"Report! Behind our army, a new Wei army is chasing after us, and the banner is "Wei Fangcheng Lingmeng"! ”

“……”

After hearing the herald's report, Bai Qi's already gloomy face became more and more gloomy.

"It's finally here, ...... Mengzhong."

Turning his head to look behind him, he looked at the east when the Wei army was attacking, and looked at the black belt on the horizon under the reddish morning sun.

It was not a black belt at all, but the main force of the Wei army, which was rapidly chasing here, the main force of pursuit led by the Wei general Meng Zhong himself.

was caught up by this Wei army, even if he got up in vain, I am afraid that he will not have the strength to return to the sky.

"How far is it from Wancheng?"

Bai Qi turned his head and asked the guard beside him.

Even a guard replied, "I'm afraid there's still half the distance." ”

Fangcheng is about 100 miles away from Wancheng, half of which is fifty miles, if it is placed on weekdays, it only takes half a day to march to arrive, but now the army under his command was chased and beaten by Wei generals Huahu, Tang Zhi, Le Jin, Wu Ying, Wei Xu, Yu Ying and others, delaying a lot of time, and the distance of fifty miles is simply close to the end of the world for his Bai Qi army.

"Is that the end of it?"

Bai Qi raised his head to look at the gradually brightening sky, and let out a long breath.

"No, at least not yet......

Shaking his head, leaving the cranky thoughts in his heart behind, Bai Qi calmly ordered: "Pass the order, the sky is about to brighten, and I order Ji Hong, Zhong Xu and others to quickly find a dangerous hill to defend in this vicinity." ”

"Whoa!"

Between Fangcheng and Wancheng, although most of them are flat plains, there are still a lot of low hills, but it seems that this kind of low hills can withstand the pursuit of the Wei army? In fact, even Bai Qi himself has little confidence.

But in any case, it is better to defend the mountains than to rush in the daytime, firstly, the Wei army is stronger in combat during the day, and secondly, the soldiers under his command are already exhausted at this moment after a night's journey, and if they can't find a place to rest for a while, I am afraid that they will be defeated by the Wei army in one fell swoop today.

Under Bai Qi's orders, the remaining Qin army soon found a low hill and poured into the mountains and forests like a swarm.

Seeing this, Hua Hu, Tang Zhi, and Le Jin led the Wei army to surround this hill, and ordered their subordinates to hurry up and rest while waiting for Meng Zhong's main force.

About half an hour later, Meng Zhong led more than 20,000 Wei troops to slowly arrive, and joined the armies of Hua Hu, Tang Zhi, and Le Jin, so that the Wei army besieging the hill could reach about 40,000.

"Where's Lord Zhai Zhang?"

When he saw Meng Zhong, Tang Zhi asked in surprise, "Didn't Lord Zhai Zhang come with Fang Chengling with his army?" ”

Meng Zhong smiled and explained: "Da Sima is old, so I asked him to lead the army slowly, anyway, with the current amount of troops, even our people are enough to defeat it......"

"That's right." Tang Zhi nodded, quite satisfied that Meng Zhong took such good care of Zhai Zhang, whom he respected.

From the side, Le Jin also asked Meng Zhong: "Ah Zhong, have you met Wu Ying, Wei Xu, and Yu Ying on the way?" ”

Meng Zhong nodded and said, "I did." …… I asked Wu Ying and Wei Xu to guard Fang City, and as for Yu Ying, I told him to join you around the same time. ”

After all, last night, in order to bite the main force of the Bai Qi army, Hua Hu, Tang Zhi, and Le Jin almost defeated the abandoned Qin army, and did not divide their troops to chase and kill, which led to the fact that in the area of Fangcheng, there were still a large number of Qin army soldiers hiding, which was also an unstable factor for Fangcheng.

After a few simple small talks, Meng Zhong asked Hua Hu, Tang Zhi, and Le Jin about the current situation of Bai Qijun.

To this, Hua Hu replied: "According to my estimates, Bai Qi's army is still about seven or eight thousand people, but in my opinion, there is no threat at all, before you come, I will discuss with Tang Sima and Ah Jin, let the soldiers take a breath first, and then attack together, to ensure that this Qin army can be defeated in one fell swoop!" ”

"Don't be careless." Meng Zhong advised: "As long as Bai Qi is still in the army, then you must not relax your vigilance at any time...... In other words, is Bai Qi still in the army? ”

"I don't know." Le Jin interjected on the side: "However, I think this Qin army still has some cohesion, and I think that Bai Qi and his generals are still in the army...... Having said that, the army of the Qin State is really terrifying, at this time, they still retain some discipline, and if they were the armies of other countries, I am afraid that they would have collapsed long ago......"

Hearing this, Tang Zhi nodded slightly.

Only if you have dealt with the army of the Qin State, you will understand how tenacious the army of the Qin State is, take the Bai Qi Army as an example, from the initial more than 60,000 people to only more than 20,000 left, and last night because they pursued more than 10,000 Qin troops fell behind, but even so, the remaining seven or eight thousand Qin troops at this moment can still have some cohesion, I have to say that the discipline of the Qin army is really amazing.

Of course, no matter how tenacious this Qin army is, they are destined to not be able to escape from the hands of their Wei army.

After chatting for a while, Hua Hu left first to prevent the Qin army from escaping from the other side of the hill while Tang Zhi and Le Jin stayed next to Meng Zhong, discussing the tactics of attacking the hill later—mainly thinking about how to reduce their own casualties.

After all, this battle has been fought so far, and his Wei army has also suffered heavy losses, if it can reduce casualties, it will naturally be better to reduce casualties.

At this moment, Meng Zhong's guards escorted two or three Qin prisoners to the front of the battle, Tang Zhi and Le Jin saw that Meng Zhong handed over a roll of bamboo slips to the Qin prisoners, and then released these three people.

Seeing the two or three Qin army captives hurriedly running towards the hill not far away, Le Jin approached Meng Zhong and asked in a low voice, "Ah Zhong, do you want to persuade Bai Qi to surrender?" ”

In Le Jin's opinion, Meng Zhong delivered a letter to Bai Qi at this moment, either to ridicule Bai Qi or to persuade Bai Qi to surrender, and according to Meng Zhong's character, he would not ridicule Bai Qi at such a time, so it was only possible to persuade Bai Qi to surrender.

Hearing this, Meng Zhong said casually: "No, I'm just ...... I just want to see if Bai Qi is in the army......"

With his understanding of Meng Zhong, of course Le Jin could hear that his words were very insincere, shrugged his shoulders and stopped asking, and said with a smile: "It's okay, let me tell you, I thought of a joke when I was chasing Qin Jun last night, and it was so funny that I told you......"

“……”

Hearing this, the corners of Meng Zhong's mouth tugged, revealing an embarrassed but polite smile.

At the same time, the captives of the three Qin soldiers had also fled to the hill and handed over Meng Zhong's letter to Bai Qi.

However, when Bai Qi spread out the bamboo slip and took a look, he found that there was no word on it.

He was stunned, but immediately understood, and smiled a little with emotion.

On the side, Sima Jin also noticed this bamboo slip, and asked puzzledly: "Bai Shuai, what is the deep meaning of the empty bamboo slip that Meng Zhong ordered someone to send him?" ”

Bai Qi explained: "He is persuading me to lead the army to surrender. …… However, he left me a little affection and never wrote it on the bamboo slips. ”

Looking at Bai Qi, who seemed to be very happy, Sima Jin showed a slightly strange expression on his face.

I have to say that he really can't figure out the relationship between Bai Qi and Meng Zhong, obviously a few days ago, it seems that he didn't share the sky.

He cautiously asked, "What about ...... How does Bai Shuai plan to reply to that Meng Zhong? ”

Hearing this, Bai Qi slowly restrained the smile on his face, and said indifferently: "I have received the great favor of the marquis, how can I turn my back on the marquis?" Turning your back on Daqin? Not to mention...... Hum! ”

With that, he broke the empty bamboo slips with all his might, threw half of them back to the Qin soldiers who sent the bamboo slips, and said in a deep voice: "Take it back and hand it over to that Meng Zhong." ”

Those Qin soldiers naturally didn't dare to disobey, and returned to the bottom of the mountain with this half of the bamboo slip and handed it to Meng Zhong.

Looking at the half of the bamboo slips, Meng Zhong was quite stunned, after all, Bai Qi's refusal was very clear.

From the side, Le Jin saw that Meng Zhong was a little disappointed, thought for a while and said: "Ah Zhong, although Bai Qi is a talent, and he is not inferior to Ah Yi in terms of soldiers, but you know that even if he surrenders, you and I can't keep him...... Gongsun Zhu, Dou Xing, and Wei Qing in Hedong will not spare Bai Qi, and our city will not have a foothold for Bai Qi...... Not to mention the idea of being in vain. ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong nodded slightly, of course he understood Le Jin's words, he just felt pity for Bai Qi.

After all, the only two peers he had met so far who were the best at commanding troops and fighting were Le Yi and this Bai Qi.

Thinking that Bai Qi had sincerely hoped that he would surrender to the Qin State and serve as his deputy general when he was in Fangcheng, Meng Zhong was inevitably hesitant to strangle this outstanding general, but as Le Jin said, even if Bai Qi was willing to surrender, he might not be able to keep this person, and it would be difficult for Bai Qi to have a foothold on Fangcheng's side alone.

The soldiers and civilians of Fangcheng, Yangguan, and Yeyi gritted their teeth with hatred for Bai.

Compared with the hatred of the Qin army, the hatred of the Chu people in northern Han against the Wei people is nothing.

"Whew-"

With a long sigh, Meng Zhong Zhengse said to Le Jin: "Prepare to attack the mountain, don't let Bai Qi run away as much as possible, this person's threat to Wei is better than 100,000 Qin troops!" ”

Hearing this, Le Jin couldn't help but complain: "Ah Zhong, you are a bit of a strong man, he is the general of the Qin army, if he really wants to escape, he can just pretend to be a Qin pawn, how do I know where he fled to in the chaos?" ”

"Just do your best."

Meng Zhong, who had turned around and walked away, said lightly.

At noon that day, Tang Zhi and Le Jin tried to attack the hills where the Qin army was located.

But to be honest, the effect is not good, don't look at the Qin army under the command of Bai Qi There are only seven or eight thousand left, but these Qin troops are desperate and want to survive, but they have stimulated their fighting spirit and stubbornly defended this hill, making it difficult for the Wei army to advance.

Seeing this situation, Le Jin suggested to Meng Zhong: "Ah Zhong, even if this hill is conquered like this, our army will have unnecessary casualties, and we have to find a way to eliminate the resistance of the Qin soldiers......

It is indeed not difficult to eliminate the resistance of the Qin army, to be honest, as long as Meng Zhongken orders to let go of the Qin soldiers who are willing to surrender.

Yes, so far the other Fangcheng army has always had a "zero tolerance" attitude towards the Qin army, on the one hand, Menghu, Huahu and others witnessed the cruelty of the Qin people when they were in Yuncheng, so they showed no mercy to the Qin army, and on the other hand, the soldiers of the Fangcheng army all had more or less hatred for the Qin army - especially those Fangcheng soldiers from the Chu people.

And this led to the fact that the follow-up Qin soldiers almost did not surrender to the Fangcheng army, because they also knew that this Wei army would not spare them.

This also slightly increased the difficulty for the Fang Cheng army to defeat the Qin army.

Thinking of this, Meng Zhong nodded and said, "Okay, pass the order, as long as you are willing to surrender the soldiers, you can't kill indiscriminately." ”

At the behest of Meng Zhong, it didn't take long for Wei pawns to shout at the bottom of the mountain, advising the Qin pawns on the mountain to surrender.

I have to say that this is the first time that the Fangcheng Wei army has openly persuaded the Qin army to surrender, and the Qin soldiers on the mountain are also suspicious, after all, who let the Fangcheng army see the Qin army before and kill them all?

But with nowhere to escape now, some Qin soldiers still took the risk of trying to surrender to the Fangcheng army.

Come to think of it, at this point, even if it is the strict laws of the Qin State, it is actually difficult to restrain these Qin soldiers, and the reason why these Qin soldiers can still have some cohesion is actually mostly the relationship between the Fang Cheng army - huddling together for warmth.

No, after the Fang Cheng army was willing to take in the prisoners, more than a thousand Qin soldiers sneaked down the mountain one after another and surrendered to the Wei army.

And Hua Hu was quite dissatisfied with this, after all, he had seen the cruelty of the Qin cavalry in Yuncheng, and he didn't even let go of a few years old children, which was the reason why Hua Hu and the cavalry under his command never left a living mouth for the Qin army.

He said to Meng Zhong: "If you want to reduce the casualties of our army, you can besiege the Qin army for a few days, but now the Qin army is trapped here, without food and water, you only need to surround it, and after a few days, our army can easily destroy it, and there is really no need to take prisoners......

Meng Zhong shook his head and said, "Have you forgotten Sima Mistake? The immediate priority is to break through Bai Qi's remaining forces as soon as possible, and we don't have much time to entangle with Bai Qi here. ”

Hearing this, Hua Hu stopped talking.

On the same day, the Wei army attacked this hill in the face of the Qin army's persuasion, and under the coercion of the Wei army, Qin soldiers successively surrendered to the Wei army in order to survive, ignoring the strict laws of the Qin state.

In this regard, it seems that Ji Hong, Meng Yi, Zhong Xu and other Qin generals are very angry, but in fact, what they are angry about is not the surrender of the Qin soldiers under their command to the Wei army, but the surrender of these Qin soldiers, which caused the fighting spirit that was finally aroused in his army to be lost again.

In addition to being angry, General Zhu Qin asked Yu Baiqi: "Bai Shuai, what should we do now?" ”

Facing the generals' inquiries, Bai Qi was actually a little embarrassed.

At this time, he felt as if he had returned to the time when he was in Fox City, being pressed by Meng Zhong step by step but there was nothing he could do.

After thinking about it, he could only say to the generals: "Tell the soldiers to take out the dry food they bring with them to fill their stomachs, and after sunset tonight, continue to break through to the west......"

In fact, Bai Qi also knew very well that Meng Zhong could not have expected his breakthrough, but this was also the only way out for the army under his command.

After sunset that night, the more than 1,000 Qin soldiers who had surrendered to the Wei army and the Qin soldiers who had died defending the hill were removed, and the remaining 6,000 Qin soldiers, under the leadership of Bai Qi and his generals, continued to break through to the west.

The Wei army really expected it, and almost as soon as the Qin army made a move, the Wei army immediately pursued it.

It was another whole night of pursuit, Bai Qi commanded more than 6,000 Qin troops, under the pursuit of nearly 40,000 Wei troops, suffered heavy casualties, and finally only a few more than 1,000 people were still left behind Bai Qi.

And even so, the three of them still chased and beat Bai Qi.

In particular, the cavalry of the two thousand square meters led by Hua Hu clung to the army led by Bai Qiqin and chased all the way.

"Protect Bai Shuai and go first!"

"Intercept the Wei army!"

In order to protect Bai Shuai and enable the boss to escape safely, Qin generals Ji Hong, Zhong Xu, Meng Yi, Wei Yuan and others took the initiative to lead the army to break off, trying to intercept the pursuers of Hua Hu, Tang Zhi, Le Jin and others, but even so, Hua Hu still took hundreds of cavalry and forcibly chiseled through the Qin army and caught up with Bai Qi.

"Bai Shuai, Fangcheng's cavalry is here!"

One of the soldiers shouted in horror.

“……”

Bai Qi turned his head and frowned at the Fangcheng cavalry who were chasing them with torches under the night sky.

He secretly swore that if he could escape back to Qin alive this time, he would definitely rebuild a cavalry that could rival the Fangcheng cavalry.

But the question is, can you walk away?

I saw that under the pursuit of the cavalry led by Hua Huqin, the more than 1,000 Qin soldiers who followed Bai Qiqi quickly reduced their numbers, and in the end, there were only more than 200 people left.

Although it is said that those other Qin soldiers will only fall behind, it does not mean that they have been killed by the Wei army, but as far as the current situation is concerned, it is probably only a matter of time before those Qin soldiers will be killed by the Wei army.

"Grandfather...... Why didn't grandfather send troops to help?! ”

Seeing his generals being slaughtered by the Wei army one by one, Sima Jin seemed to empathize and said angrily.

Hearing this, Bai Qi was silent.

In all fairness, he didn't mind Sima Cuo's death at all, after all, it was his personal opinion that he had broken the net with the Wei army in Yangguan, and he didn't expect Sima Cuo to send troops to support him from the beginning.

Even, if the two of them changed positions, he would not have sent troops to rescue Sima Cuo - the army that would surely die, what was worth rescuing?

"Right now, Sima Cuo should have retreated to Wuguan......

When he heard Sima Jin's words, Bai Qi thought secretly in his heart.

In his opinion, as long as Sima Cuo can get rid of the South Korean army and retreat to Wuguan, then the casualties of his Qin army this time are still within an acceptable range.

Next, he Qin could blame Chu and blame Chu for the defeat, forcing Chu to blame Zhaoju and re-send troops to assist him Qin in attacking Wei and Han.

On the contrary, if even Sima Cuo's army was defeated by the Wei and Han coalition forces, it would be a complete fiasco.

And just as Bai Qi was thinking this, he suddenly saw that there seemed to be some light under the night sky in front of him.

If you look closely, it looks like a fire, a fire made up of countless torches.

"Wei Jun? Or is it ...... Is it Sima Cuo's army?'

was slightly stunned, and his white face showed a little stunned.

After a while, when the distance between them was a little closer, Bai Qi confirmed that the firelight on the opposite side was indeed countless soldiers holding torches.

And judging from the movement speed of these torches, the opponent is an infantry army, and there are extremely many of them.

This can't be the Wei army, after all, the main force of the Wei army is still behind them.

"It's grandfather! It's reinforcements sent by my grandfather! ”

Sima Jin shouted happily.

Hearing this, Bai Qi's face showed a strange expression: Sima Cuo, he never retreated to the martial arts?

Just as he was thinking this, the army in the distance was already approaching, and the general led by him shouted, "Who is the person in front?" But the soldiers under the command of Bai Zuo? ”

Before Bai Qi could speak, Sima Jin shouted eagerly, "General Jin Kuang? Is it General Jin Kuang? Bai Shuai is here! ”

Sure enough, the army on the opposite side was the army led by Jin Kuang, a general under Sima Cuo, and as soon as he heard the voice, he knew that it was Sima Cuo and Sima Jin, the middle grandson, so he hurriedly drove the chariot forward and saluted Bai Qi and Sima Jin.

At this time, Bai Qi couldn't open his mouth, he frowned and asked Jin Kuang, "Why is General Jin here?" ”

Hearing this, Jin Kuang said directly: "The last general was ordered by the national captain to go to pick up Bai Zuo Geng...... I don't know what the current situation is on Bai Zuogen's side? ”

After all, he had suffered a defeat, Bai Qi was also a little embarrassed in his heart, thinking about how to answer, but Sima Jin on the side did not have so many concerns, and said hurriedly when he heard the words: "General Jin Kuang, the main force of the Wei army is pursuing our army, Ji Hong, Meng Yi, Zhong Xu and other generals all led the army to the palace in order to protect Bai Shuai's evacuation, I am afraid that something will happen, please Jin Kuang must lead the army to rescue!" ”

Hearing this, Jin Kuang's face turned straight, and he hugged his fists and said to Bai Qi: "Bai Zuo, don't pass for the time being." ”

After saying that, he raised his arms and shouted at the army under his command: "There is a Wei army in front of you who is chasing and killing our army, follow Jin to repel them!" ”

"Oh-"

The troops under Jin Kuang's command shouted in unison, and under the leadership of Jin Kuang, they crossed Bai Qi's small team of only more than 200 people and killed the battlefield that was fighting in the distance.

At this time, Hua Hu, who was chasing Bai Qi, also noticed that a large Qin army was coming towards them in front of him.

"Is Sima wrong's army? Didn't the storm kite hold Sima wrong? ”

Frowning, Hua Hu did not hesitate to lead the cavalry to retreat, and at the same time immediately sent people to convey the news to Meng Zhong and the other armies that reinforcements from the Qin army had arrived.

"Reinforcements!"

"Reinforcements have arrived!"

Hearing the shouts of the Jin Kuang army, the Qin generals Ji Hong, Zhong Xu and others, who were struggling to resist the Wei army, were in high spirits, and immediately led the remnants of the army under their command to move closer to the Jin Kuang army.

At this time, Meng Zhong also received the news sent by Huahu, and saw him standing on his horse, frowning and looking at the battlefield in the distance.

But unfortunately, in the dark night, he only saw countless torches in the distance, but he couldn't see how many troops Sima Cuo had sent.

Considering that Bai Qijun had almost been wiped out by his army, with the idea of accepting it when he saw it, he immediately ordered: "Pass the order, tonight is here, and you must not pursue the Qin army without authorization." ”

Considering that it was very likely that the Qin army would seize the opportunity to attack, even if Meng Zhong did not want to engage Sima Cuo's army, he did not dare to give the order to retreat at this moment, so as not to have a negative impact.

Fortunately, Jin Kuang, the general under the command of Sima Cuo on the opposite side, also knew each other, and saw that the Wei army was stationary, and he also supported Ji Hong, Zhong Xu, Tong Yang and other generals, and slowly retreated in the dark night.

At this time, Tang Zhi came to Meng Zhong's side and asked, "Don't you chase?" ”

Meng Zhong shook his head and said calmly: "The other party may not only have this support army, rashly pursued, and those who are blind in the dark are likely to be ambushed." …… Since Sima Cuo's army appeared here, presumably he was stationed in Wancheng at the moment, and our army slowly moved forward, following this Qin army from a distance, and first went to Wancheng to see the situation over there...... If Sima Cuo retreats to Wuguan, then I have nothing to do with him; Now that he is garrisoning Wancheng, he might as well combine the forces of my Wei and Han armies and trap and kill them! In short, there is no rush. ”

Tang Zhi nodded and didn't ask any more.

At this time, Meng Zhong looked at the starry torches that were slowly retreating in the distance, and he was also a little puzzled in his heart, after all, according to his estimate, Sima Cuo should not have retreated to Wancheng so quickly.

But no matter what, now only Sima Cuo's army remains.