There was silence. When the officers finally reacted, they erupted in a frenzied cheer. Within an hour, the good news spread throughout the city of Payi, and the hungry and cold soldiers burst into tears of excitement, not only for the hope of survival, but more importantly, they felt: "In order to defend the country, we sacrificed ourselves, we fought bloodily, we were under siege, and we were not abandoned! The family is still trying their best to rescue us! Our relatives from afar are still trying their best to rescue us!"

"My lord," the orderly gently woke up Deputy Commander Lin Bing, the commander of the Valen Fortress, who was sleeping lightly, "The officer on duty tonight wants to see you, and he said that the situation is urgent." ”

Lin Bing suddenly sobered up and sat up: "Let him wait, I'll arrive." "Since January 10, when she learned that the demons had begun a large-scale attack on humans, she never took off her military uniform when she slept, and always slept in a military uniform and clothes. She just hurriedly combed her hair and went out.

Standing and waiting at the door was not only the officer on duty tonight, but also Lin Bing's deputy, Atlan's red-clothed flag. Seeing Lin Bing's calm figure, there was a look of admiration in his eyes. Lin Bing always feels so calm to her subordinates, even if she is suddenly woken up in the middle of the night, she does not show a bit of a wolf, and her clothes and manners are still Shao Mo's elegant and impeccable.

Atlan saluted and said succinctly, "My lord, I'm sorry to disturb your rest." The officer on duty reported that there was a situation on the demon side. ”

Lin Bing raised her eyebrows: "Are they going to sneak attack?" she looked at the officer on duty tonight.

"It's not like it is. Atlan hesitated, and then stopped. Lin Bing was a little surprised, and he had the impression that Atlan was a very cheerful person. In the end, he said, "My lord, it's hard to describe. It's better for you to go up to town and see it for yourself?"

It's two o'clock in the middle of the night, and it's the coldest season of winter, with snow falling and the north wind howling. Lin Bing looked at Atlan in surprise and found that the latter's face was very serious.

She nodded, "Okay." "I swore in my heart that if nothing happened, she would knock this guy who dared to disturb her sweet dreams into eighteen layers of hell with her own hands.

The wind was bitterly cold, and even though I was already wearing a thick winter military uniform, the wind blew through my face and fingers that could not be covered by my clothes, and it hurt like pins and needles. I barely ran into anyone along the way. Stepping on the thin ice on the steps, the two walked all the way to the city, Lin Bing's guards followed behind, holding shaking torches to light the way. Under the torches at the head of the city in the dusk, the night watchmen on duty were frozen and shrunk into a ball, and as soon as they saw their arrival, they immediately jumped up and saluted, and their bodies trembled uncontrollably. At some of the sentry posts, they also ran into some of the sentries who were already asleep. At this time, Lin Bing would unceremoniously kick the inverted frieze guy's ass. Looking at the stunned look of the officer on duty, Atlan explained: "This is for his good, it is dangerous to fall asleep." ”

From a distance, there was no one on the east side of the city, and in the darkness, the thin ice and snow were shining against the glow of the snow. Before Lin Bing could get closer, a deep man's voice in the darkness: "Stop, midnight starlight." ”

Lin Bing and Atlan were stunned, and the officer on duty who followed them had already answered first: "Ka Miao." Only then did Lin Bing react, this was a secret whistle interrogating the password.

Several heavily armed archers appeared from the darkness of the city wall to shelter from the wind, and when they saw that it was Lin Bing, they hurriedly saluted: "My lord!"

Lin Bing returned the salute and said sincerely: "You have worked hard. She looked at Atlan, and he hurriedly pointed her out, "My lord, look in that direction, there is a light there." ”

Lin Bing turned around and raised his eyes to look into the distance. In the boundless white snow, in the darkness, a conspicuous piece of fire was bright. That's where the demon camp is. In the red firelight, you can see a lot of black shadows shaking. Although the distance was far away, I could still hear the noise coming from the wind, and I could vaguely make out that it was mixed with the shouts of demon soldiers, the shouts of officers, the sound of horses' hooves, the sonorous sound of weapons, and other noises.

Afraid that she wouldn't understand, Atlan still explained to her on the side: "My lord, that's not the light of the campfire, and the bonfire won't have that brightness." Lin Bing nodded, she had already seen that the light that she had mistaken for a bonfire turned out to be a raging fire.

Lin Bing turned his head and asked, "When did it start?"

Atlan explained: "About twenty minutes ago. I watched for about five minutes and I'll report back to you right away. ”

Lin Bing nodded and asked bluntly, "In the middle of the night, the demon camp suddenly caught fire, what do you think?"

The officer on duty looked at each other with Atlan and the sentries, but they didn't say anything. Lin Bing frowned and urged them: "Say!"

Atlan mustered up his courage: "My lord, I think it's our friendly forces that are breaking through. They launched a night attack on the demons, and now they are attacking the blockade of the demons, and there are quite a few of them. ”

When the demons first formed a blockade of Valen's fortress, there were many human soldiers and civilians who did not retreat in time and tried to break through the blockade line of the demons and enter Valen, but they rarely succeeded. In the early morning of the next day, the besieging demon soldiers always proudly dumped the mutilated corpses of the defeated in the open space outside Valen, as a demonstration to the human army defending the city. Later, the human army that broke through was getting smaller and fewer, and it had not been seen for more than half a month now.

In the silence, an archer objected: "Is it possible that the demons are trying to lure us into falling for it?" His voice was small, as if he knew that his words were not convincing.

The officer on duty reproached him and said: "In order to lure us into being fooled, they burned half of their camp?"

Atlan shouted, "My lord......" He didn't know how to say it, so he could only look at Lin Bing anxiously.

Lin Bing wiped his face tiredly and didn't make a sound. At this time, how she wished that the bright eyes behind her still existed, and in the weak body of the eye owner, there was the greatest soul of our time. Under his gaze, she is full of confidence in whatever she does, and as long as he is there, no matter what kind of difficulties can be overcome......

Lady Ge Yingxing, if you were still here, what decision would you make?

Lin Bing raised his head and said, "Give an order to the troops, and immediately go out of the city to meet the friendly forces!"

In the coldest and darkest morning, the defenders of Valen launched a fierce and sudden attack on the demon positions outside the city. Stepping on the soft snow, the human infantry lined up in a dozen straggler lines and advanced towards the demon position, and the torches in their hands were neatly lined up in rows on the snow in the night, which was very spectacular.

Because of the severe cold weather, the demons did not arrange many troops at the front, and the night patrol came out sparsely symbolizing a burst of arrows, and saw the reflection on the sabers of the human cavalry from a distance, and the archers immediately fled. They are not stupid, in such a dark night, bows and arrows are almost useless, and the archers are simply dead when they meet the fast-charging cavalry.

Following the tearing hole, the human army quickly advanced. Lin Bing personally led the team and killed towards the brightest place in the firelight. Along the way, they didn't encounter any resistance from the demons, and those scattered small demon troops fled in fright as soon as they saw that it was a human army. The progress was too smooth, but it made Lin Bing wonder if this was a trap of the demon clan. In particular, some of the camps where heavy troops should be stationed are empty. Where is their army? Lin Bing began to wonder.

Fortunately, her question was answered immediately: in the Chinese army camp of the Demon Army, a large area of hundreds of camp tents was burning, and the sky-high fire reflected the dark sky of the third watch, as bright as day. Between the burning tents, the two armies were engaged in fierce fighting.

Through the light of the fire, Lin Bing saw a scene that shocked her: thousands of demon infantry armed with long contradictory cards formed a skirmish line and phalanx defense. In front of the queue, countless sharp knives, guns and shields were densely planted, and from a distance, a metal reflection made people feel creepy: this active sword mountain sword forest was simply a living death trap!

In the shadow of yīn outside the tent, a large group of human cavalry suddenly jumped out of the darkness, raising their sabers and attacking the demon ranks, but one by one, they were pierced by the demon spears a few steps away, and fell to the ground, screaming and screaming. The follow-up troops rushed forward desperately, one after another, and many cavalry even crashed into the sword mountain and sword forest at a very high speed as if they were intent on committing suicide, using their bodies as shields for the follow-up troops, and cutting a path in the terrible ranks of the demons with their flesh and blood, and the desperate and fierce attacks were like the raging waves cháo, wave after wave!

There was chaos and noise, deafening killing screams, dying screams, the broken leg of the war horse lying on the ground neighing miserably, the sabre slashing on the shield and a little spark and deafening buzzing, the frightened war horse neighed and dragged the wounded cavalry around, the wounded demon soldiers lying on the ground and couldn't move were trampled by the horses' hooves and let out an amazing scream, when Lin Bing's department arrived, the ground was already full of corpses, and the situation was as tragic as the Hell Shura Field.

Lin Bing's face turned pale: I don't know if there is any human army that is so brave and fearless of death, that even the warlike demon army was suppressed by them and retreated step by step? She immediately ordered her subordinates to attack the demon clan from behind to meet the friendly forces that broke through.

The demon phalanx that was attacked on the back of the enemy was suddenly in chaos, and the entire queue was pressed to both sides and retreated little by little, and finally simply scattered and fled to both sides, and the weak part in the middle of the defense line was suddenly crushed, and a large group of breakthrough cavalry rushed over from the broken hole.

Lin Bingyue stepped forward and asked in a loud voice, "May I ask which kind of soldiers and horses are the friendly troops that broke through?"

A group of people came up in response. Surrounded by dozens of black-clad cavalry, one of the cavalrymen calmly responded:

"It's me. Above his head, a big black flag fluttered in the wind, as if it was mixed with the night sè, so that Lin Bing didn't even notice it before.

Lin Bing gasped: "Inspector General!"

Chapter 13: Risking Alone

In the middle of the night on the seventh day of February in the year of 78o, when Lin Bingzhong, the commander of the town guard of the Valen Fortress, saw the family inspector general who appeared in front of her again, she was so surprised that she seemed to see a prehistoric dinosaur.

On the fifteenth day of last month, Di Lin did not listen to her dissuasion, and led his troops to forcibly set out to rescue Sterling, and there was no news after that. Having been missing for more than twenty days in the occupied area full of demons and rebels, Lin Bing thought that Di Lin and his more than 30,000 horses were already finished. From the bottom of her heart, Lin Bing did feel some regret for the death of Di Lin, a young and talented senior officer, but what worried her even more was how to report Di Lin's death to the Command. The Inspector General of the Clan who had come to oversee the battle had died in his own defense area, and although he had indeed done his best to stop it, it was very difficult to explain it to Dìdū and convince them that he was not responsible for it at all. So, when she saw the Dilin Legion return safely, she was really very happy.

"My lord, it's great that you're safe!" Lin Bing said sincerely.

Di Lin nodded in greeting: "Thank you, Deputy Commander Lin, thank you for taking over." ”

He looked around, there were no more resisting demon soldiers around, but the sound of fighting in the distance was still coming, and Lin Bing's subordinates were still chasing the fleeing demon army. He said to Lin Bing: "Your Excellency Bing, what we encountered just now was only part of the enemy's soldiers and horses, and the main troops and horses of the demon commander Ling Buxu are coming here, so let's withdraw first." ”

Lin Bing nodded, the joy of victory did not overwhelm her. She herself knows that the current victory is only because of the sudden attack that caught the demons off guard, if she really wants to fight head-on with the main force of the demons on the plain, it is far from enough to rely on the assault soldiers and horses she brought out and the remnants of Dilin, and there is no need to risk a decisive battle with the demons now.

Before Ling Buxu's troops arrived, Lin Bing ordered the gate of Valen City to be opened to welcome Di Lin's soldiers and horses into the city. She patrolled the city of Valen side by side with Dirin, watching the soldiers and horses stream in below. Lin Bing turned his head and asked Di Lin: "Inspector General, I found something very strange: why doesn't your department have a rear army medical team to transport the wounded?"

Di Lin shook his head: "There are no wounded in my troops. ”

Lin Bing's eyes widened and he said, "Your unit has been fighting in the Demon Clan's Fallen Area for more than twenty days, and there is not a single wounded?"

Di Lin said lightly: "In Fumingke Province, in order to speed up the troops, I threw away the wounded and the soldiers who lost their horses. ”

Lin Bing was shocked and stopped.

Di Lin took two steps before he realized, and turned around: "What's wrong?"

In Di Lin's eyes and expression, she couldn't see the slightest trace of joking. Staring at Di Lin's cold pupils, she only felt an irrepressible chill rise from the bottom of her heart.

Lin Bing is not a pedantic absolute humanitarian, and she also believes that sometimes, it is necessary to sacrifice the interests of a few to save the whole. But to do something like Dilling...... Lin Bing shook his head. I thought of the terrible cries and cries of the thousands of wounded who were left in the snow waiting to die on the side of the highway in Fumingk Province...... Her fingers trembled involuntarily, and Dillin turned away, he knew what she was thinking, but he didn't care. He didn't feel any guilt, repentance, or anything like that. Because it had to be this way, he did it, and it seemed to him to be just a natural and ordinary thing. At that time, the only way for them to survive was to escape back to Valena before the Demon Command organized the mobilization of troops and horses to intercept them. Their only way out is to run, rush, run, rush, run......

It's a nightmare. On the Far Eastern Highway, Di Lin's light cavalry galloped wildly, leaving the wounded and fallen companions behind, just like the hungry vultures in the sky evading the pursuit of hunters. When the demons finally gathered a sufficient number of troops and turned back, the Dilin army only left a puff of dust and yellow mist, and it had disappeared into the distance in an instant.

Even so, despite the lack of large-scale organized interceptions, the enemy forces were constantly engaged in battle, and the closer they got to Valen, the denser the enemy forces became. Especially in the last battle outside Valen City to break through the blockade of the demons, knowing that only defeating the enemy is their only way to survive, the cavalry launched a crazy and desperate impact on the dense queue of the demons, but because the Ling Buxu troops are good at fighting bravely, their infantry is particularly tenacious, with a weak force to resist to the death, the Dilin army is struggling to break through. Fortunately, Lin Bing's timely response, otherwise, if Ling Buxu personally mobilized the main force to outflank him, Di Lin would probably have to be wiped out. Even so, only 20,000 of the 30,000 men and horses of the Dilin Legion were able to return to the Valen Fortress safely, and most of the casualties were due to this battle.

Di Lin briefly introduced what he had seen and heard along the way to Lin Bing.

Lin Bing's face is solemn. The strength of the demon army exceeded her imagination. She understood how heavy the burden was now on her shoulders. Once Valen is lost, and the millions of demon patriarchs are driven in, the human race will no longer be able to resist. She nodded silently and asked, "What do you mean, my lord?"

"At present, it is impossible to rely on military force to save Stirling and the Zhōngyāng army. Dilling said:

"The only hope to save them is not in the battlefield of Pay, but in dìdū. And fast, they won't last long. - Deputy Commander Lin, there is something I want to trouble you, can you help me prepare a carriage to dìdū, the fastest?"

"Ah, the carriage?" Di Lin's topic changed too quickly, and Lin Bing couldn't react for a while.

Di Lin frowned, and said again: "I want the fastest carriage, a few of the best coachmen to replace at night, and send outposts to inform the post stations along the way to prepare to replace the horses." Be quick, right away. ”

Lin Bing was surprised, but he didn't ask again, and immediately went to do it. The outpost with her warrant had just set off in the dust, and Dilin got into the carriage before he even had time to change his clothes. Lin Bing was taken aback slightly, she didn't expect it to be Di Lin who went back in person, and dissuaded: "My lord, it's been very hard for you to come all the way. I'm tired from the journey, why don't you rest first, or send a subordinate back to deal with it?"

Di Lin shook his head: "It's very complicated, I have to go." Moreover, time is the line of life and death, and I don't feel comfortable handing it over to others. He nodded and greeted Lin Bing: "Thank you, Deputy Commander Lin." He shouted, "Go!"

The coachman raised his whip, and with the sound of the wheel, the carriage began to depart, followed by a troop of cavalry guarding the surroundings, and the group came out of Valen through the west gate.

At this time, the sky has not yet shone, and the east is faintly red. Standing in place, looking at the dust raised by the convoy, Lin Bing chewed Di Lin's words carefully, but he didn't understand what they meant. She breathed a sigh of relief, and for some reason, she felt an inexplicable relief at Di Lin's departure.

From the Valen Fortress to the Dìdū, the towns, towns, villages, and cities along the way have already sounded the jǐng bell everywhere, and the living people have picked up their swords and prepared to fight against the demon destroyers who have entered the country, and even the most remote villages have spontaneously organized self-defense groups to assemble. The roads were dusty, and from time to time the newly recruited soldiers of the Nationalist Army could be seen marching. Most of them were poor peasants in the countryside, dressed in shabby ragged clothes, and still holding rudimentary iron forks and hoes as weapons. In appearance, compared to the regular aristocratic soldiers and horses with straight uniforms and shiny weapons a few months ago, they looked very simple and cold. The ranks of the Nationalists were silent, calm and solemn, except for the rustle of barefoot steps on the dirt road, and the soldiers' sun-tanned faces, their lips pursed, exuding fortitude and determination.

Di Lin carefully observed them, and from the eyes of a battlefield veteran, he was very satisfied with the temperament of the soldiers: this was exactly the kind of aura that Di Lin had been looking for, and he needed to win a decisive battle on the battlefield. But this kind of anger was not seen in the Zichuan King's army a few months ago. At the moment of life and death, Di Lin finally found it, which made him feel a little relieved, feeling that human beings were not completely desperate, and there seemed to be a faint light in it.

The group traveled night and night, without stopping. When Di Lin and his entourage entered the city gate, it was already late at night on the eleventh day of February.

To rì the quiet and auspicious dìdū, now everywhere is full of traces of the tension of the impending war, jǐng martial arts. Outside the city were the tents of the army, and they were white. Even the main roads of Seonggi were lined with sleeping soldiers. Judging from the flags and clothing, most of those troops were border guards drawn from the western frontier, and he counted them, and the number of soldiers and horses and numbers he saw alone was no less than five or six divisions. The entire dìdū had long been militarized and guarded, and the guards at the city gate sternly checked passers-by, and Di Lin asked the guards to show the warrants of Lin Bing, the deputy commander of the Far East, to prove that they were a messenger from Valen. He did not dare to reveal his true identity. Dìdū City was now under Luo Minghai's control, and it would be too risky for him to openly enter the city with only such a hundred or so guards by his side.

As the group passed through the main square in the center of the city, the procession blocked the street. Looking through the window of the carriage, you can see a huge procession carrying torches and various banners passing in front of you, with slogans that read: "Down with the demons, resist the invasion!" and "The Far East is our holy war!" Most of the procession were civilians of old and young, women and children, and many of them were uniformed soldiers, all with sad and indignant expressions.

On the high platform in front of the procession, an old man was hoarsely speaking, as if he was making a speech: "...... Take back our land!Soldiers, puff up your chests and plunge into the bloody battle!The demon soldiers are close at hand!Bravely attack, crush the enemy, just as our ancestors once did, and you will prove ......"

At this time, a gap appeared in the street, and the carriage began to move, and the words below could not be heard clearly, only the crowd of marchers could be heard bursting into cheers: "Hooray!", "Down with the demons!", "Attack, attack, retake the Far East!"

In the midst of the sound of the car, Di Lin suppressed the anger in his heart, closed his eyes quietly, and thought to himself: "Fool! Can't you see it? Without the protection of the Valen Fortress, any active attack on the demons will be extremely stupid suicide! If our army is wiped out on the Far Eastern Plain, then we will lose the last resistance force. The entire human race will be wiped out, our civilization will be destroyed, and our children and grandchildren will be slaves of the demon race for generations!"

The carriage stopped, and someone lifted the curtain and came in and said, "My lord, it's here." Di Lin opened his eyes, got out of the carriage, and stretched his stiff body. What he saw in front of him was the manor left by the former chief minister to his only daughter, Zi Chuanning.

When Zi Chuanning was woken up by the maid in a panic while she was asleep, it was already more than one o'clock in the evening: "Miss, there are a lot of soldiers outside. In a daze, it took Zi Chuanning a long time to understand what the maid meant, and hurriedly got dressed and picked up the sword and rushed to the living room.

The aisle of the front door was bright and shadowy, and it was full of soldiers with murderous expressions, torch-illuminated, their boots menacing and leaving bird-black footprints on the precious carpet. A group of gendarmes in black uniforms were carrying Cardin in the middle and walking out, and the gendarmes were acting rudely and pushing.

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