Chapter 259 The Beacon Fire of Xirong Rekindles
The stars on the grassland are dense and dazzling, and the passing clouds turn gray under the starlight. The huge and complicated tents are surrounded by the stench of war horses and people. The smell, and occasionally a few long howls of lone wolves could be heard in the distance.
In the quiet Xirong camp, many of the tribesmen who had traveled a long way had already gone to bed. There were also patrolling tribal warriors holding torches and walking past Luo Jingbin. They all knew that this Wei man was a Xianyu Khan's staff.
But few Xirong people know his name. They only know that the other party picked him up in a puddle and used him as a slave. Gradually, they discovered that he had profound talents and learning, and the tribal leader sent him to Xie. Control the tribe.
From that day on, Luo Jingbin was appreciated by Xieyu and helped make suggestions, allowing the Xieyu tribe to take advantage of the locust plague in the east to annex two medium-sized tribes using both carrot and stick.
But he was not grateful to Xirong, let alone Xianyu Khan's support.
In a sense, he hates the Xirong people.
As for the country of Yan across the way, they didn’t have the slightest favorable impression either. He was lucky enough to survive the attack on the Yelang tribe. He was determined to die, just to vent his anger on his close friend who had known him for many years.
A scholar dies for a confidant.
He wanted to avenge Qi Baoguo and drag the Xia King of Yan State and the Xirong people into the abyss.
"General...that King of Xia is like a fish in water. Jingbin can't kill him because he is not powerful, but he can still make him suffer. As for the Xirong people, let that King of Xia teach him a lesson and beat him to pieces on both sides." !”
Luo Jingbin thought with his hands behind his back, looking up at the dense stars in the night sky.
……
The sky is misty and bright.
Yantangguan, which had been quiet for a night, became lively again. The enlisted civilian workers went up the mountain to cut down the trees and removed the branches. The round tree body was carried down the mountain by the young men behind.
As the morning light rose into the sky, the cicadas began to chirp hysterically.
One by one, bare-armed folk carried the tree body and sawed it into two pieces, put it on a donkey cart and pulled it to the pass. There were large pots on the road along the way. Amidst the clanking of iron, most of the passing folk would After a pause, the woman who was helping scooped up a bowl of bone soup and gave it to them. The hot soup poured into their stomachs, which was a hearty and refreshing feeling.
This is the soup specially prepared by Lei Tong, the guard of Yantang Pass, for the drafted civilians. It relieves fatigue and endures hunger. He also provides one meal a day and a salary of sixty coppers. This is a great value for the villagers who have less time to farm. A dream job.
But regardless of wages, the Xirong people are about to invade the border. For the people living around Yantang Pass, even if the government does not pay them, they will do some things for free.
After all, barbarians entering the country would be a disaster for ordinary people.
What happened to the Qi family last year has already brought shame to them. If the Xirong people come in again, many young and old men will feel completely ashamed to live anymore.
After the order of the guard Lei Tong, almost all the people in the pass responded, helping out inside and outside. They guarded the city with heavy wood and stone, and even built several knife carts for use. Preparation for street fighting after the city is broken.
Yunqi County heard that food was constantly being delivered to this side, and a large number of reinforcements were coming. The people inside and outside the pass had full confidence in defending the pass.
However, this afternoon.
On Youyan Mountain south of Yantang Pass, countless footsteps and horse hooves are crossing the mountains and ridges. They are wearing fur coats and fur hats, carrying bows and knives on their backs, holding war horses in their hands, and following a group of people wearing different clothes. , the thief with a fierce look walked down the mountain forest.
A group of soldiers from Yantang Pass who were patrolling the foot of the mountain noticed something was wrong immediately and quickly shot loud arrows into the sky. They were then overtaken and killed by bandits and Xirong people who rushed down the mountain forest.
The leading Xirong warrior was Yu Kun, a fierce general under Xieyu Khan. He looked at the dead Yan soldiers on the ground, raised his sword and licked the remaining blood on the edge of the knife.
He withdrew his gaze and turned his head to look at the tribal soldiers who were gathering one after another to confront the Youyan bandits who were collecting money. He used words that only Xirong people could understand: "These Yan bandits, It's so useful... But don't imitate them, the warriors of the tribe. We are here to conquer the pass of Yan State. He blocks our way eastward and hinders our war horses, but it cannot stop Xirong in the future! Man's iron hoof!"
His voice was high-pitched. The bandit who was looting over there turned his head and continued to do his own thing.
Then... they were chopped into a pool of blood by the Xirong cavalry who were galloping towards them. The next moment, the horn sounded, and more Xirong cavalry stepped on the corpses on the ground and headed towards Yantang Pass. Spreading across the villages they met on the way, they had no extra words to say. They rushed directly into the village, setting off a wave of blood, and then burned the place with fire. They caught up with the main force rushing ahead and continued to move forward.
When a total of 7,000 Xirong cavalry appeared in the southeast of Yantang Pass, the sentries along the way had already received the news. They were surprised to hear that the Xirong people were coming around from Youyan Mountain.
Then one after another the sentry teams tried to block the horses and fences. However, faced with such a huge group of cavalry, waves of checkpoints were directly bulldozed by the opponent in the wilderness, and some of them gathered together. The team formed a military formation and fought with the Xirong cavalry in the wilderness.
The news of the appearance of the Xirong people spread like wings. At this time, outside Yantang Pass, officials and officers from the Yamen were dispatched one after another, on horseback or on foot, shouting along the way to ask people outside to enter the pass immediately.
But the news came a little late after all. The people who heard the appearance of the Xirong people could not outrun the four-legged horses in the wilderness. They were chased from behind by the Xirong cavalry and chopped to the ground with a knife. Then they jumped to the ground. Get off the horse, cut off the head of the corpse, hold it on the tip of the knife, let out a savage roar, and show off to the surrounding tribesmen.
In the pass, soldiers and horses were mobilized urgently. Lei Tong was fully clothed, holding an iron gun and Pegasus came to the east city wall. At this time, the city gate was still open, and a large number of civilians and people were working outside. Fleeing in panic.
"Equestrians, follow me!"
He turned around and shouted. Among the three hundred soldiers, seventy cavalry immediately followed Lei Tong and rushed out of the pass. Along the way, there were many people who were panicking towards this place. While running towards them, dozens of feet away, several Xirong knights stopped and looked at the Yan generals and seventy cavalry who were coming out of seclusion from a distance. They whistled in this direction, then laughed loudly, turned their horses' heads and ran away.
“Don’t chase, escort the people here back to the pass first!”
According to the news, there are as many as six or seven thousand Xirong people coming over the mountains. Almost all of them were cavalry, but what he couldn't figure out was how these Xirong people who came from the depths of the grassland established relationships with the Yanshan bandits and found shortcuts.
He took seventy cavalry to escort more than a hundred common people who had gathered and retreated into the pass. Around the city gate, there was a cry of people looking for their relatives.
The Xirong people suddenly came from behind and many people were killed or captured before they could evacuate in time. Many civilians who were originally cutting trees outside the pass did not come back.
"These Yanshan bandits..." This was the first time Lei Tong was so angry that he shouted out. Youyan Mountain is so steep that no ordinary person can walk on it, and there are more poisonous insects in the mountain. But just in case, he arranged patrols near Youyan Mountain at both points of the pass.
At present, both sides were under attack. Soon, Lei Tong issued an order to requisition some of the people's houses in the pass, especially those close to the city wall, and to build rolling logs and stones to defend the city.
Many passionate people from the pass also participated, and some wealthy households even took out grain from their homes and gave it to Lei Tong's generals to use as military rations.
On September 11th, the Xirong army rested for two days and finally launched an attack on the city. For some reason, these Xirong people who were good at riding horses climbed onto the city to fight very skillfully after hanging up the ladders. Lei Tong led six thousand people on the west wall. The officers and soldiers of Yantang Pass fought with them on the top of the city. The east wall was also caught in the whirlpool of siege.
On September 12th, the Xirong cavalry outside Yantang Pass gradually swept away the surrounding area. A grain transport team coming from Yunqi was turned around and was attacked by the cavalry that caught up. No one in the grain team survived. .
On September 13th, two groups of Western soldiers from the west and east of the city launched an attack again. Lei Tong repelled a group of Western soldiers who ascended the city, turned around and rode towards the east of the city, exhausted,
That afternoon, the city wall was in danger. The Xirong army in the west of the city attacked extremely fiercely, almost allowing the opponent to gain a foothold on the city wall several times.
It is difficult to send news of help through the pass.
The news that Yantang Pass was being attacked from both sides had actually spread. The first person to receive the news was Longyang County. Li Dian asked people to open the city gate. He took 3,000 of his own troops and 7,000 of the county soldiers to rush for reinforcements.
On the fourteenth day, eight hundred miles of fast horses rushed into Yanjing.
Zheng He led 100 people from the Seizure Factory, 50 people from the Embroidery Department, and 2,000 slave soldiers out of the capital and rushed to Yantang Pass. He had followed Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty in Jingnan and made meritorious deeds on the battlefield. Yes, he knows a lot more about the battlefield than Li Bai.
In Yunqi County, after hearing the news, Wu Huizhi, the Marquis of Yunqi, also went into battle and asked Tang Huaiyuan for 2,000 men to go to Yantang Pass for reinforcements.
After hearing the news, the Fang family was in great mourning. White flags and lanterns were hung in their home, and a large memorial sign was posted.
The team transporting grain was attacked by the Xirong people, and no one survived. Fang Wenye received the news on September 13th and fainted and fell to the ground.
At the age of fourteen, he gradually woke up. He was talking about the names of his eldest son Fang Jinyou and his grandson Faang Ling. He listened to his wife's choking voice and talked about the tragic situation outside Yantang Pass. My son has lived such a long life and died for his country, which is a worthy death.
"Master...you can eat some..." The old wife brought the porridge and sat by the bed to feed him.
The old man's face turned blue, and he weakly raised his hand to push away the feeding spoon, "My son went to You, and his grandson Fang Ling died while reinforcing the frontline soldiers. He and his son deserved no loss!"< br>
His eyes moved slightly, looked at the desk in front of the window lattice, and struggled.
"Grind ink for me..."
The old wife wiped away her tears and nodded, calling the maid to help her husband. She got up and walked to the desk to prepare pen, ink, paper and inkstone for the old man.
The candlestick moved over and pressed against a corner of the paper.
The night wind that squeezed into the gap between the window lattice blew the old man's long snow-white beard. Fang Wenye tremblingly picked up the brush and calmed down. The moment the pen tip fell, he wrote slowly with firm strength.
"A letter to the King of Yanxia and his grandson-in-law Su Chen:
I heard that the king defeated 400,000 people in the Central Plains, defeated the capital of Wei in half a day, and settled the hatred of the people of Fenzhou. I happily drank a pot to celebrate the king. In just a few days, I have thought a lot. What I want in this life is fame and fortune, opening up new territories, and leaving a name in history. I think I am righteous, but in fact I have wasted half my life, becoming a rotten scholar in the city..."
Old The wife held the lamp and watched the old man's eyes wandering but writing like a god. She couldn't stop crying.
...
After the old man wrote this letter, he fell. He asked Sanzifang to go to school and deliver the letter as quickly as possible. It arrived in Luyang, Central Plains, and was delivered to Su Chen ten days later.
Don't blame Chunfeng for being slow to update, these chapters are indeed true. It’s a bit difficult to write, after all, it’s the end of the volume
(End of this chapter)