Song Xin led 1,500 people to travel day and night, and it took four days to finally reach Cao's army's camp in the south of the Qianshan Mountains. This is a temporary camp made of wood and stone, lying in the center of the road.
Thick smoke burned in several places around the camp, and bursts of the stench of burnt corpses rushed into everyone's nostrils.
Looking closer, you can see many corpses of Cao soldiers and enemy soldiers. More than a hundred soldiers are busy carrying the dead bodies, gathering them a mile away from the camp, and lighting them on fire.
Song Xin sighed and walked into the camp with his men and horses. What he saw were injured soldiers everywhere.
Seeing reinforcements coming, the soldiers who were still able to move shouted happily, "Reinforcements have arrived! Reinforcements have arrived!"
A school captain rushed out of the tent. He originally looked happy, but when he saw that there were only more than a thousand people behind Song Xin, his expression suddenly turned disappointing. Looking at the leader again, he turned out to be a young man with no beard.
The smile on the captain's face disappeared, and he just raised his hand in a perfunctory manner, "I don't know your name. Which army is this?"
Seeing the change in his expression, Song Xin smiled indifferently, "The Colonel, Colonel Song Xin, was ordered to come to rescue General Niu Chuang."
The captain looked embarrassed and shook his head, "I am the subordinate of General Niu. General Niu ordered me to guard here."
Along the way, Song Xin had already asked his scouts to explore the nearby terrain. The mountain roads here were narrow, which was not conducive to the deployment of the army. Therefore, Niu Chuang arranged his thousands of soldiers in echelons and set up camps every other section of the road.
"A war broke out here just now?" Song Xin asked, looking at the billowing smoke and corpses.
The captain nodded, "Two hours ago, more than a thousand enemy troops came to seize the camp, but we were repulsed."
"How far is the north bank camp from here?" Song Xin continued to ask.
"About thirty-five miles."
"Do you know how many enemy troops there are in the North Shore camp?"
Captain Cao shook his head, pointed to the wounded and groaning soldiers on the ground and said, "They are the ones who escaped from the camp on the north bank. Why don't you ask them."
Song Xin asked a few questions casually and found that these people were frightened and didn't remember anything at all.
"Zou Yi, in the middle of the week, you will help this gentleman to strengthen the camp. If you are attacked by the enemy, don't go out to fight easily. Use your bow and crossbow to shoot back."
"Promise!" The two of them sang Promise in unison.
"Zhang Hu, pick a few capable people and follow me to the front to have a look."
"This little brother!" Captain Cao quickly stopped Song Xin, "Are you willing to die? There are many enemy troops in the mountains now. I sent more than a dozen scouts out but they didn't come back. Don't go and die."
Song Xin smiled, but in his heart he was secretly grateful that this man had plans for him. He comforted him, "Don't worry, I'll be fine."
After saying that, he got on his horse and headed south with Zhang Hu and a dozen other cavalrymen.
The captain looked at Song Xin's back and sighed: "Oh, you are young and energetic, you are young and energetic."
Song Xin had just rushed out less than two miles away when his ears caught a strange sound. He hurriedly stopped and listened carefully. "There are enemy troops, just ahead. Let's go into the mountains and take shelter."
Although Zhang Hu and others didn't hear any sound, Song Xin told him, and they hid in the forest without saying a word.
Soon after, a group of cavalry galloped from south to north. Song Xin saw their armor from a distance, they were enemy troops! Zhang Hu and others also looked at each other, secretly admiring Song Xin's sensitive ears.
This enemy army consisted of twenty or thirty cavalry, and they were chasing a group of Cao soldiers. These Cao soldiers were covered in blood, their clothes and armor were in tatters, and many of them were injured.
"Poof!" An enemy cavalry rushed to one of Cao's soldiers, turned around with his bow, and shot one of them in the neck with an arrow.
"Ah!" The soldier screamed and fell to the ground holding his bleeding neck.
The enemy cavalry behind them quickly surrounded this group of Cao soldiers. They took advantage of the rapid maneuverability of their horses and did not come into contact with these soldiers. They just wandered around them and fired arrows.
The sound of bow strings crashing, was accompanied by a series of screams.
"Ah! If you have the ability, come here
Fight to the death with Grandpa! "A soldier of Cao's army was hit by an arrow in his arm, but he still raised the hook in his hand and cursed angrily.
"Poof!" Suddenly an arrow flew from behind and hit Cao Jun's soldier in the leg socket, causing him to scream in pain and kneel down.
A bare-chested soldier of Cao's army was overtaken by an unarmored enemy and shot in the back with an arrow. He vomited blood and fell to the ground screaming.
He still wanted to struggle to get up, but was slashed in the back by the enemy soldier who followed him, and fell to the ground again.
The enemy cavalry drove their horses away with a grin, causing the horses to trample over the injured soldier's back. The heavy hooves of the war horse hit the Cao Jun soldier hard on the head, trampling the man until his flesh and blood were mutilated, killing him instantly.
After killing several people, these enemy cavalry began to gather the panicked Cao soldiers again and drove them south.
Seeing such a tragic scene, Zhang Hu was so angry that his eyes were splitting, and he said bitterly: "They are killing people for fun."
Song Xin sighed secretly, in a troubled world, human life is as cheap as a dog. If you just run for your life, you will be driven to death like an animal.
Zhang Hu said in a deep voice: "Sir, I went to take care of these thieves!"
Seeing the angry expressions on the faces of the soldiers around him, Song Xin said in a deep voice, "Let's go! But we have to leave a few alive. I still have something to ask them! Let's go!"
Zhang Hu and others pulled up the fallen war horses, climbed on their backs and drew out their swords.
"Kill!" He shouted in a deep voice, and a dozen war horses rushed out of the forest like the wind and rushed towards the group of enemy cavalry. Song Xin also jumped out of the horse and grabbed a dozen stones in his hand.
"Enemy attack!"
The enemy troops quickly noticed Song Xin and others, but when they saw that there were only a dozen people on Song Xin's side, they immediately became less afraid. The soldiers immediately gave up the siege of Cao's army and rushed towards Song Xin howling. They raised their bows and arrows and waited until the distance was close before releasing them.
When the distance between the two groups of cavalry was less than 30 meters, Song Xin's arms continued to shake, and stones flew out, knocking down seven or eight enemy cavalry.
This sudden change caused the formation of the enemy cavalry to become chaotic. Those who fell in front were trampled by the horses behind them, and many horses lost their balance and fell forward because they trampled on people.
"Okay!" Zhang Hu shouted and rushed into the enemy army. With a flick of his long knife, a human head rolled down.
Like the sharp tip of a spear, he directly broke through the enemy's formation, and the soldiers behind him all fought bravely, waving their swords, blood splattering, and screams. Zhang Hu and others fought against the enemy's cavalry, and there were only five or six enemy soldiers left.
Zhang Hu led his troops to turn their horses back and charge towards the enemy cavalry again.
But these enemy troops have long been scared out of their wits, how can they dare to fight again? They screamed and spurred their horses to flee south. But at this time, Song Xin rode alone in front of them.
"Kill him!" Seeing a young man blocking the way, the enemy roared and rushed towards Song Xin.
"Whoosh whoosh!" Song Xin's arms shook quickly, and several stones flew through the air, hitting the three of them directly in the face. The stones smashed their heads, and only two people were left.
They pulled the reins fiercely, and the horses bypassed Song Xin in an attempt to continue fleeing south.
"Want to run?"
Song Xin sneered and popped two stones, hitting the two men on the buttocks of their horses. The beast neighed in pain and threw the two enemies off.
The two of them suddenly fell to the ground, and stars were pounding in their heads. Before he could recover, he was captured by Zhang Hu's men.
At this time, Cao Jun's soldiers also recovered from their panic. When they saw the wounded and undead enemies on the ground, they swarmed up angrily and killed them to vent their anger.
It was so frustrating that I was chased for more than ten miles like a herd of animals.
Zhang Hu ordered his men to cut off the heads, then lifted the two prisoners one by one and threw them in front of Song Xin.
The two of them were so frightened that they were trembling like two chickens. They were not as majestic as before.
"Where are you from?" Song Xin asked.
The two looked at each other and said, "We come from, from the north bank camp."
Song Xin nodded, "How many people are there among you? How are the weapons configured?"
The two men hurriedly fought over each other and said, "Sir, we have 1,800 men, 100 crossbowmen, and 80 cavalry."
"Eighteen hundred?" Song Xin was slightly startled. There were actually so many camps on the north bank.
Song Xin asked again: "Where is Zhang's central army?"
"General Zhang? We don't know either. We are just following the general, so we don't dare to ask so many questions."
Song Xin saw that their eyes didn't look like they were lying, so he asked again: "Have you conquered Niu Chuang's camp on the south bank?"
"Not yet. The general of Cao's army is very stubborn. He took advantage of the position and couldn't defend it. I heard that he laid siege for several days but could not break through his camp."
Song Xin felt relieved when he heard this. It seemed that Niu Chuang's camp had not been breached yet.
"Zhang Hu, let these people cut off their heads and take them back to claim their merits. Take these two people back and interrogate them carefully. Let's go to the North Bank camp first."
Cao's soldiers, who had been chased by the enemy cavalry like lost dogs, were immediately overjoyed. Not only were they lucky enough to survive this time, but they also got these dozen heads for free.
Song Xin ignored them, mounted his horse and led Zhang Hu and others to continue southward for reconnaissance.
Along the way, there were rotting corpses on both sides of the road, including those of soldiers and nearby people. Groups of wild dogs were whimpering, scurrying, roaring, biting and fighting for body parts in the grass. When they heard Song Xin and others' horses rushing towards them, they were all so frightened that they barked and ran away.
Soon after, Song Xin saw the camp on the north bank of the river.
He reined in his horse and stopped to inspect it carefully, and murmured: "The location of this camp is so dangerous, and that idiot guard actually escaped without a fight. With such good terrain, even if the enemy comes back with 7,000 soldiers, it will be difficult to break through."
Zhang Hu stretched his neck and looked for a while, then nodded when he heard Song Xin's words, "Yes, that guard general is too cowardly! If he hadn't escaped from the battle, Niu Chuang wouldn't have been in danger."
Song Xin made a rough estimate and found that there were about eight to nine hundred enemy troops in the camp. At this time, they were burying pots to make rice, and all they ate were Cao Jun's grain. From a distance, I saw an officer wearing a Chinese tunic, standing in front of a large tent with his chest open, holding a woman in his arms and drinking something unknown.
Zhang Hu broke off a piece of dead grass, put it in his mouth, chewed it and said, "Sir, what should we do now?"
Song Xin turned around and smiled at Zhang Hu: "Do you dare to follow me and kill this enemy general?"
"We? Rush over and kill the enemy general?" Zhang Hu was stunned, but it was only for a moment that a look of excitement appeared on his face.
"What's wrong with that?"
"Okay, mount up, let's rush in and kill him by catching him off guard."
