The round sun hung high in the sky, shining softly through the clouds, and it was already October, and it was autumn in the south. The rice in the fields has been harvested, and the ground is full of stubble, and there are farmers with straw hats and bare backs busy in the fields, ploughing the land so that the wheat can be planted when the frost falls.

However, there are not too many such cases, and there are more barren fields on both sides of the official road. As a result of the continuous fighting of the large army, the production of most of Duc An province was severely damaged. For more than a year, Wuchang's Zuo Liangyu army and Dashun's army fought repeatedly here, and most of the people in the villages of the city were not in the war.

Only villages far from the official road in the middle of nowhere, will be spared.

However, after all, the climate is humid and warm in the south, although it also suffered military disasters, it is much better than Henan and Shanxi.

At this noon, Liu Neng walked down the rugged path with four or five men.

In the end, Liu Neng did not persuade Hao Shaoqi to surrender, and Hao Shaoqi did not embarrass Liu Neng, and after he recovered from his injuries, he personally sent him out of the camp, and released several of Liu Neng's subordinates and returned their weapons and belongings.

Liu Neng and several of his subordinates spoke in unison, and they were not allowed to say anything in Hao Shaoqi's camp, only that they escaped in the chaos of the army, confused the direction in a panic, and only fled back after that.

After all, in the future, there will be a gang in the Wuchangming military camp, and if someone knows that he was caught and released by the thieves, it may arouse the suspicion of others.

Liu Neng's current position is the Qianhu of Jinyiwei stationed in Huguang, unless he doesn't want the official position of Jinyiwei now, he will never dare to tell his whereabouts in the past few days.

Fortunately, several of his brothers are confidants who have been with him for a long time, and they are all old men who have followed out of the Pingnan Army, and Liu Neng is not afraid that the news will leak.

Due to the continuous battles between the Ming army and the Chuang army in De'an Province, there were many routs in this area, and there were squads of Chuang cavalry patrolling from time to time. Liu Neng did not dare to take the avenue to Wuchang Mansion, nor did he dare to take a boat along Yunshui to the south, but traveled more than 100 miles to the east and took the trail to Wuchang Mansion. I saw the farmers busy plowing the fields in the fields.

Seeing Liu Neng and his entourage carrying crossbows, the farmers in the fields were shocked, threw away the farm tools in their hands, and rushed to the village. Soon the sound of gongs sounded in the village, and many farmers with farm tools and weapons appeared on the wall.

In the continuous fighting, there were many defeated troops in this area, and the people were afraid of them, so they could only form a village to protect themselves in order to avoid being looted and protect their homes and relatives.

Obviously, he is an official soldier, and he is also the emperor's minion Jinyiwei, but in the face of this situation, Liu Neng and the others can only bypass the village and continue to advance.

Fortunately, there is dry food sent by Hao Shaoqi, and the weather is not too cold, and there is no hunger and cold when sleeping in the open along the way.

On this day, De'an Mansion enters the territory of Huangzhou Mansion, as long as it goes south for another hundred and ten miles is Hanyang Mansion, and across the Yangtze River is Wuchang Mansion.

In the evening of this day, the group passed through a small forest, and a house appeared in front of it, with green eaves and green tiles, and there were no other village buildings nearby, and it seemed that it was a temple in the mountains and forests.

The group suddenly became excited, and with the temple in front, they finally didn't have to sleep in the open air tonight. Although the night was not cold, the dew was thick, and every morning when I woke up, my body was wet and uncomfortable.

In the cautious nature of not accepting the night, Liu Neng did not directly lead his subordinates directly into the temple, but asked his subordinates to stand by, and he himself quietly went to the temple, wanting to investigate the movement first.

Walking quietly in the forest, covering his figure with trees, Liu Neng quickly and quietly approached the temple, and when he was about a hundred and ten paces away, he suddenly paused.

Because he heard the faint neighing of horses in the temple.

Look at the temple in front of you, the roof is full of thatch, the walls are broken, it is clearly a dilapidated temple, it is impossible to afford horses, so there must be an army in the temple, but I don't know if it is the Ming army or the cavalry of the thieves?

Since he didn't know the identity of the soldiers in the temple, Liu Neng didn't dare to reveal his whereabouts, so he lay on the ground and moved cautiously towards the temple, slowly approaching the temple wall, and listened attentively.

Listening to the sound, there should be several people in the temple, cooking on the fire, because there is a popping sound of wood burning.

But the words of the people in the temple made Liu Neng frown suddenly, because the voice was so weird.

In the past few years, Liu Neng has followed the army to the south and north, because he does not accept the identity of a sentry at night, he inevitably has to inquire about the news with the local people. Whether it is Tianjin dialect, Huaiyang dialect, or even Jiangnan Wu dialect or Huguang dialect, you can come to a few sentences, although you can not speak much, but you can still understand the basic communication.

However, the words of the people in the temple were not any of the dialects he had ever heard, but on the contrary, they were very similar to the words of the Mongols outside the Great Wall and the Manchus outside the Guan.

Thinking of this, Liu Neng was shocked all over his body, could it be that the temple was full of tartars?

This is the south, shouldn't the Manchu Tartars still be in the north, there are thieves in the middle, and there are many areas in Henan Nanzhili that are still under the Ming Dynasty, how did the Manchu Tartars come here? It is less than 100 miles away from Wuchang, the capital of Huguang Province!

At this moment, Liu Neng was extremely shocked in his heart, and a sense of crisis came to his heart.

When he was in the north, when he was in the Xishan Army, Chen Yue, who was only patrolling and preparing for the road, led everyone to fight many battles with the Mantars, and the fierceness of the Mantars is still vivid. Liu Neng was the captain of the night team at that time, and he led the cavalry to make contact with the Manchu cavalry, but he never had the upper hand.

And today, there are only four brothers by his side, not even a war horse, and there are a full of Tartar cavalry in the temple, at this moment, Liu Neng wants to turn around and leave.

But the experience of the duties of the Jinyi Guard at night made him stop, since the Mantar came here thousands of miles away, he must have a plan, if he couldn't figure out the purpose of the Mantar, Liu Neng would not be reconciled.

Found a secluded and dilapidated corner of the wall, carefully moved a few broken bricks to pad under his feet, Liu Neng climbed on the wall, and looked in with a careful probe.

The temple is not large, the scale of three rooms, surrounded by a broken wall, is the style of a Taoist temple. In the open space of the temple, three war horses were tied, and a carriage was parked in the courtyard.

A man with a short shirt was carrying a bucket of water to drink from a horse, perhaps in a hidden temple, and the man had no hat and turban, and a thin pigtail of money rat tail on the back of his bare head was impressive.

Looking through the open door of the temple, I vaguely saw that there were five or six people in the temple, and thick black smoke was coming out of the temple, and the people inside were making a fire and cooking.