Ji Ling snorted, pulled up his mount, and slowly galloped back. Zu Zhao saw it in the camp and couldn't help but praise: "Zhao Meng is really a loyal and brave person, and he is unwilling to take advantage of people's danger." ”

Su De shook his head and said: "Zhao Mengzhen is also a warrior, the general has him, if he can be reused in the future, he will definitely be able to take charge alone." ”

Zu Zhao smiled and said: "This is inevitable. I naturally make the best use of things, such as Zhao Meng's people, who gets the fight will be reused, if such people are not reused, then it shows how mediocre he is. Su De laughed and agreed with Zu Zhao's statement. He knew that Zu Zhao could do what he said, he was just a wanderer before, he met Zu Zhao in Luoyang by chance, and now he worships himself as a military advisor, which shows that Zu Zhao cherishes talents very much.

As he was talking, Ji Ling changed his horse and rushed out, and Su De asked: "General, you said that if Ji Ling and Zhao Meng continue to fight like this, who will have a slight advantage in the end?" ”

Zu Zhao said: "The two of them are comparable in ability, and they can't tolerate the slightest flaw on the battlefield, otherwise they will be defeated, it depends on which of the two of them can calm down, and the impetuous side must first show flaws, and then lose." ”

Su De said: "I think Ji Ling is very calm, he doesn't seem to care about the scolding of our soldiers before, but concentrates on fighting with Zhao Meng, Zhao Ci has such a person by his side, no wonder he was so powerful before." ”

Zu Zhao sighed: "It's a pity that Zhao Ci is in a hurry, and his foundation is unstable, so he goes deep alone, and the most important thing is that his soldiers enter my jurisdiction, which determines his short fate." ”

Su De laughed, and Zanzu Zhao really had confidence and strength. In this way, no one will dare to harass Liaodong in the future, and even if there is, it can only make Zu Zhao stronger, and his power will not be weakened in the slightest.

At this moment, Ji Ling and Zhao Meng had already fought for hundreds of rounds, and the soldiers of the two armies were all exclaimed, cheering loudly for their main general. The two of them were already sweating profusely, and their movements were already fast, but the two of them still attacked and defended well, relaxed to a certain extent, and did not give each other a flaw at all.

Zhao Meng fought for a while, and thought to himself: If he goes on like this, he must not take advantage of him, it is better to pretend to be defeated, lead him to chase, and then work together to capture him, wouldn't it be very good. Thinking of this, Zhao Meng sold a flaw and let Ji Ling attack, and he fled after parrying.

Ji Ling saw that Zhao Meng was defeated and left, so he chased after him alone, and shouted: "Zhao Mengxiu go, see I took your head." ”

Zhao Meng turned around and replied, "If you are a hero, you will chase after you." ”

Ji Ling received the stimulus and chased after him even more quickly. After chasing for a while, he had come to the front of Zhao Meng's army, Zhao Meng was just about to turn back, but he heard a drum of retreat from the other party, Ji Ling had no choice but to abandon Zhao Meng and return on horseback. Seeing the situation, Zhao Meng commanded the soldiers to rush and kill, and did not return until the city.

Let's say that Ji Ling entered the city, and angrily asked Zhao Ci why Mingjin withdrew his troops, Zhao Ci said: "Today you have been fighting for a long time, you can't win, and now you are chasing alone, afraid that the enemy will be cunning and hurt you, so you withdraw your troops." When you fight again tomorrow, you will take one more general out and lead that Zhao Meng to chase after him, and you will definitely capture him when the time comes. If he tries to escape, you will shoot him to death with one arrow. Zhao Ci said, ordered someone to bring a bow and a few arrows, and said: "This arrow is coated with the poison of seeing the blood seal marquis, as long as you shoot Zhao Meng's skin, he will definitely die, and when Zhao Meng dies, the Zu Zhao army will be in chaos, and then I will command the army out of the city and defeat them in one pass." ”

Ji Ling looked at the bow and arrow, although he felt that such a sneak attack would not be successful, but for the sake of the great cause of the country, he felt that this was also a clever plan, and agreed to come down, tomorrow he will pretend to be defeated after more than 100 rounds of battle, and then attract Zhao Meng to chase, and then shoot back with an arrow by surprise, Zhao Meng did not expect it, and it will be difficult to escape death. When the time comes, the army will go out of the city, even if it can't kill Zu Zhao's entire army, it can wipe out half of the army they shot out to fight.

At night, in the camp of Zuzhao, torches were lit everywhere, as bright as day.

Zu Zhao squatted in the camp, and there was a kind of civilian and military generals standing on both sides, and they were discussing strategies to break the enemy. On the table is a map of Xinchang City. This Xinchang city is an important city in Liaodong, and its moat is wider and deeper than any other city, and if you want to break the city, you must storm the city gate. However, the gates on all sides of the city are extremely strong, and the city walls are also overhauled every year, so it is not easy to attack them.

"If you can get the internal response, it will be much easier, no matter which side of the city gate, as long as it can be broken, this is the best." Zu Zhao said.

Sude said: "It's a pity that there are no people from our army in the city, how can we respond internally." There is only one plan, and that is to have the soldiers throw letters into the city tonight, and when Ji Ling returns to the city tomorrow, it will be the time for us to meet the inside and outside. ”

"Please elaborate on the military." Zu Zhao said.

"Tomorrow we will fight at the east gate, and General Zhao Meng will be responsible for the battle, and General Ma Yuan will take an army to feint at the west gate, and then General Zhao Meng will attack Ji Ling with all his might, so that Ji Ling must return to the city to defend, and then our army will quickly follow. And tonight our army still has an important matter, that is, I hope they will send a letter in the city, telling the guards above that when Ji Ling returns to the city tomorrow, that is, when our army attacks, tell them that General Ji Ling has defected to our army, and when he returns to the city tomorrow, he will definitely control the city gate and lead our army into the city. Whether the soldiers believe it or not, this word will definitely reach Zhao Ci's ears, so he has to guard against it. Sood said.

Zu Zhao clapped his hands and praised: "This plan is very good, even if Zhao Ci is not fooled, it can also increase his suspicions, and then we will continue to separate him and Ji Ling, and we will continue to choose to attack tactically, and we will not be afraid that Zhao Ci will not be fooled at that time." ”

And all the generals said that it was very good. Tomorrow, Ma Yuan led a heavy army to attack the west gate with siege equipment, Zhao Qi led the army to wave flags and drums at the north gate, only shouting but not attacking, and the south gate was in charge of Han Ye, still just shouting and not attacking, in order to disturb the enemy's heart.

Everything was arranged, at night Ma Yuan quietly came to the city with a group of soldiers, and shot arrows with letters into the city, and the guards guarding the city opened the letter and saw it, and immediately panicked, and hurriedly presented their hearts to Zhao Ci. Zhao Ci saw that the above book was full of books to attack the city tomorrow, and Ji Ling was the internal response, and his heart was angry and anxious. Hurriedly called for the counselor and asked what to do.

The strategist told him that if Ji Ling killed the enemy generals who came to fight first tomorrow, whether Zhao Meng or Ma Yuan, he had to kill him, then Ji Ling could return to the city, if he didn't kill anyone and wanted to return to the city, he must not open the city gate, just in case. When the time comes, if Ji Ling wants to come back, then he must get rid of the pursuit of the Zu Zhao army and enter through the other three gates.

Zhao Ci agreed, and replaced the soldiers guarding the city with his own cronies overnight, and all those who had served as soldiers under Ji Ling before were withdrawn and were not allowed to defend the city gate.

On the second day, Zhao Meng really led the army to the east gate to fight, Zhao Ci ordered Ji Ling to fight, telling him that he must kill Zhao Meng, and if he couldn't kill him with strong force, he would be shot to death with poisoned arrows. Ji Ling received the order and led the army to battle.

Out of the city gate, the two did not talk, directly fighting, the battle was less than 100 rounds, suddenly a soldier reported Zhao Ci who was watching the battle at the east gate, and there was a large army at the west gate to attack the city and ask for support. Zhao Ci was shocked, how could anyone attack the city at the West Gate, it was the strongest place in Xinchang City, so there were relatively few defenders there.

Zhao Ci was about to send the rest of the troops to the west gate to defend, but someone from the south gate also came to report, saying that there was a large army stationed at these two gates, the drums shook the sky, and they were ready to attack the city at any time. Zhao Ci was shocked, he firmly believed that this must be deliberately done by the enemy, as long as the east gate was broken at that time, the enemy army should be joined by the outside, is this to make himself have no way to escape.

He ordered people to defend the west gate, and he continued to supervise the battle at the east gate. I want to see what Ji Ling's performance is, as long as the east gate is not broken, the west gate will be safe. Seeing that Zhao Meng and Ji Ling had fought for hundreds of rounds, the more Zhao Ci looked, the more anxious he became, at this time, Ji Ling sold the flaw, pretended to be defeated, and Zhao Meng really waved his knife to chase after him. Ji Ling quietly took out his bow and arrows, took the arrow and pulled the bow, and when he wanted to turn around, he remembered that Zhao Meng refused to take advantage of the danger of others to kill him yesterday, and this kindness must be repaid, so he turned around and shot an arrow, which hit Zhao Meng and shot it to the ground.

Zhao Meng was taken aback, knowing that Ji Ling was grateful for the grace of not killing yesterday, and only today did he deliberately miss it. Zhao Meng also has the skill of piercing Yang in 100 steps, he also took an arrow to draw a bow, and shot three arrows in a row, the first arrow also shot off Ji Ling's waistband, and the other two arrows were shot on the horse's legs.

Ji Ling's mount fell, he flew off his horse, turned around and shot two arrows, and also shot the front hooves of Zhao Meng's mount, and the mount fell in response and died of exhaustion. Zhao Meng was shocked, knowing that Ji Ling's arrow had the poison of the blood seal. When Ji Ling's army saw Ji Ling's mount fall to the ground, they rushed forward one after another to rescue him. Taking advantage of the confusion of the enemy, Zhao Meng waved his army to chase and kill, and Zu Zhao also led the army to follow.

Zhao Ci saw the great momentum of Zu Zhaojun on the city gate, lest as soon as the city gate opened, Ji Lingzhen controlled the city gate to let Zu Zhaojun in, so he ordered the city gate to be closed and Ji Ling was not allowed to come in. Ji Ling's army rushed to the moat and was about to cross the bridge, but saw the drawbridge rise and prevented them from passing.

"Why is that?" Ji Ling shouted under the city.

Zhao Ci said on the city tower: "You Ji Ling have the heart to surrender to the enemy, how can I let you in?" ”

"What do you mean by that?" Ji Ling asked.

"I ordered you to kill Zhao Meng, but you only shot him with the horse's hooves, but not his face, and he only shot you with the horses, not you, what else do you have to say?" Zhao Ci roared angrily.

Ji Ling was still arguing, but seeing that Zhao Meng had already waved his army to kill, he had no choice but to take his subordinates around the moat and flee to the south. Zhao Meng commanded the army and followed closely.

fled to the south gate, but saw that there was already an army there, and the first person was the two thousand troops led by Han Ye. "I've been waiting here for a long time." Han Ye shouted, brandishing the double-figure flower axe and rushing over.

Ji Ling rushed to fight with him for more than 20 rounds, and when he saw Zhao Meng and Zu Zhao waving their troops to chase after him, he didn't dare to fight, fought out of the encirclement, and fled from the west gate. Clinker met the besieging Ma Yuan troops at the West Gate. He and Ma Yuan rushed to kill, the battle was not more than twenty rounds, there were Zu Zhao's army on all sides, he rushed left and broke through, killed hundreds of enemies, after all, he could not break through, his soldiers, more than half of the dead and wounded, the rest were all captured.

Zu Zhao came to the formation at this moment and said: "General Ji Ling, you are a rare fierce general, it is better to submit to me and capture Zhao Ci together, how about your great merit?" ”

Ji Ling scolded: "Even if I die in battle, I will not surrender to you." Today I am besieged by you, and I know that it is difficult to break through, so I will pull some cushions when I die. ”

Zu Zhao said in a mournful voice: "Why are you so troubled? Zhao Ci is mediocre and failed to make good use of you, if you return to me, I will report to the court and show you your merits, and then be prosperous and rich, and calm the world, isn't it better? ”

"Don't talk nonsense, you and I have different ideas, I won't surrender. If you have the power, kill me. Ji Ling said.

Ma Yuan listened to it on the side, unconvinced, and shouted loudly: "Then I will meet you." As he spoke, he was about to rush over with an axe.

Ji Ling said coldly: "Although you are brave, you can't take me for seventy rounds, don't be strong, keep your life to chase it." ”

"What about me?" Han Ye rushed out wielding a double-ball flower axe.

"And me." Zhao Qi also came out with a gun. Ji Ling glanced at them coldly, and said to Zhao Meng in a blink of an eye: "Do you want to come together?" ”

Zhao Meng didn't say a word and looked at Zu Zhao. Zu Zhao smiled bitterly, sighed, waved his hand to let Ma Yuan and the others stand back, and said to Ji Ling: "You are a loyal and brave person. If I kill you today, it will be unrighteous to say. Well, you can go. Zhao Ci is not the person you should follow, you go back to Shandong and take refuge in Yuan Shu, there may be a good destination for you. ”

Everyone frowned, Ji Ling was also puzzled, and asked, "Do you really let me go?" ”

Zu Zhao said: "If I say I won't kill you, then I won't kill you." Let's go, but remember one thing, be careful of a Yan man named Zhang Fei in the future. ”

Ji Ling was stunned for a moment, and said coldly: "Even if you don't kill me today, I won't be grateful to you." It is thanks to you that I am what I am now. ”

Zu Zhao said: "I don't need your gratitude, I let you go because I fancy your loyalty, if you are an ordinary villain, I will kill you directly, and I will not surrender you, let alone let you go." After Zu Zhao finished speaking, he waved his hand to let the soldiers make way for a way. The soldiers were given the order to slowly make way for a way.

Ji Ling snorted, looked at everyone, rode his horse and whipped, and his head would not look northeast.

The generals watched Ji Ling leave, very puzzled, and asked Zu Zhao why he did this, let him go like this, no matter who he followed in the future, he would be a strong enemy. Zu Zhao sighed: "Everyone has their own ambitions, at present, I have you enough, and I can't force him, just let him go." Our next task is to capture this Xinchang City and capture Zhao Ci. ”

"General, take the liberty of saying it, you won't let Zhao Ci go too, will you?" Ma Yuan asked.

Zu Zhao looked up to the sky and let out a long roar and said, "Zhao Ci, you must die." He slaughtered the people and destroyed the lives of the people. It is a sin to keep it. ”

When the generals heard this, they all nodded, shouting that they must kill Zhao Ci. Then followed Zu Zhao to lead the crowd back to the camp, and the army was huge, slowly retreating, and there was a great tendency to return triumphantly.

When Zhao Ci learned that Zu Zhaojun had withdrawn, the tension in his heart finally relaxed, but when he thought of the next day, he felt restless. Think about the time when Zu Zhaojun didn't arrive in Xinchang, he had already sent people to various places to ask for help, but half a month has passed, why is there no information, not even a single spy has not heard from him. The Yellow Turban Yu Party also didn't listen to the movement for a long time, which made Zhao Ci even more panicked, and the momentum of the previous king was gone.

Let's say that after Zu Zhao's army returned to the camp, Zhao Ci's army finally had a chance to breathe. Among them, there is a young general, who is usually good friends with Ji Gang, but later learned that Ji Gang was in prison, and his heart was very unfair. Now that he heard that Ji Ling was gone, he thought to himself that now Zhao Ci has no one around him who can fight except for Wang Qing and Xu Ping, and the ability of these two generals is far inferior to Ji Ling, so this Xinchang City will be captured sooner or later. After thinking about it for a long time, he came to the prison, played with the jailer, and finally met Ji Gang and Zhong Yang, and told Zhao Ci about forcing Ji Ling away.

When the two heard this, they couldn't help but glance at each other, and they both said that Zhao Ci was finished. They deliberated for a long time and decided to escape from prison. The young general was quite eloquent, he recruited the jailers, analyzed the current situation, and thought that Zhao Ci would be defeated, and the reinforcements would not arrive, so it was better to escape together and join Zu Zhao's army, maybe he could save his life, otherwise when the army broke the city, who knows if Zu Zhao would come to a big purge and kill all the army.

When several jailers heard this, they were also quite frightened, and many of them wanted to follow the escapees. That night, a group of people quietly escaped from the prison, came to the city gate, killed the soldiers guarding the city gate, fled from the city, and went away to the camp of Zuzhao.

Outside Zu Zhao's camp, a few soldiers had already grabbed a few people and escorted them to see Zu Zhao. After Ji Gang Zhongyang and the others met Zu Zhao, they talked about the surrender and told Zu Zhao about the strategy suggested by Ji Ling. Zu Zhao was extremely shocked, and everyone present was shocked? Why, because after the return of the army today, Chen Youzhi in the county expected that the grain and grass of the Zuzhao army would be insufficient, so he sent someone to transport a batch of grain and grass, and there were not many people to escort it, as long as he sent five hundred light soldiers, he would be able to easily take away the grain and grass transported this time.

"If Zhao Ci adopts Ji Ling's strategy, our army will definitely be defeated." Zu Zhao couldn't help but sigh.

It's a pity that Zhao Ci has no fighting spirit now, is greedy for pleasure, blindly waiting for reinforcements, and refuses to listen to Brother Ji's words. Before, I was beaten and imprisoned just to help Brother Ji intercede, so I escaped and joined the general, and asked the general not to give up and take us in. Ji Gang said.

Zu Zhao helped them up and said, "I am naturally happy that you have come to vote." Now tell us what is going on in the city. ”

Ji Gang and others were grateful to Zu Zhao for taking him in, and told them all about the situation in the city, there was not much grain and grass in the city, and the only people who could fight were Wang Qing and Xu Ping, and their abilities were not as good as Ji Ling's, and most of the soldiers were unintentional about fighting, but Zhao Ci was violent, and everyone dared not say anything, so they could only obey orders.

Zu Zhao listened. Immediately decided to send Ma Yuan to the east gate to fight the next day to see if Wang Qing and Xu Ping's two generals dared to come out to fight. If not, then take the southeast, west and west sides to attack the city at the same time, leave the north gate, and ambush a team of men and horses on the outskirts of the city at that time, and when Zhao Ci escapes, he can be captured.

The arrangements were made together, and early the next morning, Ma Yuan came to the east gate with the army to fight and scolded Zhao Ci. The soldiers in the city reported the situation to Zhao Ci earlier, and Wang Qing Xu Ping asked to go to war, but Zhao Ci did not allow it, saying that if he lost the battle now, it would shake the morale of the army, and he was afraid that even the city would not be able to stand it.

Ma Yuan shouted towards the city with his soldiers, saying that the Yellow Turban Thief had been exterminated by Zhang Pre and his army at the border of Youzhou, and had not been able to enter Liaodong County, as for Zhao Ci's troops in Xiaxia, Nanyang and Jizhou, Huangfu Song had already sent someone to exterminate them, and now Zhao Ci was fighting alone, persuading him to surrender early and not to make unnecessary resistance.

When the soldiers in the city tower heard this, they were all flustered, and there were many people who wanted to defect. However, Wang Qing and Xu Ping's two generals personally commanded in the city tower, and no one dared to rebel directly. Ma Yuan led the crowd to scold under the city for a morning, and Zhao Cijun just didn't go out of the city.

After breakfast, Zu Zhao ordered the army to take all the siege equipment and attack Xinchang City on three sides. They built bridges over the moats and siege the city with siege ladders. The soldiers in the city resisted to the death, flying arrows like rain, and stones rolled down, which brought great obstacles to the siege of the Zuzhao army.