Chu Yang shrank in the shield array, his temples jumping violently.

With his temperament, he should have rushed directly into the city to kill the tower, picked those archers, and then killed the black-faced young general who had just spoken in public and hung it above the city gate.

However, that was when he and Tang Mingyi took care of each other.

Now he has to hold back his temper and make the calmest and most appropriate decision he can make.

Since the other party said that he couldn't see clearly, he led his troops to retreat three miles and temporarily stationed, and at the same time divided three teams of scouts to explore in the northwest and east.

It's a pity that to create a feeling of heavy pressure in the city, the three teams of scouts are far from enough, but he really can't help it.

It was only after the more than 1,000 men were stationed that the problem was completely revealed.

First of all, the more than 100 people who had been looted by the Liangzhou army. He was a pioneer who did not carry a baggage, and his blades and horses were rationed according to their numbers, and it was good to say that these people had lost their horses, but without weapons and armor was the most difficult thing.

Chu Yangguan couldn't leave them in one place, regardless of their life and death.

Whether it is light or heavy cavalry, the Dingyi army is mainly armed with guns, and some light cavalry will also be equipped with bows while holding guns. So he redeployed his weapons in the same place, turning these light horsemen who had lost their combat power into archers.

However, these archers had no ability to defend themselves, and could only form a formation with the shield soldiers, which was temporarily used to defend temporary positions.

It was impossible for the remaining cavalry to attack the city, in order to prevent the looting of the Liangzhou army, even the mobile advantage of wandering was gone, and more than a thousand men and horses could only helplessly stay in place, waiting for the rear to come to support.

But Chuyang Pass has not done nothing, although there is still a glimmer of hope of entering the city without a fight at this time, but it is more likely to attack the city, at least to make the appearance of attacking the city.

Then you need to crash the ladder or even the watchtower. Although Tongcheng is surrounded by dense forests, it obviously takes more time and manpower to select and cut down temporarily, so Chuyangguan sent some scattered people to explore the three counties closest to Tongcheng to find some suitable timber.

During this period, they even went to call the city gate again, these city defenders were obviously undertrained, but they just couldn't open the city gate.

It was not until after noon, more than an hour later than scheduled, that the rear finally joined the vanguard.

Without waiting for Chu Yangguan to ask them the specific reason for their lateness, the commander of the temporary commander in the rear came to report to him with a depressed face, Some of the grain and grass were robbed, and some were burned, and less than half of them were left.

Chu Yangguan couldn't hold back any longer, and planned to combine the two departments to attack, but he didn't expect to wait for such a worse news.

He didn't know that after Lao Zhao, who had plundered them, sent a total of more than 200 pairs of equipment from the Dingyi Army to Tongcheng in two times, he was immediately assigned to the light cavalry waiting in the East City Gate.

Later, more than 200 people changed their armor and went out of the city, and the simple road opened up by Lao Zhao and them in advance quickly circled from east to west, and finally intercepted in the middle of the vanguard and the rear of the Dingyi Army.

At this time, Li Mao's department had already completed the preliminary arrangement of Qianlong County, and brought the men and horses of the two nearby towns to join Lao Zhao, and the two places were merged, and the middle and last two sections were killed in the rear of the Dingyi army.

Although it was an ambush, there was a gap in the number of people after all, Lao Zhao and the others knew that they couldn't take advantage of it, so they harassed them in a small area under the cover of bows and arrows for the first few times.

Out of familiarity with the terrain, the "Liangzhou Mountain Bandits" outside the city not only disrupted the rhythm of the rear march of the Dingyi army with almost no losses, but also shot and wounded dozens of people.

Before the rear of the Dingyi army was about to meet the two hundred hypothetical Yi troops from Tongcheng, Lao Zhao's troops finally poured out of the nest and completely disrupted the formation of the rear of the Dingyi army.

When the commanders of the Dingyi Army, who thought they were going to fall into a bitter battle, hurriedly responded to the battle, they suddenly saw a group of men and horses coming from the north to the south, looking at the spears in their armoured hands and their bodies, Who else could it be if it wasn't reinforcements?

In normal times, the two teams should look at each other carefully, and check the orders whether they know each other or not.

But at that time, the situation was urgent, and this group of reinforcements first shouted "The general will kill the mountain bandits, and ask us to come to support" while rushing directly into the battle formation, and the faces and armor were also covered with dust and blood.

Moreover, several commanders who were obviously calling the shots, and even some active team generals were being besieged by the mountain bandits.

By the time the situation on their side eased a little, the original formation had been completely disrupted, and after those reinforcements were mixed into the battle formation, they couldn't tell which one was coming.

However, with the arrival of reinforcements, the mountain bandits finally showed their decline, and after another round of fierce attacks to no avail, they quickly retreated into the dense forest.

The commander of the Dingyi army immediately arranged for his men and horses to chase after him for a while, but he did not dare to go deeper, and at this time, many of the grain wagons that had been kept in the ranks were on fire.

Immediately, I saw a group of "Dingyi Army" with a bag of grain in their hands, and galloped south.

Only then did these generals understand what was going on, but they didn't even dare to chase after them. After taking stock of the battlefield, it was found that not only had the loss of grain and grass, but even the soldiers had been killed and wounded more than 300 times.

Chu Yang closed his eyes and listened, and his heart was already mixed.

However, this was the first piece of news that gave him a headache.

As soon as the commanders in the rear had finished speaking, the men and horses who had gone to the neighboring three counties to investigate also returned, and reported that the neighboring three counties had been attacked by mountain bandits not long ago, and not only had many young men taken away, but also some timber and iron materials in the county had been robbed, and they had even lit a fire and burned the county government.

Several people who went to investigate also took a closer look at the buildings in the three counties, except for the county government that had been burned down, it was difficult to remove the wood suitable for the crash of the rest of the buildings.

In addition to the barely suitable distance between the three counties, if you want to obtain wood from the rest of the counties, it is not as convenient as taking local materials for demolition and transportation.

But there is always some negotiation before the siege of the city, and now that the number of troops is more than twice as much, the temporary guards in the city dare not be so arrogant, so Chu Yangguan will call people to the city to shout.

But he was shot back again.

Chu Yangguan really couldn't figure out why the other party had such an attitude, but after thinking about it in his heart, there was only one possible conclusion, Liu Zhi had served Tang Xianyao before leaving, and his current attitude came from his orders.

Then it is impossible to enter the city without damage, and the city must be attacked without attacking.

However, there are obviously several buildings in the city, and they do not have a numerical advantage, and if they build a series of siege equipment, the effect may not be good.

Anyway, the trees have to be cut down temporarily, so it is better to simply take a few thunderbolts, and it is impossible for a small Tongcheng to withstand the onslaught of boulders.

(End of chapter)