The new order of independence was raised, and thousands of battalions were called out. After a few months of silence, the more than ten drums outside Zhao Yingyuan's gate, which were as big as a grinding plate, were beaten again after a long absence. The rumbling drums were endless, and among the countless wanton banners, Zhao Yingqi commanded Guo Ruke to slowly walk out of the army across the horse.

Outside the gate, Su Zhao, the inspector of the inspection department of the deer head shop riding a yellow horse, led dozens of archers to meet the general. Guo Ruke talked to him for a few words, then pulled the reins and raised his whip to point. Su Zhao smiled wryly, and immediately a soldier guided him and the archers of the inspection department merged into the long line. The two horsemen came out of the team and stood around Guo Ruke, one for Jing Keqin and the other for Song Houzhen. Jing Keqin looked at the back of Su Zhao, who was hurrying away, and said with a sneering look on his face: "Commander, do you really want to take them in this battle?" ”

Guo Ruke shrugged and said: "The deer head shop is already the inspection department, although there is my battalion in charge, but the enemy is current, and the inspection department is not good to be the shrunken turtle." Otherwise, the black gauze hat on the head surnamed Su will not be able to keep. ”

Song Houzhen smiled: "No one in the world can always have smooth sailing. Children are in school, and exams are indispensable every quarter and every year, and the Youzai Youzai surnamed Su is his justice of the peace, and he has reaped a lot of benefits, and he deserves to suffer this after all. I saw that his trembling strands and white lips must have cried like an angry little daughter-in-law. ”

Guo Ruke smiled, looked around, and asked, "Where did Old Wei go?" ”

Jing Keqin replied: "Pressing the formation at the back of the team." ”

Guo Ruke instructed: "This battle is as we agreed earlier, Lao Jing and Lao Song are the two of you, and Lao Wei is the main one, and Lao Wei is in the array." turned around and informed Lao Wei that he would take care of Su Patrol and avoid right and wrong. ”

Jing Keqin and Song Hou Zhen responded to what they said, although Guo Ruke did not say it explicitly, but the two of them knew the meaning of the words. The so-called "good life care", on the surface, protects Su Zhao from being killed, but secretly in order to prevent the archers of the Inspection Division from messing with the enemy, which will affect Zhao Ying's position. On the battle array, everything has to be orderly and cautious, the number of people in the inspection department is not large, but there are dozens of people, it really makes trouble, and it has a great impact on Zhao Ying.

At yesterday's military meeting, Zhao Dangshi accepted Guo Ruke's proposal to rush to occupy Huyang Town and fight a battle on the way back to the camp. In the morning today, Guo Ruke led the Hun camp to the battle. The Qihun camp has three posts, each with a staff of 500 people, and Jing Keqin, Song Houzhen and Wei Shanhong serve as sentinels respectively. According to the plan, Jing Keqin's outpost and Song Houzhen's left outpost were the main combat force of this trip, and Wei Shanhong's outpost was the backup. Originally, he felt that he was foolproof, but when Zhao Dangshi suddenly sent a message, saying that it was the inspection department to help in the battle, and arranged for the Hun camp to go to the front line with the archers of the inspection department. Guo Ruke was reluctant in his heart, but the military fate was difficult to disobey, and he didn't have any hope for Su Zhao, so he could only stuff it straight into the Weishan Flood Whistle to protect him, just to stop dragging his own army back. Fortunately, Su Zhao was timid and afraid, and when he was about to fight, the six gods had no master, and he was very obedient, so Guo Ruke felt a little at ease.

The journey from Lutoudian to Huyang Town is more than 60 miles, and according to the normal marching speed, it can be reached before nightfall. But Guo Ruke has always pursued the principle of "soldiers are noble and fast", and likes to spur the army to force it. He believed that the whole army set out early in the morning, and it was necessary to arrive at Huyang Town at noon, and then use the afternoon time to arrange the position and camp before nightfall, so that it could be safe.

With his constant pressure, all the soldiers in the Qihun camp worked hard to hurry. This is a bitter thing for Su Zhao and a group of archers, they rarely train on weekdays, and they have to breathe when they are about to walk two miles, where can they keep up with Zhao Yingjian'er's footsteps. At the beginning, Su Zhao and other archers of the Inspection Division were still able to barely follow the large army, and after half an hour, everyone was already panting and faltering.

Jing Keqin and Song Houzhen were in front, and Wei Shanhong was in the back, because the archers of the inspection department stopped and stopped, and complained again and again, Wei Shanhong had to stop and take care of them repeatedly, so that he gradually pulled out a large distance from the front and left two posts. Guo Ruke found out about this situation and went to Su Zhao to negotiate in person, hoping that he could focus on the overall situation and catch up with the pace of the archers. Su Zhao was also honest, and frankly said that the lack of training of the archers was really unsustainable. In this way, Guo Ruke took the opportunity to euphemistically express his hope that the brothers of the Inspection Department would leave the team, but Su Zhao refused. There was a stalemate for a while, because of Zhao Dangshi's military order, Guo Ruke did not turn his face with him, and thought of a compromise method. That is, the route of the army is slightly inclined to the northeast, and it can stop through Cen Peng City on the way. The archers of the Inspection Division spent the night in Cen Peng City, and the Qihun camp continued to advance, and when Huyang Town was fully arranged, they would send people to bring Su Zhao and others to the front line.

Su Zhao thought about it for a moment, looked at the archers under his command who were crying bitterly, and really couldn't think of any other way, so he had to accept it. So after another half a mile, the team of Qihun camp gradually walked out of the official road and turned northeast. Song Houzhen, who was at the forefront of the army, personally returned to his horse to find Guo Ruke and said: "The scattered scouts are still moving along the official road, if they are temporarily transferred to Cen Peng City, I am afraid that the connection with the scouts will be temporarily disconnected." He also suggested, "The scouts are scattered so much that our army will be temporarily rerouted, and it will be difficult to inform them for a while." If this happens, our army will be temporarily cut off from the scouts, and it will be deaf and unaffordable. It is better to let the front and left two posts go straight to the official road, and the right post one escorts the people of the inspection department to Cen Pengcheng. ”

Guo Ruke nodded and said, "Very much." You and Lao Jing go to Huyang Town first and arrange the future, and Lao Wei and I will go to Cen Pengcheng first and strive to arrive in time. If there is an emergency, you and Lao Jing will decide together. "Cen Pengcheng is northeast of the midpoint between Lutoudian and Huyang Town, and the distance is not too far. Jing and Song are also veterans of the army, so they shouldn't have to worry about it.

Song Hou Zhen took the order and left, and in a short time, 1,000 people from the front and left posts went to the north, and 500 people from the rear posts went to the northeast, starting the camp and marching in two parts.

Cen Pengcheng is a Cen Peng Ma City, according to legend, Cen Peng, one of the 28 generals of Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, built the city and herded horses when Qin Feng, Dong Xin, Xu Han and other separatist forces. This place has been abandoned for a long time, but in the early Ming Dynasty, because there were thieves and robbers in the nearby mountains, the county repaired the city wall to help suppress it, so now there are also Qi people's high rammed earth wall around. By the time Guo Ruke and Wei Shanhong took the outpost and sent Su Zhao and the archers of the Inspection Division to this place, the shadow of the sun had already begun to set westward.

There were still some archers from the Inspection Division stationed in the city, and Su Zhao invited Guo Ruke to have lunch before leaving, but Guo Ruke refused. The road to Cen Pengcheng is not as good as the official road, although it is smooth, but the road is narrow, the four fields are overgrown with wild grass, and the soldiers are actually not smooth. Guo Ruke roughly speculated based on the sundial placed on the temple field in the city that the rear post he was in was at least two hours behind the front and left second outposts.

The rear post of the Qihun camp was stationed in the city for a quarter of an hour, and Guo Ruke urged the troops to get up. Before leaving the city gate, Guo Ruke's eyelids suddenly jumped, and he felt a low mood for no reason. After walking for a while, Wei Shanhong, who had been leading the team in front, suddenly turned his horse and came to him.

"News from Huyang Town?" Guo Ruke secretly had a bad premonition, but he said, "I'm afraid they've arrived." ”

Today's weather is not too hot, but Wei Shanhong's face is covered with beads of sweat, he gasped sharply, his voice trembled slightly, and his emotional tension made the already stuttering even more serious: "Yes, yes, Lake, Huyang Town...... Huyang Town...... Enemy, enemy...... Already, already...... It's here! ”

Even if the words are not clear, but with only a few words, Guo Ruke is still a slap in the face.

Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, once said in his song: "In the past, the thieves avoided the troops and fled, but now they meet the troops against the enemy, ambush the left and right, and repeat the succession, so it is difficult to kill them." The thieves all have fine horses, or straddle two horses, and the officers and soldiers have three steps and seven horses, so it is difficult to chase. It is used to illustrate the large number of horses in the rogues.

Liukou originated in the northwest, known as a horse production area, and has the convenience of bartering with the border tribes to market horses, over time, the number of horses owned far exceeds the normal proportion. Generally speaking, in a battalion, the big leader generally has sixty or seventy or even a hundred horses, and the small leader also has twenty or thirty horses, and they are all sympathetic to horsepower and can make good use of it. In peacetime, they walked around and moved, mostly riding donkeys and mules, and rarely rode horses until wartime, "only with their wives leading them, clothes, women's equipment, etc., each carrying a donkey, reuniting with the old camp." Therefore, it is extremely mobile, and it is often only a few days of work for thousands of miles.

Zhao Ying started late, and has always lacked the means and channels to increase the number of war horses, so he had no choice but to change his course, focusing on infantry and supplemented by horse army. In addition, because most of the battles were fought in Sichuan, Yunyang and other mountainous areas, the proportion of enemies encountered mainly horses was also small, and the influence of long-term objective conditions caused the Zhao battalion to basically lack the necessary understanding of the horse army.

However, Zhao Ying's shortcomings are the strengths of returning to the camp.

Zhao Dangshi has almost no contact with the return to the camp since he left the Zhao camp in the eighth year of Chongzhen, and he and Hou Dagui and others are considered petty officers in the return camp, and they still do not have a comprehensive understanding of the return to the camp, not to mention Guo Ruke, who was more humble than them at the beginning, and Jing Keqin and Song Houzhen, who have never served in the return camp.

It is expected that the marching speed of the soldiers and horses returning to the camp, who are still assembled in Tang County before the second day of the middle school and may be drawn after a while, is completely beyond the imagination of everyone in the Zhao camp. At noon today, the Ma army returning to the camp had already entered Huyang Town.

Inheriting the will of heaven and returning to the camp according to the will of the people, the vanguard system is a general and the commander of the left and right wings.

Jing Keqin looked at the plain white flags fluttering on the hillside on the side of Huyang Town over and over again, and listened to the soldiers on the left and right reading the words on it to him. There is no one else who has this awkward and lengthy title, only Ma Guangchun, the commander of the left and right wings of the Ma Army, the general of the Hui camp. At yesterday's military meeting, Zhao Dangshi also made a special mention of this person, this person is the younger brother of the elder Hui Ma Guangyu, Ma Guangyu died for Ma Shouying, if Zhang Xiongfei is the hammer that returned to the camp to dig the mountain gravel, then Ma Guangchun is the blade that returned to the camp to open the river and split the forest.

In the distance, the low city walls of Huyang Town were already in sight, but in just half a mile, the soldiers of the Qihun camp could step into this destination that they had been thinking about for a day, but Jing Keqin was in unprecedented panic.

"Song Lingsentry fought with thieves, most of the casualties in the department, Song Sentinel himself was hit by more than ten arrows, trapped on the north slope, please Jing Sentinel Rescue as soon as possible!" The shouts of the scouts beside him were repeated over and over again, and Jing Keqin was distracted in the incomparably noisy chaos. He never imagined that the target of his army's ambush would turn against the first army, and most of his troops would be disrupted. In such a critical situation, for him, it is no longer about victory or defeat, only about life and death.