Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 176: Scared to Death
The city gate of Luoyang is thousands of feet high. On the first day of the siege, the North Gate's reckless advance resulted in the loss of more than 10,000 people. Among the other three gates, only the East Gate was slightly better, but a total of 23,000 people still disappeared in this first round of siege.

More than 20,000 people were killed by the millstone, trampled by their own people, or burned to death. Qin Qiong felt extremely helpless standing in the camp, especially when he thought of the soldiers fleeing in panic when the millstone exploded. He felt indescribable pain in his heart.

How to break the deadlock, how to break the city?
"Second brother, I just asked the Luoyang people in the army and they said that Xia Daosheng who was guarding the city was also from Luoyang. He just came back to his hometown to handle a case."

"A civilian official caused the loss of more than 20% of my elite troops in one encounter." Qin Qiong muttered secretly, and then continued to pace: "Does he have any relatives? Let's go ask him, at worst we can give him a prosperous family."

"Second brother!" Cheng Yaojin beside him couldn't stand it any longer: "Winning or losing on the battlefield is a man's business. You're going to look for someone else's wife and children. That's unacceptable."

"You are really a reckless man." Qin Qiong shook his head and sighed, "Luoyang is easy to defend but difficult to attack. My troops have been ordered to capture the city within 30 days. How many days do you think it will take to capture Luoyang given the current situation?"

Cheng Yaojin was speechless for a moment. Everyone saw the scene on the battlefield. Even he, a killer, was frightened. Even if it were him, he really couldn't think of any way to fight against the evil fire.

Even praying for rain is useless, because the evil fire can still burn when it sees water. It's very scary.

"Luoyang has food, people, and the evil fire. Sigh..."

Now, Qin Qiong was no longer the only one walking around in circles in the big tent, but Cheng Yaojin was walking around in circles with the two of them.

It seemed that the second siege was about to begin. If the fire could not be put out, the city could not be captured. Trapping the beast for thirty days would not have much effect on Luoyang. Once it exceeded thirty days, even if they were not pinned to the ground and beaten by the Po Lu Army, they would be attacked head-on by the reinforcements from Shanxi, Longxi and other places.

Neither the Fenyang Guo family nor the Longxi Li family were people they could deal with, so this invisibly put enormous pressure on Qin Qiong's troops.

At the same time, Lao Zhang walked out of Luoyang City alone, bypassing the already cold corpses. He looked back at Xia Lin on the city wall and said, "I will not let you go even if I die and become a ghost!"

"Don't worry. When you die, I will burn three hundred paper figures of beautiful sisters to serve you."

"Six hundred!"

"You're going to bargain for this fucking thing, right?" Xia Lin said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: "Just go ahead, nothing will happen."

If you ask whether Lao Zhang is afraid or not, who would not be afraid? When two armies are fighting, going to the enemy camp alone is very dangerous at any time. If the enemy general is a little bit unhuman, he will have to hang his head on a bamboo pole to show off military power and deter the enemy.

But Xia Lin said it was okay, so Lao Zhang believed it. Regardless of anything else, he believed that Xia Daosheng would not harm him. With this trust, he staggered past the pile of corpses.

At this moment there were still smoking engineering equipment and broken corpses outside the city. The smell of blood, gunpowder and burning mixed together, making people feel nauseous. Although Lao Zhang was trying to be strong at that time, he was now walking towards the enemy camp with his eyes half closed.

When he was still twenty or thirty feet away from the enemy camp, the sentry had already discovered him, and then he was quickly surrounded by several swordsmen and axemen.

"What are you doing? Are you a spy?!"

Old Zhang heard someone shouting, so he quickly opened his eyes and explained: "I was ordered by the Luoyang garrison to tell General Qin Shubao something important."

The executioners looked Lao Zhang up and down for a while, then went up to search him, and found that he had nothing on him except some loose change. Naturally, these people let down their guard a little.

"Wait, I'll go and report to Qin Shuai."

Soon, a soldier from the central army tent came to Qin Qiong and said, "General Qin, a scholar from Luoyang City has come and said he has something important to report."

"Hmm?" Qin Qiong didn't know what to do at the moment. When he heard that there might be a breakthrough, he turned around and said, "Go and bring the person here."

Soon, Old Zhang was brought before Qin Qiong. He was not afraid at all at this moment. He just bowed and said, "Zhang Zhongchun, the candidate from Luoyang, greets General Qin."

Qin Qiong glanced at him and said, "You said you had something important to discuss with me, but what is it?"

"I..." Lao Zhang glanced at the people around him and chuckled. Qin Qiong hummed and waved his hand. Only Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin were left in the big tent. Qin Qiong nodded to Lao Zhang and said, "Can you tell me now?"

"I am not here on orders from the garrison, but my brother asked me to bring a message to you two."

Lao Zhang sat down without any hesitation. Since it had come to this, he might as well put it aside for now.

"Who?"

"Xia Lin Xia Daosheng."

After hearing this name, strangely enough, Qin Qiong's guard was unconsciously lowered, and his attitude towards Lao Zhang became a little more polite. He nodded and said, "Then what did Brother Xia ask you to say?"

"He told you to retreat quickly to the border area between Shandong and Xuzhou within three days to survive, otherwise you will be in great trouble in three days."

Old Zhang's words made Cheng Yaojin who was standing beside him burst into laughter: "Who else in the world could leave me with no way out? What a joke."

Old Zhang was not in a hurry. He waited until their emotions calmed down a bit before he continued, "Xia Daosheng said that Li Yuan's army is less than a hundred miles away. They are not not coming but are waiting and watching. If Luoyang is defeated, they will come to take Luoyang City. If you are defeated, they will come to take you. And with the current situation, your army will surely not be able to take it for a long time. Not only will it consume combat power and food, but it will also leave loopholes for Li Yuan's army. By then, even if your army has not been defeated, Li Yuan's army will march straight in and trap your army."

Qin Qiong was indeed a little nervous after hearing this. Li Yuan had four tigers in his family, and they were very cunning in using troops. They could indeed come up with this method. Whoever loses would be captured. This was also a typical tactical thinking, and it was not impossible.

At this moment, Old Zhang continued, "If your army fights with Li Yuan's army for too long, soon Shanxi Guo Ying's army and even Xiangyang Po Lu's army will come to encircle and suppress them. What will your army do then? Guo Ying's army has 12,000 elite cavalry and 3,000 heavy cavalry. Can General Qin be sure of success in this vast plain? And the Po Lu army, one Po Lu army can defeat ten, can General Qin be sure of success? Not to mention the four tigers of the Li family, can General Qin be sure of success?"

Lao Zhang's words made Qin Qiong fall into deep thought, because what he said was absolutely right. If they stayed in this place for too long and waited for reinforcements from any direction to arrive, even if they were not completely wiped out, they would certainly be seriously injured.

"Xia Daosheng said that General Qin now has only one move to make, and that is to live in the face of death. Bypass Luoyang and head straight to Xuzhou. Only by capturing Xuzhou City can General Qin be safe."

Qin Qiong's eyes rolled: "Why?"

"Xuzhou is located at the hub of the capital. Neither Longxi nor Shanxi will pursue here. First, the journey is long. Second, it is around the capital. The court naturally cannot allow the border warlords to break in. The only one who can be targeted is Li Jing, but Li Jing is stationed at Shanhaiguan to deal with Silla, Baekje and Goguryeo. It is not easy to send troops or there may be invasion by foreign races. As long as General Qin holds on to Xuzhou, the court will not be able to take action for a while. Instead, it will have to curb other clans and even allow General Qin to grow. Compared with General Qin, the Longxi Li family is the current court's biggest worry. If the Li family gets Luoyang, wouldn't it be like they are in control of the Central Plains?"

Although Qin Qiong was called a great general, he actually did not have the talent of a great general. His level of thinking was far inferior to those real generals. But even so, he knew that he had no advantage against the Li family. So after thinking about it for a while, he agreed with this plan from the bottom of his heart.

If Luoyang cannot be taken, then Xuzhou can be taken, and after Xuzhou is taken, Donghai County can be taken to separate the connection between the capital and Beiping County. At this time, the entire Central Plains is equivalent to being divided into four parts. Li Jing has to defend Shanhaiguan, and he can take this opportunity to take a good breath, so that he will have a step to advance or retreat.

"But what about Marshal Wang?" Cheng Yaojin next to him said, "Isn't this selling out the Marshal?"

Qin Qiong didn't say anything, but after seeing his expression, Lao Zhang was really amazed at Xia Lin. Before coming, Xia Lin said that Qin Qiong seemed to be very righteous, but in fact he was a professional boss, while Cheng Yaojin seemed to be careless but was actually a very righteous guy.

The purpose of giving them this plan was not to make them really run away but to sow discord between the main general and the deputy general. Qin Qiong still values ​​his life after all, so it depends on how he deals with it.

"Alright, both of you. I'll take my leave now. You can take your time in attacking the city. We are all good men from the Central Plains. Don't let us lose them here in vain."

Old Zhang spoke in Luoyang official dialect, so what he said was naturally more convincing. After all, it seemed that attacking Luoyang by force was not a wise move at the moment.

Soon, Old Zhang was sent out of the tent, and he was not harmed. However, at this moment in Qin Qiong's tent, Cheng Yaojin really started arguing with his second brother Qin.

Qin Qiong really wanted to move eastward, but Cheng Yaojin was determined to protect Wang Shichong's safety. The two sides were making a fuss, and Qin Qiong couldn't convince this stupid Cheng Yaojin, so he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet and had him locked up.

He sat in the big tent and did not issue any order to attack the city. He just sat there quietly looking at the map and fell into deep thought.

And just as Xia Lin said, judging from the time, the four tigers of the Li family are now really behind them. Whenever the siege fails continuously and the morale of the personnel falls to the lowest point, the Li family's army will rush in.

(End of this chapter)