In the evening, Zhang Xing arrived in the east of Liaocheng City. Several leaders came to greet him, and everyone met in the official road.

"I heard that the camp was lost, the front was defeated, and the leader was also injured?" Zhang Xing asked directly before he dismounted. "What happened? What about the other casualties?"

"It's true that the village was lost, it's true that it was defeated, and it's true that the leader was injured." The rest of the people were a little confused, and only Zhou Xingfan, who was in a mess of armor, came forward and said, "But the village is empty, and it's true that it's defeated."

Being rushed away by the opponent's military formation, the single leader only suffered flesh and blood wounds. It's hard to say whether the number of casualties has been reduced, but except for Liu Heifu's people who have not gathered in the west, most of the other structures are still there, and each battalion of cavalry can still gather more than half of the three soldiers.

Brother, don’t panic.”

Zhang Xing breathed a sigh of relief, asked Shan Tonghai's location, and led others to meet him. He was relieved when he saw that Shan Tonghai had his shoulders wrapped and was still looking left and right on the horse.

When the latter saw Zhang Xing approaching, they also jumped off their horses and came to the official road to gather together. However, they couldn't help but ask: "Zhang Longtou, why is the number of reinforcements wrong? I see only seven or eight battalions in the east, and there is no explanation in the north.

Is that so? Just now we were afraid of being exposed, so we had the cavalry assemble in the northeast to block the view."

"It is true that the battalions on the North Road have not arrived." Zhang Xing answered seriously. "They have a long way to go, and Dou Lide has been asked to divide his troops to guard the troops of Xiangguo and Wu'an counties on the other side of the river."

"In that case, aren't our troops a little short?" Cheng Zhili, who was still stained with blood and sweat, also came up to ask, but his voice was lower. "Did you just scare them with a bluff?"

"It's not enough." Zhang Xing continued. "I have asked the troops staying in Chiping, Gaotang, and Qixian to leave the city and rush here as soon as possible. One or two of them should be freed up including the North Road.

Camp. It is expected that they will arrive one after another during the night."

"That means we can't eat each other now, but we can do it tomorrow?" Shan Tonghai asked, holding his shoulders and frowning, his tone even lower. "Can't we fight at night?"

"There are no torches." Niuda replied with a dark face. "Do you have any here?"

"We came here on the run, and we left the camp in broad daylight, so how could we have torches?" Zhou Xingfan was also a little angry. "On the other hand, you guys, even if the support is in a hurry, they all came from the city and the camp, so how could you not be prepared?"

Torch?"

"When we heard the news, we didn't even seal the treasury, so we just threw it all over the city." Wang Shuyong also looked a little sad. Why couldn't he understand the complaints of several cavalry leaders. "How can you blame us?"

"

"What are you fighting for now?" Zhang Xing was speechless. "If you don't, you don't. If you do, you have. But now there are no torches. It's difficult to fight at night on a large scale, isn't it? We can only wait until tomorrow?"

"Third brother, if we don't have enough torches, it will be difficult for us to stand at night." Zhou Xingfan suppressed his anger and explained seriously. "On the contrary, the officials and thieves have occupied our camp, so they can take the opportunity to rest and recuperate. Moreover, the camp itself was set up to block the withdrawal of troops from Liaocheng."

It is at the intersection of the official road to the west, so the road behind it is also very smooth. After dark, when he realized that we had no fuel, Qutuda must have taken the opportunity to run along the official road. How could he make us wait until tomorrow?"

"Kutuda will definitely leave?" Niuda was obviously unwilling to accept it. "Can we show weakness? Reveal our true military strength and let him see it?"

"It's useless." Fan Bao also interjected at this time. "Not to mention it's too late, the key point is that Qu Tuda has no fighting spirit at all. It can be seen from the battle formation that he will leave tonight without a doubt."

The people nearby were slightly startled, but soon, several cavalry leaders who participated in today's battle formation realized that Fan Bao was right, because if Qu Tuda had a fighting spirit, he should have personally led the cavalry from the beginning.

In the past, the other two masters of pill condensation and Qin Bao were brought together to show their determination to fight to the death. Later, when the sneak attack was successful, Fan Bao and Cheng Zhili were asked to bring Shan Tonghai out without pursuing them, which also explains the problem.

"There is no way." After some verbal introduction, Chen Bin finally spoke, but he also responded with a dark face, because the army's dispatch was partly his responsibility. "The troops arrived in such a hurry, I couldn't hide it.

It is estimated that when Qutuda started setting off, he must have noticed something strange when our troops in the east were reorganizing their march, so he was ready to escape from the beginning."

"Okay." Seeing the cavalry and reinforcements asking for more

When they started to discuss the issue of responsibility, Zhang Xing suddenly waved his hand and stopped for the second time. "At this point, it's useless to talk more. Let's just do our own thing well. There is only one question now, and that is whether we should gather troops and take advantage of the situation.

It’s still dark, why don’t we attack now?”

There was a pause, and then the argument started again.

Obviously, this issue is still very difficult because the current situation is so embarrassing.

First of all, the reinforcements are coming, but the number is a bit small; secondly, whether it is the reinforcements that have come on foot from a long way or the cavalry that has been fighting for half a day, they all feel that they are at the end of their game; finally, as we have just discussed, at present

The most frustrating thing is that it is getting dark soon, and the army has lost its camp and hastily marched during the day, even abandoning its baggage, let alone bringing enough torches to fight at night.

"If Qu Tuda must leave, there is no doubt that not attacking now is equivalent to letting it go." After a long while, Chen Bin tried hard to summarize and analyze. "But if we attack, it will be dark soon. By then, there is 80% chance that there will be no progress, and there will be no progress."

It is very likely that our own troops will be scattered. What I am most worried about now is that the fighting will continue after dark. The opponent has a camp and can still maintain the strength of the troops, but we have no foothold. Once the attack fails, it is likely to cause

Unnecessary battle damage and confusion, and even the loss of a good situation.

"As for getting fuel from the city or simply entering the city, it's difficult. I don't recommend it anyway, because there are thousands of officers and soldiers in the city, and some of them are Jinwu Guards. At the moment, we just let Chief Xu succeed in a surprise attack and temporarily controlled two senior officers.

It’s just that forcing the city into the city will cause riots and fights, and let the chicken that has already entered the mouth slip out again.”

At this point, the words were spoken clearly enough, and several leaders around him also fell silent.

Zhang Xing, on the other hand, laughed when he saw this and said, "Everyone, we are here to fight Qinghe. Here in Wuyang, we are just hunting rabbits. And thanks to your effective fighting, we have also captured Yuan Baocunhe, the governor of Wuyang County."

Lu Daobin, the ambassador to the palace in Yecheng, why did he need to go to Longxi to visit Shu again?"

When everyone saw the leader himself affirming his merits, they were somewhat relieved and the atmosphere relaxed a little. Zhou Xingfan, who had the most determined attitude towards actual combat, also knew to respect Zhang Xing's authority and kept silent.

But Dan Tonghai, who was hanging on his shoulders, was still a little dissatisfied: "So, do you really want to give up this great opportunity? I don't mean that I must kill Qutuda. Qutuda has so many soldiers, good ordnance, and powerful generals.

If we really want to leave, no one can stop us, but they were the ones who overwhelmed us in the afternoon. If we don't fight back, catch up, and regain the momentum, will the people in the world say that we helped this one or lost?! It's not what the leader said before.

Do you want anything in this battle? Do you want majesty or prestige?!"

"That's good." Zhang Xing immediately nodded. "So, we still have to find a way to regain the momentum, and it's not impossible. The matter is urgent. I have a few opinions. Do you think they will work?"

All the generals cheered up.

"First, although it is difficult to enter Liaocheng now because the situation inside the city is embarrassing, we have the leaders in the city under our control after all. We can boldly deploy our troops against the city wall so that they can have a definite place to stay and gather them easily.

"Zhang Xing looked around. "What do you think?"

Several people thought about it, some didn't react at all, and some just nodded.

"Boss Xu is not here. The four top leaders and the nine leaders raised their hands in opposition. We must hurry up, not mother-in-law and mother-in-law." Zhang Xing urged immediately.

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads. Even Shan Tonghai did not raise his hand to object.

"Second, Chief Xu is in the city, and King Xiongtian has gone to Chiping with Wei Gong to deal with the matter. Wei Gong may not arrive until tomorrow morning, but King Xiongtian should be able to get the notice and arrive as soon as possible, so we are now one

Cheng Dan, eight Ning Dan, at night there are two Cheng Dan and ten or so Ning Dan. In other words, even if our troops and horses are exhausted, we can still put together a high-end combat power to suppress the opponent.

What I mean is that I will immediately lead my headquarters to set up a formation between Liaocheng and the west camp of the city, and then organize experts above Ningdan to form a formation to attack the camp, not only to provoke them to fight, but also to cover our troops.

insufficient facts

What do you think?"

Still no one objected.

"Okay." Zhang Xing did not hesitate, turned around and got on the yellow gelding again, and then gave instructions. "Guo Jingke went to the rear to pass the order, asking the troops coming from the rear to find as many torches and other things as possible for lighting; thank the leader for going up to the city.

, led Xu Datou out, watched Yuan Baocun and Lu Daobin, and asked them to cooperate as much as possible. Before it was dark, Wang Xiongdan immediately went to the west of the city to set up a formation and set up a flag; then the cavalry was on both wings and the infantry was in the middle.

After dark, the newly arrived troops spread out along the city wall along Liaocheng. Chief Chen made unified arrangements for this. After setting up the formation, all the masters of Ningdan and above gathered under the banner to hold their breath and form a Zhenqi army.

Formation, follow me to break down the gate of his camp, and then come back and talk!"

When everyone heard the news, they were shocked.

There seemed to be endless arguments before, but when I thought about it carefully, it actually only took less than half a quarter of an hour to make a decision.

Next, the army surged up one after another and headed directly to the west of the city. In the eyes of the officers and soldiers, they were horrified by the fact that they were not stopping for a moment to attack.

"General Qutu, the rebels are so brave. They actually dare to set up a formation between the city wall and the camp. The soldiers in the city have no time to control them. While the opponent's foothold is not stable, let's go out and fight for a while. We will be flanked by two sides!"

In the camp, one of Li Qingchen's legs was obviously staggering, and there was still blood at the corner of his mouth, but he still asked for a fight.

Qutuda glanced at this person, took a long breath, then stretched out his hand and lifted his fingers:

"Zhang Xing, Xu Shiren, and Xiong Bonan are the three; Shan Tonghai, Wang Shuyong, Cheng Zhili, Niu Da, Fan Bao, Xu Kaitong, Wang Fubei, Feng Duan, Chen Bin, and a man named Xie, and a

The surname is Jia. There are eleven; as for the camp head, I thought it was twenty-five before, but now the latest information is thirty."

Of course Li Qingchen knew what the other party was counting, but he still gritted his teeth: "Not all of them may have arrived! And they must be very exhausted after coming from a long distance!"

"We can't fight even halfway." Qu Tuda was speechless. "We only have one Cheng Dan and three Ning Dan! And we also came from afar and fought all afternoon. This afternoon we defeated the fifth battalion of cavalry and three Ning Dan.

We almost didn't come over! Deputy Ambassador Li, I tell you clearly, Xue Changxiong can't stop this situation even if he comes. The best hope now is that it will get dark as soon as possible, and then he can rest in the camp for a while and then leave quickly. If they make a mistake,

Oh no, let’s take the people away separately. Anyway, just follow the river to the west.”

Li Qingchen wanted to speak, but unexpectedly Qu Tuda immediately became impatient: "Li Twelve, if you really mean it, you must endure it even more. Now that Ambassador Lu is captured, if you endure it, when you return to Yecheng, it will be you."

I have made the decision! Why bother bothering me? When we were in Dongdu, what did the emperor tell me and you were not around?"

At this point, Li Qingchen was extremely frustrated and turned back to look at Qin Bao. Unexpectedly, Qin Bao, who had removed his helmet, also looked pale and pale. He just stood aside and stared at the flag at the east city wall.

Over there, the army's red flag with the word "deposed" on it had just been lowered, and as if they had found some anchor point, countless soldiers and horses were swarming together.

"Not good!" Qu Tuda looked at it for a while and suddenly realized. "The thieves are looking for a foothold too quickly and too determinedly. They will definitely attack later!"

"What can I do?" Li Qingchen suddenly became energetic.

"What can we do?" Qu Tuda's face turned livid. "Qin Duwei, Huang Duwei, one of you goes to the south camp and the other to the north camp. Remember, if the other side attacks you, don't show your presence, just appease them.

People's hearts, stabilize the situation; if the other party does not attack you, you must pay attention to see if they send troops other than masters or zhenqi army formations. If they send troops, use the two wings to flank the troops behind him at dusk, and do not touch them.

The Zhenqi military formation or those leading masters; and if they don't send troops, even if they kill the front camp and the central camp here, don't move around. After dark, they don't dare to fight randomly.

!As for Deputy Ambassador Li, you are injured, no matter where you go, don’t expose it anyway.”

Captain Huang, who came from Wei Commandery, immediately responded and left. Qin and Li looked at each other, the former left in a muffled voice, and the latter dragged his injured leg and followed with gritted teeth.

Sure enough, after a while, when the sun reached the ground, although the army obviously had not set up a proper formation, they still saw several cavalry from each unit heading towards the big flag in the middle.

Gather together.

Immediately, under Qu Tuda's almost scalp-tingling gaze, a small area of ​​white mist suddenly filled the air under the word "Deposed" on the opposite side - no doubt, even though it was the first time he saw it, he also knew that this should be

It's the famous military formation with the ice energy as its base.
To be continued...