People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 1643: The Black Tide of Cavalry
Ten miles west of Shanzhou City is Sushan Pass.

It was almost dusk, but the sky and the earth were already covered by dark clouds, making it gloomy.

Li Xuan stopped his horse under the shadow of the mountain and looked calmly at the checkpoint in the distance.

Hundreds of figures were patrolling back and forth, looking into the distance vigilantly.

On the mountain road opposite the checkpoint, Cui Ding led more than 300 Jinwu Guards, looking at the checkpoint with fierce eyes.

Except for the first time they attacked and climbed up the city wall, they never rushed up at other times.

Behind them is the narrow Qiaohan Ancient Road.

The ancient trail can accommodate up to four horses walking side by side, and in some places it is even narrower.

To the south is the steep Mount Xiao, to the north is a steep and winding mountain stream, and below is the Yellow River, which should have been turbulent.

However, starting from two months ago, the Wei River was gradually cut off by Li Xuan, and a month ago, it was completely blocked.

Three days ago, Li Xuan directly cut off the Yellow River.

Of course, given the turbulent waves of the Yellow River, it is not so easy to block it. The dam will be destroyed in five days at most.

And what Li Xuan wants is these five days.

Within five days, a path that could be walked on the riverbed appeared unexpectedly under the steep riverbed.

The 40,000 people led by Li Xuan did not take the narrow and restricted Xiaohan Ancient Road at all, but went directly to the outside of Sushan Pass along the river.

At this moment in Shanzhou City, no one realized that Li Xuan was coming to kill them.

Anyone who could have seen Li Xuan's movements was either diverted away by Cui Ding or killed by Zhou Qian and the Qianniu Guards.

But things are different when you get to Sushan Pass.

The mountain turns from Mount Xiao and goes directly to the Yellow River.

Although the view of the Yellow River from Sushan Pass is not unobstructed, it is still impossible to hide the fact that tens of thousands of people pass by.

In fact, this checkpoint has become part of the entire Shanzhou defense system.

Once this place is attacked, a beacon will be lit immediately, and the number of enemies will be reported based on the size of the smoke.

This is very disadvantageous for Li Xuan, so we need to wait a while.

Li Xuan's eyes were on Cui Ding.

Three days ago, he asked Cui Ding to send people to remove all the checkpoints along the way, all the way to Sushan Pass, but finally stopped when they were unable to advance.

Sushan Pass is not very high, but there is a small town behind it with three thousand soldiers stationed there, so it is not easy to kill your way through.

And on the river, there are three thick and long iron chains across the river to prevent the warships from going east.

But now, because the river level was dropping rapidly, the war horses were able to walk across the river bank and then cross the chains.

Li Xuan now needs to wait quietly.

Just a moment later, a strong wind came from behind, and then a drop of rain fell on Li Xuan's face.

It's raining.

It finally rained.

Soon, everything between heaven and earth became hazy.

After all, it is usually almost dark at this time.

Li Xuan turned sideways and looked behind him: "Baotong."

"I am here." Su Baotong bowed and stepped forward.

Li Xuan nodded and said, "Lead 500 Right Guard brothers, sneak over the river bank quietly, and fight to the east of Sushan Town.

Once the battle breaks out at Sushan Pass, no one will be allowed to go to Shanzhou City to deliver the message."

"Yes!" Su Baotong immediately bowed, dismounted from his horse, turned around and called out to five hundred sailors from Jiangnan, walking on the river bank with his back bent.

Only in this way could they avoid the sight of Su Shanguan's figure.

"Li Lang, send a message to Cui Ding, attack one last time, shoot all the crossbow arrows, and then retreat." Li Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Yes!" Li Lang turned quickly and went to pass on the order.

Li Xuan turned sideways and said, "Pass the order down. In two quarters of an hour, charge up the mountain road and rush to Sushan Pass. All those who resist will be killed."

"Yes!" The voices were heard one after another.

……

At Sushan Pass, countless crossbow arrows fell directly.

The soldiers on the city walls couldn't even raise their heads as they were attacked one after another.

They couldn't help but curse in their hearts that they, the defenders of the city, had less crossbows than the attackers.

Cui Ding was a very smart man. Although Li Xuan asked him to make a final charge, he did not shoot all the crossbow arrows at once, but divided them into several waves.

Wave after wave, not only the crossbow arrows in the crossbow, but even the crossbow arrows carried on the body were all reloaded and shot out.

If the unlucky guy on the city wall was hit by a crossbow arrow and his body tilted, he would be shot to death at that moment.

Not only on the city gate, but also inside the city gate, countless people died at their hands at once.

A quarter of an hour later, all the crossbow arrows were shot.

Cui Ding led his men to retreat without hesitation towards Hangu Pass.

The guard at the city gate stood up after a while. He gritted his teeth and looked at Cui Ding who was going away. Suddenly, he seemed to understand something.

Cui Ding and others had no arrows left on their bodies.

For a moment, a crazy idea flooded his mind.

A moment later, the city gate opened, and the guard rushed out with five hundred soldiers, chasing and killing Cui Ding.

Li Xuan, who was hiding in the shadow of the river, was really shocked when he saw this scene.

He raised his head and looked at the dark sky and the misty drizzle.

The rain was indeed not heavy, no wonder I dared to chase it.

Cui Ding and his men had been fighting for a whole day. They were only eating dry food, but their war horses might not have much strength left.

Smart people see farther, but unfortunately they don’t see far enough, so…

"Kill!" Li Xuan pointed at Sushan Pass, and the next moment, he rushed up the slope of the mountain road in front of him. Behind him, more cavalrymen found the right place on the river and crossed the mountain road.

This mountain road is not that high from the river itself.

Or to be more precise, coming from Hangu Pass all the way to Shanzhou, the mountain road goes lower and lower, and the height difference between the mountain road and the river channel becomes smaller and smaller.

……

Forty thousand cavalrymen rushed directly towards the city gate like a black tide.

For a moment, the defenders on the city wall were dumbfounded. However, just when they were about to close the gate, they found that their general was not in the city at all. It was at this time that countless black cavalry rushed in.

There was a massacre in an instant.

They didn't even have time to light the beacon fire before the entire city gate was breached by the black cavalry, and the Sushan Town barracks behind them was also in chaos.

After all, the order sent by the court today was just to make them slightly more alert.

So they thought that the people who attacked the city today were only Cui Ding's few hundred men.

After all, during the three days, there were only a few hundred people fighting, while more people disappeared completely.

Especially after today, the court has become even more slack.

The information was passed down layer by layer, and by the time they got to them, there were only a few thousand people inside the city, and more people were in the military camps outside the city.

Who could have thought that Li Xuan would lead the entire army to attack at this time.

In a very short time, blood flowed like a river, and more people would die unless they voluntarily laid down their weapons.

And very few people survived.

Soon, 40,000 cavalrymen had rushed out of Sushan Pass, leaving only 500 people to close the city gates, while the others no longer had any scruples and headed straight towards Shanzhou.

……

The city of Shanzhou is located on the north side of the Yellow River and on the south side of the ancient Xiaohan Road.

Because of concerns that Li Xuan would suddenly release flood water, the west gate and north gate were completely closed.

It's not even just closed, but completely sealed.

Only the East Gate and the South Gate allowed people to enter and exit during the day.

After all, Li Xuan had been stationed at Hangu Pass for two months.

Although there were fighting among the scouts, they did not reach Shanzhou in the end. According to the court's speculation, it would take at least two months for Li Xuan to accumulate enough water, and there would need to be continuous heavy rains in between.

So even though people were worried that Li Xuan would suddenly attack, the two months of no movement had gradually made them let go of their worries.

The imperial court was waiting for Chang'an to fall into chaos.

So even after Cheng Wuting arrived at the front of the army, he only watched the front line for a while and then retreated to Xishi Pass.

That is, Yang Zaisi and Yang Zhirou were guarding Shanzhou City. Once Li Xuan launched a water attack, they would retreat immediately.

Cheng Wuting was at Xishi Pass in the southeast of Mount Xiao, and Lou Shide was at Yanling Pass in the southwest of Mount Xiao.

The two men blocked the road leading to the Luo River Plain.

Behind them, each of them had an army of 20,000, stationed on the Luo River Plain, and could immediately attack Xishi Pass and Yanling Pass to provide reinforcements.

If Li Xuan wanted to reach Luoyang, he had to first capture Shanzhou City, and then fight his way into Xishi Pass and Yanling Pass.

Kill through these two checkpoints and enter the Luo River Plain.

……

The thunderous sound of horse hooves rang out in the west of Shanzhou City.

Regardless of what the people in the city thought, they headed straight for Jiaokou Town in the south of Shanzhou City.

The Nanqiao Road leading to Xishi Pass and the Beiqiao Road leading to Yanling Pass must both pass through Jiaokou Town.

Or to be more precise, they split into the southeast and southwest directions from Jiaokou Town.

On a rainy night, movement in the city slowed down after all.

When Yang Zaisi and Yang Zhirou stood at the south gate of Shanzhou, countless cavalrymen had already rushed over from the side of Shanzhou City.
"Uncle, Jiaokou Town!" Yang Zhirou's face was extremely ugly. He knew that once Li Xuan took Jiaokou Town, he would not hesitate at all and would directly kill towards Xishi Pass and Yanling Pass.

After all, Yang Zhirou had fought with Li Xuan in Fanzhou and knew Li Xuan quite well.

Li Xuan has always been a man of calmness if he doesn't move, but acts like thunder when he moves.

Now, because the court has judged that Li Xuan will not launch an offensive in the near future, they are all a little slack.

Especially today.

No, it was three days ago.

Empress Wu originally planned to behead Ouyang Tong to force Li Xuan to attack Shanzhou, but Li Xuan only symbolically sent Cui Ding to attack for three days.

As for the matter of Ouyang Tong, with Wang Fangyi in Bingzhou, if Empress Wu really dared to act recklessly, Wang Fangyi would definitely dig up her ancestral graves.

It was precisely because the court thought that the fight between the two sides would end like this, so no one would have thought that Li Xuan would suddenly come to Shanzhou.

"Look!" Yang Zaisi pointed to the beacon tower in the southeast corner of the city, where the beacon had been lit. However, the fireworks were completely extinguished just three feet into the sky.

Smoke, after all, is nothing more than particles with temperature. Once it is wetted by water, it can no longer fly.

Especially now that it is foggy and rainy, the sky is dark, and the time is already the hour of Xu.

It was already dark.

They could not get any news out.

Yang Zhirou looked up in the direction of the ancient trail of Mount Xiao, shook his head with a bitter expression, and said, "I'm afraid the relay beacon towers in the mountains are no longer usable. Tonight, King Peng will attack Xishi Pass, and it is very likely that he will break through Xishi Pass in one go, and finally use Xishi Pass as a barrier to lure the imperial army to attack, and then take advantage of the situation to attack."

Yang Zhirou knows Li Xuan too well.

Once Li Xuan gains the upper hand, he will pursue and kill him relentlessly without stopping.

"Qilang." Yang Zaisi narrowed his eyes, looked at the black cavalry outside the city, and asked in a low voice: "Qilang, you know King Peng, now is not the time to let go. Although he took advantage of our laziness to attack Mount Xiao, there are still tens of thousands of elite soldiers who just came back from Yangzhou in the Luohe Plain. Is he so sure?"

After a pause, Yang Zaisi looked at Yang Zhirou and asked, "Why did he choose now? What advantages can it give him now? What have we overlooked?"

Yang Zhirou was slightly stunned, then asked with an unpleasant expression: "Uncle, is the autumn grain from Shanzhou still in the city?"

"Yes, I just collected them and haven't had time to send them to Luoyang." When he finished speaking, Yang Zaisi's face looked extremely ugly.

(End of this chapter)