The snowflakes as fine as catkins flew with the cold wind, falling on the vast earth, rendering a gray white, and the head of the hanging gourd city was dotted with white frost, mixed with mottled scarlet, which was the blood of the soldiers on both sides of the attack and defense, reflecting blood red in a snow-white.

This piece of blood red, appeared in the southeast section of the city wall breach, the attack and defense around this breach, the battle lasted from yesterday noon to this dusk, countless lives disappeared in the breach, the bloody battle finally ended with the attacker withdrawing the troops.

Although the enemy forces were repulsed, the walls were breached, which meant that the next battle would be more difficult for the defenders, and no matter how well the fortress defended the walls, it could not withstand the changes brought about by the colder climate.

More than a month had passed since the enemy stopped directly attacking the city and flooded the city again, and the rammed earth city walls, which had been fully soaked by the river, cracked to varying degrees under the action of the cold climate.

This is an effect that the enemy cannot achieve with the thunderbolt attack, the water freezes and the volume will increase, and the damp rammed earth wall is very likely to crack from the inside out due to the change in internal volume in the cold winter.

The specific manifestation is that the city wall is brittle, and it collapsed under the enemy's high-intensity attack, this time the southeast section of the city wall first collapsed and caused damage, so what about next time?

The commander of the Hanging Gourd Garrison, Xiyang Wang Yuwenwen, is now thinking about this problem, the rammed earth city wall of the Hanging Gourd City was built last year, maybe it is to cut corners, maybe it is to reduce the technical requirements in order to rush the construction of the rammed earth version, resulting in the quality of the city wall is not very good.

Winter is coming, and the probability of problems with the hanging gourd city wall when the weather is cold and freezing will not be small.

This is not Yuwenwen's problem, nor is it the problem of the Anzhou Army, it is a problem brought out of the "mother's womb" by the hanging gourd city wall, which was strengthened by cottage cement in a hurry, and there is no way to completely solve the root.

The rammed earth city wall built in a hurry, only a year after it was built, it was soaked in water for a long time and then frozen, and it cracked and cracked, which is a natural law and cannot be resisted.

Yu Wenwen was at the breach at this time, watching the soldiers and young men clean up the bodies of the dead, and when they were cleaned up, they would use sandbags/dirt bags and wood to plug the breach, and his eyes turned to the sharp barricades outside the wall, the left and right sharp barricades were scarred but still stubbornly towering.

This is a "bamboo reinforced concrete barricade" made of cottage cement and bamboo bars, which is an important "plug-in" for transforming the square hanging gourd city into a copycat version of the fortress, but the absence of artillery makes the hanging gourd not a "complete" fortress.

The various fortifications of the fortress can divide the enemy's strength, and then limit it to a narrow direction, and then the artillery will shoot a grenade at the head, and the world will be clean, and the fortress must be blessed with artillery, which is a stubborn fortress that makes the attacker fear.

However, at this time, there was no artillery but bows and crossbows, and once the enemy's troops exceeded the "firepower" of the defenders, the fortress could not effectively protect the city wall.

If the walls had not collapsed, the enemy would not have been so crazy, and when there was a breach in the wall, the surging sea of soldiers would have been so numerous that the long-range attack power of the barricades and the crossbowmen on the city could not be suppressed at all.

Even if a large amount of quicklime is splashed desperately, it cannot effectively contain the enemy soldiers wearing masks and being forced up by the overseers to play for their lives, and the defenders can only rely on white-knuckle combat to repel the opponent, and the battle between the offensive and defensive sides around the breach is the bloodiest battle to fill in the human life.

If it continues to be consumed in this way, the situation will not be good for the Anzhou army, which is at a significant disadvantage in terms of strength.

However, Yu Wenwen did not feel anxious because of this, because he had been prepared for this situation for a long time, and the reason why his brows were tightly knit at this time was because he was lamenting the instability of the quality of the rammed earth city wall.

The same rammed earth city wall, there is the Wanping city wall that can resist the direct hit of the cannonball in modern times, and there is also the Jiading city wall that was drenched because of heavy rain for days at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the same is rain, there are many ancient city rammed earth city walls that have been tenaciously towering after thousands of years of wind and rain.

So the problem lies in the quality, and the rammed earth city wall newly built last year, the quality will not be much better, but it cannot be too bad, the reason why the performance is poor now is probably not to think that it will be soaked in water for a long time just after it was built.

The quality of the rammed earth city wall is uneven, and Yuwenwen has no way of knowing what the quality of the hanging city wall is, whether it is reliable or not.

He didn't have enough time to replace the hanging rammed earth city wall with a "bamboo reinforced concrete wall", so he was prepared for the destruction of the city wall, but in this bloody battle, his own casualties were not small, and he had to find a way to avoid it again.

The method of sprinkling quicklime, because it was used too much, and the enemy army also came up with a countermeasure, so the effect of sprinkling quicklime gradually weakened, and with the precedent of "almost breaking the city" this time, the enemy's determination to attack the city will be stronger.

So as a countermeasure, it is to fence the trees and pile sandbags on the inner side of the city wall, but if it is really not possible, they rely on the barricades built in advance to play street battles with the other party.

Iron also needs to be hard, and in the absence of reinforcements, everything can only rely on itself.

Yu Wenwen was patrolling, and several soldiers who were cleaning up the corpses at the scene suddenly gathered in one place, and it seemed that there was a terrible discovery in the pile of corpses.

It turned out that among the corpses of the fallen enemy soldiers, there was a corpse that was more special: it had a white cloth belt wrapped around its right shoulder and forehead, which looked like Dai Xiao, but it was more like a certain mark.

The palace guards reported the situation to Yu Wenwen, who was not far away, he didn't say anything, and motioned Zhang Yu to go somewhere to "do something", and soon the generals would come in a hurry and let the accompanying soldiers carry the body away.

。。。。。。

Yuzhou Governor's Office, Council Chamber, Li Yunxin handed a piece of paper to Yuwenwen, and the content written on the paper was translated according to the "ciphertext comparison version", and the secret letter that recorded the ciphertext came from a messenger.

This secret letter, written by Lingyu Wenming, the secretary of Daxingtai in Shannan Province, came to the enemy camp outside the city after several turnarounds, and was sent into the city by a messenger who regarded death as if he were at home.

How to send MeSign?

It's very simple, put the secret letter close to you, tie a white cloth belt on your head and right shoulder to show your identity, and then blend into the siege army, advance towards the hanging gourd, no matter what, you have to climb the city wall, even if you are killed by your own people who don't know the truth, you have to go.

The messenger had to send the letter at the cost of his own life, and the two white cloth belts were the credentials that proved their identity, and only Yuwen Wen and Li Yunxin knew about this identity credential in the Hanging Fortress City.

The hanging gourd will be besieged by the enemy, and Yuwenwen can rely on a limited number of carrier pigeons to send news outside the city, but it is difficult to send news to the city outside the city, so before Yuwenwen set out on the expedition, he agreed with Yu Wenming on this way of sending letters.

The success rate of a single messenger is so low that at least a dozen couriers who have generously died have carried out this almost mortal task at the cost of their lives, and it is only today that the soldiers defending the city have found the corpse with a white cloth belt on their head and right shoulder in the pile of dead.

Others, who may have died for various reasons, have not been able to enter the city, nor have they been able to die under the city.

After Li Yunxin translated the secret letter, he asked the messenger to be buried in the city, and the secret letter stained red with blood was properly kept.

Yu Wenwen carefully looked at the content written on the paper in his hand, this was the first news he received from Shannan after the hanging gourd was surrounded, and according to the payment time, this secret letter was written by Yu Wenming in Xiyang, Huangzhou thirteen days ago.

Yu Wenming said in the letter that the Son of Heaven arrived in Anlu, and the news quickly spread in all directions, and the Son of Heaven received the envoys of the State of Chen, and the State of Zhou (Yuwen) and the State of Chen initially reached an alliance intention.

The envoys of the Chen State returned to Jiankang by water with 400,000 grains, and the envoys of the Zhou State accompanied them to mediate for a formal alliance, and by the date of Yu Wenming's letter, the envoys should have almost arrived in Jiankang.

The Son of Heaven went out on patrol and drove to Xiyang, accompanied by Yu Wenming; The Son of Heaven sent an envoy to the Xiyang Palace, pardoning the sins of the Princess of Xiyang and the prince; The Son of Heaven listened to lectures in the state school for several days in a row, recruiting talented people, Liu Xuan, one of the two Lius, refused, Liu Zhuo responded to the expedition and became a historian.

Guanzhong, Pusaka-Tongguan line, the enemy and us are still facing each other, the defenders of Tongguan have endured several months of fierce attacks, and now they are still stubbornly guarding the pass, and the enemy who will attack in the future is blocked east of Tongguan.

Xibiluo, the governor of Yizhou, is currently leading the troops to attack the western gateway of Guanzhong - Sanguan, and it is Liang Shiyan, the governor of Qinzhou, who assists in defending Sanguan, and now Xipiluo's Yizhou army is blocked and dispersed, and it is difficult to attack Guanzhong in an emergency.

The Liangzhou army, which was the horn of each other with the Xipi Luo Yizhou army, confronted the Shannan Xiangzhou army in the lower reaches of the Han River in the Jinzhou area, and had no time to divide the troops to attack Guanzhong on the meridian road, and Guanzhong and Shannan had already passed the initial difficult period.

Xiyang Wangfu is safe, Xiyang is safe, Huangzhou is safe, and Shannan is safe.

In the letter, Yu Wenming hoped that his younger brother Yu Wenwen and the people in the city would continue to hold on to the hanging gourd until the day when the tide of the battle turned around.

After reading it carefully a few times, Yu Wenwen returned the paper to Li Yunxin, and the news from the messenger's self-sacrifice made Yu Wenwen, who was trapped in a lonely city, know the current situation.

If today's forces are as strong as the Yu Chi clan is strong, and the Yuwen clan is at a disadvantage, but it is better than the Chen State in the south of the Yangtze River, then in the three-legged situation, the weak alliance is the best choice.

The reason is this truth, but not long ago, Chen Guo was taken away by the Yuwen clan in Ba, Xiang, Jiangzhou and other places in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and even the Lingbiao was lost, will Chen Guojun and his ministers give up their grudges and form an alliance with the original enemy?

The Northern Song Dynasty in the "back then" had a grudge with the Liao State and chose to join forces with the Jin State; The Southern Song Dynasty of "that year" had a vendetta with Jin and chose to join forces with Meng Yuan, in case Chen Guojun and his ministers were the same...

Today's Chen State, if it wants to ensure basic national defense security, it has to reorganize the Yangtze River defense line, and the Wei Chi clan in the north bank of Chen Bing Huainan and the Yuwen clan in Chen Bing Jiangzhou upstream are all threats to Chen Guo.

In this case, did Chen Guoguo "choose the lesser of two evils" and formed an alliance with Zhou Guo (Yuwen Clan) to fight against Wei Chidun together?

To a large extent, it will, but there is also the possibility of benefiting from both ends of the first rat and the left and right sources.

It is even possible to engage in a sneak attack after asking for benefits, taking advantage of the fight between the Yuwen clan and the Yu Chi clan, and crossing the river in white clothes to take advantage of the weakness.

But Yu Wenwen is not worried now, because he has the killer trick of "traitor to the country", and he has delivered many benefits over the years, just to make this killer weapon work at a critical time.

When Yuwenwen was still in Shannan, he made arrangements and sent his subordinates who lurked in Jiankang to bribe Kong Fan, the favorite retainer of Chen Shubao, the son of Chen Guotian, hoping that his "partner" would find a way to get Chen Shubao to agree to "unite the west and resist the north".

Kong Fan is a traitor, he collects money to do things, has no discipline, for his own selfishness, he can betray the interests of the country, it is not an exaggeration to say that he is a "traitor to the country", but the other party is the scourge of Chen Guo, so he is Yu Wenwen's best "partner" in Chen Guo.

If you want to make an analogy, Kong Fan is like Qin Hui of the Southern Song Dynasty, he is the "confidant" of the Jin Kingdom, and Yuwen Wen, a traitor who fattened with gold, silver and jewelry, must play a key role at a critical moment.

Chen Shubao likes to suppress military generals with henchmen such as Kong Fan and Shi Wenqing, Kong Fan and others are on the same page with the generals, and they will never easily let go of any opportunity to pull the generals back, and will also compete for the dominance of decision-making.

There is Kong Fan fanning the yin wind and igniting the ghost fire by Chen Shubao's side, Yuwenwen is not worried about Chen Guo and Wei Chi's peace, and then swings his army westward, so that Shannan will suffer from the enemy.

Even if Chen Guobian will make small moves to test the reality of Shannan, the arrangement made by Yuwen Wen in Jiangzhou is enough to make Chen Jun, who crossed the border, come and go, and he has full confidence in this.

Therefore, Yu Wenwen believes that the probability of Chen Guo forming an alliance with his own side will be very high, and the question is whether Chen Jun chooses to shrink to the south of the Yangtze River as a wall to watch, or choose to do his best to cross the river and go on a northern expedition.

If Chen's army went on a northern expedition and performed well, Wei Chi Youqi, who was sitting in Huainan, would probably have a hard time, then Wei Chi Dan, who personally led the army to besiege the hanging gourd, would not have so much patience to besiege the city for a long time, and it was likely that he would withdraw his troops because of too many casualties.

At that time, Gao Huan personally led a large army to besiege Yubi City, besieged it for almost two months, and the soldiers died seventy or eighty thousand but there was no way to take the jade, Gao Huan sang "Eilechuan" sadly, and withdrew the army in a gloomy manner, and died of depression not long after, Yuwenwen only hoped that this scene could be repeated in the hanging gourd.

Wei Chi is in the prime of life, so he will not end up depressed because he can't take the hanging gourd, but if the other party retreats as soon as possible, Yu Wenwen can also "regain freedom" as soon as possible.

So the key is whether Chen Jun can effectively restrain Huainan Wei Chi Youqi, and then cause Wei Chi Dan's overall arrangement to be disrupted?

Yuwen Wen and Li Yunxin discussed this issue, and the results of the discussion were not very optimistic, because Chen Guo's national strength was declining, and Chen Shubao only knew how to indulge in wine when he abandoned the government, and he was not even the master of Shoucheng, and the army under this kind of monarch had no combat effectiveness.

Speaking of which, you have to rely on your own people, and you need to be hard to strike iron, and Yuwenwen's hopes are all pinned on the upcoming offensive in Shannan.

His well-planned "Hanging Gourd Battle" has bought enough time for Shannan to break the siege, so now, it depends on the performance of his own people, if this can't break the deadlock....

At that time, Yuwenwen, who was trapped in the hanging gourd, had no reinforcements outside, no grain and grass inside, for Wei Chidun, it was a turtle in an urn, and the day the city was broken, it was Yuwenwen's death.

Turning out of the council hall, Yu Wenwen walked outside the government office, the cold wind was blowing on his face, extremely cold, he would not worry too much about the current situation, because he still had a lot of things to do.

To be a man, you have to be trustworthy, and if you say it, you must keep the hanging gourd for at least a year, and don't think about entering the city if you don't have time!