Xiangyang City was built in the Han Dynasty, after the flood and soldiers, it was built repeatedly, and the city wall was an earthen wall at the beginning. In the Chu period, it was rebuilt into a brick wall, and the city gate was also changed from a single straight entry type to a cantonment-type urn city gate. At the beginning of Zheng Dynasty, when Deng Yu, the political envoy of Huzhou, expanded and repaired Xiangyang, in order to strengthen the defense capability and make the north of the city closely connected with the Han River, he built a new city in the northeast corner, and at the same time expanded Fancheng into Xiangfan, which became a corner with Xiangyang.

Today's Xiangyang city is twelve miles around, there are six city gates, 4,210 battlements, surrounded by a moat, two zhang and five feet deep, but because of the Han River and the siege of the city, the moat has been filled by the Northwest Army.

The people in Xiangyang City have been incorporated into the Minzhuang by all the White Lotus Sects, and with the previous 200,000 "righteous army", the "army" hoarded in Xiangyang City has reached 300,000 people. The besieging Northwest Army had less than 30,000 men, including 3,000 light cavalry, 1,000 heavy cavalry, and the rest were all foot soldiers. This dramatic scene was staged in the attack and defense of Xiangyang, 30,000 people surrounded 300,000 people in the city, and these 300,000 people were like a wronged little lady, who only dared to hide behind the city wall and cry secretly, and did not have the courage and idea to open the city gate to fight to the death.

Xiangyang Shou General Luo Zengxian's cousin Luo Zenghan, who was originally an unambitious talent, always lamented that he had the ambition to stabilize the country, but he always had no talent, and whenever he talked about the general trend of the world on weekdays, he always talked about the general trend of the world, and he always talked endlessly, not bluffing others, but let Luo Zengxian, who had not read many books, take it seriously. After the death of the average general Zhang Fu, Luo Zengxian took over the power of Huzhou, and he appointed his cousin, who "has the skill of slaying dragons but no dragons to slaughter", as the general of Liangxiang, and the prime minister of Xiangyang and Xiangfan.

How could Luo Zenghan, a man who had never even made a county order, be the lord of the two cities? However, he still longed for the lupine scarf, the Confucian generals who were wiped out in ashes while talking and laughing, and even imagined that he would one day lead a million-strong army north to the Central Plains and sweep away the world to establish a thousand years of meritorious deeds, so he vigorously expanded his army, and in a short period of time there were 200,000 troops, but most of them were hungry people, and there were less than 2,000 soldiers who could fight a war.

When the Northwest Army swept Shuzhou, Luo Zenghan also proposed to Luo Zengxian to send a surprise army into Shu along the river to attack Xiao Yu's Chinese army tent, as long as it succeeded, the Northwest Army would be defeated without a fight. Luo Zengxian was quite moved by this proposal, but the actual situation was that before the strange soldiers they sent out of the border of Huzhou, Xiao Yu had already conquered Jincheng, and the entire territory of Shuzhou had fallen. In this regard, Luo Zenghan has repeatedly said to the left and right, "I can't fight with Xiao Mingguang in Shudi, and I regret it in my life." ”

However, at this time, Luo Zenghan had no regrets, not long ago he officially fought with the Northwest Army, and the 20,000 "army" was defeated in a battle, and then he never mentioned anything to fight to the death with the Northwest Army. "Vulgar martial artists are not enough to achieve things", "Fighting the world depends on martial artists, and ruling the world still depends on literati".

Of course, Xiao Yu didn't know that there was once a poor sour talent named Luo Zenghan who wanted to fight to the death with him in Shuzhou, and he didn't even pay much attention to who the two guards were, after all, the performance of the so-called 300,000 army was too unexpected, saying that the rabble were all lifting them, it was completely a group of people who were driven away, and it was okay to deal with the same people and the officers and soldiers who were rotten to the bones, but to deal with the battle-hardened Northwest Army, it was completely a one-sided mowing of the grass, a veteran of the Northwest Army once said that after fighting a lifetime of war, it was the first time to encounter such an easy battle, and after the battle, you can win with your eyes closed and a knife。

During this period of time, the losses of the Northwest Army were minimal, but Luo Zengxian's million-strong army suffered heavy losses, and nearly 200,000 people were defeated by the Northwest Army one after another.

Compared with Shuzhou, Huzhou is claimed to have a million troops stationed, but the combat power of these so-called million troops is even worse than that of the Shu army. If you don't have the strength to fight in the wild, then no matter how high and deep the city is, it will eventually become a lonely city. And Huzhou does not have Jianmen Pass, the world's most dangerous pass, if Xiao Yu marches from the south of the Yangtze River, Luo Zengxian can hold half of the lake as long as he ensures that Xiangyang is not lost, but unfortunately Xiao Yu entered the lake from Shu and appeared directly behind Xiangyang City, so that the barrier effect of Xiangyang City was minimized.

In the offensive and defensive battle of Xiangyang, the Northwest Army did not even attack the city in earnest, but the army of 300,000 hungry people in Xiangyang City was on the verge of collapse. Although with the addition of the defenders of Xiangfan City and reinforcements from all over the country, the number of troops involved in Xiangyang has reached 600,000, but in the face of the Northwest Army, which has less than 100,000 troops, it has been defeated again and again. Since the war with the Northwest Army, the result of no victory has made Luo Zengxian completely recognize the reality.

And with Luo Zengxian's successive defeats, anyone who knows a little about military affairs can see that the Northwest Army has won.

The White Lotus Sect Army in Huzhou has already shown a clear decline.

The people in Xiangyang City were panicked.

Li Lifei, the guard at the east gate of Xiangyang City, sat behind his desk in a daze, looking at the dancing candles, and there were no stars and moons in the dark sky outside the window.

The candle flame flickered suddenly, and the whole room became brighter and darker.

When the candlelight stabilized again, a middle-aged man in a black brocade robe appeared opposite Li Lifei.

Li Lifei didn't look surprised at the visitor, and said with a gloomy face: "I agree to your request, but you must ensure the safety of my wife and children." ”

The brocade-robed man clapped his hands, and said with a hoarse smile: "This is natural, speaking of Mrs. Li, I heard that she is still an official lady, but the whole family was killed by the White Lotus Righteous Army, and was finally 'saved' by General Li who passed by, and it is also her blessing to meet such a kind person as General Li in troubled times." By the way, over the years, in addition to saving women, General Li should have also 'saved' a lot of gold and silver, right?"

Li Lifei's face became even more gloomy, as if he was covered with a layer of frost, "I am willing to give half of my family wealth." ”

The middle-aged man got up and said with a smile: "Very good, the one who knows the times is Junjie." At three o'clock in the afternoon tomorrow, as long as General Li opens the city gate on time, the Governor will ensure that your whole family will not die. ”

When the words fell, the candlelight on the bookcase suddenly dimmed, and then the brocade-robed man in front of Li Lifei turned into countless shadows and scattered along the ground.

After the brocade-robed man left, the candlelight returned to normal.

The gloom on Li Lifei's face gradually faded, his head half-bowed, and under the illumination of the candlelight, the light and darkness were uncertain.

On the second day, the Northwest Army attacked the city, and Han Xiong personally supervised the battle.

After Luo Zenghan, who had been hiding in the city, heard the report of his subordinates, he probably drank too much wine, and actually climbed the city wall to supervise the battle.

These 300,000 people can't go out of the city to fight, but it's more than enough to defend the city. Because of the advantage of a large number of people, Luo Zenghan simply let the soldiers stand on the city wall in three layers, the outermost layer is the hungry people, the inner layer is the soldiers, and the innermost layer is the elite of the White Lotus Sect who is responsible for supervising the battle, and then ordered all the houses in Xiangyang City to be demolished for the need to defend the city. At the same time, he also opened the granary, saying that as long as he participated in the defense of the city, whether it was a hungry man or a soldier, he could eat three meals a day, and he was full.

Relying on the main general to take the lead and spare food, Luo Zenghan actually raised the morale of the Xiangyang defenders, which had fallen to the bottom, a lot.

Xiangyang City, known as the iron-clad Xiangyang, once resisted the Houjian army for several years. From midnight to noon, the siege of the Northwest Army did not make any progress.

Luo Zenghan stood at the head of the city, looking at the infantry of the Northwest Army who were retreating like a tide, and put back the heart he had just raised. said to the left and right: "The Northwest Army is nothing more than this, in front of Xiangyang Tiecheng, it will also hit its head and break the bloodstream." ”

As soon as Luo Zenghan's words fell, the smile on his face had not yet faded, and the east gate of Xiangyang City suddenly opened.

The gates of the city were opened from the inside.

The Northwest Cavalry, which had been prepared for a long time, drove straight in.

Luo Zenghan, who was standing at the head of the city, stared blankly at the Northwest Iron Cavalry that was pouring into the city, and his eyes widened.

The sound of horses' hooves and the resounding of drums struck his eardrums in one fell swoop.

"Shaft!" Luo Zenghan shouted suddenly, then his eyes turned black and fell backwards.

On this day, Li Lifei, the guard of the east gate of Xiangyang, opened the city gate, the northwest cavalry entered the city, and the Xiangyang guard Luo Zenghan was unconscious and was desperately escorted out of the city by his own soldiers, and the rest of the defenders collapsed without a fight, and all fled.

Fall of Xiangyang.

After the largest group of elite cavalry of the White Lotus Sect escaped from Xiangyang City, they prepared Xiangfan all the way, and were chased by 5,000 northwest light cavalry at a distance of five miles from Xiangfan City, and all of them were killed.

No one in Xiangfan dared to go out of the city to rescue them, and they watched the Northwest Army build a big Beijing temple in front of Xiangfan City.