Fenghou

Chapter 209
Zhang Zhongxiong looked around the city, and basically decided to attack the east and south. The north could not open a battlefield, and the terrain in the west was uneven, which was not good for attacking the city. Only the east and south were relatively wide and flat.

He looked at the big banner with the word "Chen" on the top of the city, and felt that there were not many troops on the top of the city, which made him a little suspicious, and he worked hard to prepare for the attack. Is Chen Qing in the city?Or have you escaped back to Dasan Pass?

Zhang Zhongxiong is very utilitarian, otherwise he would not have betrayed his father and surrendered to Qi.

He has no interest in attacking the Song Army at all, he just wants to catch Chen Qing and get the coveted reward offered by the Emperor Jin.

If Chen Qing wasn't in Ganquan Fort, he wouldn't want to waste time here. He would directly withdraw to Chengji County, and then divide his troops to the counties to occupy the entire Qinzhou.

At this time, his personal soldiers pointed to a general at the head of the city and shouted: "Du Tong, that is Chen Qing!"

Zhang Zhongxiong also saw it. A general wearing a golden helmet and armor with mountain patterns appeared on the top of the city, standing under the banner of Chen Zi. This person's figure and face were indeed very similar to what he had seen on the Xianyang battlefield. Chen Qing, the key is that the other party wears a golden helmet. Besides the general Chen Qing, who else can wear a golden helmet?

At this moment, the soldiers beside 'Chen Qing' shot down an arrow letter, which landed not far in front of Zhang Zhongxiong.

A soldier ran forward and picked up the letter to Zhang Zhongxiong. Zhang Zhongxiong took the letter, and saw on the letter skin, "The envoy of the Qinzhou system in the Song Dynasty ruled Chen Qing, and the puppet Qi general Zhang Zhongxiong." '

Although it was very rude to call him a false Qi general, Zhang Zhongxiong let go of his heart. The bastard on the top of the city is obviously Chen Qing. This is the opportunity given to him by God. Wealth and high-ranking officials are not far ahead. wait for yourself.

All Zhang Zhongxiong's suspicions were gone, he immediately returned to the camp, and ordered the craftsmen to speed up the production of siege ladders, and to build a hundred siege ladders before noon tomorrow.

As night fell, the camp of the Puppet Qi Army was brightly lit. Thousands of soldiers and craftsmen were making siege ladders overnight. For the city ladder, Lieutenant General Liu Hongqing suggested using extra trees to make barracks, but Zhang Zhongxiong vetoed it. He also wanted to make ten siege nest vehicles and an archery tower for watching battles.

Zhang Zhongxiong knew in his heart that their siege weapons were relatively rough and their siege capabilities were relatively weak, so they could only rely on quantity to make up for their quality. It was a waste to get some wood, but it was used to build camp fences. Now all the Song troops are overwhelmed , where else would anyone come to help Chen Qing?
At two o'clock, on a dirt hill south of the camp, several scouts of the Song Army appeared, and the leader was Zhao Xiaoyi.

Zhao Xiaoyi has rich experience. He bypassed the puppet Qi army's patrol from the south and climbed to the mountain south of the enemy's camp. One mile, the advantage of camping like this is that the range of attack is greatly reduced, only the north and west, and at the same time, it is not afraid that the enemy will climb to the top of the mountain and set fire from a condescending height.

In fact, the mountain is not very high, less than a hundred feet high. The puppet Qi army built a sentry tower on the east and south sides of the mountain. The sentry can look down and observe the surrounding situation.

At this time, Zhao Xiaoyi and several of his men were only thirty steps away from the sentry tower to the south. They crawled in a low place, their bodies were blocked by the soil slope, and the soldiers in the sentry tower could not see them.

Zhao Xiaoyi crawled on the edge of the hillside and looked around with his head. The shape of the whole hill was like a sickle, which just surrounded the crescent-shaped camp. The other party obviously took the shape of the mountain into consideration when building the camp.

Looking at the foot of the mountain, there is an open space at the foot of the mountain. It is only one mile to the north that we can see the trenches of the camp.

Zhao Xiaoyi had to admire the opponent's camping experience. Since he used the mountain shape to protect himself, he did not leave any loopholes.

After observing for half an hour, Zhao Xiaoyi waved his hand back, and several of his subordinates crawled back and slowly left the hill. Of course, they also observed the sentry post. The sentry post is not big and can only accommodate two or three people at most. There is only one soldier standing guard at a time, and if an abnormality is found, gunpowder arrows are shot directly into the sky.

Zhao Xiaoyi is a scout, and he needs to observe the situation of the enemy army in advance. At this time, Chen Qing led the army to escort the last batch of grain, grass and supplies, and was on the way to Yelanggou.

Their ranks consisted of [-] horsemen, [-] camels laden with supplies, and [-] carts laden with grain and grass.

On the last day, they seized another [-] carts and more than [-] livestock from Baochuan City. Zheng Ping promised that there would be no more livestock in Baochuan City. The Qing government reported that they could only go there on foot.

In addition to vehicles and livestock, there were nearly [-] Han Chinese from [-] families, including tens of thousands of salt slaves and Han Chinese in Baochuan City. They were humble and enslaved. Most of the Han people are willing to follow Chen Qing to Qinzhou.

As the envoy of the Qinzhou system, Chen Qing promised to give them free land to cultivate and exempt them from taxes for five years.

Chen Qing is well aware of the importance of population. From ancient times to the present, population is the source of wealth and the source of soldiers. Only population can create wealth.

Most of the population of Qinzhou and Fengzhou had fled to Bashu and needed to be replenished. What's more, these Han people were enslaved by Xixia. Rescuing them back to their homeland was also the responsibility of the Song Army.

Chen Qing distributed [-] mules and donkeys, tens of thousands of sheep, and hundreds of thousands of sheepskins to these poor Han people. He also gave them [-] shi of grain and [-] bolts of cloth. They were given all the daily necessities and labor tools that came, and each family gave three pennies of money, so that these poor Han people finally had a little bit of family property.

Under the bright moonlight, [-] people were carrying loads, leading sheep, and carts pulled by mules and donkeys. The carts were loaded with grain, cloth and daily necessities, and there were old people and children sitting there. Full of excitement and hope, the mighty Dang followed the Song army, and the team was twenty miles long.

Song army cavalry followed on both sides of the team, guarding the people and protecting them from wild wolves.

At four o'clock, the mighty team entered the Wild Wolf Ditch, which was more than twenty miles deep and three miles wide, with thick loess high slopes on both sides.

Wang Hao led five hundred soldiers to guard the food and supplies brought in before. The army walked three times before finally emptying the warehouse in Baochuan County.

Chen Qing ordered Zheng Ping to put food and supplies, and ordered Niu Gao to lead the soldiers to appease the people.

Chen Qing is now more concerned about Ganquan Fort thirty miles away, where there are [-] puppet Qi troops, how to deal with them is the top priority right now.

They had [-] cavalry before, and [-] soldiers were killed in a fierce battle with the Baochuan Xixia Army, and [-] soldiers were injured and could not go to the battlefield for the time being. The cavalry he can use now is only more than [-] cavalry.

The more than [-] prisoners of the Song Army who were rescued could be used, but Chen Qing thought about letting Niu Gao lead them to protect the Wild Wolf Ditch, after all, there are a lot of supplies and more than [-] people here.

Chen Qing is still waiting for news from Zhao Xiaoyi.

At this time, Niu Gao came to ask for an interview. He saluted Chen Qing and said, "I have carefully inspected the [-] prisoners of the Song Army. Most of them can ride horses. At least [-] people can be selected to join the army. There are another [-] cavalry available for use."

Don't underestimate these [-] people. Once they join, Chen Qing's army strength will return to the order of [-]. This is a critical level. Once the army has [-] people, it will be able to launch a large-scale battle.

Niu Gao knew this truth, and of course Chen Qing knew it too. He pondered for a moment and said: "There are too few troops left, I'm afraid we can't handle so many supplies and people."

Niu Gao smiled slightly and said: "We have a lot of armor and weapons in our supplies. We can choose a few thousand people from among the thirty thousand people to form a militia. I think this is enough to protect ourselves."

This is the Niu Gao who can stand alone in history, not the reckless man in the novel. Chen Qing admired him greatly, and said to Niu Gao: "I appoint Cheng Ju as the deputy commander to be your subordinate, and I will give you another hundred Brother Elite, I will leave the Wild Wolf Valley to you."

Niu Gao stood up and gave a salute, "The humble job must live up to the great trust of the ruler!"

(End of this chapter)