"Damn, it's really a shame this time......

During the pursuit of the Qin army, Hua Hu pursed his lips and thought with annoyance.

Although it was the middle of the night at the moment, the hazy moonlight shone on Hua Hu's body, and the gloomy color on his face could still be roughly seen.

It's no wonder that Hua Hu felt embarrassed, after all, there were a full four thousand cavalry in his city, and they were tasked with searching and guarding in the vicinity, but they didn't expect that a Qin army, which numbered about several thousand, quietly emerged from behind their camp and successfully attacked their main camp.

Although the guards on the side of the main camp, such as Lian Po and Le Jin, reacted quickly and led their soldiers to repel the night attack of the Qin army in time, so that his Wei, Zhao, and Han armies did not suffer any serious battle damage, but the negative impact caused by this incident inevitably caused people to have some doubts and speculations about the ability of the cavalry in the other city.

Aren't your cavalry mainly responsible for searching and patrolling the area?

Why did so many Qin troops attack the main camp at night, but your Fangcheng cavalry didn't know anything about it, neither sent troops to intercept that Qin army, nor warned the main camp in advance? Isn't that dereliction of duty?

Although for the sake of Yuncheng Jun Mengzhong's face, the generals of the three armies of Wei, Zhao and Han would not blame the cavalry of other Fangcheng for this, Hua Hu still felt ashamed.

Unlike Meng Hu, Hua Hu couldn't tolerate such a serious mistake.

You must know that the variables that a night attack will cause are too great, don't look at this time his Wei army repelled the night attack of the Qin army without danger, but thinking back to the battle of Yique that year, Gongsun Xi, a famous general who commanded the 180,000 Wei army at that time, wasn't it destroyed in a night attack on Baiqi?

As soon as he thought of this, Hua Hu was terrified, and at the same time he hated Qin Jun deeply.

But then again, this time the night attack of the Qin army, in fact, you can't blame Hua Hu or Meng Hu, don't look at these two people who have led the Fangcheng cavalry to control the nearby wilderness recently, but because Hangu Pass is on the west side of the Wei camp in the middle of the road, the main defense direction of the Fangcheng cavalry is naturally also on the west side - who would have thought that the Qin army would suddenly appear behind the alliance forces of Wei, Zhao, and Han from a place more than ten miles away from Hangu Pass?

Not to mention that Hua Hu couldn't think of it, even Meng Zhong didn't think of it.

But even so, Hua Hu still believes that he should be held responsible for the night attack on the main camp, and whether or not Meng Zhong punishes him afterwards, he must carefully make up for his negligence.

For example, carefully follow the fleeing Qin army in front of him, and find out the secret behind the reason why this Qin army can quietly detour to his main camp.

But what made him feel strange was that although he had prepared for the Qin army to have various ways to escape, such as escaping into the nearby mountains and forests, for some reason, the Qin army in front of him only cared about fleeing, and didn't seem to care that there were more than a thousand square city cavalry chasing behind them.

"Something isn't right......

Pulling the reins slightly, Hua Hu glanced around alertly.

He could understand that the Qin army fled in a panic, but hundreds of Qin soldiers fled in one direction in unison, regardless of the cavalry of the other city following behind, which didn't look like they were fleeing.

"It's ...... Lure the enemy? Is the Qin army preparing to ambush our army?"

Hua Hu, who was familiar with the art of war, immediately made such a judgment, and he immediately ordered left and right: "Tell the soldiers to raise their guard, I suspect that the Qin army may set up an ambush in this area." ”

"Whoa!"

"What about Cai Cheng? that he may be joined to me at once. ”

"Whoa!"

A moment later, the deputy general Cai Cheng came with a team of cavalry to join Huahu, known as Sima.

Hua Hu didn't talk nonsense, and said directly: "Cai Cheng, I will take three hundred cavalry to pursue the Qin army in front, and you will take the rest of the soldiers to search carefully in the vicinity." ”

Cai Cheng asked in surprise when he heard this: "Is Sima worried that there may be an ambush army of the Qin army in this area?" ”

"Hmm." Hua Hu nodded.

I have to say that he is too careful at the moment, if Meng Zhong is here at this moment, Meng Zhong will immediately point out that there will be no large Qin army in this vicinity, at best it is just a small force of troops that respond to the night attack.

The reason is very simple, because this time the opponent is Bai Qi, in the middle of the night, even Meng Zhong does not dare to lead too many troops to rashly pursue the Qin army, so as not to be ambushed by Bai Qi's large force.

And Bai Qi obviously could guess Meng Zhong's reaction, so naturally he would not waste his efforts to transfer a large number of troops to ambush here, so as not to consume the physical strength of his soldiers in vain.

From this, Meng Zhong can also take advantage of the situation to deduce the conclusion that "there will be no ambush by a large army of the Qin army in the vicinity", which is a "tacit understanding" between the two of them that can only be understood and cannot be spoken.

But Hua Hu didn't have Meng Zhong's understanding of Bai Qi, and inferred from common sense, he thought that it was very likely that the Qin army would set up an ambush, after all, the Qin army in front of him looked like they were luring the enemy.

So, at Hua Hu's request, he and Cai Chengbing split into two routes, with Hua Hu leading 300 cavalry to continue to lead the Qin army, while the rest of the Fangcheng cavalry, led by Cai Cheng, carefully searched for the traces of the Qin army's ambush in the vicinity.

"By the way, if Meng Hu and Cao Chun lead the cavalry to help, ask them to first ensure that there is no ambush of the Qin army in this vicinity."

Before leaving, Hua Hu instructed Cai Cheng.

"I understand below." Cai Cheng responded with a fist.

After bidding farewell to Cai Cheng, Hua Hu only led more than 300 cavalry to continue to pursue the Qin army in front.

Whether or not to kill the Qin army in front of him is actually irrelevant to the overall situation, and even Meng Zhong's order to Hua Hu only asks Hua Hu to take the tail of this Qin army and find out the source of this Qin army, so Hua Hu is not in a hurry to follow those Qin troops and always keep a distance from this Qin army.

During this period, he paid more attention to the pitch-black surroundings, obviously he was not sure whether he would be attacked by the Qin army.

Gradually, the road became more and more rugged, and eventually, those Qin troops escaped into the mountains and forests at the end.

After a while, a sentinel cavalry returned to the team and reported to Hua Hu about the situation ahead: "Sima, this road is at the end here, there is a mountain in front, and I can't ......really see the specific situation below."

Hearing this, Hua Hu looked around.

In fact, to be precise, there are mountains in front of them and on the left and right at the moment, and although they can't really see it in the night, they can still see the general outline of those mountains with the help of the hazy moonlight.

He thought for a moment and asked, "What about those Qin troops?" Have you escaped into the mountains and forests ahead? ”

"Yes." The sentinel replied with a nod of his head.

Hearing this, Hua Hu looked intently at the hill ahead, although the art of war he read always had the admonition of "do not enter the mountains" and "do not enter the forest", but he did not feel that there was any ambush of the Qin army on the mountain in front of him.

The reason was that they were already very close to that mountain, if there were Qin army ambushes in front of them or on the nearby mountains, these Qin troops should have launched an ambush a long time ago, how could it be as silent as now?

Thinking of this, Hua Hu gritted his teeth and decided to continue the pursuit.

Due to the mountain ahead, Hua Hu and his cavalry could only dismount and lead the war horses to climb the hill with great difficulty.

Fortunately, as Hua Hu judged, the mountain they had climbed—a low hill to be exact—was indeed not ambushed by the Qin army; Unfortunately, due to the war horses, they delayed a lot of time, so that by the time they climbed this hill, those Qin troops had long since disappeared.

This made Hua Hu a little puzzled: Isn't it a lure to the enemy?

It was no wonder that he had such doubts, after all, according to common sense, if the enemy really wanted to ambush them, he should have done it a long time ago, and he would not suddenly disappear at this time.

"Did I guess wrong?"

Hua Hu muttered to himself.

At this time, a cavalryman beside him asked in a low voice, "Sima, what should I do now?" ”

Hua Hu frowned and observed the surroundings, and immediately ordered: "Ten people come down the mountain with me from this side, and then go forward to find out the situation, and the rest ...... They are all temporarily stationed on the mountain, waiting for my orders. ”

"Whoa!"

After ordering his cavalry to stand by, Hua Hu only took ten cavalrymen and led his horses down a rugged and difficult path.

After crossing the mountain, another path appeared in front of him, Hua Hu thought about it, and then based on subjective guessing, he slowly moved forward in the direction of the general west.

He guessed that the Qin army should have withdrawn westward.

Without knowing where he was, Hua Hu led ten cavalry and slowly moved forward on this strange dirt road.

Halfway through, the road was cut off again, and Hua Hu and the others had to cross the mountains again.

After climbing over two or three hills like this, Hua Hu suddenly saw a few fires faintly appearing in the night in front of him.

"Huh?"

Hua Hu subconsciously grabbed the reins and watched.

According to his eyesight, the distant firelight seemed to be quite far away from him, so that the few fires were almost a little ethereal, and if there was none, it was impossible to see it really.

When they got closer and took a closer look, Hua Hu found that there were not just a few fires at all, but a lot, although they were far from dense.

He squinted his eyes and carefully observed the firelight in the distance, judging the source of these fires—was it a number of Qin soldiers with torches, or a campfire from some hidden Qin camp? Or maybe it's a campfire lit by a caravan during a night in the wilderness?

After staring at it for a long time, he finally confirmed that the location of the fires was motionless, and that the number of fires was by no means the scale that could be achieved by a caravan group's campfire during a night in the wilderness.

That's a campfire!

Campfire in the barracks!

"There's a barracks ahead?!"

Frowning, Hua Hu muttered secretly.

While muttering, he also looked around, trying to figure out where he was, but unfortunately, it was pitch black all around at this moment, and even though he was carrying a map drawn with cloth in his arms, Hua Hu didn't think he could know the location of this place.

A moment later, there was some subtle noise intermittently at the location of the firelight in the distance, and then the firelight in the distance increased rapidly, the difference was that these were all moving fires, spreading rapidly, coming towards this side.

This made Huahu more certain that there must be a Qin army camp ahead.

And those sudden increases and moving fires were obviously the Qin soldiers who were preparing to go out of the camp to attack his pursuing army.

Seeing this, Hua Hu decisively ordered to retreat, after all, there were not many cavalry under his command at the moment, if the opposite side was really an unknown number of Qin troops, then with more than a dozen of them, they would not be opponents at all.

Sure enough, a moment later, the many bits of fire quickly came here, just as Hua Hu judged, it was countless Qin soldiers with torches in their hands, but due to Hua Hu's decisive withdrawal, these Qin soldiers with torches pounced into the air, and after searching nearby, they slowly returned to the camp hidden in the night.

At this time, three or five miles away, Hua Hu, who had retreated for a distance, looked intently at the firelights moving in the dark night in the distance, watched the firelights spread and gather, and then returned to the campfires that could not move, and finally gradually disappeared.

"What time is it?" Hua Hu asked.

The cavalrymen beside him thought for a moment, and finally one of the soldiers replied unconfidently: "Back to Sima, it's probably ugly." ”

Hua Hu nodded, and then ordered: "Then wait a little longer, and wait until dawn!" ”

Hearing the order, the ten cavalrymen behind him dismounted one after another, led the war horses to the side of the road to rest, and by the way filled their stomachs and replenished their water.

About a full hour later, the eastern horizon gradually brightened, gradually illuminating the earth and the terrain where Huahu and his party were located.

At this time, Hua Hu and the others found that on both sides of the dirt road where they were located, there were two hills that were not too large, and they found that this area was full of mountains, and the dirt road they were on at the moment was actually a valley road between the mountains, winding and rugged.

I have to say that sometimes seeing is actually more reassuring than seeing, no, after seeing the terrain where his group is located, Hua Hu became more and more worried, because no matter how he looked, this area was very suitable for ambushes.

He wasn't sure at all that on the way forward, there would be a Qin army that would suddenly come out.

But there was no way, he had to figure out where the Qin army came from last night in order to make up for the losses caused by his negligence to his own army.

"Hurry up."

After giving the order, Hua Hu turned over and got on his horse, and while the sky was still dark, he quickly moved forward with ten cavalrymen.

Sure enough, after only three miles away, Hua Hu and his party saw a military camp in the distance where they had been an hour ago.

Although it is not true, but if you think about it carefully, the only people who will set up camp in the area of Hangu Pass at the moment are the army of the Qin State.

And then the question arises: where is this?

While taking out the map of the area around Hangu Pass from his bosom, Hua Hu carefully observed the Qin military camp in the distance.

According to his observations, the Qin camp in the distance was located on the east bank of a river.

River, this is a very good coordinate.

"Rivers, rivers, ......"

Muttering softly, Hua Hu's gaze fell on the cloth map in his hand, and the fingers on the map slowly descended along the coordinates referring to Hangu Pass, and then to the west.

At this time, his finger was roughly pointing to the river drawn on the map, and the mark of this river was called "Menshui (Hongnong River)".

According to the map, this gate water flows just in front of Hangu Pass, and the river crossed by the three armies of Wei, Zhao, and Han when they went to attack Hangu Pass yesterday is the gate water that eventually joins the big river.

Suddenly, Hua Hu's gaze swept to the west side of the map, and saw a pattern representing the city painted in the blank space, and marked with the words "Taolin Sai (Lingbao)".

In other words, from the location of Hua Hu and the others at this moment, they crossed the gate water in front of them to the west, and continued westward, they could reach a Qin city called Taolinsai.

At first, Hua Hu didn't pay much attention to it, until he found out that Taolinsai was actually located in the southwest of Hangu Pass, and the distance between the two places was not close, and an idea suddenly came to his heart: Could it be that from this road, he could bypass Hangu Pass and directly attack the hinterland of Qin?

Hua Hu, who was surprised and delighted in his heart, was eager to verify his guess, and he was eager to sneak across the gate water immediately and go to the peach forest on the west side of the gate to verify it to see if the map in his hand was true.

But after thinking about it, Hua Hu immediately gave up this idea, after all, as far as he could see, the Qin camp in the distance was heavily defended, and the defense of the local garrison Qin army was also quite strong, if their whereabouts were discovered by the Qin army in the distance, then the Qin army would inevitably improve the defense of this place, which was not conducive to his joint forces to attack here in the future.

Thinking of this, Hua Hu decided to retreat, and he wanted to inform Meng Zhong of this matter immediately.

So, before the sky was completely bright, Huahu resolutely evacuated and returned along the way he came.

I have to say that the roads in this area are indeed very bad, even if the sky is bright at this moment, Hua Hu and the three hundred cavalry under his command also spent half a day before returning to join Meng Hu, Cao Chun, Cai Cheng and others - because Hua Hu had previously instructed that these people were still searching for the ambush of the Qin army in the southeast of the Wei camp in Daozhong at this moment.

Well, of course, nothing was found.

sent a few cavalrymen to contact Meng Hu, Cao Chun, and Cai Cheng, and Hua Hu himself immediately rushed back to the Wei camp in Daozhong, and broke into Meng Zhong's military tent in a hurry.

At this time, Meng Zhong was sitting in the tent, reading the book of war, while quietly waiting for Meng Hu, Hua Hu and others to send back the news.

Caught off guard, he saw Hua Hu break in with joy on his face, and said eagerly: "Ah Zhong, Ah Zhong, I found it, I found a path that leads to the back of Hangu Pass!" ”

Because he made a mistake and said Hangu Pass instead of Hangu Dao, Meng Zhong didn't care very much, and was even a little disappointed.

But Hua Hu didn't know, so he took out the map from his arms with great interest, and told Meng Zhong against the map: "Last night, I pursued that Qin army, from here, to here, and then over these mountains, and then guess where I went?" …… Over here! Door water! Oh, by the way, I saw a Qin army camp here in Menshui, and the garrison looked quite tight. ”

"Huh?"

Meng Zhong, who didn't care at first, was stunned when he heard this, he carefully observed the map spread out on the table, and then his face showed a little incredulous expression.

The reason is very simple, because the road that Huahu found not only bypassed Hangu Road, but also bypassed Hangu Road!

No, to be exact, this remote path was not found by Hua Hu, but deliberately exposed to them by Bai Qi of Hangu Pass.

But this ...... When Allah leaked a remote path that could completely bypass the Hanya Road?

What does he want to do?

"Does he want to lead our army to attack that Menshui Qin camp so that he can ambush our army halfway?"

Meng Zhong thought about it, but Xuan even shook his head slightly.

He didn't think Bai Qi's strategy was so superficial.

Sneak attack?

Ambush?

If Bai Qi knew him Meng Zhong well enough, he should know that sneak attacks and ambushes were not good for him Meng Zhong - although he was indeed attacked by the Qin army last night because of Meng Zhong's negligence, but according to Hua Hu, on the way from here to attack the Menshui Qin camp, there was terrain suitable for ambushes everywhere, how much did Bai Qi underestimate him Meng Zhong before he felt that he could ambush him Meng Zhong in that obvious ambush terrain?

In that kind of terrain, even the most stupid generals know how to guard against enemy sneak attacks and ambushes!

“…… In other words, your purpose is not to take advantage of the opportunity to ambush our army, but to induce our coalition forces to divide their forces...... No, more than that, you want me to attack the Qin camp located in Menshui, don't you ......"

Looking at the map and muttering to himself, Meng Zhong also had some thoughts that he couldn't guess.

He only knew that since Bai Qi had taken a great risk to cast a huge bait on him, there must have been great intentions.

After half a ring, Meng Zhong's face suddenly showed a strange expression.

"That guy...... You can't try to lure me away, right? …… Think I'm in the way? Hey. ”