It was the end of the Shen hour and the beginning of the You hour in the afternoon, and the sun had not yet set.

The setting sun shines through the thin autumn clouds onto the earth, creating a brilliant fiery cloud in the western sky.

In early autumn in July, the whole world in the northern part of the Great Wall seemed to be that withered yellow color. The weather turned cold, the grass and trees swayed in the wind, and the sky was also orange. Only the sunset glow on the edge of the clouds still flashed purple light.

North of Anlong Pass, the road along the Qingshui River was extremely wide, and at the end of the road, countless cavalrymen were swarming in. This place was the throat of the Western Xia army leading to Yanzhou, controlling two passages.

One passage is to follow Qingshui, which is the Yanhe River in later generations, to the northwest. The other one is directly to the north, and there is a small road that can lead to Longzhou in Western Xia.

However, the terrain of this road is narrow and not conducive to the passage of a large army, so if Li Yuanhao wants to pursue the traitor, he naturally has to take the right path to be faster.

Because the west bank of Qingshui is adjacent to hills and mountains, the main road is on the east bank. The east bank is now occupied by Anlongzhai set up by Fan Zhongyan, which is located in Jianhua Town, Ansai District, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province in later generations. It is like a natural moat across the middle of the road, cutting it off in half.

At this moment, the Xia bandits outside the village wall were surging like a tsunami, and the dark clouds were pressing down on the city, threatening to destroy it. The Song army on the village wall looked outside nervously, with all kinds of bows and arrows, firearms, catapults at the ready, and barrels of grenades placed at their feet.

The soldiers crouched quietly behind the wall. The Xixia bandits in the distance were getting closer and closer. Fan Zhongyan stood on the wall, gazing north. When the enemy approached about 300 feet, he shouted, "Switch on!"

This string does not refer to a bow or crossbow, but to the Eight Oxen Crossbow.

In the Han Dynasty, one zhang was 2.31 meters, and in the Song Dynasty it became 3.33 meters. Three hundred zhang is about one thousand meters, which is exactly the attack range of the Eight Ox Crossbow.

I saw more than 20 large crossbows placed on the wall of the village. The crossbow was more than three meters long. There were three crossbows stacked together, two facing forward and one facing backward. When the bowstring was pulled, the distance it could be pulled could reach 155 centimeters. The thrust generated could easily allow the shooting range to reach more than one thousand meters!

But while this crossbow was powerful, it also had a significant drawback: it was extremely difficult to string. Historical records show that it required thirty soldiers to pull the capstan. Furthermore, the three-foot-five-inch-long, five-inch-thick iron arrows were powerful, but their accuracy was mediocre.

In the era without scopes, this thing was not as convenient to operate as a sniper rifle, and it was very difficult to move and aim. So unless you were dealing with a large-scale army, where aiming was not necessary at all, it was still very difficult to snipe the enemy.

The only recorded case of an enemy general being sniped in history was during the Battle of Chanzhou, when the Liao army attacked the city. The defending soldier Zhang Gui was startled and hurriedly fired his crossbow. The arrow flew out like thunder and hit the Liao general Xiao Talina, which directly led to the birth of the Chanyuan Alliance.

It was unrealistic to snipe the enemy, but Li Yuanhao was bringing a large army this time, so the power of the Eight Ox Crossbow could still be demonstrated. However, the deterrent effect was more important. With the speed of the Xixia cavalry, the enemy could be killed at the gates of the city in less than two shots.

But it was obvious that when Li Yuanhao looked at the wall above Anlong Village from afar, he saw the sharp arrow head sticking out from the wall. Under the setting sun, it reflected a strange white light, which still made him feel an inexplicable sense of threat.

Since he wanted to invade the Song Dynasty, he must have known about the defensive equipment on the Song army's wall. Thinking of Xiao Tallin's miserable state, which was said to be torn into pieces, Li Yuanhao ordered to stop advancing.

The two sides faced each other three hundred feet apart.

To both sides, the other side was actually just a dense mass of black dots. The military flags fluttered in the wind, and for a moment they froze.

Fan Zhongyan looked outside the village leisurely, with his hands behind his back and a relaxed expression.

Shan Yu Weiliang's defection was a huge blow to Western Xia. If Li Yuanhao had not captured and killed him, it would have had serious consequences for both his prestige and the internal stability of Western Xia.

So he's not the one who's anxious anyway.

A moment later, Li Yuanhao indeed sent a knight to gallop to the foot of the camp and shouted to the people above, "Where is your leader?"

"This fellow is so brave, he dares to come here and die? My lord, let me shoot him!"

A young general in silver armor next to him said to Fan Zhongyan.

The young general was none other than Zhe Jimin, the inspector general of Linfu Road. Although he was only a lower-level seventh-rank officer, he inherited his father's bravery and was quite brave and good at fighting.

Fan Zhongyan waved his hand and said, "No hurry, go ask him what's going on. If he asks about Shan Yu Weiliang, just say you've never seen him."

"yes."

Zhe Jimin stuck his head out, looked down and shouted, "Where did you come from, you bastard? What do you want me to do?"

The knights below were not surprised. The soldiers in the army were used to being rough and rude, but they were not aristocrats or literati who valued being well-mannered. There were often small-scale conflicts on the border between the Song Dynasty and the Xia Kingdom, and it was normal for both sides to curse at each other.

He shouted, "My king wants you to hand over Shan Yu Weiliang!"

"roll."

Zhe Jimin scolded: "Your grandfather has never heard of this person."

“Bold!”

The knight shouted, "That traitor Shan Yu Weiliang has clearly escaped into Song territory and is being hidden by you."

Zhe Jimin bent his bow and drew his arrow, then shot it out, hitting the knight three feet in front of him. He scolded him, "If your father says he hasn't seen it, then he hasn't seen it. If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will kill you."

"Buzz buzz buzz buzz!"

The knight looked at the arrow in front of him, which had penetrated three inches into the ground. The feathers at the tail of the arrow shook and made a crisp sound. He couldn't help swallowing.

If the arrow had been shot at his throat or face, with its force, it would have gone straight through.

Seeing this, the knight did not dare to continue to pester the enemy and turned his horse around and went back.

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