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It was mid-autumn, and the nights outside the border were already chilly. The soldiers who had been marching for many days were finally able to sleep soundly without patrolling the night or worry about getting up early tomorrow.

Han Ruzi was unable to keep his composure. The soldiers were still carrying items to the camp. He had summoned the city guardian in the lobby of the General's Mansion to inquire about the situation of the city. Early the next morning, others were still sleeping soundly. He got up early and led several people to patrol the city.

The Broken Iron City was built nearly forty years ago. Before that, in the face of harassment and attack by the Huns, the Chu army was on the defensive moment and its troops were concentrated on the front line of the Great Wall. After Emperor Wu decided to turn defense into offense, he built a large number of cities outside the border, and Broken Iron City was one of them.

The city is built on a low mountain, close to a small hill to the east, and two miles away to the north is a rushing river. The mountains extend to the west and have no end. To the south is a wasteland, a small path extends into the mountains, connecting the Shenxiong Pass.

There is a quicksand city more than ten miles to the west, which can be seen at a glance. Guanhe City in the east is closer, blocked by a hill, and there is a beacon tower on the top of the mountain to use for each other, but the two small cities and beacon towers have been abandoned for several years and are unguarded.

Han Ruzi inspected the city and the city was intact, and only some places needed repair. The problem was that the original city guards were indeed a group of elderly, weak, sick and disabled people, with a total of less than 1,000. Only 20% of the people were able to wear armor and helmets and hold weapons to welcome the general of Zhenbei. The others were either too old or ill and could not get up at all.

At its peak, there were seven cities outside the Shenxiong Pass and four on the north bank of the river. After the Huns split, the importance of the cities decreased. Emperor Wu began to give up one after another. Almost all the elderly, weak, sick and disabled people who could not leave were left in the Shattered Iron City. They have accumulated so far, occupying the number of soldiers, but have no combat power.

Han Ruzi ordered people to take all the guard lists to the General's Mansion, secretly asking Zhang Youcai to look for "fang Daye" on it, and then took people out of the city and observe by the river.

The river is not very wide, but the two sides are relatively steep. It is indeed a natural chasm. Walking eastward along the river bank several miles is Guanhe City. It is built on a narrow passage between mountains and rivers. It is very small, more than 200 steps long and only forty or fifty steps wide, but it is facing a gentle river. For most seasons of the year, the cavalry on the other side can easily pass by the river.

By defending Guanhe City, you can basically block the Huns' way to cross the river.

However, the city was broken, and from a distance it looked like a city. When you looked close, you found that most of the city walls had collapsed, and the remaining city walls were unstable. The soldiers of the Broken Iron City who accompanied him reminded the general of Zhenbei that they must not get close to it. A sound of horse hooves could shake a piece of the wall.

"Why didn't you protect Guanhe City well at the beginning?" Han Ruzi asked. If you could garrison troops here, it would be much easier to resist the Huns.

The generals and officials of the broken iron city looked at each other, but Chai Yue, who was accompanying him, gave an answer: "When the city was built, the location was excellent. It started about ten years ago. The river flood between spring and summer was several feet higher than before, and it destroyed the city foundation and could not be repaired."

The Shattered Iron City was originally the rear city where food and grass storage equipment was stored, but now it has been pushed to the forefront of fighting against the Huns.

There were still a series of pavilions across the river. Han Ruzi accepted the suggestion and did not cross the river to check. It was said that the pavilions had been destroyed by the Huns and were only a few feet away.

Han Ruzi returned to the Broken Iron City and climbed the city wall to look into the distance. Her eyes were covered with gray, yellow, and almost no green. Winter had not yet arrived, and this place had been forgotten by the four seasons.

"It must have been very difficult when the city was built." Han Ruzi sighed.

Chai Yue still answered: "It was okay when the city was built. decades ago, there were many trees and weeds on both sides of the river bank, and the soil and stones were inseparable. You can use materials locally. Later, the trees and grass were gone. Not to mention building the city, it was difficult to maintain the city wall. Everything needs to be transported from the pass."

"This is where you are heading to me."

Chai Yue's face turned slightly red. When he told Juanhou about the ambush plan, he beautified a little about the situation of the broken iron city, making Juanhou think that the city and pavilions could be repaired soon.

"It's very suitable for ambushing here." Chai Yue pointed to the direction of Guanhe City. "The Huns could only attack from there. Although the Broken Iron City was a little broken, they could defend at least ten days. An ambushed a strange soldier on the beacon tower on the top of the mountain. When the Huns crossed the river, they would block Guanhe City. The ambush in the valley to the south rushed out at that time, and the Huns had no way out and would be wiped out completely."

"Beware of the Huns fighting for trapped beasts."

Chai Yue pointed to the city clearly visible to the west, "The Huns will flee west for ten. After the ambushing troops in the south came out of the valley, 20,000 people went north and 10,000 people walked around the city of Liusha, just cut it off. The Huns were neither trapped beast nor ambush."

Han Ruzi also looked at Liusha City. He hadn't been there yet. Looking from a distance, the situation of that city was better than Guanhe City. "Don't you need to send someone to guard Liusha City?"

"According to humble opinions, if you don't defend yourself, you may send fewer people to guard you and let the Huns escape there, so as not to fight on their backs. It is a merit to encircle and annihilate the Huns, and it is also a merit to reduce casualties in the Chu army."

Han Ruzi nodded, and according to the laws of the Great Chu army, when rewarding merits, he should use the number of beheadings to reduce the number of losses on his own side. The two are offset, and they are only considered to be meaningless and without any fault. If there is more loss, he will be punished even if he wins.

One morning passed, and Han Ruzi returned to the mansion for dinner. As soon as he entered the gate, Zhang Youcai, who was staying in the mansion, hurriedly came up, "Master, go and have a look, Mr. Cui is having a fuss again."

The imperial camp, the military camp is on the left and right side of the General's Mansion, and is very close to each other. Cui Teng worked all the way and slept very sweetly last night. He got up at midnight. After dinner, he came out for a walk. He was angry and rushed into the General's Mansion and wanted to talk to Juanhou. If he couldn't find anyone, he stood in the courtyard and shouted.

"What the hell is this? There is no pub or Liu Lane. Are you going to be suffocated to death when you live here? I'm leaving, I'll leave right away!"

Cui Teng's voice was hoarse. When he saw Han Ruzi enter the yard, he rushed forward with a stern fists, his face clenched, and suddenly he smiled again, "Brother-in-law, you are back, thank you, thank you, I won't disturb you."

Cui Teng hurriedly ran out of the yard. Zhang Youcai was shocked and glanced at Du Chuanyun who was following Juanhou out, and suddenly remembered: "Young Master Cui was afraid of you!"

In a deserted garden in the capital, Du Chuanyun once held Cui Teng hostage to a tree and tied it up for a while. That was one of Cui Teng's most feared memories. He has been hiding since he saw Du Chuanyun at Shenxiong Pass two days ago, and the same is true today.

Du Chuanyun curled his lips and didn't care.

After dinner, Han Ruzi summoned all generals and military officials of the seventh rank and above, one was to arrange tasks to defend the city, and the other was to discuss how to train troops. He did not want to wait for the Xiongnu to arrive in the city.

It happened that several people who were seconded from the Southern Army also arrived. The leader was Liu Hexiong, the coach of the Southern Army. He once taught martial arts in the palace. Han Ruzi always had a good impression of him, so he came here specially. The other three were the deputys selected by Liu Hexiong himself.

The afternoon was about to pass, and Han Ruzi invited the generals to the banquet, but as soon as the wine and food were served here, Cui Teng caused trouble again.

While all the generals and the head coach were discussing matters, he actually summoned more than ten noble children, took their more than twenty followers, and rode out of the Broken Iron City on horseback, fleeing south.

This is a test for Han Ruzi. It is easy to pursue deserters. How to deal with it properly and block Youyou's eloquence is a difficult problem.

Many eyes looked at the young General Zhenbei and waited for his order.

Han Ruzi asked the city gate clerk who came to report the news: "How many escapees are there?"

The little official calculated for a while, "Three, Thirty-six people."

"Where are the horses?"

"It's also thirty-six, they didn't bring any extra mounts."

“Can there be extra packages right away?”

"There are some... not many, most of them are only people right away." The little official tried hard to recall the scene at that time before answering the general's question.

Han Ruzi nodded, but in fact he was not very confident. Asking the minor official was just a formality. His judgment came from his understanding of Cui Teng. The second son of the Cui family did not understand what it means to think carefully. He always did it just by saying that he could do it. In the capital and in the army, he usually succeeded, but here was outside the frontier and there was no one in a hundred miles.

"Close the city gates tightly, without my orders, no one person or one horse is allowed to enter or exit."

"Yes." The clerk retreated and was worried.

The minor official only guards one city gate, and the other city gates still need to be formally sent by the commander. Han Ruzi smiled at the remaining generals and said, "It's okay, they will come back until dawn tomorrow. Everyone doesn't have to be polite, just drink happily."

In front of the former emperor, most of the people who are now Juanhou and General Zhenbei still have to be polite, and only Chao Hua and others from the army camp have a lot of food and drink.

The banquet ended soon, and Han Ruzi had to admit that he had not found the secret to getting along with these veterans in the ranks. Instead, Chai Yue whispered with this one and sang cups with that one, and was very familiar with it.

Han Ruzi returned to the backyard to rest and ran into Donghai.

King Donghai has a special status, so he always lives next to Juehou, but he has no official position and does not attend the banquet.

"How do you feel on the first day of defending the city?" Donghai asked with a smile.

"You didn't leave with Cui Teng?"

"He had looked for me, and I advised him that this place was two hundred miles away from Shenxiong Pass, and there was almost no place to settle down on the way. Even if he reached the pass, he could not pass without documents. But he didn't believe it, thinking that shouting "Tao Tuan Cui" would solve anything: food will fall from the sky and the city gate will open automatically. Alas, in his eyes, I am really a traitor to the Cui family."

The outsiders did not know about the fact that the Taifu Cui colluded with the champion Hou and used the Chai family to attack Hebianzhai, and Cui Teng didn't even know about it. He thought that the "deep love between King Donghai and Taifu Cui's "uncle" had not changed at all.

Although King Donghai had not attended the banquet, he had heard of Han Ruzi's order to close the city. After sighing, he said seriously: "You are too brave. Cui Teng and the others can't run far. I'm even more worried that they won't come back. What will you... explain to me when the time comes?"

If Cui Teng is injured or dies, it will indeed be a big trouble. Han Ruzi looked up at the clear night sky, "Try your luck, it's really an accident, I have to not go back to the gate."

Even though he knew it was a joke, he replied: "If you don't go back, I have to go back. If you have a 'queen' here, I have nothing."

Han Ruzi snorted and returned to his room.

An oil lamp was lit on the table and a book that was opened. Zhang Youcai, who followed in, said: "I searched for a long time and it turned out that Fang Daye was neither a soldier nor a general, but a prisoner." (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!