In February, the Central Plains has already been in turmoil. The land of Youzhou is still covered in silver, with the mountains dancing like silver snakes.

A flying horse galloped down the main road in Youzhou, crushing the silver shavings on the ground with its rapid roar. The flying horse that I saw was running farther and farther, and several figures suddenly appeared on the hillside not far from the main road.

Run to the woods on the other side.

In the woods, Xu Kang, Guan Yu, Zang Ba and others were sitting together, listening to the report of their scouts.

"There is a horse riding towards the east at high speed. Judging from the clothes and attire, he is undoubtedly a scout for the army."

Guan Yu said: "Going east? Is it still going to Gu'an? Wasn't the last ride we stopped going to Gu'an?"

"Maybe not to Gu'an, but to other counties."

"Is our target exposed?"

"This is unlikely. I think Liu Yan just sent cavalry to spread the news after he learned that the great virtuous master rebelled in the Central Plains."

"There's no need to be in such a hurry to deliver the news. The snow hasn't melted yet."

Zhao Bahu struck each other with his hands and sighed: "If I had known earlier, I should have sent out cavalry to stop him.

Everyone made guesses, but couldn't agree. Finally, their eyes turned to Xu Kang.

Seeing everyone's gaze, Xu Kang was startled and thought, how do I know what happened? This is not recorded in history. However, at this time, he also knew that he must not show any hesitation, so he pretended to be thoughtful.

, after a while, he said: "Although the specific information cannot be determined, we are now alone and have to consider the worst."

"What do you mean, sir, our army has been discovered?" Zang Ba frowned.

Xu Kang shook his head and said: "No. We don't have much contact with the large forces in Gu'an City. Even if there are detailed operations in Gu'an City, it is impossible to find out our actions. I think our affairs in Gu'an City have been investigated.

People told Liu Yan, so he started to send people to set up defenses."

"Who spread the news?"

"I don't know, but that's not what we have to consider now."

Guan Yu worriedly said: "Since the news has been leaked, Zhuo City must have been prepared. Our surprise attack will be in vain."

Xu Kang thought for a moment and said: "No. Even if they have obtained the information about Gu'an City, the military plan they obtained is also false information that we deliberately spread. In this case, Zhuocheng at this time is likely to be under external pressure.

The situation in Neisong is just perfect for our sneak attack."

"That's right. And we're already here. There's no reason to just go back without doing anything."

Others also nodded. They were already in a difficult position. They had asked for so much equipment and materials. If they had no credit for anything, they could just run back in such a dejected manner and not be laughed to death. It would be better to die in battle here.

happy.

Xu Kang also knew that there was no time to hesitate now, and said: "Okay, in that case, everyone has a good rest, and we will rush on when it gets dark. We must dare to reach Zhuocheng before dawn tomorrow."

Everyone agreed in a loud voice, then each took out their sleeping bags and rested on the spot.

Looking around, there were already thousands of cicada-like sleeping bags lying on the snow around the generals. These people were all the men Xu Kang brought out this time.

Before dawn, Xu Kang had already led his troops to Zhuoxian. However, he did not dare to get too close. He only stationed 20 miles away from Zhuocheng and decided to rest for a day. At the same time, he sent spies to Zhuocheng to check.

What was also exciting to Xu Kang was that after the spies reported back, it was as he expected, tight on the outside and loose on the inside. Although there were more soldiers at the city gate, there was no restriction on people's free entry and exit.

So Xu Kang immediately sent a special person into the city to get in touch with the Taiping Taoists lurking in the city. Unfortunately, several Taiping Tao secret strongholds in the city had been uprooted by Liu Yan. Now Xu Kang could only capture the city on his own.

The door is open.

The sky in early spring is extremely clean. When the sky is dark, Zhuocheng is still sleeping soundly in winter. However, some people have to crawl out of their warm beds and start a hard day's work.

Mr. Hu is one of them.

In fact, Mr. Hu is not too old. He is not yet forty this year. It is just that he has a rigid temper and a haggard appearance, just like an old man, so he is called that. And everyone seems to think that he is not disgusted by this title. As time goes by, he just becomes like this.

Called out.

Hu Laoyuan served in the border army. Because of his extreme temperament and his tendency to offend others, he was "assigned" to Zhuocheng to work as a small gatekeeper.

Originally, there were only a few dozen soldiers at the east city gate, and they were only responsible for opening and closing the gates. Occasionally they met a few enemies, and they could fight the autumn wind, which was quite comfortable. But the day before yesterday, I heard that the Taiping Dao rebelled in Jizhou and brought down Youzhou.

There is also some tension here.

Yesterday, Mr. Zou Jing, the manager of the Taishou Mansion, personally came to inspect the city gate and encouraged them with a few words. He also brought nearly 100 new soldiers.

As a result, Mr. Hu had to temporarily hand over the rights of the city gate officer. Although this made him a little dissatisfied, after all, he was a veteran who had been a lifelong veteran and knew how to fulfill his duties.

At the city gate, wherever Mr. Hu went, every soldier at the city gate smiled and saluted him. Although he was old-fashioned, he was very good at handling his soldiers, so everyone obeyed him.

Mr. Hu was not in a hurry to open the city gate, but first came to the city wall and looked outside the city. This was not because he was particularly careful, but because he had developed a habit from serving in the border army. Every time he opened the city gate

Whenever I visit, I will check out the city gate tower in advance.

Seeing Mr. Hu coming up, one of the soldiers immediately stepped forward and reported: "Mr. Hu, you are here."

Mr. Hu nodded and said, "Where is Captain Zhao?" Captain Zhao is the leader of the new one hundred people and is also the current gatekeeper of the east gate.

"Not yet."

Hu Lao Zou Mei did not say much, but looked outside the city and said, "There seem to be a lot of people outside the city gate today."

"Yes, three groups of people came in total, including five firewood pickers, 13 people who wanted to join the army in the city, and a convoy from Fangcheng."

Mr. Hu observed carefully for a while and said, "Is there anything suspicious?"

"Nothing suspicious was found."

Mr. Hu nodded and observed it carefully again. The clothes of the woodcutter were in tatters and their faces were dirty, and it was hard to see their original appearance. The so-called convoy only had one carriage, but there were people around it.

There were more than a dozen guards; and the last thirteen, each holding a stick, looked very fierce. The three groups of people were divided into three places, and they seemed to be quite wary of each other.

"Hey, firewood sellers, are you here too early?" Mr. Hu shouted.

One of the firewood pickers said: "There's nothing we can do, Mr. Guan. Now that the weather is getting warmer, it's hard to sell firewood, so we have to come here early to try our luck."

Mr. Hu shouted again to the thirteen men holding sticks: "Where did you come from?"

One of them said: "Sir, we are descendants of Huojiaji, 50 miles away. I heard that the adults in the city are recruiting soldiers. These brothers in our village are here to join the army."

"You are quite well informed. The news was just announced the day before yesterday and you are here so early today."

"Aren't we afraid that we will be late and not be able to register? Everyone in our family is counting on us to serve as soldiers and kill thieves to make a living so that we can support our family."

"What about you?" Mr. Hu finally asked the carriage team.

"Our young master came here for fun and missed Sutou." At this time, a pretty maid jumped out of the carriage and said angrily with her hands on her hips: "You old man, you are so verbose, can't you open the city gate?"

ah."

"Ke'er, don't mess around." Following this scolding voice, the car curtain was opened again, and a young man's head was revealed.

Mr. Hu saw that this young man had a handsome face and was young. He thought to himself, what kind of fun is this? I'm afraid he just came to Zhuocheng to take refuge, but his doubts were gone. He shouted: "Open the city gate." He also climbed down the city wall.

The boy under the city gate was naturally dressed as Xu Kang, and the girl was Xue Keer. As for the carriage, it was a coincidence that it was hijacked on their way yesterday.

Xu Kang's army was approaching along the way. Even though he was out at night, he still couldn't avoid encountering people who were riding on the melting snow and rushing on their way. Naturally, Xu Kang couldn't let these people leave easily, and he couldn't bear to kill lightly.

I had to let them follow.

When Mr. Hu called out "Open the door", Xu Kang felt as if he was listening to the sounds of nature.

The first to enter the city were the dozen or so men holding sticks, then the four firewood men, and finally Xu Kang's carriage began to enter.

Xu Kang's carriage had just entered the city gate, and Mr. Hu also walked to the door. Suddenly, a scream came from above, "The enemy is attacking, a large group of cavalry is coming."

Mr. Hu was shocked and shouted: "Quickly enter the city and close the city gate." After saying that, he turned around and wanted to leave.

At this time, Xu Kang, seeing this opportunity, suddenly got angry, jumped off the carriage, and stabbed his chest with a sword.

Mr. Hu looked in surprise at the face in front of him that was originally childish but suddenly turned ferocious. The light in his eyes slowly extinguished, and with a "clang", a dagger fell from his raised sleeve to the ground.

Xu Kang didn't notice, and after stabbing Mr. Hu to death, he shouted: "Kill." More than a dozen people took out their weapons from the carriage and headed towards the corridor.

The city gate army was unable to reach the defense. The people who were killed suddenly fell on their backs and screamed in agony.

Just when the city gate army was about to collapse, a large group of people suddenly came from outside. It turned out that Captain Zhao had just brought his men to patrol the city, and he didn't want to meet Xu Kang attacking the city gate.

"Quickly, take back the city gate." Leader Zhao shouted.

Xu Kang suddenly felt the pressure increase and shouted: "Form up and defend the city gate." The remaining people immediately formed a formation to defend each other in carriages.

But after all, there were many officers and soldiers. People around Xu Kang fell one by one, and the officers and soldiers gradually gained the upper hand.

At this moment, the dozen young men who had entered the city who wanted to join the army and the farmers who carried firewood suddenly joined the battle group and attacked the army. They were Xu Kang's back-up men, in order to prevent Xu Kang from holding on until he could hold on.

time, it has an unexpected effect.

The city gate tower was already narrow, so after being attacked from both sides, the officers and soldiers immediately retreated. These people and Xu Kang easily merged together. However, there were many officers and soldiers, so they retreated not far away and gradually gathered around again.

Time passed little by little. The sound of horse hooves outside the city could be heard clearly. Captain Zhao saw that it was difficult to take back the city gate, so he shouted: "The gate jammer, hurry up and use the gate jammer." Immediately, more than a dozen people pushed and counted.

A one-sided cart that was six feet high and four feet wide was blocked in the corridor of the city gate.

Xu Kang saw that although the gate-blocking cart could not completely fill the entire corridor, the cavalry would definitely be blocked by it, so he shouted: "Disperse." After saying that, he stabbed the horse next to him with his sword into the buttocks, and the horse ate it.

Painful, he rushed forward with the carriage like crazy, crashed into several gate cars, knocked over more than a dozen people, and drove away.

Seeing that the gate carriage was broken, and at the same time, there was an obvious sound of horse hooves running outside the city gate. The officers and soldiers knew that the situation was over, and they no longer wanted to fight. Regardless of the obstruction of their superiors, they all ran away with a shout.

Zhao Bahu's cavalry roared away from Xu Kang to chase down the soldiers who tried to escape. Xu Kang, on the other hand, waited for more than 2,000 infantrymen to arrive before boarding the tower.
Chapter completed!