As early as when Emperor Chu Ling appointed Xiao Mo as the privy councillor, the herald had already rushed to Shangyuan City one step earlier and announced that Xiao Mo would take charge of the enemy's affairs. So when Xiao Mo, Zhang Yansheng and others arrived in Shangyuan City with 5,000 Beijing troops, they could see it from afar. Shangyuan City guarded Liu Xingzhi, and Cai Da, the defense envoy who commanded the armies, had already taken the civil and military officials in Shangyuan City and waited outside the city gate early to greet them.

There were hundreds of officials who saw the greeting. It seemed that all the people in Shangyuan City who could call the shots were gathered here, but Xiao Mo couldn't help frowning.

When the war is approaching, these people still have time to do this kind of façade work, and with all this time, don't they know how to strengthen the city's defenses?

Therefore, when Xiao Mo hurried to the front of the civil and military officials of Shangyuan City, he threw himself off his horse and dismounted, but did not say much, but walked directly towards Shangyuan City.

As for Zhang Yansheng, he looked at the faces of the officials in Shangyuan City with great interest, perhaps because of the imminent arrival of Barbarians, everyone's faces were gray, revealing a touch of despair, only Shangyuan City was too guarded by Liu Xingzhi. Commanding the defense of the armies allowed Cai Da and the others to barely maintain their composure.

Liu Xingzhi, the Taishou of Shangyuan City, originally said some words of admiration to Xiao Mo and Zhang Yansheng, but after seeing Xiao Mo's actions, he held the words in his mouth and hurriedly followed.

And the defense made Cai Da snort coldly. Although he was not a peerless general, he was also dissatisfied with the imperial court sending two young men to serve as overseers. In his opinion, these people will only add to the chaos, in the past two months, the army of the Chu Dynasty has been defeated in successive battles, and one of the important reasons is to use the literati to control military affairs, and to manage the insiders with outsiders, but this is the practice of the Chu Dynasty, and he is not easy to say anything, but after seeing that Xiao Mo is so arrogant, he can't help but express his dissatisfaction with a cold snort.

As Xiao Mo entered Shangyuan City, Liu Xingzhi finally spoke.

"Early this morning, I heard that the imperial court sent Lord Xiao and Lord Zhang to my Shangyuan City to supervise the army, and the lower officials were really ecstatic, although the two adults were young, they were talented, and the whole world knew that there were two adults, and they would definitely be able to let the barbarian Di Yu return......

Liu Xingzhi followed behind Xiao Mo and Zhang Yansheng, and said with a reluctant smile.

Originally, Liu Xingzhi was a city guard. Even if the official rank is comparable to the dance desert after promotion. However, Xiao Mo and Zhang Yansheng were both sent by the emperor to see the rank of official, so what Liu Xingzhi said at this time was quite flattering.

However, Liu Xingzhi was just halfway through his words when he was interrupted by Xiao Mo waving his hand.

"Lord Liu, this official is on the orders of His Majesty. Come to cooperate with the town to defend Shangyuan City, the military situation is urgent, I think we should not waste time on such polite words, this time the official brought a total of 5,000 elite Beijing troops to come, and I also ask Lord Liu to send someone to arrange them, at the same time, I also ask Lord Liu and Lord Cai to accompany me to inspect the defense of the city, so that the official can have a better understanding of the preparations of Shangyuan City these days. As for the other adults. I think there are many more important things in Shangyuan Castle than accompanying the officials, and it will be inconvenient without you, so please go about your own business. ”

Seeing that Xiao Mo had just arrived, he behaved so vigorously and resolutely, or so unkindly, most of the officials showed displeasure on their faces, but after bowing and saluting, they retreated, but it was Cai Da, after hearing Xiao Mo's words, his face showed a slight look of appreciation.

And Liu Xingzhi has been in officialdom for a long time, and his face remains unchanged for Xiao Mo's words, but he led Xiao Mo to the city wall and took Xiao Mo to inspect the defense of the city.

Shangyuan City has the meaning of defending the capital, itself is a place where soldiers must fight since ancient times, it can be said that the city is high and the river is deep, the defense is stable, according to Xiao Mo's visual measurement, the city wall of Shangyuan City is ten zhang high, three feet thick, although the moat river water is clear, but it is bottomless.

There is such a city, which should give people an incomparable sense of security, but after Xiao Mo climbed the city wall, his face became more and more grim.

Without him, it is precisely because of these busy soldiers on the city wall.

These soldiers were busy at the moment, either reinforcing the walls or carrying the rolling wood orange stones. But everyone's face showed panic and despair, as if the slightest movement would cause them to put down what they were doing and flee in a hurry.

They had already heard the news of the successive defeats, and they knew very well what their own combat strength was, although the barbarians had not yet attacked the city, they were already desperate for the future of Shangyuan City.

If the officials of Shangyuan City were panicked at this time, but they could still maintain a certain amount of calm, then these soldiers had already lost their heart to resist in the successive defeats. It's just like a puppet being commanded, silently waiting for the moment of escape after defeat.

With such a general, Xiao Mo finally figured out why the army of the Chu Dynasty was so vulnerable before.

And Zhang Yansheng next to him also noticed the numbness and despair of these sergeants, and said softly: "Although there are many troops in Shangyuan City, most of them are defeated troops from the northern states, and they were forcibly gathered together after fleeing to Shangyuan City. The morale has already been cleaned up by Mandi before, for them, they didn't think about fighting to the death with Mandi at all, just thinking about how to escape after defeat, Zirou, the defense of the city you are responsible for is not easy to do. ”

Xiao Mo nodded, frowned, and said: "It is my task to defend the city, I have my own way about the morale of these soldiers, it has nothing to do with you, you should worry about what you are responsible for, in the end, the sergeants you will face in the future may not even be as good as them." ”

Zhang Yansheng smiled slightly, but said no more.

On the other side, Liu Yuanzhi and Cai Da, who were listening to Xiao Mo and Zhang Yansheng's conversation, couldn't help but look at each other in confusion.

“…… Judging from these words, it seems that defending the city is just Xiao Mo's business, but it has nothing to do with Zhang Yansheng, the deputy commander.

Could it be that Zhang Yansheng, as the deputy Chengzhi, didn't he assist Xiao Mo for his son and defend Shangyuan City? Could it be that there are other tasks?

As if noticing the doubts of the two, Zhang Yansheng turned his head and explained with a smile: "I also want to let the two adults know that although this official was ordered by His Majesty to assist Lord Xiao in the defense of Shangyuan City, after careful discussion with Lord Xiao, there are other countermeasures, and after resting here today, the official will leave before dark." It turned out that Xiao Mo and Zhang Yansheng discussed various countermeasures that night, and finally decided to act separately.

Among them, Xiao Mo stayed in Shangyuan City, responsible for resisting the attack of the grassland coalition army and attracting the attention of the grassland coalition army.

Zhang Yansheng led a group of elite sergeants to ride lightly, left Shangyuan City at night, bypassed the grassland coalition army, and went straight to the northern states, where he collected the fleeing Chu Dynasty army, recruited soldiers, and finally launched an attack and harassment on the grassland coalition army from the rear.

Although the task of the two is more important than Xiao Mo's, in terms of danger, they are equal.

But Liu Xingzhi and Cai Da didn't know what Xiao Mo and Zhang Yansheng thought, thinking of Zhang Yansheng's background, they all thought that Zhang Yansheng's trip was just to go through the motions, and he returned to the court after mixing some qualifications and military achievements, and his expression couldn't help but be a little ugly.

Xiao Mo couldn't tell them clearly now, so he just inspected the city defense and asked the two of them, "How many sergeants are there in Shangyuan City at this time?" Where did it all come from? Cai Da replied: "If you add the 5,000 Jing troops brought by your lordship, I now have a total of 113,000 troops in Shangyuan City.

Among them, 6,000 were the defenders of the original Shangyuan City, another 30,000 were reinforcements from all over the country, and the others were ...... are all soldiers who have retreated from the front. After hearing Cai Da's words, Xiao Mo nodded silently, and asked again, "How many residents are there in the city?" Can all kinds of materials and military funds be sufficient? Liu Xingzhi replied: "Lord Hui, since the grassland barbarians broke through the Great Wall, the residents of the city have begun to flee to the south one after another, and by now, there are less than 5,000 households. As for military supplies, adults can rest assured that most of the grain, grass, cattle, sheep, and money collected from the north before were stored in Shangyuan City, which was enough for us for three years. Cai Da said: "In addition, a few days ago, there was a batch of ordnance that was about to be transported to Pingxingguan, because the Great Wall had been breached, but it was also stored at the inner entrance of Shangyuan City, plus the original weapons of my Shangyuan City, a total of 400 crossbows, nearly 30,000 strong bows, more than 400,000 arrows, and countless rolling logs and stones. Hearing the answers of the two, Xiao Mo's face flashed with satisfaction. He knew that the batch of ordnance that Cai Da had not yet had time to transport to the Great Wall was the one he had personally supervised before, but he didn't expect it to return to his hands again in the end. "How many archers are there? Can you train a new archer? Thinking that there were only 100,000 defenders in Shangyuan City, but there were nearly 30,000 strong bows in storage, and it would be too wasteful if they were not used, Xiao Mo asked again.

Cai Da knew Xiao Mo's thoughts, and replied: "There are a total of 8,000 archers in our army, in addition, another 10,000 soldiers are being trained by archers day and night, but qualified archers cannot be trained overnight, I am afraid that in the future, they will not play much role on the battlefield."

Xiao Mo shook his head and said: "When the grassland coalition army is attacking the city, the enemy army will rush up, even if the bow and arrow are not fine, you can shoot the enemy, as long as you can draw the bow, pass the order, let the craftsmen in the city rush to make arrows day and night, and the archers should also strengthen their scraping practice, the power of long-range suppression can be greater, and we can also reduce the pressure in the future." ”

"Yes."

After hearing Xiao Mo's order, Liu Xingzhi and Cai Da replied in unison.

At this moment, Zhang Yansheng, who had been silent, suddenly asked, "Is there any news from Heyang City?" ”

After hearing Zhang Yansheng's inquiry, Liu Xingzhi and Cai Da both shook slightly, and after glancing at each other, Liu Xingzhi finally replied with his head down: "Lord Hui, half a day ago, the Taishou of Heyang City also sent someone to ask me for support from Shangyuan City, saying that the situation was critical. Counting today, the grassland barbarians have been storming Heyang City for three days, I'm afraid ...... Heyang City can't hold out for long.

Xiao Mo understood why Liu Xingzhi and Cai Da were acting so weirdly at the moment, thinking that it was Heyang City's request for help, but they had been rejected by the two on the grounds of self-preservation, and seeing their allies being wiped out by Barbarians, they naturally felt guilty. Having no intention of discussing the rights and wrongs of doing this, Xiao Mo continued to ask: "A few days ago, I entrusted the Ordnance Division to transport some artifacts, but they have already arrived in Shangyuan City?" Liu Xingjian said: "My lord, do you mean those Thor bags, Zhangyu iron rods and iron nets?" Xiao Mo nodded.

Liu Xingzhi replied: "It has been delivered, and now it is stored in the treasury in the city." After hesitating for a moment, Liu Xingzhi asked: "My lord, as far as the lower officials know, the thunder god bag is extremely powerful, and it is still a sharp weapon for defending the city, but what is the use of the iron rod and iron net?" Xiao Mo smiled slightly and said, "In the future, you will know, whether we can defend this Shangyuan City depends on those iron rods and iron nets." In this way, Xiao Mo inspected the city wall, while asking Liu Xingzhi and Cai Da about the situation of Shangyuan City, after a round of inspection, it was already late, and Xiao Mo also had a detailed understanding of the general situation of Shangyuan City.

Then, Xiao Mo and Zhang Yansheng, Liu Xingzhi and Cai Da had a simple dinner, and unconsciously, the time when Zhang Yansheng left had gone to the more than 30 guards arranged by Zhang Qian for Zhang Yansheng, as well as three hundred of the most elite knights of the Beijing army, one person and three Jun, the horse's hooves were wrapped with layers of thick cloth to hide their tracks, and they were all gathered at the north gate of Shangyuan City at this moment, looking at the side of the city gate, the farewell spoon between Xiao Mo and Zhang Yansheng "This trip is dangerous and isolated, Zijia should be very careful." Xiao Mo looked at Zhang Yansheng's body in front of him and said seriously.

Zhang Yansheng shook his head with a smile, his expression was still calm and casual, and said: "Although I am isolated in the future, most of the tasks are just sneak attacks and harassment, the main force of the barbarians is here, in the northern states, there are not too many barbarian cavalry, but Zi Rou, in the next period of time, it is necessary to resist the barbarian Di, so I should really be careful." Xiao Mo shook his head, and no longer continued to fight with Zhang Yansheng, but just arched his hand and said, "Zijia, take care!" I must come back alive, or I will not be able to face the wrath of the Prime Minister alone. Zhang Yansheng laughed, patted his horse, and said at the same time: "Zirou, those who become big don't care about small sections, my plan, you'd better think about it" Saying, Zhang Yansheng didn't say anything more, shouted, and left in the northeast direction with more than 300 retinue knights.

It turned out that for the strategy of defending against the enemy, Xiao Mo thought of three strategies and two things that day, but Zhang Yansheng wanted four strategies.

Among them, the three strategies that Xiao Mo thought of were the same as the three of Zhang Yansheng's four strategies. And the strategy that Zhang Yansheng thought of was too vicious, even if Xiao Mo always thought that he didn't care about the impact of the means, he was shocking to hear.

And that night, most of the arguments between the two were about this strategy.

At this time, what Zhang Yansheng said was precisely aimed at this.

After the figures of Zhang Yansheng and the others gradually disappeared into the night, Xiao Mo suddenly turned around and ordered: "Gather all the civil and military officials in Shangyuan City, this official has something to say to them." Seeing that the direction Zhang Yansheng left was not the capital, Liu Xingzhi and Cai Daben were still in a daze, and after hearing Xiao Mo's instructions, they finally woke up, bowed down, and hurriedly went down to make arrangements.

It didn't take long for Liu Xingzhi and Cai Da to order, and the civil and military officials in Shangyuan City gathered in the Taishou Yamen of Shangyuan City.

After everyone gathered, everyone's eyes were focused on Xiao Mo's body, and there was no lack of doubt in their eyes, obviously not thinking that a literati like Xiao Mo could lead them to resist the grassland coalition army.

In fact, although these officials have been preparing hard to resist the enemy these days, they no longer have any hope in their hearts, they are just doing their best to obey the fate of heaven, if it is not for the crime of escaping from the battle, the person standing in front of Xiao Mo at this time will definitely not exceed thirty percent.

But Xiao Mo didn't care about the eyes of these people, first slowly looked around at everyone, and after a long time, he finally stood up from behind the public case, and said slowly: "I know, if I tell you now that I can lead you to victory in this war, you will definitely not believe it."

But I can tell you that I could not have come to this Shangyuan City, but it was I who personally asked Your Majesty for my life to guarantee that I could defend against the barbarians in Shangyuan City, and His Majesty appointed me as the pre-battle supervisor and privy council. And the reason I did it was because I had a plan in place. We'll see if my strategy works, and all I need for now is your full cooperation. I say that, do you understand? Hearing Xiao Mo's words, everyone in the hall looked at each other, bowed in unison and said, "Xia Guan understands, and he will fully cooperate with the lord."

Xiao Mo nodded and said, "Now, I announce three things. ”

"First, the soldiers of our army, when fighting with the northern barbarians in the future, if anyone kills a steppe barbarian, he will be rewarded with a consistent amount of money, and those who can kill ten barbarians will be rewarded with ten pieces of money, and those who can kill a hundred barbarians will be rewarded with a hundred pieces of money, and those who can be named centurions will be rewarded with a hundred centurions, and so on! And the task of our waiting is to hold on to Shangyuan City for a month, and after a month, once Shangyuan City is still in our hands, everyone will be promoted to the third level and rewarded with thousands of dollars. ”

After hearing Xiao Mo's words, everyone on the field was in an uproar.

The richness of this reward is unprecedented.

And Xiao Mo continued: "The second thing, immediately send an order and send a large number of people to burn all the grassland and woodland within a hundred miles outside Shangyuan City, and not a single grass or tree can be left. ”

"The third thing is to mobilize all the craftsmen in the city, and according to my order, the transformation of the walls of Shangyuan City must be completed before the invasion of the barbarians."

Hearing Xiao Mo's order, although all the civil and military officials on the field did not understand the meaning, they still responded in unison.

However, at this time, a scout rushed to the yamen with the support of several sergeants, and kept shouting: "Heyang City," Heyang City was broken!! ”