Yangluo Fort, located on the north bank of the river, in Huangzhou, less than forty miles away from Ezhou City, in the early years it was still a town where the military and civilians gathered, since it fell into the hands of the Yuan people, the people who could escape all fled, and those who could not escape were either nowhere to be found, or

According to legend, this fort was built in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and was erected by Jiangxia Taishou Huangzu, the most relied on general Jiangxia Taishou under Liu Biao, who was the minister of Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao at that time, in order to defend the Sun clan in the lower reaches of the river. Of course, that was more than a thousand years ago, and the current main structure was rebuilt after the southern crossing, and even the original site was moved from Shawu to the current location.

One side of the castle is against the river, and the topographical walls enclose a harbor, so that large ships that come down from the upstream can sail straight into the fort. Therefore, since a few months ago, it has become a large military camp, from Xiangyang Mansion through the Han River to Ezhou, and then through the river down the transport of food, ordnance, soldiers gathered here almost non-stop, the fort has long been unable to live, the stretch of military camp has been extended to the Qiting River area, it seems to be magnificent, but in fact it is innumerable trouble.

As the supreme commander of this place, Ali Hague had moved his camp outside the fort in order to appease the army, and if anything happened, he could deal with it in the shortest possible time, and his big tent stood on a high slope, with a striking handsome flag flying high, surrounded by cronies and guards, and the Great Khan's army transferred from the capital.

"Ali Hague is in there?"

When he opened the tent door, Ah Tinghan asked as usual, not out of respect for the people in the tent, but to give face to the big man standing outside the tent, but the other party didn't even reply with a salute, and said "um" from his nose as an agreement.

Ali Hague did not go out, he sat in his seat and looked at a military report, although the voice outside the tent was not loud, he still listened to it, and his heart suddenly felt a little unhappy, but a defeated general, he escaped with his life, even the commander of the army Boyan was sent to the northwest, he has tens of thousands of households, why? He is now the commander here, although he thinks so, his tone does not bring out the slightest.

"Azihan, those Han people are making trouble again?"

"It's not." With some irritation, he found a military stool and sat down, only to find that he had to tilt his head and stand up on his own.

Ali Hague looked at his small movements, and let out a sneer from his heart, but the expression on his face became more and more kind, if he could run back like this, the matter would definitely not be small, he put down the military report in his hand, and planned to listen to what the other party would say.

"Yesterday, when the Han army scouts on patrol came back, there were two less people, and when they asked their accomplices, they all said that they had never heard any movement, and they were suddenly gone." Ah Tinghan shook his head in annoyance, and then said: "Today is not yet sunset, and someone has come to report that the three scouts are missing, and I have ordered the rest to be on guard and not to scatter any longer. ”

"The few are all Han soldiers?" Ali Hague was not too surprised after listening to his story, and his mind slowly began to spin.

"There are five people, belonging to different thousand households, one is in charge of the banks of the river, about fifteen miles ahead, and one is in charge of the direction of Huangzhou, about thirty miles in the area of Tuanfeng Town, these are the two of them yesterday." Ah Tinghan wrenched his fingers as if he was talking to himself, "Among the three people today, one is responsible for the east of the Qiting River, more than 20 miles ahead, the other is responsible for the north of the Qiting River, and the front is about 50 miles to the territory of Macheng County, and the last one is responsible for the west of the Qiting River, 15 miles ahead."

Ali Hague stood up halfway when he heard this, and took a feather arrow in his hand and came to the middle of the big tent, he was not yet luxurious, there was no carpet in the tent, and under his feet was the native yellow earth, while listening to Asahan's explanation, he was scratching something on the ground, and his mouth was still babbling.

"It's strange, it's not like this, if it's a run, it's a bit too coincidental, it doesn't make sense at all." His words were a little clueless, and after finishing speaking, Ah Tinghan, who stopped after speaking, looked at his movements and didn't know why, so he simply squatted down directly, only to see that the ground was crossed by him, some of them looked like topographic maps, but they were confused.

"You come and see, let's say this is the big river, this is the location of Yangluo Fort, and the big camp extends all the way here, then this is the first missing Han army you said." Ali Hague took out a command flag from his desk and planted a flag on the first point.

"The direction of Huangzhou is here, assuming that this is the location of Tuanfeng Town, it is the second missing person." As he explained, he gradually understood his intentions, but he didn't say anything in order not to interrupt the other party's thoughts.

"That's roughly how the Qiting River goes." He drew a curve from top to bottom on the ground, and the end point was the location of Tuanfeng Town, where this small river finally joined the river, "This is the direction of Hedong, the location of the first missing person today, the next one is the direction of Macheng County, fifty miles forward from Hebei, about here, and the last one is near Hexi, let's say it's here." After planting the five flags one by one, Ali Hague clapped his hands and stood up.

"Look, what do they look like?"

Squatting on the ground, Ah Tinghan seemed to have realized, too close to see clearly, he stood up like Ali Hague, and the shape of an approximate circle on the ground appeared in front of him, to be precise, if you look at it in the order of the missing people, it is like someone has drawn a big circle on the map, and the center of this circle is near Ali Hague's handsome tent!

This result made the two of them speechless at the same time, and the circle formed by the yellow Lingqi was like a noose around their necks, making them involuntarily rise up a fear, a fear from the heart that they had never felt before.

"Why did they take one person captive at a time?" You must know that these are scouts, and all they carry are things that report news, and if something is wrong, they will send a signal, but none of these five people do this, who would do such a thing? Do you need to say it?

"Temptation, did you immediately send troops to search in that direction after you found out? It turned out to be nothing. ”

Ah Tinghan nodded, the Song people did this to try to find out which direction was the slowest to react? Otherwise, it is impossible to explain such a strange move, what can be taken out of the mouths of these scouts? The distribution of troops, the key points, or the strategic trends, Ali Hague suddenly felt that his brain was in pain, and there were too many possibilities to take into account them all.

"Where will they come from?"

This is the crux of the matter, Ali Hague's heart is suddenly confused, the most important thing at the moment is to concentrate and concentrate, he has to consult the second person in the account, in order to expand his thinking.

"The direction of the river is not a big problem, if you take the waterway or go in the opposite direction, it will not be fast in any case, and the direction of Huangzhou is also unlikely, not to mention that there is a Qizhou in the middle, let's just say that the only Anqing Mansion where the Song people can move troops, the deputy envoy Zhang is busy evacuating the people to the rear, and the military newspaper is sent every day, and his movements should not be hidden from us." Hearing Azihan's analysis, Ali Hague gradually calmed down.

"That's the direction of Macheng, Azhuhan, the patrol there needs to be strengthened, fifty miles ahead is not enough, I need you to directly insert it into the line of Dabie Mountain, even if you are staring at them at the pass, you have to stare this line to death for me."

"Shh Ah Tinghan was shocked by his words and gasped, the scout cavalry was so far away, it was more than a hundred distances, and the Song people would hide the army in a deep mountain, and then launch an offensive by surprise? This should be something that only his own people will do, he suddenly gave birth to a wave of anger, not at Ali Hague, but at those nightmarish encounters under Jiankang City.

"You think they won't?" Ali Hague guessed his thoughts, and showed a thoughtful expression, "Just a few months ago, I almost took the Guifeng Pass with people, but guess what, the Song people came out of the mountains, and the mountains were full of people, and I was driven by them all the way to this castle before I stood still." ”

Ah Tinghan had heard of this matter for a long time, but it was the first time he heard him say it in such detail, and he knew very well what Ali Hague meant, the Song people had changed and become so strange, and he had already experienced this strangeness under Jiankang City. Tens of thousands of troops were surrounded by the Song people who defended the city, everything was calculated so accurately, whether he wanted to admit it or not, the opponent was no longer slaughtered, but a vicious wolf who chose people to devour!

"But there are nearly 300,000 people here, and they can afford to eat?"

"How many people are there under Jiankang City?" Ali Hague pushed back without even thinking about it.

Azihan was speechless again, compared to the army under Jiankang City, almost most of them were newly recruited recruits, and because of this, the two of them would be extra careful, because any slightest disturbance would lead to disastrous consequences, and night was their worst enemy.

"How far can the Song people hit that kind of thing?" Ali Hague felt a little nervous.

"It's not good, it should be at least one or two miles." This result is the distance from Jiankang City to Yanziji Wharf, according to the rout soldiers who fled back, the artillery fire of the day was stopped there, otherwise they would have collapsed directly without the Song people to catch up.

Although Asahan felt that he was a little too cautious, he had to admit that in this case, it was better to think more about it than to be careless. From the topographical point of view, the army was stationed between the Dajiang River and the Qiting River, and it was convenient to get water, but once that situation occurred, it would fall into a desperate situation with waterways in front and back, which was entirely because when the camp was set up, the threat of the Song people was not taken into account at all.

Did you divide your troops and cross the river overnight? Ali Hague shook his head, the big river is not like the Han River, the water surface in this area is very wide, the current is also very fast, and the pontoon bridge cannot last at all. If there were no bridges, the ships needed to quickly cross the river with more than 100,000 men and horses were astronomical, and he simply did not have so many boats in his hands now.

Then there was only one way to go, to be on guard on the spot, and before he could consider the plan to mature, a personal soldier reported loudly outside the tent that when Ali Hague ordered him to come in, he found that it was not his own people who followed him.

"He's my subordinate, tell me, what's wrong?" Ah Tinghan was a little surprised, what kind of news would make him chase him to Shuai's tent?

"Report to Pingzhang and Dashuai, my subordinates have received a report that another Han army scout has disappeared."

As soon as the words of the person came out, they were taken aback, and in a hurry, Ali Hague didn't care about the person who was not his own, stepped forward and grabbed his shoulder, and asked anxiously.

"Which direction?"

"Shawu Town, Huangpi County, upstream of the river."

There is no need to plant a flag, the eyes of the two people are invariably staring at the sketch at their feet, plus this person, the circle that was originally missing a mouth is closed, like a rope has been put into the neck, only the last pull!