Following.

The sun is rising, and the sun is shining brightly.

The morning dew gradually fades, and the flowers are red and willow green.

Under the city of Ji County.

The 80,000 Xiliang army was waiting in formation, and the war horses were neighing, and the momentum was magnificent.

Ten miles of wilderness, soldiers Gosensen, banner hunting, strong bows and crossbows to meet the sky, throwing stones and wells to stand on the earth.

The soldiers are strong, and the military is like a prison.

Before the Chinese army, Li Li wore a cloth robe for the first time to sit in the Chinese army, and the golden beast king under his crotch did not wear armor, his golden mane was bright and shining, and the power of the beast king was even more powerful than in the past.

Before the military formation, the 10,000 infantry soldiers of Huang Zhong's headquarters were waiting for the battle, and the morale was high, and the soldiers who climbed the city were eager to try, and they couldn't immediately launch an offensive.

Behind the infantry army, Guo Yan was dressed in black battle armor, and suddenly sat on the back of a green horse with a body length of nearly one zhang and a height of eight feet, holding a long-handled war knife of Zhangba, with a cold expression and murderous eyes. Behind him, 20,000 Qinglong Battalion Iron Horses stopped, standing proudly against the rising sun, with high morale and extraordinary might.

In this attack on Jicheng, Huang Zhongqin led 10,000 infantry troops to serve as the main force of the siege, with crossbow arrays, catapults and well rails to assist in the siege, and Guo Yan's cavalry to respond to the infantry army. Once there is a flaw in the defense of Jicheng, the Qinglong battalion will rush straight up, attack the city gate, and break through the city in one fell swoop.

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Upstairs in Jicheng City.

Ma Teng looked down at the Xiliang army under the city with a gloomy face, his expression was cold and solemn, and a trace of worry passed under his eyes that was not easy to detect.

At present, all his soldiers and horses are gathered in Jicheng, with a total of 50,000 horses.

50,000 soldiers and horses, at first glance it sounds like a lot of people, and the gap with the 80,000 Xiliang army is not big. It is completely capable of defending the city. However, the reality is far from optimistic.

My family knows my own business.

How the 50,000 soldiers and horses in the city were obtained, others may not know, but Ma Teng himself knows it. Among the 50,000 soldiers, there are less than 30,000 elite soldiers from the Ma Family Army, and the remaining more than 20,000 infantry troops are all county soldiers from Hanyang County, Hanyang, and Anding counties. Most of these soldiers defending the city are old and weak, less than sixty percent of the young and strong soldiers, and they have been neglecting the war for a long time, the good and the bad are uneven, and the combat effectiveness is extremely limited.

If only that's all. Ma Teng was also sure that he would not lose Jicheng, so that Li Li's army would defeat the city of Jixian and return in vain. The most fatal thing is that at present, his descendant Qu Ma Jiajun is not united, and there is a stalemate on the issue of war and surrender. As a result, the morale of the army is unstable and the people's hearts are scattered.

Ma Jiajun is the first part of Ma Teng's family. It has always been in charge of himself and his sons. There was not a single outsider among the main generals. However, now his two sons and nephews have the intention of asking Li Li to surrender, and they are unwilling to fight to the death with the Xiliang army.

Ma Teng has three sons under his knees, the eldest son Ma Chao, the second son Ma Tie, and the youngest son Ma Xiu. Furthermore. He also has a talented nephew, Ma Dai. Of course, he also has a daughter who is not treated by him, a "rebellious daughter" who does not love women and loves knives and guns - Ma Yunluo.

Ma Tie is still young. Only seventeen years old, young and immature, he lacked prestige in the army and could not serve the public. Matthew is younger, less and more important, and is still in the stage of military training. Now, the person in the Ma family's army who is really capable of managing the soldiers and horses and is trusted by Ma Teng is Ma Dai.

Ma Dai is Ma Teng's nephew. He grew up with Ma Chao since he was a child, a few months younger than Ma Chao, and Ma Chao is the main one everywhere. The two cousins have a deep affection, training martial arts together, training soldiers together, being born and dying together, and sharing weal and woe. In the Battle of Heilongling, Ma Chao was seriously injured and could not escape from Wuwei County as soon as possible, so he stayed in Wuwei to recuperate, while Ma Dai led Ma Jiajun to successfully get rid of the pursuit of Wuwei Army and was able to escape back to Fufeng County. For most of the following half a year, Ma Chao had no news, and Ma Dai thought that he had died in battle, so he repeatedly followed Ma Teng and waited for the opportunity to take revenge on Wuwei Army. In the battle of Dongshankou and the night attack on Hugh Tucheng, Ma Dai took the lead and performed extremely bravely, gradually taking the place of Ma Chao in the Ma family's army, in charge of 15,000 war horses.

Ma Dai has grown up so quickly, which was originally a good thing, and Ma Teng is happy to see it, and he trusts and reuses Ma Dai more and more. However, after the battle of Bahe, Ma Chao suddenly appeared under Li Li after half a year, and was reused by Li Li, defeating Zhang Liao, a general under Lu Bu, in front of the battle, and became famous in Xiliang in one fell swoop. When Ma Dai learned that Ma Chao was not dead but had defected to Li Li's urgent report, it coincided with the defeat of Han Sui and Ma Teng's combined forces in a sneak attack on Hugh Slaughterhouse. Subsequently, Ma Dai's hatred for Wuwei Li Li quickly faded, and he felt that perhaps Ma Jiajun's surrender to Li Li was not a bad thing, but a wise move. After all, after the Chang'an Rebellion was pacified, Wuwei Li Li's strength increased dramatically, and he took over the Xiliang Army left by Dong Zhuo with full authority, and he still held the current son in his hands, as if he was a giant in Xiliang, and no one could match it.

After Li Li took charge of Chang'an, the situation in Xiliang took a sharp turn for the worse, looking at the whole territory of Xiliang, the princes from all walks of life, the leaders of the grass bandits and the surrounding barbarians, no one dared to argue with Li Li, and they avoided his edge one after another, and they were in a panic. Half a month ago, Li Li personally led an army of 100,000 to the west, and after hearing the news, the remnants of Shili in Xiliang either took the initiative to surrender Li Li's army, or fled from Xiliang Erzhou and found another way to survive.

Seeing that Li Li's army was unstoppable and the situation was so grim, Ma Dai and Ma Tie suggested that Ma Teng lead his troops to surrender to Li Li, so that the province could hit the stone with eggs, and finally it was difficult to escape the fate of defeat.

For this reason, Ma Dai painstakingly persuaded Ma Teng, stating that it was not a shame for Ma Teng to lead his troops to ask Li Li to surrender, but a wise move to judge the situation and size up the situation. Now the Xiliang army under Li Li is strong and strong, with a monstrous momentum, and the edict of the Son of Heaven is in hand, occupying an absolutely advantageous initiative. Under such circumstances, Ma Teng led his troops to surrender, which could not only show that Ma Jiajun was loyal to the Han court, but also take advantage of the steps given by the edict of the Son of Heaven to step down, which would not damage Ma Teng's great prestige in Liangzhou.

Such a great opportunity to take advantage of the donkey on the slope, the Ma family must not miss it, otherwise the Ma family army will be completely finished!

Ma Dai stated the benefits and disadvantages with good intentions, hoping that Ma Teng would be able to get lost and return, so he took the opportunity to make a decision and took the initiative to ask Li Li's army to surrender. It's a pity that Ma Teng couldn't listen to his heartfelt words, but was suspicious, thinking that Ma Dai had different intentions. So Ma Teng wanted to take back the military power in Ma Dai's hands and set it up in the air, so as to avoid chaos within the Ma family's army.

However, when Ma Teng really took over Ma Dai's military power, he found that he had no generals under his command. And Ma Dai's prestige in the army is quite high, second only to him Ma Teng, far above Ma Tie and Ma Xiu. Idle Ma Dai means that the internal morale of the Ma family army is unstable, the people are panicked, and the trend of division is faintly revealed.

At this time, Youfufeng County was lost, and Ma Yunluo followed Ma Chao and led his troops to surrender to Li Li. This move was undoubtedly worse for the Ma Jiajun stationed in Jicheng, and the house leak was rained overnight, and the disaster was not a one-way street. As a result, Ma Jiajun, who was already a little unstable, finally made the contradiction public.

Ma Dai and Ma Tie strongly advocated surrender, and mobilized dozens of generals in the army to jointly admonish, but Ma Xiu was still young and soft-spoken, so he did not participate in it. In the face of Ma Dai and others' persecution, even Ma Tie, his own son, was mixed up with Ma Dai and others, and Ma Teng became a loner. Annoyed and angry, Ma Teng insisted on going his own way, and immediately dismissed Ma Dai, Ma Tie and other more than a dozen generals from their military powers, insisted on defending Jicheng, and fought with Li Li's army with all their might. Fortunately, Ma Jiajun is an army established by Ma Teng after all, and most of the generals in the army were personally promoted by him, so after the dismissal of Ma Dai, Ma Tie and others, there was no civil strife in Ma Jiajun, at least there was no chaos at present.

At this moment, Ma Teng looked down at Li Li's army under the city with a solemn face, but he couldn't help but worry a lot, suffering from gains and losses.

It is true that before Li Li's army arrived, Ma Jiajun's army was quite stable, and no generals openly stood up against him Ma Teng. However, at this time, the Xiliang army was under the city, and the army pressed the border and surrounded Jicheng. At this time of crisis, the generals in the army will not have different intentions, will there be people who take advantage of the Xiliang army to attack the city and turn against each other, open the city gate without authorization or passively resist, and do not contribute to the work?

Ma Chao surrendered to Li Li, Ma Yunluo also surrendered, and now Ma Dai and Ma Tie also advocate Kaicheng to surrender. These people are all Ma Teng's children and nephews, and they are all willing to surrender to Li Li, so don't the generals in the army have anyone who opens the city to ask for surrender?

As soon as he thought of this, Ma Teng, who was standing at the head of the city, felt a burst of misery inexplicably. It was not until this moment that he finally realized what it meant to be "betrayed and separated" and what it meant to be "disheartened", and he himself was now a veritable loner.

In the face of internal and external difficulties, can you really hold Jicheng by yourself?

In this regard, Ma Teng has no bottom in his heart and has no chance of winning. The saddest thing is that it is a pity that he does not even have a confidant general to discuss the war, and he can only carry everything by himself and decide it in one word.

The war is imminent, and Ma Teng is shouldering indescribable pressure, exhausted, and his heart is desolate.

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"Da Da Da!"

"Where is Ma Shoucheng, dare to go down to the city to talk to General Ben?" Outside the east gate of Jicheng, Li Li drove the Golden Lion Beast King to the moat slowly, raised his eyes to look at Ma Teng at the head of the city, and shouted loudly.

"Li Li'er, Ma is here, if you have something to say, why bother to behave?" Ma Teng waved his hand to signal the left and right soldiers to retreat, and shouted sharply with a gloomy face.

Li Li stopped by the moat, as if he was too far away to hear Ma Teng's words, and said loudly in response: "People say that Ma Shoucheng is a hero of Xiliang, who has been crisscrossing Xiliang for more than ten years, and is famous. In the eyes of General Ben, Xiliang Ma Teng is really a rat with a false name and a reputation, not only is he not a hero, but a bear who shrinks his head and shrinks his brain! At present, the city of Jicheng is tall and strong, with 50,000 iron armor inside and a moat several zhang wide outside, but you Ma Shoucheng dare not go out of the city to answer with this general. Such a timid person, you are also worthy of occupying the fortified city of Ji County, confronting my Xiliang army and shouting? ―――――― (To be continued) (To be continued......

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