The road is too difficult to walk, and it took a whole day for these horse thieves to go forward for less than twenty miles, and they did not go far on the first day, and this was mainly because they encountered several hurdles, and several horses were difficult to pass through the difficult road, and it took a lot of time to unload the boxes, carry the boxes and pack the boxes, so it was naturally impossible to go very fast.

The officers and men arrived at the Lushui Valley in just one day, much faster than the horse thief, and the speed of riding a horse and being lightly armed was not comparable to that of a walking salute.

In the evening, before it was dark, a large group of soldiers and horses led by Li An and Lao Guo arrived in the Lushui River Valley in Yinzhou and set up camp in a hidden camp.

The logistics soldiers who arrived one step earlier had already prepared their meals, and in addition, they had specially boiled enough hot water for 1,000 soldiers to wash themselves, not to mention how comfortable it was to take a bath in the winter environment.

"We came too early, the horse thieves are slow, according to the scouts, the horse thieves can walk up to twenty miles in a day, at this rate, I am afraid that it will take three or five days to get here, I really hope they can go faster."

Lao Guo said.

Li An nodded and said: "It's only three or five days, the scenery near the river valley is good, and it's good to play in this kind of game for three or five days, I heard that there are still a lot of places of interest here, and there are a lot of interesting places?" ”

"What's there to do?"

Lao Guo asked curiously.

Li An replied: "Within twenty miles nearby, there are at least five or six good places worth visiting, such as a cool well in the south, Huayun Temple, Jade Emperor Temple in the south, Fotang Temple in the distance, Zhongxing Tower in the north, and the Great Wall that has been abandoned, Qingyun Temple in the west. ”

Lao Guo was stunned for a moment and sighed: "There are so many fun places, what does this cool well mean, is the well water also cold in winter?" ”

Li An nodded and said: "That's right, this well is very interesting, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, the temperature is close to freezing, the weather is too cold in winter, you may not feel how cold the well water is, but in the summer, you can feel how cool the well water is." ”

"It's a pity that it's winter, it's useless to be cool, just find a well to get some water, and put it outside to cool down quickly, but with such a good well, there will definitely be a lot of people around, at least a small village will be formed."

Lao Guo said.

Li An nodded in approval: "That's right, this is the case, Liangshuijing is indeed a village, however, this village is not big, there are only a few dozen households, all of them are ordinary croppers, if we go over, we must not be able to bring many people, otherwise it will scare these ordinary people." ”

Lao Guo nodded and said: "You can go and see, we are the most suitable to dress up as businessmen in the past, so it is least likely to arouse suspicion, rest today, and go over tomorrow morning to take a look at this well to see if it is cold." ”

"Okay, that's it."

Li An responded.

A thousand men and horses are stationed in a hidden valley, there are soldiers standing guard on all sides of the valley, there are trees inside the valley, and tents and other things have been preliminarily camouflaged, which can ensure that the army will not be discovered by anyone to the greatest extent, even the nearby people may not be able to find it, because there are not many villages around, and the nearest one is more than ten miles, and no one usually runs to this hidden valley, and there is nothing fun in the barren mountains and mountains.

The logistics soldiers boiled a large amount of hot water, which can fully meet the needs of more than 1,000 soldiers to take a bath together, but will definitely not supply them one by one, but dig a pit to make a big bathhouse, and let dozens or hundreds of people take a bath together, so that the hot water will be enough, and it can be washed more openly.

However, a high-ranking official like Li An will naturally not huddle with a large group of soldiers to take a bath, there must be a special hot water supply, and it will only be more, not less.

Staying alone in the tent to take a bath, this feeling is okay, however, such a scene always makes Li An miss the scene of taking a bath in his own home, there are always ladies and maids to wash together at home, and someone helps to take a bath, but now only Li An is taking a bath alone, not even a person to rub his back, there are guards outside, however, Li An is not used to letting the guards help him take a bath, and it is too embarrassing for the old man to help him take a bath.

In the large bath not far away, there was a burst of fighting, these young and strong soldiers are very energetic, and they are very angry, if there is no battle, then they must train more, otherwise they will be suffocated.

Provide women for the soldiers to extinguish the fire, this is also a way, however, this thing is very addictive, once you can't control yourself well, it will lead to the prostration of the body, there are too many heroes who are plagued by beauty, people are sucked dry is a matter of minutes, a greedy female army does not have much combat effectiveness, so, knowing that the soldiers are hot, they can't let them enjoy it, and they can only have higher combat effectiveness by holding it back.

It's not much fun to take a bath by yourself, it's too boring to have no girl, and there's no point in delaying time, so Ang Lee won't wash after a while.

The dinner was very rich, and the soldiers in charge of logistics had already brought the delicacies, and all the soldiers could eat the most delicious food, and it was the kind of table of ten people, the meal was particularly sumptuous, and the treatment was particularly good.

On the other hand, the situation is completely different for the horse thief group, these horse thieves who are tired for a day have not been rewarded with delicious food, they are already under great pressure to carry treasures, and naturally they are not in a position to carry too much food, especially a lot of fresh food that is not easy to carry, which will greatly reduce their quality of life.

After camping, the thieves would have to nibble on dried steamed buns, eat some pickles and dried meat, and in addition, someone would boil water and give each of them a little, so that the dinner would be over.

Therefore, the quality of life of the horse thieves is very poor, and it is too bad compared to the officers and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, and this naturally makes them complain.

The fat man is tired for a day, he looks very listless when he eats, he is tired enough to work, and he can't eat well, so he cooks steamed buns and pickles, and the supply of dried meat is very limited, if he eats too much, he can't eat in the following days, so he can only eat two slices in a meal.

"I'm tired of a day, so I'll eat this, hey!"

The fat man said very dissatisfied.

When the foal heard this, he quickly took out his dried meat and said, "Fatty, I still have a lot of meat here, so let's have a few pieces." ”

Because he knew that there was an ambush in the middle of the road, they would not be able to reach the east of the river at all, so the foal would not save meat for meat, and when he set off, he used his position to get the moon near the water and prepare several more portions of dried meat for himself, which was secretly prepared and no one else knew.

"Little Brother Ma, why do you have so much meat, where did you come from?"

When the fat man saw the meat, his eyes straightened, and he looked very excited, as if he had never eaten meat in his life.

The foal smiled faintly and said, "We are responsible for distributing the dried meat, secretly get yourself a little more, that's not trivial, fatty, don't tell anyone, eat it quickly!" ”

After saying that, he put a big piece of meat in the fat man's bowl and let the fat man eat it quickly.

The fat man said gratefully, "Don't worry! Little Pony, of course I won't say it, why didn't I think to prepare myself a little more? Look at my brain. ”

Seeing the fat man's face of remorse, the foal smiled faintly, and took out a large piece of meat himself, put it in his bowl, and was very tired after a day of walking, and he was sorry for himself if he didn't eat more and drink well, and only by eating and drinking well could he better recover his strength to meet the formation of the second day.

Now, the biggest puzzle of the little colt is that he still doesn't know the location of the ambush of the officers and soldiers, he can't figure out when he will meet the officers and soldiers, let alone what will happen, if the officers and soldiers suddenly fire thousands of arrows from somewhere, he will not die.

Therefore, the foal should eat more well, recover all his physical strength, and only when he is energetic can he avoid danger in time, so as to save his life.

"Brother Xiaoma, I want to eat roast chicken."

The fat man said with his mouth full of oil, and as he ate the meat in his mouth, he immediately thought of the delicacy of roast chicken.

Seeing that the fat man looked greedy, the foal was angry and funny, when did it happen, and he still wanted to eat this thing.

"Fatty, you can't be greedy! After eating so much meat, still thinking about roast chicken? Why are you so greedy? All the brethren, you'd better be gluttonous. ”

The foal spoke.

"Brother Pony, I really want to eat, or after eating, let's go around the camp, maybe we can meet pheasants."

The fat man spoke.

"Where to find pheasants at night! Aren't you tired? ”

The foal said helplessly.

"Tired! Tired. ”

The fat man said.

"When you're tired, take a good rest, catch pheasants, eat quickly, and go to bed early after eating."

The foal said, lecturing.

In the direction of the middle road, the other horse thief was about to arrive at the ambush place of the officers and soldiers, and the soldiers and horses in charge of the ambush were the elite divisions brought by Lao Chen from the capital.

Although few soldiers in this army have fought in battle, their equipment is very advanced, with these powerful equipment, even if the soldiers have no combat experience, it will not affect the combat effectiveness, which is the huge blessing of the equipment.

Lao Chen and his soldiers and horses had been preparing for a whole day in the mountain road area, and they set off first, although they were going around the same way, they still arrived in this valley one day earlier than the horse thieves, and this valley is the only way for horse thieves in the middle road, and these horse thieves will definitely pass through here.

After the army was ambushed, Lao Chen personally inspected the front line, and he made repeated speculations in order to try to modify the battle plan seamlessly, so that the horse thieves had almost no power to resist.

"General, the horse thief is not far away, and the fire dragon in front is the horse thief on the march, and it will soon reach the valley."

A soldier reported.

"These horse thieves are in a hurry! It was dark, and they were still marching, so I don't have to say, destroy them. ”

Lao Chen said domineeringly.

"General, when the fight starts, do you persuade you to surrender first, or do you want to destroy some of the horse thieves first, and then persuade you to surrender."

A lieutenant asked.

Lao Chen thought for a moment and said: "There must be no casualties this time, otherwise, Li Shilang will laugh at me, or attack a few rounds first, so that the horse thief has no power to resist before persuading him to surrender." ”

As a general, Lao Chen is actually a person who loves soldiers, he naturally hopes that all the soldiers under his command can be saved, for this he is willing to get a little less military merit, even if he can't capture a horse thief, he doesn't care, he just needs to eliminate the horse thief, and let the soldiers under his command have no losses, which is enough.

"General, the horse thief is already very close, and the battle is about to start, so the general should retreat first! For your safety. ”

The lieutenant said.

"Stand down? When the old man was fighting on the front line, he didn't have you? Can these thieves still hurt the old man? ”

Old Chen Yi is old, and he wants to watch the destruction of the horse thief with his own eyes.

The team of horse thieves led by the thin monkey marched very fast, they did not carry too much salute, in addition to the small amount of rations that must be carried, they also carried more than a dozen tents for camping, and the rations of the horses also carried some, after all, it is winter, there is not much horse grass to supply along the way, it must be carried, so the materials carried will not be very small, in order to arrive in the east of the river as soon as possible, they march day and night, and only rest for three or four hours a day, and it is not a fixed night rest, on the contrary, they prefer to take advantage of the cover of night and make a quick march.

"Hurry up, brethren, and when we cross the valley ahead, let's set up camp, all of us."

The thin monkey shouted loudly, telling his brothers to move faster, according to their speed, it only takes a moment to cross the valley in front of them, that is, they will soon be able to camp, but they would not have thought that in the middle of the night, there would be a group of soldiers and horses lying in ambush on both sides of the valley, and they had been waiting for them for a long time.

"Haha! The horse thieves have already entered the ambush circle, and none of them want to run away. ”

Lao Chen said excitedly, and stretched out his hand to wave, so that the soldiers under his command immediately began to attack.

The attack of the soldiers was unsuspenseful, and in a short period of time, more than a hundred horse thieves who were marching were blinded, at least half of the horse thieves fell off their horses, some people were shot by crossbows, and some of the horses that sat down were shot by crossbows, in short, the horse thieves fell into chaos, and even the ability to organize resistance was lost.

"Horse thieves, listen, surrender and die, surrender and die."

The officers and soldiers still had to capture some prisoners, so after the first round of attacks, they began to persuade them to surrender.