This evening, the scout returned with the latest intelligence: "Nong Zhigao's large army had once gathered at Kunlun Pass. But after receiving Di Qing's fake intelligence, they withdrew most of their troops back to Yongzhou City, leaving behind over a thousand soldiers and horses to garrison... This is inevitable, as there are no villages in front of the pass and no shops behind it, how can a large army survive without sufficient logistical preparations?"

  "Chen Shu, this scoundrel, is truly not worth pitying!" A tall and majestic middle-aged general angrily said: "He has caused us to lose a heaven-sent opportunity!" This was the deputy commander of this expedition to pacify the south, Yang Lao Ling Gong's grandson, Yang Liu Lang's son, Yang Zheng's paternal uncle, the fierce general Yang Wen Guang, styled Zhong Rong. Now, Yang Zheng's defeat in Guangxi had brought shame to the Yang family's reputation, and Yang Wen Guang was eager to clear the Yang family's name, repeatedly submitting ten memorials requesting to go to war. In the end, he was appointed as the Deputy Envoy of the Two Guangs, Commander-in-Chief of the Cavalry, and followed Di Qing south to pacify the rebels.

  "It's always a price to pay when fighting." Di Qing shook his head and comforted, "Fortunately, the opportunity has not been lost. Even if it is an impregnable pass, it requires sufficient troops to defend it, but with only a thousand defenders, it is far from enough; besides, they do not have the will to fight to the death. With my large army launching a strong attack, I can surely take it down in one battle!"

  "I'm afraid if we use too much force, it will scare away the clever ones." Yang Wenguang sighed.

  "This is also what I'm most worried about." Di Qing furrowed his brow and said, "But time doesn't wait for me, we can't delay any longer. I'm afraid that after Nong Zhi returns, he'll gather supplies and reinforce the troops at Kunlun Pass... By then, this war will truly be stuck in the mud."

  Fortunately, Di Qing had ordered each state to build siege equipment on the march, and now there were enough siege equipment in the camp. So he discussed with other generals, tomorrow will be a day of rest for the three armies, then they will march at night and attack Kunlun Pass at dawn the next day.

  All right, all of you go and get ready now.

  "Marshal, Sanlang has returned and is requesting an audience outside the tent." After all the other generals had gone out, Di Yong stepped forward to report.

  "Oh, you dare to come back." Di Qing smiled and said: "Let him come see me!"

  Chen Sanlang was brought into the commander's tent after returning from his trip to Jiaozhi.

  "You're a murderer!" After dismissing his attendants, Di Qing feigned anger and said: "I only allowed you to beat him up, but I didn't let you kill him."

  "General Dà is at ease, General Wén is still alive and well-loved." A hint of an evil smile hung on Chen Kè's mouth.

  "What will you do with him?" Di Qing asked in a low voice, clearly very curious.

  "There's nothing for him to enjoy in Jiaozhi." Chen Ke chuckled and changed the subject, "I requested an audience with the General because I have official business."

  "What's wrong?"

  "General Zhang should quickly take Kunlun Pass!" Chen Ke said in a deep voice.

  "Why?"

  "When I went, I climbed mountains and used all my strength to come back, but on the way back, I walked through the Kunlun Pass", Chen Ke still thought he had a big secret, mysteriously said: "Do you know how I came over?"

  "...", Di Qing said with a cold smile: "It's said that as long as you pay the money, the guards will let people pass."

  "Hey, so it wasn't a secret after all." Chen Ke was somewhat embarrassed, but then smiled and said: "I have a plan that can help the general earn a fortune at Kunlun Pass. I wonder how the general will thank me?"

  "Don't ask for too high a price."

  "As long as you promise me one thing after the war, don't worry, it won't go against your principles as a person, and it's actually good for you. But now is not the time to talk about it." Chen Ke said sincerely.

  The fatigue on his face disappeared, and his eyes were very sincere. Di Qing thought for a moment and smiled: "In that case, let's make a deal."

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The generals were about to convey the order when they received a new command to postpone for one day. Although feeling strange, there was no second word.

  Two days later, the elite of the Western Army's elite, the "Five Hundred Back Ke", ... This was not unique to General Yue in later generations. The Song army called those who were good at fighting with high morale "Back Wei". ... Received the commander-in-chief's secret order, they cooked at noon and set out at nightfall.

  At dawn, a group of men pushing wheelbarrows appeared on the mountain road in front of the pass. They rested about one mile outside the pass, while several leaders walked down to the foot of the pass.

  At this time, the sky had already brightened, and only then did they see clearly that among those people were Chen Ke and the others.

  As they walked down to the city, Chen Ke quietly said to Di Yong beside him: "When we passed the pass, we called ourselves foot merchants. The general guarding the pass asked if he could get some wine and meat for them, and he would negotiate the price. I said it was easy to say, Binzhou City is now a gathering place for all kinds of military supplies, everything can be obtained. He agreed to give me three times the price, as much as I wanted." In poor families, boys leave home to make a living at the age of 13 or 14, let alone having a Wu Lang who looks like he's over 30, so the guarding soldiers deeply believed it.

  Di Yong was the Yu Marquis of Beiwei Camp, leading a few elite soldiers to protect Chen Ke. Before, on the road, people were whispering and horses were wearing hoof covers. Only now did he realize what was being sold in the gourd. Lowering his voice, he said: "The Commander-in-Chief has ordered that he will personally lead the main army to follow from behind. If we can't take it by clever means, then we'll fight fiercely to capture it. He told you not to take any risks and harm your own life."

  Chen Ke nodded, and at this time, the defenders on the city wall also saw them. A Han Chinese loudly asked what they were doing there.

  Chen Ke let them take the lead

  "Bring him over." The leader, upon seeing him, shouted in a harsh tone: "So you've brought him so quickly?"

  "You think it's easy? Afraid of being discovered, don't even dare go out during the day."

  "Come on, come on, hurry up and bring it in." The leader immediately ordered someone to open the city gate.

  Chen Ke had the porters call out to push the carts up, as it was difficult to climb the slope. Each fully loaded cart required one person to push and another to pull. With over a hundred single-wheeled carts, there were more than two hundred porters, forming a long queue.

  The defenders inside the pass, all rushed to the gate, and even some actively helped pull carts. These days have been bitter for them... Without logistical supplies, relying only on the military rations left behind by the retreating army, it's a problem just to fill their stomachs, let alone improve their lives. Although they had plenty of loot hidden away on their persons, unfortunately in this mountain pass with no village ahead and no shops behind, there was nowhere to spend their money.

  So they are now, like celebrating the New Year, in a state of jubilation, which is completely understandable. If it weren't for the leader's orders to unify and distribute, I'm afraid that even before the carts arrive in the city, all the wine and meat would be snatched up.

  In front of the ten unicycles, there were large pieces of smoked pork and mutton, making people's mouths water. Further back, there were carts and carts of wine and water. When they arrived at the Guanmen Cave, a shrill whistle suddenly sounded, and the carters abandoned their vehicles and fled in unison, leaving behind the confused guards scattered all over the ground.

  Someone with sharp eyes noticed something unusual on one of the cars and said, "Huh, why is it smoking..."

  Before the words had fallen, a yellow light flashed before his eyes, accompanied by an earth-shattering explosion. The soldiers under the city gate were all knocked to the ground, and some were even thrown out of the city gate by the blast wave.

  Gunpowder, invented in the Tang Dynasty, was soon used as an explosive. Although the gunpowder of this era had a low explosion efficiency, such a barrel explosion could still easily tear people to pieces. Moreover, this was in a semi-enclosed city gate... Within a hundred feet, everyone was knocked down, stunned and dizzy.

  Even those few carriages that had just run out of the city gate were blown far away like leaves, falling to the ground with unknown life or death.

  But more carters, hearing the whistle, all fell to the ground in time, tightly covering their ears and opening their mouths wide, so they were not injured. Especially those who were far from the city gate, crawled up from the ground, pulled out the hidden soldiers' blades, and killed them at the first time.

  At this moment, they restored their original appearance as the elite of the Great Song Dynasty's most elite troops - the Baibing. Each one was a warrior king who could take on ten!

  When the Baekje army rushed into the pass, those defending soldiers were still sitting on the ground with a dull expression, in a state of trance.

  A massacre with no resistance has begun!

  Although the troops in the distance were not affected by the explosion, their will to fight was completely collapsed in that shocking explosion. As more and more enemies rushed into the pass, they used the Song army's most skilled technique - escape.

  When Di Qing led the vanguard to arrive at Kunlun Pass, there was not a single living Nong army inside this majestic pass.

  Standing on the Kunlun Pass, Di Yuanshuai let out a long sigh of relief, but his expression immediately returned to being solemn because the decisive battle was imminent.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The fleeing soldiers brought news of the Song army's advance, and Nong Zhigao was initially startled. When he heard that Kunlun Pass had been deceived into opening its gates, he sneered: "The Han people only know how to resort to trickery; let's see what use their cunning will be in the face of my great army!"

  His two Han traitor chancellors, Huang Shixiong and Huang Wei..., these two losers who dreamed of following Zhang Yuan's path to prosperity, reminded him that this time the enemy was General Di Qing, so it's better to be cautious.

  "You Han people are good at boasting, didn't you exaggerate Yang's family to the sky at first? Can't stand a blow from me?" He indeed had the capital of pride, since he started his army, there were more than 30 battles, although some were hard-won, but the final victory never fell.

  The traitors thought that they were all southerners, and since childhood, they had only seen the Song army rot like mud, so they dared to instigate Nianzhi Gao to rebel. They thought that General Mian Nuo was probably also a 'softie', and it was impossible for him to be a match for the tiger-like Nianzhi Gao.

  Besides, you are no longer the same as before. You are now the founding emperor of Daxianguo, with an army of 50,000 under your command.

  And his subordinates are no longer the savages in the mountains and forests who cannot cover their bodies, they have unified military uniforms and weapons...... Of course, all of them come from the armory of the great Song Dynasty's prefectures and counties...... Compared to the forbidden army of Jiaozhi State, they are a hundred times more exquisite.

  At least at this moment, Nong Zhigao was heroic and majestic. He mounted his horse as he had done many times before, and facing the assembled army with their fiery eyes, shouted loudly: "Go teach them a lesson!"

  The soldiers followed their emperor and marched towards the Kunlun Pass, where they encountered the enemy's army at Guirenpu.

  （）