Iron hooves galloping, war horses galloping, 4,000 Xiliang cavalry galloping on the endless Gobi Desert, the party people have been escorted to Wuwei by 1,000 cavalry and nearly 1,000 garrisons of the quicksand river.

The main force was summoned by the beacon fire, and rushed to Huixi Fort day and night, Zhang Huan frowned, and the beacon fire rekindled on the Wusheling Ridge made him worried, that is to say, the Tubo people sent more than 30,000 troops to deal with him, but he was not only worried about the Xibao, but the strategy of the Tubo people.

Whether their target is Huixibao or Wuwei County, although it is unlikely to be Wuwei County, but he still feels that it is inappropriate, if the enemy army attacks Huixi Fort is a strategy to divert the tiger from the mountain, when the reinforcements of Wuwei County come, then who will resist the Tubo people killed from Zhangye?

Zhang Huan stopped his horse, took out the silver medal for troop transfer, handed it to a personal soldier and said: "You go to Wuwei County immediately, if He Lou Wuji has led troops to help, you pass on my order, order him to turn to Tianbao County, and send more scouts to investigate the situation in Zhangye County." ”

When the soldiers went, Zhang Huan handed a letter to Sima Luo Guangzheng: "It's hard to go to Sima Luo, you go to Kaiyang County quickly, give this letter to Wei Ge, and tell him that Hehuang is empty, and it is the time to enter the army." ”

Luo Guangzheng was about to leave, but Zhang Huan stopped him again, "If Wei Ge is unwilling to send troops, then you tell him again, as long as he is willing to cross the Yellow River within five days, I will thank him with 10,000 taels of gold and 2,000 war horses, and I will never break my promise." ”

"Don't worry! If he refuses, he will be drowned by the spittle of his countrymen. Luo Guangzheng surrendered his hand and led several cavalry to gallop eastward.

The cavalry group continued to gallop to help, and when it was about thirty miles from Huixi Fort, it was getting dark, and a group of scouts took the lead to inquire for information, while the cavalry slowed down, rested their horses, and joined up with a thousand defenders who had arrived from the beacon towers along the Yellow River.

The first day of the fierce battle at Huixi Fort was over, and the Hehuang coalition army set up a large camp three miles away. The dense fire points are like stars in the sky, and another team of 10,000 people, led by the deputy general Shang Pozan, went north along the Yellow River, and they went around through a large dense forest to camp in front of Huixi Fort, although the ravines east of Huixi Fort were vertical and horizontal, the forest was lush, and the large siege engines could not pass through, but more than a dozen siege ladders and three crashing cities were still dismantled and brought over, and they also set up a large camp. Siege weapons are being assembled overnight.

On the city wall, the battlefield was also being cleaned up and supplies were being prepared, and groups of men and women were carrying weapons to defend the city and carrying away the wounded under the leadership of the county commander. And clean up the ignition tower that has collapsed.

Many carpenters were repairing stones and bed crossbows, and Lin Pingping, who was called the fire lotus by the soldiers, led hundreds of people to climb the wall with the help of soft ladders, and they had ropes tied around their waists to collect arrows from the pile of enemy corpses, and soon. Baskets of arrows were pulled up to the castle.

Li Hengqiu stood on the observation tower and looked north in the dark curtain, he knew that Zhang Huan was in the area of the Liusha River, and he should have seen his beacon fire coming. In the battle during the day, the Hehuang coalition army suffered more than 5,000 casualties, and the Xiliang army also lost 500 people, which made the already insufficient defenders even more overstretched, and they will have to defend on two lines tomorrow.

Li Hengqiu sighed, he had realized many of his mistakes during the day, and the enemy was obviously a tentative attack. But he shot desperately regardless of the cost, nearly half of the 10,000 boulders have been used, the bed crossbow arrows are almost gone, and sixty percent of the arrows have also been shot, the key is the stone. Half of the book search network has been damaged, and I don't know if the carpenter can repair several in one night.

But the most fortunate thing for him was that the beacon was lit, which gave hope to the West Castle, thanks to the woman in red, and he didn't know who she was? She just came down. The ignition tower was destroyed by the boulder. Otherwise, let people go up the mountain to notify the ignition of the fire, and the beacon fire will not be lit until at least half a day late. Perhaps it was in this half day that Huixi Fort would fall.

Just thinking about it, Luo Xian Ling hurriedly walked from the darkness with a few entourages, "General, are you looking for me?" ”

"Luo Xianling, I want to discuss this matter with you." Li Hengqiu slowly walked next to him and pulled him to sit down, "There are not enough soldiers to defend the city, I must have seen it, I want to recruit 2,000 militia regiments in the military households to supplement the army defending the city, and the young women in the city I also want to mobilize to help defend the city, and this matter also needs the great assistance of the Luo County Order." ”

Luo Xianling smiled bitterly and said: "Under the nest, there are eggs, I will fully cooperate with the general in this matter, but the training of the militia is not as good as the regular army, I hope the general will not let them stand alone" I understand this, I will arrange them among the soldiers, but the time is urgent, and I ask Luo Xianling to handle this matter immediately. ”

As soon as Luo Xianling stood up, he suddenly saw a soldier rushing towards him, and hurriedly reported: "General, there is an abnormal movement in the enemy camp outside the northern city!" ”

Li Hengqiu was taken aback, could it be that the enemy army wanted to fight at night?

Outside the northern city is no longer as simple as abnormal movement, the faint shouting of killing shook the sky, in the dark night, I saw the northern camp of Tubo burning everywhere, the figure in the firelight, the shadow of the sword and the lance flashed in the firelight.

The city wall was crowded with soldiers who had woken up from their sleep, and they looked at the chaotic Tibetan camp in surprise, and suddenly someone shouted, it must be the governor who is coming! ”

The city wall suddenly cheered, and even Luo Xianling and Li Hengqiu couldn't help but cheer, although Zhang Huan would not lead too many people, but his arrival had a mainstay effect on stabilizing the morale of the army.

Li Hengqiu, who was excited, gave an order repeatedly, "Quickly move the boulder blocking the gate." ”

Luo Xian Ling stopped him in a hurry, "The general is slow, to prevent it from being a plan of the Tubo people." ”

Li Hengqiu shook his head and said with a smile: "Luo County Commander doesn't know, the Governor is in the area of the Liusha River, in terms of time, he should come over at this time, the enemy army is in chaos, this must be the Governor's sneak attack on the enemy camp." ”

He waved his hand and smiled: "Remove the boulder and welcome the governor into the city!" ”

"Stop!" Luo Xian Ling shouted, he stepped forward and bowed deeply to Li Hengqiu, and persuaded him bitterly: "The governor handed over Huixi Fort to the general, that is, I believe that the general can be cautious, although the enemy army is in chaos, but we did not see the governor come forward in person, why don't the general wait for a while, and wait for the governor to arrive in the city, and then open the door." ”

Li Hengqiu glanced at him suspiciously, there was only one gate in Huixi Fort, and it had been blocked with a thousand stones in advance. It will take an hour or two to move away or rebuild, although he hopes to be ready to welcome Zhang Huan as soon as possible, but in the end he still followed Luo Xianling's advice,

About an hour later, the remnants of the Tibetan army began to withdraw to the east, and then a light cavalry of about 3,000 people came forward to call the door, they held torches, and only the dragon banner of the Tang Dynasty and the armor of the Tang cavalry were faintly seen in the dim night.

"General Lee. We are the garrison of Huijun, and Marshal Wei ordered us to come to support Huixi Fort. Then a letter was shot into the city, and it was indeed Weyer's order to send troops. Covered with a bright red ground Long's right knot degree to make a large seal.

It was not the governor, but the reinforcements of the county, Li Hengqiu hesitated a little, and he handed the letter to Luo County. Luo Xian Ling looked at it carefully, he lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and said: "General, I thought that if Wei Ge really wanted to save Hexi, he should not send 3,000 people to Huixi Fort, but send 50,000 people to cross the river from Jincheng County and take the river directly. ”

"That's what you want. Are they scam the city? ”

Luo Xianling nodded slowly, "If reinforcements really arrive, how can there be no movement in the south?" ”

Five hundred steps away from the city gate, Ma Chongying sneered treacherously, now that the beacon fire for help had been lit. Then he will plan and pretend to be reinforcements to open the city gate, he picked a few hundred Han soldiers to call the Tang army, while he himself personally led 2,000 elites, ready to attack at any time.

Ma Chongying has always been known for his surprise soldiers. During the day, he met with the guards of the West Fort and did not light the beacon fire for a long time. In the end, although it was ordered, it was also extremely dangerous. From this, he deduced that the Tang army commander would not be able to judge the major event, so he decided to use a plan to take Xibao.

Although there was a message in the city, asking them to wait, but after waiting for half an hour, a soldier came to report, and there was no movement in the city, let alone the sound of carrying the boulder, Ma Chongying couldn't help frowning, he faintly felt that he had been defeated, suddenly, the city made a burst of sound of breaking the sky, and then there was a strange sound overhead.

"It's a stone!" Ma Chongying shouted, he turned his horse's head and fled westward, dozens of boulders fell like hailstones, and a group of people in the cavalry team turned over on their horses, and the horses neighed and wailed, and the cavalry turned around and fled for their lives.

At this moment, the soldiers who feinted to flee to the east for three miles suddenly rioted, and an iron cavalry that had been in ambush for a long time suddenly entered the enemy group, this is Zhang Huan's real reinforcements arrived, Zhang Huan had arrived at the beginning of the enemy's plan, but he was not in a hurry to attack, but ambushed outside and waited for the best opportunity, when the city saw through the enemy's plan and was still colored, the opportunity came, the army in the south thought it was a trick and would not come to support, but Ma Chongying's cavalry was a mess and took care of himself.

Four thousand Hexi elite cavalry like a tiger in the mountains rushed to the Hehuang coalition army, their morale was high, well-equipped, in the infantry led by the Hehuang coalition army wanton killing, the head rolled to the ground, the cry shook the sky, although the Hehuang coalition army has a large siege weapon, but the Tubo people iron weapons and other strategic resources are lacking, so that these vassal military personal equipment is generally inferior to the Tubo army, they have no armor, only wear coarse cloth uniforms, although their morale is high during the day, but that is the number of superior self-confidence.

In the dark, the tall Tang soldiers are like a mountain, they have the strongest ground armor, the sharpest knives, the highest earth war horses, and more high morale and skillful fighting skills, four thousand Tang cavalry invincible, killing rivers of blood, corpses all over the field, the Hehuang coalition army collapsed in an instant, they can no longer organize resistance, I don't know how many reinforcements killed, the courage is cold, the heart has been broken, lifeless along the Yellow River tidal flats to the south.

Ma Chongying saw that the enemy's reinforcements had arrived, and the morale of his own army was low, and he had no intention of fighting, so he led the remnants of the army to the south and withdrew to the main camp.

It wasn't until the third watch that the big stone blocking the door of Huixi Fort was finally moved, the heavy iron gate creaked open, and hundreds of soldiers with torches went out to welcome Zhang Huan into the city.

The gate was lit by fire like daylight, thousands of cavalry lined up into Huixi Fort, Li Hengqiu stepped forward quickly, knelt down and pleaded guilty to Zhang Huan, "The subordinates judged the enemy unknown, and almost lost Huixi Fort, so I specially asked the governor for the crime." ”

Zhang Huan dismounted and helped him up, and said with a smile: "You lit the distress beacon fire in time, and you didn't lose Huixi Fort, what is the crime?" ”

Li Hengqiu sighed, "My subordinates didn't realize that the enemy army was only a tentative attack today, and the material loss was huge, nearly half of the one hundred and twenty stones were smashed or overused, and more than half of the stones, crossbows, and arrows had been consumed. ”

"General Li don't worry, we have recovered more than 100,000 arrows, and we can resist for a while." Lin Pingping, who had changed into a military uniform, came out of nowhere, and she looked at Zhang Huan with a smile.

In the flickering firelight, Zhang Huan didn't recognize her, he just thought she was a small soldier with delicate eyebrows, so he nodded, patted Li Hengqiu on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Don't sigh, you are the main general, if you don't have confidence, how can your soldiers have the courage to defend the city?" This brother is right, the arrows are not far away, you can take back some of them at night, my soldiers are carrying double arrows, and there are more than 200,000 arrows, as for the stones, there is no need to worry, we will use the west fort to build stones, and the houses will be demolished. ”

Zhang Huan's words made Li Hengqiu feel ashamed and warm in his heart, and he hurriedly pointed at Lin Pingping and said: "Dudu, thanks to this strange woman, she also shot more than forty enemy soldiers and made a great contribution?" Please be rewarded. ”

"Woman?" Zhang Huan was slightly stunned, he looked at Lin Pingping carefully, suddenly recognized her, and said in surprise: "You are Pingping!" Why are you here? ”

Lin Pingping grinned, "I thought you forgot about me?" OK! OK! I still remember that my mother, third uncle, eldest brother and sister-in-law were all in Huixibao, and it was my father who asked us to come here. ”

Li Hengqiu, who was next to him, saw that they actually knew each other, and they seemed to be very familiar, so he couldn't help but ask in surprise: "Dudu, do you know?" ”

Zhang Huan didn't expect to meet Shi Niang and Pingping in Huixi Fort, he was very happy in his heart, and when he saw Li Hengqiu's question, he smiled and said: "She is the daughter of Doctor Lin, and she is the sister who grew up with me since childhood."

Li Hengqiu suddenly realized, isn't Lin Delong Zhang Huan's master? She turned out to be Lin Delong's daughter, he was afraid for a while, he almost killed her in the morning, he looked at Lin Pingping with some apprehension, I hope she doesn't sue, Pingping seems to know his thoughts, and winks at him mischievously, Li Hengqiu's heart A stone was slightly put down, and he hurriedly bowed to Zhang Huan, "Since the governor is here, his subordinates should hand over the command to the governor." ”

Zhang Huan nodded and said with a slight smile: "I have just learned from the prisoners of war that the main general of the enemy army is Ma Chongying, of course you are not his opponent, let me learn the methods of this famous Tibetan general." ”