Daqin Engineering Corps

Xiang Liang replied coldly:

"Our army's arrow clusters are short of food, so how can we plan in advance?"

The ministers were all speechless at this question.

Chapter 213 Competing

The ministers did not speak, King Chu of Chu looked very ugly and remained silent, Xiang Liang also stood in the middle without saying a word, and the atmosphere in the hall was very strange for a while.

This silence is actually a secret rivalry between various forces:

The ministers of various forces are thinking about whether to contribute, how much force should be exerted, or if the Qin army cannot be stopped in the end... simply surrender to survive.

King Chu of Chu was somewhat dissatisfied with Xiang Liang's words.

You must know that those Chu soldiers are all his troops, and he trusted Xiang Shi to hand over the troops to Xiang Shi, and Xiang Liang lost more than [-] people not only without an explanation, but as a matter of course.

However, the King of Chu did not dare to attack because of his reluctance. After all, the Xiang family is a powerful family, and at present it is holding the military power to support the state of Chu. Who will lead the army to stop the Qin army if they offend the Xiang family?

Xiang Liang's thinking is much simpler: the situation is like this, what do you think?Whether you want to die together or live together, you can decide for yourself!

After a long while, Da Sima Jingtuo broke the situation with a dry cough:

"Xiang Liang, the old man asks you, the army has retreated to Ruyin and Chengfu, but are you waiting for the strategy of fearing Qin and avoiding war?"

Jing Taurus is the third family of the three major powers of Chu State "Zhao, Qu, and Jing". At this time, asking questions from the weakest Jing family will reduce the possibility of conflict with the Xiang family.

This also shows that the tacit understanding between the three major forces at this time has almost reached the point of mutual understanding.

Xiang Liang replied neither humble nor overbearing:

"Ruyin and Chengfu have always been the two vital points in the north of Shouchun."

"My army stationed in the two places is to strangle the Qin army's throat so that it can't go south to attack our capital. Is it a strategy to fear Qin and avoid war?"

"Also, I, Xiang Shi, have dispatched [-] children from Jiangdong and [-] sailors to Rushui for defense."

"Dare to ask Da Sima, how much will the Jing family send troops?"

"Great Sima's theory, in the end, I think it's too much to punish my heart!"

Jing Tuo was confused for a while, because the Jing family has not dispatched a single soldier so far, he hurriedly replied:

"Jing's reinforcements are under preparation, under preparation..."

King Chu of Chu understood now, and secretly said:

"Here, Mrs. Xiang sent all her private soldiers to the defense line to fight against Qin, which is enough to show that Mrs. Xiang is determined to fight against Qin."

"On the contrary, these old ministers who gossip in the palace just talk but don't practice. They talk nicely but they don't send a single soldier..."

"The ridiculous widow is still kept in the dark!"

At that moment, King Chu's expression sank, and he asked:

"The armor, weapons and rations have been requisitioned before, why haven't they arrived yet?"

Xiang Liang clapped his hands and replied:

"All the grain, grass, and supplies confiscated before are now in the warehouse, and have not entered the Xiang family's fief!"

"If your Majesty has doubts, you can send a special envoy to investigate at any time."

After a pause, Xiang Liang added:

"Your Majesty!"

"Qin is strong and we are weak in this battle, which is related to the survival of Chu!"

"If we can't gather our national strength to make a long-term plan to resist Qin, Chu will surely follow in the footsteps of Han, Zhao, Yan and Wei!"

"And if you plan for a long and fierce battle, the food, supplies and troops will be far from enough!"

"This is the general's intention, and this is the last word."

The King of Chu cast a cold glance at the old ministers on both sides, let out a heavy "hum", and was about to get angry but finally held back.

It is not easy for him to be the king of Chu.

At this time, if the crime of punishing these ministers occurs, won't it force them to rebel?

So the king of Chu could only pick up the bitter anger and put it down lightly. He nodded to Xiang Liang and said:

"That's exactly what the general said."

"But according to what the widows have seen..."

"The Qin army raided the Chu state and attacked me unprepared. The lack of food and supplies is not due to the lack of delivery by all parties, but the lack of timely deployment due to time constraints."

The ministers on both sides nodded in agreement with King Chu's words.

In fact, it has been several months since Xiang Yan aided Wei, and it is definitely not a matter of "time is tight and poor deployment" without sending a single soldier.

Then the King of Chu changed the subject again:

"No, take the general here, and we will discuss with the general about the distribution of food and troops?"

The ministers couldn't help being stunned for a moment, and then they could only answer one after another:

"As it should be!"

"Wei Chen has exactly this intention!"

"Your Majesty Yingming!"

……

After some discussion, the monarchs and ministers finally agreed on four countermeasures:

First, set up the king's order, and use Da Sima Jingyu as a special envoy to strictly supervise the garrisons of the clans to go northward as soon as possible to belong to Xiang Yan;

Second, by ordering Yin Zhaoxie to lead the army's backup and other matters, he fully supervised the collection and transportation of grain and grass in the fiefdoms of the great clans.

The reason why Jing Tuo and Zhaoxie are responsible for the respective arrangements is not that the king of Chu trusts them.

Rather, these two represented the Zhao family and the Jing family respectively. If their two families agreed, the Qu family would not dare to do nothing.

And if the Zhao and Jing clans don't send troops again, the King of Chu will be able to "delay the military situation" and punish the crimes of Jingtuo and Zhaoxie. At that time, the Jing and Zhao clans will have nothing to say.

Therefore, for the sake of their own lives, Jing and Zhao will definitely lobby with all their strength to let the three clans send troops and food.

So the problem in this aspect was finally solved, and all ethnic groups sent troops and food to Ruyin and Chengfu according to the order after receiving the news.

Xiang Liang also rushed back to Ruyin to guard at night and sent someone to inform Xiang Yan of the situation.

At that time, Xiang Yan was inspecting the Rushui fortification.

As I said before, the fortification on the east bank of Rushui is the weak point of this line of defense. Once the defense line of Rushui is breached, the Chu army will have to start a land battle with the Qin army, which is not the leader of the Chu army.

So Xiang Yan has been strengthening Rushui's defense line from beginning to end.

however……

The originally required mountain and rock barriers have become civil barriers.

Originally required to be a fortress camp, it simply became an earthen ditch with an earthen wall crenel.

The arrows made by Weapon Workshop originally ordered the two cities to produce [-] arrows a day, but after the inspection, it was found that it was less than [-], and there were still many defective products...

For all these things, no matter how outrageous Xiang Yan's outbursts were, the various military affairs departments and Sima did not make any excuses.

Xiang Yan wanted to punish these irresponsible officers several times, but she picked up the command arrow several times and put it back.

There is a saying that "if there is no law, there will be many".

These phenomena are not one or two in the Chu army, but are common in the entire army.

This is caused by the Chu army's lax military management and ineffective supervision. Everyone is fooling around and can get through casually. They have long been used to not being able to change suddenly.

At this time, if Xiang Yan used strict laws because of the battle, I am afraid that half of the officers in the army will be removed. Who will lead the army then?

This is Chu Jun, what can Xiang Yan do?

Just when Xiang Yan felt a headache, Xiang Liang's messenger came to report:

"General, General Xiang has convinced all the ministers that reinforcements and supplies are coming at full speed!"

Only half of the boulder hanging in Xiang Yan's heart was put down.

Although the Chu army's combat power is weak, if there are large armies gathered from various places and Rushui is dangerous, blocking the Qin army should not be a problem.

Chapter 214 A Long Fight and Quick Fight?

The battle situation was as expected by Xiang Yan. When the Qin army rushed to the Chu army's defense line, it was unable to advance half a point.

The first to rush to the line of defense was the [-] Qin army led by Meng Wu.

Mengwu's road can be said to be majestic. He led his troops to capture more than ten cities and villages along the way, and almost all of them surrendered without a fight.

This made Meng Wu heroically shout to his subordinates, "Advance lightly and destroy Chu in two months."

The morale of the Qin army was boosted for a while, and they shouted: "Light soldiers advance quickly, and Chu will be destroyed in two months!"

At this time, Meng Wu was a little anxious.

Meng Wu needs this battle to prove himself...

In fact, Meng Wu also knew that the king wanted to cultivate the Meng clan.

This is no secret to generals who are good at official careers. Any country taboos the concentration of credit and power in the hands of one person and one general.

Because if this continues, the power will fall to the side, and finally the monarch and his ministers will be jealous of each other and secretly suspect each other, such as the relationship between Li Mu and King Zhao.

It is thought that the way of the king is to disperse the credit and military power, so that the ministers and generals can check and balance each other.

Now Wang Jian successively destroyed Han, Zhao, Wei and defeated Yan, and his achievements are beyond compare.

At this time, it is time to support Mengshi so that he can make meritorious deeds and take power, so that the country of Qin can be peaceful.

Meng Wu has been running Mengshi with his father in Xianyang since he was a child, how could he not know these official principles?

Otherwise, with so many generals in Qin State, why did he let Meng Wu lead the army to destroy Chu?

Meng Wu knew that this was an opportunity for Mengshi, but it was also a test.

Because once the king thinks that Meng Wu is a mud on the wall, he will choose to support others.

Therefore, Meng Wu wants to prove to the king that he is no worse than Wang Jian at all.

Wang Jian can have the merit of destroying the country, so can he Meng Wu.

After the destruction of Chu, Meng Shi will restore the glory of his father Meng Ao again in his hands and sit on an equal footing with Wang Jian.

It's just that Meng Wu never imagined that these things would have to wait for his son Meng Tian to realize them, and only partially... If Wang Jian hadn't brought Wang Ben to retreat together, then nothing would have happened to Meng Tian.

Stimulated by this idea, Meng Wu led his troops all the way to the city father's city.

At the beginning, Meng Wu thought that the father of the city was just like other cities, just old and weak Chu soldiers stationed there, so he simply built some siege ladders and ordered to attack the city impatiently.

Needless to say what the result was, the Chu army shot down the city with a flurry of arrows, killing and injuring more than a thousand people.

On the other side, Yang Duanhe and Shen Bing's troops also rushed to Ruyin.

In fact, at this time, Daliang could reach the Huaihe River and even Shouchun if it went south along the waterway.

It was mainly the State of Wei that played a role. When the State of Wei was strong, in order to develop the land and water transportation between the north and the south, the Bianhe River was excavated to inject sand and water, and the sand and water flowed to Chencheng. Enter the Huaihe River.

This is what history calls the gap.

It's just that due to years of fighting, many waterways in the gap have been blocked.

Until Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, widened and deepened these waterways again, cut the bends and straightened them, so it became the famous "Tongji Canal".

But of course the Qin army led by Yang Duanhe couldn't go all the way along this waterway to attack Shouchun... If they did so, they would have to take a big bend along the river to enter the Huaihe River, and then go down the Huaihe River.

The cities along the way may not be able to be garrisoned even if 20 people are all blocked in.

After Yang Duanhe's [-] troops went down the river, they could only choose to land at the nearest point and then rush to Ruyin. This is also the fastest and safest route for supplies.

After Yang Duanhe looked at the battle report sent by Meng Wu, he frowned and said to Shen Bing: