Back at the camp, Zhao Ziliang ate something, took out a map near Shibao City in the camp tent and began to study how to attack Shibao City and some surrounding Wu Forts.

There is more than one fortress in Shibao City south of Chiling, but Shibao City is the most dangerous place, and there is an ancient camp three miles south of Shibao City, according to the size of the ancient camp, there are one hundred garrisons, which is one of them; Second, on the west side of the Yaoshui River, seven miles northwest of Shibao City, there is Dingrongcheng, with a garrison of 200 people; Third, there is the ancient city of Kesur more than ten miles south of Shibao City and on the west side of the Yaoshui River; Fourth, a few miles further south near Linqiang County, there is the ancient city of Chahansu, each of which can garrison 100 people.

Among them, the ancient camp and Dingrong City and Shibao City formed a horn trend, if the attack on Shibao City was discovered by the Tubo army in these two places, they would definitely send people to help, Zhao Ziliang decided to attack Shibao City to send a soldier and horse to ambush on the road.

After studying for a while, Zhao Ziliang couldn't resist being tired and fell asleep, I don't know how long it took, Brehan opened the curtain with an anxious face and walked into the camp tent to wake up Zhao Ziliang: "General, general・・・・・・"

Zhao Ziliang was pushed twice, woke up, saw that it was Brehan, and asked, "Why are you so panicked?" ”

Brehan immediately said: "General, the captured guide has run away!" ”

"What? Ran away? Zhao Ziliang's face changed, and he got up and asked, "In which direction did you run?" ”

"South, the direction of coming! The snow on the road was too deep for the cavalry to pursue quickly, and the scouts chased for a while but did not catch up."

Zhao Ziliang breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, "As long as you don't run in the direction of Shibao City, it's not a big deal, but as soon as this guide runs, the news of our arrival here will leak out, and the Tubo army in the south is likely to come to help quickly!" ”

Brehan worried: "General, what should I do then?" ”

Zhao Ziliang sighed: "In case the night is long and dreamy, we can only attack Stone Castle City overnight!" What time is it? ”

Brehan said: "Just past the ugly time, now is the time of the yin!" ”

"So the soldiers have been asleep for almost three hours?"

"Yes!"

"I'm pretty much asleep too!" Zhao Ziliang said and said to Brehan: "Immediately send an order, wake up all the soldiers, and get ready to go!" After taking Stone Castle City, let's have breakfast again! ”

Brehan's spirit was shocked, and he clenched his fists and said, "Obey!" ”

A thousand infantry marched for an hour under the leadership of Zhao Ziliang through the Chiling Pass, and arrived at a mile west of the ancient camp south of Shibao City.

Zhao Ziliang reined in his war horse and said to Brehan: "Pass the order, no one is allowed to make a sound, go quietly, and order the captain of the first regiment to lead two brigades and two hundred people to ambush on the side of the road, and when we attack Shibao City, if the Tubo army comes down from the ancient camp to reinforce it, immediately kill it from the side of the road, and then take advantage of the situation to kill the ancient camp!" ”

"No!" Brehan agreed, and immediately passed the order.

The team of two hundred people stayed, quietly ambushed on the side of the road under the leadership of the captain of the first regiment, which was the only way for Gu Yingpan to rescue Shibao City, and the other teams continued to follow Zhao Ziliang to march forward.

After walking for another three miles, and finally arrived at the Yaoshui River next to Shibao City, Zhao Ziliang jumped off the Wuli horse and handed the Wuli horse to a servant, and at his signal, everyone squatted on the side of the road, and everyone made a sound.

After a series of orders, the captain of the second regiment also led two hundred men to continue to advance north along the Yaoshui River, preparing to set up an ambush on the roadside four miles ahead, as long as the Dingrongcheng Tubo army seven miles northwest came to help, they would kill from the roadside, and then take advantage of the situation to kill Dingrongcheng.

There were only six hundred people left available, Zhao Ziliang slowly got up, beckoned to the back, bent down and walked down the side of the road to the ice of the Yaoshui River, and then followed the ice of the Yaoshui River north until he came to a ravine west of Shibao City.

Zhao Ziliang stopped and whispered to Brehan: "Pass the order, let the soldiers follow me, I will climb the ridge first, and when I put down the rope, you will climb up along the rope, and you will not make a sound!" ”

"No!"

If you want to climb up Shibao City, there are several ravines to climb up, there are two Ga ditches in the west, and there are one ravine in the north and northeast, respectively, Nari Daba Ditch and Dudun Ditch, it is much easier to climb up the small square platform of Shibao City from those two ravines, but there are Tubo soldiers stationed there, and it is impossible not to alarm the Tubo army, and it is much more difficult to climb the ridge between the large and small square platforms from the two Gagou on this side of the Yaoshui River, it is too steep, and the advantage is that this ravine is not garrisoned by the Tubo army, This is also the reason why Zhao Ziliang wants to climb up first and then put down the rope by himself.

Several large bundles of thick hemp ropes were taken, Zhao Ziliang saw that one end of these hemp ropes was tied to his waist, and the golden nail jujube yang lance was handed over to Hu Cong to hold, and he only brought a chopping knife and a whirling flying knife on his waist, and the six hundred soldiers were all squatting on the ice of the Yaoshui River at the foot of the mountain, and no one made a sound, only the sound of the howling cold wind.

After making a gesture to Brehan, Zhao Ziliang used his hands and feet together, and began to climb along a ditch on the right towards the ridge, although it had snowed heavily for several days, there was not much snow on the sand-red rock wall of Shibao City, which reduced the difficulty of Zhao Ziliang's climbing.

The slope of the mountain is relatively steep, the difficulty of climbing is greater, fortunately, Zhao Ziliang's fingers are strong, hard as steel, although the dexterity is insufficient, but the speed of climbing up is not slow at all, when climbing to three-fifths of the way, there is a section of red sandstone section, Zhao Ziliang can only move up step by step, a little careless, slipping under the foot may fall down and fall to pieces.

Zhao Ziliang sighed while climbing, no wonder in history, Ge Shuhan led more than 60,000 troops and horses to besiege Shibao City day and night, and tens of thousands of casualties were killed before seizing Shibao City.

When about to reach the top of the ridge, Zhao Ziliang obliquely inserted onto a small mountain beam, the bottom of the mountain is a cliff, the top is like a small platform with a large slope, the outer edge of the platform has a platform built with stones artificially, Zhao Ziliang grabbed the edge of the base with both hands and pulled it upward, slowly exposed his head, and found that there were two Tubo soldiers wearing animal skins and leather helmets on the small platform, holding spears under their armpits and stomping their feet constantly, it seemed that it was very cold.

Zhao Ziliang observed the distance, about ten meters, he immediately pulled up with both hands, his body took off and flew up on the small platform, the two Tubo soldiers were shocked when they saw this, and they were about to pick up the spear to warn, at this time Zhao Ziliang was in the air and had already taken out the outer thigh whirling knife and threw it, only to see that the cold light flashed, and the two Tubo soldiers were cut into two pieces by the whirling knife and fell to the ground, Zhao Ziliang took the whirlwind flying knife that flew back before falling steadily to the ground.

There was no one else on the small platform except for the two Tubo soldiers who were sentry, and this small platform was at the bottom of the ridge, but it was not a small platform in Stone Fort City. Zhao Ziliang put away the whirling flying knife and continued to climb up, and soon climbed to the north end of a ridge connected by the big square platform and the small square platform.

After climbing to the top of the ridge, Zhao Ziliang calculated the time, about half an hour had passed, turned his head to look, Zhao Ziliang found that the ridge connecting the large and small square platforms was about three hundred meters long, just as the records obtained from the Jiedu Embassy were about the same, the narrow part of the ridge was less than three feet, and the slightly wide part was six feet to one zhang, both sides were steep slopes, the path on the ridge was in a north-south direction, the terrain connecting the square platforms at the two ends was higher, and the middle part was lower and arc-shaped.

After Zhao Ziliang observed the situation, he found that there was no one on the ridge road, thinking about it, such bad weather, and it was early in the morning, the Tubo army did not expect that the Tang army would sneak up from behind, and no patrol was arranged at all.

Seeing that there was no patrol, Zhao Ziliang immediately untied the four thick hemp ropes around his waist, tied them one by one to a thick tree trunk, tied them tightly, and pulled them hard a few more times, this was the agreed code, and after a few seconds, the four hemp ropes were really tightened, and there were soldiers below who were grabbing the ropes to climb.

There are ropes for climbing, and the soldiers climb very fast, much faster than Zhao Ziliang climbing without ropes, and in only half an hour, a regiment of 200 people climbed up, and at the same time there were the captains of the third regiment and two brigade commanders.

The captain of the third regiment took a breath and bowed his hand to Zhao Ziliang: "General, do you want to kill it now?" ”

Zhao Ziliang thought for a while, estimated the time, and said: "Now it is estimated that it is half of the hour, it is the best time to sleep, and we only have 200 people now, and the strength is still a little insufficient, the Tubo people have 100 people on the small square platform, and 200 people on the big square platform, we have a little less troops, let's wait, there are 400 people to attack the two square platforms."

The lieutenant nodded: "Understood!" ”

After another half an hour, Zhao Ziliang and the others blew another half an hour of cold wind in the middle of the ridge, and Brehan and the 200 people of the Fourth Regiment all climbed up, and the Fifth Regiment continued to climb up the mountain.

"Okay, the troops are sufficient, Brehan, you take the third regiment to attack Xiaofangtai, the fourth regiment and a certain to attack Dafangtai, and try not to be discovered by the Tubo army before rushing to the upper stage, understand?"

Brehan nodded, "Understood, General!" ”

"Okay, let's go!"

The ridge path was also covered with a thick layer of heavy snow, and Zhao Ziliang and the soldiers could only risk their waists and carry knives to slowly approach Dafangtai in order to reduce the risk of being discovered before the fight.

Finally cautiously approaching the twenty meters of the Dafang Platform, Zhao Ziliang took the bow and arrow from a soldier behind him and slowly approached the Dafang Platform, his feet crunching on the heavy snow.

At this time, a figure appeared from the junction of the ridge and Dafangtai, and a Tibetan voice came: "Who?" ”

Zhao Ziliang immediately made a decision, and the arrows that had already been drawn to the full bow shot out with a "whoosh".

The Tibetan sentinel fell in response, but this person immediately aroused the alarm of several Tibetan patrolmen on the Dafang platform, one of whom quickly ran to the corpse and found the arrows on the corpse, and saw a long series of white shadows on the ridge, and immediately shouted: "Enemy attack, enemy attack, enemy attack ・・・・・・."

"Soldiers, if you can't rush up, you will die, if you rush up, you will live, kill with me, kill!" Zhao Ziliang shouted, pulled out the slashing knife at his waist and strode towards Dafangtai, and the soldiers of the Tang Army behind him also rushed to Dafangtai with horizontal knives. (To be continued.) )