The cold wind pierced through the eaves and hit the wall, like a ghost crying god, blowing people's hearts uneasy......

Hu Zongguo slept lightly, woke up from a nightmare in the middle of the night, sat at the head of the bed, asked the maid to wait for him to get dressed, pushed the window and looked out, the night was as dark as ink, and he couldn't see a little starlight. Since the news of the murder of luxury Wenzhuang and Wen Chengyun in Huangpi came to Xiangyang, Hu Zongguo fled from Xiangyang West to Gucheng with Ye Ji Luorong for the past few days, and he had nightmares at night, and he had not rested well, looking at the dark night outside the window, it seemed that a vicious beast opened its mouth to devour him.

"Why did the lights go out of the courtroom?" Hu Zongguo asked the maid.

"The wind blew out at night, Hu Shun was going to light the lamp, only to find that there was no lamp oil, thinking that tomorrow he would bring a torch from the army, but he didn't expect the adults to wake up at this time......" The delicate maid replied.

"Forget it," Hu Zongguo said frustratedly, "I'm going to cross the river in two days, and if there is no light in the court, be careful not to let anyone in." ”

At this point in the battle, the scouts on both sides infiltrated each other is the meaning of the topic, and at night there were patrols in the Miaotanling Ridge to kill and injure the scouts who sneaked to the south bank of Huaidong, and Hu Zongguo was worried that there would be scouts lurking in Huaidong to come to Gucheng.

After arriving in Gucheng, in order to facilitate Ye Ji Luo Rong to be summoned at any time, Hu Zongguo found a courtyard for Ye Ji Luo Rong to live in temporarily.

At this time, Hu Wei, who was resting in the outer courtyard, heard the sound and came over to ask for peace, and Hu Zongguo asked, "Is Prince Mu resting over there?" ”

"In the past two days, there have been three Huaidong scouts near Miaotanling, and there are not a few people, Prince Mu can't rest assured, staring at Cao Chongzhai to send people to search the mountain overnight, and he hasn't stopped yet!" Hu Wei said.

Outside Xiangyang and Gucheng, Longzhong Mountain, Miaotanling and Shilongling stand near the Han River, all belong to the remaining veins of Jingshan, the Miaotanling is the smallest, and the circumference is nearly forty miles, there are four dangerous peaks of one hundred and fifty or sixty zhang high, the three Huaidong scouts are hidden in Miaotanling, this cold wind howling late at night, to send troops to search and arrest, how to search?

Hu Zongguo smiled bitterly, but he also knew that the more he got to this point, the more careless he became.

At first glance, the upper reaches of the Han River west of Xiangyang were under their control, but the Huaidong Army had already extended from Fancheng to Huanglongtan from the northern shore, and had already begun to fight for control of the Han River when the water camp warships were in the future.

In particular, from Longzhong to the west to the line of Huanglongtan, the twenty or thirty miles of Hanshui River is deep and steep, and there are many cliffs and mountains on the north bank that directly force the Hanshui, so that the Huaidong army can directly attack the ships on the water by erecting stone-throwing crossbows on the cliff bank, which actually greatly restricts the control of Xiangyang, Zanyang, and the naval army over this section of the Han River......

In the past two days, the Huaidong Army has sent scouts to the south bank to lurk more frequently, and they are worried that it is a suspicious plan of the Huaidong Army, but it is really reassuring - Huaidong has been full of strange plots over the years, which family has not suffered a lot?

Hu Zongguo had no way to sleep with peace of mind at this time, so he rushed to see Ye Ji Luorong, walked into the council hall, and saw Ye Ji Luorong's eyes staring at the map with red eyes, his brows furrowed like mountains, and he really missed sleep all night.

Tong Erdan changed his clothes and armor, and stood at the entrance of the gate in high spirits, he escaped from the Guangshan Huaidong military base on the 26th, and only yesterday he rushed to Gucheng through Nanyang to Ye Ji Luorong's side.

Seeing Hu Zongguo coming, Tong Erdan smiled friendly. When he went to assassinate Luo, he had the determination to die, but Hu Zongguo told him that the trip seemed to be dangerous and safe, and the final result was really like this, so that Tong Erdan felt that the thin and deflated Zhejiang-Fujian minister in front of him did have a cleverness that ordinary people could not match......

Hu Zongguo also looked at each other and smiled, what Tong Erdan brought back could not be regarded as good news:

Dong Yuan asked Huaidong to copy the old nest, although he hated Lin Tie to the bone, but the lifeline was pinched in Huaidong's hands, pointing to the east and not daring to the west, pointing to the north and not daring to the south, at this time the main force of the Huaixi Army was all transferred to the north of Huaishui to recover Queshan, Ruzhou and other places, and Huaidong even forbade the Huaixi Army to set foot in Nanyang. It can't be considered bad, at least Dong Yuan didn't completely succumb because his lifeline was pinched in Huaidong's hands.

The Huaixi Army marched north, and Yue Lengqiu and the Chizhou Army also asked Lin Lian to transfer north to contain the Huaixi Army, but they only needed to face the Huaidong Army alone in Xiangyang and Nanyang - although the Huaidong Army could transfer 150,000 elite soldiers to fight north, Beiyan still had 170,000 elite soldiers and horses on the front line of Xiangyang and Nanyang, and they were not weak.

At present, the key is to keep an eye on the front base of the Huaidong Army in Shiqiaoling to Xinye and Dengzhou, and the speed at which the Huaidong Army soldiers and horses gather on this line is very fast; Another is to pay close attention to the speed of the main force of the Huaidong Army's water battalion going north.

As long as there are 10 more days, the total number of troops crossing the river and replenishing the eastern flank of the Danjiang River will reach 120,000, and the main force of 50,000 soldiers and horses remaining on the south bank will also withdraw to Gucheng and the west of Gucheng.

"In the past two days, the scouts in Huaidong have been moving a lot between Shilongling and Miaotanling, will there be a repeat of Shangrao's plan?" Ye Ji Luorong saw Hu Zongguo coming over and asked.

In the battle of Shangrao, the Huaidong Army opened up the Guanxi Ridge Road on the south side of Shangrao, and built a dam to intercept the Shanxi, forcing the Xufei Xiong to withdraw from the valley in the middle reaches of Shanxi, and the real hidden plan of the Huaidong Army was to secretly build warships in the upper reaches of Shanxi, and when the Zhejiang-Fujian army was threatened by the dam and withdrew from the fortification, it carried the soldiers and horses to the waterway to assault, and almost annihilated the soldiers and horses of the Zhejiang-Fujian army in Shangrao.

At present, although the Northern Yan Navy controlled the Hanshui River section west of Xiangyang, the Huaidong Navy could not come up downstream for a while, Ye Ji Luorong was still worried that the Huaidong Army would repeat its old plan in Shangrao at Huanglongtan, and secretly built warships to launch the water, sneak attack Xiangyang, the Navy or directly transport troops and horses across the river to fight the south bank.

In the past few days, the Huaidong Army has also moved quite a lot on the front line of Huanglongtan, so that Ye Ji Luorong has to set up lookout posts on the three main peaks of Shilongling and Miaotanling to monitor the movements on the opposite bank and on the Han River.

For Huaidong, it is a strategy to go around to the upstream to choose a place to build a ship, but it takes time, and it may not be much faster than its water camp warships coming from the downstream - after analyzing Huaidong's strategy after the Shangrao war, the Huaidong army transferred nearly 300,000 stone of shipbuilding materials from Chongzhou, Jiangning, and Mingzhou in order to cross the Guanxi Ridge and build ships in the upper reaches of Shanxi, which took half a year. Obviously, this kind of ploy is not something that Huaidong can play at any time if he wants to.

"If Prince Mu is worried, he can add two additional fortifications between Miaotanling and Shilongling, and between Miaotanling and Longzhongshan......

Because the Longzhong Mountain, Miaotanling, and Shilongling are all directly sandwiched between the south bank of the Han River, and the mountains in the north directly invade the Han River, the actual passage from Xiangyang to Gucheng is located between the shallow valley between the Longzhong Mountain, Miaotanling, the southern foot of the Shilong Mountains and Jing Mountain, and then go north to Gucheng through the Nanhe River Valley, which is not close to the south bank of the Han River.

Since the Northern Yan Navy controlled the section of the river west of Xiangyang, there was no need to build beacon piers and fortifications on the south bank to prevent the Huaidong Army from swimming across the river at such a time when supplies were in short supply. However, since Ye Ji Luorong was worried, it was also a strengthening measure to build a fortification between Miaotan Ridge and Shilongling, between Miaotan Ridge and Longzhong Mountain, to prevent the Huaidong army from crossing the river, and to send troops from between these three mountains to cut off the passage between Xiangyang and Gucheng.

Hu Zongguo's suggestion also made Ye Ji Luorong hesitate.

Ye Ji Luorong knew that Xiangyang could not be defended, but he did not completely give up the mind of the south bank.

From the Longzhong Mountains to the west, the Han River is fast and narrow, just as the Huaidong Army can directly hit the water surface by erecting stone-throwing crossbows on the steep cliffs on the north bank, in the future, they will withdraw to the west of Gucheng, and use the dangerous terrain on both sides of Zanyang and Xianmur Mountain to set up stone-throwing crossbows and bed crossbows, which can block the warships of the Huaidong Water Camp downstream, so as to achieve the goal of not abandoning Gucheng and retaining it as an attack position on the south bank, so as to contain the Huaidong Army.

At present, the supplies on the south bank are very tight, and Ye Ji Luorong hesitates whether to build a temporary fortification between the three mountains that will most be demolished in the future, or is it just that he is too careful?

The battle of Jingxiang made Ye Ji Luorong, who had been fighting on the battlefield for more than 30 years, also feel haggard, less decisive in the past, became hesitant and easy to waver, and he even spent the whole night thinking about who would replace him after the battle of Jingxiang to clean up the mess: Ye Ji Baishan?

Seeing that Yeji Luorong hesitated for a long time and did not make up his mind, Hu Zongguo's eyes moved to the map, and he didn't seem to realize Yeji Luorong's hesitation: at least from the beginning of the northward withdrawal of troops and horses on the west bank, Ye Jirorong's performance was far better than Hu Zongguo's expectations; In the case of the collapse of nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses on the Eastern Front, Ye Ji Luorong can still stabilize the morale of the army and slowly retreat north, such a commander can already be listed among the world's famous marshals, and he can't be too demanding.

Hu Zongguo wanted to persuade Ye Ji Luorong to go and rest for a while, but at this time, the alarm bell in the northwest direction was loud, and people were shocked and trembling when they heard it! Of course, the Huaidong Army made such two blows from time to time on the north bank, and after being shocked, everyone on the south bank became numb.

"Send someone to find out, what's the warning?" Ye Ji Luo Rong instructed Tong Erdan.

Tong Erdan walked quickly, and returned after a moment to say: "It is Shihutan and Dongling that the two lookout posts are raising fires at the same time, and the general has already sent a sentinel ship downstream to check, and if you want to come to Miaotanling and Cao Chongzhai, they will increase patrols to reconnoiter ......."

Dongling is one of the main peaks of Miaotan Ridge, Shihutan is located at the east foot of Shilongling, Dongling and Shihutan are burning beacon fire alarms at the same time, which means that there is a problem with the gap between Shilongling and Miaotanling - when the world is transmitted, the news that can be transmitted is very limited, and the fire only means that the military situation is serious, but to what extent, if you want to know further news, you need to wait for the outpost's letter to gallop back!

Gucheng is next to Shilongling, but the sentinel of Shihutan at the eastern foot of Shilongling rushed to report the news, but they had to take a detour from the southern foot of Shilongling for more than 50 miles, and it would take an hour or two to know the exact news!

It was fast for the sentinel to go down from the valley, but to bring the news back against the current, it was much slower than the letter ride.

Ye Ji Luorong remembered Hu Zongguo's suggestion just now, and remembered his previous worries, and said: "No, pass on my military order, and Cao Chongzhai's guard Ma Tuhai immediately led 3,000 soldiers and horses into Shilongling and Miaotanling to monitor the enemy's situation, and Wu Ya and Lin Wenling, the guards of the valley in front of Miaotanling, led 2,000 soldiers and horses to Matuhai to join forces...... "He was worried that there would be some delay in dispatching troops after the situation was discovered, so he decided to send troops in first, even if it was a false alarm, he would set up a defensive base between Miaotanling and Shilongling to monitor the north shore.

Tian Chang, who had retreated to Gucheng with Ye Ji Luorong first, also rushed in at this time, and after hearing Ye Ji Luorong's military order, he asked hesitantly: "Sending troops to Miaotanling, will it affect the retreat of Xiangyang soldiers and horses?" ”

Now there are nearly 70,000 soldiers and horses in Xiangyang, such as Zhou Fan, Pujieshi, Tong Ruilin, etc., and the passage from Xiangyang to Gucheng is very narrow.

This is only one reason, and the other reason is that at this time, in Cao Chongzhai's Ma Tuhai Department, he is the elite of Tian Chang's lineage.

Although Tian Chang led his troops to retreat to Tani City first, as a condition, Tian Chang's troops would serve as the rear soldiers and horses of Gu Cheng, and finally retreat to Gu Cheng.

Compared with the exposed Xiangyang, Gucheng has to shrink to the west for nearly a hundred miles, and the situation is much better than Xiangyang in Zanyang and Baiyang Pass on the north bank.

But Tian Chang's bottom limit is to defend the valley city, and the west of Shilongling will be exposed to the blow of the Huaidong Army on the north bank and the Huaidong Water Camp that is about to enter the Han River, and send troops to enter the Miaotanling and Shilongling to confront the Huaidong Army.

"It can't be delayed for two days, there is indeed a need to strengthen the gap between Miaotanling and Shilongling at the moment, and it is only a temporary fortification, and it will be withdrawn in five or six days, and it will not be ...... for the queen of the palace," Ye Ji Luorong said.

"Okay, the last general also rushed to take a look, in case the generals below mishandled ......," Tian Chang said.

Ye Ji Luorong also didn't know the scale of the attack on the first line of Shilongling and Miaotanling, since Tian Chang wanted to rush over to take a look in person, it would be better, and said to Tong Erdan: "You go over with Tian Chang!" There must be no sloppiness between the three mountains. ”

Tian Chang and Tong Erdan rushed to Cao Chong Village, the sky was already gray and bright, the guard general Ma Tuhai heard the news one step earlier, and the action was also very fast, he had ordered three thousand soldiers and horses, waiting for Tian Chang and Tong Erdan to come over and set off from the camp.

The sky was covered with dark clouds, like snow before snow, and at this time, further news reached Cao Chongzhai, but further news made Tian Chang and Tong Erdan stand on their backs: "What, the enemy pulled out three suspension cables above the Han River at night to cross the river?" ”

"Just three suspension cables, how can the sentinel ship be destroyed by fire?" Tong Erdan asked.

They had long discussed the various ways in which the Huaidong Army might infiltrate the south bank, and the section of the Hanshui River west of Xiangyang was controlled by them, and the Huaidong Army wanted to infiltrate it, one was to dry up, and the second was to directly pull the suspension cable in the narrow part of the river. But in these two ways, only a small force of soldiers or scouts can be sent to infiltrate.

"When the night sentry patrol ship crossed the mountain gate rock, it found an abnormality, but the enemy army had already deployed on both sides of the strait, and the ambush soldiers on both sides of the strait immediately shot sixteen of us with bows and crossbows; The sentinels had no time to respond, so they could only light the beacon fire to warn and retreat downstream. Two sentinel boats, one hit the reef and sank halfway, and the other docked from the eastern foot of Miaotan Ridge. Miaotanling Qiangu Wuya and Lin have also just sent someone to summon the news, only half a step ahead of Tian Shuai and General Tong," Cao Chongzhai guarded Ma Tuhai said, "The enemy army took advantage of the night to set up a suspension cable between Longclaw Rock and Shanmen Rock, in terms of the scale of the attack on the sentry ship, there were fifty or sixty Huaidong archers on the south bank; When we rush over, two or three hundred enemies should cross the river......"

Where could Ma Tuhai imagine the way the Huaidong Army borrowed a rigging to slip the wire rope and cross the river quickly? He just imagined according to the general situation, and speculated that the Huaidong army would cross by ropes, and in two or three hours, two or three hundred armor soldiers with all armor and weapons would be able to reach the sky......

Tian Chang has been fighting viciously with Huaidong for all these years, and he knows that it will take a lot of effort for Huaidong's two or three hundred elites to annihilate them completely according to the steep terrain of Miaotan Ridge, but it is obvious that Huaidong will not send two or three hundred people to the south bank to die for no reason.

Tong Erdan frowned, and said to Tian Chang: "The enemy army set up a suspension rope between Longclaw Rock and Shanmen Rock, and sneaked some people over first, they thought that as long as they held the suspension rope and then blocked the Han River on both sides with bed crossbows on the north bank, they could continue to send additional troops and horses from the north bank to expand their positions and delay the pace of our army's northward retreat; They're a great idea! It seems that it is not enough for us to send troops from the land to surround and kill, but we must immediately send warships from the upstream and downstream to rush through the blockade of the Huaidong Army and destroy the suspension rope to become a ......."

Tian Chang suspected that it would not be so simple, but judging from the current situation, he could only send someone back to Gucheng to meet Ye Ji Luorong and ask him to send a warship with a strong side from Gucheng to destroy the suspension of the Huaidong Army, and he rushed to Shanmenyan with Ma Tuhai according to the established plan.