Chapter 374 Handan Falls
Chapter 374 Handan Lost
Although it was already late at night, the lights were still brightly lit in the palace of Zhao, and the grand national banquet continued. ( )
King Zhao Zhang Ao was obviously drunk too much and needed two female officials to stand firm. Even so, he insisted on toasting the ministers one by one. This is the younger generation of King Zhao Zhang Ao. If it were other princes, there were never only ministers to toast them. When was it the monarch’s turn to toast the ministers one by one?
After a round of respect, Zhang Ao suddenly remembered something, he had not yet gone to the camp to work on the army.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Zhang Ao slapped his forehead suddenly and looked back at General Zhao Wu. The second general Bai Xuan said, "General, second general, you will accompany me to the military camp."
Zhao Wu and Bai Xuan agreed to everything, and immediately accompanied Zhang Ao out of the hall and headed straight for the palace gate.
However, before leaving the palace gate, a cold and fierce sound of breaking through the air suddenly came from the night sky ahead. Bai Xuan reacted very quickly and blocked Zhang Ao with one stroke. Zhao Wu did not react slowly. He suddenly drew his sword and shouted loudly: "There is an assassin, protect the king!" Hundreds of imperial guards rushed up and protected Zhang Ao in the middle.
"Ah? Assassin?" Zhang Ao fell to the ground in fear, and his drunkenness disappeared in an instant.
However, the expected rain of arrows did not come. The assassin seemed to have only shot an arrow, and his accuracy was also extremely poor, and he shot it onto the lintel of the palace gate.
"There is a letter on the arrow!" A sharp-eyed guard suddenly pointed at the arrow on the palace gate and shouted.
When Zhang Ao, Zhao Wu and Bai Xuan were looking closely, they saw a letter inserted into the arrow. They ordered people to take the stairs and pull the arrow from the door lintel, and then took the letter. Bai Xuan took the letter from the Imperial Army School and unfolded it. He glanced at a glance that there was a striking mark on the lower left sign, but it was a black cliff.
"Ebony Cliff?!" Bai Xuan's heart suddenly shook, he had heard of this mark.
There has never been an airtight wall in this world. Xiang Zhuang trained a large number of dead soldiers and spies on the Ebony Cliff, and then sent to various countries to hunt for information for the Chu State. It has long been known by the various vassal states. However, it is one thing to know the existence of Ebony Cliff, and it is another thing to find out whether the Ebony Cliff spies lurking in the country. (")
"Ebony Cliff?" Zhang Ao said tremblingly, "Ebony Cliff wants to assassinate me?"
Zhao Wu pointed to the secret letter in Bai Xuan's hand with the sword, frowned and asked, "Bai Xuan, what is written on it?"
Bai Xuan hurriedly read the secret letter, his face changed immediately, and he said anxiously: "King, this is a warning letter. King Xiang Zhuang of Chu informed us by posing the hand of the ebony cliff that he had personally mentioned 100,000 cavalrymen to attack Qi, saying that Han Xin would withdraw his troops soon, but before retreating, he would probably sing a trick of playing hard to get!"
"Doess to get?" Zhao Wu frowned, "Han Xin is playing with getting to get?"
"What does it mean?" Zhang Ao asked blankly, "Is it fake for Qi army to withdraw?"
"Doing to get? Drawing to get! Drawing to get?!" Bai Xuan murmured for a few words and suddenly shouted, "No, if Han Xin is really playing to get, then the time for them to take action is probably tonight. King, the matter is urgent. You must leave Handan immediately and leave Xiaonan Gate to Yecheng!"
After saying that, Bai Xuan begged Zhao Wu again, "General, please lead the imperial guards and cavalry guards to Yecheng!"
Although Zhao Wu has never liked Bai Xuan very much, he still recognized Bai Xuan's judgment. He believed it now, but he still said: "Bai Xuan, even if Han Xin pretends to retreat, it's nothing. Let's gather troops and divide the troops to guard the four gates. If the Qi army wants to capture Handan City, it seems that there is no need to go to Yecheng, right?"
Bai Xuan said anxiously: "Han Xin has always been a skillful soldier. When will he leave room for others? At this time, he will be beaten the drum and gather troops and divide the troops to guard the four gates. Even if it is too late, just leave these things to the last general. For the king's safety plan, General, you should hurry up and lead the imperial guards and cavalry to escort the king to Yecheng!
Zhang Ao was also a little anxious and said, "Where are my queens and princes? And the ministers in the court?"
"I don't care about them anymore. As long as there is a king here, Zhao State will be there." Bai Xuan said as he took the helmet from his personal soldiers, then held it heavily on his head, nodded to Zhao Wu, and turned his head over and galloped towards the barracks. Bai Xuan knew very well that there were very few soldiers guarding the four gates at this time, and even if he rushed there, he would be useless.
The most urgent task is to go to the camp and gather the army to meet the Qi army that was killed.
Zhang Ao's heart suddenly hangs up, and he looks back at Zhao Wu and says, "General, I..."
"King, let's go to Yecheng!" Zhao Wu took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Let's go now!"
#############
Under the dark night sky, the 30,000 Qi troops were hurried westward at a rapid march. Han Xin walked in the middle of the team under the escort of dozens of generals.
Suddenly, a fast horse galloped from the front: "Report..."
Han Xin gently strangled the white horse under his crotch, waved his big hand and shouted loudly: "Tell me."
The scout cavalry turned over and dismounted, knelt on one knee and gasped, "Handan urgently reported that the night banquet of the palace is still continuing!"
As early as when he withdrew from Handan three days ago, Han Xin quietly left a large number of spies. Now these spies have already stolen a large number of spies. First, they are spying on the news, and second, they can also respond in the critical moments! More importantly, Han Xin also left an ambush outside Handan City. At this moment, Cheng Hei's ambush should have taken the East Gate of Handan, right?
However, for Han Xin, capturing Handan was not the purpose. His purpose was to capture King Zhao Zhang Ao. Only by capturing King Zhao Zhang Ao would Zhao surrender, and this battle would be considered the final victory.
Han Xin said loudly: "Zhao Xi, Lu Qing, Xu Zhang obey the order!"
General Zhao Xisan hurriedly rushed forward, bowed on the horse's back and said, "The last general is here!"
Han Xin raised his right hand and pointed at the front from a distance and said, "Each of them leads 5,000 elite troops to block the north, west and south gates of Handan. Even if it is just a mouse, you are not allowed to escape from the city!"
"Here!" Zhao Xi's three generals responded with a loud bang and went to beat the horse.
Han Xin also said: "The other generals led their troops to block the east gate with me!"
"Here!" More than a dozen generals responded, and turned around and went to beat the horse.
#############
The East Gate of Handan has indeed fallen.
When Cheng Hei brought eight hundred elite soldiers out of the tunnel and stepped into the city gate, the entire city gate was completely controlled by hundreds of Xiuzhu who had sneaked into Handan City in advance. The city gate that had been attacked for five days by 100,000 Qi troops, which had been killed or injured for five days, was now taken down by hundreds of Xiuzhu. It was really unbelievable to say that.
"General!"
"General!"
"General!"
Seeing Cheng Hei entering the city, the fine animals guarding both sides of the city gates hit their chests and greeted them. Cheng Hei punched these Qi soldiers' fine animals from time to time, and said excitedly: "Good job, brothers! Good job, when you take Handan and capture King Zhao, I will definitely ask the king for me for you, hahaha..."
"General, this is nothing, the Zhao army's garrison is too lax."
"That's right, the hundreds of Zhao soldiers guarding the city gates have already been drunk. We didn't have much trouble and just slaughtered them all."
"If I had known this, why did you have that effort a few days ago?"
But these big-headed soldiers didn't know that if there were no fierce attacks in those few days and without the sacrifice of thousands of people, how could the Zhao army be so careless today? How could Han Xin play this good show of playing hard to get?
While he was talking, a huge noise suddenly came from the street ahead, and then a long dragon of torches surged out from several nearby streets and more than a dozen alleys at the same time. Under the bright light of daylight, teams of Zhao troops in sharp armor were already scattered towards the city gate with murderous intent.
A trace of extremely ferocious murderous intent suddenly burst into the corner of Cheng Hei's mouth. He slowly pulled out his long sword, pointed the sword tip at the Zhao army surging in front of him, and shouted loudly: "Brothers, listen, this Handan city gate is now the tiger's mouth, we are the fangs in the tiger's mouth. The bastards of Zhao want to pull out our fangs, and they still need some skills!"
The eight hundred elite soldiers and the hundreds of fine works were all iron-blooded veterans who had been through many battles. They didn't say anything nonsense. They slowly drew out their long swords, raised their long halberds, and slowly and firmly surrounded Cheng Hei. If the Zhao army wanted to regain the city gate, there was only one way, that was, step over their bodies.
#############
Seeing the elite Qi army in front of him, Bai Xuan knew that the loss of Handan was inevitable!
Han Xin is worthy of being Han Xin, and his use of troops is really unpredictable. Until now, Bai Xuan couldn't figure out where the elite Qi army that captured the city gate came from? After the Qi army retreated, Bai Xuan sent a large number of reconnaissance cavalry to carefully search all the forest valleys that might have hidden soldiers around, but found nothing.
If it weren't for sure that the Qi army had retreated, Bai Xuan would have to offend Zhao Wu and the king, and would have to stop such luxurious military labor. Even if it could not be stopped, he would have to retain enough troops to guard the four gates! But now, it would have been too late to regret it, and the East Gate of Handan has been lost!
Tighten the sword in his hand, Bai Xuan threw all the distracting thoughts behind his head.
Since things have been like this, regretting is useless. Now, we should fight back with all our might and take back the city gate as much as possible. Even if we cannot take back the city gate, we cannot change the ending of Handan's fall. At least we can attract the attention of the Qi army and increase the chances of success for the king's escape.
Slowly raised the long sword in his hand, Bai Xuan suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs: "The warriors of the Great Zhao Kingdom, kill for your wife, children, and for your home..."
"Kill and kill..." Hundreds of personal soldiers following Bai Xuan roared in unison.
"Kill all the dogs in Qi on the opposite side, and don't leave any of them! Kill!" Bai Xuan raised his sword to touch the sky, and looked up at the sky for a long time.
"Kill and kill..." This time, almost all the Zhao army soldiers roared angrily, and the huge sounds instantly shattered the night sky, and it was clearly heard from dozens of miles away.
Chapter completed!