One day in late July, a team of vicuñas, which stretched out more than two miles in front and back, braved the scorching sun, like a giant snake crawling through the slow rise and fall of the great meadow.

There is not a single cloud in the clear blue sky. The midsummer sun is like a furnace fire hanging overhead, spraying incandescent flames unscrupulously to the earth. The long grass knee-deep lowered its head in the scorching heat, carrying the occasional breeze that was painfully ** carried into the distance. A few dwarf trees near and far lurk in the summer cicadas that are not willing to be lonely, tirelessly making monotonous growth. Several goshawks spread their wings and circled and soared in the air, and their voices echoed leisurely in the empty world, highlighting the vast wilderness and the low air in the sky.

A few yellow sheep cautiously poked their heads out of the dense green grass, puffing out a few pairs of big eyes to carefully examine the slow but unstoppable vicuña not far away. Suddenly, as if sensing some terrible sound, the awake creatures shook their long ears and turned their heads in the same direction, pausing slightly, as if they were frightened by something, and they fled southward like a nest. For a while, the sound of hooves was like thunder and smoke, and I didn't know how many yellow sheep were lurking in the grass, only to see a yellow smoke like fog and haze swept away......

The sheep went far away, and only after the meadow in front of them did a small group of a few fast horses turn out, and under the guidance of a cyan pennant, pressed the edge of the meadow and galloped towards the vicuña, which was half of the vicuña, and then successively reined in the reins to slow down the horses. Benzo, the leader, stood on the side of the road with his restless horses, gave a military salute to a young officer in a blue robe in a team, and said loudly: "Captain, ten miles ahead is the small village of Alegu." The subordinate has already contacted the grain depot of the Left Army, and they said that the warehouses in the village are full, so let's go directly to the camp of the Left Army. ”

The young officer in a green robe wore a double-winged sideburns and an iron scarf, and his right eye was covered with a black cloth blindfold from the eyebrow bone to the eye socket, which looked like a big black hole. The man had a terrible dark red scar on his right cheek, which ran from his sideburns across his cheekbones to the wing of his nose. Probably because the wound was not treated in time or was not treated illegally, the healing condition was extremely poor, the edges of the scar were jagged as if they had been twisted by a saw, and even the facial features with the right half of the face were a little misplaced, which looked both hideous and weird. Holding the handle of the knife on his waist with one hand and the reins with the other, he stared at Ben Zuo with his unconcealed left eye, and said slowly: "Go to Alegu Village again and tell them that our order is to send grain and straw supplies to the grain depot of the Zuo Army, and then escort the wounded soldiers back to Mogan Dazhai." Asking us to advance to the left army camp is contrary to the previous order, and we cannot follow it. ”

"Tell the captain that all the military rations and supplies advanced to the left army camp, and it was an order issued three days before the camp." Benzo said as he took out a folded note from his arms, twisted his hand around the war horse and handed it over.

The young officer opened the note in his hand, and with a glance, he folded and put away the copy of the military order with the seal of the commander of the grain depot as it was, and asked, "How far is it from the left army camp here?" ”

Bensa twisted his horse on the horse's back and said, "Forty miles to the northwest." ”

The young officer followed Benza's gesture and stared to the north, but when he saw a large green meadow layered on top of each other, and there was no end in sight, he withdrew his gaze and looked at his subordinates coldly and said, "What about the road map?" ”

"They sent a guide." As he spoke, he beckoned to a petty officer who was in the horse team behind him, and said, "My subordinate has already asked about the road. From here there is a shoal three miles to the northwest, which can cross the camel and horse vehicles, and from there cross the Alergu River and turn northwest to reach the left army camp. After crossing the river, the left army set up a small military village to cover the grain road every ten miles along the way, and several teams of guerrilla posts, all of which could provide protection for the grain team. ”

The young officer nodded, stood up on his horse, glanced at the slowly marching team, waved his hand and said in a deep voice: "Pass my order: the whole team stops advancing." In an instant, a clarion call was passed forward and backward, and the team gradually stopped. The officer pointed to the guide and said, "Lead the way, to the Alegu River." Then he said, "Qian Laosan!" ”

Not far away, an officer with a long face immediately urged the horses to come and listen to the order.

"You take four of cavalry to open the way in front. The horses should be spread out fifteen miles, especially on the two wings, and more men should be sent. ”

Qian Laosan immediately shouted: "Your subordinates obey the order." With a loud voice, he ordered four soldiers in succession, and more than forty horsemen surrounded the guide and rumbled northward. The officer lifted the reins out of the way, and then nodded his hand to a flatbed wagon with a mountain of high grain bales beside him, and said, "Keep up." So the wagons at the head of the carriage turned in the direction of the camel wagons in front and behind, and in the blink of an eye the serpentine procession, which had been from south to north, suddenly branched out in the middle, and then the front and rear ends gradually converged, and folded northwest between the two great meadows along the central protrusion.

The young officer grabbed the reins and immediately went to the side, gently pressed a piece of cotton handkerchief that looked a little unclean on his right eye, and gently kneaded and massaged it. After a few strokes, he held the handkerchief in the palm of his hand, but did not immediately remove the blindfold that had been pushed to his forehead, but only straightened up on the horse, silently watching the vicuña rush in front of him. At this time, people found out that in fact, his right eye was not blind, but because the scar on his cheek was not well recovered, and several tangled sarcomas pulled the eyelid of his right eye and pulled it badly, and the small half of his right eyeball, which was full of purple-red slender bloodshots, was now exposed to the scorching air. He pursed his lips and looked into the distance in the direction of the procession, as if he was thinking about something, but as if he hadn't thought of anything.

This young officer is Shang Cheng, the captain of the Yanshan Border Army, a legendary person. Right now, many people in his team have heard his story. It is said that this person has been a monk in Jiazhou since he was a child, and two years ago he didn't know why he suddenly remembered to return to the vulgar, so he came to Yanshan to join his relatives, but his relatives were not found, and he first killed two evil wolves with his bare hands, and some people said that there were actually two hungry tigers, and he was showing his Arhat golden body to save a group of people; It is because he appeared with a golden body in order to save people, so he lost the merits and deeds of participating in Buddhism and practicing for many years, so he had to return to the world...... What he did after he was a layman was even more remarkable. The first incident was to kill Zhang, a thief who had been rampant for many years in Quzhou, and he was praised by the government for this; At the turn of the spring and summer of the following year, in the battle of Yandong against the Turks, he fought between Yixian and Beizheng, and made great contributions, and was promoted to lieutenant of De. After that, he also suppressed bandits in Dujiadian and worked on water conservancy in West Malaysia. Speaking of which, these are all remarkable things, but compared with the big things he did before, people are not "atmospheric" enough, and the bandits in the shops are not a climate, and the water conservancy in West Malaysia is even more trivial and not worth mentioning......

However, there are also people in the vicuña team who have other opinions on the matter of Xingshui conservancy. These Zhuang Huhan, who were recruited by the government to deliver grain and grass to the army, believed that no matter who could keep the harvest of the land in a dry day, it would be a good thing for the sky; Even if only half of the crops are saved, it is for the benefit of the villagers, although this credit is not as good as killing the dogs, but it is definitely not lighter than the bandits.

Shang Cheng can hear other people's comments now. But for these-for-tat evaluations, he didn't take a word to heart. His top priority at the moment is the safety of the food team. The border army camp he led in Ximazhi was originally dissatisfied, and there were only more than 300 men in the four outposts; In order to ensure the garrison of Ximazhi, he couldn't draw too many personnel, so the two outposts Sun Zhongshan and Qian Laosan that he initially brought out were only less than 160 people together. From March to now, in four months, they started from the East Route Army that attacked the grassland in Ruqizhai and transferred to the West Route Army starting from Yaojia Ferry, during which they all undertook the task of providing grain and straw, but they were sick on the way to and fro, and there was always a shortage of manpower after several long errands, and the two short encounters of the small cavalry of the Tuqi Ci also suffered more than ten casualties, and now there are only one hundred and twenty-seven people left in the two sentry horses. This little manpower is still easy to carry out some short-distance missions under the protection of the army, but to protect the current large grain team that stretches for two or three miles, he feels powerless. Fortunately, his two sentinels are both veteran border soldiers with good troops, and the two sentinels are also vigorous soldiers who are not afraid of death in battle, as long as it is not attacked by a large number of enemy cavalry, he is always confident that he can successfully complete the task. But suddenly, the order was changed, and the end point of the grain team was not the Alegu grain depot but the left army camp, so he couldn't help but be cautious and cautious and cautious to cross the Alegu River one by one, which was the front line, and he could encounter a large number of enemy cavalry at any time......

"Captain," Sun Zhongshan, who was still in front of the grain team just now, rode over. "Why did you suddenly turn around? What happened to the Alergu grain depot? ”

Shang Cheng pulled down the blindfold to cover his right eye, took out a copy of the military order and handed it to Sun Zhongshan, and said, "Zhao Shishi just brought back a new order from Alegu, and we are going to go to Dazhai of the Left Army." ”

Sun Zhongshan glanced at the scribbled military order casually, turned his gaze to the seal under the left corner of the note, carefully identified a few glances, confirmed that the military order was not forged, squinted his eyes seemed to be in direct sunlight, and his needle-like sharp gaze looked in the northwest direction, turned his head and wanted to say something, but opened his mouth but said nothing. He folded the military order in two and handed it back to Shang Cheng.

Shang Cheng put away the military order, smiled slightly at the corner of his left mouth, looked at no one near on the left and right, and whispered: "You also think this is a chaotic life?" The two sentry commanders he brought out, he admired Sun Zhongshan more. This person has read books one by one, and it is said that he read well and almost got admitted to Xiucai, he has brains one by one, he is very organized in speaking and doing things, and he also has a set of methods for governing the army, and he can come up with ideas for Shang Cheng in many things, so the two of them often talk together. Moreover, when Sun Zhongshan got married, Shang Cheng helped a lot in the middle, so the two of them were also closer emotionally, and the topics in private were also far away, and sometimes they would exchange views on the current military.

Sun Zhongshan nodded and said in a low voice: "I don't know which bastard gave this order." The grain teams from all walks of life were directly delivered to the left army Dazhai one by one, so what are you doing to set up a grain depot in Alegu? Most of the grain teams are escorted by border troops, and it is impossible to have 300 soldiers and brave soldiers. Can this person cope with a large force of depleted troops? If we ride half and half step like this, two hundred enemy horsemen will be able to crush us. Alas......" At the end he frowned and sighed deeply.

Shang Cheng saw that he thought of it with himself, so he said: "I was afraid of this, so I asked Qian Laosan to take forty horses to the front to open the way." You also send out scout sentries in the back, spread out to monitor movements, and keep in touch with the team at all times. ”

Sun Zhongshan pursed his lips and thought about it, and reminded: "Then you have less than twenty horsemen left here, and your strength is a little thin." What if the Turks suddenly come out? Otherwise, I'll send you ten horses. ”

Shang Cheng shook his head and said, "If you don't transfer it, spread them out on both wings as well." Let them and the brigade not exceed five miles, and they can respond at any time. ”

Seeing that Sun Zhongshan received the order and turned around to go back to arrange, and the team was already more than halfway through, Shang Cheng pulled the reins and urged the horse into the team. Bao Kan and Little Stone, who had been standing not far behind him, also hurried to catch up with him......