The cold didn't freeze the iron armor, but it made them look heavier, even through the thick cotton clothes, Chai Yue could feel the hardness of the iron pieces and the cold attached to them, and walking was more difficult than usual, as if carrying a large piece of pig iron.

Soon after nightfall, Chai Yue personally led a thousand soldiers from the bottom of the ridge to the quicksand city, the horses were all brought back by the same way, the soldiers entered the city on foot, a few soldiers stood on the city wall to watch, most of them stood under the city wall to standby, everyone held a crossbow, but waited for nearly two hours, there was still no sign of the Huns crossing the river.

There was a light snow just now, but now it had stopped, and Chai Yue stood guard above the city wall, looking at the river with the help of the faint moonlight.

The river had frozen, and during the day, Chai Yue saw several Huns throwing stones at the riverbed, so he guessed that they would cross the river tonight, but now he was not so confident, so he could only pace back and forth, whispering to remind the soldiers to keep an eye on it.

If the first battle could not thwart the spirit of the Huns, the Broken Iron City would soon be lost, and Chai Yue's heavy responsibility was much heavier than the iron armor on his body, not only the Broken Iron City, but also the lives of nearly 30,000 Chu troops, the trust of the Zhenbei generals and the safety of Jingzhong's mother and brother.

Chai Yue needs a big victory, he believes that his judgment will never be wrong, the cold winter is coming, the Huns are in a hurry to go to war, and they will cross the river at the first opportunity, but only the facts can prove him right. For this Chu army outside the Saiwai, Chai Yue's commanderial position is a bit unjustifiable, and one or two errors in judgment are enough to make the generals lose trust.

The thousand people on the wall and under the wall are still loyal, no one makes a sound, and no one complains, but Chai Yue understands that if the Huns do not appear at dawn, the prestige he does not have much will disappear completely.

Chai Yue came to the bottom of the city wall, walked slowly among the soldiers, and whispered: "Early morning is the most dangerous time, and the Huns will choose to cross the river before dawn nine times out of ten. ”

The soldiers remained silent, and Chai Yue could guess the question in their hearts: Why did the 100,000 Huns sneak attack the small city guarded by the 30,000 Chu troops? If the wee hours of the morning are the most dangerous, why stay here all night?

Chai Yue explained: Although the Xiongnu had many soldiers, they also hoped to capture the broken iron city at the lowest cost; The early hours of the morning are the most dangerous, but it doesn't mean that other times are safe, so he had to wait all night in Quicksand City in order to deal with all possibilities. But there is no need to say these explanations, what everyone wants to see is the Huns who secretly crossed the river.

Behind Chai Yue, someone said in a very small voice: "Just freeze to death, the Huns will save trouble." ”

It was a noble son who was forcibly sent by the King of the East China Sea, Chai Yue pretended not to hear it, the facts and achievements can conquer ordinary soldiers, and probably only the status can suppress these nobles.

Someone on the city wall gently knocked twice with a stone, and Chai Yue's whole body was shaken, and a stream of hot blood rose from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, expelling the chill in an instant.

The entire Chu army was also shaken by this gentle percussion, shook his arm, held the crossbow more accurately, and prepared to lead the string.

Chai Yue pretended to be calm, controlled the speed of walking, slowly walked up the steps, and when he reached the last few steps, he couldn't help but speed up his pace.

A group of Hun cavalry really crossed the river, but the number was too small, roughly estimated, about one to three hundred, and they did not go straight to the broken iron city, but came to the ridge on horseback, and the goal was the quicksand city.

Chai Yue and the others hurriedly hid behind the battlements.

The number of Hun cavalry was far greater than that of the Chu army, but they were still very cautious and sent people over to investigate the situation first.

The ambush soldiers led by Chai Yue were in a dilemma at once, and it was easy to fire a crossbow to kill these Huns who were driving forward, but in this way, the ambush would be exposed.

The Huns under the city were talking in whispers, the north gate had long been closed, and they could not enter, so they walked around the city, apparently looking for another entrance.

Chai Yue immediately walked down the city wall, and quietly ordered everyone to hide in a nearby house, most of the houses in the city were dilapidated, not even a roof, the Huns only needed a little search to find the Chu army, but Chai Yue had no other choice, he had waited all night, and he couldn't give up at the last moment.

The Huns really appeared, and the trust of the soldiers in Chai Yue increased a little, and they immediately took the order to hide, those noble children were still very troublesome, when Chai Yue passed in front of them, someone grabbed his arm and threatened in a low voice: "You have already offended the Chai family, do you want to offend everyone?" If only I had three long and two short, ......"

Chai Yue shook off this person's grasp and said coldly: "Lou Ji, here you are a soldier, not the son of a victorious marquis." ”

Lou Ji snorted and walked into the remaining houses with the others, fearing that if the Huns did not need to attack, the wall would collapse and crush them to death.

Not all of the Xungui's sons were disgusted with this operation, and Zhang Yanghao, the grandson of the Marquis of Biyuan, whispered as Chai Yue passed by: "The Huns are in a hurry to attack and will not investigate too carefully. ”

Chai Yue smiled and hid in a dilapidated room.

The city of quicksand was not very big, and the Huns quickly went around to the hidden west gate, smashed open the city gate, galloped into the city, and galloped back and forth on the road.

When the Chu army entered the city, it left some footprints on the road, fortunately, it came early, the footprints were covered with frost and snow, the Chu soldiers stood for more than half the night, but the footprints under the city wall were still clear, as long as the torches were lit, or dismounted to check carefully, the Huns could find the abnormality.

Chai Yue was completely gambling at this time.

The Huns grew emboldened and began to shout loudly, and in recent times, there was only a wall between them and some of the Chu soldiers, but they did not stop, and the shouts quickly disappeared.

Chai Yue walked out of the hiding place, really wanting to look up to the sky and cheer a few times.

Several generals also came out and said in surprise: "They didn't stay to defend the city." ”

"The Huns don't like cities." Chai Yue said flatly, in fact, he was not sure about this, at least some of the Huns were used to settling and were no strangers to the city, but this group of scouts obviously did not want to stay in the city.

In the eyes of the soldiers, General Chai had a clever image, when they passed by Chai Yue and climbed the city wall, there was obviously a little more awe in their eyes, and even the noble sons of Lou Ji lowered their heads and honestly walked up the steps, not daring to ask to stay below.

A thousand Chu soldiers stood in three rows on the city wall, bending as far as they could, stepping on the crossbows with their feet, leading the strings with both hands, and lightly putting on the arrows.

The crossbow was able to shoot to the river, leaving the Huns with nowhere to hide.

Chai Yue looked out from the middle of the battlements, everything was as he expected, a large number of Hun cavalry were crossing the river one after another, gathering at the bottom of the ridge, some carrying long ladders, obviously to attack the broken iron city before dawn.

The hesitation and nervousness in Chai Yue's heart all disappeared, and a confidence that he had never had before arose spontaneously, no matter how nervous the soldiers around him and behind him were, he was not in a hurry at all, silently observed, waiting for the best opportunity.

After the Huns assembled at the foot of the ridge, the first group of forwards began to advance, Chai Yue turned around and walked to the herald, nodded at him, the commander understood, raised the horns that had been prepared, moved the two cheeks, and lucked to blow the horn, the Chu army usually used gongs and drums to give orders, but as an ambush, the horn was more practical.

The first row of Chu soldiers marched forward, shooting crossbow arrows in the middle of the battlements, and immediately retreated after finishing, and the second and third rows advanced.

Chai Yue didn't watch the battle situation under the ridge, it was enough to hear the people outside shouting horses, he held on to the hilt of his sword, patrolled back and forth on the city wall, and supervised the soldiers to shoot crossbows in turn. The victory was in his hands, and what he had to do was not to rush to see the results, but to make the victory as perfect as possible.

He did it, under the supervision of the general, the three rows of Chu soldiers kept ****, leading the string, setting the arrow, and shooting, repeating the cycle, without any chaos, even if Chai Yue walked away, the soldiers felt that his eyes were staring at him.

Sensing Chai Yue approaching, Lou Ji, the son of Shengjun Hou, became a little flustered, and did not pull the crossbow string in place twice in a row, and when the soldiers in this platoon stepped forward, he was still in a hurry to **** the string.

Chai Yue motioned for Lou Ji to take a few steps forward, maintain the formation, and do not occupy the position of the retreater.

Lou Ji's face was red, he had no arrows to shoot this round, and when he retreated, he exerted his strength and succeeded in leading the string once.

Chai Yue continued to move forward, feeling more and more that these thousand soldiers had been condensed into one person, all his arms, ears and eyes, obeying his will and obeying his command.

The screams under the ridge continued, and several generals who were watching the battle hurriedly ran over, "General Chai, the Huns have retreated." ”

Only then did Chai Yue walk to the middle of the battlements and look out, leaving many corpses on the ground shrouded in darkness, and more Huns fled to the opposite bank, running too fast, and people on the ice turned on their backs.

"Do you want to hunt down?" The general asked, and the victory emboldened him.

"Retreat, the whole army retreats." Chai Yue knew very well in his heart that the Huns were the best at launching counterattacks during the chase, even if all the Chu troops in the Broken Iron City were here, chasing across the river would be more defeated than victorious.

He just wanted to thwart the spirit of the Xiongnu army, and then wait for the arrival of reinforcements in Guannai.

There were no horses, the Chu army ran all the way back to the Broken Iron City after leaving the Liusha River, at this time it was already dawn, the army in the city heard the sound of the battle, and also sent scouts to check the battle situation, and immediately opened the city gate to greet the unscathed "daring army", as well as their commander Chai Yue.

The king of the East China Sea personally went to the city gate ****, sent a large amount of wine and meat, and asked the military officials to record everyone's merits on the spot, especially the general Chai Yue.

All day, the Huns on the other side were very honest, and it was not until late evening that they crossed the river again, collected the corpses, and sent troops to occupy the city of quicksand.

Chai Yue sent a messenger to Shenxiong Pass early in the morning, and the generals came to congratulate, but he did not completely relax his heart, the frustrated Huns would only postpone the attack, and the sneak attack could not succeed, so they could only adopt the most direct tactics - attacking the city during the day, which was the real test of the hard battle of the broken iron city.

At night, Chai Yue slept steadily, was woken up early the next morning, and hurried to the west city wall, almost all the generals in the city were on the city wall, even the king of the East China Sea was there, when he saw Chai Yue, he breathed a sigh of relief, "General Chai come and see, what are the Huns going to do?" ”

Chai Yue looked west, the quicksand city that brought victory to the Chu army the night before and was still standing on the mountain ridge yesterday was gone, and overnight, it had been completely demolished by the Huns.

"The Huns are so angry, are they demolishing the city to vent their anger?" The King of the East Sea asked, and most of the generals had the same idea.

Chai Yue looked at it for a while, and was suddenly shocked in his heart, "The Huns are going to pile up earth and attack the city!" ”

Pile a large amount of earth under the city to form a dirt slope, and the enemy army will be able to attack the wall directly, Chai Yue originally expected the broken iron city to hold on for at least ten days, but at this time, the time will be greatly reduced, and he can't help but look south, hoping to see the reinforcements of Shenxiong Pass as soon as possible. (To be continued.) )