Early the next morning, King Zhenxi led a group of civil servants and generals, and five thousand soldiers, and set out from Xiamaguan to take over Tongyuan City.

Lieutenant Chu, Captain Chu, led his two thousand officers and soldiers early to line up outside Tongyuan City to greet them.

Seeing King Zhenxi coming with his army from afar, Captain Chu immediately dismounted his horse, walked forward quickly, and came to King Zhenxi. He bowed to the ground and said, "Captain Chu of Tongyuan City is the first to pay homage to King Zhenxi. I would like to

I offer the city to the Mingjun, and I will never abandon you, and I will serve you life and death."

King Zhenxi immediately got off his horse, stepped forward to help Chu Weixian, and said: "General Chu, please rise. It is a great blessing for the country that our king can have General Chu as his assistant today."

After Chu Wei first met with all the civil servants and generals, he led them into the city.

The king of Zhenxi held a banquet in Tongyuan City to celebrate his achievements, and gave a banquet to all the generals and soldiers. He also ordered to reward ministers with meritorious services. He rewarded the Chu leader with 10,000 taels of silver, and named him General Dingyuan to guard Tongyuan County. He also rewarded Zhao Jian and God-given 2,000 taels of silver each.

Two, Zhao Jian was granted the title of Captain of Tongyuan, and Zhang Tianci was granted the title of Magistrate of Tongyuan County.

Tianci resigned from the official position on the grounds that he entered the Taoist sect and had no intention of becoming an official. He also suggested that the King of Zhenxi exempt Tongyuan County from taxes for two years to win the hearts of the people. The King of Zhenxi agreed and ordered the whole city to be exempted from royal taxes for two years.

The whole city was rejoicing and singing praises.

At this time, the messenger came to report that the imperial court had sent General Dingchao of the auxiliary state to lead 80,000 troops, and Zhennan King Qin Yifei to lead 60,000 troops to march to the west. The two armies had set off one after another and were marching towards the Western Regions.

When the King of Zhenxi heard the report, he was very frightened and hurriedly summoned his ministers to discuss the matter. The ministers believed that the focus of prevention and control should be on Xiamaguan City. The terrain of this pass is dangerous. The so-called Xiamaguan means that if people come here, it will be difficult to ride a horse.

You have to dismount your horse and go on foot to cross. This pass is easy to defend but difficult to attack. This is why Pan Yushi failed to make any gains in his many years of expeditions.

After hearing this, the King of Zhenxi decided after careful consideration to leave General Situ Jin and two thousand soldiers to assist General Chu in garrisoning Tongyuan County. He also ordered that all troops and horses in the Western Region be mobilized to rush to Xiamaguan City within a few days to set up defenses. Then he led all the civil servants and generals

He and the three thousand officers and soldiers on board hurried back to Xiamaguan City.

This made General Chu who was stationed in Tongyuan City very sad. The Tongyuan officers and soldiers he led, together with the surrendered troops, only numbered more than 5,000. Including the officers and soldiers of General Situ who stayed to assist in the defense, the number was less than 8,000.

, how to resist the imperial court's attack of hundreds of thousands of troops?

Even if we encircle without attacking, Kirihara City will only be able to last for more than a month at most. By then, when all the ammunition and food are exhausted, won’t the people in the city face a disaster?

It is really infuriating to think that the King of Zhenxi resorted to this method of abandoning his chariots to protect his commander. Now that this isolated city, which is short of soldiers and food, is about to be surrounded and suppressed by heavy troops from the imperial court, it is hard to know what to do.

General Chu urgently summoned Situ Jin, Zhao Jian, Tianci and others to discuss countermeasures.

General Situ Jin was the first to speak: "The King of Zhenxi's arrangement is nothing more than asking us to defend the city to the death and buy some time for the dismount to complete the defense of the city. We can only resist desperately, and it will be counted as a day longer as we can defend, as long as we can ensure the dismount.

If the city is not lost, King Zhenxi will have a chance to send troops to recover the city sooner or later."

"That's true, but most of the officers and soldiers in this city are the children of the people in the city. Once it is lost, the people in the city will inevitably be implicated and suffer such misfortune. Although Chu's death is not regrettable, he will implicate the people in the city and be charged with rebellion.

Fa, Chu really can’t bear it!”

After hearing what General Chu said about the situation, Tianci said: "General Chu, don't worry. I have already anticipated King Zhenxi's move. I have my own countermeasures to protect Tongyuan."

General Chu was overjoyed when he heard this and immediately asked God for help.

Tianci thought for a while and then said: "There is a common saying among military strategists: Before the soldiers and horses move, food and grass go first. Since the imperial court has sent troops to come, its food and grass troops must have set off to the Western Regions in advance. The food and grass troops did not know that Kirihara City had been captured.

Its destination is heading straight to Kirihara. If our army intercepts its food and grass first, it will surely win by 20%."

"The news of the fall of Kirihara City will definitely be known to the imperial court in the near future. The Western Expedition Army will be notified immediately. How can it be hidden in the bones and sent to the door automatically?" Zhao Jian said.

"This is exactly what I said." Tianci said, "You can order someone to take a picture and take a look."

General Chu immediately ordered someone to fetch the map and unfold it on the case.

Tianci pointed to the Puxi entrance on the map and said: "I have found out that grain and grass will be transported here today. Can General Chu please mark the nearest post station from here?"

General Chu looked at the map, pointed to a place and said: "This is Chentangguan, which is less than 20 miles away from the Puxi entrance. It is the nearest post station."

"After the imperial court has received the letter, it will order the post envoy to rush forward eight hundred miles to deliver the gold medal and notify all ministries. We only need to send people to Chentangguan immediately, seize the post station, and intercept the courier to ensure that there is no danger.

." Tianci said.

"I immediately led two people to Chentangguan, robbed the inn, and intercepted the messenger!" Zhao Jian immediately accepted the order, went down to prepare three rides of good horses, led two elite soldiers, and rode straight to Chentangguan.

Here, Tianci asked General Chu again: "In addition to these eight thousand soldiers and horses, how many able-bodied civilians can be summoned in the city?"

"We can recruit up to about 10,000 people."

"We can use the armaments captured by our army to arm these civilians. We do not require them to be brave and good at fighting, but only to use their momentum. At that time, the general can order Zhao Jian and Situ Zhen to each lead 4,000 soldiers and horses and 5,000 armed civilians to ambush

On both sides of the city, waiting for opportunities." Tianci said.

"How can we defend ourselves if there is no one in the city?" General Chu asked.

"Just me, the general, and the women and children in the city."

General Chu was greatly surprised and didn't know how to explain it. Tianci took out a picture from his arms and presented it to the general, saying: "The general can ask someone to make it according to this picture. After it is completed, it will be placed at the top of the city for later use. If we can complete a hundred of them within a day,

One is the best.”

When General Chu showed the drawing, he saw that it was a design drawing of a wooden tool, with a crossbow and a lever chain set up. It was not very complicated. He ordered skilled craftsmen to be made in the same way.

It is said that Zhao Jian led two soldiers, changed their military uniforms, dressed up as imperial soldiers, and rode fast, traveling through the night, straight to Chentangguan.

The next day at noon, I finally arrived at the Chentangguan Post Station. I saw seven or eight soldiers guarding the post station, and there were about ten people including the post envoy. It turned out that when the grain delivery troops passed by Shangchu, they left 500 shi of grain for the subsequent army.

And seven soldiers were sent to guard it.

Zhao Jian and others went straight into the post station without stopping, and shouted to the post envoy: "Golden medal urgent order, send the advance guard army immediately! No delay!" After saying that, he took out a token and a sealed document from his bag.

Give it to the messenger.

The postman did not dare to neglect, and hurried forward to receive the token and letter, then turned around and fetched a fast horse, ready to set off.

Zhao Jian then said to the officers and soldiers outside the station: "This order is very urgent and important. You will send two people to escort it to ensure it is correct!"

After the soldiers whispered a few words to each other, two soldiers went to fetch the horses and galloped away with the post envoy.

After the messenger went away, Zhao Jian drew his long sword and walked towards the five soldiers who were guarding the grain and grass: "I am a subordinate of the King of Zhenxi, and I have been ordered to intercept the messenger here. You should abandon your weapons and surrender immediately to save your lives."

"

The two soldiers in front were stunned and at a loss. Zhao Jian stepped forward to collect their spears and handed them to his two followers.

Just as the two followers were about to step forward, Zhao Jian suddenly jumped up from the ground, jumped onto the grain pile, and shouted: "Stop!"

It turned out that the two soldiers standing in the distance saw something was wrong, turned around and ran towards the place where the horses were tied.

Zhao Jian used his feet to pick up a bag of grain from the grain pile and threw it out with all his strength. The soldier running at the front was knocked to the ground heavily and let out a scream.

Seeing this, the soldier following behind turned back and stabbed Zhao Jian with his spear.

Zhao Jian didn't even shy away, and rushed forward towards the spear. Just as the spear was about to pierce Zhao Jian's body, the figure turned over and rolled towards the soldier along with the spear.

After Zhao Jian turned over and stood on the ground behind the soldier, the soldier's head rolled to the ground.

After Zhao and Jian tied up the three soldiers and placed them in place, they waited for more than an hour before the imperial court's gold medal messenger arrived.

After defrauding the gold medal urgent message, the courier was sent away. After opening it, it was found that the food protection troops were ordered to stop moving forward and wait in place until the follow-up army caught up with them.

After ordering his two followers to burn the food and grass at the post and return immediately, Zhao Jian hurried back to Tongyuan City to report to General Chu.

When he met with General Chu, Zhao Jian reported: "The officers and soldiers protecting the food supplies are rushing towards Kirihara City at high speed after receiving our fake order. They may arrive tonight."

The Chu general was overjoyed and immediately ordered his people to go down and make preparations to rob the grain and grass.

Sure enough, when it was almost dark, spies from the front came to report that the army of grain and grass had arrived several miles outside the city. General Chu immediately ordered thousands of soldiers and horses to go out of the city to meet them.

Soon, a convoy transporting grain and grass arrived in front of the city. Nearly a thousand horse-drawn carriages, escorted by a thousand soldiers, entered the city.

The general of Chu came forward to pay homage to the general who was protecting the grain. After talking about the hardships, he invited all the officers and soldiers into the city and held a banquet in honor of him. At the same time, he arranged for his subordinates to count the grain and grass into the warehouse and arrange them properly.

Here, General Chu and the officers and soldiers of the generals who guarded the food supply drank and drank together. After everyone was full of wine and food, they ordered people to disarm and captured them one by one, and imprisoned them without showing any signs of it.

The subordinates came to report that a total of 300,000 shi of grain and grass had been collected, and all of them had been put into storage.

The General of Chu was overjoyed. The day before yesterday, he heard that the King of Zhenxi had exempted the city from taxes for two years. Although it had won the hearts of the people, he was very anxious about where to raise food for the officers and soldiers. Now that there is so much food, it is enough to supply the officers and soldiers in the city for two years.

Sighing that God has given me such a gift, I am as good at predicting things as God is.


Chapter completed!