When the sky turned white in the early morning of the next day, a messenger consisting of more than ten fast horses left the Linxi camp and galloped westward from a camp five or six miles east of the Qingzhou Army's Linxi granary.
go.
The fire is still burning, and the wilderness on the plain is ignited. The flames are spreading in all directions, with the potential to devour everything.
Fortunately, Tian Feng was prepared in advance and dug isolation belts and trenches around the perimeter to prevent the fire from spreading outward. At the same time, a camp was reserved outside the granary to prevent the soldiers from wandering into the wilderness.
The fire behind him was still burning into the sky, the ashes were scattered, and the thick smoke could be clearly seen more than ten kilometers away, like dark clouds stretching for miles, covering the entire sky.
As the morning sun rises, light returns to the sky and the earth. The clatter of horse hooves of the messengers gallops along the official road, as fast as thunder.
At the foot of a slope about four kilometers away from Linxi, Guo Tu, who was dirty and as embarrassed as a beggar, was lying on a low slope, listening to the sound of horse hooves in the distance, and finally felt relieved.
tone.
He was now gray-faced, with no color on his pale face. Fortunately, although he was a scholar, he was not as helpless as Chen Mu. He had learned fencing and climbed over the fence on horseback.
After Linxi Granary, I fled for more than half an hour, but at least I didn't collapse due to lack of physical strength.
It's just that Guo Tu's situation is not too good now. He is in the rear where Liu Bei's army is. The reason why the Jizhou cavalry dares to sneak attack is because the cavalry on the plains comes and goes like the wind. Even if there are cavalry in Qingzhou, both sides
It's riding a horse, and no one can do anything to anyone.
But now the horses can't climb over the fence. They are probably roasted now. They have to walk hundreds of kilometers on two legs. First go north to Dongwu City, then detour to Guangchuan, and then go south to Guangzong. Their legs are made of iron.
I can't even leave.
What's more, I didn't even have a bite to eat along the way. What should I do?
"The Qingzhou Army did not launch a large-scale search nearby. They probably thought that I had been buried in the sea of fire, and they would not arrest me again. But there are several villages to the northwest, and these places must have been controlled by Liu Bei.
, I must leave the inhabited place."
Guo Tu climbed out from the bottom of the slope, first glanced at the back of the messenger who had gone away, and then glanced at the Linxi Granary in the distance, still glowing with fire, as if gritting his teeth. He clutched the sword at his waist with his right hand and thought in his mind.
.
The reason why he walked west was because there was a rural pavilion to the northwest and there were several villages around it. If he walked through the countryside, he would not die quickly enough.
Now most of the Qinghe Kingdom has fallen into the hands of the Qingzhou Army, and every township is guarded by Qingzhou Army sentries. They had already conducted reconnaissance before coming, and the Qingzhou Army was stationed in several townships in the northwest.
For some sentries, if you want to escape, you have to go to the wilderness.
But how can a person escape while walking in the wilderness and surrounded by enemies? He has nothing to eat, and he may be arrested while rushing. Moreover, it is too far to go back to Guangzong from the north, so he has to go around a lot.
Two hundred miles away, the nearest road was naturally from the direction of Jieqiao, but it was more dangerous that way, so Guo Tu was very hesitant.
"The closest way back to Guangzong is from Jieqiao. This place is only thirty or forty miles away from Jieqiao. If you walk now, you can walk there in the afternoon. The difficulty is how to cross the river. I remember there is a ferry south of Jieqiao. If you go from
If you go there, you should have a chance."
Guo Tu thought quickly in his mind and finally made up his mind not to go back to Guangchuan via the north route, but to go directly to Jieqiao.
As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest place. Since the enemy thinks that he has perished in the sea of fire, he might as well just cross the boundary bridge. The enemy will definitely not think of it.
Thinking of this, Guo Tu immediately took action, climbed out from the slope and went to the south of the official road. He planned to go west from Linxi to the south of Jieqiao. There are also many rural pavilions in these places, such as Dongzhao and Xia.
Townships such as Fort and Jianzhong are just south of Linxi, but the journey is not far after all.
Because the distance from Linxi to Jieqiao is about 20 kilometers, he has already walked four or five kilometers. As an ancient person who travels around all year round, Guo Tu's body is not like the young people in later generations who sit in the office all the year round or lie at home as a dead man.
It's so bad, even if I walk at a walking speed of 3 kilometers per hour, I can reach the boundary bridge in six hours.
Otherwise, if he chooses to return to Guangzong from Guangchuan in the north, he will have to walk more than 100 kilometers just to return to Guangchuan, which will cost him his life.
After escaping from Linxi, Guo Tu walked in the wilderness for more than an hour. He washed his body by a river, tidied himself up, dressed up a little, and returned to his appearance as an ordinary scribe.
Continuing on the road, we have already arrived at Dongzhao Township.
Large mulberry fields, bamboo forests and villages appeared in front of them. Rows of Qingzhou soldiers passed by on the road. On the road were not only soldiers, but also villagers, passing traders, Confucian scholars in single clothes, and some burly men.
Many of them were carrying swords. Some were heading towards Jieqiao, while others were heading elsewhere. Qinghe was originally a large county with a population of four to five million. It was also in a developed transportation area, bordering Wei in the west.
Julu County is bounded by Yanzhou East County to the south, Qingzhou Plain to the east, and Anping to the north, so there are many people coming and going.
The Qingzhou Army does not prohibit the people from moving around, nor does it drive out the people in the surrounding townships. At most, it will station troops in the townships, and everyone can live how they want to live. There are even many places where people want to find Qingzhou
The army went to surrender to the army, so there were so many strong men going to the Qingzhou Army barracks.
Guo Tu did know that they had sent many spies to lurk in various townships for investigation, and few of them were exposed. This was because the Qingzhou Army was not so strict in controlling the area, and it was easy for others to take advantage of it, so the control here should be
It's better not to be too strict.
Thinking of this, Guo Tu walked openly to the official road, pretending to be a middle-aged Confucian scholar who was traveling around, straightened his back, walked grandly to the main road, and swaggered towards the gathering place in Dongzhao Township ahead.
Head towards Shiting Town.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! A group of Qingzhou soldiers came towards me. Guo Tuqiang pretended to be calm and slowly passed by them. The pair of Qingzhou soldiers just glanced at him and even
There was no point in coming up to ask questions.
"call!"
After waiting until it passed, Guo Tu let out a long sigh of relief. Fortunately, just like the intelligence, the Qingzhou Army had little control over the various townships.
Thinking of this, he continued walking forward. When he arrived at the market, he was going to get some food, and then see if he could sell the sword on his waist or a jade pendant hanging on his waist in exchange for some money, and then go to Qinghe
Cross the river at the ferry and return to Guangzong.
Although he also knew that there might be spies from the Jizhou Army lurking in Dong Zhao, they should also have channels to go back. But the problem was that he was not in charge of the spies before, so how to contact these spies and how to find them was a big problem.
You can't just go out and shout on the street.
So Guo Tu understood that now he could only rely on himself.
There were many people in the market. The number of people in a county in the Han Dynasty varied. However, Qinghe Kingdom had a population of 800,000 during the period of Emperor He. In recent years, it has experienced the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and Liu Bei has moved some Qinghe Kingdom.
People from aristocratic families moved to Qingzhou, causing the population to decline. There are still 4 to 50 million people left in Qingzhou, but there are only seven county towns.
On average, almost every county has more than 70,000 people. As mentioned before, it was impossible for a county in the Han Dynasty to accommodate tens of thousands of people. There were very few residents in towns, probably between a few thousand and ten thousand. Most of them
The population is scattered in the countryside, living in Xiangting market towns.
Dongzhao is a township under the rule of Ganling. There are a large number of manor villages and towns, plus a nearby township, with a permanent population of tens of thousands. Today we are going to the market. There are many people coming and going in the market, and Guo Tu is among them.
Like a fish in water.
But what he didn't know at this time was that almost as soon as he entered Ting Town, many eyes were already staring at him. For this strange outsider, the people lurking among them quickly discovered him.
The military intelligence department's investigation and infiltration capabilities are more than a hundred times stronger than those of Jizhou spies?
Dongzhao, Xiabao, Jianzhong and other townships are several granary areas built by Chen Mu. A large number of spies from the Military Intelligence Department have been secretly monitoring the nearby areas. When the spies from Jizhou came to collect intelligence, the local area may have been secretly developed.
Local people who were informants, or spies who had been lurking in for a long time, all found them out.
He just wanted to use these spies to send false information to Yuan Shao, so Chen Mu didn't alert the enemy. What's funny is that the spies in Jizhou thought they were not exposed, but they didn't know that in a society of acquaintances, outsiders are like strangers in the dark.
As dazzling as fireflies.
At this time, Chen Mu happened to be handling things in the granary area of Xiabao Township, south of Dongzhao. Because the Linxi Granary was a bait, the grain in it was all straw and stones, so to transport grain to the front line, it had to be transported from other places.
A granary was temporarily transferred here.
Chen Mu happened to be at the granary in Xiabao Township to check on the grain going out of the warehouse. He also took a look around to look for a new granary construction site, because the next batch of new grain was about to arrive in Xunyu.
Qingzhou is not short of food, it is short of places to store food.
For Chen Mu, a cunning rabbit, a cunning rabbit has three burrows? What a joke, how dare he launch a war with hundreds of thousands of people without ten burrows?
"Si Ming, our spies found a suspicious person in Dongzhao Township."
In the compartment of the Dongzhao Granary, Chen Mu was checking the account books when a deputy from the Military Intelligence Department walked in from outside to report to him.
"who?"
Chen Mu asked without raising his head. There were several young people beside him. When they heard the news, they all raised their heads and looked at Jie Cong with interest.
These people are Zhuge Liang, Kong Jian, Yao Bo, and Huang Qi. They are all eighteen years old this year. They entered Taishan Academy at the age of fourteen and have been studying for four years now. Although they are underage, according to the custom, they have graduated.
Afterwards, outstanding graduates can enter the Qingzhou Interior Department to work.
But Chen Mu had already made plans to bring Zhuge Liang to his side for training when Zhuge Liang and his friends graduated this year. When Kong Jian, Yao Bo, Huang Qi and others saw that Zhuge Liang was admitted, they all wrote to him to pray. After all,
They were all his favorite students, the best talents in this generation, so Chen Mu did not refuse and transferred them all to his side to serve as assistants.
Seeing that Chen Mu didn't seem to have any intention of letting the young subordinates avoid him, he thought for a while and said, "Hui Si Ming is a middle-aged scribe. I have never seen such a foreigner come to Dong Zhao before.
, so it was noted down by our spies. This person’s appearance has been briefly drawn, please take a look at it.”
After saying that, Jiecong took a large piece of paper and handed it over.
Chen Mu took it and took a look at it, and immediately laughed: "Guo Tu."
"Guo Tu?"
Zhuge Liang and others looked at each other, this was a big fish.
Chen Mu knew Guo Tu because Guo Tu was originally a subordinate of Yin Xiu, the prefect of Yingchuan. Later, when Han Fu was the prefect of Julu, he called his fellow countrymen Guo Tu and Xin Ping over.
At that time, Wang Fen had not committed suicide, so when the eighteen princes attacked Dong Zhuo, Wang Fen sent Han Fu as a representative of Jizhou. As a result, Han Fu defeated Pan Feng. When the eighteen princes attacked Dong Zhuo,
Chen Mu saw Guo Tu, Xin Ping and others following Han Fu.
Although history has been changed beyond recognition due to the appearance of Chen Mu, the only thing that remains unchanged is that after Wang Fen died, Han Fu was unable to take over. Yuan Shao seized Jizhou Mu. Guo Tuxin commented that these people also decisively abandoned Han Fu and defected to Yuan Shao.
.
Now Guo Tu actually appears in Dongzhao Township, which is really interesting.
Chen Mu thought of the news that Linxi Fire had been sent by the Military Intelligence Department this morning and had wiped out the Jizhou Cavalry, so he smiled and said: "I guess Guo Tu escaped alone and ran to Dongzhao Township, hoping to pass through the fort.
He went to Jianzhong Township and other places to cross the Qinghe Ferry in Guiping Township. This man is quite brave. He risked his life and survived, which is really impressive."
Huang Qi smiled and said: "Master, since Yuan Shao's important adviser has come to your door, let's arrest him quickly. If we can catch this person, we will know all the detailed arrangements of Yuan Shao's army. By that time,
Defeating Yuan Shao will be easy."
Chen Mu shook his head and said: "I already know the layout of Yuan Shao's army without arresting him. There is no need to go to such trouble. Send the order, leave him alone and let him cross the river. Let the army carry food to the front line in a big way. Don't
We have taken a small road, but this time we are taking a big road. We need to be more grand, and there is no harm in deliberately letting those Jizhou spies and Guo Tu see us."
Yao Bo was surprised and said: "Master, didn't you let those Jizhou spies and Guo Tu see our army's intelligence? And you also deliberately let him cross the river?"
"Master Shijun should have his own intentions."
Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said: "Either this person is Shijun's internal agent, or this person can ruin Yuan Shao's important affairs. If he can help Yuan Shao, Shijun will not let him go."
"clever."
Chen Mu smiled and said: "This Guo Tu is not my internal response, but it is better than my internal response."
"Oh? Master, why is this?"
Even Kong Jian, who had always been relatively quiet, showed interest.
"Guo Tu is a narrow-minded person who dare not take responsibility. This time he burned our army's food and grass and was defeated. He must not have dared to explain the real situation to Yuan Shao. Instead, he would only say that the secret attack on Linxi was a great success, but he did not expect us. A large number of cavalry were deployed, causing him heavy losses."
Chen Mu said calmly: "At that time, we may pass the responsibility to generals Jiang Qi, Zhao Rui, etc., and then bring back the news that our army still has granaries in Dongzhao and other places, so as to offset the merits."
"When will the time come for Master to ambush me again?"
Zhuge Liang is as blessed as his heart.
"Exactly."
Chen Mu looked at him with admiration. This student of his was getting more and more cute.