Taihang lies on the huge plain, which naturally divides the Central Plains and the outer border pass into two parts.

Saiwai is known as a wild land, and the Hu people who live there have never been accepted by the Central Plains, they rely on bows and horses, riding and shooting, cattle, sheep and livestock, and live a life of wool and blood. And the land of the Central Plains, because of the more difficult plot of the land, began to carry forward the famous religion of Zhou rites early, and the men cultivated and the women weaved.

The natural antagonism between the two cultures, reflected militarily, is the opposition between offense and defense. Reflected in the geographical form, it is the construction and use of passes, which have become the best defensive weapons against archery and horse archery. And the culmination of this defense method is the Great Wall.

However, because the Hu people are skilled in bows and horses, and the area around Tang County in Yi County can be defended, they all count on the national strength of Zhao Guo, which tightly holds Feihuyu. Yan and Zhongshan could only build passes in some geographically advantageous places to defend against foreign enemies. Among them, the two most famous passes, one is the Hongshangsai of Zhongshan and the other is Shanggu Pass of Yan. The two passes, one west and one east, not only locked the throat of Taihang Mountain entering and exiting the North China Plain, but also pushed the front line of defense against Zhao to the door of Zhao State. Therefore, the two countries could not have imagined that Zhao would detour from Lingqiu to his back, such a strategic detour is very challenging in this era.

So, if the other party comes back to help, which way should it go?

Zhao Xi rode on his horse, looking at the marching map and kept thinking. In the past few days, he commanded the Zhao army to attack left and right on the vast plain between Yi County and Tang County, and constantly broke the two ** teams that came to harass. To put it bluntly, Zhao Xi spent the past two days on horseback, and the entire army rarely rested. Of course, he didn't dare to divide his troops, because he didn't believe that the other party would honestly win the plan.

There are only two ways in front of Zhao Xi, either bet on Yan Guo's return to help pass through Shanggu Pass, then Zhao Jun can ambush at Shanggu Pass and repeat the old story of Sun Bin capturing Pang Juan; Either the Yan army also detoured back to the Zhongshan border and returned to aid Yi County from Hongshangsai. No matter which one it is, once the wrong choice is made, it will be a disaster for the Zhao army that besieges Yi County.

What if you go back to Fangyi County and wait for work? It doesn't seem to be the best choice, if the Yan army comes back to help, it must be repaired, and it will unite the army in Zhongshan to build a hierarchical encirclement, and he can't run if he wants to. Therefore, Zhao Jun could only take the initiative to attack.

Sun Bin once said: "Therefore, those who are good at fighting, when they see the strengths of the enemy, they know their shortcomings; If you see what the enemy is not enough, you will know what is surplus. In his opinion, the most important thing for a general who can win is to be surprised, and the key to surprise is to use his own strengths and attack his weaknesses. However, the so-called surprise soldiers also need to be matched by regular soldiers, and blindly using strange soldiers is often a way to seek defeat.

Therefore, Zhao Xi finally made up his mind, put away the map, and said to the herald behind him: "Quickly send all the captains, I have a major military arrangement." ”

Shanggu Pass, also known as Puyin, one of the eight paths of Taihang, has a very loud name in later generations - Bauhinia Pass, located in the northwest of Yixian County on the Bauhinia Ridge, east of Wan Ling Mountain, thousands of ridges towering, cliffs and cliffs; There is Rhino Mountain in the west, which winds to the west and connects with Panshikou; The north is the Juma River, the valley is wide and the slope is steep, the waves are high and the water is rapid; The south is the loess ridge, with thousands of mountains and ravines on its back, and the mountains are stacked on top of each other. It is close to the slope and water, and the two mountains are sandwiched. It is such a unique topography that has created an important position in one of the three passes of the Great Wall in later generations, known as "the steepness of the south blocking the road, the abyss of the north negative horse, similar to the floating map as the portal, and the far away from Xuanda as the fence." A pass is in the middle, the group is dangerous, the scale is magnificent, and it is guaranteed by the assistant. ”

The Yan Kingdom has built a simple pass here. This is mainly in the hope of relying on the terrain to block the attack of Zhao. When Zhao Xi entered the land of Yan, he did not choose to take this road, which is also very correct, after all, if you want to attack this pass, not only will it be a waste of time, but once it is delayed for a long time, then it will not be fun to be attacked back and forth by the sub-period and the guards in the pass.

On this day, a group of men and horses, about 2,000 people, galloped under the city gate, and as soon as they reached the gate, they were stopped by the soldiers guarding the gate.

"What for?" Although it looks like the clothes of the soldiers of the Yan Kingdom, but now is an extraordinary period, it is very likely that the Zhao army will knock on the pass in the near future, and the soldiers guarding the pass are also fighting with a spirit of twelve points and not letting a suspect pass the pass.

"On the orders of General Ziqi, knock on the pass and rush to aid Yi County, and open the door quickly!" The soldiers under the city shouted. The resentment in my heart, Lao Tzu risked his life all the way to help, and these people have not asked questions.

"Where's the token? Send it up! As he spoke, the soldiers at the gate lowered a basket and asked the men to place the tokens in the basket. The soldier knew that this was the rule, so he respectfully placed the token in the hanging basket and waited for the switch to enter the city.

However, waiting left and right, even if the door was not opened, the captain who took the lead was also angry, and he asked him to arrive outside Yixian within two days, if he passed the customs now, it is estimated that he would be able to arrive on time, and then lure the Zhao cavalry to the designated place to complete the encirclement of this Zhao people. However, if it is delayed any longer, I am afraid that I will be subject to military law.

couldn't help it, he ordered his subordinates to knock again. As a result, I heard the soldiers above shouting: "What are you doing, what are you doing here, what are you panicking!" ”

When the lieutenant heard this, his lungs were about to die, but before the sub-period left, he specially left the other half here, as long as the two halves are combined, the authenticity can be known immediately. Because this token in each country is different in size and size, and even the material inscription, it cannot be faked. As a result, their test was a cup of tea, how could they not make Du Wei angry. "Damn, the token is real or fake, you can tell at a glance, it's been used for so long?"

"I'm sorry, there is an order from above, the Zhao army has been raging recently, in order to prevent being confused into the customs, all the talisman tokens must be reviewed again and again, otherwise, they will not be switched on." The guard glanced at the angry lieutenant with disdain, and sneered: "Your dress is very suspicious, and my brothers should take a good look at it." ”

"Whew! Don't play tricks on Lao Tzu, thinking that Lao Tzu doesn't know, you want tolls. "The so-called toll is a kind of bribery. Under normal circumstances, after paying taxes and fees, the normal customs clearance of business travel has to give a little more fee, this fee is not recorded, but into the hands of the soldiers guarding the customs, called the hard fee, and in the end, of course, the head of the guard takes the big head, and the small one below takes the small head.

But even so, the year's income is quite impressive. Recently, due to Zhao Xi's upheaval in the territory of Yan State, Shanggu Pass was forced to close and was not allowed to pass. As a result, the income of these guards has plummeted, and now it is difficult to meet a team of customs clearances, how can you let them go?

What's more, you're a general's subordinate, aren't you just a captain? What's the big deal.

"Now that you know, why didn't there be a penny in the hanging basket just now?"

"I'm here to kill thieves, not to give you money! Believe it or not, Lao Tzu entered the customs and chopped up you little cubs. ”

"Look at what you said, such a fierce and vicious, you said that you are a soldier of Yan Kingdom, I don't think you like, you must be a Zhao person, otherwise why would you kill me?"

The lieutenant wanted to scold again, but the guards around him hurriedly stopped him and reminded him that the military order was important, don't worry about it anymore, the military order was important, if the military order was delayed, his life would be lost, and there would be no way to defend himself. The lieutenant thought about it, and it was also right, so he reluctantly let the deputy general hang some scattered money and belongings, and let the guards let him go.

"It's been so interesting for a long time, and it's still hard to use it? Wait! The soldier glanced at the people under the gate and said with a sneer.

The lieutenant felt relieved just now, but when he heard this, he couldn't hold back any longer. When the city gate was opened, the soldier who had not waited for the switch to come over happily only heard a "snap", a hot pain came from his face, he reached out and touched it, raised his eyes and saw that it was full of bloodstains, but he saw the murderer, looking at him arrogantly, holding a horse whip, and said coldly: "This is a lesson, wait, Lao Tzu will definitely sue you to the general's tent and kill your car." ”

After saying that, the horse galloped away without looking back. Only the soldier was left stunned, not knowing what to say.

This side of the carriage did not say anything, and said that the lieutenant took a cadre of cavalry, rode a horse and galloped on the Puyin Path, and the worry in his heart became heavier and heavier, and he wished that the horse's hooves would be a little faster, so that he could fly to Yi County.

Suddenly, his wish seemed to have come true. I saw that the horse suddenly paused, and then the whole body leaned down, as if it had collided with some wall of air. But the lieutenant was taken aback by this sudden change, and before he could react, the person had already appeared in the air. When he understood what was going on, he heard the sound of "puff puff" loud, and a rain of arrows fell from the sky, piercing the body of each soldier like a leech.

The change was abrupt, and Yan Jun obviously didn't expect that when he was about to go out of the path, he would encounter an ambush. It seems that the soldiers guarding the pass rarely come out to patrol the mountains, otherwise how could they let such an ambush suddenly appear and cause such losses to themselves.

But soon, the lieutenant reacted, and the more this happened, the more he couldn't rest. He quickly got the soldiers who could move to their feet, and the moment they stayed here, they would die without a place to bury.

However, the rain of arrows was still pouring down, and the horses that had tripped over the ropes were no longer able to move, and the horses were disabled. However, because the path was so narrow, the horses that fell in front of it blocked the entire path, and it was a lot of trouble to get out now.

On the edge of the cliff, seeing that the Yan army below had fallen into this simple combination trap, Captain Zhao Jundu, who was in charge of the operation, sneered and said lightly: "It seems that the old general is right, you are at most a substitute for the dead ghosts, and the real army must not leave here." Otherwise, how could it be that only you, the little fish and shrimp, are fluttering here. ”

As he spoke, he said to the soldiers next to him: "It's almost, let them go, just bring a message to those people in Yi County, let's leave quickly and catch up with the big army." ”

"Captain, why don't you annihilate all of this group here?"

"Kill them all, who will report to the guards in Yi County: the news that the Zhao army is preparing to attack Shanggu Pass? Moreover, those Yan State messengers who came and went to Yi County, didn't they die in vain? As he spoke, he said to the soldier: "Let's go, as long as someone in Yi County believes that the Zhao army is assembled in Shangguguan, it's fine." ”