"PS: I wish the majority of book friends a happy and prosperous New Year! The author who still insists on updating on Chinese New Year's Eve respects ~』

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The time goes back to the end of April, that is, the day after the Qi army just captured Xue Yi Jingguo City, Tian Zhang, a famous general of Qi State, arrived belatedly, accompanied by Tian Touch, Tian Da and other Qi generals, to inspect the entire Xue Yi.

Xue Yi, which was previously the territory of Qi State, was rewarded to Jingguo Jun Tian Ying from the time of King Qi Wei, and after Tian Ying passed away, this rich and prosperous fiefdom and the name of "Xue Gong" were inherited by his son Tian Wen, until two years ago the Song State attacked Qi State and occupied Xue Yi.

But after two years, the Qi State successfully recovered Xue Yi, and as Meng Zhong judged, the purpose of Qi sending troops to the Song State this time was far more than just recovering Xue Yi.

“…… After the Song State occupied Xueyi, it did not condone its soldiers to loot and destroy Xueyi, the main purpose was to use Xueyi as the rear and enter the map of "Sihuai" and China's "Tanjun......"

On the way to inspect Xue Yi, Tian Touch explained to Tian Zhang in detail the process of the war between the Qi and Song dynasties in recent years, as well as the ambitions of the Song and Song Dynasty Wang Yan behind this war, after all, when the Qi and Song Wars broke out two years ago, Tian Zhang led 100,000 troops and was attacking the Hangu Pass of Qin together with the armies of Wei and Han, and he did not know the specifics of this Qi and Song war.

On the side, Tian Da, Tian Yan's lieutenant added: "In May last year, when Zhang Zi led the army back to Qi State, the army of Song State had already reached Tancheng, if it were not for the fact that Zhang Zi led the victorious army that defeated Qin State to return to Qi State, I am afraid that Song State would still refuse to withdraw troops from Tancheng at that time......

In fact, as Tian Da said, last year, that is, the fourth year of Zhao Wanghe and the thirty-fourth year of Song Wangyan, Zhao's father organized the war of Zhao, Song and Yan to attack Qi, but due to the end of the "Qi, Wei and Han Three Kingdoms Invasion of Qin" war at that time, Tian Zhang, a famous general of Qi, led the victorious army back to Qi, and finally was able to use Qi's submission to Zhao as a condition, forcing Zhao's father to accept it when he saw it, ending the war of "Zhao, Song and Yan Three Kingdoms Attacking Qi", and turned his attention to China, that is, to help Gongzizhang seize the throne belonging to Zhao Wanghe, so as to regain control of Zhao.

For the halfway abandonment of Zhao, Song and Yan were actually very dissatisfied, especially Yan Wangzhi, you must know that Yan Wangzhi has a hatred of killing his father and destroying the country to Qi State, this king of Yan State was eager to unite Zhao and Song to destroy Qi State at that time, but he did not expect Tian Zhang to lead the army back to Qi State in time, and forced Zhao State to take the lead in terminating the war with Qi State.

In this case, even if Yan Wangzhi was dissatisfied, there was nothing he could do, after all, his Yan army's army was really weak, if there was no Zhao State to send troops, even if there was Song State's help, it would be difficult to pose any threat to Qi State after Tian Zhang led the army back to China with the strength of Song and Yan alone.

And Song Wangyan also took this into consideration, so he ordered the front-line army to retreat from Tan County of Qi - after all, Tian Zhang was famous, and without the help of Zhao State, Song Wangyan did not dare to rashly attack Qi State.

Unexpectedly, feng shui took turns, and in just half a year, just because of the civil strife in Zhao State, the situation of Qi, Song, and Yan changed dramatically.

Therefore, after the death of Zhao's father in the civil strife of the "Dune Palace Rebellion", the king of Qi Tiandi immediately decided to take revenge on Yan and Song.

Compared with the two countries of Yan and Song, the strength of Yan was far weaker than that of Song, so Qi took the lead in taking Yan to attack, so that in February after the New Year of this year, Qi sent 100,000 troops to attack Yan, and defeated Yan in just one month, overthrowing its 100,000 troops, forcing Yan to surrender and bow to Qi.

At this time, the civil strife in Zhao had just subsided, and the Yan State had surrendered to the Qi State, and the Qi State had no worries, so it immediately transferred the army that defeated the Yan State to the south and launched a war against the Song State, trying to take advantage of the weak period after the civil strife in Zhao to annex the Song State in one breath - after all, compared with the remote Yan State, the Song State in the hinterland of the Central Plains is much more prosperous and rich, and the kings of the previous dynasties of Qi, Wei, Chu and other countries all coveted the Song State, but because of the balance, no one dared to really show their attempt to annex the Song State, Because they knew that the matter would be hindered by the monarchs of other countries.

But now, the state of Chu has long since lost its strength because of its king Xiong Heng's obscenity and obscenity, and the state of Zhao has just experienced civil strife and cannot stop the state of Qi.

Among them, the Qin State does not need to be considered, after all, the Qin State is too far away from the Song State to reach the whip; Second, the Qin State had just been broken through the Hangu Pass by Tian Zhang, a famous general of the Qi State, and he should not dare to stimulate the Qi State in a short time.

As for Wei and Han, for the time being, the relationship between Qi and Wei and Han is very close, and more importantly, Qi has just helped Wei and Han defeat Qin, as long as Wei and Han still want to use the power of Qi to fight against Qin in the future, then they will definitely not prevent Qi from annexing Song.

All in all, now is the best time for Qi to annex Song, and no country will hinder Qi's intention to annex Song.

Therefore, before Tian Zhang led the army to the expedition, King Tian Di of Qi summoned this veteran many times and expressed to the latter the urgency of wanting to get the Song State, as well as the various benefits that could be brought to the Qi State after getting the Song State.

I have to say that King Qi Tiandi was extremely concerned about the capture of the Song Kingdom.

Of course, in fact, it is not only Qi Wang Tiandi who is concerned about this matter, in fact, the whole Qi country is quite concerned about this matter, including Tian Zhang.

Don't look at the relationship between Tian Zhang and the current King of Qi Tiandi, but Tian Zhang is loyal to King Qi Xuan, that is, the father of King Qi Tiandi, after all, it was King Qi Xuan who promoted Tian Zhang, and gave Tian Zhang great trust - when Tian Zhang fought with the Qin army in the first battle, because Tian Zhang confused the Qin army with a counter-strategy, so that the courtiers of Qi at that time mistakenly thought that Tian Zhang was going to surrender to Qin, but King Qi Xuan did not believe it, and laughed that Tian Zhang would never betray him.

Tian Zhang not only surrendered to Qin, but even defeated Qin, which greatly curbed the momentum of Qin, rekindled the confidence of Wei and Han in resisting Qin, and made Qi gain a very high status in the diplomatic strategy of "uniting to resist Qin".

It is precisely because he clearly knows Tian Zhang's loyalty to King Qi Xuan and his loyalty to the Qi country, therefore, King Qi Tiandi also gives Tian Zhang a high degree of trust, although he is not close to Tian Zhang.

As for Tian Zhang, although he is not used to some of the behaviors of King Qi's fields, and thinks that this monarch is inferior to his father King Qi Xuan, but out of loyalty to King Qi Xuan and Qi Guo, Tian Zhang will naturally still focus on the interests of Qi State.

Therefore, when he thought that it was indeed the perfect time for Qi to annex Song, he would never have the slightest sympathy and mercy for Song, just as he had done when he attacked Yan under the orders of King Xuan of Qi - as long as it was beneficial to Qi, Tian Zhang would do it!

But having said that, this expedition to the Song State, including the conquest of the Yan State a few months ago, although Tian Zhang is the commander of the Qi army, it is not him who really leads the army to fight on the front line, but Tian Touch and Tian Da and other young generals of the Qi State.

It's not because of other reasons, it's just because Tian Zhang is already old, firstly, his energy can't keep up, and secondly, he also hopes to use these two wars to train the next generation of generals for the Qi State, so that after he dies of old age, the young generals like Tian Touch and Tian Da can carry the entire Qi State, just as he took over the military burden of the Qi State in the hands of Tian Wei, a famous general of the Qi State.

For now, Tian Touch and Tian Da are the most optimistic young people in Tian Zhang, but they are optimistic and optimistic, and Tian Zhang is still a little dissatisfied with these two.

And this dissatisfaction comes from the righteous brother he met when he was in Zhao State, his "little junior brother" Meng Zhong.

If he hadn't met Meng Zhong before, Tian Zhang might have been satisfied with Tian Touch and Tian Da, but because he had met Meng Zhong before and talked with Meng Zhong a few times, Tian Zhang, who admired this righteous brother very much, compared Tian Touch and Tian Da with Meng Zhong from time to time, and the result of the comparison was not difficult to guess just by looking at Tian Zhang's lukewarm attitude towards Tian Touch and Tian Da.

That night, Tian Zhang stationed in Jingguo and stayed in the mansion that originally belonged to Xue Gong Tianwen.

At this time, a soldier who inquired about the news came to report.

According to the returning scouts, after the Song army lost Jingguo City, the troops were divided into two routes, with an army led by Sima Jingyu of the Song army retreating to Teng County, while Dai Wu, the crown prince of the Song Dynasty, retreated south and retreated to Qiangyang.

After getting the news, Tian Zhangming took out the map left and right and looked at it against the map.

Teng County is located in the northwest direction of Xueyi, and the distance between the two places is about 80 miles, while the distance between the two places is about 100 miles, while the distance between the two places is about 100 miles.

"Is this to use Nanhu (Weishan Lake) as a line of defense to block our army?"

Tian Zhang sneered secretly.

Tian Zhang is no stranger to the three military commanders of the Song Kingdom, Jing Wei, Dai Busheng, and Dai Yingzhi.

As far as Tian Zhang knows, among these three, Dai Busheng is the most brave - of course, the bravery mentioned here does not refer to Dai Busheng's personal force, but to his combat style.

It's a pity that Dai Busheng's "bravery" is just brave and unscrupulous, although he has a good strategic vision, but lacks strategy.

For example, when his Qi army invaded Xueyi, the Song army took the initiative to attack, and Tian Zhang knew at a glance that it was Dai Busheng's handiwork.

It is undeniable that the weak Song State did not choose to blindly defend it, which is indeed a wise choice in Tian Zhang's opinion, but the Song State army actually chose to confront his Qi army head-on, which is undoubtedly a brave and unscrupulous approach - if you don't know how to avoid evil and calculate the gains and losses, simple courage is meaningless.

Therefore, in comparison, Tian Zhang still cares more about Dai Yingzhi, that is a general who has both civil and military skills and knows how to advance and retreat, but unfortunately his qualifications are limited, and Tian Zhang does not think that Dai Yingzhi can pose any threat to his Qi army.

As for Jing Hui, Tian Zhang didn't care about this person, because as far as he knew, Jing Yi was too timid and conservative, this kind of person could only be used to defend the city and it was difficult to become a general who conquered the city, to deal with this kind of person, just need to press the territory with a large army and put pressure on it step by step, the latter will eventually be defeated because of continuous defeats, and there will be almost no possibility of turning the tables from beginning to end - because Jing Yi is too timid, it is difficult to make up his mind to make a move to put him to death, so it is almost impossible to use any tricks to turn the tables, once he loses for a while, Then you will definitely lose.

After all, last year, Meng Zhong had attacked the camp garrisoned by Tian Touch at night with 500 soldiers, causing tens of thousands of Qi troops under Tian Touch's command to be defeated overnight - it seems that such generals who can not only resist the enemy with the right path, but also win with strange scheming, are the most feared opponents in Tian Zhang's heart.

But fortunately, among those military commanders of the Song Kingdom, there does not seem to be such a figure.

"Go to Teng Kingdom first, or go to Qiyang first?"

Tian Zhang closed his eyes and pondered.

With his understanding of Jing Hui, Dai Busheng, and Dai Yingzhi, Tian Zhang can easily judge the direction of this war: if he Qi army attacks Teng County, Jing Yi will definitely blindly defend Teng County until the city is finally broken by his Qi army, and there will be no waves during this period, the question is only how long it will take to break through Teng County; On the contrary, it is the side of the Yang where the crown prince Dai Wu is located, and it is very likely that the Song army will take the initiative to attack, but how can the lone wolf defeat the tiger? The Song State, which is weak and weak, is destined to be defeated by his Qi army!

"Since Jing Yu retreated to Teng County, I believe that he must defend the city to the death, as long as I send troops to surround Teng County, I will definitely be able to win, and the problem will take some time...... It is better to send 100,000 troops to besiege Teng County, and I lead 50,000 troops to attack Qianyang, Dai Busheng sees that I have few soldiers, and most likely can guess that I will divide my troops to take Teng County, and maybe I will take the initiative to attack again......

Thinking of this, he immediately summoned the generals under his command, and after explaining the situation, he ordered the deputy general: "Tian Jing, order you to lead 80,000 soldiers to Teng County, surround the city, and wait for an opportunity to attack." ”

His lieutenant Tian Jing was stunned when he heard this.

You must know that he Qi used troops against the Song State this time, and there were only 150,000 troops in total, but he didn't expect Tian Zhang to divide his 80,000 troops to attack a mere Teng County.

Thinking of this, Tian Jing was surprised and said: "If you want to take Teng County, why do you need 80,000 troops?" Two armies are enough! ”

When Tian Zhang heard this, he explained: "Jing Yu has always been timid, if you only lead two armies to go, he may still have the mind to resist; But if you lead 80,000 troops to go, he will never have the heart to repel you, let alone leave the city easily, you just need to take it slowly, and wait for the morale of the army under Jing Yu to attack the city, which can greatly reduce our casualties......"

"I see." Tian Jing nodded suddenly in understanding, and then asked suspiciously: "Sima, then you only led 70,000 soldiers to force Yang?" As far as I know, although the city is small, but extremely strong, more than two hundred years ago, the city of the city once blocked the thirteen countries alliance army for a month, 70,000 soldiers, I'm afraid it's not enough to break through this city, right? ”

Tian Zhang smiled when he heard this: "I also know that the city is small but strong, so I plan to lure the Song army in the city out of the city again to fight, if I lead more than 100,000 troops to go, how dare the Song people go out of the city?" 50,000 soldiers are enough! …… For the remaining 20,000 troops, I plan to let you temporarily garrison Xue Yi and pacify the people of Yi. ”

The implication is that

"I see!"

Tian Jing nodded suddenly, and even with the generals from the side, Tian Touch, Tian Da and other generals, they also looked at Tian Zhang with admiration.

After all, in their opinion, Tian Zhang had completely understood the lifeblood of the Song army and dominated the war.

At the beginning of May, the 150,000 Qi army in Xueyi divided into two routes, Tian Jing led 80,000 troops to Teng, while Tian Zhang took Tian Touch, Tian Da and other generals, led 50,000 troops to approach Qianyang, as for the remaining 20,000 troops, temporarily stationed in Xueyi.

On the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth month, after two days of travel, Tian Zhang finally led an army of 50,000 to arrive at Qiyang City.

In order to induce the Song army in the area of Qiyang City to take the initiative to attack him, he deliberately led 50,000 troops to the northern suburbs of Qiyang City, asked the soldiers to show off their strength outside the city, and shouted that the Song army in the city surrendered early.

From beginning to end, he completely ignored the two military camps in the northwest and northeast corners of Qiyang City, and the two battalions of the Song army did not exist.

Like Qi Jun's arrogant and arrogant actions, the crown prince Dai Wu, who was watching from the city at the time, clenched his fists, his face flushed, and muttered in a low voice: "It's really too arrogant, too arrogant!" ”

“……”

From the side, Meng Zhong looked indifferently at the Qi general Tian Touch, who was shouting and persuading him to surrender under the city, and immediately looked for the figure of his brother-in-law Tian Zhang in the Qi army, after all, as far as he knew, this time the Qi army was led by his brother-in-law Tian Zhang.

I saw that under the resentful gaze of nearly 30,000 Song soldiers inside and outside the city, the 50,000 Qi army showed off their might under the city of Qiyang for more than half an hour, and then slowly retreated.

At this time, Meng Zhongcai turned his head to the extremely angry prince Dai Wu and said, "Prince, immediately send a fine work to keep an eye on the whereabouts of the Qi army and see where the Qi army is preparing to set up camp. ”

"Yes!"

The crown prince Dai Wu nodded again and again, and immediately led someone to investigate.

Before the evening of the same day, a scout sent back the news that the Qi army was preparing to set up camp about ten miles north of Qiyang City.

This angered Dai Busheng and Dai Yingzhi, and I saw them come to the city from the military camp outside the city after dusk to discuss with the crown prince Dai Wu and Meng Zhong.

During this period, Dai Busheng said angrily: "The Qi army is too deceitful! It's better to take advantage of the fact that the army behind him has not arrived, attack his garrison tonight, and win a complete victory! ”

On the side, Dai Yingzhi also nodded and agreed: "I see that the Qi army occupies Xue Yi, and its soldiers will all be proud, treating us as nothing, we might as well take this opportunity to frustrate their arrogance!" ”

Recalling the arrogant appearance of the Qi army today, the crown prince Dai Wu was also angry in his heart, nodded and was about to speak, but saw Meng Zhong stop him: "The prince, and the two military commanders are slow, this is the Qi army's plan to lure the enemy, if our army goes to the night attack tonight, it will definitely be ambushed by the Qi army." ”

Hearing this, the crown prince Dai Wu was stunned, while Dai Busheng and Dai Ying were puzzled.

It is also thanks to the fact that Meng Zhong has used his words to win the trust of Dai Wu, Dai Busheng, and Dai Yingzhi two days ago, so that these three can listen to Meng Zhong's explanation with patience today.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong explained: "This time the commander of the Qi army is the world-famous Kuang Zhang, how can he not know the truth of 'arrogant soldiers will be defeated'? But he still connived at his generals to show off their might under the city of Qiyang and stimulate the generals of our army, which was nothing more than to arouse the anger of our army and lure our army to attack his garrison at night...... Including his encampment only ten miles from the city, this was a ploy to lure the enemy. …… As for the reason, in fact, it is very simple, it is nothing more than that he knows that although the city is small but strong, he is unwilling to pay a big price to forcibly attack the city, so he wants to lure our army out of the city to attack him, we have lost two battles in Xueyi, lost the entire Xueyi, and the morale of the soldiers has been greatly affected. ”

“……”

Dai Busheng and Dai Yingzhi glanced at each other, and Meng Zhong's words calmed them down.

Thinking about it carefully, they also felt that Meng Zhong's words were very reasonable: how could characters like Kuang Zhang not know the truth that arrogant soldiers would be defeated?

Thinking of this, Dai Yingzhi stroked his beard and said with a smile: "This Tian Zhang is really cunning, fortunately, the little brother Meng saw through his tricks, otherwise, our army will attack the Qi army tonight and will definitely be ambushed." ”

"However, if you don't attack at night, will you just sit back and watch the Qi army build a camp ten miles outside the city?" Dai Busheng said with a frown.

Meng Zhong smiled and said with relief when he heard this: "Don't worry, first of all, the Qi army will never dare to really set up a camp at such a close distance, if they dare to do this, I am happy to see it...... The camp is not stronger than the forced sun, and at a distance of only ten miles, the Qi army has to defend against our army's night attacks every day and every night, so why is there any need to do this? …… Moreover, even if the Qi army really dared to set up camp ten miles away, he would dare to make a guarantee that he would definitely be able to force the Qi army to retreat ten miles back and set up camp again! ”

Looking at Meng Zhong's confident look, Dai Wu, Dai Busheng, and Dai Yingzhi finally decided to listen to Meng Zhong's suggestion after hesitating.

"It's a pity." With a little unwillingness, Dai Busheng said regretfully: "As far as I can see today, Tian Zhang has only 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers under his command, and he may have divided his troops to attack Tengxian...... It's a great opportunity to counterattack, but it's a pity ......"

Meng Zhong smiled when he heard this: "I'm afraid he just wants you to think like this, so he only brought fifty or sixty thousand soldiers, if he leads 150,000 soldiers to the city, will we dare to go out of the city to attack him easily?" …… The Qi army claims to be 300,000, but according to my estimates, it is at most 200,000, or even maybe only 150,000, and now that Tian Zhang has led 50,000 or 60,000 troops here, where are the other armies? Are they all sent to attack Teng County? There is only one army under the command of Sima of the Jing Army, and I believe that the Qi army can quickly find out this, why is it necessary to send hundreds of thousands of troops to attack a small Tengcheng? ”

Hearing this, Dai Busheng nodded slightly, after all, when the Song State attacked the Teng State, it only sent 30,000 or 40,000 troops each time, and this was still under the condition that the whole country of Teng State rose up to resist, and now Teng County only has the strength of the army under Jing Hui, that is, about 10,000 troops, and there is really no need for the Qi army to send more than 100,000 people to attack.

Instead of sending hundreds of thousands of troops to fight Teng County, it is better to fight a stronger Yang.

However, Tian Zhang only brought about 50,000 troops to force Yang this time, Dai Busheng thought about Meng Zhong's words carefully, and felt more and more that Tian Zhang was luring them out of the city to attack in order to ambush them.

"As for Jun Sima wanting to prevent the Qi army from setting up camp ten miles away, it's not that there is no other way." Seeing that Dai Busheng seemed to be eager to take revenge on the Qi army, Meng Zhong smiled and said, "Why attack at night? Tomorrow daylight directly send troops to hinder the Qi army to set up camp, just remember not to confront the Qi army head-on, specifically pick those Qi soldiers who are responsible for cutting down the woods, if Tian Zhang sends the soldiers in full armor to counterattack, I am convenient to temporarily retreat, change direction, continue to harass, so that the soldiers of the Qi country will not be able to carry a wood in one hand and a sword in the other, but they can still defeat our army, right? If all the soldiers of the Qi State have this ability, then the Song State should simply surrender as soon as possible. ”

"Hahaha......"

Dai Wu, Dai Busheng, and Dai Yingzhi also couldn't help laughing when they heard this.

Immediately, the three of them looked at each other and made a decision in their hearts.

As Meng Zhong expected, that night, Tian Zhang really ordered his troops to beware of the night attack of the Song army, and also sent Tian Touch, Tian Da and other generals to lead the army to ambush outside, preparing to wait for the Song army to come to the night attack, cut off its way back, and then surround the Song army that dared to attack at night in one fell swoop.

Unexpectedly, after waiting for a full night, I didn't see the Song army come to attack at night.

"What's going on?"

Tian Zhang was a little surprised by this.

After all, according to what he knew about Dai Busheng, there was a chance that Dai Busheng would lead an army to attack him last night.

"Could it be that Xue Yi's defeat made Dai Busheng as timid as Jing Yi? Or is it that someone in the city has seen through my plan?"

Walking out of the temporary handsome tent, Tian Zhang frowned and looked in the direction of Qiangyang City, thinking to himself in his heart.

Compared with the possibility that Dai Busheng had become timid because of a defeat, he was more inclined to think that someone in the Song army on the other side had seen through his strategy, and dissuaded the crown prince Dai Wu and Dai Busheng from attacking his army at night.

『…… Who could it be?'

Tian Zhang guessed in disbelief.