At the end of the unitary time, in the hazy clouds and twilight, the rain that had been falling for many days suddenly stopped, and several long-lost sunset slanting rays were reflected on the rain-soaked land through the thick dark clouds. The Nanguan camp, which was more than three miles away from the county seat, also suddenly woke up from the deathly silence. With the sound of the ping-pong war drums and moo horns, in several camps that were horns of each other, groups of soldiers emerged from behind the battlements of the rammed earth wall, the bows and knives were unsheathed, and everywhere there were the clattering sounds of iron armor leaves, anxious and angry urgings, neat shouts, as well as short and urgent orders and sharp whistles, as well as the loud tom toms when the huge bed crossbows were fired, all of which made the wall chaotic into a pot of porridge. , iron-tipped crossbow arrows with the thickness and length of a tree trunk, with a howling sound like a ghost crying wolf, rose and fell between the three camps that were only four or five hundred paces apart.

In the midst of this confusion, no one paid attention to the small river that flowed around the camp, and no one could have imagined that there was now a long procession divided into three rows, crouching quietly on the gentle slope by the river.

Like most of the previous raids, Shang Cheng was still at the front of the team. He was now half-crouching and half-kneeling in the weeds, holding the straight blade of the barley hidden in one hand and resting the other on the knee of his raised right leg, his eyes drooping, his gaze calm and calm, quietly and patiently waiting for the order to advance. The weed was only knee-high, and he had to bend down his tall body to barely hide himself. Maintaining this awkward position made him feel uncomfortable, and after a little time, his neck became sore and stiff. He didn't dare to move his body, so he could only turn his neck bone slightly. He immediately heard a subtle clicking sound as the joints rubbed.

Zhao Shishi, who was on his left, stabbed him in the waist with his hand. When he tilted his head slightly, Zhao Shishi pointed into the grass.

Shang Cheng glanced at the direction of the stone, grinned, and smiled silently, one by one, the stone can always find himself some fun to pass the time, he picked out an earthworm in the mud, and now he is attracting a large group of ants to move "food".

But his attention was immediately drawn to a scream.

A crossbow arrow actually "unauthorized" off the battlefield and inexplicably flew towards the place where the riverside guards were ambushing.

The originally neat procession immediately stirred. Some were dumbfounded, some moved their positions in fear, and some swallowed their spittle, and in the midst of the orders of the officers of all ranks, "do not move," "remain quiet," and "keep in formation," the seven-pace-thick crossbow bolt swept almost above the heads of the soldiers, and plunged into the slope on the other side of the river.

Most of the soldiers turned their heads to stare at the half-diagonal "stake" on the opposite bank, and breathed in the cool air in their mouths. It was only after a while that someone muttered "damn it", and then there was a low panting and cursing sound in the team.

Neither Shang Cheng nor Zhao Shishi turned their heads to look at the crossbow arrows. They are now veterans, and they look at things from a completely different perspective than the group of newcomers who have not been on the battlefield much, and they are more concerned about the direction in which the next crossbow arrow will come from than the half-cut "stake" planted in the ground.

From the moment the crossbow bolts swept by, Shang Cheng straightened up and began to carefully observe the three inseparable camps. There is no need to hide now, whether the crossbow arrows are fired by mistake or not, the team has already been exposed, and if they don't act immediately, more crossbow arrows will fly over. While observing the movements of the three camps, he quickly judged the possible ways and dangers in his heart, and asked, "Which camp is the crossbow?" ”

"It was shot from the camp diagonally opposite." Zhao Shishi said with certainty, "It's the Wuzi camp, and the cloth and medicinal materials are all in that camp." "He worked in the Nanguan camp for five months, and he knew better than anyone else that there were three parts of the camp and the objects stored in the village: the Jiazi camp was the old camp of the transfer envoy, and several heavily guarded stone warehouses were piled up with copper coins, gold ingots, silver ingots, and mountains of armor, bows, arrows, and knives; The C-word camp is full of grain, and the warehouse is full of wheat, corn, beans and rice; There are not only cloth and medicinal materials in the Wuzi camp, but also salt, wood, horns, tendons, and pig iron......

Shang Cheng nodded, turned his face, raised his lips with the tip of his tongue against his teeth and whistled gently, and the commander who was separated from him by more than a dozen people immediately turned his head to stare at him.

Seeing that the commander noticed him, Shang Cheng immediately clenched his right hand into a fist, his index finger pointed at the opposite camp, the fist was flat, and the thumb and tail finger popped out, and after a slight pause, he withdrew all three fingers and then clenched them into a fist, raised his thumb and turned his hand over one by one, which was to tell the forward commander that there was an enemy in the camp directly opposite the two camps and the team in the vicinity.

The conductor gestured to indicate that he understood.

Shang Cheng turned his head and continued to stare at the three camps. His expression was not as calm as it was just now, and he couldn't help but clench his straight knife. He was a little agitated now. He himself didn't expect that the skills he had just learned from the border army would come in handy so quickly. It was amazing to see that the three simple gestures made by one hand immediately made the officers of the guard understand what he wanted to say. He couldn't help but think of the moment when he had just been exposed to these gestures to carry the message—he was so surprised that he barely jumped, and his mouth was grinning enough to stuff a vegetable ball. He never thought that he would see these things that only appear in modern film and television works in the era of cold weapons! This is so unexpected! He could not have imagined that such a mysterious thing could arise in an ignorant society where literacy meant privilege...... It wasn't until after a few battles that he gradually understood the reason for these gestures, either they couldn't make loud noises or the war drums shouted to the ground, and in order to strengthen contact and communication in these two situations, the army had to adopt a set of simple methods to convey important messages, and flags and gestures were part of these methods......

Soon an order came down: the banner was displayed and the whole team set off, aiming at the old camp of the Yanshan Weimu Transfer Envoy.

The last leg of the road to the camp at Nanguan was neither frightening nor dangerous, and the people of Tuqi did not even know that the Zhao people had come to reinforce the army. Before dark, the two sides fired a few more crossbow arrows indiscriminately, and with a long sound of painted horns and a rapid gong sound, the three camps fell silent again. A moment later, the guards who came from Yanzhou in the wind and rain entered the old camp of the transfer envoy. Although the number of reinforcements was small and they looked tired, the soldiers and villagers who stuck to the old camp still gave them a high courtesy, not only gave them the best house to live in, but also immediately sent warm and clean clothes, shoes and socks, large pots of meat, vegetables, baskets of bread and dumplings, and large vats of soup with a thick layer of oil.

The captain who led the team and a few high-ranking officers were called in for questioning, and the remaining junior officers and big men were dressed well, ate and drank well, and some of them were very tired, so they stretched out their posture and lay down to sleep, and soon there were snoring voices in several barracks. There are also people who are mentally headed, but they can't go out of the barracks, so when they are bored, they stay at the door of the barracks and talk to the old battalion soldiers on guard, inquire about the affairs of Yixian and Nanguan camps, and also talk about the situation elsewhere. Gradually, many people gathered at the gates of several barracks.

Shang Cheng had already changed into clean clothes, but before he had time to eat dinner, he had to re-wrap the wound first. But this time he didn't have to suffer under the hands of Zhao Shishi and the veterans of the guards, there was a military doctor who specialized in treating blue and red injuries in the camp, and two bruising doctors who came here from four towns and eight miles to avoid the military disaster, and the three doctors circled around him, and all the injuries on his body were cleaned and covered with thick wound medicine, and then carefully bandaged with raw cloth.

While watching the doctor treat his wounds, Shang Cheng asked them if they knew about Huojiabao's affairs, and at a glance, he was most concerned about his pregnant wife, and secondly, he was worried about Yue'er and Huo Qiqi's family. He didn't know whether Lianniang, Yue'er and Huo Qiqi escaped or not, this matter kept tugging at his heart, like a heavy stone hanging in his heart; It was better when he was in a hurry to fight, he didn't have time to worry about it, but now that he had come to the county seat of Yixian County, seeing that the city could not go in to find out clearly, he always felt that there was a nameless fire burning in his heart, and a violent emotion that wanted to smash everything was unstoppably rampaging through his body......

What does Huojiabao look like today, the three doctors have two different versions. The military doctor said that Huojiabao had been burned to the ground, but the people in the market town did not suffer much damage, all because of the speed of the garrison in the county town. The two bone-setting doctors insisted that Huojiabao had been burned to the ground. As for how many of the merchants and merchants in Huojiabao were killed, the two doctors also had disagreements, and the doctors who agreed with the military doctor's statement that "the casualties were very small" could not compete with their peers, and in a fit of anger, they didn't even say a polite word, and left with the medicine bag on their backs.

Shang Cheng also saw that it was not appropriate to ask these people about Huojiabao, so after thinking about it, he asked: "Is there a villager from Huojia Town in Nanguan Daying?" ”

"Yes, it's all in the C-shaped camp opposite." In this regard, the military doctor is the authority.

Shang Cheng glanced twice in the direction of the C-shaped camp. There were tall barns in the way, and he couldn't see anything, only the dim and dim light of the fire outside the wall. Under the faint light of the fire, there were still figures swaying and moving on the low wall, and occasionally one or two vague passwords could be heard in the distance.

He suddenly remembered something and asked casually: "Why don't the materials and personnel in this big battalion move to the county seat?" ”