Bian Zhang walked out of the small courtyard quickly, out of the atrium, standing in the warm winter sun, he let out a long breath, and the corners of his mouth provoked a smile. Yan Zhong's refusal to cooperate with them was not because of how loyal he was to the Han court, although he had served as a letter commander, it was far from enough for his talent.

Therefore, he didn't want to be a loyal minister, he still wanted to live, which tempted him to make such a bet. Actually, Bian Zhang didn't think so, he also needed to leave a way back for himself, and both sides would take what they needed.

After a little smugness, Bian Zhang frowned again. Yan Zhong was not a loyal minister and was not resistant to rebellion, so there was only one reason why he refused to cooperate, he believed that they had no chance of success. From his words just now, Bian Zhang could hear this meaning, Yan Zhong not only didn't believe them, but also didn't believe in the great sage and good teacher Zhang Jiao. In his eyes, Zhang Jiao is not Liu Xiu's right at all, is this really the case?.Bian Zhang is in Jincheng, and "Ta Kung Pao" can occasionally come, but only occasionally, he doesn't know much about what happened in Luoyang, all he knows is that Zhang Jiao's career was originally smooth, and suddenly he was planted in Runan, and then quickly disappeared from the court. As for the reason, it seems to say that he has lost the trust of the Son of Heaven, and he is also confused about the specific situation.

He believed that no matter what, the envoy sent by Zhang Jiao would definitely not tell the truth, after all, in this matter, Zhang Jiao was a loser, and it was human nature to be ashamed of His Holiness.

Bian Zhang turned around twice in front of the door, collected his mood again, and walked quickly towards the main hall. In the hall, Wang Guo sat in the center, Beigong Boyu and Li Wenhou sat on the side, Li Wenhou seemed to have just quarreled with someone, his bronzed face was so gloomy that he seemed to be able to squeeze out water, and when he saw Bian Zhang coming in, he didn't say a word, just drank wine one after another.

Beigong Boyu smiled and got up to greet him: "Mr. Gongxiao, has you allowed it?" ”

Bian Zhang shook his head, the smile on Beigong Boyu's face was a little stiff, sighed silently, and sat back again. Bian Zhang sat down and looked at him all the time, and the kingdom, who was smiling and silent, opened his mouth lightly: "Why, he still refuses?" ”

"He doesn't have faith in us." Bian Zhang said straight to the point: "I listened to him, he didn't think we were Liu Xiu's opponents, so I made a bet with him." ”

After Bian Zhang finished talking about the bet, none of the three people in the hall spoke, and Wang Kingdom shrugged his eyebrows and muttered. Beigong Boyu frowned, but Li Wenhou was furious, stood up, and pointed at the side chapter: "What kind of bet is this, in my opinion, you want to leave a way back for yourself." ”

Bian Zhang looked at him with a smile, "So, you don't have confidence?" ”

Li Wenhou was speechless for a moment, and then retorted: "How can I not have confidence, now that we are all kinds of Qiang united, the army is finally nearly 200,000, Liu Xiu only has a few people, can he defeat us?" ”

"Since you have confidence, then wait for the day when Mr. Gongxiao bows his head." Bian Zhang smiled calmly, "If we can't convince him, how can we give full play to his talents, is it possible that he is always locked up like this, what will the people of Liangzhou think at that time?" ”

Li Wenhou also wanted to say, Beigong Boyu raised his hand and grabbed him: "I think it's good to do this." Liu Xiu is still in peace, we should rush to occupy Jicheng now, if we can seize the Longshan Fortress before he arrives, and block him in the pass and can't get out, that is the best result. ”

Wang Guozhi nodded with satisfaction: "Boyu is worthy of being a big man and quite insightful. Occupy Hanyang, Yan Zhong has to surrender if he doesn't surrender, the Yan family can't watch him die, and he can't watch the Yan family die. What we should do now is not to quarrel, but to march quickly, occupy Hanyang, and find an opportunity to defeat Liu Xiu. He paused, and said with a smile: "This Youzhouer has been in Luoyang for a few years, and the official has been promoted really fast, and he actually became a princess and a general of Wei. This is an opportunity given to us by God. ”

"That's it." Li Wenhou listened to this, patted his thigh, and echoed loudly.

"Where are the strikers of our army?" The kingdom asked, "Who led the soldiers?" ”

Li Wenhou glanced at Beigong Boyu, and Beigong Boyu said unhurriedly: "Nie Xiao." ”

Wang Guo thought for a moment and nodded approvingly: "Very good." He turned his head to look at Bian Zhang: "With him as the striker, as long as you don't meet the main force of the official army, there will be no problem." He smiled and continued: "It seems that the main force in Guanzhong is only fifty or sixty people, but Nie Xiao has 10,000 people, and with twice the strength, there is no reason to fail." ”

Bian Zhang also smiled, "In that case, I'll wait for Mr. Gongxiao to be my bookmaker." It doesn't take much, just an hour, and I'll be satisfied. ”

Wang Guo smiled slightly, and Beigong Boyu also laughed, but Li Wenhou looked at the three of them with a gloomy face, pursed his lips, and disdained. Wang Kingdom looked at him, shook his head, and said to Bian Zhang: "Are you going to go to the Koji family again, their attitude has been unclear, if they don't, we can't keep them." ”

Bian Zhang hesitated: "I've been there a few times, but I've been scolded back by Koji Yi." He didn't agree, and Koji Young didn't dare to agree easily. I think it's better to send some people to surround them for a few days and put a little pressure on them. ”

The kingdom frowned in embarrassment and pondered for a long time: "That's it." Boyu, I'll leave this matter to you, it's not appropriate for us to come forward. ”

Beigong Boyu bowed in response. Li Wenhou snorted secretly, his face displeased. Beigong Boyu gestured to him with his eyes, and agreed to Wang Guo and Bian Zhang for a while, before getting up and going out.

As soon as he went out, Li Wenhou couldn't help but scold: "I just said that I can't get involved with these people, now it's good, they do it for the good guys, and we'll do the bad guys." Is the koji family easy to mess with? Then if Lu Yi had fought with us for many years, if he hadn't had a bad temper, he would have become a big official like Dong Zhuo a long time ago. ”

"Alright, alright." Beigong Boyu glared at him: "With our reputation, those celebrities can support us, we can take Jincheng so quickly, and the army can quietly pass through Wuwei and stability, and can surround Yuan Shu?" ”

Li Wenhou waved his horsewhip vigorously and shouted unconvinced: "I just think that these people are not of the same mind as us. Look at the guy with the surname Bian, he is thinking about retreating now, if we lose the battle, he won't cut off our heads to receive the reward? ”

"Then we can't lose the battle." Beigong Boyu snorted coldly: "Send the Heavenly Wolf to support Nie Xiao and send people to contact the June Thunder and Heavenly Wolf in Wudu, and let them attack Wudu and enter the Forced Disperse Pass." Three-way pinch, I still don't believe that I can't break through the level.

When we occupy Guanzhong, when the great sages and good teachers are in Shandong, the world is not ours? ”

"You send people to surround the Koji family and force them to surrender, or else, you will be killed." Beigong Boyu said gloomily. "Kill the Koji family, and let the people of Jincheng see our methods, lest they sway like grass one by one."

Li Wenhou turned his anger into joy and nodded repeatedly.

Liu Xiu stood at the bottom of the ridge, overlooking the mountain and Guling across the road, the two ridges are fifty steps apart, the road that can really walk people and horses is less than ten steps wide, if you want to go west from here, this ten steps wide mountain road is the only way.

As Pound said, the Qiang came quickly, occupying the high ground next to the road, and the shadow of the cavalry could be faintly seen at a later point. If they did not take their positions on the ridges on both sides, they would have to be attacked on three sides.

"That's Nie Xiao of Burning Dangqiang, who was originally a Han Chinese, and later killed the officials in a fit of rage because of the tax levied and fled to Burning Dangqiang. Good martial arts, brains, and a rare person among the Qiang people who can fight. Zhao An pointed to the generals on the opposite side and explained to Liu Xiu one by one.

"It turned out to be a Han Chinese?" Liu Xiu was surprised.

"Yes, the Qiang people are brave, but most of them are illiterate, and they only know how to fight and rush when they fight, and they don't use their brains much, so although they were powerful before, as long as the officers and soldiers arrived, they usually couldn't take advantage. However, later several assassins and taishou sent by the imperial court were all from Shandong, and they ignored the situation in Liangzhou and extorted violently, not only the Qiang people could not bear it, but even the Han people could not survive, so they had to rebel with the Qiang people. Zhao An let out a long sigh, "They are familiar with the terrain, some of them have also read books, served as soldiers, and know how to fight, and their rebellion is more harmful than that of the Qiang rebellion." ”

Liu Xiu didn't say anything, he knew that most of the people's rebellion was forced by the officials to rebel, except for a few careerists, most of them would not do this kind of thing until they survived. But now is obviously not the time to sympathize with Nie Xiao, he wants to defeat Nie Xiao as quickly as possible and occupy Jicheng first. Jicheng is not only the county governance of Hanyang County, but also the state governance of Liangzhou, and it is also a rare fortified city in Liangzhou.

It is precisely because of this that he refuses to take a detour, so as not to delay time.

"Array!" Liu Xiu raised his hand and said softly. Hao Zhao waved the colorful flag in his hand, and the commander who followed him immediately behind him beat the war drums, and the majestic war drums echoed in the valley. Xu, Guan Yu and the others stood in a circle in front of Liu Xiu's horse, looking at Liu Xiu with blazing eyes.

"Order, Xu attacked the left wing mountain, Zhang Fei attacked the right side of the Guling, and took it within one hour. Zhang Xiu was in charge of the bow and crossbow cover, Guan Yu and Yu Fuluo, preparing to surprise the enemy cavalry. ”

"Whoa." The crowd responded.

Zhao An frowned, Liu Xiu's men only had more than five hundred foot soldiers, and the rest were all cavalry, looking at Liu Xiu's arrangement, it seemed that he was preparing to use these five hundred foot soldiers to seize the positions on both sides, is this a bit too big. Nie Xiao had at least a thousand people on each side of the hillside, and he still had enough reserve forces in case the situation was not right.

Just when Zhao An was in doubt, Xu and Zhang Fei had already set off, each of them with more than two hundred people, holding shields and ring knives, and climbing up the hillsides on both sides with a calm pace. Zhang Xiu, with hundreds of crossbowmen, jumped off his horse and rushed to the bottom of the ridge, ready to shoot for cover.

The Qiang people on the mountain couldn't help laughing when they saw the sparse attack formation of the Han army, they laughed loudly, and casually drew their bows and arrows, ready to block the attack.

Xu and the others held their shields and climbed up the mountain unhurriedly. Stopped outside the range of the Qiang. Zhang Xiu crossed them, climbed halfway up the hill, raised the crossbow in his hand, aimed at a Qiang man on the mountain with Wangshan, and pulled the crossbow machine. The crossbow arrow whizzed away, flew through the air for more than seventy paces, and then fell weakly.

The Qiang laughed again with disdain.

Zhang Xiu looked at the crossbow arrows in the air intently, indifferent to the ridicule of the Qiang people, and when the crossbow arrows landed, he raised his hand and gave an order: "Fifty more steps forward, find favorable terrain for each one, and pay attention to protecting yourself." ”

"Whoa." More than two hundred crossbowmen with crossbows scattered and rushed up the hillside.

When the Qiang people saw them in range, they did not dare to slack off, and at the sound of an order, hundreds of archers began to shoot. As soon as the bowstring on the mountain sounded, Xu and the others fell down and waited quietly. Zhang Xiu and his crossbowmen walked dexterously through the mountains, agile as goats, with the help of stones to cover themselves, there was really no stone cover, they used the small shields they carried with them to block a shield array, and at the same time used the crossbows in their hands to fight back, covering their companions through the uncovered area. However, after a meal, more than 200 crossbowmen were all in place, and they were fifty steps away from the Qiang people on the top of the mountain.

Zhang Xiu raised the crossbow in his hand again and pulled the crossbow machine. With a soft "buzz", the crossbow arrow flew out of the string, flew over a distance of fifty paces, and shot a Qiang man who was raising his bow to shoot. He smiled and waved his hand: "Shoot!" ”

Eighty crossbow arrows rang out, ready to fly towards the target that had already been determined. This time, all the crossbows were sent out from the waist, and they used the power of the waist to wind up, and the range was more than 150 steps on the ground, and now they were shooting from the bottom up, and they suffered some losses, but within a distance of 50 paces, as long as they were shot, unless the opponent was in iron armor, it was basically pierced.

How many Qiang people can afford to wear iron armor? Not only that, but they also did not take the Han army's one hundred and ten crossbowmen in their eyes, after all, they were condescending, and they also had an absolute advantage in numbers, and the shooting speed of the bow was several times faster than that of the crossbow, so on the whole, their advantage in the arrow array was undoubted. It was precisely because of this that they were so careless and let Zhang Xiu approach within fifty steps.

But as soon as Zhang Xiu attacked, the Qiang people understood their power. The range of the crossbow arrows is long, and the accuracy of the crossbowmen is staggering. The vast majority of them had followed Liu Xiu to fight in northern Xinjiang for two or three years, and they had rich combat experience and strict training in peacetime, even when they followed Liu Xiu in Luoyang, they trained normally every morning.

Eighty crossbow arrows, almost all of which hit the target, and more than half of them were directly killed. Fifty or sixty people fell on the Qiang position at once, and the screams instantly overpowered their laughter, and the Qiang people who originally felt very relaxed suddenly became nervous, some of them angrily raised their bows and arrows to fight back, and some subconsciously hid, for fear of being shot by the Han army again.

"Three rounds!" Zhang Xiuyin behind a boulder, his keen eyes swept around the hillside, raised his hand to shoot down a centurion-like Qiang man, and once again gave the order to shoot.

Two hundred crossbows, divided into three batches, take turns to shoot, although the speed is not fast, although the rain of arrows is not dense, but the years of hard training have made their shooting accuracy far more than the average shooter, even the Xianbei people who are known for riding and shooting have not taken advantage of them, and the Qiang people are their opponents Zhang Xiu hit them with a dull stick at once, in just ten breaths, no less than one hundred and fifty corpses fell on the mountain, and the morale of the Qiang people plummeted, they panicked and shouted loudly, except for a few who could stand up and fight back, Most of them shot behind rocks or trees.

"Attack!" Xu jumped up and ran away. Two hundred tigers divided into three teams, and the finished glyph rushed towards the mountain. They covered their heads with shields, their eyes fixed on the hillside from the edge of the shields, and their swords in their right hands were short, and they ran between the rocks and the trees.

When the Qiang saw the Han infantry beginning to charge, they hurriedly shouted, and the substitute centurion roared loudly, driving the nervous archers out of their hiding places, and ordering them to shoot arrows to block the attack. As soon as they showed their heads, the crossbowmen who had been prepared for a long time immediately locked onto their targets and fired one deadly arrow after another at the top of the mountain.

"Foot Pawn Block!" Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, the centurion roared sharply, and at the same time led more than two hundred soldiers to rush down the hillside, hoping to use the condescending advantage to block Xu and the others.

The rain of arrows staggered, the shouts of killing were loud, and the two sides launched a fierce attack at the beginning.

Zhang Xiu shouted, "Raise your three fingers and shoot!" The crossbowmen shouted in response, and turned their aim at the archers on the hillside, ignoring the infanciers who rushed down the hill. The Qiang archers were very embarrassed by their shots, and although they had the advantage in numbers, they could not spare the energy to support the counterattacking foot soldiers, and could only use the numerical advantage to suppress the Han army.

Xu was not the fastest, but he was definitely the bravest, he did not bring a shield, but wore two pieces of armor, relying on his strong strength, the armor weighing fifty or sixty pounds was obviously as light as a feather to him, and it could not affect his speed of action at all. The Qiang people's arrows were shot in the armor and embedded in the armor leaves, but they could not hurt him at all. He raised his knife in both hands, stared at the centurion deadly, and roared angrily: "Kill! ”

The ring knife danced, and the two Qiang people who rushed towards him were cut to the ground by him, and rolled down the hillside. Xu didn't even look at them, just stared at the centurion and fought his way in. His knife was not fast, but it was deadly, and with every swing it struck, one fell to the ground. He strode forward within five paces, slew seven Qiang, and rushed to the centurion.

The centurion was already stupid, he looked at the expressionless strong man in a daze, looked at the bloody sword in his hand, and then looked at his cold eyes, all the courage was gone, and boundless fear grabbed his heart. He felt that he couldn't breathe, his body stiffened, and his mind went blank as he watched Xu approach step by step.

"Kill!" Xu swept past him and slashed his head.

The Qiang people far underestimated the combat effectiveness of the tiger warriors, and even underestimated the ability of Xu to attack, more than 200 Qiang people did not survive a meal in front of the tiger warriors who were equal in number, and they were killed to the point of blood and collapsed, and the remaining dozens of Qiang people were frightened by them, and they no longer had the courage to fight and turned around and ran towards the mountain.

Xu was not in a hurry, he slowly followed behind these fleeing Qiang, and from time to time he waved his knife to kill the Qiang people who ran last, he did not seem to be fighting, but like she was herding sheep, driving a group of sheep to the hillside.

There were still six or seven hundred Qiang people on the top of the mountain, but when they saw this strange scene in front of them, they didn't know how to deal with it. Archery, stone-throwing? That's his own people, how can they go down When they hesitated, Xu killed to the hillside and glanced at the position of the Qiang people, he had a number in his heart, and raised the war knife in his hand: "Kill them all!" "Raise your hand and cut down the battle banner of the Qiang people.

The tiger warriors shouted in unison and killed the past with all their might.

Zhang Xiu stood up from his hiding place, listened to the voice on the hillside and laughed silently, he waved his hand: "Tell the general that the Qiang position on the left flank has been occupied by our army." ”

Liu Xiu squinted his eyes and sat upright on his horse, listening to the sound of war drums coming from the hillside on the left wing, his face expressionless. Zhao An and Ren Ping beside him were surprised and delighted, how long had the war been, two hundred tiger warriors and two hundred crossbowmen had defeated the Qiang people who were guarding the mountain? Nie Xiao was too careless this time, and the manpower arranged was too small.

Almost at the same time, news of success came from the hillside of the right flank. Only then did Liu Xiu open his eyes, gently raised his hand, and pointed forward. The commanders beat the war drums, and Guan Yu and Yu Fuluo, who had been prepared for a long time, galloped on horseback. Guan Yu was heavily armoured, riding on a war horse, rushing to the front of the team, followed closely by the heavy armor soldiers, they roared through the narrow mountain road, bypassed a hillside, and rushed towards the Qiang cavalry who were waiting for the battle.

Nie Xiao sat on his horse, stunned. He has been counting the time, there are thousands of people on the slopes on both sides, and there is favorable terrain, with Liu Xiu's strength of only 3,000 people, if he wants to capture these two slopes, he must go all out, and as long as Liu Xiu sends the main force out to attack the people on the hillside, he can take the six or seven thousand cavalry behind him to rush out, and in the shortest possible time, the few remaining Chinese troops of Liu Xiu will be crushed into pulp.

However, instead of hearing the sound of the horn that he hoped to hear, he heard the victorious war drums of the Han army, which surprised him very much, and he was surprised by the speed of the Han army's attack. However, he was not alarmed by this, he still had enough strength to turn the tide of the battle, even if the Han army captured the slopes on both flanks, he could defeat Liu Xiu, and even capture Liu Xiu alive. According to his prediction, Liu Xiu should have sent all his troops out now, and he couldn't stop his thunder at all, but before he decided to attack, the Han army took the initiative to attack, and at the forefront was a group of soldiers covered in iron armor. Under the reflection of the midday sun, the iron armor shone brightly, brilliant as the stars.

Even more brilliant was the cold light reflected by the swords in their hands.

Guan Yu urged the horse to gallop wildly, danced the horse sword with both hands, and entered the Qiang formation. Before the Qiang people could react, he had already killed the front army and single-handedly killed in front of Nie Xiao.

Nie Xiao changed color in shock, pointed at the horsewhip, and screamed sharply: "Stop him-"

The two guards behind Nie Xiao were shocked, urged their horses forward, raised the spears in their hands, one stabbed Guan Yu's chest, and the other stabbed Guan Yu's lower abdomen. Guan Yu raised his thick eyebrows, his phoenix eyes opened, and two cold lights as sharp as knives suddenly locked Nie Xiao. He let out a loud shout, and the sword slashed down with the sound of the wind.

With a soft "click", the sword swept across the neck of a knight, easily cutting off his head, and then stabbed into Nie Xiao's chest. At the same time, a spear slashed through Guan Yu's chest, and the tip of the spear made a spark on the iron armor, making a piercing grinding sound, and the knight holding the spear was hit by the strong reaction force and couldn't sit still, turned over and fell off the horse. The horse slashing sword in Guan Yu's hand flew back and slashed off half of his body in the air.

One hit three!

(To be continued)