Hong Qiming's eyebrows slightly raised, and he asked: "Isn't General Li planning to defend the city?"

  "Defend the city?"

  Li Zhihou rolled his eyes and said, "What's the point of defending? With just my humble 50,000 weak and disabled soldiers, how can we withstand the hundreds of thousands of troops from the Jin and Western Xia countries?"

  "How many people does your Beggar Gang have? Even if it's ten thousand, isn't this just an egg hitting a rock?"

  Li Zhihou was about to leave when Hong Qi pulled him back and said: "General Li, we came this time just to bring you a strategy to defeat the enemy, and I guarantee that it will be able to repel the enemy army."

  "Oh no!"

  As soon as Hong Qi's words fell, Li Zhihou burst out laughing and said: "Elder Hong, why didn't you say so earlier? You scared me half to death!"

  "Quickly tell General Ben, what strategy does he have to repel the enemy?"

  Hong Qi said: "General, you might as well hand over the command of the troops and let my sworn brother take charge of this defensive battle. I guarantee that we can repel the enemy."

  "Slap"

  As soon as Hong Qihou's voice fell, Li Zhihou slapped the table and stood up suddenly, angrily saying: "What did you say? Let General Ben hand over command, let this little brat take command?"

  "It's fortunate you thought of this. If this gets out, how can I still stand in the imperial court? And what about my brother-in-law's face?"

  "General Li, don't be impatient!"

  Hong Qi said: "My sworn brother has a sure win."

  "As long as the general hands over command, we'll win and all the credit will go to you. When you return to court, your face will be radiant with glory, and Lord Zhang will also look at you in a different light. Where can such good fortune be found?"

  "But if the general does not fight and retreats on his own, Jin and Western Xia will advance straight in, and Great Song will be in danger. Even you, General, will become a historical sinner."

  After hearing Hong Qi's words, Li Zhihou sat back in his chair with a thud, his eyes darting back and forth.

  At the same time, he whispered: "Yes, I begged my brother-in-law for a long time before he helped me get this fat job. If Xiangyang City is broken, the Emperor will definitely punish me. Rather than that, it's better to take a gamble."

  Li Zhihou said: "Alright, General Li will temporarily believe you this time. If the army is defeated, he will definitely behead you and hang your heads on the city gate!"

  Hearing this, Hong Qi looked at Yang Chengye and said, "Alright, let's follow General."

  Hong Qi took the military symbol from Li Zhihou's hand and left the general's mansion with Yang Chengye.

  Leaving the General's Mansion, Yang Chengye's face was gloomy, with a faint aura of killing intent surrounding him.

  Noticing Yang Chengye's abnormality, Hong Qi hastily said: "Brother Yang, this is also an unavoidable matter, he is after all a general appointed by the imperial court, and even if you are angry, you must endure."

  Yang Chengye sighed: "The wine and meat in the Zhu family's mansion are rotten, while there are frozen corpses on the road."

  "Hong brother, I suppose this sentence should resonate deeply with the Beggar Clan brothers!"

  After hearing Yang Chengye's words, Hong Qi sighed and said: "Everyone has their own fate, wealth and nobility are in heaven, everyone's destiny is different, we can only do our best and listen to the will of heaven."

  Yang Chengye shook his head and thought to himself: "It seems that he is also a person poisoned by feudalistic ideas, even if his martial arts skills are high, he can't escape the ordinary."

  "Alright, now that we have the military token in hand, let's start making arrangements."

  At noon, outside Xiangyang City, in a secluded mountain forest, Yang Chengye sat on a rock silently gazing at the sky.

  At this moment, he is facing war, whether it's the past or the Song Dynasty that has come to him. He is facing war for the first time, before he had only seen the scenes of war on TV and in movies, which were so thrilling.

  But he also has a stirring in his heart, after all, he is a man who yearns for war. Now that he is truly facing war, he feels tense and doesn't know what this war will be like.

  "Reporting to Your Excellency, as expected, the Western Xia army has appeared in the west of the city, with nearly a thousand men, all cavalry!"

  "Report, a thousand-strong army of the Golden Nation has appeared in the north of the city and is advancing towards the city walls!"

  At this time, two scouts came from different directions and reported to Yang Chengye.

  "Re-explore!"

  Two scouts were dispatched and left. Yang Chengye hesitated for a moment, then said: "Pass the order down, this is the enemy's vanguard, don't bother with them, continue to hide!"

  Yang Chengye's order was given, and the soldiers who had just poked their heads out again lay back in the bushes.

  At this time, a thousand golden soldiers, dressed in bright armor, marched in unison to a position one kilometer north of Xiangyang City walls and came to a halt.

  A thousand households commander ordered: "Come on, shoot a signal arrow and inform the general."

  "Whoosh, crack"

  The order of a thousand households had just been given when an arrow shot up into the sky and exploded immediately after.

  Rumbling sound

  At this time, the ground suddenly shook, and smoke billowed out, with countless troops rushing towards Xiangyang.

  As the dust settled, nearly 50,000 Jin troops arrived behind the Thousand Man Troop. The thousand leader hastily ran over, kneeling on one knee and said: "Reporting to General, the gates of Xiangyang City are tightly closed, it seems they knew our army would launch a major attack."

  General Jin Jun was a middle-aged man with a cold face and an air of authority that commanded respect without him ever having to raise his voice.

  This man was the grandson of Wanyan Wuzhu, a former marshal of the Jin dynasty, and also the elder brother of Wanyan Jincheng.

  When he heard this, Wanyan Jindou rode his horse and looked far away at the city of Xiangyang. He saw that the city wall was six feet high, the walls were solid, the gates were closed tightly, and there were countless soldiers wearing armor on the city wall, each with a cold face, staring down at the bottom of the city, waiting in strict array.

  Looking at the majestic city wall, Wanyan Jindou secretly said: "It seems that this Xiangyang City is also a hard bone, no wonder our army has been repeatedly frustrated."

  But this further piqued Wanyan Jindou's interest, and he asked: "Who is defending Xiangyang City?"

  Upon hearing this, Qian Hu hurriedly replied: "Reporting to the General, according to the scout's report, the one defending Xiangyang City is a man named Li Zhihou. He was the top scholar in the previous year's imperial examination of the Song Dynasty and is also Zhang Jun's brother-in-law."

  Hahaha

  After listening to Qian Hu's report, Wanyan Jinda laughed loudly: "It seems that this Southern Song is really without a general to send, and actually sent such a useless person, it's really heaven helping me!"

  At this time, Deputy General asked Wan Yan Jindun: "Does the king know this person?"

  Wanyan Jindou smiled and said: "Would I, the king, know this nameless little soldier?"

  "It was Emperor Uncle who investigated all the generals of Southern Song, and Li Zhihao happened to be among them."

  "The Emperor said that Li Zhi was arrogant and had high ambitions, but he was only good at talking on paper, and he was greedy for wealth and beauty, singing and dancing every night, and was simply a complete dandy."

  "It seems that I am the first general to conquer this thousand-year-old city, and my name will surely go down in history!"

  Wanyan Jindou burst out laughing again, and the generals behind him also followed suit.

  At this time, Wanyan Jindou stopped laughing and ordered: "Pass the order down, bury the cauldron and cook rice, at noon sharp attack the city, must take Xiangyang City in one go!"

  "Yes!"

  The generals nodded in agreement and immediately afterwards the soldiers began to bury their cauldrons and start cooking.

  At this time, the city of Xiangyang was also performing a similar scene on the west side, but here it was the Western Xia army, with only 30,000 troops. The general was a middle-aged man with a mustache named Li Siye.

  When Li Siye heard that the one guarding Xiangyang was Li Zhihao, his tone and expression were the same as those of Wanyan Jinda.

  All respected readers, if you like it, please don't hesitate to cast your monthly tickets and recommendation tickets, and collect them conveniently. Thank you!

  (End of chapter)