On the afternoon of the next day, the Yan army arrived at Guan County, a hundred miles west of Weijiawan.

Zhu Di followed Lan Feng's suggestion and left all 50,000 wounded soldiers in Guanxian County, while also leaving Zhu Neng and 10,000 uninjured elite cavalry to take care of him.

He also ordered Zhu Gaoxu to take Duoyan's three guards, who only had more than 20,000 people left, to open a road to the west, and he took 5,000 personal soldiers to go upstream, preparing to block the river.

Before leaving, Zhu Di told Zhu Neng, "After I leave, you ask the soldiers to change the cooking time from ten people per stove to five people per stove. There will be more smoke, so as to confuse Sheng Yong's exploration horse and make him miscalculate the number of our troops."

"

As night fell, in order to prevent Sheng Yong from noticing his plan, Zhu Di ordered people to gradually block the river channel and reduce the water volume. It was not until after the ugly hour that the Qinghe River, which was originally as deep as one person, was blocked to only knee-deep.

However, the night passed and Sheng Yong did not appear until dawn the next day. Zhu Neng successfully crossed the Qinghe River with the wounded soldiers and went to Guantao to garrison.

Zhu Di came to Lan Feng and asked, "Has Sheng Yong seen through our intentions by standing still?"

"It's hard to say." Lan Feng said thoughtfully, "But based on His Highness's understanding of Sheng Yong, I don't know what his behavior style is."

"Sheng Yong has never been a general of the Southern Army before. Although I met him a few times on the battlefield, I have almost no impression of him." Zhu Di thought about it, "In my memory, he is just a stupid middle-level officer.

The general carried out the orders from the top without hesitation, but rarely performed outstandingly. When the army advanced, he never fell behind, and when the army retreated, he could not save the situation."

Ma He beside Zhu Di couldn't help but remind him, "Judging from Sheng Yong's performance in Dongchang, it is clear that he is a commander with great foresight and strategy. He abandoned Cangzhou and Dezhou one after another in order to lure our army to go south and deepen.

Finally, we defeated our army in Dongchang with a very targeted formation."

"It's too early to talk about victory or defeat." Zhu Di raised his hand and called a soldier guarding the tent, and ordered, "Tell Tan Ma to go and see. I want to know where Sheng Yong is now."

At noon, Tan Ma reported back, "Sheng Yong has occupied Guan County this morning and built three strongholds on the left, middle and right to the west of Guan County, which is less than twenty miles away from our army."

Zhu Di rode his horse up a hill, built a pergola and looked eastward. He saw that the three strongholds of the Southern Army were huge in size. The two strongholds on the left and right each occupied a hilltop, and the Chinese military stronghold was located in the sparse forest area behind the two strongholds on the left and right.

, forming a defensively impeccable anti-triangular formation.

Wisps of smoke rose from the three villages, as if the Confederate army was burying pots to make rice.

Ma He said with a smile, "The Confederate Army is accustomed to eating rice. I just look at the smoke from a distance and I can smell the aroma of steamed rice."

Zhu Di carefully observed the distribution of the smoke and said solemnly, "Okay, Sheng Yong sent all his 80,000 troops to my place. It seems that he saw through our intention of blocking the Qinghe River and planned to let Zhu Neng cross the river.

The remaining troops focused on him and turned their eyes to Lan Feng, as if wanting to ask for his opinion.

Lan Feng pondered for a moment and was about to speak when he saw a young man and woman running up the hill.

"Protect the king." Ma He shouted and lined up in an arc with several other guards to protect King Yan Zhu Di in the middle.

But I saw that the young man was only sixteen or seventeen years old, with a fair face and delicate features. He was Chen Yuheng. Although the girl was still childish, she could already tell that she was a delicate and charming little beauty. She seemed to have some inconvenience in her legs and feet, and she was carrying her hands

Wearing a coarse cloth skirt, following Chen Yuheng with some difficulty, it was Zhu Qingxiao who had not seen him for almost half a year.

"He is one of our own." Zhu Di walked out from behind Ma He, strode forward to greet him, and said with a smile, "Why is my niece Xian here?"

It turned out that Chen Yuheng had followed Feng Yueming all the way north since he fled Yueyang. After discussion, the two decided that Chen Yuheng would rush to Tianlian Peak and tell Ye Wen what happened in Yueyang, while Feng Yueming would rush back to Qingzhou to train troops and prepare for war.

After Chen Yuheng arrived at Tianlian Sect, he described his experience of this trip to Yueyang in detail. As soon as Zhu Qingxiao heard that Lan Qiao and Feng Yeling might be in danger, he immediately desperately wanted to find them, no matter how hard others tried to persuade him, they could not be persuaded.

In desperation, Chen Yuheng had no choice but to accompany Zhu Qingxiao down the mountain, pretending to take her to Yueyang. In fact, he only drove around in Henan and never really went to Yueyang.

Although Zhu Qingxiao didn't know the way, he realized something was wrong after a long time.

Under her questioning, Chen Yuheng had an idea and told her that if Lanqiao could rescue Feng Yeling, he would definitely take her back to the Qingzhou Marquis Mansion. Instead of venturing to Huguang, we should go to Qingzhou to wait for them.

Zhu Qingxiao thought it made sense and agreed to go to Qingzhou with Chen Yuheng. When the two passed by Dongchang Mansion, the Battle of Dongchang broke out. Sheng Yong defeated Zhu Di, and then pursued the defeated army overnight.

After Sheng Yong's army, there was also a group of hawkers who accompanied the army.

Most of these vendors are common people on the march. When they see the army passing by, they take the opportunity to sell some food and daily necessities. Unless they are marching in a hurry, these vendors will seize the business opportunities and follow them, just like bees surrounding the flowers. Therefore, these vendors accompanying the army

Also commonly known as "little bee".

Chen Yuheng and Zhu Qingxiao mingled with Little Bee's team and followed them all the way from Dongchang to Guan County, and finally westward along the Qinghe River to find Zhu Di's residence.

Zhu Qingxiao followed Chen Yuheng for nearly twenty miles and was already exhausted. After she finished talking about her experiences along the way, she panted and sat down on the ground regardless of her image. She turned to Lan Feng and said, "Is there any water? I'm dying of thirst."

Me."

Lan Feng took off his water bag and handed it to her. She took the water bag and immediately started drinking it. She still looked like the most beautiful woman in the world.

Zhu Di saw it funny and asked Chen Yuheng, "You came out from Little Bee's team to see me. Do you have anything to say?"

Chen Yuheng bowed his head respectfully and said, "In response to your Majesty's words, I don't dare claim to have a military report. It's just that I saw a strange thing in Sheng Yong's camp in the team of Little Bee, and I came here to report it."

"Oh," Zhu Di said with a smile, "If there is anything strange, please tell me."

"I once lived in the Wenchang Hou Mansion in Qingzhou for a while, and I also saw the Langya Cavalry of the Feng family. When they eat, they usually eat ten or eight people per stove." Chen Yuheng thought for a while and said, "But I

Today when I was in Guan County, I saw pots being buried in the Shengyong camp to make rice. Almost every three people could get one pot. It felt quite unreasonable, and I didn’t know what was wrong.”

Zhu Di, Lan Feng, and Ma He next to them were shocked when they heard this.

"We were fooled by Sheng Yong," Lan Feng said, slamming the ground next to him. "The king ordered General Zhu Neng to use five men in one stove to show his bluff. Unexpectedly, Sheng Yong was even more ruthless, and he actually used three men in one stove."

Zhu Dihan said, "So, there are only twenty or thirty thousand people in Shengyong's camp at the moment, so where are his main forces?"

Lan Feng shuddered, turned to look at Guantao on the north bank of the Qinghe River, and murmured, "He must have sent people to cross the river from the lower reaches to attack General Zhu Neng."

"Ma He" Zhu Di called Ma He and said flatly, "Go find Xu'er now and ask him to cross the river immediately to rescue Guantao. You must rescue Zhu Neng alive."

"Yes" Ma Hedaosheng responded and left.

"What other rumors have you heard?" Zhu Di asked Chen Yuheng again.

Chen Yuheng pondered for a moment, then remembered something and said, "There is another thing. When the soldiers were buying things from Little Bee, some people complained that Sheng Yong hired private individuals, and even the fugitives who had committed crimes led his troops."

Zhu Di asked, "Which fugitive?"

"Oh, I remember this too." Zhu Qingxiao rushed to say, "He said he was the adopted son of some great general back then."
Chapter completed!