Although Yuchi Gong is tall and majestic, his sensitivity is not weak at all. When he lowered his head, his mace swept across the top of his head...

Yuchi Gong was angry and actually attacked him from behind. He beat him with one stick. The stick was full of power. With a loud "dang!", the iron stick and the mace collided, and the fire was splashing everywhere. Zheng Ting, the chief general of the thief army attacking behind, was shocked and took a few steps back.

Zheng Ting felt sweetness in his throat and spurted out a mouthful of blood. He was shocked and turned his head and fled. Yuchi Gong did not chase him and rushed to the dense enemy troops on the other side.

At this time, the horse's hooves outside the city gate were thunderous. The captain Yang Xu led 250 cavalrymen to rush across the suspension bridge like a long dragon and entered the county town.

The city gate had been lost, and the fifty cavalry led by Yuchi Gong had firmly controlled the city gate. The more than a thousand soldiers guarding the East City Gate saw that the situation was hopeless, and fled in all directions.

Immediately afterwards, thousands of Sui soldiers led their troops to fight, led by the commander Zhang Xuan. More than 10,000 thieves stationed in Gaoli County did not dare to resist, and retreated to the floating bridge on the Jiaoshui, and were defeated for a moment.

Seeing that the situation was critical, Zheng Ting immediately ordered the bridge to burn in order to prevent the Sui army from crossing the river. In a moment, thick smoke was rolling on the water surface, and the floating bridge broke from the middle. The soldiers on the bridge were too late to rush and fell into the water. Thousands of soldiers who had no time to cross the bridge cried on the west bank and cried on the sky.

At this time, thousands of Sui troops came to kill him. The soldiers on the west bank had no way to escape and knelt down and surrendered. Zheng Ting sighed and turned his horse to run towards Jiaoxi County.

.........

The thief Meng Rang was in Jiaoxi County at this time. He had a big house in the county town and had more than a dozen wives and concubines. He was having lunch at this time, but he heard the alarm bells outside. He was shocked and quickly threw down his chopsticks and walked into the yard.

At this time, a personal soldier ran to report: "Your Majesty, the Sui army has captured Gaomi County!"

"Ah!" Meng Rang was stunned.

After a while, Meng Rang reacted. He roared and ran towards the top of the city, "Where is Zheng Ting! Let Zheng Ting come to see me!"

Meng Rang was furious and Gaomi County was lost, which means that his peripheral barrier was broken. If Zhang Xutuo attacked in large quantities, Jiaoxi County would not be able to defend at all.

Gaomi County and Jiaoxi County are less than five miles apart. Standing on the top of the city, you can clearly see Gaomi County on the other side of the river. The flag on the city tower has been replaced by the Sui Army's regiment dragon battle flag. Flying in the cold wind, Meng Rang only felt that the waves of blackness in front of him were. How should he resist Zhang Xutuo's strong army?

At this time, Zheng Ting walked over quickly and knelt down on one knee to apologize, "I am not good at first fighting, I am willing to be punished by the emperor!"

Meng Rang snorted heavily, "I threw away Gaomi County silently. Is this what I want to see?"

Zheng Ting said in great shame: "Bizhi has strengthened his vigilance as the emperor's request, and the city gate is only open for one hour a day. But the other party came with cavalry, and suddenly started to fight, which caught the city guarding army off guard, and Baizhi was unfortunately injured."

He coughed repeatedly, and a trace of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. Meng Rang himself was not good at martial arts, so there were not many powerful players who could rely on him. Zheng Ting was one of them. More importantly, he was loyal to him. If he killed him, he would greatly weaken his strength, and Meng Rang had to think twice.

"Have the army retreated?" Meng Rang asked glared at him again.

"Your Majesty, 60% of the troops have been withdrawn, and there is no time for the troops behind you. You have to burn the floating bridge, otherwise the enemy will follow the floating bridge to the east coast, and the consequences will be even more serious."

Meng Rang stared at him for a while, waved his hand, "Take him down to heal his wounds, and then deal with him later!"

Zheng Ting knew that the king had actually spared him. He knelt down and kowtowed three times, followed the soldiers. Meng Rang turned around and looked at Gaomi County on the other side, and was extremely worried. Although his troops were at the upper hand, he was twice as powerful as the Sui army.

But the equipment and combat effectiveness are far behind. The army he can fight is only more than 10,000, and the rest of the army is a mob. So how should he overcome this difficulty?

The next morning, Zhang Xutuo led 12,000 main troops to Gaomi County. Although Zhang Xuan used counter-espionage to prompt Zuo Xiaoyou of Donglai County to not save Meng Rang, Zhang Xutuo was cautious and could not pull all his troops to Gaomi County. He left 8,000 troops to station Qi County, and himself led a large army to Gaomi County.

At the city gate, Zhang Xuan led his subordinates to welcome Zhang Xutuo's arrival, "I'm not here to see the general!" Zhang Xuan stepped forward and knelt down on one knee, and more than a dozen lieutenants behind him knelt down together.

Zhang Xutuo quickly dismounted and helped Zhang Xuan up, "General, don't be too polite, please stand up, all the generals!"

"Thank you, the general, for your humble position, you have fulfilled your mission and won Gaomi County."

"This battle was very good!"

Zhang Xutuo smiled at everyone with approval and said, "I defeated 10,000 enemy troops at the cost of less than 100 casualties and captured the county town. It can be said to be a thunderous attack. General Zhang is worthy of being a meritorious general in the Battle of Goguryeo. I have learned it."

"The Grand Marshal has been awarded too much, and he won by chance and dare not take on this reputation."

Zhang Xuan said modestly, then pulled Yuchi Gong up, and introduced to Zhang Xutuo with a smile: "This is the hero who conquered Gaomi County, General Yuchi."

Yuchi Gong quickly bowed and bowed, "See the Grand Marshal!"

Zhang Xutuo had seen the martial arts competition between Yuchi Gong and Pei Xingyan. He knew that he was extremely brave. He also saw that he was majestic and half a head taller than himself, like a god, and couldn't help but praise him: "I am worthy of being a giant spirit god. Although Yuan Qing's martial arts skills are high, he is not as strong as you. You are the number one strong general of my Flying Eagle Army!"

"Thank you, the general, for your praise, Yuchi Gong is ashamed of you!"

"You can afford it!"

Zhang Xutuo laughed and rode his horse towards the city surrounded by the generals. When Zhang Xuan saw Pei Xingyan curling his lips, he looked dissatisfied. He knew that Zhang Xutuo's words just now hit Pei Xingyan, so he smiled and patted Pei Xingyan on the shoulder, "Please perform well next time, let the general look at him with admiration."

Zhang Xuan also urged his horse to follow Zhang Xutuo, and everyone entered Gaomi County.

......

Gaomi County is a small county with a city circumference of only ten miles, but the city wall is tall and strong, and there is also a wide moat that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is precisely because of this that Meng Rang regards it as an outer line of defense against the Sui army and stations 10,000 troops around. Once the Sui army comes, they will quickly enter the city, close the city gate and fight fiercely with the enemy.

Unexpectedly, the Sui army used a surprise attack to attack the county town, causing Meng Rang's carefully deployed peripheral defense to be easily destroyed. Not only that, a large amount of food and supplies also fell into the hands of the Sui army.

Zhang Xutuo was in a particularly good mood. He knew that there were five thousand stones of grain stored in Gaomi County. If he could seize these five thousand stones, he would save him from the trouble of transporting food from Qi County. Zhang Xuan did not disappoint him. Not only did he easily seize Gaomi County, but he also seized five thousand stones of grain before the enemy burned the food, making all his ideas come true.

"Why are there so many women over there?"

Zhang Xutuo saw dozens of young women in ragged clothes standing at the entrance of a courtyard. He pointed with a horse whip and asked strangely: "Are there no other people in the county?"

"Reporting to the Grand Marshal, the population of Gaomi County has been moved to Jiaoxi County on the other side. The low-level position has been counted. The population in the county is only more than 300, and they are all young women who cook and wash clothes for the thief army."

Zhang Xutuo's face suddenly became gloomy. He knew that Meng Rang used the real purpose of these women. He couldn't help but sigh softly, "They are all suffering sisters who have been ravaged. They are not allowed to abuse them anymore. After the war, they are released and let them go back to reunite with their families."

"Abide by the orders!"

Zhang Xutuo was in a bad mood. He climbed directly to the east city wall, walked slowly to the top of the city, and looked at Jiaoxi County on the other side from afar. In contrast, Jiaoxi County is much larger, and the city wall is also tall and sturdy. There are large areas of endless hills all around, and this is Meng Rang's nest.

After staring for a long time, Zhang Xutuo turned around and smiled at Zhang Xuan and said, "The art of war is that only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you win every battle. How much do you know about Meng Rang?"

"Biyi knows nothing about him!"

"You are frank!"

Zhang Xutuo smiled and said, "I have been dealing with this person for a long time. Two years ago, he and Wang Bo rebelled in Changbai Mountain, gathering more than 100,000 people. Wang Bo is the chief and he is the deputy. It is said that both of them are from the Bohai Society. Bohai will be afraid that they will become kings, so they asked them to supervise each other. As a result, they turned against each other. I led the army to attack Changbai Mountain last spring, and he betrayed Wang Bo and led tens of thousands of people to retreat to Gaomi County. From this incident, we can see that this person is not a person who fights to the death and will definitely leave a way out for himself."

Zhang Xuan pondered for a moment and asked, "Did the retreat route mentioned by the Grand Marshal mean that Meng Rang would withdraw from Langya County and defect to Sun Xuanya?"

"Apart from that, he has no other way out." Zhang Xutuo said slowly.

"Did the general want to send troops to intercept him on the way he must pass?"

Zhang Xutuo shook his head, "We don't have many troops, but the opponent still has nearly 50,000 troops. Before completely defeating the opponent, we don't want to divide the troops. I just said that if a person has the will to retreat, he will not fight to the death with the enemy."

"I understand, but I still want to know when the Grand Marshal plans to cross the river?"

Zhang Xutuo stared at the river for a moment and said lightly: "I plan to start building a floating bridge this afternoon, but I plan to launch another surprise weapon."

Speaking of this, Zhang Xutuo glanced at Zhang Xuan, and Zhang Xuan nodded and smiled, "I understand the commander's meaning."

Jiaoshui is a major river on the Shandong Peninsula. It originates from the hilly and mountainous areas in the southern part of the peninsula. It winds northward and finally injects into the Bohai Sea.

Gaomi County is located in the upper reaches of the glue. This section of the river is not wide, only a few dozen feet long, and is at least half narrower than the downstream. However, the water flow is very fast, and it is very difficult to cross the river. After Zheng Ting ordered the burning of the floating bridge, it would not be so easy for the Sui army to cross the glue again.

However, Zhang Xutuo also considered this, so he chose to attack Meng Rang in winter. After winter, the glue flow decreased day by day, and it was no longer as fast as in summer. If a boat could be found, he could successfully build a floating bridge to cross the glue.

Just as Zhang Xutuo's army arrived in Gaomi County, Meng Rang deployed nearly 20,000 troops on the other side of Gaomi County, closely monitoring the Sui army on the other side, and taking it seriously to defend against the Sui army crossing the glue. This turbulent river became Meng Rang's second defense line.
Chapter completed!