The night passed without incident, and it was only after dawn that the people began to clean up their things, and dug pits to bury the bodies, and prepared to leave.

After yesterday's battle, the Meng family's generals killed a total of twenty-two people, and now there are twenty-six people left, plus Gao Yuan, Meng Ling, and Meng Ling's two women, a total of thirty people, but eleven of them were injured, three were seriously injured and could not walk on their own, and the remaining eight were slightly injured, and after yesterday's treatment, they could walk on their own, and when necessary, they were able to participate in the battle. Each of them had leather armor and weapons, plus thirty short bows and fifteen small round shields. He was accompanied by ten horses and twelve tents.

There were fifteen black-clothed people killed last night, and the black cloth on their faces had been removed, but no one knew them, but some weapons used by black-clothed people were also found from the scene, and after Meng Qi's confirmation, it could be concluded that they were weapons used by the Qin army.

Because the army makes the weapons are uniformly cast by various countries, the style, specifications, and sizes are strictly regulated, and it is the Qin State, which is particularly strict in this regard, and on each weapon, there is also a unified payment of each casting workshop, engraved with the name of the workshop, the time of production, and the number. Meng Qi has been on the battlefield with Mengwu for several years, of course, he knows the weapon system used by the army, and although the place where the money is placed has been worn away, and the words cannot be seen clearly, it also proves that these weapons are the weapons used by the Qin army.

The weapons of the Qin army used by the people who attacked Meng Ling, this is strict, at least to say so, this group of black-clothed people is supported by the important ministers of the Qin State, and it may even be the army of the Qin State, Meng Qi has been with Meng Wu for many years, so he naturally knows the stakes. Although Meng Ling is young, he was born in a family of eunuchs and understands these truths, so the expressions of both of them are a little dignified.

Gao Yuan said: "Mr. Meng, Miss Meng, can you estimate who may have instigated this attack?" ”

Meng Qi thought for a while, shook his head, and said: "The general has always been kind to other ministers in the court, and he has never had any grudges, I can't think of who will instigate it, so I can only wait until I return to Xianyang, face General Chen, and then the general will come forward to investigate, and I don't dare to guess at will." ”

In fact, Gao Yuan knew in his heart that Meng Qi might not be unclear, but Guan Zhen was heavy, and he really didn't dare to talk nonsense, because it was not difficult to speculate that the target of this group of black-clothed people this attack was Meng Ling, not Meng Wu, and although Meng Ling was Meng Wu's daughter, the blow to Meng Wu by killing her was indeed limited, and it had almost no impact on Meng Wu's political future, so it can also be concluded that the target of this attack was not aimed at Meng Wu, but directly at Meng Ling himself.

In addition to being the daughter of Meng Wu, Meng Ling also has another important identity, that is, the fiancée of the Grand Duke of Qin Wangzheng, Fusu, Qin Wangzheng did not establish the queen of the palace, so he did not have a son-in-law, and according to the principle of etiquette and law of establishing a prince and a grandson, Fusu has a great chance of being established as the prince of Qin, so Meng Ling is the future princess, and once Fusu succeeds to the throne and becomes the king of Qin, Meng Ling is the queen of Qin, although the Meng family is an important minister of Qin, but if the Meng family becomes a relative of the king, it will naturally be more prominent.

And if Meng Ling dies, Fusu will naturally choose another wife, then Fusu's family will naturally replace the Meng family, and Feiteng is hopeful, so the motive for killing Meng Ling is also very obvious, and in line with: whoever can benefit from it will have the greatest suspicion. Then the person who directed this operation was almost ready to be called. Of course, Meng Qi didn't say it, because it was likely to involve the political struggle of the Qin court. Gao Yuan will not ask, but just point to this, after all, if you don't make it clear, it is related to whether you can get out of danger.

Gao Yuan said: "Okay, only who instigated this attack, we will not discuss it for the time being, but our enemy must not be underestimated, because this person's energy is definitely not small, since he can arrange the first attack, he can arrange the second one, and it is also possible to send troops to deal with us, the enemy is lenient, we can't help but plan for the worst." ”

After hearing this, Meng Qi was also a little nervous, and said, "Then what should I do?" If they do use the army, won't we be in danger? ”

Gao Yuan said: "Mr. Meng, don't be nervous, what I said is just a possibility, but I think this possibility is not big, because the mobilization of the army is not trivial, and it is to attack Miss Meng, no matter who it is, it will consider the consequences after the matter is revealed, the army is full of people, no one dares to guarantee that the news will not be leaked, judging from the enemy's attack yesterday at night, the number of people is only a dozen, which shows that the other party does not want to make too much alarm, and there are not many personnel dispatched, otherwise the other party only needs to mobilize thousands of troops to surround us, We have no way to escape, so I can conclude that the other side may have some backups, but not too many, at least in a short period of time, the other side's strength is unlikely to be significantly strengthened, and the other side does not want to alarm the army, which also shows that we still have a chance to escape. ”

Meng Qi breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Mr. Xia is right. He thought about it again and said: "General Xu Qingxu, who is stationed in Qingyang, is the old department of the general, the general has two life-saving graces for him, he has 20,000 troops under his command, if we can reach Qingyang, he will definitely protect us, and it should be safe." ”

Meng Ling also said: "I have also met General Xu, he is a reliable person. ”

Gao Yuan nodded and said, "Where is Qingyang?" How far is it from here? ”

Meng Qi said: "It's in the southeast, about two or three days away. ”

Seeing that they were all so sure, Gao Yuan had nothing to say, so he could only hope that Xu Qing would be worthy of their trust, so he said: "Okay, let's set off immediately, let's rush to Qingyang, if the other party wants to launch a second attack, then it will be in these two or three days." ”

By this time, the bodies of both the enemy and the enemy had been buried, and they were marked, and they would come back and take them out later, and transport them back for reburial. Gao Yuan ordered that only five tents be left, and that all the rest be left behind, and that they should travel lightly, with three wounded men on horseback, and the other seven horses carrying supplies. The rest of the staff, including Meng Ling and two maids, all walked.

Now there were only fifteen of the unwounded generals, including Monchi, and Gao Yuan also made some arrangements, twenty paces ahead, to arrange three people, to advance in a triangular formation, one with a shield, one with a sword, and one with a bow; Ten steps away from the left and right, two people are arranged on each side, one in front and one behind, the former holds a sword, the latter holds a shield, and the distance between the two is about five steps; In the rear, four men were arranged, two or two teams were arranged, taking turns to break the rear, and the remaining four, along with other wounded soldiers, protected Meng Ling in the middle, and chose as flat and few trees as possible to walk.

And Meng Qi and Meng Ling are now only looking at the horses of the plateau, so they have no objections, and set off on the road according to the arrangement of the plateau.

―――――――― the dividing line――――――――― dividing line―――――――― less than half an hour after Gao Yuan and the others left the camp, they saw a group of black-clothed people coming out of the bushes and gathering here.

After searching the surroundings, one of the men in black said to another burly man in black, "My lord, they just left. Seven tents were also thrown here, and two other places were made of fresh soil, and a wooden pole was inserted, and it looked like the corpse was buried. ”

The man nodded, pulled off the black cloth on his face, revealed a big bronze square face, and said, "Zhou Tai, what direction are they going?" ”

The black-clothed man named Zhou Tai said: "Judging from the horse's hooves and other traces, it should be going to the southeast." ”

The big Han said: "The southeast is Qingyang, and the Qin general Xu Qing stationed in Qingyang is the old department of Mengwu, once they are rushed to Qingyang, they are protected by Xu Qing, if Xu Qing sends an army to protect Meng Ling back to Xianyang, then it will be difficult for us to start, this time we must kill Meng Ling, so we must not let them rush to Qingyang." ”

Zhou Tai hurriedly said: "Yes, they haven't been away for a long time now, if we set off now, at most two hours, we can catch up with them, then don't hesitate, we'll leave immediately." ”

The big man shook his head and said: "Don't worry, after they went through yesterday's battle, they will definitely be vigilant and take strict precautions when they set off today, and it is daytime, so they have to start, and they will not do it until night, in addition, I heard you say, by Meng Ling's side, there is also a master protecting her, this person's martial arts are extremely high, yesterday's failure, is because of him, so we can't act rashly." ”

Zhou Tai also nodded, and at the same time had palpitations, and said: "We have investigated very clearly, this time Meng Ling brought out of the generals, there doesn't seem to be any special masters, I really didn't expect that in Meng Ling's side, there will be such a master to protect, his swordsmanship is really powerful, yesterday's battle, at least ten of our brothers died in his hands, even I was almost injured by him." ”

The big man said: "As a general, Meng Wu will naturally recruit a few swordsmen with strong martial arts around him, and the marriage between Meng Ling and Fusu has almost been decided, so it is reasonable for Meng Wu to arrange a master to protect Meng Ling." And we must not be careless, if we fail again, we don't have to go back. However, it will take at least two or three days from here to Qingyang, and we still have time, so we will send people to follow them first, pay attention to their whereabouts, and wait for the right time. ”

Zhou Tai hurriedly said: "Yes." After finishing speaking, three people were immediately arranged to track down the Meng family.

After a while, the two men in black burrowed into the bushes and soon disappeared into the jungle.

Zhou Taidao: "My lord, what should we do now?" ”

Fang Dahan said: "If the order goes down, rest in place, recuperate your spirits, and prepare for action." ”