The judge looked at Li Hong's haggard face because of staying up too late, and said movingly: "Lord Lieutenant should pay attention to rest. Ant thieves are powerful, and they can't be pacified overnight. ”

Li Hong sighed and smiled reluctantly: "More attention is paid to the judges." It's just that now that the tide of the war has reversed and the gall is besieged, if the crisis cannot be saved in time, I am afraid that the lives of the people will be even more difficult this spring. ”

The judge looked at the desolate mountains outside the carriage, and his pale face showed a trace of grief, "I think Lord Captain is still focusing on preserving his strength for the time being, and it is not appropriate to go south to fight the ant thieves in the short term. Now that the main force of Jizhou has been wiped out in Guhongling, and Lord Guo has also died on the battlefield, our original idea of defeating the Yellow Turban Army before spring ploughing has come to naught. ”

Li Hong asked slowly, "What suggestions does the judge have?" ”

The judge endured the pain and whispered: "If you are in a hurry to go south to support, it will definitely be a bloody battle with the ant thief, and the result will definitely be heavy casualties." Zhang Niujiao hurriedly attacked the gall pottery, and it is estimated that it also has the meaning of killing two birds with one stone. If you're not in a hurry to go south, it's the horns that are in a hurry. 200,000 people stayed under the city of Gauntlet, and the amount of food consumed every day alone was a staggering amount, and if the losses of the siege were added, it would be difficult for him to maintain his supplies. ”

"Another thing that is very bad for ant thieves is that it is about to snow. This is a fatal blow to the ant thieves who are poorly armed and equipped. As soon as the snow fell, Zhang Niujiao's troops had to stop the siege. If the time of the snow and the melting of the snow are dragged on too long, there will be immediate problems with the supply of the ant thieves, especially the grain. ”

Li Hong also thought of attacking the supply transportation of the Yellow Turban Army, but because the terrain was unfamiliar, it was difficult to capture the accurate supply route of the Yellow Turban Army, so he had to give up. At this time, he suddenly heard the judge affirmatively say that there would be a shortage of food in the Yellow Turban Army, and he was very surprised and asked, "Why?" ”

"Now in the several states and counties controlled by the ant thieves, there are more than one million displaced people alone, plus two or three hundred thousand soldiers, and the local people have a population of nearly two million, and Zhang Niujiao simply does not have so much food to supply them. If the soldiers did not fight, their daily ration was three liters (about 900 grams of corn today), and when they arrived on the battlefield, the soldier's ration supply was doubled to six liters. This is the minimum ration to maintain a soldier on the battlefield. But three liters of rice can feed at least five or six ordinary refugees for a day. ”

The trial probably talked too much, which touched the wound. He groaned a few times in pain and struggled to continue:

"Zhang Niujiao is the commander of the ant thief, he is responsible for the soldiers who follow him and the people who support him, and he must at least let these people who follow him live. Therefore, once Zhang Niujiao stays in the gall for too long, the food problem will immediately come to the fore. At this point, he had only two paths to take. The first is to withdraw the troops immediately, and the second is to wait until the snow melts, break through the gall pottery, and use the food of the gall pottery to replenish the troops. ”

When Li Hong heard this, he already understood it, and the distress that had accumulated in his heart immediately disappeared. He exclaimed happily:

"I know, I know. Thank you so much. ”

The judge frowned painfully, gritted his teeth, and asked in a trembling voice, "Do you understand?" ”

"I see. Thank you, Mr. Judge. Li Hong said excitedly.

"The key is to make sure that the gall is not lost before it snows. If Zhang Niujiao is bent on taking down the gall pottery before the snow falls, then the gall pottery is very dangerous. Lord Feng only had 6,000 people, and under the ferocious attack of 200,000 ant thieves, it was almost impossible to hold on. ”

"As long as Lord Feng stays until it snows, the pain will be Zhang Niujiao." Li Hong said with a smile, "Lord Judge, if you are not injured, how good it is, with your ability, you can command us to defeat Zhang Niujiao." ”

Sweat began to break out on the forehead of the judge, and he tried his best to support it, and continued: "Last year, Lord Mu Huangfu of Jizhou asked the Son of Heaven to exempt the people of Jizhou from paying taxes for one year to help the victims, so until now, Jizhou's financial situation can barely protect itself. This time, after I arrived in Xindu City, I tried my best to persuade the other officials of the Jizhou Pastoral Government to give you sufficient military pay and supplies. You're on the front line, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it for you. ”

The judge stretched out his left hand from the carriage and waved it at Li Hong twice, barely squeezing out a smile and saying, "The lower official has taken his leave." ”

Li Hong hurriedly took a step forward, held the cold hand of the judge tightly, and said with a smile: "Thank you for your help to the Youzhou Iron Horse." Adults go all the way, take care. ”

The judge shook his hand vigorously and said very sincerely, "Thank you, thank you for saving my life." ”

Li Hong stood silently in the cold wind, letting his long hair flutter, motionless as he looked at the carriage that gradually disappeared from view.

The so-called celebrities, Shang'an Sheji, Xia'an Dawn, are not afraid of the powerful and powerful, and are not willing to degenerate into customs. Thinking of this sentence of the trial, Li Hong couldn't help but sigh secretly. The huge power of the Shi clan played a pivotal role in the Han State, and many learned and influential people were all born in the Shi clan. They have royal relatives, official families, and wealthy families, and each force holds the power and wealth of the Great Han Kingdom. All the children of the Shi clan are busy all day long in order to survive better. But without them, the Great Han Kingdom would immediately collapse completely. If there was no Liu Yu in Youzhou and no Zhang Chun in Zhongshan, there might have been more deaths.

Even if the Yellow Turban Army wins, will it be able to govern the world with those few learned leaders? Most of their subordinates are illiterate commoners, they don't understand anything, can they help the people to eat their stomachs?

Thousands of untouchables in the world, why can't they go to school, become officials, and learn things? How can we make the common people, like the scholars, well-fed and clothed, educated, and become officials?

"My lord, the reinforcements from the Black Feather King of the White Mountain have arrived."

Li Hong was taken aback. He suddenly looked back at Zheng Xin and asked loudly, "What did you say?" ”

"The reinforcements of the Black Feather King of the White Mountain have arrived. The Black Feather King Nanlou gave you face very much, and sent two thousand people. Zheng Xin said with a smile, "Heng Xi and Lu Huanyang have already gone to pick it up." ”

Coming all the way with reinforcements was Lou Lu, the youngest son of King Nanlou of Black Feather. The Hu soldiers in the Fengyun Iron Cavalry suddenly increased to about 10,000. This not only made the Hu soldiers feel a little incredible, but even the Han soldiers and junior officers also felt the pressure, the pressure of fear.

Li Hong was very happy, and immediately ordered Lou Lu's troops to merge into the Black Panther Yicong, and expanded the Black Panther Yicong to a battalion of men. The army that shot the tiger and returned to the jade replaced Heng Sai as the military waiter.

Because Xian Yufu's Yan and Zhao tribes were all Han soldiers, Li Hong specially arranged for Zhang He, Wen Chou to serve as a military candidate under Xian Yufu, and folded the original Sanqu troops into five songs, each with 600 people.

Gao Ran needed to recuperate from his injuries, so Li Hong temporarily arranged for him to be under Tian Zhong, and then Wei Tun acted together.

The next day, Li Hong led his troops to set off and rushed to Gall Tao with a large army.

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The scout flew into the tent with horns.

"Marshal, the Leopard Army has moved."

Zhang Niujiao was lying on the desk writing papers, and when he heard this, he looked up at a scout, and asked unhurriedly, "All dispatched." ”

"Back to Dashuai, their camp has been withdrawn. The former army Xian Yu Yinbu had already arrived at Zhou Villa. ”

Zhang Niujiao waved his hand, and the scout quickly retreated.

Zhang Niujiao leaned over and picked up the map, spread it on the desk, looked at it carefully, and muttered to himself: "I don't believe you won't come." ”

Then he shouted loudly: "Order all the troops, starting at noon, to attack." ”

The 200,000-strong army of the Yellow Turban Army was divided into four divisions and besieged the city of Gauntlet. Zhang Niujiao personally led the battalion and stationed it at the West Gate. Chu Feiyan's department is at the north gate. The troops of Bai Huan and Wulu are at the south gate. Yang Feng came the earliest, he took a little more detour, and the troops were stationed at the east gate.

The Yellow Turbans had been besieging the city for three days, but they had not launched an attack for a long time.

Wulu is in his fifties, his body is thin, and his beard and hair are gray. Generally speaking, the older a person gets, the less hope he should have, but Wulu is not, he hopes that he can revive the Taiping Sect and be able to lead the Yellow Turban Army.

The reason why Wulu is called Wulu is because he is a monk, and his Dharma name is Wulu. He is a true Taoist priest of the Taiping Sect, and has followed Zhang Jiao to travel the world for many years. Although he was not one of Zhang Jiao's eight disciples, he was the first batch of disciples included in Zhang Jiao's teaching, and his qualifications in the Taiping Sect were very old. It was because of this that he was very unconvinced that Zhang Niujiao became the leader of the Yellow Turban Army.

Zhang Niujiao is not one of Zhang Jiao's eight disciples, but only the best of the Taiping Sect's lay disciples. What qualifications does he have to be the leader of the Yellow Turban Army, he doesn't even seem to understand the teachings of the Taiping Sect. Wulu believes that he is the successor of the Taiping Sect, and only he is truly qualified to be the leader of the Yellow Turban Army. So he has always been worried about this matter, and always wants to find an opportunity to push Zhang Niujiao off the position of the handsome.

As a result, he caused a lot of trouble with the slightest move, and almost lost his old life. After learning of the defeat of Zhang Niujiao's Northern Expedition, he thought that his opportunity to seize the leader of the Yellow Turban Army had come, and immediately ordered several of his disciples to find an excuse not to give grain and grass to Bai Huan and Wang Dang. As a result, Wang Dangbu was surrounded and annihilated, and Bai Huanbu was forced to abandon Xiangguo and fled into Taihang Mountain. Then he was unlucky. He didn't expect Chu Feiyan's troops to arrive so quickly, and he was immediately surrounded by Wang Dang's army. If Wang Dang hadn't been afraid that he was a disciple of Zhang Jiao, a senior of the Taiping Sect, and many leaders of the Yellow Turban Army had come forward to help him speak, he would have been angry a long time ago.

Fortunately, Zhang Niujiao came back in time and killed several disciples of Wulu, calming down the turmoil and not causing greater losses to the Yellow Turban Army. However, Zhang Niujiao's 180,000 troops on the northern expedition were all annihilated on the battlefield of Youzhou, which still dealt a heavy blow to the Yellow Turban Army.

Zhang Niujiao did not step down, so he should be grateful to Chu Feiyan and Yang Feng. Chu Feiyan and Yang Feng together have more than 100,000 troops, and no one in the Yellow Turban Army shakes them. Although Bai Huan is also known as a 100,000 troops, he only has 20,000 or 30,000 troops at most, and the rest of the soldiers are refugees with wooden sticks and iron rakes, who follow him to eat. Although Bai Huan and some small leaders support Wulu, they have no strength, and everything they say is nonsense.

Bai Huan came early in the morning to call him to drink. Bai Huan is a child of a rich family, and his life has always been luxurious, and when he arrived in the Yellow Turban Army, he did not get rid of these habits.

"Master, what are you thinking?" Bai Huan said with a smile: "I just won the battle and killed Guo Dian, if we lay down the gall pottery and kill Feng Yi in a few days, a good day will come this year." ”

"Didn't Bai Shuai see that Da Shuai was excluding dissidents?" Wulu smiled coldly and said slowly.

Bai Huan laughed, pointed to Wulu's nose and said, "You think too much." At Guhongling, the commander ordered us to attack on the flank, and the losses were not great. This time we feinted at the south gate, and the losses will certainly not be too great. I know what you want, but the time hasn't come, the time hasn't come. ”

Wulu looked at him and asked in a low voice, "Is there still a chance?" ”

"Absolutely." Bai Huan smiled, "If you hadn't helped me last time, my troops would have finished fighting in Xiangguo." So I'll definitely help you with this favor. ”

He took a sip of wine and continued: "Now the strength of the two of us combined, compared with Chu Shuai's troops, the strength is a cut behind. But as soon as the battle was over, the situation was different. You see, whether it is attacking the city or blocking the Leopard Army, Chu Shuai's troops are the main force. Zhang Niujiao had no troops of his own, so he had to charge into battle with the troops of his righteous son. After the battle, Chu Shuai's troops must have suffered heavy losses, and there was not much left. At that time, we pulled Yang Shuai over, and then united with a group of Yellow Turban leaders to force Zhang Niujiao to give up the position of the big leader. ”

Wulu smiled bitterly and said, "Are you drinking too much, what kind of bullshit idea is this?" At that time, the marshal fought in succession, killed Guo Dian, killed Feng Yi, and his reputation was skyrocketing, and there were even more people who were willing to take refuge in him. Who will follow me? Will you? ”

Bai Huan looked at him and smiled sadly: "Then what do you say?" You can't send someone to kill Zhang Niujiao, right? ”

Wulu was startled, subconsciously looked around, and said angrily, "What do you want to do?" Can this also be said? ”

This is the voice of the attendant from outside the big tent: "Master, Bai Shuai, the big marshal has an order to deliver." ”

Bai Huan waved his hand to signal the herald to retreat, unfolded the map on the desk, pointed to the direction of Quyang and said, "Master, you said that the leopard is so stupid." Can't he see that this gall pottery city is a trap to lure him into a cage. ”

Wulu took a sip of wine gently, a trace of helplessness flashed on his vicissitudes of old face, and he whispered: "Of course he is not stupid." Dashuai father and son were both masters of soldiers in the Yellow Turban Army, but both of them were planted in his hands. 180,000 people. Wulu shook his head and sighed: "Even Huangfu Song didn't have this ability back then, and he ate 180,000 people in three or two clicks." I'm worried that the handsome father and son will take revenge, and this time it will be planted in his hands. ”

"Oh?" Bai Huan asked in surprise, "Why do you say that?" ”

"The handsome man wants to kill two birds with one stone, but he is afraid that the eagle will not shoot, but will be pecked blind by the eagle. There is a fatal flaw in the game he set up. Wulu pretended to be unpredictable and said slowly.

Bai Huan smiled and said casually: "You mean grain?" ”

Wulu looked at Bai Huan in surprise, and suddenly felt that he was stupid, as if others could see the problem without using their brains, and he was still pretending to be deep.

"Do you think the big marshal doesn't know? We have enough food when we lay the gall pottery. The crux of the matter is not food, but whether we can lay the gall before the snow falls. Bai Huan looked at the map on the desk, and said worriedly: "If the big marshal wants to fight the leopard and the gall pottery, that is the fatal loophole of this game." ”

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Chu Feiyan was playing chess with Yang Feng in the big tent.

Their chess skills were all personally instructed by the Taiping Sect, and their level was very high. Both of them were one of the seventy-two Xiaoqu Shuai back then, and they were personally selected by Zhang Jiao from among his disciples. Zhang Jiao admires their talents very much and believes that they will all be the backbone of the Yellow Turban Army in the future.

Yang Feng also has a nickname in the Yellow Turban Army, called Nine-headed Bird. He and Chu Feiyan are the same age, handsome, and good at martial arts, but he is smarter than Chu Feiyan, sleek and well-behaved, scheming, and very ruthless. Many of the leaders of the older generation in the Yellow Turban Army disliked him and thought he was too violent, so his reputation and status in the Yellow Turban Army had always been inferior to Chu Feiyan.

Yang Feng can fight, and he is no worse than Chu Feiyan, which everyone knows in the Yellow Turban Army, but he and Chu Feiyan are friends of life and death, and few people know about it.

After receiving the message from the marshal, the two continued to play chess as if nothing happened.

"What do you think?" Chu Feiyan dropped a sunspot, finally couldn't help it, and asked softly.

"The leopard is coming, and the bloody battle begins." Yang Feng said with a smile.

Chu Feiyan glanced at him and said slowly, "You will help again this time." After eating the leopard, Jizhou left us to crisscross. ”

Yang Feng glanced at him and asked cautiously, "Are you sure?" We have never fought against an army of cavalry, let alone a cavalry army of more than 10,000 men. Zuo Shuai's troops are definitely the absolute main force in the Yellow Turban Army, but his 30,000 people were wiped out in Dukang Pavilion, which shows the strength of Fengyun Iron Cavalry. Do you dare to fight this kind of uncertain battle? ”

"I carefully studied the process of many battles between the Han army and the Hun cavalry, and I think I am sure." Chu Feiyan looked at Yang Feng's big eyes and smiled confidently: "Since the leopard dares to come, I have a way to make him unable to go back." However, if I engage the leopards, my troops will all be thrown up, so we must rely on your troops to take down the city of Gauntlet. ”

Yang Feng looked at the chessboard and didn't make a sound.

"We all know Master Wulu's thoughts. Bai swayed around this person, which made people wonder through. Now it would be nice to be able to count on them to contain some of their forces. We are brothers, you give me a word. Promise, I'll fight with the leopard. If I don't agree, I will immediately take down the city of Gall and give up the operation of encircling and annihilating the leopard. ”

Yang Feng looked at the chessboard for a long time, still silent.

"Qizhi, will I deliberately frame you and make you lose your soldiers?" Chu Feiyan looked at Yang Feng seriously and said slowly.

Yang Feng raised his eyebrows, and looked at Chu Feiyan with a pair of big eyes, his eyes full of doubt and suspicion. Now that Zhang Niujiao's troops are basically gone, Chu Feiyan and Yang Feng are left in the Yellow Turban Army with strong strength. If Yang Feng's troops were beaten badly in this battle, Chu Feiyan would be the boss of the Yellow Turban Army.

Yang Feng picked up a white seed, gently put down the chessboard, and asked solemnly:

"Are we brothers?"

Chu Feiyan felt that there was something in his words, glanced at him, nodded, and replied, "Brother of life and death." ”

"Then tell me, does the marshal intend to pass on the position of the great leader to you?"

Chu Feiyan's heart was shocked and dumbfounded.

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