In December, as a great cold snap blew south, the first snow fell to the ground since the beginning of winter in 556.

From south to north, the grassland is covered with white, and the cloudy fortress, which used to connect the north and the south, ushered in this winter in a quiet place.

Since August, the fortress Beiguan and the three major arsenals near the Beiguan have been occupied by the Hu people, and it has been three months now, because of the special terrain, the city in the sky that has been cut off has become a dead end, the Hu people are entrenched in the North Pass, and the empire controls the South Pass, although from the perspective of the occupied section, the empire still controls two-thirds of the fortress, but it is very difficult to recapture the third.

Yuntian Fortress, known as the city in the sky, is almost entirely built on a cliff, and the huge trestle bridge constitutes the main passage of the fortress, and this trestle itself is one of the defense systems of the fortress, but this time it was used by the Hu people and became a secret weapon to block the empire.

The hundred-meter-long broken bridge is like an insurmountable chasm, although with the empire sending more masters, but the Hu people still maintain a lot of strong people, although the empire's earth spirit high-level powerhouses can ignore the 100-meter moat, but without the supplement of backup soldiers and horses, they can't stand at all.

This is true for the empire, and the same is true for the Hu people, it is difficult to capture the remaining fortresses, but from the strategic situation, as long as the Hu people occupy the North Pass, it is already considered a victory, blocking this north-south passage, which is equivalent to closing the gate to the grassland from the direction of Yunzhou.

Wang Riyao walked on the trestle bridge covered with a layer of white sand covered with snow, beside him, a group of soldiers were changing guards, three months had passed since the fall of the Yuntian Fortress Beiguan, and in the past three months, it seemed that every day was urgent, but in fact, there was nothing to do.

And the empire seems to have completely given up the plan to recapture Beiguan, but gathered the army in the north of Youzhou, and seemed to plan to fight in Youzhou, the plan of the high-level Wang Riyao did not know, but Beiguan was taken away by the Hu people, but it was stuck in the throat like a bone, making people feel like a fish in the throat.

And judging from the news received recently, turmoil has also begun to occur within the empire, and the three cities that are imprisoned in the north of the eight cities have been captured, and in an instant, a million rebels have appeared in the middle of the empire.

What a difficult autumn! The north gathered an army of three million Hu cavalry, the seven golden clans joined forces, and the Li clan, who was imprisoned in the abandoned capital of Zhongzhou, finally launched the turmoil that was not launched a hundred years ago, and the imperial capital, the throne is still vacant, and it can be said that the empire is facing the biggest crisis since the founding of the country.

A hundred years ago, the empire experienced once, but because of a born hero, he finally swept away the world, calmed the civil strife, drove Beihu, restored the empire, and let the empire last for a hundred years, but this time, who will clean up the mess.

And in the midst of the ups and downs, where will the Wang family go, as the son-in-law, Wang Riyao, the next generation of the head of the Wang family, can't help but think about it, this is his responsibility.

The snow, like goose feathers, fell from the sky, piling up a snow-colored scarf on his shoulder, looking at the gray sky, but he sighed.

Hey, sitting on the chair, Tang Xuan, who looked a little lonely, looked out the window, the falling snow was pure white and flawless, stood up, pushed open the window, and let the slow cold wind blow into the room and hit his face.

I don't know when she began to sigh often, unsatisfactory things one after another, and what bothered her the most were two men, one was her fiancé, and the other was Leng Zhuo, who had no news of life and death, and these two people would not intersect in her mind at all, which made her so entangled, but since that day, everything seems to be entangled.

For Leng Zhuo, Tang Xuan has no love, at most he is just more curious, and in his mind, what exists the most is his confused face, such a guy, how can she like it, if possible, she can't wait to whip him a few times to relieve her anger.

However, in the quartermaster's depot, the entanglement with his fiancé made the fiancé, who was always polite and a humble gentleman, become a person, manic, suspicious and even cranky, and the most hateful thing was that she had nothing to do with that Leng Zhuo, at most she just said something, but she was entangled by him, as if she was a lewd woman.

Once or twice, Tang Xuan still went to explain, still comforting herself, and put all the responsibility on Leng Zhuo, if it weren't for him, everything wouldn't have turned out like this, but after a long time, the name that kept being mentioned in her ears made her involuntarily think of that smiling face.

Thinking of Leng Zhuo, who led people out of the pass before the fall of the fortress Beiguan, I heard that the third forbidden army that went north at that time, the clouded leopard army, and nearly 200,000 noble private troops, were defeated on the grassland, and less than 3,000 people escaped in the end, and the Nine Emperors were spared, but as the commander, Ye Baizhan is not known for life or death, and his friend Ye Linglong is also unknown for life and death.

As soon as the 200,000 imperial army was defeated, he relied on those hundreds of people on the grassland, could he still be alive, Tang Xuan brushed his face, patted it, and shook his head, how could he think of him again, and what did he have to do with him!

Despite thinking so, my mind still kept thinking of the thin figure who was silent and cared for the old brand from time to time when he was in the Holy Heaven Academy, and the hateful guy who suddenly became lustful later.

Ay.

There was another light sigh, but in that light sigh, the heart became more and more entangled.

Seventy miles west of the Yuntian Fortress, a valley surrounded by mountains, a small valley, but it was crowded with people, Leng Zhuo's self-organized swamp first division, the third brigade is stationed here, more than 27,000 soldiers and horses, making this small valley very lively.

On one side of the valley, on top of a cliff, there was a large protruding stone platform, and behind the stone platform was a large cave, which had once been a timberwolf den, but now it was the meeting hall, where the main heads of the 1st and 3rd Brigades lived.

Han Xin, Zhang Liang, Xiang Yu, Zhang Liao, Dolgon, and seven or eight generals who were included in the core were looking forward to it on the stone platform, and if they could bother these mental generals to be so enthusiastic and greet them in person, they would naturally not be ordinary people.

In the sky, an eagle's cry broke through the nine heavens, quickly magnified in the snow-colored sky, and flew towards the valley.

Leng Zhuo turned over and jumped off the Cangyun Falcon, Li Yuanba, Dian Wei, Liang Hongyu, and Ye Linglong all got off their mounts and landed on the stone platform.

"Young master!" Seeing Leng Zhuo's arrival, a group of generals bowed and saluted, while those military generals with eyes shouted, division commander.

Leng Zhuo snorted, but did not enter the cave immediately, but stood on the stone platform, overlooking down, the dense camp tents in the valley were three thousand tents, Leng Zhuo turned his head and asked: "It seems that you have gained a good harvest all the way, you have gathered so many soldiers and horses, how many?"

Zhang Liang took a step forward and said, "The First Brigade has 22,561 people, the Third Brigade has 5,000 units, and there are some disabled soldiers, counting in the logistics battalion, there are almost more than 800 people!"

"Twenty-eight thousand, good fellows, you can close it!" Although I guessed an approximate number, I was still a little shocked when I heard it, at the beginning, there were only 5,000 people on the way south, but now it has been several times, especially the first brigade, which is directly qualified as a division.

"The First Brigade is only a large number of people, but the actual combat strength is very low, and most of the slightly stronger ones have been transferred to the Third Brigade and organized into five cavalry teams! ”

"Oh!" Leng Zhuo sighed, and couldn't help but glance at Han Xin, saying that these three people have always been mortal enemies, even if they are a group, no one will easily give people the reason that their subordinates are elite.

In fact, Leng Zhuo didn't know, this was all Dolgon's idea, after all, the captured ordnance and materials were all taken by the Third Brigade, and compared to the Third Brigade, which only had 6,000 people, the First Brigade, which had 20,000 people, was a famine, plus there was a shortage of soldiers and armor, Han Xin also had to agree, otherwise watching the Third Brigade eat and drink spicy food, wear new armor, and a few weapons per person, it is estimated that his first brigade will suddenly lose his heart.

Xiang Yu has always disdained this kind of thing, but it is not bad to be able to exchange for some elite soldiers, so he has no objection, but the specific operation is done by Dolgon.

"Young master, let's go inside first, the meals are ready, you must be hungry all the way!"

"Hehe, that's right, in the past few days, in order not to leak the news, but I haven't turned on the fire for several days, and I have eaten dry food, and my stomach has long been awkward!" Leng Zhuo said and walked towards the cave.

Full of wine and food, Leng Zhuo patted his stomach, and then asked: "You have gathered so many people, armor, equipment, and how did you solve the problem of grain and grass, well, tell me everything these days, so that I can understand!"

"Yes, young master!" Zhang Liang was eloquent, talking about interesting flowers, and Leng Zhuo, who listened, nodded again and again.

The first on the south road, after the three brigades went south, they followed the original plan, all the way to the west, and now the Hu army is in the west, so most of the people encountered along the way are thousands of Hu cavalry, to fight more and less, and there are fierce people like Xiang Yu in charge, but the road is smooth, and soon gathered a large number of people and horses.

The only problem is the lack of grain and grass, and the lack of soldiers and armor, but this problem is also solved by Xiang Yu who retrieved a large number of materials and ordnance from Yimaji, plus hunting wild beasts, and finally has enough grain and grass to eat for a period of time, so the group began to turn eastward, and finally disappeared in this valley in batches.

"I don't know, the young master has some adventures in the north!" Zhang Liang asked.

"Heh, there are a lot of adventures, several times almost wiped out the whole army, and your almost 30,000 soldiers and horses can't be compared, if it weren't for the back, a group of horse bandits were recruited, it is estimated that even half of the original people are not left, but the harvest is not small!"

"This time I have collected a lot of good things, there is an eighth-order diamond rock wolf, and there are some eagle falcon beast eggs that are not low-level, wait for each of you to have one, and pass the psychic level, and later I will get you some spirit pills to take, and strive to break through the earth spirit as soon as possible!"

"Thank you for the reward of the young master!" Like Han Xin, Zhang Liang, Zhang Liao and other generals have completed the psychic, but they do not have psychic beasts, and there are no mounts, this time Leng Zhuo obtained so much loot, so naturally they were distributed first.

"Hehe, the second brigade, the fourth brigade and the guards battalion will probably arrive before early tomorrow morning, after the two armies meet, they will go to take the cloudy fortress, what is the plan for the ovary!"

Zhang Liang shook his head and said: "The Yuntian Fortress is very heavily guarded, so we don't know much about the situation in the fortress, but a few days ago, we have arranged for a few spies to sneak in, wait for them to ask about the situation in the fortress, send it back, and then do some considerations!"

Leng Zhuo sighed and said, "Well, there are many masters stationed in Yuntian Fortress, be careful, this matter has to be considered in the long run!"