twin moon

Chapter 209 No.20 Scene Eight

In the second year of Zhaoxi, May [-]th.The sun is rising, and the stars are lonely after the dawn.The heavy rain that had just stopped completely washed away the smell of blood in the air.And the bloody battle that took place in Suoyang Pass late last night was also like a chaotic nightmare, as if it had never happened.

Today, everywhere in Yujing is peaceful.In the middle of the night, the faint sounds of shouts of killing and clashes of swords and soldiers were regarded as rumbling thunder, which failed to attract the slightest attention from the people in the city.

However, there was still a fast horse riding through the Chiwu Gate in the south of the city, and rushed into Yongyang Palace along the mountain and river road running from north to south.Sitting on the horseback was Zhu Ren, the guard of the Suoyang Pass, and Gao Li, who had already received the news in advance, was waiting for him in the Wannian Palace with the young emperor and his staff at this time.

The urgent performance of Suoyangguan's fall was brought into the palace overnight by Mo Ya.Although Bai Jiangxing was ignorant of the world and didn't understand what this matter meant to himself and Yujing as a whole, he still vaguely felt that the defeat on the front line was a great event.At this moment, he saw that Gao Li was furious, so he stretched out his hand to pull the other party's cuff, and asked softly:
"Gao Aiqing, don't get angry just yet, I——I see that you look bad, and I'm really terrified."

Gao Li was distraught, he didn't have the heart to appease the idiot emperor in front of him, he just said in a low voice bitterly:

"Your Majesty should be afraid, and all of us should be afraid—with the loss of Suoyang Pass, there will be no obstacles between Yu Jing and the Liang army. Now Luqiu Borong, who personally led the rebellion of Guan Ning's soldiers, is about to lead the way. The army has attacked to the bottom of the city, but we don't even know the exact size of the opponent's troops!"

Gao Li's tone was not kind, and Bai Jiangxing was so frightened that he didn't dare to ask any more questions, but tears flickered in his eyes, and he seemed to be even more frightened, so he kept whispering in his mouth:

"The bad guys are coming, the bad guys are coming! Gao Aiqing, please protect me!"

By the time Zhu Yan rushed to the Wannian Hall, the sky was already bright.Before he finished bowing to the emperor, Gao Li, who couldn't wait for a long time, rushed forward, grabbed him by the neckline and asked fiercely:

"Don't waste time! Tell me, how many people from Wei Liang have come? Where has the attack reached now!"

At this time, Zhu Ren's expression was completely gone from the slack and laziness before the battle.Even after being poured by heavy rain for a whole night, the blood and mud all over his body could not be washed away.Although the red and black blood stains covered his already bloodless complexion, they couldn't hide the trembling and despair in his eyes.

Seeing the guard kneeling in the hall lose focus, as if recalling the vicious battle he experienced last night, Gao Li suddenly let go of his right hand and slapped him hard on the face:

"You should tell me something!"

Zhu Ren was in pain, and finally came back to his senses, and then faltered and said:

"There are tens of thousands of Weiliang army. When I rode my horse to the city earlier, its vanguard was less than [-] miles away from Longshou Ferry. The surviving brothers in the city went to ask for help from the Tuenmen Guards who guarded the ferry. I'm afraid it will be bad luck. Eighty-nine of them have already died in battle!"

"It's really a bunch of trash! During the Shuodi Rebellion more than a hundred years ago, the barbarians surrounded the pass with a hundred thousand cavalry and stormed for several months, but they failed to capture it. Now there are only tens of thousands of infantry, how can they be defeated overnight? Then break through the pass and go northward, heading straight to Huanglong? The batch of firearms I distributed to you a few days ago were just for show?!"

Gao Li pushed the opponent to the ground and kicked him several times in the stomach.However, Zhu Ren believed that the defeat was not his fault, so full of resentment, he covered his stomach with both hands and yelled loudly at the opponent regardless:
"Your Excellency was not in the pass last night, so how do you know that you will be able to defend it? There were only [-] people guarding Suoyang Pass yesterday. Although the firearms distributed had a long range and great power, they were laborious to load. Coupled with the heavy rain, even in close combat If you can't even exert [-]% of its power, how can we hold it?"

"I didn't order you to stand guard on the tower, so why do you talk about close combat?"

Gao Li immediately heard something wrong from the other party's words, and continued to question.Zhu Ren finally had to explain everything that happened last night slowly, but it made everyone in the hall change their expressions...

The night before, the defenders of Suoyang Pass entered the city first with the firebolt guns distributed in their hands, and they caught Wei Liang by surprise.Luqiu Borong, who was almost killed in the city, was not reconciled, and sent a vanguard of thousands of people to attack the city twice in succession, but they were all shot and killed. He had to order to retreat five li, not to go out easily.

Seeing this situation, Zhu Ren immediately ordered to strengthen his guard, and kept an eye on the other party's movements, but he didn't dare to go to sleep with his clothes on, for fear that the other party would be deceitful.

The first half of the night passed quickly, but the Weiliang Army did not make any more moves except to send out 50 people's squads from time to time outside the firing range of the firebolt guns to inquire about the reality, and then quickly turned back after a hasty encounter.Even the dozens of catapults, well rails, rams, and flying bridges dedicated to siege in the formation were put aside and never moved again.

It seems that Luqiu Borong doesn't intend to sacrifice the lives of his soldiers in exchange for the immediate victory, and there is no better way to defend against the iron bullets of the firebolt in a short time.However, both opponents are very clear in their hearts. Now that they have reached this stage, it is absolutely impossible for this powerful female mistress to withdraw her troops.It's just that she doesn't know what kind of plan she has in mind.

Participating back and forth, Zhu Ren's nerves, which had been tense for several hours, finally relaxed slowly.He believes that his side's victory in the first battle tonight has greatly hit the opponent's arrogance, and it has also made him dare not underestimate the Gyeonggi garrison, and it should be impossible to try to attack again.So in order to recharge his batteries, he ordered the sergeants guarding the city to withdraw [-]%, and the rest of them waited to change their defenses every three hours.

However, before the end of the first round of posts, the situation in the customs has changed.Just after midnight, Zhu Ren, who was about to fall asleep, suddenly heard a commotion in the dimness.He opened his eyes, but saw the flames shining in the sky outside the window, he broke out in a cold sweat immediately, without any sleepiness, he stretched out his hand and opened the window to look.

However, before he had time to open the window, he heard a "hu", and it was an armor-piercing arrow with long feathers, which almost brushed Zhu Ren's nose and shot into the room.The iron arrow was nailed to the pillar behind him, and it shook violently for a long time before stopping.The arrow is obviously Wei Liang's unique three-edged armor-piercing arrow, but it is quite powerful, as if it came from a hundred steps away!
"Damn, Wei Liang attacked again at night? Could it be that the hundreds of soldiers on duty are all asleep!"

Zhu Ren couldn't help cursing, but she didn't dare to approach the window easily, she just raised her right foot and kicked open the window that had been shot out of the big hole.However, even though he had a premonition that something was wrong, the scene in the pass still made him stunned in shock, not knowing what to do——

Under Suoyang Pass, in addition to the [-] urns outside the nine city gates on the north and south sides, there is also a long rectangular main city with a length of more than six miles and a width of two and a half miles, which is used for camping and adjusting deployment.At that time, most of the grain and grass hoarded in the pass will be stored in a wooden warehouse in the northwest corner.And the soaring fire that Zhu Ren saw through the window before was ignited from that warehouse!

Right now, there is already a mess under the city wall.The fire has also spread from the warehouse to the three adjacent urn cities, and even burned down nearly half of the tents in the main city.There were wailing sounds under the city wall, and in the flames, from time to time, soldiers would drag nearby comrades out of the fire.Among them, the luckier ones were able to successfully extinguish the burning fire on their bodies, but were still severely burned.And more unfortunate sergeants were completely swallowed by the fire, turning into a lump of scorched black existence, and even the corpses could no longer be distinguished.

In the blink of an eye, more than half of the defenders in the pass were killed or injured, only a few hundred soldiers remained.Among them, more than a hundred people were working together to carry buckets of clean water on their shoulders from the reservoir a hundred steps away from the warehouse, trying to put out the fire.However, all parts of the warehouse had already been doused with kerosene used for city defense, and a few buckets of water were poured on it. The fire only weakened for a moment, and then rushed up again, completely out of reach.

The rest of the soldiers who were still able to fight hard fought with a group of Guan Ning soldiers who appeared out of nowhere.Although there are only a hundred soldiers in Wei Liang's army, they are all first-class fighters, and the more they fight, the braver they become.On the other hand, among the defenders rushing to fight, many of them just woke up from sleep, and they didn't even put on their armors and helmets neatly.The opponent charged only once, and he was killed to the point of death, bleeding profusely.

At the same time, there were continuous black shadows in the sky, silently gliding into the city like bats in the dark night, and landing lightly on the ground.Zhu Ren took a closer look in fear, but saw that those were Guan Ning soldiers with two huge wings on their bodies.And they actually glided into the city from Qingying Mountain on the east side of Suoyang Pass!

Soon, the Wei Liang army who entered the pass had captured several city gates.And already gathered outside the pass, the main force of the soldiers in silver armor, like several silver trainers running through the field, poured in from the opened city gate under the reflection of countless torches.

"...Therefore, the general realized that the Suoyang Pass could not be defended, so he had to lead his brothers to fight and retreat after passing the letter to Mo Ya. It was not until he found a mount on the way that he hurriedly urged the horse back to the city , to report the situation of the war."

Zhu Ren arched her hands, but she didn't dare to look up into the other's eyes.

Gao Li's expression became more and more dignified, and in the end he even raised his voice and cursed:
"I think you are asking your brothers to die under the long spear of Guan Ning's soldiers, so that you can get a chance to escape! In such a situation, even if you are the last one in the battle, you should stick to Suoyang Pass and wait for the reinforcements to arrive!"

"Isn't it the same for the grown-ups, let me wait for you to be safe in exchange for a moment of safety? But this time, I am afraid that no one in this city of Yujing will be spared. All the strategies and countermeasures are nothing but in the end. To linger on, let everyone die later..."

Zhu Ren didn't have any worries anymore, she just knelt on the ground like crazy, talking to herself incoherently.

But Gao Li had no intention of entangled with him any longer, and instead ordered to his left and right confidants:
"Quickly tune the [-]th Wuwei Army to Longshoudu to encircle them with all their strength. We must not let Guan Ning's soldiers continue to approach the city!"

"Do you want to evacuate the people in the city?"

A staff member beside him looked pale and asked after hesitating for a moment.

Unexpectedly, this question made Gao Li even more angry:

"This matter is absolutely impossible! The Zen ceremony is only a few days away, and I must not let any accident hinder my plan! I will pass on my order, and the city gate will be closed in the name of the ceremony security from now on. No living things are allowed to go out, and no one is allowed to go out." No living thing can come in, not even a mouse!"

At the same time, Wei Liang's tens of thousands of troops had all passed Suoyang Pass, and without stopping for a moment, they continued to form a neat square and headed straight for Yujing.

Fu Zaiyin, who led [-] elite soldiers into the pass the night before and established the victory, also returned to Luqiu Borong after sunrise.Seeing the weird outfit on her body, the female princess was surprised and curious, but she didn't know where to ask.

"Let the lord worry about it. I made a plan last night, and I didn't have the right opportunity to explain it to you in advance. I never thought that I hit the Suoyang Pass with one blow, and I did not live up to my promise!"

Before Luqiu Borong could ask a question, Fu Zaiyin took the lead in saluting.The heroine immediately realized that the other party still had something to hide from her, and looked him up and down:
"What are you wearing?"

However, the general with a short beard did not answer her directly, but asked instead:
"My lord, do you still remember that when we led the army to encircle and suppress Kunjie, we found many unburned letters and files in his courtyard?"

Luqiu Borong nodded, but he didn't know why the other party brought up this matter suddenly.

"The subject spent half a year in private to put together those fragments of words, but he learned a powerful weapon called a firebolt gun. Until last night, I saw that the guards fired at the gate and almost injured the king. Only then did the subordinates realize that what they used was probably the firebolt gun. However, due to the urgency of the war, they failed to report it in time, and I ask the king to punish him."

Fu Zaiyin paused for a moment, seeing that Luqiu Borong didn't say much, he continued to explain, "The two wings on the back of the minister are called bat kites, and they are also from the unburned files left by Kunjie. We got it. However, the time was short, and before the dispatch of troops this time, only a few hundred sets had been produced. If the number was even smaller, it is still unknown whether there will be enough troops to fight against the defenders in the pass last night."

"You mean, Kun Jie is also secretly helping Gao Li?" After the other party finished speaking, the female princess couldn't help but turn pale.

"I'm afraid we can get some clues from him only after we invade Yujing and take down Gao Li."

As Fu Zaiyin spoke, he took another step forward, "If the lord approves, I would like to lead five thousand elites to go there with light clothes, and take down Longshoudu in one fell swoop, clearing the last obstacle for the attack on Yujing city tomorrow!"

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(End of this chapter)