Traveling through troubled times, he fled with his stepson

"How many people are there approximately?" Li Yuan asked.

"Not many, about twenty or thirty. Those of us who escaped thought they were... so they all reported them dead."

Li Yuan nodded.

"City Lord, according to the terrain of Jiguan Mountain, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack, if we force our way in, we may not be able to win and may even suffer a miserable defeat."

"Why not just stop attacking if we can't take it? There are many people in front of us so we can try to go around the back mountain and attack up." Someone refuted the man's statement.

"That's easy for you to say. It will take several days to get to the back mountain. By then, you will be exhausted to death, not to mention killing the enemy."

Some people also refuted his words and gathered around Li Yuan's several centurions to talk about him.

Li Yuan, however, was quietly thinking about their possibilities amid the noise.

"Just now the people at the front said, what is the thing that Madam Wei left behind to carry the goods?"

Someone noticed one of the pieces of information that the forward had mentioned earlier.

"It's a cargo box that Madam Wei made for convenience. It uses ropes to move up and down. She said it can be used to transport goods up and down."

"How does it work?" Someone became interested in this thing.

"Someone needs to pull the rope and a turntable from above so that the goods near the back mountain of Jiguan Mountain can be pulled up."

Some of them were on guard duty near the back mountain, so they knew a little about it.

"Then can't we go up through that thing?"

His proposal caused disapproval from several people: "There are no people of ours above, how can you pull us up?"

"So what's your plan? This is our last way to attack, and it's also the most unexpected one."

Another one immediately raised an opinion: "That's true, but who among us can climb over the eaves and walls? Who can go up without someone to help us?"

The argument went on for a long time without any conclusion, but Li Yuan slowly figured out an idea from their quarrel.

"You said it was a device that Qi Niang used to pull the goods up?"

The man who explained it first nodded: "Yes."

“Is it something like this?”

Li Yuan took a piece of rope from the side, then wrapped it around his hand and demonstrated it to everyone.

"If you need to pull something up, then I ask you whether the cargo box should be placed on the top or the bottom?"

"It was placed down there. Because it's in a remote area and they've only been here for a few days, they may not have noticed that there was something there."

The striker had not yet left and answered immediately on the spot.

"Okay, so that means the chain holding the box is still there?"

Li Yuan asked, and the forward who didn't understand subconsciously nodded and answered the question: "Yes, the chain is still hanging down, fixed to the side of the mountain, and covered by trees."

Hearing this, Li Yuan wrapped the rope around his finger, then hung it on his index finger and demonstrated to everyone.

"In order to ensure safety, Qiniang will have at least two iron chains forming a ring-shaped fixed cargo box. And because it is an iron chain, it is fixed at the top and will not break easily."

"If this is a mountain." He showed the back of his hand, "then we can just follow the chain and climb up."

Li Yuan's words made everyone's thinking clear, but there were still a few problems.

"City Lord, how can we avoid the guards on this side? Moreover, even if we do dodge, the mountain on that side is so steep that we could fall down if we are not careful. Then..."

Li Yuan waved his hand and said, "If there are people around, we will be responsible for attracting them to leave. The problem now is not whether there are people around, because this can be lured away.

The question now is, how to rescue those people from the enemy's hands?"

No one expected that Li Yuan would be the first to think about this. Everyone was stunned, but a warm feeling passed through their hearts.

Some of them are definitely related to those people and some are not, but everyone has relatives and friends. If one day their relatives fall into the hands of the enemy, they will naturally hope to rescue them.

But no one expected that the person who proposed it would be their city lord.

"City Lord, those people are all at the foot of Jiguan Mountain, living under the eaves. I'm afraid we can't rescue them all among so many people..."

The forward had not yet finished his words, he wanted to say that it was possible that no one could be rescued. Regardless of whether they could be rescued or not, as long as they took action, there would be heavy casualties.

Everyone understood what he hadn't finished saying, but no one could say the word "give up".

I could only look at Li Yuan.

"Niu Chao, lead your people in the direction of the path, fight with them, and then quickly evacuate. Remember to smile and lure most of them away, and never confront them head-on."

"Li Fugui, lead your men around to the front of Jiguan Mountain and harass and divert the people in front. Make sure to divert about 50% of the manpower away."

Niu Chao and Li Fugui nodded together. They were the first batch of centurions in Jiguan Mountain, and they had been punished because of the trouble caused by their subordinates.

Now they are as close as brothers and cooperate well on the battlefield.

Their status was still at the level of a hundred households, so it was reasonable for Huo Xiuwen to become a thousand households. He used to be the second in command, and this time he made a great contribution in leading the people away from Jiguan Mountain. He was worthy of the status of a thousand households.

Jiulan was promoted to the rank of Qianhu after being transferred to Yizhou City. Her abilities were obvious to all of them, so naturally they didn't care.

But Dong Da, who was with them, also became a thousand households, which made those who were with them hard to accept.

They also want to move up, so naturally they are prepared to make achievements and receive awards.

"Choose some of you who are nimble and have good legs and feet skills, and climb up Jiguan Mountain with me."

Everyone was shocked when these words came out, "City Lord, that mountain is so steep..."

Li Yuan looked at him and the man immediately fell silent.

"If there is no objection, it can be implemented. It all depends on the signal response."

Everyone nodded.

"City Lord, that vanguard..." asked the person who came to report the mission earlier.

"Follow me, forward."

After receiving the task, the man nodded and went to gather people.

The people slowly divided into three groups and walked in different directions. After Li Yuan and other vanguards had gathered, he immediately led the people to go in that direction.

It takes a long distance to go around the back mountain, but it doesn’t take that long to go around the side.

There are guards over there, but only a few.

The person behind Li Yuan moved silently to the back, reached out a knife from behind to the man's neck and cut his neck cleanly.

Under the light of the torches on both sides, Li Yuan saw the person who had just approached making a gesture that he had succeeded.

Then everyone came forward.

"The people in the front will stay hidden and on guard, while the others will first find where the chain is fixed."

Under the cover of darkness, these actions were done with extraordinary speed.

Soon, the people close to Li Yuan's right side found the iron chains fixed on the side of the mountain among the trees and bushes. These iron chains were hidden in the bushes and were extremely concealed.

"City Lord, found it!"

Following the man's voice, fireworks and continuous smoke suddenly rose from the direction of the back mountain not far away.

"The luring of the enemy to the back mountain has already begun."