Although Cui Wen heard Lin Yuan's voice, he didn't say anything, smiled and said, "Okay, I'll go back and report it truthfully." ”

Lin Yuan pointed to the door and said, "Sir, please go slowly, Lin won't send it." As soon as Cui Wen left, Liu Yufeng on the side asked, "Lin Shuai, what's going on?" Why does Yuan Shikai want to invite you to watch the play, this is in front of the two armies, it's really funny. ”

Lin Yuan didn't laugh, but said: "This should be Yuan Shikai's psychological tactics, as for what the intention is, I think it should be deliberately confusing me and interfering with my judgment, let's not care." After Lin Yuan finished speaking, he said to Liu Yufeng: "You go and call Zhong Cheng and ask him to accompany me out to reconnoitre." ”

Not long after Zhong Cheng came to find Lin Yuan, the two took the reconnaissance company and headed towards the Qing army's camp, and after walking for a while, a small river in front of them blocked the way, everyone stopped the car, Lin Yuan pointed to the river and asked, "What is the name of this river?" ”

Zhong Cheng shook his head slightly, and Lin Yuan said, "Is it because I can't find my fellow countryman?" So I don't know the name of the road? ”

Zhong Cheng said: "No, we found a group of fellow villagers when we were in Texas, they either came to the vicinity of Yucheng, or their homes are here, we took them with us when we reconnoitred, and asked them when drawing maps, so we all know the names of rivers, ditches and valleys in this area." ”

Lin Yuan asked suspiciously, "Then why don't you know the name of this river?" ”

Zhong Cheng replied: "A few days ago, when we were scouting, there was no such river here, and today I don't know why there is an extra river coming out of the road." ”

Lin Yuan's face changed suddenly when he heard this, and Zhong Cheng said in fear: "Lin Shuai, this is our negligence......"

Lin Yuan waved his hand lightly and said, "Don't be afraid, I didn't mean to blame you, show me the map you drawn." Zhong Cheng hurriedly handed a map of 1:25,000 to Lin Yuan, Lin Yuan looked up, took a general look at the terrain, and then went to the map to find the location of the river in front of him, only to see that the map showed grassland, and there was no river.

Lin Yuan put down the map and said with a worried expression: "The armored troops are most afraid of the river, especially our tanks, the exhaust duct and heat dissipation window are only about one meter and three meters from the ground, once the water enters these places, the engine will be turned off, and then the tank will become an iron box that will not move." ”

Zhong Cheng asked, "Then what should we do?" ”

Lin Yuan jumped out of the car and said, "Mark this river on the map, and then find a few comrades who are good at water to go over and see how deep the water is, if it's shallow, let's go over." ”

Zhong Cheng agreed to come down and personally led people to the river, only to find that the small river had just crossed the calf, so Lin Yuan led the troops across the river, and walked less than ten kilometers forward, and there was an extra river in front of him that was not on the map, Lin Yuan thought: "The climate in Shandong is humid, and the precipitation in this season is very large, so there will suddenly be more rivers." ”

The car drove forward for about fifteen kilometers, and Lin Yuan saw the company camp of Yuan Shikai's troops in the car from a distance, stretching for more than ten kilometers in the north of Yucheng, and the front of the company camp was full of ant-like people, I don't know what Lu Dao was doing, Lin Yuan pointed to the high slope on the side with his hand and said, "Let's go, let's go up and have a look." ”

Zhong Cheng agreed to get out of the car and walk up the high slope with Lin Yuan, Lin Yuan took out his binoculars and looked at the Yucheng camp, only to see those ant-like people all holding shovels and carrying flat poles, it turned out that they were digging trenches, Lin Yuan was watching, only to hear Zhong Cheng say on the side: "Lin Shuai, why do I think something is wrong?" ”

Lin Yuan asked, "What's wrong?" ”

Zhong Cheng pointed to the south of the company camp and said, "Do you see that big river?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "See, what's wrong?" ”

Zhong Cheng said: "That river is called Tuxiao River, the river is wide, the water flow is gentle, and its south is Yucheng, why didn't Yuan Shikai camp in the open space between Yucheng and Tuxiao River?" In this way, the Tuxiao River can become a natural barrier to stop us, so why spend so much manpower digging trenches? ”

Lin Yuan thought for a while and said: "It may be that Yuan Shikai knew that our ability to build bridges and cross the river is very strong, so he didn't dare to defend it with a single river, so he set up the company camp on the north side of the Tuxiao River. ”

Zhong Cheng nodded, and at this time a soldier said: "Report to Lin Shuai, battalion commander, we have found Qing cavalry in the east!" ”

Lin Yuan raised the telescope in his hand and looked to the east, only to see a group of cavalry coming with smoke and dust, and the number of people seemed to be around five hundred, Lin Yuan immediately said, "Let's get in the car and go back to the camp." ”

After Lin Yuan finished speaking, he took everyone to the car and walked to his camp, Lin Yuan originally thought that the Qing cavalry was here to drive him, and it was a common thing to drive the other party's scouts on the battlefield, so Lin Yuan felt that as long as he went far, the Qing cavalry would naturally go back, but he didn't expect that these cavalry behind him had no intention of going back, but followed behind Lin Yuan's convoy.

Zhong Cheng asked, "Lin Shuai, did you say that these cavalrymen are going to follow us back to the camp?" ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "If they dare to follow us, they are looking for death, don't pay attention to them, let's speed up and get rid of them." Lin Yuan quickly returned to the camp, convened a meeting of the commander-in-chief, and reported the two major situations that had been detected: the sudden appearance of the river and the fact that the Qing army had dug a trench in front of the camp, and then asked the troops to pay attention to these two points when formulating action plans.

was in a meeting, and suddenly there was a burst of gunfire outside, and Lin Yuan hurriedly asked his subordinates, "What's wrong?" ”

Someone came to report that a cavalry of the Qing army approached our camp and was beaten back by us. Lin Yuan said: "Don't underestimate this attack, it shows many problems, first of all, the Qing army in front of us is very different from the previous troops, this army dares to take the initiative to attack, it shows that their combat effectiveness is very strong, they are a strong enemy, we must not take it lightly." ”

Lin Yuan explained some more things, and then announced the dismissal of the meeting, Lin Yuan thought in his heart: "Yuan Shikai invited me to watch the play at the beginning, and then asked people to dig a trench outside the barracks, and now they are sending troops to attack and harass, what do they want to do?" ”

Lin Yuan thought hard about Yuan Shikai's intentions, but found nothing, he came to the special staff and asked if he had detected the enemy's artillery, Zhang Haibing said that the air map could not see that the Qing troops on the opposite side were equipped with heavy artillery, Chen Fei also said that the reconnaissance in the past few days had no results, Lin Yuan couldn't help but think: "Could Tada Zhengnan be lying to me?" ”

But Lin Yuan thought about it for a while and told himself: "Probably not, his concern for Akiko Qingtian is real, not fake!" Lin Yuan thought for a long time without any result, and then Liu Yufeng said: "Lin Shuai, the two divisions have formulated an action plan, please go and study it." ”

Lin Yuan came to the command headquarters, Xiao Yingwu and Long Ye were already waiting for him, Lin Yuan said: "Please tell me, what is the plan?" ”

Xiao Yingwu said: "According to the information we have learned before, there are three major difficulties in our operation, first: the enemy's tank killer weapons, because we did not find the hiding place of these weapons in the previous reconnaissance, so they cannot be destroyed in advance. ”