At the top of the wall of Beishui City, Chief Li Meng looked solemn and was observing every move of the enemy.

This Li Meng was originally a general under Gao Ding, and he and Gao Ding were both from Shanyingba.

After Gao Ding's death, he failed to compete with other chiefs for control of Qiongdu, and returned to his hometown with his remaining troops, but he was unwilling to do so.

So he used Beishui as his base and continued to recruit troops, planning to make a comeback next year and return to Qiongdu to fight for supremacy.

Unexpectedly, we were suddenly attacked by the Han army.

Beishui County is his base camp, and he must not abandon it.

The favorable terrain of Beishui City also gave him enough confidence.

Li Meng felt that as long as there were enough people and enough food, they would be able to persist long enough until the Han army gave up and retreated.

Therefore, Li Meng used strong tactics to recruit almost all the young men in the surrounding areas into the army. He also searched for food everywhere and filled it into the city's granaries.

Although the people complained, Li Meng remained indifferent.

The only way to success he learned from Haute Couture is to be ruthless.

The first time he saw the old woman, Li Meng recognized that she was Mrs. Hu, the mother of Gaoding.

The Hu family was very kind to him. When he was a child, his family was extremely poor, and all his clothes and food were given by the Hu family.

Not only him, but everyone in Shanyingba has received some favor from her.

Hu is a Han woman who is proficient in textile technology. In her early years, she taught textile technology to local women and gave away a large amount of free cloth and clothing to the local people. She is very popular among the locals.

What is she here for?

Li Meng felt uneasy and hurriedly ordered someone to open the city gate and went out to meet Hu in person.

……

North bank of Beishui.

Zhou Mo held the telescope and looked from a distance.

In the gray lens, the low old city wall of Beishui City looks even more dilapidated. Hu stands at the foot of the city with a cane, her thin body floating in the wind, as if a lonely leaf is crumbling, small and fragile.

The city gate opened, and a sturdy barbarian man came out to meet Hu.

After a while, the man turned and left.

Mrs. Hu seemed to be very angry. She stamped her cane hard and shouted something towards the wall.

What greeted her was a sharp arrow shot from a strong bow, piercing her chest.

Mrs. Hu fell to the ground in response, like a ball of rags, making no sound.

On the river bank, the Han soldiers who were escorting Hu across the river saw what was happening and did not dare to go to the city to collect the body, so they hurriedly got on the boat and left.

Only a one-armed man broke free from the obstruction of others, ran to the bottom of the city, hugged Hu's body and cried loudly, looking grief-stricken.

Then, he was also shot to death by several arrows.

Zhou Mo sighed and put down the telescope.

On the east and west sides of the north bank of Beishui, the two pontoon bridges built by Zhang Yi and Fu Xu are about to be completed.

So the order was issued and the whole army attacked!

The bugle sounded long and resounded throughout the sky!

The thundering drum beats loudly!

It makes people short of breath and makes their blood pump.

Under the command of Chen Dao, the Chinese army lined up neatly and gradually spread out to both sides, preparing to cross the river.

On the south bank, the Nanman army saw that the Han army's pontoon bridge was close to the shore, entered the attack range, and also blew the horn of the attack.

Densely packed barbarian soldiers crawled out from the deep trenches and high fortifications built under the city wall. Their number was so large that it was difficult to count.

They charged towards the shore, trying to destroy the pontoon bridge and block the Han army on the river.

The group of Han troops responsible for erecting the last section of the pontoon bridge were personally led by Zhang Yi and Fu Wei. They were all carefully selected warriors with excellent water qualities.

They cooperated closely. Some of them continued to build the bridge, and some of them held swords and shields in front of them. They fought hand-to-hand with the Nanman army and forced them to cross the river.

The commander of the Chinese army, Chen Daochao, used his binoculars to see a large number of Nanman soldiers rushing out of the trench bunker, and quickly ordered the archers: Get ready!

When a perfect opportunity comes, wave the flag and shout: Launch!

The rain of arrows from the sky drew a beautiful arc and shot towards the south bank.

Although the Nanman were numerous in number, before their charge reached the shore, they were already forced to hide in Tibet by the rain of arrows. They were scattered everywhere and suffered heavy casualties.

Zhang Ni personally took action and led more than a dozen men to break through the siege first, wading across the river and landing on the south bank. While fighting hand-to-hand with the Nanman soldiers with knives, he commanded the soldiers to quickly set up shields and set up a row of shield walls.

The soldiers who followed later were all armed with spears and halberds. The spearmen and the front row of shield soldiers worked together to defend the front, while the halberd soldiers protected the flanks, forming a defensive formation like an iron barrel.

Seeing that the Han army was well-trained, the Nanman soldiers quickly established a foothold. The array was as solid as a rock and there was no way to attack. In the distance, a large number of Han troops were crossing the pontoon bridge.

The rain of arrows above the head forced the follow-up reinforcements to be unable to keep up in time, and there were fewer and fewer comrades around them.

The Han army formed a camp step by step, shouting the word "kill" in unison with every step they took, and slowly approached.

The Zhijiao Nanman soldiers were frightened and quickly lost the desire to attack.

Not long after, Fu Xu's troops also successfully landed. They followed Zhang Yi's example and slowly advanced in formation.

Seeing that the leading troops had successfully landed, Zhou Mo gave an order, and Chen Dao led three thousand white soldiers to quickly cross the pontoon and assemble in formation on the south bank.

Seeing that the situation was over, the southern barbarian soldiers' plan to block the river crossing failed, so they had no choice but to leave the corpses on the ground among the arrow bushes on the bank, retreat in a hurry, and hide in the ditch under the city.

Zhou Mo also crossed the river by boat and observed the surrounding environment of the city with a telescope.

Beishui City is surrounded by mountains on three sides and water on one side, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. When the Han people built a city and established a county here, they obviously gave full consideration to it.

Although the city wall is now dilapidated and the fortifications are crude, as long as the Nanman people cannot hold on, the Han army can only attack from one direction from the front, which is still a hard nut to crack.

Zhang Ni asked for orders, willing to personally lead the vanguard, armed with a wooden mallet, to break through the low part of the west side of the city wall and attack the city by force.

Fu Wei and Chen Dao also expressed their support for Zhang Yi's tactics.

It's just that both of them hope to be the pioneer.

Zhang Yi said anxiously: "I proposed it first. You two can't rob me."

Chen Daodao said: "You two armies have consumed a lot of energy when building the pontoon bridge to cross the river. It needs to be repaired. It is my turn now, which is the most suitable."

Zhang Ni said: "It's just a small river. You can cross it easily. Why do you need to repair it? Besides, I still need your strong bow and crossbow as cover."

What Zhang Ni said made sense, and Zhou Mo also wanted to train the Ba people's army in his hometown led by Zhang Ni, so he ordered Zhang Ni to be the vanguard, Fu Wei to cover the flanks, and Chen Dao to lead the crossbowmen to press the formation and attack the city immediately.

The three generals took the order and left.

Not long after, Zhang Yi led his men and advanced towards Beishui City.

Zhou Mo supervised the battle from a distance and personally beat drums to cheer Zhang Yi.

Zhang Yi's wisdom, courage, and decisive command impressed him.

Under his command, the vanguard troops gave orders uniformly, as if they were one unit. When the enemy's arrows came, they all raised their shields to avoid the arrows. When the enemy had a chance to breathe, they quickly advanced.

Not only against the enemy, Zhang Yi can also make full use of the firing gaps of friendly crossbowmen to advance rhythmically to avoid unnecessary casualties.

At the same time, Zhang Ni was always the one who took the lead and stood at the front. The white tassel on his crown was specially dyed an eye-catching red by him, for fear that his comrades and enemies would not know that he was the leader.

Zhou Mo couldn't help but feel worried, thinking of a fierce and unparalleled tiger general many years ago, Sun Shiwan's father, Sun Jian and Sun Wentai.

The siege of the city went more smoothly than expected. Zhang Yi's troops only paid very few casualties before they blasted open a corner of the city wall and entered the city.

Just when Zhou Mo was about to order the entire army to attack, the Beishui City Gate slowly opened.

Several people escorted a general who was tied up with five flowers. They raised their hands to indicate that they were not carrying weapons, and slowly advanced towards the Han army.
Chapter completed!