Once the smoke is lit, it will not only alert the army to the river camp, but also declare their position to the Mongolian army who does not know where they are.
Fortunately, Monk Luo's men were all veterans and moved very quickly. When the thick black smoke rose high into the air, everyone had already retreated into the water network area.
On all sides of Suizhou, there are ponds such as Yantai Dian, Wuguan Dian, Lucaowan, and Liangmenpi, and tributaries of Baigou River such as Xu River, Cao River, and Bao River intersect with each other. Because the imperial court did not manage these water systems at all, the ponds and rivers overflowed and flowed for a few years. In recent years, they have been silted up due to drought, forming large swamps with unpredictable depths.
Monk Luo and his party marched rapidly along the path between the swamps.
Sometimes, they had to carefully control their horses to pass through waist-deep water. Sometimes they had to dismount and hold the reins, crossing difficult-to-walk muddy ponds filled with rot.
After all, Xu Jin was not a martial artist, and most of his capable men were serious green forest heroes, the kind who were used to blocking roads to make a fortune, and had never experienced the training of long-distance marches. After running back and forth for more than two hours, and in such a harsh environment, they were all exhausted and out of breath.
Xu Jin's subordinate, a plump and strong man, was half dead from exhaustion. He just felt chest tightness and shortness of breath, and he immediately vomited. Seeing that Monk Luo was still urging him to leave quickly, he couldn't help but said: "Master Huifeng, we are already deep in Tangpi!"
Monk Luo seemed oblivious.
"Master! Master!" The strong man repeated his words again.
Monk Luo glanced at Xu Jin.
Xu Jin was also so tired that his face turned pale, his body was swaying, and he looked like he might fall off his horse and faint at any time. He said: "Master Huifeng, take a rest. The roads around here are so complicated, and the water covers the traces of our march. How can the Mongols catch up with us?"
Monk Luo shook his head: "You have never fought with the Tatars, so you don't know what's going on..."
Having said that, Xu Jin and others really couldn't hold on any longer. In just a few words, someone had already sat down on a stone by the water, then slid along the slippery moss into the mire and lay there, unable to pull himself up.
Xu Jin is an ally of Guo Ning and a local person who has good intentions towards the defeated soldiers. Guo Ning has established himself in the Xijunhe camp for several months. He and his subordinates have all contributed and helped.
Recently, Xu Jin even entrusted the family members of his subordinates to the camp, and his intention of taking refuge was very obvious. Monk Luo really couldn't leave them alone, so he sighed: "Have a rest for half a moment, no more!"
After saying these words, Monk Luo went back to a higher place, half-crouched behind an old tree, and looked to the west. It was already bright at this time, and under the scorching sun, one could see continuous green or brown semi-dry meadows, vast reeds, and birds circling from time to time.
The smoke from the direction of Suizhou is still there, very clear, like a black cloud pillar.
The sudden arrival of the Mongols was truly unexpected. Before that, Guo Ning kept asking his generals during military meetings every day, how to deal with the Mongols if they came? Are the specific arrangements appropriate? Monk Luo once thought he was nagging and wondered whether his brain might have been affected after that serious injury.
But at this moment he had to admit that Guo Ning was really foresight, and the Mongols' use of troops was always so violent and sudden!
Fortunately, you can definitely see the smoke clearly from the Xiangjunhe camp. Lao Wang is a smart man, and he must have taken immediate action according to the plan beforehand. As long as they move quickly enough, the Mongols may not be able to catch them.
Fortunately, Guo Liulang had other important matters and left south in advance. So, the thousands of people he brought with him are safe for now. I don’t know what Guo Liulang will do. The Mongols are finally here, so he should be very excited.
Monk Luo knew that Guo Ning had always hoped to defeat the Mongolian army, so he put a lot of effort into the Xijunhe camp and conducted rigorous training for the soldiers. But that was not enough. Monk Luo knew in his heart that if he wanted to fight against the Mongolian army, it was far from enough!
Xu Jin is a well-behaved person and knows that Monk Luo is a little anxious. He followed up, sat down next to Monk Luo, and asked: "Master Huifeng, are those Mongolians really so powerful?"
Monk Luo lowered his head, touched his head with both hands, and said after a while: "That's good! That's good!"
Xu Jin's question was too harsh. Just based on this tone, Monk Luo wanted to punch Xu Jin away. But he could understand that Xu Jin and his men were different from the defeated troops in Northern Xinjiang.
Before these people became bandits, they had seen the imperial court's expropriation, oppression, and inspections; they had seen the officials' various methods and ruthless oppression; they had seen the arrogance and wanton behavior of the Jurchen nobles, and they had seen The family was broken up and people died, and they left their hometown. They become bandits only when they are forced to have no way out.
But what the soldiers from Northern Xinjiang had seen, these people only heard about it but had no real feelings.
They cannot imagine killing an entire village of men and women just for a happy mood, not even sparing the old, weak, women and children; they cannot imagine filling every water source and every well with dead bodies to eradicate the possibility of human survival; they cannot imagine putting the excess The prisoners were tied together and crushed into a pulp with iron hooves, or they were driven into buildings and set on fire.
They have never faced off against those wolf-like Mongolian cavalry.
Those cavalrymen were the Mongolian Aljinchi who appeared in Suizhou at this time, and Monk Luo once fought with them.
Monk Luo witnessed with his own eyes the Mongolian cavalry's sleepless pursuit, interception, looting, and slaughter. Neither mountains nor valleys could hinder them. They seemed to run endlessly, running for tens or hundreds of miles without hesitation, just to satisfy their violent murderous intention that was about to boil over.
Those Mongolian cavalry can hardly be called human beings, but beasts that drink blood from their hair. Monk Luo still clearly remembers that he fought repeatedly with the Mongols, but he could never see the enemy's wavering or the fear that normal humans should have. Even if he won ten times, the wolves would continue to bite, forcing Monk Luo into desperate situations again and again, and tearing all his companions into pieces.
Monk Luo is a fake monk who has never recited Buddhist scriptures seriously. But he really thought that maybe the Mongolian army was the disaster mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures, and everything in this world was destined to be catastrophic.
Perhaps, hope only lies in Guo Ning?
Just thinking of this, Monk Luo shuddered violently.
He raised his head and looked around. He seemed to hear something and listened carefully, but found nothing. He opened his eyes like bells and looked around, but he didn't see anything wrong.
Monk Luo was once one of the few warriors in the northern boundary trench defense line of Datong Prefecture in Xijing. At that time, he was the envoy of the village, but he served as a scout for the entire army and went deep into the grassland more than once. But the more familiar he became with the enemy, the more he had to admit that when it came to the ability to detect the enemy, concealment and attack, there were many experts in the Mongolian army who surpassed him!
At this moment, Monk Luo saw nothing strange with his eyes and heard nothing strange with his ears, but some strong premonition told him that an old rival was coming! The terrifying pack of wolves that can smell prey from ten miles away is about to catch up!
"Everyone mount up!" Monk Luo shouted sternly: "Follow me!"
Seeing Monk Luo's fierce voice, the group knew that the enemy was close at hand, so everyone hurriedly mounted their horses and continued galloping.
And not long after, several people heard the sound of bone whistles coming and going from far and near, the sound of horse hooves trampling through the water, and some people even vaguely heard the horses panting violently, and the sound of Mongolian orders!
Those are Mongols, and there are a lot of them! They not only surrounded it from directly behind, but also from the flanks on both sides. Even if the terrain in the swamp is extremely complicated, it cannot hinder them. Several times, they were obviously delayed by the mud and had been thrown away, but not long after, they actually pursued them and got closer again!
Monk Luo's team consisted of one man and two horses, but running wildly in the swamp exerted an extremely severe physical exertion on the horses. Some of the horses began to foam at the mouth and had to throw off the reins and let them go.
If this continues, there will inevitably be a fight!
Monk Luo tightened the reins hard and shouted in a deep voice: "Go east!"
Xu Yan was surprised: "East? The camp is in the south..."
He immediately understood what Monk Luo meant.
The Xijunhe camp is in the south, but who knows whether Wang Shixian and his men will successfully break out of the camp? After all, it was a camp where I had lived for half a year, and there were many pots and pans. And all the Mongolian Alejinchi are well-trained and fast horses, and their retreat can often be measured by hundreds or tens of miles. If the Mongolian outposts arrive before everyone has set off, it will be equivalent to revealing their whereabouts in front of the Mongolian army... Then The situation is simply unimaginable!
He gritted his teeth: "Then go east!"
The cavalry turned suddenly and turned to one side.
And at the moment they turned, without any warning, Mongolian arrows suddenly came from the rear of the team.
The arrows were like a shower of rain, passing over the patches of reeds, over the overgrown shrubs, and over the flying insects that were startled by the cavalry and soared like clouds.
The arrows landed on the backs of the heads, necks, shoulders, and vests of the riders, and on the hindquarters and legs of the horses. The heavy arrows directly knocked the rider off his horse, making the horse neigh and jump wildly. The light arrows hung on the bodies of men and horses, undulating and quivering like thatch blown by the wind.
The chubby man who asked for a rest fell at the end of the cavalry and was immediately shot into a hedgehog.
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