＆#160; At dawn, outside the mist-shrouded old city of Chungling, war drums were beating.

Dozens of yellow-edged black-background flags are lined up hundreds of steps outside the city, the flags flutter in the wind, and the big embroidered characters on the flags are also clearly visible.

"Punish adultery and eliminate evil, do the right thing for heaven, benevolence and righteousness are unparalleled, and the people support the government......"

On the low city wall, Meng Aocao held the battlements in his hand, listening to the military Chinese book and reading the words on the flag, while looking into the distance. As far as the eye can see, at the end of the road leading to the southern mountain range, there are countless soldiers and horses distributed in dense turns. Farther away, the naked eye can faintly see countless black dots moving along the dark ridgeline, looking like a swarm of ants attached to the tree.

"The scouts have come to report that all the departments of Cao Ying have left the mountain pass." A calm, familiar voice sounded in my ears. Meng Aocao turned his eyes to see that Han Gon, who was wearing a helmet and armor, was turning up from the horse crossing, "There are only a small number of miscellaneous troops such as Yizhangqing and Yilong left in Qingtan City, and the main force of its battalion all pulled out the camp and went north last night. ”

Meng Aocao clenched his hands into fists, slammed them on the rammed earth wall, and said: "In the past few days, I have been patronizing and playing hide and seek with Li Rugui and Wang Kehuai, and if I don't pay attention, I let the surnamed Luo take advantage of the loophole. ”

Han Gon walked a few steps, stood side by side with him, and said, "Luo Rucai has many soldiers and horses, even if our army detects his progress, in the mountains and wilderness, it can't help him. He turned to say, "What should come will come after all, Cao Ying's delay in Qingtan City has exceeded our army's expectations, and there is no movement, but it is strange." ”

Meng Aocao nodded in agreement, and pointed to the Cao Ying position, which was hundreds of steps away from the city, and said, "Right now, outside the East City Gate, there are five or six thousand thieves gathered. You look at the hill in front, where the heavy troops are displayed, it is the subordinates of the two kings, and then there are the neat kings, nine dragons and other departments, the original Li Rugui and Wang Kehuai are now cruising on the left and right wings. ”

Han Gon nodded solemnly, the "two kings" are the brothers of Wang Guangen, the "Little Qin King", and Wang Guangtai, the "Huaguansuo", both of whom are quite famous rogues, although they are not Luo Rucai's descendants, but they are brave, and their combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of ordinary rogues. And the neat king and the nine dragons are Zhao Ying's old enemies, when Zhao Ying was still serving under the old king Gao Yingxiang, Zhao Dangshi had a fierce confrontation with them. These filthy Han Gon are all vivid, and I think that Luo Rucai also took a fancy to the festival of King Qi, Nine Dragons and Zhao Ying, so he took advantage of it. In addition to them, there is still the Ma army of Cao Ying's headquarters to press the formation. Although Li Rugui and Wang Kehuai had repeatedly avoided the battle in the face of the Feijie Battalion before, they could see that they were not afraid but had a plan in their hearts at that time, and now that they have reappeared, they will definitely not retreat easily.

"Is there a situation at the North City Gate?" Meng Aocao asked.

Han Gon said, "Yes. 'Tuotian King' Chang Guo'an is the main one, and there are also 'Xingshi Wang' Wang Guoning, 'An Shiwang' Hu Keshou, and 'Reincarnation King' Xu Chang as auxiliaries, with a total of six or seven thousand people. He added, "These battalions are more numerous but not as elite as here, and they are still scribbling into formation, and I guess that Cao Ying's strategy is to attack the east gate and attack the north gate." ”

The city wall of Chungling is low and the city is small, and there are three gates of north, east and west. The West Gate collapsed in half because of its disrepair, and Han Gon ordered the West Gate to be sealed directly a few days ago. Therefore, there are only two city gates to be guarded at present, the north gate and the east gate, Han Gon guards the north gate, and Meng Aocao guards the east gate. Since Cao Ying placed Li Rugui and Wang Kehuai's horse army at the east gate, there was a chance that they would decide to attack the east gate, and the pressure fell on Meng Aocao's shoulders.

The east gate is long and narrow, and the gathering of five or six thousand people is close to saturation, and at first glance it seems that the soldiers and horses are rubbing shoulders with each other, and it is very crowded. Similarly, no matter how many thieves there are in the North Gate, there are no more than six or seven thousand. And due to the limited length of the city wall, the number of soldiers sent by Cao Ying to attack the city each time was difficult to exceed 1,000, and no matter how many people they were, they could not be put into the battlefield in one go. Because they knew this, even though the defenders in the city were less than 1,000 people, facing the siege of tens of thousands of enemy soldiers and Luo Rucai was still gathering tens of thousands of troops in the distance, Han Gon and Meng Aocao did not panic too much.

In addition, due to the delay in Luo Rucai's attack, the defenders in Chungling City were able to replenish supplies from the back countryside again, which could support at least ten more days. Ten days seemed short, but Han Gon understood how much logistical pressure this was for Luo Rucai, who was in charge of tens of thousands of mouths. It is conservatively estimated that the soldiers and horses of Cao Ying, who did not have sufficient grain and grass reserves and lived by plundering, would spend at most three days in Chungling City. In other words, as long as it can withstand the three-day attack from the opposite side, Chungling City will be defended.

After a few words, a melodious trumpet sound was heard from the north. Han Gon said to Meng Aocao: "It seems that the enemy in the north has been roughly arranged, I will take the first step, and the battle here will be all handed over to you." ”

Meng Aocao clenched his fists and said awe-inspiringly: "Don't worry, my old Meng people are at the door." ”

Han Gon smiled at him and turned to leave. Meng Aocao Fu was engrossed in observing the situation of the enemy formation outside the east gate, and he noticed that Wang Guangen and Wang Guangtai had the most soldiers and horses in front, about 3,000 people, but most of them held short knives and small shields, and less than 20% of them wore armor, and in the array, there were few firearms and other equipment needed for the siege. Although the more than 1,000 horse armies of Li Rugui and Wang Kehuai on both sides were fine, they were useless in the face of the city wall. The rest of the back row neatly king, etc., is even more insignificant. Meng Aocao followed Zhao Ying, and witnessed a lot of tough battles to fortify the village, and compared the two, he felt a lot in his heart, and his confidence in guarding the city gate instantly increased a lot.

"Brethren, cheer up. Behead the thief and reward two taels. A good deal sent to the door by yourself, don't do it in vain, now use more hands and feet, cut off a few more heads, and you can marry a few more mothers-in-law in the future! Meng Aocao loudly encouraged the soldiers who were preparing for battle, and kept walking back and forth on the city wall, "Whoever cuts ten first, report it to me, and I will promise him my sister!" ”

Meng Aocao has a horse-faced face and open teeth, but his sister-in-law Meng Liu is a famous beauty in Zhao Ying. Thinking of the opportunity to marry such a beautiful lady back home in this life, and to be able to turn into a sentinel and call out the brother-in-law, the soldiers defending the city were all excited, and they were all eager to try.

Outside the city, in Wang Guangen's main formation, which was guarded by hundreds of banners and armor soldiers, the Xuan-colored Daxu hanging several feet high slowly swayed, and the golden drums rang out in unison on all sides, and thousands of thieves and robbers let out an earth-shaking roar at the same time. Meng Aocao knew that this was the precursor of the enemy's attack, and with a wave of his hand, hundreds of archers who had already been prepared on the city wall shot rockets into the sky, mixed with some sentry arrows, and countless arrows converged and fired, as if a screaming fire dragon crossed the sky, scattered and fell in front of the Liukou array, although no one was injured, but ignited the weeds on the ground, and the flames and black smoke instantly blended and rose.

"Husband fight, courage also!" Illiterate Ding Ru Meng Aocao can also say this sentence loudly. As one of the operational guidelines that Zhao Dangshi often emphasized in military discussions, the basic requirement of this sentence for the soldiers of Zhao Battalion is not that they must win every battle, but that they must move forward bravely in every battle, regardless of victory or defeat. In the same defeat, the former who is injured in the body will not be punished but rewarded, and the person who is injured in the body will be punished by one degree. Meng Aocao was well aware of this, so when Cao built up momentum, he didn't want to fall behind.

"Sentinel, there is a thief challenge in the city!"

At the time of the confrontation, there were soldiers who reported urgently, Meng Aocao heard the news and looked down, and saw that a Biao army suddenly galloped to the city from the west, and all of them were horse troops, about hundreds, and in the smoke and dust raised, the banner of the other side could be vaguely distinguished.

"Wang Kehuai, who suffered a thousand cuts!" Meng Aocao punched the battlements. He is illiterate, but the banner in the horse team is very familiar, and the ten characters on it must be "The Pioneer Deputy General of the Horse Army Pioneer Battalion".

As soon as he remembered the aggrieved scene of Li Rugui and Wang Kehuai constantly harassing the city in the past few days, but chasing after them, Meng Aocao hated it so much. He looked up and made sure that Wang Guangen and other troops and horses were at least 300 steps away from Wang Kehuai's horse team, and thought: "Wang Kehuai is a thief and is showing off under the city, if he doesn't attack, wouldn't he show weakness?" Without a fight, the morale of our army was lost. Wang Guangen, Li Rugui and others are all in the distance, it is difficult to rush to help for a while, if you seize the opportunity to defeat the surnamed Wang in one fell swoop, if you can capture and kill it, you can give Cao Thief a big dismount! ”

Thinking about it like this, he summoned the soldiers and horses to go out of the city to face the battle, and persuaded left and right: "The Han system has repeatedly instructed that if there is no other situation, you must not go out of the city without permission." Now that the war has not started, the sentry is about to attack, which seems to be inappropriate. ”

Meng Aocao scolded: "You know a donkey, Wang Kehuai has a ghost in his heart, and he saw that I used a rocket to destroy his prestige, so he specially came to invite the battle." If I am afraid, I will fall into his arms, and the momentum I have regained before will be ruined! What's more, "Don't worry, I'll take a hundred horsemen, and it's okay to defend the city." The thieves and reinforcements are all far away, and if something goes wrong, I can get out of the way. ”

Hearing the words left and right, which one dares to stop, Meng Aocao tied his armor and went down to the city with his head held high. Temporarily dispatched 100 elite cavalry to clash out of a gap in the East City Gate.

Wang Kehuai did not expect Meng Aocao to come so quickly, fifty steps outside the city, hundreds of horsemen did not have time to gather, so they rushed into two sections for the Feijie battalion horse army, and separated from each other. Meng Aocao's eyes were sharp, and he saw that a thief wrapped in blue and white cloth armor under the banner in the chaotic horse exchange spear, it was expected that Wang Kehuai himself gathered more than ten horsemen around him and attacked him. Wang Kehuai sensed the danger, first the flag was suddenly closed, and then the cascading military horses galloped back and forth, and it was difficult to find his figure after a short while.

Meng Aocao led his troops to gallop and kill for a while, and he scored more than ten levels, Wang Kehuai's horse army was difficult to resist, and they fled separately as birds and beasts. Meng Aocao had to fight up, and Wang Kehuai couldn't help but be a little unwilling, and was about to pursue, but in the afterglow, he saw that there seemed to be a large group of men and horses advancing in the distance, and he stayed awake for a while, and shouted: "Poor Kou Mo chase, follow me back to the city!" "Anyway, take the lead and retreat.

At this time, three hundred steps away, Wang Guangen's array suddenly made waves, Meng Aocao while retracting the horse army and retreating, while carefully observing the situation in the rear, when retreating to fifty steps away from the city gate, the distant enemy formation suddenly separated, and more than ten horses galloped out of the inside, and Pegasus came. Meng Aocao repeatedly confirmed that the comer really only had more than ten rides, but he became suspicious and postponed the horse's speed. The more than ten horsemen traveled lightly and simply, very fast, and in just a few breaths, they caught up with Meng Aocao and Cao.

"Eat this horse army!" When it came to the fresh meat in his mouth, Meng Aocao never refused, he pulled his head, turned the direction, and was about to extinguish Cao Ying's more than ten light horsemen who were moths to the fire, but the other party suddenly reined in twenty steps away, threw a black thing into the ground, and turned around and ran after shouting loudly.

Meng Aocao led someone to pick up the thing, and when the person came back, he first asked, "What did the other side say just now?" ”

The soldier handed over the object he had picked up with trembling hands, and said, "Say, say that this is a greeting to the sentinel." If the sentinel feels that it is not enough, there will be a heavy gift......"

Meng Aocao took the thing, and it turned out to be a cloth package. The cloth was wrapped on the ground and rolled over, all covered with dust, but looking at the large stains on the cloth that had already been red and almost black, and the touch of the touch, Meng Aocao "chuckled" in his heart, and immediately guessed that there must be a human head hidden inside.

The package was opened, and Meng Aocao suddenly surged into his chest with grief and indignation. But seeing that human head with all the hair and beard, covered with blood and dust, is not his best brother Lian believes it!

"Lao Lian!" Meng Aocao screamed, his body swaying on the horse's back and almost falling. Lian Buxin's head was already dirty, but the angry eyes that were open were still as clear as before, but under the clarity, they were dull and dull, and they had long lost half of their former brilliance.