April 18th, the first year of the Second Qin Dynasty.

After eight days of day and night journey, Wang Li's 100,000-strong army left Wuguan, passed through Zhiwan County in Nanyang County (now Nanyang, Henan), and out of Ye County (now Sheqi, Henan). The vanguard of the army arrived near Shangcai County (now near Zhumadian, Henan).

area).

Shangcai County is the seat of the ancient Cai State, and is also the hometown of Li Si, the current Prime Minister of the Qin Dynasty. Before the Qin Dynasty unified the world, Shangcai County was the junction area between Han and Chu, and belonged to the Chu State.

Less than a hundred miles.

Historically, one of the charges used by Zhao Gao to kill Li Si was that Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were all descendants of Li Si.

Logically speaking, Hu Hai's three edicts on sin should have reached Shangcai at this time, but the imperial cavalry who carried the message went straight into Chen County and were immediately caught by Zhang Er and Chen Yu. Of course, this is not mentioned for the time being.

It has been seven days since the restoration of Wei State on April 11th. Seven days can be long or short, and Zhang Er's power has undergone earth-shaking changes.

Zhang Er reorganized the troops in Chen County for three days, and then sent Chen Yu and other generals to successively capture Guling, Yangxia, Xinyang, Ruyin, Xixian, Xincai, Pingyu, Xiangxian and other ten counties.

remaining counties.

In just seven or eight days, Zhang Erjun's army expanded at an incredible speed to more than 300,000 people.

Among the more than 300,000 troops, in addition to the more than 20,000 armored elite soldiers who were originally directly under Zhang Er, more than 40,000 rebels who luckily survived the battle in Chen County were all incorporated into Zhang Er's direct troops.

After a series of bloody battles, these more than 40,000 people are now considered veterans who have experienced many battles. Of course, Zhang Er cannot let them go.

These more than 60,000 veterans, plus the rest of the surrendered soldiers from the former Daqin counties, Zhang Er used the old armors and weapons captured in the treasuries of Daqin counties to finally arm an army of nearly 150,000 people.

of armored soldiers.

After the restoration of the Wei State, the Central Plains people from Chen County and Surabaya poured into Zhang Er's army in large numbers. In addition to Zhang Er's fully equipped 150,000 armored elite soldiers and thousands of chariots, Zhang Er also had nearly two dozen other troops.

An army of more than 100,000 rebels.

Not only did the manpower increase sharply, but invisible capable men from all sides also came to join us one after another.

People with military backgrounds include Zhou Wen, Zhou Shi, Qin Jia, Tian Zang, Lu Chen, Deng Zong, Cai Ci, Zhujishi, Zheng Bu, Ding Ji, Chen Pan, Wu Xu, Deng Shuo, Song Liu, Zhang He, etc.

, the civil servants include Zhao Ping, Gongsun Qing, Zhu Fang, Hu Wu, Fang Jun and others who were old officials from the Six Kingdoms.

Another group of defectors are descendants of prominent families from the Six Kingdoms, including Wei Bao, Wei Jiu, Han Guang, etc. There are also a large number of survivors and capable hermits from the Six Kingdoms who have heard the news and are coming straight to Chen County.

For a time, Zhang Erjun had a prosperous atmosphere with strong military strength and abundant talents.

The prosperity of the military and the abundance of talents made Zhang Er's ambitions, which had become the king of Wei, suddenly become even higher.

After easily capturing Xiang County, Xi County, Xincai and Pingyu counties in the south of Chen County, Zhang Er naturally set his sights on Shangcai, the hometown of Li Si, the Prime Minister of the Qin Dynasty.

So after Pingyu, the leader of Shangcai, surrendered, he immediately sent his top generals Zhou Wen and Zhou Shi with 50,000 troops to capture Shangcai. Twenty thousand of these 50,000 troops were Zhang Er's lifeblood.

Zi - an elite soldier with armor, which shows that Zhang Er attaches great importance to Shang Cai.

The forward commander of Wang Li's army was Zhao Bi, the raw material officer general and now the former army general. Zhao Bi led 20,000 elite Qin Xianyang guards to arrive at the outskirts of Shangcai County first.

At this moment, Shangcai County is shouting to kill Zhentian. Zhou Wen's army has been attacking Shangcai for two days, and Shangcai is now in danger.

As the hometown of the current prime minister, Shangcai County is full of glory, from the county magistrates to the common people in the head of Guizhou. Therefore, when the news that Zhang Er and others captured Chen County and established the Wei Kingdom reached Shangcai, Shangcai

Officials at all levels in the county sent messages to Xianyang on flying horses, and at the same time organized the people to strengthen the city walls and prepare to defend the city.

Especially after Pingyu, the gateway to Shangcai, was captured, all four gates of Shangcai were tightly closed to guard against the arrival of Zhang Er's army.

When Zhou Wen's army arrived, they faced Shangcai County, which had been raised to five feet and more than ten meters high. However, Zhou Wen did not take this small town seriously at all, even though it is the hometown of Li Si, the Prime Minister of the Qin Dynasty.

After a day of continuous siege, the city of Shangcai County was already ablaze with blood and fire. There were gaps in the city wall. Under the high city wall, there were corpses scattered everywhere, including rebels and Shangcai guards and civilians. The strong smell of blood filled the air.

It makes people sick to hear it.

The person who now commands the city of Shangcai is Li Pi, the Prime Minister of Shangcai County, who is Li Si's family member. Both the county magistrate and the county lieutenant were shot and killed by arrows from Zhou Wen's army in the fierce battle. As the county magistrate, he is now the chief of Shangcai County.

Cai's highest official.

The few soldiers in the Shangcai garrison had basically been killed and injured in the previous half day. Now most of the people guarding the city wall are the people of Shangcai. Not only did Zhou Wen's army fail to capture a small one in the half-day siege,

In Shangcai County, thousands of people were killed or injured, which made Zhou Wen very angry.

However, he still did not use the 20,000 armored soldiers specially sent by Zhang Er. He knew very well the importance of these armored veterans in Zhang Er's heart. If the casualties of these armored soldiers were too heavy, even if he captured Shangcai, he would probably return

There is no good fruit to eat.

So he still used the same old method, first letting the army of unarmored and unsoldier rebels swarm up, and when they were almost exhausted, he planned to let these elite soldiers with armor attack Chen County in one go.

When they heard the swarming soldiers of Zhou Wen shouting the slogan "If the city is broken, it will be massacred", which inspired the courage of the entire Shangcai people to defend the city, and they repelled Zhou Wen's army who had climbed up the city wall several times one after another.

.

But at this moment, there were not many civilians and guards left to fight on the Shangcai City Wall, and Zhou Wenjun, who had renewed his attack, had already charged forward.

Seeing more and more rebels on the city wall and the common people falling to the ground one after another, Li Pi's eyes were split with tears. He knew that Shang Cai would not be spared this time no matter what. He roared and drew out the long sword from his waist and took it with him.

Several guards rushed forward.

"Woo"

A desolate horn sound overwhelmed the loud shouts of death from up and down the city wall, making everyone move involuntarily.

Zhou Wen, who was riding a horse with a victor's smile on his face, suddenly changed his expression when he heard the horn, "Where did the army come from? Did the king send a letter saying that he sent an army to support me?"

Without waiting for a reply from the elementary school next to him, a black line appeared on the North Avenue, less than five miles away from Shangcai County.

A large flag with a soap base flutters high, and the big black word "Qin" can be seen in the distance.

It was Zhao Ben's 20,000-strong former army who came all the way.

"It's Qin Bing!"

Zhou Wen and other generals of the rebel army suddenly changed their expressions when they saw the big word Qin. Zhou Wen yelled, "Ming Jin to withdraw the troops! Ming Jin to withdraw the troops quickly!"

At the same time, Li Pi and others on the city wall also saw the high-flying banner with the word "Qin" in it, and they couldn't help but shout loudly. The morale of the people and guards guarding the city skyrocketed.

"Bang"

Hearing the sound of gold ringing, the rebels who had scaled the city wall immediately retreated like a tide. The dozens of rebels who had no time to escape were immediately cut into pieces by the people of Shangcai whose morale was greatly boosted.

At this moment, Zhao Bi is under the banner with the character "Qin".

"General, should we let the soldiers rest for a while, or should we take advantage of the retreat of the rebel army and attack it with all our might!" asked a captain next to him.

Zhao Ben looked at the swarm of rebels rushing toward Zhou Wen's camp in embarrassment, and said calmly: "These rebels with no soldiers in their hands and no armor on their bodies should be treated as the first battle of good luck for our army! Beat the drums and let the 10,000 cavalry troops take advantage of the chaos.

Cover up the enemy and advance forward, and the infantry will then go straight to the rebel camp!"

Zhao Ben's vanguard army consisted of 10,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry. The Qin soldiers who had traveled a long distance were exhausted, but they still carried out military orders without compromising.

"Dong dong dong"

With a rapid drumbeat, a large number of black-armored cavalry appeared neatly on both sides of Zhao Ben's infantry center.

"Woo!"

The desolate horn sounds again.

The 10,000 Qin cavalry who were standing still suddenly rushed towards Zhou Wen's army, which was crowded together and eager to return to camp, like long arrows.

There was no cry of killing, except for the thunderous roar of horse hooves, and the entire Qin Dynasty's tens of thousands of cavalry were silently galloping on their horses, adding a bit of chilling and power.

The cavalry, which were originally divided into two pieces, gradually merged together after running for a hundred meters, forming a black wave and slamming hard at Zhou Wen's chaotic army.

Following the cavalry, 10,000 infantrymen lined up in three rows, rushing up behind the cavalry.

The distance of five miles disappeared in an instant under the hooves of the cavalry.

Seeing that they were less than 200 meters away from Zhou Wen's camp, a loud arrow shot up into the sky with a sharp whistling from the crossbow in the hand of a cavalry general who was rushing forward.

The sharp whistle of the resounding arrow was particularly clear amidst the thunderous sound of horse hooves.

"Boom", there was a neat sound of the crossbow firing.

"Buzz"

A rain of black arrows immediately covered the sunlight in the sky, forming a black cloud that roared towards the thousands of rebel troops who were still scattered at the gate of Zhou Wen's camp but had not entered the camp.
Chapter completed!