It is a small city built on the edge of a babbling river, with a radius of almost three miles. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info It is very dilapidated, the walls more than three feet high are full of smoke and fire, and the mutilated stomping and the potholes above it all silently tell of its current weakness. The black wooden gate had obviously been subjected to a violent impact, and it was long since twisted into a straight line, and it was difficult to close even if it was closed. The small city has no moat. It may have been filled in long ago. A potholed yellow mud road runs from one side of the gate and crosses the entire city to the other side of the gate. The city gate that opens shows that it is not very prosperous, and there are very few shops on both sides of the avenue.

"Where is this?" Li Sheng, who was standing on a small hill not far from Xiyang County, rolled his eyes and asked Shi Guangyuan, who was following him.

"If I'm not mistaken. Over here...... This should be the county seat of Xiyang. Seeing such a dilapidated city, Shi Guangyuan swallowed his saliva and replied with a disappointed and frustrated face.

“…… That's right! Li Sheng looked at the city gate in front of him in disbelief. The word Xiyang is indeed written above the upper city gate. Yet, "Why is my place so ruined?" Li Sheng was a little frantic with annoyance: "Is this still a city with a population of 40,000?" Maybe it can't be everyone living in the city, but the population outside the city can never exceed 10,000, that is, the county needs to have at least 30,000 people living in the county, but at the moment, no matter how you look at it, there are less than 10,000 people in the county. ”

"This ...... What's going on? Li Sheng called his intelligence analyst Luo Zhao and asked.

"Well, I think it's because the information we've got is too old." Luo Zhao was stunned when he heard this, and then said with a wry smile.

"The intelligence is too old? Tell us about the situation. Li Sheng wanted to explain in more detail.

"That's right." Luo Zhao paused, cleared his throat and said, "Actually, the introductions about Xiyang in our hands, including the number of people, are actually all materials from three years ago. Due to the diligent change of Xiyang county order, often the new county order dies after staying in Xiyang for less than a few months, and there is no time to investigate the situation in Xiyang as a whole, so that some of what we get are wrong. ”

"Bastard!" Regarding the occurrence of such an oolong incident, Li Sheng only had verbal cursing. However, cursing was to no avail, and Li Sheng could only swallow his anger and accept the current situation temporarily. But he still stared at Luo Zhao with an unkind face: "Without proper information, how can we manage here?" ”

"When I was in Jiangxia, I had already sent someone here to investigate. It is estimated that new information will come in the next few days. Luo Zhao said calmly.

"I see." Li Sheng nodded understandingly: "How many days?" That's still bearable. He glanced at the ruined Xiyang City fiercely, and gave a leisurely order: "The whole army is ready to enter the city." ”

"Whew!" The melodious and majestic sound of the horn sounded in Li Sheng's ranks. They strode down the bare hill. They drove towards the west sun.

At this moment, Xicheng is full of tense atmosphere. The atmosphere was very strange, and in the faint dreary there was a kind of gold and iron resonance, which made it easy to associate it with a bloody battlefield. In fact, it is true that there is already a team of 5,000 people in this Xiyang City. They are either armed around Xiyang, or the remnants of the Yellow Turbans who came over the Dabie Mountain, or various large and small thief groups gathered in the suburbs of Xiyang, anyway, they have all kinds of identities. He gathered here to hide in all corners of Xiyang City, with only one goal in mind - to defeat the Xiyang County Commander who was escorted by the army, and ensure that the four counties of Jiangbei were not controlled by others.

Huang Zujiu did not administer the four northern counties, which made the four counties administratively chaotic and completely under the control of various large and small armed forces. It is very easy for people to gain their rights and enjoy their rights, but it is not easy for them to give up their rights. Although they usually fought with each other, whenever the county commander sent by Liu Biao's regime in Jingzhou arrived, they often worked together to deal with Liu Biao's people. After all, Liu Biao's people are in Jingzhou, and in Jiangxia County, they represent the existence of this legal system, and it is very likely that they want to take back the privileges in the hands of these people. In order to ensure that their privileges are not lost, representatives of these large and small forces have to unite. For them, these four northern counties are their paradise, and they are absolutely allowed to be touched by others.

They had long known the news that Li Sheng was going to come to Xiyang to serve as the county magistrate. The news came from the allies in the east. As a force that has a lot of hatred for Liu Biao in Jingzhou, they naturally will not have the existence of "whistleblowers" in Jingzhou. Out of disappointment with Liu Biao, some talents in Jingzhou went north to join Cao Cao, such as Kong Ming's friend Meng Jian, and some communicated with Jiangdong in secret, and privately passed on information about Jingzhou, such as the news that Li Sheng was going to Xiyang this time.

They knew that Li Sheng was heavily guarded this time, and they also judged from Jingzhou's unexpected move: Liu Biao and Huang Zu obviously had a plan to use force to completely understand their forces in the four northern counties of Jiangxia.

"They're going to use force with us." The news spread like pebbles on the surface of a calm lake.

The use of force means war, it means bloodshed, it means that the struggle between the two sides ends with another complete defeat. In response to such an existential threat, the large and small forces in the four northern counties once again gathered to discuss countermeasures. Some of those who have ties to Koto have put forward the idea of "gathering our own forces to fight each other."

"But we don't have enough troops." Some of the forces are also cautious in asking the question, "How can this fight the other side?" ”

That's a challenge. There are dozens of large and small forces entrenched in the four northern counties, and their strength is not very large, the big ones have 300 people, and the small ones are only a dozen or 20 people, and all the troops here are added up, which is only a little more than 2,000. In terms of troops, there is no advantage over the troops brought by Li Sheng. Compared with combat power, the two are even more different. After all, Li Sheng brought a regular army, including two thousand Jiangxia elites, and these people were just a rabble united for their own interests, and they were not comparable to Li Sheng's army at all. Let them fight with Li Sheng, with their own enthusiasm, they can still agree, but that is when their forces are superior. If there is no advantage at all like this, they will not agree to it anyway.

So, at the suggestion of the cautious man, they immediately hesitated.

"It's not a problem. Many of you are afraid that you have some connection to the north. As long as we give some benefit to the north, I think they will send troops to help us. The man who proposed the troops said with a smile. He seemed to have long thought that someone would bring it up.

The people in the north refer to the remnants of the Yellow Turban Army north of Jiangxia that belong to the hidden Yellow Turban Army in the Dabie Mountains of Yuzhou. Although these people have always had their base camp in Yuzhou, they sometimes cross the mountains to wreak havoc in Jiangxia in order to increase their income. They have a certain relationship with some powerful people in the four northern counties. It is true that the Yellow Turban Army was originally established to bring down the rich, but in the process of overthrowing the rich, they gradually degenerated, and now the people who are connected with the remnants of the Yellow Turban Party are those who are powerful in the local area.

"It should be fine." A few people in the deliberative crowd nodded slightly. They all knew what would happen if this territory was occupied by Liu Biao's people: a son of heaven and a courtier. Even if the person sent by Liu Biao is as bad as himself and likes to be powerful, it is only after the current chaos is cleaned up.

These people, including the remnants of the Yellow Turban Army in the north, all hope that the territory in front of them will be as chaotic as possible, while the people above hope that the territory can be safe and stable. The irreconcilable conflict between the two makes it impossible for the two sides to compromise. Not only are these people very nervous about the arrival of the officials appointed by Liu Biao, but even the remnants of the Yellow Turban are the same, and even they are even more nervous than their own people. Because they knew very well that the officials of the Han Dynasty after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, no matter which monarch in the world they served, were unlikely to collude with the Yellow Turban thieves.

"They should be more nervous than we are. As long as we send a messenger to say it. Nine times out of ten, the matter was settled. Speaking of this, everyone's hearts were a little intoxicated: "Because if there are thieves from the Yellow Turban Army in Runan to attack, then the strength of your own side will be at least more than 4,000." This should be able to easily defeat the new prefectural order and win. ”

As a result, the decision to use force to contend with Li Sheng and hold Xiyang was born in the midst of everyone's discussions. They moved quickly, mobilized the troops they could command, and stationed them in Xiyang. In just three days, the small city of Xiyang gathered so many 5,000 people.

Because it was estimated that Li Sheng would arrive about today, they let their men ambush first. They guessed that Li Sheng didn't know what was happening in Xiyang. So they wanted to give Li Sheng a big surprise.

"Close the city gate in broad daylight and wait for the county order to call the city. Since they did not think of our presence, they would certainly not have set up a battle formation in front of the city gates. As soon as the sound of the city was heard, we immediately rushed out of the city to kill them. Although we can't do it in one battle, we can really kill a little bit of their spirit, eliminate some of their men, and let our next plan be better implemented. "The name of the person who said this was Liu Ji.

He was originally a scholar in the Hou Hou's family, but because he had an affair with the master's concubine and was worried about being discovered, he colluded with thieves to occupy the Hou Hou's family business without doing anything, and became a major force in the Hou Hou country. Because he was originally a scholar, he still had some knowledge, and he understood some military strategies in the confrontation with other forces, so he was selected as a military advisor in this move to give advice to everyone.

"That's really clever. Ordinary people would never think of it. When everyone heard that Liu Ji said this plan, they immediately patted their thighs and applauded. It's unexpected, and it's very simple to operate - people who haven't read much of a military book just like it.

The battle plan was drawn up in this way, and then they directly controlled Xiyang. Although on the surface, as before, there were people coming in and out of the ruined city gates from time to time, but those who came in and out were all people under their own power, and ordinary people had long been ordered by them not to go out in their houses.

Li Sheng didn't know about their behavior. He was on his way to Xiyang at the time, and he handed over all the matters related to reconnaissance and intelligence to his subordinate Luo Zhao. Although Luo Zhao had already sent a large number of people to Xiyang City to take charge of the situation in the hall, because the various forces had strengthened their control over Xiyang both openly and secretly, what they had detected could not be transmitted, and Li Sheng could not understand the sudden change in the current situation in Xiyang.

Therefore, Li Sheng, who knew nothing about everything, led his own team and drove towards Xiyang carelessly. Speaking of carelessness, it may have wronged them, but in fact they have maintained a certain degree of vigilance. It's just that such vigilance is not placed on the formation outside the city, but on the defense after entering the city. Among Li Sheng and his staff, they all regard Xiyang as the city on their side. They didn't expect to be turned away like an enemy.

After nearly two quarters of an hour of walking, Li Sheng's team finally came to the gate of Xiyang City. They looked at the closed city gate and felt a little strange, but because of their habits and thoughts, they didn't think about the bad side of things, and still asked the soldiers with loud voices to go to the city gate and call the door: "Quickly open the city gate, the new Xiyang County Commander Li Sheng has arrived." ”

It's good not to shout, but as soon as you shout, the whole city has undergone an amazing change. Although it was not quiet, but there were only some quiet cities, suddenly boiled, and all kinds of noisy voices rose up, and it seemed that many people started their actions after the shouts fell.

"What the hell is going on?" Li Sheng, who only heard the sound but did not see the city gate opened, suddenly felt a worry from his heart. He narrowed his eyes and carefully examined the situation in the city. Through the cracks in the gate, which were twisted and could not be closed, he could faintly see some running crowds and weapons held in their hands. "Not good, Xiyang is occupied by the enemy." He quickly sensed this.

"What?" Shi Tao and Luo Zhaozheng, who stayed by Li Sheng's side, were stunned when they heard this, and then heard Li Sheng's loud shouting order: "The whole army is on alert and ready for battle." ”

"Ready to fight? What's going on? Aren't you ready to go into town? Why is it going to start fighting all of a sudden? The soldiers who suddenly received this order were very puzzled. Although they did so, they were a little slower than usual.

However, because of such a slowness, the gate of Xiyang was opened when Li Sheng's side was not yet in formation. A monstrous shout of killing came from inside the city, and as the sound approached, both the soldiers and the generals on Li Sheng's side saw a scene that made them uneasy—they couldn't count the number of people who raised all kinds of weapons in their hands and rushed towards them like a tide like a crazy tide. They all looked murderous, as if they were about to tear all the enemies in front of them to pieces.

"Kill!" The people who came out of Xiyang City shouted loudly. They spared no effort to run, and soon rushed into Li Sheng's army, which had not yet condensed into a formation. A scuffle began. The men who rushed out of the gates were tangled with the soldiers who were guarding the outside of the city but seemed to be somewhat helpless. In the chaos of human figures, they could easily distinguish who was the enemy and who was their comrade-in-arms, after all, the armor of the two was so different: the side that rushed out of the city was mostly dressed in the cloth clothes of the common people, and even if there was occasional armor to defend themselves, it was also broken armor; Guarding outside the city was the army with distinct armor, and with the support of Jingzhou's strong financial resources, the armor and weapons of Jingzhou Xiangyang soldiers and Jiangxia soldiers were quite good.

Just good equipment and good training don't stop them from retreating now. Because their formation was out of order, they could not resist the attack of these people who rushed out of the city.

The blades of the weapons shone brightly in the sun's light, reflecting the fierce faces of the people on the battlefield. In this melee, the so-called orderly training has no effect, and if you want to live, you must have stronger strength than others.

The two-foot spear is obviously no longer suitable for this kind of battlefield where the enemy is three feet in front of him. The sword and the sword, two weapons of hand-to-hand combat, became the masters of the moment. A fierce knife slashed down, and a man was cut in two in a miserable howl. A swift and light sword blade swung out, trembling slightly, and a life clutched its throat and fell. Coordination is not the most important thing here, it is the skill and strength of the individual that matters.

Because of the small number of bandits and "rebel" groups, it is impossible for them to conduct drills in the battle formations, and the struggle between them often relies on their enthusiasm and personal ability. They are unable to cooperate with weapons, and some can only enhance their combat effectiveness through their own continuous training. If you had to send ten men to fight the best soldiers, they would have won. And in a battle of hundreds or thousands of people, they are the losing side. Because the soldiers have the cooperation of formation, and they can only rely on their own strength. Once the soldiers are in formation, they can only admit defeat.

"They must not be allowed to form up." This is the thought in the hearts of all the thieves. With this in mind, they intensified their attacks, running again and again to disrupt the regular army soldiers who were supposed to be gathered.

The attacks from these unknown enemies in the city were so terrifying that they were like waves rushing to the beach. Everywhere there were terrible roars, mournful howls, and the clashing of swords. Life passes here incessantly, and in the mutual attack, one person after another falls. Although there are enemies among them, more of them are their own people in regular armor. Right now, I'm at a disadvantage - this is already a matter of no doubt.

"Damn it!" Seeing that the number of deaths of the army on the battlefield greatly exceeded the death toll of the other party, but whether he had the ability to change such a situation, Li Sheng couldn't help but let out a frustrated scolding. A feeling of powerlessness gripped his chest, and he hated it.

"What should I do?" Since you can't solve this problem yourself, you can only ask the regular general. As in Yuzhang three years earlier, the general in command of this army was Huang Zhong, and the deputy general was Wei Yan. At present, Wei Yan, as a deputy general, personally killed at the front of the team, trying to prevent the enemy from advancing step by step, while Huang Zhong followed Li Sheng's side to judge the situation of the entire battle situation with him. And Li Sheng's question was obviously asked of General Huang Zhong.

"The enemy is good at melee, but our army is good at formation. Today's events, the enemy knows us, but I do not know the enemy, it is the enemy who is dark and I am clear, and if we continue to fight, I am afraid that it will be more and more unfavorable to our army, so I hope to be able to withdraw my troops as soon as possible. Huang Zhong looked at the confused and chaotic battlefield in front of him, and then calmly said his conclusion. Perhaps because of the blow of the defeat of Yuzhang three years ago and some "depression", Huang Zhong after three years looks much older and more calm than three years ago. His eyes were very sharp, and he quickly saw the advantages and disadvantages of the entire battlefield at the moment.

"Retreat?" Li Sheng's eyes burst into a gleam, he glanced at the battle formation in front of him, and said sideways to Huang Zhong: "Since you think you should retreat, then retreat." Our soldiers have sacrificed enough today, and we are really embarrassed to let them sacrifice any more, so let's retreat three miles. ”

"Understood!" Huang Zhong nodded with a serious expression, and waved the order flag in his hand, but he took dozens of his guards directly on the horse and forced towards the chaotic battle formation in front of him. For the entangled enemy, if you want to retreat, you can only do your best to give the other party a hard blow and make their hearts ache.

That's what Huang Zhong is doing right now. As soon as he approached the enemy under the escort of the guards, he silently put away the long knife in his hand, drew his bow and arrows, and galloped. I didn't see how he aimed, so I saw that his hand on the arrow kept pulling and releasing it, and the sound of the bowstring plucking kept sounding, and he found that the arrows that were as sharp as lightning shot out from the big bow in his hand and disappeared into the group of soldiers who were circling Wei Yan one by one.

"The bowstring should be everywhere, and everything falls. The arrows are red, the throat is pierced through the heart, and the magic skill is exhaled. Watching the big bow in Huang Zhong's hand continue to shoot arrows to kill the enemy, surrounded by the enemy legions, Wei Yan suddenly felt the pressure relieved, and couldn't help but breathe a long sigh of relief, and such a passage involuntarily popped up in his heart. This was something he had seen in an ancient book, and it was about the ancient archer Yang Yuki, and this incisive description was used to illustrate the mastery of Yang Yuji's archery skills.

"He's undoubtedly up to Yuki's level." Wei Yan looked at Huang Zhong's vigorous and calm posture, and thought so in his heart.

Huang Zhong led dozens of guards to constantly wander outside the enemy group, shooting the enemy with bows and arrows. And Wei Yan led a group of brave warriors around him to rush forward. Under the internal and external attacks of these two peerless fierce generals, the momentum of the enemy's attack was suppressed, and it gradually reversed.

"Damn it! Are these people crazy? How did we lose so many people all at once? The thieves complained. Due to the sudden increase in the opponent's strength, it was not easy for the thieves in the battle. Looking at the faces of the other party that suddenly became hideous, he felt the decisive momentum exuded from them. Forced by such momentum, the thieves felt the fierceness of the battle and the slightness of their own lives for the first time. Although they are all standard outlaws, they also have to die when they need to die. Seeing that the officers and troops on the other side were losing one after another, everyone thought that victory was a matter of course. At this moment when they saw that they could be victorious, they could not have the idea of fighting the enemy in any way.

Since you have no intention of fighting with the other party, it is better to see it as soon as possible. Although Liu Ji, the military advisor who had many opinions, was very opposed to this, he was not able to disobey this order when most of the leaders in the army agreed. As a result, the crisp sound of Jin Di continued to sound in Xiyang City, ordering the thieves to slowly retreat and break away from the contact with Li Shengjun, who suddenly became fierce.

At the moment, the two sides are shutting down. The thieves retreated to Xiyang City, while Li Sheng's troops withdrew to camp about three miles from Xiyang City. This section is a flat land by the river, located in the upper reaches of Huangshui on the edge of Xiyang, and is a fairly good place to camp.

Quickly set up the camp, Li Sheng gathered his subordinates and generals in his military tent with a gloomy face. He was very unhappy with the outcome of today's battle. Although the two sides withdrew their troops and seemed to have fought a draw, Li Sheng's losses on his side far exceeded those on the opposite side, both from the perspective of the situation on the battlefield and in terms of the comparison of casualties between the enemy and us that were counted in the end. Feeling the low morale of the soldiers in the barracks, and counting the remaining number of troops in front of him, Li Sheng had to admit that his side had lost today's battle, and it was a very miserable loss - of the 2,500 soldiers he brought, only about 2,000 were left. In just one day, his side has lost so much of everything. Such a result could not satisfy Li Sheng and others.

In response to the question "Why is this happening?" "Why did you suddenly fall under the combined attack of these thieves? Li Sheng didn't want to pursue too many questions. After all, these things are unimaginable to everyone in the tent. Whether it is Li Sheng, Luo Zhao, or Huang Zhong, they must all be responsible for the current situation.

In fact, after suffering such a big loss, it is useless to simply pursue responsibility. The key now is not to punish the most responsible person, but to think about how to deal with these damn things.

"We must not just forget about the things that have made us suffer such a big loss, we must also let them suffer." Everyone walked into the Chinese military tent with this full of anger. For today's battle, they are not convinced. They thought it was an unfair battle - the reason why the thieves in Xiyang City caught themselves off guard was that they took it by surprise.

"If we have a normal battle between the two sides face to face, I'm afraid that the final result should be reversed." It is definitely uncomfortable to be pressed and beaten, so Wei Yan's anger is particularly strong, even in the Chinese military tent, he does not give Li Sheng any face and mutters to them gently: "Today's things are really unfair, those people don't have the courage to ...... at all"

"Fair? What kind of fairness do you think will emerge? Regarding Wei Yan's complaint, Li Sheng shook his head helplessly. There is no question of fairness or injustice in war. If you can win, it means that you have something better than the other party. Instead of complaining about the viciousness of the enemy's schemes, it is better to come up with an idea to make the other side suffer. ”

"This ......" Wei Yan, who was said to be a little right, nodded helplessly, and slowly calmed down his mind, he wanted to see how Li Sheng himself dealt with the current problem.