After Pu Mao saw the above table of Gou Xiong's defeat and plea, he must have said something, but Qiu Chang didn't know what he said, and there was only one person who knew Pu Mao's attitude and words at that time, and that was Meng Lang.

With the gradual consolidation of the Pumao throne in the Qin State, Meng Lang, as his most trusted and useful person, and now his position in the Qin Dynasty has naturally risen steadily. The power and responsibility of Shang Shutai is to handle the daily state affairs according to the edict, while the power and responsibility of Zhongshu Province is to draft the edict, which is equivalent to drafting the edict and administering according to the edict, both of which are now under the control of Meng Lang. It cannot be said that there is no power to tilt the land.

- Yang Man and Gou Xiong, one is Pu Qin's noble chieftain and feudal official, and the other is Pu Qin's foreign family and general in the army, but now they are all very jealous of Meng Lang, a Tang man, especially Gou Xiong, who used to take Meng Lang very seriously, and now he is also faintly afraid, one is because of Pu Mao's credit to him, and second, the authority in Meng Lang's hands, I have to say, is also an important reason.

Because Meng Lang held the power of the court, Gou Xiong's table was first sent to Meng Lang, and then Meng Lang personally presented it to Pu Mao for reading, at that time in Pu Mao's big tent, only Pu Mao and Meng Lang were two, what Pu Mao said, of course, only Meng Lang knew.

But he didn't mention that Qiu Chang couldn't answer Gou Xiong's question, nor did he mention that Gou Xiong finally decided to attack Shangdang County with Yang Man, and the next day after receiving the order, the two of them led their troops south. And that day in the Pu Mao tent? Did he look at Gou Xiong's watch? Make somebody's blood boil.

The white skin turned red, and Pu Mao slammed Gou Xiong's expression to the ground? Said angrily: "Useless thing! ”

Gou Xiong's expression? Meng Lang has already read it, not only has he already read Gou Xiong's expression? Ji He's secret letter, Meng Lang has also received it? Why was Gou Xiong defeated? Meng Lang was clear, he picked up the expression, looked calm, and said, "The king, please calm your anger." ”

"Master Meng? Isn't Lone angry that he lost the battle? It's a lost battle, and it's a shirk of responsibility! Pu Mao pointed to the text and said, "What Ji He and Qu Yuanguang fled from the battle, causing the hearts of their troops to collapse?" He was defeated by Shuofang. Isn't this nonsense? Ji He and Qu Yuanguang are just a participant? There are no soldiers and no generals under him, don't say that they fled from the battle? is that they are killed in battle, what can affect the morale of the army? ”

Meng Lang said in his heart: "Fang Ping's secret letter? How many does he count into Gou Xiong? Advise him to be careful with his troops? Gou Xiong didn't listen and insisted on rushing forward. The reason for Gou Xiong's defeat is here! That's why he blamed Fang Ping and Qu Yuanguang in the above table, but Yuanguang just took out Fang Ping, thinking that it was nothing more than because Fang Ping was my subordinate official, so he wanted to use this to escape the king's heavy punishment. ”

If Gou Xiong is severely punished, Ji He, who "fled from the battle", will lose his head according to military law. Meng Lang will definitely not sit idly by and watch Ji He be executed, so if he wants Ji He to get rid of his crimes, Gou Xiong's crime of defeating the army will not be severely punished.

Ji He's "escape", strictly speaking, this is true, he did leave the battlefield with Qu Yuanguang and dozens of relatives shortly after the start of the war, and "fled" to the east. There are many people in the Gou Xiong army who know about this matter.

For Gou Xiong's careful thinking, Meng Lang saw it clearly when he looked at his table, in fact, Meng Lang didn't want to take this opportunity to punish Gou Xiong, after all, although Gou Xiong was defeated by Shuo Fang, he was both the brother of Queen Gou and the general of Pu Qin. Regardless of the defeat of Xiaocai, whether it is because of this, the king, on the occasion of the siege of Ye County by our royal division, the military law must not be unknown, Ji He and Qu Yuanguang must be severely punished! According to my Great Qin Military Law, I ask the king to issue an order to behead these two people, so as to deter the army and correct the heart of our army! ”

Pu Mao said: "Master Meng, Ji He was recommended by Master Meng. Master Meng knows people and has skills, this person does have a plan, and besides, Shuo Fang's defeat has nothing to do with him, how can he kill him? ”

Meng Lang said solemnly: "King, the rewards and punishments are strict, and this way of military law is also. Ji He and Qu Yuanguang fled in fear, if they don't kill, they can't do it! ”

Pu Mao pondered for a moment and said: "Ji He can't be killed, the so-called crime of escaping from the battle, demote him to a higher level of official, as a punishment." And Qu Yuanguang ......, set things right, from Long to me, and saved Pu Badger Sun, and how to say, he is Lu Shuihu's noble species, in the coming day I will attack Long, he may be a little useful, degrade his official three levels, and punish him. Master Meng, do you think this kind of punishment is good? ”

Meng Lang suspected that Pu Mao probably forgot what Qu Yuanguang's current official position was, and since Qu Yuanguang joined Qin, except for saving Pu Badger Sun, he has not made any great contributions, when he joined Qin, he didn't bring any parts, although he was born in Lu Shuihu's aristocracy, but Lu Shuihu's tribe is many, and Qu is only one of them, his "noble" identity is not very noble, so Pu Mao has not given him any high-ranking officials, and now, he is only a seven-rank captain,—— this is still after saving Pu Badger's grandson, Pu Badger Sun invited Pu Mao, and he was promoted, "degraded to the third level", and Pu Qin's official system was close to Jiangzuo, with a total of nine grades, which was not enough to degrade.

Meng Lang then responded first: "The king attaches great importance to talent, remembers merit, and lightly punishes his crimes. Obey the order. Then, he reminded Pu Mao and said: "The king, and the official Qu Yuanguang is the captain. ”

Pu Mao was stunned and said, "Then let's demote him by two levels." After a pause, he said, "Ji He has made several meritorious contributions before, and it is even more important to quell Zhao Yanli's rebellion with Lu Ming." Now he has to be punished as a last resort, and he is lonely and uneasy. He took off the jade pendant hanging from the leather belt in his waist, called the Qingque who served outside the tent to come in, and ordered, "Send someone to Gou Xiong's army and give it to Ji He." ”

Qingque received the order, went out with the jade pendant, and arranged for someone to handle the matter.

punished Ji He lightly, and Gou Xiong could not be punished severely, Pu Mao ordered: "Severely reprimand!" ”

In this regard, the punishment of Gou Xiong, Ji He, and Qu Yuanguang was set.

Pu Mao said: "Master Meng, Gou Xiong was defeated by Shuofang, and the loss of troops is still a trivial matter, Shuofang County is still a stealing base in Dingxi, threatening the hinterland of my Guanzhong, this matter is a big deal." Meng Shi thinks, what should be the solution to Lonely? ”

Meng Lang had already considered this, and replied: "Shuofang County is thousands of miles away from Longzhou, separated by the desert, although it is temporarily stolen from Dingxi, it will not hurt the overall situation of my pseudo-Wei. In the opinion of the minister, the most important thing at the moment is to defeat Ye County, since it is unfavorable for Xiaoqi to cut down Zhang Shao, then Shuofang County might as well put aside the right first, and wait until the king successfully captures Ye County, covering the land of Hebei, and then choose another general, and go to attack. ”

Pu Mao thought for a while, nodded and said, "That's all it can be." ”

He remembered Tuoba Beijin, and said in a deep voice, "Master Meng, Lone Qian followed the teacher's will, sent an envoy to Tuoba Beijin, and awarded him as the representative of Bei Danyu, although Beijin received the order, and was willing to submit to Gu, but Gou Xiong said on the table that when he fought with Zhang Shao, he rode thousands on behalf of Beihu, gathered on the north bank of the river, hovered and could not go, and did not help Gou Xiong, peeking at his intentions, as if he had a farewell ambition. Master Meng, do you think Lone wants to make another decree to further envelop the next Tuoba double catty? ”

"The king is wise, whether it is for the safety of Shuofang County, or for Murong Yan, who has fled to Youzhou in the coming day, the tendency to expand the double jin is more important. The minister thought that the king should give Tuoba another decree as a restraint. ”

"What benefits will Lone give him for this purpose?"

"Tuoba is a man who is cunning and greedy, and his ministers are foolish, but he can be worshiped as the acting king."

"Acting king?" Pu Mao pondered for a moment and said with a smile, "Master Meng's clever plan is also!" ”

Daibei, Daibei, this "Dai" refers to the Daijun of Youzhou. Daijun is now the territory of the Murong clan, and at the same time, there are many rivers in the county and the surrounding areas, and the water and grass are abundant, and it is also a place that Tuoba Beijin has long imagined. Tuoba Beijin is known as controlling 100,000 strings, although 100,000 is boasting, basically all the Hu Mu Zhuang under his rule, but his strength is indeed not to be underestimated, he can not only affect the safety of Shuofang County, but also when the Qin army attacks Youzhou in the future, if he chooses to help Murong Yan, then it is conceivable that it will also increase the difficulty of the Qin army's battle. Therefore, simply to meet Tuoba Beijin's long-standing expectations, worship him on behalf of the king, and give him the land of Youzhou in the area of Daijun, on the one hand, this is different from only granting Tuoba Beijin "Dai Bei Danyu", it is a real benefit to it; On the other hand, if Tuoba Beijin accepted this worship, Murong Yan would definitely officially regard him as an enemy, which would be beneficial to Qin.

Pu Mao was young, dared to make decisions, and was not a gentle person, so he immediately adopted Meng Lang's suggestion.

After talking about the defeat of Gou Xiong's army and the further encirclement of Tuoba and the two main things, after chatting for a while, Pu Maofu called Qingque in and ordered him to give half of the carts of Shuofang native products that Gou Xiong sent with the above table to Meng Lang. Meng Lang couldn't refuse, so Xie En accepted it. Soon a general attack on Ye County will be launched, Pu Mao is busy, Meng Lang is also busy, Meng Lang will resign and leave the account.

After returning to the account, Meng Lang asked his subordinates to draft several edicts agreed upon with Pu Mao in the account of Shicai and Pu Mao, and after the draft was completed, he personally polished them, and finally gave them to Pu Mao, and after Pu Mao saw them, he sent someone to pass them to Gou Xiong, Ji He, and Qu Yuanguang, as well as the order to make the king's seal, the king's clothes and crowns, etc., and then choose a messenger, take the holy decree of Tuoba Beijin as the king, and go to the north to pass the decree, see if Tuoba Beijin is willing to accept it.

The new battle strategy had been decided, and after these two things were completed, Meng Lang devoted himself to the preparation of leading other troops to attack Guixiang County.

Two days later, the preparations were completed.

Pu Mao allocated him 4,000 Qin army foot cavalry, and 2,000 Wei soldiers, with Tongho Liang as his deputy general, and Tongho Yu, Tonghu Haoping, Lei Xiaofang, Lü Ming and so on as generals.

On the morning of this day, Meng Lang led the troops out of the camp, and Pu Mao personally set up a banquet to send him off.

The sky is high and the clouds are light, and the wind blows from the Yellow River in the east, which is a rare cool weather in the middle of summer.

The yellow dirt road passes from the side of the Qin army camp outside Chaoge County, stretches straight to the south, and along this road dozens of miles away is Liyang County. After going forward for a certain distance, turn northeast, about a hundred miles away, is Guixiang County.

Liyang County, Guixiang County, are the counties set up by Murong Wei, the land of these two counties, is separated from the Wei County of the Tang Dynasty and other counties, Hebei is densely populated, before the Tang Dynasty moved south, the Wei County of the Tang Dynasty and other places are not big, usually the north and south, east and west are hundreds of miles up and down, from the small county, and then divide the new county, while reducing the area of the original county, on the other hand, the jurisdiction of the new county is also very small.

Therefore, in addition to the main force of the Qin army and the Ji County and Puyang County where the baggage troops are currently based, the upcoming battle of Yecheng, in the new battle strategy of Pu Mao and Meng Lang, the two battlefields in the south and northeast of Ye County that will be involved, including the rear of the main battle force of the Qin army, seem to occupy four counties, but in fact, the total size, the length of the north, south, east and west is only about 300 miles.

In such a narrow area, the Qin and Wei armies on the north and south sides now have a total of more than 100,000 people.

If you look down from the sky, you can see that in the cities of Ye County in the north, Liyang County, and Guixiang County in the northeast, at this moment, all the soldiers of the Wei army Xianbei and other tribes wearing black armor are holding lances and bows, covering the city, and outside the city, there are large camps, and the city is like a horn; Looking further to the north, thousands of people from Tang and Hu in Hebei Province, from Julu and Jianping Counties, drove sheep in carts, and under the supervision of Wei soldiers, they were heading to Ye County and Guixiang County in the dust, which was the logistics supply team of the Wei army.

The line of sight shifts from the north to the south and southeast.

In the wilderness outside the city in Chaoge County, Ji County, Puyang County and other places, the camps of the Qin army were densely packed, and the soldiers of the Qin army, Qiang and other tribes wearing white armor were in full swing in the school field, and some followed the trumpet of the golden drum, and the formation was outside, embroidered with the banners of different generals, and erected high in the camps; Looking further to the southwest, a team of Qin Guotang and Hu Minfu looked like a swarm of ants, pushing baggage carts and driving sheep, or starting from Luoyang, or coming out of Hedong County on the border of Puqin and west of Luoyang, but their destination was exactly the same, they were all rushing to Ge County, Ji County, Puyang County and other places, which were the logistics supply team of the Qin army.

Across the narrow middle ground, hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the enemy and us, and more than this number of people, confronted each other.

The weather is cool, but the atmosphere of the fierce battle is as hot as fire.

In this atmosphere, Meng Lang's mood was very high, his spirits were up, and he couldn't tell that he was already a sixty-year-old man.

With Meng Lang going out to Guixiang County, the Qin army, who was about to fight Murong Zhan, rode out of the camp, lined up in a marching formation, and embarked on the journey majestically. The banquet set up by Pu Mao for Meng Lang was on the side of the road where this army was marching. He picked up his wine glass and said to Meng Lang with a smile: "Master Meng, Gu had a hexagram last night, Daji." Master Meng will be able to succeed immediately! Waiting for your good news! ”

Meng Lang drank it all and said, "The minister must not dishonor the king's order!" ”

"Murong Zhan, the famous general of the pseudo-Wei Dynasty, is both wise and brave. Although Master Meng is going here, he will definitely succeed, but he should not despise Murong Zhan. ”

Meng Lang replied: "Your Majesty, please rest assured, the ministers will be cautious." ”

Meng Lang's wisdom, Pu Mao knows very well that the sentence just now is just the meaning of the question, Pu Mao is still very confident in Meng Lang's victory over Murong Zhan, and as long as Meng Lang defeats Murong Zhan, it is equivalent to cutting off Ye County's arm, then Ye County will not be difficult to capture, Ye County, the land of Hebei, swept away, get Hebei, and unify the north and Xuzhou, will it be far away?

Thinking of this great prospect, Pu Mao was full of energy, and looked forward to accompanying the nearly 100 Wen and military ministers who attended the banquet, and said: "Qing and the others raise a glass together, and wish Meng Shi a great victory!" ”

These nearly 100 civil and military vassals are mostly Di people, Qiang people, and Tang people, among which there are four or five Xianbei people and Huns.

Of these Xianbei people and Huns, two of them were Wei civil and military officers who were captured in Luoyang and other battles, and the rest were Xianbei and Xiongnu nobles who lived in Luoyang.

In the battle of Luoyang and other battles, the Qin army captured a large number of civil and military officials of the Wei State, Pu Mao treated them very well, even if they did not surrender, they were not easily killed, and those who were willing to surrender, he gave them all official positions and appointments. These two former Wei civil and military officers were the two highest-ranking officials among the captives, and now they have been appointed under Pu Mao's account.

Luoyang is a famous capital, there are many Tang people and Hu nobles in the city, Pu Mao is so tolerant of prisoners, but what about the Tang people and Hu nobles in the city? After conquering Luoyang, Pu Mao also treated them very well, strictly forbidding troops to harass their homes, and even sent his own soldiers to stand guard and guard the first-class clans among these scholars and nobles, and set up a wine banquet to invite the patriarch of the first-class clan, and selected their children from their families to serve as officials, and those Xianbei and Xiongnu nobles who were in Luoyang were those Tang officials who were selected by Pu Mao to reuse,—— and sent Meng Lang to the banquet, and several of them were from Luoyang, but not from the Hu nobles, He is a son of the Tang family in Luoyang.

All kinds of measures, put in the chaotic war and indiscriminate killing environment in the north, Pu Mao deserves to be called the word lenien.

Nearly 100 subordinates raised their glasses in unison and said unevenly: "Xia Guan and others wish Meng Gong a great victory!" ”

Meng Lang was not proud of his position, and drank another full cup.

After drinking two cups, Meng Lang said: "King, the amount of wine is not good, you can't drink more." After looking at the ministers at the table, he said to Pu Mao, "Before the ministers leave, there is something for the king. ”

"The king, the minister is going to attack your hometown now, as long as you are careful, Murong Zhan, the minister can win; The king attacked Ye County, Murong Wutai plagiarized lightly, Murong Quan was less and less powerful, and he was definitely not the king's opponent, it was the three uncles and nephews of the Murong family, not enough to worry about, but there were two people, and the king needed to be careful. ”