"Did Ben ever say that he would hold on and not fight?"

Teng Xiao groaned, turned his head to look at Hu Cai, who was shouting loudly under the city, with a sneer on his face, and said to Wang Fang: "An hour later, that is, after our army's lunch, this general will allow you to go out of the city to fight. At that time, Ben will personally beat the drum for you, help you win, and make meritorious contributions! ”

"Thank you, Commander, the last general for the order!" Wang Fang happily bowed.

Teng Xiao nodded lightly, looked down at Sun Ce's army under the city, and said in a deep voice: "This Sun Ce is indeed in the limelight this time, marching hundreds of miles in ten days, capturing ten walled cities of our army in one go, and becoming famous.

The lord once said that the reason why this person led his troops to the alliance was to make a name for himself, and now it seems that what the lord said is right. In recent days, this guy has been in the limelight and earned enough reputation, but I didn't expect him to be dissatisfied, and he wanted to take advantage of the victory to attack my Dongyuan City, which is really beyond his strength! ”

Teng Xiao's words made the generals standing beside him secretly surprised, and the deputy commander Tie Xiao said in surprise: "The meaning of the commander's words is that the lord intends to make Sun Ce famous, how is this possible?" Our army has shrunk its strength, so it is natural to give up some cities and camps, so that even if Sun Ce does not take it, it will be taken by other generals in the princes' allied forces. It's just that the last general has never understood why the commander wants to leave some county soldiers in the abandoned city to continue to stay, is this to fulfill Sun Ce's fame? If this is the case, the last general thinks that this move is really inappropriate, and it is not worth it to lose thousands of county soldiers in vain. ”

Teng Xiao, the commander of the Wuwei Battalion, is very majestic, and he often does not smile in front of his generals, but he attaches great importance to the iron flute and often treats him differently.

This moment is no exception, after Tie Xiao finished speaking, Teng Xiao smiled and said: "General Tie Xiao has extraordinary knowledge, and he has broken through the mystery in one word. Ten days ago. The Allied army is in full swing, and we naturally have to avoid its edge and abandon some irrelevant walls, which is what the lord said about retracting the outstretched fist. Most of the people in these abandoned fortified cities were temporarily resettled in the safe counties, and no matter who among the Allied forces was to serve as the vanguard general, these fortifications and credits were at their fingertips. However, it is precisely because of Sun Ce's leadership that I will deliberately leave some stragglers with loose military discipline to stay in the walled city, and then leave it to Sun Ce to establish military exploits.

Ten walled cities, this credit is not small, it can be described as a great achievement. The record is brilliant, which is enough for Sun Ce to become famous! It's a pity that he doesn't seem to appreciate it, and he is greedy enough to take advantage of the victory to capture my Dongyuan City, maybe he really treats my Xiliang Army as a mud ornament, thinking that we are weak and can be bullied! The war has been going on so far. We have no need to retreat, and when we can't bear it anymore, we don't need to endure it anymore. It's time to give Sun Ce a slap in the face. Let him see how powerful my Xiliang Army is! ”

"Ahh The generals were shocked when they heard this, and Tie Xiao asked with a puzzled face: "It turns out that this is really intentional by the commander, but why is this?" We have never met Sun Ce, we are friends and foes, why do we want to give him such a big favor? Could it be that the lord wants to recruit Sun Ce? ”

"Surrender Sun Ce? Hehehe! Teng Xiao groaned and said with a smile: "Definitely." The lord never thought of recruiting Sun Ce. The reason why he gave him such a valuable gift was actually for another purpose. Anyway, the cities and camps we have abandoned, who are not to give them, make use of them a little. Wouldn't it be better to give Sun Ce a personal favor! However, sooner or later, this favor will have to be repaid, Sun Ce does not appreciate it and does not matter, there will be someone who will take on this favor, and the real intention of the lord lies in this. ”

Speaking of this, Teng Xiao put away his smile and said in a solemn voice: "I will tell you about this today because you are all close generals under the command of the lord. Remember, just listen to this matter, you must keep your mouth shut in the future, and don't leak half a word to anyone, otherwise Hugh blames Teng for turning his face and being ruthless! ”

"No!" The generals responded in unison.

"Well, that's fine. Gongming stayed to continue to defend the city, and the others went back to the house with me to rest, and after lunch, I will compete with Sun Ce Xiao'er! After saying that, Teng Xiao strode away from the city tower, and the generals followed closely behind him and walked quickly down the city tower and went straight to the city guard's mansion.

――――――――――――――――

"The thief Teng Xiao listened, and quickly opened the city and begged to surrender, otherwise he would die without a burial、、、、、、"

Seeing the group of Xiliang generals at the head of the city hurrying down the city, Hu Cai, who was scolding in front of the pass, suddenly silenced, swallowed back the words on his lips, choked his face and neck, and cold sweat overflowed on his forehead. At this moment, he thought that Teng Xiao was insulted, and he was going to go down to the city to fight!

Suddenly, Hu Cai was scared into a cold sweat, and his back bones were cold, which was simply frightened. Maybe Sun Ce and the others didn't know how powerful Teng Xiao was, but who didn't know Teng Yunlong's prestige. Since Teng Xiao led the Wuwei battalion into Hedong County, the white wave thieves almost did not dare to set foot in Hedong County for half a step, because the white wave thieves who entered Hedong to loot were all dead, and there was no one alive! Therefore, in the past two years, the white wave thieves dared to rob Hanoi and publicize it, and they also dared to cooperate with the Montenegrin thieves to rob Jizhou Zhao County, Changshan and other counties, but they did not dare to step into the Hedong boundary for half a step, for fear that they would not return and lose their lives.

At the same time, the white wave thieves all knew that Teng Xiao was the first general under Li Li in Xiliang, who was in charge of the Wuwei Battalion of Li Li's starting army, and was ordered to garrison Anyi, Xu Rong, the commander of the Henan battalion, was also under Teng Xiao, and usually obeyed Teng Xiao's dispatch. Therefore, the commander of the Xiliang Army stationed in Sili is actually Teng Xiao, including the defenders of Hangu Pass, he has 100,000 male soldiers, so shocked that the princes of the Central Plains dare not touch his edge, and no one dares to attack the border of Sili.

If it was before, Hu Cai would not dare to insult Teng Xiao even if he had ten dares, let alone have the opportunity to shout and scold in front of the Xiliang army, but this time, it was hundreds of thousands of allied troops behind him that he dared to have the courage to go out to fight.

However, seeing Teng Xiao leading a group of generals downstairs at this moment, Hu Cai was really frightened, his tongue, which was quite sharp just now, suddenly lost his voice, the corners of his mouth twitched, his teeth trembled, and he kept choking and spitting. Frightened and inexplicable, he turned his head to look at Sun Ce, the vanguard commander in front of the military formation behind him, hoping that Sun Ce would be merciful and call him back to the military formation.

Three hundred steps away from the city, Sun Celle looked up at the Xiliang defenders at the head of the city with a calm expression, frowning slightly from time to time, as if he was thinking.

"Young master, it seems that you were right last night. The soldiers stationed in Dongyuan City are by no means comparable to the county soldiers we met before, all of them have big shoulders and round waists and strong figures, and at a glance we know that these soldiers are all fierce and brave people, and their combat power is not bad. Cheng Plema stopped to Sun Ce's left, looked at the situation on the city tower, and whispered.

Before the words fell, Cheng Pu suddenly saw a Xiliang general in the armor of the general waving his hand and leaving the city tower, and suddenly he said urgently: "Is this 、、、 Xiliang army going to open the city to fight?" ”

Sun Ce shook his head slightly when he heard this, and said in a deep voice: "No, the Xiliang Army is not going to fight, but to go back to the city to rest." ”

In fact, Sun Ce knew what Cheng Pu was worried about, if the Xiliang army in the city opened the city to fight, the nearly 50,000 soldiers and horses in his hands might not be able to defeat the defenders of Dongyuan, the outcome was unpredictable, and he might even be defeated.

According to the sentry cavalry report, there are 30,000 or 40,000 Xiliang troops stationed in Dongyuan City, of which there are 20,000 war horses, and they are the Wuwei battalion war horses with strong combat effectiveness in the Xiliang army. In contrast, less than 10,000 of the 50,000 soldiers and horses under Sun Ce's account were cavalry, while there were only 2,500 cavalry in his own army, and the remaining thousands of cavalry were the cavalry of the White Wave Thief. And the Baibo war cavalry is also a patchwork of mixed formation, said to be a cavalry, in fact, there is just a mount, the equipment is very poor, lack of training, not to mention cooperation, the combat power is limited, far less than the Xiliang iron cavalry brave and good at fighting.

In fact, not only the cavalry of the White Wave Thieves is like this, but the cavalry under the princes of various towns is very poorly equipped, and the same is true for the Xiliang Army. For example, today is chaotic, and the territory occupied by the princes of each town is very limited, even the princes who have sufficient money and food are relative to the princes who are short of food and grass, and they are actually not as rich and solid as they imagined. The small size of the territory means that the resources are limited, and there is simply not enough financial and material resources to build a large number of sophisticated ordnance. At present, the most urgent thing for the princes of all walks of life is to expand the number of soldiers and horses, expand the territory wildly, and there is a huge shortage of money and food, so how can there be spare money to build equipment.

What's more, the shape of the whole world at the moment is one out of ten, that is, there is one soldier among ten people; In other words, nine men, women, young and old, supported one soldier. This can be regarded as a prince who is sympathetic to the people, and the soldiers and horses under some princes are not proportional to the total population under their jurisdiction at all, and it is far less than one out of ten, one out of seven, and one out of six is not uncommon. Such a wanton recruitment of soldiers and horses is not an exception, but a common phenomenon, and all princes in the world are the same. Therefore, like the populous prefectures and counties of Jizhou, Jingzhou, and Yizhou, the princes who occupied these prefectures and counties did not expand their soldiers and horses to the extreme, and relatively speaking, they were very rich, with sufficient money and food, and great potential.

At this moment, don't look at the vanguard army led by Sun Ce more than the Dongyuan defenders, but if the two armies really face each other, it is still unknown who will win and who will lose.

"Young master, Hu Cai seems to be a little timid, looking back from time to time, as if he has the intention of returning to the military formation." Just as Sun Ce was stunned, Huang Gai on the right hand reminded in a low voice.

"Oh? He wants to retreat to the military formation? Sun Ce was stunned when he heard this, but he looked at Hu Cai in front of him coldly, and sure enough, he saw Hu Cai's face pleading, and his forehead was full of cold sweat.

Seeing this, Sun Ce's thick eyebrows were raised, and he said angrily: "Teng Xiao just went downstairs, so he scared him like this, waste, cowardly as a mouse!" He was afraid of Teng Xiao and wanted to retreat to his own formation, so let's dream! Order, let him continue to call the battle, when the Xiliang army goes out of the city to fight, he can come back, otherwise he will keep scolding! ”

"That's 、、、 wrong, right? After all, Hu Cai is the fourth person in the White Wave Thief, and he has thousands of people under him, what if he forces the dog to jump off the wall? Cheng Pu reminded with a hesitant expression.

Sun Ce's eyes widened slightly, and he sneered: "Don't worry, I expect him not to dare to disobey." If he dares to run back to his own camp without permission, he will immediately enforce military law and shoot him on the spot! ”

―――――――――――― (To be continued)(To be continued......