Harue Kagetsu

At the fifth watch, the sky was still dark, and above the city head of Shunyang City, the fire stick was bright, and the soldiers lined up to walk back and forth, constantly patrolling. Its lower gates are tightly closed.

The atmosphere was tense, like an enemy.

A Xianbei man wearing a Xijin shirt climbed the city wall and looked out at the dark, fog-filled wilderness ahead. His brows were furrowed, his expression solemn.

He is Gu Huiliang, the clan of Xijin, who was sent here by Gu Huilong, the emperor of Xijin, to serve as the county governor.

From a few days ago, after learning of the fall of Shangluo County, he ordered the city to be closed.

At the same time, a panic message was spreading rapidly in the city.

Back then, Li Mu, a man from the Southern Dynasties, who used thousands of troops to take Ba County and Pingliang Prefecture, became famous in the first battle, and thus was called the God of War, is leading his army north. Three days ago, with almost no effort, the first obstacle on the road was swept away—Shanglu County, which was previously captured by Xijin from Beixia.

Obviously, Li Mu's next target is here, Shunyang County.

The two counties are three or four hundred miles apart. According to the speed of the march, Gu Huiliang still has five or six days to deal with this sudden bad news.

The emperor orthodox led the army to the south, and the target was this Li Mu.

The importance of Shunyang County to the emperor's southern expedition is self-evident.

As the only way to go south, he was ordered to prepare a large amount of baggage supplies in the city, as well as thousands of boats ready to meet the army to cross the river.

Now those boats are neatly parked on the south bank of the Dahe River, and when they receive the news of the arrival of the army, they immediately cross the river to greet them.

How could he have imagined that Li Mu, who was supposed to be the target of the emperor's hunt, dared to take the initiative to greet him instead of retreating instead of advancing. First, he captured the unsuspecting Shangluo County at a lightning-fast speed, and now he is heading towards him.

Whether it was the emperor or himself from a military background, no one would have thought that Li Mu would react like this.

There is no preparation in advance. Once his army arrives, his city will be in jeopardy!

The news had already been sent to the emperor who was on his way south at an expedited speed of eight hundred miles.

Three days have passed.

Although the city has a reserve of 100,000 troops, there are only more than 10,000 defenders.

Usually, this number of defenders is enough to deal with any ordinary accident. Even if a strong enemy attacks, relying on the city defense, it will be able to persist until the arrival of reinforcements.

But this time, Gu Huiliang's long-standing combat experience and intuition made Gu Huiliang feel a chilling sense of fear from the bottom of his heart.

Obviously, the news that Li Mu, a man from the Southern Dynasty, took the initiative to attack, has also caused panic among his soldiers.

Gu Huiliang could not imagine what the fate of Shunyang City would be once Li Mu's army of 70,000 arrived, but the emperor's army had not yet arrived.

His only hope now is that the emperor's army can go south faster, and even faster, only if he arrives before Li Mu's army arrives, can Shunyang be saved!

"General, Your Majesty's message has arrived—"

Behind him, a loud voice suddenly came.

Gu Huiliang turned his head sharply and saw the soldier holding the letter in his hand, striding up the city wall and rushing towards him.

He hurried up to meet him, and after reading the biography, his extremely distressed face finally showed ecstasy.

The emperor's army has arrived in Pingxing County, and is heading towards Shunyang with all its strength. Within three days, they will arrive.

The emperor ordered him to guard against the dead, be sure to wait until the arrival of the army.

According to estimates, Li Mu's army will take three or two days to arrive.

In other words, when Li Mu arrives, the emperor's army should be able to arrive by then.

Gu Huiliang immediately ordered the soldiers to go to the ferry port and sent the ferry to the other side to prepare for the arrival of the emperor's army.

After arranging everything, Gu Huiliang, who had been tense for several days, finally relaxed, and the sleepiness struck. Thinking that he had stayed up all night and was finally able to breathe temporarily, he asked people to continue to stare at him, and he got down from the city head, turned his head down, and fell asleep.

In his sleep, he dreamed that he followed in the footsteps of the emperor's conquest, and after winning Chang'an, he conquered Luoyang, the northern Central Plains, and all fell into his hands. The army of the Guhui clan, once again mighty, crossed the river and smashed Jiankang, the capital of the Southern Dynasties.

There, there is the most fertile land in the legend, rich products, inexhaustible gold and silver treasures, and inexhaustible beauties. I heard that the noble ladies in Jiankang City are even more beautiful in the world...

When he was salivating and immersed in a beautiful dream, he was awakened by a sudden news.

The spies who had just sent out just returned in panic, saying that they saw the shadow of an army that was rapidly advancing from a distance a few miles away from the city.

Due to the heavy fog this morning, I couldn't see the flag clearly, but it was very likely that it was the army of Li Mu, a man from the Southern Dynasty.

Gu Huiliang was completely shocked, and the dream disappeared.

He couldn't believe it, and he didn't want to believe it. The five or six-day march was only halfway through, and Li Mu's army had already arrived?

He didn't even have time to put on his shoes, so he ran to the top of the city, his eyes wide open, and he looked ahead.

It is dawn, the dawn has come, and the morning sun has not yet risen. The field outside Shunyang City was still shrouded in a vast white mist.

The white mist slowly flowed, and in front of him, there was not the slightest figure in sight, nor was there any movement in his ears.

Heaven and earth are solemn, the wilderness is silent. However, there seems to be some hidden and terrifying power that is enough to destroy this calm appearance. It is quietly lurking in this dense fog that covers the sky and the earth.

Gu Huiliang's heart beat faster and he was sweating.

Just when he hoped that the spy had misunderstood and reported the wrong news. The army that was coming in this direction was not Li Mu, but when the remnants of the Shangluo defenders were defeated and fled here, without warning, a black spot suddenly tore through the fog that covered the sky in front of them. appeared in his sight.

It was a black cavalryman. During the night of marching, the dew had completely wet his temples, and even penetrated into his armor, soaking his clothes and sticking tightly to his body. But the goal is in sight. On his young and handsome face, he can't see the slightest trace of fatigue. On the contrary, he looks at the city in front of him that is within reach in the fog, his eyes are piercing, and it radiates like a beast that has been hungry for a long time. Finally seeing the delicious prey, that kind of fanatical gaze with strong desire, driving the warhorse under the crotch, carrying a large flag on the shoulder, like lightning, rushing straight towards the city gate, rushing over.

On the flag, there is a ferocious and mighty white tiger head, with the characters "Yingtian" and "Liwu" embroidered in gold on a black background, which is eye-catching.

This is the battle flag of the Yingtian Army embroidered by the elder sister and someone else, and it is now on his shoulders.

Gao Huan swears that he must climb the wall and plant this flag on the highest peak with his own hands!

Gu Huiliang's pupils suddenly widened.

He saw that just after the flag, followed closely, there were riding shadows one after another, dozens, hundreds, thousands.

The dense fog was torn apart in an instant.

As if it had only been a blink of an eye, just now there was not a single person outside the city. There were mountains and plains, and everywhere were filled with soldiers rushing towards the city gate from the thick fog.

Countless enemies, without warning, came out of the fog and rushed to the city gate.

The arrows of communication are like rain. Countless flaming stone cannons smashed towards the city head like a dark cloud, and fell into the city. In the roaring flames, the chariots violently slammed into the city gate.

The guards at the top of the city, all discolored, were driven by the exhausting roar of Gu Huiliang, the governor of the county, and tried to defend the city by taking advantage of the commanding heights.

But Xianbei soldiers have never encountered such a brave and terrifying enemy.

The ladder is strong. Under the shield formation, Li Mu, the legendary man of the Southern Dynasty with the name of the God of War, took the Liwu army behind him, climbed the cloud ladder, and killed the city head.

He was unstoppable, all the way up, stepping on the bricks at the top of the city wall with his soles, and the moment he waved his knife and raised his arms and shouted, it was like a heavenly soldier coming into the world, the will of the Xianbei soldiers could no longer hold, and quickly collapsed.

Under the city wall, the soldiers of the Yingtian Army, with high fighting spirit, scrambled to follow the figure and climbed the top of the wall.

The siege battle ended in half a day.

The city gate was opened from the inside, and the rest of Ying Tian's army outside killed them and entered.

There is no suspense in the end with more battles and less.

The governor of Shunyang County, Gu Huiliang, was killed by random arrows, and the city was successfully captured as Li Mu had planned in advance.

The flag was planted high at the head of the city and fluttered in the wind.

As soon as he occupied the city, Li Mu's first order was to rush to the ferry port and control the more than a thousand ferry boats. He immediately comforted the people, ordered not to disturb the people, and ordered all the soldiers to rest on the spot along the river bank outside the city, waiting for the arrival of the Xijin army.

The ferry on the south bank of the Dahe River, along the river bank, is lit with ignition torches. From a distance, it looks like a winding fire dragon, which is spectacular. More than a thousand boats are returning to shore one after another. The soldiers are busy rowing and fixing the boats. The atmosphere is busy and tense, but it seems orderly.

The capture of Shunyang was another big hit. Not only did he get these more than a thousand boats to cross the river, but also the baggage and food supplies in the city that were originally prepared for Emperor Xijin. The soldiers finally had enough to eat and drink and were able to rest well.

During the day, Gao Huan followed Li Mu to attack the city, and was injured by a flint that fell down. Fortunately, it was not serious.

The military doctor told him to rest. He was tired, but couldn't sleep. He came out of the wounded barracks, sat on the shore, and looked at the figures of the soldiers who were busy doing things not far away. Confused and curious.

He knew that the key to victory in capturing Shunyang was to be fast and to compare his speed with the opponent.

With an army of 70,000 people heading north to meet the enemy, it is impossible not to disturb the opponent with such a big movement.

Therefore, it is necessary to be fast, to rush to the other side to make an effective response, to arrive before the reinforcements arrive, and to capture the city.

In order to achieve this goal, after easily winning the unsuspecting first stop of the trip to Los Angeles County, his brother-in-law Li Mu only dispatched 20,000 elite soldiers to rush out with him, and the rest of the soldiers came later. The 20,000 soldiers only carried enough rations and siege weapons for three days, and left all the other baggage, and traveled lightly on the road, from Shangluo to Shunyang, on the road of hundreds of miles, except for the necessary rest to restore physical strength, day and night. On the same journey, they finally arrived early this morning, like a divine soldier descending from the sky, appearing in front of the unexpected Shunyang defenders from the thick fog.

The 20,000 soldiers, all fierce soldiers, arrived here, and after having eaten the last meal before the siege this morning, there was no food left beside them. The reinforcements are still behind and have not yet arrived. If they can't attack the city, not to mention the next step. Once the Xijin army, which is far outnumbered by itself, arrives, it will lose the opportunity and the retreat will be cut off.

What's more, his brother-in-law, Li Mu, took the lead, the wise men were brave, and the soldiers naturally rushed to kill with him like a tiger, and finally successfully took the city.

Gao Huan knew that winning Shunyang was only the first step in his brother-in-law's journey north.

Soon, it probably won't take a few days until Emperor Xijin led the army to the North Shore, waiting for their test before the real arrival.

Gao Huan was not afraid. He has a kind of trust and admiration for his brother-in-law regardless of the reason.

Soldiers are expensive and fast, and the ancestors can win the hearts of people and lose the courage of the enemy.

Gao Huan had read the military book thoroughly, and he naturally understood this truth. Knowing that my brother-in-law attacked and then captured Shunyang, this was the method used.

What made him confused and curious was how his brother-in-law was going to deal with this raging army of 100,000 Xijin.

Suddenly there was a commotion behind him.

Gao Huan turned his head and saw that his brother-in-law, accompanied by his entourage, was heading for the wounded barracks. He hurriedly got up, ran back, and stopped at the entrance of the barracks.

When the wounded soldiers saw that the Lord would not forget themselves, they came to visit in person, and were deeply moved.

Gao Huan looked at his brother-in-law Zhuo Ran's tall and straight back, and felt the soldiers' love and respect for him. In his heart, he couldn't help but feel a deep sense of honor.

Li Mu visited the wounded soldier and remembered Gao Huan. He wanted to look for him, but he could not see anyone. He was about to ask when he suddenly saw him standing at the entrance of the barracks and walked towards him.

"How's the injury?" Li Mu asked him.

"Don't worry, the prefect! You can fight again at any time!"

Gao Huan immediately raised his chest and responded loudly.

In front of people, Gao Huan never used his brother-in-law to call him.

Li Mu nodded slightly, patted his shoulder, and said, "Have a good rest!"

He walked past Gao Huan.

Brother-in-law has always cherished words like gold, and will not reveal too many emotions to him in front of others except for his superiors and subordinates.

But just now, when he patted his shoulder and told him to take a good rest, Gao Huan clearly felt a kind of appreciation and encouragement from the look in his eyes.

His blood boiled immediately, looking at the backs of his brother-in-law and the people around him walking and talking, he couldn't help chasing after him, and summoned up his courage to ask, "Brother-in-law, the Xijin army is coming, how should we deal with it?"

Li Mu stopped, turned his head, looked at him for a moment, and said, "Tonight in my tent, I am summoning people to deploy the military. You can come and listen."