Dawn.

The Tang flag flutters on the five-star fortress.

The ranger attacked overnight, killed more than a hundred Qiang vanguards, and received about a thousand defeated soldiers. More than 20,000 troops were fled back.

The Qiang cavalry slowly approached the five-star fortress.

Tuoba Chici rode on the horse and looked at the castle from afar.

"Last time we left, there was no castle here. The Tangren actually built a castle here silently?"

Several leaders of the Tuoba clan were also very surprised. The forward rewarded last night that he said that at the foot of the Xijing Mountain, a Tang city was found at the source of Qiangshui, but they still didn't believe it.

"Calculate the time. The last time we went back from here was only two months? How did this city be built?"

Several leaders were very puzzled there.

Some people say that such a castle looks small, but it will take half a year to do so, and it will have to be recruited for many craftsmen and civilians.

At this time, another whistle came to report that there was a larger Tucheng two miles east of the castle, with a circumference of several miles, but now there are no people in Tucheng, as if all the people in the city have withdrawn.

"Another city?"

The people from the Tuoba Qiang Head were shocked. Why did they have no news?

There was only some news before that Qin Lang remained as the governor of Diezhou, and the former Fangzhou was also incorporated into Diezhou. The Tang Dynasty also set up Zhenxi Army in Diezhou and sent additional border troops. Qin Lang also added two counties to the Qiang and Di, which were originally attached to the state, and the Zaqiang and Qiang were placed in the west of Diezhou.

But I didn't hear that there was a city built here, and two were built at once.

"This castle doesn't look big," said a leader.

Compared to Diezhou City, which they suffered losses last time, it is naturally much smaller and not that dangerous. Diezhou is on the top of Dushan Mountain, with a desperate situation to the west and a Qiang River to the south. There is only one small road leading to the mountain, which is really easy to defend and difficult to attack.

But the location where the Tang people chose this time was not as dangerous as that.

Both cities were chosen in a valley. Although the valley was dangerous on all sides, this valley, which was like a large pot, was actually very large and was quite flat.

The two cities stand in the mountains, and there is nothing to say.

Although this small fort is located on a high slope, the slope is not steep and does not lean against mountains and rivers.

However, looking at the red flag, Tuoba Chici did not dare to underestimate the enemy.

He activated his mount and circled around the castle for a few times. Finally, he concluded that the castle was not as simple as he imagined. "Although this castle is small, it has two trenches, three slope embankments, and more than a dozen bunkers, which are easy to defend but difficult to attack."

Qiang cavalry gathered over.

Tuoba Chi sieges the siege but does not attack.

"King, I just got the news that there were fat sheep in the castle. Li Daoyan, the governor of Minzhou, escaped into the castle. In addition, Qin Lang, the governor of Diezhou, also happened to be in this castle and was surrounded by us."

After hearing this news, all the Qiang leaders were very surprised and cheered together.

"Damn it, I didn't expect that not only surrounded Li Daoyan, but also surrounded Qin Lang. This was a real surprise. Last time, this time, the Qin man suffered heavy losses. We must capture him alive, and then cut him open and cut his heart and liver."

A group of people shouted to attack the city immediately and captured Qin and Li.

"Don't be anxious!"

Tuoba Chici was extremely cautious this time. This weird castle always made him feel a little uncomfortable. He thought of several ways to attack the city, but he was not sure.

"First surrounded here and wait until we sweep the damn Tang soldiers on the grassland." Tuoba Chici sent troops to continue to sweep the defeated soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, but also sent people to send letters to various tribes and invite them to send troops.

He even sent people to borrow troops from Tuyuhun Khan.

"After Li Daoyan's defeat this time, the Taomin prefectures were empty." Chi Ci sent an order to his son, so that he, who had been chasing Luosheng, directly attacked Taozhou, invaded and robbed along the Tao River, expanded the results of the battle, and robbed him hard to save some of the losses he had last time.

As for the direction of Diezhou, because Qin Lang and Li Daoyan have already surrounded, Chi Ci plans to take charge of it himself.

"If you want me to say that such a small fort is just a fight."

"You can do it, and you will take your troops to attack the city. If you capture it, I will ask you to pick half of all the money, food, equipment, horses, etc. in the city." Chi Ci said with a gloomy face.

The leader was a little hesitant.

"Forget it if you are not sure, we will fight again when the reinforcements arrive."

The leader seemed to be angry and shouted, "Why should the king look down on our tribe so much? Please protect us with bows and arrows, and then borrow some shields. When we rush to build some ladders to climb the city and cross the moat, we will definitely be able to take it down in one fell swoop."

"Okay, as you said!" Chi Ci agreed very happily.

Although he didn't believe that this guy could take down this weird castle, he was still willing to test the reality of the castle for him. Anyway, it was not the loss of the people in the headquarters.

In fact, it is not easy for Tuoba Chici to be the chief leader of the Tuoba tribe.

During the Sui Dynasty, many Dangxiang Qiang were defeated when they invaded the Sui Dynasty, so they surrendered to the Sui Dynasty. Chici's father Tuoba Mumi also surrendered in the eighth year of Kaihuang in the Sui Dynasty because he was defeated invading the Sui Dynasty. Mumi led more than a thousand clan members to be moved to the inner land of Longyou to settle.

After Mu Mi was attached, he sent his son to Chang'an as usual. In name, he was a guard and actually took him to hostages. Mu Mi sent several sons to Chang'an, including Chi Ci.

Therefore, Chi Ci actually spent his childhood in Chang'an.

However, the situation changed later. During the Sui Ji period, Tuoba Mumi led his tribe to rebel against the Sui Dynasty and returned to the foot of Jishi Mountain. When Chi Ci became the leader of the clan, he even formed a marriage with Tuyuhun Khan Fu Yun and married Fu Yun's daughter.

As the leader of the Qiang people who have been in Chang'an for many years, he is different from many other Qiang leaders.

······

Five-star fortress, bell tower and watchtower, Qin Lang looks out from a distance.

Five or six thousand Qiang people came one after another, but it can be seen that they were not all soldiers, but many women, children, elderly and weak people were also driving cattle and sheep.

Xi Junmai requested to go to the battle.

Qin Lang refused.

"Don't Mr. Wei believe in my strength?"

"It's not that I don't believe you, and there's no need to rush to fight."

There are actually not many soldiers in the Five-Star Fort at present. When this castle was designed, it was used as a fortress on the front line, so there are no more than 600 troops garrisons, with one light cavalry regiment and two infantry regiments. The light cavalry regiment is divided into two rangers and two light cavalry regiments.

Among the two infantry regiments, one is a crossbow regiment and the other is a light stance regiment.

As a frontier fortress on the border, the number of 600 people is already quite large.

But now the Qiang people are invading in large numbers, and it seems that there are very few 600 people. Fortunately, they gathered many defeated Minzhou soldiers yesterday. Those who can escape from the Qiang people are basically elite soldiers. They have horses and run fast.

More auxiliary soldiers, village warriors, and infantrymen cannot escape the pursuit of the Qiang people.

With these more than a thousand defeated soldiers, Qin Lang's troops were quite sufficient.

But Qin Lang was unwilling to go out to fight now because he felt that with a five-star fortress in his hand, there was no need to go out to fight. If he went out to fight, his strength would not be superior, and casualties would inevitably be very large. Killing one thousand enemies would cause 800 damage to himself, which would be unpaid.

Isn't it better to sit in the fortress and just as it is time to test the power of this fortress, stand on the castle and shoot arrows and crossbows?

Anyway, Qin Lang deliberately fired his and Li Daoyan's flag early in order to attract Tuoba Qiang so that they would not ignore the five-star fortress.

"I don't expect the war to end this time simply. This war started by Li Daoyan, a fool, may take a long time to fight, but we don't have to worry." Qin Lang hit the city hall. Under normal circumstances, the last battle was just over, so it was not suitable to fight again.

The Tang Dynasty did not have the ability to fight another big battle in the short term, and the Dangxiang Qiang was not prepared for this.

It was also in this case that Li Daoyan's peace talks and recruitment made Tuoba Chici hesitate and decided to give it a try, all of whom wanted to delay some time.

But who expected that Li Daoyan was so stupid that he wanted to rob the alliance. The robbery had not succeeded yet and sent 20,000 people at once. The old thief Chi Ci was angry, but also saw an opportunity to take advantage of it.

So I want to take advantage of the attack and counterattack.

This idea is naturally fine. Anyone who sees the opportunity will not be able to take action, let alone suffer such a big loss just now.

"Since this battle may take a long time, we don't have to hurry up and take it slowly and grasp the rhythm."

Li Daoyan lost his troops and generals, but Qin Lang did not.

Minzhou is now empty, but Diezhou's strength is a little stronger than last time. Therefore, Qin Lang is not afraid of waste or delay. If he delays for a long time, the court still has time to mobilize troops from other places to fill the loopholes left by Li Daoyan.

The beacon tower was lit yesterday.

According to the speed at which the Tang Dynasty beacon tower conveys messages, it can be transmitted for two thousand miles a day. At this time, I am afraid that Chang'an has received the alarm.

Fortunately, Li Daoyan was foolish after the defeat of Dangxiang people. Now the strength of Dangxiang people is also greatly damaged. Otherwise, if he committed suicide before the defeat of Dangxiang people, then the Dangxiang tribes, who were not seriously injured, would be a bit tricky now to fight together to fight with each other while they were defeated.

"Those defeated soldiers can't come back to their senses, right?" Qin Lang asked.

"Well, I ate and drank for a night, and now I am full and energetic. People are all good guys, most of them are children from Guanzhong, and they are brave. Unfortunately, I met a stupid boss like Li Daoyan, which caused them to suffer such a big defeat. When I went to see them before, I patted my chest and shouted to fight with the Qiang people to take revenge."

Since the Western Wei Dynasty, the government soldiers composed of the children of Guanzhong have always been fierce. They are famous for their bravery and bravery, or counting further forward. The Qin army during the Warring States Period and the imperial guards during the Han Dynasty are actually representatives of the bravery of Guanzhong children.

The children of Guanzhong are still martial, and the soldiers of the palace were also selected as children of powerful and noble officials. Their family conditions are good, they practice martial arts at a young age, learn riding and shooting, and the equipment after selecting the soldiers of the palace were also good. They went to the battlefield to seek fame. Unlike some dynasties who recruited soldiers, they were just like making a living, or they were forced to recruit them to the battlefield.

But the brave Guanzhong children are not invincible.

The Western Wei established the system of government troops at that time, but they were often defeated in the wars with the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi. However, the Guanzhong government troops were relatively tough and were not afraid of fighting for a few periods, nor were they afraid of fighting.

As long as the generals are excellent enough, in fact, with such a group of Guanzhong children with good foundation, they will win more than lose less.

But when you meet Li Daoyan, you can't do anything about it.

"Let them have a good rest for two days, and reorganize these defeated troops in the past two days, temporarily subordinate them to the western army of our Diezhou Town, and obey our command. Tell them that a small defeat is nothing, as long as everyone works hard, I will take them to avenge their previous shame."

"Duke Wei, do you still need to be locked up?"

"Why, you want to plead for him?" Qin Lang asked back.

"Not really, it's just that he is a royal family after all."
To be continued...