Daqin Engineers

At this time, news came from Yingzheng. As expected by Shen Bing, the response to Anlingcheng was:

"Anling City is unavailable, so I should think of another way."

Yang Duanhe frowned when he saw the news, and then immediately summoned Shen Bing to discuss...

Shen Bing had already foreseen this, but he still pretended to be embarrassed and said:

"Since Anling City is unavailable... we have to take Chen City and use Chen City as a base.

Yang Duanhe frowned and hesitated:

"But this Chen Cheng..."

Shen Bing knew what Yang Duanhe was worried about.

Chencheng is the original capital of the Chu Kingdom. Its thick walls, not to mention, store a lot of food and are stationed by 100,000 Chu troops.

Although the Qin Army has 200,000, plus Shen Bing's Liang Army has 270,000.

But these forces are almost enough to attack Chen City, how can they still be able to attack the city and seize the Huai River to divide and encircle the Chu army.

Moreover, this is only the strength of the Chu army in Chencheng, and Caozhou also has 150,000 personally led by Xiang Yan.

If the two cities support each other... it will not be easy to capture Chen City.

Shen Bing didn't take it seriously and said:

"Admiral, don't worry, it is not difficult to take Chen Cheng!"

Yang Duanhe could not help but wonder:

"Why is the lieutenant so sure?"

Of course Shen Bing was sure, even Shen Bing knew that Xiang Yan would give up the entire Huaibei.

Xiang Yan can't do without giving up Huaibei. The land along the Yellow River in Huaibei is fertile and conducive to irrigation. This piece of land is full of the Chu king.

If Xiang Yan had a decisive battle with the Qin Army here, then only the troops that the King of Chu would have consumed would be consumed.

Xiang Yan would not do this, and neither would King Chu Wang.

Shen Bing didn't know much about the internal situation, but he knew one thing. In this battle, Xiang Yan would adopt the strategy of "entering the enemy deeper."

Since it is "inducing the enemy to go deeper", even if this city is a strong city in the outer city, the Chu army will not deploy too much force or be unwilling to defend it.

For example, the Chu army has 100,000 soldiers in Chencheng.

Once the 100,000 soldiers stationed in Chencheng, they would be surrounded.

Once surrounded by the Chu army, more troops will inevitably come to rescue.

In this way, all the troops of the Chu army will be "sticky" near Chencheng, how can they "entice the enemy to go deeper" then?

In fact, not to mention one hundred thousand, even if the strength of ten thousand, Chu Jun is not willing to put in Chencheng.

Therefore, Shen Bing concluded from this result that Chu Bing’s strength in Chencheng was just a cover, and its function was to deter the Qin Army from getting Chencheng too easily.

Once the Qin army launched an offensive... the Chu army retreated with a flick of a shot, and Chen Cheng would be an empty city.

Of course, Shen Bing could not explain to Yang Duanhe in this way.

Shen Bing replied:

"General, at this time our army has reached more than 200,000 troops."

"The strength of the Chu army is only 250,000."

"Once our army besieged the Chu army in Chencheng, the Chu army is bound to have a battle with our army outside Chencheng."

"Chencheng's flat terrain is conducive to Daqin operations, not what the Chu army wanted."

"So his subordinates thought that Chu Jun would abandon Chen Cheng."

Meng Wu couldn't help laughing "haha" when he heard this:

"Vice general, you may not know what the Chu army said:'The fight against the enemy must be based on the important town of Chencheng in Huaibei'!"

"This city of Chen is an important place in the Chu State, and it guards the upper reaches of the Chu State. It has been a battleground for the Chu army since ancient times. How can it be abandoned?"

"The deputy general underestimated Chu Jun."

In fact, it was precisely Meng Wu who underestimated Chu Jun. He only said that Chu Jun would guard one city and one pool as usual, so he insisted on the strategy of going to Caozhou and then Chencheng.

Shen Bing could not refute this because his analysis was based on "guess."

In fact, from a military point of view, Shen Bing’s approach is not worth advocating, because he cannot pin his plans on the enemy’s abandonment or failure.

As a result, even Yang Duanhe was a little biased towards Mengwu's style of play, which is step by step.

However, at this moment, a spy came in to report:

"Admiral, when I get the news, tens of thousands of Chu troops in Caozhou are secretly retreating south..."

Yang Duanhe was surprised and asked:

"But withdraw to Chencheng?"

The spies answered:

"Back to the general, it seems to be withdrawing to Shouchun."

The reason why the spies answered the word "seems" is because no one can be sure where these troops will eventually go, but they can be roughly judged from the direction they are walking.

Yang Duanhe frowned and looked at the map, then looked at Shen Bing in surprise:

"This time I'm afraid that the deputy general will say it again. Chu Jun may abandon Chen Cheng."

The answer is obvious. Caozhou is the flank of Chencheng. If the Chu army wants to stick to Chencheng, it must stick to Caozhou. Previously, Xiang Yan transferred 50,000 troops from Shouchun to Caozhou for this purpose.

But now, Xiang Yan has sent tens of thousands of troops back to Shouchun and they are still secretly going...

This is undoubtedly abandoning Chen Cheng.

Mengwu still didn't believe it:

"Why didn't the Chu army defend this strong city?"

"And if the Chu army wants to abandon Chen City, why would they build fortifications in Chen City to block the river?"

Shen Bing replied:

"One time and another time."

"Before, the Chu army thought it could occupy the city and delay our army's attack, so Chen Cheng could defend."

"But since the battle of the city, if the Chu army wants to defend Chencheng and Caozhou, they must fortify along the river."

"This must be managed by an army of hundreds of thousands for several years."

"Especially our army has a black armour and has the advantage of water conservancy. It is even more dangerous to deploy defenses along the river."

"then……"

This is actually Shen Bing's theory that offense is greater than defense.

On the surface, it seems that the Chu army has taken advantage of it. This line of defense has Chencheng in the south and Caozhou in the north, and there are dozens of large and small cities and towns along the way, plus the natural dangers along the Yellow River...

Landing battles are difficult even in the modern era of hot weapons, let alone Qin Shi.

It seems that the Chu army only needs to set up a catapult by the Yellow River and deploy archers to shoot half of the enemy on the beach. Even if the other half can rush up, they will soon be surrounded by Chu soldiers and driven back into the river.

The problem is that this line of defense is nearly five hundred miles away. The Qin army can attack from any point, while the Chu army must disperse the limited force to this five hundred miles long area.

For example, the Qin Army has concentrated more than 200,000 troops on the beam.

Although the Chu army is no less powerful than the Qin army, if the Qin army wants to attack Chencheng, the Chu army must face the Qin army with 270,000 soldiers with one hundred thousand.

In other words, as the offensive, the Qin Army has the advantage of flexibility and concentration of forces.

If the Chu Army wanted to effectively defend against the Qin Army... Either its troops would be several times more powerful than the Qin Army and operate for a few years, or it would shrink the line of defense.

Obviously, the Chu Army chose the latter, which is to reduce its forces to the Shouchun area to form another line of defense.

This will not only shorten its supply line but also get reinforcements and support from the nobles of all parties.

Shen Bing guessed that these first step should be the slow infantry, and the fast cavalry still resisted in the city.