Pei Xingyan lived up to his expectations, and in the evening, five hundred cavalry returned to the county seat at a gallop, Pei Xingyan annihilated two thieves and captured two spies according to Zhang Xuan's request.

In the room, the two thief detectives seemed to have completely collapsed, and they collapsed on their knees, trembling like chaff.

"Interrogation separately!" Zhang Xuan glanced at the two spies in disgust and waved his hand, he didn't expect the two spies to be so weak, and there would be signs of all the explanations without strict interrogation.

The soldier dragged the two spies out, and at this time, Fang Xuanling, who was sitting on the side, asked with a smile, "Has the general thought of it?" Why didn't Wang Bo go to explore Mengyin Castle, but to explore Dong'an County? ”

"Wang Bo wants to find out the news from my side"

Before he finished speaking, Zhang Xuan suddenly woke up, "Joining the army means that Mengyin Fort is attacked by Sun Xuanya, and Wang Bo is not good at interfering, so he came to explore Dong'an County, is that so?" ”

Fang Xuanling still shook his head and said lightly: "Maybe I'm thinking too much, but I have a gut feeling that Wang Bo wants to attack Qi County directly." ”

Zhang Xuan's brows furrowed, "Attack Qi County, what are you doing to explore Dong'an County?" ”

"He's supposed to be counting troops! He probably already knew how many soldiers there were in Mengyin Fort, and then he calculated how many troops there were in Dong'an County, and then from the strength of Pei Renji's troops to attack Wagang, he could deduce how many defenders there were in Qi County and Beihai County. ”

Fang Xuanling glanced at Zhang Xuan's surprised look, and sighed again: "I just deduced that if I were Wang Bo, maybe I would have directly entered Qi County." ”

"But doesn't he want his lair?" Jang Hyun was still a little confused.

"General, the county is tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, as long as he deploys five thousand troops, it will be difficult for us to capture it for a while, and there is Sun Xuanya's army on the other side to contain us. This is Wang Bo's chance. ”

While he was pondering, a sergeant walked in quickly and presented two confessions, "General, they have all confessed, and all the confessions are here!" ”

Jaang Hyun was in good spirits. Hurriedly took the confession and quickly looked at it, the content of the two confessions was similar, it seemed that they were not lying, but what made Zhang Xuan feel strange was that Wang Bo did not seem to be preparing to attack Qi County as Fang Xuanling said, but was strengthening the city wall, actively preparing for defense, and was also in contact with Sun Xuanya, preparing to jointly attack Mengyin Fort.

Zhang Xuan looked at Fang Xuanling puzzled. Fang Xuanling smiled slightly: "Half a month has passed, Wang Bo only now remembered to fight Mengyin Castle, is it a little too late?" ”

"Joining the army means that Wang Bo is making a gesture?"

Fang Xuanling nodded, "The key is that Pei Renji led the army to leave Qi County, Qi County's troops are empty, that is Wang Bo's former lair, how can he not be tempted, how can he still have the heart to fight Mengyin Fort." I even suspect that he sent these outposts to spy on the news on a deliberate purpose to let the general catch them and mislead the general with their confessions. Otherwise, how could a little spy know about the secret correspondence between his lord and Sun Xuanya? ”

Zhang Xuan slowly walked to the sand table and looked at Langya County on the sand table, this is the Langya County sand table he just made, which is indeed much more convenient than the map. He turned his gaze back to Qi Jun.

Once Wang Bozhen sent a large army to attack Qi County, with the weak strength of Qi County, it would inevitably fall quickly, and when he returned to Qi County, Sun Xuanya's army would definitely chase and kill. The two thief armies intercepted and killed before and after, and their own army was sure to be defeated.

At this time, Fang Xuanling walked over, picked up the wooden pole and pointed to Xintai County, "This is the key, Wang Bo's army is secretly going north, and it will inevitably be replenished in Xintai County." ”

Zhang Xuan's eyes were firmly fixed on Xintai County, he understood what Fang Xuanling meant, but what if Wang Bo didn't plan to go north?

Fang Xuanling smiled slightly: "With Mengyin Castle here, Dong'an County should be foolproof." ”

In the darkness of the night, an army of 6,000 men was silently marching west along a rugged mountain road, and this army was none other than the 6,000 elite Sui army led by Zhang Xuan and Pei Xingyan.

Zhang Xuan ordered Li Shoujie to lead 2,000 troops to defend Dong'an County, and left Fang Xuanling to assist him, so he personally led the army to Xintai County.

Once Zhang Xuan accepted Fang Xuanling's judgment, his intuition began to sharpen, and Pei Xingyan told him that the number of spies had increased since yesterday, indicating that Wang Bo was already preparing to go north, and it was very likely that he would set off in the next two days.

Even Wang Bo set off overnight after receiving the eagle letter that the spies were arrested, and like himself, he was also speeding towards Xintai County.

Xintai County and Dong'an County are about 100 miles apart, and there is a straight official road connecting them, but there is a mountain road of dozens of miles in the middle, and Pei Renji was ambushed by Wang Bo on this mountain road last time, and he suffered heavy casualties.

But today Zhang Xuan did not take this official road, he guessed that Wang Bo also arranged for spies to monitor along the way, and after several months of back and forth, Zhang Xuan gradually understood the combat style of this opponent.

Frankly speaking, Wang Bo is a military leader, insidious and cunning, very strategic, completely different from the kind of murderous bandit Zhang Jin said.

Wang Bo was originally the backbone of the Bohai Society, and it was precisely because of his ability and ability that he was sent by the Bohai Society to Qi County to set off a storm of rebellion at the end of the Sui Dynasty.

It's a pity that his ambition to become emperor turned him against the Bohai Society, lost the support of the Bohai Society, and was finally defeated by Zhang Xutuo.

Fighting against a cunning opponent like Wang Bo, Zhang Xuan must maintain twelve points of vigilance and be careful every step.

At the fifth watch, Zhang Xuan's army had already walked out of the mountains and rushed towards Xintai County, which was located in a basin.

There are still ten miles away from Xintai County, Zhang Xuan waved his hand, turned around and shouted: "Stop marching!" ”

He saw a pine forest a hundred paces away, so he ordered, "The army goes to the pine forest to rest." ”

At this time, Pei Xingyan immediately stepped forward and asked, "Is the general going to send scouts to Xintai County?" ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, "Don't go, let Chen Xu go!" ”

Chen Xu, the chief general of the cavalry next to him, saluted, "Obey the order!" ”

He beckoned and led a team of scouts to Xintai County.

Zhang Xuan walked into the black pine forest, sat down in front of a big rock, and the soldiers brought him a pot of water and two pieces of mutton jerky cakes, Zhang Xuan handed Pei Xingyan a piece, he himself was hungry and drunk, drank the kettle, took a bite of dry food and ate it.

This kind of mutton jerky cake is the dry food of the Sui army, the mutton is sliced after cooking, wrapped in the dry cake with sweet sauce, wrapped in a lotus leaf outside, tied with a string, a meat patty weighs about half a catty, just enough to eat a meal, the taste of the mutton in the sauce is good, but the dry cake is very hard, must be soaked in water to eat.

Like Jang Hyun, all the soldiers were eating the same dry food, and they were talking and laughing and talking about more delicious dishes.

"Second uncle, bring me a piece too!"

Qin sat next to Zhang Xuan with a butt, he was also hungry, Zhang Xuan handed him a piece of dry cake and asked with a smile: "I heard that your father asked you to go back, why don't you go?" ”

Qin Yong chewed the dry cake and said vaguely, "Why do you go back?" Last time Wang Bo shot my horse, I want to settle accounts with him! ”

The last time the army was ambushed, Qin's baby horse was hit by two arrows, almost died, and now he is still recuperating in Licheng County, Qin Yong hated Wang Bo, this time he took the initiative to ask Ying to lead the army south, just to avenge Wang Bo's arrow.

Of course, Zhang Xuan knew that the real reason why Qin Yong refused to go back was that he wanted to help himself, this was his simplicity, Zhang Xuan patted him on the shoulder and smiled: "If your horse can't go to the battlefield, I will find a way to get you another one." ”

"Thank you, second uncle, I hope it's okay, I really don't want to change horses!" Qin Yong lowered his head.

Zhang Xuan nodded, stood up and walked out of the pine forest, his hearing was extremely sharp, he could already hear the sound of horses' hooves in the distance.

After a while, Chen Xu rushed with two cavalrymen at a gallop, and immediately tied a thief soldier, Chen Xu turned over and dismounted, saluted Zhang Xuan, and pointed to the thief soldier and said: "This is a patrol officer caught on the road, the general wants to know the situation in Xintai County, just ask him." ”

Jang Hyun looked over his shoulder and looked behind him, then asked, "What about the other brothers?" ”

"Let them go south along the official road to see if they can find traces of the main force of the thief army."

"Take him into the pine forest!"

Zhang Xuan returned to the pine forest and sat down, and the thief patrol soldiers were immediately escorted in, he saw that there were so many Sui troops in the pine forest, and he was immediately frightened, and knelt down in front of Zhang Xuan, kowtowing like pounding garlic, "There are still old mothers and young sons in the villain's house, and the general will spare my life." ”

"If you tell me honestly, I won't kill you, spare your life!"

"I say! I'll say everything. ”

Zhang Xuan thought for a while and asked, "I want to know how many troops there are currently in Xintai County?" (To be continued.) )