When Ma Qiu heard this, he looked at Wang Zhen and nodded: "You are right, instead of attacking the easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack Caohan City, it is better for our army to attack Guzang, but in this way, the back road of our army will be unsafe, and there is a danger of being cut off by the Liang army of Caohan City at any time, once the food and grass are insufficient, the front-line army will be in danger." ”

"The general can rest assured, the last general is willing to stay in Daxia City to monitor the defenders of the Liang Kingdom in Caohan City, and be responsible for protecting the grain route, the general can make an all-out attack on Guzang and make great achievements as soon as possible." Wang Zhengse said.

Seeing that what Wang said was very reasonable, Ma Qiu nodded and ordered: "Okay, General Wang, you lead 30,000 troops to stay here, and Ben will lead 90,000 main forces to attack Guzang." ”

Wang Zhen nodded and said, "Yes, general, there is a general, and the grain road can be guaranteed." ”

A few hours later, Ma Qiu, the commander of the Zhao army, led 90,000 main forces to continue to march north, intending to attack Guzang and destroy the Liang Kingdom, but because of the last time he attacked Guzang City, he was defeated by Xie Ai, therefore, this time, Ma Qiu was extremely cautious, in addition to sending a large number of scouts to the direction of Guzang City to investigate, he also arranged many alert corps in the front and rear of the main army to prevent Xie Ai's sneak attack, so that the speed of the army was much slower, and it could only march thirty miles a day.

In the direction of Guzang City, Jiuquan Taishou Xie Ai hurried to the palace, and hurriedly went to the main hall to meet Zhang Chonghua, for Zhang Chonghua's purpose of hurriedly summoning himself, Xie Ai was of course very clear, Zhao State's hundreds of thousands of troops entered the Kou, Liangguo was in danger, Zhang Chonghua let himself lead Guzang's army to resist Ma Qiu's attack.

For defeating Ma Qiu, Xie Ai was full of confidence. Therefore, there is no sense of fear at all, but I feel that this is not only an opportunity for me to fulfill my obligations, but also an opportunity to show my strong strength.

"Chen Jiuquan is too guarded by Xie Ai, please meet the king." Xie Ai walked into the main hall and hurriedly saluted Zhang Chonghua.

Zhang Chonghua was in a hurry, and when he saw Xie Ai striding in, he was a little calm, and hurriedly walked to Xie Ai's side, held Xie Ai's hands, and said excitedly: "General Xie." You're finally here. The army of Zhao State suddenly entered the Kou, and has already captured dozens of cities in our Hezhou, and it is estimated that the army has already fallen under the city of Caohan at this time. ”

Xie Ai had already heard about these situations on the way to Guzang. Seeing Zhang Chonghua's nervous look. hurriedly comforted: "Don't worry, the king. Ma Qiu is just a horseman, as long as the king gives the minister a strong army, the minister will definitely be able to defeat Ma Qiu. In order to ensure the stability of the community. ”

After listening to Xie Ai's statement, Zhang Chonghua's heart settled down a lot, nodded, and said: "General Xie, this king will give you 30,000 elite soldiers, and you will go on the expedition early tomorrow morning, okay?" ”

Xie Ai hugged his fists and said: "Thank you for the king's trust, the so-called soldiers are fast, and the ministers only need to prepare for an hour, and they can immediately lead the troops to the battle." ”

"Okay, since General Xie said so, then send troops in an hour, and the 30,000 troops are ready outside the city, and the general can go to review." Zhang Chonghua nodded and said.

Xie Ai clasped his fists and saluted, turned around and left the main hall, and went to the military camp outside the city to mobilize troops.

An hour later, Xie Ai led an army of 30,000 elite Liang States and marched southeast to resist Ma Qiu's main force, Zhao's army.

Zhang Chonghua, the king of Liang, stood on the gate of Guzang City, watching Xie Ai lead the army to the battle, and his heart was a lot more settled, at this moment, he couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart, if there was no talent like Xie Ai in Liangguo, he was afraid that he, the king, would become a prisoner of Shi Hu.

#####

In the direction of Hechi City, the army of Hua'an is resting, saying that it is resting, but in fact, it is waiting for news from the northwest, because only the main army of Zhao State has entered Liang State, and the war between Liang and Zhao has broken out, he can lead the army to attack Shichang City, otherwise, the main army of Zhao State is likely to press Shichang City with all its strength, so that the pressure is too great, and the loss of the soldiers will be very huge, which is not in the interests of Hua'an.

If Hua'an wants to help Liang resist the Zhao army, he can only help a little, and he can't let the army under his command break his muscles and bones, otherwise, it will take many years to recover his vitality, which will affect the strength of the army during the Northern Expedition in the future.

"Big brother, there is a fight between Liang Zhao." Wang San walked into the big tent of the Chinese army and said loudly.

"Oh, what's the situation, tell me about it." Hua An hurriedly asked.

Wang San pointed to the map in the big tent and replied loudly: "According to the scout's report, Ma Qiu led the main army of 120,000 to attack the hinterland of Liang for more than 100 miles, and even the Great Xia City was breached. ”

When Hua An heard this, he smiled and said softly: "This Ma Qiu is smart, and he also knows how to leave 30,000 troops to guard against our army, but unfortunately there are only 30,000 troops, how can he prevent the attack of our army." ”

"Big brother, Jicheng is the hinterland of Zhao Kingdom! Our army is not familiar with the terrain there, and the people there do not know our army, so they rashly attack Jicheng, but I am afraid that it will not be too smooth. Wang San said cautiously.

Hua An smiled and replied: "What are you nervous about, the eldest brother is just saying it casually, and he doesn't necessarily want to attack Jicheng, after all, our army is not ready for the Northern Expedition yet, it's just that the eldest brother has formed an alliance with the King of Liang, and now the Liang State is being attacked by the Zhao State with all his might, and the eldest brother must always contribute, so as not to fall into the truth!" ”

"Then how does Big Brother plan to contribute?" Wang San asked a little puzzled.

Hua An pointed to the location of Qishan, and said: "Qishan is a good defensive position, as long as our army occupies Shichang City on the east side of Qishan and arranges tens of thousands of troops in Qishan, it is enough to deter the main army of Zhao State, maybe Sun Fu, who stayed in Jicheng, will take the initiative to fight with our army?" In this way, the eldest brother fought against Sun Fudu's Zhao army, wouldn't it be considered to support Liangguo? If the situation is smooth, our army can also advance further westward to cut off the grain route of Zhao, so that the pressure on Liang will be even less, and our army will greatly support Liang with slight losses, isn't it the best of both worlds? ”

"Big brother Gao Jian, Wang San is far behind." When Wang San heard this, he hurriedly complimented him.

Hua An smiled and ordered: "Immediately assemble the troops and horses, and the whole army is ready to attack Shichang City, and also, send his own soldiers to inform Yang An of Wudu City, and let him lead an army of 10,000 troops to march from the west to Shichang City. ”

"Yes, big brother, I'll go and prepare." Wang San answered, turned around and went to prepare.

A few hours later, Hua An led the personal guards, the Liangzhou army, and the baggage battalion, a total of more than 40,000 people, to march towards Shichang City at the foot of Qishan Mountain.

A day later, in the direction of Wudu City, Yang An, who received the order, immediately led an army of 10,000 troops to leave Wudu City and march from the west to the direction of Shichang City.

Another day later, the main army of Hua'an was the first to arrive at the city of Shichang, and the 10,000 main forces of Yang An's army arrived later, only half an hour later than the army of Hua'an.

At this moment, the 50,000 army led by Hua'an approached the city of Shichang, which made the Zhao army in the city feel great pressure, but although Shichang City is only a small city, it is backed by Qishan, the city faces mountains on both sides, and there are only two city gates in the south and north, which can be described as easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Ma Qiu naturally knew the importance of Sichang City, so he deployed an army of 3,000 troops in this fortified small city and prepared enough grain and grass to give Sichang City the ability to hold out for half a year.

In the past, in the face of such an easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack small city, Hua'an would have to let his troops suffer great losses in order to break the city quickly, or after a long period of preparation, build a large number of siege thunderbolts to use the thunderbolts to shoot a large number of stone bullets to continuously attack, weakening the strength of the defenders, but these two methods are either huge losses or too time-consuming, in case the enemy's reinforcements arrive.

However, at this moment, Hua'an has a new secret weapon, and a large number of tactical exercises have been carried out according to this secret weapon, it can be said that once this kind of weapon and tactic comes out, it will be an extremely easy thing to break through the fortified city in front of him.

Hua'an's new secret weapon, naturally, has just been successfully developed, and has been widely used in the mining industry of black powder, in order to transport a large amount of black powder to the enemy's city gates, Hua'an also deliberately invented an iron roof siege vehicle that can be disassembled and combined.

This kind of siege vehicle is not big or small, it can accommodate six soldiers to advance together, in the compartment under the ridge, enough to store a large amount of black powder, and the ridge of the siege vehicle is iron, very strong, not afraid of rolling wood and stones, not afraid of fire oil and other things to defend the city, it can be said that no defense weapon can destroy it.

As long as one of these siege engines reaches the enemy's city gate, it can completely blow open the enemy's city gate, so as to break through the city gate smoothly.

"Big brother, the three armies have been assembled and can attack the city at any time." Wang San walked to Hua An's side and said loudly.

Hua An nodded and ordered: "Siege vehicles, sword and shield soldiers will attack immediately, and the rest of the men and horses will be on standby for the time being." ”

"Yes, big brother." Wang San received the order, and immediately ordered the siege caravan and sword and shield soldiers to attack immediately.

Under Wang San's loud order, three siege vehicles carrying a large amount of black powder slowly advanced in the direction of Shichang City, followed by 5,000 well-trained sword and shield soldiers, whose mission was to quickly rush into the city after the city gate was blown open, and completely control the city gate, and then further kill the city wall, thus paving the way for the main army to enter the city.

Hua'an's new way of besieging the city, the Zhao army defending the city has naturally never seen it, they saw the Jin army besieging the city pushing a few black broken cars towards the city gate, they all felt very magical, and bent their bows and arrows, ready to attack.

In the hearts of these defenders of Zhao State, the siege vehicles moving below could not withstand the attack of rolling wood and rocks and fire oil, so they did not pay special attention to it. (To be continued......)