The distance from Yingtianfu to Mangdang Mountain is not very far, but not only the cavalry can arrive in one day, but the vehicles transporting grain and grass have to go for almost three days, in order to ensure the safety of the grain convoy, the Xia army will set up a military village every twenty or thirty miles along the way, and each military village will be stationed in this thousand soldiers and horses, and the grain convoy will also be protected by grain soldiers.
"Lord Wang, this is the Mangdang Mountain Camp."
Gao Xuan pointed to the busy construction site in front of him and said; "At present, it is estimated that 300,000 people are building the entire Mangdang Mountain, and the bricks, timber and other materials needed are all removed from the surrounding cities; In addition to building a camp on it, the last general also ordered people to dig the gentle slope to make it steeper, and also arranged horses, traps, trenches, thistles, etc."
Gao Xuanyi introduced to Li De one by one that without modern tools, it is difficult to dig the mountain, and the corresponding to this hot construction site is the corpse trucks coming out of it, these corpses will be transported to the upper reaches of the Surabaya River west of Mangdang Mountain to be burned, and then poured into the river, since the construction of Mangdang Mountain, there are no less than 50,000 dead and injured people, and this number is still increasing.
"This speed is still too slow, and more manpower must be added."
Li De looked at the construction site and said.
"Lord Wang, there are basically no people in this 100-mile radius, most of the people have fled to Xuzhou in the east, or Bozhou and Suzhou in the south, if you want to catch Zhuangding, you must either go east or south, there are only these two roads."
Gao Sui said to Li De.
Li De thought for a while and said: "This king will give you 10,000 elites, and in addition, he will give you 10,000 newly recruited soldiers, a total of 20,000 troops, and you will be in command to attack Xuzhou, how long will it take you to capture." ” "Lord Wang, the last general will guarantee to take Xuzhou City within three days."
Gao Yu assured Li De; "But Lord Wang, how can we have new recruits now?"
"Right away."
Li De said with a smile; "Go and pass on the king's general decree to recruit 10,000 troops among these people, and whoever is chosen will not only have a military salary, but also be far away from here and become a man of men."
"Yes, the last general commands" Li De's military order spread on the construction site, the entire construction site of the people's support is boiling, joining the Xia army may die, but it is much better than life is better than death now, as the people's support in the Mangdang Mountain camp, it is really better to live than death, although the Xia army is not short of food and grass, but the people are the worst food to eat every day, and they can't eat enough; The daily labor intensity is very large, and if you are not careful, you will be whipped, and some of the small number of people who surrendered to the Xia army earlier have become overseers, and they are even more ruthless than the Xia army.
Therefore, the notice of the Xia Army's recruitment, many people began to sign up enthusiastically, their purpose is very simple is to leave here, of course, this recruitment work Li De was all handed over to Gao Xuan, the standard of selection is of course the survival of the fittest, it took only one day to recruit 10,000 new troops, and they were issued weapons, the weapons used by the new army are selected from the weight of the Song army, each person has a set of leather armor and a combat knife, that's all, in the eyes of Li De and Gao Xuan, they are now a group of cannon fodder, But they don't think it's a distraction to see this new army as cannon fodder.
In the early morning of the next day, Gao Xuan led 10,000 Xia army elites and 10,000 rabble to the east of Xuzhou 100 miles away, there was no new army soldiers to escape along the way, they did not want to run but could not run, even if they were lucky to run, all the grain and grass within this radius of 100 miles were scavenged by the Xia army, leaving the Xia army is only a dead end, in their eyes the Xia army is no longer a hated enemy, but the last straw to survive in this troubled world.
From Mangdang Mountain to Xuzhou City, this more than 100-mile journey Gao Xuan walked for two days, that is to say, Gao Xuan only had one day left to attack Xuzhou City, and when he came to Xuzhou City, the army was encamped outside the southern city of Xuzhou, and it was close to dusk at this time; Xuzhou is a strategic place from ancient times to the present, is an important channel to communicate the north and south, but Xuzhou is also a strong city defense, in the north and west of Xuzhou city each have a branch of the Surabaya River, there is a moat outside the city, and Xuzhou city grain and grass are sufficient, although the defenders are only more than 1,000 people, but there are two or three hundred thousand people in the city can help defend the city, these people in addition to the aborigines of Xuzhou, many of them have fled here.
In the camp of the Xia army outside Xuzhou City, Gao Sui wrote a letter of persuasion and handed it to the general and said: "Send someone to send this letter to the hands of the governor of Xuzhou, and tell him to open the city and surrender early tomorrow morning, and the general promises that the autumn will not be committed. ” "Yes, General."
The general took the letter and said.
The general did not assign others, but personally took two people to Xuzhou City with this letter, and when he came to the city gate, the general shouted loudly: "This general is the envoy of the Xia army, I want to see you Lord Zhizhou, and quickly open the city gate." ” Xuzhou Zhizhou Mansion, Xuzhou's Zhizhou is a civil official, eight lifetimes have never seen such a battle Xuzhou is thousands of miles away from the front line of the Xia and Song Dynasty, kill this Zhizhou would not have thought that the Xia army actually killed under the city of Xuzhou, but recently the Xia army has come, and there are tens of thousands of troops, which will be Xuzhou Zhizhou is very anxious, quickly sent people to the Huaiyang army stationed not far away in Xiapi for help, Xiapi is an important military town in the Song Dynasty, Xiapi City is located at the junction of Yishui and Surabaya, Yishui is divided into two tributaries in the northeast of Xiapi City into SurabayaTherefore, Yishui and Surabaya form the natural moat of Xiapi City.
Before Emperor Zhao Xu of the Song Dynasty set up the Jianghuai Forbidden Army Jianghuai Army was personally controlled by the emperor and belonged to the forbidden army, the Huaiyang Army has always been an important military force north of the Huai River of the Song Army, and the Huaiyang Army belongs to the Xiang Army with a strength of 10,000 people, but now the Huaiyang Army stationed in Xiapi is only 5,000 old and weak, and the remaining half are all commanded by the Huaiyang Army to make Huo Chong eat empty salary, which is also a normal state of the local military system of the Song Army, and the composition of the Huaiyang Army is very complex, and the combat effectiveness is low, and the Xuzhou Zhizhou asks for help from the Huaiyang Army is also a dead horse as a live horse doctor.
"My lord, there is an envoy of the Xia army outside the city who asks to see you."
The Xuzhou guard walked in front of Zhizhou and said.
Zhizhou said in a bit of a panic: "Envoy Xia Jun, what are they doing here, hurry up and blast away." ” The Xuzhou guard general persuaded Zhizhou: "My lord, why don't you meet it, now that the Xia army is pressing, if you snub them, I'm afraid we won't have our good fruits to eat after the city is broken."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, you are right, you go to greet the envoy of the Xia army in person, and the official personally greets you outside the yamen."
Zhizhou immediately reacted and said.
"Yes, the last general commands" Soon the generals were invited into the city of Xuzhou, because the Xia army has been in the city, the whole Xuzhou has implemented a curfew system, the whole street is very quiet, and the defenders of the city are unbearable, but they have also prepared to defend the city, and for these Xia army generals did not pay attention to it at all.
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