On the east of the day, the sky was bright, and on the top of the north side of Yique Mountain, Gongsun Zhu and Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Zheng Zheng, Cai Wu and other military Sima sat around a bonfire, quietly listening to Meng Zhong's summary of the current situation.

From beginning to end, Gongsun was silent, only sighing for a long time from time to time, while the rest of the generals looked down at the bonfire in front of them, and their souls were not guarded.

In last night's battle, the 160,000 main camp Wei troops were defeated by the Qin army, nearly 100,000 Wei soldiers were either killed in battle or fled, and only 60,000 or 70,000 people were left to flee into Yique Mountain.

What's more critical is that Gongsun Xi, the commander of the three armies, was captured by the Qin army, and his life and death are unknown.

In the face of this kind of huge setback, Mo said that most of the ordinary Wei soldiers felt uneasy, and even the generals in the army such as Gongsun Jian, Dou Xing, and Wei Qing were at a loss at the moment.

Seeing that after he finished telling the current situation, he didn't see Gongsun open his mouth for a long time, and Meng Zhong reminded in a low voice: "General? ”

After calling lightly twice, Gongsun Zhi came back to his senses, exhaled with a sad face, and said in a deep voice: "Both...... Xi Wu is not here, I am temporarily in the position of commander, and I will lead the rest of the soldiers, what objections do you have? ”

The generals sitting around the bonfire shook their heads one after another, without any objection to this.

"Good!"

Seeing this, Gongsun nodded and immediately turned his head and asked Meng Zhongdao: "Master Meng, you know better than me about the disadvantages of our army at the moment, so there is no need for me to repeat it, let me ask you, like the current situation, is there still a way for our army to survive?" ”

Hearing this, the generals of the Wei army sitting around the bonfire turned their heads to look at Meng Zhong.

Under the gaze of nearly ten pairs of eyes, Meng Zhong thought for a while and said, "Yes! ”

"Good!"

The tense complexion on Gongsun Zhu's face was a little more relaxed, and he nodded and said, "Tell me about your plan." ”

Meng Zhong hugged his fists and said in a deep voice: "According to what I can see, the most important thing at the moment is not that there is no food and grass and no baggage, but that the soldiers in the army were frightened by the Qin army's killing last night, which caused morale to plummet. If the sergeants and soldiers of the army have no fighting spirit, even if our army still has 60,000 or 70,000 people, it is inevitable that they will be broken and killed by the Qin army under the mountain one after another...... Therefore, it is considered that it is imperative to try to restore the morale of the army. ”

"It makes sense."

Gongsun nodded and asked, "It seems that you have a countermeasure." ”

"Yes." Meng Zhong nodded and said, "In the next suggestion, immediately gather the soldiers who still have fighting spirit and go down the mountain to fight......

"Resuming the war with the Qin army?"

Zhu Weijiang's expression changed slightly, and he looked at each other.

"Zhu Wei will not speak for the time being." Gongsun pressed his hand and signaled, "Let's listen to Master Meng finish speaking." ”

Under the intervention of Gongsun Zhu, it seems that Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Zheng Zheng and other military masters did not immediately open their mouths to explain the doubts in their hearts, so that Meng Zhong had enough time to explain his strategy step by step.

"Some people may think that our army was defeated last night, and the morale of the Qin army was like a rainbow, and it is really unwise to go down the mountain to fight with the Qin army at this moment, but in fact it is not. …… No matter how high the morale of the Qin army is, after all, it has been fighting for a whole night last night, and it is already exhausted and hungry, on the other hand, our army, although the soldiers who withdrew into the mountains earlier, have eaten under the arrangement of our soldiers, and have also rested for several hours, as long as the number of people is similar, our army may not be able to defeat the Qin army. This is one of them.

Second, I suggested going down the mountain to fight, not in a hurry to resume the battle with the Qin army, but only to force the Qin army to retreat north, so as to create the fact that "the Qin army is afraid of fighting our army in the daytime", so as to motivate the soldiers under my command, so that the morale of the army can be restored, so that the Qin army will not be considered invincible. ”

"So that's what he intended."

The hearts of the generals around the bonfire suddenly dawned.

"What does Master Meng mean is to intimidate the Qin army and force the Qin army to retreat?" Dou Xing asked with a slight frown.

"Exactly."

"That is, if the Qin army does not withdraw?"

"The Qin army will withdraw." Glancing around at the generals, Meng Zhong Zhengse explained: "As long as you think about it carefully, you will naturally understand what kind of risk the Qin army took in attacking our army at night last night? If he was a little careless, his side did not severely damage the main camp of our army, but his main camp, including Xincheng, would be captured by the Korean army instead. So why did the Qin army use such a dangerous strategy? There is only one answer, that is, they do not see any hope of victory. …… Using the usual methods to resist desperately, only more than 100,000 Qin troops could not stop the 300,000 Wei and Han coalition troops, so the Qin army made dangerous moves, in other words, it was not that the Qin army wanted to use such a dangerous strategy, but that they had no way. And now, the Qin army has dealt a heavy blow to our army, and the original chance of winning was less than one percent, but it rose to five or six percent, seven or eight percent overnight. Or do you want to retreat temporarily to avoid the edge of our army? ”

This logical analysis made Gongsun Jian and the generals nod again and again.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong clenched his fists and said to Gongsun Zhu: "General Gongsun, the next strategy is also a little thoughtful below, but please be sure to organize the army to go down the mountain to fight first, and force the Qin army to retreat north, so that the soldiers of our army can recover some morale. ”

"Hmm!" Gongsun nodded and then said in a deep voice: "Meng Zhong, since it is the strategy you proposed, I will appoint you with full responsibility. With that, he turned his head and glanced at the generals around the bonfire, and said in a deep voice: "You wait to assist Meng Zhong, and there must be no objections!" ”

After saying that, he may not be at ease, and added: "At the moment when my only remaining 60,000 or 70,000 troops are at stake, I don't want anyone to cause more casualties or even annihilation of our army because of selfish desires." If anyone has any objection to Meng Zhong's strategy, he can raise it in public; But if there is no objection, there is no disobedience! …… If it weren't for Meng Zhong persuading me to retreat to Yique Mountain last night, my main army of 160,000 would have been killed by the Qin army last night! Got it?! ”

"Whoa!"

Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Fei Hui, Zheng Zheng, Cai Wu and other military Sima hugged their fists and responded to the order.

"Good!" Gongsun Zhi nodded with satisfaction, and then said: "Okay, a few of you immediately go and gather the soldiers who still have fighting spirit, I believe that there must still be many soldiers who are unwilling for last night's defeat, as long as you follow the instructions of Master Meng and portray the Qin army as a shameless army that "only dares to sneak attack from behind, but does not dare to confront our army head-on", those soldiers who still have residual courage will inevitably obey the order. …… Meng Shishuai, you stay. ”

Seeing that Gongsun Zhu left Meng Zhong, Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Fei Hui, Zheng Zheng and others all guessed that Gongsun Zhu must have something to say to Meng Zhong alone, so they left very interestingly.

Watching these generals walk away, Meng Zhong clenched his fists and said to Gongsun Zhu: "I don't know what the generals command?" ”

I saw a smile on Gongsun Zhu's tired face, and said sincerely: "Meng Zhong, in fact, whether it is Xiwu or the old man, they all know that your talent is far more than the master, but the Xiwu ......" Speaking of this, he paused slightly, and then continued: "At the moment, Xiwu is not here, the old man knows that you are actually the best candidate to be the coach, but I am afraid that you will not be able to obey, it is ......."

As soon as he heard this, Meng Zhong immediately understood.

In fact, he was also a little puzzled, wondering that Gongsun Zhu did not appoint him to a higher military position, but he replaced the position of commander of Xiwu by talking to himself, and now that he thinks about it carefully, Gongsun Zhu is clearly paving the way for him: if Gongsun Zhu recommends him as the commander, there will definitely be Wei Jun who will not accept it; But if it is Gongsun Zhu's position as the commander, ask Meng Zhong about everything, this is not much different from Meng Zhong as the commander, and what is more ingenious is that Gongsun Zhu's prestige is high enough to inspire the rest of the Wei army to work together.

To put it bluntly, that is, when the Song Kingdom was forcing Yang, the Song Prince Dai Wu cooperated with him.

It may be that seeing that Meng Zhong didn't speak, Gongsun Zhu would be wrong, and said comfortingly: "Meng Zhong, the old man knows that with your talent, it is inevitable to condescend to the position of the commander and talent, and when your strategy is successfully implemented and the prestige accumulated in the army, the old man will definitely recommend you as a 'fake handsome' in front of the generals...... 】

At this time, Meng Zhong had already come back to his senses, and hurriedly explained: "General Gongsun has misunderstood, he didn't mean it below, he just thought of the past below." When I was in the Song Kingdom, Dai Wu, the crown prince of the Song Kingdom, was also the self-appointed commander, but he gave me the military power...... As long as the Gongsun army can be trusted, the subordinates are actually more inclined to be the commander of the Gongsun army, which can better appease the hearts of the soldiers. ”

"Oh?"

Gongsun Jian felt a little unbelievable when he heard this, and asked with a smile: "In this way, Master Meng doesn't care about the false name of that coach?" ”

Meng Zhong was not too humble, and smiled indifferently when he heard this: "If you are just greedy for fame, you can serve as a military commander in the Song Kingdom, why do you want to go to the Wei State to succumb to the position of the commander?" …… As for the current battle, as long as the Gongsun army can be trusted, he will definitely do his best to recover the disadvantage. For me, Wei won this battle, at least the ability to remain undefeated, this is the only thing I want. ”

“……”

After listening to Meng Zhong's words, Gongsun Zhu felt quite incredible.

In all fairness, he didn't spend much time with Meng Zhong, so he couldn't tell whether Meng Zhong's words were sincere, but judging from Meng Zhong's sincere attitude, Gongsun Zhu finally chose to believe it.

Nodding, Gongsun Ji said solemnly: "Since this is the case, let's put this matter aside for a while." …… Meng Zhong, I entrust you with the life and death of the remaining sixty or seventy thousand Wei soldiers. ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong immediately responded with a fist: "General...... No, please rest assured! ”

With that, he turned around and walked down the mountain, but before he could take a few steps, he was stopped by Gongsun Jian again.

I saw Gongsun Zhi looking at Meng Zhong who turned around, with a slightly complicated look on his face, and he stopped talking for a long time, and after a long time, he sighed and said, "It's okay, you can go." ”

“……”

Meng Zhong silently clenched his fists and left without saying anything.

He could actually guess what Gongsun Ji wanted to say in the end, it was nothing more than hoping that he would find a way to rescue Gongsun Xi.

To be honest, it's not that Meng Zhong dislikes Gongsun Xi and refuses to rescue, the problem is that this matter is really difficult.

Who is Gongsun Xi? The famous "Xiwu", a famous general of the Wei State, this time the Qin army finally caught Gongsun Xi, how could he be easily recaptured by his Wei army?

It is no exaggeration to say that even if the Qin army was defeated by the Wei army, those soldiers of the Qin State would bring Gongsun Xi to Xianyang, the royal capital of the Qin State, and the Qin King Yingji would personally send it down.

And it is precisely because the matter of "rescuing Gongsun Xi" is extremely difficult, it is the old Gongsun Zhi Fang who hesitated for a while, and finally did not speak, so as not to add more pressure to Meng Zhong, after all, the top priority is to reinvigorate the sixty or seventy thousand Wei troops under their command, although the rescue of Gongsun Xi is important, but compared with the former, it must also be delayed.

On the way down the mountain, Meng Zhong successively heard that Dou Xing, Wei Qing and other military horses were motivating the defeated soldiers on the mountain.

Just as he instructed, the only way to motivate Wei at this moment is to belittle the Qin army as much as possible, and reduce the brave Qin army to "rats who only know how to sneak attack", only in this way can we call on those soldiers who are unwilling after last night's defeat.

No, in less than half an hour, Meng Zhong, Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Fei Hui, Zheng Zheng, Cai Wu and other military commanders gathered an army of about 16,000 people.

Although this force was not enough to suppress the Qin army, the victorious Wei soldiers still had the fighting spirit to resume the battle with the Qin army.

Coupled with the defenders of the defensive line at the bottom of the mountain, the Wei side reluctantly gathered an army of nearly 20,000 people, and under the leadership of Meng Zhong, they went to the direction of the main camp of the Wei army.

At this moment, the main camp of the Wei army has been completely captured by the two armies of Bai Qi and Wei Reinforcements, but Xiang Shou has not yet come to join Bai Qi as agreed, and Bai Qi guesses that it may still be blocked in Luoshui.

Of course, although it is not perfect, Bai Qi is already satisfied.

The army that participated in the night attack on the Wei camp last night, in addition to the three-person army under Xiang Shou who failed to converge as agreed, there were a total of 80,000 troops under him and Wei Yuan, and the army on the side of the main camp of the Wei army, Bai Qi estimated that there were about 160,000, led 80,000 Qin troops to break through the 160,000 Wei army, defeated 100,000 of them overnight, and frightened the remaining 670,000 Wei troops to flee into Yique Mountain in a hurry, who can ask for more?

The only thing that made Bai Qi feel a little dissatisfied was that his own soldiers were also a little more casualties, about 20,000.

These casualties mainly began to increase in the "middle section" of last night's night attack, that is, when his Bai Qi army stormed the middle camp of the Wei camp, and the Wei reinforcements attacked the east camp of the Wei camp.

This is also something that cannot be helped, after all, at that time, the Wei army in the western, middle, eastern, and southern camps had gradually reacted, which made the Qin army unable to break through these camps as quickly as they had broken through the rear camp before, and even paid a lot of casualties for this.

Including the reinforcements sent by the Han army later, and the Wei army joined forces to attack the Qin army, Bai Qi, Wei Yuan and others also paid a lot of casualties, so they reluctantly repelled the two.

Of course, Bai Qi did not regret it, although he paid 20,000 casualties in this battle, the casualties of the Wei and Han armies were nearly five times that of him, which was already a rare victory in the past.

What's more, through last night's night attack, the Wei army has been almost disabled by him, even if the Han army is half disabled, the 300,000 allied troops of Wei and South Korea, one is completely disabled and one is half disabled, and the rest of the war will undoubtedly be much easier.

In comparison, there were soldiers under his command who caught Gongsun Xi, the commander of the Wei army, which could only be regarded as an unexpected surprise.

At about two o'clock, the Qin soldiers who repelled the Wei and Han armies barely extinguished the fire in the main camp of the Wei army, and then stationed in this camp that had been burned by the fire.

Bai Qi, on the other hand, summoned the generals of the Qin army under his command in a tent in Nanying, and asked the latter to report to him one by one on the battle situation last night.

During this period, the general Zhong Xu mentioned the Wei army in Yique Mountain: "Bai Shuai, according to the report of the soldiers below, last night there were defeated soldiers of the Wei army who fled to Yique Mountain, and when the two generals under the last general led the army to pursue, they were repelled by the Wei army at the foot of Yique Mountain......

"I already know about it."

Bai Qi nodded, and immediately said with relief: "According to the people I sent to peep, there are probably at least 50,000 defeated Wei soldiers on the mountain and below the mountain of Yique, but it doesn't matter, those Wei soldiers have no morale, and there is no food and grass......

After a pause, he said to the generals: "Therefore, I have decided that the whole army will rest until noon today, after that, Ji Hong, you will lead 30,000 troops to be stationed here, and gradually kill the Wei army in the area of Yique Mountain, and defend the aid, you will lead the army under your command to return to the main camp along Xiangshan, during which I will carefully weigh whether to destroy the Wei army first or attack the Korean army first......"

All the generals in the tent nodded.

At this moment, the general of the Qin army had already admired Bai Qi, the new commander, after all, not everyone could achieve such a great victory in the situation of being outnumbered.

It's not good that his 130,000 Qin army can defeat the 300,000 coalition army of Wei and Han in one go this time, if they can really do it, then they will be famous in a battle.

Just when the generals in the tent were happily discussing whether to annihilate the Wei army first or attack the Korean army first, suddenly a soldier outside the tent shouted eagerly: "Urgent report!" There is a Wei army coming straight to our army, and there are quite a lot of soldiers! ”

"What?"

In an instant, there was silence in the tent, and the generals of the Qin army looked at each other, and even Bai Qi was a little distracted for a while.

There was a Wei army coming straight to his Qin army?

What to do?

Looking for death?

"Let's go, let's see."

Dropping a word, Bai Qi immediately got up and walked out of the tent, followed closely by the rest of the generals.

After a while, Bai Qi and the others came to the South Camp, which was also the most complete camp in the entire Wei Army's main camp reserve, unlike the four camps of the North Camp, the Middle Camp, the East Camp, and the West Camp, which had basically been burned to the ground, leaving only a piece of scorched earth.

When they came to Nanying, Bai Qi and the generals climbed the sentry tower near the camp gate, climbed high and looked outside the camp, only to see that on the outskirts of Nanying, about 20,000 Wei soldiers were neatly lined up, menacing.

"Actually...... Dare to come to fight?'

Bai Qi was incredible.

Even he didn't expect that the Wei army, which was killed so badly by them last night, would actually rush to fight this morning? Hehe, it's just looking for death!

However, at this moment, he suddenly heard the 20,000 Wei soldiers in the distance shouting, and the loud and neutral voice made Bai Qi slightly stunned.

"These Wei pawns ......"

Frowning, Bai Qi was stunned to find that the soldiers in the distance seemed to have rested and reorganized, so that they were quite full of energy, and they didn't look like they had been hungry for a night of fierce fighting.

After thinking about it again, Bai Qi's brow furrowed even tighter.

At this time, in the array of the Wei army, Dou Xing and Wei Qing came to the front of the array, and scolded and shouted at the Qin army occupying his camp on the opposite side: "The son of the Qin State, last night he took advantage of the unpreparedness of our army to win by luck, today my grandfather and I are here, why don't you dare to fight?!" …… Come! Fight again! ”

After he finished speaking, the 20,000 Wei soldiers behind him also scolded the Qin army, and the more they scolded, the more fierce their faces became, as if they thought of the humiliation when they were killed by the Qin army last night and were unable to fight back.

I have to say that the generals of the Qin army were stunned by these Wei troops and couldn't come back to their senses for a long time.

What's going on now?

Obviously, they inflicted heavy losses on the Wei army last night, killing only 60,000 or 70,000 Wei troops and fleeing to Yique Mountain, but now that these remnants of the army are defeated, why do they dare to show off their might in front of them?

Thinking of this, the Qin generals Meng Yi and Zhong Xu immediately hugged their fists and asked for battle: "Bai Shuai, please allow the two generals to lead the troops to fight and kill these guys who don't know whether they are alive or dead!" ”

To the surprise of the generals, Bai Qi did not respond for a long time.

『…… I really didn't expect this, I actually seized this point and sent troops to fight, did I see that my soldiers were exhausted and hungry at the moment? But even though our army lost about 20,000 last night, there are still 60,000 people, and the Wei army on the opposite side is at most more than 20,000 people, how can they have the confidence that they can defeat our army? …… Wait a minute! Why did these Wei troops only care about scolding the war, but did not attack immediately? I see...... I understand, the other party wants to restore the morale of the Wei army through this way."

"It's really cun......ning," he chuckled, and asked left and right: "On Yique Mountain, who is currently in command of the Wei army?" ”

The left and right sides looked at each other, and then a general, Zhong Xu, said: "It seems to be Gongsun Xi's deputy general, Gongsun Zhu." ”

"Gongsun Zhu?"

Bai Qi frowned slightly, because according to his understanding of the generals of the Wei army, Gongsun Zhu was just a general who fought for Gongsun Xi, and every time Gongsun Xi led the army to go out, Gongsun Zhu was responsible for the transportation of logistics grain and grass.

A veteran in charge of the rear battalion actually had this insight, accurately grasped the flaw of the Qin army's weak rear strength, and decisively led the remnants of the army to fight?

I really underestimated this Gongsun Zhu.

"Trouble ......"

Looking at the Wei army in the distance, Bai frowned and thought about countermeasures.

Just like Meng Zhong's judgment, Bai Qi originally had no choice, so he made a dangerous move to attack the Wei army at night, but at the moment, the Qin army had a great advantage, so Bai Qi inevitably hesitated to send troops to fight in the hope of maintaining the advantage.

Is he worried that he won't be able to beat him?

Really!

In fact, in the second half of last night's night attack, that is, when the Korean army was repulsed, it was already very reluctant, and it was all by breaking the high morale of the Wei army, so that the spirit of the Qin soldiers was above the body in a short time, so that they exerted far more combat effectiveness than usual.

But at the end of the day, it's also an overdraft, and once the excitement calms down, tiredness will naturally hit as usual.

Send these high-morale, but exhausted soldiers into battle?

Not to mention sending 20,000 people, so that the number is equal to the Wei army, even if 40,000 people are sent, Bai Qi is not sure.

But the question is, if he didn't want the Qin army to fight, wouldn't it be a disguised boost to the morale of the Wei army?

"Shh

Bai Qi secretly scolded the other party's cunning in his heart.

If he goes into battle, it is obvious that the well-rested Wei army will take advantage, and his soldiers will inevitably pay many casualties; If he didn't go to war, wouldn't his Qin army have confirmed the hat of "rats who only dare to sneak attack", so that the Wei army got rid of their fear of them?

Thinking about it, the Wei army took advantage of both horizontal and vertical.

"No! You can't retreat at this moment, otherwise it will inevitably make the Wei army in the area of Yique Mountain regain its momentum......

After much thought, Bai Qi finally made up his mind.

And at this moment, he suddenly saw a face in front of the Wei army's array, which was enough to make him remember for a lifetime.

"That's ......"

Suddenly, the white complexion changed slightly.

Obviously, he had gradually forgotten the arrow wound on his left shoulder before, but at this moment, he subconsciously covered his left shoulder with his hand and pressed the arrow wound on that side.

He will never forget the figure that stood on the beach of the Yishui River and watched him flee indifferently.

That was the only time he had faced death since then.