The suspension bridge has been lowered for half the time, but the city gate has not been opened, and the shouts of death in the city have become more and more intense. A mile away from the suspension bridge, Xu Xian was riding on a horse without saying a word, with his thick eyebrows knitted together, and in his heart

Extremely anxious.

Red Turban has only done things like stealing a city twice. Once in Yanzhou, he only did half of it. The other time was in Guangzhou, but Guangzhou is just a small border town, and the combat effectiveness and willpower of the soldiers are probably not as good as those in Wuxi.

The defenders, Xu Xian, were worried that Wu Liang would trap all 500 people inside.

Dakui said: "I'm afraid Wu Liang is dying. The manager should issue an order for him to withdraw. One by one he will come back!"

Jiubao said: "I'm afraid they have already entered the city gate cave. They will either die or open the city gate. There is no reason to retreat!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the city gate tremble slightly, then a gap opened, and then rapidly expanded at a speed visible to the naked eye. Only the firelight flashed in the city gate hole, and the two armies were still entangled and fighting together.

"Kill!" Xu Xian roared, violently knocking the horse's belly and rushed out, followed closely by the red-turbaned soldiers behind him. The suspension bridge arrived in an instant, and hundreds of galloping horses galloped across the bridge, causing a violent tremor.

The rumble of horse hoofs attracted everyone's attention. The two armies fighting in the city gate quickly broke away. The Zhou army leaned against the wall and roared excitedly, while the Tang army yelled in terror and fled into the city.

Xu Xian charged forward, and the strong horse under him knocked over several people in succession. He held the rein in one hand and a knife in the other, and kept leaning forward to kill. The fleeing Tang army quickly dispersed. Xu Xian reined in the horse and looked around.

Half of his body was dyed red, and the hot blood soaked through his armor and clothes and stuck to his body, which was extremely uncomfortable.

Dakui pointed to the front of his shirt, "Someone is coming to kill over there!"

In the faint light of the fire, hundreds of cavalry were seen galloping along the street to fight towards them. Many of them were not wearing armor, but judging from the momentum, it was obvious that they were elites who dared to fight. Xu Xian did not fight with them head-on and took down the hanging horse.

The already strung crossbow on the saddle was in his hand.

"Elevation angle three and a half-shoot!"

A shower of arrows shot out, and many enemy soldiers fell off their horses, and their momentum was weakened. Someone shouted: "Zhang Yuhou is dead! Zhang Yuhou is dead!"

The hundreds of elite cavalrymen had no intention of avenging the defender, so they reined in their horses and turned around to flee. Seeing that Dakui wanted to pursue Xu Xian again, he stopped him and said: "Don't be greedy for credit, let the brothers of Wu Yuejun also show their faces."

.”

Xu Xian asked his men to move their positions, and then he saw two thousand elite cavalry from Wu Yue Kingdom rushing past. The boss said dissatisfied: "Why should the manager give the credit to others!"

"Idiot, if you have the skills to chase the enemy, why not go and seize the treasury first and get some benefits for the brothers!"

Dakui patted his helmet and said: "The manager is the wisest, brothers, come with me to find the treasury!"

The city gate was broken and the guard was dead. Most of the defenders in Wuxi City fled through other gates, but the people in the city were not too panicked. In the Southern Tang Dynasty, Wu and Yue fought here many times, and Wuxi changed hands many times. In the morning

Southern Tang people are used to being Wuyue people in the afternoon.

The Wuyue army also showed great restraint, and there was no looting in the city. Naturally, the people were not afraid. But this time it was different. There were nearly a thousand soldiers and bandits from the north, and they went to the rich households in the city to collect donations one by one.

, if you don't give it, you'll be rude and draw the knife.

In fact, this is not the style of the Red Scarf Capital. It’s just that Wuxi’s treasury is too poor. Although there is a lot of food, grass and weapons, there is not much money. The treasury official said that the general had already given all the money in the treasury to the soldiers.

.

There is no reason why the red scarf should work in vain, not to mention the death of a hundred brothers, which requires a lot of compensation. He goes out early every morning with his carriage and horses, and when he comes back, he will definitely come back with a full load.

"General manager! General manager! How much money did we collect today?"

From the sound, I knew it was Dakui who had come back from collecting donations. He rushed into the tent excitedly and said, "Manager, guess how much we collected today!"

Xu Xian looked at the map around Changzhou boredly, "Two thousand strings!"

"No, keep guessing!"

"Three thousand strings!"

"No, guess again!"

"Four thousand guan!" Seeing that Da Kui was still shaking his head, Xu Xian wiped his beard and said, "Isn't it possible that everyone's wealth will be confiscated today? Don't be too cruel and leave half of the rest to be sent back."

"Why do we do Jueren sect? Tell the truth to the manager. This time we collected 3,100 yuan!" Dakui said with emotion: "In the past, the manager asked Jiubao's father to give us lessons.

, I still didn’t take it seriously, but now I finally understand the manager’s good intentions. Old Uncle Zhang was right, the landlord’s family is indeed richer than the merchant’s family!”

Xu Xian was furious when he heard this. He slapped the table and said, "What's the difference between three thousand guan and three thousand one hundred guan!"

"How can there be no difference? One hundred guan can buy a lot of things!"

"Get out of here! When you come back, go to the county government office and ask Marshal Wu when he will set off to attack Changzhou after a few days of rest!"

"Just go!" Dakui had just left the tent and quickly came in again, "There is a man outside the general manager's camp, shirtless and carrying a stick, kneeling in front of our camp to apologize!"

Xu Xian couldn't help but frown, thinking that Shao Keqian was still here, and it was not easy to find a solution that would satisfy both parties. He walked outside the camp and saw a bunch of people gathered outside.

There was a shirtless man kneeling on the ground. He was very tall and had a bundle of thorny canes on his back.

Yes, it was a big bundle. The sharp thorns had already pierced his flesh and blood was oozing out, which was very sincere. But this person was not Shao Keqian. He was only in his early twenties and had thick eyebrows.

He opened his eyes and knelt on the ground silently and expressionlessly.

Xu Xian separated everyone and stepped forward and asked, "Who are you and why do you come to my camp to apologize?"

"Are you Manager Xu?"

"It's me! Who are you?"

"Oh, you are so young. You seem to be about the same age as me. You are actually a military governor, but I am still an idiot. It's so irritating!"

Xu Xian felt angry and funny. He thought this man was so stunned. "I asked you who you are, and you criticized my age instead."

"Oh, my name is Shao Jixian. My father gave me this name so that I can inherit the bloodline of my ancestors and spread the branches of my Shao family!"

As expected, you are an Erlangzi. Who cares what your name means. Xu Xian couldn't help but sneer: "Are you Shao Keqian's son? Did he ask you to come here to plead guilty?"

Hearing Shao Keqian's name, Dakui slapped his head, "I've been busy collecting money these days, and I forgot about my surname Shao. He still owes us a head. I want my son to carry a few sticks to pretend

It’s so pitiful that I just want to fool him!”

Shao Jixian said angrily: "You are not allowed to insult my father. My father has already given me the funeral arrangements and written a suicide note. He said that after this battle is over, he will kill himself to compensate for the bet. As a human son, I have not yet had the opportunity to fulfill my filial piety. I am willing to

I'll pay for your head for my father, please take action, manager." After saying that, he lowered his head, as if to make it easier for Xu Xian to do it, and even deliberately stretched his head towards Xu Xian.

"This...it's not a bet between me and your father, it's my brothers. You can ask them!" Xu Xian said to the red scarf soldiers beside him: "It is reasonable and reasonable for my son to behead me.

You just have to figure it out."

After Xu Xian finished speaking, he turned around and left, but he did not go far and hid behind the tent to peek. He saw Shao Jixian kneeling up to Dakui again, looking up at him and saying with a sincere face: "Brother, chop off my head.

!”

It is estimated that Dakui has never encountered such a request in his life. The guy who usually kills people without batting an eye was a little at a loss and cursed: "Go away, stay away from me!"

Shao Jixian aimed at the next person, "It's up to you to do this little brother."

Jiubao took out the knife and made a gesture on his neck, "I really did it!"

"Let's do it, please be more agile!"

Jiubao put the sword back into the scabbard and said, "Forget it, so as not to damage the harmony between the two armies and embarrass the general manager."

Wu Liang said coldly: "In order to bet with your father, we lost a hundred brothers. Use your head to compensate Wu for being sorry for them. You should go back."

"It's only reasonable for a father to owe his son. Manager Xu said the same thing just now. Well... I'll compensate you for the loss of manpower. What do you think of them?"

Shao Jixian pointed outside the camp. There were hundreds of Wuyue Army cavalry leading horses. "Those are all my men. They are all good horsemen. I will take them to join the Red Scarf City. From now on, we will be one horseman."

It would be unjust to attack my brother's father, and you would ruin the reputation of the heroic men of the north..."

Xu Xian, who was behind the tent, couldn't help but twitch his lips, "What a fucking logic!"

——————

The army rested in Wuxi for several days and continued to march towards Changzhou. The distance between the two places was only sixty or seventy miles, and it took less than a day to reach the outside of Changzhou City. The moment he saw Changzhou City, Xu Xian couldn't help but feel full of despair.

Changzhou is worthy of being the gateway to Jinling. The city wall is about the same height as Shouzhou City, but the moat is half as wide as Shouzhou. The size of the city is even more incomparable to Shouzhou. I heard from Wu Cheng that there are 30,000 to 40,000 elite soldiers in Shouzhou City who can use a lot of food and grass.

In the past three to five years, Xu Xian felt that there was no need to fight this battle without an army of 200,000 and hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Xu Xian sighed: "This city of Changzhou is not easy to fight!"

"Of course it's not easy to fight!" Wu Cheng said with a smile: "Our country has been fighting for decades and has never been defeated!"

"It seems that we can only lure them out of the city, otherwise there will be no chance at all!"

Looking at Xu Xian's serious look, Wu Cheng said with a smile: "It doesn't matter if we can't defeat it. In fact, we don't expect us to capture Changzhou. We just hope that we can contain the garrison in Changzhou and prevent them from reinforcing Jinling."

"Is that what your Majesty means?"

"It can only mean this. The Emperor of Zhou should know that Wu Yue does not have the strength to conquer Changzhou. The imperial edict to the king made it very clear."

"That doesn't matter. The general said before coming here that he had his own idea to lure them out of the city for a decisive battle."

Wu Cheng stroked his beard and said: "Even if they really go out of the city to confront our army, the two armies are at most... evenly matched. Unless the general manager puts on another good show of attacking and stealing the city at night, there will be a chance to capture Changzhou."

Xu Xian immediately refused: "It's absolutely impossible. This kind of trick is indispensable. Most of the Wuxi defenders should have fled to Changzhou, and they must be on guard. Even if all my thousands of people were able to get in, they would only be able to do it."

It’s all folded inside.”

"In that case, there is no other way. We can only set up camp outside the city to contain the Changzhou garrison, and we can act as soon as possible."

Wu Cheng did not do anything. He led his army to the city walls of Changzhou every day and used trebuchets and crossbows to attack the city walls. The Tang troops on the city were not clay puppets, and they also used trebuchets and crossbows to fight back.

The two sides fought back and forth in a lively manner. They fought for five or six days in a row, but they did not use siege equipment such as ladders, trenches, and bridges to show off to the Tang army.

Xu Xian felt that the fire was almost over, so he went directly to the commander's tent and said, "Commander, this will only waste arrows in vain and is of no use to the war. I have a plan to destroy the entire Changzhou garrison."
To be continued...