As one of the three Dukes, Lai She was appointed by Liu Xiuqin, and there was a lot of controversy.

Thinking about Liu Xiuchu's succession to the throne, he had already chosen someone in his heart, but he still issued a false edict to ask his ministers to recommend those who could be the Grand Sima. However, the ministers only recommended two people: one is Feng Yi, and the other is Lai She.

The group of people who elected the two was clearly divided: most of the people who tended to Feng Yi were Yingru, and they were also confidants who followed Liu Xiu and went to Guandong and settled in Jiangdong. The people who elected Laixi were mainly noble relatives in Nanyang and Liu Bosheng's old subordinates.

After considering it, Liu Xiu finally leaned towards Lai She: "General Feng is the general in the west. However, General Lai also had great achievements in building a major strategy, and also attacked the East China Sea and took Pengcheng for me, which made great achievements."

In Liu Xiu's mind, the attack on the Red Eyebrows in Pengcheng, which was involved in Pengcheng, was the real battle to establish the country, so he appointed him as the Grand Marshal and Feng Yi as the General of the Western Expedition.

Feng Yi later became the general of Liu Xiu's stability in Jingzhou, while Lai She became the cornerstone of Xuzhou.

As early as a few days before the arrival of the Fifth Reun Army, Sima had made all preparations to resist. He ordered the craftsmen of Pengcheng to strengthen the city gates and completely seal off several of them. At the same time, they burned down all the buildings and forests within a radius of several miles of Pengcheng, clearing their horizons. Especially on the edge of the Sishui Wharf, shops, warehouses, and wineries close to the city walls, they would become the help of the Wei army to climb the city walls and must be completely swept away, while the demolished stones and bricks were transported to the city walls to stockpile.

The larger project was the arrows and armored soldiers from the Donghai County Armory. Donghai Prefect Liu Zhi personally escorted the last batch of arrival and replied to Lai She: "The Grand Sima and the Donghai County Armory who can transport them have all been sent to Pengcheng and Xia Pi in batches. If they cannot transport them, they will burn them."

"Thank you for your hard work, and in this way, Pengcheng and Xiapi are full of armor and soldiers."

Speaking of this, Liu Zhi was still worried about the fire: "If we could transport some more days, we could still transport some. It would be a pity that the former Han Dynasty had accumulated many years of storage and was destroyed now."

Liu Zhi, like Li Zhong, the governor of Qingzhou in the fifth reunion, was both a survivor of the Northern Han Dynasty. He survived the final battle by chance. After Liu Ziyu's death, the rest of the people were disheartened, but Liu Zhi was still obsessed with the cause of restoring the Han Dynasty, so he fled south to Liu Xiu, and was later appointed as the prefect of the East China Sea.

Lai Xu smiled and said, "I am willing to give Liu Taishou time, but the fifth reunion is unwilling to wait for a moment. The Wei army has advanced from Lingbi to Xiaoxian, and soon the troops will be outside the city. The north is urgent. I think at this moment, Geng Bozhao has occupied Donghai County. Donghai is the upper reaches of the Yi River, and it is undoubtedly a high-level view of Pengcheng and Xia Pi."

Xiao Geng's march speed was faster than Lai She expected. The next day, news came that the northern part of Donghai County was trapped, and the fifth reunion's military front was approaching. This "claw-shaped offensive" slowly came towards Pengcheng, and Lai She had to close the city.

But before the city was closed, he had a last place to be arranged, so he held a garrison meeting in the Chu Palace in Pengcheng, and all the lieutenants and above participated.

"All the lords are your confidants. Some of them followed him when they visited Liangyuan when the emperor visited the emperor, and some of them were under their command in Jiangdong. They were all known for their loyalty, so they were left in Pengcheng. Therefore, it should be known that Pengcheng has not many people and only 11,000 soldiers, and the temporary recruitment of Ding and Zhuang civilians is far from enough."

"There are ten times more enemies outside the city! And from the west and north, the two breadfighters will soon siege Pengcheng."

Lai She is a believer in the world. He will not deceive his subordinates and explained his disadvantages openly to them: "The edict from Your Majesty to us is to guard this lonely city and last until January next year!"

"It's only seventy or eighty days. Your Majesty said again that Pengcheng is surrounded by water on three sides, and Si is the pond under the tower. Only the south can be opened to cars and horses. Therefore, if you want to defend Pengcheng, the focus is on the horse-driving platform in the south of the city."

The horse-dream platform is the commanding height of Xuzhou. Two hundred years ago, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, destroyed Qin and divided the capital to Pengcheng. He then built Chongtai on the Nanshan Mountain, about a mile south of the city, to watch the horse-dream, so it was named the horse-dream platform.

The Momatai and Pengcheng are mutually in common. If the Wei army easily takes the Momatai, they can watch Pengcheng from a high position. Therefore, the gift that Liu Xiu gave Lai She was to send a general to guard the Momatai, which could restrain part of the Wei army's forces and reduce the pressure on Pengcheng.

If reinforcements arrive in the south, the Ximatai can detect them as soon as possible and inform the city through beacon towers.

Lai She himself wanted to take charge of Pengcheng, and his eyes moved among the generals and the generals: "Now, a general needs to take a thousand soldiers to guard the horse-dream stage, who is willing to defend it?"

The various schools looked at each other. There were many brave men among them, and most of them could stand the test. But everyone knew that Zhumatai was hanging alone outside the city and would be regarded as a thorn in his eyes by the Wei army. If the attack was concentrated, how long could a thousand people withstand it? This job would be a life-and-death death. It would be fine if he died, but he would also have to implicate his soldiers.

No one agreed for a moment, but Liu Zhi, who was in the front row, suddenly stepped out of the line: "I will be willing to go at the end!"

"Your Majesty is indeed not wrong."

Lai Xu nodded, glanced at the generals and sneered, "Some people often say that Liu Boxian (Zhi) was from Hebei and followed the fake emperor Liu Ziyu, who was not trustworthy. However, he was named a marquis by His Majesty and was entitled to two thousand stones to guard the East China Sea of ​​the Great County. Some people are dissatisfied with this. Now Liu Taishou and you are in the same bag, and you are ruthless and ruthless! "

Factions in Liu Xiu's camp were also serious. Those who fled from Hebei, such as Liu Zhi, became lonely officials. They were usually excluded, but now the disaster is imminent, but he dared to be the first. For a moment, the lieutenants blushed and they fought to guard the horse-dream stage.

But Liu Zhi gave a reason that neither of them had: "I am a royal family."

Liu Zhi said: "Whether it is Liu from Hebei, Liu from Chongling, Liu from Wu and Chu, they are all the descendants of the Supreme Emperor and the descendants of the Gao Emperor."

"During the former Han Dynasty, there were tens of thousands of princes of Pengcheng in Xuzhou. They once owned manors, but most of them were destroyed when the Red Eyebrow thieves passed by, and thousands of people were wandering to join His Majesty..."

Liu Zhi was very moved. This was also his experience. The Changcheng Hou family in the past is now fragmented. Except for Liu Zhi and his few children in Nantou, the rest were forced to move to the desolate Bingzhou by the fifth reunion.

"Later, Liu was settled back to Pengcheng by His Majesty and defended Xu Tu by Xu people. Now there are not a thousand men in the army, but hundreds."

Liu Zhi understood the reason why he defected to Liu Xiu thousands of miles away: "If the fifth reunite seized Xuzhou, his surname may still survive, but the Liu surname is that the nest will be destroyed without any end. From Hebei, it can be seen that the fifth reunite will never be ruthless to the Liu surname. If the Han Dynasty dies again, the Liu family will be defeated first!"

"I hope the Grand Sima gathers the Liu family in the army and forms a battalion with his aides and dead soldiers from the East China Sea to guard the Ximatai. This is the royal family camp and I am the commander of it, which is the most suitable!"

This statement was resounding, and after hearing it, Lai Xu couldn't help but praise:

"Boxian is so great."

Lai Xu put the tiger talisman in Liu Zhi's hand and began to reexamine the person:

"I wish I could have known you a few years earlier."

Liu Zhi laughed: "It's not too late now. When Wei Kou is defeated, the Grand Marshal Ke will go to the horse-drawn stage and drink turbid wine with the generals to see the scenery of Pengcheng Mountain!"

A few days later, Liu Zhi arranged the "Lian Family Camp" and his confidants to the south of the city horse platform, and transported them together, a large number of arrow-armored soldiers from the Donghai County Arsenal, and basically everyone was wearing armor.

But the soldiers all knew that the battle was in danger and their morale was not high. However, in Liu Zhi's view, they were fruits born from the big tree of the Liu family and should fight for the rise and fall of the family until the last moment.

"Even fake Liu Ziyu can die for the revival of the Han Dynasty, let alone our real Liu?"

Liu Zhi encouraged everyone so much. He stood on the horse-drawn theater. Not counting the stone village built by Xiang Yu, it was as high as ten feet, like steps, the mountainside was about a thousand steps wide, and the top was a hundred steps wide, and there were even a few mountain springs flowing. It was necessary to climb the wooden stairs and stone steps. Now that the ladder was removed and the stone steps were blocked, it was the most steepest place in Pengcheng.

The Wei army scout vanguard was approaching, and Pengcheng was closed, but Lai She looked at the Momatai at the south gate of Pengcheng. The two sides were only one mile apart, and the sounds were heard.

Looking at the steep horse-drawn theater and looking back at the fully prepared Han soldiers, Lai She couldn't help but say confidently:

"House a thousand people above them, gather wood, arrows and stones, and all the tools for fighting and defending are in the same place as the city, and they are mutually supportive. Although the fifth relationship is used for 100,000 people, they cannot be taken!"

...

Lai Xu's confidence is well-founded. Pengcheng has a long life. He has experienced several major battles in this chaotic world. Among them, the battle of the Red Eyebrow Army besieged the most spectacular. The Three Red Eyebrows sent out 100,000 people to Feng'an, which made Pengcheng unable to be broken, but it could not break a corner of the city. With the cooperation of Lai Xu and Liu Xiu, he fought a beautiful counterattack, laying the foundation for the lower third of the momentum in one fell swoop.

Although the 100,000 people of the Red Eyebrow Army seem to be vast, to put it nicely, the bandits are armed, and to put it bluntly, the refugee army has no rules, both vertical and horizontal, and is chaotic in front and behind, like a mess. After stationing, the battalions are of different sizes, and even without internal and external orders. The Han army often breaks several formations by attacking the camp at night.

Red Eyebrow has no rules for siegeing the city, so he can only rely on the simple ladder moth to stick it on it. He suffered heavy losses under the boiling boiling water of the defenders and arrows at the same time, but it is difficult to pose a threat to the strong city. Therefore, when facing the heavily guarded city, Red Eyebrow basically couldn't get it and bypassed it.

This is Lai She's only concept of "100,000 troops". Even the other generals, even the oldest experienced and participated in the Battle of Kunyang, remained in the impression of the 300,000 new troops.

Even Liu Zhi, who had fought a decisive battle with the Wei army, only remembered that a few years ago, the Emperor of Wei organized a battle of tens of thousands of people...

It was not until the day the Wei army arrived in Pengcheng that Lai She and Liu Zhi suddenly understood one thing...

One hundred thousand and one hundred thousand are different!

The first thing Lai She saw on the city tower was the Wei army's vanguard. They were divided into several groups and entered the Pengcheng Basin, mostly cavalry. Each team presented a geese-ling formation to recruit the enemy. After sweeping the surrounding area of ​​Pengcheng, they then collected from the "people" and "one". The back team guarded the road and bridges, waiting for the army to arrive. The front team continued to approach Pengcheng, shouting whistle and horse hooves, and some even bullied the moat formed by Sishui surrounding Pengcheng to test the defense range of the Han army.

Later, they arrived a large army, and they entered one after another according to the road planned by the vanguard scouts. After the front arrived, they immediately formed a formation in the area designated by the engineers to prevent the Pengcheng defenders from leaving the city to raid. As more and more soldiers arrived, Lai She also discovered the biggest difference between them and Red Eyebrows.

Not only is it orderly and scheming, but also...

“It’s too quiet.”

There are also elite troops in the Red Eyebrow Army who are very fast, but they are too fast and have too sharp energy. There must be unevenness and unevenness in them. They like to yell, and their voices are as chaotic as their steps. However, the Wei army is different. After many troops arrived, facing the strange environment and huge city walls, they only looked at them silently, not daring to make noise, not leaving the team, or shouting.

This is a manifestation of the strict military law, which made Lai Xu quite curious: "How can the Fifth Reunion be used to train the city farmers? How can we train this way?"

He realized even more that the enemy he was facing was trained by the fifth reign and led by the direct troops he was led by, and was probably very different from the "good stationers" he faced with Liu Bosheng in Guanzhong many years ago.

The Wei army did not rush to attack the city. They first set up camps little by little, divided the grain garrisons, and gathered places. The camps were backed by mountains and forests. A large number of civilians and engineers separated out and began to cut down trees in a planned manner and manufacture siege equipment...

The Wei army had not yet begun to attack the city. Just watching the colorful flags waving and flipping the sky, it had already put great pressure on Uncle Lai Jun who knew how to do it.

The fifth reunion took the guards and circled around Pengcheng himself, and his attention was especially on the hill in the south of the city guarded by Liu Zhi.

"What is this mountain and this village?" The fifth whip pointed there and asked the people around him that such a small location would not be marked on the big map.

Others told me: "Your Majesty, the mountain is called Nanshan, and the famous opera horse platform in the village."

Wu Lun nodded, looked at the scorching Han flag on the mountain village, and used three words to make a judgment on the fate of this place:

"It's a dead place!"
Chapter completed!