At three quarters of the hour, three miles south of Lanzhou City.
As the dull drum beat sounded outside the city, the soldiers who were originally sitting on the city wall climbed up one by one like a conditioned reflex, turned around and looked outside the city.
"Hey, Barbarian is clearly beating the drum, why are you still standing there?"
"Hey, I guess those barbarian soldiers have been beaten to death by us these days. Now they have become soft-footed sheep and can't move."
"Haha, what Brother Wang said is absolutely true."
"..."
As soon as this point of view came out, the originally tense atmosphere on the city wall suddenly became much more relaxed.
But as time passed, the drumming outside the city gradually stopped, and the enemy's formation underwent new changes.
"Look, why did the barbarian's military formation suddenly split open? Could it be that they came out to call for formation?"
"No, it's not called a formation. Looking at the clothes of those people, they seem to be people of our Tang Dynasty."
"Damn these beasts!"
"Someone is going to kill them."
As more and more people were driven outside the city to the enemy's formation, the defenders on the city became more and more angry, with their eyes split open and their teeth gnashing.
Outside Lanzhou City, Tuoba Hong, who was wearing silver armor and riding a tall horse, looked at the old, weak, women and children in ragged clothes beside him, and showed a cold smile.
About a quarter of an hour later, a muscular man wearing leather armor ran up to Tuoba Hong's horse with an excited expression and knelt down on one knee.
"Khan, according to your instructions, my subordinates have sent all the first batch of Tang people here."
Tuoba Hong nodded slightly and said:
"Well done, let's start calling the formation."
The big man in leather armor cupped his hands and said:
"Yes, Khan."
After saying that, the leather-armored man stood up and shouted towards the city head:
"Tang Jun in Lanzhou City, open your eyes and take a good look at these Tang people around me."
"They are all common people in Lanzhou who don't have enough food to eat or clothing to keep warm."
"My Khan was kind and could not bear to see them suffer, so he brought them here."
After hearing these words, the Tang troops at the top of Lanzhou City all yelled at the barbarians below the city.
Some generals with hot tempers even knelt down in front of Cheng Yaojin and asked to leave the city to meet the enemy.
Cheng Yaojin's face looked as ugly as possible.
He had been fighting for the first half of his life, and he had never seen any big storms. Not to mention that the enemy only expelled a few hundred people, even if there were thousands of people, he would not open the city gate at this juncture.
Cheng Yaojin slowly opened his eyes, exhaled a breath of turbid air, and said:
"Shut up, everyone."
"Captain Cheng, go and ask them what they want to do?"
"Here."
Cheng Chumo, who was wearing bright light armor and a silver helmet, quickly came to the battlements and shouted down:
"Thieves, you come here to attack the city if you have the guts. How can you threaten us with innocent people?"
The leather-armored man grinned and shouted to Cheng Chumo on the arrow tower:
"Ignorant child, dare to speak evil words, and your Tang Dynasty can still be called a country of etiquette."
Cheng Chumo's face turned red when he heard this.
The lieutenant general, Su Lie, patted Cheng Chumo on the shoulder and shouted to the city:
"Stop talking nonsense and tell me, what do you want to do?"
The big man in leather armor shook his head and shouted triumphantly:
"Isn't your Tang army known as the army of benevolence and righteousness?"
"My Khan is kind and unwilling to massacre the people. At the same time, he is very willing to give you Tang Army a chance to prove himself."
"As long as you send five hundred light cavalry to compete with my party's five hundred light cavalry outside the city, we will decide who is the best cavalry in the world."
"My Khan can guarantee that regardless of victory or defeat, he will return these more than 500 Tang people to you intact."
"Now I'll give you two quarters of an hour to think about it. If you still don't agree after this time, then don't blame us for being ruthless."
After the leather-armored man finished speaking, he turned around and said to the trembling old and weak women and children not far away:
"Now your life and death are all in the hands of the Tang Army. You guess what they will decide. If you are right, I can spare your life, ha, ha, ha."
In Lanzhou City, Cheng Yaojin's face was as black as the bottom of a pot.
He took a look and Niu Jinda beside him asked:
"What do you think, old man?"
Niu Jinda glanced at the generals who were kneeling at their feet, sighed, and analyzed:
"There are many people watching on top of the city now. If we don't fight, I'm afraid not only will the people feel resentful, but it will also chill the hearts of all the soldiers."
"At the same time, it will also greatly weaken the momentum of our soldiers."
"In addition, those innocent people will definitely be massacred. If this matter is spread by the enemy, I am afraid it will damage the country's prestige."
"But if we fight head-on, there will be other effects."
"First, soldiers never tire of deceit. It is very likely that the enemy will take advantage of our opportunity to send troops and attack the city in a large scale. By then, those people will still die."
"Two, even if the enemy does not attack the city, as long as we fight, no matter we win or lose, the enemy will probably use this method to weaken our army bit by bit."
"And what's even more vicious is that the enemy's flag is that for the sake of the court's face, we can only send our elite to fight, and we have to be prepared for them to be besieged."
"If things continue like this, without the enemy attacking, Lanzhou City will probably collapse on its own."
Cheng Yaojin nodded slightly.
He had actually figured out what Niu Jinda said. It's just that there are some things that, as a coach, it is not convenient for him to say directly.
Only then did he use Niu Jinda's mouth to explain his interests to the soldiers.
After a while, Cheng Yaojin cast his gaze on the soldiers kneeling in front of him and said in a serious tone:
"I am here to ask you now, who is willing to die in exchange for the people of the Tang Dynasty and to promote the great name of the Iron Cavalry of the Tang Dynasty?"
"Let those uncivilized barbarians know that their cavalry is like shit in front of my Tang cavalry. Let them tremble whenever they hear the sound of my Tang cavalry's cavalry!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Su Lie and Su Dingfang opened their blood-red eyes and shouted:
"General, I'm willing to go! Please grant me permission from the Chief Manager."
Upon hearing this, the other generals cupped their hands and said:
"General, I'm willing to go! Please grant me permission from the Chief Manager."
...
