A map was hung on the wall, and the three places of Muzhou Prefecture, Lanxi, and Wuzhou Prefecture were specially circled.

Li Xuan stood in front of the middle hall, looking at the map on the wall with a deep face.

A straight line goes straight from Muzhou to Meiling Pass, and then obliquely enters Lanxi from Meiling Pass, and finally approaches Wuzhou Prefecture.

It's like a sharp dagger that goes straight under Li Xuan's jaw.

Unusually dangerous.

Li Xuan's right index finger pressed on Meiling Pass, but his eyes had already penetrated directly from Meiling Pass into the wider mountains behind.

The eyes are sharp and deep, like a sharp sword.

No one knew what he was thinking.

Just then, a sound of footsteps came from outside.

Li Zhu's voice sounded behind Li Xuan: "Back to the prince, Feng Senjun has personally rushed over with the first batch of catapults, and now they are being assembled outside Meiling Pass, and Captain Yan has already led a team of cavalry to guard." ”

"Hmm!" Li Xuan's eyes were still on the map, he waved his hand back casually, and said: "Order Qi Guang, let him lead his soldiers now and prepare for the siege under Meiling Pass." ”

"Obey!" After Li Zhu listened, he immediately turned around and left.

Li Xuan's head was raised slightly, and he directly pinned the location of Muzhou City on the map.

It is not difficult to win Meiling Pass, but the real rarity is the follow-up.

The Tianyin Sect would definitely not sit idly by and watch Li Xuan take Meiling Pass, so the reinforcements after that would soon arrive.

The question now is how to maximize the damage to the follow-up reinforcements of the Tianyin Sect while preserving their own strength after the arrival of the follow-up reinforcements from the Tianyin Sect.

This is something that Li Xuan needs to think about now.

His gaze moved to the northeast of Muzhou.

The Wujiang River goes up from the northeast of Muzhou, goes straight into Tonglu, and then passes through Fuchun and enters Hangzhou.

"If the troops of the Hangzhou government cannot arrive in time, the pressure to guard Meiling Pass will definitely be greater, and if you want to rely on yourself to hold on to the arrival of reinforcements, then you must ensure that during this time, the casualties of the soldiers cannot be too large." Li Xuan's eyes narrowed slightly.

This is really a question of operational continuity.

Li Xuan has always paid attention to the casualties of his soldiers, whether it is the children of the central eunuchs of Qianniuwei, or the children of the families of the counties and clans of Wuzhou in the soldiers of the Huijifu, even those hunters from the mountains and wilderness, Li Xuan does not want to see them suffer too many casualties.

The strength of the Tianyin Sect to attack Meiling Pass will be at least more than 10,000 people.

Ten thousand people, but Li Xuan's subordinates don't even have a thousand now.

Even if he won Meiling Pass, it would not be easy to defend after that.

Even once the other party recklessly uses the tactics of going out of the crowd, then once they suffer too many casualties, they will immediately face a dead end.

It is necessary to maintain his own strength at a certain number at all times, Li Xuan lowered his head and thought about various countermeasures.

……

There are not enough troops!

Li Xuan sighed, and at this time, a strange footsteps sounded behind him.

Li Xuan turned around and saw a gray-haired old man standing at the door with a shy young man of seventeen.

"Old Zhuge Yun, I have seen the county king Qianqiu."

"Student Zhuge Minghui has seen the king of the county."

One old and one young, the two saluted respectfully, and there was no mistake in etiquette.

"It turned out to be Mr. Zhuge and this little brother Zhuge , please take a seat." Li Xuan walked to the bed on the side, put the map on it away a little, and then asked Zhuge Yun to sit down at the top, and he sat down at the bottom.

"The prince is polite, the old man is here to ask the prince, I don't know what else the prince needs here, and the Zhuge family is willing to help." Zhuge Yun bowed his hand very seriously.

"If you say that you are lacking, don't hide it from the old gentleman, this king lacks a lot of people, soldiers, grain and grass, and ordnance, all of which are lacking, but these kings will naturally not open their mouths to the old gentleman." After a pause, Li Xuan's face became serious, and what he was going to say next was business.

"Old gentleman, this king knows that the Zhuge family, in addition to the heirloom of poetry and books, also has a considerable study of the art of organs, I don't know if I can transfer some craftsmen from the Zhuge family to join the command of this king, and help build some catapults, crossbow arrows, transport vehicles and other equipment, I don't know if it is possible?" Li Xuan looked at Zhuge Yun with a serious expression.

"It's just a matter of building a machine." Zhuge Yunchang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Don't worry, the old man will definitely do his best to help." ”

"Thank you, sir." Li Xuan returned the salute, and then asked with some puzzlement: "What, listening to the meaning of the old gentleman's words, are you worried that someone will come to Zhuge to recruit soldiers, and the people of the Tianyin Sect have done this?" ”

"Don't hide it from the prince, it's true." Zhuge Yun showed a wry smile on his face, he raised his head and looked in the direction of Meiling Pass: "Just ten days ago, a person from Meiling Pass who was said to be Captain Zuo came to the town and said that he wanted to recruit soldiers. ”

"Gossip Village." Li Xuan's face became solemn, and he looked at Zhuge Yun and asked, "But the Wuhou Bagua Array handed down by Prime Minister Zhuge back then?" ”

"There is no gossip array, it's just a pile of stones, if the prince is interested, you can go and have a look." Zhuge Yun didn't care about the leakage of his secrets.

"When Sima Yi encountered the Wuhou Bagua Array, thousands of soldiers under his command were trapped in the formation, unable to advance or retreat, and finally all were captured, held in front of the battle, and finally returned with ink, Sima Yi's 30,000 army fought a lot, and finally could not advance an inch, defeated and retreated, the power of the Bagua Array can be seen in general, how to say a pile of stones."

Li Xuan shook his head and said with a smile: "This kind of thing can only be said by the people of the Zhuge family, and others say it, but it's just a joke." The old gentleman is worry-free, this king will not summon the people of the Zhuge family to join the army, nor will he seek any mystery of the gossip array, this king only asks for craftsmen, and it is enough to have enough craftsmen. ”

"The prince is really a sincere gentleman, what the prince asks, the old man will immediately do it." Raising his head, Zhuge Yun was just about to leave, when he saw his grandson Zhuge Minghui, he slapped his forehead violently, suddenly came over, and said: "I almost forgot, Lord Wang, Minghui is a shrewd person, Lord Wang has been in Zhuge Town for a while, if you need it, please drive it as much as you want." ”

"Then Xiao Wang will be cheeky." Li Xuan stood up and bowed deeply to Zhuge Yun.

"The prince is polite." Zhuge Yun returned the salute and said, "The old man will go first, the prince will be busy." ”

Watching Zhuge Yun leave, Li Xuan looked at Zhuge Minghui seriously: "Brother Minghui, this king will not be polite to you, now this king wants to write a few official documents to the king to assassinate the history, and this king dictates that you will write it." ”

"Whoa!" Zhuge Minghui walked quickly to the table on the side, then brushed off the hem and began to write seriously.

"Don't drive Li in Wuzhou, I would like to play the king's envoy, the lower officials have arrived at Meiling Pass......"

Li Xuan dictated quickly, and Zhuge Minghui was also not slow to write.

In the letter, in addition to explaining the current situation and his own plans, Li Xuan still wants more things.

Soldiers, war horses, bows and crossbows, ordnance, craftsmen, healers, medicinal herbs, etc., Li Xuan asked for a large amount, and he made it clear that he would stick to it for a long time here.

At the same time, he also clearly reminded Wang Fanglan to be prepared for the inability of Hangzhou and Yuezhou to source in time, and at the same time contact Quzhou and Guanzhou as soon as possible to win their support.

After all, once Wuzhou is reduced to a war domain, Kuzhou and Quzhou will also be affected.

Li Xuan's gaze fell on Zhuge Minghui.

Having said that, he can't use something too advanced like the Zhuge Bagua Array, which doesn't mean that he can't use other formations.

……

Ye Wanwan stood on the city wall, looking coldly at the Wuzhou soldiers under the city arranging the formation.

The shield was in front, the archers were behind, and the sword and shield bearers and lancers were in the last, and they lined up in a neat line, a full two hundred.

There were not many of them, but behind them, there were two groups of cavalry watching faintly in the distance.

From time to time it slammed forward, but it quickly stopped.

It's as if he's testing something.

The Wuzhou soldiers did not attack immediately, but stayed firmly in place, as if they were waiting for something.

An inexplicable heavy pressure directly pressed on Ye Wanwan's heart.

Her gaze crossed the Wuzhou soldiers of the Array Formation Team and landed directly a hundred meters behind them.

In the rapid combination of catapults, it can be seen that these will form a total of five catapults, and then attack.

Farther away, a man from Lanxi was pushing a stone cart to carry stones the size of a wooden basin to Meiling Pass.

The stones of the catapult need to be carefully selected, and not all random stones can be used as catapults.

It is best to choose some stones that are of the right size and are round.

Then after the stone hits the ground, it can continue to roll, and it can hurt and kill people as much as possible.

That's it now.

Looking at it from a distance, it's chilling.

"Holy Maiden." He Qing'er's voice sounded behind Ye Wanwan.

Ye Wanwan quickly turned around, looked at He Qing'er, and asked, "How is it, have we found a catapult here?" ”

"No, Holy Maiden, I have asked the prisoners in the cell." He Qing'er paused for a moment and said: "At the beginning, Meilingguan didn't expect to be attacked by my sect, so the bows, crossbows, long arrows and other things are not complete, and now there are some of them, which were also carried by me from Lanxi County later, but they can't last long...... As for the catapult, the left hall master never thought that there would be a catapult on the opposite side. ”

Two months ago, after Wang Fanglan's assassination, the Tianyin Sect strengthened its infiltration into Meiling Pass.

Although since Wang Fanglan's assassination, Meilingguan has strengthened its vigilance and also launched an official document requesting supplies to Wuzhou, but they never expected that the Tianyin Sect would already be lurking under their noses.

Before Wuzhou's palindrome was sent, Li Xuan had already come to Wuzhou.

However, at that time, Meiling Pass was still under the control of the imperial court.

Of course, it is only nominal, and Li Xuan has long seen through this.

Catapults, Lanxi has them, and it's not that no one thought of moving them from Lanxi to Meiling Pass, but they didn't expect that Li Xuan would come so quickly.

When they saw that the center of gravity of the Wuzhou soldiers was on the catapult, these people immediately realized their mistake, but it was too late.

"Looks like we can only use a crossbow and a catapult to fight each other." Ye Wanwan looked at He Qing'er a little helplessly, and said with a wry smile: "Fortunately, our Zuo Hall Master didn't think of going out of the city to take the initiative to attack, trying to attack the catapult on the opposite side while the other party's foothold was not stable, otherwise, Meiling Pass would have fallen." ”

"The saint seems to be extra wary of the king of Nanchang." He Qing'er paused slightly, and then asked in a low voice: "Holy Maiden, I heard that the Holy Maiden once assassinated the King of Nanchang, I don't know if you can tell Qing'er about it?" ”

He Qing'er looked straight at Ye Wanwan, Ye Wanwan's brows furrowed slightly, and a trace of shame flashed in the depths of her eyes, but then she asked, "What, are you also planning to assassinate the King of Nanchang?" ”

"Don't hide it from the Holy Maiden, Qing'er thinks that if we really follow the method in front of us, I'm afraid we will never be able to kill him." He Qing'er subconsciously turned sideways slightly, looked in the direction of Muzhou, and said softly: "Even if Muzhou reinforcements come, as long as the king of Nanchang gets on the horse, he can still escape, and it is difficult for us to catch up with him, so if we want to kill him, now is actually the best opportunity, taking advantage of the fact that his subordinates are all here now......"

"How did you know he wasn't here?" Ye Wanwan suddenly asked rhetorically.

He Qing'er was a little stunned, and didn't know what to say for a while.

"I can't see him now, but how do you know it's not his plan to lure the snake out of the hole...... He is far more insidious and vicious than we can imagine. Qing'er, if you don't make all the preparations, it's best not to ......move easily" Before Ye Wanwan's words were finished, a huge roar suddenly came from behind her.

A violent tremor followed.

Ye Wanwan quickly turned around, and then saw a stone ball the size of a wooden basin smashed directly on the ground in front of the pass from a distance, and then quickly crashed towards the city wall.

(End of chapter)