Chapter 43: Battle Clouds (5)

It was already past Chen time, but there was still heavy fog everywhere. Wang Dashan carefully explored the way forward. Such fog blurred everything in his vision, with visibility no more than fifty steps.

Xiaoqi, where Wang Dashan is located, belongs to the 400 households of the Scout Weiqian camp, and was ordered to perform the sentry mission about fifty miles south of Kaiping. Since setting off on August 15, Xiaoqi has been away for seven days.

This mission was very simple for them. It was just a general sentinel within a radius of fifty miles of the estimated target area according to the marching regulations.

The south of Kaiping is not a key area for scouts to guard. It can reach the beach one hundred miles south, and there is no military target of great value. At present, the main forces of the scouts are all sent to the west. On the big and small roads from Peiping to Kaiping, the scouts set up four cordons, with a total of 1,000 scouts cruising; to the north, Jizhen and Qian'an are the responsibility of the Jurchen scouts.

The huge warning curtain spreads from north to south at 270 degrees, and the area south of Kaiping is the least powerful area.

Wang Dashan and the others had long heard that all the Yan army had retreated to Kaiping. They had indeed never seen a single Yan army these days. Such a mission was no different from traveling around.

However, according to the regulations, Xiaoqi did not dare to be careless and still led his subordinates to set out early in the morning to carry out the search mission of monitoring the Dagu Road south of Kaiping.

In the late autumn of the Jidong Plain, heavy fog devoured everything on the earth like a giant beast. Wang Dashan could only get off his horse from time to time to see a farther road.

A new recruit who was following behind him murmured: "It's really evil, this kind of fog can't be touched once a year."

Suddenly there was a sound behind his head, and Xiaoqi had already jumped forward and said softly: "Silent, don't you know the sound in the fog is particularly clear?" The recruit was so scared that he stuck out his tongue.

Xiaoqi ignored him and continued to walk forward with Wang Dashan. He asked softly: "Dashan. It seems something is wrong!"

Wang Dashan nodded: "Yes, I smell something wrong, but why is it wrong?" There seemed to be some noise in front of me. The two of them looked at each other, and Wang Dashan quickly dismounted and lay on the ground to listen. After a moment, he looked up and said: "It seems that there are soldiers and horses in the two miles ahead!" Before he finished speaking.

I heard a "bounce" sound not far from the right, and then a "whim" sound, an arrow shot out from the thick fog like a ghost, and was inserted into Wang Dashan's horse. The horse was shocked and raised its front hooves. When it fell, it happened to step on Wang Dashan's back. Wang Dashan was stepped onto the ground by the war horse and his mouth was salty, and a stream of blood spurted out.

It was time to say that. When Xiaoqi pulled out the saber with his backhand, the sound of bowstrings crackled, "Swoosh, swosh..." Countless feather arrows shot from the thick fog on the right, and Xiaoqi staggered and fell from the horse.

There was an arrow's tail inserted into the right rib.

The attack was rushed, and the other soldiers had their own actions. Some veterans hurriedly lie on the horse and grabbed the horse's belly and urged the horse to run forward. The recruits were stunned for a moment. A feather arrow had already pierced his horse's neck, and the war horse lifted him off the horse in pain.

At this time, two more scouts were shot by dense feather arrows and fell off their horses. The other five cavalry quickly started and rushed forward, avoiding the rain of arrows, but they hit the interception of dozens of spears in front.

The scouts were all lightly equipped, except for sabers and crossbows. The armor on their bodies was light armor. Once they were caught in battle with infantry, they were very disadvantaged. "Kill!" with a shout, dozens of Yan cavalry rushed out from the side and surrounded them from the side.

Not many times, five scouts were either killed or injured, and none of them were spared.

In just a moment, a small flag of Liaodong Army scouts had been beaten all in one go. The soldiers cleaned the battlefield, and five of the Liao army scouts were killed. Three others were injured and captured.

Strangely, the eight people found only nine horses and horse corpses, and at least one person was missing. The Yan army officer who led the team was furious and ordered his subordinates to quickly search.

...

"The city is empty? Fang Sheng runs away?" Liao King Zhu Zhi listened to the scout guard's report. On August 23, the entire Yan army gave up Kaiping and disappeared in the heavy fog.

Zhu Zhi looked at the report in his hand and was puzzled. He immediately recruited Tie Xuan, Qu Neng and Wang Guan into the account to discuss countermeasures.

When the commander Zhang Shun saw Zhu Zhi bowing his head and pondering, he knew that the whereabouts of the Kaiping defenders were lost this time, he immediately knelt down in panic and said, "If you lose the traces of the Kaiping defenders, you will be in vain. Please punish your highness."

Zhu Zhi knew that he couldn't blame him for this. The scout plan he had seen. He remembered that he ordered an additional blockade line to the west and southwest, and pushed the forward of the search screen to the vicinity of Baodi.

Zhu Zhi waved his hand and said, "Okay, get up. You don't need to be fully responsible for this matter, you just need to find them out quickly." Zhang Shun then stood up calmly.

At this time, several generals entered the account one after another. Zhang Shun hurriedly left, and Zhu Zhi waved to him to stay with him to discuss matters together. After reading the report, they were all a little surprised. Several people exchanged their eyes and then turned their eyes to Zhu Zhi.

Zhu Zhi smiled and said, "Don't look at me. You are the battlefield commanders. I want to hear what you mean. Dingshi?"

Tie Xuan nodded and said, "I approved the scout plan. Our entire alert curtain started from Zunhua, Jizhen to Yutian, and was responsible for the Jurchen scouts. So far, no abnormal movement was found; Yutian to Liangcheng, all the Guangning Right Guards were responsible for the Guangning Right Guards. There were four cordons in front and behind.

It seems that there must be a conspiracy on Yan Ni's side, but so far there has been no news from the northwest to the seaside. At that time, we will be very suspicious that the disappearance of the Kaiping defenders is closely related to Yan Ni's movement. So the first thing we need to do is to strengthen the sentry guards in the west.

Second, our army should respond to changes in the same situation and send a unit to occupy Kaiping, rather than the entire army. I think sending an infantry guard is enough. And the army should continue to stay in Luanzhou and standby. “

Zhu Zhi nodded and said, "What Dingshi says is reasonable, General Zhang will write it down."

Qu Neng looked at the sand table for a long time, and saw Zhu Zhi finishing his words, he asked, "According to the scouts' report, they entered the city this morning and there was no trace of the enemy. Zhang Shun, how many scouts are there in the south of Kaiping? What about the situation in the morning, noon and evening?"

Zhang Shundao: "The four hundred households were carried out on both sides of the estuary of Shahe River to Liangcheng. Because their troops were relatively weak, they only arranged general search tasks, and did not implement the three reports on morning, noon and evening. So far, no news from them has been received.

”

Qu Neng said: "Your Highness, I'm afraid Fang Sheng will escape, so they did not escape to Beiping. Instead, they went south to Dagu Zhigu, so the report of the scout here is very important." Qu Neng said that, which was what everyone thought, Fang Sheng was the most likely to run to the ground.

Zhu Zhi nodded and said, "It seems that they are deliberately trying to catch up with the heavy fog today, so they will run faster than rabbits." Several generals laughed dryly, and no one could laugh happily.

Wang Feng didn't say anything, but just put his hand on the sand table. He frowned and looked at something carefully. Seeing him like this, Zhu Zhi knew he had something else to think and asked, "What are you thinking about, Little Ma Wang?"

Wang Feng seemed to have not heard it, and Zhu Zhi repeated it again, and then he suddenly realized it and said, "Your Highness, I am wondering why Fang Sheng wants to escape!"

Zhu Zhi said: "Oh. Isn't it because the soldiers are in the forefront?"

Wang Wen said: "I know Fang Sheng. He is bold and meticulous in fighting and is a good master. Without Yan Ni's order, he will not run away even if he dies.

So first of all, this was Yan Ni's order, and it was related to our army's capture of Luanzhou; secondly, Yan Ni's personality will never give up easily.

He was very strong, could he give us the entire Hedong Plain without fighting? So from these two points, Yan Ni might have ordered them to let us go and let us enter, and then wait for our army to relax.

Yan Ni moved eastward again and sought a decisive battle with me."

When Tie Xuan was reminded by Wang Feng, the doubts he had just existed were suddenly lit up and nodded, "The Little Ma Wang is right. Your Highness, look at this, Zhang Shun, did the scouts place search forces in the direction of Leting?"

Zhang Shun's face suddenly turned red, and he said, "Leting has not stationed troops since the Yan Ni uprising, so there is no scout in this direction in this plan."

Tie Xuan nodded and pondered without saying a word. Everyone here is an expert in war. Tie Xuan's question reminded everyone at once, and everyone stared at Leting.

Leting is an inconspicuous county town located in the Luanhe Delta. Since it is isolated on the shore of the Bohai Sea, it is within the control of the Liaodong Army on both sides, and behind it is a sea dead land, so there is no room for maneuver. Who would put the troops in such a dead land? The first battle fleet of the Liaodong Navy.

He had already entered west near the Bohai Bay. It was covering the southern wing of the Liaodong Army, so Tie Xuan and the others did not expect that the Yan army might move here. Therefore, no scouts were sent in this direction.

But this place is extremely important now, and anyone can see that the distance from Leting to Changli and Kaiping is the same.

"It's sinister!" Wang Feng broke out, "This place is like the middle of the shoulder pole. If Fang Sheng secretly turns here, there are two options. When Yan Ni enters the east, he can kill a retaliation and attack the main force I am confronting Yan Ni."

"And if they advance north to Changli, they can cut off our army's supply line in one fell swoop, putting our front-line army in a dilemma." Tie Xuan added.

Zhu Zhi said: "Yes, this plan is very good! If Fang Sheng and Kao Ping are a bad move, it will be a bad move, but once you turn to Leting, you will be a live chess move.

Zhang Shun, send me a hundred households, no, two hundred households here, you must find out if there are Yan troops near Leting." Zhang Shun quickly agreed.

Everyone was thankful for discovering the Yan army's conspiracy. A guard outside came to report: "Report to Your Highness, an injured scout returned to the camp, saying that it was from the four hundred scouts."

Zhu Zhi's eyes lit up and he immediately ordered: "Hurry, bring people in quickly.

"Not long after, a scout was helped by two guards into the tent. The scout was covered in blood and had already been greatly overdrawn. Zhu Zhi quickly ordered him to be helped to his seat and ordered someone to bring water.

The scout took a sip and finally recovered. When he opened his eyes, he saw Zhu Zhi and others all there. He was so scared that he bounced up from the chair and wanted to kneel down. Zhu Zhi quickly pressed him down and asked, "It's okay, it's okay, you're working hard, you'll be spared those annoying gifts.

Tell me if there is any situation.”

The scout was the recruit among the four hundred scouts in the morning. He said, "Our small flag was cruising in the area fifty miles southwest of Kaiping at Chenshi, but was ambushed. Our small flag was completely wiped out, and the whole army was wiped out. Brother Wang, he was killed in order to cover my breakout, wuwu!"

Zhang Shun was anxious: "Why are you talking nonsense..."

Zhu Zhi waved his hand and interrupted his words, and said in a calm tone: "Don't worry, drink a sip of water and speak slowly."

The new recruit scout was ambushed in the thick fog. After he fell off his horse, he became the last two survivors with the seriously injured King Dashan. The two rolled into the ditch on the side of the road to avoid the enemy's search, and then snatched two war horses back to report the news. In the end, Wang Dashan said it back and forth to cover his death. He finally said: "Xiaodi saw a large number of Yan troops silenced with his own eyes and headed towards Ninghe.

”

Zhang Shundao: "You are not wrong in your direction. It was so foggy at that time? How many specific troops were there?"

The recruits said: "No mistake, our little flag is responsible for monitoring the Avenue to Dagukou. As for the specific forces, the small ones were only concerned about breaking through the siege and did not find out the details.

"Zhu Zhi nodded and ordered the guards to send him down to recuperate, and everyone returned to the sand table.

Zhang Shundao: "Your Highness, please see, the location of the small flag mission and the location of the hiding are here. This road is located in the south of Liangcheng, leading to Ninghe, and then from Ninghe to Dagu to the south."

Qu Neng said: "Do they still want to run away? Go to Dagu?"
Chapter completed!