'The eighth day of the seventh month of the fourth year of Jianwen'

Outside Jiayu Pass, eighty miles in the southwest, at the foot of Qilian Mountain, hundreds of households at Yakou.

This is the upper reaches of the western section of the Zarai River, and the Zarai River rushes out from this cliff mouth on the Qilian Mountain, which is the largest gap in the foothills of the Qilian Mountains outside Jiayu Pass.

The Zarai River is the only above-ground river that flows through Jiayuguan and Suzhou Wei, and is extremely important for the agricultural life in the pass, and Yakou has always been the northern end of the Qingqiang and Wusizang into and out of the Hexi Corridor.

Therefore, the Ming court set up 100 households to garrison at this cliff mouth, and 120 soldiers were equipped with fast horse carrier pigeons to transmit military information, so as to prevent Qingqiang from colluding with Fanren to occupy this important place and cut off the water source in the pass condescendingly.

Last month, the embankment burst, and most of the people in the Baihu Office went to the bottom of the mountain to repair the embankment, and now only a small number of sergeants remain.

In the afternoon of this day, the scorching sun was scorching, and Chen Erid, the sentry on the roasted arrow tower, was moldy, and he fell asleep by sitting in the arrow tower.

In the past few years, Suzhou Wei has repeatedly failed in foreign wars, and its armaments have been slack, but it is the idleness of hundreds of households at this cliff mouth. It is not like the soldiers in the guard who have to practice and fight.

Surrounded by mountains and rivers, it has become a paradise.

"Hey, Chen Er, what are you doing?"

A sergeant without armor climbed up the wooden ladder and looked at Chen Er, who was sleepy.

Chen Er looked at the man with confused eyes, "Xishun, why don't you come here without repairing the river embankment?" ”

Before Xishun could speak, he saw the two of them climb up again, and said with a smile: "There are enough people on the embankment, let's take a break and take a nap." ”

One of these two people is called Da Zhuang and the other is called Yuanbao, and they are all lucky to draw lots, and they are drawn to repair the drudgery of the river embankment.

Chen Er glanced at the three of them, holding his spear and wanting to doze off.

Na Xishun said: "In three or five days, we should go back to the guard for rotation, I still miss my mother-in-law if I don't go home for two months." ”

Chen Er nodded, he was a little thinking about the grandmother in the Suzhou Acropolis, presumably he would be able to return to the Acropolis in a few days to recuperate, and he would have to accompany the grandmother at that time.

Yuan Bao frowned and retorted: "Harm, it's a good thing that you should go back to the Acropolis?" The barracks practiced all day long, and they had to go out to fight. How good is it to stay in this idle post, and from time to time you can be lazy, eat and wait for death! ”

"That is, how beautiful is this errand at the mouth of the cliff? Nothing to do, no need to practice and sleep lazy, hehe. The big man got up and stretched his waist, looking at the snow-capped mountains and pine forests in the distance, "Xishun, look at this mountain, the forest, how beautiful it is, it's not as good as that...... Hmm...."

The three of them hung their heads, and Da Zhuang, who could only hear the words before they finished speaking, whimpered, as if his throat was blocked.

I was wondering, and suddenly I could only hear "Boom!" There was a muffled sound.

The three of them were startled, and when they looked up, they saw Da Zhuang lying on the wooden board of the arrow tower, covering his throat with his hands, and his neck was bloodied with a brown feather arrow!!

The two ingots were frightened, Chen Er reacted quickly, and took a look at the wall!

"Whoosh!" , a brown feather arrow hit his helmet, the arrow did not stop, and the helmet was nailed to the wooden pillar of the arrow tower, trembling.

"Hostile situation!! Qiang people!! ”

Chen Er saw it clearly, only to see a large black shadow appearing in the mountains and forests, which was extremely close, but he was drowsy for a while, but he was unexpectedly touched in front of him!!

Xishun reacted, grabbed the hammer on the side and slammed the alarm gong, "Bang bang...."

"Ahh , Xishun screamed in pain, only to see that his wrist was pierced by an arrow, and he rolled in place in pain!

The sharp and piercing sound of the alarm gong resounded from near and far to hundreds of households.

Dozens of officers and soldiers were alarmed, and they looked embarrassed without armor, and looked at the gate of the village on the west side of the hundred households, and immediately a rain of arrows came, and even if seven or eight people were hit by arrows, they would be killed instantly.

"Quick, let go of the wolf! Quickly inform the 100 households under the mountain!! ”

The general flag on duty was in a hurry to resist with manpower, and they first went to repair the river embankment with more than 70 people, and there were only more than 40 people in the cliff mouth.

Coupled with the negligence of the sentry, there is no one to guard the Xizhai Gate at all!

I saw countless hooks and locks at the wall of the West Wall, and the first thing was to turn into dozens of Qiang people wearing leather armor, and the shouts of the earth-shattering killing generals came in!!

At this time, Chen Er and the three of them had already climbed down the arrow tower and ran to the bottom of Dongzhaimen Mountain with colors.

The general flag grabbed the three of them and shouted, "Don't retreat!" Kill them back! ”

The general banner stopped the defeated soldiers on the one hand, and organized the manpower on the other, but he was caught off guard, the army was scattered, and the rout could not be stopped at all, and everyone retreated backwards like crazy.

The general flag was not bad, and when he saw the two Qiang people approaching in front of him, he rolled short and shot with a long knife.

Immediately, he cut off one person's ankle, got up and slashed another Qiang soldier to death with a backhand.

As soon as the Qiang man with the gun pierced, the general flag grabbed the spear and pulled it closer, and with a wave of the long knife, cut the man's throat.

Just when the general flag killed the two of them again, a swift figure like a leopard came short, it was a black-faced man with a double-pointed short gun, and the general flag only thought that he was small, and the long knife slashed away!

The man sneered but didn't make a move, just waiting for the long knife of the general flag to approach, holding the gun in his left hand and holding the long knife horizontally, and his right arm made a move like lightning, straight to the throat of the general flag!

"Poof!" , a pillar of blood spilled out, and the throat of the general flag was pierced by the black man's short gun, and he fell weakly!

"Wang Zongqi is dead!!"

I didn't know who shouted, and the few Ming soldiers who were fighting heard it, and the army's heart collapsed, and they fled backwards!

The dozens of Qiang soldiers who entered first opened the gate of Xizhai, and countless Qiang soldiers outside Xizhai shouted and rushed into the hundreds of households!

........

"Look, sir!! There is a change in the mountains!! ”

At this time, Zhang Yang, who was maintaining the river embankment at the bottom of the mountain, was shouted, and he looked up and saw the wolf smoke billowing from the 100 households on the mountainside!

"Not good! 100 households were attacked!! Zhang Yang's heart trembled, and he wanted to take someone back to support.

But I didn't take two steps just now but found that these 70-odd people had come to repair the river embankment, and they didn't even bring a knife or armor.

They brought only a bunch of hoes and dustpans for digging the earth, and even five horses!

It's a bird's egg!

"Look, sir!!" , a soldier pointed to the mountainside.

Zhang Yang looked and saw that the defeated soldiers in twenty or thirty hundred households were chased by the Qiang people, and fled to him with rolling and crawling.

Xishun was injured in his hand, but it did not affect his feet to run fast, just now he saw Yuan Bao was shot in the heart by a brown feather arrow and died next to the Dongzhai Gate.

Now there is another Qiang man rushing on horseback behind him, coming straight to him!

Xishun couldn't wait for his mother to give birth to four legs, and he was sweating profusely.

It's a pity that people can't outrun the horses after all, and the Qiang people are short and raise their arms!

I saw a red bloom on Xishun's chest, and he lay on the ground and died.

Seeing this, Chen Er shouted and stepped on the air and rolled down!

When the officers and soldiers under the mountain saw this scene, their hearts were horrified, and when they saw the Qiang soldiers all over the mountain, if not 800, but also 500, their legs and stomachs trembled.

Zhang Yang said to the general flag beside him: "Lord Baihu, let's withdraw quickly, and report to the guard, this cliff mouth can't be guarded!" ”

Zhang Yang saw that the opportunity had been lost, so he gave an order, and everyone had already dropped their hoes and ran east towards the Qiulai River!