In late February of the seventh year of King Wei, the Battle of Xihe broke out in the Qin, Wei and Han Kingdoms. In just half a month, the scale of the battle between the Qin army and the Wei and Han coalition forces quickly expanded from a small-scale battle of hundreds to a fierce battle of nearly 10,000 people. Even in Linjin and Zheng County, a river crossing battle of more than 10,000 people broke out in Linjin and Zheng County. The Qin army tried to break into Hedong County of Wei from Linjin and forced the Wei army to surrender; while the Wei army tried to break into Xihe County from Zheng County and Yinjin into Xihe County. On the one hand, it threatened Xianyang with the momentum, and on the other hand, it cut off the return of Linjin and Qin troops. The mutual restraint of these two armies caused the entire battlefield to fall into the quagmire of war.

Almost every moment, the Qin army and the Wei and Han coalition forces fought on this land, winning and losing each other.

At this time, there were about 60,000 Wei troops on this battlefield, including about 30,000 troops led by Gongsun Shu, the former Hedong Guard, and more than 30,000 troops under Bao Yuan, totaling about 100,000.

However, this force is not at all superior to the Qin army.

Just as Wei Ran, the Marquis of Rang, said a while ago when "intimidating" Meng Zhong and others, Qin did burst out with a terrible recruitment speed in the face of national crisis. From last winter to the beginning of this year, the Qin State recruited 50,000 troops one after another. Of course, most of them were civilians, slaves, and foreign soldiers like the Yiqu people. In general, the combat effectiveness was of varying quality. Sometimes, when facing the Wei and Han Allied Forces, they could also exert the combat effectiveness that shocked the enemy, but more than half of them were inevitably defeated by the Wei and Han Allied Forces.

There is nothing we can do about this. After all, the training of these Qin recruits was too hasty. They were just taught how to use weapons and were immediately sent to the battlefield.

As the saying goes, knowing oneself and knowing one's enemy, you will never be defeated in a hundred battles. Commanding such an army of mixed quality is like Sima Cuo, Bai Qi, Xiang Shou, Huayang Jun Mi Rong and other Qin generals all felt a headache because they could not accurately estimate the exact combat effectiveness of their troops, so it was difficult to formulate matching tactics.

But even so, the Qin army, which has exceeded 150,000 people, will not be underestimated.

More importantly, the Qin army with a population of 150,000 was not the bottom line of Qin. The Qin country was still mobilizing troops from all over the country to recruit new soldiers from all over the country.

At this point, the Wei and Han Allied Forces did not have such headaches. After all, the Wei and Han Allied Forces, namely the Hedong Army, the Han Army, and the Fangcheng Army, which were commanded by Meng Zhong at this moment, can almost be called elites with rich combat experience. The problem is that many ants bite the elephant to death. Qin recruited a large number of new recruits to fight with him, resulting in the Wei and Han Allied Forces that often fell into hard battles due to the huge gap in the forces between the two sides, and even suffered casualties that exceeded expectations.

Under such circumstances, Meng Zhong could only take the defensive moment and wait for reinforcements from both Wei and Han countries.

In mid-March, under the recommendation of the prime minister Zhongmin, King Han once again appointed his younger brother, Gong Zhonggao as a general and sent the latter to lead troops to reinforce Yin Jin.

In this matter, Gong Zhonggao was unwilling to accept it because he had vowed not to be used by King Han for his whole life, but his elder brother Gong Zhongmin said: "Yangchengjun is your friend. Don't you want to help him with the help of him? What's more, now it's the time when I use people in Korea. If you can help the king without grudges, then if you have any requests in the future, the king may also make a fuss about your contributions... Think about the lice and think about the young young master, do you have to watch the old lord return to your homeland in your whole life?"

The youngest son he mentioned was Han Fei, the son of the lice-loving young master.

After hearing this, Gong Zhongqiu asked his brother suspiciously: "Yenchengjun is my close friend. Since he needs help, I am naturally willing to help him... Brother, can you really convince the King of Han to welcome the two brothers and sons of the lice?"

Gong Zhongmin thought for a while and said, "You can try it for me, brother."

After hearing this, Gong Zhonggao pondered for a moment and finally accepted the condition.

A few days later, Gong Zhonggao led 20,000 Korean troops to Yinjin.

Mo Du felt that South Korea was stingy and sent only 20,000 people to reinforce Yin Jin. This was impossible. After all, when the Battle of Yiyang began more than 20 years ago, South Korea was retreating in the war against the invasion of Qin, losing many troops every year. Meng Zhong had estimated that South Korea could use no more than 100,000 troops.

Of course, this refers to South Korea's army in Henan, and in Hebei, that is, South Korea's Shangdang County, South Korea, there are several objective armies, with a total of about 30,000 to 40,000 people.

Following the order of King Ju of Han, the Han army of Shangdang, which had about 30,000 to 40,000 people, left 5,000 troops to station in Changzicheng to prevent Zhao State. The remaining troops were mobilized to Wusui and Linfen, and then entered the Hedong County of Wei State in the southwest to help Hedong County defend the front and resist the invasion of the Qin army.

At the same time, the Henei Wei army under the command of the Wei Grand Marshal Zhai Zhang also quickly moved westward. Except for the Wei general Tang Zhi continued to guard Yecheng to prevent Zhao from taking advantage of the situation, the other local garrisons such as Jiao Ge led their troops to reinforce Hedong County.

It is no exaggeration to say that not only is Qin gradually launching a war of swaying the country, but Wei and Han are also trying their best to mobilize all available troops to gather these troops in Hedong County.

It is worth mentioning that during the period, the envoys from Wei and Han countries also sent envoys to the Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou countries, hoping that the two Zhou countries would send troops to assist. The number of troops sent does not matter, the key lies in their status.

To be honest, if there was no Qin State or South Korea's urgency, these two Zhou State did not want to participate in the war between the vassal states. After all, both of these countries were fighting due to the "orthodox" issue. How could there be free time to take care of the affairs of the vassal states? The key is that they can't control it either.

However, due to the coercion of the envoys of Wei and Han, the two Zhou countries, the Western Zhou Dynasty and Eastern Zhou Dynasty, dared not disobey, and reluctantly sent an army of about 3,000 people. In late March, the two Zhou army and the 20,000 Korean troops led by Gong Zhongchong arrived in Yinjin.

Meng Zhong was very happy that Gong Zhongqi led his army to help him. Not to mention his friendship with Gong Zhongqi. You should know that Gong Zhongqi himself is a genius who can command troops outside and govern the country inside. Even his brother, the prime minister of South Korea, has repeatedly admitted that his talent is not as good as his younger brother.

"How could sir come with the army of the second week?"

After the greetings, Meng Zhong asked in surprise.

Gong Zhonggao smiled and said, "I happened to meet him on the way, so I came to help you. However, you'd better not expect them to help you..."

Meng Zhong nodded.

Of course he understood that the army of the two Zhou dynasties mainly played a legitimate role in attacking Qin.

Putting aside the role of status, the thousands of troops sent by the second week alone cannot help this war to be honest.

After thinking about it, Meng Zhong asked Gong Zhong extravagantly: "Did you ever write any manifesto to denounce Qin in the second Zhou Dynasty?"

"I knew you would ask." Gong Zhong smiled and took out a manifesto from his arms and handed it to Meng Zhong.

Meng Zhong spread it out and took a closer look, but was not very satisfied.

How to say it, it may be that the two Zhou Dynasty did not want to offend Qin too much, so that the manifesto they wrote to fight against Qin seemed soft and had no momentum.

So Meng Zhong simply wrote an article himself, from the beginning of Qin to the present, which was mixed with criticism of Qin. For example, Qin Feiren, the ancestor of Qin, was just a horseman who raised horses for the King of Zhou at first, but because he received the reward from the King of Zhou, he was fortunate to be enthroned as a vassal state. But after the Zhou royal family was in decline and Qin rose up, Qin not only did not help the Zhou royal family to support the country, but actually tried to become emperor and wanted to replace the Zhou royal family, but was actually a thief that everyone in the world was evil.

The general meaning is this, but it is also mixed with many tones and accusations and humiliations of Qin.

When Meng Zhong was writing, Gong Zhonggao stood by and watched. As he looked, cold sweat oozed out of Gong Zhonggao's forehead.

In general, this manifesto has gorgeous rhetoric and high-sounding words, but if you look closely, it is actually full of insults in Qin State. The sharp words make Gong Zhonggao secretly worry for the Qin people. The monarchs and ministers of Qin State were afraid that they would be angry to death on the spot when they saw this manifesto?

After smacking his lips and thinking for a while, Gong Zhong praised vaguely: "It is written...well, very sharp, as if it is a sharp blade that can kill people. It is worthy of being a disciple taught by the saint..."

Hearing this, Meng Zhong read the manifesto he wrote throughout the article and immediately said embarrassedly: "Brother Gong Zhong, please don't want the external essay. I don't want my teacher's reputation to be damaged..."

Seeing Meng Zhong's somewhat worried look, Gong Zhong laughed out loud, and after snatching the manifesto, he began to think about it carefully.

That night, Meng Zhongyan invited two generals from Zhou State to lead troops. One he did not recognize, while the other he recognized was Zhou Zu, the Grand Sima of the Eastern Zhou State who fought against the Qin army with his Wei and Han alliance forces during the Battle of Yique.

Perhaps because of his previous fight, Zhou Zu was quite familiar in front of Meng Zhong, and he spoke in the same way as if he had had a friendship with Meng Zhong for several years.

But in fact, Meng Zhong had seen him, but Zhou Zu never even saw Meng Zhong. Because in the early stage of the Battle of Yique, Meng Zhong was just a commander under Gongsun Xi, so how could he have the chance to see Zhou Zu? After Bai Qi defeated the Wei and Han armies, the army of the Eastern Zhou Kingdom was also defeated by the impact. At that time, Zhou Zu thought that the situation was too great, so he left his troops and fled back to the Eastern Zhou Kingdom.

Interestingly, it was because everyone in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was in danger. When Korean football fled back to the country, they discussed with the monarch and ministers how to win the forgiveness of Qin. Unexpectedly, before they had discussed a specific solution, Meng Zhong turned the tide in Yique and stopped the collapse of the Wei and Han coalition forces.

The Eastern Zhou Kingdom escaped the disaster and never settled the accounts after the Qin Kingdom.

Of course, although I had never met Meng Zhong in person, Zhou Zu was not unfamiliar with Meng Zhong's reputation. Zhou Zu also knew that Meng Zhong would definitely be Zhai Zhang's successor in the future, with outstanding abilities and extraordinary status, just like Pang Juan during the reign of King Hui of Wei.

Faced with Zhou Zu's efforts to win over and show favor, Meng Zhong did not refuse. After all, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty could not pose any threat to Wei and Han, and the second reason was that the world was nominally the Zhou Dynasty's world. If you have a good relationship with the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, you will definitely not be wrong.

After getting close to Zhou Zu politely, Meng Zhong took out the manifesto he wrote to fight against Qin and said to Zhou Zu with a smile: "If the Grand Sima can announce the world in the name of Zhou, it will be a big help."

Zhou Zu took the manifesto curiously and looked at it. Then he was so shocked that he was so scared that he was so scared that he was so angry that he asked Meng Zhong in surprise: "I wonder which gentleman did this manifesto?"

Hearing this sentence, Gong Zhongqiu, who was at the banquet, burst into laughter and was about to see how Meng Zhong answered.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong 'betrayed' Gong Zhong' without hesitation: "It was written by Mr. Gong Zhong."

Hearing this, Zhou Zu immediately respected Gong Zhongqiu: "It turned out to be Mr. Gong Zhong..."

"No, it's not me, I don't..."

Gong Zhong widened his eyes and was so angry that he couldn't speak by Meng Zhong's shameless behavior.

Of course, this is just a teasing between friends. In the end, Meng Zhong and Gong Zhonggao insisted that it was written by a certain "anonymous man".

In fact, Zhou Zu didn't care who wrote this manifesto at all. He cared about it. The words of this manifesto against Qin were too sharp. If it were announced on the behalf of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, it would be very likely to be targeted by Qin. But when he thought about it, Zhou Zu couldn't directly reject Meng Zhong. After all, the current momentum of the Wei and Han coalition forces is actually not inferior to Qin.

After thinking about it, Zhou Zu said to Meng Zhong privately: "If your country is willing to recognize our Gongcheng as the orthodox Zhou State of Zhou, support (East) Duke Zhou to welcome the king from Luoyang (Western Zhou State), and help our Zhou State attack the pseudo Zhou State, our Zhou State is willing to issue this manifesto to the world on behalf of your country."

Meng Zhong was about to speak, but he noticed that Gong Zhonggao shook his head slightly to him, and said to Zhou Zu: "I'll consider it."

Afterwards, Meng Zhong and Gong Zhongqi discussed it.

According to Gong Zhonggao, the two Zhou countries were united together, which was something that all the princes in the world were happy to see. After all, both Zhou countries believed that they were orthodox and fought for the King of Zhou, so naturally they did not have the leisure to interfere in the affairs of the various vassal states in the Central Plains. If the two Zhou countries were combined into one, the Zhou countries might be used by hostile countries and become tools to denounce Wei and Han. At that time, it would be difficult for both Wei and Han countries to reverse the disadvantages of public opinion.

Meng Zhong suddenly realized it, and then asked Gong Zhong again: "What should I do with this manifesto?"

"This matter is simple." Gong Zhongqiu offered advice: "I will meet the Zhou Cheng of the Western Zhou Dynasty and tell him the whole story of Zhou Zu. If the Western Zhou Dynasty does not want me, Wei and Han, to help the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, then I will publish this manifesto for me... I will leave this matter to me."

Meng Zhong nodded: "Then please sir."

Facts have proved that Gong Zhongchao, the prime minister, really had the means. The next afternoon, Zhou Zu of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and Zhou Cheng of the Western Zhou Dynasty agreed to help Meng Zhong issue this manifesto. As for the conditions, the two Zhou countries did not want Wei and Han countries to interfere in their internal affairs in the future.

Of course there is no problem with this, Meng Zhong responded in one go.

It has to be said that under the promotion of the two Zhou countries, this manifesto soon spread throughout the Yinjin area, and during this period it also reached the ears of Wei Ran, the Marquis of Rang, who was staying in Yinjin.

Wei Ran found a complete manifesto, and after looking carefully, his scalp was so numb.

Because in this manifesto, both Zhou states admitted that the five-nation coalition forces and the Wei and Han armies of the attack on Qin were just acts, but his Qin's resistance and resistance became the "stubborn resistance" to become emperor. Putting aside some of the humiliating words, Wei Ran keenly realized that this manifesto would seriously affect his determination and will of the Qin people to defend the country.

"This Meng Zhong..."

Wei Ran immediately sent someone to send the manifesto to Liyang, asking Bai Qi to send someone to Xianyang, and asked Xianyang to find a way to write a manifesto to condemn Wei and Han.

In fact, Wei Ran originally planned to write it himself, and he was ready to point his finger at the key figure of the Wei and Han Allied Forces, Meng Zhong, the Jun of Yancheng. However, when he thought about Meng Zhong's mastery carefully, Wei Ran was immediately stunned.

Tao, name, disciples of the three Confucian families, mastered Zhuang Zhou, Hui Shi, and Meng Ke, three sages of the times...

You... it's not easy to pour sewage.

If the children of the three Taoists, famous scholars and Confucian families come forward to denounce him, Qin...

After thinking about it, Wei Ran finally decided to throw this problem to Xianyang and give Xianyang a headache. In comparison, he felt that he should step up negotiations with people from all sides: on the one hand, he persuaded Meng Zhong and other Wei and Han generals to compromise, and asked Meng Zhong to remove himself from the position of Hedong, so that Qin, Wei and Han could restore the former Qin, Wei and Han countries to a place where they could sit down and negotiate well; on the other hand, he stepped up to persuade Li Dui, Tian Chu, Le Yi, and to alienate the relationship between Zhao, Qi, Yan and Wei and Han armies.

A few days later, the manifesto was sent to Liyang by the confidant sent by Wei Ran and to Bai Qi.

After a rough look, he sneered at the guard Sima Jin: "This manifesto must be written by Meng Zhong... How dare two weeks use such cruel words to humiliate me, Daqin?"

Sima Jin nodded and then said angrily: "When Meng Zhong humiliated me so much, the National Guard should fight back!"

fight back?

Write a declaring proclamation against Wei and Han countries and Meng Zhong?

After thinking for a while, Bai Qi finally gave up. He wanted to write a proclamation to curse Meng Zhong. Even if he was just cursing him casually, he was happy. The problem was that he was powerless - with Meng Zhong's proclamation, which was both passionate and emotional, how could he have the nerve to reveal his literary talent?

There is no way, Meng Zhong is indeed better than him, and he can write anything easily - this is the only one he admits is inferior to Meng Zhong.

A few days later, the manifesto was sent to Xianyang.

As expected, the Qin monarch and ministers were frightened by this and immediately wrote a tit-for-tat manifesto.

Interestingly, the Qin monarch and ministers thought they could not curse Meng Zhong, who was a master of his master, so they simply targeted Zhai Zhang, Gongsun Shu, and Bao Yuan, especially Zhai Zhang. After seeing the manifesto, Zhai Zhang cursed loudly, and was actually preparing to kill to Xianyang at the age of nearly 70 years old. Gongsun Shu, Meng Zhong, Gong Zhongga and others were so scared that they quickly comforted him.

In short, as of the first half of July, the Qin and Wei and Han armies had condemned each other and used their own troops. In a few months, the number of casualties on both sides rose sharply, but in order to force the other side to surrender, the Qin and Wei and Han allied forces were unwilling to show weakness and could only hold on.

On the fifth day of July, Meng Zhong decided to personally direct a long-distance raid to open up the stalemate.

At that time, he discussed with Zhai Zhang, Gongsun Shu, Gong Zhongga and Bao Yuan.

"...In the past few months, the cavalry led by Hua Hu and others have destroyed a large number of farmland in Xihe County. However, due to the fact that Huayang Jun Mirong is stationed in the north of the Wei River, our main force is still unable to attack Xihe River and cannot truly pose a threat to Xianyang. If this continues, our army will inevitably gradually fall into a disadvantage. I think we should be more proactive. On the Liyi side, we can send a wave of cavalry southward to bypass Mount Li to Lantian of Qin, and then go upstream along the Ba River to threaten Xianyang; on the Yinjin side, I am preparing to join forces with Hedong to launch a forced ferry of tens of thousands of people, Fei Hui crosses from Fengling, Liang Xiwan goes out of Puban, Shangdang's Korean army comes from Fenyin, plus our and Dou Xing's army, and at the same time, launch an attack on the river channel that lasts more than a hundred miles long. As long as one of them breaks into the Xihe River, it can be broken..."

As he was speaking, Meng Zhong's guard suddenly hurried into the house and clasped his fists and said, "June Yen, Daliang sent emergency news, Qi sent 300,000 troops to attack Song..."

“…”

Meng Zhong looked surprised and still kept pointing in front of him as he was pointing in the marching map.

Beside him, Zhai Zhang, Gongsun Shu, Gong Zhongga and others also looked at each other.
Chapter completed!