In the north of Jingshui in Guanzhong, in the mountains and forests near Chiyang County, a gray rabbit vigilantly showed half of its head from the soil hole under the tree, pricked up its ears, looked left and right for a while, and did not perceive any danger, so it got out and went to the bushes on the side, looking like it was going to look for food.

At this moment, there was a scream that broke through the air, and the gray rabbit subconsciously felt the danger, and was just about to jump and run away with his hind legs, but before he could do so, an arrow had already penetrated his body and nailed it to the ground.

A sturdy man got up from the bushes downwind, strode forward, then pulled out his arrow, shook the gray rabbit in his hand, smiled with satisfaction, and carried the rabbit south, and on his waist there was a dead wild boy with his neck hanging and his head dangling.

The mountains and forests are a dangerous existence for the vast majority of people, because there is no compass and no locator, it is easy to lose direction after entering the forest, and you don't know where you are when you walk, and you can never walk out again, until you become the nourishment of the animals and plants in the mountains and forests.

But the man in the costume looked at the moss of the surrounding trees from time to time, and looked up at the sun peeking out of the leaves, and seemed to discern the direction effortlessly, and after walking for most of the hour, he came out of the woods.

The weather has been good these days, with light winds and clear skies.

Under such good weather, and the terrain here is relatively high, so the arrow tower of the city wall in Chiyang County in the distance can be seen clearly. Chiyang County is not too big, but it is not too small, and the green bricks on the city wall have been around for some years, and they all look a little black. However, there seemed to be some broken tiles on the arrow tower above the city, and they had not been repaired in time, revealing a black hole.

The city gate was ajar, the drawbridge was lowered, and there were not many people coming and going outside the city, a few sparsely. On the edge of a ravine dug around the castle, a circle of antlers was arranged, and on the whole the defense was not considered to be strict or lax. With this level of city defense, if there is no shortage of food and water, the defenders are still qualified, and it is not much pressure to resist three or five times the number of troops attacking and hold out for three or five months.

The sturdy man stood on the rock, squinted, and stared at Chiyang City from afar for a moment, then jumped off the big rock, turned back, and came to a crazy col behind it.

In the col, I don't know when, a simple camp has been built, some men in leather robes in the camp are busy, some are taking care of the horses, some are polishing their blades, several soldiers saw the strong man, they all stood up, and greeted "Captain Pangdu......

In the camp, Ma Chao was also polishing the tip of his own spear on a stone.

There is no way, there is no stainless steel at this time, everything that contains iron will rust to some extent, and if you don't remove these rusty places as soon as possible, then the rust will expand more and more, and even damage the entire blade.

Ma Chao glanced up, then lowered his head and continued to polish carefully, and asked casually, "Ling Ming, is this going hunting?" ”

Pang De threw the rabbit and the wild child to the guards on Ma Chao's side, laughed twice, and said: "Walk around the forest at will, and meet two blind ones, and it is tasteless to gnaw on dried meat every day...... Take it and hurry up and clean it up, it's more or less fresh blood food......"

Pang De was originally engaged in a county, and later followed Ma Teng to attack those rebellious Qiang people, because of his bravery in battle, he made many military achievements, and also accumulated military merits to the position of lieutenant in the army.

Normally, after the establishment of the camp in the army, it is strictly forbidden to move around privately, but whether it is Ma Teng or Ma Chao, they have been Hu a lot, and when managing the army, they are more inclined to the Hu model, so Pang De left the camp to hunt, Ma Chao didn't care, just snorted slightly, and said: "Seeing that the enemy is in the present, but you can't use it...... It's all the same and tasteless......"

After half a month of pursuit, Ma Chao and others finally found this place from near Wugong County, and according to many indications, Li Dao was very likely to be hiding in Chiyang County......

Li Dao was originally the Marquis of Chiyang, so at the beginning this county was equivalent to Li Dao's fiefdom, although the army was defeated and scattered, but some soldiers and generals sent to Chiyang before were more or less Li Dao's confidants, so even if Li Dao has lost momentum at the moment, he still regards Li Dao as a leader and leader......

Those Han officials in the court, maybe they know, maybe they don't know, but whether they know or don't know, there is not much spare time to deal with the surrounding matters in the previous stage, so Li Dao hid and did not make trouble, and most of the officials above the court in Chang'an, Guanzhong, turned a blind eye and regarded it as if they did not see it.

The officials in Chang'an didn't see it, but Ma Chao couldn't treat it as if they didn't see it.

Seeing that the guards took the rabbit and the wild child to deal with it, Ma Chao didn't say anything, just sharpened the blade carefully, as if he was thinking about using this blade to stab that part of Li Dao's body, and said half-loudly: "Ling Ming, it's been two or three days here, what do you think of this Chiyang soldier and horse garrison?" ”

Pound De is also straightforward, so he doesn't have any thoughts to hide, seeing Ma Chao asking, he also opened his mouth and replied: "It looks okay, although there are not many patrols around, and they are not far away, but there is nothing less to do, and the equipment seems to be good...... Most of them are veterans, and they should have fought in battle......"

"What do you think of the garrison of this city?" Ma Chao asked again.

"The garrison is also normal...... However, it may not be easy to fight......" Pound said, touching the beard on his chin.

"Why?" Ma Chao raised his spear and squinted at the blade in the air.

Pound said: "...... In other county seats, there are still some places to escape, and some people will inevitably not want to die in the city when they attack...... But Chiyang is such a place, if you want to escape, where can you escape? So once we start fighting, we will inevitably resist desperately, and we don't have a lot of manpower......"

Ma Chao held the spear in one hand, waved it in the air a few times, and then swiped it beside him, silent. Li Dao was actually quite famous in Xiliang, and he said that he would definitely be able to defeat Li Dao, but in fact, Ma Chao did not have much base in his heart.

But now that I've come here, there's no reason to turn around and go back like this!

Ma Chao's subordinates, many of whom are Qiang people, and these forcible seizures were originally outside the territory of Huaxia, starting from the Qin Dynasty, it is wave after wave, and the relationship with Huaxia is also good and bad, never fixed, and has lasted until later generations, Huaxia is nothing more than to appease and rebel, again and again, and it seems that there is no end.

Like the weeds in the wasteland, stubble after stubble.

Ma Chao's current troops, in fact, are said to be soldiers and horses of the Han Dynasty, but it is better to say that they are mainly tribal, and the etiquette is quite sparse, and there is not so much red tape between the upper and lower levels. However, it is precisely because of this that when Ma Chao organizes his soldiers, it is quite easy to give instructions from above, and he is also extremely flexible in response to the battle, coupled with the original barbaric ferocity of the Xiliang people and the unique flexible and windy tactics of the cavalry, so Ma Chao's troops are actually quite strong in overall combat effectiveness......

Therefore, although he knew that Chi Yang was not easy to attack, no one had any complaints or retreats in the past two days, so he waited for Ma Chao to come up with some ideas and start acting.

"Yesterday, Captain Ma Du led the team out, touched the surrounding townships, arrested a few patrolmen guarding the townships, and killed them after questioning...... But the little soldier didn't know too much, and he didn't ask anything......" Ma Chao was also a little annoyed, and couldn't help but say to Pang De.

This is Ma Chao's biggest headache, he doesn't know anything about Chiyang City, how many soldiers are there, how they are arranged, how are the defenses in the city, there is no concept, how to fight Chiyang, how to fight?

That damn Li Dao! The part where he is hiding in Chiyang now, is it in the Chiyang Mansion, or is it in the city school field in Chiyang? But no matter where he is, as long as he is captured, he will be made to suffer for seven days and seven nights before dying!

………………………………

"Fire! Fire! Fire......"

Zhang Yan screamed hoarsely, feeling that he had fallen into a sea of fire, there were flames up and down, left and right, and even the sky and rocks erupted raging fire!

The soldiers standing on the ridge also seemed to be made of flames, shouting and cheering, holding all kinds of blades also made of flames, and reaping the lives of the sons around them......

The battle robe on his body has been set on fire, the iron armor on his body has also been licked hot by the tongue of fire, and the exposed eyebrows and hair have all been scorched! Black smoke was like a giant python, churning in the valley, choking everyone out of breath, choking as if every breath was like breathing flames.

“…… Archon! Archon! ”

The sound of flickering distance and approach, like a bright light in the air, shattered the surrounding scene, Zhang Yan opened his eyes and woke up a little, but his expression was still full of fear.

"Commander, it's okay, it's okay...... Come and drink some water......"

In the dim grass hut, a person carefully lifted Zhang Yan's body, trying not to touch the blood-soaked places burned by the flames, and took a bowl of water and put it next to Zhang Yan's pale lips.

Zhang Yan was groggy, drank a bowl of water with all her might, and then lay down weakly.

The people in the hut were silent for a moment, and then quietly withdrew.

It is a thatched hut built inside a hill. Because it was built in a hurry, it was very simple, and if it hadn't rained for a while, I am afraid that even the rain might not be able to completely cover it.

At the entrance at the far end of the hill, a fence was barely built with some felled tree trunks, and several people were on duty there, and these people were the only remaining personnel of Zhang Yan at the moment......

“…… After leaving ......the grass hut for some distance, the Great Commander's face was blackened, and his hair was a little curly, as if he was of some Hu blood, and whispered, "...... I searched for all the herbs around, but I couldn't find a good ...... In the past two days, the time of coma has been increasing...... I'm afraid it's ......"

"Bastard!" Another bearded man said angrily, "What bastards! Grand Commander...... The Grand Commander will get better! ”

"You're the fucking bastard!" The man from before also said angrily, "Get better, who the fuck doesn't want the Grand Commander to get better!" But now I have to find a way, it's not the fucking light that says something that doesn't hurt! ”

"What do you mean by words that don't hurt! Lao Tzu said that the general will be good, can this be a painless word! ”

A strong man walked over, frowned and scolded, "Shut up! Don't make any noise! With this strength, you might as well do more serious things! Curly, how much herb is left? ”

The man with curly hair shook his head and said, "Commander of the White Sparrow...... There's not much left, and it's almost gone today, so I'll have to go to the mountain over there later, and I hope to find some more......"

"Okay, this mountain is steep, be more careful...... the strong man patted the curly shoulders and said, "Everyone is anxious, and they are a little rushed to speak, don't take it to heart...... Right now, it's just our brothers now, and everyone should work together, Blackbeard, don't you say? ”

The bearded man lowered his head, was silent for a while, and then arched his hand towards Curly Hair, and said, "Little brother has no brains to speak, don't care about Curly Hair...... Wait a minute, the younger brother will go to the forest to search and search, look at the condom put two days ago, maybe he can bring some blood food back to make up for the commander......"

As he was talking, suddenly a person was very anxious, but because the mountain road was difficult, he staggered a little, and when he got closer, he said breathlessly: "...... No...... Oh no! Mountain...... Beyond the Mountain...... Coming from outside the mountain...... A team ......"

"Where are you from?" The White Sparrow Commander hurriedly asked.

“…… Be...... It's the one who conquered the west...... See, see the tricolor flag......"

Everyone's faces changed drastically, and they were at a loss for a while.

"Fetch the blade!" Bai Que yelled, as if he was talking to other people, and as if he was cheering himself up, "Since there is no way to live, then let's fight one and count one!" ”

The crowd shouted and shouted, and then each of them hurried to the humble fence at the mouth of the valley with their swords and guns......

“…… You! It's you! The white bird rushed to the valley mouth, but saw a familiar face in the queue opposite, and couldn't help but angrily raise the war knife and cut it on the stake in front of him, "Floating clouds! You shameless villain! Betrayal of the Grand Commander! You still have the face to come here! I'm going to kill you! ”

Zhao Yun immediately crossed his gun, under the tricolor flag, looked at his former colleagues who were roaring in the valley, and was silent for a while......