Ji, the capital of Yan State, is more than 900 miles away from Handan.
According to the normal marching speed, it would take about twenty days for Yan Wangxi's army to reach Handan.
But in fact, it only took the Yan army thirteen days to reach Julu, and two days later they arrived at Handan City.
On the one hand, the King of Yan ordered the troops to speed up their march day and night, and on the other hand, many troops came directly from the Yanzhao border to assemble, and the journey was much closer than the army transferred from the capital Ji.
But of course, the Yan army did not dare to act rashly until the main force arrived at the vanguard.
They only built fortifications and siege equipment outside the city.
The atmosphere in Handan City immediately became tense. There were soldiers of the Qin Army running back and forth everywhere. Carts of arrows, broken stones, and rolling logs were carried up the city wall. The people also hid in their houses and did not dare to go out.
The artillerymen who were laid low were ordered to make trebuchets and stone projectiles.
When Shen Bing passed by Cang, Cang, who was making a trebuchet, asked in a panic:
"Brother, do you think how many soldiers and horses have come from the Yan Kingdom?"
What Cang wants to ask is actually whether Handan can be defended this time.
But of course you can't ask this casually, so Cang changed his way of saying it.
Before this, no one would have taken the troops of the Yan State seriously. A division that had been defeated repeatedly had once attacked Zhao with five times its strength, but Zhao had surrounded the capital. This had become a phenomenon during the Warring States Period. Got a joke.
If calculated according to this ratio, the more than 100,000 Qin troops led by Wang Jian could withstand the millions of Yan troops.
But now and then:
Yingzheng's life and death was unknown, but the morale of the army was unstable, the people in the city were short of food, and the army of Wei was still waiting on one side to move northward at any time...
Therefore, not only Cang, but also the artillerymen and even the entire army were in panic. The entire army was shrouded in the haze of imminent disaster.
Shen Bing replied nonchalantly:
"How can I know how many soldiers and horses Yan has?"
"But if you include the Dai and Wei states, there are probably hundreds of thousands of them!"
Shen Bing intended to scare them.
Sure enough, everyone's expressions changed when they heard this.
Cang didn't believe it, so he followed up from behind and asked again:
"Brother, if there are hundreds of thousands of enemies, why are you so calm?"
Shen Bing smiled and replied:
"So what if you are calm? What if you are not calm?"
As he spoke, he even hummed a tune, which made the gunners look stunned for a moment.
The secret engineer still has the demeanor of a general, and he can still remain calm in such a dangerous situation. It is not an exaggeration to say that he will not change his face even if Mount Tai collapses in front of him.
How did they know that Shen Bing didn't think this was a dilemma at all.
It was even said that it was Yan State who was facing a disaster:
There is a saying that goes before soldiers and horses use food and grass.
Yan State wants to attack three counties and there are hundreds of thousands of troops. Naturally, large quantities of grain and grass will be transported to the three counties.
The reason why Ying Zheng hasn't come forward yet is because he wants to wait for the food to be transported for a while...
These grains and grasses may be Wang Jian's capital for counterattacking Yan Dynasty.
On the other hand, King Yan did not expect this, and he still kept urging to speed up the march and transport food.
When King Yan rushed to Handan City, he laughed loudly and pointed at the city wall and said to General Qing Qin:
"General, if we capture Handan, this city will be handed over to you!"
Qing Qin was overjoyed and hurriedly responded:
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Handan was the capital of the former Zhao State. If this city was granted a seal, it would basically mean that it was located in Zhao State. How could Qing Qin not be overjoyed?
The three counties of the Qin State... To be precise, the former Zhao State built these three cities for a reason.
These three cities are more than two hundred miles apart from each other, forming a triangle.
If there is an enemy invasion facing these three cities, no matter which direction you go deep into the area between the three cities, you will be attacked by the Zhao army from several sides...
More than two hundred miles is exactly the distance that the cavalry can cover in one day when attacking from both sides.
As a result, these three cities can reinforce each other and respond to each other, so that the enemy does not dare to surround any city, otherwise they would have to worry that a cavalry force would suddenly appear behind them and be attacked from both sides.
However, this advantage only existed for the Zhao cavalry.
The Qin army was dominated by infantry, and the distance of more than two hundred miles obviously made the connection between the three cities much weaker.
This is one of the reasons why King Yan is so confident about this trip.
Ji Danna was similar. He was responsible for attacking Julu and Taiyuan together with the Dai army.
Ji Dan was even more impatient than his father, and immediately ordered the Yan-Zhao coalition forces to attack the second city.
According to Ji Dan’s words, it is:
"The military situation is urgent. We should take this opportunity to launch an attack as soon as possible without giving the Qin army any chance to breathe!"
Ji Dan's tactic may be right.
The Hezong army has many generals, while the Qin army only has more than 100,000 soldiers, so the sooner the battle starts, the better. The Hezong army can afford it, but the Qin army cannot.
But strategically...
On the contrary, Dai Guona felt something was wrong.
The leader of the Daiguo army was Sima Shang.
This Sima Shang was originally a good friend of Li Mu. When Li Mu was wronged by King Zhao, Sima Shang was the only one who spoke favorably for Li Mu. However, he was dismissed because of this.
After learning that Li Mu had been killed, Sima Shang knew that Zhao was about to fall, so he persuaded Zhao Jia to leave Handan and flee to the north before the Qin army besieged the city.
As a result, Zhao Jia spared his life. After arriving in the North, he listened to Sima Shang's advice and actively rehabilitated Li Mu and gathered Li Mu's old troops, and actually gathered 50,000 soldiers.
However, of the 50,000 soldiers, only 30,000 are available to fight, and the other 10,000 are wounded and the other 10,000 are temporary recruits.
What Dai Guo brought this time was the 30,000 elite soldiers from the North.
Zhao Jia was eager to restore the country. As soon as he arrived in Taiyuan, he wanted to attack the city according to Ji Dan's order, but was persuaded by Sima Shang.
Sima Shang said to Zhao Jia uneasily:
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid there will be fraud in this battle."
"If the Qin army were so easy to deal with, our Zhao country would not be destroyed by Qin!"
At this time, Zhao Jia of course followed Sima Shangyan's advice. Thinking about it, he thought it was right, so he ordered to postpone the attack and only use trebuchets to fire stone bombs, and built fortifications to prevent the Qin army from counterattacking.
Unexpectedly, just this "suspension" saved Zhao Jia's life...
Ying Zheng looked at the time and gave the order with a wave of his hand:
"Wei Guo dares to break the alliance and abandon the treaty!"
"If you recruit one hundred thousand soldiers, I will lead the army to conquer it myself."
…
As a result, the entire strategy of the Hezong Army was thrown into chaos.
First of all, Wei's army north of Anyi was only 70,000, while Ying Zheng's army numbered 100,000.
And this is a well-trained Qin army, and Yingzheng Yujia personally marched...
It was obvious that Wei Jun was no match.
As a result, the Wei army cut off the food routes and retreat routes of the three counties of Qin.
If Wei dares to seriously engage in a battle with the Qin army, it is still unclear who will win.
After all, the Qin army had just destroyed the Zhao state and had established a large-scale military base, which consumed a lot of soldiers. The three kingdoms of Wei, Dai, and Yan might be able to defeat the Qin army if they went all out.
However, the most fatal thing is that Ying Zheng did not die.
When King Wei heard that Ying Zheng was not dead...
Not only did he not die, but he also personally conquered Wei. He was dumbfounded at first sight.
Is this guy Ji Dan using him as a knife?
Isn’t this setting yourself on fire?
The first one to bear the brunt is the State of Wei!
Fortunately, Wei State only mobilized its troops and did not actually start the war...
So the King of Wei changed his mind and immediately sent an envoy to Ying Zheng to ask for his release.