However, under this ruthless blow like locusts and arrows, the more than 1,000 elite soldiers of the "Dangya Battalion" who survived did not act immediately, but rested in the Tongguan Gate Cave, as if they were making some preparations.

On the west side of Tongguan, the forbidden army that was originally lying at the door to obstruct the formation was finally dragged up from the ground by the chain and dragged to the back to rest. The rest of the forbidden troops immediately rearranged their formations under the command of officers at all levels, intending to line up at the pass, to block the Youyan army from the pass and prevent it from stepping into for half a step.

At this moment, a deafening roar of "crackling" suddenly came out of the Tongguan door hole. The sound was both familiar and unfamiliar, with a slightly cheerful rhythm that did not match the atmosphere of the battlefield.

The soldiers of the forbidden army, who were still in formation, stopped to watch when they heard this. Even the generals such as the commanders, inspectors, and lieutenant generals who commanded the formation encountered such a thing on the battlefield for the first time, forgetting to give orders and observing the situation ahead with wide eyes.

But I saw twenty or thirty military horses suddenly rushing out of the black door hole in Tongguan, and trampled on the soldiers of the forbidden army who had not yet completed the formation like crazy. The strange sound was the explosion of firecrackers tied to the tails of these military horses.

It turned out that Zheng Rong and Zhong Likuang found inspiration from Qiu Yizhi's use of explosives to blow up the Jianchun Gate in the capital.

Although they could no longer blow up the entire Tongguan with gunpowder, they also thought of a way to use firecrackers - that is, to tie firecrackers to the horse's tail to lure the horses to go crazy and sprint forward, so as to be the vanguard and take the lead in killing an open field.

This group of military horses galloped forward while screaming hoarsely, and without any scruples, they rushed directly into the unfinished formation of the imperial forbidden army.

The imperial court forbidden army guarded the capital city of Luoyang, although it was pampered and well-equipped, but the actual combat experience was not rich, where had you ever seen such a scene? However, the impact of the horses galloping at full speed was extremely powerful, far from the truth that the human body could resist, and they still knew it, and fled to both sides and the rear one after another, and the formation was in chaos for a while.

The elite soldiers of the "Dangya Battalion" took this opportunity to follow closely behind the crazy military horses, and fought out of the Tongguan Gate Cave, holding strong shields and sharp spears, and fought with the forbidden army after the pass - the Youyan army, and finally set foot on the land of.

Youyan soldiers usually face fierce and barbaric Turkic cavalry, field battles are not only strong, but also incomparable, more than a thousand elite soldiers are like a steel needle, inserted into the formation composed of tens of thousands of forbidden troops.

Their courage and fearlessness made even Bai Wenbo, the old general of the opponent, admire him when he saw it on the wall.

Zheng Rong and others outside Tongguan were not idle, and when they saw a breakthrough in the battle, they immediately commanded the army to enter the gate continuously.

As a result, it only took a moment to achieve the shape of a person holding a fist with both hands - the fist formed by his right hand was the Youyan elite soldier; The palm of the left hand is the forbidden army of the imperial court - no matter how wide and thick this palm is, it will not be able to resist the repeated impact of the fist over time!

In addition, the rest of the nearly 100,000 Youyan army has already been assembled, and they are rushing towards Tongguan in all directions, and they are about to enter Tongguan.

The old general Bai Wenbo was condescending above Tongguan, and all the changes in the war came into his eyes. He has been in battle for a long time, and he is known for being good at defending the city, and at a glance, he knows that the Youyan army has made a breakthrough, and if he does not implement countermeasures, he will inevitably suffer heavy losses.

So he shouted and ordered: "The soldiers on the wall are divided into two, and both sides are for the old man to attack down!" ”

Bai Wenbo gave an order, and among the soldiers on the east side of the Tongguan wall who were trying to prevent the Youyan reinforcements from entering the pass, half of the troops ran to the west of the wall and shot at the Youyan army that was fighting with the forbidden army under the pass.

These Youyan soldiers were bent on fighting with the endless forbidden army in front of them, and they were not prepared for the attack overhead, and when they were attacked by such a surprise, they were knocked down in an instant, and the territory that was originally fought out of the bloody battle also shrank for a while, and the battle suddenly came to a stalemate.

At this moment, Zheng Rong, Zhong Likuang, Zheng Sen, Zheng Miao, Cui Nan, Wei Hu and other senior officers of Youyan have all arrived at the large-scale town on the west side of Tongguan. Zheng Rong deliberately requisitioned one of the highest restaurants and set up a command post of the Chinese army on the highest floor to directly direct the operation.

On the top floor, he saw that the battle situation was not progressing, and he frowned and ordered: "Cui Nan, you go down to take a look, why has it been half an hour, and you haven't passed Tongguan yet?" ”

Cui Nan, who had been named a rebellious general by Zheng Rong, still did not change his taciturn temperament, only said "um", put on his battle armor, lifted his saber, and went downstairs.

Not long after, one of Cui Nan's personal soldiers went upstairs and replied, "Lord Qiqi." It was a number of Tongguan guards, who abandoned the east side and attacked our army to the west. Our army suffered heavy losses, so it was difficult to advance for a while. General Choi had stayed inside the door to direct the battle. ”

Zheng Rong knew that there was no more offensive general under his command than Cui Nan, so he said to the herald: "You go and tell General Cui that all the military affairs of the former enemy are handled by him on the spot, and you must quickly break through Tongguan!" ”

He also said to Zheng Sen and Zheng Miao's two sons: "There are so many officers and soldiers on the wall of Tongguan, and some are divided to attack the west side, and the frontal force must be weak. ”

Zheng Sen and Zheng Miao hurriedly got up and sang and went downstairs.

Zhong Li Kuang sat down with Zheng Rong in his hand, holding the folding fan that ignored the four seasons in his hand, and proposed: "The student sees that this building is only one or two hundred steps away from the Tongguan city wall, why don't the prince adjust the crossbow and go upstairs and snipe the court officers and soldiers above the wall to strengthen his might?" ”

Zheng Rong thought for a moment and said, "What Mr. said is reasonable. ”

Then he turned his head and ordered Wei Hudao, the general of Jingnan: "You go and transfer ten sharpshooters." ”

Wei Hu got up and agreed, and said as he walked downstairs: "Lord Wang, and Mr. Zhongli is really resourceful, why can't I think of this idea......"

He chattered downstairs, and soon brought ten soldiers with crossbows on his backs to the stairs, and replied: "These are all good hands who wear Yang in a hundred steps, and please test the prince!" ”

Zheng Rong saw that although these people were tall and short in stature and had different appearances, they all had bright eyes and strong arms, so he guessed that these people were all good at one in a hundred, so he smiled and said, "Okay!" Sure enough, it's my Youyan elite soldier, no need to be polite! You shoot with a crossbow here, shoot a soldier of the court, and reward a tael of silver; Shoot a general, and reward a tael of gold! ”

This group of crossbowmen was already very happy to hear the face of Zheng Rong'er, the king of Youyan, and they were even more excited when they heard that the reward was so rich. So they didn't say a word, immediately walked to the window of the tall building, set up a crossbow, took a slight aim, and then shot at the Tongguan city wall.

As soon as the sound of the crossbow strings sounded very neatly and crisply, ten officers and soldiers fell down on the Tongguan Pass. Three of them, because they were hit in the abdomen, fell from the tall wall as soon as they bent down and fell into flesh.

The soldiers of Youyan under the pass suffered a lot of losses from the officers and soldiers on the wall, and when they saw that their sharpshooter was so powerful, they all applauded loudly.

Zheng Rong watched from the sidelines, and was also very happy, so he said: "Wait for Gu to fight well." If you have such skills, you will come from the day when you are at the beginning! ”

Hearing Zheng Rong's encouragement, the ten crossbowmen became more and more joyful, and they concentrated on shooting at the court officers and soldiers on the wall.

Although they did not kill or injure many enemy troops with this shooting, after all, they made the officers and soldiers throw rat traps, and the firepower of the closed fire suddenly weakened, and the Youyan army took this opportunity to keep moving closer to Tongguan.

Cui Nan's progress has been extremely limited.

Cui Nan was ordered by Zheng Rong, the king of Youyan, to rush to the Tongguan Gate Cave in person, and after a little understanding of the situation, he immediately made a decision - let the sergeant in the back row raise a huge shield high, as if playing an umbrella, to protect the head of the robe fighting in the front row, so that he can fight with the enemy in front of him with confidence.

Cui Nan started to fight with a knife and a gun from a small number of soldiers, even if he has been promoted to a rebellious general, his courage as a pioneer has not diminished in the slightest.

Cui Nan, who has never been good at words, also knows in his heart that it is better to boost morale than a long motivational speech that the main general and ordinary soldiers stand on the same front and fight against the enemy.

So he made a little deployment, then raised his short knife, and under the escort of three or two personal guards, he led the soldiers holding the huge shield to rush out of Tongguan and fight with the officers and soldiers of the imperial court.

Seeing that the main general did not hesitate to take his life, and there was protection on the top of his head, the Youyan soldiers immediately boosted their morale, shook their spirits, and stepped forward to continue to fight with the officials and soldiers of the imperial court.

Even so, the imperial court officers and troops still had an unshakable numerical advantage, and the old general Bai Wenbo constantly transferred troops on top of the wall, trying to further consolidate and give full play to this rare advantage, so that the Youyan army could no longer move forward.

If there are no unexpected changes, this majestic Tongguan is still a barrier that cannot be captured by the arch guarding the capital Luoyang, just as it has done in the past three hundred years, and it has faithfully guarded the hinterland of this great man.

However, at this moment, the tide of the battle took an unexpected turn.

The imperial forbidden army, which originally planned to rely on the numerical advantage to continuously send troops to block the Youyan army, seemed to have lost its spare strength and no longer moved forward bravely, and the formation was gradually messy, as if it had lost the motivation to fight with the enemy, and the front was gradually eaten away by the Youyan army.

The old general Bai Wenbo could see it clearly on the wall, and immediately noticed the changes, and hurriedly ordered the soldiers around him: "There seems to be something strange in our army, you go down and take a look, what is going on?" Report now! ”

The pro-soldier made a military salute, and after a while, he crawled back and said, "General Qiqi, Dai ...... Dai Luanxiang came, saying that he had defected to King Youyan, and was inciting our army reinforcements in the rear to defect! ”

"What! Are you telling the truth? The herald spoke clearly and his voice was clear, but the facts he said were incredible, so that the veteran Bai Wenbo had to ask again for confirmation.

The soldier nodded and said: "The villain also thought it was just a suspicious plan of the Youyan Army, and he deliberately went to the rear army to check, and sure enough, he saw that it was Dai Luanxiang who was guarding a group of sergeants and shouting to our army. Marshal Dai has seen the villain, and he should not admit his mistake! ”

Dai Luanxiang has always had prestige among the officials and soldiers of the imperial court, and he has been in charge of the forbidden army for a long time, and there are many junior subordinates in the army.

Even if the forbidden army did not listen to Dai Luanxiang's words and did not immediately fight back, but with the determination and combat power of the opponent, as long as the official army's position is loosened for a while, it will be seized by the Youyan army and capture Tongguan in one fell swoop, and the capital Luoyang will be naked under Zheng Rong's blade.

Bai Wenbo is a veteran of the battlefield, how can he not understand this truth, knowing that this matter must not be idle, so he hurriedly arranged the defense of Tongguan, and led twenty or thirty cronies and guards to go down the pass, to meet Dai Luanxiang, who claimed to have surrendered to Zheng Rong, the king of Youyan!