The characteristics of the rainy season in June and July this year in Xingzhou are not obvious, and the rainfall is significantly less than in previous years, which is a dry year.

This is not conducive to farming in Xingzhou.

Of course, in addition to Wuzhi, which is located east of the Jialu River, most of the eastern and southeastern parts of Xingyang and Xinzheng were flooded; The people west of Xingyang and Mi County either fled to the peaks and mountains at the eastern foot of Songshan to escape the war, or moved to Hugaoguan or Changge, south of Xinzheng, and almost all of their farming was deserted, and there was no drought or not.

And this kind of solar terms is conducive to the beginning of June, Zhao Wuji led Feng Zhang, He Liufeng, Shen Peng, Cao Ba and other elite soldiers and horses and tens of thousands of elite auxiliary soldiers to advance to the city of Mixian, build camps from the west, south and east, and officially start the war against Mixian.

At this time, in addition to the two naval brigades, Han Qian also transferred Su Lie's troops to the Tiger Prison Pass to listen to Chen Kun's moderation, so as to better contain the defenders in Xingyang City.

Liang Shixiong also sent troops from Xingyang City to the south to reinforce Mi County in the early days, but the morale of the generals was not strong, and in several battles in the north and east of Mi Chengchi, they were killed and lost their armor and suffered heavy casualties, and there was no way to stop the attack of the Xuzhou army on Mi County.

After entering July, Liang Shixiong gave up reinforcements to Mi County, and watched as the Xuzhou army built a camp from three sides to surround Mi County.

Mi County has a long history of city building, in addition to the ancient mythological period of Fuxi, Yellow Emperor, Zhurong are all in the territory of Mi County that originated from the eastern foot of Songshan Mountain, the Spring and Autumn Period of Mi State, Zheng State were built here, Qin and Han dynasties are all the Central Plains Dayi, the city is dangerous, and Xingyang is called two towns.

At this time, in addition to Zhu Wei leading more than 6,000 soldiers to guard Yumi County, there were nearly 30,000 households in the city, and tens of thousands of young and strong men could be recruited to rush to the city to help defend the city.

However, since the Liang army's sailor warships entered June, they frequently haunted the Yu River in the north of Xingyang City, and they were fearless in the face of several times the Mengzhou water camp warships, and often killed the Mengzhou Navy Cang Empress to withdraw, and the Xingyang defenders saw this scene at the head of the city, and their fighting spirit was shaken.

In the end, Liang Shixiong only ordered the generals to defend the city to the death, and not to go out of the city to fight, even if Mi County is in danger of the city, where can the defenders in the city have much morale at all? Not to mention Ding Zhuang, who was coerced up to the city wall.

After a post road was built south of Chenqiao Village, the materials and people in Xuzhou could pass through Chenqiao Village unimpeded and enter the forward camp in the south of Mixian County.

Zhao Wuji did not hurry to construct a trebuchet position, surrounded by deep trenches and fences, and mounted more than 60 cyclone cannons in the south of Mixian County and the east and west corners, and threw tens of thousands of stone bullets and mud pellets into the head of Mixian County day and night.

The defenders also set up a large number of whirlwind cannons on the inside of the walls.

In order to prevent too many casualties among the soldiers operating the cyclone cannon, Zhao Wuji also dug a large number of deep pits in the trebuchet position so that the soldiers could avoid the stone bullets, and propped up wooden shelves and curtains above them to reduce the impact of the stone projectiles.

Although the defenders can also do the same, the soldiers on the city walls and the young defenders of the city are still alive and well, but every day dozens or even dozens of people are killed and injured by stone bullets and mud pellets thrown by the whirlwind cannons.

After a month of bombardment, the thick wall made of rammed earth in the southern city of Mi County was unrecognizable, and the defenders were destroyed in addition to the whirlwind cannons on the inner side of the city wall, and a large number of weapons placed on the city wall to block the enemy.

There was a shortage of craftsmen and materials in the city, and it was impossible to build new weapons and put them on the top of the city.

At this time, Zhao Wuji organized elite soldiers and strong generals, officially approached the city of Mi County, under the scorching sun, sweating like rain, pushing forward a long trench bridge with wheels, erecting it on the moat, and forming six passages at the same time, annexing the city to attack Mi County.

A spring-arm wheeled bed crossbow and scorpion crossbow were dragged closer to the south city wall by military horses, and the iron arrows that were slightly thinner than the short spears shot fiercely towards the city head, and the broken battlements were fiercely shot down, not to mention the generals on the broken wall, who were directly shot by this kind of iron arrow, what would happen.

Lit canisters smashed into the city, and the defenders burned to the ground as soon as they were touched by the splattering oil.

The morale of the defenders was already sluggish, and there were no useful defensive equipment on the dilapidated city wall, watching the Liang army generals come to attack the city, with strong armor, they were not afraid of the arch and arrows, and the arrows hit the armor leaf in ping-pong, but they could not penetrate the armor leaf, and the little remaining morale of the defender was like a candle in the wind, and there was a possibility of being completely extinguished at any time.

In addition to all kinds of large-scale crossbows under the city, Zhao Wuji pushed more building cars and nest cars that were higher than the city wall to the front of the city, and there were crossbowmen standing on them, and hundreds of crossbows shot out of the crossbow arrows together, like a swarm of locusts, ruthlessly covering the city.

Seeing this scene, the guard general Zhu Weidu's heart was shaken and full of desolation, and he deeply felt that the general trend of Mixian County had gone.

organized two counterattacks in a row, but failed to drive the Liang army that climbed to the top of the city, and he had no intention of fighting, but he did not dare to directly lead his troops to escape from the north city gate at this time.

Zhu Wei didn't leave, but he didn't send a team to intercept the soldiers who fled to the north gate, until more and more Liang troops killed the ruined south city wall, and even dragged more than a dozen spring-arm bed crossbows to the broken city wall, he was surrounded by guards, and fought all the way from the north gate to Xingyang City......

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"There is no way to fight this battle, even if the general cuts off my head, I will speak,"

Finally got rid of the pursuers, Zhu Wei fled into Xingyang City in a hurry with less than 2,000 remnants, the blood on his body was not dry, he took off his helmet, rested on the long case, and knelt down to face Liang Shixiong, who was white-haired and was named the general of the Zhuguo by Zhu Rang, and said excitedly,

"The year before last, Luoyang, Yanshi, Mengjin, Gongxian, and Hujiaoguan were all in our pocket, although Zhu Yu attacked fiercely, but as long as the Mengwu people came to reinforce in time, there was no possibility of losing it. However, the Mughurs wanted to take Heluo into their pockets, and we were forced to abandon these cities. It's nothing, but Xingyang shouldn't be our turn to guard. ”

"Enough!" Liang Shixiong lowered his voice, stopped Zhu Wei in a hoarse voice, and said, "No one will hold you accountable for losing Mi County, so you will complain less." ”

In such a world, more than 10,000 elite soldiers who relied on to live and survive lost their troops in the past few months, and in the end, less than 2,000 remnants fled into Xingyang City, how could Zhu Wei not be full of complaints and grievances?

Besides, once the Mengzhou Water Camp is completely suppressed on the north bank by the Liang Army's water division, Xingyang will become an isolated city, relying only on the city's

Can the 20,000 defenders really hold the Yuhe River and the floodplain on the eastern flank in mid-to-late November?

Even though Zhu Wei knew that Liang Shixiong had probably figured out these truths a long time ago, Liang Shixiong stopped him from continuing to speak, and he was still holding his breath in his heart and couldn't let it go.

"You take a rest first, settle down the generals, and then recruit two thousand strong soldiers and horses from the city, and then you will be responsible for guarding the eastern city......" Liang Shixiong slowed down his tone and said to Zhu Wei.

The city of Xingyang is strong, and it is beyond the reach of non-Mi County, and in addition to the 20,000 defenders, there are nearly 60,000 households, and some strong men can be selected to supplement the shortage of soldiers.

In the early stage, Xiao Yiqing was in Mengzhou, urging all parties to transport a large number of grains and other materials over, and also arranged for hundreds of craftsmen to enter Mengzhou to help build war weapons.

Liang Shixiong is still confident that he will hold out until the cold winter of November.

As long as the Yu River and the floodplain to the east are frozen firmly, no matter how strong the Liang army is, it is impossible to resist tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of reinforcements from the north bank of the Yu River and east of the Jialu River.

He didn't believe that the Liang army would not be able to withdraw at that time.

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Su Lie and Feng Zhang led their troops to attack Xingyang City from the west and south, and Zhao Ci led a cavalry to roam around the periphery to prevent the defenders from going out of the city to fight a counterattack.

In mid-August, Han Qian once again arrived at the Tiger Prison Pass to supervise the battle, and Zhao Wuji and Li Xiu were also surrounded by Hu Cai, and rushed from the trail at the northeast foot of Songshan Mountain to the Tiger Prison Pass to participate in the military meeting.

The defenders of Mi County had no morale, and they did not go out of the city to fight a counterattack for more than a month, and the Xuzhou army captured Mi County, and the casualties before and after were less than 1,000 people, in addition to more than 30,000 households in the county, 2,000 enemy soldiers were also captured.

Han Qian said that this year's plan to launch an attack on Xingyang City from two fronts, even if this goal has been completed by this time, whether to attack Xingyang next, and whether to ensure the capture of Xingyang before mid-November, is a matter that needs to be discussed by the generals.

Zhao Wuji surrounded Sanque Yi, and the fighting spirit of the defenders of Mi County was not strong, and they could still escape to Xingyang City, but the situation faced by the Xingyang defenders was different.

Of course, Han Qian hoped that Wu Su Dashi and Xiao Yiqing would order the Mengzhou Water Battalion to meet the Xingyang defenders' northern retreat to Mengzhou, so that they could send the naval division warships to send troops from the newly built Shuiying Dazhai on the west side of the Tiger Prison Head, take advantage of the enemy's crossing of the river to storm the flank, and then take over the empty Xingyang City.

However, it was obvious that the Mongol army would not go along with his wishes and abandon Xingyang City so casually.

And Liang Shixiong, as a veteran who has been employed by Hehuai for decades, cannot ignore the risk of being attacked when crossing the river, which will eventually lead to their hopeless escape north but die in the belly of the fish.

All kinds of situations have decided, and Liang Shixiong can only defend Xingyang City.

In this way, it would arouse the morale of the defenders, and Han Qian felt that they could not be blindly optimistic that Xingyang City was easy to gnaw.

And Xingyang as a large city with a number of rivers, the city, the brick city wall is more than three zhang high, the moat communicates with the Yu River, the west and the south are more than ten zhang deep and wide, the north faces the Yu River, the east city is slightly lower, and has been reduced to a flood lack area.

Even if the army has a large number of sophisticated weapons, it is still extremely difficult to capture such a strong city in a short time, and even has to pay an extremely heavy price.

"We must be prepared to freeze the Yuhe River in November, and we have not yet been able to prepare for the capture of Xingyang," Han Qian sat behind the long case and said, "To besiege Xingyang, in the early stage, we should take the Daihai Temple in the south and west of the city as the core, and repair the Lianzhai that semi-surrounds Xingyang from the west and south, especially in the south of Xingyang, and build a few more strong camps on the east flank to prevent the enemy from attacking the flank of our army from this direction after the Yuhe River is frozen." ”

"The enemy army comes to help, or it can be annihilated on the periphery of Xingyang......" Chen Kun clenched his fists and said loudly.

Since the Heshuo Incident, the Mongol army and the Wei Bo rebels have taken the advantage, and they, the old generals of the Great Liang, have struggled until now to see the dawn of victory, and at this time they thought that they could encircle the point and send reinforcements, and annihilate the main force of the enemy army on the periphery of Xingyang City.

"......" Han Qian shook his head with a wry smile, and said to Chen Kun, "If you want to send reinforcements at the Xingyang Siege Point, there are no 200,000 soldiers and horses here to win all, but if I want to mobilize 200,000 soldiers and horses at this time and concentrate at the northeast foot of Songshan Mountain, Feng Yi and Zhou Daoyuan will have to be so anxious that they will scold their mothers." ”

Han Qian did not fail to consider the possibility of encircling the point to send reinforcements, but after Yuhe and other areas were frozen, the enemy troops came from Mengzhou, Wuzhi, and Bianjing, which were close at hand, and they did not have the advantage of fighting at ease.

In fact, what Han Qian wanted to consider was whether to use Xingyang as bait to attract the elite of the Mongolian army and the Eastern Liang army to the outside of Xingyang for a decisive battle.

Considering the military potential that the Mongol army and the Eastern Liang army could mobilize on the Eastern Front, the Great Liang had to gather 200,000 soldiers and horses in advance to have a certain chance of victory.

At present, the war in all directions is still unending, but except for Li Zhihe who led the Western Expeditionary Army into Longyou, which is considered a long-distance operation, the other directions are all close combat, and the scale of the soldiers and horses used is also strictly controlled, and it can barely be said that it has not exceeded the limit of bearing for the time being.

If, on the basis of the current basis, we continue to mobilize more than 100,000 additional horses to gather at the northeast foot of Songshan, this has exceeded the bearing capacity of Daliang's national strength at this time.

At the same time, it takes time and process to mobilize people, and it is impossible to delay until November after the Yuhe River freezes and then let the prefectures and counties do the mobilization work.

And if they carry out a full-scale military mobilization now, the Mongolian army and the Eastern Liang army can also carry out a larger-scale mobilization, and in the end, the soldiers and horses under the city of Xingyang will be far beyond imagination, and the final battle situation will be full of greater variables.

At least at this time, the military potential of the Mongolian army and the Eastern Liang army still has to surpass theirs.

Therefore, it is better to capture Xingyang before the Yuhe River freezes, if Xingyang cannot be captured in time, then it will depend on the scale of the enemy's reinforcements and decide the follow-up combat strategy - if the scale of the enemy's reinforcement of Xingyang after winter is beyond their imagination, they will even temporarily abandon the walled city on the periphery of Xingyang, retreat to the Tiger Prison Pass and Mi County in the south, and continue to prepare for the inner line defense.

Gu Qian, Han Yuanqi and other former ministers of the Great Liang who rushed to the Tiger Prison Pass with Han Qian this time also saw that the situation was getting better little by little, but before making more adequate preparations, they did not want to rush into such a large-scale decisive battle this winter.

Even they felt that it was a bit hasty to launch an offensive against Xingyang this year.

Don't look at the capture of Chenqiao Village, Mi County and other walled cities, the casualties are limited, and there are not many soldiers and horses used, but just attacking Mi County for a month and building the post road between Changge and Chenqiao Village at any cost before, the materials consumed are an astronomical amount.

The oil used for the fire attack in Mixian County alone consumed more than 20,000 barrels.

This time, 780,000 horses and horses will be mobilized to attack Xingyang, and the supply of more than 100,000 stone grains and straw will be provided every month.

Next, the navy will become more resolute when it enters the Yuhe River, which also means that Yique Shuiying Dazhai needs to requisition more boatmen and components from Huaiyang, Xuzhou and other places to speed up the repair and construction of new and old warships.

At present, there are more than 10,000 craftsmen and craftsmen directly managed by the Logistics and Equipment Department of the Military Intelligence Staff Office and specializing in the manufacture of armor and combat equipment, but even so, the production of armor and ordnance warships can no longer keep up with the needs of expanding the number of troops and horses and the consumption of war.

This is still the use of a large number of hydraulic equipment for the casting of armor and combat weapons, otherwise the current production scale may not be able to meet one-third of the demand.

"The king and the adults started at the end of the micro, when the situation was critical, there was no way to retreat, a glimpse of a chance to win, when the brave and straight forward, not afraid of danger, but at this time the situation in Heluo was initially determined, and the country should still be used as a regular soldier," Gu Qian said very directly, and said with emotion, "I think that the first emperor fought in the south and the north, and the soldiers were very sharp, except for the king who guarded Huaixi, no one was the opponent of the first emperor, but in the end it was difficult to prevent the change of Heshuo." At this time, although the monarch and the monarchs of the Chu court and the lord of Shu have made peace, it does not mean that there is no variables behind this - there are lessons from the past, and the ministers think that they must be guarded against. ”

"To attack Xingyang, when the Yuhe River is frozen, Xingyang cannot be captured before that, and there should be backup means to prevent the enemy from crossing Yingshui on a large scale in winter and attacking Xuchen, Rucai, and Zhuzhou." Han Yuanqi said.

"......" Chen Kun was silent for a while, and said firmly, "Attacking Xingyang, Chen Kun is willing to take the lead in the elite armor to fight in the city." ”

With so many people opposing this winter battle, Chen Kun will not be a stubborn person, and he doesn't want to be the main general of this siege at the moment, he only hopes to directly lead the elite of Dengcheng, and strive to capture Xingyang City before the Yuhe River freezes.

Only in this way can Liang Shixiong not be allowed to escape.

Han Qian pondered for a while, nodded, and agreed to Chen Kun's request.

After some discussion, Han Qian adjusted the new appointment.

He incorporated more than 25,000 elite cavalry brigades and infantry brigades, including Li Xiu, Su Lie, Feng Zhang, He Liufeng, Shen Peng, and Zhao Ci, as well as the soldiers captured by Mi County and the young and strong men recruited from Mi County, together with nearly 20,000 Minzhuang requisitioned from Xu, Chen and other places, into the Xingyang Forward Battalion as the main force for attacking Xingyang City.

Zhao Wuji was appointed as the chief general of the forward battalion to directly preside over the siege of Xingyang, with Chen Kun and Li Xiu as deputy generals, Li Xiu led the cavalry to be responsible for the defense of the flank, and Chen Kun was responsible for the direct siege of the city.

In addition, in the direction of Hugao Pass and Chenqiaozhai, that is, two rear armies were formed on the western front and the southern front, which were responsible for the transfer of grain, straw, ordnance and other materials, as well as the vigilance of the flanks and peripheral warfare.

In order to ensure the timely transportation of the people's strength and materials and energy to the front in Heluo County, Han Qian made Han Donghu concurrently lead the commander of Hujiaoguan Town, and at the same time reorganized the troops and horses that entered the Wangwushan battle on the north bank into a new infantry brigade, so that Chen Yuanchen was appointed as the commander of the brigade, so as to better contain and attack the Mengzhou defenders under the control of the commander of Hujiaoguan Town.

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Xingyang City is adjacent to the Yu River in the north, the low depression water outside the east city gate is flooded by the Yu River water, and the west city of Xingyang City, the outside of the south city are all protected by Shenhao, and the city gate also has a solid, complex structure, and the urn city that is difficult to capture.

Of course, this also made the defenders want to go out of the city to counterattack, and the passage is extremely limited.

In addition to building a strong camp outside the west gate and the south city gate, the forward battalion limited the defenders to Xingyang City and could not go out of the city to counterattack, and the focus of the early camp construction was on the east flank.

A large number of pine trees were cut down from the Songshan Mountain, and a cart of stone and mud was transported from the south, and the reinforced concrete was poured for the wall pillars of the camp, and the loess was rammed between the two rows of grated wooden walls, and a deep trench was excavated on the outside.

If this winter, the scale of the enemy's reinforcements to Xingyang is not too large to resist, Han Qian still thinks about hoping that Zhao Wuji will lead the forward troops and horses to stick to Xingyang City and not retreat to Gongxian and Hugao Pass in the south.

In this case, it will be impossible for the enemy army to organize a large number of manpower and materials to build a weir road between Xingyang City and Wuzhi from the east to Wuzhi in this winter.

At this time, the enemy army either attacked the camp of the forward soldiers and horses, or could only abandon Xingyang in disgrace and withdraw to Yuzhou on the north bank and Wuzhi and Bianliang and other places east of the Jialu River before the spring of the next year.

Of course, if the Mongolian army and the Eastern Liang army gathered to reinforce Xingyang in winter, with more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, they would have the ability to surround the forward army under Xingyang City and cut off the communication between the forward army and the two wings.

Therefore, after entering September, even if Zhao Wuji and Chen Kun put down hundreds of whirlwind cannons in front of Xingyang City to smash the city wall, and even organized a small-scale attack on the elite annex city, Han Qian also asked them to continue to build camps to ensure that they could build a chain system in the southwest of Xingyang City that was interlocking and not afraid of the enemy's impact before late November.

In order to weaken the mobilization ability of the Eastern Liang Army and Mengwu, Han Qian also ordered Lin Haizheng and Yang Qin to send horse infantry and naval troops from the direction of Xia Cai and Linhao to attack the areas controlled by the Shouzhou Army and Xu Si Army along the Wushui, Surabaya and Hongzepu routes, and transported a cart of copper-plated iron coins to the Xusi and Eastern Henan regions, and secretly exchanged gold, silver, and precious metals to bring them out; ordered the soldiers and horses who entered Wangwu Mountain to further infiltrate and intersperse the mountainous area at the southern foot of Taihang Mountain; ordered Li Zhihe to integrate the local forces of Chengwu and Wuzhou, and lead his troops and horses into Qinzhou at the western foot of Longshan as soon as possible; Ordered Kong Xirong to intensify the raid on the Weinan area.

At the same time, Han Qian dispatched military attachés to Changge and Chenzhou in northern Xuzhou to form two new reserve brigades, and asked the 15 reserve brigades to implement the winter drill plan as soon as possible after the autumn grain harvest......

Although Han Qian was also eager to capture Xingyang City before the Yuhe River froze, as the supreme commander of the Great Liang, he needed to make many preparations to deal with different emergencies.