At noon, the offensive of the Long army and the Shu army gradually weakened, and Lai Shi wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead, and said with palpitations: "Your Majesty, it seems that the enemy army is about to withdraw, right?" ”

It is not the first time that the Long army and the Shu army have attacked the city, the first few times, either the thunder and rain are small, or the three-plate axe, the stamina is weak, in the opinion of Laishe, today's enemy siege should be the same as before.

Liu Xiu shook his head slowly, and said quietly: "The battle of Luoyang has dragged on for so long, I think Kui Huan is going to move seriously this time!" ”

The occupation of Lüyang by one's own side is like sticking a nail in the heart of Kui Huan.

At the beginning, Kui Huan was not in a hurry, and he hoped to let the Shu army be the vanguard to consume his own troops, but the Shu army was not fooled, and the two sides kept consuming it.

Now, it is estimated that Kui Huan really can't sit still, no longer has any reservations, and begins to attack with all his might.

And the strength of the Long army will inevitably drive the Shu army to exert its strength, otherwise, not to mention that Li Yu and Tian Yi are not easy to explain, and even Gongsun Shu is not easy to explain.

Liu Xiu said in a firm tone: "In the afternoon, I'm afraid the enemy's offensive will be more fierce!" ”

Lai Xi's face changed, and he involuntarily shrunk his neck.

In his opinion, the enemy's offensive in the morning was fierce enough, and if the afternoon was more fierce than the morning, would he really be able to hold the sun?

Liu Xiu turned his head to look at Laixi, smiled at him, and said, "Don't worry about coming to the doctor, no matter how fierce the enemy's offensive is, if you want to break through Luoyang, it will be difficult to reach the sky!" ”

An excellent commander must not only be able to govern the army, but also be able to fight, and when he is in adversity, he must play a role in stabilizing the morale of the army.

For the battle of Lüyang, Liu Xiu didn't have much bottom in his heart, but he wouldn't show it on his face.

His composure and composure made a civilian official like Lai Shu feel like he had taken a reassuring pill, and it could play a great role in stabilizing the morale of the officers and men of the whole army.

Liu Xiu pondered for a moment and said, "In this case, send more troops to the south and north cities...... In addition, Dongcheng also needs to send more troops, so you can't be careless! ”

When Choshi heard this, he bowed his hand and responded, "Yes!" Your Majesty! ”

Lai Shi asked, "Your Majesty thinks that the enemy army may sneak attack the south, north, and east cities?" ”

"It's not impossible, be careful, it's always right."

Don't look at Kui Huan, he is not very good at fighting, but the generals under Kui Huan are not in vain.

Even Li Yu and Tian Yi, who were sent to Longdi by Gongsun Shu, were both generals who were good at using soldiers, and Liu Xiu had to be cautious in case of accidents.

Seeing that Liu Xiu and the surrounding generals had come to an end, Li Chi finally found an opportunity to speak, and said, "Your Majesty, it's already noon, let's eat first!" ”

Liu Xiu turned his head and asked with a smile, "Li Chi, did you bring food here?" ”

Li Chi hurriedly responded: "The grass people made a bucket of lard rice, and I don't know if it suits Your Majesty's appetite!" ”

As he spoke, he glanced at the little sister beside him.

Li Chunyue walked quickly to a wooden barrel and lifted it with great difficulty.

Liu Xiu stepped forward and happily opened the lid of the wooden barrel, a ball of hot air gushed out, the smell of meat was fragrant, and when the heat dissipated, he looked at it, okay, this is a big bucket of white rice.

Perhaps because of the oil, the plump rice grains are all oily, one by one, like pearls.

Just looking at it makes the mouth tongue relish, and the appetite is opened.

Liu Xiu asked Luo You to take a bowl, put a spoon on it, picked up the chopsticks, ate two bites, his eyes lit up, and asked with a smile: "Who made this bucket of lard rice?" ”

Li Chi's face was slightly red and said, "It was made by the grass people." ”

Liu Xiu smiled: "You can also cook?" ”

Even if he is a concubine, he is also the son of the Li Mansion, and he doesn't seem to have anything to do with cooking.

When Li Chi heard this, his face turned even redder.

Li Chunyue said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Brother Jiu is greedy when he is big and small, and what others do is not to his liking, and over time, Brother Jiu himself has developed a good cooking skill." ”

Liu Xiu looked up and smiled, beckoned everyone around, and said, "Everyone come and try it, Li Gongzi's cooking skills are really good, comparable to the imperial kitchen!" ”

Laixi, Choshi, Saizun, Long Yuan and others came forward slightly, each of them filled a spoonful, and after only one bite, people couldn't stop, and after two or three clicks, they ate all the pork rice in the bowl.

The lard rice made by Li Chi is delicious, but they don't dare to eat more, if they eat it with an open stomach, it is estimated that this bucket of lard rice will not have anything to do with Liu Xiu.

Liu Xiu looked at everyone holding empty bowls, staring at the remaining half bucket of rice, and said with a smile: "What are you doing in a daze?"

Eat! ”

As he spoke, he first filled himself with a spoonful, and when he saw that Liu Xiu had moved, everyone was no longer polite, picked up the spoon, and poured rice into the bowl.

Before two bites of rice were eaten, the offensive of the Long army and the Shu army came up again.

As in the morning, before the soldiers advanced, they first used the trebuchets to carry out long-range attacks, and the enemy put in more catapults in the afternoon than in the morning, and the stones smashed against the city walls, and the loud rumbling sound was incessant.

Inside the gate tower, the ground trembled constantly, and dust was scattered overhead from time to time.

Choshi covered the rice bowl in his hand with a big hat, turned his head to look outside, and said angrily: "These thieves don't stop at noon, and they don't let people eat!" ”

Finally waited for the attack of the trebuchet to end, and next, it was the phalanx of the Long army and the Shu army that advanced in front of Luoyang City again.

Liu Xiu and the others ate all the rice in the bowl as quickly as possible, and then looked intently at the enemy army outside the city and entered a state of readiness.

As Liu Xiu expected, the offensive of the Long army and the Shu army in the afternoon was much stronger than in the morning, and the 80,000 troops, except for 20,000 people in the rear, the remaining 60,000 people had all been sent to the battlefield.

As the enemy army entered the firing range, the head of the city of Luoyang, arrows rained down, and the Long army and the Shu army advanced to the city under the rain of arrows, set up a cloud ladder, and attacked upward.

At the same time, the arrow tower also advanced to the front of the city wall, and the archers on the arrow tower fired arrows at the city wall in unison.

Some of the arrows were even shot into the gates.

Liu Xiu, who was standing in front of the window, suddenly raised his hand and grabbed an arrow that flew into the window.

He broke his hands with a slight force, clicked, and the arrow snapped, and he threw it aside.

At this moment, a soldier ran up to the city gate, came to Liu Xiu's approach, knelt on one knee, held an arrow in both hands, and said, "Your Majesty, this is an arrow just shot from the city!" ”

Liu Xiu and the others turned their heads to take a look, only to see the arrow in the soldier's hand, with a roll of cloth wrapped around the shaft of the arrow, and there was no arrow.

He picked up the arrow, looked at it carefully, then took the strip of cloth wrapped around it and unfolded it.

It was densely packed and full of small characters, which was written by Wang Zun.

Wang Zun gave Liu Xiu a detailed introduction to the situation on Kui Huan's side.

At present, the large baggage in the rear has been transported to the big camp, including hundreds of stone throwing machines, 50 arrow towers, 20 rushing vehicles, and so on.

In addition, Du Ling also set up a crossbow battalion for Kui Huan, with a total of 2,500 people, all of whom are extraordinary, and are also equipped with crossbows, and equipped with a mechanism to eliminate the letter, which is extremely difficult to deal with.

At the end of the letter, Wang Zun made it clear to Liu Xiu that he had nearly 1,000 henchmen, and if His Majesty needed it, he could hang the red flag as an order.

After reading Wang Zun's letter, Liu Xiu fell into deep thought.

Let Wang Zun defect in battle, and he may not be able to kill Kui Huan, but will put Wang Zun himself in.

After all, Wang Zun only has a thousand henchmen, and with only this amount of manpower, it is basically impossible to kill Kui Huan.

When Lai She and others read Wang Zun's letter, they all frowned.

Choshi muttered in a low voice: "A thousand people, it is too difficult to kill Kui Huan, but there is great hope for disrupting the enemy's offensive." ”

"But in this way, Wang Zun's identity is also exposed!"

Lai Shi shook his head and said.

Liu Xiu snorted, expressed his agreement with Lai's words, and said: "At present, it is indeed more beneficial for us for Wang Zun to stay by Kui Huan's side, so there is really no need to let Wang Zun reveal his identity unless it is absolutely necessary." ”

While they were talking, a soldier hurried into the city gate tower and said urgently: "Your Majesty, the eastern city has been attacked!" The defenders of Dongcheng can't resist it! ”

Hearing this, the faces of everyone present changed.

Liu Xiu asked, "How many enemy troops are there in the sneak attack on Dongcheng?" ”

The soldier replied urgently, "There are more than 2,000 people.

However, the enemy army is good at using the crossbow machine, and the crossbow machine is weird, and it can be fired continuously without loading arrows! ”

Is it a repeater?

Liu Xiu's gaze subconsciously swept to Wang Zun's letter, could it be that the one who attacked Dongcheng was the crossbow camp mentioned by Wang Zun?

Thinking of this, he said in a deep voice: "Second situation, first grandson, you two stay in Xicheng, Long Yuan, Xuying, you wait with me to go to Dongcheng to support!" ”

"Whoa!"

Everyone responded in unison.

Choshi said uneasily: "Your Majesty brings more soldiers and horses!" ”

Liu Xiu waved his hand, here in Xicheng, it is the direction of the enemy's main attack, and it is really impossible to draw more troops.

He took Luo You, Long Yuan, Xu Ying and others, got down from the city gate, and rode straight to the east city of Luoyang.

By the time Liu Xiu and his party arrived at Dongcheng, the enemy army had already attacked the city, and was fighting with a large number of soldiers on the city wall.

Seeing this, Liu Xiu turned over and dismounted, and while drawing out the Chixiao Sword, he picked up a shield under the city wall.

With a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, he ran toward the city.

Long Yuan and the others also followed Liu Xiu's example, picked up their shields one after another, and followed closely behind.

Liu Xiu climbed the city wall, and as soon as he came up, a soldier of the Long army came with a knife.

With a piercing whistling sound, the ring head knife slashed at the top of Liu Xiu's head.

Liu Xiu held the shield to parry, and when he was long, the ring head knife smashed on the iron shield, bursting out a ball of sparks.

Liu Xiu put down his shield and stabbed out with a sword.

The soldier couldn't dodge and was pierced in the chest with a sword.

Another soldier of the Long Army nearby raised the crossbow machine in his hand and shot a crossbow arrow at Liu Xiu.

Liu Xiu also reacted quickly, swung his shield to block, and when he was long, the crossbow arrow hit the shield and rebounded to the ground.

Liu Xiu was about to rush forward, but the other party pulled the trigger on the crossbow machine, and then shot another arrow.

This arrow came, even Liu Xiu was taken aback, he didn't see the other party hit the arrow on the crossbow machine at all, only saw that after the other party shot an arrow, he pulled something that looked like a wrench on the crossbow machine, and then the crossbow machine was able to release the arrow again.

For Liu Xiu, this type of repeater had never been seen before.

Before he had time to think about it, he raised his shield and blocked the arrow again.

The soldier moved the trigger a second time and fired a third arrow at Liu Xiu.

Liu Xiu still held a shield to block.

He took a step forward, and the other party took a step back, and at the same time moved the trigger and fired an arrow at Liu Xiu.

Liu Xiu secretly counted in his heart that the other party actually shot six crossbow arrows at him in a row.

Seeing the other party getting closer and closer to him.

The soldier suddenly raised his arm, and two crossbow arrows shot out of his cuff.

Liu Xiu hurriedly tilted his head to the side, swishing, and two crossbow arrows whistled past his ears.

He chased after the soldier, swept his sword and slashed at the opponent's neck.

The soldier also reacted quickly, rolling backwards on his back, dodging Liu Xiu's edge, he squatted on the ground, bowed his head sharply, and shot three crossbows in a row on his back.

The distance between the two sides was too close, and Liu Xiu almost instinctively raised his shield.

Dingding, all three crossbow arrows were nailed to the shield.

Liu Xiu hurriedly swung his sword outward, and the sand and sword blade swept in front of the soldier's neck, tearing a large hole in his throat.

The soldier spurted blood from his neck and fell on his back.

Liu Xiu subconsciously looked down.

In the soldier's sleeve, there is a crossbow machine, and behind it, there is a fan-shaped crossbow machine, on which you can see the groove for loading arrows.

The fan crossbow machine is attached to a rope and hangs from the waist of the soldier, and when used, the rope is simply pulled.

What a clever design! Liu Xiu couldn't help but secretly praise in his heart.