The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In the third year of King Wei's vacation, in the second month of the second month, Wei's capital was Daliang.

At breakfast time, a group of Wei soldiers with their heads wrapped in gray cloth sat cross-legged on the inner side of the city wall. They sat around the deserted earthen kang, looking at the bland and thin porridge in the pottery bowl, silent and with very low morale.

The Qin army had besieged the city for half a month. Although the granary in the city was still sufficient, it was unknown how long this war would last. So the King of Wei ordered that the city began to supply limited rations. Even the soldiers guarding the city could only get one-third of a bucket of millet every day, and they were half hungry, so everyone looked pale...

But what could they do? They could only drink the bland and tasteless porridge silently, hoping that the king could reach a peace agreement with Qin as soon as possible and end this hopeless war.

Since the death of Lord Xinling, Wei had not won a battle in the war with Qin for twenty years...

The silence was broken by a slowly approaching carriage, the wheels stopped, and an old man with white hair and beard got off the carriage beside the tall Liangcheng wall. He refused the help of the servants, leaned on the cane, and trembled towards the stairs to the city, with the jade ornaments on the silk belt around his waist jingling...

Those who can afford to wear jade and silk are naturally nobles and officials, but the top of the city is a key place for city defense, not everyone can go up.

The captain in charge of the defense of this section of the city wall immediately stepped forward to stop him, but after the old man's servant showed a bronze token, he changed color and bowed to the old man in fear and trepidation.

"I didn't know it was Lord Tang who came here!"

Hearing the word "Lord Tang", the Wei soldiers under the city stood up one after another and bowed to the old man solemnly.

In Daliang, there is only one Tang Gong, and that is Tang Ju (jū), who is already ninety years old!

He has no official position, and is not a feudal lord, but from the King of Wei to the common people, no one dares not respect Tang Ju.

Because this old man is the only legend left in the State of Wei!

Tang Ju lived a long life. He was born in the era of King Xiang of Wei ninety years ago. He did not do much when he was young, and he was still just a small envoy in his forties, and was unknown.

It was not until the eleventh year of King Anli of Wei (266 BC) that Qi and Chu attacked Wei, and the helpless King Anli of Wei sent Tang Ju to Qin for help. Tang Ju relied on his eloquence to persuade King Zhao of Qin to send troops immediately and go to Wei day and night. The people of Wei all said: "Qi and Chu heard about it, so they led their troops away. Wei was restored because of Tang Ju's advice."

After this meritorious service, Tang Ju, who should have been promoted, resigned from his post and became a retainer of Lord Xinling because he was dissatisfied with King Anli of Wei's excessive debauchery and favoritism of Longyang.

In the 20th year of King Anli (257 BC), Lord Xinling stole the seal to save Zhao. After the success, he was full of pride and took credit for himself. It was Tang Ju who advised him, "If someone has done me a good deed, I must not forget it; if I have done a good deed to others, I must not forget it." This made Prince Wuji wake up and treat King Zhao and Lord Pingyuan with courtesy. Only then was he respected by the princes and became the leader of the coalition.

During the time when Tang Ju assisted Lord Xinling, Wei was the last hope of the six states in Shandong. Lord Xinling led the troops of five countries to defeat the Qin army outside the Yellow River, and chased Meng Ao to Hangu Pass, so that the Qin people dared not go east. At that time, Prince Xinling was powerful and his retainers were talented...

Unfortunately, Lord Xinling did not live long. After he was suspected by the King of Wei and died in depression, Tang Ju, who was nearly 70 years old, still followed the will of Xinling and traveled between the six countries.

In the second year of King Jingmin of Wei (241 BC), Tang Ju went to Chu and persuaded Lord Chunshen that he "could resist the difficulties of China and be the leader of the world", so he took King Kaolie of Chu as the leader and promoted a new and last joint attack on Qin.

Unfortunately, Tang Ju still overestimated the six countries. The six scattered chess pieces with their own thoughts could not defeat the Qin State, which controlled one-third of the world. After Pang Nuan failed to attack Qin, the six countries were irreversible...

But this is not Tang Ju's fault. Except for the fictitious "Tang Ju did not disgrace his mission", which was false and never happened, Tang Ju never disgraced his mission every time he went on a diplomatic mission. It's a pity that it is no longer the era of Su Qin and Zhang Yi. The rolling trend accumulated by Qin for six generations cannot be changed by the three-inch persuasion of lobbyists.

Now, Tang Ju is ninety years old. He can no longer leave Daliang, but the years have not left too many traces on him. Although the old man is old, he looks good. He smiled and waved his hand, asking everyone to stand up.

"You two have worked hard defending the city, so don't be polite."

Then Tang Ju said to the captain: "Young man, can you take me to the top of the city to have a look?"

The captain hesitated and said, "Mr. Tang, the wind is strong on the top of the city, and the Qin army often shoots arrows at the top of the city. What if..."

What if Mr. Tang makes a mistake, won't he be cursed to death by the people of the city?

Tang Ju laughed: "In the past hundred years, the Qin army has besieged Daliang more than ten times. Because I have lived for a long time, I have been fortunate to experience most of them. Wind, sand, arrows and stones are not uncommon. But Qin's more than ten attacks on Liang were not successful. Every time, the soldiers and civilians of Wei worked together to defend the city!"

These words boosted the low morale for a while! The Wei soldiers even raised their weapons and cheered for a long time!

Seeing that everyone's spirits had returned, Tang Ju nodded and said, "Take me to the city. I just want to see with my own eyes how big the Qin army besieging the city is. How does it compare with Bai Qi's three visits to Liangyou?"

Although he did not receive military orders, the captain did not dare to disobey Tang Ju's orders, so he asked several soldiers to hold shields and guard Tang Ju, helping him to climb the top of Daliang City step by step...

...

Liangcheng is ten feet high, and the wind is really strong, blowing Tang Ju's pale beard and hair.

He squinted and looked into the distance. After looking to the west, north and east for a long time, a bitter smile appeared at the corner of his mouth: "Is this still the suburbs of Daliang? It's only been half a month, and I can't recognize it at all."

To the northwest of Daliang was the royal garden enclosed during the reign of King Anli of Wei: Liangyou. Its architectural style is quite exquisite. There are dense flowers and trees in the garden, elk are raised, pine cranes live under the trees, and boats can be rowed in the pond.

Today, Liangyu has changed beyond recognition. All the trees have been cut down by the Qin people. The flower garden full of rare trees is only an ugly empty space full of tree stumps. The deer hunted by the King of Wei in the past probably became a delicacy of the Qin army.

The entire field of vision was filled with the Qin army's tents and black-headed Qin soldiers. The siege equipment was concentrated in the west, and from time to time, stones were thrown at the top of Daliang City and smoke arrows were shot, making the city restless.

There is also the Honggou that passes around the city from the northeast. Since King Hui of Wei ordered Bai Gui to dig this canal, it has become the main artery of the Central Plains, connecting Liang, Song, Chen, and Cai. Every day, countless ships set out from Daliang to transport mulberry, linen and silk from Wei to the south; and they also brought back fish, salt, leather, rhinoceros horns, cinnamon and spices from Chu, which were sold at high prices in the Daliang market.

But now, there are no merchant ships and carriages on the Honggou, only ships loaded with food and weapons of the Qin army, and thousands of bare-chested boatmen are pulling wooden boats, and even the slogans they shout are unfamiliar Guanzhong accents.

What Tang Ju is most worried about is the north, where a turbid yellow river crosses the surface and flows slowly eastward.

The river water is unruly. After the Warring States Period, Zhao, Wei and Qi became enemies and took advantage of their neighbors, natural disasters and man-made disasters made it even more rampant. Fortunately, Wei built a mud wall of dozens of miles along the river to prevent the flood from hitting the low-lying Liangdi. Over the past few decades, countless families have slowly gathered between the city and the river, opened up boundless fertile farmland, and built houses one after another...

But now, those fertile fields that should have been used for spring farming and planted with millet and wheat seedlings are empty, without even a sparrow. The people were dispersed, but there were countless Qin soldiers, holding iron hoes and hoes, and under the whip of Qin officials, they lined up in a long line and walked along the fields to the north of Daliang.

Seeing this, Tang Ju's hand holding the battlement trembled slightly. He knew very well where those Qin people were going and what they were going to do!

They were going to Xingyang! (xíng)

Decades ago, when Tang Ju was a teenager, Zhang Yi, Gongsun Yan, and Su Qin were allied with each other and were scheming against each other. In order to force Wei to join the alliance, Qin sent Zhang Yi to Daliang and threatened:

"If you open the Xingkou Pass, Wei will not have Daliang; if you open the Baima Pass, Wei will not have Waihuang and Jiyang; if you open the Suxu Pass, Wei will not have Xu and Dunqiu. If you attack by land, you will attack Henei; if you attack by water, you will destroy Daliang!"

However, the Qin army attacked Wei more than ten times and besieged Daliang, but because they were alone and deep in the territory, they could not occupy the entire territory of Wei and had no chance to fulfill this threat.

Until today, is Wei's nightmare finally coming?

In Tang Ju's view, this is the result of Wei bribing Qin with land in the past twenty years, and the dangerous roads have been eroded. Only then can the Qin army be so unscrupulous and start planning to flood Daliang.

It seems that this time, unlike the previous ten or so small fights, the King of Qin is determined to capture Daliang and destroy the State of Wei!

"Oh my God..."

Even a calm and experienced person like Tang Ju could not remain calm after foreseeing the tragic future of this country.

He looked up at the cloudless sky and sighed in a low voice: "If Prince Xinling was still alive, if Prince Xinling was still alive, how could Wei fall into such a situation!?"

Tang Ju's eyes were too high and too far, so he didn't notice that under the wall where he was, more than 200 steps away, a Qin soldier with a bun tilted to the right and dark skin was urinating rudely in the moat...

...

After peeing in the moat of Daliang, Hei Fu tied the hemp rope around his waist, looked up and saw a white-haired old man sighing on the wall of Daliang, and was surprised...

"Could it be that Daliang has run out of ammunition and food, and the situation is so difficult that an old man has to guard the city? It's only been half a month, and there hasn't been a fierce siege. It shouldn't be that serious."

After sighing, Hei Fu didn't stay for long, turned around and walked along the path to the tent.

In order to prevent the enemy in the city from risking their lives to attack, the huge camp was surrounded by wooden stakes, and a towering watchtower was set up, on which Qin soldiers with bows and arrows stood.

After entering the camp, Hei Fu saw low huts everywhere, but fortunately they did not look messy. He always felt that Qin officials educated by the Qin Law had mild obsessive-compulsive disorder and liked uniformity. When designing the camp, they naturally had to make each hut look more regular.

Occasionally, soldiers with spears passed through the camp and passed outside the gate, but more of them were prisoners with tattoos on their faces, who were gathered together and rushed to work in various places under the whip of officials.

There were also soldiers in coarse linen clothes and unkempt faces. They had different accents and came from different counties. Hei Fu occasionally met familiar faces and nodded to them.

While walking in the camp mixed with various smells, Hei Fu also complained: "I never thought that the battle of Daliang would be like this."

It turned out that after setting out from Fangcheng County in early January, under the urging of the generals, Hei Fu and his 30,000 garrison soldiers and prisoners from Hanzhong, Nanjun, and Nanyang arrived at the city of Daliang in just ten days.

After arriving here, Hei Fu found that Daliang City had been surrounded by the Qin army from Chen Ying. In addition to the 50,000 armored and spear-wielding combat troops, the conscripted garrison soldiers were still coming in a steady stream.

In addition to the 30,000 people from Hanzhong, Nanjun, and Nanyang, the garrison soldiers and prisoners from Guanzhong, Sanchuan, Hedong, Shangdang, and Henei also gathered towards Daliang. When combined, the number of people might exceed 100,000.

This was a war in which the auxiliary soldiers far outnumbered the regular soldiers.

What made Heifu feel relieved was that the 100,000 prisoners and soldiers were not asked by General Wang Ben to do dangerous work with a high mortality rate, such as siege and filling ditches. Instead, they were asked to act as boatmen and grain transporters. Apart from being a bit hard and tiring, they were very safe.

After entering February, half of the prisoners and soldiers were asked to set off for Xingyang, dozens of miles away in the northwest, and the rest had to dig a deep ditch between Honggou and Daliang, leading directly to the city!

Therefore, the suburbs of Daliang did not look like a battlefield for siege and destruction of a country, but rather like a large construction site for water conservancy projects.

This kind of physical work that kills time is very testing of people's patience, and soon some people could not sit still.

Approaching the small shack where the garrison soldiers of Anlu County lived, Heifu heard the furious voice of Dongmen Bao when he was still ten steps away...

"Nai Gong can't stand it anymore. What kind of siege is this? Does that 'Little General Wang' know how to fight?!"