As the supreme commander of the ironclad artillery brigade, Guo Yang had to stay with the main force at all times, so he sent his men to cross the river first, and he would not cross the river until all the vehicles had passed halfway. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Zhang Erniu crossed the river with the first batch of ironclad artillery trucks, while Li Feiyu accompanied Guo Yang, looking at the ten steam ferries that were crossing the river.

"Guo Lushuai, at the current speed of crossing the river, all the vehicles will cross the Yellow River, I am afraid it will not be completed until dusk, it seems that today I will have to rest on the other side of the Yellow River for a day."

Li Feiyu looked at the slow-moving steamship and spoke.

In fact, the speed of the steamship is not very slow, and the Yellow River is not very wide, but it takes twice as long to go back and forth, and in addition, the ironclad gun car is not very smooth to get on and off the ship, and it is even more delayed.

In this way, a steamship can only make a maximum of four trips back and forth in an hour, and twenty times it takes five hours, that is, ten hours in the Hereafter, from seven o'clock in the morning to five o'clock in the afternoon, which is not a whole day.

"Yes! There are too few ferries and too many vehicles, which will delay us for a whole day, and I really hope that the Yellow River Bridge mentioned by Li Shilang can be built as soon as possible, as long as the bridge is built on the Yellow River, our nearly 200 vehicles can quickly reach the other side. ”

Guo Yan opened his mouth and sighed.

Since ancient times, the Yellow River has been a natural barrier for the Chinese Empire, which not only blocked the southward movement of the northern nomads, but also made the traffic on both sides of the Yellow River extremely difficult.

"What Guo Lvshuai said is that if a bridge can really be erected on the Yellow River, we will have reached the other side of the Yellow River by now, and we can continue to advance dozens of miles north."

Li Feiyu very much agrees with Guo Yang's point of view, and Li Feiyu is also convinced of building a bridge over the Yellow River, because this is what Li An said, and Li An will not say nonsense, since Li An said so, it will definitely be realized.

"It's strange, why did Lvshuai Zhang suddenly run back."

Guo Yang looked through the telescope and found Zhang Erniu standing on the bow of the returning steamship, which made him feel a little strange.

"Guo Lushuai, Erniu will not return for no reason, there must be some important situation on the other side, he came back to report."

Li Feiyu hurriedly responded.

Guo Yang and Li Feiyu glanced at each other and said, "Let's go, let's go to the ferry." ”

When Guo Yang and Li Feiyu walked to the ferry, Zhang Erniu's return boat had already docked.

"Erniu, why did you come back suddenly, is there something on the other side?"

Li Feiyu hurriedly asked.

Zhang Erniu looked at Li Feiyu and Guo Yan, nodded and said: "As soon as I arrived on the other side, I found that there were many hunters, fishermen and woodcutters armed with various weapons, and there were at least seventy or eighty people in the three positions, all of them were fierce and vicious, and they didn't look like ordinary people at all. ”

Li Feiyu and Guo Yan glanced at each other, and they were both surprised, how could the Pinglu army pretend to be an Orion and run to a place close to Luoyang City for no reason, and the scale is not small.

"The Pinglu army is hiding at the crossing of the Yellow River, there must be some ulterior conspiracy, Zhang Lvshuai, have you let people keep an eye on them?"

Guo Yang immediately realized that something was wrong, An Lushan had just launched an attack on Liangbo, why did he suddenly send his subordinates to secretly deploy on the north bank of the Yellow River crossing, which was far away from the two towns of Pinglu and Fanyang, there must be some kind of purpose for doing so.

"Well, many people have been dispatched to keep an eye on these hunters, as long as they make any moves, we will know immediately, and I will come to inform you, so that you can be prepared."

Zhang Erniu nodded.

Guo Yan and Li Feiyu glanced at each other, and said with a straight face: "Let's cross the river now and see the situation first." ”

The three of them got on the boat together and headed straight to the other side of the Yellow River.

Before arriving at the shore, Zhang Erniu pointed to the more than 20 people close to the Yellow River, and said: "You see, these more than 20 fishermen are not fishing at all, and they don't look like fishermen at all. ”

"The situation hasn't been clarified yet, so I can't be sure yet!"

Guo Yang felt that he could not judge that these people were Piping Lu soldiers based on these accents alone.

"Guo Lushuai, I used to be a soldier in the Pinglu Army, and I know something about the Pinglu Army, and my intuition tells me that these people are soldiers of the Pinglu Army, and all of them are elite soldiers."

Zhang Erniu said affirmatively.

Guo Yan was noncommittal, quietly looking at these fishermen, and these fishermen had obviously never seen ironclad artillery trucks, and they all watched with curious eyes as these behemoths climbed onto the north bank of the Yellow River, of course, they only looked at them a few times and deliberately avoided their gaze, pretending to continue fishing.

After going ashore and marching three miles away, Zhang Erniu continued to point ahead and said: "Guo Lvshuai, among the woods on the left, there are many abnormal hunters, it is estimated that there are thirty or forty people, and there are many woodcutters in the woods on the right, and there are also twenty or thirty people. ”

"There are more than three places, and many people sitting in the teahouse don't look like pedestrians on a long journey, but like people who are waiting here on purpose, you look at their eyes, and everyone is full of vigilance, they are not ordinary people at all."

Guo Yang found that there were also many suspicious people in the roadside teahouse.

"The order goes down, after all the vehicles are ashore, drive ten miles ahead, do not all gather at the ferry, and these people must keep a close watch on them."

Guo Yan gave orders to his subordinates.

After leaving a small number of people to watch, Guo Yang, Li Feiyu, and Zhang Erniu drove to the north of the ferry with the ironclad artillery car that had crossed the river, and temporarily stationed down, waiting for the team behind.

"Guo Lvshuai, I don't think we can sit still, we should take the initiative to ask the locals, ask where these people come from, how long they have been here, and there will definitely be gains."

Li Feiyu opened his mouth to suggest.

Guo Yang nodded again and again, and said with a straight face: "What Lvshuai Li said is that he should ask the locals, only the locals know what is going on with these people, so I will send my subordinates to inquire in many ways." ”

After sending out some of their subordinates, the trio continued to study what the men were doing, and came up with various speculations.

Soon, the people sent out to inquire about the people rushed back one after another, and immediately reported the situation to the three of them.

"Tell me, what the hell is going on?"

Guo Yang asked impatiently.

"Brigade marshal, these people really have a problem, according to the local people, these people came here more than ten days ago, as for what they are doing, the local people don't understand, in short, these people are just wandering around the neighborhood all day long, monitoring the pedestrians coming from the north, other than that, almost nothing else, I haven't seen them really catch fish, hit prey, chopping wood is just for show."

"Strange, what the hell are these people going to do?"

Guo Yan frowned.

"Guo Lvshuai, if we don't catch someone and ask, we will know."

Zhang Erniu suggested.

"No, this will startle the snake, we can't act rashly, let's leave some men and horses stationed here, and the main force will continue to march north!"

Guo Yang's personality is more cautious and does not dare to do too risky things.

"Okay, then I will set off with the first team in the vanguard, and I will contact you in time if there is any situation."

Zhang Erniu and the first team of ironclad artillery vehicles immediately set off and continued to travel due north, while Guo Yan and Li Feiyu stayed for the time being, waiting for the main force behind them.

"Guo Lushuai, judging from the current situation, if these people are really An Lushan's subordinates and are deployed here, there is only one purpose, to prevent the two Tibetans from sending people into Beijing and intercepting and killing them on the way, if this is really the case, then An Lushan's purpose for doing this is very suspicious."

Li Feiyu calmly analyzed.

"That's right, Li Shilang once told me what An Lushan had done, and my father had also seen An Lushan, and told me that this guy is not a good person, now it seems that your speculation is correct, the purpose of the existence of these people is very likely to prevent the two Tibetans from sending people into Beijing, as long as no one in the two Tibetans enters Beijing to justify, what An Lushan says, Your Majesty will not doubt it."

Guo Yan said calmly.

"The crossing of the Yellow River should be the last line of defense for An Lushan to block the envoys of the two Tibetans from entering Beijing, in the north, there should be many people and horses deployed, it seems that he has laid a net of heaven and earth, if the people of the two Tibetans want to enter Beijing, it is as difficult as climbing to the sky! Fortunately, my eldest brother let us come over, otherwise, my sister would not have had the opportunity to enter Beijing at all. ”

Li Feiyu said.

Guo Yan nodded approvingly and said: "It's still Li Shilang's foresight, we should go north quickly immediately, there will already be a lot of discoveries along the way, as long as we find people from the two sides, we will all bring them back to the capital." ”

Li Feiyu nodded in approval.

The people sent out to monitor the news came back one after another, and these people at the Yellow River crossing were business as usual, and there was no abnormal behavior in the slightest, which made the two quite helpless, the other party did not make any mistakes, just stayed here, and no one could do anything to them.

After half of the main vehicles came, Guo Yang arranged for a team of men and horses to stay on the north bank of the Yellow River crossing, and the main force immediately marched north to catch up with the first team of men and horses in front.

The speed of the mechanized vehicles was undoubtedly very fast, and the speed of advance was shocking, and the chariots of the first team of the vanguard had already reached the area of Magao Mountain, a few hundred miles away, and temporarily stopped advancing.

Zhang Erniu also found more than twenty abnormal people here, and sent several soldiers to quietly follow them.

"Lvshuai Zhang, there is a sound of fighting ahead, it seems to be very close."

Near the location where the first team of ironclad artillery trucks stayed, there was a sound of fighting, which was very strange.

"The ironclad command vehicle was immediately dispatched to see what the situation was."

Zhang Erniu temporarily took over the command and ordered loudly.

The ironclad command vehicle quickly approached the area of the fight and saw a group of people retreating into the woods, while a dozen corpses lay on the road.

"Go down and see what's going on?"

Zhang Erniu took the lead in jumping out of the ironclad command vehicle, looked at the corpses on the ground, and said, "It's the Xi people, these people are all Xi people." ”

has lived in the Yingzhou area for many years, of course Zhang Erniu knows the Xi people, and he will definitely not admit mistakes.

"Lvshuai Zhang, there's still a living mouth here."

"It's nice to have a living mouth."

Zhang Erniu was overjoyed, hurriedly ran over, and helped up the Xi people who were not yet dead, and asked, "Who are you, why did those people kill you." ”

"We are warriors of the Xi tribe, An Lushan slandered us against the Tang Dynasty, we were ordered to rush to the capital to explain to Your Majesty, but An Lushan had already prepared to intercept and kill us halfway."

Xi Ren said a few words and died.

"These killers, sure enough, are from An Lushan, send a car back quickly and report the situation to Lvshuai Guo."

Zhang Erniu put down the corpse and led the rest of the team to continue to march north, believing that the farther north he went, the more information he would surely discover.

When Guo Yang and Li Feiyu learned the news, they were even more sure of their previous judgment, and felt that An Lushan's motives were not pure, and the rebellion in Liangbo was definitely not as stated in the war report, so they immediately accelerated to the north to find out more information, but they claimed to the outside world that it was the field training of the ironclad artillery brigade, and they went to the north to deter Liangbo.

On the second day, the men and horses of the first team of the forward had arrived in Xiangzhou, and stopped to wait for the supplies behind, after all, the ironclad artillery truck was powered by coal, and once the coal stored inside the vehicle was used up, it was necessary to wait for the supply of the rear transport vehicle, otherwise, it would be impossible to carry out the operation.

And along the way, Zhang Erniu found a place secretly monitored by An Lushan's subordinates, and found the corpse of the Xi people hidden on the side of the road, and it was a Xi warrior dressed as a businessman.

After Guo Yang's main force arrived in Xiangzhou, he made a short stay and was visited by the magistrates of Xiangzhou, introducing them to the power of the ironclad artillery carriage, and stating that he led the ironclad artillery carriage to come, mainly to carry out long-distance training, and at the same time, to deter the two Tibetans who had just rebelled in the north.

After all, Xiangzhou is far away from the capital, and all kinds of magic have not appeared in Xiangzhou, so when the ironclad artillery car allows outsiders to visit, officials of all sizes in Xiangzhou City came to see the excitement, and praised the rapid progress of Datang's science and technology, and felt extremely proud of being an official of Datang.

The reason why Guo Yang wanted to engage in such an activity was to let Xiangzhou officials see the latest scientific research achievements of Datang, second, to wait for supplies from behind, and third, to confuse everyone, so that everyone thought that the purpose of their second visit was training and deterrence, and they did not doubt the established fact of the rebellion between the two Tibetans.

After all the supplies were in place, the main force of the ironclad artillery brigade continued to advance rapidly in the direction of due north, and closely watched the various situations along the way.