――――――――――――

Xu Shu came forward to intercede, and Liu Laohan's father and son were able to save their lives.

Under Wei Yan's cold gaze that wanted to choose someone, Liu Laohan left the city gate with his son trembling, looking back from time to time, for fear that someone would release arrows from behind.

Until he was far away from the city gate and close to the mountain forest, he picked up his son and ran away, and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Seeing the father and son leave, Xu Shu looked around and said with a worry-free voice: "Knowing that the city gate is not safe, none of the more than 500 soldiers defending the city abandoned the city and fled, and all the soldiers were killed by arrows head-on, which shows the strength of the Xiliang army." If the next war is like this, then the prospect of this Northern Expedition is worrying! ”

Wen Ping was stunned when he heard this, and immediately turned his head to look around, and suddenly found that as Xu Shu said, the more than ten corpses at the city gate were all frontal arrows, and the defenders on the city tower were also killed by sharp arrows, and the positions of the arrows were all in the chest. As a border general who has been confronting the Xiliang Army all the year round, he naturally knows what this situation means, but what makes him feel ashamed is that he has been confronting the Xiliang Army for many years, and he actually turned a blind eye to it, was unaware, and never thought about this problem.

As soon as he thought of this, Wen Ping had to admit that Xu Shu was observant, thoughtful, and extraordinary, and indeed talented, and what the military advisor Pang Tong said was true.

"Don't worry, sir. The last general has been fighting with the Xiliang army for many years, and as Mr. said, the Xiliang army is brave and fierce, and the battle is tenacious, but it is not invincible, as long as it is planned properly, it will still kill him. Let alone. This time, the troops in Nanyang and Mr. and other sages in the world will help, and we will be unprepared for the quick battle of surprise. Tightly seal the news, and Nanyang County can be recovered within half a month! When he said this. Wen Ping looked very confident, and he looked like he was holding the chance to win, which made Wei Yan, Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin deeply encouraged, and they all nodded in agreement, and their fighting spirit was high.

It's just that the three of them are a little unimpressed by Wen Ping's praise of Xu Shu's words, thinking that Wen Ping's words are exaggerated, and they are still skeptical about Xu Shu's talent. Even if Xu Shu easily seized Deng County with his advice, they were still skeptical and did not fully recognize Xu Shu's talent.

Wei Yan's thoughts were all on their faces. Xu Shu knew it at a glance, but he pretended not to know, let alone explain more. Facts speak louder than words, instead of convincing them with more words, it is better to put your mind on planning the battle situation, and when you really take Nanyang County, you will naturally be able to solve it.

Thinking of this, Xu Shu chuckled and said: "It's still too early to recover the Nanyang Army, and the city in front of you is a hard nut to crack." The county guard of Deng County is forbidden to be a long-established veteran. He is good at defending the city, and now I am waiting for a surprise sneak attack on the east gate, which caught him off guard, but I want to completely capture this city. It is also necessary for the generals to rush and kill bravely to succeed. ”

Wen Ping nodded in response: "What Mr. said is true. In addition to the east gate, there were still more than 4,000 defenders in the city, and there were two brave generals under the forbidden tent. In the previous many encounters, more than a dozen generals under my account were all killed by these two in front of the battle. It's really a tough bone to defend the city, and we want to fight quickly. These two must be killed, otherwise they will break through sooner or later. ”

Wei Yan's voice changed. Surprised: "Why didn't the general say it earlier, causing us to delay our work here?" Before he could finish speaking, he rode his horse and whipped it, and rushed into the city.

Wen Ping knew that Wei Yan was such a temper, and he was arrogant, and once his temper came up, no one could stop him. So he immediately explained to Xu Shu: "Don't blame Mr., Wen Chang is short-tempered, but he is indeed brave, and he is really a rare general in our army." While speaking, Wen Ping couldn't help but look at Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin, but saw that the two of them were not in a hurry, and looked tepid. Obviously, the Jiangdong generals still have some concerns at the moment, and they have the mentality of not seeking merit but seeking no fault. The task of Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin on this trip was to protect Xu Shu's safety, so the two of them only obeyed Xu Shu's orders, and Wen Ping had no right to transfer them.

Xu Shu smiled faintly without mind: "In this case, without further ado, I will go to the city guard mansion and see the demeanor of Yu Ban and those two generals." After speaking, Xu Shu beat his horse and left, and Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin led a thousand soldiers to follow. Seeing this, Wen Ping didn't say much, and immediately waved his hand and went straight to Beicheng with 5,000 soldiers and horses.

*******************

Henan County, which is 500 miles away from Deng County, is also in an extremely fierce battle under Kaifeng City at this time.

Nanyang Deng County and Kaifeng are far away, but the war between the two places is almost at the same time, both of which start at dawn, and the battle is in full swing around the hour.

Time goes back half an hour. At that time, the county seat of Kaifeng was also immersed in tranquility, and the people inside and outside the city were still asleep, and no one could have imagined that danger was quietly approaching.

Different from the defensive posture of Nanyang County, Henan County and Yanzhou are very well guarded on the border, although it is not yet a heavy army, but it is not like Deng County that completely relies on the defense of the city, and there is almost no defense outside the city.

Compared with the situation that Deng County only had 5,000 county soldiers to defend the city, there were 30,000 iron cavalry and 5,000 county soldiers stationed inside and outside Kaifeng County. It is not difficult to see from the deployment of troops that Li Li of the Western Jin Dynasty has always regarded Cao Cao of the Northern Wei Dynasty as a fierce enemy in his life, so he stationed heavy troops on the border, leaving no opportunity for the Wei State to take advantage of at all.

In contrast, Li Li was undoubtedly a little light on the Southern Han side, in addition to gathering heavy troops in Wanchengtun, the troops on the border were obviously insufficient, and they were negligent in taking precautions, so that the Jingzhou army had the opportunity to succeed in a sneak attack in one fell swoop.

Perhaps, in the Western Jin Dynasty, from the emperor Li Li to the ordinary soldiers, they did not think that Liu Biao of the Southern Han Dynasty dared to take the lead in sending troops and dared to confront the Western Jin Dynasty army head-on. It is because the deployment of the Western Jin Dynasty army has always been strong in the north and weak in the south, and it is very cautious in defending the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it is too lax in defending the Southern Han Dynasty. Underestimating the enemy has been a taboo for soldiers since ancient times, and underestimating the enemy will be defeated has long become an unbreakable law, and countless wars over the past thousands of years have all confirmed the authenticity of this iron law.

The sky was bright. Located in the east of Kaifeng City, the General's Mansion has been lit up with wind lanterns, the door of the Mansion is wide open, more than 100 armor soldiers stand in front of the Mansion Gate, the morning mist is wrapped in a trace of coolness falling on their armor, cool as water, the damp and cold and fresh air pours into the nostrils, refreshing people's hearts.

In the main hall, Zhao Yun, dressed in silver armor, sat in the hall and looked through the books, and there was a pot of freshly brewed tea on the table in front of him. Xia Houlan, the captain of the pro-soldiers, stepped forward lightly and poured two cups of tea, one was placed on Zhao Yun's right hand, and the other was drunk by himself. He walked to the bottom of the hall with the teacup and sat down, sniffed the fragrance of tea and closed his eyes to recuperate, and after the teacup in his hand cooled down slightly, he drank the tea slowly, and there was no sound from beginning to end.

Morning reading is an inherent habit that Zhao Yun has developed for many years in leading his troops to fight. His schedule was very regular, except for some special circumstances, such as in the middle of a big battle or on the way to lead the troops, except that he always went to sleep at the beginning of the morning and got up at the beginning of the morning (from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.), and thunder did not move, all year round, for more than ten years.

The captain of the pro-soldier Xia Houlan is his fellow countryman, and he is also a friend of the general horn who has played since he was a child. From the time when Zhao Yun escorted his sister to marry (the Sili War), Xiahoulan followed him, during which Xiahoulan also served as the commander of ten thousand masters, leading a team of soldiers and horses, but his record was mediocre and he did not make much achievements. Then he returned to him in the battle against Yuan, served as the captain of his own soldiers, and then followed Zhao Yun into the west of Sichuan to conquer the Southern Barbarians.

Because of following Zhao Yun for a long time, Xia Houlan also developed the habit of going to bed early and getting up early, the fly in the ointment is that he likes to drink morning tea, and when he gets up in the morning, he makes a pot of tea, and does not go to breakfast until he finishes drinking a pot of tea. Zhao Yun doesn't have this habit, but he likes to smell the fragrance of tea very much, because the fragrance of tea can refresh his mind, make his thinking clearer, and enhance his memory, which is very beneficial to his perennial study of military books. It is because he does not object to Xiahou Lan getting up in the morning to drink tea, but he never drinks it himself, he always drinks tea after meals, and drinking tea on an empty stomach is not good for his health. At this point, Zhao Yun is very self-disciplined, and he has repeatedly reminded Xia Houlan, but unfortunately it has no effect, and after a long time, he will no longer remind him, after all, everyone has hobbies, and drinking tea in the morning is not a big deal, no need to make a fuss and chatter.

This morning seemed to be different from the past, and Xia Houlan didn't notice anything wrong until he finished drinking a cup of tea, and faintly felt that something was wrong. After looking around for a long time, he noticed that the problem came from Zhao Yun, and immediately asked: "In the past, generals wore civilian clothes when they got up in the morning to study, why are they wearing all over their bodies today, is there a war?" He and Zhao Yun were so familiar that he didn't notice that Zhao Yun was wearing a battle armor when he got up early in the morning, and he was reading in a battle armor, no matter how he looked at it, it was a bit nondescript. It was because of him that he felt awkward, and after realizing it, he found that Zhao Yun was different from the past today, and he seemed to be a little absent-minded.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Zhao Yun gently put down the military book, got up and walked to the bottom of the hall with a teacup, and sat side by side with Xiahou Lan. Taking a sip of tea, Zhao Yun replied, "Do you know what day it is?" ”

"Uh, what day?" Xiahou Lan was stunned, but her eyes rolled, and she said uncertainly: "It has been half a year since His Majesty ascended the throne?" ”

Zhao Yun shook his head lightly: "No, it's still seven days to complete half a year, but it doesn't matter." You usually don't pay attention, otherwise you will definitely think that today is the day of my Jin Guo's imperial examination. A month ago, His Majesty wrote to say that the imperial examination was extraordinary, and today the imperial examination was held in Chang'an City, and Chang'an City was also facing a severe test. For the past month, I have been thinking about what the test is exactly what His Majesty is talking about, until the day before yesterday, when I sent off the last group of scholars, I finally figured it out. The severe test mentioned in the letter is to remind us that it is very likely that the Southern Han and Northern Wei will attack at the same time, and the time is ?????? today."

―――――――― to be continued―――――――――――――――――― (To be continued......