The next morning, King Pingxi led all the civil officials and military generals, 5,000 soldiers, and set out from Xiamaguan in a mighty manner to take over Tongyuan City.

Wei Mu led two thousand soldiers to line up outside Tongyuan City to greet him early.

Seeing that King Pingxi led a large army to come from afar, Mu Duwei immediately dismounted, walked forward quickly, came to the King Pingxi, and bowed to the ground and bowed: "Mu Tianju, the commander of Zhechong in Tongyuan City, paid homage to King Pingxi. I am now willing to offer the city to the wise king, and I will never abandon it, and I will serve my life and death."

The King of Pingxi immediately got off his horse, stepped forward and helped Mu Tianju up, and said, "General Mu asked him to get up. Now the King of Japan can get General Mu's assistance, which is a great blessing for the country."

After Mu Tianju met with all the civil officials and military generals, he led everyone into the city.

The King of Pingxi held a banquet in Tongyuan City to celebrate the meritorious service, and ordered the reward of the generals and soldiers. He also ordered the reward of meritorious officials. Mu Tian was awarded 5,000 taels of silver, and appointed him as the governor of Tongyuan, and appointed him as General Dingyuan, and guarded Tongyuan County. Zhao Yibiao and Tianlang were awarded 2,000 taels of silver each, Zhao Yibiao was granted the commander of Zhechong, and Xu Tianlang was granted the magistrate of Tongyuan.

Tianlang refused his official position on the grounds that he had entered the Taoist sect and had no intention of becoming an official. He also suggested that the King of Pingxi exempt Tongyuan County from two years of taxes to win the hearts of the people. The King of Pingxi agreed and ordered the whole city to be exempted from taxes for two years. The whole city was naturally excited and praised the merits and did not express it.

At this moment, the command of troops came to report that the court had sent General Yang Jinchao, the auxiliary country, to lead 80,000 troops, and King Qin Huaixiang of Funan, to lead 60,000 troops to march westward. The two units had set off one after another and were advancing towards the Western Regions.

When the King of Pingxi heard the report, he was very frightened and hurriedly summoned all the ministers to discuss matters. The ministers thought that the prevention and control should be focused on Xiamaguan City. The terrain of this pass was dangerous. The so-called Xiamaguan means that if a person reaches this point, it is difficult to ride a horse, he must dismount and walk to pass. This pass is easy to defend and attack, and it is not possible to gain many years of conquests and fail to gain profits.

After hearing the words, the King of Pingxi decided to leave General Sima Chong and two thousand soldiers to assist General Mu in the Tongyuan County, and ordered that all the troops in the Western Regions be recruited and deployed to Xiamaguan City within two days. Then he led all the civil officials and military generals and the remaining 3,000 officers and soldiers to hurried back to Xiamaguan City.

This was a worry that General Mu, who was ordered to station in Tongyuan City. Mu Tianju led the Tongyuan officers and soldiers, and the surrendered troops in the company, had only more than 5,000 people. In addition, the officers and soldiers of General Sima Chong who stayed to assist in the defense, there were less than 8,000 people. How could he resist the attack of tens of thousands of troops in the court?

Even if you surround and don’t fight, the Tongyuan City can only last for 10 or 20 days at most. At that time, the goods and food will be gone and the city will fall. Wouldn’t the people in the city face a catastrophe?

It is really infuriating to think that King Pingxi used this method of abandoning his car to protect his commander. Now that this lonely city with shortage of troops and food is about to face heavy encirclement of the imperial court, what should I do?

General Mu urgently recruited Sima Chong, Zhao Yibiao, Tianlang and other three people to discuss countermeasures.

General Sima Chong first said: "The arrangement of King Pingxi is nothing more than asking me to defend the city to make the defense of Xiamaguan City and gain some time for the defense of Xiamaguan City. We can only resist to the death. If we can defend one day, as long as we can ensure that Xiamaguan City is not lost, King Pingxi will have a chance to send troops to recover this city sooner or later."

"That's true, but most of the officers and soldiers in this city are the children of the people in the city. Once they are lost, the people in the city will inevitably be implicated and suffer tragic destruction. Although Mu is not willing to die, he has been punished by the people in the city and is punished for the crime of treason. Mu really can't afford to take it!"

After hearing General Mu's situation, Tianlang said, "General Mu doesn't have to worry. I have already expected this move of King Xi. I have his own countermeasures to protect Kirihara."

General Mu listened to Tianlang's words, but did not know what he had to do, so he immediately rescued Tianlang.

After thinking for a moment, Tianlang said, "As the saying goes, the military strategists: Before the troops move, the food and grass will go first. Since the court has sent troops, the food and grass troops must have set out in advance to the Western Regions. The troops carrying the food and grass did not know that Tongyuan City had been taken down, and their destination was to go straight to Tongyuan. If our army intercepted its food and grass first, it would win 20% first."

"The news of the loss of Tongyuan City will definitely be known to the court soon. We will immediately notify the Western Expedition Army, and then where will it be hidden in the bones and automatically come to the door?" Zhao Yibiao said.

"This is exactly what it means," Tianlang said, "You can ask someone to take a picture to see."

General Mu immediately ordered someone to take the map and expand it on the table.

Tianlang pointed to the Puxikou on the map and said, "I have discovered that the food and grass have also been transported here today. Please indicate where is the nearest station to this place?"

General Mu looked at the map, pointed to a place and said, "This is Chentang Pass, less than 20 miles from Puxikou, and it is the closest station."

"After the court received the letter, it would order the postman to rush the horse and whip it up, and send orders to all departments with 800 miles of gold medals. We only need to send people to Chentang Pass immediately, seize the postman, and intercept the messenger to ensure that there is no worry." Tianlang said.

"I immediately led my troops to Chentang Pass, robbed the post station, and intercepted the messenger!" Zhao Yibiao immediately took the order, went down to prepare six good horses, led five elite soldiers, and quickly headed straight for Chentang Pass.

On this side, Tianlang asked General Mu again: "In addition to these 8,000 soldiers, how many strong civilians can be summoned in the city?"

"The maximum number of people can be recruited is about 10,000."

"We can use the military seized by our army a few days ago to arm these civilians and men, not to be brave and good at fighting, but to make their momentum. At that time, the general can order Zhao Yibiao and Sima Chong to lead 4,000 troops and 5,000 armed civilians to lie on both sides of the city, waiting for an opportunity to move," Tianlang said.

"If you don't defend the city, you will ambush the outside of the city? Then isn't there no one in the city? How should you set up defense? Is this move too risky?" General Mu asked.

"General Mu can rest assured that the defenses in the city are all necessary for me, the general, and the women and children in the city."

General Mu was very surprised and didn't know what to do.

Tianlang took out a picture from his arms and presented it to the general, saying, "The general can ask someone to make it according to this picture, and after completion, it will be placed on the city wall for later use. It is best if 300 pieces can be completed within a day."

When General Mu showed the picture, he saw that it was a wooden tool design drawing with crossbows and lever chains on it, which was not very complicated. That is, he ordered a skilled craftsman to make it according to the same situation.

Speaking of which, Zhao Yibiao led five soldiers to change into military uniforms, dressed up as soldiers of the Daxing Empire, rushed forward overnight, and headed straight for Chentang Pass.

At noon the next day, I finally arrived at the Chentangguan Post Station and saw seven or eight soldiers guarding the post station, plus about ten people in total. It turned out that when the grain delivery troops passed by here, they left 500 stones of grain for subsequent use by the army, and sent seven soldiers to guard it.

Zhao Yibiao and others went straight into the post station and shouted to the post station: "The gold medal is urgent, and the army of grain protection should be sent quickly! No delays are allowed!" After that, he took out a token and a sealed document from the bag and handed it over to the post station.

The postman did not dare to be negligent, so he hurriedly stepped forward to receive the token and letter, turned around and took out a fast horse and prepared to set off.

Zhao Yibiao said to the officers and soldiers outside the station again: "This order is very urgent and important. You and others will send two people to escort them to ensure that they are correct!"

After the soldiers whispered to each other for a few words, two soldiers took out their horses and galloped away one after another with the postman.

After the messenger left, Zhao Yibiao drew his long sword and walked towards the five soldiers who were in charge of food and grass: "I am the subordinate of the King of Pingxi. Now I am ordered to intercept the messenger here. You and others immediately abandon their weapons and surrender, which can save their lives."

The two soldiers in front were stunned and at a loss. Zhao Yibiao stepped forward and took away their spears and handed them over to the two followers.

The two soldiers standing in the distance saw something wrong, turned around and ran towards the place where the horse was slinged.

Zhao Yibiao jumped up on the ground, jumped onto the pile of grain, and shouted: "Stop!"

At the same time, Zhao Yibiao hooked up a bag of food from the grain pile with his feet and threw it out with force. The soldier running in the front was smashed to the ground and screamed.

Seeing this, the soldier behind turned around and stabbed Zhao Yibiao with a spear.

Zhao Yibiao did not avoid it and rushed towards the spear. Seeing that the spear was about to pierce into Zhao Yibiao's body, he saw the figure turning around and rolling towards the soldier along the spear.

After Zhao Yibiao turned over and stood there behind the soldier, the soldier's head also rolled on the ground.

After Zhao Yibiao and others tied up the other five soldiers and placed them in place, they waited for more than an hour before the imperial court's gold medal postman arrived.

After cheating the gold medal, he sent the messenger away. When he opened it, he found that the grain protection troops stopped moving forward and waited on the spot, and then walked with him after the subsequent army caught up.

After receiving the gold medal urgent case, Zhao Yibiao ordered five followers to burn the food and grass on the post station and then return. Then he quickly rushed back to Tongyuan City and reported to General Mu.

When they met General Mu, Zhao Yibiao reported: "The food-protecting officers and soldiers, after receiving the order from us, were rushing towards Tongyuan City with whips and might arrive tonight."

General Mu was overjoyed and ordered people to go down and set up arrangements, ready to rob the food and grass.

Sure enough, it was dark and the spies in front of him reported that the army of food and supplies had reached several miles outside the city. General Mu immediately ordered a thousand troops out of the city to greet him.

Soon, the convoy carrying food and grass came to the front of the city, and nearly a thousand carriages were escorted by thousands of soldiers and brought into the city.

General Mu stepped forward to worship the generals who protected the grain and said that he had worked hard, so he invited all the officers and soldiers to enter the city and host a banquet. While arranging his subordinates to count the grain and grass into the warehouse, they arranged it properly.

On this side, General Mu and the generals and soldiers of the grain protection team, drank and chatted with each other. After they were full of wine and food, they ordered people to disarm, take them down one by one, and send them to prison to detain them without saying anything.

The subordinates reported that they collected 300,000 stones of food and grass, and all of them were put into the warehouse.
Chapter completed!