Tibet

On the eighth day after entering Jingyuan Road, Li Ye's team gradually arrived at Zhisheng Pass. Zhisheng Pass is located in a canyon passing through Longshan Mountain. The canyon is about twenty miles long. The pass is built at the east entrance of the canyon. It is a All caravans must pass through the military city with a circumference of three miles before entering the canyon and finally passing through Longshan Mountain.

Zhisheng Pass is also a shortcut to Lanzhou, and the official road is flat and very friendly to carriages. Of course Li Ye would choose Zhisheng Pass to go out of Jingyuan Road.

There were still twenty miles away from the victory pass. Li Bi stopped Li Ye. He smiled and said to Li Ye: "I have an idea. The general can send a hundred soldiers disguised as merchants to go there first and leave in batches. Once the other side doesn't let us pass, , we can cooperate internally and externally to rush through the city."

Li Ye nodded, it made sense. He immediately ordered the entire army to rest where they were, and then called Brigadier Aps. There were more than 80 Bakhna soldiers in his thousand troops, led by Brigade Commander Aps. Commander, there are more than a thousand camels in the team.

Li Ye carefully instructed Aps for a moment, and Aps immediately gathered his men and put on the robe and hat of Bukhanna. He suddenly changed his appearance, and he was no different from the Sogdian Hu merchants. There were also two Han soldiers with extremely high martial arts skills. They led more than 500 camels and walked towards the victory pass.

After paying dozens of gold coins in bribes, the guard did not embarrass them and simply let the Bukhanna caravan pass through.

After waiting for about two hours, the time came to the first watch. Li Ye led a mighty team to the pass. The soldiers guarding the pass discovered them a few miles away. They closed the door tightly early and pulled up the suspension bridge.

The commander of Zhisheng Pass is Zhou Wei. He has been a general here for more than ten years and has made a lot of money. Just two days ago, he received the emperor's decree transmitted by flying pigeons, which made him very nervous. The decree required him to Prevent Li Ye from leaving the customs.

The reason why Zhou Wei was nervous was because Li Ye had always gone through him several times when he entered and exited the customs. Li Ye wanted to go to the Hexi Corridor, and it was most convenient to go out from here. This time, Li Ye would most likely go through him.

Zhou Wei was about forty years old. He submitted a certificate of surrender to Yang Guozhong, giving him three thousand taels of silver. From then on, he was regarded as Yang Guozhong's. Yang Guozhong promised him that he would be promoted to the captain of Jingzhou in two years, which filled Zhou Wei's heart with expectations. .

There are only three hundred soldiers in Zhisheng Pass, which is enough to guard a tall and strong pass.

The head of the victory pass was covered with torches, illuminating the inside and outside of the pass like daylight.

Li Ye led 700 soldiers to the pass. Captain Hu Kun stepped forward and shouted: "General Li, the envoy of Anxi, governor of Hezhong, and king of Gaochang County, has passed the pass. Please lower the suspension bridge and open the gate!"

Zhou Wei laughed dryly and said: "I'm sorry, I received the emperor's order to close the city and ask the military governor to return to the capital immediately!"

Hu Kun held up Shang Fang's Emperor Sword and shouted angrily: "Shang Fang's Emperor Sword is here. If you don't open the door, the general can kill him with the Emperor's help!"

Zhou Wei secretly complained in his heart. Both oral and handwritten orders were informal orders. The most formal was an imperial edict. For the army, Shang Fang's Emperor's Sword was like the emperor's personal presence, and the power effect was much greater than oral or handwritten orders.

If the city gate is not opened, Li Ye has the right to kill himself with the Emperor's Sword, but if the city gate is opened, the Emperor will never spare him lightly.

At this time, Lieutenant General Li Han said: "General, the power of Shang Fang's Emperor's Sword is greater than the handwriting. It's better to let them pass. If the court asks about it, just say that we did not receive the handwriting."

"Nonsense! The imperial court is not a fool. Once it is found out, how could we not have received the handwriting? So many people know it."

He suddenly glanced at Lieutenant General Li Han warily, wondering if this guy wanted to replace him and deliberately dug a trap for him to jump into!

"Stop being so nagging, go aside, I only have a sense of propriety!"

Zhou Wei was already riding a tiger and could not get off, so he had no choice but to bear it down. He raised the emperor's handwriting and said loudly: "The emperor's handwriting says that Li Ye is not allowed to leave the customs. Anyone who disobeys the order will be severely punished. General Li, I dare not disobey the order." ,sorry!"

At Zhou Wei's words, Li Ye, who was hiding under the war flag, took action. One hundred and twenty steps away, two consecutive arrows were shot. After several years of training, Li Ye's archery skills have become superb. He dare not say that he is the best in the world, but he is the best in the world. The first three are no problem.

The arrow was as fast as lightning and arrived in front of him in the blink of an eye. Zhou Wei was startled and instinctively swung his head to the right to dodge. His martial arts skills were very high and his reaction was extremely sharp. He dodged the first arrow, but the arrow missed him and scratched his head. Skin, burning and painful.

But the second arrow has already appeared in front of me, and I can't dodge it no matter what. It's too fast, 'Poof! ’ An arrow hit his forehead, and the arrow penetrated his head. Zhou Wei screamed, fell to the ground, and died on the spot.

There was a sudden chaos on the top of the city. Li Ye spurred his horse out and shot an arrow. For every arrow shot, a torch must be extinguished. Li Ye shot twenty arrows in one breath, and all twenty torches on the left side of the city wall were extinguished. , suddenly became pitch black.

More than a dozen soldiers rushed forward, swung their flying claws to the top of the city, and began to climb up. A soldier guarding the city raised his knife to cut off the rope, 'Whoosh! ’ An arrow came and hit the soldier’s throat. The soldier fell to the ground with a muffled scream.

Li Ye shot and killed seven or eight defenders who tried to cut off the ropes, but two ropes were still cut off, and two soldiers fell from the top of the city and were slightly injured.

At this moment, the back gate of Zhisheng Pass was successfully attacked by Bukhanna's soldiers. More than eighty Li Ye's soldiers rushed in. Seeing that the situation was not good, Lieutenant General Li Han rushed to the top of the city and shouted: "General Li , we are willing to open the city gate!"

Li Ye shouted sternly: "Open the door immediately, or kill them all!"

Li Han quickly ordered the soldiers to lower the drawbridge and open the city gate. Li Ye turned around and ordered: "Blow the horn!"

"Woo——"

The horn sounded, which was an order to suspend the attack. A dozen soldiers who had just entered the city, holding shields and spears, formed a formation to confront the opponent.

Li Han led his soldiers out of the city and surrendered. Li Han stepped forward and presented the emperor's handwriting, "General, I humbly advise Zhou Wei to open the city and release people. He refuses to listen to his advice. I have no choice. Please forgive me!"

Li Ye nodded, "I can understand your difficulty. Except for General Zhou Wei, I will compensate each of the other defenders who died in the battle with two hundred gold coins. Deputy General Li Dayi opened the door for me, and I will give another one thousand gold coins to Deputy General Li." , I hope Vice General Li will handle it properly."

Li Ye didn't care what the court thought. He was only worried about his reputation in the military. After all, they were all Tang soldiers. He could kill generals, but killing ordinary soldiers would definitely affect his reputation in the military to some extent.

Li Han was a smart man, he understood everything at once, and said quickly: "Zhou Wei fought against the Emperor's Sword above and was beheaded by the general. No other brothers were injured or injured."

He whispered again: "Thank you for your generosity, General. I promise that a lot of money will be sent to the families of the fallen soldiers. However, the one thousand gold coins given to me will not be used. I opened the city gate not for money."

Li Ye heard Xian Zhi's elegance and nodded happily, "I hope that one day, General Li can become my right-hand man!"

Li Han quickly bowed and said: "I am willing to serve the general!"

Li Han came from a poor family and had no background. He knew that Li Ye was the son-in-law of the Dugu family, so of course he had to seize this opportunity.

He asked again: "A humble position must report to the court. How will the general arrange it?"

Li Ye thought for a while and said: "I will report back in three days and say that Zhou Wei fought against Shang Fang's Emperor Sword and was killed!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

Li Ye immediately ordered Hu Kun to arrange for the carriages to pass the pass. Not long after, the cavalry escorted several carriages through the Shengsheng Pass, exited Jingyuan Road, and continued towards Lanzhou.