Chapter 315 Don’t force me to kneel down and beg you
Xi Shi repeatedly confirmed that the person coming was Yang Chang, and the remaining sleepiness instantly turned into cold sweat that broke out of his body.

Because Marshal Xie had also said in advance that no matter where Yang Chang appeared on the battlefield of the two Jin armies, the opposing generals would do their best to deal with him in order to create opportunities for another battlefield.

Xi Shi thought he was unlucky to meet Yang Chang, but he was unwilling to bear such pressure alone, so he sent someone to report to Wu Shi. At the same time, he also notified Yelu Yudu, Yelu Tushan, Zhe Keqiu and others to go to the pass, and emphasized that everyone should wear a yā xiá (neck armor).

Yang Chang was best at shooting people in the neck. In order to protect the generals from being shot, the Jin army issued iron spears to the lieutenant generals and above in the Shanxi battlefield.

Xishi was fully dressed, looking as heavy and majestic as an iron man. Later, he saw Yelu Yudu at the pass. Seeing that he was still wearing the old-style halberd, he asked curiously, "You didn't get the iron halberd? I remember that before the last expedition to Yangqu, all the generals and officers were issued with them. Why?"

"I left in a hurry, and a lot of baggage was left in Xiurong (the seat of Xinzhou). If the combat mission is not heavy in the near future, I plan to take some time to go back."

"Whether the combat mission is heavy or not depends on how Commander Yang fights in the end. If it's like the attack on Yangqu, with shells raining down, our life will be difficult."

"I heard that it's difficult to make artillery shells. If Yang Chang really had enough artillery shells, he would have come to attack us long ago."

After hearing Yelu Yudu's words of comfort, Xishi's nervous mood improved a lot, and he quickly returned the favor and said, "When the confrontation is closed later, you can stand behind me. I am very strong."

"Thank you."

Although Yelu Yudu thanked him on the surface, he secretly lamented that Xi Shi was too naive. He saw with his own eyes the copper wine cup being crushed. How could a mere iron chisel stop Yang Chang?

The two men climbed up to the city wall together. Yelu Tushan and Zhe Keqiu had already arrived. They were dressed in armor similar to Yelu Yudu, but neither was as serious as Xi Shi. The two men were used to wearing armor, and no one was willing to change individual parts.

Of course, Xi Shi would not persuade everyone she met like Xianglin Sao. After a brief greeting, he led everyone to the city wall, where they saw several riders lined up under the city wall, with the general in the middle riding a white horse in golden armor looking very majestic.

"Everyone, is that Yang Chang riding the white horse?"

"Um"

When the two Yelus looked at each other, Zhe Keqiu spoke first to confirm: "I met him once in Pingbei before. It was Yang Chang himself."

"Since General Zhe has a past with Chief Yang, you will negotiate with him today."

"Ah? Here I am."

Zhe Keqiu wanted to slap himself, thinking, what nonsense did he say just now? He was forced to surrender to the Jin Kingdom, so if I went to negotiate, wouldn't I be slapped in the face?
Just when Zhe Keqiu was in a dilemma, Yang Chang suddenly shouted from outside the city: "Is Xi Shi, the commander of Shiling Pass, here? Come out and answer me quickly!"

"General Xishi, look..."

"In that case, I will negotiate with you. Please be careful of any sneak attacks."

"We save it."

Xi Shi nodded slightly to everyone, then slowly walked towards the battlement, looked down at the city and said coldly: "Are you Yang Chang? How dare you invade?"

"Violation of the border?"

Yang Chang looked around, raised his head and smiled: "The pass you are standing on was built by the Han people. You outsiders, how dare you talk nonsense? Why don't you open the pass and surrender quickly? Maybe I can spare your life."

"There is no point in talking any more. If you want to fight, then fight. Who can you scare?"

Xi Shi folded his hands across his chest, revealing a fearless smile. Upon hearing this, Yang Chang sneered, "If you're not afraid of me, why are you covering yourself so tightly?"

"It is my freedom to dress how I want. We Jin people don't like verbal disputes. If you want to attack us, just come directly. We will decide the outcome on the battlefield. You can just shoot arrows from behind. It's nothing big."

"Okay, well said."

Yang Chang gave Xi Shi a thumbs up, then changed the subject and said, "Are you sure you don't want to surrender? Today I'll let you meet an old friend. He claims to be Wu Shi's confidant. Bring him here!"

"The Marshal's confidant? Who is it?" Xi Shi turned around and looked at everyone.

Yelu Tushan tentatively replied: "Not long ago, during the battle of Yangqu, I heard that the military supervisor was captured by a monk. Could it be him?"

"Puchashi's slave? Could this guy be..."

Xi Shilai wanted to answer with the word "treason", but then he remembered that Zhe Keqiu was present at the time, and it would be inappropriate to mention this word in front of him, so he stopped talking at the end.

Not long after, I saw my old friend being escorted to the battlefront with his hands tied behind his back. He didn't look like a traitor.

"You see, this is a true Jurchen man. He has integrity even when he is captured."

Xi Shi pretended to be so arrogant in public, and then heard Yang Chang threaten him: "Pucha Shi's slave, everyone in the city knows him, right? If you just open the gate, I will let him go back to reunite with my family. This is a very cost-effective deal, but if you don't save him, don't blame me for being cruel."

"I have reason to suspect that Commander Yang has run out of tricks. Pucha Shijianu is a Jurchen warrior. I believe he would rather die for the country than become a burden. You should just give up on this idea!"

"well said."

After listening to Xi Shi's message, Pucha Shi's slave guessed the other party's hidden meaning, that is, to sacrifice himself to protect the clan members in the rear, so he deliberately angered Yang Chang and shouted: "There are no cowards among the Jurchens. If you have the ability, kill me!"

"Stop making noise, Liu Tang, come and slap me in the face, hit me harder!"

"okay."

Liu Tang was most willing to serve. He dismounted immediately after receiving the order, rolled up his sleeves, and swung his hands with a slapping sound. He immediately knocked out two front teeth of Pucha Shi's slave and made his mouth full of blood.

"Tsk, that's almost it."

Yang Chang stopped Liu Tang in time. He spared the life of Pucha Shi's slave to warn Yelu Yudu that he should not be killed directly in front of the battle. Then he looked at the city wall and sneered.

"It's a pity that this guy was beaten to death. I can use him to exchange for someone else. This is the only chance to redeem the prisoner!"

"Who do you want to replace?"

Xishi also became interested at this time, but he didn't expect that Yang Chang wanted to change Elder Zhizhen, so he immediately waved his hand and said, "I don't know this person!"

"It doesn't matter if you don't know. Elder Zhizhen is in Wenshu Monastery in Mount Wutai. You can invite him to exchange for this person."

Yang Chang's relentless response caught Xi Shi off guard. Seeing this, Zhe Keqiu reminded him quietly, "Elder Zhizhen has passed away for many days. Why didn't the general tell the truth?"

"shut up!"

Xi Shi stopped Zhe Keqiu in a deep voice, turned around and shouted impatiently to the people below the city: "Are you done yet? I said no, and I mean no!"

"You can obviously change it back, but you pretend not to know. You are so ruthless to your fellow generals in the army, let alone ordinary soldiers? You work for such people? We all only live once, why should we die for others? Who is willing for you to die? Xi Shi is wearing a suit of iron armor, do the soldiers also have armor?"

"Shut up! Stop disrupting our army's morale!"

Xishi interrupted Yang Chang and shouted at him: "Yang Chang, if you are a real man, you should fight with real swords and guns. What's so great about talking?"

"If I come to the gate, I hope you will keep your stubbornness." As soon as Yang Chang finished his joke, he pointed at the study room and added, "By the way, I don't like your arrogant eyes. Gouge them out."

"It's inexplicable. Ah."

Xi Shi was about to turn around cursing when he and the people around him heard a loud gust of wind. He then squatted down, covering his eyes and shouting in pain, with blood flowing down his palms.

Yang Chang threw a flying stone, which directly blew up Xi Shi's right eye, causing him to roll on the ground in pain. The generals and soldiers gathered around to show their concern, and the Shiling Pass tower was in chaos, while Yang Chang continued to attack from below the city.

"Didn't you bark happily just now? Come out and bark again and try it?"

"So what if you're wearing full armor? Grandpa will still kill you!"

"Shiling Pass will be breached tomorrow. I say, those who know the time will open the city and surrender. Otherwise, leave this place early. If you are late, you will be killed without mercy!"

Xi Shi's right eye was blinded, half of his face swelled up instantly, and the pain caused him to lose consciousness briefly.

Yelu Yudu saw this and hurriedly said to his attendants, "Yang Changfei is also very accurate in throwing stones. We will have to use shields to guard the pass from now on. General Xishi is seriously injured and must be sent back to Xiurong for treatment. I just need to go back to get the axe, so the defense will be handed over to you."

"You're leaving now?"

Yidu, the deputy general of Shiling Pass, showed a playful expression after he finished speaking, as if to say that you left in a hurry just after Yang Changgang made such a wild remark, and you deserved to be scolded as a coward by Pucha Shi's slaves.

Yelu Yudu explained: "Captain Yang talks big, but our troops are twice as strong as his. It is not easy to take this important pass. Besides, I will be back tomorrow, so it is nothing serious. The situation in Xishi cannot be delayed."

"That's fine."

Yidu saw that Yelu Yudu's words were flawless, and Yelu Yudu did not take his troops with him, so he did not seem to be afraid of fighting and fleeing alone.

Yelu Yudu only led a few hundred cavalrymen on the journey, but because his commander was not around, all his soldiers returned to the garrison point behind the pass to wait for orders to fill in, and then fill in the defense if there were casualties in the war.

The Jin soldiers guarded nervously for a whole day, but after Yang Chang made his harsh remarks, he returned to the camp and never came out again.

This anticlimactic performance made the Jin army mistakenly believe that he was boasting in front of others and was guilty of not having the confidence to break through the pass, but they didn't know that Yang Chang was waiting for nightfall.

In the morning, he boasted that he would break through the barrier tomorrow, but the real attack was scheduled for the second half of the night.

It is difficult to attack Shiling Pass by force, but Yang Chang had already thought of a countermeasure. He planned to rely on his personal ability and sneak into the pass with Shi Qian at night. One of them would set fire while the other would open the city gate, and the rest would be fighting and picking up corpses.

Before nightfall, Yang Chang ordered everyone to prepare for the surprise attack in the second half of the night.

As his cultivation level increased, Yang Chang became less and less particular about food. A few boiled potatoes would fill his stomach, so he gave up cooking for himself according to the main account and instead went to each camp to eat in turn. This not only showed that he shared the same hardships with the soldiers, but also made the grassroots soldiers recognize him, in an attempt to reduce the embarrassing experience of pacification.

During dinner that night, Shi Qian found Yang Chang in Liu Tang's camp and took out a letter mysteriously, saying, "The Night Owl Army just patrolled and found this letter at the pass. I think the content is really a coincidence. I am worried that tonight's plan has been leaked."

"Leaked? Impossible."

Yang Chang took it with curiosity, unfolded the arrow and saw only eight words on it: At the exact moment of the first hour of the lunar calendar, the closed door will open automatically.

The hour of Chou is when people are most tired in the day.

The time written on the arrow letter is consistent with the time of Yang Changding, no wonder Shi Qian misunderstood it.

However, those who knew the time were all his trusted generals, and it was decided just before the meal, so it would not have leaked out, at least not so quickly, so the only explanation was that the traitors had come up with the idea.

Yang Chang brought Pucha Shi's slave to the front of the battle. He saw from afar that Yelu Yudu had a complicated expression, so he was the only one who supported him.

"Captain, is this a trick?"

"It's hard to say, I hope it's true."

"Why should we be afraid of a fraud? Shiling Pass is too high to climb. As long as we can open the city gate directly, an ambush is worth a try. I want to take the first credit again this time. Brother, let me rush to the front later."

Seeing Liu Tang taking the opportunity to volunteer, Yang Chang patted him on the back and encouraged him: "Tonight we are only fighting to seize the pass, and the battle will mainly be on foot. You have the advantage."

"Hey, brother, it's not in vain that I came here tonight."

When Liu Tang was feeling proud, Shi Qian's words were like a bucket of cold water poured down on him. He quietly reminded him, "Captain, I think we should still be on guard. What if the door is not opened when the time comes?"

"It doesn't matter."

Yang Chang responded with a relaxed look: "The attack time will not change. If the gate is not opened at the appointed time, we will go to the city as planned. I will open the gate and you will set fire to it!"

"Yes!"

Shi Qian's heart was filled with emotion when he heard this. The old days in Liangshan suddenly emerged in his mind. He remembered how he and Yang Chang sneaked into Jeju to set fire. That was the first time the two of them went on a mission.

It was on that night that Shi Qian was appreciated by the general as a thief. This was an unprecedented experience for him. It also established his fate with Yang Chang and paved the way for his later surrender.

That night was August 15th, which happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival.

One hour after nightfall, the moon slowly rises from the eastern mountain and reaches the highest point in the sky at midnight. The towering Shiling Pass is like a sundial that records the time, refracting the moonlight and shadows at different times.

Around the hour of Chou, the moon is as bright as a silver thread.

If we advance at that time, we will be discovered by the defenders.

So shortly after nightfall, when the moon was still behind the eastern mountain, Yang Chang and two thousand brave warriors lay in wait at the foot of the pass to prepare for the capture of the gate. The rest of the men gathered at the rear, waiting for the signal of a fire at the pass before advancing.

At that moment, Yang Chang saw through his [Eagle Eyes and Owl Vision] that the city gate had opened a little. He didn't know whether it was because the spies were afraid of being exposed, or because there were too few people to push it open, but in any case, it was not fully opened.

"The gap in the city gate is very small, there may be an ambush inside. You stay here and don't move. Let me go and explore the way. Shi Qian, you come with me."

"Yes."

After Yang Chang finished speaking, he immediately used [Flash of Light and Shadow] to dodge and move around, and Shi Qian had a hard time following him.

As soon as they reached the pass, they heard a loud noise in front of them, which was the muffled sound of the city gate turning.

The thousand-pound door was pushed open by Yang Chang alone. This was not the first time he pushed the city gate. Then he heard the defenders' shocked shouts from the dark corridor.

"Something's going on, the door is open!"

"Report quickly."

"Enemy attack, ah."

Yang Chang used his flying knife to defeat the enemy one after another, and at the same time reminded Shi Qian in a deep voice: "Light the torches and lead the troops into the pass!"

"Yes."

Shi Qian had just lit the torch when Lu Zhishen and Liu Tang came with their death squad.

At that time, Yang Chang was standing in front of the corridor. When he swung his sword, his talent of [Lone Brave] was triggered, and the defenders fell down one after another.

This scene stunned Liu Tang, who was rushing in the front, and wondered what was going on.

My brother seldom demonstrates his sword skills, but it turns out that he is an expert in using swords. My newly improved knife skills are suddenly not as good as before. Could you please teach me too? Don't force me to kneel down and beg you?

(End of this chapter)