Yang Kai took out his long knife and pointed out the outside of the city: "Let me ask you: According to the action of our army entering the lake, what is the plan for a long-distance attack?" ”

"The city is unprepared, so take the opportunity to besiege the city and attack it."

"Yes, this is common sense in soldiers. The officers and soldiers did not know that they had the right time and place, but they retreated and did not attack, took the important position of the mountain pass, and gave our army time to deal with it. The advantage of the sneak attack was blocked by the ambush of our army, and it was gone.

Look at the strong city at the feet of our army, there are fierce generals, elite soldiers, enough food behind them, there is De'an as the backing behind them, and the Jingling Hu Qianhu Department echoes each other, the two are attacked, why worry about the enemy not breaking? ”

Yang Kai guessed the intention of the official army, and it was very likely that he received the news that Wuchang's troops were in danger, and wanted the two sides to advance, compress the space, and force the Liukou to turn from offensive to defensive, first relieve the siege of Wuchang, and then wait for the Liukou side to come to help, and then launch an attack from other sides.

In this way, not only can they get the city, but they can also take the other territories they occupy in one fell swoop, Yang Kai's plan is very large, and the official army's plan is not small.

Perhaps coupled with the fact that the troops marching out for the first time were not much, the attack and defense of the city was a difficult problem for the Liukou, and it was not a problem for the guards who had not fought for a long time, so they wanted to win the first few battles steadily, first, to boost morale, and secondly, to put pressure on the Liukou, and mobilize a large number of firearms to suppress the city, which was indeed the safest move.

However, Yang Kai could imagine this, and the soldiers couldn't guess it.

What Yang Kai is doing right now is to reverse black and white, say the bad as good, and say the enemy's tactical deployment as fear and avoidance of battle, Deng Fang admired this quick wit in his heart, and peeked around, the morale of the soldiers really improved.

As soon as the morale was raised, and then watching the cavalry go out of the city, it felt completely different.

The soldiers on the city wall spontaneously struck each other's weapons, or struck the city wall with their weapons, shouting: "Chase the enemy, our army will win, the enemy army will be defeated, kill Weiwei!" "Cheer on the cavalry. Gathered in one place, overwhelming the sound of the wind, like a dragon rushing into the sky, and being scattered by the wind all over the city, the sound shook the roof tiles.

"Kill Weiwei!" Lu Yuanan led the cavalry out of the city and went straight to the mountain pass, and on the way, he also raised his sword and shouted in response. Suddenly turned, the wind broke through the night, rolling towards the enemy position.

"Ignite, cheer!" Yang Kai lost no time. After the three cannons were fired, the shouts of the soldiers in the city turned into the shouts of the infantry soldiers when they were about to kill the enemy, and the shouts were endless.

Yang Kai's rule is that rewards and punishments are strict, as long as he is willing to use his life, he will have a chance to rise.

After several battles, a large number of brave and brave soldiers were promoted; Among them, there are many people who have been promoted again and again, and have served as hundreds of households and deputy thousands.

Some of them have accumulated the least military merits, and many of them were the same as refugees a few months ago, and they just wanted to eat with the general flow, and they didn't think about it at all, and it was impossible not to envy them when they saw this situation.

As soon as the rush and fear were gone, the desire for military merit prevailed. The back row sent out to the south gate to explore the horses finally returned. The mountain pass was lost, and the movement of official and military activities was also found outside the south gate.

"The villain watched from afar, and the flags of the officers and soldiers were all over the field."

"Have the enemies come out of the mountain and gathered?"

"Nope. The mountain was still lit with torches, and the enemy did not seem to be attacking at the first time, but was arranging trenches and setting up camps for defense. ”

Yang Kai groaned, and ordered the rangers to probe again, this time to let them be sure to detect their exact number, close the distance, and give the enemy some oppression.

"The way out from the south and west sides is blocked. It's like a siege, but they still have reinforcements behind them. Although Deng Fang was a rough man, after all, he had been on the battlefield for a long time, and he pulled Yang Kai aside and said his inferences and proposals.

"Do we first reorganize our army, take advantage of the enemy's unstable foothold, recapture the position of the mountain pass, and defeat the incoming enemy first?"

Yang happily thought about it, and as the situation progressed, Deng Fang also began to understand the situation. The flags are dense, but the camp is set up to defend, and the enemy in the mountain pass may be suspicious soldiers, and there are not many military horses. However, there are also cases where the enemy pretends to be suspicious, lays a trap, and uses a false illusion to deceive them into going out of the city to attack.

The mountain pass is dangerous, and the siege battle will naturally be much less labor-intensive than the siege, but once he falls into the enemy's trap, everything he has done since entering the city has been in vain, and the risk is too great, vetoing Deng Fang's strategy.

At this time, one of the generals under Deng Fang's command came up to ask for help, and wanted to garrison at the West City Gate, his name was Hu Che'er, who followed Deng Fang's appearance, looked very anxious, his skin was rough, his face was full of scars, and his wrinkles were heavy.

What Yang Kai wanted was his firm eyes, but he also explained to him the suffering that existed: "Now that our army is short of manpower, we can give the general two armies at most, and when necessary, the general will lead people out of the city to face the battle, can the general do it?" ”

"I'd like to give it a try."

Yang Kai's face was full of solemnity, and he shouted loudly: "There is no trivial matter in the army, let alone try this statement, what can be done is what can be done, if you can't do it, let the people who can do it, the gains and losses of the West City Gate are directly related to the success or failure of the city's attack and defense, the task is the heaviest, the pressure is the greatest, once you receive the military order, you can't complete it, you can only listen to the military law, the general will ask you again, General Hu, can you hold it!" ”

"Swear to defend the West Gate."

Yang Kai nodded with satisfaction and ordered: "Hu Che'er led the two soldiers and horses to strictly guard the west city gate, and no orders were allowed, and it was strictly forbidden to go out of the city." ”

He said to Deng Fang again: "The night is dark and windy, and there are many doubts. Our army must not be lightly attacked by the main force. Can the arrangement of the southern gate be handed over to the general? ”

Deng Fang took the order and left.

A little raindrop fell on Yang Kai's shoulder. The dark clouds were low, the thunder was roaring, and the sky was changing so much that people couldn't reach it. What's even more deadly is that as soon as this rain rains, their clever plan to chase the enemy head-on will come to naught.

Yang Kai raised his eyes to the sky, as an atheist, he had never believed so much that there were gods in the heavens, and he could hear his prayers to let this rain come later, at least until they survived the first round of city wall attacks and defenses.

It's a pity that it backfired, and God didn't stand on his side this time.

The rain did pause briefly in the fire of his prayers, but the dense raindrops soon joined together and formed surfaces, as if they were poured down with a scoop. The wind swept up, pouring people all over their heads, and it was cold to the bone.

But in the blink of an eye, the world has become a hazy piece.

The torches were extinguished by the rain, and the city was darkened.

Yang Kai hurriedly raised his eyes to look, and the little flames in the enemy camp in the distance were extinguished at the same time. And the charging cavalry, which could have been faintly seen, was also completely plunged into black.

With the shouting orders of the officers, the non-commissioned officers reacted and were assigned rainproof wind lamps and lit them one after another. In the wind and rain, the light was very faint.

Drifting and undulating, it seems that the flame of hope for their battle will be extinguished at any moment. The firearms were quickly withdrawn into the tower to prevent them from getting wet. Among the soldiers in front of the battlement, one of whom had an unstable foothold and ran in a hurry to avoid the rain, slipped under his feet and almost fell to the bottom of the city.

It rained too much.

After a short time, there was a pool of water on the head of the city, and the river was like. Along the drainage channel, bubbling and pouring, from the top down, it looks like a small waterfall hanging on the city wall. As soon as the wind blew, the chill became even more pressing. Deng Fang asked someone to find a cloak and asked his soldiers to put it on for Yang Kai.

With a worried face, he said: "The rain fell suddenly, I don't know if Lu Qianhu's cavalry will be in trouble." There is also General Yan's mission, which will probably be blocked, which is a big trouble. ”

Yang Kai said slowly: "Although the heavy rain is not good for the cavalry, the enemy is just as dark as the fire. The rain has just fallen, even if it is heavy, the road will not slide so fast, and it should be no big problem to go and return quickly. After a pause, he added, "The rain is strong and the wind is urgent, and the task of General Yan is indeed not easy to complete." ”

Before the words fell, on the rainy night of winter, it was split by a lightning bolt, and a white light in the darkness, distant mountains and fields, flashed away.

The enemy's torches were also extinguished, and I couldn't see the location, only Lu Yuanan's cavalry had already been buried at the end of everyone's sight.

Yang Kai hurriedly calculated in his heart, thinking about it carefully, this rain brought them a lot of good news, the officers and troops were marching in a hurry, and the work of adjusting artillery and gathering troops was also in a hurry, would gunpowder and other combat preparation materials be wet?

The worst effect of this rain was to ensure that the charging cavalry was not disturbed by firearms, and at best, it could slow down the march of reinforcements, and in the case of unsuspecting, it helped them greatly reduce the pressure on firearms.

Yang Kai suddenly remembered something, he turned his head and asked Deng Fang, "Where did General Huang go?" "So far, Brother Huang Donkey has not arrived. In the past few days, he rarely met with the generals, and for a while, Yang Kai actually forgot about him.

Through the rain curtain, he struggled to cast his gaze into the distance. Despite the rain, at the speed of the cavalry, two hours was enough for a tentative charge to turn back.

Yang happily discussed: "Don't care about the enemy outside the southern city gate; As long as we can accurately determine the number of frontal enemies and the appearance of the enemy outside the mountains, we can judge the pressure at the south gate, and the next countermeasures can be made accordingly. ”

The rain seemed to be pouring down from the sky, and the cloak could not cover it. The wind helped the rain, and the splitting surface swept across, quickly soaking the cloth armor on Yang Kai and the soldiers, and then soaking through the clothes, and the wind did not stop, making people want to shiver.

From time to time, some of the soldiers running on the city wall slipped and fell to the ground, splashing a splash. The soldiers who followed behind did not have time to help, so they bypassed, and continued to rush to the wind and rain to arrange defensive equipment.

The soldiers sent to carry the equipment have already carried the equipment in place, and only the more than 30 catapults sent to Yingcheng with a delicate mind can still be used.

The soldiers were divided into two groups, one defending the city in the rain, and the other temporarily resting in the temporary canopies and requisitioned houses near the city walls.

After doing these tasks, the logistics army was ordered to urgently collect ginger in the city, burn it into ginger soup, and send it to the soldiers to drink, so that no one would catch a cold and fall ill and reduce their combat effectiveness.

Horses and guns were exchanged until the sky grew brighter in the east.

Lu Yuanan is finally back.

The enemy relied on the terrain of the mountain pass, but he was temporarily collecting and calling firearms, but a rain disrupted their battle plan, Lu Yuanan led the army to charge twice in a row, and had already pressed the enemy into the mountain pass, but he was afraid of ambush and did not dare to go deeper, so he came back.

"What about General Yan?"

"General Yan captured a group of officers and soldiers alive, and when the villain rushed to the second formation, he turned to the flank, and now he doesn't know where it is."

Yang Kai didn't know what strategy he was playing, so let's leave it alone, and asked, "The exact number of officers and soldiers?" ”

"The villain charged twice, and the enemy's resistance was not strong, according to the villain's observation, there were not many enemies outside the West Gate, only two or three thousand troops, and most of them were."

Yang Kai asked again: "When the official army is defeated and retreats, how is the appearance of the army?" ”

Lu Yuanan was stunned for a moment, tried to remember, and said intermittently for a while: "The flag is chaotic and does not fall...... Dozens of artillery pieces were left in place. ”

Wind and rain, frustrated and retreating without chaos, Lu Yuanan's idea of ambushing troops is correct. The leader of the officers and troops here, although he was too cautious, was a wise general.