"Commander, the Flying Eagle Brigade is urgent." Wan Yi was arranging the specific details of the operation, and there was a hurried voice of the guards outside the tent, and then a person came in to surprise Wan Yi and the others, and the person who came was Li San'er, the captain of the third brigade who led the Flying Eagle Brigade to shine in the Battle of Shazhou before.

"Marshal, generals, the Flying Eagle Brigade found that a detachment of men and horses from Jiaohe City was coming in the direction of Daze, and we intercepted some of their scouts, and it is reported that they are preparing to drop poison and diseased cattle and sheep along our current two Lishui River and Xi'er River, the commander asked me to report urgently to Dashuai, please pay more attention to Dashuai." The news brought by Li San'er made Wan Yi and the others frown, their side was still planning to attack Jiaohe City to attract the other party's soldiers and horses to come to help, but the people's actions were not slow at all, this time it hit their own weakness, and this move was very vicious, almost ignoring the life and death of the people in more than a dozen villages along these two rivers. Poisoning and diseased cattle and sheep in the spring this disease-prone season, if the Tiance army is not prepared, then it is very likely to be fatal by the other party's trick, and even if the Tiance army is aware of the other party's plan, in the short term, I am afraid that it may not be able to find a suitable alternative water source, you must know that this is an army of 100,000, and the fresh water needed to save a day after eating horses and chewing is also astronomical. So after listening to Li San'er's report, Wan Yi hurriedly asked, "What is your Flying Eagle Brigade's response plan?" How many people are on the other side? ”

"There are about 2,000 people on the other side, but they are not dressed in military uniforms and armor, but in civilian clothes. Li San'er also wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead and said: "Our commander has gathered all the nearby Flying Eagle Brigade units and is ready to formulate an interception plan, but because there is a distance of more than 100 miles from Daze to Daying from the Shuihe River and the Xi'er River, our number is not enough. ”

"Immediately mobilize the reconnaissance detachment of the Modao Battalion and the 11th Corps to be under the unified command of your Flying Eagle Brigade and be responsible for the safety of these two rivers." Wan Yi waved his hand and said, "You go and tell Xiaohu that the safety of the water source will be handed over to you." We'll make other plans right away. ”

Li San'er took Wan Yi's order out of the account and began to go to the Modao Battalion and the reconnaissance detachment of the 11th Corps to quickly leave the camp. The reconnaissance detachment is actually an elite unit formed by the various armies of the Tiance Army in imitation of the Flying Eagle Brigade, which is responsible for carrying out combat tasks that ordinary soldiers cannot perform, and is basically the elite of the whole army. After the Modao Battalion and the 11th Corps combined a reconnaissance detachment of 2,000 people followed Li San'er out of the camp, Wan Yi's side began to resume the meeting. Wan Yi explained that Chai Jia and Shi Jian continued to implement the siege plan, after all, the siege of Jiaohe City was the most critical part of the entire Gaochang raider, and it was necessary to put this royal court under his own encirclement to make it feel the pressure, and relying on the troops in the city could not break through the siege of the Tiance army, so that the plan of encirclement and reinforcement could be implemented in a subjective sense. Therefore, the main forces of the Modao Battalion and the 11th Corps should not only not stop because of this, but should increase their efforts. In fact, this was the most fundamental way to solve the Uighur destruction of water sources, and the only way to make the Uighur army in the city feel enough pressure to force them to go on the defensive.

"Dashuai, why don't we move our troops to the vicinity of Daze and rely on Daze to replenish the water source?" After seeing Wan Yi explain the battle arrangements, Shi Jian asked, "If they get close to Daze, even if the Uighur army poisons Daze, how much poison can they have?" ”

"No, this will expose the whereabouts of the Seventh Corps and the deputy marshal, and our current position is the most suitable." Wan Yi shook his head, Gao Siji was lurking in Daze in the north to wait for news from Xuan Yingwei's side, and then prepare to implement the strategy of attacking reinforcements in a roundabout way, if his whereabouts were exposed because he moved his troops to Daze, then the entire plan would be destroyed, so Wan Yi did not hesitate to veto Shi Jian's opinion and said: "The matter of the water source will be handed over to the Flying Eagle Brigade." But just in case, the chief of staff will immediately go to the logistics team and ask their men to find a way to dig more wells, and I think even if the river is destroyed, the groundwater should not be affected in the short term. In addition, it was explained to all officers and men of the army that no one was allowed to touch or drink the river water without being examined by the military doctor. ”

After Wan Yi explained this, Chai Jia and Shi Jian went to prepare for the siege, because in the short term, they had to master the strength of the siege to ensure that the Uighurs could feel the pressure and not immediately break through the city, so the two of them needed to think carefully about the degree in between, so Shi Jian and Chai Jia finally decided to focus on killing each other's living forces with weapons, and put them behind the siege.

While the two of them were discussing the specific deployment, Liu Xuan sent someone to inform Tuoba Siji to lead the army to lurk in the northeast direction of the army, ready to deal with the attack from Jiamu in Xizhou at any time, and on the other hand, asked Xuan Yingwei to urgently inform Zhao Si to try to transfer Jiamu out of Gaochang Uighur territory by other means.

However, despite the best preparations, the worst thing happened, and the next morning, when Chai Jia and Shi Jian attacked, the latest news came from the Flying Eagle Brigade, although the Uighurs sent men and horses to destroy the water source were intercepted by the Flying Eagle Brigade, and fierce fighting broke out between the two sides around the upper reaches of the Lishui River. The Flying Eagle Brigade killed most of them, but some of the fish that slipped through the net threw about dozens of disease-ridden cattle and sheep into the Lishui River, and the carcasses of the cattle and sheep immediately floated down the river to the vicinity of the Tiance Army's barracks. As a result, half of the two rivers were abolished in an instant, and Wan Yi, in desperation, could only ask Liu Xuan to take the more than 20,000 people assigned to him to inform several villages along the Lishui River, telling the people not to drink the water of the Lishui River, and telling them to evacuate the banks of the Lishui River as much as possible. On the other hand, the Flying Eagle Brigade was ordered to abandon the garrison of the Lishui River and transfer all its forces to guard the Xi'er River on the east side to ensure that the other river was not polluted.

However, Wan Yi apparently had one thing in mind, that is, after a day of fierce fighting, the Uighurs, who had suffered heavy casualties, on the one hand, urgently sent people to other military towns to mobilize garrisons to rush to the aid of Jiaohe City, and on the other hand, they focused on increasing the sneak attacks out of the city to destroy the water source. On the same night, the Uighurs once again sent two teams of elite men out of the city to prepare for a repeat of the old trick, but this time they were hit head-on by the Flying Eagle Brigade, and the two sides fought on the banks of the Lishui River, and the fierce gunfire thought about it all night, and after the Flying Eagle Brigade killed more than 1,000 people, the Uighur army began to evacuate and return to the city, and Su Xiaohu, who was concerned about whether the other party had sent more people, had no intention of chasing, and began to carefully inspect the entire upper and lower reaches of the Xi'er River before relieving himself after finding that nothing happened. However, Su Xiaohu felt depressed this time, he had always been arrogant at the door of other people's houses, but this time he let the other party go out of the city twice in a row to destroy his own water source, so in addition to being depressed, Su Xiaohu began to plan a counterattack plan, preparing to set a trap for the other party and then completely kill everyone, giving the Uighurs an unforgettable shock to ensure that the other party extinguished this thought.

When the report of the Flying Eagle Brigade reached Wan Yi, Wan Yi began to feel that the Uighurs were only afraid that the destruction of the water source was a tactic for them to counterattack their own attacks, according to this assumption, unless they immediately attacked the city, the other side would continue to send more people out of the city, and the means and plans were more diverse, making it impossible for them to guard against it.

"This is not the way to go, and this passive situation must be changed." Wan Yi stood alone outside the tent in a daze. But then he was interrupted by Liu Xuan's footsteps. During the day, when Chai Jia and Shi Jian joined forces to attack Jiaohe City, Liu Xuan led 20,000 men to cruise around the western and southern cities, and drove back some of the Uighurs who wanted to take advantage of the absence of the main force of the Tiance army in these two directions to besiege and want to leave the city, and even captured a convoy of Uighurs in the evening, which was the family of Prince Hal who wanted to take refuge in the city. This guy almost cried on the spot after being captured on both sides, and now in Jiaohe City, if you want to say that who has the deepest understanding of the combat power of the Tiance Army, it must be Halle, so when everyone else was clamoring to mobilize the outside army and the defenders in Jiaohe City, they should cooperate with the outside to completely annihilate the Tiance Army, only he took his family and prepared to take advantage of the chaos to get out of the city, because after a defeat once, Halle couldn't see any hope that they could win this battlefield.

"If you catch it, you can catch it, I'm afraid this guy won't be of much use." Wan Yi waved his hand, but Liu Xuan said: "Haller has brought another news, Hammud has not returned to Jiaohe City, although his family has been arrested and imprisoned by the royal court, but Hammoud has disappeared and has not appeared in the city at all." ”

"Go and inform Xuan Yingwei and find a way to get his family out, I think Hamoud may have gone somewhere else." Wan Yi's heart moved, and he ordered Liu Xuan to inform the secret guard to prepare to save people.

"Dashuai thinks that Hammoud may really really join us, and now that others are not in Jiaohe City, right?" When Liu Xuan saw Wan Yi trying to rescue Hammud's family, he also guessed the other party's thoughts.

"I just think this Hammoud might surprise us." Wan Yi nodded, stretched out his hand and rubbed his cheeks and said with a smile: "But these are all afterthoughts, you go and rest for a while, after dawn, Chai Jia will launch a new round of attacks, if the effect is good, I am afraid that there will be a second Halle, after all, the other party is the prince, and the news of his departure from the city will soon spread in the city, so if the war is not smooth, it will definitely bring others." ”

"What the big marshal said is that there are two if there is one. However, a dozen waves of messengers left the city yesterday, and although I sent men to intercept and kill three or four groups, at this rate, the surrounding Uighur armies will surely receive the edict from their royal court soon. Liu Xuan said with a smile: "What I'm most worried about now is that the Uighur royal court is dedicated to implementing the strategy of destroying the Xi'er River, so I'm afraid that the Flying Eagle Brigade will not be able to stop it, after all, there are always loopholes in the defense." ”

"What you said is, but Su Xiaohu's temperament is passively beaten, I'm afraid it's not his style, he must be preparing a counterattack plan, but the water source problem is indeed a difficult problem, the Uighurs have been here for more than a hundred years, and they know that the battle for the water source is the key to the northwest campaign, if our water source is cut off by the other party, then our army will soon lose its combat strength due to lack of water. And the most important thing is that if someone on the other side guesses the true intention of our army not to move troops to Daze, then the situation is bad, after all, this is not a difficult thing to guess. After Wan Yi said this, he looked at the white sky in the east, shook his head and said, "The top priority depends on whether Chai Jia and them can effectively kill the opponent's main living force in the shortest possible time. ”

Liu Xuan nodded, he understood Wan Yi's worries, so when Chai Jia and Shi Jian went out to fight the next day, they emphasized that they must increase their firepower projection, so the two corps increased the intensity of the artillery bombardment throughout the day, and Shi Jian also made catapults in addition to the shelling, loaded the oil into clay pots and lit them and then threw them into the city and then caused a fire, so as to enhance the power of the attack, and for the first time in the fierce battle, he ordered the infantry to start assaulting the city defense, so as to force the Uighurs to climb the city wall to defend, As a result, the Uighurs suffered the greatest casualties the next day, losing nearly 10,000 men in one day, the entire eastern and northern cities were riddled with shells, and some of the walls of the Tucheng cities had collapsed under their burdens, and the Uighurs became more and more precarious without the cover of the walls.

However, the more miserable the Uighurs were beaten during the day, the more ferocious the sneak attack on the Xi'er River became at night, this night the Flying Eagle Brigade almost faced more than twice their own number of Uighur sneak attacks, in the face of superior forces, these Uighurs rushed towards the Xi'er River as if they were not dying, Su Xiaohu even directly ordered to bombard with artillery in the face of this situation, and the rumbling cannon also attracted the main force of the Tiance Army in the camp to come to the rescue, and the two sides fought fiercely around the Xi'er River for a night, because it was a field battle, and it was an encounter battle, By daybreak, when the remnants of the Uighurs retreated into the city, thousands of Uighur corpses were floating on the entire Xi'er River. This scene made Wan Yi smile bitterly, although he prevented the other party's destruction, he still didn't calculate that the corpse was actually floating all over the river. You must know that the rivers in the northwest are not so much rivers as ravines, and the two rivers that flow south of Daze are less than three zhang wide and less than one person high, so thousands of corpses are enough to cover a large section of the river, and the battle is so fierce that even part of the river is stained red with red blood.

"Notify me and send someone to salvage these bodies and find a place to bury them. Then ask Su Xiaohu to send people upstream to see if he can find a place to blow up the mouth of Daze, increase the flow of water in the river, and find a way to flush this undrinkable water downstream. Wan Yi sighed and began to arrange for someone to salvage the body.

"Marshal, Jiamu and they are already less than thirty miles away from us, and General Tuoba has already exchanged fire with the other party." Liu Xuan gasped and ran over to report the latest news from Jiamu's side.

"And Hammoud really went to Xizhou, and he is currently with Jiamu." Another piece of news brought by Liu Xuan made Wan Yi's eyes become extremely sharp, "Let the 11th Corps immediately change from the front army to the rear army, and then cooperate with General Tuoba to besiege Jiamu." ”