The time goes back to the end of May, that is, when Meng Zhong had just guessed Tian Zhang's intentions in Qiyang. ◢ with ◢ dream ◢ small ◢

At that time, he couldn't help but ask himself what to do next?

I have to say that Meng Zhong was indeed a little stunned at this time, because he found that both he and the Yang where he was located seemed to be excluded from the main battlefield by Tian Zhang.

What's even worse is that even if he knew at this moment that Tian Zhang's purpose was to attack Pengcheng directly without him forcing Yang, he couldn't recklessly return to Pengcheng.

What can I do?

It wasn't until the second day of June that things finally took a turn for the better, because he received a message sent by Dai Busheng.

Because of the distance, Meng Zhong learned about this half a day earlier than Tian Zhang, and he received the news in the early morning of the second day of the sixth month.

It must be said that Dai Busheng's success in taking Tancheng really made Meng Zhong feel fortunate and happy for the Song State, after all, Tancheng was a very critical part of his Song State's "counter-Qi State" means, if this city could not be captured, the Song State would have no way to counterattack the Qi State - it could only take Xue Yi, but the problem was that Xue Yi was already under the control of Tian Zhang, how could it be so easy for the Song State army to break through?

And now, Tancheng has fallen into the hands of Dai Busheng, which means that he Song State has the qualifications to threaten Qi State.

Of course, it is only said that it is qualified, but whether it can really threaten the Qi State and force the Qi State to stop this war will have to be discussed in the long run.

Upon learning of this, Meng Zhong immediately consulted with the crown prince Dai Wu.

The advice he gave, of course, was to order Dai Busheng to immediately lead the army north from Tancheng, and before Qi could react, break into its hinterland and make trouble, if there is a chance to attack the city, then take advantage of the situation to attack the city, if there is no opportunity, at least the farmland outside the city will be destroyed, in short, it is to let Qi State taste the same taste as Song State.

After listening to Meng Zhong's words, the crown prince Dai Wu was also a little hesitant, and asked with a hesitant expression, "Is this really appropriate?" ”

Of course, Meng Zhong knew what the crown prince Dai Wu was hesitating about, after all, it meant that they—or the Song Kingdom, had completely offended the Qi State and the Qi King's fields to death.

With a somewhat funny expression, he asked the crown prince Dai Wudao: "Even if the crime is killed, what about the Qi Kingdom?" Similar to the current situation, does His Royal Highness the Crown Prince still expect King Qi to wake up and take the initiative to reconcile with my Song Kingdom? ”

Hearing this, Prince Dai Wu nodded, gritted his teeth and said, "What Qing said is extremely true!" Then do as Qing said! ”

After speaking, he immediately took up the pen and wrote a letter, ordering his henchmen and guards to go to Tancheng day and night, and hand it over to Dai Busheng, who ordered Dai Busheng to immediately raise troops and go straight to the hinterland of Qi State.

But having said that, although Dai Busheng had been ordered to attack the hinterland of Qi, whether this trip could be successful, whether it could achieve the goal of making Qi feel the pain of the skin, Meng Zhong was actually not sure, he said to the crown prince Dai Wu afterwards, "Qi is a powerful country comparable to Qin, but this time Qi used troops against my Song State, although it claimed to be 300,000, in fact, it sent only 150,000 troops, and it was a strong country, is there only 150,000 troops?" I think there are still at least 100,000 troops in Qi. If this is the case, I am afraid that Dai Busheng Sima will not be able to penetrate too deep into the hinterland of Qi State, and I will need to send another army to reinforce it. ”

Hearing this, the crown prince Dai Wu smiled bitterly, "I'm also worried about Uncle Sheng, but I really don't have any extra troops to send reinforcements at present...... Could it be that Qing wants Uncle Ying to also send troops to Tancheng? Don't, if that's the case, I'll only have a few thousand soldiers to guard the sun. ”

Not to mention, in fact, Meng Zhong really thought about sending Dai Yingzhi to Tancheng to counterattack the Qi State, but in the end he gave up, because as the prince Dai Wu said, this matter is too dangerous - once Dai Yingzhi also led his army to Tancheng, there will only be six or seven thousand soldiers led by the prince Dai Wu in the city, which will greatly stimulate Tian Zhang to launch a fierce attack on Qiyang, unlike now, including Dai Yingzhi's army, there are 15,000 soldiers in Qiyang City, even if there are tens of thousands of Qi troops surrounding Qiyang on all sides to launch a fierce attack, They can also follow the example of the Yang Jun more than 280 years ago, and stick to it for more than a month.

One month was enough for Song Wangyan to gather an additional 30,000 or 40,000 troops to come for reinforcements.

Thinking of this, Meng Zhong said to the crown prince Dai Wu, "The matter of reinforcing Dai Busheng Sima will be put aside for the time being, but at least I can't wait for the Qi army to cut off Dai Busheng Sima's retreat." ”

"Qing refers to the Qi army under Tian Zhang?"

"Hmm." Meng Zhong nodded and said, "As far as I know, Tancheng is quite far away from Linzi, the capital of the King of Qi, but it is only more than two hundred miles away from Xueyi. …… I suspect that Tian Zhang may have learned about this at this time, and is preparing to send an army to seize Tancheng, and he must not be allowed to succeed easily! ”

Hearing this, Prince Dai Wu nodded, and then frowned again and asked, "However, we can't judge which way the Qi army will go......

Seeing this, Meng Zhong explained, "Actually, it's easy to guess. …… First of all, Dushan's Qi army should not move lightly, because Tian Zhang still insists on leaving me to force Yang to attack Pengcheng directly, if he draws Qi troops from Dushan to seize Tancheng, Pengcheng's side will definitely attack with the situation, in case the army on Pengcheng's side takes the opportunity to occupy the advantage, this will greatly hinder Tian Zhang's plan to attack Pengcheng, which is not in line with Tian Zhang's intentions; And the Qi generals Tian Touch of the two battalions of Ridge Mountain and Longshan and the Qi army of about 10,000 under his command can contain me to the greatest extent, and I believe that it will not be easily mobilized. Therefore, after excluding these two, Tian Zhang either chose the Qi army in Teng County and let the nearly 100,000 (actually 80,000) troops who were attacking Teng County return to Tancheng, or let the Qi general Tian Da on the north side of the ridge mountain lead the army back to Tancheng...... There are only these two possibilities! ”

"You have a point."

After listening to Meng Zhong's analysis, Prince Dai Wu nodded convincingly, and then he asked again, "But which way is it?" ”

Meng Zhong smiled when he heard this, "It is impossible to judge which of the two is exactly, but you might as well let Dai Yingzhi's Sima divide his troops and go to Xue Yi...... I think that Dai Yingzhi Sima only needs to lead six or seven thousand people to Zaolin, and take the lead in building a camp on the road before the Qi army has returned to Tancheng, which can effectively prevent the Qi army from returning to Tancheng to aid Tancheng. …… As for the remaining two or three thousand troops, I hope that the crown prince Dai Wu will allow him to temporarily hand over to my companion Le Yi, and ask him to lead these people to be stationed on the northeast side of Qiyang, so that if Tian Zhang orders the Qi army in Teng County to return to help, it will be blocked by Dai Busheng Sima, and if Tian Da is sent back to help Tancheng, it will be blocked by both I and Le Yi, so that the road for the Qi army to return to Tancheng can be cut off to the greatest extent. ”

"Good!"

The crown prince Dai Wu nodded convincingly, and immediately sent someone outside the city to invite the military Sima Dai Yingzhi, and told the latter of Meng Zhong's suggestion.

Unlike Dai Busheng, who greatly admired Meng Zhong's strategy of "countering the Qi State" and was therefore willing to temporarily obey Meng Zhong's orders, Dai Yingzhi was cautious, in fact, he did not agree with Meng Zhong's strategy, after all, Meng Zhong's strategy was too dangerous, like letting several of their armies walk on the ice on the lake and walk on thin ice - originally there were less than 30,000 people to guard the Yang, and the strength was far inferior to the Qi army, but Meng Zhong still had to split the 30,000 and divide the troops to guard.

Although nothing has gone wrong at the moment, Dai Ying is afraid that something will happen in his heart, such as Tian Zhang-although Meng Zhong concluded that Tian Zhang would not easily transfer the nearly 100,000 Qi troops who were attacking Teng County to force Yang, but what if? What if Tian Zhang did this? At that time, he will not be in Qiangyang, and Dai Busheng will not be there, and he will barely have 10,000 troops up and down in Qiangyang City, what can he do to resist nearly ten times the Qi army?

But thinking about it the other way, Dai Yingzhi also felt that what Meng Zhong said was indeed reasonable, such as calling Dai Busheng to take Tancheng, although he Dai Yingzhi didn't agree with it very much at the beginning, but for now, it has indeed become a trick to contain Tian Zhang Before solving the hidden danger of Tancheng, Tian Zhang should not directly attack Pengcheng, which is indeed a disguised drag on Tian Zhang's march into his Song Kingdom.

After thinking about it and thinking about it, and weighing it for a while, Dai Yingzhi asked Meng Zhong seriously, "Meng Zhong, you are indeed very talented, even if you are not as old as the weak crown, but as long as you can repel the Qi army, whether it is me or I am still invincible, I am willing to obey your dispatch, but you have to tell me, are you sure to hold the forced sun?" …… You must know that once I lead six or seven thousand soldiers to Zaolin, there will only be five or six thousand troops left under His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and another three thousand troops under my command, a total of less than 10,000 people, but outside the city, there are 20,000 Qi troops, and even, Tian Jing, the Qi general who is attacking Teng County at the moment, and Zou Xi, the Qi general who is stationed in Dushan at this moment, they may retreat at any time to besiege Qiyang, especially Zou Xi, whose army is only a day's journey away, and the morning and evening are coming! ”

Seeing that Dai Yingzhi said so seriously, Meng Zhong also straightened his expression, and said with a straight face, "Jun Sima, please rest assured, there will be no loss in forcing the sun." ”

“……”

After taking a deep look at Meng Zhong, Dai Yingzhi nodded heavily, "In this case, I will obey your dispatch and lead the army to the jujube forest!" ”

On the same day, according to Meng Zhong's platoon, Dai Yingzhi temporarily handed over 3,000 soldiers under his command to Le Yi, and asked Le Yi to be stationed in his camp, and immediately, he led more than 6,000 soldiers to the northeast, and after ten hours of hurrying, he quickly arrived at Zaolin.

As Meng Zhong guessed, Tian Zhang's 150,000 troops are currently mainly concentrated in Tengxian, Qiyang, Dushan and other places, don't look at Xue Yi has been occupied by the Qi army, but in fact, Tian Zhang only left 5,000 soldiers to guard Jingguo City, so that the Qi army's control of Xue Yi is not tight, which makes Dai Yingzhi lead the army to Zaolin After arriving in Zaolin, he built a camp on the main road between the local hills without any danger and cut off the road from Jingguo City to Tancheng.

On the third day of the sixth month, that is, Tian Da, the guard general of the Baliqi camp in the northwest direction of Ciyang, where Dai Yingzhi led his army to Zaolin, finally received Tian Zhang's order, ordering him to immediately lead the army back to Tancheng and cut off Dai Busheng's return route.

After learning about this, Tian Da was also surprised, Tancheng was captured by Dai Busheng?

On the one hand, he sent someone to inform Tian Fu, the guard general in the camp of Zhishan Qi, and on the other hand, he mobilized his troops, and in the end, he left 2,000 people to guard the camp, and led 8,000 soldiers straight to the east, preparing to pass through the northern suburbs of Qiyang and go to Tancheng.

However, what he didn't expect was that Meng Zhong had been prepared early, so that when Tian Da was about to lead the way through the northern suburbs of Qiyang, Meng Zhong and Le Yi each led 3,000 soldiers to encircle and block Tian Da's way.

If it had been a few days ago, I am afraid that Tian Da would have directly started a war with the Song army led by Meng Zhong and Le Yi, but today, he is in a hurry to go to Tancheng, how can he have time to entangle with these Song troops?

And Meng Zhong also guessed that Tian Da had no intention of fighting, and he was entangled with Le Yi and the others, forcing Tian Da to retreat temporarily.

In desperation, Tian Da sent someone to ask Tian Touch for help, after all, Tian Touch still had 10,000 Qi troops under his command, which might help him break through the blockade of the Song army that forced him.

After receiving Tian Da's request for help, Tian Touch readily agreed, but when he led his army down the ridge mountain and was about to help Tian Da, Meng Hu led two thousand Song troops out of the west gate of Qiyang City, ran to the two mountains of Ridge Mountain and Longshan and set a fire.

As a result, Tian Da's lone army had no chance, and when he could not break through the blockade of the Song army, he had to withdraw to the camp first.

On the evening of the fourth day of the sixth lunar month, Tian Da's messenger arrived in Dushan and told Tian Zhang about "forcing the Yang Song army to block the road and not allowing him to support Tancheng", which made Tian Zhang feel a headache.

At this time, Tian Zhang did not know that Dai Yingzhi had led 6,000 soldiers to Zaolin, and thought that there were still nearly 20,000 troops in Qiyang City, so it was not surprising to see that Tian Touch and Tian Da could not break through the Song army of Qiyang - after all, in his opinion, the armies of Qi and Song in that area were about 20,000, so it was inevitable that there would be a stalemate.

『…… The 'Ying Disease' of Forcing Yang is really like Ying Ji himself, he is obviously on the defensive, but he is still always waiting for an opportunity to counteract...... Did Song Guo still have such characters? Why haven't you heard of it before?'

Tian Zhang felt a headache.

At this time, Zou Xi, his subordinate general, learned of this and suggested, "Why don't you ask Tian Jingzuo Sima to divide his troops and return to Tancheng?" He has 80,000 troops under his command. ”

After pondering, Tian Zhang shook his head with some hesitation.

Teng County Heavy Or?

In fact, Teng County doesn't matter.

But why did Tian Zhang insist on taking Teng County?

The reason is very simple, because Teng County can lead to Xueyi, if you don't take that piece of land and drive all the local Song troops to the opposite shore of Nanhu (Weishan Lake), Tian Zhang will not be able to completely settle down and march into Pengcheng - after all, the current Xueyi defense is actually very weak, in case the Song army moves east from Teng County and secretly captures Xueyi, then they will undoubtedly be cut off by the Song army.

Therefore, Tengxian had to be captured, not for its own value, but to keep Xue Yi from the threat of the Song army.

After some contemplation, Tian Zhang said in a deep voice, "Wait a minute, I have sent someone to order Tian Jing to take Teng County as soon as possible, although it is inevitable to sacrifice some soldiers, but I believe that Teng County can be taken in a few days, and then let him divide his troops to support Tian Touch, Tian Da and others." ”

In all fairness, Tian Zhang's judgment was actually correct, but unfortunately, he underestimated one person, that is, Song Wangyan of Pengcheng.

A few decades ago, when his elder brother Song Jue Chengjun ruled the country, Song Wangyan was the great Sima of the Song state, in charge of tens of thousands of troops, and sometimes under the orders of his brother, he assisted the Qi state in the war against Chu and Wei, so he later had enough troops to seize the throne of his royal brother.

It was precisely because he had experience in commanding operations that Song Wangyan saw at a glance that the key point of the current situation was in Teng County, as long as Teng County was not lost, Tian Jing, the Qi general who was responsible for attacking Teng County, would not dare to easily draw troops to besiege and force Yang.

Therefore, when the military Sima Li Jun was blocked by the Qi general Zou Xi in Dushan and could not support the forced yang, Song Wangyan immediately made a decision and sent troops to reinforce Teng County, and he also sent someone to warn Jing Wei stationed in Teng County, telling the latter to defend Teng County to the death!

On the sixth day of the sixth month of June, that is, the day after Song Wangyan received an urgent letter from Meng Zhong and Dai Busheng, he sent the general "Dai Xi" to lead an army to Pei County and reinforce Teng County by the Nanhu waterway.

Another day, Song Wangyan sent the patriarch of the Shidafu family to "Xiang Wen", leading more than a dozen family soldiers, a total of about 15,000 soldiers, and also took the Nanhu waterway to reinforce Teng County.

Two groups of reinforcements reinforced Tengxian with a full 25,000 troops in one go.

Although even with the addition of the troops under the command of Sima Jingyi, the Song army in the area of Tengxian was only 35,000 at best, which was still more than half of the Qi general Tian Jing, but it was undeniable that this greatly increased the difficulty for Tian Jing to capture Teng County.

On the ninth day of the sixth month, after two groups of 25,000 Song troops reinforced Teng County, Tian Jing, the Qi general who was suspicious of this, immediately sent someone to inform Tian Zhang day and night.

By the time the envoy he sent arrived at Dushan, it was already June 12.

At that time, Tian Zhang learned that the Song State had reinforced Teng County, he was stunned for a moment, and then immediately understood that the Song State had reinforces Teng County, in fact, to drag Tian Jing, so as not to prevent Tian Jing from drawing troops to attack Qianyang.

"This vision...... Could it be Song Yan? ”

Tian Zhang muttered to himself.

It is no wonder that after all, there are only a few well-known generals in the Song Kingdom, leaving aside the military Sima accidents of Dai Busheng, Dai Yingzhi, and Jing Wei, who are more famous than talented, there are actually no outstanding generals in the Song Kingdom.

Therefore, it is no wonder that Tian Zhang guessed Song Wangyan, after all, Song Wangyan was the great Sima of Song during the Song Dynasty, and he was also a brave military general at that time, and even led the army to assist the Qi army in attacking Chu, Wei and other countries.

『…… Tian Jing was dragged in Tengxian by Jing Wei, and Tian Touch, Tian Da and others couldn't break through the blockade of Qiyang to Tancheng, and Dushan couldn't draw troops back to help, how could this be good?"

Thinking of the current situation, even Tian Zhang felt quite a headache.

I have to say that the current war situation is indeed too chaotic, and in the final analysis, the reason for this phenomenon is nothing more than that neither Meng Zhong nor Tian Zhang will give up their dominant position, and Meng Zhong wants to fix the battlefield in the area of Qiyang and fight a protracted battle with the army of Qi near this city; And Tian Zhang wanted to put aside the Yang and directly start a war with Peng Cheng.

The result of the two competitions was that Meng Zhong and Tian Zhang were restrained by each other, and no one could move lightly.

No, from the third day of the sixth month to the twelfth day of June, Tian Zhang and Zou Xi did not move, while Tian Touch and Tian Da were forced to block the road to Tancheng, so that in this nine-day period, the Qi army can be said to have done nothing.

On the other hand, Meng Zhong could only let his army stick to the area of Qiyang and Zaolin, neither daring to take the opportunity to attack Xue Yi, who was actually empty, nor daring to lead the army to Dushan, and the combined army Sima Li Jun launched a two-sided attack on Tian Zhang - the only thing he could do was to block Tian Da from returning to Tancheng, purely to bully Tian Touch and Tian Da with few soldiers, only 20,000 people.

It was not until 16 June that the situation took a turn for the better.

To be exact, the turnaround should have started on June 10, because on this day, the messenger sent by Song Wangyan to Qiyang, after spending three more days on a circuitous detour, finally delivered Song Wangyan's letter to Qiyang.

Song Wangyan's letter is very simple, mainly to tell the crown prince Dai Wu and Meng Zhong three things.

First, he had sent troops to reinforce Teng County, so that the Qi general Tian Jing could not draw troops to besiege Qiyang.

Second, in his letter, Song praised Meng Zhong's strategy of "countering the Qi state" and allowed Meng Zhong to self-determine on the front line without considering the safety of Pengcheng.

Third, Song Wangyan told Meng Zhong that he would find a way to send a support army to make a detour to force Yang to reinforce reinforcements.

I have to say that after receiving this letter from Song Wangyan, Meng Zhong was surprised.

In fact, he has been worried about Tian Jing, the Qi general of Teng County, for the past few days, worried that the latter would suddenly withdraw his troops from Teng County and come to besiege Qianyang.

Unexpectedly, Song Wangyan, who was far away in Pengcheng, saw through the key to the current situation at a glance and decisively increased troops to Teng County, which made Meng Zhong have to sigh for it, feeling that Song Wangyan is worthy of being a monarch born as a military general, and his vision is indeed not comparable to Dai Wusheng, Dai Yingzhi and others.

However, what Meng Zhong admired the most was Song Wangyan's sentence "There are widows in Pengcheng, so you don't have to worry about it", which is really courageous.

At this point, Song Wangyan is really more courageous than the former monarch of Wei, "Wei Hui Wang Wei Fu" - if King Wei Hui also had the courage of Song Wangyan back then, perhaps the famous Wei general Pang Juan would not have been defeated by Qi generals Tian Ji, Sun Bin and others in Maling, resulting in the collapse of 100,000 elites of Wei and great damage to vitality.

On June 16, the reinforcements mentioned by Song Wangyan finally arrived in Qiyang.

This support army, led by Dai Jing, a member of the Dai clan, set out from Pengcheng and headed eastward, passing through "Luyi" and then turning north, completely bypassing the Dushan area and arriving at Qiyang in a roundabout way.

Because of the large circle, the support army traveled a full six days, so that they did not arrive at the city until June 16, when they set out on the seventh day of June.

As for the number of this support army, it was the standing Song army of the first army and 8,000 clan soldiers, a total of 20,000 people—the latter, that is, the 8,000 clan soldiers of all clans, led by the county Sima "Xiao Ji" of "Xiao Cheng" west of Pengcheng.

The arrival of Dai Jing and Xiao Ji with their troops really made the crown prince Dai Wu breathe a sigh of relief.

Although he always supported Meng Zhong's decision-making during this time, in the final analysis, Meng Zhong's way of using troops as if he was dangerous still scared him so much that he didn't dare to sleep too hard every night, for fear that the Qi army would come and attack the city.

And now that there are 20,000 more troops of Dai Jing and Xiao Ji, he can finally sleep a little more peacefully.

However, Meng Zhong raised objections again, and he said to the crown prince Dai Wu, "Tian Zhang and Tian Jing are currently contained in Dushan and Teng County respectively, forcing Yang to worry about it for the time being, and 8,000 soldiers from various families will be enough to defend the city after entering the city...... After all, when this battle will end, it is not how long I can hold the sun, but when the Qi country will stop the war against our country. If you want the Qi State to stop this war, you must make them feel our determination to defend the country at any cost! ”

The crown prince Dai Wu pondered for a long time, and finally agreed to Meng Zhong's suggestion.

Considering that Dai Jing, a young member of the Dai clan, might not have the talent to stir up the entire Qi Kingdom, Meng Zhong decided to ask Le Yi to help him.

In this regard, Le Yi has no objection, as for Dai Jing, in view of the fact that the crown prince Dai Wu spoke, Dai Jing also has no objection, "Since it is the prince's will, the minister will do it." ”

As a result, there were only 8,000 more reinforcements in Qiyang City, and Dai Jing and Le Yi immediately led their troops to Qi to assist Dai Busheng in attacking the hinterland of Qi.

Meng Zhong believed that as long as Le Yi helped him, Dai Busheng and Dai Jing with nearly 20,000 soldiers under their command would definitely make the Qi State feel some threats, so that the Qi King Tiandi would finally give up the decision to attack the Song State.

But what the result is, Meng Zhong doesn't dare to guarantee, everything has to look at the current monarch of the Qi country, and look at the line in the latter's heart.

That is, what price he is willing to pay in order to capture the Song State.