Chapter 2: Bloodshed on the battlefield and escape from the Immortal Gate
Chapter 23: Ambush
When the sun put away its last ray of light, Ye Feng and the others arrived at the gate of Guiyuan City.
"The border commander has been ordered to return to the capital, and he has been rushing for 800 miles. Please stay away from the rest of the crowd!"
Hong Ling was very experienced. As soon as he arrived at the city gate, he took out an imperial decree, raised it high above his head, and drank it loudly.
"Welcome the good commander to the city!"
The city gate guards were well-trained, and they lined up quickly and shouted loudly.
In fact, they have never met Jiang Meiliang, but they know Hongling. After all, Hongling was raising food in Guiyuan City a few days ago.
"Thank you!"
Hong Ling clasped her fists and thanked her, grabbed her war horse, and headed into the city.
Guiyuan City is not big, the city wall is only six meters high, there are only tens of thousands of households in the city, the streets are not wide, and most of the buildings look a bit old.
However, the city is very clean, pedestrians are well-behaved, and everything seems orderly, which shows that the government is still doing its best and managing well.
The main street is also an official road. The eight meters in the middle are commonly known as Chi Road. Only civil servants can ride quickly on it, and ordinary merchants and pedestrians are not allowed to go there.
Hong Ling did not stop, but also slowed down slightly, and left the city gate in less than half an hour.
Hongling deliberately announced his name at the city gate in order to attract the attention of the people in the city. Even if they were not slow, many people still received the news and gathered around the streets to watch.
Most of these people paid attention to Ye Feng, and some even bowed to pay homage.
They respected the good commander from the bottom of their hearts, because it was she who turned the tide two years ago and defeated the Wu Kingdom and saved them from the devastation of war.
After leaving Guiyuan City, the sky was completely dark and the vision began to become blurry.
However, the official road is still flat and wide, and there are no pedestrians there, so it won't have much impact, but it will still be much slower than during the day.
Of course, after traveling for 600 miles continuously, the horses were getting tired and could no longer maintain their original speed.
There was a post station ten miles out of the city. Hongling arranged to rest for half an hour, let the horses replenish their feed, and also took a proper rest. After getting a torch from the post station, they started on the road again.
After a while, under the bright moonlight, my vision became clear on the branches above the moon.
Hongling threw away the torch and started on the road again at full speed.
During the day, Ye Feng was still hopeful from time to time, feeling that everything was strange. Now, although the moonlight was bright, he couldn't see very far, so he began to concentrate.
Just after midnight, we finally arrived at Jinyuan City, and the city gate had long been closed.
But for Hongling, this is not a problem.
Although it was not war time, there were still sergeants on duty above the city gate. Holding the imperial edict in hand, Hongling easily opened the city gate. There were already guards who greeted them respectfully and led the way to the inn.
The commander-in-chief of the 100,000-strong border army, General Zhenyuan, is a dignified second-rank official, and the fourth-rank prefect of Guiyuan Prefecture must come to see him.
However, Hong Ling was involved in military affairs and passed down the military order from the good commander that no one should disturb the meeting, so he refused.
In the middle of the night, the prefect was happy to have some leisure time, and everyone was happy.
The night went by without incident, and the next day it was just dark, so the four of them set out again.
After leaving Jinyuan City, we entered the Funiu Mountains within a hundred miles.
There are two roads to choose from here, one is the official road that goes around the mountain, and the other is the folk trail that goes through the mountain.
The official road required a detour of more than 500 miles compared to the trail. Although Hongling deliberately wanted to attract the enemy's attention, he did not want to take a 200-mile detour, so he chose the private trail.
Funiu Mountain is not high, and the highest peak is only over a thousand meters above sea level. However, it is a mountain group with a very wide range. The official roads are actually built around the mountains, but the folk trails pass through the valleys.
The reason why the official road does not pass through the valley is, on the one hand, the need for mutual communication between the cities, and on the other hand, the valley is very dangerous, because in the center of Funiu Mountain, there is a canyon that is thirty miles long, and safety is not guaranteed at all.
The canyon is called Xingxing Gorge. As the name suggests, when walking through the bottom of the canyon, you can only see the stars in the sky, which shows how steep both sides of the canyon are.
At noon, the four of them finally arrived at Xingxing Gorge. Hong Ling signaled to take a rest, and several people stopped.
Standing at the mouth of the valley, Ye Feng couldn't help but take a breath of cold air.
No wonder Guandao didn't choose to go here, the canyon is indeed too steep.
Although the width is more than ten meters, there are cliffs with a height of thousands of meters on both sides. Once someone occupies the top of the mountain and throws down huge rocks to attack, the people in the valley will definitely die.
Or block the entrance of the valley, and the people in the valley have no other option but to rush forward.
"Don't worry, if someone really wants to do something here, they won't be able to occupy the top of the mountain because they have limited time and don't have time to set up. The most likely option is to set up an ambush at the entrance of the valley. With our strength, it won't be a big problem to defeat the ambush they hastily laid."
Hongling looked at Ye Feng and explained.
"Let's go!"
Ye Feng doesn't know whether Hong Ling is right or not, but he just listens to her arrangements.
Although this road is called a folk road, there are actually very few people there.
Because the whole journey is two hundred miles long, traveling through valleys without any supply stations, it would take at least two days to walk, and the safety level is extremely low.
In less than half an hour, we passed through the canyon, and our eyes suddenly opened up.
Walking through the canyon, looking up and seeing only a sliver of sky, I felt extremely depressed. As soon as I came out of the canyon, even Ye Feng breathed a sigh of relief.
"There's an ambush!"
Just when Ye Feng exhaled a long breath and thought he had passed safely without any danger, Hong Ling suddenly roared.
Before he finished speaking, two thick ropes lay across the road, which were stumbling ropes.
"Xu..."
Hong Ling reined in the war horse in time, and the horse stood alone and stopped just in front of the tripping rope.
During this delay, brothers Ye Feng, Zhiyuan, and Zhigao also caught up, but they stopped calmly.
And the moment they stopped, a large net was suddenly pulled up from the ground. Apparently this was the real trap.
"Whizzing......"
Before Ye Feng could figure out what was going on, the two brothers Zhigao and Zhiyuan beside him had already set up their bows and shot several arrows in succession.
Following several screams, several figures fell down from several big trees on both sides of the canyon.
The big net that had just been pulled up immediately fell back to the ground.
"Good archery skills!"
Ye Feng glanced at Zhigao and Zhiyuan, and praised them.
"hey-hey!"
The two brothers just smiled innocently, but their hands kept moving, just touching the arrows in the arrow pot and shooting them continuously.
"Swish swish..."
There were several more screams, and several figures fell down from the giant tree again.
"kill!"
A loud shout suddenly came from the mountain forest, and nearly a hundred people instantly rushed out from both sides of the valley.
The people in the ambush obviously didn't expect Zhiyuan. Brother Zhigao was an expert archer. Before he could figure out the situation, several people were shot down. They no longer cared about any tactical traps. It was of no use anyway, so they just resorted to force.
Those people were all dressed in black, with black scarves covering their faces. They had shields in their left hands and swords in their right hands. They were very uniform. Even their actions were uniform. It was obvious that they had undergone long-term training and were by no means ordinary bandits.