across the Quartet

"The decline, the decline! Hu does not return? Because of the humble king, why is Hu exposed?

Decline, decline!Hu Bugui?The humble gentleman's bow, why is it in the mud? "

Among the green hills, the old trees, and the mottled shadows of the trees, a young man dressed as a woodcutter is walking with his head bowed, humming this ancient song in his mouth.He was carrying a bundle of firewood on his back, and a dead goose was hanging on his waist, which he presumably found by accident while logging.However, if someone observes carefully, they will find that the feathers of this goose are intact, only the eyes are pierced, and the blood has dried up.

The woodcutter climbed up the mountain along the path, and suddenly saw a person standing in front of him, blocking the way: "Don't stop, singing this kind of music, isn't it afraid of disturbing the morale of the army?"

The woodcutter raised his head, clasped his fists and replied, "...my subordinate was singing near the camp of the Qin people, trying to shake their morale."

The man let out a "ha" laugh, "Most of the soldiers are illiterate civilians, how many of them can understand the meaning of this song? However, Bei, Wei, Wei and other places are adjacent to Zhao and far away from Qin." , so I am afraid that many people here will find it familiar and arouse nostalgia in their hearts, but the Qin people will be indifferent." The woodcutter was slightly embarrassed when he heard this, and bowed his head in silence.

The two who spoke were Sima Shang and Gai Nie.In a fierce battle a few months ago, the mountain ghost lost nearly half of its masters, and even the Zhongshan wolf, one of the leaders, was trapped in a tight siege. The movement of the army and send back news.Sima Shang happened to see a familiar figure on the watchtower that day, so he went to greet him outside the camp in person.

The two entered through the corner gate, and Sima Shang asked about the Qin army's recent movements. "You went to the Qin camp to spy, what news do you have?"

Ge Nie shook his head helplessly. "In the past few days, I only saw soldiers practicing in the camp, but I didn't see any preparations for attack. I just found out the approximate strength of several garrisons from the stove numbers—"

"It's strange, I don't know what their idea is."

That night, Zhao Jun robbed the camp in front of the pass. Although Zhao Jun took the lead by surprise, the main force of the Qin Army arrived quickly.The two armies each suffered casualties, probably more than a thousand.Judging from the number of dead, the two sides seemed to be in a tie; however, after counting, the Qin generals found that five hundred Shenwu crossbowmen were either dead or injured, and it was impossible to find skilled soldiers to replace them in a short period of time. count.The chief general Wang Jian reflected on himself: "Li Mu used to be cautious in using troops, and was good at keeping a low profile; but in recent years, he has often resorted to dangerous schemes, which made the old man a little careless in dealing with them."

The former general Yang Duanhe said: "However, it can be inferred from this point that Li Mu knew that he was far behind our army in terms of strength, and his logistical supplies were even worse, so he had to break the rules and take risks in order to fight quickly."

Wang Jian glanced at him approvingly. "The way to use troops is not to rely on them not coming, but to wait for them. This battle is ultimately the old man's negligence."

The lieutenant of Shenwu Camp had already prostrated himself on the ground to plead guilty, but after hearing this, he even grabbed the ground with his head again and again. "General! This subordinate is willing to take the crime and do meritorious service. I will go to Jingxing within ten days!"

Wang Jian personally stepped forward to help him up and comforted him. "If you don't rely on the strength of the bed crossbow to storm the pass, the soldiers will shed a lot of blood. But don't worry, I predict that within a hundred days, there will be civil strife in the Zhao camp."

All the generals looked at each other in blank disbelief.Wang Jian stroked his beard and smiled lightly, with a calm expression. "Your Majesty has kept the vicious dogs in Handan for so long, and it's finally time for them to come out of the cage and devour people."

Since the beginning of the Qin State's large-scale army, the two armies have confronted each other from spring to summer and from summer to autumn. Although the Qin people's offensive has changed from hasty to moderate, and several times they stormed the pass, they were all repulsed. However, as long as they do not withdraw their troops for a day As a result, Zhao Jun's pressure became heavier day by day.The food stored in the army is getting less and less. The whole army, from the general to the soldiers, has reduced the daily meal from two meals to one meal, and each person has only one piece of dry biscuit and one mouthful of mare's milk.Soldiers dug wild vegetables and hunted wild mice to satisfy their hunger.Li Mu was very anxious, and wanted to plan a big battle to wipe out the main force of the Qin army, but the strength of the two countries was so great that they dared not move lightly; while Wang Jian's army also began to strengthen their camps, as if they planned to spend the winter in the mountains.

Sima Shang led Gai Nie into the tent of the Chinese army, seeing that Li Mu was not in the tent at the moment, he asked him to wait here, and went to the camp to look for it by himself.

Gai Nie had nothing to do, looked down, and saw a map drawn on animal skins on the desk, which showed the mountains, rivers, water veins, topography and landforms near Jingxing Pass.Among them, every dangerous place has a red circle drawn with a Chinese ink pen, which is the place where the general arranged for defense; and the sharp cone shape drawn by the ink pen represents several main forces of the Qin army.If you deduce it carefully, you will find that no matter which area the sharp cone advances from, there are three to five red circles nearby for joint defense. It's not as good as Qin, but the arrangements are tight.The longer Gai Nie looked at it, the more admiration he felt.While he was in a trance, someone behind him opened the tent and entered, with gray beard and hair, eyes like lightning, it was the coach Li Mu.

"General." Gai Nie gave a military salute, then tapped his finger on the map, repeating what he said to Sima Shang about the military situation.

Li Mu nodded thoughtfully. "From your point of view, the people of Qin really have no signs of sending troops?"

"The subordinates also find it strange."

"A few days ago, Wang Jian sent an envoy to deliver a letter saying that he wanted to negotiate a peace with our army. The old man thought he was planning to paralyze our army and launch a surprise attack." Li Mu sneered and said to himself, "It seems that this is not the case now. This peace negotiation I don’t even know what happened. Could it be that they still want to continue to procrastinate, and wait for our army to be exhausted before launching an attack?”

Ge Nie suddenly felt a chill down his spine, as if he had thought of something, but couldn't figure it out: "General...have you sent a letter back?"

"Of course I gave it away." Li Mu said, "The old man wrote in the book that the so-called peace negotiation means that the two sides will stop fighting. Now that you are heavily stationed on our country's land, how can you let it go?"

wrong.If it's a delay, just don't fight, why send any letter?Ge Nie always felt that there was a huge conspiracy in his mind, but also felt that such suspicions were empty and could not be realized.And Li Mu had other affairs to be busy with, so he was asked to go back to the camp to rest after explaining it to him.

Gai Nie sent the dead geese to the reserve camp, and asked the fireman to cook soup for the wounded and sick. Everyone was full of thanks.He glanced inadvertently, and saw white smoke billowing from several large pots on the stove, boiling water seething, and what came out were nothing but wild vegetables and grass roots, as well as unrecognizable meat scraps and bones; When I smelled it, I felt the fragrance was so delicious that it made my stomach empty, so I had no choice but to walk away.He carried a piece of birch bark in his arms, and when he couldn't stand the hunger, he took it out and gnawed a couple of bites, and he was on the road these days.There are about hundreds of thousands of troops stationed here, noisy people, and fires at night, so the birds and animals in the nearby forests are gradually disappearing;So I can't help but miss the short period of time when I followed Wei Zhuang in exile in Chu State - although I was imprisoned by quicksand, I had fish every day, fine wine every day, and all kinds of fruit snacks, and my life was comparable to that of a prince .

Gai Nie praised in his heart that it was still run by the Junior Brothers Association, when he suddenly heard a commotion near the big tent of the Chinese Army, it seemed that someone was causing trouble.He quickly put the bark into his arms and rushed over to ask.

It turned out that the team that transported supplies from Handan and other towns to the front line had disappeared for many days, and the envoys sent to urge them had never returned. When Li Mu was in a state of desperation, he thought of a candidate—if he invited this person to the capital, Guo Kai would be more daring He didn't dare to touch him; and he was expected to contact another force in the palace.

So he personally came to Zhao Cong's tent, and said earnestly, "Young master, the army is running out of food and grass, and our army is in danger. I'm afraid it must be the young master who can't save us."

Although Zhao Cong and Li Mu were at odds, he was a reasonable person after all; what's more, he used to be a well-clothed and well-fed son. He had been starving with the whole army for several months, and he was already full of complaints, his eyes were angry, and he often scolded the villain in the palace. .Hearing Li Mu's advice, he immediately packed up his parcel and planned to go back to Handan to file a complaint with King Zhao, and eat a few good meals by the way.

Unexpectedly, a few days after Zhao Cong left, the envoys from Handan arrived, but they brought an earth-shattering decree-someone reported that Li Mu and Sima Shang had negotiated peace with the Qin army in private, and they were suspected of collaborating with the enemy. Onion and Yanju replace it.

This emissary was also Guo Kaixin, and he was quite clever: he knew that proclaiming the edict in the camp would cause mutiny among the soldiers, so he had to sneak into the shogunate to convey the edict of King Zhao to Li Mu himself and other senior generals.Even so, the Buqu soldiers around Li Mu were still extremely angry, and they all clamored to kill this man.

Gai Nie witnessed these situations, and his previous suspicions were suddenly backed up.He ordered the soldiers to hang down the tent, and strictly guard the envoy's entourage, bodyguards, grooms and others who came from Handan, and they were not allowed to leak any news. Collaborating with the enemy, do you have evidence?"

Although the emissary was terrified in his heart, he remembered the eunuch Ling Hancang's earnest instructions before he left, and he became more confident, saying: "...of course there are. The letters between Li Mu and Wang Jian have been sent to Handan Palace. Inside, show it to the king and courtiers."

Li Mu slapped the saber on the table and was so angry that he couldn't say a word.Gai Nie paused and said: "I see, I see. You can tamper with the contents of the general's letter, but the general's seal cannot be forged. I would like to ask, is the general's letter sent to Qin Dynasty?" I don’t know who took the letter from Wang Jian and sent it all the way to Handan?”

"This... this, the villain doesn't know." The messenger was immobilized by the pressure of Gai Nie's sword, and sweat broke out on his forehead, and said tremblingly: "It must be a spy of our army lurking in the camp of the Qin people, willing to take strange risks." Steal those letters and report to the king, in case someone surrenders before the battle."

Gai Nie was also angry, and said loudly: "Every middleman in the Qin camp is a subordinate of the subordinates, and the news they discover should be reported to the subordinates. What are you, dare to fabricate military information at will, and deceive the king?" superior?!"

"It's useless to ask him." Sima Shang said coldly from the side, "This person is just a pawn who was sent to die. It's not the first day that we knew that Guo Kai was in collusion with the Qin people. He chose this time to attack. It is nothing more than following the secret order of the Qin people; such a combination of inside and outside, as soon as the general leaves the front line, Wang Jian will attack Jingxing in one fell swoop."

"This kind of treacherous villain has won the trust of King Zhao. The general has gone through life and death for the country. He has made great achievements many times, but he still cannot escape suspicion." Waves, all the soldiers responded, they wanted to chop up the messenger and feed them to the dogs, and then sent troops to return to Handan to wipe out the treacherous evil spirits.

Li Mu turned his attention to Zhao Cong who returned with the messenger. "My lord, did you also read those letters when you were in Handan? Could it be that you also believe that the old man communicated secretly with Wang Jian?"

Zhao Cong was uncharacteristically silent before, but at this moment when he heard Li Mu's questioning, he suddenly raised his head and said loudly: "General Cong can trust Cong's loyalty to the country. However, the general needs to go back and explain this matter to my brother personally. Is it just a few days of going back and forth? , Zhao Cong can't hold a Jingxing?!"

Li Mu knew that this person was actually the most upright person among the several sons of the clan, but he was too competitive and would not change until his death, so he couldn't help sighing, but he didn't know how to explain it.After a heated argument with the left and right, he still decided to return to the capital according to the order: First, if he disobeyed the order before the battle, if Guo Kai was not a false edict, then he would be suspected of collaborating with the enemy and lose the trust of the people of the country; It is indeed a hypocritical edict, and their disobedience to the king's order also gave them an excuse to convict them of treason, even if they were killed, they would not be able to justify it.On the contrary, after returning to Handan, seeing King Zhao, and then uniting with the forces of Prince Jia and others, it is still possible to fight on the basis of reason.Second, now that the army is short of rations and defeat is imminent, I am afraid this is Guo Kai's method of forcing him: if he refuses to return and the food and grass are cut off, then the Zhao army will collapse without attacking, and it will be irreversible.

He handed over the soldier talisman and seal ribbon to Zhao Cong, and told him to guard the pass carefully and not to fight impulsively; he sent trilogy to appease the soldiers and stabilize the morale of the army.Then, together with Sima Shang, Gai Nie and personal guards, they returned to the capital secretly.Before leaving, there were still several trusted generals who were left in the camp holding their horses' legs and crying in unison: "General, as long as you are in Jingxing, how can the villains of the court get you? Going to Handan now is like I entered the Longtan and Tiger's Lair, and I will never see you again when I am afraid of the general..."

Li Mu shook his head and said, "Have you forgotten the 46-day siege of Ma Fuzi during the Battle of Changping? Water and food were cut off, and soldiers were killing food in the dark. What a tragedy it was? One hundred thousand disciples of Zhao Jun fell into the same situation!" He raised his horsewhip with his left hand and made a hollow sound in the air.The generals couldn't stop him, so they had to watch him leave.

Not a day later, the group had rushed to the outskirts of Handan.Before entering the city, Ge Nie suddenly got off his horse and stopped in front of Li Mu's horse, saying: "General, my subordinates are not ready yet, so you can't enter the city right now."

"Oh? How are you going to prepare?"

Ge Nie pursed his lips and remained silent.Along the way, he has been thinking hard about how to turn the customer into the main and resolve this imminent murder.Everyone knows that what Guo Kai relies on is the trust of King Zhao.Zhao Wang is useless and stupid, but he listens to the evil words; therefore, if he wants to kill Guo Kaiyi party completely, he may have to draw his salary from the bottom of the pot, and first remove his backer completely.However, if you agree to Gong Zijia's conditions and launch a mutiny to establish a new king, you have to mobilize a large army; even if Li Mu responds to every call in the army, once the army leaves Jingxing, the Qin people will rush in, so what's the point of changing Zhao Wang ?The hesitation in this is exactly in line with the truth and reality in the art of war. It is also a sword formula that Gai Nie often chanted when he was learning Zongjian in Guigu: If you prepare the front, you will be few in the rear; If the right is prepared, the left will be widowed, and if everything is prepared, then everything will be widowed.

Neither can Guo Kai's conspiracy succeed, nor can the Qin people be allowed to enter the pass; how can we come up with a perfect method?Ge Nie's most troublesome thing in his life is that he can't take care of both ends, but he has similar problems again and again.The voice of the junior brother reverberated in his mind: "Sometimes the simplest method is the most effective."

He couldn't help asking himself: Simple?Is there any easy way now?Could it be that he rushed into the Guo mansion with a sword in hand and killed Guo Kai and his henchmen one by one?If Zhao Wang did not ask right and wrong in the court, and killed the general indiscriminately, would he also be killed?When he was in a difficult situation, Langzhong Tian Zhence immediately stepped forward and said: "I heard that Commander Gai has an anti-evil account in his hand, but all the officials in the court who have liaised with foreign envoys and accepted bribes are all included in the account, and most of them suffer from it." The officials are high and powerful, so it is difficult to get rid of them. However, the matter has reached a critical moment. When the king summons, the courtiers will form a party to attack the general. Why don't I go to the city a few days earlier and kill all these people!"

A total of 36 hundred golden warriors entered Handan this time, divided into four teams of Qing, Bai, Xuan, and Zhu, each led by a doctor; , extraordinary martial arts.Before joining the army, the leaders of the four teams were originally named as Fan Dali and Li Er, but later Sima Shang felt that there were too many duplicate names in the army, so he changed their names to Tian Zhen, Fan Yuan, Li Heng, and Huang Li.Before leaving Jingxing, Sima Shang ordered the 36 cavalry of the four teams to temporarily obey Gai Nie's deployment.It stands to reason that Gai Nie is far from being able to compare with them in terms of age and qualifications, but in the short three or four years since he joined the army, he has repeatedly charged into battle and made outstanding achievements;In addition, he has a gentle and humble personality, reticent and deep, but he can always hit the point when he speaks occasionally, so the veteran hundred gold warriors also admire and obey him very much.

Tian Zhen's statement coincided with Gai Niewei's suggestion, but Sima Shang expressed his opposition.

"Inappropriate. Now the people in Handan are discussing that it is the general who has private contacts with the people of Qin. If the general has just returned to the capital, many ministers of the humerus of the court have died. What do you make the people of the country think? The people don't know the reason for our killing, they only see The blood flowed like a river, causing people to panic, but it actually confirmed the rumors about the general's evil intentions."

This statement is indeed very reasonable, Li Mu nodded frequently when he heard it, and ordered them not to act recklessly.Everyone thought hard for a while, Ge Nie suddenly felt a flash of inspiration, and said: "I have a plan... don't kill them, just give them a warning. Make them less provocative in front of the king."

"Oh? What are you going to do?"

Gai Nie said the plan, and this time both Li and Sima agreed with it.He took out a book from his pocket, which was a copy of the book that Han Fei sent from Xianyang back then.Gai Nie found the section where "Zhao" was recorded, tore off the braided ropes of the bamboo slips, distributed the scattered bamboo slips to 36 hundred-gold warriors, and gave a few instructions to each of them.Everyone took orders and left.

In the early morning of the next day, Zhao Guosi Kou woke up from his sleep and found that there was an unsheathed dagger on the side of his pillow.Terrified, he hurriedly ordered his servants to search the mansion, and finally found a few lines of words written in blood on the wall outside the house: Si Kou Zhao, accepting a hundred yi of gold from Qin envoy, a drawer of pearls, and a pair of emeralds.

On the outside of the palace of the internal history of the court, it is written: Zhang, the internal history, received a bribe of two hundred yi from the Qin envoy, and a pair of jade horses.

And so on, a total of eleven households in Handan had similar blood written on their doors that night.The owners of these houses are all high-ranking nobles in the Zhao Kingdom, and there are many private soldiers guarding the courtyard in the mansion, but no one can guard against the dagger on the side of the couch.Only Guo Kai's mansion was visited by Gai Nie himself, but he found that the corridors, mountains, rocks, plants and trees in the mansion were very different from the last time he went to rescue people at night, showing some kind of formation faintly; for the sake of caution, he did not Entering the mansion, only twelve blood characters were left outside the main entrance, "Guo Kai, the family member, received a hundred thousand gold, and framed Zhongliang".

In the evening of the next day, everyone reunited in the suburbs, Tian Zhen, the leader of the youth team, said excitedly: "Today, there is a lot of discussion in Handan City, and the eleven families all closed their doors to thank their guests and dared not show their faces."

The leader of the white team, Fan Yuandao: "This subordinate asked to see Young Master Jia in private. Young Master said that he was a soft-spoken person, so he might not be able to convince the King, so he invited the late King's brother, the King's uncle, Chun Ping Jun, to defend the general in the court." Zhu Team Huang Li said: "Most of the guards in the palace are the former generals, and the subordinates have already contacted them secretly; if they find an assassin ambushing on the day of the court meeting, they will definitely warn in advance."

Ge Nie finally turned to Li Heng, the leader of the Xuan team, and only heard him say: "My subordinates have contacted the heroes from all directions in the Jackal Cave. If the king must ask the general for a crime, they are all willing to obey Brother Gai's arrangement and take the general from the palace or Robbed out of prison."

Hearing all this, Gai Nie finally breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to report to Li Mu: "General, you can enter the city now."

Li Mu nodded and smiled at them, got on his horse, and entered Handan from the west gate all the way.The next day, they received King Zhao's order to summon Li Mu in Lingwu Hall.Everyone set off immediately to go to Zhao Palace.On the way, they vaguely heard the singing of children from the depths of the residential houses on the side of the road.The singing rises and falls, and the tune is extremely sad and cold, which hurts people's heart.

"What song is that?" Li Mu asked left and right.

"I heard it's a nursery rhyme that has been passed down from generation to generation." Li Heng said: "My subordinates heard it in the city yesterday. It is said that after the earthquake in Dai County, the fields did not grow crops, but white thatch grew a foot high. So I don't know who We made up this song, and all the children in the north will sing it."

Li Mu frowned and remained silent.The outline of King Zhao's Palace was already in sight, but the shrill singing voice suddenly became clear:

"The people of Qin laughed, and the people of Zhao said that if you don't believe me, you will grow hairy on the ground."

TBC