"It is certain that your identity has been exposed. As for the reason why it was exposed, it is just a trivial matter. However, the situation has changed drastically at this time..." Usually around Zhu Yu, Lei Jiuyuan always looked sullen. At this moment, he The pupils of his eyes revealed perseverance and determination that could not be refuted by Wen Ruilin.
"Yes!" Wen Ruilin also knew that this was not the time for him to dwell on these minutiae. After the scouts dragged the dead bodies and injured horses on the road into the forest and disposed of them, they went to Lianyunling in the dark, ten miles to the west. Go.
Not long after they arrived at a ruined village in the north of Lianyunling, monk Shen Peng also came with another group of people to join them.
Monk Shen Peng was annoyed and whipped the earthen wall with his horse whip, and said: "There are two people who saw the opportunity very quickly and even let them escape. They failed to intercept the secret letter sent by Li Zhigao to Zhongli. Master Jiu, do you have anything? reward?"
Lei Jiuyuan waved his hand indifferently. Most of the people in Chao and Chuzhou had fled to other places due to the war. The place was sparsely populated. Only then could they lead a small group of people to lurk in, but they could also use a very large number of people. If there are too few, nothing can be done flawlessly.
"Should we move elsewhere immediately?" someone suggested. Since Shen Peng failed to intercept all the messengers who set off from Liyang the second time, their whereabouts would be exposed.
"It doesn't matter, even if Li Zhigao gets the news, he doesn't have time to send a large group of cavalry to hunt us down right now." Lei Jiuyuan asked everyone to calm down and handed the secret letter they intercepted to Shen Peng to read.
The secret letter did not contain much information. Shen Peng handed the secret letter back to Lei Jiuyuan and asked, "What does Master Jiu think of this matter?"
Your Majesty is three hundred miles away in Xuzhou City. It is too late to send people to ask for instructions. They must make a decision and urge the Shouzhou Army to take necessary countermeasures. This is also the main reason why Your Majesty asked Lei Jiuyuan to follow them into the hinterland of Chuchao. The reason is that we consider that the situation may change unexpectedly at any time and require immediate response.
Otherwise, without Lei Jiuyuan here, how could Shen Peng or Wen Ruilin make the Shouzhou generals obey orders without reservation?
Lei Jiuyuan's old, skinny face looked solemn as he looked at Wen Ruilin.
After all, Wen Ruilin was the most familiar with the situation in Chu.
"Although this secret letter contains only a few words, it is enough for us to analyze some of the situation,"
Wen Ruilin thought a lot on the way to Lianyunling, and had almost clarified many key points, and said,
"Li Pu was a mediocre and suspicious person, and he and his adopted son Li Zhigao had parted ways long ago. Deng Tai rushed to Liyang to report the letter, and it took a very short time until the secret letter was sent from Liyang. In such a short period of time, Li Pu Neng signed the secret letter so neatly and neatly, which shows that he has completely submitted to Li Zhigao. To achieve this step, there are only a few possibilities. One is that Yang Yuanpu directly issued an order to change the previous order, but this possibility Extremely low. If this were the case, Deng Taida could directly detain me and clean up the army without worrying about alerting the enemy. The second is that Li Pu has been detained by Li Zhigao by force, but Li Zhigao did not request an order. In such an urgent situation, Li Pu has been detained by Li Zhigao. Under the circumstances, the control of the generals of the Huaixi Forbidden Army is still seriously insufficient. If they want to directly engage in mutiny, it will only cause unimaginable chaos. The most likely possibility is that Li Zhigao has actually been the queen mother Wang Chan'er and Lu Qingxia. It is very likely that he has obtained the secret edict from the Queen Mother Wang Chaner, and used the secret edict and force to force Li Pu to surrender, and he also thought he could persuade other generals to act according to the Queen Mother's edict..."
Wen Ruilin had gained Li Pu's trust in the past two years, and he also knew how deeply the old subordinates of the Shenling Division, such as Wanhonglou and Xinchanghou Mansion, had penetrated the Great Chu court.
As for Wen Ruilin, who was good at maneuvering and scheming, he had not thought of the possibility that Li Zhigao was actually being secretly wooed by Queen Mother Wang Chaner and Lu Qingxia.
After all, in addition to Yang Yuanpu's trust and support, he also noticed that Li Zhigao could withstand such great resistance and lead the Huaixi Forbidden Army. There was actually another hidden force pushing him.
Lei Jiuyuan nodded and looked at Wen Ruilin with recognition and approval. He was indeed the most outstanding Zhehu of Chengtian Division.
"Then what should we do now?" Shen Peng asked.
The ice on the Huaihe River has gradually thickened in the past two days, but it has not been further confirmed whether it can support tens of thousands of elites passing through day and night.
At present, the troops and horses that are definitely available on the south bank of the Huaihe River are the 120,000 elite Shouzhou Army under Xu Mingzhen who secretly defected to Daliang.
However, in order to avoid alerting the enemy, except for the more than 20,000 remnant soldiers who defended Chaozhou City under the leadership of Wen Bo, the main force of the Shouzhou Army was still stationed in Shouzhou and Huozhou, with infantry as the main force. Even if they immediately broke camp In such extremely cold weather, it would take four days to reach Chaozhou City.
The only ones who can be dispatched urgently are the 20,000 Shouzhou elite cavalry led by Xu Mingzhen stationed at the junction of Chao, Hao and Shouzhou.
They actually have two choices at this time.
The first option is to persuade Xu Mingzhen to lead 20,000 Shouzhou elite cavalry and rush to Chaozhou City as quickly as possible to hold back the main force of the Huaixi Forbidden Army so that it cannot retreat calmly until the Daliang cavalry and the main force of the Shouzhou Army arrive. , encircled and annihilated the main force of the Huaixi Forbidden Army according to the original plan.
The advantage of doing this is that they can ensure that the main target will not be lost, but they do not have enough troops to contain and intercept the Youshenwu Army, so they can only sit back and watch them escape to Chuzhou City.
The second option is to ignore the main force of the Huaixi Forbidden Army outside Chaozhou City, and persuade Xu Mingzhen to lead 20,000 Shouzhou elite cavalry to march eastward to the south of the Wujian Mountains to intercept the Youshenwu Army and the remnants of the Chu Navy from escaping south. , can ensure that this part of the fruits of victory is eaten first.
Wen Ruilin, on the other hand, prefers the first choice.
They had been planning for so long and finally had such an opportunity to deceive the kings and ministers of Chu State into their trap, hoping to annihilate the main force of Chu's imperial army in Huaixi in one fell swoop. At this time, they persuaded Xu Mingzhen to lead the Shouzhou elite cavalry and drag them into Chaozhou City. The main force of the Chu army, waiting for Daliang soldiers and horses and the main force of the Shouzhou army to go south, is to encircle and annihilate them, which is their goal.
Even though the Right Shenwu Army had fled to Chuzhou City at this time, the light warships of the Lou Chuan Army and the Liang Army Navy entered the Yangtze River through the Shiliang River, Ojin River, Shitang River and other waterways, and could still block the You Shenwu Army and retreat to the Yangtze River. South bank passage.
After Wen Ruilin expressed his opinion, Lei Jiuyuan shook his head and said: "It's not that easy. Li Zhigao is very thoughtful and is not sure enough to think of the consequences of acting hastily and alerting the enemy - as you guessed correctly. , Queen Mother Wang Chan'er may have secretly issued an edict for Li Zhigao to use it conveniently, and the Xuzhou water camp may enter the Yangtze River waterway south of Chaozhou at any time."
"Lu Qingxia and others are extremely wary of Han Qian." Wen Ruilin raised his brows and said.
"Where can there be hatred that cannot be resolved in this world, and where can there be everlasting friendship?" Lei Jiuyuan said in a hoarse voice, "Although we have to concentrate our limited reconnaissance forces on Chao, Chu and other places, but His Majesty has repeatedly stressed that he must be on guard against Xuzhou's possible actions in Jinling. He even sent a message two days ago saying that Han Qian had learned in Xuzhou that the Chu navy was attacking Hongzepu, and he might directly lead Xuzhou as soon as possible. Zhou Shuiying is heading eastward. If this is the case, we will probably be able to see the sails of the Xuzhou warship on the Yangtze River in five or six days at the earliest."
"... Han Qian dared to lead his troops out of Xuzhou without an edict?" Wen Ruilin asked.
"When Han Qian entered Jinling to seize Li Pu's military power, was he too courageous or too timid?" Lei Jiuyuan glanced at Wen Ruilin and asked.
Wen Ruilin could hear Lei Jiuyuan's dissatisfaction and hurriedly said: "It's Ruilin who was reckless."
"You young people, there is nothing wrong in wanting to strive for extraordinary achievements. Unlike me, the older I get, the less courageous I become. His Majesty will still have to rely on you to serve him in the end." Lei Jiuyuan said calmly.
"Is it possible that if we send scouts to Yueyang first to conduct reconnaissance in Ezhou, as long as we confirm that there are signs of collusion with Queen Mother Wang Chan'er, Li Zhigao and others in Xuzhou, we can stay put?" Wen Ruilin changed his tone to ask for advice humbly, Ask Lei Jiuyuan.
"What you mean is that you escaped from the Chu camp. As long as you don't show up again, Li Zhigao, Li Pu and the others have no way to explain clearly. If we stand still, in the eyes of the kings and ministers of the Chu Kingdom, the whole thing will be completely the fault of the Queen Mother Wang Chan'er. Joining forces with Li Zhigao, Han Qian launched a mutiny. Yang Yuanpu has an extreme temperament. As long as Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, Zhou Bingwu, Du Chongtao and others also tend to Li Zhigao, and Han Qian and others carry out a mutiny, great changes will surely occur within the Chu State? " Lei Jiuyuan? He looked at Wen Ruilin and asked.
"That's what Ruilin meant." Wen Ruilin said.
"How do you convince Gao Long to stand still?" Lei Jiuyuan asked.
Wen Ruilin was slightly startled, secretly feeling that this was indeed a difficulty.
After he escaped, he met up with Lei Jiuyuan. He was too busy at the time and didn't think much about it, so he immediately sent someone to secretly inform Gao Long to be on guard.
At this time, they temporarily blocked the passage to Zhongli, forcing the two fish who escaped the net to flee to the Chaozhou camp. They could just stand still here, but Li Zhigao would send someone to detain Gao Long sooner or later. They could convince Gao Long For the sake of Daliang, he calmly endured Li Zhigao's torture and interrogation and even died?
"Or send someone to see Gao Long?" Monk Shen Peng interjected, and at the same time made a gesture of slitting his throat, suggesting that he could take advantage of Gao Long's unpreparedness and quietly assassinate Gao Long to silence him.
When Lei Jiuyuan and Wen Ruilin were weighing the pros and cons, suddenly there was a rapid warning of birdsong from the southeast, as if there were people and horses coming from that direction.
Lei Jiuyuan, Wen Ruilin, Shen Peng and others were shocked. They walked to the dilapidated wall of the village and looked out through the gap. They saw a bonfire at the mouth of the valley a few meters away, illuminated by numerous figures, including two or three hundred people. , were rushing in from the mouth of the valley. They only arranged a few secret sentries to pretend to be hunters and spend the night in the valley. At this time, they had all been killed by the enemy troops who suddenly attacked.
"Master Jiu, you go and meet Xu Mingzhen first. I'll lead some of the people to stay behind and wait for you!" said the monk Shen Peng.
"No matter who the opponent is, the whereabouts of the Liyang messenger were probably leaked when we intercepted him. If we rush to meet Xu Mingzhen, we will probably encounter an ambush," Lei Jiuyuan said. "You send a dozen people to break out and break out. Report to Xu Mingzhen and ask him to lead his cavalry to attack the Shenwu Army on the right quickly. The others will follow us into the mountains!"
Lianyun Ridge stretches for more than ten miles, and the mountains are not dangerous, but their hundreds of people are all elites carefully selected from thousands of places. They cannot be outnumbered in a flat area, but when they enter the mountains, it is easy to escape!
