In all fairness, between Sima Co and Bai Qi, Meng Zhong was actually more inclined to Sima Co to become his enemy.

It's not that Meng Zhong subjectively thinks that Sima Cuo's leading troops to fight is not as good as Bai Qi, but because he took into account the ages of the two.

As the saying goes, the ignorant are meaningless, and young people have learned less lessons, and they tend to be more enterprising, while older people are different, they are more thoughtful than younger people, but they will inevitably have some concerns.

For example, Bai Qi once used his troops to make dangerous moves during the Battle of Yique, and almost defeated the two famous generals of Gongsun Xi and Storm Kite in one fell swoop, if it were not for the appearance of Meng Zhong, the 300,000 combined forces of Wei and Han might have been defeated by Bai Qi with a mere 130,000 Qin troops, but if it was replaced by Sima Cuo, Sima Cuo might not be able to do this.

Could it be that Sima is wrong as if it was white?

Of course not, it can only be said that Sima Cuo, who is more than half a hundred years old, has already been gradually worn away in the years, and he will eventually choose to focus on the overall situation, and nine times out of ten he will not dare to take risks like Bai Qi, and gamble on the rout of the 300,000 coalition forces of Wei and Han with the 130,000 Qin army or the annihilation of the whole army.

And it means that he can't do what Bai Qi can do, not because of the resourcefulness of the two, but because one dares to gamble, and the other doesn't dare.

And this is the reason why Meng Zhong was happy to see Sima Co become the commander of the Qin army.

But Bai Qi is different, the fledgling Bai Qi, fearless, full of sharpness, regards Gongsun Xi, Storm Kite and other famous generals of the world as nothing, with 100,000 South Korean troops in front of him, leading 80,000 Qin troops to sneak attack 180,000 Wei troops, this kind of courage, I have to say that it is indeed rare in the world.

For example, when he was in Fox last year, Bai Qi pretended to coerce tens of thousands of Chu people to counterattack the army of Storm Kite, but in fact, he let the Qin soldiers hidden among the people of Chu make a fatal sneak attack on the Han army, if it wasn't for Meng Zhong who saw through Bai Qi's trick at that time, it would be impossible for the 30,000 troops under the command of Storm Kite to be defeated in Bai Qi's hands at that time.

All in all, it seems that Bai Qi, a Qin general who has no bottom line and dares to gamble on the safety of himself and the entire Qin army, has to say that he is indeed an extremely dangerous opponent, because you can't predict his actions at all.

And this kind of thing is almost invisible to veterans like Sima Cuo.

If Meng Zhong is the attacking side, he is more inclined to Bai Qi as an opponent, because Bai Qi's "dare to take risks" character will inevitably make him show his flaws, rather than a veteran like Sima Cuo, like this kind of veteran who has been fighting for half a lifetime, as a defender, he will use his experience to slowly wear down your sharpness, and patiently look for opportunities to counterattack.

Therefore, in this case, Sima Cuo is more difficult to deal with than Bai Qi.

But this time Meng Zhong was on the defensive, so the situation was just the opposite: he was not afraid to fight with Sima to be patient, because the longer it dragged on, the more advantageous it would be for Wei and Han; On the contrary, I am most afraid of encountering an opponent like Bai Qi, who dares to take risks and gamble, and if one is not good, it will be planted in the hands of the other party.

As the saying goes, punch the master to death, and that's the truth.

But unfortunately, Bai Qi had already sent a war letter to Meng Zhong, and the sentence in the book, "What was said in the past, will be practiced now", deeply reflects Bai Qi's conceit about the capture of Fangcheng.

"The matter of cutting off the grain route of the Qin army, stop for a while......"

After thinking for a while, Meng Zhong and Meng Sui discussed.

In fact, before this, Meng Zhong had already discussed with Meng Sui a specific strategy to deal with the Qin army, that is, to attack the Qin army's scarce grain and grass.

The first step was to try to destroy the grain, grass and baggage of the 160,000 Qin-Chu coalition troops, which Fang Cheng had already done in last night's sneak attack.

And the second next step is to attack the grain routes of the Qin-Chu coalition army and cut off its grain and grass transportation.

Although it is not very clear, Meng Zhong can roughly guess that at this moment, the grain and grass of the Qin and Chu coalition forces should come from Qin and Chu, and the Chu side must transport grain and grass from Chu Ying, while the Qin army is from Wuguan, in other words, as long as Meng Zhong can roughly calculate the grain and grass transportation routes between Wuguan and Chu Ying, and send Meng Hu, Hua Hu, and Mu Wu to lead the cavalry deep into the enemy's occupied area, they will have the opportunity to attack the grain transportation troops of the Qin and Chu coalition forces.

As long as there are a few times that his Wei army successfully looted and burned the grain and grass of the Qin-Chu coalition army, then the 160,000 Qin-Chu coalition army under Sima Cuo's command will inevitably fall into trouble because of the lack of grain and grass.

It is worth mentioning that in this matter, Meng Zhong also considered Bai Qi's attitude, he knew that Bai Qi had a cavalry of about 2,000 people under his command, but he felt that before the Qin-Chu coalition army fell into an absolute predicament, Bai Qi should not do his best to help Sima Cuo, and this gave Meng Zhong the confidence to attack Sima Cuo's grain road.

But what I didn't expect was that last night's small victory over the Qin army in his Fang City made Sima Cuo and Bai Qi seem to have reached some agreement - judging from Bai Qi's high-profile letter to him, Bai Qi should have some right to speak, at least in the matter of attacking other Fang City.

Therefore, Meng Zhong felt that the second step of his strategy of sneaking up on the grain route of the Qin-Chu coalition army should be temporarily stopped, and first look at Bai Qi's actions over there, after all, that guy's actions were much more unpredictable than Sima Cuo's.

After discussing with Meng Sui for a while, Meng Zhong summoned Meng Hu, Hua Hu, and Mu Wu, and told the three of them the general situation: "Bai Qi's character, I know it very well, unless he is on an equal footing with me, with his arrogance, he will never send someone to send this battle book, and this means that what our city is facing is no longer just the 160,000 Qin-Chu coalition army, but also the 70,000 Qin troops stationed in Wancheng by Bai Qi, and the 2,000 Qin cavalry under his command...... Ah Hu, Hua Hu, Ah Wu, I hope that the three of you will step up your surveillance of the Qin army from tomorrow, and I want to know every move of the Qin army at any time, so as to speculate on Bai Qi's intentions. ”

"Understood." Hua Hu and Mu Wu nodded.

From the side, Meng Hu grabbed his hair and said: "It's not interesting to just monitor the Qin army, Ah Zhong, it's better to ask that group of cavalry recruits to follow us, the three of us practice them well, it's better than boring riding training......"

The new cavalry pawns in his mouth, that is, the 5,000 cavalry recently expanded by Fang Cheng, are also a hole card that Meng Zhong has not exposed to the Qin army so far.

"It's not time yet."

Meng Zhong shook his head after hearing this, and said with a smile: "Seeing that the two thousand cavalry under Bai Qi's command dared to wander around our city at that time, I guessed that Bai Qi didn't know that there were five thousand new cavalry in our city, and I was going to hide it for the time being, and I would give him a surprise in the future......"

Hearing the word surprise, Hua Hu laughed hesitantly: "I'm looking forward to it." ”

After that, he asked Meng Zhongdao: "The implication is that if you encounter the cavalry under Bai Qi's command in recent days, it will still be the same?" ”

His so-called business as usual, that is, if he had the opportunity, he would take the opportunity to shoot and kill the cavalry of the Qin army under Bai Qi's command, and if there was no chance, he would temporarily retreat, in short, there would be no large-scale conflict.

"Hmm." Meng Zhong nodded and instructed, "Before I figure out the plan of Bai Qi, you should exercise a little restraint, and if necessary, you may as well show weakness in front of the cavalry under his command, and increase his pride, so that you can annihilate him in one fell swoop in the future." As he spoke, he turned his head to look at Mu Wu and said, "Ah Wu, you still command the two of them, is there a problem?" ”

Hearing this, Meng Hu and Hua Hu hooked Mu Wu's shoulders left and right, and said with a smile in unison: "Of course it's no problem, don't worry about leaving it to us." You say yes, Awu? ”

Looking at Menghu and Huahu, Mu Wu barely squeezed out a smile: "Hmm...... Well, probably......"

Under the threatening eyes of these two tigers, he finally chose to give in.

Since then, Fangcheng's side has stood still, quietly watching the movements of the Qin-Chu coalition army.

Unexpectedly, only half a day later, Meng Zhong received the news sent by Meng Hu and others, it seemed that a Qin army had retreated more than ten miles and moved to Yinshan in the southeast of Fangcheng, and was stationed in the west of Yinshan.

After learning of this, Meng Sui said to Meng Zhong: "Ah Zhong, the behavior of the Qin army is somewhat abnormal, and I suspect that they may have attacked Yangguan by surprise. ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong frowned and pondered for a moment.

To be honest, he was not very worried about the Yangguan guarded by Lejin, although the pass around Yangguan was still in the early stage of construction, and there was only one Wei camp blocking the road at the crossing, but there were many troops stationed there, in addition to the thousands of people under the command of Lejin, there were also Sima Cai Wu from Yuncheng and his eight thousand Wei soldiers under his command.

What's more important is that Fangcheng is only seven or eight miles away from Yangguan, if the Qin army intends to attack Yangguan, as long as Yangguan is not attacked by the Qin army in the first place, he Fangcheng will have time to support Yangguan.

But he felt that Qin Jun should not do that.

After pondering for a moment, Meng Zhong shook his head and said to Meng Sui, "I don't think Bai Qi will immediately make a move on Yang Guan...... As you know, the Yangguan side of the road is narrow, if the Qin army sends fewer troops to attack Yangguan, it may not be able to threaten Yangguan, and if the Qin army sends more troops, the terrain there is not enough to accommodate many troops to fight...... What's more, if he really dares to abandon our city and attack Yangguan, we have the opportunity to lock the Qin army attacking Yangguan in the valley and attack it on both sides, even if we can't win completely, it will inevitably cause heavy losses to the Qin army...... I don't think Bai Qi would do such a thankless job, I guess he has other intentions. ”

"Any other intentions?" Meng Sui was stunned, and then seemed to think of something, and asked in surprise: "Could it be that he wants to cross Yin Mountain and sneak attack Wuyang?" ”

"It's not necessarily impossible."

When he said this, Meng Zhong himself frowned.

There is no other reason, just because Wuyangyi is the place where his Mengyi children live, and there are still his mother, wife and sister living there, if it is really crossed by the Qin army, the consequences will be unimaginable.

At this time, Meng Sui also said with a slight change of color: "Bai Qi this person...... Just looking at the tens of thousands of Chu people in the city who coerced and forced tens of thousands of Chu people in the city to go out of the city to attack the Korean army when he was in Fox City that day, it is clear that this person has no morality at all, and if the Qin army really crosses the Yin Mountain, the consequences will be unimaginable. Zhong, need reinforcements immediately! ”

"Don't rush."

Seeing that Meng Sui was a little panicked, Meng Zhong comforted him and said: "I have already considered this matter, and I also told Le Jin, telling him to guard Yangguan and pay attention to the defense of Yin Mountain, in other words, don't you also know that he has two thousand soldiers stationed on Yin Mountain?" ”

Hearing this, Meng Sui recalled: "Yes, yes, I forgot ......"

But speaking of this, he frowned again and said, "But just two thousand soldiers are not enough to stop those Qin troops, right?" I think we still have to send reinforcements. ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong thought for a moment, and then said, "Call Wu Ying and Wei Xu." ”

After a while, Wu Ying and Wei Xu came to the house, Meng Zhong told them about the situation, and then said to them: "According to the news sent by Meng Hu, Sima Cuo's subordinate general Jin Kuang led more than 10,000 Qin troops to retreat more than ten miles today, stationed on the west side of Yinshan Mountain, I suspect that the Qin army has the intention of crossing Yinshan Mountain and sneaking up on Wuyang, so I hope that one of the two of you will lead the army to garrison Yinshan." ”

Wu Ying thought for a while and said, "Let Wei Xu go, he is a rare brave general." ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong turned his head to look at Wei Xu, but saw that Wei Xu said with some hesitation: "I am willing to lead troops to guard Yin Mountain, but if I leave, what will happen to Fang Cheng?" ”

Not to mention, don't look at Meng Zhong and Meng Sui are both in Fangcheng, but the garrison of Fangcheng is mainly responsible for Wu Ying and Wei Xu, if Wei Xu is transferred to Yinshan, Fangcheng will definitely lack manpower.

After listening to Wei Xu's words, Meng Zhong said with a smile: "It's okay, compared to Fang Cheng, Yang Pass, Yin Mountain, and Wuyang are more important, and if necessary, Fang Cheng can't be handed over to Qin Jun......

“……”

Wei Xu was stunned, and then seemed to think of something, nodded thoughtfully, and said with a fist: "In this case, go to Yin Mountain immediately!" ”

"Hmm!"

Meng Zhong nodded and ordered: "I will give you 5,000 soldiers, you take them to guard Yin Mountain, during this period, if the Qin army really intends to look through Yin Mountain, you might as well find an opportunity to sharpen your soldiers." By the way, Yu Ying is also in Yinshan at this moment, and you can join him...... If the Qin army invades on a large scale during this period, you can immediately ask for help from Yangguan, and I will tell Le Jin and Cai Wu to send troops to support you at any time. ”

"Whoa!" Wei Xu clenched his fists and led the way.

Subsequently, Meng Zhong discussed with Meng Sui and Wu Ying for a while, and immediately sent someone to inform Le Jin and Cai Wu stationed in Yangguan, asking them to be more vigilant.

Only half an hour later, Le Jin received a message from Meng Zhong and invited the military Sima Cai Wu to discuss with him.

"Cai Sima, Fang Cai Ah Zhong sent someone to send a message, saying that he doesn't know what the situation is, Bai Qi may replace Sima Co and lead the army to attack our city......"

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Cai Wu couldn't help but be a little curious: "How did Fang Chengling know?" Did Fang Chengling have a private correspondence with that Bai Qi? ”

Le Jin shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know if there is a private correspondence, but I know that Ah Zhong sent a letter to Bai Qi a while ago......

At the mention of this letter, Cai Wu couldn't help but laugh out loud.

For he had already learned the contents of this epistle from the pleasure of not being able to hide his thoughts.

In Le Jin's words: I'll tell you a joke, Bai Qi once made an oath outside Fangcheng that the next time he came, he would break Fangcheng......

Such a funny thing, of course Lejin will not hide it in his heart.

And this also made Cai Wu couldn't help but sigh in his heart: I didn't expect that Fang Chengling, who looked so elegant and easy-going, could say such vicious words without dirty words......

Cai Wuzhen wanted to know how Bai Qi was in when he received the letter.

Of course, Cai Wu can only be happy about this, after all, many of his subordinates died in the battle of Yique, so it is reasonable that this account must be counted on the white head.

After laughing, Le Jin said to Cai Wu: "Ah Zhong suspects that Bai Qi may send Qin soldiers to cross Yin Mountain and sneak attack Wuyangyi, so he sent Wei Xu to support with 5,000 soldiers, hoping that the two of us will support Wei ......Xu at any time."

"Hmm." Cai Wu nodded.

I have to say that Lejin and Cai Wu are both aware of Bai Qi's ability, so they will naturally not neglect to take precautions.

Two hours later, Wei Xu came to Yangguan with 5,000 soldiers, he first entered the barracks to meet Le Jin and Cai Wu, the two military horses, and then took his soldiers to climb Yin Mountain, and met with his colleagues stationed on Yin Mountain at this moment, that is, Zuo Sima Yu Ying of Le Jin.

At this point, Yinshan is guarded by Wei Xu and Yu Ying, two generals from Wei Wushu Brigade Marshals, and there are a total of 7,000 Wei soldiers under the command of the two.

Fang Cheng's actions on this side were naturally difficult to hide from the eyes of the Qin army scouts, and that night, some scouts reported the matter to Bai Qi, so that Bai Qi learned that Fang Cheng had sent thousands of soldiers to move to Yinshan, which made him quite happy.

After all, during the battle of Yique, Meng Zhong always led him by the nose, and this time, he was finally able to do the opposite.

Overjoyed, he said to Sima Cuo: "I hope that the national lieutenant will send people to step up the urging of the two generals, Changchi and Wurong, so that they can return to the main camp as soon as possible with enough wood......

Sima Co nodded.

The next day, Bai Qi's subordinate generals led 5,000 soldiers to arrive at the main camp of the coalition army from Wancheng, and also brought some of the most scarce grain and grass of the coalition army, so that the 160,000 Qin-Chu coalition army could relieve their urgent needs.

After another two or three days, Bai Qi's subordinate generals Ji Hong, Tong Yang, Zhong Xu, Meng Yi and others led their troops to the main camp.

In view of the fact that when these armies came, they moved all the grain and grass from Wancheng to this side, which finally made the grain and grass of the coalition army a little more comfortable, at least for ten days and half a month, waiting for Chu Ying's side to transport grain here again.

During this period, the two generals Changchi and Wurong under Sima Cuo's command also led 10,000 Qin troops each to return to the main camp one after another, and also brought back some wood that the coalition forces were also lacking.

Subsequently, Bai Qi ordered Ji Hong to distribute some grain and grass to Changchi and Wurong, and immediately ordered Changchi and Wurong to lead the army to Yingshan on the north side of Fangcheng and station.

Hearing this, Chang Chi and Wu Rong questioned: "If Fangcheng sends troops to attack when our army is stationed in Yingshan, and we have few soldiers, I am afraid that we will not be able to stop the Wei army......"

Bai Qi said indifferently: "If that really happens, the two generals only need to do their best to hold back Fang Cheng's main force, and this side will immediately take the opportunity to capture Fang Cheng, as long as they can capture Fang Cheng, it is worth paying a small price." ”

Chang Chi and Wu Rong realized that Bai Qi might be using the two of them as bait, which made the two a little unhappy.

Probably noticing that his subordinates were a little displeased, Sima mistakenly relieved Bai Qi and said: "This is just an estimate, in fact, Bai Zuo did not regard the two of you as bait, but hoped that after you were stationed in Yingshan, you would try to cross Yingshan, so that Ye Yi on the southeast side of Yingshan would feel threatened, and force Fangcheng to divide his troops again...... As long as Fang Cheng repeatedly divides his troops, my Great Qin's soldiers will be able to take the opportunity to conquer this city! In short, you two are obedient! ”

Seeing that Sima Cuo said this, Chang Chi and Wu Rong could only accept Bai Qi's orders.

But it can be seen that these two Qin generals are still a little reluctant.

The reason is very simple, who let Bai Qiquan let the army under Sima Cuo fight, Jin Kuang is like this, Chang Chi and Wu Rong are also like this.

Thinking about Sima Cuo's army, only Sima Cuo himself doesn't care.

Also, with Sima Cuo's age and his status in the Qin State, he really didn't need to compete with Bai Qi, who was younger than his son, for any credit, as long as Bai Qi could indeed capture Fangcheng and open up this passage between Wanfang Land and Wei State, Sima Cuo could certainly tolerate Bai Qi's favoritism towards the army under his command.

It's just a feat of laying down a mere city, he is wrong, but he has laid down the entire Bashu for the Qin State!

The only thing that made Sima wrong had some opinions was Bai Qi's use of the wood in the army.

These timbers were brought back by the armies of Chang Chi and Wu Rong, and Sima Cuo originally planned to use them to build a military camp, but now, Bai Qi used a large part of them to build siege equipment, leaving only a part of it to be used as firewood in the cold weather in the future.

Yes, Bai Qi had no plans to build a camp at all, he just ordered people to increase the earthen walls around the main camp.

Although Sima Cuo could understand that the reason why Bai Qi did this was because of the shortage of wood, he still did not advocate it.

Considering his agreement with Bai Qi, he tactfully persuaded: "If we don't build a camp, if the battle situation is unfavorable, our army will have no foothold, or it will be attacked by the Wei army again." ”

In this regard, Bai Qi swore solemnly: "There is no point in building a camp. …… If we can capture Fangcheng before November, our army can move to Fangcheng and close to Yangguan, what is the use of this camp? Countermeasures, if we can't capture Fangcheng before November, because of the weather, our army will have to retreat to Wancheng, waiting for tomorrow to send troops again, what's the use of leaving this camp? ”

Sima thought about it wrongly, and felt that Bai Qi's words were not unreasonable, but they were too risky and contrary to the art of war he pursued.

However, considering the agreement with Bai Qi, Sima Cuo did not interfere, but just told Bai Qi to be careful.

Only half a day later, Qin's information that Changchi and Wurong were stationed in Yingshan was sent to Fangcheng by the cavalry of Menghu, Huahu and others.

If before this, Meng Zhong felt that Bai Qi's intention was to sneak attack Wuyang, then his mind had changed a little at this moment.

"Bai Qi is forcing our city to divide its troops."

He summoned Wu Ying and Meng Sui, and said to them: "If our city does not divide troops, he will take advantage of the situation to threaten Wuyang and Yeyi, and if our city divides troops, he will take the opportunity to storm our city......"

Hearing this, Meng Sui lowered his voice and said, "If it really can't work, just give up Fangcheng and retreat to Yangguan." Fangcheng's side...... We have been preparing for this for several months, as long as the Qin army dares to come, we will give them a big gift! ”

"No!"

Meng Zhong shook his head and said in a deep voice: "Withdrawing troops at this moment, Bai Qi will inevitably be suspicious, and it is difficult to guarantee that he will not see through our intentions...... He must not be suspicious of the withdrawal of our troops. ”

Hearing this, Meng Sui whispered, "That is to say...... Divide the troops according to his wishes, lure the Qin army to attack Fangcheng, and fight with him? ”

"Hmm."

Meng Zhong nodded emphatically.

"Divide the troops! Lure Bai to attack Fangcheng! ”