Qin Official

When the main force of the Chu army learned about the battle of Linyang, it was already the fourth day of November two days later.

Xiang Rong, who had just recovered Pingyu, was still standing at the top of the city in high spirits. When he heard that Hu Gong Dou Ran and Di Gong Sun Feng were defeated in Linyang, hundreds of soldiers were lost, and Dou Ran was captured, he became furious.

"To be defeated by a remnant army and captured by the enemy, Dou Ran is really a shame to the Ruo Ao family!"

As for Sun Feng, the duke who was said to have abandoned Dou Ran and fled, Xiang Rong also planned to ask his father to deprive him of his fiefdom. It was enough to be captured by Li Xin's army once. Now he has abandoned his allies and fled. It seems that Sun Shuao's The descendants have long since become cowardly and no longer worthy of being kings.

"How many people were in the Qin army that defeated Dou and Sun, and where did they go?" Xiang Rong asked.

"Shiri" Zhou Wenchun, who was in charge of military intelligence reporting, reported: "According to the military officials who fled back, about seven to eight hundred people are now missing. They should have gone west, either to Cai or to Ru River... …”

"If they don't have the foresight to go to Shangcai, they will just meet my army."

Although Xiang Rong couldn't swallow this breath, he also knew that he couldn't care about this small Qin army. He had more important things to do.

After the Battle of Xiangcheng, the situation of the Qin and Chu armies changed greatly. First, Meng Tian gathered 30,000 defeated troops and retreated westward, while Xiang Yan personally commanded the main force of the Chu army to follow closely behind. Unfortunately, he still failed to catch up, so he had to First they conquered Dun County, then Boyang and Ruyang, and advanced to Yangcheng at the rate of one city a day.

Xiang Rong, on the other hand, brought 20,000 troops to attack Pingyu. The Qin army had already withdrawn to Shangcai, so he easily captured the city.

"Next, the army will rush to Shangcai immediately!"

Now, due to the incident of Lord Changping, Chen Ying has recovered. If he can regain Shangcai and Yangcheng, Xiang Yan's plan will be perfectly realized.

This is the most important thing at Xiang Rong's hands. As for the hundreds of Qin troops? If they surrendered to Cai, they would just happen to run into the vanguard of the Hei army sent by them. If they fled west across Ru River, they might bump into the 5,000 Huainan reinforcements heading north from Xincai!

…

On the fifth day of October, the third day after the Battle of Linyang, one hundred and fifty miles to the southwest, not far from Rushui, at the intersection of Tu Road, Zhong Lizhen squatted on the ground, looking at the densely packed footprints and ruts leading to the west. Lost in thought...

"This is a trace from half an hour ago."

A few months ago, Zhongli Mei, who had been advocating to march into Nanjun and open a second front in the Mingji Fortress, was disgusted by his superiors, so he was simply transferred to Xixian to clear his ears.

Zhong Lizhen was not very lucky and missed the most intense moment of the fierce battle between Qin and Chu in October. It was not until a few days ago that Xixian County sent 5,000 Huainan Chu soldiers to the north via Xincai after learning that General Xiang Yan had reversed the war situation. , wanting to cooperate with Pingyu's Xiang Rong to attack Shangcai and regain the lost territory.

During this war, Zhongli Mei was transferred to the Xingjun army responsible for investigation and served as a "cavalry officer".

The formation of cavalry is different from that of chariots and infantry. There are five cavalry and one commander, ten cavalry and one official, one hundred cavalry and one leader, and two hundred cavalry and one general. Although the salary of the cavalry officer was the same as that of the two commanders, the number of people under their jurisdiction was smaller. The unlucky Zhongli Mei was demoted again.

Although he had some disagreements with his superiors and the cavalry commander, Zhong Lizhen still performed his mission conscientiously. At this moment, when he noticed something strange at the fork in the road, he was so sensitive that he immediately felt something was wrong.

"This is a troop of hundreds or even thousands of soldiers and horses, as well as chariots. The ruts are still very deep. I am afraid that they are carrying more than three people. The army has never allowed more people to be carried on the vehicles. From this point of view, either Pulling food, grass, ordnance..."

Zhongli Mei took a few steps forward, picked up a piece of cloth that had been trampled into the dust, and unfolded it. It was covered with dried blood, and it was a piece of cloth used to wrap wounds...

"Or the wounded!"

He threw the piece of cloth away: "Why didn't we receive any news about the transfer of so many people in advance?"

After standing up, Zhongli Mei looked to the west. From here to the west, there was a narrow road with ordinary fields on both sides. Except for a few acres of winter wheat, the rest were bare and empty.

"I remember that ten miles west of this road is Ru River, and there is a ferry that can lead to Ancheng Township, Shenyang County..."

"But all the armies in the north and south of Huaihe were ordered to be transferred to Shangcai, east of Ru River, to participate in the siege. Why do these troops and horses want to cross Ru to the west?"

The subordinate on the side took a sip of water and said: "Perhaps they are temporarily deployed to Ruxi to participate in the fortification? Or are they people who were withdrawn from Pingyu and were ordered to take the wounded to Ruxi to rest?"

From their point of view, the general only asked them to scout north anyway. Whatever is to the west, it doesn’t matter!

These speculations were very possible, but Zhong Lizhen still asked everyone to follow him. He had to find out what was going on before he could rest assured.

A group of ten riders walked slowly along the road. During this period, there were constant footsteps and ruts, but Zhongli Mei did not find anything suspicious on the road.

Not long after, the small ferry called "Anseong Ferry" was visible in the distance.

"There are really people crossing the water."

Everyone looked around and saw that there was indeed an army of seven or eight hundred people waiting at the ferry a mile away. When they got closer, they saw that their clothes were Chu colors, their armor was red armor, and their flags were also bright Chu-style flags. Among them are one flag with a thousand soldiers and five or six flags with a hundred soldiers.

The chariot has unhooked its horses and is parked by the river. There are constantly people riding on the only four or five small boats at this ferry. The boatman is shaking the wooden oar and slowly sailing towards the other side...

Judging from this posture, these people have been crossing here for at least half an hour. Most of them have crossed the river, and only one or two hundred people are left on the east bank.

Seeing that it was indeed the Chu army, Zhongli Mei's subordinates all breathed a sigh of relief, but Zhongli Mei always felt that something was strange. The feeling that this Chu army gave him was different from the ordinary Chu army, but across the big screen It's so far away that I can't tell what's wrong.

Maybe if he gets closer, he can see the clues!

"Let's go over and ask."

Zhong Lizhen continued to ride forward. At this time, the whereabouts of several people in the group were also discovered by the other party, and they immediately sent someone on horseback.

"This horseman."

From a long distance away, Zhong Lizhen saw a young man riding a horse with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks greeting him: "I wonder where you came from?"

When his subordinates wanted to tell the truth, Zhongli Mei waved his hand to stop them and asked: "We are scouts of the army and were ordered to investigate this area. Where did you come from?"

The young man with a pointed mouth and monkey cheeks was a little embarrassed. He looked at the group of people coming behind him and said with a smile: "We are from Pingyu and were ordered to take the wounded soldiers to Ruxi to rest."

It was as Zhongli Mei's men guessed, but Zhongli Mei frowned: "I heard that Pingyu has been captured by our army. Why don't you rest where you are instead of going to Ruxi?"

A trace of surprise flashed in the young man's eyes, as if he didn't know about this, but he immediately covered it up, shook his head and said: "You have to ask the superiors, we are also acting under orders, maybe they want us to go to Ruxi on the spot Just garrison."

But then, Zhongli Mei kept asking questions, which army did they belong to? What's the leader's name? After a series of answers, although the young man answered fluently and Zhongli Mei did not know the situation of each Chu army in Huaibei and could not find any obvious flaws, he noticed another point.

Although this young man spoke the Western Chu dialect of Huaibei, he had obviously learned it. Those words commonly used by Chu people in Huaibei could not hide his original accent. Unfortunately, Zhongli Mei could not remember where this accent came from for a while.

"Where is your place of origin?"

The young man was stunned and said with a smile: "I am from Chengyang."

Chengyang is the westernmost city of the Chu State, close to Sui and Tang in Nanjun of the Chu State, and the accent is very similar to that there.

"That's it..."

Zhong Lizhen found no more doubts and continued to ask questions, but found that sweat was already flowing from the young man's forehead. When he looked behind him, there were more than a dozen fully armed Chu soldiers, led by a dark-faced Chu soldier. Get off and come this way.

The dark-faced man looked at Zhongli Mei, and Zhongli Mei looked at him. Although they were more than ten steps apart, they recognized each other at first sight.

At this time, Ji Ying was still trying to stabilize the Chu cavalryman in front of him. He pointed behind him and said with a smile: "This cavalryman, if you have anything to do, just ask our soldier commander, he..."

However, before he finished speaking, Zhong Lizhen pushed him hard and pushed Ji Ying off the horse. Then he pinched the horse's belly and shouted: "Hurry up!"

Soon enough, the "Chu soldiers" who were walking towards them with a smile on their faces, at the greeting of the black-faced man, or holding a sharp knife, rushed forward and stabbed the few knights in front to death. , or display the crossbow and shoot arrows at Zhong Lizhen's men who were stunned on the spot!

Things happened suddenly, and the riders were caught off guard. People kept getting hit by arrows, and people kept falling off their horses. But Zhongli Mei couldn't care about that much. He crouched on the horse and galloped forward quickly!

That's right, no wonder the young man's accent sounds so familiar, isn't it Anlu dialect! The local accent is unforgettable. Unless you spend several years deliberately correcting it, you can still hear it no matter how well it is concealed.

As for the black-faced man, wasn’t he the black husband of the Huyang Pavilion who had met Zhongli Mei when he was in Anlu County?

"Why is he here?"

The next moment, Zhongli Mei had no time to think. He only felt a sharp pain behind him. An arrow hit his back without any bias. The arrow cluster broke through the armor, minced the flesh and blood, and penetrated deeply!

This is the crossbow bolt that Heifu personally shot after running forward for a while! Seeing that Zhongli was hit by an arrow, he smiled with satisfaction, but then his smile dropped.

Because Zhongli Mei did not fall down.

The sudden severe pain made Zhong Lizhen almost fall off the horse, but he still steadied his body unsteadily, hugged the horse's neck tightly, and rushed forward like flying.

He must return to the main army and inform the general about this!

A Qin army actually disguised itself as Chu soldiers and marched majestically through the Chu territory!