Wei Ran insisted on the alliance with Qi in the form of "Qin and Qi Mudi", because Wei Ran believed at that time that as long as he could reach a tacit understanding with Qi, Qin would be able to make great progress in the strategy of conquering Wei and Han.

After all, since the Wei Qi "Xuzhou Prime Minister" of Qi, Qi replaced Wei's former position in the Central Plains, and became the biggest obstacle to Qin's advance to the Central Plains eastward.

Therefore, when Song refused to take sides and Qin and refused to stab Wei in secret, Wei Ran immediately went on a mission to Qi and sold Song to the King of Qi without hesitation, thus promoting the "Qin and Qi emperors". In addition to proclaiming each other emperors, Qin acquiesces Qi's attack on Song, while Qi acquiesces Qin acquiesces Wei and Han. From then on, Qin and Qi, the two most powerful countries in the world, maintained tacit understanding and did not interfere with each other in their respective foreign expansion.

It is undeniable that Wei Ran's proposition can indeed cause great changes to the entire Central Plains pattern. Therefore, when Wei, Zhao and Han learned about Qin Qi Hudi, the three countries frequently moved around and prepared to re-establish the Three Jin alliance to fight against Qin Qi Hudi's new pattern.

Wei Ran didn't care much about this - so what if Zhao State turned to Wei and Han? With the strength of Qi and Yan, Zhao State can be completely restrained. In this case, the only enemy of Qin State is Wei and Han State.

On the other hand, Qin State can win over Chu State to attack Wei and Han State, and use Qin and Chu Alliance to attack Wei and Han State to attack Wei and Han State. In general, the chance of victory is still very high, even if Wei State has the difficult Yancheng Jun Meng Zhong!

Yes, so what if there is Meng Zhong in Wei State? Wei Ran had already figured out a way to deal with Meng Zhong - to open up two battlefields at the same time, for example, while attacking Fangcheng County and Hedong County, even if Meng Zhong is capable, he will not be able to take into account both battlefields at the same time, right?

As for whether Qi can still send troops to attack Song on the basis of dividing troops to restrain Zhao, that is the matter of Qi, and naturally it has nothing to do with Qin.

But Wei Ran never expected that a few months after the "Qin Qihuodi". Qi sold him completely. Not only did he abolish the emperor's title, but he also in turn criticized Qin as an emperor.

To be honest, Wei Ran couldn't understand the actions of Qi at that time.

The fact that proclaiming himself emperor will inevitably be hostile and condemned by the people of the world and even the countries in the Central Plains. In Wei Ran's view, Qi State should have experience in this kind of thing - wasn't this the case of the "Xuzhou Prime Minister" back then?

But this is nothing, just to withstand the pressure. Including the "Five Kingdom Prime Minister" organized by Gongsun Yan later, the world would slowly resolve the situation. However, Qi was better this time. Because of the Three Jins' group, he became furious and deposed the emperor's title, which allowed the people of the world to see the essence of Qi's "sexuality and weakness" and even called on the Central Plains countries to attack Qin. This was simply a detrimental approach.

But then again, Wei Ran could understand Qi at that time. He felt that Qi was probably afraid of being attacked by the Central Plains first. Although Wei Ran felt that Qi did not need to panic at that time, because once the attack on Qi really happened, Qin would never stand by. Since he knew that the coalition forces of various countries would definitely attack Qin after defeating Qi, Qin would never allow Qi to be defeated by the coalition forces of various countries. As long as Wei and Han dared to send troops to attack Qi, Qin would definitely attack Wei and Han from behind, forcing Wei and Han to give up attacking Qi.

Advance and retreat together is originally the provisions of "Qin Qi Mudi". If you have a little brain, Qin will not give up on Qi.

But as for Qi State, when he was scared by the Three Jin Dynasties, he became weak.

OK, this matter has passed, and Wei Ran doesn't want to mention it anymore. He just thinks that the failure of "Qin Qi Hudi Emperor" is blind and has a frugal candid trick like King Qi Tiandi, who is so fierce and cowardly. The five countries attack Qin as a lesson.

But Wei Ran never expected that when Qin and Wei and Han were fighting in full swing, Qi jumped out again and actually ran to fight Song...

Wei Ran was really speechless: You Qi State is so anxious? Wait for another year, and we, Qin State and Wei and Han State, are both defeated. Wouldn't you jump out then?

By then, the Qin, Wei and Han were all seriously injured due to the battle of Xihe, and Wei and Han were unable to support Song. As long as Qi could convince Zhao and form the coalition forces of Qi, Zhao and Yan again, wouldn’t Song be at your fingertips?—Even if Zhao was unwilling to send troops, it didn’t matter. The worst result was that Zhao helped Song. However, Zhao had Fengyang Jun Li Dui, who was there, could affect King Zhao, and talk about his interests, forcing King Zhao to remain neutral in this matter.

In this way, it is the situation where Qi and Yan attack Song. Qi still have a great chance of winning, right?

Don't appear when it should appear, and jump out impatiently when it should not appear... Wei Ran really can't understand Qi's foreign strategy.

But he could be sure that Qi was too tricky. It would rather form an alliance with Song, which was only half the strength of Qi, than form an alliance with Qi. After all, no one could see when Qi would make a fool of himself and his allies would be tricked together.

『…Recently, the two armies of Wei and Han have changed their previous calmness and have become more and more eager for quick success and instant benefits, and are anxious to suppress our Qin army. It seems that it was caused by Qi's attack on Song...』

In a room in the inn in Yinjin City, Wei Ran sips tea and ponders, calculating the pros and cons of this matter for him.

Does Qi have the ability to annex Song?

To be honest, Wei Ran was not sure because the strength of Qi's army was as volatile as its diplomatic propositions.

When it was strong, such as during the Tian Ji period, Qi defeated the Wei State's attempt to merge the Three Jins through force and defeated the famous generals of Wei State; during the Tian Fu period, Tian Fu was in charge of Gao Tang, making the people of Zhao dare not fish in the nearby rivers; not to mention during the Tian Zhang period, Tian Zhang twice attacked Qin and once in Chu, which completely established the situation of Qi's domination of the Central Plains.

But when it was weak, for example, when Qi tried to annex Song for the first time, it was defeated by Song, which had only half of the overall strength of Qi. Even Tancheng was occupied by Song, which surprised the world at that time, and mocked the Qi army without commander Tian Zhang.

This time, Qi State claimed to have sent 300,000 troops, and it was the famous general Tian Zhang who led the army. If the news is true, Wei Ran believed that Qi State's chance of victory was not low - why should we question the authenticity of this news? That is because Tian Zhang had always had a disagreement with the King of Qi Tian Di, and in recent years, Tian Zhang's physical condition was very poor, and from time to time, news of the famous general's death was reported.

Of course, whether Qi can successfully annex Song State has nothing to do with Qin State, because Song State itself did not participate in the war between Wei and Han countries against Qin State, so whether this country survived or not has no direct relationship with Qin State.

The only exception is that the commander of the Wei and Han Allied Forces who are currently commanding the Battle of Xihe, Meng Zhong, the king of Yancheng, is a Song Dynasty man, and has a close relationship with Song Wang Yan, Song Crown Prince Dai Wu, Song Xianghui Ang and others. Qi's attack on Song State made this Yancheng Lord become very... How to say, fierce, ruthless.

Because of his master's teachings, name and Confucianism, the Lord of Yancheng Meng Zhong has always been known to the world for his gentle personal image and flexible and versatile military tactics. It is completely different from most generals in the world who simply use the lives of soldiers to build victory. But at present, this Lord of Yancheng has become very dangerous...

A few days ago, Wei Ran received news that more than 100,000 Wei and Han allied forces including the Wei army in Hedong, Shangdang Han army, Yinjin and Zheng County. At the same time, the Heshui River launched a fierce crossing battle in the Wei River. The offensive was extremely fierce. In Bai Qi's words, he saw Meng Zhong so desperately want to win and end the war as soon as possible...

This is a very dangerous signal.

This means that the Yanchengjun may adopt a tactic of losing both sides - in fact, Wei and Han can accept the result of "both losing both sides". After all, these two countries have been attacked by him in recent decades, and have lost a lot of troops and land every year due to defeat. Suddenly, they have the opportunity to have both sides with Qin and fallen into a period of peace for several years, or even more than ten years, because they are unable to invade each other, and can enter a period of peace for more than ten years. Do you think Wei and Han can accept it?

Of course it can be accepted!

This is much better than the way they won fewer and lost more in front of Qin before. What's more, this time they fought on Qin's homeland. Even if both sides were injured, Qin would definitely suffer greater losses. What can't be accepted by Wei and Han?

The only thing I don’t want to accept is actually the Yan Chengjun who commanded the Wei and Han armies - a young man, and he is talented. Of course, he hopes to achieve the greatest results at the lowest cost.

But this time, Qi's attack on Song made the king of Yancheng lose his inch. All signs indicate that the king of Yancheng was ready to give up his original combat principles and accelerate the process of the battle by using a more radical and fierce offensive and tremendous casualties. After realizing this, Wei Ran weighed the pros and cons.

He realized that this was both a crisis and a turning point.

Threat this path is obviously no longer feasible. Meng Zhong's recent actions have fully demonstrated his proposition, that is, to defeat Qin at the loss and then solve the problem of Qi attacking Song. In this case, Qin threatened the other party, except that he even more angered the young Yanchengjun.

Since the threat doesn't work, there is only the path of peace talks left.

In order to negotiate with Wei and Han, Wei and Han can promptly withdraw troops back to help Song and attack Qi, while Qin has the opportunity to lick his wounds. In order to make Wei and Han believe in the sincerity of Qin, Qin can even attack Qi with Wei and Han.

What, the alliance of 'Qin Qihuodi'?

Stop kidding!

Qi, a good ally, sold him to Qin early, which made Qin the only Qin, which still retained the imperial title, become a public enemy of the world and was attacked by the five-nation coalition forces. Even if Qin took advantage of the opportunity of Qi's attack on Song this time, joining Wei and Han to attack Qi together, this is not a shameless approach, right? - Since you can be the first day of Qi, you can be the fifteenth day of Qin!

You are unkind and I am unrighteous!

The only question is how to gain a tacit understanding with the Wei and Han armies and maximize the losses of the city that Qin State needs to ced to Wei and Han.

After sorting out his thoughts, Wei Ran immediately went to see Meng Zhong.

This time he did not pass through Fengyang Jun Li Dui, because he knew that the other party actually wanted to negotiate with him, Qin State, but because of some concern, he chose a more extreme measure - he was afraid that Qin State would take the opportunity to threaten him, Wei Ran could understand.

However, when Wei Ran came to the county government in the city, he was told by the Wei soldiers who were left behind: "Yanchengjun is not in the residence at present."

"Where is he?" After Wei Ran asked this, he saw the Wei soldiers looking at each other and not answering, so he said again: "I have something important to discuss with the Lord of Yancheng. It is related to the war and harmony between Wei and Han and our Great Qin. If such a major event is delayed, will you bear it?!"

The Wei soldiers were frightened and looked at each other for a while before someone whispered: "The Lord of Yancheng is in the military camp where the Luo River and the Wei River meet."

Wei Ran frowned slightly when he heard this and asked, "When will Mr. Yancheng leave Yin Jin?"

The Wei soldiers shook their heads and said, "It's been about ten days, I don't know the specific one."

In more than ten days, wasn’t that the Wei and Han coalition forces launched the Battle of Ferry for a Hundred Miles?

Wei Ran frowned deeply.

He knew that the Wei camp where the Luo River and the Wei River intersected, the Wei general Jin Bi was built to break into the other side of the river and threatened to approach Jin. Previously, only Jin Bi was guarding there, while Meng Zhongze was in charge of Yin Jin commanding the overall situation.

But now Wei Ran learned from these Wei soldiers that Meng Zhong, as the actual commander, had actually gone directly to the front line. Now only Zhai Zhang is in charge of Yin Jin.

How to say it, this is not good news, because it means that Meng Zhong is indeed anxious to finish the battle as soon as possible, and what the message means...it goes without saying.

Without further ado, Wei Ran immediately ordered his followers to take him to the military camp where Meng Zhong was.

Before arriving at the military camp, Wei Ran saw many Wei soldiers carrying shoulders and ropes along the way, cutting down many trees from nearby woods and transporting them to the military camp in the distance.

Obviously, these woods were either for shipbuilding or for building floating bridges so that the Wei army could break into the other side of the river and into Xihe County.

"Quick! Speed ​​up!"

Wei Ran ordered the followers who drove the chariot.

"promise!"

The followers stepped up the horse and whipped the horse, speeding up the carriage.

After a while, the carriage arrived at the Wei Camp located south of the intersection of the Wei River and Luo Rivers.

Just like the patrol Wei soldiers who called for interrogation along the way, the Wei soldiers on duty immediately came up and shouted seriously: "The garrison is not allowed to approach the camp, so leave immediately!"

Because he was anxious, Wei Ran couldn't wait for his followers to sign up for him, so he lifted up the curtain of the carriage and said, "I am the prime minister of the Great Qin State and the Marquis of Rang Wei Ran. If you have important matters, please see the Lord of Yancheng."

The Wei soldiers seemed to not recognize Wei Ran and said incredible: "Do you know that our army is fighting with Qin? Since they are Qin people, they dare to appear in front of our army? Come on, take it down!"

"This group of ignorant Wei Man!"

Wei Ran was so excited that he shouted angrily: "I have been in Yinjin for a long time in order to discuss peace with Wei and Han. This is because I am allowed by Mr. Yancheng. You are rude to me. After that, I will tell Mr. Yancheng truthfully and ask him to punish you!"

Seeing this, the Wei soldiers immediately did not dare to act rashly, looked at each other and felt a little at a loss.

Seeing this, Wei Ran cursed inwardly, both as a reminder and urged: "Why don't you ask someone to report immediately? If you don't see me, you will decide the right way to take it!"

"Then...you stay here first..."

The Wei soldiers looked at each other for a few seconds, and immediately someone rushed to the depths of the camp.

About a moment later, Gong Zhongqiu walked over quickly. Seeing Wei Ran standing outside the camp with his hands on his back, looking around with a gloomy face, he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed to his guilt: "I have been asking Mr. Rang to wait for a long time, but I have offended him."

Not only did Gong Zhongqiu have a good relationship with Meng Zhong, but he also had a good relationship with Qin. For example, he had a good personal relationship with Wei Ran.

Therefore, seeing Gong Zhong extravagant, Wei Ran immediately smiled and bowed his hand to give him a gift: "Mr. Gong Zhong."

After saluting each other, Wei Ran pointed to the soldiers of the Wei and Han armies who went to the nearby areas to cut down trees and said, "As I see below, your army is making preparations to attack the north bank of the Wei River... I wonder what the preparation is?"

Gong Zhonggao could tell the truth, and he made a fuss and changed the topic: "The military affairs of Yanchengjun... have been a little busy these days, so don't ask him to wait for a long time, please."

"Are you busy thinking about how to capture my Xihe County?"

Although Wei Ran sneered in her heart, there was no clue on her face. She smiled and nodded and said, "Okay, please."

After following Gong Zhongqiu into the camp, Wei Ran carefully observed the soldiers of the Wei and Han army in the camp. According to what he saw, the soldiers of the Wei and Han army in the camp were all hurrying to prepare for the war. Some carried food and grass, and some maintained weapons. Almost all the soldiers in the entire camp looked serious.

Suddenly, two men with the appearance of generals came from a distance, and one of them urged with a serious expression: "So faster! Jin Bi Sima Youling, you must make all preparations before dusk..."

Immediately, another general encouraged him: "Try more hard, brothers, Mr. Yancheng promised to take Liyang within two months, and then reward the three armies in Liyang..."

Then there was a lot of inspiring words from Balabala. Hearing the morale of the two soldiers nearby Wei and Han were rising, they shouted long live.
To be continued...