On the eighth day of the ninth month, Pengcheng of the Song Kingdom, the Minister of State Hui Ang brought wine and meat to the military camp outside the city to comfort the army.

The current situation of the Song State is very unfavorable, the Tancheng defense area that has been operating for several years has been easily broken by the Qi army, and even the Yang has been broken by the Qi army, and Pengcheng, as the capital of the Song State, has become the front line of the battlefield.

Two months ago, Pixian in the east fell, and then the Qi army took advantage of the situation to attack Luyi to the west, in all fairness, in fact, the number of Song ** team who retreated to Luyi was not many, but unfortunately, these troops were withdrawn from Tancheng, and the morale was completely lost, which led to the Qi army only launched a three-day offensive against Luyi, and the county town fell.

Subsequently, the Qi army tried to attack Pengcheng.

It is undeniable that Song Wangyan, who was over sixty years old, was indeed very brave, led the Pengcheng army to defend the city, and repelled the attacks of the Qi army several times, forcing the Qi army to change its original tactics and prepare to capture several small counties around Pengcheng first, and then isolate Pengcheng and besiege Pengcheng.

Following the small county of Luyi to the east of Pengcheng, the Qi army divided into three routes and continued to attack Pengcheng all the way to contain Pengcheng's army; One went around to the northwest of Pengcheng and attacked Liuyi; The last group went around to the south side of Pengcheng and tried to attack the hill.

Once Liuyi and Jiangqiu fall, Pengcheng will undoubtedly be sandwiched, if even Xiaocheng on the west side of Pengcheng is occupied by the Qi army in the end, then Pengcheng will be completely surrounded by the Qi army, every time he thinks of this, Hui Ang is worried.

"Hye-sang."

Ahead, Song General Dai Busheng walked towards this side with a few soldiers and greeted Hui Ang from a distance.

Hui Ang returned the salute, and Wen Sheng said to Dai Busheng: "Sima, I brought people to transport some meat to motivate the soldiers......"

"There is Lao Huixiang." Dai Busheng squeezed out a little smile on his tired face, and said: "I believe that these meats will definitely boost the morale of these little cubs......"

Hearing this, Hui Ang smiled reluctantly.

To be honest, he didn't believe in this argument very much, and even, I'm afraid that even Dai Busheng, who said this, might not really think so.

After instructing the entourage to carry the meat, Hui Ang put Dai Busheng aside and asked, "What is the current situation?" ”

At this time, Dai Busheng put away the smile on his face and said with a sad face: "Not optimistic...... the impact of 'that incident' is too great, and the soldiers of the Tancheng Army are almost fighting. ”

The 'incident' he referred to in his mouth was the fact that the crown prince Dai Wu's general, Sima Dai Jing of the Tancheng Army, tried to lead the army to force the palace.

The cause of this incident lies in the special situation of the Song Kingdom's 'two kings together'.

Generally speaking, the monarchs of various countries will pass on the crown prince until they are about to die, but the only two countries in the world are the Zhao and Song kingdoms.

Just like Meng Zhong's impression, Zhao Zhu's father and Song Wangyan of Song State, these are two very warlike and ambitious kings, in the early years, in order to facilitate him to capture Zhongshan and uproot the hidden dangers of Zhao for hundreds of years, he passed the monarch's position to his youngest son Zhao He in the prime of life, so that it finally triggered the Dune Palace Change;

And the situation of Song Wangyan is similar, since the three wars of Qi, Chu and Wei, Song Wangyan listened to Hui An's advice, carefully governed the country for more than ten years, more than ten years later, Song Wangyan thought that the development of the country had allowed him to open up territory again, so he passed the throne to the crown prince Dai Wu, and he himself drove the personal expedition, and the overthrown Teng State was the victim of the second imperial expedition of Song Wangyan.

But the later battle of Song and Qi changed the situation slightly.

At that time, with the help of Meng Zhong, the Song State not only repelled the first invasion of the Qi army, but also captured Tancheng in turn, since then, the crown prince Dai Wu personally sat in Tancheng, as the first line of defense against the Qi army, and during this period, Song Wangyan continued to take Pengcheng as the center and captured the land of Huaisi, which made the Song State like a 'two-headed snake', Tancheng is a head, Pengcheng is a person, the former is responsible for resisting Qi, the latter is responsible for opening up the territory of Huaisi, and the two sides do not interfere with each other.

As the saying goes, there are no two days and no two kings in the country, and the civil strife in the Zhao State has proved that the 'two-headed snake' model of governing the country is not feasible, and the hidden dangers are very large, and the Song State has naturally been affected.

Song Wangyan has nothing to say here, as a heroic monarch, his prestige is unmatched in the Song Kingdom, but the problem is that Song Wangyan is old, more than sixty years old, in this era that still takes sixty years as a Jiazi, sixty years old can really be called longevity, even if Song Wangyan dies tomorrow, no one will be surprised.

This led to the same problem that occurred in the Song state as in the Zhao state: while the old king was still alive, the center of gravity of the state gradually shifted to the new king.

This is not a strange thing, compared to the sixty-year-old Song Wangyan, the crown prince Dai Wu is only about forty, in the prime of life, and is justified by the throne obtained through the Chan pass, the subjects of the Song State are loyal to Dai Wu, which is not a problem in itself, but just like Zhao's father, Song Wangyan had an idea in his heart.

After the end of the second Song-Qi war, with the help of the Wei and Han coalition forces, the Qi army was even worse than the last time, and it was simply beaten back to his hometown without even breaking through Tancheng.

Didn't this say that Lao Wang had already passed it on to Prince Yu? Why are you still giving orders in Pengcheng?

The one who said that according to the etiquette law, Dai Wu was already the rightful king of the Song Kingdom, and there was no need to consult Peng Cheng on everything.

Even in the end, some people put forward some bad ideas to persuade the crown prince Dai Wu to make Tancheng the new capital of the Song State, saying that this would better reflect the confidence of the Song State to resist the Qi State.

These discordant arguments reached the ears of Song Wangyan, and Song Wangyan certainly couldn't accept it.

Therefore, Song Wangyan severely reprimanded the crown prince Dai Wu, but this matter was considered by the subordinates of the crown prince Dai Wu to be deliberately suppressed.

In fact, in all fairness, although Song Wangyan's actions can also be called a suppression of the crown prince Dai Wu, but in the final analysis, it is just that the group of people who called the prince Dai Wu are a little low-key, after all, he is not dead, but unfortunately, this suppression measure still caused Tancheng's dissatisfaction with Peng Cheng.

Just like Meng Zhong's impression, the crown prince Dai Wu didn't dare to have any rebellious thoughts about Song Wangyan, after all, Hui Ang and Xue Juzhou taught Dai Wu the most is Confucianism, and Confucianism values filial piety the most.

Every time he was reprimanded by Song Wangyan, the crown prince Dai Wu always made promises and did not dare to speak back, so he had no hatred for the prince Dai Wu himself.

The bad thing is that the group of people who followed the crown prince Dai Wu could not accept it, they believed that although Song Wang Yan had contributed to the Song State, after all, he was old, and it was rumored that he was in Dai Wu, so he could no longer judge the prince Dai Wu in a judgmental manner.

It was this dissatisfaction with Song Wangyan that triggered the civil strife led by Dai Jing, the general of the Tancheng army, to force the palace - on that day, when Song Wangyan recalled the crown prince Dai Wu to Pengcheng, Dai Jing, the general in charge of the escort, and several others launched a mutiny, led the army to kill the palace, trying to force Song Wangyan to give up the power in his hands.

Not to mention that Song Wangyan would not agree to this kind of thing, and the ministers of Pengcheng led by the minister of state Hui Ang would not allow it, so under the resistance of the Pengcheng army, Dai Jing, who tried to mutiny, failed, and protected the prince Dai Wu and fled back to Tancheng.

As a result, the Song State had a civil war between Pengcheng and Tancheng, and the Song Wangyan, who was furious because of Dai Jing's mutiny, ordered Dai Busheng to lead troops to conquer Tancheng, and the Song army of Tancheng and the Song army of Tancheng turned against each other and fought with each other.

Subsequently, the crown prince Dai Wu did not want to see civil strife in the country, and he was deeply influenced by Confucianism and did not want to disobey his father, so he ran to Dai Busheng's army and surrendered.

The crown prince Dai Wu took the initiative to surrender, and the morale of the Tancheng army naturally dropped to the freezing point, and Dai Busheng put down the so-called rebellion without much effort, and brought the crown prince Dai Wu and some of the generals of the Tancheng army led by Dai Jing back to Pengcheng.

In the end, Song Wangyan made a verdict, exiled the crown prince Dai Wu, and executed all the generals who participated in the rebellion led by Dai Jing, and as for Tancheng, it was garrisoned by Dai Busheng so far.

It was this verdict that made those subjects who followed the crown prince Dai Wu lose hope, especially in the area of Tancheng, and the invasion of Qi was precisely because of the civil strife in the Song State.

To tell the truth, compared with the civil strife of Zhao State, the civil strife of Song State was not a big loss due to the voluntary surrender of the crown prince Dai Wu, but the bad thing is that Zhao State did not have a foreign invasion at that time, and Song State had a Qi State that was eyeing it.

As a result, under the invasion of the Qi ** team, the area of Tancheng, which lost the crown prince Dai Wu and lost the backbone, soon fell under the offensive of the Qi army.

However, this is not the worst outcome.

The worst thing is that Song Wang Yanming knew that the reason why the front line fell quickly was precisely because he exiled the crown prince Dai Wu, but he was stubborn, no matter how persuaded by his ministers, he refused to recall the crown prince Dai Wu to resist the invasion of Qi together, and still wanted to repel the invading Qi army on his own.

Even Hui An, the most trusted courtier of Song Wangyan, could not convince Song Wangyan in this matter, let alone other Song ministers.

"Regarding 'that incident', I'll find a way to persuade the king when I go back."

After thinking about it for a while, Hui Ang said helplessly.

No matter how outsiders criticize Song Wangyan, Hui Ang is loyal to Song Wangyan, he knows that Song Wangyan actually doesn't hate the crown prince Dai Wu, after all, the crown prince Dai Wu didn't do anything wrong, the problem is that Song Wangyan can't erase his face.

The old man in his sixties is as stubborn and stubborn as a child of a few years old in this regard, it is no wonder, after all, Song Wang Yan has been strong since he was a child, and it can be seen from the fact that he was not used to seeing his brother Song Juechengjun wagging his tail and begging for mercy from the Qi State, taking the throne of his brother, and taking the initiative to crusade against the Qi State, it can be seen that this monarch is extremely strong.

"I hope Hui Xiang can persuade the king as soon as possible."

Dai Busheng sighed and said: "I have seen with my own eyes that the Tancheng army was almost defeated by the Qi army without any fighting spirit, and the matter of the king exiling the prince was a very big blow to these soldiers, and this invasion of the Qi army itself was not as fierce as the first time...... You also know that although Qi Guo claimed to be led by Kuang Zhang this time, I haven't even seen Kuang Zhang's people so far, and I suspect that it was actually just a lie used by Qi to scare my Song State. ”

Hui Ang nodded slightly.

As Dai Busheng said, putting aside the second battle of Qi and Song, which was mostly farce, in fact, the most dangerous battle of Qi and Song had to be the first battle of Qi and Song, because that time it was indeed the commander of Tian Zhang, a famous general of Qi, but that time Qi only dispatched 150,000 troops, and Song State still had Meng Zhong commanding the army at that time.

And this time, although the Qi State dispatched 300,000 troops, but whether it was Tian Zhang leading the army, in fact, the Song State has not figured it out yet, on the one hand, Tian Zhang has not shown up so far, on the other hand, so far the Qi army has taken the offensive step by step, and basically can't see any amazing strategy - but even so, the Song ** team was defeated and retreated by the Qi army this time, and in less than a few months, almost all the land in the east of Surabaya for hundreds of miles has fallen.

To tell the truth, this ending should not be the level that the Song ** team should have, you must know that the size of the Song State is not small, it is worth half of the strength of the Qi State, and it is stronger than South Korea and Yan State, if the crown prince Dai Wu is still there, in the case of the famous general Tian Zhang of the Qi State not going out in person, it is not a problem to resist for a year or two - in the final analysis, the Qi State is also a skinny camel, except for Tian Zhang, there are no generals who are good at fighting.

"If the king still refuses to welcome back the crown prince......"

Dai Busheng glanced at Hui Ang without saying anything, and then suddenly asked, "By the way, is there any new progress in the matter of asking for help from the Wei State?" ”

Hearing this, Hui Ang shook his head abruptly.

In this year's battle of Qi and Song, after the fall of Tancheng, Hui Ang sent people to ask for help from Wei, but unfortunately, at this time, Wei was caught in the battle of the West River with the Qin State, and was anxious to draw troops from all over the country to support Hedong, and fully supported Meng Zhong to fight the Battle of the West River, how could there be spare strength to help the Song State?

"Meng Zhong's kid, hasn't there been any response so far?" Dai Busheng complained with some dissatisfaction.

"......" Hui Ang was silent for a moment, and excused his righteous brother: "Ah Zhong is now in the Wei Kingdom, and he is highly valued by the King of Wei, so he should be the ......first Wei and then the Song Dynasty."

Hearing this, Dai Busheng realized his gaffe and said, "I just said it casually...... Speaking of which, this kid is becoming more and more capable now, just because the king of Wei appointed him as the guard of Hedong, he actually forced the Qin state to force the king of Wei to take back his life by breaking the net...... Tut-tut, amazing. ”

Hui Ang smiled silently when he heard this.

remembered that when he learned about this, he was also very proud of this righteous brother, after all, not everyone can make the Qin State like a great enemy.

"If Meng Zhong's kid comes back, Qi people will be unlucky." Dai Busheng said with a sneer.

"It's coming."

Hui Ang nodded and said: "A while ago, the envoy sent to Wei sent back the news, saying that it was said by Sima Zhai Zhang, the great Sima of Wei, that at this moment Wei had forced Qin to compromise and win the battle, and interestingly, according to Wei, Qin seemed to be in revenge against Qi, and in turn called on all countries to crusade against Qi, and at present, Qin, Wei, Han, Zhao, and Yan are planning to jointly attack Qi......"

Dai Busheng smiled when he heard this: "Ha, this is the best news I heard this year...... When will this combined army of the nations be able to gather? ”

Hui Ang said with some regret: "At the beginning, Li Dui, the Fengyang Jun of Zhao State, worked for half a year before and after to promote the Five Kingdoms to attack Qin, and this time I am afraid it will take about the same time...... I guess it's going to be next year at the earliest. ”

"Next year's ......," Dai Busheng said with a melancholy look similar to Hui An.

It's no wonder, after all, it's only late September, and according to the current battle situation, before the end of this year, Pengcheng may not be able to stop the offensive of the Qi army.

Considering that the main goal of the combined army of the countries was to attack the Qi country itself, the war on the Song side, at that time, would mainly rely on the Song people themselves.

Of course, even so, it's always good to have reinforcements, at least to distract Qi Guo.

Just when Hui Ang and Dai Busheng were talking in the barracks, at the west gate of Pengcheng, Meng Zhong arrived at the city with more than 100 Fangcheng cavalry accompanying him.

When the ordinary Wei cavalry came to Pengcheng, the Song army in Pengcheng naturally had to be strictly interrogated, but Meng Zhong was the only exception, because he carried one of the six sharp swords given to him by Song Wang Yan when he got married, and it was engraved with the year and name of Song Wang Yan who supervised the construction of this sword.

After entering Pengcheng, Meng Zhong went straight to the palace without stopping, and when he came to the palace gate, he took out the sword he carried with him again, and said to the guards guarding the palace gate: "I am Mengyi Mengzhong, from the Great Liang of Wei State, I want to see the king of Song on important matters, please report to me immediately!" ”

The guards at the palace gate saw the inscription on the sword, and did not dare to slack off, so they immediately entered the palace with the sword in their hands and told Song Wang Yan.

At this time, in the school field in the palace, Song Wangyan was riding a chariot, dressed all over his body, and led a group of guards to simulate the charge, seemingly restoring the old martial arts and preparing for the battle to meet the Qi army in person.

At this moment, a guard hurriedly entered and said, "Great King, there is a person who claims to be Meng Zhong, and he is holding this sword and asking to see him in the palace. ”

"Meng Zhong?"

Song Wangyan, who was still a little angry because he was disturbed, was stunned when he heard this, and said in surprise: "Didn't he fight with the Qin army in Xihe?" Did you win? ”

With that, he stepped off the chariot, walked up to the guard, took the sword, drew its blade and looked at it, and saw that it was indeed the one he had given to Meng Zhong back then, and said happily, "Good boy! It seems that he really won the battle against the Qin State...... Invite him in. ”

A moment later, Meng Zhong arrived at the school under the guidance of two guards.

After a few years, Meng Zhong grew stronger, but Song Wangyan could still recognize the former in a year, just when he was about to step forward to talk to Meng Zhong with a little inexplicable smile, but he saw Meng Zhong walking over quickly with an expressionless face, and he didn't stop saluting, and in front of the rest of the people present, he grabbed the collar part of Song Wangyan's armor with his left hand.

"Y-Who are you, how dare you do that?! Guard! Guard! ”

Someone from the side exclaimed, and shouted to the guards with a look of anger on his face, until Song Wangyan raised his hand to stop it.

He looked at Meng Zhong, who was already as tall as him, with great interest, and asked with a smile, "What are you going to do, Meng Zhong?" Regicide? ”

"Who knows?" Meng Zhong stared straight at Song Wangyan for a long time, and asked expressionlessly, "Are you afraid?" ”

Hearing such a rebellious remark, the attendants and guards who were watching around them widened their eyes and sweated coldly, for fear that the monarch who was called a tyrant would be angry.

But to everyone's surprise, Song Wangyan was not angry, but his expression became very strange.

Because these words are exactly what he said when he first met Meng Zhong and frightened him.

"Hahahaha."

Under the stunned and frightened gaze of many people around him, Song Wang Yan smiled with interest: "Do you want to say that the sword in your hand is sharper now?" ”

"Humph!"

Meng Zhong snorted lightly, suddenly pushed him away half a step, and then pointed at Song Wangyan, beckoned with an expressionless face, and said, "Come!" Let me wake you foolish old thing! …… That's what I'm here for! ”

Hearing this, if Song Wangyan was just stunned, then the attendants and guards who were watching around were already dumbfounded at this time.

The...... Who is it?

How dare you speak to their king like this?