Jingzhou, the head of the city.

A veteran who is more than 50 years old, bearded white, is Liu Gan, the grandson of Situ Liu Fengsheng of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and a member of the Guan Longshi family, after Li Yuan raised troops to seize Guanzhong, he named Liu Gan as a hussar general, guarding Jingzhou, since Li Jiancheng two months ago, Li Shi's militia out of Tongguan, Jingzhou was besieged by the general Zong Luoyu of Xue Ju's department.

The grain and grass in the city have been exhausted, and in the past ten days, they have relied on eating grass roots and bark, and even the soldiers standing at the head of the city are also yellow and thin, and they are crumbling. If it weren't for Liu Gan's personal charm and Xue Ju's reputation for massacring prisoners of war, I'm afraid that Jingzhou would have surrendered long ago.

Liu Gan's two eyes were deeply sunken into the sockets, and in the enemy camp outside, a big flag with the word "Xue" fluttered in the wind, and he sighed: "Alas, Longzhou has fallen, otherwise Xue Rengao would not have come here." ”

Li Ziming, the deputy general on one side, sighed: "General, the grain and grass in the city have run out, and even the bark has been eaten, what should I do now?" ”

Liu Gan gritted his teeth: "King Tang will not fail to save us, the army must be on the way, last time Dou Jin was in Fufeng County, Zhao Gong led the army to rescue us, and this time it is the same." Come, kill my horse, and give the meat to the soldiers, and the bones of the horses are boiled with sawdust, and mixed with sawdust cakes for the people of the city. ”

Li Ziming's eyes widened: "General, that's your mount, if you kill it, in case the city falls, how can you break through?" ”

Liu Gan shook his head: "When the city was besieged, the general swore an oath to live and die with Jingzhou City, if the city is not there, I should be dead, how can I leave the people and soldiers in the city and run away alone?" ”

Dozens of soldiers defending the city on the side were moved to tears, and Li Ziming was about to speak, but suddenly heard a sergeant shouting in surprise: "Reinforcements, reinforcements are coming!" ”

Three hours later, at the head of Jingzhou City, the soldiers defending the city gnawed on the cooking cakes in their hands one by one, everyone's faces were full of excitement and emotion, while Liu Gan was smiling, standing next to a tall and burly general in his thirties, looking at the dust outside the city with him.

This general is the general of the reinforcements, Li Shuliang, the Duke of Changping, at this time he was full of ambition to go away from the Qin army, and said with a smile: "It is said that the Western Qin army is brave and fierce, but it is only like this, originally I was ready for a fierce battle here, but I didn't expect that as soon as the formation was set, they all ran away." Hmph, that is, they run fast, otherwise Ben Shuai will definitely chase after him! ”

Liu smiled gratefully: "Changping Gong came just in time, the thieves were cooking, and when they came, they left these meals and ran away, and they also cheapened our soldiers who defended the city." ”

Li Shuliang laughed and said, "General Liu, this commander has decided to continue the attack and solve the problem of Zhouzhou, your subordinates have been trapped in the lonely city for so long, so stay in the city to rest!" ”

Liu Gan's brows furrowed: "Changping Gong, the last general always feels that there is a bit of a problem, this Qin army attacking the city is the elite of the thief army, most of them are the Qianghu departments of Longyou, and more than 10,000 are the elite cavalry of its general Zong Luoyu, our army has fought with it in the field before retreating into the city, and it has been defeated and returned, and it has a full understanding of its combat effectiveness." ”

"Yesterday, they had Xue Rengao's reinforcements to help, and there were more than 10,000 elite horsemen. It is said that this strength is twice as large as yours, more than us combined, and the combat effectiveness is much stronger, Xue Rengao and Zong Luoyan are both fierce generals, so they should not be intimidated by a flag! ”

Li Shuliang hooked the corners of his mouth dissatisfied, and said: "General Liu, maybe what they are afraid of is not my 20,000 people, but they think that there are large armies behind one after another, and when they are entangled with our army, if our army suddenly appears, and the defenders in your city should be killed together, they will collapse the whole army." Therefore, it is normal for them to flee from the wind. ”

Liu Gan gritted his teeth and persuaded: "The last general thinks that no matter what their plans are, our army should stick to Jingzhou and not move lightly." Since you said that Lieutenant General Guan will send a large army to help, then we will wait. ”

Li Shuliang's brows furrowed, and said: "General Liu, the order I received here is to rescue the states and counties of Longyou, and now the states and counties of Longyou and my Tang Dynasty, except for your Jingzhou, there is only General Chang's Longzhou, you are safe here, this king will continue to attack and save Longzhou!" ”

Liu Gan's face changed, and he lost his voice: "Changping Gong, by all means, Xue Ju personally led the army to besiege Longzhou, and now, I'm afraid that it is likely to have fallen!" ”

Li Shuliang's face changed and asked, "What?" Already falling? Is this news true? ”

Liu Gan shook his head and said, "The end general is just his own judgment." Because the night before yesterday, Xue Rengao came with reinforcements, and the last general felt that something was wrong. Originally, Xue Rengao was besieging Longzhou, if Longzhou hadn't fallen, how could he have come here? ”

Li Shuliang's expression softened slightly: "These are just your speculations, I didn't see Chang Da is a famous general, experienced in a hundred battles, and he is also the favorite general of the Tang King, the city of Longzhou is strong, and the defenders are all elite soldiers who have followed Chang Da for many years, which is stronger than this Jingzhou, and the commander thinks that it is not so easy to fall!" ”

"Besides, if Longzhou fell, then why didn't Xue Ju come in person? And Longzhou has fallen, why didn't he send Xue Rengao to report the news to lower the morale of your defenders? ”

Liu sighed and said: "The last general doesn't know, these are really unreasonable, but the last general will fight all his life, trust his battlefield intuition, Longzhou, I'm afraid that it will be more than lucky, and now it will be a trap!" ”

Li Shuliang shook his head and said, "This commander was ordered to lead the army to rescue Longyouzhou County, it is impossible not to come to the rescue just based on your General Liu's intuition." Just like you, Jingzhou, the right eyelid is jumping all the way, and I have nightmares all night, and I feel very bad, is it because of this that I won't come to save you? General Liu, you are also a veteran, compare your heart to your heart, General Chang of Longzhou is facing the predicament in front of you, now we have this strength, can we bear to see death and not save it? ”

Liu Gan gritted his teeth and said, "Even if we want to save it, we only have about 30,000 infantry horses, and we are not the opponent of Xue Ju's more than 100,000 fierce cavalry." Your Majesty, please send scouts to investigate first, and then make plans for rescue. ”

Li Shuliang laughed, and said, "General Liu, just before I set out this morning, I had already sent scouts to Longzhou to investigate, but I am afraid that at this time, they will already come back to report the news." ”

While he was talking, there was a sound of horses' hooves outside the city, and a horse galloped over, shouting while galloping: "Longzhou is a great victory, Xue Ju is defeated and retreats, General Chang invites King Changping to go for a while!" ”