Late Tang

Before closing the gate of the Taixi military stronghold, 48 knights, dressed in ordinary civilian clothes, formed a small phalanx with swords, guns, bows, arrows and shields snatched from the corpses of the gatekeepers, and stood firm at the city gate without retreating.

A Shatuo officer hid behind a Shatuo soldier, Gu Kong shot Ma Xing in the thigh with an arrow.Immediately, the blood flowed profusely, Ma Xing pulled out the arrow, the barb of the spiked arrow brought a large piece of flesh, Ma Xing snorted, tore off a piece of cloth to bind the wound and did not retreat.

"Righteousness and martial arts, those who jump the beam, even if they are strong, they will be killed!"

Ma Xing backhanded the triangular army thorn that Li Jing gave him personally, and threw it into the eye socket of the insidious Shatuo man, killing him directly.After killing this guy, Ma Xing still regretted that he should have changed to another weapon just now. The military thorn was given to him by Zhendong Army envoy Li Jungong when he entered the camp of officers and guards. Every soldier in the officers and guards camp Although they all have one, each one has a unique number and engraved with their names.On the handle of this military thorn, there is engraved with the inscription "Yi Wu Fen Yang, those who jump the beam, even if they are strong, they will be killed!"This sentence was said by Li Jing many times when he reviewed it.

By this time, Ma Xing had given up hope of surviving, but he always remembered what the county magistrate once said when he lectured to them. Obedience is the bounden duty of a soldier, and the mission of a soldier is loyalty and dedication.Every Zhendong army must fight for their own honor and mission.Li Cunxiao's order to him was to stay here and prepare to respond. Without seeing with his own eyes that Li Cunxiao and the others had indeed fallen, he could not retreat without authorization, otherwise it would be dereliction of duty and escape.

A deserter has no glory at all!

"Datang! Datang!"

Although covered in scars, none of them asked to retreat.Even if they knew it was death, they would fight to the death here and persist until the last moment!

"The Zhendong Army is mighty!" Ma Xing opened his bow and shot down a Shatuo man who was rushing forward with an arrow, and roared.

The place in the gate of the gate is not very big. After Ma Xing and the others seized the gate, they immediately pushed some carriages and carts left behind by some people in the gate of the gate when they fled in panic. They piled up a cart in the middle of the gate. array.With this car formation, 48 people barely persisted.But this situation will not be optimistic for too long, as long as the Shatuo people react, then more soldiers and horses will come, and a few rounds of arrow rain will come, and the Shatuo soldiers will charge with their shields and they will have to explain everything here .

Among the 48 people, Ma Xing picked out the twelve best archers among them, and gave them all the arrows he collected.The rest are [-] spearmen, plus [-] sword and shield hands, shield in one hand and sword in the other hand to cover in front.

It was almost completely dark, but it was more beneficial for Ma Xing and the others to be blind.There were bursts of severe pain from the arrow gun on his thigh, but he gritted his teeth and endured it. At this time, he didn't even have time to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

At this moment, the common people who were running away in all directions just now rushed over like a wave...

Ma Xing's expression moved, and he couldn't help feeling a little excited. Could it be that Zhao Yuhou and Yang taught them to come?

"Liu Mazi, go and have a look." Ma Xing shouted to a spearman beside him without concealing his excitement, and then said to the others: "Brothers, I will never die, reinforcements are here!"

Everyone cheered up at this moment, and Liu Mazi quickly crossed the suspension bridge and disappeared into the night.

The battle in the doorway was still going on, and while Ma Zhou was shooting at those Shatuo soldiers who were lighting torches, he looked back frequently.Just now he had made up his mind to die, but when the dawn appeared at this time, he couldn't help raising a glimmer of hope.He waited anxiously, not knowing whether it was the large army or just Zhao Yuhou's right team in Lingqiu City.If it's just the right team, it's just a drop in the bucket when it comes.

"Captain deputy, Liu Mazi is back." A sharp-eyed man turned his head and saw Liu Mazi, and shouted hastily.

Liu Mazi braved the arrows from the city against the shield and got into the hole in the city gate, panting heavily.

"What's the situation, can you see which part is coming?" Ma Xing asked expectantly.

"See clearly! Do you see clearly?"

Everyone was chattering, eager to know the result.

Liu Mazi took a breath, and said hastily, "From the direction of Lingqiu, there is a large army coming with torches. It seems that there are at least three to five thousand people. It is our large army that has arrived."

"There are 5000 people? Did you see clearly?" Ma Xing asked excitedly.

"That's right, the torches are all lined up in a long queue. If you look at them from a distance, they are at least a few miles away. If there are not 5000 people, the torches will never have such momentum." Liu Mazi is also a veteran, scouting I still understand it quite well, not to mention that battlefield reconnaissance in the night school in the camp is a compulsory course, and Liu Mazi has the best grades in this course.

The spirits of the 48 people in the city gate were cheered up, and there were thunderous cheers immediately.

At this time, the defenders on the top of the city also discovered the soldiers and horses coming winding like a fire dragon, and immediately passed them down quickly.

But at this time Liu Zhijie was killed, Madam Liu and Li Siyuan left first.Although there were still [-] soldiers in the city, the three Li Kexiu brothers were captured by Li Cunxiao and they were still confronting Li Sizhao in the town general's mansion. As a result, the soldiers guarding the city took a long time It took a lot of effort to pass the news to Li Sizhao, who was the only one who could call the shots right now.

"What, the city gate was taken by the assassin's accomplices?" Li Sizhao was shocked when he heard that, "How many people are there?"

"It is estimated that there are fifty, and there may be seven or eighty people." The captain who reported the report stammered.Li Sizhao glared at him, "Just a few dozen people took the closed door, don't you think you will take it back?"

"It's true that these people are too fierce, and the space in the city gate is too small to use it for a while." The captain was still explaining, but Li Sizhao turned his head away in disgust, and said to a junior beside him: "Take a The troops of the battalion went to seize Guancheng, and must take it back before the enemy soldiers arrive. If you can’t take back Guanmen, you don’t have to come back.”

The little schoolboy looked fierce, nodded and said: "If you can't take it back, close the door, come and see me!"

However, when he just summoned 500 troops from the first battalion of his headquarters and rushed to Guanxia, ​​he was shocked to find that Guanmen had been occupied by the enemy, and a huge banner of the Zhendong Army had been planted on Guancheng.Next to the flag, there was a smaller flag, and through the dim light of the fire, one could see a line of characters looming on it, "The Zhendong Army's Yaqian Army's Pioneer Silver Spear Guard Battalion Deputy Ten General Feijian is the head Liu."

He grabbed a soldier who was fleeing from the gate in a panic, "What happened, why did the gate fall?"

The soldier was still in shock, and said in a flustered manner: "Looking at the torch, the enemy's reinforcements will be at least half an hour away. Who knows that the enemy's army is extremely cunning, and they even sent about [-] former troops disguised as fleeing civilians. Mixed among those common people. When they arrived at the pass, they suddenly rushed in. The pass city was captured by dozens of bandit troops before, but for a while they directly rushed in and took the pass city."

"Fucking trash, 200 people beat you up like this, get out!" Lieutenant Shatuo kicked the defeated soldier who was only a teenage boy away in disgust, turned his head and shouted, "This is just the enemy The vanguard of the army is only 200 people, brothers and I will take back Guancheng."

The soldier who just captured Guancheng was none other than Liu Xun, one of Li Jing's four disciples, Deputy Ten General of the Guard Battalion and General of Flying Swords.He was originally in charge of clearing out the remaining enemies in Lingqiu, but when he passed by Lingqiu City, he heard that Li Cunxiao had gone out with a group of people and hadn't returned for a long time.He felt bad at the moment, and after careful questioning for a while, he already guessed that Li Cunxiao, a reckless man, might have gone to Taixi Military Village, which is the closest city to Lingqiu.

Immediately, Zhao Li, the Marquis of Yu in Hengchong Capital, taught Yang Xin and others to gather more than [-] people from the two departments and rush to Taixiguan, and on the other hand, they went to Wang Yanzhang, who was in the nearest Feigu city, and also in Feigu territory. Gao Siji sent a letter asking for help, and also flew to Li Jing at Zhigu Pass.

Hurrying all the way, after inquiring along the way, they finally confirmed that Li Cunxiao really went straight to Taixiguan with seventy people.Although Liu Xun was very angry at the reckless behavior of this fourth junior brother, he couldn't just leave him alone, so he had to rush all the way.

Immediately until now, I still can't believe it: "The reinforcements are only [-] horses from Liu Yanei and the remaining [-] horses from our Hengchong?"

"Only the two hundred riders from Feijiandu came with me, and the more than one hundred riders from Hengchongdu are still on the way." Liu Xun nodded.Although there are only two hundred cavalry, the brothers in Feijiandu are all elite cavalry.They mixed among the people, and when they approached the pass, they rose up and raised trouble.Originally, Liu Xun thought that Guancheng should be closed, but who would have thought that Ma Xing was still guarding the closed gate.Immediately, in one go, he directly killed the opponent by surprise, and took the Guancheng on the closed door.

"But, but Liu Mazi said that there should be 5000 reinforcements, and the torches are all lined up in a long queue, which is several miles long." Ma Xing really didn't understand.As he spoke, he pointed to the winding fire dragon among the winding mountain roads among the mountains seen from a distance from the top of the city.

Liu Xun gave a rare chuckle, and while instructing the two hundred soldiers in Feijiandu to use local materials and temporarily build fortifications before the pass, he replied with a smile: "It's just a bluff, you also learned in the officer camp." Haven't you heard of the tricks of soldiers?"

In fact, some things look amazing, but they are worthless when they are broken.The half of Liu Xun's soldiers and horses in Hengchongdu are only more than 300 people, and it is definitely impossible to tackle key problems and save people.Liu Xun's initial idea was to bluff. He asked people to prepare a lot of torches, and when they reached the distance where the theater could be seen, he asked the soldiers to insert torches as they walked, and took a few steps to insert one.

There were still more than 300 soldiers, but the torches were inserted more and more. As a result, the torches in front were almost turned off, but the fire dragon behind seemed to have countless soldiers and horses coming from the mountain road continuously.

"Zhao Yuhou and the others are just throwing torches?" Ma Xing was really shocked at this moment.Seeing Liu Xun nod his head very plainly, he couldn't help asking: "Liu Ya Nei only has two hundred soldiers and horses, why did he dare to kill them all the way to the gate?"

"Cunxiao dared to enter the enemy city with 18 people, and the cavalry team with 48 brothers could capture the closed gate and hold on. Of course, I, Liu Xun, can't let you specialize in the front." Liu Xun smiled slightly.

Ma Xing grinned heartily and said: "If you can survive this battle, you must find Liu Yanei for a drunken rest when you go back!"

"Okay, it's a deal." Liu Xun also said with a smile.

Under the night, the laughter of Ma Xing and Liu Xun made the solemn atmosphere a lot lighter, and the more than 200 warriors suddenly relaxed a lot.

But in private, Ma Xing still whispered to Liu Xun: "Our captain has not seen any movement since we entered the city, but the reaction from the guards seems to have been discovered, and now we don't know what happened to them. What should we do now?"

Liu Xun stood on the gate tower and looked inside the gate, just as countless black-clothed and black-armored soldiers were pouring in, not to mention entering the city to look for Li Cunxiao, even they themselves could not protect themselves.

"We'll wait here!"

Liu Xun didn't say anything after saying this, and Ma Zhou didn't know whether he was waiting for Li Cunxiao or the Zhendong Army behind him.However, now that Liu Xun is here, the command here naturally belongs to him, and it is no longer up to him to decide whether to defend or retreat.

(To be continued)