By the afternoon, the tired Han soldiers had regained their energy and called for battle. Zhang He also sent a few small troops to test the Qin camp. It was still far away from the Qin camp, so the Qin army began to shoot arrows, throw spears and bows. This was not the commander of the Qin army. Throwing a spear is difficult and far away and cannot harm the Han army at all.
These Han armies were small forces and could not pose a real threat to the Qin army's camp. Faced with the harassment of these small forces, the once arrogant Qin army did not take the initiative to attack. This made Zhang He think of a possibility, that is, yesterday's battle had already caused the Qin army to The army was frightened
Despite this judgment, Zhang He had no intention of attacking the Qin army camp, and the two sides remained in a stalemate until the evening of the next day when a white pigeon with an anklet flew into the Han army camp.
Zhang He read the secret letter and issued combat orders overnight.
The Han army camp, which had been silent for a long time at night, suddenly became noisy. Groups of Han army infantry lined up and "forced" towards the Daqin army camp. Behind the Han army infantry formation, thousands of trebuchets were lined up and aimed directly at the Daqin army camp.
It was very quiet at night. The Qin army also arranged many detailed operations. It is impossible for the Qin army to not notice that the Han army made such a big noise. Several commanders gathered together to discuss again. Alexander said angrily: "Everyone, you were hiding in the place yesterday." The camp does not dare to attack. Now the Han people are bullying us again. How long can you stay in hiding? Do you think we, the Qin soldiers, have lost all their honor?"
Das said disapprovingly: "Our camp is built to be impregnable. There are traps in front of the camp. If the Han people want to come and die, let them do it."
Kotra also shook his head and said: "The messenger sent to Rome should arrive tomorrow at the latest. We just need to stick to the camp and obey His Majesty's orders. Why bother making unnecessary decisions on our own?"
Little did they know that the messenger they sent would never reach Rome. They encountered the Han army's light cavalry on the way. Liu Xin concentrated the heavy armored cavalry and most of the infantry on the frontal battlefield in order to attract the main force of the Qin army in the province of Asia Minor. Zhang He completed this task very well. The 40,000 light cavalry of the three legions and the 50,000 cavalry of the Sixth legion, led by Xu Huang, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others, broke into the Syrian province in multiple ways. Liu Xin was It is necessary to make full use of the mobility of the cavalry and adopt a long-distance surprise attack strategy to go around the back of the Asia Minor province and form an encirclement against the eight Great Qin legions in the Asia Minor province.
The province of Asia Minor has a special terrain. One side borders Parthia and the other three sides are surrounded by the province of Syria. Liu Xin's idea is to capture the province of Syria and completely cut off the retreat path of the eight Great Qin legions, giving him a trap.
The Qin Empire has 24 legions and 1.2 million people. The total number of troops far exceeds the army of the Han Dynasty. Moreover, the army of the Han Dynasty is a labor force. The number of troops that can be mobilized for expeditions is further limited. But on the other hand, the Qin Empire is vast and has many There are military garrison guards everywhere, and it is impossible to mobilize them all to fight the Han army. This gives Liu Xin room to operate.
Liu Xin's first step was to concentrate all the expeditionary forces to fight a war of annihilation in the province of Asia Minor. The Qin army in Asia Minor had 400,000, and the four main legions of the Han army, plus part of the Western Region legion, also had as many as 350,000 regular troops. There are 100,000 grassland nomadic cavalry to assist the army. The strength is no less than that of the Qin army. If it is operated properly, it can even take a local advantage.
The key to forming an encirclement is that the troops led by Zhang He must withstand the Qin army's attack and buy enough time for Xu Huang and others' long-distance attack. Zhang He did this well, and Xu Huang and others were equally fast.
Just when Zhang He made contact with the Qin army, the Han army's 90,000 light cavalry had already entered the Syrian province. These 90,000 cavalry were not fighting alone. They were closely followed by 40,000 Western Region Legion cavalry and 40,000 First Legion. The infantry and the nomadic cavalry composed of herdsmen on the steppes had low morale because they had just suffered a heavy blow in the province of Asia Minor and were left in the concession to rest.
The light cavalry of the Han army advanced very quickly. Every time they conquered a town, they did not stop at all, but rushed to the next strategic point like lightning. At this time, the cavalry of the Western Region Army and the infantry of the First Army played an important role. As a result, they will promptly take over these places captured by the light cavalry, set up checkpoints, and build fortifications to tightly block the news of the arrival of the Han army.
Like Liu Xin, the Qin Dynasty also paid great attention to the construction of roads, especially the straight and flat roads leading to Rome from all over the country, hence the famous saying "all roads lead to Rome". These roads also facilitated the march of the Han army's light cavalry and became the Han military focus
The messengers sent by Alexander to Rome were very unlucky. They went straight to Rome along the road and were about to reach the border of the Syrian province. However, they ran into a group of Han cavalry who were also coming along the road.
At that time, these messengers had already passed through the fork in the road. They were so eager to hurry that they didn't even notice that there was a large group of cavalry galloping on the road next to them. The person leading this group of cavalry was Zhao Yun. His eyesight was so good that even Liu Xin was ashamed to have seen it earlier. There are a few people over there who are moving around very suspiciously.
This time, when a large group of cavalry broke into the Syrian province, in addition to cutting off the Qin army's retreat, another important task was to block the news. Zhao Yun naturally could not let those few knights go and immediately picked up his bow and arrows.
Zhao Yun is most famous for his superb marksmanship. Later generations of commentaries also made up the saying "Seven Detectives of the Coiled Snake", but few people know about his archery skills. In fact, Zhao Yun's archery skills are not even inferior to Huang Zhong's, and his eyesight is even better. Good at shooting from a distance
There was only a "whoosh" sound. A messenger running at the end fell down in response. Zhao Yun's arrows shot out in almost a blink of an eye. The five messengers sent by Alexander fell down one after another. It was a hard bow specially made by the research institute. Even though they were so far apart, Zhao Yun was still sure that none of the knights would survive.
However, Zhao Yun was not careless and sent another group of soldiers to gather the messengers and the main horse together to avoid exposing their whereabouts. As a result, they found the letters on their backs, parchment, written with Daqin characters like earthworms. But now But it was not difficult for Zhao Yun to have specially trained interpreters in his army.
After reading the letter, Zhao Yunfang knew that the Qin army had suffered heavy losses from Zhang He in Asia Minor and was already timid. This was very important information. If the Qin army chose to withdraw from Asia Minor because of this, Liu Xin's plan to annihilate eight enemy legions would have failed. Zhao Yun Bu Dare to neglect, he immediately sent out flying pigeons to report the new situation to Liu Xin, and then urged his subordinates to speed up the march and arrive at the scheduled assembly point in the shortest possible time.
In fact, Liu Xin already knew the situation of Zhang He's repulse of the Qin army. What he didn't know was the current situation and dynamics of the Qin army. With this information sent by Zhao Yun, Liu Xin felt that the time was ripe to annihilate the enemy army, so he used the flying pigeon to send the message. Shu issued new orders to Zhang He, Xu Huang and others respectively[
The general attack was set at dawn. Zhang He pulled the troops out of the barracks at this time. It was actually a trick to make Alexander and others hold up their flags so that they could wait until Xu Huang, Zhao Yun and others' cavalry were in position to ambush them.
As expected, the Qin army fell into the trap. Alexander clamored to go out and fight the Han army to the death, while Das and others advocated holding on. Instead, the two commanders under Geta, Risa and Eurydice, hesitated to withdraw their troops a certain distance. It was not that they discovered the Han army's intentions, but they hoped that Caracalla's army would fight the Han army first and then they would clean up the mess.
The Han army not only lined up in front, but also made many moves. From time to time, they threw a few boulders and smashed up clouds of smoke and dust in front of the Qin army's camp. They were in an all-out attack posture, but every time there was only thunder and no rain. One of the stones thrown by the trebuchet fell into the Qin army's camp. The soldiers continued to quarrel for a long time, but they did not move forward.
In the middle of the night, the spirit of the Qin Army would become tense from time to time, and gradually it began to fall into numbness. When the shouts and drums were heard again from the Han Army's position, the Qin Army soldiers stayed in their tents and were not even interested in taking a look.
At this time, the loud "rumbling" sound was heard again. The soldiers of the Qin Army had long been accustomed to it and were waiting for the stones to fall in front of the camp so that they could continue sleeping. Unexpectedly, the sound this time was much louder than many before. Then they counted the stones. The bang hit the military camp. Many tents were smashed. There were screams of crying fathers and mothers everywhere.
The four commanders, Alexander, Das, Bowsher and Kotra, argued all night about whether to go to battle or hold on. They just fell asleep and learned that the Han army's trebuchets had really attacked. They hurriedly got up and hurriedly gathered the soldiers, but I don’t know whether to fight or defend
The Han army's trebuchets were powerful siege weapons, and they were even more devastating against these simple barracks. The entire Qin army's camp was in dilapidated condition. The traps in front of the camp that they relied on as a barrier had long been filled up by the Han army's previous probing attacks.
Alexander glanced at these unsatisfactory colleagues and sighed and said: "How can we defend the camp when it is like this?"
Kotrayu sneered to himself: "Well, let's listen to you now and organize our brothers to go out and fight to the death with the Han army."
The Qin army camp was now in chaos. Soldiers were running around with their heads in their hands, not to mention wearing the heavy armor they relied on for protection. Many of them even had weapons. Seeing this scene, Alexander could only shake his head helplessly. Said: "Alas, Asia Minor cannot retreat to Syria first."