Li Yan's 20,000 Qin troops were deployed to the north of the walled city, which was for external defense.
The Daliang Army arranged to defend Shouchun in the south.
The reason for this arrangement was that Shen Bing guessed that if there was no chance of this breakout, it must have been planned by Xiang Yan.
It's not hard to guess.
At this time, the state of Chu was in a state of "falling trees and hozens scattering". The nobles were in danger and only focused on conserving their strength to deal with the possible attack of the Qin army in the future. They would not even think about saving the king of Chu.
Xiang Yan was the only one who wanted to save King Chu.
By the way, Xiang Yan is also a wooden fish head. His Xiang family is staying well in Jiangdong, but he wants to wade into this muddy water?
Analyzing the overall situation of the Chu State, the Xiang family should be the one that the nobles of the Chu State should contribute the least to.
Because most of the Xiang family's fiefdoms are located in the dense forest and water network east of the Yangtze River, if there is any other fiefdom, it is a small fiefdom next to Shouchun for the Xiang family to build a stronghold and operate.
But what if we don’t want this small piece of fiefdom?
This fief was located next to Shouchun in order to serve King Qin. At this time, the king of Chu was already trapped, so there was no need for King Qin.
The Qin army's offensive should first seize the wealthy land of the King of Chu in Huaibei, then seize the noble fiefdoms in Huainan, and then direct its troops east of the Yangtze River into Baiyue.
It won't even matter whether Yingzheng fights Baiyue or not.
The reason is that the poor mountains and harsh waters of Baiyue are tasteless and cannot even be regarded as the Central Plains at this time... Ying Zheng thought he had completed the great cause of unification and called him Qin Shihuang before he conquered Baiyue.
Therefore, Xiang Yan can completely retreat to Jiangdong and wait for the Qin-Chu war, while the Xiang family can conserve its strength or consider operating Baiyue. When the Qin army attacks Baiyue, it will not only suffer "heavy losses".
However, Yan had to go in the opposite direction to protect Chu State, which was at the end of its rope. In the end, it ended up being defeated and committing suicide.
At this time, Shen Bing was thinking: If Xiang Yan planned this breakout battle, he must be well prepared.
And his "preparation" for "coming prepared" naturally meant that he had clearly reconnoitred the Qin army's situation and knew that there were 20,000 Liang troops guarding the northern camp.
On the other hand, Xiang Yan fought with the Liang Army again... This happened when Shen Bing was guarding Ruyin.
Xiang Yan first learned about the tactics of the Liang Army from Xiang Liang, and then tried to use halberd soldiers to defeat the wolf.
Needless to say what the result was, it certainly ended in failure.
Therefore, this time Xiang Yan came to fight, his target should also be the Daliang Army's Lang Chun.
In this case, Shen Bing would certainly not be stupid enough to continue to use the Liang Army to attack Xiang Yan. Only Li Yan's orthodox Qin Army could catch Xiang Yan by surprise.
Shen Bing didn't say anything more to Li Yan, he just explained:
"If there is a war, generals should not join the battle too early. It will not be too late to wait until the Chu army breaks the wall before counterattacking."
Although Li Yan didn't know why, he still responded simply.
Shen Bing was worried that Xiang Yan would change his strategy against the enemy if he discovered that the situation was different.
But if you wait until the Chu army breaks through the walled city and launches an attack to discover that the opponent is the orthodox Qin army... then it will be too late to change.
After Li Yan's arrangements were completed, Shen Bing turned his attention to Shouchun City.
Shouchun City is actually very easy to deal with. If you don't know that the Chu army will break through and attack from both sides, Shouchun City may be a problem... Then Shouchun will be a knife in the back.
But now that Shen Bing is on guard, Shouchun will have to use trebuchets and crossbowmen to block the city gate.
The difficulty is that Shen Bing doesn't just want to seal the city gate, he wants... the King of Chu to bear the cud.
If the city gate was directly blocked, wouldn't the King of Chu be unable to get out?
If the King of Chu had not come out, then Shen Bing would not have had to deploy his troops in such a mysterious way, and all his arrangements would have been in vain.
This will lead to a series of questions:
If you want the King of Chu to leave the city, you must pretend to let the Chu army break through successfully.
After that, we must ensure that we can catch the big fish of King Chu, otherwise the battle will be considered lost.
It is still possible to pretend that the Chu army breaks through successfully, because the Liang army has the wolf in hand, and they will not suffer much losses if they fight and retreat. They can stop at any time if they want, and can counterattack if necessary.
The question is how to catch the King of Chu in this dark night...
There are three gates in the north, west and east. Shen Bing thought that the King of Chu would leave the city through the east gate.
the reason is simple:
The west gate is the supply line of the Qin army, and the Qin army will guard it all the way to the west.
There is a large plain to the north. Although it is a good direction to escape, if Xiang Yan leads his troops to attack, they must come from the north.
At that time, the north will be the battle line between the Qin and Chu armies. It will not be easy for the King of Chu to escape from this direction. Even if he can pass through the Qin army's defense line, he may be accidentally injured by the Chu army.
So there was only the east gate.
Once the King of Chu leaves the city, his right wing is the Huaihe River, so he doesn't have to be wary of attacks from one direction.
On the other hand, heading east is to go straight to Dongting and Xiang's Jiangdong. The Qin army may not be able to catch up even if they want to.
Then Shen Bing had an idea.
He immediately found Li Yan and said:
"The corner of the east gate of the walled city was handed over to the Liang Army."
Li Yan was a little confused:
"Vice general, I'm afraid the two armies will mix together..."
It is indeed taboo for two armies to mix on the same defense line, especially two armies with different organization and tactics.
Because under certain circumstances, it is suitable for the Qin army to attack while it is suitable for the Daliang army to defend in place. At that time, should it advance or retreat?
Even in the dark, various problems such as difficulty in identifying friend and foe and confusion in command may arise.
Shen Bing also considered this issue and replied:
"It doesn't matter, I can draw a clear line at the corner of the east gate and practice it a few times."
Since Shen Bing insisted, Li Yan had nothing to say.
So the corner of the east gate, about a hundred paces away, was defended by the Liang Army.
That night, Shen Bing ordered the Liang Army to build a trap inside the walled city.
This trap is a deep pit two steps high and five wide, extending a hundred steps north from the Huaihe River, which is the entire defense zone of the Liang Army.
The top is covered with wooden boards and earth, and the bottom is connected to the machine bracket.
There is no abnormality when walking and fighting, but as long as the machine is pulled, the wooden boards fall down, and then the road forms an insurmountable fault.
Wei Wei expressed his confusion:
"Lieutenant, since ancient times, traps have been mostly set outside the walled city. How can they be set inside the walled city?"
Shen Bing laughed and said:
"The traps outside the walled city are for catching small fish, but the traps inside the walled city are for catching big fish!"
Wei Yao was confused when he heard these words. Although he knew that the "big fish" Shen Bing mentioned meant something else, he didn't understand what kind of "big fish" could come to the village and still use this trap to catch...
After arranging these, Shen Bing couldn't help but think about another question:
If Xiang Yan wanted to help King Chu break out of the encirclement, Lord Changping would not have known about it.