Given that the Wei and Han armies changed their blocking tactics and changed their previous desperate blockade to attack from the flanks, this really made Bai Qi realize that Zheng County might really have fallen under the control of Meng Zhong.

However, due to the high importance of Zheng County, even if Bai Qi knew about this, he still ordered to continue to break through to the southwest - no matter what, he had to take a personal look at Zheng County, and indeed whether Zheng County had fallen under the control of the coalition forces, and whether there was still a possibility of taking it back.

It was this obsession that made the Qin army under Bai Qi pay many casualties.

I saw that under Bai Qi's order, tens of thousands of Qin troops continued to break through to the southwest, and from the side, there were Wei, Han, Qi, and Yan Four-Nation Alliances chasing and killing.

The Qin army had no intention of fighting, and only cared about breaking through to the southwest; As a result, on the way to break through, a large number of Qin troops were defeated, some of them scattered and fled, and some of them fell on this land forever, so that the more than 40 miles from Yin Jin to Zheng County were full of Qin pawns.

However, in the end, Bai Qi still led about 40,000 troops and arrived in the area of Zheng County.

At that time, he approached Zheng County to take a look, and saw that the banners of Wei and Zhao armies were erected everywhere on the city wall of Zheng County, and considering that there were still the pursuers of the Wei, Han, Qi, and Yan Four-Nation Alliances behind him, Bai Qi finally decided to retreat westward into Liyi, hoping to take advantage of the geographical advantages of Lishan to resist the offensive of the coalition army, lest the coalition army really attack Xianyang and cause irreparable disasters.

The alliance forces of Wei, Han, Qi, and Yan pursued for a while, but finally gave up and retreated to Zheng County.

The main reason is that the Wei and Han armies can't hold on, after all, in this night attack, the Wei and Han armies are the absolute main force, and they are the backbone of resisting the Qin army led by Bai Qi to break through to Zheng County, for which the Han army and the Fangcheng army have suffered extremely huge casualties, and even the Hedong soldiers have suffered certain losses.

As soon as the two armies of Wei and Han withdrew, the two armies of Qi and Yan naturally did not dare to venture deeper, just like Meng Zhong's positioning of the two armies of Qi and Yan at the beginning, the contribution of these two armies to the coalition army was more of an oppression of the Qin army in terms of numbers.

At noon, Meng Zhong and Storm Kite arrived in Zheng County first, and joined Tian Touch and Le Yi, as for the main force of the Zhao army led by Fengyang Jun Li Dui, it is still in the area of the Qin camp that has been captured, and it seems that it is still entangled with the cavalry of Yiqu State.

Speaking of the cavalry of the Yiqu State, this group of cavalry that had made Meng Zhong very cautious before, did not have any effect in the night attack last night, and was led away by the cavalry of the Zhao State at first, and then realized that the situation was wrong, and was intercepted by the Zhao army under the command of Li Dui, Fengyangjun, so that during the period when Bai Qi led the Qin army to break through to Zheng County, this Yiqu cavalry, which was nearly 10,000 people, almost failed to give the Qin army any help.

I have to say that this is the result of the disunity of the command system between the Qin army and the Yiqu soldiers, although these Yiqu cavalry came to aid the Qin army, but as one of the commanders of the Qin army, Bai Qi could not command this cavalry in a comprehensive way, and even, even if Bai Qi gave an order, those Yiqu cavalry would disobey Bai Qi's order because of the previous grievances between the two countries.

On the other hand, on the side of the coalition forces, although the opinions within the coalition forces are not unanimous, on the matter of "seizing Yin and Jin", the opinions of the commanders of the five coalition forces are unanimous: no matter what, first take the Yin and Jin and relieve the dilemma of the coalition army's lack of food.

With disunity versus unity, and the fact that the number of the coalition army was more than twice that of the Qin army and the Yiqu army, the Qin army was naturally defeated without any suspense.

"Yunchengjun, the Qin army retreated westward, and it seems that they have retreated to that hill in the distance."

When Meng Zhong and Storm Kite were about to enter Zheng County, there were soldiers from the Wei and Han armies who reported to him.

"Okay, I got it."

Meng Zhong smiled and nodded, not very concerned in his heart.

Judging from the marching map, Liyi is located on the south side of Weishui and the north side of Lishan, as if it is on the main road to Xianyang.

But in fact, this is not the case, because this is not the only road that can lead to Xianyang.

For example, Meng Zhong could have ordered the allied soldiers to cross Weishui north to attack Liyang.

What is Liyang?

Liyang is the hub of the land west of the river, if the coalition army conquers this place, to the north can take Pinyang, to the east can take Chongquan, Linjin, Yuanli, to the west can take Jingyang, Gaoling, to put it simply, as long as Liyang is laid, the entire Hexi land on the Qin city is almost within the range of the coalition army, and these cities are almost all safe to defend.

After conquering the entire land west of the river, the power of Wei can penetrate from Hedong County to the land of Xihe, and then try to test the pressure on Xianyang—after all, Jingyang and Xianyang are only separated by a Jingshui.

Therefore, Bai Qi's retreat to Liyi is just a helpless move, at best, he can only comfort himself, but in fact, it is almost of no help to the entire battle situation.

Of course, this refers to the general situation, and the most serious problem faced by the coalition forces now is the lack of time, because it will be a cold winter in less than two months, and the coalition forces will not have time to capture the cities of Pinyang, Chongquan, Linjin, Yuanli, Jingyang, Gaoling, etc., and considering that the Qin State will be aware of the crisis next, it may be crazy to counterattack and try to recapture Zheng County, in fact, the coalition army will not make any big progress in a short period of time - at least before the year, Meng Zhong is not ready to attack other cities.

In this regard, Meng Zhong also felt very regretful, after all, at present, although he has a great advantage in the coalition army, but still failed to recapture the Yin and Jin, in this case, his coalition army is united, if he uses it a little, in fact, he can indeed seize the entire land west of the river, hit the Qin State hard, suppress the territory in the east of the Qin State to Jingshui, and force the Qin State to move the capital, but unfortunately, first, winter is coming, and secondly, the coalition army is short of food and grass, and it is impossible to make greater progress for the time being.

If he wants to do anything, it may have to wait until next year.

But next year......

Maybe the Qin State has already succumbed, and then he will have no reason to continue to use troops against the Qin State.

To be precise, it should be that Zhao and Qi should not allow Wei and Han to continue to weaken Qin, if Wei and Han do not want to offend Zhao and Qi, then when Qin succumbs, it is best for the two countries to accept it, which means that Wei cannot take the land west of the river.

In response to this matter, after entering Zheng County, Storm Kite had a discussion with Meng Zhong, and it was the most serious discussion so far.

Storm Kite's purpose is very simple, and his appetite is also very large, he wants the entire land of Huakun, as well as the land of Hangu Pass and Hangu Pass to the east to Yiyang, let's just say that all the results of the Five Nations Alliance so far, Storm Kite hopes to swallow in one go.

I have to say that if it were Gongsun Xi, Gongsun Xi's complexion would have sunk at this time.

But Meng Zhong didn't, he just smiled and asked the tyrant kite, "Can your country hold it?" ”

Hearing this, the storm kite said very honestly: "The land of Huakun may not be able to be defended, but Hangu Pass, our country can still hold it." ”

The implication is that what he wants most is the land from Hangu Pass to Yiyang, as for the land of Huakun, then see the counteroffensive strength of the Qin State at that time, if the counterattack of the Qin State is too big at that time, it is a big deal that his Korean army will retreat to Hangu Pass, as long as the Hangu Pass is in the hands of South Korea, South Korea can effectively contain the attack of the Qin State on South Korea, and it will not be attacked by the Qin State every year.

Meng Zhong smiled and waited for Storm Kite's next step, after all, Storm Kite tried to swallow all the results of the coalition army so far, there was no reason to treat Wei State badly, right? Otherwise, why did he get the support of Wei and Mengzhong?

Sure enough, seeing that Meng Zhong had no obvious intention of objecting, Storm Kite immediately said: "If I can get the land of Huakun and Hangu Pass, I will fully support Wei to seize Hexi and Xihe, and help Wei restore the former Xihe County." ”

The former Xihe County of the Wei State included the two lands of the current Hexi and the Xihe River - the Xihe refers to the west of Fenshui, including Yuanli, Heyang, and Linjin, and it was this land that Duan Ganyin hoped Meng Zhong to recapture; As for the land west of the river, that is, west of the great river, it includes Chongquan, Liyang, Pinyang, Yin and Jin, and so on.

To be honest, the Wei State's demand for the land of Huakun and even Hangu Pass was indeed not as high as the demand for the old Xihe County.

This is not to say that it is useless for Wei to get the land of Huakun and Hangu Pass, just by looking at the storm kite's eagerness to get this land, you know that this land is very critical, but the problem is that Wei does not have much interest in getting this land.

Today's Wei State is no longer the Wei State in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

At that time, the Wei State was the closest country to the Qin State in the west, which almost enclosed Korea in the west, but later, the western territory was gradually seized by the Qin State, and only Hedong County was still in the hands of the Wei State.

In the big picture, Meng Zhong does not intend to recover the lost territories in the past, because it is easy to attack and difficult to defend - what use do you say that he Wei has obtained the enclave of Hangu Pass? Shielding South Korea?

Based on this, in fact, the results achieved so far by the Five Nations Alliance, Meng Zhong did not want at all.

Maybe Wei doesn't look at it very much in the country - Wei has always had a very serious problem, that is, it doesn't know how to make trade-offs, for example, in the period when Wei was strong, Wei launched wars everywhere and annexed the lands of other countries, but the problem is that many of these lands are enclaves, which are very unfavorable in terms of defense, which directly leads to the later weakening of Wei, because of the counteroffensive of various countries, the Wei army is fighting fires everywhere, and it is almost impossible to stop traveling to defend the west this year and defending the east after a long journey next year.

But now, don't look at the territory of Wei has been annexed by Qin, but there are also fewer enclaves that are difficult to defend, just in terms of the western border, Wei only needs to stick to Hedong County, which is also a reason why Qin has repeatedly attacked Wei in recent years but failed to defeat it.

Considering the disadvantages of Wei in terms of strategic defense, Meng Zhong naturally did not think about the land of Huakun and Hangu Pass, what he wanted was the Xihe that he mentioned to Fengyang Jun Li Dui some time ago, that is, the land of Heyang, Yuanli, and Linjin.

That land was backed by Hedong County, and Wei would not have a hard time defending.

As for the land west of the river that Tyrant Kite said, Meng Zhong actually didn't want it, but he knew the truth that it was difficult to eat a big fat man, even if he forced the Qin State to cede the land east of Jingshui, would the Wei State be able to hold it?

If Wei exhausted the strength of the whole country, of course, it could be defended, but in this case, what should be done about the threat from other directions of Wei?

Therefore, it is safest to cut a small piece of meat from Qin Guo first, and then repeat this action after digesting it.

As for the land of Huakuo and Hangu Pass that the tyrant wants, Meng Zhong doesn't care, South Korea can take it if he wants, anyway, in his opinion, South Korea can only get the land from Hanguguan to Yiyang at most, and South Korea will definitely not be able to hold the land of Huakun.

Thinking of this, Meng Zhong made a private agreement with the Storm Kite: Korea would help Wei get the Xihe River and expand Wei's territory westward to Luoshui (not Luoyang), while Meng Zhong acquiesced to hand over all the achievements of his five-nation alliance so far to Korea.

At first glance, it seems that South Korea has become the biggest winner in this expedition against Qin, but in fact it is not.

Meng Zhong was still more kind, and reminded the violent kite with a smile: "The tyrant should be wary of the Qin State's grudge against your country. ”

Think about it, South Korea, the weakest country in the Three Jin Dynasty, the country that was once wantonly attacked by the Qin State, and the country that may not be able to win compared to the Song State, this battle swallowed hundreds of miles of land in the Qin State in one go, who else do you say that the Qin State will not target Korea in the future?

Hearing Meng Zhong's reminder, Storm Kite nodded, and said helplessly: "It's better to be hated by the Qin State than to be attacked by the Qin State every year." ”

Obviously, the storm kite also understands the pros and cons of this matter, but there is no way, he needs Hangu Pass in South Korea to contain the Qin State's annual attack on his Korea, as for the land of Huakun, it is only secondary, whether it can be held or not, the storm kite does not care very much - of course, to a large extent, it cannot be held, and the storm kite himself knows this.

In this way, Meng Zhong and Storm Kite privately reached an agreement, and the interests of Zhao, Qi, and Yan were not discussed during the period.

But to be honest, if you want to come to Qi and Yan, they don't dare to ask for any benefits on the side of Qin, after all, it's useless to get an enclave, and it offends Qin for this, so it can't be drawn, as for Zhao State, Meng Zhong guessed that Zhao State should negotiate with Qin State in the name of dominance.

After all, there is no real conflict between Qin and Zhao now, although Qin and Zhao border Diaoyin (southern Shangjun) and Zhao (northern Shangjun), but given that land is vast and sparsely populated, the boundary demarcation between the two countries on this land is not obvious, and it may be that until now, Qin and Zhao have not realized that their territory is actually bordered.

Compared with the territorial disputes, Zhao should have hoped that Zhao's father would have control over Qin, such as sending another Zhao courtier to Qin to serve as minister of state, and remotely monitoring Qin's foreign wars - mainly the progress of the war between Wei and Han, so that the resistance between Qin and Wei and Han would be balanced, and Qin could not be too weak, so that Wei had the tendency to dominate the Central Plains again; Nor can the Qin state be too strong, so that the entire Central Plains is threatened by the Qin state.

Of course, this is just Meng Zhong's speculation, what kind of benefits and promises Zhao Guo asked for from Qin State on the advantage of this victory, then it will ultimately depend on the attitude of Fengyang Jun Li Dui and Zhao Wanghe, as for Meng Zhong personally, if he takes back the land of Xihe for Wei State, he will be able to return to Daliang.

In the evening, Fengyang Jun Li Dui came to Zheng County under the protection of a team of Zhao troops.

After coming to Zheng County, he first invited Meng Zhong and Storm Kite, and praised Meng Zhong's strategy of capturing Zheng County this time was a complete success.

After complimenting, he said to Meng Zhong: "Zheng County is already in the hands of our coalition army, if the Qin State does not want our coalition army to threaten Xianyang, he will have to obediently hand over Yin Jin...... Now you can negotiate peace with Qin, right? ”

I have to say that Li Dui was also a little scared at this time, what was he afraid of, of course, he was afraid that Meng Zhong would take advantage of the opportunity of the Five Kingdoms to crusade against the Qin State and defeat the Qin State at once.

To tell the truth, because of the strength of the Qin State, Li Dui never thought that this crusade against the Qin State could actually get such a significant result, so important that he couldn't help but worry about the Qin State in turn, after all, there was not much conflict between the two countries of Qin and Zhao, and the Qin State collapsed, and it was Wei and Han who benefited the most, not the Zhao State.

On the contrary, Zhao State would have to worry about Wei State, which had gotten rid of Qin's containment.

Hearing Li Dui's words, Meng Zhong and Storm Kite glanced at each other, and then said with a smile: "Of course, but considering the possibility of repeated repetitions in the Qin State, how about waiting for our army to take the Yin and Jin Dynasty before making peace with the Qin State?" …… In addition, for the sake of the interests of our five countries, it is better to wait until the Qin State takes the initiative to send people to reconcile with us. ”

Of course, Li Dui understood the truth, nodded and said, "This old man naturally understands. So before the Qin State sent an envoy to make peace talks, our coalition army stopped to recuperate? ”

Meng Zhong thought for a while and said, "At present, Bai Qi retreats to Lishan, but blocking this main road will not prevent our coalition army from threatening Xianyang. Fengyang Jun did not guard against sending the cavalry of Zhao State under his command to cross the Weishui River with our city cavalry, harassing many Qin cities in Hexi, creating a posture that our coalition army was ready to enter Hexi and threaten Xianyang, and put pressure on Qin. …… As for Yin Jin, for the time being, it is only necessary to besiege it without attacking it and isolate it. ”

Hearing Meng Zhong mention Hexi, Li Dui was slightly startled, and looked at Meng Zhong for a moment intentionally or unintentionally.

After half a ring, he asked tentatively, "Is it really just harassment?" Or is Yunchengjun preparing to march into Hexi? ”

Don't blame Li Dui for being so vigilant, in fact, he became more and more suspicious that Meng Zhong and Storm Kite advanced more than 200 miles in one go, deliberately causing him to fall into the dilemma of lack of food, just to kidnap the entire coalition army to attack Yin Jin - in the face of the crisis of the destruction of the whole army, even if the coalition army was not in harmony before, it could only be temporarily united.

Otherwise, it is really difficult to explain why Meng Zhong, who is good at using troops, would take the initiative to put his own side in a disadvantageous situation.

Hearing Li Dui's temptation, Meng Zhong spread his hands and said with a smile: "I want to do it in the future, but it's too late, there is still a month and a half before the cold winter, and no matter how brave our coalition army is, it will be difficult to capture the entire land west of the river...... Rather than being greedy, it is better to think about how to hold Zheng County and maintain the current weak advantage of our coalition army. ”

Li Dui glanced at Li Dui suspiciously, then nodded, and chose to believe Meng Zhong's statement.

In this way, the cavalry of Fangcheng and the cavalry of Zhao crossed the Weishui.

At this time, the Yiqu cavalry has also retreated to Hexi, and the two sides are also active in the Liyang area, so it is inevitable that there will be a fight, but in general, the conflict between them is not serious, after all, the Yiqu cavalry is not Qin, and in the absence of an absolute order from the king of Yiqu, few are really willing to sacrifice for the Qin State.

At this time, Wei Ran, the marquis of Yinjin, and Huayang Jun Mirong, who temporarily lived in Yin Jin, finally realized that the situation was wrong.

What's the situation, didn't Bai Qi say that the coalition army was feintting to attack its camp, but in fact it wanted to take Yinjin?

In the end, Bai Qi's army was captured by the coalition forces, and as for Yin Jin, the coalition forces didn't even touch it.

It's not the same as what they said they had done before.

Realizing that something was wrong, Wei Ran and Qi Rong sent people to try to find out the current situation, but unfortunately, due to the obstruction of the Zhao army, they have not been able to find any useful information in recent days.

It wasn't until Bai Qi sent people from the north bank of Weishui to Yin Jin in a roundabout way and told Wei Ran and Qi Rong the truth about the night attack that night, and the two realized that the coalition attack on Yin Jin that night was just a cover, and what they really wanted to capture was actually Zheng County.

As soon as he thought of the purpose of the coalition army to capture Zheng County, Wei Ran, the marquis, suddenly changed his complexion, and immediately bid farewell to Mi Rong and returned to Xianyang.

"Now...... It may be true that peace talks with the coalition forces are going to be made.'"

On the way back to Xianyang, Wei Ran sighed secretly.