In mid-September, after twenty days of travel, Tian Zhang finally returned to Linzi, the royal capital of Qi.

On the way, Tian Zhang also paid attention to the Song army in his Qi State many times, and learned that Dai Busheng and Dai Jing were confronting his Qi general "Gao Cheng" in the "Ju County" area.

As for the specific situation, Tian Zhang also does not know.

On the afternoon of September 18, Tian Zhang arrived in Linzi, the royal capital, and after entering the city, he immediately went to the palace to meet the king of Qi, and was soon allowed to do so.

"Chentian Zhang, meet the king."

After stepping into the main hall of the palace, Tian Zhang came to the field of King Qi and bowed his hand.

I have to say that although King Qi Tiandi treats his courtiers harshly, this does not include Tian Zhang, after all, Tian Tian is not a stupid person, of course he understands the importance of Tian Zhang to his Qi country - it is completely different from the dispensable nobles and courtiers of Qi State like "Tian Jia".

"Da Sima is exempt. Please be seated. ”

Qi Wang Tiandi, who was smiling, raised his hand to signal Tian Zhang to sit in the empty seat on the left.

At this time, Tian Zhang looked at the rest of the people in the hall.

In addition to King Qi's field, there are still two people sitting in the hall, one of whom is a middle-aged man with a short beard, who is sitting in the second seat on the side of Tian Zhang at the moment, and it is the pillar of the Tian clan "Tian Ju"; The other is an old man with a long beard, who is about fifty or sixty years old, and is sitting opposite Tian Zhang at the moment, it is Zhang Yi's senior brother, Su Qin, a famous man who once held the six countries to jointly fight against the Qin State during the period of Zhao Suhou.

After nodding and saying hello to Tian Ju, Tian Zhang glanced at Su Qin, who was sitting opposite, although he also nodded, no matter how he looked at it, it was different from when he treated Tian Ju, and he seemed a little distant.

It's no wonder, after all, Tian Zhang has always been a little suspicious and wary of Su Qin, even if Su Qin has defected to Qi for some years.

At this time, King Qi Tiandi opened his mouth and asked Tian Zhangdao: "Great Sima, what is the current war situation in the Song Kingdom?" ”

Hearing this, Tian Zhang sat in the middle of the banquet and arched his hand towards the field of King Qi, and replied with a dignified expression: "It's not optimistic, the resistance of the Song State is very fierce. ”

As he spoke, he told the battle situation of the three main battlefields of the Song Kingdom to the fields of King Qi and the other two people in the palace, namely the three battlefields of Tengxian, Qiyang, and Pengcheng.

“…… At present, Teng County has been conquered by our army, but the Song generals Jing Yu and Dai Xi are on the east bank of Nanhu Lake, waiting for an opportunity to recapture Teng County; ...... over there."

When it came to forcing the sun, Tian Zhang hesitated a little, and then continued: "On the side of the city, there are two people, Dai Wu, the prince of the Song Dynasty, and Dai Ying, the general of the Song Dynasty, who are defending the city, and Dai Wu is quite popular with the people, so that the Song people in the city of Qiangyang are willing to use it, so that at present, our army cannot conquer the ...... of the city."

I have to say that even a famous general like Tian Zhang has selfish intentions, he deliberately concealed the existence of his brother-in-law Meng Zhong, and blamed the reason why "the Qi army could not conquer Qiyang" on the two princes Dai Wu and Dai Ying.

As for the purpose, of course, he didn't want Qi Wang Tiandi to have a bad impression of his righteous brother Meng Zhong, after all, Tian Zhang was still preparing to abduct Meng Zhong to Qi in the future - if Qi Wang Tiandi was allowed to hold a grudge against Meng Zhong at this time, wouldn't his plan be in vain before it was implemented?

You must know that King Qi's field is not a person with a large amount of weapons, and even this monarch still has some grudges, which is far less tolerant than his grandfather King Qi Wei and his father King Qi Xuan.

King Qi Tiandi listened carefully to Tian Zhang's narration.

In all fairness, if there were no "Song army sneak attack on Tancheng" and "Song army counterattack on the hinterland of Qi State", King Tian Di of Qi would still be quite satisfied with Tian Zhang's army to attack Song State, even if the Qi army under Tian Zhang's command is currently blocked in Qiangyang, after all, the Song State opposite is not a weak country, if only 150,000 Qi troops can break through the entire Song State, then the Song State has long been annexed by Wei, Qi, and Chu, how can it still survive to this day?

But it happened that the Song army invaded the hinterland of Qi in turn, which was the most dissatisfied with Tian Zhang.

Thinking of this, Qi Wang Tiandi said to Tian Zhang: "Da Sima, what do you think about the current destruction of the army led by Dai Busheng and Dai Jing in our country?" ”

"The minister is guilty." Tian Zhang did not quibble, and confessed: "The minister did not expect that the Song people would dare to counterattack our Qi country, so that the country was invaded by the Song soldiers, and I hope that the king will be guilty." ”

Hearing this, Tian Ju hurriedly excused Tian Zhang and said, "King, Rong Chen said a few words. …… The minister thought that the Song army attacked Tancheng, and then invaded our Daqi along the north of Tancheng, which was really an unexpected thing, even if it was a minister, he never thought of it before. And Da Sima, at that time he had already subdued Xue Yi, and immediately divided his troops to attack Tengxian and Qiyang, he only thought about completing the king's order, and never thought that Tancheng, which was more than 200 miles away, was attacked by the Song army, which is also common sense. …… The minister thought that the crime was not in Da Sima, but in Tancheng's negligence in taking precautions, so that he was easily attacked by the Song army. ”

"Hmm......"

Qi Wang Tiandi nodded thoughtfully, and then asked Su Qin, "Su Qing, what do you think?" ”

Hearing this, Su Qin stroked his long beard and said with a smile: "My opinion is no different from that of Doctor Tian. Da Sima is the commander of the first army, and the king was ordered by him to attack the Song State, since this is the case, the Great Sima will naturally devote all his energy to attacking the Song State, and he has never noticed that the Song army has attacked Tancheng, which is also common sense. …… As Dr. Tian said, the blame lies with Tancheng, not Da Sima. ”

Seeing that even Su Qin thought so, King Qi nodded his head, and the resentment towards Tian Zhang in his heart gradually disappeared.

Immediately, he opened his mouth and asked Tian Ju, "Tian Ju, what is the current battle situation on Gao Cheng's side?" ”

Hearing this, Tian Ju arched his hand and said: "According to the news sent by Gao Cheng a few days ago, Dai Busheng and Dai Jing have now retreated to the area of Ju County......

"Haven't you recaptured Juxian yet?" Qi Wang Tian asked unhappily.

"This ......" Tian Ju considered the wording for a while, and said cautiously: "The Song army is quite cunning, with Dai Jing guarding Ju County, and Dai Busheng led the army to raid the surrounding cities and counties, although Gao Cheng's army is more than the Song army, but in order to guard against the Song army from raiding and plundering the counties, he can only divide his troops to garrison, which makes Gao Cheng have not yet conquered Ju County......"

"Tsk!" Qi Wang Tiandi frowned deeply, and then said unhappily: "Ju County, Ju County...... After all, how could Ju County be so easily lost in the first place? ”

Tian Ju explained: "It's all because Ju County is in disrepair and the city wall is damaged, so when the Song army attacked Ju County, even though Ju County had received a warning in advance, it still couldn't stop the Song army ......."

"Damn it!" Qi Wang Tiandi scolded fiercely.

"The king is angry." Tian Zhang, Tian Ju, and Su Qin persuaded each other.

After a long while, the hatred in King Qi's heart gradually disappeared, and he asked Tian Zhang: "Da Sima, in your opinion, how should the current situation be handled?" ”

Tian Zhang arched his hand and said: "First of all, we should expel the Song army led by Dai Busheng and Dai Jing and recapture Ju County." …… If Juxian County cannot be recaptured, then the Song army can attack and retreat, which is extremely unfavorable to our Great Qi. As for the Song State......"

He paused and said in a deep voice: "According to what the minister has seen, the 150,000 Qi army is afraid that it will not be able to completely defeat the Song State. ”

"How many troops do you need?" Qi Wang Tiandi asked.

Tian Zhang thought for a while and said, "The minister thinks that 500,000 troops may be needed!" ”

"Five hundred thousand?!" King Qi Tiandi was in disbelief and exclaimed in surprise.

And Su Qin and Tian Ju also looked at Tian Zhang in surprise, thinking that they also felt that this amount was incredible.

Seeing this, Tian Zhang explained: "Does the king still remember the incident when the Song State took the Teng State two or three years ago? At that time, the Song State attacked Teng State twice, and invested a total of 40,000 or 50,000 troops before and after, but Teng State was only a small country with a population of about 100,000, and the permanent army was only a few thousand, so how could it resist the attack of 40,000 or 50,000 Song troops? It's all because of the people's aspirations! My teacher, Mencius, said that there is much help for the righteous and little help for the unjust. Teng Hou was a benevolent king, and he won the support of his subjects, so when the Song soldiers invaded Teng, the Teng people contributed to help Teng Hou resist the Song soldiers. …… Now the crown prince Dai Wu of the Song State is also quite popular with the people, and this time he saw that our Qi army had committed the Song State, and the Song people have made efforts to assist the prince Dai Wu to resist our army. The strength of the Song State was more than ten times that of the Teng State, so the ministers estimated that it would take at least 500,000 troops to annex the Song State in one go. ”

After listening to Tian Zhang's words, King Qi Tiandi was relieved.

But the problem is that 500,000 troops, even if it is his Qi country, can't muster 500,000 troops.

Furthermore, how much food does this cost?

Is it really worth it to spend such a huge price to attack the Song Kingdom?

King Qi Tiandi thought secretly.

At this time, Tian Ju opened his mouth and said: "Great King, as the Great Sima said, it takes 500,000 troops to attack the Song State, even if it is my Great Qi, it is difficult to bear, and the current war situation is not conducive to my Great Qi, it is better to temporarily make a truce with the Song State, and it is not too late to seek the Song State after being fully prepared in the future." ”

After a pause, seeing that King Qi Tiandi did not interrupt him, he immediately said: "You might as well send an envoy to the Song State and order the Song State to return Tancheng and cede the "Picheng". …… At present, Teng County is in the hands of our country, as long as the Song State is forced to cede Pi County again, it can completely block the Song State's eastward advance to seize Sihuai. In the future, Xue Yi can be used as the defense of Teng County, and Tancheng can be used as the defense of Pi County, these four cities are stationed with heavy troops, which can completely prevent the Song army from invading our country. ”

"Hmm......"

Qi Wang Tiandi nodded thoughtfully.

However, at this time, Tian Zhang couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Because before returning to Linzi, he had already tested the tone of Dai Wu, the crown prince of the Song State, when the prince Dai Wu refused to cede the request of Qiyang and Pixian, looking at the situation at that time, the Song State may not even return Tancheng, let alone cede Pixian.

Probably noticing Tian Zhang's complexion, Tian Ju asked puzzledly, "Da Sima, is there anything wrong with the suggestion below?" ”

"Nope." Tian Zhang shook his head and explained: "It's not that Doctor Tian's suggestion is wrong, but ......" As he spoke, he arched his hand towards the field of King Qi, and said: "Great King, when the minister was attacking the sun for a long time, he also made an appointment with Dai Wu, the crown prince of the Song State, to test his tone, and wanted to see if the Song State was willing to submit to my Great Qi like the Yan State......

Hearing this, King Qi Tiandi was also quite moved.

In the final analysis, there were two main reasons why Qi attacked Song.

First, the Qi State has no targets to attack at this time.

First of all, the two countries of Zhao and Chu, Qi don't want to move for the time being, after all, Qi's proposition is to unite Zhao against Qin, as for Chu, although Qi still intends to form an alliance with Chu for the time being, but considering that Qin and Chu are still at war, Qi will not attack Chu at this time, so as not to help Qin in disguise.

Yan Guo has already surrendered, and there is no point in fighting any longer: after all, Yan Guo, which has gone through the difficulty of overthrowing the country, can now be said to be destitute, and it has laid down a poor land, how does this help Qi Guo?

Only the Song State is the only country around the Qi State that is still hostile to the Qi State.

As for the second, it is because the territory of the Song Kingdom is full of ointment, that is to say, it is quite rich.

Since there was no other target to attack, and the Song State was rich and unwilling to submit to the Qi State, in this case, the Qi State would of course attack the Song State.

But if the Song State is willing to submit to the Qi State, then the Qi King Land does not have to annex the Song State.

As long as Song Guoken surrendered to him like Yan Guo, like the Song State in the original Song Dynasty of Chengjun, he became a vassal state of Qi State, offering a lot of money and beauties every year, and when Qi State went to war with foreign countries, Song State also sent troops to assist free of charge, and he Qi State was full of food to attack Song State?

It must be to unite the Central Plains countries to crusade against the Qin State!

After all, the Qin State is the biggest obstacle to the Qi State's domination of the Central Plains in recent decades.

In front of opponents such as Qin Guo, what is Song Guo?

Thinking of this, Qi Wang Tiandi said with some heart: "What did Dai Wu say? ”

Looking at the look of anticipation on King Qi's face, Tian Zhang hesitated for a moment, and replied after considering his words: "Dai Wu refuses to cede the two places of Qiyang and Pixian, and even refuses to return Tancheng. …… He also said that if the king wished to make a truce with the Song state, he would return Tengxian and Xueyi to the two places......"

"What?"

Not to mention that Qi Wang Tiandi was dumbfounded when he heard it, even Su Qin and Tian Ju, who were on the side, were quite stunned.

The two of them secretly thought in their hearts: This Dai Wu's courage is too big!

"Arrogance!"

After a moment of distraction, King Qi slammed the table and scolded angrily: "Isn't he afraid that the widows will pour out all the troops of the country to recruit the Song State?!" ”

Tian Zhang thought about it, and finally felt that it was necessary to tell the crown prince Dai Wu's consciousness to the king of Qi Tiandi: "The minister also questioned Dai Wu like this, but Dai Wu said that if my Qi State insists on fighting to the death with him Song State, then he Song State will also do everything to resist the invasion of our country, whether this war lasts for ten or twenty years...... Even if the Song Kingdom is inevitably annexed by our country in the end, he will also have to pay a heavy price for our Great Qi. ”

“……”

Hearing this, King Qi Tiandi and Tian Ju were both a little distracted, after all, they never thought that the little Song Kingdom would have such courage.

At this time, a few hints of discoloration flashed in Su Qin's eyes.

I have to say that whether it is Mencius or Tian Zhang, the judgment of the master and apprentice on Su Qin is correct: Su Qin defected to Qi this time, and he was indeed uneasy and kind.

Let's talk about Su Qin himself first, he himself has a grudge against Qi Guo.

At the beginning, Su Qin was ordered by Zhao Suhou to unite the Central Plains countries and successfully launched the first "joint anti-Qin", so that the Qin State did not dare to peep into countries outside Hangu Pass for a full fifteen years.

It was during that period that Su Qin wore the seals of Zhao, Yan, Qi, Chu, Wei, and Han, and was named "Wu Anjun" by Zhao Suhou, which can be said to be in the limelight for a while.

At that time, his fellow disciple Zhang Yi had just arrived in the Qin State, and had not yet shown his talents, and the prime minister of the Qin State was still "Gongsun Yan", Gongsun Yan sent an envoy to the State of Qi, and skillfully induced the State of Qi to unite with the State of Wei to attack the State of Zhao, and successfully destroyed the trend of "Six Kingdoms Joining Forces to Resist Qin" established with Su and Qin as a link, so that Su Qin was reproached by the Marquis of Zhao Su.

Su Qin was afraid of being punished by Zhao Suhou, so he fled to Yan under the guise of envoy Yan, and hated Qi because of this.

At this time, the Marquis of Yan Wen died, King Yan Yi succeeded to the throne, and King Qi Xuan of Qi took the opportunity to send troops to attack Yan and captured ten cities of Yan State.

With this merit, Su Qin was ranked as a guest of honor in Yan Kingdom.

However, during this period in Yan Kingdom, Su Qin fornicated with Yan Wenhou's wife and King Yan Yi's mother, and this matter was also discovered by King Yan Yi.

Although King Yan Yi did not blame Su Qin for this, Su Qin was still very afraid, so he proposed to Yan Wang Yi to go to Qi as a spy of Yan to help Yan State.

King Yan Yi agreed, so Su Qin pretended to offend King Yan Yi, fled from Yan to Qi, and was appointed by King Qi Xuan as a guest secretary.

After that, Su Qin's influence gradually faded on the stage of the entire Central Plains, and was replaced by his younger brother Zhang Yi, who drove Gongsun Yan and became the state minister of Qin, and began his magnificent career of "just one person is enough to make all countries fearful".

But during this time, Su Qin was not without action, out of his own resentment against the Qi State, and King Yan Yi's entrustment to him, Su Qin has always spared no effort to consume the national strength of the Qi State after defecting to the Qi State.

For example, after the death of King Xuan of Qi and the succession of King Qi Tiandi, Su Qin, in the name of filial piety, asked King Qi Tiandi to order a large construction project to build a palace for his father King Qi Xuan, so as to consume the manpower and material resources of Qi State.

It is worth mentioning that Su Qin still maintains relations with Yan to this day.

And now Yan Wangzhi is the grandson of King Yan Yi and the son of Yan Wangyi, because of the hatred of overthrowing the country, Yan Wangzhi also hates Qi Guo to the bone, so Yan Wangzhi and Su Qin hit it off, Su Qin is still Yan Guo's spy in Qi State, and is committed to weakening Qi State.

Now, the opportunity to greatly weaken the Qi State is in front of Su Qin, that is, the Song State!

Song is currently the only country around Qi that dares to resist Qi and has the ability to make Qi suffer a great deal of damage.

Thinking of this, Su Qin deliberately said: "I didn't expect that although Song Guoguo is small, he has such courage......

As soon as he heard this, King Tian Di of Qi held even more grudges against the Song State in his heart, and immediately ordered Tian Zhangdao: "Since Da Sima has returned to China, it is better to help Gao Cheng repel the Song army in the Juxian area first, and then think about the matter of entering the Song State!" ”

The implication is that this battle will continue.

In this regard, Tian Zhang had no choice but to obey his fate.

The next day, Tian Zhang traveled from Linzi to Juxian, preparing to help the Qi general Gao Cheng defeat the Song generals Dai Busheng and Dai Jing.

To be honest, he also felt that this trip was nine out of ten at first, but he never thought that just like forcing Yang to hide a Meng Zhong, Dai Busheng and Dai Jing's army also hid a Le Yi, which made it impossible for Qi general Gao Cheng to defeat Dai Busheng and Dai Jing in a short period of time and recapture Ju County.

At the same time, the Song State had already launched a counteroffensive.

From mid-September to mid-October, Song Wangyan appointed the crown prince Dai Wu as a general, reinforced the 30,000 troops of Qiyang, and ordered the crown prince Dai Wu to recover Tengxian and Xueyi.

The crown prince Dai Wu was not familiar with military affairs, so he handed over the command to Meng Zhong and let Meng Zhong command the battle.

So Meng Zhong immediately sent Dai Yingzhi and Xiao Jian to attack Xue Yi, trying to cut off the return route of the Qi army and completely surround the Qi army.

After learning of this, the Qi general Tian Jing was shocked, and hurriedly evacuated from the Qiyang area with Tian Touch, Tian Da, Zou Xi and other Qi generals to return to Xue Yi.

After all, if Xue Yi loses, the 100,000 Qi army will be surrounded by the Song State, and there is a danger that the entire army will be annihilated.

Seeing that the Qi army withdrew from Qiyang, Meng Zhong left 5,000 troops to defend Qiyang, and immediately led the rest of the army to go straight to Jingguo, the county of Xueyi, to join Dai Yingzhi, Xiao Ji and others.

Considering that the total number of troops under the command of Tian Jing, Zou Xi, Tian Touch, Tian Da and other Qi generals was still 80,000, which was more than the number of the Song army, Meng Zhong gave up confronting the Qi army head-on, and instead sent people to attack the Qi army's grain route, resulting in Tian Jing, Zou Xi, Tian Touch, and Tian Da four generals trapped in Jingguo City, obviously exceeding the strength of the Song army, but because of the lack of food and grass, they were unable to fight with the Song army.

During this period, due to the lack of food, the Qi army looted grain in Xueyi and Tengyi, resulting in the killing of many local civilians.

This made the reputation of the Qi army fall again, on the other hand, on the Song army's side, because the crown prince Dai Wu sheltered the fleeing Xue people, Teng people, and Song people for free, the status of this prince in the hearts of the local people skyrocketed.

In October, Tian Zhang and Gao Cheng still failed to conquer Ju County and completely expelled the Song army led by Dai Busheng, Dai Jing, and Le Yi, but on Xue Yi's side, Qi General Tian Jing and others were about to be unable to support it because of the relationship between grain and grass.

In desperation, Tian Jing decided to abandon Xue Yi and retreat to the Qi State, so as to protect the 100,000 troops under his command and to attack the Song army in Ju County.

But unfortunately, Meng Zhong was always paying attention to the movements of the Qi army, how could he sit back and watch this army of 100,000 people flee?

After learning that Tian Jing abandoned and defended Xueyi, Meng Zhong couldn't even care about recovering Xueyi, and in the name of the crown prince Dai Wu, he ordered Jing Yi, Dai Xi, Dai Yingzhi, Xiao Yi and other generals to lead their troops to pursue the Qi army.

Xue Yi to Ju County, almost five or six hundred miles away, in the perseverance of several Song army in the pursuit, 100,000 Qi army was defeated, along the way by the Song army beheaded 20,000 or 30,000, another 20,000 or 30,000 surrendered, and finally only about 50,000 troops remained, under the leadership of Tian Jing, Tian Touch, Tian Da, Zou Xi and other generals, fled to Ju County.

Unfortunately, at this time, Dai Busheng, Dai Jing, Le Yi and others had already learned about the incident, and saw that Tian Jing, Tian Touch, Tian Da, Zou Xi and other Qi generals led the defeated army to retreat to Ju County, and they also gave up Ju County and retreated a hundred miles to the south.

After all, it is close to winter at this time, and Juxian is just a city with dilapidated walls, far less solid than forcing the sun, if Dai Busheng, Dai Jing, and Le Yi can't retreat before winter comes, then next, they will undoubtedly taste the taste that Tian Jing and others tasted in Xueyi, and be cut off by the Qi army.

In November, the crown prince Dai Wu entered Tancheng, preparing to use this city as a rear to continue the confrontation with the Qi army.

And the state of Qi is Chen heavy troops in Ju County.

Considering the dilapidated city wall of Ju County, Qi Wangtian ordered a thorough renovation and reinforcement of the city wall of Ju County to prevent the city from being broken by the Song army again.

After all, in terms of geographical location, Ju County is the gateway to the south of Linzi, as long as Ju County is held, the Song army will not dare to go too deep into the hinterland of Qi State, and its effect is the same as forcing Yang.

After a few more days, the weather quickly turned cold and snowed heavily.

Because of the weather, Qi and Song tacitly chose a truce.

This move means that the war between Qi and Song has ended this year, and it is incredible that this battle ended with the defeat of Qi, after all, Qi not only failed to annex Song, but also lost Tancheng, Lanling and other cities, and more importantly, its domestic hinterland was seriously damaged.

Meng Zhong, Le Yi, and Meng Hu successfully retired, and after bidding farewell to the crown prince Dai Wu and the generals of the Song Kingdom, they drove the chariot back to Mengyi.

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