Yao Tao's opposition was ultimately unsuccessful, and under the temptation of the great battle achievement of "capturing Xin'er", Lu Ming agreed with Yao Tao's suggestion.

So, the defenders of the city were decided, and the sun went out of the city to fight with Xiner and Kojiqiu.

Lu Ming's reply was sent to Xin Er's army in the afternoon of the same day.

Xin Yi smiled and said to Koji Qiu: "Mingzong, you expected it, Lu Ming and Yao Tao really dared to come to fight our army in the field. He asked them and said, "There will be a war the day after tomorrow, what is the strategy of the Qing and others?" Say whatever you want. ”

Tang Ai shook his fan and said: "There are mainly two Qin Lu in the city, one is Yao Tao's soldiers, most of them are Yao Tao's troops for many years, and they are not similar to Lu Ming's department. If Ai's guess is not bad, the day after tomorrow, Qin Lu will go out of the city, in order to facilitate the battle, it should not be mixed with Lu Ming's department and Yao Tao's department, but will be divided into two formations, left and right. When the day after tomorrow is the battle, our army will attack the formation of the Lu Ming department, as long as the Lu Ming department is defeated, the Yao Tao department will retreat without a fight. ”

Xin Er said in his heart: "This is the principle of 'catching the thief and capturing the king first'." "Ask Koji Qiu, Guo Daoqing, Zhao Rangan, Zhao Xing, etc., "What do Qing and the others think?" ”

However, the hero sees the same thing, and Koji Qiu and Tang Ai agree on the same opinion.

Guo Daoqing had a different point of view, he said: "What the long history said is very true, Lu Mingbu is the backbone of the Qin prisoners who defend the city, in this case, why don't our army attack its weakness first?" Defeat Yao Taobu first, and then take advantage of the victory to attack, and then attack Lu Ming's department? ”

Tang Ai said: "Although Yao Tao's department is not a descendant of Qin, most of the soldiers in his department followed Yao Guo and Yao Tao, and fought in Jiangzuo, Hebei, and Guanzhong. If our army first attacks the array listed by Yao Taobu, first, it is not easy to overcome quickly, and secondly, Lu Ming will also divide his troops to help, or echo, so that even if we break through Yao's formation, the sharpness of our army's soldiers will inevitably be exhausted. ”

Guo Daoqing understood what Tang Ai meant, and suddenly said, "It makes sense! 'One blow, then decline, three and exhaustion', the long history of the weak, first attack its strong, this strategy is clever! After thinking for a while, he said, "Yes, if Yao Tao is beaten, Lu Ming will definitely not sit idly by, then our army will have to fight with him at the same time, but if Lu Ming is attacked first, Yao Tao will not do his best even if he sends troops to support, which means that if our army fights Lu Formation first, it seems that it is attacking its strength, but it is actually attacking its weakness, oops, it makes so much sense!" I was amazed by Tang Ai's battle strategy.

Xin Er asked Zhao Rangan and Zhao Xing, affectionately called them by their nicknames, and asked, "Touman, Bobo, what is your brother's opinion?" ”

Zhao Rangan is a general, he has no outstanding resourcefulness, no "high vision", and only promises.

Zhao Xing said respectfully: "What Tang Changshi discussed is really a clever theory. The day after tomorrow, Xing dared to ask the headquarters to lead the Ming Gong to attack the battle first! ”

Zhao Xing avenged his father and rebelled against Qin and surrendered to Long, at least he has nowhere else to go except Dingxi at the moment, and Xin Er is still very trustworthy of Zhao Xing's "loyalty", but he is not very trustworthy about the combat effectiveness of Zhao Xing's troops.

After all, Zhao Yanli, Zhao Rangan, Zhao Xing father and son, in the past two years, they have been too unlucky, first successively invaded by Dingxi and Pu Qin, repelled Dingxi, lost to Pu Qin, lost their old nest Shuo Fang for many years, and had to surrender to Pu Mao, and then because of Wu Luokui, Zhao Yanli failed to do anything, and was forced to kill himself. Zhao Rangan's troops will not talk about it for the time being, but only that the more than 2,000 Tiefu soldiers under Zhao Xing have followed Zhao Yanli and Zhao Xing to run around in the past two years, and they are at a loss, and they have experienced twists and turns, and it is conceivable that their military spirit and morale will definitely be low. Lu Ming's subordinates were all Pu Qin's first-class elite soldiers, how could such demoralized soldiers be used as the first strike?

Xin Er said in his heart: "Although the Zhao brothers are of the same birth, they have different personalities. The dyeing is rough and fierce, and the generals are also, no need to say more; However, this Zhao Xing seems to be quite ambitious. I have had a lot of contact with Zhao Xing these days, although this person is generous and generous, and the emperor is brutal, and although he is a re-descending body, in front of Qianli and others, he is sometimes arrogant, and this person may become a disaster for me in the future. Only Shuofang is this county, and I still need to borrow his brother to lay it down for me in the future, so as to save some of my people's power in Dingxi, and I need to be cold to Zhao Xing's son. He smiled and said, "Bobo, Qing and Touman are also iron-clad heroes, and they will fight the day after tomorrow, so they can't do without Qing brothers, but I have a lot of fierce generals under my account, and I don't need to be Qing first." ”

Zhao Xingben was just a sign of loyalty, and he was not accepted by Xin Er, and he did not force it, and respectfully agreed.

On that day and the next day, both the enemy and our armies in and outside the city were actively preparing for battle.

On the third day.

Early in the morning, after the two armies had eaten enough, the defenders went out of the city, and the Xin Er and Koji Qiu departments went out of camp, and they began to line up in the south of the city, relative for several miles. Lu Ming left more than 1,000 people in the city to guard and respond; Xin Er also left 2,000 weak to stay and respond. There were 7,000 Qin soldiers in the array, and nearly 10,000 Long soldiers. There is not much difference in the number of soldiers participating in the battle on both sides, and they are also very close in terms of troops, the Qin soldiers are defending the city, of course, they are mainly foot soldiers; The main force of the Xin Er Department is the troops that cross the Minshan Mountain, and they are also mainly foot soldiers.

I saw that in the early morning spring sun, on the vast field south of Xiangwu County and the moat, two armies of soldiers and horses, one with white as the main tone and the other with red as the main tone, under the command of their respective military flags and war drums and officers at all levels, a group of soldiers, elite wearing armor, the rest wearing military uniforms, holding shields, bows, crossbows, lances, axes and other weapons, advanced to the designated position.

For a while, the drums on both sides converged and came out far away, and the birds in the forest in the distance flew up in shock.

In the distant villages, there were bold people, climbing the big trees and looking at them from afar.

The people were not close, they couldn't see the people on the battlefield clearly, and in their eyes, all they could see was a point, a point, and they felt that the soldiers on both sides were like two groups of ants marching in an orderly manner, a group of white ants and a group of red ants.

A sixty or seventy-year-old villager who was a light man in the township when he was a teenager, enlisted to join the Qin army when he was young, fought with Dingxi, and once licked blood on the knife edge. Seeing this scene, he suddenly moved in his heart, and said to the two grandsons who were holding his feet and holding his legs below: "In today's battle, the Qin soldiers will win!" ”

This old man is a small landlord in his hometown, compared with ordinary people, his family has a little food, and although his life is not very easy during the troubled times, he has no shortage of food and clothing, and his body is wide and fat, and his two grandsons are tired and sweaty.

The older grandson asked, "Grandpa, how do you know?" ”

With a mysterious tone, the old man said, "I had a dream last night. When I woke up this morning, I wondered what this dream meant. From this point of view, this dream is obviously saying that the Qin army will win, and Dingxi will be defeated! ”

His elderly grandson asked, "Grandpa, what dream did you have?" ”

"I dreamed that at the feet of the Buddha, there were two groups of ants fighting, it was a group of white ants and a group of red ants. The fight was fierce. At first, the white ants fell to the upper hand, but later, there was a big ant among the white ants, and it bit several leaders of the red ants in one go. After the fight, the corpses of red ants were all over the ground. The old man pointed to the battlefield and said, "You see, the Qin army's military uniform is white, and the military uniform of Dingxi is red, so isn't the white ant the Qin army, and the red ant is not Dingxi?" …… This is a foreshadowing from the Buddha, so I say that the Qin army will win! ”

Longxi County is adjacent to Dingxi, these decades, Dingxi and Pu Qin fought back and forth, the local people were deeply affected by the military disaster, almost no peace, there was no good impression of these two parties, who lost and who won, originally it didn't matter, but since the koji ball in Longxi two years ago, and then served as the Qinzhou assassin to the present, he cherishes the people, governs the realm with benevolence, restricts the soldiers under his subordinates, prohibits looting the people, and also distributes cattle, grain and other things to the people, and subsidizes them to cultivate the land. Therefore, the reputation of Koji Qiu in Longxi County is really very high, and it is the idol of the old man's two grandsons.

Hearing the old man's words, not only his eldest grandson, but also his young grandson, who was only fourteen or fifteen years old, couldn't help but become anxious, and the two shouted: "Grandpa, then hurry up and tell Koji Lang about your dream!" Otherwise, don't fight with the Qin army today! ”

"What are you two talking about! We are the head of Qian, don't say that you can't even see the face of Koji Langjun, even if you see it, he won't believe my words! The old man looked at the battlefield from afar, stopped the shouting of his two grandsons, and said, "Don't quarrel! Let's take a look at what this battle will look like. If Dingxi Guo is defeated, if Koji Langjun can escape to our township, let's see if we can hide him and save him. ”

Not to mention the old man's dreams, nor his two grandsons' worries about koji.

On the battlefield in the south of the city, around the time of the hour, the two armies had finished their formations.

Xin Er drove the horse to the front of the formation and observed the Qin formation.

It was exactly the same as Tang Ai expected, the Qin array, which was about three miles long, was obviously divided into two pieces, and the Qin array on the east was about one mile long, and it was Lu Ming's general flag; The Qin array in the west was less than a mile long, and it was Yao Tao's banner. Between the two formations, there was a vacant lot.

Koji ball, Tang Ai and others are from the side of the horse

Tang Ai looked at it for a moment and said, "The Qin array is slightly thick,...... Ming Gong, it seems that Lu Ming wants to defend the palace first in order to consume the strength of our army. ”

The total number of soldiers and horses of the Qin army out of the city is about 7,000, which can be estimated by Tang Ai and others. With 7,000 soldiers and horses, the effective position was less than three miles long, that is, there were 2,300 or 400 soldiers in one mile. In order to facilitate the use of weapons, especially rifles, bows and crossbows, the horizontal columns of soldiers must have a distance of more than one meter, 500 meters long, and each horizontal 400 people, there are five or six rows.

The depth of five or six rows is not very thick, but it is not thin.

The formation of the Dingxi Army was not so thick, with only four rows in total.

Xin Er carefully looked at the enemy formation, stroked his beard, and said: "Then our army will attack first as he wishes!" Gu looked at the koji ball, and said with a smile: "Mingzong, Yao Tao's formation will be handed over to you, if he comes to the aid of Lu Ming's formation, you will volley for me, okay?" ”

Kojiqiu's current subordinates are mainly newly descended Qiang people, and their combat power is not good, so they can't use it to attack fortifications, so Xin Er has this arrangement. Seeing that the war was imminent, everyone wanted to eat the fatty meat, but the koji ball did not fight for success, and responded cheerfully: "Okay!" ”

Xin Er asked the generals on the left and right: "Who will try to attack for me first?" ”