A sergeant quickly ran in front of Dou Hua, who was leading the army to run fast, slowed down his mount in a long neighing of the horse under him, and after making a circle on the official road, he continued to run in the direction of Tongguan with Dou Hua, and then reported the situation loudly: "Report to the general, our army has arrived in Huayin in front, and there are eighty miles to reach Tongguan!" General Tong, may I ask the general, is there a temporary rest? ”

"There are still eighty miles, it seems that we can reach Tongguan before dark!" Dou Hua slowed down his mount slightly, looked at the sergeants who were still marching fast on the official road, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion, and then ordered: "Order the sergeant to rest in Huayin for a while, and set off immediately after replenishing food and water!"

It was almost noon now, the weather was very hot, and the soldiers could no longer march at a very fast speed, but maintained a certain reasonable speed to move forward, and now they had been running continuously for more than an hour, and the men and horses were very tired, sweating a lot, and urgently needed to replenish water and food.

It's all the damn weather, otherwise it wouldn't be so embarrassing. It was too hot for Dou Hua to give the order to run at full speed. If the horses were to run as fast as they could, they might run down in half an hour, and many of the horses would fall down the road and never get up again, as would many of the sergeants.

In such weather, it is necessary to ensure the speed of the march and to avoid the large fall of the sergeant or horse, and it is necessary to have proper rest and water to replenish food. Sweating too much, the problem of drinking water for people and horses has to be supplemented and solved no matter what.

Fortunately, there were many experienced officers in the army, and yesterday afternoon's march provided them with experience, and they worked out a combination of fast and slow marching, plus a short rest. This will ensure that the whole team can move quickly, and will not cause a large number of people to die due to the heat and physical exertion. Many people understand the truth that if you want to hurry, you can't reach it, but when it's really happening, many people don't know how to do it, unless they are very experienced.

But no matter how experienced people are, they are anxious when they encounter such a situation. Not only Dou Hua couldn't wait to put on his wings and fly to Tongguan, but also the officers and sergeants at all levels under his command. It's just useless to be anxious, Chang'an can't be saved by two hundred and seventy or eighty miles from Tongguan.

Although the weather was cool at night, the lights were blind, and the moon was obscured by clouds, and the three thousand men and horses marched together, and it was not fast to move at all.

Came down last night, and only traveled less than 100 miles, plus yesterday afternoon, about 200 miles away from Chang'an, the remaining 80 miles for the 3,000 sergeants to come, is a very big test, after all, the 3,000 men and horses are marching continuously, physical exertion is very large, and last night did not sleep, at such a speed to Tongguan, no one knows how much combat power.

If you run hard, it is estimated that after arriving in Tongguan, you don't need to participate in the battle, and you will all lie down at the head of Tongguan City.

But anyone understands that the defenders of Tongguan are still waiting for their follow-up reinforcements, and they must strive to reach Tongguan City as soon as possible, and ensure that they still have the strength to fight after arriving at Tongguan!

Dou Hua led the army to march in between, and asked people to inquire about the situation everywhere, and the information transmitted through the post station probably knew the battle situation ahead, Tongguan was still in the hands of our Tang army, and it had not yet fallen.

According to the latest intelligence analysis, Tongguan has not yet reached the most dangerous time, and the rebels have not even attacked the new Tongguan City, as long as they speed up their march, they will definitely be able to reach the Xintongguan City before the city is broken.

There was also Zhang Jian who had a similar mood to Dou Hua, and the 5,000 men and horses led by Yang Guozhong's cronies basically maintained a similar marching speed with Dou Hua's department, running fast on the official road, and they were about forty miles behind Dou Hua's department, a rapid travel distance of about an hour.

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Near noon, the fire in the Hantong Pass had almost been extinguished.

Just as the fire in the direction of several city gates was slowly subsided, but some wooden structures in the city were still burning, Cui Qianyou ordered Li Qian and Cheng Wei, the two lieutenant generals who commanded the outpost, to lead their troops into the city from the direction of the east gate and the south gate, which were already devastated, to prepare to control the embers in the city and then occupy the entire Hantong Pass.

This will be a relay point for their attack on the Sui Tong Pass, where the follow-up support of men and horses and supplies will be assembled, and if the battle in front is not conducive to retreating, it will also be gathered here.

In the unlikely event that the Tang army conducts a counteroffensive after gaining the upper hand, this will also be a stronghold to resist the counteroffensive of the Tang army.

However, after Cheng Wei and Li Qian led the army into Hantong Pass again, they found that Cui Qianyou's plan was a bit "whimsical".

Several city gate holes near the burned mess, the wooden city gate is definitely gone, even the city gate tower on the city wall has been destroyed, as far as the eye can see, most of the buildings in the city have been destroyed by fire, some continue to burn, Hantong Pass has been completely destroyed!

If they attack the Sui Tong Pass City unfavorably, and the Tang army counterattacks, this broken city will not have much use value, unless it is repaired immediately.

After reporting the initial findings to Cui Qianyou, who was behind, Li Qian and Cheng Wei ordered the sergeants to enter the city cautiously.

If you want to enter the city, you must clean up the burned wreckage of the city gate and the door hole, and those things that are burned out or not burned out are still very hot and easy to burn people. There was enough hay piled up near the gate to the ground, and the men and horses who had unfortunately rushed to the fire had been burned to charcoals, which was indistinguishable from the burning remnants of hay and wood, and the rebel sergeants were scantidly clearing the ashes from the ground.

Whether it was the east gate, the south gate, or the north gate, which had not been fought on a large scale but was opened by the rebel sergeants who had stormed into the city, the scene was almost the same, and it was a terrible scene.

The poor ones who died in the fire were all rebel sergeants, not any Don sergeants.

When Pang Zhong and Li Fude led their troops to withdraw from the Hantong Pass, they did not all evacuate, leaving no one behind.

When the 2,000 men and horses were withdrawn, dozens of dead soldiers were left in many key places in the city, and these dead soldiers who were determined to die were ready to ignite flammable materials such as hay and oil drums when the rebels stormed the city. They didn't plan to escape, they planned to live and die with the Hantong Pass, and the signals such as the arrows that harassed the rebels at night and made the rebels misjudge were the movements they made.

However, the development of things is better than the first estimate, when the rebels entered the city, the hanging oil lamps and candles ignited these flammable materials, giving the rebels a heavy blow, these dead soldiers who intended to live and die with Tongguan City, also set fire in many places, took advantage of the chaos of the rebels did not pay attention, fled from the direction of the west gate, fled back to the Sui Tongguan City. Their luck was that there were no casualties,

The rebel sergeants who died in the fire were left to scatter in Tongguan as ashes, and were removed like garbage.

However, when the rebels cleaned up the remnants of the burning near the city gate, opened the road into the city, and marched into the city, the unexpected situation occurred again.

Not far from the city gate, there was a trap dug in the place, and the sergeants who were riding horses in front of them opened the trap when the horses' hooves stepped on the trap ground, and dozens of horsemen and horses fell into it. The traps were filled with sharpened bamboo and wood, and the horses and sergeants who had fallen were all stabbed by these upside-down murder weapons, and many were pierced by one or more sharp pieces of wood or bamboo.

Some people died immediately after screaming, and those who did not die immediately struggled incessantly, screaming and wailing one after another.