The car of Li Zhuanmei, a privy counselor, set off from Zhenwu New Town early in the morning and arrived in Lanzhou when it was just dark.

Lord Li was received by the Lanzhou Thorn Shi Tang Qun and stayed in Lanzhou that night. Nothing was said all night.

When she got up the next day, Li Zhuanmei was about to continue to rush in the direction of Shizhou as originally planned, when Tang Qun, the assassin of Lanzhou, hurriedly ran to stop her.

"Lord Li, I just received the news that Xianzhou was broken by the Khitan army yesterday."

"What?"

Li Zhuanmei was taken aback, and her face changed.

Lanzhou is a three-way street.

To the north of Lanzhou is Langu County, about 90 miles away, and is under the control of Zhao Ping's "New Zhenwu Army". Everyone knows this.

The south of Lanzhou is Shizhou, after which you can pass through Fenzhou, pass through Lingshi County, and go to Luoyang, the eastern capital or Chang'an, the western capital, and this road is also the road that Lord Li took when he came.

To the east of Lanzhou is Xianzhou, and the distance between the two cities is only fifty miles. Less than a hundred miles further east from Xianzhou, there is a big mountain, and Taniguchi is directly facing Taiyuan Mansion.

Xianzhou is a small city with a population of only about 10,000 and is basically undefended. However, Lanzhou is a big city near here, with a population of almost 70,000 and more than 2,000 Lanzhou troops stationed there.

The reason why Li Zhuanmei and Lord Li were surprised was that Lanzhou was still nominally loyal to the Later Tang Dynasty, while Xianzhou was nominally a city controlled by the Jin army.

It was clear that the Jin army and the Khitan army were allies, but the Khitan army broke through Xianzhou and plundered.

This shows that after the Khitan 50,000 iron cavalry went south, the supply of grain and grass also began to be tight, and the plundering of materials in the grass valley has reached the point of unscrupulous means.

From Taiyuan to Lanzhou, there are endless mountain ranges, and the hungry Khitan people actually went into the ravines and ravines to forage for food?

This is dangerous, since the Khitans have come in and have taken Xianzhou, they are naturally going to come to fight Lanzhou, this is a big city, and all the rich local tyrants are here!

Master Li began to struggle.

Run, Lanzhou is still nearly two hundred miles away from Shizhou, can you outrun the Khitan Iron Cavalry? Being truncated halfway is almost a sure thing! Don't run, in case the Khitans come, will the more than 2,000 Lanzhou troops be able to withstand the Khitans?

The city wall of Lanzhou is not high, only about five meters, but fortunately, the city is built in a delta area where four rivers converge, which is considered a natural condition is not bad. It's just that the Lanzhou Army, which is disheartened and demoralized, can really stop the Khitan Army?

"My lord, please go up to the city tower, the Khitan army is here!"

Hearing the sentry's report, Lanzhou Thorn Shi Tangqun hurriedly ran up the city wall with Master Li.

The sun rises in the east, and the sun is already rising to the top of the mountain, shining through the gaps between the peaks and shining on the wide river east of Lanzhou City.

On the other side of the river, Khitan cavalry appeared in twos and threes.

Some people watched the city from a distance, and ran happily along the river, on the other side of the river, while others ran to some shallows to see if they could cross the river directly on horseback.

The black-pressed Khitan cavalry continued to pour in from the valley in groups of three or five, gathering more and more on the other side of the river, people shouting and neighing, and the noise was blown by the cool morning breeze, drifting across the wide river, and reaching the walls of Lanzhou City.

Everyone who stood on the city wall felt as if they had fallen into an ice cellar, without a trace of warmth, and their hands and feet were so stiff that they could not move.

The Khitan cavalry running around on the other side of the river, laughing boldly, shouting and scolding, chasing each other, did not seem to take the Lanzhou Xiongcheng in front of them in their eyes at all, as if they were a group of lions frolicking while looking at the sheep in the enclosure with joy.

Finally, it seemed that someone had discovered the shoal upstream, and Pegasus came to report it, so the large group of Khitan cavalry rushed along the foot of the mountain to the north, like a herd of cattle running wild on the African savannah in the animal world, rolling up the boundless dust and grass, forming a raging wind, which swept straight ahead.

Although they trembled with fear and almost collapsed, Tang Qun, the assassin of Lanzhou, and Li Zhuanmei, the privy counselor, still supported each other, plucked up their courage, and moved to the city tower at the north gate together, waiting for the arrival of the terrifying Khitan cavalry.

There are only two gates in Lanzhou City, the south gate and the north gate.

There is a river to the east, and there is no bridge directly connecting the city, so if you come from the east, you can either go to a shoal three miles upstream, or go to a small bridge five miles downstream, and if you have to cross the river in front of the city, you can only use a small boat. To the west is a steep hill that cannot be passed outside the walls without climbing.

A city gate was opened to the south, and outside was another tributary, a small river, much narrower in width, and a natural moat. A suspension bridge above has been raised.

Only the north gate is the main gate, and a moat five or six meters wide was dug in front of the gate, and there was also a suspension bridge over the moat in front of the gate.

Although the walls of Lanzhou City are relatively low, this moat is not easy to cross, which is also the only reliance of the Tang soldiers guarding the city.

The smoke and dust rose again, and the large group of Khitan cavalry just now bypassed the shallows and rushed over from the north.

The Khitan cavalry stopped more than 300 meters in front of the moat, stood in a large area of black pressure, and then a cavalry general Pegasus ran over.

This person, probably from Han Chinese, ran to the suspension bridge at the city gate and shouted loudly in Chinese with a Youzhou accent:

"Lanzhou City, listen well, you are limited to a stick of incense, open the door and dedicate the city! Otherwise, when the city is broken, the city will be slaughtered! Chickens and dogs don't stay! With that, he slapped his horse and ran back.

There was silence on the city wall, Li Zhuanmei and Tang Qun, you look at me, I look at you, I have no idea for a while.

Everyone knows the consequences of the destruction of the city, but can it really survive the opening of the door and sacrifice the city?

The Khitan cavalry in the distance had already dismounted and rested, scattering in all directions, not looking at the Lanzhou City in front of them at all. Some people ran to the river to drink water and wash their faces, some carefully surrounded their war horses to catch lice, some ran to pee under the trees, and some people gathered in a big circle to and chat.

In fact, this group of Khitan cavalry only has more than 500 horsemen, and the Lanzhou army has more than 2,000 people, as well as the people in the city who organize it, at least they can pull out a strong army of several thousand people, and they can't fight a battle.

But the Khitan people are too famous, and the Lanzhou army has been comfortable for a long time, where can they have the courage to fight.

Scholar Li looked depressedly at Tang Thorn Shi, who was wearing a civil official robe, with a white face, fat and rich, and felt very unreliable. Then he turned his head to look at the surrounding Lanzhou soldiers who were also listless and frightened, and their faces were green, and they couldn't help but feel cold.

Turning his head to look at the city, the Khitan people were still lively and lively, scolding and laughing with each other, and when they occasionally looked at the city, their eyes were full of desire for wealth and women in the city.

Staring at these arrogant and boundless Khitan soldiers for a long time, Lord Li's face was iron-blue and bloodless.

He is the biggest official here, and everyone is waiting for him to make a decision.

Then, Master Li smiled, and the blood on his face returned.

As the saying goes, standing tall and seeing far, he stood on the high city tower and saw a troop at the foot of the distant mountain in the north, and the first banner fluttered in the wind.

Although he was far away and couldn't see what was written on the flag, Master Li was very familiar with this big flag with red letters on a white background.

That's a certainty, Lord Li was full of this kind of flag two days ago.

A rectangular white cloth, surrounded by a rectangular red frame, with six bright red characters inside:

"Zhenwu patrol envoy Zhao".

There is no way to do it, although General Zhao Ping Zhao has been promoted to Zhenwu to recruit envoys, but more than a dozen flags have not had time to change, so they have to use the signboard of Zhenwu patrol envoy first.

When he was pretending to be forced in the middle of the night last night, He Daxian calculated that something had happened in Xianzhou, and the Khitan army was going to attack Lanzhou.

Although He Daxian didn't originally plan to eat Lanzhou and Xianzhou so quickly, so as not to come into too close contact with the Jin army and the Tang army. But the Khitans didn't listen to He Daxian's words very much.

Nima, your Khitan army is foraging outside the mountains, and the labor management can't manage you, but you suddenly want to go into the mountains to make trouble, that's not okay.

If you want to come to find death, then there is no way, labor and management will give you a ride!

So, He Daxian sent someone overnight to inform Chen Tian, a heavy engineer battalion who was building a dam in Songjiagou, and ordered him to rush to Lanzhou overnight to eliminate all the Khitans he saw.

The main reason is that He Daxian has too many troops at hand, and there are not many troops nearby to mobilize.

The Shuozhou army has already opened and is preparing to attack Shenchi Pass, and needs to invest troops to defend it, and He Daxian himself has personally led the army to Biguan Town early in the morning, preparing to go north to rob.

There was no way for Xianzhou Lanzhou, so Chen Tian had to resist it for the time being.

300 infantry men of the heavy engineer battalion, plus 400 armed men.

Wouldn't it be better to deal with a thousand or hundreds of Khitan cavalry! Captain Chen Tian, do a good job, come on!