In the early morning, King Zhao Qian of Zhao wore a black royal robe with dark red background and sat on the throne with his back straight.
He tried hard to maintain calmness and majesty on his face, as if he wanted to maintain the final dignity of a king and conceal the fear in his heart.
But the blue eyes and pale face all revealed his true state.
The Qin soldiers forced Handan, and Zhao Qian could not sleep deeply for many days. His spirit was extremely poor and he became increasingly depressed:
"Have you not heard from the Wei people yet? Where are the other countries? Do you have any news from other countries?"
In the main hall of the court meeting, the officials looked at each other.
At this point, if Zhao wants to retreat from Qin, the best way is to use external forces, hoping that Wei, Qi, Chu and other countries can assist Zhao.
Many days before, letters from Zhao people requesting all countries to send troops were sent out from Handan like snowflakes to all countries.
An old minister came out and said: "There is no news from Wei and Qi. The new king of Chu has ascended the throne. Huang Xie, the king of Chunshen, has also died. The country is in turmoil. I am afraid that I will not be able to attack Qin and help our great Zhao."
As for Yan...the Yan people took advantage of the situation and raised troops, and three days ago, they rushed to attack our southern line of Zhao territory."
Zhao Qian was shocked and angry: "Yan is also taking the opportunity to invade our country, Zhao. He is really evil-minded."
He said angrily: "All countries are short-sighted. Don't they know that lips and teeth are dependent on each other? If Qin dies and Zhao is destroyed, how can Wei, Qi and other countries be spared?"
He stood up and staggered away, leaving the main hall where he went to court.
Guo Kai stepped out from the crowd and quickly caught up with him.
In the bedroom of the back hall, Zhao Qian was lying on his back on the couch.
In the past few days, he often felt unwell and suffered from fever. Sometimes he was awake and sometimes he felt drowsy.
Guo Kai stood beside the couch and waited silently.
Not long after, a chamberlain came quickly and said, "Your Majesty, there is another letter from Lord Qin."
Zhao Qian sneered and said: "He just wants to humiliate me again... I don't want to read his letter."
At the beginning of the war, Zhao Huaizhong sent letters to King Zhao and Li Mu respectively.
King Zhao felt that Zhao Huaizhong was humiliating him.
Later, Li Mu defeated Fan Yuqi, and the king of Zhao publicly announced to the world that Li Mu had killed tens of thousands of Qin soldiers in response to Zhao Huaizhong's first letter.
At this time, Zhao Huaizhong sent the second letter, with the purpose of persuading him to surrender.
This is also a way to attack a country, to show the kindness of the monarch to the world.
If the monarch is cruel and unkind, he will definitely be met with desperate resistance from the other party.
And if the monarch is kind enough, people don't have to fight so hard, and the resistance to many things will be much smaller.
What's more important is that if the Zhao clan surrenders, the resistance to Qin's occupation of Zhao land and subsequent governance of Zhao territory will be greatly reduced.
"Your Majesty."
Guo Kai glanced at the letter that the eunuch had brought over and was ordered to be destroyed by Zhao Qian: "The king asked the spies arranged by Li Mu to send back news that the King of Qin also sent a letter to Li Mu, and there was more than one letter."
Zhao Qian was lying on the couch, feeling dazed.
But after hearing this sentence, he suddenly turned over and sat up, and said sternly:
"The King of Qin also sent a letter to Li Mu? Does he still want to persuade Li Mu to surrender...How did Li Mu respond?"
Guo Kai lowered his head: "I don't know."
Zhao Qian had ups and downs in his thoughts.
Before his father Zhao Yan's death, Li Mu led his army to garrison at the border and fight against the Qin people. Afterwards, spies placed by King Zhao in Li Mu's army sent back news saying that Li Mu was watching people entering the country on a royal boat, but there was no such thing.
Take action to stop it.
Li Mu's inaction indirectly led to Zhao Yan's death.
When the war started this time, Li Mu refused to listen to orders several times. When he returned to defend Handan, it was only after Zhao Qian issued more than ten edicts that he was transferred back.
"Does Li Mu have a disloyal heart and dare to betray me..."
Zhao Qian thought drowsily, once doubtful thoughts arise, they will grow like weeds and will be difficult to suppress...
"Guo Qing thinks Li Mu will betray me?"
Guo Kai: "Your Majesty, why don't you make a move to test whether Li Mu is loyal to your Majesty?"
Zhao Qian asked: "What is Guo Qing's plan?"
————
Mid July.
The Qin army once again divided into two groups. Yang Ruihe's troops were in the Zhao territory. They took detours, like sharp swords piercing through, to avoid Li Mu, and continued to put pressure on Handan and harass the Zhao capital.
Wang Jian led the main force to compete with Li Mu's troops for victory.
Li Mu still planned to implement the previously formulated strategy and rely on the city's favorable geographical location to make it difficult for the Qin army to break through.
But at this time, King Zhao Qian of Zhao sent his clan member Zhao Cong and general Yan Ju, who had defected to the Qi people, to Li Mu's military camp.
It was requested that Li Mu and his deputy Sima Shang be replaced.
Zhao Cong brought Zhao Qian's edict, requiring Li Mu and Sima Shang to hand over their military power. Zhao Cong and Yan Ju would serve as chief and deputy generals respectively and continue to lead the army against Qin.
Li Mu was stunned and silent, his hands and feet were cold.
In the letter Zhao Huaizhong sent him before, he actually predicted what he was going through now.
The letter stated: Zhao Qian is dim and suspicious. If the war situation is unfavorable, he will definitely suspect that there is something wrong with Li Mu's military strategy, and may even directly remove him from military power.
After Li Mu received Zhao Huaizhong's letter, he was already alert and tried his best to avoid King Zhao's suspicion.
So after receiving Zhao Qian's order, he finally chose to give up holding on to the border town and obeyed the order to come back to aid Handan.
Unexpectedly, this scene still happened.
Li Mu's thoughts changed quickly and he thought of another thing.
In Zhao Huaizhong's letter to him, he mentioned that when the previous king of Zhao, Zhao Yan, died, the human emperor boat entered the Zhao territory from the city where Li Mu was stationed, which eventually led to Zhao Yan's death.
This move was the root cause of Zhao Qian no longer trusting Li Mu.
The events corresponded exactly to what Zhao Huaizhong said. This made Li Mu suddenly think clearly: King Qin had been planning the matter as early as when the previous king was killed... Most of what happened afterward was within his expectations.
Li Mu shuddered when he thought of Zhao Huaizhong's early layout and accurate insights.
He turned to look at Zhao Cong and Yan Ju who were preparing to take over his military power. After a moment of thought, he resolutely drove Zhao Cong and Yan Ju out of the camp, and continued to take charge of the army and fight against the Qin army.
This is obviously different from the historical fact that Li Mu accepted the order of King Zhao and was eventually killed unjustly.
However, by this time, Li Mu could no longer implement the strategy of persistence.
He personally led his troops out of the city and started a fight with Wang Jian's troops.
noon.
North of Handan.
plain.
Two armies confront each other.
The soldiers of Qin and Zhao were brave, the crowds were crowded, and the flags were spread out on the wasteland, waving like waves.
Amidst the low sound of drums, the Qin army's military formations continuously changed and became aggressive.
The Rolling Wheel Formation, the Mountain Guard Formation, the Chang Ge Formation... all pressed against the Zhao army.
In the sky, the totem black bird and the phoenix bird formed by Zhao Jun sprayed flames at each other, and powerful mana fluctuations caused birds and beasts to hibernate within a hundred miles.
As time went by, Zhao Jun's casualties continued to increase and he gradually showed signs of decline.
King Zhao sent Zhao Cong to replace Li Mu, but Li Mu disobeyed orders on the battlefield and blatantly refused to take orders from Zhao Qian.
This made Zhao Qian increasingly suspicious of him.
In the two countries of Qin and Zhao, on one side, the top and bottom are united, but on the other side, the monarch and his ministers are suspicious, problems arise one after another, and the Zhao army's defeat becomes increasingly obvious.
Li Mu struggled to support himself and sent out strange troops to harass the Qin army.
But at the end of July, the Qin army once again increased its troops, which became the last straw that broke the war situation.
Nei Shiteng mobilized Qin troops from the former Han Dynasty, the current Yingchuan County, and various places in the Qin territory, totaling nearly 100,000 troops, and suddenly threw them into the battlefield.
When Qin first decided on the strategy of attacking Zhao, it planned a huge Qin army with a total number of more than 300,000.
Wang Jian's 200,000 troops attacked frontally, and Yang Rui and his troops of more than 30,000 elite and main forces supported each other.
In the beginning, Nei Shiteng's troops did not show their military strength, but they were always gathering momentum.
Until this moment, he suddenly entered the battlefield and merged with Wang Jian's troops, forming a torrent of troops and overwhelming Li Mu's last resistance in one fell swoop.
Early August.
Nearly 300,000 Qin soldiers and horses spread out in a pincer shape 800 miles away from Handan. The troops were divided into three groups, with thousands of chariots, more than 10,000 siege crossbows, nearly 100,000 cavalry, and 200,000 infantry.
Where the army was, the murderous aura emanating from it dispersed the clouds in the sky, leaving the sky clear.
brush!
Hundreds of thousands of people fired volleys, and arrows covered the Zhaojing city like rain.
Every 100,000 Qin troops formed a team and formed a military formation to attack together, creating a totem black dragon and a black bird, covering the sky and the sun.
The city's defense system was crumbling under the black bird's flame attack.
Then there was a loud noise, the ground cracked, and the city collapsed.
But it was the totem black dragon that crashed into the city wall, carrying the overwhelming force of gravity and completely destroying the city's defenses.
All the formations carved throughout the city collapsed, and even twisted ravines appeared on the ground.
On the city wall, Li Mu looked pale, and Sima Shang knelt down in despair.
Da Zhao is finished.
What Li Mu lost was not the military strategy, but the national strength, military strength, and military equipment of the two countries. Zhao was far behind Qin, and any general would have lost.
The Qin army was in the rear formation, and Wang Jian looked at the top of the city from a distance.
"General, there is something unclear about my humble position." Nei Shiteng asked.
Wang Jian said: "But in the beginning, why didn't you just let your subordinates join me and attack Zhao with 300,000 soldiers?"
Nei Shiteng said: "Exactly, if we had attacked Zhao with 300,000 troops from the beginning, we might have been able to break through Li Mu's obstruction earlier."
Wang Jian said: "This is the king's decision. The king is considering longer-term goals. Many things must be accomplished by attacking Zhao.
Including how to appease the Zhao people after conquering Zhao, and even attacking other countries need to be arranged in advance.
Moreover, at the beginning, the fighting spirit of the Zhao people was far less low than it is now. At that time, the army was pressing down, and the consumption would have been several times higher than now.
It is precisely because your troops are dormant and we, the Qin Dynasty, always have spare strength, that the Wei people who are ready to move are suppressed from sending troops to join the war. Otherwise, how can they safely attack Zhao?
Therefore, your army will not be suitable sooner or later, and this is the best time."
Neishi Tengruo has some enlightenment.
In early August, the Qin army broke through the city of Hub (gu), 800 miles away from Handan.
Zhao general Li Mu gave up resistance after his defeat and was captured by the Qin army.
The next day, the Qin army advanced.
King Zhao once again sent two generals, Zhao Cong and Yan Ju, to lead the remaining Zhao people to try to resist the Qin army.
Wang Jian pushed him all the way, and within a few days, he defeated Zhao Cong and Yan Ju's troops.
By this time, the situation of the Zhao people was over.
At the end of August, Yang Ruihe's troops on the other side also defeated the Zhao people. They joined forces with Wang Jian two hundred miles away from Handan and approached Handan with unstoppable momentum.
Zhao Jing is in a state of total collapse.
At this time, the city of Handan was in chaos. Zhao people and ministers were terrified, and many people abandoned the city and fled.
Outside the city, the Qin army camped after dusk.
We are less than a hundred miles away from Handan, and we will reach the foot of Handan City tomorrow.
In a tent in the military camp, Li Mu looked calmly at Wang Jian who opened the curtain and entered: "General Wang has the flaw to come to see me, a defeated general."
Wang Jian said modestly: "Among the current military generals, only General Li Mu fought most of his battles against the Huns. Wang Jian felt ashamed and had nothing but admiration for General Li.
In the battle between Qin and Zhao, what General Li lost was the gap in national power between the two countries, which cannot be made up by human power."
Li Mu sighed and said: "How can a defeated general speak bravely? I allowed you to be captured. I want to go to Xianyang to see the King of Qin at the end. I have some things I want to ask in person."
Wang Jian turned around and opened the curtain of the tent, and Zhao Huaizhong walked in from the outside.
Li Mu's body was shaken, he didn't expect Zhao Huaizhong to suddenly appear here.
He stood up slowly: "King Qin."
"This is one of my dharma bodies, not the deity, but this dharma body is connected with my own consciousness. General, please sit down. If you have anything to say, it doesn't hurt to say it."
Zhao Huaizhong sat down calmly in the tent, while Wang Jian stood behind him.