Although he had already punked Fan Zeng several times, Zhao Lang still maintained his regard for Fan Zeng.
This is because if another person had been pitted by him so many times, I am afraid that he would have failed long ago.
But what about Fan Zeng.
He always managed to take care of the aftermath and turn a disadvantage into an advantage.
By now, it’s even helped Xiang get stronger and stronger.
Of course, this has come at a price.
The Xiang clan is now getting stronger and stronger, but the whole Chu land is getting weaker and weaker.
How many soldiers, provisions and supplies were consumed in between the hundreds of thousands of Xiang’s army in the several great battles between the Great Qin and Xiang?
Before, Xiang was able to squeeze Qi, Han and Wei, but now it was the people of Chu who were supplying all these.
Just look at himself, the supplies for the Great Wall border army were still being supplied by his old man.
He only had to supply, these less than 100,000 Qin troops, had they not been propped up by the potatoes from before.
There was also the input from the plutocrats.
Yunmengze and the supplies given by Xiang earlier, he would have had enough.
Then he would have to do what Xiang did and squeeze the people to get the supplies.
Fan Zeng’s strength, therefore, was not to be questioned.
If we get rid of him earlier, even if Xiang Yu is brave, it will not be a big problem.
Even if he could fight a thousand with one, the siege would kill him!
Hearing Zhao Lang’s question, Chen Ping frowned slightly in contemplation, thought about the information Zhao Lang had told him before, and finally said that
“Chief, after this assassination, Xiang will definitely strengthen their defences, it is better for us to divorce the relationship between Fan Zeng and Xiang.”
Zhao Lang was a bit regretful at this time, he thought Chen Ping would have a better way to
“The matter has been in progress for a long time, but the effect is limited.”
This was something he had been doing for a long time, but unfortunately, Xiang Yu had developed a gap with Fan Zeng though.
But now Xiang Yu was in charge of the military and Fan Zeng was in charge of the internal affairs, and the two were at peace with each other.
On the contrary, they worked more efficiently.
It’s just annoying.
Zhao Long quickly told Chen Ping about the situation.
After hearing this, Chen Ping looked slightly moved and said that
“Chief, since the two have such a gap, then why can they cooperate with each other? ”
“Who among them is connecting the two?”
Zhao Lang said, as his eyes lit up at the sound of
“It’s Xiang Yu’s brother, Xiang Zhuang.”
Chen Ping quickly said that
“If we can get rid of this man, then it will be much easier to strike again.”
Zhao Lang nodded at this time and quickly said to Nu that
“Tell Dale not to make any more big moves these days, and focus on gathering information about Xiang Zhuang.”
Naturally, Nu said yes.
Soon, everything was pretty much ordered, and Zhao Lang waved his hand as the others saluted and prepared to leave.
Zhao Lang left Chen Sheng at the end and said, with a few moments of disinterest
“Why didn’t the Holy Maiden come back with you?”
He had sent a letter to Ji Wushuang as well.
“The Holy Maiden said that the situation in Chu Di is extremely critical nowadays, and it is still necessary to have someone in charge of the matter stay there.”
“So, she didn’t come back.”
Chen Sheng returned at this time.
Naturally, Zhao Lang would not believe this, knowing that the other party was hiding from himself.
In his heart, he secretly cursed a few scum girls and said to Chen Sheng with a smile.
“The Holy Maiden has a point, it’s good for her to stay there.”
“Alright, you go and get busy, in a few days, we will head towards Pengcheng.”
Chen Sheng faintly froze for a moment and said that
“Pengcheng? Chief, Pengcheng is now an important place for Xiang’s military town, I am afraid that if we bring only 10,000 men, we will not be able to enter the land of Chu, let alone Pengcheng.”
Zhao Lang laughed and
“Who says we’re going to attack? Everyone break up into pieces and go in as a peasant family.”
“Let’s go and see what the chances are.”
He actually wanted to command from the front, but who told him he didn’t have the talent?
One could only go and see what was going on in a chuti like this, closer to the borderline.
Of course, it was not a blind stroll, his target, the Chu army’s provisions.
Hearing the command, Chen Sheng also quickly left.
Zhao Lang walked outside the house at this time and looked at the farmers who were working in the fields.
Now that summer was almost over, if they didn’t plant, this year would be considered finished.
The good thing was that the potato seeds sent down by the farmers were still good for planting.
Zhao Lang gave a smile and then also walked towards the field.
Working is actually a good way to relieve stress, the body is tired, but the heart will relax.
Because now all he had to do was to wait.
All this setting up of himself takes time.
Soon, ten days later.
The eyes of the whole world were gathered in Pengcheng.
For Xiang had already gathered over 200,000 troops in the surrounding area.
The Qin army also had nearly 100,000 men here.
Everyone under heaven knew that this stop would be the battle that would decide the fate of the Great Qin and Great Chu.
If the Great Qin won, then naturally they would be able to reclaim the land of Chu.
Great Chu wins, although there are still so many multilateral armies that the country will not be destroyed.
But it would also lose most of its former land of Yan and Zhao, creating a Qin-Chu confrontation.
Everyone watched the situation change here.
Pangcheng, inside the Chu army camp.
Xiang Yu looked at the pile of, printed papers in front of him and said, angrily
“These things called paper, where did they come from?”
The attendant below returned and
“Your Majesty, at first they were all collected from the various technical institutes, and many of the men of learning were reading them, and later it was discovered that many of the nobles had them in their homes.”
Xiang Yu’s face instantly turned extremely ugly.
“Are these people keeping these papers, do they have a grudge against my king?”
“Men, proclaim the whole city and collect these!”
For above all these papers were printed the same columns and columns of small letters.
The content was simple, saying that Xiang Yu was the real culprit who killed Emperor Yi!
It was the one who wanted to take over the emperor’s throne!
Now these noble readers, who kept these papers with writing on them, were naturally discontented with him.
Just as the attendant was about to take his orders and leave, Fan Zeng, who was standing by, said
“Hold on.”
Xiang Yu looked at Fan Zeng and said, frowning
“Yafu, leaving these things here will only damage my king’s reputation.”
Fan Zeng gave Xiang Yu a complicated look and thought to himself, “If you are afraid of damaging your reputation, then why did you send someone to kill Emperor Yi?
Of course, he would not say that, after being in contact with Xiang Yu for so long, he had slowly found a way to communicate with the other side.
“Yu’er, now these papers, I am afraid that not only Pengcheng has them, the whole Chu land should have them.”
Xiang Yu stood up straight away and
“What!?”
He could not imagine a situation where all the nobles of Chu Di had such a piece of paper in front of them.
Wasn’t this pushing him into the furnace?
“Yafu, didn’t you say that it would be alright to push this matter onto the Great Qin?”
Fan Zeng said, with a slight sigh at this time
“Actually, this matter is not so important now.”
“Within the land of Chu, the only one who can stand up to the tyrant Qin at this time is you, Yu’er.”
“Even if the nobles of the Chu lands have dissenting intentions, they would not dare to show it at this time.”
“Instead, it is this piece of paper that is our biggest problem!”
Xiang Yu was a little confused at this point, listening to
“What is the threat of these papers that are as thin as cloth, yet extremely easy to destroy?”
This stuff, which he had tried, rots when it meets water, burns when it meets fire, and can be torn up with a little force.
Where was the threat?
Fan Zeng took out two sheets of paper at this time and put them in front of Xiang Yu, asking
“Yu’er, look at the words on these two pieces of paper, what is so special about them?”
Xiang Yu was annoyed at the sight of the words on the papers and said impatiently that
“There is nothing special about it!”
Fan Zeng said, pointing to the words on the two sheets of paper.
“These two lines, they are identical!”
Xiang Yu said.
“So what?”
Fan Zeng took out the other papers again and said that
“The words on all the papers are exactly the same!”
“That means that the Great Qin has mastered the means to manufacture these on a large scale!”
“If, for example, all these words were replaced with the canonical texts of the various houses, no nobleman would be able to refuse!”
Fan Zeng’s face was extremely serious at this time, and he could imagine the reaction of the world’s readers and nobles when they saw it.
What was written on these papers was no longer worth mentioning.
It was the impact of the paper itself that was the greatest!
Today, throughout the world, books are wealth!
And now, the Great Qin has mastered the means to create wealth quickly, on a massive scale!
This will be extremely terrifying!
At this time, Xiang Yu also finally reacted, changed his face once again and said that
“Yafu, what should we do?”
Fan Zeng said, with a serious face.
“We need to launch an attack as early as possible, the longer we delay, the more unfavourable it will be for us.”
Xiang Yu frowned at once.
Of course he wanted to attack earlier, but hundreds of thousands of troops were engaged in battle.
It wasn’t like a street fight where they swarmed together.
There are rules about how the various echelons unfold, how they are equipped, how they are positioned.
But he also knew that Fan Zeng was right, and nodded his head, saying
“Good, my king will launch an attack as soon as possible!”
“Use strength to tell the world! This king is the master of the world!”
Fan Zeng nodded slightly, what he admired was Xiang Yu’s unrelenting spirit!
However, it would be better if the other party’s nature was not so rigid.
“Yu’er, where did General Xiang go?”
Fan Zeng asked at this time about where Xiang Zhuang had gone.
He had arrived at Pengcheng some days late, but had not seen Xiang Zhuang.
“Ah Zhuang, has gone to exterminate the bandits around.”
“Bandits are getting more and more rampant these days, even if they robbed some of the Zhuang before, now they actually dare to move the army food! ”
Xiang Yu said with a bit of anger that
“This King will show them what it means to go thundering!”
“Yafu is looking for Ah Zhuang, but is there something wrong?”
Fan Zeng hesitated, and looking at Xiang Yu’s furious look, said
“Nothing, just these bandits, Yu’er should be careful, that Zhao Lang is a member of the Nong family.”
“Don’t be one of their people pretending to be one.”
He actually wanted to talk to Xiang Yu about his plan, but thought better of it, Xiang Zhuang was not here to testify and it would be troublesome to explain.
Besides, it was extremely important for Xiang Zhuang to go and eliminate the bandits and protect the provisions now.
Xiang Yu did not care, said
“I have already looked over before, they are all some old and untouchable people who can’t make any waves.”
“Yafu, this king will go and set up the military and launch an attack as soon as possible.”
He was still extremely good at this aspect of the military.
Only then did Fan Zeng nod, and this was indeed the truth.
His schemes were designed to wear down the nobles and people of Chu and to secure the position of the Xiang clan.
When Xiang Yu had left, Fan Zeng sat and pondered slightly for a while, then took out his pen and ink and wrote a letter to Zhao Lang right in the margin of a piece of paper.
He then called for his beloved attendant and sent the letter out.
He had also received a letter from Zhao Lang before, and the other side seemed to be moved by his offer to surrender.
Then he happened to reply to the letter now, and Zhao Lang naturally left a way to contact him.
Of course, he didn’t really want to surrender, but he wanted to try and see if he could get the means to make this paper!
Otherwise, even if Great Chu had won the battle of Pengcheng.
and the Great Qin’s entered into a standoff, if they could not completely destroy the Qin.
Then Great Chu would not be a match for the Great Qin afterwards.
Soon, a fast horse left Pengcheng quickly.
A few days later.
A small city at the back of Pengcheng.
The city walls were all densely packed with serious-faced Chu troops, even within two miles outside the city, there were patrols of Chu troops.
This was because this was where the Chu army’s provisions were located.
At this moment, on a small hill outside the city.
Several men are lying there, with a grass ring woven from flowers and grasses on their heads.
Without getting closer and looking closely, one cannot even notice that there are actually people here.
“Chief, this is the place reported up by the scouts, and looking at this, it should be the granary of the Chu army.”
Chen Sheng was lying on the ground and reported back to Zhao Lang who was on the side.
They had set out a few days ago and made their way here.
Zhao Lang narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at the small town in the distance, saying that
“Is the news accurate?”
Chen Sheng nodded his head and
“There have been sightings of wagons carrying supplies these days.”
“And a few days ago, the brothers tried to rob one, but ended up encountering a Chu army general who called himself Xiang Zhuang and lost quite a few men.”
“I can see that the Chu army attaches great importance to this place.”
Hearing this, Zhao Lang’s eyebrows were raised and he said that
“What did you say the Chu army general’s name was?”
Chen Sheng returned and
“Xiang Zhuang.”
Zhao Lang’s eyes flickered slightly at once, and
“Any more news of him recently?”
Chen Sheng shook his head and returned.
“After last time, the brothers lost a lot of money, and they didn’t go out again.”
At this result, Zhao Lang was not surprised, after arriving here, he also saw that the peasant ranks here, were in a very poor condition.
Most of them were older ones.
It was fine to fight guerrilla attacks and rob some small groups, but to clash head-on with the Chu army was just faint.
However, since Xiang Zhuang was here, he must find a chance to kill the other side.
That said, it was better to have his own entry into the city.
“Leave someone here to watch, we’ll go back first.”
Zhao Lang quickly said.
After saying that, he left the place and headed towards an inconspicuous stately home.
A few moments later, Zhao Lang had returned to the stately home and called Chen Ping and the others to his side, asking them to think of a solution.
“Chief, the way you want to enter the city in person still won’t work.”
Chen Ping directly dismissed Zhao Lang’s idea of trying to enter the city to assassinate him.
This status was already different.
“I thought that we could send someone to rob the grain and see if we could lure the other side out.”
“It’s just that we need to deliberate a bit on this candidate, he should have a certain amount of force, not too weak, yet not too strong either.”
“And also be able to ensure that we can taunt the other side.”
Chen Ping elaborated, and finally smiled bitterly as
“Chief, that’s a lot to ask of a candidate! Why don’t we just inform the Shangqing Meng and ask him to send an odd army over?”
But Zhao Lang did not answer immediately, but looked thoughtfully at Hu Hai, who was watching.
Hu Hai looked at Zhao Lang, froze for a moment and said that
“Brother Long, why are you looking at me?”