After receiving the decree, Abatai together with the prince Haoge, ordered tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and immediately began to enter the mountains westward from the area of the former Tunwei, over the years, they have repeatedly committed crimes in the south, and have already touched all kinds of roads outside the Shanhaiguan Pass, and among the Han soldiers of the Wuzhen Chaoha battalion with their Han military banners, there are also a large number of soldiers who originally lived in this area, so they don't even need to look for a guide, so they are familiar with the road towards the Xifengkou area.

Because the roads are inconvenient and the mountain roads are difficult to travel, Abatai and Haoge did not carry too many heavy artillery, only a few Hongyi cannons, and the rest carried some lighter artillery, but in their opinion, such firepower is enough to suppress the Ming army guarding the pass, and according to their generals, it should not be a problem to deal with the Ming army guarding the pass.

So after Abatai and Haug had entered the mountain, the Overseers marched all the way to the mouth of the Peak, and in order to ensure that their intentions were not revealed, all the villages they passed through were either slaughtered or the young men were enslaved into the army, and the young women were left in their army for them to play with, and the rest of the old and weak were slaughtered, so that their whereabouts were well hidden.

The main attention of the Great Chinese Army was in the area of Shanhaiguan, and the scouts were only probing the enemy not too far from the periphery of Shanhaiguan, so they did not find their whereabouts.

In this way, it took eight days for Abatai and Hauge to finally lead the army to the area of Xifengkou, and saw the gate of Xifengkou from a distance.

But at this time, the Ming army defenders at Xifengkou have already been strengthened, and Zhou Yuji, the general of the Ming army, has led the last elite men and horses of more than 2,000 Ming troops under his command more than ten days ago.

Originally, the Ming generals who guarded the Xifeng Pass were all a garrison surnamed Liu, although this place was an important place, but because of the lack of repair all the year round, coupled with the destruction of the guard system, this area was originally claimed to have 5,000 people, but when Zhou Yuji led the troops to arrive here, the defenders here only left less than 1,500 people, and most of them were soldiers of soldiers, whether it was training or morale, it was very poor.

When Chongzhen ten years, Jiannu broke through the pass from Xifengkou, invaded Gyeonggi, broke through Changping, Baoan Zhucheng, and then went out of this place after plundering, it can be said that it is like entering no man's land, although after that, the imperial court realized the weakness of the defense of Xifengkou, improved it, increased some defenders, and carried out a certain rest on the pass around Xifengkou, but because the domestic situation is becoming increasingly tense, the imperial court has insufficient financial resources, even the improvement is limited.

Therefore, if Xifengkou is not Zhou Yuji and his troops come here, then there is basically not much defense ability here, facing the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of Abatai and Haoge, it can be said that there is no condition to prevent them from breaking through the pass, so Abatai and Haoge can easily break through the pass and enter the pass here.

For this point, whether it is Abatai or Haoge, it can be said that they are full of confidence, and to a certain extent, both of them are a little underestimated, so when they saw Xifengkou, neither of them took this place seriously, and after a little arrangement, they ordered Shi Tingzhu to lead the Han soldiers of the Wuzhen Chaoha battalion with red flags in the Han army flag to kill towards Xifengkou.

This Shi Tingzhu was originally the Ming Guangning garrison, when Wang Huazhen abandoned Guangning and fled into the customs, Shi Tingzhu and his younger brother Shi Tianzhu switched to Jiannu, these years for Jiannu to be a pawn, everywhere to fight a lot of merit, whether it is a wild boar skin or Huang Taiji are quite attached to him, after the establishment of the Han Eight Banners, he was awarded Shi Tingzhu Han Army inlaid with red flags to solidify the mountain Ezhen is the position of the banner owner, so that he led the troops to continue to serve in the Jiannu Tartars.

This time, Abatai led the troops to knock on the pass, and Shi Tingzhu's Han army set out with the red flag, acting as the pawn of Jiannu, and attacked Xifengkou as a striker.

But what Shi Tingzhu didn't expect was that in the first few years, they could easily enter and exit Xifengkou, at this time it had become a dangerous pass, Zhou Yuji, the last fierce general of the Ming Dynasty, led the troops to arrive at Xifengkou, and immediately took over the customs and defense affairs in the Xifengkou area from the garrison surnamed Liu.

As soon as Zhou Yuji led the troops to Xifengkou, he immediately inspected the defense of Xifengkou non-stop, and was quite dissatisfied with the defense of this area, so he immediately ordered the men within a radius of 30 miles to build a wall in the area of Xifengkou, and because of their limited food, Zhou Yuji was also ruthless, so that these people brought their own food and equipment.

Although the common people were very dissatisfied with this, Zhou Yuji sent people to find the squires everywhere in the local area, and told them that the recent southern invasion of the Jiannu army was likely to enter the Xifeng Pass again.

In the ninth year of Chongzhen, the scene when Jiannu broke through the pass and entered for these people around Xifengkou, it can be said that it is still fresh in their memories, and those squires naturally knew the brutality of the Jiannu army, and felt that what Zhou Yuji said was good, and saw that the military discipline of the Ming army stationed in Shanhaiguan this time was quite strict, not as bad as the officials and soldiers here before, so he had a certain trust in Zhou Yuji and these officers and soldiers under his command, think about it, if Xifengkou is broken, their homes will be looted by Jiannu again, The homes that had just been restored were about to become ruins one after another, so some of these squires were enlightened and agreed to Zhou Yuji's request.

A group of squires spontaneously took out a part of the stored grain at home, on the one hand, they gave it to Zhou Yuji as a military ration, and the other part was taken to the people who were requisitioned to eat, especially the generals of the two hundred Chinese army in Zhou Yuji's army, this time also played a great role, they cooperated with Zhou Yuji to supervise military discipline, as far as possible not to disturb the people, so that Zhou Yuji won the support of the local people, in just three days, they gathered thousands of people, began to be under the leadership and command of Zhou Yuji, Day and night, the key passes in the Xifengkou area were repaired, and some important walls that were originally dilapidated were repaired, which greatly enhanced the defensive power in this area.

And when Zhou Yuji and Lu Xiangsheng broke up, Lu Xiangsheng asked Yan Chongxi to give Zhou Yuji a batch of weapons and ammunition, which also greatly enhanced the strength in Zhou Yuji's hands, and soon Zhou Yuji built a defensive system in the Xifengkou area.

Considering that once the Jiannu army attacked, the strength would definitely not be small, with the less than 4,000 officers and soldiers he currently controlled, and some of them were not very effective officers and soldiers, it would be not enough to resist the flood of the Jiannu army, so Zhou Yuji lobbied those people who came to repair the city and encouraged them to stay and help in the war.

So under Zhou Yuji's strong lobbying, many people were finally armed and joined the defenders, making the strength of the defenders in this area reach more than 6,000 people, which effectively enhanced the defense capability of the Xifengkou area, although most of these soldiers and civilians were very weak in combat, but Zhou Yuji did not have more time to train them at the moment, just let them be used as auxiliaries, and it was not bad to help his main force transport the guards.

Zhou Yuji basically completed the deployment of the Xifengkou area before Abatai led the troops here, and rearranged all the armies, focusing on guarding the dangerous places around the Guancheng, and personally led the troops to sit in the Xifengkou Pass, facing the outside of the pass.

Sure enough, just before Zhou Yuji completed the deployment, he received an order from Wu Xiang, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, and the person sent by Wu Xiang told Zhou Yuji that the Jiannu army is likely to have divided its troops in the Shanhaiguan area, and will come to attack Xifengkou, hoping that Zhou Yuji will be fully prepared, and he must defend Xifengkou to the death, and must not let Jiannu break through the pass, otherwise, Jiannu will enter the customs, not only directly threaten the capital, but also cut off the back road of Shanhaiguan from behind, hoping that Zhou Yuji can stick to this place.

Zhou Yuji didn't say a word after hearing it, so he patted his chest and agreed, although he didn't treat Wu Xiang's character very well, but he heard that Wu Xiang led the troops and Jiannu in Shanhaiguan this time is very tenacious, no matter how Wu Xiang chooses in the future, at least in dealing with Jiannu, Wu Xiang's performance is quite good, since he is sitting in Xifengkou, he can't let Jiannu break through from him, so he said to the person who came to report the news: "After you go back, you can inform your family Wu Junmen, as long as Zhou Yuji does not die, There is still a soldier alive here, so we must not let Jiannu break through! ”

The person who reported the news immediately clenched his fists and replied: "Thank you General Zhou, since this is the case, we will not delay any longer, and the next step is to go to Huangyaguan and Gubeikou to report the news, and there will be General Lao Zhou here!" Our soldiers said that if we meet again, after defeating Jiannu, we should thank the general in person! Farewell! After saying that, these messengers immediately changed their horses here in Zhou Yuji, and rushed to the direction of Gubeikou and Huangyaguan day and night.

As soon as the person who reported the news left, Zhou Yuji's subordinates rushed back from outside the gate with a face full of fear, and when they saw Zhou Yuji, they knelt down and reported loudly: "General Qiqi! There is a large number of Jiannu army outside the pass, which is marching towards Xifengkou, and the strength of the slave army is estimated to be more than 40,000, and now it is probably less than 20 miles away from Guancheng! General Zhou, please prepare quickly......"

After hearing this, Zhou Yuji's eyebrows were raised, and he stood up and said loudly: "Okay! Well done! Today is the time for us to serve the court and kill slaves! The order goes down, and everyone goes to the city to prepare for the imperial guard! Tell all the generals that no matter whether I live or die Zhou Yuji, as long as there is one person alive, I must not let the Tartars enter the customs! ……”

(By the way, I forgot to say it in the morning, it's not too late to make up for it now, I wish all the brothers who read the book a happy Dragon Boat Festival!) The appetite is great, and the food is delicious! Hehe! ）