Outside the city of Ningdu, Zhenchuan Gate, because Xu Xiang has transferred the displaced people outside Zhenchuan Gate to the Yellow River Beach, it is already very quiet at night here.

Zheng Xuan is Mingheng's person, so he is not under house arrest, and he is still on duty at Zhenchuan Gate.

Zhenchuan Gate is located in the southwest corner of Ningdu, to the west is the direction of the Hexi Corridor, to the south is the South Seven Cities in the south of Zhongshan Kingdom, and the southernmost is Hechuan City.

Further south of this Hechuan City is a barren land, and this barren land does not see any green mountains and green waters, but is all mud and sand and swamps.

This is an area that has never been crossed before, and in this area poisonous insects and beasts are the masters. There was once a big family who tried in vain to open up this passage and open up a trade route with the Western Wei Kingdom, after all, the straight-line distance between the two points was the shortest.

This family has a lot of power in Hechuan City, and even half of the city guards in Hechuan City are under its control.

The opening up operation with 20,000 city guards and 10,000 people ended in failure. Of the 30,000 people, less than 1,000 escaped from Chuancheng alive.

And this family has completely become a third-rate family.

Since then, no one or family has dared to cross this dangerous land, and they would rather take a detour and travel three times the distance to the Western Wei Kingdom to trade.

There are still two hours to dawn, and Hou Pingyuan is a small flag officer of the city patrol department, and there are twenty brothers under him, who are usually responsible for patrolling the city gates.

His ancestral home is Hechuan City, and he originally had no intersection with the Ningdu City Patrol Division, when he was in his grandfather's generation, a small flag officer of the Ningdu City Patrol Division arrested criminals and came to Hechuan City, and met his grandfather.

Thanks to his grandfather's help, the little flag officer succeeded in capturing the prisoner and invited his grandfather to Ningdu as a guest.

After his grandfather came to Ningdu, he fell in love with the daughter of the little flag official at first sight, and the two fell in love with each other, so they became husband and wife.

Since this little flag officer only has such a daughter under his hands, Hou Pingyuan's grandfather became a son-in-law.

It didn't take long for Hou Pingyuan to give birth to Hou Pingyuan's father.

Since the soldiers of the City Patrol Division were hereditary, the little flag officer had no son, and after his death, Hou Pingyuan's father took over the position of the City Patrol Division.

Therefore, the Hou family also replaced his maternal grandfather's family and became the hereditary family of the City Patrol Division.

Hou Pingyuan has been a small flag official for four or five years, and he is relatively familiar with the affairs of Zhenchuanmen.

Although it was Chinese New Year's Eve, they couldn't leave, and they had to stay overnight.

Fortunately, their task was to go out and patrol the city every half an hour before returning to the barracks to rest for a while.

"Houtou, it's time for us to go out and patrol the city." The deputy said to Hou Pingyuan, who was comfortably roasting the fire.

"What time is it?" Hou Pingyuan stood up, took the cloak off the shelf and asked.

"It's a quarter of a minute."

Hou Pingyuan tied his cloak, picked up the knife next to him, and said, "Go!" ”

Even though he was wearing several clothes, wearing thick armor, and wearing a cloak outside, as soon as he stepped out of the barracks door, he felt a cold wind coming towards him, and he suddenly shivered.

"Hou Tou!" The soldiers under his command all greeted him.

The height of the city gate of Zhenchuan Gate is more than ten meters, and the section of the city wall they guard is also more than 1,300 meters.

Hou Pingyuan took his twenty men and began to patrol the city walls, which was their daily duty.

Ningdu is the national capital of Great Xia, and the defense of the national capital is very strict, and there is no need to inspect the city wall during the day, after all, you can see it at a glance above the city gate.

At night, however, the soldiers standing guard on the walls of the city have been removed and they need to make rounds. The first is to prevent foreign enemies from quietly marching under the city of Ningdu, and the second is to prevent those who steal chickens and dogs from entering the city from the city wall and creating thefts.

The cold wind was blowing, and he led his men to walk rhythmically on the city wall as usual.

At this time, he looked out of the city, and vaguely saw some figures in the darkness, he quickly stopped, raised his hand, and motioned for his subordinates to stop as well.

"What's wrong, Hou Tou?" The deputy stopped and followed his gaze out of the city, only to see nothing but darkness.

"Someone looks like it." He stared into the darkness and whispered.

"No! Hou Tou, are you dazzled? The deputy raised his torch and looked out of the city, still seeing nothing.

Hou Pingyuan stared at it for a long time, but he didn't see anything now, and thought to himself, could it be that he was really dazzled just now?

He rubbed his eyes, reaffirming that there was indeed silence outside the city, and that there was no sign of anyone's presence.

"Okay, maybe I'm wrong, let's keep patrolling!"

And outside the city gate at this moment, although there is silence in the darkness, in the darkness, there are dense soldiers.

This time of the winter night is often the coldest time, but these soldiers lie on the ground, motionless, and even the sound of breathing is deliberately very shallow.

Seeing that the patrolling soldiers on the city wall had continued to patrol, the soldiers in the darkness breathed a sigh of relief.

"General, how long are we going to wait here? The weather was so cold that the brothers were already too cold. In the darkness, one whispered to another.

"We haven't received a signal yet, so we can't easily attack the city. I can't let the patrol soldiers find out. The man looked at the city wall and whispered, "The Zhenchuan Gate is guarded by Zheng Xuan, and there are two thousand elites under his hands, and it will take at least two hours to attack the city openly." And in these two hours, Ming's soldiers will quickly react. Our trip is not to attack the city, but to save His Majesty from Ningdu! ”

"General, you say...... Is Xu Tianqiong credible? He asked us to come to Ningdu, saying that there was a way to rescue His Majesty from Ningdu, but we came to Ningdu according to the path he guided, but we never saw others! ”

"Although the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow has not done anything for so many years, but this time the Ming soldiers stationed in Ningdu City must have angered the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow, they let us rescue Your Majesty, there must be other plans! We don't care what they do, we just need to rescue Your Majesty! The world is so chaotic, let them mess around, as long as Your Majesty is safe, sooner or later, these ambitious people will be cleaned up one by one! ”

Time passed little by little, and Hou Pingyuan, who had finished patrolling the city, quickly returned to the barracks, and this cold night made him not want to stay outside for a moment.

There is a barracks at the city gate of the city patrol division, and Zheng Xuan's 2,000 soldiers usually live in the barracks, and fifty ten-person teams are sent to patrol the city in his jurisdiction every day, while the others stay in the barracks.

In the evening, they will return to the barracks. The night guard at the city gate was handed over to the night patrol brigade.

This brigade consisted of ten squads, and Hou Pingyuan and his men were one of them, and they patrolled every half hour at night, and the rest of the time they stayed in the barracks on the city gates.

Not long after he entered the camp, a red signal suddenly rose from the main barracks under the city, which stood out in the dark night.

When the soldiers outside the city saw this signal and knew that the time had come, they all stood up and lined up in squads.

There were 10,000 soldiers here, led by Zhai Ao, the commander of the Baolong Army, who stared in the direction of the city gate.

At this moment, the city gate slowly opened.

Zhai Ao was overjoyed in his heart and said, "Everyone, follow me into the city, don't make a big noise." Lei Mao, remind everyone to be cautious, although the signal is correct, but also pay attention, if the Great Xia Dragon Bird deceives us, you quickly lead people to retreat! ”

"Yes, General!"

After Zhai Ao led people to the city gate, he saw five very ordinary-looking men opening the city gate, and although the one led by him was wearing a set of men's clothes, he couldn't hide his heroic temperament.

"General Zhai, Zheng Xuan's two thousand elites have all been stunned, and now there are still two hundred night guards on the city wall." The man at the head said.

"Who are you? What about Xu Tianqiong? Zhai Ao saw that it was not Xu Tianqiong who opened the city gate, and he was slightly vigilant.

"In the following, this is General Xu's token!" The man pulled out a small golden dagger.

"This is exactly the dagger that General Xu took out at the beginning." Lei Ji said.

"Good! Town! Zhai Ao no longer had any doubts, and with a wave of his hand, the soldiers immediately entered the city.

Because he was too sleepy, Hou Pingyuan baked a fire after returning to the camp, his body warmed up all of a sudden, and he gradually fell asleep when he squinted his eyes.

In the haze, Hou Pingyuan vaguely heard some sounds under the city gate, but he was reluctant to leave the barracks, so he looked at the deputy beside him and said, "Chen Liushan, go see if there is any movement under the city gate?" You take two people to see it! ”

"Hou Tou, it's not time to patrol the city yet!" The deputy said with some reluctance.

"Tell you to go and see, and you go! Where is all this nonsense? ”

In desperation, the deputy had to get up, put on his armor, and cursed with dripping muttering in his mouth, this Chinese New Year's Eve will be patrolled without talking, and before the time of the patrol time is forced to check.

This made him very unhappy, and as he was walking outside the camp gate while wearing his armor, he lifted the curtain of the camp gate, and a cold knife suddenly fell on his neck.

He didn't dare to move for an instant, his hands were raised, and he slowly retreated.

The curtains of the camp gate were all lifted, and a cold wind blew in, along with dozens of soldiers.

The armor of these soldiers is something they have never seen before, that is to say, these soldiers who rushed over are not the patrol soldiers of Zhenchuan Gate!

Before Hou Pingyuan could react, the soldiers who rushed in grabbed him and his soldiers and put knives around their necks.

At this moment, he saw a young general emerge from among the soldiers.

"Captain Lei, this is the last team to patrol the city on the city gate, and everyone has been caught!" The soldier saluted the young general.

"You...... Who are you? Hou Pingyuan asked tremblingly.