In the big tent of the Chinese army, Murong Yan was dressed in military uniform, standing in front of the sand table with a knife, silent.

Today, a war that determines the survival of a country is inevitable, if the Qi army wins, the Northern Zhou State is destroyed, and if the Qi army is defeated, the Northern Zhou Dynasty can still have more than ten years of respite...... However, the monarchs and ministers of the Northern Qi Dynasty are determined to unify the world, how can they tolerate failure?

The stars in the sky can be picked at hand, but if you stand too high, it is easy to fall...... No matter how cautious it is! He looked at the situation in front of him, the army of the Zhou army was about to touch the last layer of psychological defense of the Qi army, and Wei Xuan and Liang Rui of Tongguan were still completely unresponsive!

“…… Look, when will Liang Rui and Wei Xuan send troops? After being silent for a long time, Old Murong suddenly asked.

The generals present recovered from the battle situation one after another, and Fan Zigai snorted for a while, saying: "The last general has repeatedly deliberately slowed down the siege, with the intention of luring them out, but they refuse to be fooled......

"It's not your fault," Old Murong waved his hand and said, "Our army is strong, they don't dare to confront me head-on for the time being, it's really ordinary, now that the Zhou State is chasing the army, I estimate that there will definitely be people who can't hold it, and then this is our opportunity." ”

Yang Su looked at Old Murong, then at the sand table, and said, "What the last general has seen, I'm afraid it may not be...... Our army has 200,000 soldiers here, all of whom are elites, but as soon as the Zhou army arrived, they were all retreating, choosing to temporarily avoid the front. Wei Xuan is a veteran, and he won't be unable to understand it, but I'm afraid that if he doesn't really wait until he sees the flag of the Zhou State, he won't come out easily. ”

Unexpectedly, Lao Murong just smiled lightly, he didn't agree with this, shook his head and said: "What you said makes sense, I wouldn't come out easily if it were me, but you have thought so much, but you have only ignored one thing, he is Wei Xuan, this old horseman is not afraid of death when he fights." ”

Even in the era when the two Wei sides side by side, he Wei Xuan...... It's also the number one character!

I don't know if such a strong opponent aroused his fighting intent, Old Murong's eyes became hotter and hotter, and he exhaled softly, "He won't retreat, he won't in the past, and he won't now!" ”

The atmosphere in the big tent was solemn for a while, obviously they all knew what the word Wei Xuan meant, and they only stopped the army of the Northern Qi Western Expedition for more than half a month by themselves, which was simply incredible!

There were so many generals present, only Yang Su had fought with Wei Xuan, but that was mostly a trick, and luck was also on the one hand, in the face of this old monster left over from the Western Wei Dynasty, no one dared to say that he was absolutely sure that he could take it.

But isn't Murong Yan an old monster?

Murong Yan pondered for a while and asked, "I asked you to build a few more cities in the west of Tongguan, have you done it?" ”

"Qi Yu Zuoxiang, the city has been repaired, weapons, money and food, siege equipment, all available!"

Murong Yan nodded with satisfaction, "There is a city in the east, connected to the pontoon bridge and the forbidden ditch, a port at the end of the Tong River, and several piers and platforms in the west, which are connected in a straight line, blocking the front drive of the Zhou Kingdom...... The main force waits and puts some more Zhou troops in......"

"Zuo Xiang, Zhou Jun's speed has slowed down recently, and he should be on guard."

"I wasn't vigilant when I came, but now I realize it, what's the use of knowing that I'm surrounding Tongguan and squatting here, just preparing to eat the reinforcements? I forced them to fight, can they not fight? Murong Yan glanced at the man, and his tone was slightly mocking:

"At this point, either he dies or I die, even if they know that we are playing tricks, what can they do, can they still go home and go back with hundreds of thousands of troops? What's the difference between that and waiting for death? ”

He took a deep breath, pressed his hands on the border of the sand table, and calmly ordered: "Continue to shrink outside, let the Zhou army in, those piers and ports must be defended, Tongguan should be attacked, don't relax, okay, let's go down." ”

The sun that was about to end cast a layer of blood on the tower of Tongguan City, Liang Rui looked down at the battlement, and could clearly see that the tide-like flow of fire was slowly retreating into the camp of the Qi army, and there were broken corpses above and below the city......

The soldiers huddled under the battlements, silent, licking their wounds in the dark. The war was too cruel, from the morning, the west city wall became the focus of the Qi army's attention, the Qi army regardless of the heavy casualties, tirelessly attacked, again and again organized a hundred people, tirelessly took turns to attack, used all kinds of means to climb the city wall, and the Zhou army defending the city to carry out a desperate fight......

Under the crazy attack of the Qi army, Tongguan once appeared in danger of being lost, the soldiers of the Zhou army at a battlement were killed, and the situation of the Qi army taking advantage of the situation happened many times, Liang Rui and Wei Xuan even began to personally take the guards to the various passes, both sides have been completely crazy, with blood-red eyes, knives and axes, guns and spears, as long as they can kill the enemy, even if they want it with their teeth and scratch with their claws, they have no scruples.

The battle on the city wall was unprecedentedly tragic, and the will of the commander of the Zhou army to defend was equally strong, the soldiers died in the reserves, the reserve army was not enough to use the people, and the people died almost the same old people and children...... The Qi army specializes in one city wall, but Liang Rui can't just pick one to defend, he also has to keep enough troops to prevent the Qi army from suddenly attacking from elsewhere!

In the evening, the Qi stopped attacking, and the soldiers began to retreat rapidly from the city to the camp amid the low and loud sound of bull horns.

Under the deep blue sky, the piers that suddenly rose from the ground were very dazzling.

Liang Rui smiled helplessly: "They use us as bait to catch reinforcements." ”

The walls were densely packed with corpses, and the disgusting smell of blood floated, and even the air was dyed red.

Wei Xuan walked slowly on the city wall, his thin face without much blood was tense, looking old and resolute.

He looked at the remains of the soldiers under his feet, at the wounded soldiers who were leaning against the base of the city wall and moaning, the psychological anger could not be described in words, and now his whole person was like a pile of dry firewood, which could be burned with just a little spark!

He was also covered with paint, and his shoulders and arms were wrapped in white cloth, from which blood seeped out.

"There were still more than a thousand people on the western wall in the morning, and now there are only four hundred soldiers left, and if the fight continues, I will have to draw a little from your cavalry." Seeing Wei Xuan coming, Liang Rui said calmly.

Wei Xuan didn't make a sound, he already acquiesced.

Within a few days of the battle to defend the city, the defenders had begun to die in large numbers, not only the large-scale siege of the Qi army in the west, but also the city in the east, which had been repaired higher than Tongguan, and the Qi army set up catapults, throwing stones into Tongguan day and night, and both soldiers and civilians in the city suffered heavy casualties...... There are really no more troops to mobilize.

Even the common people were organized to do their assigned work, carrying corpses, transporting wounded soldiers, making fires and cooking, carrying stones, carrying wood, bundles of arrows, brand-new knives and spears were collected and prepared for the use of the Zhou army......

"If we draw troops from the eastern wall, their defenses there will be weakened, and I can't take that risk." Liang Rui obviously didn't understand Wei Xuan's thoughts, and seeing that Wei Xuan was silent, he thought he was not very happy, so he explained: "This is the situation. The cavalry is useless, it is better to organize the city wall to defend the city together, and maybe it can survive for a few days. ”

"I wonder how Your Majesty is doing?"

"The situation is not optimistic. The pace of reinforcements has been significantly slowed down, yesterday Dou Yi led his troops to storm for a day, the Qi army was unscathed, he didn't even touch a brick of the Qi army camp in the east, he returned with heavy losses, more than 700 people died, and it is estimated that the losses today will not be lower than this number. ”

"It's a trap."

"It's a trap, but we can't help it," Liang Rui was helpless, "Just like you can see, it's almost impossible to hold on here, we will die if the reinforcements don't come, and we'll die if the reinforcements come late." And none of them are now nowhere to be found...... If we continue to wear and tear at this rate, in another two or three days, the soldiers will be gone. How can we hold on without soldiers? ”

"......" Wei Xuan also fell into a deep silence, this is an unsolvable dead end.

He looked at the people who were busy like ants and said, "These people, they are our last line of defense. Like us, they are closely related to Tongguan...... As long as we can hold on, everyone's lives will be safeguarded...... Probably hold out until the last moment when reinforcements arrive. ”

Liang Rui didn't speak, feeling both frightened by Wei Xuan's decisiveness and shocked by Wei Xuan's courage. In Liang Rui's opinion, Tongguan probably can't be saved, it's just a matter of time, but Wei Xuan doesn't believe in this evil, he must fight to the end, even if it is to press the lives of the people.

…… In fact, the people may not be willing to fight to the death, the Qi army is strictly disciplined, and instead of wanton looting everywhere they go, they did not commit any crimes, which cannot be hidden, although they exaggerate and scandalize the Qi country, intending to coerce the people to fight to the death together, but the people are not fools. Even if they are coerced into battle, how many of them are really fighting for their lives? Under such a premise, how much can combat power be exerted?

Anyway, Liang Rui won't fantasize much.

As if to cheer up Liang Rui, Wei Xuan said: "The reinforcements of the imperial court have rushed to Tonggou, Your Majesty has ordered Yu Zhongwen and others to attack the camp of the Qi army, we must cooperate with Your Majesty to break through this stronghold of the Qi army, burn the pontoon bridge and boats, the Qi army will be half defeated, there is no base point, there is no grain and grass support, this area of flat rivers on all sides is absolutely impossible to hold, then we can chase after the Qi army, no scruples!" ”

Wei Xuan's words were not only said to Liang Rui, but also to the surrounding soldiers and people, giving them a hope so that they could cheer up. Liang Rui asked, "What kind of cooperation method?" ”

Wei Xuan should have said: "Naturally, he took the initiative." ”

Up and down suddenly lost their voices.

Wei Xuan frowned, "As long as the port on the side of the Natong River is still in the hands of the Qi army, we can't wait for reinforcements, and the imperial army will not dare to come over easily...... The army of tigers and wolves of the Qi army is chasing and fighting us fiercely, and if there are no reinforcements, they are waiting for death. As long as the breakthrough is opened, we can allow the imperial army to quickly cross the river and fight, not just the front army in twos and threes, we can completely and quickly expand the advantage, and then extinguish all the Qi troops north of Yuanwanggou, so that we can do it. The tide is back in our hands. ”

Wei Xuan looked around, "What do you think?" ”

"The losses of our army have reached two thousand people, and the number of soldiers who can fight is only four or five thousand, and the soldiers are very tired. If you can fight across the opposite Qi army as soon as possible and ask for reinforcements, it can indeed greatly boost the morale of the soldiers, but ......"

Liang Rui was helpless, what the world was most afraid of was two words, "Since the Qi army dares to let the sentinel outside come in to tell you the news, it is clear that he is not afraid of you to make a move, but he is afraid that you will not make a move, once you attack, if the Qi army has been prepared early, will you not be sent to death?" ”

"What else would you do? Do we have a way out?! Wei Xuan suddenly became angry.

"Is there a way out for Da Zhou?"

Liang Rui didn't want to have a pointless argument with him, Wei Xuan took a deep breath and calmed down, "I'm not stupid, but we don't have a choice, do we?" Besides, the old man may not lose...... I would like to ask you to drag the strength of the Qi army to the city wall, so that they will not be able to pursue my rear road. You can stay with my soldiers to help you defend the city, and give me all the remaining 500 cavalry, and I will go out of the city to fight. ”

"Why don't you bring more?"

"In a cavalry battle, it is useless to have a large number of people, and it is that momentum that fights...... Sweep through the enemy with a thunderous momentum! Fight fast and slow, bully the weak with the strong, if there are many people, Gao Huan will already dominate the world. ”

Liang Rui sighed heavily, but he didn't know what he was thinking, "Okay, I'll help you." ”

At night, the sky is as white as frost, the gate of Tongguan, which has been closed for a long time, suddenly opened, and countless armies rushed towards the camp of the Qi army from the inside, the Qi army did not expect the Zhou army to dare to launch an attack at this time, and responded in a hurry, when the general Fan Zigai mobilized troops and horses to fight with it, he keenly noticed that there was a team of cavalry with a size of hundreds of people was taking advantage of the night to go northeast......

Fan Zigai lit the beacon, and then the drum sounded to convey the military situation, and when it was reported to Murong Yan, Murong Yan just said softly:

"I knew the old guy couldn't hold it...... If I don't come again, I'll close the net early.

"Yuwen Yong has piled up more than a dozen piles of firewood under our city, ready to attack the city.

"In the current situation is not one-sided, Zhou Jun will definitely work very hard, if Wei Xuan comes out and stabs him again at that time, we will definitely be in terrible pain...... Regardless of the extreme fatigue of the soldiers, they blindly fought hard and worked hard, and it was good that they won, but once they fell short, it was very likely that they would be destroyed. ”

"The left minister is discerning, and the end will be extremely impressed." The general who came to report arched his hand and patted the horse.

Murong Yan laughed: "If you have fought for decades, maybe you can do it...... Set the beacon on fire, beat the drums, point the generals, and get ready to meet the enemy! Wei Xuan refused to accept his fate, so let him die. ”

"Who is guarding the checkpoint in Tongluochuan?"

"—Yang Su."

He ...... It should be no problem," Murong Yan looked up at the sky and summed it up, "If the beacon is lit here, he should be able to see it as soon as possible." ”

Murong Yan stretched out his finger and pointed at the man:

"Scatter all the sentry horses, the wind and grass within a radius of 100 miles, I want to know for the first time."

"Closing the mountain...... Hunt and go! ”