Black clouds crush the city.

At the head of Yanzhou City, the planter Dao stood solemnly next to the arrow battlement, his expression seemed to be more dignified than the dark clouds in the sky, his white eyebrows were tightly locked, and the wrinkles on his face were much deeper than in the past.

He stared at the Xixia military camp outside the city for a long time before he put down a piece of paper in his hand, smiled and didn't say anything.

That piece of paper was a war letter, which was shot by the condor archers of the Tangut people outside the city with bows and arrows.

The condor archer opened his bow five hundred steps away, and the arrows were shot impartially on the handsome banner at the head of the city, which made Shangguan Jiannan, who was standing beside the master Dao, feel a pang in his heart, and in terms of archery alone, there is no one in my Yanzhou City who can compare with this Western Xia condor archer.

It's just that of course he can't boost the enemy's morale and lose his prestige, so he just turns a blind eye to the amazing archery skills of this condor shooter, and asks: "Xianggong, what is written in this war book?"

The seed master didn't seem to hear this inquiry, and said thoughtfully: "Who is this archer who shoots arrows, and his archery skills are good, why didn't they see this person make a move when they attacked the city before?" ”

The so-called Condor Shooter originally referred to the Huns' best archery Hercules.

Birds fly in the air, but eagles are difficult to shoot. Prairie eagles, generally with a wingspan of two to three meters, like to stay at a height of more than 300 steps to look for prey, and then swoop and pounce, can hunt larger animals such as sheep and deer, and are extremely ferocious birds.

The average archer simply can't shoot the arrow so high, and the feathers of the steppe eagle are shiny and smooth, if the bow and arrow are not vertically incident on the eagle's body, it will slip on its feathers, and it is difficult to shoot directly.

Therefore, the eagle must not only be accurate, but also be able to pull a strong bow to shoot the eagle. The Condor Shooter is very capable, like a sniper in a modern army.

There are such good archers in Western Xia, but there is no corresponding archer in Yanzhou City to deal with it, and the danger of Yanzhou City is even more.

The Seed Master Dao said what Shangguan Jiannan wanted to say, and the latter no longer responded, secretly regretting in his heart that he only cared about the iron palm and light skills in his life, and failed to work the way of the bow and arrow.

After a while, the cultivator Dao handed the arrow book to Shangguan Jiannan and said, "What the hell are the Xixia people doing? They actually want to decide the victory or defeat by martial arts, and how can the competition decide the outcome of the war? This is simply child's play!"

Shangguan Jiannan took the arrow book and read it, only to see that it was written in Chinese characters, roughly saying that since you have gathered the martial arts masters of the Great Song Dynasty to help defend Yanzhou, then why not compare with our Western Xia warriors, as long as you can win the competition, our Western Xia army is willing to evacuate Yunyun. The inscription is the master of Songba, the national teacher of Western Xia.

As early as the beginning of the five-way war, the planter Dao was about to attack Hengshan according to the plan formulated by Tong Dashuai, but when the generals had not yet set off, the Xixia people had already come overwhelmingly, directly besieged the city of Yanzhou, and began to storm the city, resulting in the instantaneous reversal of the attack and defense of the first road of the five-way war.

At first, by observing the combat strength of the enemy troops who attacked the city, he felt that the strength of the besieging city had almost reached the total number of elite soldiers in Western Xia, and he was very puzzled.

Ignoring other cities, what is the reason for allowing the soldiers and horses of the Great Song Dynasty to attack Xingqing Mansion while pouring troops from all over the country to attack Yanzhou? Is it to exchange territory?

The Tangut people fought in this way, which can only be an explanation for exchanging territories.

Give up the land of Western Xia, and my elite soldiers of Western Xia will occupy the territory of your Great Song Dynasty.

Just because the line along Yanzhou, Huanzhou, Weizhou, and Gyeongju is already the last line of defense in the west, once one of these passes is broken, the defense line of the Great Song Dynasty will collapse immediately.

The consequences of this are very serious, first of all, Jingzhao Mansion will be like a clothless girl surrounded by a group of strong men, exposed to the iron hooves of the Tangut people, and the fall is certain.

Later, although there were Tongguan and Hangu Pass, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Great Song Dynasty did not arrange heavy troops to garrison, and the Western Xia army had the possibility of driving straight into the Central Plains.

Other than that, there is no explanation.

No matter what the intentions of the Western Xia people were, Yanzhou, a city that had been firmly nailed to the border since the time of Fan Zhongyan and Di Qing, must not be lost!

It is not safe to resist the siege of 300,000 troops with less than 70,000 troops in Yanzhou City, so while leading the army of the seed family to defend it to the death, he also issued a martial arts post widely, and summoned the righteous warriors and chivalrous men in the Great Song Dynasty to help defend the city as a kind of family in the martial arts.

The relationship between the seed family and the martial arts is not close, although the family is taught by the Luoyang Wang family, and it is also a martial arts person, but since the beginning of the planting Shiheng, he has devoted himself to the military, and has little to do with the disturbances in the rivers and lakes.

Therefore, the farmer does not have enough appeal for the entire martial arts, and his distribution of martial arts posts this time is carried out through two indirect channels, one channel is the beggar gang, and the other channel is Zhou Dong.

Zhou Tong was also a member of the generals of the Great Song Dynasty in his early years, but because he was determined to destroy the Liao, the Great Song Emperor has always been willing to pay tribute to the Liao Emperor as a nephew, plus the Great Song army is always a civilian official, and the supervising army is blindly commanded, so he withdrew from the military circle in frustration.

In the past, Zhou Dong had a very good relationship with Chong Ge, who was the son of Chong Shiheng and the father of Chong Shi Dao, so when Chong Shi Dao sent a fast horse to Beijing to ask for help, he gave Chong Shi Dao this face, and directly named and appointed the eldest disciple Lu Junyi to come to help in the war.

Sending Lu Junyi, who is known as the world's unparalleled boxer, is not finished, but also issued a martial arts post in the name of himself and the Royal Boxing Gym, inviting fellow martial artists from all over the world to participate in the righteous act.

As for the relationship between the beggar gang and the Western Army, there is also a relationship, in the early years, the beggar gang was very national, and has always fought to the death against foreign armed forces, as early as when Yang Wenguang, the general of the Yang family, was stationed in the west, Wu Changfeng, the elder of the beggar gang, had tried to stop the Western Xia masters in Yingchou Gorge, so that Yipintang's plan to assassinate Yang Wenguang failed.

At this time, although the beggar gang had no leader, lost the prestige of the world's largest gang, and took over a mine in Baisheng in Bianjing to get rich, but as soon as he heard that the Seed Master Dao asked for help from fellow martial artists, a faction headed by Elder Wu Changfeng immediately responded, in addition to bringing seven disciples who were rudders, and also invited many heroes who had old ties with the beggar gang.

Perhaps it was precisely because of the influx of many martial arts people from the Central Plains into Yanzhou that the Western Xia would issue such a challenge to set up a martial arts competition, and the battle book also agreed on the time of the martial arts competition, which was half a month later.

The Seed Master Dao was never able to understand the attack of the Tanguts. Based on his previous knowledge of the Western Xia, it seems that the Western Xia people should not be so crazy.

It is not impossible to break through Yanzhou and attack the Central Plains based on Yanzhou, but there is a very important prerequisite, that is, the military rations must keep up, otherwise it will be tantamount to a fool's dream.

This means that if the Tanguts can break through Yanzhou in a short period of time, then their strategic intentions are expected to be realized, otherwise they can only retreat to Xingqing Mansion in disgrace.

It's not that the Western Xia people haven't fought Yanzhou, and the Empress Dowager Liang of the Western Xia had a large army to besiege Yanzhou, but that time it was a siege to send reinforcements, the purpose was to eliminate the reinforcements sent to Yanzhou by the Great Song Dynasty, and the purpose was not the same as this time.

However, this time, hundreds of thousands of troops from Western Xia have been besieging the city for more than a month, and they have no intention of retreating, which makes him very incomprehensible.

After having the support of Zhou Dong and the beggar gang, he was not afraid of the siege of the Western Xia army for decades, he just couldn't figure it out, how did these Western Xia people have a good grain and grass?

Yes, there is indeed a grain production area in the western part of the Hengshan region, but with the capacity of this grain production area, in addition to self-sufficiency, it is not enough to provide grain and grass for hundreds of thousands of troops for more than a month.

And if the grain and grass of the Western Xia army were transported from Xingqing Mansion, he would not believe it if he was killed, the thousands of miles of desert between Xingqing Mansion and Yanzhou were dangerous, and it was nothing to transport a small amount of goods and supplies, but if this passage was used to ensure the baggage of the 300,000 army, no matter how stupid the Western Xia people were, they would not do such an unreliable thing.

The Tangut people, whose ancestors were nomadic peoples, paid the most attention to eating the enemy in the war of aggression and nourishing the war with war. Eat wherever you want, continue to fight when you eat, and retire when you are full or without food, without exception.

However, Yanzhou City and the surrounding villages would never provide food to these brazen invaders, which was a long-standing habit of the soldiers and civilians of the Great Song Dynasty on the Song-Xia border.

It was not only the Western Xia people who knew how to fortify the walls and clear the wilderness, in fact, the two sides that had been fighting for decades would play such a hand. I can't beat you, I'll starve you!

So at the beginning of this campaign, when the Tanguts attacked Yanzhou for seven days without results, he once thought that the Tanguts could return to Hengshan with their tails between their legs.

And he also saw this when he observed the movement of enemy troops at the head of the city. He saw that part of the enemy army had withdrawn to Yokoyama.

However, after that suspected withdrawal, it was not the withdrawal of the entire army that followed, but an even more frantic siege, following the initial seven-day siege, and another half a month of crazy siege.

Of course, the Tanguts attacked for more than 20 days and failed to conquer Yanzhou, and the only result was that the soldiers on both sides suffered more casualties.

He thought that the Tanguts should withdraw their troops at this time, right? But he didn't expect that the Tanguts still did not withdraw, not only did they not withdraw, but they had signs of a long-term siege, and they actually began to besiege but not fight, what is the reason for this?

Could it be that they could go to war with the soldiers and civilians of Yanzhou without eating or drinking until they were old? How could this be?

The unreasonable actions of the Tangut people made him, a veteran military strategist, fall into a lot of fog.

Today, I have received such a letter of war, what is the use of martial arts? Even if the warriors in my city can't defeat your warriors in Western Xia, will I abandon and surrender if I cultivate the Dao of Cultivation? Not to mention that I have a master like Lu Junyi in my city, can I still be afraid of you Xixia Yipintang if I can't succeed in the martial arts competition?

Thinking of this, he immediately ordered someone to put a book case on the head of the city, and wrote a reply by hand, which was very simple, one sentence: "You can compete in martial arts, regardless of victory or defeat!"

This means that no matter whether we win or lose the competition, how we should fight this battle or how we should fight, whether you attack me or defend it, has nothing to do with the outcome of the competition.

The back writing was done, and Yang Keshi was shot back as it was. Yang Keshi is the first fierce general under the Daoist account, according to himself, he is also the descendant of the golden sword Ling Gong Yang Invincible, if you talk about archery, you can be called the first in the Western army.

But even Yang Keshi, who is known as the first archery in the Western Army, can't compare to the condor who shoots arrows below, and regardless of the accuracy of the archery, just say that the shooting distance between the two is nearly 100 steps.

It was a helpless move to let Yang Keshi shoot back the arrow book, just to avoid being too embarrassed, because others couldn't shoot at the gate of the Xixia military camp, if the arrow crossed the moat and fell on the shore, wouldn't it make the Xixia people laugh and lose their big teeth?

After returning to the book, the master Dao and his party went down to the city, preparing to go back to the house to set up a banquet to entertain Lu Junyi and others who came from afar, before going down to the city tower, but saw Wang Jin hurriedly coming over and said: "Qi Yu Xianggong, Han Shizhong is missing." ”

"Missing?" said the planter, who was stunned when he heard this.

The beloved disciple Han Shizhong since he was injured by "Di Lie", he recuperated for more than a month before he recovered, and he has always been around him after healing, and his performance in the previous defense of Yanzhou City was very eye-catching, killing and killing hundreds of Western Xia dead soldiers who attacked the city.

But he has not been seen since last night, and he has not arrived at this morning's o'clock, so the seed master Dao ordered the king to go in to find it, as a major general of the Western Army, he couldn't find anyone in the middle of the war, what kind of system?

"Didn't you go to Yichun Garden to look for him?" asked the stunned Planter Dao.

"I looked for him, and Miss Liang also said that she had not seen him. Wang Jin replied.

The Liang girl in Wang Import is naturally Liang Hongyu, and she is Han Shizhong's friend, and since the Western Xia army has been attacking the city, Liang Hongyu and the Qinglou girls in the city have volunteered to participate in the treatment of wounded soldiers, just like the field nurses in the wars of later generations.

At this moment, the green buildings in the city have been requisitioned by the Seed Master Dao as a wartime medical hall, responsible for accommodating those disabled soldiers who have been withdrawn from the city.

"Keep looking! I told the soldiers and civilians of the whole city to look for him, but I didn't believe it, he didn't leave the city, how could such a big living person not be found?

Han Shizhong is a beloved disciple of the master, an important general in the Western Army, and because of his ambiguous relationship with the famous prostitute Liang Hongyu, he is unknown to everyone in Yanzhou City.

How can a person who is unknown to anyone disappear? Isn't that a joke?

Wherever he ends up in the city, anyone near that corner will be able to find out where he is!

In the next three days, the entire city of soldiers and civilians were mobilized to find Han Shizhong, but there was still no result. Although some people said that they saw him go to Yichun Garden on the night of his disappearance, both the old bustard of Yichun Garden and Liang Hongyu said that they did not see Han Shizhong that night.

Liang Hongyu said that she didn't see Han Shizhong, of course she was lying. Because Han Shizhong was hidden by her in the cellar in the backyard of her bedroom.

While people were still looking all over the city, Liang Hongyu was talking to Han Shizhong in the cellar, "Why are you so troubled, isn't it just a matter of one sentence? Why would you rather die than resist? If you die, what can I do?"