A few days later, the spies reported: "Changsha general Huang Zhong led an army of 10,000 to Yanxian. ”

Liu Qi and Xu Shu discussed for a long time, thinking that this time should not act rashly, because Huang Zhong is a generation of famous generals after all, with rich combat experience, and he is also a general, and he is even supported by the sergeants, and the soldiers under his command are willing to serve him, plus this person is brave, once he forcibly fights a decisive battle like dealing with Du Zheng, he may lead his own side to win, and he will definitely damage Yan Zhan, and he will not be able to carry out a follow-up war, so it is best to rely on defending the city to consume the opponent's strength.

Within three days, Huang Zhong led an army of 10,000 to the north gate, and the army set up camp, and after a simple night's rest, he immediately led the army to attack the city at dawn the next day.

After Huang Zhong's siege began, Liu Du and Zhao Fan also responded immediately, and the situation of the joint siege of the three-way army was formed again.

In fact, although Liu Du and Zhao Fan's army has nearly 30,000 people, it is not particularly difficult to defend, and the general defensive means are enough to contain it, but Huang Zhong's 10,000 army is indeed a strong opponent, because among Huang Zhong's 10,000 people, there are 3,000 archers, and the archery skills of these 3,000 archers are all good, although they are under the city, they can pose a threat to the defenders in the city. Especially the most elite of the three hundred personal soldiers, the archery skills can even be compared to the average general, can accurately shoot the enemy a hundred steps away, Huang Zhong's three thousand archers, especially the three hundred personal soldiers, made Liu Qi's defenders suffer a big loss, in just over an hour, the defenders who died under these archers are not less than a thousand!

What made people even more angry and speechless was that Huang Zhong actually used 3,000 archers to suppress the guards at the head of the city with bows and arrows, but he ordered the remaining troops to take the opportunity to fill the moat and set up siege ladders to storm the city.

Especially outside the north city gate, Huang Zhong drove a number of rushing cars and launched a violent impact on the city gate, which made the city gate, which originally looked impregnable, now start to shake.

"Huang Zhongpifu!" Liu Qi couldn't help gritting his teeth, and he couldn't wait to arrest Huang Zhong and behead him personally.

At this moment, Xu Shu suddenly said to Liu Qijian: "You can open the city gate, order Wei Yan to lead the cavalry out of the city, and destroy his rushing car." ”

Liu Qi was overjoyed and immediately gave an order to Wei Yan.

Wei Yan received the order, and immediately opened the city gate with three hundred cavalry, and then launched a charge like a whirlwind, and set fire to the city chariot.

In order to prevent bows and arrows, those rushing cars are often covered with cowhide and smeared with oil, but this method has a weakness, that is, it is particularly afraid of fire, and now Wei Yan suddenly rushed out and burned the rushing car with fire, which made Huang Zhong unexpected, and sighed.

At this time, the soldiers who set up the siege ladder and climbed the city wall had already set foot on the city, and Xu Shuti's army hid behind the female wall, and then led the crowd to kill after the enemy soldiers jumped into the inner wall. In this way, although the defenders were somewhat passive, they were not suppressed by the archers under Huang Zhong's command.

And because the attacking and defending sides were caught in a melee at the head of the city, Huang Zhong's archers were afraid of accidental injuries, so it was difficult to play a role for a while.

As more and more enemy soldiers climbed onto the city wall, the battle on the city became more and more fierce, both sides were brave people, knowing that they would die, but they did not hesitate to rush forward and fight with the enemy.

A guard commander saw that not far in front of him, the enemy soldier cut off the arm of one of his brothers with a knife, and with a roar of the knife he swung forward to cut off the head of the enemy soldier.

But at that moment, an enemy soldier stabbed out with a spear that even picked out his intestines. The elder shouted, and immediately pounced on him, grabbed the enemy soldier by the neck, and then strangled the enemy soldier to death with great skill. But unexpectedly, another enemy soldier rushed over, and the short sword stabbed directly into the throat of this chief......

Seeing that this chief was dead, several soldiers next to him all rushed over like crazy, chopping the sneaking enemy soldier into meat sauce in an instant......

Similar battles are staged one after another, some soldiers jump off the city wall directly with the attacking enemy soldiers, and die with them, some bite with their teeth, kick with their feet, pinch with their hands, hit with their heads and elbows, all kinds of desperate ways, from the beginning of the siege to now only two hours have passed, Liu Qi's defending army has lost nearly 3,000 people, of which except for 1,000 people who died under the enemy archers, the remaining about 2,000 people were all killed in this cruel desperate way.

Of course, this desperate effort also caused Huang Zhong's besieging side to lose nearly 5,000 men.

Both sides lost nearly 10,000 people, and even the entire northern city wall was stained red with blood, and a mutilated and hideous corpse was lying everywhere, and a strong smell of blood wafted in the air, which made people smell sick.

However, it is gratifying that the entire county town is still firmly in the hands of Liu Qi's army, and although Huang Zhong's siege soldiers are brave, they have never been able to stand firm in the city.

This made Huang Zhong feel particularly depressed, he had never had such a strange thing for more than 20 years, he had obviously suppressed the defenders on the opponent's city wall with powerful archers, and his elite and brave military had climbed the opponent's city wall, but he still did not capture the opponent's city, while his own warriors remained on the opponent's city wall forever.

In desperation, Huang Zhong had no choice but to order the collection of troops and ordered people to go to Linxiang to move reinforcements, preparing to attack the city with another strategy.

And when Huang Zhong retreated to the camp, he learned that the enemy soldiers guarding the north city wall had reached more than 10,000 people, and these 10,000 people were all Jingzhou elites, while the south city wall was guarded by less than 10,000 old, weak, sick and disabled, but only this strength firmly defended Liu Du and Zhao Fan's wave after wave of attacks, and the Liu Zhao coalition army could only reluctantly announce its withdrawal after paying the price of nearly 3,000 casualties.

"What a rice bucket. I really don't know how Liu Du and Zhao Fan became the Taishou of the big county, with three times the enemy's strength, and most of the other party is old, weak, sick and disabled, and they didn't even attack the other party's city. Huang Zhong couldn't help but scold, if Liu Du and Zhao Fan were right in front of him, he even had the urge to strangle them to death directly.

Although the city was successfully defended, the casualties caused by Liu Qi's army this time were indeed very heavy, and nearly 3,000 elite Jingzhou warriors were so bloody about the city, which made the subsequent celebration of the successful defense of the city become lifeless and lacked the joyful atmosphere it deserved.

Countless robes left them forever, those people were the survivors' brothers, fellow villagers, relatives and even teachers and friends, but in just two hours, they left forever, leaving their familiar and affectionate robes, and the fearful generals, they did the duty that a soldier should fulfill, and also fulfilled their solemn oath of sacrificing their lives and hoping for death to protect their families and defend the country.

But the hearts of these living people are extremely heavy.

Liu Qi asked people to move the corpses of all the Jingzhou soldiers who died in the war together, and a big pit was raised, and they were cremated and buried in the big pit, Liu Qi personally sacrificed to them, and said sadly: "Brothers, you should emerge young life for the sake of the country's society, your sacrifice is as heavy as Mount Tai, the people of Jingzhou will not forget you, the majority of soldiers will not forget you, and I, Liu Qi, will never forget you, I will definitely lead the army to subdue the three counties, and return you a peaceful Jingzhou, or even a peaceful world." ”

With tears in his eyes, Liu Qi read the memorial text, offered sacrificial wine, and then ordered someone to register and make a register, record the names of all the soldiers who died in the war one by one, and then give them a bereavement to their families, promising that their families could get 100 acres of land, and ensuring that their families would be exempt from taxes within three generations.

Liu Qi's words made all the soldiers present feel a burst of warmth in their hearts. In this troubled era, human life is not as good as chickens and dogs, and the soldiers who fight are treated as grass mustard, only some famous generals are willing to treat soldiers well, but they can respect the lives of soldiers like Liu Qi, it can be said that it is unique, and the young general they saw treated those soldiers who died so sincerely, as if those who died were his relatives. And such a table makes everyone unable to see that there is a trace of falsification.

If one or two people can't see it, then it may be that they are pretending, but tens of thousands of people can't see it, unless it proves that the other party is a person who is particularly scheming and good at disguise, it can definitely be determined that his heart is full of sincerity.

According to the contact with the young general for many days, everyone completely ruled out the former possibility, so everyone unanimously agreed that the young general did express his greatest sincerity to those soldiers who died in battle, and definitely not just for them to see the living soldiers.

Therefore, there was a wave of pride and pride on their faces: our general can respect us so much, can arrange the things after our death in detail, and even arrange the things after three generations, even if we die, we really don't have any regrets, and we are really willing to go to the soup for him to follow such a general.

And at this moment, a team of more than 10,000 people quietly walked out from outside the east gate of Yuannan City. The two young generals led this army and rushed straight in the direction of Yiyang City, and then when they were about to arrive in Yiyang, they suddenly deviated from the direction, crossed the vast mountainous area, and rushed directly in the direction of Yiyang County.

"Mr. Huang, are you sure that you will do this? It's hundreds of miles of mountains, and we'll lose our way if we're not careful. The general, who was about twenty years old, said suspiciously to a handsome scribe with yellow hair and a slightly dark face.

"Hehe, Huo Junhou can rest assured, I am improved from Sinan during the Warring States Period, and my grasp of the direction is very accurate, to ensure that everyone can reach Xiangxiang after crossing the mountain road, Xiangxiang County will never expect our army to fall from the sky, we can take Xiangxiang lightly, and then take a shortcut from Xiangxiang, and we will be able to reach Yuxian in less than five days, and we will definitely give your eldest son a big surprise when the time comes."

The scribe surnamed Huang said lightly to the young general surnamed Huo.