The city of Zahedan.

Zhao Hu led the army to the city, after the battle with Ziad in the town of Bad, Ziad lost most of the cavalry, only led the remnants of more than 1,000 people to retreat to Zaheidan City, and Zhao Hu lost more than 400 people, there are more than 4,500 people left, these two continuous confrontations made Zhao Hu find that the generals of the Great Food Country began to learn to use stratagems, which had never been done before, in order not to be calculated by Ziad, Zhao Hu slowed down the pace of advancement, and did not lead the army to arrive in Zahedan City until two days later.

At this time, the sky was a little gloomy, the army came to the city, the city gate was wide open, there was no sound in the city, Zhao Hu stopped at a stone's throw outside the city wall, and raised his chin to the captain of the guard beside him: "We have sent a spy post to investigate in advance, but now we have not seen them come to contact and report the investigation, there may be an accident!" Send a few people into the city to find out what's going on! ”

"Yes, General!" The captain of the pro-soldiers clenched his fists and agreed, and immediately sent 12 pro-soldiers into three groups to enter the city to investigate the situation in the city.

The three groups of soldiers rode into the city cautiously along the way, everyone knew that this Zaheidan was not just a city, it was also a fortress, all the houses in the city were built like more fortresses, and there were many hidden fortresses, and if one was not careful, he would be shot with a bow and arrow.

After half an hour, a cavalryman rode his horse back quickly and reported to Zhao Hu: "General, there is no big food army found in the city, but we have found hundreds of children under a house, the eldest is sixteen years old, and the younger one is only a few months, all of them are children left by the people in this city, and please ask the general to take a look for himself!" ”

Zhao Hu turned his head and ordered the generals around him: "Leave one person here, and the others will enter the city with Ben General!" ”

"No!"

A general stayed in place to lead the army, and the other generals followed Zhao Hu to ride into the city, under the leadership of the soldiers, everyone came to the highest fortress in the city, only to see more than 200 children sitting in the fortress, these children were hungry one by one, ragged clothes, at this time they were holding the steamed buns given to them by the soldiers, nibbling on the steamed buns and drinking a sip of water, and several soldiers were feeding batter to the babies who were only a few months old.

Zhao Hu asked the soldiers who found these children: "Where did these children come from?" ”

The soldier pointed to a corner and said: "General, there is an underground entrance over there, there are stairs to go down, the underground space is very large, there is a vent to the outside, it can accommodate hundreds of people, it is the basement where grain and grass are stored, they are hiding there, at first I didn't know that there was a basement, and when I was about to leave, I heard a cry from the underground, we found the entrance to the basement after searching, these children have not eaten for two or three days, especially the babies who are a few months old, if it weren't for their hunger and crying." We didn't know there was a basement yet! ”

Zhao Hu nodded and asked, "What about the parents and relatives of these children?" Found them? Also, how is this city so dead, do you have any other discoveries? ”

The soldier said: "General, please come with me!" As he spoke, he turned around and walked outside, and Zhao Hu and the others walked out behind him.

After a while, everyone came to the northeast corner of the city wall, here is a large area of sand, at first Zhao Hu and the others did not find anything, but when they walked in, they found that there were corpses everywhere under this sandy land, because many hands and feet were exposed to the sand.

The soldier said: "The villain thinks that the parents and relatives of those children should be here!" The Great Cannibals killed everyone in the city, and the children were hidden in the basement by their parents, saved from their fate. The weather is so hot, the big cannibals have to stay here, and the corpses will definitely stink if they are exposed to the outside for a long time, so the big cannibals buried them here! In addition, judging from the traces in the city, the big cannibals should have left in a hurry, and the villains and others concluded that they had just left, and it would not be more than an hour! ”

Zhao Hu looked at the hands and feet of countless exposed corpses on the entire sandy field, gritted his teeth, and did not make a sound with a blushing face. At this time, a knight galloped over, and before the war horse stopped, he jumped down and bowed to Zhao Hu and said: "General, the big cannibals have withdrawn to the Luti Desert to the west, and I waited behind to watch them enter the desert, it seems that they should want to withdraw from the desert to Behedashir Castle!" ”

Zhao Hu looked at the hands and feet of the corpse leaking outside on the sand again, his eyes burst out with a fierce light, he flicked his cloak and turned around and strode towards the war horse, and roared: "Order the soldiers of the whole army to prepare enough dry food and water, and each person is equipped with two war horses to standby!" Send someone to tell the sentry tracking the Great Food Army, and order them to keep an eye on Ziad and his Great Food Army, and leave tracking marks along the way! ”

"Yes!" When a general agreed, he immediately turned on his horse and ran out of the city.

Zhao Hu stepped on the war horse and looked back at the killing enemy, and said in a deep voice: "Find someone to clean up these corpses and carry them outside the city for burial." As for those children, when they reached the age of fifteen, they were arranged to enlist in the army, and all those who were younger than fifteen were sent to Jiling City to be placed by the local government! ”

"Yes, General!"

The army was quickly prepared, and when Zhao Hu arrived outside the city, he glanced back at Zhaheidan City, and ordered: "The first battalion will stay in Zhahei City, and the other battalions will pursue the Great Food Army with the general, and set off!" ”

"Yes!" The generals responded with a bang. The army then pursued the west under the command of Zhao Hu.

An hour later, the army chased to the edge of the desert, Zhao Hu stopped his horse, and a personal soldier next to him immediately jumped off his horse to find the mark left by the outpost, and soon returned to report to Zhao Hu: "General, they are going in this direction!" ”

Zhao Hu raised his hand and waved forward: "Chase!" ”

In October, although it is still very hot in the Luti Desert, there is no high temperature that the human body can not bear, the maximum temperature during the day is 412 degrees, and the temperature of the surface sand reaches about 57 degrees. Zhao Hu was no longer worried about encountering the hot weather in the desert that could kill all the army, so he just led the army to pursue all the way.

After a day of pursuit, the army continued to march at night, but the light was not good at night, and it had to stop to look for the tracking marks left by the tracking outpost.

The next morning, when the army chased to the junction of the eastern desert beach and the central ravines and dunes, they finally hoisted the tail of the Great Food Army.

A sentry found that Zhao Hu was chasing after him with a large army, and immediately stepped forward to report to him: "General, the Great Food Army is resting in a ravine twenty miles ahead, and that ravine is in a north-south direction, and the sun has just risen at this time, and it can't shine in the ravine, and it is a good place to rest." Although the Great Food Army retreated, they still sent some spies in the rear, and the brothers did not dare to get too close in order to avoid being discovered! ”

Zhao Ziliang asked, "What is the situation of the Great Food Army now?" How many infantry did they have, how many cavalry, and how many killings they had? ”

"The brethren had ventured to go around before them and hid in front of them, and when they passed by, they found that they had four thousand infantry, and more than one thousand two hundred cavalry, but their infantry had horses, and they must have stolen more than two thousand horses from the city of Zahedan and the surrounding towns and villages, so that there were plenty of horses, and in addition to horses, they had more than three hundred camels, and camels and stolen horses were used to carry supplies, and although there were many supplies, there were horses and camels to carry them, which had some effect on the speed of their march. But not too big! ”

Zhao Hu looked at the direction where the Great Food Army was, his eyes were deep, his right hand was holding a horsewhip and rhythmically beating the palm of his left hand, thinking about how to deal with Ziyad and his remnants of the defeated generals.

After thinking for a while, Zhao Hu raised his horsewhip and beckoned: "Bring the map!" ”

The soldiers took a cylinder, took off the lid and took out a scroll of drawings from it and handed it to Zhao Hu, Zhao Hu took the map and looked at it, there are two dotted lines in the location of the Luti Desert, one dotted line leads from the city of Jiling to the castle of Behedashir, this dotted line is relatively long, and the other dotted line leads from Zaheedan City to the castle of Behdashir, this dotted line is shorter, and there are several different marks drawn on these two dotted lines, there are circles, triangles and circles with forks, which represent lakes, mountains and hills, The meaning of oasis. These are two ancient caravanserais through the desert, in the right season, the caravans do not want to detour through the Oasis of Bam, Shulgaz and other towns to travel between the east and west, carrying enough food and water through the desert is a shortcut, but only small caravans dare to do this, large caravans need more food and water, consumption is relatively large, if in the desert if you go in the wrong direction and do not get replenished, it is possible to die in the desert.

Zhao Hu looked at the map for a while, and clicked on a location on the map with his finger, and the generals standing next to him were a little puzzled, and one of the generals asked, "What are the general's plans?" ”

Zhao Hu said: "First chase with great fanfare, scare their bitter courage, and make them exhausted!" Two days later, we were divided into two parts, one part of which accelerated the march and went around the front, waiting for the cannibals at Scorpion Ridge, two hundred miles away, and the second step was still hanging behind them, until we chased them into the trap we had set at Scorpion Ridge! ”

The general asked, "General, are we taking it for granted?" The legs are long on the big cannibals, and the head is also on their necks, how are they going to go, we can't leave or right, what if they don't go to Scorpion Ridge? ”

From Zaheidan to Behedashir Castle, although Scorpion Ridge is not the only way to go, but walking Scorpion Ridge can replenish drinking water, and you can also rest by the lake, general business travelers will take Scorpion Ridge, if they don't go, then we will find a way to force them to go Scorpion Ridge! ”

The general was curious: "What way?" ”

"You'll know when the time comes!" Zhao Hu said and motioned to his soldiers to put away the map, then turned over and waved forward: "Pass the order, the whole army should run at a high speed, make the greatest momentum, and let the resting Great Food Army know that we are going to catch up with them!" ”