Compared with the high morale of the departed army in Xicheng and the courage and logistical preparation that they can start a battle at any time, there are already some signs of low morale among the royal Chen family's army garrisoning Baichikou, although Xia Cheng temporarily controlled this army with his outstanding prestige and commanding ability. But in fact, he himself also knew very well that with the current army with low morale, it was absolutely impossible to fight the departing army head-on. The only thing he could do was to hold the mouth of Baichi and hold the only way to march the army. At the same time, a letter of request for help was sent to the Chen family of the royal family, hoping that reinforcements would come to support. Once the army outweighs the Sunset garrison, they will have a chance to fight back and retake Sunset.

But in fact, this can only be said to be Xia Cheng's slightly wishful thinking, for him, the current situation, the royal Chen family is in an urgent situation on all sides, and the situation is extremely dangerous, in order to solve the crisis, the royal Chen family has almost exhausted the entire army near the city. Now there are only 20,000 troops left in Checheng and the four surrounding counties in Checheng, which were originally stationed at least 50,000 troops, 10,000 troops to support Zhao Ling, the general stationed in Thorn City, and the other 20,000 troops are under the leadership of Chen Bai, a disciple of the Chen family and Chen Xuan's cousin, who hurried to Qicheng. Prepare to take advantage of the opportunity for the Qi army to gain a stable foothold and not stabilize Qicheng, and recapture Qicheng to break the situation. And Xia Cheng's plan to ask for reinforcements in the west was suppressed by Chen Xuan, and he knew that with Xia Cheng's ability, it should not be a problem to block the departing army so that they could not temporarily advance eastward. Besides, they don't have the strength to send such an army to reinforce the area.

This is also Tong Meng's suggestion, and it is also the only chance for the Chen family of the royal family to reverse the current situation. Qi and Liguo have now formed a situation that is almost encircled, if they can't find a way to break the situation, sooner or later they can't avoid the fate of destruction, only to break through a relatively weak point ——— Qicheng, and then directly attack Xiaoguan to cut off the logistics and transportation channel of Qi, so that there may be the last ray of hope.

The general who commanded the army was also Chen Bai, a member of the Chen family of the royal family, who was second only to Xia Cheng, Wang Ren, and Zhao Ling, and he felt a huge pressure on his shoulders. At this time, once he is defeated, it will not be far from the moment of destruction for the Chen family of the royal family.

Thinking of this, this Chen Bai kept ordering the army under his command to speed up the march, and for him, the pressure in the entire royal Chen family has been pressed on him today. The 20,000 troops are also one of the most elite troops within the royal Chen family, and such a move by the royal Chen family can be said to have reached a desperate situation. It was precisely for this reason that this army of 20,000 people was extremely fast, and in less than three days, it had already arrived in the territory of Qicheng and was temporarily stationed in the northernmost county.

It's just a pity that Chen Bai ignored a crucial matter, and now the army of Qi that originally entered Qicheng has also gone north at the same time to the outside of this county seat. It's just that after the Qi army led by Merlin passed through this county seat, it was going to move eastward and go directly to Thorn City. Originally, Merlin had no intention of using this county seat as a transit point to take a break for a day. But what he himself didn't expect was that the Chen family of the royal family would be so bold that they would dare to send 20,000 troops to this place at this moment when there might be tension at any time. Merlin was like a mirror in his heart, now the defense of Qicheng was extremely weak, and it could be directly broken by the 20,000 troops of the royal Chen family at any time. Therefore, Merlin did not dare to march out of this county easily, he could only write all the news in front of him into a letter and send it to Li Fu, the general of the Qi State who was now fighting in Thorn City. As for himself, he temporarily garrisoned and settled here, waiting to see what the 20,000 troops of the royal Chen family wanted to do.

However, at the same time, Merlin ordered Feng Yuchong, Feng Shanshan, and Kong Hong, three young men with unique skills, to leave this Qi army and rush to Thorn City to assist the main army in a decisive battle against the royal Chen family's army. He wasn't worried about his side, although he might not be as strong as the Chen family's army of the royal family, he could settle for the second, as long as he ensured that Qi Cheng was not lost. As long as Qicheng is not lost, it is impossible for the army of the Chen family of the royal family to enter Xiaoguan to cut off the logistics grain and grass channel, and there will be no consequences for them to fight head-on.

The stakes are very high, Feng Yuchong, Feng Shanshan and Kong Hong left the Qi State camp overnight, although they met a fifty-person royal Chen family sentry team on the way, but for these three people, it is very simple to get out of the fifty-person sentry team with their ability. However, with a cup of tea, these fifty sentinel soldiers were already frozen in place by Kong Hong. Then, the three of them ran up the gallop and began to rush to Thorn City

Thorn City is located on the shore of the Shenghai Sea, this coastal city not only controls the largest sea salt transportation in the royal Chen family, but also because their current land area is extremely critical, the Confucian family in Thorn City is mainly where the production of weapons is located, and Thorn City is located in a city closest to the city, so naturally this Thorn City is of great strategic significance. The Chen family of the imperial family also attached great importance to this, not only increasing Zhao Ling's 5,000 troops who had originally left the city back to Thorn City. Then 10,000 troops were added to aid the region. Now, most of the hopes of the royal Chen family are still pinned on Zhao Ling and Thorn City. Once you hold the situation behind Thorn City, there may still be hope, but once Thorn City is lost, I am afraid there will be no more chance.

At present, the army of Qi is stationed outside the thorn city with about 30,000 troops, this time the 50,000 troops went north to march into the Xuanling Continent, so far they can also be said to have gained a lot, so far the army basically has no losses, not only defeated the feudal army, but now also occupies Xiaoguan and Qicheng, including the entire Xuanling Continent in the south of the vast land and these two very important boundaries, the current basis can be said to be very stable. With the help of these two victories, Li Fu and Qian Rong finally decided to send troops to directly attack Thorn City.

But what they didn't expect was that the Thorn City was held here like this, and the soldiers and civilians were united in resisting the Qi army under the coordination of Zhao Ling, coupled with the close monitoring of the surrounding city gates, so that the spies of the Qi State did not have the opportunity to enter this Thorn City, which fundamentally and effectively eliminated the possibility of the current Qi State to implement the internal and external cooperation. It is not like the previous Qi Cheng that the current situation is uncontrollable because of the family's internal and external cooperation.

This is also the most important thing that Zhao Ling has done, if he doesn't take such an action, I'm afraid that Thorn City will be directly unable to defend it for a while. And Zhao Ling still has a layer of reliance, that is, his identity is also very loud in this thorn city. After all, there is the Kong family, the head of the four major families of the royal Chen family, in Thorn City, and he happens to be the son-in-law of the Kong family, and in some respects he can be said to have a unique advantage. Although the Confucian family is now in a wait-and-see attitude, it is not fully clear what they want to do now, what kind of attitude they have. But at least on the surface, the Kong family didn't say or do anything to Zhao Ling, and they still helped Zhao Ling to stabilize and defend the situation normally.

However, now the Qi State did not want to directly attack Thorn City, they knew that it was extremely dangerous to directly and rashly dispatch troops in this way, which would directly lead to the army in front of them suffering large losses. Now there is no need to directly march to launch a powerful attack to increase casualties, so after some discussion between Li Fu, the general of Qi State, and Qian Rong, the strategist, finally decided to hold the troops for the time being, and wait for the news from the rear to come before deciding whether to send a large-scale army to attack Thorn City.

It is now the beginning of summer in May, and the first crop of rice in the farmland cultivated by the people outside Thorn City has basically been harvested, but now because the Qi army has temporarily closed this Thorn City, the army of the Chen family of the royal family has also strictly ordered the people to leave Thorn City without permission to go to various places to pick the rice and rice in it. It was here that all the people were told in disguise that now these farmlands outside the city don't need to think about harvesting these paddies.

The Qi army is not short of logistical grain and grass transportation, and the grain within the Qi State is now transported all the way here through the Xiaoguan Channel, which has been opened, and they do not need to go directly into it to pick the rice and grains planted by the people. Along the way, he did not commit any offense against these people's fields, and such a move was tantamount to making the people of Thorn City, the people, and even the local soldiers admire it.

This emotion helped Zhao Ling's ears, but Zhao Ling didn't care much about this, because there was actually no difficulty or risk in guarding this thorny city now, and he had a secret weapon that he had never used. Once this secret weapon is struck, I am afraid that the current situation will be completely rewritten. Their royal family, the Chen family, will no longer be at a disadvantage, but can enter the army to counterattack the Qi State at any time.

It's just that now Zhao Ling doesn't want to expose this matter too early, he knows very well in his heart that once this weapon is put into the war, it is not a wise choice to do so out of the consideration of the overall impact on the overall situation, and it is easy for the spies of the Qi State to detect these situations first, so the situation is not very good.

On the other hand, now Zhao Ling is still waiting for the arrival of reinforcements from within them, so Zhao Ling even took the initiative to abandon several county towns around Thorn City, and retreated all the people and troops to Thorn City, so as to preserve military strength to the greatest extent. Once the reinforcements arrive, the internal and external forces will attack together, and they will definitely be able to defeat the army of the Qi State, and at that time, he will come up with a killer weapon, which is the ultimate means of breaking the situation in the situation.