Xu Tingda's twenty thousand soldiers had only reached Yanmen Pass in the evening. No, to be more precise, it was ten thousand soldiers. This was because Xu Tingda had left five thousand men behind at Madou Pass and Yonghe Pass. Now, he only had ten thousand men left. Moreover, after half a day of rapid marching, the soldiers were all extremely tired, and many of them were already asleep!
Xu Tingda felt that the Turks had chosen this time to attack, and his ten thousand men were completely incapable of stopping them!
The most frightening thing was that he was holding the imperial decree that Li Erfa had given to Li Zexuan. However, he had only just arrived in the evening. Originally, he wanted to rest and reorganize for the night before transferring troops to the nearby prefectures. Who would have thought that the Tujue would launch an attack on Yanmen Pass so quickly?
"Go! Immediately send messengers to Yunzhou, Daizhou, and Yuzhou to ask for reinforcements. Tell them that Yanmen Pass … might fall! "
Xu Tingda's expression changed several times. At this time, he could also faintly hear the chaotic sound of horse hooves not far away. He took a deep breath and barely managed to stabilize his mind. He looked at the soldier and said word by word.
"… Commandant, what about you? The Turks have tens of thousands of wolf cavalry. We're definitely no match for them. Commandant, why don't you withdraw first? "
The soldier hesitated for a few moments before bowing to Xu Tingda.
"Bastard! Do you know that a commanding general fleeing before battle is a capital offense? And besides, this general is the commandant of the Great Tang's Bingzhou Subjugation Prefecture. Even if I die, this general will die with my brothers! A general of the Great Tang can only stand and die. I will never cower before the battle! Hurry and send men to the nearby prefectures to ask for reinforcements! "
Xu Tingda angrily bellowed.
He was afraid of death, and he had not lived long enough. He still wanted to become a higher official, obtain more glory and wealth, and enjoy a more comfortable life! But at this moment, as a Great Tang soldier and the commander of this army, he could not sneak away alone. After all, Xu Tingda had experienced the chaos of the Sui Dynasty and the chaos of the rebellion against the emperor. He did not want his family to once more live a life of wandering about and destitute!
The reason was that simple, nothing more!
"Commandant! I … I want to stay behind and fight against the Turks with Commandant. Commandant, please send someone else to ask for reinforcements! "
The soldier hesitated for a moment, then clasped his fists and said stubbornly.
Xu Tingda was touched, but his face turned cold. He said coldly, "Zheng Hong, you dare to disobey a military order?"
The soldier trembled and hurriedly said, "This general doesn't dare!"
Xu Tingda snorted and shouted, "Then why aren't you sending the order?"
After being yelled at by Xu Tingda, the soldier was a little scared. After a moment of hesitation, he bowed and said, "… This general obeys!"
Looking at Xu Tingda, the soldier 'reluctantly' retreated from the tent!
"Sigh! Zheng Hong, oh Zheng Hong, you can't blame me. Who asked you to be the only son of your Zheng family? "
Looking at Zheng Hong's back as he left, Xu Tingda muttered to himself.
"Kill!"
At this moment, a burst of battle cries came from the pass. Xu Tingda's expression gradually turned cold. He stood up, took the long sword hanging on the wall, and walked straight out of the tent.
"Commandant! The Turkic army is already attacking! Our brothers won't be able to hold on much longer! You should leave quickly! "
Xu Tingda had just walked out of the big tent when a soldier hurriedly ran over and said.
"How many enemies are there? Who's the leader? "
Xu Tingda frowned and asked.
The soldier cupped his fists and said, "There are about 50,000 enemies, and the leader is the Turkic Khan, Ashina Sher! Commandant, Ashina Sher brought all the Turkic elites. We definitely won't be able to hold on. Please retreat as soon as possible! "
"It's him?"
Hearing that, Xu Tingda was stunned at first. Then, he said coldly, "We have to hold on even if we can't! Whoever dares to flee tonight will be killed without mercy! Yanmen Pass' terrain is narrow. Even if we use a pile of orders, we have to completely block the pass! Quickly beat the drum and summon all the soldiers to kill the enemy with me! I've already sent people to the nearby prefectures to ask for help. We only need to hold on for two hours, and there will definitely be reinforcements coming to save us! "
"… Yes! Commandant! "
Seeing that Xu Tingda was so confident, a fighting spirit rose in the soldier's heart. He swallowed his saliva and cupped his fists.
Dong, dong, dong ~!
A moment later, a series of drumbeats sounded from the south of Yanmen Pass. As time passed, the drumbeats became louder and more frequent. At this time, Xu Tingda had already climbed up the tower of Yanmen Pass. Although the Turkic people were not good at sieges, Yanmen Pass was far from being a city. This was because Yanmen Pass was situated on the official road in the middle. The horizontal width of the city walls was only a few hundred feet. As such, the number of soldiers that could be accommodated on the city walls was extremely limited!
When the Turkic soldiers got close to the city gates, they abandoned their horses and directly carried a thick tree trunk and slammed it into the city gates of Yanmen Pass!
Naturally, Xu Tingda would not let the Turkic people crash into the city gates of Yanmen Pass just like that. He quickly shouted, "Release the arrows! Release the arrows! "
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh ~!
Hundreds of arrows were released in an instant, shooting at the Turkic soldiers charging at the city gates!
After a round of arrows, dozens of Turkic soldiers fell to the ground in an instant. However, while the Tang soldiers on the city walls were reloading their arrows, the Turkic soldiers behind began to charge forward fearlessly again!
"Hurry and release the arrows!"
Seeing this, Xu Tingda hurriedly urged.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh ~!
Another volley of arrows was fired, but the results were somewhat worse this time. Only thirty-some Turkic soldiers fell to the ground, but the Turkic soldiers behind them were still charging at the city gates like a tide!
Xu Tingda inwardly frowned. First of all, the Turkic soldiers outnumbered the Tang soldiers by four to five times. At this rate, they probably wouldn't be able to kill all the Turks even if they spent the entire night! Moreover, the light at night was poor, so the accuracy of the archers was definitely not as good as during the day. Many of the arrows would miss. Most importantly, in order to maintain the speed of the march, Xu Tingda's army had not brought many arrows, only ten-some thousand. Based on the current accuracy, it would be good enough if they could kill one thousand Turkic soldiers!
But the Turks had fifty thousand soldiers!
How was he going to fight the Turks with this?
Rolling logs and stones? There were some remaining rolling logs and stones on the walls of Yanmen Pass, but there were not many of them, and they would not be able to withstand the assault of forty to fifty thousand Turkic soldiers!
Should they use sabers or swords? But if they did so, their advantage as defenders would be gone, and in the end, they would still be unable to avoid defeat!
Thwish ~!
Just as Xu Tingda was deep in thought, the sound of something tearing through the air suddenly rang out. Xu Tingda focused his eyes and saw a metal arrowhead shining with a cold light in front of him. It was easy to dodge a spear in the open, but difficult to defend against a hidden arrow. Xu Tingda felt that he couldn't dodge this hidden arrow.
"Commandant, watch out!"
At this critical moment, a soldier at Xu Tingda's side leaped up and tackled Xu Tingda to the ground. The arrow brushed past Xu Tingda's cheek and struck the soldier's shoulder!
Squelch!
This was the sound of an arrow piercing flesh. The arrow was heavy and powerful, and it did not stop at the soldier's shoulder. More than half of the arrow had pierced through the soldier's body!
"Protect the Commandant!"
Someone shouted, and four or five soldiers immediately surrounded Xu Tingda.
"Haaah! What a pity! If we could kill the Tang commander directly, we might be able to take down Yanmen Pass effortlessly! "
In the Turkic army, Ashina She 'er put away his longbow and lamented regretfully.
Clearly, that arrow just now was shot by him!
"General, there's no need to be regretful. The fact that the Tang army could reach Yanmen Pass so quickly shows that they didn't bring many arrows. These arrows can at most be shot ten more times. When they run out of arrows, we can break through the gate and enter!"
A soldier beside Ashina She 'er could not help but laugh.
"Haha! That's right! When the Tang army runs out of arrows, we will enter the pass directly! Then, we will welcome the State Preceptor! "
Ashina She 'er laughed heartily.
…
"Taiji Sword Technique's 38th style — Phoenix Wings Spread!"
"Taiji Sword Technique's 28th style — Shooting Stars Chase the Moon!"
"Nine Strategies Beyond the Swords — Broken Spear Style!"
"Taiji Sword Technique's 18th style — Black Dragon Swings Its Tail!"
"Taiji Sword Technique's 20th style — Lotus Leaves Whirlwind!"
"Nine Taixuan Swords' 3rd style — Snow Treading, Leaving No Trace in the Snow!"
"Taiji Sword Technique's 34th style — Moon in the Ocean!"
"Taiji Sword Technique's 50th style — Immortal Guides the Way!"
Over at Longmen Pass, the battle between Li Zexuan and Wu Jie had already reached its climax. After exchanging blows with Wu Jie, Li Zexuan was very clear about the huge gap between himself and a Martial Grandmaster. This gap was not something that could be made up with exquisite moves!
Therefore, Li Zexuan wisely gave up on attacking, and began to fight a defensive battle from the start!
With the Nine Solitary Swords' advantage, the unparalleled defense of the Taiji Sword Technique, and the extreme speed of the Nine Taixuan Swords, Li Zexuan's figure flashed through the battlefield, not letting Wu Jie even touch the corner of his clothes. After a dozen exchanges, he actually did not suffer any external injuries!
Although there were no external injuries, of course there were internal injuries. In addition to Wu Jie's powerful True Qi, what annoyed Li Zexuan the most was the strange power of lightning that Wu Jie sent out with his mace!
If Yang Kai were to use his True Qi to resist and neutralize this thing, it would be a huge waste of his True Qi. In this situation, his True Qi was his life, and his True Qi was definitely not as vigorous as Wu Jie's, so he had to use it sparingly. However, if he completely ignored it, his arm would soon become numb from the electricity, affecting his reaction speed, and if he wasn't careful, he might even be seriously injured by Wu Jie!
Therefore, although Li Zexuan had withstood Wu Jie's attacks for a dozen exchanges, this impressive achievement was not something he could be proud of, because his situation was not good! Facing Wu Jie's seemingly endless True Qi, Li Zexuan's True Qi was running out!
…
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