On the way from Linyi City to Zhu'a City, at night, the cadres set up camp at the foot of a leeward hill.

After the breakthrough of Linyi City, the cadres did not stay in Linyi City for long, and the army only rested for an hour before setting off, and even most of the soldiers and horses did not enter the city.

In the handsome tent, Zhao Junsheng sat on the horse with his back against the wooden pillar supporting the tent, put his feet into the wooden basin to soak in hot water, and closed his eyes and looked very unbeaten.

Willing to lose the bet, Mulan washed Zhao Junsheng's feet, saw the appearance on his face, and couldn't help but say: "Look at you like that, don't you want to answer me?" ”

"Don't dare, don't dare!" Zhao Junsheng hurriedly opened his eyes and turned his head to look at his son, who was sitting on the marching bed playing with toys such as building blocks, carriages, and wood-carved horses that he had made.

"I want to wash your feet, but you won't let me!" Zhao Junsheng said with a look of longing.

Hua Mulan's face turned red when she heard this, "Wow, your brain is not clean!" ”

Compared with the dry food eaten by the soldiers, Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan were much happier in eating, but in order not to trouble the cook, Zhao Junsheng did not let them cook it, only boiled a pot of broth.

A pot of broth and a few pancakes were placed on the small table, Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan were both martial arts practitioners, and their demand for food was much more than that of ordinary people, in addition to pancakes and broth, there was also a packet of sauced beef, about three catties.

Hua Mulan walked to the table and tore off a small piece of a cake, filled a small bowl with some broth, broke the torn pancake and put it into a small soup bowl, stirred it into a paste, and then brought her son over and put it on the small pony next to him, scooped it with a small wooden spoon and fed him.

While feeding the child, Mulan ate pancakes by herself, and asked, "Brother Junsheng, do you say that Gao Xu can reach Zhu'a today, and can you take Zhu'a City?" ”

Zhao Junsheng nibbled on the pancake and said: "There should be no problem when you arrive at Zhu'a City, as for whether you can capture it, it depends on his ability, but we have to believe him."

Don't look at it as just a small county town, if the defenders are on guard, it would be a fool's dream to take it without a large number of siege equipment.

When Gao Xu led his army to Zhu'a City, he brought siege equipment, but it was already dark when he arrived.

"General, look!" Far away, the deputy general reminded Gao Xu.

Gao Xu looked in the direction of Zhu'a City, and saw that there were many lanterns hanging on the city wall, and there were still some fires burning from the city wall.

"Do you think they'll know we're here?" Gao Xu asked.

The adjutant general thought for a while and said: "It shouldn't be possible, even if the main force of our army has reached the north bank of the Yellow River before, but there is still Linyi City in front, since the snow and the Yellow River froze last night, we only took one day to get here, who can have our marching speed?" Besides, there were no suspicious enemy spies at the reconnaissance and probe posts ahead along the way! ”

Gao Xu thought for a while and ordered: "Send a few people to explore and see what is going on on the city wall, but don't be discovered by the defenders!" ”

"Understood!"

Several spies were sent out, and they first began to dismount and crawl in the direction of the city wall, and then crawled slowly in the snow to observe the situation.

After about half an hour, a spy came back and reported to Gao Xu: "General, the brothers have made a cursory observation under the city wall, and there is only the sound of sentries on the city wall, and there are no large number of defenders, nor do they hear a slightly loud noise on the city wall, but during this time, I saw a patrol passing by, and everyone in the patrol team was holding a torch, and nothing else was found!" ”

Gao Xu frowned, the enemy situation is unknown, if the defenders in Zhu'a City are unaware of their arrival, why are there a large number of lanterns hanging up and down the city wall and lighting so many fires? Could it be that they are playing a huge disparity, when in fact there are a large number of soldiers and horses in ambush on the city walls?

Gao Xu thought about the work of a cup of tea, the temperature was getting lower and lower, the infantry were standing in the snow and kept stomping their feet, and the cavalry was also shivering in the cold wind.

A little light suddenly flashed in his mind, and he looked at the spy in front of him and asked, "You just said that everyone in the patrol on the city wall is holding torches?" ”

"yes, everybody's holding torches!"

The adjutant looked at the city wall in the distance and said, "No, there are so many lanterns hanging on the city wall, they don't need everyone to carry torches, right?" ”

Someone next to him said, "Maybe they have too many torches to run out!" ”

The spy who reported the news said: "The villain also wonders, there are so many lanterns hanging on the city wall, it stands to reason that the patrol does not need everyone to carry torches, is it not superfluous for them to do so?" Isn't it a waste? ”

Gao Xu suddenly thought of something, his eyes became brighter and brighter, and he turned his head to the deputy general and said: "Order, order the craftsmen of the baggage team to immediately assemble the two siege ladders, today we will attack the city overnight!" ”

"Siege overnight?" The adjutant general was taken aback, "General, since the defenders are prepared, let's attack the city so rashly, I'm afraid it will bring a lot of casualties, it's better to retreat and camp, and attack the city again tomorrow morning!" ”

Gao Xu shook his head: "No, tomorrow morning, the king will take the main force of the army into the city for breakfast, we can't wait!" Do as I say! ”

"Yes!"

The craftsmen only needed to assemble the siege ladders, but it didn't take much time, and it only took half an hour for dozens of siege ladders to be assembled.

"General, the siege ladder is ready, and the two thousand infantry of the first attack echelon are also ready to attack the city at any time!" The adjutant general reported to Gao Xu.

Gao Xu said to the adjutant general: "You stay and lead the army, and this general will go to the front to command!" ”

"Yes!"

Gao Xu dispersed with the first attack echelon and dozens of siege ladders, slowed down his pace and voice and slowly approached the city wall, and after the army entered the range of bows and arrows, he transferred dozens of archers with accurate archery and ordered them: "Each person is responsible for shooting a lantern!" ”

The archers quickly dispersed, and after a while, they saw that the lanterns hanging on the city wall were shot one by one, and after the lanterns were broken, the cold wind poured in and blew out the lanterns, and the lanterns were extinguished one after another.

"Go, put out the fire!" Gao Xu gave the order with a wave of his hand.

Many soldiers took off their helmets, scooped up the snow on the ground, and ran towards the fires.

When the lanterns were shot and extinguished, they had already alarmed the sentries on the city wall, and the sentries immediately rang the bell, "Dangdang······"

"Enemy attack, enemy attack" only shouted twice, and the sound stopped abruptly.

As the fires were extinguished one by one, under Gao Xu's order, a large number of cadres and soldiers carried siege ladders across the moat and rushed to the foot of the city wall to set up ladders, and climbed forward one by one with swords and shields.

The defenders were still alarmed, and there was a panic on the city wall, shouting and scolding, and the defenders were scurrying around like headless flies one by one, and even several people actually fell to their deaths from the city wall because of the panic.

The cadres were killed on the city wall with great ease, the defenders on the city wall were quite numerous, but there seemed to be little resistance, as the cadres who climbed the city wall would become more and more, the defenders were killed and retreated, and soon lost the city gate tower and retreated to the city.

Half an hour later, a large number of defenders will surrender or be captured, this battle is so easy to make the cadres and generals quite surprised, when did the Southern Dynasty Liu Song Army's ability to defend the city so poor?

"General, what the hell is going on, the last general still hasn't figured it out, the Southern Dynasty Army's defensive combat strength is not so bad, right?" The adjutant general looked at the group of Liu Songjun prisoners who were escorted away and asked Gao Xu.

Gao Xu said: "It's very simple, because the Southern Korean army generally suffers from night blindness!" At night, when the light was too dim, they could barely see clearly, and we shot all the lanterns on the city walls, and they were naturally black-eyed! ”

After hearing this, the adjutant general patted his head: "I see, I said why did they hang so many lanterns on the city wall!" However······ Why did the soldiers of the Southern Dynasties generally have night blindness, but our army did not? ”

Gao Xu spread his hands: "I don't know either!" ”

In the morning of the next day, Zhao Junsheng arrived at Zhu'a City with a large army.

"The last general will meet the king!" Gao Xu led the soldiers to greet him at the gate of the city.

Zhao Junsheng stopped and looked up at the city tower, then turned his head to look left and right at the city wall, and asked, "Why is the city wall so clean, there are no traces of large-scale battles, how did you break through this Zhu'a City?" Did they surrender on their own initiative? ”

Gao Xu said with a smile: "King, the last general arrived outside the city with the soldiers at dusk yesterday, and found that the city wall was brightly lit, but there were few defenders on the city wall, and everyone in the patrol team was holding torches, and the last general suspected that the soldiers of the Southern Dynasty generally suffered from night blindness, so he ordered to attack the city overnight, but I didn't expect the defenders to really suffer from night blindness, after sending archers to shoot out the lanterns, the defenders' eyes were black, and the soldiers climbed the city wall easily, and the defenders were defeated by our army before they had time to organize resistance."

"Hahaha······ I see! Go, go into the city to rest for two hours, let the soldiers eat a mouthful of hot soup and hot rice, eat and drink enough and then rush to Licheng! ”

The army slowly entered Zhu'a City, Gao Xu rode a horse beside Zhao Junsheng and asked: "King, the last general is very puzzled, why are the generals of the Southern Dynasty generally suffering from night blindness, but the generals of our army are not?" ”

Zhao Junsheng said angrily: "Do you think that the soldiers eat meat, haggis, beef offal, pig offal, and fish for nothing on weekdays?" It's definitely good to eat it! ”

"Could it be that the soldiers of the Southern Dynasty suffered from night blindness because they ate too little meat?" Gao Xu was quite surprised.

Zhao Junsheng said: "The common cause of night blindness is that there is a lack of something in the food, and animal meat, liver and some vegetables have this kind of substance, our soldiers almost eat meat a day, and sometimes there are fish to eat, and when there is no war, the vegetables are also eaten openly, so naturally they will not suffer from night blindness." And the food in the army on the Southern Korean side is much worse, where can there be meat to eat every day? There are few vegetables in this autumn and winter, and these Southern Dynasty soldiers are out on the march, so they are even more lacking in nutrition, and it is not surprising that they suffer from night blindness! ”