The flames first ignited from the west gate of the Linxi Granary, and then quickly began to spread around.
Guo Tu personally led the army and rushed into the Linxi Granary.
I saw a straight road in the center, with countless granaries on the left and right sides, standing like General Sherman trees two feet high and four to five feet in diameter.
"set fire!"
When Guo Tu saw these granaries, his eyes showed joy. He didn't expect that this operation went so smoothly. Ximen's defense was indeed lax and he easily came in.
The large group of cavalry behind them immediately took out torches, lit them with fire sickles, and then threw them into the straw piles above the surrounding granaries.
Countless torches drew a gorgeous parabolic arc in the night sky and fell into the straw pile. As these flammable materials were ignited, flames rose instantly, one, two, three, four... countless
Each one, like stars, lights up the night sky.
In ancient times when there were no fireproof materials, fire prevention in granaries has always been a big problem. Placing straw on the top has two uses. One is to facilitate opening and storing grain inside, and the other is to waterproof and moisture-proof in rainy days.
But once you encounter an open flame, it's like throwing a burning cigarette butt into a gasoline barrel. The consequences are completely catastrophic. With the fire, the sky and the earth change color in an instant.
Not long after the Jizhou cavalry threw torches on the tops of the surrounding granaries, hundreds of surrounding granaries quickly burned, and the flames piled up. The Qingzhou army originally stationed in the granaries suddenly dispersed, and the continuous fires burned, and the manpower
In the face of fire, he is as small and fragile as a piece of grass.
"Keep going!"
The cavalry commander Zhao Rui waved the torch in his hand and shouted to the granary on the east side that had not yet been lit: "Come here and let me light the fire over there."
Immediately, two teams of cavalry galloped through the granaries, throwing torches at the granary on the east side.
They didn't want to be burned to death, so they threw it away and ran deeper. Linxi Granary covers an area of thousands of acres. It takes seven or eight minutes for horses to run back and forth. Moreover, the granaries are densely packed, like a maze forest.
If you cannot see the road clearly at night, you may get lost if you are not careful.
Fortunately, the flames had already started and spread very quickly. After quickly igniting all the main granary locations on the west side, Guo Tu led seven or eight hundred cavalry to the school field in the center of the granary. He could see the southeast, northwest and northwest respectively.
Four doors.
The school grounds are relatively open and can accommodate tens of thousands of cavalry, not to mention a few hundred cavalry. Flames are already rising from the west gate, and the east side is also burning. The sky is filled with fire and thick smoke obscures the night sky.
After Guo Tu looked around, he pointed to the north and said: "Liu Jun's granary camp has been completely burned near the west gate, and the east gate is also burning. It won't be long before the entire granary will be burned to the ground. Sound the horn, and we will start from the north."
The door burst out, did you hear it?"
"only!"
The soldiers shouted.
The cavalry commander Jiang Qi asked the messenger to take out the horn.
"Ohh Ohh ohh!"
The loud sound of the horn spread throughout the fields, and the scattered cavalry began to gather in the center of the school field.
Everyone was sweating profusely and breathing heavily.
Although they were riding horses and setting fires everywhere, the flames burned so fast that one could feel the terrifying flames coming from a few feet away from the heat wave, as if they were about to evaporate people.
Soon more than 3,000 cavalrymen gathered here, and under the guidance of Guo Tu, they began to rush towards the gate of the camp to the north.
However, what Guo Tu didn't expect was that he didn't know whether the fire spread really so fast, or whether a careless team set a fire in the direction of the north gate.
When they approached the gate of the northern camp, they saw that the gate of the camp was also filled with raging flames. The terrible fire engulfed the entire north gate. The most important exit near the camp gate was turned into a sea of fire, making it impossible to pass.
.
"What's going on? Didn't I tell you? The north gate is left as an exit. Who did it?"
Guo Tu was furious.
According to the plan, after entering through the west gate, come out through the north gate, meet up with the cavalry at the east gate that attracted the enemy's attention, and then immediately evacuate.
Their task is to light the fire. As the saying goes, a single spark can start a prairie fire, let alone a man-made arson.
In such a season when spring and summer alternate, weeds are everywhere and the entire camp is full of straw. A casual fire can destroy the entire Linxi granary, so they don't need to work too hard at all.
Now they have ignited almost a quarter of the area. Most of the area near the west gate of the Linxi Granary is on fire. The fire is spreading to the east gate under the influence of the wind.
As a result, at such a pass, a fire suddenly broke out at the north gate, blocking the entrance to the camp and cutting off their way. How could they not make Guo Tu furious?
Zhao Rui quickly advised: "Supervisor, the door has been blocked and you can't get out. Now is not the time for accountability, so you should find another way out."
"Walk!"
Guo Tu waved his hand and turned towards the school grounds.
As he headed towards the school grounds, Guo Tu kept looking left and right, with sweat pouring down his anxious face, but he faintly felt something was wrong in his heart.
What's wrong?
There are so many things that are wrong. First of all, why did the north gate suddenly catch fire?
The granary facing the west is an irregular rectangle, a bit like an oval. There are watchtowers at the diagonal corners of the southeast and northwest. The school ground is located in the central area. The two roads intersect to form a cross, corresponding to the four gates.
Among them, the upper left corner, upper right corner, lower left corner, and lower right corner of Shizi are the storage areas of each granary. Both sides of the west side have been lit, and part of the east side has also been lit.
So the current situation is that they must walk on the east side because the flames are gradually rising on the west side of the road.
The problem is that it took such a long time for the fire to spread here. Logically speaking, it is absolutely impossible for anyone to set fire to the north gate. Before they arrived, except for the entrance to the camp, there was no fire anywhere else, so they just rushed.
When I arrived, the fire reached the door, which was very strange.
Secondly, the surroundings are too quiet.
There were no panicked screams, no constant shouting, and no figures constantly running back and forth.
It was as if the Qingzhou Army immediately abandoned the entire granary and fled as soon as they discovered that an enemy was coming. Except for the defenders who were first seen at the gate of the camp, everyone else seemed to have disappeared from the world, which is incomprehensible.
what is going on?
Guo Tu's mind now feels like a ball of mush, and he feels like he is trapped in a fog. The road ahead is filled with seas of fire, and there is also a bottomless black fog. It is also as if there is a big net in the sky to trap him.
Caught in a net, he cannot escape or leave.
But no matter how he looked back, he couldn't see what was behind the fog, nor could he find out who cast the net. It was as if everything was just a dream.
"There is an exit ahead."
At this moment, the shouts of people around him woke Guo Tu up.
Guo Tu took a closer look and found that they had unknowingly ran across the school grounds and instinctively fled towards the south gate, which had not been ignited by the fire.
"The exit is ahead, everyone hurry!"
Seeing this situation, Guo Tu cheered up, shouted, and rushed to the front of the team.
Behind them, more than 3,000 cavalrymen lined up in a long snake formation and rushed forward. The thunderous sound resounded throughout the night sky. The camp entrance to the south was getting closer and closer, just within easy reach.
But when the moonlight at night fell down and illuminated the road ahead, I looked again and saw a giant man holding up the sky like an iron tower among the raging flames and bright stars. He didn't know when he had occupied the entrance of the camp.
Holding a Zhangba snake spear, under his crotch is a dark horse, and behind him are all the cavalry.
Tian Feng chose to pit the cavalry against the cavalry and block the Jizhou cavalry at the gate of the camp.
The original construction purpose of the Linxi Warehouse itself was to store grain and grass. It was not to build a bare empty shell to serve as a pure bait. Therefore, the construction specifications were also the standard of combining a grain warehouse and a military camp into one.
In addition to the granary, the entire camp also has barracks, a school yard, a weapons depot, a baggage warehouse and other places. It is not entirely a place to store food.
Due to the existence of the central school ground, even if all the Jizhou cavalry were brought into the camp and set fire to all sides, they would not be burned to death. The central school ground was really too spacious, two or three times larger than a school playground in later generations. The Jizhou cavalry only had to hide
In the school grounds, you can't hurt them even a hair.
As long as they wait for a day or two, all the combustible things in the camp will be burned out. The Jizhou cavalry will choose to escape among the ashes. Even if they are also cavalry, the Qingzhou cavalry may not be able to catch up. The speed of both sides is relatively equal, and it will be difficult to defeat Yuan Jun.
Annihilate them all.
Therefore, Tian Feng's strategy was to surround three gates and one. Yuan Jun burned down all the west gates, and the fire was the strongest there. Tian Feng asked the defenders to set fire to the east gate and north gate as well, and burned himself, but it was the Jizhou cavalry who burned them.
retreat.
Now that all the three gates in the east, west and north are on fire, Guo Tu has no choice but to choose the south gate if he wants to escape.
But he didn't know that Zhang Fei's Qingzhou Cavalry Brigade had been waiting for them here for a long time. This is the principle of catching turtles in jars and beating dogs behind closed doors.
In addition to the cavalry, a large number of crossbowmen were also deployed outside.
There are not many Jizhou cavalry left. In today's stirrup era, the importance of cavalry is increasing day by day. As long as the Jizhou cavalry is annihilated, the Qingzhou cavalry and the Sanhe cavalry will directly become the strongest troops on the battlefield. The entire hinterland of Jizhou will be destroyed.
The horse's hoof breaks!
"The enemy ambush!"
Jiang Qi let out a sharp cry, and the high voice resounded throughout the battlefield: "We are surrounded by fire on three sides. The only way to survive is to fight to the death!"
After saying that, the speed in his hand was not slow, and while waving the horse's spear, he galloped towards the camp entrance.
Behind him, a series of Jizhou cavalry rushed into the formation like a torrent.
At this point, everyone knows that if you stop the speed you are running at, you will be dead, so you might as well give it a try and fight your way out.
However, Guo Tu turned his horse's head and got into the nearby granary forest. His face was full of fear and he murmured to himself: "This is a trap, this is a trap. I should have thought of it a long time ago. Damn it.
I don’t want to die here, I must escape!”
"kill!"
Zhang Fei held a snake spear that was eight feet long, spurred his horses, and rushed to the front of the team.
The Qingzhou cavalry in the rear also roared fiercely. This battle was a confrontation between the cavalry of both sides. The brave one will win when they meet on a narrow road. If they cannot wipe out all the Jizhou cavalry, how can they establish the prestige of the Qingzhou cavalry?
Soon, the two groups of people and horses collided on the narrow road to the camp. In an instant, the people were turned upside down. The dozens of people at the front of both sides collided with each other in an instant. The horses neighed, and the soldiers screamed, or fell off their horses, or
Flying high into the sky, if you are lucky, you will be thrown far away, if you are unlucky, you will fall where you are and be trampled to death by the hooves of the horses behind you.
Wuyun Zhuixue shuttled among the horses like a cunning loach without colliding with anyone. The eight-foot-long snake spear in Zhang Fei's hand rotated flexibly, like a fan dancing wildly. After knocking down a few people, he stabbed him in the head with a spear.
He grabbed an enemy cavalryman, stabbed him directly through him, and then threw him away.
boom!
He smashed the man against the wall of the rammed earth granary next to him. The granary repaired with loess was actually not particularly strong. It could often be broken through with a few hits with a big hammer, but how could the strength of using a spear to challenge a man compare with
Compared to a hammer?
But what was shocking was that the man who was provoked by Zhang Fei hit the earth wall, smashing the wall directly, and all the straw and stones inside poured out.
No one paid attention to the messy battlefield. It was too dark, and even with the surrounding fires blazing into the sky, the field of vision was still not very good.
Zhao Rui and Jiang Qi saw the continuous influx of Qingzhou cavalry and the increasing number of enemies, which had forced them to retreat step by step and unable to rush out, so they shouted and told the soldiers behind them to turn towards the school grounds.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! They originally wanted to lure the enemy to the school grounds. The school grounds were large. If they ran around twice, they might be able to find a gap to escape.
However, when I looked back, I saw that the sky was full of fire.
It turned out that the fire at the west gate spread rapidly. Taking advantage of the wind, the fire had spread to the south gate, cutting off their way back.
At this pass, the Qingzhou cavalry was no longer in a hurry. Zhang Fei shouted, and the cavalry began to retreat one after another. The galloping iron hooves splashed dirt and dust, coupled with the rolling ashes of the flames, turning the whole world into gray. A mist.
Time passed bit by bit. In fact, the scale of the battle between the two sides was not large. Because the road was narrow, there were only a few dozen people fighting at the front. After a period of entanglement, hundreds of corpses were hurriedly left behind.
Zhao Rui and Jiang Qi were sweating like rain. The flames were getting closer and closer, but the entrance to the camp was blocked and they couldn't get out. If they didn't want to die, they had no choice but to surrender and risk their lives.
"what to do?"
Jiang Qi turned to ask Zhao Rui.
Zhao Rui shouted: "Rush over and try."
"Walk!"
Jiang Qi didn't talk nonsense. No one wanted to surrender until he was in a desperate situation. The young man was still in Yecheng.
The two men once again encouraged the soldiers to rush forward.
As soon as they arrived at the gate of the camp, an overwhelming rain of arrows rained down, turning the hundreds of cavalry at the front into a hornet's nest.
The people behind simply pulled the reins and did not dare to continue charging. They all stopped in place and gasped for breath.
"Surrender and avoid death!"
Zhang Fei held a spear and shouted, while Wu Yun chased the snow and jumped around the outside of the camp, as if he was about to launch another charge at any time.
The fire behind was getting closer and closer, burning all night, and the sky in the east began to turn pale.
If you persist any longer, you will definitely die.
Jiang Qi and Zhao Rui looked at each other for the last time, reached a consensus, and sighed: "Surrender!"