When the news of the loss of Huiyang City and the annihilation of more than 20,000 Northwest soldiers including Du Xiao under the command of Huiyang reached the Northwest Battalion, everyone's hearts immediately sank.

Although they had expected this for a long time, the generals still had a lot of concern.

Especially some people who have a good relationship with Du Xiao on weekdays, they are even more sad about this.

After reading the battle report, Ning Zhiyuan let out a long sigh and said with a regretful face: "Du Xiao finally fell for the old thief, otherwise he would not have ended up like this." ”

His confidant Mr. Zhang Wenxuan comforted: "My lord, General Du, they are still glorious even though they are defeated.

In the early stage of the city defense battle, more than 20,000 Wei troops were eaten, and more than 10,000 people were replaced almost desperately after the ambush.

20,000 for 30,000 is just a tie with Wei Jun, and even a little advantage. ”

Ning Zhiyuan shook his head and said, "Although it is 20,000 for 30,000, if Du Xiaoken obediently stays in the city and does not go out, he will not fall into the ambush of the old thief Xie and end up with the annihilation of the whole army."

This Huiyang offensive and defensive battle is indeed our defeat, there is nothing to say.

Xie Lao Thief is worthy of being a veteran of the battlefield for many years, and he still has a few unique skills in his hands.

This trick to lure the snake out of the trap really played well. ”

In this regard, Zhang Wenxuan also feels the same way, An Guogong is indeed a good chess player this time.

Seeing that Huiyang City could not be captured for a long time, An Guogong took the initiative to withdraw his troops, leaving only 40,000 people to besiege the city. It seems to be a helpless move, but in fact it has set a huge trap.

Because the entire city of Huiyang was surrounded by 40,000 Wei regiments, the defenders in the city could not detect the situation outside, thinking that only the 40,000 soldiers led by Li Zhihai besieged the city.

They didn't know that in addition to the 40,000 soldiers in charge of the siege, An Guogong actually left another 50,000 people in ambush farther away from Huiyang City and waited for an opportunity.

Next, Li Zhihai, who was in charge of the siege, ordered to carry out the inhumane order of throwing corpses to create plague, and threw all the corpses of the soldiers who died in the siege into Huiyang City.

This trick seems to be to use these corpses to create a plague and make Huiyang City self-defeating. But this was really just a false move, in order to provoke the anger of the soldiers in the city.

This trick really worked, not only successfully aroused the anger of the generals, including Du Xiao, but also allowed them to see an opportunity to win from the low morale of the Wei army.

If it were an ordinary general of the Great Wei, in the face of an enemy twice as many as himself, he would definitely adopt a strategy of not being able to defend himself.

However, life in the northwest is hard, and many generals have risen step by step from ordinary soldiers, and most of them have a strong urge to make meritorious contributions and move up the ranks, and want to get ahead from now on and change their backgrounds.

Therefore, even if you face more enemies than your own, as long as you feel that you can beat them, most of them are still willing to take the initiative.

An Guogong calculated this correctly, so he left exactly 40,000 people to besiege the city.

The number of soldiers besieging the city was also carefully calculated.

If the number of people is too small, it is easy to arouse the suspicion of the defenders, who think that there may be fraud.

If there are too many of them, the defenders will probably not leave the city at all.

So these 40,000 people are just right.

Coupled with the low morale of the Wei army, everyone saw it.

These factors finally made the generals, including Du Xiao, determined to carry out a sneak attack on the Wei army outside the city.

However, they never expected that their idea would just fall into the trap designed by An Guogong.

From the moment they left Huiyang City to prepare for a sneak attack on the Wei army, the outcome had already been decided.

Although it is 20,000 for 30,000, it is not a loss in terms of quantity.

However, the number of the Wei army was several times that of the Northwest Army, and the Northwest Army would definitely lose money in exchange for it.

As the lord said, this Huiyang offensive and defensive battle was indeed a loss for the Northwest Army.

The only thing to be thankful for now is that among the 20,000 Huiyang defenders, only 10,000 are veterans who have fought for many years, and the other 10,000 are new recruits, which has reduced the losses a little.

It has to be said that those veterans who fought bravely and experienced are indeed much more useful than those who have just enlisted in the army.

If it could be exchanged, the generals in the northwest would rather sacrifice 20,000 or 30,000 recruits than lose 10,000 veterans.

This kind of thinking is cruel, but it is a very real reality.

Zhang Wenxuan frowned and said, "Lord, since the Xie family has even resorted to the method of exterminating human nature by throwing corpses to create plague, it can be seen that they are determined to take the northwest.

Next, it is estimated that there will be many tough battles to be fought. This Xie family is really unscrupulous. ”

Ning Zhiyuan said fiercely: "As long as we don't fall into ambush like Du Xiao, our Northwest Army has never been afraid of anyone." I'll see if they can afford it. ”

"In addition to actively preparing for war, my subordinates implore the lord to posthumously seal General Du and others as soon as possible, so that other generals defending the city can see the sincerity of the lord."

"You're right, since I promised Du Xiao, this matter should indeed be fulfilled as soon as possible."

In the afternoon of the next day, the order to posthumously seal Du Xiao, the commander of the Huiyang Mansion Guard, and his subordinate generals was soon notified to the whole army.

Du Xiao was posthumously awarded the title of General Zhaowu by the general Ning Zhiyuan for his meritorious service in guarding Huiyang City. And give the Marquis of Huiyang, a bounty of 1,000 taels, hereditary replacement, and descendants forever.

His adjutant and several subordinate generals such as thousands of households and hundreds of households also had their own posthumous rewards.

Even ordinary soldiers have double pensions.

The rewards will be distributed after the successful repulsion of the Wei army.

This is the first time that Ning Zhiyuan has surpassed the status of a courtier and rewarded his subordinates so blatantly.

Strictly speaking, Ning Zhiyuan, as a courtier, is not qualified to posthumously seal or even seal his subordinates, which is an obvious transgression. If it is changed to the period of Emperor Jing'an, this is tantamount to a rebellious act.

But even though he might be stigmatized in the future, Ning Zhiyuan still decided to do so.

Now is a critical moment related to the life and death of the entire northwest, and in order to stabilize the morale of the army, he can no longer care about his reputation.

Because in addition to Du Xiao, who was ordered to defend Huiyang City, there were also several other commanders of the big cities who were also given this military order.

Whether it is to buy people's hearts or fulfill their promises, in order to allow them to "die with peace of mind", this kind of posthumous behavior of the generals who died in battle must be done.

Sure enough, after this posthumous order was announced to the whole army, it caused a lot of shock in the army.

Everyone is desperately fighting everywhere, just to fight for a good background, so that they can glorify their ancestors and benefit their descendants.

Although Du Xiao has been killed in battle, he is the first general to be made a marquis since the independence of the Northwest, and many people feel that his death is worth it, at least his descendants will be real people in the future.

Several other commanders of the city who were secretly ordered by Ning Zhiyuan to defend the city were even more warlike and enthusiastic after hearing the news that Du Xiao was posthumously named the Marquis of Huiyang.

Next, as Mr. Zhang Wenxuan said, the battle situation became more tragic.

Because the next city received Ning Zhiyuan's military orders: Ning must be killed in the city, and troops must not be rashly dispatched.

As a result, these commanders of the prefecture and city all adopted the strategy of not being able to defend themselves, and relied on the advantages of the city to carry out a war of attrition.

An Guogong also knew that after the battle of Huiyang City, the Northwest Army would not be easily fooled again, so he began to launch a fierce siege battle against the next second capital city: Anqing City.

At this time, the Wei army no longer had any scruples, and at the beginning of the war, they threw the corpses of all the soldiers of the Northwest Army who died in the battle into the city through catapults, and most of the corpses came from the soldiers who defended the city in the battle of Huiyang City.

As for the corpses of their own soldiers, in order not to affect morale, they were not thrown together.

Although they had been mentally prepared, the defenders of Anqing City still caused a great shock among the soldiers when they saw the corpses of countless comrades thrown in like falling rocks, especially those recruits, many of whom vomited because of this.

After throwing thousands of corpses, the Wei army immediately launched a fierce siege battle, and countless Wei soldiers, driven by Shangguan, climbed up through the ladder like dense crawlers.

At this time, many recruits had not yet recovered from the shock and had to be defended by veterans.

At this time, you can see the difference between a recruit and a veteran.

After the first round of shock, the veterans, accustomed to seeing the dead, quickly regained their composure and began to fight in an orderly defensive battle.

In this way, the second round of offensive and defensive battles officially started in Anqing City.

In order to capture the city of Anqing as soon as possible, the Wei army adopted the wheel warfare method of fighting in turns, sending groups of soldiers to attack the city in turn, regardless of casualties.

The fierceness of the battle was even worse than the battle of Huiyang City.

The siege ended in only five days, and the Wei army finally succeeded in capturing the city of Anqing after paying nearly 70,000 casualties.

The 20,000 defenders of the city, including all the generals, were killed in battle, and none of them surrendered.

The moment the Wei army smashed the city gate open, the strong stench of corpses inside could almost smoke people down.

This is because the Wei army took turns to fight day and night, so that the defenders in the city almost did not even have enough time to take turns to rest, where could they take care of the corpses scattered everywhere in the city, which caused the corpses in the city to continue to rot and stink.

In such an extremely bad situation, it is God's blessing that there is no large-scale plague outbreak in the city.

After capturing Anqing Mansion, the Wei army only rested for a while, and soon went to the next city, Yinglin City.

Under this almost frenzied offensive of the Wei army, Yinglin City was also lost six days later.

Losing three cities in a row, the Northwest Army suffered heavy losses, but the Wei Army was no better, with more than 170,000 casualties.

Siege warfare has always been so brutal in ancient times, and the besieging side often had to pay more than three times as many casualties as the defending side.

If the Northwest Army was not half veteran and half recruited, but all veterans defended the city, the Wei army would definitely have to pay even heavier casualties.

In this kind of flesh-and-blood battle, the life of each soldier has become insignificant.

Just when the Northwest Army was trying to mobilize the strength of the whole army to resist the attack of the Wei army, a news suddenly came from the northern border that shocked everyone: the Hu people were leading a large army to knock on the pass.

……………………

When Ning Zhiyuan, who was in the northwest camp at this time, heard the news, he was so angry that he smashed a table on the spot, and said fiercely: "What an old thief Xie, he dares to collude with the Hu people inside and outside, he is determined to destroy my Ning family." ”

Ning Yabai, Ning Yafeng, Zhang Wenxuan, and Chi Fei, who were also in the study, also looked dignified and resentful.

The Hu people, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly knocked at this time, which was no coincidence.

To say that this matter has nothing to do with the Xie family is really hard to believe.

Perhaps, this is the true purpose of the Xie family: to unite the Hu people outside the gate to attack back and forth, and work together to strangle the Northwest Army.

After thinking clearly about An Guogong's intentions, everyone had only one feeling: This An Guogong was really crazy, and in order to eradicate the Ning family, he did not hesitate to collude with the Hu people outside the customs to lure the wolf into the house. Could it be that the Hu people, who had already occupied the entire southern part of Great Wei, were not enough to let the Xie family and others understand the ferocity of these jackals outside the Guan?

Mr. Zhang Wenxuan, who was good at strategy, thought more far-reaching, and he said solemnly: "Lord, if the subordinates' inference is correct, the Xie family's intentions may be far more than that. ”

"You say."

"Xie Mingshun is treacherous and shrewd, and it is impossible not to understand the insatiable temperament of the Hu people.

If it was really his intention to collude with the Hu people to knock on the gate this time, his intentions might be even more sinister than we imagined.

His real idea should be that he wants our Northwest Army to kill each other with the Hu people, and then he will reap the benefits of the fisherman, which is a plan to drive the tiger and devour the wolf. ”

When everyone heard this, they immediately felt their hairs stand on end, and Ning Zhiyuan clenched his fists even harder.

Borrow the hands of the Hu people to fight with the Northwest Army, and then enter the field to harvest when both sides are defeated.

Such a vicious scheme is indeed very Xie Mingshun's style.

Although the Xie family's intentions have been deduced, how to break the situation is a headache.

The harm of the Hu people is far greater than that of the Wei army, and if they are really allowed to enter the pass in a big way, the entire northwest will face a great catastrophe.

As the lord of the northwest, the Ning family could not stand idly by and watch this.

Even if they knew that this was a conspiracy of the Xie family, it was impossible for them to really let the Hu people enter the customs, and they couldn't afford the consequences.

After thinking about it for a while, Ning Zhiyuan sighed and said, "It seems that our plan is going to be changed, and this time we can only let the Xie family go."

Ah Bai, you immediately order all the men and horses, and then take those things and rush to the border overnight for reinforcements.

In any case, we must keep the Hu people out of the pass, and if you are really unsure, you will light a beacon fire for help, and I will send a large army over to reinforce as soon as possible. ”

Ning Yabai immediately took the order and said, "Yes, father."

Please rest assured, as long as those things are there, I am confident that I will never let the Hu people step into the pass. ”

"Okay, I'll leave it to you over there, be careful."

After explaining to his eldest son, Ning Zhiyuan turned his head to look at his little son-in-law and said, "Ah Zhen, whether you can hold the border pass this time depends on the things you make."

If it is indeed feasible, then our Northwest Army will really be invincible in the future. ”

Although Chi Fei didn't speak, his mood was still quite complicated.

Because he knew that the great battle that would take place at the border in the near future would be a truly cross-era war.

Perhaps from now on, the whole war scene will be completely different, and it will become more bloody and cruel.

And this kind of cross-era change was brought about by him himself.

It was both his honor and his sin.