"It's a long story! Walk! Let's go to the gate tower and sit down and talk slowly! Liu Xiu pulled Liu Xiu and walked up the steps to the city wall.

When they got to the city wall, Liu Xiu and the others were all taken aback. The entire large city wall, everywhere as far as the eye can see, is stained with blood, black and brown dry bloodstains, everywhere can be seen.

"After five days of fierce fighting, our side has suffered more than 10,000 casualties." Liu Jiu said with emotion.

Gai Yan, who followed up, couldn't help asking, "Where are the tens of thousands of people from?" ”

Liu Xuan and Feng Yi looked at Gai Yan and asked puzzledly, "Are you?" ”

"In the lower Gaiyan!"

Hearing Gai Yan's name, Liu Xuan and Feng Yi both showed surprise. The two of them had only heard of Gaiyan's name, but had not seen him, and this was the first time they had met.

"It turned out to be Lord Gai, disrespectful and disrespectful!"

Gai Yan bowed back with a red face, shook his head and said: "I'm ashamed to say that as the Sima of the county army, it is my duty to defend the city...... As a result, when the barbarian army attacked the city, he was still imprisoned by the barbarians in their camp.

Feng Yi said considerately: "The defeat of Qianyou Mountain is not the fault of Lord Gai!" ”

Gaiyan smiled bitterly and hung his head silently.

Walking into the city gate tower, Liu Jiu roughly recounted the experience of guarding the city in the past few days.

He said it lightly, but Liu Xiu and the others were thrilled to hear it, it turned out that in order to resist the siege of the barbarian army, even the strong men in the city were used.

However, the strong man had neither training nor combat experience, nor even weapons, and suffered heavy casualties, and in five days, a total of thousands of people were lost.

Feng Yi sighed, and said: "Now we can still insist on defending the city, only a thousand of us are left, Uncle Wen, if you don't come back in time, the consequences will be really unimaginable!" ”

Although there are still 20,000 or 30,000 strong men available in the city, because the casualties in the battle in the past few days are too great, they can no longer recruit new strong men.

Liu Xuan suddenly remembered something, and said to Feng Yi: "Brother Gongsun, immediately send someone out to inquire to see if the barbarian army has really retreated, and also, how far they have retreated, and where exactly they have retreated!" ”

Feng Yi nodded, waved his hand and summoned a few henchmen to let them ride out of the city to find out the movements of the barbarian army.

Liu Xiu said: "Even if the barbarian army retreats for a hundred miles as promised, it may come back at any time, after all, it is not a long-term solution, we have to hurry up to ask the Jingshi army for help!" ”

Liu Xuan and Feng Yi glanced at each other, and the former said: "We have already sent people to ask for help from the Jingshi Army, but it has always been a stone in the sea, and no news has come back. ”

"It shouldn't be!" Liu Xiu muttered. Hanzhong City is the general logistics supply station of the Beijing Army, and its importance to the Beijing Army is self-evident, and when I learned the news that Hanzhong City was attacked by the barbarian army, it stands to reason that the Beijing Army should choose to rescue it as soon as possible, unless the battle ahead is tight, and they are dragged by the barbarian army and cannot retreat.

But in terms of combat effectiveness, the barbarian army is not very likely to pose a threat to the Jingshi army!

"Could it be that the news failed to reach the Jingshi Army?" Liu Xiuhu asked suspiciously.

Feng Yi shook his head and said, "We have sent three messengers successively, and it is impossible for the news to reach the Jingshi Army!" ”

"That's weird." Liu Xiu muttered.

While they were talking, a soldier ran into the city gate tower and said, "Lord Liu, Lord Feng, the Ye family is here to deliver food!" ”

Seeing the puzzled expressions on the faces of Liu Xiu and the others, Liu Xiu explained with a smile: "During the siege of the barbarian army, most of the food in the army was provided by the Ye family, and we were able to defend the county town, and the Ye family also contributed a lot!" ”

There is a lot of food hoarded in Hanzhong City, but those grains are not from Hanzhong County, but belong to the Jingshi Army, not to mention that Liu Xuan and Feng Yi dare not move, even if Hanzhong County is too guarded by Wang Xun, he does not dare to use a grain of grain from the Jingshi Army privately.

There are nearly 10,000 soldiers and civilians involved in the defense of the city, and they have to eat and drink every day, where does the food come from?

These days, it is mainly to rely on the Ye family to provide food, and organize the people of the whole city to cook for the defenders, ensuring that the defenders have no worries and can go all out to deal with the enemy troops outside the city.

Liu Xiu stood up, patted Liu Xiu at the same time, shook his head and said, "Let's go, let's go meet Ye Gong!" ”

They went down the city wall. Near the city walls, there were a lot of people around, and there were more than twenty large wooden barrels, which were steaming.

Next to the crowd, there were two people, a man and a woman, an old man and a young man, Liu Xiu looked at it and knew each other, the old one was Ye Khotan, and the young one was Ye Qingqiu.

Liu Xuan and Feng Yi really don't know Ye Qingqiu, these days, although the Ye family has been sending food here every day, the people who come over are Ye Khotan.

This time, I suddenly saw a girl and Ye Tian standing up, both of them were suspicious, Liu Jiu couldn't help muttering: "Who is this woman?" ”

Liu Xiu answered: "Big brother, she is Ye Qingqiu, the young lady of the Ye family!" ”

"Oh! It turned out to be her! Liu Xuan suddenly realized, but he felt strange, why did Ye Qingqiu come here today?

Feng Yi looked at Liu Xiu and smiled, already knowing what was going on in his heart.

From a distance, seeing Liu Xuan and others coming, Ye Tian stepped forward and said with a smile: "Bosheng, I heard that the barbarian army outside the city has withdrawn?" ”

Liu Xuan said: "The barbarian army has temporarily withdrawn. He didn't dare to say anything to death, and no one dared to guarantee that the barbarian army would never attack the county again.

Ye Qingqiu didn't look at Liu Xiu, her eyes swept around the crowd, and when she saw Liu Xiu, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she subconsciously took a step forward, then glanced at her father beside her, and slowly retracted her feet.

Her small movements, Ye Tian has seen it, his own daughter, how can he not understand her thoughts? He looked at Liu Xiu and pretended to be surprised: "Uncle Wen, are you back in the city?" When did you come back? ”

Liu Xiu captured the patriarch of the barbarian army, Xiesan, and successfully forced back the barbarian army besieging the city, the news has already spread in the county city, and the people who learned the news are all happy, running to tell each other, and now almost all the people in the city have heard about it.

Liu Xiu bowed his hand to Ye Tian and said, "Ye Gong, I have just returned to the city not long ago. ”

Ye Tian sighed: "I heard that you disappeared when you fought with the barbarian army in Qianyou Mountain, for several days, my heart has been hanging, and now that you have come back safe and sound, my heart can finally be put back in my stomach." ”

Liu Xiushen gave a bow and said: "It is the fault of the younger generation to let Ye Gong miss him so much!" ”

I don't know if it's a relationship that has a good impression of Liu Xiu, the more Ye Tian looks at this young man, the more pleasing he feels.

Although Liu Xiu's family background is not very good, he is just a farmer in the countryside, but looking at him, he can't feel that he is a farmer at all, but he has a graceful atmosphere.

After a few more greetings with Liu Xiu, Ye Tian turned sideways and said, "Let's all come over for dinner!" ”

The meals provided by the Ye family were simple, two steamed buns per person, plus a spoonful of soup.

Speaking of which, the Ye family was able to provide food for the defenders for so many days, thanks to Liu Xiu's reminder at the beginning.

If it is replaced by an ordinary businessman's family, short-sighted people may take this opportunity to speculate on food prices and make a windfall.

And it is not without reason that the Ye family can become a very influential Dashi clan in Hanzhong.

Instead of selling the hoarded grain at a high price, the Ye family also gave it to the soldiers and civilians defending the city for free.

In the short term, the Ye family lost an opportunity to make a fortune, but in the long run, the Ye family's influence and prestige in Hanzhong have undoubtedly been greatly improved.

Liu Xiu, like an ordinary soldier, received two steamed buns and a bowl of thin soup, sat on the steps near the city wall, and ate it in large gulps.

At this time, Ye Qingqiu walked over.

Li Tong's eyes were very sharp, and when he saw her coming, he immediately stood up, turned his head to look, and saw that Long Yuan and Li Yi were still sitting next to Liu Xiu, he patted the two of them, shook his head and said, "Let's go over there to eat!" ”

Long Yuan's face was full of puzzlement, and he looked at Li Tong blankly.

Li Tong glanced at Ye Qingqiu, Long Yuan was stunned for a moment before coming back to his senses, he coughed dryly, immediately got up, and walked to the side.

Li Yi didn't want to leave, it was rare to have the opportunity to contact Ye Qingqiu, he didn't want to miss it, but seeing his cousin staring at him intently, he sighed secretly, shook his head helplessly, and had to get up and walk away with Li Tong.

With no one else present, Ye Qingqiu was a lot more relaxed. She sat down beside Liu Xiu and said with some embarrassment: "These days, the food hoarded at home has been almost consumed, if you can't get used to it, bear with it for the time being, and come to my house for dinner in the evening." ”

Liu Xiu smiled and said, "This kind of food is already very good." "On weekdays, the food of the rebels is corn buns, and now the buns provided by the Ye family are corn noodles and white noodles, which are much better than the food in the army.

Ye Qingqiu asked, "Uncle Wen, where have you been these days?" Why didn't any news come back...... "I'm worried about you!" The last half of the sentence, she was embarrassed to say.

Liu Xiu drank the remaining soup in the bowl in one gulp, wiped the corners of his mouth, and said, "I have always hidden in Qianyou Mountain. ”

He didn't say anything about his entry into the cave, and he didn't want to publicize the cave, because there was nothing in the cave, and if it was announced, it would only disturb the purity of the cave.

"For so many days, you have been hiding in Qianyou Mountain?"

Liu Xiu nodded and said, "When I broke through, I was injured a little, and then I found a hiding place and was in a coma for several days. ”

"I see." What was the situation at that time, Ye Qingqiu didn't witness it with his own eyes, but it must have been very dangerous when he thought about it.

She changed her words and said: "This time you caught the patriarch of the barbarian army and forced back the barbarian army besieging the city, but you have made a great contribution to Hanzhong, as long as you are willing to stay in Hanzhong, you will definitely be able to hold a good official position in the county government." ”

With his merits, coupled with the help of the Ye family, she believes that Liu Xiu's career in Hanzhong will definitely be successful, and it is even possible to become the Taishou of Hanzhong in the future.

Ye Qingqiu said this, obviously he still didn't know Liu Xiu too much, Liu Xiu couldn't devote himself to officialdom, he and his eldest brother Liu Xiu had the same goal, they were both bent on recovering the Han family, how could they go to Wang Mang to be an official?

This is fundamentally at odds with his goals.

He was about to speak, when he suddenly heard a chaos in front of him, Liu Xiu raised his eyes and saw countless people walking from the streets and alleys to the city gate, looking around, the streets were crowded, and they couldn't tell the number, people had everything in their hands, most of them were sticks, kitchen knives, axes, etc.

This situation made Liu Xuan, Feng Yi and others also surprised, and everyone stepped forward one after another and asked, "Everyone, who are you?" ”