There was a loud bang behind him, causing all the military horses that Tianyao had withdrawn to stop, stop and look back, the former home turned into a wisp of black smoke that rushed into the sky, and the team that had been rushing with their heads down began to become panicked.

There were also some family members of the cattle in the team, and they couldn't help but start crying, at first it was suppressed sporadic sobbing, but gradually infected the whole team, and almost turned into a howl.

"Tong Meng. An old man in a light carriage in the team summoned Tong Meng, the captain of the tiger school beside him.

Tong Meng's mind was also a little distracted, but when he heard this call, he immediately lifted the reins of the horse and stepped forward to listen to the order.

"General Chang, my subordinates are here. ”

"How many miles have we been out of the city?

"Master Chang, fifteen miles out of the city, there are three batches of horses before and after, and they are all returning on time. ”

"Well, don't stop, speed up the march!"

"Yes!" Tong Meng took the order, quickly passing General Chang's order to every soldier and civilian, and the team finally began to wind again.

General Chang couldn't ride a horse, he could only ride the enclosed carriage around, which was the instruction of Lu Kefa when he evacuated from Tianyao. This time, Chang Poyu was unusual, and evacuated in accordance with Lu Kefa's arrangement, and he himself understood that once he had any errands, then the sacrifice of the entire Tianyao would become meaningless.

The old man's broad palms with bent green tendons tightly grasped the handle of his sword, listening to the sound of the axle creaking, and unconsciously an old tear quietly dripped down.

"Lu Kefa, you haven't done anything wrong, but in front of the soldiers, I must be strict with you, I hope you don't hate me. ”

Compassion is not in charge of soldiers, and righteousness is not finance. As the highest commander of the Five Armies of Great Xia, Chang Poyu has always hidden his appreciation for a young general like Lu Kefa, but he is harsh everywhere, in fact, he wants his subordinates to become stronger, but if Yao is broken today, he will never have the opportunity to express his appreciation to this Tianyao captain.

Suddenly, the carriage shook and stopped, and Chang Poyu heard the sound of horses' hooves and stopped next to his window, knowing that there was another military situation, he hurriedly wiped the tide on his eyes with his cuffs.

"What's the matter?" Chang Poyu's voice was as stiff and crisp as ever, and there was no trace of softness.

Tong Meng's report came from outside the window, "Tell the general, we have arrived at Shekou Gorge." ”

Shekou Gorge is like a letter spit out by a giant snake, a river divides into two streams, and on both sides are several continuous steep peaks. Along the three waterways, three winding mountain roads meet.

The soldiers and civilians evacuated by Tianyao walked here, and there was a fork in the road in front of them, a right turn, which was the road leading to Shuiquan Chengguan, and on the other side, they needed to cross a narrow stone bridge, and they would go a hundred miles to Jinsha, another border city.

Chang Poyu knew that the brigade had stopped to wait for him to decide how to march.

The veteran closed his eyes and looked at the map of Shekou Gorge in his mind, in fact, after leaving the city, he had already thought twice, the people and troops who withdrew from Tianyao each had about 3,000 people, according to his and Lu Kefa's assumptions, these soldiers and civilians had preserved their strength in order to be able to establish a second stronger defense line in Shuiquan and Jinsha City.

Shuiquan has gradually approached the hinterland of Great Xia, and there are more Great Xia border guards who can watch and help each other, and Jinsha City, which crosses the stone bridge, is a strategic place that is somewhat similar to Tianyao and protrudes on the entire defense line. Chang Poyu ordered according to the plan,

"Leave 500 infantry to cover the people and rush to Shuiquan, and the remaining 2,000 or so victorious soldiers, carrying all the dry food and ordnance, rushed to Jinsha. ”

The soldiers who had just withdrawn from Tianyao did not hesitate at all, lined up in two columns, quickly passed through the narrow stone bridge, and went straight to Jinsha, which was hundreds of miles away.

Chang Polu summoned the guards around him, got off the car and changed horses, and went to Jinsha with the troops.

Tong Meng was concerned about Lu Kefa's repeated entrustment and wanted to stop it, "General, Lord Lu has repeatedly explained that this trip is difficult and dangerous, and I don't know if there are enemy ambushes along the way, please General Chang must take the car forward to be safe." ”

Chang Polu's face was stunned, and the horsewhip pointed to the stone bridge, "You elm pimple, can the carriage cross the bridge safely, at this moment the army and the people have been divided, wouldn't it be safer for the troops to march in a hurry, learn more from your Lu people, on the battlefield, the word courage is the first, but you must know how to respond." ”

Tong Meng is just like his name, he is more than brave, and when Chang Po said this, he felt that it was also reasonable, so he had to follow Chang Po's arrangement.

However, Tong Meng was thick and fine, let the foot soldiers pass in batches, and specially selected the elite himself, arranged the old general in the middle of the troops, and personally escorted him through the stone bridge.

The general on the war horse was in high spirits, and the silver helmet and silver armor glittered in the rising morning light, and even a few locks of silver hair hanging from the forehead of the helmet showed a clean and neat demeanor. The cavalry surrounding was also infected by the momentum of Chang Po, and they all regained their fighting spirit and guarded the surroundings with their heads held high and vigilant.

In addition to the glimmer of morning light, the air was still soaked in the cold of winter, and the air exhaled by horses and riders rose in front of their respective doors, and even the winding river under the stone bridge rose in white fog where it had not yet frozen.

Tong Meng inadvertently looked at the water under the bridge, and always felt a little strange, he called out to the entourage beside him, "Do you think there is a problem with this river?"

The attendant probe looked at the place where Tong Meng was pointing, "Master Tong, are you a little nervous, this river is dozens of zhang high from us, what can be the problem?"

Before the words fell, I saw the body of the entourage shake suddenly, and the whole body slowly slipped off the horse's back, and the head that poked out of the bridge deck had been neatly slashed off shoulder-to-shoulder, and fell into the river under the bridge, making a "plop" sound of falling into the water.

The first thing to sense the danger was those battle-hardened war horses, they neighed and began to run in a panic, Tong Meng reacted, desperately pulled the reins, and then held down his war horse, and then pulled out the war knife,

"There are assassins, protect your lordship!"

Several war horses immediately tightly guarded the war horses that were often broken, and accelerated towards the bridge.

Tong Meng finally came back to his senses, most of the river surface he saw just now had been frozen up, and the river water was just flowing under the ice. However, only the section of the river under the stone bridge was free of ice floes, so he saw the curling fog on the river.

"Foot shield bridge, others speed through!" Under this order, it was seen that Tong Meng was also an excellent general, and the two infantry set up impermeable shields along the edge of the bridge, leaving only a narrow passage in the middle for the rest of the soldiers to speed through.

Bang bang bang, the shield instantly felt the force of the dense impact, and from time to time the shield was shattered by the force of the attack, and then several soldiers would be shot through the chest and abdomen, and fell to the ground and died. But soon, there will be a new shield on top of the shield to plug the gap.

There are specialized alchemists in Great Xia, and in addition to cultivating the elixir, they have also developed smelting techniques that are higher than those of the surrounding countries. The shield of the victorious army is made of a sturdy iron mask, and is lined with the leather counterweight of the old cow, which can block all kinds of arrows. But these attacks from under the bridge were able to break through such a strong shield, which surprised Tong Meng.

Fortunately, Tong Meng led his cronies to desperately escort him, and finally escorted General Chang Lao across the stone bridge.

"Zuo Junwei, after leaving fifty tigers to break off, the rest of the brothers, follow me!"

Because he didn't know how many ambushes the enemy had, Tong Meng was worried about Lu Kefa's advice in his heart, and he must protect General Chang Lao, so he held a bright machete to protect Chang Po beside him, and urged the team that had crossed the bridge to speed up and run wildly.

Zuo Junwei, the victorious general who led the order, ordered the elite of fifty tigers, turned the horse's head, and galloped towards the direction of the stone bridge, but as soon as he arrived at the bridge, the river under the bridge was boiling violently, and he saw a huge snake breaking through the ice, with a bright male crown on the snake's head, and two green wings like flying wings on both sides of the body, and the huge body was almost the same size as the small bridge.

Only then did Zuo Junwei realize that it was the river water that the snake had been attacking towards the bridge just now.

At this moment, on the other side of the bridge, there are still hundreds of soldiers who have not yet crossed the bridge, and those shield soldiers who have built the shield bridge have gradually been unable to parry. The flying snake narrowed the distance between it and the bridge deck, and the water column that shot out of its mouth at this moment was as unstoppable as a raging meteor, penetrating the shield, penetrating the soldiers who erected the shield, and even directly smashed the bridge deck of the stone bridge into thousands of holes.

"Throw!" Zuo Junwei gave the battle order to the fifty tiger soldiers around him.

The fifty tigers kept moving, and they took out an arm-long spear from the rope noose on the side of the horse's back. The spear was made of iron and wrapped in copper, and could be used as a javelin for throwing with the power of cavalry impact. The piercing power of the spear can destroy any strong enemy defenses.

Fifty iron spears stabbed straight at the snake floating in the air.

With a clanging crunch, the spears seemed to smash against the iron wall, making a metal crashing sound. Only then did Zuo Junwei see clearly that the dark gray color on the snake's body turned out to be a layer of fine iron scale armor, and the iron spear shot at these iron scale armor, sparking sparks, but it could not hurt the snake's body.

However, the fifty volleys of iron spears with great impact force still smashed the snake and fell a lot, almost falling back to the surface of the river again. The snake managed to stabilize its body, the crown on its head became bright red, and its mouth let out a hissing roar, this time it slapped the river and jumped up, and directly coiled on the body of the stone bridge.

The soldiers on the bridge were stunned by the monster in front of them, but only for a brief moment, and the surviving victorious army quickly formed a battle formation that had been practiced countless times, and a dense array of long spears and short knives slashed and slashed at the snake's body.

The snake was distraught by these small and powerless attacks, and its long tail flung into the air, and with the sound of the whirring wind, it slammed on the bridge deck, and after a few clicks, the entire stone bridge was broken by its long tail, and the soldiers on the bridge and the smashed stones fell into the river below the bridge.

Listening to the screams of the soldiers who fell into the river, the snake looked very proud, and flew up again, winding its way up to the broken bridge, and began to devour the surviving soldiers at the bridge.

It can be seen that it does not like to eat people, but it enjoys the process of killing, it constantly whips with the snake's tail, and the snake body is crushed, and those poor victorious soldiers cannot stop this disparity in strength at all.

Zuo Junwei watched his comrades-in-arms being ground into pulp in this massacre, and his heart was very anxious, but whether it was spear throwing or arrows, there was nothing he could do against the iron scale armor of the snake.

"Withdraw, retreat!" he beckoned his men to evacuate, but helplessly found that the snake's two green wings could help it glide in the air like a bird, and even the fifty tiger riders he brought with him were caught up by it one after another, and then died.

Zuo Junwei gradually slowed down his horse's speed, allowing those tiger ben who had originally intended to protect him to override him, and then picked up the last iron spear at hand.

"If you can't escape, then give it a go, this monster's iron-scaled armor is impenetrable, but its spitting mouth should be a flaw that can be broken through. ”

Apparently, the snake was a little surprised by the fast horse in front of him charging at him, and now that he was accustomed to these small humans scattering and fleeing under its strangle, could this warrior who had taken the initiative to send him to death be stupid and run in the wrong direction?

The snake was too lazy to think so much, since this rider took the initiative to send him to death, then he was okay, seeing that the rider had already run in front of him, the snake opened his bloody mouth, wanting to swallow Zuo Junwei in one gulp.

In front of Zuo Junwei, it seemed to be a huge cave, and the mouth of the snake slowly opened, where there were still some flesh and blood left in the previous massacre, which was the flesh and blood of his comrades, looking at these flesh and blood, Zuo Junwei's blood began to boil, with the help of the speed of the impact of the war horse, he slammed on the saddle, jumped up in the air, grabbed the iron spear tightly with both hands, and flew into the mouth of the snake.

The snake finally understood the rider's intentions, and it originally wanted to swallow Zuo Junwei directly into its stomach, but after seeing the spear in his hand clearly, it hesitated, and with a poof, a burst of venom spurted into the enemy in its mouth.

This time, it was not the river water that the snake sprayed, but the venom in its body, and it did not expect that these small opponents would force itself to use its strongest strength.

The venom of the snake not only carries a huge force, but also has a strong corrosive force, the tiger rider Zuo Junwei can not avoid it, and is sprayed by the venom head-on, and the flesh and blood of the body are immediately melted by the venom, leaving only a skeleton wrapped in armor and the spear fused together, but the venom did not repel the iron spear, and the tip of the spear still pierced deeply into the throat of the snake.

Hissing, the snake twisted in pain and fell into the river again.

However, its mission has been accomplished, cutting off the retreat of the Great Xia army, and their leader should have no way to escape.