1

After the cold dew, the weather in western Liaoning gradually cleared, and the muddy tidal flats were baked back to soft but solid land by the long-lost sun. Since taking charge of the war on the Northern Front, Yuan Xian has listened to his father's words to some extent, and his actions have become extra cautious. On September 30, when she saw the towering walls of Tuhe City and the three snowflake flags of the north front on the other side of the Xiaoling River, thirty or forty zhang wide, she stopped her army twenty miles west of the city, and formed three battalions on the left, center, and right at a distance of fifteen miles each, waiting for the Karakuri battalion to walk at the end.

In addition to the 60,000 troops stationed outside the city, the three battalions stretched for dozens of miles, cooking in the evening, and the smoke rose one by one, which could be seen in the city of Tuhe. But even so, Yuan Xian didn't dare to underestimate Tuhe City. From a distance, it can be seen that the outer city is surrounded by a stone city wall as high as three or four zhang, and there is a beacon tower on the city wall every ten zhang. The beacon tower is also two feet higher than the city wall, and there are rolling wood and thunder stones, and strong bows and crossbows. Just by looking at it, you can see that if you want to storm this city, you will surely suffer countless casualties.

And Yuan Xian learned from the locals that the two gates facing his side in the west and south of Tuhe City both had urn cities. Moreover, even if the urn city is captured, there is still an inner city built on the east side of the small river in the city. There is a slope in the inner city, and on the high ground is the largest castle in the inner city. In this way, the three-layer city defense is interlocked, that is, the river bank defense is broken and the outer city is captured, and the defenders still have the basis to turn defeat into victory.

Looking at Tuhe City across the Xiaoling River, Yuan Xian felt more and more that this was the real gateway to Liaoxi, although she didn't know if Dai Ying was here at the moment, but she already felt in her heart that the battle of Tuhe was the key to the battle of Liaoxi.

At dinner in the evening, Yuan Xian suddenly thought that he had been busy with the generals of the Canglong Army for the past two days, and he had not seen Mo Huan's girl much. So she went to the tent, and when she saw that she was eating alone, she coughed lightly.

"General." Mo Huan was startled when he saw that it was Yuan Xian, and then he was busy retracting his head, only looking at the white rice in his bowl.

Yuan Xian saw her like this, so she asked, "Why, you don't want to see me, have you been hiding for the past few days?" ”

"It's not that I don't want to see ......," Mo Huan muttered while holding the bowl, "It's that I don't have the face to see it...... The general told me to take the troops back, but I can't remember the ......."

"I can't imagine that you eat Haisai on weekdays, and your mind is so heavy." Yuan Xian leaned over as she spoke, and sat down on the ground beside her. "If you don't have the face to see me, then how can I have the face to see the sacrificed soldiers?"

"But the general ......"

"Nothing. I made the decision to seduce Shi Fei, then I should have thought that you and I are not familiar with the road here. If a general loses a battle and first puts the blame on his soldiers, then the general is not worthy to command the army. What is the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces, that is, to tie the lives, abilities, responsibilities, and even ideals of all the people in the three armed forces to their hearts, and to bear the responsibility of the war for everyone, so that they can be entrusted with their lives. ”

Although Yuan Xian said plainly, Mo Huan suddenly felt that the young girl sitting beside him was burning with a warm and bright flame. Maybe she was just afraid that Yuan Qian would blame her in her heart, but now she felt guilty in her heart, guilty for not being able to respond to the expectations of this general who was responsible for the lives of all the soldiers.

"So it's up to me to reflect on it, and in order to respond to a person's heart, take more money as a bet to take risks." Although Mo Huan knew Yuan Xian's words, she couldn't understand the connotation of these words at this time. Yuan Xian continued: "But I can't ignore more soldiers just because of these intentions. So you and I are the same, and we should look forward. ”

Mo Huan nodded, rubbing his sour nose. "I see."

"It's good to understand, if you should find me to eat in the future, you can find me to eat." As she spoke, she gave her jerky to Mo Huan as usual, and then watched her eat deliciously. Although the army is short of food outside, she has been reluctant to restrict food for so many years, and she shares everything she can share, even if she understands this, it may become a breakthrough point for opponents who know her well. Thinking like this, she suddenly remembered something as if she had woken up.

"I suddenly remembered that something might be handed over to you."

Mo Huan was thinking about making up for it, and when he heard that there was an opportunity, he agreed repeatedly.

"There is a stone on the way here, and this place is the only way for our army to transport grain. Shi Fei fled before, if she led the remnants of the army to capture this place and cut off my food and grass, our army would be able to be trapped here. ”

"That's why I'm guarding the rock."

"That's right, if this place is not broken, they can only make a small fight if they want to seize food, and the army will be surrounded by our army when they go out. Therefore, you only need to defend to the death, and if you encounter a provocation by stealing grain, you must not rush out of the city, and you should first inform me and the defenders of Shanhaiguan. This matter is very important, I will hand over 3,000 soldiers and horses to you, and there should be 1,000 garrisons left behind during the crossing, as long as you don't go out of the city, Shi Fei should be helpless against you. ”

"I understand, this time I will definitely live up to the general's expectations."

Yuan Xian nodded, suddenly remembered something, and said: "This time I am stationed in Shicheng with you as the main general, since you have become a general, let's take on the appearance of a general." ”

2

At noon the next day, Yuan Xian and the Red Dragon Army called for battle under Tuhe City, and the captain of the Huwei Battalion of the Right Army of the Northern Front asked for battle, and Dai Ying allowed him to challenge Yuan Xian alone, but as a result, Yuan Xian pierced a transparent hole when he went up. Since then, the whole army of Beifeng has not fought behind closed doors, but Yuan Xian is nothing more than exploring the truth and reality, after all, the Karakuri battalion has just arrived, and it will take some time to attack the city on a large scale.

At this time, Dai Ying was playing chess with Yuan Hua in the main castle of the inner city. The place where Dai Ying stayed was to the west of the main fort, and from a distance, you could see a touch of Yuan Xian's red clothes on the battlefield outside the city, and the gentle water of the Xiaoling River was flowing under the fortress. The autumn leaves are withered and red, and some of them are blown up by the wind and fly up the tall buildings, falling on the balcony of Dai Ying's room, and a faint frost mark can be seen when you pick it up and look closely. The attendant blends fragrant and warm tea on the side, and the mellow Pu'er makes the late autumn breath calm and not cold, thick and moisturizing.

"Why did you give me a look during the war, and you lost your life in vain. Don't you know that Yuan Xian is in front of the battle, more fierce than the downhill tiger? Although Dai Ying said calmly, the chess pieces in his hand were more hesitant.

"There are many young generals in the army, if they don't taste some hardships, I'm afraid it will be difficult to stay in the city safely." Yuan Hua took a sip of tea and added: "Then Yuan Xian is a fierce tiger, and he is also separated from the city. And a general whose mind is not unified with the lord, even if it is a sick cat, isn't it annoying to bark in his ear? ”

"Hmph, you kid. Then you said that now that you and I are avoiding and not fighting, what will happen to Yuan Xian next? Yesterday, the spies came back and said that although Yuan Qizhi had gone back, there were still 60,000 or 70,000 horses under Yuan Xian. Our army is only 20,000 in the city, can we really sit here? ”

"Don't forget Shi Fei, my lord."

"You said Shi Fei, isn't that already a defeated general under Yuan Xian? At the beginning, I told me lightly, give her 8,000 elite soldiers, and she can take Yuan Qizhi's pearl in the palm of her hand. What now? This pearl is dangling in front of my eyes, where did she and the eight thousand people go? Indented into Pine Ridge and waited to feed the bear blind. What else could she be for? ”

"The lord still doesn't want to despise her. Although she was a little ignorant of the sky and the earth before, she was the only one in our army who had fought against Yuan Xian after all. And after this defeat, she will definitely learn a lesson, and Zhong Li's previous sorrow of breaking the city and killing his brother has not been repaid, if the lord trusts her again, she will definitely do everything she can to make trouble for Yuan Xian. ”

"Oh? You made things difficult for Shi Jie in every possible way before, why are you trying your best to protect Shi Fei now? ”

Yuan Hua smiled embarrassedly, "The villain's mind doesn't need to be thought about, the lord just needs to know that I am always thinking about the overall situation." ”

Dai Ying smiled and didn't ask any more, because he had heard that Yuan Hua was pursuing Shi Fei, but he was ridiculed by the brother and sister. "Then you say what you've considered."

"Although the Liaodong reinforcements will arrive in a few days, even if they come here, the riverbank defense should have been broken through by Yuan Xian by then, and our army will either be trapped in the lonely city or retreat to Yiwulu Mountain, which will make it impossible to join you and me. After thinking about it, if she changed to the waterway, she went around to Yuan Xian's back and cut off her food channel. At that time, she will either make a desperate bet or return to help, and she will leave a chance for our army. ”

"It's okay, then I'll listen to you and give that Shi Fei another chance. Summoning the scouts. ”

3

Yuan Xian's formation only lasted for half a day, and when she saw the deployment of the river defense in front of the formation, she led the army back to the camp by the same route, and then agreed with the commanders of all parties on the next day's attack plan.

Although this Tuhe City is overlapping and the city defense is very tightly arranged, the outer city of the West City is like an isolated island. There are only three bridges connecting the Xiaoling River in the city to the west city, and the north and south are within the range of heavy siege equipment. At that time, no matter how solid this outer city is, it will not be able to withstand the consumption of 60,000 troops with almost no replenishment.

In the early morning of the next day, Yuan Xian set up a formation one mile outside the Tuhe River. There are crossbowmen in front, shield armor in the back, spears and sickles in the back, and finally thousands of veterans holding Mo knives to press the formation, and the left and right wings are heavy horses and hussars. So there were three formations, one outside the west gate of the city, one outside the south gate, and one near the waterfront in the north of the city.

After the formation, the Karakuri battalion arrived late, but as soon as it came out, it attracted everyone's attention. I saw a dozen horses slowly coming with a pile of long and short wooden poles, and behind them there were even slower ox carts, which were all loaded with stones. The carriage pulled the wooden poles into the middle of the formation, and then the lightly armed soldiers worked together to move the wooden poles and shelves, as if they were going to build something in the formation.

"What is this about, to build a watchtower on the spot? And there are more than a dozen of them in one building! ”

These things quickly attracted the discussion of the soldiers, but after a few words, the veterans who had seen it came forward to correct them.

"What do you know, I've seen this thing, it's called Xiangyang Cannon. It is said that the Mongols used this thing to fight the Southern Song Dynasty back then, and the high city was like paper paste when they saw it. ”

"Is it as mysterious as you say? Isn't it just a trebuchet? ”

"It's different, it's different, it's the same trebuchet, it was in the earliest Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but this thing was only available in the Southern Song Dynasty."

"But I heard that isn't it just the technology of the Tang Dynasty here?"

"That's gunpowder, which is equivalent to the Tang Dynasty. This thing can be regarded as the pinnacle of cold weapon machinery! ”

While watching and talking, the sun has risen high. The soldiers in the city were almost sleepy when they saw it, but when they saw what was about to be completed, they didn't dare to feel sleepy for a while. I saw that the frame built by these wooden poles was three zhang high, and under the shelf, two hollow wheels more than one person high, connected to the gears at the height of the shelf. The gears turned, and the wooden box that could hold a cow slowly rose, and the wooden box contained the stones that had just been pulled by the ox cart. The top of the wooden box is connected to the throwing arm, which is about four or five zhang long, and the top is connected to the bullet box with arm-thick hemp rope. The cartridge box, the size of a water tank, lay quietly on long, straight rails, containing grease-stained stone bullets wrapped in hemp rope.

"My dear, this half-big stone bullet is going to be thrown from a mile away?"

"Otherwise, how could you let Karakuri camp finale?"