Chapter 192: Seeking to live in death, six battles and six victories (Part 2)

Qi Diaozi said: "That is, the Zhuozhou Legion who went north to assist Xijing is cheating!"

"The Zhuozhou Legion is a fraud?" Jia Wudao said in confusion, "What kind of fraud can it be?"

Meng Hu said in a deep voice: "Lao Qi, what do you mean is that the Zhuozhou Legion may not have gone north to rush to Xijing?"

"This is impossible." Jia Wudao shouted, "I just received a message from the barbarian cavalry. The 60,000 army of the Zhuozhou Army has now reached a hundred miles south of Xijing!"

Qi Diaozi said: "That is probably just a suspicious soldier."

"Suspicious soldiers?" Jia Wudao said, "What does Lao Qi mean?"

Qi Diaozi said: "Qiuyutang can recruit enough people from Fengcheng to change into the battle robes and armor of the Zhuozhou Legion, and then head north to assist Xijing. The real Zhuozhou Legion sets an ambush on the way our army must go to Fenglin Port! Of course, there must be a prerequisite, that is, Qiuyutang predicted our army's actions in advance."

Jia Wudao took a breath of air conditioning when he heard this and said in a low voice: "This..."

Meng Hu said in a deep voice: "No matter whether there are ambushes in the dense forest ahead, we must be prepared."

"General is wise." Qi Diaozi and Jia Wudao clasped their fists at the same time and said in a solemn manner, "Our army alone goes deep into danger and is always worried about the destruction of the entire army. It is appropriate to be cautious."

Meng Hu took a breath and shouted: "Zhang Xingba!"

Zhang Xingba, who had just returned from the order, immediately stepped forward and replied: "Here!"

Meng Hu pointed at the dense forest on the sad ridge ahead with the whip in his hand, and said with a grim voice: "Prepare more fire arrows and set fire to the forest!"

Zhang Xingba responded with a loud promise, and urgently mobilized fire arrows from the archers of each division, and then led the guards to the sad ridge a few miles ahead like a wind and clouds. Almost at the same time, the four divisions of the Tiger Legion also began to assemble and hurriedly set up a battle formation in the wilderness north of the sad ridge.

At this point, Meng Hu had no other choice.

Sad Ridge is the only way for the Tiger Legion to go south to Fenglin Port, and the dense forests on both sides of the official road look endless. At this time, it is too late to take a detour to go south. Just received a message from the barbarian cavalry. Yan Shisan's Shuozhou cavalry had bit the butt of the Tiger Legion and chased him down. Now the two armies are less than two hundred miles apart.

Now the Tiger Legion has only the last chance, which is to force out the ambush in the forest and defeat it.

But then again, the risk of doing so is extremely great, because the Tiger Legion was exhausted after two days and two nights of long-distance marching, while the possible ambush on the opposite side had been replenishing for a long time. In the era of cold weapons, physical strength was the decisive factor in determining the outcome of the battlefield. The enemy was waiting for it to work hard, which could be said to have all the advantages.

What's worse is that Yan Shisan's Shuozhou cavalry may catch up at any time. If they cannot defeat the Zhuozhou ambush in the dense forest ahead before dark today, then the Tiger Legion may be caught up and entangled by the Shuozhou Army who are following and chasing. If this is the case, the end of the Tiger Legion will come.

Qi Diaozi also understood the severe situation faced by the Tiger Legion and said, "General, the situation is very serious now."

Meng Hu focused his head, but his sharp eyes stared at the dense forest ahead without a moment. The situation faced by the Tiger Legion was indeed very serious, but Meng Hu didn't take it much. In fact, since the Tiger Legion returned to Zhongzhou, the situation faced has never eased. The crisis has always been with the Tiger Legion like a shadow, but Meng Hu was not concerned at all because he had long been used to all this.

As a veteran, Meng Hu had long been accustomed to licking blood at the tip of a knife and making a living with his head. As a general, Meng Hu had long been aware of death in the battlefield and corpse-wrapped. If you are afraid of death, don’t join the army. If you are afraid of crisis, don’t be the general who commands the troops. Otherwise, in the end, it will not only harm yourself, but also harm millions of soldiers.

Sad Ridge, deep in the dense forest.

As Qi Diaozi guessed, Qiu Yutang did use a trick of doubting the enemy.

The army heading north to assist Xijing was indeed only the Fengcheng people wearing the battle robe of the Zhuozhou army, but the real Zhuozhou army had already been ambushed in the dense forests under the Sad Ridge! The Sad Ridge is deep and the forests are dense, and the barbarian cavalry cannot go deep, so Xiong Batian has never been able to find the Zhuozhou army that ambushed it.

In the dense jungle, there is a big tree that ten people hugged each other.

The winding wooden ladder stretched from the ground along the trunk to a height close to the canopy, where a solid viewing tower was built with wooden boards. On the tower, two figures looked at the wilderness on the north side of the Sad Ridge. In the wilderness ten miles away, you could vaguely see the tiger army lined up nervously.

These two figures are nothing but Luo Congyun, the governor of Zhuozhou of Mingyue Empire, and Qiu Changlin, the King of Qi from Fenglin County.

After the Mingyue Empire quelled the Eight Kings Rebellion, almost all the princes of Qiu were cut off their fiefs, all the land and land were nationalized, and then forced to move to the imperial capital Xijing, and the treasury was paid for it. In fact, they were placed under house arrest by the central government of the empire. However, there were still a few princes who made great contributions to the Eight Kings Rebellion. Not only were they cut off their fiefs, but they even obtained more fiefs or more respected titles. Qiu Changlin, the King of Qi, was one of them.

The princes and titles of Mingyue Empire are divided into two levels, the upper level is the first character king, such as the Xian King, the East King, the Qi King, etc., and the lower level is the second character king, such as the Qingzhou King, the North King, the Fenglin King, etc. The two characters are divided into three levels, and the highest level is the prince who enfeoffed a state, such as the Qingzhou King, the Dingzhou King, etc., and the second level is the prince who enfeoffed a county, such as the Beidi King, the Fenglin King, etc.

Qiu Changlin was originally the lowest among the two-level and six-level princes.

However, after the Eight Kings Rebellion broke out, Qiu Changlin convinced the wealthy families of Fengcheng County with his perfect tongue and spent a huge amount of money to arm a 30,000-strong army. After that, Qiu Changlin led this army to follow Qiu Yutang in battle and made great achievements. These 30,000 troops to support the kings and become Gu's famous "Fenglin Army".

After the Eight Kings Rebellion was quelled, Qiu Fengjin, the Emperor of the Mingyue Empire, rewarded the merits, Qiu Changlin was promoted from Fenglin King to Qi. However, Qiu Changlin's fiefdom did not expand, and it was still a mere Fenglin County. In addition, the "Fenglin Army" was also forcibly disbanded, and all Fenglin veterans were supplemented by Qiu Fengjin into Situ Rui's Qingzhou Army. This was also a major factor in the strong combat power of the Qingzhou Army during Situ Rui's eastern expedition. Unfortunately, Situ Rui and Qingzhou Army met the evil star Meng Hu, which caused them to die before they could win. It makes people sigh.

Qiu Fengjin's arrangement is just two reasons.

First, Situ Rui's Qingzhou army was going to fight eastward, and urgently needed a large number of veterans. Second, Qiu Fengjin was afraid that Qiu Changlin's Fenglin's army would become a military force independent of the top ten legions of the Mingyue Empire. This military force was completely obeyed Qiu Changlin. Qiu Fengjin, which had already learned from the Eight Kings Rebellion, certainly would not let the tragedy of history repeat itself, and of course he would try every means to kill all dangerous factors in the bud, so he deprived Qiu Changlin of his military power without hesitation.

In short, Qiu Changlin made great contributions to the Eight Kings Rebellion and was very talented in military affairs, but he was not qualified to lead troops now. However, Zhuozhou Governor Luo Congyun still invited Qiu Changlin to the army because the two had cooperated several times when quelling the Eight Kings Rebellion. Luo Congyun was very clear about Qiu Changlin's ability. In Luo Congyun's heart, Qiu Changlin's leadership ability was not even inferior to Situ Rui, at least he was inferior to himself.

Seeing the Tiger Legion under the Sad Ridge in a hurry, Luo Congyun frowned, turned to look at the Qi Wang Qiu Changlin beside him, and asked in a low voice: "Your Highness, what's going on? Why did the Tiger Legion suddenly stop leaving, but stopped to start marching?"

Qiu Changlin did not answer, but just shook his head silently.

"Did they find any flaws?" Luo Congyun whispered to himself, "It shouldn't be possible. Our army had already ambushed here three days ago, and had repeatedly cleared the traces left in the forest. The scouts of the Tiger Legion came from afar, so it should be difficult to find any flaws, right?"

Qiu Changlin was speechless, and he was also confused and couldn't think of any problem.

In fact, the Tiger Legion did not find any flaws. All of this was just Meng Hu's subjective conjecture, but unfortunately, Meng Hu is now the leading commander of the Tiger Legion, and his subjective conjecture will naturally become the collective will of the entire legion most of the time!

The two were shocked and suspicious. A burst of rapid footsteps suddenly climbed to the watching tower. Then a clear and pleasant voice sounded from behind the two: "Father, Your Highness, just now the scout captain returns, the Tiger Legion sent about a unit of troops to fight in the direction of the sad leader."

"oh?"

"Yeah?"

Qiu Changlin and Luo Congyun turned around when they heard the sound, and a graceful figure instantly caught their eyes.

The decent white light armor tightly covers the slender and toned body, outlining the soft curves of women to the fullest. The skin as white as mutton fat jade is as if it can be pinched out with a light pinch. The faint willow eyebrows, the black and bright eyes, and the rosy little mouth remind people of the delicate cherries, the subtle arc at the corner of the mouth, and the beautiful eyes that crescent-like moons look like they are smiling all the time.

A hint of admiration flashed through Qiu Changlin's eyes.

Meeting Qiu Changlin's scorching eyes, two faint red clouds emerged from the fair and pink face of the beautiful figure. This woman was no one else, but Luo Ningyan, the eldest daughter of Luo Congyun, the governor of Zhuozhou.

Some people say that the Moon Empire is full of talent and talented people are emerging, and this is true.

Although the father and son of the Situ family in Qingzhou died under Meng Hu one after another, they did not affect the reputation of the Situ family at all. There were four heroes in the Qin family in Dingzhou, five tigers in the Yan family in Shuozhou, and the Gongsun family in Youzhou were even more thirteen heroes. Who wouldn’t say that the thumbs up? What’s even more amazing is that Mingyue’s performance is not as good as men.

I won’t talk about the bright moon and autumn rain and begonia of the empire. The four daughters of the Luo family in Zhuozhou are also famous.

The governor of Zhuozhou, Luo Congyun, had no wife and had no children, but his four beautiful concubines gave birth to four good daughters of similar age. The eldest daughter Luo Ningyan, the second daughter Luo Ningyu, the third daughter Luo Yumei, and the youngest daughter Luo Yurou. They all came out and felt ashamed of the moon and flowers, and the country was fragrant.

Because Luo Congyun had no children, he had raised his four daughters as sons since he was a child. Not only did he teach them swords, guns, swords and sticks, but also military calligraphy formations. Unexpectedly, these four daughters were really talented in military affairs. After graduating from the Imperial Military Academy with excellent grades, they joined the Zhuozhou Legion one after another. Until now, these four daughters have become master commanders with their real skills.

"The strength of a corps?" Luo Congyun frowned, "What is Meng Hu doing?"

"Test!" Qiu Changlin pondered for a moment and said decisively, "Meng Hu found no flaws. He was cautious, so he sent a small number of troops to test first. The Governor can order the entire army not to act rashly."

"Yeah." Luo Congyun pointed his head and ordered Luo Ningyan to say, "Yan'er, immediately order the entire army not to act rashly."

Luo Ningyan agreed to take the order and left.

After about a cup of tea, thick smoke suddenly rose from the edge of the dense forest, and then red flames rushed into the sky. Luo Congyun and Qiu Changlin were shocked. A thought flashed through their minds like lightning. Set fire. Should Meng Hu, this bastard, set fire to the mountain?

As his thoughts turned, Luo Ningyan had already rushed to the looking tower again and replied anxiously: "Father, the enemy has begun to set fire to the mountains."

"Damn it." Luo Congyun said angrily, "Meng Hu is really cunning. He is trying to force us to show up."

"Yes." Qiu Changlin nodded, "Although the weather has warmed up now and the plants have sprouted, it is not easy for the Tiger Army to set fire to the mountains, but if they really have to let them do whatever they want, the fire will not be controlled. If our army still does not move, it is likely to be buried in the sea of ​​fire."

Luo Congyun sighed and said, "It seems that only Lin Ying's enemy can be found."

"Then let's go out of the forest." Qiu Changlin said, "Although the Tiger Legion is notorious, they have experienced a long-distance marching after all. They are exhausted and trapped in the city. However, our army is raising energy and waiting for hard work. Even if we lose the opportunity in this battle, our army will still have the upper hand."

Luo Congyun suddenly turned around and said to Luo Ningyan: "Yan'er, immediately send the whole army to line up!"

At the edge of the jungle.

Zhang Xingba was leading the guards to ignite fires everywhere. If it was late winter or early spring, it would be enough to shoot a few dozen fire arrows to ignite the huge fire. Unfortunately, it is almost time to turn spring and summer, and the plants and trees turn green, so it is difficult to ignite the forest fire again.

But even so, Zhang Xingba still found a way to collect dead branches and leaves and ignited dozens of fire.

Without external interference, these dozens of fires will eventually turn into huge fires, because even green trees and green grass will become extremely flammable after being smoked by fire. Many fires in primeval forests will be difficult to extinguish once they are burned. This is why.

While Zhang Xingba was busy commanding the soldiers to light the fire, a guard suddenly ran up panting and reported: "General, ambush, ambush, ambush in the forest!"

"Well, ambush?" Zhang Xingba suddenly looked up and shouted sternly, "Where is it?"

"Then, there!" the soldier pointed to the deep forest in front of him and gasped, "Okay, there are so many people, at least tens of thousands!"

"Hmph, these stupid pigs in the bright moon!" Zhang Xingba groaned from his nostrils and shouted in a grim voice, "As expected, the general really laid an ambush in the forest, and sent an order to retreat the entire army!"

With Zhang Xingba's order, the guards quickly turned around and retreated from the edge of the dense forest.

Under the sad ridge, the tigers were in the army.

Meng Hu, Qi Diaozi and Jia Wudao put on a tent with their hands on the edge of the dense forest. Seeing dozens of fire heads ignited, Jia Wudao suddenly said: "If there are really ambushers in the dense forest, they should appear now. If they don't appear again, they will most likely be buried in the sea of ​​fire."

"Report..."

As soon as Jia Wudao finished speaking, Zhang Xingba had already rushed to Meng Huma like a whirlwind and shouted sternly, "General, I found a large squad of ambushers in the dense forest, and there were at least tens of thousands of people!"

"Oh, there are indeed ambushes!"

Qi Diaozi couldn't help but feel ashamed when he heard this.

Jia Wudao sighed with regret: "It's a pity that if it were in late winter or early spring, our army would only need to set fire to burn these tens of thousands of ambush troops to ashes, alas."

Qi Diaozi took a breath and said to Meng Hu: "General, although our army has forced out the enemy ambush with fire, it has temporarily gained the lead. But I still have to say that it is really not suitable to fight the enemy now. First, our army has just passed a long-distance march and is already trapped in people and horses. Second, our army is still following the wolf cavalry in Shuozhou. If we cannot defeat the enemy in a short time, the consequences will be unimaginable..."

"I know."

Meng Hu focused his head and said boldly, "Now there are blockages in front, pursuers behind, and Qiu Yutang's hundreds of thousands of Mingyue main force crushed here from several directions. The situation facing our Tiger Legion can even be said to be a sure death situation, but this is nothing!"

"oh?"

“Huh?”

After hearing Meng Hu's passionate words, Qi Diaozi and Jia Wudao couldn't help but look surprised and suspicious. They couldn't imagine why Meng Hu had such a passion and confidence in the face of such a severe situation? It seemed that he did not take the encirclement and blockade of the Mingyue Empire Army seriously, as if there was nothing he could not do in this world!

"Old Qi, Lao Jia!"
To be continued...