The red sun of the early morning shines through the yellowing clouds, and the ancient city slanted its figure on the vast sand behind it, and from a distance, the wind and frost and imprints seem to be about to come to life.

The south gate of the ancient city is connected to the official road that leads directly to Luoyang, passing through the 78 counties of Kyushu in the Central Plains, and the east gate is connected to the famous Hexi Corridor, which is known as the "Silk Road" of Western Xia, stretching along the black water for thousands of miles, passing through the Helan Mountains and then to Bozhou adjacent to the East China Sea, and connecting with the official road there in the south. The black water originates from the northern end of the Tianshan Mountains and flows all the way down the corridor into the East China Sea.

However, in this season, there may be some people in the vicinity of Helan Mountain in the south, and there are few people in the Hexi Corridor.

Therefore, this south gate has become the most crowded pass now, whether it is a samurai who came to Loulan anonymously to practice on an adventure, or a big family who came to this gold panning merchant from the Zhongzhou region, this road is the only way for them!

This area of the ancient city of Loulan is more special than other places, because it is far away from Beijing, and many affairs are difficult to arrange and deploy in a unified manner. After the old woman in Luoyang Palace seized power and established Western Xia, she quickly strengthened the Great Wall. After the Tianshan Rebellion, which caused a sensation in the Central Plains, a huge Loulan Mutiny broke out.

In that year, the Governor of Yeyu, who commanded the four armies, personally commanded the Northern Expedition and pacified Loulan. In the second year, the imperial court sent three founding generals to guard the vast northern frontier, and at the same time defined a new name for this piece of the Heishui Basin, including the Loulan Sands and the Helan Mountains, called "Far North Chadi". However, people prefer to call this area the "Two Lancha Lands".

The rights given to them by the imperial court back then can be said to be very independent, simply put, as long as the big and small affairs are not major issues that endanger the border territory, everything can be decided by themselves, and there is no need to tell the Son of Heaven.

However, after so many years, except for Li Chaonan, who was guarding Loulan, who still had heavy troops, the other two had long been submerged in the well-known tale of releasing military power with a glass of wine. The title of the Metropolitan Governor of Zhenbei has long existed in name only!

Lu Li gasped and ran all the way to the south gate, and saw that the suspension bridge, which was usually never suspended, was pulled up for the first time now, and the moat that seemed to be still bubbling cold passed in front of Lu Li's eyes.

Lu Li suddenly had the illusion that today's black water must be colder than before.

As early as yesterday, Zhao Shixiong, a frontier lieutenant, asked the soldiers to post a notice, saying that the Zhongyu Lin Army was coming today, and the south gate was not allowed to enter or leave in the morning. So, this morning there was an unusual tranquility at the South Gate compared to usual.

"Hey!"

Lu Li was still staring at the river in front of him, when he heard a familiar low shout, he looked up when he heard the sound, and saw Li Sansan standing on the side of the city tower and winking at him. Lu Li gave him a look, then lowered his head and breathed heavily a few more times before stepping up the stairs.

He was a little apprehensive in his heart, so that he staggered a little when he went upstairs, so the cloth shoes made a rare sound today.

"Stop. ”

Lu Li's emotions still hadn't eased up, but he was suddenly startled when he heard this scolding, and his steps stopped abruptly.

Zhao Shixiong straightened his body, wearing a dark yellow lieutenant wide armor to set off his body more burly, he squinted his eyes, looked at the official road in the distance and said: "Look at that pillar of incense, Lao Tzu lit it to see the time when the group of Guanzhong dolls came, did you calculate it accurately?" He spoke in a tone that was not heavy, but a little soft, but this hoarse voice was very uncomfortable in Lu Li's ears.

Zhao Ye's temper, who knows better than himself.

"Damn, you're afraid it's the rescuer they invited, are you here to visit the sentry?" Zhao Shixiong turned his head suddenly, and the tiger eyes under his eyebrows gave birth to a majesty namelessly, he looked straight at Lu Li, and his voice was amplified for a moment.

"Poof!"

Li Sansan couldn't help standing in the middle of the pile of guards on the side, although he covered his mouth, he still laughed out loud out of place.

Lu Li still lowered his head, this was not funny, at least now he couldn't laugh himself.

"Zhao Ye, they're here!"

Zhao Shixiong's afterglow was glancing towards Li Sansan, and a soldier who had been standing on the observation deck outside the city gate suddenly roared to the side of the city tower.

"Return to the team!" Zhao Shixiong scolded Lu Li again when he heard this, and his eyes followed Lu Li's moving figure and finally gathered in the crowd of guards at the south gate.

He turned around formally and lifted his right shoulder slightly, revealing the empty armplate without an arm. And the left hand that had been holding the straddle knife finally slowly let go.

Lu Li raised his head at this time, looked at Zhao Ye's thumb and index finger constantly rubbing gently, and smiled knowingly.

There is a scar at the tiger's mouth, and Zhao Ye said that all the scars on his body belong to the glory of the border guards, and they are all worthy of being touched.

"All the guards at the south gate are there, lined up!

Zhao Shixiong let out a monstrous roar, only to hear the sound of strides in unison, and the eighteen guards at the south gate held sabers in their hands, lined up in a figure-eight formation. Lu Li and Li Sansan stood on the two sides of the back, their eyes were like torches, judging like two people!

Zhao Shixiong's eyes swept over, and he immediately turned around and raised his head.

At the end of the line of sight on the official road, I saw a large number of black and oppressive people constantly approaching, the yellow sand in the sky filled the air, and the chaotic sound of horses' hooves was mixed in it, like winter thunder, roaring!

It's all black-armored cavalry!

The corners of Zhao Shixiong's mouth curled, took back the afterglow, and spit towards the city, his weather-beaten face was full of indifferent looks.

"That's a big deal. He touched his nose and said softly.

The three thousand black-armored cavalry suddenly stopped five hundred zhang away, and the lean man in the lead rode a dark red war horse, wearing a round neck and black long armor, and the big cloak, which was also dark red, was blown in the wind and sand.

Zhao Shixiong knew very well that this was the black-armored cavalry, one of the four major military departments in the Yulin Army, and it was the second largest military department after the Night Feather Legion led by the Night Feather Metropolitan Governor. And that man's name is Li Dian, and he is a real official and a five-grade riding general.

However, these are all born by a mother in Zhao Shixiong's eyes. When Dali rose, crossed the river at the source of Luoshui in southern Xinjiang and violated the ban, Ye Feng, who was then the Da of Baijiang, led an army of 500,000 to resist the enemy under the order of his uncle Ye Yu Governor, and Zhao Shixiong was one of them at that time.

At that time, the Yulin Army was brave and invincible!

After the first battle of Luoshui, the Dali army was defeated and returned to the south, with Luoshui as the boundary, paddling and governing.

Zhao Shixiong stood out in that battle as a black-armored soldier, and was caught by Li Chaonan at the school soldier ceremony that year. However, the Far North also needs capable people to guard it, and it was a critical moment for the troubles of the army, and the old woman's heart was naturally biased towards Li Chaonan's side.

In addition to the black-armored cavalry, the other two lineage codenames are Skeleton and Blood Red, Black Armor is cavalry, Skeleton is sword infantry and archers, and Blood Red is an assassin who focuses on assassination. In fact, the main body of their cultivation is the same, they all uphold the originator of martial arts from the Landa Temple, and they all practice and join the army as samurai. However, after so many years of evolution, each of them has gradually formed a unique cultivation system under the pretense of cultivating talents for the army.

Speaking of blood red, although it is still under the name of Yulin Jun, it is actually a person from the Nine Prisons of Qintian. At that time, the head of the Nine Prisons asked the Son of Heaven for an order to temporarily transfer the Scarlet Assassin on the grounds that the prison was short of manpower, and later on the grounds of eliminating the remnants, he completely controlled the Scarlet in his own hands.

This can be said to be a well-known thing, but I don't know why the old woman in Luoyang Palace didn't give an order to cross the blood red after so long.

Zhao Shixiong retracted his thoughts, he didn't know what the Son of Heaven was for sending this surnamed Li over this time, but from these thousands of black-armored soldiers, he could still see that the imperial court attached great importance to that royal tomb, and he thought that he must find Li Chaonan to sum up the total when he turned around.

"General, what do they mean by the suspension bridge hanging in the air!"

Li Dian, the general of the Xiao cavalry, was squinting at this time and holding the reins, he had already seen the suspension bridge that had been pulled up, and he frowned when he heard the words, could it be that they didn't know that they were going to bring the army here today, which was simply impossible, so nineteen eighty-nine did it on purpose.

Thinking of this, a wave of anger arose in Li Dian's heart, he was famous in Luoyang, and the person who now sat in the position of commander of the black-armored cavalry was still his own uncle. But putting aside this relationship, he really climbed up from the bottom by relying on his strength! But this time he came to protect the city on the order of the Son of Heaven, and it was also an opportunity for him to ask his uncle Li Boxuan for a hard time, and now that the four armies are being cut, the Son of Heaven seems to want to reduce the strength of the army, if he can't take this opportunity to make a few great achievements, maybe most of his soldiers will be confiscated!

In fact, he had also heard of the soldiers in Guanzhong here, especially knowing that this place was located in the land of Lianglancha, and his style of doing things was definitely very different from his own in Guanzhong! But he never imagined that he would be turned away from him, wouldn't this be a shame for himself!

So he raised his head towards the position of the city gate and shouted: "I am Li Dian, the general of the black-armored cavalry of Yulin's personal guard, and I came to Loulan to protect the city by the order of the Son of Heaven, so don't open the door quickly!"

As he spoke, he jerked out the saber from his waist and held it in his right hand across his knee.

This is a standard samurai salute, and it is also the most common greeting etiquette action used by Western Xia military generals. Li Dian's action actually has several meanings, one is to show that he is an orthodox military officer who cultivates martial arts and enters the army, not a half-hung back door soldier, and secondly, he also wants to show his prestige, after all, he was ordered by the Son of Heaven to come to guard, they knew about it, but they did not open the door in advance to greet them, which made them nakedly slapped in the face in front of these thousands of brothers.

Zhao Shixiong stood on the city tower, looked at Li Dian and deliberately squinted his eyes and shouted: "Who is coming, get off the horse and be examined!" As if he hadn't heard Li Dian's words, he pulled his throat and dragged a long tune.

Lu Li stood in the last position, straightened his body, and looked at Li Sansan, who seemed to be unable to hold back his smile in front of him. Zhao Shixiong seemed to know this time, suddenly turned his face and puffed out his eyes and lowered his voice and shouted: "Can you grow your face, and give Lao Tzu a spiritual point when it goes down, the training that should be trained, the training that should be said, don't let the general Guanzhong look down on us, you know!" After he finished speaking, he turned his head back, and listened to Li Dian repeat the sentence just now before clearing his throat and continuing: " It turned out to be General Li, my side of the pass, lonely and unheard, I really don't know that General Li led the troops to come, but the army must be inspected when entering the south gate This rule is not set by me Zhao Shixiong, this is the Son of Heaven himself, in order to maintain the stability and peace in the city, if any dog or cat can swagger into the city, I am afraid that this Loulan has long been occupied by the Jin State. Besides, this is an important place in northern Xinjiang, there are rogue soldiers and thieves all the year round, at this time, it is a critical period for rogue soldiers to be troubled, how do I know if there are any rogue soldiers and rebels who have secretly mixed in among your thousands of people, and how dare I open this city gate easily!" he closed his eyes and nodded lightly, as if he was considering the meaning of what he said just now.

Li Dian was not happy, it was obvious that he wanted to give himself a dismount. The rules set by the Son of Heaven are correct, but this is simply deliberately targeted, and he led thousands of people to be hung under the city like this, if this is spread out, how can he gain a foothold in Luoyang, and how can he be neutral in the Yulin Army!

Lu Li listened to Zhao Ye's words, and secretly admired it in his heart, and then he suppressed his voice and began to talk to Li Sansan: "Hey, hey, hey, is that cousin of your father's nephew's uncle's nephew, according to this reason, aren't you two still a little related." Shouldn't you go and relieve him?"

"What nonsense! My family and his family don't even have a good relationship with half a copper plate, as far as his Li family, as my father said, the thief power, I know that they are playing tricks in the court, let me tell you, the rumor that my father rebelled nine times out of ten came from the mouth of their Li family, and they wanted to cross my father, so that he could ask for merit in front of that person, and he could also take advantage of the situation to take my father's military power! Anyway, this water is deep, you don't understand, I will tell you slowly in the future. Li Sansan peeked at Zhao Shixiong's back, confirming that he didn't care about his chatting with Lu Li, before continuing: "Master Zhao has received my father's order, you can toss it no matter what!"

Now the Guanzhong region is still in the cool season, this group of soldiers who set foot in the border pass for the first time is actually not wearing thick, and the effect of the black iron armor against the cold is not obvious, but in this cold wind, it is even more cold. Moreover, they are running continuously, from Luoyang to the ancient city of Loulan, there are more than 3,000 miles away. The situation at this time can be described as hungry and cold.

Li Dian knew very well in his heart that no matter how arrogant Zhao Shixiong was, he would not dare to go against himself so blatantly. must have been ordered by the governor of the northern part of the town, this dismount, looking at it today, is all settled.

Thinking like this, Li Dian pulled the reins and turned around, looking at the group of cavalry in front of him, a trace of grievance flashed in his eyes, he suddenly pulled out the saber on his waist, and shouted loudly: "The black-armored cavalry listen to my orders, all of them, dismount!"

Zhao Shixiong's eyes changed at this moment, and this Li Dian's temperament was a little unexpected.

Lu Li was about to follow Zhao Ye downstairs to show his majesty, but as soon as he moved, he felt a wave of dizziness surging up his head, only to feel that the sky was dark, and he fell to the ground as soon as it was dark.