In the morning, the snow was still falling densely, the sky was gray, the visibility was knee-deep, the road was very difficult, an army of about 30,000 people, was trekking westward on the ice of the Yellow River, this army was the Anbei army from the west surrendered city, they marched for six days.

Duan Xiushi took the lead, the old veteran has been hit hard in the past month, the Li family died violently, the Zhang family lost Hedong, and tens of thousands of people in the Anbei army surrendered to Pei Jun in Dai County, a series of blows were extremely heavy on him, he lost supplies all of a sudden, there was little grain left, and he couldn't survive this winter, if the heavy snow closed the road, even if he wanted to surrender Hebei, he couldn't do it, and the final result could only be the annihilation of the whole army.

Just when he was facing the most severe test of his life, a letter from Zhang Huan made him see a glimmer of hope from extreme despair, hope was Lingwu County, if he could succeed, the situation in the entire Guanlong region would be greatly changed.

The Yellow River had already frozen solidly, and the heavy snow was the best cover, and at this time, several horses came from afar, which was the scout who went to Lingwu County to listen to the news first.

"Report to the general, Lingwu County is indeed empty, and the defenders are less than two thousand."

Duan Xiushi's spirit was shocked, he turned around and shouted: "Brothers, speed up, you can eat your stomach tonight, wash your feet in hot water, and sleep warmly."

The hope of survival was ahead, and the 30,000 soldiers stimulated their last potential and began to trot, sprinting towards Lingwu County, a hundred miles away.

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Kaiyang County, after being ravaged by the Hui last year, has gradually disappeared, and the Wei family's mansion has been rebuilt, which is more magnificent and magnificent than the original mansion. Many large trees were planted, and the greenery was so green that it was completely unrecognizable that it had suffered misfortune a year earlier.

But the wounds in people's hearts were not healed so quickly, nearly half of the Wei family's children were killed, and countless women were robbed, and people were in a hurry in the past year. The eyes were full of melancholy.

But Wecker quickly recovered, and he took in ten new concubines to replace his own robbed women, in his opinion. Except for the old mother and son, everything can be left to heart.

After Zhang Huan crossed the river, he returned to Kaiyang County and asked Wei Qing to deal with Zhang Huan, on the one hand, he wanted to train his son and give him a chance to get ahead. But on the other hand, Wee does have a few major things to deal with personally.

One is that the Zhang family in Hedong withdrew from the center of power. The various forces that were originally loyal to the Zhang family will also find another backer, and they will become the object of competition for several other great families.

Wei Ge wanted to win over Jiang Lian, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, who turned out to be Zhang Ruohao's confidant, and also Zhang Ruohao's main right-hand man in the Ministry of Rites, if he could get his allegiance. Then Tawei'e's hand can be inserted into the Ministry of Rites.

Of course, this requires an opportunity, and the best way to do this is to marry. Jiang Lian's only daughter has always liked her son Wei Qing very much.

The second major thing Wei Ge considered was Hexi, although there was only a small piece of Wuwei County, but he could also raise tens of thousands of war horses, which could make his Wei family get the sharpest cavalry, which was not available in other families, as long as there were 50,000 cavalry, this would be the capital of his own sweep of the world.

But just after he had just cleaned up Xin Yunjing and easily obtained Hexi, an uninvited guest broke in, although he was not sure where Zhang Huan's ultimate goal was? But Wei Ge's intuition told him that Zhang Huan just wanted to take Hexi.

At this moment, the ambitious head of the family is carefully studying a map that has just been drawn in the study, the map took hundreds of people two years to draw successfully, on which the mountains, rivers, villages and towns are clearly marked, even down to the number of people in each village, and the seasonal changes of each river, there are detailed annotations, this is undoubtedly a treasure of marching and fighting.

But Wei Ge cared about Zhang Huan's marching route, when he heard that Zhang Huan was crossing the Yellow River in Lingwu County, he was scared out of a cold sweat, and suddenly discovered one of his mistakes, how could he use Shuofang's army to encircle and suppress, so wouldn't Lingwu County become empty? His gaze moved up to the Western Surrender City, which was hundreds of miles away, and if Duan Xiushi took the opportunity to go south, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Zhang Huan should not have seen this yet, otherwise he would have taken advantage of the situation to occupy Lingwu County, Wei Ge secretly screamed a fluke, he immediately wrote a letter, ordering the 20,000 Shuo Fang army to return to Lingwu immediately.

The soldier who delivered the letter had just left, and suddenly, his second son Wei Chi was holding a five-pipe pigeon letter in his hand and rushed towards the study, "Father, something big happened in Chang'an, and the five uncles sent an urgent letter at the same time. ”

"Something is wrong?" Wei Ge was stunned, and his first reaction was that Chang'an had another palace change.

He opened the letter in a hurry, his body suddenly froze, his heart seemed to fall into the abyss at once, the content of the letter is the same, hundreds of thousands of scholars and people in Chang'an broke out a big march, condemning him for the sake of family selfishness, obstructing Zhang Huanxi to recover Hexi, dozens of important ministers of the imperial court, including Cui Yuan, Pei Jun, Wang Ang, Chu Xingshui and others, also expressed their attitude, and jointly issued the most severe warning to him.

Dense sweat seeped from Wei Ge's forehead, his face was extremely pale, he understood the seriousness of this matter, if it was not handled properly, he Wei Ge would become a sinner in history, and the Wei family's century-old reputation would be ruined in his own hands.

"Father, there's still news."

Wei Ge stared at the letter tightly, he no longer had the courage to open it again, finally, he opened the letter with trembling hands, first stunned, but suddenly his legs weakened, and the sky swirled, and the letter fell to the ground, "The imperial court has appointed Zhang Huan as the governor of Liangzhou and the assassin of Wuwei County." ’

"Father!" Wei Chi helped him so that he didn't fall down.

Wei Ge gently pushed his son away, he sat down, looked out the window in a daze, went to the army to plot, then to fight the enemy, the last time to fight the army, what kind of person was he who put it in?

After a long time, he let out a long sigh and said hatefully to the soldiers behind him: "Pass my password, order Wei Qing to let Zhang Huan go to Hexi, and tell Lu Gongsi to set aside Tianbao County for him to garrison. Let him ask the Tibetan people to ask for it. ”

.

'Boom! Boom! Boom! The sound of the drums echoed through the heavens and the earth, and the army of black oppression was divided into three phalanxes, approaching the city from the west, north, and south, and slowly spreading out like three black mantles on the boundless white earth.

The footsteps of the army were neat and rhythmic, and they advanced towards the city with murderous spirit. Slowly stopped three miles away, and more than a dozen generals surrounded a man in white who approached the city, it was Wei Qing, the eldest son of the Wei family.

When he reached 300 paces from the city wall, he stopped and shouted, "Please come and answer Zhang Huan." ”

The north wind is strong. Transmitting his voice far into the city, Zhang Huan was on the side of the city tower, and he had already seen Wei Qing, he smiled and said, "How can it be rude for the old man to visit?" Open the city gate, and I'll go and catch up with him.

”

The gates were wide open. An arrow cavalry flew out, and more than 100 people closely guarded Zhang Huan and stopped dozens of steps away from Wei Qing. Zhang Huan smiled from afar: "Brother Wei Xian, don't come unharmed? ”

Wei Qing looked at Zhang Huan with complicated eyes, he had changed, the trace of bookish qi on his body before was gone, his waist was straight, and his eyes were sharp. His face was thin and covered with blue thorns, and he was full of the charm of a mature man.

Wei Qing sighed softly in his heart, and he said coldly to Zhang Huan: "You once saved my life. I am grateful in my heart, and now I give you a chance, as long as you return to Hedong, I will let you go. ”

Zhang Huan shook his head and said with a faint smile: "Brother Wei Xian is a strong man, is there still a place for me to stand in Hedong?" ”

Wei Qing lowered his head and thought about it, then stared at Zhang Huan and said: "Then there is another way, you take refuge in my father, I killed the soldiers and horses of the Dashi Army last night, if you are willing to surrender, I will appoint you as the soldiers and horses of the Dashi Army, and I promise you that my father will never embarrass you." ”

Zhang Huan still smiled and shook his head, "What kind of person Uncle Wei Shi is, Brother Fool knows very well in his heart, and I understand Brother Xian's kindness." ”

"You. . .

Seeing that he didn't appreciate it, Wei Qing couldn't help but be a little annoyed, he stared at Zhang Huandi's eyes, and said word by word: "Do you have to take away my Wei family's Hexi?" ”

Zhang Huan looked up to the sky and laughed, and suddenly he stopped laughing, and said to Wei Qing coldly: "Under the world, it is not the king's land, Zhang only knows that there is a Tang Dynasty in Hexi, and he has never heard of the Wei family's Hexi." ”

At this moment, a horse came galloping, and the man on the horse shouted from afar: "Childe, something is not good!" ”

He rushed to Wei Qing, glanced at Zhang Huan, and whispered a few words in his ear, Wei Qing's face changed greatly, the war horse took a few steps back, his eyes showed a look of extreme shock, he suddenly turned around and pointed at Zhang Huan and said angrily: "You went to report to Duan Xiushi?" ”

Zhang Huan smiled slightly, "You forgot him, who is to blame?" ”

"Despicable!"

Wei Qing's fair face was swollen and red, and he gritted his teeth and said, "I have long guessed that you ran to Huijun to lure the Hexi Army out, and tell you that even if all my men are killed in battle, I will never let him come out." ”

"Then we'll see!"

Zhang Huan coldly dropped a sentence, turned around and galloped towards the city gate, Wei Qing stared at his back, his face was red and white, he finally couldn't help but yell, "Zhang Huan, one day I will let you kneel in front of me and beg for mercy!" ”

Zhang Huan ignored him, and he quickly returned to the city, where the gate slammed shut and the soldiers began to block the gate with huge bluestones.

The drums of the attack rumbled, the Shuofang army and the Longyou army pressed on the three roads from the west, south and north at the same time, the soldiers of the black pressure were like ant colonies, shouting low slogans, a group of cavalry marched through it, the crossbows and arrows were as dense as raindrops, weaving a huge arrow net, especially the one-foot-long flying crossbow, which could shoot more than 500 steps, and the force was strong, and the city wall was beaten to a 'snap! And the bricks of the city were broken and rolled down, and the screams and wails continued to sound from the top and bottom of the city.

The drums were encrypted again, and more than a dozen improvised building carts slowly drove towards the city wall, moving houses, each building car had more than 200 soldiers on board, some of them wearing heavy armor and holding spears, eager to try, while another group of people held steel crossbows and fired arrows at the city.

In the midst of them were hundreds of staircases that had been made overnight, bound by thick chains and belts, standing up to a height of ten feet, and though they were poorly made, they were superior in number.

The moat had long since been frozen and had lost its defensive effect, and the black army with shields in hand spilled over the ice and set up rudimentary staircases up the walls, and the soldiers began to pounce upwards like hungry wolves that prey on food.

On the city wall, the soldiers of the Tiancai battalion are well-trained, although the number is small, but the command is effective, they carry out effective resistance in an orderly manner, the staircase is on the city wall, and immediately there is a knife to chop off the staircase head, and then stretch out a few steel forks to fork the stairs to the side, the action is done in one go, and the cooperation is extremely skillful, the city wall has already been splashed with water, frozen and smooth and greasy, the stairs moved, and they couldn't hold back the castration, and slid straight down to the city, and a series of screams sounded in the air.

To deal with the building car, use the flying crossbow, also known as the bed crossbow, the arrow is one foot long, the arrow is heavy, can be fired in a row, the dense flying crossbow hits the building car, making them stagger, only a few rounds of arrows, the building car will be loose and collapsed, hundreds of soldiers on the car have fallen, heavy casualties.

At this time, the drumming of the enemy formation suddenly changed, no longer dense, but one by one, dull and shocking, the Longyou Army and the Shuofang Army retreated like a tide, and separated to the left and right, only to see that three swarthy strange guys came out of the enemy formation, the size was huge, it was actually a ramming ram made of a thousand-year-old tree, the head of the mallet was wrapped with a heavy iron sheet, installed on a huge wooden frame, there were wooden wheels below, each ramping ram was dragged by nearly a hundred horses, and there were hundreds of cavalry on both sides holding huge shields to guard.

The rams rolled forward, rumbling through the sky, their target was the closed gate, the drawbridge had long been destroyed in the melee, at this moment, the bows and arrows stopped firing, the battlefield was silent, and all eyes were on the three huge rams.

Zhang Huan stood on top of the tower at the West Gate, and directly in front of him, one of the largest ramming mallets was slowly approaching.

In fact, there are many ways to effectively stop the ram, such as throwing boulders to block the way; For example, when it hits a city, it can be smashed down with boulders and giant logs.

But Zhang Huan chose another way, he had to make the heart of Longyoujun feel fear, the ramshell rolled forward, had crossed the ice of the moat, less than twenty steps away from the city gate, and the iron sheet on the head of the hammer was shining with a faint blue light.

At this moment, hundreds of large ceramic pots were suddenly thrown down from the city, falling to the ground and shattering, viscous black oil flowed all over the ground, Zhang Huan's bow was opened, he smiled coldly, and a rocket drew a beautiful parabola, falling high from the city tower, as if a red wave fell into the black ocean, 'Boom! The fire rose into the sky, and the flames flew into the air, engulfing the ram in an instant.

The terrified horses neighed in the fire, broke free of their belts like madness, and fled back with the flames all over their bodies, and the cavalry of the guards fell from their horses, and were trampled to a blur of flesh and blood in an instant, and the city was still silent, and there was no movement, and suddenly, there was a deep loud bang, like thunder in the clouds, and the frame supporting the ramshell collapsed, and the huge ram rolled to the ground, smashing dozens of undead soldiers into meat sauce.

The golden bell of the retreating soldiers finally rang, and the piercing sonorous sound reached the city, and the city was suddenly filled with jubilation.

.

The next day, when the golden morning glow reflected on the tall city wall, the soldiers defending the city suddenly found that the enemy's military camp had suddenly disappeared, and there was only snow on the ground.

Suddenly, a war horse came from afar, stopped under the city, and immediately the knight opened his bow and arrow, and shot a letter up to the city, a soldier picked it up and handed it to Zhang Huan, Zhang Huan opened the letter and looked at it briefly, with a faint smile in his eyes, he turned back to everyone: "Wei Ge assigned Tianbao County of Wuwei County to our garrison." ”

Seeing the puzzled look in everyone's eyes, he smiled slightly, "This is called a soldier who surrenders without a fight." ”

Zhang Huan strode to the head of the city, silently looking at the west of the river, where the sky is blue, the wilderness is vast, the wind blows the grass and the cattle and sheep are low, and there is also the beginning of his achievements, he suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed, Wei Ge actually put him Zhang Huan into Hexi, will Hexi belong to his Wei family again?