When it was ugly, outside the Tiger Prison Pass, the South Dynasty West Route Army camp.

The silence of the night outside the camp was broken by the sound of a few running footsteps, and the guard post on the camp was awakened, grabbed a longbow and took a rocket, lit it on a torch, and fired it at the pyre not far away.

With a "whoosh", the burning rocket hit the firewood pile drenched with fire oil, only to hear the sound of "boom", the firewood was ignited, illuminating the surroundings, and several soldiers ran weakly in the direction of the camp gate, as if they would fall down at any time.

The guard immediately shouted: "Stop coming, or you will be killed!" ”

Several soldiers sat on the ground one after another, all sweating profusely, and one of them shouted: "We escaped from Xingyang, let us in, we have important military information to report to the general!" ”

The gatekeeper at the gate of the village saw that there were indeed only a few people on the other side, and the accent was Jiangnan, so he ordered the camp gate to be opened and let them enter the camp.

A moment later, three sweaty soldiers were brought into the tent with all their strength.

Shen Qingzhi is in his fifties, with a powerful appearance, a long beard, and a pair of eyes that shine from time to time.

"Who are the three of them and why are they here? Come on, if there is a lie, it will not be forgiven! Shen Qingyi slapped the table and stared at the three of them and shouted.

As a veteran for many years, the three soldiers who came after running for thirty or forty miles trembled with fright, and one of them fixed his mind and said: "General Qiqi, the three of us are all personal soldiers under General Yin's account." Yesterday afternoon, a cavalry of the cadre army suddenly came to the outside of Xingyang City, General Yin promptly ordered the city gate to be closed and the drawbridge was raised, and then sent a messenger to inform the reinforcement of the leading general, but as soon as he left the city, he was killed by the Qianjun rangers. At night or so, I heard that reinforcements seemed to have arrived, and they entered the city from the west city gate, but it didn't take long for the city to be shouted and killed, a large number of cadres and soldiers wearing our army armor and a large number of cadres and cavalry were killed when they saw people in the city, General Yin was about to take the generals to reinforcements, and the cadres had already killed the Taishou Mansion, and we waited desperately to protect them, and still suffered heavy casualties. General Yin knew that since a large number of soldiers and horses of the cadre army entered the city, Xingyang would definitely not be able to hold it, so he ordered me and the other three to escape and report the news to the general, and also let the general be prepared! I took the opportunity to escape, and then fled all the way to the direction of Tiger Prison Pass, and encountered two groups of pursuers on the way, and we escaped in time to avoid being killed! ”

The atmosphere in the tent was solemn, everyone didn't expect Xingyang City to be recaptured by the cadres so quickly, so that the Western Route Army would be dangerous, you must know that Xingyang is only more than forty miles away from the Tiger Pass, even if it is a normal march, the cavalry will only need half a day to arrive at most.

After a long time, Shen Qingzhi asked, "Do you know what happened to Yin Xianzu?" ”

"Back to the general, when I escaped from Xingyang, the general was still resisting desperately with his brothers, and I didn't know the news after escaping from Xingyang City!"

Liu Yuanjing, the deputy general next to him, asked: "Are you saying that the reinforcements entered the city from the west gate in the middle of the day, but those reinforcements were pretended to be cadres?" ”

"Yes, General Liu!"

"Do you know how many cadres are in the city?"

"According to the villain's speculation, it should be the three thousand cavalry of the cadre army who arrived outside the city yesterday afternoon!"

Liu Yuanjing was worried about his younger brother in his heart, his heart hung up, he frowned and said, "Where did Liu Shuren's two thousand reinforcements go?" Why didn't they go to Xingyang? ”

One of the soldiers who reported the message said: "I waited for the three of us to see it on the way here······ A large number of corpses of our army are thirty miles away from here, if the villain is not mistaken, they should be the reinforcements sent from here, they should have encountered the cavalry of the dry army! ”

Liu Yuanjing was struck by lightning.

Lu Fangping stood up and said: "General, the matter has become clear, it should be that the cavalry of the cadre army intercepted and killed the messenger after arriving in Xingyang City, and learned the news of the arrival of reinforcements, and then the cadre army ambushed the reinforcements. Late at night, the cadres put on our army's armor and equipment, dressed up as our army, deceived and opened the west gate of Xingyang and entered the city! ”

Shen Qingzhi couldn't help but look at Liu Yuanjing, and when he noticed the change in his expression, he knew that he was worried about the safety of his younger brother Liu Shuren, so he comforted him: "General Liu, I don't think my brother will necessarily ······ Maybe he escaped or was captured by the cadres, but at this time, the general should cheer up and not be affected by this incident! ”

Liu Yuanjing came to his senses when he heard this, and hugged his fist to Shen Qingzhi and said: "Thank you for the general's care, in fact, the brothers of the last general have long been mentally prepared to die on the battlefield. It is unlikely that he will escape, otherwise he would have come back a long time ago, and the last general is worried that he has been captured by the cadres, which is not only a great shame for him, but also for my Liu family! ”

The generals in the tent didn't know how to comfort Liu Yuanjing, but Liu Yuanjing himself first suppressed the heavy worries and said to Shen Qingzhi: "General, since the vanguard of the cadre army has broken through Xingyang, it means that the main force of the cadre army should not be far from Xingyang. Previously, we got the news that the Qianjun army was claimed to be 80,000, but it should only be about 50,000, and the leading general was the Qianwang princess Hua Mulan, who had arrived in Zhongmu. Presumably you are no stranger to the name Mulan, this is a capable woman, and she should not be underestimated. Zhongmu is only one hundred and twenty or thirty miles away from Xingyang, and it can be reached in two days, and the general forward is half a day ahead of the main force, and the marching speed of the forward is also faster than the main force, that is to say, before dark tomorrow at the latest, Mulan's main army will arrive in Xingyang! ”

"Now our army has three choices: first, continue to attack the Tiger Pass, take the Tiger Pass before the arrival of the cadres, and then wait for reinforcements; second, immediately give up attacking the Tiger Prison Pass, wave the army to counterattack Xingyang, and recapture Xingyang before Mulan's main force arrives in Xingyang; Third, give up attacking Tiger Pass and Xingyang, and immediately withdraw the army to defend Yingchuan! ”

Shen Qingzhi looked at the other generals and asked, "What do the generals think of the three choices proposed by General Liu?" ”

Lu Fangping said: "The last general thought that he couldn't break through the Tiger Prison in a hurry, otherwise we wouldn't be blocked for a few days, so the first choice was to give up!" ”

Luoyang Taishou Pang Faqi said: "General, if our army gives up attacking Tiger Pass and Xingyang, and chooses to retreat to Yingchuan, it will be equivalent to exposing the left flank of the Middle Route Army to the cadre army. ”

Shen Qingzhi glanced at a few generals, "So, our army can only return to the division to counterattack Xingyang, and then defend Xingyang to wait for reinforcements from the Middle Route Army?" ”

Liu Yuanjing thought for a while and said: "General, it is not necessarily a bad thing for our army to retreat into Yingchuan, although the left flank of the central route is exposed to the cadre army, but it is impossible for the cadre army to completely ignore the existence of our western route army and do its best to fight the middle route army, isn't Mulan afraid that our army will follow after she leads the army to the east, and kill her from behind when she is engaged with the middle route army?" If Mulan wants to fight the Middle Route Army, she must first solve our army, and our army can deal with it around Yingchuan, and wait for the Chinese army to solve the city and then move westward to join forces with our West Route Army to attack the main force of the cadre army! ”

Shen Qingzhi thought for a long time, and immediately ordered: "Pass the order, the whole army will pull out the camp and drive to Xingyang overnight, and immediately launch an attack on Xingyang after arriving in Xingyang. ”

All the generals knew that Shen Qingzhi was reluctant to leave Xingyang behind, and wanted to fight at the end. However, they also knew that Shen Qingzhi's idea was good, if he controlled Xingyang, he could not only contain the cadres in the Luoyang area, but also the 50,000 cadres led by Mulan, at least Hua Mulan could not attack the army in the middle of the Southern Dynasty with all his might.

"Yes!" The generals had already made up their minds about Shen Qingzhi, and they all left to prepare for evacuation after holding their fists together.

······

The battle in Xingyang City ended when the Qianjun army took control of Xingyang City under the command of Liang Yi, killing more than 1,800 defenders of the Southern Dynasty and capturing more than 1,000.

As soon as the morning dawned, Liang Yi ordered someone to post a notice for Anmin, and on the other hand, he ordered someone to write a battle report and send someone to send someone to the main army of Mulan, who was leading the army to come.

At midnight, the generals of the cadres who captured Xingyang City were carrying the materials and equipment to the city wall after breakfast, and since they had captured the city, they had to prepare for defense and defend this outpost for the main army.

"General, it's not good, the army of the Southern Dynasty West Road is coming to our side from outside the Tiger Prison Pass!" A soldier rushed over to report to Liang Yi.

When Liang Yi heard this, he immediately led people to the direction of the West City Gate.

When I came to the city tower, I saw a large number of soldiers and horses coming from the west, covering the sky with flags, and the smoke and dust rushed to the sky.

The adjutant general next to him said to Liang Yi: "General, our army is all cavalry, and we are not good at defending the city!" If the army of the Southern Dynasty attacks the city, I don't know how long our army can resist, if it is broken before the arrival of the main army, these soldiers of our army will die in vain! ”

Liang Yi thought for a while and asked, "How many of the original defenders were rescued by us last night?" ”

"There should be more than 2,000 people, the general doesn't think about it······ Let these people help us defend the city, shall we? ”

Liang Yi knew what the deputy general was worried about, the original defenders of Xingyang were all the men and horses of the captain's family, although the captain's family had already surrendered to the imperial court and went to Qianjing to take up his post, but the whole of the Qianguo country was not very at ease with the captain's family and the generals he left behind, after all, the time for these people to return to obedience was too short.

Liang Yi waved his hand: "Don't worry, you take people to send enough food to more than 2,000 people, let them eat and drink enough, give them weapons, bows and arrows, and bring them to defend the city!" ”

"Yes, General!"

When more than 15,000 soldiers and horses of the Southern Dynasty arrived at the city of Xingyang, more than 2,000 original Xingyang defenders had already eaten and drunk, and came to the city wall with weapons, bows, crossbows and arrows.

"The former Xingyang guard general Zhang Shilian asked to meet the general!" A tall strong man in armor walked over and saluted the wings under the leadership of his lieutenant.

Liang Yi looked at him and asked: "Zhang is General Lianti, Xingyang City was broken by the army of the Southern Dynasty in your hands, this is the responsibility of poor defense, if you want to investigate it in the future, I am afraid that it will not only be disgraced and dismissed." Today, Ben will give you another chance to make meritorious service for your crimes, if you can take your more than 2,000 soldiers to defend the attack of the Southern Korean army, Ben will plead with the court for you! ”

Zhang Shilianti immediately clenched his fists and said gratefully: "Thank you general, the last general will definitely defend Xingyang, people are in the city, and people are dead in the city!" ”