In the afternoon, the exhausted Han soldiers had regained their spirits and called for battle. Zhang Yun also sent a few small troops to test in front of the Qin army camp. There was still a long way to go before the Qin army camp, so Qin army began to throw arrows and throw guns. Bows and arrows were not the commander of the Daqin army, and it was difficult and far to throw a gun, and it would not hurt the Han army at all.
These Han forces are small units, and they cannot pose a real threat to the Qin army camp. Faced with the harassment of these small groups of troops, the once invincible Da Qin army did not take the initiative to attack. This made Zhang Xi think of a possibility that the battle yesterday had scared the Da Qin army into fear.
Despite this judgment, Zhang Xi didn't intend to attack the Qin Army Camp. The two sides stood in a stalemate until the next evening, a white dove with ankle loops flew into the Han Army camp.
After reading the secret letter, Zhang Xi issued a combat order overnight.
That night, the Han army camp that had been silent for a long time suddenly became noisy, and groups of Han army infantry marched out and forced to the Daqin army camp. Behind the Han infantry formation, thousands of trebuchets lined up, aiming directly at the Daqin barracks.
The night was already very quiet, and the Qin Army also arranged a lot of meticulous work and outposts. The Han army made such a big movement, it was impossible for the Qin Army to not notice the slightest, and several commanders gathered together again to discuss. Alexander said angrily: "Everyone, yesterday you hid in the camp and did not dare to attack. Now that the Han people are bullying the door again, how long can you hide? Do you want all the honor of our Daqin soldiers?"
Das said disapprovingly: "Our camp is built like a golden soup. The front of the camp is full of traps. If the Han people want to come and die, let them come."
Kotra also shook his head and said: "The messenger sent to Rome should arrive by tomorrow at the latest. We only need to stick to the camp and wait for His Majesty's orders. Why do we make our own decisions and do more."
They didn't know that the messenger sent out would never reach Rome, and they ran into a light cavalry from the Han army on the way. Liu Xin concentrated the heavy cavalry and most of the infantry on the front battlefield in order to attract the main force of the Qin army in the province of Asia Minor. Zhang Chen accomplished this task very well. And the 40,000 light cavalry of the three major legions and 50,000 cavalry of the sixth legion, led by Xu Huang, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others, broke into the Syrian provinces in multiple ways. Liu Xin wanted to make full use of the mobility of the cavalry to adopt the long-distance surprise attack method to go behind the Asia Minor province and encircle the eight Great Qin legions in the Asia Minor province.
The topography of the Province of Asia Minor is special, bordering Parthia on one side, and surrounded by the Provinces of Syria on the other three sides. Liu Xin's idea is to take the Syrian province, completely cut off the retreat of the eight Daqin legions, and give him a urn to catch turtles.
The Da Qin Empire has 24 legions of 1.2 million people, far more than the Han's army in total force. Moreover, the Han army is an expedition of labor division, and the force that can be mobilized is further restricted. But on the other hand, the Great Qin Empire had a vast territory, and many places had to be guarded by garrisons. It was impossible to mobilize all of them to fight the Han army. This gave Liu Xin room to operate.
Liu Xin's first plan is to concentrate all the expedition forces and fight an annihilation war in the province of Asia Minor. The Qin army in Asia Minor has 400,000, and the four main armies of the Han army plus some of the strength of the Western Regions, the regular army also has as much as 350,000, and there are 100,000 grassland nomads to help out, and its strength is no longer inferior to the Qin army. Operated properly, it can even take a local advantage.
The key to forming an encirclement is that the troops led by Zhang Xun must withstand the attack of the Qin army and buy enough time for the long-distance attack of Xu Huang and others. Zhang Xi did this well, and Xu Huang and others were equally fast.
Just when Zhang Xun and the Qin Army first came into contact, the 90,000 light cavalry of the Han Army had already entered the territory of the Syrian province. These 90,000 cavalrymen are not fighting alone, followed by 40,000 cavalrymen of the Western Region Army and 40,000 infantrymen of the First Army. The nomadic cavalry formed by herdsmen on the grasslands suffered heavy losses just now in the Province of Asia Minor, and their morale was relatively low, so they were left in the concession for rest and recuperation.
The Han light cavalry advances at a very fast speed. Whenever they conquer a town, they don't stop at the slightest, but rush to the next strategic location like a whirlwind. At this time, the cavalry of the Western Region Corps and the infantry of the First Corps played an important role. They will take over the places captured by the light cavalry in time, set up checkpoints, build fortifications, and strictly seal the news of the arrival of the Han army.
Like Liu Xin, Daqin also paid great attention to the construction of roads, especially the roads leading to Rome throughout the country, which were straight and flat. Therefore, there was the famous saying that all roads lead to Rome. These avenues also facilitated the march of the Han light cavalry, and became the focus of the Han army.
The messengers sent by Alexander to Rome were very unlucky. They went straight to Rome along the road, and they were about to reach the border of the Syrian provinces, but they hit a group of Han cavalry who had also killed along the road.
At that time, these messengers had already crossed the fork in the road, and because they were eager to hurry, they didn't even notice that a large group of cavalry was rushing on the road next to them. It was Zhao Yun who led this team of cavalry. His eyesight was even ashamed of Liu Xin. It was suspicious to see a few people over there hurriedly.
This time the cavalry brigade broke into the Syrian province. In addition to intercepting the Qin army's retreat, another important task was to block the news. Naturally, it was impossible for Zhao Yun to let the knights go away and immediately took off his bow and arrow.
Zhao Yun is best known for his superb marksmanship. Later generations of commentaries also compiled some sayings such as the Seven Detectives of the Snake, but his archery skills are rarely known. In fact, Zhao Yun's arrow skills are not even inferior to Huang Zhong, and he has good vision and is even better at shooting long distances.
Hearing only a "swish" sound, the messenger who ran at the back fell over. Zhao Yun's arrows were in succession, almost in the blink of an eye, five messengers sent by Alexander planted horses one after another. The main generals of the Han army wore hard bows specially made by the research institute. Even though they were so far away, Zhao Yun was still sure that those knights would not survive.
However, Zhao Yun didn't care about it, and sent another team of soldiers to gather the couriers and the Owner's Horses together so as not to expose their deeds. As a result, they found the letters on their backs. The parchment was written with earthworm-like Daqin characters, but Zhao Yun couldn't be troubled now. His army had a specially trained interpreter.
After reading the letter, Zhao Yunfang knew that Qin Jun had been hit hard by Zhang Xi in Asia Minor, and he was already timid. This is a very important piece of information. If the Qin Army chooses to withdraw from Asia Minor because of this, Liu Xin's plan to completely wipe out the enemy's eight legions will fail. Zhao Yun didn't dare to neglect, and immediately sent someone to release the flying pigeon to report the new situation to Liu Xin, and then urged his subordinates to speed up the march and rush to the scheduled assembly location in the shortest time.
In fact, Liu Xin already knew about Zhang Xi's repulsion of the Qin Army. What he didn't know was the current situation and development of Qin Army. With this information sent by Zhao Yun, Liu Xin felt that the time was ripe for annihilating the enemy, so he used the flying pigeons to send new orders to Zhang Yun, Xu Huang and others.
The total attack was set at dawn, and Zhang Xi pulled the team out of the barracks at this time, which was actually a suspicious strategy. It was to let Alexander and the others raise their flags so as to drag the cavalry of Xu Huang, Zhao Yun and others into ambush.
Qin Jun really got the trick. Alexander clamored to go out and fight the Han army to the death, while Das and others advocated sticking to it. Instead, the two commanders under Getta, Lisa and Eulige, hesitated whether to retreat their troops a certain distance. They did not discover the intention of the Han army, but hoped that the army of Caracalla and the Han army would fight another battle before they came to clean up the mess.
The Han army was not just in front of the front, it also had many actions. From time to time, it threw a few boulders, smashed up piles of smoke and dust in front of the Qin army camp, or "dangdangdang" the drums were blasted, making a heaven-shaking unanimous sound. Shout, put on a posture of full attack. But every time it was just thundering and not raining, none of the stones thrown by the trebuchet fell into the Qin army camp. After a long time arguing for a long time, the soldiers also stood still.
After the middle of the night, Qin Jun's spirit became nervous from time to time, and gradually began to fall into numbness. When the Han army's position again heard shouts and the sound of war drums, the soldiers of the Qin army lay in the tents, and they didn't even have the interest to come out and take a look.
At this time, the loud noise of "Rumble" came again, and the soldiers of the Qin Army had long been accustomed to it, and were waiting for the stones to fall to the front of the camp so they could continue to sleep. Who knows, the noise this time is much louder than many times before. Immediately afterwards, countless stone bullets slammed into the barracks, many tents were smashed, and there were screams of crying fathers and mothers everywhere.
The four commanders Alexander, Das, Bowser, and Kotra had just fallen asleep after arguing about whether to fight or persevere. Knowing that the trebuchet of the Han army had really attacked, he hurriedly got up, and hurriedly assembled the soldiers, but didn't know whether to fight or defend.
The trebuchet of the Han army was originally a weapon for siege of the city. To deal with these simple barracks, it was even more devastating. The entire Qin army camp was in dilapidated condition. The traps in front of the camp they relied on as a barrier were also attacked by the Han army. Filled up.
Alexander glanced at these unconvincing colleagues, sighed, and said, "How can you keep the camp like this?"
Kotra still stubbornly said with a sneer: "Well, let's listen to you now, organize the brethren and go out to fight the Han army to the death!"
There is already a chaos in the Qin army camp. The soldiers are running around with their heads in their heads. Not to mention wearing the heavy armor they rely on for protection, many people don't even have weapons. Seeing this, Alexander shook his head helplessly and said, "Ah, Asia Minor can't stay. Let's retreat to Syria first."