Chapter One Hundred and Ten Overall Situation

  The establishment of the wounded soldier camp in Zhao Jun's large camp also immediately triggered a strong reaction, because this is related to the personal interests of every soldier, and at this time, the high cure rate of the wounded soldier camp on the plateau has already gained some reputation in the Zhao army. Who dares to guarantee that they will not be injured on the battlefield? If there is a good wounded soldier camp, it is equivalent to giving oneself a few more guarantees, so the whole army is very supportive of Li Mu's decision. Of course, as the founder of the new-style wounded soldier camp, Gao Yuan's position in the entire army has also risen significantly.

  The new barracks for the wounded soldiers have been expanded, and of course, simple tents can no longer be used. The high-ranking officials decided to build barracks with a wooden foundation, and since both sides were at a stalemate for several days without any battles, they could mobilize a large number of soldiers to help construct the barracks for the wounded. With many hands on deck, the result was that within just over ten days, ten wooden barracks were built, each capable of accommodating over one hundred wounded soldiers. A simple ancient field hospital has begun to take shape.

  At this time, the two armies had been holding each other for almost two months. According to the rotation system established by Li Mu when he sent out his troops, it was now time for the first rotation, in which half of the soldiers at the Jiecheng camp would be replaced. From then on, there would be a rotation every three months, with half of the soldiers being rotated each time.

  So the 60,000 soldiers from both Pingyu and Quyang also arrived at Jixing Dazhai as scheduled, without rotating troops, while also bringing new batches of grain and other supplies.

  At the same time, it also brought news of Handan to Li Mu.

  After Li Muo left Handan, a fierce struggle for power unfolded in the city of Handan. Zhao Jia succeeded Guo Kai as acting prime minister, and many people had high hopes for him, hoping he would become the new Pingyuan Jun and save Zhao from its predicament.

  But after Zhao Jia took over as the Prime Minister, although it caused a stir and had a grand momentum, it did not bring about any substantial changes to the State of Zhao. On one hand, Zhao Jia indeed could not come up with any effective solutions; on the other hand, it was also because Guo Kuo secretly created many obstacles for Zhao Jia, making it difficult for him to take action. Therefore, after the New Year, many people who had high hopes for Zhao Jia discovered that nothing had changed in the State of Zhao, and some even began to feel disappointed with Zhao Jia.

  While at home nursing his illness, Guo Kuo also thought that his opportunity had come and so instructed his followers to attack Zhao Jia for being unvirtuous and untalented, yet occupying a high position, but unable to contribute to the country, and demanded that King Xiang of Zhao reinstate Guo Kuo as Chancellor.

  Although Zhao Jia was not good at governing the country, he was born into the royal family and still had some tricks up his sleeve when it came to political struggles. Although he couldn't come up with a good way to govern the country, he thought of a clever plan - to shift the blame. And wasn't there a perfect target right in front of him? So Zhao Jia immediately launched a counterattack, declaring that although Guo Kai was at home recovering from illness, he had been secretly controlling state affairs all along. Since becoming prime minister, although he wanted to accomplish something, Guo Kai had always been secretly undermining him, making it difficult for him to do anything, so he must drive Guo Kai out of the Zhao state in order to be able to exercise his governing abilities.

  This trick was indeed effective, mainly because Guo Kai's character was too poor at the time, so when Zhao Jia said this, it also triggered a response from many people, who petitioned to expel Guo Kai.

  Guo Kai was shocked and angry, but fortunately he still had many confidants in the court, plus Zhao Wang Qian still trusted him very much, so Zhao Jia couldn't move Guo Kai for the time being. However, it was also difficult for Guo Kai to drive away Zhao Jia and restore his original hope of making a comeback.

  However, Guo Kai would not give up easily and immediately consulted with Zhao Cong to put pressure on Zhao Jia. After Li Mu left, Zhao Cong became the Grand Marshal again and relied on Guo Kai's support to expand his power, inserting his trusted followers into the army. Except for the palace guards led by Yan Ju, Guo Kai's confidant, he couldn't intervene in other troops, almost all of which were pulled over to Zhao Cong's side. Now Zhao Cong controlled more than 100,000 soldiers, almost taking control of the remaining troops of the Zhao army and becoming another powerful force in Handan City.

  But as for Guo Kai's request, Zhao Cong repeatedly declined, but he just wouldn't do it. Later, Guo Kai found out that Zhao Jia was also secretly pulling strings to win over Zhao Cong, and it seemed that Zhao Cong had already been somewhat moved, wanting to switch to Zhao Jia's side.

  Zhao Cong is indeed a sensible person, he also knows that Guo Kuo's reputation is too bad, and being with him all the time is not a good thing. Moreover, now that Li Mu has left Handan, no one can threaten himself anymore, and he also controls an army of 100,000, so he doesn't need to follow Guo Kuo's lead. More importantly, he and Zhao Jia are both members of the Zhao royal family, "brothers fight within the walls, but unite against external enemies" - this is a principle that Zhao Cong understands, and compared to Guo Kuo, Zhao Jia's reputation is much better.

  Zhao Jia also asked Zhao Cong for help to get rid of Guo Kai, but Zhao Cong refused. He knew that as long as Guo Kai and Zhao Jia were openly or secretly fighting each other, he could benefit from the situation by taking advantage of both sides. Helping either side to eliminate the other was not a good thing.

  Kuo K'ai and Chao Chia were both at their wit's end with Chao Ts'ung, but still had to humour him, for whichever side he might lean towards would become the decisive force.

  At this time, the Qin army began to send troops to attack Zhao and confront Li Mu at Pingcheng. Meanwhile, Guo Kuo and Zhao Jia took surprisingly similar attitudes towards this situation - they sat back and watched the battle unfold. They let Li Mu fight it out with the Qin army, hoping that both sides would suffer heavy losses. As for the merchants who were secretly supporting Li Mu, they turned a blind eye to their actions.

  But just then, news came that this time the State of Qin was still divided into two routes to attack Zhao, Wang Jian led his army to hold down Li Mu's army in Pingyang, while the Qin general Yang Duanhe led 200,000 troops from Shangdang, crossed the Zhang River and attacked Handan.

  The people of Handan were shocked, and they had expected Li Mu to come back and reinforce Handan, but it was clearly impossible. Firstly, Li Mu was busy resisting Wang Jian's 400,000-strong army at the siege of Jinyong, and it would be difficult for him to withdraw troops to support Handan again. Moreover, the lord of Handan had no face to ask Li Mu for help again. Therefore, defending the Zhang River defense line and resisting the Qin army's southern advance could only fall on Zhao Cong's shoulders.

  Zhao Cong also had no choice but to leave, after all, he knew that if Zhao was destroyed, he would not have a good ending either. Moreover, leaving Handan was also good, otherwise being sandwiched between Guo Kuo and Zhao Jia, Zhao Cong sometimes felt that it was indeed difficult to be in the middle, so it's better to leave and avoid trouble. Therefore, Zhao Cong also led his 100,000-strong army out of Handan and went to the north bank of the Zhang River to resist the Qin army.

  Last year, the State of Qin returned 12 cities south of Zhang to Zhao, pushing the Zhang River defense line about 100 miles south. With the troops stationed on the Zhang River defense line, the total number of troops under Zhao Kuo's command reached over 130,000. The military strength was indeed considerable, and since the main goal of the Zhao army was to defend, it would be sufficient even if they were facing 200,000 Qin troops.

  But Zhao Cong did not dare to cross the Zhang River and confront the Qin army head-on. Instead, he ordered the abandonment of all cities south of the Zhang River and retreated all his troops to the north bank of the river, relying on the Great Wall on the north bank for defense. Zhao Cong was well aware of his own strengths and weaknesses, knowing that while he could hold his own against the armies of Yan, Han, and Wei, he was still slightly inferior to the Qin army, especially since Yang Duanhe was a renowned general of Qin. Therefore, he did not have the courage to engage in a direct confrontation with him. As a result, Zhao Cong could only rely on the Great Wall and the Zhang River to hold off the Qin army, also considering preserving his own strength.

  Yang Duan and the Qin army on this route were just a decoy, with the goal of tying down Handan and preventing it from sending reinforcements to Li Mu. They only had 50,000 troops but claimed to have an army of 200,000. As a result, Zhao Qian was so frightened that he retreated without a fight, not only abandoning all twelve cities south of Zhang River that Qin had returned to Zhao, but also giving up five cities on the southern bank of Zhang River that originally belonged to Zhao to the Qin army.

  、

  Yang Duanhe took the seventeen cities south of Zhangshui without losing a single soldier or shedding a drop of blood, and then stationed himself on the southern bank of Zhangshui, facing off against the Zhao army across the river.

  After reading these messages, Li Mu couldn't help but smile wryly and asked Gao Yuan: "Do you think the Qin army has 2 million troops on the southern front?"

  Gao Yuan couldn't help but laugh and said, "Is the great general telling a joke? Although Qin is strong, wanting to mobilize 600,000 troops is still somewhat difficult. Yang Duanhe's army having 50,000 men is already quite good. Where did this 200,000-strong army come from? If the Qin army really had 200,000 men, they would have crossed the Zhang River long ago and taken Handan directly. Would they still be facing off against Zhao Cong on the south bank of the Zhang River?"

  Although the Qin state claimed to have a million troops, that was just a rough statement. The total number of troops that could be mobilized nationwide might indeed be around one million, but it was impossible for the Qin state to send all its troops to fight wars. Some had to stay behind to guard the country, occupy newly conquered territories, and defend borders with other states, as well as against the Xiongnu in the north and the Yiqu in the west. Therefore, the actual number of troops available for conquest was probably around 600,000, no more than that.

  In addition to mobilizing the army, logistics support is also needed, and a large number of civilians are required, because the Qin army is going out to attack other countries, so the conscripted civilians will be three to four times that of the army, in order to guarantee the logistical supply on the front line. In this way, an army of 600,000 would require around 2-2.5 million civilians to support it, these people are the main labor force of Qin country, once they are conscripted, it will cause great damage to the social production of Qin country, from this point alone, mobilizing an army of 600,000 is indeed a limit number.

  In another time and space, in the battle where Qin State annihilated the six states, Qin State generally only mobilized 2-3 million troops. Only during the Battle of Annihilating Chu did they mobilize a large army of 600,000. However, at that time, Qin State had already annihilated Han, Zhao and Wei, and the pressure on border defense was greatly reduced. If at this time, Qin State had just annihilated one Korea, immediately mobilizing a large army of 600,000 would indeed be somewhat forced.

  Li Mu also nodded and said, "Forget it, we didn't have much hope for Handan anyway. Let Zhao Cong stay in Zhangshui to guard, that way we can still defend Handan."

  At this time Gao Yuan said: "General, I think we have rested for over a month and the rotating troops have arrived, it's time to attack."