Although he said that, Zhu Xianzhong also knew in his heart that the enemy's commander would never let the battle drag on until dawn, and this battle would be a benevolent battle for the enemy's commander, because the retreat of the infantry was a big problem, and if it could not succeed in a battle, then it would inevitably face the situation of being chased and killed by the guards after dawn.

Zhu Xianzhong's speculation was very accurate, and when the enemy infantry approached the camp of the guards, they quickly launched an attack under the deployment and orders of the commander-in-chief.

In order to cover up their own deployment and the general number of troops, the invading army did not light a large number of torches, the entire army was dark, and the herald used all torches to shake as a signal, although to a large extent concealed their own strength and deployment, but also brought the disadvantages of not being able to coordinate and cooperate, and even difficult to distinguish between the enemy and us, which is also the reason why the enemy's main general did not launch a formal attack at the first time.

The enemy finally moved, and there was a large buzzing sound in the distance, which was all too familiar to the Western Qin army with experience, which was the sound of the bowstring bouncing back when a large number of bows and crossbows were fired in a volley.

"Shield Array!" Zhu Xianzhong reacted immediately, and immediately issued an order, and the herald next to him immediately waved his torch.

The soldiers did not need the orders of the generals, they stood in the predetermined position at great speed, and completed the arrangement of the shield array in just a few seconds, this shield array was composed of countless small shield arrays, and the formations were arranged in place in units, so there was no need to deploy and give orders, and the time required only took three or four seconds to complete.

There is a flight distance after the arrow is out of the bowstring, and the speed of the flight is always unable to catch up with the sound wave, so the Western Qin army, which has always cooperated with the extremely tacit understanding, makes full use of these few seconds of archery to arrange it into a shield array, which can block the enemy from carrying out large-scale long-range bow and crossbow strikes.

The enemy's main general's intention was now obvious, and in the absence of an infantry, and the cavalry's attack could not be effective, he could only use a large number of infantry to attack the guards with a large number of long-range bows and arrows, killing and wounding a large number of guards soldiers, and the guards could not carry out long-range bow and arrow countermeasures, because no matter how powerful the cavalry bow was, it was always compared with the infantry bow, especially in terms of range.

A large number of arrows fell into the sand in the camp and clanged on the shields, Zhao Ziliang's deployment was extremely timely and correct, not only the soldiers of the escort army were able to arrange shield arrays in time to block the arrows, but also the war horses were also well placed in advance, without major losses.

The rain of arrows in the sky kept falling, lasted for nearly a quarter of an hour before it began to slowly become washed, and finally stopped completely, Zhao Ziliang and others sat in the lobby of the post station and heard the continuous clanging sound on the roof, fortunately, this post station is all made of stone, even the roof is made of cement slabs, if it is a thatched roof, I am afraid that a large number of arrows have already penetrated in the lobby.

"Your Majesty, the enemy's bow and arrow strikes seem to have stopped!" Li Muchen saw that he didn't hear the sound of arrows hitting the roof anymore, so he said to Zhao Ziliang.

At this time, a small colonel outside quickly ran in with a small round shield and reported to Zhao Ziliang about the further movements of the enemy army: "Your Majesty, the enemy army has begun to send some small groups of soldiers to the camp after the large-scale bow and arrow strikes just now, and try to extinguish the fire outside the camp!" ”

Liang Zhenwu, the deputy general of the Dragon Guard, said: "It seems that they want to test the current defense force in the camp to see the effect of their bow and arrow strikes just now, and they also want to extinguish those fires in order to hide their intention to attack!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was noncommittal, and suddenly asked: "I remember that the general of the Hexi Provincial Garrison seems to be Wang Jiahe, right?" ”

Du Zongwen arched his hand and said: "Yes, Your Majesty, Wang Jiahe was transferred from the Chang'an Shence Military Envoy to the general of the Hexi Provincial Garrison five years ago."

Wang Jiahe's military qualifications are very deep, he has served as a military envoy of Shence, a permanent guard, is a pivotal military figure among the generals of the Chang'an Forbidden Army, although the Tang Army is divided into three major systems, but not between each system there is no personnel transfer, often there are forbidden army generals transferred to the garrison system, there are also local army generals transferred to the forbidden army system, the three major military systems are often transferred to each other, and Wang Jiahe has been the general of the Hexi Provincial Garrison for five years, this year is his last year as the general of the Hexi Provincial Garrison, After that, his age reached the station, and he had to unload his armor and return to the field.

Zhao Ziliang squinted his eyes at the dark night outside the house, and said: "With so many enemy troops entering Hexi and besieging the escort army of the unit, didn't Wang Jiahe, as the general of the Hexi Provincial Garrison, get a little wind or feel a little abnormal?" Or is it him and his Hexi garrison army who are leading the siege of the guards outside? Apart from him, who has the ability to mobilize more than 10,000 troops for military operations? ”

Not among the ministers and generals present had thought of this possibility, but none of them rashly expressed their doubts in their hearts, after all, Wang Jiahe was a general who commanded the army, and the army under his command was 15,000 people, and if you count the local army of Hexi Province that maintained law and order in the local area, the total strength of Hexi was nearly 25,000 or so.

After Zhao Ziliang showed suspicion, Gu Qianzhi couldn't care about anything else, he stood up and arched his hand: "Holy King, if a large number of foreign soldiers and horses enter Hexi, as the general of the Hexi Provincial Garrison, it is impossible for Wang Jiahe not to receive the news, as far as the minister knows, each garrison in the Tang Dynasty has its own military intelligence department dedicated to collecting and probing military information, and the matter is actually very obvious, this military operation against us was done by the Hexi Provincial Garrison, as for who is the commander of the army, according to the system, To have the right to command the army to attack and carry out such a large-scale military operation, it must be jointly initiated by two main generals, either the garrison general Wang Jiahe and one of the adjutant generals, or one of the adjutant generals and Jia Rong, or it may be Wang Jiahe and Jia Rong, but even if two of them collude together, if they want to carry out such a large-scale military operation, they must have an edict, that is, there must be an edict from the Holy King, and the following generals can obey the order, right? ”

Gu Qianzhi had a general understanding of the situation of the Tang Army, but there were still some situations that were not very clear, Zhao Ziliang shook his head and said: "No, what you said is just that under normal circumstances, in the case of being attacked by foreign enemy forces, because the news cannot reach the capital in time, and it is impossible to get the order from above in time, each garrison has the right to take the initiative to counterattack without an edict!" Didn't we send an official letter to inform the prefectures and counties along the way and the Chang'an Imperial Court before we entered the territory of Datang? ”

Gu Qianzhi hurriedly said: "Wei Chen personally arranged it, when we were still in Tingzhou, Wei Chen sent people in the name of Wang Ting to send official letters to Hexi Dao, Longyou Dao, Guannei Dao and Chang'an Imperial Court, unless the official letter was intercepted halfway!" ”

Zhao Ziliang didn't say anything, the matter was obvious, if the news of his imminent arrival spread, who would dare to openly deploy troops to besiege? Tired of living? The soldiers will not carry out the order in the first place, this is a great crime of the Nine Clans! He believed that the Tang soldiers outside who were preparing to attack must not know who they were besieging, otherwise they would never do it again, and this is where the enemy commander can take advantage of it, the other party sent someone to intercept the official letter sent from Xiqin in advance, covering up the news that he had come to Hexi, and concealed the identity of the attacked opponent from the soldiers, and because the soldiers were trained for a long time, they would carry out the order unconditionally almost every time, and they would not care who they were about to attack, Or rather, the commander of the enemy army described him and the convoy to the soldiers as invading enemy troops.

At this time, another junior colonel ran in and reported: "Your Majesty, several small groups of men and horses sent by the enemy army have all been shot and killed by our army, and their attempt to find out the situation of our army and extinguish the fire pile has failed!" ”

After hearing this, Zhao Ziliang said: "They won't just give up, since they have already started, there is no turning back when they open the bow, things have come to this point, for the enemy generals, it is endless, otherwise what awaits them is also to destroy the nine clans, it is impossible for the other party not to know this, no matter what means and tactics he adopts, the other party will definitely launch a final attack before dawn, and the time has come to make a desperate bet!" ”

Sure enough, the enemy general struck again, this time a large number of rockets flew from the night, filling the entire camp, many camp tents were on fire, and even some war horses were frightened because of the fear of the flames, but fortunately it was controlled in time, in order to save their lives, the guards could only put their shields on their heads and let those tents burn.

In this way, the fire in the camp was abundant, and the void and reality were exposed to the enemy, but in order to minimize the possibility of revealing more strength, the soldiers of the escort army squatted on the ground and pressed close together, with shields on their heads, and did not relax for a moment. The enemy's long-range bow strikes came again, but this time there were no rockets, and the camp was filled with a dense network of arrows, barely getting into the foot.

After a few more rounds of arrows, the enemy's commander finally stopped waiting, and the time was no longer allowed, and it would soon be dawn, and if the final attack was not launched, there would be no time, so when the order for the general attack was given, many people lit torches, and the light of the torches exposed the figure of the attacking army to the sight of the guards, and the sound of footsteps and armor and weapons of the infantry advancing came over.

Zhao Ziliang had already brought the ministers and the soldiers of the Dragon Guard Army to the middle of the camp at this time, and he immediately ordered Zhu Xianzhong: "Concentrate on launching a counter-charge in the northeast direction, and if you find the enemy's main general, destroy it immediately!" ”

Zhu Xianzhong did not hesitate to carry out the order.

Liang Zhenwu, the deputy general of the Dragon Guard, clasped his fists and asked, "Your Majesty, why do you only launch a counterattack in the northeast direction and not attack in other directions?" At this time, all the guards went to attack, and there were less than five hundred dragon guards left to protect His Majesty, and Wei Chen was worried that the enemy army would kill from other directions and would not be able to resist! ”

Zhao Ziliang said calmly: "Don't worry, the enemy is all concentrated in the northeast, there are no enemy troops in other directions, we are very safe here!" If you take a closer look at the tilt direction of the arrows on the ground, all of them are inclined to the northeast, which means that the enemy army is all from the northeast! Besides, your Dragon Guard soldiers are all elite in the army, each of them can be used as ten, and 500 people can be used as 5,000 people, don't worry, the number of troops that the enemy can use is not unlimited! ”