Lai Daqian took the remnants of the defeated army and more than 3,000 people fled for two days and one night, and finally fled to Wuzhou Pass, on the way, I don't know how many people fled into the barren mountains, I don't know how many people fell behind and were killed or captured by the chasing soldiers of the cadres, and there were countless war horses and tired soldiers who died along the way.

After resting in Wuzhou Pass for a night, Daqian finally relieved himself, but he felt unbearably sore, and the livestock also had a faint pain, and he barely ate a little gruel in the morning, and he couldn't see Da Boyi come to report: "Dashuai, the eldest son and the second son are back!" ”

Lai Daqian quickly got up and asked, "How about Qiu Qiu and his three thousand men?" ”

"Don't worry, the eldest prince retreated in a timely and rapid manner with three thousand men and horses, and was not caught up by the cadres!"

Lai Daqianqiang walked to the city tower and looked at the pass, and saw that the soldiers were slowly entering the pass.

After a while, the two brothers of Lai Qiu and Lai Ti climbed up the city tower and bowed down: "Wait to meet my father!" ”

Lai Daqian raised his hand: "It's good to come back, get up!" ”

The two brothers got up from the ground and asked, "Father, you are in a hurry to evacuate, and the child didn't ask the second brother, how did this battle come to be?" Our army has 16,000 elite horsemen, even if the opponent has 100,000 lions who want to defeat our army in such a short time, it is impossible! ”

Lai Daqian thought of the defeat he ate this time, and his face was miserable, "It's a heavy-armored iron horse, a heavy-armored iron horse with people and horses covered in armor!" It's a full 5,000 horsemen, not to mention 16,000 light horsemen, even 100,000 light horsemen will be swept away."

Lai Qiu exclaimed, "What? 5,000 Heavy Armored Iron Horsemen? ”

It's no wonder that Lai Qiu exclaimed, the training of heavy armored iron horses is troublesome, the selection of soldiers is also extremely particular, and the equipment is expensive, even if a heavy armor iron horse is created, the cost of raising such a soldier and horse is simply staggering, even if Emperor Taiwu was alive, the Northern Wei Dynasty only raised 3,000 horses, and it has been controlled by the emperor.

At that time, the 3,000 heavy armored iron cavalry raised by the Northern Wei court was chased and killed by the Northern Yan army all the way because of the haste in retreating in the battle of Tuoba Jian's expedition against the Northern Yan, and all of them were captured, but they were later rescued by Zhao Junsheng when he led the troops to turn around and counterattack, and since then the 3,000 heavy armored iron cavalry has been caught by Zhao Junsheng in his hands, and the Northern Wei court has never retrained the heavy armored iron cavalry.

After Zhao Junsheng mastered this heavy armored iron cavalry, he revised their training methods and strengthened discipline, and over the years lost some and added some, until now there are only 5,000 people, and this is also the largest scale that the Qianguo can afford at present, no matter how much it raises, it is a waste, it is not needed, and it cannot be raised.

Laiqiu sighed: "It seems that we have lost this battle unjustly!" ”

After the two brothers Laiqiu and Laiti had a full meal, the general Da Boyi and others asked Lai Daqian about their future plans: "Dashuai, now that our army is newly defeated, I don't know what Dashuai's plans will be next?" Is it to lead the army to withdraw to Huaishuo Town or ······"

Lai Daqian has been thinking about the whole problem for the past two days, he said: "Now the two towns of Huaishuo and Woye combined are only 2,000 people stationed, and we still have 6,000 here, I am afraid that we will not be able to stop the attack of the cadre army, this commander plans to lead the army to Guanzhong to join the imperial court, I don't know what the generals think?" ”

Lai Qiu asked: "Father, what should I do with Huaishuo Town and Woye Town?" ”

"I had to give up!"

Lai Qiu looked at the second brother Lai Ti and the generals, and persuaded: "Father, now our army is demoralized, and there is a lack of food and ordnance, and there are only so many people left, even if I go to Chang'an, I am afraid that I will not be treated by the imperial court, if the imperial court wants to seize these soldiers and horses, I will be finished when I come home!" Now that our army is defeated, there are still more than 6,000 people, if we can hold the Wuzhou Pass, we can delay for some time, didn't the imperial court send an envoy to Rouran? As long as Rouran sends troops, the pressure on our army will be greatly reduced, and even a counterattack will be launched! ”

Lai Daqian listened to the words of the eldest son and hesitated, he was actually worried about this, if the emperor was older and could handle the government affairs, he could rest assured, but the emperor was young and could not manage the government, and the court was controlled by Bu Liu Guli, so he was worried that after the past, he would be robbed of military power by Bu Liu Guli.

Lai Daqian asked several other generals: "What do you think?" ”

The generals looked at each other, Da Boyi clasped his fists and said: "Dashuai, the last general feels that the eldest prince is right, go to Guanzhong and the blessings and disasters are unpredictable, we can't put our lives in the hands of others, even if we can't hold this Wuzhou Pass, there are still 8,000 men and horses when we return to Huaishuo Town, if the cadres hit Huaishuo Town, our army really can't resist, and we can also negotiate with them to return to the conditions, the location of Huaishuo and Woye is extremely important, close to Rouran, it is one of the important passages in and out of the Hetao area in the south and north of the desert, if our army hands over these two places to Rouran, The threat to Qianguo is very great, and it is impossible for Qianguo not to consider this! ”

Several of the other generals agreed with Da Boyi's statement and nodded their heads.

Come to Daqian to think for a long time, finally changed his mind, temporarily stick to Wuzhou Pass, ordered the eldest son to come to Qiu to take a thousand people to stay, he led the rest of the soldiers and horses back to Huaishuo Town, the army retreated along the way to plunder non-stop, along the way was looted everywhere, but all those who saw the strong man were taken away.

Two days later, Zhao Junsheng led his army to Wuzhou Pass, leaving 3,000 guards in Pingcheng, and Gao Jinzhi was also ordered to lead the army to attack the city.

The army set up camp outside Wuzhou Pass, and Zhao Junsheng arrived outside the city with the generals to check the city defense.

"Gao Jinzhi, now most of the army is cavalry, only your department is infantry, this siege can only be handed over to you, have you brought all the siege equipment?" Zhao Junsheng pointed at Guan Cheng with a horsewhip and asked.

Gao Jinzhi clenched his fists and said: "In addition to the trebuchet, other siege equipment has been brought!" ”

"Good! According to the detectives, the current guard of this Wuzhou Pass is the eldest son of Lai Daqian, and there are more than 1,000 defenders, how long do you think it will take to capture Wuzhou Pass? ”

Gao Jinzhi said: "The king is too high to look down on the micro ministers, how long it takes for a city to be broken is not only determined by the attacking side, if the defender is calm, good at defending the city, and has enough troops and defense equipment, it is not easy to break through, some cities can be held for several years without moving, and some cities can not even hold for a day!" ”

An expert is an expert, as soon as others hear him, they know that this person is an expert, Zhao Junsheng also knew that his question was a little redundant, and waved his hand and said: "Okay, how to attack the city is up to you, give you a day to prepare, and start tomorrow morning after breakfast!" ”

"Yes!"

Wuzhou Pass is a land pass, there is no water around, built by the mountain, the terrain in front of the pass is long and narrow, but the construction of this pass is built to protect the flat city, so all the defense facilities are almost on the west side of the city wall, and the east side of the city wall only has a female wall, there is no enemy tower, arrow tower, in the absence of these facilities, the defense will be greatly weakened, far less than the west city wall.

There are also four walled cities on the hills on both sides of the gate, each of which has a tooth of troops to garrison, and more arrows and stones are used for defense, and the difficulty of attacking from both sides will not be less difficult than the frontal siege.

After the siege of the city was handed over to Gao Jin, Zhao Junsheng did not take care of it anymore, and it was not until three days later that he sat in the tent and listened to Chang Kun's report.

"In the past three days, General Gao has attacked four times a day, each time the siege time does not exceed one and a half hours, and the troops used each time do not exceed one building, and the losses are not large, and the total number of killed and wounded before and after killing is less than two hundred!"

Zhao Junsheng instructed: "You tell me the detailed process of how he commanded the siege!" ”

"Yes!" Chang Kun agreed and began to describe in detail.

Zhao Junsheng listened to him and nodded: "He is testing the combat effectiveness of the defenders, the number of defensive changes, the speed of reaction and reinforcements, and the weakness of the defensive force, let's take a look!" ”

On the fourth day, Gao Jinzhi began to move in earnest, all the siege equipment took turns to fight, and all the siege equipment deployed on the city wall was destroyed by Gao Jinzhi with stone carts and ballistas.

Immediately afterwards, under the command of Gao Jinzhi, the infantry carried the siege ladder and rushed to the wall, arrows kept shooting down from the city wall, and stones kept falling, there were many who were shot dead and stoned to death, but the casualties were not large, and these siege infantry protected themselves well.

The siege lasted a whole day, and the besieging infantry also stormed the wall and fought with the defenders, but in the end they were driven down by a large number of reinforcements from the defenders.

That night, Zhao Junsheng asked Gao Jinzhi: "Our army has more powerful siege equipment and weapons such as fire oil bombs, why don't you use them?" ”

Gao Jinzhi hugged his fists and said: "King, the battle is actually a process in which both sides are familiar with each other, such as siege warfare, you don't know the reality of the other party, if you rashly push the most important siege equipment up, once the other party blocks the first wave of offensive, immediately have the opportunity to find a way to deal with it, only by forcing out all the opponent's defensive strength, then can you rest assured that the bold siege!" There is also the fire oil bomb, the minister thought that its manufacturing process and formula should be kept strictly secret, its lethality is too great, it cannot be used until the last resort, if it is used, no city can stand it, but the consequence of abuse is leakage, once the world realizes its horror, will definitely try to get the method of making it, it will not be long before the city's defensive role will be gone! ”

Zhao Junsheng was touched by these words, indeed, as long as it exists, it is not difficult for people to know its secrets, unless it does not exist.

The next day, Gao Jinzhi's attack expanded to the walled city on the mountains on both sides, after he began to attack the city with a large number of soldiers, he ordered the second wave of soldiers to push the wheeled siege ladder to the wall as quickly as possible, a large number of soldiers were thrown to the wall through the wheeled ladder, and all the troops were already invested to Qiu Qi can no longer draw reinforcements, and the wall is captured little by little, until finally, Qiu Qiu is escorted by several guards to escape from Wuzhou Pass.

Gao Jinzhi used his quick speed to clear the defenders on the city wall and in the city, and opened the city gate to meet Zhao Junsheng and the army into the city.