A map was hung on the wall. Muzhou City, Lanxi, and Wuzhou City were specially circled.
Li Xuan stood in front of the central hall, looking at the map on the wall with a thoughtful expression.
A straight line goes straight from Muzhou to Meiling Pass, then diagonally enters Lanxi from Meiling Pass, and finally approaches Wuzhou City.
It was like a sharp dagger going straight into Li Xuan's jaw.
Extremely dangerous.
Li Xuan's right index finger pressed on Meiling Pass, but his eyes had already penetrated directly from Meiling Pass to the wider mountains behind.
His eyes were sharp and deep, like a sword.
No one knew what he was thinking about.
At this moment, a burst of footsteps came from outside.
Li Zhu's voice sounded behind Li Xuan: "Reporting to the prince, Feng Shenjun has personally brought the first batch of catapults over. They are now being assembled outside Meiling Pass. Lieutenant Yan has led a group of cavalry to guard."
"Well!" Li Xuan's eyes were still on the map. He waved his hand back casually and said, "Send an order to Qi Guang to lead his soldiers to prepare for the attack at Meiling Pass now. "
"Follow the order!" After hearing this, Li Zhu immediately turned around and left.
Li Xuan raised his head slightly and pointed directly at the location of Muzhou City on the map.
Meiling Pass is not difficult to win, but the real difficulty lies in the follow-up.
The Tianyin Sect will definitely not sit back and watch Li Xuan take Meiling Pass, so reinforcements will arrive soon.
The question now is, after the Tianyin Sect's follow-up reinforcements arrive, how can we kill them as much as possible while preserving our own strength.
This is what Li Xuan needs to think about now.
His eyes moved to the northeast of Muzhou.
The Wujiang River rises from the northeast of Muzhou, enters Tonglu, and then passes through Fuchun and enters Hangzhou.
"If the Hangzhou Prefecture's troops cannot arrive in time, the pressure on guarding Meiling Pass will definitely be greater. If you want to rely on yourself to defend the arrival of reinforcements, you must ensure that the casualties of the soldiers are not too large during this period." Li Xuan said slightly. Narrowed his eyes.
This is actually a question of operational continuity.
Li Xuan has always paid attention to the casualties of his soldiers, whether they are the children of the central officials in the Qianniu Guard, or the children of the aristocratic families in the counties of Wuzhou in the Kuaiji Mansion, or even the hunters who come from the mountains and fields, Li Xuan Xuan didn't want to see them suffer too many casualties.
The strength of the Tianyin Sect's troops attacking Meiling Pass will be at least ten thousand.
Ten thousand people, but Li Xuan doesn't even have a thousand people under his command now.
Even if he takes Meiling Pass, it will be difficult to defend it later.
Even if the opponent recklessly uses the human sea tactic, once they suffer too many casualties, they will immediately face a dead end.
It is necessary to maintain his own troops at a certain number. Li Xuan lowered his head and thought about various countermeasures.
…
There are not enough troops!
Li Xuan sighed, and at this moment, a burst of unfamiliar footsteps sounded behind him.
Li Xuan turned around and saw a white-haired old man standing at the door with a shy seventeen-year-old boy.
"Old Zhuge Yun has met the prince Qianqiu."
"Student Zhuge Minghui has met the prince Qianqiu."
An old man and a young man saluted respectfully, without any mistakes in etiquette.
"It turns out to be Mr. Zhuge, and this little brother Zhuge, please sit down quickly." Li Xuan walked to the bed beside him, folded the map on it a little, and then asked Zhuge Yun to sit down on top, and he sat down In the next chapter.
"Your Majesty, you're welcome. I'm here to ask your Majesty. I don't know if there is anything else your Majesty needs here. The Zhuge family is willing to do their best to help." Zhuge Yun bowed his hands very seriously.
"If we say we are lacking, let me be honest with you, sir. I am short of a lot of things, including troops, food, grass, and ordnance. I am short of everything, but naturally I will not open my mouth to the old gentleman." After a moment's pause, Li Xuan's face became serious, and what he was going to say next was business.
"Old sir, I know that the Zhuge family, in addition to heirlooms of poems and books, also has considerable research on the art of mechanism. I wonder if some craftsmen from the Zhuge family can be transferred to my command to help build some catapults. Are crossbows, transport vehicles and other equipment okay?" Li Xuan looked at Zhuge Yun seriously.
"It's just making mechanical equipment." Zhuge Yunchang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will give my full assistance."
"Thank you very much, old gentleman." Li Xuan returned the greeting with her hand, and then asked with some confusion: "Why, from what the old gentleman said, are you worried that someone will come to the Zhuge family to recruit soldiers? Have people from the Tianyin Sect done this?"
"To be honest with you, the prince, it's true." Zhuge Yun showed a wry smile on his face. He raised his head and looked in the direction of Meiling Pass: "Just ten days ago, a person in Meiling Pass who was said to be Zuo Xiaowei, When he came to the town, he said that he wanted to recruit soldiers, but the old man could only agree temporarily. After he left, he took the whole town's clan members to the Bagua Village at the foot of the mountain in the south."
"Bagua Village." Li Xuan's face became solemn, and she looked at Zhuge Yun and asked, "But the Wuhou Bagua Formation passed down by Prime Minister Zhuge back then?"
"There is no Bagua Array, it's just a pile of stones. If your prince is interested, you can go and have a look." Zhuge Yun didn't care at all that his family's secrets were leaked.
"When Sima Yi encountered Wuhou's Bagua formation, thousands of his soldiers were trapped in the formation and could not advance or retreat. In the end, they were all captured and held in front of the formation. Finally, they returned with ink on their faces. Sima Yi's 30,000 troops fought hard and could not advance even an inch. , retreated in defeat, the power of the Bagua array can be seen to be average, how can it be said to be a pile of stones."
Li Xuan shook his head and said with a smile: "Only people from the Zhuge family can say such things. Others say it is just a joke. Old sir, don't worry, I will not call people from the Zhuge family to join the army. , I will not seek the secrets of the Bagua Array, I only seek craftsmen, and having enough craftsmen is enough."
"Your Majesty is truly a sincere gentleman. Whatever your Majesty asked for, I will get it done right away." He raised his head and Zhuge Yun was about to leave when he saw his grandson Zhuge Minghui. He slapped his forehead fiercely, suddenly came over and said, "Almost Forgot, Your Majesty, Minghui is a smart man, please feel free to use him if necessary during your stay in Zhuge Town."
"Then Xiao Wang is so shameless." Li Xuan stood up and bowed deeply to Zhuge Yun.
"Your Majesty, you're welcome." Zhuge Yun returned the courtesy and said, "I'll go first, Your Majesty, please do me a favor."
Watching Zhuge Yun leave, Li Xuan looked at Zhuge Minghui seriously: "Brother Minghui, I won't be polite to you. Now I want to write several official documents to the governor. I will dictate that you will write it. .”
"Here!" Zhuge Minghui quickly walked to the table beside him, then brushed off the hem and started writing seriously.
"Don't drive Li in Wuzhou. I would like to report to the king that your subordinates have arrived at Meiling Pass..."
Li Xuan dictated very quickly, and Zhuge Minghui wrote equally well.
In addition to explaining the current situation and her plans, Li Xuan also asked for things in her letter.
Soldiers, war horses, crossbows, ordnance, craftsmen, doctors, medicinal materials, etc. Li Xuan asked for a large amount and made it clear that he would stick to this place for a long time.
At the same time, he also clearly reminded Wang Fanglin that he should be prepared for the inability of Hangzhou and Yuezhou to source in time, and at the same time contact Quzhou and Kuozhou as soon as possible to win their support.
After all, once Wuzhou becomes a war zone, Kuozhou and Quzhou will also be affected.
Li Xuan's eyes fell on Zhuge Minghui.
Having said that, just because he couldn't use something as advanced as the Zhuge Bagua Formation, it didn't mean that he couldn't use other formations.
…
Ye Wanwan stood on the city wall, looking coldly at the Wuzhou soldiers arranging formations below the city.
The vertical shields were in front, the archers were behind, and the sword shield bearers and long-sword soldiers were at the end. They lined up neatly, a total of two hundred people.
There were not many people, but behind them, there were two teams of cavalry watching faintly in the distance.
It rushes forward from time to time, but stops quickly.
It seemed like he was testing something.
The Wuzhou soldiers did not attack immediately, but stood firmly in place, as if waiting for something.
An inexplicable heavy pressure pressed directly on Ye Wanwan's heart.
Her gaze passed over the Wuzhou soldiers who were forming a formation, and landed directly a hundred meters behind them.
The catapults were quickly combined, and it was obvious that these would form a total of five catapults, which would then launch an attack.
Farther away, farmers from Lanxi were pushing stone carts hard to carry stones the size of wooden basins to the foot of Meiling Pass.
The stones for the catapult need to be carefully selected, not just any random stone can be used as a catapult.
It is best to choose some stones of suitable size and round shape.
Then after such a stone falls to the ground, it can continue to roll, injuring and killing people to the greatest extent possible.
Just like these now.
Looking at it from a distance makes people shudder.
"Saint." He Qing'er's voice sounded behind Ye Wanwan.
Ye Wanwan quickly turned around, looked at He Qing'er, and asked, "How is it? Did we find a catapult here?"
"No, Saint, I have asked the prisoners in the prison." He Qing'er paused for a moment and said: "At the beginning, Meiling Pass did not expect to be attacked by our sect, so the crossbows, long arrows and other items were They are not all available, but there are some now, which I later transported from Lanxi County, but they cannot last long... As for the catapults, Hall Master Zuo never thought that there would be catapults on the opposite side."
After Wang Fanglin was assassinated two months ago, the Tianyin Sect stepped up its penetration into Meiling Pass.
Although since the assassination of Wang Fanglin, Meiling Pass has stepped up its vigilance and sent an official request for supplies to Wuzhou, they never expected that the Tianyin Sect had already been lurking under their noses.
Before the reply from Wuzhou was sent, Li Xuan had already arrived in Wuzhou.
But at that time, Meiling Pass was still under the control of the imperial court.
Of course, it was only in name, and Li Xuan had already seen through this.
There were catapults in Lanxi, and no one thought about transporting them from Lanxi to Meiling Pass, but they didn't expect that Li Xuan came so quickly.
When they saw that the focus of the Wuzhou soldiers was on the catapult, these people immediately realized their mistake, but it was too late.
"It seems that we can only fight with crossbows and catapults." Ye Wanwan looked at He Qing'er helplessly and said with a wry smile: "Fortunately, our Zuo Hall Master has never thought of going out of the city to attack. , trying to attack the catapult on the opposite side while the opponent's foothold is not stable, otherwise, Meiling Pass will have fallen."
"The Saint seems to be particularly wary of the King of Nanchang." He Qing'er paused for a moment, and then asked in a low voice: "Saint, I heard that the Saint once assassinated the King of Nanchang. I wonder if I can tell Qing'er what happened?"
He Qing'er looked straight at Ye Wanwan. Ye Wanwan frowned slightly, a hint of shame flashed deep in her eyes, but then she asked: "What, are you planning to assassinate the King of Nanchang too?"
"To be honest with the saint, Qing'er feels that if we really follow this method, we may never be able to kill him." He Qing'er subconsciously turned slightly sideways, looked in the direction of Muzhou, and said softly: "Even if it's Muzhou reinforcements have arrived. King Nanchang can still escape as long as he mounts his horse. It will be difficult for us to catch up with him, so if we want to kill him, now is actually the best opportunity. While his men are all here..."
"How do you know he's not here?" Ye Wanwan asked suddenly.
He Qing'er was a little stunned and didn't know what to say for a while.
"Although you can't see him now, how do you know that this is not his plan to lure the snake out of the hole... He is far more sinister and vicious than we can imagine. Qing'er, if you don't do everything right, Be prepared, it's best not to move easily..." Before Ye Wanwan could finish her words, a huge roar suddenly came from behind her.
An extremely violent vibration came immediately.
Ye Wanwan quickly turned around and saw a stone ball the size of a wooden basin hit the ground in front of the pass from a distance, and then quickly hit the city wall.
(End of chapter)
