Time goes back to a day ago, the minister of Qin and the marquis Wei Ran came to Yin Jin in person, and after learning the news in advance, Huayang Jun Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo waited for Wei Ran in the western suburbs of Yin Jin City.

Not long after, Qi Rong, Bai Qi, Sima Cuo and others saw the team escorting Wei Ran.

It is worth mentioning that about a hundred zhang away from Wei Ran's team, there was also a Yiqu cavalry of about dozens of people following from a distance, which did not look like they were guarding, but seemed to be peeking at the appearance of this Qin team.

"Wei Ran."

"Houhou."

After Wei Ran's carriage approached, Mi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo all stepped forward to greet the former, unlike Bai Qi and Sima Cuo's honorific title for Wei Ran, Huayang Jun Mi Rong called Wei Ran by his name.

Some people may mistakenly think that there was any contradiction between Mi Rong and Wei Ran before, so they called him by his name, but in fact, not only did these two people have no contradictions, but on the contrary, they were half-brothers, and they were the two most trusted siblings of Empress Dowager Xuan.

And when Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo stepped forward to salute, Wei Ran also stepped down from the carriage and saluted the three with a smile on his face.

After a few words of greeting, Wei Ran turned his head to look at the Yiqu cavalry of dozens of people who were still sitting in the distance, and asked Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo: "Those Yiqu people, when did they get here?" ”

"It's been days." Bai Qi replied, and immediately, I saw him hesitate a little and asked, "Marquis, according to the letter you sent earlier, these Yiqu cavalry are the reinforcements invited by my Great Qin, is that really the case?" ”

"Well, I invited you."

Wei Ran nodded, and then asked again, "What?" Could it be that there was a conflict? ”

The Qin State and the Yiqu State have a grudge against each other for hundreds of years, and even now the Qin State is still deliberately trying to annex Yiqu, which also makes the Qin people and the Yiqu people hate each other, assuming that there is any conflict between the two sides, Wei Ran is not surprised at all.

Hearing Wei Randi's inquiry, Bai Qi shook his head and said, "The conflict is not enough, but these Yiqu cavalry are not very willing to obey the orders of our army. …… In the past few days, according to the instructions of the marquis, he commanded these Yiqu cavalry, and ordered them to increase their efforts to search for the Fangcheng cavalry and Zhao cavalry in this area, but these people were not very obedient. ”

On the side, Huayang Jun Qirong also interjected: "These people don't trust us, and I don't trust them. …… If you are going to use this troop, I advise you to find a way to control them. ”

"No! …… At least not yet. ”

As Qi Rong's half-brother, Wei Ran certainly knows this brother's temper.

Thinking about the control in Qi Rong's mouth, it is nothing more than to arrest those thousand commanders in the Yiqu cavalry, use both soft and hard, and force these people to really be used by his Qin State.

But the problem is that this Yiqu cavalry is not an ordinary Yiqu people, even if the Yiqu King has lived in the Ganquan Palace of his Qin State all these years and has never returned to the Yiqu State, but these people still have a high degree of loyalty to the Yiqu King - and because of this, even though these Yiqu cavalry are full of resentment towards the Qin State, but under the call and order of the Yiqu King, these people still came to Yin Jin from the Yiqu State to help him Qin resist the alliance of the countries.

In this case, it is not difficult to guess that these Yiqu cavalry are loyal to the Yiqu king, and rashly coercing these people will only make the situation worse.

"Let's talk about it in the city."

Wei Ran exchanged views with Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo.

A moment later, Wei Ran took Mi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo to the city of Yin Jin City.

After entering the city, Wei Ran didn't care about bathing in the city to wash away the dust on the way, so he asked Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo about the current situation in the lobby of the prefecture and county office in the city.

At this moment, the Qin army in the Yin and Jin areas, namely Mi Rong and Bai Qi, before the army of Mi Rong was mainly stationed on the south bank of the big river in the north, the reason is that in the past two or three months, the Wei State of Hedong Shou Gongsun Zhi mobilized a large number of troops to be stationed in Fenglingdu, posing a posture of trying to cross the river to the south, although Mi Rong could see through at a glance that Gongsun Zhu's purpose was to contain the army under his command, so that he did not dare to divide his troops to support Bai Qi and Sima Cuo, who were stationed in the area of Hangu Pass some time ago, but for the sake of prudence, Qi Rong still divided half of his troops to be stationed on the banks of the big river to prevent Gongsun from playing any tricks.

As for the other half of the army, it was still stationed outside the Yin Jin City.

However, the battle situation on the front line was beyond his imagination, he never thought that Bai Qi and Sima Cuo would lose in the war against the coalition army, let alone that the coalition army would send 4,000 Fangcheng cavalry to burn down the cities and fields in the land of Huakun along the way, forcing Bai Qi and Sima Cuo to retreat more than 200 miles in a row.

After thinking about it repeatedly, Qi Rong did not immediately recall half of the army garrisoned on the riverbank, but only led the other half of the army to join forces with Bai Qi and Sima Cuo, preparing to block the coalition army.

Or, in the words of Bai Qidi, prepare to wait here for the best opportunity to counterattack the coalition forces.

"Well, I have a rough idea of the situation here."

Through the narration of Qi Rong and Bai Qidi, Wei Ran finally understood the general situation of his Qin army in this area, and after thinking for a while, he asked again: "What about the coalition army on the other side?" What's wrong with them? ”

Bai Qi shook his head and replied: "In general, there is no abnormal movement, they are all busy building military camps, and they have not launched a fierce offensive on this side for the time being, but ......" paused, and he added: "Compared with the rest of the coalition forces, Meng Zhong's army is the most aggressive, a few days ago, when the Yiqu cavalry had not yet arrived here, he sent his Fangcheng cavalry to invade the wilderness around Yin and Jin, harassing our army everywhere, destroying fields, and attacking the convoy transporting grain, although I sent Hu Yu to lead a few cavalry to resist, but ...... This situation lasted until the Yiqu cavalry arrived here. After the Yiqu cavalry arrived here one after another, the Fangcheng cavalry reined in a lot, and they no longer dared to walk through the wilderness unscrupulously, treating our tens of thousands of Great Qin soldiers as nothing. ”

From the side, Sima Cuo also said with a smile: "The Marquis of Yiqu invited the cavalry, which is really a great help, otherwise, I am afraid that those Fangcheng cavalry will continue to run rampant unscrupulously." ”

Hearing this, Wei Ran smiled faintly.

He was not very reluctant to continue this topic, after all, he knew very well what kind of price his Qin State had paid to get the 'righteous help' of the King of Yiqu.

That is the shame of his Qin State!

So he quietly diverted the topic and said: "Bai Qi, the 'counteroffensive strategy' planned by Sima Lao has been repeatedly thought about when I was in Xianyang. Originally, I could have come a few days earlier, but I delayed for a few days to raise the grain and grass you requested...... All in all, a batch of grain and grass has been raised on the Xianyang side, which is enough for the army of our Great Qin Land here to survive this winter. ”

Hearing this, Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Co glanced at each other, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

It's no wonder, after all, since retreating to the Yin Jin Dynasty, the tens of thousands of troops under the command of Bai Qi and Sima Cuo can only rely on the grain and grass relief in the Mirong army, which has increased the food pressure in the Yin Jin and Huayang areas in disguise, and now, they finally don't need to worry about the grain and grass anymore.

"So, now we just need to discuss how to counterattack the coalition forces?" Huayang Jun said with a smile.

Hearing this, Wei Ran smiled slightly, and turned his attention to Bai Qi and Sima Cuo, after all, Bai Qi and Sima Cuo had already thought of a counterattack strategy.

After receiving Wei Ran's gaze, Bai Qi nodded knowingly, and pondered: "There is a question...... I suspect that some people on the coalition side may have guessed, at least, Meng Zhong's gang must have been aware of it, so a few days ago, the Fangcheng cavalry under his command would be so aggressive, destroying the fields everywhere, harassing our army everywhere, provoking our army, it seems that they hope to fight our army in a decisive battle before the winter and take advantage of the superiority of the coalition army to defeat our ......"

As he spoke, he looked up at Wei Ran, and said: "Although the decisive battle is fought in advance at this moment, Zai Xia does not think that our army will be defeated by the coalition army, but if it can be as stated in Zaixia's letter, please Xianyang send someone to stabilize the coalition army in the name of peace and land, as long as it drags on for two months, Zai Xia will have full confidence to inflict a heavy blow on the coalition army, and even, let the more than 200,000 allied forces of all countries be wiped out!" ”

"Hmm."

Wei Ran nodded when he heard this, and said, "I have asked the king for this matter, and the king said that he would give me full responsibility. ”

As he spoke, he turned to the ground guard beside him and said, "What about the letter?" ”

Hearing this, the guard took out a bamboo slip from his bosom and respectfully presented it with both hands.

Seeing this, Wei Ran pointed to this bamboo slip and said to Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo: "This is a letter written in the name of the king to ask for peace, you immediately send someone to the side of the coalition army and hand it over to Li Dui, the Fengyang Jun of Zhao State." ”

Glancing at each other, Bai Qi stepped forward to take the letter, and after getting Wei Ran's permission to nod, he spread it out and swept it twice, then nodded and said: "According to the attention and monitoring of the coalition forces in Xia, Sima Lao, and Huayangjun these days, only the army under the command of Meng Zhong and Storm Kite in the coalition army is high-spirited, and the rest of the three armies of Zhao, Qi, and Yan obviously can't feel that these three armies want to continue to crusade against our Great Qin, which shows that the coalition army is also in discord, if you receive this peace letter from my Great Qin, you will definitely be overjoyed......

As he spoke, Bai Qi summoned his subordinate Ji Hong and ordered the latter to send this letter to Zhao Jun's camp.

Sure enough, the next day they received a reply from Fengyang Jun Li Dui, who said that he was willing to accept Qin's request for peace, but according to the old rules, Qin must agree to some conditions from Zhao, Wei, Han, Qi, and Yan, and only if the five states were satisfied, the armies of the five countries would retreat from Qin's territory.

After learning of Li Dui's reply, Huayang Jun Qirong sneered and scolded: "I don't know what is dead or alive, according to my guess, they will definitely ask for a bargain...... Hmph, it's ridiculous to die without knowing it! ”

From the side, Bai Qi also secretly sneered.

Compared with these two, Wei Ran and Sima Cuo were much calmer and calmer, and Sima Cuo also said with a smile: "This is a good thing!" …… The more conditions they propose, the more time we have to stall, don't we? ”

Hearing this, Wei Ran smiled and said nothing.

Immediately, he ordered the guards: "Call Gan to summon me." ”

"No!" The guards clenched their fists and left

Half an hour later, a middle-aged man in a soap-colored dark robe came to the tent and bowed his hand to Wei Ran and everyone in the tent.

I saw Wei Ran say in a deep voice after telling the situation: "Gan Zhao, Li Dui of Zhao State has agreed to negotiate with us, you go to see Li Dui as the envoy of Xianyang, do you know what to do?" ”

Gan Zhao arched his hand and said: "Keep in mind the advice of the marquis, and try your best to delay when negotiating with Li Dui and the rest of the coalition generals. ”

Hearing this, Wei Ran nodded with satisfaction and said, "Very good, let's go." ”

"No!"

Looking at the back of Gan Zhao leaving, Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo all looked at Wei Ran with some surprise, and only then did they know that Wei Ran had already made some preparations in advance.

In this way, under the instruction of Wei Ran, Gan Zhao, as an envoy sent by Xianyang, came to the camp belonging to the Zhao army in the coalition army and met Li Dui, the king of Fengyang.

At this time, Li Dui had already had a separate meeting with Meng Zhong yesterday, and he was more or less skeptical of Qin's peace request this time, at least not as happy as he was when he first got the peace letter yesterday, and he was quite cold, probably wanting to see how sincere Qin Guo was.

Therefore, when he met with Gan Zhao today, he simply did not even put forward the conditions for withdrawing from the army, but just said to Gan Zhao: "Is it really the envoy sent by Xianyang to invite peace?" ”

Gan Zhao nodded: "I came in the name of my king......"

Li Dui asked again: "Does your country really have the heart to ask for peace?" ”

Gan Zhao nodded again: "It's true." ”

"That's good!"

Li Dui nodded and said: "In this case, I will go back to Xianyang to tell the King of Qin, and ask the King of Qin to go to Handan to meet the monarch of our country and discuss the matter of peace!" ”

"Huh?"

Gan Zhao was stunned when he heard this, and said in his heart that this was not right.

According to Marquis Wei Ran's estimate, shouldn't this Li Dui immediately negotiate terms with him? Whether it was land cutting, compensation, or surrender, why did he ask the monarch of the Qin State to rush to the Zhao State to meet him as soon as he came up?

After thinking about it, Gan Zhao pretended to be angry and said, "Why did Fengyang Jun humiliate my Great Qin!" ”

"Humph!" Li Dui sneered when he heard this, and said, "Humiliation? The old man just wants to see the sincerity of your country...... With all due respect, the reputation of your country is not very good, do you still remember the agreement of 'six hundred miles of business'? ”

"......" Gan Zhao was speechless.

I have to say that Zhang Yi made a promise with 600 miles of business to deceive King Chu Huai into severing diplomatic relations with Qi State, which was of course the most proud thing in Zhang Yi's life, and it also made the Qin State at that time achieve the goal of breaking off diplomatic relations between Chu and Qi without paying anything, but this incident seriously affected the credibility of Qin State, so that at this moment, Li Dui took this matter as an example, and Gan Zhao could not refute it at all.

Seeing Gan Zhao's expression, Fengyang Jun Li Dui sneered and said: "The old man really has the heart to agree to your country's request for peace, but the old man does not dare to be unprepared for your country...... If you can't be the master under your feet, why don't you return to Xianyang immediately and tell King Qin, how about it? ”

After a pause, he said: "If you ask the King of Qin to go to the Wei Dynasty to meet, your country will definitely not want to, after all, Qin and Wei are mortal enemies, but my Zhao State has rarely had conflicts with your country before, and this time it is the leader of the crusade against your country. …… Don't worry, I, Zhao Guo, will be responsible for King Qin's comfort, and I will never allow anyone to endanger King Qin! ”

Seeing that Li Dui had already expressed his attitude, Gan Zhao had no choice but to say goodbye, return to Yin Jin, and tell Wei Ran about the process of the meeting with Li Dui, as well as Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo, only to hear these dignified faces.

In the middle of the sound, Sima Cuo frowned and said: "Li Dui didn't even mention the conditions, and insisted on asking the king of our country to go to the Zhao Kingdom to meet him, this matter is not right...... It seems that from the very beginning, he was suspicious of our purpose. ”

Hearing this, Huayang Jun Qi Rong asked suspiciously: "What does Sima Lao mean that Li Dui has seen through our strategy?" ”

Sima Coo shook his head, indicating that he was difficult to judge, but said in a deep voice from the narrator: "Rather than thinking that Li Dui saw through our strategy, I suspect that Meng Zhong saw through our strategy......

After that, he turned his head to look at Wei Ran and asked, "Marquis, what should I do now?" ”

Wei Ran closed his eyes and pondered for a while, then reopened his eyes and said to Gan Zhao: "Gan Zhao, you go to see Li Dui again in two days, and when you tell him, how can the king of a country go to danger lightly?" He wants to be sincere, this is easy to do, my Great Qin can let Jingyang Jun or Gao Lingjun personally go to the Zhao Dynasty to meet the King of Zhao, and discuss the matter of peace with the countries on behalf of my Great Qin. Jingyang Jun and Gao Lingjun are both my sons of Great Qin, and the palm of the Empress Dowager Xuan is enough to prove the sincerity of my Great Qin! ”

Hearing this, not to mention that Gan Zhao was taken aback, even the faces of Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo changed slightly.

"Wei Ran, you, you are not afraid of sister...... Aren't you afraid of the Queen Mother's wrath? ”

Qi Rong pointed at Wei Ran and was speechless in shock.

He didn't dare to imagine that Wei Ran dared to let their sister Empress Dowager Xuan's two favorite sons go into danger.

Wei Ran stroked his beard and said calmly and imposingly: "If this battle can destroy more than 200,000 coalition troops here in one fell swoop, even if Jingyang Jun and Gao Lingjun go to Zhao State, who in the countries would dare to touch the two of them?!" ”

“……”

Qi Rong, Bai Qi, and Sima Cuo glanced at each other, and their hearts suddenly dawned, and they all nodded and praised Wei Ran's wisdom.

Only Qi Rong is still a little worried, after all, Jingyang Jun Yingfu and Gaoling Jun Yingkui are the two sons of their sister Empress Dowager Xuan's favorite, if something really happens, their two brothers are afraid that they will not be able to get rid of each other.

Two days later, Gan Zhao went to see Li Dui again, pretending that he had just returned from Xianyang, and made a promise to Li Dui that Wei Ran had promised that Jingyang Jun or Gao Lingjun would go to the Zhao Dynasty to meet Zhao Wang Ji instead of Qin Wangji.

He said to Li Dui: "Fengyang Jun, I think this is enough to prove the sincerity of my Great Qin!" ”

Of course, Li Dui knew the relationship between Jingyang Jun Yingfu and Gaoling Jun Yingkui and Empress Dowager Xuan and Qin Wangji, and he actually had some faith in his heart.

But when he thought that the condition on Meng Zhong's side was that the King of Qin had to go to the Zhao Dynasty to see him, he had a headache.

After thinking about it, Li Dui said to Gan Zhao: "Sir, follow the old man's guards to the tent to rest, and the old man should think about it." ”

The purpose of Gan Zhao's coming this time was to delay time, and he was naturally not in a hurry, he wished that Li Dui would think about it for two months, so that Jingyangjun and Gaolingjun would not have to go to Zhao.

After Gan Zhao was led down by Li Dui's guards to rest, Li Dui immediately sent someone to invite Meng Zhong and Storm Kite.

After a while, Meng Zhong and Storm Kite came to the tent, and Li Dui said to the two: "A few days ago, Yun Chengjun thought that Qin was not credible, and the old man asked the King of Qin to go to my Zhao State in person to show his sincerity according to Yun Chengjun's intentions...... Yun Chengjun must also know that Jingyang Jun Jingyang Jun Yingfu and Gaoling Jun Yingkui are the beloved sons of the Empress Dowager Xuan, and the Qin State should not joke with the lives of the two sons. Therefore, the old man believes that Qin's request for peace this time should be credible...... What does Yun Chengjun think? ”

Meng Zhong remained silent and laughed: "Fengyangjun has been deceived again!" Jingyang Jun and Gao Lingjun, how can they be as good as King Qin? What's more, if the Qin State's trick succeeds, and my more than 200,000 allied troops are severely damaged, or even annihilated, who would dare to touch a single hair of Jingyang Jun and Gao Lingjun at that time? ”

This sentence was like thunder, which made Li Dui's face change suddenly.

Yes, if the allied forces of other countries are completely wiped out in this battle, even if they have Jingyang Jun Yingfu and Gaoling Jun Yingkui as hostages, how dare they hurt them? In the end, don't you have to be obediently put back to the Qin State?

After figuring out this layer, Li Dui's face turned pale for a while, and he gritted his teeth hatefully, walked out of the tent and commanded in a deep voice: "Someone!" Call Nagan to me and bring it to me! ”

During this period, the violent kite glanced at Li Dui, who seemed to be a little annoyed and angry outside the tent, and asked Meng Zhong in a low voice: "Brother, is it really a trick of the Qin State?" ”

Meng Zhong shrugged his shoulders and made a 'God knows' lip shape.

Storm Kite immediately understood, gave Meng Zhong a thumbs up, lowered his voice and snickered: "It's still my brother!" ”

After a while, Li Dui's face sank back and said to Storm Kite and Meng Zhong in a deep voice: "I'll lie to him later, you two don't have to talk." ”

Storm Kite and Meng Zhong shrugged their shoulders and said they had no objections.

After a short time, several Zhao pawns brought Qin envoy Gan Zhao back to the tent.

Gan Zhao didn't know what had happened during the time he left, and when he saw Li Dui calling him back, he asked with a smile, "Fengyangjun has thought about it?" ”

I saw Li Dui smiling and nodding, and then his face suddenly changed, and he scolded angrily: "Do you think the old man can't see the trick you are waiting for?!" This is clearly a delaying tactic by you, just to delay this battle until winter...... You underestimate the old man too much, and you underestimate our army's Yunchengjun too much! Do you think you can hide the eyes of the old man and Yun Chengjun with all your tricks?! ”

"Yun, Yunchengjun ......"

Gan Zhao opened his mouth slightly, and subconsciously turned his head to look at Meng Zhong who was sitting in the tent, and saw that the latter looked at him with an incomprehensible expression, and he couldn't say anything to explain for a while.

"Huh?"

Originally, Meng Zhong didn't care much, and even, he was a little embarrassed because Li Dui mentioned himself, after all, his so-called 'speculation' was all nonsense, in case this Qin envoy cited some strong evidence to prove the sincerity of the Qin State, then he would be embarrassed at that time.

Unexpectedly, when he glanced at Gan Zhao with a sense of gain and loss, wanting to see if this Gan Zhao could prove the sincerity of the Qin State, he suddenly found that Gan Zhao's eyes secretly looking at him flickered.

Oh ...... It can't be a ghost, right?

Rao is Meng Zhong, and he doesn't know what to do at this moment.

And from the side, the storm kite obviously realized something, and opened his eyes a little dumbfounded, looking at Gan Zhao, and then at Meng Zhong, and after half a ring, he slowly gave Meng Zhong a thumbs up.

Can you be blind?

That's amazing!

Meng Zhong and Storm Kite both saw that Gan Zhao's heart was weak, and how could Li Dui, who had read countless people, not see it.

I saw that his face was pale, and he pointed at Gan Zhao and shouted angrily: "Come on, cut off his tongue and beat him out of the camp!" …… No, after cutting off this man's tongue, he will put me in custody, along with his entourage, and keep them all in strict custody! ”

Gan Zhao was shocked when he heard this, collapsed to the ground, and begged for mercy, but in the end he was beaten down by several Zhao pawns.

Looking at Li Dui, who was sitting on the main seat, he was sinking like water, and Meng Zhong and Storm Kite silently exchanged a look.

It's stable.