The sky was overcast, and the slight rain was blowing in the face, with a refreshing and spring breath.

Xu Ping rode on the horse, bowing his head and thinking about his thoughts. There are Tan Hu and his accompanying soldiers to protect him, and he doesn't have to worry about riding into the ditch.

Coming all the way south from Taiping County, Xu Ping immediately reorganized the assembled township soldiers and hurried to Langzhou without delay. It's a pity that these places were only pacified two years ago, and the cane sugar business has just been laid down, and there is not much manpower to pull it out. Except for those who have been building bridges and building roads and leveling the land in these places, the other township soldiers who have really drawn out are only two or three thousand, which is a drop in the bucket.

On the sixth day of the first month of March, Xu Ping hurried and finally left Menzhou and entered the border of Langzhou Prefecture.

Counting the days, Li Fengxiao's Jiaozhi army is also likely to arrive in these two days, and I don't know how Sang Yi will deal with it and how well it is prepared. The closer he got, the heavier Xu Ping's mood became.

As soon as I entered the territory of Langzhou, I felt the tension. Even on both sides of the road, there are only scattered old and weak women, who can only see a young man, and they are all transferred to the front line by Sang Yi.

Although the fortifications laid by Xu Ping in Langzhou are powerful, they have advantages and disadvantages, that is, they need too many personnel. Compared to the Xiongguan that guards the valley mouth, even if there are only a few hundred people, they can hold on for a while.

How can there be the best of both worlds in the world, Xu Ping only thought about inflicting heavy damage on Jiaozhi, so that they would never dare to commit a crime in the north again. But I didn't expect to hurt them too deeply, and this time I risked my life to play.

Bypassing the city of North Langzhou, Xu Ping went directly to the outside of the city of South Langzhou.

At this time, the city gate was already under martial law, and all those who entered and exited had to be examined in detail. However, Xu Ping is the highest local governor. I still entered the city without any problems.

As soon as he entered the city, soldiers rushed to report to Sang Yi. He greeted Xu Ping at the yamen early.

The salute has passed. Sang Yi sighed and said to Xu Ping: "You can be regarded as here!" This time, Jiaozhi poured the country to attack, and the leader of the troops was a famous general, and I felt that I couldn't hold it anymore! ”

"This time is really different from the past, I have been in Yongzhou for six years, and I have never encountered such a harsh moment, and I can't be careless at all. Let's go in and talk, you tell me about the recent situation in Langzhou! ”

Xu Ping said. On the one hand, he entered the yamen with Sang Yi.

When they arrived at the official hall and sat down, the soldiers served tea, and Sang Yi explained the general situation now.

Li Fengxiao's soldiers and horses arrived yesterday, and as soon as they reached the outside of the valley, they launched an attack on the right slope. With the lesson of Chen Changji last time, Li Fengxiao was much more cautious, he did not send many people, the attack surface he chose was even narrower, and he had some simple siege equipment. Although it was easily repelled by Sang Yi's commanders, it did not cause significant damage to the Jiaozhi army.

After the temptation, Li Fengxiao led people to set up camp at the mouth of the valley. At first the camp was too close to the valley. was smashed by the stone cannon under the command of Sang Yi, and he led his troops to retreat two miles.

Listen up. Xu Ping asked, "How many troops do you estimate the Jiaozhi people have arrived now?" ”

"About 10,000 people, and now I can handle it here. But the follow-up army has been endless, and in less than three days, the 20,000 men in front of them will definitely arrive, and it will be difficult to deal with it at that time. ”

Xu Ping nodded, originally with 6,000 against 20,000, defending against attacking, it was not enough to talk about the lack of troops. The problem was that Xu Ping's previous fortifications used too much manpower, and the power of the fortifications could not be brought into play until a large number of people arrived. If the Xiang army is allowed to operate all kinds of defense equipment, and there is no reserve, there is no reserve, there is no adaptability, and the situation is even more dangerous.

After drinking tea, Xu Ping said to Sang Yi: "Let's go, let's go out of the city together and see the layout of the Jiaozhi people." ”

The drizzle has been drifting non-stop, and there is quite an artistic conception of ink painting in the south of the Yangtze River in the mist of smoke and rain. But Xu Ping stood on the top of the hill, looking at the Jiaozhi military camp in front of him, but he felt heavy in his heart.

Li Fengxiao's arrangement is much more disciplined than Chen Changji's, the barracks are very compact, and there are no particularly conspicuous protrusions as weaknesses. The middle is slightly convex in the direction of the valley, and the wings are dragging back, obviously taking into account the Song army's stone cannons behind the mountain, avoiding the consideration of the longest range.

In the smoke and rain, you can't see far, you can only see a rough idea. But this is the approximation, and the strict layout of the military camp also made Xu Ping feel the pressure. This time, the Jiaozhi army did not bring native soldiers, and the front of Taniguchi was full of elites guarding the royal city, and they showed a different temperament from the last time in all aspects.

Xu Ping looked at it for a while and asked Sang Yi beside him: "All the elite soldiers who came to Jiaozhi this time are the best soldiers, so did you bring the native soldiers?" When it comes to the critical time, people are asked to fill the trenches, and they also use these elites to fill them? ”

"The native soldiers are still here, but they haven't come to Taniguchi yet. According to the eyeliner, the native soldiers of Jiaozhi were led by one or two thousand regular soldiers to collect grain in the surrounding states and counties. This time, tens of thousands of people in Jiaozhi suddenly attacked, and they didn't even have time to supply grain and grass, so they had to collect it everywhere, and they didn't know how long they could hold on like this. ”

"I see-" Xu Ping nodded, "forcibly requisitioning grain within one's own territory, or forcibly requisitioning grain in places where local officials are everywhere, this is a lose-lose approach." Regardless of the outcome of the war, the reputation of the Jiaozhi people around Langzhou is over. ”

Xu Ping said as he put on a pergola to cover the falling rain and looked ahead, looked at it for a while, and said to Sang Yi: "By the way, why have the Jiaozhi people in front of him been building an earthen wall?" Today, the drizzle continues, and they still don't stop for a moment, which must be extremely important. ”

Sang Yi said: "Since they tried to attack once yesterday, they retreated and set up camp, and then they have been building this earthen wall in front of the barracks, and they don't know what to do. I also thought that it would be much safer to prevent us from rushing down from the mountains to steal their camp, and that it would be much safer to have this earthen wall in the way. ”

"No, I always felt like it wasn't like that. If you want to stop us from rushing to the camp, we should dig trenches, stand up to resist horses, and build a wall is not half the effort? ”

Xu Ping said, while observing carefully, after looking at it for a while, he suddenly remembered something, and said to Sang Yi: "You order the soldiers behind the mountain, fight two rounds of stone cannons and take a look!" ”

Sang Yi was a little embarrassed: "Now there is a shortage of manpower, and the stone cannon is slow to load, I'm just afraid——"

"No matter what, the big cannon and the medium cannon each play two rounds, you don't have to shoot them all, just a few each!"

Sang Yi didn't know what Xu Ping meant, and seeing that he was serious, he had to step aside and order.

In the rainy day, even the sound of drums was not crisp, only a few muffled sounds were heard, the sound of squeaking behind the mountain came, and dozens of stone bullets with the sound of the wind stirred the rain curtain in the sky to smash, and roared down the mountain.

Xu was calm and quiet, watching the stone bullet cut through the dense rain and fall to the ground, his face was as gloomy as the weather.

Sang Yi said strangely: "Yun Xing, what did you find?" ”

Xu Ping sighed: "I know why the Jiaozhi people built the wall, they want to block the stone bullets and make our stone cannons useless!" ”

Now the earthen wall has just begun to be built, and it is only up to the height of a person's waist, but judging from the trajectory of the stone bullet, as long as this earthen wall is built to a height of one zhang, it will block the trajectory of the stone cannon and will not threaten the Jiaozhi military camp.

The method is not afraid of simplicity, not afraid of stupidity, as long as it is useful, it is the best way. Obviously, the main general on the opposite side has roughly estimated the trajectory of the stone cannon based on the firing of yesterday's stone cannon, and has begun to take countermeasures.

In the war here in Langzhou, the Jiaozhi people attacked, and the Song army and people defended. But specific to the stone cannon, the Song army is attacking, the Jiaozhi people are defending, the transition between attack and defense, and the battlefield is changing rapidly.

Xu Ping turned his head abruptly and said to Sang Yi: "Pass on my military order, the cavalry units of the township soldiers must come over in the shortest possible time, and if you dare to delay, the military law will be engaged!" Defending to the death is guarding to the death, and the enemy we face this time is no longer something that we can deal with! ”

(A friend talked about speeding up the process, and it really hit the point.) In fact, not only the readers, but also my writing has reached the exhaustion stage, and I have spent a lot of energy, but it is not as interesting as before. The progress of this final battle is estimated to be accelerated, of course, I won't pull the progress bar directly, just streamline some details, and move on to the next big plot as soon as possible. Now I feel that it is so difficult to write, and I feel that I can't write anything, which is quite painful. I am very ashamed that I am ashamed that the book has been updated by the Alliance, but it is still not fulfilled today, and I hope I can get back to my state as soon as possible and fulfill my promises, readers forgive me. (To be continued.) )