In the evening, the rain finally stopped. Looking for a piece of high ground, Li De jumped off the horse, and stroked his war horse with some distress, the war horse was splashed with mud, and the war horse that had followed him for many years also turned his head affectionately and arched Li De with his big head. In fact, Li De himself is not good now, and the lower half of his body can no longer see the original color of his clothes.

It was a painful thing to march on such a road, and the river overflowed, and the further north you went, the worse the situation became, and now there was no way to see it at all.

"Ruined, all ruined!" Li De was a little distressed, "The harvest of the year is all over." ”

After the Tang army broke through the Yellow River defense line, it marched all the way, and Liu Xinda retreated very quickly, and ran to Linzi in a blink of an eye.

"General, let's eat something first!" The soldier handed over a hard bun and a pot of water.

I took a hard bite of the bun and put it in my mouth to make it slightly softer, then chewed and swallowed it, and then poured a sip of water. Li De, including his subordinates, has long been accustomed to such days. This kind of weather may be a kind of torture for other troops, but for Li De and his rangers, it is a common thing.

They don't know how many worse days they have had. In the north, climbing the ice and lying in the snow, sometimes it is often more than ten days without seeing a single figure, and at the worst time, it is broken for many days, all by digging grass roots, catching insects, digging voles, and digging earthworms to survive.

Of course, as Li Ze became stronger day by day, such days slowly became precious memories and experiences. Later, although the logistics were safe and there was no need to shake such a day, Li De still regarded this as an important subject in the training of soldiers. Especially for the newly added Rangers, survival training is even more essential.

Li De made this a necessary skill for the Rangers, and every soldier was required to master it.

After all, the Rangers are not like other troops, they often take on some special combat missions far from the homeland, far from the base camp, and it is common to have no logistics to replenish them.

A thousand rangers fed on the high ground and began to pick at the mud for their horses. Today I have marched about seventy-eight miles in one day, and it is about to get dark when I see it, and I am afraid that this place is suitable for camping now.

Naturally, they didn't have tents or anything, except for the necessary weapons and dry food, the Rangers didn't bring these things that they thought were cumbersome, and with the strength and place to install tents, it was better to bring a little more weapons and dry food.

Their cloaks are specially made, and the most important feature is that they are protected from rain, and in such an environment, they can wrap their cloaks around their bodies and fall to the ground, and they can fall asleep.

The saddle was removed, and the war horse probably knew that this was the case, and raised its hooves with ease, neighing.

Li De is also ready to rest here today.

As soon as he finished eating the bun in his hand, he saw that the scout he had sent out was returning from a distance.

"General Li, I found this!" A scout slipped a bag of things from his horse and placed it in front of Li De.

"Military rations!" Looking at the words faintly exposed on the bag, Li De's face changed slightly, and he reached out and scraped it a few times, completely cleaning the soil on the bag, and the handwriting on it was clearly revealed.

It was a military ration that was transported from Dizhou.

"Where did you find it?" He asked, looking up.

"On the edge of a ravine ten miles away, it was hung by branches." The scout replied.

Li De's face changed slightly, "It's a little bad, I'm afraid that our grain transportation team has encountered a flood and hasn't found anything else?" ”

"We searched for a long time in the vicinity, and all we saw was one grain bag, some broken vehicles, and dead livestock. Dead people, also saw several. The scout said.

Li De put down his heart a little: "It seems that only a part of the loss has been lost, a few of you rest, change a group of people, go out, and investigate again." ”

"Yes!"

Watching the new batch of scouts go away again, Li De pondered for a long time, and finally gave the order for the whole army to set off again, it is certain that the grain transport team has encountered a flood, since the grain bags have been found in the left vicinity, then they must not be too far from here, and it is best to find them as soon as possible.

The rangers were no strangers to such overnight marches, and as soon as the order was given, the soldiers began to reload their swords and saddles, turn over their horses, and follow Li De slowly.

When night fell, the rangers found some dry branches and thatch and bundled them together, made them into torches, and lit up the march with great fanfare, these places should now be regarded as the rear of the Tang Army, and the large-scale formed enemy has long since ceased to exist, of course, there must be a small group of enemies, but after these people saw their cavalry of this size, they were afraid that they would have long since disappeared.

At the second watch, the scouts who explored the way hurried back.

"General, traces of large-scale soldiers and horses were found in front."

"Is it our food convoy?" Li De was overjoyed and asked anxiously.

"Probably not." The scout shook his head and said, "According to the traces left behind, it should be an army of mixed infantry and cavalry, and if it is our grain transport team, there should be ruts." And after we traced it a little further, we found some shallower footprints, and the soles of the shoes on those marks indicated that they were a Pinglu army. ”

"How many people are there?"

"Not less than the size of a battalion."

Li De's pupils contracted slightly, and he said in a low voice: "Extinguish the fire!" ”

In an instant, countless torches were pressed into the mud in unison, and the entire army was plunged into darkness at once.

"Find out where this Pinglu army is, they must have spotted the remnants of our food convoy and attacked them."

"Yes!" The scouts, who were more numerous, led the order to leave, and Li De led the other rangers, silently following behind and slowly moving forward.

At that time, Li De's heart was a little heavy, although the grain transport team also had an escort force, but it would only be a small force, and after this flood, it was difficult to say how much combat strength they still had. If it is attacked by this enemy suddenly, I am afraid that it will be difficult to survive.

He only hoped that this enemy army would be discovered and caught up by him as soon as possible. He didn't want to end up being the one who collected the bodies of his comrades.

Outside Niujia Village.

Liu Santong rode on a war horse and looked at the small village with the fire shining in the distance. The spies have been sent out, and now it seems that everything is under control.

Moments later, the scout hurried back.

"How many people are there?" Liu Santong asked.

"General, the other party has arranged a lot of sentry posts, which cannot be penetrated, but from the outside, there are seven or eight houses, there are people in each room, and dozens of mules and carriages are parked outside, looking at this scale, it is probably between hundreds of people, but observing their open posts and secret posts, most of them are young and strong, and the escort force should not be much, and it should be concentrated in one of them as a temporary warehouse." Illuminated by torches, the scout drew a general picture of Niujia Village, the place he suspected to be a temporary warehouse, and marked it emphatically.

"Prepare to attack!" Liu Santong straightened up and made a simple deployment, such an attack did not require him to spend too much energy.

"General, the terrain around Niujia Village is concave, there is a lot of mud, the sloping soil is soft, and it has been soaked in rain for a long time, which is not suitable for cavalry impact, so you can only attack with foot soldiers." The scout suggested.

"The cavalry stays behind, Fu Cheng, you take 800 foot soldiers up, take Niujia Village for me, I don't want people, grain, not a single grain is missing!" Liu Santong commanded.

"Yes!" Fu Cheng tightened the shackles of his armor, ordered all the people and horses, and under the leadership of the scout, he went in the direction of Niujia Village in the dark.

Their army had more than 1,000 men and horses, 800 foot soldiers, and more than 200 cavalry. In a one-time attack, all the infantry were put into action, and he did not underestimate the logistics and baggage team of the Tang Army in front of him.

Ren Xiaonian sat on the roof, trying to keep his eyes open and look at the situation in the distance.

A large blurred black shadow appeared in his field of vision, outside Niujia Village, stopped for a while, and then divided into two roads, one from the front to touch in, the other way around the back of the village, and his earlier expectations, without error.

This is the most conventional method, and depending on the terrain conditions of Niujia Village, it is also the most effective method.

He grinned.

Even if there are only 300 people, Lao Tzu can burst your mouth full of teeth.

Fu Cheng cautiously bowed and approached the village, not seeing the bright post and secret sentry that the scout said, he couldn't help but turn his head to look at the scout beside him.

"Maybe the other party is lazy and hid somewhere to sleep." The scout explained, but he was also inexplicable in his heart, before a pillar of incense, when he came, he obviously saw that there was a sentry.

The mules and horses were tied to some trees on the edge of the village, and some were even tied directly to the frames, and when the animals saw a large number of people touching them, they only ignored them, and then hung their heads as if nothing had happened, and occasionally two horses raised their heads and barked twice, which seemed very common.

A large number of bonfires were burning in front of him, illuminating the way forward, Fu Cheng hesitated slightly, but decided to concentrate his forces on attacking the temporary warehouse first, just now, he had already seen the general layout of several houses, and the bonfires set up by the enemy illuminated all the passages in detail.

There was no need to hide any longer, he straightened up and drew his knife with a choked thud.

"Kill!"

Fu Cheng's hand holding the knife froze in mid-air.

Because this killing was not shouted by him.

In the darkness, crossbow arrows rained down on the attacking centaurs.