The successive siege failures caused heavy losses to 70,000 Khitan soldiers, and the unfavorable situation seriously affected the morale of the Khitan army.

The Khitan and the Turks are all soldiers, only a very small number of professional soldiers, although this way of all soldiers can solve the problem of insufficient troops due to the small population, but the weakness is also obvious, the soldiers themselves are herdsmen, morale is very unstable, if the victory along the way can be high morale, but once a setback, morale will quickly decline.

Therefore, the tactics of the steppe cavalry pay attention to charging into battle with one blow, and if the charge is unfavorable, they will immediately take advantage of the advantage of high mobility to quickly retreat to avoid the decline in morale and lead to defeat.

However, the Khitan committed the taboo of this steppe army, they gave up the superior cavalry, and used siege tactics that they were not good at, coupled with too many defeats and heavy casualties, the military camp was full of complaints, and they cursed Dahe Duluo's stupid decision.

Sun Aocao and several soldiers came to the Xi people's camp, only to see the Xi soldiers were packing up their belongings, and seemed to be ready to retreat, Sun Aocao came to the main tent, and happened to meet the Xi chief Su Zhi, Sun Aocao smiled and said: "Does the chief want to leave?" ”

Su Zhi glanced at him vigilantly, and said coldly: "I led 20,000 Xi soldiers to fight together, and now there are only 6,000 left, does General Sun think it is necessary for me to stay any longer?" ”

Sun Aocao smiled, "I'm not surprised that the chief is leaving, I find it incomprehensible that the chief is not leaving." ”

Su Zhi heard that he was not here to stop him, his face immediately eased a lot, and he waved his hand and said, "Come in and sit down!" ”

The two walked into the big tent and sat down, Su Zhi poured him a bowl of milk tea, sighed and said: "This expedition to Liaodong, I heard that it was Yuan Taizuo who invited the Khitan to attack the Sui Dynasty, but when it came to attacking Jiancheng, I couldn't see the Goguryeo people. ”

"Does the chief really think so?"

Su Zhi nodded, "I think it's obvious that our losses will greatly weaken the defense of Liucheng, and when we leave, the Goguryeo people can easily occupy Liaodong, isn't this a wedding dress for them?" ”

Sun Aocao took a sip of milk tea and said unhurriedly: "This is indeed a plan of the Goguryeo people, but I believe that the Khan has long seen through Yuan Taizuo's intentions." ”

"Is General Sun saying that the Khan wants to take the opportunity to monopolize Liaodong?"

Sun Aocao still shook his head, "The chief is only half right, I think the Khan is using this war to weaken his opponents." ”

Su Zhi's face changed, "How do you say this?" ”

"Seventy thousand troops, 20,000 people from the Khan's direct tribe, 15,000 people from the Anlu Ministry, my tribe is also 15,000 people, 20,000 people from the Xi tribe, plus 5,000 people from Gao Kaidao, now the Xi tribe has lost seventy percent, and I and Anlu have lost nearly half, but the Khan's army has not lost the slightest, of course, his son died, but it was just an accident, anyway, no one can fight against him this autumn."

Su Zhi was silent, he understood what Sun Aocao meant, the Khitan elects the Khan every three years, and the election will be held again this fall, the Khitan tribes are king in terms of strength, among the eight Khitan departments, the strength of the Dahe Department is the strongest, and the population accounts for seventy percent of the Khitan, so the Khitan Khan has been produced in the Dahe Ministry.

But there are also many hills in the Oga tribe, with Oga Oro being the strongest, followed by Sun Ao Cao and An Lu, and this autumn's Khan dispute is between the three of them, and now Sun Ao Cao and An Lu have suffered heavy losses, while Oga Oro's army is unscathed.

Su Zhi smiled bitterly and shook his head, "If that's the case, the Khan's scheming is too deep." ”

"He's always had a lot of scheming, otherwise how could he have collected his troops when Anlu and I were about to break the city?"

"Then what is General Sun going to do?"

Sun Aocao pondered and said, "An Lu and I have decided to withdraw our troops, I wanted to persuade the chief to withdraw with us, but the chief himself is going to withdraw his troops, so I won't say anything." ”

Su Zhi thought for a while and asked, "When do you plan to withdraw your troops?" ”

"Tonight!"

Su Zhi nodded, "Okay then!" I'll wait a little longer, and the three of us will withdraw together. ”

That night, Sun Aocao, Anlu and Su Zhi led the army to leave the camp and return to the north at the same time, so that the Khitan army was only left with 20,000 people of Dahe Duluo, this news made Dahe Duluo very panicked, he also knew that it was impossible to conquer Liucheng with only his own 20,000 troops, when the day was about to dawn, Dahe Luluo also led 20,000 troops to set off from the camp, slowly retreating to the north, after eight days of bloody battles, the Khitan army was finally unable to conquer Liucheng, and had to retreat north and retreat to Songmo Prefecture

The sky gradually brightened, and suddenly the bell sounded on the head of Liucheng City, 'Dang! While! While! The piercing bell rang throughout the city, and the sleeping soldiers of the Sui army and the militia soldiers were awakened one after another, grabbed their weapons and ran towards the city, and Yang Shanhui and Li Chun also hurried to the city.

A soldier stepped forward to report: "Qi Yu is too guarded, the Khitan army camp is gone." ”

Yang Shanhui was stunned, he walked quickly to the battlements, leaned over and looked out, only to see that the Khitan camp several miles away had disappeared, leaving only a pile of unwielding and unusable tattered siege weapons and a few tents that had not been dismantled.

The city was very quiet, the soldiers could not accept this sudden victory, they looked at each other, everyone had the same question on their faces, did the Khitan army really withdraw?

Although Yang Shanhui knew that the Khitan army's northward retreat should be true, but there was no definite evidence, and he must not be careless, Yang Shanhui immediately sent scouts to inquire about the news, and after a while, the drawbridge was slowly lowered, the city gate opened, and a hundred cavalry were divided into ten teams and galloped in all directions.

It wasn't until the evening that the scouts finally came with the news that the Khitan army had indeed retreated north, the whole Liucheng was boiling, cheers resounded throughout the city, the soldiers hugged each other excitedly, tears flowed all over everyone's faces, they paid the heavy price of more than half of the casualties, and finally won the victory to defend the city, how could they not rejoice, how could they not cry with joy?

Even the always mean Taishou Yang Shancheng finally showed mercy, took out nearly half of the refrigerated mutton, and held a barbecue feast for the whole city to share the victory.

After the celebration and feast, the whole city was quiet again, and all the soldiers and civilians fell into a deep sleep, except for a thousand patrol soldiers, who had been exhausted and mentally tortured for eight days of hard fighting, and the enemy retreated, and everyone was completely relaxed and fell into a deep sleep.

At the first watch, several cavalry galloped from the south, and after a short time rushed to the south of the city, the leading cavalry shouted: "Is there anyone in the city?" ”

The defenders of the city had already discovered them, and more than 100 people were very nervous, when a brigade commander asked, "Who are you?" ”

The cavalry leader raised an arrow, "We are coming from Youzhou, and we have come to deliver a letter to Yang Taishou on the order of the marshal, please open the city gate quickly!" ”

Some soldiers ran to report to Yang Shanhui, Yang Shanhui was also worried that something would happen at night, although he was also tired, but he didn't dare to sleep, he kept patrolling around the city, and received a report that Yang Shanhui hurriedly went to the city.

He looked at the cavalry below for a moment, and asked in a loud voice, "Did the wolf come from the north?" ”

"It's from the East." The pro-soldier replied below.

The password was completely correct, and Yang Shan immediately ordered: "Open the city gate and let them in." ”

The city gate opened, three cavalry rushed into the city gate, Yang Shanhui walked down from the Yongdao and asked, "Where is the letter?" ”

The cavalry turned over and dismounted, and presented a letter box to Yang Shanhui, "It's a letter written by the marshal!" ”

Yang Shanhui took the letter and asked, "Where is Your Highness at the moment?" ”

"At present, he is leading the army and is stationed in Beiping County."

Yang Shanhui was overjoyed, and hurriedly pulled out the letter from the letterbox, sure enough, it was a handwritten letter from Zhang Xuan, the king of Qi, he opened the letter and read it again, Zhang Xuan said in the letter, 10,000 troops have gone north to Liucheng, come to support them, let them rectify their defense, continue to hold Liucheng, once the Goguryeo army enters Liaodong, the Sui army will counterattack in a big way, and the letter also praises the heroic tenacity of the defenders of Liucheng, and will give a heavy reward to all the soldiers.

President Yang Shan breathed a sigh of relief, and the burden on his shoulders could finally be put down. (To be continued.) )