"What's going on?!" Garlon frowned and stared at the two smoke columns in the distance, clenching his fists.

It was obviously a beacon fire, not a forest fire or something like that. Tianjuan rarely used beacon fires to send messages, so the one who lit the beacon fire must have been the Assyrian army.

However, judging from the location where it was launched, it was close to the inner wall, less than twenty miles away from where Garlon was currently.

No one dared to speak to the guards who gathered around, but everyone was a little nervous, after all, beacon fire meant war.

"What is that place? Don't we have any sentries?" Garlon asked.

Still no one answered. The deployment of sentries was a military arrangement, and it was always decided by Garlon himself. The highest-ranking officer standing next to him was just an escort officer, so how could he know?

"Go, find all the deputy generals and lieutenant generals from inside and outside the camp. No, send one person to stay behind in each camp, and the rest, come to me immediately." Garlon frowned and waved his hand. The escort officer quickly agreed, randomly selected a few followers, and left in a hurry.

"You two go and inform the master to close the door and be on high alert!" After giving orders to his two followers, Garlon glanced at the two columns of smoke, turned around and walked quickly into his residence and began to get dressed.

…

In a mountain only nineteen miles away from Garon in a straight line, Wu Lai was leading his troops walking quickly in the woods that blocked out the sun. According to his plan, he would lead his troops through two mountains, then cross a shallow ford and arrive at the designated location - that was a hill called Alpaca Peak adjacent to the horse trail, surrounded by water on three sides, with steep terrain, suitable for setting up artillery, and the surrounding terrain was flat.

The second commander ran to Wu Lai's side and said, "Lord, the flag signal has been received. The beacon has been lit."

"Okay!" Wu Lai continued to walk quickly and said, "Go to the rear team and urge them to keep up with the artillery. The key to victory lies in them."

The second regiment commander agreed and ran back at a fast pace. Wu Lai made it very clear at the pre-war meeting last night that although the enemy camp's defense focus was on the main pass area surrounded by high walls, there were also eight large camps with more than 30,000 troops outside the main pass, and four thousand-man teams patrolling crosswise. This time's advance was equivalent to directly bypassing two large camps and placing themselves in the pincer attack area of ​​the enemy's eight camps. Of course, there were actually seven camps, because one of the leaders was a spotted wolf.

…

When Metz rode his horse to the entrance of Alpaca Peak, the deputy general on duty came up with more than 20 soldiers and said, "It's General Metz. What brings you here?" Although the deputy general was two ranks lower than Metz, his superior Ziva had always been at odds with Metz, so he was too lazy to get close to Metz.

"I'm here on the orders of General Garlon to check the defense situation here." Metz glanced at the lieutenant and replied.

"Huh? General Metz, these things should have nothing to do with your battalion, right?" The deputy general frowned. This area was not Metz's defense zone, and according to the rules, it should not be inspected by Metz. Moreover, the more than one hundred cavalrymen behind Metz all looked unfriendly.

Is there something strange? The deputy general thought to himself.

"What? You don't even obey General Garlon's orders?" Metz asked back.

"I dare not." Although the deputy general said he dared not, he did not move after glancing at the hundred or so cavalrymen behind Metz. Instead, he asked with a smile, "General Metz, you should know that my place is just a small hill with nothing. I didn't expect General Garon to still care about me. Is there a change in the battle situation?"

"Do you have to be so talkative?" Mace frowned.

The deputy general was upset by Mace's retort, "General Mace, why do you have to do this? All right, General Mace, please show me General Garon's warrant or token, and I will immediately gather all the more than 200 people here and let you, General Mace, check them one by one."

"You are quite interesting." Meis laughed, stretched out his arm and pointed at the general, then suddenly shouted, "Kill!"

"Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish!" Amid the rapid sound of crossbows, the deputy general and more than twenty soldiers behind him fell to the ground.

"Go!" Metz waved his hand and pointed to the entrance, and the hundreds of riders behind him rushed forward immediately.

"General Metz, please find some place to hide for the time being while we deal with these ruffians first." A rider rushed past Metz and said urgently.

"Thank you for your hard work, Captain Sleepy Wolf." Mace nodded.

…

"He led more than a hundred cavalrymen out of the camp? Did you ask where he was going?" Garon was angry again. After the assembly order was conveyed, people from each camp came, but there was no movement from Metz's camp. Not only did Metz not come, but even his subordinates did not come.

"I asked, and the camp guard said that General Metz went hunting, and the patrol on the horse trail said that he went in the direction of Alpaca Peak." The escort officer replied quickly.

"To the direction of Alpaca Hump? Why is he going to my defense zone?" Qi Wa asked without thinking.

"This Mace, when he comes back, I will punish him severely." Garlon slammed the table angrily, "Can't he see the beacon fires set off by the enemy?"

"General Garlon, perhaps he has seen it and is on his way back." A deputy general who had a good relationship with Metz interrupted.

"Come back? You won't have to punish him for coming back? The enemy is aggressive and has already taken over the Stone Wall Checkpoint. Although there is no movement now, there's no telling when they will attack. Humph, he still has the mind to hunt?" Garlon said angrily.

As soon as Garlon finished speaking, Ziva on the side could not help but gasp, with a trace of surprise in his eyes: "General Garlon! There is something wrong with Mace!"

"Problem? What problem?" Garen frowned.

Qi Wa's voice was somewhat urgent: "General Garon, even in such a situation, he still has the leisure to go out of the camp to hunt, and he chose to go to the direction of Alpaca Hump instead of the nearby one. General Garon, Metz has come into contact with the enemy before, and the terrain of Alpaca Hump was not obvious in the past, but it is very important now..."

"What do you mean?" Garlon stood up suddenly.

"General Garon, Metz came back alone. Normally, he should have been with other generals during the retreat. But others died, but he was unharmed. General Garon, don't you think it's strange?" Ziva asked.

Garlon rolled his eyes, nodded heavily, and glanced at all the generals: "I called everyone here because the enemy suddenly set off a beacon fire. Although we don't know what it means, we have to be more vigilant. At present, we still have the advantage in terms of manpower, and we have sufficient food, firearms, and weapons. So once the war starts, I hope you will go all out to keep the enemy out of the pass and wait for the imperial army to come to our rescue. Do you understand?" He summoned everyone because he wanted to arrange a more detailed defense, but unexpectedly, the incident of Metz happened. He didn't have the energy to think about it at the moment, so he just gave a general idea as a mobilization and warning.

"Yes, sir!" The generals stood up and responded.

"Everyone return to your camps and prepare for battle!" Garlon waved his hand and turned to the escort officer and said, "Gather two hundred cavalry guards immediately and follow me to the Metz camp to take a look."

"General Garlon, let me go with you." Ziva was reluctant to give up the opportunity to please Garlon.

"Okay." Garen nodded.

…

When he saw the soldier on the observation tower on the right waving at him, the spotted wolf ran to the bottom of the tower without hesitation. He was too lazy to even use the wooden ladder. He simply climbed up the wooden frame and reached the top of the tower in a few steps.

"Captain, look, there is a group of people coming over there, and they seem to be heading towards us." The sentry said anxiously.

Spotted Wolf raised his binoculars in the direction pointed by the sentry. After taking a look, he frowned slightly and said, "It's coming towards us."

"Captain, what should we do?" the sentry asked hurriedly.

"You go down and inform everyone to be alert. I'll stay here. If something goes wrong, I'll send out flag signals." Spotted Wolf took the small flag from the sentry and said, "Go down immediately."

"Okay." The sentry nodded, turned around, took two quick steps, slid down the wooden ladder and went to deliver the message.

Spotted Wolf put the small flag behind his waist, reached out to open the crossbow box, and then lifted the black cloth in front of him, revealing a Hunter.

"It must be because of Metz leaving the camp." Spotted Wolf thought to himself as he loaded his crossbow arrows, but his eyes never left the figures. With a glance just now, he roughly judged that there were about two to three hundred people, all wearing armor and riding horses. The armors of the two leading generals were very exquisite.

"Should I just shoot him with two crossbows? What if he is the enemy's commander?" Spotted Wolf pulled the string to the ready position to shoot, but suddenly hesitated, and then denied it, "No, no, no, I can't do this. The lord said that we can only take action after hearing the sound of the cannon."

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"What should I do if they enter the camp?" Spotted Wolf frowned and held the Hunter tightly. His heart beat faster involuntarily because Garlon and Ziva had already led more than 200 riders into the second camp gate.

They really came. Spotted Wolf's heart suddenly skipped a beat. He believed that once these people entered the camp, they would definitely be able to sense that something was wrong. At that time, he would be in a dilemma whether to fight or not. Fighting would definitely disrupt the plan set by the lord. If he didn't fight, the 4,000 brothers in the camp would have no way to survive...

Spotted Wolf's finger gently pressed the trigger, but he became more and more hesitant...

Compared with the lord's overall interests, the lives of his brothers are naturally much less important. He suddenly thought...

…

When the commander of the main gun position raised the flag, Xi Lier grinned happily: "Captain Putong, they are ready and waiting for your order."

"Okay!" Pu Tong laughed, took the blue flag that was specially used to instruct the artillery to fire from the flag signal soldier next to him, raised it high, and then waved it down suddenly.

"Fire!" Pu Tong roared.

"Fire!" the gun commander shouted.

"Yes! Fire!" The gunner responded loudly, put on his earmuffs, grabbed the tow rope and turned around to run.

"Boom!" - At the same time as the loud noise was heard, a stream of green smoke and flame more than thirty cubits long spurted out from the muzzle of the main gun. The iron base actually jumped slightly, and dust flew everywhere. Even Pu Tong and Xi Liel, who were a hundred and fifty steps behind, could clearly feel the shaking of the earth.

"It's so big..." Before Xi Liel could finish his words of admiration, he saw a large amount of smoke and fire suddenly rising from the canyon gate area more than 1,500 steps away.

The vulture raised his binoculars...

The artillery commander waved his flags one after another, and six loaders pushed a small cart loaded with shells and ran quickly towards the main gun...

Xi Lier was stunned for a moment, and quickly raised the telescope...

"Great, that's great! Xier! Xier, did you see it?" the vulture shouted excitedly.

"Where? Where should I look?" Xi Lier was so happy that he was trembling. He looked several times before he realized that he had held the telescope upside down...

"There! The Canyon Gate!" Vulture slapped Xiler on the shoulder. "This shot not only destroyed the suspension bridge, but also blasted a big hole in the gate. It was covered with thick copper sheets. It is said that the door panel is five cubits thick. It was broken by one shot. If it is hit by another shot, it will definitely be shattered into pieces."

"Hey! I saw it, I saw it! It's so powerful! The lord's artillery is so powerful!" Xiler stomped his feet with joy.

"One more shot, one more shot!" After throwing away the telescope, the vulture took a quick look and found the blue flag that had been inserted aside just now. He raised it without saying a word.

"Prepare to fire!" The artillery commander raised the loudspeaker.

…

When the rumbling sound reached his ears, Garlon subconsciously reined in his horse, turned around and glanced at the sky.

"Thunder?" he asked, frowning.

Ziva hesitated for a moment and replied, "It seems to be the general, but it also sounds like cannon fire."

"Cannon sounds? Can the Assyrian artillery sounds be so loud?" Garlon was a little unconvinced. The reason why he moved the command post from the second level of the Canyon Pass wall to the core area was to avoid those annoying noises so that he could handle military affairs with peace of mind.

"I don't know. I just think it's a bit similar, but I'm not sure." After answering, Ziva pointed forward and said, "General Garon, let's go and see what's going on in General Metz's camp first."

"Lead the way." Garlon nodded. Metz's military camp was just over a hundred steps ahead. Now that they were here, they would naturally take a look first. As for whether it was the sound of artillery or thunder, the scouts and guards would report it soon.

"Yes, sir." Qi Wa nodded, proudly led his horse forward, and his cavalrymen quickly followed from both sides of the road.

At the same time, the spotted wolf on the observation tower bent down and aimed the hunter's "lookout" at Ziva.

"You walk so arrogantly, it seems that you are almost the boss of this Canyon Pass." Banlang smiled coldly. Wu Lai said that as soon as the cannon fire in front of the Canyon Pass sounded, it would be time for Banlang to attack.

"Go to hell." Spotted Wolf said softly, and moved his right index finger slightly, "Bang"...