After Yang Wei first arrived in Dali City, Yang Yuanqing has been thinking about finding a master to take him with him, and he naturally considers it from the few people he trusts the most.

Among Yang Yuanqing's several old subordinates, Hún has the best is undoubtedly Yang Sien, the official deputy city lord of Jiuyuan, the general of the town, hún is not Liu Jian, nor is it Fat Fish, but Ma Shao, Ma Shao is the most taciturn of all of them, and he is also the most down-to-earth, extremely able to endure hardships, and Yang Yuanqing has been promoted to the lord of the seventh rank for a few years, and the eight forts under the jurisdiction of Dali City are all led by him, and he has won Yang Yuanqing's trust.

And no matter Liu Jian and Fat Fish, they all have a little bit of ruffianism on their bodies, Yang Wei was originally a gentleman in the capital, and he couldn't bring them to him.

Yang Yuanqing decided that Ma Shao would take Yang Wei to patrol the border of various forts and master the actual combat experience of the border fortress.

Ma Shao is a Qiang man, he has always been silent, he doesn't talk much, but he can get to the point, for more than a month, Liu Jian has been patrolling with him, and he has benefited a lot.

On this morning, Ma Shao took twenty brothers and Yang Wei to patrol the Yellow River, Dali City is still twenty miles away from the Yellow River, and built a fort and a beacon on the high ground by the river, the time has reached the end of January, most of the snow on the grassland has melted, less than half a foot thick, can run in the snow, they urged the horse to come to the Yellow River, staring at the ice surface, Ma Shao suddenly jumped off the horse, ran to the ice with a knife.

"Brother Ma, what are you doing on the river?"

Yang Wei also got off the horse and ran over, Ma Shao stopped him with a wave of his hand, Yang Wei didn't dare to move, and looked at Ma Shao in a daze. Marsho squinted and listened.

Suddenly, he took an iron bowl out of his pocket and slammed it upside down on the ice. Lying on the bowl with his ears to listen, Yang Wei squatted down and asked, "What's there?" ”

Ma Shao stood up and pointed to the bowl, meaning to let him lie down, Yang Wei listened carefully to the iron bowl, and he also heard a slight 'click' at the bottom of the river! Click! It's very low, and it only happens by chance.

"What kind of sound is this, is the Yellow River going to thaw?" Yang Wei heard Ma Shao say that before the Yellow River thawed. There will be a cracking of ice at the bottom of the river.

Marsho nodded, "Ten days at the latest." The Yellow River thaws! ”

Suddenly, his face was solemn, he squinted his eyes and looked at the other side of the river, Yang Wei was strange, and also followed him to the other side of the river, about two miles away from the other side of the river was a forest, a large flock of birds flew from the forest, Yang Wei saw a group of deer. At this time, the deer herd was suddenly frightened. Scattering and fleeing, a group of Hu cavalry rushed out of the forest.

He was so shocked that he shouted, "It's Xue Yantuo!" ”

Marshall pulled him and ran. "Let's go! There are 3,000 people, and we can't deal with them. ”

Yang Wei ran towards the shore while looking back, he was very strange in his heart, he only saw dozens of people, how could Ma Shao see that there were three thousand, only to see that the enemy troops in the woods on the opposite bank were surging more and more, there were thousands of people, urging the war horses to rush to the other side of the river.

The two rushed ashore, turned on their horses, and said, "Go to the fort!" Marsho shouted, and rode his horse eastward.

Only run out of seven or eight miles, a mound mountain of more than 20 zhang appeared in front of them, there is a fort built on the top of the mountain, this is the northernmost fort in Fengzhou, close to the Yellow River, so it is called Linhe Fort, there are not many garrisons, only 20 soldiers.

Ma Shao rushed to the fort and shouted uncharacteristically: "Light the beacon fire, light the three-pillar beacon fire!" ”

At this time, more than 500 Xue Yantuo outposts had already crossed the Yellow River, divided into ten teams, and scattered in all directions, and the remaining thousands of Xue Yantuo soldiers were killed in the direction of the fort, which was the vanguard of the enemy, clearing the forts and beacons along the way.

Marsho looked at the cavalry brigade approaching from a distance, and said to himself, "The great battle is coming!" ”

When he saw that the twenty Sui soldiers in the fort had already rushed out on horseback, he waved his hand, "Withdraw with me!" ”

Dozens of cavalry urged the war horses to retreat quickly in the direction of Dali City, and on the top of the fort, three pillars of wolf smoke were lit on the top of the fort, sending the news of the enemy's entry to Dali City.

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As the time gradually came to the end of the month, the yīn clouds of the great battle began to drift over the city of Dali, and the Sui army scouts had successively discovered a small group of Xue Yantuo outposts, five or ten people, surveying the terrain around the city, collecting intelligence, and constantly fighting with the Sui army scouts, which was an ominous omen.

In previous years, there would also be Turkic outposts crossing the border and appearing in Dali City, but they would not fight with the Sui army, only as soon as the Sui army was expelled, they would leave immediately, but Xue Yantuo felt that he was fighting with the Sui army scouts, which meant that the war would inevitably break out.

The preparations for the city of Dali are also accelerating, the inner city wall has been completed, 10,000 craftsmen have turned to the rock wall, digging mountains in the rock wall, starting work in the morning, military training in the afternoon, but the work has been stopped in the past few days, intensive training is carried out throughout the day, queues, knife techniques, spears, and the five hundred Sui army brutally trained the craftsmen of this people.

Two days ago, Wuyuan County transported a large number of military supplies, bows and arrows, enough to arm 20,000 people, and at the same time transported hundreds of barrels of fierce fire oil, which was widely used in the military during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and all military supplies were stored in Shibiyan dòng.

Not only that, Yujuluo also transferred 5,000 troops for Yang Yuanqing's unified command, so that the regular army of Dali City reached 8,000 people.

Yang Yuanqing and Yujuluo walked slowly on the outer city wall, discussing the final defense, Pei Ju had already gone to Wuyuan County two days ago, Yujuluo could not rest assured that the defense of Dali City was two days late.

Men carry arrows, rolling logs and other military supplies, it is inconvenient to carry materials from the suspension bridge, they use hanging towers to hang all kinds of materials from the city, everyone shouts slogans, pull ropes, rolling wood and stones and other materials to defend the city are continuously transported up from the city.

NV people then boil water to water the city, burn the fire for cooking, although this is not the season of dripping water into ice, but the weather is still cold, overnight, the water poured on the city will still freeze into ice, the soldiers and civilians of Dali City have been pouring water on the city for three consecutive days, so that the inner and outer city walls have become ice walls, and the snow is bright and dazzling in the sun.

"Yuanqing, this time Pei Shilang brought the secret edict of the Holy Lord, and the Holy Lord asked that you be fully responsible for this war against Xue Yantuo, and I will be the deputy general to cooperate."

"This is a bit wronged, master."

"Don't say that!"

Yu Juluo patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "There is no grievance between our master and apprentice, I am also very pleased that the Holy Lord values you as a young general so much, and the merit of this county examination is no less than the war against Xue Yantuo." ”

Yu Juluo took off the yù ruyi on his waist, handed it to Yang Yuanqing and said with a smile: "The saint actually gave me Ruyi, which means that my old fish is about to be promoted." ”

Yang Yuanqing didn't answer his yù Ruyi, and said with a smile: "A county exam can actually make the master promoted, I knew that I was going to preside over the county exam, and the master would come to fight." ”

Yu Juluo raised his head and smiled, "I am the chief manager, I am the assassin history, no matter how hard you work in this county order, the credit will still be mine, and you will get nothing at that time." ”

"Master, I heard that the 20,000 troops of Lingzhou have arrived in Fengzhou?"

Yu Juluo nodded, "It's already here, so I'm in a hurry to go back, this time against Xue Yantuo, I will lead 25,000 troops to wait for you eighty miles away to cooperate with you, and when you give the order, we should join forces inside and outside to fight a happy battle." ”

"Yu Shuai, the time has come!" A pro-soldier shouted from below the city.

Yu Juluo patted Yang Yuanqing's shoulder again, stared into his eyes and said, "Then I'll go, I hope that the battle of Dali City can establish your Yang Yuanqing's prestige in Dasui." ”

Yang Yuanqing nodded silently, Yu Juluo turned and left, quickly got off the city wall, turned over and got on his horse, he waved his hand to Yang Yuanqing, urged the horse to run out of the city, and galloped towards the south with dozens of personal soldiers.

Yang Yuanqing stood at the head of the city, watching Yu Juluo go east, and his figure gradually moved away, at this moment, a soldier pointed to the north and shouted: "General Yang, three pillars of beacon smoke!" ”

Yang Yuanqing turned around suddenly, only to see the beacon twenty miles away in the north lit up three pillars of beacon smoke, which means that there are more than 3,000 enemy troops entering, Yang Yuanqing immediately understood, this is the vanguard of the enemy army, the arrival of the main vanguard, which means that Xue Yantuo's army is on the way to Fengzhou, and the war is about to break out.

Yang Yuanqing immediately ordered, "Light the three-pillar beacon and warn the capital!" ”

Twenty miles away, another beacon also lit three pillars of wolf smoke, and then to the south, another pillar of wolf smoke rose to the sky, from north to south, thousands of miles of road, one after another beacon was lit, sending the alarm of the Hu people's invasion to the capital of Dasui.

Yu Juluo looked back at the wolf smoke on Dali City with a worried expression, and he finally gritted his teeth, slammed his war horse, and rushed to the south, giving Yang Yuanqing the command of the decisive battle.

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At night, the beacon on the top of Li Mountain was lit, and the three bright flames were particularly dazzling in the night sky, and the alarm from Saibei finally arrived in the capital, and a heavy warning bell sounded on the head of the city, and the bell rang back in the whole city.

Suddenly, the sound of the sheng flute in Daxing City disappeared, the singing voice was dumb, hundreds of thousands of people rushed to the street, everyone's eyes were full of surprise, and the sound of discussion sounded one after another, no one knew what happened to the Biansai, and only at this time, the people in the capital would think of the Biansai, and they would think of the Biansai soldiers who defended the country.

In the Eryi Palace, Yang Guang is feasting on officials above the fifth grade, the sound of silk and bamboo in the hall, a team of dancing girls dancing gracefully, the banquet has entered the heart, on the seats, the ministers are looking at each other before and after, talking and laughing, at this time, the heavy alarm bell came, the hall was silent for a while, and the ministers looked at each other, I don't know why.

The minister sitting next to the temple suddenly pointed to the night sky in the distance and shouted: "Look, Lishan Beacon Fire!" ”

Hundreds of ministers flocked to the entrance of the main hall, looking at the smoke in the night sky in the distance, and there was a lot of discussion for a while, this is a warning from the north, is there another war in the north?

"His Majesty the Emperor has arrived!"

shì Wei shouted, the ministers flashed to both sides, and Yang Guang walked quickly to the entrance of the hall, staring at the beacon fire in the distance.

He understood in his heart, so he slowly nodded and said to the ministers: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is a warning from Fengzhou, it should be Xue Yantuo who began to attack Dali City, the border fortress town of my Great Sui. ”

He raised the wine bottle and said loudly to the ministers: "Ministers, let us raise our glasses and wish our border soldiers the national prestige of the Great Sui!" ”

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