Of course, it is impossible for Bai Qi to rush to the Menshui camp on the other side of the river, and he really dies with Meng Zhong, so what is the difference between throwing himself into the net?

He just rushed out of the tent and slashed the wooden fence with his sword in a no-man's corner, cursing the bastard on the other side as he slashed until he had cut the fence beyond his eyes and vented his emotions, then he returned to the tent and thought about countermeasures.

This time, he was deceived by the Meng Zhong on the other side.

For the night attack that seemed to be preparing to force the crossing of the water a few days ago, Meng Zhong pretended to plan for several days, paying at least more than 10,000 casualties, so that at that time, even Bai Qi mistakenly thought that Meng Zhong's purpose was to use the cover of the night to force the crossing of the water, and now he finally understood.

Whether Meng Zhong dispersed his forces, asked Qi Yan's army to try to force the crossing of Menshui, or asked Jin Con, Lian Po, and Han Zu to take the opportunity to launch a fierce attack, all of this was to cover the four thousand square city cavalry crossing Menshui.

Yes, the more than 4,000 Fangcheng cavalry quietly crossed the gate water in batches that night when the coalition forces on Mengzhong's side launched many attacks - even if some Qin soldiers discovered the whereabouts of the Fangcheng cavalry during this period, how could ordinary people think that the purpose of these cavalry crossing the river was not to attack a few garrisons of his Qin army, but to take the opportunity to sneak through the area controlled by his Qin army?

At that time, when many Qin army garrisons were attacked by the elite of the three armies of Wei, Zhao and Han, who could have thought of this matter?

In this way, more than 4,000 cavalry of Fangcheng secretly passed through the interception of his Qin army in batches and flowed to the hinterland of his Qin State, so that next, the farmland outside the city of Taolin, Baigu, Huayang and other places was attacked by these cavalry one after another, and the crops in the fields were set on fire by this group of villains.

"Hoo ......"

Lying on the straw couch in the tent, Bai Qi let out a long breath, weighing the benefits with his eyes closed.

Meng Zhong wanted to use those more than 4,000 Fangcheng cavalry to pose a serious threat to his Qin State, this was just a fool's dream, but the purpose of these Wei cavalry was very clear, they were rushing to burn the fields and destroy the crops.

Now, the farmland outside the cities between Taolin and Huayang has been set on fire by those Fangcheng cavalry, and all the grains that were about to ripen have been destroyed, what does it mean?

This means that Bai Qi can't ask for grain and grass from Taolin, Baigu, Huayang and other places after the autumn harvest, and even, these cities can't even supply the soldiers and civilians in their own cities, in other words, they lose the ability to defend the city for a long time.

In this case, if Bai Qi wants grain and grass, he must ask for it from the cities that go deeper into the hinterland of his Qin State, such as Yin Jin, Zheng County, Yu County, etc., but the problem is that judging from the fact that the cavalry of the 4,000 square city burned the farmland outside several cities in just a few days, this cavalry moved very quickly, and it was very likely that it would continue to penetrate deep into the hinterland of his Qin State.

If the Xianyang side received the bad news in time and sent an army to expel this cavalry, it might be possible to minimize the losses, but I am most afraid that the Xianyang side will get the news too late, so that the cavalry of the 4,000 square city will burn more farmland outside the city, then ...... Oops.

Under normal circumstances, the farmland outside a city can only have a slight surplus under the condition of satisfying the military and civilians in the city, and on the other hand, if the city has no harvest in that year due to natural disasters and man-made disasters, then the nightmare will come, unless Xianyang mobilizes grain and grass in time for disaster relief, otherwise, it is believed that there will be a large number of refugees forced to relocate.

And the current problem is that from Taolin to Xianyang, the cities on the Pingchuan River for hundreds of miles have become the target of the more than 4,000 square city cavalry, although it is indeed impossible for these 4,000 cavalry to become a threat to the Qin State, but they can use indirect methods to plunge the Qin State into a major crisis.

"Hoo ......"

Bai Qi exhaled his breath again, his face unusually full of sadness.

He knew that he was destined to be questioned by the King of Qin this time, because of his negligence, the cavalry of the Four Thousand Fang City secretly passed through his defense area and penetrated deep into the hinterland of his Qin State, causing immeasurable losses to his Qin State.

But at the moment, he can't take care of so much, and the top priority is to think about countermeasures.

At this time, Bai Qi's first question was whether it still made sense for him to hold the door.

I remember that a few days ago, the reason why he decided to hold the door water at any cost was that he didn't want the coalition army to invade the hinterland of his Qin State and let him suffer immeasurable losses, but now, there are more than 4,000 square city cavalry making waves in the hinterland of his Qin State, to be honest, the significance of him continuing to hold the door water is actually not as big as before.

Even, under the circumstance that the grain production and harvest of Taolin, Baigu and other cities in the rear have been greatly weakened this year, if Bai Qi does not think about countermeasures in advance, maybe the army under his command, including the army under the command of Sima Cuoqi, who is stationed at Hangu Pass at this moment, will fall into a situation where the grain and grass are exhausted, and then the coalition forces will take advantage of the situation.

"Should we withdraw?"

Bai Qi asked himself secretly, but the stakes in this matter were too great, and it was difficult for him to choose.

After a long time, Bai Qi said in a deep voice: "Jin, immediately send someone to invite General Jin Kuang to come, and say that I have something important to discuss with him." ”

"Whoa!"

Sima Jin retreated.

About a moment later, Jin Kuang, who was in the main camp himself, came to Bai Qi's handsome tent.

"Lieutenant."

"General Jin."

After greeting each other, Bai Qi said straight to the point: "I just received some bad news and want to hear your opinion. ”

With that, he handed the urgent reports that Sima Jin picked up from the ground and put on the table to Jin Kuang.

Jin Kuang took it in surprise, and after a cursory look at the urgent report, his expression changed suddenly.

He muttered in disbelief, "This ...... How so? ”

Looking at Jin Kuang's face full of shock, Bai Qi let out a sigh and said sullenly, "Meng Zhong...... After fooling us and others, he pretended to put on a posture of forcibly crossing the water, but in fact, he was aiming at my Daqin's autumn harvest this year. On the night of the previous day, he asked Jin Cong, Lian Po, Han Zu and others to force the crossing of the gate water at night, which was just a pretext to attract the attention of our army, but the cavalry of the 4,000 square city who really shouldered the heavy trust of Meng Zhong quietly passed through the defense area of our army and penetrated deep into the hinterland of our Great Qin with the help of the chaos on the west bank that night......

“……”

Jin Kuang was stunned.

You must know that after his Qin army repelled the offensive of the opposing coalition army that night, the generals of his Qin army still cheered for it.

But who would have thought that the victory that night was actually just a deception, and the reason why the coalition forces on the opposite side retreated was only because they had achieved their goal and sent the four thousand square city cavalry across the other bank by means of chaos, nothing more.

They were complacent, believing that they had thwarted the Coalition's ruse.

Looking back now, Jin Kuang also felt a burst of anxiety on his face.

"Gap...... Is it that big?'

Looking at the few urgent reports in his hand, Jin Kuang was shocked and speechless.

As Sima Cuo's lieutenant general, he is also a very proud person, so it is natural that he will compare with the best generals in the coalition army, such as the Yuncheng Jun Mengzhong.

Of course, Jin Kuang was self-aware, remembering that during the battle of Taoyi last year, he had already realized that he was inferior to Meng Zhong, but he didn't expect that the gap between him and that Yuncheng Jun was so big.

Or should it be said the other way around, that Yuncheng Jun was so good that even Bai Qi, the best general in the Qin State today, couldn't guess the true purpose of the former this time.

At this moment when Jin Kuang was deep in thought, Bai Qi said solemnly: "According to my estimates, the grain reserves in Taolin, Baigu, Huayang and other places should be barely able to support until this winter, but the army here, as well as the army under the command of Sima Lao, the grain and grass in the army cannot support it for so long...... Originally, after the autumn harvest, I would have sent people to collect grain and grass from those cities for military purposes, but now ......"

Jin Kuang raised his head and asked, "How long can the grain storage over there in Hangu Pass last?" ”

"A month." Bai Qi said in a deep voice.

Jin Kuang estimated it when he heard this.

It is already the beginning of September now, and if the grain storage in Hangu Pass can still support the Qin army in the vicinity for a month, then it means that by mid-October this year at most, the Qin army on the side of Hangu Pass and Menshui will fall into a desperate situation of running out of grain and grass.

After thinking about it, Jin Kuang asked, "What if you report to Xianyang immediately at this moment and ask Xianyang to transport grain and grass?" ”

"It's too late."

Bai Qi shook his head slightly.

Indeed, a month's time is too hasty, after all, to feed nearly 100,000 Qin troops here, the grain and grass required is not a small amount, and if you want to come to Xianyang, you can at least prepare for about ten days and a half months, and how can you have time to transport the remaining half a month from Xianyang to Menshui?

Even, this does not include the troublemaking of the Fangcheng cavalry - think about it, you know, the four thousand Fangcheng cavalry will definitely not turn a blind eye.

Hearing Bai Qi's answer, Jin Kuang was silent for a moment, and then he whispered tentatively: "The national captain has summoned the last general to come this time......

As if he had guessed Jin Kuang's thoughts, Bai Qi said bluntly: "Bai will not shirk his responsibility to his subordinates, I just called you here to ask you, in the current situation, is it still necessary to guard the door and water and the Hangu Pass?" ”

Bai Qi's words made Jin Kuang feel at ease a little, but at the same time, Jin Kuang's eyes widened in surprise.

What's the situation? A conceited person like Bai Qi actually asked for his opinion?

I have to say that Jin Kuang's guess is accurate, Bai Qi at this moment is indeed in chaos, although he forcibly calmed down, but he hesitated because of weighing the pros and cons.

It stands to reason that the wisest thing to do at this time is to retreat, whether it is the Qin army on the side of Menshui or the Qin army on the side of Hangu Pass, they all retreated to Taolin, Baigu and other cities, after all, there have been Fangcheng cavalry killed in the hinterland of his Qin State, and the strategy of blocking the coalition army and preventing the coalition army from attacking the hinterland of his Qin State has failed.

Even, because the front line of the battlefield is in the area of Hangu Pass and Menshui, Xianyang has a long way to transport grain and grass, and the pressure is even greater.

Therefore, the wisest way to do at this moment is to shrink the defense line, give up a part of the defense area, on the one hand, concentrate troops, on the other hand, shorten the grain route, reduce the pressure of grain and grass transportation, and even if necessary, he can retreat to Huayang, and surrender several cities of Taolin and Baigu to the coalition army, anyway, these cities are not precarious to defend, and in the case of insufficient grain storage in the city, it is impossible to defend for a long time.

Rather than being dragged down by this city, it is better to retreat to Huayang, after all, compared with the distance between Xianyang and Hangu Pass and Menshui, the distance between Xianyang and Huayang is much closer.

But the problem is that if Bai Qi retreats to Huayang, it means that Hangu Pass will be surrendered, and the hundreds of miles of Pingchuan between Taolin and Huayang, as well as the cities in this area, will be surrendered.

How big is the land?

In this way, the area of this land is equivalent to the West River that Qin State seized from Wei State back then—that is, the piece of West River land that Duan Gan has always hoped to recapture.

What's more, this land is not somewhere else, it is precisely on the route of Qin's eastward expansion.

Obviously planning to go east into the Central Plains, but was forced to spit out hundreds of miles of land, is there anything more ironic than this?

It is no wonder that even a decisive person like Bai Qi hesitated and wavered in this decision, after all, the stakes are too great.

But the question is, even Bai Qi will hesitate and can't make up his mind, what answer can Jin Kuang give?

The answer, of course, is no.

So in the end, Bai Qi still had to send someone to Hanguguan to ask Sima to miss and discuss countermeasures with the veteran.

In the evening of the same day, the veteran Sima Coo came from Hangu Pass to Menshui, listened to Bai Qi tell the whole story, and then fell into a long contemplation.

I have to say that if it had been in the past, Sima Cuo would have been angry and angrily reprimanded Bai Qi for plunging his Qin State into a crisis.

But at this moment, Sima Cuo could understand Bai Qi's helplessness, because he also knew how difficult Meng Zhong of Yuncheng Jun was on the other side.

"Have you sent a warning to Xianyang?"

After pondering for a while, Sima asked Bai Qi wrongly.

Bai Qi nodded, in fact, before he summoned Jin Kuang, he had already sent his henchmen to Xianyang day and night to inform Marquis Wei Ran about the cavalry of the four thousand square squares, hoping that Wei Ran, whom he admired, could resolve the crisis again.

In fact, strictly speaking, he Qin State still has a chance to make up for it, after all, in the past few years, under his suggestion, Marquis Wei Ran has increased the training of cavalry, although those cavalry are far less excellent than Meng Zhong's Fangcheng cavalry, but no matter what, it can still be used, at least it can slow down the harassment of Fangcheng cavalry in his country, so that he Qin State can get precious time to deal with the crisis.

"Then retreat!"

After getting Bai Qi's answer, Sima Co made a decisive decision.

"Withdraw?"

"Hmmm! Retreat to Huayang, and cede Menshui, Hangu Pass, including Taolin, Baigu and other places, to the coalition forces......"

Brushing his gray beard, Sima Cuo said, his eyes flashing with wisdom.

Rather than let his Qin army fall into a predicament because of the long distance of the grain route, it is better to take the initiative to retreat, throw this problem back to the coalition army, and then wait for an opportunity to find an opportunity to counterattack.

Surrendering hundreds of miles of Pingchuan to the coalition forces is not necessarily a good thing for the coalition forces.