golden scales

Seeing that the gate of Hancheng opened slowly, Li You, who was wearing a whole body and riding a horse, walked out of the gate.Cao Ning went up to meet him and said, "General, you see we ran all the way without even taking a bite of food..."

When Li You went downstairs and got on his horse, he thought again: Instead of giving Liu Fangliang the credit, it would be better to have it all by himself.He had already seen Zuo Guangxian's men and horses, they were tired and exhausted, but there were only a hundred horsemen, and he brought out three hundred horsemen, which was enough to capture Zuo Guangxian back.And for the entire Hancheng, without the three hundred cavalry and two thousand foot battalions, even if the Zhu thief sent troops to attack unexpectedly, they would definitely be able to defend.

"You guys stay in the city and help defend the city!" Li You waved his hand, "Let's go!"

Suddenly, the sound of horseshoes rumbled, knocking the ground trembling.

Hancheng has only five main roads with two vertical lines, three horizontal lines, and after Li Chuang stationed troops, a large number of residents fled to the countryside to join relatives, leaving many houses vacant.At that moment, some old soldiers stationed in Hancheng stepped forward to ask Xiao Donglou and others to find a place to eat and rest.No one knew how far Zuo Guangxian could run, time was limited, how could he have the appetite to eat?Xiao Donglou said: "We still have many brothers behind us, let's wait at the gate of the city."

The old soldier said impatiently: "It's up to you, just remember, don't go to the east gate."

Xiao Donglou nodded again and again, thinking in his heart: Alright, now it's clear where to make trouble.

"The city gate is still closed!" A figure dressed as a general stepped down from the tower, with a gloomy expression, seeing Xiao Donglou dressed in ordinary soldier attire, he was not at all polite.

"Master Du," the old soldier stepped forward to salute, "They said there are still people behind."

The man walked up to Xiao Donglou, glanced at Xiao Donglou's scar, and said slowly: "I am the defense envoy of Hancheng, and the safety of this county rests on my shoulders. Since you have entered the gate of Hancheng, you must Follow my orders!"

Xiao Donglou grinned: "Why?"

"Because I am the captain!" the man roared.

Xiao Donglou let out a hey hey, turned his body to one side, and when he twisted his waist, he had already drawn out the long knife at the side of his waist, slashing across his waist.The captain jumped back and was about to shout when he heard the sound of the bowstring, and an arrow plume went straight into the soft part of the captain's throat.The captain let out a moaning sound, Xiao Donglou, who was chasing after him, pierced his heart with a knife, killing him completely.

Over there, Hei Pi also led someone to kill the old army and the soldiers at the gate, the sound alarmed the guards on the tower, and someone shouted: "What's going on next!"

"It's okay, it's okay!" Xiao Donglou pointed to the direction of the east gate, and laughed loudly: "Some small misunderstandings!"

The person above should be an officer, but he still felt uneasy, stepped down quickly, and cursed: "What's the fuss? Wait for General Li to come back... ah!"

Another arrow feather hit him in the throat, and he fell down, his head smashed to pieces on the ground.Xiao Donglou couldn't help looking back this time, it turned out that it was a newly recruited Qin soldier who was pulling out another arrow from the arrow socket and slamming it on the string.

"Good job!" Xiao Donglou praised, and immediately shouted, "Array! Follow me!"

More people on the top of the city were alarmed. Before they ran down to see what happened, they heard the sound of running in unison, and for a while they couldn't tell how many people were there.

When, when, when!

Alarm bells sounded from the tower.

"Hei Pi! You guard this door for me!" Xiao Donglou shouted: "The others follow me to the east gate!"

There are only three gates in Hancheng, east, west, and north. Not to mention that Li You has run far away and can't hear him, even if he hears the alarm bell, he may not be able to come back in time.While Xiao Donglou ordered the whole team, he had already found out the fire pocket and was ready to set fire.He and Cao Ning hadn't run far when they were leading a round, when they heard shouts of killing coming from behind, and looking back, Heipi was already blocked in the doorway by people coming and going from the tower, but it was precisely because of this There is no disadvantage, and the formation blocked the defenders.

The whole Hancheng was boiling, and the clock tower issued a louder bell, announcing the coming of war.

"Don't, don't go to the east gate!" Cao Ning stopped Xiao Donglou who was running in front: "We can't divide the troops, let's join forces and fight with them!"

Xiao Donglou gritted his teeth, and said decisively: "Then do it! Whoever still has fire fuel, burn this house down!"

It is not easy to start a fire.In order to be able to burn Li Zicheng's grain warehouse, Zhu Cihong prepared enough fuel for Xiao Donglou.This primitive oil extract was written into books in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and was used for city defense and arson in the Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty.Shen Kuo named this "stone fat water", called oil, and it was used in later generations.

In today's world, there is no drilling and oil extraction, and the oil can only be extracted from the spilled oil, and the output is limited.Fortunately, Yan'an is the origin of the spilled oil, so Qinzhong has relatively large reserves, which is also the reason why Sun Chuanting made trains according to local conditions. ——In addition to the artillery car, the train also has a spray train carrying a fierce oil tank.

Many people put unused fire oil in coconut ladles.Following Xiao Donglou's order, the coconut ladles filled with kerosene flew towards the surrounding houses one by one, and were immediately ignited by the following rockets, bursting into flamboyant sparks.

Heipi wasn't an idiot, seeing Xiao Donglou turned back, he knew it was about to withdraw.They are used to being bandits, and when the wind is down, they desperately kill them, and when the wind is headed, they retreat when they see the opportunity, which is really commonplace. "Set fire!" Hei Pi shouted: "Respond to the master!"

"Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" Zuo Qian's headquarters pressed the formation, breaking Shang's solid array of intruders, just in time to flank Xiao Donglou who had rushed back, and scattered the intruders.

"It can't be done, we still have to withdraw!" Xiao Donglou was extremely depressed, he didn't achieve the miraculous achievement he had imagined, and maybe he lost his brother's life in vain.

"Set fire and leave!" Hei Pi yelled, letting Xiao Donglou go out of the city gate first.

The city gate has not been closed, so it is convenient to evacuate at this moment.Heipi quickly withdrew after setting off the fire.Without the command of the captain's defense envoy, the intruders were in a mess, and some people shouted to put out the fire, only two sporadic sentries chased them out, but they filled Xiao Donglou's teeth.

The two rounds of people ran a full five or six miles before stopping to rectify the queue.

Cao Ning was also somewhat regretful and said: "This is all right, not only did not steal Hancheng, but even Zuo Guangxian was lost."

Xiao Donglou also said depressedly: "Oh, this time it's really..."

Boom!

There was a thunder, the earth shook violently, and even the horses neighed.

A ganoderma-like black cloud appeared above Hancheng, rising slowly.

A gust of wind blew over from Hancheng, picked up the thin snow on the ground, and smashed it over.

"This... what the hell is it?" Xiao Donglou swallowed the words he hadn't finished speaking, staring dumbly at the city of Han City, which was like a big bonfire.

"Wait...now it's northwest wind..." Cao Ning stretched out his hand to try the direction of the wind.

"Nonsense!" Xiao Donglou scolded: "In the cold winter and the twelfth lunar month, can there still be a southerly sky?"

"When Chibi was burned, it was Kong Ming who borrowed the east wind... Ahhhh!" Cao Ning was interrupted by Xiao Donglou, and almost got the question wrong, and forced it back: "The one we are going to is the north gate. The east gate is actually in the southeast direction. Right? Once we set the fire on, the fire will go towards the east gate with the help of the wind!"

"I'm asking why it exploded!" Xiao Donglou said angrily.

"The east gate is the place where thieves store gunpowder and oil." Cao Ning laughed loudly and said, "No wonder they won't let us go there! Hahaha, luckily we didn't make it!"

Xiao Donglou looked at the burning city of Han, and sighed after a long time: "Those brothers who didn't get out are not considered a loss."

The captains of each banner counted the number of people. There were about a dozen brothers who were in Hancheng this time. They didn't even have time to grab their soldier badges, so they had to go back and check the roster to make a death list.

……

Li You didn't run far, and vaguely heard Hancheng's alarm bell.He thought that there are two thousand guards in the city, so why can't they defend a city?If he rushes back to rescue, his 300 men will be in trouble if they happen to run into the vermilion bandits.So he just sent two cavalry back to investigate, and at the same time led the brigade to pursue Zuo Guangxian.

There were still clear horseshoe marks on the road that Zuo Guangxian ran, and people could be seen on the horizon in the distance. Li You was really reluctant to escape with the meat in his mouth.That is, the price of Zhu Ming's general soldier has only fallen recently. If he could catch a general soldier two years earlier, it would be enough to advance to three levels in a row!

Before Tan Ma reported back, the huge movement from the direction of Hancheng made Li You's heart sink instantly.

That is the powder magazine of the army!

These gunpowder are all gunpowder seized by the Ming army, and some of them are even gunpowder transported to Xi'an by Yanjing.The Dashun Army has had a large number of Frang machine guns since Jia County, and the soldiers also found that it is much easier to attack the city with artillery than to fill it with human life, and they are more dependent on gunpowder.

But now...

Li You's eyes darkened, and he swayed to stabilize himself on the horse's back. He turned the horse's head and said loudly, "Go! Come back with me!" (To be continued.)