Fang Yuan conquered the four passes of Xianxia Pass in one fell swoop, thinking that he had completely opened up the marching mountain road to attack the twenty-eight military towns, as long as he took the twenty-eight military towns guarded by Zheng Sen, he would be able to persuade Zheng Zhibao, who had already handed over the surrender letter.

Unexpectedly, Naxi's defeated soldiers fled back from the ancient mountain road, and reported the defeat of more than 300 people killed in the battle in a panic.

When Fang Yuan received the military report at the beginning, he was quite unimpressed, thinking that these She people and fangs only wanted to cut off people's heads, neglected to take precautions, and were beaten by Zheng Sen for a sneak attack.

He sent Feng Ting with 500 soldiers, and Naxi with 500 She and Fangren, and went to find out again. Gan Hui's main force of 2,000 people, equipped with five artillery pieces, was stationed at the fourth pass to prevent the Zheng army from raiding.

Najib's Sheren and Fangren coalition was responsible for counting the corpses on the battlefield. The corpses were all carried to the first gate, and the corpses of Zheng Jun were burned directly at the bottom of the stream to avoid spreading the plague, and the corpses of the Xuanjia sergeants were gathered together and a monument was erected to commemorate them.

Because the Xianxialing Ancient Road stretches for 30 miles and the mountain roads are narrow, if the 70,000 soldiers and horses of the Xuanjia Army want to enter Xianxia Pass, they must camp for 30 miles, and build barracks everywhere between the mountains of the 30-mile ancient road to be settled.

The amount of work in this building was too large, Fang Yuan temporarily abandoned this idea, and brought 10,000 soldiers from the battalion to the military camp where Zheng Jun was stationed before, and the remaining 50,000 or 60,000 people remained under the mountain range to camp and rest.

As soon as the 10,000 sergeants were stationed, there was a deafening sound of artillery in the direction of the twenty-eighth military town, Fang Yuan secretly screamed when he heard it, and immediately led the Jinyi guards who guarded it, crossed the passes of Xianxialing, and went directly to the fourth pass.

Feng Ting and Naxi led the sergeants to flee back in embarrassment, and less than 800 of the 1 or 2,000 sergeants who went out to fight escaped. Feng Ting and Naxi were also injured in varying degrees of severity.

Fang Yuan hurriedly asked about the battle situation ahead, and Feng Ting truthfully reported the solidity of the Zheng army's defensive line. The fire of the two artillery positions was fierce, and under the cover of the artillery, a large trench, three fortifications, was an impassable moat.

Fang Yuan sighed deeply, and immediately ordered Najib to lead fifty She men over the mountains and mountains to investigate the situation of the two artillery positions and whether they could attack by force. The injured Feng Ting and Naxi were taken back to the main military camp to recuperate.

Two days later, the She people who went to investigate reported that the two artillery positions had occupied the commanding heights, and there were 2,000 sergeants guarding them, and what was even more troublesome was that among the 2,000 sergeants, there were 1,000 barbarians who were good at mountain warfare like the mountain special battalion. The She people who went to investigate the intelligence were also attacked by the well-armed mountain barbarians in Zheng's army, and only 32 of the 50 escaped and returned, and 18 were killed.

In Najib's judgment, in order to storm the artillery positions on the two heights, it was necessary to break through the blockade of the barbarian mercenaries first. The combat power of these barbarian mercenaries is by no means inferior to that of the mountain special battalions composed of She people and fangs, and they also have geographical advantages, and if they want to forcibly capture the high ground, they must pay a price of 2:1 or even 3:1.

A strong attack is by no means a good strategy, and according to Jinyiwei's intelligence, the Zheng family's barbarian mercenaries may have forty or fifty thousand people, and if the battle losses continue, the mountain special battalion will all be dead, and they will not be able to take the artillery position.

Fang Yuan gathered all the information before he came to his senses, and this time he encountered a headache again. The Twenty-Eight Military Towns were a strong military fortress, which was by no means what he had estimated before, and it was necessary to think long-term if it could be easily captured.

Since it couldn't be solved for a while, Fang Yuan could only order the whole army to suspend the assault, 10,000 sergeants were stationed on the Xianxialing Ancient Road, and 60,000 sergeants were stationed under the mountains. He also arranged for Najib's mountain special battalion to patrol the mountains day and night to prevent a sneak attack by Zheng Jun's barbarian mercenaries.

For more than half a month, the two sides have been in a stalemate at the mountain pass of the Xianxialing Ancient Road.

Fang Yuan sent artillery men to attack once, but they were bombarded back by the artillery on the Zheng army's high ground, and the troops were lost, but there was no progress at all.

The Zheng army did not take advantage of the victory to attack Xianxia Pass, but continued to send barbarian mercenaries to harass the Xuanjia soldiers stationed in Xianxia Pass.

These barbarian mercenaries chose to sneak attack in the middle of the night, and did not resist head-on, and once discovered, they fled from the mountains without a trace. For most of the past half a month, the casualties of the Xuanjia Army have also been quite large, at least two or three hundred people have died under the sneak attack of these barbarian mercenaries.

Fang Yuan also had a headache for these elusive barbarian mercenaries, and ordered Naji and the others to pursue them twice, and the two sides also suffered casualties on each other, so they couldn't inflict heavy damage on the barbarian mercenaries at all. As soon as the general ledger was calculated, Fang Yuan's side really suffered a big loss.

The invasion of the barbarians is indeed a headache, but because of the invasion of these barbarians, we can't give up the Xianxia Pass, which we have taken a lot of effort to capture, and retreat to the bottom of the mountain to hide.

Fang Yuan held five or six military meetings to study how to break through the defense line of the twenty-eight military towns, and the generals were helpless.

The two sides were in such a stalemate for 20 days, the Xuanjia army was attacking and could not attack, retreating and could not withdraw, and the defense had to face constant harassment from the barbarians, and the morale of the army was also low.

As the commander-in-chief, Fang Yuan was very helpless, so he could only personally enter the second pass of Xianxia Pass, which could be regarded as sharing weal and woe with the sergeants and boosting morale a little.

Time passed day by day, and it came to the thirty-ninth day of midwinter.

That night, Fang Yuan, who was sleeping soundly, suddenly smelled a pungent smell faintly, and he was extremely sensitive to these pungent smells, and he suddenly woke up from his sleep, and hurriedly got up and put on a brocade robe and went out of the barracks to investigate.

Outside the barracks, a round of bright moonlight hung in the air, and the surroundings were quiet, and only a few night owls could occasionally be heard, making the already quiet night even more secluded.

Fang Yuan sniffed desperately with his nose again, and the pungent smell followed the oncoming night breeze and hit his face again.

What does it smell like?

Fang Yuan racked his brains for the memory, and suddenly was shocked, this is the smell of fire oil!

Coupled with the night breeze blowing on his face, Fang Yuan, who was cautious by nature, had come back to his senses, and the smell of fire oil came from the direction of the Twenty-Eight Military Town. If Zheng Jun set fire to the forest late at night, coupled with the help of the downwind night wind, the entire Xianxialing would inevitably fall into a sea of fire.

If Zheng Jun burns the forest at the same time, he will take the opportunity to sneak attack...... Fang Yuan suddenly found a strikingly similar war from historical examples, that is, the Battle of Yiling between Shu Han and Eastern Wu. When Liu Bei set out to conquer Yiling with the strength of the country, he was trapped in the lofty mountains and mountains of Yiling, and was burned by Lu Xun and returned defeated!

Fang Yuan's aura flashed, he had already seen through Zheng Sen's trick, and shouted, "Not good! ”

Seeing him standing at the gate of the barracks shouting, Hu Qi, who was guarding, hurriedly rushed up and asked, "Governor Fang, what's wrong?" ”

The military situation was like fire, and there was no delay for a moment, Fang Yuan hurriedly pulled his arm and said, "The Zheng army wants to burn Xianxialing, immediately go and inform the commander Gan of the front army, and the commander of the Chinese army, the whole army will withdraw from the Xianxialing Ancient Road, and the whole army will be wiped out later!" ”

Hu Qi gave up his hand and was about to go to give the order, when the 28th military town was already full of fires and noise.

"Suffered! One step late! ”

Fang Yuan was secretly frightened, since the war had started, he immediately entered the dormitory of the Chinese military camp, put on explosion-proof armor, put on an explosion-proof helmet, and held a Xuanjia Divine Gun, with five bullets, and a Japanese knife tied to his waist.

Fang Yuan was neatly equipped, and as soon as he left the barracks, countless barbarians suddenly appeared in the depths of the mountain range.

These barbarians swarmed and killed people when they saw them, but they didn't chase and kill the other barracks sergeants, the goal was very clear, and they came straight to Fang Yuan's middle military camp, which was to carry out a decapitation operation!