After nightfall, the earth became silent. Although the moonlight was looming among the clouds, the thick snow still reflected the earth into a grayish-white color, which was clearly visible a hundred steps away. The mountain temple where Li Yanqing and his party lived temporarily was located on the west side of the official road, surrounded by rolling hills and large forests.

At this time, in a forest a mile away from the Mountain Temple, Lu Fangzheng led more than a thousand bandits to approach the Mountain Temple.

Lu Fang received a message from Liang Fangping, the Hebei Transportation Commissioner, this morning. The price offered by Liang Fangping made him excited. The food was 10,000 stones, which was undoubtedly an irresistible condition for Lu Fang, who had been plagued by food.

In particular, the person to deal with was Li Yanqing. At that time, the confidant of Liangshan Army, Lu Fang's brother Lu Ping was a general under Zhang Cen. Even if he died in Bozhou, Lu Fang had always held a grudge. Even if Liang Fangping only gave 1,000 stones of grain, he would not let Li Yanqing go, let alone the temptation of 10,000 stones of grain.

Lu Fang almost came out in full swing. Except for the three branches who sent out to fight the squad that had not returned from Yakura, he led all his subordinates down the mountain, with a total of 1,000 people ahead, and there were only 300 town soldiers on the other side. He was bound to win this battle.

"The village master, it's already been over." A subordinate whispered beside Lu Fang.

"First team, kill the sentinels!"

Lu Fang issued an order, and more than 100 soldiers quickly rushed out of the woods and ran towards the foot of the Daigang hundreds of steps away. At this moment, a group of night birds rushed into the woods, which immediately attracted the attention of the sentries on the Daigang.

Wang Gui deployed twenty sentries around the mountain temple. The two sentries were attracted by the frightened birds and looked northeast together. They saw countless black shadows running on the snow in the distance. The sentries were shocked and immediately shouted: "There is an enemy!"

A sentry rushed back to the mountain temple, rushed into the yard and shouted, "There is an enemy at the foot of the mountain!"

Wang Guiteng sat up and shouted: "If there is an enemy, get up!"

The soldiers who were sleeping were awake one after another. They all fell asleep in armor and their weapons were right beside them. Before that, Wang Gui made some arrangements, such as crossbowmen sleeping together, and spearmen gathered together according to their own gangs, so that they could gather quickly.

Li Yanqing also received the news and walked out of the main hall with big strides. The soldiers were quickly lined up. Li Yanqing asked: "How many bandits are there? How far is it from us?"

"The number of people in the censor is unknown, about three or four hundred steps away from us."

Li Yanqing immediately ordered: "The crossbowman goes out to deploy first, and the spearman is waiting for the order in the yard."

Li Yanqing has rich combat experience. The area on the roof of the short hill is not large, and the soldiers are unable to play a role for the time being. Instead, they are easily the target of the enemy's bow and archery.

Wang Gui roared, "Come with me!"

He led a hundred crossbowmen to run outside the temple.

Li Yanqing said to Zhang Bao again: "Taking twenty brothers to saw all the trunks into two-foot-long wooden trunks."

The dozen or so big pine trees around were cut down by the soldiers. They only burned the branches and vines, and thick trunks piled outside the wall, which could be used to make rolling wood.

Yue Fei was sleeping in the wing room, and he was also awakened by Wang Gui's shouts. He grabbed the spear and looked out, then covered his blanket on the child who was sleeping soundly, and whispered: "If you survive the disaster tonight, I will take you home!"

He turned around and ran outside. When the battle came, he could only hand over the fate of this child to God.

There were three ox carts parked in front of the mountain road. The ox was led to the low hill, but the large cart could not be moved up and could only be blocked at the entrance of the mountain road for temporary defense. At this time, several soldiers rushed down from the mountain with torches and threw the torches into the car window. The three ox carts were quickly lit and began to burn.

"Master, a fire broke out at the foot of the mountain!" A bandit watching on the tree shouted.

Lu Fang knew that they had been discovered, so he stood up and shouted, "I'll kill you!"

Nearly a thousand bandits got up from the snow and rushed towards the mountain temple with shouts. Large areas of birds in the woods were disturbed, forming a dark circle in the sky.

The mountain temple is located at the Aogang, which is about twenty feet high. There are straight hillsides on both sides of the east and west, and it is impossible to climb up, but the mountain roads can be used on both sides of the north and south. At this time, fifty crossbowmen were deployed above the mountain road. They were all young people in their early twenties, all tall and strong, and were elite among the soldiers in Xiangzhou Township.

There are more than a dozen bow and archery clubs in Xiangzhou. Tens of thousands of villagers usually participate in bow and arrow training. Bow and arrow are no longer rare. Moreover, the army's armor defense ability is increasing, and even leather armor is double-layered. Iron pieces are installed on key parts such as the front and back hearts. The bow and arrow cannot penetrate the leather armor from fifty steps away, not to mention the heavy armored cavalry of the Khitan and Xixia. Therefore, infantry bows and arrows have been sent to the villagers, and the army infantry is more equipped with crossbows.

The township soldiers were not qualified to be equipped with military crossbows, and Wang Gui tried every means to get one hundred military crossbows and formed a crossbow team. Although the crossbows used by Wang Gui, the 100 crossbowmen, were not the best divine arm crossbows, they were also good-performance arm-opening crossbows. The longest range was 150 steps and the kill range was 100 steps, which could easily shoot through leather armor.

At this time, Li Yanqing saw clearly the bandits running from afar on the top of the mountain. There were as many as thousands of people. Li Yanqing's face looked a little ugly. It would be a fierce battle tonight.

Li Yanqing walked back to the courtyard and whispered to the two hundred spearmen gathered in the courtyard: "There are extremely vicious bandits at the foot of the mountain, with a number of as many as a thousand, three times that of us. If everyone wants to survive, they can only fight to the death. If they are attacked by bandits, all of us will die in this wilderness and become food in the belly of wild beasts!"

Seeing that many people were pale, Li Yanqing continued to shout: "But we also have advantages. We have hills to rely on and have advantages in the terrain. As long as we stick to it until dawn, reinforcements will come. I, Li Yanqing, promised you that you would kill a bandit and reward 30 stagnant coins. If you are unfortunately killed, you will be given a pension of 100 stagnant coins and 50 acres of land. Even if you are injured or disabled, you will have corresponding pensions!"

Li Yanqing first explained the pros and cons, and then motivated. With the heavy reward, the morale of the rural soldiers gradually became encouraging. At this time, Wang Gui walked over quickly and said sternly: "I was afraid of an egg. When the Censor Li led a thousand troops to fight tens of thousands of Xixia troops in Xixia, he killed the Xixia army so much that it was everywhere. Moreover, these bandits were just a group of mobs. With my son Wang Gui, who was afraid to fight, I cut off his eggs first!"

The soldiers' blood was ignited, and they raised their spears and shouted: "Kill these bastards!"

Li Yanqing patted Wang Gui's shoulder with approval and quickly walked into the main hall. Several civil servants came up. They were all extremely scared and asked in a verbal manner: "Civil Li, how could he meet bandits?"

Li Yanqing shook his head, "I usually don't meet it, but if it's a matter of intentional arrangement, it's hard to say."

The five civil officials all understood Li Yanqing's hint, and their faces suddenly turned pale. Wang Zao said in a trembling voice: "I'll just say it! You shouldn't join the military prison. What will be the result of such offensive errands?"

Li Yanqing glared at him fiercely, and then said to everyone: "Listen, the village soldiers will fight to the death to protect everyone's safety. Please stay in the main hall, try to stay away from the windows, beware of being shot by a runny arrow, and everyone is wearing leather armor and holding a shield. I guarantee that everyone is safe tonight!"

The soldiers walked up with their armor and shields, and everyone stepped forward to wear armor. At this time, Mo Jun walked to Li Yanqing and smiled and said, "Did the Censor forget the plan of the Ice City?"

Li Yanqing suddenly realized that when defending the city in winter, he would water the city wall, making the city wall extremely smooth and greatly increase the difficulty of siege. Although they are earthen mountains, they can do this, especially at night, the temperature is more than ten degrees below zero, and the icing speed will be very fast. Li Yanqing immediately called several fire-headed soldiers and asked them to set up a large pot to burn the snow water.

"Censor, the attack is on the south side!" A soldier shouted at the wall of the courtyard.

The soldiers who started the attack in the south were the 100 bandits who were originally sent. Now they were just attacking tentatively. More than 20 bandits slowly climbed up the hillside. They were also worried that there would be crossbowmen on them, so they tried to lower their bodies and crawl against the ground.

Yue Fei is in charge of the southern hillside. He said to the fifty crossbowmen: "Each of them chooses their own targets and waits for me to shoot the first arrow!"

Yue Fei squatted behind a big rock, raised his huge divine arm crossbow, aimed at the head of the enemy army two hundred steps away, and heard a "click!" sound, and a crossbow arrow shot out like lightning. Even at night, the crossbow arrow still accurately hit the chest of the enemy army's head. With a scream, the bandit leader standing at a high place command fell to the ground.

Yue Fei's first arrow was an order. Fifty crossbowmen had been preparing for a long time and shot dense crossbow arrows at the enemy halfway up the mountain. More than 20 soldiers were shot to kill more than a dozen people. The rest of the soldiers turned around and fled and ran to the bottom of the mountain. Several people were still shot down by crossbow arrows that were chasing them.
Chapter completed!