sinking into sand

Daocheng.

If it was a year ago, no one would have imagined that the fate of this small frontier town would be linked to the fate of the entire Daji.

Daocheng cannot be captured by force. This was the first judgment made by Yu Sha and others.

The first is the difference in the strength of the two sides, and the second is that the siege depends not only on the strength of the two sides, but more importantly, on the equipment for the siege.This time, even Si En couldn't bring anything out.

"Hand-to-hand combat is still a joke, and the siege is fine."

Leng Jue's original words.

His eyes are always higher than the top, and he is not pleasing to the eyes of anyone. Saying something like this shows that he really can't attack by force.

That being the case, the next focus is on how to get the defenders to open the door.

Yu Sha read the news about Daocheng one by one, and spent two days thinking about it with Si En in the conference hall.Ye Wanwan and the others couldn't be idle, they still went out to train for battles every day.The only good thing is that now that they have captured Wushui Village, there are more news from Daocheng than before.

However, this is of no help, the news is messy, and most of them revolve around the outside of the city.After Daocheng was massacred that day, a group of people from the refugee army came to garrison, but the gates of the city were open, but there were no people with them, so it was difficult to find a suitable excuse to sneak into the city.It is not even clear how many people are still alive in Daocheng.

Looking at the news, Yu Sha became so anxious that his mouth split open.Once Guan Lan secretly kissed him while he was sleeping, and woke up from the pain. When he woke up, he took a closer look and saw blood on Guan Lan's mouth, which frightened him again.

After a few days of suffering like this, there is good news. Ye Wanwan and the others have initially driven all the refugee army that was sweeping through the forest back to Daocheng.I even encountered a small group of Huns.After the fight, Leng Jue and those who had never met the Huns even captured two prisoners and returned to Hanhao Village.Sien originally wanted to ask about Daocheng's situation through them, but the language was quite different.Guo Hengzhi knew these dialects outside the Great Wall. He went to negotiate with these people, but those people were only the bottom people.He only knows how to get paid as a soldier, but he doesn't know anything else. He usually drinks for fun, and doesn't pay attention to anything else.

Si En thought of all kinds of tricks and questioned them all day, but he didn't ask anything.At the time of despair, Hanhaozhai ushered in another sunset and began to serve meals.

In line with the policy of not killing the captives, Si En had no choice but to ask someone to give the two Hun soldiers half-laden steamed buns instead of ill-treating the captives.

At this time, Yu Sha also walked outside from the meeting hall, and took a walk in Hanhao Village in the sunset.He has read all kinds of materials day and night these days, and it really makes him feel weak.

Si En saw him, called him over, and handed him a steamed bun.

"Didn't ask?" Yu Sha said in a flat tone, as if expected.

"I didn't ask." Sien nodded, with some tiredness in his eyes.

The two frustrated people just held their own steamed buns, looking at each other silently in the sunset.

"It's okay." Si En comforted Yu Sha, and also comforted himself: "I'll think of a way when it gets dark. There are some clues that I can ask."

Yu Sha couldn't help but laugh when she heard that she was about to use torture, and turned his head to look at the two Huns who were tied up and left aside.

Give them half-drawn steamed buns, and they will finish eating them in almost a few seconds.After eating, the two of them still looked at the people around like hungry wolves, obviously not full.

Yu Sha looked at their eyes, suddenly thought of something, and said, "...You, ask them about their food and grass later."

"I asked, but I don't know where to put it." Sien said dryly.

"No." Yu Sha corrected, "You ask them if they have had enough to eat recently."

Upon hearing this, Si En understood what Yu Sha was thinking: "You think they might not have enough to eat?"

Yu Sha nodded: "You have also seen that there have been no carriages and horses coming in and out of Daocheng recently. They must be eating the food stored in Daocheng itself. Daocheng itself has only a few tens of thousands of people. The food stored will not be too much. When the Xiongnu soldiers slaughtered the city It also burned a large area of ​​the house, and it is normal that there is not enough food.”

"They came all the way up the Yongjia Ancient Road, how could they have no logistics?" Si En was puzzled: "No matter how bad it is, they can send food from Yongcheng below Daocheng."

"Maybe it's gone." Yu Sha murmured, "Just like the Huns in the Jian'an Rebellion, they walked all the way and slaughtered all the way. No one walked the Yongjia Ancient Road all the year round. The cities are small, and the land gets poorer as you go to the northwest. Only a few oases that do not go to the mountains will have big cities, but these years have also been deserted due to wars and tyranny. These places are not like the tea and salt business roads. They are rich, crowded, and news spreads quickly. Often something happens It’s not uncommon for people to know about it in the next year.”

Hearing what he said, Si En immediately had the direction to interrogate, and immediately stopped eating the steamed buns, called Leng Jue, and dragged the two Hun soldiers to interrogate.

This time, I finally asked something.

"Is there really nothing to eat?"

In the meeting hall, several people got together again and asked about the details of Sien's interrogation.

"It's gone." Si En said with certainty: "They don't have the habit of hoarding food. They just go from city to city to eat from city to city. Anyone who has the ability to resist on the Yongjia Ancient Road has fallen into grass. The cities are all empty, and they walked all the way up. , are all food stored in those cities.”

"It's too sloppy." Ye Wanwan couldn't believe it. "Their weapons are very good from the situation they seized. How could they make it so logistically?"

"Maybe it's too late." Yu Sha said in a deep voice: "The tea and salt business should be in the same situation, but it's a little better. Yu Wangling put all his energy into fighting power. The logistics should be the food stored in the Lijiang River. Tea After all, the Yanshang Road has a good road and is close, so there is no sign of a shortage of food and grass, but he can’t take care of the Yongjia Ancient Road. He can only fight and sweep. That’s why he still hired those Huns. Even if he marched The style is very similar, and it is impossible for the Han army to get used to the style of nomads overnight. Regardless of the short-term, these Huns will be the vanguard in the long-term, to find out the situation of the cities ahead, and then drive the large army to the north.”

"Why is he fighting so fast?" Lin Si was puzzled: "The main battlefield of the refugee army is in the southeast, so there is no need to use troops like this in the northwest."

As soon as the words fell, Guo Hengzhi and Yu Sha said in a deep voice at the same time: "Negotiation."

After finishing speaking, Guo Hengzhi and Yu Sha looked at each other. Yu Sha took a blank piece of rice paper and sketched the current layout of the situation on it.

It can be seen if regardless of the actual occupation, and whether the place is deserted or not.Just looking at the front line, the forces of the refugee army have connected the east, west and south. It looks very scary on the map, almost occupying most of the country.

Yu Sha felt apprehensive for a moment when he saw it, thinking that if the imperial court also looked at such a picture, coupled with Mu Yao's great victory in the southeast, it would be quite normal for him to finally decide to appease the refugee army first.

"They are running out of food and grass, and they will definitely buy or collect from nearby farmers."

After a while, Yu Sha recovered from the shock that this picture brought him, and opened his mouth, he raised his head and asked Si En: "When will the autumn harvest end?"

"The day after tomorrow." Sean said.

"After the autumn harvest, they will start the second round of looting. This time, the targets are small nearby villages and nearby mountains and fields," Yu Sha said.

Sien thought of a plan in an instant, and she asked Ye Wanwan, "How much equipment and clothing from the refugee army have we captured recently?"

Ye Wanwan roughly reported a number. Most of the refugee army did not have uniform uniforms, but would draw a logo in some conspicuous places.The weapons are unified, and they seized a lot.

After Si En listened, he asked Ye Wanwan, Leng Jue and the others to sort out all the information related to the refugee army encountered in these days.

Everyone discussed until late at night before finally making a plan.

"here."

Ye Wanwan pointed to a corner of the map and said, "It's time, on the same day, while lurking into Daocheng, let's get rid of these Huns."