Yangping Pass stood as tall as before, with densely packed soldiers standing on the top of the city, with a total of 5,000 soldiers.

The city was still calm, with weeds stretching across the sky and no one was seen.

The Xiliang Army stationed twenty miles away would never have imagined that the Yangping Pass, which was heavily defended, would be a different scene at this time.

But seeing that all the camps on the huge open space in the pass were gone, replaced by rows of soldiers and soldiers of Yizhou, lined up with swords and were covered with armor. Not only were the soldiers ready to go, but even the gentle and gentle Yizhou Chief Zhao Wei, who had always been dressed in fine clothes, was wearing armor, an eagle helmet (also called a sling), holding a sword, and preparing to fight in person.

The Xiliang army, which had been confronting for half a month, did not come. Instead, war suddenly broke out in the rear of Yangping Pass. Yang Bai, a general under Zhang Lu, led his army to block the southern gate, trapped the Yizhou army in the pass, and advanced and retreated.

The reason why the situation took a sharp turn for the worse has to start ten days ago.

Ten days ago, Yang Song, a counselor under Zhang Lu's tent, suddenly took leave and returned to Nanzheng City, but unexpectedly he returned to the pass overnight that night. Two days after that, Yang Song followed Zhang Lu all day, muttering and wondering what to say. He only knew that not long after, Zhang Lu and Zhao Wei had a fierce argument at the banquet, and almost broke up on the spot and faced each other with swords.

Late at night after the dispute, Zhang Lu left without saying goodbye and quietly returned to Nanzheng City, leaving Yang Song and Yang Bai brothers in the pass to deal with the aftermath.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Lu left, and the brothers Yang Song and Yang Bai then quietly left Yangping Pass with more than 15,000 Hanzhong troops, and took away a large amount of food and supplies, and destroyed all the remaining food and supplies.

The reason for this is that the food and supplies in the pass were originally supervised and distributed by the brothers Yang Song and Yang Bai, and the more than 10,000 Hanzhong soldiers were staying in the pass to guard the warehouse. This was also a necessary means for Zhang Lu to defend the Yizhou army. Even Zhao Wei, Wu Yi and others had no way to refute it. Although they were reluctant, they had to accept it. After all, Zhang Lu was responsible for supplying the food and supplies needed by the Yizhou army. They were short-spoken and were on Zhang Lu's territory. Such an arrangement was understandable.

It is precisely because the Hanzhong army was responsible for transporting food and supplies, and the South Gate connected to Hanzhong was always guarded by Hanzhong soldiers. The soldiers of Yizhou were commonplace for the Hanzhong soldiers to transport food and grass overnight. They did not raise any doubts, and naturally they would not report to the generals, and did not realize that the crisis had quietly arrived.

At the same time, Zhao Wei did not take the verbal disputes at the banquet during the day, and even thought that Zhang Lu was a little unreasonable and too stingy. Isn’t it just a waste of some food and eating dozens of cows? What a big deal. Is it necessary to be so petty and get angry? For this reason, Zhao Wei secretly ridiculed Zhang Lu for being too petty and narrow-minded, and it is difficult to achieve great things.

However, Zhao Wei never expected that Zhang Lu actually did something incredible to him, and this incident caused him and more than 30,000 Yizhou troops to fall into a desperate situation. Zhang Lu actually left Yangping Pass overnight, not only took away 15,000 Hanzhong soldiers, but also swept away all the food, grass and supplies. All those who could not be taken away were destroyed.

"It's so amazing, is Zhang Lu crazy? There is no food and supplies in the pass. How to resist the Xiliang army and how to protect Yangping Pass?" When Zhao Wei learned that all the Hanzhong army had withdrawn from Yangping Pass and took away the food and supplies, these questions immediately came to his mind. No matter how he wanted to break his head, he couldn't understand why Zhang Lu did this, and he did so incredible that he had no way out at all.

In fact, Zhao Wei really blamed Zhang Lu for wrongly.

The reason why Zhang Lu left Yangping Pass overnight was because he was not angry and left in anger. He wanted to return to the county magistrate's mansion overnight, and comfort his wives and concubines at home and enjoy the blessings of the people. After all, he had been fighting for more than three months in a row, and since Chen Cang was defeated, he had no time to enjoy the free life of singing and dancing. He really couldn't hold it in.

It happened to be a coincidence, but he encountered trouble again. The Yizhou army squandered food and supplies, which made Zhang Lu very angry and had a big fight with Zhao Wei. Therefore, he was so angry that he thought that he would not be upset. Instead of staying here to be cowardly, it would be better to return to the county magistrate's office to relax. Anyway, the Xiliang army would not be able to break Yangping Pass for a while.

With this kind of thought, Zhang Lu left overnight. Before leaving, he did not forget to remind Yang Song to inform Zhao Wei. But what he never dreamed was that Yang Song violated his orders and conspired to rebel with his brother Yang Bo, and took away Hanzhong soldiers and food and supplies overnight.

The two brothers Yang Song and Yang Bai faked military orders and took more than 10,000 soldiers and food out of the southern gate, but did not return to Nanzheng City, but were stationed nearby in a valley five miles outside the southern gate. Yang Bai led the army to return on the same road before dawn, built trenches 150 steps away from the southern gate, placed deer antlers and fences, and set up a strong bow and crossbow, blocking the southern gate so that it could not even fly over, trapping the Yizhou army in the pass. As of today, the Yang brothers have been besieging the Yizhou army for a full six days.

Zhang Lu is still in the dark, and is intoxicated by singing and dancing all day long, without knowing that Yangping Pass has undergone drastic changes. He is even more unlikely to know that the Yang brothers led Hanzhong soldiers to fight fiercely with the Yizhou army at the southern gate. They have been fighting bloody for six days, and the soldiers on both sides have suffered heavy casualties.

After six days, the Yizhou army in Yangping Pass had been out of food for two days and had to kill horses to satisfy their hunger.

Today is the third day of food outage. Many Yizhou soldiers have been hungry for two days and can't hold on. Therefore, if they cannot break through the siege today, the Yizhou army can only sit and wait for death and be buried in Yangping Pass. If this is true, the 50,000 troops rushing to Hanzhong this time will be completely wiped out, and no one will ever go back alive.

The soldiers in Yizhou, who were in desperate situation, had a sharp increase in combat effectiveness. In recent days, they fought bloody battles with the Hanzhong army, and their combat effectiveness was no less than that of the soldiers in Hanzhong. The only drawbacks are that the strong bows and hard crossbows blocked outside the south gate are extremely lethal, and they are sufficient feather arrows. They shoot arrows desperately without hesitation, causing great damage to the soldiers in Yizhou and heavy casualties.

After six days of fierce battle, the Yizhou army was exhausted and the arrows were severely insufficient. More than 10,000 soldiers were lost, but they still could not break the defensive siege of the Hanzhong army.

Forced to the point of being helpless, Zhao Wei planned to lead the army to fight in person today. If he fails, he will succeed and swear to break out of the siege to the death, otherwise everyone will die here. Of course, the one who really led the army was Wu Yi, the general of Yizhou. Zhao Wei was a scholar after all, and it was okay to pose. When he really fought, he was not even as good as an ordinary soldier. He was purely going to fight to death.

However, Zhao Wei, the chief general of the army, was not just a famous person. In the past few days, the great changes were made in the pass, but the defenders on the North Gate Tower remained motionless, and they were still rotated once every two hours, always keeping five thousand soldiers standing on the city tower, causing the Xiliang Army, who was eyeing him, to see no flaws and still remained motionless.

In fact, these five thousand defenders just came down from the east and went up from the west, and the two sides were just exchanged, and no one replaced them, because the army inside the pass was fighting at the south gate, and there was no extra force to replace the defenders. Fortunately, although the Xiliang scouts were large in number, they never approached the city. Otherwise, they might have heard the shouts of killing on the other side of the pass, and thus discovered the flaws of the defenders at the top of the city.

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Outside the south gate, in the temporary military tent, Yang Song and Yang Bai sat opposite each other, eating and drinking, and having a feast.

After the meal, the two brothers were having a leisurely tea without any haste, listening to the shouts of killing and the sound of arrows breaking through the air from time to time, thus inferring the intensity of the fight.

"Third brother, today is the seventh day. The Yizhou army's food and grass should have been exhausted. It is time to release the carrier pigeon and notify the Xiliang army to attack the city." Yang Song ordered his third brother Yang Bai while holding up the teacup and blowing the heat.

Yang Bai nodded and responded: "Okay, I'll follow my brother, and I'll give the order immediately." Before he finished speaking, he called out his personal soldiers and handed over the letter Yang Song had already written to the personal soldiers, and gave them carefully the instructions and the personal soldiers took the order to leave.

Seeing the white carrier pigeon flying north with his own eyes, Yang Song stood up, tidy up his clothes, and said to Yang Bai with a solemn expression: "Today is crucial. Success and failure are here, and the glory and wealth of you and my brothers are all entrusted here. Therefore, today, the third brother must do his best and guard the South Gate no matter what, and must not let a Yizhou soldier go. This is the letter of surrender given to the general by the two brothers. As long as the Yizhou army is trapped in the pass and there is no armour to defend the city, the Xiliang army will definitely break through the north gate in one fell swoop and then enter the pass. If this battle is won, the third brother can be appointed as a general and a marquis, and his wife and son. As for the brother, he will go to the county magistrate's office, and now he can tell Zhang Lu the truth. Now there are only 30,000 defenders in Nanzheng City, and this is Zhang Lu's entire army, so he has no choice but to take the initiative to surrender to the general."

Yang Bai was stunned when he heard this and asked casually: "What about Liu Zhang from Yizhou? Can Zhang Lu still defect to Yizhou?"

Yang Song laughed in a silence and said, "My third brother, what's wrong, Liu Zhang's 50,000 troops were wiped out. These were all killed by the Hanzhong army. In addition, Zhang Lu's mother and younger brother were both dead at the hands of Liu Zhang. How could Zhang Lu join Liu Zhang? Even if he went to serve him pitifully, Liu Zhang would not take him in. Liu Zhang was not Liu Yan. This person is not very talented, but his personality is eccentric and he acted entirely on his own likes and dislikes. Yizhou will sooner or later fall into the hands of others. Moreover, it is more likely to fall into the hands of the general. Well, it's not too late, so it's time for me to leave."

Before he finished speaking, Yang Song turned around and left, murmured as he walked: "With the speed of the Western Liang Iron Cavalry, I guess when I arrived at the county magistrate's mansion, the Western Liang army had already broken through the north gate. With a charge, they could sweep the Yizhou army and then attack Nanzheng City. In this way, even if Zhang Lu was angry and wanted to kill me, he would not have the courage. Well, you can go to see him with confidence and boldness."

—————To be continued———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Chapter completed!