Daqin Engineering Corps

"The princess is not afraid. If Shen Bing loses, will it hurt your father and even the whole Kucha?"

Although there is nothing wrong with what Princess Wuyou said to King Qiuci, if Zhao Gao succeeds in supporting Hu Hai to take the throne, the sinister Zhao Gao will of course bring the Western Regions into his territory when the conditions are ripe.

but……

If King Qiuci was on Zhao Gao's side, Zhao Gao would at least find an excuse for a while before he could attack.

But if King Qiuci is on Shen Bing's side, Zhao Gao doesn't even need to make excuses, and if he defeats Shen Bing, he will immediately attack Qiuci.

Princess Carefree replied:

"What's the difference between earlier and later? It's just a matter of lingering on."

"It is because Ziyang is not lying to the father, there is indeed only one way for Qiuci to survive, and that is to join your army!"

"If you don't want Wuyou to lose King Father and Kucha, all you need to do is defeat Zhao Gao!"

Shen Bing nodded in agreement.

Obviously, Princess Wuyou has a much longer-term vision than King Kucha.

The advantage of King Kucha standing on Shen Bing's side was that Shen Bing had [-] more Kucha cavalry under his command.

However, it cannot be called "many", because the [-] Kucha cavalry were originally divided into several cities to garrison, and each city had no more than a few thousand people.

This amount of troops is not enough to defend the city, let alone deploy them to fight.

So these soldiers are actually unable to move, including the surrounding small countries that obey orders from Kucha.

In fact, Shen Bing didn't attract Kucha for those soldiers. To be honest, Shen Bing didn't like these soldiers either... The language barrier, command difficulty, and combat effectiveness are also questionable.

What Shen Bing needs more is to use Kucha as his base camp, get its supplies and water sources, and Kucha's prestige and influence in the Western Regions.

Otherwise, Shen Bing's tens of thousands of cavalry troops would not even have a foothold in the Western Regions, let alone a battle with Yang Duanhe's 20 troops.

The first thing Shen Bing did was to send his cavalry around to inquire about Yang Duanhe's news, and the last word he got was "stable".

Yang Duanhe didn't rush forward.

He could have taken more cities by adding imperial edicts and troops, but he didn't.

After Yang Duanhe took down the two cities of Gushi and Loulan, he built supply points on the route between Shazhou and the two cities, especially at the water source, and built a city wall to defend with heavy troops.

This is a very clever tactic, with retreat as advance, Shen Bing couldn't help frowning as he looked at the map.

On Yang Duanhe's side, Li Yan still couldn't understand what Yang Duanhe was doing, so he asked a little strangely:

"General, we could have come to the city of Kucha to put pressure on the King of Kucha so that he would not accept Shen Bing."

"Why do we sit and watch Shen Bing enter Kucha without moving?"

Yang Duanhe replied:

"Shen Bing is a man of great wit and cunning, and his use of troops is unpredictable, and he is good at using cavalry for sneak attacks."

"If I occupy many cities in a short period of time, it seems that I have gained a lot of advantages, but there are loopholes everywhere, so I need to be careful everywhere."

"And Shen Bing is quite prestigious in the Western Regions, so it is hard to guarantee that he will not be attacked by him and the backyard will catch fire."

"The first battle is especially critical."

"If Shen Bing wins the first battle, the countries in the Western Regions will have great hopes for him, so it will be difficult for us to gain a foothold in the Western Regions."

"And vice versa, if Shen Bing loses the first battle, the situation will be extremely unfavorable to him."

Li Yan couldn't help but "Oh" and nodded slightly.

At the same time, he sighed secretly, Yang Duanhe and Shen Bing were two masters fighting each other, and he, a servant girl, couldn't even understand it.

On Shen Bing's side, what he saw was Yang Duan and the defense system that was almost integrated like an iron triangle. The three points were Shazhou, Loulan, and Gushi.

It is said that Yang Duanhe also deployed a large number of crossbowmen in the city. Ironically, the crossbowmen were equipped with the Qin crossbow developed by Shen Bing with an iron ring on the front end.

The Qin crossbow is a powerful weapon for defending the city. With it and the city wall to guard the water source, how many days can the siege troops last?

What's more, the troops Shen Bing belongs to are still cavalry who are good at field combat and not good at siege.

What's more, it is more than 1000 kilometers from Gushi to Shazhou, and the water source during this period is controlled by Yang Duan and Yichengzhai. If Shen Bing wants to make a long-distance attack, where will the water needed by the troops come from?

So the iron triangle pressed against Shen Bing's neck like a fork, making him unable to move.

Shen Bing found a time to meet Yang Duanhe before the formation.

"Are you safe, old general?" Shen Bing bowed his hands respectfully to Yang Duanhe as soon as he saw Yang Duanhe.

Yang Duanhe only nodded slightly and said:

"General, if I don't want you, I will have a day against the battlefield. It's really a trick of luck."

"However, this is the end of the matter, and I, Yang, have to go all out. I hope the general Haihan!"

Shen Bing expressed his understanding.

In fact, many things don't need to be said too clearly. Yang Duanhe is a sensible person, and he knows what's going on in his heart.

He would never believe that Fusu would murder the emperor at this time... The emperor is more and more satisfied with Fusu, and everyone knows his desire to make Fusu the prince. Wouldn't it be difficult for Fusu to join the emperor at this time?

If Fusu hadn't murdered the emperor, how could Shen Bing have rebelled?

However, that's what the imperial decree says.

The family is in Daqin again. Once they resist the decree, it will be a crime of copying and beheading the whole family, or even punishing the nine clans. Who dares to disobey?

"You can't help yourself on the battlefield!" Shen Bing replied: "Shen Bing knows this truth very well. Shen Bing just wants to tell the old general that there is no room for Shen Bing in this battle, and he can only fight with all his strength. Please be careful, old general!"

Yang Duanhe laughed loudly: "I, Yang Duanhe, will have no regrets in this life if I can make Shen Bing, who is famous all over the world, fight with all his strength!"

Saying that, the two arched their hands, and then turned back to their own camp.

After returning to the barracks, Princess Ziyang saw Shen Bing's confident look, and asked strangely:

"Could it be that the general has thought of a strategy to defeat the enemy?"

Shen Bing shook his head.

"Then why is the general so confident?" Princess Ziyang asked suspiciously.

Shen Bing replied:

"Yang Duanhe used [-] troops to control more than [-] miles of water sources, and he used defense instead of attack, making my cavalry useless."

"This game is unsolvable."

"but……"

"Maybe Zhao Gao can do me a little favor!"

Princess Ziyang was puzzled for a while, and then suddenly understood, she widened her eyes and nodded:

"This is a great plan!"

"No wonder the general came here intentionally to meet Yang Duanhe."

"Yang Duanhe...I'm afraid that he will be forced to send troops!"

Chapter 539 Discord between Monarch and Subject

Since ancient times, discord between monarchs and ministers or mutual distrust will be bad things.

For example, Zhao Wang believed the rumors and changed Lian Po, or Zhao Wang destroyed the Great Wall and killed Li Mu.

There are also Yue Fei, Yang Jiajiang, etc., who seem to be harmed by treacherous ministers, but are actually jealous of the king.

Yang Duanhe is far stronger than Shen Bing, who has only tens of thousands of cavalry, in terms of strength, supplies, and momentum.

But Shen Bing has a Yang Duan and no advantage:

Fusu absolutely trusts Shen Bing, and can let Shen Bing fight without interfering.

However, the relationship between Yang Duanhe and Xianyang is more based on the fact that his family members are coerced and have to fight.

If it was Qin Shihuang Yingzheng who was in charge of the overall situation in Xianyang, he might have given Yang Duanhe enough freedom... This is the advantage of Yingzheng. In every battle, he only decides the strategy and does not interfere with how the generals do it, as long as the strategy he wants is achieved Goals will do.

The problem is that it is not Qin Shihuang but Zhao Gao who is directing behind the scenes.

Although Zhao Gao was scheming and good at fighting internally, he was by no means a broad-minded and long-sighted general, and neither was Li Si.

On the contrary, the more he attacks a scheming person who is good at internal fighting, the more he fears that others will harm him, oppose him, and kill him.So they will use all means to contain, monitor, interfere, and even command.

Zhao Gao did the same to Yang Duanhe.

He couldn't rest assured that Yang Duanhe would take 20 troops to the Western Regions to fight against Shen Bing, not to mention that Zhao Gao knew that the relationship between Yang Duanhe and Shen Bing was both a teacher and a friend.

So Zhao Gao sent his most trusted eunuch Xing Chi to go with Yang Duanhe as the superintendent, and added post stations along the way to leave pigeons, so that the news from the front line could be sent to Xianyang as soon as possible, and at the same time, the orders from Xianyang could be sent as soon as possible. front.

Although Shen Bing didn't know this, but Shen Bing knew that Zhao Gao would definitely not trust Yang Duanhe.

So I deliberately talked nonsense with Yang Duanhe.

Of course, Yang Duanhe didn't know that this was a trick, he just thought that Shen Bing wanted to make it clear before the battle... In fact, Shen Bing did have this intention, but he was playing tricks while reminiscing about the old days.

No one else heard these nonsense, because Shen Bing and Yang Duanhe met only two people alone, without bringing any soldiers.

This is normal, and it would be insincere to lead troops on such an occasion.

Therefore, these "nonsense" are not "nonsense" in the eyes of the superintendent Xingchi, not to mention that eunuchs always like to tell stories when they have nothing to do. It's weird.

Xing Chi said this to Zhao Gao: "Yang Duanhe stood still and secretly met Shen Bing. He has ulterior motives. Please make a quick decision!"

Zhao Gao couldn't help being furious when he saw it.

Is this okay?Knowing that Shen Bing is a traitor, how dare he have a secret meeting with him?

Immediately, he wanted to take Yang Duan and his family to prison, but after thinking about it, Yang Duanhe was still a secret soldier at this time.If his family members were taken, Yang Duanhe had no worries, how could he openly raise his troops to rebel with Shen Bing?

So he didn't dare to do anything, but sent a letter to supervise Yang Duanhe and immediately sent troops to attack Qiuci to capture Fusu.

Zhao Gao's approach actually has a deep meaning:

If Yang Duanhe is unwilling to send troops to attack Qiuci, it proves that Yang Duanhe has a different intention, then Zhao Gao should consider letting Xingchi seize his military power with an imperial decree and let others lead the army.

If Yang Duanhe sent troops to attack Qiuci, Zhao Gao could sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight.

The scheming Zhao Gao would never have thought that he had actually fallen into Shen Bing's scheme.

When Yang Duanhe received this order, he even argued with Xingchi:

"That Qiuci is at least two hundred miles away from my aunt. How can I capture it when I wait for my teacher to go on an expedition and there is no water source?"

Xing Chi responded naturally:

"We have an army of 20, how difficult is it to transport water two hundred miles away?"

Yang Duanhe only let out a "ah", how did these eunuchs know that the people who carried the water also needed to drink water, so it is not possible to do it with a large number of people.

However, no matter how Ren Yang Duanhe explained it, Xing Chi only said: "This is the emperor's holy will, how dare you not follow it?"

There was also a reason why Zhao Gao was in such a hurry to attack Kucha.

Many people in Xianyang have become suspicious of Yingzheng's recent abnormal behavior, especially the death of Fusu.

Even if the rumors were true, Fusu wanted to kill Yingzheng, and Yingzheng only gave Fusu death after Yingzheng found out.

Yingzheng should also go to court and explain to the masses.

Didn't go to court for so long, is it because Fusu's poison is too strong and the dragon is ill?

Some people even wondered whether Ying Zheng's death is not long!

All this made people panic and rumors spread everywhere in the temple.

Zhao Gao was worried that it would not be long before this continued. If the ministers knew that Ying Zheng was dead, Zhao Gao would no longer be able to spread false imperial decrees to cover up the sky with one hand.

The plan for now is to kill Fusu as soon as possible to prepare for Hu Hai's ascension.

That's why Zhao Gao was in such a hurry to attack Kucha.

Yang Duanhe was forced to send troops to attack Kucha.

It's just that Yang Duanhe spent a few days to make some preparations...the desert area of ​​the Western Regions lacked wood, and Yang Duanhe needed to collect enough wood to build the city wall along the road and make siege equipment.

Then Yang Duanhe recruited a large number of camels to carry water, and then sent an army of [-] to Kucha.

This made Xing Chi very dissatisfied, because Yang Duanhe only sent 20 troops to attack Kucha with [-] troops in his hands, while Shen Bing had at least [-] to [-] troops...including the Kucha army.