The cold wind is like a knife, and the pain is caused by the blow. The late night, the colder the temperature becomes. Even if it is still early winter, it seems to be in the middle of winter.

In such cold weather, Xingyang City is still brightly lit, with three steps and five steps. Guards patrolling soldiers with torches can be seen everywhere. Thank you very much.

There are cold and trembling soldiers everywhere, whispering to complain about the inhumane of the superiors. On such a cold winter night, they have to force themselves to be on guard and not to hide in the warm city tower to sleep well. They even hate the Western Chu cavalry that flows across the river during the day. They do not attack Ao Cang or Guangwu City in the northeast, but they want to run to Xingyang City to prepare for the attack, which makes them have to walk up the city wall on winter nights and be careful to prevent the Western Chu army from launching a sudden attack.

The soldiers of the Han army were actually not qualified to complain, because no matter how cold the weather was, there were bonfires on the city walls to help them keep warm. No matter how badly they were, they could stomp their feet to restore consciousness to their numb feet. There was no need to worry about making any sounds and attracting the attention of others.

The soldiers of the Western Chu army lurking in the darkness of Xingyang City were far from so lucky. As the sky was just dark, they followed the orders of Xiang Yu, the king of the Western Chu, and quietly sneaked to the ambush at Xingyang City. Li Yao, the magistrate of Xingyang County, who took the initiative to send a letter to surrender, fulfilled his promise and opened the Xingyang city gate to welcome them into the city. In order not to be discovered by the defenders on the city, they would not only stomp their feet, but also feared being discovered by the defenders on the city. They could only rely on their righteousness to compete with the cold wind at night. Even if they were frozen, they had to cover their mouths to dare to sneeze. Thank you naturally was far above the Han soldiers on the city.

Xiang Yu and the main force of the Western Chu cavalry who were responsible for the response were in better condition. They could sit rightly by the bonfire far from the city wall to keep the fire warm. However, without the military tent to help keep the cold, no matter how strong the bonfire was, it would be useless in front of the night wind. Most of the Western Chu soldiers were still froze and their lips turned white. Xiang Yu, including Xiang Yu, had to be close to their own war horses and use the temperature of the war horses to resist the cold wind.

"Ah Yeh!"

After sneezing in a rare way, Xiang Yu asked about the current time again. When he learned that it was already halfway through the third day, Xiang Yu couldn't help but feel angry in his chest and cursed in a low voice: "Li Yao is almost the fourth day, why don't he take action? If he doesn't take action, it will be dawn!"

"King, wait patiently." Xiang Zhuang next to him whispered: "The Han thieves are guarding too closely, and soldiers are always patrolling the city. It is difficult for him to have the opportunity to take action."

He sighed helplessly. Xiang Yu could only secretly decide to reduce the reward for Li Yao by half, while gritting his teeth and continuing to wait patiently. However, although time has been passing slowly, the firelight in the city that Li Yao had agreed in advance has never appeared. On the contrary, the sound of a rooster calling out the dawn gradually came from Xingyang City, announcing that the night was about to pass.

Finally, the soldiers of the Western Chu army, who were frozen and sneezing, lurked until the sky was dim, and there was no movement in Xingyang City, let alone someone secretly opened the city gate to welcome the poor Western Chu soldiers into the city.

When it was clear, Xiang Yu personally grabbed the messenger Li Yao who had crossed the river to deliver the letter yesterday, and roared with a blue face, asking why Li Yao had played the Western Chu cavalry but never opened the city overnight? Li Yao's pitiful messenger kowtowed and begged for mercy. He insisted that he didn't know the reason, and he also plucked up the courage to beg Xiang Yu to agree to let him go back to the city and asked Li Yao in person why he was untrustful?

Xiang Yu cut off the head of the unlucky messenger without hesitation. In addition to ordering the soldiers to seize the time to build attack weapons, he also swore with a blue face that he would be executed after the city was broken, and Yixue was humiliated by him last night! He avenged hundreds of Western Chu soldiers who had been frozen and caught a cold!

Even Xiang Zhuang, who was connected with blood, dared not disobey Xiang Yu, who was angry, and only made suggestions to Xiang Yu and said: "King, for caution, it is better for us to divide an army to advance eastward to the King of Henan and ask him to escort the military supplies to the front line as soon as possible to establish a camp for us. Otherwise, if we stayed so open, our soldiers would probably be more frost-diseased."

Xiang Yu did not refuse Xiang Zhuang's good advice this time, and immediately ordered Ding Gu to lead the army back from the way, and go east to pick up the Sima Hun army who was escorting military supplies. At the same time, he urged the soldiers to seize the time to build a flight ladder, intending to wait for Sima Hun's army to arrive and immediately launch an attack on the Han army. During this period, the main force of Zhou Shu's troops, whose troops and soldiers were not as strong as the Western Chu cavalry, did not dare to do anything, and hid in the Guangwu camp to confront the Western Chu army.

To Xiang Yu's surprise, just afternoon, Ding Gu sent a messenger to hurried back to Xingyang City to contact Xiang Yu. Xiang Yu was anxious and rushed to ask after meeting, "How is it? Where have the military supplies escorted by the King of Henan arrived?"

Ding Gu's messenger looked depressed and replied with a sad face: "King, don't be angry after hearing this. Yesterday evening, the army of the King of Henan fought with the troops of the Han thief Zhonglimei in the western suburbs of Sourzao. As a result, the King of Henan's army was defeated and fled to the east. The food, military supplies and supplies he escorted were all seized by the Han thief army and could no longer be sent to us."

"What?!" Xiang Yu jumped up directly, grabbed the messenger from Ding Gu's mission, and roared wildly: "What is Sima Xu doing for? His army is more than twice as many as Zhongli Meimu's man. Why did he even suffer a defeat? How could this be possible?!"

Xiang Yu really couldn't believe that Sima Sei would suffer such a big defeat. When he met Sima Sei briefly in Puyang, Li Zuoche once told Xiang Yu clearly that the Han army's Zhonglimei's troops, like the Henan army, were also a piece of equipment. Because he had almost lost all the main forces in Nanyang, the number of new recruits in Guanzhong in Zhonglimei's troops was large and many surrendered soldiers in Henan army were also included. The overall combat effectiveness was not as good as other Han army troops. Sima Sei also expressed that he was sure to deal with Zhonglimei, so Xiang Yu dared to bypass the sour jujube and advance west with Sima Seimei's troops alone. At this time, Sima Sei suddenly suffered a big defeat and lost all the military supplies. Of course, Xiang Yu couldn't believe it.

"That ordinary man Zhonglimei is too cunning." Ding Gu's messenger introduced with a sad face: "Before he attacked, he burned all his camp, leaving no way out, and forced the soldiers of the thieves to attack desperately. The soldiers of the thieves were all the ones that were ten, and the King of Henan could not resist, so he was defeated."

After saying that, Ding Gu's messenger quickly added: "But don't worry, the king, Zhongli Mei's husband only won terrible victory. His army almost fought half of it before barely winning. Although he snatched and burned all our military supplies, he had no way to continue to fight. Now he has taken the initiative to hide in the Sour Zao City."

He threw Ding Gu messenger several feet away, Xiang Yu roared with red eyes, "What's the use of killing more soldiers in the thief army? I now want military supplies, as long as military supplies! Without military supplies, how can I fight this battle? How can I fight?!"

"Brother, don't worry." Xiang Zhuang said quickly: "There are two cities in Juan County and Yangwu to the east of Ao Cang. There are few thieves and soldiers there. As long as we take these two cities first, we can seize enough food, grass and military supplies immediately. We don't have to worry about the danger of food being cut off!"

Xiang Yu was too lazy to pay attention to Xiang Zhuang, but just shouted loudly, asking the generals of Western Chu to report immediately how many siege weapons they have been built. After learning that more than two hundred simple flight ladders had been built, Xiang Yu immediately turned to the Xingyang city wall, thinking about whether he could directly take down Xingyang city with his existing siege weapons?

Fortunately, Xiang Yu was not good at anything else, but he was a genius in war. After waiting for a long time for the generals of Western Chu, Xiang Yu still roared and said, "Take the stairs up, cross the gulf, take Juan County and Yangwu first."

Xiang Zhuang, who was afraid that Xiang Yu would order a forced attack on the city, breathed a sigh of relief together with the generals of Xi Chu, then Xiang Zhuang couldn't help but say, "Brother, you scared me to death. I'm really afraid that you will ignore it and directly order the attack on Xingyang City."

"I'm not a fool!" Xiang Yu scolded with a dark face: "Xingyang is so strong, and the city must have sufficient supplies for defending the city. How can I take it down without other siege weapons by relying on two hundred flight ladders? Also, who said I must attack Xingyang first?"

After saying that, Xiang Yu yelled again: "Why are you still stunned? Let's go immediately, take down Juan County and Yangwu first, seize the military supplies from the city, and then come back to settle the accounts with the thieves!"

According to Xiang Yu's order, the cavalry of the Western Chu first crossed the Gangkok again, and then met with Ding Gu who had returned in the evening. Then he couldn't wait to attack the small town of Juan County to the east of Honggu that night. Then, it was not bad. The Western Chu army did easily seize the small town of Juan County, which was guarded by only two or three hundred county soldiers without any effort. However, what made Xiang Yu angry again was that although there was still a little bit of food in Juan County, military tents, cloaks, vehicles, cloths and ordnances in Juan County, the necessary items of the army had long been transferred by the Han army. Once the soldiers of the Western Chu army left the city, they still had to sleep in the wild, and there were still no military tents to keep warm and cold.

It was vaguely guessed that the situation on Yangwu was the same, but Xiang Yu still refused to give up and sent Xiang Zhuang to lead an army to fight Yangwu. Although Yangwu was as easy as Juan County, there was still no military tent in Yangwu City that could establish a camp for the soldiers of Western Chu. Other military supplies were also transferred to the Han army. Xiang Yu was furious when he heard the news and could only adopt Ding Gu's suggestion, so that the soldiers could collect all the equipment and food available to the people. He forced all the men, women, young and old in Juan County and Yangwu City to follow the army, cross the gap for the third time, and then came to the army's troops of Zhou Shu, who defended Aocang and Xingyang.

When crossing the Hundred Grottoes, the people of Sanchuan who were driven across the river by the soldiers of the Western Chu army were of course crying loudly. The weak elderly and young children dragged each other and countless people fell into the water. During this period, the soldiers of the Western Chu army raped the women and killed innocent people. The scene was terrible. Xiang Yu, who had already killed countless people in Qi, ignored them and kept urging the soldiers to force the people to cross the river as soon as possible and build camps west of Xingyang City. He also forced the people to build camps overnight so that the soldiers of the Western Chu army could rest at ease.

At the end of the night, Uncle Zhou suddenly sent an army to sneak out of the Western Chu army camp, trying to sneak attack the Western Chu army camp at night. Fortunately, the soldiers of the Western Chu army who supervised the people to build a building discovered it in time and immediately rang the gong to call the police. Xiang Yu immediately led his army out of the camp to counterattack. The Han army quickly withdrew and fled to the Guangwu camp. Xiang Yu, who was furious, led his army to chase and chased him directly outside the Guangwu camp of the Han army. Unexpectedly, the war drums suddenly sounded in the Guangwu camp of the Han army, and at the same time, the Western Chu army camp in the distance soon heard one after another. Xiang Yu knew that he had been trapped in Uncle Zhou's plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain, so he could only take the main force of the Chu army back to the aid camp. Most of the Han army soldiers who pretended to rob the camp also took the opportunity to escape back to their own camp.

Xiang Yu was indeed caught up with Uncle Zhou's shameless trick again. He just heard the drums of his own camp. Hundreds of Han cavalry who had been ambushing the northwest were immediately dispatched, waving their sabers with their hands, and using primitive grenades to open the way directly into the Western Chu army camp. Although the Western Chu cavalry in the left-behind camp fought hard and was not killed by the Han cavalry, the people of Sanchuan who were coerced by the Western Chu army took the opportunity to escape countless times. Then the Han cavalry snatched away before the main force of the Western Chu army returned to the scene. With the familiarity of the road, they quickly got rid of the pursuit of the Western Chu cavalry. Although the losses were some, they were not very large.

The biggest loss of the Western Chu army in this battle was the auxiliary combat force. Taking advantage of the opportunity that the Western Chu army was temporarily entangled by the Han cavalry, more than half of the Sanchuan people were forcibly swept by the Western Chu army. Although the Western Chu army tried its best to capture it, the people still fled for nearly half at night, greatly weakening the available manpower of the Chu army. Xiang Yu was furious, but he was still helpless.

Xiang Yu quickly turned anger into joy. Uncle Zhou and the Han army were not happy for a long time, because at noon the next day, Sima Seo actually brought more than 10,000 Henan soldiers to the shore of Honggou and took the initiative to come to make meritorious service for Xiang Yu. Although the military supplies were gone, at least it still provided a lot of auxiliary power for Xiang Yu, right? So the Han army scout reported the news to Uncle Zhou. Uncle Zhou, who had always been calm, also looked worried for the first time, and said, "This battle is even more difficult to fight."

"General, don't worry." Li Bi hurriedly comforted: "Although Sima Zepinfu insisted on coming to help Xiang Yuli, our scouts have confirmed that he did not bring any military supplies, and the bandit army still had to spend the night in the open air, and the situation was still beneficial to us."

"Don't underestimate the Western Chu thieves." Uncle Zhou shook his head and said, "Sleeping overnight in winter will definitely have a significant impact on the physical strength of the Western Chu thieves, but the soldiers who can follow Xiang Yu to attack Sanchuan for thousands of miles must be elite soldiers. Unless it is snowing heavily in the sky, such weather will not pose a fatal threat to us, and they can still pose a fatal threat to us."

After shaking his head and saying that, Uncle Zhou thought for a while and suddenly asked his beloved general Li Bi: "Li Bi, if you were Xiang Yu's husband, our Xingyang, Ao Cang and Guangwu, where would you fight first?"

"Of course, we will first attack Xingyang and seize enough food, grass and military forces to set up a camp." Li Bi replied: "Then we will attack Ao Cang, who has a lot of troops, and finally attack Guangwu, who has the most troops."

"I hope Xiang Yu will make the same choice as you." Uncle Zhou's answer surprised Li Bi very much, and then frowned and said, "Otherwise, we will be in great trouble."

At the same time, the remnants of the Henan Army led by Sima Sei also crossed the Honggou and met Xiang Yu with the support of the Western Chu cavalry. Needless to say, Sima Sei immediately fell in front of Xiang Yu and apologized, admitting that he was incompetent and would be defeated by Zhong Limei's weak forces. Fortunately, Xiang Yu's anger had almost disappeared at this time, and he liked Sima Sei's insistence on coming to help. He scolded him and shouted: "Get up. When attacking the thief army camp, take your army to sell more power. Otherwise, don't blame me for both crimes and take your head directly!"

Sima Se hurriedly paused his head and thanked him, then stood up tremblingly. Xiang Yu was too lazy to continue paying attention to him, but turned to Li Zuoche, who had helped him a lot, and asked: "Guangwu Jun, the Han thief army is now divided into troops to guard Xingyang, Ao Cang and Guangwu. Do you think we should attack their army first?"

Li Zuoche did not dare to answer immediately, but just peeked at Xiang Yu carefully, and then asked: "King of Western Chu, let me ask more questions, the garrison of the Han thief army has not changed, right? Is it still Guangwu's most garrisons, Ao Cangshi, and Xingyang the least?"

Xiang Yu nodded, and Sima Xu beside him rushed to say, "King of Western Chu, then we should first attack Xingyang, seize enough military supplies and set up a camp, then attack Ao Cang, cut off the wings of Zhou Shuppifu, and finally attack Guangwu, and completely annihilate Zhou Shuppifu's main force!"

"Waste!" Xiang Yu almost had a crooked nose and scolded: "No wonder you can't even protect the military supplies, and you can't even tell the main and secondary."

"Not right? The main and the secondary are not distinguished?" Sima Seo was stunned and said, "Do we have to fight the Guangwu camp of the thief army first?"

"Yes, it's time to attack the Guangwu camp of the bandit army first." Li Zuoche said quickly: "Uncle Zhou deliberately arranged only 3,000 troops to guard Xingyang, with the purpose of luring us to attack Xingyang first, use Xingyang's city to consume our troops first, and also to fight for him to wait for Xiang Kang's rebel thieves to lead the main force of the Han thieves back to the Sanchuan. During our strong attack on Xingyang, he would definitely use his mobile troops to try to sneak attack us behind us and delay our siege progress."

"I am worthy of being the legitimate grandson of Wu'anjun (Li Mu) of Zhao State. As expected, you are the only one who deserves to discuss military affairs with me."

Xiang Yu rarely smiled, but Xiang Zhuang next to him was confused and said in surprise: "King, do we really have to fight the Guangwu camp of the thief army first? Zhou Shupinfu's main force is stationed in Guangwu camp. Logically speaking, it is definitely the most difficult to fight? Why do we still have to give up the easy and take hard, fight Guangwu first? Also, you have decided to fight Xingyang first before, but why have you changed your mind now?"

"Brother, you have been fighting for so many years, why are you still not making any progress? I decided to fight Xingyang first because Li Yao's husband said that he was going to offer the city and we had the opportunity to quickly take Xingyang, so I gave it a try!"
Chapter completed!