When Meng Hu led more than 300 cavalry to annihilate a Qin army convoy and a 500-man foot soldier, Hua Hu was not idle, and he launched a night attack on the garrison of 50,000 Qin troops on the first night.

It has to be said that cavalry is very suitable for attacking the enemy at night, as long as the enemy is unprepared to capture the camp gate and rush in, the enemy's camp will basically be overturned by the cavalry.

However, the more than 300 cavalry under Hua Hu's command were Wei Wushu, who had just transformed from foot soldiers to cavalry, how sure could he complete such a difficult night attack tactic?

When the deputy general Cai Cheng asked this question, Hua Hu explained in detail: "Although the soldiers under my command are considered new recruits in terms of cavalry, they are from Wei Wushu after all, and they should not be regarded as ordinary new soldiers. Moreover, I see that the Qin army has not set up a camp, and there are only a few soldiers patrolling at night, so it may not be impossible to be attacked by our army. ”

Cai Cheng thought about it carefully and felt that what Hua Hu said was quite reasonable.

Whether it was the capture of Xingyang, Zhaiyang, Zhengcheng, and Huancheng a while ago, or the current attack on Yihu City, the Qin army adopted the tactics of "quick attack" and did not build a camp, as for the reason, it is obviously because the Qin army does not have this time - behind him is the main force of the Wei army led by Meng Zhong to pursue them, how can Bai Qi have this spare time to build a camp step by step?

Once he is caught by the Wei army, it will be difficult for his 50,000 Qin troops to get out again!

Because of this, Hua Hu tried to launch a night attack on the 50,000 Qin army, and on the night when Menghu destroyed the convoy, Hua Hu led more than 300 cavalry to take advantage of the night to kill the Qin army's garrison - it was said to be a station, but in fact it was a place where 50,000 Qin soldiers slept around a pile of bonfires, and there were no camps, no antlers, horses and other defensive facilities, at most there were patrolling guards.

But how can those guards who are responsible for patrolling have the mobility of cavalry? Even if those patrol guards discovered this Wei cavalry and sounded the bronze cymbals that represented the warning signal at night, Hua Hu and the more than 300 cavalry under his command still had enough time to make a mess in the garrison before those Qin soldiers were fully awake, and then they walked away under the gnashing gaze of thousands of Qin soldiers.

However, considering that it was the first night attack, and the target was still a full 50,000 Qin troops, Hua Hu's night attack was not so much to create trouble for the Qin army, but not to train the troops, sharpen the courage of the Wei soldiers under his command, and their fit and tacit understanding with each other.

All in all, it's almost the same as Menghu's side, and it's also a teaching battle.

In the early morning of the next day, when Menghu's cavalry set out to search for the 500-strong Qin army's foot soldiers, the Qin general Ji Hong told Bai Qi about the night attack by another Wei cavalry the previous night, and also told the latter the specific casualties.

The number of casualties was not much, at best only about 500 people, and about 30% of them were caused by accidental injuries to each other, which was not worth mentioning for a Qin army of 50,000 people.

But the white complexion was quite solemn.

He frowned and asked Ji Hong, "So, there are actually two cavalry teams of the Wei army?" ”

"Yes." Ji Hong nodded and said, "But there are not many people, there are only more than three hundred people." ”

"Do you know who the generals of these two Wei cavalry are?"

"I don't know."

"......" Bai Qi frowned again.

In terms of leading troops to fight, he believed in the famous military saying of "knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent, and never slacking off in a hundred battles", and the reason why he was able to break the army of Gongsun Xi, a famous general of Wei, was precisely because Bai Qi investigated his opponent in advance, and then through the observation of the Wei army and the Korean army, he realized that the two coalition forces were actually inseparable, and then he carried out the plan of night attack.

However, after this battle was fought so far, he suddenly found that he knew less and less about the Wei army.

First of all, a Wei army commander surnamed Meng replaced Gongsun Xi to command the remnants of the Wei army, this person's tactical ability was not below him at all, and led the remnants of the Wei army to block his Qin army on all sides, so that the victorious division under his command, which had broken the Wei and Han coalition forces of more than 200,000 overnight a while ago, was chased and beaten by the Wei army that had suffered defeat, and was embarrassed like a lost dog.

Secondly, I have never heard of any cavalry trained by the Wei State, but inexplicably there are cavalry in the Wei army, and these cavalry still look very tricky.

What the?

How did Bai Qi know that those Wei cavalry were tricky?

Although there has been no news from Menghu's side, Hua Hu did sneak attack his 50,000 Qin troops last night!

A cavalry of more than 300 people attacked his 50,000 Qin army garrison at night, and immediately retreated after causing casualties of 500 Qin soldiers in a short period of time, and marched away in front of countless Qin soldiers, so that the soldiers under his command did not cause any effective casualties to the other side - it seems that this kind of cavalry who knows how to advance and retreat, is not greedy for merit, and has the courage to attack 50,000 enemy cavalry at night with more than 300 people, a night attack is enough to see the tricky degree of the other party, do you have to wait for the second and third times when the other party attacks them, and then realize the difficulty of the other party?

"According to Ji Hong, the Wei cavalry that attacked our army last night took only a quarter of an hour before and after the sneak attack...... This is military training. With this successful experience, this cavalry's next night attack will inevitably be more lethal, not good, not good......

Stretched out his hand and rubbed the eyebrow bone above the bridge of his nose, and said to Ji Hong in a deep voice: "The matter of the two Wei cavalry, let's put it aside for the time being, and ask the generals to step up their attack on the fox city and take down this city as soon as possible." …… There is not much food left in the army. ”

Hearing this, Ji Hong's face turned straight, and he immediately hugged his fists and responded: "Oh! ”

On the same day, that is, on the eighth day of the fifth month, Bai Qi once again ordered an attack on Fox City.

What relieved him a little was that under the unsparing attack of his 50,000 Qin troops, the fox city in front of him was about to be broken, which made Bai Qi secretly relieved.

However, at this moment, Meng Hu once again led the cavalry to appear on the flank of the Qin army, watching the Qin army's attack on the city of Fox as he did yesterday.

"Is it the Wei cavalry that attacked our garrison last night?"

After noticing the cavalry, Bai Qi frowned and communicated with Ji Hong.

As he spoke, he was a little surprised in his heart, surprised by the good energy of the Wei cavalry.

The reason is very simple, because after the Wei cavalry (Huahu) successfully attacked the Qin army last night, they followed the example that Meng Zhong did to Wang Shi when he was in Zhao State, and launched a "tired strategy" against the Qin army, that is, shouting around the Qin army's garrison from time to time in the middle of the night, so as to frighten the Qin army, so that many Qin soldiers did not sleep well for most of the night.

But in the same way, Hua Hu's gang also sacrificed their sleep time, so Bai Qi originally thought that this cavalry should be hiding somewhere at the moment and sleeping soundly, but he didn't expect to appear in front of his Qin army again.

"It seems...... Not the cavalry that attacked our army last night......"

Unexpectedly, Ji Hong squinted his eyes and looked at it for a while, and said unconfidently: "This Wei army ...... Stronger momentum. ”

"Momentum...... What?'

Hearing this, Bai Qi also squinted his eyes and carefully observed the Wei cavalry in the distance.

He knew that there were currently two Wei cavalry teams of more than 300 people each, and he was wandering around the army, and because there was no more detailed banner distinction between the two Wei cavalry, it was difficult to distinguish which one it was, but in fact, through careful observation, he could still find some differences.

Yesterday, during the daytime, he peeked at the Wei cavalry of his Qin army, that is, the one led by Meng Hu, in Bai Qi's opinion, the discipline of the sergeants and pawns of the army was relatively loose, even though he was eyeing his Qin army on the sidelines, there were also soldiers who exchanged and laughed in private, which shows that the generals who commanded this cavalry did not strictly restrain the soldiers in this regard.

And the Wei cavalry that attacked them last night - that is, the one led by Hua Hu, during the night attack on his Qin army, his soldiers did not say a word from beginning to end, and immediately retreated as soon as they succeeded.

At this moment, the Wei cavalry that was peeking at them in the distance could faintly hear their whispered conversation, which could be seen to be the one in the daytime yesterday......

Thinking of this, Bai Qi's face immediately sank.

You know, he sent a hundred chariots and five hundred foot soldiers to pursue this Wei cavalry yesterday, and now this cavalry has appeared in front of their Qin army again, so what about the soldiers he sent out? Why hasn't there been any news so far?

"Is it ......?"

Taking a deep look at the Wei cavalry in the distance, a guess flashed in Bai Qi's heart that surprised him.

On that day, due to the desperate resistance of the Korean soldiers and civilians in the city, the Qin army still failed to capture the city, which made Bai Qi feel a little anxious.

He said to Ji Hong: "The chariot team and five hundred soldiers sent out yesterday have not been heard from so far, and I suspect that they have been killed by those Wei cavalry......

Hearing this, Ji Hong felt incredible.

After all, in his cognition, the cavalry is very weak, not to mention more than 300 cavalry, even if the two Wei cavalry plus one, with a number of close to 700 cavalry, may not be able to easily defeat a chariot of 100 chariots, let alone 500 foot soldiers.

But he also undeniable that there has been no news of that convoy and 500 foot soldiers, which is indeed an indisputable fact.

At this time, Bai Qi said to Ji Hong again: "I suspect that the cavalry of the two Wei armies will come again tonight to attack our army at night, you send someone to ambush outside, if it really dares to come and sneak attack, it should be surrounded by the inside and outside, and killed in one fell swoop!" ”

"Whoa!"

Ji Hong hugged his fists and immediately arranged to ambush the two Wei cavalry at night.

It is undeniable that Menghu is a reckless man, and Huahu is a reckless man who is familiar with the art of war, both of them like to use the simplest way, but this does not mean that they have no strategy, especially in sneak attacks and counter-sneak attacks, after all, they have followed Meng Zhong for many years, and they also know some "false and real" truths.

Just like Meng Zhong's sneak attack, he is used to launching a sneak attack when the enemy army relaxes their vigilance, even if it is dawn when the sneak attack is launched, and the first light of dawn has bloomed on the horizon - Meng Zhong's choice of timing is more focused on the weakness of human nature, rather than ordinary night, which means that Meng Zhong needs many feints to pave the way before and after a successful sneak attack, so as to paralyze the enemy, but relatively speaking, the success rate will increase a lot.

Meng Hu and Hua Hu have been by Meng Zhong's side for a long time, so they are naturally inevitably affected by the latter, so they will not rashly launch a sneak attack - especially Hua Hu, when he has already succeeded last night, he will never attack at night in a row, Bai Qi wants to ambush Hua Hu? Let's go through Hua Hu's night harassment at least four or five times.

No, after waiting for a night, none of the cavalry led by Menghu and Huahu launched a sneak attack on the Qin army.

However, when the cavalry of the Menghu Army was sleeping in the woods in the distance, the Huahu Army carried out a tired tactic against the Qin army, only harassing and not sneaking attack, and thought that the other party had seen through his strategy, so that he couldn't help but be in a trance: How could someone casually see through my strategy?

But in fact, Hua Hu didn't know that Bai Qi had set up an ambush, and he was not ready to attack the Qin army at night again.

The next day, that is, on the ninth day of the fifth month, Bai Qi, who failed to ambush the Wei cavalry, once again ordered to attack the city of Huanghu, because the defense of the city for several days made the city sacrifice too many soldiers and civilians, so around noon, this city was finally inevitably broken by the Qin army.

The Qin soldiers, who had paid more than 5,000 casualties in order to capture the city, poured into the city like a tidal wave, wantonly slaughtering and looting in the city.

In this regard, Meng Hu and Hua Hu, who heard the news, had no choice but to watch the city outside the city that was in panic and screaming, and at most scolded with contempt: Qin Jun is really not a thing!

The capture of Fox City made Bai Qi breathe a sigh of relief, he was not afraid of the two Wei cavalry outside the city - indeed, those two Wei cavalry were indeed difficult to entangle, but it was not enough to make Bai Qi, who commanded the 50,000 Qin army, feel afraid, and what Bai Qi cared about the most was the main force of the 60,000 Wei army led by the guy surnamed Meng.

Bai Qi had no doubt that the two cavalrymen had already sent someone to tell the guy surnamed Meng about the movements of his Qin army—maybe at this moment, the guy surnamed Meng was leading the main force of the Wei army to march towards this side.

Capture of Fox City before that guy led the main force of the Wei army to arrive, which somewhat added a bit of confidence to Bai Qi and the confidence to resist the main force of the Wei army.

"Ahh

At the same time, on the way to Yangcheng, Meng Zhong sneezed for some reason.

"Brother, did you catch a cold last night?"

Meng Ao, the clan brother who drove the chariot, asked with a smile.

"Probably......"

Meng Zhong replied casually, his eyes looking straight in the direction of Yangcheng, and he seemed to be a little absent-minded.

He was still thinking about the movements of the Qin army.

Three days ago, on the way straight to Yangcheng, Meng Hu and Hua Hu sent people to send news of the Qin army to Meng Zhong, saying that the Qin army might be in Yangcheng.

However, because Meng Hu and Hua Hu did not confirm the whereabouts of the Qin army at that time, Meng Zhong did not dare to act rashly, lest he repeat his old tricks and transfer him to leave Xinzheng and take the opportunity to attack the royal capital of South Korea.

It wasn't until two days ago that Meng Hu and Hua Hu sent news that they had confirmed that the Qin army had crossed Yingshui immediately after capturing Yangcheng, and Meng Zhong ordered to march towards Yangcheng.

I have to say that even Meng Zhong didn't expect that the guy surnamed Bai would actually cross Yingshui with 50,000 Qin troops, which made him feel very bad.

Pursued by his 60,000 Wei troops, the 50,000 Qin troops invaded Korea, burned and looted, destroyed several cities and countless farmlands, and finally slapped their butts and successfully escaped, even though no one had blamed him for this matter so far, Meng Zhong felt a little ashamed.

He had a good impression of the Koreans, after all, the Koreans not only gave grain, grass, crossbows, and arrows for free, but also gave him 300 war horses from the Wei army after hearing that he had collected all the war horses to form a chariot, so that Meng Zhong, Dou Xing, Wei Qing and other generals in the Wei army could still use the chariot to travel now, instead of being like ordinary foot soldiers, who could only rush to Yangcheng with their own legs.

Of course, Meng Zhong also knew that the reason why the Han people were so generous was just to hope that his Wei army could defeat the Qin army as soon as possible, but even so, Meng Zhong still accepted the love of the Han people very much - mainly Han King Han Ji, Han Prime Minister Gong Zhong Min, and Gong Zhong Luxury, who contributed the most in this matter.

Another day, on the ninth day of the fifth month, Meng Zhong led the main force of the Wei army to Yangcheng.

Before and after this, he successively received news from Menghu, Huahu, and Muwu, which was sent by the cavalry under the command of the three, and each sent two cavalrymen, a total of six people.

Let's talk about Mu Wu first, the cavalry he sent told Meng Zhong that they had not found any trace of the Qin army in the area of Yuxian and Yangzhai.

And Mu Wu also asked the two cavalrymen to tell Meng Zhong: "...... At the time of sending this news, Brigade Marshal Mu had already led the cavalry straight to the west of the fox city. ”

"Hmm."

Meng Zhong nodded, after all, among Meng Hu, Hua Hu, and Mu Wu, he was most at ease with Mu Wu, although this kid was a little sullen on weekdays, but it was undeniable that this guy was actually very cunning.

Among the companions, in terms of leading the troops alone, except for Le Yi, Meng Sui, and Wu Ying, Meng Zhong was the most relieved of Mu Wu.

In contrast, Menghu and Huahu are still more impulsive.

"Do you brigade commanders have anything else to say to you?" Meng Zhong finally asked the two cavalrymen.

I saw the two cavalrymen look at each other, and said with a smile: "Actually, there is another sentence...... That is, Menghu and Huahu are two bastards! …… That's what our brigade commander said. ”

Meng Zhong was stunned, and immediately understood: Mu Wu must have been cheated by Meng Hu and Hua Hu.

"Well......," he said in a pretended mutter, "Go back and tell you the brigade commander, and say, did you know those two people on the first day?" Go ahead. ”

"Whoa!" The two horsemen took their leave with a smile.

Not long after, Meng Zhong met with the cavalry sent by Meng Hu and Hua Hu, and the cavalry sent by the two arrived almost at the same time, so Meng Zhong simply summoned the two groups of messengers at the same time.

It is worth mentioning that the two cavalrymen sent by Menghu and Huahu each conveyed the same message, which can be summed up in one sentence: they found traces of the main force of the Qin army in the area of Wuhu City, and tried to train the cavalry under their command with this Qin army.

The only difference, that is, the cavalry sent by Huahu reported one more thing than the cavalry sent by Menghu, that is, Huahu had sent people to the area of Xincheng and asked the Han military to garrison the Yishui River first to prevent the 50,000 Qin troops from escaping across Yishui.

Hearing this news, Meng Zhong nodded secretly, and said in his heart that Hua Hu deserved to be his junior disciple of Zhuangzi, even if he was a reckless man, he was also a reckless man who was familiar with the art of war and knew strategy, and there was indeed a difference between Meng Hu's outright reckless man.

No, Menghu didn't think about the problem so thoughtfully.

After repatriating the four cavalrymen, Meng Zhong pondered the current situation.

『…… Counting the days, if nothing else, the storm kite should have taken the new city by now...... Hmm, I'm afraid that he is leading the army to attack Yiyang at this moment, and there are not many garrisons in Yishui and Xincheng, so he can't stop the Qin army......

Thinking of this, Meng Zhong thought that he still had to hurry up.

Therefore, he issued an order that the Wei army under his command immediately turn west and follow the Yingshui upstream to a city called "negative 黍 (shǔ)" on the north bank of the Yingshui.

As far as Meng Zhong knows, after Yangcheng was broken by the Qin army a few days ago, a large number of Han soldiers who defended the city and the Han people in the city fled to the west of the city, since he had decided to pursue and annihilate the main force of the Qin army in the area of Yihu and Yangren, then the city was naturally the most suitable as the rear of his Wei army, whether it was to ensure the grain route, or considering that the cities around the city of Negative Huang still had some grain and grass, which could be supplied to his Wei army.

Yes, Meng Zhong was already thinking about fighting a protracted war with the Qin army at the moment, after all, he was not blindly optimistic that he could defeat the 50,000-strong Qin army in just a few days.

On the same day, the storm kite had received the news that Huahu had sent someone to deliver it.

As Meng Zhong guessed, because the main force of the Qin army led by Bai Qi was dragged by the Wei army, the Qin army was left with only a few 40,000 troops of the Qin general Xiang Shou guarding the main camp and Xincheng, while on the side of the violent kite, there were still more than 70,000 Han soldiers.

This is almost twice the strength of the troops, how can Xiang Shou hold his main camp of the Qin army?

Of course, in fact, even if he could hold it, Xiang Shou didn't dare to defend it, because he was worried that the violent kite would bypass his main camp and sneak attack the new city, so when the violent kite led more than 70,000 Han soldiers and nearly 10,000 Eastern Zhou troops to attack the main camp of the Qin army, Xiang Shou gave up the main camp after a little resistance, and took the opportunity to rob the soldiers of the Han army to rob the grain and grass in the camp and quickly retreated.

However, when he withdrew his troops, the question arose: where to retreat? Newcastle? Or Yiyang?

Xincheng is on the south side of the main camp of the Qin army, on the west bank of Yishui, while Yiyang is on the west side of the main camp of the Qin army, on the north bank of the Luoshui, the two places are more than 120 miles apart, and Xiang Shou has only 40,000 troops, which is impossible to take care of at all.

If it were Bai Qi, he would have wisely abandoned Yiyang at this moment, retreated his 40,000 troops to Xincheng, and then waited for an opportunity to counter the Korean army, taking advantage of the fact that the Tyrannical Kite crossed Xincheng to attack Yiyang, and then took the opportunity to attack its rear - in short, to make himself invincible first, and then to consider defeating the enemy army.

In the end, Xiang Shou chose to divide his troops and garrison them, dividing his 40,000 troops into two and garrisoning Xincheng and Yiyang respectively.

In all fairness, this is the stupidest strategy, and even Xiang Shou himself understands it.

Because this means that when the 70,000 Han troops attacked Xincheng, Xincheng was actually only defended by 20,000 Qin troops - the 20,000 troops who retreated to Yiyang could not support Xincheng more than 120 miles away.

Strategically speaking, this is to distract one's own forces in vain, and it is precisely for this reason that the art of war has the admonition that "one should not be confined to the gains and losses of one city or one place".

But Xiang Shou couldn't do it, he couldn't give up any city, after all, Xincheng and Yiyang, whether it was for Qin or Korea, were of great significance.

And the result of this is naturally inevitable failure.

"Divide the troops and retreat to Xincheng and Yiyang at the same time? Haha, the opposite side must be Xiang Shou! ”

After learning the retreat route of the Qin army, the storm kite laughed and immediately ordered his soldiers to eat a full meal with the grain and grass captured from the Qin camp, and then immediately stormed the new city.

However, in just three days, the new city was breached by the violent kites, and the Qin soldiers defending the city fled to Yiyang in a hurry.

After capturing Xincheng, Storm Kite left 10,000 Han troops to garrison Xincheng, and led the remaining nearly 60,000 Han troops and thousands of Eastern Zhou troops to Yiyang and launched a fierce attack on Yiyang.

However, as of the ninth o'clock of the first month of May, the storm kite suddenly got the news sent from Xincheng, it is said that several Wei cavalry sent the news to Xincheng, saying that the main force of the Qin army, under the pursuit of the main force of the Wei army, fled to the area of Yihu and Yangren, perhaps trying to break through to Yishui.

After learning the news, Storm Kite raised his troops back to Yishui without saying a word, preparing to intercept this Qin army, and together with the main force of the Wei army, he launched a front and rear attack on this Qin army.