At this time, it was already past the sea, and it was pitch black outside the pass, only a few bonfires could be seen near the Qin army's main formation, and on the Yangguan side, in order to resist the Qin army's offensive, the Wei soldiers could only light braziers on the wall, which led to the end of the Wei army in the Ming and the Qin army in the dark, so that the Wei soldiers on the wall were easily shot by the Qin army's bow and crossbow.

No, just listening to a whoosh, a Wei pawn who was standing on the wall and peeking outside the gate was immediately hit by an arrow, and retreated with a painful face covering the arrow.

"Where and where the arrows are fired"

From the side, a Wei pawn exclaimed.

During this period, the rest of the Wei guards also carefully peeked outside the pass, but unfortunately, it was pitch black outside the pass, and it was impossible to see where the arrows were shot.

"What's going on"

With a question, Hua Hu walked over from a distance with a few Wei pawns.

Seeing this, there was a Wei pawn who reported to Fang Cai, "Back to Sima's words, Meng Bo Chang was being shot with a crossbow arrow by a Qin pawn lurking in the dark when he was monitoring the movements of the Qin army outside the pass"

Hua Hu immediately turned his head to look to the side, looking at the middle arrow Wei pawn who was sitting paralyzed against the inner wall, he recognized this person, this person was the Meng clan of the Meng clan, Meng Zhong, Meng Hu, Meng Sui and others.

Seeing this, he immediately stepped forward, squatted down and asked with concern, "Meng, how are you?"

It's no wonder that Hua Hu is so concerned, after all, the children of the Mengyi families are their most core and trusted people.

"No, it's out of the way." Meng gritted his teeth and shook his head and said, "It's just that the arrow is stuck in the bone, fortunately, it shouldn't be deep," he took a breath, scolded and said, "These Qin people are really despicable, even if they have time to rest, they have to send people outside to wait for the opportunity to release dark arrows."

Hearing this, the nearby Wei soldiers were also angry, after all, so far, many of their brothers have been injured by the hidden arrows of the Qin army, although they were lucky and did not be shot, but even so they still made them very angry.

Immediately, Wei Shu said to Hua Hu, "Sima, can't you let our crossbowmen give them some power?"

Hua Hu stood up and glanced at the pitch-black pass, shook his head and said, "Maybe it's just a few, dozens of Qin pawns lurking in the shadows, for the sake of this person, let our crossbowmen launch a volley?"

Indeed, in the current situation, the salvo of a small group of Wei crossbowmen may not be able to shoot to death those Qin pawns lurking in the shadows, which is equivalent to wasting crossbow arrows in vain, but if a large group of Wei crossbowmen are asked to launch a salvo, the consumption of crossbow arrows will become large, and no matter how you think about it, the Wei army will suffer.

"But can you just let those Qin people wantonly shoot our soldiers," Wei said in a low voice.

Hua Hu opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say.

At this moment, with the help of two Wei pawns, he finally dug out the cluster of arrows stuck in his sternum with a short sword.

Don't look at Meng in the process of pulling out the arrow clusters, his head was covered with cold sweat, but he gritted his teeth and didn't say a word, which made the Wei soldiers on the side convinced.

Speaking of which, it seems that the children of Mengyi, who were born in Mengyi families, were once privately called Qi pawns by the ordinary soldiers of the Fangcheng Wei army, implying that these Mengyi children were related to Fangcheng Ling Mengzhong, so their military positions were rushing upward.

In fact, this is not false, after all, the children of Mengyi started in the Wei army in Fangcheng, and the brave and outstanding ones were promoted to the rank of uncle in a very short period of time, and even the brigade commander, some people privately rumored that after a while, I am afraid that those brigade commanders and division commanders who were born in Wei Wushu will also be replaced by these Mengyi children.

This has nothing to do with the fact that the rewards and punishments are not clear, but compared to the average Wei pawn, whether it is Meng Zhong, or Meng Sui, Meng Hu, Hua Hu and others, they tend to trust their hometown family brothers.

Mengyi's children are the core of the Fangcheng Wei army, which is a charter formulated by Meng Zhong, Mengsui and others in the early days of the army, the purpose is not to protect the children of relatives, but to better control the army.

In order not to let people gossip, Meng Zhong and Meng Sui also asked the children of Mengyi to lead by example, and it is precisely because of this that whether it is Menghu, Huahu, Le Jin and other military Simas, or Mengheng, Mengmin, Meng, Mengqi and other Mengyi children, but all those who fight with the enemy are the first soldiers, rushing to the forefront, and over time, the general Wei soldiers in the army have gradually recognized this group of Mengyi children, after all, this group of people is indeed fierce.

"Hey, Meng, let's go to the Guannei for a night."

Seeing that Meng, who had bandaged his wounds, put on his armor again and staggered to his feet, Hua Hu pointed to Guan Nei and said to him.

However, Meng shook his head, and said with a smile, "It's just a little skin injury, it's not enough to be fatal," he deliberately said in order to prevent Hua Hu from forcibly ordering him to rest in the pass, "Sima, I killed seven Qin people today, and if I kill a few more, I may be promoted to brigade commander, don't let me retreat." ”

Hearing this, the nearby Wei pawns all laughed, and even Hua Hu chuckled and shook his head.

In fact, everyone knows that Mengyi children like Meng will be promoted to important military positions sooner or later, the difference is only sooner or later, or they will be preempted by other Mengyi children, considering that Mengyi's children are very united internally, Meng doesn't need to worry about anything at all, he doesn't want to retreat, in the final analysis, he still refuses to let go of his defense area, because this is his duty as an uncle.

Because he knew this, Hua Hu didn't force it, and said casually, "Whatever you want, as long as you don't lose your life." After that, he didn't forget to encourage the Wei soldiers beside him, "You too, when you spy on the movements outside the pass, remember to protect yourself with a shield, and if there is any movement, you will immediately dodge, don't be like your uncle, stand there stupidly and wait for the Qin soldiers to shoot him with a bow and crossbow." ”

"Hahahaha"

The nearby Wei pawns all laughed, and Meng could clearly be heard complaining in the laughter.

After chatting a few words, Hua Hu left with the accompanying guards and continued to patrol.

As he walked, he suddenly saw Meng Hu squatting beside a brazier not far away, munching on a rice ball.

Seeing this, Hua Hu stepped forward and said hello to Meng Hu succinctly, "Yo." ”

Hearing the voice, Meng Hu raised his head and glanced at Hua Hu, and his response was even simpler, just nodding simply.

If you are not familiar with it, I am afraid that there is some contradiction between these two people that cannot be resolved.

I saw Hua Hu squatting down on the brazier, rubbing his hands beside the flames, and casually asked, "Why are you eating at this time?"

"What else can you do to move corpses, patrol, and comfort wounded soldiers, a lot of things"

Chewing in his mouth, Meng Hu replied vaguely, and then raised his head to look at Hua Hu and asked, "You are from Guanlou"

"Hmm." Hua Hu casually threw a few pieces of wood into the brazier, and said casually, "Have a casual chat with Ah Zhong." ”

"What did Ah Zhong say?"

"What else can we say to be vigilant. Bai Qi's bastard thing, the means are really dirty and despicable, the army's grain and grass have been attacked, so he simply took the Qin army to our side to die, trying to break the net" Saying that, Hua Hu glanced at Meng Hu strangely, and asked puzzledly, "Hearing this, why didn't you react at all, so calm, it doesn't look like you." ”

Meng Hu rolled his eyes, and said angrily, "I've been scolding for a day, I'm tired." ”

Hua Hu couldn't help but shake his head, and then seemed to think of something, and said, "You say, if we lead the cavalry to rush out, can we break through the Qin army outside the pass?"

Hearing this, Meng Hu glanced at Hua Hu with a strange expression, and then chewed the rice ball and said casually, "Yes." ”

"Yes"

"Well, I can help you collect the body."

"You guy is down to business, don't be kidding."

"Are you kidding" Meng Hu glanced at Hua Hu, and said angrily, "Do you know how many Qin soldiers died in today's battle outside this pass, at least there are more than 40,000, and it is okay to change it to an open place, this kind of narrow valley, you want to use cavalry to disperse the 40,000 Qin troops, aren't you looking for death?"

"I'm just saying it casually."

As he spoke, Hua Hu stood up and looked at the valley outside the pass with a frown.

I have to say that compared with Fangcheng, Yangguan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, because there is only one road here, unlike Fangcheng, the Qin army can surround the city and attack from all directions.

But as the saying goes, there are pros and cons in everything, and it is precisely because there is only one road in Yangguan that at this moment, the Qin army blocked the valley, and the Fangcheng cavalry stationed in Yangguan could not get out.

At this time, if there was a cavalry outside, how could the Qin army be so presumptuous, blocking the gate of his Yangguan and launching fierce attacks one after another

At this time, Meng Hu had already thrown the last bite of rice balls into his mouth, licked his fingers and asked, "That's not Ah Zhong's idea?"

"Yes and no."

Nodding and shaking his head, Hua Hu explained, "Ah Zhong feels that the pressure on my Yangguan is too great, and I hope that the cavalry can share some of the pressure, when we arrived at the Guan Tower, Ah Zhong and Ah Sui were discussing with Da Sima, and Ah Sui suggested that the cavalry should be allowed to bypass the north side of Yingshan."

"Yingshan"

Meng Hu was stunned, and then took out another rice ball from the cloth bag on the side, and said casually while gnawing, "From Yingshan to the north, you have to go around a long way, it's better to go down Cai, although the distance is as far, but there is no Qin army blocking it." ”

"yes." Hua Hu nodded and agreed.

Indeed, bypassing Yingshan to the north, that is, to the lower reaches of Rushui in Korea, there was no way to go around the back of Bai Qi's army in a short distance, because there was a Chu Fang City built between the mountains to block it, and the foot soldiers could still trek through the mountains and rivers, cross the Danshui and cross the Chu Fang City, but the cavalry could not do it.

Therefore, we can only continue to the west, turning around from the north of the country.

But the question is, in the area from Xibei County to Wancheng, there is Sima Cuo's army stationed at the moment, how can the cavalry of other cities break through the defense line of the 60,000 Qin army

As Meng Hu said, it is better to take this road than to go down Cai, from Xia Cai to the south, although the distance is about the same, but at least not to encounter a large army along the way.

Suddenly, Meng Hu seemed to think of something, and said, "Anyway, isn't that kid Mu Wu in the Xia Cai area?"

Hearing this, Hua Hu nodded and said, "After dusk today, Ah Zhong has already sent cavalry to inform Mu Wu, telling Mu Wu to go around from Xia Cai to the back of Bai Qijun, but carefully calculate, counting the time to send the news, and then counting the time of Mu Wu's march, I'm afraid it will take more than ten days."

"Huh."

Meng Hu chuckled when he heard this, "According to the momentum of the Qin army's siege today, by the time Mu Wu's kid arrives with the cavalry, I'm afraid that the Qin army will have already died, what else do you want him to do?"

Hua Hu nodded silently.

Indeed, this is also the reason why Meng Zhong did not send another cavalry to assist Mu Wu.

The two were chatting here, and suddenly there was a Wei pawn on the wall in the distance, exclaiming, "The enemy attacked, the enemy attacked, the Qin army has tackled the problem."

Hearing this, Hua Hu, who originally had a few smiles on his face, suddenly turned pale and walked to the wall in a few steps, but it was pitch black outside, and he couldn't see any movement.

Seeing this, he stretched out his right hand and urged, "Torch." ”

The guards behind him immediately handed the torch to Hua Hu, only to see Hua Hu take the torch and take a picture outward, but immediately saw that the effect was not good, so he simply threw the torch out.

At this time, on the wall not far away, there were also more than a dozen Wei soldiers throwing torches outside the pass.

I saw these torches spinning and falling on the ground outside the gate, illuminating the Qin soldiers who were sneaking towards the wall.

Seeing this, Hua Hu shouted in a deep voice, "The Qin army has tackled a breakthrough, and immediately prepare for battle." As he spoke, he turned around and kicked Meng Hu, who was still squatting next to the brazier, and urged, "Ah Hu, I'm back to my defense area." Don't fucking eat it. ”

Watching Hua Hu leave quickly with a few guards, Meng Hu stuffed the remaining part of the rice ball in his hand into his mouth three times and two times, and swallowed the water in the water bladder.

"These Qin people really don't stop for a moment."

With a long sigh, Meng Hu stood up and reached out to take Chang Ge, who was handed over by a guard beside him.

I saw him slamming a long ge, and shouted in a deep voice, "There's nothing to say, as many Qin people come, you can kill as many as you understand?"

"Understood"

The nearby Wei pawns shouted in unison, and immediately entered the state of engagement.

In just a moment, the walls of each section of Yangguan once again sounded with earth-shattering shouts and killings, and these shouts and killings alarmed Meng Zhong, Meng Sui and Zhai Zhang at the gate.

Meng Sui immediately took his leave and returned to his defense area, leaving Meng Zhong and Zhai Zhang standing in the Guan Tower, looking at the dark night sky outside the Guan.

From this early morning to this moment, the Qin army launched a total of more than a dozen waves of offensive against Yangguan, the Qin and Wei armies fought for seven hours, the Qin army's battle losses were conservatively estimated to be close to 10,000 people, and the Yangguan side, the Wei army's losses were also above 6,000.

There was no conspiracy or stratagem, it was purely a siege battle, and the two armies of Qin and Wei paid a total of about 16,000 casualties in seven hours.

Don't look at the night when the loss of troops was not as good as the battle of Yique, you must know that the reason why the Wei army had 100,000 soldiers who fled that night was because the Qin army took the lead and stunned the Wei army at once, so that the Wei army did not have time to prevent an effective counterattack.

But today is different, today's siege battle, the Qin and Wei armies can be said to be evenly matched, don't look at the Wei army in Yangguan has a full 100,000, surpassing the 60,000 army of Bai Qi, but due to the terrain restrictions, the Qin and Wei armies can only send a maximum of 10,000 troops at the same time, and the number of troops can not bring much advantage to the Wei army.

At least it can't decide the victory or defeat, after all, this battle has been fought so far, Bai Qi has not considered the question of victory or defeat at all, his purpose is to make the Qin and Wei armies have the greatest attrition of each other, in the meaningless war of attrition on weekdays, in the case of the Qin army's extreme lack of food and grass at this moment, it is not lost is another way to "stop loss".

However, Sima Jin couldn't understand it, when his Qin army launched a strong attack on Yangguan again at night, he asked Bai Qi incomprehensibly, "Bai Shuai, although you have always said that the attack on Yangguan is actually to stop loss, but I really don't understand that so far, just one day, our army has lost about 10,000 soldiers, but you are not willing to relax the offensive against Yangguan at all, continue to fight like this, and in less than four or five days, our army will run out of food and grass, and my 60,000 troops will probably all die in this Yangguan, what kind of stop loss is this?"

Bai Qi smiled when he heard this, and said, "That's why I said that your vision is too small, you only see the battle between our army and Yangguan, but you can't see your grandfather Sima Guowei's army, and you can't see the Korean army."

Sima Jin shook his head: "I don't understand." ”

Seeing this, Bai Qi taught Sima Jindao, "First of all, you have to figure out a few things, and then everything else will be solved." For example, the arrival of Zhai Zhang, how did the situation of this battle change, do you think Zhai Zhang led the reinforcements to Yangguan, just to help Yangguan repel our army, I don't know what Zhai Zhang thinks, but I know Meng Zhong, he will never give up the pursuit of victory, once he defeats my white army, he will immediately send troops, enter and occupy Wancheng, and then lead the army to cut off the return of the national lieutenant, unite with the Korean army under the command of the violent kite, and launch a front and rear attack on the national lieutenant. Don't look at that guy at first glance, it seems to be very good, but for the enemy, he never hesitates to kill them all."

Sima Jin blinked, "I haven't seen that Meng Zhong in Xia"

"You'll see it later, and you'll understand then." Smiling slightly, Bai Qi continued, "In short, Zhai Zhang didn't lead the army to Yangguan for no reason, compared to Zhai Zhang who took the initiative to lead reinforcements to support Yangguan, in fact, I prefer that Meng Zhong invited Zhai Zhang, the purpose is to defeat your grandfather Sima Guowei and my two armies in one fell swoop."

Speaking of this, Bai Qi was suddenly stunned, frowning thoughtfully.

In terms of the situation at that time, where did Meng Zhong have the confidence to defeat our army At that time, only Sima Co and I had more than 100,000 troops, plus Zhaoju's nearly 100,000 Chu troops, my Qin-Chu coalition army was as many as 200,000 people, even if Zhai Zhang led the army to Yangguan, we were not afraid, it stands to reason that with Meng Zhong's character, it would not be so arrogant to say that when did Zhai Zhang lead the army to Yangguan The Wei army lost 100,000 troops in Yique the year before last, and the strength situation is not abundant, if I am Zhai Zhang, it stands to reason that I have to wait and see for a while, Let's see whether the Qin-Chu coalition army will attack South Korea first, or continue to attack Yangguan, but Zhai Zhang decisively led the army to support Meng Zhong, although this is also understandable, for example, he doesn't want Meng Zhong's army to lose too much, but on the Korean side, Zhai Zhang has such confidence, Zhao Ju, who attacked South Korea at that time, how to say that there are nearly 100,000 troops that are not quite right. If it was really Meng Zhong who persuaded Zhai Zhang and asked Zhai Zhang to lead the army to support Yangguan, it must have been to defeat Sima Cuo and my army in one fell swoop, but where did he get his confidence

Frowning, Bai Qi looked thoughtfully at the Guan Lou of Xiangyang Pass, and muttered to himself, "Unless he expected Zhao Ju to withdraw his troops in advance"

"Bai Shuai, what are you talking about" Sima Jin didn't hear clearly, and asked curiously.

I don't know what he thought, his white face looked a little ugly under the torch, but he took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "It's nothing." Continue with the words of Fang Cai. If our army still has enough food and grass, I will never let my soldiers storm Yangguan, I will slowly compete with Meng Zhong, but unfortunately, our army only has four or five days of food and grass, if we do not seek a workaround, four or five days later, it will be the time when my 60,000 Qin army will be defeated. In the meantime, not only our army could not be saved, but also the 60,000 troops under the command of the national lieutenant could not be saved. At that time, the Wei and Han armies will take advantage of the victory to pursue and kill our army in a big way, and at the moment, you think it is very cruel for me to order a strong attack on Yangguan and deliberately send the soldiers to death, but only in this way can the Wei army be greatly damaged, and I hesitate whether to continue to attack the army of the national captain in the future. And if the Wei army gives up the pursuit, even if the storm kite leads the Korean army to pursue the national captain, it will be useless, and in this way, my goal will be achieved. When the national lieutenant and my hundreds of thousands of troops are in danger of being wiped out, sacrificing one army and preserving the other army is what I call stop loss. ”

Hearing Bai Qi's words, Sima Jin suddenly realized.

As Bai Qi said, he only focused on the battlefield in front of him, but did not take into account the overall situation, in the case of a sneak attack on the Wancheng granary, the army under the command of his grandfather Sima Coo was also facing a shortage of food, and this gave the Wei and Han coalition forces the opportunity to jointly pursue his hundreds of thousands of Qin troops.

And what Bai Qi is doing at the moment is to let some of the Qin soldiers who are destined to die in this land of Wanfang inflict heavy losses on the Wei army first, forcing the Wei army to give up the follow-up pursuit of his Qin army, so from the overall situation, there is no doubt that Bai Qi's decision is the wisest and most rational.

Although it is brutal.

"I've been taught."

Sima Jin hugged his fists in convincing, his eyes full of worship for Bai Qi.

But at this time, Bai Qi didn't care about paying attention to Sima Jin, he was continuing to ponder the matter he had just been thinking about.

That is, why could Meng Zhong expect Zhao Ju to withdraw his troops in advance

Could it be that Meng Zhong, as a Taoist disciple, learned from heaven and earth, and pinched his fingers to count

Compared with this ridiculous speculation, Bai Qi is more inclined to another rebel general Zhuang Ji, who inferred that he caused a rebellion in Chu a while ago, and his secret communication did not collude with Meng Zhong

But Zhuang Ji is an authentic Chu person, and Meng Zhong is a Song person, how did they get together inexplicably

Someone has to be a matchmaker.

Thinking of this, a name suddenly appeared in Bai Qi's mind.

Zhuang Xin

Immediately, he immediately remembered that Zhuang Xin had rewarded the army on behalf of the king of Chu in the winter of last year

Thinking about it, a slight mocking sneer gradually appeared on Bai Qi's face.

"Heh, Chu people."