The people standing on the city wall looked at the sky in the distance with some panic, which was now a fiery red. The most important thing is that it once carried too many people's joy, sadness, excitement, loss, sweetness, bitterness...
There, is, no, maybe you can use the past tense now, it used to be the landmark building of Xihe - Xihe Stadium.
"Master Taishou, if this continues, the morale of the army will be seriously affected. Without morale, it will be impossible to defend the city."
"Damn Zhang Yi, you bastard, don't let me live after this war, otherwise I will kill you even if your reputation is ruined! The excuses for the Hedong Governor's inability to suppress the bandits and the Hedong Governor's driving away the bandits are all excuses.
Excuse!"
This angry curse came from a man with a tired face. Although his appearance and size could not be clearly seen due to his armor, you could tell what his current state was from the fact that he had to hold on to the battlements.
"Master Prefect, maybe I have a slightly better news here, but maybe you won't be too happy after hearing it."
"Are you fearless? Thank you for your hard work. The enemies to the east have retreated. It's great. It looks like we can get through it again today."
"Master Taishou, please don't say that. I have seen the ability of General Qu, the commander-in-chief of the Xiongnu, with my own eyes. Those troublesome Tiefu Xiongnu will definitely not cause him much trouble. I think he will be able to turn around in two days."
.”
"Forget it, let's talk about your 'good news' that makes me unhappy."
Regarding the extremely unpleasant words used by someone who didn't know whether he should be regarded as a subordinate, the newly appointed governor of Xihe showed an attitude of enjoying hardships. Of course, there may still be a lot of expectations in it.
Bar.
"I have just received news that Lu Shuihu, who divided his forces to plunder our farming sites, seems to have suffered heavy losses. Those farming sites are all closed to defend themselves. Then when the enemy cannot attack for a long time, the Karasuma people will attack them.
Launch an attack. However, due to the current tense relationship between Karasuma and the Huns, they can only allocate a small number of troops to severely damage the enemy but cannot completely annihilate the enemy detachment."
"Does this mean that the dispersed enemies have withdrawn to the city?"
"Even if they haven't withdrawn yet, it won't take long to think about it. Those Lu Shuihu are not a large tribe with a large population. This time Lu Shui, Xiu Tu Zhuhu was able to send more than 40,000 troops, probably because of the Huns.
Maybe it’s because I’m supporting you from behind.”
"This is also my fault. When I first came here, I only paid attention to the internal affairs measures of the former Governor Li, but not only did not pay attention to his military arrangements, but actually reduced them a lot. Otherwise, how could it be possible with the natural danger of the Yellow River?
Give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of you."
Li Gan did not answer the question because he knew that these were not the most important reasons. The most important reason, which the new governor did not have the nerve to say, was that he was deceived by the smooth-talking King Zuoxian of the Huns.
Of course, the reason why this happened was because he was too eager to make something
Fortunately, Li Shushi has established his own reputation in this land where Li Shushi's traces are deeply engraved. But in addition to establishing a more united and close relationship with the Xiongnu, Li Shushi's administrative team did a really good job.
This did not leave any room for the new governor to develop.
Thinking of this, Li Gan looked up to the east again. There was someone there who was almost incompatible with Li Shushi, and in order to completely erase the traces of Li Shushi from Xihe, he would rather not send reinforcements, even if Li Shushi had already left.
"Now we can only do our best to ensure the safety of the people in the city. Otherwise, once the city is destroyed, the consequences will be disastrous."
"That's how it should be." Although he didn't know why Li Gan said such a thing, the new prefect still affirmed it.
Just as the defenders inside Lishi City were worried about the enemies in front of them, the enemies outside the city were not having an easy time either.
"Are you all a bunch of losers? They are just some small settlements of the Han people, not an army of the Han people. But look at you, look at what you have done. You have ruined so many good men of our clan.
.You trash!"
The riding whip in his hand came out and hit the leader Lu Shuihu who was bowing his head to apologize. However, the leader Lu Shuihu whose head was broken by the riding whip did not even dare to say a word because he knew that resistance would only bring more trouble.
Great torture.
Speaking of which, these leaders from Lu Shuihu also felt that they were unjustly defeated this time. They originally thought that the round barrel-like forts of Xihe Tuntian Dianwu Fort were just mud buildings with high defense capabilities.
Wherever they go, they have also conquered those forts made of bluestone in the northwest, let alone a pile of mud like this.
But what they didn't expect was that this was a terrifying building with mud on the outside and piercing steel spikes on the inside. Just when you thought you could crush it easily, you found that your palms had been struck like iron.
The thorns stung the bones and blood flowed out. In addition, during the home battle, the elusive Wuwan people were nearby to help with bloodletting, so Lu Shuihu resigned in frustration.
"Chief, it is said that these facilities were left behind by the previous Han named Li Xue. With that man's intelligence, our people will certainly suffer a loss if they don't know the depth. And those Wubao are just Han people farming.
Most of the wealth of the Han people should be gathered in the Lishi City in front of us. If we can only attack this city, we can make up for all the losses."
Perhaps in order to divert the attention of the king who was in a state of rage, or perhaps really making some plans, an old man who looked like a shaman or witch doctor unique to the grassland people stood up.
The old man may have a considerable status among the grassland tribes. Even the furious leader Lu Shuihu stopped his anger when he saw the old man. He bowed slightly before facing those who were still kneeling on the ground.
He glared hard and returned to his seat and sat down again.
"What Mr. Mamasa said is absolutely true. Taking down those Han people's small earthen forts is a gain. It doesn't matter if they can't be taken down. However, there are a large number of Han people and even merchants from the Western Regions gathered in Lishi City. There is a lot of money and water.
.Since those small earthen forts are difficult to attack, let’s not waste time and the lives of the soldiers, but first think about how to break into the Han city in front of us.”
Lu Shuihu is a ferocious mercenary. Although their reputation is very bad, they can fight anyone for money, but until now, even though they have offended too many people, they are still living so well. Their combat effectiveness can be imagined.
Got it. What's more, this time they have united with Xiutuhu, a powerful tribal alliance that is also well-known on the grassland, so their strength is even stronger.
Just a few days after Lu Shuihu closed the battle line, Lishi City seemed to be crumbling under the joint attack of Lu Shui and Xiutu Zhuhu. After the battle a few days ago, you could still see people looking around or chatting with others.
The soldiers they were talking about are now almost invisible, replaced by soldiers who are desperately eating bean porridge made from beans or simply resting against the city wall to recover their strength. The morale in the city has obviously been affected accordingly.
Small impact.
Even the current governor of Xihe, who originally still had the energy to lose his temper, has now lost the energy to complain due to the extremely intense fighting. He didn't even know much about military affairs, so he asked Li Gan, who reported the situation to him.
"Can we still hold on?" Such a depressing question, known to the soldiers, could destroy the morale of the entire Xihe garrison.
"Your Excellency, you must not feel like this, let alone let others hear you, otherwise Li Shi will really be hopeless."
"So, if this city is handed over to you, the flowers may be much better than those of me who only know how to write a pen."
"Don't be discouraged, Grand Administrator. You have done a very good job over the past few days. Everyone..."
"Okay, okay, there is no one else here, so there is no need to be so polite. Speaking of which, I thought that Li Shushi was just a child who had not yet been crowned, and what he did was probably bragging by some people with ulterior motives. I didn't expect it. I didn't expect it.
, people can face hundreds of thousands of Xianbei troops in this city without changing their expressions and even win, but as for me, it’s easier said than done.”
Can this be the same? Li Gan looked helplessly at the current prefect of Xihe who was actually much more dedicated than Li Shushi, and smiled helplessly. He knew very well that no matter how incompetent Li Shushi was, he was still in the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
He has participated in various battles and witnessed many shocking things, and he has a group of experts to assist him, so of course he performed well.
To a certain extent, the current eunuch is right to think that Li Shushi's achievements are the boast of some well-intentioned people, because many of the tasks were not done by Li Shushi in the first place, and Li Shushi's greatest role was his brain with all kinds of weird ideas.
Then with the hard work of a group of people, those ideas finally turned into something amazing.
Of course, Li Shushi has never overestimated his own achievements and overshadowed the achievements of others, but outsiders would not know it without a deeper understanding.
However, Li Gan may have been so focused on slandering Li Shushi's unsightly actions that he forgot to pay attention to some of the inner fluctuations of the current prefect of Xihe beside him. So, the next day...
"The attack on the east gate should be a feint. The enemy is probably going to attack the west gate with all his strength this time. It seems that the enemy has also noticed that our governor has a few loopholes in his command."
Li Gan was rushing towards the west gate of Lishi City at this time. Behind him were reinforcements drawn from the east gate defenders who were equally anxious. Obviously, after several days of attrition, the enemy also understood that they must exploit the opponent's weaknesses.
It makes sense to concentrate our forces.
Li Gan's rescue was very timely. Just when the defenders of Ximen felt that they could no longer withstand it, Li Gan led the reinforcements to arrive and stabilized the situation at Ximen. At the same time, he also organized several attacks in places where the enemy's offensive was weak.
Counterattacks several times.
However, when the situation returned to a stalemate, Li Gan discovered that the prefect who was the chief officer of the city was nowhere to be seen.
Just when Li Gan was desperately looking for the eunuch, he suddenly heard the sound of the city gate opening.
Could it be that there is a traitor? This is really a fatal thing. Fortunately, I still have a hand. Li Gan thought this way.
However, then he heard a heart-rending cry from under the city wall: "Your Majesty the Prefect!"
The gate of Lishi City slowly closed in Li Gan's eyes, and at the same time, it also blocked his eyes from looking at the new governor of Xihe.
A few days later, Liu Hong received a brief memorial from the Lishi County Magistrate:
In the first month of spring in the fifth year of Zhongping, during the Lu River, Xiu massacred all the Hu invaders in Xihe, and killed Xing Ji, the governor of the county. Zhang Yi, the governor of Bingzhou, sat idly by and did nothing.