The news that Xiang Ji and Lin Ze were competing in martial arts was known to the whole camp in a very short period of time as the siege army returned to camp.
The soldiers were extremely dissatisfied with this and thought they had been deceived. You are all in the same group, so why do you still want us to beat you to death?
Although they are dissatisfied, these soldiers would not dare to cause rebellion. In this world where martial arts is respected, the force of an officer is often enough to suppress a group of large soldiers. In a sense, causing rebellion is equivalent to seeking death.
But that doesn't mean they don't do anything.
If you don't dare to cause rebellion, you can still petition. From time to time, a group of big-name soldiers gather together and discuss how to express their desire to go home to their superiors.
They thought about reporting it to their superiors step by step, and finally getting the order to withdraw the troops.
After Zhao Xie and others got the news, they immediately got together and briefly communicated. They felt that this was an opportunity to break away from the alliance.
Compared with withdrawing their troops some time ago, the attack on Qin was too short to explain to the subjects. Zhao Xie and others, who persisted for more than ten days, believed that withdrawing their troops at this time and delaying a little more time on the road should be able to silence most people.
If someone jumps out to make accusations like this and Zhao Xie and others can't solve it, the throne should have been given up long ago.
So the five people secretly reached an agreement, secretly instructing the loyal generals to arouse the soldiers' emotions and make the dissatisfaction more violent, so as to attack Xiang Ji and completely regain the army.
Of course, they planned to take back the army directly under their own control before Xiang Ji relented.
The day after the siege army returned to camp, in the coalition camp, the call for withdrawal reached its peak.
During the training, the group of large soldiers suddenly made a collective commotion and shouted loudly to the general directing their training: "Please give the order to withdraw the troops, general."
This sentence almost frightened the general. When did he become a general? Do he still have the qualifications to order the withdrawal of troops?
The next scene was even more bizarre. After a soldier finished eating, he suddenly broke his bowl, hugged his companions, and cried loudly, saying that he wanted to eat the food cooked by his mother.
Why did so few people like to fight protracted wars in ancient times? In addition to the lack of supplies of materials, military morale was also a very important reason.
And this sincere feeling of missing parents and relatives is a poison that corrodes the morale of the army if it is placed in an army that has not done ideological work.
When the ordinary soldiers were making a fuss, Zhao Xie, Tian Dan and others came to Xiang Ji's camp to seek an explanation from him.
"Now that the morale of the army is low, I would like to ask Mr. Wu Xin to order the withdrawal of the troops as soon as possible to avoid being taken advantage of by the Qin army and causing heavy casualties to the army."
King Qi Tian Dan didn't mince words at all, he said it directly.
Xiang Ji replied with a gloomy face: "If you miss this time, I don't know when the six countries will join forces to attack Qin again. Please do your best to appease the soldiers and put the overall situation first."
Zhao Xie sneered and said, "Stop pretending, Mr. Wu Xin. No one in the coalition camp knows anything about it. It is all because of your inactivity and sabotage that the morale of the army has been weakened. What's the use of Mr. Wu Xin showing his righteousness in front of us? You have the ability to make the soldiers
I trust you!"
Xiang Ji's expression changed greatly, and he shouted with great authority: "Shut up, this is clearly a conspiracy of the Qin State. The Chu State and the Qin State are feuding. Are you saying that I have been passive and sabotaged my work and colluded with the Qin State? Have you lost your mind?"
Zhao Xie was frightened by Xiang Ji's sudden burst of momentum and almost collapsed to the ground. When he came back to his senses, he felt humiliated and said with a red face: "The soldiers only believe what they see and hear. Even if it is a Qin conspiracy,
Wu Xinjun thinks he can be exempted from liability?"
"If Mr. Wu Xin's performance had not been so disappointing, how could the soldiers not trust you?..."
Before Zhao Xie could finish his words, he was directly interrupted by Tian Dan: "Why does King Zhao need to talk to him anymore? The current situation clearly requires us to retreat. If Lord Wu Xin insists on staying, please forgive Qi for not accompanying him."
"Because we have a common goal of conquering Qin, we kindly discussed many things with Mr. Wu Xin, but Mr. Wu Xin always seems to have his own way and doesn't care about our feelings. In my opinion, there is no need for this alliance to exist?"
Tian Dan's words are already intended to overturn the table. Your Chu country is strong, your Xiang Ji is a grandmaster, and your martial arts skills are unparalleled. But after all, we are allies, and even though I am the king of Qi, I am not your subordinate.
But you have repeatedly acted arbitrarily and tried to be superior to everyone. Do you really think that we are subordinates?
"Do you all think so?" Xiang Ji looked at the others with a cold face.
"Qin is a powerful country, and conquering Qin cannot be accomplished overnight. I think we should withdraw our troops first, and when the six countries have regained a certain strength, how about jointly attacking Qin?" Han Wangcheng said.
"Hangu Pass is extremely dangerous. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack. As the siege party, the Six Nations Allied Forces suffered a great loss. Why not retreat, lead the Qin army out of Xiongguan, and have a fair decisive battle?" Wei Wangjiu offered a plan.
Although the original intention of this plan was to withdraw the troops, it was much more clever than the others.
But Xiang Ji refused to let go. He would rather remain silent than withdraw his troops.
However, the five countries were worried that over-stimulation would bring about some negative consequences, so the venue suddenly fell into silence.
After a while, Xiang Ji slowly said: "It is okay to withdraw the troops, but I have a condition."
A hint of joy flashed across the five people's faces, and then they regained their composure. They couldn't show too much excitement, otherwise they would easily fall into passivity.
For a moment, all five of them were dumb and unwilling to answer.
Xiang Ji didn't have much patience. After waiting for a while, when no one responded, he said impatiently: "Since everyone is unwilling to agree to my terms, let's not mention the retreat again."
"Wait a minute," Zhao Xie and the other five said this almost at the same time.
"I wonder what conditions Mr. Wu Xin has?" Tian Dan obviously didn't want to cause trouble, so he took the initiative to ask.
Xiang Ji said in a low voice: "King Wei is right. The Qin army occupies a favorable location. If they want to defeat the Qin army, they must lead it out of Hangu Pass. The Qin army without the protection of a solid city wall will be vulnerable."
"Therefore, I plan to pretend to evacuate and ambush the Qin army secretly."
"Ambushing the Qin army requires a huge amount of manpower and material resources to prepare. I have made a rough calculation and it will take at least three days. Therefore, I hope that the coalition forces will evacuate after three days."
"After three days, you can leave directly with the army, while the Chu army will ambush at the predetermined location, waiting for the Qin army to take the bait."
"This condition is not too harsh, what do you think?"
Upon hearing that this was the only condition, Zhao Xie and others immediately breathed a sigh of relief and quickly agreed.
It's rare for Xiang Ji to be so nice to talk to, so he can't make any trouble.
Isn't it just three days? As long as they don't continue to lose money, three days earlier and three days later makes no difference to them. To a certain extent, even three days late is still a good thing.
Xiang Ji also had no choice but to breathe a sigh of relief. This was what he and Fan Zeng had discussed. It was really impossible to prevent the armies of the five countries from retreating, so they could only delay it for a few days as long as possible.
…
Three days passed in a blink of an eye, and the soldiers of Zhao, Qi, Wei, and Han began to pack up and embark on their way home. Only the Chu army formed a queue early and left the camp without knowing where it was going.
The Qin army scouts soon discovered something strange in the coalition camp and informed Lin Ze and Han Xin that the rebels were about to flee.
After hearing this, a military general came over quickly to ask for a fight and asked to lead his troops to pursue the rebels.
Lin Ze just shook his head, not bothering to explain more.
By the way, people are included in the "blacklist" for promotion. It is best not to hold high positions for people without military talents, otherwise they will only harm the entire army.
There are at least 500,000 left in the Six Nations Allied Forces, and their strength is well preserved. It's useless to pursue them.
In an unknown valley fifty miles away from Hangu Pass, the Chu army, which had been waiting for a full day without even a shadow of the Qin army, also set out on its way home under Xiang Ji's order.
Xiang Ji didn't expect much from this ambush. Lin Ze didn't fall into the trap. In his opinion, it was normal.
If the other party really came, Xiang Ji would have to think carefully about whether the other party had any tricks.
It's just a show and a complete set.
Besides, it’s not like the Chu State did nothing. At least the return journey of the armies of the Five Kingdoms will not be too smooth.
For example, the road suddenly broke down, the bridge suddenly broke, or even the mountain collapsed, blocking the road. These things are rare and common, aren't they?
Three days is enough for Xiang Ji to arrange for people to do a lot of things.