The march is boring and boring, especially in the winter, and it is even more fatal to march in such a situation with bad weather and poor winter supplies.

After four consecutive days of marching, the forward 3,000 cavalry troops have caused about 100 battles, large and small, killing nearly 1,000 enemies, and the 1,000 new troops equipped with new bows and arrows have demonstrated their toughness, beating Li Yibu's rebels from afar.

The battle situation is gratifying, but there is another aspect that has to make everyone deeply worried.

Not counting the logistics troops, when they came out of Chang'an this time, there were 20,000 soldiers, but now, in just four days, they have reduced about 1,000 people without fighting.

Nearly 1,000 of them were scattered and left in various county towns along the way, or lived in the homes of the people along the way, and left some food.

As the expedition took longer, the number of non-combat attrition increased exponentially, which made everyone feel helpless and anxious, but there was nothing they could do.

On the fifth day, the army went straight to Xinping County.

"On the surface, there doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary!" Fang Xuanling frowned deeply, looking at the heavily guarded Xinping County, and added some unknowns to his heart.

The imaginary situation did not appear, the rebels did not show panic because of their arrival, the soldiers came to the city, but the rebels of Li Yibu did not seem to see it, as if it was the enemy army that appeared under the city, not the Tang Dynasty official army.

"Wait and see!" Squinting slightly, Li Yuanji still didn't believe it.

On the sixth day, six consecutive days of severe cold struck, and the non-combat attrition increased sharply again, and in just one day, nearly 300 people fell, some of whom were frostbitten, some of whom had colds and fevers, and these were all personnel who could not continue to fight, and those who were slightly less ill were not counted.

On the seventh day, the non-combat attrition approached 500, and in seven days they had been reduced from 20,000 to 18,000, and the further they went, the more they were attritional.

On the other hand, the rebels of Li Yibu in Xinping County were still unmoved, and the number of defenders guarding the city was not much, but the smoke was rising in the city.

"Can't wait any longer! It has to be stormed! Looking at the increasing number of wounded, Cheng Zhijie couldn't sit still anymore, and confronted him for a whole day, and roared angrily after returning to the Chinese army's tent.

Fang Xuanling didn't speak, now the situation is becoming more and more unclear, his mind is very chaotic, and he can't find a solution at all.

"There's not a single legion in the city!" In the face of such a situation, Li Yuanji is also sad, but what can be done about it? War is like that, it can't always go in the direction you envisioned.

"If you don't pretend to be a thief, that's Li Yi's dog thief's business, the old man only knows that if it drags on like this for ten days and half a month, this battle won't have to be fought, and the freeze can freeze us to death!" Cheng Zhijie's emotions were extremely excited, adding hundreds of wounded people every day, and as the commander-in-chief, he couldn't help but be excited.

"What about scouts?" Li Yuanji held his breath and asked.

"The scouts have been reconnoitring for three days in a row, and they have already left Fengzhou at the farthest point, everything is normal, no other enemy troops have been found in the suburbs, and there are enemy troops on the Sanshui side, but they also refuse to leave the city." Wei Chi Jingde opened his mouth and said that he was responsible for arranging the scouts, and he knew the situation best.

"If everything is normal, it is the biggest abnormality!" Li Yuanji nodded, the direction of history has completely deviated, Yang Qi, who was supposed to defeat Li Yi, is now unknown in life and death, Li Yi has completely controlled the entire Xinping, and the result is probably because of his own letter.

Without the bonus of the historical trend, Li Yuanji can only rely on his own ability to deduce, how can there be a normal situation in war?

Shaking his head, they really can't continue to drag it out, Li Yi in the city has a house to live in, and a quilt to cover at night, they can drag it down, but they can't drag it anymore on their side, took a deep breath, and said, "Let's fight!" ”

"It's not the best time to fight!" Li Yuanji agreed to fight, but Fang Xuanling disagreed.

"What are you doing? Do you want to let you be the manager? Don't let you fight, but you give a reason not to fight? So many soldiers keep getting sick, don't you see? Cheng Zhijie broke out instantly, and angrily pointed at Fang Xuanling and scolded angrily.

At this moment, Cheng Zhijie was really a little broken, Li Yuanji finally agreed, and Fang Xuanling ran out to make trouble again, how can this battle be fought? There's no way to fight.

"Let's fight, if you don't fight, you won't have a chance!" Li Yuanji shook his head at Fang Xuanling and said.

Because of the severe cold, the soldiers continued to fall ill, and the sergeants were already in a low mood when they went out in winter, but now strange things happened frequently, not to mention that the morale fell to the bottom, at least to the point where the commander needed to worry about morale. If you don't fight again, when your morale plummets, you really can't fight.

Fang Xuanling finally nodded and agreed to fight, there was no other way.

Fang Xuanling has Fang Xuanling's worries, the reason for his worries is not much different from Li Yuanji, all this on the surface is too weird, normal people can't believe it.

Just like when crossing a river, experienced people know that those places that seem calm on the surface must not be allowed to go down, but those waters that look turbulent and mighty on the outside are the safest places.

Li Yi is a rebellion, even if he deceived his soldiers in the early stage, but when the imperial army appeared in front of them, Li Yi could no longer deceive them, because he couldn't change the facts, everyone knew what it meant when the imperial army appeared?

But the expected situation did not appear, which is very puzzling.

After a night's effort, there were nearly 100 more wounded in the wounded barracks, and more than a dozen soldiers who entered the wounded barracks a few days earlier failed to survive the night and were carried out early the next morning.

On the eighth day, Cheng Zhijie personally sat in charge of the Chinese army, commanding the left front, the front army, and the right front, with a total of more than 7,000 people in the three divisions launching a fierce attack on Xinping County.

Hundreds of siege ladders marched in unison, and the siege nest car, the crash followed, and everyone held their bows and arrows tightly, but before they reached the range, there was an overwhelming rain of arrows in the air.

The sound of arrows colliding with shields, and the sound of colliding with armor continued to sound, and some of the soldiers attacking under the city kept falling, the former fell, and the latter was on top, one by one, fearless of life and death, and marched forward bravely.

The ladder was carried on the edge of the city wall, and then pushed down by the defenders at the head of the city, and even the soldiers who climbed half of it were also pushed down the city, and fell heavily to the ground.

Because of the cold, the warriors' bodies were slightly stiff, and many of the dodging actions that could be made in the summer were now more than enough and lacking strength, so they could only watch the arrows, look at the spears, and watch the horizontal knives fall on their bodies, and they had nothing to do.

Because of the cold, the soldiers who finally attacked the city wall were forced to fall helplessly in a pool of blood because they could not get support.

After a whole day of attacking, the three divisions could only return in vain after dropping more than 2,000 corpses.

"Damn, the old man has never fought such a shitty battle!" In the big tent of the Chinese army, Cheng Zhijie angrily smashed off his helmet and vented his emotions without reservation, this battle was fought in the nest, if it was in the other three seasons, it would never have been defeated so miserably, but this was in the winter when all the generals avoided it, in addition to anger, Cheng Zhijie, who seemed to be unbeliever, continued to roar wildly: "Fight!" Tomorrow continue to fight the old man, the whole army will attack, besiege the city on all sides, the old man will not believe that a legion can't beat a new level, the old man is going to slash Li Yi's dog thief! ”

The result of the battle made Cheng Zhijie a little desperate, from the beginning of the smooth, to the current everywhere is not smooth, which makes him feel pressure.

The first time he became a coach, he encountered such a problem, Cheng Zhijie felt that he was very sorry for Li Shimin's trust, he was afraid that he would not be able to beat Xinping and catch Li Yi, but he was even more afraid that the soldiers would suffer more and more casualties, that was 20,000 people, just one day of fighting, the combat non-combat attrition was already close to the 4,000 mark, which was a situation that Cheng Zhijie had never encountered since his debut.

Reality forced him to go crazy and make all the decisions he thought would be useful.

The expressions on everyone's faces were no longer visible when they first set out on the expedition, and a depressing atmosphere enveloped everyone.

In the barracks, looking at the empty place, everyone did not speak, physically and mentally exhausted, several people gathered around the brazier and leaned on each other to keep warm, even so, their feet were cold, the cold earth, the tent with the wind was breathable, all showed that this was a bad battle.

Homesickness, family, children, but on the road of government soldiers, they have no choice, unless they are disabled, or die, otherwise most people have to live for decades like this, no way, they can't help it, they can only do this.

Thinking about home at night, fighting during the day, and whether they can come back alive after every battle has become their biggest worry.

The haze shrouded the entire camp, and countless braziers and arch fires still could not warm their hearts and illuminate their eyes.

"Where's the catapult? Smash it for the old man, smash it hard, smash the city wall of Xinping......"

"I can't fight anymore!" Li Yuanji shook his head heavily, he must not fight anymore, if he fights again, how many of these people can go back? Will tomorrow be able to break through the defenders' defenses?

"Don't fight? You say you don't fight? Cheng Zhijie was instantly angry, stood up and walked towards Li Yuanji's location, three steps away before he froze, and continued to say angrily: "You said you won't fight? 4,000 brothers gave their lives for nothing? Remember that you are the overseer, and you can't control the old man if he is not afraid of war! If you want to go by yourself, the old man will continue to fight with his brothers, that is, he will leave his life here, and the old man will gnaw this hard bone! ”

"I said I wouldn't fight, you just couldn't fight, from now on, this king will take over here......"