The convoy headed north, and the first place of Xiao Cong's patrol was the Weisheng Army stationed in Weizhou in the north.

Along the way through the big county town, they stopped for a day, 300 tooth soldiers camped outside the city, 35 guards escorted Xiao Cong and Shen Qingyi's carriage into the city, staying in the inn, Xiao Cong and Shen Qingyi each took the escort action, Xiao Cong went to the tea restaurant to listen to the miscellaneous conversation, Shen Qingyi went to the market to shop and observe, to understand the people on the spot, the market is undoubtedly the most direct and accurate reflection.

On the one hand, the naturalized Hu people were given fixed arable land, and the Han people taught the skills of agriculture and mulberry, which not only promoted the production of agricultural mulberry, but also reduced the rebellion of the Hu tribe; secondly, to reduce the tax on agriculture and mulberry to promote the enthusiasm of farming; The three aspects use the Silk Road to prosper commerce and trade with the green and white salt abundant in Hexi, and the carpet woven by horses and sheep in Hexi. For the mountain thieves and horse thieves who gathered for chaos, whether it was the Hu nationality or the Han people, they did not hesitate to send the Hexi army to kill them. After 170 years of dedicated management, the last generation of Liang Guogong has built 14 states and 120 counties one after another.

Xiao Cong has become more and more respectful to the ancestors of the Xiao family along the way, and further understands what his father said: "To govern Hexi, we must be strong, fierce, benevolent and soft, and turning Hu into Han is a long-term strategy, and we must not abandon it." ”

On March 17, he left Fenglin County, the northernmost part of Hezhou, and entered Yuanzhou ten miles north along the official road.

Forty miles further northeast is the town of Salt Lake in Wonju. There is a lake that produces green and white salt, and the official road has become blue and white for many years because of the coming and going of salt trucks. The carriage went north along the official road of Qingbai Road, out of Salt Lake Town, and traveled for thirty miles, and entered the hilly and undulating area on both sides of the official road.

galloped out of seven or eight miles, Xiao Yan suddenly had one side of his ear.

It seems that there is a large group of horses' hooves?

She turned her horse and walked to Xiao Chengzhong's side, "Captain Xiao, it seems that a large group of people are coming." ”

Xiao Chengzhong's face was grim, knowing that Xiao Yan's internal cultivation had surpassed him, and when he said this, he must have heard the movement, and immediately raised his voice and shouted: "All teams are on alert." ”

The guards and guards were on alert.

After walking for about half an hour, everyone heard the sound of horses' hooves on both sides of the front, and after another half a quarter, the sound of hooves became louder and louder, but they saw faint people and horses on the undulating hills on both sides of the official road, whistling towards this side.

Xiao Chengzhong's face sank, and he shouted: "Stop!" Cavalry on the crossbow! ”

The three hundred tooth soldiers quickly spread out on three sides and lined up in a circle outward, took off the military crossbow from the saddle bag, and put the arrow on the flat end.

After a dozen breaths, the cavalry on both sides had gradually approached, and rushed down diagonally along the hilly terrain.

Xiao Chengzhong had suppressed horse thieves when he was the former lieutenant of Xiao Huan's dental soldiers, and when he saw these Hexi horse thieves with big scarves covering their heads, covering their mouths and chins, and carrying scimitars at their waists, he immediately ordered 300 cavalry to line up in the east, west, and north to meet them.

Xiao Chengzhi galloped to the side of the first carriage and reported to Xiao Congyu: "Lang Jun, there are horse thieves attacking. ”

Bai Su's face changed, Xiao Cong and Shen Qingyi glanced at each other, and their expressions were calm. Xiao Cong's voice was calm, "You just listen to the military order to meet the enemy." He also instructed Xiao Chengzhi to call Xiao Yan closer, lifted the curtain of the car and told her, "When the horse thief comes for a while, Xiao Chengzhong and Xiao Chengyi will deal with it, you stay by the car and don't move." ”

Xiao Yan responded, turned the horse's head, and pressed the scabbard of the autumn water knife with his left hand, feeling both nervous and excited.

The sound of hooves approached like thunder.

Xiao Chengzhong, Xiao Chengyi and the others' faces became solemn, looking at the four or five hundred horses, when did such a large group of horse thieves appear in Yuanzhou, why did the Xiao cavalry suppress the bandits? Could it be that the horse thieves who took advantage of the cavalry to pull out the new horse thieves in Tibet? But is Yuanzhou Zhichong Mansion a decoration, and there is no rumor at all?

But this is not the time to think about that.

Three hundred cavalry and guards were on standby.

The figure of a horse thief was also revealed directly in front of the official road.

Suddenly, the horse thieves on three sides galloped close, each riding one hundred and forty or fifty horses, galloping but in a neat formation, revealing a vicious aura that can only be found after experiencing bloody killing.

This gang was by no means an ordinary horse thief, and the eyes of Xiao Chengzhong and the other guards became cold.

There was a shrill flute among the horse thieves, and the thieves killed them from three sides.

Three hundred steps.

Two hundred and fifty steps.

Two hundred steps.

"Shoot!" The three cavalry brigade commanders drank one after another.

The cavalry pressed the trigger of the crossbow, and the crossbow arrows were fired, and some horse thieves were hit by the crossbow, but more horse thieves protected the vital point with round shields, and half-crouched to kill.

The cavalry drew their crossbows two or three more times, and the horse thief at the front had rushed within seventy paces.

"Bow!" The three cavalry brigade commanders shouted, and the cavalry withdrew their crossbows and angular bows.

"Shoot!"

The black feather arrow swished, and twenty-four arrows were fired in eight seconds of being fast.

The horse thief also raised his bow and shot arrows in this direction.

Someone on both sides was hit by an arrow, but few people fell, because the arrow hurts, but as long as you don't hit the vital point that you will die, the person who is hit by an arrow may not fall, unless it is a heavy arrow with a strong impact. This also shows from the side that the cavalry and horse thieves who are shot in the arrow are strong-willed people.

The horse thieves at the front had already rushed to within twenty paces, and they all drew their bows and drew their scimitars.

"Kill!"

At the same time, the cavalry also drew their bows and rushed out.

The three hundred cavalry guarding Xiao Cong were the Shizi Ya soldiers, that is, the pro-soldier troops, which were transferred from Xiao Yu's Du Tuya soldiers, all of whom were selected from the elite of the army, and they were not afraid even in the face of the fierce horse thieves who were more than their own.

The thirty-five cavalry guards did not move, guarding around Xiao Cong's carriage.

The cavalry and horse thieves quickly approached, swords rattling, blood splattering, and flying severed arms.

Xiao Yan stared at this bloody scene, although she was injured and bled many times in the Tingfeng Pavilion, it was far less bloody and cruel than this scene, only to feel a burst of nausea, and her face under the mask turned pale. She slowly pulled out the autumn water knife, held it in her hand, inhaled deeply, and slowly exhaled it, reciting the Taishang Jade Qing Sutra silently in her heart, gradually suppressing the feeling of nausea, and her breathing slowly became smooth and long.

At the beginning of the battle, it entered the most tragic stage, and those horse thieves were all fierce and fearless to death, even if they were stabbed by knives, they had to fight to die with the escort cavalry.

This made the faces of Xiao Chengzhong, Xiao Chengyi and other guards even more solemn, and they all thought of two words: dead soldiers!

These "horse thieves" are here for the world!

Since he is a dead soldier who has come to rob and kill the prince, it is likely that there are masters of skill among these people.

Xiao Chengzhi approached Xiao Yan and reminded in a low voice: "The other party may have a master, Seventeen Langjun be careful." ”

Xiao Yan nodded, her lips under the mask seemed to be added to the nervousness, and her heart swelled with panic in the face of a master of life and death for the first time, but there was a rush of excitement in the panic, this contradictory love made her hand holding the knife a thin layer of sweat, seeping into the rope of the handle of the knife.

Fighting on three sides, the fierce sound of blade collisions, as well as wild roars and muffled snorts, people on both sides immediately fell, but no one retreated, except for knife fighting, both sides were equally strong in their will to fight.

Thirty-five guards stood like iron around the carriage, and occasionally a horse thief burst in, and was shot by the heavy arrows of their military single-bowed crossbows.

But there were still more than forty horsemen rushing over.

This should be the elite of the dead!

The guards on all three sides fired crossbows in unison, some of the dead men swung their swords to put the crossbows away, and some of the middle crossbows hit the vital point or were shocked by the impact of the heavy arrows, but there were also the middle archers who still rushed forward on the back of their horses.

In an instant, thirty horsemen rushed within thirty paces

The guards collected their crossbows and rushed forward to meet them.

Xiao Chengzhong, Xiao Chengyi, Xiao Chengxin, and Xiao Chengyong have the highest martial arts among the guards, and the sword will splash a puddle of blood, so each of them has two dead soldiers who haunt these four people regardless of their lives, and two more dead soldiers break through the guards and rush to the carriage.

Xiao Chengzhi and Xiao Yan greeted each other with knives.

Xiao Yan's heart was like still water, but she felt that the knife that the leopard-eyed horse thief was slashing at her head-on, but it seemed to slow down in her eyes.

It's too slow!

Xiao Yan knew in her heart that this was because her internal qi was refined and her facial features were sharp, and her internal qi was deeper than the other party's, refining her eyes, so she felt that the other party's moves were slow.

Her autumn knife was lifted to the left, and a diagonal knife rolled up, and the frost-colored knife light came first.

"Boom!" The horse thief's wrist with the knife flew into the air along with the scimitar.

But the horse thief with the broken wrist did not say a word, and slammed into the horse.

Xiao Yan reversed his wrist and poked the knife, and the tip of the knife poked into the horse thief's right chest.

The horse thief pounced on him, his expression fierce and hideous.

Xiao Yan couldn't help but shudder, and at this moment, a straight knife pierced through her back, but the horse thief also pounced in front of Xiao Yan, and smashed his left fist on her right chest.

"Wow!" Xiao Yan spurted out a mouthful of blood, and urgently went down to the mountain, and the internal qi instantly exploded on the tip of the knife, and he heard a dull sound of "bang", as if the watermelon pulp and watermelon skin exploded in the air, red, green, and black, and it was broken all over the sky, and the flesh and blood were sprinkled down together with the internal organs, and Xiao Yan was covered with a head and a face.

"Gross!" Duan Yan, Shi Shu, Si Mo, and Bingbi, who were standing next to the second carriage, rolled off their horses and threw up.

Even Xiao Chengshi, who was like a rock on the saddle, couldn't help but be dumbfounded and sighed: "It's so brutal! ”

The strong smell of blood rushed into the car through the car curtain, Xiao Cong's face was already pale, but his eyes were still clear, and he couldn't bear not to lift the car curtain, but his right hand couldn't help but clench into a fist. Shen Qingyi's voice was as slow as a stream, and he comforted him: "Ah Yan will be fine." His hands were also nervous.

Although they were very worried, Xiao Cong and Shen Qingyi clearly knew that the best thing for them to do was to stay in the carriage, otherwise they would add trouble to the guards. He and Shen Qingyi glanced at each other, and there was a cold color in their eyes: This is an ambush, a premeditated ambush!

Xiao Yan took a breath from her horse, and her breathing in her right chest was slightly difficult, and the punch caused her some internal injuries.

This is the first time she has faced a real life-and-death struggle, and she is inexperienced, otherwise she will never be injured with her cultivation that is stronger than the other party.

Xiao Yan finally really felt what Xiao Huaizhong said, "The horizontal knife combat skill is a combat skill", this is not a competitive battle, but a battle of life and death. Although the martial arts battle of Tingfeng Pavilion is fierce, and her martial arts cultivation with Xiao Huaizhong is not comparable to this horse thief, Xiao Huaizhong and his knife are not murderous, and the "battle momentum" of the horizontal knife combat skill is actually not brought into play - if Xiao Huaizhong has the intention to kill her, how can she survive a hundred moves? I'm afraid I'll be killed in ten moves.

But the horse thief's internal cultivation is not as good as her after all, and her quenching skills are also small, so she only suffered a slight internal injury, but the Hengshan destruction she used in a hurry destroyed the other party completely, so that she was covered with flesh and blood and internal organs, and she couldn't help but be very glad to wear a mask, otherwise she would have vomited early with a bloody face, Rao is so, her stomach is also a tumbling river at this time, and the right hand holding the knife is also trembling because of the first killing.

Suddenly hear a "whoosh"!

The author has something to say: Remarks:

Booth: Bo, four sounds. Original meaning: thumb

Both the Zhang crossbow and the single-bow crossbow were the standard crossbows of the Tang Army.

In the Tang Dynasty, crossbows belonged to military controlled weapons, bows and arrows were not controlled weapons, and civilians could also have them. The Tang army generally used four types of crossbows, the Fuyuan crossbow with a range of 300 paces (465 m), the Zhang crossbow with a range of 230 paces (356 m), the horn bow crossbow with a range of 200 paces (310 m), and the single-bow crossbow with a range of 160 steps (248 m). - Judging from the whole, a certain West believes that this should be the maximum range, not the effective range (the distance at which the effective shot hurts people).

The power and range of the crossbow is above that of the bow and arrow, but the rate of fire and agility are inferior to the bow and arrow.

Brigade Marshal: As I noted before, it is to command 100 people, and everyone should be regarded as a company commander. [In modern times, there are about 100 people in a company, and 108 people in general.] ]

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