In recent years, the city of Gaonu in Shangjun has become famous in the north for two famous battles, which were the defeat and death of Dong Zhuo's forward generals Li Dao and Guo Yan by Guan Yu and Lü Bu, and Lü Bu's defeat of Dong Zhuo's main force by deception.

After these two wars, Gaonu became a city in the southwest of the Jin Kingdom that symbolized honor and immortality, which was valued and developed, and now it is becoming more and more prosperous and lively.

The highway road leading from Crouching Tiger City to Lishicheng in Xihe County now branches off to the west, leading directly to Gaonu through the pontoon bridge on the Yellow River, and then Gaonu passes through Diaoyin and then leads to Gaoping City, the capital of Liangguo.

As a transportation hub connecting the Jin and Liang kingdoms, the business travel from east to west brought huge business opportunities to the city. Many merchants of the Liang Kingdom who wanted to save trouble directly sold some Jin goods from the high slaves back to the Liang Kingdom for sale, which could shorten the speed of loading goods and reduce the cost of transportation. The livestock commodities produced from Wuyuan and Yunzhong were also transported directly to Gaonu in the south, and were no longer sold to Liangguo through Jinyang and Crouching Tiger City.

In view of the fact that Shangjun was easy to become the focus of the attack of the Chang'an garrison, and after the end of the Battle of Bingzhou, Zhao Xing asked Shangjun Taishou Zaozhi to strengthen the defense and reinforcement of Gaonu and Fushi cities, so as to ensure that when the city was besieged by heavy troops in the future, it could hold on to wait for reinforcements and not be easily broken by the enemy.

After conducting on-the-spot surveys of Gaonu City, Zaoyi felt that it was thankless to strengthen the defense on the original foundation, so he simply expanded Gaonu City to five miles in each of the four directions and rebuilt a majestic and tall outer city wall. In this way, not only did it completely solve the defense problem of Gaonu City, but also more than doubled the size of the city in one fell swoop, so that it could accommodate more people.

Gaonu City is a dry city, there is no moat, so the outermost layer of the city wall is made of hydrated lime mixed with mud and sand rammed, the city wall is several zhang thick, the top of the trapezoidal city wall can drive three carriages side by side, and the defense facilities are very complete. If you add the second layer of defense in the inner city, which has not been abandoned, the city is really impregnable, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

After the news that Huangfu Song led the army to attack Shangjun, Xu Huang immediately transferred the second division of light infantry from the direction of Jinyang to reinforce Gaonu, and secretly transferred the firearms battalion of the special warfare division that had just been established.

Originally, when there was only one unit stationed, there would be no question of command relationship, but now that there is a division, plus a mysterious firearms battalion, it is necessary to establish a temporary command structure and assign a commander who is specifically responsible for the defense of Gaonu. The final decision of the Crouching Tiger Command was to appoint Xu Rong, the commander of the 1st Heavy Division, as the deputy commander of the Crouching Tiger Army, and retain his original position, so that he would naturally become the supreme commander of the defense of Gaonu.

Xu Rong switched to the Jin Kingdom from Gongsun Zhan, when he took over Wang Lu's position, and Wang Lu went to Zhuo County in Youzhou to take up the post of Taishou in order to defend against the Black Mountain Army, which had not yet surrendered to Cheng at that time. According to the completely different army composition of the Jin State from other forces, the division commander with the first serial number below each army is the candidate who may succeed the army commander in the future, which shows how much Zhao Xing attaches importance to Xu Rong.

This general, who had defeated Cao Cao and Sun Jian in Zhao Xing's memory, should actually be the most commanding talent under Dong Zhuo, compared to Lu Bu and Ye Xiong and others, Xu Rong's personal force is slightly insufficient, but the Jin State does not lack fierce men who can fight, but a stable general like him is relatively scarce.

Since Huangfu Song led the 60,000 Imperial Forest Army to the Northern Expedition, he has taken the two cities of Qiyuan and Diaoyin all the way, and now he is rapidly marching in the direction of Gaonu, and the troops will be under the Gaonu city in two or three days.

Although Xu Rong only had 10,000 soldiers and a 1,000-secret firearms battalion, he was very confident in protecting the high slaves. Although Huangfu Song is a famous general who has been famous for a long time, in Xu Rong's opinion, it is nothing more than that, what he is calculating now in his heart is how to use Gaonu City as a bait, and always hang Huangfu Song so that he can no longer go deep into the hinterland of Shangjun, and finally join forces with the Dingyuan army ambushed in an unknown place, and leave all the 60,000 troops brought by Huangfu Song.

If you want to leave Huangfu Song behind, you need to grasp the strength of the defensive counterattack, not only to ensure that Gaonu City will not fall in the end, but also not to make Huangfu Song feel too painful all at once, on the contrary, to make him feel that Gaonu City will be captured immediately every time he attacks the city, but it is always a little bit worse.

This heat is not so easy to grasp, Xu Rong is ready to give it a try.

On the ninth day of the fourth month, Huangfu Song led the troops to set off from Diaoyin City, and the direction of the army was directed towards Gaonu City.

On the way to the march, Huangfu Song's subordinate son Huangfu Li asked his uncle and said: "Uncle, judging from the news from the wire newspaper, it seems that the direction of the Jin Kingdom deliberately abandoned the two cities of Qiyuan and Diaoyin, and used Gaonu as the first line of defense to intercept our army. Today's Gaonu City is completely different from when we besieged and annexed the state, but I am afraid that this attack on Gaonu will be very difficult. ”

Huangfu Song nodded, and said with some melancholy: "What Li'er said, how can my uncle not know it! It's just that if we miss the opportunity this time, I'm afraid that in the future, we can only wait for the Jin army to enter Chang'an, and then surround Luoyang, forcing the Han to a dead end with no way out." If the city of Gaonu is indeed well defended and difficult to attack, we will go around the city and go straight to Fushi! The clay pot will inevitably be broken by the well, and the general will always die in battle, in short, this time I came to crusade against the Jin Kingdom with the determination to die, and if it is not successful, then it will be benevolent!"

Huangfu Li was depressed for a moment, and then asked a question: "Uncle, the child has a question that has been bothering me for many years, and this Northern Expedition may have to sacrifice my life for the country, so I have the courage to ask it." Why do we Han people have such an endless struggle among themselves? With such troops and supplies, why don't we go abroad to conquer and conquer a wider territory and feed more Han people?"

Huangfu Song wanted to reprimand his nephew for what he said, but as soon as he thought that this Northern Expedition might be dead or alive, he could no longer bear to speak.

After a long time, Huangfu Song said leisurely: "Even if there are only Han people left in this world, as long as there is still a distinction between the poor and the rich, everyone will still fight to the death, unless everyone sets the rules together and is willing to abide by them, otherwise the world will not be peaceful." ”

Huangfu Li originally wanted to ask his uncle why everyone was unwilling to abide by the rules set by the imperial court now, but he still endured the words.

If the rules set by the Han court are really so popular, why are there still yellow turban thieves rebelling in this world? Why are there still people willing to follow Zhao Xing to fight against the court?