Zhang Wu, who was stationed in Xi'an, received the news that Qu Neng's troops had left the Meridian Valley a few days ago, and he was very shocked at the time, and immediately found someone to call his subordinates to discuss.

He knew that Qu Neng was also afraid of failure, so he didn't bring many soldiers and horses.

After consulting with his subordinates, it was decided to take the three guards of Xi'an, about 20,000 cavalry, to support Li Sheng, who had 30,000 soldiers and horses in Ju County, and the two divisions totaled 60,000, which was enough to fight Qu Neng back.

Just the next day, when he finished reorganizing his troops and horses and was about to leave Xi'an, shocking news suddenly came.

Wuguan was also breached, and the rebels were coming from behind the butt drums.

Zhang Wu was on the horse at the time, and almost fell off the horse when he heard the words.

He has been through dozens of battles since he fought Jingnan, and he will be frightened.

Once the Wuguan Pass is broken, it means that the rebels can cut off their way to Tongguan, and at the same time have the opportunity to close them and fight dogs, blocking the area around Guanzhong.

"Bring me the map." Zhang Wu was ashamed, hateful and scared in his heart at that time.

Just as his subordinates hurriedly went to get the map, a fast horse arrived in front of him, saying that there were a large number of rebels at the mouth of the valley, about 50,000.

"Grass" Zhang Wu was even more panicked and scolded.

If the Wuguan is not broken, the two divisions of Xiegukou and Qu Neng will add up to 780,000 people, and he has 120,000 in the pass, which is enough to fight the winner.

Now that the Wuguan Pass has been broken, Zhang Wu is really in no mood at all, and his mind is full of thoughts of running away to save his life.

At this time, it was seen that his tactical level was extremely poor.

After all, he was only a hundred households before the Jing disaster, and he could only charge into battle, and he was a brave general.

If this matter is to be replaced by Song Sheng, he will definitely not panic, depending on which side is important.

Song Sheng may let other places guard it first, and then concentrate the soldiers and horses in Xi'an, and go to fight Sheng Yong in Wuguan first.

Then come back and fight Qu Neng.

Because the terrain of Wuguan is difficult to walk, there are only two or three people passing side by side on the road down the mountain at most, and the cannon can't go anywhere.

The guns of Wuguan were all transported from the front.

Sheng Yong's hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses have to come down from Wuguan, even if it is 24 hours a day, it will take at least seven or eight days to finish, and the damage is not small.

Before, Tengju Song Changbao and they took more than 200 people up and down, and they all fell several times to the deep stream.

Of course, they are newcomers, unaccustomed to them, and soldiers who have been stationed at Wuguan all year round, so this kind of problem will basically not occur.

At the same time as Zhang Wu scolded, his subordinates took the map.

Zhang Wu hurriedly opened it, and several of his subordinate generals were watching.

"Tongguan can't go anymore, what way can I go now?" Zhang Wu was not guarding the Guanzhong before, and he didn't know the terrain of the Guanzhong at all, so he could only ask others.

Guys, look at me, I'll look at you.

There was a commander who couldn't help it, and couldn't help but whisper: "It's extremely difficult to get down from Wuguan, a thousand soldiers and horses come down, and they can only be lined up in two columns at most, and it will take a long time to walk, if there are horses and baggage, it will be even more difficult to walk, and it is impossible to bring artillery." ”

"Let's go to Tongguan now, it's still too late -- maybe, we can still have a -——"

He reminded Zhang Wu that Wuguan was walking slowly, and the rebels were now only a few thousand people coming down, maybe less than 10,000.

Now that the whole army has passed, you can try to fight a wave, if you win, you can block the rebels on it, and if you lose, you can retreat to Tongguan.

But as soon as the man's voice fell, another commander shouted: "The news came yesterday, it may have happened the day before yesterday, or it may have happened earlier. ”

"It's been two or three days, and the rebels have come down at least 10,000 or 20,000 people."

"In case they go straight to Tongguan and occupy Tongguan first, it will be a waste of time for us to go to Tongguan again."

The commander said: "Tongguan is a dangerous pass in the world, there are 3,000 elite garrisons, 10,000 or 20,000 people, it is impossible to capture it in a short time." ”

"I'm afraid someone will surrender." The commander knew that he would really close the door and beat the dog, and he would be locked up.

“。。” The man was speechless.

"Stop arguing." Seeing this, Zhang Wu shouted and reprimanded, and all the generals also looked at him.

"Who is familiar with the terrain of Guanzhong and does not go to Tongguan." Zhang Wu said directly.

He didn't want to gamble, he didn't want to be blocked in Guanzhong, he just wanted to escape as soon as possible, because he knew that Zhu Gaoxu wanted him to die.

He will be locked up in the pass, and he will surely die.

Some of the generals showed contempt in their eyes, Zhang Wu was not familiar with Guanzhong, and he had to rush to lead the troops.

Everyone misses Song Sheng again.

But it's useless to regret it now.

Zhou Hong, the commander of the Xi'an Central Guard, looked at the map and said slowly: "If you want to get out of the customs now, you can only go to Yan'an, then to Suide, from Wubao County, you can enter Mengmen Pass in Shanxi, and then withdraw to Taiyuan." ”

This is going to take a long detour, Zhang Wu looked at the map and gasped: "Isn't this thousands of miles?" ”

Zhou Hong nodded: "From Xi'an to Suide, it is close to a thousand miles, and then to Taiyuan is another thousand miles." ”

The whole trip is more than 2,000 miles.

In addition to wanting to run, Zhang Wu also wanted to bring back the elite of Guanzhong, there were more than 40,000 near Xi'an, plus Li Sheng's 30,000 and other state and county guards, as long as he brought these 70,000 or 80,000 people back to Taiyuan, and joined the imperial court officers and troops in Shanxi, held Taiyuan, and did not let the rebels enter Beiping (Hebei), it would definitely be a great achievement.

"It's far away, let's go, send someone to inform Li Sheng, let him give up Juxian, immediately bring troops over, and retreat with us."

"What should King Qin do?" Someone asked.

"Take it away, let him go with us."

After a pause, Zhang Wu said sharply: "Take away everything that can be taken away, and what you can't take away, like Hongwu cannons, have exploded." ”

"Bring enough food for thirty days, and burn the rest, and never leave a grain for the rebels."

Zhou Hong said: "When the light car is simple, you can go to Yan'an and Suide to collect grain on the spot." ”

"The infantry with twenty days' rations, and the cavalry with ten days." Zhang Wu changed his words.

——

After Song Sheng returned to Fengxiang, he got the information that Zhang Wu was not Zhang Wu for a long time, and at the same time he was also very puzzled, Qu Neng led the army to guard Wugong County and Fufeng County, divided Guanzhong into two, and blocked the connection between Xi'an and Longxi, what did he want to do?

He wasn't afraid that Zhang Wu would come and besiege with an army of 120,000 troops in Guanzhong?

Unless?

Unless someone comes to his rescue?

How can it be?

The four major gateways of Guanzhong are firmly guarded in four directions and are indestructible.

Every time it is breached, it is the end of each dynasty, the era of darkness and incompetence, and now the Ming Dynasty is flourishing, thriving, and all countries are coming, and these four major portals are impossible to be breached.

Song Sheng definitely didn't expect that the unbreakable martial arts pass in his eyes had been broken by Sheng Yong.

In the past few days, Song Sheng went to the city every day and looked in the direction of Xi'an from time to time.

Qu Neng entered the customs from Sichuanzhong, but Zhang Wu did not react.

He led 30,000 elite cavalry, unable to advance or retreat.

The road to Fengxiang has been blocked by Qu Neng, whether to fight or retreat, he hopes to get Zhang Wu's order as soon as possible.

Zhang Wu acted arbitrarily, and also ordered other generals to report to him on everything, and he was also an old man, so Zhang Wu opened up a little.

But he didn't dare to run now, Zhang Wu didn't give an order, he could fight, but he couldn't run.

At this moment, the dust outside the city was flying, and it seemed that a sentry was coming from a distance.

"The Sentinel is back." There was a general beside him who said excitedly.

The messenger also looked embarrassed, he should have broken through from Wugong and Fufeng County with great difficulty, and he started shouting as soon as he arrived in the city.

"The Marquis of Chengyang has an order, Wuguan has been broken by the rebels, please lead all the soldiers and horses in Longxi as soon as possible and withdraw to Shanxi."

"What? Wuguan has been broken? Only then did Song Sheng know that things had gotten bigger.

"When?" He said angrily.

"It was a few days ago."

"Special mother, why didn't Zhang Wu tell the old man earlier?" Song Sheng was furious.

The messenger's expression was almost crying: "The area around Wugong and Fufeng is full of rebel sentry horses, and there are six of us here, only the small one is desperately running here." ”

Song Sheng's face changed greatly when he heard this: "Gather all the horses, hurry up, go around Liupan Mountain, and take Xiaoguan." ”

Fengxiang City suddenly surged with soldiers and horses, and 30,000 Ganliang elite horsemen gathered one after another.

Xiaoguan and Wuguan are called the four major gateways of Guanzhong, in the southeast of Guyuan.

The Liupan Mountain Range lies in the northwest of Guanzhong and is its northwest barrier.

The passage into Guanzhong from Longshang is mainly the valley lowland cut by the Wei River, Jing River and other rivers. The direction of the Wei River is more precipitous, and the direction of the Jing River is relatively easy, Xiao Pass stands in the Liupan Mountain Pass, guarding the passage from the direction of the Jing River into Guanzhong.

Xiao Pass is the earliest pass in the history of the Great Wall, and it is the north gate of Guanzhong. out of Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Lanzhou, Hexi and other places; Entering the customs through the Huanjiang, Malian River, Jing River to Guanzhong, the strategic location is very important, known as the throat of the Central Plains.

It can be seen that once you come in from Xiaoguan, you can still drive directly to the Central Plains.

When Song Sheng presided over the overall situation of Guanzhong, Xiao Guan garrisoned 5,000 elites, and by the time of Zhang Wu, it was reduced to 3,000.

Zhang Wu concentrated more soldiers and horses in Xi'an, and he didn't know the reason why he was afraid of death.

But Zhang Wu clearly trusts these Xiongguan too much.

After all, it is very difficult to break through Xiao Pass from the outside in history.

When the Huns invaded, there were 140,000 soldiers and horses, relying on the large number of people, and they used the technique of ant attachment to break the Xiao Pass.

And Xiao Guan at that time was not the same as now.

More than a thousand years later, Xiaoguan has undergone various expansions and repairs of various dynasties, and now it can indeed be regarded as impregnable.

Xiao Guan Shou will be the commander of Guan Cheng, he used to have nearly 5,000 subordinates, after Zhang Wu took the position, transferred his 2,000 elite infantry battalion.

In mid-June, Guan Cheng received news from Fengxiang Song Sheng that the rebels had come out of the Qinling Mountains, and ordered him to prepare for war and pay attention to the east.

After Guan Cheng received the letter, he replied that he knew that he would strengthen his defense.

But he also has a headache, Xiao Guan's main defense is the northwest, and the east is the internal direction.

The defense to the east of Xiao Pass is definitely far inferior to that of the northwest.

A few days later, Guan Cheng received a letter from Song Sheng's fast cavalry, Song Sheng said that he might take the whole army to withdraw from Xiaoguan, and asked him to prepare at that time, retreat with Song Sheng, collect all the grain and grass that can be taken away, and collect grain locally.

If Song Sheng hasn't arrived at the end of June, Guan Cheng will make his own decisions, whether to leave or stay (fall).

Guan Cheng thought at that time, Song Sheng wanted to go from Fengxiang, there were two places to go, one was to return to the ancient road, and the other was Xiaoguan.

However, the ancient road back to China is relatively narrow, and there are many mountain roads, and Song Sheng is all cavalry, so Xiao Pass was chosen.

If Song Sheng walked back to the Middle Ancient Road, although it was close, it was difficult to walk, and it was likely to be intercepted by the rebels in front.

He bypassed Liupan Mountain and walked Xiao Pass, although it was a little farther, but the cavalry was easy to walk and the fastest speed.

At that time, according to Song Sheng's words, Guan Cheng began to collect grain and grass around and wait for Song Sheng.

In late June, a force of soldiers and horses approached Xiao Pass from that direction.

Qu Yu and Mao Xin, with two thousand fine horsemen, two horses each, a total of four thousand horses, non-stop, galloping all the way, before Song Sheng retreated here, came to Xiaoguan City.

(End of chapter)