Most of the eight passes in Taihang are formed by the erosion of rivers for tens of millions of years. Fukou Pass is located in a valley formed by the Zhang River through the Taihang Mountains. It is called Fukou Pass at the entrance to the east, and the exit to the west is called Huguan. Huguan is a cliff with hundreds of feet high on all sides, and the exit to the west is like the spout of a kettle, so it is called Huguan.

After the Tang army failed to attack Hebei, the Sui army counterattacked and entered Bingzhou, occupying the western exits of Jingxing and Fukouxing, Xiguguan and Huguan. After occupying these two powerful passes, the Sui army could advance to Bingzhou at any time, and basically blocked the passage of Bingzhou toward Hebei.

It is precisely for this reason that recapturing Xiguguan and Huguan became the biggest heart disease of the Tang army. This time, the Sui army counterattacked Goguryeo was a very rare opportunity for the Tang army.

Although the military and the court reached a consensus that there was no moral inappropriateness to regain Xiguguan and Huguan, it was their pass. As long as they did not attack Hebei, people in the world would not accuse them of helping foreign races.

But Li Yuan, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, thought so. He not only wanted to regain the two passes, but also wanted to take the opportunity to seize Jingxing and Fukouxing. If possible, he even wanted to continue to advance eastward, especially conquering Zhongdu, which has always been Li Yuan's dream.

It was precisely because of Li Yuan's desire to seize Zhongdu that the Tang army pointed the target at Huguan. As long as the Weikou Pass could be captured, the western gate of Zhongdu was opened. However, this was a secret battle. The Tang army blocked all the news. Needless to say, Chang'an, even the county where Huguan was located, Shangdang County and the nearest Shexian County, ordinary people did not know that the battle broke out in Huguan. All the roads to Huguan were blocked by Tang soldiers. The reason given by the Tang army was to suppress bandits.

Although the Tang army did a very good job in keeping secrets, their capture of Huguan was not smooth. Li Xiaogong led 30,000 Tang troops to fight in Huguan for nearly ten days, with thousands of casualties, but he still failed to take Huguan. Li Xiaogong was under great pressure. This was the third time that Emperor Li Yuan sent someone to send him a secret order, ordering him to take the Hukou Pass at all costs within five days.

It was dawn, and Li Xiaogong stood alone at the gate of the camp, silently staring at the Huguan city wall several miles away. Under the semicircular high strength less than two miles wide, there were countless Tang soldiers who died in battle. However, the Guancheng still stood tall, making Li Xiaogong unable to face the many soldiers who died in battle, and also made Li Xiaogong worried. The emperor actually asked himself to take down the Wukou Pass within five days. How could it be done?

At this time, Deputy General Zhang Liang walked up and said, "I have been attacking for almost half a month. I think there are not many defenders on the pass, and there will be no more than a thousand people. Maybe we will be effective if we persist for a while."

Li Xiaogong smiled bitterly, "Don't you think it's not a matter of how many defenders are? It's because the other party's guards are very powerful. I heard that this person is just a lieutenant, and a small lieutenant can lead two thousand soldiers to fight with my 30,000 army for ten days, causing me to suffer more than 4,000 casualties. When the news spreads, wouldn't I, Li Xiaogong, be ridiculed by the people of the world?"

Zhang Liang gritted his teeth and said, "A good wife cannot cook without rice. Even if the guard is powerful, he will be doomed if he has no soldiers under his command. Your Highness will issue an order! I personally lead the troops to attack the city. If I can't capture the city today, I, Zhang Liang, will be dealt with by military law."

Li Xiaogong thought of the emperor's edict. If they could not capture the city, they would probably not be able to explain it to the emperor. He nodded, "There is no need for military orders. If you cannot capture the city, your reputation will be lost. Give you ten thousand troops and you must conquer this pass!"

"Abide by the order!"

Zhang Liang bowed and hurried away. Li Xiaogong looked at the pass in the distance and said to himself: "Is my reputation as Li Xiaogong, will be destroyed on this pass?"

The Huguan Guard was originally a Lang general named Zhao Ping, but on the first day the siege broke out, Zhao Ping was shot by the Tang army's siege and unfortunately died. Subsequently, the officers above the team unanimously recommended the captain Wang Xuanjing to take over the command. Wang Xuanjing led two thousand defenders to fight fiercely with the Tang army for ten days, with nearly half of the casualties, but he still firmly controlled Huguan.

Before dawn, dozens of long ropes were thrown down from the head of Huguan City. Wang Xuanjing and fifty soldiers walked down the rope and took the archer pot from the bodies of the dead Tang soldiers. He collected undamaged arrows within a hundred steps from the city wall. It required a large number of arrows to defend the city, but the arrows in their hands were almost used up, so they could only use various methods to go down to the city to collect them.

In the city, hundreds of soldiers were busy sawing wood, which was their most sufficient defensive weapon. They cut down thousands of big trees from the valley and sawed them into two feet in a section, and then made into powerful rolling wood.

But in order to defend the city, they did not hesitate to use all the vicious weapons they could imagine, and stinking came from a small valley. Several Sui soldiers were making a poisonous juice, mixing arsenic, bird droppings and boiling oil, and boiling oil, making it in a large iron pot, making it extremely poisonous and killing the skin when it is stained. It is also a very sinister way to defend the city.

On the city wall, the soldiers pulled bundles of arrows onto the city wall. Lying beside the female wall were hundreds of sleeping Sui soldiers. They no longer dared to go down to the city, and they were all eating and living on the city wall, for fear that the Tang army would sneak attack Huguan, but they were too tired and slept very deeply one by one.

At this time, Wang Xuanjing climbed up to the top of the city with more than a dozen bags of arrows on his back and told everyone: "Let all brothers wake up, the Tang army is going to attack the city!"

In the early morning, the sun had just shone on the city wall. Before the battlefield could be cleaned, the sound of the attack drums in the Tang army camp sounded again.

"Dong!Dong!Dong..."

Teams of Tang soldiers began to rush out of the camp and quickly gathered in the open space in front of the camp. Li Xiaogong once again invested an army of 10,000. This time, the five thousand most elite soldiers under Li Xiaogong were the main force of the siege.

The drums were shaking the earth, and they rang again just one day after a war, causing the hearts to stop beating. The sound of the attack caused the hearts of many soldiers guarding the city to fall into the abyss. They thought that the enemy would retreat west after repeated attacks, but they did not expect that the Tang army would be fierce and once again attacked Huguan. Wang Xuanjing had to admire the perseverance of the chief general of the Tang army, and he really refused to give up.

"Damn it, is it over?"

Wang Xuanjing got fierce and kicked the Sui army soldiers who were confused and not yet awakened. "Get up all of them! Damn, Tang army is here."

Only Wang Xuanjing's roar was heard on the top of the city. He kicked the sleeping soldiers one by one. The soldiers were so tired that the sound of the drums of the Tang army could not wake them up.

"Get up! Bastard, stop sleeping, get up quickly!"

The soldiers were all pushed to wake up one after another. They stood up sleepily and looked blankly at the army that began to gather in the distance. At this time, the bells on the top of the city rang again, and the sound was extremely sharp and harsh, "Dang! Dang! Dang!"

All the Sui army rushed to the top of the city. In addition to the seriously injured soldiers, ordinary minor wounded soldiers also bandaged the wounds and went back to battle. They cheered up, took the bow and arrow, and prepared to fight again.

"Brothers, our reinforcements are fifty miles away. We only need to hold on for another two hours, and in just two hours, we can completely defeat the enemy. Brothers, today's battle will surely be recorded in the history of the Great Sui Dynasty!"

Wang Xuanjing was making the final mobilization of the soldiers in a hoarse voice, and the Sui army was also gathering quickly. Including the lightly wounded soldiers, there were still 1,000 Sui army with combat effectiveness. Wang Xuanjing was most worried that the Tang army was attacking from both sides of the north and south at the same time, and they still had more than 20,000 people, which should be done. Now the only thing that hoped was that after a bloody battle yesterday, the Tang army no longer had so many siege weapons. He destroyed hundreds of siege ladders last night. He believed that the Tang army had fewer siege ladders and could not fight on both sides.

The facts proved that Wang Xuanjing's judgment was correct. The Tang army did not have so many siege ladders, and they could not organize two-sided attacks. The Sui army had just entered the war preparations. The Tang army's first siege team came to about 5,000 people. The three black square formations formed a vertical line, like a river rushing, and came from the southwest corner of Huguan. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!