The sky was bright, and the red sun was rising from the eastern sky.

Li Le and other generals who kept going back and forth between the four city gates were already sweating profusely, and the group turned over and dismounted under the city tower, climbed the east city tower, and didn't care about wiping the sweat beads on their faces, and immediately fell on the female wall in front of the east gate city tower with a shocked face.

About 500 paces in front of the city gate, dust and smoke were already billowing in smoke.

The four spear squares, composed of more than 2,000 Qingzhou Army foot soldiers, had been neatly arranged, and more than 20 powerful vehicle-mounted crossbows were pulled by sturdy pack horses in groups of two, and drove unhurriedly through the passage between the squares to the front of the formation, and quickly lined up in the sound of several military waiters.

The group of soldiers who accompanied the cart began to methodically fix the ballista, unload bundles of long, sharp crossbow arrows, and begin to inspect the winch machine, crossbow rope, and hammer parts, and make final preparations before firing.

Immediately afterwards, as many as 10,000 auxiliary soldiers of the Qingzhou Army, under the escort of a team of crossbowmen, rushed out, lined up in front of the formation, and then waved hoes and shovels.

In less than a stick of incense, everything under the city made Li Le and his thousands of officers and soldiers watching from the city tower stunned, watching as a trench about seven steps wide and about five hundred steps long gradually took shape in the dust and smoke rising from the sky, and it was still deepening, and extending to the north and south ends, almost enclosing the entire city wall on the east side of the city.

Li Le quickly realized something, turned around suddenly, and ordered the surrounding generals: "A few of you immediately rush to the other city gates to see if they are all the same as the situation here, go quickly!" ”

Several pale-faced captains quickly left, and Li Le turned around again, ignoring the puffs of dust swept by the southeast wind. Half-closed eyes. stared at the high platform that had been erected in the center of the Qingzhou Army's gun array. finally saw clearly the flag firmly planted on the high platform, and sighed:

"Sure enough, it's Guan Hai! This guy didn't even set the flag in the wide south of the city, or in the north direction of the city that could intercept the retreat of our army, but chose the east of the city, which is backed by a hill and has a long and narrow terrain. ”

Hu Jie, the deputy general who was lying on the female wall on Li Le's left side, was full of worry: "Judging from the situation of other gates, I'm afraid it's the same as here, the Qingzhou Army obviously wants to trap us!" ”

"At the moment the ferry port has been occupied. Our army has no way to retreat, except for breaking through the siege regardless of going out of the city to the death, the only way to defend the city is to do everything possible to wait for the arrival of reinforcements from the commander. ”

"But if you risk breaking through in the face of several times the enemy's army, you won't have much chance of winning, and I'm afraid there will be no chance of retreating."

"Not good...... General look! In front right, behind the side of the enemy general, it seems that the handsome flag of the cavalry general Liu Cun has arrived! The tall and eye-sighted guards behind Li Le exclaimed loudly.

Li Le, Hu Jie and the others were taken aback, and immediately straightened up and looked into the distance, and soon saw the Shuo Great Battle Banner flying high thousands of steps away. and the legendary golden pattern in the center of the battle flag, and the elite cavalry that stood around the battle flag no less than 2,000 people.

will be offstage. Liu Cun hurriedly returned the salute to Guan Hai and other generals, and after a few words of greeting, they boarded the three-zhang general platform built with mud and logs, Liu Cun's huge handsome flag quickly stood above the general platform, and the angel Yang Biao and others who came to watch the battle slowly followed under the respectful invitation of Cui Yan, who joined the army.

Liu Cun looked around, and saw that the thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of auxiliary soldiers who were waiting for the battle had all stopped all the affairs in their hands and looked over, so he naturally raised his right arm, lightly hit his left chest, and gave a military salute to the soldiers very solemnly, which immediately caused more than 10,000 soldiers to immediately return the salute neatly, and let out bursts of excited and wild shouts: "Wan Sheng!" Wansheng! Wan Sheng—"

"The military spirit is available, the training of your fourth division in the past few months has been fruitful, and it already has the prototype of a strong army." Liu Cun turned to Guan Hai, who was full of pride beside him: "How are the other doors arranged?" ”

Guan Hai hurriedly put away his smug face: "Li Le really did as we expected before the war, after discovering that after our army sneaked up on the ferry, not only did he not go out of the city to reinforce, but hurriedly closed the city gate and did not dare to fight, leaving us plenty of time to besiege the city." ”

"So far, the fortifications at the south gate have progressed at the same level as here, and half a quarter before the 7th Brigade 3,000 soldiers covered 10,000 auxiliaries to complete the trench construction work, and began to consolidate the two-mile-long breastwork in front of the formation......"

"The 3,000 soldiers and more than 10,000 auxiliary soldiers on the west gate were handed over to General Cheng Ji for command, and it is estimated that the trench construction has been completed at this time......

"There are 3,000 cavalry and 2,000 foot soldiers led by his subordinate deputy general Liu Pi at the north gate, and the ferry is under the control of the first part of our Eighth Brigade and 8,000 recruits, 180 crossbow cars and 28,000 special rockets are distributed on the high ground on both sides of the ferry, and another 5,000 auxiliaries are building blocking fortifications around the ferry, even if the enemy reinforcements on the north bank come in, they will not be able to surpass a step."

"In half an hour, the siege fortifications of this place and the south gate and the west gate can be repaired, and 30,000 auxiliary soldiers will go to the north gate and the ferry, and the final fortifications will be completed within three hours at the latest.

Liu Cun nodded with satisfaction: "Very good!" surrounded Li Le in the city and built a good ferry blocking position, and we won half of this battle. ”

Guan Hai, who was praised, smiled brightly, took off his silver helmet, wiped away the beads of sweat on his head, and whispered with feeling:

"In the past, the war was fought straight to the hard bridge and hard horse, even if there was a detailed plan before the war, it was not as good as the detailed specifications of our Qingzhou Army today, often killing a thousand enemies and losing eight hundred, and if you win, you will lose many brothers, and if you lose the battle, you will not be able to save one, you have never thought of establishing any military norms, you have never thought of summarizing the tactics of the battle formation, and there are not so many tactics, let alone the luxury of having all kinds of new equipment today."

"To tell the truth, don't be surprised by the lord, at the beginning, not everyone was willing to become the Qingzhou army, and they were worried that once the war came, they would be pushed to the front of the battle to die, so their subordinates and others were quite worried, but after a year of training and actual combat, the brothers all understood, and now the brothers all say that it is the greatest luck in this life to be able to follow the lord to fight in the world, even if he dies on the battlefield, it is not in vain to live this life!"

Guan Hai's words were indeed motivated.

Before defecting to Liu Cun, all the generals of the Yellow Turban Army, including Guan Hai, never imagined that army building and warfare would contain such a wide range of knowledge and involve so many fields that they had never thought of.

It wasn't until he led his troops into the Qingzhou Army base camp to train and was fortunate enough to participate in a month-long general school seminar and study that Guan Hai realized how shallow his original conceit was and how pale his military knowledge was.

Not to mention the advanced knowledge of strategy and tactics he has learned, just the new training methods of the Qingzhou Army, the efficient operation of the command and staff system, and the equipment, application and coordination of advanced weapons have shocked Guan Hai, opened his eyes, and he has gained tremendous benefits for life. (To be continued......)