Time goes back to the end of May, when Meng Zhong just guessed Tian Zhang's attempt.

At that time, he couldn't help asking himself: What should I do next?

I have to say that Meng Zhong was indeed a little confused at this time because he found that both him and his place were as bright as Yang, Tian Zhang, seemed to have been excluded from the main battlefield.

What's even more terrible is that even though he knew that Tian Zhang's purpose was to put aside his forced Yang to attack Pengcheng directly, he could not act rashly to return to Pengcheng to help.

What should I do?

It was not until the second day of June that things finally took a turn because he received the news that Dai Busheng sent someone to send him.

Because of distance, Meng Zhong learned that this matter was half a day earlier than Tian Zhang, and he received the news in the early morning of the second day of June.

It must be said that the incident of Dai Busheng successfully captured Tancheng really made Meng Zhong feel lucky and for Song State. After all, Tancheng is a very critical part of the means of "countering Qi State". If this city cannot be captured, Song State would not have a way to counterattack Qi State, but only Xue Yi, but the problem is that Xue Yi is under Tian Zhang's control, how could the Song State's army break through so easily?

Now, Tancheng has fallen into Dai Busheng's hands, which means that the State of Song is qualified to threaten Qi.

Of course, it is just saying that it is qualified, but whether it can truly threaten Qi and force Qi to stop this war will have to be discussed in a long-term way.

After learning about this, Meng Zhong immediately discussed with the prince Dai Wu.

The suggestion he gave was of course that Dai Busheng immediately led his army from Tancheng to the north. Before Qi could react, he broke into its hinterland and made trouble. If he had the opportunity to attack the city, he would attack the city with the flow. If he had no chance, at least he would destroy the farmland outside the city. In short, he wanted Qi to taste the same taste as Song.

After hearing Meng Zhong's words, Prince Dai Wu also hesitated and asked with a confused look on his face: "Is this really appropriate?"

Meng Zhong certainly knew what the Crown Prince Dai Wu was hesitating. After all, this meant that they, or the State of Song, had completely offended Qi and the King of Qi to death.

With a funny expression, he asked the prince Dai Wu and said, "What if he died of the crime? It seems like the current situation. Does the prince still expect the prince to wake up and take the initiative to reconcile with our Song State?"

After hearing this, Prince Dai Wu nodded, gritted his teeth and said, "What you said is extremely true! Then do what you said!"

After saying that, he immediately picked up a pen and wrote a letter, ordering his confidant guards to travel day and night to Tancheng, and handed it to Dai Busheng. Dai Busheng immediately raised his troops to attack the hinterland of Qi.

But then again, although Dai Busheng was ordered to attack the hinterland of Qi, whether this trip could be successful and whether it could achieve the goal made Qi feel the pain. Meng Zhong was actually not sure about this. He later said to the prince Dai Wu: "Qi is a powerful country that can rival Qin. However, this time, Qi used troops to our Song State, and in fact, it only sent 150,000 troops. A strong country, is there only 150,000 troops? I think there is still at least 100,000 troops in Qi State. If this is true, I am afraid that Dai Busheng Sima will not be able to penetrate the hinterland of Qi State too deeply, and I still need to send another army to reinforce it."

Hearing this, the prince Dai Wu smiled bitterly: "I am also worried about Unsweeping, but I have no extra army to send reinforcements at the moment... Do you want Unsweeping Unsweeping to send troops to Tancheng? Never mind, if so, I will only have a few thousand soldiers guarding me."

Not to mention, Meng Zhong really wanted to send Dai Yingzhi to Tancheng to counterattack Qi, but he finally gave up because, as the prince Dai Wu said, this matter was too dangerous. Once Dai Yingzhi also led his troops to Tancheng, there were only six or seven thousand soldiers led by the prince Dai Wu in the city. This would greatly stimulate Tian Zhang to launch a fierce attack on Biyang. Unlike now, including Dai Yingzhi's army, there were at least 15,000 soldiers in Biyang City. Even if there were tens of thousands of Qi troops surrounding Biyang, they could still defend themselves for more than one month if they were imitating the way that Master Biyang had been 280 years ago.

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

Thinking of this, Meng Zhong said to the prince Dai Wu: "If you reinforce Dai Busheng Sima, let it go for the time being, but at least we should not ask the Qi army to cut off Dai Busheng Sima's retreat."

"You are referring to the Qi army under Tian Zhang?"

"Well." Meng Zhong nodded and said, "As far as I know, Tancheng is far away from the capital of the King of Qi, but only more than 200 miles away from Xueyi. If I were the Qi general who guarded Tancheng, when the city was captured by Dai Busheng Sima, he would definitely send people to Xueyi and ask for help from the Qi army under Tian Zhang's command... I guess that maybe Tian Zhang had already learned about this matter at this time and was preparing to send troops to seize Tancheng, so he must not easily ask him to succeed!"

Prince Dai Wu nodded when he heard this, then frowned and asked, "But, we can't tell which road Qi army will take..."

Seeing this, Meng Zhong explained: "Actually, this is easy to guess.... First of all, the Qi army in Dushan should not move lightly, because Tian Zhang still insists on leaving me aside my force Yang to attack Pengcheng directly. If he draws Qi army from Dushan to seize Tancheng, Pengcheng will definitely attack with the trend. If the army on Pengcheng takes the opportunity to gain an advantage, this will greatly hinder Tian Zhang's plan to attack Pengcheng, which is not in line with Tian Zhang's intention; and Tian Chu, the Qi general of Jishan and Longshan battalions, and the Qi army of about 10,000 under his command, can restrain my force Yang to the greatest extent, and I believe it will not be mobilized easily. Therefore, after eliminating these two, Tian Zhang either chooses the Qi army in Teng County and let the nearly 100,000 (actually 80,000) troops attacking Teng County transfer 10,000 or 20,000 to Tancheng, or let Qi general Tian Da, on the north side of Jishan, lead his army back to Tancheng... There are only these two possibilities!"

"You are right."

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 after hearing this: "It is not a matter of which of the two, but it is better to let Dai Ying's Sima divide his troops to Xueyi... and stationed in "Zaolin (Zaozhuang)". At present, the Qi army has been in a big way, and there are not many soldiers left by the Qi army to Xueyi. I think Dai Ying's Sima only needs to lead six or seven thousand people to Zaolin. Before the Qi army has returned to Tancheng to build camps first, it can effectively stop Qi.

The army returned to Tancheng... As for the remaining two or three thousand troops, I hope that Prince Dai Wu could allow my companion Le Yi to temporarily hand over to my companion Le Yi, and asked him to lead these people to station on the northeast side of Biyang. In this way, if Tian Zhang ordered the Qi army in Teng County to return to the aid, he would be blocked by Dai Busheng Sima. If Tian Da was sent to Tancheng, he would be blocked by me, Biyang and Le Yi, so that the road for Qi army to return to the aid of Tancheng can be cut off to the greatest extent."

"good!"

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

Unlike Dai Busheng, who admired Meng Zhong's plan to "counter Qi" and was willing to temporarily obey Meng Zhong's orders, Dai Yingzhi was cautious. In fact, he did not agree with Meng Zhong's plan. After all, Meng Zhong's plan was too dangerous. For example, he asked several of their troops to walk on the ice on the lake. He was walking on thin ice and forced Yang to guard it, but his troops were far inferior to the Qi army. However, Meng Zhong still had to split the 30,000 troops and divide the troops to guard it.

Although nothing has happened at the moment, Dai Yingzhi was afraid that something would happen. For example, although Tian Zhang, Meng Zhong, concluded that Tian Zhang would not easily transfer the nearly 100,000 Qi troops who were attacking Teng County to Liyang, what if? What if Tian Zhang did this? At that time, he was not there, Dai Busheng was not there, and the whole city of Yang would force 10,000 troops to resist the nearly ten times of Qi army?

But thinking about it on the other hand, Dai Yingzhi also felt that what Meng Zhong said was indeed reasonable, such as Dai Busheng defeated Tancheng. Although Dai Yingzhi did not agree very much at the beginning, at present, it has indeed become a trick to restrain Tian Zhang: before solving the hidden dangers of Tancheng, Tian Zhang should not directly attack Pengcheng. This is indeed a disguised way to drag Tian Zhang into his Song State.

After thinking about it, after weighing it for a long time, Dai Yingzhi asked Meng Zhong seriously: "Meng Zhong, you are indeed very talented. Even if you are not as old as the young, as long as you can repel the Qi army, whether I am or cannot win, you are willing to obey your order. But you have to tell me whether you are confident of defending Biyang? ... You must know that once I lead 6,700 soldiers to Zaolin, Biyang will only be left with His Royal Highness's five or six thousand troops and the other 3,000 troops under my command, with a total of less than 10,000 troops. Outside the city, there are 20,000 Qi troops. Even Tian Jing, the general of Qi who is attacking Teng County, and Zou Xi, who is stationed in Dushan, may retreat and besiege Biyang at any time, especially Zou Xi, whose army has only one day's journey, and it will arrive in the morning and evening!"

Seeing Dai Yingzhi's statement so serious, Meng Zhong also corrected his expression and said seriously: "Sima of the Army, please rest assured, and you will never lose anything if you force Yang."

“…”

After taking a deep look at Meng Zhong, Dai Yingzhi nodded in a key position: "Since that's the case, I will obey your order and lead my army to Zaolin!"

On that day, according to Meng Zhong's row, Dai Ying temporarily handed over the 3,000 soldiers under his command to Le Yi, asking Le Yi to station in his camp. Immediately, he led more than 6,000 soldiers to head northeast. After ten hours of rushing, he quickly arrived at Zaolin.

As Meng Zhong guessed, Tian Zhang's 150,000 troops were currently concentrated in Teng County, Weiyang, Dushan and other places. Although Xue Yi had been occupied by the Qi army, in fact, Tian Zhang only left 5,000 soldiers to guard Jingguo City, so that the Qi army's control over Xue Yi was not tight. This made Dai Yingzhi lead his army to Zaolin and built camps on the road between the local hills without any danger, cutting off the road from Jingguo City to Tancheng.

On the third day of the sixth month, Tian Da, the guardian of Bali Qiying, who led his army to Zaolin, finally received Tian Zhang's order, and ordered him to immediately lead his army back to Tancheng and cut off Dai Busheng's way back.

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

On the one hand, he sent someone to inform the guard Tian Chu of Jishan Qi Camp about this matter, and on the other hand, he mobilized his troops. In the end, he left two thousand people to guard the camp and led 8,000 soldiers straight east, preparing to cross the northern suburbs of Biyang and head to Tancheng.

However, what he did not expect was that Meng Zhong had prepared early, so when Tian Da was about to lead the way past the northern suburbs of Biyang, Meng Zhong and Le Yi each led 3,000 soldiers to the surround, blocking Tian Da's way.

If it were a few days ago, Tian Da would have started a war with the Song army led by Meng Zhong and Le Yi. But today, he was in a hurry to go to Tancheng, so how could he have the time to get involved with these Song army?

Meng Zhong also guessed that Tian Da was not interested in fighting, and he was entangled with Le Yi, forcing Tian Da to retreat temporarily.

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

After receiving Tian Da's request for help, Tian Chu happily agreed, but when he led his army down Jishan and was about to help Tian Da, Meng Hu led two thousand Song troops out of the city from the Xicheng Gate of Buiyang City and ran to Jishan. The two mountains of Longshan set fires, and Tian Chu quickly withdrew his troops back to the mountain to put out the fire.

Therefore, Tian Da's army was alone and had no chance to break through the blockade of the Song army in Fengyang, so he had to withdraw his camp first.

On the evening of the fourth day of June, Tian Da's messenger arrived in Dushan and told Tian Zhang about "forcing the Song army in Yang 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 the city of Fengyang. Therefore, seeing Tian Chu and Tian Da could not break through the anti-blockade of Fengyang Song's army, it was not surprising that after all, in his opinion, the troops of Qi and Song in the area were about 20,000, so there was a stalemate.

『…The 'Ying Ji' in Fengyang is really like Ying Ji himself. He is obviously on the defensive, but he is still waiting for an opportunity to counterattack... Is there any such person in Song State? Why have you never heard of it before?

Tian Zhang felt a headache.

At this time, his general Zou Xi learned about this and suggested: "Why would you rather ask Tian Jingzuo and Sima to divide his troops back to Tancheng? He has 80,000 troops under his command."

After contemplation, Tian Zhang shook his head hesitantly.

Is Teng County important?

In fact, Teng County is not important.

But why did Tian Zhang insist on taking Teng County?

The reason is very simple, because Teng County can lead to Xueyi. If the land is not taken down and all the local Song army are driven to the opposite shore of Nanhu (Weishan Lake), Tian Zhang will not be able to completely calm down to enter Pengcheng. After all, Xueyi is actually very weak at present. If the Song army secretly conquered Xueyi from Teng County to the east, they will undoubtedly be cut off from the Song army.

Therefore, Teng County must be captured, not for its own value, but for the purpose of preventing Xue Yi from the threat of the Song army.

After some thought, Tian Zhang said in a deep voice: "Wait a minute, I have sent someone to order Tian Jing to take down Teng County as soon as possible. Although some soldiers are inevitable, I believe that Teng County will be able to be taken down in the next few days. At that time, I will let him divide his troops to support Tian Chu, Tian Da and others."

To be fair, Tian Zhang's judgment is actually correct, but unfortunately, he underestimated a person, namely, Song Wangyan from Pengcheng.

Song Wangyan was a general who led the army. Decades ago, when his brother Song Tichengjun ruled the country, Song Wangyan was the Grand Marshal of Song State, who was in charge of tens of thousands of troops. Sometimes, under the orders of his brother, assisted Qi in fighting against Chu and Wei, so he later had enough troops to seize the throne of his brother.

Because of his experience in commanding operations, Song Wangyan could see at a glance that the key point of the current situation was Teng County: As long as Teng County is not lost, Tian Jing, the Qi general who was responsible for attacking Teng County, would not dare to easily draw troops to siege Weiyang.

Therefore, when the army Sima Li Jun was blocked by Qi general Zou Xi in Dushan and could not support Biyang, Song Wangyan made a quick decision and sent troops to reinforce Teng County. He also sent someone to warn Jing Ze, who was stationed in Teng County, asking the latter to be sure to defend Teng County!

On the sixth day of the sixth month, the day after Wang Yan of Song received Meng Zhong, Dai was unable to bear the urgent letter, he sent a general "Dai Xi" to lead a force to Pei County and take the Nanhu Waterway to reinforce Teng County.

Another day, Wang Yan of Song sent the patriarch of the scholar-official family to "Xiang Wen", and led more than a dozen families of soldiers to gather a total of about 15,000 soldiers and also took the Nanhu waterway to reinforce Teng County.

Two groups of reinforcements reinforced Teng County in one breath.

Although even with the troops under Sima Jingzhi's army, the Song army in Teng County was only 35,000 at best, which was still more than half less than Qi general Tian Jing, it is 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 general of Qi, who was surprised and suspicious, immediately sent someone to inform Tian Zhang day and night.

When the messengers he sent arrived at Dushan, it was already June 12th.

At that time, when Tian Zhang learned that Song State reinforced Teng County, he was stunned for a moment, and then he immediately understood: Song State reinforced Teng County in order to hold Tian Jing back, so as not to draw troops to attack Biyang.

"Is this vision... Song Yan?"

Tian Zhang murmured to himself.

No wonder, after all, there are only a few well-known generals in the State of Song. Aside from Dai Busheng, Dai Yingzhi and Jing Cheng, the few military Sima who were famous and talented, were unexpectedly not many outstanding generals in the State of Song.

Therefore, it is no wonder that Tian Zhang guessed that Wang Yan of Song. After all, Wang Yan of Song was the Grand Marshal of Song State during the period of Song Tichengjun. At that time, he was also a very brave general and even led his army to assist the Qi army in attacking Chu, Wei and other countries.

『…Tian Jing was dragged in Teng County by Jing Ze, and Tian Chu, Tian Da and others were unable to break through the blockade of Biyang to go to Tancheng, and Dushan could not pull troops back to help. What should we do?』

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

It has to be said that the current situation is indeed too chaotic, and the reason for this phenomenon is nothing more than that Meng Zhong and Tian Zhang are unwilling to give up their dominant position: Meng Zhong wants to freeze the battlefield in the area of ​​Biyang and fight a protracted battle with the army of Qi near this city; while Tian Zhang wants to leave Biyang aside and go to war with Pengcheng directly.

The result of the two competitions is that Meng Zhong and Tian Zhang are restrained by each other and no one can move lightly.

From the third day of the June 12th to the 12th day of June, Tian Zhang and Zou Xi remained silent. Tian Chu and Tian Da were forced to block the road to Tancheng by Yang, so that during this nine-day period, the Qi army could be said to have done nothing.

On the other hand, Meng Zhong could only let his troops defend the area of ​​Biyang and Zaolin, and neither dared to take the opportunity to attack Xue Yi, who was actually empty in defense, nor dared to lead his army to Dushan. The Sima of the United Army, Li Jun, launched two attacks against Tian Zhang, the only thing he could do was to block Tian Da's return to Tancheng, which was purely bullying Tian Chu. Tian Da and his two soldiers were few, with only 20,000 people.

Until June 16th, things turned around.

To be precise, the turning point should start on June 10th, because on this day, the messenger sent by Song Wangyan to Biyang, after spending more than three days on the detour, finally sent Song Wangyan's letter to Biyang.

The letter from Wang Yan of Song was very simple, mainly telling the prince Dai Wu and Meng Zhong three things.

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

Secondly, in the letter, Wang Yan of Song praised Meng Zhong's strategy of "resisting Qi State" and allowed Meng Zhong to self-determination on the front line without considering the safety of Pengcheng.
To be continued...