"Have the barricades ahead been cleared?" Xie Yuheng asked with a hesitant expression.

The adjutant replied with a sad face: "General Hui, the tree trunks and rocks blocking the road have been cleared, but they are just ......."

"Just what?"

"When the spies went to the front, they found that there were many large pits dug in the road ahead, and there were even traps, which might be difficult for the army to pass through if they could not be filled."

Xie Yuheng said angrily: "What are you doing? Why don't you send someone to fill the hole! ”

"Yes, General, the last general will send someone to do it immediately." The adjutant hurriedly stepped back.

"A group of untouchables dare to stop the imperial army, and when I come back, I will definitely kill you!" Xie Yuheng trembled with anger.

No wonder he was so angry, Jiangkou Mansion, which was originally attacked by the Hu people, was already in a hurry, but the place where the army was going to pass was set up by the displaced people with countless roadblocks and traps, which made the army's marching speed blocked everywhere.

This made the Xie family and others, who were already anxious, even more anxious, but they were helpless.

In a hurry, Xie Yuheng couldn't help but ask his confidant Mr. Du: "If the army is rerouted now, will it be faster?" ”

Mr. Du shook his head and said, "My subordinates think that if we change the route now, it may take longer.

It is clear that this incident was deliberately incited by the Hu people to do so, in order to prevent the army from rushing to Jiangkou Province for reinforcements.

Even if we change the route now, there is no guarantee that the Hu people will not incite the displaced people on other routes to do the same.

In this way, we will only waste more time. ”

"So what do we do now? If the untouchables keep digging holes and traps on the road behind, how can the army move forward? ”

"Don't worry, general, although there are many untouchables, they are just a rabble after all, and they will never dare to really fight the regular soldiers head-on, otherwise they will not do this despicable thing of digging traps and setting roadblocks everywhere.

We can send a few good soldiers to clear the way ahead and stop the untouchables from continuing to do evil, so that this will not happen again. ”

"Okay, that's a great plan, just do it." Xie Yuheng clapped his hands and praised.

Sure enough, after a large number of elite soldiers opened the road, the next road conditions suddenly became smoother.

Fearing the bows and arrows in the hands of the soldiers, the homeless people who were entrenched on the road did not dare to really engage them, so they could only hide in the mountains and forests and watch from afar.

Just when Xie Yuheng led the army to Jiangkou Mansion for reinforcements, Jiangkou City at this time was already crumbling.

"Still no news of reinforcements?" At noon that day, Du Chunlin, the commander of the Jiangkou Prefecture, asked his adjutant with a tired face.

The adjutant replied, "I have received a report from the spies for the time being, but reinforcements are definitely on the way, please don't worry too much about it." ”

Du Chunlin laughed miserably: "Can you not be worried? You can also see clearly what the situation is outside, if the reinforcements don't arrive, the Eguchi Mansion will really not be able to hold it. ”

The adjutant also had a solemn face, and could no longer say words of comfort.

Today's situation is really urgent, and no one knows how long it will last.

It stands to reason that the defending side with the advantage of the walls should have the advantage, and the casualties are far less than those of the besieging side.

However, the Hu people's original and used in actual combat for many years of continuous archery array has caused great pressure on the side defending the city, especially horseback riding and archery are almost every Hu soldier must learn skills from an early age, even if not everyone can become an archer, but in terms of the number and quality of archers, it is impossible for any side to compare.

In the face of a huge arrow array composed of tens of thousands of Hu people, the scattered arrows shot from the head of the river mouth were almost negligible.

The Hu people's precise and sharp arrow arrays continued to attack like a violent storm, almost crushing the soldiers defending the city and unable to even lift their heads.

Not to mention the counterattack, the defenders of Great Wei had already done their best just to defend the city.

Almost from the very beginning, this siege battle has changed from a defensive battle above and below the city to a hand-to-hand battle at the head of the city.

Under the cover of a large number of archers, the Hu siege soldiers could easily climb up the ladder to the top of the city, and then engage in bloody hand-to-hand combat with the Wei soldiers above.

Because the individual combat ability of the Hu soldiers was originally much stronger than that of ordinary Wei soldiers, once it turned into hand-to-hand combat, it would be beneficial to the Hu people.

Once they were allowed to climb to the top of the city, these Hu soldiers with steel swords in their hands would cut down and kill people on sight like hungry wolves rushing into the sheepfold, as if they were going to die together.

In the face of the Hu people's fierce and fearless fighting style, the Wei soldiers could only rely on a large number of people to form a group to counterattack.

But even so, the Wei soldiers often had to pay two or three casualties to successfully defeat a Hu soldier.

The ferocity of the Hu soldiers can be seen.

When the ratio of casualties between the defending and besieging sides becomes two to one, or even three to one. In the absence of reinforcements, this siege was doomed to defeat almost from the start.

As for the Hu people's side, these more than 200,000 elite soldiers are all members of the Shazhen clan, the royal family of the Great Turks. Both loyalty and combat effectiveness are the highest among the Great Turks.

This time, the eldest prince Arobu really brought all his belongings, and he was determined to take advantage of this golden opportunity to take Jiangkou City, so as to open up the road to Jiangnan in one fell swoop.

Under the continuous offensive of the Hu people, the Wei soldiers defending the city could only passively defend, almost exchanging human lives for one, or even two for one.

Originally, because of the plague, the soldiers in the city had been reduced a lot, but now that the fighting continues, as the casualties continue to increase, the morale of the soldiers has plummeted, and almost everyone is in an atmosphere of increasing despair.

Now what Du Chunlin hates most is the businessman surnamed Lin who sold them the problematic quilt and the Hu people behind it.

It was because of these quilts that the plague was rampant in the army, making tens of thousands of soldiers sick and unable to fight.

Although he had already sent someone to arrest the man, the other party had already slipped away, so he couldn't take revenge.

Coupled with the outbreak of plague caused by Hu people's spies in various parts of the Yangtze River, Du Chunlin already knew that all this was set up by the Hu people, and the purpose was to take advantage of the chaos to capture the Jiangkou Mansion he was guarding.

Du Chunlin naturally knew the importance of Jiangkou Mansion, but in the face of the crazy offensive of the Hu people, he really felt anxious, and he didn't even close his eyes for a few days and nights.

Of course, except for his henchmen, he would not show such anxiety outside, so as not to affect the morale and morale of the army, which was already declining.

After regaining his spirits, Du Chunlin took the adjutant and walked outside and continued to supervise the battle as usual.

As soon as they walked out of the study, there was a sudden roar outside, like a spring thunder.

Immediately afterward, the two of them visibly felt the ground shake.

They were no strangers to this kind of noise and vibration, which was clearly the sound of artillery firing.

Who would dare to fire a cannon at will without notifying him?

Du Chunlin's face turned blue with anger, and he immediately walked out quickly.

At this moment, however, another roar rang out, followed by another shake of the city walls.

When Du Chunlin and the adjutant saw this situation, their faces suddenly changed greatly.

Where is this artillery fired by them, it is simply a cannon fired from the opposite side.

The two of them hurriedly rushed to the lookout and looked down, and immediately saw a scene that shocked them.

I saw that in the Hu people's arrow array, there were more than a dozen cannons.

These cannons are very familiar in both style and shape, and they are clearly defensive cannons that have been removed from the towers in various parts of the south.

Seeing this scene, Du Chunlin and the adjutant suddenly felt a chill all over their bodies.

They never expected that the Hu people would actually dismantle the cannons used to defend the city in various places to attack the city.

When did the Hu people learn to be so smart?

Not only did he know how to spread the plague with a problematic quilt, but now he also learned to use the cannons of the city to attack the city. This is completely different from the image of the brave and unscrupulous Hu people in their impression.

Looking at the dense crowd of Huren archers and siege soldiers below, as well as the dozen or so cannons, Du Chunlin's face turned pale.

He knew that Eguchi Castle could no longer be defended.

……………………

In the winter of the seventh year of He'an, Jiangkou Mansion was lost, and the commander Du Chunlin and his subordinates died in battle.

After capturing Jiangkou Mansion, the Hu people slaughtered the city, and nearly 100,000 soldiers and people in the city were slaughtered, and blood flowed like a river.

After the news reached Xinjing, the whole city was shocked and everyone was panicked.

And on the same night, Xie Mingshun, who was still sick, suddenly coughed up blood, and the Anguo Mansion urgently sent the imperial doctor into the house for treatment.

For a time, the entire Jiangnan was stormy and panicked.

At the end of the same year, the Hu army invaded Jiangnan from Jiangkou Province, thus completely opening the prelude to the Jiangnan War.

While the Great Wei court was in a hurry to prepare for war, the Northwest Army, which was far away in the north, was methodically carrying out a plan to recover the north.

In the face of the strong military strength of the Northwest Army and the blessing of new weapons such as muskets, the cities in various places either resisted a little and made a show, or directly opened the city and surrendered, and did not dare to fight with it at all.

Or it should be said that many local officials even hoped that the Northwest Army would be able to fight as soon as possible.

Since most of the grain stocks in the city were transported to Xinjing, there are not many grain stocks in various places, and even if the Northwest Army does not come, sooner or later civil unrest will break out in the city due to lack of food.

Rather than this, it is better to let the Northwest Army take over as soon as possible, at least everyone can still have something to eat.

In just half a year, the Northwest Army has occupied about one-third of the territory in the north, which can be described as overwhelming.

Just when everyone thought that the Northwest Army would recover the entire territory of the north, the invincible Northwest Army suddenly stopped, and gathered troops and horses from all over the country to stop attacking foreign countries.

This move of the Northwest Army made many people puzzled, and they didn't understand why the Ning family would stop there.

Only those in the know understand that the reason why the Ning family stopped was because their grain reserves had reached the limit of what they could support the people under their rule, and there would be no extra grain to feed the newly beaten areas if they continued to fight.

But even if the Northwest Army stopped attacking the entire northern territory, the Ning family, like the Hu family in the south and the Xie family in the south of the Yangtze River, became another powerful force that determined the general trend of the world.