Chapter 178: Counting and Earning the Governor

Sun Dezhang didn't know that this warlike Yelu Xiuke, but after a day of attacking, he felt that this famous little prince didn't seem to have any way to the strong Lanzhou city wall, and still used some siege weapons such as ladders, rushing cars and even artillery to attack the fortifications.

Even made Sun Dezhang feel that the Liao people might really be good at field warfare but not good at attacking fortifications, it seems that they have nothing to do about Lanzhou City, coupled with the big victory of the Xia army last time, the Liao people have a feeling of low morale, and some bold thoughts of going out of the city to attack began to linger in his mind.

However, Sun Dezhang, who has experienced a hundred battles, is not Chongzheng, and the old bearer is his true character as a veteran, so he quickly abandoned these ideas of his own, and decided to stick to it.

Of course, the Liao camp also saw all this in their eyes, according to Yelu Xiuke's style of play, they would not be able to cause any major losses to the defenders in Lanzhou City until the beginning of spring next year, and the Xia army did not shrink its strength at that time, but it was time for them to shrink its strength.

Rao is Han Guangde was also a little unable to sit still, so he was ready to pick up a pen and send an order to Yelu Xiuke.

But

Before the beginning of his order was written, Yelu Xiuke's letter came first, and Han Guangde opened Yelu Xiuke's letter and looked at it, and went to the Chinese army's tent to find Empress Xiao as soon as possible.

"Withdrawal?"

After Xiao Yan'er got the letter and read it, there was also a trace of incomprehension in her beautiful eyes.

Han Guangde nodded, "That's right, Yelu Xiuke wants us to withdraw 40,000 people from the Lanzhou front, leaving only 50,000 people, and then ask our battalion to retreat fifty miles." ”

Xiao Yan'er thought about it, she didn't think that if this battle failed, it would be any good for Yelu Xiu, no matter how fierce the open and secret battle between the two of them was, victory was the ultimate goal of these two people, but for the sake of their own interests, Yelu Xiu could hope that the battle would be won and the attack would be won, and all the way through, while Xiao Yan'er was thinking about completing the battle.

So she thought that Yelu Xiuke had no other ideas, since this little prince who could fight well could have a strategy to break the enemy, which she was also happy to see, so she instructed Han Guangde to agree to Yelu Xiuke's request,

"Queen Mother, if Yelu Xiu really broke through Lanzhou City, then what we planned before .........."

Xiao Yan'er raised her hand without waiting for him to finish, and a hint of an intriguing smile appeared on the corner of her mouth, charming but dangerous,

"Don't worry, I won't let him do it alone."

...............

The next day, Sun Dezhang in Lanzhou City received the news that the Liao army had withdrawn and the Liao army camp had moved back fifty miles.

That is to say, at present, there are more than 20,000 Tuoba troops in front of the Sushui River in Qingcheng, more than 10,000 cavalry in the hands of Yelu Xiuke under Lanzhou City, and more than 10,000 horses and horses in General Han on the side of Sucheng, and there are still 50,000 people left in total, which is equivalent to a reduction of half.

Sun Dezhang was very puzzled by such a layout, he didn't understand what Yelu Xiuke meant, the armies on both sides suppressed the two cities of Qing and Su, so next he was going to rely on more than 10,000 cavalry in his hand to fight with him here?

The cavalry attacked the city, Sun Dezhang said in his heart, don't say it's more than 10,000, you just come to 58,000 He doesn't necessarily frown, can you still ride the horse to the city wall?

However, this old governor was experienced in battle, and did not relax his vigilance because Yelu Xiuke only had more than 10,000 cavalry left, on the contrary, he began to sprinkle a large number of sentry horses to further infiltrate the situation of the Liao army in Lanzhou Zhou, trying to find out the confidence of Yelu Xiuke's layout, or the reason why he was forced to make such a layout.

Of course, Yelu Xiuke did not disappoint the old governor, and the people under his command came to report, saying that they had caught a messenger who had taken advantage of the night to send a letter from the Yelu Xiuke military camp to the rear camp of the Liao army.

However, when Sun Dezhang looked at the few sentry riders under his command to carry the messenger to the big tent, he was already scarred and out of breath, and he asked a little angrily: "Who let you kill such an important tongue?" ”

The captain of the sentry cavalry quickly leaned down and knelt on the ground, explaining: "My lord, we really wanted to catch him alive at that time, but this guy seemed to protect some confidential news, and it was simply desperate to resist, and we wounded three brothers before finally taking him down, but he was wounded too many stabs on his body, and when he got it all the way back, he was already out of breath." ”

Sun Dezhang listened to what the captain said, and hurriedly asked him: "Then did he find anything useful?" ”

The lieutenant responded and took out a letter with blood stains still standing from the inner armor under the layers of protection, and handed it to Sun Dezhang,

Sun Dezhang took the letter and opened it slowly, and the more he looked at it, the stronger the smile on his face.

These generals under the tent have been looking at the old governor with a sad face these days, and such a smile today is indeed rare, so they hurriedly asked each other,

The old governor shook the letter in his hand towards them, and said happily: "This is really God bless Great Xia!" And guess what? It was a letter written by Yelu Xiuke to the Empress Dowager Xiao, which was extremely mocking, even insulting. I'll just say why the Liao people withdrew their troops for no reason, it turned out that the Empress Dowager Xiao deliberately gave him Yelu Xiu a stumbling block. The most important thing is that Yeluxiu credibly said that Empress Xiao did not keep his promises, and he broke the city within a limited time but did not even allocate enough grain and grass, and he is now in short supply of grain and grass in the army, and he is anxious to ask for food after Xiao! ”

A general at the bottom of the left arched his hand towards Sun Dezhang with some concern: "Lanzhou is the northwest rush, the city is high and the pool is deep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, if the Liao people want to expand the results of the battle, they should choose a quick attack is the best policy, and we will be consumed here for a long time, and in the end, it must be wasted." That Empress Dowager Xiao is a rare heroine, how could she do such a thing that the enemy is currently destroying herself? The old governor must beware of fraud! ”

Sun Dezhang said noncommittally "um": "What General Wang said is not unreasonable, but the old man has long heard of the dispute between the emperor and the queen in the Liao court, according to my estimate, I am afraid that this Empress Dowager Xiao does not know what pressure she is forced to transfer Yelu Xiuke to the front line, but she doesn't want him to take over the great work alone, so she came up with this plan, intending to let Yelu Xiuke know the difficulty and retreat." ”

However, General Wang's worries are also very necessary, let's not act rashly for the time being, you still take it as your task to stick to Lanzhou, and wait for my further orders. ”

"Yes!"

........................

Northwest of Lanzhou City

The great camp of Jerushuk

Seeing Tuoba Yin enter the big tent of the Chinese army, Yelu Xiuke lazily raised his ice-blue eyes and asked him, "How is it?" What's going on in Lanzhou? ”

Tuoba Yin replied: "Your Highness, according to the report from our sentinels, everything in Lanzhou City is as before, but the number of scouts has increased. ”

Yelu Xiuke smiled coldly, "It seems that this old governor of Great Xia is really calm." ”

"So what shall we do now?"

Yelu Xiuke lowered his head and thought for a while, then raised his head and instructed him: "In this way, you give the order to go down and retreat our large camp for thirty miles, and then send a small force of cavalry to loot the villages near Lanzhou." ”

When Tuoba Yin heard the word "looting", he thought that Yelu Xiuke had said something wrong, and wondered: "Your Highness means to harass the nearby villages?" ”

"No, it's not harassment, it's looting! Grab the food! Grab all the food of the Han people in this vicinity, don't care if it's more or less, even a grain of rice has to be put into a bag for me and brought back. ”

Yelu Xiuke looked at Tuoba Yin's incomprehensible expression, patted him on the shoulder and smiled: "Lack of food, must there be a lack of food?" ”

Although Tuoba Yin still didn't understand Yelu Xiuke's intentions, but on the battlefield, Yelu Xiuke never let him down, but he was worried about another thing in his heart,

"Your Highness, not only did Empress Xiao not investigate our unauthorized troop transfer last time, but also put us at the forefront, what is the intention?"

As soon as Yelu Xiuke heard these two words of Empress Xiao, his face immediately sank,

"I think one of the reasons is that Uncle Qi put pressure on them in the court, and she may also be afraid that I will make a move if I stay in the rear for a long time, so she transferred us to this front line to be cannon fodder for her. Hmph, this woman's political skills have always been ruthless, and there is no reason for her, can she easily let go of the pigtails that she finally caught? ”

Tuoba Yin said with some concern: "Your Highness, this Lanzhou is an important point for the Xia army in the northwest, almost related to the lifeblood of the northwest of the Xia country, they will definitely defend desperately, if we can't attack for a long time, and Empress Xiao doesn't give the order for a big change, then don't we all want to leave this Lanzhou city behind?" ”

Yelu Xiuke walked back and forth around his tall handsome desk twice with a frown, and then shook his head towards Tuoba Yin,

"I'm at ease with her, although Empress Xiao doesn't deal with us, to put it bluntly, the struggle between us is an internal struggle for the power of the emperor and queen, in terms of Daxia, I believe that she, like us, will never do anything that harms the interests of Da Liao, so if we attack for a long time, she will not let us fend for ourselves here. What's more............."

As he spoke, a hint of fierceness flashed in his ice-blue eyes, and in Tuoba Yin's eyes, this murderous look was like an eagle hovering over the grassland that had discovered its prey, intending to be ready to show off its sharp claws!

"Although Sun Dezhang is old and bears a load, he is already old and cowardly, just because he wants to stop me, Yelu Xiuke? The moment I put the tiger head banner on the tower of Lanzhou City, I want all the Liao people to know that only I, Yelu Xiuke, am the first warrior of the Great Liao, and I am worthy of being their king! ”