The county seat of Pinggang County is not completely wrapped by the city wall, and there is a section of terrain in the northwest direction, which is blocked by a large mountain. The city is leaning on the mountain, the mountains are intricate, and the successive Taishou have more or less repaired here, which has become a natural barrier. Although the Taiping Road and Zhang Play rebels also blocked some places that could be climbed into and out of the mountain, the defenders of the city also sent a force to garrison the hill, and the danger was choked. As a result, neither side dared to use troops easily here, so they could only hold each other apart, which could be regarded as completely blocking the county seat.

At this moment, Zhou Zhi had already gathered the few remaining cavalry teams in the city, with a total of only more than 400 people, all wearing armor. Liu Gongzi's order, he had to obey, even if this move was extremely risky, he was born as a martial artist, and he must not have any intention of being greedy for life and afraid of death. After two days of thorough preparation, he led this cavalry team and quietly crossed the road from the northwest of the county seat.

The mountains are endless, and the roads are not rugged and harsh, but they are winding enough.

A group of more than 400 cavalry was limited by the terrain, and there was no way to let go of the speed and gallop on horseback.

Starting at nightfall, he passed a friendly checkpoint in the mountains and forests late at night, announcing that he could encounter an enemy at any time on the road ahead. In the absence of intelligence, it is not entirely clear how many troops the traitors have in this area, and it is not certain how many interception lines the traitors have arranged. Once they encounter an enemy attack in the deep mountains and forests, the cavalry will not be able to give full play to any geographical advantages, and will even fall into trouble because of the geographical environment.

Zhou Zhi is naturally very aware of this layer of risk, but considering that the number of troops in the city who can launch a breakthrough operation is really limited, not to mention that the purpose of this breakthrough is to ask for help from the outside world, and the city must continue to hold on during the period of help. If you break through from any of the gates, the journey will be better, but it will be more risky to fight several times the number of traitors, and the worst result will be the total annihilation.

The quiet breakthrough over the mountains and mountains can not only avoid the edge of frontal combat, but even if it is unfortunate enough to be attacked by traitors, there is still room for retreat. Of course, in addition to this, the most important point is that as long as you can successfully climb over this mountain, the rear is an endless plain and hilly terrain, and under such geographical conditions, you will definitely be able to speed up the journey after the breakthrough and the breakthrough, even if you fight with the traitors, you can also show the advantage of cavalry.

Along the way, Zhou Zhi didn't say a word, staring straight ahead.

The foliage was intricate, and the moonlight cast one reflection after another, filling the air around with many unpredictable and eerie things, as if at any moment it might stumble into the ambush circle of traitors.

The scattered sound of horses' hooves, fast and slow, mixed with the sound of various night insects in the depths of the nearby mountains and forests. Even so, the voices seemed so silent and fragile.

The terrain is becoming more and more winding, and there is gradually a trend of xiangxia.

Zhou Zhi's heart, which had been tense, eased slightly: finally passed the mountain.

This road in the mountains is actually not too long, but it is not so easy to walk because it is too circuitous. Under normal circumstances, the scene of a night of diplomacy for half a day has already crossed the ridge. At this time, there is still a mount to assist, so the trip is naturally slightly faster.

He expects that around dawn tomorrow, he will be able to reach the downhill section, and the entire downhill terrain will be smoother than when he goes up from San'in Mountain, and the risk will be greatly reduced.

At this moment, a junior colonel suddenly followed behind him, leaned in front of Zhou Zhi and whispered: "Lord Duwei, we have been walking for nearly five hours, why don't we rest for a while." Even if the person is fine, the horse has to rest. ”

Zhou Zhi's face was stern, and he said coldly: "Didn't you say before you set off, the night road is the most dangerous, how can you stay here?" ”

The little colonel sighed and said, "Yes, that's the truth. But after dawn after crossing the mountain, it is very likely to encounter those traitors, if the people are sleepy at that time, it is really difficult to fight and break through. There is no movement of thieves along the way, and in the deep mountains, the thieves are obviously not familiar with the road, and they mostly go back to the mountains at night. ”

Zhou Zhi is not an unreasonable person, he carefully thought about Xiaoxiao's words, and there is no lack of truth in them. He hesitated for a while, and then said: "Let's go through this dense forest first, and then go forward for a while, the road is a little wider, but we want to see if the thieves really don't have eyes and ears in the mountains." ”

Although it was not a wise choice to stay in the open field, Shuji was always worried that the deeper the forest, the easier it was for thieves to ambush. He didn't want to fight the thieves now, but he just wanted to filter through some dangerous areas first, and if there were no thieves in these dangerous areas, he could further infer that there was really no enemy in the mountains.

After a quarter of an hour of bumpy walking along the mountain road, the trees in front of me gradually thinned and opened.

Zhou Zhi could finally breathe a sigh of relief, he ordered the whole army to rest nearby, and arranged for sentries to be on guard nearby.

Although continuous marching has long been a matter of course for the cavalry, after all, the mountain roads are not as good as the plains, and the horses are bumpy on horseback, so there is still some discomfort. Everyone dismounted one after another, moved their bodies and bones in simple activities, and sat on the ground, everyone did not dare to be too loud, but just seized the time to rest.

More than a dozen sentries were scattered around the rest of the group, some climbing tree trunks, some hiding behind rocks.

However, a sentry was about to explore the way ahead, and just walked out of a distance of about ten feet, suddenly he seemed to notice something unusual, and immediately turned around and was about to flee backwards: "There is an ambush...... Ah......h

No sooner had he said his words than seven or eight figures suddenly jumped out of the nearby grass, raised their weapons and smashed them at the sentry. The sentry received a blow to the back of the head and flipped to the ground, motionless. The black shadows chased after the general, as if smashing the corpse of the sentry.

The moment the sentry shouted his voice, Zhou Zhi immediately stood up from the ground, and his face changed instantly.

Soon, screams and shouts were heard one after another. Out of nowhere, as if out of thin air, many figures jumped out of thin air, brandishing all kinds of weapons, swarming towards the resting cavalry. Most of the sentinels who were on guard on the perimeter did not have time to warn, and most of them were knocked down by the enemy who were already lurking on the flank, and the rest were quickly encircled.

"There is an enemy in the west, and there is an enemy in the west......"

"Quick, get on the horse."

"I've been shot, ah, save my ......"

Zhou Zhi hurriedly climbed onto the horse, tied the reins to the sleeve of his broken arm, and swung his knife to meet the enemy with his only remaining hand.

He was very shocked in his heart, what was shocked was not that the enemy was coming, but that these thieves had obviously been in ambush here for a long time, could it be that he had let these thieves know about his preparations for breaking through in advance? But the city was sealed, and there were strict soldiers on all the main roads, so how did the news leak out?

The surrounding cronies and guards hurriedly approached and protected Zhou Zhi with their bodies.

"My lord, run away!"

"Run back, quick, go back."

Zhou Zhi's mind was disordered, and he couldn't command the overall situation for a while, so he could only follow the crowd of his cronies and guards.

After hearing the shouts from this side, the team hurriedly retreated in the direction from which they came.

More and more black shadows poured out of the surrounding forests, all of them were ordinary people in ragged clothes, and the blades in their hands were either hoes or sickles, as well as some swords and crossbows. Fortunately, these ordinary people don't know the way of ambush warfare at all, and they only know how to suddenly scare these officers and soldiers, and then fight as much as they want. Everyone rushed forward without a head or brain, and the terrain was originally uneven, and they might have collided together.

Although most of the cavalry team did not rush to get on the horse, after all, they were all veterans of perennial combat, and they would soon be able to form a defensive formation in a group, with their blades facing the outside. The traitors who rushed to the front were quickly cut down by the sword, and the subsequent traitors failed to keep up in time, causing a wave of attacks within a certain period of time.

Taking advantage of the incoherent attack of the traitors, the cavalry was barely able to retreat some distance back.

It's just that the roof leak was raining overnight, and suddenly there were bursts of shouts and killings from the road from behind.

First, a rain of arrows flew from the darkness, knocking a dozen cavalrymen to the ground, and some horses were shot by arrows, neighing fiercely. Immediately afterwards, a group of rebels jumped out of the dark forest, and the sound of murder shook the heavens and the earth, directly blocking the way of the cavalry's retreat, and launched an attack more ferociously than the traitors who had set up an ambush.

Zhou Zhi looked at the state of gradual collapse left and right, his face became more and more surprised, and after a moment of silence, he couldn't help but sigh, as if he was talking to himself: "Could it be that my life is on the rise?" ”

The thieves who had been killed from the direction of Maolin covered the cavalry for a while, completely crushing the defensive formation that the cavalry had barely put together. More than 400 people were thus encircled, and this encirclement was shrinking smaller and smaller. Screams came and went, and soon there were even some cavalry cries begging for mercy and crying in pain.

The battle lasted for about a quarter of an hour, and although the cavalry team was crushed, there were still some bloody men who broke out with the intention of killing in a desperate situation, and there was no way out, so they lost a fight to the death. For a while, the thieves who were also surrounded by them were so frightened that they didn't dare to approach.

There is no room for change in everything, Zhou Zhi watched his subordinates fall one after another, and he simply raised his sword and put it on his neck. He is a dignified lieutenant of the north, and he must not let these traitors be humiliated. Just as he was about to kill himself with his sword, some fire points lit up out of thin air in the direction of the downhill slope of the mountain sun, but they were so obvious and dazzling in the dark.

"Who...... Don't, don't...... Own...... Yes! ”

A shout of surprise came from the outskirts of the encirclement, which was quickly replaced by a scream.