Meng Tu sat in front of the fire, and the little soldier handed over the roasted steamed buns, and he had no appetite at all.

I thought that I could easily break through the three lines of defense laid by the Eastern Barbarians and go to the city of Wangting smoothly, but I didn't expect that it took more than ten hours and paid the price of more than 100,000 casualties, and I couldn't break through the opponent's third line of defense.

He could clearly feel that the morale of the three armies, which had been high, had been lowered.

If this continues, if you can't defeat your opponent before dawn, the little dry food you have left will not be enough to take down the rich royal court.

Just when he was worried, someone suddenly shouted loudly: "Look, the Eastern Barbarians are retreating!"

He jerked his head up and looked towards the enemy's position.

Sure enough, the enemy was retreating, the infantry and bed crossbow phalanx were gone, and it was a cavalry team that was responsible for the broken rear.

"They have finally withdrawn!" Meng Tu jumped up with joy, raised his sword and shouted: "Soldiers, the enemy has been defeated and retreated, we rushed up and slaughtered them, all the way to the bottom of the royal court." ”

The soldiers instantly regained their high morale, quickly mounted their horses and assembled in formation, and then launched a pursuit.

In order to further boost morale, Meng Tu charged forward surrounded by all the generals.

It's just that it didn't take long for him to feel that something was wrong, there was something wrong with the enemy's evacuation direction, and it seemed that they were not retreating to the royal court, but heading to the southeast.

What's going on?

Now he was faced with two choices, one was to continue the pursuit and further expand the results of the battle, and the other was to divert to the royal court to relieve the army's urgent need for food and grass.

If it weren't for the fact that he wanted to solve the problem of eating, Meng Tu would have chosen the former without thinking and eliminated the living force of the Eastern Barbarian Army, but at this moment, he had to choose to change to the royal court and get food first.

In this way, they watched the Eastern Barbarians flee.

But that's fine, without this group of people to act as the defenders of the royal court, it will be easier to take the city.

An hour later, more than half a million Western barbarians came to the city.

The previous huge casualties had reduced them from more than 700,000 to 560,000.

On the city wall, countless torches were burned, and the defenders were densely packed.

Meng Tu frowned, and the general suggested: "King, our army has been fighting fiercely for more than ten hours, the soldiers are extremely tired, but the defenders are waiting for work, and it is late at night, which is not conducive to our siege, so it is better to wait until dawn." ”

"Okay, let's attack the city after dawn. Mentu took this advice and let the soldiers rest on the spot to recuperate.

The sky gradually brightens and the sun rises.

Some people felt more and more that something was wrong on the city wall, and they borrowed a telescope from the general to take a look, and suddenly their eyes widened, and they shouted: "The defenders of the city are fake!"

As soon as these words came out, the people who were resting on the ground stood up one after another.

Immediately after, they were all about to explode, and under the light of the sun, the "defenders" revealed their true faces, and they turned out to be scarecrows in armor.

"How can this be?" Meng Tu questioned the general.

"I don't know, maybe it was too dark last night, and we were too far away, so I couldn't tell it was a scarecrow. The general said with an aggrieved face.

Meng Tu had a bad thought in his heart, no wonder Meng Zhun would retreat to the southeast, it seemed that they were ready to abandon the royal court for a long time.

In the city, there won't be nothing, right?

The general didn't think so much, happily raised his weapon and said: "Since there are no defenders, then what are we waiting for, brothers!"

Hundreds of thousands of people rushed to the city wall, did not encounter traps along the way, and came to the city gate hole very smoothly, and the soldiers who rushed to the front raised their feet and kicked towards the city gate.

Boom......

Squeak......

The gates were opened to the left and right, and the streets inside could be seen empty, and they swarmed into the city and began to search from house to house.

Seeing Meng Tu standing still, the general asked, "King, what's wrong with you?"

"It's nothing, go into the city!" Meng Tu struck forward with doubts.

When he entered the city, he didn't see a single living thing, not even a mouse, except for the Western barbarian soldiers scurrying around the streets.

His heart became more and more restless, and he silently prayed that it would not be an empty city, and that if there was no gold or silver treasure, at least there would be enough food.

The most feared thing happened, and the soldiers came one after another to report that after searching, all kinds of furnishings in the houses in the city were intact, and cellars were found in some houses, which stored money that could be transferred in the future, but not a grain of grain was found.

Meng Tu was dumbfounded, what is urgently needed to be solved at the moment is the food problem, what can I do if there is no food in the city?

He heard the sound of soldiers looting property, and he wanted to slash them with a knife, when was it, and they were still robbing money.

"Report!" a lieutenant hurriedly ran over and said, "A large Han army has been found in the north and west, and the Eastern Barbarian army has been found in the south and east, and they have formed a situation of encirclement. ”

"What?" Meng Tu flew up to the roof, and everywhere he looked, Wuyang and Wuyang were all people, under the banner of the Great Han and Dongban respectively, with a total strength of more than 800,000.

Oh no, it's a trap, a trap from the start!

Meng Tu was covered with cold sweat on his forehead, and he instantly figured out everything, from Cao Ziang's move out of the main camp, to his decision to pour out of the nest, to the robbery of the camp, and then to the blockage of the road to the west, Ye Yunyang did so many things just to trick the Western Barbarian army into the royal court.

At this time, there was not a grain of grain in the city, and the army only had half a day's dry food left, and the enemy surrounded the city again, which was to trap them.

Breakthrough?

Don't be kidding, even if you can run out, you still have nothing to eat, and under the encirclement and interception of the enemy, it is impossible to return to Xiban.

Meng Tu's heart was half cold, but he still ordered loudly: "Soldiers, quickly climb to the top of the city to resist the enemy!"

More than 500,000 soldiers cannot all be defenders, and the city wall can accommodate more than 100,000 people at most.

The Han barbarian coalition army was connected end to end, and the little Wang Ting was surrounded by water, and Ye Yunyang ordered all departments to hold on, and no one was allowed to attack the city.

At this time, the number of coalition troops reached one million, and those who had surrendered before saw that the Western Barbarian army was trapped in the city, and defeat was a matter of time, and their loyalty to the coalition army rose a notch.

Ye Yunyang asked Meng Zhun to send a group of people with loud voices to shout at the city wall and persuade the defenders to surrender.

By evening, the hungry defenders had begun to kill their horses.

The first to be killed was the horse pulling the cart, but with more than 500,000 mouths, everyone couldn't eat at all, and because Meng Tu strictly ordered the slaughter of the war horse, everyone had to go to bed hungry.

That night, many people quietly left the city and surrendered to the coalition forces.

The next morning, when the number of people was counted, it was found that there were more than 10,000 less, and Meng Tuqi's nose was almost crooked.

Breakfast did not arrive, and the soldiers could not be left hungry at noon, so Meng Tu turned a blind eye, and the soldiers began to slaughter the war horses.

There was no food in the city, but there were stoves, pots, and firewood, as well as salt and various condiments for stews, which made the Western barbarians feel that it was a surprise, and if they did not have these things, they would not have to eat raw horse meat.

They knew that Ye Yunyang had people deliberately leave it behind, in order to make them feel convenient, and then slaughtered the war horses on a large scale.

The barbarians mainly fought with cavalry, and without horses, they would become a herd of lambs to the slaughter.

Only until now, no one has realized that this is a conspiracy of the coalition forces.

Although horse meat is not delicious, it can at least fill the stomach, and the heart of the Western Barbarian Army tends to be stable.

However, Meng Tu knew that this stability was temporary, because there was always a day when the war horses would be eaten up, and then there would be no chance to break through.

He summoned his generals and began to plan a breakthrough, and after a long day of discussion, it was decided that tomorrow morning they would have a full meal, concentrate the remaining horses, and select elite men from the army to form a death squad, striving to open a gap in the encirclement and cover the departure of the large army from this ghost place.

After a busy day, it's finally ready.

But early the next morning, the king of the Eastern Barbarians sent someone to send 10,000 stone of grain, saying that he could not bear to let his brother and his clansmen starve in the city.

After the defenders waited for the food deliverers to withdraw, they boldly opened the city gate and pulled the grain carts into the city.

The first thing Meng Tu thought of was: conspiracy, the grain must have been poisoned, this is Meng Zhun's trick.

However, after dozens of methods such as silver needle drug detection, it was proved that this batch of grain was very safe and not poisonous.

Without waiting for Meng Tu's order, the grain was taken away by the firehead army of each battalion and began to bury the pot and make rice.

10,000 stone of grain is exactly a day's ration for more than 500,000 people, and after the soldiers have eaten enough, they will forget all about the breakthrough.

Since there is food to eat, who would be willing to work hard.

Meng Tu's teeth itched, but he thought that he only had one day's food anyway, and when there was no food tomorrow, you would have to follow the king out.

He decided to endure it for a day.

But early the next morning, Meng Zhun asked people to send 8,000 stone of grain, compared with yesterday, today it is all coarse grain.

Coarse grain is also grain, and the defenders accepted it on their own initiative without waiting for Meng Tu's order.

Barely able to fill their stomachs, the soldiers were naturally still reluctant to break through.

On the third day, they received six thousand stone of grain.

However, the Huotou army was very surprised to find that sixty percent of the grain could actually make everyone eighty percent full, and a rough calculation was because many people had fled in the past three days, and there were less than 500,000 people left in the city.

Meng Zhun asked people to prepare four thousand stone of grain, and prepared to send it over tomorrow, reducing two thousand stones a day, he already had experience.

Ye Yunyang walked over with Yin Falcon and the others, and the first thing he said was: "King Dongban, tomorrow's grain will only send 1,000 stones." ”

"Huh?" Meng Zhun was stunned, why did he suddenly reduce so much, didn't he reduce by two thousand stones a day before?

The matter of sending grain was done by Ye Yunyang to him, and with just more than 20,000 stones of grain, it stabilized the Western Barbarian army for three whole days, and this transaction was definitely profitable.

Ye Yunyang learned from the mouth of the enemy deserter that Meng Tu wanted to break through, so he had a plan to stabilize the enemy with a little food.

You must know that every day spent is beneficial to the Han Barbarian Coalition Army, first of all, the Western Barbarian deserters alone can receive more than 10,000 people every day, and the longer it takes, the less the enemy's strength will be, and the lower the morale will be.

If it really reaches the point of running out of food, the enemy is still fighting and rushing out to break through, which will inevitably cause heavy casualties to the coalition forces.

Therefore, Ye Yunyang asked Meng Zhun to send them food, to wear down the enemy's will, and as for subtracting to a thousand stones at once, he didn't want the enemy to live too comfortably, the food was there, but it was not enough to eat, so they would naturally continue to slaughter the war horses.

He continued: "One thousand stone a day, first for three days, then halved to five hundred stone! Remember, every time food is delivered, the same gate must be chosen and handed over to the same group of defenders. ”

If there is less food and more soldiers, it will inevitably lead to looting, and in a few days, the city will be lively.