The fifth day of the battle, the fourth day of raising the mountain.

The weather on this day was the same as the previous days. It was still cold in the morning and hot at noon. For the battle between the two armies, it seemed to have entered a certain "normality".

That is, both sides began to continuously expand the scope of the battle while trying to upgrade corresponding large-scale fortification operations, which can be regarded as giving full play to their respective huge human resources. At the same time, both sides also adapted to the battlefield and began to imitate the other party's methods.

tactics, or accept the opponent's tactics to quickly counter your own.

On the battlefield, there are trenches, fences, earthen hills, built houses, flames, water vapor, arrows and spears, flags and armors, occasional waves of true energy, shouts of death, and calls to surrender.

, there were shouts and curses, and there were also voices of preaching.

Of course, there is death and blood, dark soil and the occasional spring sprout.

The battle seems to be getting better.

Faced with all this, Xue Changxiong seemed to have calmed down and no longer had the anxiety of the past few days, but he didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"General!"

At noon, the hottest time of the day, a horse galloped up. It turned out to be Luo Xin, the son of Luo Shu, the second lieutenant general of Youzhou Camp. He came to the gentle slope behind Tushan, rolled his saddle and fell off his horse, hurriedly

Come and report. "My general asked me to report... Pingchang County has been separated, and the connecting camps have been broken."

Xue Changxiong smiled slightly and said: "I have seen it, but how did you win so easily?"

"The thieves gave up on their own initiative." Luo Xin did not take the opportunity to brag. "The camp over there looks very big. In fact, it is almost the same as the corridor connecting this place with Pingchang County. There are not many soldiers. Our cavalry carried the block and pulled out

After taking down the fences and laying trenches, they dispersed... Some entered Pingchang County, and some retreated here.

As he guessed before, Xue Changxiong nodded: "After all, it is a credit.

Luo Xin continued to report: "My general asked me to inform the general... There is obviously a master in Pingchang County. He was exposed when he went out of the city to pick up the fleeing troops. His cultivation level is obviously far superior to him, but he didn't know it was Lu County.

The hero Xu Shiren is still the Wu brothers!"

Xue Changxiong then became serious, but only serious, and then nodded: "It can be considered as expected... Let your father and General Li clean up the corridor, and then follow the corridor to the west to test, and at the

After finding a flanking position to the west, retreat to find me."

Luo Xin turned around and left without taking a sip of water.

Xue Changxiong thought for a moment and simply walked down Shishan with his confidants and bodyguards.

In a four-story house of a camp diagonally opposite the earth mountain on the northeast side, the leader Sun Xunzhi looked up at this scene from a distance, then turned around and got out of the house. When he reached the bottom floor, he jumped directly and landed in a pile of mud.

I almost sprained my foot, and my short cloak was also stained with mud. Fortunately, it was brown and black, so I didn't bother to pay attention to it and just walked back in a hurry.

When he couldn't walk more than two steps, he grabbed one of the lieutenants and gave him a few words to tell him to keep an eye on the front line. He communicated promptly with Chief Wang, who was in charge of the front line, and then continued to walk back.

There was another row of houses at the rear, and someone was carrying a basket of mud out of it. After coming out, he didn't pour it elsewhere, but dumped it directly into a big pit at the rear, where auxiliary soldiers were working hard to pour water and add grass.

Mix the mud, and then send it to the front to build up the soil and strengthen the front line.

Sun Xunzhi took a look and didn't ask about the progress. He just walked back, passed the back door of the first row of camps, and came to the open space of the second row of camps. There was an endless stream of transport teams. There were also a variety of things being transported.

There is water, fuel, wood, wheat straw, cowhide felt, porridge, steamed buns, old rice, ordnance replenishment, and even dry soil. In turn, more is transported from the front line.

There were various types of damaged objects, including wounded soldiers, most of whom were injured by falls and arrows.

After passing this open space, they turned to the third camp. As soon as they entered, they saw the leader Cheng Mingqi taking his troops to rest here. He nodded to indicate from a distance when he saw him.

Sun Xunzhi also nodded, walked straight through, then turned to the west, and came to the general platform in the middle of the chessboard camp.

Compared with the previous few days, this place is obviously much more lively, and many leaders

They were all going back and forth with Sun Xunzhi, and there were more military commanders and messengers. Below Zhang Longtou, several big leaders who were present were also different from the nervousness of the previous few days. They had begun to actively initiate discussions, discuss countermeasures or suggestions, and then

I made a suggestion to Zhang Dalongtou.

When Sun Xunzhi came to the general platform, at a place on the far left, several leaders were obviously reviewing and arguing about the situation at hand.

"Things didn't happen for no reason. At first, they attacked directly, using the panels to set up trenches, ladders, and shields. This was a conventional way of fighting. But they soon discovered that people were not united, and then they attacked with force.

Even if we tried hard, we could break through the stronghold. It turned out that our camps were stacked on top of each other. We were not afraid of losing one or two camps and worried about casualties, so we started to build mountains of earth."

"I still don't understand, why don't you just hand someone a bag of soil, fill the trench, and bulldoze the fence?"

"I've said it all, I'm worried... If we can't afford the soil, we go directly to the fence to pile soil, and all the auxiliary soldiers and civilians are there. If we concentrate our bows and crossbows on the front line and fire intensively, we will definitely suffer heavy losses. They are new here.

It is very likely that one wave of casualties will destroy morale.”

"That's right...

"But now that they have built their earthen hills, we have followed suit and built their houses. Their earthen hills have added to their houses, and we have built our houses... Can we say that his earthen hills are no longer useful?"

"That's the truth. Otherwise, we wouldn't have divided our troops to test Pingchang."

"How can we attack the city if we can't capture the camp?"

"That's not the question. What's the use of attacking the city? He came to defeat us and make us have no foothold in Hebei. But we are here, what's the use of attacking elsewhere? He can only touch us, so,

I said from the beginning that the officers and soldiers will definitely think of new ways to attack us again."

"What's the method? It can't just be the surrender in the past two days, right? Who believes it? Or should we attack the corridor this morning?"

"I don't think any idiot will believe it!"

"If you ask me, the Hebei people are trustworthy at this time. They were all killed in a bloody feud by the opponent. Those Hebei battalions fought bravely, and Dou Lide's family members all fought...

After arriving in Dengzhou, Sun Xuanzhi had very few people to talk to, and he didn't have many friends. At this time, he only saw someone reporting under the banner with the word "Deposed" on a red background, and waited for a while to listen.

After a moment, Zhang Dalong saw him over there and waved to him. He stopped listening and immediately stepped forward.

"Chief Sun, what do you say?" Zhang Xing asked seriously.

"Big Dragon..." Sun Xunzhi looked a little embarrassed. "I just saw something on the battle line. It seems that a general in my camp suddenly crossed the line and surrendered while Xue Changxiong was on a patrol in Tushan.

He was taken away by Xue Changxiong’s henchmen.”

Zhang Xing was stunned for a moment and then calmed down: "What is this? It's going to rain, my mother is getting married, some people are just short-sighted and can't see the situation clearly.

"I'm afraid that the strategy for digging the tunnel will be leaked..." Sun Xuazhi's tone became increasingly difficult. "He is a captain and has some autonomy in the camp."

"Didn't you just move to the first row this morning?" Zhang Xing asked seriously.

"Yes." Sun Xuazhi responded immediately.

"Then does he know the progress of digging the hole?" Zhang Xing continued to ask.

Sun Xunzhi thought for a moment and immediately shook his head: "I don't even know."

Zhang Xing also laughed: "It doesn't matter. Let's send people to remind the front line to be careful. Then we will see the reaction from the other side. If we want to cut off the underground tunnel, there will be some movement... We will abandon this road by then...

Sun Xuanzai nodded and walked away.

As soon as the people left, Zhang Xing became serious and immediately called Xiao Zhou to ask: "After the two days of shouting, how many surrendered to the army? How many surrendered to us?"

Xiao Zhou thought for a moment and immediately gave the answer: "It's hard to say, mainly because it's not clear whether they came by sending leaflets to each other and shouting, or whether they were injured on the front and feared death and took advantage of the situation to surrender... So, yes

It is insignificant, and a few individuals cannot become a trend... However, the truth is that once the front line fails, regardless of whether it is the enemy or ourselves, there are indeed many people who want to surrender to save their lives."

Zhang Xing thought for a while, and could only think of a way to remedy the situation: "If it is a temporary arrangement today, it will be easy to be suspicious. Go and talk to Dou Lide, Hao Yide, and Fan Wang, explain the situation, and ask them to work hard.

, change camps early this evening, mainly tomorrow. Tomorrow, they need to take their respective camp heads to the top of the first row to protect the tunnel."

Moreover, the soldiers and horses of each battalion head were of course broken up and reorganized, but the design that allowed each leader to retain a core of 200 people at the beginning still made many battalion heads full of regional and personal colors. Zhang Xing's move was undoubtedly intended to

It is necessary to take advantage of the hatred of the Hebei rebels towards the Hejian camp to eliminate the possibility of surrendering to the enemy.

"Understood." Xiao Zhou immediately bowed and left.

After a moment, before Zhang Xing could discuss other matters, Dou Lide, who was supposed to be resting in the rear, suddenly came to look for him, but it was not about taking over the night shift.

"Fake surrender?" Zhang Xing was surprised for a moment.

"Yes." Dou Lide reminded seriously. "Longtou, it was hard to say false surrender before. There are two reasons. One is that the bandit army will kill and surrender, and the other is that a large group of people will falsely surrender and be profited... But now the situation is

, why not send some smart people to surrender, either individually or in twos and threes, so that not only can you find out the truth about the other side, but you can also try to pass on some false news... to make the other side think it is true."

It's doable!" Zhang Xing nodded immediately. "You can arrange this yourself. You only need to meet with me once every night."

Dou Lide also hurriedly saluted and left.

So far, today's war has become more and more frequent and anxious, but in terms of mentality and feelings, there is nothing particularly surprising.

There is no war on the front line.

However, in the second half of the afternoon, when the soldiers on both sides were getting tired, and the morning's show of force gradually turned into perfunctory, and both sides were obviously in a state of withdrawal, there was a sudden movement on the official and military fronts.

"What's going on?" Without the frontline troops reporting back, Zhang Xing had already noticed the drumbeats and flag movements on the opposite side, and then asked in surprise. "Is Xue Changxiong releasing his true energy? What is he going to do?!"

Xiong Bonan did not hesitate to jump up from the rammed earth platform, and still rushed to reply before the front line reported back: "Xue Changxiong seems to have gathered high-level practitioners of the army on the mountain in the middle, and seems to be preparing to form a formation to attack.

!"mouth

Zhang Xing immediately made the worst guess: "Did someone really see someone digging a hole in the ground, thinking that there was a rare treasure to live in, and threw it to the other side?"

From Xiong Bonan down, the surrounding leaders became a little anxious.

"Quickly send someone to ask for leader Xu Shiren and ask him to come as soon as possible." Zhang Xing immediately ordered. "Recall all the leaders in the army except the six most direct leaders, and ask Wang Xiongdan to deploy in the second row of camps in front.

Formation, prepare to receive a large formation to meet the enemy! Ask Wang Wulang to stay still for the time being, and wait for us to pass before entering the formation!"

The people around them rushed away and prepared their own preparations.
To be continued...