The sun is setting in the west, the city is in full swing, and the outside of the city is also busy.

Peng Cao and a few of his subordinates were drinking in the tent, but the strategist Wang Mian quietly walked out with a heavy heart, this time the attack on the east camp made Peng Cao complacent, but Wang Mian knew that this time it was just luck, and Zhang Jian also burned the grain, grass and ordnance before escaping, although he tried his best to save it, but it was still destroyed.

Now thousands of people and horses are gathered here, there is a shortage of grain, grass and ordnance, and what worries Wang Mian the most is the strictness of Chengxian County. From the bottom of my heart, Peng Cao's voice this time can be described as beautiful, but it is too idealistic. In Wang Mian's view, Peng Cao trusts Yan Zhi too much, and the key to this attack lies in whether Yan Zhi can hold back the main force of the official army to buy time for Peng Cao to break through Zhuang County, but if Yan Zhi can't hold back the main force of the official army Zhuang County and it is difficult to break through for a while, he will face the same dilemma as before.

Just now, Wang Mian said to Peng Cao that the army should attack the city quickly, there are not many people in the city, if you take advantage of the situation to besiege on all sides, the chances of victory are very great, and now the time is pressing, and it is extremely dangerous for the army to delay for an hour more in Zhuang County. But Peng Cao, who was carried away by the victory, disagreed, and still insisted on his previous deployment.

Now that it is a matter of his own life and death, Wang Mian no longer cares about any good and evil, and he has taken the trouble to say that he is powerful in front of Peng Cao many times, but unfortunately Peng Cao still drinks with his subordinates on deaf ears, and says: He and Yan Zhi have agreed to divide the harvest equally after the good thing is completed, and give up half of Yanshan to him, he will not deceive me.

In the end, I was really tired of listening to it, so I simply asked Wang Mian to go to the back to supervise the construction of the equipment, and I could settle down quietly.

After a night of calm, the time came to the next day, Peng Cao still had a trace of clarity, and when the morning fog just dissipated, he began to attack the city with a hangover.

For a while, the sound of war drums resounded in the clouds, and I saw the first few teams of thieves carrying the simple ladders built for days to attack the north gate, and Peng Cao even sat on the horse and personally came to the front of the battle to supervise the battle, and the morale of the thieves was extremely victorious.

Above the city wall, the armor was in command, and the arrows on both sides rained down on each other. Barrels of boiling gold poured out, and the sound of wailing under the city was endless, and for a time the various smells mixed together were disgusting.

Peng Cao was furious when he saw that the offensive was blocked, and Le Ma came to the front of the army and shouted: "Kill into the city and take the money and property, you don't need to hand it over, give me a charge!" ”

In the face of the excitement of the thief army under the city, the square system is still cold-eyed, and the feather arrows and rolling wood and stones on the city wall are not stingy, and there are thieves rolling down on the ladder.

However, there were too many people on the opposite side, and it seemed that they were gradually about to enter the city, so Fang Zhi hurriedly ordered the people to boil the grease collected in the city and pour it on the ladder on the city wall, and the place where the boiling oil touched was either a fire or a scorching smell.

The thieves' fierce siege of the city for two hours finally completely collapsed under the boiling oil of the square system, and the rest of the people threw down the smoking ladders and fled backwards, and the corpses under the city were full of wails and wails.

Peng Cao saw that no matter how angry he scolded, he couldn't stop the rout of the front army, and he couldn't help but be angry and scolded towards the city: "Fang system, you are a turtle with a shrunken head, if you are a man, you will come out and fight Lao Tzu for 300 rounds, what kind of ability is it to shrink in the city, and when Lao Tzu enters the city, you will be broken into ten thousand pieces!" ”

Fang Leng smiled and looked at Peng Cao, who was scolding angrily under the city, and turned his head to say to the officers and soldiers guarding the city: "The thieves are already poor in donkey skills, and the opportunity for you to make meritorious contributions to the city is at this time." ”

Seeing that the morale was frustrated and the siege ladder was also damaged, Peng Cao had no choice but to order the troops to be withdrawn temporarily. After returning to the camp, Peng Cao scolded several leaders who were in charge of the siege today, and sent someone to find Wang Mian in the rear.

Wang Mian had already learned the news of today's siege defeat in the rear, but in fact, this was all in his expectation. From the beginning, Peng Cao wanted to unite with Yan Zhi to attack Zhuang County, but he did not approve of it. Although Peng Cao's five or six thousand people are a lot of people, they are not a well-trained army after all, these people can still be used to rob their homes and retreat quickly, but Peng Cao wants to take such a group of people to attack the city, although the previous raid on Zhuang County was a plan discussed with the Meng Dynasty, but then it was a nose of dust, not to mention that this time it also gave the party two days to prepare.

But according to Peng Cao's temperament, he couldn't listen to other people's words, so after breaking through Zhang Jian's camp, Wang Mian proposed to quickly attack the city and not give Fang Ji time to prepare, but the result was still the same. This time he was called over again, but his heart was already like ashes, the army had been delayed in Zhuang County for almost three days, if the main force of the official army in Cheng County came to the rescue, the tired division on his side could resist it.

Wang Mian looked at the drunken Peng Cao and swallowed the words of persuasion again and again, but persuaded tactfully: "General, our army's siege equipment is rough and not suitable for attacking the fortified city, and the county order system in the city is brave and resourceful, and it is difficult to deal with it, and our army has stayed in Zhuang County for three days, and I am afraid of ......." ”

Before he could finish speaking, Peng Cao cursed Zhang Jian on the side, scolding Zhang Jian for burning grain, grass and ordnance so that he could come and return empty-handed.

After scolding, Zhang Jian remembered that there was still something to discuss, "What did Wang Junshi say just now?" ”

"In the following, if you can't do it, you should ........ it"

"What if you can't do it? I don't think it's better to take advantage of the night to sneak attack tonight, if it can't succeed, it will attack again tomorrow in the morning, if it doesn't work again, then withdraw the army and return to Yanshan, how about it? ”

"How?" Are you asking me or do you just want me to say yes?

In this way, Peng Cao made up his mind to take advantage of the night to sneak attack the city tonight, it would be great if he could succeed, and if he couldn't, he could use the time to repair the siege equipment and fight again tomorrow.

On the other hand, after two hours of bloody attack and defense, there are not many arrows and stones in the city, especially flammable materials such as grease are exhausted, and the next thing is to be hard.

At this time, the county lieutenant Wang Yuan came to reply, "County Zun, according to your orders, the martyred soldiers have already been buried, but arrows and stones are difficult to collect. ”

"Well, arrows are hard to get, but stones are everywhere, so take them and tear down the houses, and bring the bricks and timber to the walls."

"County Honor, this... Will this work? What if the people don't agree to give birth to chaos? ”

"Disagree? There are eggs under the nest, you start to demolish from the county government, as long as we hold the city at this time of crisis, we should use our life to ensure that we will be rebuilt for everyone, if you can't keep everyone together as a ghost, what can you care about? ”

Wang Yuan smacked his mouth, and when he thought about it, he was about to turn around and do it, but was stopped by Fang Zhi.

"Tonight, you have to pay more attention to those outsiders, I am afraid that Peng Cao will be defeated during the day and attack at night, the thieves outside are not worried, but I am afraid that the people will be mixed into the internal response, if someone takes advantage of the situation to make trouble, there is no need to report me to kill on the spot, and I will bear the responsibility." The defense at night also requires you to personally inspect, I am responsible for the south gate and the east gate, and you are responsible for the north gate and the west gate, remember not to take it lightly. ”

It was night, the fire was bright on the city wall of Zhuang County, and the sergeants who went back and forth to patrol the night were continuous. In this way, Peng Cao had to stop the night attack, and could only wait until the officers and soldiers in the city relaxed in the second half of the night, but Peng Cao couldn't imagine that he would not have another chance to sneak attack.

At three o'clock, on the official road leading from Zhuang County to Cheng County, dozens of lightly armed cavalry galloped over, why do they say lightly armed, because each of them only has a long knife in their hands, and they don't even have spears and bows and arrows on their bodies.

"Stop! Stop! A rider followed from behind, shouting loudly.

"General Xiao Wu, why did you stop?" These cavalrymen were originally Linchuan Near Army, so they called Wu Yun Wu Shuai, while Wu Yue and Wu Jian were called General Wu and General Xiao Wu.

In the morning, Wu Yue realized that he had fallen for Peng Cao's plan to divert the tiger from the mountain, and when he ordered Wu Jianli to turn around and return to help, he allocated all the five hundred guards under his command to Wu Jian. Chengxian is more than 100 miles away from Zhuang County, if the infantry army is fast, it will take two days and one night, but Zhuang County only has only a few hundred men and horses, how can they withstand Peng Cao's thousands of troops, Wu Jian immediately decided to personally lead the cavalry to quickly return to help, in order to speed up the speed, even the armor, spears, bows and arrows and other equipment were thrown to the infantry behind, so Wu Jianqin led 500 cavalry to gallop towards Zhuang County.

Coincidentally, there were originally 1,000 people arranged by Peng Cao on this road as a plug road, but the setback of the siege during the day made Peng Cao have the intention of retreating, and since the 1,000 people will be withdrawn tomorrow morning, they will naturally be transferred back, so it is convenient for Wu Jianxing.

Wu Jian came to the front team and stopped marching, stopped and looked around: "How far is this place from Zhuang County?" ”

Left and right took out the map and looked at it and replied, "General Hui, there are still six or seven miles away." ”

Wu Jian breathed a sigh of relief: "The enemy of Zhuang County, who traveled more than 100 miles lightly, would definitely not have imagined that this place was already very close to Zhuang County, we would wrap the horse's hooves in cloth and stretch the queue, and take advantage of the night to kill him by surprise." ”

Zhuang Chengtou Fang Zheng frowned and stared at the city, repeatedly trying to see something from the deep night. And Peng Cao in the distance was also looking at the brightly lit Zhuangxian County, like a hungry beast eager to pounce on it immediately and tear its prey apart.

At this time, Wu Jian, who was miles away, was already quietly approaching, and the three groups of people were about to meet under the city, and it seemed that tonight was destined not to be peaceful.