I came here with ambition to defend the pass, and I wanted to compete with the Rong people, but I didn't expect that in the past few months, I have been entangled with birds and beasts, and my ambition and military strategy have suddenly become useless.

Although the results of the two encounters with the Sumeru wolf were different, they were both passive defenses, which made him depressed, and if it weren't for this stone castle today, I am afraid that he would have to repeat the mistakes of the month before.

At this time, Li Ji walked up to Lihua and told him that Tang Yuan had woken up. Yu Lihua was stunned for a moment, and there was a slight hint of joy on his face, and then he ordered Li Ji to take someone to lie down the wolf skin, and he turned around and went to visit Tang Yuan in the castle.

"Your Excellency... Dereliction of duty on the part of subordinates... Failed to detect the wolves.... caused the adults to be in danger..."Tang Yuan saw that Zhu Lihua was in front of him, and quickly struggled to get up and said to Zhu Lihua.

Lu Lihua patted Tang Yuan on the shoulder, motioned for Tang Yuan to lie down, and said to him: "Tang Shi Chang has no merit, but that Sumeru wolf is fast, you have done a good job at the beginning, and we have also looked for you after we left, but we have not found it, where did you two go, and how did you get here." ”

When Tang Yuan heard Lu Lihua say this, he couldn't help but redden, and he said in a trembling voice: "That day, after Brother Da Niu and I made a secret word, we hid in the trees and didn't dare to move, and I saw the wolves running in your direction, and after a while, I saw the wolves returning, and they were carrying the corpses of six brothers. After seeing the wolves leaving, Da Niu and I ran down from the tree to return to the pass, but just after walking a short distance, we found a white wolf crawling on the ground, and there were more than a dozen wolves around him blocking the way, and the white wolf had an arrow stuck in one of its eyes.

Seeing that the way back to the pass had been blocked, Da Niu and I had to find another way to see if we could turn to Jinniu Pass or Tubat Pass, and then the two of us went around and walked west for a day, passing by several such stone forts along the way, and resting in the stone forts at night. On the second day, the oxen and I turned south, and as we passed through a valley, we found a wolf's den. ”

"Wolf's den, Sumeru wolf's den?" Hearing this, Zhu Lihua couldn't help but interrupt Tang Yuan's words.

"It's the den of the Sumeru wolf, my lord." Tang Yuan replied, and seeing Lihua's thoughtful look, he continued: "Seeing the nest of the Sumeru wolf, Da Niu and I were afraid that they would find out, so we left cautiously, but there was a white wolf blocking the way back to Muqi Pass, and there was a wolf's den on the side of the road to Heguan. Da Niu and I discussed hiding in the stone castle for some time, and then returned to the Wooden Buck Pass, so that the daily hunting and exploration passed for a month.

Today, the two of us thought that those wolves were estimated to have left, so we had the courage to go to the Qimu Pass, but we didn't expect to meet the wolves again, we had to run to the nearest stone fort, but how can we run past those Sumeru wolves, the big bull brothers in order to cover me, led away the wolves, so that I have time to run to the stone fort, but I didn't expect to meet you. With that, Tang Yuan closed his eyes, and two lines of hot tears flowed down his cheeks.

Lu Lihua pondered silently for a moment, then asked Tang Yuan about the location of the wolf's den and the surrounding environment, told him to rest for a while, and then turned around and left the stone castle.

Yu Lihua summoned Wei Yuanqi, took him to a place where no one was and said to him: "Brother Wei, this group of wolves provoked us twice in a row, and eight brothers also died because of it. ”

"What Lord Baijiang said is true, but the Sumeru wolf has come and gone without a trace, and we are also understaffed to fight with it, and we are powerless." After Wei Yuanqi heard what Lu Lihua said, he was immediately worried, and looked at the woods in the west and replied.

Yu Lihua smiled and said to him: "I just talked to Tang Yuan, and I learned that the Sumeru wolf's lair is not far ahead, I have a plan, maybe I can wipe them out, even if they can't succeed, they can also be greatly injured and no longer have the power to offend me." ”

Looking at Wei Yuanqi's surprised eyes, Yu Lihua nodded, patted Wei Yuanqi on the shoulder and arranged with him in detail to attack the wolf's lair.

After waiting for the rest of the soldiers to pack up the wolf skins and bury the two who were killed, he took the remaining soldiers and four wounded soldiers and embarked on the road of revenge according to the marks left by Wei Yuanqi.

On the way, Tang Yuan's body was gradually recovering, he was originally the one with outstanding physical and military qualities in An Xu's old department, otherwise he would not have lived alone with Da Niu and the two of them in the west of the inaccessible Sumeru Mountains for a month. However, due to these days, in order to avoid the pursuit of wolves, the physical exhaustion is extremely serious.

During his time in the stone fort, he was replenished with food and water, and after resting for a while, he was alive and well like the rest of the sergeants.

Li Ji had already left with Wei Yuanqi first, so at present, Liu He and Tang Yuan were the right and left hands around him, and Tang Yuan was also very familiar with the terrain around the wolf's den through the observation and maneuvering in the previous month, and on the way, he kept telling Lihua about the number of Sumeru wolves, olfactory distance, retreat route and other details.

Sumeru wolf's den is located in a valley more than 50 miles away from the west road of Jinniu Pass, the valley is densely forested, and the deepest position in the valley has formed some natural karst caves because of the continuous erosion of the dark river, and these caves are used as nests by Sumeru wolves.

There is only one way into the valley, and there are cliffs in and out of the valley, except for the narrow one-line passage. When Tang Yuan described the terrain of the wolf's lair to Lihua, Lihua had already formulated a plan for revenge in his heart.

The closer the group got to the valley, the more confident he became, but he was also a little nervous, because the key to success today was whether they could complete a series of marches, ambushes, etc., before the Sumeru wolf found them.

Fortunately, there was a big battle with Sumeru wolves in the stone castle, and these wolves also suffered heavy losses, and Lihua estimated that the defense of Sumeru wolves should be a little lax, after all, no matter how powerful they were, they were just some beasts.

Finally, according to the agreement with Wei Yuanqi, Lu Lihua and the others arrived at the exit of the wolf's den on time. As soon as he arrived here, he saw a wolf corpse, and when he walked to the corpse, he saw that the wolf was covered with arrow holes, and the depth of the arrow holes was not much different, and it could be seen that the wolf was shot by more than ten arrows at the same time and died instantly.

Seeing that Wei Yuanqi did not issue a warning, Zhu Lihua knew that this meant that there was no movement in the wolf's den, and there was no nonsense, so he asked everyone to concentrate on the flint and fire sickles they carried with them to the five people who were selected to be good at running, and asked the rest of the soldiers to quickly collect dried artemisia and dead branches.

He's ready to attack!

It has been more than four months since the winter moon of Lihua came to the wooden hedgehog, it is the beginning of March, although the grass and trees have already sprouted, but the old artemisia all over the ground has not been covered by the new grass, and there has been no rain for nearly half a month, these dried artemisia are used for ignition at a little is very convenient.

According to Tang Yuan, the wolf's den is full of pine forests, these pine trees have their own oil and are very easy to ignite, and there will always be mountain fires in Sumeru Mountain every summer and autumn, which is because of the flood of mountain fires caused by lightning hitting pine trees. Moreover, the Golden Bull Pass is south of the Wooden Horn Pass, and the wolf's den is west of the Jinniu Pass, so once the fire catches up, the cold north wind will inevitably intensify the fire and spread to the wolf's den.

And these are the reasons why Lihua feels that this battle will be won.

In order to make this plan more perfect, Yu Lihua asked Wei Yuanqi to take the lead with twenty archers to take the lead in guarding the sky above the entrance of Wolf Castle, and when the fire was together, he waited for the opportunity to shoot the wolves fleeing outside the cave. Zhu Lihua felt that the best result of burning the wolf's den this time was to burn all the wolves to death, even if he couldn't wipe them out, he had to kill and injure the wolves more to solve the wolf problem. The lowest possible outcome is to burn down the wolf's den and force them to move elsewhere.

As for the field battle caused by the Sumeru wolf halfway, Lihua is not too worried, because once they are discovered, they can quickly retreat to the Golden Bull Pass, and the way to the Golden Bull Pass is completely different from the way down the mountain from the Muqi Pass, which is completely a heavenly road carved out on the steep cliff, so the Golden Bull Pass is also one of the cities that have never been breached since ancient times, and more than 40 of them do not have to worry about the group attack tactics of the wolves by virtue of the danger of the heavenly road. Of course, such terrain is also the reason why Sumeru wolves choose to build their nests, because no one is willing to take such a dangerous road regardless of whether it is inside or outside the pass, so it is sparsely populated, and birds and beasts are willing to go.

Just as the sergeants had already piled up the artemisia grass as high as a hill, the north wind that had come as they wished suddenly blew up, and it was conceivable that once the fire was lit, it would inevitably blow the billowing smoke and dragon-like flames into the wolf's den.

But for some reason, when the north wind whistled by, Zhu Lihua felt a little uneasy.

Suddenly, I only heard a shout from the mountain from afar: "Brother Lili, run", Lihua knew that it was Wei Yuanqi's voice as soon as he heard it, he quickly turned around and looked, only to see Wei Yuanqi running down from the mountains on both sides with the archers who had been ambushed before, and they shouted while running: "Rong people are coming, run, run." ”

Zhu Lihua's heart tightened, he heard Wei Yuanqi's call clearly, knew that something was wrong, and during his contemplation, Zhu Lihua and the soldiers only heard a cry that shook the sky into their ears, only to see that dense figures appeared on the hills on both sides behind Wei Yuanqi in an instant, and these figures gathered more and more, and finally poured down from the hillside like a silver bottle, and for a while, the figures were all over the mountain and black oppression.

Like the soldiers around him, he was stunned when he looked at the scene in front of him. "How could it be so coincidental?" He muttered to himself.

Lihua didn't believe that things could be so coincidental, and when he was about to kill the Sumeru wolf, he encountered so many Rong people. Looking at the number and momentum, Lu Lihua and the others would absolutely believe that on March 7, 589 in the Zhou calendar, the invasion of the Rong people every ten years or so began in advance.

Seeing that Wei Yuanqi and the others were approaching, Yu Lihua could no longer think about other things, and his mind was full of how to deal with the current dangerous situation.

At present, the two roads back to Muqi Pass and Jinniu Pass have been occupied by the Rong people, and there is a wolf's den behind them, and there is no way to go before and after. Seeing that the Rong people were about to pursue, Zhu Lihua ordered all the sergeants to retreat into the sky and use the terrain to guard.

After the order was issued, all the sergeants also showed the characteristics of the Qin people's excellent military quality, especially when it came to the moment of life and death, everyone took off the bows and arrows in their waists, and slowly retreated into the first line of heaven in a defensive formation.

Zhu Lihua drew his sword, and under the escort of Liu He and Wei Yuanqi, he was the last to retreat into the first-line heavenly canyon, and at the last glance of his submersion into the deep valley, he happened to see that the Rong people had chased closer, they were dressed in animal skin coarse cloth, and some of them held a thick wooden stick with a thick and thin end, held it high above their heads, and rushed forward with a shout. One of the leaders of these Rong people was holding a rod with an iron nail stuck in it, his eyes were wide with anger, and his cloak was scattered, and he rushed towards the place where Lihua and the others were.

Zhu Lihua and the others entered the front line and found that the top was narrow and the bottom was wide, and the naturally formed passage could be passed by four or five people side by side. Seeing that the dead artemisia grass on the ground and the thorns on the cliffs on the left and right made it extremely difficult to pass, the first line of heaven became darker and damper as he went, and he ordered a sergeant to shoot a rocket to ignite the pile of artemisia grass at the mouth of the first line.

In fact, Zhu Lihua also estimated the humid environment on the first line, and originally planned to let the five sergeants who were good at running each carry a bundle of artemisia grass into the first line, and then set fire to it after the wet area, but at this moment, these unfinished work became the support for the lives of Li Hua and others.

After seeing a rocket, Taniguchi was in flames, and everyone didn't have time to look at it again, so they quickly withdrew to the other side of the sky under the order of Zhu Lihua.

At this moment, there was no joy of safety in everyone's hearts, because the other side of the sky was also full of dangers, after all, they had also experienced the horror of those Sumeru wolves. And the artemisia grass in Taniguchi will always burn out, and at that time, how can a team of less than forty people in Yulihua be able to take care of both ends and face the attacks of Rong and wolves at the same time.

Rushing through the first line of the sky, Zhu Lihua's heart was full of frustration and chagrin at the moment, he was a little depressed Why did these Rong people come at such an inopportune time, he looked at the brothers around him with shame, looked at the familiar faces, opened his mouth and finally said nothing.

Liu He, Wei Yuanqi, Li Ji and others beside Lihua also discovered the abnormality of the main general at this time, and they all walked to the front of Lihua and looked at Lihua with firm eyes.

Zhu Lihua understood that they wanted to tell themselves that they believed in their master, and they had no regrets even if they died. The life and death of these months have made his sergeants trust him, and he doesn't want everyone to be safe and sound in the war.

Although the war is cold, he also knows that soldiers in the war have to go through the cruel process of the general dying in a hundred battles and the strong man returning in ten years. But he also thought about it countless times, and tried to save everyone's lives with his wisdom. But now that it has come to this, what is there to say?

Anyway, it's not a good thing to die generously.

Zhu Lihua figured out this joint, nodded to everyone, and the color of determination appeared in his eyes again, he lifted the sword and shouted loudly: "Brothers, Zhu Li is not talented, leading everyone into a desperate situation, and I will take all the blame when I get to the underworld." But he was fortunate to be able to go to Huangquan with everyone. The eldest husband is not afraid of life and death in the army, today we will guard the exit of the first-line sky, and after the fire is extinguished, intercept and kill the Rong people who rushed out of the first-line sky, so that these barbarians can see that my Qin people are heroic and mighty! ”

"Great Qin is mighty!" The team of forty people echoed in unison, and suddenly there was a faint aura of slaughter. Wei Yuanqi, Li Ji and others led their subordinates to rely on the trunk to cover and aim their bows and arrows at the exit of the sky. Chang Ge soldiers lined up in a line of five people, holding Chang Ge tightly against the exit.