The grass mixed with the aroma of soil blows from the land in the north of Cangzhou City.

Outside Cangzhou City, golden sunshine shines on the endless grassland, a small path leads to the distance, and occasionally a collapsed thatched house on the side of the road tells the past here.

"After the barbarians captured Youzhou, they burned the houses and forests and captured the people. A prosperous place was overgrown with weeds for ten years and became a grazing place for Huyantuobuluo."

On the city wall, the cow ran to look at the endless grassland, and the words were filled with desolation.

Ten years ago, he stood on this city wall and witnessed the barbarian cavalry galloping here. The flames lasted for months, burning the sky as red as blood.

Zhan Xingchang was also on the city wall. After more than two months of busyness, others lost weight. However, with tens of thousands of slaves day and night, a majestic city wall appeared.

"It's a pity that King Yong guarded Youzhou and was once the most powerful vassal king. Unexpectedly, he could not resist the barbarians." Zhan Xingchang said.

Xiao Ming looked at the fertile soil outside the city and set off from Cangzhou City to Youzhou, which was a total of more than 400 miles, and this Youzhou was the location of the Forbidden City of the Modern Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty, which claimed that the emperor guarded the country's gates and the king died in the country, disappeared from history like dust after losing Shanhaiguan. King Yong also lost the entire fiefdom by the barbarians after Shanhaiguan was broken.

If Niu Ben had not defended Cangzhou City at that time and the Western Regions encountered the Ottoman Empire, the barbarians would have definitely not given up on their plan to continue to move south.

In this way, the Ottoman Empire inadvertently delayed the demise of the Great Chongqing Kingdom.

"Don't increase others' ambition and destroy your own prestige."

Xiao Ming said lightly that the Great Yu Kingdom was barbaric and the morale most needed at this time was morale. Now Xiao Ming has no way to retreat. If he doesn't defend Cangzhou, he will not be far from death.

Zhan Xingchang woke up and fell into the same compassion as many scholars in the Great Chongqing Kingdom.

Niu Ben nodded, "The barbarians have nothing to fear. They are also flesh and blood. There is nothing to fear. The only thing they need to worry about is that the soldiers are cowardly before they fight."

Zhan Xingchang looked awkward and said, "Let Your Highness and the General laugh."

Xiao Ming patted his shoulder and said, "But your words are not completely wrong. You must pay attention to the enemy tactical and despise the enemy strategically."

"Hahaha... Your Highness's words are classic, and they can be written into the art of war." Niu Ben was stunned and suddenly said.

Zhan Xingchang fell into thinking when he heard this.

Xiao Ming smiled and said, "This sentence is not what I said, but a great man, but this sentence is in line with the current situation with the barbarians."

The three of them said while patrolling the city wall, which was five hundred meters wide on the grassland.

Now Xiao Ming has transferred most of the troops in the fief to Cangzhou City, with a total of 50,000 people as expected.

Except for the Qingzhou Army that was equipped with new plate armor and weapons, the other new army had poor equipment and could only serve as backup.

After patrolling the Cangzhou city walls, Zhan Xingchang basically realized the original idea.

Now there is a gun tower every ten meters above the city tower, and a prominent battlement every fifty meters.

These battlements are perpendicular to the walls, so that soldiers can have more defensive positions.

At this time, the battlements had been arranged in bed crossbows and catapults, and the crossbowman was already in place and could fight at any time.

At this time, there were rolling wood, stones, caltrops, long forks and other cities on the walls outside the battlements, and the long forks were used to push the ladder away.

And the others are all for throwing them away.

Along the inner side of the city wall are hanging baskets leading into the city. Under the hanging basket are more guarding supplies. If the wood on the top is used up and the stones are used up, the ones on the top will be lifted up by the auxiliary soldiers.

At the same time, every twenty meters under the city wall is a large iron pot, which is filled with oil, and is also intended to deal with the climbing barbarian soldiers.

There is a different scene under the wall outside the city.

A three-meter-deep and three-meter-wide trench was dug along the city wall, and raised sharpened bamboo pieces were buried in the trench.

In this era, barbarian soldiers were wearing only leather boots, and their soft bottom could not resist such sharp bamboo pieces.

On the outside of the trench are dense half-man-high pillars. These pillars are buried below, in order to prevent the barbarians from charging on a large scale, so that barbarian soldiers can be piled up together and become targets of artillery.

"Your Highness, there are still many traps on the outside. These traps are covered with turf and are not easy to detect."

This time, the defense strategies of the city wall were formulated by Zhan Xingchang, trenches, stone pillars, etc.

Niu Ben said to Xiao Ming: "This young man is good and sinister enough. Now the barbarians are coming, but they have suffered a lot."

Zhan Xingchang said depressedly: "Governor, are you praising me or hurting me?"

"Of course I'm praising you." Niu Ben laughed. He, like Pang Yukun, was also a talent-loving person.

In his opinion, Zhan Xingchang is much better than many powerful children.

Xiao Ming was also very satisfied with Zhan Xingchang's arrangement, because among the stone pillars, Zhan Xingchang also used hemp rope to trap the rattan soaked with tung oil on the stone pillars.

These rattans are very strong after soaking in tung oil, and it will take some time to cut the sword.

During this period, the crossbowmen on the city wall were able to shoot with all their might.

"It's done well." Xiao Ming said with satisfaction.

Generally speaking, siege is difficult, and it is difficult to win if it is five times the strength of the city.

The more obstacles are set up during the siege, the greater the losses the siege party will suffer.

After wandering around the city wall, Xiao Ming remembered that he had not seen Lu Fei and Luo Xin. He asked, "Where is the old general, where is Lu Fei and Luo Xin?"

When talking about this Niu Ben, he smiled bitterly.

He said: "Since you received your highness's telescope, these two men have not been idle, but have taken soldiers out to inquire every day. With this telescope, each time they can discover the barbarian scouts in advance, which makes them unstoppable."

Xiao Ming shook his head helplessly. When he went out with a telescope, he was like bullying myopia without myopia. No wonder the two couldn't stop.

As the two were talking, Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrived, and a pair of cavalry appeared in the distance. The two in front were Lu Fei and Luo Xin.

When they got closer, the two of them also saw Xiao Ming.

When they entered the city, the two of them immediately climbed up to the city wall. Lu Fei panted: "Your Highness, Huyantuo's troops have accelerated their march and are expected to arrive at the city at noon tomorrow."

"This time, the entire Huyantuo tribe migrated to Cangzhou City, which means it is going to be stationed here. It seems that the barbarian army is behind. They are providing food for cattle, sheep and other food for the subsequent army."

Niu Ben asked, "What about the number of troops?"

"There are only 20,000 cavalrymen in Huyantuo's tribe, and countless slaves." Luo Xin looked solemn.
Chapter completed!