Xiao Ding was helping Yu Feng heal at his residence, when suddenly there was a sound of footsteps outside the door, and a small servant walked in, "General Qiqitian, Lord Kou and Master Cao asked me to inform you to go to the hall to discuss the military!" ”

"Okay, I'll be right over." Xiao Ding replied.

Instructed the soldiers waiting for Yu Feng to help feed Yu Feng all the medicine and take good care of Yu Feng. Only then did he turn around and go out of the house to the meeting hall of the county office.

At this time, the conference hall was already full of people, headed by Kou Zhixian and Cao Dutong, and a leader of Xinquan County was sitting on the top, and more than a dozen low-level officers at the rank of Du Lieutenant were also present.

Seeing Xiao Ding come in, Kou Zhixian and Cao Dutong hurriedly let Xiao Ding take a seat.

Xiao Ding was not polite, and after sitting down, he asked, "Ladies and gentlemen, what are you discussing?" ”

"General Tian doesn't know, just after visiting Malai, the general of the Great Xia Kingdom, Chi Bugou, led 20,000 horses to attack Xinquan!" Kou Xian Ling said anxiously towards Xiao Ding.

"There are still a lot of soldiers and horses of this Hu people, they killed seven or eight thousand, and this time they brought another twenty thousand." Xiao Ding said nonchalantly.

"General Tian can't underestimate the Hu people, I heard that Li Daocheng, the prince of the Great Xia Kingdom, attacked my Great Song Kingdom this time, and brought a total of 120,000 soldiers and horses, and more than ten generals!" Kou County Ling kindly reminded.

"The soldiers are coming, the water is coming, and we don't need to be too afraid." Xiao Ding said calmly.

"What General Tian said is yes, I don't know if General Tian has a good strategy to break the enemy?" Cao Dutong on the side asked tentatively.

"Have you ever sent a message to Lord Dingbian Huang?" Xiao Ding asked.

"It's been sent, it's been delivered." Kou County Ling replied.

"That's good, we just have to hold on to the city. The Hu people are not good at siege warfare, so we just need to avoid fighting on the plains with them. Although their cavalry is powerful, it is not very useful for siege. Let's prepare more strong bows and crossbows, roll wood and stones, and prepare to defend the city. Xiao Ding said calmly.

"Okay, that's what we were going to do." Cao Dutong and Kou County Ling also agreed with Xiao Ding's statement.

"In addition, I have a drawing of a strong crossbow here, you can find the craftsmen in the city to enlarge the scale and speed up the construction, this kind of crossbow arrow is much more powerful than ordinary bows and arrows after enlargement." Xiao Ding said, and took out the blueprint of the crossbow from his arms.

"General Tian, now that you are building weapons, I'm afraid it's too late!" Kou Xian Ling said worriedly.

"Find more people and gather all the craftsmen in the city." Xiao Ding said.

"Don't worry about manpower, we already have a military workshop in Xinquan County, plus all the blacksmiths in the city, there are at least one or two hundred people in total. I'm more worried about the lack of raw materials, General Tian, you should also know that the iron ore resources in our Great Song Kingdom are relatively scarce, and the iron ore reserves in our Xinquan County are not much. I'm worried that if we build new crossbow arrows in batches, we may not have enough raw materials. Kou Xianling still knows a lot about the situation in the city, and he expressed his worries.

"Oh, that's it!" Xiao Ding's heart was also cold when he heard it, "It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice", there are no raw materials, what kind of crossbow arrows do you create?

However, then he rolled his eyes and thought of a good idea, so he said, "Master Kou, you don't have to worry. Last night my troops captured a lot of Hu weapons. We can't use these blades now, and they can be melted to make crossbow arrows. ”

"General Tian really has a good idea, these weapons are all made of fine steel!" Kou Xianling was immediately happy when he heard it.

After everyone had a meeting, they arranged for each person to go to the execution. Xiao Ding also passed down the order to prepare the 5,000 soldiers and horses he brought to defend the city.

In the evening, Chibugou's troops arrived outside Xinquan City, arranged for his subordinates to set up camp, in order to prevent another sneak attack when they set up camp, Chibugou specially arranged 5,000 soldiers and horses to be responsible for patrolling and guarding.

After setting up the camp, Chibu Gou ordered the pot to be buried and cooked, and after a long meal of war food, he planned to attack Xinquan City overnight. This time we must not fail again, otherwise we will really have no face to meet the eldest prince.

Fortunately, there were no surprises at camping and meal time today. After dinner, the soldiers of the Hu people also regained some of their strength. At this time, Chibu Gou shouted: "Soldiers of the three armies, attack the city immediately, we must take Xinquan City tonight!" After the city is conquered, all the gold, silver, treasures, and beautiful women in the city are yours! ”

Robbing money, food, and women has been a consistent practice since the invasion of the Hu people.

Xinquan City has already been prepared, at the head of the city, Kou County Ling and Cao Dutong have the highest official positions here, and they are the commander-in-chief here, and Xiao Ding stands aside to assist.

Seeing the Hu people's team rushing towards the north side of Xinquan County like a tide with torches, Kou County issued an order, "Release the arrow!" ”

The soldiers immediately bent their bows and arrows and shot at the Hu people. Although the night was dark, so many Hu people rushed over, even if the arrow was not accurate, an arrow could hit a person or a horse in a daze. Moreover, the soldiers on both sides were holding torches, and it had snowed heavily not long ago, and the light of the torches was reflected by the snow, and the night did not look particularly dark.

After the Hu people entered the land of one shot, they also began to bend their bows to counterattack, and suddenly on the head of the city, someone was soon hit by an arrow and fell to the ground.

"Shieldman cover!" Kou Zhi County ordered again.

The shield-bearer soon stood in front of the archer with his shield in hand.

The Hu people also sent shieldmen to come forward to cover, but almost all the Hu people were cavalry, and the shieldmen were mostly infantry, and the shields of the infantry could not cover the cavalry team at all.

Therefore, the strategy adopted by the Hu people was to rush forward on horseback against the rain of arrows, and when they rushed to the range of the attack, they would bend their bows and counterattack.

The role of the shield bearers of the Hu people was to cover the infantry carrying ladders, wooden poles, chariots and other objects to advance under the city wall, hit the city gate with wooden poles and chariots, and use the ladders to erect on the city wall to facilitate the rear army to climb the city.

The way the defenders dealt with the Hu people who came under the city walls was to hit them with rolling logs and stones. Or they poured boiling water, and sometimes even hot feces and poured them into the crowd below. Because the feces contain viruses, those Hu people who are burned are difficult to treat once they are infected with the virus.

Chibugou commanded the troops to attack for most of the night, but did not capture Xinquan City, and lost three or four thousand soldiers and horses, and then collected the troops to rest.

As for New Springs, more than 2,000 people were also lost in this battle. After seeing that the Hu people had collected their troops, Kou County also ordered them to collect and rest, leaving the soldiers who were patrolling and standing guard, and the rest of the people also went down to the city.

Early the next morning, Shu Tianxiu, who came to support Chibugou, arrived with 10,000 soldiers and horses. The two soldiers were combined into one, and Chibu Gou was very happy. After discussion, the two generals decided to let the soldiers surround Xinquan City today and besiege Xinquan from all sides.

As a result, after attacking the city for a day, he still did not take Xinquan. It wasn't until the night when the lights were in hand that Chibu Gou and Shu Tianxiu ordered the troops to be collected, and today's siege once again caused them to lose more than 5,000 soldiers and horses.

As for Xinquan City, more than 3,000 people were also lost today. At this moment, Zikou County Ling and Cao Dutong were a little panicked, from yesterday to today, half of the defenders in the city were left, and if it was consumed like this, it would not take a few days for Xinquan City to be captured by the Hu people!

Now that the four gates are surrounded, it is difficult to send people out of the city to deliver letters.

Several leaders discussed it, but no one came up with a better idea, and the only thing they could do now was to hold on and wait for help.