Zhao Guo, Handan.

This is the only large city left by Gongsun Chan in the north of Yecheng that can garrison 40,000 soldiers and horses, not to mention the strong city in the world that has been used since the Warring States period, and the martial spirit cong platform that can read tens of thousands of soldiers and horses alone marks the importance of this city.

This is also the border line between Gongsun Chan and the offensive Liang army.

The general of the garrison here is Gongsun Yue, Gongsun Zhan's most trusted younger brother, and he was also a man of his word in Jizhou before the war. Only with such a status and such a cronies can he stand on the last line of defense between the two armies in this situation, so that he has enough energy to deal with the confrontation with Cao Cao in the south.

It's just that General Gongsun Yue doesn't know for the time being that Handan has become an isolated city...... Lonely and helpless.

On the official road leading to Yecheng, dozens of corpses lay horizontally and vertically, horses and chariots fell aside, and goods were dumped all over the ground, including salt bags from Hedong and Xiongnu ritual vessels from Bingzhou. Judging from their costumes, this is a group of merchants from Guanxi to Jizhou via Bingzhou, and their destination may be Yecheng, or they may set off from Jizhou to Xuzhou again. But no matter where their final destination is, it now seems that they will never be able to reach it.

Because they are an ordinary merchant who is not very lucky.

"Clean up the bodies, sweep the ground, remove the traces of where they came." The middle-aged man without armor raised his legs and stepped over the corpse, taking off the bronze mask on his face to reveal a melancholy and handsome face, Yang Feng pulled out his Han sword from a corpse and put it back in its sheath, the word 'Zhongxing' engraved on the sword body is particularly ironic now. The royal family's Zhongxing sword was used to assassinate innocent people passing by, Yang Feng shook his head, shook off the troubles in his mind, and shouted to the subordinates of the Chopwood Courtyard: "Move faster!" ”

The scattered crossbows were stored in the bags carried by the swordsmen of the Wood Chopping Courtyard, and the corpses were packed in the chariot and pushed into a pre-dug pit in the forest three miles away, where countless passers-by had been buried. The corpse was quickly cleared, and the dark red blood that seeped into the ground was covered in a thick layer of fresh earth, and all traces along the way were cleaned...... Except for the swordsmen of the Wood-Chopping Courtyard, no one would know what had happened here. Everything will sleep with the dirt and slowly decay.

War has nothing to do with civilians, and this has always been the creed that Ma Yue believes, but sometimes others do not understand it that way.

When the war is going on, as the fighting escalates, intelligence and information become even more important. Sometimes, if a piece of information reaches the ears and eyes of the enemy, it means the tragic death of thousands of his own soldiers, and any general will try to avoid such a thing happening to him. For this reason, they do not hesitate to kill a thousand by mistake, as long as they can kill the right one.

Just like now, Yang Feng was slowly withdrawn from leading the troops in battle later, and transferred to the external affairs of the Splitting Wood Courtyard. Compared with leading the troops to fight, assassinating Yang Feng with a sword is an expert.

Wanli Liang Country, if you say who is the master of the assassin industry, who dares to be the crown?

What's more, in the battle in Liangzhou a few years ago, the ranger swordsmen under Yang Aruo had proved that their sergeants were no worse than the warriors of the Hui Horse Tent who Song Jian, the king of the Han Dynasty in Heshou, had painstakingly managed. What's more, Yang Feng is also the head of the assassin swordsman of the Splitting Wood Academy.

His martial arts may not be the best on the battlefield, but fighting with people and assassinating guerrillas could not be better.

"General, another group of people!" The cool-earth swordsman flew back with a vigorous posture, and after a moment he dismounted and shouted: "It's still ten miles away from here!" ”

Yang Feng looked around at the road on the left and right, and his slender fingers clasped the hilt of the sword, and ordered: "All hidden, respect my orders!" ”

With Yang Aruo here, Handan is a lonely city!

……

Ma Yue had already led his troops north to Zhongshan Kingdom, and all the troops of Zhao State were handed over to Guan Yu to be fully responsible. With Guan Yu's heroic talent, Ma Dai and Xu Huang are complementary, and Ma Yue can let go of thousands of hearts to Gongsun.

General Youzhou, what kind of wind and waves can you bear?

Guan Yu called the city guards to the city at the foot of the mountain in the west of Handan, in order to fight in the field. Ma Dai and Xu Huang had already supervised the commanders and cavalry scattered all over the city to guard against Gongsun Yue's attack...... Through the hands of Yang Feng, the communication between Zhao and Yecheng has been completely cut off, no matter what happens to Zhao Guo, but all the information transmitted to the south will eventually return to Guan Yu's hands, Yang Feng is a ranger swordsman carefully taken care of by the Chopwood Academy, specializing in assassination, equipped with Liangguo crossbows, proficient in poisoning, disguise, traps and other techniques, so that these people can go deep into the hinterland of the enemy army to assassinate important people, not to mention the blockade of only four hundred miles.

The soldiers and horses of the Liang Kingdom, like wolves in the desert, suddenly pounced on the cities of Zhao State, suddenly gathered under the city of Handan, and suddenly scattered to teach people to find out the trace.

For a time, the whole Zhao State was in a loud voice, although the three small cities and a big city in Handan were not far apart, and even it only took three or five hours to join forces, but they were forcibly divided by the ubiquitous Liangguo soldiers, and the counties and towns around the country did not dare to send troops to help, and they all guarded the city and closed their doors, leaving the vast fields and townships to the Liangguo soldiers.

This status quo is naturally what Guan Yu likes to see, and it is almost time to harvest wheat straw, and then the grain grown by Jizhou people will be given up by the city, why not?

It's June.

"General, I have figured out that the garrison of Gaoyi has 700 volunteers and 1,800 volunteers, the defenders of Zhongqiu have 600 volunteers and 2,100 volunteers, and the defenders of Yuanshi City have more than 3,000 defenders of 1,200 volunteers." Cheng Wu walked into the big tent with a stack of books and put it on several cases, and said to Guan Yu: "There are 2,000 defenders in Handan City, and the county magistrate also recruits troops on the list, and there are more than 4,000 village warriors, which is all the troops under General Gongsun in Zhao State." ”

"Can the information of the county magistrates be discovered?" Guan Yu put down the scroll, picked up a bamboo slip, rubbed his eyebrows, looked at it, and read: "Zhao Guoxiang Li Gan, Yingchuan Li side branch, there is some meaning." Didn't the descendants of the Li family all belong to Cao Mengde? Why did this tribe follow Gongsun Bogui? ”

Yingchuan Li, the descendant of Li Ying, a famous scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Li Ying's son Li Zan said to his descendants on his deathbed that although Zhang Miao was friendly with him and Yuan Shao was an in-law, he did not let his descendants be attached to him, thinking that no one in the world could be stronger than Cao Cao, and he wanted the descendants of the Hou family to be close to Cao. Because of this, Li Ying's grandson Li Xuan is now under Cao Cao and is an official in Luoyang.

"General, don't you know, this Li Gan is not a descendant of the Li family, he is a member of Li Ying's father when he was the prime minister of Zhao State, and later Li Ying won his will, but this branch somehow fell on Zhao State." Cheng Wu said with a smile: "They don't take Yingchuan as their ancestor, but take root in Zhao State. ”

Guan Yu waved his hand, not caring about these things, and said to Cheng Wu: "Don't care about that, Ah Wu will give an order on my behalf, let Ma Bozhan and Xu Gongming lead their subordinates to continue to invade the three cities, so that their defenders will be trapped in the city, and if they go out of the city, they will be defeated on the spot." Outside Handan City, Guan Mou is in charge, so there is no need for them to worry. Then ordered Guan Ping and Wang Shuang to supervise the army to help the people in Zhao State to work and farm, and not to disturb the people. The order went down, and the soldiers of our Liang country will be sentenced to death for those who harass the people. ”

In Guan Yu's opinion, no matter who the other princes wanted the land of Jizhou, Liang Guo was the first to refuse. Gongsun Chan has now fallen into passivity, there are soldiers of the Liang State in the north, and the Han army of the imperial court in the south is pressing step by step, as long as the soldiers and horses north of the Great Wall cannot pass for a day, then Gongsun Chan will be trapped in Yecheng for a day. Therefore, Guan Yu was not in a hurry at all about attacking Yecheng.

Now is a good time to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, let Gongsun Zhan and Cao Cao's soldiers and horses fight to the death, all he needs to worry about is how to gain a firm foothold in the territory of Zhao.

Storming the city is a thousand kills for the Liangguo army, and it hurts eight hundred to kill the enemy, so in the case of a continuous supply of military food, Guan Yu is reluctant to storm the city, what he wants is the hearts of Zhao County. If you want to seize the land, you don't have to have only one means of attacking, first let the people accept the soldiers and horses carrying the banner of the Liang State army to roam in all directions, and feel relieved without fear, and this road will be half the success.

According to Guan Yu's thoughts, the battle in Jizhou will not be fruitful in three years and five years. Ten years ago, the situation in the world was like a cloud and a mountain of fog, and at that time, the strength of all the princes was still very weak, and the war was only a bloody and brave life and death brutality. But now it was different, and the princes who had gone through that chaos had their own lands, soldiers, and allies. At this stage, the world's strife will be even more confusing.

Therefore, Guan Yu's plan is to hold the four counties of Zhao, Zhongshan, Changshan, and Leping in Jizhou firmly in the hands of Liangguo, and these four counties are connected together, and they are bordered by Bingzhou relative to the land to the east, so it is at least more convenient to support. As long as the land of these four counties is firmly grasped, it will be invincible in the future battle of Jizhou.

"Order the soldiers and horses to go down the mountain and continue to call the battle!" Guan Yu waved his hand, thousands of soldiers and horses roared, and rushed down the Handan Mountain in a neat sequence to the city of Handan, in the noisy drums, Guan Yu stood proudly on the chariot in the robe of the handsome generals of the Liang Kingdom, and the front row of the shouting team composed of loud generals shouted and scolded towards the city.

This kind of call has lasted for more than a month, at the beginning of the Handan garrison Li Gan also went out of the city to lead the troops to fight three times, the ordinary Jizhou city defenders and the elite Liangguo covered the armor to fight, the victory or defeat of the battle is almost suspenseful of the three battles and three norths. Later, Li Gan should not fight, he saw that the Liang army was unwilling to storm the city, and later let the Liang soldiers call for endless battles. So much so that now, although the morale of the defenders of Handan is low, they have long been accustomed to the Liangguo army calling for battle under the city every day after dinner, even if the Liangguo soldiers approach to the city three hundred steps will not react, it is no surprise.

But today, it is a little different, the soldiers and horses of the formation are approaching the city, and there are countless ladders hidden in the large number of soldiers and horses.

Guan Yu wanted to make the enemy army tired before attacking, and the gravel cannon behind the army formation had already aimed at the north and south walls in the west of the city, and cut off the route of the defenders to come to help just after giving the order.

The soldiers in front of them are approaching. Guan Yu suddenly ordered: "Set up a cloud ladder and storm the western city wall!" ”

With the screaming sound of rubble, a series of ladders were quickly erected on the city wall west of Handan!