and the soldiers have to rest and have no time to make meals. This task can only be entrusted to you. If you can't do it, please come and see me! "

When encountering such an unreasonable master as Han Xin, the magistrate of Jia County had no choice but to rush back to the city to organize people to act according to the order. Getting up at night to help with the cooking quickly made Jia County a mess.Han Xin sighed softly again, turned his eyes to the direction of Xiangcheng in the southeast, and prayed to the sky in a very rare low voice, "God bless, we must make it in time."

Not to mention, relying on the joint efforts of the army and the people of Jiaxian County, at dawn, the county magistrate of Jiaxian County really sent a hot meal to the Nanyang Army team, and there was barely enough food for a day. Han Xin took the lead , had a full meal with the soldiers of the Nanyang Army, and then immediately ordered the army to set off eastward.It was also at this time that Lu Jia remembered an important event, and hurriedly said to Han Xin: "General, please wait a moment. When we were in Liang County, we made an appointment with the Western Chu Army to meet in Jia County. Don't wait for him Come and go directly to Xiangcheng, isn't that good?"

"Leave a message to him, saying that the military situation in Xiangcheng is urgent, we must go to Xiangcheng first, and ask him to join us in Xiangcheng." Han Xin replied calmly—it must be explained. In the early stage of the war, Liu Laosan was in a disadvantageous situation and was surrounded by Xiang Yu in Guling. Han Xin refused to send troops to help. It was Liu Laosan who listened to Zhang Liang’s suggestion and officially sealed the land from the east of Chendi to the sea to Han Xin. , Han Xincai sent troops to help Liu Laosan win the Battle of Gaixia.

"General, this is not a joke." Lu Jia hurriedly reminded: "I think you know the consequences of doing this. Let's not say that doing so will definitely anger the Western Chu Army. If the Han thieves are really tight If we keep chasing, the Western Chu army is in critical situation, and our army cannot respond in time, and we will lose an important support immediately."

Han Xin had no choice but to change his mind, and arranged for Xi Juan to lead [-] troops to stay in Jiacheng temporarily, preparing to meet the Western Chu army who might be pursued by the Han army. Immediately went to Xiangcheng to join him, and then led the main force of the Nanyang army to march forward as fast as possible to Xiangcheng, fifty miles to the southeast, and ordered the army to continue to march at a rapid pace without any delay.

Fortunately, the east of Jiaxian County is full of open plains, so although the physical strength of the soldiers of the Nanyang Army who marched continuously has been severely reduced, it is still much easier to walk quickly. Just after noon, the Nanyang Army has already walked out to the east. After traveling for more than 30 miles, there are only a dozen miles away from Xiangcheng.At the same time, at this time, the scouts of the Nanyang Army who were on the outpost suddenly galloped back and reported to Han Xinzou loudly: "General Qi, wait until you see clearly, Xiangcheng is still our military flag." , I didn’t see the army of Han bandits in the surrounding area!”

"Finally caught up!" Han Xin let out a long sigh of relief, and finally showed some smiles on his face that had been tense for several days. After nodding in satisfaction, he still urged: "Hurry up, move forward at a faster speed, only enter Only when we leave Xiangcheng can we truly rest assured."

According to Han Xin's order, the Nanyang Army stepped forward again, and then moved forward for several miles. When the low and old city of Xiangcheng finally appeared in the field of vision of Han Xin and others, they could clearly see the city of Xiangcheng. The yellow flag of the Nanyang Army was still floating, and Han Xin was of course quietly relieved, knowing that even if the Han army arrived suddenly at this time, it would be impossible to take down the crucial small city of Xiangcheng.

Contrary to Han Xin who was completely at ease, Zhou Bo, Lu Jia and others next to him had complicated expressions. Zhou Bo couldn't help but whispered to Lu Jia: "Could it be hard work in vain? If the Han thieves didn't come to attack Xiangcheng, We have lost too much in this emergency retreat."

"Be careful sailing for thousands of years." Lu Jia turned his head and whispered to Zhou Bo: "Xiangcheng is our transshipment place for grain and grass. The grain that we can mobilize in Nanyang and Yingchuan is currently hoarded in Xiangcheng. ...."

Lu Jia couldn't continue talking at this point, because Lu Jia who turned his head to talk suddenly saw that Zhou Bo who was facing forward suddenly opened his mouth wide, and his eyes were completely rounded, his face was full of inconceivable shock.

"What happened?"

Lu Jia hurriedly turned his head and looked forward like Zhou Bo. Immediately, Lu Jia also opened his mouth wide and widened his eyes, showing the same shocked expression of disbelief.Because Lu Jia had already seen clearly that the yellow Nanyang army flags on Xiangcheng City were being quickly brought down side by side, and replaced by crimson army flags—the Han army flags!
At the same time, of course, Han Xin clearly saw the red flags of the Han army that were suddenly erected, and while his face was ashen, Han Xin murmured, "Sure enough, I expected that the Han thieves really came to attack Xiangxiang. city."

At the same time in Xiangcheng City, the general of the Han army, Zhong Limei, was laughing wildly, and shouted triumphantly: "Nanyang dog thief, are you surprised? Are you surprised? First you see a little hope, and then you suddenly see despair. How does it feel? This time, I will repay the revenge I had in Wancheng!"

(End of this chapter)