At dawn, just as Liu He was about to call the old pawn to sleep, he suddenly heard a "bang", and an old pawn covered in bamboo slammed the door, kicked on the threshold and fell, gasping and coughing

Guan Yu hurriedly stepped forward to help the old pawn.

"Fresh... Xianbei... And... Horse... The horse thief is coming! ”

After hearing this, Liu He took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and said quickly: "Yun Chang, immediately ring the gong to gather all the horses, inform Han Sheng, and all departments will enter the position according to the predetermined arrangement." Alert! ”

Guan Yu's face also became solemn all of a sudden, and he clenched his fists and said, "Order!" ”

Liu He turned his head and asked, "How many people are there?" ”

"I only saw a few cavalrymen, and none of them looked Han in armor and weapons......," the old soldier glared and said, "I didn't dare to stay longer, so I hurriedly walked the path and ran back." ”

Liu He took out a half-foot dagger from the bedside and hid it in his arms, took the saber on the wooden frame and hung it, and finally took the bow and quiver, and strode out of the door. The sound of gongs outside kept ringing, as well as the barking of dogs, and the chickens also flew with their croaking, which was lively for a while.

He went straight up to the city wall, and several of the sergeants followed him up. Looking into the distance, I saw the shadow of a cavalryman holding a torch at the end of his line of sight.

At this time, there was a sound of heavy and neat footsteps behind him, and I saw Huang Zhong leading twenty or thirty heavily armed foot soldiers to assemble at the gate of the city. On the other road, there were also three groups of sergeants deployed to the middle of the city one after another, which were dozens of old and weak village soldiers. These people are old, but they are all from the army, and they are all people who still have the strength to farm, except for poor physical strength, they are still relatively easy to use, much better than pure people; In this era, the people are not easy to use, because they don't know how to use weapons at all, and they don't have a sense of battle.

Soon there was a disturbing shouting in the city, most of which was "Order". The villagers were divided into two groups, one lined up in place, and a small group scattered to the four sides of the city wall, and some old and weak people around also followed the wall from all sides with bamboo poles.

After a while, Guan Yu and several township soldiers also climbed up to the city one after another, and continued to watch with Liu He.

After waiting for a long time, the small group of cavalry outside slowly approached, a total of eight people, all on horseback. Gradually, from the clothes and armor, it can be roughly distinguished that it is indeed a Xianbei person.

Since Xianbei entered the Hebei region, they have learned more from the Han people in all aspects, including armor, which at first glance looks similar, but it is still easy to find the difference. First of all, the hat is not the same, the Han soldiers wear a one-piece hood, Xianbei is an iron helmet and ear protection, the ear protection is like the two sides of the dogskin hat, which may be the reason why the grassland is colder. In addition, the cuirass and the saber at the waist were not the same.

The seven or eight horsemen did not advance at a distance of one or two hundred paces, but turned their horses' heads around the city wall again, but still did not come near. After wandering around like this for a long time, he simply turned around and ran away.

The people on the city wall sighed for a while when they saw this, and Guan Yu laughed loudly: "When I saw our battle, I was scared away!" ”

Liu He said: "Maybe it's just a scout team, seeing that there are guards around the city, there are few people who don't want to rush in rashly, and go back to report the news!" Tell everyone to rest where they are and not to leave. If there is nothing to do when the sun rises, send people to the streets and alleys to call each family to deliver food. ”

It was a long wait without incident, but everyone seemed to be very calm. But those who have ever served in the army also understand that most of the time in the war is either walking, working, or waiting, and there is not much time to really fight. So this situation is normal now.

But this time the wait was not long, and it didn't take long to see a large group of people in sight. When they got a little closer, they could see clearly the size of the other side, there were twenty or thirty cavalry, and there was a large force of infantry, about one hundred and two, or maybe one hundred and fifteen. The infantrymen moved like a dark grove with spears in hand; The cavalry chiefs were armed with a variety of weapons, ranging from spears to mallets and maces, something similar to a mace, and in addition to this, many seemed to be armed with bows and arrows and iron swords.

Somewhat unusually, there was a group of people in front of the enemy who seemed to be unarmed, which at first glance looked chaotic. It was only when I got closer that I confirmed that those people were ordinary people. The people were driven to walk in mourning, and from time to time whips "crackled" on them, screaming and crying in a noisy manner. There were women inside...... Obviously, the wars of this era have completely disregarded women, children, and civilians; It is not until humanity has endured more brutality and everyone has tasted it that they are willing to sit down and set the rules.

This Xianbei has no siege equipment, but it doesn't seem to need any equipment to fight a wall like Baitan Town.

"Brute!" Guan Yu's voice scolded.

Liu He ignored the scolding, he didn't feel good now: this was not a straggler, but an organized army, armed to the teeth of more than 200 people. Looking back at his side, only fifty horsemen are considered a force, and the rest are a group of old and weak, and the weapons are not complete...... Liu He suddenly felt that this battle was a bit fierce and auspicious. But there is no other way but to deal with it, is it okay to say surrender with a white flag now?

Xianbei and the horse thief gradually approached, and still stopped a hundred or two hundred paces away, and some of the people in front of them fell to the ground and wept bitterly, as if they had seen the coffin and the pit dug in front of them. Three more horsemen rode out from the opposite side, not to shout, but to circle the city again.

Liu Hexin said: Don't look, Lao Tzu has already chosen the best offensive route for you.

There are walls and deep ditches on both sides, and there are traps in the deep ditches, and even if there is no one to defend them, it is difficult to climb through the walls; Only the city gate due south is relatively easy, there are no pits, there is a large road, and the city gate is only a door nailed to the board, and it is broken everywhere There are holes that transmit light. If you don't directly break through the city gate and the cavalry rush in first, why bother?

As expected, the Xianbei people did not move their direction, and directly whipped and drove the group of people towards the city gate.

When the people who were driven out approached, Liu He and the others saw the clothes they were wearing. Almost all of them were shabby, patched cotton and linen clothes, some even ragged, and were poor peasants. What a brute! The drive of Han Nu slaves was the precursor.

"All in place!" Liu He shouted.

After Guan Yu, Huang Zhong and others answered, they got down the earthen wall, and then shouted at the troops lined up inside the city gate to retreat to the streets and alleys on both sides.

At this time, the sound of bowstrings sounded outside the city, and the Xianbei cavalry fired arrows indiscriminately, shooting the people who were driven away from behind. The crowd of people was frightened, screaming and crying and going straight to the city gate, perhaps mixed with Xianbei soldiers in disguise. Bai Tan Town was very short of bows and arrows, so naturally there was no way to stop the rebels from the wall, Liu He finally glanced back, and also turned around and hurriedly jumped off the earthen wall.

The cries and messy footsteps outside the city disturbed the barren but quiet dawn.

"Bang!" "Bang!" The sound of the city gate being slammed against the wood, like an invisible sledgehammer striking at the hearts of the people, lifted everyone's spirits.

On the main road directly opposite the city gate, several obstacles had been built due to tactical preparations, and a total of four human-high earthen walls were built in the middle of the main road. After Liu He entered the city, he ran behind the first wall, and then put on a wooden bench to watch the situation at the city gate.

At this moment, I saw an old woman holding a dead wooden stick, trembling and slowly walking to the empty space in front of me. Isn't she the blind old woman next door, how did she get here?

Liu He suddenly felt very weird.