In the middle of the night, the meeting hall of the chief helm of Yueyang Tower was still brightly lit, and Shang Xiaotian, Xie Feiyan, Su Fangzhong, and the four hall masters were still discussing the possible attack methods of the Chu Xiang League. Shang Xiaotian synthesized everyone's opinions and wrote down these eight possible modes of arranging troops for the enemy:

The first type: Shangguan Xiong does not leave the gang to guard the house, nor does he divide the troops, and unites their allies Qinglong Gang, Money Gang, and Seven Evil Sects.

Attack Yueyang Tower with all your might.

The second type: do not leave the gang to defend the house, and do not divide the troops, and the Chu Xiang League will attack Yueyang Tower with all its might, and let the Qinglong Gang and others deal with the Three Gorges Pavilion,

Yellow Crane Tower, Immersion Moon Pavilion and Wudang came to help.

The third type: do not leave the gang to defend the house, but divide the troops, about seventy percent of the troops will attack Yueyang Tower, and the remaining thirty percent of the troops will unite with the Qinglong Gang

etc., respectively to deal with the rudder and Wudang to help.

Fourth: do not leave the gang to defend the house, to divide the troops, about forty percent of the troops to attack Yueyang Tower, the remaining sixty percent of the troops to unite with the Qinglong Gang, etc.,

Deal with the rudder and Wudang Mountain respectively, and try to eliminate the reinforcements from all over the place before attacking Yueyang Tower.

The fifth type: leave hundreds of gangs to guard their homes, regardless of the troops, and unite with the Qinglong Gang and others to attack Yueyang Tower.

Sixth: Leave hundreds of gangs to guard their homes, regardless of the troops, and the Chu Xiang League will attack Yueyang Tower with all their might, and let the Qinglong Gang and others deal with the rudders

and Wudang came to help.

Seventh: Leave hundreds of gangs to guard the house, divide the troops, about seventy percent of the troops attack Yueyang Tower, and the remaining thirty percent of the troops will unite with the Qinglong Gang

and so on to deal with the rudder and Wudang to help.

The eighth type: leave hundreds of gangs to guard the house, to divide the troops, about forty percent of the troops to attack Yueyang Tower, and the remaining sixty percent of the troops to unite with the Qinglong Gang

etc., respectively to deal with the rudder and Wudang Mountain to help, and try to eliminate the reinforcements from all over the place before attacking Yueyang Tower.

Shang Xiaotian stared at the large rice paper hanging on the wall listing these eight possible methods, and asked Xie Feiyan: "Chief Xie, which attack method do you think Shangguan Xiong is most likely to use?"

"Hmm......" Xie Feiyan also stared at the rice paper, scanned it one by one, pondered for a while, and said: "Landlord, I think it is most likely the seventh way." ”

"Tell me your reasoning. Shang Xiaotian glanced at Xie Feiyan with a smile, and his left index finger tapped the desktop quickly.

"That's what I think," Xie Feiyan gently stroked her hair, "First, the general rudder of the Chu Xiang League was built by Shangguan Xiong after years of hard work and a lot of manpower and material resources, and it is impossible for him to leave someone to guard his home. I estimate that he will have to keep at least five or six hundred gangsters and a few masters, such as one or two masters from the Five Protectors and the Four Hidden Dragons, to guard the house. ”

Shang Xiaotian nodded as he listened attentively.

As Xie Feiyan spoke, he paid attention to Shang Xiaotian's reaction, and when he saw that he agreed, he was smug and continued: "Second, it is definitely unrealistic to expect the more than 1,000 rabble of the Qinglong Gang, the Money Gang, and the Seven Evil Sect to resist our more than 1,000 tiger-wolf-like reinforcements. In this way, Shangguan Xiong had to arrange at least thirty percent of his troops and some masters to assist in order to be able to block it. ”

Shang Xiaotian's face was a little lighter, and he couldn't stop his head. Xie Feiyan took a sip of tea gently, wiped the corners of her mouth with a clean yellow hand, and continued: "In this way, Shangguan Xiong's strength to attack my Yueyang Tower is less than 2,000 people, and our side has more than 1,200 people, I believe that it will be no problem to hold on for three or four days." As for the part of their forces that are blocked on the periphery, I think they will be able to withstand it for two or three days at most! That is to say, after three days at most, Shangguanxiong will be attacked on his back. At that time, the strength of the two sides will be close, and it may be said who will win and who will lose!"

Shang Xiaotian muttered: "If we really fight a decisive battle in this situation, the strength of the Chu Xiang Alliance will still be slightly stronger than ours......"

"Kill 800 enemies, lose 1,000 yourself!Will Shangguan Xiong do this kind of loss-making business?" Xie Feiyan interrupted Shang Xiaotian's words, "What's more, after all, it is my main enemy and guest, and after a long time, their morale will inevitably be greatly damaged, and supplies will inevitably be a big problem." ”

This time he was interrupted, Shang Xiaotian was not angry, it seemed that he agreed with it in his heart. He bit his lower lip, his eyes flashing, silently thinking. For a while, everyone was silent, but their faces looked a lot lighter.

"Fang Zhong, what do you think it is? Shang Xiaotian broke the gloom and asked.

"I agree with the sixth sister. "Su Fang Zhongdao.

"What about you?" Shang Xiaotian asked the other four hall masters.

You Yuanjiang and Chai Jing also nodded in agreement, while Qu Feng and Fan Wei hesitated and did not nod.

Shang Xiaotian raised his hand to Fan Wei and said, "Hall Master Fan, which one do you think it will be?"

Fan Weidao: "I think it's very possible for the sixth sister to say this way, but it is also possible for the sixth way to attack." ”

"Go on. Shang Xiaotian smiled and encouraged.

Fan Wei cleared his throat and said, "I think so: Shangguan Xiong may attack us with all his strength first, and then send people to resist after reinforcements from all over our side arrive. ”

"Reasonable! Reasonable!" Shang Xiaotian nodded, "Go on." ”

"He wants to crush us before reinforcements arrive from all over our country and flank them. In that case, we are under a lot of pressure. Fan Wei frowned.

"Well, this move is indeed very powerful!" Shang Xiaotian's previously relaxed expression turned solemn.

"It's impossible this way at all!" Xie Feiyan interjected and sneered: "I have analyzed it before, the Yellow Crane Tower, but it can be reached in half a day, and the Three Gorges Pavilion, the Immersion Moon Pavilion and Wudang come to help, and they can all arrive one after another after a day's work." With our strength, can they be defeated in one day? Since they can't, it hasn't evolved into a situation where they are attacked on the back and then the two sides will have a decisive battle, but the time has been advanced. ”

Shang Xiaotian didn't say anything this time, looked at Qu Feng expressionlessly, and asked, "Master Qu, what do you think?"

Qu Feng said: "I think the most likely is the second way, or the fourth way. ”

"Oh?" Not only Shang Xiaotian was a little surprised, but the rest of the people were also surprised.

Qu Feng continued: "Shangguan Xiong and Ma Mingshan are both ruthless, and once they attack, they will go all out. I think he will think that we can't take care of self-preservation, how can we have the strength to attack the chief helm of the Chu Xiang League?"

"But, isn't he worried about other gangs taking advantage of the fire to rob?" You Yuanjiang shook his head, disagreeing with the authentic Dao.

"I don't think he has to worry," Qu Feng said, "Nowadays, there are ambitious gangs in the rivers and lakes, which one is stronger than the Chu Xiang League? Once the Chu Xiang League wins, isn't he killing himself?...... So, I don't think Shangguan Xiong will guard his home. ”

Shang Xiaotian was noncommittal and motioned for him to continue.

Qu Feng continued: "It would be too risky to use the first way and not block it at all, and if the third way was adopted, the two sides would be evenly matched. And these two ways are likely to evolve into the kind of decisive battle situation that the sixth sister said in the end. Therefore, I think that Shangguan Xiong will either concentrate his superior forces and try to eat us before our reinforcements arrive, or he will concentrate his superior forces and eat the reinforcements on our periphery first, and then attack us in the end. ”

"It's all well analyzed!" Shang Xiaotian said approvingly, "I also think that the most likely way is the second and seventh ways. The reason is: If you want to eat the reinforcements from the periphery first, first, the four sides come to help, which is too scattered and not easy to eat; second, the strength of the reinforcements is not bad, especially Wudang, who comes to help, and if you don't have a thousand troops and 800 troops, you can't think about it! Therefore, I think Shangguanxiong will only consider eating us first. ”

Shang Xiaotian glanced at everyone one by one, saw that they were all nodding, and continued: "As for whether I will choose the second or seventh way, I prefer the seventh way. First, I think that although Shangguan Xiong is ruthless, he is not crazy, he will still arrange a small number of troops to defend the old nest, in case the army is defeated and withdrawn, so that he has a chance to make a comeback. Second, with the Qinglong Gang and other gangs, they can't stop our reinforcements at all, and they may not even be able to stop the Wudang side. Therefore, he should have divided some of his forces to assist the allies. ”

When everyone heard this, they all shook their heads one after another, only Qu Feng shook his head lightly as if he was unwilling.

Shang Xiaotian didn't pay attention to Qu Feng, and finally summed it up: "Let's prepare for defense according to the enemy's seventh offensive method! Qu Feng, you have to keep an eye on their movements at any time, especially to keep in touch with Chu Qian at any time! If there is a change, we will revise the defensive strategy!"

※※※

In fact, the strength of Chu Xiangmeng was indeed similar to what Shang Xiaotian expected. However, there were a few things that he didn't expect.

First, he didn't expect Chu Xiangmeng's attack to come so quickly and launch it at noon the next day. Only a few people in the gang knew the time of the attack of the Chu Xiang Alliance this time, and by the time Chu Qian got the news, he had already set off with the army, and there was no time to send the news.

The second is that Wudang has been surrounded, and there is no way to send a large number of people to help, and the dozens of people led by Deadwood could not set off as soon as they got the news, but delayed for a whole day.

The third is that he underestimated the strength and determination of the Blue Dragon Gang, the Money Gang, and the Seven Demon Sect.

In this attack on Yueyang Tower, Shangguan Xiong followed Ma Mingshan's suggestion and adopted the second way of attack.

He only left a few dozen gangs to watch his house, and the more than 2,000 gangs of the Chuxiang League's general helm almost poured out, quickly gathered in Yueyang with hundreds of gangs scattered in the rivers and lakes to carry out tasks, and launched a fierce attack on Yueyang Tower.

Shangguan Xiong didn't pay attention to Yueyanglou's reinforcements at all, and he didn't even send a single gang to assist the alliance.

As the saying goes, it's easy to get things done when you have money. Therefore, he also followed Ma Mingshan's advice and dealt with the Three Gorges Pavilion, the Yellow Crane Tower and the Immersion Moon Pavilion without using his own people at all, but with money.

He gave Huang Qing, the leader of the Qinglong Gang, 400 taels of gold for the task of blocking the Three Gorges Pavilion for three days, Qian Tong, the leader of the Money Gang, 400 taels of gold for the task of blocking the Immersion Moon Pavilion for three days, and 400 taels of gold for the leader of the Seven Evil Sect, Wei Chang, with the task of blocking the Yellow Crane Tower for two days. If it is one day less, one hundred taels of gold is reduced, and if it is one day longer, one hundred taels of gold is added.

The three gangs have a lot of money, and there are still a lot of benefits for the development of the gang after the fact, and they are really very hard-working.

The Blue Dragon Gang dealt with the Three Gorges Pavilion. Huang Qingzao led more than 300 gang marquis near the Three Gorges Pavilion.

Qin Shiyue got the news that the rudder was attacked, and only left about 30 gangers to guard the house, and hurriedly led more than 200 gangsters to set off in a hurry to go to Yueyang Tower to rescue. As soon as he traveled two miles, he was ambushed by the Blue Dragon Gang at a mountain pass. Fortunately, the Three Gorges Pavilion gang was well-trained on weekdays, and after sacrificing several brothers, they quickly stabilized the formation and launched a counterattack.

Huang Qing was born in the Thunderbolt Sect, and is a proud disciple of the sect, who became famous with the two stunts of Split Stone Claw and Lei Gong Diamond, and founded a gang twelve years ago and established the Blue Dragon Gang. It's a pity that this person is narrow-minded and has not been able to recruit any strong martial arts people to join, so the development is not fast, and the martial arts of the gang are not very strong.

Qin Shiyue is a descendant disciple of the Five Tigers Broken Door Knife, and he has won the true inheritance of his own sect, with strong arm strength and fierce knife skills.

Both of them bore the brunt of the attack and soon fought one-on-one. Huang Qing attacked a few moves with the Split Stone Claw, and gradually became on the defensive under Qin Shiyue's fierce knife momentum, and was busy meeting the enemy with the Lei Gong Diamond. The steel drill carried the dull sound of "woo" and constantly shot at Qin Shiyue, Qin Shiyue blocked it with a steel knife, although his arms were numb from the shock, but he gritted his teeth and resisted it, and from time to time he looked for a gap to fight back. For a time, the two sides fought inextricably.

But the Qinglong Gang gradually couldn't resist, and after a while, more than 30 people were killed and wounded, and they retreated again and again. Seeing that the situation was not good, Huang Qing led the gang to retreat, and was covered for more than ten miles, and Fang Shi stabilized his position. Encouraged by money, the Green Dragon Gang did not flee, but they did not fight hard, but adopted guerrilla tactics, fighting and retreating, and stopping and blocking whenever the terrain was dangerous. There were several times when Qin Shiyue wanted to give up on them and continue to move forward, but Huang Qing led the gang to block the side disturbances and had to stop and fight back.

In this way, the battle was fought intermittently for a day and a night, dozens of people were killed and wounded on both sides, and the Three Gorges Pavilion gang only advanced more than 100 miles.

The situation of the Yellow Crane Tower and the Immersion Moon Pavilion is also similar to that of the Three Gorges Pavilion.

The Seven Evil Sects blocked the Yellow Crane Tower. Wei Changqing led more than 300 gangsters to travel just a few miles when he was intercepted by Wei Chang and his people.

Wei Chang hated to be born in the Golden Sword Gate, known as the "Golden Sword God" by the people of the rivers and lakes, and his martial arts were quite high, and he founded the Seven Evil Sect nine years ago. Wei Changqing was born in the heavy knife door, nicknamed "drawing the knife and breaking the water", since his master "broken mountain knife" Gong Xingshi passed away, he has become the first master of the heavy knife door, and his martial arts are still above the "thunderbolt knife" Qiu Ling.

Wei Changqing held a forty-eight-pound big ring knife, and Wei Chang hated a thirty-six-pound golden knife, and with a "sonorous" sound, the sound of gold and iron was piercing, and both sides had numb arms. Wei Changqing didn't expect this middle-aged slightly thin man who didn't look amazing to have such a strong arm strength, and he was taken aback. Fortunately, he was better than the long sword and the momentum was even better, but when he saw the faint blue light, he attacked Wei Chang with a head and face. After fighting more than 30 moves, the golden knife gradually couldn't resist and couldn't stop retreating.

So Wei Changhe led more than 400 gangs to retreat while intercepting in a dangerous place in a timely manner. After a day and a night, the Yellow Crane Tower only advanced for 200 miles.

The Money Gang blocks the Moon Immersion Pavilion. Wang Zhanpeng led more than 300 gangsters to travel more than 30 miles, but was also blocked by Qian Tong.

Qian Tong is famous for his two stunts, chasing life and money darts, and founded the Money Gang 14 years ago, and now it has grown to more than 500 gangs. And Wang Zhanpeng has become the number one master under the Eagle Claw Sect since the death of his uncle, Wang Su, the head of the Eagle Claw Gate. It is said that his claws can penetrate walls and crack trees, and his martial arts are not far behind Wang Su in his prime.

Qian Tong held a silver Yue more than three feet long, and attacked Wang Zhanpeng like a storm and snow, Wang Zhanpeng did not give an inch, the eagle claw gong unfolded, and the double claws were like silver hooks and iron halberds, tearing the silver shadow from time to time, forcing Qian Tong to retreat. Qian Tong sometimes sent out money darts, and the fluffy golden light curtain covered the opponent, but Wang Zhanpeng was not afraid, swept in the circle with his claws, and confiscated all the golden darts like a tiger eating whale.

Qian Tongjian couldn't resist it, and he fought and left, but he also chose favorable terrain and stopped to intercept from time to time. The two sides fought intermittently for two days and two nights, each of them killed and wounded hundreds of gangs, and the Immersion Moon Pavilion gang only advanced for about 500 miles.

※※※

The Chu Xiang League attacked Yueyang Tower by water and land.

More than 500 gangs, under the leadership of the "Qingzhu Ghost" Qiu Qiyuan, took more than 20 warships converted from cargo ships and launched a fierce attack on the Suzaku Hall gang led by You Yuanjiang. There were only about 400 people in the Suzaku Hall, and after resisting for a day, there were 70 or 80 casualties, and gradually they could not support it, so they abandoned the waterway and withdrew to the general rudder of Yueyang Tower.

The more than 600 gangs led by Qu Feng and Chai Jing on land only resisted for half a day, and they were defeated and retreated, but fortunately, the number of casualties was only 60 or 70. Shang Xiaotian immediately made a decision and ordered them to abandon the outlying strongholds and fortresses, withdraw to the general rudder, and prepare to hold on to wait for reinforcements.

The general rudder of Yueyanglou only has a gap of four zhang wide to attack, Shangguan Xiong ordered the gang to attack all night, because he could not open the formation, he could not give full play to the advantage of numbers, and after losing more than 100 gangs, he still could not attack.

The attack did not go well, Shangguan was anxious, and discussed with Ma Mingshan early the next morning whether to change the way of attack.

Ma Mingshan smiled and said: "Don't worry, alliance leader, our strength is three times that of the enemy." As long as we keep attacking, we can consume the enemy's living force. Today, we have lost only about 200 men, and they have lost nearly 200 men. At this rate of loss, by this time tomorrow, they will lose at least four hundred. In this way, they will suffer nearly half of the casualties, and they will no longer be able to resist. ”

Shangguan Xiong calmed down a little, and said with some concern: "Having said that, I'm still worried that the Wei Chang will hate them and won't be able to resist them for two days. ”

Ma Mingshan muttered: "I think they should serve their lives this time." As long as they are willing to work hard, they will definitely be able to complete the task. ”

Shangguan Xiong pondered for a while, nodded and said, "The words of the military advisor are very ...... Now, we have no other choice but to fight hard! Hmph, we must break through Yueyang Tower and kill Shang Xiaotian before dawn tomorrow!"

On this day and night, the Chu Xiang League gang never stopped, and one after another took turns to launch a tidal attack on the chief rudder of Yueyang Tower. The gang braved the rain of arrows, constantly impacting the sword net of Yueyang Tower. Because there are more than 100 masters in the Chu Xiang League, killing people is like chopping melons and vegetables, and Yueyang Tower also suffered heavy casualties.

As Ma Mingshan estimated, by dawn the next day, the Yueyanglou Gang had been sharply reduced to more than 600 people, while the Chuxiang League's gang had lost less than 600. For a moment, both sides were tired and scarred, and the battle stopped.

Shang Xiaotian knew that this was brewing before the decisive battle, and the enemy's next attack would be as fierce as a strong wind and as wild as the waves, and more than 2,000 members of the Chu Xiang League were preparing to attack like a bamboo. At that time, the enemy, who is four times larger than his own, will brutally strangle the Yueyanglou gang.

He was anxious when he saw that reinforcements were delayed. So he ordered Su Fangzhong to send out a flag flower signal, and exploded a horseshoe-shaped gorgeous flag flower in mid-air.

According to the pre-agreed signal, Dou Xingkong and Yao Yuan were summoned to come and have a decisive battle.