"Meng Qi." Ma Yue said in a deep voice, "Brother Wei must tell you now that the Liangzhou Legion is facing an unprecedented crisis. ”

Ma Chao said: "Brother? ”

Ma Yue said: "Youzhou Assassin Shi Gongsun Zhan, Black Mountain thief Zhang Yan, Jizhou Mu Yuan Shao gathered a total of 150,000 troops to sneak attack Yunzhong success, Uncle Teng has been defeated by the battle, now Yuan Shao is leading the army to attack Meiji, if no reinforcements arrive, at most a month to support, Meiji City will be captured!" ”

"Huh?" Ma Chao lost his voice and said, "Damn Yuan Shao actually gathered an army of 150,000!" ”

"Once the Hetao falls, the consequences will be unimaginable!" Ma Yue said in a deep voice, "Hetao is not only the old camp of the Liangzhou Legion, but also a symbol of the strength of the Liangzhou Legion. Once the Hetao falls, the deterrence of the surrounding weak forces will be greatly weakened! Our Ma family's high-pressure rule in the Western Regions will collapse first, and then the connection between Mobei and Guan and Liang will be completely cut off, and under the siege of Gongsun Zhan, Yuan Shao, the Montenegrin Army and the Eastern Xianbei, as well as the Northern Ding Ling people, Zhou Cang and Pei Yuanshao will also be defeated, and finally lose control of the Mobei grassland, so that our army's forces in Mobei and the Western Regions will be uprooted! ”

Ma Chao's expression was awe-inspiring.

"More serious consequences are yet to come!" Ma Yue continued, "Once the Hetao is lost, once the Western Regions mutiny, the Guan and Liang lands will no longer be easy to defend and difficult to attack, our army will completely lose its strategic advantage, taking advantage of the geographical advantages of the Hetao and the pastures of Mobei, Yuan Shao can form a strong cavalry army that can threaten the Guan and Liang hinterlands within a few years." ”

"Also, after this big war, Guan and Liang's young men have been consumed a lot, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to recover without ten years of recuperation, but it is impossible for Cao Ying and Yuan Shao to give us time to rest and recuperate!" Ma Yue said this, patted Ma Chao on the shoulder, and said in a condensed voice, "The survival of Hetao is related to the life and death of our army!" ”

Ma Chao said awe-inspiringly: "Brother, why don't you send reinforcements quickly?" ”

Ma Yue muttered: "Fang Yue's army is in Yeniudu, the closest to Hetao, but he only has 10,000 troops under his command, and he is facing Zhang Ji, Wang Kuang, Zhang Yang, and Kong Rong's 120,000 troops across the river, and he can't send reinforcements at all!" In addition to Fang Yue, only Xu Huang, who was guarding Chang'an, still had 30,000 county soldiers under his command, but Chang'an and Hetao were thousands of miles apart, and by the time Xu Huang arrived at Hetao, Meiji City had already been breached. ”

Ma Chao said: "In this way, the little brother is willing to lead the headquarters to ride the starry night to help." ”

"Hmm." Ma Yue nodded heavily, and said in a deep voice, "If you want to solve the siege of the Hetao, you have to rely on you and my brother!" However, instead of letting your 20,000 iron horsemen return to Shihetao to save Meiji, but to advance into Hebei to attack Yuan Shao's old nest Yecheng! Meng Qi, listen, this trip to Hebei is not for the purpose of attacking cities and plundering land, but only to burn, kill and plunder! In a word, the whole Hebei must be messed up into a pot of porridge, the more chaotic the better! ”

"Wai Wei to save Zhao?" Ma Chao said in a condensed voice, "Little brother will take care of it!" ”

Ma Yue said: "The attack on Hebei will last for at least half a month, and then drive north to continue to harass Youzhou, and then go out of Mobei from Daijun and Shanggu, and join the cavalry armies of Zhou Cang and Pei Yuanshao, and then stand by on the spot after defeating the eastern Xianbei, waiting for the next order of the brother." ”

Ma Chao clenched his fists and said, "Little brother takes the order!" ”

"The military situation is urgent." Ma Yue said in a deep voice, "Meng Qi can raise troops overnight. ”

"Yes."

Ma Chao clenched his fists, turned around and walked away.

When Ma Chao's figure disappeared into the night, Ma Yuecai said in a deep voice: "Dian Wei." ”

The tower-like body of Dian Wei appeared in the tent, and the urn said, "What does the lord command?" ”

Ma Yue said: "Immediately let Li Meng, Ju Tu and Gan Ning come to the big tent." ”

"Yes."

Dian Wei took the order and left.

……

Meiji, Yuan Shao's big tent in the army.

After Yuan Shaogao sat on the case, his face was uncertain.

The army has been storming Meiji for several days, but it has not even breached the corner fort, let alone the main city of Meiji! Ju Yi, Zhang He, Jiang Qi, and Han Meng all looked ashamed, and did not dare to face Yuan Shao's eyes, especially Jiang Qi and Han Meng, if it weren't for the ineffective interception of the two, most of Fazheng's 20,000 people fled back to Meiji City, and this city would have been breached a long time ago.

Seeing that all the generals were silent, Yuan Shao had no choice but to set his eyes on the military advisor Tian Feng and asked, "Does Yuan Hao have a good plan to break the city?" ”

Tian Feng said: "Meiji City is high and deep, and there is a charcoal burning belt to block, and the four corners of the city have built a corner fort to defend the momentum, every time our army wants to lift water to extinguish the fire, they are all shot by the archers of the defenders on the corner fort, so the strong attack is said to be inch-free, in view of this, Feng thought that if he wants to break Meiji, he must first break its corner fort." ”

Yuan Shao said: "How to break the corner fort first?" ”

Tian Feng said: "There are charcoal burning blocks around the city, and it is difficult to attack unless the fire is extinguished, so the safest way is to wait for the charcoal outside the city to burn out, and then attack the city." ”

"Who knows how deep that charcoal burn zone will be and how long it will take to burn out?" Yuan Shao frowned and said, "If it doesn't burn out in ten days, wouldn't my army of tens of thousands of people have to wait outside the city for ten days?" ”

Tian Feng said helplessly: "Then we can only continue to attack." ”

"Then keep attacking!" Yuan Shao said coldly, "However, the elite soldiers of Jizhou can't be consumed anymore, Zhang Yan's Black Mountain Army has the most troops, so let his people go first!" ”

Xun Chen's face changed, and he hurriedly said, "The lord can't." ”

Yuan Shao said: "Why not? ”

Xun Chen said: "Recently, Gongsun Chan often invites Zhang Yan to have a banquet, the two seem to be close, if the lord sends Zhang Yan's army to attack the city at this time, it will inevitably be mistaken by him to take the opportunity to weaken his troops, so it is very likely to force Zhang Yan to Gongsun Zhan." ”

Tian Feng also said: "What Youruo (Xun Chen Biaozi) said is extremely true, the lord thinks twice. ”

"It's not okay, that's not okay, so what do you say?" Yuan Shao said sharply, "An army of more than 100,000 can't help a small Meiji City!" Don't you, as advisors and advisors, be ashamed? And you, as the commander of the army, don't you feel ashamed? ”

The generals and Tian Feng, Xun Chen and others all looked ashamed.

"Whew~~" Yuan Shao breathed a long sigh of relief, and felt a lot more comfortable when he vented, so he said, "That's it, just follow the strategy of the military division and besiege the city and slow down the attack!" ”

"The lord is wise." Tian Feng arched his hand and said, "Feng still has one thing." ”

Yuan Shao said: "What's the matter? ”

Tian Feng said: "In return, Ma Chao, the younger brother of the horse butcher clan, is leading the army to ransack the north bank of the river, and Feng thinks that it is necessary to take precautions." ”

"Oh?" Yuan Shao said in a deep voice, "Ma Chao led the army to ransack the north bank of the river? I think it was because the battle at Hangu Pass was tight, and after Jia Poison let Ma Chaobing go out to the side, it should be to contain Meng De's middle lane coalition army, right? Moreover, Ma Chao's army is all cavalry, no matter how brave and good at fighting is, it is impossible to attack the city and plunder the land, and it should not pose a threat to Hebei. ”

"Feng thinks so too." Tian Feng said this, and then said, "But if the news of Hetao reaches Ma Chao's army, it is difficult to guarantee that Ma Chao will not jump over the wall in a hurry, give up the plan to contain the middle road coalition army, and desperately enter Hebei!" Ma Chao is a Xiliang general, able to write and martial arts, and the Xiliang Iron Cavalry under his command is the elite old department of the horse butcher, if this tiger and wolf army is allowed to flow into Hebei, the land of Jizhou may be full of wolf smoke and vitality. ”

Tian Feng meant that if Ma Chao knew that Ma Teng had died in battle, he would inevitably burn and loot in Hebei to vent his anger, so that even if dozens of major cities in the Hebei Plain were preserved, the countryside and the people outside the city would suffer, so that Jizhou would still suffer a lot of vitality.

Yuan Shao was shocked when he heard this, and said with deep thought: "Well, what Yuan Hao said is extremely true, and you really have to be careful." ”

Tian Feng said again: "At present, the lord is leading the army to go out, and there are only two adults in Hebei, Feng Ji and Trial, I am afraid that it is not Ma Chao's opponent, why didn't the lord order General Zhang He to lead five thousand light cavalry to return to Jizhou first?" General Zhang He is a famous general in Hebei, and his martial arts are not under Ma Chao, with him sitting in the formation, and then supplemented by two adults, Hebei can be worry-free. ”

"Hmm." Yuan Shao thought for a while and said, "Let's let the Gongli (Juyi Biaozi) go back to Hebei first." ”

Compared with Zhang He, Yuan Shao obviously trusts Ju Yi more, after all, Zhang He surrendered not long ago, but Ju Yi is Yuan Shao's old department, and of course the relationship between relatives and relatives cannot be compared. Ju Yi is the number one general under Yuan Shao, and it is certainly more suitable for him to sit in Hebei than Zhang He, and Tian Feng has no objection to this.

……

White horse.

Ma Chao had already led 20,000 iron cavalry to attack Hebei overnight, and only Ma Yue's 7,000 iron cavalry and Jinfan sailors stationed on the dock were left in the camp.

Ma Yuezhongjun's big tent.

Jutu, Li Meng, and Gan Ning generals rushed in, Ma Yue was looking at the map at the desk, and was unaware of the generals' entry, and now the situation has been very obvious, the South Route Coalition Army and the West Route Coalition Army have been defeated successively, the Central Route Coalition Army has been wiped out, and most of the Kwantung Coalition Army has collapsed.

Now the Northern Route Coalition Army and Yuan Shao's Jizhou Army are still on the offensive!

In order to break the offensive of the Kwantung coalition army, the Ma Yue group paid an extremely heavy price, and the war resources accumulated in the past few years have been exhausted, and the young and middle-aged people in the territory of Guan and Liang have suffered heavy casualties, which can be said to be broken! Ma Yue was very pessimistic and concluded that if it were not for plunder, it would be difficult for the Liangzhou Legion to recover within ten years.

The dilemma now before Ma Yue is how to end this war as soon as possible.

The reason why Ma Yue wanted to conceal the news of Ma Teng's death in battle was to prevent Ma Chao from attacking Hebei desperately with revenge, and finally further expand the battle and evolve into a decisive battle between the Liangzhou Military Group and the Jizhou Military Group! Ma Yue didn't want to have a decisive battle with the Jizhou Military Group at this time, not to mention that it didn't do any good to the Liangzhou Military Group, and he also cheapened the two white-eyed wolves Gongsun Zan and Cao Ying in vain.

Moreover, what is even worse is that the Liangzhou Legion, which has just experienced the crusade of the Twenty-Three Route Princes' Alliance, can no longer afford a large-scale decisive battle! At the time of the decisive battle with the Jizhou Military Group, that is, the beginning of the collapse and destruction of the Liangzhou Military Group, Ma Yue was not a fool, and of course he understood the stakes.

Therefore, the most urgent task now is to drive the Jizhou Army, the Youzhou Army, and the Montenegrin Army out of Hetao as soon as possible, and only in this way can the Liangzhou Military Group win a precious respite!

At that time, even if Cao Ying, Sun Jian, Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shu, the thieves of the Kanto region, do not die, they can only have more than enough heart and not enough strength. After this war, the Liangzhou Army was certainly greatly injured, but the Kwantung Army also needed to recuperate and reorganize for battle.

As long as the news of Ma Chao's Xiliang Iron Cavalry sweeping Hebei reaches Yuan Shao's army, Ma Yue believes that with Yuan Shao's surname, he will definitely choose to withdraw his troops! Yuan Shao would never risk the lives of the entire Hebei for the sake of the Hetao. For Yuan Shao, if Hebei turns people upside down, it will be a failure even if the Hetao is captured.

Yuan Shao is not Cao Ying after all, and it is impossible for him to know that Hetao is an important surname for the Liangzhou Military Group! As for Tian Feng, of course, he would strongly persuade Yuan Shao not to withdraw his troops, but Yuan Shao was stubborn and self-serving, and he might be able to listen to Tian Feng's words for other things, but when it was related to the safety of Hebei, I was afraid that it would be difficult to listen.

After all, Yuan Shao's family is in Yecheng.

"Whew~~"

Ma Yue breathed a long sigh of relief, and his thoughts returned to reality, only to realize that the generals had already arrived.

"Oh, you're all here."

"My lord."

"My lord."

"My lord."

The generals of Ganning clenched their fists one after another.

Ma Yue said in a deep voice: "General Ben asked Dian Wei to invite you overnight, there is a big thing for you to do. ”

The generals said in unison: "The lord commands." ”

"Juju."

"The end will be."

"With the help of Tanma, the deployment of the troops of Wei County, Yangping County, Pingyuan County and Dong County will be thoroughly found out within three days, in addition to the county soldiers of each county and the county soldiers of each county, especially pay attention to the regular army of Cao Ying and Yuan Shao! As soon as a regular army movement is detected, it is immediately reported to the battalion. ”

"Yes."

"Ganning."

"The end will be."

"Hurry up and prepare the ships and prepare for the large-scale transportation of people and baggage! As for the ships, Chen Hu and Zhang Bao's fleet will return east as soon as possible after unloading the supplies and personnel, in addition to these thirty-five building ships, you also need to collect all the large and small ships along the river, within ten days, this general wants you to prepare at least 10,000 large and small ships! ”

Gan Ning clenched his fists and said: "The last general will take orders!" ”

Ma Yue finally turned to Li Meng and shouted, "Where is Li Meng?" ”

Li Meng took a step forward, clenched his fists and said quickly: "The end will be." ”

Ma Yue's eyes showed a cruel look, and he said to Li Meng: "Starting tomorrow, lead the army to loot the counties of Wei County, this time I don't want food, don't carry weight, just people!" Don't be old, weak, sick or disabled, just grab healthy young men and women, as well as children! As long as you are eligible, you can grab as many as you want, until you run out!! ”

Although Li Meng was puzzled, he still promised with a bang: "The last general will take the order!" ”

Ma Yue bowed his head slightly, his eyes were cold! The cruel and cold-blooded horse butcher has been planning for a rainy day, and he has to plan for the recovery after the war, after all, after this battle, the loss of youth and strength in the Guan and Liang regions, if there is no strange trick to make up for this loss, if you want to recover in a short time, it is simply wishful thinking.

……

Hetao, Meiji.

The night is like ink, and Fazheng's slender figure is standing solemnly in the wind, surrounded by more than a dozen Liangzhou generals, who successfully brought the fifteen-thousand-strong army back to Meiji, which somewhat makes these military generals from the army have a preliminary approval of Fazheng's ability, at least this white-faced scholar is not as useless as it seems.

Standing on the city wall and looking out, the coal (coal) flame retardant belt is emitting a scorching red light, reflecting the surrounding ground in a red, although dozens of steps away, but the defenders on the head of the city seem to still be able to feel the scorching heat! Those Jizhou soldiers are really pitiful, they have to watch out for the arrows on the corner forts on both sides at any time, not to mention the suffocating heat wave, which makes people crazy to think about.

The charcoal flame retardant belt is a unique plan that Guo Tu came up with when rebuilding Meiji City, that is, to dig ten deep troughs around the city outside the city in advance, fill the charcoal in the trough, and wait for the enemy to attack in a big way, and when the city lacks sufficient garrison strength, it ignites the charcoal in the outermost trough, and then ignites it layer by layer, and uses the layers of coal burning to block the enemy's attack.

Once the charcoal burns, it is difficult to extinguish, and the bows and arrows around the fort make it difficult for the attackers to get close to the city, and if it is only bombarded by trebuchets, it is difficult to form a real threat to the defenders of the fort and the castle. Only in this way will Yuan Shao have no way to take Meiji.

"It's a genius idea!" Fa Zheng slapped the female wall heavily and muttered, "With some genius ideas, how can our army defend it and not fight back?" ”

"Well, fight back?"

"How to fight back?"

"I'm afraid there's something wrong, right?"

All the generals looked at each other, and it was too hard to defend the city at the moment, but this white-faced scholar still wanted to fight back?

……

(To be continued)