The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

In the past few days, although the Chu army has retreated, the reinforcements from Qin State still continue to arrive in Chanling, some from Jiangling and Ying County, some from Zhijiang upstream, and some from Jingling, Huarong and other places.

For some purpose, Li You, the county lieutenant, did not send them back. In this way, by the end of April, the Qin army in Chanling had reached more than 7,000 people...

On the one hand, it was to put pressure on Chu State, and on the other hand, it was to implement Heifu's "deterrence" strategy.

The Ba people were undoubtedly very surprised to see the Qin army gathering more and more. Although the Ba tribes in the entire Yidao added up to 20,000 people, they were scattered all over the place, dotted in the gullies and mountains, and it was difficult to gather together. At most, they gathered around Wuluo Zhongli Mountain during sacrifices, but such a situation was not seen once in ten years.

Therefore, when Fan Qin gathered all the men from various tribes in early April, he got 4,000 men. The Ba people in Yidao thought that this was probably the largest army in the world. Both Qin and Chu wanted to win them over and please them. They were very proud of themselves...

This was because Yidao was isolated from the outside world and the roads were blocked. The local tribes thought they were the masters of the land and did not know the vastness of the Xia crown country.

Until today, their three views were refreshed. The Ba people in Yidao had never seen so many people, horses and weapons in their lives. Seeing that the Qin army was gathering more and more and the camps were getting bigger and bigger, the leaders of several tribes asked "Xia Zi" who could speak two languages to ask Hei Fu tentatively, how many soldiers there were?

"Although there are 10,000 people gathered, it is only one-tenth of the soldiers in Nanjun!"

Hei Fu asked Xia Zi to translate his words verbatim to scare these country bumpkins who had hardly left the Yishui area of 100 miles.

"Although Nanjun has 100,000 soldiers, it is only one of the more than 20 counties in Qin State with a smaller area and a smaller population! You can calculate for yourself how many soldiers Qin State has in total?"

That was a number beyond the imagination of the leaders of the Ba people. They looked at each other in panic.

The envoys of Chu State boasted that Chu State "had a million halberds". So it seems that Qin State is two or three times stronger than Chu State!

After being shocked by the number, they immediately felt the quality of the Qin army.

The next morning, after eating and drinking, the leaders of the Ba people who had fallen asleep were hurriedly awakened by their tribesmen. When they went out of the tent, they were stunned.

However, they saw that the huge number of Qin troops had already gathered outside the city, with drums and flags, military officers riding on cars and horses, and soldiers wearing armor and holding sharp spears.

As the flags on the top of the city were waved, the sound of drums and gongs rang continuously throughout the venue. The dark formations of the Qin army began to move towards the Ba people, with spears flat and swords hitting shields, which frightened the leaders half to death. They thought that the Qin people were treacherous and were going to kill them!

It was not until Hei Fu, under Li You's order, came to inform the leaders that the Qin army was practicing the formations, and at the same time, the formations began to turn around, that the leaders put their hearts back...

The sound of the gongs was crisp and the drums were powerful. The Qin soldiers from all over the country followed the sound of the gongs and drums. The first drum was to organize the troops, the second drum was to practice the formation, the third drum was to rush to eat, the fourth drum was to deal with the matter strictly, and the fifth drum was to do it. When they heard the drums, they raised the flags... They advanced or stopped, attacked or retreated, and shouted and killed from time to time. Several sounds gathered, rushed into the sky, and resounded throughout the fields!

The Ba people were used to being relaxed, and had never seen such a scene before. They were all stunned. Even if some of them concealed their surprise a little better, they couldn't help but tighten their willow-leaf swords in their hands, fearing that those orderly arrays would suddenly kill them.

When the Ba warriors confronted a Qin soldier, they would feel that they had the upper hand, but when the Qin army showed its terrifying collective nature, the scene was shocking.

The leaders suddenly felt that what they did in Wuluo Zhongli Mountain was right. No wonder Ba Zhong tried his best to persuade the tribes to return to Qin. I think he knew the true strength of Qin...

Hei Fu was very satisfied with this scene. This martial arts performance basically achieved the effect he wanted. In his opinion, although Qin implemented a policy of appeasement in Yidao, it forgot to teach them one thing, that is, to recognize the gap in strength between the two sides.

The barbarians, Rongdi, grew and developed in a cruel environment, and they mostly followed the principle that the strong are respected. Now they have to tell them that the strongest in the world is Qin!

The more they were impressed by the power of Qin, the easier it was for them to obey orders and put away their thoughts of rebellion.

The first day was like this, and the training on the second day was the same as the day before, and it stopped at night.

On the third day, Li You formally summoned the leaders of the Ba people. At this time, the leaders who had been frightened came to the city and knelt down, not daring to look up at Li You. Facing Li You's stern order to hand over the murderers who had killed Qin officials and soldiers with their own hands before, they dared not disobey...

Hundreds of Ba warriors who were previously hailed as heroes were pushed out like this. They will be taken to Yidao and beheaded on the bank of Yishui! To comfort the hundreds of Qin officials and Qin people who died in the ambush!

…

At the beginning of May in the lunar calendar, the plum rain season arrived. With heavy rain sweeping across the Yangtze River, the contest between Chu and Qin in Nanjun came to a temporary end. In such weather, if they fought, they would be beaten to pieces by the heavy rain before the enemy came.

The tribes of the Ba people also dispersed one after another, and Li You left 3,000 soldiers to guard Chanling, and sent another 1,000 to guard Yidao. The rest of the people returned north one after another.

They either boarded the ship from Youjiangkou near Chanling, or walked to Jiangjinkou 30 miles north to cross the river. They still used the stupid method, using the Nanjun navy's tower ships and warships to slowly transport them to the other side.

There were few ships and many people, so they had to wait for a long time at the ferry. Heifu looked at this troublesome transportation method and made a suggestion to Li You.

"County lieutenant, although Jiangling and Chanling are not far apart, because of the big river blocking them, every time the Chu people invaded, they had to recruit large and small boats, and it took several days to transport the army over, often losing the initiative."

"When I was in Wei last year, I often heard that the armies of various countries built floating bridges on the big river to let the soldiers cross the river quickly. I wonder if you have tried to build a floating bridge on the river?"

Floating bridges are not uncommon in the north. It is said that as early as the Zhou Dynasty, King Wen of Zhou built a floating bridge on the Wei River to welcome his bride from the Central Plains. Now that the Qin State has its capital in Xianyang, there is a permanent floating bridge on the Wei River, connecting Xianyang in the north of Wei and the series of new palaces in the Weinan area.

There are also many floating bridges on the big rivers. For example, in the 50th year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin (257 BC), the "river bridge" was first built in Pujin, and later it became a permanent Pujin Bridge. The story of the Yellow River Iron Ox must be familiar to many people.

So Heifu was thinking, if there could be a "river bridge" on the Yangtze River, wouldn't the Qin army's military control over the south bank of the river be much stronger?

After hearing this suggestion, a lieutenant laughed out loud, and Li You and Heifu looked over and asked him why he laughed.

The officer bowed and said, "I just thought that the water near Jiangling is wide. Without thousands of boats, it would be difficult to build a floating bridge. Moreover, people in the south have always been good at boats. So in the past, when Chu State fought with Wu and Yue State in the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, officials carried their baggage on boats, and ordinary soldiers took off their armor and swam across the river, but it is rare to hear of building a floating bridge..."

"Short-sighted."

Li You scolded the officer, "If the king has conquered Huaibei and Huainan in the future and wants to continue to send generals to conquer Jiangdong and Jiangnan, it will take more than half a month to transport tens of thousands of people across the river by boat. It is more convenient to use a floating bridge..."

Li You kept Heifu's advice in mind, thinking that it might be useful in the future. Then, they boarded the big ship and slowly sailed towards Jiangling with the oars...

During this period, they also received a letter from the county governor.

Hei Fu knew that after the incidents in Yidao and Chanling, the plan of Ye Junshou to go to the county was ruined. When Li You went to the battlefield to help, he had to stay in Jiangling to stabilize the situation. He wondered what happened when he sent the letter at this time?

After Li You opened the letter in front of everyone, he couldn't help laughing and said to Hei Fu and others:

"The county magistrate wrote that our army defeated the Chu offensive and quelled the rebellion in Yidao. He should ask for merits and honors for the soldiers, and bring officials and the people of the city to welcome us back at the dock!"