At the end of September, the cities occupied by the rebels completed the harvest of crops in the fields outside the city.

Subsequently, Tian Bulu suggested that Gongzizhang collect most of the food and grass in the form of a "debt note", which makes the rebels' food and grass a little more abundant, and at least it is no problem to spend the winter this year.

But Gongzi Zhang did not want to delay the war until next year. First, he had no title, and the more he dragged it down, it would be more unfavorable to his situation. Second, the rebels under his command did not have enough cotton coats. If the winter this year was too cold, many of his rebels might be frozen to death.

Therefore, on September 26, he summoned Niu Jian, Xu Jun, Meng Zhong, Pang Nuan and others again and formally issued an order to attack Handan.

Among the strategies proposed by Tian Bulu, three troops from Prince Zhang, Xu Jun and Niu Jian were the main attackers, mainly attacking the eastern city wall of Handan. The rebels included Gongzi Zhang, about 25,000 troops, Xu Jun's 8,000 soldiers, and Niu Jian's more than 10,000 cavalry, totaling more than 40,000 troops.

The south and north of Handan were Meng Zhong and Pang Nuan respectively responsible for the feint attack. The former included the Xin Wei Army, while the latter had a total of about 10,000 troops and the Dai County soldiers.

In the words of Gongzizhang, Meng Zhong and Pang Nuan are mainly responsible for restraining the troops in the city, but in addition, Gongzizhang also looks forward to Meng Zhong and Pang Nuan coming up with some clever plans to break the city to help the main force conquer Handan.

After all, the plan that Meng Zhong had come up with during the previous Quliang Battle was no less than the help of 50,000 troops.

It is worth mentioning that during today's meeting, Gongzi Zhang mentioned something to Niu Jian.

He said to Niu Jian: "Niu Sima, our army has sufficient main force, and most of them dare not resist. However, Meng Zhong and Pang Nuan have few soldiers, and they may be blocked by the king's army and cannot lead their troops to the city. Together with our army to attack the city, can Niu Sima allocate some cavalry Yu Meng Zhong and Pang Nuan to help them defeat the king's army's block?"

To be fair, Gongzi Zhang’s request was not excessive, even quite wise.

Take Meng Zhongjun as an example. The 4,000 surrendered soldiers whom Meng Zhong had previously been handed over to Gongzi Zhang, and Gongzi Zhang handed them over to Peng Zhi, who was gradually getting better at the injury. He was mainly responsible for logistics, that is, transporting food and grass. Therefore, Meng Zhongjun currently only has nearly 800 Xinwei Army and more than 4,000 Dai County soldiers.

Faced with this little force, can the royal army in Handan City retreat to the city like the main force of Gongzi Zhang? No matter how you think about it, it is more likely to be a head-on battle with Meng Zhongjun, striving to take the lead in defeating Meng Zhongjun, who has relatively weak troops.

But if Niu Jian was willing to divide part of his cavalry to help Meng Zhong, even if there were only two thousand cavalry, Meng Zhong would be able to make the royal army unable to achieve this wish with these two thousand cavalry.

However, facing Gongzi Zhang's request, Niu Jian's expression changed slightly and his expression changed. He didn't know what he was thinking. In short, he didn't agree at all, so that the atmosphere in the tent was quite awkward at that time.

Seeing this, Tian Burui seemed to realize something and quickly explained: "Niu Sima, please don't get me wrong. The young master has no other intentions..."

"I know."

Niu Jian nodded with a smile and said to Gongzi Zhang: "Even so, after taking it back to the camp, I will send two Simas from each of them to lead two thousand cavalrymen to assist Meng Sima and Pang Sima..."

While speaking, he smiled and looked at Meng Zhong and Pang Nuan, and nodded to them seemingly kindly.

After the military controversy ended that day, Meng Zhong and Le Yi took a chariot to return to their Feiyi military camp.

On the way, Meng Zhong recalled the attitude Niu Jian showed today, frowned and said to Le Yi: "Ayi, do you think Niu Jian's attitude today... is a bit strange?"

Le Yi smiled and said, "That's not strange, right? If someone asks us to split a part of the Xinwei Army, we will be dissatisfied..."

"Is that true?" Meng Zhong was surprised by Le Yi's answer, frowned and said, "If Gongzi Zhang asked me to do this, and I also think that doing this will be more beneficial to the overall situation, I will not be dissatisfied..."

Le Yi blinked his eyes when he heard this, and said with a smile: "That's just you."

"What about you?"

"I..." Le Yi thought for a while and said, "I may be dissatisfied... I will make my own judgment and don't like others to point fingers at me."

After hearing this, Meng Zhong was immediately happy and laughed and joked: "Meng Sui, haven't Xiang Liao and the others been interfering with you? It turns out that you have always held a grudge."

Le Yi was also happy by Meng Zhong. After laughing helplessly, he shook his head and said, "That's different, Meng Sui and Xiang Liao, I trust them. We should say that we trust each other. Even if there are any differences, I know that they are not selfish... But if it is someone I am not familiar with, I should feel dissatisfied." Speaking of this, he also frowned slightly and asked Meng Zhong, "When I think so, why do you feel that Niu Jian does not fully trust Prince Zhang... Didn't they work together for more than ten years when Zhao State attacked Zhongshan State? Why do I feel that Niu Jian seemed to be guarding against Prince Zhang to take the opportunity to dismantle his cavalry."

"Don't know."

Meng Zhong shook his head.

It has to be said that although Meng Zhong has been in Zhao State for almost two years, not many people can have friendship. After counting, there are only a few people such as Zhao Wang He, Zhao Zhufu, Gongzi Zhang, Tian Buluo, Fei Yi, Fei You, Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao, Zhao Ben, Zhao Xi, Xu Jun, etc. The rest are like Xinqi, Anping Jun Zhao Cheng, Fengyang Jun Li Dui, Li Ji, Zhao Ping, Niu Jian and others, and they are just nodding each other, and even because of different positions, their relationships are getting worse.

After returning to the military camp in Feiyi, Meng Zhong told Meng Sui, Meng Hu and others what Prince Zhang meant, and ordered them to prepare for the attack on Handan.

Having said that, in fact, during the time when Niu Jian led his army to attack Zhao Xi's army, the rebels had already begun to build siege equipment, whether it was the army under the command of Wei Yuan, Tian Huang, Zhai Dan and other generals under the command of Meng Zhong and Pang Nuan.

It is worth mentioning that compared with the siege equipment created by Gongzi Zhang and Pang Nuan, Meng Zhong returned to Xiang Liao and Le Xu, the two of them supervised the construction of the well railing.

Just like what he had expressed to Yangwenjun Zhao Bao before, although he did not agree with some of the behaviors of Prince Zhang and Tian Busu, considering that Prince Zhang became more beneficial to the Song State after becoming the monarch of Zhao, he would not show mercy to the royal army at all.

Perhaps it is also because of this reason that although Gongzi Zhang was a little upset that his relationship with Meng Zhong was much worse than before, he still trusted Meng Zhong very much.

In the evening of that day, Niu Jian indeed sent a Sima named "Zhang Ji" and led two thousand cavalrymen to assist Meng Zhong.

Although Zhang Ji was just a Sima, Meng Zhong did not dare to neglect them. He immediately ordered Xiang Liao to prepare some wine and dishes to entertain Zhang Ji, and to win over his feelings with him. After all, if his troops wanted to attack Handan City, they would have to rely on Zhang Ji to lead the two thousand cavalry along the way to protect them, preventing the royal army from leading the army from attacking when they saw that Meng Zhong's army had too few troops.

According to Meng Zhong's knowledge during the conversation and laughter, Zhang Ji was 36 years old this year and was one of the generals that Niu Jian valued very much. After drinking a few bowls of wine, he enthusiastically hugged Meng Zhong's neck and boasted about the great achievements of his ancestors.

According to Zhang Ji, his ancestor was the minister of Jin State "Jie Zhang", a minister of Duke Wen of Jin, and was a neighbor with the famous minister "Jie Zitui".

On the way to escape from Duke Wen of Jin, Jie Zitui cut his thighs and took his flesh to satisfy his hunger. He was loyal. However, after Chong'er returned to Jin State to inherit the throne, the ministers who fled with him at that time all took credit in front of Chong'er. Jie Zitui disdained him and took his old mother to the deep mountains to live in seclusion.

At that time, Xie Zhang was unfair to Jie Zitui and wrote a paragraph on the wooden board to record Jie Zitui's achievements and hung it on the city gate.

After seeing this piece of wood, Duke Wen of Jin was quite ashamed, so he personally took people to the deep mountains where Jie Zitui lived in seclusion, hoping that the latter would come out to assist him.

Zhang Ji proudly stated that among the ministers of Jin at that time, only his ancestors explained that Zhang was injustice to Jie Zitui.

Seeing him looking quite proud, Meng Zhong really wanted to say that this story actually has some more details.

Yes, Duke Wen of Jin Chong'er was a very stubborn person, and Jie Zitui was even more stubborn than him. In order to cleanse his responsibilities of "ungratefulness", Chong'er simply asked his soldiers to set fire to the mountains and force Jie Zitui to come out of the mountains; and Jie Zitui would rather be burned to death in the mountains.

In other words, Jie Zhang's kindness not only did not help Jie Zitui get the reward he won, but instead indirectly killed Jie Zitui.

But looking at Zhang Ji's complacent look, Meng Zhong was very sensible and did not tell him what he knew.

On September 27, Prince Zhang sent someone to send an order to Meng Zhong, saying that he would lead his army to attack Handan the next day, and ordered Meng Zhong to lead his army to feint the south gate of Handan at that time and restrain part of the royal army's forces.

After receiving this news, Meng Zhong first discussed with Zhang Ji. Perhaps because Meng Zhong treated him quite respectfully, Zhang Ji said readily: "(Niu Jian) ​​Sima ordered me to lead the army to assist Meng Sima, and Sima will regard me as your general, just give orders."

Meng Zhong responded with a smile: "Then rely on Sima Zhang."

“Where do it.”

The next day, September 28, Meng Zhong left Xiang Liao, Le Xu and five hundred soldiers from the county guards guarding the Feiyi military camp, and led Le Yi, Meng Sui, Meng Hu, Wu Ying, Hua Hu, Mu Wu, Le Jin and others, as well as nearly 800 Xinwei troops, and more than 4,000 soldiers from the army, to the southern part of Handan.

From the side, there were two thousand cavalry leaders led by Zhang Ji, who were responsible for contacting the main force of Gongzizhang.

Around the hour of the Chen Dynasty, Zhang Ji rode his horse to Meng Zhong's chariot and reported to him: "Meng Sima, Anyang Jun, has also led his army to set off for Handan."

Meng Zhong nodded and estimated in his heart that he and Gongzi Zhang should be able to arrive at the south and east gates of Handan at the same time in the same time. After all, they were too early to go to the ground, so the royal army in Handan was not allowed to attack him first.

After about half an hour, Meng Zhongjun bumped into an army head-on. Judging from the flags of the opposite army, it should be the army under the command of Zhao Qi, the guard of Yanmen.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong ordered Meng Sui to order the latter to join Hua Hu, Mu Wu and Le Jin to lead their respective Daijun rebels to protect the six well railing vehicles in the army. After all, they were a favorable weapon that could pose a threat to Handan. Otherwise, relying solely on the long ladder and rushing carts, it would be difficult for Meng Zhong's soldiers to be killed in battle and would be difficult to shake Handan's city defense.

After sending orders to Meng Sui and others, Meng Zhong summoned Meng Hu and Wu Ying, and intended to lead two of them to lead two thousand infantrymen and cooperate with the cavalry under Zhang Ji to defeat the opposite Zhao Qi army.

It has to be said that Zhao Qi's army opposite had at least five or six thousand, while Meng Hu and Wu Ying only had two thousand soldiers. If they were on weekdays, Meng Zhong would never have adopted a head-on strategy. However, with the assistance of the two thousand cavalry under Zhang Ji, Meng Zhong's confidence was a little more.

"Let me see the strength of the Zhao cavalry!"

After giving the order to prepare for the attack by the front army, Meng Zhong said secretly.

Facts have proved that having a large number of cavalry responded on the side is really conducive to quickly opening up the situation.

When Meng Hu and Wu Ying led two thousand infantry to attack Zhao Qi's army from the front, Zhang Ji's two thousand cavalry went from the side, and even went around behind Zhao Qi's army, causing the situation where they were originally confronting each other head-on suddenly became a situation where Meng Zhongfang attacked Zhao Qi's army from three sides.

Under Meng Zhong's distance attention, Zhang Ji, who saw the right time, led two thousand cavalry directly into Zhao Qi's army. With the help of the speed of the war horses, he instantly drilled through the formation of Zhao Qi's army, so that the formation of Zhao Qi's army was immediately disturbed by the cavalry. Countless Zhao soldiers exclaimed loudly and fled in panic.

But even so, Zhao Zhi's army was hunted by Meng Zhong's army for a while, resulting in at least hundreds of Zhao soldiers from the royal army being killed by Zhang Ji's cavalry and a convoy led by Meng Hu during the fleeing.

I have to say that this is the first time that Meng Zhong, Le Yi, Meng Hu and others have witnessed the combat effectiveness of cavalry on the battlefield with their own eyes.

After repelling Zhao Zhi's army, Meng Hu praised Zhang Ji's cavalry, but Zhang Ji said with a complacent look that this is nothing at all.

He told Meng Zhong, Meng Hu and others that when Niu Jian led more than 10,000 cavalry into the army of tens of thousands of Zhongshan Kingdom, the scene was shocking.

After hearing this, Meng Zhong and Meng Hu could only regret it, because the war that Zhang Ji mentioned happened when Zhao State attacked Zhongshan State for the second time. At that time, Meng Zhong, Meng Hu and others were a few years old, so of course they did not have the opportunity to visit Zhang Ji's most brilliant victory in the Zhao State cavalry.

In fact, when Zhao attacked Zhongshan for the fifth time the previous year, the Zhao cavalry led by Niu Jian also severely damaged the Zhongshan army. Unfortunately, Meng Zhong and others had just arrived in Zhao at that time and missed the opportunity to witness tens of thousands of cavalry rushing forward with their own eyes.

Compared with those wars, today is indeed a small fight.

With the intimidation of Zhang and Ji's two thousand cavalry against the king's army, Meng Zhongjun finally arrived in the southern suburbs of Handan before the time when Prince Zhang agreed to attack Handan together.

At this time, the southern suburbs of Handan City were empty and uninhabited.

I looked up at the south gate of Handan City, but saw that the gate there was closed, and there were many guards on the city wall, with a solemn and murderous atmosphere.

While Le Yi, Meng Sui and others were deploying troops in the southern suburbs, Meng Zhongwei frowned and looked at the south city gate in the distance.

I still remember that last spring, when he came to Zhao State with the envoy of Song State Li Shi, he entered the city from the south gate of Handan. Unexpectedly, a year and a half later, he would lead his army to attack the city gate.

What made Meng Zhong feel even more moved was that before he set out from Mengyi to Zhao State, he swore to his mother Ge and his sister Meng Yan that the war in Zhao State had nothing to do with him, the Song Dynasty, but he did not expect that he, the Song Dynasty, was eventually involved in the war in Zhao State.

"A Zhong."

I don’t know how long it took, Meng Sui came to Meng Zhong’s chariot, clasped his fists and said, “The soldiers are ready, just waiting for your order!”

Meng Zhong nodded, stood in the chariot and turned around to watch the army under his command.

The soldiers under his command were lined up at this moment. The middle army in front was the infantry led by Wu Ying, the infantry led by Hua Hu, Mu Wu and Le Jin, and were also the main force responsible for the six well railings. In addition, the left wing was Zhang Ji's two thousand cavalry, and the right wing was the battle chariot team led by Meng Hu.

"Wait first!"

Meng Zhong pressed his hand.

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a sound of killing sounds resounding from the northeast, accompanied by the sound of war drums that seemed to be thunder.

Obviously, Gongzi Zhang's army had launched an attack on the East Gate of Handan.

Seeing this, Meng Zhongyi immediately waved his hand and shouted in a deep voice: "Beat the drum! Get ready to attack!"

"Dongdongdongdongdongdong"
To be continued...