The middle section of Dabie Mountain, more than 50 miles away from the county seat of Macheng, is the largest fortress group along the mountain, and the earth and stone city wall built by the mountain guards the only passage into the mountain. Its importance is not hesitant to pass on Jiankang, from here, every other section stands a beacon tower, which continues to the territory of Huaixi.

It's just that these passes were built in the previous dynasty, after more than 300 years of ups and downs, it has been dilapidated, and Wu Xin, who is in his thirties, "with imperial equipment, Luzhou stationed in Luzhou, is the deputy commander of the strong and brave army" stood under his own general banner on the gate tower of the pass, staring at the Tartar army that was gathering in the distance and was silent.

He is a native of Jinghu, and the year before last, he was also in Lu Wenhuan's Xiangyang City as the "Yongxin Zhongjun Commander", after Lu Wenhuan opened the city and surrendered to the Yuan, he saw an opportunity, and fled back to the Great Song Dynasty with his wife and children and some cronies at great risk. At that time, the first emperor Duzong also made a special commendation, and then he was transferred to the command of Huaixi Xia Gui.

The Qiang Yong Army is not a Huaixi economic army, it is actually a part of the Huaidong Army, and this team from Wu Xin, the deputy capital, to the ordinary soldiers below is not Xia Gui's lineage, so it will not be treated equally. At this moment, behind Wu Xin, a large number of Huaixi troops were marching in full gear, they were not going out of the pass, but preparing to return to Huaixi through the mountains.

Naturally, Wu Xin and the strong brave army of the department became the natural candidates for blocking the enemy behind the palace, there were no rolling logs, no stones, not to mention any bed crossbows, catapults, fire oil bombs, and the ancient stone wall crawling with mountains and vines under his feet was Wu Xin's only reliance at the moment, and of course, there were more than 3,000 robes behind him who depended on him.

On the narrow mountain road under the pass, the Huaixi soldiers hurried past the strong warriors who were left behind by them with their heads down, and they did not dare to look at each other with ashamed faces. Then, the brave sergeants found that the commander of their team, the ordinary and arrogant Xia Shuai's cronies, also secretly ran away with the team.

"Pass on the order of a certain general, the whole army will go to the city and prepare to resist the enemy!" Wu Xintou shouted without looking back, he couldn't care about others, but he had no way to retreat, if he wanted to fall, then there was no need to risk death to run back, otherwise he could now mix a general manager with Yuanren or something.

Following his example, several generals also inserted their flags into the cracks in the stones at their feet, and those gaps had become clearly visible because of the age, and the guards were wondering if there were a few more people standing on this stone wall, would it collapse immediately? With this question, the foot soldiers all picked up their swords and guns, prepared their bows ~ crossbows, and stood one after another under the flags that were blown by the mountain wind, looking from afar, like the sea of azaleas blooming in the mountains, so brilliantly red.

Ali Hague rode a black horse, and because of the continuous march, the men and horses were stained with a layer of dust, and they looked dirty. It's no wonder that since he decided to attack the Song army, he has hardly stopped all the way, this Song army has not engaged him at all, and even the county town of Macheng behind him has given up.

In order to catch up with them, Ali Hague led more than 30,000 people to not even enter the city, and chased them until the foot of this Dabie Mountain, and looking at the pass above, Ali Hague did not hesitate to order to attack. The Song people were not prepared to defend the pass, and they did not have the equipment to attack the city, so it was very fair for both sides.

A retreating team of 1,000 Han soldiers walked in front of him, and the three thousand households were all wounded, and at a glance he knew that they had done their best, and the remaining number was less than half of what they were before the siege. Ali Hague waved generously and told them to go down and straighten out, and then, the golden drum sounded, and a new team of 1,000 people in front of them carried a crude ladder with green leaves on it, which had not been peeled off the bark of the tree.

General Xuanwei, Yidu New Army Wanhu, and Pei Chi Golden Tiger Fu Li Ting frowned and looked at the not very high wall on the mountain, and several consecutive attacks were repulsed. It seems that Xia Gui's department is not as warless as expected, is it because there is his lair behind it, so he began to fight hard?

Although he has a typical Han name, he is an out-and-out Jurchen, well, now they should be called Jinren, more than 100 years after entering the Central Plains, unconsciously these Jurchens have long been unable to speak Jurchen words, Han surname, Han costume, Han rites, the pride that was once "invincible" has long disappeared in history and become a story in the mouth of the elderly. As for his Jurchen surname "Pucha", even ancestor worship is no longer used.

There is the blood of the Jurchens in his body, even in the eyes of the Mongols, Li Ting is also a fierce general who does not spare his life, since the southern expedition, as long as it is a siege, he will lead the crowd first. Almost every time he was injured, he was shot down by the defenders and fell into the city more than once, and the last time in the battle of Xincheng, he even "regained the cannon and fell into the city, the arrow pierced through the chest, and the breath was dying", and he was almost not saved.

Seeing that the siege in front of him was not smooth, his fighting spirit rose again, and when the thousand-man team finally retreated, he pulled out the long knife at his waist "he", took a big shield from his own soldiers, and stood in front of the team with people. This time, he will personally lead the team to the city.

The expected marching drum did not sound, but after a while, the golden gong for the collection of troops sounded, and Li Ting turned his head depressedly to see that the big man behind the formation had been held high and retreated. And Pingzhang Ali Hague, who was originally on top of the war horse, had already turned around and left, Li Ting reluctantly ordered the team to turn around, and the foot soldiers in the army array were all happy, as if they had picked up a life from the hands of the king of Hades.

"The Tartars are back! All of them, let's hold it. Wu Xin, who had an arrow in his shoulder and had not had time to break it, suddenly heard a burst of cheers from the guards on the wall, he raised his head and looked at the pass, the Tartar army was indeed turning back, although he didn't know why, but Wu Xin knew that he had finally survived.

There were corpses everywhere in the city, and arrows were densely inserted on the walls, both sides used this as their main weapon, and they fired with all their might as if they were not paying for money, Wu Xin watched the movements of the Tartars in a daze, until he saw them disappear from view, and then stood up and gave the order.

"Send out the uninjured brothers, clean up the corpses in front of the gate, collect more arrows, and carry the bodies of their brothers in and bury them in the back. The Tartars may come again, and the men must not let go, and tell the men behind them to hurry up and get some food, for after fighting for a long time, they are hungry. ”

Wu Xin ordered to go down, and called the army to wrap his wounds, he looked at his busy subordinates, and he didn't know how many people were injured in this battle, fortunately, the Tartars came in a hurry and didn't bring the equipment, thinking of the enemy's return cannon in Xiangyang City, Wu Xin could only feel lucky, but next time, will it be so lucky? He turned his gaze to the beacon tower in the mountains, the beacon fire had been lit when the battle began, and the black smoke in the direct sky was transmitted in the mountains, hoping that the marshal would react quickly after seeing it.

"Dog ~ mother's tartar!" As if he heard Wu Xin's heartfelt words, thousands of miles away in Luzhou City, Xia Gui scolded in his own mansion, it is no wonder that he was fighting a meat game with the newly stored concubine in his house today, and he didn't want to go to the council of the mansion at all, but who knew that a beacon fire was actually lit in front of him, so he had to get up from that charming body.

The Tartar is approaching the pass of Dabie Mountain, and it is even likely that he is already tackling the problem, which is related to the safety of his own nest, Xia Gui has to deal with it very energetically, what he wants to know now is that the Tartar is a temptation? Or really want to Huaixi. Glancing at the cronies and staff standing in the hall, Xia Gui glared at him angrily.

"What do you say about the surname Yi?" After a fire, Xia Gui only felt that his mouth was dry, and he looked for an herbal tea on the table and drank it, paused the tea cup on the table and asked, the maid on the side was frightened, and secretly looked at the handsome's attention on the staff, and then came forward to refill the tea cup.

"People are not at home, so they sent people twice, saying that they were going out of the city to buy goods, and they would return tomorrow." The staff sighed, and it was clear that they didn't want to see it, and it was estimated that this Mr. Yi would not appear again until the Yuan people broke through the pass and the army invaded Huaixi, and at that time, I didn't know who was begging whom.

"What do you think? Will they come in? Xia Gui was already a little out of proportion, the military reports of the past few days had stirred his head up, and he couldn't figure it out, but in the end, he was old, his thinking was far less fast than when he was young, and the situation in front of him was like a fog, and the shadows couldn't be seen clearly.

"If the handsome man doesn't want to do what the surname Yi wants." The staff paused after speaking, looking at Xia Gui's expression, the latter's eyes flickered, obviously struggling in his heart, too, who is willing to give up the huge foundation to this, after a while, Xia Gui nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"Then let's do these two strategies, one is to order all the armies in front to resist according to the pass, how can we not let the Tartars lightly enter, so that we can take the initiative in talking with them in the future." The staff's words made Xia Gui nod again and said yes, showing strength will make people pay attention to it, everyone understands this truth.

"Second, the military states along the Yangtze River and Jiankang Mansion, this is not a matter for our Huaixi family, Li Shuai and they can't see death without help, if he really doesn't move, then no matter what we do, they are worthy of the court." After speaking, the staff glanced at the maid, and the poor maid was already trembling with fright.

"Fancy it? and it shall be given unto thee, and shall be taken away this day. And the things which were passed down immediately according to thy words. Xia Gui's words made the maid "plop" and fall to her knees, and the staff smiled bitterly and thanked her, he knew that if he said no, this maid would have only one end.

After writing a few documents and sending them out, it was almost night, seeing that things were almost done, Xia Gui got up and prepared to go back out of the house, his own soldiers hurriedly sent the armor up to serve him to put it on, Xia Gui wiped the sweat on his head, waved his hand and refused.

"This is Luzhou City, does anyone dare to stab someone here, this Laoshizi is stuffy and hot, I want to wear it to you." The pro-soldier in front of him is full of white hair like himself, he has been following him for almost forty years, and he has saved his life several times on the battlefield, Xia Gui can't be angry with him no matter what, so he has to play like a child, but the old pro-soldier stubbornly has the same personality as him, and in the end he can only give in.

"It's good to wear only this outer armor, and take the cowhide away, otherwise you won't wear anything." What is the situation of the cowhide armor lined on the body, the pro-soldiers know very well, so they give up persuasion, anyway, as the old marshal said, the person who dares to assassinate here has not yet appeared, and with that layer of heavy armor, it should be enough.

In the courtyard of Mr. Yi's house, Liu Yu and the others originally thought that this Xia Gui would not return to the Shuai's Mansion today, in that case, unless they attacked the heavily guarded courtyard of his family's house, otherwise the action could only be postponed, but the problem was that just today, there were already two groups of people who came to ask Mr. Yi's news, and if they came a few more times, it would inevitably be seen that the problem would not be seen.

Fortunately, when it was time to arrive, Xia Gui finally set off from home to the Shuai Mansion, which made them breathe a sigh of relief and summoned everyone to the courtyard, Liu Yu and Jin Ming silently looked at the young sergeants who had already dressed in black, covered their heads and faces with cloths, and only showed their eyes, and waved their hands.

"Success or failure is here, and everyone acts according to the plan." In danger, there was no grandiose rhetoric, and after saying this sentence simply, everyone began to act in groups in advance, the curfew had begun, the street began to be quiet, and with a few dog barks, one by one figures crept out of the backyard door.