"Master, Bashiku, who went to look for the boy of the Han family, has come back and is waiting outside the tent."

A shout made Huang Taiji raise his gaze from the map in front of the table. He hummed, and the guards around him brought in a Jianzhou general from outside. He arrived at Ekhkurun with his army and set up a camp outside the city.

Bashiku is a Manchu job title, and he is an adjutant in charge of clerical affairs, salaries, and other general affairs in Niu Lu. The person who came in knelt on the ground and kowtowed, and retold what he had seen and heard in Zhou Qingfeng's fortress.

Huang Taiji only listened quietly, and when Bashiku finished speaking, he threw out a charcoal pen and said in a deep voice: "Come, draw the small village you said on the map." ”

Drawing, especially mapping, was an extremely important but backward skill in ancient times. People often draw maps that don't have a concept of scale, and the size distance is far from the actual situation. The map in front of Huang Taiji was sent by Darshan when he sent someone to contact him, otherwise he would not have been able to figure out the terrain around this Hekulun for a while.

Huang Taiji arrived at Ekhkulun with several hundred soldiers and camped on the bank of a river west of the city. Ekhkulun is confluent by three rivers, so his location is separated from Chu Ying and Zhou Qingfeng by a river. Due to the obstruction of the city and the river, he couldn't even see the fortress built by Zhou Qingfeng directly, and he had to take a detour to send someone to contact him.

Bashiku relied on his memory to roughly mark the location of the fortress on the map, and Huang Taiji immediately frowned. This fortress is really annoying, and it can't be hit by a direct attack. If you attack a city, it's a threat from the flanks and behind. Bashiku said that there were hundreds of people in the fortress, and there was no way to take them without using some troops and generals.

"Did you see that Han kid named Zhou Qingfeng?" Huang Taiji asked.

The day before yesterday, there was a great chaos in Ehekulun, and Dashan, the old fox, sent someone to Liuhezhai to inform Huang Taiji, and the situation in the city was informed one by one, including the news that Zhou Qingfeng had returned and controlled the fortress outside the city.

Hearing that Ehekulun was in turmoil, Huang Taiji hurriedly sent troops to take advantage. However, due to the burning of Liuhezhai, it would take a lot of effort to transfer materials halfway, and the troops he could pull to the front line of Ekhkuren were only 500, and the logistics supply was at its limit. It is impossible for this manpower to take down Ehekulun, which has been controlled by Chu Ying.

And it was Zhou Qingfeng who caused these troubles.

Bashiku shook his head and said: "The slave only saw Dashan Beizi, and didn't see any Han boys." Darshan wants us to take Chu Ying and talk about it, and he is unwilling to hand over Concubine Abahai, as if he wants to take her as a hostage. ”

"The barbarians here are all fools for us." Huang Taiji waved his hand to let Bashiku retreat. After a while, Mang Gurtai walked in from outside the military tent, and his face was gray. He hurriedly asked, "How is the fifth brother tempting?" ”

Mang Gurtai looked a little tired, he took off his helmet and threw it away, and sat down on a stool in a huff. A minion handed him a kettle, and he spat it on the ground, stained with blood.

"I took a detour from the south, and I came across a group of dead men made of slaves. More than 200 people rushed towards me, and those guys didn't even have a full blade in their hands, and they were all here to die. I wiped them all out, and fed my earth dragons. ”

Mang Gurtai didn't say that he was killed or wounded, but he only saw that he himself was a little injured, and he knew that the situation was not good. The greater the number of troops, the more powerful they become. Although a single slave is weak, more than 200 slaves broke out to the death with the blessing of the military array, and it is impossible for a general of Mang Gurtai's level to retreat unharmed.

Regarding this situation, Huang Taiji said in a deep voice: "Can Fifth Brother try a few more times?" ”

"Not today, tomorrow." Mang Gurtai shook his head and said, "I will also bring more people up tomorrow, and I will slowly consume Chu Ying to death." ”

"Chu Ying is the eldest brother among us, and he has fought more battles than you and me combined. Before leaving, Father Khan also told us not to underestimate the enemy. I don't think Chu Ying will be so stupid waiting for us to consume him in the city. Huang Taiji shook his head, "He will definitely find a way to take the initiative to trouble us." ”

Mang Gurtai immediately shook his head and said, "Impossible, it is impossible to move lightly in the blood sacrifice." Now that countless souls are haunting Chu Ying, is he free to come to us for trouble? ”

"What if he sacrifices blood again and keeps forcibly improving his cultivation?" Huang Taiji said.

"The more blood sacrifices, the stronger the curse, isn't he afraid of being killed by lightning?"

"Chu Ying was originally the strongest cultivator among our brothers, what if he resisted?"

"It's ......." Mang Gultai was speechless for a moment, and was a little stunned.

Huang Taiji continued: "Is there a way out for Chu Ying now? He doesn't gamble now, and he won't have to gamble in a few days. There are still more than 10,000 people in the city who have not escaped, and I guess Chu Ying must be gambling to the end, and then rush out to fight with us after another blood sacrifice tonight. We now have few people, and we have no camp to defend in the wilderness, so we will definitely be defeated. ”

Huang Taiji said earnestly, and Mang Gurtai couldn't help but be moved. Thinking about the tyrannical character of his eldest brother, this fifth Belle would really make such a desperate gamble. He hurriedly said, "Then let's immediately retreat ten miles to avoid Chu Ying's edge." That guy can't keep the blood sacrifice, he won't be able to hold it sooner or later. ”

Waiting for change, Mang Gurtai is not just blindly fighting. Don't hesitate when it's time to step back.

It's just that Huang Taiji shook his head and said: "There are too many slaves in the city, and there are hundreds of blood sacrifices a day, which is enough for him to drag it until the end of the month." This year's weather is particularly cold, and heavy snowfall is sure to come early. If it drags on until November, we'll have to retreat. If Chu Ying gives us a chase along the way, maybe he will be able to rush into the hinterland of our Jianzhou Department, and more people will be captured by him for blood sacrifice at that time. ”

Mang Gultai frowned suddenly, and had to consider this possibility. When it comes to ferocity on the battlefield, even he can't compare to that big brother. Chu Ying has been fighting for many years, and his cultivation is all from the sea of corpses and blood, that guy really doesn't care about killing, maybe the curse caused by crazy killing really can't do anything about him.

And for the barbarians, the more you kill, the faster you grow. As long as there are a few battles, Chu Ying may be able to grow up with many generals. It's like the five ministers around Nurhachi, who were all unknown little people back then, all of them fought hard behind Nurhachi to become a minister and become famous.

Thinking about the terrible situation that got out of control, even Mang Gurtai didn't dare to ignore it.

"So ...... we?"

"Take this stockade."

Huang Taiji's finger pointed at the fortress that Zhou Qingfeng was repairing, "This is the Han kid named Zhou Qingfeng next to Chu Ying, but the two of them have also fallen out now." I don't understand why the Han boy wants to build such a village, but according to Dashan, who has an affair with us, this village is quite strong, and if we can occupy this village, maybe we can resist the crazy Chu Ying. ”

When it comes to war, there is a complete difference between having fortifications and not having them. It's like having armor and not having armor, and the combat power is completely unequal. Staying in the fortifications, the damage of the arrows will be greatly weakened, and the impact of the military array will also be canceled out, and many of the military formations are powerful because of the unity of the forces, and the fortifications can play the role of dividing the military formation.

A ditch, a pile of dirt, a wall, anything can cause trouble. If the military formation can't be neatly organized, a little east and west, as soon as the distance increases, it will become a skirmisher. Behind the fortifications, the military formation queue was calmly arranged.

Huang Taiji wanted to occupy Zhou Qingfeng's fortress and Chu Ying, wear down his strength to prevent him from going berserk, and finally he could slowly drag the opponent to death.

Mang Gurtai looked at the map on the table, and after a while, he said, "This little village is hiding behind Ekhkulun, surrounded by either woods or rivers. It's going to take a bit of work if you really want to fight, but it's not hard for me to do it myself. Since you value this place so much, I will take him tonight and kill Zhou Qingfeng's kid by the way. ”

"Fifth brother made a move, it should not take much effort to take down this village. Although Darshan in the stockade is a little slippery, he is a man like grass on the wall. I believe that as long as the fifth brother goes, he will naturally be arrested obediently, and he will have to hand over our eldest concubine. Huang Taiji stared at the map and planned, what he wanted was the immediate effect.

Mang Gurtai also felt that this was just a trivial matter, and the trouble in the future was how to continue to fight hard with Chu Ying. When the two of them wanted to plot to occupy Zhou Qingfeng, a seemingly inconspicuous small fortress, Zhou Qingfeng, who had an extremely deep sense of crisis, had just made an extremely difficult decision to force Jia Gang to go to the city to meet Chu Ying.

Jia Gang, the unlucky guy, was sitting in the council hall in the city, he had followed Zhou Qingfeng here before, and he really regretted his death this time This council hall is big enough, and it naturally became a place for Chu Ying to carry out blood sacrifices. The originally spacious ground was now covered with thick blood water, and a trace of black gas came out of the blood water from time to time, which were all unjust souls who were unwilling to die.

Several of the wooden pillars were stained with blood. The blood was wriggling, climbing, spreading, and terrifying to look at. Because it is a ghost cultivator, Jia Gang is no stranger to corpses and ghosts. But at the moment, this kind of blood sacrifice scene is too beyond his imagination, several shamans are constantly casting spells, and the raw materials for casting spells are the lives of slaves.

Chu Ying was sitting on the first seat of the council hall at the moment, and the black qi coming out of the blood water continued to impact him, and he sat still and dealt with it calmly. There were also more than a dozen Jurchen nobles who were originally Ehekulun by his side, and they would also enjoy the cultivation improvement brought by the blood sacrifice with him. The strength of these people has generally increased by two or three times, and they are all red-faced and red-eared, and their eyes are shining.

As soon as the second blood sacrifice came to an end, Chu Ying on the first seat opened his eyes slightly and glanced at Jia Gang coldly. Jia Gang suddenly felt like an electric shock, and knelt down towards Chu Ying tremblingly.

For Jia Gang's wretched appearance, Chu Ying chuckled. A powerful spiritual force that looked at the world and no one in his eyes connected to Jia Gang's brain, and directly conveyed a sentence, "Are you afraid?" ”

"I'm afraid." How could Jia Gang not be afraid, he felt that Chu Ying's spiritual power was full of all kinds of impurities and filth. This should be the soul that died unjustly has invaded Chu Ying's mind and gnawed away his thoughts and memories, God knows how can that guy control it? The average person has a nervous breakdown in this situation.

"It's good if you're afraid, if you're afraid, send Abahai to me, and then obediently be my subordinate." Chu Ying's words were relaxed and even laughed all the time. It's just that his laughter is gloomy and compassionate, and his voice is erratic, as if he is from the underworld.

"Please also ask Chu Yingbeiler to know, I am just a messenger, and Concubine Abahai is not in my hands." Jia Gang was so frightened that he was about to cry, he hurriedly told him about his soul being taken away by Zhou Qingfeng, and specially emphasized: "Zhou boy asked me to bring a word to Lord Belle." ”

"It's that kid again." Chu Ying couldn't help but say angrily: "What kind of ghost idea did he come up with again?" ”

"Zhou Xiaozi wants to ask, is Chu Yingbeile willing to set a trap for Mang Gurtai and Huang Taiji outside the city?"