Under Li Yuntian's arrangement, the first Qinglong City Xiaoyao Card Tournament officially kicked off in mid-October, and the competition set up a generous prize money, attracting the active participation of residents in the city.

According to the rules of the Xiaoyao Card Competition, as long as you sign up, you will get a participation prize, and most importantly, you will have the honor to play against Li Yuntian at the end.

In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of the residents, the Xiaoyao Card Contest is divided into the top three in the block, the top three in the urban area and the top three in the city from low to high.

As for the gameplay of the game, it is divided into two kinds, one is the entertainment-based "fighting landlord", and the other is the competitive "Texas Hold'em", of which the "Texas Hold'em" has the highest reward.

Although the perimeter of the city was filled with troops from the Timurid Empire, the Northern Yuan Dynasty, and the Great Horde, the atmosphere in the city gradually became more and more lively as the Getaway Card Tournament unfolded, diluting the tensions.

For the residents of Qinglong City, the Joyful Card Contest has undoubtedly become a grand festival event, with all men, women and children in the city participating, and becoming a topic of conversation after dinner.

Different from the lively scene in the city, Li Yuntian was still busy with official business every day, not only had to worry about the affairs of Qinglong City, but also had to deduce the progress of the war after the outbreak of war in the Hetao area, as well as the war that broke out in Jiayuguan.

Li Yuntian knew very well that neither the Timurid Empire nor the Northern Yuan would pin their hopes on the war in the Hetao area, and would definitely prepare for the attack on Qinglong City and Jiayuguan.

Moreover, in order to cover the army that attacked the Hetao area, the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan would definitely launch an attack on Jiayuguan, so as to attract the attention of the Ming court.

Although the terrain of Jiayuguan is precipitous, although the attack of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan is only a feint, if the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan Dynasty adopt the method of attacking the city by the Mongol army in those years, and want to use soil to lay a slope outside the city wall of Jiayuguan to attack the city wall, then the battle situation in Jiayuguan will be extremely tragic.

Of course, the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan army would not go to Jiayuguan to die in vain, Li Yuntian was worried that the servant army and innocent people who surrendered to the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan Dynasty would become cannon fodder for the siege, which could not only consume the Ming army in Jiayuguan, but also attract the attention of the Ming court.

This is also why Zhou Zheng spared no effort to mobilize the Ming army in the northwest to Jiayuguan, before Li Yuntian launched a counteroffensive, Jiayuguan soldiers and the main battlefield of the Ming Dynasty and the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan, Zhou Zheng must keep the enemy army out of the pass.

"Lord Wang, you haven't slept all night?" Early in the morning, when Lin Xin pushed open the door of Li Yuntian's study, Li Yuntian was standing in front of the map with his hands on his chest and fell into deep thought, and he couldn't help but show a concerned look on his face when he saw this.

"I can't sleep." Li Yuntian turned to Lin Xin and smiled slightly, stretching lazily, "I don't know what the battle situation in Jiayuguan is." ”

"Lord Wang, since the enemy army is a feint attack this time, Grandpa Guo will definitely be able to deal with it easily." Lin Xin smiled when she heard this, and began to sort out the official documents scattered on the desk.

"I hope so!" Li Yuntian's face showed a look of helplessness, Zhou Zheng would definitely not like the offensive methods of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan.

Jiayuguan.

In the gloomy weather, Zhou Zheng, who was wearing armor, stood expressionlessly on the city gate tower accompanied by the generals, and the front of Jiayu Pass was densely filled with the corpses of the besieging enemy, and the blood flowed like a river, and the air was filled with the smell of blood.

It is worth mentioning that the so-called enemy army was not the soldiers of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan, not even the soldiers of the servant army, but the captured people of Guanxi, each carrying a different amount of soil, was forcibly driven to Jiayuguan by the soldiers of the servant army who supervised the war.

The Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan Dynasty adopted the method of warfare that Li Yuntian was most worried about at Jiayuguan, and wanted to build a slope outside Jiayuguan with earth, so that the soldiers of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan could attack Jiayuguan along the slope.

Although he knew which people were innocent, Zhou Zheng could not let the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan Dynasty succeed in their schemes, so he ordered the soldiers on the city wall to attack, and those who rushed to the city wall were immediately subjected to a bloody massacre.

"This is no feint!"

Zhou Zheng's brows were tightly furrowed, he had already received a secret report from Li Yuntian, knowing that the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan generals would send troops to attack Hetao, so it was right to judge that the enemy army outside Juyong Pass should feint, but in the face of the tragic scene in front of him, especially the siege method adopted by the enemy army, he realized that the generals of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan Dynasty clearly wanted to capture Jiayu Pass.

"Wow~~" Suddenly, a crisp cry of a baby sounded among the corpses outside the city, scattered in the silent sky.

Hearing the baby's cry, the Ming soldiers in the city looked out, wondering where the sound came from.

"Send for the baby to be found and brought in." Zhou Zheng groaned for a while, and opened his mouth to order a general on the side, in this tragic and oppressive war environment, the cry of a baby will put the Ming army defending the city under great psychological pressure.

It is worth mentioning that the vast majority of the Ming troops guarding the city at Jiayuguan were on the battlefield for the first time, and the experienced veterans had already been transferred to the Western Expeditionary Army, so Zhou Zheng could not let the psychology of those rookies be affected.

When the general heard this, he bowed to Zhou Zheng, and then let several soldiers ride down the city wall in hanging baskets, and carefully searched among the corpses that came from crying outside the city gate.

The servant soldiers who were on guard in the distance spotted the Ming soldiers who came down in the hanging baskets, and immediately a group of people rushed over, wanting to grab the Ming soldiers to receive the merit.

Without waiting for those servant soldiers to approach, with a dull muffled sound on the gate tower of Jiayuguan, a black projectile shot out from the city gate tower, drew a beautiful parabola in the air, and landed accurately among the servant soldiers, and exploded with a bang.

The servants were caught off guard, and fell in large numbers in the explosion, and the rest of the men were so frightened that they ran backwards.

Soon, the Ming soldiers found the baby crushed under the body of a young woman, who protected it with her body.

"Help me, help me." A Ming soldier picked up the baby and immediately walked back, and after walking a few steps, a young man from the Western Regions covered in blood suddenly stood up from the pile of corpses on the side, limping towards him, shouting in panic.

Before the young man from the Western Regions approached, a nearby Ming soldier rushed over and slashed at his neck with a knife, and the young man from the Western Regions shook his body and fell to the ground and fainted.

Subsequently, two Ming soldiers carried the fainted young man from the Western Regions and hurried to the city wall, and returned to the city gate tower in a hanging basket.

"Grandpa Guo, what should they do?" The baby and the fainted young man from the Western Regions were brought to Zhou Zheng, and a general beside him opened his mouth to ask for instructions.

"Take this child to the villages and towns in Kannai and find a family to adopt him." Zhou Zheng glanced at the crying baby, groaned for a while, and said to several generals on the side, "This child was orphaned because of the war, and your Shaanxi Xingdu Division will be responsible for his living expenses before he becomes an adult." ”

"Obedience!" These generals are the chief officers of the Shaanxi Xingdu Division, including the commanders, the commanders of Tongzhi and the commanders, and they hurriedly responded when they heard this, since Zhou Zheng came to Jiayuguan in person, they naturally couldn't hide behind.

"We need to know the military situation of the enemy army now, and when he wakes up, ask if he can get any useful information." Then, Zhou Zheng's eyes fell on the unconscious young man from the Western Regions, the young man from the Western Regions was also fatal, except for an arrow in his leg, there were no other wounds, and the blood on his body was someone else's, but it seemed that he was scared enough.

Outside Jiayu Pass, the military camps of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan.

In the big tent of the commander of the Timurid Empire's army, a stout Timurid Empire general was drinking with a Northern Yuan general, and several young and beautiful women from the Western Regions were trembling and serving carefully.

The stout general of the Timurid Empire was named Ket, who was second only to Wendu and Louluo in the strength of the Timurid Empire, and led his army to attack Jiayuguan this time.

As for the Northern Yuan general, he was not a Mongol but a Han Chinese, he was Lu Tianxing, who escaped death in the capital, and this time led the Northern Yuan army to assist Kete in attacking Jiayu Pass.

"General Aqiu, if we can break through Jiayu Pass and enter the northwest of Daming before that guy from Louluo, then the first credit will be ours." Ket picked up the wine glass in front of him and raised it to Lu Tianxing with a smile, "By the way, how did you come up with the idea of building a gentle slope outside the city wall?" ”

"Although Jiayuguan is a moat, it is not impenetrable, and the Mongol army once used to build a soil slope to capture a strong city, which would have been just a wisdom to pick up people's teeth." Lu Tianxing replied with a smile after touching the wine glass with Kete.

"I see!" Hearing this, Kete immediately laughed, and looked at Lu Tianxing with a smug expression, "There are enough people in Guanxi for us to build that gentle slope, and we can attack Jiayu Pass without much effort!" ”

Hearing this, the corners of Lu Tianxing's eyebrows rose slightly, and then returned to normal, people who regard human life as grass abound in the war, and those Kansai residents who have become cannon fodder can only blame their bad lives, born in this war-torn and troubled era.

"General Yu, the people who escorted the captives have returned, a total of more than 15,000 people." Just then, one of the guards opened the curtain and walked in, and said in a deep voice.

"Good!" Hearing this, Ket nodded, "Send a new team to search, and no one can be spared food and people." ”

The guard bowed, then turned and walked away quickly.

In order to raise more grain and grass, the armies of the Timurid Empire and the Northern Yuan Dynasty had been looting for grain in the Western Regions with great fanfare during this time, and it was clear that the senior generals of both sides realized that the war in Kansai would not end for a while, so they needed to stock up on enough grain.

It's just that Kete and Lu Tianxing's subordinates not only robbed food, but also robbed people, and the two wanted to use those people in the Western Regions as cannon fodder to complete their plan to attack Jiayuguan.