Chapter 280- The Final Battle
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
The news of the Zhao army being trapped by the Qin army had spread to all the countries. All their kings felt numb and could only look on with respect toward the Qin to the west.
Handan was in a deathly silence as the various ministers engaged in a debate.
Some suggested Handan to copy the Qin, enlist all 15 and above young men to form an army, and let Lianpo lead them to attack Hukou Pass. Some suggested to negotiate with the Qin, and with the price of letting off the trapped forces, they would give them Shangdou Prefecture.
Whichever one it was, it was really difficult.
Firstly, acquiring a huge army wasn't something that could be done in a day. Even before they got the army prepared, the Zhao army trapped in Gu Pass would have starved to death.
Even if they could form up an army, they had totally no experience and could never break down Hukou Pass defended by 60 thousand Qin soldiers. Although they were also rookies, they had the experience of one battle; secondly, they had the geological advantage, defensive weapons, and tools.
Hence, that plan would definitely not work; the various countries were scared of the Qin, so they wouldn't send anyone to help the Zhao.
Hence, they could only helplessly send their ambassador to Xianyang.
Be in the Qing king Fanju or Baiqi, their goal was to destroy the Zhao, so how would they let them off when they had the absolute advantage? Based on Fanju's word, Shangdou was already theirs so why should the Zhao give it to them?
Taking out the nail that was the Zhao, they would have a smooth route east and could work toward ruling the land.
Although they had decided to refuse to settle matters with the Zhao, when the ambassador came, Fanju acted like he was very warm and faked sincerity toward him.
Baiqi sent a letter and hoped that they could delay the ambassador and leave some hope for those in Gu Pass to prevent them from fighting with them all.
Fanju loved such as scheme and happily played along.
Hence, the Qing king was hiding away from the Zhao ambassador. While Fanju acted as a prime minister who was trying his best to calm the whole situation, delaying the ambassador and making him stuck in Xianyang.
Just as the ambassador was doing all he could to run around Xianyang, the Changping war zone experienced a moment of peace as both sides stopped fighting.
Everyone knew that this was just temporary, and once the negotiations broke down, the fighting would start once again.
Making use of the chance, Baiqi did a huge reorganization of the army, sending the 100 thousand new troops into the main force and also strengthened the Hukou Pass defense.
At this point, the soldiers defending the Hukou Pass included both old and new soldiers. Even if Handan sent a new army, it was near impossible for them to take down the pass.
After reorganizing the military, Baiqi heaved a sigh of relief. He knew that he had an 80% chance of winning this battle.
His master plan had dazzled Ouyang Shuo and taught him a lot. During the free time, Ouyang Shuo took the chance to talk to Baiqi and talk about territorial matters, and also to bring both of them closer.
Ever since he broke the chariot circle formation, Baiqi's attitude toward Ouyang Shuo had became very positive, and both of them grew much closer. Sometimes, he would discuss with Ouyang Shuo about how to take down Gu Pass.
Baiqi knew that this time, them surrounding the enemy was very different to the first time. The Zhao army now had a camp that they could defend, and they had a reason to go all out and attack before their grain ran out.
To be able to take down the Zhao army without spilling any blood was a near impossible matter.
Hence, no matter how Baiqi theorized and planned, it was still going to be an intense battle.
No matter how the Zhao army tried to breach and escape, they had to face the Qin army. As for how to take down Gu Pass, Baiqi had already starting to make plans. He wanted to smoothly take down the pass with the least casualties.
Up until now, although the Qin army held the absolute advantage, in truth, both sides lost close to half of their men.
In Changping Valley, the 500 thousand men of the Qin and Zhao forces laid in wait.
In a blink of an eye, half a month passed.
The Zhao ambassador achieved nothing in Xianyang, and understood that the Qin would not negotiate and had seen through their scheme, furiously leaving Xianyang.
Even though they saw through their schemes, there was nothing the Zhao could do.
During the time they sent their ambassador to the Qin, Handan didn't lay in wait. They sent out ambassadors with large amounts of goods and gifts to the various countries to try and get them to send troops, but unfortunately it didn't work.
In the Wei country, needless to say, Xinling Lord was locked up. The Qi king, under the advice of Pu Xianru, declined; the Chu king was on the fence in this battle; the worst was Yan country who even wanted to attack the Zhao.
Human nature was cruel, the world was harsh, and what everyone paid attention to were profits and self-gain.
The king of Zhao also activated Lianpo and started to recruit a new army in Handan.
Half a month had passed, and the 100 thousand newbie army had started to form. Even with Lianpo's ability, he didn't have any confidence in his army.
However, because of the tough times, the Zhao couldn't handle it if their entire force collapsed. The Zhao king could only order Lianpo to lead the troops to charge toward Hukou Pass.
However, one could imagine how a 100 thousand man rookie army would do. After the Qin army took over the camp, they reorganized their troops and sorted out their equipment. The soldiers were sent to the city wall and trained in the art of defense, getting familiar with the defensive facilities.
Not only that, Baiqi had also sent Meng Ao over to Hukou Pass. With him there, there would be definitely no chance for Lianpo to take them down.
What Lianpo was up against was such a pass.
Based on his original intention, he didn't want to attack the pass. Unfortunately, he couldn't go against the king's orders, and also because there were many of the men that followed him for years in the Gu Pass army, he couldn't leave them there.
With the continuous attacks, apart from the number of casualties increasing, they had no progress.
As Lianpo attacked the pass, Zhao Kuo, who was at Gu Pass, finally recovered. He naturally wouldn't sit and wait. He needed to break the entrapment before they ran out of grain.
North or south? Zhao Kuo needed to make a choice.
If they went north, not only did he need to go past Ying Bao's camp, but also Hukou Pass. Going south, he naturally needed to go against the South camp and Wang Ling camp.
Whichever side he chose, it wasn't going to be easy.
What was worse was he couldn't move all his troops. Gu Pass was trapped in the middle, and no matter where he chose, Gu Pass would be attacked by the other side.
After considering everything, Zhao Kuo ordered Zhao Zhuang to bring 70 thousand men and defend the southern part of Gu Pass. He led 200 thousand of their main force to attack Ying Bao's camp.
At this point, there were 140 thousand men there. Zhao Kuo, to take down such a camp with only 200 thousand men, was harder than ascending the heavens.
Before leaving, he did a final rally, “Brothers, this is our last chance. Either we succeed or we die trying. There's no third way out."
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" A sad and tragic feeling spread out of Gu Pass, giving them courage and the motivation to attack.
"Move out!" Zhao Kuo ordered.
Di Chen and the other player lords brought their remaining forces, looking on as they walked toward their deaths. At this point, if they refused, they would only be killed.
Both sides were in a life or death battle from the start.
There wasn't any testing out or any luck; it was either you die or I die!
Each battle, one could see the eagerness of each soldier. Each city wall needed one to continuously defend and attack. If the Zhao army took it down, then the Qin army would try to take it back.
The number of dead soldiers could be seen to increase with the naked eye.
Zhao Kuo split his army into two parts, taking turns to attack the wall, not stopping before they succeeded.
The Qin army also wasn't easy meat, Ying Bao leading an army of elites to be a ‘firefighting squad.’ Every time they appeared, they would take back the lost land.
The red sea and black wave struck at each other again; they stepped on the enemy's corpses and advanced. The cruel battlefield made every soldier into an Asura, and made the battlefield into a living hell.
In their eyes, there was only killing and nothing else.
A morning of attacking had resulted in the Ying Bao camp being in tatters. All the defensive tools were destroyed, and the Qin army could only use their bodies to block the attack. As the attacking force, the Zhao army was also feeling the pressure and their bodies piled up outside the camp.
Not being able to succeed made the Zhao army's morale dip. The huge deaths, continuous winning and losing was a crushing grinding and testing of their mental strength.
From now, it was a metal battle to see which side couldn't last.
The one that broke the balance of the battlefield wasn't either of the two sides that fought, but it came from the behind the Zhao forces.
Gu Pass, was broken by the Qin Army.
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