Although it has been found that something is wrong with the situation, in order not to let the previous hard pre-war preparations go to waste, and at the same time, in order to take the city of Mayi, which has a lot of money and food, and to accumulate siege experience for the soldiers, Mao Dun, who personally commanded the siege, still gritted his teeth and persevered, so that the elite of the Huns under his command took turns to go into battle, and launched three large-scale attacks on the small city of Mayi in one day.

The poor Hun elite cavalry also suffered heavy casualties as a result, and was killed by the Han army's various weapons to defend the city, the ghosts cried wolf, and the corpses were stacked under the east gate of Mayi, piled up more than half a person high, and the blood melted the ice and snow, dyeing the ground dark red, but in the end, there were almost no soldiers who could successfully rush to the top of the city wall, let alone break through Mayi, slaughter and plunder.

In the end, even the eloquent Mao Dun did not have the courage to continue the strong attack, and before the sky turned dark, he quickly ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops and count the casualties and losses of the soldiers, and the results of the statistics also made Mao Dun and the Xiongnu nobles all gasp - in less than a day of siege battle, the Xiongnu army actually killed more than 4,300 people, and the wounded were countless, completely breaking the record of the highest number of casualties of the Xiongnu army since Mao Dun ascended the throne!

Then, Zang Tu and other leading party in charge of technical guidance naturally became scapegoats, and the thunderous Xiongnu nobles all accused Zang Tu and others of being incompetent and deliberately let the Hun soldiers die, so it led to such heavy casualties, and scolded Zang Tu and other leading party, and also asked Mao Dun to cut off Zang Di's head to apologize to the Hun army.

Fortunately, Mao Dun is not a person who likes to overdo others, and said directly to the indignant Hun nobles: "Today's fiasco has nothing to do with the king of Donghulu, the main reason for the battle is like this, one is that our soldiers are not good at attacking and attacking cities, and the other is that we are too light on the enemy, and it is very likely that we have fallen into the trap arranged by the barbarians in the Central Plains, and there are definitely more than five or six thousand defenders in Mayi City." ”

"The Great Khan Shengming." Zang Di, who was trembling in front of Mao Dun, almost cried when he heard this, and hurriedly said: "We are indeed too light on the enemy in this battle of Mayi, and the intelligence collected before the battle is insufficient, judging the strength of the defenders in the city by the number of flags alone, forgetting that the tyrant army may deliberately show weakness, deliberately playing fewer flags to lure us to attack the city, and the defenders in the city are likely to have more than five or six thousand people. ”

"You're the only one here who is good at siege warfare, you say, what should we do next?" Mao Dun asked Zang Di very calmly.

"We can't continue to attack the city." Zang Tu hurriedly replied: "Your Majesty thinks that while we should continue to build siege weapons and prepare for the next strong attack, we should send more scouts to carefully investigate the real situation in Mayi City, and it is best to try our best to capture one or two messengers of the tyrant army who went out of the city to communicate with the outside world, interrogate how many tyrant troops there are in Mayi City, and wait until we have figured out the specific enemy situation before making a decision." ”

"Also." Zang Di hurriedly added: "The side of Juzhu Mountain should also be guarded by troops, closely monitoring the movements in the Guangwu area, and preventing the reinforcements of the tyrant army from suddenly arriving and catching us off guard." ”

Mao Dun only thought about it for a moment, and immediately nodded in agreement with Zang Di's three suggestions, and immediately assigned light cavalry to tightly block the roads between Ma Yi and the outside world, and tried his best to catch his tongue and interrogate his confession.

Zang Di's strategy was very appropriate, and the luck of the Xiongnu army was not only generally good, but on the evening of the third day, the Xiongnu rangers caught a suspicious man trying to sneak into the city outside the city of Mayi, and found out from him the military intelligence report written by the Han army to Li Zuoche on behalf of the county guard, and reported that the Xiongnu Zuoxian Wang's department had given up attacking Daijun and marched east to Yanmen instead. Mao Dun was shocked when he heard the military report recited by the translator, and said in surprise: "How could the military intelligence report written by Wang Ling Barbarian to Li Zuoche Barbarian send it to Ma Yi?" Could it be that Li Zuoche's barbarian is actually in Mayi City? Immediately interrogate the messenger of the Central Plains for Ben Khan, and be sure to ask from his mouth where that barbarian Li Zuoche is! ”

All dynasties and dynasties have soft-boned traitors, and the Han Empire founded by Xiang Kang was no exception, unable to withstand the torture of the Xiongnu army, and the messenger sent by Wang Ling finally told the truth and honestly admitted that Li Zuoche was actually in the city of Mayi, so Wang Ling sent himself to Mayi to deliver a letter to Li Zuoche. The situation was reported to Mao Dun, who was shocked and angry, and finally understood why the small town of Mayi was so difficult to fight, and then decisively decided to give up attacking Mayi, and led the army north to meet the rear army brigade led by King Zuo Xian, while trying to collect intelligence and find the weak points of the Han army's defense.

Of course, the news of the sudden retreat of the Xiongnu was quickly reported to Li Zuoche by the Han army scouts, and Li Zuoche also suddenly complained bitterly, saying: "Oh no, there must be something wrong in that link, the Huns have already known that it is impossible to take Mayi, and it is even possible that they have already known that I and our main force in the north are in the city of Mayi, otherwise, the Hun barbarians will definitely not withdraw so decisively and resolutely, and then our situation will be passive." ”

"Guangwujun, are you worried that the Huns will turn around and attack Shanwu?" Xiang Guan next to him asked hurriedly.

"Then I can't ask for it, Shanwu is strong, General Xiangzhuang is cautious, even if the Huns concentrate all the troops to besiege Shanwu, Shanwu will definitely not have many problems if it lasts for ten days and half a month." Li Zuoche replied with a wry smile, and said: "What I am most worried about now is that the Xiongnu will not fight good, and choose to flow in the direction of Pingcheng Daijun, if that is the case, as long as the Xiongnu find that our main force has moved north, it is very likely that they will decisively withdraw to the grassland and avoid the decisive battle with our main force, and then our Majesty's plan for a decisive battle with the main force of the Xiongnu on the northern border will likely be abandoned and completely failed." ”

"And how is the situation of our main reinforcements now?" Xiang Zhuang hurriedly asked again.

"It would be good if I knew, I have been surrounded in Mayi City, in order to prevent leaks, I have never been in contact with the outside world, how can I know the situation of our main force?" Li Zuoche smiled bitterly and said: "However, as far as I estimate, it will take at least forty days for our majesty to recruit the whole country to assemble in Taiyuan, that is, it will be possible to complete the assembly and go north around the tenth day of December, and then it will take at least six days or more for our main force to cross the Juzhu Mountain and enter Yanmen County." ”

"It's only the fifth day of December." Li Zuoche, who is good at controlling the rhythm of time, frowned again and added: "This means that we have to at least find a way to drag the main force of the Xiongnu in Yanmen County for more than half a month, so that it is possible to wait for the arrival of our main reinforcements." ”

"Guangwujun, then let's not waste time." Xiang Guan shouted: "Immediately send troops to pursue the Huns, entangle them, so that they can't escape to the north smoothly, and buy time for our main force." ”

Before Xiang Guan's words fell, the generals of the Han army present were already in an uproar, including Nie Zheng, the captain of the Han army who was born in the young marshal army, couldn't help but say: "General Xiang Guan, are you joking?" We only have a total of 22,000 troops, and we must leave a part of the city to defend the city, but the Xiongnu who have just withdrawn still have at least more than 100,000 troops. ”

To everyone's surprise, Li Zuoche frowned deeply and pondered for a moment, and then said: "There is only this way, send 18,000 troops, pursue and entangle the main force of the Huns, and buy time for the main force of our reinforcements." ”

"Guangwujun, are you kidding?" Nie Zheng's eyes widened again, and he said in surprise: "With such a small number of troops, we dare to pursue and entangle the main force of the Huns?" ”

"Why don't you dare?" Li Zuoche asked coldly and rhetorically, and said: "Although our troops are small, but the Huns are not good at attacking fortifications, and we don't need to fight with the Huns. ”

Refuted the doubts of his subordinates, Li Zuoche made a decisive decision and said: "It's so decided, Nie Zheng, you are responsible for staying in Mayi, keeping in touch with me at all times, and leading our main force in the future." Remember, if you send someone to contact me, you must use the secret language invented by His Majesty himself, and you must not let the messenger know the contents of the letter, as well as the situation of the main force of our reinforcements! General Xiang Guan, you and I commanded 18,000 troops, carried half a month's worth of dry food, and sent troops to pursue the Huns! ”

"Guangwujun, I'll just lead the troops alone." Xiang Guan hurriedly said: "You are the head of the three counties, you can't take this risk." ”

Li Zuoche shook his head decisively and said: "General Xiang, it's not that I can't believe you, it's this time that the troops are in pursuit, we are taking eggs to touch the stones, and there is a danger of annihilation at any time. In addition, after I arrived at the front line, I could also keep abreast of changes in the military situation at any time, and send the commander to dispatch garrisons from other places to help us. ”

Seeing that Li Zuoche insisted, Xiang Guan did not reluctantly let him stay in the city, but just arched his hand and said: "Okay, please rest assured that Guangwujun, even if you fight to the last soldier, the last general will definitely protect your safety." ”

At this time, the pasta military rations adopted on a large scale by the Han army hundreds of years in advance also played an extremely important role, and it only took half a day and a night, enough for 18,000 Han soldiers to eat half a month's pancakes, so that the Han soldiers could eat directly without making fires, and also saved countless precious time for the pursuit of the Han soldiers, and at the same time, other military preparations were also complete and there was no omission. Then, with just one order, 18,000 Han soldiers, including more than 3,000 cavalry, marched out of the city and launched a pursuit of the 100,000 Xiongnu elite cavalry who had retreated the previous morning.

It must be explained that considering the possibility of leaking the news of the captives, Li Zuoche also decisively blocked the news that the main force of the Han army was about to go north, and instead declared to the soldiers of the Han army who went out of the city to pursue it, saying that the self-army was going north this time to rescue Shanwu and prevent the Hun army from besieging Shanwu City, which had few defenders.

The Han army dared to go out of the city to pursue this situation, of course, it was quickly reported to Mao Dun by the Hun scouts, and then it was similar to Li Zuoche's analysis, Mao Dun really suspected that Li Zuoche ventured north to reinforce Shanwu, in order to win the opportunity to annihilate the Han army in the field, Mao Dun also decisively ordered the Hun cavalry to stop advancing, and quickly arranged ambushes to wait for the Han army to go north to die.

The resourceful Li Zuoche also made a mistake this time, when the enemy was strong and I was weak and the enemy situation was not clear, Li Zuoche actually let the Han army take the speed of a rapid march north, without considering the possibility of the Xiongnu arranging an ambush. As a result, Xiang Guan saw the danger, and said to Li Zuoche on the road: "Guangwujun, isn't it too risky?" Our scouts have not yet discovered the movement of the Xiongnu army, so if they go north like this, what if they encounter an ambush by the Xiongnu? ”

"I can't ask for it." Li Zuoche replied with a sneer, "I still wish he would waste time arranging an ambush, so that it is in our best interest." ”

Of course, the situation was unfortunately said by Xiang Guanyan, more than a day later, when the Han army pursued to the vicinity of Bantianling, there were reinforcements from the Huns on both sides of the road suddenly killed, and at the same time, the snow and dust were rolling in the north, and the sound of horses' hooves shook the sky, and the cavalry brigade of the Huns also appeared. The Han army panicked, but Li Zuoche was unmoved, and decisively ordered the Han infantry to form a circle formation on the spot to meet the enemy, and pointed to the Bantian Ridge in the west, and shouted at Xiang Guan: "Xiang Guan, immediately take our cavalry to rush up the Bantian Ridge, and prepare to receive our infantry brigade up the mountain, whether you can keep our army, it depends on whether you can hold the Bantian Ridge and hold on until we go up the mountain for reinforcements!" ”

"I'm taking the cavalry away, so what are you going to do?" Xiang Guan hurriedly asked.

"Leave me alone, I've got my own way to deal with it! Don't waste any more time, go ahead! Li Zuoche shouted decisively, and said to himself: "It's time for the Hun cavalry to see the strength of our infantry formation." ”

Unable to resist Li Zuoche, Xiang Guan could only rush to the west with the cavalry to Bantianling to seize the highland position as quickly as possible, while Li Zuoche shouted loudly to order the Han infantry to stabilize their positions, and loudly encouraged morale and said: "Soldiers, don't panic, don't be afraid!" Just fight as usual training, our weapons and equipment advantages are huge, as long as we hold a firm foot, we will definitely be able to block the Hun jackals on the grassland! ”

At this time, Mao Dun, who personally led the army to kill from the north, saw the Han cavalry rushing to the west up the mountain, and saw the Han infantry urgently forming a formation on the spot, and immediately understood Li Zuoche's vicious intentions, and said with a sneer: "I want the cavalry to hold the high ground first, and then let the infantry slowly go up the mountain to hold the danger, I think it's beautiful!" Pass the order to go down, attack with all your might, and at any cost, you must give Ben Khan the battle formation of the Central Plains people to crush! ”

The order flag was played, the Hun cavalry from the three ways to accelerate the charge, howling and screaming from the east, west and north three directions to kill the Han infantry round formation, the Han army officers and soldiers relied on the usual strict training to quickly complete the formation, and then clenched all kinds of weapons, the heart beat violently and waited for the arrival of the Hun cavalry, and when the Hun cavalry rushed into the range of the crossbow arrows of the Han soldiers, accompanied by Li Zuoche's order flag waved, thousands of strong crossbows fired in unison, Li Zuoche since he became the commander of the Han army's northern Xinjiang and the first large-scale field battle with the Hun cavalry, also began……