Chapter 1210 Zhang Yang's Response

Just as Tian Yu and his men gathered their troops and prepared to rest for a while before marching north to Changzi City, Zhang Yang was already walking back and forth anxiously in the governor's mansion in Changzi City, asking the soldiers outside the gate from time to time if there was any news.

Half an hour ago, when the Tang cavalry began to attack the Zhao army camp on the ancient battlefield of Changping, several torches could be seen rushing from the north from afar outside the north gate of Changzi City. As early as when the torches appeared several miles outside the city, the Zhao soldiers on duty on the tower had already discovered the abnormality on the official road in the north. He immediately woke up his superiors. For a moment, all the soldiers on the tower woke up and stared nervously at the torches approaching quickly from the north.

The torches stopped two hundred steps outside the city gate. Everyone could vaguely see several cavalrymen. One of them rode his horse towards the top of the city, holding up a torch and shouting loudly: "Listen, soldiers on duty on the top of the city. We are messengers sent by Jinyang. We are ordered by the prime minister to present urgent military equipment to Yang Taishou!"

After hearing this, the guard on the top of the city did not dare to delay and shouted to the knights under the city: "Words are not enough, please show me your token!"

The knight did not say much, dismounted and walked quickly to the side of the moat, bent his bow and shot an arrow towards the tower. On the arrow shaft was a token with a wolf head engraved on one side and a small seal word "wolf" on the other side. It was the special token of Wolf County.

Although the general on duty at the top of the city also recognized the token, he still did not dare to open the city gate. After thinking for a while, he stretched his head and said to the knight under the city: "Now is not the time to open the city. If you are in a hurry to enter the city, please dismount and approach the city wall. We will use a hanging basket to lift you up to the tower, and you can go to the governor's mansion to deliver the letter."

When the man heard it, he also knew that it was not the time to open the city gate. There was nothing wrong with the arrangement made by the guard on the top of the city, so he nodded and said: "Please arrange a horse in the city. I must report the urgent military situation to the governor as soon as possible."

Seeing that the knight under the tower agreed, the guard was secretly relieved and said: "Please rest assured, I have prepared several war horses under the city, and someone will escort you directly to the governor's mansion later!"

Soon, the drawbridge on the top of the city was slowly lowered. The knight handed his horse to his companion, walked quickly across the drawbridge, and then quickly climbed up the hanging basket lowered from the tower. Under the pull of the soldiers on the top of the city, he climbed up the city wall.

Then, under the escort of several soldiers guarding the city, he ran wildly towards the prefect's mansion.

In the prefect's mansion, Zhang Yang, who had been tossing and turning all night, did not fall asleep until after three o'clock in the morning. Just after five o'clock, he was suddenly awakened by his personal guards, who said that there was an envoy from Jinyang outside the mansion, saying that there was an urgent military situation to report to him. For a moment, an ominous feeling arose in Zhang Yang's heart, and his sleepiness disappeared immediately.

Zhang Yang knew that it had only been one day since he sent the military report to Jinyang, and Jinyang's reply was not sent back so quickly. The only possibility was that Jinyang must have discovered something wrong with the Tang army, so they sent it urgently overnight.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yang hurriedly put on his clothes with the help of the maid, and asked someone to invite the messenger into his study. Soon, Zhang Yang came to the study under the escort of the guard. As soon as he entered the study, Zhang Yang saw the messenger's token in the guard's hand, which turned out to be a silver token. When he looked at the messenger again, he found that it was indeed the leader of a wolf pack he saw in Jinyang.

Zhao's intelligence organization is a wolf pack, which is divided into a wolf king holding a golden token, and below the wolf king are five wolf generals, each holding a silver token, and below are bronze wolf generals and iron wolf generals, and at the bottom are ordinary wolves with ordinary wooden tokens.

The man Zhang Yang saw now was one of the five silver medal wolf generals. His face was covered with dust and he looked haggard. When he saw Zhang Yang coming in, he bowed and said, "Silver Wolf Lu Jiu greets Governor Zhang!"

"General Lu, there is no need to be polite. I wonder why the Prime Minister sent you here?" Zhang Yang hurriedly helped him up and asked;

Lu Jiu did not speak,

but turned his head to look at the guards around him. Seeing this, Zhang Yang hurriedly sent the guards around him, leaving only his own personal soldier captain, that is, his nephew Zhang Ke, and then said, "General Lu, please tell me that Zhang Ke is not an outsider."

"The Prime Minister asks the governor to pay attention. The Tang army is likely to attack Gaoping Pass and Xun's family from the Baixing Ancient Road. Please pay attention to the governor." After speaking, Lu Jiu took out a letter tube from his arms. There were three red signs on it, and then the letter tube was sealed with red ink.

After hearing what Lu Jiu said, Zhang Yang was shocked, and quickly took the letter tube from his hand, then opened the letter tube and said to Zhang Ke: "Zhang Ke, open the Shangdang map."

After taking out the letter from the letter tube, Zhang Yang scanned it at a glance, and then pressed his finger on the location of Xunshi and Gaopingguan on the map, and then compared it with the Baixing Ancient Road that Chen Gongxin understood. A sense of foreboding rose from the bottom of his heart. He had a premonition that the Tang army might have entered the Shangdang territory, and Hao Meng's 6,000 troops might have been ambushed by the Tang army.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yang ordered: "Zhang Ke, you immediately send 500 cavalrymen to chase General Hao Meng's troops south along the official road. If you catch him, order him not to go south to Tianjingguan, but to go to Gaopingguan to take over the defense. If..." At this point, he hesitated.

Zhang Ke said: "Your Excellency means that they are likely to..."

"Yes, I hope my intuition is wrong. If you don't find them, then they have probably been ambushed by the Tang army. No, you will lead the troops yourself. Remember, the 500 cavalry must be divided into several groups, and each group must be at least one mile apart. If you find any abnormality, return immediately without any hesitation."

"I obey your orders!" Zhang Ke immediately understood the seriousness of the matter and turned around to leave.

As soon as Zhang Ke left, Zhang Yang ordered again: "Come on, pass the order down. Without the personal letter of this prefect, no one is allowed to open the city gate. There are also 5,000 county soldiers in the city. From now on, 1,000 soldiers will be deployed on each wall to climb the city. Report any abnormality immediately."

After thinking about it, Zhang Yang asked someone to invite the chief secretary and ordered him to recruit another 5,000 soldiers in the city. Although they were only ordinary soldiers of the lowest level, they could still help pass arrows and move rolling stones and wood on the top of the city.

Afterwards, Zhang Yang ordered that one thousand soldiers be drawn from Lu County, Rangyuan, Tongdi and Guyuan to garrison in Huguan County. In this way, Huguan would have six thousand soldiers. In addition, the terrain of Huguan was steep. If Changzi City could not be defended, he planned to retreat to Huguan City. At least he should hold out in Shangdang until the Jinyang army arrived, or even until the king's army returned. Only in this way could he hold on to Shangdang. Otherwise, Zhao would lose this strategic location.