Early the next morning, the sky was raining in Suosuo, and the autumn rain carried a biting chill, enveloping a majestic and tall Tongguan and the officers and soldiers of the Han court who guarded it.

If it had been placed in the past, under this kind of weather, the soldiers guarding Tongguan would have already been drowsy, or simply absent from work and slept soundly at home.

However, at the moment of tension in the war, the imperial court fought against the Youyan army in Henan several times, and this Tongguan was the only barrier between the enemy army and the capital Luoyang.

In order to consolidate this last line of defense, the current emperor Zheng Yao, who has not yet sat on the dragon chair, after successively dismissing two commanders, specially sent Bai Wenbo, the most senior veteran in the official army, to serve as the commander of the former enemy and take charge of all military affairs.

Although the old general Bai Wenbo was old, he was also responsible, and as soon as he received the holy decree, he set up the Chinese army camp on Tongguan, and condescendingly organized the deployment of Tongguan defense. At the same time, he ordered all the forbidden troops inside and outside the pass to concentrate on the east side of Tongguan, thinking that by virtue of this difficult and invincible Xiongguan in the world, Zheng Rong, the king of Youyan, was blocked from Tongguan.

With these relationships, the soldiers and soldiers who were originally responsible for guarding Tongguan had to reluctantly cheer up and be careful on errands, lest they violate the military order and become the human sacrifice of General Bai Lao's expedition to sacrifice the flag.

Even a veteran soldier like Ruan Wenlong, who had been working in Tongguan for a long time, did not dare to slack off in the slightest, and led more than 20 soldiers early in the morning, climbed the stairs to the city wall, and guarded the winch mechanism that must be used to open and close the city gate.

The gate of Tongguan is extremely heavy, and more than 100 people can only push it by working together, and they must rely on the machinery built on the city tower to open and close.

This is an extremely important place, and the old general Bai Wenbo wanted to send his own soldiers to guard it carefully. However, the mechanism is in disrepair and often breaks down. And once a failure occurs, the only ones who can deal with it immediately are those old guards of Tongguan who have been dealing with these machines for a long time.

In desperation, Bai Wenbo could only send his own trusted guards to assist on the premise of reusing the original soldiers.

In this regard, Ruan Wenlong's heart is like a mirror, he knows that these pro-soldiers are nominally good to assist him in doing things, but in the final analysis, they are the emperor who monitors his own affairs.

Therefore, I saw Ruan Wenlong pretending to knock on the winch a few times, which was considered to have been tested daily, so he walked up to Bai Wenbo and led the soldiers very respectfully, and arched his hand and said: "Liu Baihu, the villain has tried it." This winch looks okay now, but I'm afraid that the weather has been humid in recent days, and the wood pulley has been soaked soft, and it won't last long. ”

This hundred households surnamed Liu are more than seven feet tall, and they look majestic, and they are a strong general at a glance. He listened to Ruan Wenlong's report and nodded: "This matter has been reported by Ruan Qian several times, and General Bai has already told the court many times. However, the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry have not yet determined who should be in charge of this matter, and it may take some time to complete the repair. We have the responsibility to guard the palace, so we can only do our best and maintain it from time to time. ”

As he spoke, he turned his head and looked carefully at the soldiers brought by Ruan Wenlong, and asked, "These brothers are very eye-catching, and the last general seems to have never seen them." ”

The so-called unfamiliar faces are about Qiu Yizhi and other twenty people who changed into official and military uniforms and followed Ruan Wenlong to Tongguan.

Ruan Wenlong had already been taught to excuse himself, and said without hesitation: "Oh, these are recruits recruited by Tongguan. Originally, those soldiers were lazy and lazy, and they were playing music all day long, and the villains had long wanted to fire them. It just so happened that General Bai Lao was rectifying military affairs, and the villain recruited some children from good families from nearby villages to come over......"

Liu Baihu saw that among the more than 20 "recruits", except for five or six who were still kind in appearance, the rest of them looked fierce and vicious, and they really didn't look like good citizens, so he said: "Recruiting new recruits is a big matter, and this matter cannot be decided on your own. ”

"General Bai is very old and busy with military affairs, so why bother his old man with this little thing. In the past, I recruited new recruits in Tongguan, and the boss never asked, only reporting at the end of the month, which can be regarded as a routine. Nguyen Van Long said.

Liu Baihu said: "This time is different from the past, guarding Tongguan is the first important errand of the imperial court at present, and this matter must not be negligent." If Mr. Qian is busy at the moment, the last general can report to General Bai Lao for instructions. ”

Ruan Wenlong was shocked when he heard this, thinking that if this matter was stabbed, he would be guilty of treason, and maybe he didn't need to be punished by the three divisions, and immediately showed his head to the public at the head of the Tongguan wall according to military law.

Thinking of this, Ruan Wenlong's vest couldn't help but ooze cold sweat, and he hurriedly became wise, and shirked: "Don't dare to work Liu Baihu." These people have not yet been officially recruited as officers and soldiers, and the villain will have to investigate again before he can decide. At that time, maybe all of them will be left, or maybe none of them will be left, and after they are confirmed, it will not be too late to report to the old general. ”

Liu Baihu still didn't give up: "Then it is even more necessary to report to the top." These people have not yet entered our Han army, and they may have one or two spies mixed in. If something goes wrong, the last general and Ruan Qian will not be able to afford to be guilty! ”

Liu Baihu said that he had no intention, but Ruan Wenlong was the listener's intention. In his ears, as if every sentence had a meaning, his whole body was soaked with cold sweat, and he was about to distinguish between the intestines and stomachs, but he heard a lookout sergeant in front of the gate shouting: "Look! Who is that over there? ”

Liu Baihu was in good spirits when he heard this, no longer entangled with Ruan Wenlong, and hurriedly jumped to the side of the Tongguan pheasant, and looked into the distance through the battlement, and saw that there were about 100 cavalry members, and they rushed towards Tongguan at full speed. Looking at the color of their military clothes, although they are all shabby, they can easily distinguish the identity of their imperial forbidden army.

Since Bai Wenbo ordered that all the officers and troops stranded in Henan Province retreat to Tongguan, it has long been commonplace for the forbidden army to rush to defect like this, and Tongguan does not know how much it has taken in.

Ruan Wenlong, as today's shift president, also took this opportunity to get rid of the argument with Liu Baihu, so he shouted: "Little people, get up and work, quickly open the city gate for me!" ”

Most of the people stationed on the wall of Tongguan are old acquaintances of Ruan Wenlong, and Ruan Wenlong has bribes to share with him on weekdays. So when they heard his call, they answered in unison, "All right! "Then you have to push the door closing winch.

Liu Baihu hurriedly stopped: "Mr. Qian is slow, the situation here seems to be a little wrong." ”

Ruan Wenlong sneered and said: "Lord Liu, the containment of Henan officials and soldiers is an order personally given by General Bai, and the villain is acting on orders!" ”

This Baihu surnamed Liu is a straight person, and he can't hear the irony in Ruan Wenlong's words, so he only said: "That's not what the last general meant, Mr. Qian, please see, behind this group of people, there seems to be a faint pursuer!" ”

Qiu Yizhi, who disguised himself as a guard guard, heard this, so he also quietly mixed in the crowd, and looked into the distance by holding the wall: sure enough, he saw a group of men and horses on the horizon in the distance, chasing behind the hundred or so cavalry, but the distance was too far away, and I couldn't count how many troops there were.

Ruan Wenlong listened to Qiu Yizhi's advice last night: When encountering the officers and soldiers who fled back from Henan, they must immediately open the gate and put them into Tongguan, so he estimated that he said angrily to the hundred households surnamed Liu: "It is because there are chasing soldiers behind him that the gate must be opened immediately, otherwise this group of brothers will not be blocked out of the pass?" ”

When Liu Baihu heard this, he hurriedly stepped forward, blocked in front of Ruan Wenlong, and said, "The last general will run to face the old general Bai, it won't take much time, please don't ...... Lord Ruan for a while."

Ruan Wenlong glanced at Qiu Yizhi, and saw that he always had an undoubted look on his face, and suddenly had a backbone in his heart, and scolded: "! You're just a hundred, Lao Tzu only spoke to you politely because of Bai Wenbo's face, otherwise who would put you under his eyes? I didn't see these officers and soldiers in front of the pass, all of them were pitiful, you just have to go and tell you, Lao Tzu is going to open the door first. Something happened, let Bai Wenbo come to me! ”

After that, Ruan Wenlong gave an order and commanded the guards to open the gate.

These soldiers were originally a group of old soldiers who "relied on the pass to eat the pass", and since the entry of the forbidden army, the collection of money has almost been cut off, and they have long been dissatisfied with them, so there is a lack of a leader to protest. Today, I saw that President Qian's Ruan Wenlong took the lead, and the resentment of the squeeze finally broke out, and without saying a word, they took their places and slowly pushed the winch.

With a very low crashing sound, the gate of Tongguan slowly opened, and the Guanzhong Plain, which was protected by mountains and rivers and moats, finally gradually revealed a flaw that was not obvious.

The cavalry that fled from Henan rushed through the town before Tongguan like arrows, and through this gap, shot into the core hinterland of the imperial court.

They were obviously extremely tired, and as soon as they passed the pass, they rolled off their horses one after another, and lay on the ground, gasping for breath incessantly, attracting countless soldiers and onlookers in the pass.

Although Ruan Wenyuan is not very smart, he also knows that Fang Cai's group of men and horses are not real officials and soldiers, but Youyan Army pretending. But after all, he couldn't guess the next plan, and only saw a confident expression on Qiu Yizhi's face, so he was a little relieved, and nodded towards Qiu Yizhi with a smile.

At this moment, an extremely majestic reprimand sounded: "Who took it upon himself to open and close the door without authorization?" Aren't you afraid that military law will be ruthless? ”

Everyone hurriedly followed the sound and looked up, only to see a veteran who was eight feet tall and had a tiger's back, surrounded by many personal soldiers, striding from the Tongguan Arrow Tower to rush here - this person was Bai Wenbo, the veteran general sent to lead the defense of Tongguan.

Seeing that no one answered his question, the veteran continued to ask in an old and loud voice: "Has no one heard my words?" Which bastard opened the door without permission? ”

Qiu Yizhi peeked and saw that Bai Wenbo's upper and lower helmets were bright, a pair of leopard eyes were blazing, and a steel needle-like beard had faded to pitch black, but instead flashed a wisp of silver light - just by virtue of this extraordinary appearance, it was known that Bai Wenbo must have been a powerful general when he was young.

Ruan Wenlong was originally a little scared of Bai Wenbo, but he didn't say that he had collided with him in person, but he looked up at him, and he was a little panicked in his heart.

However, he thought that he had taken refuge in Youyan King Zheng Rong at this moment, so he tried to raise his courage and stepped forward and said, "Isn't this the old general's military order?" All the officers and soldiers stranded in Henan should all be put into Tongguan. The villain also acts according to orders! ”

"!" Bai Wenbo opened his mouth and scolded, "I gave so many orders, and you didn't listen to it, but you just listened to this one?" Your boy's surname is Ruan, right? I look like you're like an egg! Don't you see that every time an official or military comes to take refuge, they have to be carefully screened before being put into Tongguan? ”

In just a few words, Bai Wenbo scolded Ruan Wenlong for a bloody squirt. Ruan Wenlong's barely raised courage had long since disappeared, his legs kept trembling, and his tongue was more like a knot, and he couldn't say half a word.

When Bai Wenbo saw his embarrassed appearance, he shouted again: "Put away your pus-filled portrait, why don't you close the door for me quickly." I'll be settling accounts with you later! ”