National color raw owl

Hu Xin was full of confidence. Tongzhou City was already heavily guarded within the shortest possible time. In fact, Tongzhou City was still quite chaotic in Zhao Guangqing's era. The city's various facilities and people's hearts have also been improved. At that time, when the situation was tense, Xu Congyang also ordered to strengthen the defense of Tongzhou City, and the city walls were also reinforced to a certain extent.

After Xu Congyang left, Wei Tianqing also sat in town for a while, and Xiao Gui and Cao Sui continued to improve Tongzhou City according to Xu Congyang's deployment.

At this time, the gates of Tongzhou City were closed. Xu Qing issued an order to recruit strong men from the city, and promised that after repelling the Northwest Army, he would be rewarded according to the head. The servants of the Nursing House were sent to the city. This was of course because of Xu Qing's promised reward, but the most important reason was that the big gentry in the city knew that if Tongzhou City was captured by the Northwest Army, they would be the first to suffer. Those rich and powerful families like themselves.

The mining farms scattered throughout Tongzhou could no longer be taken care of, and it was too late to withdraw all the scattered people. Hu Xin could only distribute the existing troops to each gate. The Northwest Army came to the west, and the West Gate Naturally, it is the key point of defense. More than half of the Tongzhou army is deployed here. When they reach the top of the city, everyone feels the tense atmosphere. Although there is no trace of the Northwest Army, everyone knows that the danger is approaching.

At noon, the sun shone down on the earth, and the defenders at the top of the city finally saw dark shadows appearing on the western horizon. The first to appear was a group of infantry, lined up in two lines, like two human walls, heading towards Tongzhou City The direction came slowly. These infantrymen were wearing the armor of the Qin army, but they were the surrendered soldiers of Cheng Yishi.

Not far behind the infantry, there are rows of cavalry, with a neat lineup, advancing slowly.

The Northwest Army spread over like ants. Chu Huan, who was in the army formation, looked at Tongzhou City in the distance. Chu Huan was no stranger to this city, and he was even very familiar with it. His eyes were sharp, I have seen the Tongzhou defenders swarming on the top of the city, lowered their bodies, and lined up row by row.

Everyone was hiding behind the battlements, staring at the oncoming Northwest Army, fighting to the death, imminent.

Spears and short knives glowed chillingly, dotted with stars, and the entire Tongzhou City, with bows and arrows and crossbow strings, was like a hedgehog, erecting hard thorns all over the body, waiting for the arrival of the Northwest Army.

Above the top of the city, Hu Xin clenched his fists. Although he was quite confident in defending the city, and Tongzhou had discussed countermeasures, he was still a little uneasy when he saw the menacing Northwest Army with a well-organized lineup.

Xu Qing was lying behind the battlements, looking at the Northwest Army slowly approaching. Although the Northwest Army was not huge, in Xu Qing's eyes, his heart was still a little chilly, his face was slightly pale, and he turned to look at Hu Xin asked in a low voice, "Hu Qianhu, it's all up to you to defend Tongzhou."

Hu Xin cupped his hands, "Don't worry, my lord. Look at them, they really don't have siege weapons. Could it be that these cavalry can break through the city gate?"

Xu Qing nodded, but seeing Hu Xin's face darkened, he hurriedly asked, "Hu Qianhu, what happened?"

"My lord, they... they stopped." Hu Xin frowned, "Look...!"

Xu Qing probed over the battlements, only to see that the Northwest Army had really stopped. It was less than a few miles away from the city, including the prisoners of the Qin Army who were the vanguard, had also stopped.

"Hu Qianhu, what kind of medicine are they selling in the gourd?" Xu Qing frowned.

Hu Xin shook his head, but said: "No matter what tricks they play, we are soldiers to cover up the water and the earth, don't worry, my lord...!" But he looked to other places, and there was nothing on the vast land. When it came to other armies, their confidence suddenly increased a bit.

Suddenly someone shouted: "My lord Qianhu, they have something to do...!"

Hu Xin immediately held down the handle of the knife with one hand, and looked up, only to see a group of troops galloping out from the northwest army formation, but there were only six or seven riders, and a small number of archers at the top of the city had already raised their bows and set their arrows. Aligned to ride, Hu Xin only felt a little weird, raised his hand and said: "If you don't have the order of thousands of households, don't act rashly."

Laiqi galloped to the bottom of the city, and saw a cavalry general surrounded by several cavalrymen. The general, with black helmet and black armor, held a long spear, and stopped at the bottom of the city. Said: "My lord, I'm afraid I'm going to persuade you to surrender."

"Oh!" Xu Qing was taken aback, but he heard an angry voice from below the city: "This general is Xu Shao from the northwest, please see Master Xu Qingxu, the prefect of Tongzhou!"

"My lord, I am looking for you." Hu Xin whispered, "Do you want to talk to them?"

Xu Qing was about to wave his hands, when he suddenly thought of something, he got up, adjusted his clothes, stood on the edge of the battlements, and said loudly: "I am Xu Qing, what can I do?"

Xu Shao said with a smile: "Master Xu, you are a smart man. I have an army from the northwest approaching the city. You should know what we want to do. When the two armies fight, it is inevitable that lives will be destroyed and the soldiers will suffer heavy casualties. Our Chu governor is kind and generous, and we don't want to let the soldiers of the two armies go to waste." Therefore, I specially suggested to Master Xu that it is better to surrender in Kaesong, and peace is the most important thing."

"Kaicheng surrender?" Xu Qing sneered, "What a joke. The Holy Majesty has shown great kindness to Chu Huan, but this man is ambitious and ungrateful. If you repent, the court may be able to give you a lighter sentence, but if you insist on going your own way, you will be doomed forever."

Xu Shao laughed and said: "Master Xu is really eloquent, but why didn't Master Xu think about it, the imperial court sealed off Xigu Pass, treated millions of people in the northwest as worthless, and didn't care about their lives. How could such an imperial court win the hearts of the people? Work hard in the Northwest and serve the people wholeheartedly. If it weren't for the court's incompetence, how could the governor of Chu get angry? Now that our army in the Northwest is approaching the city, Tongzhou City is weak. Is it possible that the parents and officials of the common people are so ignorant of current affairs that they have trapped the common people in Tongzhou?"

Just as Xu Qing was about to curse, his lips moved, but he didn't curse out loud.

Seeing that Xu Qing didn't speak, Xu Shao said loudly again: "Master Xu, Chu Du knows that you are a scholar, and you have loyalty, filial piety and righteousness in your mind. If you open the city and surrender like this, you will inevitably be overwhelmed for a while. But Chu Du also said , since you are the magistrate of Tongzhou, you can't be as corrupt as ordinary scholars. Since you are in your position, you should focus on the overall situation. Chu Du Renyi, I will give you half a day to think about it. At night, if you still can't give an accurate answer Answer, with the power of tigers and wolves in the northwest, I will easily break through the city." He cupped his hands, without saying much, turned his horse's head, and led the team away.

Xu Qing looked at the back of Xu Shao's leaving, his eyes flickered, but Hu Xin smiled coldly, and said in a low voice: "My lord, they are so generous that they gave us half a day to think about it. I'm afraid there is a fraud in the process."

Xu Qing took Hu Xin's hand, walked aside, and said in a low voice, "What does Hu Qianhu mean?"

"Don't you think it's strange?" Hu Xin said in a low voice, "Chu Huan only sent cavalry, but he couldn't even see a ladder. He really wants to attack the city?"

Xu Qingdao: "Qianhu is saying that Chu Huan has other plans?"

Hu Xin sneered and said: "My lord, according to the general's opinion, Chu Huan is bluffing. He deliberately sent thousands of cavalry over, perhaps because he knew that Tongzhou's defense is weak, so he pretended to be aggressive and wanted us to open the city and surrender. , after all, in his opinion, we may not resist due to the huge disparity in military strength... This army is just a tool he used to persuade him to surrender...!"

"Oh?" Xu Qing nodded slightly and said, "I also think it's weird. Chu Huan defeated Zhu Lingyue and Xiao Huanzhang successively in the northwest. Of course, such a character is not an ordinary person. If he really wants to attack the city, it is impossible to send only cavalry come over......!"

"So the general thinks that he gave us half a day. Firstly, he is lucky and thinks that we may open the city and surrender. Another reason is that he is just delaying time." Hu Xin's eyes flickered, "The general thinks that Chu Huan's luggage team is probably still behind, the cavalry team is too fast, it is difficult for the luggage team to keep up, but they are also worried that after we know the news of the fall of Xiguguan, the governor will strengthen the defense of Tongzhou, so in order to buy time, this The purpose of sending cavalry to the city first is to make us surrender without a fight."

Xu Qing stretched his eyebrows, clapped his hands and said, "That's right, Hu Qianhu, you really hit the nail on the head, and I also feel that before they took Xiguguan, they probably didn't think about using troops against me in Tongzhou, so they attacked The city troops were not ready. It was just that after they successfully captured the pass, they regarded Tongzhou as a thorn in their flesh. However, the road to the northwest was difficult and the speed of the transport troops was slow. If they waited for the siege troops to attack the city, the other places The soldiers and horses have already arrived in Tongzhou, and they will not be able to attack at that time. That's why I thought of this move, trying to scare us into surrendering without a fight."

"Their siege troops have arrived, and the governor has already deployed heavy troops in Tongzhou. As long as they defend the city, they won't last long." Hu Xin sneered: "That's why they will bluff this time, and even give us Half a day, otherwise if they are really capable, why should they delay?"

Xu Qing laughed and said: "They don't know, of course they have to delay, we have to delay to wait for reinforcements...!" Eyeballs rolled around, and he said in a low voice: "Hu Qianhu, I have One way, just use the plan, what do you think?"

Hu Xin hurriedly said: "My lord, please show me!"

Xu Qing leaned close to Hu Xin's ear, whispered a few words, Hu Xin stretched his brows, and said with a smile: "Your Excellency is really clever, and in this way, we will be more sure, this plan is very clever!"

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