At night, outside the city of Zezhou, Li Dong's coalition army camp.

The siege of Zezhou is still going on, as the besieging party, under the premise of paying a huge price to get close to the city wall, it is natural that the defender will not easily let the defender have a chance to breathe, so that the defender has no time to repair the damaged city wall and add the city defense equipment, so that the defending enemy army can not have a moment of rest.

The besieging side often has several times the strength of the defending side, so it can take turns to storm the city.

Li Jitao and Dong Zhang had already been withdrawn from the position of supervising the battle on the front line, and at this time the two were eating together in the big tent, and at this time, the two had some discussions on the current situation.

Dong Zhang didn't seem to be in a good mood, a little worried, he ate casually, glanced at Li Jitao, and said, "General Li, in your opinion, when will this Zezhou be conquered?" ”

Li Jitao's spirit was much better than Dong Zhang's, and when he heard this, he raised his head and affirmed: "According to the current offensive, if it continues for another ten days and a half months, Zezhou will definitely be in your pocket!" ”

Dong Zhang simply put down his chopsticks, sighed, and said slowly: "The solidity of Zezhou's city defense is beyond your and I expected in advance. ”

Li Jitao frowned, put down his chopsticks, looked at Dong Zhang, and asked, "What does General Dong want?" ”

Dong Zhang no longer concealed his thoughts, and said directly: "Dong thinks that you and I are not attacking enough, and we should send some more soldiers over." On this expedition to Zezhou, Dong led an army of 6,000, but General Li only brought 4,000 people, is it less? ”

Hearing Dong Zhang's words so clearly, Li Jitao was a little annoyed in his heart, it wasn't that he didn't want to bring more people, but it was actually his army that lost more than 2,000 in Li Congjing's hands before, where to find more soldiers and horses at this time?

"This time, I and the general came to attack Zezhou, which was supposed to be a matter of nine out of ten, but Li Congjing's family was eyeing him from behind, and Li had to allocate some troops to guard Luzhou, so as not to attack Luzhou." Li Jitao's words were a little aggrieved, but then he cheered up, "Although you and I only have 10,000 troops, the defenders of Nazezhou are only two or three thousand, and under the onslaught, it is not difficult to break the city." ”

Dong Zhang did not dwell on this issue with Li Jitao, but changed the topic and said: "Then Li Congjing wants to come to save Zezhou, the best way is to raid the back of my battalion and cooperate with the defenders of Zezhou, so that there is a slight chance of victory." He has only 3,000 people, how can he attack Luzhou? ”

"General Dong should not underestimate Li Congjing, although this person is young, but he is very cunning, and often has unexpected moves, you and I have suffered losses in his hands before, and we should pay attention to it." Li Jitao said leisurely, his tone was a little weird, "With the defenders of Zezhou, such a simple thing, he would not have expected that we would be prepared?" ”

Thinking of the losses suffered under Li Congjing last year, Dong Zhang was also a little annoyed, if it weren't for the fact that Li Jitao in front of him was the same person who had fallen to the end of the world, he could hardly hang his face.

Snorted coldly, Dong Zhang was about to say something, and there were scouts coming and going.

It was An Yijun's scout, Li Jitao got up and went out of the tent, and after listening to the news, he returned to the tent, his face was much gloomy.

"How?" Dong Zhang asked.

Li Jitao sat down, struck a hard blow, and said: "Li Congjing, this guy, went to capture the military towns under my Luzhou jurisdiction!" ”

Dong Zhang was slightly stunned, and said suspiciously: "If this guy doesn't go to Luzhou, if he doesn't come to Zezhou, why will he capture those small towns?" ”

Li Jitao looked at him annoyed and didn't say a word.

Dong Zhang suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

Because he made a mistake when thinking about Li Congjing's actions.

"General Li shouldn't want to go back to save the towns in Luzhou, right?" Dong Zhang saw that Li Jitao didn't speak for a while, and asked tentatively.

Li Jitao's face was not good-looking, but the words he said were categorical, which made Dong Zhang instantly admire, he said: "It's just a few small towns, if you lose it, you will lose it, Li Congjing will give it to him if he wants to, as long as Luzhou is not lost, what can he do to me?" If he wants to mess with my position with this, and wants me to bring in troops to help and divide you and me, he will underestimate me Li Jitao! ”

Dong Zhang sighed and said sincerely: "General Li's wisdom and mind, Dong Mou has seen a little bit today, and he really admires it!" ”

After that, he added: "Li Congjing's guy should also know that even if he comes to Zezhou, he can't help you and me, but since he is ordered, he can't help but do something, and simply do something at will, in order to get by. ”

Li Jitao waved his hand and said seriously: "It doesn't matter if he goes to those small places, you and I just need to step up the siege of the city and take the opportunity to take Zezhou as soon as possible, and everything will not deviate again!" ”

"That's exactly how it should be." Dong Zhang said.

Three levels.

Drizzle.

The hundred battle armies lined up outside the city, all kinds of boxcars crashed into the Haoqiao ladders in front, the shield array was in the center, the archers were interspersed with periods, and the horse army was cruising on both sides, waiting for the battle, ready to attack.

Li Congjing stood on the building car, raising his eyes to look at the city in front of him. Beside him, Wei Dao and the others stood solemnly, and the herald soldiers were staring clearly.

Next to the building car, more than a dozen catapults roared, throwing boulders hundreds of paces away from the city. Looking over from Li Congjing's position, it can be seen that the head of the city of Sanguan has been quite damaged, and from time to time huge stones fall on the head of the city, knocking out the gaps in the female wall. At the head of the city, not a single sergeant dared to show his head.

"With a dozen giant catapults, bombarding such a small city for two hours in a row, it is really a knife to kill chickens. Under such a commanding position, the enemy army could not be frightened, and there was only a little morale left. After a few more hours of bombardment like this, the army did not need to be attached to the ants at all, and the city was broken. Wei Dao said with a smile.

Li Congjing looked straight ahead, because the height of the building cart was already higher than the city wall, and they had a full view of the situation at the head of the city, "This is all thanks to the meritorious work of the secretary in supervising the construction of equipment for several months, otherwise how could my army have so many large catapults?" ”

Thinking of this, Li Congjing suddenly said: "Pass the order, let the catapults concentrate on attacking a little, and strive to collapse a section of its city wall!" ”

"Yes!" This military situation could not be expressed in the flag language, and the herald ran down.

"All command the envoys, the catapults will concentrate on attacking one point and knock down a section of the city wall!"

"All command the envoys, the catapults will concentrate on attacking one point and knock down a section of the city wall!"

"All command the envoys, the catapults will concentrate on attacking one point and knock down a section of the city wall!"

More than a dozen catapults paused their bombardment and adjusted their orientation, and a moment later, more than a dozen boulders of several hundred catties flew into the air again and concentrated around a section of the city wall. Although there were a lot of misses, there were also many fell on the head of the city, so that the effect was obvious, the female wall was blown down in a moment, and then the boulders fell on the main body of the city wall, and I saw the boulders falling, and the stones on the city wall flew sideways, and the dust was dense.

Seeing that this move had an effect, Li Congjing was greatly pleased, and ordered: "Ling Mengsan is ready, once the city wall collapses, listen to the order of this envoy and rush into the city for me!" ”

Half an hour later, the walls collapsed.

Li Congjing did not immediately order Meng San to attack, but let the catapult not stop attacking, and after another moment, until the traffic jam and wooden female wall used to block the broken wall in the other party's city were exhausted, and the catapult was blown into slag, Li Congjing ordered: "Order, Meng San out!" ”

In the phalanx, Meng San led the infantry to hold a shield, and rushed to the break of the city wall.

And at this moment, a white flag was raised over the city.

"General, the enemy has surrendered!" Wei Dao laughed, "Conquering the three levels today is really bloodless!" ”

Li Congjing didn't show too much of a smile, and said casually: "It's just a military town garrisoned by hundreds of people, and it's not worth boasting." ”

"Take over the city, read out the document as usual, expose Li Jitao's treason, and those who are willing to abandon the secret and make meritorious contributions to the crime will be assigned to the temporary war camp." Li Congjing walked to the building car and waved.

The siege went smoothly, in addition to the ferocious offensive of the large army and the inability of the enemy to resist, there was also the reason why the military town was unwilling to fight to the end for Li Jitao's treason.

Sanguan was defeated, and the army took over everything, but Li Congjing had no intention of stationing here, and the military camp did not move.

Because the enemy voluntarily surrendered, Li Congjing met with the general of the military town in the military camp.

This town general was in the prime of life, and he was quite brave, but he was a little depressed at the moment and was tied up by five flowers. Li Congjing let the left and right loosen the ties of the other party, and asked after the general pressed, "Li Jitao treasoned and defected to the enemy, are you willing to be buried for such disloyal and unrighteous people as this behavior that the world despises?" ”

Li Congjing had just read the information about this person from the Military Intelligence Department, and he was originally promoted by Li Sizhao, not Li Jitao's confidant, because he had the intention of letting him work for himself temporarily.

Not surprisingly, Li Congjing didn't make much effort, and the other party expressed his willingness to follow Wang Shi and discuss Li Jitao together.

"Maocheng will have some friendship with the sin general, and the sin will be willing to go to the king to say surrender." Sanguan Town will finally take the initiative to ask for help.

At this point, Li Congjing naturally had no reason not to agree, and sent someone to take him down, and before the army attacked Maocheng, he might as well let him try.

Everything was stable, and a scout came to report that Li Shaocheng had conquered Huaping.

Li Congjing indifferently said that he knew, this was expected, the garrisons in these small places, where would be the opponent of the Hundred Battles Army, whether it was the quality of the sergeants or the allocation of armor, the disparity between the strength of the enemy and us, the offensive was smooth to conform to common sense, and it was unreasonable if it did not go well.

Wei Dao stood aside at this moment and suddenly said: "Today, Fang knows the general's plan to go on this expedition, and I have to admire the general's talent!" ”

Li Congjing didn't expect Wei Dao to suddenly say this, and asked with interest: "Tell me about it." ”

Wei Dao sighed lightly: "Three thousand hundred war troops, there are two thousand old soldiers, it is an army that can be pulled into the battlefield immediately, the general has been polished for half a year, and now they are all elite; At this juncture, it is inconceivable that the general should still carry the equipment needed to equip 10,000 people to attack the city. ”

"It's not enough for such a general, when fighting head-on with the enemy's main force, it is necessary to pull it here, and take the town all the way as the cornerstone, so that the sergeant can be tempered by the fire of war, which can be described as well-intentioned. From this point of view, when my army crisscrossed Luzhou and connected the six cities, how high was the morale, and then against the tired army outside the city of Zezhou, how could I not win? ”

"The general is talented, the general is hardworking, and the subordinate knows it today, I really can't help but admire!"

Li Congjing laughed and quipped: "Mr. Wei will also be flattering?" ”

In fact, Wei Dao didn't expect that Li Congjing came to attack this small place, in addition to the meaning of training troops in actual combat, the most important thing was to use this time to let Zezhou consume more Li Dong's coalition army outside the city.

Anyway, Li Congjing has already remembered that in history, Li Dong's coalition army attacked Zezhou, but it took half a year to defeat it.

In Wei Dao's view, Li Congjing took great pains to win the battle of Zezhou and Luzhou, and took every step very cautiously, and did not hesitate to meet the battle with the best armaments and equipment that exceeded the conventional scale several times, and also collected the town army in Luzhou, which was a knife used to kill chickens, for which he admired Li Congjing.

Li Congjing knew what Wei Dao meant, he smiled and didn't say much.

This time, he did use a knife to go on the expedition, but he didn't go to kill chickens.

At this time, of course, Li Congjing would not tell him that rescuing Zezhou was just a convenient move; Attacking Luzhou was just a secondary plan. Li Congjing's real plan, except for himself, I'm afraid few people know about it at this time. And once his plan is implemented, it will surprise everyone.

That would be a, big layout.

Right now, it's just getting started.