Chapter 293 Brave General Covers Up

Chapter 293 Brave General Covers Up

On the rugged mountain road, a group of knights rode forward. Their hoods and cloaks were covered with a thick layer of white frost, which showed that they had traveled a long way.

A few miles away, there was a garrison built against the mountain wall. When they heard the faint sound of horse hooves coming from the open valley, the expressions of the guards in the castle suddenly became serious. They each wore robes and armor and distributed weapons and staffs. on alert.

Soon the group of knights arrived in front of the fort. One of them went straight to the closed door of the fort, raised his head and shouted upwards: "Xi'an Governor Yang is here for inspection, why don't you open the door to greet us!"

While speaking, he took off another command talisman from his waist and threw it into a basket under the tower. The defenders put the basket up to the top of the city. After carefully inspecting it, they hurriedly gave orders to open the city gate. The garrison leader led several captains to rush out to greet him. He crossed his hands in salute to Yang Zhong in the team and said, "The envoy is here in person. It’s really disrespectful to hold such a lowly position and not welcome someone from afar..."

Yang Zhong just waved his hand and signaled everyone to enter the fort temporarily, not paying much attention to these common etiquette. After entering the fort, before he had time to take off his hood and robe that had already been soaked by the frost, he frowned and asked, "How is the situation in the black salt pond?"

Many days ago, a large number of wandering soldiers appeared in Xi'an Prefecture. The whereabouts of these people are unpredictable and their intentions are unknown, which naturally arouses the high vigilance of the people in the area.

Due to the salt ponds in the territory, there are many bandits in Xi'an Prefecture every autumn and winter. Yang Zhong, the governor, also made many arrangements to deal with this situation. He personally led troops to sit in the largest salt pond in Wuyuan and dispatched scouts to patrol. Everywhere, we strive to ensure smooth communication within the country so that no matter where a situation arises, we can be informed of and respond to it as soon as possible.

After hearing Yang Zhong's question, the garrison leader led him to a lookout in the castle, pointed to the northeast of the lookout and said: "There is the Black Rock Garrison ten miles away. The warning beacon smoke suddenly lit up the morning before yesterday. Bei Zhi immediately led his troops to investigate and rush for reinforcements, but was blocked by the bandit army ambushing the mountain road. There were at least a thousand bandits in Bei Zhi's army. He was really outnumbered and feared that the fortress would be lost, so he could only hold off for the time being. Lead the troops to retreat and immediately send a message to Wuyuan..."

"So, the Black Rock Garrison was lost and the Black Salt Pond was also occupied by the enemy?"

The garrison leader nodded solemnly: "I have been asking Fenghuo for the past two days, but there has been no response. Black Rock Garrison has indeed been lost. After the thieves occupy this garrison, they can hold on to the east." The only thing we can be thankful for is that there are not many oxen and horse-drawn carriages there, but if the thieves themselves have one, then..."

When Yang Zhong heard this, he frowned tightly. He knew that his old lord Duguxin had spent a lot of effort on his transfer, so he didn't want such a big mistake to happen when he took office, so he asked in a deep voice. : "Is there any way to recapture Black Rock Garrison as soon as possible?"

"Yes, there is, but it's really too dangerous!"

The garrison leader hesitated slightly after hearing the words, and then answered hesitantly.

"It's good to have it. Whether it's dangerous or not will be discussed later. Let's fix some food first to satisfy our hunger."

Yang Zhong breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that there was still a way, and then ordered the accompanying soldiers to take off their frost-soaked robes and go into the fort to stay warm, eat and rest.

In the evening, Yang Zhong, who was full of food and drink, and full of energy, led by the garrison leader, bypassed the east mountain road that was already controlled by thieves, and reached the bottom of a high and steep cliff halfway along the mountainside.

"The black rock garrison is suspended halfway up the mountain. The terrain is steep. In addition to the frontal attack, you can also sneak along the mountain wall. However, this road is too dangerous. It was originally a dangerous road explored by the eagle catchers in the old days. However, after passing through this The casualties were too heavy and they were abandoned..."

The garrison leader just stood at the bottom of the cliff, feeling the mountain wind blowing on his face. He couldn't help but become nervous. After much hesitation, he finally had the courage to say: "Although this mountain road can lead directly to the back of the Black Rock Fortress, it is It is not suitable for large groups of people to pass by. Even if they are lucky enough to infiltrate, it will be difficult to recapture the fort from the rebels. It is really too risky!"

Yang Zhong ignored the garrison leader's advice and only pointed to a slightly thin subordinate among his subordinates. The soldier left the team and walked to the bottom of the cliff to look around, and then climbed up on his hands and knees. Go up, move vigorously and nimbly, as if walking on flat ground.

When the garrison commander saw this scene, his eyes widened in surprise. Before he could react, the thin sergeant had already climbed farther and farther away and disappeared behind the cliff.

Yang Zhong was not idle, and asked the garrison leader in detail about the internal layout and defense of Black Rock Garrison, and kept these information in his heart.

It was getting late, and more than half an hour had passed quickly. Another rustling sound came from diagonally above the cliff. Not long after, the sergeant left and returned, leaping down from the mountain wall with a light body. , and then said to Yang Zhong: "My lord, you can do it, but it's just not easy to carry heavy equipment."

After hearing the words, Yang Zhong nodded, summoned a sergeant who had accompanied him here, and ordered the garrison leader: "Inform the people behind you to speed up the march. They must get here before night. After arriving, go to the garrison to rest for a while. As soon as I sent out the beacon signal, I rushed towards the mountain road and defeated these thieves in one fell swoop!"

After hearing this, the sergeant clasped his fists and agreed, while the garrison leader widened his eyes and exclaimed in shock: "Could it be that the commander wants to personally..."

Yang Zhong did not explain too much, but selected more than 30 people from the entourage, carefully checked and counted their belongings, and asked the soldiers who were not participating in this operation to take some difficult-to-carry objects back to the garrison for the time being. Yang Zhong and others set up a simple tent under the mountain wall to continue resting.

It got dark quickly, but the vision was not completely dim. After the eyes adapted to the dim night, the light reflected by the snow on the surrounding mountains allowed people to see things clearly.

"Let's go!"

Yang Zhong looked up at the rising and falling of the stars in the sky, and when the time arrived at the moment he expected, he stood up and gave the order.

The soldiers stood up one after another, stretched their arms and kicked their legs to move a little, and the thin sergeant in the afternoon set off first, and the others followed one by one, climbing horizontally along the few relay points on the mountain wall.

Because of the previous exploration, the group of people moved forward smoothly, but the mountain was too wide and thick, making the journey seem long. The cold mountain wind blew on the back, sometimes mixed with some tiny frost fragments, like a file, constantly rubbing the shoulders and necks of people.

"Hold on a little longer, we have already walked halfway!"

The sergeant leading the way in front of them cheered everyone up, but his tone unconsciously trembled a little. When he passed a relatively wide stone platform, he finally freed his hands and took out a leather bag to his mouth, which was filled with strong liquor that was warmed before leaving.

The sergeant took a sip of the warmed hot wine, and then passed the wine bag to the back, and continued to climb forward with the help of this sip of wine. Everyone behind followed suit, and when it was passed to the last person, the huge wine bag was empty, just without a drop left, and the soldiers walking in front had already walked down the cliff one after another and stepped on the ground.

The Black Salt Pond is surrounded by mountains, and there are many coal veins around it. Some coal mines are simply exposed, forming black belts between the mountains, which is why the salt pond here is named.

The Black Rock Fort is located in the southwest of the salt pond, hanging halfway up the mountain, overlooking the entire salt pond valley. There is a stone beam connecting it to the mountain behind it, and the terrain is very prominent.

Yang Zhong and others bypassed the entire mountain beam and arrived directly behind the fort. They were only a dozen feet away from the fort, and the fireworks and people in the fort were clearly visible.

Perhaps because they were confident in the terrain of the fort, and because they had just captured the fort and were not familiar with the layout, the bandits did not arrange patrols and guards in the area of ​​the fort, so Yang Zhong and others touched the wall of the fort all the way, and the inside was still unaware of it.

As the time approached, it became more and more critical. Yang Zhong and his companions watched from below the wall for a while, and then chose a slightly lower position to directly climb the wall, which was more than ten feet high, by stacking people.

Inside the wall was a place for storing firewood and sundries. Yang Zhong, who was the first to climb over the wall, felt something was wrong as soon as he landed. He quickly looked around with the faint light from somewhere else, but did not find anything obviously abnormal. Just as he was about to ask his men to speed up, he suddenly became alarmed. He looked straight to the left corner of the wall, and saw a Hu soldier standing with his legs crossed in the shadow, holding his crotch with one hand, staring at him in amazement.

This situation surprised both parties. Yang Zhong subconsciously took a small step back, and then reacted. He hooked his fingers and swung his arms to grab the throat of the Hu soldier. The Hu soldier was finally panicked and screamed: "An enemy has sneaked in..." The scream stopped abruptly. Yang Zhong smashed the throat of the Hu soldier with one blow, and the whole person fell down limply, but the scream before his death also alarmed other Hu soldiers. "Who is it?" Several Hu soldiers rushed over, drew their knives in their hands while running, and chopped directly at Yang Zhong. Although Yang Zhong was unarmed, he was not afraid of the steel knife that was chopped directly from the top of his head. He dodged the oncoming knife and swung his fist to hit the Hu soldier's shoulder. After a few muffled clicks, the Hu soldier's half body went limp, and his body was thrown directly into the air, and his companion beside him was directly smashed more than ten feet away. Yang Zhong grabbed the fallen sword of the Hu soldier, and immediately he became even more powerful. With a flash of sword light, several Hu soldiers who heard the news fell to the ground.

"Hurry up!"

After killing all the nearby enemies, Yang Zhong shouted to the wall behind him, then held a sword in one hand and grabbed a long spear in the other hand, strode forward for more than ten feet, and killed the bandits who were rushing here again.

The soldiers outside the wall heard the fighting sounds coming from inside, and they also accelerated their actions to climb over the wall. When they each drew their swords and rushed to the battle, the area where Yang Zhong passed had already killed and injured dozens of soldiers.

The Hu soldiers had never seen such a powerful and brutal enemy, killing people like mowing grass, and they were all scared for a while, and turned around and ran to the back to escape.

More and more soldiers climbed over the wall and followed Yang Zhong to chase the bandits. It was the middle of the night, and there were not many bandits on duty, about thirty of them, and they were soon killed or wounded by Yang Zhong and his men.

But the roar of the fight also alarmed all the bandits in the garrison. The bandits who were sleeping in the barracks put on their clothes and walked out, but what greeted them was not only the gleaming blades, but also their companions running around in panic.

The scale of the garrison was not too large, with only about a hundred guardsmen. After the rebels captured it, they arranged for six to seven hundred people, including wounded soldiers, to guard the garrison. As the entire fort fell into chaos, panicked thieves could be seen everywhere.

Yang Zhong and more than 30 people pursued him like wolves and tigers. Even though some thieves hurriedly organized a resistance formation, they were already beaten by the panicked crowd before they could fight the intruders. Disperse. In order to survive, some soldiers even rushed to the top of the city and jumped down in a panic.

This chaos lasted for half an hour before it gradually subsided. The pawns in the fortress had either been hacked to death, or were wailing on the ground, and some simply knelt on the ground to surrender and beg for mercy. Few of them escaped anymore. Resistant.

The sergeants who had dispersed to create commotion and chase the thieves gathered together again. Each one of them was covered in blood, and they couldn't tell whether they were their own or the enemy's. They first drove the remaining barbarian soldiers in the fortress into their barracks and locked them up. Then they thoroughly searched the fortress and found several defenders who had been captured and detained by the rebels.

The bandit army also spent a great price to capture this fortress. There were many casualties. There were more than 200 wounded soldiers adopted in the fortress alone. These were wounded soldiers who were still worthy of treatment. Others were more seriously injured. Then just give up.

There were more than 120 defenders of Heiyan garrison, who held on until the last moment, killing the enemy many times as many as themselves, but they were helplessly outnumbered. After the fort was breached, most of the defenders had died in battle, and the rest were massacred by the bandits, leaving only a few to torture for information. The corpses of the garrison soldiers were still piled up in a corner inside the wall, which was horrifying and sad to see.

Ci Bu took charge of the army, but Yang Zhong did not have any emotional disturbance because of this. He just ordered in a deep voice: "Kill all the thieves in the fort, regardless of whether they are injured or not! Light the beacon fire and give the order to attack. After dawn, let the people in this valley No more traces of thieves!”

The blazing beacon smoke rose into the sky and spread very far under the night. When the men and horses in the western garrison who had been resting and waiting saw this scene, they immediately rushed out in full force to kill the enemy who had lost their way. The thieves in the stronghold.

In the camp next to the black salt pool, most of the thieves and soldiers were still sleeping, imagining that the plundered salt could be exchanged for all kinds of wine, meat and goods. In their sleep, they heard the loud sound of drums and horns, and they had not yet had time to dress properly. , the enemy's swords and guns have been slashed down!

Thank you to the alliance leader for your love. I was embarrassed. I saw an additional alliance leader when I was about to post an update. Thank you very much. . . The extra time has to be arranged after the New Year. I have been in poor spirits since the sun passed. I feel dizzy and have trouble sleeping after using my brain for a long time. I have to fight against laziness every day. It is also the New Year, and there are many favors and things to do. In short, there are no arrears. . .