Although Tang Chao's vanguard force was only 600 people, it was not a large team, but as a military fortress, it was impossible for the guards in the big fort to turn a blind eye to such a team. When the vanguard of the "Flying Dragon Army" was still two or three miles away from the fortress, the soldiers on the watchtower of the fortress had already discovered them and reported to their commander -- because of the long distance, the news reported to the commander by the lookout post was that hundreds of people were coming to the fortress for unknown purposes.

Although the information reported by the sentry was very vague, as the commander of the fortress not far from the border, this Lord Qianzong still ordered his soldiers to be on guard, and sent several horse scouts to confirm the identity of this group - the cavalry of the Northern Han Dynasty was mainly stationed in various border towns, and there were no cavalry units in the second-line forts such as Dabaoshu, and only a few officers and their personal guards and a few scouts had horses to ride.

With the order of this thousand generals, the entire big fort became lively when it was neutral. Some of the soldiers assembled in the open space in the fort, some climbed the parapet wall to guard outward, and some of the five cavalry scouts came out of the north gate of the fort and rushed to the northeast direction from which the vanguard of the "Flying Dragon Army" came.

The vanguard of the "Flying Dragon Army", which was marching rapidly, naturally could not see the lively scene in the big fort, but they could clearly see the scouts who were running towards them on five horses. Tang Chao, Chang Shengjun and the others who were walking in front of the team naturally knew the reason why these scouts rushed to them, but they had already prepared without the slightest panic, and still quickly moved towards the direction of Dabaoshu.

Since both sides were advancing at full speed, the two sides were soon close enough to see each other's faces, and the vanguard of the "Flying Dragon Army" was no more than a mile and a half away from the Great Fort.

If these five scouts were just sent out, they still had some confusion about the origin of these hundreds of people in front of them. Then, now that they were only two or three hundred paces away from the vanguard of the "Flying Dragon Army", they could already clearly see the dress and the things carried by the leader of the opposing party and those behind him. Although I didn't know for a while that these people on the other side were going to be dressed like this, they all carried a strange-shaped stick on their shoulders. However, judging by the neat steps and serious expressions on the other side's march, and the aura of murder emanating from some of them, the scouts were almost 100% sure that the people on the other side were well-trained soldiers.

Faced with such a military force that was dozens of miles deep within their borders and clearly did not belong to the Northern Han army, the five scouts restrained their mounts almost simultaneously, some reached out and drew their swords, while others drew their longbows from their bow and quiver and buckled their arrows to the strings. The eldest of the five scouts signaled the other four to be on guard, and while carrying his horse forward, he raised his sword in his hand and shouted to the group that was still advancing, "Who is in front?" What are you doing here? ”

The scout shouted loudly, but the opposite team continued to march briskly as if they had not heard it at all, and the distance between the two sides was already close to within two hundred paces. Although the other party did not answer his own question, such a move has said it all. Therefore, while signaling his men to get ready, the scout chief pointed his sword forward and shouted again: "The people in front stop immediately, otherwise Lao Tzu will open his bow and arrows." ”

With his actions, the two scouts behind him, who had already held the bow and arrow in their hands, raised their bows and arrows together, drew their bows like a full moon, and pointed at the two people who looked like leaders walking at the front of the line on the opposite side, and immediately opened their bows and arrows when their commanders gave an order, or if the other party made any changes.

At this moment, one of the two men who was being targeted by their archers raised his right hand and shouted "stop", and the group behind him, which had been walking quickly, immediately stopped, standing still and not moving. Although the scout chief and his scouts breathed a sigh of relief when they stopped advancing, the other party's prohibitive and uniform behavior made them more convinced of their judgment that this was an army, a well-trained army.

Faced with such a situation, the scout captain has two options at this time. The first is to come forward and inquire to find out the origin and purpose of the other party. The second is to immediately pull out the horse and return and warn the fort. However, if the former method is chosen, then once the opponent is the enemy, it will be difficult for the five of them to get out - although there are horses on their side and no horses on the other side, if there are archers on the opponent's team, the horses on their side will not run as fast as the bow and arrows. If you choose the latter method, you can take advantage of the gap that the opponent is not prepared to run out of the range of their bows and arrows. But he returned empty-handed, and he didn't find any important news, so I was afraid that it would be difficult to explain it to Mr. Qian when I went back. ,

There were pros and cons to both options, and the scout captain couldn't make up his mind for a moment, so he couldn't help but hesitate for a moment. Although the scout captain quickly made a decision after a moment's hesitation - whether the other party was friend or foe, he should immediately lead his men back to the fort and make plans. But it was his momentary hesitation that ruined the possibility of escape for himself and his four subordinates.

Just as the scout chief was about to pull out his horse and turn around, a loud noise suddenly came from the opposite team. The four scouts who were on guard in the back were first startled by the loud noise, and then they saw their chief shake his horse a few times, and the single knife in his hand also fell to the ground, and then fell headlong under the horse, and after a few convulsions on the ground, he remained motionless, apparently falling into the opponent's plot.

Although the four scouts behind couldn't figure out how their chief was plotted by the other party, they had only one thought in their hearts at this time, that is, to flee back immediately and report to Master Qian. Since they were going to run, the two scouts who had already opened their bows and arrows naturally could no longer maintain the posture of opening their bows, but had to shoot the arrows in their hands. So, the two scouts subconsciously wanted to loosen their bowstrings. Just as they were about to let go, there were two loud noises in the opposite team. Immediately, the two scouts felt as if they had been hit by a sledgehammer in their chests, and the huge liliang caused both of them to be shocked, and the bow and arrow that had been pointed at the opponent's leader also moved, shooting diagonally upward, and finally landed a few feet away from the opponent's leader, causing no harm to anyone on the other side. Before the two arrows could hit the ground, the two bow-wielding scouts had fallen from their horses and followed their leader.

By the time the two bow-wielding scouts dismounted, the two sword-wielding scouts had already turned their mounts around and were about to flee back to their forts. However, before they could urge their crotch to dismount and gallop, there was another loud noise behind them. This time it was still two, and the two scouts, who were trying to escape, fell off their horses and joined up with their three companions.

From the time the scout leader stepped forward to stop the other party from advancing, to the time when all five scouts fell to the ground and died, the whole process seemed to be quite long, but in fact, it lasted less than half a minute. Tang Chao, who had long expected that he might be interrogated by the soldiers of the Dabao garrison, had already ordered more than a dozen excellent archers in the vanguard to act at the opportunity before setting off from the secret camp, asking them to act at the opportunity, and immediately shoot the Northern Han soldiers who came to investigate as soon as there was anything abnormal, and specially arranged more than a dozen of them together to facilitate coordination between them. These dozen excellent shooters did not disappoint Tang Chao, after seeing the opponent's scouts approaching, they assigned shooting targets in a very short time, and arranged for supplementary shooters, and sniped all five scouts in the blink of an eye.

Shooting the opponent's scouts, Tang Chao did not delay in the slightest, and immediately ordered the troops to run forward and approach Dabaoshu as fast as possible.

Although the place where the scouts were shot was still more than a mile away from the Great Fortress, and the Qian Zong who had already climbed the watchtower to watch could not see what weapons his five subordinates had been beaten to the ground, he knew one thing very well, that is, the five or six hundred people on the other side were definitely ill-intentioned, and they were friends and foes.

Although the enemy army numbered only a few hundred, he had thousands of men. If you hold the fort, there shouldn't be any problems. However, considering that the other party was able to kill in front of him, it means that they had broken through the guards of the bottle-shaped barricade, and there were no less than 5,000 soldiers stationed there. From this point of view, it is clear that this contingent of several hundred men should be the vanguard of the enemy, and the main force behind it will probably not be less than 10,000 people. Although the Khitans who were allies of the Northern Han Dynasty in the past -- this Qianzong was stationed here all the year round and had fought against the Khitans who went south to "fight the grass valley" many times, so he had a preconceived idea that the Khitans who came this time were still the Khitans who "fought the grass valley" -- most of them only sent a few hundred or thousands of people to the Northern Han to "fight the grass valley", but it was not unheard of when tens of thousands of people were dispatched at one time. Therefore, the Qian general hurriedly walked down from the watchtower. While ordering all the soldiers to be on strict alert, he called his cronies and hurriedly wrote an urgent document, telling him to immediately ride a fast horse to Fanzhi County, report to the county magistrate there that there was an invasion of foreign enemies, and ask them to immediately ask for help from the army stationed at Yanmen Pass and Yanmen County, the seat of Daizhou Administration.

After the order was finished, the Qian general climbed the watchtower again. One moment he looked to the northeast to see the enemy troops getting closer and closer, and then he turned his head to look at his family who had already rushed out of the fortress gate and galloped away in the southwest direction. At this time, this president was so anxious that he couldn't wait for his family Ding Rib who went to report the news, and flew to Fanzhi County and even Yanmen County in the blink of an eye. ,

However, not far from the fort, the man who had placed all his hopes on ran out of the fort when a sixth loud noise was heard. The man fell from his horse and could no longer move. Immediately, from the woods next to the official road leading to Fanzhi County, dozens of cavalrymen dressed in the same colorful clothes as the hundreds of enemy troops galloped out. One of them, holding a very strange-looking stick in his hand, rode to the fallen housekeeper, jumped off the horse, examined the housekeeper carefully, and searched for something from him, which was probably the urgent letter.

The Master Qianzong, who had witnessed all this, knew that he had been cut off by the enemy, and now he had no choice but to pray to God for a messenger sent by the Bottle Shape to ask for help—although this possibility is basically zero, if the Bottle Shape had a messenger for help, he should have come to him first—there was only one way to defend the fort. Therefore, this commander immediately gave a death order to all the soldiers, and he would not hesitate to defend the fort at all costs, and kill anyone who retreated from the battle and feared the enemy.

The soldiers guarding the fort also dealt with the Khitans all the year round, and knew that although the relationship between the two countries was an alliance, these barbarians did not take the Northern Han as an ally at all, and the move of going south to "fight the grass valley" never stopped. Moreover, wherever the Khitan soldiers passed, they burned, killed, and plundered. Even if you lay down your arms and surrender, nothing good will come to you. At the least, they were looted and taken back to Liao to be slaves. In the worst case, he was killed on the spot and died unexpectedly. Therefore, as soon as the order was handed down, all the soldiers were inspired to have a spirit of hatred for the enemy, and not one of them showed a feeling of cowering or fear.

The defenders of the Great Fort were waiting for the battle, and the vanguard of the "Flying Dragon Army" had also stopped at this time. Under the command of the company commanders, the queues, which had been somewhat scattered due to fast running, were reorganized. Since these "Flying Dragons" soldiers have received several months of formal training, they are quite organized and disciplined. Thus, despite the fact that there were only three small squadrons of less than 400 men -- only three infantry companies in the front line and the artillerymen set up positions behind the infantry squadrons under the protection of the "wolf's tooth" squad -- they still gave people a sense of majesty and poise.

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