In fact, Zhang Xutuo, who was old in the battlefield, didn't notice the scarcity of water in the area of Menghai City, but it was a pity that he specialized in the art industry, so he ............

To be precise, Zhang Xutuo was forced to notice this problem, and after spending a lot of effort to finally fill the moat of Menghai City, Zhang Xutuo couldn't wait to launch a frontal assault, and the soldiers of the Sui Army of Qi County, who had long been holding back the fire in their stomachs, also swore to take Menghai City in a battle, and kill Meng Haigong, who was under the tactics, to avenge the sacrifice of his comrades. There are also the officers and troops of Liang County and Jiyin County, who were also sent to the battlefield by Zhang Xutuo, so that the Liang County team feinted to attack the north city of Menghai City, and the team of Jiyin County was responsible for taking the Hulu River waterway to attack the north-south connection of Menghai City, dispersing the defenders to the greatest extent, and also trying to cut off the north-south connection of Menghai City.

Although the Sui army prepared a large number of siege weapons for this battle, and was also mentally prepared for a bitter battle, it was not until the siege battle really began that Zhang Xutuo found that he still underestimated the ability of the Meng Hai Gong Bandit Army to defend the city, and also overestimated the role that courage and fighting spirit could play in the siege war.

As if it was a copy of the original Luoyang offensive and defensive battle, all kinds of siege weapons of the Sui army were skillfully restrained by the Menghai Gong Thief Army, the crashing car that hit the city gate was smashed by the grinding plate bluestone wearing iron chains, the tall and bulky ladder car was taken care of by the rocket, and the swallowtail torch was warmly entertained, and the Qijun soldiers who carried the flying ladder to charge and climb were basically smashed by the sheep's head stone and ash bottle sasser wood that were smashed down like hail raindrops before they had climbed halfway, and they fell into the air one after another. And when the elite dead soldiers under the command of Luo Shixin sacrificed their lives to be attached, seeing that dozens of flying ladders were already crawling with soldiers and were about to hope to enter the city, several huge fire curtains fell on the city wall, and fell on the Sui soldiers with fierce fire, so that these brave Sui soldiers were either burned alive, or burned to minor injuries and serious injuries, and they roared unwillingly and fell off the city, and the most promising attack was also repulsed.

Seeing such a picture, Zhang Xutuo was of course heartbroken, and at the same time, he was extremely puzzled, he couldn't understand how Meng Haigong, who was born as a rich man in the countryside, could be so proficient in the tactics of defending the city, and could hardly give himself a chance to break the city?

What made Zhang Xutuo feel even more incredible was still behind, the Meng Haigong thief army was not willing to be beaten passively, and even dared to seize the fighter plane to launch a counterattack, organized more than 200 elite dead soldiers, and suddenly used a rope to go down from the west wall of the north city, and raided the Sui army of Jiyin County who was attacking the waterway of the Hulu River by boat raft, and the Sui army of Jiyin had long been afraid of Meng Haigong, and was suddenly in chaos after being raided, and fled for their lives to the south bank of the Hulu River without the thief army, and was slashed and killed by the thief army pursuing across the river and fled directly back to the main force of the Sui army. As a result, Zhang Xutuo was furious and even killed Ji Yin, not to mention the number of generals, and the siege spirit of the main force of the Sui army was inevitably hit hard, and the morale was weakened.

After a long attack, the casualties began to expand, and most of the large siege weapons were damaged, and in the afternoon, Zhang Xutuo once considered ordering Mingjin, but he was a little unwilling, and he did not rotate the siege team in time after hesitation, and accidentally exposed his hesitant mind. Seeing this scene, Zhang Xutuo's nemesis Li Mi immediately made a decision, and immediately built a Meng Haigong rotation force to go to the city, and at the same time ordered the archers to shoot the artemisia arrows that had been prepared, this kind of arrows cut from artemisia wood is very powerful, and generally only hit the weak part of the face to receive the effect, and at the same time, it is not far away, and there is almost no lethality to the well-equipped Sui army, and it does not receive any killing effect after shooting out! However......

However, it received an unimaginable effect of luring the enemy, and after discovering that the thief army in the city had shot artemisia arrows, He Yanyu, who was commanding the siege on the front line, immediately decided that the thief army was short of arrows, and at the same time reported the news to Zhang Xutuo, who was hesitating whether to Mingjin, also immediately fell into the plan, not only immediately gave up Mingjin's plan, but also beat the drum to continue the attack, and sent two armies of Mulan and Luo Shixin to join the battlefield in one go, put in all the remaining siege weapons, and launched a strong attack on Menghai City in a dense formation.

The continued assault of the Sui army of Qi County was of course met by the bandit army of Meng Hai City, Meng Haigong gave an order, and the thief army team defending the city was in the most adequate state of arrows, and the trebuchets that had already made five trebuchets also threw stones to their heart's content, and the dense Sui army team suddenly suffered heavy casualties, and then barely approached the city wall, and was hit by the fierce blows of rolling stones and wood and gold juice ash bottles, countless brave and invincible Qi soldiers in the field battle were under the corpse city, and the heavy and slow large weapons also moved more slowly under the city full of corpses and debris, It became the best target for the thieves to set fire to the soldiers, turning into huge fire balls one after another, and the soldiers of the Sui army roared in the smoke of the fire, but they still had no way to take the towering city wall.

The soldiers of the Sui army roared aggrievedly under the city, the thief army laughed wildly in the city, Zhang Xutuo shouted the plan, and Li Mi proudly explained to Meng Haigong and his wife on the city wall, "In the next day, Zhang Tuo was brave and unplanned, and saw our army shooting artemisia arrows, when people thought that our army's arrows had been exhausted, in order not to let our army have time to replenish the feather arrows, we must continue to attack at any cost." And his team can not attack the fortified city, the sharp spirit has fallen, the body has also been affected, our army will take the opportunity to fight back violently with the new force, and it is naturally easy to hit his team hard, and once this battle is over, Zhang Xutuo's siege weapons are exhausted, and it will definitely take time to rebuild, our army can not only win a respite, but his team will also be more frustrated and more depressed, in the long run, our army will win, Zhang Xutuo will be defeated! ”

"The Dharma Master is brilliant! Brilliant! When the Sui army retreated, he suddenly sent troops from the north gate to attack the Liang County officers and troops in the north, continuing to expand the results and hit the morale of the Sui army.

Li Mi's grasp of the enemy's psychology and the use of tactics are indeed the master who can count the fingers in the world, when Zhang Xutuo helplessly ordered Mingjin, the Liangjun Sui army who served as a feint in the north city also withdrew, and when they returned to the side of the Hulu River and prepared to cross the river from the bridge, Yang Jishan personally led three hundred elite soldiers from the north gate to suddenly kill, slammed the back of the Liangjun Sui army, the morale of the Liangjun Sui army has fallen, and it can not echo before and after crossing the river, the psychology is in a fragile period, and Yang Jishan who took the lead was defeated, and they jumped across the river. Unintentionally in the battle, Yang Jishan won a lot, and then retreated to the city before the counterattack of the Sui army of Qi County. Zhang Xutuo's only reliable friendly army in this battle, the Sui army of Liangjun, also suffered a great morale setback, and many soldiers had no intention of fighting again, only hoping to end the war as soon as possible, and did not care about victory or defeat, and the army was extremely depressed.

In the face of Li Mi's endless tactics, Zhang Xutuo was completely helpless, and he had to consider changing the tactics of frontal assault to break the city with skill. It was also a coincidence that when the Sui army collected troops and returned to the camp, Zhang Xutuo suddenly discovered a situation that was not too special - many Qi soldiers had just returned to the camp and immediately rushed to the Makeng River next to it. Zhang Xutuo asked the reason, and then learned that it was a hot weather, and the soldiers of the Sui army who went out of the camp to attack the city had drunk all the water bags they carried early, and they could not find a water source to replenish on the battlefield of Menghai City, so they went to the river to drink water as soon as they returned to the camp.

After accidentally discovering this small detail, Zhang Xutuo immediately remembered that there were few streams around Menghai City, and only the two rivers of Hulu River and Makeng River could provide water sources, and after igniting a glimmer of hope, Zhang Xutuo immediately ordered the scouts to closely monitor the water intake situation of Menghai City, and also to survey the upstream of the Hulu River to see if the Hulu River could be cut off.

The scouts sent out to monitor Menghai City for a day the next day, and found that the thief army only drew water on the Hulu River Bridge connecting the north and south cities five times, and the number was not large, each time it took away more than a dozen barrels of water, which was enough to prove that the drinking water in the city was very sufficient. At the same time, the scouts who reconnoitred the terrain of the upper reaches of the Hulu River also reported that the terrain in the upper reaches of the Hulu River was relatively open, and there was no ideal space for water storage in the upper reaches of the Hulu River.

In this way, the Sui army of Qi County, which was originally very strong in combat, was forced to fall into absolute passivity, with the strong and difficult Menghai City in the front, and the small group of thieves in the rear, who were like cattle hairs, and continued to attack the city without certainty, and it was destined to greatly damage its vitality; If he retreats, he will make Meng Haigong even more arrogant, and at the same time, he will not be able to explain to the imperial court; The stalemate is a waste of time, food and morale, and it will definitely give other thieves a chance to take advantage of it. In a dilemma, Zhang Xutuo, who was helpless, suddenly found that Chen Yingliang refused his invitation to send troops, probably because he had a premonition that this situation would occur, so he refused to come to the Menghai City battlefield to find guilt.

"If this is the reason, Chen Yingliang, this little ghost, is really like a god."

After sighing, Zhang Xutuo shook his head, and continued to carefully recall that he followed Shi Wansui and Yang Su's usual siege process, thinking about the strategy of breaking the city, but at this time, Yang Wang suddenly came to the big tent of the Chinese army to ask for a meeting, saying that he wanted to report to Zhang Xutuo for a major matter, and Zhang Xutuo nodded and agreed to meet. Soon, Yang Wang entered the tent, and he didn't talk to Zhang Xutuo politely, but directly said: "Ambassador, the lower official is here to report the matter, at the invitation of the lower official, Chen Yingliang, the general guard of the county, has promised to send troops to the north, and come here to help the lower official attack Menghai City." Moreover, he had already sent troops, and if the journey was smooth, he would be able to reach this place in four days. ”

Zhang Xutuo's face suddenly became gloomy, and he slapped the case in front of him and shouted, "Who told you to ask him for help?" Did the old man ever give such an order? ”

"The ambassador forgives you, you have not given such an order, but according to the imperial court code, the officials do not need to ask for your consent in this matter." Yang Wang replied calmly: "Half of Meng Haigong's thief city is in Liang County, and the lower officials are the guards of Liang County, shouldering the heavy responsibility of exterminating the thieves in the whole county, and in the case of being unable to do so, they have the right to ask for help from neighboring counties, and they do not need to ask for anyone's consent. ”

Zhang Xutuo was speechless, and only after a while did he snort coldly: "Yang Tongshou is really worthy of being the former Guozi Priest Wine, he has read a lot of books, and he has taken advantage of the loopholes of the imperial court decrees, which is really powerful!" ”

The ambassador laughed. Yang Wang didn't care about Zhang Xutuo's sarcasm, he just smiled and said: "The lower officials are not taking advantage of loopholes, they are just doing their duty." ”

"What a dutiful one!" Zhang Xutuo snorted coldly again, and then said, "Since you invited him here, then you will be responsible for the reception." Also, the army of Qian County was invited by you, and their food and grass and military needs are borne by you Liang County, don't expect the old man to transfer money and food from the other eleven counties to you to support him! ”

"Xia Guan understands." Yang Wang nodded with a wry smile, and said cautiously: "Ambassador Zhang, about this matter, the lower official has only one small request, after the arrival of the army of Qianjun, I hope that you will be more tolerant to the juniors for the sake of military affairs, and also listen to the opinions of the juniors appropriately. Accepting good strategies and following good practices is the right way to use soldiers. ”

Zhang Xutuo's face became even more ugly, and he said after a while: "Yang Tongshou, regardless of official position, only compare age and qualifications, you don't seem to have the qualifications to teach me a lesson, right?" Besides, is the old man such a narrow-minded person? ”

"Since this is the case, then the lower official will retire." Yang Wang bowed his hand to leave, but Zhang Xutuo waved his hand angrily, and sent Yang Wang away without giving a good face.

Although he didn't give Yang Wang, who privately invited Chen Yingliang to go north to help him, he still felt a little strange, that is, when arranging the night messenger in the afternoon, Zhang Xutuo, who had been in a bad mood these days, suddenly became much more relaxed, and it was very rare to entrust the night patrol task to his subordinates, and said: "Tonight's third watch patrol camp, Qin Qiong, He Yanyu, the two of you will carefully inspect on behalf of the old man, the old man feels very tired, I want to sleep well, don't disturb me if there is no major event." ”

Hearing Zhang Xutuo's order, while looking at each other, Qin Qiong and He Yanyu still happily took the order - because they all knew that Zhang Xutuo couldn't sleep peacefully during this time, and the lights in the sleeping tent were basically not extinguished, and the eyes were so tired that the eye sockets were sunken, and the whole person was obviously much thinner, and no one would listen to it.

It was night, Zhang Xutuo's sleeping tent was really out early, but hard work is hard work, and when it was more than half of the fourth watch, Qin Qiong and He Yanyu, who were in charge of the night, could only wake up Zhang Xutuo, who was snoring loudly, but Zhang Xutuo, who was sleeping, was also startled, and quickly got up and asked, "What's wrong?" Enemy raids? Didn't you hear the shouting to kill? ”

"Commander, it's not a robbery, it's that we were tricked by the thieves again." Qin Qiong replied with a sad face: "Halfway through the second watch, the scout who was in charge of monitoring the movement of the enemy city suddenly found that there was a change in the city, and saw that there were many thief soldiers going down the city with ropes, as if they were going to sneak attack our camp, and the last general waited until you finally fell asleep, so he didn't dare to disturb you, He Yanyu stayed and continued to defend the camp, and the last general led the army out of the camp and organized crossbowmen to shoot indiscriminately, who knew ......, who knew ......, who knew that later I found out that those thief soldiers were all straw men, and the best feather arrows shot by the last general were all inserted into the straw men, Pulled up the walls by the enemy, the losses were considerable. ”

"I see." Zhang Xutuo put his mind at ease, sat back on the bed, yawned and said: "It's okay, you are also loyal to your duties, if you accidentally fall into the scheme, it is because the enemy is too cunning, pay attention next time, find that the enemy is going down to the city, don't rush to release the arrows, first explore clearly." ”

"But what if the enemy really goes down to the city?" Qin Qiong said worriedly: "If the enemy suddenly comes out of the ten falsehoods and really puts down some elite dead soldiers to raid our position, won't we suffer a big loss?" ”

"Three nights." Zhang Xutuo lay back on the bed, pulled up the quilt, yawned and said: "Be careful and vigilant for three more nights, after these three nights, it will be fine, and then it will not be Meng Haigong, the traitor, who will yin us, it will be our turn to be the traitor of Meng Haigong." ”

"Three nights later, it's our turn to be a traitor?" Qin Qiong and He Yanyu looked at each other, they didn't understand what Zhang Xutuo meant, and when they wanted to ask again, they found that Zhang Xutuo had already snored loudly again and fell asleep.

As Qin Qiong was worried, in the next three nights, the thief army of Meng Haicheng really put down the straw man bluff every night, and although the soldiers of the Sui army did not dare to shoot arrows indiscriminately, they were forced to go out of the camp every time, and they were very tired from being disturbed by the thief army. But the short-tempered Zhang Xutuo was no longer angered by the small actions of Meng Haigong's thief army this time, and rashly launched an attack on the city, just sneered, and let the enemy stir up the wind and rain, and did not pay the slightest attention, so that the generals of Qi County suspected that Zhang Xutuo seemed to have suddenly changed into a person, and was possessed by some ghost, so he also quietly discussed it in private.

When the generals of Qi County were discussing, the leaders of the thief army such as Meng Haigong and his wife laughed in Meng Hai City, constantly praising Li Mi's clever plan like a god, and getting hundreds of straw men to deceive tens of thousands of good arrows for the official army, and by the way, the most difficult Qi County team was exhausted. In order to commend Li Mi's hard work and confirm that the Sui army still did not attack the city, on the morning of the fourth day, Meng Haigong and his wife also set up a banquet to entertain Li Mi. Li Mi thanked him, and took the opportunity to build yì and said: "Record, it's almost over, I think I can do it tonight, organize five hundred dead soldiers to go down to the city, and raid the official camp." ”

"Master, you're in too much of a hurry, aren't you?" Ma Saifei said with some unease: "Our scouts found that Zhang Xutuo's old dog asked the army to take turns out of the camp every time to guard, is it a few more days to play the official army?" ”

"Auntie, don't worry, you don't have to." Li Mi smiled and said: "I didn't say to raid Zhang Xutuo's old dog's camp, these days I have been letting the straw man blempty in the middle of the second watch, the officers and soldiers are basically used to being on guard at this time, tonight we will let five hundred elite soldiers go down to the city, take the night to attack the camp of Liang County, and we will win a big victory!" ”

"Brilliant plan!" Meng Haigong was overjoyed, and hurriedly raised his glass and said: "Come, nephew Xian, dry this cup, I wish us a successful surprise attack tonight!" ”

"Thank you." Li Mi smiled and raised his glass, and added: "But before I finish speaking, those five hundred elite soldiers must be let wear the clothes of the official army tonight." ”

"Hahahaha!" Meng Haigong laughed out loud and became even happier, and raised his glass and said, "Okay!" That's it, come, nephew-in-law, do it! ”

"."

Li Mi smiled and raised his glass, but just as Li Mi put the wine glass to his lips, Meng Haigong's younger brother Meng Qi Ghost hurriedly came in from outside and shouted: "Brother, it's not good, our eyes have probed, and the traitor Chen Yingliang from Qian County has also come with his soldiers and horses, and it is estimated that he will arrive in Meng Hai City this afternoon." ”

With a "clang", the wine glass in Li Mi's hand fell to the ground, and the wine was suddenly spilled all over his body, Meng Haigong also jumped up in shock, and quickly asked, "How many soldiers and horses are there?" ”

"Ten regiments, two thousand people." Meng Ghost replied truthfully.

"! Scare Lao Tzu! Meng Haigong scolded a swear word and breathed a sigh of relief, waved his hand and said: "It's okay, there are two thousand people, don't worry, if he dares to attack the city, Lao Tzu's virtuous nephew and son-in-law can wipe him out in one battle!" ”

"Uncle Meng, I don't have this confidence." Li Mi's voice suddenly trembled, and he said with a sad face: "Also, tonight's sneak attack must also be canceled." ”

"Why?!" Meng Haigong and his wife and Meng Qi are all the same.

"Because Chen Yingliang, that traitor, will definitely immediately send someone to pretend to be our people and come to the city to cheat the city." Li Mi replied with a sad face: "When the time comes, we will be indistinguishable from the enemy in the dark night, if we don't open the city, the soldiers who go out of the city will definitely be annihilated, and if the city is opened, that traitor may take the opportunity to kill the city!" This kind of thing of fishing in troubled waters and being abducted and cheated, Chen Xiaothief has a lot more fun than me! ”

At the same time, in the camp of the Sui army of Qi County, an astonishing news also quickly spread among the ranks of Qi County - despicable thieves, shameless typical, gambling money, fighting and poisoning, bribing and divisive, bribing and accepting bribes, and doing everything but good deeds, Chen Yingliang, with that group of accomplices and lackeys who were abducted and deceived everywhere, came to Menghai City again to grab credit!