In mid-October of the twentieth year of the reign of King Qin (227 AD), the Qin army that attacked Daliang and Xingkou withdrew from Zhongmu and withdrew to Nanyang County.

At the same time that the Qin army withdrew from Zhongmu, Han Teng led 20,000 Qin troops from Nanyang County, through Yingchuan County, to the south, and directly took Shangcai, a military town in the northeast of Chu State.

Since Qin attacked Wei, he sent an envoy to Chu to accuse Chu of sending troops to aid Wei, and Chu tried his best to distinguish and affirm that it was the Xiang family's private army that rescued Wei, not the intention of the Chu court, and the king of Chu still issued an edict that ordered Xiang Dong and others to withdraw their troops and come back quickly. The envoys of the Qin State had nothing to say, so they had to return to the Qin State in a huff. At this time, the Qin State was attacking the Wei State with all its might, and it was flawless to ignore the Chu State, but fortunately, the Chu State did not have many reinforcements, so it did not delve into it.

And the monarchs and ministers of Chu also thought that they had a plan, and Xiang Dong kept sending news back from Wei, saying that the Qin army's attack in Wei was not smooth, and they were repeatedly defeated, and their troops were dismantled, so the monarchs and ministers of Chu were also very relieved, thinking that with Wei helping Chu to block the Qin army, they could sit back and relax, so they were also very lax on the border guards, and this time the Qin army's attack was indeed very sudden, and the Chu State was caught off guard, but the Chu army had not yet reacted, and the Qin army had already occupied Shangcai.

After the Qin army occupied Shangcai, he immediately dispersed the people in the city, and set fire to the city, burning Shangcai City, and then Han Teng waved his troops eastward, and moved to the northeast of Chu State, and captured Chengyang, Fanyang, Sleeping City, Pingyu and other places, until he reached the old capital of Chu State, Yingchen (Chenliu County, Henan).

Although Yingchen is not the capital of Chu now, it is still a military center in the northeast of Chu, where 100,000 troops are stationed. The guard's name is Qu Dang, and he is a son of the Qu clan, a family of the Chu State.

At this time, the state of Chu also heard clearly, and the original Qin army that attacked the state of Chu was only 20,000 horses, so Qu Dang led an army of 50,000 and went out of the city to meet the Qin army. I thought that I could defeat the Qin army by fighting more and fighting less, but after a battle, the Chu army was defeated by the Qin army, and more than half of the army was dismantled. And Han Teng Bijing didn't have many troops, and he was a lone army, so he didn't dare to stay in Chu for a long time, so he led the army back to Yingchuan County to garrison.

However, wherever the Qin army went, they drove all the people away, and then burned all the villages and towns, resulting in the destruction of several cities in the northeast of Chu in just a few days, more than 30 villages, and more than 300,000 displaced people. At the same time, it was also hyped that the Qin army wanted to retaliate against the state of Chu by sending troops to aid Wei, and would send an army of 500,000 to attack the state of Chu.

In order to survive, the people who lost their homes naturally wandered around, became homeless, and robbed other villages, as a result, some places that were not looted by the Qin army were looted by the homeless, which also caused great turmoil, and rumors spread, and when it reached the capital of the Chu State, Yingshou (Anhui Shouchun), it became the Qin State will send a million troops to attack the Chu State.

The government and the opposition of Yingshou were suddenly panicked, and the king of Chu hurriedly gathered the ministers, clans, and clans of the Chu State to discuss countermeasures.

The ministers of Chu suddenly quarreled, led by Ling Yin Jingtai, Zuotu Zhaoxiong, and Taishi Qu Yang, and aimed the spearhead at the great Sima Xiang Yan, and accused Xiang Yan of not sending troops to aid Wei, but the Qin army attacked Chu, and Xiang Yan also argued with reason, trying his best to defend himself, and the move to aid Wei was to prevent the death of the lips and teeth, and had to do it, and now the Qin army could not attack Wei on a large scale, but only harassed Chu with a small number of troops, and the current situation was entirely related to the laxity of the border defenders of the Chu army. Therefore, Xiang Yan also took the initiative to ask for an order, willing to lead the army to fight and repel the Qin army.

In fact, the truth that Xiang Yan said, the ministers of the Jing, Zhao, and Qu families were not unaware, they just took this opportunity to attack the Xiang family, because the Jing, Zhao, and Qu families were all old clans of the Chu State, but with the eastward migration of the Chu State, they weakened, and the emerging clan took advantage of the situation to rise and have the potential to replace them, and the Xiang clan is the representative of the emerging clan. Although the Jing, Zhao, and Qu families still occupy important positions such as Ling Yin, Zuo Tu, and Taishi, the great Sima who holds military power has always been firmly controlled by the Xiang family, and now sixty percent of the army of Chu is under the control of the Xiang family, and Xiang's private soldiers are the strongest army in the Chu State, and their strength has been above the Jing, Zhao, and Qu families.

The strength of the new clan has increased, and it is natural to increase their voice in the court, and the old clan is unwilling to hand over the power in their hands, this structural contradiction has led to a very fierce struggle between the new and old clans of the Chu State, and both sides will not give up the opportunity to strike at each other, and in a situation like the current one, the old clan will naturally not let go.

Fortunately, the king of Chu is still sober-minded, and the struggle for power between the old and new clans is of course a good thing for the Chu royal family, because the royal family can just be left and right between the clans, skillfully maneuvering, pulling one side to fight one side, not letting one side dominate, and letting the clans balance each other in order to maintain the power of the royal family.

However, there is no big problem in fighting in normal times, but when is it now, the Qin army has already fought, do they still want to fight each other? Moreover, the king of Chu is also very clear that Xiang Yan's words are reasonable, rescuing Wei is actually to protect Chu State, and now it is impossible for the Qin army to attack Chu State on a large scale, but Chu Yan cannot ignore this, and should immediately send troops to drive away the Qin army. And now most of the military power of Chu is in the hands of the Xiang clan, and Xiang Yan is also the best general in Chu State, so Xiang Yan can only be allowed to lead the army.

So the king of Chu immediately ordered Xiang Yan to lead an army of 100,000 and immediately rushed to Yingchen to meet the Qin army, and ordered Xiang Yan to immediately order Xiang Dong, Xiang Liang, and Xiang Bo brothers to return to Chu. In case it angers the Qin State again, maybe the Qin State will really send a large army to attack the Chu State. Because now the army of Qin is stationed in Nanyang County, which can attack both Wei and Chu.

After receiving Xiang Yan's order, the Xiang brothers of course did not dare to stay in Wei, firstly because of their father's order, and secondly, because Chu was now being attacked by Qin, so Xiang Dong immediately resigned to Gao Yuan and prepared to lead the army back to Chu.

At this time, only three days had passed since the Qin army completely withdrew from Zhongmu, and to be honest, the sudden withdrawal of the Qin army also surprised the plateau. Although the battle reached this point, the Qin army suffered heavy casualties, but the casualties of the coalition army were not small, with a total of more than 38,000 casualties, of which of course, the Wei army suffered the most casualties, more than 30,000, while the Chu army lost nearly 5,000 casualties, and only the Dai army suffered the smallest casualties, reaching more than 2,500 people.

If you exclude the battle in which the Qin army crossed the river, the casualties of the Qin army were actually not much more than those of the coalition army, because the Su zhì of the Wei army was not too high, but it was supported by one breath, and the Qin army generally took the position outside Xingkou City as the main offensive target, although it had strong fortifications, it was still much worse than the city wall, and there were many opportunities for white-knuckle combat on both sides, so that the Wei army naturally suffered a lot of casualties.

Therefore, the retreat of the Qin army at this time also made Gao Yuan very incomprehensible, but Gao Yuan also judged that the Qin army was not really withdrawn, and temporarily retreated, after all, the Qin army was only stationed in Nanyang County and did not return to Guanzhong, so the Qin army must have other plans, maybe they wanted to paralyze themselves carelessly, and then suddenly attack Wei, of course, maybe Qin had other plans.

So Gao Yuan did not dare to be careless, and on the one hand, he ordered people to closely monitor the movements of the Qin army, and on the other hand, he stepped up his defense, preparing to wait for the Qin army to attack again.

And Xiang Donglai's resignation to Gao Yuan also made Gao Yuan realize that Qin Guo's counterattack really came, and it was far more powerful than he expected. Although Gao Yuan also knew that Qin was only attacking the east and west, and was not really attacking Chu, he was just taking the opportunity to put pressure on Chu and force Chu to withdraw its troops, not to aid Wei.

Although the Chu army is not the main force guarding Xingkou, it is indeed a big help to the plateau, and the biggest role of the Chu army is a kind of psychological support, with the Chu army here, it will make the Wei people feel that the Chu State is assisting us, although the Chu State does not have a famous general, but the national strength is much stronger than that of the Dai County, so it always makes people feel more reliable.

But there was no reason for the plateau to prevent the Xiang brothers from withdrawing their troops and returning to China, because Bi Jing of Chu was attacked by Qin, and it was reasonable for Chu to recruit them back to fight. Therefore, Gao Yuan also agreed to them very happily, and said that if the Chu State needed it, he could lead the army to rescue the Chu State.

The three Xiang Dong brothers are also quite reluctant, because after more than half a year of fighting, the three of them can be said to have been reborn, after all, in the past half a year, they are all fighting against the strongest army in this era, and they are following the side of the plateau, and they are completely different from the vassal countries of Chu before, so the three of them feel that this trip to Wei is indeed worthwhile.

And at this time, although there were only more than 10,000 people left in the 15,000 Chu army that entered Wei with the three of them, the more than 10,000 Chu troops were very different from when they first arrived in Wei, because the battlefield was the best place for soldiers to be tempered, so after being tempered by iron and blood, the remaining Chu troops had truly become qualified soldiers, even if they were in the most critical time on the battlefield, they could hold on, and the previous way of fighting was very different. Xiang Dong believes that now that he has returned to Chu with more than 10,000 soldiers, he can completely fight against more than three times the Chu army. It can be said that such an opportunity can be said to be very rare.

Xiang Dong also told Gao Yuan that when the Qin army attacked Wei again, he would definitely lead the Chu army to aid Wei again, fight side by side with Gao Yuan, and resist the Qin army.

So on the fifth day after the retreat of the Qin army, the Xiang Dong brothers led the Chu army to leave Wei and return to Chu. After the king of Wei learned about it, he also led the civil and military ministers of Wei to see off the Chu army, and also gave the Chu army a lot of property to thank the Chu army for rescuing Wei. Therefore, the Chu army can be regarded as returning with a full load.

But after the Chu army left, Gao Yuan always faintly felt in his heart that Qin's actions were not limited to this, and there must be other followers.