(Thank you for the reward from the iron-blooded Yi Xuan book friend!)

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Li Fu and Pang Zhong originally thought that Ge Shuhan and Yang Xi had arranged them in the Hantong Pass City, just to let them hold on to this place until the last soldier. Li Fu did not dare to disobey Yang Xi's order, and Pang Zhong was sad because he had just experienced the defeat of Lingbao, and after seeing Li Fu's successes several times, he also wanted to wash away his shame with a brilliant victory, and even redeemed his reputation with the most tragic sacrifice. The two generals with different minds have the idea of becoming a benevolent person, but the degree of determination is different.

When the big war was about to start and they received Yang Xi's order again, they were very surprised.

No one expected Yang Xi's order to be like this, asking them to do everything possible to kill and wound the rebels, and minimize the casualties of their own side, and at the right time, retreat to the Sui Tong Pass behind them. No matter what Pang Zhong and Li Fude thought, after receiving Yang Xi's order, they were a little moved, at least don't let them do all their strength in Hantong Pass, only let them contain the rebels and play the role of slowing down the rebels' march, if they don't support, they can retreat to the Suitong Pass City behind!

They didn't know what the final result would be, but the feeling of not giving up was born with Yang Xi's order being delivered.

Pang Zhong and Li Fu had already seen the movement of the rebels, and they immediately ordered the whole army to prepare for battle.

The west gate of Hantong Pass City does not need to be defended because it leads to Sui Tong Pass, the north gate faces the Yellow River, the open space on the edge of the city is only more than zhang, and even the cloud ladder is not easy to stand up, now it is the flood season of the Yellow River, and the rebels will basically not attack from the direction of the north gate, so the two generals will focus on the east gate and the south gate, almost each leading a thousand men and horses, each guarding a door.

Pang Zhong was familiar with the situation in this area, and led the army to guard the south gate, the main direction of attack of the rebels, Li Fude led 1,000 men to guard the east gate, and the remaining hundreds of men and horses to maneuver, which direction with heavy casualties was replenished to whichever place. After the order was given, all the sergeants quickly ran to the city wall and stood by, with arrows on their bows, waiting for the rebels to enter the firing range, and at the first order, they would shoot the arrows in their hands into the rebels' formation.

The large bed crossbow on the castle tower was also equipped with long arrows, ready to strike at the rebels coming in the direction of the castle tower at a great distance.

Pang Zhong sighed that the Hantong Pass City was too dilapidated, and the troops in their hands were too small. If the Hantong Pass City had been overhauled, if they had 10,000 troops, then he could pat his chest and promise that he would never let the rebels set foot on the city, but now......

Pang Zhong was a little worried!

However, they can only resist desperately, and no matter what, they must find a way to hold the city until after dark, or even longer.

To delay the rebels as long as possible is to buy more time for the arrival of our reinforcements.

Although the sun has set in the west, the sky is still very hot, and the wall tiles on the city tower are hot from the sun, and it is not easy to stay on it.

Fortunately, the mountain peaks behind had blocked most of the sun on the castle tower, and the wind blew from time to time, and the feeling of scorching heat disappeared a little.

It's better than in the morning and noon, when that's when it's really hot.

Tongguan is located in the place of the Yellow River and Huashan, there is the sun between the mountains and rivers at noon is very hot, if the sun sets, the heat is also fast, no sun to the place is still relatively cool.

The rebels did not attack Tongguan in the morning or noon, which had caused less trouble for the defenders of Tongguan.

But none of this gave Lee Ford much joy, and he knew that the most brutal battle was about to begin.

"General Li, the thief army is coming so fast!" A lieutenant standing beside Li Fu looked at the rebel team slowly coming in the direction of Hantong Pass in astonishment, and whispered, "General, we only have such a small number of troops, can we hold here?" ”

"Hugh is talking nonsense! If you dare to talk nonsense again, you will be punished without mercy!" Li Fu let out a loud cry of anger. Of course, what the lieutenant said was what he thought, and the rebels were attacking again at a very fast pace.

After the successful ambush, he thought that after the rebels suffered heavy losses one after another, they would wait and see for a while, at least one day, which could allow their men and horses who had just won the battle to enjoy the joy of victory, and also let the soldiers get a certain degree of rest.

After traveling hundreds of miles day and night, the soldiers did not have a good rest, and their physical strength was greatly overdrawn!

I thought I would get a good night's sleep tonight, but I didn't think it was just a dream, and the rebels started attacking again before evening.

After tonight, how many of their 2,000 or so people can be left to retreat to the taller and majestic Tongguan City behind?

But this did not take much effort to think about it, because the rebels were getting closer and closer, and even the sergeants on horseback and walking could be distinguished, and the battle would begin immediately.

After the rebels were attacked by fire, they finally retreated only about ten miles and rested at a bend of the Yellow River, probably because An Qingxu or Cui Qianyou finally found out that the Tang army was just bluffing, and no matter what they did, they just wanted to delay their attack, so they did not wait for the mountain fire to be completely extinguished, so they ordered the army to continue to march and prepare to attack Tongguan City.

The speed of the rebels' re-attack was beyond the surprise of all the Tang army generals, including Yang Xi and others.

However, a few small ambushes delayed the rebel attack by almost a day, which is already a big achievement, not to mention killing and wounding thousands of rebels, reinvigorating the morale of the army, restoring some of the morale of the Tang army that could no longer be described in words, and to a certain extent, it hit the morale of the rebels.

This was originally the sight that Yang Xi hoped to achieve, but now the goal has been achieved, and it is a little better than originally expected!

Li Fu and Pang Zhong successively looked back at the Sui Tong Pass about three miles away from their city, and on the tall tower at the east gate of the Sui Tong Pass City, Yang Xi's majestic figure could be seen. When Pang Zhong looked back several times, he seemed to be able to see Yang Xi standing proudly in Tongguan Chengguan, looking in this direction, which made Pang Zhong quite emotional, and Li Fu was very moved.

No one knew that Yang Xi's action was almost harsh to himself, but he gave the soldiers at the city gates a kind of support of faith, especially the soldiers on the Hantong Pass. They don't feel like they're being ignored!

"Command the whole army and get ready for battle!" Li Fude and Pang Zhong's orders were conveyed again, and all the arrows in the hands of the soldiers were on the strings, and the sergeants who operated the bed crossbows had already wound several thick arrows, and several sergeants were pulling the strings and testing their hands. These bed crossbows at the head of the Hantong Pass have claimed the lives of countless rebel soldiers in the past few months, and today they will be in full swing again.

"General, the thief army has come within range of the bed crossbow!" A watchman sergeant ran to Lee Ford, who was on the tower of the city gate, and reported loudly.

"Pass my military order, and the bed crossbow will start shooting!" Liford gave the order calmly.

With the order of the captain who commanded the bed crossbow to "release", several long arrows were fired from the bed crossbow, and in the loud "whoosh" sound, several beautiful parabolas were crossed, and shot at the heads of the rebel outposts that had just emerged about 300 paces away.

At the same time, in the direction of the south gate, Pang Zhong also ordered the large bed crossbows on the city gate to start shooting.