In the middle of May of the sixth year of King Wei, the five ** teams of Zhao, Wei, Han, Qi, and Yan, commanded by Fengyang Jun Li Dui, slowly marched towards Hangu Pass of Qin State after assembling in Yiyang.

As the former general of the coalition army, Meng Zhong led about 50,000 Wei troops to advance, with the purpose of clearing the obstacles for the remaining four-nation coalition forces, so that the coalition forces could advance the battle line to the outside of Hangu Pass in one go.

I remember that after the battle of Yique, Meng Zhong also followed the storm kite all the way to attack outside Hangu Pass, of course, at that time, the Wei and Han coalition forces did not have the ability to attack Hangu Pass at all, and the two ** teams ran outside Hangu Pass, purely to demonstrate to the Qin State, because of this, Sima Cuo, the veteran general of the Qin State who was transferred to Hangu Pass at that time, simply did not take care of the coalition army, and let the Wei and Han coalition forces show off their might outside the pass for a while, and then watched them evacuate, and there was no further conflict.

Similar to the route to Hanguguan last time, after Meng Zhong set out from Yiyang this time, he also headed towards Mianchi, and then bypassed the Kunshan Mountain and marched westward

Sanmenxia area.

About Sanmenxia, there is a legend left in ancient times here, it is said that when Dayu ruled the water, he once waved the axe to split the high mountains of this place into three canyons of "human gate", "divine gate", "ghost gate", and led the water of the big river to the east, so it is called Sanmenxia.

On the land route south of Sanmenxia, Meng Zhong led the Wei army into the land of Cuihan, and to put it bluntly, entered the garrison area of Hangu Pass.

At this time, the Wei army's marching route, on the right is the rolling river, on the left is the towering Kunshan Mountain, but there is only one main road in the middle, there is no advance or retreat, because of this, the generals in the army have raised their vigilance to avoid being ambushed by the Qin army.

Speaking of which, since the Hedong Army was temporarily placed under the command of Meng Zhong, Meng Zhong also made some changes to the location and deployment of the army under his command.

He appointed Jin Cong as the vanguard general, Dou Xing and Wei Qing were the wing generals of the left and right wings respectively, Le Jin sat in the middle army, and the remaining Menghu and Huahu led 4,000 cavalry to wander outside the army.

But to everyone's surprise, a whole day has passed since the army bypassed Sanmenxia and entered the land of Cuihan, and there was no ambush by the Qin army.

That night, when all the soldiers died in the middle of the road to rest, Meng Zhong gathered all the generals around a bonfire to discuss the strange behavior of the Qin army, and Wei Qing said with a smile: "I'm afraid that if I didn't hear the name of Yunchengjun, the Qin people were frightened." ”

Hearing this, all the generals couldn't help laughing, even Jin Contempt, who was gradually improving the relationship with Meng Zhongcai, had a little smile on his face at this time.

I have to say that through his sincere explanation, Meng Zhong really dispelled the suspicions in Jin Contempt's heart, in fact, to be precise, it was Meng Zhong's fair evaluation of Gongsun Xi that made Jin Contempt dispel his suspicions about Meng Zhong.

"Don't be careless."

Meng Zhong smiled and pressed his hand, and immediately told the generals: "This time, the five kingdoms of Wei, Zhao, Han, Qi, and Yan have been discussing and preparing for nearly three months, I don't believe that Qin has no idea so far, in my opinion, Qin must have been prepared to deal with it." …… I don't know much about Qin, but with my knowledge of Qin, this time Qin will definitely transfer all the brave generals to the area of Hangu Pass to resist the offensive of our coalition army. ”

Hearing this, Dou Xing, who was still laughing, suddenly restrained his smile and said in a deep voice in a suppressed tone: "That is to say...... Bai Qi will also be here. ”

Jin Contempt turned his head to glance at Dou Xing and Wei Qing, but saw that the two military horses both sank their faces.

Bai Qi, the real murderer of Xiwu......

Jin secretly clenched his fists.

A few days ago, through the exchange with Meng Zhong, he realized that Meng Zhong was not the kind of villain he thought before, the death of Xi Wu really should not be borne by this Yuncheng Jun, Qin General Bai Qi is the real murderer who killed Xi Wu, and he is also the most uncommon enemy in Hedong County.

Hearing Dou Xing's deep words, Meng Zhong thought for a while and said politely: "Although I think a few people have a plan in their hearts, I still suggest that a few people should focus on the overall situation, and don't make yourself and the soldiers under your command fall into the trap of the Qin army because of hatred and greed for merit." ”

"Please rest assured that Yuncheng-kun is this."

Dou Xing, Wei Qing, and Jin Cong all agreed.

That night, in order to prevent the night attack of the Qin army, at least 20,000 of the 50,000 Wei troops did not close their eyes all night, and because of this, the speed of the Wei army's march the next day was naturally affected.

Therefore, Meng Zhong ordered the pace of the march to be slowed down, and the daily march distance was shortened to forty li, anyway, the coalition forces of the other four countries were several days behind his Wei army, and he had time to arrange.

During the day on this day, the Fangcheng cavalry led by Menghu and Huahu bumped into several groups of Qin cavalry on the way to the march, the number was not much, about 20 horsemen as a team, and after seeing their Fangcheng cavalry, they immediately turned their horses and fled, it seemed that they were the scout cavalry of the Qin army, specifically responsible for exploring the speed of the Wei army.

But other than that, the Wei army never saw any other Qin army.

I have to say that this made Meng Zhong mutter: Qin Jun, why don't you set up an ambush in this land of Cuihan?

At the same time, at the Hangu Pass, which was about seventy or eighty miles away from the Wei army, a very young Qin general asked Bai Qi, the commander of the Qin army, this question: "The last general doesn't understand, why didn't the national lieutenant set up an ambush in the land of Kunhan?" In the view of the last general, the land of Cuihan is a mountain on one side and a river on the other, and the Wei army has advanced but not retreated, and if an ambush is set up on the side of the Cuihan Mountain, it is not impossible to successfully attack the Wei army. ”

The young Qin general's questioning made Bai Qi very unhappy in his heart.

You must know that this time against the Five Nations Alliance, Xianyang appointed him Bai Qi as the commander of Hangu Pass, and cooperated with him with the veteran Sima Cuo, however, even Sima Cuo did not question his decision, a small, young general who appeared out of nowhere actually dared to question his decision?

"I remember your name was ...... The king is right? ”

Looking at the young general, Bai Qi recalled with a frown.

"Yes, Lieutenant." The young general replied with a fist clenched.

Hearing this, Bai Qi's face turned a little pale, because he remembered that this king was recommended by Xiang Shou, since he was the person recommended by Xiang Shou, he had to give a little face, after all, he had a good relationship with Xiang Shou.

After thinking about it, he explained to the king: "Before, I also thought about ambushing the allied forces of the countries in the land of Kunshan, but I suddenly heard that the former general of the coalition army was Yuncheng Jun Mengzhong, so you understand?" ”

Hearing Bai Qi's words, whether it was the veteran Sima Cuo, or the generals such as Ji Hong, Jin Kuang, Meng Yi, and Tong Yang, they all showed a subtle expression.

Yuncheng Jun Mengzhong, a disciple of the three families of Taoism, Ming, and Confucianism, is proficient in the art of war, according to the experience of dealing with this person several times in the past, if the other party doesn't sneak attack, you should laugh secretly, and you still want to sneak attack the other party? When he was in Taoyi, how did the Zhao ** team that attacked his Qin-Wei coalition army lose tens of thousands of troops at once?

However, this Qin general called Wang didn't seem to understand very much, and after frowning, he said inexplicably: "Although the national lieutenant said so, the last general ...... I don't really understand, Yuncheng Jun Mengzhong...... The last general remembers that it was the Wei general who defeated the national lieutenant in the Battle of Yique that year, right? That ......"

This man really can't speak......

Seeing that the white face became difficult to look at, Ji Hong secretly shook his head, and immediately said: "Wang, you have never dealt with that Meng Zhong before, I don't know how powerful this person is, Meng Zhong is the most powerful, is the preemptive, and he is proficient in the use of troops, good at attacking and fighting, if we rashly go out of the city to ambush, it is possible to be restrained by him, when the time comes, he will trap the ambush of our army, besiege but not attack, and lure our army out of the customs to rescue, do you save it?" rescued, it was plotted by Meng Zhong; If he doesn't save it, he will seize the handle and take the opportunity to divide our generals and destroy the morale of our army...... Rather than being manipulated by the other party, it is better to hold the Hangu first and slowly consume the sharp energy of the Wei army. ”

Steady Hangu? Slowly consume the sharp energy of the Wei army? Isn't that the strategy to build a strong wall?

Wang was very surprised that Ji Hong would say such unassuming words, but what surprised him even more was that he glanced around the room, but he did not see any generals disagreeing with Ji Hong's words, and the generals under Bai Qi did not mention it, and even the generals such as Jin Kuang, Changchi, and Wurong under Sima Cuo also crossed their arms and were silent, as if they acquiesced to Ji Hong's words.

In this case, Wang even realized that Meng Zhong, the king of Yuncheng, was by no means an ordinary person.

Seeing that Wang sat back in the seat with interest, Bai Qi snorted lightly, and then looked around at the generals in the room and said: "All in all, the general situation is like this, Fengyang Jun Li Dui organized the alliance of all countries, and ordered Na Meng Zhong as the general of the former army to attack my Hangu Pass, what do you propose about this?" ”

As he spoke, he looked around the generals in the room, and finally looked at Sima Cuo: "Sima Lao, why don't you come first?" ”

In his last sentence, there was a bit of respect.

Hearing Bai Qi's words, Sima Cao smiled and waved his hand and said: "The old man has only fought with that Meng Zhong once, not only suffered a big loss, but also caused the national lieutenant to almost die, and the general of the defeated army is not enough to speak. As he spoke, he blinked and smiled: "Anyway, the old man is just an auxiliary general this time, and everything is subject to the national lieutenant." ”

Hearing this, Sima Jin, the guard standing beside Bai Qi, widened his eyes in surprise, after all, in his impression, his grandfather Sima Co was a very strict and old-fashioned person, and it was hard to imagine that this grandfather would actually say such "irresponsible" words.

And Bai Qi was also a little helpless about Sima Cuo.

Once upon a time, Sima Cuo was his boss, and he couldn't wait to drag this old man down and replace him, but now, his wish has been fulfilled, and he has replaced Sima Cuo as the national lieutenant of Qin, but the problem is that this position of national lieutenant was actually given to him by Sima Cuo, and the reason is only because of appreciationAlthough it is because of his position, Sima Cuo has not said it.

All in all, now Sima Cuo, a veteran, is relaxed, the post of national lieutenant is pushed, and he casually takes the status of a guest secretary, to put it bluntly, this veteran is ready to start a pension Of course, this is a joke, the main reason why Sima Cuo served as a guest secretary is because he changed the direction of the "struggle", he is no longer a general of Qin, but as a guest secretary of Qin Wangji, as for the purpose, of course, it is to persuade Qin Wangji to gradually withdraw the power given to "relatives".

Yes, Sima mistakenly thought that the power and status of the four "Xianyang Four Nobles" of Marquis Wei Ran, Huayang Jun Mi Rong, and Ying Fu and Ying Kui were too high, which was not conducive to Qin Wangji's rule of the country, so he felt that it was necessary to guard against Wei Ran.

As for Bai Qi's words, Sima Cuo's impression of Bai Qi is still very good, after all, although Bai Qi has a very good personal relationship with the Marquis Wei Ran, he has never been involved in the struggle for power and profit within the Qin State, and he is considered a relatively pure general, so Sima Cuo will acquiesce to Bai Qi replacing him as a national lieutenant.

It is worth mentioning that Sima Cuo originally wanted to use this incident to win Bai Qi to Qin Wangji's side, but from the current point of view, it is not very effective, after all, although Bai Qi is ruthless, he is indeed a very affectionate and righteous person, and he is very loyal to his benefactor, that is, Wei Ran, the marquis, at least for now, Sima Cuo has not found any opportunity to separate the relationship between the two.

On the one hand, Qin Wangji wanted to ensure victory, after all, compared with Bai Qi, Qin Wangji still trusted Sima Cuo, a veteran; On the one hand, Wei Ran didn't want Sima to stay in Xianyang, and always held on to the problem of the "four nobles" being too weighty; In addition, the Five Kingdoms invaded Qin with great momentum, and Xianyang also needed a veteran to sit in charge and assist Bai Qi, the young commander, to stabilize the situation, so Sima Cuo, who was currently serving as a guest secretary in Qin, would be sent to Hanguguan.

Sima Cuo's "laziness" made Bai Qi feel a little helpless.

Strange to say, at first when he was a deputy general under Sima Cuo, Bai Qi was most disgusted by listening to Sima Cuo's strategy, but now that the situation is reversed, he hopes that Sima Cuo can give him some advice.

Probably, it was the opponent he met this time that made Bai Qi feel a little apprehensive.

Yuncheng Jun Mengzhong...... An enemy general he had not defeated in several years since the Battle of Yique.

After thinking about it, Bai Qi said in a deep voice: "Ji Hong, Jin Kuang, do you two have any suggestions?" ”

Hearing this, Ji Hong and Jin Kuang glanced at each other, and under Ji Hong's gesture of smiling and spreading his hands, Jin Kuang nodded and took the lead in speaking: "Meng Zhong, the last general does not know him as well as the national captain, but the last general has also fought side by side with him, as General Ji said, the most powerful thing about Meng Zhong is that he counters the enemy army in his backhand...... He may have fallen for our plan at first, but gradually, you will find that he has come to you step by step...... This person's ability to calculate people's hearts is quite powerful. ”

"......" Bai Qi was silent.

In the battle of Yique and the battle of Wanfang, he had a deep understanding of this matter, and Meng Zhong's action of anticipating the enemy step by step was what he feared the most.

It is precisely because of this that he thinks that Meng Zhong is the most suitable person to be his lieutenant, because the existence of this person can make up for some of the flaws exposed by his overly aggressive use of troops, and even use these flaws to plot against the enemy.

But alas, so far he has not had a chance to test his ideas, because ...... He and Meng Zhong never fought side by side.

But the veteran Sima was wrong......

After the meeting, all the generals left one after another, each performing their duties, but Sima Coo stayed, seemingly paying attention to Bai Qi's mentality.

He said to Bai Qi: "Although Meng Zhong is very good at using soldiers, in the old man's opinion, the national lieutenant is not inferior to this person...... Don't have too much pressure, even if it's Meng Zhong, he may not be able to capture this Xiongguan. ”

Bai Qi nodded, then shook his head again.

Although he was grateful for Sima Cuo's comfort, he was not so optimistic: "Although the world says that Hangu Pass is the first Xiongguan in the world, in fact, this Xiongguan was broken by Kuang Zhang back then. …… What Kuang Zhang can do, Meng Zhong can also do. Speaking of this, he smiled slightly and said, "I'm only glad that Meng Zhong is only the former general of the coalition army, not the commander of the coalition army...... If he commands more than 200,000 coalition troops, then I will have a headache. ”

Listening to Bai Qi's words, Sima Coo's beard stroked thoughtfully and asked, "Listen to what you mean...... You seem to be planning to break up Meng Zhong? ”

Bai Qi nodded, and then shook his head again: "It's not that I want to separate Meng Zhong...... The front of Hangu Pass is very difficult to penetrate, and if my guess is correct, Meng Zhong will definitely adopt a roundabout tactic and try to go around the pass from the hills southeast of Hangu Pass, and then I will have a chance to separate it from the coalition forces......"

"Solve the alliance of Zhao, Han, Qi, and Yan first, and then come back to deal with the Wei army under Meng Zhong?" Sima Cuo pondered for a moment, nodded and said: "Listening to your words, I finally understand why you didn't set up an ambush in the land of Cuihan, you have to let Meng Zhong know that you are going to defend the Hangu Pass to the death, and then block the Wei army in the front, forcing Meng Zhong to adopt a roundabout tactic in order to separate it from the Four-Nation Alliance...... Very good tactics. ”

Hearing Sima Cuo's affirmation, a slight smile appeared on Bai Qi's face: "This Meng Zhong deserves to be treated cautiously by our army." ”

"Hmm." Sima Co nodded approvingly.

Two days later, the Wei army marched only 40 miles a day and slowly arrived in front of Hangu Pass.

During this period, the Wei army did not encounter any sneak attacks and blockades from the Qin army.

In this regard, Dou Xing, Wei Qing and other generals believed that it may be that their speed of traveling forty miles a day made the Qin army give up the plan of sneak attack, after all, in the case of traveling forty miles a day, every Wei army can basically ensure a certain amount of physical strength, and if the Qin army runs out to sneak attack them at this time, it is really difficult to say who wins and who loses.

After all, their Wei army is quite elite.

But in this way, Wei Jun also faced a problem: what to do next?

As Bai Qi, Ji Hong and other Qin generals guessed, in fact, Meng Zhong was more inclined to the Qin army to send troops to ambush them, after all, in this way, he could gradually eat away at the Qin army's strength through the "encirclement and reinforcement" tactic, and create favorable conditions for the coalition forces to attack Hangu Pass in the future.

But the problem now is that the Qin army simply did not send a letter to Guguan, allowing his Wei army to arrive in front of the pass without hindrance, and this led to Meng Zhong's previous calculations against the Qin army all turned into empty talk, and the Qin army did not come out, how could it slowly eat away at its troops?

In desperation, Meng Zhong had no choice but to order his troops to build a military camp about ten miles away from Hangu Pass, as much as possible on a higher mound.

And he himself, with Menghu and Huahu, led dozens of cavalry to the front of Hangu Pass, and peeked at this Xiongguan from afar.

The commander of the Qin army is nothing more than Sima Cuo and Bai Qi...... Since Bai Qi is in Hangu Pass, the Qin army still can't defend it, which shows that Bai Qi is also very cautious about the five countries' attack on Qin, and he does not dare to attack rashly. From this point of view, the Qin army has mostly strengthened the frontal defense capability of Hangu Pass, and if we want to break through this Xiongguan from the front, I am afraid it is not so simple......

After pondering for a while, Meng Zhong summoned Meng Hu and Hua Hu to the front and instructed in a low voice: "When patrolling in the past few days, send someone to the vicinity to investigate carefully to see if there is any path that can lead to the back of Hangu Pass. Remember, don't be discovered by Qin Jun's meticulous work. ”

"Hmm."

Meng Hu and Hua Hu nodded.