Three Kingdoms Eschatology

Even the reclamation soldiers in the Northland have to take on various logistics support and security tasks in the cities of the Northland strongholds, and there is no extra manpower.

Now Zhang Liao is also in embarrassment.Whoever he assigns this task to is an offense.Zhang Liao is not afraid of offending others, but he is afraid that others will reluctantly take over this task due to military orders, which may affect morale.

"General, the last general is willing to take orders!" The silence in the big tent was suddenly broken by a rough voice.Everyone followed the reputation, and it turned out to be Li Su, the captain of the [-]rd Infantry Battalion.

Zhang Liao didn't expect it to be Li Su, so he said in surprise, "Ah, Brother Li Su. But your wife just gave birth..."

"The general is not willing to accept the order, please complete it." Li Su repeated his request.

Zhang Liao rejoiced and said: "Okay, you, Li Su, will guard Shuofang City. If you can complete the mission, it will be a great achievement. A certain person will reward you... No, at that time, only the king may be qualified to reward you."

When Li Su led this small group of troops into Shuofang City, he saw obvious disappointment on the face of the generals of the Shuofang Reclamation Army.

Shuofang is a military town, and there are no other people except for a dozen merchants who are doing business with the families of the reclamation soldiers and the surrounding Xiongnu.And these reclamation soldiers totaled only 500 people.

Not only the generals of the reclamation army were disappointed, but also the leaders of the other Huns in the surrounding area were extremely disappointed when they learned that only more than 200 people came to help.

Li Su called on Liu Qubei, Shanyu the Hun, who was also the governor of the northern border of Liang State.

Liu Qubei asked straight to the point in the first sentence: "Our Huns with thousands of riders can't carry Ke Bi Neng to attack. You hundreds of people, can you really defend Shuofang City?"

"No." Li Su replied happily.

When Liu Qubei was puzzled, Li Su said again: "I told the governor that the Xianbei cannot be repelled by only a few thousand Xiongnu iron cavalry. Even a few hundred of us cannot defend Shuofang City. But as long as we cooperate with each other, not only If you can defend Shuofang, you can even force the Xianbei cavalry to retreat before our reinforcements arrive!"

Liu Qubei cast his eyes into the distance, remained silent for a while, and then said as if he had made up his mind: "Okay, I will live and die with you in this Shuofang!"

A few days later, the streets and alleys of Shuofang City were filled with tents and fenced.Except for a few other ministries who refused because the camp was too far away and there was no time to relocate.The rest of the Huns sent their women, children, and livestock into the city.

This way they will have no worries.Otherwise, when they were fighting with the Xianbei people, they would easily be touched by the opponent's rangers to the camp and take their nest.

After another two days, Xianbei people finally appeared in Hetao.Sure enough, they first searched for the Huns' camp, trying to clean up the surrounding area of ​​Shuofang City, turning Shuofang City into an isolated city, and then besieging it.At the same time, supplies can also be looted from the Huns' camp.

However, on the Hetao Grassland, their rangers did not find any Huns' camps except for occasional encounters with Huns' rangers and several encounters, large and small.The news quickly reached Ke Bineng.

Ke Bi Neng is very clear - if he can't find the opponent's camp, relying on his own superiority in the number of cavalry, it will be difficult to gather and annihilate the main force of the Huns on this vast grassland, and it will also be impossible to make these Huns who were once the masters of the grassland surrender.

He immediately realized that the Huns should have no camp in the Shuofang area now.Their women, children, and livestock should have been hidden in Shuofang City in advance.So a plan to seize Shuofang and gather and wipe out the cavalry of the Huns formed in his mind.

On that day, Li Su, who stood at the top of the city and looked at the enemy's situation, was mentally prepared, but he couldn't help trembling when he saw the Xianbei iron cavalry rolling towards him like a dark cloud.Ke Bineng invested a full five thousand cavalry to attack Shuofang City, which can be said to be determined to win.

The city of Shuofang was still as quiet as before, no matter whether it was the reclamation soldiers or the legionnaires, the palms holding the weapons were sweating.

Li Su suddenly thought that the opponent had neither infantry nor large siege equipment, nor even a simple ladder.So how do these Xianbei people plan to capture Shuofang City, which has been walled for nearly three battles?

While the horns were whistling, nearly a thousand cavalry in the Xianbei army were divided into more than a dozen groups and scattered around the city, apparently responsible for guarding and cutting off Shuofang from the outside world.At the same time, the remaining main force began to circle around the city.

Li Su's question will be answered soon.

Chapter 297 The Vanishing Huns

Four thousand Xianbei iron cavalry circled Shuofang City, and they used the compound strong bows in their hands to continuously shoot arrows at the city.Amidst the sound of puff puff chiffon, arrows like migratory locusts were shot into the bricks and adobe of the city wall, some were shot at the top of the city, and some shot across the sky and into the city pool.

The city was still silent, as if no one was guarding the city.In fact, the soldiers of the Liang Army lowered their bodies as much as possible, curling up their entire bodies behind the pile of walls.There are also soldiers, leaning on their shields from time to time, showing half of their faces on the crenel, observing the enemy's situation outside the city.

A reclamation recruit accidentally exposed a little more of his head from the shield.With two consecutive bangs, an arrow pierced through his forehead, and the corpse slipped and fell soundlessly behind the pile of walls.

People in the city also hid in their houses, but many livestock were exposed to the open air.From time to time, the wailing and wailing of these animals after being shot by arrows can be heard.

After the Xianbei people shot like this for less than half an hour, Ke Bineng waved his hand, and the buglers around him changed their tunes and blew their horns.

With the sound of the horn, some Xianbei cavalry immediately rushed out of the brigade, and galloped to the city wall. Toss high.

With the sound of "Scandium Scandium Scandium", the cross anchor hook firmly hooks the edge of the stacking wall.These Xianbei elites who acted as the first climbed up from the saddle with the speed of the horse, stepped on the city wall, and climbed towards the top of the city like walking on flat ground.

While they were climbing, the rest of the Xianbei cavalry did not give up riding and shooting, and continued to circle the city and shoot towards the city.It's just that, now they have all started to aim as accurately as possible, but just like before, they shoot at random arrows.

Just as a Xianbei Xiandeng poked his head out from the crenel, a sharp knife stabbed out from behind the wall, pierced into the middle of his nose bridge, and pierced into his skull.The Xianbei soldier fell down like a heavy sandbag.

Another Xianbei soldier had already climbed over the crenel, and several large shields filled with arrows appeared in his sight.There were two slits in the large shield suddenly, and two spears pierced towards him through the slits, instantly causing two blood holes in the leather armor on his chest.

On another crenel, a Liang Army reclamation soldier leaned out from the crenel wall and stabbed the Xianbei people who were climbing with a spear in his hand. There was a muffled groan from outside the wall, followed by the dull sound of heavy objects falling to the ground.

But at the same time, two arrows shot at the reclamation soldier's chest and face one after another, and he fell on the crenel. After another arrow shot into his Tianling Gai, other Liang soldiers quickly pulled him back to the crenel. inside the wall.

This method of siege, at the beginning, every Xianbei was beheaded when he went up, and it seemed to have no effect.But as time went by, the advantages of the Xianbei people were revealed.

The circumference of Shuofang City is nearly ten miles. If more than 700 defenders are evenly deployed along the city wall, only one person will defend every two battles.This defensive density is impossible to defend the offensive of the Xianbei army.Therefore, Li Su can only concentrate his troops and deploy them flexibly, and the enemy will defend from whichever point they attack.

But now, the Xianbei people adopted a mobile attack strategy, and the Xianbei iron cavalry circled the city wall, and from time to time, small groups of cavalry rode out from the large group of people.They randomly started climbing the wall at a certain point on the wall.

The defenders at the top of the city could only brave the rain of arrows and run along the corridors of the city wall, intercepting those Xianbei people who climbed up the city wall from weak defenses.As time goes by, more and more Xianbei people will stand on the top of the city.

Seven or eight Xianbei soldiers who boarded the northern city head quickly ran towards the northern city gate, and they were immediately intercepted by ten spear-throwing and shield soldiers.Ten large shields lined up in a row, and ten spears were thrown at the same time. Amidst the shrill howls, there were seven or eight more corpses on the top of the city wall.

But these Liang Jun spear and shield soldiers immediately discovered that two large groups of Xianbei soldiers were coming at the east and west ends of the city wall corridor.They had no choice but to divide into two groups and fight separately.

Soldiers from both sides were fighting fiercely on the four walls.Li Su himself also held his iron spear and charged forward bravely.For Liang Jun, the situation was getting more and more critical, and the anxiety in Li Su's heart had turned into despair, but it didn't affect the speed of his bayonet at all.

At this moment, the sound of the horn outside the city changed again, and the Xianbei cavalry who were besieging the city suddenly stopped attacking and galloped towards the southeast corner one after another.

Li Su pulled out the Yanshou steel knife from the corpse of a Xianbei soldier, and looked at the retreating Xianbei soldier, feeling both happy and worried.

Naturally, the joy is that Xianbei finally stopped attacking the city, and Shuofang City is temporarily safe.The worry is Liu Qubei.

According to the plan, when the Xianbei people besieged Shuofang City, the Hun cavalry of Liu Qubei, who were cruising around the periphery, should take advantage of their unprepared opportunity to attack the city and launch a surprise attack.

Of course, this kind of raid was just a hit-and-run harassment to slow down Xianbei's offensive.Don't expect to be able to defeat the Xianbei army at once, otherwise there is a danger of being surrounded and wiped out by Xianbei Wanqi.

Now that Xianbei suddenly stopped attacking the city, it must be because Liu Qubei launched a surprise attack as promised, but the reaction of Xianbei people should not be so orderly.It's not like being raided.

Even if the Xianbei's outer security scouts had discovered the Hun cavalry in advance, they should have formed a mess under the city first, and waited for a while before all the military orders were delivered, and then the whole team went to meet the enemy.

Suddenly, Li Su thought of another possibility, and couldn't help being startled.Among the Huns there was someone who betrayed Liu Qubei.

The possibility that Li Su thought of was already a fact.Several Zahu tribes on the outskirts of the Hetao secretly took refuge in the Xianbei people.They were the other tribes who did not send the tribe's population to Shuofang City.

If only they defected, the harm would not be too great.The important thing is that they learned of Liu Qubei and Li Su's arrangement, and gave the information to Ke Bineng.The latter made a corresponding deployment of troops in advance.

Although the marching route of the Xiongnu cavalry was random, their target was fixed, and Ke Bineng had an internal responsibility to report the whereabouts of the Huns at any time. Therefore, when Liu Qubei approached Shuofang, Ke Bineng had already traced the opponent's whereabouts. Chu.

When Liu Qubei first saw the Xianbei army coming towards him, he was not surprised, this was originally planned.After fighting with the opponent for a while, he led the cavalry back, but only then did he realize that more Xianbei cavalry had swarmed from all sides...

Li Su didn't know these things until a dozen blood-stained Hun soldiers fled into the city of Shuofang.

Liu Qubei was caught off guard and killed by a traitor among the Huns.Under the siege and pursuit of tens of thousands of Xianbei cavalry, the remaining Huns were either killed or dismounted and surrendered. Only a handful escaped from the Xianbei's siege.

Li Su knew that the Xiongnu had disappeared in the long river of history, and thought that he and the Shuofang City would also be destroyed in the flames of war.But at this time, a cold spring came unexpectedly.

Under the attack of the blizzard, the Xianbei people were forced to retreat into the clouds.

Chapter 298

The snow in the corridor at the head of Shuofang City has been shoveled to both sides, and a passage in the middle has been cleared.Li Su remained silent, walking round and round around the top of Shuofang City.Sparse soldiers were also on guard at the top of the city, and when they saw him approaching, they greeted him with military salutes.

Plumes of smoke rose from the city, and the family members of the Huns in the city did not know that most of their father and brother had died.Scattered soldiers at the top of the city.

Li Su raised his eyes to look at the bright sun in the sky again, and if the snow melted and the reinforcements did not arrive, Shuofang City would definitely be lost.

Suddenly, a row of small black dots appeared on the skyline of the white snowfield outside the city, followed by the sound of horns.Li Su and the generals of Shuofang City are very familiar with this sound, it is the horn of Xianbei people.

Li Su thought to himself: "Ke Bi Neng, you are in such a hurry. It's a pity that you can't break into Shuofang City if the ice and snow don't melt."

Of course Ke Bineng was very anxious, he knew well that with each passing day, the number of Liang Jun coming to help might increase.If Shuofang City, which is full of food, cattle, sheep and horses, cannot be laid down in time, his trip will be in vain.

Even for grassland nomads, expeditions and wars are costly.If you didn't get anything, it would be a big loss, at least half a year's harvest of Xianbei's ministries.Then all the ministries would be dissatisfied and would pose a threat to his dominance as the Xianbei lord.

So before the snow melted, Ke Bineng led the army to make a comeback again.But when he arrived near Shuofang City, he was dumbfounded all at once, and saw that the walls of Shuofang City were covered with a layer of shining ice shell.It is impossible to break into the city with the traditional hook and claw climbing method of the Xianbei people.

Ke Bineng had no choice but to set up a big camp in the ice and snow, waiting for the time when the ice and snow melted.

When the snow melted, it was colder than snow, and Ke Bineng's big tent was lit with charcoal basins. Ordinary Xianbei soldiers could only curl up in the tent, rubbing their hands and stomping their feet to keep warm.

A horse came galloping from outside the camp, and the horse's galloping hooves raised flakes of snow.It was Xianbei who came to explore the horses outside. As soon as he entered the camp, he jumped off the horse and ran towards Ke Bineng's big tent panting heavily.

As soon as he entered the account, he said out of breath: "Da Shanyu...no...it's not good. The Han people, the reinforcements of the Han people are here. When the six of us encounter the other party's scouts, we will run back and I will be alone!"

Da Shan Yu is the title of Ke Bineng.Shan Yu, this honorable title among the Huns, was abused among the Xianbei.A leader of a small Xianbei tribe would also call himself Shanyu.Therefore, people like Ke Bi Neng who ruled the various tribes of Xianbei had to add the word "big" before Shan Yu.

When Ke Bi Neng heard that Liang Jun had reinforcements coming, his heart throbbed for a while, but he pretended to be calm and reprimanded: "Why panic, speak carefully. How many troops are here? Whose banner are they playing? How many cavalry? Infantry?" How many pawns are there? Did you bring any luggage with the army? How far is it from here?"

Ke Bi Neng's series of questions stunned the Xianbei inspector, and stammered back: "Ah, this... I found that the enemy's companions must be dead. The young ones only know that the opponents are all cavalry, should...should No baggage. They're only five miles away now."

Ke Bi Neng angrily pulled up the horsewhip beside him and whipped it away, and the poor Xianbei Tanma immediately had a blood mark on his face, "Waste! They are all a bunch of waste!"

Several tribal leaders in the same tent as Ke Bineng asked in unison, "Da Chanyu, what should we do now?"

Ke Bineng thought for a long time before saying: "They are only five miles away from here. It is too late to send scouts to find out their details. We can only retreat first and find out the details of the other side's reinforcements."

Then he shouted loudly: "Pass my military order, everyone mounts their horses, evacuates here immediately, and leaves some scout horses to find out the exact strength of the enemy!"

Kebi is known for his prudence among the Xianbei people, and generally he would not rush to meet the enemy if he didn't understand the enemy's situation.

Following his order, the Xianbei people rushed out of the tent one after another, pulled out the horses from the stables, and rode away under the leadership of their respective tribal leaders.In order to hurry, they only took away the food and grass in the camp, not even the tents.

Li Su at the top of the city could clearly see these movements of the Xianbei people.He guessed that his own reinforcements must be coming soon, but according to what Zhang Liao had told him before, it was unlikely that there would be many reinforcements in the first batch of emergency support to Shuofang.

Then why did the Xianbei retreat in such a hurry?That's tens of thousands of cavalry.Li Su looked into the distance and saw thousands of Xianbei warriors leaving like a tide, and suddenly realized that it must be because Ke Bi Neng didn't understand the situation of the Liang army and was afraid that the army would come to help him, so he withdrew in a hurry.

Li Su wanted to understand this, and immediately ordered the left and right: "The scouts come to listen to the order, and all the scouts come."

An hour after the Xianbei army withdrew, a Liang army cavalry unit appeared on the horizon of the snowy field, accompanied by ten carts of luggage.This is the heavy cavalry battalion of the Huaxiong Legion.

There were two cavalry battalions and a scout team who came to help first.But when they were about to reach Shuofang, they were stopped by thirty scouts sent by Li Su.

After the scouts chatted with the generals of the reinforcements, Qingqi Feiyu and dozens of scouts formed a group of ten, divided into dozens of groups, and went to the east and west wings of Shuofang City.Each unit is led by at least one or two scouts.

……

Behind a small hill not far from Shuofang City, there were two Xianbei soldiers hiding. They were scouts who Kebi could stay to investigate the strength of the Liang army.One of them poked his head out from behind the hill from time to time to check.

But they didn't realize that a falcon appeared above their heads at some point, circling over them.

It was not an ordinary falcon, but the East China Sea peregrine falcon newly introduced by Liang Guojian, which came from Yizhou and was brought back by Sun Wu's general Wei Wen.But in Soochow, Wu people only used it as an ordinary falcon, and didn't know its potential specialties.After the introduction of Liang Guoying Academy with a lot of money, it has brought out its strengths.

This kind of peregrine falcon has the ability to know people, that is, it can look for human traces in the wilderness, and even people wearing certain clothes.

Before releasing them, let them "get to know" a dummy wearing a certain costume.After releasing them, if they find people wearing similar clothes in the wilderness, they will hover high in the sky.Liang Jun scouts can thus locate enemy hiding places.

A Xianbei inspector said to the other person: "After waiting for a long time, why haven't we seen the enemy approach yet? Is there a mistake in the information? Grandma's hands and feet are almost frozen here!"

The other person ignored him, and said sullenly, "I'm talking to you..." Then his jaw dropped in shock, and his companion's neck had been pierced by an arrow, and he collapsed on the snow.Blood has stained the nearby snow red.

In the distance, more than a dozen riders were running towards him silently, whoosh, whoosh, with the sound of arrows piercing through the air, more than a dozen arrows shot towards him...

Chapter 299 Ice and Fire

"Report! The Wang Yi group of the scout team came to report! Behead three levels!"

"Report! The Li Feng team of the scout team came to report! Beheaded twice!"

At Shuofang City Tower, from time to time, the leader of the young Liang Jun scouts shouted back to Li Su.They all brought two or three Xianbei heads and put them on the ground, and some even brought back four or five heads.

A pile of human heads had already been piled up on the corridor of the city wall outside the tower gate.These are the heads of those Xianbei scouts.

"Check out how many heads have been collected." Li Su ordered.

After a while, the soldiers came to report: "Report to the captain, our army has captured a total of 46 enemy heads!"

"I remember the news you got from the prisoner's tongue. Ke Bineng left a total of 47 scouts to investigate our details, which means that there is still one escaped?"

At this time, a scout standing on the side came out and said: "General Qi, this person failed to escape. An enemy rode his horse and fled northward after being hit by an arrow. As a result, when crossing a frozen branch of the Yellow River, the ice surface It burst suddenly. The man fell into the ice river, and he must not survive."

Li Su pondered, and thought to himself: "That doesn't prove that he is dead, but as long as he doesn't know the actual strength of our army, it's not a big problem."

……

Ke Bi Neng led Wanqi back to an abandoned city in the southeast of Shuofang. After waiting for a whole day, the probing horses who stayed in Shuofang came to report the situation, feeling quite uneasy.

At this time, the snow had begun to melt, and the ground became muddy.The river branch that had been frozen for the winter began to thaw again.Ke Bi Neng thought to himself, could it be that none of my scouts were spared because the other side had a strong force and searched with a net?

He had just sent a new batch of scouts to check it out.A dying Xianbei Tanma who was covered in arrow wounds ran back.Kebi was able to get the witch doctor to treat him for a long time, and this person was relieved.Only then did Ke Bineng know that Liang Jun in Shuofang City had launched a special hunt for these scouts.

"Then you can find out, how many reinforcements did they have?" Ke Bi Neng asked eagerly.

"Small... The little one doesn't know, I only saw that there were more than a dozen of the enemy chasing and killing us. Their large group of troops, the little one didn't see it."

"Hi!" Ke Bi Neng sighed angrily, and slapped his thigh hard.At this time, he was also in a dilemma. If he continued to attack Shuofang, he didn't know what strength the opponent was.Retired, not reconciled.

Not a day later, the newly dispatched scouts returned and reported to him that the gates of Shuofang City were still closed and the situation in the city was unknown.

"Then is there a Liang army camp near Shuofang City?"