Chapter 953 Paving the Road with Blood
In order to ensure that the military order can be sent back to Sangzhou smoothly, every time the messenger reaches a node, the number of messengers will increase exponentially. By the time the military order is sent to the boundary of Zhuozhou, the number of messengers has expanded to a hundred people!
These one hundred messengers approached Sangzhou in various ways, either riding horses and galloping wildly, or disguised themselves as civilians, or disguised as Beidi messengers.
Unfortunately, Beidi is a sparsely populated area and it is a severe winter with heavy snow. Even a well-trained Jinyiwei messenger can only advance a dozen miles in a day through the thick snowy wilderness. In order to ensure that the military order can be sent as quickly as possible. To deliver goods, they can only choose to take the official road or the flat rural road with relatively thin snow.
But in this case, you must find a way to pass through the layers of levels set by the enemy.
The enemy was unable to assemble large forces within the territory, but the defenses in various jurisdictions became impregnable because of the heavy snow.
In order to convey military orders, more than 170 messengers were killed. No matter how perfect their disguises were, they would still be picked out by layers of checks.
On the contrary, those messengers who forcibly broke through the checkpoints and galloped on their horses relied on the snow to throw off the pursuers and reach a position closer to Sangzhou.
It is a pity that the news of Qin Feng's secret order has already spread throughout Zhuozhou. The garrisons and counties in Zhuozhou are trying their best to capture the Jinyiwei messenger. Therefore, so far, no messenger has been able to successfully reach Sangzhou.
In just one day, eighteen couriers who forcibly broke through the checkpoint were intercepted by the pursuers and sacrificed heroically.
But even in such a desperate situation, there is still a messenger, less than five miles away from Sangzhou!
Wearing a thick animal skin coat and wrapped in white cloth, he first rode a war horse to break through the barrier, then immediately abandoned the horse and disappeared into the wilderness, and lay down in the thick snow, hiding his figure. Climbing towards the border of Sangzhou.
The pursuers had already discovered the abandoned war horses, but they were helpless as they watched the messenger disappear into the snow. After all, a small number of rangers did not have the ability to hunt on a large scale.
After crawling for a day and night, the border was close at hand, but the messenger's hands were frozen to death and he completely lost consciousness. He could only rely on his legs to kick on the ground and squirm forward bit by bit.
Finally crossing the border, the messenger was completely desperate.
Because behind the border, there is still vast amounts of snow and large areas of no man's land.
After all, Sangzhou was also the territory of Beidi. It was also sparsely populated. The messenger relied on terrifying willpower and continued to crawl for a long time until he was completely far away from the border. Only with his last breath, he took out the flint from his arms and used his teeth to Biting the flint, sparks came out and ignited the cloak on his body.
The small flames ignited into a large fire, but the fire only lasted for a while. It was immediately extinguished because it burned the messenger's body and was blocked by flesh and blood.
A wisp of green smoke ignited, flew into the air, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
A villager who was digging a rabbit hole a few miles away from the messenger happened to see the plume of smoke and immediately reported it to the village chief. The village chief immediately notified the village chief. In this way, the news was reported layer by layer until the next day. In the army camp, the defenders immediately thought there was an enemy situation and immediately dispatched a force of 100 light cavalry to investigate.
When they found the courier, he had already been frozen into a lump of ice, half of his clothes were burned, and he huddled up in a ball, tightly protecting his chest, as if he was protecting something.
The guards present did not recognize the Jinyiwei messenger, but they could recognize the armor plate lining the messenger's breastplate, which was made by the Tianji Battalion.
Realizing that the corpse in front of them was most likely a friendly force, they quickly took the corpse back to the camp. After the corpse was softened by the campfire, they carefully opened the arms. When they found the military orders and secret letters protected in the breastplate, they were present. Only then did the defenders realize the seriousness of the problem and immediately sent cavalry to Eagle Ridge.
Due to heavy snow and road closures, it was difficult to move forward. When the military order and secret letter were delivered to Li Zhang, it was already three days later.
After reading the military order, Li Zhang did not hesitate and immediately issued a loud order: "Send the messenger to Beixi County quickly and ask Xu Mo to dispatch troops and horses to immediately go north to attack Zhuozhou! At the same time, let the three generals be ready to deal with any emergencies. Condition."
"The strategic secret letter must be sent to the territory and handed over to Lieutenant Qin without any mistakes!"
"The opposition imperialists in Zhuozhou launch an attack immediately!"
"The major stations stationed in Sangzhou sent a thousand soldiers from each station to assemble at Xiongying Ridge."
"In addition, the courier who fought desperately to send back the military order was put into a coffin and sent back to Beixi County. He informed the county magistrate Lin Quqi of the reason and held a grand funeral."
"It is so difficult to send back this military order. There may be countless messengers killed or injured on the way. Go and contact the Jinyiwei. Any messenger who can be identified as dead will be registered. Since Beidi has entered a state of war, I am afraid that it will not be possible to transport the body back. For the time being, we will not contact the messenger Together, we will hold a funeral in full clothes, register and preserve the names, and after the war is over, we will find ways to return the remains to their roots."
Li Zhang issued military orders as quickly as possible, and did not forget to implement Qin Feng's military philosophy and would never let any soldier die in vain.
There is only so much he can do. As for the future compensation and resettlement of the messenger's family, it will be handled by Lin Quqi, and it is not Li Zhang's turn to intervene.
Jing Qianying learned that the military order had been delivered and hurried over. When she learned that Qin Feng had defended Changshui County, the winter war had finally begun. Jing Qianying clenched her fists excitedly.
She has waited for so long and finally this day has come!
"Your Majesty, I will go out with the vanguard. I must conquer the enemy's defense line as soon as possible and relieve Feng'er!"
Considering Jing Qianying's noble status, if something goes wrong and no one succeeds to the throne, what's the point of conquering Beidi? By then, he would have gained the notoriety of being an unknown person.
Li Zhang's attitude was firm: "Your Highness Yushu, now is not the time for you to go to the front line. If the war ahead is unfavorable, you will naturally need to go into battle to boost military morale."
"The vanguard troops will join up with the opposition imperialists and launch the first attack on Zhuozhou Chong County. The battle situation will be tense and it will be too dangerous for you."
"When Xu Mo leads his army to Sangzhou, you can follow Xu Mo into the country."
Although Jing Qianying can't wait, considering that Li Zhang has been promoted by Qin Feng to the commander-in-chief of the three armies and has absolute command power in the rear, it is naturally impossible for Jing Qianying to take the lead in disobeying Li Zhang's orders. She can only be patient and wait for the Beixi commander. Xu Mo arrives.
But now that the Winter War has begun, entering the country is only a matter of time, and it will be very soon!
Jing Qianying ran out of the door, looked up at the heavy snow that had hit, and said firmly: "Feng'er, wait for me, we will meet again soon!"
