(PS: It's only one day, continue to ask for comfort from the monthly pass, and the pure wolf is tired.) ）

Relying on the encouragement of Deputy Director Tao to personally charge into battle, the Xuzhou army was suppressed by the unfavorable climate for a long time of anger and fighting spirit, and finally broke out completely, a battle in the southern suburbs of Yecheng, the momentum of the Xuzhou army just beheaded the enemy on the battlefield exceeded 4,000 bodies, and then unstoppably kicked over the camp outside the city of Yuan Tan Army, forcing the garrison outside the city of Yuan Tan Army to abandon the camp and flee back to the city. The casualties were extremely heavy.

After the war, Deputy Director Tao arranged for the participating troops to rest, and immediately dispatched reserves to build siege fortifications on the periphery of Yecheng, first building fences and then digging trenches, building siege fortifications, and preparing to completely trap the defenders in the city. Yuan Jun's scout sent the news to Yuan Tan, and the frightened Yuan Tan Gongzi was not shocked and rejoiced, and laughed loudly: "The pottery thief must be crazy, how big is the scale of Yecheng, he has never entered the city, at least he has seen it outside the city, right?" If you want to block the road for our army to break through by relying on the fence and ditch, isn't it a fool's dream? ”

"yes, yes, the pottery thief is simply stupid." Mr. Guo Tu also chimed in: "If you want to trap Yecheng, the length of the siege fortifications of the pottery thieves must be at least forty miles, and how much effect can such weak fences and moats play?" Isn't it easy for our army to break through? Your Majesty thinks that there is no need to pay attention to how the pottery thief built fortifications and let him waste his military strength, while resting and recovering his military strength, we will wait for the Youzhou team to come to help, and wait for the reinforcements to arrive. If we wait for work and cooperate with the reinforcements inside and outside, we will definitely be able to break the enemy army! ”

Hearing Guo Tu's words, this time even the resourceful Xin Bi and the senior cadres who like to sing the opposite tune agreed, because a weak fence defense line is indeed impossible to stop the full impact of Yuan Tanjun's all-out force, and the siege fortifications are as long as forty miles, Yuan Tan's army can break through everywhere, so that the Xuzhou army is defenseless at all, so in the case of abundant grain and grass and the hope of reinforcements, there are still about 30,000 defenders available in Yuan Tanjun's decision-making level, and they unanimously agreed not to pay attention to the siege fortifications of the Xuzhou army. Rest in peace and recuperate to restore morale to the army. Wait until the main force of Youzhou comes to help, and then try to break the enemy.

The weather had just warmed up, and the land had not yet thawed, so the construction of the Xuzhou army's simple siege fortifications was also very slow, and it took two days to barely build a weak fence line. The trench, which was half a foot deep and four feet wide, had only one beginning. The Xuzhou soldiers who dug the trenches still had to fight hard with the soil that was frozen hard as iron. However, Deputy Director Tao is not anxious about this. It's just that Gao Shun, Xu Huang and Liu Ye, who are going to stay on the Yecheng battlefield, will build it slowly, and let the army take turns to build, so there is no need to be anxious. We must not be greedy for progress, dig the trench too deep and too wide too early, and not dig within three miles of the bank of the Zhangshui River to arouse the vigilance of the defenders. Gao Shun, Xu Huang and others received the order and memorized the instructions with their hearts.

After making these arrangements, on the morning of the third day when Yuan Tan's army approached Yecheng, Deputy Director Tao led the main force of 50,000 to set off north, spared Yecheng by way of Pingyangdu, crossed Zhangshui downstream of Yecheng, and then went directly north, rushing to the Handan battlefield eighty miles away from Yecheng, attacking the Yuan Tan army entrenched there, and meeting the reinforcements transferred by Yuan Tan from Youzhou. At the same time, the Youzhou reinforcements led by Jiang Qi and Lianjia have also entered the territory of Zhao and Julu respectively, and it is less than half a month away from Handan, so there is not much time left for Deputy Director Tao to attack the fortifications.

Yuan Jun scouts sent the news of the division of troops of the Xuzhou army into Yecheng, Yuan Tan Gongzi was both happy and worried, happy that the Youzhou reinforcements had already played a role before they arrived, forcing the main force of Xuzhou to divide troops to reduce their pressure on the Yecheng battlefield; The worry is that if there is anything wrong with the Youzhou reinforcements, they will be completely isolated. Therefore, after repeated calculations, Yuan Tan accepted Guo Tu's suggestion and sent envoys to contact the three generals of Fuhu, Jiang Qi and Lianjia respectively, so that Fuhu would stick to the city and not fight with the Xuzhou army, delay time and wait for reinforcements, and ordered Jiang Qi and Lianjia not to go south alone, but to meet in Pingxiang first, and then join forces to go south, so as not to give the Xuzhou army a chance to break the Youzhou reinforcements.

In addition, Yuan Tan Gongzi naturally had to give advice to Jiang Qi and Lianjia in the letter, warning them to be careful of the most despicable, vicious, scoundrel and shameless enemy in the whole world - the Xuzhou Junzi Army! Inform the tactical characteristics of the Junzi Army, remind Jiang Qi and Lianjia not to be fooled into fighting with the Junzi Army, let alone launch a pursuit and give their lives in vain, so as not to repeat their mistakes in Langya. - It's not that Yuan Tan Gongzi was afraid of being beaten by the Junzi Army, the key is the strange tactics of the Junzi Army, which is simply the natural nemesis of Youzhou's elite Karasuma Sudden Cavalry, and Yuan Tan Gongzi has to be cautious.

Okay, now let's take a look at the situation of Deputy Director Tao's northern expedition to Handan, on the way to the north, Deputy Director Tao was very careful to call Xun Chen, the head snake of Jizhou, to learn about the situation in Handan, Xun Chen replied: "Lord Yu, although Handan's status in Jizhou is not as good as Yecheng, but it is definitely not inferior to Nanpi, Gauntlet and Hejian these important towns in Jizhou, the city defense is quite solid, this Yecheng War Frustrated Hu has been operating in Handan for two months, and must have made every effort to strengthen the city fortifications, if Frustrated Hu only defends without fighting, our army wants to take Handan, I'm afraid it's not that easy. ”

Deputy Director Tao twisted his mustache and calculated, Deputy Director Tao vaguely remembered that Luo Guanzhong seemed to have reported that the baby son of Frustrated Hu died in a field battle with Boss Cao when he was defending Handan, but whether this is correct or not, Deputy Director Tao firmly believes that with his bad luck, he will definitely encounter the situation of Frustrated Hu sticking to the city, and Frustrated Hu only has 7,000 second-line troops in his hands, as long as Frustrated Hu's mind is normal, he will definitely not easily launch a field battle. So after thinking about it for a while, Deputy Director Tao suddenly asked, "Where did Zang Ba's team go?" ”

"It's time to take the letter." Jia Lao Poison replied: "Zang Ba was ordered to capture Xindu and Gall Tao to cut off Yuan Tan's north-south connection, but his grain and grass supplies were not transported by water, and they all relied on land transportation, and it was more difficult to supply than our main force in the heavy snow, and when attacking Guangchuan, he encountered stubborn resistance, wasting a lot of time, and wasting time with Yuan Shang to hand over Qinghe County. There is also a need to divide troops to repair the county to guard against Yuan Shang's chaos, so judging from the battle report some time ago, General Zang Ba should have taken Xindu now, but he must not have had time to advance to the city of Gauntland. ”

"It's a pity." Deputy Director Tao, who originally wanted to count on Zang Ba to stop Jiang Qi from gaining time, sighed, and comforted himself: "But it's okay, although Zang Ba can't delay Jiang Qi going south, he can also maintain his strength and prevent my precious third brother-in-law from messing around at any time." ”

"The lord wants General Zang Ba to intercept Jiang Qi, does he want to attack Handan?" Xun Chen asked tentatively, and saw Deputy Director Tao nodding. Xun Chen hurriedly smiled and said, "Don't worry, lord. Although there is not much time left for our army, it is not without certainty that our army will quickly take Handan. ”

"What is Mr. Yuruo's plan to break the city?" Deputy Director Tao asked hurriedly.

"Frustrated Hu killed Yuan Shang's henchman Li Yan, the prime minister of Zhao State, and forcibly incorporated Yuan Shang's army in Zhao State, Handan City. There must be many old subordinates of Yuan Shang and Li Yan who are not convinced. Xun Chen replied: "That's so." The lord is in front of the siege. You might as well shoot some arrows with a bow and arrow into the city, and call on Yuan Shang's old troops to rise up against Fu Hu and avenge Li Yan. When our army launched a strong attack, Yuan Shang's old troops would definitely make a disturbance in the city to receive our army into the city, so that our army could quickly take Handan City. ”

Because Xun Chen's last proposal to divide Yuan Tan and Gao Gan has never seen any effect, Deputy Director Tao will inevitably be a little suspicious of Xun Chen's proposal, but at this point, Deputy Director Tao has no choice, so he can only nod his head and agree and decide to try again.

More than a day later, the Xuzhou army came to the city, and at this time, the bad luck of Deputy Director Tao finally had some signs of improvement, and the Xuzhou army scouts unexpectedly found that because the big cooling came too suddenly, the water of the Handan moat did not have time to let go, and it was frozen harder than steel and has not yet melted, so that the Xuzhou army can reach the city of Handan without filling the river. Deputy Director Tao was overjoyed, and immediately ordered the army to assemble the siege weapons brought with the army overnight, and according to Xun Chen's plan, a large number of arrows were shot into Handan City overnight, calling on the old Yuan Shang troops in the city to launch a mutiny, and open the city gate to welcome the Xuzhou army into the city.

In addition, there is another point that is quite beneficial to the Xuzhou army, that is, since the Niushou water was exhausted in the Western Han Dynasty, there are no large rivers around Handan to defend, and the open sides are very conducive to the attacker to launch an attack, so Deputy Director Tao also quickly made up his mind not to waste time to be opportunistic, and ordered the generals and colonels of all battalions of the whole army that night, requiring that the city must be broken within one day, otherwise it will be a heavy responsibility!

On the second day, the Xuzhou army's onslaught on the city of Handan began, and Deputy Director Tao's immediate decision also caught Frustrated Hu off guard, in addition to being loyal to his father's Frustrated Hu previously determined that Deputy Director Tao would definitely follow the regular siege tactics, first set up a camp and prepare enough siege weapons, and then launch an attack, he still had a few days to prepare for the war, but what Frustrated Hu didn't expect was that Deputy Director Tao would be in the early morning of the next day when he just arrived outside Handan City, Before dawn, he launched a fierce attack on Handan, and was forced to rush to meet the battle with a serious lack of psychological preparation, and there was a lot of panic in the arrangement and arrangement, and many opportunities were lost.

Time is in a hurry, the fighter plane is fleeting, Deputy Director Tao from the beginning of the heavy troops to attack the fierce attack, and at the same time from all sides to attack the four gates of Handan, east, west, north and south, let the infantry in thousands of units, take turns to storm the city wall of Handan City Gate, hastily formed four city gates are all used to hit the city gate, the infantry carry the ladder shouting charge, stepping on the thick ice that has not melted and rushed across the moat, the flying ladder one after another on the city wall, biting the weapon to climb up quickly, against the rain falling stone arrows quickly climb upward, the sky arrows like rain, The human head on the ground looks like an ant, and the scene is extremely spectacular.

Speaking from the heart, although it was only the second-line team of Yuan Tan's army, the Handan defenders also resisted very fiercely, taking advantage of the condescending advantage, using stones, wood, ash bottles and bows and arrows to desperately suppress the offensive of the Xuzhou army, several times repelled the attack of the Xuzhou army, and also caused a lot of casualties to the Xuzhou army, the individual combat effectiveness and morale of the Xuzhou army are above the enemy, but they still always quickly landed in the city, from morning to noon, they failed to do the soldiers to fight in the city.

At noon, look at the sun in the sky, and then look at the moat ice that has been repeatedly trampled by the soldiers of the self-army, and know that the opportunity will be lost today, Deputy Director Tao gritted his teeth, and decisively ordered the soldiers to build a drum platform one hundred and fifty steps away from the south gate of Handan, put a cowhide drum, and then personally took the handsome flag to the drum platform, and personally beat the drum to cheer for the soldiers of the army. insisted on beating drums in front of the battle in person to boost the morale of the soldiers of the army, Jia Lao Poison and others had no choice but to order Ma Zhong to lead the guards to carry long shields and climb the drum platform to protect Deputy Director Tao.

Seeing that the commander of the whole army came to the front of the battle to beat the drums, the officers and men of the Xuzhou Army, whose morale had been somewhat exhausted, suddenly burst into laughter, and rushed to kill more violently, and the troops were fierce and indomitable. The defenders on the walls were in shock. Confusion. The frustrated hooves on the city tower were even more speechless, and after finally coming back to their senses, they hurriedly shouted: "Bow and crossbow! Archery! Aim for the pottery thief and shoot me! Shoot! ”

Don't be frustrated. Some of the soldiers of the Yuan army with strong bows and crossbows in their hands had already taken very clever aim at Deputy Director Tao and opened fire—although it was difficult for an ordinary bow and arrow to shoot at a distance of one hundred and fifty paces. But a strong bow and a hard crossbow can be easily shot. So all of a sudden, almost all of the overwhelming powerful feather arrows shot at the drum platform where Deputy Director Tao was, and the long shield in the hands of Ma Zhong and the other guards was like a burst of fried beans. Several feather arrows almost flew over Deputy Director Tao's head, forcing Ma Zhong to ride on two guards and use a long shield to protect Deputy Director Tao's diagonal top, and the result was that soon, the shield surface of the long shield in Ma Zhong's hand was densely filled with various feather arrows, like a turtle shell full of feathers.

Deputy Director Tao personally went out to block the gun, the effect received is not only to boost morale, after almost all the bows and arrows were personally attracted by Deputy Director Tao, the offensive Xuzhou soldiers finally began to climb the city wall, although the first Xuzhou soldier to board the city wall was cut into pieces in the blink of an eye, but he also cut down two enemies before he died, and the companions behind took the opportunity to jump on the city wall to win space, and fought to the death to win more opportunities for the companions behind to climb the city.

As if a premonition that the end was near, the defenders of the city resisted even more fiercely, desperately smashing the sheep's head stone, wood, ash bottle and hot gold juice to the Xuzhou soldiers, the Xuzhou soldiers who climbed up could not even dodge, and fell down the ladder and fell down the city wall, but a Xuzhou soldier just fell, the person was still in the air, the second Xuzhou soldier had already stepped on the ladder and charged up, the simple and rough flying ladder was built on the city wall one after another, and the Xuzhou soldiers advanced inch by inch at the cost of blood, and gradually approached the top of the city wall.

Seeing that the Xuzhou army was attacking so fiercely, and saw that several battlements had been broken through by the Xuzhou army, dozens of Xuzhou soldiers rushed to the city wall, the Handan defenders finally began to panic, some soldiers who were greedy for life and afraid of death began to retreat, and the supervising team desperately slashed and killed, expelling the retreating soldiers to step forward, but they could not stop one and the other, and the morale of the defenders reached the point of crumbling.

Finding that the situation was wrong, Frustrated Hu wanted to personally lead the army to put out the fire and repair the leak, but he had just rushed down the city wall from the city tower with his own army, and the exclamations of the defenders resounded on the city wall, "It's on fire!" There's a fire in the city! ”

"There's a fire in the city?!" Frustrated Hu was shocked, and when he quickly turned his head to look at the situation in the city, he saw that several fires had risen in the city, the flames burned the streets, and the smoke rose straight into the sky, and then Frustrated Hu's face suddenly turned pale into the color of a dead man, and said secretly: "It's over, it must be the remnants of Yuan Shang's traitors who are in trouble!" ”

Half of the frustrated Hu guessed correctly, in addition to some of the old departments of the former Zhao Prime Minister Li Yan, there are also some Jizhou soldiers who are simply greedy for rich rewards, under the leadership of a Jizhou general whose brother has joined the Xuzhou army, suddenly set fire to the city to create chaos, and responded to the Xuzhou army to attack Handan City, and the people in Handan City are dissatisfied with the Yuan brothers to regain control of the people, and they are also closed to the people, and they refuse to come out to stop the rebels from setting fires.

Holding the last glimmer of hope, Frustrated Hu hurriedly sent people into the city to quell the rebellion, but the smoke in the city has once again hit the morale of the defenders, and once again inspired the already high morale of the Xuzhou army.

With more and more Xuzhou soldiers on the city wall, the elite advantages of the Xuzhou soldiers are also more and more revealed, all of them are like crazy tigers, when they see the enemy, they will cut and chop and stab, holding the enemy on the city wall rolling and scuffling people are not uncommon, it didn't take long for the Xuzhou soldiers on the city wall to reach half of the defenders' strength, and they are still rapidly closing the distance, the defenders are rushing to flee into the city, the terrible screams continue to echo in the city wall, and morale is close to collapse.

After another moment of fierce fighting, a burst of earth-shattering cheers suddenly broke out at the south gate of Handan, and the closed city gate slowly opened - originally Deputy Director Tao thought that it was the city crash car of the self-army that finally crashed into the city gate, but later learned that it was the south gate officer of Handan who took the initiative to open the city gate and let the Xuzhou army enter the city, and what is even more amazing is that after the city gate officer led the soldiers to open the city gate, he immediately knelt down on his knees to the Xuzhou army and shouted: "I am Li Guoxiang's old department, I am Li Guoxiang's old department, I saw Tao Taiwei's arrow book to open the city!" ”

After the war, it was pointed out that this city gate official was not only not Li Yan's old department at all, but also a relative of Yuan Tangongzi's confidant general Peng An, who was also surnamed Peng and had a close blood relationship.

Regardless of whether the city gate was smashed open or opened from the inside, and whether the gate official who opened the city was Li Yan's old department, it didn't matter anymore, after the city gate was opened, seeing the soldiers of the self-army flocking into the city, Deputy Director Tao finally threw down the useless drum, sat on the drum platform full of feather arrows, rubbed his sore arm and smiled: "I'm so tired!" I can't imagine that beating the drums is so tiring, and next time if it wasn't so urgent, I would have better beat the drums less. ”

As a result, before he finished speaking, Deputy Director Tao was carried back by Ma Zhong, who was already injured, and complained while running to safety in the distance: "Lord, don't die like this next time, okay?" You beat the drums, and three of your guards died for you, do you know?! ”

It is a pity to sacrifice three guards in vain, and it will definitely make the families of these three guards miserable, but for the Xuzhou army as a whole, it is definitely worth it, because at this time, the ice surface of the moat that can not bear the heavy load has begun to break one after another, causing several Xuzhou soldiers to fall into the water and freeze half to death, and then the ice surface under the scorching sun and repeated trampling, began to break and break in pieces, and the cold river water poured on the ice, so that the Xuzhou soldiers could not quickly step on the ice to cross the river, and the four gates of the east, west, south and north were like this.

Fortunately, after opening the gap in the south gate, the Xuzhou soldiers no longer have to worry about the river breaking, the Xuzhou reserves outside the south city are almost pouring out, rushing to the city like a tide and swarming into the city, calmly eliminating the stubborn defenders in the city - but there are really not many stubborn resistance, frustrated Hu has begun to break through to the north gate with the backbone core, only a few defender soldiers resisted stubbornly in the city, and they were quickly killed by the Xuzhou army, more than half of the surrenderers, claiming to be Li Guoxiang's old troops kneeling and surrendering countless people.

When he opened the north gate of Handan to break through, he was very unfortunate to meet Zhao Yun, the general of Xuzhou who was in charge of the north gate battlefield, Zhao Yun first led the army to meet the frustrated team, and the horse and the frustrated hu fought less than three times, so he picked the frustrated hu off the horse with a gun, and then pointed the silver gun at the chest of the frustrated hu, and asked: "For the sake of the face of the former colleague relationship, give you a chance, fall?" Or not down? ”

Looking at the tip of the shiny spear in despair, the frustrated Hu who struggled to sit up half of it hesitated, finally lowered his head, and said weakly: "I, I am willing to surrender." (To be continued......)