Hangu Pass is a pass built by Qin Xiaogong to prevent the Central Plains countries from invading Qin.

According to the plateau, the east of the Guanxi is bordered by the Absolute Stream, the south is connected to the Qinling Mountains, and the North Sai River, since the completion of this pass, this pass has completely isolated the Qin State from the Central Plains countries, so gradually appeared "Guanxi", "Kanto States" such sayings.

The "Seki" of the Kanto Prefecture refers to the Hanya Pass.

On June 25, the day before the Wei-Han and Zhou Coalition forces arrived at Hangu Pass, Meng Zhong reported to Gongsun Ji, the false marshal in the army, and then took Le Yi, Meng Sui, Rong Yi, Meng Ao, and others to Hangu Pass to see this Xiongguan up close.

I have to say that the Xiongguan built by the Qin State is quite famous in the Central Plains countries, and the reason is that there have been several military operations of various countries to jointly crusade against the Qin State before, all of which were blocked in front of the Hangu Pass, and it is difficult to advance an inch.

For example, in the two Five Kingdoms invasion of Qin organized by Gongsun Yan, the "rhino head", the coalition forces were all blocked in front of Hangu Pass.

It is no exaggeration to say that it was the unsuccessful actions of the various states that united to defeat the Qin State many times that made Hanguguan famous in the Central Plains.

It is worth mentioning that the alliance of the countries has achieved the reputation of Hangu Pass, and Hangu Pass has achieved the reputation of Tian Zhang, a famous general of Qi - after all, Tian Zhang is the only general of the Kwantung countries who broke through Hangu Pass.

However, when Meng Zhong saw Hangu Pass with his own eyes, he was more or less disappointed, because in his fantasy, Hangu Pass may be a Xiongguan with a city wall as high as dozens of zhang, but according to Meng Zhong's visual inspection, the city wall of Hangu Pass is probably only about three zhang, but the tower of the pass looks tall, about six or seven zhang high, which is very remarkable in terms of the world.

"It doesn't look like it's hard to conquer."

After observing for a while, Le Jin muttered beside him.

Just when Meng Zhong and the others were peeking at Hangu Pass from a distance, Rong Hao noticed that a chariot was slowly coming behind him, followed by a team of soldiers.

Rong Yan looked at it fixedly, and only then did he see clearly that the commander of the Korean army, Tyrant Kite, was standing on the chariot.

"Master Shuai, the big kite is here." Rong Yi immediately reminded Meng Zhongdao.

Meng Zhong glanced back, and when he saw that this was the case, he immediately stepped forward.

After a while, the chariot that the storm kite was riding stopped at the side of Meng Zhong and his party, and immediately, the storm kite got out of the carriage and greeted Meng Zhong.

"Da Sima."

Seeing the violent kite appear here, Meng Zhong originally thought that there was something important, but when he asked, the violent kite waved his hand and said with a smile: "Without him, I am just looking for my brother to have a drink." ”

Saying that, he explained briefly, it turned out that some time ago he was attacking the city and hurrying, and he couldn't get free, and now the army was approaching the Hangu Pass, and he couldn't help this Xiongguan for a while, so the storm kite came to Meng Zhong to drink.

He smiled and said to Meng Zhong: "When I arrived at your barracks, I saw Gongsun Zhu, and Gongsun Jian said to me, brother, you have come to Hangu Pass with a group of people...... Ha, do you want to see this Xiongguan? ”

When it comes to Hangu Pass, I have to say that the interest of the storm kite is very good, and it is no wonder, after all, since the completion of the Hangu Pass, the Central Plains countries have been blocked from attacking the Qin State several times under this Hangu Pass, and there are only three people in the whole world who enjoy the reputation of "breaking through this Xiongguan", one is Tian Zhang, one is Gongsun Xi, and the other is his storm kite.

Of course, Gongsun Xi and Storm Kite can get this honor, and they can't deny that they have to rely on Tian Zhang, as if he Storm Kite and Gongsun Xi are just stained with Tian Zhang's light, but Storm Kite doesn't care.

First, living to his age, in fact, is not much in the evaluation of unexpected people, and secondly, he and Gongsun Xi are indeed stained with Tian Zhang's light, which is nothing to deny - in terms of leading troops to fight, even if they are all called famous generals in the world, it must be admitted that Tian Zhang is indeed better than him and Gongsun Xi.

"Now that I have seen this Xiongguan with my own eyes, what does my brother say?" Storm Kite asked with a smile.

"How can I say it......" Meng Zhong hesitated for a moment, but finally said what he thought in his heart: "It's very different from the 'Hangu Pass' I imagined......"

Storm Kite turned his head to look at Meng Zhong with a little surprise, as if he had guessed something, and asked with a smile: "Brother, don't you think that this pass is actually not difficult to overcome?" ”

"Uh...... Not really. Meng Zhong hurriedly shook his head and denied it.

"In front of the elder brother, why should the elder brother be so restrained?" Storm Kite laughed and teased Meng Zhong, and immediately, he slowly restrained his smile and said, "But in fact, my brother thinks badly, and this pass is difficult to capture......"

As he spoke, he pointed to the Hangu Pass facing him, shook his head and said, "I don't mean that, it's just the first wall of Hangu Pass......"

"The first course?" Meng Zhong asked in surprise, "Isn't there several walls in Hangu Pass?" ”

"Three." The storm kite raised his right hand and stretched out two fingers, and Zhengse said: "There are two roads on this side of Hangu, one is an outer pass and one is an inner pass, and what we see at this moment is the 'outer gate', which is built next to the mountain over there...... Locals call these hills-like hills "塬", which look like hills, but in fact they are very different from ordinary hills, with steep surroundings and flat tops, like a high platform...... When I attacked this pass with Tian Zhang, the Qin people climbed up to those high plateaus one after another, condescendingly repelled our army with bows and crossbows, causing heavy losses to our side......"

"Does the tyrant mean that the Qin army was standing on those mountains called plateaus at the beginning?" Le Jin asked in surprise.

You must know that according to their visual observations, the mountains called the plateaus are very different in height, but even the lowest ones are probably more than 30 zhang, not to mention those that they can't see the top.

Imagining countless Qin army crossbowmen standing on those highlands of different heights, shooting arrows in front of Hangu Pass, Le Jin and the others suddenly felt shuddered.

"Exactly!"

Storm Kite glanced at Le Jin and the others with a smile, and then pointed to the pass in the distance and continued: "On the inside of this outer pass, on the side leading to the inner pass, there is a city, and there are people living in the city, most of them are the Qin army and their families stationed here, and there are also local ordinary civilians, maybe there are thousands of households, no less than a city. …… As for the inner pass, it is built in the narrowest place of the Han Valley, where the distance is only one or two zhang, and some places can only accommodate a chariot to accompany it, and the two walls are as high as dozens of zhang, if you can't find a suitable path, you can't climb it at all, but this narrow valley is continuous for dozens of miles, if you rashly break into this narrow valley, once the Qin people climb the high plateau of the two walls, condescending to shoot arrows, even if there are thousands of troops and horses, I am afraid that the whole army will be wiped out here......"

"I see."

After listening to the explanation of the violent kite, Meng Zhong suddenly realized: it turned out that the key to the reason why Hangu Pass was easy to defend and difficult to attack was not in those passes, but in the narrow and long Hangu Valley Road.

Thinking of this, he asked curiously: "Da Sima, how did you and my brother-in-law Tian Zhang break through this Hangu Pass back then?" ”

Hearing this, the violent kite smiled and whispered to Meng Zhong: "We found another way back then......

"Another way?"

"Ahh Straight to the top of these plateaus, so that the Qin army could not deploy crossbowmen on the plateau, and then broke through this pass in one go......" As he spoke, the storm kite glanced at the thoughtful Meng Zhong and said with a smile: "Don't think about it, the Qin people have suffered a loss once, how can they be defenseless?" I went to see it yesterday, and the Qin people had already fenced that area with a city wall, and it seems that they had deployed heavy troops......"

Speaking of this, he glanced at the Hangu Pass in the distance with a little melancholy, and let out a long breath.

At this time, Meng Zhong could probably understand the mood of the violent kite, but in fact, he also felt a little dazed at this time: what were they doing before coming to Guguan?!

In fact, according to Meng Zhong's idea, it would be enough for them to capture Yiyang with the alliance of Wei, Han and Zhou, but for some reason, whether it was Gongsun Zhi or Storm Kite, they all insisted on taking the army to Hangu Pass - it was almost impossible to capture this Xiongguan, wasn't it?

"For a demonstration!"

When Meng Zhong expressed the doubts in his heart, Storm Kite explained his confusion and said: "As you said, brother, our coalition army has suffered heavy losses this time, and the 300,000 coalition army has lost 160,000, and it is indeed impossible to have any chance to capture this Hangu Pass, but the weaker we are, the more we must behave strongly...... The elder brother may not know the Qin State, the Qin State has always bullied the weak and feared the hard......"

"Bullying the soft and afraid of the hard? Qin State? Meng Zhong's expression was really a little strange when he heard this.

As if guessing Meng Zhong's thoughts, Storm Kite smiled and said, "I'm talking about the Qin State, not the Qin people. The Qin people are indeed very brave, but the Qin state ...... has always been a bully and a fear of the hard, Tian Zhang is your brother-in-law, presumably brother, you also know your brother-in-law's battle for fame. ”

"Battle of Sancho?" Meng Zhong asked curiously.

"Hmm." Storm Kite nodded, and then said with a smile: "At that time, the Qin State had already undergone the Shang Emperor's reform, and the Qi State had become the two most powerful countries in the world, but after your brother Tian Zhang defeated the Qin State in the Battle of Sanqiu, the Qin State did not hesitate to bow down to the Qi State in order to make peace...... Do you think that the Qin State did not have the strength to continue the war with the Qi State at that time? No! The Qin State just didn't want to continue this war, they had already recognized the strength of the Qi State, and thought that it would be better to attack Wei and Han than to lose both the Qi State...... As a result, the king of Qin proclaimed himself the minister of the Western Domain of Qi, coaxed the state of Qi to make peace with the state of Qin, and stopped the war. ”

"How can you say it like King Qin is very shameless......

Meng Zhong looked at the storm kite with a strange expression.

But he still heard some clues from the words of the violent kite, that is, the monarch of the Qin State was very pragmatic, and the king of Qin at that time attached more importance to practical interests than meaningless false names.

A monarch who doesn't care about his face and only cares about the interests of the country, I have to say that this is actually terrifying......

Beside him, Storm Kite was still talking about his prejudices against Qin, at least to Meng Zhong.

“…… The Qin State has always been like this, when the Central Plains countries were strong, the Qin State retreated in Hangu Pass, and sent a Zhang Yi to destroy the unity of the countries, so that he could break through each of them. Later, the Central Plains countries were disorganized, and the Qin people swaggered out of Hangu Pass...... Alas, in the final analysis, it's still my three Jin hearts, otherwise why be afraid of the Qin State? Why be afraid of Qi Kingdom? ”

"Listen to him......

Glancing at the Storm Kite, Meng Zhong suddenly remembered something and asked the Storm Kite: "Da Sima, I heard Lord Zhao say when I was in Zhao that it is said that the three kingdoms of Zhao, Wei and Han intended to form an alliance at first, rejecting Qi in the east and Qin in the west, why did it end in the end?" ”

“……”

Hearing this, Storm Kite frowned slightly, but when he realized that it was Meng Zhong who asked this, his brow gradually relaxed.

After a moment of hesitation, he whispered to Meng Zhong: "This matter is a long story, let's go back to the camp first, and after returning to the camp, let's talk about this matter in detail while drinking." ”

"Good!"

Nodding, Meng Zhong and his party returned to the Wei camp with the storm kite.

After returning to the Wei camp, Meng Zhong took the violent kite to his residence, a small thatched hut that had only been built yesterday.

Meng Sui, Le Yi and others were interested, and saw that the violent kite was quite secretive when he mentioned the reason for the "discord between the three jins", so they each made a few excuses and left, after all, they were not very interested in the past of the three jins, not to mention, if it was an important matter, Meng Zhong would naturally tell them afterwards, why stay on the spot and make the violent kite feel uncomfortable?

As a result, only Storm Kite, Meng Zhong were left in the small thatched shed, and because he was young and ignorant, he only knew that the Three Jin Dynasty referred to Meng Ao of the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Zhao and Han, and stayed in the small thatched shed to fight and pour wine for Storm Kite and his brother Meng Zhong.

In front of Meng Zhong and Meng Ao, Storm Kite drank a bowl of wine, and then said with a satisfied face: "Yiyang's wine is really something I haven't drunk for some years...... My brother will try it too. ”

Meng Zhong nodded, just taste it, but it tasted good.

At this time, the violent kite glanced at Meng Ao, who was scooping wine for him, and said in a deep voice: "Sanjin wants to resolve grievances, but it is not so easy. My brother just asked me why the matter of the Sanjin alliance was not resolved, in fact, it was because of fear. For example, when Zhao's father first succeeded to the throne, Wei Gang, the king of Wei Hui, united Qin, Yan, Chu, Qi and other countries, trying to carve up the Zhao state......"

"Hmm."

Meng Zhong nodded and said, "As far as I know, at that time, only your country and the Song country supported the Zhao state. ”

"Huh." Storm Kite chuckled, shook his head and said, "Actually, I didn't support Zhao at that time, I just didn't want Zhao to fall. Between the state of Zhao and the state of Wei, our South Korea has always maintained neutrality......" Speaking of this, he looked up at Meng Zhong and said, "I guess my brother only knows that the state of Zhao was almost destroyed at that time, but he doesn't know that the state of Wei has encountered a similar situation. ”

"Huh?"

Meng Zhong was stunned, and then slowly shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.

"Sure enough." Storm Kite chuckled lightly, and then said: "Wei Hui, the king of Wei Hui, he has a great prejudice against Zhao Guo, because he once encountered a situation similar to that of Master Zhao. At that time, after the death of Marquis Wu of Wei, the prince Wei Gang and the son Wei Huan competed for the throne, and Wei Huan ran to Zhao State, hoping that Zhao Chenghou would help him regain the throne...... All in all, in the end, Zhao and Han sent troops to attack Wei. But who is Zhao Chenghou? That was the person who moved the royal capital from Jinyang to Handan, did he really help Wei Gongzi? Of course not, he just wanted to take the opportunity to swallow the West River, Hedong and other places in the Wei State...... Well, of course, I was in Korea at the same time. All in all, at that time, Zhao Chenghou advocated killing the king of Wei, making the son Wei Chuan the king, and asking Wei to cede land to Zhao and Han, while our South Korea advocated dividing Wei into two, because of this incident, Han and Zhao finally failed to reach an agreement, and our Korean army was evacuated from Wei overnight, and then, Zhao Chenghou had to withdraw his troops...... Now the elder brother should understand, why does Wei Wangfu hate Zhao Guo, right? ”

“……”

Taking a sip of the wine, Meng Zhong nodded slightly.

Also, he was almost killed by Zhao Chenghou, how could Wei Wangfu not hate Zhao Guo?

At this time, the violent kite said: "Almost losing his life is one thing, and second, Wei was gradually weakened at that time, while Zhao was gradually strong under the governance of Zhao Chenghou, even after Zhao Chenghou passed away, Zhao Suhou succeeded to the throne, and Zhao's national strength became stronger and stronger...... When Zhao's father succeeded to the throne, Wei Wangfu was also old, and he was afraid that his descendants would not be Zhao's opponents, so he hoped to overthrow Zhao in his lifetime. ”

After a pause, he continued: "But I don't want this in South Korea, whether it's Wei or Zhao, I don't want any of them to fall, saying that "the three Jin Dynasty are like brothers and sisters, and it is not suitable to fight in the same room", this is purely self-deception, and the main thing is to check and balance...... If either of the Wei and Zhao countries were to fall, wouldn't our South Korea have to face another 'brother' who was even stronger? ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong nodded slightly: It is indeed a wise choice.

"The three Jin are not in agreement, mainly because they are afraid of each other, Wei has dominated the Central Plains for nearly a hundred years, Zhao is not far behind, and I also want to taste what it is like to be a hegemon, and I am Korean, hahahaha......" At the end, the violent kite laughed, with a little self-deprecation in his laughter.

After all, in the "infighting" between Zhao and Wei, South Korea said nicely to remain neutral, but in fact, it united with weak countries to clamp down on the strong countries, Wei was weak to help Wei, and Zhao was weak to help Zhao, in short, they didn't want Wei and Zhao to annex each other, so as not to be annexed by either country in the end.

It is precisely because of the perennial calculation of each other that the three kingdoms of Wei, Zhao and Han do not trust each other, so it is not so easy to promote the alliance of Wei, Zhao and Han.

“…… It is not easy to promote the union of the Three Jins, but if this matter can be promoted, the Three Jin will not be afraid of Qin Qi! It's a pity...... Alas! ”

At the end, the storm kite sighed and poured himself a bowl of wine in a wistful manner.

Looking at the violent kite, which was a little stuffy, Meng Zhong thought thoughtfully.

In all fairness, in this matter, he is not clear for the time being what position he should stand on, whether to support the Sanjin alliance or boycott it.

From the perspective of the interests of the Song State, when the Song State and the Zhao State were united, the Wei State was naturally the enemy of the Song State because of its proximity to the Qi State.

But now, the Song had broken its alliance with Zhao and concluded an alliance with Wei, whose greatest enemy was Qin, who was a potential ally of Song.

I have to say that the relationship is really complicated.

After pondering for a while, Meng Zhong suddenly smiled self-deprecatingly, feeling that he might be too idle to think about this kind of question.

With this time, let's think about what is in front of you......

Get!

I didn't have to think about what was in front of me, with the current state of their coalition army, it was almost impossible to pose any threat to the Qin State.

"Looks like it's really too idle......

Shaking his head self-deprecatingly, Meng Zhong put all these nonsense behind him, but for some reason, the sentence "Three Jin Alliance" made Meng Zhong feel quite interesting.

Perhaps this is because after the union of the Three Jin Dynasty, it may have a strength no less than that of the old powerful country "Jin State", which is enough to intervene between Qin and Qi and become the third powerful force in the world.

But it's a pity that at present, Zhao Guo and Qi Guo have come together, and it is not an easy task to pull Zhao Guo back to the camp of the Three Jins.

But if it can be done, it will weaken the Qi State in disguise......

『……』

Glancing at the violent kite that was pouring wine on the other side, Meng Zhong's heart suddenly rose a little urgently.

He was desperate to become the Hedong Shou of Wei, and if he sat in this position, he would have a certain right to speak, and when the time came, he would not be able to put pressure on Zhao with the Storm Kite and force Zhao to return to the camp of the Three Jin Dynasty - at least he could not ask Zhao to assist Qi to attack him Song.

Fortunately, in this battle, he has won the trust of Gongsun Jian, Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Fei Hui and other Hedong generals, and has also made enough merits, as long as this battle is over......

The question is, when will this battle end?

Will the Qin State really be as soft as the violent kite said?

To be honest, Meng Zhong was not sure about this.

And just when Meng Zhong was speculating about Qin's attitude, Bai Qi had already led the remnants of the army back to Qin.

Due to the endless harassment and pursuit of the cavalry led by Menghu, Huahu, and Mu Wu, Bai Qi had no chance to return to Hangu Pass, but returned to Qin from "Wuguan".

After returning to the territory of Qin, he led the defeated army to station in the area of Lantian County, and at the same time sent people to deliver news to Xianyang, waiting for the fate of Xianyang.

Only two days later, Marquis Wei Ran came to Lantian County in person.

Seeing Wei Ran again, Bai Qi clenched his fists and knocked on the ground, and said with a face full of shame: "Bai Qi has lived up to the expectations of the marquis, and the crime deserves death!" ”

However, Wei Ran, the marquis, helped Bai Qi up with a smile on his face, and said with a smile: "In the first battle, he defeated 300,000 Wei and Han coalition troops, beheaded 160,000, and captured and killed Xi Wu, which severely damaged the spirit of Wei, if you are still guilty like this, how do you want other generals to deal with themselves?" ”

I have to say that Wei Ran was satisfied enough with Bai Qi's exploits in this battle, and the fly in the ointment was that the two cities of Yiyang and Xincheng were taken by the Wei and Han coalition forces, which made his Qin State's strategy of "eastward expansion into the Central Plains" suffer greatly.

However, there was something that made Wei Ran quite curious: it was clear that the Wei and Han coalition forces had been defeated by Bai Qi at that time, why could they finally counter such talents as Bai Qi?

Hearing this, Bai Qi said in a deep voice: "Meng Zhong." …… There was a general in the Wei army named Meng Zhong, who was about the same age and talent as the next, and it was this man who single-handedly turned the tide of victory and defeat......"

As he spoke, he told the Marquis Wei Ran about how Meng Zhong countered his Qin army in Yique Mountain that day, and only heard Wei Ran's surprise.

You must know that Wei Ran's expectations for Bai Qi are very high, he once felt that there was no general in the world who could compare with Bai Qi, but he didn't expect that there was a talent comparable to Bai Qi in the Wei army.

"Meng Zhong."

Brushing his beard, Wei Ran secretly remembered this name in his heart, and immediately, seeing that Bai Qi's expression was still a little apprehensive, he smiled and said with relief: "Don't worry, although the coalition army has taken Yiyang, I have already lost Sima and sat in Hangu Pass, with this person in Hangu Pass, it will be difficult for the Wei and Han coalition forces to enter the ......."

Hearing this, Bai raised his fists and said, "I implore you to go to Hangu Pass, and ask the Marquis to give me a chance to wash away my shame." ”

Seeing this, Wei Ran chuckled and shook his head and said: "It's not that I won't give you a chance, it's just that the Wei and Han coalition forces have recaptured Yiyang and Xincheng this time, and the momentum is flourishing, so it is not appropriate to stalemate with them again, so the Queen Mother has decided to make peace with Wei and Han for the time being, and start to solve our old feud first......"

"Feud? Chu? ”

Bai Qi's expression was a little strange, after all, in the strict sense, (Xuan) Empress Dowager, Wei Ran, Xiang Shou, and Bai Qi are all half of the Chu people.

"Hmm." Wei Ran nodded, lowered his voice and said: "The Queen Mother doesn't want the Chu State to regard my Qin State as an enemy again, since Wei and Han have the upper hand now, I simply try to make the Chu State surrender to my Great Qin, as long as the Chu State surrenders, it will naturally be much easier to send troops to fight against Wei and Han in the future......" Saying that, he patted Bai Qi's shoulder and said with a smile: "Take a good rest for a while, I have recommended to the Queen Mother that you lead the army to crusade against the Chu State." ”

Hearing this, Bai Qi perked up: "Oh! ”

Suddenly, as if he had thought of something, he clenched his fists and pleaded: "Marquis, for the sake of the future, I hope to form a cavalry ......."

"Cavalry?"

Wei Ran looked at Bai Qi in surprise.

"Yes, cavalry!"

Bai Qi nodded heavily, his face full of seriousness.

I have to say that this war did not impress him much, probably only two were the most impressive.

One is the Wei general named Meng Zhong, and the other is the cavalry under Meng Zhong.

He suffered a lot from both.