Chapter 610 The gift Han Xin presented to him!

Chapter 610 The gift Han Xin presented to him!

Wei Bao could be said to be one of the most powerful among the remaining princes. He was born into an aristocratic family and had a certain family background and connections. When enfeoffment was made among the kings, due to his special geographical location, he attracted many people to submit to him, which made his power grow rapidly.

More importantly, Wei Bao successfully avoided a direct confrontation with the imperial army. At that time, the main force of the imperial court was almost all attracted to Gaoyao and had no time to take care of other places. This provided Wei Bao with a relatively relaxed development environment, allowing him to expand his territory freely.

The areas occupied by Wei Bao were all rich, with abundant resources and a large population, which further strengthened his power. Under such circumstances, Wei Bao could have sat back and enjoyed the fruits of his labor, waiting for other princes to fight each other, and then reap the benefits.

Once Gaoyao occupied Dongjiao, the entire war situation would change dramatically. First of all, Wei Bao's originally calm situation would inevitably change fundamentally. His originally planned strategy of sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight and reaping the benefits would be difficult to achieve.

After Gao Yao occupied Dongjiao, Wei Bao's situation would become very awkward. On the one hand, he himself faced more risks of being attacked by the coalition forces, because his sphere of influence was adjacent to Dongjiao, and he could easily become the next target of the coalition forces. On the other hand, he did not dare to send troops to help Wu Rui or Wang Ben easily, lest his rear was empty and other princes took the opportunity to attack.

This situation is undoubtedly a huge challenge for Wei Bao. He needs to re-examine his strategy and decision-making to deal with the adverse effects brought about by Gao Yao's occupation of Dongjiao.

After all, attacks are mutual, just like action and reaction. When I can attack Gao Yao, Gao Yao can naturally counterattack and attack me. This is an inevitable result, and there is no luck involved.

This move is undoubtedly a risk, but its effect is absolutely remarkable. The benefits of this risk are not limited to the current war with the coalition forces that is about to break out, but more importantly, it will be of great benefit to Gao Yao's war against the entire north in the future.

As the saying goes, "take one step and look three steps ahead", this is the current situation. The situation is changing all the time and everywhere, making it difficult to predict. This is why Zhao Shuo expressed such emotion.

Even though he had already seen through Gao Yao's actions and the purpose behind them, due to his own lack of strength and bad luck, as well as the fact that he had entrusted his talents to the wrong people, Zhao Shuo could only try his best to deal with it and leave it to fate.

It was originally expected that the Southern Border Army would launch the attack in two days, but now it has been moved forward to tomorrow, shortening the time by half. This sudden change made Zhao Shuo feel even more stressed.

After a long journey and a forced march, the army led by Han Xin finally arrived at a place only five miles away from Xiayuan City. He ordered the soldiers to set up camp there and rest for a while.

Han Xin was well aware of the fatigue of the army, so he decided to give the soldiers some time to recover their physical and mental strength. However, surprisingly, he did not take any measures to prevent a night attack. This was not because Han Xin was overconfident, but a conclusion reached after careful consideration and precise calculation.

Battle reports from various routes came pouring in like snowflakes. Through analysis and integration of these intelligence, Han Xin was able to basically determine that the number of defenders in Xiayuan City was no more than 10,000, of which the cavalry was no more than 3,000. Faced with such a huge disparity in troop strength, it seemed to be a good strategy to defeat the enemy with fewer troops and launch an attack directly while the enemy was still unstable.

However, Zhao Shuo was not overwhelmed by the superficial advantage. He calmly observed the current situation and realized that the current situation was not that simple. Although the enemy had fewer troops, they were in a dilemma of being surrounded on three or even four sides. In this case, it might not be wise to take the initiative to attack.

The strategic goal became particularly critical at this time. Han Xin understood that Feng Yu's only choice now was to defend the city and wait for reinforcements to arrive. Waiting for Wu Rui, Wei Bao and other allied lords to react and send troops in time to force Gao Yao to give up the plan of attacking was the only way out.

This is why Han Xin was so confident that the enemy would never take the initiative to launch an attack. After all, the enemy was not qualified to launch an attack. Even if they took advantage of the night to launch a sneak attack and gained some advantages by chance, it would not be of much help to them. Because the disparity in the strength of the two sides still existed and would not change.

Moreover, this sneak attack was accompanied by a huge risk of being ambushed. As the saying goes, "A man's reputation is like a tree's shadow." Han Xin was now well-known and known to the world. In this case, his foothold was not yet stable. If someone wanted to take advantage of his unpreparedness and capture him, it would be too simple. Zhao Shuo never thought that Han Xin would be unaware of this.

Han Xin might have the guts to take a gamble on this kind of thing, but Zhao Shuo could never afford to take that gamble. If he was not careful, once the other side caught the opportunity, he might even find it difficult to defend the city.

Just as Zhao Shuo was thinking hard about how to strengthen the city defense and guessing the direction of Han Xin's main attack, the messenger came running over again, panting and shouting in fear: "Sir, something is wrong! Come with me to the city wall and take a look!"

Listening to the terrified shouts of the messenger, Zhao Shuo could not help but frown, his heart full of doubts. However, at this special moment, nothing can be taken lightly, he decided to get up immediately and go to the city wall to find out what was going on.

Zhao Shuo hurriedly followed the soldiers to the top of the city wall. When he finally climbed up the wall and looked out of the city, he was shocked by the scene in front of him. He saw a convoy slowly approaching only about 200 steps away from the city. The convoy consisted of four or five carriages, each surrounded by several followers, and around the convoy, there was also a group of soldiers from the Southern Border Army.

"This is Lord Zhao Shuo. What's the matter? Report it quickly!" As soon as Zhao Shuo climbed onto the city wall, a soldier shouted loudly outside the city. This sudden convoy made Zhao Shuo very confused. He really couldn't understand why this convoy appeared here at this time.

Just as Zhao Shuo was thinking to himself, a man from the southern army suddenly jumped out on his horse and galloped over like the wind. In the blink of an eye, he was less than a hundred steps in front of the city wall, pulled the reins, and stopped there steadily.