Troubled times: Start practicing spiritual practice by taking care of your sister-in-law.

Chapter 591 Action
Late August, late at night.

In the county government office of He County, Xiao Jing, Wu Yanqing, Zhao Liang, Liu Ji and others were discussing military affairs.

The news about Fengzhou also reached them.

Liu Ji said: "No wonder we haven't seen Prince Huai show up these days. It turns out he raided Fengzhou."

"They are attacking on two fronts. Now that the defenders of Fengzhou have been defeated, the King of Huai will surely march straight to Jing County." Zhao Liang dipped his index finger in the tea and drew the route of the King of Huai's army on the table in front of him. He then said:
"The garrison troops of Huaizhou are currently gathered in He County. If the prince of Huai invades Huaizhou from Jing County, he can form a pincer attack on our army with the troops of the prince of Chong and Lu Sheng. By then, our army will be in danger."

When asked, Wu Yanqing suddenly realized, "I said that the enemy's attack on the city was not very fierce these days. It turns out that they are stalling for time with us."

"Where are the reinforcements?" Xiao Jing asked Zhao Liang.

"According to the report from the Supervisory Guards, the Fish Scale Guards led by General Nangong have arrived in Huainan County and are heading towards us. Based on their marching speed, they can arrive in seven days at the fastest. In addition, Duke Anguo is heading towards us, but there are not many soldiers stationed in Linzhou, and only the personal guards under Duke Anguo have come here." Zhao Liang said.

Although he was the main general stationed in Huaizhou, he basically listened to Xiao Jing and Wu Yanqing. After all, these two were the father-in-law of Duke Anguo.

"General Zhao, tell General Nangong not to lead his troops to He County. Instead, he should go to Yi County to garrison there immediately to prevent the Huai Army that invaded Fengzhou from entering Huaizhou from Yi County." Liu Ji said hurriedly.

Zhao Liang nodded. After all, he had led troops for many years and realized this. The reinforcements brought by Duke Anguo from Linzhou were not many. If the Fish Scale Guards were to come to He County, there would be no troops to defend the rear, and it would be impossible for Prince Huai to sneak in.

"dong dong dong"

At this moment, a burst of rapid drumbeats suddenly sounded outside the yamen.

Soon, a soldier from the Xianzhen Guard came running in in a panic and said urgently, "General Zhao, it's bad, the enemy is attacking the city."

Hearing this, the expressions of several people in the lobby changed slightly.

Wu Yanqing frowned and said, "These bastards really know how to pick the time."

"Obviously they knew that Prince Huai had succeeded, and they wanted to prevent us from returning to Yi County for support, so they attacked the city to delay us." Xiao Jing said in a deep voice.

Zhao Liang quickly said, "You two, stop talking and go defend quickly."

"promise."

Xiao Jing and others bowed to Zhao Liang and walked out of the hall.

The group had just left the government office and were about to head towards the city wall.

A sound of breaking wind was heard, and then a big hole was suddenly created in the house about a distance away from the father-in-law in front of him, and dust and smoke rose up.

The next second, the sound of breaking wind became louder and louder.

"Be careful, it's a catapult." Xiao Jing shouted to Liu Ji.

Among the few people, he is the weakest.

"Ahhh."

Sharp screams rang out in the night. Many soldiers of the Chen army in the city were hit by huge stones thrown by catapults and died on the spot. Those who were lucky enough not to die had their spines broken. Even if they survived, they would be disabled for the rest of their lives.

"The enemy is serious now. The city wall of He County is low and not strong. I'm afraid it will be difficult to defend." Liu Ji analyzed calmly.

The enemy never used catapults when attacking the city before, and given the current situation, I'm afraid the enemy will use all of their catapults tonight.

"Repel the enemy first, and then find a way to withdraw to Xiongmen City." Zhao Liang also knew that He County was not suitable for defense, but if he wanted to withdraw to Xiongmen County, he had to repel the enemy's attack first.

Outside the city, deafening shouts of killing came from all directions.

The Chong army and the Lu army did not light torches, and the moonlight in the sky was not very bright, but it was enough to tell the direction. However, this was not good for the Chen army. With such a small light, it was difficult to see how many people in the Chong army and the Lu army were attacking the city.

"Bang bang bang!"

Catapults and crossbows kept shooting at the city walls, which were smashed with holes of varying sizes by the huge rocks. Some battlements were hit and a piece of them flew out directly.

The Chen army soldiers on the city wall suddenly felt the pressure doubled.

The Chong Army and the Lu Army are not a mob. They are elite troops sent to deal with Chen Mo.

The defenders of He County were just the lowest-ranking Xianzhen Guards in Chen's army. It's not that the soldiers of the Xianzhen Guards were weak, but they did not have much combat experience. Even though their equipment was similar, there was still some gap between them and these elite troops.

Fortunately, Chen’s army was defending the city and was able to narrow the gap.

In addition, with the arrival of Xiao Jing, Wu Yanqing and others, the pressure on the soldiers defending the city was greatly reduced as they had a backbone.

The overall strength of the Xianzhen Guards is not as good as that of the Chong Army and the Lu Army, but it is not weak either. They can be said to be well-trained, obedient to orders, and have tacit cooperation.

Under Zhao Liang's command, he knew exactly when to rotate the defenders on the city walls, when to send reinforcements to stop the enemy's fierce attacks, and even when to beat the drums to boost morale.

Wu Yanqing and Xiao Jing, while retaining some of their innate spiritual energy, tried their best to resist the boulders thrown by the enemy's catapults.

The reason for retaining a part of it is to prevent the enemy's top warriors from taking advantage of their depleted spiritual energy and personally leading the army to attack the city. After all, people are not machines, and high-intensity combat will make them tired.

And the party responsible for attacking the city will only be more tired.

Although the attacking party also adopted a rotation method of siege, the attacking party needed to deploy more troops than the defending party each time, which meant that the defending party had to rotate longer than the attacking party.

Two hours later.

Gongsun Yan knew that he could not take He County tonight, so he ordered his troops to retreat.

However, looking at the dilapidated city, he knew that Chen Jun couldn't hold on for much longer.

……

the other side.

Fengzhou and Huaizhou are obviously neighboring states, but the moonlight above Fengzhou is brighter than that above Huaizhou.

The full moon was like a bright and smooth jade plate. Tens of thousands of Huai Army soldiers set up camp in the wild, and lights stretched to the end of the sky.

Among these tens of thousands of Huai Army soldiers, nearly 3,000 were the Huai King's guards, 7,000 Huai Army soldiers from Jie Chong King, and more than 3,000 Chen Army soldiers who were defeated and surrendered to the Huai King.

Yes, that’s right, the defenders of Fengzhou were not completely wiped out, and nearly 30% of them surrendered to Prince Huai.

Not everyone is not afraid of death.

Under the threat of life, and given the chance to survive by surrendering, they surrendered to King Huai.

This made Prince Huai in a very good mood, and he enjoyed everything he ate, as if these things could wash away some of the humiliation in his heart.

But tonight, his happy mood was ruined by the secret report from Jiangnan.

Jiangnan's plan failed.

Almost all of the hundreds of spies hiding in Jiangnan were eliminated.

According to the plan, these spies were to attack the treasure ships from Jiangnan to Huaizhou, thereby causing unrest. Then these spies would take the opportunity to incite the Jiangnan families whose members had died in the treasure ship incident, thereby tying down the Fish Scale Guards stationed in Jiangnan.

Now that the plan has failed, the Yu Lin Wei has returned to Huaizhou to provide support.

What made Prince Huai most angry was that, according to the secret report, the reason the plan failed was that the spy in Jiangnan who had not been caught suspected that Huaying was not dead, or that Huaying had leaked the secret before her death, thus allowing Chen Mo to take advantage of the situation and catch the big fish.

But no matter which speculation there is, they all say that Huaying betrayed Prince Huai.

"Trash, a bunch of trash."

Prince Huai angrily overturned the things on the table in front of him.

In his eyes, these spy uniforms of Jiangnan were just pawns and were not important.

But this does not mean that he can tolerate these pawns betraying him.

……

end of August.

Huaizhou, Huainan County.

Nangong Xian led the Yulin Guard and originally planned to rush to the rescue of He County, but after receiving a letter from Zhao Liang on the way, he turned around and headed for Yi County. During this period, he received a report from the Supervisory Guard saying that Duke Anguo had crossed the Huai River, so he hurriedly led his troops back to Huainan County, intending to wait for Duke Anguo's orders.

Coincidentally, when he returned to Huainan, he ran into Chen Mo.

The lobby of Huainan County Government Office.

"General Nangong, why are you in Huainan?" Chen Mo said.

"Replying to the Duke of Anguo, I heard that Huaizhou was in danger and General Zhao asked me for help. I thought that there was nothing to do in Jiangnan anyway, so I came to help General Zhao. But on the way, I suddenly learned that the King of Huai had raided Fengzhou. General Zhao asked me to rush to Yi County to garrison. It was at this time that I learned that you, the Duke of Anguo, were coming."

Although Nangong Xian was Chen Mo's father-in-law, he did not dare to act like a father-in-law. He told Chen Mo what had happened respectfully.

Chen Mo nodded and said, "You came at the right time. My original intention was to let you resist the army of Prince Huai. I will let General Yue go to help you."

The speed of Prince Huai's side was too fast. The troops transferred from Yuzhou obviously could not reach Fengzhou so quickly. During this period, someone must be sent to stop Prince Huai.

Yue Ruyan nodded towards Nangong Xian as a gesture.

ps: I’m having some difficulty.

(End of this chapter)