The early morning river fog enveloped the inside and outside of Fancheng. On the Dingzhong Gate Tower, a veteran with a helmet and armor was holding the railing with one hand and casually putting it on the hilt of the knife, squinting at the Songying outside the city. However, the river fog was still thick and the shadows were not very real. However, Alihan still felt the solemn aura contained in it, just like a crouching tiger, which seemed quiet, but was ready to go and would send a fatal blow at any time.

Alihan frowned. He was over 60 years old this year and was at the age of returning home to retire, but he was still ten years younger than the commander. However, he was also a young man and fought with Emperor Xianzong. He was praised as brave and good at planning, and was ordered to command the Qixue army. But everything changed because of the battle to conquer Shu. Khan Mengge died in the cannon under Diaoyu City, and Kublai Khan fought for the Khan throne.

As the leader of the Mongge Khan, Alihan naturally had the trust of Xin Khan. He was deprived of his military power and had no chance to lead the troops to fight again. He could only watch others conquer the Song Dynasty and make unparalleled achievements. Fortunately, after the destruction of the Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan was sympathetic to his old ministers. When adjusting the world's troops, he appointed him as Dalu Wachi of Xiangfan to manage the people's farmland.

Xiangfan was a military center, but the enemy was destroyed at this time. Although the Khan still sent troops to fight east and west, the remnant Song was still entrenched in Qiongzhou overseas, but the war was far away from Alihan, and his life was very peaceful. After a few years of his tenure, when he thought he would not have the chance to conquer and ended up in bed, Jiangnan fell all in just a few months, and the Song army had already deployed troops along the Yangtze River.

Later, the Song army continued to invade north, Jiangling and Yiling were all lost, controlling the Jingzhou area. Alihan keenly felt that the war was gradually approaching the important area of ​​Xiangfan. When he thought he could wear armor again, Shi Bi was appointed as the general manager of the Jingxiang General Office, and the ten thousand households of the army were in charge, which made him miss the military power again and he was unable to lead the troops.

At the end of last year, the war broke out again, and the Southern Dynasties launched the Northern Expedition. Alihan realized that Xiangfan, as the key to the north and south, would inevitably be the target of the Song army's struggle, so he suggested that Shi Bi hoard food and grass, renovate the armies, and repair the city. Although Shi Bi was arrogant, he was also a man of knowledgeable troops. He followed his advice and began to gather the army and strengthen training. He also ordered him to recruit civilians to repair the city defense, collect food and grass, train Ding Zhuang, and cooperate with the garrison's operations.

Although Alihan had realized that the war was approaching, he did not expect the war to develop so quickly. In just a few months, more than 200,000 troops of Wanhu Prefecture, Shandong, Henan and Shandong were almost wiped out in Jiangdong. The Song army recovered Huaidong and marched into Huaibei. Subsequently, important towns in Huaibei such as Shouzhou and Danyang were also lost, and the troops were approaching the hinterland of the Central Plains.

The Song army stationed in Huguang then crossed the Yangtze River to launch a full-scale attack, and the prefectures in Huaixi were all lost. In April, Huaixi had fallen, and the Song army formed an encirclement of Xiangfan. Alihan did not expect that the dynasty would retreat so quickly, and he also realized that the battle in Xiangfan was inevitable. However, due to the annihilation of Wanhu Prefecture in Shandong, Henan, it was difficult for them to get reinforcements nearby and they were likely to fight alone.

After discussion, Alihan and Shi Bi believed that it was difficult to fight the Song army in the Southern Dynasty with their existing forces. Therefore, they formulated a solid city to defend the Song army, blocking the Song army outside the city, and preventing the Song army from continuing to advance north. So while asking the court to send reinforcements, they accelerated their combat readiness, transferred their subordinate prefectures and garrisons to Xiangfan, and abandoned the surrounding prefectures and counties.

The court's reading was indeed almost the same as their estimates. Because the Song army on the east route was approaching Kaifeng and Xuzhou, the court was unable to dispatch troops to reinforce. The war in Sichuan and Shu areas was in urgent need of war, and Tonglu was controlled by the Song army, so it was impossible to withdraw troops. They could only draw less than 20,000 troops from Shaanxi, Gansu and Nanyang nearby as aid. As for the food and grass, they were not given, and a pile of paper money was sent as military pay.

However, the court ordered them to defend Jingxiang to prevent the Song army from breaking into Nanyang, threatening the Central Plains, and entering southern Shaanxi. However, they were told that the court had now initiated a peace talk with the Southern Dynasties. As long as the peace talks were reached, the crisis would be resolved. The two could only smile bitterly. Jingxiang was the northern gate of the Southern Dynasties, so how could they give up their mouths easily? Fierce battles were inevitable.

The two knew that as long as the city of Xiangyang was not lost, there would be a chance to fight back. So, they concentrated all their troops in the forts around Xiangfan to ensure the access to reinforcements of the court, and forced the signing of troops, and the reinforcements increased sharply to more than 100,000. At the same time, they concentrated all their food and grass in the city, and prepared for a long-term persistence to wait for the situation to change.

Based on the strategy of ensuring Xiangyang, when the Song army entered Jingxiang in large numbers, Shi Bi took the initiative to retreat to Xiangyang with a little resistance in Fancheng and used the natural danger to confront the Song army across the river. However, when they were ready to fight against the war, they found that the Song army seemed to be at the end of their strength and had weak attacks. Instead, they began to use troops around the surrounding area, trying to cut off the connection between Xiangyang and the outside world and prepare for a long encirclement.

The performance of the Song army surprised Shi Bi. His idea was almost the same as his strategy when he attacked Xiangyang. However, the situation was very different from that of the past. The two countries were about to negotiate peace, and adopting a long-term siege strategy would only backfire and consume money and food. This made Shi Bi increasingly despise the Song army, thinking that it was not as good as Lu Wenhuan back then.

Later, Shi Bi set up an ambush and hit Jiang Jin, the chief marching commander of the Song army, who was checking the terrain, and seriously injured him. He also used iron cables to settle and block the waterway, cutting off the contact between the enemy in Fancheng and the main business. The Fancheng defenders panicked and wanted to withdraw from Fancheng in the name of avoiding water, to steal Dengcheng, and try to capture Gucheng and restore the connection between the various armies. However, the Song army attacked a small fortress and fought for tens of thousands of people for half a month before they captured it.

So Shi Bi ordered the troops to retake Fancheng, but the Song army left without fighting, which made him even more despised the Southern Dynasty. However, his arrogance grew and his arrogance grew, thinking that the knights were not aware of people, so he actually asked the children of Yue Chi Cha'er and others to lead the troops and use corrupt scholars as their plans, which led to a series of defeats and made the situation in the Huai River uncontrollable. If they had used them as veterans on the battlefield early, the country would not have been corrupted.

When the Ranger reported that the Southern Army came from the east, Alihan thought it was a reinforcement from the Southern Dynasty and should take the initiative to fight to attack the enemy at Bandu. However, Shi Bi thought that the only cavalry and chariot troops were present, and laughed, thinking that the Song army was really not capable. The Jingxiang River net was densely covered, and the autumn flood was approaching. The visitor was just seeking death. Why should he do those things that were miserable? He wanted to fight them upright and dare not attack them again.

Alihan had no choice but to send scouts to check and find out which Song army the visitor was and where they wanted to go. The scout came to report that this Song army was closely guarded, well-organized, and formed a formation with chariots. In this way, Alihan felt that the opportunity for war was hard to find, and he gave up the idea of ​​ambushing the way. Until the enemy drove directly to Fancheng, he realized that this was coming to Fancheng.

Alihan reported to Shi Bi again, and he laughed loudly, and asked someone to put the "Xiangyang Cannon" in the armed warehouse in the city on the top of the city, telling him that when the Song army attacked the city, he only had to set a round to scare the enemy away. He followed the plan and transported the Xiangyang Cannon to the city, but the Song army was not scared away, but camped outside the city, constantly came to explore the city, logged wood and made weapons, and did not launch a rash attack.

‘Woooo…’ Alihan looked at it for a long time, and there was no movement in the Song camp. He thought he would not attack the city today, so he was about to go down to the city to return home, but suddenly the sound of a trumpet sound came. The Song army's large group of troops gradually appeared in the fog. They came in line with neat steps.

"Show warning, prepare for war!" Ali was rarely allowed to ring the bell and warn him, and sent someone to report to the General Administration Office.

For a moment, the bells in Fancheng were ringing, and countless soldiers rushed to the city head along the horse path. The stone thrower swung his arms and pulled down by the hundreds of soldiers, and put the machine springs on them, loaded with stone bullets. The soldiers on the city were unsheathed, and the arrows were on the strings behind the battlements. The civilians were busy transporting the rolling wood and stones to the city, setting a pot to make a fire to boil the heated oil. Military soldiers continued to come out of the camp under the city, lined up on the side of the city, ready to block the city gates and reinforce the city.

"Dragon Flag!" The Song army vanguard outside the city stopped more than 500 steps below the city and quickly expanded his formation. The cavalry was in the middle, and the infantry spread on both wings. The central army raised a bright yellow dragon flag of more than meter. Ali was surprised and was puzzled. He knew that the dragon flag was exclusive to the emperor and could not be used by generals.

"The emperor personally commanded the army!" As a sub-flag rose, another soldier exclaimed.

"It's the little emperor of the Southern Dynasty who is here. He wants to attack Xiangyang in person!" Some enemy soldiers shouted loudly when they saw Huang Gai who appeared in the enemy.

"Silent and quiet, those who are in trouble with the morale of the army will be killed!" Ali rarely rioted among the troops, and he shouted sternly. He was also puzzled in his heart that there was news in the previous fashion that the young emperor of the Southern Dynasty was far away in Yingtian Prefecture to worship the temple, so why did he suddenly appear here? This made him even more regretful. If he had known that the Southern Dynasty emperor was coming, he should not have listened to Shi Bi, but would have intercepted and killed halfway.

"Maintain!" Just when Alihan regretted it, Shi Bi hurriedly came to the city, and he hurriedly greeted and bowed.

"The thief of the Southern Dynasty is here. I will take the initiative to capture and kill him!" Shi Bi was very excited and lay on the trunk and looked down.

"General Manager, now the enemy army is stationed at the city, and they are rashly leaving the city may be taken by the enemy!" Alihan felt chill in his heart. He was already seventy-eighty, his hair and beard turned white, and he thought it was back then!

"Give me a bow, I will shoot him!" The old man became more and more excited as he spoke, and reached out to ask his personal soldiers for the bow and arrow.

"Maintain, the enemy is still far away, and the bow and arrow are probably not as good as the formation." Alihan felt even more unprovoked by the old man. He really thought he was a god. The two armies were separated by several arrows, and the city crossbow might not be able to shoot, let alone a step bow.

"Oh, I'm Meng Lang!" Shi Bichu's excitement passed, and slowly calmed down. He looked at the city and said, "The range of the crossbow is not enough, so he can shoot it with a refrigerated cannon. Even if it doesn't hit, it will scare him half-death. See if he dares to offend me Xiangyang!"
Chapter completed!