Chapter 222: Scouting Evil Sun Ridge

Just as Zhang Yunwen left Shuozhou City on the front foot, Li Jing came to the reconnaissance camp on the back foot.

According to the scouts, a Turkic army of 5,000 men entered the Evil Sun Ridge and settled down. At this time, the army on the Evil Sun Ridge already had fifteen thousand people.

Due to the tight defense of the Evil Sun Ridge, the Turks laid out countless outposts and hidden piles all the way from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, and the scout cavalry of ten people patrolled near the Evil Sun Ridge like a comb. Therefore, the scouts in the Tang army could only take a look from afar, and then hurriedly returned to Shuozhou to report the news

Li Jing, who got the news, was anxious to understand the situation in the Evil Yang Ridge, so he went directly to the reconnaissance camp and found Zhao Yi, the supreme commander of the reconnaissance camp at this time, and asked him to select capable scouts and go to the Evil Yang Ridge to reconnoitre, and be sure to reconnoiter the distribution of the Turkic army's forces on the Evil Yang Ridge.

Zhao Yi took over the task without saying a word, and then selected Liu Cheng, Wu Peng, Jiao Boss and other twelve people, led by Liu Cheng, took the equipment, and immediately set off to the Evil Yang Ridge.

Twelve men rode on the best military horses, and galloped all the way down the low hills. went out of Yanmen Pass all the way, and finally entered the mountain range where the Evil Sun Ridge was located that night.

At this time, it was already a night when the stars were twinkling and the night was as dark as ink. As soon as the twelve approached the mountain range, they turned over and dismounted, tied the military horses to a hiding place, and then seemed to be a miscellaneous, but in fact they sat on the ground to rest, took out dry food and dried meat, and ate it with water.

This series of movements, except for the slight gasping and shuffling sound of the military horse, there was no sound.

After eating dry food and resting for a while, in the darkness, twelve people gathered together. Liu Cheng lowered his voice and said, "According to the news of the scouts, there are a lot of Turkic scouts in this area, so I should be careful. Rest and prepare tonight, act tomorrow! ”

Everyone responded softly.

After looking around for a while, everyone found some artemisia grass. Look at these smelly things and keep them close to you to avoid mosquito bites. At the same time, he took out some black powder from the bag next to him and sprinkled it near his sleeping place. In doing so, it is said that it will avoid the attack of predators. As for what this white powder is, Zhang Yunwen once smiled mysteriously and did not answer. Finally, he took out a finger-thick incense, and after lighting it, he saw wisps of white eyes coming out, but in the darkness, he could not see the fire. This is used to protect against snakes.

When they had done this, they left two soldiers as guards, while the rest fell to sleep.

On the second day, before dawn, everyone got up together, tidied up their things, ate some dry food, smeared their faces and hands with green grass juice, and stuck branches of camouflage on their bodies, and then began to move.

The twelve men were divided into four groups and headed in four different directions. What they have to do today is to draw the terrain of the vicinity. There are mountain peaks, there are streams, there are dangerous places, there are hidden places, and they all have to be sketched on the rice paper that you carry with you.

Of course, instead of a brush, they used a strip of charcoal that resembled the length and thickness of a finger, sharpened into a tapered shape. This thing is scratched on the rice paper, leaving a mark that is also obvious and not easy to fall.

Four groups of people quickly swept through the mountains, stopping from time to time, taking out rice paper and charcoal strips, and sketching the topography of this area. However, what they drew was not a geographical contour line or something, but a direct transfer of the terrain in front of them to the paper. Then everyone's rice paper was pieced together, and the repetition was removed by the nearby topography.

Of course, in the process of drawing this terrain and landform, there were Turkic scouts passing by from time to time. However, with the camouflage on his body, as soon as he crouched in the grass and treetops, his body melted into the green background, which the Turkic scouts could distinguish in detail.

It took nearly two days for the soldiers to move around the mountains near the Evil Sun Ridge in this way, and finally they had a clear understanding of the nearby terrain and landforms. Of course, in order to avoid repetition, the soldiers would always make a mark in a conspicuous place, and when the later soldiers saw it, they would immediately leave and go somewhere else.

The nearby mountains were touched, and finally, the eyes of the reconnaissance battalion soldiers fell on the Evil Sun Ridge.

This evil yang ridge is the last high ridge from Shuozhou City to Dingxiang City. After the Evil Yang Ridge to the north, the terrain began to flatten and extended to Dingxiang City. In other words, taking the Evil Yang Ridge is equivalent to knocking on the door of Dingxiang City.

The soldiers hid in the grass and treetops under the Evil Sun Ridge, looking up at the towering Evil Sun Ridge.

"Tell me, how can you know the troop deployment on this Evil Sun Ridge?" Liu Cheng squinted his eyes and said to the soldiers beside him.

Hearing Liu Cheng's question, Boss Jiao first said: "This is easy, go over and grab two tongues and ask carefully, don't you know?" ”

Wu Peng next to him smiled and said, "Boss, if you catch a Turk who can't speak Chinese, how should you ask?" ”

"Then keep catching!" As soon as Boss Jiao's words fell, he felt that something was wrong. If they catch too much, the Turks will definitely suspect that there is a small force nearby, and they will definitely pull the net to clear a large area, and their own team of scouts will have a hard time.

He smiled and stopped talking.

Liu Cheng smiled at this time: "The boss's opinion is good, grab two tongues and ask clearly!" I know that there must be Han Chinese in this Turkic army, and when the time comes, we will ask those Han people! As he spoke, he turned his head to look at Boss Jiao, "Hehe, boss, since you made this suggestion, then ask the boss to grab two tongues and come over!" ”

Boss Jiao patted his chest at the moment: "No problem, wrap it up on me!" After saying that, he beckoned the three soldiers to leave the grass without making a sound.

The Turks raided and plundered the cities of the Central Plains every year, in addition to robbing a large amount of food, iron tools, and property, they also had to plunder a large number of people. So in the entire Turkic army, there are still quite a few Han Chinese. However, these Han Chinese were often placed in infantry battalions, responsible for logistics and heavy lifting. The number of Han Chinese who were organized in the cavalry team was small, and the number of Han Chinese in the scout team was even smaller. These Han Chinese often lived in the Turks for a long time and became Turkic loyalists.

A baggage team composed of people from the period pushed a small cart that could carry 300 catties and struggled forward on the rugged road. This was to deliver grain and grass to the 5,000 newly arrived Turkic soldiers stationed at the foot of the Evil Yang Ridge.

Sixteen men pushed eight carts, guarded by a Turk, slowly descended from the Evil Sun Ridge and then followed a rugged path to the valley where five thousand men were stationed.

Eleven of the seventeen were Han Chinese, but they were unarmed, and wore only shabby clothes with leather patches on them, barely serving as protection. The remaining six were armed with scimitars, bows and arrows, and wore leather armor.

Wang San is one of the Han Chinese. He was originally a farmer outside the city of Taiyuan, and it is said that he also had a relationship with the Taiyuan royal family, and when he was seven years old in Wude, he was taken captive by the Turks to the grassland, and he was a cow and a horse in the Turks, and he was a three-year family.

Wang San was not willing to live like this, he thought about running away, but how could his two legs outrun the four legs of the cavalry and outrun the bows and arrows of the Turks. So he kept suppressing this thought. Until today, this desire to escape has finally been realized.

When the convoy marched to a narrow mountain road, a gust of mountain wind blew, and everyone in the grain transportation team suddenly secretly applauded, as if the sweat on their bodies had disappeared with the wind. The half-human-high thatch on both sides of the mountain road also gently swayed with the mountain wind.

At this time, four rays of cold light were like meteors, and they suddenly hit the heads of four Turkic people wearing leather armor. The four fell to the ground instantly. At this time, the Han people who were transporting grain saw that the four cold lights were actually four arrow clusters. Four arrows were nailed to the heads of the four Turks, and gurgling blood was pouring from the holes.

The remaining two Turks were taken aback, and hurriedly hid their bodies behind the car, looking in the direction of the thatch, and said loudly.

A Turkic man was hiding behind Wang San's grain cart. Wang San reacted as early as when the four Turks were killed, mostly behind the grain cart. Now when he saw the Turk hiding beside him, his heart suddenly became angry, and while the Turk's attention was all on the grass opposite, he slammed into the Turkic soldier and pushed him out of the back of the car.

The Turk had just been pushed out when a cluster of arrows stuck in his eye socket with unmistakable accuracy, and sharp iron arrows pierced through the skull and peeked out from the back of his head.

As for the remaining Turkic soldiers, they looked at Wang San in shock and anger, and then looked at the Han people around them in fear, only to see that their eyes flashed with something called hatred.

Eleven Han Chinese rushed to the Turkic soldier, and the Turkic soldier immediately pulled out the scimitar on his body in a hurry, and stood up unconsciously, revealing half of his body.

At this time, two clusters of arrows flew at a rapid pace, and at the same time ** the Turk's head.

"You're Han Chinese, aren't you?" When the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion dressed in camouflage and covered with green faces appeared in front of these Han people, they thought that they had encountered some mandrill ghosts and were about to flee in all directions, but they heard Boss Jiao speak in Chinese.

After a long day's effort, the four reconnaissance battalion soldiers finally finished communicating with the eleven Han Chinese. Only then did Boss Jiao know that these Han people in Hedong were taken captive to the Turks when the Turks went south to plunder. Among them, most have been three or four years, and few have been six months. When it comes to the Turks, they all have a bitter hatred on their faces. It seems that these people suffered a lot during the Turkic period.

When they heard that the Tang army was preparing to launch an offensive against the Turks, eleven Han Chinese immediately cheered. When Boss Jiao asked them to go to Shuozhou City and report the situation of Evil Yang Ridge to General Li Jing and Li, the eleven Han people readily agreed.

When he returned to the place where Liu Cheng and the scouts were with eleven Han people, Liu Cheng was taken aback: "Uh, boss, didn't you say that you just grabbed two or three people and came back, how did you bring so many people back?"

Boss Jiao explained in a low voice at the moment.

Liu Cheng suddenly patted his head: "Okay, since it's all like this, let's go back to Shuozhou quickly." I'm afraid those Turks will find out later, and when the time comes, they will come out and encircle and suppress us all over the mountains! ”

So, everyone took these eleven Han people and hurriedly returned to the place where the horses were hidden. Each scout took a Han man, mounted a military horse, and galloped away in the direction of Shuozhou.