In the territory of Dongxia Prefecture, there is a river that flows across and runs through almost the entire northern Shaanxi Plateau, named Qingshui, which is the Yan River in later generations, one of the important tributaries on the west bank of the Yellow River.

The terrain in Dongxia Prefecture is mostly a plateau, but in the valley area of the Qingshui Basin, it can still be said that the water and grass are abundant and the land is fertile. Therefore, both sides of Qingshui are also the most densely populated areas in Dongxia Prefecture, and most of the other areas are uninhabited slopes, with barren land and limited output.

The city of Guangwu in Dongxia Prefecture is located in the Qingshui River Valley. If you are not familiar with the path of the valley and rush into it, it is like entering a vast labyrinth, and it is easy to get lost between the undulating valleys and do not know where the way out is.

As the state of Eastern Xia Prefecture, Guangwu City is composed of three cities of different sizes, each of which is set up according to the valley.

The easternmost small city is located on the north bank of Qingshui, near the mountains and rivers, named Fenglin City, built in the Helian Huxia period, once for the Huxia regime to hold the middle and upper reaches of the Qingshui River valley, resist the Northern Wei soldiers for several years. Although the city is not large, the city walls are as hard as stone, and there are many horse faces, both long and dense, relying on this unique geographical advantage and easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Fenglin City to the west more than ten miles away from the river valley gradually widened, there is also a city near the river, located in the valley area between the two rivers, there are many passages around the valley, the city is also built quite deep and wide, this is the big city of Guangwu, but also the state of Dongxia Prefecture is located.

A few miles west of Guangwu City, there is a long and narrow valley, which used to be a tributary of Qingshui, but the river has dried up many years ago, forming a slope valley called Dry Valley. The dry valley is an important passage connecting the valley area of the Qingshui Basin, through which you can quickly reach Fushi City and other places from Guangwu, so there are official pastors and post stations here, called the dry valley station.

In the early morning, Li Mu climbed the city tower to watch the enemy's situation.

At this time, there is a thick layer of frost shell hanging on the outer wall of the city wall, which is the defenders of the city in order to prevent the enemy from attacking the city, splashing cold water on the city wall at night, under the blowing of the wind in northern Shaanxi, the water quickly solidified into ice and did not melt for a long time.

At this time, outside the large city of Guangwu, there were not too many enemy camps and tents, because the Fenglin City in the east was still firmly defended, in order to avoid being exposed to the enemy, the enemy army did not dare to enter this section of the river valley and stationed nearby.

However, this only ensured that the pressure on this east-west area was still small, and the enemy camps were already full between the valleys to the north of Guangwu City, and they sent rangers to patrol and sweep the surrounding river valleys day and night, maintaining the blockade of the city.

Looking at the enemy rangers who were cruising back and forth like locusts in the valley outside the city, Li Mu took a sip fiercely, although he was annoyed, but he was also a little helpless for a while.

Originally, he also wanted to keep the enemy outside, so he led 3,000 strong troops to the north to meet the enemy, intending to annihilate the thief army in the upper reaches of Qingshui in the northwest, so that they would not dare to go south to disturb and plunder.

At first, the battle went relatively smoothly, and after encountering several people and horses of the thief army, Li Mu defeated them and dispersed them one after another.

But he didn't expect the thieves to fight more and more, and after fighting a group, they quickly attracted several groups, and in the end, Li Mu didn't even know how many thieves were attracted to it, if he hadn't seen the opportunity to evacuate as soon as possible, he was almost besieged in the northern region by these thieves.

He withdrew his troops here and returned to Guangwu, and most of the thief troops who had been wandering between the two Xia Prefectures were also introduced, and chased all the way to Guangwu City. Li Mu hurriedly recruited the Han and Hu armed forces in the realm, and finally gathered thousands of men and horses to trap in the city.

"Lord, Fenglin City has told you that the supplies and equipment are insufficient, and I implore the main city to support the supplies."

Li Mu was still frowning at the head of the city and looking north at the enemy's formation, and a general below hurriedly entered the front fork and said.

When Li Mu heard this, he nodded, and after a little silence, he ordered: "Give another 500 stone of grain, lose 2,000 sticks, gather 300 strong soldiers, eat and recuperate immediately, and go out of the city in the evening to deliver goods." ”

Fenglin City and Guangwu City are each other's horns, if the thief army does not follow the rules, they can cover up and surround Guangwu City with unscrupulousness, and the situation will be even more dangerous.

The thief army is also well aware of the benefits of this terrain, so in the past period of time, they have been attacking the relatively small Fenglin City, and the main thing is to block the Guangwu City.

Although Fenglin City is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it can not withstand the uninterrupted offensive and defensive battles of the thief army day and night, more than 1,000 guards in the city have now lost nearly half, and the materials in reserve have already been exhausted, all relying on the desperate delivery of Guangwu City to maintain.

After hearing this, the subordinate general first received the order, but he still had a look of wanting to say and stop, and after a moment of silence, he spoke again: "Lord, when it is decided, it is broken, the thief is fierce and tenacious, I am afraid that our army alone can support it, and there is no value that must be defended here." It is better to abandon the south of the city as soon as possible while the thief army has not yet bullied the siege, and then capture the city after the spring of the next year is warm and the troops are well recuperated......

After Li Mu heard this, he shook his head and said: "In terms of my new town, if it is not a last resort, how can I be a minister who has lost his land!" In this cold and desolate land, even the garrison army is insufficient, and these distant thief armies seem to be mighty, but they have no way to supply them on the spot, and they are bound to not last.

If I am afraid of the difficulties of the moment and turn away, and give up this city to the people, and the thieves will be more courageous, and the thieves will surely chase after me. Losing the land leads to thieves, and the sin is even deeper! Besides, although all parties are waiting and seeing, Li Boshan has already told him that he will come to help, and at this time, it is still necessary to give him trust, and he must not retreat rashly. ”

Saying this, his heart was also very heavy. After besieging the city for several days, the visible mastery of the environment deepened, constantly collecting all kinds of surface information, and the personnel and materials looted from the Qingshui River Valley were displayed outside the city to break the military spirit of the defenders.

Moreover, the attack methods of the thief army are also more and more diverse, from the initial ranger to the current digging of some camp trenches outside the city, and even cutting down trees to create large siege equipment.

Li Mu said that he wanted to give Li Tai trust, but he was also beating a drum in his heart, and he didn't know if he would rush to help.

After all, so far, what the thief situation is is still only an unknown, including Li Mu has not been able to get a glimpse of the full picture of the thief army, and now it is the cold and freezing deep winter season, and it takes great courage to lead the troops to fight.

In the evening, the bandit army outside the city suddenly increased and began to tentatively set up camps.

Seeing this, Li Mu naturally didn't want the thief army to bully and station, so even if he gathered hundreds of elite troops, he personally led his troops out of the city and killed the enemy in full armor.

Seeing Li Mu attacking, the thief army went straight to the battlefield to increase thousands of troops, like a swarm of locusts, and the black pressure pushed straight towards Li Mu's men and horses, and brought into full play the advantage of being outnumbered.

Although this tactic of crowding was not very ingenious, it was effective, and after several unsuccessful attempts to plunder and charge into battle, the hundreds of cavalry under Li Mu's command could only retreat to the city in the face of more than ten times the enemy's pressure.

However, with so many enemy troops on the battlefield, in addition to forcing Li Mu back into the city, there was no further progress in the battle. The city of Guangwu is deep and wide, and it is far from being able to shake it head-on by thousands of people.

If the barracks set up did not have a steady stream of men and horses stationed in and carried out the overall advance of the front, it would only be a few targets erected on the battlefield, and it would be difficult to maintain it for a long time when the weather was freezing and there was no shelter.

After Li Mu returned to the city, he was wondering why the enemy army had done such an unwise and futile thing, but he suddenly smelled a strong bloody breath in the cold wind blowing from the west, and his expression changed abruptly, and he shouted: "It's not good, the dry valley post is dangerous!" ”

As if in response to Li Mu's words, the direction of the western river valley suddenly roared with horses' hooves and sand and dust flew all over the sky, and I don't know how many thief rangers galloped down from the upstream. The thieves at the front had many bloody heads hanging from their saddles and spears, and the smell of blood was spreading from their ranks.

After these thieves approached, they did not immediately return to their camp with their back to the valley, but carried the heads they had captured, and lined up in groups outside Guangwu City to show off and show off their might.

"It was the Huyan Department in the northern section of the dry valley, they refused to obey the lord's order to assist in defending Guangwu, and after all, they were not spared and were poisoned by the thieves."

A general on the city wall looked at it for a moment and then sighed, and then his face became serious again: "The thief army has been bullied into the dry valley, if they are allowed to control the post road, not only will the city be dangerous, even if there are reinforcements, it will be difficult to approach!" Lord ......"

Li Mu's expression also became gloomy at this time, and he said in an astringent voice: "Command the city, check the treasury, and stand by at any time after the people and horses are full!" ”