Dusk has passed, night has fallen, and the sky is gradually getting dark.

At this moment, the "First Battalion" and "Second Battalion" defending the western city wall have each rotated twice, and a rough calculation of the duration of this siege battle is estimated to be almost two hours.

In all fairness, the war of about two hours has been very common in siege warfare since ancient times, but it made Zhao Hongrun feel like he was on pins and needles.

The Shang Shui Army suffered heavy casualties, which could be guessed without having to tell Zhao Hongrun by his generals.

There is no way, after all, the two battalions responsible for defending the western city wall, a total of 8,000 soldiers, they are facing no less than 70,000 or 80,000 Jiaojiao army, a full twenty times the difference in strength. "Note: The author is not mistaken, it is twenty times."

For about two hours, Zhao Hongrun poured himself a drink from beginning to end, or hummed a tune he liked in his memory, never once giving orders, and even he felt like a mascot.

But it is undeniable that the role of Zhao Hongrun, the "mascot", is irreplaceable, because as long as he is still sitting in the hall of the city gate tower, leisurely sipping wine and humming a song, the soldiers near the city gate tower will not see any panic on their faces.

This is a kind of personality charm.

But in fact, after sitting for nearly two hours, in fact, Zhao Hongrun's legs were numb.

However, he couldn't move around at will, because once he walked, it would give the nearby generals the illusion: This His Royal Highness King Su was actually standing here? Could it be that they feel that the situation is unfavorable?

As the saying goes, "The path you choose must be completed with tears in your eyes", so when Wu Ji and other soldiers mistakenly thought that His Royal Highness King Su was intoxicated in his own world, he never imagined that His Royal Highness King Su's heart was simply dripping blood.

After about a moment, Wu Ji came to Zhao Hongrun's side with a sigh of relief, and said with some excitement: "Your Highness, the army of the Jiaojiao people has retreated. ”

His face was full of joy that "the last general will not fail in his mission".

In fact, Zhao Hongrun was about to vomit when he drank at this time, but in order to stabilize the army's heart, he still pretended to finish drinking the wine in the cup, and then snapped the wine glass upside down on the table.

That crisp and neat move is really pleasing to the eye.

Then, I saw Zhao Hongrun slowly stand up without showing any drunkenness, and praised with his chin: "Good, good, good." ”

said three good words in a row, and his tone was not hurried or slow, which was quite the style of the Wei royal family.

"It's really worthy of the royal family of Wei......

"This gesture...... Tsk.'"

Seeing Zhao Hongrun slowly walking towards the city wall, the nearby soldiers and generals were secretly speechless, no matter how they looked at it, they felt that the slow walking posture of His Royal Highness King Su was very domineering.

Who would know that in their eyes, His Royal Highness King Su had drunk wine for nearly two hours (four hours), and it was not the goat's milk wine of the Qiang people, but the wine of Wei produced by the Shang Shui Army, and he had already drunk it dizzy, even if he walked a little faster, I am afraid that he would shake.

"King Su!"

"His Royal Highness King Su!"

"See King Su!"

On the way to the city wall, the nearby Shangshui soldiers clasped their fists and saluted him.

I saw that these Shangshui soldiers and soldiers had heartfelt smiles on their faces, as for the reason, I am afraid it is because of the fact that the people of Qianjiao outside the city are slowly withdrawing their troops.

The Horned Army was indeed retreating, and the still countless Horned slave soldiers fled from under the western city wall to the west, but only the few Horned Cavalry were still stationed in the western suburbs outside the city, as if they were unwilling to stop and return to the camp.

It's just that without the Karma Horn slave soldiers in front of them to attract the attention of the Shang Shui Army, if the Karma Cavalry really dares to attack the city alone, the Qiang warriors who assisted the Shang Shui Army in the battle in the city can let the proud Karma Cavalry die a few times, not to mention, the Shang Shui Army still holds a sharp weapon such as a repeater crossbow in their hands.

I have to say that the crossbow bolts used for repeaters cost a lot of iron ore and labor. Zhao Hongrun may feel distressed when he uses those crossbow arrows to shoot the Horn slave soldiers, but if it is used to shoot those Horn Cavalry outside the city, Zhao Hongrun will never hesitate at all.

After all, when the herald was reporting to Wu Ji about the overall casualties of the western city wall, Zhao Hongrun heard from the sidelines that the cavalry outside the city who suddenly participated in the battle and launched an arrow attack on the western city wall caused a lot of casualties to the soldiers of the merchant and water stationed on the west city wall.

"Don't be careless." may have noticed that the surrounding Shangshui soldiers and generals had become a little lax because of the retreat of the Qiangjiao army, Zhao Hongrun told them in a deep voice: "The withdrawal of the Qiangjiao troops this time may only be a short rest for the army. They may go and come back, and we need to be prepared for a night fight. ”

"Night battles?" Wu Ji and the nearby generals were stunned when they heard this, you must know that the Central Plains country will hardly fight at night, unless it is a sneak attack on the enemy, after all, the efficiency of night combat is too low, so low that the commanders of both sides of the enemy and us cannot accept it.

After thinking about it, Wu Ji asked suspiciously: "His Royal Highness King Su, if it is as you said, the horn ...... Could it be that the military rations are running out? ”

"Guess again." Zhao Hongrun glanced at Wu Ji, then reminded with a smile: "Think carefully, Wu Ji." As the commander in chief of an army, whether your judgment is accurate or not is crucial to the situation of the battle. ”

Wu Ji's expression was awesome when he heard this, he didn't dare to slack off, and frowned and thought hard.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he said in surprise: "Your Highness, could it be the Dangshan Army?" ”

Zhao Hongrun glanced at Wu Ji appreciatively, originally he felt that Wu Ji had an active brain, knew right from wrong, knew advance and retreat, and was a talent that could be created, but now seeing that he guessed the truth so quickly, his heart was even more satisfied.

He nodded and said, "Yes, this king thinks the same way. …… In other words, the reason why Bitatu came to attack the city in such a hurry was because he had realized that if he could not conquer the city and capture the king, then there would be no room for recovery in this battle......"

Wu Ji looked at Zhao Hongrun in surprise and admiration.

You must know that since the army of Qianjiao arrived in Luocheng, Luocheng has completely lost contact with the Dangshan Army and the Chenggao Army, and His Royal Highness King Su in front of him can guess the actions of the Dangshan Army from the abnormality of the Jiaojiao people.

After thinking about it, Wu Ji lowered his voice and asked: "His Royal Highness King Su, the new defeat of the Karma Horn will definitely drop the morale, why don't you take this opportunity to sneak attack the tribal camp of the Karma Horn Army tonight......

Zhao Hongrun was silent when he heard this, it is undeniable that this suggestion did make him a little excited, and the success rate was not low.

But after thinking about it carefully, he still shook his head and vetoed it.

"It's not right. Although the barracks of the Qiangjiao are only six or seven miles away from the city, it can be predicted that the sentinels of the Qiangjiao are deployed on the way, and the odds of victory are too low to rely on the foot soldiers of the Merchant Navy. Moreover, even if they were lucky enough to succeed in the sneak attack, most of the soldiers sent out of the city would not be able to return under the pursuit of the tens of thousands of cavalry. Zhao Hongrun explained in detail to Wu Ji why he rejected this suggestion, after all, the latter is the general he is focusing on cultivating.

"If the cavalry is spoken, the two clans in the city ......" Speaking of this, Wu Ji lowered his voice and added: "If Your Highness is not at ease, you can send the cavalry of the Meng clan and the Lun clan of the Shan clan to ......"

However, Zhao Hongrun still shook his head, and said: "My cavalry of Great Wei has undergone special training for sneak attacks on enemy camps, requiring horses to pick bells, human titles, horses' hooves to wrap themselves, and knights to silence, just to quietly lurk under the noses of the enemy. As for the people of Sanchuan, they have never received special training, and the so-called "cavalry sneak attack" of the people of the Qiang tribe is nothing more than relying on transferable horses to suppress the enemy army with mobility. …… Once the cavalry sent out makes a slight movement and alarms the Horned Cavalry, then, not only will the night attack fail, but they may also be killed by the Horned Cavalry by virtue of their superiority in strength. ”

Wu Ji suddenly realized when he heard this, and said with emotion: "His Royal Highness King Su has seen far-reaching, and the last general will be ashamed." After that, his tone changed, and he frowned and asked, "Then let's continue to defend the city?" ”

"Nope! To strike. Zhao Hongrun straightened his robe, and said: "It's autumn now, but the king of Nanliang led the western expeditionary army from Daliang to Longxi, but it will take at least about a month and a half. …… In order to avoid being trapped by ice and snow in the middle of the journey, this king must leave enough time for the western expeditionary army to hurry......" After that, he glanced at the tens of thousands of cavalry who were slowly withdrawing their troops, and said with a deep face: "In any case, the war with the Qiangjiao must be ended within this month!" ”

"Within this month?"

Wu Ji was taken aback when he heard this, you must know that today is August 23, and there are only seven days until the end of the month.

And the Karma army outside the city, including the slave soldiers and the Karma cavalry, I am afraid that the number of people is at least more than 150,000, and in seven days, can they really defeat this enemy army again?

Wu Ji was not much sure.

Of course, it seems that this kind of strategic matter is not his turn to worry about it for the time being, and it still has to be formulated by Zhao Hongrun himself.

At present, as long as he does a good job of "commanding the battle", it is already something that he and Zhao Hongrun are very satisfied with.

"Wu Ji, tell the soldiers not to relax, and beware of the Horn Army going and returning. …… If he does retreat, you will immediately count the losses of the dead, and the king will know the exact losses! ”

"Yes!"

After Zhao Hongrun left the western city wall, the Qiangjiao army also withdrew.

Perhaps it was because the merchant and naval forces were so rigid in this battle that although Bitatu was anxious to conquer the city, he also chose to retreat, did not go and returned, and continued to attack the city at night.

Seeing this, Wu Ji ordered the thousands of people in the west city wall to count the number of casualties of their own thousand teams, and then summarized the number of these dead and handed them over to Zhao Hongrun.

On August 23, the 17th year of Wei Hongde, more than 200,000 Qianjiao troops besieged Luocheng, and 20,000 Shangshui troops and nearly 10,000 Sanchuan tribes of Luocheng defended the city, so that Qianjiao could not be attacked for a long time, and the latter was defeated and retreated.

In this battle, the west, north, and south walls of the city were killed, and a total of 80,000 slave soldiers were killed.

On the Wei side, in this battle, 3,632 soldiers of the Shang and Shui soldiers were killed, and 1,931 soldiers of the tribes of the Qiang and Qiang tribes were killed.

Among them, about seventy percent of the losses of the enemy and the enemy occurred in the western city wall.

As a result, the corpses of the west city wall were piled up almost at the same level as the city wall, and the red blood stained the entire city wall. (To be continued.) )