The war drums on both sides of the glue are like thunder, on the river surface about ten miles west of Jiaoxi County, the general of the thief army, Du Yaosi, led 10,000 troops to block the crossing point of the Sui army, and the dense bows and arrows were aimed at the river, and hundreds of thief soldiers stood on the river beach with sharp axes in their hands, and then prepared to destroy the pontoon bridge built by the Sui army.

On the other side of the river, 10,000 Sui troops have lined up, the Sui army collected from all over the 100 small boats moored on the shore, has been in a long line, dozens of Sui soldiers pull the rope, just wait for the main general to give an order, they will immediately let go of the rope, the gourd-like fleet will be rushed to the opposite bank by the current.

But Zhang Xutuo did not give an order, he was still patiently waiting for Zhang Xuan's cooperation, if there was no Zhang Xuan on the other side of the river, even if he forcibly built a pontoon bridge, he would lose more than a thousand people, Zhang Xutuo could not afford such a loss, Zhang Xutuo is a very cautious person, he is very aware of the other party's defense, even at night it is difficult to build a pontoon bridge successfully.

The sky was just numb, the hazy morning light shrouded the banks of the glue, and a layer of white veil floated on the river, and there was no movement on the opposite bank except for the dense enemy crossbowmen.

"What time is it?" Zhang Xutuo turned around and asked.

"It's been a moment since the return of the handsome!"

Zhang Xutuo's sharp eyes looked at the other side, the appointed time had come, why didn't Zhang Xuan come out, did they encounter an enemy ambush? But it's impossible to think about it, even if there is an ambush, someone will flee back to report the news, and it is impossible to wipe out the whole army.

Zhang Xutuo was a little anxious in his heart, and secretly looked forward to it, "Come out quickly!" ’

At this moment, there was a sudden chaos behind the enemy army on the opposite bank, the original continuous drum beat suddenly became dumb, the crossbowmen turned back in a panic, and the formation began to be chaotic. ”

Dozens of soldiers let go of the ropes, and a string of boats more than ten zhang long was driven by the current and slowly moved sideways towards the middle of the river. A dozen soldiers controlled the boat in the water.

At this time, the thieves on the east bank became more and more chaotic, and Zhang Xuan led 3,000 people to kill the thief army from behind, and the thief army was caught off guard. Killed in chaos, Zhang Xuan led 300 cavalry to rampage through the enemy camp, killing the enemy soldiers on their backs and wailing all over the field.

Wei Chigong and Pei Xingyan each led a thousand spear troops, one left and one right to attack the archers of the thief soldiers. Pei Xingyan danced the sledgehammer, only to see the sledgehammer flying left and right, the thief soldiers touched and died, next to each other, where the sledgehammer passed, the thief soldiers broke their bones and tendons, and their brains burst out, so frightened that the thieves saw the sledgehammer killing, and they all fled in despair.

Wei Chigong is also extremely fierce, although the arrow wound on his leg has not healed. But he didn't care, he saw him roaring like thunder, waving an iron rod into the dense crowd, and the thieves were knocked over one by one, and in a moment they opened a bloody road and rushed to the river.

Zhang Xuan's target was the enemy's commander, he led the cavalry to kill under the enemy's banner, and with a wave of his halberd, he urged the horse to rush towards Du Yaosi, the main general of the thief army, "Take your life!" ”

Du Yaosi was in a panic. But when he saw a young general with a silver helmet killing him, it was too late to escape, he swung his spear and stabbed at Zhang Xuan, "Dang! There was a crisp sound. The spear was picked open, and before he could react, the halberd had pierced his eyes like lightning, and Du Yaosi only felt a sharp pain in his neck, and the tip of the halberd had pierced his throat and picked off the horse. A halberd stabbed him to the ground.

Pei Xingyan can see clearly not far away, Zhang Xuan assassinated the enemy's main general with only one face, ordinary people only think that the Sui general is fierce, but Pei Xingyan saw the doorway, the halberd suddenly accelerated when there were still two feet away from the thief general, so that the thief soldier was caught off guard, this exquisite move made him secretly frightened, no wonder Wei Chigong said that he was not as good as the general, if he was against the general, what would the outcome be?

"Yuanqing, go and pick up the marshal to cross the river!"

Zhang Xuan shouted from afar, Pei Xingyan suddenly woke up, and hurriedly shouted to his subordinates: "Follow me!" ”

He urged the jade lion to cross the river to the Sui army.

The construction of the Sui army's pontoon bridge is almost over, two rows of pontoon boats have appeared on the river, the soldiers on the boat are splicing together small ones one by one, so that the pontoon bridge is slowly lengthening, and another group of soldiers are laying wooden planks and laying wooden stakes in the water, so that the pontoon boats have a fixed support in the water, on both sides of the bow, nearly 100 soldiers hold shields and spears in their hands, defending against arrows that may be shot on the opposite bank.

But in fact, it was impossible to shoot arrows on the other side, Pei Xingyan led a thousand soldiers to control both sides of the ferry, there were no enemy crossbowmen within a hundred steps, with the last two pontoon boats spliced together, the Sui army put a long plank on the shore, and the soldiers with shields rushed down from the boat.

Zhang Xutuo on the other side saw it clearly, he was overjoyed in his heart, and shouted: "Start crossing the river!" ”

'Boom! Boom! Boom! The drums of the river crossing sounded, and 10,000 Sui troops rushed to the pontoon bridge and ran to the opposite bank.

At this time, the bell for the withdrawal of the army rang on the head of the city, and Meng Rang saw that the army on the shore could not prevent the Sui army from crossing the river, so he had to order the army to enter the city.

Wei Chi Gong rose up and led a thousand soldiers to chase the enemy, and a cavalryman galloped and shouted: "General Wei Chi, the general orders you to return to the army immediately, don't chase after you!" ”

Wei Chigong nodded and shouted to the soldiers: "Stop the pursuit!" ”

The Sui soldiers stopped the pursuit of the thieves and stabilized their positions, and at the same time, groups of Sui soldiers quickly assembled on the bank of the river, and at this point, the second line of defense laid by Meng Rang was also broken by the Sui army

There was chaos in the city of Jiaoxi, tens of thousands of troops stationed outside the city retreated into the city, making the county town become crowded, especially the thief army discipline was sloppy, many thieves took the opportunity to invade people's houses, robbed property, raped women, made the county cry and scream, everywhere was chaos.

At this time, Meng Rang secretly regretted that he should not occupy the city as the king, but should occupy the dangerous mountain, which can be attacked and defended, and it will not be like now, and he can only rely on the two-foot and five-foot-high city wall to defend against the Sui army.

"Your Majesty, there are fifty village elders crying outside the gate of the mansion, asking us to restrain military discipline!"

"Your Majesty, General Ma said that there are not enough stones for defense!"

"Your Majesty, the Sui army has come to the city!"

"Gentleman"

The various reports from all directions made Meng Rang's head as big as a fight, and he simply closed the door, ignoring any reports, and just holding a few concubines to drink and have fun.

At this time, 15,000 Sui troops had arrived at the city of Jiaoxi, and the large army was stationed outside the four city walls in the south, north and east, but there was no garrison outside the west gate, giving the enemy a hope of escape.

Zhang Xutuo took a dozen generals outside the city to observe the enemy situation in the city, and he smiled at everyone: "Last year, I heard that Meng Rang had cut down a lot of large logs, and I was very worried that he would make trebuchets. But today, it seems that I still think highly of him, and I don't even have a trebuchet. ”

"The handsome man should not be underestimated!" Luo Shixin said on the side.

"I don't underestimate it!"

Zhang Xutuo smiled, and he glanced at Zhang Xuan again. Seeing that he had been pondering, he smiled and asked, "What is General Zhang thinking?" ”

"I was thinking, why didn't Meng Rang give up this county and retreat south? Hasn't he always believed in the three holes of the cunning rabbit? ”

"He ended up missing the opportunity because he was hesitant, and now he wants to retreat, and the price he has to pay is great. He won't go down this path until he has to. ”

"When is the commander going to attack the city?"

"I'm going to get ready and start the siege!"

Zhang Xutuo pointed to the moat with a horsewhip: "The moat leads directly to the glue, in the past two days, drain the water of the moat, and then fill a section of the river with soil, and then start the siege!" ”

The county town of Jiaoxi was originally two zhang high, and this summer Meng Rang organized the people to increase the height of the city by five feet, and Meng Rang originally planned to increase the city wall to three zhang, but his plan had not yet been implemented, and the Sui army began to attack Gaomi County.

Despite this, Jiaoxi City still has the highest city wall in Gaomi County, and the city wall is wide. Three carriages could be placed in parallel at the head of the city, and the thief army had prepared a large number of rolling logs and arrows, which were enough to withstand a medium-intensity siege.

But for the Sui army, the first pass is not the city wall, but the moat outside the city wall, the moat is three zhang wide, the water is one zhang deep, leading a small river water to inject, and finally flowing into the glue, the Sui army wants to break through the city. The first thing to do is to break the moat's defenses.

That night, Zhang Xutuo sent the general You Junda to lead 3,000 men around the upper reaches of the small river, re-dig a straight canal, and divert the river. The glue was introduced directly, so that the moat lost its water source.

Zhang Xutuo also sent the general Fei Qingnu to lead 3,000 people to dig a deep ditch next to the moat into the glue river, the ditch is lower than the moat bed, so that the water of the moat can be diverted, so that the moat has no water source on the one hand. On the other hand, the water is diverted away, and the water in the moat is quickly drained.

Zhang Xuan did not fall behind, although his army has made two meritorious contributions in a row, and other armies should be given some meritorious opportunities, Zhang Xutuo did not intend to let him attack the city, but Zhang Xuan still received the task, his army dug a ditch on the south, north, and east sides to lead to the moat, which was to let the soldiers carry soil along the ditch to fill the moat, and run in the ditch, which can effectively defend against the random arrow attack at the head of the city.

The three-day winding trench gradually approached the city wall, and the city wall continued to have arrows shooting down, but it did not hurt the Sui soldiers who were digging in the trench at all, dozens of soldiers took turns to fight, two soldiers dug in front, and the soldiers behind put the soil into cloth bags, and the trench was filled with bags of dug soil, which would be directly used to fill the moat.

The dawn of the day gradually came, the thief army at the head of the city suddenly saw a stunned scene, the moat has been drained, in the south, north, west three directions each has a section of more than 20 zhang wide moat was filled with mud bags, the Sui army showed superb efficiency, only overnight, the wide moat has disappeared.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

Jiaoxi City three directions drum sound, three hundred huge leather drums at the same time, the drum sound is earth-shattering, the soldiers at the head of the city are frightened, this is Zhang Xutuo's famous majestic breaking drum, the drum sound rises first, the enemy is frightened, Zhang Jin said that he also learned this trick, renamed the Hades King Suo Drum, but it is far inferior to the momentum and domineering of the majestic drum.

The morale of the Sui soldiers was also mobilized, and the 10,000 Sui soldiers lined up neatly and murderously, waiting for the order to attack.

Behind the team, fifty ladders made overnight have been prepared, this kind of ladders are directly made of fir wood four or five zhang high, sawn into about three zhang long, twenty in a row, first with a leather rope trapped, and then with a large iron nail to nail up a piece of arm-thick wood to form a ladder.

Although crudely made, it was very sturdy and very practical, and every fifty soldiers carried a ladder, which could be used as a shield when attacking, and the soldiers could run against it, which could block the arrows fired from the city, and because of its heavy weight, it was difficult for the defenders to fork it out with iron forks.

At this time, Zhang Xutuo waved his sword and shouted: "Dongcheng attack, bow and crossbow cover!" (To be continued.) )