The soldiers received the order and were about to go to the avant-garde army to give orders, when they saw a fast horse galloping from a distance, and it was the scout who Shi Shouxin wanted to give the order to the head of the scout who was sitting right away. It is also thanks to this capital's superb equestrian skills that he was able to gallop at such a fast speed on such a narrow mountain road with many people and vehicles.

The scout urged the horse to a place a few zhang away from Shi Shouxin, then reined in his mount, rolled the saddle and dismounted, rushed to Shi Shouxin, and saluted and reported: "The lord of the carriage, the horse that was sent to explore the road in front of me has reported that the road two miles in front of our army is blocked by boulders and big trees, and it is already impassable. The humble man felt that this matter was extraordinary, and he came to report it to the owner. ”

Shi Shouxin was first overjoyed when he heard this, and then he was shocked. He was pleased that his scout was a steady and nimble man, and although he did not receive the order to investigate himself, he was able to take the initiative to send people to explore the way forward when the army stopped to rest. What is surprising is that this Tuanbai Valley has been unimpeded when transporting grain several times before, and at this time it was suddenly blocked by boulders and big trees for no reason, and there must be something strange in it, and it is not good that there are opponents who want to be unfavorable to their own grain transportation team.

Therefore, Shi Shouxin did not hesitate any longer, and while ordering the scout to return to the avant-garde troops immediately, and send additional men to explore the road ahead and the top of the mountain beams and cliffs on both sides, he ordered his own soldiers to blow a trumpet to warn the whole army to be on guard in case of accidents. The scout immediately received the order, turned and mounted his horse and galloped away. And Shi Shouxin's personal soldiers also hurriedly acted, preparing to inform the herald to blow the horn and warn the whole army.

At the moment when the soldiers were about to turn around and give the order, there was a soft sound of "Zheng" on the mountain beam on the west side of the valley opposite, and then a scream of sharp arrows breaking through the air had already hit their faces. Immediately, the herald, who had just turned half of his body, suddenly paused, and then quickly fell in the direction where Shi Shouxin was sitting with three arrows that had pierced deep into his body, one of which had even pierced his neck. Fortunately, when Shi Shouxin heard the initial light sound, he already had the judgment that danger was coming, and his figure had already begun to move to the side, and he reached out and pulled out the knife on his waist, dancing to protect his body, so he was neither hit by the soldiers who fell over, nor was he injured by the first wave of arrows.

It's just that although Shi Shouxin dodged the soldier who was hit by the arrow, the war horse behind him was not as agile and agile as his master, and he didn't know that the danger was coming, so he was hit straight by the already angry soldier. If it was just a collision with a corpse that pounced on it with the powerful force of an arrow, it would not have much impact on Shi Shouxin's high-headed horse, at most he would hide to the side and make two snorts to express his dissatisfaction. But it wasn't the angry soldier who was already out of breath, but also a few arrows that kept moving because they didn't hit any targets. As a result, while being hit by the unlucky soldier, three arrows were impartially pierced into different parts of its body. Moreover, coincidentally, none of these three arrows hit the vital point of the war horse, so although the war horse was shot bloody, there was no worry about his life for a while. It's just that this horse is not a human, and when a person is injured, he knows to bandage and treat, but this horse doesn't know this, and he immediately became wild under the pain, and immediately jumped like thunder. First, he kicked the corpse of the pro-soldier into the air, and then turned his hooves and flashed his palms, regardless of and ran forward, stepping on and kicking, and rushing along the way, injuring many soldiers and servants who could not dodge.

Because of its tossing, and with the first wave of arrows shot at Shi Shouxin, thousands of arrows were suddenly fired on the opposite mountain beam, and countless arrows poured into the grain transport team like a raging storm, and the soldiers and servants who were suddenly attacked fled one by one to the side of the grain truck with their backs to the opposite mountain beam, in order to avoid the overwhelming rain of arrows, which made the whole valley chaotic. In the midst of the chaos, the scout, who was about to return to the vanguard to give orders to his men, became the first victims. He was first blocked by the crowd of panicked horses, and then, before he could shout out to the soldiers and servants to get out of the way, a rain of arrows from the opposite ridge was already in front of him. And he, the most abrupt presence in the crowd, naturally became the best arrow target, and immediately even people and horses were shot like hedgehogs, following in the footsteps of the first soldier who was hit by the arrow. …,

At the same time that the scout was killed by an arrow in the head, Shi Shouxin, with his rich battlefield experience, successfully dodged the first wave of arrows, and rushed to the back of a grain truck as fast as possible, avoiding the larger-scale arrow rain that followed. At this time, there was no need for reconnaissance or exploration, and Shi Shouxin also knew that he and his subordinates had been ambushed by the enemy—although he still couldn't figure out where the enemy was ambushing him.

At this time, there was no panic in Shi Shou's faith, only remorse and guilt. As soon as he regretted that he was too careless, he only concluded that the main force of the Han army was concentrated in Taiyuan City, and there were no other troops to delay and harass the Zhou army, especially the grain route of the Zhou army. So much so that in order to arrive at the camp outside Taiyuan on time, he only had to urge his subordinates to hurry along the way, and even the most basic and necessary exploration and detection along the road were omitted.

The second regret is that the rest place he chose is not good, and he keeps putting those areas with dense trees on the side of the road, but he chooses such an area where there are only low shrubs and artemisia grass within more than ten miles before and after, and there is no shelter at all for everyone to eat, drink, and rest. Otherwise, your soldiers can at least retreat into the woods and take refuge, so that they will not be pinned down in the middle of the road as they are now, unable to move.

In order to transport more grain, grass, and military funds to the front of the army, so as to show the officials his ability as the commander of the rear army and the grain officer, he greatly increased the number of men and vehicles in the grain transportation team, but reduced the number of escort soldiers, so that under the sneak attack of the enemy, the formation was in chaos -- Shi Shouxin led the grain transportation team to have 2,500 soldiers, but the number of soldiers reached nearly 10,000. The limited number of soldiers was so overwhelmed by the many more men who were scurrying around that they could not be gathered in a short time. In such a situation, once the enemy army rushes to the mountain, it will not be able to organize an effective defense at all.

It's a pity that there is no regret medicine to take on this shijie. Now that the matter has come to this, Shi Shouxin can only try his best to save the situation and save the lives of his subordinates as much as possible - in this situation, he can only care about people and not things. However, before taking action, Shi Shouxin still has to make a choice, that is, whether to move forward or backward.

Forward, it is natural to gather the soldiers, restrain the servants, rush forward with all their strength, break the blockage and blockade of the enemy on the road ahead, kill out of the Tuanbai Valley, rush into Zihong Town, and protect themselves according to the town on the one hand, and ask for help from the Taiyuan side on the other. Backward, it was natural to abandon the original goal, lead the army to retreat, and take advantage of the opportunity that the enemy's ambush was still only releasing arrows on the opposite mountain beam, and had not yet rushed down the mountain to intercept himself and cut off his retreat, he quickly retreated south, and withdrew to Fenshi Town, the starting point this morning, or simply withdrew from Tuanbai Valley and retreated to Qin County in the south of the valley.

However, whether it is moving forward or backward, there are no small difficulties. Forward, the road ahead has been blocked by the enemy, and under the resistance of the enemy's arrows and even the soldiers who may be hiding behind the blockage, it is difficult to move those obstacles and open the road.

Retreating, not to mention that no one dared to guarantee that the enemy army had only blocked the road to the north, and had not secretly blocked the road to the south after the passage of the Zhou army, and in terms of distance alone, the ambush site was nearly forty miles away from Fenshi Town, twice as long as it was to Zihong Town, and it was even more than a hundred miles away from Qin County at the southern mouth of the valley. And the farther the distance, the longer the Zhou army will be blocked by the enemy, and it is difficult to say how many soldiers and servants can escape to Fenshi Town with their own only 2,500 soldiers and soldiers under the resistance of the enemy's 5 or 6,000 men and horses -- the number of enemy troops was estimated by Shi Shouxin according to the density and speed of the arrows fired by the opponent.

Advance or retreat, Shi Shouxin needs time to weigh and choose, but what he lacks most now is time. Because according to common sense, after the enemy troops on the opposite mountain beam suppressed their own soldiers and servants with a sneak attack, the next thing they had to do was probably to shoot rockets at the transport vehicles and burn the grain, grass and military materials on the vehicles. Originally, with Shi Shouxin's current situation, it was a great fortune to be able to rush out of the valley with some of his subordinates, and there was no need to think about the grain, grass and military resources that would definitely be lost here - even after the grain, grass and military materials caught fire, the smoke generated by them might have a certain cover effect for him and his subordinates to break out of the ambush circle. But the reality is that he must now make a choice right away, deciding whether to advance or retreat before the enemy launches rockets, and rush out of the vehicular area as fast as possible. Because, as a grain officer, he also knew a secret that ordinary servants, soldiers, and even middle- and low-ranking officers did not know -- among the grain, grass, and military materials transported this time, there were more than 200 trucks and nearly 200,000 catties of black powder used to supplement the black powder consumed by the "Shenji Army" in previous operations. Moreover, in order to maintain secrecy and ensure safety during transportation, the two hundred or so truckloads of black powder were divided into several groups and arranged to be transported in different sections of the convoy. It can be said that once these vehicles carrying black powder are ignited, including themselves, these individual servants and soldiers in the valley are afraid that not many people will get out alive. …,

Faced with such a time-critical and life-and-death decision, Shi Shouxin simply did not have time to weigh it carefully. After only thinking about it for a while, he decided to give up the distance and seek the near, gather his subordinates and rush north, strive to break through the blockade of the enemy, rush out of the Tuanbai Valley, and enter Zihong Town, or simply run more roads and retreat directly to Qi County, northeast of the valley, and then defend the city.

Thinking of this, Shi Shouxin did not hesitate any longer, and immediately ordered some of his own soldiers to send letters to the battalion commanders of each battalion or other officers who were still alive, asking them to do everything possible to restrain their subordinates and servants, break through to the north, and fight a bloody way to escape.

While the soldiers waiting to deliver the letter braved the rain of arrows from the opposite mountain beam and began to move in different directions, Shi Shouxin also held his sword tightly in one hand, and raised the leather shield drawn from a carriage transporting military supplies with the other, leading his remaining soldiers to move quickly to the north with the cover of the transport vehicles.

Thanks to the cover of the transport vehicles densely packed on the road, Shi Shouxin and the others' initial actions were relatively smooth. Not only did they advance nearly a mile away without danger, but they also gathered nearly 500 soldiers and servants, and with this as the core, they gradually stabilized the position of the Zhou army. Under their guidance and recruitment, most of the surviving Zhou soldiers and servants began to move north, preparing to fight their way out with their commander.

Seeing that more and more subordinates gathered around him, and the enemy troops on the opposite mountain beam were still mainly killing and injuring Zhou soldiers and servants with ordinary arrows, and had not yet begun to fire rockets to burn grain, grass and military supplies, Shi Shouxin's originally nervous mood gradually calmed down, and his confidence in his ability to escape this catastrophe became more and more full - as for how to explain to the official family if he lost his grain and grass, that was something to think about after escaping, and it was not within the scope of Shi Shouxin's consideration at all now.

But at this moment, a very unpleasant premonition suddenly surged in Shi Shouxin's heart, making him subconsciously turn his head to look at a big car next to him. On the corner of the black tarpaulin used to cover the goods on the chariot facing his side, a red sun pattern was drawn that was not very eye-catching, indicating that the carriage was carrying the black powder that he was most worried about. And what made him even more frightened was that from this big car to the north, there were more than ten cars covered with the same black tarpaulin as this big car, and the same red sun was painted on the corners of it. That is to say, he Shi Shouxin and the hundreds of soldiers and servants around him are next to a huge "powder keg" at this time, as long as there is a spark at this time, their hundreds of people will be blown to pieces immediately, and there is not even a slag left.

As soon as he thought of this, Shi Shouxin only felt a chill down his spine, and he hurriedly waved his hand and shouted to the subordinates beside him: "This place is ominous, brothers, leave quickly." ”

At the same time as Shi Shouxin waved his hand and shouted, a Ming Di rose from the mountain beam on the east side of the valley, which had not moved. With the sharp sound of the Ming Di, thousands of soldiers suddenly appeared on the mountain beam on the east side of the valley, pouring arrows like locusts and stones like rain down on the Zhou army in the valley. Moreover, unlike the enemy troops on the western mountain beam, who only shot and killed the living Liliang, the enemy troops on the eastern mountain beam were clearly aiming at the vehicles and the goods loaded on them, not the surviving Zhou soldiers and servants. As a result, most of the arrows they shot were rockets, and the rocks they threw down the mountain were mixed with lighted, greased balls of hay.

There were also enemy ambushes on the east side of the valley, and this fact made Shi Shouxin almost lose the confidence to fight his way out of the encirclement. Now, barring a miracle, it is almost impossible to break out of the encirclement when you are attacked on both sides, intercepted in front of you, and have little ability to fight back against a condescending enemy. However, regardless of whether he had confidence in breaking out of the encirclement, Shi Shouxin did not stop his steps, because he knew very well that there was a "big powder keg" around him that could explode at any time. Although he was not afraid of death or horse leather shrouding, he did not want to end up with no bones. …,

It's just that nine times out of ten, life is not as expected. In many cases, it's not like you can do what you want. Just when Shi Shouxin was thinking about leaving the "big powder keg" beside him as soon as possible and dying on the battlefield like a man, a rocket with bright flames on the arrow shot from the mountain beam on the east side, and shot impartially at a cart covered with black tarpaulin and a red sun depicted on the corners.

The loud bang and the dazzling white light were the zuihou voices and the zuihou scenes that Shi Shouxin and the hundreds of soldiers and servants around him heard and saw before they were shattered. Nearly 20 carts each loaded with 1,000 catties of black powder exploded in a row, and their power was by no means unimaginable to people of this era. The violent explosion not only blew up hundreds of soldiers and servants of the Later Zhou Army, including Shi Shouxin, around the gunpowder truck, but also caused the soldiers and servants of the Later Zhou Army within 100 meters of the front and rear to be killed or injured. Even the enemy troops in ambush on the hill were shocked by the loud sound of the explosion, and some of the soldiers in the front positions were unstable and staggered by the impact of the air wave.

In the split second after the explosion, time seemed to stand still throughout the valley. Both the ambushers and the ambushers froze there, and no one made any movements or sounds. After a moment of silence, I don't know who let out an inhumane scream, and the soldiers and servants of the Hou Zhou Army, who had already been frightened by the huge explosion, ignored the robes and companions who had fallen to the ground after being injured by the explosion and wailed for help, and one by one they scattered in what they thought was the right direction.

After a moment's pause, the rain of arrows and stones once again descended on the frenzied crowd of frenzied people who had given up any cover and were only running in the direction they had identified, shooting them down and smashing them in pieces. During this period, the remaining nearly ten groups of gunpowder transport vehicles were also ignited one after another by rockets or fireballs, and huge explosions occurred one after another, and the screams and wails of the soldiers and servants of the Later Zhou Army were endless. At this moment, this nearly ten-mile-long valley in the Tuanbai Valley seemed to have been transformed into a creepy Shura hell.

Just after a group of gunpowder transporters were detonated, the dense rain of arrows and stones gradually stopped, and the ambush soldiers on the mountain beams on both sides rushed out, and under the cover of some of the crossbowmen who were still holding the mountain beams, they fell down the cliffs along the ropes, brandished broadswords and spears, and rushed towards the soldiers and servants of the Later Zhou army who had lost their fighting spirit and were scurrying around like headless flies.

The almost one-sided killing lasted for about an hour, and when the smoke of gunfire cleared in the valley and there was no longer a standing soldier or servant of the Later Zhou army, a middle-aged man dressed in the uniform of the deputy commander ordered several of his commanders to speed up the cleaning of the battlefield and ensure that not a single person was left alive, and at the same time limped to a freshly burned artemisia grass under the cliff, and only a scorched black piece of artemisia grass remained, and prayed to a young man who was sitting on a horse and drinking water: "Thirty-fifth master, after careful inspection, it can now be determinedThis time, Shi Shouxin, the grain officer of the Zhou army's grain transportation team and the commander of the subsequent army, Shi Shouxin, had been killed and his bones were left when the first wave of gunpowder trucks exploded. ”