The 7,000 cavalry included men and horses from three sides, so Yang Yan reorganized the soldiers before setting off. Although nearly half of the armor cavalry brought by Yu Gongliang was re-replenished, it was the strongest in the Song army in terms of combat effectiveness, and there were only more than 800 cavalry left in the 1,000 armor cavalry of the mountain battalion of the Diefeng army. Although these armor clubs are much lighter than the iron armor of Tiefutu, the weight of the war horses is still much heavier than that of ordinary cavalry, so each of them has two horses, and the commanders are Chen Yichao and Liu Fuwu. The Feng Battalion and the Light Cavalry of the Lin Battalion of the original Feng Battalion were also combined into one team, the second battalion, and the commanders were Cao Xun and Gao Zhen; The original Diefeng Arms Battalion was a light cavalry archery army equipped with a horse emperor crossbow, with a total of 800 people and a separate third battalion, commanding Zhang Rong and Zhang Shiyan; It turned out that the more than 2,000 cavalry troops under Wei Sheng were the fourth battalion, and the commanders were Dong Cheng and Zhu Zhen; The Lei Battalion and Yin Battalion of the original Feng Army were combined into the fifth battalion, which was led by Yang Yan himself, and Xin Qiji, Wang Shilong, Wei Chang, Zhao Yueru, Zhao Qianru and the female soldiers they brought were all incorporated into the fifth battalion.

Zhao Yueru and Zhao Qianru came to Yanzhou this time with a total of 30 female soldiers, and after selection, only 12 people were qualified to join the expedition army. Among them, four of them turned out to be their palace maids, named Mianwen, Dark Fragrance, Plum Shadow, and Youping. They learned some martial arts from Zhao Yueru in the palace, and they took care of the living of the two of them in Luzheng. The other eight are all women who have studied in the Shangwu Academy, Han Zhaojing and Zhang Wenzhu are among them, and the others are: Shi Luanying, Yu Xiulin, Mu Ronghong, Chen Ying, Lin Yaxian, and Peng Lu are not from civilian families, most of them are from military families. In fact, among the women who went to school in Shangwuyuan, they were not born in wealthy families, and very few came from commoner families. This is because only large wealthy families are willing to pay for women to learn martial arts, which is impossible in a commoner's home.

The expeditionary army only brought dry food for ten days, and avoided large towns on the way, and walked through the mountains and dense forests to avoid the crowds. Resting at night does not rob the fire, only eats some dry food and drinks some mountain springs, which is no exception even for Zhao Yueru and Zhao Qianru. However, the female soldiers were well prepared, and they brought a lot of cakes, snacks, candies, etc., and Yang Yan gave them a big cart to load, which was enough for them to eat. However, during the overnight stay, only three tents were set up for the soldiers to rest, and the others carried Yang Yan and all slept on the ground with a piece of felt. Fortunately, it is late May, and the weather is hot, not cold.

The expeditionary force set out from Yanzhou, first bypassed Guide Mansion, crossed the Yellow River from Chuqiu, turned to the northwest, walked for four days, traveled nearly 700 miles, because there were Wan Xiansheng in front of the road, the Song army took the mountain and forest path, and there were flying eagles patrolling in the air, so the road to the road was also safe. Now I have arrived near Dongming City. It is about 200 miles away from Heiyang, and if Cui Ma travels quickly, it can be reached in one day.

The procession was marching, and suddenly there was a commotion ahead, and only someone was heard shouting, "Catch, catch them." This was followed by a few arrows. When Yang Yan heard this, he immediately shouted, "What happened ahead." ”

At this time, a soldier urged the horse over and said, "Yang Tong, Wang Tong has caught a few hunters in front. ”

The king is Wang Shilong, and Yang Yan doesn't understand what he is doing with hunters. An order was immediately issued to halt the advance of the whole army for the time being, and to lay down the soldiers who were stationed at the sentry. At this time, Wang Shilong came over to see Yang Yan with the hunter who had been caught: "Yang Commandery, all of them have been caught, and none of them have escaped." ”

Yang Yan saw that Wang Shilong had caught five people, an old man, three prime of life, and a young man, all of whom were hunters, and one of them was also hit by an arrow in his arm, and the blood did not stop. All of them were full of flowers, and their faces were pale with fright.

Yang Yan couldn't help but say: "Wang Tong, what are you doing with them, it is not a spy of the Jin Kingdom." ”

Before Wang Shilong could speak, the hunters shouted: "My lord, we are just ordinary hunters, not spies!" Spare us, my lord! ”

"My lord, we are not Jurchens, we are also the people of the Central Plains!"

Wang Shilong ignored them and said to Yang Yan: "Yang Commander, it doesn't matter who they are, it's just that they have discovered the whereabouts of our army, and they must not be kept." ”

This sentence only frightened the five hunters all over their bodies, "plop, plop" knelt in front of Yang Yan and couldn't stop kowtowing. Said: "My lord spares my life, my lord spares my life, we are really just ordinary hunters, and we are by no means spies of the Jin Kingdom." ”

The old hunter said: "My lord, my lord, if you want to kill it, kill it, and let my son and grandson go." ”

At this time, Zhao Yueru, Zhao Qianru, Xin Qiji, Yu Gongliang, Wei Chang, Cao Xun, Gao Zhen, Chen Chichao, Liu Fuwu and others had already surrounded them to see what was going on. After hearing Wang Shilong explain what happened, everyone couldn't help but be silent, and they all looked at Yang Yan, wanting to hear what his opinion was.

At this time, it was difficult for Yang Yan to decide in his heart. After listening to Wang Shilong's words, he also understood that the whereabouts of the expeditionary force were discovered by these hunters, and if these hunters were released, but they went to the Tongjin Army to inform, the plan to attack Heiyang Mountain this time might not be successful. Of course, Yang Yan would not be naïve to think that these five hunters were from the Central Plains, and they would definitely help the Great Song Dynasty. He knew that for the common people, as long as they could survive and have something to eat, whether it was Weilai control, there was no difference between Jinguo and Song Yuan. What's more, once the whistleblower is successful, there is no doubt that he will get a bounty, which is very profitable, and it is difficult to say that these people will not be tempted.

But if he was determined to kill these innocent people, Yang Yan really couldn't be ruthless. Although he was ruthless in dealing with non-commissioned soldiers who violated military discipline, he was not a ruthless person who loved to kill. But if you don't kill, what about this expedition? Kill or kill, in Yang Yan's heart, the fierce fight was urgent.

In fact, he was not the only one, everyone present was thinking: If it were me, would I kill or not?

Yang Yan seemed to be asking everyone, and seemed to be muttering to himself: "Is there no other way to disturb, do you have to kill them?" ”

This is a sudden hearing of humanity: "Yang is in control, and innocents must not be killed indiscriminately!" ”

When everyone looked at it, it turned out that the person who spoke was Chen Yiqi. At this time, Liu Fuwu couldn't help but feel up. He knew that Chen Yichao had always been arrogant, and he looked down on those children of the family. Therefore, he felt that the children of the family were just incompetent, but they were lucky to be born in the family of the eunuchs. Usually he only meets one person after serving, and he doesn't look down on the children of families like Yang Changpeng and Yu Gongliang, and naturally includes Yang Yan. When he was in Xuzhou, he was rude to Yang Yan, but fortunately, Yang Yan didn't care, but he didn't know what he was going to do this time.

In fact, at this time, Chen Yichao was also hesitant in his heart. But just now when I heard Yang Yan seem to be muttering to himself, it seemed that he had decided to kill these few catties of hunters. So he rushed out and said that he could not kill these men. The words have been spoken, and they cannot be taken back. Seeing that everyone else was looking at him, Chen Yichao had no choice but to say: "Commander, these people are ordinary people, and they are also the people of my Great Song Dynasty, so they must not kill innocents indiscriminately, and please think twice." ”

Yang Yan was silent when he heard this. Wang Shilong snorted and said: "It's easy to say, if you let them go, can you guarantee that they won't go to tell the Jinren?" So how will we accomplish the mission of this expedition? For the sake of safety, and for the success of this expedition, it is necessary to kill them. ”

Chen Yichao couldn't help but say: "For the victory of this expedition, we can kill five people; So for the sake of a victory, can we kill fifty or five hundred people? So in order to succeed in the Northern Expedition, can we kill 5,000 or 50,000 children? For the sake of prosperity, it doesn't matter how many people die, you can ignore the dead words of the people. ”

Wang Shilong was stunned, and he couldn't retort to Chen Yichao, so he had to say to Yang Yan: "Yang Tong, the big truth is that the last general doesn't want to kill them." However, you should be clear about the important adults of this expedition, and you must not miss the slightest. As the old saying goes, 'mercy is not in charge of the soldiers', please chop it up for yourself." ”

Yang Yan smiled bitterly in his heart, and the problem finally fell on his head. But what should I do?

"Ci is not in charge of the army."

"For the sake of victory, is it possible to ignore the lives of the people?"

These two sentences kept ringing in Yang Yan's mind. Now he understands that as a famous general, it is not enough to be proficient in the art of war. There was no book of war that would tell him that the situation should be dealt with.

After being silent for about a pillar of incense, Yang Yan suddenly waved his fingers like the wind and clicked on the acupuncture points of these five people in a row. Everyone ignored Yang Yan and looked at him, not knowing why he did this?

Yang Yan said: "I will click on their acupuncture points for twelve hours before they can solve themselves, now find a big tree, tie the five of them to the branches, after twelve hours of their acupuncture points self-extrication, you can untie the rope and go down the tree." If it is too late for them to go to the Jinren by then, we should have reached the destination with the scriptures. The stakes of this expedition are so high that there must be no negligence. If something happens to them within these twelve hours, then they can only blame their own fate. That's all I can do, do you have a better way? ”

When they heard this, they felt that they could not find a better way. Chen Yichao opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but finally he didn't say it.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Yang Yan turned to the five hunters and said, "You can all hear what I said just now." My name is Yang Yan, if you are unfortunate enough to have any accidents, just go to the king of Hades and sue me, and I will accept all the crimes. ”

Having dealt with this matter, the expeditionary force moved on. But Yang Yan was obviously silent. Yu Gongliang, Xin Qiji, Zhao Yueru, and Zhao Qianru, who were traveling around him, could understand his mood at this time, and they all had no intention of speaking, and they all moved forward silently.

After walking a long way, Yu Gongliang finally couldn't bear it. Like Zhao Yueru gave a look. pointed at Zhao Qianru, and then pointed at Yang Yan. Zhao Yueru understood, pulled Zhao Qianru, and said softly: "You better go and persuade him, don't take this matter to heart." ”

Zhao Qianru looked at Zhao Yueru, finally nodded, urged the horse to rush to Yang Yan's side, and said, "Yang Yan, don't take this matter to heart anymore, we all know that you can't help it." ”

Yang Yan turned his head to look at her, his face was confused, and said, "Do you have to do this?" There's no other way to be depressed? ”

Zhao Qianru's heart suddenly trembled. She and Yang Yan have never seen Yang Yan with such a demeanor since they met. In her impression, Yang Yan always had a faint smile and was carefree, as if she didn't care about anything. Zhao Qianru's heart suddenly gave rise to an indescribable shock, pity, sympathy, and cherishing everything. She snapped out loud, "It's not your fault. ”

Yang Yan looked at Zhao Qianru as if he was awakened. Zhao Qianru said softly again: "Yang Yan, we all know that this is not your fault, and no one will blame you." ”

Yang Yan looked at her and said, "But ......"

Zhao Qianru's wonderful eyes also stared at him, and said, "You remember this matter, whether it is right or wrong, you should forget it." You have to remember that you have more important things to do. ”

Yang Yan suddenly woke up, now these 7,000 men and horses, this expedition, and even this Northern Expedition are almost all tied to themselves. If you stay in your own right, you must not continue to dwell on this matter. Zhao Qianru is right, whether it is right or wrong, don't think about it anymore, your own energy must be all focused on this expedition. Thinking of this, the corners of his mouth finally left a slight smile, and said to Zhao Qianru: "I understand, thank you." ”