"It's a long story! Let's go! Let's go to the city gate upstairs, sit down and talk slowly!" Liu Yan pulled Liu Xiu and walked up the steps to the city wall.
When they reached the city wall, Liu Xiu and others were all shocked. The entire city wall was stained with blood wherever they looked, and dark brown dried blood stains could be seen everywhere.
"After these five days of fierce fighting, our casualties have exceeded tens of thousands." Liu Yan said with emotion.
Gai Yan, who followed, couldn't help but ask: "Where did tens of thousands of people come from?"
Liu Yan and Feng Yi looked at Gai Yan and asked in confusion: "Who are you?"
"Gayan!"
Liu Yan and Feng Yi were both surprised when they heard Gai Yan's name. They had only heard of Gai Yan's name but had never met him. This was the first time they met.
"It turns out to be Mr. Gai, disrespectful!"
Gai Yan blushed and returned the greeting with his hands, shaking his head and saying: "I'm ashamed to say that, as a commander of the county army, it is my duty to defend the city..." As a result, when the barbarians attacked the city in large numbers, he was imprisoned by the barbarians in their compound. In the camp.
Feng Yi said considerately: "The defeat of Qianyou Mountain is not Gai's fault!"
Gai Yan smiled bitterly and lowered his head without saying a word.
Walking into the city gate tower, Liu Yan gave an overview of the past few days of defending the city.
He spoke in an understatement, but Liu Xiu and others were shocked when they heard it. It turned out that in order to resist the siege of the barbarians, even the strong men in the city were used.
However, the strong men had neither training nor fighting experience, nor even weapons. The casualties were heavy. In five days, thousands of people were lost in total.
Feng Yi sighed and said sternly: "The only ones who can still defend the city are a thousand or so of us. Uncle Wen, if you hadn't come back in time, the consequences would be really unimaginable!"
Although there are still 20,000 to 30,000 strong men available in the city, they have been unable to recruit new men because the casualties in the battles in the past few days have been too great.
Liu Yan suddenly remembered something and said to Feng Yi: "Brother Gongsun, send someone out immediately to find out whether the barbarian army has really retreated, and how far they have retreated, and where exactly they have retreated!"
Feng Yi nodded, waved to call a few of his close men, and asked them to ride out of the city to find out the movements of the barbarian army.
Liu Xiu said: "Even if the barbarian army retreats hundreds of miles as promised, they may come back at any time. After all, it is not a long-term solution. We must quickly ask for help from the capital army now!"
Liu Yan and Feng Yi looked at each other, and the former said: "We have sent people to ask for help from the Capital Army a long time ago, but nothing has come back. No news has been sent back."
"This shouldn't be!" Liu Xiu murmured. Hanzhong City is the main logistics supply station for the Capital Army. Its importance to the Capital Army is self-evident. After learning that Hanzhong City was attacked by the barbarians, it stands to reason that , the capital army should choose to rescue them as soon as possible, unless the battle ahead is tense and they are held back by the barbarian army and unable to retreat.
But in terms of combat effectiveness, the barbarian army is unlikely to pose a threat to the capital army!
"Could it be that the news failed to reach the capital army?" Liu Xiu asked suspiciously.
Feng Yi shook his head and said: "We have sent three groups of messengers one after another. There is no way the news will not reach the capital army!"
"This is strange." Liu Xiu murmured.
While they were talking, a soldier ran into the city gate tower and said, "Master Liu, Master Feng, the Ye family is here to deliver food!"
Seeing Liu Xiu and others' expressions of confusion, Liu Yan explained with a smile: "During the barbarian army's siege, most of the food for the army was provided by the Ye family. We were able to defend the county and the Ye family also contributed a lot." ah!"
There is a lot of food stored in Hanzhong City, but the food does not belong to Hanzhong County, but belongs to the capital army. Not to mention Liu Yan and Feng Yi did not dare to tamper with it, even Wang Xun, the prefect of Hanzhong County, did not dare to do so without permission. Use a grain of food from the capital army.
Nearly ten thousand soldiers and civilians participated in the defense of the city. They needed to eat and drink every day. Where did the food come from?
These days, I mainly rely on the Ye family to provide food and organize the people in the city to cook for the defenders, ensuring that the defenders have no worries and can fully deal with the enemy forces outside the city.
Liu Yan stood up, patted Liu Xiu at the same time, shook his head and said, "Let's go see Mr. Ye!"
A group of them got off the city wall. Near the city wall, there were many people gathered around, and there were more than 20 large wooden barrels, which were steaming inside.
Next to the crowd, stood a man and a woman, an old man and a young man. Liu Xiu took a closer look and recognized them all. The old man was Ye Tian and the young man was Ye Qingqiu.
Liu Yan and Feng Yi really didn't know Ye Qingqiu. These days, although the Ye family delivers food here every day, the only people who come here are Ye Qian.
This time he suddenly saw a girl standing up with Ye Tian. Both of them looked suspicious. Liu Yan couldn't help but muttered: "Who is this girl?"
Liu Xiu answered: "Brother, she is Ye Qingqiu, the young lady of the Ye family!"
"Oh! So it's her!" Liu Yan suddenly realized, but he felt strange, why is Ye Qingqiu here today?
Feng Yi looked at Liu Xiu and smiled knowingly, already understanding what was going on.
Seeing Liu Yan and others coming from a distance, Ye Tian stepped forward to greet him and said with a smile: "Bo Sheng, I heard that the barbarian troops outside the city have withdrawn?"
Liu Yan said: "The barbarian army has temporarily withdrawn its troops." He did not dare to say it to death. No one could guarantee that the barbarian army would not attack the county again.
Ye Qingqiu didn't look at Liu Yan, her eyes swept around the crowd. When she saw Liu Xiu, her eyes suddenly lit up. She subconsciously took a step forward, then glanced at her father beside her, and took a step forward. The foot that went out slowly came back.
Ye Tian had seen her little moves. How could he not understand his own daughter's thoughts? He looked at Liu Xiu, pretending to be surprised and said: "Uncle Wen, are you back in the city? When did you come back?"
Liu Xiu captured Xiesang, the leader of the barbarian army, and successfully drove back the barbarian army attacking the city. The news had already spread in the county. The people who heard the news were all overjoyed and rushed to tell each other. Now almost the whole city All the people have heard about this.
Liu Xiu raised his hands to Ye Tian and said, "Mr. Ye, I have just returned to the city not long ago."
Ye Tian sighed: "I heard that you disappeared during the battle with the barbarian army in Qianyou Mountain. My heart has been hanging in the air for the past few days. Now that you have come back safe and sound, my heart can finally be put back." It’s in the belly.”
Liu Xiu bowed deeply and said: "It is the fault of a junior to make Mr. Ye miss you so much!"
I don't know if it was because he had a good impression of Liu Xiu, but the more Ye Tian looked at this young man, the more he liked him.
Although Liu Xiu's family background is not very good, he is just a farmer in the countryside, but looking at him, you can't tell that he is a farmer at all, but he has an air of grace about him.
After exchanging pleasantries with Liu Xiu for a few more times, Ye Tian turned sideways and said, "Everyone, come over for dinner!"
The meals provided by Ye's family are very simple, with two steamed buns per person and a ladle of soup.
Speaking of which, the Ye family was able to provide food for the defenders for so many days, thanks to Liu Xiu's reminder.
If it were an ordinary businessman's home, short-sighted people might take this opportunity to raise food prices and make a fortune.
It is not without reason that the Ye family became a very influential noble family in Hanzhong.
Instead of selling the food they had hoarded at a high price, the Ye family gave it to the soldiers and civilians defending the city for free.
In the short term, the Ye family has lost an opportunity to make a fortune, but in the long term, the Ye family's influence and prestige in Hanzhong have undoubtedly been greatly improved.
Like ordinary soldiers, Liu Xiu received two steamed buns and a bowl of thin soup, sat on the steps near the city wall, and started eating.
At this time, Ye Qingqiu came over.
Li Tong had very sharp eyes. When he saw her coming, he immediately stood up. He turned around and saw that Long Yuan and Li Yi were still sitting next to Liu Xiu. He patted them and shook his head and said, "Let's go
Eat over there!”
Long Yuan's face was full of confusion and he looked at Li Tong blankly.
Li Tong glanced at Ye Qingqiu. Long Yuan was stunned for a moment before he came back to his senses. He coughed dryly, stood up immediately, and walked away.
Li Yi didn't want to leave. It was a rare opportunity to have contact with Ye Qingqiu, and he didn't want to miss it. However, seeing his cousin staring at him intently, he sighed to himself, shook his head helplessly, and had no choice but to get up and walk away with Li Tong.
.
There was no one else present, so Ye Qingqiu felt a lot more relaxed. She sat down next to Liu Xiu and said with some embarrassment: "These days, the food stored at home has been almost consumed. If you can't get used to it, just bear with it for the time being."
Forbearance, come to my house for dinner tonight."
Liu Xiu smiled and said: "This kind of food is already very good." On weekdays, the food of the rebel army is millet buns, but now the buns provided by the Ye family are millet flour plus white flour, which is already better than the food of the army.
Much better.
Ye Qingqiu asked: "Uncle Wen, where have you been these past few days? Why haven't any news been sent back..." I'm worried about you! She was too embarrassed to say the rest of the sentence.
Liu Xiu drank up the remaining soup in the bowl, wiped the corners of his mouth, and said, "I have always been hiding in Qianyou Mountain."
He didn't say anything about his entry into the cave, and he didn't want to make the cave public. There was nothing in the cave, and publicizing it would only disturb the purity of the cave.
"Have you been hiding in Ganyou Mountain for so many days?"
Liu Xiu nodded and said: "When I broke through, I suffered some injuries. Later I found a hiding place and was unconscious for several days."
"So that's it." Ye Qingqiu didn't witness the situation with his own eyes, but he thought it must be very dangerous.
She changed the topic and said: "This time you captured the leader of the barbarian army and drove back the barbarian army attacking the city, but you have made great contributions to Hanzhong. As long as you are willing to stay in Hanzhong, you will definitely be able to find a good place in the county."
official position."
Based on his achievements and the help of the Ye family, she believed that Liu Xiu's career in Hanzhong would be smooth and he might even become the prefect of Hanzhong in the future.
When Ye Qingqiu said these words, he obviously still didn't understand Liu Xiu very well. Liu Xiu could not join the officialdom. He and his eldest brother Liu Yan had the same goal. They both wanted to restore the Han Dynasty, so how could they possibly work for Wang Mang?
official?
This is fundamentally inconsistent with his goal.
He was about to speak when he suddenly heard a commotion in front of him. Liu Xiu looked up and saw countless people walking towards the city gate from the streets and alleys. Looking around, he saw that there were so many people on the street that he couldn't tell the number of them. , people hold everything in their hands, mostly sticks, kitchen knives, axes and the like.
This situation shocked Liu Yan, Feng Yi and others. Everyone stepped forward to greet them and asked, "Everyone, what are you doing?"