? Xuzhou City, the river embankment flowing through the Sishui River beside the city has been dug up more than a dozen holes. The river water has flowed out of the hole and flowed openly on the open space outside the city. The river water flooded the fertile farmlands and vegetable gardens outside the city, forming a large area of ​​waist-deep water. Only rafts and boats can pass through the water.   There are only six or seven high grounds exposed to the water on the open space outside the city, and the Wu army built a fort on it. This is the result of the hard work of the defenders over the days - to resist the upcoming Shatuo Iron Cavalry.

"It seems that this old man Jingxiang has spent a lot of effort!" Li Siyuan jumped off the war horse, and a layer of mist rose on the water surface, which made it difficult for him to see the movements on the city wall in the distance. He could only vaguely see the black outline, and there were waves of people coming from the water surface, which were from the defenders on the mounds on the water surface.

The deputy general on the side smiled and said, "Yes, but this is not a problem for Your Majesty. Didn't you dig the Yellow River in Yang Liu and Xie Yanzhang to defend yourself, but you were defeated by Your Majesty!"

Li Siyuan's eyes flashed. When he remembered the past of Yang Liu's battle, he couldn't help but smile, but the smile flashed like the winter sunshine. "Yes, we defeated Xie Yanzhang in Yang Liu, but King Jin was seriously injured in that battle and was very successful. Now——" Li Siyuan's voice became smaller and smaller, and almost disappeared in his throat.

The deputy general lowered his head. Now in Li Siyuan's army, Li Cunxu's name has almost become a taboo. Although from a political perspective, Li Siyuan has always regarded himself as his successor, but after all, the legitimate son of the "Last King" was still staying in Jinyang, but he called himself the emperor. This is a bit unbearable!

Just now, a sharp scream suddenly came from the air. Before everyone could react, a shell hit the mud four or five meters away from Li Siyuan, splashing the mud all over the sky. The frightened war horses stumbled and made a terrifying neigh. The guards avoided the horse's hooves as quickly as possible, grabbed the reins, and controlled their mounts.

"Your Majesty, leave here quickly and go to a safe place. This is the artillery attack of the defenders!" The head of the guard shouted loudly, while protecting Li Siyuan with his body and pulling him to the river embankment. The other guards were busy covering the other accompanying generals. At this time, a ball of fire flashed in the mist in the distance. Almost at the same time, a shell flew over. The landing point of the shell was two feet closer to Li Siyuan. The high-speed shells broke the neck of a war horse. Before the horse could make a neigh, the heavy headless corpse fell into the dust, and the splashed blood and flesh turned the owner beside him into a blood man.

"Go away, hurry, hurry!" The guard leader almost pulled Li Siyuan off the river bank until the towering river bank blocked the origin of the shells. The frightened guard leader breathed a sigh of relief. He hurriedly bowed to Li Siyuan and said, "I missed my attention and killed Your Majesty. I also asked Your Majesty to punish me!"

"Forget it!" Li Siyuan helped the guard leader up: "There is no complete place to explore the battle. I am the emperor on the way, and life and death will be destined to be alive!" Speaking of this, Li Siyuan murmured to himself: "The shelling was at least five hundred steps away from here just now. It was so far that it could be so accurate. Liang Jun probably did not have such a sharp firearm!" Speaking of this, Li Siyuan's face became gloomy.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's the Wu army. Jingxiang's old man must have colluded with the Wu army. This must be the Wu army's firearm!" The deputy general on the side replied, his voice was low and rapid, as if to prevent the soldiers beside him from hearing it.

Li Siyuan did not answer. He stood up and looked south, looking cold.

"Bastard, it was that idiot who fired the artillery just now. Didn't I give a military order? Isn't anyone allowed to fire the artillery without my order? Isn't this clearly telling the Shatuo barbarians that our army has entered the city?" On the city tower, Lu Hongkai held the female wall and looked at the sound of the cannons from afar. His face was extremely frustrated, but the Liang soldiers on both sides were all pale. Looking at the new recruits' cringe, he snorted coldly, knowing that it must be the Liang soldiers on the mound who had not passed the battle formation on the mound when they saw the enemy appear, and urged the Wu soldiers on the mound to fire. Since the Wu army in Huaidong was on the defensive and did not have any threat to Xuzhou in front of him, most of the Liang soldiers in the local area had not fired a single arrow for many years, so naturally they could not compare with the new army of the third battalion brought by Lu Runxing.

Lu Hongkai walked down the city tower with anger and jumped onto the war horse, his face full of annoyance. In order to avoid being discovered by Li Siyuan's troops who came to help, Lu Runxing and Jingxiang agreed that all the earthen mounds outside the city and the guards on the horse-dream stage would use Liang soldiers, and only a few gunners were drawn from the Wu army to give the enemy a cold defense. However, they did not expect that these guys who had never experienced the battle formation would fire randomly as soon as they saw a few spies, exposing their military situation, which was really unexpected in advance.

In the hall, Jing Xiang pointed to the maps on several tables and explained: "Your Highness, the terrain of Xuzhou City is three sides behind the mountains, and only the west is a flat river for hundreds of miles. Since the water has been released to block the enemy, the same is true on the east and north sides. Only when the terrain on the south is very high, the Ximatai is the key point of competition. As long as the Ximatai is guarded, the Jin army will not be able to thin the city walls."

Lu Runxing stared at the maps on several tables, piled up wooden blocks and wheat grains into the shape of city walls and mountains. The offensive and defensive situation outside Xuzhou was clearly visible. He subconsciously pursed his lips and asked, "I have two thousand elite soldiers on the horse-drawn stage, fifteen artillery, sufficient food and ammunition, and Jin's arms are far less than my Dawu. Even if there are 100,000 people, they will not be able to conquer this place in a short time. But Li Siyuan is also a general in a hundred battles, and I am afraid there is a strange plan!"

Jing Xiang smiled and said, "If you talk about the strategy, the generals of the Jin army are normal, but the fierce aura of the Hu people outside the border is very difficult to deal with. I think it is nothing more than digging the ditches and draining the accumulated water. But in this way, it will take at least seven or eight days. In addition, it will take another twenty days to make the land hard, and it will take another month in total. Even if the Western Route Army of Dawu climbed, it will climb to Bianjing at that time, so what will Your Highness worry about?"

Lu Runxing smiled and said, "What Jing Gong said is very good, but a family is worried too much!" While the two were talking, Lu Hongkai walked in angrily and sang a fat promise to Lu Runxing. Lu Runxing was in a very good mood at this time. Seeing Lu Hongkai's appearance, he teased and said, "What's wrong with Shiqilang? Could it be that he fell in love with someone's little lady and was turned away."

"Who is still thinking about this at this time?" Lu Hongkai repeated the incident of the guards outside the city firing fires to Lu and Jing and the others, saying: "Your Highness, the general on the mound is really a mess. He actually fires fire as soon as he sees the enemy. He will definitely deal with it well later!"

Jing Xiang showed an embarrassing expression on his face, bowed to Lu Runxing and apologized: "I am not strict in governing the army, please forgive me."

Lu Runxing helped Jing Xiang up and said, "Forget it, the elite soldiers of Liang are all on the river. This is also well-known. A good wife cannot cook without rice. It is no wonder that Gong Jing! Shiqilang, you will fight the guy with a hundred military sticks and insert arrows to the camp to use the military method! Since Li Siyuan already knows that we are here, tonight, you will send a team of elite soldiers to visit the original guests. Don't let them say that we are barbarians from the south and do not understand etiquette!"

"Here!"

The night was shrouded in the water, and the night seemed like a piece of indelible ink. The moon looked particularly pale under the dark clouds. In the shelter under the river bank, dozens of Jin soldiers gathered beside the fire, snoring everywhere. Although it was October, for these heroes who grew up in the bitter and cold areas outside the border, early winter in Xuzhou was nothing. They spread cowhide blankets on the mud dry by the bonfire, wrapped in cloaks or various clothes, and could fall asleep comfortably.

On the river bank, two sentries were trying their best to open their eyes and confronting the increasingly violent sleepiness, but their heads were still lit downwards. The just-concluded march made them very tired. However, they could not see anything. The light from the bonfire next to them could only shine twenty steps at most. If they were farther away, they could only see a gray area, and it was impossible to tell whether it was the water surface or something else. This team of Jin troops was the outpost of the entire army. Since the Jin army had not had time to complete the construction of the camp, in order to prevent the enemy troops from leaving the city to attack, Li Siyuan deployed dozens of checkpoints on the river bank as a warning.

On the water surface, more than ten small boats were slowly sliding. The people on the boat carefully held the oars and put them in the water for a while to row, so as not to make a sound of water to attract the attention of sentries on the river bank dozens of steps away.

"Get off the boat!" With the low command of the gangster on the boat, the two flag heads carefully slid into the water. The water here was not deep and could only flood their waists. The flag heads began to wade in the water and pulled the boat behind them. The Wu soldiers on the boat held their breath, and their mouths were filled with wooden pieces to prevent sound. The fuse was wrapped around the wrists of the medley gunmen. They carefully aimed the muzzle at the Jin army sentry on the river bank.

With a slight vibration, the boat landed. The team made a gesture, and Wu soldiers jumped off the bow of the boat quickly and climbed up the river embankment. At this time, a sentry seemed to have woken up. He slashed and stretched. At this time, his movements suddenly stiffened. Just less than twenty steps away, a small boat was leaning against the river embankment. Sergeants in black were jumping off the boat. Further away, more ships were slid towards the river embankment.

"Come on! The thief is out of the city!" As soon as the sentry shouted, a gunshot came from the boat. He felt someone hit his chest suddenly, and he fell down. He looked dark and fainted.

"Bastard, who told you to shoot? This has woken up all the thieves in Jin!" The troupe slapped the archer's head fiercely, turned around and shouted loudly: "Everyone rushed forward and chopped these Shatuo dogs into meat sauce, so that they could see how powerful our elite soldiers of the Great Wu!"
Chapter completed!