After Ling Xia came to the Xicheng Corps, he first met with the generals of the Corps, and at this time the results of the battle in Dongcheng had spread all over Xicheng, when the soldiers heard that Ling Xia had rescued the battle guards sent by Nangong Ran, and organized soldiers to attack the city, and finally forced the Japanese to kill 300,000 Japanese soldiers by themselves, and so on, they were all full of admiration for Ling Xia.

When they learned that Ling Xia and Nangong Xiongba had switched defense areas and would command the Xicheng Corps to fight against the Japanese Invaders in the future, the generals and soldiers of the Corps were all overjoyed, they were originally the battle guards of the Second Prince's camp, and they had all heard about Ling Xia helping Xia Yuanwen fight against the Japanese Invaders, and they regarded Ling Xia as Xia Yuanwen's person like Nangong Xiongba, so they welcomed his arrival very much.

After taking over the Xicheng Corps, Ling Xia immediately adjusted and deployed the defense of the Corps, before Nangong Xiongba lined up the Corps and spread it out, expanding dozens of miles away, it was difficult to respond from the beginning to the end, Ling Xia saw this formation and collected the Corps into a whole, and was directly stationed in a vast forest ten miles away from the city gate.

The area in charge of Xicheng is more than 100 li, Ling Xia arranged a team of 10,000 people at each of the thirty-two checkpoints along the way, although those checkpoints can lead to the official road, but they cannot march on a large scale, if the Japanese want to go out of the city from the direction of Xicheng in Zhouning County, they can only choose to come out from the direction of the gate of Xicheng, so Ling Xia will all the main forces stationed opposite the city gate.

After adjusting the defense, Ling Xia asked several general soldiers for the information of the commander of the Japanese garrison in Xicheng, and after inquiry, he learned that the commander of the Japanese garrison in Xicheng was named Yano Yuan, and he had a group army of Japanese soldiers and horses, this person was brave and strategic, neither as impulsive as Nakajima Yukigan, nor conservative as Sato Kiyoki, and belonged to a first-class military genius.

This Yano Gen ranked twenty-five on the list of famous generals, only six places behind Ichiro Minami, who ranked nineteenth, and his military talent was enough to rank in the top three among the Japanese military.

During this time, Nangong Xiongba had launched several attacks in the temptation, but they were all blocked back by Yanoyuan, yesterday Nangong Xiongba also tried to lure the Japanese out of the city, but Yanno saw through the plan, Nangong Xiongba was busy for a long time, and the other side did not react at all, through a few days of confrontation, Nangong Xiongba had no way to take Yanoyuan.

After listening to everyone's description of Yanogen, Ling Xia suddenly remembered that he seemed to have fought with Yanogen once before, but at that time, the two sides only took a look at each other and dispersed, and no one took advantage, so far the two of them have not really competed, but they didn't expect that the two of them actually met here at this time, and became opponents again.

"What are the characteristics of this Yanogen Castle?" There is a way to know oneself and know that the other side will win all battles, and after learning that the opponent is Yanogen, Ling Xia wants to know more about the opponent.

The chief soldier of the First Group Army: "This Yanoyuan has no characteristics, that is, he can fight, and the commander of the Nangong Metropolitan Governor has fought with him so far, and he has not taken advantage of him at all." ”

The general soldier of the Second Army: "When the Governor of Nangong led us to attack the city, Yanoyuan was very slippery, he attacked when it was favorable, and he defended when he was passive, and he couldn't grasp the weakness at all. ”

The general soldier of the Third Group Army: "Not arrogant or impatient, not shocked by honor and disgrace, neither easy to fool nor seduc, this person eats and lives with the soldiers on weekdays, and is deeply admired and loved by the Japanese soldiers." ”

The General of the Fourth Army: "According to the reports of our spies lurking in the camp of the Japanese Invaders, after the Japanese Bandits implemented the military order to save food, the Xicheng Wolves were the only troops who did not reduce their food. ”

The chief soldier of the Fifth Army: "This person has a lot of ideas, and in the face of the provocations of the Metropolitan Governor of Nangong these days, he has used many tactics to deal with them, and those tactics don't seem to be the same." ”

Hearing the evaluation of Yanoyuan by the commanders of the five group armies under his command, Ling Xia's heart suddenly became eager to try, he was full of curiosity about Yanoyuan, and he couldn't wait to fight the other party once: "When a few of you say this, my fighting spirit has been completely hooked up by your words, I want to weigh this Yanoyuan's catties to see if he is as powerful as you say." ”

After the words fell, Ling Xia seemed to remember something, and then looked at everyone with a puzzled expression: "We have surrounded Zhouning County for eleven days now, when I was stationed in Dongcheng, all the Japanese in the city were hungry and had their chests and backs, according to the information sent back by our hidden spies, Gangning Ichiro ordered the reduction of food seven days ago, but you just said that the Xicheng Japanese Kou are the only troops who have not reduced food, what is going on?" Where did they get the food? ”

After hearing this, everyone shook their heads, pondered for a moment, and the general of the First Army got up and replied: "Master Horse, I can't hide it, we don't know anything about this matter, because we surrounded Zhouning County, and the supply channels of the Japanese were cut off, causing Gangning Ichiro to order to save food, and it stands to reason that the soldiers under Yanogen should not have food?" But our spies said that the pirates in Xicheng were not short of food, who knows what this is all about? ”

"Well, then I'm going to have to try his ways."

After Ling Xia said this with a smile, he ordered the First Army to dispatch fifty catapults, and then learned the practice of the Japanese firebombs, first wrapped a layer of cotton cloth from the outside, although Ling Xia did not have black oil in his hands, but there was spirits, he asked the soldiers to soak the liquor in the cotton cloth, and then use torches to ignite the cotton cloth, after doing this, Ling Xia ordered the soldiers to launch the burning stone bullets into Xicheng.

After the fire bomb was made, Ling Xia and everyone came to the edge of the battlefield to watch the battle, at this time, the shield soldiers were covering the siege soldiers to go to the city wall to build catapults.

In order to ensure the smooth formation of the catapult, Ling Xia deliberately sent three divisions to act as bait to attract firepower, but the Japanese on the opposite side ignored the three divisions at all, and they only attacked the location of the catapult.

Because the projection distance of the catapults on both sides is not much different, when the siege soldiers of the battle guards set up the catapults from the firing range, the Japanese slings have already taken the lead in attacking, and they do not hit anyone, but only challenge the catapult shelves that the guards have not yet built to attack.

"I built one, he destroyed one, and he didn't let me build the catapult alive or dead, this Yanogen is not simple."

Seeing that the Japanese soldiers in the city did not blindly throw stone bullets, but targeted attacks on their own giant equipment, Ling Xia's face showed a trace of solemnity, just with this hand, he had already found that the Yanoyuan in the city was not easy to deal with.