The sky gradually became brighter, and the white smoke on the mountainside had completely stopped. Only a pile of burnt and scorched branches were left soaked in the water. The confrontation in the mountain city continued. The Sui army did not approach the Central City, and the Goguryeo soldiers were aimlessly standing at the top of the city, looking at the every move of the Sui soldiers below.

At this time, the Lord Hu'er walked up to the outer city surrounded by a large group of soldiers. General Zhou Meng and Qi Liang came up to greet each other. They were impressed by Lai Hu'er's poisonous smoke plan. The ginger was still so old that it was so hard that the solid outer city was easily cracked.

Lai Huer asked, "How many brothers are injured or killed?"

"The old general, injured thirty-three people and seventeen people were killed, all of which were attacked on the steps of the city."

Lai Hu'er glanced at the midtown above and asked, "Why do you want to attack the city?"

Qi Liang hurriedly said, "Whitei saw that there were no soldiers on the top of the city, he suspected that the other party had even given up on Zhongcheng, so he asked some brothers to try to attack the city gate. Unexpectedly, they were ambushed behind the city wall and we were attacked by arrows."

Lai Hu'er did not blame Qi Liang anymore. Qi Liang's approach was completely reasonable. If poisonous smoke spreads to the middle city, the Goguryeo soldiers might indeed give up the middle city. However, the Goguryeo general should also know that if he gave up the middle city, the inner city could not be defended. Their food and water source are in the middle city. No matter how strong the poisonous smoke is, they must defend the middle city.

At this time, Zhou Meng stepped forward and said, "Report to General, I suggest you apply poisonous smoke again and capture Zhongcheng in one go."

Lai Hu'er shook her head, "If we apply poisonous smoke again, we have to leave the outer city, and the arsenic is gone. Just by pursuing the poisonous branches, the other party can crack it with a wet towel. The reason why we succeeded last night was that the other party was not prepared. Now they should be prepared, and the poisonous smoke will not be effective."

The generals looked at each other and bowed together and said, "Please give orders to us, we are willing to attack the city gate!"

Lai Hu'er glanced at the winding and narrow stone steps and smiled and said, "If Beishe City must be attacked to take it, then I have no face to face my nephew. He has told me the strategy of breaking the city. As long as you take down the outer city, Beishe City will be at your fingertips."

The generals were greatly inspired and looked at the Lord with anticipation, wondering what else was his strategy to destroy the city besides poisonous smoke?

Lai Hu'er did not explain and pointed to the stone steps and said, "Use huge stones to seal the stone steps and prevent the enemy from going down the mountain!"

Qi Liang immediately arranged for soldiers to carry huge stones to build walls. At this time, Lai Huer came to a long row of stone houses. This was a warehouse for storing various materials, full of arrows, bows and crossbows and grain. These stone houses were still ordered to be built by Lai Huer, but now they have been fully utilized by Goguryeo soldiers. Lai Huer came to the last stone house, with a big lock hanging on it.

"Smash it open!" Lai Hu'er pointed at the iron lock.

A strongman stepped forward and smashed it with an iron hammer several times. The iron lock was smashed open. Lai Hu'er kicked the door open, and a gloomy and rotten air rushed towards him.

Several soldiers went in and screamed immediately. When everyone walked into the stone house, they found that there was an entrance to a cave. The entrance of the cave was equipped with a wooden fence with an arm-sized arm. It turned out that this was a prison. There were two people lying on the broken mat in the wooden fence. There was still some movement. The soldiers quickly removed the wooden fence and helped the two dying prisoners into the stone house. Zhou Meng immediately recognized it, and was shocked and rushed forward and said, "Why are you?"

"General Zhou, who are they?" Lai Hu'er asked.

"General Qi Bi, they are the two civil officials who manage Huilong Town. I thought they were dead, but I didn't expect to be locked up here."

Lai Hu'er squatted down and saw that both of them were wearing shackles, their hair and beard were tangled, their faces were dirty, their bodies were covered with scars, and large blood scabs were condensed on their tattered clothes. The wounds on their feet were rotten, and there were vague maggots wriggling. Both of them were thin and tortured to death. They couldn't even speak, but their eyes were filled with tears.

Lai Hu'er's nose felt sore and said to the soldiers: "Please carry them to the military camp and let the military doctors treat them well. When lifting, be careful to cover their eyes and not see the light!"

Several soldiers quickly brought in two stretchers to carry the wounded, carefully placed the two civil servants in the stretcher, and covered their eyes with cloth, and then carried them out.

"How did the old general know that there is a prison here?" Zhou Meng asked in confusion.

Lai Huer shook her head, "I only know there is a cave here, but I don't know it has been converted into a prison."

He then asked the soldiers to light the torches and walked into the cave. The cave was about two meters deep and was very wet. There seemed to be a gap in the mountain, and there were constant cold winds blowing.

Lai Hu'er waved his hand, and everyone behind him calmed down. He stood up and listened for a moment, and faintly heard the sound of dripping water. Lai Hu'er nodded, "It's this!"

He walked out of the cave and said to Zhou Meng: "You have arranged twenty-four stonemasons to divide them into three shifts. I will chisel the stone walls day and night, and dig them into places where there is a dripping sound. Water must be seen within three days."

"Weizhi recommends burning fire on the stone wall first and then pouring it with cold water, so that the stone wall will break and loosen."

"I don't care what you use, in short, you must see water within three days. Whether we can conquer Beishe City is here."

After saying that, Lai Hu'er left quickly. Zhou Meng hurriedly sent someone to the logistics camp to find a stonemason to dig a hole. At the same time, he used the fire cooling method to destroy the stone wall and speed up the progress of digging the hole.

After drinking a lot of water in the Goguryeo soldiers in the middle city gradually faded away, including the chief general Ning Hanyi, who was poisoned by arsenic and almost died. He worked hard to get poisoned but was not deeply poisoned and was rescued by the soldiers.

Two days later, Ning Hanyi was finally able to stand up. Although his body was still very weak, he still came to encourage the soldiers to defend the city. He stood by the stone wall and looked into the outer city. The outer city below had been captured by the Sui army, but the Sui army soldiers were hiding in the dark and could not see them.

At this time, Ning Hanyi suddenly discovered that the stone steps below were actually built by the Sui army with large stones. He was stunned for a moment. When did this be built? Isn’t this the wall cut off their way down the mountain?

"When was the stone wall below built?" Ning Hanyi asked, pointing to the stone wall below.

A Qianyong stepped forward and said, "Report to the general, the stone wall was built by the Sui army in two nights. We couldn't see each other, we only saw arrows shooting at each other, and probably had no effect."

“How high is the stone wall?”

"It's about one or two feet high, completely blocking our way down the mountain."

Qian Yong said worriedly: "General, I'm afraid the Sui army will fight a protracted battle with us and want to trap us to death!"

Ning Hanyi thought for a while and asked again: "How much food do we have and how long can we last?"

"Report to General, we have about 10,000 stones of grain to support us for four months. We have another 300,000 arrows and 5,000 pairs of crossbows."

Ning Hanyi breathed a sigh of relief. He had sufficient food, sufficient bows and arrows, and water sources. They could have persisted with the Sui army, and in the end, who couldn't hold on first.

At this moment, a soldier rushed over and reported urgently: "General, the water from our spring entrance is much smaller."

Ning Hanyi was shocked and hurriedly walked towards the water source.

The reason why Beishe City can become a strong city in Goguryeo on the Liaodong Peninsula is that there is a spring on the mountain, which produces thousands of buckets of water every day, ensuring the army's drinking water. The spring is located at a cliff in Zhongcheng. Goguryeo soldiers specially built a stone house to cover the spring and placed a stone mortar to let the spring water flow out of the stone mortar.

Ning Hanyi hurried to the eye of the spring, and saw that the spring water that had originally bubbling was calm, and the small waterfall flowing down the cliff had become very thin. Two spring guards next to him said worriedly: "Water was still emitting just now, but it's no longer emitting now. General, will the water source be cut off?"

Ning Hanyi had already guessed one or two and urgently ordered the soldiers behind him: "Go and take all the containers, and everyone will go!"

The soldiers rushed into the barracks one after another, and Ning Hanyi felt a chill in his heart. He linked the construction of the Sui army's stone walls with the reduction of water sources, and then he vaguely guessed the answer.

"Has anything unusual happened to the water source recently?" He asked two soldiers guarding the water source again.

The two looked at each other, and one of them said tremblingly: "Report to the general, there is nothing unusual about the water source, but you always hear jingling sounds coming from below, for some reason."

Ning Hanyi suddenly opened his mouth wide. He knew that the spring water flowed from the depths of the mountain and the source was unknown. The Sui army must have drilled through the stone wall and led the water source in the mountain.

At this time, the soldiers rushed over with dozens of pottery jars and scooped water for the soldier. As soon as the water scoop was inserted into the water, the spring suddenly made a sound of absorbing water. In an instant, all the spring water that was originally gushing in the stone mortar disappeared, and there was no drop of water left.
Chapter completed!