It is now the third day that Lu Zhi led his troops to besiege Lishicheng, and in the past three days, Lu Zhi had commanded the northern army besieging the city on all sides to launch two fierce attacks on Lishicheng, but in the end it did not achieve the expected results.

On the besieging side, the remaining 70,000 soldiers of the Northern Army who were able to fight are now less than 60,000, and on the defending side, the 14,000 vanguard army has lost 3,000 men in battle, and the rest have begun to show a tired look. The casualty ratio of the offensive and defensive sides was 4 to 1, which fully demonstrated the strong combat strength of the Northern Army, and also showed the tenacious fighting style of the vanguard army. Of the more than 10,000 soldiers lost by the Northern Army, most of them were killed, a few were seriously wounded, and some of the minor wounded were almost impossible to see; most of the 3,000 soldiers lost by the Vanguard Army were wounded and a few were killed in battle.

Lu Zhi was very dissatisfied with the results of the siege in the past few days, the tenacity and ferocity of the vanguard army exceeded his imagination, and it seemed that he still underestimated the great charisma generated by Zhao Xing's personal presence in Lishi. Zhao Xing was also not satisfied with the results of the defense in the past few days, although the vanguard army fought valiantly and did not let any enemy cross the city, the continuous casualties still made him feel distressed.

Lu Zhi and Zhao Xing have now understood a result, if they continue to fight like this, the final result is that the soldiers on both sides of the attack and defense will fight to the last man, leaving only the main generals to face to face. This kind of ending is a result that neither of them wants to see. Therefore, on the fourth day, Lu Zhi began to slow down the pace of siege, and no longer required soldiers to fight in the city, but only put arrows on the periphery and used trebuchets to throw some stones onto the city walls. As long as the northern army under the city does not enter the city, they will hide under the female wall and wipe their weapons and not fight back.

Lu Zhi knew that the reason why he was able to organize a coalition army of nearly 500,000 against Zhao this time was because none of the princes from all walks of life could resist the encirclement of nearly 200,000 elites of the central army of the imperial court, and he felt that he could get a lot of benefits from capturing the state, so everyone sent people to help in the war. If the central army loses all the elite after this battle, then in the end it is the princes from all walks of life who are cheaper, but it is better to keep Zhao Xing's family as the dominant one and deter the situation north of the Yellow River.

Since it was so difficult to attack from Shicheng, Lu Zhi simply stopped and waited for the results of the siege in the two directions of Huangfu Song, Cao Cao and Sun Jian. If one of these two armies breaks through the city, then Lu Zhi will not hesitate to lead the army to retreat into the occupied city, and wait until next spring when the flowers bloom to attack the state again. As for grain, grass and supplies, as long as you capture a city in Bingzhou, you will have a rich reward. Moreover, he can collect grain and grass from the people in the occupied Bingzhou area under the banner of the imperial court, and I believe that most of the common people still dare not disobey the will of the imperial court.

The battle has reached this level, and Zhao Xing estimates that it has reached the end stage. According to the original strategic concept, under the condition of retaining a certain strength, Bingzhou will pick up a few local princes in the ranks of the coalition army, teach them a hard lesson, and completely give the princes who came to ask for Zhao a head start. As for the central army of the imperial court led by Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun and Lu Zhi, Zhao Xing did not have the ability to eat them all for the time being, and he did not plan to eat them. Zhao Xing was ready to adopt Xu Shu's suggestion and ask the new emperor in the Luoyang Palace to force the three military bigwigs to withdraw their troops through political channels.

Zhao Xing had already written a letter to Liu Wei, to the effect that I had single-handedly turned the tide and saved millions of people in several northern states in danger in the era of the plague, so that the imperial court south of the Yellow River could completely quell the civil strife in the Yellow Turbans and recuperate. Now, as the new emperor, not only did you not reward me, but you actually listened to the slander of others and ordered Lu Zhi and others to besiege and merge the state, which is really chilling! I had no intention of rebelling, but now I am cornered by you, and now I am ready to support Liu Rong, the third son of Emperor Ling, as the emperor, annex Liangzhou, Jizhou, Youzhou and even Sanhan north of the Yellow River, and then wave my army to the south and personally confront you in Luoyang City!

At the end of the letter, Zhao Xing's pen changed, and his tone gradually returned to calm. He also said: I really don't want to take this step, but if I live in a different place, how should the Son of Heaven deal with himself? Is it really a matter of waiting to be killed? If the emperor can let go of his previous suspicions and order Lu Zhi's class to return to the court, then I can support the three princes as the king of Jin and obey the dispatch of the three princes in the future. In this way, the imperial court saved its face, and the state was also relieved of the crisis, what did the emperor think?

Zhao Xing's letter, to put it bluntly, is a threatening letter, but the words and words are just crepe, I believe that Liu Wei, who has been well-educated since childhood, can clearly see Zhao Xing's determination and Zhao Xing's fearlessness from between the lines.

The letter has been written, and now the question is, who will deliver the letter to Liu Bian's hand? If it weren't for Liu Bian's personal sighting, such as being intercepted by Liu Bei, Zhao Xing could conclude that the big-eared thief would definitely quietly burn the letter. If you send someone with ordinary skills to sneak into Luoyang, you will be cut into pieces by Wang Yue's apprentice before you get close to the emperor.

Wang Yue's status has risen sharply now, and he is no longer as depressed as before. As the new emperor's martial arts teacher, coupled with the fact that he has been secretly protecting Liu Wei, Wang Yue has been favored and promoted by the new emperor. It can be said that the two people Liu Wei trusts the most, Liu Bei is the one who writes, and Wang Yue is the one who is martial. Wang Yue and his eldest apprentice, Shi A, took turns day and night to protect the emperor's side, and it was difficult for ordinary people to approach or assassinate them.

Zhao Xing thought about it, and it was really difficult to find a candidate who could avoid Wang Yue and Shi A's attacks and successfully meet the emperor. It is estimated that Zhao Yun and Dian Wei can barely do it, and others, including Lu Bu and Guan Yu, may not be able to do it. Just when Zhao Xing was worried about the choice of messenger, a letter from the fourth brother Zhao Yun made him smile, and the expression on his face was like a weasel that had slipped into the chicken coop.

Zhao Yun's letter mentioned that his mentor Tong Yuan suddenly came to Huguan a few days ago and revealed to him that Zhang Yan of Montenegro might send troops to attack and harass Bingzhou, and as a result, Zhang Yan really appeared in the area of Shufu Mountain. Now that the master has left, it seems that he intends to go to Crouching Tiger City for a visit, and it is suggested that Zhao Xing secretly confess to Li Jinsi and let Crouching Tiger City do a good job of entertaining things, after all, Tong Daxia is also half of Zhao Xing's master.

Zhao Xing hadn't encountered a beautiful thing for a long time when someone else gave him a pillow when he was sleepy, and when he saw Zhao Yun's letter, he immediately had an idea. Although he can't return to the party now and meet this master in person, isn't there still a group of women in Crouching Tiger City! Especially among this group of women, there is also a Li Yuhuan who has met Tong Yuan, and this time he can definitely play a key role.

Without further ado, Zhao Xing hurriedly wrote a secret letter and handed it to the herald beside him, instructing him to start sending information to the shadow team members lurking in the distance through the fire signal after dark.

Speaking of Zhao Xing's subordinates' means of sending intelligence, it is really unseen and unheard of. He specially trained a group of Shadow Soldiers to send and receive signals, using the most primitive Morse code, both by lighting two fires at the head of the city, and using a wooden board to constantly cover or open one of the fires, in front of the enemy troops under the city, to transmit information to the Shadow Soldiers hidden in the distance. As for how the shadow team members in the distance transmitted the information from the outside to the city, they would explain it when they encountered it in the future.

Those who are slightly familiar with Morse code should know that the early telegraph was not transmitted through the signals of 0 and 1? When two fires are lit at the same time, it is 1, when one fire is bright, it is 0, and when two fires are extinguished, it means that the transmission is over......

Even if Lu Zhi is the reincarnation of Jiang Ziya, imagine how he can know what happened to Morse code from the later life?