A few days later, Sima An sighed secretly when he received the news sent by his Wei monarch Zhao Run in Daliang.

He thought to himself, it would have been nice if these Qingyas could have sent this warning message to Hexi a few days earlier. In this way, the two cities of Yueyang and Lianshao might have been saved.

But he also understood that the Green Crows were not to blame for this matter. After all, "Linwei" was nearly a thousand miles away from Daliang, while Xianyang, the royal city of Qin State, was only more than two hundred miles away from Linwei, and it was still winter.

, the roads were blocked by ice and snow, and the rivers were frozen. Those few green crows were able to send this warning message to Linwei within ten days. This was already a desperate effort, and he could not ask for more.

To blame, it's because he was too vague when he issued orders to his generals. It would be better to tell those generals directly: Don't trust Qin!

On that day, Sima An wrote a battle report in his own hand, detailing the current situation in Hexi County in detail, and entrusted those Qingya soldiers to take them back to Daliang and deliver them to Zhao Run, the monarch of Wei.

After doing this, he looked at the map of Hexi County in his study and thought deeply about the countermeasures to deal with the Qin army.

The two cities of Yueyang and Lianshao were defrauded by the Qin State. The most obvious loss for the Hexi Army was undoubtedly the loss of about 8,000 soldiers, more than 200 machine-operated crossbows, and other related battle chariots.

weapon.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Qin State's sneak attack on the city caused the Hexi Army to lose nearly a quarter of its strength, which was very fatal.

Those were eight thousand fully armed Wei soldiers!

Even if it were to fight the Qin army, the latter would probably have to pay at least nearly twice the number of casualties among its soldiers - of course, this does not mean that Qin soldiers are not as brave as Wei soldiers, but that there is still a certain gap between the armaments of the two armies.

.

Now, the losses suffered by the Qin army when they captured the two cities of Yueyang and Lianshao are definitely far less than double the number of casualties. It is even very likely that the losses of the Qin army are not as great as those of the Wei army.

When he thought of this, Sima An couldn't calm down.

"...Am I getting old? I no longer have the energy I once had?"

Sima An asked himself.

You must know that more than ten years ago, he would never have been so vigilant as to commit such a mistake, let alone put his hope in "I hope Qin will not make a wrong decision and send troops to attack Wei."

At that time, he would treat Qin toughly.

Why is "I'm afraid that Qin will get angry when he learns that Wei Wei is on guard against it?" If Qin dares to be presumptuous, then it will take the initiative to take the offensive, regardless of whether its alliance is different or not. If it's not our race, it will have different intentions!

But more than ten years later, his methods have become more and more mild, and his mind is full of the idea of ​​"waiting until he is really attacked before fighting back." This is not like the "butcher" he was once called.

.

"Perhaps it is because the country is getting stronger and stronger that I gradually lose the sense of crisis I had at the beginning..."

Taking a deep breath, Sima An washed his face with icy cold water, cheered up and began to think about a counterattack against the Qin army.

Although his Hexi Army lost nearly a quarter of its strength at this time, the remaining three-quarters of its strength was still capable of fighting the Qin army. After all, the Hexi Army's armaments were not as good as those of the Wei armies.

But one of the best.

Of course, the premise is that Qin’s army will not be too large.

"Speaking of Qin's army..."

Looking at the general map of Wei and its surrounding neighboring countries, Sima An frowned slightly.

Because he suddenly thought of something: since Qin's Yangquan Lord Ying Bo has taken an offensive against Wei, then why should the other armies of Qin not follow closely?

In this case, the question arises: Are the Qin general Gongsun Qi in Beidi (Dingxiang) and the Qin general Wang Jian in Xihe also making preparations to attack Wei?

Or, has action been taken?

Taking a look at the boundaries of "Shuofang County", "Jiuyuan", and "Shang County" on the map, Sima An frowned deeply.

The former Hetao area has now been divided by the Wei State into five counties: "Shuofang", "Jiuyuan", "Yunzhong", "Yinchuan" and "Shangjun". In order to completely control this area, Wei King Zhao Run ordered Wei Wujun to

Sitting here, he built a fortress, the "Yuanzhong Fortress", in the center of the Hetao, at the intersection of Shuofang, Jiuyuan and Shangjun.

Wei general Shaohu once sat in the Yuanzhong Fortress to support several border counties such as Shuofang, Jiuyuan, Yunzhong, and Yinchuan, and assisted the defenders of these counties to repel the aliens who tried to retake Hetao. But the problem is that now Wei Wujun has already

After being transferred to South Korea, the defense of the Yuanzhong Fortress was empty. Sima An really did not believe that Qin General Gongsun Qi would give up capturing the Yuanzhong Fortress.

"It's troublesome..."

Sima An frowned and breathed out slowly.

If the Yuanzhong Fortress falls, it means that Shuofang, Jiuyuan, Yunzhong, Yinchuan and other counties will be cut off from the mainland of Wei, and it is very likely that they will be defeated by the Qin army one by one.

"No, no, no, Gongsun Qi should not attack Shuofang, Jiuyuan, Yunzhong, Yinchuan and other places. If there is no mistake, he will definitely send his troops south immediately after capturing the Yuanzhong Fortress... Yes, it will hurt the enemy.

Ten fingers are not as good as one to cut off the enemy. In order to buy time to put more pressure on me, the Wei Dynasty, his main target of attack should be me, Hexi..."

Thinking of this, he set his sights on "Pinyang", the county seat of Hexi County, because Pinyang is the land route connecting Shang County and Hexi County. Whether the Qin State wants to get involved in the Hetao area, or further expand Hexi County

Also in our hands, Pinyang is a strategic place that must be conquered.

At this moment, Sima An felt sincerely glad that his unreliable lieutenant Bai Fangming had seen through the scheme of Yangquan Jun Yingbo in Chongquan County and defeated Qin's conspiracy. Otherwise, if even Chongquan County had

If it is captured by the Qin State, then the Qin State will take advantage of the situation to capture Pinyang and cut off the connection between Hexi County and Shangjun - unlike now, Sima An can still send people to warn the guards of the counties in Shangjun.

Although when all Wei Wujun was transferred from the Hetao, even if Sima An sent people to warn in advance, it was impossible to avoid the fall of several cities in Shangjun such as "Diaoyin" and "Fushi", but at least these cities could be

The city should not be lost so easily like the Liyang or the Lotus Spoon.

"And Wang Jian of Xihe..."

Sima An set his sights on Xihe on the map.

Strictly speaking, Xihe (county) is still the land of South Korea. Before the Wei State captured the Hetao, and the Linhu, Xiongnu and other foreign tribes in the Hetao Plain had not yet been expelled by the Wei State, Xihe served as the frontline battlefield of the Taiyuan Army.

Existence - the former South Korean Taiyuan guard Lian Pi, who fought against Lin Hu and the Xiongnu many times in Xihe.

But later, when the Wei State occupied the Hetao Plain, and South Korea was defeated again and again by the Wei State, Xihe was strategically abandoned by South Korea, and is now occupied by Wang Jian of the Qin State, who once fought in

On this land, he attacked Yanmen County from the flanks and tried to launch a two-sided attack on Yanmen County with Gongsun Qi. Unfortunately, Yanmen County had a natural advantage in geographical location. Wang Jian had been operating in "Lüliang" for several years, and he also

Failure to break through "Loufan Pass" directly threatened Yanmen County.

"...If Wang Jian's army also takes the offensive, he will definitely go south to attack Hedong. On the one hand, he will contain Wei Ji, and on the other hand, he will cut off the connection between Hedong and Hexi, so that we can defeat each other..."

Sima An thought secretly.

It has to be said that although Sima An was already over fifty and his physical fitness was gradually weakening in all aspects, his strategic vision was not affected at all, and he immediately understood Qin's general strategy.

Immediately, Sima An wrote several letters and immediately sent people to "Fenyin" in Hedong, as well as "Diaoyin", "Fushi" and other places in Shangjun.

Linwei is very close to Fenyin in Hedong. You only need to go to Pubanjin on the east side of Linwei City and take a boat to Fenyin at this port. Normally, it only takes one day. However, given the current weather, Hedong

After guarding Wei Ji, I received Sima An's letter two days later.

At that time, Wei Ji, the governor of Hedong, felt a little complicated after reading Sima An's letter.

"The State of Qin finally broke with me, the Great Wei..."

He stood up and walked to the window of the house, clasping his hands behind his back and looking at the snowy scene outside the window, but in his mind he recalled the scenes of fighting with the Qin army in Longxi.

Like Sima An, Wei Ji was not afraid of Qin's army. In fact, deep down in his heart, he actually preferred Wei to declare war on Qin, so that he could lead Wei's army to avenge Qin for the fall of Longxi.

Hatred - despite the fact that he had talked and laughed with the generals of Qin a few years ago, it was just a compromise for the "harmony between Wei and Qin". Deep in his heart, he still could not forget the hatred in his heart.

Well, using hatred is a bit exaggerated. A more accurate description would be unwillingness.

Immediately, Wei Ji invited Fenyin's order Kou Zheng, as well as his two favorite generals Mao Bo and Xue Jiang to discuss countermeasures together.

After a while, Kou Zheng, Mao Bo, and Xue Jiang arrived at Wei Ji's house in detail. The latter invited the three of them to the study and showed a letter from Sima An, the governor of Hexi.

When he saw the contents of the letter, Kou's expression suddenly changed. He was shocked and angry: "The Qin State actually declared war without declaring war and used troops against the Wei Dynasty?!"

Mao Bo and Xue Jiang were also a little surprised and asked in confusion: "Qin is our ally of the Wei Dynasty, why did it raise such an unjust army?"

"This may be related to the fact that Zhao Jiang, Shao Hu and others defeated South Korea..."

Lintao Lord Wei Ji thought deeply.

Due to the inconvenience of information transmission, Wei Ji just received the news from Luoyang a few days ago. It was the green crows under the command of Gao Kuo, the Zuo Duwei of Tiance Mansion, who braved the ice and snow to deliver the good news. Otherwise, if he had used the court channels, I am afraid that

At this moment, Hedong didn't know that Wei had defeated South Korea.

"The State of Qin is afraid that the Wei Dynasty will become powerful because of this?"

Kou Zheng asked with a frown.

"Haha." Lintao Lord Wei Ji laughed twice and said: "A few months ago, your Majesty personally marched and blocked millions of coalition forces from various countries in Daliang, shocking the world. Now, Zhao Jiang, Shao Hu, Pang

Huan and other generals have defeated South Korea, and may return reinforcements, or may take advantage of the situation to attack Qi. In this battle, we, the Wei Dynasty, are in an invincible position... If I were from Qin, I would also feel worried."

Kou Zheng frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and nodded slightly.

As an upper-middle-class official in Wei State, and also a candidate for the Inner Dynasty, Kou Zheng can certainly see the general trend of the world: as long as his Wei State can withstand this disaster, his Wei State will be unstoppable.

Obviously the Qin State was also aware of this and was afraid that the Wei State would be too powerful and eventually pose a threat to the Qin State. Therefore, when the Wei State was about to win, it rushed to attack the Wei State in an attempt to weaken the Wei State and weaken the Central Plains.

The pattern returns to its old balance.

"How does the Sheriff plan to respond?"

After clarifying his thoughts, Kou Zheng asked Wei Ji.

Wei Ji thought for a moment and then said: "From the West River to the east of our river, there are only two roads: water and land. Either go south along the Xihe River, or take the mountain road. There is a strong city of "Beiqu" on Hukou Mountain to stop the Qin army.

, only the waterway side is difficult to resist, so I decided to divide my troops into "Xia Yang"..."

Xiayang is a city in Hexi County, just across the river from Fenyin. Although Sima An did not ask for reinforcements at this moment, for the sake of the overall situation, Wei Ji decided to send his troops there in advance and die at Xiayang.
To be continued...