Wei Ran was very efficient, and after meeting Qin Wangji and Empress Dowager Xuan before and after appeasing them, he immediately set off for Yin Jin to prepare to implement his strategy.

As for Bai Qi, given that Wei Ran skillfully protected Bai Qi when explaining to Qin Wangji, Bai Qi finally escaped Qin Wangji's punishment, but after being reprimanded, he was sent back to Liyi to prevent the coalition forces from approaching Xianyang from the Liyi main road.

Although holding Liyi has little to do with the general situation, and it cannot effectively stop the coalition army, but with Bai Qi sitting in Liyi, the coalition army can only make a detour from Hexi to threaten Xianyang, which comes and goes for at least a few months, and considering that winter is approaching, at least this year Xianyang basically does not need to worry about the coalition army suddenly killing the city, which gives Qin State and Wei Ran, the marquis, a critical time.

About five days later, Wei Ran returned to Yin Jin and told his brother, Huayang Jun Qi Rong, about the current situation.

Then he asked Qi Rong, "Do you know where Li Dui is now?" ”

Qi Rong replied: "As far as I know, Li Dui was in the camp before Bai Qi's kid, and his general Zhao Xi was stationed in the main camp of the coalition army in the east. ”

According to Qi Rong's explanation, now the Yin and Jin areas are mainly the army of Zhao State, and the rest of the four armies of Wei, Han, Qi and Yan are mostly in Zheng County.

He had thought about dividing his troops to defend Yin Jin, but he was afraid that this time he would fall for the tricks of the coalition army, and the Meng Zhong in the coalition army was very proficient in the set of fiction and reality, and Qi Rong really did not dare to judge himself, so as not to make the already unfavorable situation worse.

As soon as he heard that only Zhao Jun was currently in the Yin and Jin area, Wei Ran was overjoyed and hurriedly asked, "In the past few days since I was away, you haven't had any friction with Zhao Jun, right?" ”

"No, I didn't." Qi Rong shook his head.

In fact, he thought about it, such as sneaking up on the Zhao army and cutting off the retreat and grain route of the four armies of Wei, Han, Qi, and Yan, but then he thought about it, and felt that this was not a disguised way to force the four-nation alliance to continue to advance and threaten Xianyang?

Considering that Wei Ran told him to stay still for the time being before leaving, Qi Rong finally dispelled this idea, honestly guarded Yin Jin, and waited for Wei Ran to come back from Xianyang before discussing.

"Okay." Wei Ran nodded and said, "You immediately send a few henchmen to Zhao Ying, and say that I will personally go to see Li Dui." ”

Hearing this, Qi Rong's face changed slightly, and he hurriedly stopped: "Gan Zhao has not heard from him so far, maybe he has been killed by the coalition forces, you go to see Li Dui, what if Li Dui captures you?" ”

What he meant was to let Wei Ran send others there, and there was no need to take risks personally, after all, the coalition forces at this moment were really dangerous.

Hearing Qi Rong's dissuasion, Wei Ran said disapprerovingly: "Don't worry, Li Dui will not only not arrest me, but will also treat me as a guest." ”

Seeing that Wei Ran had made up his mind, Qi Rong could not dissuade him, so he could only send someone to send the word message to the Zhao army camp where Li Dui was located, that is, the military camp where Bai Qi and Sima Cuo had previously garrisoned.

Half a day later, Fengyangjun Li Dui learned the news, and he was a little surprised and relieved.

Of course, he understood that it must be the current war situation that made the Qin State unable to sit still, and he did not hesitate to send a figure like Marquis Wei Ran to personally take the risk to negotiate with him.

After thinking about it, he said to the Qin pawn who came to deliver the news: "Please go back and tell the marquis, I am waiting for you here." ”

Of course, he would not refuse Wei Ran's agreement, after all, just as Wei Ran guessed, the results of this war against the Qin State far exceeded his previous expectations, and he was even a little scared, afraid that the Qin State would be weakened and collapsed.

If the Qin State weakens like this, this will definitely do more harm than good to the Zhao State.

About two hours later, the group of Qin soldiers returned to Yin Jin and conveyed Li Dui's intention to Wei Ran, the marquis.

After receiving Li Dui's exact reply, Wei Ran did not hesitate and immediately sent Zhao Ying with his entourage.

Originally, when a character like Wei Ran came to the Zhao camp, even if the two sides were still at war, Li Dui should have personally come forward to greet him to abide by the etiquette, but Li Dui did not do that, but sent his henchmen to guard outside the camp, like a thief, and invited Wei Ran into the camp.

Wei Ran was not angry about this, he could even guess a few reasons, but the henchman sent by Li Dui to greet him still explained: "For the sake of the sidelines, it is inconvenient for Fengyangjun to show up in person, I hope the Marquis will forgive me." ”

Wei Ran smiled and nodded knowingly.

Why is Li Dui like a thief?

Aren't you afraid that Wei Ran's meeting with him will be known by the Wei and Han armies, and by the Storm Kite and Meng Zhong?

A moment later, Wei Ran met Fengyang Jun Li Dui, the titular commander of the coalition forces, in the marshal tent of this Zhao camp.

I have to say that Li Dui, the nominal commander of the coalition army, is now more and more "nominal", and he can't command the armies of the rest of the countries with his own prestige and the prestige of Zhao, and because Meng Zhong has repeatedly defeated the Qin army, so that among the coalition forces now, Meng Zhong has the highest voice, not to mention the Wei and Han armies, even the soldiers of the Zhao, Qi, and Yan armies were not also in awe after hearing the name of Yun Chengjun?

What even makes Li Dui a little helpless is that his beloved general Lian Po is currently in Zheng County, preparing to cross the Weishui River to attack Liyang - but in fact, even Meng Zhong did not consider attacking Liyang for the time being, he just made a gesture and made a show to Qin State and put some pressure on Qin State.

All in all, Li Dui, the nominal commander of the coalition army, is actually not as good as Meng Zhong in the coalition army, and the latter's outstanding achievements in this battle make him able to make more than 200,000 coalition soldiers highly motivated with one sentence.

"Houhou."

"Fengyang-kun"

When they greeted each other, Fengyangjun Li Dui's heart was somewhat happy.

Although from the perspective of the interests of the Zhao State, he did not want the coalition forces to hit the Qin State hard, but this time the Qin State was beaten so badly that the Marquis Wei Ran had to come forward in person to sue for peace, which made Li Dui's heart very happy, after all, last year, the Qin State forced him Zhao State, forced Zhao Wang He to remove him.

But how happy is his heart, this old fox does not show any clue on his face, and pretends not to know how to ask Wei Ran's intention: "Marquis Gui is the prime minister of Western Qin, and he is busy with government affairs, why did he come to visit the old man today?" ”

Wei Ran is also an old fox who is not moody, although he scolded Li Dui, who asked knowingly, in his heart, he did not show any clue on his face, and said with a sincere smile: "This time I am here to invite peace with your party on behalf of the king of our country, by the way, I will inquire about the envoy Gan Zhao sent by my Great Qin before, why there is no news." ”

The smile on his face, a little more fake, a little less insincere, is simply a standard.

"Gan Zhao?"

Li Dui was slightly stunned and looked at Wei Ran with some suspicion.

He knew very well that Wei Ran must have come to seek peace today, but Wei Ran mentioned Gan Zhao as soon as he opened his mouth, which made Li Dui feel a little strange.

After all, some time ago, Na Gan Zhao did not come with complete goodwill.

"Fengyang-kun?" Wei Ran asked again with a smile.

Li Dui pondered for a moment and said, "Don't blame the marquis, the envoy of your country is Gan Zhao...... The old man took him into custody. ”

Hearing this, Wei Ran's face changed slightly, and he asked with a surprised face, "Is this ...... Fengyang-kun, why is this? ”

"Why? Don't you know?'

Even if it was Fengyang Jun Li Dui, he couldn't guess the reason for Wei Ran's behavior for a while, and after quietly skimming Wei Ran a few times, he suddenly sneered: "How can the Marquis not know the reason? ”

"This ...... I don't understand. Wei Ran looked puzzled, and arched his hand and said, "Please Fengyangjun to solve your doubts." ”

Hearing this, Li Dui looked at Wei Ran with interest and said lightly: "Gan Zhao came in the name of invitation and peace that day, but it was actually a plan to delay the army......

As he spoke, he told Wei Ran all the judgments that Meng Zhong had made on him that day.

"Hahaha." Wei Ran shook his head after hearing this, and deliberately asked, "Fengyang Jun, I don't know who is so suspicious of my Great Qin?" ”

"Naiyun Chengjun." Li Dui told the truth without any burden.

"Sure enough, ......"

Wei Ran was relieved.

Don't look at his face as usual at the moment, but in fact, his heart is like a stormy wave, because the speculation that relayed from Li Dui's mouth and Yuncheng Jun Mengzhong questioning him Qin Guo's request and this matter is exactly the same as what Bai Qi, Qi Rong, Sima Cuo and others said when he set this time.

For example, the sentence "If the coalition army is hit hard or even the whole army is annihilated, who dares to touch a single hair of Jingyang Jun and Gao Lingjun", this is simply word for word, and Wei Ran can't help but wonder if there is a spy of Meng Zhong around him.

But the problem is that when I heard his words, there were only four people: Bai Qi, Qi Rong, Sima Cuo, and Gan Zhao - these four people are not Meng Zhong's spies, right?

"Is there such a man under heaven who is like God?"

Wei Ran was shocked in his heart.

At this time, Li Dui looked at Wei Ran quietly, looked at the subtle change in the expression on Wei Ran's face, and said lightly: "What is the explanation of this?" ”

Hearing this, Wei Ran put the shock in his heart behind for the time being, laughed and said, "Nonsense! ”

"Oh?" Li Dui didn't expect Wei Ran to completely deny this matter, and asked with a smile: "What does the Marquis mean, Naiyun Chengjun deceived Li?" ”

"Naturally!"

Wei Ran nodded, and said with a straight face: "Although Yunchengjun is not a Wei person, he is a Wei minister, I must admit that Yunchengjun is indeed a loyal minister, and he gives priority to the interests of his country and his own monarch in everything." …… Fengyang Jun should understand that my Great Qin has always been a threat to the Wei State, and Yuncheng Jun is a loyal minister loyal to the Wei State, so he naturally wants to slander my Great Qin in every possible way and instigate your dissatisfaction and hostility towards my Great Qin. ”

“……”

Li Dui squinted his left eye slightly, and put on an indifferent attitude of "you are free to justify".

In the matter of Gan Zhao, Li Dui will not doubt Meng Zhong, after all, Meng Zhong has a saying that some are right, people are harmless to the tiger's heart, and the tiger is hurtful, regardless of whether the Qin envoy Gan Zhao's intention was to delay the army that day, it must be right to take Yin Jin first - you can also negotiate with Qin if you take Yin Jin.

As for Wei Ran's questioning of Yuncheng Jun Meng Zhong's intention to deliberately instigate his coalition army, Li Dui also had some doubts about this, such as Meng Zhong disregarding everything else at the beginning, pulling the coalition army to advance more than 200 miles in one breath, and never mentioned that such a rash move would lead to a lack of food and grass supply, and after thinking about it carefully, Li Dui suspected that Meng Zhong's move was to kidnap the three armies of Zhao, Qi, and Yan to seize Yin Jin.

The reason is very simple, once Yin and Jin fall into the hands of the coalition army, in Hedong on the other side of the river, Hedong Shougong Sun Jian will be able to enter with the army under his command, and then the Wei and Han armies will undoubtedly have a greater voice in the coalition army.

Li Dui believed that he was the only one in the coalition who saw this, even if he only reacted after the fact.

Therefore, Wei Ran's use of the word "instigation" to refer to Meng Zhong's practice is really not accurate enough, it should be said that Meng Zhong deliberately put the coalition army into the embarrassment of lack of food, so as to "kidnap" the entire coalition army, so that the entire coalition army has to act according to his strategy.

Because if you don't unite, you may be wiped out by the entire Qin army, so the coalition forces must be united! We will also be united!

This is also the reason why Li Zhen is now more and more worried that the Qin State is likely to be overthrown by Meng Zhong's borrowing of the Five Nations Alliance-because there is really such a possibility.

However, at this moment, Wei Ran vigorously denied the plan to delay the army, saying that Meng Zhong deliberately instigated the coalition army, which still made Li Dui very puzzled.

Meng Zhong's intentions, Li Dui is very clear, in fact, the former is much more clever than Wei Ran said, it is difficult to doubt, but Wei Ran insisted that it was Meng Zhong's instigation......

"Could it be a divisive scheme?"

After thinking about it, Li Dui suddenly understood.

I have to say that the reason why Meng Zhong is able to suppress the Qin State now is that on the one hand, it is because he is good at using troops and tactics, and even Qin generals such as Bai Qi, Sima Cuo, and Qi Rong cannot resist, but on the other hand, it is also because of the military strength of the Five Nations Alliance.

If Wei Ran can convince the rest of the coalition forces to fight this war, even if the Wei and Han armies do not retreat, it will be difficult for Meng Zhong to continue to weaken the Qin State at that time.

The lack of troops is a hard wound.

"I understand, Wei Ran's trip is to divide our coalition forces......

Li Dui thought secretly.

At this time, Wei Ran, who was sitting in front of him, said sincerely: "In order to prove the sincerity of my Great Qin and prevent it from being succeeded by Yuncheng Jun again, my Great Qin is willing to temporarily hand over Yin Jin to you for safekeeping, so that the coalition forces can solve the problem of lack of grain and grass, and prove that my Great Qin has no intention of taking the opportunity to sneak attack!" ”

"Huh? Take the initiative to temporarily hand over Yin Jin to us?"

Hearing Wei Ran's words, even Li Dui was stunned for a moment.

But after thinking about it, he understood, and in the letter, he sincerely praised Wei Ran's clever move of 'retreating as advance'!

Indeed, regardless of the attitude of the Qi and Yan armies, at least as far as Li Dui is concerned, his attitude of supporting Meng Zhong to take the Yin and Jin Dynasty first is to prevent the Qin State from taking the opportunity to attack it due to lack of food in winter, but if the Zhao army solves the problem of grain and grass embarrassment, he Li Dui will definitely want to sit down and negotiate with the Qin State, because if the war continues, only Wei and Han will benefit, not him, the Zhao State.

Obviously, this Wei Ran saw this, so he expressed his willingness to take the initiative to hand over Yin Jin.

Although there was some speculation in his heart, Li Dui's face did not show it, and he pretended to be surprised and asked: "Marquis, is your country really willing to take the initiative to give up Yin Jin for the time being?" ”

"Yes." Wei Ran nodded and said, "In order to prove my Great Qin's sincerity!" …… Fengyangjun, this can always prove my sincerity of Daqin, right? ”

"Hmm." Li Dui nodded cooperatively.

Indeed, Qin State's willingness to temporarily hand over Yin Jin can indeed prove that Qin State really wants to negotiate peace with him.

As for the reason, Li Dui didn't want to say anything about it - it was nothing more than being forced by Meng Zhong to only fake and do it, and if he didn't negotiate peace with the coalition forces, Meng Zhong might have to lead troops to attack Xianyang next year.

Thinking of this layer of hidden feelings, Li Dui couldn't help but laugh.

But now that it has been confirmed that the Qin State has been cornered, Li Dui also has to think carefully about the conditions proposed to the Qin State.

He said to Wei Ran: "Since your country is willing to take the initiative to hand over Yin Jin, the old man naturally believes in the sincerity of your country and the marquis. As long as your country can meet several conditions, on behalf of Zhao Jun, I am willing to withdraw from the army. ”

Wei Ran arched his hand: "Please show Fengyangjun." ”

"First of all, your country must depose the emperor." Li Dui said with a serious face.

"This old thing......

Wei Ran glanced at Li Dui with some surprise, he didn't expect that the first condition proposed by Li Dui was actually to ask him to abolish the emperor title by himself.

To tell the truth, whether the Qin State abolished the emperor or not actually has nothing to do with the Zhao State, but if the Qin State abolished the emperor because of the Zhao State, then the Zhao State can get the reputation of "maintaining the orthodoxy of the Zhou royal family" and get the support of the world.

Although the Zhou royal family had weakened, even to the point of disgrace, it was so disgraced that all the kingdoms under heaven could ignore it - it is no exaggeration to say that only two countries are still paying tribute to the Zhou royal family, one is Lu and the other is Song.

Even, Qin and Han once considered annexing the only bit of land that the Zhou State has now, so you can imagine the current status of the Zhou Dynasty.

But in this case, Zhao still insisted on maintaining the face of the Zhou State and forced the powerful Qin State to depose the emperor, and it is not difficult to guess that after this incident, the Zhao State will definitely be able to gain countless good names - although in Wei Ran's opinion, this Zhao State is also half a catty compared to his Qin State.

Maintain the Zhou Kingdom?

Hey, why don't you Zhao pay tribute to Zhou every year?

"Yes."

Wei Ran hesitated for a moment, then agreed.

Originally, the 'Qin and Qi Emperors' was to promote the alliance between Qin and Qi in disguise, but I didn't expect the Qi State to be so cowardly, and abolished the emperor title early, and in turn criticized the Qin State for its move to claim the emperor, causing the Qin State to bear the condemnation of the entire Central Plains alone.

Although it is indeed a pity that it failed to keep the title of emperor and make it an established fact, in general, maintaining the title of emperor is really of little strategic significance to the Qin State - who knew that the king of Qi would be so cowardly?

Seeing that Wei Ran agreed, Li Dui said again: "Second, I hope that King Qin will personally go to my Zhao Kingdom to meet me." ”

"This ......"

Wei Ran frowned slightly, after all, the monarch of a country was forced to go to the capital of another country to meet him instead of taking the initiative, which was really not very good-looking on the face.

After thinking about it, he said to Li Dui: "I can promise on behalf of the king of our country that I promise to go to your country to meet King Zhao, but ...... Xianyang is far away from Handan, and I am also worried that Wei and Han will get in the way, so how about the monarchs of your and me meet in Taiyuan, your country, and Lishi and Zhongyang? Fengyangjun also saw that Wei has Meng Zhong today, no less than Pang Juan in the past, compared with Pang Juan, Meng Zhong is also strong, but this person's strategy is still above Pang Juan, and more importantly, that Meng Zhong is only more than 20 today, I think, your country does not want to repeat the mistakes of the year and be attacked by people in Handan again, right? ”

After a pause, Wei Ran lowered his voice and said: "Qin Zhao is a family, and the king of our country is still the father of Zhao who supported the throne back then, the king tasted to me, it was the father of Zhao who sent him to the throne, such as reborn parents, if it is not for the father of Zhao, I am afraid that the king is still hostage in Yan Kingdom, today's King Zhao is the son of Zhao's father, and the king said that Qin and Zhao are ......really brothers."

“……”

Li Dui listened to Wei Ran's words quietly, calculating in his heart the pros and cons of being close to the Qin State.

Wei Ran has a sentence that won his heart, that is, the Wei State with Meng Zhong is really too threatening.

Today, Meng Zhong can use more than 200,000 troops to bring the most powerful Qin State to its knees, so how many troops does it take to bring him to the submission of Zhao State?

Don't forget, back then, the Qin general Bai Qi only used 50,000 or 60,000 people to beat his Zhao generals, and the generals of the Zhao State had almost no power to fight back, but this Bai Qi was only beaten in front of Meng Zhong......

It can be seen that what Bai Qi can do, Meng Zhong can also do.

From this point of view, it seems that it is indeed necessary to restore the secret alliance with Qin, and the two sides will work together to balance Wei.