263 Battle of Changping (1/2)
After sending off the members of Shanhai Alliance, Ouyang Shuo started to make some final preparations for his army.
The army that he sent included the Guards regiment led by Wang Feng, the 2nd regiment led by Lin Yi, the light armored cavalry’s 4th regiment led by Luo Shixin, as well as the independent regiment’s light armored cavalry led by Shao Bu.
The 1st regiment guarded the city west camp, the 3rd regiment guarded the city east camp. Sun Chuan Lin led the 5th regiment to guard the city north camp, and the remaining 500 cavalry from the independent regiment guarded the city north camp.
Of course the two generals Shi Wanshui and Er'Lai would follow them to battle.
As they were all cavalry, they were able to all gather in the main camp within a day. As for logistics, Ouyang Shuo took 200 thousand military grain pills, which would last them 20 days. If one counted the war horses, then it would last 10 days.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to bring more, but firstly, the storage bag had a limited space, and secondly, the production speed of the military factory was limited. These 200 thousand pills were 1.5 months of hard work.
Hence, unless Qin didn't have enough food, Ouyang Shuo wouldn't make use of these.
Based on the calculation of one military grain pill being 1 copper, 200 thousand would equal 2000 gold. Adding the 10 thousand gold in teleportation costs, before the battle began, he had already spent 12 thousand. If he didn't gain anything from this battle, he would’ve lost a lot.
Gaia first year 11th month 14th day, 9 AM
The system notification sounded punctually.
”System notification: 262 B.C. the Qin army attacked the Han and took over Yewang. Their king was willing to give up Shangdou to stop the Qin troops. However, the shogun of the prefecture wasn't willing to surrender to the Qin, and instead sent someone to surrender to the Zhao instead. Zhao King naturally happily accepted them. The Qin King was furious and ordered his troops to attack Shangdou while the Zhao King sent troops to defend it, resulting in a standstill at Changping.”
”In the third year, the Qin sent a large army to attack the Zhao. In the 7th month, the Zhao sent Zhao Kuo to lead the troops. The Qin secretly appointed Baiqi as the general and he attacked Zhao Kuo's weakness of being too arrogant. He acted like he was losing and backed off, drawing the Zhao troops out of their base and into a trap. They were surrounded and easily slaughtered, gaining victory for the Qin. The 3rd historical battle- Battle of Changping, officially begins!”
Shanhai City's 10 thousand elite cavalry were gathered in the square with all their equipment.
As usual, he had to verify requirements to join the battle, the number of people joining, and choose a camp.
”System Notification: Congratulations Player Qiyue Wuyi for activating battle teleportation. Teleporting 10 thousand men, deducting 10 thousand gold in fees.”
”System Notification: Commencing Teleportation!”
After a short distortion in space, Ouyang Shuo and his troops appeared in the Changping battlefield.
”System Notification: Welcome player Qiyue Wuyi to the base of the Qin- Guanglang City.”
On 262 B.C. the Qin gained the important city of the Han- Yewang.
It was a crucial point where the people in the Shangdou prefecture of the Han could contact those south of the Yellow River, who were also of the Han.
Losing Yewang meant that communications north of Taihang were cut off from the the capital, Xingzhen. As Shangdou was a region with few people, and to them it was just dead land, they decided to exchange it for peace and give it up to the Qin. However the shogun Feng Ting gave it to the Zhao instead, causing a war between Zhao and Qin over Shangdou, starting the Battle of Changping.
At that point, the Zhao court had an intense debate on whether or not to accept Shangdou, the king of the plains Zhaosheng felt that not using a single soldier and getting Shangdou was a great deal and he supported accepting it; the King of Pingyang Zhaobao felt that fighting against Qin would cause them to lose, so he resolutely disagreed against the deal.
Zhao Kuo on the other hand analyzed that the Zhao had to accept Shangdou.
If the Qin gained Shangdou and took control of Juhu Pass, and took over the 4th pass in the east, the Fukou Pass at Taixing, they could easily attack the capital of Zhao, Handan.
Hence because of that, Shangdou was useless to Han, but it was a matter of life or death for the Zhao. The Qin were on the surface fighting the Han for Shangdou, but in truth they were making preparations to attack the Zhao. Hence, no matter whether they accepted or not, they had to fight them. If they accepted, they could make preparations and defences. As such, it was the smarter choice.
In 262 B.C. General Lianpo from the Zhao accepted Shangdou and set up defences at Changping to stop the Qin army. The reason he chose Changping was because of the environment’s conditions.
Firstly, Changping had the best geological and strategic places in all of Shangdou. The region was mainly hills. It had many mountains but also many plains. The main river was the Dan River, and there were 5 smaller rivers, the Dongcang River, Xiaodong River, Dongda River, Liuxu River, and Yonglu River, which covered the whole area.
This kind of geography was good for battle. Mountainous ground made attacking risky. Especially from the west and north where there were the Gaoyu Pass, Changping Pass, Gu Pass, etc. where they could fortify and defend; the hills could allow troops to move secretly without much difficulty. The river and the plains aided the transportation of resources and troops, also solving the problem of food. Everything adding together was beneficial to the defenders and not the attackers.
Secondly, no matter if the Qin attacked Shangdou or Handan, they only had two mountain routes they could take. They could take the Wu Ridge and Laoma Ridge to the west or the Yangchang Hill, Tianjin Pass to the south. Either route they chose had to go past Changping. This meant that as long as Lianpo had a strong army to defend Changping, the Qin army not only couldn't take over Shangdou, but couldn't get close to Handan.