The north wind howled, goose-feather snowflakes fluttered in the wind, lead-gray dark clouds shrouded the earth, the heat of the speech was blown away by the wind as soon as it was spoken, the biting cold penetrated the thick leather jacket, and the iron armor was so cold that it could stick to the skin on the hand, and the touch was like a pinprick sting.

Yuan Shaoqiang resisted the urge to scold, gritted his teeth, and urged the war horse to run forward. If you don't wait an hour or two for the snow to start falling, the snow on the ground will be thicker, and you will not be able to walk.

In such weather, you should hide in the big city, roast the fire, drink fine wine, practice the wine order, enjoy the snow outside, and talk about poetic life.

Bah, snow? Yuan Shao spit out a mouthful of snow vigorously, frustrated. If he hadn't been for the sake of face at that time, he would now be lying on the stove like Chen Chen, enjoying the hot wine comfortably, where would he need to suffer like this.

He has never suffered so much since he grew so big.

However, he didn't dare to complain, he knew that as long as he opened his mouth, it was definitely the most vicious language, and at the same time, he was also considered "a flower in a greenhouse", yes, it was Liu Xiu's words. When Yuan Shao heard this, he subconsciously felt that Liu Xiu was talking about him, so he couldn't help but bump into Liu Xiu in front of everyone.

He stared hatefully at the blurred figure not far away. Liu Xiu rode on the horse, his waist was no longer straight, but almost lying on the horse's back. His big red horse was also dressed in a white coat, and it was almost impossible to distinguish it from the wind and snow.

All the warriors had a leather jacket with a battle armor underneath it, and a thick robe underneath the battle armor, which had just been transported to the Great City Fortress before departure. With this layer of silk robes separating the flesh from the cold armor, the cold was finally bearable.

Yuan Shao felt the friction between the robe and the flesh, and couldn't help but be a little surprised, the leather jackets were just made, they were all made of leather goods bought from the Xianbei people and the Huns, although the price was a little higher, but it was not unobtainable. This robe is a little strange, the feel is different from the usual robe, the warmth effect is much better, the value should be expensive, where did Liu Xiu get it, and it is five or six thousand sets, how much does it cost?

Could it be that it was given by the Son of Heaven again? It shouldn't be. The news from Luoyang said that His Majesty is now crazy in order to get money, and he shook his face with Situ Yang Ci a few times, threatening that if Yang Ci can't get money again, he will change to Situ, where did he get the money?

Fighting a war costs money, and Yuan Shao has now experienced the meaning of this sentence firsthand. Not to mention anything else, more than 5,000 soldiers, each with a leather jacket, a set of armor, a wool robe, and a set of weapons, will cost more than 10,000 yuan, plus war horses and auxiliary horses, and carry marching dry food and cold drinks, which cannot be done without 100 million yuan.

This is still on the basis of the local acquisition of war horses and the relatively low price. If it is based on the price of horses in Luoyang, I am afraid that only those war horses will not be able to make up, let alone the overallocated deputy horses. In this way, most of the deputy horses are still the trophies that Liu Xiu snatched from the Xianbei people.

Yuan Shao knew that Liu Xiu was also racking his brains to make money, otherwise he would not have asked to fight as much as possible.

Even if they can fight the war, they won't be able to support it for too long, whether they can defeat the Xianbei people, Yuan Shao's heart is full of doubts.

"Keep up, keep up." Liu Xiu turned around and shouted to the soldiers behind him: "Now run one more mile, you can save a lot of time to rest at that time, and when you get to the canyon in front, everyone drinks and eats meat." ”

The soldiers were hurrying away, and few of them had the heart to answer his words, and the sound of the sparse lala was blown away by the wind as soon as he came out.

Liu Xiu looked at the demoralized soldiers worriedly, and his heart was worried. He discussed with Xun You for a long time, according to the information sent by Xi Zhicai and the news that Xu Huang heard, he felt that the actions of the Xianbei people were very suspicious, and there were only more than three hundred miles between Dachengsai and Shuofang, and Xu Huang's scouts came and went, and it was impossible for the Xianbei people not to notice that he was in Dachengsai. The Xianbei people deliberately ignored the Great Fortress, most likely because they did not want to attract his attention, and their target was indeed the Great Fortress.

If the Wild Sand Tribe crossed the Wolf Mountain and did not go to the Northland County, but turned around and headed east, it would directly threaten his left flank, and might even intervene between him and the Great Wall, cutting off his retreat. As for the two Hongyue tribesmen to the east, who knows whether he is heading towards Meiji or Dacheng, what if they turn to the south, it will cut off his back road and threaten his right flank, and then the 20,000 troops under Shuofang City will arrive in only two days.

By that time, there were at least 50,000 to 60,000 people surrounding the fortress in a zigzag shape, and he simply couldn't cope with it. Therefore, Xun You suggested that he take advantage of the opportunity of the snow to take the initiative to jump out of the encirclement and disappear from the Xianbei people's field of vision before the Xianbei people joined in.

This trick is very dangerous, because the weather is too cold, and camping outside without a tent will not be of great use even if you have a sleeping bag, and the non-combat losses will be very amazing.

In order to avoid this situation, he transferred cotton clothes from Jinyang as quickly as possible, and these cotton clothes were all transported by his father from Jiaozhou. After making the decision to lay the foundation in the state, he began to prepare the relevant materials. Dahan's winter coat is filled with silk wool, the thermal insulation effect is not good, and it is barely used in the house with a fire, and it is definitely not used in the ice and snow. He discussed 10,000 sets of cotton clothes with his father for a long time, and finally exchanged them with a porcelain formula, which was given to him by his father on credit.

It is not enough to have cotton clothes, he used the leather goods sold from the grassland to make a leather jacket, the leather jacket has a good windproof effect and stronger cold resistance, but to his surprise, the soldiers from Luoyang are very resistant to the leather jacket, not only because the current treatment process is not in place, there is a strong smell on the leather jacket, but more importantly, they feel that wearing a leather jacket is a barbarian.

I don't know where this bullshit came from, anyway, there are not one or two people who oppose it, not only Chen Chen resolutely refused to wear a leather jacket, but even Wang Yun strongly objected, and in the end, it was Liu Xiu who gave a death order, and everyone who did not wear a leather jacket would not go out cold, and then he was the first to wear a leather jacket that smelled so heavy that it could smoke the dead, which barely suppressed the backlash.

Still, I didn't feel a bit of heat on my body. Liu Xiu was angry and felt cold, not to mention those soldiers. Xun You's face was already pale, he gasped for breath, grabbed the horse's mane with both hands, and buried his face between the horse's sideburns. However, the smell of the horse was also very strong, and it could be seen that he was holding it hard.

"Gongda, can you still hold on?" Liu Xiu asked worriedly.

"It's okay, I can hold it." Xun You spit out a lock of horsehair from his mouth, and said with a reluctant smile: "The first time I followed the adults on the expedition, I encountered such a big snowstorm, as long as I survived, I will have the capital to brag to others in the future." ”

Liu Xiu couldn't help but laugh, leaned closer to Xun You, and said loudly: "We won this battle, it is enough to scare the courage of the Xianbei people, you Xun Gongda is a well-known military advisor, that is the capital." ”

"I hope so." Xun You laughed and poured a breath of cold wind into it, choking him to cough. Liu Xiu stretched out his hand and patted him on the back, took out a flat wine jug from his arms with his left hand, bit the stopper with his mouth, and stuffed it into Xun You's hand, and at the same time opened the big curtain to block the wind for him: "Gongda, take a sip and warm your body." ”

The strong smell of medicine came to his nose, Xun You took a sip on the spout, and a fire rolled down his throat and his stomach became hot. He looked at the wine jug in Liu Xiu's hand in surprise: "My lord, what kind of wine is this, it tastes so strange?" ”

"Fenjiu." Liu Xiu smiled mysteriously and shook the wine jug: "Spiced, this is our biggest reliance on this operation, the secret weapon." ”

Xun You opened his mouth, took two breaths of cold air, and couldn't help laughing.

Liu Xiu also smiled, this is the medicinal wine he asked Duan Cheng to prepare in Jinyang, there are a lot of medicinal materials added to it, it is a recipe provided by Wang Zhi, it is said that it is full of fire, and if you drink too much, you will get nosebleeds.

It's all money, although my father said that he can't give him his family money now, but under his death, he still supports a lot. He didn't want to smash all the capital at once, but Tian Yan refused to cooperate with him, and he still had the intention of competing with him, so he couldn't help but spend his money. If he can't win the decisive victory in this war, just the crime of stimulating the Xianbei people into the fortress is enough to crush him, and the robbery of Adella can be concealed for a while, but it can't be hidden for a lifetime, not to mention that Yuan Shao and Chen Chen both know that it will be a matter of time before it reaches the ears of the Son of Heaven.

At that time, I am afraid that the Son of Heaven will not be able to protect him, and will even use him as a scapegoat.

Liu Xiu is making a big gamble, if he wins the bet, his position in the northern Xinjiang will be stable, and if he loses the bet, then completely stop the fire and find a place to cool down.

One day and one night, when the snow reached calf deep, Liu Xiu took the exhausted Changshui camp to a canyon that he couldn't name. Xu Huang had already prepared a camping spot with a leeward dryness, and he waited for a long time, and as soon as he saw Liu Xiu's figure, he hurriedly greeted him.

"Your Excellency, you've worked hard."

"You're working harder." Liu Xiu rubbed his hands that were about to freeze, helped Xun You, who was lying on horseback and couldn't move, to the fire, poured him another sip of wine, and then handed him over to Xu Huang, and he took Xu Yu and Zhang Fei to start the inspection.

The soldiers were all very cold, and some of them had lost consciousness, but when they saw Liu Xiu working hard to see them, they were still very excited, patting their chests one by one to show that they were not afraid of the cold, and those who were close came up to say a few words to Liu Xiu, and those who were far away looked at Liu Xiu with fiery eyes until he walked to the next song.

Liu Xiu finally walked in front of Zhao Yun and asked in a low voice, "Zilong, how is it?" ”

Zhao Yun glanced at the soldiers huddled together behind him, and smiled calmly: "Fortunately, some of my feet are frostbitten, and I didn't fall behind." The adults were well prepared and the situation was much better than I expected. ”

"That's good." Liu Xiu breathed a sigh of relief, among the more than 5,000 people he brought out, Lu Bu's more than 1,000 horse thieves were the easiest, as Lu Bu said, they used to sleep in the ice and snow when they were hungry, what is this. When they saw Liu Xiu, they never mentioned cold words, but praised the wine as good, and strongly asked Liu Xiu to increase the quota, a small pot per person was not enough at all.

They also don't want to think about how much this little jug is worth.

A little worse than the horse thieves are the four songs led by Zhao Yun and Han Sui, the soldiers of these four songs are all newly recruited Wuhuan people, they are also more accustomed to the cold weather, although they have not marched in this weather before, but with the help of new winter clothes and spirits, their words are not difficult.

The biggest loss is the two songs led by Yuan Shao, these people are basically based on the rangers of Luoyang, even the children of Wuhuan have been softened by the prosperity of Luoyang, and they can't be compared with the newly recruited Wuhuan people. There were already less than 1,000 people, but after this snowy night march, at least more than 100 people directly lost their combat effectiveness, and even more suffered frostbite.

"Let the soldiers have a good rest, pay attention to regulating their mood, and not let the war-weariness spread." Liu Xiu patted Zhao Yun lightly on the shoulder, and didn't say much, Zhao Yun was a smart person, he knew what to do.

"Whoa." Zhao Yun hesitated for a moment, and then said, "My lord, let's fight first this time." Last time, Qing Yanze didn't get the opportunity to strike first, and they all had some opinions. ”

"Really?" Liu Xiu raised his eyebrows and looked at Zhang Ji and several Zhao family members behind Zhao Yun: "Want to fight for the first time?" ”

"yes, yes." Zhang Ji looked at Liu Xiu with blank eyes and said in a loud voice.

"Then have a good rest, and if you are in good shape, I will use you for the first battle." Liu Xiu said with a smile: "What I want is a warrior who can win battles, but I can't just stare at fame." ”

"Of course." Zhang Ji turned around and shouted to the soldiers who were watching: "Tell your lordship, can we fight?" ”

More than 1,000 people stood up in unison, and shouted loudly in a neat voice: "Use me in the first battle, use me to win!" ”

Liu Xiu was startled, and suddenly it was like a world away, this sentence was too familiar, I didn't expect to hear it here. For a moment, he was a little excited, as if these Changshui Battalion soldiers composed of Wuhuan people in front of him had become the cutest people in green uniforms. He choked for a moment, clasped his fists and bowed deeply to the soldiers: "Thank you!" ”

"I am willing to follow the adults, kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions, and promote my great Han Tianwei."

The soldiers in the distance all turned their eyes when they heard the neat roar, and the morale that had been a little sluggish just now became excited. Lu Bu was the first to react, shook off his stride and hurried over, shouting as he ran: "Zilong, don't bring such a trick." Who to use for the first battle depends on whose ability is greater, but it doesn't just rely on shouting two words. As he spoke, he turned back to Wei Yue and scolded them: "Is your mother stupid? Can't shout a couple of words for them to hear? lost the opportunity to fight the first battle, see if Lao Tzu doesn't skin you. ”

Wei Yue screamed with a "whoop", but he was too nervous, this sound was sharp and thin, making everyone laugh, and the laughter shook the snow on the cliff.

Wang Yun, who was comforting Yuan Shao, listened, glanced at each other with Yuan Shao, and shook his head helplessly. No matter how high their martial arts skills are, when it comes to this occasion, after all, these rude martial artists are stronger, at least in terms of mental state, they are a step higher.

"Meeting." Taking advantage of the high morale, Liu Xiu clapped his hands, called several military horses to him, and began to listen to the latest battle situation collected by Xu Huang, and decided to be the first to attack the target.

"We have crossed the defense line of the Spirit Fox Tribe, and we are only thirty miles away from the county seat of Heyin in Wuyuan County. Stationed in Heyin were the Qiming tribe, about 2,000 people, who were responsible for guarding the rear flank of the besieging army. Xu Huang spread out the map, dotted on the location of Heyin County, and then crossed the Yellow River with his finger and pointed to Jiuyuan City: "The main force attacking the city is 10,000 horses led by He Lian and Qiandi Ao. With two lines of defense in the back, they were relaxed. Xu Huang laughed, "They didn't even dig the camp fence, and most of the scouts hid in the empty people's houses to sleep." ”

"It seems that we are really destined for Helian." Lu Bu touched his chin and laughed gloomily: "Why don't you let him reunite with his wife this time?" ”

"You slept with Adella, and you still want to sleep with Lian?" Duan Xuan looked at Lu Bu with a surprised expression. Lu Bu was stunned for a moment, jumped up, flew up and kicked over. Duan Xuan had already prepared, dodged away, and laughed.

…… He Lian held his chin and looked at the flickering flames with a blank look, unable to hide his worry. In Qingyanze, he laid a trap for Liu Xiu, but Liu Xiu did not fall into the plan, but seized the gap between the pursuit of the main force and caught him off guard, more than 2,000 Xianbei knights were killed in battle, and the baggage battalion was lost. Although those baggage were originally Huns, and their losses were limited, he still felt a little embarrassed when he saw Qing Yanze's corpses all over the place.

Especially when faced with the incomprehensible gaze of Gandhi.

He Lian did not dare to say that his strategy failed, only that he encountered a heavy attack by the Han army and was outnumbered. At the same time, he also told Luo Zhi Qiandi Ao that you can't say that you are chasing the wrong one, otherwise the big boss and the people under the big boss will definitely look down on you.

After listening to him, he reported to him that they had encountered a joint attack by the Han and the Huns, and the main force of the army was unharmed, but the baggage battalion was lost. Gandhara didn't blame them, but comforted them softly.

He Lian immediately suggested that the soul of the Han army was Liu Xiu, who was the favorite of the Son of Heaven and the captain of the Changshui Battalion, and if he was caught, the face of the Han emperor would be lost, and the Han army would be scattered and lose its combat effectiveness. He is now stationed in Dachengsai, which is a lonely place, once it is surrounded, it is difficult to get out of the siege with Liu Xiu's troops, and more importantly, the Han and Huns who surrounded Liu Xiu, Meiji, will definitely come to save him, we can wait for them to work and send them to the door.

Falling Gandhara Luo Luo agreed with his idea very much, so he laid out a suspicious formation according to Helian's plan, first let the Linghu tribe be stationed in the direction of Dachengsai and Jiuyuan, as the first line of warning, and then let Helian and Luozhi Qiandi Ao lead a large army to storm Jiuyuan City. If they can capture Jiuyuan, they can attack Wuyuan Fortress from behind and hold back the retreat. For the sake of insurance, he also arranged for the Qiming tribe to be responsible for escorting the army's grain and grass. The lord of the Qiming tribe, Mon Lizhe, is a very vigilant person, and he can ensure that nothing goes wrong with him to guard the rear of the Gandhi Ao.

There is a difference between the arrangement of placing Gandaro and the plan of Helian, that is, the question of whether or not to storm Jiuyuan City. He Lian thought that there was no need to storm the city, because the siege was not something that the Xianbei people were good at, and the siege would inevitably bring a large number of casualties, and at the same time delay the time, once the other party was alert and Liu Xiu fled to the Great Wall, then they would no longer have a choice.

Settle Gandhara insisted on attacking the city, and he wanted to capture the two cities of Shuofang and Jiuyuan. He believed that these two cities now had all the population and wealth of Wuyuan County, and if they captured these two cities, even if they didn't have to fight again, they could get enough benefits. With these two cities, they can also consider staying in Sene for a long time, and maybe even settle here, giving the Han people enough threats, and it will be much easier for them to send Adella back when the time comes. If he didn't take these two cities, it would be a hidden danger after all, what if they came out of the city to attack his rear when the time came?

Although Helian is the son of Tanshihuai, the Xianbei people are not Han, and he is not the prince, so he does not have that prestige. He is not Huai Zong, if it is Huai Zong, he can use his own strength to persuade the Fall of Gandra, so he can only listen to the arrangement of the Fall of Gandra and attack the Nine Plains together with the Fall of Gandhara.

In fact, his suggestion had been put on hold, and Gandhara ostensibly agreed to his plan, but he didn't take it seriously and carried it out according to his own plan.

Helian was very angry because of this.

Jiuyuan City is the county of Wuyuan, the city wall is stronger than other city walls, after Wang Zhi received Liu Xiu's order, all the people of the surrounding cities gathered into Jiuyuan City, with enough manpower, Jiuyuan is even more difficult to attack. The Xianbei people did not have suitable siege equipment, so they could only forcibly attack the city gates, and the losses were very large, and there was almost no progress in the real surname.

This made Kazuen even angrier.

Let and even angry things are still behind, after learning that the Xianbei people entered the fortress, when Yu Gudu Hou moved his troops to Xi'an Yang for the first time, Xi'an Yang is very close to Shuofang City, he is based on the city, and can go out of the city at any time to attack the Xianbei people who attack Shuofang City, which makes the Qianluo worry come true, and the Qianluo Luo decided not to capture Shuofang and Jiuyuan, and hit Yu Guduhou hard, to relieve his worries, he will not blindly march south.

When He Lian heard the news, he was furious, and he said to the Gandhi Ao, I can see that Dashuai doesn't take Adela seriously at all, what he cares about is only his subordinates, just his strength, and he doesn't care about the spit on his face at all.

He didn't dare to say anything, he knew what his father thought, his sister Adella was already like this, it was useless to be anxious, not to mention that it was normal for Xianbei people to rob marriage, it was very normal for a woman to be robbed and robbed, and everyone was used to it. Adella is dead, but her face is ugly, but if the tribe suffers a big loss, then their family will be finished. Not only will Adella not be able to be saved, but their father and son, as well as other brothers and sisters, and even his grandmother and mother will become slaves of others.

He Lian said beautifully, but how many people did he bring with him? So far, in addition to Helian's own personal guards, Danhan Mountain has not sent a single soldier, what is Tanshihuai thinking, they can't figure it out, if Tanshihuai didn't fancy Helian at all, then why should they help Helian earn back face?

Why don't you ask the king to order the wolf tribe to send troops to Yunzhong and Dingxiang, so that we can share a little pressure. Luo Zhi Qiandi Ao said to He Lian that it would be better if Danhan Mountain could attack the area of Shanggu and Daijun and not give the Wuhuan people a chance to support.

He Lian was so angry that he didn't say anything, and said in his heart If the king cares about me so much, what else do I need you to do.

He Lian was worried, and he opened the tent door and rushed in with a snowflake.

"The enemy is coming."

(To be continued)