When Meng Zhong led 50,000 Wei troops to Hangu Pass, the allied forces of Zhao, Han, Qi, and Yan had bypassed the Kunshan Mountains and slowly arrived in the area of Sanmenxia, about sixty or seventy miles away from the Wei army.

At this time, Li Dui, the commander of Fengyang, who served as the commander of the coalition forces, also received the news sent by Meng Zhong and learned that the Qin State had put on a posture of stubbornly guarding Hangu Pass.

During the period when the coalition army was resting in place, Li Dui and the violent kite walked in this wasteland, at this time Li Dui said to the violent kite: "Fang Cai Yuncheng Jun sent someone to send a message, saying that he led the army all the way to Hangu Pass, and did not encounter any sneak attack by the Qin army on the way. ”

Hearing this, the violent kite smiled and said, "Can't you hold on again?" This reminds me of the experience of following Kuang Zhang to crusade against Qin. At that time, when the combined forces of Han, Qi and Wei attacked the land of Cuihan, the Qin army was afraid of Kuang Zhang and did not dare to attack rashly. …… Unexpectedly, the Qin people were so jealous of that kid. ”

Seeing that the violent kite looked ridiculous and used that kid to refer to Meng Zhong, Li Dui smiled faintly and didn't answer.

After all, Storm Kite and Meng Zhong are usually close to their elder brothers, but he Li Dui and Meng Zhong don't have any friendship.

Although Li Dui also wanted to get closer to Meng Zhong, the rising star of the Wei State, it was a pity that because of the incident of Master Zhao's father, there was an irreparable rift between the two, and it would be good for Meng Zhong not to worry about his old life.

Probably noticing Li Dui's bland look, Storm Kite also realized that this was not the time to joke - to be exact, the person in front of him was not the right person to make this joke, so he restrained his smile and diverted the topic and asked, "What are Yun Chengjun's plans now?" ”

"Since the Qin army refused to leave the pass, he had to set up camp first." Speaking of this, Li Dui showed a thoughtful look on his face, quite a little bit of wanting to say something.

Seeing this, the storm kite was puzzled and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

I saw Li Dui ponder for a moment and said, "Yun Chengjun said in his letter that he had ordered to set up camp about ten miles away from Hangu Pass...... To be honest, I don't think it's very safe. ”

Storm Kite nodded abruptly.

Also, according to common sense, the camp will generally choose to be far away from the enemy's position to prevent the enemy's sneak attack, especially when the enemy occupies a city and pass that is easy to defend and difficult to attack like Hangu Pass, after all, once the enemy launches a sneak attack in this case, their own side is actually very disadvantaged, and a careless will be attacked by the enemy, on the other hand, their own defense is tight, so that the enemy's sneak attack attempt can not succeed, and the enemy can also effectively contain the counterattack of the attacked party by immediately withdrawing the city and fortress.

The distance of ten miles is too close.

"Maybe Yun Chengjun has his plans." Storm Kite thought for a while and said: "Yun Chengjun has always used soldiers like this, he is aggressive, and he is not sure, he will not make such a risky move." ”

Hearing this, Li Dui nodded thoughtfully.

After the violent kite said this, Li Dui remembered that the Meng Zhong in his memory was indeed aggressive with his soldiers, seemingly reckless and radical, but in fact, it was to lure or provoke the defenders to sneak attack him.

After chatting with the storm kite for a while, Li Dui returned to the station, summoned the generals of Zhao, Han, Qi, and Yan in the tent of the temporary coalition commander, and told the generals about the current situation.

Immediately, he said to the generals: "So far, forward, is the road of Kuohan, on the left is the Kuo Mountain, on the right is the big river, there is a difficult retreat, our coalition army needs to be cautious." Therefore, I am going to set up a joint camp here, and watch the confrontation between the Wei army and the Qin army, and then make the next step. ”

Of course, Han, Qi, and Yan will not oppose this opinion.

After the meeting, Fengyang Jun Li Dui summoned Li Ji, Zhao Xi, and Lian Po to his tent and instructed them to manage the army well, while he himself went to Hangu Pass with Storm Kite to negotiate with Meng Zhong, the chief general of the Wei army.

I have to say that this attack on Qin by the Five Kingdoms is a great opportunity for Li Dui to improve his prestige in Zhao and the entire Central Plains, and it is no wonder that this Fengyang Jun is quite active.

Two days later, Li Dui and Storm Kite, under the protection of a team of guards, rode a chariot to the Wei army camp in front of Hangu Pass.

According to the observation of Li Dui and the violent kite, the Wei army built three camps in the local area at the same time, one is located in the middle of the road, from the scale of the main camp is undoubted, in addition, on the hills in the north and south of the road, there is a camp under construction, careful observation, the camp on the hill in the south of the road should be larger, the scale is almost no less than the Wei camp in the road.

Generally speaking, the three Wei camps are arranged in an inverted zigzag, and from the perspective of the Qin army, the Wei camp in the road is the easiest for them to sneak attack, but if the Qin army dares to do this, then they will be counterattacked by the three Wei camps at the same time.

I have to say that the three camps of the Wei army are full of oppression.

Because the cavalry of Fangcheng discovered the traces of Li Dui and Storm Kite in advance, when the two arrived at the Wei camp in the middle of the road, Meng Zhong had already taken Le Jin and Jin Con out of the camp to greet them.

After exchanging a few words with each other, the violent kite pointed to the two Wei camps in the north and south in the distance, and said to Meng Zhong: "Under the nose of the Qin army, three camps are built at the same time, my brother is really courageous, are you not afraid that the Qin people will be angry and rush out of the pass to fight with you?" ”

Hearing this, before Meng Zhong could respond, he heard Jin sneer: "That's just to kill him without leaving a piece of armor!" ”

This sentence, for some reason, made the atmosphere a little cold.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong coughed and uncovered it, explaining: "Our army built three camps, not to provoke the Qin army, but it is the safest to set up camps in this way. ”

It turned out that Meng Zhong only planned to camp in Daozhong at first, after all, it was common sense to camp in Daozhong and block the enemy army, so as not to let the Qin army sneak attack the main force of the coalition forces in the rear, but in the case of the Daozhong camp, Meng Zhong felt that the hill on Daozuo looked like a threat, so he simply ordered the construction of a camp on the hill on Daozuo.

Both camps were built, and it was not bad to build another small camp, so Meng Zhongyou built a small camp on the small mound on the right side of the road, which once again strengthened the defense ability of the Wei camp in the middle of the road to the northwest direction.

Anyway, looking at Hangu Pass, it doesn't look like it can be captured in a short period of time, and Meng Zhong is not in a hurry.

And he felt a little regretful, obviously his Wei army built two large and one small camp at the same time, and the amount of work doubled, but the Qin army in Hangu Pass still did not take the opportunity to sneak attack them, causing the Wei army to spend all its efforts on defense in the past few days and nights.

During the visit to the Wei camp with Li Dui and Storm Kite, Meng Zhong frowned and said to the two: "According to the report from the cavalry of our army, the commander of the Qin army on Hangu Pass is Bai Qi, but this Bai Qi makes me feel a little strange...... I don't think he's supposed to be the kind of person who sticks to the pass. ”

Hearing this, the storm kite smiled and said, "Isn't it because he is afraid of you?" He's been defeated twice by you. ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong smiled, then shook his head and said, "No! I know Bai Qi, he is the kind of character who will never be afraid of people, not to mention that Bai Qi's two defeats in my hands are non-war crimes, even if I really defeated him twice, he will never be so passive...... From what I know about him, he definitely has some kind of conspiracy. ”

Li Dui and Storm Kite pondered for a moment when they heard this, and then Storm Kite guessed in a low voice: "Will it be ...... Qin already has the heart to seek peace? ”

Hearing the words of the violent kite, Li Dui stroked his beard and fell into deep thought.

Seeking peace is such a thing, as the Qin State has actually done a lot over the years, and even the Qin State can be said to be the most straightforward country to seek peace among the countries today, once it realizes that the losses of continuing to fight are higher than expected, the Qin State will not hesitate to make peace with the hostile country, and even cede the cities that have been captured, and do not care about the face of any big country at all.

Then wait for the next year, when you are fully prepared, tear up the armistice agreement and launch another attack, which is exactly the norm in the Qin state in recent years.

Wei and Han were dragged into the quagmire by Qin's rogue war method, but they did not dare to refuse Qin's armistice request to continue the war, so in addition to winning over Qi and promoting a coalition offensive like Tian Zhang's invasion of Qin, Wei and Han could only agree to Qin's armistice request in exchange for a temporary peace.

However, the result of this was that they were attacked by the Qin State again and again.

And this also stimulated the belief of Wei and Han to resolutely resist the Qin state.

But as far as Fengyang Jun Li Dui is concerned, he doesn't mind Qin showing weakness to his coalition army, after all, as long as Qin shows weakness to his coalition army, it also means that his joint crusade against Qin will end in victory, which is conducive to improving his prestige in Zhao and the Central Plains countries.

It's just that now that the Qin State has not sent an envoy to show weakness and sue for peace, Li Dui will not immediately make optimistic considerations.

At least you have to defeat the Qin army for a while, right?

Of course, the best case scenario is naturally to defeat Hangu Pass like Tian Zhang did last time when he attacked the Qin State.

As long as the Hangu Pass is laid, Xianyang, the capital of the Qin State that is not protected by the city wall, will be completely exposed to the front of his coalition army, and at that time, his coalition army can control the Qin State at will, and he Fengyang Jun Li Dui can also become the second famous general to break through the Hangu Pass of the Qin State after Tian Zhang, a famous general of the Qi State.

Thinking of this, Li Dui Zhengse said: "Regardless of whether the Qin State has the intention of seeking peace, our army still launches an offensive according to the previous strategy......"

As he spoke, he turned his head and asked Meng Zhongdao: "Yunchengjun, if our army wants to break through Hangu Pass, is there only one way to attack it?" ”

Meng Zhong thought for a while and said: "In the past two days, I have ordered Meng Hu and Hua Hu to lead the cavalry to search and investigate the vicinity to see if there is a trail in this vicinity that can lead to Guanhou. ”

Hearing this, the storm kite suddenly frowned: "Frontal attack, I'm afraid the casualties will be too great." ”

"That can't be helped." Li Dui pondered for a moment and said to Meng Zhong: "Since there is only one way to attack, please Yunchengjun be the vanguard of the coalition army...... After returning to the camp, I will send Lian Po to help Yunchengjun. ”

Obviously, he said this because he didn't want Meng Zhong to misunderstand that he was trying to make the Wei army and the Qin army fight to lose both.

And Meng Zhong would not refuse Li Dui's support, after all, Lian Po was indeed a fierce general, and with him joining, his Wei army would definitely have a greater chance of winning when he stormed Hangu Pass in a few days.

With Li Dui's words in front, the storm kite naturally didn't say anything, and immediately promised to send his subordinate general Han Zu to help.

That night, Meng Zhong left Li Dui and Storm Kite to have a meal under the leadership of Wei Ying in the Daozhong, and then Li Dui and Storm Kite left after that.

About three days later, Zhao general Lian Po and Han general Han Zu respectively led an army to participate in the battle and joined forces with the Wei army, while the rest of the main forces of the coalition army were still stationed in the Sanmenxia area, waiting for the first confrontation between the Wei army and the Qin army, and then thinking about countermeasures after seeing the outcome.

Han Zu this person, during the battle of Yique that year, when Meng Zhong was still a division commander, he got acquainted with this person, and they had a good relationship with each other, and when he saw Meng Zhong, he said with a smile: "On the order of the Great Sima, I will temporarily belong to Yunchengjun in the next time, please take care of Yunchengjun." ”

Compared with Han Zu, Zhao General Lian Po's mood is much more complicated, after all, from the civil war of Zhao State back then, to the battle of Taoyi last year, he and Meng Zhong were both enemies, and he never thought that one day he would actually fight under Meng Zhong's command.

Fortunately, Meng Zhong can be a man and take the initiative to talk to Lian Po, which exempts Lian Po from embarrassment.

After a slightly embarrassing salute, Lian Po and Han Zu asked Meng Zhong about the way to break through Hangu Pass.

In this regard, Meng Zhong said to the two: "In order to break through this level, I have ordered my soldiers to build a lot of siege equipment in the past few days, and when these siege equipment are completed, I can try to capture this level and see the effect." ”

Lian Po and Han Zu nodded when they heard this, and said, "If you build siege equipment, the soldiers under my command can also contribute." ”

Meng Zhong thought about it, and finally took Lian Po and Han Zu to the camp to see the siege equipment being built.

The creation of these siege equipment is basically the responsibility of Lejin and its deputy general Yu Ying, and the types of siege equipment are actually three kinds of building cars, stone throwing vehicles, and rushing cars.

Rushing the car, that is, the siege equipment used to break the door, is the most common siege equipment in the world.

However, because it is so common, in modern warfare, the defenders will fortify the city gates in advance, or simply block the city gates with earth inside the city gates, so that the city gates will not be broken by the enemy's rushing vehicles, so in Meng Zhong's opinion, this is just something that is better than nothing.

In contrast, Meng Zhong is more optimistic about the two siege weapons of the building car and the stone throwing vehicle.

The building car, that is, the well car, is a sharp weapon for foot soldiers to climb the wall to fight, dare not say that it is more convenient than the commonly used siege weapon ladder in the world, its advantage is that the top can stand people, let a part of the crossbowmen stand on the top, suppress the crossbowmen on the enemy city wall, and strive for the opportunity to attack for their own foot soldiers.

When the Song State attacked the Teng State, it was Meng Zhong who offered this object, which made the Song army change its previous weakness and immediately capture Tengcheng.

Since then, this kind of building car of the Song Kingdom has also quickly become known to all countries, but there are not many people who really know how to build this kind of siege equipment.

But no matter what, compared with the stone throwing car, the building car still has a high reputation, no, when Meng Zhong opened his mouth to say the word building car, Lian Po and Han Zu showed a sudden and surprised look.

Suddenly, it was because they also thought that this thing would be of great benefit to the attack on Hangu Pass, and as for the surprise, it was probably because they were surprised that Meng Zhong actually knew how to build this kind of Mo family mechanism.

Compared with the building car, when Meng Zhong introduced the stone-throwing car to Lian Po and Han Zu, the two generals were stunned and didn't recognize it.

Could it be that there has never been a stone throwing truck before?

In fact, this is not the case, according to legend, in the Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou people have invented the ancient stone throwing car, which was called "throwing the car" at that time, and later military books, more or less also recorded this kind of combat weapon.

Yes, combat weapons!

In ancient times, when field battles were popular, this weapon was used to kill the enemy, such as destroying the enemy's chariot.

But why can't Lian Po and Han Zu recognize them?

The reason is very simple, because the old stone-throwing vehicle has poor accuracy and long throwing intervals, and it can be imagined what will happen when it is used to destroy the enemy's high-powered chariots at that time.

Because the actual combat effect is very poor, it is the catapult that was gradually forgotten, until later, the war in the Central Plains gradually joined the siege of the city, so in books like "Fan Li's Art of War", such a kind of combat weapon that seems to be used to destroy the city wall is mentioned again.

But in general, the popularity of the catapult is still very low, after all, most of the contemporary siege and siege still rely on the "ant-attached" tactics, such as the Qin State, relying on cloud ladders and long ladders to break through the city wall, and the catapults rarely appear on the battlefield.

Because of this, when Meng Zhong enthusiastically introduced the stone-throwing cart to Lian Po and Han Zu, and was sure that this thing would definitely shock the Qin army on Hangu Pass, Lian Po and Han Zu looked at each other, unable to understand how powerful this thing really was.

Seeing that Lian Po and Han Zu lacked trust in the stone-throwing car, Meng Zhong didn't explain too much, anyway, how powerful this thing is, you can see it at a glance when the time comes.

To tell the truth, if it weren't for the fact that the Hangu Pass he faced at this time was too strong, so he was helpless, in fact, Meng Zhong didn't want to release the siege weapon of the stone throwing car, after all, this is a sharp weapon that can change the war situation of the entire era, and in front of this sharp weapon, any strong city and fortress in the world will become fragile from now on.

In late May, the Wei army under Meng Zhong stood still in front of Hangu Pass, holding back his strength to build siege equipment such as building cars and stone-throwing vehicles, which also made Bai Qi feel a little threatened, as if the calm before the rainstorm came.

Out of uneasiness in his heart, he summoned the Qin soldiers sent to monitor the movements of the Wei army to the front of him and asked about the movements of the Wei army in the past few days.

Those Qin soldiers replied, "The Wei army has no unusual behavior. In recent days, the Wei army has only cut down trees in the nearby mountain forests...... Speaking of which, there was a part of the Wei army digging rocks in the mountains. ”

"Digging rocks?" Bai Qi's face was puzzled.

"Yes. …… We have seen Wei soldiers striking rocks with stone axes and stones on the mountain, and carrying pieces of rocks hugged by one person to the camp at the bottom of the mountain, and I don't know what to do. ”

"How much?"

"That's a lot."

“……”

After those Qin soldiers retreated, Bai Qi pondered alone in the house.

He didn't think that Meng Zhong on the other side would ask the soldiers to go up the mountain to carry rocks for no reason, it must be of great use, but unfortunately, he really couldn't think of a clue.

It's no wonder, after all, the siege equipment of the stone-throwing cart is too remote in contemporary times, and it has almost never been seen in the conquests of various countries, and it is no wonder that Bai Qi can't think of any clue.

Of course, although it is impossible to guess, this does not prevent Bai Qi from making a correct judgment: the longer Meng Zhong on the other side prepares, the sooner it will prove that he is trying to break through this Hangu Pass?

Although Bai Qi planned to deal with the rest of the four armies of the coalition army first this time, and then come to deal with Meng Zhong last, since Meng Zhong was preparing to storm Hangu Pass, he didn't mind asking Meng Zhong to ask why Hangu Pass was called the first Xiongguan in the world!

In this way, Bai Qi and Meng Zhong maintained a strange tacit understanding, and neither attacked the other until 20 days later, that is, around the fifth day of the sixth month, Meng Zhong's army finally built 20 building carts and 20 stone throwing carts.

In fact, Meng Zhong didn't think that he could capture Hangu Pass with this number of building cars and stone throwing vehicles, but Li Dui, the Fengyang Jun in the rear, saw that his front army had not moved for a long time, so he couldn't help but be anxious, and frequently sent people over to urge, plus Meng Zhong himself also wanted to test the actual combat ability of the stone throwing car, so he changed his strategy and promised to launch an offensive against Hangu Pass immediately.

On the sixth day of the sixth month of June, Meng Zhong led nearly 40,000 troops to attack Hangu Pass with four generals, including Lejin, Jin, Lian Po, and Han Zu, and started the first confrontation between the five-nation alliance and Qin.