Dingjiangshan

Before the soldiers on the watchtower had time to see where the cold arrow came from, they felt a chill in their throats and could no longer speak.

The terrified eyes of his colleagues were reflected in his eyes, the soldier's throat moved, only the sound of gurgling water was heard, and something sprayed out from his throat, splashing everywhere.

A few drops of scalding blood splashed onto the straw on the top of the tower, and more of them splashed on his colleagues.The hot blood became cold in the cold wind, exuding a fishy smell like rust.

Almost in an instant, the soldier who was hit by the arrow fell on his back in the watchtower with his eyes wide open. The fragile wooden tower made a dull and loud noise, and the wooden wedges made a teeth-stinging creaking sound.

His surviving colleague almost scrambled and threw his head under the half-person-high wooden wall, stretched out his hand to grab the alarm bell, and ruthlessly pulled the bell rope under the copper bell.

The riot broke out.

The tightly connected copper bells moved the whole body with one hair, but they rang together in a short time.

Ning Huaijin, who was in the forest in the distance, hid behind a tree, put her bow back on her body, and made a "forward" gesture behind her.

Before setting off, Ning Huaijin and Xie Jue had already made an agreement that there was no need to follow any tactics for this surprise attack, as long as it was as chaotic as possible. They retreated at dawn and scattered into the surrounding forest, looking for opportunities to retreat At the camp, just wait for news from the city.

Ning Huaijin acted earlier than Xie Jue. General Xie used to be in the border towns and was used to ambushes and pursuits, so he was very cautious about attacks like sieges.

As soon as the alarm bell in the city rang, Xie Jue knew that it was Ning Huaijin who made the move. Although he didn't know how Ning Huaijin caused an uproar in the city in a short period of time, he couldn't help but secretly praised the other party in his heart. capable.

As the alarm bell rang loudly for the attack, the city immediately entered a state of alert.Bright lights were lit on the watchtowers and towers, and the soldiers stationed in the city woke up from their sleep, dressed in a hurry, and followed their commanders to the direction of the east city wall.

Ning Huaijin fired a shot to change places. After killing the watchman with one arrow, he temporarily retreated and hid back in the woods with the troops.

Tongbai County has a special landform, surrounded by many shallow hills and hills, and not far from the east city wall is the pass of Tongbai Mountain.Such a landscape is really convenient for Ning Huaijin.

He divided the soldiers into three teams. One team went into battle lightly with sharp eyes and hands, carrying bows and arrows and kerosene in an attacking posture, while the other team took the cotton cloth from the horses' hoofs and tied small shrapnel on the horse's tail. Stones, running back and forth in the forest.

It was getting dark, and the defenders in Tongbai County had just been awakened from their sleep. When they climbed the city wall, they heard deafening shouts outside.

"Quick!" A soldier captain on the city wall pushed the young man beside him and urged, "Go to the government office and ask General Feng to order—"

Before he could say the word "decided", he heard another sound breaking through the wind, and it was firmly nailed to his heart.

The soldier captain was knocked back a step by the strong wind, hesitated for a moment, and died after a few breaths.

Two generals died one after another on the city wall, and the people on the tower had come to their senses, knowing that the other party had hidden a magic arrow that pierced Yang with a hundred paces, so they didn't dare to show their heads at random, so they all bent down and looked for the nearest arrow. The battlements hide behind.

The longbow Ning Huaijin used was a good item brought out from the palace. This arrow is fifty or sixty feet long. In addition, his archery skills are quite good, and he rarely misses it. Nine out of ten arrows can be killed by one blow. .

On the other side, Ning Huaijin was in the way to the east, and Xie Jue was not in a hurry to the west.He led a team of personal guards, and under the cover of the moonlight, he touched under the city wall in the west of Tongbai County, and hit several eagle hook locks on the city wall from an extremely secret angle.

This kind of eagle hook lock was specially made by the Ministry of War for the purpose of siege. The lock head was made into the shape of an eagle hook. When fired with a bow and crossbow, it could be firmly locked in the gaps in the city wall.This kind of thing is mostly used to assist the siege ladder. The eagle hook is followed by a series of iron rings, which are enough to support the weight of three or five adult men.And unless the defenders on the city wall pull out the eagle hook, they can only cut off the iron lock connected to it.

The batch in Xie Jue's hands had already been modified in the camp before the expedition.He removed all the iron locks on it and replaced them with thick ropes made of cotton thread.These thick ropes were soaked in kerosene for most of the day, and when they were pulled out, they choked and made people cough.

Tongbai County is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and there are too many people in it, Xie Jue had no plans to attack the city today.He fastened both ends of the eagle hook lock to the lock head, nailed one end to the city wall on the west side, and strung the other end with a thin thread along the bottom of the wall.From a distance, it looks like weaving a rough net.

And the vanguard that Ning Huaijin sent out before had already reached the city wall under his cover. Ning Huaijin had told them before that it didn't matter how many enemies they killed, the bigger the trouble was, the more important it was.

So these soldiers simply rode horses and sprinkled a circle of kerosene around the city, and then simply lit it with a torch, and then poured the remaining kerosene into the quiver, and lit the arrows wrapped in cotton cloth on the fire, making a mess He shot it on the tower.

They were close, and they didn't care whether they really shot the arrows in. In short, they retreated after shooting empty arrow baskets. They walked cleanly and unrestrainedly. He had already withdrawn for more than a few hundred meters, and turned his head to join Ning Huaijin.

But Ning Zheng's soldiers were not vegetarians either, there was only a commotion on the city wall for a while, and soon new soldiers came to stabilize the situation.

Although Ning Huaijin didn't know if the general surnamed Feng would come out to check the situation in person, he didn't want to leave anyone to take risks in front of the city wall.They didn't come here today to attack the city. Ning Huaijin didn't want to cause unnecessary casualties, and seeing the smoke rising from the other side of Tongbai County, she knew that Xie Jue had taken over the task, so she simply decided to He whistled and called to retreat.

The two of them murdered and set fire in Tongbai County, but they didn't even scrape the city wall.The defenders in Tongbai County were exhausted from left to right for two hours, locking the city gates, splashing mud to fight the fire, raising the wooden walls on the city walls, and busy all morning. There was no sign of the army.

"—Let's make fun of it." Feng Yuan came down from the East City Tower, and returned to the county office aggressively all the way, poured a whole glass of water down, and then slammed the quilt on the table.

"I never heard that the Xie family was so shameless when they started fighting." Feng Yuan sneered, "General Xie Jue Xie knows how to use such indecent tactics."

"Don't be angry, general." A fair-faced young man beside him said with a smile, "Fortunately, the general responded well and didn't let the other party take advantage of it."

"They only killed a dozen defenders of the city wall this time, do you think they are here to play around?" Feng Yuan glanced at him impatiently, stretched out his hand to push him away, and stepped out of the room again .

"Come here—" Feng Yuan ordered: "Order down, order the merchants in the city to temporarily close their shops and go home. Let Lao Liu lead the troops into the city and check door by door. If there are people who entered the city today everywhere, Send them all to the gate of the city and guard them strictly!"

In Tongbai County, there was a sudden turmoil, but Ning Huaijin outside the city felt relieved.

According to their previous deployment, if those soldiers had not sneaked into the city, they would return to the camp in disguise.And based on Ning Huaijin's understanding of Qin Liu, if this matter fails, he should return to his side first and report to him. During the day, he waited outside the forest in Tongbai County from dawn until it was dark again, and he did not see Qin Liu. Shadow knew that the matter was probably half done.

In order to prevent the general surnamed Feng from sending people out to search for the enemy during the day, Ning Huaijin patiently led the soldiers to hide in the mountains for a day, and waited until it was dark again before wrapping the horseshoes in cotton cloth as when he came, carefully Detour back to camp.

Xie Jue took the farther west road, and had to cross the Huai River when he came back. When Ning Huaijin didn't see his horse at the gate when he returned to the camp, he knew that Xie Jue's pace was slower than him.

Ning Huaijin got off his horse at the gate of the camp, handed over the reins to the soldiers on duty at the gate, and ordered all the soldiers who went out with him the night before to go back and rest.

He counted around and followed the captain to count the number of people. After counting the loss of bows and arrows, horses and other losses, he was relieved and prepared to go back to his camp to rest for a while.

However, when Ning Huaijin walked through the camp, she felt that something was wrong—the camp seemed to be too quiet.

Although the number of soldiers taken away by him and Xie Jue was large, the sum was only half of the total.Although the military discipline of the Xie family's army has been rectified, there are more or less voices on weekdays, and it will not be as quiet as today.

Ning Huaijin muttered in her heart, and her pace slowed down a lot.

That's all for nothing, Ning Huaijin passed through the center of the camp all the way, and when he approached his camp, he suddenly found that his tent was brightly lit, obviously someone was there.

Ning Huaijin paused and subconsciously stopped.

He was only twenty or thirty steps away from his big tent at this time, and the sound of footsteps was obviously caught by the people inside.The candles in the big tent flickered for a few moments, the curtain flapped slightly, a hand stretched out from inside, opened the curtain and walked out.

Ning Huaijin was stunned for a moment.

"Your Majesty?" Ning Huaijin asked.

"Uncle Huang is back." Ning Yan stood at the door of the tent, his eyes gliding inch by inch over his face and body: "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Ning Huaijin was obviously also confused, he really didn't expect how Ning Yan, who was supposed to be in Nanyang, appeared in this corner camp overnight, he blinked subconsciously, as if he wanted to make sure that the person in front of him was not himself illusion.

"Isn't Your Majesty in Nanyang?" Ning Huaijin asked.

"I received a letter from Uncle Huang." Ning Yan stepped forward and said in a low voice, "I'm restless, in a dilemma, my heart is like cooking in boiling oil, no matter how much I try to comfort myself, it won't help."

Ning Yan licked his lips, took another step forward, and said, "So I want to ask Uncle Huang to clarify, ask -- what does Uncle Huang mean?"

By the time Ning Yan spoke, the shock on Ning Huaijin's face had faded, and he stood there, watching Ning Yan approaching him two steps, but he did not back away.

While looking at Ning Yan with a brand new gaze, he belatedly savored a subtle surprise from the momentary shock just now.

Ning Huaijin was never a hypocritical person. Since he wrote that letter, he was concerned about many things in his heart, and he was also prepared.

So he simply smiled at Ning Yan, and said generously: "What does your Majesty think the minister means, and what the minister means."

Seeing this, Ning Yan also smiled lightly and said, "I haven't seen you for a few days, Uncle Huang has become cunning."

"Then why did His Majesty come here?" Ning Huaijin asked back.

"I'm afraid you'll go back on your word." Ning Yan said, "That's why I'm here."