"Li Yuan came to report that Cao Bao, the general of Dou Jiande in Hebei, had taken the opportunity to steal the four counties."

Jinyong City, the Hall of Light Pole.

Li Mi was very angry when he learned that Luo Jiajun had suddenly evacuated the four counties including Dongjun, but Dou Jiande took advantage of the situation and seized the four counties first.

"Lord, what now?"

Now what?

Li Mi was also disrupted for a while, originally he had been negotiating with Li Yuan these days, wanting to lure Li Yuan to fight with the Luo family army in Shandong on the condition of borrowing grain and borrowing money to Li Yuan.

Originally, it was a strategy to drive away the tiger and devour the wolf, but who would have expected that as a result, he calculated here for a long time, and Luo Cheng withdrew from the four counties with one move, which immediately made all his calculations come to naught, and Dou Jiande, the damn Tian Shehan, actually took the opportunity to seize the four counties.

"How can the land of Henan allow Dou Jiande to get involved in evil?"

"Pass on my military order, mobilize troops and horses, take back the four counties, and drive the Xia army out."

A big battle was imminent, but Li Yuan, who was originally in Liang County, came to report at this time, saying that he was raided by the Dou army in Liang County, and he would lose a lot of troops, so he could only return to Pengcheng County and temporarily stay in Xiao County. Li Yuan said that he needed to rest and gather his troops and horses, and at the same time, he kept asking Li Mi for grain and grass.

Li Mi scolded Li Yuan for being incompetent, and never mentioned borrowing grain again, but he didn't put Li Yuan in his eyes anymore.

White Horse City, East County.

Although Cao Bao took advantage of the void to occupy the four counties, but in fact it was only the so-called occupation, he had no more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, and he had to divide his troops to stay in Weizhou, Liyang Cangcheng, etc., so the actual soldiers and horses who could cross the Yellow River were only 5,000 people.

These 5,000 people have to be stationed in the four counties, where is enough, after all, this is a large county in the Central Plains, and there are no less than forty counties in the four counties.

Therefore, except for the White Horse City, Cao Bao personally led the troops to garrison, and the rest of the cities, in fact, symbolically sent a few soldiers, and planted a flag in the past, anyway, now the four counties are almost empty, either they have fled due to the war, or they have been moved away by the Luo family.

On the one hand, Cao Bao sent people to ask Le Shou for more troops, and on the other hand, he stepped up his actions in Baima.

He dispatched many people from Weizhou to Dongjun to transport the grain from Liyangcang and a lot of war materials across the Yellow River.

At the same time, people were sent to start cutting trees and digging trenches.

Originally, with the efforts of Luo Cunxiao and others, White Horse City had already built many fortifications, and they did not destroy them when they left. Now Cao Bao is on this basis, continuing to dig trenches, build sheep and horse walls, increase enemy towers and arrow towers, and reserve more rolling stones and wood.

Even outside the moat, many traps were dug for horses, antlers were planted, and horses were repelled.

The entire White Horse City has become a huge construction site, and teams of people are proceeding in an orderly manner.

At dusk.

A team of envoys arrived from Zi Leshou and announced the will of the Xia Emperor to Cao Bao.

Withdraw the troops and horses to the north bank of the Yellow River!

"Why?"

Cao Bao looked at the White Horse City of Dongjun, which was getting stronger and stronger with his efforts, and asked puzzledly.

"The prime ministers and ministers of the DPRK and China are all opposed to sending troops to Henan at this time, saying that this is a fierce place, and if it is involved at this time, it may not be recovered."

"Then, Your Majesty really listened to them and asked me to withdraw?"

What Cao Bao needs most now is soldiers and horses, as long as there are tens of thousands of horses, he believes that these four counties will completely become the Great Xia Kingdom. But now, before a single soldier or reinforcement arrived, the emperor wanted him to withdraw his troops?

He looked around at the fruits of his efforts.

With this city left by the Luo family's army, coupled with his strengthening, he believed that even if he only had 5,000 soldiers and horses, it would be enough to defend against the attack of tens of thousands of people.

Cao Bao refused to retreat.

He sent a letter to the emperor and asked the emperor to send troops, and said that the Dongjun city was thick and promising.

When the sun rose the next day, the scouts brought back news from the west.

"Ten miles to the west, I found that the Wei army was moving, there were about tens of thousands of horses, and the flag was the banner of Wang Bodang."

Wang Bodang came quickly, and he led about 100,000 horses across the canal and killed him.

At this time, Cao Bao wanted to return to Hebei, but it was too late.

And Wang Bodang obviously didn't intend to give them this opportunity, he sent troops to surround White Horse City, intending to take Cao Bao and the city together.

White Horse Castle is besieged and impassable.

Fortunately, when the Luo family army evacuated Baima, the city fortifications were not destroyed, everything was left, and during this time, Cao Bao's efforts were not in vain.

When Wang Bodang was killed, he immediately withdrew all the soldiers and horses into the castle. In addition to holding on to Whitehorse City, he also stationed troops in several satellite castles outside the city to strengthen the defense.

There were 100,000 soldiers and horses besieging White Horse City.

Uncle Wang is the main general, although his command is not all elite, but there are many people.

After besieging the White Horse City, Wang Bo ordered an attack, and as a result, the onslaught lasted for several days, and Cao Bao withstood the offensive of the Wei army with the dangerous fortifications of the city.

So Wang Bodang adjusted his strategy, on the one hand, he asked people to step up the construction of siege equipment, and on the other hand, he divided his troops to capture the empty four counties.

In a few days, the soldiers and horses sent out by Wang Bodang have captured all four counties.

Although Wang Bodang divided 20,000 soldiers and horses in order to occupy the four counties, there were still 80,000 troops under the White Horse City.

Between the rivers, Leshou.

In the Golden City Palace.

An urgent Imperial Council is taking place.

Dou Jiande's ministers discussed how to deal with the siege of White Horse City.

Although the prime ministers represented by Ling Jing, Song Zhengben, Kong Shaode, and Zhang Xuansu believed that going south to rescue White Horse City at this time would be in a passive state.

But Cao Bao is not only the general of Xia Guo, but also Dou Jiande's brother-in-law.

What's more, Cao Bao went south to Dongjun and took away Weizhou's soldiers and horses, if Dongjun is lost, Weizhou will not be protected, Weizhou and Liyangcang are very important to the Xia army, and there is no room for loss.

Therefore, at the meeting, Liu Heimin, Liu Ya, Wang Fubao and other generals all urged troops to send troops south.

"Wang Fubao and Liu Heimin listen to orders!"

Dou Jiande finally decided to go all out to rescue Dongjun, originally he had decided to withdraw from Henan, but now, he could only fight.

In order to be able to save Cao Bao and even compete for the four counties, Dou Jiande not only sent Wang Fubao and Liu Heimin, the two generals, but also Liu Lancheng and Liu Shiche, all the fierce generals in Hebei.

Xia Jun's movements were very fast, and it only took a short time from negotiation to dispatching troops.

At this time, half a month has passed since Wang Bodang surrounded Dongjun.

Wang Bodang's 100,000 army wasted half a month's precious time, although on the surface it had a brilliant record, and captured more than 40 cities in four counties, but in fact, it was only a few empty cities.

The key White Horse City is still in Cao Bao's hands.

These days, Wang Bodang has been sending people to build siege equipment such as rushing cars and ladders, and he even sent people to build an earthen wall on the periphery of White Horse City, surrounding White Horse City like an iron bucket.

At the same time, he also sent heavy troops on the banks of the Yellow River, ready to intercept the reinforcements of the Xia army heading south at any time.

Judging from these arrangements, Wang Bodang is actually very likely to be besieging the city to send reinforcements.

He hoped that the Xia army would go south to rescue White Horse City.