At midnight on the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, more than 500 snow canoes pulled by war horses were covered tightly with coarse cloth. Under the escort of 1,500 fully armed cavalry, they galloped in a long formation toward the northeast.
After another half an hour, three hundred snow boats left the city from the north gate and headed northeast along the previous track.
Chang Siguo was wearing a black robe and riding on a war horse, with two scabbards hanging on his waist, one wide and one narrow, one black and one silver. He rushed towards the man in green shirt standing at the top of the city, using his sword as a crutch to face the wind, waved his hand, and then Follow the fully enclosed gorgeous snow boat in front of you, which is pulled by two horses and slides on the snow.
His mission this time was to accompany Liu Zhirou in the snow boat to protect her.
After all, he didn't post any festive couplets on both sides of the main door of his residence. It wasn't because the calligraphy was ugly.
It was the feeling of inner demons at work, and he didn't want to try it a second time.
The camp gates of the Bandit-breaking Army were closed tightly. During the mission, inspections inside and outside the military camp were intensified.
Two teams of inspection and law enforcement soldiers holding military crossbows, sabers on their waists, and wearing red military robes quietly moved out and half-surrounded a tent. An Xuelun looked solemn and shouted into the tent, "Xue Zheng, come out."
The tent curtain was opened, and a middle-aged man with a gloomy face and an ordinary appearance walked out of the tent. He glanced at the formation outside and the soldiers lined up in the distance, and bowed his hands, "Mr. An, I don't know what Xue has committed." treated as such”
Farther away, on the snow, there were cultivators who didn’t know the truth and were watching the fun with their hands behind their hands.
But they didn't dare to surround him easily. The Inspection Office had a good reputation and no one wanted to cause trouble for no reason.
An Xuelun snorted coldly and shouted, "After investigation, at three o'clock in the morning on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, a homing pigeon was released from your tent and flew to the north. At two o'clock today, the cavalry of the Sihuang City Brigade left the city. Two-quarters of an hour after setting off to the north, another homing pigeon flew out of your tent. Also, in the past two days, you have been frequently active in the outpost camp, and you have repeatedly inquired about the movements of the outpost army from the soldier commander. Xue Zheng, what is your explanation? "
The middle-aged man was speechless for a moment.
He didn't expect that every move he made would fall into the eyes of the new inspector An Xuelun. Even the old account from the 23rd day would be revealed. He rolled his eyes, trying to find a reason to deny it. It would be best to create some chaos. , and then took advantage of the chaos to escape.
An Xuelun did not give the other party time to quibble, and shouted, "Xue Zheng, you harbored evil intentions, leaked military information, betrayed the emperor, and you still haven't been arrested even though the evidence is solid."
The two law enforcement cultivators who led the team stepped forward at the same time, shouting, "Let's take it easy and leave you alive!"
The man's eyes showed a hint of panic, and he shouted, "Wait, I plead guilty."
However, he pushed his toes harder on the snow, and with a roar, he flew backwards and knocked open the tent curtain, then retreated back into the tent.
An Xuelun's eyes were cold and he waved his hand.
The soldiers quickly activated their crossbows and ran to gather in the east and west directions.
They have their own set of methods to deal with cultivators.
"Chirp, chirp", twenty crossbow arrows shot through the tent leather, clanging a few times, followed by a bang, and a figure tore the leather tent under the cold light and leaped towards the north tent.
Without any further orders, the second wave of crossbow arrows shot into the air.
There were several bangs and blows, and the escaping man resisted for a moment with his sword. After leaping more than ten feet, a mouthful of true energy dispersed and fell to the snow. The third wave of crossbow arrows followed closely, without caring whether it would penetrate the tent behind.
Long before the operation, the soldiers and generals in the nearby tents were either sent on patrol or went to the school grounds to assemble.
The middle-aged man's idea of causing casualties and chaos among the soldiers failed completely.
The cultivators in the distance were all filled with righteous indignation. They had heard the conversation between the two sides. The most hated person in the army was the traitor who betrayed his robe. The escaping behavior of the middle-aged man confirmed this. They rushed towards this direction to encircle them. Shout loudly.
"Catch the spy"
"Don't let the thief escape."
The middle-aged man failed to completely block the crossbow arrows, and was hit by two arrows in his thigh, making him unable to move immediately.
Seeing the well-trained law enforcement soldiers holding military crossbows, lined up neatly, and not firing the fourth wave of crossbow arrows, two captains attacked from the left and right with swords, the man laughed miserably, and the arrows were coated with poison that was not fatal but could slow down the movement. .
He decisively turned his head and bit his collar on the left, and threw the long sword in his hand at the frightened law enforcement captain on the right. He paused, foamed at the mouth, and fell diagonally into the snow. fall.
The law enforcement captain dodged the long sword attack, turned the hilt of the sword in his hand, and hit the side of the neck of the middle-aged man who was lying on the ground and twitching. Whether it was true poisoning or fake poisoning, he would stun him first. He clasped the man's wrist tightly with two fingers of his left hand and took a pulse. After only three breaths, he stood up with an ugly expression.
"My lord, the suspect committed suicide by taking poison."
They put up such a battle, but still couldn't catch anyone alive.
An Xuelun nodded slightly and greeted the cultivators gathered around ten feet away who dared not come over. There was no emotion or anger on his face, and he ordered, "Search the residence carefully and bring the body back to the inspection office."
He clasped his hands behind his back and walked toward the Chinese military tent. He seemed not too concerned about the life and death of the spies.
"Yes." The two captains clasped their fists and accepted the order.
Liu Zhirou's snow boat is divided into a front cabin and a back cabin. The interior is elegantly decorated, with a stove in the corner to keep it warm as spring. The floor of the back cabin is covered with plush animal skins, and a low brown wooden table is fixed on it.
Liu Zhirou sat cross-legged at the desk and looked at a hand-drawn Kanyu pattern in front of her. After a moment, she turned her head and glanced at the sand pot on the side.
After thinking about it for a while, he twisted the ink charcoal fixed in the bamboo tube on the desk, used the sharp end of the ink charcoal to mark on the Kan map, and opened a wooden board on the right bulkhead, and a cold wind blew in.
Liu Zhirou was shaken, rubbed her forehead, approached the window and shouted outside, "Brother Chang, give the order, turn to the north."
"yes"
Chang Siguo knelt on the horse's belly and shouted, "Mr. Liu has given an order. The entire team should turn to due north. The entire team should turn to due north."
Someone in front of and behind the long queue of cavalry gave the order, "Turn all troops to the north."
Soon, the team meandering in the snow, with the leading ten cavalrymen running due north, formed an obvious bifurcation with the traces left on the ground by the large army in front.
Liu Zhirou blew a gust of cold wind. Seeing Chang's thoughts change, she invited him again, "Brother Chang, come in and warm yourself up."
Chang Siguo shook his head and refused, "It's your responsibility, don't dare to neglect it."
Liu Zhirou heard a hint of stiffness and alienation, so she said no more, closed the window, knocked on the table and thought, "It has been an hour since the vanguard set off. Beirong Anzi, who was hiding in the bandit army, used the secret message sent by the carrier pigeon. At this time, It should have been delivered to the Beirong people a long time ago. Within an hour, the Beirong people will be able to use falcons to search for the movement of the attacking team in the northeast direction."
"The forward team will rest in the Paomaling area for another half an hour, which will be enough to influence the Beirong people's defense forces at Bailangpo to move eastward. By then it will be dark already, and even the falcon's vision will be limited in the air."
Liu Zhirou showed a trace of fatigue on her face, reached out to catch a carrier pigeon from the cage at the back, opened a wooden board on the roof of the cabin, and threw the pigeon that had already stuffed the secret message into the bamboo tube into the sky.
After a few "plop" sounds, the carrier pigeon circled twice overhead and flew towards the south.
After sending the secret letter, Liu Zhirou closed the wooden board and whispered to herself, "If there is something interesting about doing something in a small way, then do it in a big way. Let people see that Liu Baiyi is not a person who lives in vain."
Stretching, he continued to study the map on the table, occasionally pinching his fingers to deduce a few key details.
War horses pulled wooden sleds, breaking through the snow waves, driving on the endless snowfield, gradually heading north.
The sun moved westward, slowly losing its warmth, turning into a red sunset and sinking into the dusk.
Several orders were heard, and the advancing snow boat queue slowly stopped.
The generals stood up from their snow boats and issued similar orders to their subordinates.
"Get off the boat, be on guard, feed the horses, and eat."
The soldiers who were still in the cabin climbed out from the two-foot-high cabin string one after another, shook off the snow powder on their bodies, and untied the cloth strips covering their faces and heads.
Some people raised their bows and arrows to be on guard, some people took out the hot towels placed under their buttocks from where they were just sitting in the cabin, and wiped the sweat of the horses pulling the boats. Some people quickly found a cold-proof cotton-padded jacket and put it on the horse's back and belly.
There were also people who fed the war horses, which were breathing white from the hard work, with food and warm water, and treated them like their ancestors.
After the horses had finished eating, the soldiers took out the dry food from their belts and ate and drank slowly with cold water.
The afterglow of the setting sun cast a layer of soft red gauze on everyone's bodies.
Most of the soldiers and generals did not know where they were, they only knew that they had entered Beirong territory.
Experienced generals can roughly estimate by the direction of the road and the time of running that they should not be too far from Bailangpo in Beirong.
This was completely inconsistent with the order they received to set up an ambush on the Paoma Ridge front line before setting off.
Liu Zhirou opened the door and walked out of the snow boat. He held a bamboo cage in his hand, raised his eyes to look at the sky, opened the cage, and released the gray-black bird as big as a fist inside. He watched the bird circle around a few times, and then flew low to the southeast, laughing. He said, "The setting sun is like blood. It will be a good weather for Yuanchen Festival tomorrow."
The white fur on his body was dyed as red as fire, which was particularly dazzling.
Chang Siguo stood beside Liu Zhirou like a javelin and did not respond to the man in white. He noticed that the four cultivators who accompanied the team and the three captains who led the team gathered together. After discussing in low voices for a while, their expressions were different. Come this way.
Still seven or eight feet away, Chang Siguo took a step forward, stretched out the black wooden bow he held in his left hand and said, "Please stop."
He would not allow anyone to approach him without Liu Zhirou's permission. This was his duty as a guard.
Suddenly I raised my head and looked north. In the twilight, I saw a small pockmarked dot in the very far sky, approaching quickly.
Chang Siguo narrowed his eyes slightly, and there was red fluorescence flowing in the depths of his eyes. He stared a little, and the brilliance in his eyes converged. He glanced at Liu Zhirou, who was also looking at the sky as he did. However, Liu Zhirou's eyesight was not good enough and he couldn't see anything. Then he explained, "A falcon has flown here."
He shot down several falcons with his own hands, and later searched for information to learn more about Flat Hair.
The people who had stopped angrily across from him changed their expressions upon hearing this, and quickly turned around to look.
They went deep into Beirong territory alone, guessing that this place was not far from the Beirong tribe. If they were discovered by a falcon at this time, it would not be fatal.
The Beirong cavalry are as cunning as wolves. If they bite, more and more Beirong people will come to encircle and suppress them.
There were only about 1,500 of them, and they had no place to escape in the vast and unobstructed snowfield. ,,,
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