Chapter 112: Stormy
Yuyang, Hebei.

An offensive began again with the sound of the horn.

This siege has now reached its most brutal stage.

After holding out for more than a month, the food in the city was almost exhausted, and the defenders' morale began to waver.

The attackers were not much better off. With each wave of attacks, all the siege equipment was destroyed, and there was hardly a tree left around the battlefield. The current attack was using the most brutal and life-threatening ant-attachment method.

But Liu Shouwen would not be so stupid as to sacrifice his elite troops. He only sent his generals to drive the civilians to act as the vanguard, and rushed forward desperately, time and time again, until even most of the defenders' arrows were used up.

Several riders marched straight into the northern camp.

The leader had a pigtail on his head, which was shiny and had almost no hair. He was stout and looked to be about fifty years old, and because of this, he looked a little fat.

But his status seemed to be very high in the Mobei camp, and he had a smooth journey all the way and arrived directly outside the main tent in the center.

"The jurisdiction is in Yue."

The guard at the door saluted him.

The big man ignored him, opened the curtain, and said loudly, "Liu Shouwen's attack on the city is just like this. I went to take a look and I don't think it will be taken down!"

In the tent, Yelu Abaoji, who was talking with several Han scholars, frowned, then waved his hand to let them leave, and said with a smile: "Uncle, why are you so angry? The dead are people from Yandi, not our own sons, there is no need to be so angry."

As an elder who is a generation older than Yelu Abaoji, Yelu Xiadi's tone was not tactful.

"We have been guarding Yuyang City for a month, but there has been no progress! Apart from occasionally killing a few waves of Liu Shouguang's breakout troops in the west, we have gained nothing! What's the point of just waiting every day?"

"This time we went south, we obtained countless armors, weapons, and money. How can you say there is no progress?" Yelu Abaoji said with a smile.

"If Yuyang doesn't fall, we'll be trapped here forever, unable to go anywhere!"

"Liu Shouwen has promised that once Yuyang City is captured, he will allow us to take what is in the city."

"What's the point of just taking things from the city? We have been holding back for so long, can't we just slaughter the city and indulge ourselves?"

Yelu Abaoji narrowed his eyes and asked, "What do you mean, uncle?"

"It's all because of the crappy rules you set!" Yelu Xidi sat heavily on a chair, dissatisfied, "Since we have already gone south, why are you stopping me from robbing the southerners? You have been guarding this city every day, you are really talking nonsense!"

"I have explained this to you several times, why doesn't your uncle understand?"

Yelu Abaoji patiently explained: "I have said that Mobei cannot stay outside the Great Wall forever. If we plunder now, it will ruin our reputation. How can we get along with the people in the south when we expand our territory to the interior?
"Liu Shouwen should bear the blame for this matter. He was the one who robbed the things and kidnapped the people. We are just here to help and will leave after the fight.

"But we are not leaving and will not come back. In the future, when we expand our territory, we must also put the people's hearts first."

"I don't want to hear you talk about this!"

Yelu Xidi interrupted rudely, "Now that we have been in the south for so long, the boys are all homesick and have nothing to do all day, so they are bound to complain. You, the king, can't hear me, but I have been annoyed by what I have heard.

"I just want to ask you, can we rob the southerners' villages and towns?!"

In a few moments, the atmosphere in the tent suddenly froze.

Some guards, generals, and some military officers looked at each other and glanced at the faces of the two most distinguished people.

It was not until this moment that Yelu Abaoji's face finally darkened.

He did not let the people in the tent leave to give his uncle face. Instead, he immediately slammed the table and scolded him coldly: "Don't say you are my uncle. Even if my father is here today, if you break the law, I will still execute you without mercy!"

Yelu Xiandi was stunned for a moment, as if he had not expected that Abaoji would not give him face in front of so many people. So he looked embarrassed, snorted heavily, and left.

Inside the big tent, everyone immediately started to get busy, not daring to look at Yelu Abaoji's expression.

The latter took a deep breath, calmed himself down, then put on a smile and invited the scholars to continue the conversation.

But at this moment, a guard hurriedly pushed open the curtain and stood at the door, seeming to say something but stopping himself.

Yelu Abaoji frowned and waved him to come closer.

The guard came closer and whispered in his ear, "After Xiadi Yu Yue left the tent, he said that the king humiliated him in front of so many people. In anger, he led his attendants back to the grassland."

"Cunt!"

The former failed to maintain his composure and subconsciously uttered a curse word, causing several scholars to look at him in different expressions.

But after thinking about it, he just frowned and waved his hand: "Report this to the queen and ask her to pay more attention."

The guard was stunned for a moment, then said, "The queen hasn't sent a messenger back for a long time."

Yelu Abaoji frowned and stood up.

"Have the people I sent to Tanzhou returned?"

"not yet."

He paced back and forth, looking at the map from time to time, and then shook his head: "It's okay, it should be that Liu Shouguang's people left in Youzhou have reacted and temporarily blocked the road. The queen is very wise and will definitely solve it.

"But we must find a way to deliver what we just said to the Queen."

The guard then took the order and went down.

Yelu Abaoji frowned and sighed.

His uncle is incomparable to others. He is the previous Yilijin, who is his current uncle. It’s just that he changed the title of Yilijin to King.

Yelu Xiadi was once one of the top figures in Mobei. Although he lost the power struggle more than ten years ago and fled to Bohai, and only returned in recent years, he still has many old subordinates in Mobei, representing a considerable force. He is also the one he has been trying to win over in the past two years, so he appointed him as the "Yu Yue" who is second only to himself.

Now that he is heading south, he is bringing him along with him, not only to win him over, but also to keep him on guard.

However, nothing bad should happen if he returns to the grassland in anger.

Yelu Abaoji thought about it and sent a group of people out to persuade Yelu Xiadi to come back, or at least to calm him down.

After all, he is his uncle, so he can still trust him.

No matter how bad the situation is, he still has his queen to protect him.

------

Hundreds of riders roared past in the wilderness.

A rider came up from behind.

"The king has sent someone to persuade you to go back."

Beside him, a servant was laughing grimly.

"Yu Yue, do you want to kill them?"

As soon as this person said this, the people around him became murderous and aggressive.

Yelu Xidi just stroked his curly beard with a calm expression.

Here, he no longer had the reckless look he had in Abaoji's tent.

"Why are you in such a hurry? We haven't returned to the grassland yet. If we kill someone, doesn't it mean that our family has truly broken off relations with the king?"

He narrowed his eyes and said, "Send someone to tell the visitor that I really miss the grassland and don't want to suffer in the south anymore. This will also comfort our king."

The attendants around just laughed, and then one of them left as ordered.

Yelu Xiadi rode his horse slowly and asked the person beside him, "How is Yelu Lage doing?"

"Lagetin sent a message from Liaodong, saying that the queen has been trapped in Gubeikou, and not only can she not receive the king's letter, but she will not return for a while.

"Now, everything is ready, and we just need Yu Yue to go back and take charge of the situation..."

Yelu Xiadi narrowed his eyes.

"In other words, the people blocking Gubeikou are Li Siyuan's men from Hedong?"

"I suppose so."

Upon hearing this, Yelu Xiadi nodded and became more interested in the "Baal" in the letter.

But now, he no longer thought about it, but just whipped the horse heavily and galloped north.

Although I was over fifty years old.

But he did want to satisfy his desire to be a king.

On horseback, Yelu Xiadi snorted coldly.

"Kill off a certain family?" By that time, it will be too early to say who will kill whom!
------

The Beishui River flows eastward for thirty miles.

Ding Badu's camp had already been set up, because if they went further east, they would be easily discovered by the cavalry from Mobei or Liu Shouwen's troops.

The evening glow slowly falls to the end of the sky.

Xiao Yan stood in the watchtower with his hands behind his back, just looking at the soldiers in the entire camp.

The most valiant unit was the Longxiang Army brought from Bianliang.

Nearly two hundred of these eight hundred cavalrymen have been killed. They have been killing anyone who stands in their way all along the way. This is one of the reasons why he is able to take control of Dingba City.

When they stormed the camp the day before yesterday, they put on Ding Badu's armor and instantly destroyed the camp on the Beishui side.

It can be said to be an army that has fought in hundreds of battles and is the elite among the elite.

However, they are Zhu Wen's troops after all. Although he is in charge of them now and can lead them to achieve merit in the future, he cannot say that they are loyal to him.

Wang Yanzhang, on the other hand, can develop well...

His gaze shifted to look at the Dingbadu soldiers who occupied the entire camp.

Dingba City should have 15,000 troops at full strength, but now only 11,000. Among them, there are 2,000 heavy-armored infantry, 300 heavy-armored cavalry, 1,500 light cavalry, and the rest are ordinary infantry wearing leather armor.

However, after all, they were the elite troops trained by Liu Rengong with the strength of Hebei, and they could be said to be ranked among the best in the whole world.

Xiao Yan was truly envious of them and wished he could replace Liu Rengong right away.

But this army has too many uncontrollable factors, and it is not so easy to control it. Now is an extraordinary period, and it is controlled by Liu Rengong, but afterwards, it is inevitable that there will be thorns.

The reason why Liu Shouguang did not bring them with him when he went to attack Liu Shouwen was not only because the latter was too vulnerable, but also because he did not have the confidence to control Dingba City.

There is so much thought involved.

In addition, he also needed to hide it from Zhu Wen. After all, he was fighting in Hebei for Zhu Wen, and these troops could not be hidden in his hands.

Therefore, the only thing that can be won over as soon as possible is...

Xiao Yan turned around and asked someone to find Tian Daocheng.

The latter was taking care of the horses, because he and the more than 200 men were considered surrendered soldiers and could not be entrusted with important tasks for the time being.

"Meet the military envoy."

Tian Daocheng was particularly respectful, with a bit of fear in his eyes. As soon as he climbed up the watchtower, he knelt on one knee.

But the day before yesterday, he also saw Xiao Yan covering those suffering women with clothes, so he actually had a great liking for the young commander in front of him.

"I heard from Wang Yanzhang that you are from Liaodong?"

"Report to the military commander, I did live with my relatives in Liaodong in my early years, but now most of Liaodong has been occupied by Mobei, so I have moved to Pingzhou."

Xiao Yan nodded.

"What do you think of Mobei?"

Tian Daocheng was stunned, obviously feeling a little awkward, but he still spoke honestly: "Mobei, in the early years, actually did not have such great ability, it was from Emperor Xizong..."

Having said this, he paused.

Because he had actually heard some rumors that the young commander in front of him seemed to be from Daliang.

"That's fine. I'll also call you Emperor Xizong."

"Well... they have been growing since the reign of Emperor Xizong. At that time, there was the Huang Chao Rebellion in the Central Plains, and the various towns were constantly attacking each other. They often asked Mobei for assistance, which is why they have reached their current size."

Tian Daocheng thought for a moment and continued, "The Han people in Yan often look down on Mobei. But I think that Mobei is actually fierce, but it seems weak because of the constant disputes among the tribes. If a strong man appears and truly unifies the tribes, he may become a great threat to the Central Plains..."

Xiao Yan's eyes lit up.

He nodded appreciatively. "Have you read a book?"

"The relatives gathered together to build a fortress, where they collected books. I was lucky enough to read some of them."

"So, do you have the ambition to do something big?"

Tian Daocheng was stunned: "What the military envoy means is..."

Xiao Yan smiled, but did not say anything. He just said, "I intend to recruit people like you from Yan, whose homeland was destroyed by the bandits, to form a separate army. However, we are still short of a commander."

The former was stunned for a moment, and when he came to his senses, he kept waving his hands.

"No, no, I am not very knowledgeable..."

"It's okay. You can be the temporary commander. It's just a makeshift team. You don't need to put in much effort. Besides, I am very optimistic about your ability."

Tian Daocheng was moved when he heard this, and then hesitantly said: "But..."

"rest assured."

Xiao Yan patted his shoulder and walked down the watchtower.

"I said I would rescue your family.

“I am a person who will definitely fulfill what I promised.

"Think about it carefully. When you have made up your mind, come to the big tent to find me."

…………

After going down from the watchtower, Xiao Yan pinched his brows.

These past few days, he always felt uneasy, as if there was a fire of restlessness that kept urging him to move forward, forward, and forward without stopping!

He exhaled a breath and prepared to return to the big tent to meditate.

There might be a fierce battle in two days, and he doesn't want to make any mistakes at this juncture.

But at this moment, several Dingba cavalrymen strode over.

"Military envoy, we have captured two spies, and they want to see you."

"Let Wang Yanzhang handle it."

Xiao Yan suppressed his impatience and turned back.

However, before he took two steps, he heard a neutral voice that was neither male nor female.

"Hey, I told you not to touch me! It doesn't matter if you don't know who I am, but do you know who she is?
"She is your military envoy's confidante! If you dare to touch her, ten pairs of hands will not be enough for your military envoy to chop her down!"

Xiao Yan frowned and strode over.

Sure enough, it was Shangguan Yunque and Ji Ruxue.

The two men were not harmed, especially the latter, who was not tied up as imagined.

But the Dingbadu soldiers just surrounded them with swords in hand, restricting their movements.

"Hey, Xiao Lang! We finally see you..."

Shangguan Yunque immediately saw Xiao Yan and called out in surprise, pinching his fingers together.

But the latter just looked at them with a sullen face and said nothing.

Ji Ruxue frowned, broke through the obstruction of several people, and walked quickly forward.

As expected, these Dingba soldiers did not dare to take action, so they just held Shangguan Yunque viciously, as if they wanted to eat him alive.

"Didn't I ask you to go back to Bianliang?"

Xiao Yan pressed the girl's shoulder with such force that it even caused her pain.

But Ji Ruxue just bit her lip and lowered her voice.

"Someone from Taiyuan sent a message to Shangguan Yunque—"

"Li Cunxu, the crown prince of Jin, has sent troops to Hebei."

(End of this chapter)