Qiu Yizi heard Bai Wenbo swearing, but he still showed great respect to his adoptive father Zheng Rong in his words, so he said, "If you don't believe me, old general, please take a look at this first." As he spoke, he took out the black jade business card from his arms and handed it to Bai Wenbo.
Bai Wenbo was startled, and took the name card from Qiu Yizhi, stroking it carefully, and said, "I also worked under the prince in my early years. This is indeed the prince's name card..."
Qiu Yizi quickly added: "Since the old general knows that the prince is a master in military operations and that the Youyan Dao army is composed of elite soldiers and generals, and now the Tongguan fortress, the only thing the court relies on, is also open, why don't you surrender to my prince?"
Bai Wenbo seemed not to have heard what Qiu Yizi said, and continued to speak: "This little brother dared to take the risk to come here alone. This loyalty and courage are indeed remarkable. I admire it. Since you are each serving your own master, I will naturally not make it difficult for you. However, now is the time when the enemy and I are fighting, and I have wronged you to go to jail for a few days. How to deal with you will be decided by the imperial court!"
After saying that, Bai Wenbo waved his hand, and the soldiers on both sides drew their swords and pressed towards Qiu Yizi.
Yuchi Lianghong, Zhao Chengxiao and the eighteen surrendered bandits beside Qiu Yizi were not easy to bully either. They also held weapons in their hands, guarding Qiu Yizi and ready to fight with her.
At this moment, a soldier on the wall suddenly shouted in surprise: "Why... why are there so many people..." His words could not hide his panic.
"Why so many people?" Bai Wenbo asked loudly, "Report clearly to me!"
"This... this... why don't you let the old general come and see it in person!" The soldier's panic-stricken tone increased instead of decreasing.
Bai Wenbo snorted angrily, and ignored Qiu Yizi who was planning to resist stubbornly. He stepped to the front of the wall, looked down through the layers of heavy rain, and couldn't help but gasp.
Qiu Yizi was a very daring person to begin with, and at this critical moment, he even stole a glance to the west - he saw cavalrymen under the banner of the Youyan Dao army rushing towards Tongguan in a black mass, and the sound of countless horse hooves hitting the ground was getting closer and louder, even to the point of being deafening.
Qiu Yizi estimated that the total number of cavalrymen was at least 30,000, which was all the cavalrymen that Youyan Dao could mobilize. The wise and brave prince godfather was obviously very confident in his strategy and wanted to achieve success in one battle and capture the impregnable Tongguan fortress today!
Qiu Yizhi knew Zheng Rong's command and combat style very well. He always focused on winning by playing it safe, and rarely took risks. Since he was determined to mobilize all the cavalry to launch a surprise attack today, he must be full of confidence, and he must have a back-up plan to ensure victory.
Thinking of this, Qiu Yizhi also became confident and said with a smile: "General Bai, the Youyan prince's army is coming to attack, I am afraid that this mere Tongguan cannot withstand it. General Bai, why don't you surrender and save your life?"
Bai Wenbo laughed loudly after hearing this: "You are such an ignorant kid! I hold your life in my hands, yet you dare to come and persuade me to surrender! Is Zheng Rong that great? I may not be able to defeat him in a field battle, but I have a strong city as my base, so Zheng Rong may not be able to do anything to me!"
Qiu Yizi retorted: "The old general is an expert in marching and fighting, but doesn't he know that there is no strong city in the world that can be defended for a lifetime..."
Bai Wenbo laughed again and interrupted Qiu Yizi, "Hahaha! At my age, if the King of Youyan can besiege this place for ten or twenty years, then I will definitely lose! But I have one foot in the coffin, so I have to hold on for another five or six years. It depends on whether the King of Youyan has the patience!"
Qiu Yizhi saw Bai Wenbo's strong appearance despite being an opponent, but he admired him deeply. He ordered his men, "Put away your weapons. I want to see how General Bai can show his skills and compete with Prince Youyan!"
After hearing the order, everyone looked at each other and dropped their weapons. However, they did not relax at all and continued to guard Qiu Yizi.
As the saying goes, one must jump three times before dying. Bai Wenbo never expected that the young man in front of him would give up resistance at this critical moment when his life was in danger. He was surprised and admired him, so he said, "Young brother is really amazing. I didn't have your courage when I was this old! I said I won't embarrass you, but the battle here is about to start, and you can't stay here for long. Please go to the arrow tower over there to watch the battle!"
Although Bai Wenbo deliberately used the word "please", the meaning of his words did not change at all. He simply wanted to detain Qiu Yizi and others in an arrow tower surrounded by heavy guards.
Since Qiu Yizi was able to give up resistance in person, he naturally did not care about being imprisoned or under house arrest, so he said generously: "I am not a person who does not know the times. I appreciate the old general's kindness." After that, he did not need a heavy escort, and led the other twenty disarmed men and horses to the direction of the arrow tower.
Bai Wenbo looked at the backs of Qiu Yizi and others, and thought: Prince Youyan is indeed extraordinary. Even a soldier under his command, who is just a boy, has such a magnanimous demeanor.
As he sighed in his heart, he could not help but remind himself not to underestimate the enemy. After organizing his thoughts, he shouted to everyone, "Everyone, get moving! King Youyan is not easy to deal with. If you are not careful, you will all lose your heads!"
Qiu Yizi and others were detained in a small room on the top floor of the arrow tower.
This small room was originally used to store brooms and dustpans for cleaning Tongguan. However, the soldiers in charge of cleaning felt that this place was too high, and it was troublesome and tiring to get the tools, so they piled the cleaning tools in a corner of the wall. Over time, this small room was left vacant and became dilapidated and damp. The room was filled with the smell of mold, and there was a large water stain on a corner of the ceiling.
Qiu Yizhi was not a pampered person, so he didn't care about it. He just thought that this place was high up and had windows on the north and south sides, which was the best place to observe the battle. So he lay on the windowsill on the west side of the hut and watched the changes in the battle attentively.
The imperial guards had originally made guarding the imperial city and protecting the emperor's safety their top priority. Therefore, in terms of field battles, they were no match for the Youyan army; but in terms of city defense, they were better.
Under the command of veteran general Bai Wenbo, countless imperial guards had already swarmed onto the wall. According to their different divisions of labor, some were holding bows and arrows, while others were holding spears, all of them ready to resist the strong enemy. Bows, arrows, rolling stones, wooden beams and other defensive equipment had also been carried out and neatly piled on the top of the wall.
The old general Bai Wenbo, who was in command, was quite good at defending the city. He knew that now that the gate of Tongguan was open, the fortress advantage he relied on had been reduced by at least one third. If he wanted to ensure that the pass would not be breached, the first thing he had to do was to defend the gate tightly no matter what.
Therefore, when he saw that everything on the wall was ready, he ordered the rest of the imperial guards to assemble on the west side of the wall and get into battle formation to await the enemy's attack.
Bai Wenbo was quite strategic in commanding the army. At his command, countless imperial guards gathered at the foot of the wall on the west side of Tongguan. They followed his orders and formed a defensive formation at the city gate which could not be closed in a short time, trying to keep the invading cavalry from Youyan outside Tongguan and prevent them from setting foot into the capital.
However, an obstacle occurred when they were arranging the formation. It turned out that the one hundred or so imperial guards who had just run in from outside the pass were still lying in a mess at the gate of Tongguan. No matter how they were urged or scolded, they refused to get up and leave. They had intentionally or unintentionally formed an open area for the Youyan army to gather its forces.
Bai Wenbo could see it clearly from the top of the wall, and he understood it clearly in his mind - this flaw seemed insignificant, but it was very likely to be seized by Zheng Rong, the King of Youyan, who was very adept at using troops. He could gather a large force here, use the Youyan army's advantage in close combat, and break through the numerous obstacles in one fell swoop.
Bai Wenbo knew that this matter could not be taken lightly, and hurriedly ordered his personal soldiers: "Why haven't the people at the gate deployed yet? Go down and tell my generals to leave the gate immediately and not miss the opportunity to fight!"
The personal soldier sang a yes and went down the pass to deliver the order.
After a while, the soldier came back and replied, "Those people said they were so exhausted that they didn't even have the strength to stand up..."
"Bullshit!" Bai Wenbo cursed and slapped the soldier in the face. "They can't move, so can't you? No matter how many people we have, we can carry them down!"
Seeing that the soldier was standing there with his hands covering his swollen face, his anger did not subside at all. He slapped him again and cursed, "Do you think it's good to stand here? Why don't you get things done? If you can't get this done, you'll lose your head!"
The personal soldier was scolded by Bai Wenbo, and he quickly agreed and crawled down to the underground pass.
At this time, a military report came from the front of the pass: "How come the Youyan cavalry have all dismounted, held up their huge shields, and are walking towards the gate. They are moving very fast, please make the decision, General!"
Bai Wenbo was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly turned around to the east side of the wall and looked down. Sure enough, he saw that tens of thousands of Youyan cavalry had entered the town in front of Tongguan, but they did not advance on their horses. However, two or three thousand of them dismounted from their horses, held huge shields on their heads, led their horses in their hands, and trotted towards Tongguan.
"It's the 'Dangshi Camp'!" Bai Wenbo almost screamed.
This "Dangshi Camp" is the backbone of the Youyan army. Bai Wenbo had heard of it before, but he only knew that these people were heavy infantry. He did not expect that they could ride horses and maneuver, and choose to dismount and charge in the middle of the battle. He was shocked.
However, he had been through many battles and had experienced many unexpected changes on the battlefield. He regained his composure in the blink of an eye and shouted, "Why don't you shoot arrows down for me? Throw down all the rolling stones and battering rams!"
Upon hearing the order, the imperial guards on the wall immediately drew their bows and arrows and shot downwards, and countless boulders and logs were thrown down like raindrops.
The "Dangshi Camp" was defending against arrows and stones. The arrows shot by the government troops were soft and weak, and were completely different from those shot by the Turkic knights on the grassland. The soldiers of the "Dangshi Camp" did not take them seriously. However, the horses they were leading were not protected by this heavy weapon.
However, when this rolling stone or log was thrown down from the several-meter-high Tongguan wall, the accumulated potential energy already contained enormous power and carried objective mass. Under the guidance of the ruthless laws of physics, it attacked the Youyan soldiers under the Guan Tower.
The huge square shields in the hands of the "Dangshi Camp" finally reached the limit of their defense - small stones could still be barely blocked, but slightly larger stones would hit the shields directly, destroying them to pieces. Without the protection of the shields, the soldiers could no longer rely on their flesh and blood to resist the sharp weapons falling from the sky, and they sacrificed their precious lives one after another.
Despite this, two-thirds of the elite soldiers of the "Dangshi Camp" still broke into the Tongguan Gate and took a short breath. If it were any other ordinary army, if the loss of more than one-fifth of the soldiers was more than one-fifth, they would have already been defeated and fled. This shows how strong the Youyan army is! (To be continued)