Shunan, under the city of Pingmanguan.

The carriage came slowly, and the sound of horses' hooves burst the silence of the night.

On the high city wall, the former commander of the Wudong Guard made Yang Lu Meiyu low.

Li Xing, the elder of the Wushan Hall in Yunzhou, stood next to him, but his eyes were full of excitement.

"My lord, let the gates be opened."

Li Xing said softly.

Yang Lu frowned and said, "Do we have to unite with the Holy Sect?" ”

He didn't like the Shuzhou Holy Sect very much, although now he and the Holy Sect were both serving for Changping Hou Maojiang, but he was still unwilling to deal with the people of the Holy Sect. Because he knew very well what the Holy Sect had done in Shuzhou.

"My lord, it's not just the Holy Sect Leader who is here this time, but also the Hall Master of our Wushan Temple!" Li Xing said lightly.

Yang Lu was slightly startled, and he looked at the carriage that came to the city.

"The hall master is coming too?"

"That's natural, there are two innate martial artists under the command of the king of Xin'an County, although we can rely on the strong city of Pingman Pass to defend, but we must be prepared to face the two innate martial artists." Li Xing persuaded.

Yang Lu lowered his head and became silent.

A large part of the reason why he joined Changping Hou Mao Jiang came from Tang Mingcheng, but now that Tang Mingcheng has become a prisoner, does he still want to continue to work for Mao Jiang?

To be honest, he was a little hesitant in his heart.

Now he still has a choice, but if he lets the Holy Sect Sect Master and the Wushan Hall Master enter the Pingman Pass, then he will no longer have a choice.

"My lord, at this point, you shouldn't have illusions about the court."

Li Xing said softly: "You are a rebel!" ”

"I~" When Yang Lu heard this, he raised his head suddenly, wanting to refute.

"Everyone in Shuzhou knows that you are a rebel, and they all know that you have joined the command of Hou Ye." Li Xing continued.

Yang Lu's eyes stared at him, and his face became more and more hideous.

However, Li Xing didn't mean to be afraid at all, but said: "Lord Yang, recognize the reality." ”

Yang Lu gasped violently, wanting to be angry but didn't dare to let it out.

He stared at Li Xing deadly, and took a deep breath helplessly for a long time.

"Open the door!"

He roared vigorously, as if to express the anger and grievances in his heart, and seemed to be cheering himself up and making himself firm.

Then he slowly walked down the city wall and came to the gate of the city.

The deadbolt was pulled, a heavy creak resounded, and the heavy gate slowly opened.

In front of the city gate, a dilapidated carriage was parked in the cold moonlight, and there were more than a dozen Holy Cultists wearing black hats beside the carriage.

Li Zhongxian slowly walked down from the carriage, and he first looked up at the tall and majestic Pingman Pass.

In the dim darkness of the night, Pingmanguan crouched between two peaks like a knife like a monster that had always been hideous.

He withdrew his gaze and looked at Yang Lu who came out of the city gate, his face calm.

His calm face was not aimed at Yang Lu, but because of his inner feelings during this time.

Since Qin Wei, the king of Xin'an County, entered Shuzhou, he first planned to help Luan Ping, the prefect of Xinning, attack and kill Qin Wei, but before he arrived at Xinning Mansion City, Luan Ping had already been taken by Yuwen Chengdu.

Later, he wanted to unite with Tang Mingcheng to defeat Qin Wei and Anning's army in Xin'an Mansion, but they were defeated first, and even Tang Mingcheng was imprisoned.

Then Qin Wei led the Anning army south, and at the same time, the Zhenwu Division and Baiyin Valley attacked everywhere and uprooted the strongholds of the Holy Sect in Shuzhou one by one.

Faced with such a situation, he was very angry and wanted to kill Qin Wei immediately, but he couldn't do it, he really couldn't do it.

At this time, his heart was full of grievances and resentment, and naturally he would not have a good face.

"I've seen my seniors!"

Yang Lu and Li Xing came to Li Zhongxian and bowed their hands.

"When will your hall master arrive?" Li Zhongxian asked in a deep voice.

Li Xing replied: "The hall master will be able to arrive at Pingman Pass tomorrow. ”

Li Zhongxian nodded and said, "Arrange a room for the old man, and don't disturb the old man if it's okay." ”

Then the group entered the Pingman Pass.

The cold moonlight was blowing, and the heavy gates were closed.

……

March 28.

Qin Wei led 30,000 Anning troops along the official road all the way to Pingman Pass.

Pingmanguan, both sides are hillsides, the middle is the valley bottom, and the official road is built along the valley floor.

As the army advanced, the mountains on both sides of the official road became higher and higher, and the valley floor in the middle slowly turned into a canyon, until the Pingman Pass was under the city, and the mountains on both sides had become two towering peaks.

The peaks are thousands of feet high, like two long swords reaching into the sky.

Qin Wei looked up at the towering peaks, his brows furrowed slightly, it was impossible for such a peak to climb up, even if an innate martial artist could step into the air, it was estimated that it would take some effort to go up.

He looked at the majestic Pingmanguan again, and his brow furrowed even deeper.

Nearly 10 zhang high city wall!

Even the walls of Kyoto are not so high.

Under normal circumstances, the city wall of Dali Castle is only three to five zhang, and the city wall of Kyoto is more than eight zhang is considered high, and the city wall of this Pingmanguan is close to ten zhang, that is, more than 30 meters high.

It is not easy to climb the city at such a height.

After some observation, Qin Wei walked into the tent that had just been set up.

Yuwen Chengdu, Liu Qing, Wang An and others also entered the tent.

Inside the tent, Qin Wei looked at the map, frowning.

"Do you have a way to siege the city?" Qin Wei asked.

Everyone looked at each other, and no one spoke for a while.

Just now, they all observed the terrain around Pingman Pass, and they didn't find anything to use at all.

Qin Wei also rubbed his eyebrows with a little headache.

It is the so-called upper army to attack and plot, followed by the enemy, followed by the army, and then the siege of the city. The siege of the city is a last resort.

If he could, the last thing Qin Wei liked to encounter was to siege the city.

But in the face of Pingmanguan, he had to attack.

Now that the rebels in Wudong have all entered the Pingman Pass, they have completely abandoned the Shunan region, which means that any strategy is useless. As long as the other party doesn't leave the city, Qin Wei can't do anything about them.

The siege of the city is a last resort.

Now there are many problems in front of him, if it is a siege, first of all, the troops under his command will definitely not be enough.

Judging from the walls of Pingmanguan, it would definitely not be possible to attack without ten times the strength of the enemy.

And even if it is captured, the Anning army is afraid that it will suffer heavy casualties.

Secondly, he lacked siege equipment.

There are no ladders, building cars, catapults, and bed crossbows, only more than 100 crossbows.

As for gunpowder, there is no such thing as gunpowder in this world!

Qin Wei frowned.

He wondered if he wanted to study gunpowder.

However, he soon abandoned the idea.

He could make gunpowder in a short time, but it wasn't very powerful.

The process of making black powder is not so simple, it is not made by mixing potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal according to the mass ratio, and it must go through a lot of experiments.

Qin Wei didn't have time to study this thing now.

Is there any other way besides gunpowder?

Qin Wei walked to the door of the tent and looked at the Pingman Pass in the distance.

It is certainly not advisable to storm it, it is undoubtedly giving people their heads.

You can't dig the ground, it's full of rocks, and you can't dig it at all.

Water attack is not good, there are no rivers around, and water cannot be borrowed.

Fire Attack!

Qin Wei stared at the compact canyon.

Fire attack might be a try.

Suddenly, the corners of Qin Wei's mouth curled, and he seemed to have thought of a good solution.

This method may not be able to break through the Pingman Pass, but it should make the defenders in the Pingman Pass extremely uncomfortable.

Qin Wei opened his mouth and asked, "If we build a catapult now, how long will it take to build two hundred seats?" ”

Liu Qing replied: "There are not enough craftsmen in the army, and if you recruit craftsmen around, it is estimated that it will take a month." ”

Although they had been through many battles before, there had never been a serious siege.

Even if it is a siege, it only needs Yuwen Chengdu to rush to the city wall, and the battle is basically over.

But now in the face of Pingmanguan, even if Yuwen Chengdu rushes up, it will be useless. Qin Wei didn't need to ask, he knew that there must be innate martial artists in this Pingman Pass.

Although it would take a month to build a catapult, Qin Wei felt that he could wait.

The only advantage for him now is that they do not lack timber, and there is a lot of timber in the surrounding mountains and forests, as long as they send soldiers to cut it.

As for the craftsmen, they can be recruited from the surrounding prefectures and counties, or they can be mobilized from the rear.

Now that he has taken most of eastern and southern Shu, it is still easy to recruit thousands of craftsmen.

"A month to go! Yes, then immediately recruit craftsmen to build catapults and ladders. Qin Wei said.

"Whoa!"

Liu Qing responded.

……

In the days that followed, the camp of the Anning Army began to get busy.

Liu Qing was responsible for coordinating the recruitment of craftsmen from the surrounding prefectures and counties, Yuwen Chengdu arranged for the soldiers to cut down trees, and Wang An continued to improve the intelligence system of the Imperial City Division while collecting intelligence from all over Dali for Qin Wei.

Calm has returned to most of the eastern and southern parts of Shuzhou, and although there are still a small number of thieves roaming, they can no longer pose a threat to the prefectures and counties.

The first batch of grain and grass seconded by Li Ru from Tianzhou also arrived in Xinning Fucheng, and he was arranging for farmers to send them to Pingmanguan.

In addition, Liu Yuanrang and Ji Fei led 8,000 soldiers to arrive in Shuzhou City, although Shuzhou City is still in the hands of the rebels, but it is estimated that it will not take long to be recaptured, after all, there are still many people and officials in Shuzhou City who are interested in the imperial court.

At the same time, Yuan Shizhe led the 20,000 troops of the Lushan Weisi to enter the western part of Shuzhou, and the situation in the western part of Shuzhou is more complicated, because the western part of Shuzhou is connected to Yuanzhou, and the rebels of the two states are united, and it is not easy to defeat them.

However, the Yamen of Yuanzhou has also gathered tens of thousands of troops, and when they arrive in the southern area of Yuanzhou, they should dispose of the rebels in the western part of Shuzhou.

In Kyoto, the war in the three southwestern states does not seem to have had any impact on Kyoto.

The princes in the court seem to have forgotten the turmoil in the three southwestern states, and perhaps the problems of the three southwestern states are far less important to them than the dispute between the princes.

More than two months have passed since the death of the crown prince, and now there is calm on the surface of the court, but there is already an undercurrent behind the scenes.

(End of chapter)