In front of Jishi Pass, corpses lay everywhere. In the fierce battle day and night, more than 5,000 Tuyuhun soldiers had died. From the front of the pass to the narrow passage, there were dense piles of corpses, and the thick blood pooled into the ground.

Streams formed and flowed to low places.

However, after Langri Zanpu discussed with Murong Xiaojun, he gathered elite troops and launched a fierce day and night offensive against Jishi Pass. There was no test from the beginning to the end. From the beginning, the entire line was pressed regardless of casualties, leaving the defenders breathless.

There is no chance. Fortunately, the surrounding herdsmen also know that Jishi Pass is broken, and they will be the first to be unlucky. Even if they defeat Tuyuhun, who has the same root and origin, Murong Xiaojun may not be able to control the Tubo people at this moment. Therefore,

Men and women, regardless of gender, all came to help the Sui army guard the pass, collect stones, and help carry materials for the defense of the city. Some young men even climbed to the top of the city to help the Sui army fight.

Born in the border areas, common people generally have this kind of consciousness, not for the Great Sui Dynasty, nor for some illusory righteousness, but for fighting for themselves and their relatives. Even if they fight to the death, they cannot retreat. If they retreat, their relatives will

It's over.

Among them, the old man Su Sang, who had rewarded the army and was treated politely by Yang Tong, played an extremely important role. He had great prestige here. Hearing that the defenders of Jishi Pass were fighting very hard, he ran around in the snow and wind to persuade

Each tribe, Xiao Yi, was so busy that by the early morning of the third day, he had recruited more than 4,000 young men.

Although he was exhausted, the survival crisis faced by his people and his strong sense of mission made him have no time to rest. He took the recruited young people on horseback to Jishi Pass and shouted to Zhou Shaoze who was directing the young people to carry supplies:

"General Zhou? How are the supplies prepared? Are they enough?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Su! As the front line of the war, Jishi Pass has accumulated a lot of weapons and armor. During the decisive battle outside Jishi Pass that day, our army annihilated another 30,000 Tubo people and seized a lot of leather armor and weapons. We have accumulated a lot of armor and weapons.

Shiguan is not short of weapons and equipment." Zhou Shaoze had just repelled a wave of enemy attacks and came to take stock of supplies? The result surprised him.

"That's good." Su Sang breathed a sigh of relief. The herdsmen all have bows, arrows, and sabers? He's not worried about not having weapons? He's just worried that there is too little armor. Once a war breaks out, these shepherds who have no formal training and are not good at defending the city will

The casualties would be huge.

"Mr. Su, how many people have you recruited?" Zhou Shaoze asked.

"More than 4,700 people." Su Sang said proudly: "I heard that stones are needed to defend the city? And tens of thousands of herdsmen were mobilized to pick up a lot of big stones at the foot of Jishi Mountain? They would use horses to pull them.

"

"Mr. Su is really amazing." Zhou Shaoze was so surprised that he couldn't open his mouth from ear to ear. He glanced at the noisy herdsmen and asked, "By the way, Mr. Su, is there anyone who can take the lead?"

"Yes, yes." Su Sang shouted, and seventeen strong men walked out immediately. He said with a smile: "They are the first warriors in each ministry, and everyone listens to them. But some of them don't understand Chinese? General Zhou has

Tell me what arrangements you have, and I will translate it to them."

"Okay." Zhou Shao then asked the young men of the ministries, led by their first warrior, to divide seventeen teams, let them take weapons and armor as a team, and asked the political commissar of the Military Affairs Department to point out what they need to pay attention to when defending the city.

matter.

Finished explaining? Zhou Shao then went to the top of the city again.

The city is full of noisy shepherds? Many people are busy changing into armor. Everyone is holding a spear in their hand, a bow and arrow on their back, and various styles of swords on their waists. Some people are also holding shields.

Zhou Shao was slightly puzzled when he saw that these people were full of energy, showed no fear, were not as chaotic as he imagined, and even had the spirit of veterans.

Li Shimo saw his doubts and explained: "The grassland can easily pull out millions of string control people, which refers to all their young and strong herdsmen. These herdsmen not only have to fight against the sky and the earth, but also against the wild wolves, and also against the horses."

In the battle between bandits and bandits, those who survive are all strong warriors, but they do not know the art of battle formations and have little military discipline, so they fight in a chaotic manner."

"With a little training, you can become a strong army, which is much stronger than us." Zhou Shaoze said with emotion.

"Indeed." Li Shimo nodded and said to Zhou Shaoze, who had not slept all night, "You should rest for an hour or two."

"General, I'm fine, I can hold on." Zhou Shao said with a smile.

Looking at this enthusiastic and heroic young man, Li Shimo showed a smile. Zhou Shaoze and his son Li Zhi were very similar in temperament. They were both full of vigor. They were both generals in the Xuanjia Army and were the mainstay of the Sui Army in the future.

While the two were talking, the Ertu Allied Forces began to attack the city again. Their offensive formation attacked with almost no gaps, one wave after another like a stormy sea. Just as Li Shimo feared, Langri Zampu tried his best.

.

Fortunately, with the help of the shepherds, otherwise the defenders at Jishi Pass would not be able to support themselves now.

Time is now the most precious thing for both Li Shimo and Langri Zamp.

In order to break this passive deadlock as soon as possible.

Langri Zampu personally led his troops to pay attention to the siege situation. It has been less than a month since the war began, but the Tibetan elite soldiers have already suffered casualties of 150,000 to 60,000. However, he paid such a high price but gained nothing.

And Yang Tong's coming from the west not only caused turmoil in the entire army and disrupted all his plans, but also seriously threatened his safety.

He was not only worried about the situation here, but also worried that Yang Dong would send a large army to attack Luosuo. Since Yang Dong had already wiped out the two main forces, Lun Ke'er and Lu Dongzan, there was no reason for Yang Dong to send a partial division to attack the empty army.

Based on this logic, if this is the case, how could Xiang Xiong, who had already sent troops, not send troops to join the battle? But at this time, Yang Tong came from their retreat. He now has three options to choose from:

Either he should withdraw his troops immediately and go south and take a detour from Tuyuhun to Luuche, but it was already too late. By the time he arrived at Luuche, he might have already been exposed, and the entire Tubo land was in flames of war. Maybe Xiangxiong, led by the Sui army,

The allied forces of the daughter country have already encouraged the Tibetan opposition forces and are waiting somewhere for him to surrender.

Either march westward and fight Yang Tong decisively. If you really want to do this, the tragedy of Ke'er and Lu Dongzan will most likely repeat itself.

Either break Jishi Pass, send troops to the interior of the Sui Dynasty, and exchange the peace of the entire Hexi land for the withdrawal of the Sui troops.

Compared with the first two options, breaking through Jishi Pass is undoubtedly the best option, and it is also the easiest and closest option to success.

"We must capture Jishi Pass before noon. If we cannot capture it, we will kill the commanders of thousands, commanders of thousands, and commanders of hundreds."

Seeing that the offensive of Tuyuhun soldiers in front of the pass had slowed down, Langri Zamp issued a death order.

"As ordered." Jiabulu, the commander of ten thousand men, waved his sword, and tens of thousands of Tibetan soldiers rushed towards Jishi Pass.

Amidst the sound of trumpets, the elite Tibetan soldiers arrived in front of the pass. The passage in front of the pass was narrow and could not allow the army to line up in a single line. They could only advance in columns. When they were a hundred steps away from the pass, the army stopped advancing.

They had already made dozens of simple siege ladders out of big trees, and everything was ready, just waiting for the general to give the order to siege the city.

Jiabulu didn't have much experience in attacking cities, but after so many days of desperate attacks, he learned something. Moreover, he found that although the city was densely covered with soldiers defending the city, these people were different from the previous Sui armies.

In comparison, it looked very chaotic and completely different from the regular Sui army. He knew that these were herdsmen temporarily recruited by the Sui army.

As a member of the nomadic people, Jiabulu knew that the herdsmen were strong in fighting alone, but not together. This was a God-given opportunity, and he immediately ordered: "First of all, if there are thousands of people, as long as Guancheng is captured,

The wealth and women in the territory are up to you to seize!"

With the sound of an order and the wailing of trumpets, two thousand elite Tibetan troops, holding shields in hand, rushed towards Guancheng like a tide. The Tibetan army had a rule. The first soldier to invade the enemy's city could choose three soldiers from the tribe.

Among the ten families, the wealth and women of these thirty families belong to him. It is this knowledge of the rules that has always inspired the Tibetan soldiers to fight, and they scramble to be the first in the war.

At the gate of the city, Li Shimo kept watching the Tibetan army that replaced the Tuyuhun people. When he saw them running thirty steps, he slowed down and began to move forward carefully, forming a shield array with the shields in his hands.

There were a thousand herdsmen defending the city of Jishiguan, and there were 300 Sui soldiers squatting under the battlements holding military crossbows. These were the main force defending the city. The shepherds, who were outnumbered, only played a role in assisting and luring the enemy.

The enemy troops were getting closer and closer, and they were within shooting range. Li Shimo gave an order: "Archers, shoot arrows!"

Thousands of herdsmen fired at the same time, and the arrows in their hands flew away, hitting the enemy crowd from the front and side. The power of the bows and arrows was not great. Only a dozen Tibetan soldiers were shot to the ground in this round of shooting.

What the Tibetan soldiers were afraid of was the Sui army's crossbows. Seeing that the bows and arrows were powerless and could not cause much casualties for three consecutive rounds, their courage suddenly doubled, they accelerated suddenly, and charged forward crazily while carrying the siege ladder.

At this time, the crossbows of the Sui army hidden under the city battlements began to fire. Everyone's arrows were like locusts. Three hundred people were divided into three teams to shoot in turns. Groups of Tibetan soldiers fell down screaming, and the enemies behind them rushed forward. Under the turbulent fire,

Amidst the sound of the trumpet, the Tubo soldiers behind used bows and arrows to cover the city. A dense rain of arrows was fired at the city. Herdsmen were constantly injured by arrows. Fortunately, everyone was wearing the armor of the Sui army. Not many people died in the battle. Bows and arrows

The arrows were even bounced away, and even if they were hit by the arrows, their injuries were not serious. Almost those who were hit by the arrows could continue to fight.

The Tubo army was also extremely brave and refused to retreat. From the distance of sixty to thirty steps, corpses began to pile up. In just a moment or so, hundreds of people were killed and injured under the crossbows. The first thousand-man army finally couldn't withstand it.

, removed like a tide.

Jiabulu snorted coldly. He had already discovered that the number of Sui troops firing crossbows was small. The main force was herdsmen, and their bows and arrows were not very powerful. He immediately issued a formal attack order, "Three thousand men attack!"

The number of attacking Tibetan soldiers suddenly tripled, and they rushed towards Guancheng wildly with swords waving. Arrows rained down from the city, and stones fell from the city like hail. A fierce battle for the dangerous pass had begun again.

.

These Tibetan soldiers were the personal guards of Langri Zampu. They were extremely brave. Even though they were covered with arrows, they charged forward as if they were unaware.

Three thousand Tibetan troops attacking the city marched forward bravely, and the battle entered a tragic scene. The Sui army and herdsmen shot with arrows and stoned groups of Tibetan soldiers.

As they came up, the Tibetan soldiers in the rear shot arrows at the top of the city, and some people fell down after being hit by arrows.

However, the city walls were tall and the city gates were blocked by huge blocks. They could only climb up the city via siege ladders. However, as soon as they climbed up one ladder, one was overturned by a fork, making it impossible for the Tibetan soldiers to climb up the city.

Kabulu looked rude, but he was extremely alert. When he saw the stones from the city falling into the pile of corpses, he stopped and immediately thought of a very simple way, asking the soldiers behind him to carry a corpse.

It was used both as a human shield and as a meat pad for climbing the city. This was exactly the same as when Xue Wanjun attacked Xiangwu City. The more stones were thrown down from the city, and the stones stuck by the corpses that would not roll would only make the slope in front of the pass higher.

Seeing that this method was effective and that there were corpses everywhere on the battlefield, Jiabulu was overjoyed and asked people to report back to Langri Zamp and ask for more reinforcements to help carry the corpses. As another five thousand people joined in, one corpse after another

After they were piled up and stacked, a slope as wide as Guancheng was gradually formed outside the city.

When the mountain of corpses was formed, Jiabulu immediately led his soldiers and rushed towards the city on the mountain of corpses of allied soldiers. He smashed a big stone at a Sui soldier, waved his spear, and pierced the soldier's chest.

Chest, with a roar, he lifted the body and threw it aside. His ferocity made several herdsmen hesitate. At this moment of hesitation, Jiabulu grabbed the battlement with one hand and jumped onto the city wall. The Tibetan soldiers outside the city were all stunned.

Cheering, dozens of people swooped up behind him.

The shepherds realized that they had caused a big disaster and rushed towards him, trying to throw the fierce enemy general off the city wall.

With one sweep of Jiabulu's spear, he stabbed a herdsman to death and knocked his body over several Sui soldiers.

The eyes of the Sui soldiers and herdsmen were all red, and they rushed at each other with swords. However, Jiabulu was extremely brave. He waved his spear and overturned more than ten defenders in a row, clearing the area where the spear reached.

During the break, dozens of Tibetan soldiers also climbed up to the top of the city and began to engage in close combat with the defenders. Tibetan soldiers kept coming from behind.

Seeing that the situation was extremely critical, Zhou Shao knew that if he did not kill this warrior, Jishi Pass would be doomed. He wanted to step forward to resist, but there were so many people on top of the city pass that he could not rush through at that time.

When he knocked away the crowd, Jiabulu had already killed more than 30 defenders, including Sui soldiers and herdsmen who were assisting in the defense. Jiabulu went crazy. Seeing that the herdsmen had no cooperation, he simply

Waving his spear, he charged into the dense and chaotic crowd of herdsmen. He kept shaking and was surrounded by defenders, making it impossible for Zhou Shaoze to get close.
To be continued...