"Tell me slowly, what is the situation at Yanmen Pass? How many soldiers and horses did Jing Tianlie send out, and how many soldiers and horses did the barbarians send out?"
Long Chen asked Zhang Qian to pour a bowl of water over.
The messenger poured it into his mouth suddenly, choking and coughing repeatedly.
"Drink slowly, no one will compete with you."
Gongsun Linglong patted the back, and the messenger almost vomited blood.
"Your hands are too heavy, stop shooting."
Bai Tingting stopped Gongsun Linglong.
"The Red Flame Army has more than 30,000 people and the barbarians sent 200,000 troops. Jingfeng knew the defensive layout of the city and launched a surprise attack. The east wall was breached and we suffered heavy casualties."
The messenger spoke very anxiously and took out a sweaty battle report from his arms.
Long Chen opened it, and the writing inside was blurred.
Zhang Qian scolded: "Jing Feng really became the leader, they should have been killed in the first place!"
Long Chen sighed: "It's all our fault for marching too slowly and delaying our journey. The third princess only has 50,000 troops. Now there are many casualties. The barbarians and Sedum are powerful, so we only brought 20,000 cavalry..."
Zhang Qian and the others were very hesitant. There were 70,000 troops against 230,000 troops. The gap in strength was too big.
"What are you afraid of? Just fight. You are a first-grade flying dragon general!"
Gongsun Linglong's fighting spirit was off the charts and she wanted to kill him immediately.
"General, please save Yanmen Pass, we can't stand it any longer!"
Seeing Long Chen's hesitation, the messenger quickly begged for reinforcements.
"When have I ever been afraid? It doesn't matter if there are too many people. Go back and tell the third princess that I will select elite troops to quickly march for reinforcements and let her hold the pass!"
Long Chen's tone was resolute, with an air of resignation.
The messenger bowed: "General Long, you must be quick. I will reply to the princess right now!"
After saying this, the messenger mounted his horse and galloped back to Yanmen Pass.
"Everyone, throw away your baggage, take only your weapons, and march the whole army in a hurry!"
Zhang Qian immediately ordered to discard the heavy equipment and rush to rescue Yanmen Pass with light equipment.
"etc!"
Long Chen called to stop.
Zhang Qian asked strangely: "Are you still waiting?"
Seeing that the messenger had gone away, Long Chen slowly sat down, poured a cup of tea, and sneered: "It's a small trick, it's okay to deceive others, but if you want to deceive me..."
Zhang Qian didn't understand and asked: "Liar?"
Others were also surprised and didn't understand what Long Chen meant.
"Yanmen Pass is definitely besieged, but it's hard to say whether the third princess suffered heavy casualties or whether it can't be defended."
Jingtian Lie sent troops to the north. This news could not be concealed. The Eastern Zhou Dynasty would definitely send reinforcements, and Jingtian Lie could guess it.
The wise choice is to capture Yanmen Pass before reinforcements from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty arrive.
Therefore, the news that Yanmen Pass was besieged should be true.
But Long Chen believed that Emperor Lingyi could still hold on until Long Chen reinforced him.
"What do you mean? Didn't you understand?"
Gongsun Linglong's forging head didn't understand what it meant.
"What I mean is that there was something wrong with the messenger just now, and the information he gave was false."
Gongsun Linglong asked: "That's not right. How could the third princess's messenger be false?"
Long Chen asked: "Who is the general?"
Gongsun Linglong blurted out: "What a bullshit general, a traitor!"
Long Chen chuckled and said: "Now we all say that Jing Tianlie is a rebel. The messenger just now actually called him 'General', so the messenger is fake."
Gongsun Linglong thought for a while and said, "Why don't I remember?"
Wu Chuchu recalled carefully and said: "Yes, he said, 'The general and the barbarians besieged Yanmen Pass'."
Others also remembered that the name was indeed wrong.
Zhang Qian said: "Jing Tianlie sent a fake messenger to deliberately mislead us? The third princess didn't send a messenger to ask for help?"
Long Chen shook his head and said: "It's hard to say. Maybe the third princess didn't send a messenger, or maybe the messenger she sent was killed, and then a fake one was sent."
The battle report was soaked with sweat, and I couldn't make out the handwriting. I didn't know if it was Emperor Lingyi's calligraphy.
Moreover, no one here has ever seen the calligraphy of Di Lingyi, so even if it is fake, no one will know.
"What's his purpose? To lure us into lightly armed reinforcements and then ambush us halfway?"
Wu Xiangyun remembered the ambush of Jingfeng in the Wind Valley of Jade Buddha Pass.
"Yes, we have been walking for several days since we set off from the capital. If we continue to march lightly and hastily, we will definitely be exhausted."
"When the time comes, Jingtian Lie will follow our example of ambush, and our army will be at a standstill!"
Long Chen threw the battle report aside, opened the map to check, pointed to a canyon 20 miles away from Yanmen Pass, and said: "The urgent march must pass through here, Jing Tianlie can ambush here."
Emperor Lingyi's soldiers and horses guarded the pass, and Jing Tianlie could lead his troops across Yanmen Pass and into the canyon to ambush.
Zhang Qian asked: "Then what should we do? Yanmen Pass is indeed besieged. If we don't reinforce it, the princess really won't be able to withstand it..."
With a huge disparity in military strength, Emperor Lingyi must be fighting hard.
"There can't be too many people in the ambush. If we block Yanmen Pass, Jing Tianlie will not be able to go back. Then we will close the gate and beat the dogs!"
Long Chen pointed at the map and saw that Yanmen Pass was the only place where the army could pass. If the besieging army was defeated and Yanmen Pass was re-blocked, then Jingtian Lie would be the turtle in the urn.
"However, this canyon is the only way to go. No matter what, we have to pass here."
Dugu Jiali looked at the map carefully. If she wanted to reach Yanmen Pass, she had to pass through the canyon and it was impossible to go around it.
"We don't have to go through here."
Long Chen closed the map and Zhang Qian asked: "Don't go through here? We have no other way."
Long Chen said: "You, Wu Chuchu, and Wu Xiangyun will continue to advance together with the troops and station ten miles south of the canyon, waiting for my news."
Zhang Qian was even more puzzled and asked: "You don't want to go through alone, do you? There are at least tens of thousands of people in Jingtian Lie's ambush. How can you fight alone?"
She thought Long Chen was going to be a lone hero and break through the canyon single-handedly.
Long Chen laughed and said, "What are you thinking about? Am I that arrogant?"
When a person fights against an army of tens of thousands, no matter how high his level of cultivation is, he will sometimes die from exhaustion.
Even if the empress cultivated herself as an emperor and faced an army of tens of thousands on her own, she still wouldn't be able to kill them all.
"Then how do you provide reinforcements?"
Wu Chuchu didn't understand what Long Chen meant.
"In addition to us, there are also 30,000 troops and horses from Jade Buddha Pass as reinforcements. They set off first. According to the itinerary, they should be arriving soon."
"Linglong, Jiali, and Tingting and I walked along the trail to the west of Yanmen Pass to meet the reinforcements from Jade Buddha Pass, and then attacked the barbarians besieging Yanmen Pass."
The troops and horses mobilized from Jade Buddha Pass were just because the capital's troops were insufficient. Unexpectedly, they were of great help now.
"Then be quick! Don't give Jing Tianlie time to react."
Zhang Qian thinks this strategy is good, but Jing Tianlie is not stupid. Once discovered, the plan will be ruined.
"Prepare eight horses and take the path to Yanmen Pass."
Zhang Qian immediately prepared, Long Chen took his weapons and rushed to Yanmen Pass.
Zhang Qian speeded up and pretended to be marching towards the canyon.
The messenger left the army and galloped northward until the sun set before reaching the mouth of the canyon.
Next to him walked out a man with sharp eyebrows, high cheekbones, a fleshless face, and a pair of sinister eyes. This man was Jing Feng.
"Major General! Long Chengen has fallen into the trap!"
The messenger was so happy that he almost cried.
Jing Feng showed no signs of excitement and said coldly: "Follow me!"
The two entered the woods nearby. A simple tent was hidden in the woods, with guards wearing red flame armor standing outside.
Opening the curtain, the two entered the tent.
Jing Tianlie sat in the middle, next to him were three generals: Chen Yuxin, Jiang Lin, and Lu Qian.
"How about it?"
Jing Tianlie's voice was low and his eyes were cold and stern.
