diskusbooks Chapter 654: The First Battle between the Yan Army and the Sichuan Army
Chapter 654: The First Battle between the Yan Army and the Sichuan Army
"Your Highness, what did the Yan people say? Did they declare war on us?"
Everyone asked quickly.
Xiao Lei handed the letter to a legion commander and sneered,
“This Guan Shouchang actually invited our army to a decisive battle south of Xianyang City tomorrow.
What else can I say? Whoever runs away is a coward, and I won’t stop until the winner is decided.
"You are so arrogant! With just over 200,000 exhausted soldiers, you want to confront our 400,000 Sichuan troops. How ridiculous!"
The commander of the Third Legion frowned and said,
"Your Highness, is there a trick here? The Yan army has suffered heavy losses, and they have to leave men behind to defend the city and guard the prisoners. How many men can they spare to fight?
They want to defeat the strong with the weak, but I'm afraid it won't be easy."
"Of course it's a trick, this is the Yan army's plan!"
Xiao Lei said firmly,
"We know that the Yan army is strong on the outside but weak on the inside, and the Yan army itself knows this too.
They are worried that we will attack the city and break through the city to kill them all, so they deliberately provoke our army, hoping to make the king mistakenly believe that they are still very strong and can defeat our army.
If we fall for their trick, we will stay indoors tomorrow and be frightened by the Yan army. The Yan army will show off their might and then return to the city.
Since we don't know their details, we dare not attack rashly.
Their purpose of delaying time has been achieved. When they have rested and digested those Qin prisoners, we will be the ones who suffer.
The longer this battle drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be for us. Only a quick victory can lead to success!"
When the generals heard this, it was as if they had been enlightened.
The commander of the First Legion immediately gave a thumbs up and said,
"Your Highness, your wisdom is profound. This bastard Yan army is trying to deceive us into thinking they are powerful. Little do they know that we know them very well. Your Highness has a keen eye and can see through their scheme at a glance."
"Exactly, they're still showing off in front of the prince. Who do they think they are?"
"The more powerful they appear to us, the more guilty and weak they become."
"We were originally worried that the siege would be difficult, but the Yan army actually dared to take the initiative to provoke us and come to the city to fight a decisive battle. They are truly seeking their own death."
"God is truly helping me! The Yan army commander is being too clever for his own good!"
Everyone laughed.
Little did they know that this letter embodied the wisdom of four outstanding commanders, Guan Shouchang, Bai Wuan, Chen Qing and Su Wuan. At the dinner table, they carefully analyzed the current situation and the Sichuan Army's misjudgment of them, and deliberately acted strong, making the enemy mistakenly believe that they were weak and thus dared to take the initiative to attack.
The reason was that Guan Shouchang was worried that the Sichuan Army would not fight and would flee back to their country overnight after learning that the Qin Dynasty had been destroyed.
So they deliberately let the enemy think that they were weak, arrogant, and bluffing, so that the enemy would stay and leave the camp to fight them.
In the words of the King of the South, who would have thought that the Yan army was so powerful in combat, but also had to play so many conspiracies and schemes, and had such dirty minds.
Xiao Lei immediately made a decision.
"Damn Yan army, you son of a bitch, you harassed us for so long, I'm so angry I have no where to vent.
Since they dare to come out, we can just wipe them out in one go!
You must know that since the Yan State started its southward march, no country or army has been able to defeat the Yan army.
This is an opportunity God has given us.
As long as we destroy the western army of Yan State and the Qian-Chu coalition forces can hold back the main force of the Yan army, the entire Qin territory will be ours.
Expand our territory and destroy the enemy, now is the day! "
"Your Majesty, don't we want the land of Liang Country?"
"Why do you have such a big appetite? Can you eat it all? Besides, Liang Country has been beaten to such a state, what's the point of it being worthless?
If the territory is too large, it will be difficult for us to defend it."
"Congratulations, Your Majesty."
Xiao Lei suddenly thought of something and immediately said,
"Oh, one more thing. Be careful! The Yan army is deliberately trying to paralyze our army and launch a night attack. We must arrange defenses and patrols properly and don't give the Yan army any chance to take advantage!"
"As ordered!"
After everyone had dispersed, Xiao Lei walked to the door of the general's tent, looked at the bright moon in the sky, and thought of his own clever decision and deployment, and couldn't help but sigh,
"I'm such an excellent coach!"
Although he had never fought in a war, lived in the palace when he was a child, and was at the border after inheriting the throne, it did not affect his status as an excellent general.
He thinks so.
……
The next morning.
Guan Shouchang and other commanders got up early, and the army set up pots to cook. The rice contained rice, meat and vegetables, and the quantity was large enough to satisfy the appetite.
After eating, the army took their weapons and dry food and marched towards the outside of the city in a mighty force.
Each legion's main combat force left behind a legion to defend the city, and then the three legions, totaling 270,000 people, lined up in a mighty procession and marched out of the south gate.
The Yan army deliberately flew fewer flags, but it wasn't really too few because some of the flags were allocated to the Longxiang army.
This way, it looks like there aren't that many people.
When scouts were investigating the enemy situation and observing the number of enemy troops, it was impossible for them to count them one by one, otherwise they would not be able to finish counting even after dark.
Basically, it is to observe the flags, how many big flags, how many small flags, how many general flags, and roughly judge the number of enemy troops based on the number of flags, because there are regulations for the flags of each corps and each battalion.
So sometimes, in order to confuse the enemy with a small number of troops, some generals would raise more flags and tie brooms behind the horses' butts to raise dust. In this way, the enemy could not see the number of troops and would judge that they had a large number of people by the high flags.
The Yan army used this method to disguise their larger army as a smaller one.
After arriving outside the city, the Yan army began to assemble in corps one after another.
Scouts from both sides rode fast horses back and forth to gather intelligence about the other side. When they met, they would shoot arrows. It didn't matter whether they hit the target or not, they would just keep running forward.
Their mission was to spy on the enemy, not to kill enemy scouts.
The Sichuan Army also began to deploy its troops, and the troops gradually gathered to form one corps after another.
The Sichuan Army did not form a square formation with its 400,000 men at once, which would have been useless, but instead formed a cross-shaped formation.
They are the front army, left army, right army and rear army respectively.
Four legions, arranged in four formations.
Such a military formation would allow the front army to engage the Yan army first, and then hold off the Yan army, while the left and right armies would move forward to attack the two wings of the Yan army, and gradually advance to form a semi-encirclement posture, attacking the Yan army from three sides.
The rear army is the reserve army, which is mobile and can attack wherever support is needed.
Xiao Lei is still much stronger than Zheng Pingan.
In a battle in the north of the city, there were 300,000 Qin troops and 300,000 Yan troops (the Qin army thought so), but Zheng Pingan dared to surround and attack them all.
At this time, in the battle south of the city, there were 400,000 Sichuan troops and 200,000 Yan troops (the Sichuan troops thought so). Xiao Lei did not rashly surround the entire city, but instead advanced steadily with a semi-encirclement.