The sky was dark and quiet, with a rustling sound mixed with the cries of insects, which made the silence of the night even more silent.

Dong Shouye stood quietly on his horse, looking ahead.

On this night, he led 50,000 horses and prepared to attack the city overnight.

Human-bits, horsebits, horse-hooves wrapped, carefully trained men and horses, did not make any superfluous sound to break the silence of the night.

A flash of fire suddenly appeared on the north gate, and it was a torch. The torch was lit for a moment before being extinguished. After a while, it lit up again, as if it had just happened, and then it went out again a moment later.

And so on three times.

Behind Dong Shouye, Li Ru rode a horse and quietly followed behind him, and after seeing the fire on the city tower, he only heard him whisper to Dong Shouye: "Lord, the secret signal in the city has appeared, Hu Zhen should have been prepared!" ”

Dong Shouye nodded when he heard this, and said in a low voice: "Send a signal and prepare to attack the city!" After saying that, with a wave of his hand, he gave the order to start the siege.

At this time, after Zhang Liao received the order from Dong Shouye, he took his headquarters and marched to the outside of the north gate, opened his bow and arrows, and shot three arrows at the main gate.

The arrows hit the wooden gate with a triple sound, causing the gate to tremble slightly.

Seeing that the main gate was slowly opened at this time, Zhang Liao saw this, did not hesitate, and rushed into the city gate first. The sergeant who opened the city gate was Hu Zhen's men, whether it was the torch before or the three bows and arrows after that, it was the signal that Hu Zhen had agreed with Li Ru before.

As soon as a group of men entered the city gate, they lit torches to signal the main force behind. At the same time, Zhang Liao arranged a garrison near the city gate and prepared to receive the main force into the city.

After Dong Shouye saw the fear signal not far away, he immediately ordered the whole army to enter the city immediately.

The sound of the march broke the silence of the night, and the officer on duty at the north gate tonight was none other than Sikong Zhifu.

Kind of whisk was born in the family of the secretary of the world, is the son of the Eastern Han Dynasty generation of famous ministers Chong Hui, Dong Zhuo into Luoyang, conquered Xun Shuang as the Sikong, the first year of Zhongping (AD 190) Xun Shuang died of illness, the kind of Fu took over as the Sikong, the next year, because of the earthquake and was deposed, and then was appointed too often. After Wang Yun took control of Chang'an, he let him re-serve as Sikong, and he was one of the core figures of Wang Yun's party.

Ever since it got dark, he had been a little restless, and after inspecting the city gate and finding that he was normal, he felt that he might be overly worried, so he rested.

But after falling asleep, he has been sleeping very lightly, as soon as he heard an abnormal sound outside, he was suddenly shocked into a cold sweat, and after listening carefully, this old boy was over fifty years old, and he was old and fine, and immediately judged from the sound outside that there should be an enemy attacking the city. Immediately startled, screamed, quickly straightened his clothes and armor, drew his sword from the edge of the bed, put it in his hand, and walked out quickly.

Walked outside the door and shouted: "The enemy is attacking, wake up all the soldiers immediately." ”

After a while, someone walked quickly to Chong Fu's side and shouted: "Lord Qiqi Sikong, the city gate has been opened, and a large number of enemies have mixed into the city, please decide!" ”

When he heard this, he secretly said in his heart: "The city gate has been opened, and it seems that the city is in addition to the gap, and the enemy outside the city should be in harmony with the outside." Most of the people around me are from the private army of the big family, and it is absolutely impossible to have anything to do with the Xiliang army, and it seems that the gap is in the forbidden army. ”

Then he said: "Send the order, immediately let the departments move closer to me, and at the same time try to avoid contact with the people of the forbidden army." At the same time, send people to the forbidden army and ask them to find out who the spies are. ”

After the order was issued, Chongfu shouted: "Don't panic the army, come with me, and see how the old man kills the enemy!" ”

Infected by his feelings, the people regained their courage, cheered up, held torches, approached the kind of whisk, and marched towards the city gate under the leadership of the kind whisk.

However, it was said that after Zhang Liao arranged for the people who answered Dong Shouye, he said loudly to some people who opened the door: "Where is Hu Zhen? ”

Not far from the conversation, there was a group of people ready to go, and when they heard Zhang Liao's question, the leader shouted: "The last general Hu Zhen is here, dare to ask where the lord is?" At this time, Zhang Liao's official position should be slightly lower than Hu Zhen, even if Hu Zhen will be demoted from Zhonglang, but as a general of the forbidden army, he is still slightly higher than Zhang Liao, but Zhang Liao is now questioning on behalf of Dong Shouye, so Hu Zhen will claim to be the last general.

Zhang Liao raised his eyes and saw that it was Hu Zhen, these two had crossed paths and cooperated in the Luoyang War against Sun Jian, so they naturally knew each other, so he said: "General Hu is polite, the lord is leading a large group of men and horses to the city, and you can see later, General Hu also asked for the temporary placement of troops to prepare to receive the lord into the city, and at the same time guard against the counterattack of the people in the city." "When Hu Zhen cooperated with Zhang Liao, the official position was Zhonglang General, but the current position was given by Dong Huang, and Zhang Liao, as a person under Dong Shouye, naturally would not recognize the official position appointed by Dong Huang, so he used his previous official position to call Hu Zhen.

At this time, the development of the situation was dominated by Zhang Liao, and Hu Zhen naturally would not be stupid at this time, so he accepted Zhang Liao's construction or orders and arrangements very obediently.

After a while, Chong Fu was already rushing towards the city gate with his men and horses, Zhang Liao and Hu Zhen did not dare to slack off, and immediately arranged for their men to meet the enemy.

This night attack is a matter of importance, so the men and horses led by Zhang Liao are the most elite men and horses under his command, equipped with strong crossbows given by Dong Shouye. This strong crossbowman has a school of 2,500 men and horses, each of whom holds a strong crossbow and carries a spear on his back, so his combat effectiveness is extremely amazing.

I saw that Zhang Liao divided the strong crossbowmen who were responsible for the engagement in front into four rows, the first three rows formed a three-stage shooting formation, and the last row was responsible for making up for it, rushing to the strong crossbowmen to block the enemy and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

The so-called three-stage shooting is a kind of crossbowmen battle formation that Zhang Liao learned from Dong Shouye, which simply means that it is a group of three people, first shot by the strong crossbowman at the front, and then retreated to the back of the team to concentrate on loading the crossbow arrows, and the second soldier stepped forward to shoot. The three of them alternately reload crossbow arrows and shoot, greatly increasing the speed and efficiency of shooting, and it can be said that the attack power is very strong.

After a wave of crossbow arrows was fired, the leading troops led by Chong Fu were hit by arrows one after another, and they fell to the ground.

In this short period of contact, both Hu Zhen as a friendly soldier and as an enemy were shocked, and they didn't expect the attack power of Zhang Liao's men and horses to be so strong. What Hu Zhen thinks is that he will have to be honest in the future, there are countless capable people in the army under the command of the lord, and he can't be foolish, otherwise it will be really difficult to mix in the Xiliang army.

But he knew that there were crossbowmen in the Xiliang army, and he had seen its power, but he didn't expect it to be an eye-opener again tonight.