Ying Zheng's appearance frightened Wei State into withdrawing from the alliance.
The Chu State originally wanted to fish in troubled waters and take advantage of the situation, but now that it knew Ying Zheng was alive, it naturally would not wade into such troubled waters.
So immediately after joining forces, only the two armies of Yan and Dai were left.
This time everyone was dumbfounded.
Yan Wangxi was stunned for a long time, and then he beat his chest and yelled:
"I'm going to be killed by this scoundrel this time!"
"He also said that Ying Zheng must die. Now, not only is Ying Zheng not dead, but he is also going to fight in person..."
"With Ying Zheng's cruelty, how could he let Yan go?"
"Yan's century-old foundation will be destroyed because of him!"
When Ji Dan heard the news, he said it was impossible.
"It must be the Qin envoy who deceived me into retreating with the fake Ying Zheng!"
"Don't let us be fooled. This is the time to make great achievements!"
…
Ji Dan's guess is quite reasonable, because it is known to the world that Ying Zheng has a substitute.
Who can guarantee that the state of Qin did not bring out the substitute to "use it" in order to understand the danger of the three counties?
However, the facts gave Ji Dan a hard slap...
Because Wang Jian sent a big gift to Ji Dan:
Dozens of wooden boxes, each containing a human head.
Needless to say, it goes without saying that they are the assassin Jing Ke and his party.
At the same time, Wang Jian also told Ji Dan a piece of news that almost made him die:
"The assassins were discovered when they were in Handan, and they have been in Handan prison all this time."
"You have fallen into the king's plan."
These words made Ji Dan so angry that he vomited blood and shouted and fainted on the spot.
As a result, the morale of the Yan and Dai coalition forces was greatly reduced on the spot, and they had no intention of fighting.
On the contrary, the morale of the Qin army was greatly improved and the panic was changed from before.
Morale is a very strange thing, especially in the period of cold weapon warfare. Although it is invisible and intangible, it really exists.
For example, there was no difference at all between the two armies facing each other in the three counties at this time in terms of strength comparison and even food and fodder.
If there is any difference, Wei's withdrawal took a lot of pressure off the Qin army.
But it was still the Yan army, which had 280,000 men against the Qin army of 160,000 men. The Qin army was still short of food.
However, as morale waxed and waned, the outcome was already decided before the battle officially started.
The fastest runner is Yan Wangxi.
When the Qin army was still reorganizing their troops outside the city, they discovered that a fire was burning in the Yan army's tent where the banners were in chaos...
King Yan was still somewhat sensible and knew to burn the food and grass before leaving.
However, there was no such thing as kerosene in the Qin Dynasty, so the only way to burn grain was to gather grain carts into a pile and light a fire.
Wang Jian immediately ordered the Qin army to attack, and then successfully put out the fire before it spread and seized a large amount of military supplies.
When Ji Dan woke up and heard that King Yan had withdrawn his troops, he could only wave his hands feebly and said:
"The situation is over, withdraw your troops!"
Zhao Jia was the last to withdraw his troops, but because Zhao Jia had been prepared before and was an elite soldier from the North, he retreated in an orderly manner while protecting his own supplies of food and grass.
The Qin army was led by Wang Jian, who was in charge of the three counties, and his generals Xin Sheng and Yang Duanhe pursued the two armies of the Yan Dynasty respectively.
Therefore, Shen Bing had to embark on the march again.
And engineers like Shen Bing are still ahead...
At this time, Shen Bing didn't understand. What if the enemy suddenly came back to kill him?
Later I realized that this was basically redundant for Yan Jun.
The reason why the engineering troops were placed in front of the troops was because the Yan army often burned the bridges along the way in order to block the Qin army's pursuit.
So the engineering troops had to build roads and bridges ahead.
Marching is nothing to Shen Bing... At this time, Shen Bing was equipped with a carriage and a coachman. Once he got into the car, he asked the coachman to drive forward slowly. There were several personal guards around the car, which was quite impressive.
He looks a bit like an official.
However, building bridges is a troublesome matter.
The troops marched until evening when they were blocked by a river.
Chen Wei gave an order:
"The gunners built the bridge all night long!"
The gunners couldn't help but complain.
At this time, it was supposed to be the time to bury pots and make rice. The troops had already been so hungry after a day of marching that their chests were pressed against their backs, but they did not want to build a bridge at this time.
But this is unavoidable.
Because whether the troops can move forward or catch up with the enemy in time depends on the speed of building the bridge.
Shen Bing took Cang Hehu forward to take a look at the situation, and he couldn't help but gasped at the sight.
In front of them was a large river dozens of steps wide. There was originally a wooden bridge on it, but the wooden bridge was completely demolished by the Yan army. Even the wooden stakes driven into the river were uprooted.
Hui looked at the bare trees floating on the water beside the river and said:
"The Yan army did put in some effort."
"Those wooden piles must have been pulled up by ropes and horse power!"
Shen Bing understood as soon as he heard that Yan Jun was tearing apart sections and pulling them out.
As long as the rope is long enough and tied to the opposite side of the wooden stakes and the horse is pulled hard...the wooden stakes will be pulled up one by one.
Usually the demolition of the bridge is not so complete, but more of a fire burning.
But burning the bridge will inevitably leave wooden piles, and the pursuers can quickly build a new bridge on the wooden piles.
Obviously, Yan Jun was trying to buy time.
Or it can be said that they have taken a breath after escaping here.
Later, Shen Bing found out that this was partly because Yan State, like Zhao State, was adjacent to the Xiongnu to the north, so it had more cavalry.
On the other hand, the Yan army began to demolish the bridge before the subsequent infantry could cross the river.
This resulted in many Yan soldiers having no choice but to abandon their armor and swim across the river, while those who could not swim had to hide in a dense forest to seek good fortune.
At this time Yang Duanhe rushed over from one side...
Yang Duanhe led his cavalry to pursue the enemy at the front, but was blocked by the river and could not move forward.
Yang Duanhe shouted excitedly when he saw Shen Bing:
"The engineers arrived just in time, but how long will it take to build a bridge across the river?"
Shen Bing was not expert in this matter, so he could only turn his eyes to Hu next to him.
Hui cupped his hands and replied:
"General, we need to cut down the trees and set up piles, and we also need to find out the depth of the river."
"My subordinate thought it would take at least two days!"
…
Before Hui finished speaking, he was interrupted by Yang Duanhe:
"Two days, two days later, the Yan army had already fled back to the city!"
Then Yang Duanhe frowned again and said:
"The engineers didn't know anything, but the Yan army and the Dai army were resting several miles away on the north bank at this time."
"There is also a large amount of grain and grass concentrated on the north coast."
"If it takes two days to build the bridge, that batch of food and grass..."
It turned out that the grain transport brigade of the Yan Army arrived here just in time to receive the news of the retreat from the front.
Because they did not receive the order to retreat, those in the front did not dare to retreat, but people from the rear continued to crowd in, and soon a large number of them gathered.
What the Qin army lacked was food and grass.
It can almost be said that if there is food and grass, they can pursue it. If there is no food and grass, even if they open the city gate and let the Qin army attack, it will not work... Although the Qin army is brave, they cannot attack the city on an empty stomach.
Therefore, the most important thing at the moment is not to let this batch of food and grass return to the city.
After thinking for a while, Yang Duanhe asked again:
"It's best if our troops can cross the river tonight."
"In this way, we can catch them off guard as soon as it gets dark tomorrow!"