The sky gradually brightened, the white smoke on the mountainside had completely stopped, only a pile of burnt branches soaked in the water, the confrontation in the mountain city was still continuing, the Sui army did not approach the middle city, and the Goguryeo soldiers did not have a purpose, standing densely at the head of the city, watching the Sui soldiers below every move.

At this time, the lord came to Hu'er and walked to the outer city surrounded by a large group of soldiers, and the generals Zhou Meng and Qi Liang came up to salute together, and they admired the poisonous smoke plan of Hu'er, Jiang was still old and spicy, and the impregnable outer city was cracked so easily.

Laihu'er asked, "How many brothers have been killed or wounded?" ”

"The old general Qiyu, thirty-three wounded and seventeen killed, were all caused by the attack on the steps of Midtown."

Laihu'er glanced at the middle city above and asked, "Why do you want to attack the city?" ”

Qi Liang hurriedly said: "When he saw that there were no soldiers in the city, he suspected that the other party had even given up the middle city, so he asked some brothers to try to attack the city gate, but they didn't expect them to lie in ambush behind the city wall, and we were attacked by random arrows. ”

Lai Hu'er didn't blame Qi Liang anymore, Qi Liang's approach was completely reasonable, if the poisonous smoke spread to Zhongcheng, the Goguryeo soldiers might indeed give up Zhongcheng, but the Goguryeo lord should also know that if he gave up Zhongcheng, the inner city could not be defended, their food and water sources were in Zhongcheng, even if the poisonous smoke was fierce, they must defend Zhongcheng.

At this time, Zhou Meng stepped forward and said: "General Qiyu, it is recommended to use poisonous smoke again to capture Zhongcheng in one go." ”

Laihu'er shook his head, "If the poisonous smoke is applied again, we ourselves will have to leave the outer city, and the arsenic is gone, just by relying on the poisonous branches, the other party can crack it with a wet towel, the reason why we succeeded last night was that the other party was not prepared, now they should be prepared, and the poisonous smoke will not have an effect." ”

The generals looked at each other, and they bowed together and saluted: "Please give the general an order, we are willing to storm the city gates!" ”

Lai Hu'er glanced at the winding and narrow stone steps, and said with a slight smile: "If the city of despicable luxury must be attacked to be able to take it, then I really have no shame to face my nephew, he has already told me the strategy of breaking the city, as long as you take the outer city, the city of despicable luxury will be at your fingertips." ”

The generals were in high spirits and looked at the main general with great anticipation, wondering what his strategy for breaking the city was besides poisonous smoke?

Lai Hu'er didn't explain, pointed to the stone steps and ordered: "Use a boulder to seal the stone steps, and the enemy is not allowed to go down the mountain!" ”

Qi Liang immediately arranged for the soldiers to carry huge stones to build the wall, and then Laihu'er came to a long row of stone houses, which were warehouses for storing all kinds of materials, full of arrows, bows and crossbows, and food, these stone houses were still ordered to be built by Laihu'er, and now they are fully utilized by Goguryeo soldiers.

"Smash it open!" Lai'er pointed to the iron lock and ordered.

A wrestler stepped forward and slammed the hammer several times, the lock was smashed open, and Laihu'er kicked the door open, and an eerie rancid smell rushed towards him.

Several soldiers entered, immediately screamed, everyone walked into the stone house, only to find that it was actually a cave entrance, the entrance of the cave was equipped with a wooden fence thick to the arm, it turned out that this was a prison, only to see two people lying on the broken mat in the wooden fence, there was still a little movement, the soldiers hurriedly demolished the wooden fence, and helped the two dying prisoners to the stone house, Zhou Meng immediately recognized it, and was immediately taken aback, and pounced on it and said: "Why are you?" ”

"General Zhou, who are they?" Laihu'er asked.

"General Qiyu, they are the two civil officials who manage Huilong Town, I thought they were dead, but I didn't expect to be locked up here."

Laihu'er squatted down, only to see that the two of them were wearing shackles on their hands and feet, their hair and beard were tangled together, their faces were dirty, their bodies were scarred, there were large blood scabs on their tattered single clothes, the wounds on their feet were rotten, and there were faint maggots wriggling, both of them were skinny, tortured to death, and they couldn't even speak, but their eyes were full of tears.

Laihu'er's nose was sore, and he said to the soldiers: "Carry them to the barracks, let the military doctor treat them well, and pay attention to covering their eyes when carrying them, so as not to see the light!" ”

Several soldiers hurriedly brought in two stretchers to carry the wounded, carefully put the two civilian officials into the stretchers, and covered their eyes with cloths, and then carried them out.

"How did the old general know there was a prison here?" Zhou Meng asked puzzled.

Laihu'er shook her head, "I only knew there was a cave here, but I didn't know it had been converted into a prison. ”

He then had his soldiers light torches and go into the cave, which was about two feet deep, very damp, and there seemed to be a gap in the mountain, and a cold wind was blowing continuously.

Laihu'er waved his hand, everyone behind him quieted down, he stood up and listened for a moment, faintly heard the sound of ticking water, Laihu'er nodded, "This is it!" ”

He walked out of the cave and said to Zhou Meng: "You arrange twenty-four stonemasons, divided into three shifts, to chisel the stone wall for me day and night, to the place where there is a dripping sound, and I must see water within three days." ”

"It is recommended to burn a fire on the stone wall first, and then pour cold water on it, so that the stone wall will crack and loosen."

"I don't care what method you use, in short, you must see water within three days, and whether we can capture the city of despicable luxury is up to us."

After speaking, Laihu'er left quickly, and Zhou Meng hurriedly sent people to the logistics camp to find stonemasons to come to dig the hole, and at the same time used the fire cooling method to destroy the stone wall and speed up the progress of the hole.

After drinking a large amount of water, the toxins in the Goguryeo soldiers in the middle city gradually subsided, including the main general Ning Hanyi, who was poisoned by arsenic and almost died.

Two days later, Ning Hanyi was finally able to stand up, although his body was still very weak, but he still came to encourage the sergeant to defend the city, he stood by the stone wall and looked out of the outer city, the outer city below had been captured by the Sui army, but the Sui soldiers were hiding in the shadows and could not see their figures.

At this time, Ning Hanyi suddenly found that a high wall was actually built by the Sui army on the stone steps below, and he was stunned for a moment, when was this wall built, didn't this cut off their way down the mountain?

"When was the stone wall built below?" Ning Hanyi asked, pointing to the stone wall below.

A Qian Yong stepped forward and said: "General Huiyu, the stone wall was built by the Sui army in two nights, we can't see each other, we only see random arrows shooting, and it is estimated that it has no effect." ”

"How tall is the stone wall?"

"It's about a foot or two feet high, and it completely seals our way down the mountain."

Qian Yong said worriedly: "General, I'm afraid that the Sui army is going to fight a protracted war with us and wants to trap us!" ”

Ning Hanyi thought for a while, and then asked, "How much food do we have, and how long can we hold on?" ”

"General Qiyu, we have about 10,000 stone of grain, which can support us for four months, and we also have 300,000 arrows and 5,000 crossbows."

Ning Hanyi breathed a sigh of relief, there was enough food, enough bows and arrows, and there was also water, they could hold on with the Sui army, and in the end, it would be up to them to see who couldn't hold it first.

At this moment, a soldier rushed to the scene and hurriedly reported: "General, the water from our spring mouth is much smaller. ”

Ning Hanyi was shocked in his heart and hurriedly walked towards the water source.

The reason why the humble city can become a strong city of Goguryeo on the Liaodong Peninsula is that there is a spring on the mountain, which produces thousands of buckets of water every day to ensure that the army can drink water, and the spring is located under a cliff in Zhongcheng, and the Goguryeo soldiers specially built a stone house to cover the spring, and placed a stone mortar to let the spring water gush out from the stone mortar.

Ning Hanyi hurried to the spring, only to see that the spring water that was originally bubbling has calmed down, and the small waterfall flowing down the cliff has become very thin, and the two soldiers guarding the spring next to him said very worriedly: "The water was still bubbling just now, and it is no longer bubbling now, general, could it be that the water source is cut off?" ”

Ning Hanyi had already guessed one or two, and hurriedly ordered the soldiers behind him: "Go and get all the containers, everyone goes!" ”

The soldiers rushed to the barracks, and Ning Hanyi felt a chill in his heart, and he connected the Sui army's construction of stone walls with the reduction of water sources, and he faintly guessed the riddle.

"Has anything unusual happened to the water source lately?" He asked the two soldiers guarding the water.

The two glanced at each other, and one of them said tremblingly: "General Hui, there is nothing unusual on the water source side, but I always hear a clanging sound from below, and I don't know why." ”

Ning Hanyi suddenly opened his mouth, he knew that the spring water was flowing from the depths of the mountain, the source was unknown, and the Sui army must have chiseled through the stone wall and diverted the water source from the mountain.

At this time, the soldiers carried dozens of clay pots to run, the first soldier squatted down to scoop water, the water scoop just stretched into the water, at this moment, the spring suddenly made a sound of water absorption, only in an instant, the original stone mortar full of spring water all disappeared, not a drop of water left.

The soldier slowly stood up and looked at Ning Hanyi timidly, as if he had committed a heinous crime, only to find that the general and everyone around him were stunned. (To be continued.) )