"The lord has already dealt with Zang Ba, and it seems that it is time to let Tao Qian cross the river. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info" Liu Ji read Liu Miao's letter, pondered silently for a moment, then put away the letter and summoned the herald, "Send a message to Xu Da, ask him to pay close attention to the movements of Tao Qian's army on the other side, as long as Tao Qian starts to cross the river on a large scale, he can abandon the riverbank defense line and withdraw all his troops to Xiapi City." ”

"Whoa!" The herald quickly took the order and left.

On March 21, the second year of Chuping, in the early morning, there was no wind.

Cao Bao, the vanguard officer of the Xuzhou Army, led 3,000 soldiers to cross the river suddenly, and Xu Dabu, who was guarding the south bank of Zushui, was unexpected, and was forcibly opened a gap by Cao Bao's department.

After Xu Da realized that it was difficult to defend, he decisively chose to retreat with all his troops, and Zu Shui completely fell into the control of Tao Qian's army.

Tao Qian was overjoyed and reaffirmed the conclusion that the main force of Liu Miao's army had been transferred, so he ordered the whole army to march to Xiapi, hoping to take back Xiapi City in one go.

At noon that day, Tao Qian's nearly 20,000 troops had rushed to Xiazhai outside Xiapi City.

Taking advantage of the time of establishing the village, Tao Qian personally led several generals to check outside the city of Xiapi.

At this time, the four gates of Xiapi City were closed, and there were many soldiers patrolling back and forth at the head of the city, and they did not play any banners.

Tao Qian summoned a deputy general who was in charge of probing the enemy's situation and asked, "Do you know who is guarding the city under Pi?" ”

The lieutenant general thought for a moment before he replied with some uncertainty: "It should be Xu Da, who was deployed on the south bank of Zushui before, but there is still Liu Miao's military advisor Liu Ji in the city." ”

Tao Qian listened, shook his head and sneered: "They are all unknown people, and I don't know where Liu Miao Xiao'er came from. ”

Cao Hong said: "What the lord said is very true, as far as I know, Liu Miao likes to use some unknown people, and the original officials in Jiujiang have been suppressed by him." But it's also difficult for him, how many celebrities in the world can afford him to be a yellow-mouthed child? ”

Tao Qian said: "It seems that the city has taken precautions, so let him go for the time being." You have stepped up the resettlement of the camp, grain, grass, and siege equipment must be transported at an accelerated pace, and early tomorrow morning, we will begin to attack the city and strive to get down with one drum. ”

The entourage responded in unison: "No! ”

In Xiapi City, Liu Ji, Xu Da, and Shi Jian had already received the news of Tao Qian's arrival and were gathering together to discuss.

Liu Ji said: "Tao Qian's main force is so eager to come to Xiapi, I expect it to attack the city tomorrow at the latest, and the two must order the soldiers to guard the city and prepare for a big battle." ”

Xu Da said: "It's better to take advantage of its unstable foothold, how about I lead a thousand Xuanjia troops to the robbery camp tonight?" ”

Liu Ji thought for a while, shook his head and said, "We don't need to take risks, just wait for Tao Qian to attack." Our elite troops have 9,000, and the rest of the ordinary soldiers also have several thousand, the city defense is complete, the money and food are sufficient, and Tao Qian will not be able to take advantage of it even if he has 20,000 more. Our task is to drag Tao Qian here, break a few of his teeth first, and then the lord will make his own arrangements. ”

"In that case, Da first went to inspect the city defenses."

"Okay, the head of the city will be handed over to Tiande." Liu Ji nodded to Xu Da, and then instructed Shi Liandao, "Gong Liu, you must strengthen patrols in the city, especially pay attention to the movements of the major clans in the city at all times, and don't let them collude with Tao Qian." ”

"Don't worry." Shi Lian hugged his fists.

On the second day, as soon as the sky was bright, Tao Qianjun had already had breakfast, and almost the whole battalion set out to the east of Xiapi City to line up.

Tao Qian held Cao Bao's hand again in the Chinese military tent and said solemnly: "The siege of the city will be handed over to General Cao, and the Qing will have full command." Qian is here to wait for the triumphant news, and I hope to enter the city of Pi tonight to congratulate the generals! ”

"Don't worry, the lord of Jiujiang is like a chicken and a dog, and he will definitely live up to the lord's expectations!" Cao Bao replied solemnly, then waved his hand and went to the front of the battle with a few generals.

Cao Bao sat on the war horse in front of the battle, looked at the tall city wall and suspension bridge of Xia Pi with contemptuous eyes, slowly raised the sword given by Tao Qian, and shouted: "Zhang Min, let you take three thousand soldiers to solve the moat!" ”

"Whoa!" Zhang Min replied loudly, and then waved his spear, "Give it to me!" ”

As soon as the words fell, the herald waved the command flag.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ……”

The rumbling war drums sounded, and the 3,000 soldiers who had been prepared for a long time came out of the formation. They were all dressed in leather armor, some of them carried large shields, and some of them carried long ladders and planks.

Since Xiapi City has a moat, and it is living water, if you want to attack the city, you must first lay a passage on the moat, and the long ladder and wooden planks play this role.

The soldiers walked slowly, then jogged, and rushed to the moat in a loose formation.

All this was seen by Xu Da above the city, his expression was relaxed, and he didn't seem to care at all, only when Tao Qian's soldiers ran within a hundred steps of the city wall, he calmly ordered: "Divine arm archers, prepare!" ”

The two thousand Divine Arm Archers in the city were all sent to the top of the city, and at this time they were divided into two rows, and each of them raised their crossbow bows, which had already been loaded with crossbow arrows, and aimed at the enemy soldiers running outside the city.

Ninety steps, eighty steps......

Closer, Tao Qian's soldiers holding shields at the front gradually approached the moat.

"First row, shoot, put!" At this time, Xu Da finally gave the order.

The One Thousand Divine Arm Archers standing in the front row pulled the hanging knife expressionlessly as soon as they heard the order.

"Buzz! Airplanes! Airplanes! ……”

"Whew! Shout! Shout! ……”

The sound of the bowstring rebounding and the sound of crossbow arrows breaking through the air rang out, and in the next moment, a thousand sharp arrows had already crossed the distance of dozens of paces and rushed into Tao Qian's army array.

"Poof! Burst! Burst! ……”

In the face of the dense formation, coupled with the aiming of the Divine Arm Archers, almost no arrows missed, but most of them landed on the shields.

However, for the powerful Divine Arm Bow, at a distance of dozens of paces, the heavy shield was completely useless, and most of the arrows easily pierced through the shield, and then pierced through the thin leather armor on the soldier's body again, and shot into the soldier's body.

"Ahh ……”

There was a series of screams from Tao Qian's army, which were the voices of those unlucky people who were not shot and were half dead. Many more of those who were hit by the arrow lost their lives without even having time to scream.

The front of the three thousand soldiers was suddenly emptied, and there were a large number of corpses and wounded on the ground, and many of the bodies had one or several blood holes, which were all caused by the piercing of powerful arrows, but apart from the blood, the scene did not seem to be so tragic, at least there were no stumps and broken arms.

According to preliminary estimates, this round of shooting has attribution of at least five or six hundred, and the advance of Tao Qian's army has also been paused.

Many of the soldiers saw that the thick shields could not stop the arrows at the head of the city, and their hearts were cold, and many hesitated to move on.

They hesitated, but Xu Da above the city did not hesitate, he raised his hand high again and shouted: "Shoot again!" ”

As early as after the first round of shooting, the two rows of Divine Arm archers quickly switched positions back and forth, and the crossbowmen who had been waiting in the second row took aim quickly, while the first row of crossbowmen who fired the crossbow bolts stepped back and continued to reload the crossbow arrows.

At this time, the seasonal flag waved and the drums sounded again.

A thousand crossbow arrows were ready to fire again.