National color raw owl

"Where is the front?"

"Reporting to Governor Chu, Qingyuan Racecourse is another ten miles away." Someone beside him immediately replied: "After passing Qingyuan Racecourse, according to the current speed, it will take less than two days to reach Hezhou City."

The banners rolled, Chu Huan led Shuoquan soldiers and horses, and after leaving Shuoquan, they headed west.

"Qingyuan Racecourse?" Chu Huan looked ahead, thoughtful.

The Great Qin Empire has eight racecourses, and the northwest occupies three major racecourses. Among them, there are two racecourses on Xiguan Road, but these two racecourses are now in name only.

Originally, the two racecourses in Xiguan were rich in northwest horses, and they were once an important supply place for the empire's war horses. However, after the Xiliang people invaded, Zhu Lingyue took the opportunity to transfer all the warhorses from the Xiguan racecourse. Now there are not many horses in the two racecourses combined. , and the facilities of the racecourse suffered serious damage after the Xiliang people came over.

The damaged racecourse has not been repaired so far, and it is still a mess, but the grass grows and warblers fly, and the racecourse with a radius of tens of miles is extremely empty and green.

When the racecourse was established in the first place, it was of course specially selected. As one of the eight major racecourses in the empire, the Qingyuan racecourse is naturally very advantageous in location.

Not only is this place open and vast, but there is also a large lake near the Qingyuan Racecourse, called Qingyuan Lake. In fact, the Qingyuan Racecourse was named after this Qingyuan Lake.

The horse farm is located on a rather high terrain. Going to the west, it will slope downward, and then the terrain will suddenly rise slowly, forming a horseshoe-shaped valley. The valley is about ten miles long, and there is also greenery. A piece of Yin, this place is called Horse Taming Valley. Qingyuan Horse Farm is one of the eight major horse farms in the empire. The main purpose of raising horses is to raise the strongest war horses for the empire, and not every horse in the horse farm Anyone can be a war horse.

To select a horse that can become a war horse from among the many horses, it is necessary to go through assessment and training, and the horse training valley is one of the important training grounds. It can not only train the diving ability of the horse, but also face the slope. Can test the climbing speed of the horse.

"Pass down the order and rush to the Qingyuan Racecourse. The whole army rests on the spot and eats dry food. After an hour, continue to set off!"

Although it was almost dusk, after a few days, the whole army took the time to reinforce Hezhou City as much as possible. Rescuing soldiers was like fighting a fire. Even marching at night, the soldiers were already used to it.

The military order was passed down, and the whole army rushed to the Qingyuan Racecourse as fast as possible, and stopped there to rest.

Chu Huan got off his horse, sat on the ground, and took the dry food, but he was quite worried about the situation in Hezhou City.

When meeting on a narrow road, the brave wins, Chu Huan has no lack of courage, but this time he fights against Zhu Lingyue, he knows that the odds of winning are not great, but he has never surrendered in his bones, and he will never lose confidence until the last moment if he does not fight.

The soldiers kept quiet, and no one was willing to spend too much energy talking. On the grass of the racecourse, the whole army was silent.

"Report, urgent report...!"

There was a sound of hoofbeats, the sun had already set, and two horses appeared in the west, galloping towards them. Before the people arrived, the sound had already been heard from afar.

Chu Huan frowned, stood up, and the two fast horses arrived as soon as they said they had said, and they all got off the horses. One of them had already galloped over, knelt in front of Chu Huan, and presented a letter. Chu Huan stretched out his hand to take it, and opened it. After glancing at the letter paper, he crumpled the letter paper in his hand and asked, "How is the situation in Hezhou City?"

"Reporting to the governor of Chu, when we set off, the Tianshan army hadn't attacked the city yet, and they set up camp twenty miles west of the city." The messenger reported.

Chu Huan nodded slightly. Qi Hong and others who followed Chu Huan had already stepped forward and asked, "Chu Du, what happened?"

Chu Huan pondered for a while before saying: "Pass down the order, stop marching forward, and set up camp at the Qingyuan Racecourse." Before Qi Hong and others asked further questions, he had already said to the messenger: "You two work harder and return immediately , Tell Mr. Pei that the governor is leading the army at Qingyuan Racecourse!"

The two messengers bowed their hands and retreated.

After the two left on horseback, Qi Hong asked in confusion, "Chu Du, let's not continue marching? Then... what about Hezhou City?"

"Mr. Pei sent a letter asking us to set up camp at the Qingyuan Racecourse." Chu Huan frowned slightly, "Zhu Lingyue has a lot of soldiers and horses, if we kill them directly, I am afraid that Zhu Lingyue will divide his troops to bypass Hezhou City and prevent us from rescuing Hezhou City , Mr. Pei didn't say much, he just said that we should be stationed at Qingyuan Racecourse and respond at any time."

"Response?" Qi Hong was even more puzzled, "What kind of medicine does Mr. Pei sell in the gourd? What is the explanation for the word "response?" Does it mean that if Hezhou City is in danger, we will go to the rescue, or... Hezhou City resists? Can't wait, Mr. Pei will lead his troops to break through, let us meet them here?"

"It should be the latter." Chu Huan thought thoughtfully, "Hezhou City is already in critical condition. At this time, Mr. Pei asked us to stand still again. There should be some arrangements."

"Chu Du, why didn't Mr. Pei explain what he meant to you?" Qi Hong wondered, "Do you really want us to wait here?"

Chu Huan was silent for a moment, and finally said: "Send scouts to keep an eye on the situation in the west. The governor has handed over the command of the Hezhou war to Mr. Pei. The strategy and tactics of the Hezhou war will follow Mr. Pei's wishes."

Chu Huan didn't understand Pei Ji's intention for a while, but Pei Ji seemed to understand Zhu Lingyue's thoughts very well. The people outside the city were enthusiastically pulling soil to fill the ditch. No anxiety.

According to Pei Ji's intention, Han Ying selected some archers with excellent archery skills and shot arrows at the common people several times. They didn't hurt anyone, and they all shot at the common people's side. At the beginning, the common people seemed extremely panicked. , dropped the shovel and hoe in his hand, turned around and ran away. After a while, the city stopped shooting arrows. The generals of the Tianshan Army seemed to encourage the people again. Some bold people approached again, and then the people came again They returned one after another to continue the work, shot again at the top of the city, and the people retreated again, and again and again, the people below the city seemed to see that the defenders were only shooting arrows to intimidate them, and they became more courageous. Later, when they shot arrows, the people didn't care.

Han Ying had no choice. Fortunately, Pei Ji said at the beginning that this kind of small trick was nothing more than to delay the progress of the people.

But within a day, the first ditch outside the west gate of Hezhou City had been filled, and the progress was truly astonishing.

For the next two days, the people continued to work overtime, and the Tianshan Army stood outside the city facing the defenders for three whole days. The people were sweating profusely, while the soldiers of the Tianshan Army waited in place, eating and sleeping in place. .

Seeing this, Han Ying couldn't help sighing in her heart. Although Zhu Lingyue was ambitious, he trained well. Regardless of the combat effectiveness of the Tianshan Army, at least their discipline was extremely strict.

When the people were about to fill up the third ditch, the defenders at the top of the city knew that the war was about to begin, and when the ditch was filled up, it was the beginning of the war.

At this moment, the Northwest Army, which had been standing still in Fuguiling, finally made a move. The flag of the Northwest Army began to move down from the mountain and moved towards the north gate of Hezhou City.

The west gate of Hezhou City Defense is the main gate, which is guarded by Han Ying, the lord of the city, and the north gate is guarded by Xu Shao, the commander of the Fengzi Battalion of the Xiguan Imperial Guard.

The Tianshan Army did not make any major moves for three whole days. When the people were about to fill up the last ditch, the Tianshan Army made some moves from the beginning. They slowly rolled out dozens of catapults from the army formation, and lined up in front of the formation. Well, these catapults are quite different from the small catapults at the top of the city. They are much bulkier, and even if they are equipped with rollers, it takes more than a dozen people to push them.

The Tianshan army seemed extremely calm, from top to bottom, it seemed very relaxed. Dozens of huge catapults lined up in front of the formation, slowly preparing for the attack. Dozens of huge catapults brought pressure and shock to the defenders at the top of the city.

Han Ying knew very well that since Zhu Lingyue had already made preparations to unify the Northwest, he had made preparations in secret. Not only had he accumulated a large amount of money and food, but he had also prepared materials such as armor, weapons, war horses, and siege weapons. good.

When the catapults were positioned, Marquis Gan's Northwest Army had already arrived outside the North City Gate. Compared with the siege weapons of the Tianshan Army, the Northwest Army naturally did not have catapults.

Many people know that Zhu Lingyue has a refined appearance and a calm temperament. Even though he set up an army to attack the city, he was not in a hurry and took his time. After setting up the formation at Ximen, he mobilized nearly half of the soldiers and horses and moved them to the south gate of Hezhou City As well as the East Gate, plus the Northwest Army at the North Gate, the entire Hezhou City was besieged on all sides.

The Gan-Zhu coalition army has a large number of people. Although the Northwest Army dispatched 2 soldiers and horses to Huichuan for reinforcements, it still has more than 7 brave and skilled soldiers, and Zhu Lingyue dispatched a total of more than 5 troops. The logistics personnel serving the cavalry, but the actual combat soldiers and horses also exceed [-].

Although Chu Huan had already added troops to Hezhou City before the war, Xiguan soldiers were inferior to Tianshan. The total strength of Hezhou City was less than 2. Fortunately, Hezhou City was not like many big cities in Guan. For example, Luo'an, the capital city, has ten city gates, large and small, while Hezhou City has only four gates. Six thousand soldiers were deployed at the main gate, and another 2000 people were drawn out as a ranger to prepare reinforcements for the various gates that were in urgent need of war at any time. The defenders of the other three gates were actually only about 3000 people.

Zhu Lingyue's army is strong and strong, equipped with many siege weapons, and using the people to easily destroy the trench defenses outside the city, with sufficient troops in hand, he lightly mobilized troops and horses to besiege the two southeast gates, everything was calm, and he was not in a hurry to launch an attack , as if playing a game of cat and mouse slowly.