Since he moved Chu Cai to the Xiangjunhe camp, he has single-handedly taken on many military and political affairs, and has become Guo Ning's right-hand man. But in fact, in the eyes of the Sanzhou soldiers, the real people are always those comrades who have experienced running away together.
Therefore, when Guo Ning led his army south, Monk Luo and Wang Shixian, who were responsible for staying at the Xijunhe camp and acting as command, were his true confidants.
Monk Luo has a carefree temperament and is very rough and arrogant. He always talks with fists as big as jealous bowls, but in fact there are subtleties in his roughness. That kind of pure recklessness has already died in the great defeat and collapse of the past few years, and will not survive today.
Wang Shixian looks gentle, even a little soft, but he has a team of ancient Wang people, which is the one with the largest number of cavalry under Guo Ning.
In the early morning of this day, before dawn, Monk Luo went to see Wang Shixian. On the way, he probably saw some soldiers who were loose and in a bad mood. After leaving Wang Shixian's camp, their faces were still livid.
After a while, Wang Shixian was probably sprayed by Monk Luo. He was a little disgraced and immediately ordered the entire army to assemble urgently to prepare for marching training in full equipment and heavy loads.
This kind of training is often organized by Guo Ning. The generals thought it was a hassle at first, but then gradually realized the beauty. Through marching training, not only can the physique and will of the soldiers be tempered, but also the mutual help and friendship between soldiers and officers and soldiers can be cultivated. Through competitions in various capitals and departments, the cohesion of the soldiers can also be enhanced.
Marching training is divided into several specifications. Common ones include running with light equipment and forced march with heavy equipment. These two types of training occur at least once every ten days. By now, all the soldiers have learned the terrain of Anzhou and other places very well.
The training that was relatively sparse was the full load-bearing marching training that was equivalent to an emergency breakout of camp. Of course, this was not taken lightly. However, although most of the facilities in the camp are temporary and easy to dismantle, it is not a pity to abandon them. But every time we do a full-loaded march, it is inevitable that we will have to struggle for several days in a row, so we have done this training before, but not often.
At this time, Wang Shixian suddenly ordered to prepare to break camp. The soldiers in the camp and the people who gradually gathered all lamented, feeling that Wang Shixian was too troublesome. Was he using a tiger skin as a banner? Someone, relying on his seniority, ran up to Wang Shixian and complained, but Wang Shixian was immediately punished by military law. He was pulled out and beaten with twenty sticks.
Now everyone knew that Mr. Wang was serious, so they did not dare to neglect and took the order one after another. Each unit prepares tents, armor, weapons, dry food, drinking water, horses, vehicles, tools, etc. to be carried during the march.
According to the military order, all preparations must be completed within half an hour and return to the central military tent to give orders. Those who disobey orders will be executed, those who delay will be executed, and those who are in disarray will be executed.
Some people noticed that Monk Luo, as one of the two lieutenants, was not in the central army. His junior brother, Monk Pei, took part in the military meeting on his behalf.
When preparing to leave camp, someone will inevitably ask. Monk Pei wrote lightly: "Senior brother is out of town for something."
At this time, Monk Luo had quietly left for a while. Just now he received urgent news, which represented some possibility. But he did not want this possibility to shake the morale of the army at will, so he quietly went out and went to investigate in person.
He led more than a dozen of his own riders, each with two horses, along the beach beside the Xiangjun River and headed upstream quickly. At the western edge of Wuguandian, he met up with the famous local shop owner Xu Wei and his entourage, and then continued northward along the less traveled path between the shuize and swamps, quickly entering Suizhou.
Suizhou, like Anzhou and other places, were military fortresses built by the Song Dynasty to confront the Khitan. In the early years, there was a Jingrong Army stationed at Liangmen Village and a Weilu Army stationed in Suicheng County. Both places were known as dangerous. For hundreds of years, it has been known as Tongliang Gate and Tiesui City.
Today, both Liangmenzhai and Suicheng County are almost deserted. Suizhou was originally a small state, with only one Suicheng County below it. There were many ponds, swamps and little cultivated land in the county. In the past two years, all the young people in the county were transferred and never came back. It is estimated that all of them died on the border, so the old and weak people in the county fled to their relatives and fled.
Since last year, the Suizhou governor has been vacant, and the court probably didn't bother to pay attention to it, so it just kept making do. This year, powerful tycoons such as Guo Ning from Anzhou, Miao Daorun from Yizhou, and Zhang Rou from Dingzhou have emerged one after another. They have each attracted people, turning most of Suizhou into a no-man's land.
However, Guo Ning never neglected to be vigilant in this direction, so Xu Jin was entrusted by him and often sent people to patrol.
After Monk Luo and Xu Yan entered Suizhou, they walked along the road for a short time. Xu Yan stopped his horse and said, "Two groups of patrols I sent to Suizhou have not returned in time. The third group reported back and said , discovered this..."
Monk Luo followed Xu Jin's pointing and saw the corpses lying next to the road.
The bodies were apparently killed while fleeing south. Most of them were naked and disheveled. It was obvious that their stronghold was suddenly attacked in the middle of the night. These people fled in panic, but their legs could not outrun the horses.
There were knights chasing after them, and it took about a moment to kill all of them, so about two hundred corpses were laid out on the road for two miles.
Xu Jin has a wide circle of friends and knows a little bit about everything, including autopsy. He dismounted and took a closer look at several corpses. I found that almost everyone died neatly. The people who killed them were very skilled in horsemanship and swordsmanship. They rode past and fatally struck with a single blow, instantly freezing the horrified expression on the deceased's face.
The bodies were searched, and money, food, or better clothes were taken away.
Monk Luo also dismounted.
He strode across the two-foot-high grass beside the road. In the direction he went, there were the bodies of a family.
The man who looked like his father probably turned around halfway through, trying to hinder the enemy's cavalry. As a result, he was stabbed in the neck, and his head fell immediately, with only a little flesh remaining connected to his body.
The mother led an older child and held a younger child in her arms, dying only a few feet away from the woodland. Both she and the older child were hit by arrows in their vests, while the younger child was held tightly in her arms, and then both mother and child were trampled to death by horse hooves.
Monk Luo knelt down and touched the wound on the deceased's back.
The arrow cluster that had penetrated the flesh was roughly pulled out. The deceased probably struggled at the end, and the wound was violently torn. Then blood spurted out from the wound and solidified into tofu-like puddles on the ground.
"Master Huifeng!" Xu Jin called out and showed an arrow cluster he picked up to Monk Luo: "This is the arrow used by the Zhongdu Weijie Army's shooting skills!"
Monk Luo glanced at it and stood up slowly.
"It's an arrow used by the Weijie Army, but it's not the hand of the Weijie Army. As long as the imperial army is moving, it can't bypass the people of Jing'an in the east and Zhang Rou in the west. They farted hundreds of miles away. We You can hear the noise. It’s not the imperial army! It’s the Mongols fighting with captured arrows. The Mongols are coming!”
Xu Jin's expression froze, and he subconsciously said: "Are they really Mongolians? But why did the Mongolians get here..."
"What a fool, why bother asking? Some pass in the north must have been breached, it's all rubbish!"
Monk Luo couldn't help but sprayed a few foul words.
He strode back to the road and looked back and forth several times, looking carefully for any traces. Soon I found distinctive hoof prints on the road, and also found a water bag made of cowhide or sheepskin saltpeter, which was commonly used by Mongolian shepherds.
Because the salt was not completely processed, the water bag had a strong odor. It was probably because the leather strap broke during the slaughter, so it was discarded directly by its owner. Monk Luo also has a water bag like this, which is of course much more refined. It was a trophy he took when he fled to Hebei last year and took great risks to kill a Mongolian warrior with his own hands.
The specifications of this water bag are slightly different from those in Mongolia. Monk Luo recognized that this was a specific piece of equipment belonging to an old rival.
"It's the Mongolian outpost elite cavalry, Aljinchi from the Hongji tribe." Monk Luo gritted his teeth.
His huge body swayed slightly and he spoke in Mongolian in a deep voice. Then he turned to Xu Jin and repeated in Chinese: "The enemies are ahead, and we are willing to be the vanguard to rush forward. When hunting cunning beasts, we are willing to be the vanguard to attack them."
"This is the Aljinchi who is specially driven by the Mongolian Khan! They are here to explore for the army a certain way to advance, a certain way to attack, and a certain way to have enemies... The main force of the Mongols is in the rear, no matter what It’ll be far away! They’re already here!”
At this point, the memories of countless horrific scenes rolled through Monk Luo's mind like a tidal wave, causing veins to burst out on his forehead.
He raised his voice extremely rarely and shouted: "Light the smoke as a warning, and then we leave immediately! Quick! Quick! Quick!"
Even if Monk Luo is like this, his subordinates can hardly suppress their panic.
After being stopped by Monk Luo, they hurriedly dismounted and gathered a large pile of branches and firewood.
7017k
