Chapter 182: Fierce Battle to West Fort (China)

The iron hooves were galloping, the war horses were galloping, and four thousand Xiliang cavalry were sailing like lightning on the endless Gobi Desert. The Dangxiang people had been escorted to Wuwei by a thousand cavalry and nearly a thousand garrison troops from the Liusha River.

The main force rushed to Xibao day and night under the call of the beacon, Zhang Huan frowned, and the beacon fired on Wushaoling made him worried. In other words, the Tubo people dispatched more than 30,000 troops to deal with him, but what he was worried about was not just Xibao, but the Tubo people's strategy.

Whether their target is Huixibao or Wuwei County, although it is unlikely that it is Wuwei County, he still feels inappropriate. If the enemy attacks Huixibao is a plan to lure the tiger out of the mountain, when the brigade of reinforcements from Wuwei County comes, who will resist the Tubo people who came from Zhangye?

Zhang Huan stopped the war horse, took out the silver medal of the dispatched troops and handed it to a personal soldier and said, "You go to Wuwei County immediately. If He Lou Wuji has led his troops to help, you will pass on my orders to turn to Tianbao County and send more scouts to investigate the situation in Zhangye County."

When the personal soldiers left, Zhang Huan wrote another letter to the marching Sima Luo Guangzheng: "Thank you for a hard time, you can go to Kaiyang County quickly and hand it over to Wei Yan to tell him that the emptiness of Hehuang is the time to advance."

Luo Guang was about to leave when Zhang Huan called him again, "If Wei Yan is unwilling to send troops, then tell him again that as long as he is willing to cross the Yellow River within five days, I will thank him for ten thousand taels of gold and two thousand war horses, and will never break his promise."

"Please rest assured to the governor! If he refuses, he will be drowned by the spits of the Chinese people." Luo Guangzheng bowed and led several cavalrymen to the east.

The cavalry group continued to rush for help. When they were about thirty miles away from Huixi Fort, the sky gradually became dark. Teams of scouts took the lead in inquiring about the news, while the brigade of cavalry slowed down, rested their horses, and met with a thousand defenders who came from various beacon towers by the Yellow River.

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

The first day of the battle at Huixi Fort was over. The Hehuang Alliance set up a camp three miles away. The dense fire points were like stars in the sky. Another team of 10,000 people led by deputy general Shang Pozan, went north along the Yellow River. They walked through a large forest to the front of Huixi Fort. Although the east of Huixi Fort was full of ravines and lush trees, and large siege weapons could not pass, more than a dozen siege ladders and three siege siege siege were still broken up and brought over. They also set up a camp and were assembling siege weapons overnight.

The battlefield was also being nervously cleaned up and materials were being prepared. Under the leadership of the county magistrate, a team of men, women and men carried the weapons to defend the city, carried away the wounded, and cleaned up the collapsed ignition tower.

Many carpenters were renovating stone cannons and crossbows. Lin Pingping, who was called the Battlefield Fire Lotus by the soldiers, led hundreds of people to climb down the wall with the help of a soft ladder. They tied ropes on their waists to collect arrows from the enemy's pile of corpses. Soon, baskets of arrows were pulled up to the castle.

Li Hengqiu stood on the viewing tower and looked northward in the dark curtains. He knew that Zhang Huan was in the Liusha River area and should have seen his beacon coming.

During the daytime battle, more than 5,000 people were killed or injured by the Hehuang coalition forces, while the Xiliang army also lost 500 people, making the city guards, which were already insufficient, even more difficult to defend.

Li Hengqiu sighed. He had realized many mistakes during the day. The enemy was obviously attacking tentatively, but he shot desperately without any expense. Half of nearly 10,000 huge rocks had been used up, and the bed crossbow arrows were almost shot, and 60% of the arrows were shot. The key was that the stone cannon was half damaged. I wonder if the carpenter could repair several aircraft overnight.

However, the most fortunate thing made him feel that the beacon tower was lit, which gave hope to Huixi Fort. Thanks to the woman in red, I don’t know who she was? As soon as she got down, the ignition tower was destroyed by a huge rock. Otherwise, if someone went up the mountain to inform him of the ignition, the beacon tower would have to be ignited at least half a day later. Perhaps in this half day, Huixi Fort would fall.

Just as he was thinking, County Magistrate Luo brought a few followers to come hurriedly from the darkness, "General, are you looking for me?"

"Mr. Luo, I want to discuss something with you." Li Hengqiu slowly walked to him and pulled him to sit down. "There are not enough soldiers to defend the city, I believe you have seen it too. I want to recruit 2,000 militia groups from the military households to supplement the army to defend the city. I also want to mobilize the young women in the city to help defend the city. The matter needs to be strongly assisted by Luo County Magistrate."

County Magistrate Luo smiled bitterly and said, "When the nest is over, how can you finish your eggs? I will cooperate with the general in this matter, but the militia training is not as good as the regular army. I hope the general will not let them stand alone."

"I understand this. I will arrange them among the soldiers, but time is tight. Please ask County Magistrate Luo to handle this matter immediately."

As soon as the county magistrate Luo stood up, he suddenly saw a soldier rushing towards him and reported urgently: "General, there was an abnormal movement in the enemy camp outside the northern city!"

Li Hengqiu was shocked. Could it be that the enemy would want to fight at night?

Outside the northern city, it was no longer as simple as abnormal movements. The faint shouts of killing sounds shook the sky. In the dark night, the Tubo Beidaying was fired everywhere. The figures of people were shining in the fire, and the swords and spears were flashing in the fire.

The city walls were filled with soldiers who woke up from their sleep. They looked at the chaotic Tubo camp in surprise. Suddenly someone shouted, "It must be the governor who is here!"

The city wall immediately cheered loudly, and even the magistrate Luo County and Li Hengqiu couldn't help but cheer. Although Zhang Huan didn't bring too many people, his arrival played a backbone role in stabilizing the morale of the army.

The excited Li Hengqiu issued orders repeatedly, "Come off the huge rock blocking the door."

County Magistrate Luo hurriedly stopped him, "General, be slow, prevent it from being a trick by the Tubo people."

Li Hengqiu shook his head and smiled, "Mr. Luo doesn't know anything. The governor is in the Liusha River area. In terms of time, he should be here at this time. The enemy's army is in chaos. This must be the governor's sneak attack on the enemy camp."

He waved his hand and smiled, "Take the rock away and welcome the governor into the city!"

"Stop!" County Magistrate Luo shouted. He stepped forward and bowed deeply to Li Hengqiu, and advised him hard: "The governor handed over Huixi Fort to the general, because he believed that the general could be cautious. Although the enemy was in chaos, we did not see the governor step forward in person. Why not wait for a moment? It would not be too late to open the door when the governor arrived at the city."

Li Hengqiu glanced at him suspiciously. There was only one city gate in Huixi Fort, which had been blocked with a thousand large rocks in advance. It would take an hour or two to move the building. Although he hoped to prepare to welcome Zhang Huan earlier, he finally followed the advice of Luo County Magistrate.

About an hour later, the Tubo army began to evacuate to the east, and then a light cavalry of about 3,000 people came forward to call the door. They held torches, and only the dragon flag of the Tang Dynasty and the armor of the Tang Dynasty cavalry were faintly seen in the dim night.

"General Li, we are the garrison of Hui County. General Wei ordered us to support Huixi Fort." Then a letter shot into the city. It was indeed Wei Yan's order to send troops, covered with the bright red seal of the Longyou Jiedushi.

It was not the governor, but the reinforcements from Hui County. Li Hengqiu hesitated a little. He handed the letter to Luo County Magistrate. Luo County Magistrate looked carefully. He lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and said, "General, if Wei Yan really wanted to save Hexi, he should not send 3,000 people to Huixi Fort, but sent 50,000 people to cross the river from Jincheng County and directly take Hehuang. Now that he is here rashly, it will be useless and not telling it, but also startling the snake in advance."

"When you mean, are they cheating on the city?"

County Magistrate Luo nodded slowly, "If reinforcements really arrived, how could there be no movement in the south?"

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

Five hundred steps away from the city gate, Ma Chongying sneered treacherously. Since the beacon for help had been lit, he would use his tricks and pretend to be reinforcements to open the city gate. He picked up hundreds of Han soldiers as Tang soldiers to call the door, but he himself led 2,000 elite soldiers and prepared to attack at any time.

Ma Chongying has always been good at launching surprise troops. He met with the guards of West Fort during the day and did not light the beacon. Although he finally fired it, it was extremely dangerous. From this, he inferred that the Tang army's chief general could not make a big deal, so he decided to use a strategy to get West Fort.

Although the city uploaded the message and asked them to wait, after waiting for half an hour, a soldier came to report it. No movement was heard in the city, nor did he carry huge rocks. Ma Chongying couldn't help frowning. He felt vaguely that he had already failed. Suddenly, there were waves of sounds breaking through the air from the city, and then a strange sound came from the top of his head.

"It's a stone cannon!" Ma Chongying shouted. He turned his horse's head and fled westward. Dozens of huge rocks fell like hail. The cavalry team was filled with people and horses, and war horses were neighing, and the wailing sounded loudly. The cavalry turned around and fled.

At this moment, the soldiers who pretended to have fled three miles east suddenly rioted, and a cavalry that had been ambushing for a long time suddenly rushed into the enemy group. This was Zhang Huan's real reinforcements. Zhang Huan had arrived at the beginning of the enemy's plan, but he did not rush to attack, but ambushed outside and waited for the best opportunity. When the city saw through the enemy's plan and returned the color, the opportunity came. The army in the south thought it was a plan and would not come to support, but Ma Chongying's cavalry was in chaos and could not take care of themselves.

Four thousand elite cavalry in Hexi went down the mountain and stormed the Hehuang coalition forces like tigers. They were highly morale and well-equipped. They killed wantonly in the Hehuang coalition forces led by infantry, with heads rolling on the ground and crying loudly. Although the Hehuang coalition forces had large siege weapons, the Tubo iron tools lacked strategic resources, which made the personal equipment of these vassal troops generally worse than that of the Tubo army.

They had no armor and only wore coarse military uniforms. Although they were very morale during the day, they were confident that they had the advantage of the number of people.

In the darkness, the soldiers of the Tang army were all like a mountain. They had the strongest armor, the sharpest sword, the tallest war horse, and the high morale and skillful fighting skills. Four thousand Tang cavalry were invincible, killing blood and blood flowing into rivers and corpses everywhere. The Hehuang Alliance's formation collapsed in an instant. They could no longer organize resistance, and they didn't know how many reinforcements came. They were already scared and their hearts were broken, and they fled south along the Yellow River mudflats with no life.

Seeing that the enemy reinforcements had arrived and his army was in a low morale, Ma Chongying was not interested in fighting, so he led the remaining troops to retreat south to the camp.

．

．

．

．

．

．

．

It was not until the third update that the big stone of Huixi Fort blocked the gate was finally moved. The heavy iron door creaked open, and hundreds of soldiers holding torches went out to welcome Zhang Huan into the city.

The gate was illuminated by fire like daylight, and thousands of cavalry lined up to enter Huixi Fortress. Li Hengqiu quickly stepped forward and knelt down to apologize to Zhang Huan. "The subordinates sentenced the enemy to unknown, and almost lost Huixi Fortress, and specially convicted the governor."

Zhang Huan dismounted and helped him up and smiled, "You lit the beacon of help in time, and you did not lose the West Fort, what is the crime?"

Li Hengqiu sighed, "The subordinates did not realize that the enemy was just a tentative attack today, and the material loss was huge. Nearly half of the damage was lost by 120 stone cannons being smashed or overused, and more than half of the stones, flying crossbows, and arrows had been consumed."

"General Li doesn't have to worry. We have recovered more than 100,000 arrows to resist for a while." Lin Pingping, who had already changed into a military uniform, got out of nowhere. She looked at Zhang Huan with a smile.

In the flashing fire, Zhang Huan did not recognize her. He thought she was a soldier with a pretty face. He nodded and patted Li Hengqiu on the shoulder and smiled: "Don't sigh, you are the chief general. If you lose your confidence, how can your soldiers have the courage to defend the city? This brother said it well. If the arrows are not far away, you can take back some of them at night. My soldiers are carrying double quiver pots, and there are more than 200,000 arrows. As for the stones, don't worry. We will build the West Fort and demolish the houses."

Zhang Huan's words made Li Hengqiu feel ashamed and warm. He hurriedly pointed at Lin Pingping and said, "Governor, thanks to this strange woman, she also shot more than 40 enemy troops to death and made great contributions? Please give me rewards."

"Woman?" Zhang Huan was slightly stunned. He looked at Lin Pingping carefully again, suddenly recognized her, and said in surprise: "You are... Pingping! Why are you here?"

Lin Pingping laughed, "I thought you forgot me? Fortunately! Fortunately! I still remember that my mother, third uncle, eldest brother and sister-in-law were all in Xibao, and it was my father who asked us to come."

When Li Hengqiu next to him saw that they actually knew each other and seemed to be very familiar with each other, he couldn't help but ask in surprise: "Governor, do you know each other?"

Zhang Huan didn't expect to meet his master's wife He Pingping in Huixi Castle. He was very happy. Seeing Li Hengqiu's question, he smiled and said, "She is the daughter of Doctor Lin, a girl who grew up with me."

Li Hengqiu suddenly realized that Lin Delong was Zhang Huan's master? She was actually Lin Delong's daughter. He was scared in his heart. He almost killed her in the morning. He looked at Lin Pingping with some anxiety, hoping that she would not complain. Pingping seemed to know his thoughts. He blinked at him mischievously. Li Hengqiu put down a stone in his heart. He hurriedly bowed to Zhang Huan, "Since the governor is here, his subordinates should hand over the command power to the governor."
Chapter completed!