Cheng Zhaobing didn't need to keep raising his head to know whose sword it was. The swords met and emitted lightning and flint. Xiao Mubai suddenly activated his inner strength. Cheng Zhaobing's sword-holding hand trembled and he took two steps back.
"Your Highness." Helian Taoshang was still ready to wait for death, but he never expected that Xiao Mubai would come and rescue him.
The sky-high flames under the four city gates of Chang'an continued to burn, and screams shouted to the sky and the earth one after another. Originally, Cheng Zhaobing killed the rebellious Helian Tao with one blow, which could also increase the morale of the rebels.
But now, he was shocked back by Xiao Mubai. Although it was only two steps, it also made the rebels retreat together, and he lost his fighting spirit.
This is also the reason why Xiao Mubai came in person and did not let the secret guards take action.
Cheng Zhaobing originally led an army of 40,000, and was ordered to capture the imperial city. He thought that 40,000 would be an easy task against 3,000, but he did not expect that before the battle even started, a command arrow caused Helian Tao to turn against his army of more than 10,000.
And behind him, there were only more than 20,000 rebels left.
After Xiao Mubai succeeded with one blow, Xiao Zimu called Heliantao, who was still looking at Xiao Mubai with a grateful expression, and asked him to lead the soldiers to quickly take the ladder and climb up the tower.
The rebels behind Cheng Zhaobing were dumbfounded. The imperial city was originally difficult to conquer. Now, the defenders were holding hands with their comrades who they had called brothers yesterday to help them climb up.
"Fire arrows!" Cheng Zhaobing ordered harshly to the rebels who were stunned on the spot.
Only then did the rebels realize that Helian Tao was going to lead those soldiers up the city tower and defend the city with the originally only three thousand defenders.
The rebels all bent their bows and set arrows. When the arrows roared towards the city wall, Xiao Mubai rose into the air. At the same time, a total of four secret guards fell from both sides. They seemed to be holding something in their hands, and occasionally there was a silver light. Pass.
The rebels' arrows did not penetrate the chests of the soldiers led by Heliantao as promised. Instead, the arrows shot halfway and suddenly stopped in mid-air where the four secret guards were.
That's right, it stopped in mid-air!
The scene at this time was very strange, as if a wall had appeared invisibly, intercepting all the feather arrows.
Cheng Zhaobing didn't believe it and ordered again: "Let go!"
As the arrow flew out, Cheng Zhaobing stared at the arrow for a moment.
Sure enough, it stopped at the original position again, and the wall suspended in the invisible mid-air was already more and more densely inserted by a new round of arrow rain.
Cheng Zhaobing concentrated his attention and saw clearly that it turned out that Nian Ding, Bian Hao, Jiang Yan and Jiang Quan each held a corner and opened a large transparent and dense net.
The net was made by Wuma Huacai using fishing lines. It was transparent and full of toughness. The mesh was arranged according to the size of the arrows, allowing the arrows to pass through but get stuck at the tail.
Seen from a distance, one mistakenly thinks that the arrow is flying in the air, which is both weird and spectacular.
"Get it." Xiao Mubai watched as the people led by Helian Tao quickly climbed up the tower with their hands and feet. Then he gave an order and led the four of them back. When they flew onto the tower, he did not forget to look back and smile. , said to Cheng Zhaobing: "Thank you for the arrow."
As soon as he finished speaking, the guards and the defenders skillfully removed the arrows and loaded the arrows they sent into the defenders' crossbows in front of the rebels.
Cheng Zhaobing was so angry that his gums almost broke, and a sweet smell of blood filled his throat.
The city defenders, who originally had only three thousand soldiers, instantly grew to nearly 20,000 with the addition of Heliantao. The bows and arrows that had been cut off before were replenished by the two firing orders ordered by Cheng Zhaobing to replenish the city defenders' crossbow supplies.
There were only more than 20,000 rebels behind Cheng Zhaobing. He looked at the rebel forces on the tower that were almost catching up with him, and it was obvious that they could no longer attack.
Cheng Zhaobing retreated, and it was impossible for Xiao Mubai to send someone to chase him.
Chang'an was still occupied by Concubine Li. All they had to do was to defend the imperial city and wait for General Zhao to attack.
The firemen under the city tower had been burned into charred corpses. The loss was no more than a thousand people, but it caused a serious psychological shadow on the rebels.
After a 'rebuke', all the secret agents of the Ren family finished setting off their rockets and returned to Mingxiang Garden from all directions.
Although the gate of Mingxiang Garden only opened and closed, it also alleviated a little pressure from General Zhao to attack the city. Angrily, Shi Fuqiu stood on the tower and cursed at Old General Zhao: "Your grandson is the one who is evil." A sweetheart."
Although General Zhao didn't know what was going on in the city, listening to the screams in the city and Shi Fuqiu's insults with a livid face, he roughly guessed that Xia Chu was behind the scenes.
The soldiers led by General Zhao originally thought that the imperial city was in danger and that this was going to be a long and fierce battle. However, they did not expect that the people in the imperial city would suddenly attack and still have the strength to cooperate with them inside and outside.
At this time, there was no need for General Zhao to give orders. The morale of the army was greatly boosted, and the attack on the city became more and more fierce.
At the same time, there were Mr. Hou and Huo Tianxiu who were rushing back on the official road all the way to the west.
The letters they sent back all the way, one after another, disappeared, making them more and more certain that something big must have happened in Beijing.
Detaining Miao Heng slowed down their movement, so the Marquis simply handed him over to Hu Yingmao's custody.
Even so, the two of them could not go any faster. The Marquis could not ride a horse for a long time due to his back injury, so he could only ride in a carriage.
The two were anxious and discussed it. Huo Tianxiu took his subordinates and hurried back to Beijing.
Marquis stayed behind to keep in touch with him and prepare for emergencies.
Huo Tianxiu crossed the border between Wanzhou and Huixin and rushed to Chi'an. He just got the news from Chi Xiang, the navy commander in Chi'an.
Chi Xiang used to be Huo Tianxiu's subordinate. When he saw him appearing in Chi'an, he revealed a strange thing.
They had occasional contacts between Chi'an and Gushui City near Chang'an when they were training naval forces with each other. Although it was not intensive, it never stopped.
Chi Xiang paid a courtesy visit and found out that all the garrison troops in Gushui City had been mobilized, and the original navy troops were temporarily arranged to serve as garrison training.
Although this thing is strange, how could Chi Xiang think that the garrison division of Gushui City would lead them to capture Chang'an.
Seeing Huo Tianxiu now, Chi Xiang asked with some fear and suspicion: "Admiral Huo, will something happen to Chang'an?"
The reason why he asked this was because the garrison commander had not led the army out of the city. Otherwise, they would have passed through Chi'an, so the only direction they could disappear would be Chang'an.
Huo Tianxiu's heartbeat began to accelerate, his scalp was numb, his brows furrowed tightly, and he suddenly took a few heavy breaths.
He and the Marquis had made various assumptions, but never thought that the garrison army would lead troops to Chang'an.
The emperor would not use these people at all, so the only possibility was that the garrison commander Si Wuzhao led the army back to the capital privately, and he happened to leave the capital at this time.
Huo Tianxiu's chest felt tight and he didn't dare to think about it anymore...
(End of chapter)