In the stone pot on the campfire, water was boiling.
White smoke slowly drifted into the small shabby house, carrying a sticky moisture.
After the water was boiled, Zhai Jinsheng changed the pot and put the washed wild vegetables into the cold water and boiled slowly.
In another dilapidated room, everyone gathered around Shen Lie. The dilapidated Eight Immortals table had been wiped several times, and a marching map was placed on it.
The charcoal pen in Shen Lie's hand kept marking on the march map to confirm the route to be followed.
Ye Zheng took a few people to take care of the horses. When he came back and entered the house, he said that the food was ready, including dry food, hot soup and freshly roasted meat.
Shen Lie asked his left and right men to go eat first, and Ye Zheng came in and said, "Young Master."
Shen Lie raised his eyes and looked at him: "You go and eat too."
Ye Zheng didn't leave. He looked at the march map on the table and found that Shen Lie had no intention of going to Guangzhui or Bajianghu.
Ye Zhengdao: "Master, when we come here this time, are we only in the Songzhou area?"
"Well, Ah Li's appointment date is at the beginning of July. There is still plenty of time, but it is only enough for us to go back and forth in the Songzhou area."
Before leaving Hejing, they had made an appointment to meet in Hejing, but it changed because he was going to Guzhou. She sent a new letter and pushed the date back to July.
Her original intention was to leave him enough time, but little did she know that his "mission" was completed early.
It would take three to five days to travel back and forth, so he simply used these three to five days to settle the accounts of Cao Chunshan's "autumn wind" against Baiguang Township in Songzhou, which he passed by.
Ye Zheng looked at the most marked areas on the map, Songzhou and the west of Lining. Separated by about sixty miles of hilly wasteland and Qingye villages, at the other end was Guzhou.
Ye Zheng suddenly smiled: "Young Master has changed a lot."
Shen Lie looked sideways at him.
Ye Zheng smiled and said: "I heard Du Xuan mentioned what happened before. When the young master escorted the Ji family from Duankou, he was kind to Daping's soldiers and horses."
Shen Lie withdrew his gaze and said in a deep voice: "I was just an abandoned son back then, but now, I am the commander-in-chief of the Yan army."
His dark eyes were fixed on Guzhou on the march map, and his eyes were deep and dark, and they were overturned because of Ye Zheng's mention of the Guo family.
In other words, he was a mercenary back then, and the commission was the upbringing of the Guo family, and it was also the last trace of his remaining affection for the Guo family.
That trace of affection did not disappear while escorting the Ji family, but in Shuangpo Gorge in Huazhou.
There were several rapid sounds of horse hooves coming from outside. As soon as he heard this sound, Ye Zheng was shuddered and said: "I wonder who is coming back, I'll go and see!"
He quickly walked out of the dilapidated door, and Zhai Jinsheng and the others also came out from other doors.
Several men came back, all dressed in black. The leader was a squad leader promoted from the Mountain View City garrison, named Miao Zhonghai.
As soon as they got off their horses, they quickly walked towards Ye Zheng: "Is the general sleeping?"
Ye Zheng stood slightly taller and asked: "Not yet, but is there an urgent military situation?"
Miao Zhonghai said urgently: "Yes! My subordinates discovered that at least seven troops came down from the north, and one of them came along the Guxia Mountains, heading towards us."
"Can you clearly see the bugle and clothes?"
"The night is too dark and I can't see clearly."
"Where is the number of people on the other side?"
"About two thousand."
Shen Lie walked up behind Ye Zheng, his slender figure easily identifiable among the tall and muscular men.
"Is their vanguard unit infantry or cavalry?" Shen Lie asked.
Miao Zhonghai and the few scouts who came back with him looked at each other. Miao Zhonghai looked at Shen Lie: "General, when you say so, it seems that they are cavalry, and there are quite a lot of them. There are at least more than 300 cavalry in the vanguard."
Shen Lie said: "Then we will chase Yuan Ying."
The expressions of Ye Zheng, Zhai Jinsheng and other secret guards who had been following Shen Lie for many years immediately darkened.
Zhai Jinsheng said coldly: "The main force of the Han Shen camp back then."
"Yeah." Shen Lie nodded.
Miao Zhonghai and the other soldiers didn't know what the Han Shen Camp and the Zhu Yuan Camp were, but looking at Zhai Jinsheng's and the others' faces, they knew there must be old scores involved.
It's subtle to say that the situation seems to have changed all of a sudden.
Just a moment ago, they were still worried that soldiers and horses were coming, and they were about to run away to avoid them. But now it seemed that they were suddenly turned upside down, as if their fighting spirit was aroused, as if it was the turn of the person who should be worried about them.
Zhai Jinsheng and Ye Zheng looked at Shen Lie: "Young Master..."
Shen Lie looked at them and saw that not only them, but also Miao Zhonghai and others, were eager to kill, with a wild and ferocious look in their eyes.
In this case, how can we live up to it?
Shen Lie looked at Miao Zhonghai: "You have seen their speed, so you use your estimates to calculate the time. How long do you think it will take them to get here? Give me an estimate of the fastest and slowest."
Miao Zhonghai and others discussed for a while and said: "The fastest is probably two hours, and the slowest is three hours."
Shen Lie nodded, raised his eyes and looked at everyone: "All officers and men, listen to the order!"
Everyone clasped their fists and shouted in unison: "General!"
Shen Lie said: "Since ancient times, when going south from the Xia Mountains, there has been a valley that they must pass through. The valley is about ten miles long. There is a broad road in the valley, which was built two hundred years ago to extract the mines. This road is now very suitable for our guerrilla attacks. Battle. You all should rest immediately, we will set off in half an hour."
"yes!"
Shen Lie looked at a man standing next to Zhai Jinsheng: "Mao Juxing."
The man came out: "General!"
"Take your team of eight people to patrol the nearby mountains and fields. Any enemy scouts who appear will not be left alive and do not need to be taken back. There is an uninhabited and deserted village three miles east of our place. You should go there at Mao hour and wait for us."
The man was stunned: "General, we don't have many troops. If I take away eight more people, wouldn't it be..."
Shen Lie interrupted him in a deep voice: "If I lack troops, I will not take only a hundred of you when setting out from Guzhou. Since we entered Songzhou last night, we have not had a single battle that was a head-on confrontation. We have a small number of troops, so we are Our advantage is that we are far more flexible than our opponents and can use our tactics as we please."
Seeing this, Zhai Jinsheng stepped forward and said: "I may not be sorry to the other brothers, but most of the brothers present were selected by me personally, because we are all the best among the elite soldiers, one in a thousand! The soldiers are better than more. The general has tactics, and we have combat power!"
Ye Zheng also said: "Yes, we are brave and our horses are good. If we can beat us, we will fight. If we can't, we will run away! So what if we let them see us from behind? Are we afraid that they can catch up with us?"
Everyone laughed.
Shen Lie also smiled lightly and said: "Go and rest."
The night was dark, and the moonlight occasionally peeked out from under the accumulated clouds.
The pale white shimmer only slightly dyed the surrounding clouds gray, and soon, all the light was covered by the dense dark clouds.
Thirty miles north of Jiuning County, Huazhou, Jiang Yang not only brought back 500 elite soldiers, but also followed behind him a carriage.
After getting off the carriage, Mr. Xin Shun hurried towards the main camp.
Nie Huimo was studying the map of Songzhou with others. When he heard the report, Nie Huimo frowned: "Sir, please come in."
As soon as Xin Shun came in, there was a circle of darkness around his eyes: "General, why do you want to go to Songzhou now? You can't go!"
