The Demon Cult army retreated a few hundred meters, but it still surrounded and did not leave. The small inner city was so dense that not even a fly could fly out.

The Five Elements Banner was deployed throughout the outer city to ensure that the Ming army had no possibility of breaking through.

In the siege battle, the Demon Sect may have suffered some losses, but once the official army is out of the city, they will have absolute certainty of encircling and destroying the official army.

And so it is!

In this battle, the officers and soldiers lost 8,000, and the Demon Sect lost 4,000. I have to say that the combat power of the Demon Sect soldiers is much higher than that of the official army. Even in such a siege battle, the casualty ratio was an astonishing two to one.

If it were replaced by street battles or field battles outside the city, the casualties would have been greater. Moreover, among the 53,000 or 4,000 soldiers and horses left in the city, the Guanning Army, the Xuanfu Army, the Datong Army, and the Changping Army combined were only more than 8,000 people, and the rest were all Gansu soldiers!

Therefore, it is impossible to break through.

Inner city, in the Gansu governor's mansion.

All the generals in the city gathered together, including Zhiren, Wang Datong, Shangshui Shitai and other martial arts celebrities also came in to observe, everyone sat on the left and right, only Qin Shuhuai was respected, sitting on the main seat.

Naturally, what is discussed is how to act next.

Qin Shuhuai first asked Cao Wenzhao, "General Cao, how is the grain and grass reserves in the inner city?"

Cao Wen edicted, "At the beginning of entering the city, the last general had already considered that in case the outer city was lost, the army would retreat to the inner city. Therefore, most of the grain and grass were stored in the inner city. Therefore, the food in the inner city is enough for us to last for three months, so there is no need to worry about this. ”

After a pause, he added, "It's just that we don't have enough ammunition for arrows, oil, artillery, and birds. In the past two days, I have fought hard, and I have consumed a lot of land. According to today's situation, it is estimated that we can fight for another two or three days. ”

Qin Shuhuai groaned and said, "I think the brothers fought a little wasted today, but it's no wonder that so many demon sects come up, and it is inevitable to panic. Next, control the consumption and try to support him for three or four days. Reinforcements will arrive soon, and if the Demon Sect can't break through the inner city by then, it will have to retreat. ”

There are nearly 70,000 Demon Sects besieging the city, and the martial arts coalition army that came to the aid plus Hong Chengchou's army is as much as 140,000, plus more than 50,000 officers and troops in the city, that is 200,000. The official army will have three times the strength of the Demon Sect, and it is strange that the Demon Sect does not retreat.

However, although he said that reinforcements would arrive soon, it would take at least six or seven days.

How to stick to these six or seven days is the problem to be solved at the moment.

At this time, He Kegang said, "Master Hou, the last general thinks that the Demon Sect may not retreat."

Qin Shuhuai was surprised, and the other people present also had different expressions.

However, He Kegang is a general in Liaodong and has a good reputation, so it is naturally impossible for Qin Shuhuai not to listen to his opinions.

So he asked, "Why did General He say this?" ”

He Kegang said, "The last general has seen it, although the Demon Sect has suffered more than 20,000 casualties in the past few days, many of them are Ma Shouying's people. In other words, so far, the Demon Cult Soldiers have only lost more than 10,000 men and horses at most, and they still have at least about 90,000. In terms of combat strength in the field, these 90,000 troops are no less than the 200,000 officers and soldiers. In addition, although the last general did not have exact information, he still believed that it was impossible for Gao Yingxiang in Shaanxi not to join forces with the Demon Sect. Gao Yingxiang has at least 100,000 troops in his hands, and when the time comes, they will come together to participate in the battle, so it is not impossible for the Demon Sect to break the official army. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone present suddenly whispered.

I have to say that He Kegang's analysis is not unreasonable. The 110,000 martial arts coalition troops, except for the 5,000 Jinyi Guards, are well-trained, and the rest are all recruits who have just joined the battle, and their actual combat ability is at most equal to that of the official army, and cannot be compared with the Demon Sect.

And the combat power of the Demon Sect, under the conditions of night battles, can be regarded as an optimistic estimate with one enemy and two enemies. If you add Gao Yingxiang's 100,000 horses, it will be even more powerful.

If the Demon Sect planned to fight a decisive battle with the official army near Lanzhou City, then their chances of victory were indeed much higher than that of the official army!

Once these 200,000 troops are defeated by the Demon Sect, then the imperial court will not be able to gather troops and horses to suppress the Demon Sect for at least five years, and Qin Shuhuai has little hope of organizing a martial arts alliance again - he was defeated by someone as soon as he went out, which sect would rest assured that the disciples would be handed over to you?

In less than half a year, the entire three sides may fall into the hands of the Demon Sect, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong!

The three sides are only thousands of miles away from Gyeonggi, and it is no exaggeration to say that after losing the three sides, as long as Jiannu goes south, the Ming Dynasty will really not be far from the country!

The more Qin Shuhuai thought about it, the more frowning he became, and after a deep sigh, he said, "What General He said is extremely true. I wonder what General Ho has to do?"

He Kegang smiled bitterly, "The last general just thought of this possibility, there is no good plan at present, and we still need to brainstorm and make plans together." Of course, it is possible that the general is too worried. ”

Qin Shuhuai said, "No, the possibility that General He said does exist, and we have to guard against it." Let's think about what to do with this matter. ”

Demon Cult Camp.

Inside Zhao Wuxian's tent, the Demon Sect will gather.

The atmosphere inside the tent was frosty, and everyone was eerily silent.

After a long time, Zhao Wuxian finally spoke.

"Lord Wu Banner, can the Fire Banner have a good strategy for attacking the city?"

Wu Lie said lightly, "It's just a matter of throwing the thunderbolt on the city." However, there are officers and soldiers at the head of the city, and it takes time for the thunderbolt fuse to burn out, and if it is short, it will not be able to blow up the city wall, and if it is long, the officers and soldiers can throw it down again...... Perhaps, before the thunderbolt is thrown on the city, it will be photographed by the officers and soldiers and blown up to our own people. ”

The implication is that if it is easy to use, they have already used it.

Zhao Wuxian looked at Zhao Ju, the master of the Giant Wood Banner, and said, "Lord Zhao Banner, why can't the Giant Wood Banner break the city gate?

Zhao Ju said with a wry smile, "After entering the outer city, my subordinates sent people to take a look at other city gates, only to find that the Ming army had built half a wall behind the wooden gate and completely sealed the city gate. Not only that, but they also reinforced the walls with planks and pillars, so that the gates were difficult to break. ”

Cao Wenzhao wanted to stick to the help, but anyway, the food and grass in Lanzhou City were not worried, so he simply sealed the city gate. In addition, sealing the city gates meant that the soldiers in the city would have nowhere to escape, showing his determination to fight against the water.

He did the same in the inner city, but he only sealed the south gate, the north gate and the west gate, and the middle gate was not sealed, because the army was arranged in the outer city at that time, and a gate was needed to retreat into the inner city.

That's luck. If the Demon Cult had attacked the east gate of the inner city at that time, the current situation might have been completely different.

Although Zhao Wuxian has high martial arts skills, he is also extremely loyal to the sect leader, even fanatical, but commanding battles is not his strong point. Among the Demon Sect, the five banner masters of the Five Elements Banner who know how to fight the most, so most of them not only command one banner under their own command, but at least command tens of thousands of people, such as Jin Gang, the banner master of the Ruijin Banner, who commanded an army of 30,000.

Zhao Wuxian was silent, frowning.

Originally, according to the plan, they could capture Lanzhou City before the arrival of Qin Shuhuai's martial arts alliance army and eat the more than 60,000 troops inside. In this way, it will be much easier for the imperial court and Qin Shuhuai to come to help.

The Demon Sect is not afraid that it will not be able to fight, but that it is afraid that there will be too many casualties by then. You must know that cultivating loyal followers and elite soldiers who can fight well is extremely time-consuming and money-consuming.

They only have a total army of 100,000 people, but they are determined to be in the world, so they can't consume too much in every battle - after fighting the court, they still want to exterminate the rogues and crusade against the Tartars!

Zhao Wuxian still refused to give up the idea of capturing Lanzhou.

At this moment, someone suddenly came from outside the tent to report.

"Report to the Dharma Protector, the Seven Apostles have arrived!"

Zhao Wuxian's cloudy face suddenly bloomed, and he said happily, "Invite them in!"