As soon as November, the first snow after winter fell on the Jianghuai Plain on the north bank of Chaozhou.

The two hostile troops and horses facing each other on the land of Huaixi, both sides are in no danger to defend, which is also destined to double the rumors of the two sides after entering the winter.

After several setbacks, the Shouzhou army still has more than 10,000 cavalry, the rivers are frozen, the Huaixi Plain is a flat river, there is no obstruction of high mountains, the most conducive to the cavalry to quickly detour interspersed, where does the defense line on the north flank of Tangyi dare to relax?

And Han Qian used the cover of ice and snow last year to lead a surprise attack into Huaiyang Mountain, and the scars of the Shouzhou Army have not healed this year, so how dare they relax at all?

Almost after the winter, both sides will usually undertake heavy production tasks to assemble the troops, baggage soldiers, the counties are also a larger scale of township soldiers, in the ice and snow to pick up bows, crossbows, halberds and drills, for the battle that will break out at any time.

In addition to the tense situation on the eastern flank of Huaiyang Mountain, the peaks and ravines on the northern slope of Huaiyang Mountain are crisscrossed under heavy snow, and the North Hengchong is named after a north-south stream on the northern slope of Huaiyang Mountain.

Except for the brief gathering of flash floods in summer and autumn when the rain is abundant, and the water potential is quite turbulent, the North Hengchong is a dry ditch for most of the year

The ravine extends down from the ridge of the mountain four or five miles away, the ditch is deep and the valley is dangerous, and the strange rocks are craggy, and when you reach the foot of the mountain, the terrain is flattened.

Although the foot of the ditch is at risk of being washed away by flash floods every year, the land where the flash floods pass is also extra fertile. At the foot of the ditch in the north, there was a large-scale village in the early years, but after the battle of Wujinling, the households on both sides of the Nanqishui River valley near Huaiyang Mountain were forced to move north.

The village at the foot of the mountain is also abandoned there, and in the wind and snow, there are occasional barks of abandoned but not yet hunted domestic dogs.

On the top of the Xixi trough in the north, there is a temple of Emperor Wu.

Emperor Wu Temple is enclosed with a chest-high rammed earth wall, one acre in size, the rammed earth wall head grows with weeds, there are three earth halls built inside, there are still some red paint mottled on the courtyard door, one falls to the ground, one is squeaked by the wind.

A gray hare drilled into the courtyard from the mud hole in the rammed earth wall, vigilantly staring at the squeaky and shaking courtyard door, it took a while to confirm safety, and when he was about to jump to the front of the hall, he didn't want to "swish", and a sharp arrow shot out of the window of the left compartment, which was extremely sharp and slashed into the gray rabbit's chest, and pierced into the hard ice and soil.

A man in a gray cloak came from the earthen hall, pulled out the hare with four legs or struggling with arrows, pulled it out of the ice and soil, saw that the hare was still struggling, reached out and shook it hard from behind the neck stem, and directly pinched the neck of the wild man, and then walked back to the earth hall, and said happily: "I didn't expect this ghost weather to catch such a fat rabbit for tooth sacrifice, you see if this rabbit is fat enough, and it will take four or five catties to peel the skin, right?" This rabbit skin is also big, if you don't go out this time, but you can give me a small jacket for tanning......"

In the inconspicuous earthen hall, seven or eight sturdy men were napping against the wall, and the dry and warm hay was piled up under them, ignoring his surprise.

The linen cloak is covered with several patches, and it can barely withstand the wind and snow. Except for the short-handled satchel that was easy to hide in a cloak, they had only a four-foot-long hunting bow in their hands, but it was hard to imagine that an ordinary hunting bow could shoot such a swift and powerful arrow.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, the man anxiously shook the fat rabbit in his hand again, and said, "If you don't say anything, then I can only throw this rabbit out to feed the wild dogs?" ”

"On such a cold day, the earth is frozen solidly, who has the strength to dig a smokeless stove for a rabbit meal? Shi Ruhai, you have to have the strength of the, you might as well squint like us, and hurry up at night. A famous man muttered.

"This way through the Liang Realm, to touch the Jin Kingdom, how can it take more than a month, if you don't find something to do, isn't it boring? Big teeth, help my brother, if they don't work, they will starve them to death. The man named Shi Ruhai saw that someone was taking care of him, and immediately leaned over to speak.

Scouts marching in the field, the most taboo is to light a fire during the day, once a pillar of smoke rises, it is easy to expose the whereabouts.

Therefore, no matter how hard it is, scouts who touch enemy territory generally feed their hunger with dried meat, wheat cakes, and cold water.

If you want to make a fire, you must dig a stove very carefully, at least dig a flue six or seven feet long to disperse the smoke, so that there is no obvious smoke rising.

On such a cold day, it is extremely physically exhausting to dig a smokeless stove in the frozen soil in the corner of the yard with the tools you carry, but in the end, everyone can't stand the man's agitation, or can't resist the temptation of a fat rabbit meat, so everyone gets up with all hands and feet.

In addition to the lookouts hidden in the woods on both sides, the others gathered firewood, dug the stove, peeled the skin, picked wild vegetables and fragrant leaves, and soon roasted a hare to the point of oil, and also took the melted snow water and wheat cakes and dried meat to cook a pot of steaming and fragrant batter soup.

"Master Leopard is back!" One person touched it back, saw a fire in the yard, and said, "You just wait for the leopard master to scold your mother, you haven't left Huaiyang Mountain yet, and you can't stand it anymore to fight your teeth?" ”

"Don't stretch out your hand, grandson." Shi Ruhai raised his foot and was about to kick the man's outstretched hand away.

"Anyway, you will be scolded and scolded, and you must not touch some meat before being scolded?" The man salivated and laughed,

A moment later, another small group of people walked into the Wuguan Temple in the snow, sniffed the nose for the Shouxuan Angzi, and glanced at the courtyard with tiger eyes.

"Master Leopard, this is for you." Shi Ruhai immediately smiled, and handed over a big fat rabbit leg that was wrapped in oiled paper cloth and still hot.

Han Bao took the rabbit leg, sat on the stone pier and gnawed and scolded: "You grandsons, if I didn't see smoke rising on the way back, otherwise I would have to you to death. ”

"Isn't it mainly to try what the school teaches to work? When we lit a fire, we told the watchposts on the left and right to keep an eye on it. Shi Ruhai said with a smile.

"As far as you have a lot of stones, what about us?" The people behind came over and asked, and touched Shi Ruhai's body with all hands and feet, found the other half of the rabbits, each of them filled a bowl of batter broth, and squatted in front of the corridor of the hall to eat it hot.

Shi Ruhai only noticed at this time that Han Leopard and they tied up and captured two men over, seeing that they had stuffed cloth dumplings in their mouths, they were screaming and screaming fiercely, kicking them, telling them to be honest, and asked curiously: "These two are from the village below?" ”

"Are you blind? Didn't look at the jackets they were wearing? Han Bao glared at Shi Ruhai angrily and said.

Shi Ruhai uncovered the shabby robes of the two men, and saw that the jacket inside had cut a hole, revealing a snow-white flocculent: "Deserter? You grandsons, who eat and drink spicy food, dare to run away with long legs? Seeing through the identities of these two people, Shi Ruhai was even more ruthless when he moved his hand, and stabbed the two people in the chest with the handle of the knife, poking their faces even more hideously and distorted.

Although there is no special logo on the inside of the padded jacket, but in the past people in Huaiyang Mountain, the winter coats of the rich and noble were either fur fur or filled with extremely expensive silk wool, where are there how many families wear cotton jackets?

They went north this time, and the clothes inside were specially changed into dog skin jackets.

"Stop," Han Bao stopped Shi Ruhai and ordered, "Release them, I don't know how many days they have escaped, see that they should be hungry, take two bowls of broth to them." ”

The crowd was not afraid of what waves these two hungry guys could make, so they untied them at the moment, and each served them a bowl of broth for them to drink.

The two thin men were also hungry, hesitated for a while, and drank a bowl of broth like a wolf, and swallowed saliva when they saw the rabbit leg in Han Bao's hand that had not been finished gnawing.

"These two grandsons, at this time, are still thinking about a bite to eat, and their hearts are quite big." Shi Ruhai scolded.

Han Bao called them to him and asked, "Which battalion were you in before, what were your names, what were the names of the battalion commanders and team leaders, when did you join the Tangyi Army, and when did you escape?" You are honest, we will not embarrass you......"

The two thin men, both of whom were not very old, both in their early twenties, although they were thin, but their bones and joints were thick and their strength was also great, and they relieved themselves at this time before they replied:

"We are the guards of Rusong Village, the battalion commander is Huo Li, the team leader is Zhou Cheng, and everyone calls him Zhou Ma face. We were originally villagers from the Beichong Rim, but we were captured in mid-March, and we escaped six days earlier when we went out of the village to escort grain and grain—we just wanted to be with our families, and we definitely didn't want to. ”

Han Bao stared at the two brothers named Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin.

For example, Songzhai is located in the mountain pass at the northeast foot of Wujin Ridge, and Meitang Mountain and other villages form a knife edge to force the Huai Southwest Plain in the north, and the battalion commander Huo Li and several team leaders below are familiar to Han Bao, knowing that Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin did not lie, and said: "There are some things, you are not lying, but how did you brothers get into a battalion?" You can hide the interrogation before enlistment, and your heart is still not small......"

Wujinling was victorious, and more than 25,000 enemy soldiers and people were captured before and after Tangyi, and most of them were incorporated into the left and right armies or baggage battalions in the expanded army.

However, in order to prevent these generals from becoming restless, fathers and sons usually split up and formed camps.

Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin were able to be on duty in Rusongzhai at the same time, which shows that they played tricks at the beginning and concealed the initial superficial investigation.

"What should I do with them, it's impossible to run for three or four more days and escort them back, right?" Shi Ruhai leaned over and asked in a low voice.

Starting from the incorporation of a large number of captured enemy soldiers and civilians, it was inevitable that the soldiers would flee and return to their hometowns by all means, but Han Qian abolished the cruel corporal punishment of deserters, and the military superintendent would sentence them to criminal detention ranging from several months to several years depending on the severity of the circumstances.

They set out this time, rushing from the north to the central part of Huozhou to infiltrate with an important scout mission, and they could not leak their whereabouts, nor could they delay for three or four days to escort them back to Hetanggou Village, which was the nearest garrison, for trial, and the only choice was clearly placed in front of them.

The brothers Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin also realized what their fate would be, their faces were pale, and they wanted to ask for mercy, but their legs and stomachs trembled, and they couldn't speak well.

"Seeing that you are also smart people, why didn't you expect you to escape back, didn't the Shouzhou army want to arrest you as spies and kill you after they found out? Didn't you end up harming your family and getting involved? You guys, if you really want to reunite with your family so much, it's better to bully our Hou Ye to fight Shouzhou as soon as possible! Although Shi Ruhai reminded Han Bao to be decisive, he couldn't bear it after all, and couldn't help but count them down.

"Kill me, you guys spare Shimin's life, he didn't want to escape back, I thought that my wife was pregnant, and my mother and father were dizzy, I don't know how they lived this winter, I couldn't bear it, so I pulled Shimin back - Shimin really didn't want to escape back, he was pulled back by me, I didn't expect to come back, and the village was already empty!" Zhang Shigui broke down and knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

"Get up and come with us, but if you make any trouble for us on the road, don't blame me for being ruthless," Han Bao told Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin to stand up and instructed Shi Ruhaidao, "You are responsible for keeping an eye on them along the way, don't let them go wrong......"

Zhang Shigui and Zhang Shimin were able to hide the initial interrogation and escape from the blockade, they were not clumsy people, and they escaped for six or seven days, starved and starved, and they could still struggle fiercely, and their strength was really not weak, and it would not be a burden to bring the two of them together, and no one else objected......