() Bollinger Pass, the castle guard.

An atmosphere of panic enveloped the entire council hall, and many of the generals in the hall seemed to have fallen into a panicked mood. When he heard the news that the back road of Bollinger Pass had been cut off through Xu Shouyi's mouth just now, there was even a general in charge of the quartermaster who fainted on the spot.

Now in the entire conference hall, except for Xu Shouyi, who had learned the news in advance, remained calm, Xu Zhixin frowned and fell into his own thoughts, while Yu Ming on the other side was blushing, his blood was surging, and the joints of his hands were "gurgling" because of the clenching.

After a while, Yu Ming saw that everyone was not moving, and he shouted angrily rather dissatisfied, and said out of the crowd: "As long as the city guard hands over a thousand men and horses to me, my subordinates will kill him and turn over on his back and open the road to Luo Pingyuan." ”

Before Xu Shouyi could reply, Xu Zhixin, who was originally standing opposite Yu Ming, asked questions first.

"Commander Yu, do you know how many enemy troops are responsible for cutting off my retreat, what are the arrangements, and how can his army suddenly appear on our army's retreat?"

Xu Zhixin's series of questions made Yu Ming, who was already blushing with anger, even more furious, but he couldn't answer Xu Zhixin's questions.

Xu Shouyi, who was sitting on his hands, could only shake his head and smile bitterly when he saw it, and then asked Xu Zhixin:

"Do you have a good plan to retreat?"

Xu Zhixin immediately said: "I think the most important thing now is not how to retreat from the enemy, but to determine how much grain and grass we still have and how long we can support it, and then we can formulate a plan to withdraw from the enemy." ”

After speaking, he glared at the quartermaster who had just woken up at the moment.

After hearing Xu Zhixin's words, the quartermaster who had just woken up had a bloodless face and fainted again. And at this moment, Xu Shouyi also seemed to see a hint from Xu Zhixin's eyes and today's quartermaster's abnormal expression.

After ordering the guards to carry the quartermaster who had fainted again out of the council hall, Xu Shouyi immediately ordered Xu Zhixin to lead people to the quartermaster office to check the food stockpile, and at the same time ordered the soldiers to go to the quartermaster's house to collect the accounts.

This move made the generals who were already panicked even more panicked, and for a while there was a lot of discussion, speculating about the follow-up development of this strange event. At this time, Xu Shouyi, who was in the handsome position, was already aware of it, and his original frowning brows were now "stacked with obstacles".

Is this war really going to be lost?

Xu Shouyi's heart was filled with huge question marks.

An hour later, Xu Shouyi, who led the generals to climb the city wall to inspect the city defense, waited for another bad news.

The food stock at Bollinger Pass was only enough to sustain the soldiers defending the city for six days. The reason was that the quartermaster sold a month's worth of military rations from the town of Wright to the rice merchants in the city, and then bought back the inferior grain from the rice merchants to make it shoddy. At this time, the military rations in the second half of the month had already been snapped up by various grain merchants, but the inferior grain that needed to be repurchased could no longer be transported because the roads were intercepted. As for those good military rations, they have long been shipped to other places for sale.

The essence in Xu Shouyi's eyes flashed, but it was still discovered by the meticulous Xu Zhixin, it seems that this quartermaster is more than lucky this time.

He has been in the army for nearly 40 years, and although there have been periods of deducting military rations and salaries from time to time, he has never encountered such shoddy and colluding with military businessmen to delay military aircraft. There are only six days of food stockpiled, which undoubtedly makes the already grim shape worse.

When the two sergeants put a stall of quartermasters in front of Xu Shouyi, their faces suddenly appeared, and before everyone could react, Xu Shouyi, who was a city guard, casually pulled out a sharp sword from the waist of the general next to him.

"Click!"

The quartermaster's head fell, and everyone present gasped.

Holding high the sword in his hand, which was still dripping with blood, Xu Shouyi shouted to all the soldiers above and below the city wall:

"Whoever delays the military plane, kill!"

"Yes!"

The people on and off the city wall responded in unison.

At the moment when Xu Shouyi swung his sword and cut off the quartermaster's head, a flock of birds flew in the dense forest of the mountain road in the distance. About a quarter of an hour later, Atterbury's true vanguard began to come into the sights of Carroll's generals.

The 5,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry led by Galirand emerged from the dense forest one after another, and stood in a row in front of the Bollinger Pass. As the number of people in the back increased, the Atterbury's military formation expanded, expanded, and expanded little by little.

An invisible pressure enveloped every general and defender of the city at Bollinger Pass, and the atmosphere on the city wall suddenly became solemn and solemn.

Convinced that there were no more enemy soldiers in the dense forest, Xu Shouyi and his generals began to observe the enemy formation.

This time, Atterbury was not in a dense defensive posture like the previous force, but a horizontal and scattered formation. The whole army is formed into three parts: front, middle, and rear, which lie between the Bollinger Pass and the mountains and forests in the distance. Due to the large gap between them, it seems that the Atterbury army is numerous. The cavalry of 2,000 men was divided into two parts, and were lined up at the left and right ends of the formation, corresponding to the 5,000 infantry in the middle. The whole formation can be called the peak of military appearance and magnificent.

Seeing this formation, except for Xu Shouyi, who had a stern face, the rest of the generals on the wall of Bulin Pass were already afraid.

Heavy dark clouds covered the moonlight, the sky and the earth were inky, the mountain wind whistled among the trees, and the shadows of the trees in the distance.

On this dark night, a cavalry team of 700 warriors marched through the south gate of Bollinger Pass in an orderly manner, followed by 1,000 hoplites. On the other side of Bollinger Pass, the Atterbury Army, consisting of 7,000 soldiers, was preparing for the siege that would begin the next day.

Xu Zhixin was riding his horse and walking among a thousand hoplites at this moment, looking back at Bollinger Pass in the night, and remembering Xu Shouyi's advice when he was leaving:

"Ming, Artbury is obviously prepared for this war, and I'm afraid I won't be able to go back. Your grandfather saved my life back then, if you can get lucky this time, don't come back, go back to the village to take good care of your parents and my family, and I will repay your grandfather for saving his life back then. ”

Uncle Xu, don't worry, I will definitely come back, we won't lose!

Xu Zhixin secretly swore in his heart.

And just as this 1,800-strong breakthrough team disappeared into the mountains, the real main force of Atterbury was also approaching Bollinger Pass step by step, and a big battle was imminent. At this time, the Carol soldiers who were patrolling in the night would not have imagined that tomorrow they would face a tragic offensive and defensive battle, and nearly twenty times the enemy army would take turns to launch an overwhelming offensive against this century-old Xiongguan. And now, the whole Bollinger Pass is still quiet in the silence of the night.

Xu Zhixin led 1,008 sergeants on a dark jungle road. No one knew when they would meet the enemy, nor did they know how many enemy troops were hidden in the darkness, and the whistling sound of the surrounding mountain wind and the shadows of the swaying trees aggravated the depression in the hearts of every soldier, and the whole army was advancing towards an unknown fate in such a solemn and suffocating atmosphere.

The neighing of the horses came from afar, and it looked unusually clear and sad in the open mountains and forests. Unnamed armies lined the road. The eight hundred cavalrymen who were in the front were the first to fall into the encirclement of the enemy. But these cavalry are usually trained by Xu Shouyi himself, and they can be called the elite troops in the entire Brin garrison.

The cavalry queue quickly resumed its formation after it was somewhat scattered due to panic and unfamiliarity with the terrain when it was initially attacked. The messiness and unfocused nature of the opposing attacking forces was also one of the reasons why the cavalry team was able to stabilize its position quickly. Obviously, the other party did not expect that Xu Shouyi would still dare to divide his troops to break through when the army was pressing, and he chose to break through at night. When discovered, it is impossible to mobilize too many troops to intercept and encircle. As a result, the two sides have temporarily formed a situation of equal separation.