From the county seat of Dehua where Jiangzhou Prefecture is located to Chizhou, the middle has to pass through Hukou and Pengze two counties, there are many lakes in this area, in addition to the Daze of Poyang Lake, there are a lot of river harbor branches, the bridges on the official road along the river are everywhere, and it is not conducive to the passage of the army, and it is the most convenient to take the waterway along the river.

This official road is almost parallel to the river, and many places directly take the embankment as the road, and the reason why it is built in this way is naturally by the convenience of the waterway, so the march is usually by land and water, and Zhang Hongfan, who has only a few thousand people, has no better choice.

The campaign at the beginning of the year, since the division of troops in Ezhou, he was under the command of Ali Hague, I don't know if it is the factor of luck, he has not caught any battles, usually all he does is to transport grain and grass, baggage and other things with the navy, but when Xie Ruji, who is also from the navy and is from ten thousand households, can lead an army alone, his heart is still somewhat unwilling, although the former was eventually defeated and captured.

Zhang Hongfan, who led the 3,000 cavalry army on the official road, no longer had the excitement at the beginning of the plan, and the cool river breeze calmed his mind. He knows very well that such an approach may be useless if he wins, and there must be times when he loses, but since he has made up his mind, there is nothing

Tanma returned as he expected, the route chosen by the Song people was far away from his department, according to the distance, he should stay in Dongliu County at this moment, no matter where it is, Zhang Hongfan is confident that he will take it, where it has long been barren, what can he use to block the three thousand iron horsemen behind him!

"What time is it?"

While controlling the speed of his horse, he asked sideways to the soldiers who were riding alongside.

"It's almost five watches, and the front is Pengze County."

Zhang Hongfan silently calculated in his heart, so far, they have been traveling for more than two hours, although they are not running at full speed, the horsepower will be exhausted, and there is still one day left in the remaining journey, which is just right.

"If the order goes down, he will camp outside the city, and no one will be allowed to enter the city, let alone know about the county."

Marching in the dark night, there is no way to prohibit the order, three thousand men and horses, two horses in parallel, plus the distance left, scattered on the official road for several miles, where it is so easy to say stop and stop, Zhang Hongfan and others, as the first, did not slow down at first, until they rushed out more than a hundred steps before slowing down, and the team behind him almost changed to run at the same time, without the slightest shouting and chaos after the collision, so that he was very satisfied with the strict management of the army.

In this operation, Zhang Hongfan chose to march at night, although he did not find that the other party had any reconnaissance in front of him, even if the opponent was a Song man he didn't like, once he started to act, caution and caution ran throughout, which was also the main reason why he was valued by the Yuan people.

But the irony is that since he led the army out of the city gate of Dehua County, his whereabouts have been in the field of vision of others, he doesn't know that on the side of this seemingly calm official road, under the seemingly unoccupied night, every dozens of miles, there are more than one pair of eyes staring at them.

"Such a bold dog thief, marching in the dark, not hitting a few torches, why didn't you fall down the river and drown them, smack, this damn flying worm. I took another bite of Lao Tzu. ”

"Shut up on the day of the dog, I'm counting."

Although they scolded and scolded in their mouths, these veterans from the scouts admired the strength of their opponents in their hearts, and the entire cavalry army almost maintained the same speed, except for the current few cavalry, the whole army was equivalent to rushing with their eyes closed, dozens of miles down, and the formation was not chaotic at all, which was unimaginable in the Song army.

In addition to being impressed, the news was sent all the way back, directly to the city of Dongliu County, where the mission was stationed, most of the people in the mission had already rested, except for a house behind the city gate facing the official road, the courtyard of the size of the three entrances was lit with oil lamps and candles everywhere, and from time to time there were figures flashing in and out.

"Pengze County? It came so fast. ”

Hearing the latest report, Liu Yu muttered to himself, ticked the position marked on the map with a pencil, and after a long time, no new news came, and it seemed that this was their end today.

Beside him, Yang Lei was holding an oil lamp in his hand, and the light illuminated the periphery, which was the size of a square table, and the latter's face was very serious, obviously these news were not very good.

The reason is very simple, their preparation time is too short, there is almost nothing in the city except empty houses, the treasury of the government is empty, and there is no equipment needed to defend the city, especially arrows, if the enemy desperately comes to attack the city, I really don't know how to resist it.

Three thousand people, not too much, not too little, if you specialize in all the way, it will cause a lot of trouble, after all, the number of defenders is small, and it is impossible to fight for people's lives, Liu Yu of course also thought of this problem, but his expression was very relaxed, and when he turned his head to see Yang Lei's expression, he showed a smile.

"Lao Yang, what are you afraid of, we don't have a guard, and they don't have an attacking tool, it will be done after a few days."

"Zhongshu, it's not Lao Yang's flattery, in such a situation, you can still laugh, Lao Yang really admires."

Liu Yu's joke didn't work, Yang Lei shook his head with a bitter face, these people in the city are the objects of his protection, this has not yet entered the enemy territory, they can all be in danger, I really don't know what will happen thousands of miles down.

But his words are also sincere, Liu Yu is the chief official here, his emotions directly affect everyone, he can be so calm, it is rare in the Great Song Dynasty, Yang Lei is very glad of his choice.

Of course, they didn't do nothing after entering the city, just now, there were hundreds of defenders on duty who were not sleeping in the city, and they were looking for all the resources available in the city, at least the houses were not running, and stone and wood were indispensable, and these things were also very useful.

Liu Yu has tried his best, if he is somewhere else, he can travel back and bring things over, but in the current situation, he can't leave at all, there are not many of his own people in the mission, not to mention that there are still Yuan people in it, I don't know ~ Under the truth, maybe I will think that he ran away, and the consequences will be catastrophic, so I can't say that I can only use local materials now.

This time the enemy he faced didn't seem to be much, maybe the danger was not so great, Liu Yu smiled and patted Yang Lei's shoulder armor, signaling that he didn't have to be too nervous.

"It's not early, you've been busy all night, go and rest, tomorrow you can't say it's going to be very busy."

"Forget it, where is there still sleepiness, go and take a look everywhere, Zhongshu rest assured."

Seeing that the persuasion could not be moved, Liu Yu did not force it, anyway, the enemy would not arrive today, there was nothing to worry about, it was a big deal, he would talk about it when he woke up, he nodded and was about to enter the back wing, but suddenly found that a sergeant hurriedly walked in, it was the pro-soldier who was responsible for the transmission of intelligence, could there be any new movement? He couldn't help but stop.

"Lang Jun, Pengze County came to report, a fleet came from the upstream and stopped at the county wharf, carrying a large number of sergeants, the number of which was about two thousand."

"What?"

Liu Yu and Yang Lei were shocked at the same time, according to the prior investigation, there were only 5,000 people in Jiangzhou City, in addition to the 3,000 cavalry troops brought by Zhang Hongfan, there were only the original 2,000 new attached troops, this person actually dared to pour out of the nest, leaving no spare strength at all, and it really can't be underestimated.

As soon as the news arrived, both of them understood that the last trace of luck was gone, the former could also be said to be to welcome the mission, and the latter's purpose was clearly revealed, since they took the waterway, it was not just people who were lucky, and the two looked at each other, and they both thought of this problem at the same time.

"Don't sleep, go and inform Zhang Dutong, cancel tonight's shift, let everyone work harder, and tear it down regardless of the official house! Collect everything that is available, it is better if you can find the oil of fire, and don't let go of anything else that can ignite the fire, the more the better, and the faster. ”

"So-and-so will also take someone to do it." Yang Lei responded.

"No, your people can't move, go do one thing, confiscate the weapons of those Yuan people, rush to a room to take care of them, pile firewood around them, whoever dares to rush out will light a fire, and if something happens, the official will bear it."

Liu Yu nodded at him solemnly, since the enemy wants to play really, it is no wonder that he really wants to fight, see who dies first, Yang Lei did not answer after listening, hugged his fist at him, turned around and went out.

Since there is going to be a war, of course Liu Yu will not stay in this house, there are few defenders in the city, he must stand on the head of the city, let these sergeants see his figure, in order to condense the morale of the army, this TM is tired, at this moment, he suddenly missed the peaceful days of the future generations, how long has it been since he drank and chatted and bragged and fart?

"What do you want to do?"

Another house in the city, much larger than Liu Yu's, lived in the Yuan people's mission, when Yang Lei led his men into the courtyard, most of them were asleep, the Yuan guards in the outer compartment were almost all dragged out of the bed, only to find that the saber placed at the head of the bed had been taken away, and no one dared to move lightly in the face of the bright knives and guns.

Lian Xixian and his deputy Chai Zizhi were awakened by the noise, and Chai Zizhi, who didn't know what was going on, saw Song Ren's actions and immediately stepped forward to theorize. Lian Xixian stood under the porch in his middle coat and watched all this coldly, he had a faint feeling in his heart, this feeling had been there from the Song people's abnormal movements a few days ago, and now, where he still doesn't understand, something happened in front.

"Forget it, give it to them."

His words made a few guards who were pushing in the courtyard stop, people have long been prepared, they really want to do it, and the only one who suffers is their own side, anyway, the matter will always be over, and he is not afraid of what will happen to the Song people, because in the end, it is they who are afraid of the war.

What he couldn't figure out was that this was almost Jiangzhou, what would happen to make the Song people like a great enemy? Could it be that he suddenly thought of a possibility, this possibility would kill him, for a while, Lian Xixian's only remaining sleepiness disappeared, and until he was locked up in the largest room in the hospital, he still looked thoughtful.