These soldiers who suddenly appeared in front of Shen Lie were none other than Li Jiangyao and others who went out to survey the terrain.

The scout, who was standing guard on the hill just now, found Shen Lao and the others chasing after me from a distance, and kept approaching them quickly, so he immediately issued a warning to the captain.

Li Jiangyao's curiosity was aroused, so he led Du Jian and them quietly to the nearest place, and surrounded Shen Lie and Lao Jianhua, who were both dressed in Saint Tang costumes.

At this moment, facing Shen Lie's inquiry, Li Jiangyao asked instead of answering, "Who are you two?" Why fight here? ”

Shen Lie had already guessed that the other party would have this question, and took out the token from his waist: "This official is Shen Lie, the young secretary of Dali Temple, who was ordered to arrest the imperial court criminals, and I hope that the lord will assist." With that, he threw the token in his hand to Li Jiangyao.

Li Jiangyao raised his hand to catch the token, and before he could take a closer look, he only heard Lao Jianhua, who was on the other side, laughing loudly: "Hateful traitor, how dare the wicked sue first?" My lord, I am Lao Jianhua, the special envoy of the Imperial Capital's Reverse Scale Division, and I am under the order of Your Majesty to arrest this rebel who defected to the Turks. As he spoke, he also took out a token from his arms and threw it to Li Jiangyao.

Seeing this, Shen Lie almost blew up his lungs directly. According to the rules, he can't easily reveal his true identity, so he only said that he was from Dali Temple, but he didn't expect this move to be exploited by Lao Jianhua.

However, reason told him that it was not appropriate to justify in a hurry at this time, otherwise it would be easy to cause misunderstanding among the Zhenjiang army. Anyway, it can't be fake, and it can't be fake, and all problems will be handed over to this young officer of the Zhenjiang Metropolitan Protectorate to deal with.

Li Jiangyao checked the two tokens in his hand, looked at them separately, and couldn't help but shake his head and smile: "This is a little interesting." Both of them said that they were court officials, and the other party was a fugitive, but I couldn't tell the truth from the fake. Why don't you go back to Metasequoia City with me first, and then slowly investigate. ”

What Shen Lie wanted to hear most was this answer, and hurriedly agreed, but he didn't expect Lao Jianhua to have the same reaction and accept it happily.

Li Jiangyao waved his hand, and all the soldiers immediately rushed up, and without waiting for Shen Lie and Lao Jianhua to say anything, they tied their hands in three or two strokes.

Encountering such a strange thing as a real and false official errand, Li Jiangyao immediately decided to temporarily end the task of surveying the terrain, and the whole team immediately returned to Metasequoia City.

First, these two people may be involved in important cases in the imperial court, and only by returning to the city can they verify their identities through official letters from the government and avoid delaying major events.

Second, Li Jiangyao and they left Metasequoia, and the time is not short, these two days are cold and difficult, plus the Spring Festival is approaching, the physical fitness and morale of the brothers are far from being as good as when they first came out, it is better to collect the team and go back first, so let everyone have a holiday.

When the order was laid, the entire scout team immediately cheered, and everyone stepped on their horses and embarked on the way back.

Shen Lie's hands were tied upside down behind his back, and he relied on his legs to clamp the horse's belly, and it was inevitably extremely hard to bump on the road.

However, at the moment, he didn't care about this, but kept thinking about a question in his heart: logically speaking, when they returned to Metasequoia City with the Zhenjiang Army, they only needed to release a letter crow to fly to the Rest Country or Zijin Pass, and in a few days, the identity of him and Lao Jianhua would be revealed.

When that time comes, even if Lao Jianhua has wings, I am afraid that it will be difficult to escape from the ascension to heaven.

Strangely, however, the old thief always looked calm, as if he was not nervous about it.

Why is that?

With Shen Lie's understanding of Lao Jianhua, this person is scheming and cunning, and it is impossible for him to be without countermeasures in the face of a crisis.

Now that he was so calm, he must have already thought of some kind of conspiracy.

And this judgment made Shen Lie feel very unsteady. He pondered for a long time, but he couldn't guess Lao Jianhua's hole cards at all, and he was always clueless.

It wasn't until the team arrived outside Metasequoia City that Shen Liefang, who had been puzzled, suddenly realized.

-

After two days and one night's journey, everyone saw that they were about to arrive at Metasequoia, and the soldiers who were still in high spirits were all stunned by the scene in front of them.

Looking in the direction of the city, several huge pillars of black smoke were rising from the top of the city, and the metasequoia was surrounded by flames.

An army of tens of thousands is surrounding Metasequoia and launching a fierce attack. The besieging soldiers were like ants, surging upwards along the simple ladders and clinging to the walls.

The deafening shouts of killing resounded in the open field, and it was even heard several miles away, directly into the ears of Li Jiangyao and others.

"Boss! What the fuck is going on! Du Jian's face turned pale when he saw it, and he felt at a loss for a while.

Li Jiangyao took a deep breath and said calmly: "Don't panic! Metasequoia City hasn't been breached yet. ”

With that, he urged his horse up a small slope and looked into the distance, carefully observing the battle on the other side of the city.

After a while, Li Jiangyao turned to his stunned subordinates and smiled: "Fortunately, I am like a god, and I have already prepared for today. ”

When everyone heard him say this, they couldn't help but be confused. However, Li Jiangyao's relaxed and confident reaction calmed everyone's hearts to a great extent. The soldiers knew very well in their hearts that Captain Li had indeed made a lot of preparations for the defense of Metasequoia City before, so he seemed extremely confident, and most of them were not bluffing.

This is often the case in war, and what a soldier fears is often not how strong the enemy is, but whether his commander is sure of victory.

If the main general is in a panic and has not yet fought with the enemy, and he is confused and has no idea, then most of the people below will also become disoriented and have no intention of resisting the enemy, and it will be difficult to boost their fighting spirit and morale.

If, on the other hand, the Lord is confident in his performance, then the next question is very simple. For the soldiers, there is only one thing to consider: to carry out orders.

Even if this so-called "confident" is pretended by the Lord, it doesn't matter, because the vast majority of people are more willing to believe in what is beneficial to them when they are in a tense situation.

And Li Jiangyao's self-confidence at the moment is really pretended.

Although he had foreseen various possibilities, including the possibility that Metasequoia City would be attacked by a large army again, these predictions were only for the Ghost Alliance horse bandits, that is, there might be some assistance from the Turks behind them.

However, such an exaggerated scene in front of him was completely unexpected by him, and it greatly exceeded the coping strategy he prepared.

My God, the enemies attacking Metasequoia are not thousands, not ten thousand, but thirty or forty thousand!

Li Jiangyao secretly sighed unlucky, pointed to the distance and asked, "Except for the horse bandits in Gelhan, some banners should be Turkic, right?" Who can recognize which troops? ”

Du Jian looked at it for a while, and replied in a deep voice: "The blue flag, with fire under it and flying pigeons, should be the Turkic Iron Pigeon Army." I heard that within the Golden Clan, they have always been a light cavalry regiment responsible for reconnaissance, raiding and invading, but I didn't expect to mobilize so many people to attack the city, and our border patrol team actually failed to detect them in advance and act as a policeman! ”

Li Jiangyao sneered: "After the Battle of Western Xinjiang, the strength of the Zhenjiang Army is empty, and most of the border patrol teams have been transferred to various places to be stationed, including our Pegasus scouts, how can anyone be able to warn in time." Moreover, in the past few months, the horse bandits have been attacking everywhere, making everyone tired, so naturally they don't care about beware of running masters like the Iron Pigeon Army, and they finally took advantage of the loophole. ”

He pondered for a moment and ordered: "Lao Du, leave the four brothers, keep an eye on those two people, and the rest will follow me!" ”

-

In the evening, a cold wind began to fall, and heavy snow began to fall in the sky. The combined forces of the Turks and horse bandits temporarily stopped the offensive and successively returned to the rear camp to rest.

The stubbornness of the resistance of the defenders of Metasequoia City greatly exceeded the expectations of the attacking side. After a whole day of siege warfare, the Turks threw tens of thousands of troops and horses into the front line, but they failed to capture the head of Metasequoia.

At the moment, the sky is adding to the chaos, and the wind and snow seriously interfere with the rhythm of the attack.

In view of this, the high command of the coalition forces made a decision to abandon the plan of "attacking suddenly and taking the city in one fell swoop" and instead besieged the city and waited for an opportunity to fight again.

Looking at the enemy troops that were receding like a tide, Lin Feng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The captain was not in the city, and all the burdens naturally fell on his shoulders alone.

In the early morning, as soon as the enemy army appeared, the vigilant sentries immediately sent out a signal, and Lin Feng immediately imposed full martial law on Metasequoia in accordance with the defensive strategy formulated by Li Jiangyao in advance.

Immediately afterwards, 500 Pegasus scouts and more than 1,000 garrisons all ascended to the top of the city, using the well-prepared defense system to deal a head-on blow to the fierce siege soldiers and horses.

The enemy was clearly prepared, and seeing that the defenders were in good formation, they repelled the surprise attack of the vanguard troops as soon as they came up, and they immediately set up their positions and launched a full-scale attack on Metasequoia City from all directions at the same time.

With two thousand troops against nearly ten thousand enemy troops, Lin Feng's pressure can be imagined. However, fortunately, Li Jiangyao has never relaxed his defensive preparations since he entered Metasequoia City, at this time, they waited for work, bows, arrows, fire, oil, stones, wood, and there was no shortage of everything, plus the brave and warlike Pegasus scouts, they actually guarded steadily for a day, and did not let the Turks and horse bandits climb the city once.

At this moment, looking at the hundreds of wounded people sitting nearby, as well as nearly half of the various materials consumed, Lin Feng was extremely conflicted in his heart.

On the one hand, he hoped that Li Jiangyao could rush back as soon as possible and preside over the overall situation of Metasequoia, but on the other hand, he didn't want adults and Du Jian and other brothers to appear here.

Besieged by tens of thousands of enemies, Metasequoia may not survive tomorrow night and will fall, and coming back at this time is no different from seeking your own death.

At this time, the city guard Ma Mu came to Lin Feng's side: "Brother, a new batch of supplies has been transported, do you want to take advantage of this moment to go down and rest first?" ”

Lin Feng shook his head, looked at the crowd that was busy nearby, and couldn't help but sigh: "Lord Ma Mu, don't be in a hurry for this time, maybe you can rest forever after that......"

Ma Mu hurriedly covered Lin Feng's mouth with his dirty big hand: "Bah, it's unlucky." Colonel Lin, you are now the commander of our metasequoia, don't say such frustrating words! ”

Lin Feng shook his head vigorously and dodged Ma Mu: "I know, I know, you take your hand away first." ”

Ma Mu let go of Lin Feng and turned his head to look at the continuous camp tent outside the city: "To tell the truth, there are so many enemy troops suddenly coming, I feel a little uncertain in my heart, if only Master Li was here!" ”

Lin Feng bowed slightly, thinking in his heart: Li Jiangyao is such a person.

Usually he always looks like he doesn't care about anything, not only does he not have the slightest appearance of a captain, but he doesn't even look like an officer. Whether it is their deputies or ordinary soldiers, they can make a few jokes with him and laugh together.

However, everyone also has the same feeling - as long as he is there, people's hearts are very down-to-earth, no matter how bad the situation is, Li Jiangyao seems to be able to find a way to settle it.

Ma Mu thought so, and of course Lin Feng did the same.

And at this time, Captain Li, who was blindly worshiped by Lin Feng and Ma Mu, was squatting not far north of Metasequoia City.

The team that surveyed the terrain originally came from the east, but Li Jiangyao led everyone in a big circle and surrounded the outside of the enemy camp to the north of Metasequoia City.

In this place, there is a hidden rocky hill, with a radius of thousands of steps, strange rocks everywhere, and no grass grows.

In the heart of this rocky hill, a half-sunken hole is hidden between the boulders, and it is difficult for those who are not familiar with the place to know.

More than a month ago, when Li Jiangyao was patrolling around Metasequoia, he accidentally discovered this natural cave, and he immediately ordered Ma Mu to secretly arrange manpower, and spent several nights in a row to transfer a large number of supplies here.

Du Jian was not surprised by this because he knew about it in advance. But the other soldiers were so surprised by what they saw before them that they couldn't keep their mouths shut.

In this cave, there are not only large quantities of grain mixed beans and air-dried beef and rabbit meat, but also newly made armor and weapons made by the weapons merchants of Metasequoia City, especially strong bows and crossbows and bundles of arrows, which are enough to arm a hundred-man brigade.

And the most unexpected thing is that there are still more than a dozen boxes of firearms from the south of the Middle Earth River hidden here.

Li Jiangyao raised his hand and patted a stunned soldier beside him: "Have you ever heard of the term cunning rabbit three caves?" ”