These people were born with supernatural powers. They closed the heavy city gate without any effort. Meng Hong was still worried that the city gate was not closed tightly enough, so he looked up and saw a few more stones on the roadside. He quickly ran a few steps and picked up one, blocking the door. Seeing this, the other people also quickly followed suit and pressed the remaining seven or eight huge stones against the door.
When the city gates were designed and built, they were afraid that powerful enemies outside the city would push the gates in, so the city gates were always opened outwards. But today, people outside the city did not want the people inside the city to come out. The pile of huge rocks blocked the door, and the Lingnan soldiers in the city kept knocking and pushing the door, but they could not move it at all.
Qiu Yizi was quite proud of seeing this. Suddenly, he saw a group of soldiers emerging from the stone city wall, hurriedly drawing their bows and arrows and aiming at him.
Qiu Yizi was shocked when he saw this, and hurriedly ordered everyone to mount their horses and chase after the large group of people.
Upon receiving the order, everyone mounted their horses and galloped forward. Only Meng Hong was a foot soldier and had no mount. However, he was fast on his feet and hurried forward. In just a few steps, he was not much slower than a fast horse and finally caught up with the group.
At this time, the news of the incident in Shicheng had spread. Upon hearing the order, the soldiers who were training, recuperating, and farming in the basin gathered one after another and rushed towards Zheng Miao and Qiu Yizi from all directions.
Qiu Yizi saw that the troops from Lingnan Road around him were like surging waves, rushing towards him like a tsunami, and his team of two hundred people was like a small boat in the wind and waves, which seemed like it would be swallowed up by the raging waves in the blink of an eye.
The situation was becoming more and more urgent. Seeing that the mountain pass they had just entered was still more than a thousand steps away, Qiu Yizi shouted from his horse: "Don't relax, hold your breath, and cross this mountain pass ahead. You will save most of your life!"
But Zheng Miao, who was also riding a horse, asked, "Brother, these cars behind are too cumbersome, why not abandon them?"
Qiu Yizi turned around and looked at the baggage carts and replied, "The things here are important. We can't just throw them away unless it's absolutely necessary!"
Although Zheng Miao has a high position, he is not the one who is commanding the entire army's actions at the moment. Qiu Yizi, who is responsible for this important task, is someone he trusts very much, so he didn't say anything more, just nodded, and continued to run forward with concentration.
As Qiu Yizi was running hard, he heard a shout from behind: "Oh no, the cavalry is catching up!"
Qiu Yizi heard the rough voice of "Black Gold Toad" and heard his tone full of anxiety and panic, so he turned around and looked around. Sure enough, he saw groups of cavalrymen wearing Lingnan Army uniforms, chasing towards him!
If it was just a cavalry confrontation, the Ferghana horse ridden by Qiu Yizhi and the Bohai horses ridden by Zhao Chengxiao and others would be far superior to the miscellaneous horses used by the Lingnan cavalry.
However, now it is a joint operation of infantry and cavalry, and no matter how fast the infantry runs, they cannot match the speed of the cavalry.
Seeing that the Lingnan Road cavalry was about to catch up with his militia, Qiu Yizhi was extremely anxious and hurriedly ordered: "Zhao Chengxiao, you lead all the cavalry to stop the enemy's attack. Don't let them catch up with us from behind!"
Zhao Chengxiao followed the order and looked back to see that the number of Lingnan cavalry was always more than two hundred, and the number was gradually increasing. He knew that he had less than twenty people under his command, and could only retreat after one strike when facing the large group of troops on the opposite side, otherwise he would be courting death. He had already made up his mind, so he shouted loudly: "Brothers, come with me to test the blades and see what tricks the Lingnan cavalry has!" As he spoke, he reined in his horses.
As they were talking, Yuchi Jiming came over and said, "Don't bother, just look at me!"
As she spoke, she took out a handful of copper coins from her pocket and, without even aiming, threw them proudly in front of the Lingnan cavalry who were chasing her.
These cavalrymen were only interested in catching up with their opponents and were not prepared at all. Although the damage caused by the copper coin darts was not fatal, it was enough to make them lose their balance and slow down involuntarily. Many copper coins hit the horses' noses, eyes, ears and other sensitive parts, causing them to jump around in pain and keep circling in place, refusing to continue sprinting forward.
After such a surprise attack, the Lingnan cavalry's pursuit formation was suddenly in chaos, and the road was blocked by frightened horses. The Lingnan army had no time to gather and reorganize its formation, let alone pursue the enemy.
Seeing this, Qiu Yizi did not dare to hesitate at all and hurriedly ordered his troops to continue to flee to the mountain pass.
The Lingnan Road army was also a group of elite soldiers. The chaos did not last long. An officer reorganized the troops and sent people to move the dead bodies and horses that were blocking the road to the side of the road. Then they set out again and rushed towards Zheng Miao and Qiu Yizi.
At this time, Qiu Yizi took advantage of the enemy's temporary confusion and led his troops to break through the mountain pass and come out of the basin.
Seeing that he had escaped from the dangerous situation, Zheng Miao secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said to Qiu Yizi, "Brother, thanks to your timely response and proper handling, we were able to slip out from the fingers of the King of Lingnan."
Qiu Yizi said with a tense face: "Third brother, don't be too happy too soon. Lingnan Road is still the world of the King of Lingnan. We just escaped from a small net and ended up in a big net."
Zheng Miao nodded quickly and said, "That makes sense! Then let's head north quickly and leave Lingnan Road the same way we came!"
Qiu Yizi waved his hand and said, "The mountain roads in Lingnan are winding and complicated. No matter how fast we run, we can't escape from the King of Lingnan. Don't panic, Third Brother. I will take care of this matter and ensure that you can return to Beijing safely."
After saying this, he issued an order, asking his soldiers to stop retreating, take the huge shields and powerful crossbows from the heavy baggage carts, and form a battle formation more than thirty steps outside the mountain pass.
The Lingnan army chasing Zheng Miao and Qiu Yizi were all stunned when they saw this: "What's wrong with these people? They worked so hard to escape, but now they stop. No matter how powerful these soldiers are, they only have more than 200 people. They dare to confront tens of thousands of elite troops from the Lingnan Palace in their own territory. Isn't this looking down on us?"
Thinking of this, the arrogant soldiers and generals of Lingnan Road finally concluded that these imperial troops were just bluffing. They had more people and stronger soldiers and horses, and they could crush their opponents into meat patties even if they stepped on them.
So a leading general in the Lingnan army raised the sword in his hand and said, "Brothers, kill him. If you capture the third prince of the court alive, the King of Lingnan will reward you handsomely!" After that, he rushed out first.
The soldiers behind him were afraid that he would snatch the credit away from them, so they were all eager to try and galloped forward as if they were competing for ready-made wealth and fame.
However, they were so blinded by greed that they actually forgot that the enemy opposite them was also an elite force that had experienced many battles. Facing the attack that was about to come like a huge wave, they were not at all panicked. They calmly formed their battle formations, drew their crossbows and loaded their arrows, took aim in their direction, and fired countless short and sharp crossbow arrows.
The Lingnan cavalry galloping in the front realized that the situation was not good and wanted to rein in their horses, but the horses behind them pushed the people and the people drove the horses, so they had no chance to stop; they wanted to scatter and hide, but the mountain pass was extremely narrow and there was no place to hide at all; they wanted to dismount and hide, but the horses behind them rushed towards them like mad, and if they were not shot to death by crossbow arrows, they would surely be trampled to death by the war horses.
After a blink of an eye of hesitation and calculation, the crossbow arrows were already flying towards him like locusts.
Although these militiamen under Qiu Yi were all recruited from Shanyin County, Yuezhou Prefecture, Jiangnan Road, they inherited the old military system of Youyan Road. The method of using powerful crossbows was specifically designed to restrain cavalry, and they were not at all inferior to the Turkic light cavalry when fighting against them.
The cavalry from Lingnan Road was far inferior to the elite cavalry of the Turks. They rushed here hastily after hearing the news. Most of them were not wearing heavy armor or equipped with thick shields. Under the attack of the crossbow arrows that rained down like raindrops, thirty or forty of them were mowed down in an instant.
As a result, the road leading to the mountain pass, which was not very wide to begin with, was blocked again, and the Lingnan soldiers were afraid of the attack from the opposite crossbows, so they did not dare to risk their lives to go forward to clear the passage.
Seeing that the battle situation was temporarily under his control, Qiu Yizhi pointed at the last large vehicle in the team and ordered, "Quick, push this vehicle to the mountain pass!"
Zhao Chengxiao looked in the direction Qiu Yizhi pointed and guessed his idea. He personally pulled the horses harnessed to the cart away, and called over a few strong men to push the cart to the center of the mountain pass.
The soldiers of Lingnan Road had never seen such actions by the enemy who was fleeing. They were so surprised that they felt that they could not let the enemy succeed. Immediately, a few brave ones dismounted and raised their swords to kill Zhao Chengxiao and others.
However, they did not expect that another volley of crossbow arrows came like a torrential rain, shooting and killing all those soldiers who had rashly stepped forward.
Zhao Chengxiao and others also took this opportunity to withdraw their team.
Suddenly, Qiu Yizi shouted, "All soldiers, listen up: move forward quickly, move forward quickly!" He took a newly lit torch in each hand, rode forward, threw the torches onto the car, and whipped the horse's butt hard, and galloped out like an arrow.
After walking a few steps, they heard a loud explosion behind them, and the shock wave from the explosion shocked the chests of the people who were desperately running forward. Several people with weaker constitutions couldn't catch their breath and fainted. Many more people seemed to be pushed hard from behind, unable to stand on their feet, and fell to the ground. Even the battle-hardened horses under the crotch of Qiu Yizhi's 18 personal soldiers were so frightened that their hooves kicked wildly in the air, and they finally calmed down.
When everyone came to their senses, they saw that the place where the explosion sounded behind them was shrouded in black smoke. A mountain breeze blew away the black smoke, and they saw that the mountain pass had been blocked tightly by huge rocks, and the two high mountains on both sides had half of their slopes collapsed by the explosion, revealing scar-like rock bodies.
Among the two hundred people brought by Qiu Yizhi, Zhao Chengxiao and his eighteen personal soldiers had seen such scenes before, and today they could not help but sigh inwardly when they saw such a thrilling scene again. The two hundred newly recruited militiamen had never seen such an explosion before, and they were all stunned with surprise, not knowing whether it was a god descending from heaven or a demon.
Zheng Miao rode his horse to Qiu Yizhi's side and said, "No wonder you wanted to keep this cart with you. It turns out that the cart is loaded with explosives!"
Qiu Yizi nodded and said, "Third brother is right. These explosives were originally intended to be used to kill the King of Lingnan, but I didn't expect them to be used in such a place..."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Miao thought: If this explosive was really used to assassinate the King of Lingnan, then King Lingnan Zheng Gui would not only die without a burial place, but even a single bone or muscle might not be found on his body.
Just as he was sighing, he heard Qiu Yizi say: "Now the mountain road has been blocked by us. If the King of Lingnan wants to pursue us, he must take countless detours. It will take at least four or five days for the army to move. By then, we will have already fled far away." (To be continued)