The Hexi Corridor has been a battleground for soldiers since ancient times, and it is also the only way for the Central Plains to reach the Western Regions.

Since the establishment of Xijin, the Central Plains Dynasty has cut off the connection with the Western Regions, Xijin is attached to the early period of the former Chu, and the early period of the former Chu can still be controlled, but from the later period, it has completely lost control of the Hexi Corridor.

Snow God Mountain is located on a mountain range fifty miles north of the Hexi Corridor, and the border between Northern Liao and Xijin in the north is also dominated by this mountain range.

The mountain range stretches for thousands of miles from west to east, extending into the northwest corner of Qinfeng Road in Southern Chu, isolating the connection between Northern Liao and most of Xijin.

At the foot of the Snow God Mountain, a hundred miles to the southeast, it is the northwestern city of Southern Chu, Dingzhou.

On the Snow God Mountain in the evening, the pavilions and pavilions stand, and the red light of the sunset shines beautifully.

Since Xiao Ming, who was regarded as a rebel by the Southern Chu court two years ago, brought thousands of people to live here and establish the Snow God Sect, this originally deserted snow-capped mountain has been turned into a paradise residence, full of vitality.

From a distance, under the top of a snow-capped mountain, figures are scattered and birds are flying.

In front of one of the cliff waterfalls, a woman in black had just finished feeding a flock of white birds, and the white birds flew away with a call.

A man came up from a path and approached the woman.

"Listen Master, you want to go down the mountain to Yingzhou?"

The man's name is Yuan Shen.

The woman named Qin Elegy did not turn around and nodded slightly.

Yuan Shen said indifferently: "Don't forget, he didn't come to the northwest for you this time. ”

"I know that he came to find the bones of his parents to help the maid of his family, and he already knew it in the letter."

"And you're going?"

"I'm just worried about him, the Zhending army has withdrawn to the Yuan Capital Mansion, and the northwest is empty, he asked the Snow God Sect to pay attention to Xijin's movements before, then he must have noticed something. Sure enough, our spies brought back news yesterday that Xijin's army did not send troops to Dingzhou from the Hexi Corridor, but entered Qinfeng's Shangyuan Plain from two hundred miles to the south. ”

Yuan Shen said in a deep voice: "Even if Xijin wants to attack Yingzhou City, it is also a matter for the imperial court, what does it have to do with him?" ”

Qin Elegy smiled: "Senior brother, it's not that you don't know that he is that person, you don't care about anything, but something really happened, he is the most nosy one, Xijin is coming, since he is in Yingzhou, what do you think with his temperament?" Can he leave it alone? ”

"What's the use of him if he's in charge? This is a war, but it's not as simple as catching a Shi Liangyu like in Rong County, even if he wants to manage it, he has to have the ability. ”

"He's capable." Qin Elegy had no doubts, and his tone was unusually firm: "If he wants to manage, he must have the ability." ”

"If that is the case, why do you want to go?"

"But I'm just worried!"

"Don't forget, Master, before he encounters danger, our Snow God Sect can't contact him, the matter in Pingzhou has exposed our identities in the rivers and lakes, and now I don't know if it has been introduced to the imperial court, if the imperial court knows, it will indirectly harm him, and he colludes with our Snow God Sect."

"I know, I'll be disguised and won't let people know who I am."

Yuan Shen was silent for a moment: "Master, what's wrong?" ”

"Master, I have to send a few people to find out the news, but I'll go with Master."

"Did Master agree?"

He didn't say yes, but he nodded.

"If you want to go, I'll go with you."

Qin Elegy shook his head: "Senior brother, you can't leave Snow God Mountain now, Dingzhou is the top priority, now the 50,000 soldiers and horses of Northern Liao are eyeing the north, if Northern Liao loses in Liangzhou, these 50,000 soldiers and horses may attack Dingzhou at any time, you have to watch in Snow God Mountain." ”

Yuan Shen didn't have words, he was not a person who was good at expressing his heart, he was looking at this junior sister at this time, his mood was complicated, and he didn't know what to do.

Qin Wangge looked at the fading sunset, turned back to him and said, "Senior brother, I should go, I have to rush to Dingzhou before dark." ”

Then she followed a winding path and drifted away.

Yuan Shen turned around, looked at the vast fog at the foot of the mountain, and muttered: "Elegy, then you know, I'm worried about you too." ”

……

On the third day of the sixth month, Qin Fu, the governor of Yingzhou, adopted Zhang Xiang's advice, sent 2,000 people out of the city, and ordered them to disperse nearly 10,000 people within a radius of 100 miles within two days, and let them go directly to Fengyang Mansion without returning to Yingzhou.

Qin Fu also knew in his heart that if he couldn't defend the city, then bringing in more than 10,000 people would be tantamount to looking for death, and the current Yingzhou City was already chaotic enough, and bringing these people in would only make it even more chaotic, and even hinder their heavy responsibility of defending the city, which would outweigh the losses.

Therefore, simply throw them directly to Fengyang Mansion, if they can hold the city, the Xijin army will retreat, and it will not be too late for them to come back.

In addition, Zhang Xiang carefully selected thirty-six scouts, and handed them the road map prepared in advance, and asked them to go to the Shangyuan Plain to investigate the enemy according to the road map he marked, and divided them into six groups, each group of six people, the news came in the way of dissemination, if it was found that there was news of the reserve army in Xijin, it was necessary to ensure that they could get the news in advance before the Xijin reserve army entered the Shangyuan Plain.

In addition, Zhang Xiang, a team of 1,000 people in the fortified Qingye, was also divided into four batches, a group of 250 people each, with Yingzhou City as the center, two batches in the north and south, starting from west to east, harvesting the crops that could be harvested, and destroying those that could not be harvested. And the team that harvested the crops didn't have to go back to Yingzhou City, because there should be no chance to come back, and the probability of being discovered by the Xijin army would be very high, so the two batches of crops in the north of them went directly to Fengyang Mansion and went to Lizhou in the south.

That is to say, the 3,000-strong team sent out could not return to Yingzhou City, and the 2,000 officers and soldiers in Yingzhou City plus the 5,000 people in the Xinghua Battalion would only have 7,000 people to defend the city.

Moreover, of these 7,000 people, only the 5,000 people in the Xinghua Battalion are really combative.

Whether 7,000 people can hold 30,000 Rao and attack, don't Qin Fu, the governor, don't have much confidence, even Ji Ke, the commander of a forbidden military camp, doesn't have much confidence.

Of course, Zhang Xiang's own confidence is not very large.

In a war, the besieging side only needs to have three times the strength of the defender to break the city, and that is because of the constant combat effectiveness of both sides.

The combat power of the Southern Chu army, the Northern Foothill Army is in the first echelon, strong in the infantry tactics and individual combat ability of coordinated operations, and the number of 300,000 can be compared with the current Northern Liao's 100,000 iron cavalry.

The Northern Foot Army during Zhang Jian's period was known as the first strong army, and Zhang Jian guarded the north for 17 years, leaving a shadow on the Northern Liao Iron Cavalry.

Even now in the hands of the privy envoy Wenbo, it basically retains eighty percent of its combat power.

The Zhending Army and the Shenwu Army are in the second echelon, and they are strong in the quality of the army.

The Southern Chu forbidden military camp is only in the third echelon.

Xijin Li Juguang's soldiers and horses are the strongest in Xijin, and his general Qiu Xingjian's light cavalry is the best among them, after all, Qiu Xingjian's light cavalry can also compete with the Northern Liao Iron Cavalry.

It's just that Qiu Xingjian's light cavalry is generally less than 10,000 people, because they are all rushing battles, and all they want are cavalry elites, and too many soldiers and horses will pull the whole army, so it is not so terrifying.

But to a certain extent, Li Juguang's combat power of soldiers and horses is higher than that of the Zhending army, which has been guarding the west for so many years, and in many local friction battles with Xijin, the defeat rate is higher than the victory rate, but with the cooperation of many nearby state capitals, Xijin has not been allowed to take advantage.

At this moment, the Zhending Army is no longer there, relying only on the soldiers and 2,000 officers and soldiers of the Xinghua Battalion, the 5,000 forbidden army battalion, and the other party's 30,000 troops, which is already more than four times the strength, what confidence can Zhang Xiang have?

In the face of absolute power, any intrigue is useless.

He didn't expect these 7,000 people to be able to hold Yingzhou City, he just hoped that Xijin would have no reserves, he just hoped that these 7,000 people could hold for two days.

If Sigin has no reserves, then as long as it can withstand it for two days, then Sigin will definitely withdraw.

If Xijin has no reserve army and does not withdraw if he can't attack it in two days, as long as the reinforcements from Fengyang Mansion and Lizhou arrive, he will have a way to let Xijin's 30,000 people stay forever.

That's what he wants.

Of course, what you think now is only judged by the current situation, after all, the battlefield is changing rapidly, but if there is a mistake, all the results will also change.

Zhang Xiang has no confidence in his heart to guarantee whether he can hold it for two days, if one can't hold it, then it's another matter, if Xijin breaks through the city, then the more than 70,000 people in the city plus these people will become prisoners of the Xijin army and be slaughtered.

So on this night, Zhang Xiang thought for a long time and called Lin Feihong and the slave over.

He planned to let Lin Feihong escort the slave to Fengyang Mansion first, if he could hold the city, he would inform Lin Feihong to bring the slave back, if Lin Feihong did not receive his notice within five days, then let Lin Feihong take the slave back to Pingzhou.

For his decision, Lin Feihong did not refuse, since he followed Zhang Xiang, he would unconditionally obey his orders.

But the slave is different, and he refuses to leave.

Stubborn: If the colt doesn't go, she won't go, even if she dies, she will die with the pony, if she goes, the pony has an accident, she doesn't have the face to go back to see the princess, and the princess will go out when she goes out, let her take care of the pony.

In this regard, Zhang Xiang also patiently enlightened her, he is a concubine of the court, and he has the obligation to shoulder the responsibility of protecting the people of the court, and he can't leave.

But the girl couldn't listen to anything, shook her head, just one sentence, he left, she also left, if he didn't leave, she wouldn't leave, and she didn't care about the rest.

So, Zhang Xiang could only let her.

just secretly instructed Lin Feihong that if Yingzhou City was really broken, he hoped that he could take the slave out as soon as possible.

On the fourth day of the sixth month, Zhang Xiang, Qin Fu, and Ji Ke boarded the city gate and looked towards the west, where the wind and waves were calm and there was no movement.

It's just that the three of them know that it was just the calm before the storm, and according to the informant, the seven thousand light cavalry led by Qiu Xingjian were less than a hundred miles away from Yingzhou City.

On the evening of the fifth day of the sixth month, there was finally a trembling sound of horses' hooves in the west.

Then, the dust flew, and a mighty cavalry rushed from the dust.

Although the number of 7,000 cavalry is not too many, the momentum of this horse galloping and the momentum caused by it are like 700,000 troops.

Yingzhou City, which had been calm for a few days, was also shocked by this situation at this moment.

The trumpets sounded at the gates, and the archers quickly took their positions, aiming their bows and arrows far away at the cavalry that had come on horseback.

The people in the city were already panicked and restless, and there were soldiers patrolling everywhere on the streets, and they hurriedly reassured the panicked people.

In fact, since three days ago, after learning that the Xijin army was coming, many people wanted to flee out of the city, but unfortunately, from then on, Qin Fu ordered the city to be closed, and the people inside or outside were not allowed to enter or leave.

Originally, these Zhang Xiang only saw the panic on their faces, but it was not until now that they walked to the city gate that Zhang Xiang saw fear in the eyes of many people.

It was the fear of war.

It was a fear he would never see in that peaceful place in the south of the Yangtze River.

It is only in this corner of the country, adjacent to the enemy's country, that the fear of these people facing war can be felt.

In Jiangnan, even if the war has started, the people there in Jiangnan will always be full of poetry and songs, full of high-minded talk, or shaking their heads and commenting, as if it is a very normal thing, and most of them think that war is a normal thing.

It was only here that he realized the true reaction of these people in the midst of war.

They have been through too much and are really afraid of war.

Walking up to the city gate, Qin Fu and Ji Ke were already commanding the soldiers to deploy defenses.

Zhang Xiang also looked up.

Ten miles away from the city gate, the mighty Xijin cavalry had stopped, neatly arranged, lined up in many rows.

The sheng flag at the front flutters, waving in the wind.

Qin Fu came to Zhang Xiang's side and said worriedly: "Don horses, after they came, they stopped there, and they didn't come forward, and no one came to call for war, so I don't know what I want to do." ”

The experienced Ji Ke said slowly: "They have been rushing for several days, the soldiers and war horses are now tired, they just don't want us to see this formation, they will not attack us tonight, they have to recuperate, tomorrow morning, they will definitely send someone to find out the truth." ”

Qin Fu showed a little regret and said: "It's a pity that even if we know that they are tired now, we don't have anyone to call for war, if there are people, we can annihilate them in one fell swoop now." ”

Zhang Xiang looked at him and smiled bitterly: "Lord Qin, on the battlefield, intelligence is the most important, and it is precisely because they know that we have no soldiers that they dare to be so unscrupulous." ”

Ji Ke also said: "Yes, before Xijin sent the troops, he must have known our situation well, so he dared to send troops to attack, and the purpose was to give us a dismount first, so the more this moment, the more we can't show our timid behavior." ”

Zhang Xiang said: "False and real, true and false, they will not move, and we will not move." ”

Sure enough, in the evening, the 7,000 cavalry that Siggin rushed to make no move, they just camped on the spot and stationed there.

It was only in the middle of the night that Zhang Xiang was suddenly awakened by a loud horn.

The sound of the trumpet came from outside the city.

Then the trumpets sounded more and more, and louder, and became one and another, and sounded all night, and shook all the people in the city.

This night, no one in the entire Yingzhou City slept well...