Qu Yuan personally came forward, the effect was really not ordinary, only two days of work, those Chu army troops became obedient, even if the Wei guards were a little lax, no one took the opportunity to escape, honestly helped build a rammed earth city wall, in exchange for two meals a day of food.

So much so that Le Jin joked with Meng Sui in private, saying that as long as it was a few days, maybe he would be able to lead these soldiers to fight against the Qin army.

Although this is an exaggeration, it is enough to show the current situation of those Chu troops surrendering.

During this period, Meng Zhong also talked to Qu Yuan about Zhao Ju, but Qu Yuan said that Meng Zhong tried to see Zhao Ju now, but he was afraid that it would not have any effect.

At that time, Qu Yuan said to Meng Zhong: "I know Zhao Ju very well, he sees people and things very accurately, but his mind is not strong, even if Fang Chengling tries to get in touch with him at this moment, he will not respond, let alone meet Fang Chengling privately behind the back of the Qin people." …… If it is defined by Fang Chengling's understanding of 'minister', half of Zhaoju is the king's minister......"

"And half of it?" Meng Zhong asked.

I saw Qu Yuan smile helplessly, neither praise nor contempt, just a pure helpless smile: "The other half is the head of the Zhao family." ”

When saying this, Qu Yuan couldn't help but recall that when he was boycotted by the old nobles of the whole country because he presided over the reform of the law, Zhaoju, as his wife's brother and friend on weekdays, did not reach out to help him and fight against Zilan and others with him.

Although even with Zhao Ju's help, they couldn't fight the old aristocratic forces led by Zilan at that time, it is undeniable that Zhao Ju's actions still made Qu Yuan feel ...... A little disappointed.

In fact, strictly speaking, Zhao Ju did not do anything wrong, from his position, he first had to ensure the interests of the Zhao clan, which Qu Yuan could understand, so he was slightly disappointed.

From this point of view, Zhao Ju is not as good as Zhuang Xin.

Seeing that Qu Yuan was suddenly silent, with a look of reminiscence on his face and a gloomy expression, Meng Zhong knew that this Doctor Qu must have thought of some bad memories, so he didn't ask interestingly, but diverted the topic and said, "That...... How can I let Zhao Ju meet you next? ”

Qu Yuan thought for a while and said: "If you go to persuade Zaixia, Zhaoju will give Zai this face......"

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Meng Zhong.

You must know that Qu Yuan's presence in Yeyi is not a secret at all, at least nine out of ten of the people in Yeyi know that if there are spies of the Qin army mixed in it, it means that the Qin army has also learned about it, in this case, if Qu Yuan goes straight to see Zhaoju, it is difficult to guarantee that he will not be intercepted by Sima Cuo and Bai Qi.

Although Sima Cuo and Bai Qi may not kill a virtuous minister of Chu like Qu Yuan, house arrest is always inevitable, and even Zhao Ju will be exposed, exposing his intention to collude with Zhao Ju in private, which is not the best policy no matter how you look at it.

Even if it was to let Zhuang Xin deliver the news, it was better than Qu Yuan going to see Zhao Ju in person.

Thinking of this, Meng Zhong said to Qu Yuan: "In my opinion, let's ask Dr. Zhuang Xinzhuang to deliver this news on my behalf......

I have to say that compared to Zhao Ju, Zhuang Xin, another Chu minister, had a much more positive attitude, and sent news of the Qin army to Fang Cheng from time to time a while ago, and even the disagreement between Bai Qi and Sima was revealed by Zhuang Xin in a letter, which made Meng Zhong very worried that Zhuang Xin would be exposed, so that Fang Cheng lost an internal response to deal with Qin together, and Qu Yuan lost a like-minded companion.

Fortunately, so far, the fine work sent by Meng Zhong to Chu Ying has not sent any news about Zhuang Xin's accident.

On the same day, Meng Zhong wrote a letter under the pseudonym Zhuang Zhong, as for the person who sent the letter, Qu Yuan recommended a Yeyi Chu man named Deng Dian, according to him, when Zhuang Xin first came to Yeyi, it was Deng Dian who led the way, so Zhuang Xin naturally recognized Deng Dian.

"Can you be trusted?" At that time, Meng Zhong asked Qu Yuandao.

Qu Yuan smiled and said: "That Deng Dian is currently working on an errand with Yi Cheng's subordinates, and he has been in contact with him many times, he is benevolent and humble, and he is trustworthy. It is said that this person's brother is in the army under Fang Cheng Ling......"

"Oh?" As soon as he heard this, Meng Zhong's doubts suddenly disappeared, after all, the Chu people in the Fangcheng army had already experienced the test of fighting against the Qin people, so they were naturally trustworthy.

So he asked someone to summon the Chu man named Deng Dian from Yeyi, and after asking, he learned that Deng Dian's brother was the brigade commander Deng Shu who he and Qu Yuan had connived at the Chu soldiers under his command a few days ago to commit violence against the troops.

So Meng Zhong was very relieved to hand over the letter to Deng Dian, but he still told the latter: "Be careful. …… If you encounter Chu pawn checking, don't panic, this is just a letter written by a person named Zhuang Zhong to his uncle Zhuang Xin, if you encounter Chu pawn checking, you can rest assured that they will read it. ”

"Whoa!"

Deng Dian nodded, took the letter and left with his fists.

Considering that it would take at least half a month to get from Yeyi to Chu Ying, even if Meng Zhong had the heart to meet with Zhao Ju as soon as possible, he could only put this matter aside for the time being and instead devote all his energy to Qin Jun.

According to the news sent back by the scouts sent out in the last two days, the Qin-Chu coalition army has now entered Fangcheng.

Also, although Fangcheng was burned by Meng Zhong that day and turned into a ruined city, the city walls were still intact, and not all the buildings in the city were burned down that night, so it was much safer to clean up a little than to be stationed in the wilderness.

And this put a lot of pressure on Yangguan.

After all, Fangcheng is too close to Yangguan, only seven or eight miles away in a straight line, standing on the east gate tower of Fangcheng and looking east, you can even see the progress of Yangguan repairing the pass.

Don't look at the Yangguan side, Wei pawns are extremely tightly defended day and night, but if there is an omission, and they happen to be caught by the Qin army, the consequences will be unimaginable.

For this matter, Meng Sui specially came to discuss with Meng Zhong: "We must find a way to force the Qin-Chu coalition army to retreat." …… Why don't you use a tired tactic? ”

The strategy of exhausting the soldiers, when Meng Zhong was in Zhao State, was used on Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao and Lian Po, Zhao Ben and other Zhao generals, the effect was very good, even if it was a fierce general like Lian Po, it was very annoying to be harassed by the army under Meng Zhong at that time, and today Meng Sui felt that he might be able to use this trick to force the Qin and Chu coalition forces to retreat and keep a distance from Yangguan.

But after listening to Meng Sui's words, Meng Zhong shook his head: "At this time and that time, I'm afraid I can't tell Sima to be obedient and obedient in vain." ”

"Why?" Meng Sui asked puzzled.

Hearing this, Meng Zhong said helplessly: "At the beginning, the camp of the Zhao army was sparse, and the height was only one and a half zhang, and the soldiers could climb over it and sneak attack the camp when they stacked it...... What's more, on the opposite side are Sima Cuo and Bai Qi, who may not be able to guess your intentions, if I am Bai Qi, let the Qin army under my command close the city gate, let you harass you outside the city, you don't move, can you help me? ”

Meng Sui was skeptical when he heard this, frowned and said, "Having said that, you have to try to find out." ”

Seeing Meng Sui say this, Meng Zhong also let him go, after all, he was different from Gongsun Xi, but he didn't want his brothers who could be trusted to become obedient subordinates, at most he told Meng Sui to be careful.

That night, Meng Sui took Le Jin and more than 2,000 Wei soldiers to secretly go outside Fangcheng to harass him.

However, as Meng Zhong had guessed, although there was some commotion at first, the Qin-Chu coalition forces in the city quickly calmed down, and even Sima Cuo and Bai Qi did not send troops out of the city to search at all.

What's even more odious is that in addition to the first harassment, the Qin and Chu coalition forces still reacted a little, and when Meng Sui and Le Jin harassed for the second and third time, there was no movement in Fangcheng City, and the two of them suffered two hours of freezing in vain, and finally returned to Yangguan in frustration.

Of course, the next day, the Qin-Chu coalition army did not have the slightest intention of retreating from Fangcheng.

On the contrary, after dawn, the Qin-Chu coalition army sent a large number of soldiers to Yingshan on the north side of Yangguan and Yinshan Mountain on the south side to cut down trees, as they had done a few days ago, and deliberately built various siege equipment in the eastern suburbs of Fangcheng, which was obviously putting pressure on the Wei army in Yangguan.

Because of this, Meng Sui, Le Jin, Zheng Zheng and others are worried, the reason is that half of the wall of Yangguan is still under construction, although a temporary wooden wall and wooden fence have been built, and a lot of antlers have been placed, but the defensive ability is still not guaranteed, in case it collapses after a few strokes of the car, the consequences are unimaginable.

In order to prevent the Qin-Chu coalition army from rushing into the car, Yangguan immediately sent soldiers to dig a ditch about one zhang wide and one and a half zhang deep in front of Yangguan.

Wei Jun's actions naturally couldn't hide from Fang Cheng's eyes, Bai Qi laughed when he learned about this, and sent someone to fill in the ditch that night.

Seeing that the method of digging a trench did not work, Meng Zhong changed his mind and ordered his soldiers to build more antlers, which were neatly arranged in rows on the flat ground outside the pass.

Given that these antlers were all within the firing range of the Yangguan city wall, if they sent soldiers to destroy them, they would definitely be sniped by the Wei crossbowmen, Bai Qi thought about it for a while, and then tried to send crossbowmen to attack the antlers with fire arrows.

As a result, although it succeeded in burning a lot, the Qin army also consumed a lot of arrows and oil because of this, so Bai Qi gave up.

In this way, in the back and forth of temptation and small exchanges, in the blink of an eye, it was late October, the weather quickly turned cold, and the surrounding grass and trees could already see the hoarfrost.

Seeing this, Bai Qi discussed with Sima Cuo: "Although our army has not yet built enough siege equipment, but if we wait any longer, I am afraid that this year there will not even be a virtual reality to test Yangguan. ”

"Hmm." Sima Coo nodded, no objection.

In fact, if according to Sima Cuo's way of fighting, he should lead the Qin army to withdraw to Wancheng at this time, spend the whole winter in Wancheng, and then send troops to attack Yangguan in the spring of the next year.

Of course, although it is not advisable to send troops to attack Yangguan in this kind of weather when winter is approaching, but take the opportunity of this matter to test the reality of Yangguan, and Sima Cuo does not reject it.

After all, this battle has been fought to this day, and he and Bai Qi have both suffered losses in the hands of Meng Zhong before and after, and this alone is enough for Sima Coo to raise the spirit of twelve points to face this war, face Yangguan, and face Meng Zhong.

On October 26, Bai Qi, Sima Cuo, and Zhao Ju each led 20,000 troops to attack Yangguan.

It's not that they don't want to send more problems, the problem is that Yangguan is not like Fangcheng, there are mountains on both sides, there is only one portal, and this portal is only more than two hundred zhang wide, which is more narrow than the city wall on one side of Fangcheng, which really can't accommodate more troops.

Even, even the 60,000 troops dispatched this time were divided into three waves, which were able to pass through the narrow valley in front of Yangguan.

As he passed through the narrow valley, Bai Qi frowned and looked at the hills on either side.

He could vaguely be seen, and there were faint figures flickering on the hills on both sides, obviously Wei Jun.

So he whispered to the deputy general Ji Hong: "When we come back next year, we must find a way to first try to occupy the hills on the north and south sides, otherwise the Wei army will be able to form a three-bread sandwich for our army like today, which is very unfavorable to conquering this pass." …… In addition, Zhong Xu and Tong Yang were called to guard on the flanks to prevent the Wei army from attacking on the hills on both sides. ”

Listening to what he meant, it was obvious that he also knew that it would be difficult to conquer this pass this year.

"Whoa!" Ji Hong clenched his fists and took his life.

At about a moment, waiting for the 60,000 Qin-Chu coalition troops to set up a formation outside Yangguan, Bai Qi ignored Sima Cuo's dissuasion, rode to the front of the battle in a chariot, and shouted in the direction of Yangguan: "Meng Zhong, come out to see me." ”

At this time, Meng Zhong was looking at the Qin-Chu coalition army outside the gate tower on Yangguan, which was only half-built, and suddenly saw Bai Qi personally running to the front of the battle to shout to him, and he also felt a little strange in his heart.

Who let Bai Qi personally persuade him to defect to Qin when he was in Fangcheng that night? To be honest, Meng Zhong never expected Bai Qi to say such a thing - this guy shouldn't hate him so much that he gritted his teeth, right?

Shaking his head, Meng Zhong shouted towards the outside of the gate: "Meng is here, what are you doing?" ”

I saw Bai Qi pointing to the section of the city wall that had not yet been completed not far away, and said to Meng Zhong with a smile: "Do you think that this pass that has not yet been built alone can withstand the armies of my Qin and Chu?" I advise you to surrender as soon as possible, and I can still keep you from dying. ”

"This guy ......"

Meng Sui was furious when he heard this, and was about to scold back, but Meng Zhong raised his hand to stop him.

I saw Meng Zhong condescendingly looking at Bai Qi for a while, and then pouted and smiled: "If you are willing to surrender, I can spare your life." ”

"Hahahaha...... It's not funny. ”

"You think I'm kidding?"

"Haha, okay, let's stop the chat, let's see how our army breaks through this level today!"

"Hugh must be brave with his tongue."

"Hey!"

"Hmph."

Listening to the conversation between Bai Qi and Meng Zhong before the battle, whether it was the Qin-Chu coalition army or the Wei army, they all looked at each other from the ground.

Although it is said that actions like Bai Qi's persuasion to surrender before the battle have been commonplace since ancient times, these two ...... How does it feel like an old acquaintance chatting?

Seeing this scene from afar, Sima Cuo also shook his head helplessly.

Doesn't others understand him? Bai Qi just wanted to talk to Na Meng Zhong for a few words.

Fortunately, Bai Qi had put away the smile on his face when he returned to the main formation, and Sima Cuo didn't bother to talk about him, after all, although Bai Qi's friendship with Meng Zhong seemed strange, at least Bai Qi did not abolish his public affairs for personal reasons, but every time he faced Meng Zhong, he was full of spirit.

"Attack!"

A moment later, with Bai Qi's order, countless soldiers of Qin and Chu pushed the rushing cart and carried the long ladder to the Yangguan fortress.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong on Yangguan waved his hand and calmly gave an order: "Release the arrow!" ”

In the next breath, countless crossbow arrows flew up from behind Yangguan, like a torrential rain, and fell on the top of the heads of the Qin-Chu coalition army, just in the blink of an eye, countless Qin-Chu coalition troops were hit by arrows, or directly shot into hedgehogs by arrows, fell to the ground and died, or gritted their teeth and endured the pain and continued to charge, or fell to the ground with a wail, and were immediately trampled by the soldiers of the rear army.

"Huh?"

At this time, Bai Qi, who was watching the battle at the Qin army's main formation, was slightly stunned.

Because he found that those arrows did not seem to be shot at his Qin army from the city wall of Yangguan, but from behind Yangguan, and he didn't need to think about it to know that at this moment, behind Yangguan, that Meng Zhong must have gathered a large number of crossbowmen, and was adopting the tactics of projectile shooting, shooting outside the pass.

『…… This terrain is too unfavorable for our army to fight.'"

Frowning, Bai Qi thought secretly in his heart.

After all, the terrain in this area of Yangguan resembles a gourd, and Yangguan is built at the narrowest gourd mouth, and his Qin army enters from the mouth, while the Wei army stands in a relatively wide gourd belly position to shoot at them, which makes the power of a wave of bows and arrows a volley very terrifying.

To tell the truth, most of the arrows of contemporary arrows or crossbow arrows are flat double-edged arrow clusters, which seem to be very scary, especially when ten thousand arrows are fired at once, but in fact, the lethality of the arrows of this arrow cluster is very small, because the flat double-edged arrow clusters will plug the wound after being shot into the human body, and will not lose blood under normal circumstances, so there will be existing warriors, and more than a dozen arrows in the body can still fight bravely to kill the enemy.

But no matter how small the power of contemporary arrows is, they can't withstand the overwhelming arrow attacks, which means that the chances of the soldiers of the Qin and Chu armies being shot are greatly increased.

Whether it is the face, throat, heart and lungs, these are the key points that can be fatal.

The soldiers of the Qin and Chu armies who fell to the ground just now fell to the ground immediately after being shot at these vital points, the reason was that at that moment, these soldiers faced too many arrows.

However, such an attack could not scare the soldiers and generals of the Qin army, but under the urging and order of the Qin general Meng Yi, those Qin soldiers carrying long ladders launched an attack on Yangguan without fear of death.

But at this moment, another wave of bows and crossbows fired from behind Yangguan, pouring a large number of arrows on the heads of the soldiers of Qin and Chu, causing a large number of soldiers to die.

"How so?"

Seeing the heavy casualties among the soldiers under his command, the Qin general Meng Yi was taken aback.

Because he felt that the Wei army crossbowmen behind Yangguan, their shooting speed was inevitably too fast, and it was only a few breaths before and after.

Before he could react, another wave of arrows shot from behind Yangguan.

Then, just a few breaths apart, there was another wave.

“……”

Seeing this unbelievable scene, not to mention that Qin General Meng Yi felt incredible, even Bai Qi couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Could it be that the people Meng Zhong deployed on the inside of Yangguan were all archers?

It is true that the interval between two shots of an archer is indeed much shorter than that of a crossbowman, and a highly trained archer can indeed launch two or three salvos in a short period of time, but the problem is that even the most powerful archer, after shooting two or three arrows in a row, will feel tired, feel weak, and even unable to pull the bowstring with the soreness of his arm, and at this time he needs to rest for a while before continuing to shoot.

But at this moment, behind the Yang Pass, a volley unfolded every few breaths, as if the archers on the inside of the pass didn't need to breathe or pull back at all.

How can there be such a soldier in the world?

『…… It could never be an archer! It's a crossbow! Can...... How does a crossbow shoot continuously?'

Bai Qi thought in disbelief.

After all, in his impression, although the crossbowman is less laborious than the archer, and he must stop and rest for a moment if he does not shoot two or three arrows, the crossbowman is very slow to reload the crossbow, and if it is on flat ground, in the case of two armies, when one of the crossbowmen charges, the other crossbowman will only have time to launch a salvo at most, and then he will be approached by the opponent's footmen.

But at this moment, the crossbowmen of the Wei army in Yangguan shot outwards vigorously as if they didn't need to load their crossbow arrows......

Bai Qi really couldn't figure it out, he couldn't help but turn his head and ask Sima Cuo: "Lieutenant, is there a crossbow in the world that can fire continuously?" ”

"This ......"

Sima mistakenly stroked his beard and couldn't speak.

He had never heard of any crossbow in the world that could fire continuously, even in South Korea, which was the most self-built power.

Oh, no, it is said that the Mo family and the Gongyi clan have tried to study crossbows that can fire continuously, but unfortunately, although it is said that crossbows that can fire in bursts were indeed invented, the power is pitifully small, and even human flesh and blood may not be able to penetrate, let alone penetrate hard leather armor.

And the crossbow arrows that shot out from behind Yangguan in front of him could penetrate the armor of his Qin soldiers, which also made Sima Cuo feel unbelievable.

At this time, Bai Qi and Sima Cuo couldn't help but think of one place: What tricks did Meng Zhong play? !

In fact, Meng Zhong just asked his crossbowmen to adopt a tactic called Erduan Shooting, which he had used when he was in Zhao State, which shocked Xue Gongtian Wen, who visited Zhao State as an envoy of Wei State, as well as Zhao Wang He, Zhao Master's Father, Fengyang Jun Li Dui and other Zhao monarchs and ministers, and today, he used this trick to deal with the Qin-Chu coalition army, which really made the Qin-Chu coalition army chaotic.

It is worth mentioning that Meng Zhong didn't actually intend to scare the Qin-Chu coalition army, the reason why he let the crossbowmen line up and shoot in the pass was only because the city wall of Yangguan could not accommodate these crossbowmen in his army, so he decided to let these crossbowmen line up in the pass and shoot outside the pass by projectile.

Anyway, there are soldiers of the Qin-Chu coalition army everywhere outside the pass, as long as the general direction is not wrong, they can basically hit.

However, even he didn't expect that his original arrangement had no deep meaning, but it bluffed the Qin army outside the city to postpone the offensive.

This made the Qin army, which had strict military discipline, suspend the offensive out of fear, which shows how much psychological pressure these successive salvos caused to the Qin soldiers.

I have to say that if the generals of the Qin-Chu coalition army can see the Wei crossbowmen in Yangguan at this moment, it would be fine, after all, in this way, they can understand why the Wei army is constantly shooting wave after wave of arrows, and the key is that they can't see that the so-called unknown brings fear, and people are often full of fear of the unknown, and even exaggerate it with their own imagination.

Just like at this moment, not to mention the ordinary Qin and Chu soldiers, even Sima Cuo and Bai Qi, who are good at fighting in Qin, are speculating at this moment whether the Wei army has a crossbow that can fire continuously.

No, Sima Cuo whispered to Bai Qi with a solemn face: "This is trouble." If the Wei army really has crossbows that can be fired continuously, I am afraid that no matter how many people we have, we will not be able to help this pass...... Is there really a crossbow in the world that can fire continuously? ”

Hearing this, Bai Qi frowned and looked at Xiang Yangguan.

He instinctively felt that something wasn't right.

If Meng Zhong really had that kind of extremely powerful weapon, would he abandon Fang City?

Obviously, Meng Zhong must have played some tricks.

But the question is, what tricks did Meng Zhong play?

“……”

Frowning, Bai Qi looked at Yangguan in his arms and fell into deep thought.