As the sky gradually became brighter, Bai Qi and others slowly marched towards Wancheng under the protection of Jin Kuang Army.

Along the way, Jin Kuang joined forces with the generals Changchi and others under Sima Cuo, which doubled the number of the Qin army. Seeing this, Wei general Hua Hu completely gave up the idea of ​​harassing the Qin army. Following Meng Zhong's instructions, he just followed the Qin army from afar and watched them slowly heading towards Wancheng.

During this period, a general under his command asked in confusion: "Sima, will you just let this Qin army return to Wancheng? If he retreated to Wancheng and had the city wall as a support, it would be even more difficult for our army to defeat him again?... Why didn't the city order hurry to lead the army to catch up with the Qin army and intercept the Qin army here?"

Hearing this, Hua Hu said seriously: "The Qin army has been defeated, and even if it retreats to Wancheng, it will only last forever... I can roughly guess the intention of the city order. In short, I don't want to fight with the Qin army anymore, and hope to use tricks to defeat this Qin army."

Yes, although Hua Hu was very reckless in fighting, he had also read the art of war, so he naturally guessed that Meng Zhong let Sima Cuo's army retreat to Wancheng in order to trap the Qin army here. If he had expected it was not bad, then his Wei army would siege Huiwancheng without attacking him, and instead sent cavalry to harass Wuguan and cut off the food route from Wuguan to Wancheng.

In this case, even if Sima Cuo's army was intact before, it would have to follow Bai Qi's footsteps because of being trapped in the lonely city and running out of food and grass, and was defeated by his Wei army.

Because of this, the tens of thousands of Qin soldiers in the distance were actually no different from the dead in Hua Hu's eyes.

Two hours later, about Si Shi, Bai Qi, Jin Kuang, Wu Rong and others arrived in Wancheng slowly.

When he saw the city wall in the distance, Sima Jin breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Bai Qi and said, "Ship Bai, we finally arrived in Wancheng."

“…”

Bai Qi nodded slightly, but had no intention of answering the conversation.

He turned his head and looked behind him, and under his frown brows, a little gloom appeared on his eyes.

I remember that the night he evacuated from Fangcheng, he had more than 20,000 soldiers under his command, but Ji Hong estimated that there were less than 2,000 soldiers and soldiers who followed him to Wancheng, and one out of ten were not left.

After being chased by the Wei army for one day and two nights, nearly 18,000 people under his command were either missing or killed by the Wei army. In this case, it was still a blessing for the generals under Jin Kuang, Wu Rong and other Sima Cuo to lead the army to rescue him. Otherwise, even these two thousand people would not be left.

"Boom--"

When the army arrived at the East City Gate of Wancheng, the city gate slowly opened.

Sima Jin looked at the city gate tower and whispered in surprise: "Grandfather, grandfather is on the city tower."

“…”

Bai Qi subconsciously raised his head and looked at the city gate tower. Sure enough, he saw Sima Cuo standing on the city wall wearing armor, exactly the same as his memory.

He looked up at Sima Cuo, who also stood on the city tower and looked at him, as well as the Qin soldiers behind him who looked miserable.

"I heard from the people sent by Jin Kuang that Bai Qi's army is only two thousand left..."

Beside, Sima Cuo's guard Ding Bao whispered: "I didn't expect that even that Bai Zuo Geng would fall to this level."

Hearing this, Sima glared at him incorrectly and said in a deep voice: "Don't talk nonsense!"

After saying that, he turned around and walked towards the stairs of the city wall.

When he walked down the stairs of the city wall, Bai Qi was entering from outside the city in a chariot. Seeing this, he took the initiative to walk forward.

At this time, Bai Qi had also noticed that Sima Cuo was walking towards him. After instructing the soldiers driving to stop the chariot, he got off the chariot, stood with his fists, and looked at Sima Cuo with a complicated look.

Looking at Bai Qi with a look of something wrong, Sima nodded, and said nothing more. He just invited Bai Qi to go to the city gate with him to discuss matters.

A moment later, Bai Qi and Sima Jin followed Sima Cuo to the city gate tower.

As he walked into the building, Bai Qi smelled the aroma of broth. After a closer look, he saw that the meat of an unknown animal was boiled in the copper cauldron in the building, and the meat was fragrant.

"It was a deer caught by the patrol soldiers, and I presented it to me... Please." After a casual explanation, Sima mistakenly asked Bai Qi to sit on the table, and then ordered the guard Ding Bao to get a few pieces of deer meat to satisfy Bai Qi's hunger.

At this time, Bai Qi had not yet entered the rice for a day and night. He was hungry. When he saw the meat in front of him, he was not polite. He didn't care about the hotness, so he tore off a few pieces of meat with his hands and stuffed it into his mouth.

Sima Jin saw it next to him and said embarrassedly: "Grandfather..."

Sima glanced at his grandson, turned his head and signaled Ding Bao with his eyes. Ding Bao understood and pulled Sima Jin away from the fifth building.

I don’t know what he said to Sima Jin during this period, but Sima Jin was very fast. I thought Sima Cuo prepared a more sumptuous meal for his grandson in advance.

At this time, only Bai Qi chewed meat and blew his breath when he was scalded. Apart from that, Bai Qi didn't say a word.

Sima Cuo was not in a hurry, and slowly drank a bowl of broth, from time to time, he looked up at Bai Qi, looking at the latter's voracious look.

After a full moment, Bai Qi threw the bones in his hand on the table in front of him, and then smacked his lips and looked at the old national lieutenant in front of him with a complicated expression.

"Why don't you retreat to Wuguan?"

As if he was not at all aware of being rescued by Sima Cuo, Bai Qi said with a calm face: "Meng Zhong, Zhai Zhang's army will arrive in Wancheng immediately, and they will trap you in this city. Then Meng Zhong used his old tricks again and sent troops to cut off the food route from Wuguan to Wancheng. Even if there are still tens of thousands of troops under the command of the National Guard, it is destined to be difficult to defend for a long time..."

There was a little excitement on his face because he felt that Sima's mistaken approach made his sacrifice meaningless.

Facing Bai Qi's almost questioning questioning, Sima Cuo had no intention of being angry at all. He said slowly: "Don't Bai Zuo Geng's words feel prejudice? Just as you made an agreement with me before, how did Bai Zuo Geng decide in Fangcheng? I will not interfere, but I also have my own judgment on my own, so it's not the turn of Bai Zuo Geng to point fingers..."

Bai Qi sneered twice and said, "In order to save only two thousand people, he will be 60,000 troops. Does the National Guard think it is worth it? If it were me, I would not have sent troops to rescue him..."

Hearing this, Sima Cuo was not angry and said with a smile: "That's Bai Zuo Geng's business... I have half of the people who have been buried in the soil, even if Bai Zuo Geng doesn't send troops to rescue him, it will be fine."

“…”

Bai Qi looked at Sima Cuo several times, then sighed and said, "Bai... I don't know what to say."

After saying that, he hesitated for a while, and finally whispered: "Anyway, thank you for sending troops to rescue me."

Sima was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I am not saving you, but a good general of my Qin Dynasty, so Bai Zuo doesn't have to take it seriously." After that, he looked at Bai Qi and asked, "If Bai Zuogeng's emotions calm down, then I will talk about the serious business."

“…”

Bai Qi took a deep look at Sima Cuo.

I remember that when he first got along, he looked down on this veteran general, but as the two gradually got along, Sima Cuo's ability to lead troops to fight was ignored. At least the veteran's character and loyalty to Qin and the King of Qin really made Bai Qi admire him.

Thinking of this, he nodded and said, "Bai has lost his composure..."

Seeing that Bai Qi's mood calmed down, Sima Cuo nodded with satisfaction and then asked seriously: "According to the letter you sent, Zhai Zhang had previously led his army to Yangguan and met with Meng Zhong. So according to your estimate, how many troops does the Wei army have in total now?"

Bai Qi thought for a while and said, "According to what I saw when I attacked Yangguan a few days ago, combined with my guess, the Wei army now has a total of about 100,000 troops..."

"Is it a hundred thousand?" Sima Cuo frowned.

The Wei army had 100,000 troops, plus Bao Yuan's at least 50,000 troops. In other words, the Wei and Han coalition forces had a total of 150,000 troops, while the Qin army now only had 60,000 troops under his command.

As Bai Qi said, trapping Wancheng under such circumstances is not a wise choice.

Of course, Sima Chou did not regret it.

As the saying goes, it is easy to get one general in the three armies. If a good general like Bai Qi is killed by the Wei army in this battle, it will be the heaviest loss of Qin, just as Wei lost Gongsun Xi.

The two were chatting, and suddenly, a soldier outside the building shouted: "National lieutenant, Wei army! Wei army has arrived!"

Hearing this, Sima Cuo and Bai Qi immediately walked out of the building, stood at the city gate at the east gate and looked into the distance. They saw countless Wei troops slowly coming to the east, stationed on the spot about three or four miles away from Wancheng.

During this period, a group of cavalry approached Wancheng, either standing on horses to peek at the Qin army on the city wall, or straddling horses to run straight west.

"It's Meng Zhong's Fangcheng Army." Bai Qi said in a low voice.

"Well." Sima Cuo nodded slightly, then looked into the distance and said, "This little force is probably less than 100,000. It seems that Zhai Zhang's army has not yet arrived here..."

Hearing this, Bai Qi said with a deep sorrow: "When Zhai Zhang's army arrives, it is probably time for the Wei and Han alliance forces to jointly siege Wancheng..."

Sima Cuo naturally understood what Qi meant and said calmly: "For the sake of the present, we can only stick to Wancheng and wait for reinforcements. By the way, I have sent someone to ask for help from Xianyang..."

Speaking of this, he couldn't help but glance at the Wei army far outside the city, and he couldn't help but feel a little worried.

What are you worried about?

Naturally, I was worried about whether I could wait until reinforcements arrived.

After all, the Wei and Han armies they faced this time were different from the previous Wei army, and were no less than the Qi, Wei and Han coalition forces of Tian Zhang, Gongsun Xi and Bao Yuan.

However, the core figure of the Qin, Wei and Han coalition forces was Tian Zhang, a famous general of Qi, and now the core figure of the Wei and Han coalition forces was Meng Zhong, a young Wei general.

On that day, the Wei army was not unmoved, but was busy building camps and building mud walls in the Wancheng area to prepare for the siege of Wancheng.

It is worth mentioning that when the troops stationed in Baoyuan, about fifteen miles northwest of Wancheng, discovered the whereabouts of Fangcheng cavalry appeared in Wancheng area, he immediately guessed that Meng Zhong had led his army to chase him, so he immediately tried to contact Meng Zhong.

That night, Baoyuan personally came to the Wei army's camp and met Meng Zhong.

After some greetings, Meng Zhong asked Bao Yuan, "Can you stop Sima Cuo's army?"

Hearing this, Bao Yuan was really embarrassed.

After all, according to Meng Zhong, the Wei army had almost wiped out Bai Qi's army. On the other hand, the Korean army, not to mention how serious casualties caused to the army led by Sima Cuo, he was defeated by Sima Cuo once. Although the losses were not serious, it was really unreasonable on his face.

He explained awkwardly: "At that time, Sima Cuo might have guessed that Brother Yu would lead the army to pursue him when he withdrew his troops, so he used the plan and set up an ambush. Brother Yu was confused for a moment and hurriedly withdrew his troops after seeing him as he was ambushed, but Sima Cuo escaped..."

When Meng Zhong heard this, he was also a little speechless.

He also did not expect that under such circumstances, the army led by Bao Yuan would be dumped by Sima Cuo.

It was precisely because of this link that when Meng Hu and Cao Chun led three thousand cavalry to Wancheng along the Niuwei Slope, they found that the army of Changchi, the general under Sima Cuo had already been stationed at the valley entrance, so that the three thousand cavalry could not cut off Bai Qi's return as scheduled.

Otherwise, if Sima Cuo failed to station troops in Wancheng in time, Bai Qi's defeated army would be difficult for him to escape from the pursuit of the five thousand cavalry under Menghu and Huahu.

But now that things have come to this point, it is useless to pursue the matter. What's more, Sima Cuo and Bai Qi are trapped in Wancheng by them, and there is still room for recovery.

Thinking of this, he comforted Bao Yuan and said, "Brother, don't care. As long as the next step, the two armies of Wei and Han join forces to siege Wancheng, they will definitely defeat the Qin army and capture Sima Cuo, Bai Qi and others."

Seeing Meng Zhong reversing his siege, Bao Yuan was also a little grateful and nodded and said, "Okay, Brother Yu, everything is my brother. Our Wei and Han armies work together and will definitely defeat the Qin army again!"

After returning to his camp that night, Bao Yuan ordered someone to send some wine to Meng Zhong.

The next day, around noon, Zhai Zhang led tens of thousands of troops to slowly arrive in this area.

After instructing the troops under his command to rest for a while, Zhai Zhang took Meng Zhong to Wancheng to spy on the movements of the Qin army.

During this period, Zhai Zhang asked Meng Zhong: "Sima Cuo's army is now in Wancheng? How many troops are there?"
To be continued...