When the seven or eight horses rushed forward, Li Zhiyun took a look and saw that they were his second brother and several of his soldiers. Li Zhiyun stood on the side of the road and shouted loudly: "Second brother, where are you going?" The second brother tightened the reins, reined in the horse, pointed forward with his hand and said: "We are going to the front to detect the enemy's situation."
The second brother attaches great importance to enemy reconnaissance and often personally leads Qingqi to conduct reconnaissance activities near enemy camps. After the second brother asked Li Zhiyun where he came from, he said, "Fifth brother, do you dare to follow me to the enemy camp to conduct reconnaissance?"
"Then what's there to be afraid of? If you dare to go, I dare to go!" Li Zhiyun said with a puff of chest. He didn't want his second brother to underestimate him.
The second brother smiled and nodded, saying, "Well done, let's go!" After that, he waved his whip and rode forward.
Li Zhiyun, Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu turned their horses and followed the team. The group of people ran for about half an hour and arrived at a hilly area. The second brother reined in his horse and looked around. This is already an enemy-occupied area, surrounded by hills of varying heights.
The second brother divided everyone into several groups and asked everyone to spread out to scout the enemy.
"In an hour, we will gather under that tree." The second brother pointed to an ancient locust tree not far away and said.
"Yes!" Everyone agreed and rode away.
Li Zhiyun and his second brother were in a group, and the two drove their horses toward the northeast. After walking for a while, the second brother pointed to a hill in front of him on the right and said, "Fifth brother, let's go up that mountain and see if we can find anything." They drove their horses to the foot of the mountain, got off their horses, and led the The horse climbed the hill. The terrain on the top of the mountain is relatively flat, overgrown with weeds, and there are a few small trees growing there. Li Zhiyun stood on the mountain and looked far into the distance. This hill was slightly higher than the surrounding hills, so he could see five or six miles away. He looked around, not to mention not seeing the enemy camp, not even a ghost.
"Let's sit down and have a rest." The second brother said and sat down, leaning against a tree. After a while, he fell asleep.
Li Zhiyun also sat on the grass leaning on a big stone. In his previous life, he had the habit of taking a nap and spent a long time shopping in the morning. Now his eyelids felt as heavy as lead. After a while, his upper and lower eyelids were stuck together.
The two brothers fell asleep in this deserted mountain. Their horses were grazing quietly not far away, and the surroundings were quiet. Apart from the even snores of the two of them, there was only the sound of the leaves blowing in the breeze.
Beside Li Zhiyun, a mouse crawled out of the hole. It opened its small round eyes and looked around warily. The mouse crawled cautiously, looking around from time to time. At this time, a thick and long green snake swam out from the grass nest next to it. As soon as the snake found the mouse, it was extremely excited, and it could finally have a good meal. So, the snake's belly clung to the turf and rushed over with a hiss. As soon as the mouse saw the snake spitting out the letter and pounced on it, it was frightened out of its wits, turned around and ran away. In a panic, it jumped onto Li Zhiyun's shoulder, then onto his face, and then jumped from his face onto the stone. , and finally got into a crack in the rocks and escaped.
Li Zhiyun was sleeping soundly, but was awakened by the claws of a mouse. He sat up, rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, and glanced around. It didn't matter if he looked around. He was shocked when he saw it. On the hillside ten feet away from him, there was a large area of darkness, filled with enemy soldiers, who were climbing towards the top of the mountain.
Li Zhiyun got up in a hurry, ran to his second brother, shook him hard and said: "Second brother, wake up quickly, the enemy is coming!" The second brother opened his eyes, stood up and took a look, and said quickly: "Hurry up and get on the horse!" The two ran to the horse, stepped on it, turned the horse's head, rushed down the gentler side of the hillside, and ran onto the official road.
The enemy had discovered them and sent cavalry to chase them. The enemy's cavalry, numbering about fifty or sixty, was chasing them closely, getting closer and closer. The second brother looked back, took out the hard bow worth one stone and five measures from the saddle bag, and took out a large feathered arrow from the quiver. He put the arrow on the bow, turned around and shot an arrow, causing the leading enemy to fall off his horse. The enemy was startled and slowed down their pursuit, and the distance between the two sides gradually widened.
Li Zhiyun just breathed a sigh of relief when he suddenly saw a large number of enemy cavalry appearing in front of them, about a hundred or so in number, blocking their way. The two had to rein in their horses and stop. Li Zhiyun looked at his second brother and asked anxiously: "Second brother, what should I do?" The second brother frowned and looked carefully. He found that the official road branched off not far ahead, so he pointed with his hand and said: " Let's take that road!" After they got on the side road, they galloped wildly. Originally, they were heading west, and this branch road was heading north. Therefore, the further they ran forward, the farther away they were from their camp.
Behind them, two groups of enemy troops joined together and continued to chase them. The enemy was chasing closely, and the distance between them was slowly getting closer. The second brother turned around and shot a few more arrows. Although he killed several enemies, the enemy army still pursued them regardless of casualties, and kept biting them, as if they were bent on catching them.
When the two of them were at a loss what to do, suddenly, a castle appeared in front of them. Although this castle is not too big, it has complete defense facilities. In addition to the city wall, a trench was dug outside the city. A drawbridge was set up on the trench, and the road passed right in front of the drawbridge.
When they galloped to the side of the castle, the suspension bridge on the ditch had been lowered. Someone on the top of the city waved to them and shouted: "Come in! Come in!" The two stopped their horses, and Li Zhiyun looked at his second brother: "Can we get in?" The second brother looked back at the enemy cavalry who was about to catch up, and said decisively, "Get in!" After they entered the castle through the drawbridge, the drawbridge was pulled up again.
After the two entered the castle through the city gate, they got off their horses. At this time, a man hurriedly walked down the steps of the city wall. This man looked to be about forty years old, wearing armor, and had a tall and strong build. He walked up to his second brother, cupped his fists and said, "I have never met His Highness King Qin."
"you are?……"
"The last general is Fan Botong, the commander-in-chief of Jiangzhou's march. Last year, General Wei went to Chang'an and had the honor to meet His Highness. Just now, General Wei saw the enemy chasing the two of them at the top of the city. He recognized His Highness from a distance, so he called his subordinates Lower the drawbridge and summon you two to enter the castle."
The second brother listened, nodded, and looked at the other party with some confusion: "Why is General Fan in this castle?" Fan Botong sighed and said, "Two months ago, Song Jingang led his troops to attack In Jiangzhou, the last general led his army to fight against him. Because he was outnumbered, he had to lead the remaining soldiers to flee to the Dongjia Fort." After Fan Botong said this, he turned his eyes to Li Zhiyun and said, "Who is this?..."
"Oh, he is my fifth brother, King Li Zhiyun of Chu."
When Fan Botong heard this, he cupped his fists and saluted. Li Zhiyun quickly returned the gift.
"Aren't the two princes in Chang'an? How come they are here and being chased by the enemy?" Fan Botong asked strangely.
Before the second brother could answer, Li Zhiyun said first, "My second brother was sent by my father to lead an army to attack Liu Wuzhou." When Fan Botong heard this, he excitedly asked: "So, the emperor sent King Qin to recover Hedong?" The second brother said He nodded and said: "My two brothers went to the enemy camp to conduct reconnaissance. We didn't want to run into the enemy troops, so we were chased."
"The two princes are frightened. Let's go to the military camp to rest." After Fan Botong finished speaking, he led the way and introduced the situation here.
There were originally five to six hundred households in Dongjia Fort. After Song Jinjiang occupied Jiangzhou, he sent troops to rob and loot the castle. The nearby people took refuge in the castle one after another. Currently, there are more than a thousand households. After Fan Botong led hundreds of remaining soldiers to retreat to Dongjiabao, Song Jinjiang sent troops to attack several times but failed to defeat them. Later, Song Jingang probably thought that this small castle had little strategic value and was not worth losing his troops, so he gave up the attack.
The three of them were walking and talking. Not long after walking, they saw a large group of soldiers surrounding an empty field in front of them, with a woman dancing a sword in the middle. I saw her strong posture, proficient swordsmanship, leaping and leaping, very organized, and her swordsmanship was exquisite, which attracted a burst of applause from the onlookers.
After the woman danced a set of sword skills, she took back her posture. When she saw the three of them, she ran over quickly. Li Zhiyun looked carefully and found that the woman looked about sixteen or seventeen years old, with a rosy face and beautiful appearance, especially her big eyes, which were as bright as two black grapes in the water. The girl ran forward and sweetly called daddy. Fan Botong stroked his beard and laughed loudly, and said to his second brother, "This is my little daughter Shuxiang." Then he said to his daughter: "Shuxiang, come quickly and pay homage to the King of Qin and the King of Chu."
Fan Shuxiang did not salute the two of them, but walked up to his second brother, looked at him blankly and said, "Are you Li Shimin? I heard that you are superb in martial arts, do you dare to compete with me?" Fan Botong's face turned pale after hearing this. He changed and said sternly: "Don't be rude!"
After hearing this, the second brother smiled and said to Uncle Fan, "General Fan, it's okay." Then he turned to Fan Shuxiang and said, "Miss Fan, what do you want to compete in?" Fan Shuxiang thought for a while and said, "Just archery. Right." The second brother nodded, turned around and took out a hard bow from the saddle bag, and then pulled out a large feathered arrow from the quiver.
At this moment, a wild goose happened to fly over. The second brother drew his bow and fired an arrow, and the wild geese suddenly fell down like a broken paper kite. A soldier ran over and picked it up, only to see the arrow passing through his head. The onlookers let out bursts of exclamation.
Fan Shuxiang also took a bow and arrow from a soldier and looked up at the sky. There were no wild geese in the sky, but a crow flew over his head, croaking. She shot the arrow, and the crow fell down in response to the sound of the string. A soldier ran over to look for him and shot him in the head.
"The wild goose is big and the crow is small. The wild goose is high and the crow is low. This game is considered a draw." Fan Shuxiang said.
The second brother nodded and said, "That's fair. What's next?"
"Swordsmanship competition."
The two came to the open space and started to compete. After fighting back and forth for more than ten rounds, the second brother suddenly stopped and said: "Miss Fan's swordsmanship is superb, I am willing to defeat you!" Fan Shuxiang saw that she was the best! The second brother gave up and was very happy. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, walked up to Li Zhiyun and said, "King Chu, do you know martial arts?"
"Won't."
"Then what do you know?"
"Can't do anything."
"You don't know anything?" Fan Shuxiang said with a smile, "Then you won't be a loser?"
When Fan Botong next to him heard this, he changed his color in surprise and said: "You girl, stop talking nonsense! Apologize to King Chu!" Li Zhiyun turned to Fan Bo and said: "It's okay, it's okay. Miss Fan has a bold personality and is quick to speak, which is quite good for me. temper."
