People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 406 The Enemy of Thousands of People, Follow the Assassination
A map was hung on the wall, Muzhou City, Lanxi, Wuzhou City, three places were specially circled.

Li Xuan stood in front of the middle hall, looking at the map on the wall with a pensive expression.

A straight line goes straight from Muzhou to Meiling Pass, then obliquely enters Lanxi from Meiling Pass, and finally approaches Wuzhou City.

It was like a sharp dagger piercing directly under Li Xuan's jaw.

Unusually dangerous.

Li Xuan pressed the index finger of his right hand on the Meiling Pass, but his eyes had already penetrated directly from the Meiling Pass to the wider mountains behind.

The eyes are sharp and deep, like sharp swords.

No one knew what he was thinking about.

At this moment, a sound of footsteps came from outside.

Li Zhu's voice sounded behind Li Xuan: "Reporting to the lord, Feng Canjun has personally brought the first batch of catapults here, and they are now assembling outside the Meiling Pass. Captain Yan has led a team of cavalry to guard."

"En!" Li Xuan's eyes were still on the map, he waved his hands casually, and said, "Send Qi Guang to lead his soldiers to prepare for the siege at Meiling Pass right now. "

"Follow the order!" Li Zhu turned around and left immediately after listening.

Li Xuan raised her head slightly and pinned it directly to the location of Muzhou City on the map.

It is not difficult to win Meiling Pass, what is really rare is the follow-up.

The Tianyin Sect will definitely not sit back and watch Li Xuan win Meiling Pass, then reinforcements will arrive soon.

The question now is, after the Tianyin Sect's follow-up reinforcements arrive, how can they kill them as much as possible while preserving their own strength.

This is something Li Xuan needs to think about now.

His eyes moved to the northeast of Muzhou.

Wujiang River goes up from the northeast of Muzhou, goes straight into Tonglu, and then passes through Fuchun and enters Hangzhou.

"If the troops from the Hangzhou government cannot arrive in time, the pressure to guard the Meiling Pass must be even greater. If you want to rely on yourself to defend the arrival of the reinforcements, then you must ensure that the casualties of the soldiers will not be too large during this period of time." Li Xuan slightly. narrowed his eyes.

This is actually a question of operational continuity.

Li Xuan has always paid attention to the casualties of his soldiers, whether it is the children of Qianniuwei's central government officials, or the children of the Wuzhou counties and clans in the soldiers of Kuaiji Mansion, even those hunters from the mountains and fields, Li Xuan Xuan didn't want to see them suffer heavy casualties.

The strength of the Tianyin Sect's attacking Meiling Pass will be at least ten thousand.

Thousands of people, but Li Xuan's subordinates don't even have a thousand people.

Even if he wins Meiling Pass, it will not be easy to defend in the future.

Even if the opponent uses the crowd tactics recklessly, once they suffer heavy casualties, they will immediately face a dead end.

It is necessary to maintain a certain number of troops at all times, Li Xuan lowered his head and thought about various countermeasures.

……

Insufficient troops!
Li Xuan sighed with emotion, and at this moment, a burst of unfamiliar footsteps sounded behind him.

Li Xuan turned around, and saw a white-haired old man standing at the door with a 17-year-old shy boy.

"Old Zhuge Yun, I have seen the county king Qianqiu."

"Student Zhuge Minghui, met the county king Qianqiu."

One old and one young, the two saluted respectfully, and there was no mistake in etiquette.

"It turned out to be Mr. Zhuge, and this little brother Zhuge, please sit down." Li Xuan walked to the side of the bed, gathered the map on it, and then asked Zhuge Yun to sit on the top, and he sat down by himself. at the next head.

"My lord, you are being polite. I am here to ask you. I don't know if there is anything you need here. The Zhuge family is willing to help." Zhuge Yun bowed his hands very seriously.

"If you say there is a lack, let me tell you the truth, the king is short of many people, including military strength, food and grass, and military equipment, all of which are lacking, but these kings will naturally not open their mouths to the old man." After a short pause, Li Xuan's face became serious, what he was going to say next was business.

"Old sir, I know that Zhuge's family, in addition to passing on poems and books, also has considerable research on mechanism techniques. I don't know if I can recruit some craftsmen from Zhuge's family to join me under my command to help build some catapults. Crossbow arrows, transport vehicles and other equipment, I wonder if it is possible?" Li Xuan looked at Zhuge Yun seriously.

"It's just to build mechanisms." Zhuge Yunchang breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Don't worry, my lord, I will definitely assist you with all my strength."

"Thank you, old man." Li Xuan bowed his hand to return the gift, and then asked a little puzzled: "Why, what does the old man mean, are you worried that someone will come to Zhuge's house to recruit soldiers? People from the Tianyin Sect have done this before?"

"It's true, my lord." Zhuge Yun showed a wry smile on his face. He raised his head and looked in the direction of Meiling Pass: "Just ten days ago, a person in Meiling Pass who was said to be Captain Zuo, When I came to the town, I said that I wanted to recruit soldiers, but the old man could only agree temporarily, and after he left, he took the whole town and moved to Bagua Village at the foot of the mountain in the south."

"Bagua Village." Li Xuan's face turned serious, and she looked at Zhuge Yun and asked, "But the Wuhou Bagua Formation handed down by Prime Minister Zhuge back then?"

"There's no gossip array, it's just a pile of stones. If the prince is interested, you can go and have a look." Zhuge Yun didn't care about his secret being leaked.

"Back when Sima Yi encountered the Wuhou gossip formation, thousands of soldiers under him were trapped in the formation, unable to advance or retreat, and were captured in the end, held in front of the formation, and finally returned with ink on their faces. , retreated in defeat, the power of the Eight Diagrams Formation can be seen, how can there be a pile of stones."

Li Xuan shook her head and said with a smile: "Only people from the Zhuge family can say such things. Others say that it's just a joke. Don't worry, old man. This king will not call people from the Zhuge family to join the army." , and will not seek the mysteries of the eight trigrams array, this king only seeks craftsmen, and enough craftsmen are enough."

"My lord is really a sincere gentleman. What my lord asks, I will immediately send someone to do it." Looking up, Zhuge Yun was just about to leave when he saw his grandson Zhuge Minghui. Forget, my lord, Minghui is a smart person, if you need anything during your lord's stay in Zhuge Town, please use it to your heart's content."

"Then Xiao Wang has the audacity to accept it." Li Xuan stood up and gave Zhuge Yun a deep bow.

"My lord, you are polite." Zhuge Yun returned the salute and said, "I will go first, my lord, please be busy."

Seeing Zhuge Yun leave, Li Xuan looked at Zhuge Minghui seriously: "My virtuous brother Minghui, I am not polite to you, now I want to write some official documents to Wang Shishi, and I will dictate to you to write. .”

"Here!" Zhuge Minghui walked quickly to the desk beside him, brushed off his hem, and began to write earnestly.

"Don't drive Li in Wuzhou, I would like to play the king's envoy, the official has arrived at Meiling Pass..."

Li Xuan dictated quickly, and Zhuge Minghui's writing was not slow either.

In Li Xuan's letter, apart from explaining the current situation and her own plans, she also asked for things more.

Soldiers, war horses, crossbows, ordnance, craftsmen, healers, medicinal materials, etc., etc., Li Xuan demanded a lot, and made it clear that he would stick to it for a long time.

At the same time, he also clearly reminded Wang Fanglin that he must be prepared for Hangzhou and Yuezhou not being able to source in time, and at the same time contact Quzhou and Kuozhou as soon as possible to win their support.

After all, once Wuzhou becomes a battlefield, Kuozhou and Quzhou will also be affected.

Li Xuan's eyes fell on Zhuge Minghui.

Having said that, he can't use something too advanced like the Zhuge Bagua Formation, but it doesn't mean he can't use other formations.

……

Ye Wanwan stood on the city wall, looking coldly at the Wuzhou soldiers below the city who were arranging their formations.

The vertical shields are in front, the archers are in the back, and the sword and shield players and long spear soldiers are in the end. They line up neatly, a total of 200 people.

There were not many people, but behind them, there were two teams of cavalry secretly watching from a distance.

It rushed forward from time to time, but stopped quickly.

It seems to be testing something.

The Wuzhou soldiers did not attack immediately, but stood firmly in place, as if they were waiting for something.

An inexplicable heavy pressure pressed directly on Ye Wanwan's heart.

Her eyes passed over the Wuzhou soldiers who were in formation, and fell directly a hundred meters behind them.

The catapults were assembled quickly. It can be seen that these will form a total of five catapults, and then attack.

Farther away, the peasants from Lanxi are pushing the stone cart vigorously, moving the stones the size of wooden basins to the foot of Meiling Pass.

The stones of the catapult need to be carefully selected, and not all random stones can be used as a catapult.

It is best to choose some stones of appropriate size and roundness.

Then such a stone can continue to roll after it falls to the ground, and it can hurt people and kill people as much as possible.

Just like these now.

Looking at it from a distance, it makes people shudder.

"Saint." He Qing'er's voice sounded behind Ye Wanwan.

Ye Wanwan quickly turned around, looked at He Qing'er, and asked, "How, did we find the catapult here?"

"No, Holy Maiden, I asked the prisoners in the prison." He Qing'er paused for a while, and said, "In the beginning, Meiling Pass did not expect to be attacked by my sect, so bows, long arrows, etc. They are not complete, there are some now, and I later brought them from Lanxi County, but they won’t last long... As for the catapult, Hall Master Zuo never thought that there would be a catapult on the opposite side."

After Wang Fanglin was assassinated two months ago, the Tianyin Sect intensified its penetration into Meiling Pass.

Although since Wang Fanglin's assassination, Meiling Pass has stepped up its guard and sent an official document to Wuzhou asking for supplies, but they never expected that the Tianyin Sect had long been lurking under their noses.

Before the reply from Wuzhou was sent, Li Xuan had already arrived in Wuzhou.

But at that time, Meiling Pass was still under the control of the imperial court.

Of course, it was only in name, Li Xuan had already seen through this point.

Lanxi has catapults, and it's not that no one thought about transporting them from Lanxi to Meiling Pass, but none of them thought that Li Xuan would come so quickly.

When they saw that the center of gravity of Wuzhou soldiers was on the catapult, these people immediately realized their mistake, but it was too late.

"It seems that we can only fight with crossbows and catapults." Ye Wanwan looked at He Qing'er helplessly, and said with a wry smile, "Fortunately, our left hall master didn't think about going out of the city to take the initiative to attack." , trying to attack the catapult on the opposite side when the opponent’s foothold is not stable, otherwise, Meiling Pass has already fallen.”

"The Holy Maiden seems to be very wary of the King of Nanchang." He Qing'er paused for a moment, then asked in a low voice: "Holy Maiden, I heard that the Holy Maiden once assassinated the King of Nanchang, can you tell Qing'er what happened?"

He Qing'er looked straight at Ye Wanwan, Ye Wanwan frowned slightly, a trace of shame flashed in her eyes, but then she asked, "Why, are you planning to assassinate the King of Nanchang too?"

"To tell you the truth, Qing'er feels that if we really follow the method in front of us, we may never be able to kill him." He Qing'er subconsciously turned slightly sideways, looked in the direction of Muzhou, and said softly: "Even if it is Muzhou's reinforcements are here, as long as the King of Nanchang gets on his horse, he can still escape. It's very difficult for us to catch up with him, so if we want to kill him, now is actually the best chance, while his men are here now..."

"How do you know he's not here?" Ye Wanwan asked suddenly.

He Qing'er was a little stunned, and didn't know what to say for a while.

"Although you can't see him now, how do you know that this is not his plan to lure the snake out of the hole... He is far more sinister and vicious than I can imagine. Qing'er, if you don't do everything right It's best not to move lightly..." Ye Wanwan hadn't finished speaking when a huge roar suddenly came from behind her.

An extremely violent vibration followed immediately.

Ye Wanwan turned around quickly, and then saw a stone ball the size of a wooden basin hit the ground in front of the gate from a distance, and then quickly slammed towards the city wall.

(End of this chapter)