"Not only are the troops surrendered but not retrained, the 100,000 troops that the king promised me are still on the way. It will take more than ten days to arrive at least."
"But the king is urging me to send troops at this time..."
"I have never seen the king so eager to use troops."
Shen Bing knew in his heart what the reason was, but there was nothing he could do about it.
He is the king. If the king has his tail raised and has the mentality of underestimating the enemy, who can persuade him?
Wang Jian?
Wang Jian is afraid that he has been left alone at this time, otherwise he should be the main general in the attack on Chu.
Li Si?
Li Si was also embarrassed to speak, because he himself was a Chu native. If he persuaded Ying Zheng to postpone the attack... he would probably be suspected by Ying Zheng of having selfish motives.
But in the current situation, if Ying Zheng is forced to do so in a hurry, there will only be disadvantages and no benefits.
Shen Bing couldn't care what happened to the Qin army, but he couldn't ignore his own life, so he had to drag it on no matter what.
But how to delay it?
Are you stating your interests and saying that you cannot send troops for the time being?
How could Ying Zheng care about this? He would even say:
"Don't you have a hundred thousand Qin troops in Daliang?"
"There are still three thousand black-armored troops."
"There are also 100,000 newly recruited soldiers."
"The total number is more than 200,000, and there are still 100,000 Qin troops on the road. Can we still be afraid of the Chu army?"
This method won't work.
Then find an excuse?
But who is Ying Zheng? How could he not see it as an excuse and then blame him...
This method doesn't work either.
Just when Shen Bing was in a dilemma, he saw Anling City on the map Yang Duanhe spread out in front of his case, so his heart moved and he said to Yang Duanhe:
"General."
"Since your Majesty wants to attack Chu, we will consider the strategy first."
"As for when we can send out troops... I think it's useless for us to worry about it. At that time, it will still be decided by the king."
Yang Duanhe sighed and replied:
"That's all."
"Does the captain have any strategy for attacking Chu?"
Shen Bing pretended to frown in thought, and then replied:
"There is no strategy."
"But for now, I think the best breakthrough point is Chen Cheng."
"Because the city is located in the lower reaches of the Bian River, our army can go down the river."
"Then we will use this city as a base to seize the Huaihe River, and divide and surround the Chu army in Huaibei in one fell swoop."
Yang Duanhe nodded and said:
"The captain agrees with me."
"It's just that although we occupy the upper reaches of Daliang, the Chu army is afraid of the advantage of our black-armored army and must be on guard."
"According to the spies, the Chu army has set up heavy chains and wooden stakes to block the river in the upper reaches of Chencheng. The Black Armored Army may not be able to move forward in the Bianhe River."
"It is not easy to capture Chencheng."
Shen Bing changed the subject and pointed at Anling on the map and said to Yang Duanhe:
"So our army should use Anling City as its base."
"This city is located in the Qin territory and is only two hundred miles away from Chencheng. If troops and supplies are continuously transported to Anling, our army will have no worries about supplies when fighting in Chencheng."
Yang Duanhe couldn't help but frowned when he heard this:
"What the captain said is absolutely true, but..."
"Isn't this Anling something we can just get if we want it?"
Shen Bing pretended to be confused and asked:
"Why?"
Yang Duanhe explained:
"This Anling City belongs to Lord Anling of Wei State. In order to appease the soldiers and people of Wei State, the King has left Lord Anling to keep the fiefdom."
"Therefore, although this city is included in the territory of Qin State, it cannot be said that it is stationed there!"
Shen Bing said:
"In this case, we can only report it to the king and let him make a decision."
Yang Duanhe replied:
"That's exactly what it should be!"
Shen Bing actually knew this.
Anling City was a city that was incorporated by the Qin State and retained its autonomy after the fall of the Wei State.
The reason why it retains its autonomy is that Anling City has strong defenses and tens of thousands of elite soldiers. If the Qin army wants to capture it, it will inevitably lose its troops and generals.
On the other hand, it was because Lord Anling expressed his willingness to surrender to Qin on the condition that Anling City be retained.
Ying Zheng thought, if you want to keep the fiefdom, just keep it. At this time, the Qin State was in the midst of using troops, and it was not cost-effective to attack Anling by force.
On the other hand, Ying Zheng also hoped to use this as an example to other Wei cities and even Chu, Yan and other countries that had not yet been captured: as long as you surrender, I can still keep your life and even your land.
So Anling City stayed like this.
The reason why Shen Bing hopes to use Anling City as his base is actually to cause Ying Zheng a problem:
How can this autonomous city allow the Qin army to enter?
Didn't the Qin army disarm them all after they settled in?
So is this still autonomy?
It would be fine if Lord Anling was just a fool. He was deceived by Ying Zheng and had his head beheaded.
But Lord Anling was a smart man, especially he had a very courageous counselor named Tang Ju.
So the allusion of "Tang Ju fulfilled his mission" came out:
The King of Qin sent someone to address Lord Anling and said, "I want to use a land of 500 miles to Anling, but Lord Anling will allow me to do so!"
Lord Anling said: "The great king favors me, and it is very good to change the big to the small. Although I received the land from the late king and am willing to keep it forever, I don't dare to change!"
King Qin didn't say anything.
Lord Anling sent an envoy from Tang Dynasty to Qin...
Shen Bing burst into tears when he thought of this!
Junior high school classical Chinese was required to be memorized. Shen Bing failed to memorize it even after memorizing it for several days. As a result, he was slapped on the palm several times.
If possible, Shen Bing would go back and ask:
"Teacher, teacher... Tang Ju fulfilled his mission because of me."
"If I hadn't delayed the designation of Anling City as an offensive base, Tang Ju wouldn't have needed to send an envoy to Qin!"
"As a participant, can I not recite it?"
These are all things for later.
At this time, Shen Bing was thinking:
Yang Duanhe went to ask for instructions. Yingzheng sent an envoy to Anling again, and Anling replied...
Then they came back to each other, and then Tang Ju went on an envoy to make a fuss, but in the end they couldn't borrow An Ling.
Anyway, it will take a month, right?
Then, let's say that the original strategy was based on Anling City. Since the king did not borrow this Anling City, we need to make a new plan.
Then "blah blah" it's another month.
It's almost time for the ice and snow to melt in spring.
You'll be really ready then.
Of course, Yang Duanhe didn't know these little things in Shen Bing's heart. He was still thinking about how to tell the king about this.
In fact, Shen Bing did not deliberately hide it from Yang Duanhe.
But this matter is always a "crime of deceiving the emperor"... so it is better for Yang Duanhe not to know.
After thinking about it, Shen Bing felt that acting should be done in full, and he formulated a battle plan to attack Chencheng based on Anling...
Ying Zheng received this "strategy" the next day.
Ying Zheng nodded while looking at it. He was quite satisfied with the strategy.
What's more important is that this strategy was formulated by Shen Bing. Of course, there is no problem with the strategy formulated by Shen Bing.
It's just... An Ling is a bit tricky.
After thinking about it, Ying Zheng said to Li Si beside him:
"Send an envoy to Anling."
"I want to exchange five hundred miles of land for Anling with Lord Anling!"