Three days later at dusk, the sun had set in the west, and the yellow sunlight shone on the undulating Qinling Mountains. The mountains on both sides were like steamed buns sandwiching the Chencang Road in the center.
An army with a green flag marched on the valley road. On the right side of the mountain road, the Qingjiang River gurgled. Nearly a thousand soldiers escorted dozens of oxen and horse-drawn carriages along the river bank, escorted by thousands of horsemen in front and behind.
During the march, the valley between the mountains on both sides gradually narrowed from wide to narrow, and Dashan Pass also appeared in front of this army. The pass city wall either meandered or suddenly rose up according to the terrain of the mountains. The vegetation between the two hills was lush, and the main city pass also appeared.
Only the upper half was exposed among the greenery, and it wasn't until they got closer that they could get a full view.
At this time, dusk has enveloped the surrounding areas, and when the remaining light of the setting sun is about to disappear, the desolation of the vegetation increasingly reveals the wildness of this place. If it were not for the artificially built city gates, this must be an isolated place.
There were soldiers on the top of the city holding torches and looking down. At each crenel, there were sergeants pulling out their long bows and crossbows, aiming at these uninvited guests from afar. The soldiers looked around and turned around and shouted: "Don't move rashly, below.
It looks like it’s our flag.”
He put his hand to his mouth and asked loudly: "Which part of the army are you?"
I heard a loud reply from below: "We are the subordinates of General Li Guiren. The general has recaptured Fengxiang County. We came to the pass to announce that we have been rewarded by His Majesty Shengwu's decree and promotion! Hurry down and receive the decree."
The soldier who lit the torch quickly went to inform the general, and the general walked out from the city tower holding a torch. The general was also very cautious. He held the torch and shouted to the people below the city: "Are you from General Li's command?"
Yan Xiaosi's eyes rolled rapidly, and he raised his head and shouted: "I am the sixth son of the adoptive father. I have an imperial edict and it is inconvenient for me to pay my respects. I would like to ask the general to come down and receive the edict."
"Okay, follow me down." The general led five or six personal guards down the stairs and down the city wall, called for people to open the city gate, and rode to Yan Xiaosi. Both sides held torches, and black smoke from the pine trees was lingering.
Unable to see the other person's face clearly, the general still looked forward carefully: "This young general looks a bit unfamiliar."
Yan Xiaosi didn't talk nonsense to him. He took out the yellow silk from the tube behind him, opened his hands to cover his face, and asked the soldiers next to him to bring the torch closer to light up: "Under the door, I, the great Yan Dynasty, have accomplished the feats of all the armies in Guanzhong.
Outstanding, I am very pleased that An Xiaoxian, the official of the Sanguan Gate Guard, has fulfilled his duties faithfully? He was promoted to General Zhuangwu and conferred the title of Duke of Chencang County? He was given a thousand acres of fertile land and food for 700 households!"
The general was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly dismounted and knelt down to worship: "May I bow to His Majesty the Emperor Shengwu? Your Majesty may live forever and may you be blessed forever!"
Yan Xiaosi walked up to him with the imperial edict and said with a smile: "General An? Accept the edict."
Is this An Xiaoxian holding the holy object in his hands? His tentacles felt that the quality of the silk was poor, so he opened his hands suspiciously, and saw that the yellow silk was empty, and not a single word was written on it: "What's going on!"
"Crack!"
The yellow silk cloth split open in his hand? The blade cut off the neck with cold light? A large amount of blood spattered. Yan Xiaosi had already lifted his head in his hands. Several warriors behind Yan Xiaosi lifted their hands.
The arrows from the crossbow and crossbow shot out in a whoosh, shooting all of An Xiaoxian's guards to the ground.
Yan Xiaosi raised his head and got on his horse, saying: "Fight into the pass!"
Dozens of war horses entered from the gate of the city gate. Two soldiers who were about to close the door were swept by swords and fell to the ground. In the dark night, the lights of swords were intertwined with torches, and the two sides fought fiercely. Yan Xiaosi rushed to the high ground with his head in hand.
While lighting up with a torch, he shouted loudly: "Your general has been killed? His head is here, why don't you surrender quickly! Anyone who dares to resist? You will be killed without mercy!"
There was a crisp sound of throwing knives from all over the city wall? Are all the armors taken off by the rebels piled together? Everyone lined up in a queue and was escorted by the Tang army to the small school field inside the pass. Yan Xiaosi stood on the lookout, holding a torch in his hand, facing
The prisoners in thin kudzu linen lined up below and shouted loudly: "Please report your household registration!"
One of them was a tall man with a bulging belly. Anyone who could eat such fat was basically a high-ranking official. He replied angrily: "General Qi, we are all from Yan."
"Oh, it turns out he is from Fan Yang, Youzhou." Yan Xiaosi turned around, hung a bronze mirror with strange patterns on the wall, and asked everyone, "Have you ever heard of Zoroastrianism?"
"Of course I have heard of it." The captive general said: "The Great Yan Shengwu Emperor... No, the dog thief An Lushan believes in Zoroastrianism."
"It's good to hear it," Yan Xiaosi said loudly, holding his belly with both hands: "This mirror was passed down by Ahura Mazda, the great god of Zoroastrianism. It can distinguish sins by reflecting the sun's rays through the mirror during the day.
In a sinful person, the person's eyes will be dizzy and his heart will be unbearably hot."
All the prisoners looked at each other in confusion. Only the officer held out his belly and raised his chin high, seemingly disdainful of such strange power and confusion.
Yan Xiaosi said again: "Listen now, you people followed the thieves south to rebel, all the way from Hebei to Henan, and then to Luoyang and Chang'an. Those of you who have not killed any people on the way, or raped women from good families, stand on the left."
The prisoners fell into confusion. One of them raised his hand and asked: "Does it count if you only rob but don't kill the people?"
"No," Yan Xiaosi replied decisively: "Although robbery is a serious crime, it is not a heinous crime. It can be punished with meritorious service."
Most of the two thousand soldiers on the school field ran to the left, and only a few stood on the right. These few stood with their chests raised and their faces calm, as if they had taken life and death lightly.
Yan Xiaosi raised his thumb and praised: "If you dare to do something, you can be considered a man." He turned around and ordered: "Send them on their way!"
The crossbowmen on the city wall immediately pulled the trigger, shooting these people into hedgehogs and falling to the ground.
The rest of the people breathed a sigh of relief and secretly rejoiced that they were not honest people.
Yan Xiaosi turned around and pointed at the bronze mirror and said: "I know there are still many of you who haven't told the truth and are trying to get away with it, but it doesn't matter. Tomorrow I will use this Mazda mirror to shine on each of you and commit crimes.
Naturally, there is no way for people to hide."
After saying that, he waved his cloak and turned around to leave. He told the lieutenant behind him: "Let them squat in the school grounds tonight and keep a close watch on them. Tomorrow morning, they will look at each one of them with the magic mirror for me."
The prisoners squatting on the school grounds began to look solemn and whispered to each other, but when they saw the Tang soldiers on the wall above their heads, they quietly lowered their voices.
Time passed slowly with the sound of the Qingjiang River on the Dashan Pass side, and the full moon also moved from mid-air to the foothill side. After the Tang Army soldiers on the city wall changed their posts, they began to doze against the wall stacks.
Several officers in the rebel army quietly gathered together to discuss how to survive in the current desperate situation.
One of the Zoroastrians lowered his eyebrows and said: "My family believes in Mazda, the God of Light. It is said that the God of Light did leave behind many divine objects, and the bronze mirror is engraved with a statue of the God of Light with wings. I see that the bronze mirror has a winged statue of the God of Light."
Nine times out of ten, the mirror is true. Tomorrow you and I will die!"
The fat officer raised his foot and aimed at the man's stomach, kicking him to the ground. He said angrily in a low voice: "Don't use strange power to confuse the gods. Mazda's hometown is in Persia and the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu. Where did the Hexi Army get this magical thing?"
?”
The Zoroastrians got up from the ground and squatted away from the officers, but they were still thinking in a low voice: "The Hexi Army has not been there, but Li Siye and his Anxi Army have been, and they got many Mazda gods during the food fight.
Things, absolutely."
The fat officer glared at the man angrily, ignored him, and whispered to the people around him: "Regardless of whether this bronze mirror is a sacred object or not, the imperial army has no intention of letting us go! It's hot in summer now, and the sun is making the bronze mirror go away."
Who can withstand the dazzling heat reflected in the mirror? It’s just an excuse to kill us."
The Zoroastrians replied from a distance: "Do you still need an excuse if the imperial court wants to kill us? We can just shoot them to death with random arrows tonight."
The officer did not get angry this time, and said to the Zoroastrian: "Even if the sacred object is real, who here today has not done something that is harmful to God? You and I cannot wait to die, we have to find a way to survive."
"How to live? We have been stabbed and stripped of our armor, and we are like sheep to be slaughtered."
The fat officer gathered everyone's heads in front of him and whispered: "I took a peek just now. The North City Gate is tightly guarded and there is no chance. Besides, there are only four soldiers guarding the South City Gate. When the time comes, we will sneak in.
Go over there, seize their swords and kill them, then lift up the doorstop and rush out of the gate to escape alive."
"But the south gate leads to Hanzhong, what's the use of escaping?"
"Hey, Hanzhong is rich. You and I can go up to the mountains and set up our own cottages. We usually go down the mountains and rob houses, which is enough to support us. If the imperial court wins in the future, we will continue to be bandits. If Emperor Shengwu wins, we can continue to join.