The early morning river fog shrouded the inside and outside of Fancheng, and a veteran with a helmet and armor on the tower of Dingzhong Gate held the railing with one hand, and squinted at the Song camp outside the city with the other hand on the handle of the knife, but the river fog was still thick, and the shadows were not very real. But Alihan still felt the murderous aura contained in it, like a crouching tiger, seemingly quiet, but ready to strike a fatal blow at any moment.

Alihan frowned, he was over sixty years old this year, and he was old enough to go home to retire, but he was still more than ten years younger than the manager. But he was also a young soldier, and he fought with Emperor Xianzong in all directions, and was praised by him for being brave and strategic, and was ordered to lead the cowardly Xue army. But everything changed because of the battle of Shu, the Great Khan Meng Ge was killed by a cannon under the Diaoyu City, and Kublai Khan fought for the throne.

As the cowardly leader of Meng Ke Khan, Alihan naturally won the trust of the new Khan, was deprived of military power and leisure, and had no chance to lead the army to fight again, so he could only watch others defeat the Great Song Dynasty and make immortal feats. Fortunately, after the destruction of the Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan sympathized with the old ministers, and when adjusting the soldiers and horses in the world, he appointed him as Xiangfan Daru Huachi to manage the people's tuntian.

Xiangfan is an important military town, but at this time the enemy has been destroyed, although the Great Khan still sent troops to the east and west to fight, the remnants of the Song Dynasty are still entrenched in Qiongzhou overseas, but the war is far away from Alihan, and his life is also very peaceful. A few years after he took up his post, just when he thought that he would no longer have the opportunity to conquer and die in bed, Jiangnan had fallen in just a few months, and the Song army had already deployed troops along the Yangtze River.

After that, the Song army continued to invade the north, and Jiangling and Yiling were all lost, and they controlled the Jingzhou region. Alihan keenly felt that the war was gradually approaching Xiangfan, and when he thought that he could regain his battle armor, Shi Bi was appointed as the head of the Jingxiang Governor's Office, in charge of the army and ten thousand households, so that he once again missed the military power and had no chance to lead the army.

At the end of last year, the war broke out again, and the Southern Dynasty launched the Northern Expedition. Alihan realized that Xiangfan, as the key to the north and south, would inevitably be the target of the Song army, so he suggested that Shi Bi hoard grain and grass, renovate ordnance, and repair the city. Although Shi Biqi was proud, he was also a person who knew the soldiers, and he followed his advice and began to gather the army and strengthen training. He also ordered him to requisition people to repair the city defenses, collect grain and grass, train Ding Zhuang, and cooperate with the garrison to fight.

Although Alihan was aware of the approaching war, he did not expect the war to develop so quickly, and in just a few months, the army of more than 200,000 troops in Wanhufu, the capital of Henan and Shandong, was almost completely annihilated in Jiangdong, and the Song army recovered Huaidong and marched into Huaibei. Subsequently, Shouzhou, Danyang and other important towns in Huaibei were also lost, and the troops approached the hinterland of the Central Plains.

At this time, the Song army stationed in Huguang then crossed the Yangtze River to launch a full-scale attack, and the state capitals of Huaixi fell one after another. In April, Huaixi had all fallen, and the Song army formed a siege of Xiangfan. Alihan did not expect the defeat of this dynasty to retreat so quickly, and also realized that the battle of Xiangfan was inevitable, but due to the annihilation of the entire army of Wanhu Mansion in Henan and Shandong, it was difficult for them to get reinforcements nearby, and they were likely to fight alone.

After discussion, Alihan and Shi Bi believed that it would be difficult to fight the Song army of the Southern Dynasty on all fronts with the existing forces, so they formulated a strong city relying on Xiangfan to defend the Song army from the city and prevent the Song army from continuing to advance north. Therefore, while asking the imperial court for reinforcements, they also accelerated their war preparations, transferred the Zhenfu army and the Tun army to Xiangfan, and abandoned the surrounding prefectures and counties.

The palindrome of the imperial court was indeed not much different from their estimates, because the Song army on the eastern road had approached Kaifeng and Xuzhou, the imperial court was unable to send reinforcements, and the Sichuan and Shu regions were also in a hurry, and the passage was controlled by the Song army, and it was impossible to draw troops. Less than 20,000 troops could only be transferred from Shaanxi, Gansu and Nanyang as reinforcements, and as for the grain and grass, not a single grain was given, and a pile of banknotes was sent as military salaries.

However, the imperial court strictly ordered them to hold Jingxiang to prevent the Song army from breaking into Nanyang, threatening the Central Plains, and entering southern Shaanxi. However, he also informed them that now the imperial court has initiated peace negotiations with the Southern Dynasty. As long as the peace agreement is reached, the crisis will be resolved. And the two of them could only smile bitterly at each other, Jingxiang was the northern gate of the Southern Dynasty, how could they easily give up the meat to their mouths, and a vicious battle was inevitable.

The two know that as long as Xiangyang City is not lost, there will be a chance to fight back. As a result, they concentrated all their forces in the forts around Xiangfan to ensure the passage of the imperial court reinforcements, and forcibly recruited the army, and the reinforcements increased to more than 100,000. At the same time, all the grain and grass were concentrated in the city, and preparations were made for a long time to wait for the situation to change.

Based on the strategy of securing Xiangyang, when the Song army entered Jingxiang in a big way, Shi Bi took the initiative to withdraw to Xiangyang after a little resistance in Fancheng, and took advantage of the natural danger to confront the Song army across the river. However, when they were ready for a fierce battle, they found that the Song army seemed to be at the end of its strong crossbow and its attack was weak, so they began to use troops around it, trying to cut off the connection between Xiangyang and the outside world and prepare for a long siege.

The performance of the Song army surprised Shi Bi, and his concept was almost the same as the strategy when he attacked Xiangyang. However, the situation is indeed very different from that year, and the two countries are about to negotiate peace, and adopting a long-term siege strategy will only backfire and waste money and food. This made Shi Bi begin to despise the Song army more and more, thinking that he was not as good as Lu Wenhuan who knew how to use soldiers.

Later, Shi Bi set up an ambush and rammed the boat of Jiang Cheng, the head of the Jingxiang march of the Song army, who was inspecting the terrain, and seriously injured him. It also used iron cable settlement to block the waterway and cut off the communication between the enemy in Fancheng and the main camp. The defenders of Fancheng panicked and wanted to withdraw from Fancheng in the name of avoiding water, to seize Dengcheng Town, and tried to capture Gucheng and restore the communication between the various armies. But the Song army attacked a small fortress and fought sparsely, and tens of thousands of people fought for half a month to capture it.

So Shi Bi ordered to wave his troops to recapture Fancheng, and the Song army actually left without a fight, which made him look down on the Southern Dynasty even more. But he was becoming more and more arrogant, thinking that all the Great Khan did not know people, and even let Yuechi Cha'er and these children lead the troops to seek corruption and Confucianism, which led to repeated defeats and made the situation of Lianghuai uncontrollable. If they had been used as veterans of the battlefield earlier, the country would have been so corrupted.

When the rangers reported that the southern army was coming east, Alihan thought that it was the reinforcements of the southern dynasty and should take the initiative to attack the enemy in Bandu. But Shi Bi thought that there were only cavalry and chariot troops in the coming army, and laughed, thinking that the Song army was really incompetent. The Jingxiang River is densely networked, and the autumn flood is imminent, and those who come are just seeking their own death, so why should they do those reluctant things, they want to fight with them in a dignified manner, and they dare not come again.

Alihan had no choice but to send scouts to keep checking to find out which Song army was coming and where he wanted to go. And the scout cavalry also came to report, this Song army was well guarded, the march was well arranged, and the camp was formed by car. In this way, Alihan also felt that the fighter plane was hard to find, and gave up the idea of ambushing on the way. It wasn't until the enemy drove directly to Fancheng that he realized that he was coming towards Fancheng.

Alihan reported Shi Bi again, and he laughed, causing people to put the 'Xiangyang Cannon' in the city's arsenal on the head of the city, telling him that when the Song army attacked the city, it only took one round to scare the enemy away. He followed the plan and transported the Xiangyang artillery to the city, but the Song army was not frightened away, but camped outside the city, constantly came to explore the city, cut wood and make weapons, and did not rashly attack.

'Woo woo ......' Alihan watched for a long time, the Song camp did not move, thinking that it would not attack the city today, and was about to go down to the city and return home, but suddenly there was a horn sound, and the Song army gradually appeared in the fog, and they walked in a neat pace, coming in formation.

"Warning, prepare for war!" Ali ordered a rare emergency to ring the bell to warn him, and sent someone to report to the governor's office.

For a time, the bell rang in Fancheng, and countless soldiers rushed to the city along the horse road, and the stone throwing machine was in the sound of the password, and the swing arm was pulled down by hundreds of soldiers, and the machine spring was stuck and the stone bullet was loaded. The swords of the soldiers of the city were unsheathed, and the arrows were wound behind the battlements. The people were busy transporting the rolling wood and stones to the city, setting up pots and making fires to boil hot oil. Soldiers from the city continued to arrive out of the camp, and they lined up at the edge of the city to stand by, ready to block the city gate and go to the city for reinforcements.

"Dragon Banner!" The forward of the Song army outside the city stopped at more than 500 steps away from the city under the city, and quickly launched the formation, the cavalry was in the center, the infantry army was spread out on both wings, and the Chinese army raised a Ming and Yellow Dragon Banner of more than a zhang. Ali was rarely surprised, he knew that the dragon flag was exclusive to the emperor and could not be used by generals.

"The Imperial Expedition!" As a secondary flag was raised, another soldier exclaimed.

"It's the little emperor of the Southern Dynasty who is coming, and he wants to attack Xiangyang in person!" Someone in the enemy army saw the yellow cover looming in the enemy army and shouted loudly.

"Quiet, those who disturb the hearts of the army, behead!" Ali rarely had a riot in the army, and his face was panicked, and he shouted sharply. And he also wondered in his heart, there was news that the little emperor of the Southern Dynasty was far away in the Yingtianfu Sacrifice Temple, why did he suddenly appear here. And he secretly regretted that if he had known that it was the emperor of the Southern Dynasty who was coming, he should not have listened to Shi Bi, but had to intercept and kill him halfway.

"Steward!" Just when Alihan regretted it, Shi Bi hurried up to the city, and he hurriedly greeted Shi Lidao.

"The thief of the Southern Dynasty is coming, and Ben Shuai will personally go into battle to capture and kill him!" Shi Bi was elated, lying on the battlement and looking down.

"Chief, now that the enemy army is under the city, I am afraid that the enemy will take advantage of it if I rush out of the city!" Alihan was cold in his heart, he was already seventy or eighty years old, his hair and beard were white, and he thought it was back then!

"Take my bow, Ben Shuai will shoot it!" The old man became more and more vigorous, and reached out to his soldiers to ask for bows and arrows.

"Chief, the enemy army is still far away, and the bow and arrow may not be in the battle." Alihan felt that the old man was out of line, he really thought he was a god, the two armies were separated by a few arrows, and the city crossbow might not be able to shoot, let alone a foot bow.

"Oh, old man Meng Lang!" Shi Bi's initial excitement passed, and he slowly calmed down, looked at the city and said, "The bow and crossbow can't shoot at the range, so I shoot it back with a cannon, even if it misses, it will scare him half to death, see if he dares to offend me Xiangyang!" ”

"Chief, the enemy army has not yet begun to attack the city, is it any longer!" Alihan saw that he was just normal, why did he go crazy again......