The Changning Army was stationed in Jinshan Forest, just north of Hedong Road, across the border from Shuozhou Shenwu in Yanyun Land, less than fifty miles away.
Zhao Zhengli followed the morning light and climbed a hill in the camp to look out. He looked at the sand table terrain map in advance. Jinshan Forest was between the Luliang Mountains and the Taihang Mountains on the left and right, with Luya Mountain behind it. The terrain in front was straight towards Shenwu County, Khitan Shuo Prefecture. Here Can be attacked or defended.
The fly in the ointment is that there is Kelan Mountain on the west side, which is the border between Changning Army and Kelan Army. It is also a mountain range that runs through Wuzhai County of Shenwuchi.
The lack of open terrain has led to endless chaos on the border, and disasters have occurred more recently. The past two days of Khitan spies coming south to enter the country are just a small episode in the past few years.
Zhao Zhengli originally wanted to enjoy the scenery of the frontier fortress, but unexpectedly He Wen, the commander of the small capital in charge of 500 soldiers, visited early in the morning.
Outside the camp, they saw He Wen, who was thick in waist and short in body, and a tall and handsome man.
It was Ge Xiaojin, but today he was wearing armor, with Hedong Road's unique dark butterfly-patterned waist knife hanging on his waist, and in his hand was holding the command of the commander of Hedong Road, Zi Muhu.
The so-called "child mother tiger" refers to a large and small bronze tiger seal that can be combined. The commander is in charge of the "big tiger" and the "little tiger" is used to make orders, so seeing the seal is like seeing the commander.
He Wen, who was not tall but strong, showed great affection to Ge Xiaojin and bent down to smile.
However, Ge Xiaojin turned a deaf ear to him. It wasn't until he looked at Zhao Zhengli that he forced out a cold smile: "Commander Father has an order to send Captain Zhao to rush into Kelan Mountain to chase down the Khitan spies."
Zhao Zhengli could not disobey the commander's orders regarding military and political issues, so he bent down and respectfully received the commander's orders. From the corner of his eye, he saw a hint of teasing on Ge Xiaojin's face. It was obvious that this guy was a ruthless person.
When Ge Xiaojin's peripheral vision glanced at Biyu behind him, his eyes were stunned. He didn't know whether he was concentrating on traveling in the past few days or was wary of Yao Hanbei's followers who had been deployed dozens of miles behind him, so he ignored such a beauty.
He Wen took a look and naturally understood the meaning. How could Zhao Zhengli be used to it? I can't move you, Ge Xiaojin, for the time being. I can teach the "dog" around you a lesson.
"Puff!"
Two extremely fast zhenqi fingers in his big sleeves hit He Wen's knees hard, and his armored and strong body fell to his knees uncontrollably. He only felt that his knees were red, swollen and painful, but there was no bleeding.
Several soldiers in the distance hurriedly stepped forward to help Mr. Dutong, and Ge Xiaojin also looked shocked.
It didn't take much thinking to know that it was Zhao Zhengli who did it. He glanced coldly at the young man in plain clothes and said: "Captain Zhao, please leave immediately."
He snorted coldly and threw away his sleeves. He was not a tolerant person, but Zhao Zhengli was a man of profound knowledge and did not dare to take action easily because he had witnessed his terrifying combat power in Qingzhou Magistrate's Mansion that day, so his opponent would have to use some means to be sure, otherwise When they first met, they killed this guy who claimed in Daming County that he was only worthy of carrying his shoes.
When He Wen saw that Ge Xiaojin was like this, he could only swallow the bad words and leave angrily.
Only Captain Zhao and Biyu were left in the camp. She said quietly: "Taoist Master, have we completely offended Ge Xiaojin? The commander-in-chief of Hedong Road is his father. Will we have a hard time in the future?"
Zhao Zhengli smiled: "Politeness will only push you to the limit if you use it on evil people. If you go wrong, you will have to face each other sooner or later. What do you care about?"
"But now we..."
"Don't worry, Yao Hanbei will naturally do the job of wiping the butt. What we want is to win over people's hearts as soon as possible and establish the admiration of the soldiers. If it is too slow to be timid, we must be bold and have a sense of proportion. Otherwise, wouldn't Yao Hanbei be the best?" Too busy to be busy."
Biyu smiled sweetly, and her nervous and worried expression disappeared.
Now Zhao Duwei is a fourth-rank official, but he still has to listen to the commander's orders in the military camp, so he got up at noon that day and rushed towards Kelan Mountain.
Whether it was Ge Xiaojin's intention or He Wen's own initiative, he assigned Zhao Zhengli a team of fifteen people, most of whom were wounded soldiers. The older one was in his early fifties and the younger one was in his thirties.
It was obvious that the soldiers had been screened out and abandoned. Everyone present seemed to feel this, and the atmosphere along the way was particularly dull.
The sixty-hundred-year-old veteran sighed: "I have been fighting for nearly forty years from the Ten Kingdoms Conflict, but I didn't expect to end up in this situation."
Then he breathed a long sigh of relief and said: "That's fine, the battlefield is my final destination. I just suffer from you young children!"
His old eyes looked around, and finally landed on the young man in a plain shirt on horseback in the crowd. The young man happened to look at him, and the old soldier said: "I guess you are Captain Zhao who has been making a lot of noise in the military camp recently, right? "
Zhao Zhengli bowed his head slightly and said, "It's this junior!"
The reason why he lowered his stature was that he respected the old man's lifelong career as a soldier. He must have unique means of survival to survive in the troubled times of the Ten Kingdoms.
The old soldier did not expect that the young captain with tender skin and tender flesh could lower his posture in public. He was a little surprised and smiled brightly, showing his big yellow teeth: "It should be a good thing for the captain to be so humble, but this is not a temple for intrigues. It’s not feasible to use the etiquette of scholars like us, rough people who don’t know how to read or write.”
Zhao Zhengli became interested and asked, "Oh? How can that be done?"
The old soldier replied with reminiscence: "If you can lead rough guys like us to win the battle, show compassion and concern for your subordinates, and have your wife, children, and mother to rely on behind you, then you will be generous even if you die."
Zhao Zhengli asked: "Is the old gentleman's expedition "generous"?"
At this stage, he didn't care much. He shook his gray head slightly and said in a regretful tone: "The Ten Kingdoms are in dispute and I thought I was following the right master. However, I would be satisfied with the status quo when the world is half peaceful. But I don't know that the people of Yanyun are still there. Under the claws of the Khitan, the government first attacked the warriors guarding the country. Isn't this cutting off their arms? I feel very sorry for it. Nowadays, the country's strength is insufficient, foreign enemies are constantly harassing, parties are fighting endlessly, and the country is still difficult to stabilize. How can the family be safe? ? It hurts, it hurts! How can you be generous?"
Zhao Zhengli was stunned for a long time, and then the old man remembered that the person in front of him was a fourth-grade nobleman granted by the imperial court. He would definitely smile sadly at the current imperial court, looking down on his life and death: "If you offend the captain, I can kill the old man with one sword." Relieve anger."
Unexpectedly, the young captain's eyes were extremely gentle: "I will definitely lead you to victory in this battle."
Su Shan said boldly again: "If you are lucky enough to survive, we will regain the Yanyun land together."
Zhao Zhengli originally wanted to say, "I'm lucky enough to survive and destroy that old man from the Song family." Now these words must have been treasonous, so he changed his mind and took back the Yanyun land!
However, except for Biyu's response, the other dozen or so soldiers present were all ashen-faced. They all knew the chaotic situation.
The old soldier sighed: "The captain has this intention and I will lead him. Even if he survives, it will only be a hindrance. When we enter Kelan Mountain, we will be the first to charge and save the captain a bloody path."
Zhao Zhengli waved his hand silently. He naturally knew in his heart that they did not need to sacrifice their lives. Later, he took the initiative to chat with everyone to relax the tense atmosphere.
After this, the team became more active.
Jinshanlin is less than twenty miles from Kelan Mountain. Kelan's army entered the mountain from the west in three groups, and Changning's army also entered the mountain in three groups from the east.
On the east side, the remaining fifteen cavalry veterans led by Lieutenant Zhao served as the vanguard to explore the way. The two teams behind were separated by a hundred meters, so that they could provide support and avoid the destruction of the regiment.
To put it more bluntly, Captain Zhao's fifteen men are the vanguard and pathfinders. In the mountainous area where the enemy is in darkness and we are clear, half of their lives are actually tied to their belts.
Kelan Mountain in the northwest is covered with low shrubs. It is not as steep as Shu, nor too difficult to climb. The thick loess and high slopes are like swollen quinoa buns clustered between the sky and the earth.
Zhao Zhengli took the lead and rode in the front, followed closely by Biyu. Fifteen rode on the loess hillside for more than ten miles. Before the man was tired, the horse was tired first.
The old soldier and the remnant soldier were knocked out of breath slightly, and the two teams of elite soldiers and horses following closely behind naturally became interested.
The old soldier couldn't help but think of himself when he joined the army and sighed, "It's great to be young!"
At that time, the young captain looked back at the old soldier who was almost falling apart on his horse. After the two were side by side, he stretched out his hand and patted the old soldier's back twice. The old soldier suddenly felt a coolness entering his body and he felt refreshed. Feeling refreshed, the fatigue and pain were gone. He looked at the young man smiling at him in great surprise, and wondered: "Could he be a god?"
The young captain smiled brightly, showing his white teeth: "I am not a god, but I will definitely take you all back to the camp."
Zhao Zhengli patted the shoulders of the remaining fourteen riders one by one to encourage him, using his true energy to drive away fatigue. The eyes of the remaining soldiers seemed to light up at this moment.
On the hilltop opposite there were two rugged men wearing cross-breasted animal coats and cloth belts around their waists. The horses were extremely strong and hung with sheepskin kettles and scimitars, as well as bows and arrows.
Zhao Zhengli could see it clearly with a quick glance. Biyu also noticed it at the next moment, but she didn't hide her gaze and met the other person's eyes from a distance.
Zhao Zhengli made a rough estimate and found that the two mountains were hundreds of miles apart. If he wanted to rush over, he would have to cross the depression between the two mountains. Such a span of space would be almost beyond the reach of human beings except for the Grand Master who walked in the air.
Unless heavy-duty long-range attack weapons such as crossbows and slings are used to attack cities and forts, it is obviously unrealistic.
The other party also sensed this, so they looked at each other across the mountain with no fear. When the old soldier and the remaining soldiers saw Captain Zhao and Miss Bi looking at the same place, they all looked towards the other side of the mountain.
In an instant, the eyes of more than ten people trembled: "Khitan barbarian!"
Zhao Zhengli didn't say anything. He stretched out his hand on the horse's back and took off the bow and arrow. He put the bow on the bow and drew the arrow until it was full and made a squeaking sound.
The old soldiers and remnant soldiers only felt that invisible forces were gathering around the young captain. At this moment, the young man in armor was extremely majestic.
The soldiers were inexplicably convinced that the captain's arrow could shoot hundreds of miles away, even though they knew that this idea was absurd.
You must know that the siege bed crossbow operated by six people can barely break through the distance of 100 feet, not to mention that the captain only uses a single bow, which can usually shoot 80 steps, and can reach nearly a hundred steps at most.
However, a single bow shot Baizhang Mountain in advance, and even they didn't know where the confidence came from.
The two horseman Khitan barbarians on the other side of the mountain and the two teams of elite soldiers a hundred meters behind all thought that the guy with the bow and arrow was crazy.
The young captain drew his bow with full force, and his ordinary single bow emitted a buzzing sound, which sounded like a beast dormant in the abyss.
The air flow surging throughout the arrow body seems to be attached with layers of transparent divine power, showing respect and awe.
"Whoosh!"
The arrow escaped from the bow and shot through the sky like a comet. The speed was almost invisible to the naked eye. Only a long shadow could be seen clearly across a distance of a hundred feet.
Everyone present was stunned, their heads couldn't keep up with the speed of their eyes.
"Bang!"
On the other side of the mountain a hundred feet away, a huge crater appeared as if it had been hit by a comet. The two Khitan knights exploded on the spot, leaving no bones left.
There was silence for a moment, and the arrows were like meteorites. How much power does this require?
"Whizzing"
However, at the next moment, two beams of Chi Mang were shot from behind the mountain. The two masters, Zhao Zhengli and Biyu, decisively drew their swords and slashed out sword energy from the air to defeat Chi Mang.
At the same time, dozens of Khitan soldiers and horses climbed to the top of the mountain, led by a young man holding a halberd and looking heroic.
Side by side with him was a muscular man with exposed bronze arms and a smooth, hairless face. He was holding a rein in one hand and a spear in the other. He was looking at the people at the end of the mountain with the young man holding the halberd.
Zhao Zhengli's pupils shrank. The young man looked exactly like Yelu Xiao, the first Khitan master. The weapon he had in hand was a halberd. All the details were infinitely close to Yelu He's "Khitan Double Dragon".
The muscular man Zhao Zhengli had seen in the tense Wulu Temple was none other than Dahe Luohan, one of the three commanders of the Khitan.
What surprised Zhao Zhengli even more was how could they enter Kelan Mountain quietly at such a large scale?
How to successfully pass through the three layers of border patrols and layers of beacon sentries in front?
A bold idea came to his mind. Someone was using the Khitan's hand to destroy him. Seeing their calm and calm appearance, he should have been waiting for a long time in advance.
This is a premeditated collusion!
