On March 17, the day when Bai Qi decided to storm Yangguan in a defeat-alling manner, Sima Cuo, who was stationed in the northern part of the country, summoned the defeated soldiers who had fled from Wancheng to his army, and also learned the bad news that Wancheng had been attacked by the Wei army.

Wancheng was attacked, the grain and grass piled up in the city were burned by the Wei army, and the general Peng Tang stationed in the city was also beheaded by the Wei general Cao Chun.

He didn't understand, it was clear that there was Meng Zhong who was in Fangcheng to contain Yangguan, so why was the Wei army able to bypass Bai Qi's army and sneak attack Wancheng?

Could it be that Bai Qi deliberately harmed him?

Sima Cuo doesn't think so.

You must know that even when he had the worst relationship with Bai Qi, Bai Qi never did anything to deliberately frame him, not to mention that the two of them are getting along more and more harmoniously now, and his second grandson, Sima Jin, is now serving as a guard by Bai Qi's side and receiving Bai Qi's teachings.

In this case, what reason does Bai Qi have to deliberately frame him?

Could it be that Bai Qi was defeated by Meng Zhong?

This is not right, first, there are 60,000 troops under Bai Qi's command, not to mention that it is Bai Qi who commands the troops, even if it is changed to Xiang Shou to lead the troops, the Wei army in Yangguan may not be able to defeat the 60,000 Qin army in such a short time, right?

Not to mention that so far, he has not received any letters for help from Bai Qi, let alone received news of Bai Qi's defeat.

"Could it be that Meng Zhong used some method to bypass Bai Qi's army and sneak attack Wancheng?"

Thinking about it carefully, Sima mistakenly felt that this guess was the most likely.

In order to confirm his guess, he immediately sent a team of soldiers and ordered them to go to Fangcheng to ask Bai Qi for verification and see what was going on.

At the same time, he also sent a team of soldiers to Wuguan, asking Wuguan to find a way to raise another batch of grain and grass to solve the urgent need of him and Bai Qi to lack food.

After arranging these, he immediately summoned his generals Jin Kuang, Chang Chi, Wu Rong and others, and revealed to them the news that Wancheng was attacked by the Wei army and Peng Tang was killed in battle.

This bad news only made the generals full of shock and their faces shocked.

The granary of Wancheng was attacked, this is a major event related to the life and death of more than 100,000 Qin troops in Sima Cuo's army and Bai Qi's army!

"What is Bai Qi doing? Why was it so easy to let the Wei army go around? ”

"Could it be that Bai Qi has been defeated by the Wei army?"

"And Peng Tang, what is that guy doing?"

Seeing that the generals were arguing in a mess, Sima Coo suppressed his hand to stop them, and said in a deep voice: "At this point, it is useless to hold them accountable, and the top priority is to find a way to deal with the current crisis. After a pause, he continued: "The grain and grass in the army can probably last for eight or nine days, and I have sent people to Wuguan for help, ordering them to urgently prepare a batch of grain and grass to solve the crisis of food shortage in our army...... In short, save some grain and grass these days, and wait for the grain and grass from Wuguan to arrive. ”

The generals nodded when they heard this.

Immediately, Sima thought for a while and said: "Wancheng is the center of the land of Wanfang, you must guard against it, and Changchi." ”

"The end will be."

"You lead the army under your command and immediately move to Wancheng. After arriving in Wancheng, you will collect the local routs and rebuild the granary, remember, be careful of the sneak attack of the Wei army, and never be attacked by the Wei army again. ”

"Whoa!" Qin Jiang Changchi clenched his fists to receive the order, and immediately hesitated and asked: "...... here in Naxi County?"

He was a little worried about the side of Xixian, after all, at this moment, the Korean Da Sima Storm Kite was leading tens of thousands of troops in the north of Xixian County, and had launched three attacks on Xixian County so far.

Although it is not clear why the South Korean army suddenly turned from defense to attack, it must be admitted that the army under the command of Storm Kite is quite elite, and it is worthy of the Han pawn who survived the Battle of Yique.

Hearing Chang Chi's words, Sima Coo's beard stroked his beard and whispered for a moment, and then said in a deep voice: "Although Xixian is a passage for Wandi to attack Korea, it is not irreplaceable, in comparison, Wancheng is more important at the moment. ”

"The Admiral understands." Chang Chi hugged his fists.

On the same day, the Qin general Changchi led an army of 10,000 to Wancheng.

The movements of the entire 10,000 Qin soldiers naturally could not be concealed from the eyes and ears of the Han army, and immediately there were scouts from the Han army who informed the commander of the news.

After learning the news, the storm kite was very surprised.

In all fairness, although Storm Kite had dealt with Wei Zhang, Gan Mao, Ying Ji, Xiang Shou and others, this was really the first time he had fought against Sima Cuo's two armies.

But in view of Sima Cuo's fame, this time the violent kite personally faced Sima Cuo, and also cheered up the spirit.

After all, as far as the current situation is concerned, Sima Cuo is indeed the only remaining veteran of the Qin State who is good at fighting, and his status and fame are above Xiang Shou, Bai Qi and others - to put it bluntly, that is, Xiang Shou can fight without Sima Cuo, and Bai Qi is not as famous as Sima Cuo. [PS: In history, Wu Anjun won the Battle of Yique, so he surpassed Sima Cuo in one fell swoop, whether it was fame or Qin State's expectations for him. 】

It is precisely because of this that the battle situation on the side of Xixian has reached a stalemate, whether it is Sima Cuo or Tyrant Kite, they can't help each other in a short time, if it weren't for the Wei army in Yangguan to sneak attack Wancheng, I'm afraid it is very likely that these two will be deadlocked for a year and a half.

"Sima Coo...... Divide the troops?'

After the scout who had come to report the news retreated, Storm Kite pondered the matter alone in the tent.

In all fairness, he didn't think of recovering Xixian immediately, after all, Xixian was just an empty city, and when his Han army retreated to Rushui on the whole line, he had already moved the people of Wancheng and Xixian to the country, so in the original plan of the storm kite, he only needed to fortify in the Rushui area to block the Qin army.

But there was no way, Zhai Zhang of Wei wrote a letter to him, asking him to take the initiative to attack, so he led the army under his command, and when the Chu general Zhaoju retreated for unknown reasons, he led the army to cross Rushui, preparing to recover Xixian and Wancheng, and then join Zhai Zhang.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Zhaoju's army withdrew, Sima Cuo immediately led 60,000 Qin troops to rush to Xixian County, blocking the way of the Han army.

To be honest, if it weren't for the disguised threat of Zhai Zhang's letter, the Storm Kite would never have confronted Sima Cuo's army head-on, let alone stormed the county where Sima Co was stationed.

But since Zhai Zhang ordered him to take the initiative to attack, he could only obey the order, after all, he still needed to rely on Wei to fight against Qin, so he couldn't turn a blind eye to the request of Sima Zhai Zhang, the great of Wei.

Of course, although there are all kinds of dissatisfaction in his heart, the violent kite is not without confidence in this battle, at least Zhai Zhang "magically" expected the movements of the Chu army, which made him have some confidence in defeating Sima Cuo and defeating Bai Qi.

So far, he still hasn't figured out how Zhai Zhang accurately expected that Zhao Ju would withdraw his troops.

He roughly guessed that Zhai Zhang must have learned something, and he didn't tell him.

Of course, it doesn't matter, for him, as long as he can defeat the army of the Qin State, this is enough.

Because of this, the storm kite did not drag the Wei army back, and tried to attack Xixian many times in the past few days, but unfortunately was repelled by Sima Cuo every time.

And today, the Qin army has divided more than 10,000 troops for some reason, which makes the storm kite see the hope of retaking Xixian County.

However, at the same time, he was also extremely confused by Qin Jun's move.

You must know that Xixian is not a key strategic location, both for Qin and Wei: for Qin, Qin can send troops to attack Yiyang and Xincheng at any time; For South Korea, the Rushui defense line was established by the Storm Kite to resist the army under the command of Sima Cuo.

Since Xixian is not a key strategic location, it is not difficult to understand even if Sima Coo gave up stationing in Xixian.

Of course, on the other hand, Sima Cuo did not want to assert the momentum of the South Korean army's counteroffensive, and hoped to interrupt it in Xixian, which also made sense in the eyes of the tyrant.

But only Qin Jun's reaction at the moment made him unable to understand.

It is necessary to guard the county, and to divide the troops, so what is Sima wrong?

Who doesn't know that dividing troops in such a situation is a taboo for soldiers?

Then the question arises, what is the reason why a famous general like Sima Cuo who is good at fighting has to divide more than 10,000 troops?

Thinking about it casually, the storm kite guessed probably: it must be something that the Wei army did to choke the lifeblood of the Qin army.

However, what is the reason?

The kite-kites are unknown for the time being.

On March 19, the third day of Bai Qi's attack on Yangguan, a soldier of the Korean army reported that more than a dozen Fangcheng cavalry had bypassed Yingshan and came to his army.

The storm kite immediately met with these Fangcheng cavalry and asked them about their intentions.

I saw that the Fang Cheng cavalry led by him handed a letter to the storm kite, and said in a deep voice: "Fang Cheng ordered me to come by day and night, just to report the news to the tyrant commander." ”

"Meng Zhong?"

Storm Kite took the letter in surprise, spread out the bamboo book and glanced at it, and then suddenly smiled: "Haha, it is worthy of the Fangcheng order, and it is worthy of the Fangcheng army......"

After being overjoyed, he ordered the guards to bring these dozen Fangcheng cavalry to the camp to rest and entertain them.

At this time, the guards beside the violent kite asked puzzledly, "I don't know what was written in Fang Chengling's letter that made Da Sima so happy?" ”

The tyrannical kite laughed and said: "I said that two days ago, why did Sima Cuo go against the art of war, and still divided more than 10,000 troops despite the threat of our army...... Hahaha, this Meng Zhong is really not simple, if my guess is correct, he should be fighting with Bai Qi at the moment, and attacked Wancheng under Bai Qi's nose, burning down the granary of the Qin army, hahahaha......"

Laughing at this, he was suddenly stunned, and glanced at the bamboo slip in his hand as if he was perceptive.

It must be said that the situation of his Wei and Han coalition forces is very good, and it can be said that he has gained the upper hand, but the key to this is that the Fangcheng army under Meng Zhong secretly attacked Wancheng occupied by the Qin army and burned down the granary of the Qin army.

So here, since he didn't have any advantage at the beginning, why did Zhai Zhang dare to write a letter to threaten him and order him to attack the Qin army together, as if he had already won the victory?

Thinking about it carefully, Zhai Zhang rarely dealt with the army of the Qin State before, where did he get his confidence?

Chu General Zhaoju withdrew his troops for no reason, how could Zhai Zhang know in advance that the Chu army would retreat? Zhai Zhang didn't have any connections in the Chu State, but in comparison, it was Meng Zhong's kid from Fangcheng......

"Could it be that the letter that day was actually sent by that kid from Meng Zhong in the name of Zhai Zhang?"

Touching the beard on his chin, Storm Kite had a strange expression on his face.

"Da Sima, what's wrong?"

Seeing that the violent kite looked different, the guard next to him asked curiously.

“……”

Storm Kite looked at the bamboo slip in his hand and shook his head slightly, feeling a little complicated.

If that letter was really written by Meng Zhong in the name of Zhai Zhang, Storm Kite would naturally be angry because of it, after all, he thought that his relationship with Meng Zhong was still very good, and Meng Zhong should not deceive him like this.

But on the other hand, he can somewhat understand why Meng Zhong did this.

『…… Let's try to repel the Qin army first."

Storm Kite thought to herself.

I have to say that if the factor of being deceived is put aside, in fact, he is more inclined to Meng Zhong to write to him in the name of Zhai Zhang, because this proves that Meng Zhong already has a strategy in his heart to defeat the Qin army - Fang Cheng's sneak attack on Wancheng is an excellent example.

Thinking about it this way, he also gained some confidence in this battle.

On the same day, Storm Kite summoned his generals to discuss strategy.

He said to the generals: "I have just received a letter from Meng Zhong of Fangcheng Ling, in which Meng Zhong said that his Fangcheng army has successfully burned the grain and grass in the rear of the Qin army, so that Sima Cuo and Bai Qi's hundreds of thousands of Qin troops have fallen into a crisis of lack of food......

Hearing this, the Korean generals were also overjoyed, and said one after another: "Da Sima, since this is the case, our army should immediately attack Xixian and take the opportunity to defeat Sima Cuo......"

"No!" Storm Kite shook his head and interrupted the generals' invitation to fight, and said in a deep voice: "Although the rear granary of the Qin army was burned down by the Wei army, Sima Cuo's army should still have some surplus grain, since our army has the upper hand, why do we still storm Xixian?" Wouldn't it be better to wait for Sima Cuo's army to collapse and then take the opportunity to cover up and kill? ”

The generals suddenly came to their senses, and they all clasped their fists and said: "Great Sima Yingming! ”

The violent kite stroked his beard and smiled, and then immediately instructed: "In the next few days, give me a hard eye on the Qin army's every move, and once the Qin army has signs of retreat, self-collapse, etc., immediately take the opportunity to cover up and kill!" ”

"Whoa!" The generals clenched their fists and received their orders.

In this way, another day passed, and although the Han army under the command of the violent kite closely monitored Xixian and monitored the movements of Sima Cuo's army, they did not attack the city again.

At this time, Sima Cuo, who was stationed in Xixian County, had just received Bai Qi's letter.

I have to say that Sima Cuo was really relieved when he learned that Bai Qi's army was not defeated by the Wei army in Yangguan, but when he saw the stop-loss method written by Bai Qi in the letter, Sima Cuo couldn't help but be moved.

Bai Qi's stop-loss method of sacrificing one army and protecting the other army is really cruel, but from the overall situation, even Sima Cuo has to admit that this is the most rational and sensible judgment - in this regard, Bai Qi is indeed more decisive than Sima Cuo.

It's just that even so, Sima Cuo still can't agree with Bai Qi's decision.

He immediately sent someone to summon his general Jin Kuang, told the latter about the current situation that Bai Qi was facing, and showed Bai Qi's letter.

After reading Bai Qi's letter, Jin Kuang's expression was also complicated, and he said with a sigh: "I really didn't expect that Bai Qi to sacrifice for our army...... Even if it is white, if the more than 60,000 troops under his command are wiped out this time, most of them will be questioned by the king, right? ”

"He didn't do it for our army, he just made the most rational and cruel judgment."

Sima Coo shook his head and corrected Jin Kuang's statement.

As he came into contact with Bai Qi, he also got to know the young general.

He knew that Bai Qi was a person who would do whatever it took to win, but he was not for himself, but for the Qin State, just this time, Bai Qi did not sacrifice his army for his Sima Cuo or others, he just made the most rational and sensible judgment.

If he changed his position, Sima Cuo's army was in Fangcheng, and Bai Qi was in Xixian, then Bai Qi would not hesitate to abandon and protect the army under his command, because in his opinion, Sima Cuo's army before the garrison in Yangguan could no longer be saved—since it was destined to be unable to rescue, then give up, there was no need to make more soldiers sacrifice for rescue.

However, Sima Cuo couldn't accept Bai Qi's approach, and he said to Jin Kuang: "Bai Zuo even asked the old man to temporarily retreat to Wuguan in the letter, and he didn't need to pay attention to him...... Although this Bai Zuo is more arrogant and does his own thing, he is loyal to my Great Qin, and he is also a loving general, and I am the pillar of Great Qin in the future, and I can't let him die here. After all, he probably felt that this reason was not sufficient, so he stroked his beard and said, "What's more, the old man's grandson is still by Bai Qi's side......"

Listening to Sima Cuo's explanation, Jin Kuang couldn't help but laugh secretly in his heart, laughing at Sima Cuo's explanation so much, but not saying the main reason.

That is, appreciating Bai Qi, and not wanting to see what happened to Bai Qi.

But since Sima didn't say it, Jin Kuang didn't mention it with interest, so he asked with a straight look: "But the national captain wants to help Bai Qi?" ”

Hearing this, Sima Coo's beard hesitated for a moment, and said, "The old man has this intention, but it's just ......."

Of course, Jin Kuang knew that the captain in front of him had some scruples, for fear that when the time came, he would really be hit by Bai Qi, and he would not be able to rescue Bai Qi's army, and he would catch their Qin army, which would be a fiasco.

So Jin Kuang Zhengse said: "The last general thinks that although this Bai Qi has been rude to the national lieutenant many times, which makes the last general and others quite angry, but as the national lieutenant said, if you sit back and watch Bai Qi die in this battle, the marquis will definitely have a grudge against us......"

The two of them tacitly agreed.

But immediately, Jin Kuang hesitated and said: "The question is, how can our army get rid of the South Korean army?" ”

Hearing this, Sima Coo stroked his beard and pondered for a moment.

Removing the 5,000 troops stationed in Wancheng by Peng Tang, the 10,000 troops who reinforced Wancheng by Changchi, and the soldiers who died in the battle with the Han army during this time, Sima Cuo's original 60,000 troops were only 40,000 in Xixian at this moment.

On the other hand, the South Korean army outside the city has about 60,000.

Although Sima Cuo had the intention to support Bai Qi, he also knew that once he exposed his flaws in order to rescue Bai Qi, Storm Kite would inevitably take the opportunity to lead his army to attack, and at that time, he and Bai Qi would fall into a dangerous situation of being attacked on their backs.

Is there any way to fool the kite?

Suddenly, Sima mistakenly thought of one thing: it seemed that since a few days ago, the violent kite was no longer in a hurry to attack Xixian.

After pondering for a while, he summoned his subordinate general Urong and instructed: "Urong, you personally take people to investigate outside the city to see if the Han army of the Storm Kite is still cutting down trees everywhere." ”

"Whoa!"

Although Qin General Wurong was surprised, he still took the order and left.

At dusk that night, Wu Rong came to report to Sima and said: "Captain Qiyu, the last general personally monitored the Korean army for a day, and found that the Korean army was no longer cutting down trees everywhere......"

"Sure enough!"

Sima said secretly when he heard this.

The purpose of asking Urong to find out if the Han army was still cutting down trees everywhere was to see if the storm kite was still building siege equipment.

Regarding the follow-up to the attack on Wancheng, he came up with a guess.

According to Bai Qi's letter, Meng Zhong of Fangcheng had been planning a sneak attack on Wancheng before the winter of last year, and Zhai Zhang also led reinforcements to Yangguan, coupled with the abnormal behavior of the Storm Kite, that is, the Storm Kite, who was originally preparing to retreat to Rushui, suddenly took the initiative to attack unusually, all of which proved one thing, the Wei and Han armies had been plotting to unite to defeat the armies of Sima Cuo and Bai Qi in one go.

In this case, is it possible that the Wei army will not send someone to inform the storm kite of this matter after successfully sneaking up on Wancheng?

The answer is never!

According to the thinking of normal people, Wei Jun would inevitably inform Storm Kite of this matter and ask Storm Kite to take this opportunity to put pressure on him again.

In Sima Cuo's view, the violent kite, which was still storming Taxi County a while ago, suddenly stopped attacking the city, and even didn't even build siege equipment at all, which obviously meant that he learned that the granary behind his Qin army was attacked, and was waiting for him Sima Cuo's army to collapse because of the exhaustion of grain and grass.

Thinking of this, Sima Cuo suddenly had an idea.

He immediately sent someone to summon Jin Kuang, told the latter his guess, and then said: "I'm afraid that Storm Kite has learned that Wancheng was attacked by the Wei army, so he besieged Xixian but did not attack, and wanted to sit and wait for our army to run out of food and collapse itself. The tyrannical kite suffered a defeat, after all, he retreated in fright, and at this time our army immediately retreated to Wancheng and tried to meet Bai Zuo. ”

Jin Kuang nodded in admiration, and praised it: "Captain, good strategy!" ”

Without further ado, after the decision was made, Sima Cuo immediately took action and ordered the whole army to prepare for the camp and hurry.

Around midnight that night, Sima Coo issued an order and ordered his 40,000 troops to quietly leave the city.

During this period, he secretly asked someone to deliberately make a noise to deliberately alarm the Korean army scouts lurking in the area of Xixian.

Sure enough, these Korean army scouts immediately returned to the army and reported to the commander Storm Kite: "Da Sima, the Qin army is evacuating from Xixian in a big way. ”

Hearing the news, the storm kite was immediately overjoyed, and laughed and said, "Sima is running out of food, and he deserves to be defeated by me!" ”

So he immediately issued an order and led the whole army to pursue Sima Cuo's army, but as a result, he was unexpectedly ambushed by Sima Cuo and retreated in defeat.

Fortunately, Sima Cuo did not have time to pursue the defeated Han army, and after repelling the pursuit of the violent kite, he immediately led the whole army to retreat towards Wancheng.

As he expected, the storm kite was ambushed by him once, and he was so suspicious that he didn't dare to pursue it.

The next day, that is, on March 21, when he found that the Qin army had long since lost its retreat, the storm kite regretted it and immediately led the army towards Wancheng.

At the same time, in the Yangguan area, Bai Qizheng led the remaining troops under his command to launch a fierce attack on Yangguan on the fifth day.

Up to now, 40,000 of the 60,000 troops under Bai Qi's command have been killed in battle, and the remaining 20,000 Qin soldiers are demoralized and almost collapsed.

However, the Wei army in Yangguan was also uncomfortable, and the army under the command of Meng Zhong and Zhai Zhang suffered a total of nearly 30,000 casualties.

I have to say that in this war, the army under Bai Qi and the Yangguan Wei army were really defeated.

Finally, this tragic battle is about to come to an end.

Although Bai Qi's goal was largely achieved, the remaining 20,000 troops under his command could no longer stop the remaining 90,000 or 100,000 Wei troops under the command of Meng Zhong and Zhai Zhang.