Ten hours later, Kong Ming led more than 400 people to Zhecheng, those who retreated from the main road had already arrived here, and the army of Yan was camped thirty miles away from Zhecheng. Zhecheng is only more than 40 kilometers away from Fenglin Road, and there are several small roads, the nearest is more than 50 kilometers, the farthest is more than 80 kilometers, and the one that Kong Ming walked is more than 70 kilometers. After Kong Ming went around in a big circle, he came to the south gate of Zhecheng. Kong Ming saw the Chu soldiers above Zhecheng and looked at Kong Ming's more than 400 people very nervously. A warning was issued from afar, allowing Kong Ming and the others to stand outside. After Kong Ming saw it, he asked the soldiers to stop, and then rode a horse to a place more than thirty meters outside the south gate, raised his head, and looked at the soldiers. Thinking that it was the battle situation on the front line, they already knew, after seeing Kong Ming's more than 400 people, although there was a wall more than ten meters high in front of them, they were still very nervous, Kong Ming saw on their faces not perseverance, but fear, fear of the Yan army, thinking that Kong Ming and others were the spies of the Yan country. One of them, a man in officer armor, shouted at Kong Ming, "You are from that part, where do you come from?"

"General Xiang Zuoding commanded the swordsman battalion, and the captain of the first brigade and three teams was Kong Ming. Led more than 400 brothers who broke through from the Maple Forest to Zhecheng to find a large army, please inform the city lord and let us more than 400 people enter the city to rest. ”

"Wait here, I'll go and get someone from your swordsman battalion to come and recognize you. After the officer finished speaking, he didn't wait for Kong Ming's answer, he left directly, leaving Kong Ming and the other four hundred people outside, this move made Kong Ming, who had been fighting and marching since last night, very annoyed, and many people in the team complained, and the words became more and more ugly. Kong Ming turned his head and looked at the team of more than 400 people coldly, and said coldly: "Shut up." Those people saw Kong Ming like this, their hearts couldn't help but be stunned, some people just wanted to say something, but let the people next to them pull hands, and suddenly stopped, most of the people here know Kong Ming, it can be said that they went to the battlefield for a period of time, Kong Ming is also one of the topics they discussed, and looked at the left and right, there are dozens of people who are Kong Ming's three teams, and among these people, there are really not many people in the same team, and it can also be seen how the combat effectiveness of the three teams is. After more than ten minutes, just when Kong Ming was thinking about how the other party would treat them, a head emerged from the top of the city gate, looked at Kong Ming and the others, nodded, and the south gate opened directly, letting Kong Ming and the others enter Zhecheng.

After Kong Ming rode a horse through the city gate, he saw a person riding a horse waiting in the center of the city gate, Kong Ming looked carefully, and knew that person was the deputy commander of the swordsman battalion - Cao Zhenghong, the great sword master, Kong Ming directly gave a military salute to the other party on the horse, after watching Kong Ming salute, Cao Zhenghong saw Kong Ming salute, nodded and asked: "You are Kong Ming?"

"Exactly. ”

"How did you stand out?"

After watching Cao Zhenghong ask this, Kong Ming simply told him about the process of breaking through, Cao Zhenghong nodded, he is also one of the experiencers, with his strong skills to fight out of the encirclement, but he took another road, and it was quite smooth, so he arrived three hours earlier than Kong Ming, but he had just arranged his team, and he heard that there was a team of the swordsman battalion that broke through, and hurriedly came over to see which team it was, you must know that the swordsman battalion was also in the front camp, and the loss was the heaviest team, more than 10,000 people, and now there are less than 1,000 people left, if you add the team brought by Kong Ming, the sum is just over a thousand, which shows how strict the loss is. The two walked on horseback and walked on the main road, Cao Zhenghong told Kong Ming the latest news, at this time most of the officers in Zhecheng knew the general truth of this battle, Cao Zhenghong told Kong Ming about this thing just to let Kong Ming, a person who had just returned from the battlefield, understand the current shape. And Kong Ming also learned the truth of the matter from it.

This is an asymmetrical battle, the Yan army is more than 100,000, and the Chu army is 60,000, the Yan army still uses the means of surprise attack under the situation of absolute superiority, encircling three and missing one, from the west, north, Attack in the south three directions at the same time, let go of the east gate, and in the first time, destroy the front camp with a magic scroll, and then use superior forces, magic to open the way, straight to the Chinese army of the Chu army, so that Xiang Zuoding was caught off guard, in the case of unable to resist, directly cut down the banner of the Chinese army, let all the troops break through, and he withdrew from the east gate to Zhecheng, along the way, because there was no organization of layers of resistance, any by the enemy army drove straight in, so that the 60,000 Chu army was left less than 10,000 people, most of them were either wiped out by the enemy, captured, or trampled to death by their own people, and some of them were scattered and did not come back, just like Kong Ming。 Of course, Cao Zhenghong couldn't say this to Kong Ming, but that's probably how things happened. This can't help but make Kong Ming sigh very much, if Xiang Zuoding had prepared earlier, or when he was attacked by the enemy, he would have led the army to resist, this battle would definitely not have been lost so badly, at least in the case of a large number of casualties to the enemy, more than 10,000 people could come back, because most of the people lost their resistance when the establishment disappeared.

As they spoke, they came to a trading house at the main entrance of which stood two soldiers of the ragged swordsman battalion, which had become a temporary residence for the swordsman battalion. Sure enough, Cao Zhenghong said: "Here, this is the temporary residence of the swordsman battalion, and now there are not many people left in the swordsman battalion, including you, but there are more than 1,100 people, the battalion commander let the enemy besiege to death, and now I am in charge of this place for the time being." You take the personnel inside to rest first, and then you come with me to the west gate to see where the defense is. ”

"Where to defend?" asked Soraaki.

"Yes, the place to defend, now the entire Zhecheng defense force is insufficient, and those of us who have withdrawn will also join the defense, and we have also divided a section. And this trading house is only more than 200 meters away from there, and it can be supported at once. There are now more than 200 people on the defensive, and the rest of the people are resting here, everyone has just arrived, if we can't hold this city, the land behind us will be greatly damaged, this was originally the first line of defense of our land, but because it was originally an alliance with Yan State, so the standard of cultivation here is not so high, and now it seems that it is very difficult to defend. Cao Zhenghong said.

"Yes. Kong Ming replied, and then summoned He Feng over, and after explaining some matters to him, he just wanted to take a look at the defensive area with Cao Zhenghong, but heard Cao Zhenghong say: "By the way, these more than 400 people are under your command from now on, and you will make a list of those people when you go back, from now on you will be the captain of the three major teams of the swordsman battalion, and I will report this matter to General Xiang when I turn back." ”

Everyone couldn't help but be stunned when they heard Cao Zhenghong's words, this is too evil. As if seeing everyone's doubts, Cao Zhenghong continued: "Now that the loss of officers is strict, the loss of the team is also very strict, and General Xiang stipulates that each battalion should choose its own officers, and let the team regain its combat effectiveness. You brought these people out, and from today onwards they will be under your command. Kong Ming replied with a salute, and after agreeing, he was very happy to see Cao Zhenghong, and after Kong Ming explained some things to He Feng, he followed Cao Zhenghong to the city wall.

After walking to the city wall, Kong Ming's first thing was to take a deep breath, if what Cao Zhenghong said just now gave Kong Ming a little hope, then now Kong Ming is probably only despair. The height difference between the city wall and the ground is only a little more than twelve meters, which is indeed a very high height for ordinary people, but for people above the senior swordsman, this is not an obstacle at all, and the senior swordsman can go up to the city with a light cross. The width of the city wall is not very wide, only less than three meters, such a width, it is simply impossible to put more troops, that is to say, within a certain range, the battle on the city wall will be a one-on-one or one-on-many battle, and it is completely impossible to use the tactics of crowds to pile up the opponent's senior swordsmen. Under the city wall is a moat, but this moat, not so much a river, is more like a stream, the depth of the water is at a glance, this is still the situation of the water is relatively turbid, according to Kong Ming's judgment the water depth may be less than one meter, the river is about five meters wide. Beyond the moat is a flat area about two kilometers wide, which seems to be a very suitable place for attacking. On the city wall, there were rows of soldiers standing there, but judging from their expressions, Kong Ming saw not a desire for battle, but fear, and even some soldiers who might have just withdrawn from the maple forest, their hands were still trembling, and some were even crying. Looking at the appearance of these people, both of them were very heavy in their hearts, how could they hold this city with this kind of appearance? If Lightyear saw this situation, maybe Kong Ming and they still had a glimmer of hope to hold this city, but if Kong Ming and the others knew about another situation, then he would definitely not come to this city, but would stop in the next city. Because at this time, Xiang Zuoding had already led his cronies and 6,000 cavalry to quietly leave this city under strict secrecy, and go to the next city, where he was going to reorganize an army and come to a decisive battle with the Yan army, because there were 100,000 troops prepared for him by various countries for him to lead. Therefore, at this moment, with the addition of 5,000 original defenders, the entire Zhecheng has only 8,000 troops. Eight thousand against one hundred thousand, think about it and know what the result is. But this information is only known to a small number of people, and Cao Zhenghong is one of them, he is now leading this Kong Ming up, not to let Kong Ming be familiar with the city defense, but to let Kong Ming defend this city wall instead of him in an unaware situation, and he is ready to escape with a cheat. The two walked on the city wall, constantly talking about some matters of defending the city, what Kong Ming didn't expect was that Cao Zhenghong was not only the current commander of the swordsman battalion, but also seemed to be the highest officer in the defense of the entire West Gate.

The two of them stood on top of the West Gate, looking at the scattered soldiers who kept coming in and fled back from the Maple Forest Battlefield, the tattered clothes made the hearts of the two of them continue to be heavy, and then Cao Zhenghong said: "Kong Ming, this is the defense center of the entire West Gate, and I am also the commander of the defense of the entire West Gate, you are my deputy." Cao Zhenghong didn't give Kong Ming a chance to answer, and continued, "There are only 2,000 people in the entire West Gate, and our task is to defend for three days, and after three days, we can evacuate by ourselves." I hope you don't disappoint me and let the Grand Duke down. Cao Zhenghong said solemnly. If Kong Ming is really a person who grew up in school since he was a child, then Kong Ming will definitely be moved by Cao Zhenghong's words, but Kong Ming has seen too many of this situation, and when he hears Cao Zhenghong's words, he still doesn't know what he thinks, it is nothing more than asking Kong Ming to do his best to fight for time for him to escape. But in this case, Kong Ming couldn't say too much, so he could only respond, in fact, Cao Zhenghong deliberately added a day for his own safety, that is to say, Xiang Zuoding originally only needed them to defend for two days, and he asked Kong Ming to defend for three days, and the rest didn't know why.

After returning to the trading house, Kong Ming immediately found the ten captains and squad leaders who broke out with him, and after explaining the matter to them, there were also huge waves between them, and they quarreled with each other for a long time, but they didn't argue about the reason, and the key points of the argument were nothing more than two, one was not to stay and participate in this battle, you must know that they had personally experienced the horror of the Yan Army, and the other was the question of how to form how to form the team, and who would be the captain. Kong Ming quietly looked at them who were arguing, and couldn't help but feel sad in his heart, he hadn't rested since last night, and he had been fighting, so he could finally take a break, but let them quarrel around, it was really annoyed in his heart, but this kind of thing can't help but be solved, otherwise these things can definitely affect the combat effectiveness in the future. After thinking about it, Kong Ming made a hand gesture, motioned for them to stop, looked at their faces, and said calmly: " All stopped, this situation is not more than usual, if it is under normal circumstances, this promotion is a very difficult problem, but now, under the situation of war, dead people are a very common thing, our Chu army in a battle yesterday, 60,000 people, now there are only more than 8,000 people left, this also includes a lot of wounded, if you talk about the people who can fight, maybe less than 7,000 people, many of the wounded have been transferred to the rear. Whether this battle can be returned alive is still unknown, what is there to fight for. Now I announce that He Feng, the captain of the first team of the three major teams of the swordsman battalion, has all the original three teams plus some personnel from other teams, a total of 120 people; Chen Mingjian, the captain of the second team, has the personnel of the original four teams plus some personnel from other teams, a total of 140 people, Jiamusi, the captain of the third team, the personnel of the original six teams plus some personnel from other teams, and also a total of 120 people, Pang Degang, will combine the remaining 50 people as the direct team under the jurisdiction of the brigade, and I will divide the team according to what I said, if everyone can work together, then we can still get through this difficult situation together。 Kong Ming ignored the noise of those people just now, and directly assigned the team. When those people saw Kong Ming's distribution, they didn't dare to have any opinions, so they all went to implement it. War is indeed a very good eliminator, after Kong Ming brought those people out, except for a few low-level swordsmen, the rest at least have the strength of senior swordsmen, and there are more than 20 people who have reached the strength of intermediate swordsmen, and there are four people who have the strength of senior swordsmen, among which Chen Mingjian and Pang Degang are two senior swordsmen, and Kong Ming has compiled three senior swordsmen and eleven intermediate swordsmen in the direct team, just to make the direct team a sharp knife, so that Kong Ming can give full play to their combat effectiveness to the extreme. After spending some time arranging the team, let the three teams take turns to go to the head of the city and defend. The direct team is Kong Ming's sharp knife and completes the most difficult task, so Kong Ming did not let them be on duty.