Tibet

Chapter 567: Taking Wuguan by force
Before leaving, Li Ye met with Guan Pei, the chief of the internal guards. Guan Pei was Li Ye's personal soldier before. Later he was in charge of intelligence. After the assassination in Xiangyang, Li Ye had to strengthen the internal guards and formed a thousand internal guards. In order to prevent another assassination, Guan Pei became the first general of the Internal Guard Army.

"I'm leaving for Wuguan today. I need you to do two things. The first is to protect the safety of my family, and the second is to find the enemy's spies in Xiangyang. If I guessed correctly, Anlu Mountain must be in Xiangyang. Spies have been deployed to prepare for his attack on Xiangyang. Find them, don't alert them first, keep a close eye on them, and wait for me to deal with them when I come back."

Guan Pei bowed and saluted, "This is my humble duty!"

Guan Pei said goodbye and left. Li Ye immediately returned home, took his daughter into his arms, kissed him, and said to his wife: "Something happened over there in Wuguan, and it may concern the families of the soldiers. I must deal with it immediately. I may go there." For a few days, you two can temporarily move to my mother’s place!”

Dugu Xinyue knew that her husband was worried about her safety, so she immediately nodded and agreed, "Okay! I will move there today."

Li Ye was afraid that his wife wouldn't want to go there, so he breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "I'll come back as soon as the things are done."

Dugu Xinyue hugged her husband's waist, put her face against his chest, and whispered: "Be careful yourself, the person Feilong really wants to kill is you, not your father, do you understand?"

"I know, I will never give him a chance!"

Li Ye kissed his wife, then kissed his daughter's little face and said with a smile, "Goodbye, daddy!"

Xingguan raised her pink little hand and squeezed it. This was her goodbye.

Li Ye laughed and kissed his daughter's little face again, "She is really daddy's little baby!"

Li Ye immediately wrote a message to his father and asked his wife to take it with him. He then rushed towards Wuguan with a thousand cavalry.

At the same time, he ordered three thousand camels to carry food and come later.

There are two passes on the entire Shangluo Road. One is Wuguan. Wuguan is the most important pass in the southeast of Chang'an and is also the throat of Shangluo Road. Its strategic location is extremely important. The other is Lantian Pass, which passes through Zhongnan Mountain. Pass, protecting the safety of Guanzhong is also very important.

But Yang Gui, the commander of Lantian Pass, is Dugulie's man. He will not make it difficult for Li Ye's people to go south. The trouble is Wuguan. The commander of Wuguan is called Li Huaizhen. He is Zhang Jun's man. He usually doesn't say anything, but at critical moments , he would choke Li Ye's neck.

After An Lushan's army occupied Luoyang, some people in Guanzhong panicked. The people in Guanzhong moved south and west. The largest number of people went to Bashu, with tens of thousands of households, followed by four to five thousand households who fled to Jingxiang. A large part of them are the family members of Jianghan Army soldiers.

More than 2 people came down from Lantian Pass smoothly. They walked hard for seven or eight days. They were about to leave Shangzhou, but they were stuck at Wuguan. Wuguan guard Li Huaizhen did not allow them to pass and asked them to return to Guanzhong.

Tens of thousands of people begged, but Li Huaizhen was as hard-hearted as iron and ignored them.

In the dark night, Li Huaizhen stood on Guancheng, looking coldly at the dots of firelight in the distance. There was the camp of tens of thousands of people going south. Fortunately, it was early summer and it was not very cold, but they had been trapped for ten days. Food had been exhausted, but thanks to the magistrate of Shangluo County mobilizing wealthy households and monasteries to provide food and medicine to the fleeing people, the lives of tens of thousands of people were saved.

However, if this continues, Shangluo County will soon be unable to bear it. After all, the pressure from tens of thousands of people is too great for a small county to bear.

Even Chen Liansheng, the deputy guarding the pass, couldn't stand it anymore and whispered: "General, they have run out of food and have no way to go back. Why don't we let them pass the pass!"

"What do you know?"

Li Huaizhen glared at him with dissatisfaction and said: "This is the order of Zhang Xiangguo. The emperor is still guarding the country. How can the people flee? If we start this way, more and more people will flee."

Chen Liansheng couldn't bear it and said: "But isn't it the same as fleeing to Hanzhong and Bashu? We can only prevent people from fleeing to Jingxiang by blocking the road. I'm afraid Zhang Xiangguo is motivated by personal grudges!"

"shut up!"

Li Huaizhen drew his sword and said angrily: "I am the one who makes the decision here. If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will kill you with one knife."

Chen Liansheng's face was livid and he retreated with hatred.
Li Huaizhen said coldly to the surrounding soldiers: "I must agree to open and close the door. Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed without mercy!"

The night gradually deepened, and it was already the third watch. Li Ye led a thousand cavalry to Wuguan.

Li Ye first ordered several Bukhanna soldiers to pretend to be a Hu caravan and return to Chang'an. He led five hundred soldiers to follow closely and ambush in the darkness.

Not long after, a Hu caravan arrived in front of Wuguan. The leader of the merchant shouted: "We are Sogdian merchants, returning to Chang'an and asking for permission from the switch!"

A soldier ran to ask for instructions. Li Huaizhen was sleeping in a daze. He was very angry and said: "You are disturbing me with this nonsense. You are not allowed to open the city. Get out!" The soldier ran back and shouted: "Listen to the caravans under the city. , in an emergency period, the Lord has ordered that the city gates are not allowed to be opened, so you can go to Hanzhong!"

The leading businessman shouted: "We are willing to pay a high price, please let Kaicheng go!"

"You can't even pay, so let's go!"

The caravan reluctantly turned around and left.

Li Ye could see clearly from behind and said coldly: "It seems that the city is offering wine as a penalty instead of a toast."

Wuguan was built between two mountains, with cliffs on the left and right, and a pass half a mile long in the middle. Wuguan itself is located at a high place, condescending, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Li Ye climbed up the cliff and climbed up with the help of vines and stone gaps. In only a quarter of an hour, he climbed to the city wall. He held on to the edge of the city wall and jumped to the top of the city.

He was immediately discovered by the soldiers guarding the city, "There is enemy territory!"

The soldiers guarding the city shouted, someone rushed to report to the general, and the rest of the soldiers rushed forward. Li Ye squatted behind the stone stacks at the top of the city, and fired nails from his hands. The soldiers were shot one after another and fell down screaming.

Although iron nails are not as beautiful as flying knives, they are more practical than flying knives. In the dark, iron nails do not shine as coldly as flying knives. Soldiers cannot see the black nails at all. The falling of their companions around them has a huge impact on other soldiers. Psychologically panicked, the soldiers retreated in fear.

Li Ye seized the opportunity and threw down a ladder, and dozens of soldiers began to climb up with shields.

Soon, thirty soldiers holding shields and short spears gathered around Li Ye.

At this moment, Li Huaizhen rushed in with hundreds of soldiers. He shouted loudly from a distance: "Who are you? How dare you attack Wuguan!"

Li Ye stared at him and said coldly: "We are the Xiangyang Tang Army, here to save the people. You killed tens of thousands of people, and you deserve death!"

Suddenly, someone behind Li Huaizhen shouted: "You're right, he deserves to die!"

A cold light flashed by, and Li Huaizhen's head flew up ten feet high.

A burly man stood up and shouted, "I am Chen Liansheng, the deputy general of Wuguan. Li Huaizhen wanted to kill tens of thousands of people. He deserves death!"

This result was beyond Li Ye's expectation. He shouted loudly: "I am Li Ye, the governor of Anxi, King of Lu. Please come forward and see me, General Chen!"

Chen Liansheng was startled and said to the soldiers: "It's one of our own, put down your weapons!"

The soldiers put down their weapons and crossbows one after another, and Chen Liansheng quickly stepped forward and knelt down on one knee to salute, "Chen Liansheng, a lowly officer, is here to see the general!"

"You're welcome, General Chen. How are the people outside?"

"Reporting to the general, I can no longer hold on anymore, so I tried to persuade Li Huaizhen again and again, but he refused to open the city gate. He is extremely vicious."

"How much food is there in Guancheng?" Li Ye asked.

"It's probably more than 1000 stones, but it can't last more than a few days."

Li Ye nodded, "It's okay. Let's give half of the food to the people first. Our food team will be here in two or three days and will help with porridge along the way!"

Chen Liansheng immediately ordered the soldiers to distribute half of the food to the refugees. When tens of thousands of people heard that King Li Ye of Lu was coming, they shouted long live.

The city gate was immediately opened, and the people who had been blocked for ten days packed their bags. Early the next morning, tens of thousands of refugees headed towards Xiangyang.

(End of this chapter)