That night, in order to prevent the plot from leaking, Zhang He and Gao Ran made a quick decision, led their own soldiers to attack the camp tent of the prison army, killed all Geng Bao's personal soldiers, and personally cut off the panicked Geng Bao's head.

Subsequently, Zhang He carried Geng Bao's head in front, followed by Gao Ran's sword, and the two of them summoned the military officials overnight to announce the next plan.

The Yuan brothers killed each other and brought about their own destruction, and Geng Bao villain was not sympathetic to the soldiers and repeatedly slandered, and the two of them had taken a risk tonight to get rid of the military thieves, in order to abandon the darkness and turn to the light, and go to the Xiliang army that was besieging Yecheng.

Those who are willing to follow, share weal and woe, share wealth and wealth, and those who do not want to follow will disperse by themselves after dawn, and Zhang He and Gao Ran will not force them.

The 20,000 horses in the army are basically from the counties of Hebei, after they heard about the plans of Zhang and Gao, they have their own considerations, some are worried about their families, some are afraid of the fate after surrendering to the Xiliang army, and some are still lucky about the current situation in Hebei, so they are willing to follow Zhang and Gao to Yecheng to surrender to the Xiliang army, and most of the horses chose to disperse on their own.

Seeing this, Zhang and Gao didn't say much. The next day, 20,000 horses dispersed one after another, and the two led thousands of men and horses who were willing to follow and rushed to Yecheng.

And when Yuan Shang, who led the army to Qinghe, learned from the deserters that Geng Bao had been killed and that Zhang and Gao had defected, he was so shocked that he almost fell off his horse, and he was so angry and afraid that he didn't dare to go to Wei County again. No matter how Feng Ji who accompanied the army advised, he was unwilling to take a step forward, but ordered the whole army to rectify and rest in the territory of Qinghe, declaring that he would wait until the counties would gather 50,000 troops before marching.

On the side of Yecheng, Xu Huang and Zhang Liao, the two powerful armies of the army smoothly met, and now they are working together to attack the city, but Yecheng is the place where the Yuan family has been painstakingly operating for many years, the high walls and deep pools, the city defense fortifications are solid, and the judges and others in the city are loyal to the Yuan family and stubbornly resist, and the Xiliang army has repeatedly failed to attack in the past few days, but has lost a lot of soldiers and horses, and equipment.

At present, Zhang He and Gao Ran, two generals who are familiar with the enemy's situation, Xu Huang, the main general who besieged Yecheng, was overjoyed. He has just recently received a secret letter from Feng Li, the defender of the city, who surrendered the city, but there have been cases of failure in the city before, Xu Huang was worried that the trial had already been prepared, and he was quite hesitant in his heart, and now Zhang He and Gao Ran were coming at the right time, he immediately greeted each other in person, and then ordered the two to lead the troops to serve as the vanguard, ready to cooperate with the people in the city to seize Yecheng in one fell swoop.

···

Late at night, the dark sky of the night is pitch black, the faint mountains in the distance are like strange ghosts, so that the people looking at them are afraid, the nearby Yecheng city wall and the north and south camps of the Xiliang Army are high and low, like a giant beast is confronting the two beasts, the four wild birds and insects hidden in the dark make a rustling sound, and occasionally there is the sound of the barracks fighting, mixed with them, like a piercing string music, which makes people shudder.

Zhang He and Gao Ran hid in a small forest with hundreds of soldiers, silently waiting for Feng Li, the guard on the northern city wall, to give the signal to attack and seize the city at night.

Their preparations were quite sufficient, the human ranks, the horses' hooves, the soapy clothes and armor, and even the weapons were painted black, but Zhang He and Gao Ran had heavy faces, and each of them pursed their mouths tightly, and from them down, the entire night raid was filled with a heavy atmosphere.

Zhang and Gao Er's generals were also well-known generals in the Hebei Army in the past, and they were actually resistant to this dangerous night attack, but the situation was stronger than people, and the two of them had recently surrendered and were defenseless, and in front of the military order of Xu Huang, the commander of the Xiliang Army, where could they say a word, so they could only hold their breath and act on orders.

Maybe it was the heat that was unbearable, or maybe he was impatient to wait, Gao Ran, who got up and pulled the breastplate, made a faint sound of nail leaves, but everyone here heard it very clearly, and the soldiers gathered together turned their eyes to the source of the sound in the dark, and some even thought that the signal for the attack had appeared, and they were ready to jump with their weapons in hand.

Zhang He hurriedly whispered to comfort the restless soldiers around him, and then cast a complaining glance at Gao Ran, but they couldn't see each other clearly in the dark, Zhang He could only hear Gao Ran's heavy breath, he swallowed back when the words came to his mouth, he forcibly endured the irritability in his heart, looked up at the overlapping branches and leaves, and closed his eyes.

"General Zhonglang, the head of the city is in trouble!"

A soldier who was arranged to observe the city outside the forest hurried over, he couldn't suppress his excitement and said, the people who had been waiting for a long time in the forest were suddenly lifted up when they heard this, and they got up with their weapons, some tied their leather armor tightly, some put on a hood, and some brought war horses.

"Keep up!"

Gao Ran shouted and rushed out with his soldiers first.

On the way to the city wall, as they got closer and closer to the city wall, Zhang He and Gao Ran ordered the soldiers to re-light the torches, and they quickly crossed the moat along the road that had been filled in by the Xiliang army with earth bags, and came to the root of the city wall of Yecheng.

The walls of Yecheng are tall and strong, but the rammed earth walls still leave many craters of different sizes, just like the broken city wall battlements and potholed roads when they come, these are the masterpieces left by the Xiliang army and the Yecheng defenders operating the stone thrower.

It is said that a few days ago, when Xu Huang and Zhang Liao were attacking the city in a hurry, they set up a number of stone throwers outside the city, and they took turns to throw them day and night, and stone bullets flew all over the sky. In order to protect the city towers and wall battlements, the trial collected a large number of cloth and felt in the city, stepped up the "cloth barrier" around the city, and ordered the soldiers in the city to use imitation giant crossbows and stone throwers to counterattack. Seeing this, Xu Huang wanted to use rockets to burn the barrier of Yecheng, and the trial ordered to splash water and smear mud to isolate the rockets, Xu Huang had a plan, and sent the soldiers to tie the sickle with a long pole to harvest the barrier at the head of the city, and the trial and assigned a fork rod and a hook sickle to the city head guards to order them to destroy the long pole sickle of the siege soldiers······

The attacking and defending sides fought wits and courage, so they fought hard for more than half a month, and the Yecheng guards led by the trial match finally had a slight advantage by virtue of their geographical advantages, and stopped Xu Huang and Zhang Liao's soldiers and horses outside the city wall, and the Xiliang army was also unable to attack for several days, and the intelligence was difficult, coupled with the excessive wear and tear of soldiers and horses, armor staffs, and equipment, they could only temporarily stop attacking the city wall, and instead sought to echo with the guards who secretly surrendered to the city inside and out, in order to break through the city wall and attack Yecheng in one fell swoop.

The familiar Yecheng in front of him was within reach, and the soldiers under the city also had a code, everything went smoothly unexpectedly, looking at the slowly opening city gate and the torches shaking on the city, Zhang He on horseback was swaying for a while, and the ghost made him pull the reins, slowed down the horse and fell in the rear, and watched Gao Ran lead the troops to rush into the city first.

Gao Ran, who rode his horse through the city gate, was so excited that his blood was trembling, but he was still acting more steadily after many years of Rong Brigade, and he wanted to cooperate with the guards who started the incident to control the city gates, corner towers and other important city fortifications to prevent the counterattack of the soldiers and horses, and then wait for the follow-up Xu Huang's army to enter the city, and then divide the troops along the streets to attack the general's mansion, barracks, granaries and other important buildings in the city.

However, what shocked Gao Ran was that it was not the guards who responded to the incident that greeted him, but the dense arrows on the city wall!

"It's not good, there's fraud, withdraw quickly!"

Gao Ran was wearing heavy armor, and under the protection of his own soldiers, he blocked the first wave of arrow rain pouring from the city, but many ordinary soldiers behind him were not spared, they were shot and fell to the ground, and there was a lot of chaos, and what was even worse was that the soldiers of the rear team were still pouring in from the city gate, and the dense charging formation made the soldiers of the front team unable to retreat, and the situation of crowding and blockage in front and back made them a good target for the chaos at the head of the city.

Zhang He also rode through the city gate at this time, he not only saw the guards pouring arrows rain on the Chengtou Mountain, with the torches all over the ground, he also saw the ravines dug in the city and the fences erected, and the horses were rejected, and the charging steps were deterred in front of them, and they had now become turtles in the urn, even if they wanted to fight to the death, it was impossible to continue to rush into the city.

"Damn, get back!"

Zhang He shouted loudly, beckoning the soldiers around him to retreat with him, but at the same time, a large amount of firewood and grass filled with grease was thrown on the city gate, and the firewood pile on the ground instantly ignited a fire at the city gate, and the heavy fire wall pressed towards Zhang He and other horses, and the flames strongly isolated all the horses inside and outside the city gate.

This, how can this be good? There is a fence and ravine in front, and there is a raging fire in the back, and the night raiders trapped in the middle are in a dilemma, and in the blink of an eye, more than half of them have fallen to the ground with arrows, and if this continues, everyone will be buried in this hellish place.

"Get out!"

Zhang He, who had been on the battlefield for a long time, made a judgment in the shortest possible time, he wrapped his face in a blood-soaked robe, and then used a short knife to stab the horse's buttocks, forcing the crotch mount to rush into the sea of fire······

At the head of the city, the judge in armor and sword looked at this scene with a cold face, and the generals around him looked at him with respect and awe, but he did not dare to take the opportunity to flatter, and some generals did not dare to say a word after he categorically refused to hunt down the remnants of the enemy soldiers.

In the past few days, the trial match killed Jiang Yiqu who abandoned the city and fled, led the officials to defend Yecheng, and defeated the aggressive Xiliang army again and again, and tonight it was to extinguish the plan of the defender Feng Li to open the city in advance to accept the enemy, and also lured the enemy to go deeper, and took the opportunity to annihilate an elite army of the enemy army, he has established a strong personal prestige in Yecheng, and everyone in front of him at this time bowed their heads and respected.

But unlike the guards who are happy to win, the heart of the judge who is in the middle of the day is still heavy.

Yecheng has been reduced to an isolated city, the military generals of Wenchen have two hearts, and Yuan Shang's reinforcements have not arrived, and the burden of defending the city will only become heavier and heavier until it crushes the hearts of every defender.

It's just that these things are deeply covered up by the trial and hidden in his heart, and he is still the resolute general who has repeatedly defeated strong enemies and has a heart like stone.

He knows that if Yecheng is lost, what Hebei will lose next is not just half of the country, but the entire Jizhou.

Although Hebei is big, it is a flat river, the iron cavalry of the Xiliang army can gallop unimpeded, after Yecheng, they have no way to retreat, so no matter how difficult it is, they must be the lord and defend this city for the people of Yecheng!

Outside the city, the main general Xu Huang looked at the shadowy city in the distance, his face was pale.

"General, General Zhang of Nanying sent someone to report, do you want to attack the city again?"

"Attack, how to attack, so many people and horses have died, and they haven't taken Yecheng, let's think about how to explain to the hussar general!"

Xu Huang, who had a black face, turned his horse's head, and the generals around him also looked ugly, and then the sound of retreating soldiers sounded in the waiting infantry and cavalry team, and a team of soldiers turned around one after another, and re-disbanded and returned to their respective camps.

···

The failure of this night attack to capture the city stopped the siege process of the Xiliang army.

Less than 100 of the hundreds of elite soldiers who were selected to go back came back, and all the soldiers who came back were injured, Zhang He suffered multiple burns on his body, and Gao Ran was seriously injured and died.

Xu Huang could only personally visit the wounded, appease the army, and stop the attack on Yecheng.

Counting the men and horses lost in the previous siege, the casualties under Yecheng have been three or four thousand, which is less than 40,000 for the two armies of Xu Huang and Zhang Liao, which are less than 40,000 in one place, as if they have been injured to the bones, and what is more serious is that they are now in the enemy territory, if Yecheng is not captured for a long time, the army will suddenly strengthen the city, morale is exhausted, I am afraid that the situation will change slightly, and the cities that are invincible and competing to surrender will appear again and again, at that time, the army does not say that it captured Jizhou, and wants to retreat safely to the land and Hanoi, It's not going to be easy.

Fortunately, there are more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in the North Road Cao Yuanjun to attack Changshan, Zhongshan and other places, and contain the soldiers and horses of various counties in Hebei, and the rest of the Hebei soldiers have followed Yuan Shang to attack Qingzhou.

Just when Xu Huang and Zhang Liao were anxious about the repeated setbacks in the capture of Yecheng, the army quickly reported that Zhou Liang had arrived from Hanoi and was about to arrive at Nandaying.

The main general Xu Huang heard that his heart was shaken again, of course he knew that Zhou Liang came on the military order of the hussar general, before the army was a good news, the two soldiers and horses were like broken bamboos, like entering the realm of no one, and successfully met under the city of Yecheng, but now it is under the city of Dun, the situation is grim, but Zhou Liang was also ordered to come at this time, which can make Xu Huang how to deal with it.

Helpless, Xu Huang could only order the military officials to prepare the recently frustrated military report and self-deprecating letter, and hurried from the north camp to the south camp with a group of personal soldiers.