In the evening, Zhang He's army finally arrived in the wilderness less than three miles away from Wuluxu. Looking around, there were mountains and hills on the left side of the road, with a bunch of hills ranging from tens to a hundred feet high. The road

On the right are numerous pits and tunnels.

This is very common in the plain areas of Jizhou, especially near the ancient rivers. Since the waterway network left by the Yellow River still exists, it will naturally become uneven over time.

Zhang He noticed that there was a small river flowing on the right side of the river, and there was a snow-covered forest near the hills on the left, so he took advantage of his face and said to the messenger next to him: "Go, give the order to the captains at all levels.

Army Sima, set up camp in front."

"only!"

Several messengers went to the battalions in the rear to convey orders.

The instructions were first sent to captains such as Zhang Nanjiao, Jiang Qimayan, etc., and then distributed to the military commanders in each battalion, who then passed them on to the lower-level officers such as Qu Changtun Commander and other middle and lower-level officers.

The information was transmitted layer by layer, and when the lower-level officers issued the order to the entire army, the entire army almost exploded.

"Why are we camping in the wild again tonight? It's the coldest month of winter and I'm freezing to death. I'm shivering all over from the cold."

"Didn't you say that if you hurry up today, you can go to the city and take a hot bath before dark?"

"Why does this official talk like farts?"

"Shh, shut up. If you don't want your life, we still want it. Be careful, the general will chop off your head."

In order to avoid shaking the morale of the army, Zhang Heping did not announce the news that there were enemies ahead, so the army was still kept in the dark at this time. When the general ordered to set up camp, the whole army was filled with complaints, and the soldiers' enthusiasm was extremely low.

It is about three hundred miles from Ganling to Yuancheng. The army has been walking for nearly ten days in the wind and snow. It is about to arrive. When it can enter the city tonight, it suddenly says that it will camp in the wild and continue to suffer from the cold. Naturally, its morale is not good.

will be too high.

But it was hard to disobey the general's orders. Even if the soldiers at the bottom complained, under the harsh scoldings of officers at all levels, they had to complain while starting to prepare for setting up camp today.

In ancient times, when marching and fighting, if they were in a relatively safe area within their own sphere of influence and only had one night's rest, they would generally not set up camp on the spot. Instead, they would choose to let the soldiers sleep in the camp, which was the baggage carriage pulling goods.

board, or lie down on the spot.

This is only the case when the weather conditions are good, but if there is extremely bad weather, such as wind, rain, and snow, you will have to set up tents, or simply cut down trees and temporarily build wooden houses to withstand the harsh climate.

It's winter now, everything is quiet. Who knows if there will be wind and snow at night? So we have to cut down trees, clear a large area of ​​camp, and build it according to the camp layout arranged by the general.

This was a huge project. The soldiers had been running around all day, and they had to build the camp despite the fatigue and fatigue. Naturally, they were very resentful and their work was much slower.

Zhang He didn't think too much about it. He just ordered a few captains to stay and take care of the camp. After urging the soldiers to set up camp early, he led hundreds of personal guards and moved forward expressionlessly, approaching Wulu, which was several miles away.

Ruins.

Turning the corner on the hills in front, you can already see many small village earth wall structures in the distance. Behind those short village earth walls, a large number of flags have been erected. Because they are blocked by these fortifications, they cannot see clearly what is going on inside. Zhang

Looking around, we saw a hill to the west of Wuluxu.

"Go over there and have a look."

He sent someone over.

After a long time, the spies came back and reported: "There is no one on the mountain."

Zhang He then rode his horse and led his guards to the mountain.

In fact, it is just a small hillside, only thirty to forty feet tall, almost seventy or eighty meters high. But it is still high enough to see the whole thing from a high position.

And Zhang He is not stupid. If he gets too close and is noticed by the enemy, who surrounds the hill, he will be unable to fly.

Therefore, the hills he chose were relatively high hills nearby and were far away from Wulu Camp.

Arriving at the top of the mountain, Zhang He saw, through the rays of the setting sun, that the rear of the Wulu Camp, about a mile away, was divided into several camps, densely packed with tents. A rough count revealed that there were no less than two thousand tents.

Seeing this scene, Zhang He's originally expressionless face instantly became colorful, with expressions of shock, shock, panic, and even a little bit at a loss.

Two thousand tents may not seem like a lot.

But you must know that according to the records of "Wu Jing Zong Yao", the number of people living in military tents during the march at that time was generally between one ten and one team. One ten was ten people, and one team was fifty people. Even if calculated based on the minimum number of people,

, also 20,000 people.

Now his army only has 30,000 troops, and the food and grass storage is less than five days' worth. This means that if he fails to defeat the enemy in front within five days, then his army will have no choice but to collapse.

Looking further into the distance, under the gray twilight, there seems to be a city at the end of the horizon. It may be Yuancheng. There is only a sand pavilion ten miles away from Wulu Xu.

Ten miles is not long, but now it seems so close and the world is so far away.

"Brother..."

When one of the bodyguards saw the military facilities at the foot of the mountain, they said, "The enemy is so powerful that we might as well abandon our baggage and take a detour."

The reason why the soldiers could only take the official road was because it was almost impossible for a large army of baggage and carriage troops to march from the wild.

But if you abandon your baggage and only bring dry food, you can travel over mountains and mountains with ease.

What's more, it's not far from Yuancheng from here. Even to Wei County, it's only three or four days' journey. With the current food and grass, all fried into dry food, we can insist on walking to Wei County.

However, Zhang He just frowned, shook his head and sighed: "It's not that simple. Chen Zigui is not an easy person."

This personal guard is also a son of the Zhang family in Hejian. He is Zhang He's disciple. He has been fighting with Zhang He since the Yellow Turban. He has some weight to speak. He asked in confusion: "Is this person really that awesome?"

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Do you still remember when I led you to disguise yourself as rebels from Jizhou and were ambushed by Liu Bei's army in Wumiao Ridge?"

Zhang He's eyes showed a hint of reminiscence, that was five years ago, as if it was just yesterday.

Many of the guards looked at each other and said, "Remember."

"Later I found out that it was Chen Zigui who commanded that battle."

Zhang He said calmly.

"It's actually him?"

"We lost miserably in that battle."

"It's miserable enough now, being chased to the sky and into the earth by him."

"Forget it, stop saying these depressing words. Brother, what should we do now?"

Several close guards around him were talking about it, and Zhang He's disciple couldn't help but ask worriedly.

Now that the road ahead is blocked, they want to take a detour, but Zhang He says it's not that simple. Then the only two options before them are fighting to the death or retreating?

Zhang He was silent for a moment, then turned around and said, "Go back."

Everyone followed him away silently.

The sun was setting, the strong wind was blowing, and on the distant hills, someone was looking at this end.

At the first moment of the night, a crescent moon in the night sky was hidden behind dark clouds. The cool moonlight shined from the edge of the clouds, illuminating a small patch of bluish-white sky, and even the edges of the dark clouds were stained with a touch of white frost.

.

Zhang He sent all the scouts out, not to investigate the Wulu Ruins ahead, but to investigate the west bank of the river Gudu, which was the direction of the daimyo in later generations.

The soldiers are already tired and sleepy. We can only let them have a good rest tonight and wait for the results of the investigation before making a decision.

But he forgot that his opponent would not give him such a chance.

The moon was as cold as water, and the whole world seemed to be a ball of white. But the earth was dark. Except for the light of the fire in front of the Wulu Camp, there were dark and hazy shadows everywhere.

More than a thousand people quietly gathered at the side entrance of Zhang He's military camp. Since there was no order, they did not dare to move rashly, and they all hid in the shadows of the grass and trees.

He was too tired from traveling during the day. Although three shifts of rest were arranged, almost every sentry was in a drowsy state.

"Are you ready?"

From a distance, he saw the soldiers patrolling the entrance of the enemy camp walking with an almost staggering pace. Guan Cheng, who was leading the team, turned to look at the two commanders beside him.

The two nodded: "It's ready."

"Waiting for the signal."

Guan Cheng looked at the hills behind him. Qingzhou discovered a strange thing. The fourth general said it was called fireworks. When the fireworks started, it was time to take action.

About two-quarters of an hour later, when it was almost three-quarters of the night, a violent light suddenly emitted from the mountain ridge in the distance.

Immediately afterwards, people saw a ray of light rising into the sky, and then the sound of a sharp arrow resounded throughout the sky.

"The signal is coming."

Guan Cheng perked up, waved his hand and said: "Action."

I saw thousands of people behind me raising their musical instruments almost at the same time, such as drums, gongs, and iron drums. For a moment, the quiet world seemed to have turned into the noisiest night market.

"What's going on!"

Zhang He, who was already asleep in the camp, was immediately woken up. He didn't even have time to put on his shoes and ran out of the camp barefoot.

I saw that there was already a chaos outside, with soldiers rushing out of the tents everywhere. Even because they did not expect an enemy attack, a large number of soldiers were in chaos, and a camp roar actually broke out.

"General, there are drums of enemy attack from all directions."

Some personal guards came to report.

Zhang He tried his best to calm down and ordered: "Quickly, let Zhang Nanjiao touch them to quell the civil strife as soon as possible and lead the troops to fight."

"only!"

The personal guards immediately went to each camp to deliver orders.
To be continued...