Chapter 1110 Tongguan

Tongguan.

It was originally the hardest hit area by the plague, but as time goes by, the virus that likes warm and moist weather slowly loses its battle in the face of dry and cold nature. At the same time, Tongguan gradually loses control over the cleaning, burial, and burning of corpses. The neighborhood is coming back to life.

Although Yang Biao left Guanzhong, it was naturally impossible for a dangerous pass like Tongguan to be controlled by others, so he left two thousand soldiers, with Yang Tong and Yang Ziran as the chief generals, and Li Xian and Li Boren as deputy generals.

Yang Tong was naturally a member of the Yang family of Hongnong, while Li Xian was a descendant of the Li family of Longxi.

It has to be said that the Longxi Li family has been a complete tragedy since Li Guang. If according to later generations, Li Guang was not only a complete road idiot, but even his luck value was negative...

But for the Li family in Longxi, Li Guang was not the end of the tragedy, but the beginning.

After Li Guang, there was Li Ling.

Although this unlucky child was not as miserable as Li Guang in finding the road, he was even worse than Li Guang in other aspects. Just when Li Ling was conquering the Xiongnu, when he was returning, less than a thousand miles away from the Han border, he encountered the main force of the Xiongnu and was surrounded. Li Ling fought hard several times, but could not get away, and there was no reinforcement for a long time. When he was preparing to break out, he made an appointment to beat the drum as a signal at midnight, and broke out separately. As a result, the drum got damp and could not be beaten...

Li Ling was eventually captured by the Xiongnu, and he did not surrender at first. As a result, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty asked the alchemists to check the faces of Li Ling's mother and wife, and they said they did not have "a look of death." Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty became suspicious, and later he believed Gongsun Ao's words. The excuse was that Li Ling was training soldiers for the Huns, which led to the defeat. He was so angry that he directly ordered the entire Li Ling family to be executed.

Li Ling learned about it from the Xiongnu, vomited blood several times, and finally surrendered to the Xiongnu...

The Li family in Longxi has been in decline ever since, and has not been able to recover to this day.

Tongguan is the gateway between Guanzhong and Hongnong, but now Hongnong belongs to the Yang family, Zhao Wen of Guanzhong is also a friendly party, and the troops of General Zhengxi are far away near Diaoyin, so Yang Tong spent the early period in After being cautious for a long time, I slowly and naturally started to slack off.

Especially now that the cold winter is approaching.

According to Han law, for all important military passes, the commander-in-chief of the army must patrol the pass every three hours, and the deputy general of the army must patrol the pass every hour. Although Yang Tong is the commander-in-chief, most of the time Yang Tong does not patrol the customs. Instead, he often stays in the Tongguan government office and is at ease. Therefore, Li Xian is in charge of most of the military affairs in Tongguan today.

Patrolling the customs once an hour almost means that there is no way to go down to the city wall to rest, so Li Xian simply moved the bedding to the turret, and just drifted off when he was tired.

The winter sun also seems to be lazy. It comes out every day to show its face, check in, and do some errands, and then lazily falls to the west, getting ready to get off work.

Because Tongguan is close to a large river, it is not only cold, but also three times more humid than other places. If you stand on top of the city without shelter, your clothes will be wet after a night, and if the cold wind blows all night, you will probably get sick even if you are not sick. Therefore, after nightfall, the soldiers on duty will huddle together and huddle up. In a sheltered place.

In fact, I can't blame Yang Tong for being lazy. Staying in a place like Tongguan with no village or shop would make anyone feel bored after staying there for a long time, and they would become less and less energetic...

After the lazy sun slid down the Western Mountain, the sky quickly dimmed, the cold wind began to howl, and the chirping of wild beasts and birds could be faintly heard from the surrounding cliffs, as if they were also holding on for the last time. A glimmer of light is moving.

The little food of late breasts in the afternoon was not enough to withstand it for long. Before night came, all the food and hot soup had been digested. What awaited these Tongguan guardsmen was a long night and a difficult morning. .

In the distance, in the dim night, there were some sounds.

"Attention! Someone is coming!"

The defenders above Tongguan shouted loudly.

A war horse rushed out of the night. A small recognition flag hung on the back of the cavalry. Although the night was dim, it could be vaguely seen that it belonged to the Chang'an Forbidden Army.

The cavalry reined in their horses under the city. The horses were panting heavily and spinning in circles, looking a little tired. "The defenders of Tongguan listened! On the orders of the envoy of Yin and Zhao from the capital, we are bringing cattle, wine, food, grass, etc." The supplies are here to help the army! The baggage has arrived ten miles away! Quickly inform the garrison and prepare to receive it!"

The cavalry turned around a few times, repeated the shouting several times, and then rode back...

"What does it mean?"

"It sounds like who is coming to ask for labor?"

"So, you have meat to eat and wine to drink? Haha, this is such a good feeling..."

"Come on, you are so beautiful that you can eat wine and meat? If you have two thick pancakes and add some bacon strips, it will be good!"

"Oh, it's okay if you have thick pancakes..."

The guards were chattering and did not dare to neglect, and quickly reported to Li Xian.

"Captain Yang, this inexplicable labor force... is somewhat strange..."

In the Tongguan government office, Li Xian cupped his hands and said.

Yang Tong frowned and said, "What's so strange? Zhao Shijun has always been on good terms with the head of the family, so the labor force should be the right thing to do...and we have been suffering in this remote and cold place for a long time, so these labor supplies should have been sent to us long ago." Some are coming..."

"Captain Yang..." Li Xian was about to persuade him again, but Yang Tong stopped him.

"Okay! Got it! Just let Erlang be on guard! If it's a real laborer, it'll be fine. If it's a fake, just intercept and kill him!" Yang Tong waved his hand and ended the conversation impatiently.

"..." Li Xian had no choice but to retreat.

Under the eager anticipation of the Tongguan defenders, the creaking baggage convoy finally arrived.

There were fifteen baggage trains in total, and about a hundred soldiers were escorting them.

The flag was indeed the Zhao family's flag, but Li Xian didn't recognize the middle-aged man who was leading the team.

Of course, it is normal not to recognize them. There are nearly 10,000 people in the Chang'an Forbidden Army in Guanzhong. How can anyone recognize them?

"A certain person is under the command of the envoy of Jingzhao Yin Zhao! We are here to escort the supplies to the army! Please open the city gate quickly so that we can complete our errand!" The middle-aged man shouted loudly to the top of Tongguan.

Li Xian looked at the motorcade carefully, but he couldn't see very clearly in the dim light. Naturally, he couldn't tell whether it was true or false, so he had to shout: "If there is an inscription or a seal, let's take a look!"

The middle-aged man did not hesitate. He took out a wooden tablet and a square seal from the cloth bag on his horse, and asked them to place them in the bamboo basket hanging down in Tongguan.

Li Xian delivered the copper seal and the inscription to Yang Tong.

"Military Sima Zhao?"

Yang Tong turned over the copper seal. There was a lot of patina on the copper seal, as well as some traces of wear and bumps. It had obviously been used for a period of time and was not newly made.

But as for the wooden tablet, the fire paint on it is indeed Jing Zhaoyin's mark, but the handwriting is a bit blurry. Some words may have been touched by water, or they were touched before the ink was dry when writing. Anyway, I can only roughly tell that fifty jars of wine, fifteen cows, some bacon, corn, etc. were sent as gifts...

"...The procedures are complete...well...a hundred people..." Yang Tong pondered for a while and said: "Open the door and let them in!"

Li Xian was a little surprised and said quickly: "Captain, as a rule, the door is not opened after dark!"

Yang Tong said "ha", waved his hand and said: "Isn't it already night? What else? Let these people stay up all night outside the city? There are only a hundred people, why do this!"

The army supplies were right in front of them. Seeing that they were about to have delicious spicy food, everyone in Tongguan was extremely excited and worked a lot harder. They quickly removed the huge door latch and pushed the heavy city gate open with a creaking sound. Baggage trucks can enter the customs.

During this period of time, Tongguan was very busy, cleaning up the surrounding areas and repairing the city walls. It was hard to endure the winter, and there was a little less work. However, seeing the captain enjoying life and drinking in the government office every day, it was hard to say There were also some camp prostitutes to help with the fun, but the big-headed soldiers could only gnaw on the coarse cakes and suffer in the cold wind. They inevitably muttered in their hearts. Nowadays, it is rare for labor supplies to be delivered, but they were laughing so hard that they couldn't even close their mouths. When he got up, the captain ate a big meal, but he couldn't share a bowl of soup to drink. They were all licking blood from the knife edge to survive. It was a rare opportunity to relax and unwind.

Amidst the squeaking sound of the rolling baggage wheels, the middle-aged strong man outside the city led the soldiers across the drawbridge and entered the city gate.

On both sides of the road, many Tongguan defenders who had heard the news were standing and waiting happily. The Tongguan soldiers who were responsible for opening the city gate came up and smiled while greeting the soldiers entering the city. He had to touch through the curtains of the baggage train. These are all old men in the military, the type who are uncomfortable if they don't take advantage of them. Generally speaking, the baggage cart must be full of supplies, large and small, and just picking out a few handfuls is enough to feed you one or two more meals. Besides, if you can pick up some bacon or something, wouldn't it be a big profit? Sent?

Li Xian walked down the city's galloping road, only to see the soldiers who had entered the city standing beside the baggage carts, driving away those old men who tried to touch the baggage carts, causing those soldiers to There was chattering on the side, but they didn’t say anything nice anyway…

Li Xian suddenly stood still, looked at the middle-aged man at the front, frowned, and said loudly: "Since you have entered the city, why don't you dismount?"

The middle-aged man chuckled, then took the horse's head and said to Li Xian: "More reminders! I'm tired of walking, and I'm a little slow... Sons, hahaha..."

"Just do it!"

Amidst the laughter, the middle-aged man had already knocked on the horse's belly, swung his spear, and rushed straight to the gallop where Li Xian was. When the soldiers beside the baggage car heard the sound, they all drew their weapons, and immediately disappeared. Stupidly slashing at the surrounding Tongguan defenders!

"No..." The old man wanted to take advantage. Before he could finish saying "no", a sword had already struck his head. With a "click", a bunch of donated blood suddenly sprayed into the air!

A head flew up from the wide-eyed eyes, mixed with blood and landed on the cloth of the baggage truck. It was just spinning around, with the initial panic still solidified in a pair of eyes!

"kill!"

The curtain of the baggage truck was suddenly lifted, and the soldiers hiding in the truck jumped out one after another, and rushed towards the Tongguan defenders.

Some rice bags and straw bags used to cover up were flipped aside, and some yellow and white beans and corns were scattered on the ground, but no one took a second look at this moment...

Suddenly encountering such a change, the Tongguan defenders had no time to react. These fierce soldiers rushed into the crowd, slashed left and right, and streams of blood spurted out, and screams were heard.

The Tongguan defenders were happily waiting to receive supplies from the labor force. Many of them did not even take weapons, but just thought about what they would eat and drink next. When the middle-aged men with their men and horses suddenly rose up and the killing generals passed by. , It’s really like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, killing the Tongguan defenders without the ability to resist!

In the face of the sudden attack, these Tongguan defenders screamed and fled in disarray. Some of them were rolling around on the ground. They tried to get out in a daze, but they were stepped on by the feet of unknown people who were rushing over. They were hit several times in succession. After that, there was not much breath; although some were carrying weapons, other surrounding guards were fleeing, and they had no intention of resisting. They could only run along with the flow of people, shouting in panic... …

"Don't run! Don't run around!" Li Xian was on the road when he was suddenly hit by the incoming Tongguan guards and his body became unstable. "Form up! Form a formation!"

"Oops! We've fallen into a trap!" Yang Tong was horrified on the city wall and shouted repeatedly, "Drumming! Drumming! Form a team, form a team, stop them!"

The middle-aged man who led the team, Zhang Hongying, was already dripping with blood. He didn't know how many people he drank from. When he saw this situation, he just raised his gun and shouted: "Kill! Seize the bridge! Seize the pass!"

As the middle-aged man's voice fell, several rockets were ignited and shot diagonally into the air.

As the rockets drew arcs in the night sky, there was a faint sound like thunder outside Tongguan...

On the city wall, the Tongguan garrison lying on the battlements pointed to the outside of the pass and opened his mouth to shout something, but his throat was so frightened that he could not speak for a long time.

Yang Tong's face turned pale. He looked at the open city gate. Just as he was about to let someone forcefully winch up the suspension bridge, he heard the sound of an axe, and then two "boom boom" sounds, and two iron cables pulled the suspension bridge. It was cut off, floated back and hit the wall...

In the last glimmer of light on the horizon, Yang Tong saw countless cavalry rushing out of the darkness, urging their horses to rush towards Tongguan, seemingly endless. In the riding formation, the three-color flag fluttering in the wind was so dazzling!

"It's over! Zhengxi...it's Zhengxi...he's here..." Yang Tong made a cry-like sound and murmured repeatedly, "Zhengxi is here, here..."