The wind was strong on Yeyang Ridge, and Zhao Junsheng stood on the mountain ridge and looked at the surrounding grassland, mountains and rivers from afar.

Guo Yi came over and hugged his fists to report: "Dutong, my subordinates asked someone to get some hot food, and it's time to eat!" ”

"Good!" Zhao Junsheng agreed, retracted his gaze and turned around and walked down Yeyang Ridge.

"This is a letter that has just come from the camp on the banks of the Bow Lu!" Guo Yi took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Zhao Junsheng.

Zhao Junsheng took it and looked at it, the envelope was Mulan's handwriting, and he put the letter in his arms.

In the camp of the temporary gathering point, the Wei soldiers and generals were eating dry food and nibbling on boiled water, and they gathered in groups to discuss last night's attack and ambush battle.

A small iron pot hangs from a tripod, and a batter with wild vegetables and dried meat is boiling in it, and the smell is exuding.

Guo Yi used a silver bowl to hold a bowl of batter and handed it to Zhao Junsheng along with chopsticks.

Zhao Junsheng took the bowl and chopsticks and looked at it, and said with a smile: "These Rouran people will really enjoy it, and they actually use silver to make bowls!" ”

"What's so strange about this, and there are vessels made of gold!"

Zhao Junsheng found a Mazha to sit down, put the dishes and chopsticks on a stone next to him, took out the letter sent by Mulan from his arms and opened it to read.

At the beginning of the letter, Mulan first expressed a vague feeling of longing, and then said that the army had been pursuing in the direction of the retreat of the Rouran Khan Datan, but had never been able to catch up.

The Western Route Army pursued along Sushui for a while, and Tuoba Tao felt that the Rouran people were deliberately leading the Western Route Army to pursue, so he decided that he could not follow the steps of the Rouran people, and gave up continuing the pursuit along Sushui, but took the army to the west to march to the west of the Tuyuan River (i.e., the Mongolian Tuyin River).

On the way, the Western Route Army passed by a camp left by Dou Xian, a general of the Han Dynasty, when he attacked the Xiongnu in the north, which was called Dou Xian's hometown. Needless to say, who Dou Xian is, he is a famous general of the Eastern Han Dynasty who beat the Northern Xiongnu and was forced to move westward.

In terms of military exploits, Dou Xian is not inferior to Wei Qing and Huo Quai, the reason why his reputation is not as good as Wei Qing and Huo Quai, is only because he is a relative of the minister, the Dou family almost controlled the entire Han Dynasty at that time, and did all kinds of evil, which caused the emperor's suspicion and was seized of military power, and finally was given death in the fief, and a generation of famous generals fell into such a fate, which is sad and lamentable.

This letter was written by Mulan when the Western Route Army was resting in Dou Xian's hometown, and asked the messenger to send it, and the messenger spent a lot of time on the way to find the Eastern Route Army.

Zhao Junsheng put away the letter and hid it in his arms, judging from the situation described in Hua Mulan's letter, the situation of the Western Route Army was not bad, Rouran Khan Da Tan was not prepared, and the Rouran tribes in Mobei did not expect the Northern Wei Dynasty to attack at this time, so they were defenseless and could only flee in a hurry.

The progress of the Western Route Army is quite smooth, but this does not mean that there is no danger, if the Rouran people are really waiting for an opportunity or gathering troops, it is difficult to say what will happen later.

After putting away the letter, Zhao Junsheng picked up the dishes and chopsticks and took a big bite of breakfast.

A black dot appeared at the end of the distant world, and the black dot soon turned into a knight galloping on horseback.

It didn't take long for the knight to run into the temporary gathering place and dismount in front of Zhao Junsheng to report: "Qiyu Dutong, the Rouran people are packing up their things and seem to be planning to continue the march, they have sent men and horses to check the scene of last night's battle!" ”

Zhao Junsheng stopped to eat and asked, "Has the corpse capital of our fallen soldiers been recovered, and has the battlefield been cleaned?" ”

"There is a shortage of manpower, and the bodies of the fallen have not yet been recovered, and there is no time to clean up the battlefield!"

Zhao Junsheng sighed: "It seems that we have some secrets that may be discovered by the Rouran people!" ”

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Junsheng instructed the scouts: "The task of the scout team is to continue to keep an eye on the Rouran people, and not let their brigade get out of our sight, you don't have to worry about the rest!" ”

"Yes!" The scout clenched his fists and got on his horse and left.

Zhao Junsheng finished breakfast and brought Gao Xiu to explain: "Send someone to tell Bai Jinguang that the task of the 1,000th cavalry team today has changed slightly, today it will no longer attack the Rouran army, but intercept and attack the reconnaissance horses sent by the Rouran people, if the Rouran people send a team of 100 or more people, don't hesitate, immediately withdraw and notify us in time, and then besiege after they are lured!" ”

"Okay, my subordinates will arrange it!"

Camp of the Rourans.

Everyone was preparing to continue the march, and the tents were all put away and ready to be opened soon.

Hu Hehan ran to Pi Lixian and jumped off his horse and handed over a bow, "Tong Lifa, please see, this is a Wei cavalry bow that we found from the scene of last night's battle, and our subordinates have already tested it, the range of this bow has reached one hundred and fifty steps, while the range of our cavalry bow is only about one hundred steps!" ”

Pi Lixian's face was shocked, he solemnly took the longbow and tried to pull it away, the strength required was only slightly greater than the cavalry bow used by the Rouran, but the range was actually increased by half.

"I see, no wonder our army suffered heavy casualties in the pursuit of the Wei army last night, and they only lost very few men and horses, just because their bows have a longer range than ours, they can shoot down our soldiers, but our army can't shoot them!"

He Han pressed his chest and said, "That's right! ”

Pi Li first returned the bow to Kuhehan: "Keep it well, and bring it back in the future so that people can wonder why it can shoot longer than our bow and arrows, and we must make a bow with the same range, or even a bow with a longer range than it!" ”

That being said, Pi Lixian also knew that it was unlikely that he would want the Rouran people to make such a bow and arrow by themselves, and Rouran was not a nation that was good at making tools and weapons, and there were no craftsmen in the clan who had this kind of craft.

"Yes!" Kuhehan agreed and took the longbow.

When Pi Li saw that everyone was almost ready, he ordered Kuhehan: "Go and pass on my order, divide all the men and horses into three parts, and deploy the second and fourth armies on the left flank; The 1st, 3rd, and 7th armies were the middle route; the eighth and ninth are right-wing; The rest of the remnants of the rest of the armies were in the rear of the middle lane to take care of the cattle, sheep, horses and baggage! ”

"In addition, in the front and rear of the army, the left and right directions are five miles away from the brigade, and the vigilance rangers are deployed as units, and once the Wei army of the brigade is discovered, someone will be sent to report immediately! In addition, send elite detective cavalry detective posts to find out where the main force of the Wei army is, and find out the size of their troops! ”

"Yes!"

After the advance of Pi Lixian's army, the whole morning was calm, and neither the Wei army came to attack nor the large Wei army came to attack.

At about noon, Kuhehan followed Pi Lixian and said, "Tong Lifa, my subordinates speculate that the Wei army must not have many troops, otherwise they would have killed them a long time ago, and there is no need to play hide-and-seek tricks with us!" ”

Pi Li nodded first: "You are right, I thought of this question last night, so this morning I asked you to send elite scouts to explore the location of their brigade, just to find their foothold and fight them head-on!" By the way, did the scouts sent out have any news back? ”

"No news has been delivered yet!"

Pi Lixian felt a little uneasy in his heart and asked, "Is there something wrong with the scouts sent out?" Why hasn't there been any news yet? ”

"It should ······ No way? Hu Hehan replied with some uncertainty, "There is not just one scout sent out by his subordinates, but more than a dozen, they are scattered, even if one or two have a problem, it is impossible for everyone to have a problem, right?" ”

As everyone knows, Zhao Junsheng has already ordered to tell Bai Jinguang that their task today is to clear out the scouts sent by the Rouran people.

"Newspaper—newspaper—"

With a continuous shout, a ranger rode in from the south.

Pi Li stopped his horse and raised his hand to stop everyone.

The ranger stopped panting in front of Pi Lixian: "Qi Qi Lifa, our team of rangers was attacked by the Wei army, and by the time we reacted, they were already surrounded by them, except for me who escaped, everyone else was ······."

Pi Lixian immediately asked, "How many of them are there?" ”

"Ride a hundred and ten!"

Pi Li was stunned for a moment, "Only a hundred or ten rides?" ”

"Yes!"

Pi Lixian immediately sent three hundred cavalry and galloped towards the place where the southern ranger post was attacked.

When they were dispatched, Pi Li realized something first, and immediately ordered Kuhehan: "Quickly send someone to the other three directions to find out if our rangers are still there!" ”

"Understood!"

Soon after, the Rouran cavalry, sent to investigate in three other directions, returned in turn to report that all the mounted outposts on the outskirts of the army had been killed, and that they had found their bodies, but their horses and arrows were missing.

None of the detective outposts have returned, and now they find that all the guard ranger posts on the periphery of the army have been killed, isn't this equivalent to losing their eyes? Pi Li first felt a chill rising in his heart.

Hu Hehan reminded Pi Lixian with a solemn expression: "Tong Lifa, an hour has passed, and the three hundred cavalry sent have not come back yet, and the outer guard post is only five or six miles away from us, so it stands to reason that there should have been news a long time ago, but we have not received any news, as if these three hundred cavalry disappeared out of thin air!" ”

Pi Lixian's expression had never been so nervous and dignified, and he shouted, "Bring me the sheepskin map!" ”

One of the guards brought a large parchment map, which Piri spread out on the ground, crouching beside the map to find his own location.

"Huhehan, where do you think their headquarters are most likely to hide?"

Hu Hehan squatted next to the map, he checked it, stretched out his hand and pointed on the map and said: "Tong Lifa, our location should be here, the hiding place of the Wei army headquarters should not be far from us, if they come out to attack our soldiers and horses, they will not be able to get supplies!" You see, the south bank of this river, Hongyan Lake, Yeyang Ridge, Vulture Mountain, and Huangniu Slope are all possible hiding places for them, among which Yeyang Ridge and Vulture Mountain can be ruled out, because these two places are behind us! The Scalping Slope is a little further away from us, and only Hongyan Lake and the riverside are most likely their hiding places! ”

Pi Li nodded first, thought for a while and said: "Hongyan Lake is our must pass through, they may be there, but we have to go over sooner or later, this is not in a hurry!" Kuhehan, I command you to lead three thousand horsemen to the lakeside to find their camp and kill them all! ”8)