Spring and Autumn I Am King

Chapter 869: river offensive

Back in time three days ago, Hejian was occupied by Qi State, near the place called "Pingqiu Mountain" by the river.

From the time of Yao and Shun, people lived on both sides of the big river with nine tributaries at that time, fishing and hunting pioneered and prospered. In the Spring and Autumn Period, it evolved into a half-farming and half-gathering tribe of Rong and Di Manchu. This place was initially controlled by the Zhongxing clan and surrendered to the state of Jin. During the civil war of Liuqing, it was occupied by the Chen clan by exploiting a loophole. It has been six years since then.

For the local Manchu tribes, their lives did not change much, although the labor was a little more: in order to defend this barrier of the Gaotang, the Chen family sent them twice a year to build a fortress for the state of Qi.

It was a sunny day. Chen Bao, the younger son of the Chen clan in Qi State, led more than 100 personal soldiers and ten chariots to patrol the river bank next to Pingqiu Mountain. .

This is just a routine patrol. The Hejian land is vast and sparsely populated. It is half the size of the Lu Kingdom, but has a population of less than 100,000. Therefore, the Qi people cannot station heavy troops on this vast land. Only the newly established small towns can be used as strongholds, including the nearby Rongdi tribes. When sending people to patrol again, the usual focus is to check the past business trips and the Rong and Di who have migrated across the border, but now, the focus has become to scout the movements of the Zhao army on the other side.

Because since the beginning of spring, the situation along the border has become very tense. Last year, the Zhao clan aggressively attacked the kingdom of Dai, and it was easy to wipe out the land. Although it was only a distant state of the Rong and Di, it still gave the princes a great shock. Through other channels, Chen Bao's cousin, Chen Heng, determined that after the spring ploughing, the Zhao family would also use Qi in large numbers.

The state of Qi was already in trouble, but Chen Shi felt that he still had time, because it was spring plowing, and there were busy figures in the fields everywhere, and Zhao Shi was no exception. Chen Heng guessed that the war is likely to come in March and April, and the main direction of attack should be Handan, Wei, and even Lu. Because the Zhao clan and the Qi state are divided by the Guan clan, and the Guan clan goes to Zhao in the south and Qi to the north. There is no river blocking and it is easier to attack, so the Chen clan's heavy troops are stationed in the Guan clan, and the newly established Zhao clan City town "Guan Tao" confrontation.

Even so, Hejian is still very nervous. As early as the beginning of the month, this side began to block the border and put an end to business travel. Hejian defenders were required to report to Gao Tang once a day, and troops must patrol the Jiehe every day...

As usual, nothing happened, but on this day, Chen Bao, who was on patrol, suddenly heard his entourage shout: "What is that?!"

He was busy following the direction of everyone's fingers and looked back, but saw a straight wolf smoke rising up across the north of Pingyi Mountain...

The river near Pingqiu Mountain is the narrowest, with a width of less than 100 steps, and the opposite bank can even shoot arrows here. Because the number of Qi troops is limited, there is no garrison nearby, only one beacon. The defense on weekdays can only be handled by a few boats roaming in the West River and a dozen people stationed in the beacon tower.

The beacon was originally a border guard tower used by Zongzhou to defend against the Quanrong. After the Qi State built the southern Great Wall, it set up a beacon in the river as a warning. Seeing the beacon is like seeing the enemy's situation!

Chen Bao's heart sank immediately.

"Yu Zhe, turn around!" Chen Bao heard his instinctive roar, "Everyone goes in the direction of Langyan!"

When they went around Pingqiu Mountain, they saw an amazing scene...

A small wing of Qi State in the middle of the West River had been filled with arrows, the hull of the ship was set on fire, and the stern had sunk, and a few hundred steps away from it, the densely packed Zhao Jun was erecting a pontoon bridge in an orderly manner.

Chen Bao sucked in a breath of cold air. After a rough calculation, there were as many as two or three thousand people on the other side!

Fengsui, who performed the duty of raising the wolf smoke, has also fallen. A team of Zhao soldiers who came over to swim in the water killed all the guards and were extinguishing the wolf smoke with water and soil. At the same time, they also found Chen Bao and his party.

"Retreat!" With only two or three hundred people on his side, Chen Bao was not so arrogant that he could defeat ten with one enemy. The news of Zhao Jun's entry into the pirates had been passed on by Fengsui, to Dongwu City, the center of Hejian, and then to Gaotang. , Linzi, there is no need for him to cause unnecessary sacrifices here.

But Zhao Jun doesn't seem to want to let them go. They have just come over from the pontoon bridge, and dozens of cavalrymen have already stepped on their horses and plan to chase them!

Chen Bao asked everyone to run away in ten teams, and he drove lightly with ten cars. When Zhao Qi almost caught up with him, he returned to his resident Fuliucheng without any risk, with a willow fence as the wall. A humble town built.

He didn't even have time to drink a sip of water, so he gave an order: "Listen to me! Set the city on fire, and then everyone will evacuate to Dongwu City. Bring food if you can, or burn it if you can't!"

Ten thousand Qi troops were scattered among more than a dozen fortresses in Hejian. They were incompetent in field battles and insufficient in defending the city. The Zhao army who had crossed the river from Julu was enough to easily break through this place.

Therefore, the army must be concentrated, the next step is to fight or withdraw, and wait for Chen Heng on Gao Tang's side to make a decision...

So, after being ruled by the Qi people for six years, the Rong and Di near the rudimentary fortresses found that the Qi people began to withdraw, and an army from the west took over the position of the ruler.

...

Zhao's Hejian offensive came very suddenly.

Coinciding with the busy farming season, the rice fields were tender, and the water in the fields was deep. Although it was known from other sources that the Zhao clan would launch an attack, Zhao Wuxi's resolute use of troops during the spring ploughing caught Chen Heng somewhat by surprise.

After the coup seized power, Chen Qi sat in Linzi, and Chen Heng ran between Gaotang and Pingyin. The border defense, which was already in jeopardy, became vigorous under his adjustment, at least not allowing Zhao and Lu Guo to take advantage of the loopholes.

But this time was different. Chen Heng felt that he was being attacked by the enemy. The Lu country must have received instructions from Zhao Wuxi. Ran Qiu and Liu Xiazhi had been spinning around the Qi Great Wall. In the direction of Jin, Yang Tong Rong Shuai was there. The military soldiers concentrated in Handan pressed the Guanshi and Dongwu City. On the other hand, the Yanghu side in Dongyang was broken into pieces. Ten thousand soldiers crossed from different positions in the Xihe River. Except for one that was blocked, the rest landed smoothly, and then they began to quickly attack the city and conquer the land. There were urgent calls for help everywhere. The vanguard of the army hit Tobu Castle on the third day.

After concentrating his forces, Chen Heng could only use 10,000 people in his hands. Facing the attack of 20,000 elites from the Zhao clan, he didn't even have any illusions about defending the city, let alone field battles.

Catapults and ballistas are no longer secrets, but Zhao Wuxi's powerful siege weapons used to deter the enemy. Under their bombardment, any thin walls are as fragile as fragile ceramics.

The only hope now is that Chen's diplomacy will be effective.

But soon, he was utterly disappointed.

Wei's side only dared to quietly inform Chen's family that Zhao Wuxi would plot against Qi, but there was no real help at all. Han's even stood on the same front as Zhao's and blatantly sent troops to assist.

To the north, Chen Heng spent a lot of effort in the Zhongshan Kingdom and ignored Chen's quarrel. Lord Zhongshan said disdainfully, Zhao's can help the Zhongshan Dynasty meet the emperor and be listed as a prince, can Chen's? What's more, they were still guarding the country of Yan, how could they help Qi country to take chestnuts from the fire at this juncture, and directly tied Chen Heng's messenger to Zhao Wuxi to show their loyalty.

Even the state of Yan, an inherent ally of the state of Qi, under the threat of the Zhao clan's military garrison, and the suspicion of the state of Zhongshan, ignored the state of Qi's warning that "lips are dead and teeth are cold", cut off communication with the state of Qi, and agreed to replace it. The cavalry of the Zhao clan from the land took the route of Yan to attack the northern part of the Hejian area...

"Short-sighted, Shuzi is not enough to conspire with them!" Chen Heng could only scold Yan and Zhongshan for being fools. If Qi's Hejian was lost, the Zhao clan would completely surround them, and the fate of the two countries would rest in the hands of others. , how could they not understand! ?

So, just as the smoke and dust raised by Zhao Cavalry swept the river from north to south, and when the two army of Zhao's army was about to meet in Dongwu City, Chen Heng did not have time to ask his father who was far away in Linzi, so he made a major accident without authorization. Decide.

While preparing for the evacuation, he sent a messenger to meet Zhao Wuxi, who came to Julu to coordinate the war, and submitted a letter of credentials that was neither humble nor arrogant, asking for peace.

As soon as Zhao Wuxi opened it, he saw Chen Heng's beautiful seal characters of the state of Qi:

"In the past, my predecessors, Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin~lightnovelpub.net~, worked together as one, and the two states were as one, entangled in marriage, and sworn an oath. They said: Hundred generations of descendants will not be disadvantaged by each other. Gong, Zhuang Gong, Ping Gong (Qi Jing Gong), greedy for hegemony, disrespecting the ancestral life, backing the curse of the ninth generation, leading the troops of the feudal lords to join Jin and Zhao. I can't wait, the fault lies with the previous monarch alone, and the widow monarch ordered the Chen clan to ask for peace with the Zhao clan."

"If it is possible, then I would like to return all the cities in Hejian to Jin, and make an alliance with Zhao's blood, Qi is Jin's country, Chen is Zhao's east wall, the two are reconciled, and never fight, wouldn't it be beautiful? If not Then there is Mount Tai in the south of Qi, the Lai River in the east, the Qinghe River in the west, and the Shaohai in the north. This is the so-called country of four fortresses. The area of ​​Qi is more than a thousand miles away, the grains are like hills and mountains, the richness of salt and iron, and the benefits of armor and soldiers are no less than Zhao. Shi. ​​There are 20,000 households in Linzi, and each household has three men. Two or three get 60,000. Sixty thousand men scream with arms and halberds. It’s not easy for the common people, at that time, the trapped beasts will still fight, injuring the enemy 10,000 and self-destructing 8,000, the Zhao clan will block the front, and Han Wei will take the lead, won’t it be slack?”

Closing the letter, Zhao Wuxi laughed loudly: "Fighting with people is a lot of fun. Chen Heng is really a good opponent. This trick to break the tail of the gecko is much more decisive than I expected..."

(To be continued.)

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