"Whew~~~~"

On the head of the city that is not too tall in Beiping County, Li Erbin took a breath of heat at his frozen red and swollen hands, and then tightened his padded jacket tightly.

If it weren't for the two sets of thick cotton clothes sewn by my mother before I left, I am afraid that I don't know when I will become a dry bone on the side of the road, but fortunately I am in Beiping County instead of going to the front line to fight.

"Second brother!" With a soft shout behind him, Li Dalang quietly came to Li Erbin's side, and then secretly stuffed something to him.

"Sweet potato?" Grabbing the sweet potatoes that were still a little hot, Li Erbin was pleasantly surprised with a hint of panic, "Big brother, don't you want to die?" In the past few days, General Zhang has been in a bad mood, and he has cut down a few negligent soldiers on duty, and even the team rate has been cut one, if it is discovered, it will be bad! ”

Li Dalang looked around, the sky was still a little dark at this time, and there was only a soldier on duty every dozens of steps on the head of the city, so he said softly: "This is our cousin himself who took advantage of the fire to quietly roast, hurry up and eat it so as not to be discovered!" ”

Sweet potatoes only existed as a supplementary food in the Xia Kingdom, and even in Nanyang, they were more used as pig feed, but when the knowledgeable merchants of the Sui Empire secretly brought these species home, after twenty or thirty years of cultivation, they gradually spread within the Sui Empire.

When the news that Zhuo County was attacked by the Xia army reached Beiping County, Zhang Jian, the defender of Beiping County, immediately realized that the million-strong army on the front line would soon have a shortage of food after the grain route was cut off, so he immediately ordered to control the food consumption of every soldier.

Even if he does it himself, every penny of food saved now can save lives in the near future.

However, the soldiers on duty consume a lot of calories at night in winter, so these soldiers have to quietly collect edible food everywhere, and sweet potatoes with good taste and high yield have undoubtedly become the first choice, in addition to a kind of potato is also popular with the Sui soldiers.

"General!"

At the same time that Li Erbin finished eating the sweet potato, the voice of the officer on duty suddenly came from not far away, and it was actually Zhang Jian who personally inspected the city.

Li Erbin hurriedly wiped the residue off the corners of his mouth, but he didn't notice that there was a black mark on the corner of his mouth.

Looking at the rolling mountains in the distance, as well as the flat coastal plain on the southwest coast, Zhang Jian's heart was very heavy, since he received a message from the messenger from Zhuo County, it has been three days now, except for the first day, there was a team of Sui troops driving thousands of people to transport a batch of grain, and no one came in the next two days.

I only hope that the King of Jin and others on the front line will receive information as soon as possible and quickly return to the division to recapture Zhuo County, otherwise these million troops will be buried in Liaodong, thinking of this, Zhang Jian was already a little sad and angry, and never thought that these Xia people would be so vicious.

"General, there is an enemy situation!"

At the same time as the soldiers at the head of the city were alerting, Zhang Jian also picked up his telescope and looked southwest, with the morning fog in winter, the telescope could vaguely see the boundless black figure moving.

As a qualified general from the military, Zhang Jian could see at a glance that such a huge team, even if the cavalry would only exceed 50,000 people, it would not be less than this number.

Thinking of this, Zhang Jian was very anxious, because in order to break through Liaodong as soon as possible, the Sui Empire deployed very few troops from Yan County to Beiping County and Zhuo County.

In particular, there are only more than 1,000 elite troops in Beiping County under Zhang Jian, and the remaining more than 5,000 people are newly recruited from the mainland, and Li Dalang, Li Erbin and others are this part.

Although the west of Beiping County is a wide Luanshui, the river surface of Luanshui is very narrow in winter, and the water surface is also frozen with thick ice, which cannot become a natural danger to stop the Xia army.

"Knock Knock Knock"

With the sound of fierce war drums, thousands of defenders in the city have landed in the city under the urging of their respective generals, and Zhang Jian even began to organize the people in the city to go to the city to assist in the defense, but how can this kind of war be in a hurry to find too many people who are willing to defend the city.

"Big brother, what should we do?" More than 20 Li brothers gathered together at the head of the city, and they were in charge of a section of the city wall as a soldier of Zhichong Mansion, so everyone was close to each other and their cousins also gathered together, and everyone looked at the most shrewd Li Dalang and hoped that he would have an idea.

Li Dalang was also under a lot of pressure at this moment, he was lucky not to be sent to the Liaodong battlefield before, but to help maintain the grain road here in Beiping County, he still felt that he was very lucky, but now the Xia army of 50,000 troops is coming, and with only more than 6,000 defenders in the city, he can't hold it at all.

Thinking of this, he said softly: "The Xia army attacked outside the city is said to be at least 50,000 or more, and the defenders in our city are only more than 6,000, and the city will definitely not be able to hold it, so after a while, our brothers will have a long eye and don't be shot by the Xia army. ”

The Xia army marched very quickly, quickly crossing the frozen Luanshui and tightly encircling Beiping County.

The Xia army had 100,000 people, of course, it was impossible to attack only one city wall, they had already learned from some Sui army scouts that there were only more than 6,000 defenders in Beiping County, so that the Xia army could give full play to its strength advantage to attack from all sides.

In just half an hour's effort, the Xia Junbu army who came on horseback unloaded the bed crossbows, small catapults, and even a lot of Zheng's rockets.

"Boom"

A Zheng rocket landed on the city wall, blowing up large chunks of earth, and before the defenders of the city could breathe a sigh of relief, hundreds of rockets bombarded it almost at the same time.

The city wall was suddenly in shambles, and at the same time, violent explosions sounded on several other city walls, and the government soldiers, who had never seen such a scene, suddenly became a mess.

They may all have martial arts, but they have never seen such a scene, and it takes time for the recruits to grow, and there is a mess on the city wall, and the captains of the team are also in a hurry to organize everyone to hide while maintaining order.

At this moment, the Xia army began to flood the city wall, and the defenders on the city wall were ready to give these Xia soldiers a reward with grief and hatred.

However, they did not expect that the Xia army under the city had just rushed to the city wall and was still about fifty paces away from the city wall, and suddenly retreated, followed by a new round of rockets fired on the city wall, and at the same time, a large number of thunderbolts fired from bed crossbows.

After only two rounds of explosions, the defenders on all sides of the city had lost their combat effectiveness in total, and although there were only about 100 people who were directly killed, the unstoppable wailing of those wounded soldiers who lost their arms and legs by the stabbing and explosion could deal a heavy blow to the morale of the Sui army.

"Big brother, General Zhang suddenly went down to the city!"

Li Erbin, who was staring at Zhang Jian, suddenly found that Zhang Jian was quietly descending from the city with a team of his own personal soldiers, and he immediately reported to his cousin.

"Sure enough, it seems that he knows that this city can't hold it and sneaks away!" Li Dalang's eyes immediately flashed fiercely, "Since that's the case, don't blame us!" ”

He immediately contacted the soldiers of Zhichong Mansion around him, and generally one Zhichong Mansion in Guanzhong is about 11,000 people, so the more than 20 Li brothers plus the villagers who were not far away, they quickly reached a consensus: this city could not be defended and had to surrender.

Soon a white flag replaced by an irregular white cloth was raised, which was what Li Dalang once heard his shopkeeper say when he was a buddy in Chang'an, as long as he raised the white flag and surrendered when he fought against the Xia army, then the Xia army would not attack you again.

Of course, this premise is that you really surrender, if you deceive the other party with a false shot, then the Xia army will concentrate on destroying you no matter what, no matter how you flee to the ends of the earth.

The total number of defenders in Beiping County is only about 6,000 people, so each city wall is less than 2,000 people, and the west city wall is only 2,000 people because of the maximum number of Xia troops, and Li Dalang alone has nearly 1,000 comrades from Zhichong Mansion.

Therefore, when these people decided to surrender, the other more than 1,000 people were powerless to oppose at all, and everyone also found out that Zhang Jian's sudden disappearance, so soon the Xia army outside the city attacked the city with the assistance of Li Dalang and others.

Beiping County is a small city, east and west is four miles of road, north and south of less than three miles of road, when Zhang Gang led thousands of cavalry into the city, this city has fallen inexorably in the hands of the Xia army.

The defenders of the other three city walls saw that the Xia army had entered the city, and they quickly lost the confidence to resist, and became prisoners of war of the Xia army one after another, and the entire city was captured by the Xia army in just one hour.

Zhang Jian, who was originally going to put on makeup and leave, did not expect that Li Dalang had already made people stare at him, and soon after he got off the city wall, the Xia army entered the city, and he also became a prisoner of war of the Xia army after putting on makeup.

The capture of Beiping County was expected by Zhang Gang, but the Sui army at the head of the city suddenly surrendered as an organization, which was the first time that the Xia State had fought against the Sui army, so he quickly ordered someone to bring Li Dalang, the initiator.

"I heard that the Great Sui Imperial Court has always claimed that my Xia Kingdom is the country of Yidi, and it eats human flesh raw! Brutal! Zhang Gang asked with a smile, "But how could you not hesitate to encourage the defenders to surrender?" And you also know that as long as you put up a white flag, you will be spared? ”

"I worked as a buddy in the Chang'an store for a few years three years ago!" Li Dalang knew that it was the big man in Xia Kingdom in front of him, and he said cautiously, "At that time, the shopkeeper of our store was said to have been to Xia Kingdom, and he told me all these things I knew!" ”

"Oh? I don't know your shopkeeper's surname? Zhang Gang thought about it in surprise, and suddenly had an answer in his heart, I am afraid that the shopkeeper has not been to the Xia Kingdom, but the spies sent by the Xia Kingdom to the Sui Empire.

Sure enough, I heard Li Dalang say respectfully: "At that time, I heard that my shopkeeper's surname was Sun, but some people said that he was just a small shopkeeper, and there was a big shopkeeper surnamed Lian Yu on it!" ”