Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

The sound of horseshoes heard on the Xihua Gate was the cavalry who had just arrived at Xuande Gate.

The first to arrive at Xuande Gate in the south of the imperial city were Dong Zunxun, Marquis of the Third Army, and Deng Fei, Commander of the Horse Army. The two led a group of 800 elite riders to the crossroads in front of Xuande Gate. The battle of hundreds of iron hoofs seemed earth-shattering, and there was no obstacle along the way; facing the aggressive cavalry armed to the teeth, only fools stopped.

The Guards Department is next to the Xuande Gate, next to the Zuoye Gate of the Imperial City. At this time, some people are already watching from afar at the gate of the Ya Office. But Dong Zunxun and others ignored the bodyguard department at all and rushed straight to their destination.

The imperial city is approximately square, slightly longer from north to south, and more than two miles long on each side. Dong Zunxun's troops headed west from Xuandemen to the southwest corner of the imperial city, and then went straight north. The total distance was about two miles. He led his troops to Xihuamen in just over a minute (about a minute).

A huge square flag was fluttering in the wind on the horse, with four big words on it "calling for rebellion". Dong Zunxun rode a very tall pure-blood red horse from the Western Regions. His whole body was double-layered and heavy armored. He looked like an iron man with only two eyes exposed, and even his mouth and jaw had fine wrought iron pieces with holes.

The sound of "rumbling" horseshoes is deafening!

Dong Zunxun took the lead and was the first to rush to the Xihua gate. He saw the palace gate was open, and he was overjoyed and rushed. At the same time, the bow and arrow were already in hand. When I looked up, I saw that the door was in chaos, and some soldiers and women had been killed on the ground. The first drop of blood has been seen, so what nonsense is there to talk about!

"Crack!" The bowstring sounded, and a heavy arrow flew out obliquely, hitting the face of a soldier besieging Luo Yanhuan; before the man fell down, there was another string sound, and another man was hit in the chest, and the distance was still ten steps away!

"Xiao Dong!" Luo Yanhuan, who was covered in blood, was overjoyed, "You are finally here!"

"General Luo!" Dong Zunxun responded, "Tell your people to get out of the way!"

Before he finished speaking, Dong Zunxun had already thrown away the expensive carved bow, and a cold light flashed, and the excellent riding sword was unsheathed from his back, which was long, thick and narrow. Dong Zunxun's war horse had already charged directly into the crowd of cherry guns. While swinging the sword with his right hand, he held the unsharp edge of the long sword with his left hand, piercing the armor directly, and the sound of metal impact and screams sounded at the same time.

A moment later, his personal soldiers also rushed up directly regardless of life and death, and the cavalry slashed desperately. The left flank of a guard on the side was unprotected, and he was immediately killed by several cherry guns stabbed in blood. Dong Zunxun was hit by several arrows in the chest, and his horse was also injured. He fell off the horse, and many cavalry behind saw this and abandoned their horses and came up on foot, holding long and short weapons to protect them.

More cavalry abandoned their horses and crowded in. Hundreds of cavalry blocked the outside of the palace city, and the cavalry couldn't run away and took up too much space, so all the troops abandoned their horses and fought on foot. The bowstring "cracked" and the arrows flew in the air.

The defenders who had just been reinforced at the gate of the city were weak, and the generals seemed to have been beheaded by Luo Yan in a circle. The troops were in a mess, and they were chased by Dong Zun's training department in an instant, and the defenders were defeated and fled. But everyone was already red-eyed, and the crazy soldiers rushed forward and killed them, regardless of others surrendering or begging for mercy.

Some of the defenders were squeezed to the corner, and the rebels stabbed people with long and short weapons regardless of the number of times, and there were corpses everywhere in the gatehouse. Except for some soldiers who fled to the small door in the inner wall in panic, all the remaining defenders in the not-so-spacious space inside were slaughtered.

Luo Yanhuan spit out a mouthful of blood in a "bah", and pulled out an arrow in front of his chest, his face twisted and twitched in pain. He shouted: "Array! Hold this place, and fight until every soldier dies. My army from the left wing will come soon!"

When he looked back, there were corpses and bloodstains all over the ground, and many survivors were still struggling and screaming in pain. There were also many women with paint on their faces who died. Those women only had daggers as their weapons, and they had no protection on their bodies. But at this time Luo Yanhuan didn't see Cao Tai, and immediately shouted: "Eunuch Cao..."

At the moment, he felt that Cao Tai had helped a lot, and it was a pity that he died, so he searched the corpse on the ground. At this moment, behind the dozens of surviving women, an eunuch came out and said, "Eunuch Cao went to the front hall from the small gate. The miscellaneous family saw him go with their own eyes."

Not long after, the reinforcements in the palace hadn't been seen, and the sound of horseshoes outside was like thunder.

Thousands of troops rushed to the street outside Xihuamen like a flood. The army that came so quickly could only be from the left wing! Starting from Zhuquemen, it took less than one stick of incense; for an unprepared military camp, it would be a problem to assemble a commanding force within one stick of incense.

Sure enough, a large flag soon appeared in people's sight, and the flag embroidered with tiger patterns made the soldiers feel very familiar and friendly when they saw it. The soldiers on horseback were all infantry, and some of them were riding on the same horse. When they got to the place, they dismounted one after another when they heard the shouts of the generals. Generals at all levels waved their sabers and cursed to organize their respective troops to form a square formation. There was a lot of noise outside, except for the horses, everyone was human.

Seeing this, the officers and men in charge of Xihua Gate breathed a sigh of relief. Dong Zunxun clasped his fists and said, "General Luo made his first contribution, my Uncle Guo will definitely value it extra, I'm really envious!"

Luo Yanhuan said: "The key to opening the palace gate is the eunuch surnamed Cao... I thought I was going to die here." He held on to the bloody sword hilt tightly, "The guard is a novice, and he doesn't know how to guard the city gate. He is hesitant to fight and has no way to defend. Otherwise, we will fight to the death if we stand here for half a stick of incense!"

He still couldn't control his nervousness, and kept saying: "First, the eunuch called to open the palace gate, and I frightened him while arguing, delaying the time; then the soldiers also came up to argue. But the guard was not sure about me, so he didn't dare to use a knife or gun lightly, which took a lot of time.

Later, the movement of the army was so obvious that the guy (guard general) finally came back to his senses and shouted to close the city gate immediately. I beheaded him on the spot! With dozens of people occupying the door, how can the defenders close the door? I had to raise my hands, those women were really not afraid of death, they took out their daggers to help block the door, but nearly half of them died in vain; daggers are useless in battle, the defenders all use bows and long weapons, with daggers to block the door, you can't bully them, it can only be used as a wall of meat, can't reach others..."

At this moment, Guo Shao also came, and the person next to him was a heroic woman in armor, Jing Niang. Guo Shao stepped forward, took a look at the scene of Xihua Gate, and immediately stepped forward to hold Luo Yanhuan's palm with both hands, and said with a moved face: "General Luo, you have made a remarkable achievement!"

Luo Yanhuan, who was working in Shimizu yamen in Tokyo two years ago, probably didn't understand the concept of miraculous work for a while, and said in a daze: "The last general has fulfilled his mission, and finally he has a job!"

Guo Shaodao: "The most difficult places in this battle include the Xihuamen! If you can't break through quickly, if you want to attack by force, the time will be delayed, and various unpredictable variables will be greatly increased. This is why I sent you, a general, to come in person!"

Luo Yanhuan hurriedly said: "Thanks to the commander in chief's planning, the eunuch was able to open the city gate as an internal response."

Guo Shao glanced back at the people who were rectifying the queue one after another, and said: "We have already achieved half the success in opening the Xihua Gate. We must work hard, and we will recount our achievements when we celebrate our achievements in the future."

He sighed again, turned his head and said in a deep voice: "You ask your soldiers to find a place to put the corpses of these women first. They died for our great cause at a critical moment, and they should be given no less courtesy than the fallen soldiers."

...

Outside the Jinxiang Hall, Qiao Kang was anxiously ordering reinforcements from various sects to assemble, and the soldiers were in a state of confusion in haste. Of course he would not pay attention to a eunuch who was running away with a fly whisk. There are many people in the palace, but there is no shortage of eunuchs.

Cao Tai shrunk his body, hugged Fuchen in his arms, and entered the Jinxiang Hall with his head buried.

After entering, an eunuch finally recognized him and stopped him: "Eunuch Cao, where are you going?"

Cao Taidao: "The miscellaneous family has important matters to see Eunuch Yang (Yang Shiliang)."

The eunuch's power and position were not as good as Cao Tai's. When he heard that he was going to see a servant of the same rank, he said, "Eunuch Cao came with the miscellaneous family."

They walked across the main hall, stepped aside, and entered the apse. Soon after seeing Yang Shiliang, Yang Shiliang's face was pale, and he took Cao Tai into a room.

The sound of horseshoes outside the imperial city resounded through the front hall not long ago. He heard that there was already a fight at Xihua Gate. Yang Shiliang asked the eunuch who came from there, and said that they were flying the tiger flag... Tiger Jiejun.

Before Cao Tai could speak, Yang Shiliang asked urgently, "Is that the left wing of Guo Shao's Hu Jie army coming from outside?"

"There is also the right wing. Gao Huaide also followed Guo Shao to raise troops. Guo Shao is the savior of Gao Huaide's sister and the commander of Gao Huaide's nephew. He controlled the entire Hu Jie army." Cao Tai stared.

Yang Shiliang frowned: "Guo Shao wants to rebel?"

Cao Taidao: "Why is he plotting rebellion? The queen's younger sister is the wife he is currently marrying, Guo Shao is related to the Fu family, and he is not qualified enough. If he doesn't hold the queen empress and reap the glory and wealth, why should he use his head to plot rebellion?"

"That's true." Yang Shiliang couldn't help nodding.

Cao Tai said again in a deep voice: "Eunuch Yang knows the official situation best, right? I'm sure I won't be able to get up from bed, so can I speak clearly?"

Yang Shiliang said: "It started to get worse yesterday, I could only speak one or two words, and I had to rest for half an hour... My mind is still not muddled, I can hear other people talking; as long as I speak in front of him, he will gently nod or shake his head."

Cao Taidao: "Then Eunuch Yang thinks the officials are still good? Also, the 20,000 troops have already marched into the imperial city, will they slowly watch the officials shake their heads or nod?"

Yang Shiliang remained silent for a long time.

Cao Tai calmly said softly: "Wang Zhong looks miserable, isn't he still alive? If he doesn't die, it's a disaster...Wang Zhong made a plan early on, but the risk is too big; Eunuch Yang is not in any danger now, so why not just sit back and enjoy the benefits?"

"How to sit back and enjoy the success?" Yang Shiliang asked.

"The official family can no longer be in power, and there is still the prince; the prince's mother and concubine are the queen... The queen's cronies have already entered the city! Eunuch Yang, you have to think clearly, it is not obvious who will be in power in this court?" Cao Tai said.

Yang Shiliang suddenly "thumped" and knelt down in front of Cao Tai: "Eunuch Cao, please, for the sake of our many years of friendship, please recommend and give some kind words to the miscellaneous family!"