The commander of the siege was still Kang Sheli, who had been relieved of his command by the Khan after the defeat of the Tribulus Array in the last siege, but because of his meritorious advice, he was reinstated in command of today's siege battle. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this time, a cavalryman galloped in and reported to Kang Shea: "General, the Sui army's arrows are too fierce for us to resist, and we have suffered heavy casualties, and General Temu has requested that the army be withdrawn first. ”

Kang Sheli glanced back at the Khan, only to see the Khan looking at him coldly, which made him feel a chill down his spine, he knew the Khan's mind very well, the Khan would never allow any behavior that shook the morale of the army, before the Khan had a strict order, at all costs to seize the city, if he dared to order the army to withdraw, I am afraid that the Khan would not spare him first.

Helpless, Kang Sheali had to grit his teeth and order: "No retreat, another 5,000 people!" ”

The Turkic army pressed 5,000 people again, and in the open space of the horn mouth south of the Purple River, which was only one mile long and about three miles wide, Kang Sheli successively invested 20,000 soldiers, although the Sui army's crossbows were sharp and ferocious, killing and wounding a large number of Turkic soldiers, but under the urging of the Turkic war drums again and again, more than 10,000 Turkic soldiers attacked frantically, hundreds of siege ladders set up the city wall, and the Turkic soldiers climbed up like ant colonies.

The Sui soldiers had to divide their forces to defend, and the 5,000 crossbowmen became 2,000 men, and they turned to fire crossbow arrows from both sides of the horse wall at the backs of the Turkic soldiers who were climbing the city, which strongly supported the defense of the city, and the defenders of the city fought with spears and enemy soldiers on the ladder, and the rolling wood and stones on both sides kept falling, and a string of Turkic soldiers screamed and fell down the city.

At this time, Kang Sheli also threw the last team of 10,000 people into the siege battle, and the fighting between the two sides became extremely bloody, with corpses piling up under the city walls and rivers of blood, not only the Turkic army suffered heavy casualties, but also the Sui army defending the city also suffered huge casualties.

Zhang Zhenqiu shouted hoarsely, and kept mobilizing troops to replenish the critical place, when suddenly a soldier pointed to the west and shouted: "The Turks are killing from above!" ”

As soon as Zhang Zhenqiu raised his head, he suddenly felt a chill, only to see that thousands of Turkic soldiers had climbed the Great Wall on the high mountain in the west, and were killing along the Great Wall towards the pass at the foot of the mountain.

At this time, the defenders did not expect a scene anyway, the Turks, who had always only been able to ride horses, would actually climb the mountain, but the crisis had already appeared, Zihe Pass itself was part of the Great Wall, and the Great Wall on the mountain was connected together, separated by three city platforms in the middle, and at this time the Sui army only had a dozen soldiers on the last city platform.

Zhang Zhenqiu was anxious, the second batch of 100 siege ladders of the Turkic army had been killed, and all the soldiers were put into defense, he never pulled out soldiers to defend the city, seeing that thousands of Turkic troops killed from the mountains were less than half a mile away from Guancheng, and the situation was extremely critical, he had to shout to the deputy general Niu Jun: "General Niu commands Guancheng!" ”

Without waiting for Niu Jun to answer, Zhang Zhenqiu personally led more than 100 soldiers to the west of the city.

In the distance, the Khan of Chuluo smiled a little proudly, and ordered an army of 5,000 men to go up the mountain as a surprise soldier he had arranged, and while the bull was clearing the thistles, the commander of the ten thousand soldiers, Broza, had already led 5,000 soldiers up the mountain quietly.

From the head of the city, the Sui army rushed to meet the battle, and Chu Luo Khan knew that his surprise soldiers had succeeded, and the Sui army defending the city could not do it at all, and it was only a matter of time before he captured the city.

Chu Luo Khan coldly shouted: "Beat the drum!" ”

'Knock-knock-knock-'

A hundred huge drums sounded at the same time, like rolling muffled thunder across the sky, this is an order to fight to the death, and if you can't take the city today, you will never stop fighting.

The siege battle has been killed from noon to dusk, the Turkic army has more than 10,000 casualties, and the 5,000 Sui army has also suffered more than half of the casualties.

But the most tragic part is still the westernmost part of the city, Zhang Zhenqiu personally led the army to block the Turkic soldiers killed from the mountain, more than 100 soldiers have been killed, and only a dozen soldiers are left to defend the last city.

Zhang Zhenqiu's voice was already hoarse, and he couldn't say a word anymore, he brandished a big knife, and constantly chopped the Turkic soldiers who rushed to kill in the city, the corpses in the city platform had been piled up half a person high, the stumps were broken, the flesh and blood were blurred, Zhang Zhenqiu was injured countless times, but he still guarded the exit like a god, making it difficult for the Turkic soldiers to take a step.

At this moment, more than a dozen Turkic soldiers jumped on the city platform, and fired arrows at him from the city platform, Zhang Zhenqiu waved his knife to dial, but his physical strength was exhausted, his arms were completely weak, he couldn't lift a seventy-pound big knife, and he didn't even have the strength to dodge, more than a dozen arrows all hit Zhang Zhenqiu, Zhang Zhenqiu shouted, even took a few steps back, and shouted to the soldiers behind him with the last trace of strength: "The whole army retreats.... Withdraw! ”

Life was gone, the main general Zhang Zhenqiu fell to the ground and died, without Zhang Zhenqiu's blockade, the Turkic soldiers rushed out, and finally a dozen soldiers turned around and fled, crying and shouting to the deputy general Niu Jun: "General Niu, General Zhang is dead, let you retreat!" ”

This news thundered like five thunderbolts, Niu Jun was stunned, and at this time, the Sui soldiers could not stop the Turkic soldiers who were killing from the west, and retreated one after another.

"General Niu, I can't hold it!"

Seeing that the general trend had gone, Niu Jun had to sigh and order: "The whole army retreats to the east!" ”

The soldiers of the Sui army knew very well that once the city was lost, they could not outrun the Turkic cavalry, and only by retreating to the east and retreating to the mountains could they have a glimmer of life, which was the retreat route determined by the Sui army before, and they could retreat to Yanmen County by another route.

The last 1,800 or so soldiers retreated quickly and orderly to the east of the Great Wall, and the Turkic soldiers slaughtered the city one after another. ”

In just one night, the Great Wall of Zihe rebuilt by the Northern Sui was once again razed to the ground by the Turkic army, which marched to the south.

And at the beginning of night, in an abandoned beacon on the top of the East Mountain, Han Qianhui and three other soldiers were left behind to light the beacon, they also suffered heavy casualties, and only four of the ten felony soldiers were left, although the main general Zhang Zhenqiu did not discriminate against them, but the deputy general Niu Jun always felt that they were not normal soldiers, and finally left them behind to light the alarm beacon to inform the south that Zihe Pass had been lost.

The beacon of Ziheguan is at the head of the city and on the high mountain to the west, but it has been led by the Turkic army, and only the abandoned beacon on the east mountain is left, and there is no dry wolf dung and dry firewood, so they need to prepare it themselves.

Han Qianhui took three brothers to climb up to the beacon with more than a dozen bundles of dry firewood on their backs, and one of them said angrily: "Why do you let us stay, is this bull head still treating us as a trap soldier?" ”

Han Qianhui smiled bitterly and said, "He understands in his heart that General Zhang has pardoned us, but he still discriminates against us a little. ”

"What if we don't do it, they're gone anyway, so let's go home too!" Another soldier was also dissatisfied.

Han Qianhui hurriedly stopped them and said to the three of them: "We are all people with serious crimes, if we leave without lighting the beacon fire, then all our previous efforts will be nullified, and the brothers who died in the war will also die in vain, we will continue to be wanted by the government, and we will not be able to reunite with our families, so that no one is a ghost or a ghost, on the contrary, as long as we light the beacon, General Niu will have nothing to say, we will really get rid of our crimes, and now it should be our last atonement!" ”

The three of them were silent, Han Qianhui made sense, if they didn't light this beacon fire, then they would never have a chance to get ahead, "Then what should we do?" One of them asked.

"Who knows? Get some food first, and then go back to General Niu, General Zhang is dead, and only he can prove that we have been pardoned. ”

Han Qianhui said as he lit the fire sickle, "Hurry up and light the fire!" ”

Everyone put the dead branches together, and soon lit a fire, the flame gradually ignited the dry pyre, and after a while, the fire became more and more vigorous, and the fire was as high as several zhang, and at this time, the beacon fire dozens of miles away in the south was also ignited, and the news that the Turkic army had entered the Zihe Pass spread to the south one by one.

Han Qianhui led his three subordinates to pack up their weapons and armor, turned around and walked down the mountain. (To be continued.) )