The snow had stopped for a few days, and the air in Gangneung Castle was filled with a biting chill, and when I looked around, there were only two colors in my vision, gray and white, white snow and black walls.

There were bands of armored soldiers in their coats patrolling back and forth in the streets, pedestrians on the road coming and going, hunched over, white mist spewing out from people's mouths and noses, occasionally looking at each other mixed with panic, no one spoke loudly, and the clouds of war swept the whole country in half a month.

The news of the defeat had already come from Yidu, the five cities had fallen one after another, and the Chen army was forced step by step, suppressing the scope of the coalition army's activities to a very small area, and the land under the jurisdiction of Yidu County, and even the nearby cities, had gradually been cut off. The Jiangling Xiliang Imperial Court also sent troops to rescue many times, but all of them were defeated and fled, and they returned with a feather, and the defense system built by Zhang Zhaoda had been installed with the last brick, and more than a dozen camps watched each other, connecting into an unbreakable whole, and Yidu would become a support point for Chen Guo to smash Xiliang. At the same time, on the other side, there were sentinel ships to report, and Chen General Huang Fayan built military cantonments in various places along the river, hoarding grain, grass, warships, and soldiers, and a steady stream of baggage was carried to Yidu from where.

After the capture of Yidu County, the Chen army was very calm under the deliberate restraint of Zhang Zhaoda, and never launched a major war of external expansion against the Zhou army and the Western Liang army. On the contrary, Lu Teng was very sensitive to Zhang Zhaoda's series of moves, and ordered the army to attack and harass the Chen army's camp several times, and the Chen army was very indifferent to this. This reaction not only did not make Zhou Jun and Liang Jun more reassured, but on the contrary, made them more worried. Before you know it, the depths of winter have arrived.

"Chen Guo, the comer is not good......" Lu Teng closed the battle report in his hand, his brows furrowed. In the warm pavilion, a lamp is like a bean, and there are all kinds of battle reports piled up on the table, and one will be sent almost every two hours, this is already the sixth letter, and Lu Teng has not slept for two nights.

"Zhang Zhaoda avoided not fighting, not because he was afraid of us, on the contrary, this old boy has a lot of appetite, and he wants to swallow Jiangling in one gulp......"

Gao Lin asked suspiciously: "Why didn't he attack Jiangling City directly, but instead took a detour to attack Yidu?" He paused and said: "The last general has no other meaning, the last general just thinks it's strange, Jiangling City they can cross the river and go down, there is no need to fight Yidu at all...... "As long as Jiangling City is a hit, Xiliang will die, Zhang Zhaoda will go a long way to fight Yidu, a little redundant."

"......" Lu Teng smiled dumbly, he didn't know what to say when he opened his mouth a few times, Gao Lin is also a veteran, and his qualifications are not much better than that of the old Lu Teng, and Lu Teng is not willing to say something heavy in front of him. Just as he was about to speak, a person said outside the door: "Attacking Jiangling, it is easy to attack the city, it is okay to storm it and break the embankment...... For Zhang Zhaoda, the difficulty is not to attack the city, but to send reinforcements, as long as the Zhou State will send troops to rescue, food, grass, and soldiers will continue to supply us, this city, we can keep defending, and we can completely drag the Chen army until the division veterans are tired until they collapse......"

A person came in from outside the door, with a straight nose and a square mouth, straight eyebrows, a long beard under his chin, and starry white hair on his temples. The person who came was Wang Cao, the prime minister of the West Liang, the court of the West Liang, the first person below the Lord of Liang!

This Western Liang monarch and minister are curled up in a corner, there are not many people who can make Lu Teng look at him, the three generations of Liang master's father and son, Xiao Jing, Xiao Yue, and Xiao Cong, can be regarded as outstanding people, and the most virtuous person among Liang Chen is the king in front of him. The Southern Liang overturned, and the remnant Liang, as the remnant of the Xiao family, could stand on its own in this projectile land, and Wang Cao made great contributions. Wang Cao has a generous temperament, is well-versed in history, and has far-reaching strategies, and is a rare cadre, a real all-round talent in civil and military affairs. He defeated Chen Guo's attacks many times. He is a very human minister, but he has never been proud and complacent, and he has been conscientious for more than ten years, and he has won the trust of Lord Liang, and he is compared to Zhuge Kongming.

To tell the truth, the top and bottom of the Liang Kingdom, the monarch is not the king of the dead country, and the minister is also a capable minister who governs the world, but in this corner of Jiangling, which is only 300 miles away, even if they have great talents, they can't display it. At the time when the Southern Chen, Northern Zhou, and Northern Qi were competing for the world, the Xiao father and son tried their best to develop strongly, but they were also destined to be useless.

Lu Teng's eyes overflowed with a smile of having met a confidant, "I heard that Wang Shangshu crossed the river to attack the rear of Chen State, can you get something?" ”

Wang Cao was not in the mood to laugh with him, sat down and poured himself a glass of water, shook his head and said: "I ordered two thousand soldiers to cross the river to the south and attack the Huangfa Sho Department, but unfortunately it had little effect...... Huang Fa's army was strictly organized, and the camp was very orderly, and after our army burned their two baggage battalions, they were besieged by him, and almost the whole army was annihilated......"

Lu Teng stroked his beard and said with a solemn face: "Zhang Zhaoda, Huang Fayan, Wu Mingche, Cheng Wenji...... Chen Guosu will come out together, this is to take out Chen Baxian's old foundation and fight, and it is really not to be underestimated.

When I was in the south of Yidu before, I saw that Chen Guo had a fierce general, fighting vertically and horizontally, if there was no one, his bravery was rare in the world, and he actually acted as a pawn in the front battle, this big battle is not easy to fight......"

When Lu Teng was fighting abroad, he had always been calm and composed, never panicked, and paid great attention to his soldiers, he never showed his fragile side to outsiders, he had to make the soldiers believe that he could win, but now, he was a little afraid to play this package ticket, for a long time, he said quietly: "The old man is now looking forward to him can come directly to fight Jiangling, his way of playing, it is extremely difficult for our army to win, once he separates Jiangling City from the Great Zhou, there is really no hope at all, Now the old man can only pin his hopes on the imperial court, hoping that Otsuka Zai and His Majesty can send troops to help as soon as possible...... "The imperial court in his mouth will naturally not be the small court of Western Liang, but the court of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the small soldiers of the Western Liang State are weak, and once they encounter a big enemy, they can only pray that the Zhou State will send troops to help as soon as possible."

Wang Cao sat silently, for a long, long time, before he spoke: "It may be difficult to think that Zhou Guo will send troops to help...... I came to find the general today, and it is precisely for this matter," he stared into Lu Teng's eyes and said: "Your Majesty got the news today, the general Gao Changgong of Qi ordered the general Gao Changgong to lead tens of thousands of troops from Hezhou to the south, 12 days ago, to capture Zheyang, and 4 days ago, to capture Zhezhou." Deputy General Gao Changgong made a wish and raised 10,000 troops from Xiangzhou to attack Luyang and Nanyang, and Nanyang had been broken five days ago...... It will be within a few days that Luyang will be breached. Therefore, the possibility of us getting assistance is very small, and we came this time in the hope that the general would be prepared earlier, and the situation was ...... It's tougher than we thought. ”

Lu Teng was still sitting on the Hu chair, although the expression on his face had not changed, but his expression was already a little wrong, Wang Cao's words were too informative, and it would take him a while to digest them completely, everyone looked at him worriedly, and after a while, his emotions calmed down, and he recovered his usual restraint and fierceness, and said "oh" lightly, nodding gently, "The old man knows." ”

"The old man knows ......"

He looked at the wind-blown window, and the wind swept in the snowflakes, and his gaze seemed to tear open the layers of snow, projecting onto the land in the southeast of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, where the flames of war were flying, and the frost was stained red with blood......