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The wind blew and the fog dispersed, and in front of the vast snow, a castle stood at the mouth of the east valley of the Shehe River, firmly locking the valley mouth.

One husband is a pass, and ten thousand people are not open.

The warm morning sun shines through the clouds and mist, illuminating the castle that was originally faintly visible in the fog. It's a real castle, even a castle that shines in the sun.

"Immortal Heaven is above, it turned out to be a castle of ice and snow!"

The exclamations continued to sound, and many Tiele people had already seen clearly that the castle that appeared in front of them was actually a crystal translucent castle, a castle built with ice. It was hard for them to believe, and there was a sense of fantastic unreality.

In front of this tall ice city, the Tiele people froze, stopped their advance, and were stunned in the vast snow.

Less than a thousand steps across from them, on the tower of the Ice Castle, was Dou Jiande, the battalion general of the third battalion of the infantry army, and behind him were his old brothers in Hebei and now his henchmen, Hao Xiaode, Sun Anzu and Gao Shida and other generals. Dou Jiande is the battalion general of the third battalion of the infantry army, with nearly 3,000 men and horses, five regiments, and Hao Xiaode all three of them serve as the heads of one regiment. Although the other two regimental commanders and deputy battalion generals, as well as the battalion commanders Shi, Sima, and the officers who joined the army, who joined the army, who joined the army, who joined the army, and who joined the army, and who joined the army, were all served by other people, the third battalion of this infantry army. Dou Jiande still has a strong control and prestige. Think about it more than half a year ago, he was a merchant who was forced to leave his hometown and wander around. That time in Henan, I went to visit Shan Xiongxin, Xu Gai and others, and after meeting Yi Feng. He made a decision immediately and took the initiative to take refuge in Yi Feng. Looking back now, there was nothing wrong with the original decision, and now, he has become a battalion general, commanding a battalion of people. Although the Wuzhou Army is now expanding rapidly and constantly expanding, in addition to the local garrison army, the state army has already had four infantry battalions, two chariot battalions, a cavalry battalion and a mixed training battalion. has a full eight main battalions, plus several directly governed regiments, there are also eight battalion generals in the Ya Army, and there are more than 20 battalion-level generals, but he Dou Jiande can still rank in the forefront of the main battalion generals in the Ya Army. A whole infantry battalion, nearly 3,000 elites, this was unimaginable half a year ago.

Not to mention following the easy wind. Although he was only Yi Feng's personal staff at the beginning, in a short period of time, Yi Feng had become the head of a town and opened the General's Mansion. More than half a year ago, he Dou Jiande was just a person who was forced to leave his hometown by the county order. And now, he already has the rank of Zhengliupin's general of Zhengnan, and he was the county commander who bullied him at the beginning. It's not as good as him.

Dou Jiande patted the ice castle that was becoming more and more crystal in the sun, and felt very relieved. I was secretly glad that my choice was not wrong.

The speed at which Yi Feng's strength has expanded is staggering, and it has only been a few months. Yi Feng not only controlled the Bashang area, with tens of thousands of troops, but also had a justifiable official title canonized by the imperial court. The hundreds of men and horses when they went north at the beginning have now become tens of thousands of soldiers. Fight a battle, win a battle, the Huaihuang army is getting stronger and stronger, and now this battle, although it is not over, has been won in advance. More than 8,000 Tiele cavalry were trapped in the river dozens of miles long, and they were shut down and beaten by dogs. There was no need to fight this battle, they had already won. Before going north, who would have thought that there would be such a result?

When Yi Feng decided to divide his troops to outflank the Tiele people, Dou Jiande also felt that Yi Feng was a little too conceited. But now it seems that it is Yi Feng who is confident and confident. Not only did they succeed in blocking the Tiele people, but a few days ago, who would have thought that Yi Feng would actually take advantage of the severe cold outside the fortress, as if it were a miracle, and it took five days before and after, not only blocking the Dongchuan Pass, establishing a car formation, and then building a stronger camp in front, and finally building an ice castle beyond everyone's expectations.

A 1,000-pace-wide and three-zhang tall ice behemoth.

Dou Jiande believed that even if the 8,000 Tiele cavalry in the valley were all killed under this ice castle, it would never be possible to break through this ice castle.

In three days, it only took them three days to build this huge ice fortress. personally participated in the construction of this miraculous castle, Dou Jiande is now on top of this ice castle, and his heart is still unstoppably shocked. Who had ever heard of it, and who believed that it would take three days to build a castle made of ice? But Yifeng did it, and it only took three days.

In retrospect, the castle looks magical, but it wasn't difficult to build.

The weather here is cold, and behind it is the confluence of the Shehe River and the Lok Ma River, and the river water has frozen into a thick layer of ice. When Yi Feng proposed to use his spare time to build an ice castle to strengthen his defenses after establishing a fortification, many people found it inconceivable. But Yi Feng proposed that during the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao fought with Ma Chao's Guanzhong coalition army in Weishui, and Cao Cao took advantage of the severe winter cold to build a walled city with sand and water in a short period of time. The most critical point of Cao Cao's walled city is to use the severe cold, dripping water into ice, each layer of soil, poured with poured ice water, and after the water is cold and frozen, the city wall has been solidified, and then continue, and so on, a walled city has been successfully built in a short time. However, Yi Feng's plan was even bolder, instead of soil, he took ice directly from the river behind him, cut it into large ice bricks, and then built a wall with ice bricks, and then poured it with melted ice water to condense the ice wall, and so on. In such a cold winter, once the ice is frozen, it will not melt, and the ice city will naturally be extremely strong. Close to the river valley, easy to get ice, and convenient to boil water, this idea is opened, in fact, when it comes to building, an ice city is much simpler than an earth city.

In three days, an ice city 1,000 steps wide and three feet high had been established.

However, this is also the case that the Huaihuang army has sufficient manpower, and the Huaihuang army that outflanked it this time has 10,000 people, and in the past few days, Su Zhi, the leader of the Ahui clan of the Xi clan, has led his subordinate knights. Running around to make contact, not only did he break up the Ah Hui Department and find out the people who were hiding and hiding. and pulled to the Sui camp at the mouth of the river, and finally got in touch with the other four major tribes. The first batch of more than 10,000 people of the four tribes also arrived at the Sui camp. The Sui camp suddenly had fifty or sixty thousand people, and the number of people was increasing every day, and it was precisely because of these sufficient manpower that Yi Feng's ice city construction plan was very smooth.

When the Tiele army was dragged by Shan Xiongxin and Qin Qiong for seven days, when they arrived at Dongchuankou, a brand new and magical ice city had been completed and towered in front of him.

The ice castle blocked the mouth of the Dongchuan River, and there was also a Xiaoice fort on each side, each with longbowmen.

Instead, he was ready to take on the heavy responsibility. The two chariot battalion generals who intercepted Tieler's cavalry, Huang Junhan and Lai, were slightly depressed. It took a lot of effort to pull the chariot battalion here, but in the end, with the establishment of the ice castle, the blocking position based on the chariot array had lost its effect, and they once again sat on the cold bench, and the chariot battalion had to abandon their chariot behind the ice castle and board the castle to participate in the defense of the city.

The three-foot high ice castle is above the gate. It is ten paces wide, and has many prominent horse faces, as well as a tall city plate. The longbowmen and crossbowmen stood behind the battlements with their crossbows every hundred paces. There was also a tower, in which the spearmen and heavy infantrymen sat unarmoured and roasted on fire.

On the slopes on either side of the front of the ice castle. There are also two Xiaoice forts, like two fists stretched out by the ice castle giants. Three Ice Castles. It's more like an open abyss mouth, waiting to devour the Tiele cavalry sent up at any time. Behind these three ice castles. There is also a camp composed of ditches, breastwork, wooden fences, and chariots, and further behind, there are tents everywhere, which are Xi people who are constantly coming.

With such an arrangement, it is really an ambush on all sides, and it is foolproof. This time, none of the Tile people who came to attack tried to escape.

Dou Jiande slammed his fists into the ice wall, and shouted majestically to the generals and colonels of the third infantry battalion behind him: "Are you ready?" ”

Sun Anzu and other generals raised their heads one after another, and shouted with a smile: "It's ready." ”

"Count us lucky, marching in the ice and snow for two days, and cutting ice and digging ditches in the snow to build a city, today we are on duty to guard the city, and the Tiele people of the dog day are really familiar with each other and sent to the door." Dou Jiande unconsciously spoke like Yi Feng. "You all have to catch the credit for sending it to the door, don't come to the critical moment, but it will fall off the majesty of our double-headed tiger flag."

On the high city wall, the two-headed tiger battalion flag of the third battalion of the infantry army whirred and hunted with the wind.

Although the wind blew like a knife, the more than 2,000 soldiers of the third battalion guarding the city were still majestic and solemn. Due to the good food in the army, three meals a meal, plus daily drills and exercises, the soldiers of the main battalion of the Huaihuang Army are all in good health, these soldiers are basically young and strong between twenty and forty, almost no old and weak, and there are no vacancies, plus the treatment is higher and the rewards are more sufficient in the war, so the morale is high. Although the weather is cold, there are not only jackets and leather robes and coat cloaks, but also rain and snow are not afraid. Although the wind is strong and the weather is cold, the equipment supplied by the logistics of the Huaihuang Army is very sufficient, and it is not afraid of such cold at all. In addition, each soldier also hung a gourd and a leather bag, one of which was filled with spirits, and when it was snowy or cold at night, you could drink two sips of spirits to protect against the cold, and this wine also had a function, once injured, it could also be used to clean the wound. In another leather bag, you can fill some boiling water, then pour some milk powder into it, and add some meat floss into it, after some time, then the warm and extremely nutritious and calorie-rich milk meat floss porridge is good. With strong health, good food, adequate clothing, and extremely high rewards, the morale of the soldiers of the double-headed tiger battalion guarding the city defense is high.

As soon as they saw the beacon fire signal lit by the scouts, not only did not one of them panic, but one by one became excited.

In their eyes, the Tiele people are not feared enemies, but only military feats to be taken.

Dou Jiande inspected the city wall, and patted the shoulders affectionately at the longbowmen who were wearing armor in the tower, "Brothers, the barbarian is finally here, everyone cheers up, a barbarian has five yuan for money, it depends on whether you have the ability to take it." ”

The longbowmen laughed, "General Dou, we all thought that these barbarians were frozen to death in the snow, and we were all impatient to wait, but now that we are finally here, we can shoot a few more and let out a sulk." ”

The sword and shield soldiers and pikemen were not in a hurry to pierce the armor, such a city defense battle, the first few rounds of longbowmen and crossbowmen were enough, and the artillery could also go into battle, but their spearmen and sword soldiers who had to fight each other were not in a hurry, they could continue to sit in the tower and roast the fire, and when they were needed, they would wear armor and go into battle. Now, they just need to recharge.

"General, guarding such an ice city, our melee soldiers can't play at all, the military merits are earned by the crossbowmen for a while, we also have bows, and we also have to go into battle to kill the barbarians." One of the sword and shield soldiers laughed.

The Huaihuang army is extremely heavy with bows and crossbows, even if it is a melee sword, shield and spearman, they are also equipped with bows and arrows.

Dou Jiande smiled, "Then why didn't you get into the longbow soldier in the first place?" Now you talk to Lao Tzu about this, if you don't have this good mouth, you don't have to talk. Now defending the city and fighting, why do you need half-hung archers, you will waste arrows when you go up. Sit here and roast the fire, and when I need you, I will naturally call you. ”

A bold spearman shook his head helplessly and said: "When the general calls us, it is estimated that not only will the meat be gone, but there will be no soup left, and when we go out, it is estimated that we will go to cut off people's heads and clean up the battlefield." ”

Another also said at this time, "When you go back, you have to practice the longbow well, and strive to be admitted to the longbow team, it's good to be a longbow, every time you fight, you stay in the safest place, protected by cavalry, swords, shields, and spearmen, and then you are the easiest to make meritorious contributions, earn more military merits, get money quickly, and get promoted quickly."

For this group of sour melee infantry, Dou Jiande just smiled and walked over. What they say is the truth, this is also a very unique place in the Huaihuang Army, the most desirable position in the whole army is the longbow soldiers. And those melee infantry, often after a battle, only go to the battlefield to clean the battlefield and chop off the heads of the dead. However, in this case, Dou Jiande thinks it is very good, which fully shows that the Huaihuang army has always been in a favorable position during the war, otherwise, the melee soldiers would have been sent forward to fight hard, how could there be a chance to gossip so easily.

"The barbarians are coming!" Sun Anzu spoke up.

Dou Jiande retracted his thoughts, looked up, and looked far away, about a thousand steps ahead, Tongluo cavalry was appearing in a steady stream, gathering more and more.

"I guess these barbarians are dumbfounded now!" Hao Xiaode said with a smile.

Dou Jiande put away his smile and waved his hand: "Order, prepare to fight!" (To be continued......)