Looking at the majestic and magnificent Chaisang City, the newcomers to Jingzhou Army were a little stunned, and the old Yuan Shujun Army, who had never been here since the Chaisang City was shamelessly snatched away by the Xuzhou army, was also stunned, and also raised a question in their hearts, "Can this city be captured?" Don't send me to attack this city! ”

Don't blame the Jingzhou army and Yuan Yaojun are useless, the lone army has taken root in Chaisang for almost six years, Chaisang City is under the management of the bridge Rui, which is the best at guarding the Xuzhou army, it is no longer comparable to the ordinary Jiangdong town Chaisang City, the shortest part of the city wall after being heightened and strengthened is more than four zhang, more than two zhang thick, the permanent sheep and horse wall of brick-clad rammed earth is built under the city, the city is besieged for a week, there are antlers on the side of the moat to resist horses, three zhang deep and two zhang wide, the introduction of living water, the water flow is rapid, and it is more difficult to cross the river by means of auxiliary tools such as floating barriers than to ascend to the sky, There are urn cities at the four gates, and there are also jack gates at the end of the corridor inside the urn city, which can suddenly fall at any time and catch turtles in the urns of the enemies who attack the urn city.

The most eye-opening and frightening thing for the Jingzhou army and Yuan Shu is the sharp iron pole at the foot of the Chaisang city wall, this kind of sharp iron piles at both ends are buried deep in the soil, with an interval of three feet and a total of five rows, like an iron thorn to surround the Chaisang city wall densely. This kind of city defense weapon invented by Mozi himself, although it has long been published in "Mozi. In the "Prepare Ladder", but because of the relationship between the construction cost and the time required for construction, every soldier of the Liu Yuan coalition army outside Chaisang City is still the first time to see the real thing! And in front of the city-defying weapon restored by Qiaorui, a perverted fortification, every soldier of the Jingyuan coalition army also had a feeling of numbness in the scalp - when the ants were attached to the siege. Once you fall off the flying ladder and smash on this sharp iron hammer, you will definitely have to shout cool and crooked!

No matter how frightened you are, it's useless, the soldiers who launched the siege are not qualified to make decisions, and those who are qualified to make decisions don't need to tie their heads to their belts and risk attacking the city, and whether to take this Chaisang city by force is still up to the decision-making level of Liu Yuan's coalition army. However, for the ordinary soldiers of the Liu Yuan coalition army, fortunately, there were still a few people in the upper echelons of the Liu Yuan coalition army who were more sensible, and strongly persuaded the commander Liu Qi to give up the frontal attack, or find a way to break the city by skill, or bypass Chaisang to attack other tactical targets.

"The eldest prince. This city of Chaisan is too strong. There are few flaws in the city defense, and it cannot be attacked, but can only be outwitted. Deng Yi resolutely opposed the frontal assault in Jingzhou, and suggested: "Yi heard that this Chaisang guard is an old general under Yuan Shu's former command. Due to the rebellion of the Danyang soldiers, he was unfortunately captured by Tao Ying's traitors and was forced to surrender. That's right. The eldest prince may wish to ask General Yuan Yin or General Liu Xun to send an envoy into the city with a book, and promise to use high-ranking officials and money beauties to try to recruit Qiao Rui. If you can succeed, it is the best, if you can't, you can also take the opportunity to test the reality in the city. ”

Liu Qi heard the words of goodness, immediately negotiated with Yuan Yin and Liu Xun on the candidate for the envoy, Yuan Yin recommended Shu Shao of the old department of the little Yuan Sangong as an envoy, and Shu Shao, who had a good relationship with Qiao Rui, was also willing to enter the city to try, Liu Qi was even more overjoyed, and was busy personally repairing the book and Qiao Rui Xu tried to surrender with a large profit, and ordered Shu Shao to bring gifts and letters to the city to surrender on the same day. And when Shu Shao rode alone to the outside of the West Gate of Chaisang with letters and gifts to show his identity, although he did not explain the sincerity of the surrender, but when the defenders flew to report to Qiao Rui and Yang Zheng, Yang Zheng, who was a small ghost, immediately laughed, and said to Qiao Rui: "Little nephew, congratulations to Uncle Qiao, Uncle Hexiqiao, there is a happy event for uncle." ”

"What's my joy?" Qiao Rui asked suspiciously.

"Of course, my uncle is going to be promoted and make a fortune." Yang Zheng said with a smile: "Shu Shao is the old department of the highway public, and he is a former colleague with his uncle, and when he comes to the city today, what else can he do except Xu to recruit his uncle for Liu Qi and others with official gold and silver?" Ah, by the way, there must be beautiful women, and if the uncle wants to, the little nephew will have a few more aunts. ”

"Little guy, it's not serious, this is the most similar to your father." Qiao Rui scolded with a loving smile, and then turned to the herald and ordered: "Go and give an order to Sun Gao, the guard of the West Gate, and ask Sun Gao to scold Shu Shao away, and if you don't leave, release the arrow!" ”

"Wait." Yang Zheng hurriedly stopped the herald, then turned to Qiao Rui and said: "Uncle, the little nephew thinks that you should meet Uncle Shu, first, to make a little bit of old friendship, and second, the little nephew wants to take the opportunity to use the trick to create some estrangement between Yuan Yao's team and Jingzhou's team. After that, Yang Zheng quickly said his idea, Qiao Rui was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately followed the plan, and went to Chaisang to welcome Shu Shao into the city.

After inviting Shu Shao into the city, Qiao Rui held a banquet in the Taishou Mansion for Shu Shao to wash the dust, and Shu Shao shared the old friendship, Shu Shao saw Qiao Rui so entertained in his heart secretly happy, and said that the surrender was hopeful, and he was busy at the banquet to propose to surrender for Liu Qi, who knew that Qiao Rui was furious after seeing Liu Qi's letter, first ripped Liu Qi's handwritten letter to pieces, and then scolded Shu Shao for a bloody head, indicating that he was resolute not to surrender, and then ordered the guards to take Shu Shao down and drive him out of the city, Shu Shao was like a fish on the anvil in the enemy city, and he was powerless to resist. He had no choice but to be bound obediently, and was driven out of Chaisang City by the guards of Qiaorui, rode the war horse he brought when he came, and returned to the Jingzhou camp to hand over to Liu Qi in despair, and Liu Qi's gift was also returned intact.

Hearing that Shu Shao was personally welcomed into the city by Qiao Rui, Liu Qi and others began to secretly rejoice that there was hope for the surrender, but who knew that in the end they waited for the news of Qiao Rui's book envoy, Liu Qi and others were inevitably disappointed and angry, just thinking about how to retaliate, but there were soldiers outside the tent with a book to report, saying that they were just packing up the harness for Shu Shao, and inadvertently found this letter under Shu Shao's cowhide saddle. Shu Shao, who had not yet come out of the account, was shocked when he heard this, and blurted out: "There is a letter under my saddle, why don't I know?" Liu Qi Gongzi glanced at Shu Shao suspiciously, and then immediately took the letter into his hand to read it carefully.

In the letter, Qiao Rui asked Liu Xun to stay calm, continue to lurk in the camp of Liu Yuan's coalition and not act rashly, and try his best to avoid siege attrition, even if he can't avoid the siege task, he must find a way to avoid unnecessary attrition, first preserve the strength of the team, and wait for the arrival of the main force of the Xuzhou Army to find a big event. In addition, Qiao Rui also persuaded Liu Xun not to be too greedy, and to take the risk of assassinating Liu Qi in one fell swoop, he should give priority to protecting himself. And then there is naturally the opportunity to make a contribution.

One can imagine Liu Qi's mood when he read this letter, although he knew that this must be the enemy's discord plan, Liu Qi was still both shocked and frightened in his heart - it was not a good feeling to be stabbed in the back by a so-called ally. And after Liu Xun himself read this letter, he jumped three feet high and scolded, "Qiao Rui Pifu, shameless!" It wasn't enough to trick Yuan Yin's puppet into sending troops to attack me last time, but he dared to come a second time? ”

"Liu Zihuang, who are you scolding?"

Yuan Yin, who was innocently lying on the gun, immediately jumped out and glared at Liu Xun, who was fighting for power and profit with him after the death of Xiao Yuan Sangong. Kuai Yue and Deng Yi and other Jingzhou Wenchen hurriedly came out to persuade them. and Yuan Yaojun, the two powerful ministers, joined forces to scold Qiao Rui for being despicable and shameless, and would only discord and stir up pits and abduction, so that Liu Xun and Yuan Yin were finally persuaded to stop, but they pressed the gourd to float up. Over there, Liu Qi secretly made up his mind again. It was decided to once again strengthen the covert surveillance of Yuan Yin and Liu Xun's teams. He also doubled the number of guards under his account.

After the failure to recruit Qiaorui, Liu Yuan's coalition army was left with only two options, one was to capture Chaisang by force. Pull out the only nail of the Xuzhou Army west of Poyang Lake, and then Yuzhang as the advance base to annex the land of Jiangdong; The second is that the main force of the water division continued to move eastward and went to the area of Weixukou to seek a decisive battle with the Xuzhou water division. It was also time to make a decision, Liu Qi, who was only good at playing with power, immediately exposed his military shortcomings, and he didn't know how to choose what was most beneficial to his own army, so he could only ask Kuai Yue and Deng Yi for advice.

Kuai Yue, who was quite resourceful, was also quite calm, persuaded Liu Qi not to risk going east, and suggested that Liu Qi first take Chaisang and then Yuzhang, and then take Jiangdong step by step, so that even if the war was unfavorable, the 80,000 Jingzhou army could withdraw to the rear from the waterway at any time, and let Yuan Yaojun bear the revenge and anger of the Xuzhou army. Liu Qi immediately ordered the soldiers to build siege weapons and prepare to attack the city by force, and listened to Kuai Yue's suggestion, and the next day began to send troops to fill the river, sending a large number of infantry to carry soil and stones, fill the Chaisang moat and open the siege road.

As soon as it was discovered that the Jingzhou army began to fill the river, Qiao Rui immediately sent a large number of archers to the city wall, and sent a large number of crossbowmen out of the city to enter the battlefield of the sheep and horse wall, and joined forces to launch a three-dimensional attack on the Jingzhou army with long-range weapons. As a result, the difficulty of filling the river of the Jingzhou army is not only generally great, when carrying the earth, stone and straw bags to charge, the bow and arrows thrown from the city wall were first intimately entertained, and rushed to the near of the moat, and the Xuzhou defenders on the opposite side of the moat hid behind the arrow stacks of the sheep and horse wall to greet each other with crossbow arrows, and from within one hundred and fifty steps into the city wall, it has been covered by the arrow rain of the Xuzhou army, with heavy casualties and slow results.

Of course, Liu Qi, who had also learned military tactics by heart, also sent a large number of long shield bearers to form temporary fortifications on the side of the moat of Chaisang, and suppressed the defenders above and below the city with bows and arrows, which also achieved some covering effect, but on the first day of river reclamation, the Jingzhou army was still killed and wounded by the bow and crossbow of the Xuzhou army, which frustrated the morale of the army. Liu Qi, who was unfavorable, was very angry, ordered the army to continue to fill the river the next day, and asked Yuan Yaojun, who was bullied by the Xuzhou army, to also send troops to participate in the river filling, and Yuan Yin and Liu Xun, who had surrendered to the Jingzhou army, also understood that there was no free lunch in the world, and took Liu Qi's order.

As soon as he found out that Yuan Yaojun was participating in the war, Yang Zheng immediately ran to Qiao Rui to come up with a bad idea, suggesting that Qiao Rui deliberately slow down the bow and arrow coverage of Yuan Yaojun, and at the same time strengthen the bow and arrow coverage of the Jingzhou army, sacrificing part of the moat depth to separate the Liu Yuan coalition army. Qiao Rui hesitated to accept this risky suggestion, when Yuan Yaojun's team rushed forward to fill the river, Qiao Rui asked the defenders to deliberately stop firing arrows, allowing Yuan Yaojun's soldiers to throw earth and stones into the river to retreat safely, and when the Jingzhou army came up to fill the river, the crossbowmen above and below the city desperately released arrows, and simply used a batch of expensive poisonous crossbow arrows to shoot at the Jingzhou army.

Whenever Yuan Yaojun's team stepped forward to fill the river, the Xuzhou crossbowmen on the other side of the moat seemed to have disappeared, and none of the feathered arrows were fired to stop them; And whenever the Jingzhou army team stepped forward to fill the river, the Xuzhou crossbowmen above and below the city wall immediately seemed to have beaten chicken blood, desperately shot arrows, and greeted the Jingzhou army team like no money, and many Jingzhou soldiers who were not fatal in the arrow fled back, and there were signs of poisoning with convulsions in the limbs and crooked tongue, and the hands and feet cramped to death very miserably.

Encountering such a situation, of course, Yuan Yaojun was smiling. is grateful to Qiao Rui, the former general of the self-army, and even Liu Xun and Yuan Yin, who knew that Qiao Rui was not well-intentioned, breathed a sigh of relief - no matter what lack of morality Qiao Rui has, at least he can keep the little vitality, right? The Jingzhou army was furious, scolding the friendly army for secretly colluding with the enemy, so the enemy in the city deliberately released water, full of envy, jealousy and hatred for Yuan Yaojun!

At this time, Liu Qi also made a stupid move, forcibly ordering the Jingzhou army and Yuan Yaojun to launch a mixed charge, so that the soldiers of the two armies mixed together and forcibly charged. Seeing this scene, Yang Zheng and Qiao Rui of course couldn't even close their mouths with laughter. You don't need Yang Zheng to come up with bad ideas. Qiao Rui had already immediately ordered, "Release the arrows, release the arrows with all your might!" Let Yuan Yaojun and Jingzhou Jun resent each other! ”

"Senior brother, it seems that your level is no more than that." Yang Zheng laughed loudly. Said: "If you only let Yuan Yaojun initiate the reclamation of the river. Then you can get at least three chances of successfully filling the river. It can reduce the time it takes to fill the moat. Since you don't want this opportunity, we're just welcome! ”

As Qiao Rui and Yang Zheng expected, when Yuan Yaojun's soldiers and Jingzhou troops mixed to charge and fill the river. After being covered by the Xuzhou army's stormy feather arrows and casualties, Yuan Yaojun's officers and soldiers were also immediately angry with the Jingzhou army, believing that the unrighteous friendly army had killed the brothers of the self-army - otherwise, the old general Qiao would definitely continue to release water to his old brothers! The officers and men of the Jingzhou army were gloating, and the allies were disgusted with each other, hating each other.

After the next day's river reclamation, there was such an incident, when Liu Yuan's coalition army withdrew from the battlefield, the Chaisang defenders went to clean up the battlefield again, and found a seriously injured Jingzhou soldier and two Yuan Yaojun soldiers who were also seriously injured by arrows, as a result, the three wounded soldiers were carried back to the city to rescue with all their might, and enjoyed the treatment that only a general has, and was given wine and meat by Yang Zheng, two Yuan soldiers from Yuan Yin's team and a wounded soldier from Liu Hu's team of Jingzhou Army were grateful, and expressed their willingness to surrender on the spot, Yang Zheng was noncommittal, but only ordered the three wounded soldiers to recuperate with peace of mind, and ordered the Xuzhou soldiers to entertain them.

The power of false benevolence and false righteousness is always infinite and unlimited, that night, there were two Yuan Yaojun soldiers who had violated military law and fled to the city of Chaisang to surrender, Yang Zheng carefully asked them the reason for their surrender, and confirmed that they were in the river filling because they were afraid of military law because they wanted to be beaten by military sticks, so they ran to the city of Chaisang to surrender, Yang Zheng was immediately overjoyed, and was busy rewarding the second pawn, so that the two went to the city the next day to shout and recruit the Yuan soldiers. In this regard, Qiao Rui was also a little worried, and reminded Yang Zhengdao: "Huai Qingxian nephew, you have to be careful about this kind of thing, my uncle was repeatedly defeated in front of the lord back then, just because the lord likes to send a detailed response to the city guarded by his uncle. ”

"Uncle, don't worry, the little nephew will carefully screen it." Yang Zheng smiled confidently: "Besides, what the little nephew hopes most is that Liu Qi will send us a detailed response." ”

On the third day, two Yuan soldiers hit the banner of Yuan Army and climbed the city wall, shouting to the Yuan soldiers outside the city to surrender, although they did not recruit a Yuan soldier to surrender, but also received the effect expected by Yang Zheng - seeing Yuan soldiers shouting and surrendering in the city, some Yuan soldiers outside the city inevitably had some wavering thoughts, and began to appear to surrender to the Xuzhou Army if they couldn't do it, but the Jingzhou Army was scolding, and some people scolded Yuan Yaojun as traitors. If it weren't for the calm suppression by the generals on both sides, I am afraid that some Jing Yuan soldiers would be able to start fighting on the spot.

In the face of these outrageously despicable methods of his fellow disciples, Liu Qi was hateful, angry and helpless, but Kuai Yue, Deng Yi and others understood that the Xuzhou army was determined to break up with Liu Yuan's alliance, in order not to give the enemy a chance to get a discord, Kuai Yue and Deng Yi could only immediately suggest that Liu Qi treat Yuan Yaojun's team well, and that the affairs related to the conflict between the two armies must be rewarded and punished, and they must not be separated from the hearts of the army. Liu Qi had no choice but to do so, so he rewarded Yuan Yin and Liu Xun with pigs, sheep and wine, and severely punished several of his own soldiers who took the lead in insulting Yuan Yaojun, which barely stabilized the morale of the army and eliminated some of the estrangement between the two armies.

In such a piecemeal contest, on the eighth day, a section of the moat of the West Gate of Chaisang, Liu Qi's scheduled main battlefield, will be filled, and at the same time, various weapons of the Jingzhou army have also begun to be created one after another, Liu Qi is secretly happy in his heart, looking forward to showing his skills during the siege. Who knew that after the city was closed for ten consecutive days, Yang Zheng took advantage of the psychological inertia of the Jing Yuan coalition army that the self-army did not dare to go out of the city, and obtained Qiao Rui's consent, on the night of the tenth day of the winter month, he suddenly sent three hundred elite soldiers out of the city from the north gate, sneaking to the sailor camp of Liu Qi's army with flying muskets in his hand to launch a sneak attack, and Zhang Yun, Cai Zhong and Cai He who stayed in the fleet were neither bird Liu Qi, nor were the guards very lax, and were easily attacked by the Xuzhou army, and killed people and set fire everywhere in the sailor camp, Zhang Yun and others were caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. Many camps were burned by the Xuzhou army, and a warship was also set on fire, Liu Qi was shocked when he heard the report, and urgently ordered Gan Ning to send troops to rescue.

When Gan Ning's reinforcements arrived at the North Gate battlefield, the small unit of the Xuzhou Army that harassed the success had withdrawn from Zhang Yun's camp and fled to the north gate of Chaisang. Yang Zheng was inevitably a little taken aback when he saw Gan Ning's majestic and majestic self-killing elite in the city, and decisively ordered: "Put the suspension bridge, open the city gate, prepare the jack gate, and lure this thief into the urn city!" ”

Yang Zheng's order was faithfully executed by the north gate guard, Qiao Rui's nephew Qiao Yuan, the suspension bridge was immediately lowered, and the city gate was also opened at night, and at the same time, the two henchmen of Qiao Wei were also affected by the jack gate in front of the gate, and less than half of the Xuzhou soldiers were left to flee into the city in embarrassment, and the Jingzhou army under the command of Gan Ning cheered and rushed across the moat, dreaming of taking Chaisang, but Gan Ning decisively ordered to ring the golden gong, and shouted on the battlefield: "No entry into the city, no entry into the city!" The enemy dares to open the city gate in the dark night, and there must be an ambush in the urn city! No entry into town! ”

"What a puppet, he can see through my mechanism!" Yang Zheng praised it, and asked curiously: "Who is this horseman?" ”

"Gan Ning Gan Xingba, Captain of Jiangxia Water Division, Liu Qi's right-hand man." Qiao Wei next to him replied: "When Liu Qi helped our army cross the Yangtze River and attack Chaisang, it was this man who served as the vanguard, and I met a few times, so I knew each other." ”

"It turns out that he is Gan Ning." Yang Zheng suddenly realized, and then said viciously: "This person is brave and strategic, if he doesn't get rid of it early, he will do great harm to my Chaisang defenders!" ”

"Brother Huaiqing, can you kill him?" Qiao Wei looked up and down at Yang Zheng, who was not much fatter than Lu Chai stick, and asked with a smile.

"It is not necessary to use a knife to kill an enemy, at least not to use our own sword." Yang Zheng's answer was quite philosophical, and he said with a smile: "Tonight, he refuses to take advantage of the situation to attack Chaisang City, maybe he will kill him with a knife." ”

"Oh, what is the good nephew going to do with this knife?" There was Qiao Rui's voice behind him, Yang Zheng and Qiao Wei looked back and saw that it was Qiao Rui who went to the North Gate City in person, and they were busy saluting together, Qiao Rui waved his hand and said: "Huai Qingxian nephew, the false ceremony will be waived, if you have a way to kill this Gan Ning, then you will make a great contribution to our Chaisang and the entire Jiangdong battlefield, because as far as I know, the reason why Liu Qi can gain a firm foothold in Jiangxia is that the military generals have contributed the most is this Gan Ning, if you can kill this person, it will be better than our army to break a thousand troops." ”

"The little nephew is just an idea, how to clean up Gan Ning, the little nephew hasn't thought of a way for a while." Yang Zheng confessed that he didn't have a specific idea to borrow a knife to kill someone, and then said with a smile: "But uncle don't worry, the little nephew believes that the opportunity will come soon, tonight we will succeed in the sneak attack on the camp of Zhang Yun and the Cai family brothers, and by tomorrow, the Jingzhou Army's Chinese army tent will have a good show." The little nephew can conclude that the good apprentice taught by his father will not miss this God-given opportunity to eradicate dissidents, and Zhang Yun and the Cai family brothers will definitely create opportunities for us no matter who is unlucky. (To be continued......)