Shen Bing vaguely realized that Lord Changping was still wavering, and that Lord Changping might even want to use Xiang Yan's help to get rid of him.
That's why he was silent until now.
But Shen Bing thought this was normal.
How do you say something?
"There are only eternal interests, but no eternal friends."
This is originally a world of natural selection. Everyone is thinking about their own interests. If they don't do this, the grass on their graves will be several feet high.
Therefore, Shen Bing didn't think there was anything wrong with Lord Changping's actions. Even Shen Bing was still thinking...if he were Lord Changping, he would probably be embarrassed about whether to surrender to Qin.
What Shen Bing had to do was to make Lord Changping understand that there was no future in standing on the opposite side of Qin. Only in this way could he give up his desire to restore the country.
After everything was arranged, Shen Bing just waited.
On the third night, as if God knew something was going on, it started to rain again.
Chu State is located in the south where rainfall is relatively high... to be precise, the dividing line is the Qinling Mountains and the Huaihe River.
The rainfall to the north of the Huaihe River is smaller, and the rainfall to the south of the Huaihe River is heavier, and the temperature is about the same... The Qinling Mountains and the Huaihe River are roughly the zero isotherm. In January, the temperature south of the Huaihe River is above zero, while to the north is below zero.
But of course, in this era, there is no word on how high the temperature will be.
Spring has entered at this time, so the continuous spring rain appears for the first time in the Huaihe River area.
At that time, Shen Bing was sleeping in the tent, sleeping in a hammock.
Because Shen Bing really couldn't get used to the hard beds of this era, the next morning he was in a lot of pain, and sometimes his neck was so crooked that he couldn't twist it back.
In comparison, the hammock is much better. You only need to tighten the four legs of the hemp rope, and then spread a layer of coarse cloth... and a soft and suitable brown bed is made.
As for pillows, Shen Bing would not use wooden pillows like the ancients did.
Just take a bag and stuff the reeds and catkins used to fill the quilt... isn't this a pillow?
One day, if conditions permit, Shen Bing hopes to get a duck down pillow to enjoy. It is a wartime front line, and this thing is a bit much.
Just when Shen Bing was sleeping soundly, Ren called out from outside the tent:
"Lieutenant general, there is enemy situation!"
Seeing that there was no movement in the tent, Ren repeated it at a louder volume.
Only then did Shen Bing respond:
"Come in!"
Being in a military camp is no joke. No one, including the personal guards, is allowed to enter the tent without permission. Otherwise, if an assassin sneaks in, Shen Bing will lose his life in his sleep.
After receiving permission, Ren entered the account and said:
"Vice general, a large number of Chu troops were discovered thirty miles north of the village, approaching Shouchun."
The territory north of Shouchun was no longer controlled by the Qin army.
The reason is that the Qin army is short of troops... They scraped together only 270,000 when they went on the expedition. Tens of thousands were wasted by the Mengwu siege fathers, and then they lost tens of thousands in fighting with Xiang Yan's army along the way. At this time There are less than 200,000 people left.
These 200,000 people were not enough to destroy Chu, because Chu's territory was so large that it would have taken 100,000 people to occupy those cities and protect the supply lines.
Therefore, Yang Duanhe adopted the tactic of concentrating his forces to surround Shouchun.
To put it simply, the cities near Shouchun are not attacked or occupied, but Shouchun is attacked and the King of Chu is surrounded.
This strategy is certainly correct.
The characteristic of the Qin army is that it is good at field battles. It is almost invincible in the open field battles.
Therefore, the only way to surround Shouchun was to "remain unchanged in response to all changes". No matter how many people came with, they would be blocked.
The disadvantage of this tactic is that the information is not well-informed... There are no warning cities and buffer zones around, so the enemy army will be at the gate of the city as soon as it arrives.
However, Shen Bing was unwilling to be so passive.
It's actually easy to get the news, just let the soldiers of the Liang Army pretend to be Chu people and then disperse to various places to find out.
The Daliang Army was originally a Wei soldier. The Wei region was just a short distance from the Chu region in Huaibei. Their living habits and even their accents were very similar. All they had to do was change into brown clothes.
But this is also because of the Chu State. If you want to do this in the Qin State, it is as difficult as heaven: even the common people in the Qin State have a corps leader for every five households, and these five households also have a joint seat system...
Under the threat of the joint-seat system, people will report rape in order to avoid being affected by the slightest trouble.
If spies from other countries mingled among the people of Qin, they would be caught out by the troublesome three aunts and eight aunts within a few hours.
But this was not the case in the Chu State, especially in the Chu State where the people were running around everywhere during the war... Sometimes the refugees in this village and the laborers in that village could not be counted at all.
The spies only need to sneak in and basically feel like a fish in water. No one can tell the difference.
However, there are still problems with this arrangement. After the spies know the news, they must quickly deliver the news to Shen Bing, otherwise the news will be meaningless.
This news is the responsibility of the rider hidden in the jungle.
It takes time to transfer the information, and it also takes time to get it to Shen Bing.
Therefore, based on this estimate, Xiang Yan's army was probably only more than ten miles away from Shouchun at this time.
Shen Bing did not hesitate and immediately issued two orders:
"Prepare to fight."
"Convey the news to the General and General Li Yan."
Ren agreed and went to deliver the order.
Shen Bing was still looking forward to this battle because he was a little curious about how the Chu army cut off the pontoon bridge that connected Huaibei and Huainan.
This answer was given by Ren, who returned shortly after running out, reporting:
"Lieutenant General, the pontoon bridge is broken and my subordinates cannot cross the bridge to notify the General."
Shen Bing couldn't help but wonder:
"Why did the pontoon break?"
Ren replied:
"The water volume of the Huaihe River suddenly decreased sharply, and the pontoon bridge broke its binding rope and was washed away..."
Shen Bing couldn't help but be stunned. It was raining at this time and the river water increased. How could the river water suddenly decrease sharply?
Then Shen Bing understood... This was the fault of the Chu army. They controlled the water volume upstream.
It is indeed a good method.
In this dark night, Qin Jun might not notice that the water volume was decreasing even if he was standing by the river.
Until the pontoon sank and relied on its gravity to break the rope...
Shen Bing did not hesitate and ordered:
"Cross the Huaihe River by boat and deliver the information to the general."
Ren agreed and went to make arrangements.
This battle is mainly about Shen Bingbu, and it seems to have little to do with Yang Duanhe.
but it is not the truth.
Shen Bing and Yang Duanhe had made a plan before. Once something happened, Yang Duanhe and his army should attack the city with all their strength to contain the Chu army to reduce the pressure on Shen Bing.
On the other hand, this is also a good time for the Qin army to attack Shouchun... If the Chu army wants to escape, it means that they have no intention of defending. If they don't attack at this time, how can they wait?
If Shen Bing's strategy of luring the snake out of the cave fails and King Chu flees back again, Yang Duan and his side will not suffer any loss if they gain anything from attacking the city.