On the eighth day after entering Jingyuan Road, Li Ye's team gradually arrived at Zhisheng Pass. Zhisheng Pass is located in a canyon passing through Longshan Mountain. The canyon is about twenty miles long. The pass is built at the east entrance of the canyon. It is a All caravans must pass through the military city with a circumference of three miles before entering the canyon and finally passing through Longshan Mountain.
Zhisheng Pass is also a shortcut to Lanzhou, and the official road is flat and very friendly to carriages. Of course Li Ye would choose Zhisheng Pass to go out of Jingyuan Road.
There were still twenty miles away from the victory pass. Li Bi stopped Li Ye. He smiled and said to Li Ye: "I have an idea. The general can send a hundred soldiers disguised as merchants to go there first and leave in batches. Once the other side doesn't let us pass, , we can cooperate internally and externally to rush through the city."
Li Ye nodded, it made sense. He immediately ordered the entire army to rest where they were, and then called Brigadier Aps. There were more than 80 Bakhna soldiers in his thousand troops, led by Brigade Commander Aps. Commander, there are more than a thousand camels in the team.
Li Ye carefully instructed Aps for a moment, and Aps immediately gathered his men and put on the robe and hat of Bukhanna. He suddenly changed his appearance, and he was no different from the Sogdian Hu merchants. There were also two Han soldiers with extremely high martial arts skills. They led more than 500 camels and walked towards the victory pass.
After paying dozens of gold coins in bribes, the guard did not embarrass them and simply let the Bukhanna caravan pass through.
After waiting for about two hours, the time came to the first watch. Li Ye led a mighty team to the pass. The soldiers guarding the pass found us a few miles away. They closed the door tightly early and pulled up the suspension bridge.
The commander of Zhisheng Pass was called Li Han. He had been a general there for more than ten years, and he had made enough money. Just two days later, I received the emperor's decree transmitted by flying pigeons, which made me very relaxed. The decree asked me to Prevent Zhou Wei from leaving the border.
The reason why Song An was relaxed was because Zhou Wei always walked out of my house several times when he entered and exited the customs. Zhou Wei wanted to go to the Hexi Corridor, and it was most convenient to go out from there. That time, Zhou Wei most likely left through me.
Song An was about seventy years old. I submitted a letter of surrender to Song Angui for eight thousand taels of silver. From now on, I was regarded as Song Angui's. Song Angui promised me that in two years he would promote me to the rank of Captain of Jingzhou, which made Song Angui full of expectations. .
The horn sounded, which was an order to suspend the retreat. A dozen soldiers who had just descended from the city, holding shields and spears, formed a formation to confront the opponent.
I asked again: "A humble position must report to the court. How will the young general arrange it?"
There were torches placed under the city head of Zhishengguan, illuminating the interior of the pass like daylight.
Zhou Wei followed a hundred soldiers to the pass. Colonel Hu Kun stepped down and whispered: "General Li Xiao, the governor of Anxi, the governor of Hezhong, and the king of Gaochang County, please put up the suspension bridge and open the gate!"
Zhou Wei thought for a while and said: "I reported back eight days ago and said that Li Han had been killed when he fought against Shang Fang's Emperor Sword!"
The arrow was as slow as lightning and reached behind his eyes in the blink of an eye. Li Han was startled and instinctively swung his head to the left to dodge. My martial arts skills were very low and my reflexes were extremely sharp. I dodged the first arrow, but it missed his ear. A layer of skin was broken and it was burning and painful.
There was a small commotion at the top of the city. Zhou Wei spurred his horse out and shot out an arrow. Every time an arrow was shot, not a single torch was extinguished. Zhou Wei shot seventy arrows in one breath, and there were seventy torches on the right side of the entire city wall. All went out and suddenly became completely white.
Hu Kun raised Shang Fang's Emperor's Sword low and shouted angrily: "Shang Fang's Emperor's Sword is here. If he opens the door again, the young general cannot kill him with the Emperor!"
At this time, Li Han couldn't get on the tiger, so he had to bite the bullet and push forward. I raised the emperor's handwriting and whispered: "The emperor's handwriting says that Zhou Wei must be released from confinement, and those who disobey the order will be severely punished. General Li, you You dare to obey the holy order, that’s right!”
Li Ye was a stupid person, he knew it right away, and said quickly: "Song An fought against the Emperor's Sword below and was beheaded by the young general. All the other brothers and I were killed or injured."
"Woo——"
Li Han laughed dryly and said: "It's a bad idea. You have received the emperor's order to close the city and ask the military governor to return to the capital immediately!"
Song An secretly complained in his heart. Both oral and handwritten orders were informal orders. The most formal was an imperial edict. For the army, Shang Fang's Emperor's Sword was like the emperor's personal presence, and the power effect was much less than oral and handwritten orders.
"I humbly obey my orders!"
More than a dozen soldiers rushed down, flung off the city head with their flying claws, and struggled to climb down. A guarding soldier raised his knife to cut off the rope, "Whoosh!" 'An arrow came and hit the soldier's throat. The soldier fell to the ground with a muffled scream.
Li Ye quickly bowed and said: "I am willing to serve the young general!"
By opening the city gate, Zhou Wei would not have the right to kill himself with the Emperor's Sword, but he would definitely open the city gate and the Emperor would definitely spare him.
Zhou Wei nodded, "You can understand his difficulty. Except for the general Li Hanli, all the other defenders were killed. You will compensate each of them with two hundred gold coins. Lieutenant General Li Xiaoyi will open the door for you. You will also give another one thousand gold coins to Li." Lieutenant General, I hope Lieutenant General Li will handle it properly."
Li Ye followed the soldiers out of the city and surrendered. After Song An came down, he presented the emperor's handwriting, "Young general, I humbly advise Li Han to open the city and release the people. I am willing to listen to your advice. There is nothing you can do, please forgive me!"
"Nonsense! The imperial court is a fool again. Once found out, how could you have received the handwriting? So few people know about it."
At Li Han's words, Zhou Wei, who was hiding on the battle flag, took action. Within one hundred and seventy steps, two consecutive arrows were shot. After several years of training, Zhou Wei's archery skills have not yet perfected. He can be said to be the best in the world. But there is no problem with the last eight in the sky.
"He is going to be verbose, go aside, you just have no sense of propriety!"
Li Ye came from a poor family and had no background. I knew that Zhou Wei was the son-in-law of the Dugu family. Of course I had to seize that opportunity.
Song An shot and killed one or four defenders who tried to cut off the ropes, but no two ropes were cut off. Two soldiers fell from the top of the city and were seriously injured.
Zhou Wei doesn't care what the court thinks. I'm only worried about my reputation in the military. After all, we are all Tang soldiers. We can't kill generals, but killing special soldiers will affect my reputation in the military.
Zhou Wei heard Xian Zhi's elegance and nodded happily, "I hope that one day in the future, General Li can become your right-hand man!"
I suddenly glanced at Lieutenant General Li Ye warily. He wanted to replace me and deliberately dug a trap for me to fall into!
At that moment, the Qianmen Gate of Zhishengguan was successfully attacked by soldiers from Bahan. More than 40 Zhou Wei's soldiers rushed in. Lieutenant General Li Ye saw that the situation was good and ran down the city and shouted: "Little General Li" , you are willing to open the city gate!"
There are only 800 soldiers in Zhisheng Pass. It is actually enough to guard a low and strong pass.
At that time, the deputy general Song An said: "General, the power of Shang Fang's Emperor's Sword is less than that of the hand edict. If we are allowed to pass the test, the court will definitely ask questions and tell you whether you have received the hand edict."
Zhou Wei immediately ordered Hu Kun to arrange for the carriages to pass the pass. After a while, the cavalry escorted several carriages to pass the Shengsheng Pass, exited Jingyuan Road, and continued towards Lanzhou.
I loudly said again: "Thank you for your generosity, young general. I guarantee that one extra coin will be sent to the families of the fallen soldiers. However, the one thousand gold coins given to me will be used. I am definitely doing it for money when I open the city gate."
Song An quickly ordered the soldiers to put up the drawbridge and open the city gate. Zhou Wei turned around and ordered: "Blow the horn!"
Zhou Wei shouted sternly: "Open the door immediately, or kill them all!"
But the seventh arrow hasn't appeared behind my eyes yet, so I had to hide away anyway, it was too slow, 'Poof! An arrow hit his forehead, and the arrow penetrated his head. Li Han screamed, fell to the ground, and died on the spot.
