When an army of more than 200,000 people and holding the banner of "Ning" appeared in front of the city wall, including the eldest prince Arobu, all the Hu people standing at the head of the city showed extremely shocked expressions.

Although the vast majority of Hu people do not know Chinese characters, the character "Ning" is clearly remembered by all of them.

The Ning family has guarded the northwest for hundreds of years for several generations, and has fought countless battles with the Hu people.

Almost every generation of Hu soldiers had a deep fear and hatred for the Ning family, who led the Northwest Army to fight against them.

No one expected that just when they had just laid down Xinjing and were jubilant, the Ning family, who was far away in the northwest, would suddenly appear here, and they would bring so many people and horses.

But things are not so simple, at this moment, several Hu people heralds ran over at a very fast speed, and then knelt down to the eldest prince Arobu standing at the head of the city and reported one by one: "Your Highness, a large number of Han troops have appeared at the east gate, numbering about 100,000, all of them are wearing the Ningzi banner. ”

"Your Highness, a large number of Northwest Army also appeared at the North Gate, with as many as 100,000 people."

"Back to Your Highness, the West Gate is also the same, and there are also about 100,000 Northwest troops blocking in front of the city gate."

Hearing that the Northwest Army of more than 100,000 people also appeared in the remaining three city gates, not only the eldest prince Arobu, but all the Hu generals and staff all changed their faces.

"Do you all see it clearly? Is it true that so many Northwest armies also appeared? The eldest prince, Arobu, was shocked and angry, and asked the heralds in a loud voice.

The herald from the north gate hurriedly replied, "Yes, Your Highness, there are indeed so many people. Holding high the Ningzi flag in the formation should be the Northwest Army. ”

The other heralds from the West and East Gates gave the same answer.

Hearing the heralds' answers, everyone's hearts sank.

If there were 100,000 northwest troops blocking the three city gates in the east, west, and north, plus the more than 200,000 troops at the south gate, wouldn't it be that the Ning family had brought a total of more than 500,000 troops?

Could it be that the Ning family really brought most of the Northwest Army over?

Thinking of this, all the generals and staff couldn't help but gasp.

The eldest prince Arrob clenched his fists even more with a grim face.

He couldn't understand why the Ning family was able to bring such a huge force to Jiangnan silently, and the timing of their appearance was so coincidental.

"Look, is the person in front of the battle Ning Zhiyuan himself?" One of the 10,000 captains suddenly shouted loudly.

Hearing him shout like this, everyone immediately focused their eyes on the front of the formation, and sure enough, they saw a tall, silver-armored, and majestic middle-aged military general riding a horse standing in front of the formation staring at the people on the city tower.

Behind him, there were several generals who were also wearing battle armor, and Ning Yabai, Ning Yafeng, and Chi Fei were also among them.

"It's really Ning Zhiyuan, an old dog, I didn't expect him to personally bring the troops over." Of course, the eldest prince Arobu recognized Ning Zhiyuan, a mortal enemy, and couldn't help but grit his teeth in anger.

Seeing Ning Zhiyuan personally leading the troops into battle, the other Hu generals and staff felt that things were not good.

Ning Zhiyuan is the lord of the northwest, and his identity and status are unmatched in the northwest.

Now that even he has personally gone into battle, it can be seen that the Ning family is very sure of this battle.

In this kind of situation, where one's own strength is far inferior to the opponent's, it is really not good to play against such an experienced veteran of the battlefield.

At this time, in the Northwest Army Formation, Ning Yabai, who was standing behind Ning Zhiyuan, pointed to a very conspicuous person at the head of the city and said to his brother-in-law beside him: "Ah Zhen, you see, the general wearing gold armor is the eldest prince of the Hu people, Arobu, and he is the commander-in-chief of these Hu armies. ”

Chi Fei, who was wearing armor and an iron helmet like his eldest brother, asked with some curiosity: "I thought that only the Han emperor liked to wear gold armor, but I didn't expect that even the Hu people would be like this." ”

Not really. The Hu people have always deferred gold and prefer black or brown armor.

Because the Hu people like to attack at night, wearing these two colors of armor is not easy to expose their whereabouts at night.

I heard that the eldest prince Arobu liked the things of the Han people very much, and perhaps because of this influence, he changed to wear gold armor to show his identity.

I even wonder if the gold armor on his body was taken off from Emperor Shuntian Zhao Zhuofeng, and asked the craftsman to change it to this way and put it on himself. ”

"Hearing you say that, it's quite similar.

Except for the special decoration of the helmet and shoulders, the rest of his gold armor is indeed very similar to the things used by the Han emperor in terms of style. ”

Ning Yafeng interjected: "Since this Hu dog likes gold so much, after I capture him alive, I will use a soft knife made of pure gold dipped in salt to cut his flesh little by little, so that he can taste what life is better than death." ”

Ning Yabai sneered: "This is not enough, I want to make him into bacon to feed the dogs."

The great plague that happened in Jiangnan was the ghost behind the back of the big prince Hugou. ”

Hearing the whispered conversation between the two sons and the little son-in-law behind him, Ning Zhiyuan, who was standing in front of the formation, showed a faint smile, and his eyes were full of domineering ambition.

The little son-in-law is not a military general, so he didn't have to go to the battlefield with him, he just had to watch the battle from the rear.

But like all generals who lick blood with their knives, Ning Zhiyuan, who has been fighting on the battlefield for many years, still believes in something mysterious and mysterious like "fate".

Over the years, through the examples of great changes in the entire northwest and northeast, Ning Zhiyuan has long regarded his little son-in-law Chi Fei as his lucky star, and feels that with him by his side, he will have a greater chance of winning this battle, so he made an exception and brought him over.

The reason why he was so solemn was because he knew very well that the outcome of this battle would directly determine whether their Ning family could really sit on that dragon chair and command the world from now on.

Looking at the Great Turkic military flags fluttering in the wind above the city, as well as the faces of the Hu people, Ning Zhiyuan ordered loudly: "Come on, bring those remnants of the Xie clan up." ”

Not long after, several prisoner carts were pushed over by the soldiers.

There were no one else locked up in those prison cars, it was Xie Mingshun, the Duke of An Guo, and his grandson Xie Changcheng, who had fled from Xinjing not long ago, as well as Xie Yuheng, the second son of Duke An Guo, and his nephew Xie Changping, who had disappeared after being attacked by the Hu army on the way to aid Beijing.

The four members of the Xie family who were locked up in the prison car all had the same characteristics, that is, they were covered in blood, their clothes were tattered, and they were embarrassed, like deserters who had escaped from the chaotic army.

In fact, they were indeed captured alive by the ambush soldiers planted by Ning Zhiyuan in advance on the way to escape.

After the prisoner cart holding the Xie family was pushed over, Ning Zhiyuan sneered at An Guogong: "Old thief Xie, you can see clearly with your eyes wide open, your Xinjing has been taken by the Hu people, and those Hu dogs are showing off their power there.

It's a shame that you tried every means to move the capital to Jiangnan, but it turned out that Xinjing was still cheaper than these dogs.

Xie Mingshun, Xie Mingshun, I didn't expect that you would be shrewd in your life, and you would end up like this. I wonder how you feel now? ”

An Guogong, who looked aggrieved, coughed and said: "The winner is the king, and the loser is the villain, there is nothing to say...... Cough......

I just want to ask you one question...... Cough...... When exactly did you start laying out Jiangnan? ”

"It's worthy of an old fox, and you can see the catty in it at a glance.

But now I don't have the time to deal with you, and today I specially brought you Xie family leftovers here, just to let you see with your own eyes how our Northwest Army fights, so that you can lose convincingly.

Come on, give me a trumpet, Lao Tzu will close the door and beat the dog! ”

With Ning Zhiyuan's order, the sound of the horn soon sounded in the formation, which could be heard for several miles.

Not long after the horn sounded, the horns sounded from the three directions of the east gate, the west gate, and the north gate.

Hearing the sound of trumpets coming from all directions, the Hu generals and staff at the head of the city suddenly became nervous, and they knew that the Northwest Army was about to start attacking the city.

"The Shenji Battalion listens to the order and sets up a gun."

With the command of Meng Ping, the commander of the Shenji Battalion, more than 8,000 musketeers wearing armor and helmets took the lead in marching out of the army and standing outside the range of bows and arrows.

Then, on the wide battlefield, more than 1,600 columns were arranged in a column of five people, and the distance between the columns was about two meters or so.

When the 8,000-odd muskets were lined up, the tens of thousands of pikemen waiting behind them immediately filled the vacant positions of the musketeers in a formation of ten.

In the formation of a column of musketeers and a column of pikemen, a long snake formation spread out in a semicircle was discharged.

Both musketeers and pikemen used their weapons in the direction of the city gates.

An Guogong, Xie Yuheng and others had already seen this gun array in the Northwest War that year, and they also knew how powerful it was.

The musketeers were responsible for the attack, and the pikemen were responsible for the defense. In this case, even heavy cavalry equipped with horse armor could not break through.

At the beginning, their tens of thousands of cavalry were beaten by this gun array, and now when they see this formation again, they can't help but feel complicated.

What made An Guogong and others even more hot was that at the beginning of the Northwest War, the Ning family only had about 5,000 musketeers, but now it has become 8,000, and each of them has a musket in his hand.

Compared with the more than 8,000 muskets that their Xie family had worked hard to make in the Ministry of Industry, the Ning family's muskets were too many.

However, the reality is far more cruel than An Guogong imagined.

Today, the Northwest Army has not 8,000 muskets, but more than 32,000.

These more than 30,000 muskets were all produced in a steady stream from the arsenal managed by Chi Fei over a period of several years.

The standardized division of labor and cooperation in the arsenal, coupled with the mature assembly line operation, made the output of muskets several times higher than that of the Great Wei Ministry of Industry, which was an efficiency that Xie Jia and others could not have imagined.

The remaining more than 20,000 muskets have been evenly distributed to Li Dingbei, Xiao Zhijian and other generals who are responsible for guarding the three gates of the east, west, and north gates.

These muskets used to guard the gate were the core of the "Closing the Gate and Fighting the Dogs" plan, which was intended to prevent the Hu people from having the opportunity to escape from the city gates.

Not long after the gun forest array on this side of the south gate was placed, horns sounded from the east, west, and north directions, indicating that the gun forest array in those three places had all been set up and ready.

Hearing the sound of horns coming from the other three city gates, Ning Zhiyuan showed a satisfied smile, and then shouted loudly: "Pass my order and fire at the city."

Sons, give me a hard beating, and kill all these brazen dogs. ”

"Did you hear it all? The commander told you to open fire on the city and kill all these dogs.

The first row aim, fire! With the order of Meng Ping, the commander of the Shenji Battalion, the first row of musketeers who had already been aiming immediately pulled the trigger, and suddenly the flames were everywhere, the smoke was dense, and more than 1,600 lead bullets shot at the Hu soldiers on the city like a storm at a speed that was difficult to catch with the naked eye.

This decisive battle, which is related to the fate of the Han and Hu tribes, has finally begun!