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Unlike other places, the high and sharp peak ridge landforms are different. The western mountains are mainly composed of terrain, plateau, ditches, valleys and other landforms, and belong to the typical Loess Plateau terrain.

Named after the mound usually refers to loess hills with gentle tops and steep slopes; while named after the plain are steep around and flat tops; mountain hills and high plateaus are crisscrossing gullies.

The formation of this landform is related to the continuous strong winds blowing the sand and soil in the northern desert for billions of years, and it is constantly washed away by flowing water and eroding.

More than a dozen armored soldiers stood beside him, Xu Huai stood on an unknown hill with Xu Wuli and others in armor. Looking around, he saw the ravines superimposed vertically and horizontally extending under his feet.

Although it has entered late March, the plants and trees in the north have not yet spit out new green, and signs of life are still buried deep in this loess.

Under the gray and blue sky, everything is so desolate. Apart from the gray and yellow, there is no extra color between the heaven and the earth.

Xu Huai quickly turned his solemn gaze to the opposite earthen plateau.

Coming from a long ditch on the east side, the steep earth plateau with steep walls is about 30 meters high, and the flat top is about a hundred acres in radius. Wuchi Village is lying high on the top of the plateau and looking at everything around it.

From the bottom of the ditches to the plateau, there is only a dirt road that can accommodate three or four people in parallel, winding and crawling between steep slopes. On one side of the dirt road is a cliff that has been carved for thousands of years with wind and rain, and on the other side is a steep cliff with thorns.

As one of the Thirteen Tribes of Shanhu, Wuchi Village, the Wuchi Village is not large in scale. The village walls are rammed earth. Looking from a distance, you can still see traces of rain erosion.

Although Wuchi Village is not big, it is located in the western mountain, only more than 30 miles away from Shuozhou. It is one of the four tributaries of the upper reaches of the Pianguan River. It is a relatively convenient passage along the Bailuo Chong to advance northward, enter the Pianguan River Valley, and then move westward along the river valley.

The Wuchi tribe had frequently attacked Shuozhou from the western mountains, which meant that there was no possibility or negotiation. Even in order to open the passage across the western mountains and to the east bank of the Yellow River, Xu Huai had to use troops to pull out the nail.

However, although the Wuchi tribe had only six or seven hundred men, in terms of strength, it was quite insignificant in the northern land where thousands of miles were vast and thousands of tribes competed for power. However, Wuchi village was on the top of the earth plateau that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and was condescending. The Wuchi tribe was brave and fierce. The Tongbai Mountain soldiers, who were officially appointed as the tenth general of the Tianxiong Army at the end of February, really wanted to attack. Even if they paid a very heavy price, they might not be able to pull them out smoothly.

The Xishan Maowen is full of ravines and ravines, and more than a dozen paths are intertwined. Along the way, Fanhuzhaiwu is stuck on the key pass.

There are only 2,300 soldiers in the tenth wing of the Tianxiong Army. How could Xu Huai be willing to use them to snatch these docks?

This is not how the battle is fought.

If the casualties in the attack on Wuchi Village are difficult to control, then they will be completely surrounded and cut off their water sources, and force them to surrender. If other foreign Hus in the Western Mountains send troops to help, they will wait for their help and surround and attack the support.

Of course, it is more important to take this opportunity to establish a stronghold in the West Mountain and take advantage of the opportunity to siege Wuchi Village to transfer all the limited materials from Shuozhou City to the West Mountain. Only in this way can they give up Shuozhou City without hesitation and withdraw their troops into the West Mountain, instead of trapping Shuozhou City without food sources and destined to be unable to have reinforcements.

At this time, at the foot of Wuchi Village, several obstacles were formed by resisting horses and walls. After the obstacles, armored soldiers were filled with them, and hard bows, strong crossbows and large shields were used to block the passage for the Wuchi tribes to go down the mountain, but this was only the second.

In a long ditch that was less than three or five hundred steps away from Wuchi Village, in less than a month, the Tongbai Mountain soldiers used sharp logs to build three solid villages, completely besieging Wuchi Village.

There are few trees in the western mountains, and there may be only a dozen useful trees on a mountain.

Xu Huai mobilized all the two thousand strong Hu women in the city to cut down trees to build villages in more areas; at the same time, he also demolished the houses in Shuozhou and dragged beams and pillars into the mountains with mules and horses.

At this time, two figures were climbed out from the southern wall of Wuchi Village, and from the steeper, almost vertical cliff, the ropes entered into the deep ditch covered with rocks, and then climbed to the mountains to the south. Tongbai Mountain soldiers absolutely had an advantage over the Wuchi team's troops, but it was impossible to completely encircle Wuchi Village. Many rugged and dangerous terrain were not suitable for placing troops, so there was a gap between the small groups of Wuchi team's troops entering and leaving.

Of course, there is no need to get stuck in a mess.

Xu Wuli frowned and looked at the two figures that disappeared among the distant mountains and said to Xu Huai: "In the past few days, the Wuchi tribe sent people to jump out of our blockade from the Nanya rope and sneaked into the hinterland of the Xishan Mountain for help; and occasionally barbarians came out of the front mountain road, and their lips were severely cracked. It seemed that the water source on the plateau had almost been cut off!"

Xu Huai does not kill innocent people indiscriminately, but it does not mean that he does not kill.

And war has always been cruel and ruthless.

Tongbai Mountain rushed into the mountains in a large scale, and the Wuqi tribe refused to surrender. In addition to the two thousand tribes, they also moved tens of thousands of livestock back to the fort, and they were not afraid of lack of food.

However, they thought that the soldiers of Tongbai Mountain had no success in attacking the camp and would be forced to withdraw their troops in the ten days, but they did not expect that Xu Huai decided to surround Wuchi Village to death, and the water source on the plateau was extremely limited.

The two thousand tribes of the Wuchi tribe, and tens of thousands of livestock were shrunk into the plateau and could not stand. At first, the snow water melted for people and animals to drink. However, after mid-March, the snow water on the plateau completely melted. Several reservoirs excavated inside and outside the dockyard were hastily not expected to use blue mud and lime as anti-seepage treatment, and the loose soil could not contain water at all.

And there was no rain in the western mountains throughout March.

Compared to the food cut, what made the Wuchi tribe even more desperate was the water cut.

"The Motu troops have been moving to the edge of the West Mountain these two days. It should be the past two days to cheer up everyone!" Xu Huai rubbed his face and said to Xu Wuli and others around him.

The thirteen vassal Hu of the West Mountains are the most powerful. The three forts controlled by the Motu tribe are located in the Hechong area where Bailuo Chong merges into the Pianguan River. There are relatively open passages to the west, south, and north. Not to mention that Xu Huai wants to completely surround the Motu tribe, he needs to use more troops. The winding valley and beam road from Shuozhou to the Hechong area is easily cut off by foreign soldiers. If there is heavy rain, the rainwater in the West Mountain converges to the Pianguan River through various ditches, which is even more taboo for military strategists.

However, as the leader of the Western Shan Fanhu, Motu tribe is not only strong but also very ambitious.

Whether it was the Shanhu rebellion more than ten years ago or the frequent appearance of Shanhu to harass Shuozhou this time, the Motu tribe took the lead in causing trouble, and other tribes also followed the orders of the Motu tribe.

Xu Huai sent troops to siege Wuchi's troops, but he still wanted to attract Motu's troops from the Hechong area.

Of course, Motu tribe could sit and see if the Wuchi tribe was destroyed or not saved, but if the water source of the Wuchi tribe was cut off and the two thousand tribes could be annihilated by the Tongbai Mountain soldiers at any time, the Motu tribe kept standing by and not trying to order other tribes to act in the future.

Even if he pretends to behave, the Motu tribe must assemble troops and remove the siege of the Wuchi tribe.

What is not certain now is whether Motu's troops gathered Shanhu soldiers and came directly to Wuchi Village, or went out of the west mountain to cover the city of Shuozhou, and then went out to siege Wei to save Zhao.

Of course, Xu Huai hopes that it is the former.

They were ready near Wuchi Village. They used hard bows, shields, spears and spears to rely on the village to kill Shanhu cavalry, not too good at killing Shanhu cavalry.

If it is the latter, it means that the Motu tribe does not have the determination to lift the siege of Wuchi tribe regardless of casualties.

Xu Huai never thought that it would be possible to use Tongbai Mountain soldiers to encircle and annihilate thousands of mountain Hu cavalry who had the advantage in their troops in the open wilderness outside Shuozhou City.

This also means that they will not be able to severely damage Shanhu’s main force in the short term.

At this time, more than a dozen cavalry slowly came from the narrow mountain road to the Xizhai side. Xu Huaichu was not serious at the time, and soon two people came to report: "General Jie Zhong is here!"

"Ah, I just want Jie Zhong to send two or three hundred reinforcements to strengthen the defense of Shuozhou City. Why did he come here in person?" Xu Huai asked in confusion.

Xu Wuqi, Xu Wukun, Guo Junzong and others spread their hands, saying that they didn't know what Jie Zhong was going to come, but they all followed Xu Huai to the foot of the mountain to welcome him.

At the end of February, the Tianxiong Army was completely established, and the three divisions of Jie Zhong, Zhu Run and Lei Teng were incorporated into the ninth general of Tianxiong Army. Jie Zhong made the most achievements, but in the end, Lei Teng, who deliberately asked Cao Shixiong to cling to the relationship, took the position of commander commander, with Jie Zhong and Zhu Run as deputy generals.

Xie Zhong also led the inspector of Guangwuzhai as Du Yuhou, and led his troops to guard Guangwuzhai in the north of Yulan Valley.

After entering March, Jie Zhong led 1,500 ban-armed troops stationed in Guangwu Village to march from the south into the western mountain, and cooperated with the Tongbai Mountain soldiers to clear the Hufan soldiers of the Shan.

Xu Huai expected that the Motu tribe might play the plan to surround Wei and rescue Zhao, and send troops to attack Shuozhou City. In that case, he would lead the main force to continue to siege Wuchi Village, but Shuozhou has only 500-step armor and 300 cavalry. The huge Shuozhou City is a bit empty, so he hopes that Jie Zhong can send some reinforcements to strengthen the momentum. Unexpectedly, Jie Zhong will lead his troops to reinforce.

"General Jie, why did you come here in person?" Xu Huai went down the mountain to meet Jie Zhong, accompanied by Shen Zhenye and Xu Xin, and asked with a smile.

"It's too difficult to enter the hinterland of the West Mountain from the south, so I want to take my brothers here to share some military achievements. Will Xu Junzhi be dissatisfied?" Jie Zhong said with a smile.

The Tianxiong Army was officially established at the end of February. In addition to commanding the soldiers of Tongbaishan with Du Yuhou, Xu Huai also officially established a new Shuozhou Inspection Office in Shuozhou, and Xu Huai was able to serve as the inspector of Shuozhou.
Chapter completed!