Cangzhou beacon fire

Chapter 31
The siege outside the city is imminent, and the city of Baishui is in chaos. The tavern in the north of the city is usually very lively, but today it is deserted with only one drinker.

The shopkeeper at the counter was full of sadness. He came from Yuedong and sold the shop. He spent a lot of time on the decoration, but the business broke up again after a few days. All the savings were wasted.

Because there was only one customer, the waiter didn't bother to greet him, so he went back to the firewood room to sleep lazily.

"Trouble, have another jug ​​of sake." The drinker raised his hand and said.

When the shopkeeper heard this, he stood up and looked around, but he didn't see the waiter, so he went to get the wine while cursing.

After the shopkeeper put the wine on the table, the drinker asked: "Shopkeeper, what's the situation? Why do I hear people on the street hurrying?"

The angry shopkeeper wanted to tell him that you don't know how to read by yourself, but he looked at the drinker and swallowed everything he wanted to say.

The drinker is dressed in gray plain clothes. He doesn't look like Yueren or Sanyuan people, but more like people from the northwest of the mainland. He looks about forty or so, and what surprises the shopkeeper is that the man's calm face is neatly folded. The white cloth is stretched across the eyes, covering both eyes.

It turned out to be a blind man, the shopkeeper thought.

After all, you are a customer, so the shopkeeper can only answer with a sad face: "Oh, there is a war again, the guest officer sees that your clothes are not local, so find a place to hide, otherwise if Sanyuan breaks the city, you and I will not survive. .”

"Oh, the Sanyuan Army is coming? Didn't you hear that Luo Guo intervened and the two sides stopped fighting?"

"Guest officer, you don't understand this, right? The Luanzhou Kingdom in the north of the Luo Kingdom has captured the three cities of the Xiao Kingdom. The envoys from the Luo Kingdom were killed by the Luanzhou Kingdom when they tried to persuade them to make peace. The northern border of the Luo Kingdom is next to the Xiao Kingdom. Said that the main force has been sent north to support Xiao Guo."

The blind man in gray then asked, "Oh, what does that have to do with Sanyuan?"

Seeing someone listening, the shopkeeper forgot the predicament in front of him for a moment, and sat down: "Let me tell you, there is definitely unrest in the north of Luo Kingdom, and Sanyuan and Yue Kingdom in the east will fight again. The two ends of the country are hard to care about, so the eight cities in the west of Jin were awarded to the Yue country to ensure the stability of one side, but he took the three yuan land to appease our Yue country, can the three yuan people agree? ”

After the shopkeeper finished his epiphany, he slapped himself on the head and complained to himself: "That's right! Oh, why didn't I think of it at the beginning...Old Yu, you are such an idiot!"

The blind man in gray nodded, as if he had understood a little, and sighed, "I wanted to meet the eldest son of Zhong's family from Yue Kingdom, but I didn't want to encounter a war."

Hearing the words Zhong's eldest son, the shopkeeper looked at the blind man vigilantly: "Zhong's eldest son? You mean Major General Zhong?"

"Yes, it is the unlucky man who is rumored to have bad luck in your Yue country. I heard that he will take over the city, so I came here specially."

The shopkeeper looked at the blind man with disdain on his face: "I said, guest officer, who are you? Not everyone can see General Zhong, let alone he hasn't come to worship the water yet."

The blind man poured a full glass, drank it in one gulp, let out a satisfied cry, and continued, "Well, since I haven't arrived yet, I'll give him a gift as a meeting gift."

"Meeting ceremony?"

"Shopkeeper, can I ask how to get to the garrison camp?"

"Ah, the garrison camp? It's just two roads east of the tavern, but how do you get there like this, guest officer?" The shopkeeper's concern is not unreasonable. A blind man can't even walk, let alone find a camp.

The blind man nodded, took out an ingot of gold and put it on the table before getting up.

"Wow! Guest officer, you gave it wrong! You gave it a gold ingot!" The shopkeeper is also a sincere person. This big ingot of gold, not to mention paying for the wine, is more than enough to buy the entire shop.

The blind man smiled, waved his hand and said: "No mistake, life is not easy, just take it as a thank you to the shopkeeper for chatting with Xiao during this time of chaos."

"This..." The shopkeeper didn't know what to say for a while, but the blind man clapped his palms twice, and the applause fell, and a figure jumped down from the roof and came to the blind man.

The shopkeeper carefully looked at the person who came down from the roof. He didn't seem very old, like a child, dressed in gray cloth, with a lot of hair on his face and body, thin and thin, and his walking posture was quite strange, with one hand on the ground.

What does this look like? The shopkeeper thought about it for a long time, and suddenly an animal figure popped into his mind, a monkey!right!It's like a monkey in human clothes, no matter its walking posture or body shape, it looks like a monkey. Of course, its face is more like a human face, that is, it has more hair than ordinary people.

"Sir, call me?" The hairy man came up to the blind man and asked, scratching his cheek.

"Well, take me to the city tower first, I'll understand the situation, and then go to the Yueguo military camp." The blind man replied blankly.

After the two had left, the shopkeeper stared blankly at the gold ingot in his hand and at the backs of the two, and said to himself, "You two are weird, but they are generous."

Baishui City is located on the main road to the west of Jinxi, and the city walls are thick and thick. The Sanyuan army is divided into three lines at this time, and besieged the east, west, north and west gates of Baishui City.

Baishui Ximen is close to Sanyuan Headquarters, so the battle situation in Ximen is much more tragic than other gates, and there are corpses all over the tower and under the city wall.

However, Sanyuan's first wave of siege was not going well. The walls of Baishui City, which were twelve feet high and five feet wide, were bombarded by Sanyuan trebuchets. Although there were some cracks, no gaps appeared.

The Sanyuan Army, which climbed the wall by climbing ladders, was also defeated under the desperate resistance of the Yue Army.

Yan Yu looked at the city of Baishui surrounded by beacon fire from a distance, and it was expected that the first wave of attack would be unfavorable. He waved his hand to signal the new round of attack to continue.

Li Ao, the deputy general, came over and asked: "General, the loss is heavy, should you slow down and let the soldiers rest?"

Yan Yu shook his head, with a calm face: "Although the city of Baishui is high and thick, the defenders are limited. They took turns to attack the two gates in the northwest, exhausting the Yue army in the city and losing their strength first." In the city, as long as the city can be captured, this new army of the Yue Kingdom can be wiped out in one fell swoop, which will be an extremely fatal blow to the Yue Kingdom.

Li Ao continued: "A few days ago, more than a hundred minions have infiltrated the city of Baishui. I have secretly contacted them to attack the east gate at night. When the time comes, we should cooperate from inside and outside, and we can take down Baishui in one fell swoop."

"That's the bottom line. It's not difficult for us to break through head-on. Tell me to order the two sects to continue attacking in rotation. They won't be given a chance to rest." Yan Yu naturally doesn't like to use this method of stealing the three roads under the city. Now that the siege equipment is complete, and the army has an absolute advantage in strength, only a frontal attack can serve as a deterrent.

"Subordinates obey."

On the head of Ximen City, Wang Le didn't know how many Sanyuan soldiers who ascended first, he was already sweating profusely, panting heavily, and his arms were weak to lift the knife. At this time, another group of Sanyuan soldiers Yuan soldiers climbed up the ladder, Wang Le swallowed his saliva, and shouted loudly: "Brother, none of them can be allowed to come up!"

The Yue soldiers around were all exhausted and out of breath. After being shouted by Wang Le, they forcibly suppressed their fatigue, and rushed towards the Sanyuan soldiers who climbed the wall with a roar.

Ximen's offensive had just stopped, some of Wang Le and a group of soldiers bandaged their wounds, some took bowls to drink water, but most of them sat down to replenish their strength, regardless of the pile of corpses around them.

A group of soldiers in the streets of the city panicked, rushed to the bottom of the city, and shouted to Wang Le on the tower: "Head! Sanyuan at the north gate increased the offensive, and the number of wall-climbing ladders increased from twenty to forty. Brother can't hold it anymore!"

Wang Le yelled at the soldier who sent him down, "Where's the Golden Feather Cavalry?"

"I don't know, General Zhou seems to have not finished training yet!"

"Hey, what's the training, the city is almost broken!" Wang Le, who was about to drink water to quench his thirst, smashed the bowl in his hand, drew out his sword again and said sharply: "The first battalion stands firm, and the other brothers follow me to the north gate to defend the city! Never let a three-yuan dog climb the wall!"

All the Yue soldiers smashed their bowls and held their weapons, and responded loudly: "Okay!"

Just as they were about to go down the steps away from the wall, a blind man in gray clothes and a short, hunchbacked and hairy man walked slowly down the steps and stopped in front of them.

"Go away, blind people don't get in the way." Wang Le reprimanded.

"Greetings to General Wang, Xiao is here to provide General Wang with a good strategy for defending the city." The blind man said calmly with a face full of fear.

"Nonsense, a blind man, what good plan do you have? Get out of here! If you block the way again, I'll kill you first." Yue Bingdao next to Wang Le cursed at the blind man.

As soon as he heard that the blind man was going to be cut, the monkey-like young man beside him rushed to the blind man, bowed his body, grinned his teeth, and let out bursts of hissing from his throat. Facing the group of Yuejun armed with sharp weapons, neither of them had the slightest timidity.

Wang Le calmed down, stopped Yue Bing, who was about to continue scolding, looked at the blind man and asked solemnly: "Thank you, Mr. Wang, but this is a battlefield, not a joke, so hurry up and take refuge."

After Wang Le finished speaking, he waved to the soldiers to move forward. He knew in his heart that the city was in chaos at this time. If the Sanyuan Army continued to attack, it would be a matter of time before the city was broken, and he really had no time to waste time with two strange people.

Just when Wang Le and a group of Yue troops passed by the blind man, the blind man spoke again: "General Wang, the three-yuan attack is to make you exhausted, and the east gate will start to attack again. If this continues, the city will be broken." You were exhausted to death on the tower before."

Wang Le stopped immediately when he heard this, turned around and looked at the blind man carefully again, with a hint of interest on his serious face, and asked, "Do you have a countermeasure?"

The blind man nodded, with a trace of confidence on his calm face: "You can guarantee that you will not lose the water."

(End of this chapter)