The sky was getting brighter, and Bai Qi and the others, under the protection of Jin Kuang's army, slowly marched towards Wancheng.

Along the way, Jin Kuang joined up with Chang Chi and others, a general under Sima Cuo, and doubled the number of this Qin army.

During this period, some of his generals asked puzzledly: "Sima, just let this Qin army return to Wancheng?" If he retreats to Wancheng and has the city wall as a support, it will be even more difficult for our army to defeat it when the time comes. …… Why didn't the city commander rush to lead the army to catch up with the Qin army and intercept this Qin army here? ”

Hearing this, Hua Hu Zhengse said: "The defeat of the Qin army has been decided, and even if it retreats to Wancheng, it will only be a remnant. …… I can roughly guess the intention of the city order, in short, I don't want to fight hard with the Qin army anymore, and I hope to use tactics to break this Qin army. ”

Yes, don't look at Huahu to be very reckless in fighting, but he has also read the art of war to some extent, so he naturally guessed that Meng Zhong let Sima Cuo's army retreat to Wancheng, just to trap this Qin army here, if he expected it to be good, then his Wei army will besiege Wancheng without attacking, and instead send cavalry to harass Wuguan and cut off the grain route from Wuguan to Wancheng.

In this case, even if Sima Cuo's army was intact before, it would have to follow in the footsteps of Bai Qi because it was trapped in a lonely city and ran out of food and grass, and was defeated by his Wei army.

Because of this, the tens of thousands of Qin troops in the distance were actually no different from dead people in the eyes of Huahu.

Two hours later, at about the hour, Bai Qi, Jin Kuang, Wurong and others slowly came to Wancheng.

When he saw the city in the distance, Sima Jin breathed a sigh of relief, turned to Bai Qi and said, "Bai Shuai, you have finally arrived in Wancheng." ”

“……”

Bai Qi nodded slightly, but did not mean to answer.

He turned his head to look behind him, and under the frowning brow, those eyes were a little hazy.

I remember the night he evacuated from Fangcheng, there were still more than 20,000 soldiers under his command, but at present, the generals who followed him to withdraw to Wancheng by luck were estimated by Ji Hong to have less than 2,000 people, and there was not one in ten.

was pursued by the Wei army for a day and two nights, and nearly 18,000 people under his command were either missing or killed by the Wei army, and just like that, it was still thanks to Jin Kuang, Wu Rong and other generals under the command of Sima Cuo to lead the army to rescue, otherwise, I am afraid that there will not be even these two thousand people left.

"Boom—"

When the army arrived at the east gate of Wancheng, the gate slowly opened.

Sima Jin looked at the city gate tower and whispered in surprise: "Grandfather, grandfather is on the city tower." ”

“……”

Bai Qi subconsciously raised his head to look at the city gate tower, and sure enough, he saw Sima Cuo standing on the city wall wearing armor, exactly the same image as he remembered.

He looked up at Sima Cuo, who was also standing on the tower looking at him, and at the Qin pawns behind him who looked miserable.

"According to the people sent by Jin Kuang, there are only 2,000 people left in Bai Qi's army......"

On the side, Sima Cuo's guard Ding Bao said in a low voice: "I can't imagine that even that Bai Zuo Geng will fall to this point. ”

Hearing this, Sima Co glared at him and said in a deep voice: "Hugh is talking nonsense! ”

With that, he turned and walked to the steps of the wall.

When he walked down the steps of the city wall, Bai Qi happened to enter from outside the city in a chariot, and when he saw this, he took the initiative to step forward.

At this time, Bai Qi had also noticed Sima Cuo walking towards him, and after ordering the soldiers who were driving to stop the chariot, he got off the chariot, stood with his fists clenched, and looked at Sima Cuo's gaze a little complicated.

Looking at Bai Qi, who looked a little wrong, Sima Co nodded, and didn't say anything, just invited Bai Qi to go with him to the city gate tower to discuss matters.

After a while, Bai Qi and Sima Jin followed Sima Coo to the city gate tower.

Stepping into the building, Bai Qi smelled the aroma of broth, and after a closer look, he saw that the meat of an unknown animal was boiling in the copper tripod in the building, and the meat was fragrant.

"It was a roe deer caught by the patrolling soldiers and presented to the old man...... Please. Casually explained, Sima mistakenly invited Bai Qi to sit at the opposite table, and then ordered the guard Ding Bao to fetch a few pieces of roe deer meat for Bai Qi to satisfy his hunger.

At this time, Bai Qi did not eat a grain of rice for a day and a night, and he was hungry, and when he saw the meat in front of him, he was not polite, and he didn't care about the heat, so he tore off a few pieces of meat with his hands and stuffed them into his mouth.

Sima Jin saw it on the side, and said, "Grandfather ......"

Sima Coo glanced at his grandson, turned his head and gestured to Ding Bao with his eyes, Ding Bao understood, and pulled Sima Jin out of the building.

I don't know what he said to Sima Jin during the period, in short, Sima Jin's pace is extremely fast, and Sima Cuo also prepared a more sumptuous meal for his grandson in advance.

At this time, the only sound in the building was Bai Qi chewing meat and snorting when he was burned, but other than that, Bai Qi did not say a word.

And Sima Cuo was not in a hurry, drinking slowly with a bowl of broth, looking up at Bai Qi from time to time, looking at the latter's gobbling appearance.

After a full quarter of an hour, only to hear a grunt, Bai Qi threw the gnawed bones in his hand on the table in front of him, and immediately smacked his lips, looking at the old lieutenant in front of him with a complicated expression.

"Why don't you withdraw to Wuguan?"

As if he didn't have the slightest consciousness of being rescued by Sima Cuo, Bai Qi said with a calm face: "The army of Meng Zhong and Zhai Zhang will arrive in Wancheng immediately, and they will trap you in this city. Later, Meng Zhong repeated his old trick and sent troops to cut off the grain route from Wuguan to Wancheng, even if there were still tens of thousands of troops under the command of the national captain, it was destined to be difficult to hold for a long time......"

There was a slight excitement on his face, because he felt that Sima's wrong approach had made his sacrifice meaningless.

Facing Bai Qi's almost questioning question, Sima Cuo didn't mean to be annoyed at all, he said slowly: "Bai Zuogen's words, don't you think it's arrogant? Just like the agreement between you and the old man before, how Bai Zuo decided in Fangcheng, the old man would not interfere, but on the old man's side, there was also the old man's own judgment, and it was not Bai Zuo's turn to point fingers......"

Bai Qi sneered twice and said, "In order to save a mere 2,000 people and take 60,000 troops, does the national captain think it's worth it?" If it were me, I wouldn't have sent troops to save me......"

Hearing this, Sima Cuo was not annoyed, and said with a smile: "That's Bai Zuogen's business." …… The old man who was half cut into the ground, even if Bai Zuo did not send troops to rescue, it would be fine. ”

“……”

Bai Qi looked at Sima Cuo a few times, and suddenly sighed and said, "Bai...... I don't know what to say. ”

After saying that, he hesitated for a moment, and finally said in a low voice: "Anyway, thank you Captain Guo for sending troops to rescue." ”

Sima Coo was stunned, then shook his head and said: "The old man didn't save you, it was my good general of Daqin, and Bai Zuo didn't have to take it to heart." After that, he looked at Bai Qi and asked, "If Bai Zuogen's mood calms down, then the old man will get down to business." ”

“……”

Bai Qi took a deep look at Sima Cuo.

I remember that when we first got along, he looked down on this veteran, but as the two gradually got along, Sima Cuo's talent in leading troops to fight was aside, at least this veteran's morality and loyalty to the Qin State and the King of Qin really made Bai Qi feel admired.

Thinking of this, he nodded and said, "Bai has lost his temper......"

Seeing that Bai Qi's mood had calmed down, Sima Cuo nodded with satisfaction, and then asked with a straight face: "According to the letter you sent, Zhai Zhang had previously led his army to Yangguan and joined Na Meng Zhong, so according to your estimates, how many troops does the Wei army have in total now?" ”

Bai Qi thought for a while and said: "According to what I saw when I attacked Yangguan repeatedly in the past few days, combined with my guess, the Wei army now has a total of about 100,000 troops......

"100,000?" Sima Co frowned.

The Wei army has 100,000 troops on this side, plus at least 50,000 troops of the storm kite, in other words, the Wei-Han coalition army has a total of 150,000 troops, and his Qin army is now only 60,000 troops under his command.

As Bai Qi said, it is really not a wise choice to stay in Wancheng in this situation.

Of course, Sima Cuo did not regret it.

As the saying goes, it is easy to get one general in the three armies, and it seems that if a good general like Bai Qi is killed by the Wei army in this battle, it will be the heaviest loss of his Qin State, as if the Wei State lost Gongsun Xi.

The two were chatting, and suddenly a soldier outside the house shouted: "Captain, Wei Jun!" The Wei army has arrived! ”

Hearing this, Sima Cuo and Bai Qi immediately walked out of the building, stood on the gate tower of the east city gate and looked into the distance, only to see that in the far east, there were countless Wei troops coming slowly, about three or four miles away from Wancheng, stationed on the spot.

During this period, a group of cavalry approached Wancheng, or spied on the Qin army on the city wall, or rode horses and galloped straight west.

"It's Meng Zhong's Fangcheng army." Bai Qi said in a low voice.

"Hmm." Sima Cuo nodded slightly, then looked into the distance and said: "This amount of troops, I'm afraid it's less than 100,000, it seems that Zhai Zhang's army hasn't arrived here yet......"

Hearing this, Bai Qi said rather melancholy: "When Zhai Zhang's army arrives, I'm afraid it's time for the Wei and Han coalition forces to jointly besiege Wancheng......"

Sima Cuo naturally understood what he meant, and said calmly: "For today's plan, the only way is to stick to Wancheng and wait for reinforcements." By the way, the old man has sent someone to Xianyang for help......"

Speaking of this, he couldn't help but glance at Wei Jun in the distance outside the city, and he was inevitably a little worried in his heart.

What to worry about?

Naturally, he was worried about whether he could wait until the reinforcements arrived.

After all, the Wei and Han armies they faced this time were different from the previous Wei armies, and they were no less than the Qi, Wei and Han coalition armies of Tian Zhang, Gongsun Xi, and Storm Kite.

It's just that the core figure of the Qin, Wei and Han alliances was Tian Zhang, the famous general of Qi, and now the core figure of the Wei-Han alliance is the young Wei general Meng Zhong.

On that day, the Wei army did not move, but was busy building a camp in the area of Wancheng and building an earthen wall to prepare for the siege of Wancheng.

It is worth mentioning that at this time, when the garrison was about fifteen miles northwest of Wancheng, when he discovered the whereabouts of the Fangcheng cavalry in the Wancheng area, he immediately guessed that Meng Zhong had led the army to chase here, so he immediately tried to get in touch with Meng Zhong.

That night, the violent kite personally came to the camp of the Wei army and met Meng Zhong.

After some pleasantries, Meng Zhong asked Storm Kite, "Didn't the elder brother be able to hold back Sima Cuo's army?" ”

Hearing this, the violent kite was really embarrassed.

After all, according to Meng Zhong, the Wei army has almost wiped out Bai Qi's army, on the other hand, his Han army, not to mention how heavy casualties were caused to the army led by Sima Cuo, he was defeated by Sima Cuo, although the loss was not serious, but it was really unreasonable to say on the face.

He explained embarrassedly: "At that time, Sima Cuo probably guessed that Brother Fool would lead the army to pursue when he withdrew his troops, so he planned to set up an ambush, Brother Fool was confused for a while, and hurriedly withdrew his troops after seeing the ambush, and was escaped by Sima Cuo......

Hearing this, Meng Zhong was also a little speechless.

He also didn't expect that under such circumstances, the army led by Storm Kite would be thrown off by Sima Cuo.

It was precisely because of the changes in this ring that when Meng Hu and Cao Chun led 3,000 cavalry to Wancheng along Niuwei Slope, they found that the army of Changchi, the general under Sima Cuo, had already been stationed at Gukou, so that the 3,000 cavalry could not cut off Bai Qi's return route as scheduled.

Otherwise, if Sima Cuo failed to garrison Wancheng in time, it would be difficult for Bai Qi's rout army to escape from the pursuit of 5,000 cavalry under the command of Meng Hu and Hua Hu.

However, the matter has come to this point, and it is useless to pursue it again, not to mention, Sima Cuo and Bai Qi are trapped in Wancheng by them after all, and there is still room for redemption.

Thinking of this, he comforted the violent kite and said: "Brother don't care, as long as next, my Wei and Han armies join forces to besiege Wancheng, and they will definitely be able to defeat the Qin army and capture Sima Cuo, Bai Qi and others." ”

Seeing that Meng Zhong turned around to relieve the siege for himself, Storm Kite was also a little grateful in his heart, nodded and said: "Okay, foolish brother listens to my brother, our Wei and Han armies work together, and we will definitely be able to defeat the Qin army again!" ”

After returning to his camp that night, Storm Kite ordered some wine to be sent to Meng Zhong.

The next day, around noon, Zhai Zhang led tens of thousands of troops to slowly arrive in this area.

After ordering his army to rest for the time being, Zhai Zhang took Meng Zhong to Wancheng to spy on the movements of the Qin army.

During this period, Zhai Zhang asked Meng Zhongdao: "Sima Cuo's army is in Wancheng right now?" How many troops are there? ”

Meng Zhong nodded and said, "Yes, according to the Storm Kite, there are about sixty thousand. ”

"Storm kites? He's also on Wancheng's side? The old man thought that he had been defeated by Sima Cuo! ”

Zhai Zhang frowned slightly, obviously a little dissatisfied with the storm kite.

Also, if the violent kite could hold Sima Cuo in Xibei a few days ago, his Wei army would undoubtedly be able to capture Wancheng today, and there would be a great chance to capture Bai Qi and other generals of the Qin State, which would be very beneficial for his Wei State to negotiate with the Qin State in the future.

Meng Zhong smiled, and then explained on behalf of the tyrant kite, but Zhai Zhang was still not very satisfied, and said with a frown: "This time to resist the Qin army, the Han army has almost nothing to do, if they want to take back Wancheng, they must pay some price." ”

Meng Zhong was stunned and asked, "Da Sima, what you mean, it seems that you don't plan to return Wancheng to Korea?" ”

Zhai Zhang frowned and said: "On that day, my Wei and Han made an appointment, Wancheng belonged to South Korea, and Fangcheng belonged to my Wei State, and they were each other's lips and teeth, resisting Qin and Chu, but this time you also saw that the Han army did nothing, and gave Wancheng away, leaving you Fangcheng alone to fight against the Qin and Chu coalition forces, since this is the case, it is better to give Wancheng to Wei State." ”

As he spoke, he turned his head to look at Meng Zhong and encouraged, "Don't you have six thousand cavalry under your command?" The land around Wancheng is vast, which is suitable for grazing war horses. ”

"This ......" Meng Zhong said with a wry smile: "Having said that, I still owe a lot of favors to South Korea, and the crossbows in our city are obtained from South Korea half on credit and crossed the river and demolished the bridge...... I'm afraid it's not good. ”

Hearing this, Zhai Zhang suddenly took a deep look at Meng Zhong, and said meaningfully: "Perhaps, this is where you are better than Gongsun Xi, but it is also where you are not as good as Gongsun Xi." ”

Meng Zhong was stunned, but he understood what Zhai Zhang meant.

Yes, Zhai Zhang refers to the difference between Meng Zhong and Gongsun Xi in their treatment of allies, although Gongsun Xi was born in the Yin Jin Dynasty of Qin, but as the great Sima of Wei, Gongsun Xi is competent, always puts the interests of Wei in the highest priority, and does not hesitate to harm the interests of allies, which can be seen from his disagreement with Storm Kite during the Battle of Yique.

Compared with Gongsun Xi, Meng Zhong pays more attention to the overall situation, and he understands the truth of cold lips and teeth, so he will not harm the interests of Korea for the sake of the interests of Wei, and because of this, he gets along very well with Storm Kite, Gongzhong and others.

After thinking about it, Meng Zhong said to Zhai Zhang: "Qiang Kou has already broken into the door, and the two brothers are still arguing in the house over family wealth, isn't it ridiculous? fought back and forth, and in the end they all cheapened those strong gangsters. …… Among the three Jin Dynasty, only the land of Wei and Han is wrapped in each other, if we can't abandon our suspicions of each other and work together, in today's situation, I am afraid that the national fortune will not last long. ”

Zhai Zhang pondered for a moment and asked, "Then if you take Wancheng, you will return it to South Korea for nothing?" ”

"That's not it, I think that if Wancheng is returned to South Korea, then what our city previously owed to South Korea may be written off?"

“……”

Hearing this, Zhai Zhang glanced at Meng Zhong, and then said with a smile: "It seems that you are much more witty than the old man thought. …… Let's go, let's go back to the camp and discuss the siege. ”

"Whoa!"

On the same day, after some discussion, Zhai Zhang led his army and moved to the southwest side of Wancheng about ten miles, preparing to build a camp here, forming a triangle with the army garrisons of Storm Kite and Meng Zhong, and surrounding Wancheng.

It's just the materials for building the camp, but it has become a headache for Meng Zhong and Zhai Zhang.

It turned out that when Han Xiao retreated last year, he sent soldiers to set fire to the forests around Wancheng, and when Sima Cuo rescued Bai Qi a while ago, he also expected that his garrison Wancheng was likely to be besieged by the Wei and Han coalition forces, so he sent soldiers to clean up nearby, which would make not a single forest within a radius of dozens of miles, which greatly slowed down the speed of the Wei army's construction of the camp.

It's a pity that even so, Sima Cuo and Bai Qi have no way to take advantage of this matter to make his Qin army gain any advantage, firstly, the difference in strength between the two sides is too great, it is difficult to take any advantage, and secondly, Meng Zhong, Zhai Zhang, and Storm Kite are not mediocre talents, and in the case of their own advantage, how can they easily give the Qin army any chance?

Instead of trying to harass the Wei army during the construction of the camp, it is better to think about how to make up for the shortage of food and grass in the army.

Three days later, on March 26, a Qin army carrying grain set out from Wuguan and headed straight for Wancheng.

However, halfway through, the Qin army's grain transport unit was harassed by the Fangcheng cavalry.

Forget the harassment of the cavalry alone, the key is the general Han Xiao under the command of the tyrant and the general Tang Zhi under the command of Zhai Zhang, the two of them also keep in touch with the Fangcheng cavalry at any time, once the Fangcheng cavalry found the grain transportation team of the Qin army, Han Xiao and Tang Zhi immediately led the army to intercept, trying not to let a grain enter Wancheng and completely cut off the grain and grass of Sima Cuo's army.

Under the joint interception of Han Xiao, Tang Zhi, Meng Hu, Hua Hu and others, the grain transportation team of the Qin army was severely damaged, and the Qin soldiers who escorted the grain and grass were driven and killed, and the grain and grass they escorted were intercepted by the Wei and Han armies.

During this period, some Qin soldiers who were lucky enough to flee risked their lives to break into Wancheng and inform Sima Cuo and Bai Qi of the bad news of the attack on grain and grass.

After learning about this, Sima Cuo was also worried.

Although he had anticipated the siege of Wancheng by the Wei and Han coalition forces, he still underestimated the tight encirclement of the Wei and Han coalition forces, especially the Fangcheng cavalry under Meng Zhong, this group of cavalry was specially squatting in the wilderness from Wuguan to Wancheng.

Not to mention that there are also the armies of Han Xiao and Tang Zhi's second generals to support this Fangcheng cavalry at any time, Sima Cuo really can't think of any way to make Wuguan successfully escort grain and grass to Wancheng.

Seeing the rapid consumption of grain and grass in the city day by day, Sima Cuo was also worried.

Seeing this, Bai Qi gave advice to Sima Cuo: "The horse-drawn carriage transporting grain is not as fast as the Fangcheng cavalry, so the large grain team will be chased by the Fangcheng cavalry, so it is better to ask some soldiers to sneak out of the city and carry grain from Wuguan by manpower." ”

"Tell the soldiers to carry the grain? How much can that carry? "Sima is incomprehensible.

Seeing this, Bai Qi gave an example: "It is not a problem for a soldier to carry ten days' rations with him, in other words, one person can carry seven or eight people's rations for a day, although it is cumbersome, but it is better than using a carriage to transport grain and being wiped out by the Wei and Han coalition forces." ”

Sima Cuo pondered for a moment, and finally agreed to Bai Qi's suggestion, after all, this was the only way they had at the moment.

So that night, thousands of Qin soldiers sneaked out of Wancheng at night and went straight to Wuguan.

After Zhai Zhang and the soldiers under the command of Storm Kite discovered these Qin soldiers, they sent people to chase and kill them on the one hand, and on the other hand, they told Zhai Zhang and Storm Kite.

At that time, Zhai Zhang and Storm Kite didn't care, they just thought it was strange, after all, according to their estimates, Sima Cuo's army should still have some surplus food, so there would not be deserters so soon.

"If you can chase it, you can chase it, forget it if you can't catch it, after all, the purpose of our army is to besiege Wancheng and defeat Sima Cuo's army."

The two of them gave orders to the sergeant under their command in unison.

But two or three days later, the Wei and Han armies noticed that something was wrong, after all, only the Qin army sneaked out of Wancheng a few days ago, and now there are Qin soldiers who came out of nowhere trying to sneak back to Wancheng, and when the soldiers of the Wei and Han armies killed these Qin soldiers, they found that these Qin soldiers were carrying a cloth bag with them, and the cloth bag was full of rice grain.

Zhai Zhang and Storm Kite suddenly realized: it turned out that Sima Cuo was trying to secretly transport grain in this way.

Having realized this, they immediately increased their patrol team at night.

After this matter reached Meng Zhong's ears, Meng Zhong did not think so, after all, in his opinion, Sima Cuo had 60,000 troops under his command, and secretly transporting grain and grass in this way was just a drop in the bucket, at best, it could only postpone the date when the Qin army ran out of grain and grass for a day or two, which was not enough to make up for the Qin army's grain and grass shortage.

In contrast, he was more concerned about Qin's reinforcements.

As far as the current situation is concerned, only the Qin State can send reinforcements to rescue Sima Cuo and Bai Qi.

Otherwise, the two of them and the 60,000 Qin troops will definitely be defeated.

Sure enough, in early April, Xiang Shou, the general of the Qin State, led an unknown number of troops out of Wuguan, and went down the Danshui River, heading straight to the area of Xixian and Lixian.