The next day.

The rising sun is rising, and the rays of light shine in the blue sky.

The morning dew gradually fades, the flowers are red and the willows are green and the scenery is beautiful.

Under the city of Ji County.

The 80,000 Xiliang army was waiting for the troops, and the war horses were neighing, with a majestic momentum.

In the wilderness within ten miles, there are many soldiers and swords, flags and flags, strong bows and hard crossbows to face the sky, throwing stones and railings to the earth.

The army is strong and the army is as powerful as a prison.

In front of the central army, Li Li wore a long gown in a cloth dress for the first time. The golden beast king under his crotch was not wearing armor, and his golden mane was shining brightly, and the power of the beast king was even better than the past.

Before the military formation, the 10,000 infantry soldiers under Huang Zhong were on high alert, and their morale was high. The soldiers climbed the city were eager to try and wanted to launch an offensive immediately.

Behind the infantry, Guo Si was wearing black armor and stood on the back of a green horse that was nearly 1 zhang long and eight feet tall, holding a sword with eight feet long handles. He looked cold and murderous. Behind him, 20,000 cavalry of the Qinglong Camp stopped and stood proudly facing the morning sun, with high fighting spirit and extraordinary majesty.

When attacking Jicheng, Huang Zhong personally led 10,000 infantry as the main force of the siege, including the chariot and crossbow formation, stone casting chariots and well railings to assist the siege. Guo Si's cavalry was in charge of the infantry. Once there was a flaw in the defense of Jicheng, Qinglong Camp would rush forward, attack the city gate, and break through the city in one fell swoop.

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On the Jicheng City Tower.

Ma Teng looked down at the Xiliang army under the city with a gloomy face, with a cold and solemn expression, and a trace of worry that was not easily noticed flashed through his eyes.

Nowadays, all his troops gathered in Ji City, gathering a total of 50,000 infantry and cavalry.

Fifty thousand soldiers and horses. At first glance, there are quite a few people, but the gap between them is not big with the 80,000 Xiliang Army. In addition, they are guarding the city, waiting for their labor to be able to defend the city. However, the actual situation is not optimistic.

My family knows their own affairs.

Others may not know how the 50,000 soldiers in the city were obtained, but Ma Teng himself knew it. Among these 50,000 soldiers, there were less than 30,000 elite soldiers who actually came from the Ma family army, and the remaining 20,000 infantry soldiers were all county soldiers from Hanyang County, Hanyang and Anding counties. Most of these soldiers guarding the city were old, weak and remnants. Less than 60,000 young and strong men, and they have been neglected in war for a long time, with varying quality and extremely limited combat power.

If this were the case, Ma Teng would be sure to defend Ji City without losing it, allowing Li Li's army to fail to fall into Ji County and return without success. The most fatal thing is that his direct subordinate Ma family army is not united at the moment, and he is stalemate on the issue of war and surrender, which leads to unstable morale and disintegration of people.

The Ma family army was the unit where Ma Teng started his family. He has always been in charge of himself and several sons. There was no outsider among the main generals. However, now his two sons and nephews are willing to surrender to Li Li and are unwilling to fight to the death with the Xiliang Army.

Ma Teng has three sons, the eldest son Ma Chao, the second son Ma Tie, and the youngest son Ma Xiu. In addition, he has a very talented nephew, Ma Dai. Of course, he also has a daughter who is not liked by him, a "rebellious daughter" who does not love his daughter Hong and swords and guns - Ma Yunluo.

Ma Tie is still young, only seventeen years old, young and immature, lacks prestige in the army and cannot convince the public. Ma Xiu is younger, and he is young and does not care about things, and is still in the stage of training with the army. Now, the person in the Ma family army who is truly capable of controlling the troops and is trusted and valued by Ma Teng is Ma Dai.

Ma Dai is Ma Teng's nephew. He grew up with Ma Chao since childhood, and was a few months younger than Ma Chao. He was mainly Ma Chao, and the leader of Ma Chao was the one who followed the head. The two cousins ​​were very close to each other. They practiced martial arts together, trained soldiers together, lived and died together, and shared weal and woe. In the battle of Heilongling, Ma Chao was seriously injured and could not escape from Wuwei County as soon as possible, so he stayed in Wuwei to recover from the wounded areas. Ma Dai led the Ma family army to successfully get rid of the Wuwei army's pursuit and escaped back to Fufeng County. After more than half a year, Ma Chao had no news about him. Ma Dai thought he had died in battle, so he repeatedly followed Ma Teng to take revenge on the Wuwei army. In the battle of Dongshankou and the night attack on Xiu City Ma, Ma Dai led the army and gradually replaced Ma Chao's position in the Ma family army and was in charge of 15,000 combat cavalry.

Ma Dai grew up so quickly, which was originally a good thing. Ma Teng was happy to see it succeed, and trusted and valued Ma Dai. However, after the Battle of Bahe, Ma Chao suddenly appeared under Li Li's command after half a year, and was valued by Li Li. He defeated Zhang Liao, the general under Lu Bu, and became famous in Xiliang. When Ma Dai learned that Ma Chao was not only not dead but instead surrendered to Li Li's command, it happened that Han Sui and Ma Teng's coalition attacked the Xu Ma Ma field and returned. Subsequently, Ma Dai's hatred for Wuwei Li Li quickly faded, and he felt that it was not a bad thing for the Ma family army to surrender to Li Li's command, but a wise move. After all, after the Chang'an Rebellion was quelled, Wuwei Li's strength increased sharply, and he took over the Xiliang army left by Dong Zhuo, and he still had the power to control the Xiliang army in his hand, and he was like a giant in Xiliang, and no one could match him.

After Li Li took charge of Chang'an, the situation in Xiliang took a sharp turn for the worse. Looking at the entire Xiliang area, all the princes, bandit leaders and surrounding barbarians, no one dared to challenge Li Li, and they avoided his edge and were in panic all day long. Half a month ago, Li Li personally led an army of 100,000 to fight against him. After hearing the news, the remaining forces in Xiliang either took the initiative to surrender to Li Li's army or fled to the two states of Xiliang to make another way to live.

Seeing that Li Li's army was unstoppable and the situation was so serious, Ma Dai and Ma Tie suggested that Ma Teng lead his troops to surrender Li Li, so as to save himself from hitting the stone with eggs and eventually he could not escape the fate of defeat.

For this reason, Ma Dai tried his best to persuade Ma Teng, saying that Ma Teng led his troops to surrender to Li Li, was not embarrassing, but a wise move to judge the situation. Now the Xiliang army under Li Li's command is strong and powerful, with a great power, and with the emperor's imperial edict in hand, he has an absolutely favorable and proactive advantage. Under such circumstances, Ma Teng's request for surrender can not only show that the Ma family army is loyal to the Han court, but also can take advantage of the steps given by the emperor's imperial edict to step down, so as not to damage Ma Teng's huge reputation in Liangzhou.

The Ma family must not miss such a great opportunity to take advantage of the situation, otherwise the Ma family will be completely finished!

Ma Dai stated the pros and cons of it with great intentions, hoping that Ma Teng would return to the lost path, and made a quick decision and took the initiative to surrender to Li Li's army. Unfortunately, Ma Teng couldn't listen to any of his heartfelt words, but instead became suspicious and thought that Ma Dai had a strange intention. So Ma Teng wanted to take back the military power in Ma Dai's hands and put it under the cover to prevent chaos within the Ma family army.

However, when Ma Teng confiscates Ma Dai's military power, he suddenly finds that there is no general under his command. Ma Dai has a high prestige in the army, second only to Ma Teng, far above Ma Tie and Ma Xiu. Idle Ma Dai means that the internal morale of the Ma family army is unstable, panic, and a faint trend of division is revealed.

At this moment, Youfufeng County was lost, and Ma Yunluo followed Ma Chao and led his troops to surrender to Li Li. This move was undoubtedly a worse problem for the Ma family army stationed in Jicheng. The house was leaking and raining all night, and the disaster did not happen alone. Therefore, the Ma family army, which was already somewhat unstable, finally became open to the conflict.

Ma Dai and Ma Tie strongly advocated the request for surrender, and mobilized dozens of generals to jointly advise. Ma Xiu was still young and had little words and did not participate. Faced with Ma Dai and others' forced advice, even Ma Tie, his own son, was mixed with Ma Dai and others, and Ma Teng became a lonely man. In anger, Ma Teng insisted on dismissing the military power of more than a dozen generals including Ma Dai and Ma Tie, and insisted on defending Jicheng to fight with Li Li's army with all their might. Fortunately, the Ma family army was finally established by Ma Teng, and most of the generals in the army were promoted by him personally. Therefore, after dismissing Ma Dai and Ma Tie, there was no civil strife in the Ma family army, at least there was no chaos at present.

At this moment, Ma Teng looked down at Li Li's army under the city with a serious face, but couldn't help but worry and worry about gains and losses.

Indeed, before Li Li's army arrived, the Ma family army was still stable, and no generals openly stood up to oppose him. However, at this time, the Xiliang army was at the city, and the army was approaching, surrounding Jicheng. At this time of crisis, will the generals in the army have any unfair intentions? Will anyone take advantage of the Xiliang army's attack, open the city gate without authorization, or resist passively, and do not work hard?

Ma Chao was under Li Li's command, and Ma Yunluo surrendered. Now Ma Dai and Ma Tie also advocated opening the city to surrender. These people are Ma Teng's children and nephews, and they are all willing to surrender Li Li. Is there no general in the army who opens the city to surrender?

As soon as he thought of this, Ma Teng, who was standing on the top of the city, felt a sense of misery inexplicably. Until now, he finally realized what "betrayal of relatives" and what "human hearts are dispersed", and he himself is now a veritable lonely man.

In the face of internal and external difficulties, can we really defend Jicheng by just one's own efforts?

Ma Teng was unsure of this and had no chance of winning. The saddest thing is that he had no even a confidant general who discussed the war, and he had to take on everything himself and decide it with one word.

The war is imminent, Ma Teng is under verbal pressure, exhausted and desolate inside.

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"Da da da da!"

"Where is Ma Shoucheng? Do you dare to go down the city to talk to me?" Outside the east gate of Jicheng, Li Li drove the Jinniu Beast King slowly to the moat, looked at Ma Teng on the top of the city, and shouted loudly.

"Li Li, Mr. Ma is here. If you have something to say, why bother pretending?" Ma Teng waved his hand to signal the left and right personal soldiers to retreat, shouting sternly with a gloomy face.

Li Li stopped by the moat, as if the distance was too far away, he could not hear Ma Teng's words clearly, and he replied irresponsible: "People say that Ma Shoucheng is a hero of Xiliang, who has been traversing Xiliang for more than ten years and is famous. In the eyes of this general, Ma Shoucheng, a rat who has only a false reputation and seeks fame, is not only not a hero, but a bear with a narrow head! At present, Jicheng's city is tall and strong, with 50,000 iron armor inside and a moat several feet wide outside, but you, Ma Shoucheng, dare not leave the city to answer this general. Such a timid person, are you worthy of occupying the city of Ji County and confronting and clamoring with our Xiliang army?"———————(To be continued)

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Chapter completed!