With a "flutter", a flock of birds flew up from the dense forest, circled a few times over the dense forest, and turned around and flew towards the mountains in the distance.

The Jurchen squad leader on the opposite mountain, Akdun, squinted his eyes for a while, pointed to the opposite mountain and said, "Bayan, Dachun, you take twenty people to inspect the mountains and forests opposite, I suspect that there are people on the opposite mountain." ”

"Anyone?" The thick Bayan grinned and said, "Big brother, it may be the Orion on the mountain." ”

"Don't talk nonsense, you two go together, remember to be careful, it's not good that the Ming army touched it."

"Alright, Dachun, let's go."

"Hmm."

Watching more than twenty Jurchens slowly disappear into the lush dense forest opposite, Akdun's heart rose to his throat, and he stared intently at the movement of the dense forest.

About a quarter of an hour passed, the jungle on the opposite side was silent, and Akdun breathed a sigh of relief, perhaps because he was suspicious. At this time, he found that he was a little dry in his mouth, so he took the bamboo tube in his hand, poured it down on his neck, and the sweet and cool Tianchi water flowed through his throat, and a cool breath came from top to bottom, and the heat brought by the tension just now was swept away. Akdun wiped his mouth comfortably and covered the bamboo tube.

"Ahh A miserable scream came from the dense forest opposite, Akdun shook his head, hit a spirit, threw down the bamboo tube, picked up the bow and arrow, and shouted: "Send a signal, prepare for war!" ”

Hearing the sound of arrows in the sky, the fierce brother Timur rushed out of the tent with a "rubbing", his hair was scattered, his shirt was only half worn, and his dark chest was mostly exposed. Doro, take someone to the opposite mountain to see, is Ming Ren coming? ”

"Yes! King! ”

……

Twenty-two corpses lay in the clearing, all of them breathless. Brother Meng's face was gloomy and terrifying, and he roared: "What the hell is going on? Akdon, what the hell is going on? ”

"Back to the king, just now the slave found that the birds in the opposite mountain flew up, and wandered for a while before leaving, and the slave felt that there were probably people in the dense forest opposite, so he sent Bayan and Dachun over to take a look."

"But I didn't expect that," Akdun said, wiping his tears and sobbing, "After about a quarter of an hour, a scream suddenly came from the dense forest opposite. ”

The minion hurriedly sent a signal to report the news, but he didn't dare to go over to check, and then a few screams came from the dense forest opposite, and then there was no sound.

"After Lord Doro came, we went up the mountain together, but we found only the corpse of our warrior, and no trace of the murderer."

"How is that possible? In the dense forest, we Jurchens are the best hunters, how could we have killed so many people and not even see the shadow of the murderer? Doro, come on! ”

"Yes, king," said the tall and thin Doro, bowing down, "the other party is also a veteran in the jungle, the minions rushed to the mountain first, asked about the situation, and then organized a team to climb the opposite hillside, it took a total of two quarters of an hour, but the murderer had already escaped." ”

"The minion thinks he is a master of jungle tracking, but when he turns the mountain beam, he almost dies under the opponent's mechanism, if this bamboo gun is a little more off, the minion will not die." As he spoke, Doro pointed to the wound on his right shoulder that was still oozing blood, and said with palpitations.

"So the minions didn't chase any further, because there was no point in it anymore."

"In addition, the king, please take a look at the death method of these people, the fifteen people here, their faces are blue, obviously they have been hit by poisoned arrows, but this poisoned arrow is not fatal, it should only have the effect of coma; The three had their throats severed, apparently from a sneak attack from behind; The four men died under the bolts, and they all fell on the edge of the woods, and were supposed to be killed while they were supposed to flee. Doro walked over to the corpse and explained it one by one.

"Moreover, these people were all cut throats in the end, which not only shows that they are ruthless, but also shows that when they withdrew, they were very calm and did not panic at all."

"In addition, judging from the style of poison arrows and crossbow arrows, it should be the Ming army, and it won't be wrong."

"Finally, judging from the traces of grass and fallen leaves, there should be at least fifteen of them, and they should have arrived last night, and in the morning they inadvertently alarmed the birds, which made Akdun find out."

"After they were exposed, they didn't stop doing anything, and the people who killed us fled."

Listening to Doro's description, all the Jurchens couldn't help but sweep the direction of the dense forest, and then shivered, even the fierce brother Timur.

Brother Meng's Timur immediately came back to his senses, frowned, and shouted: "Cheer up, it's just a dozen Ming troops, what's so scary?" We Jurchens are the kings of the jungle, and the next time they dare to come, Lao Tzu tore them apart. ”

"Akdun, this king will give you another hundred people, you have to stare at the opposite side with good eyes to prevent the Ming army from touching you, do you understand?"

"Minions understand!"

"Also, at all times, keep your weapons on hand and be ready to fight, you know?"

"Understood!"

"All right, go down, Doro, Alhattu, and Agu, and come in with the king."

"Yes!"

In the big tent, as soon as the fierce brother Timur sat down, Alhatu immediately knelt on the ground: "King, please give the slave a death, the Ming army must have followed the slave to find here." ”

Looking at Alhatu who was kneeling on the ground, Brother Meng's Timur shook his head and said: "Alhatu, it's not your fault, judging from the time, they should have lost it outside the mountain, and then touched it little by little, since they are veterans of jungle tracking, it will be a matter of time before they find here." This is the fault of this king, you should not have been sent to contact the Ming army, you get up. ”

"Thank you for the grace of not killing!"

"Don't worry about this, this king came to you this time to discuss, since we have been exposed, do we want to evacuate?"

This one? The three of them looked at each other, and Alhatu had just made a mistake and did not dare to speak; Doro is cautious and rarely takes the lead to express opinions; Only the eldest son of Meng's brother Timur, Agu, is young and vigorous, and dares to say anything, and this time is no exception, he shook his head and said: "Father, my son thinks that he should not evacuate, this valley is extremely terrainous, and if you hold the valley pass, the Ming army will not be able to attack it; In addition, the mountain roads are rugged, and the Ming army cannot assemble a large army, so our army has nothing to fear? In the end, even if the Ming army really attacked, there was still a path behind our mountain to evacuate, so my son did not advocate evacuation. ”

"What about you?" Brother Meng, Timur, asked quietly.

Doro glanced at Alhatu and felt that he had no intention of speaking, so he had to say: "The king, the prince, the slave thinks that evacuation has the advantage of evacuating, and there is also the benefit of staying. ”

Agu immediately rolled his eyes, this Doro is here again, only analyzing the problem and not making a decision. However, Brother Meng's Timur nodded and said, "What do you say?" ”

"As Shizi said, the terrain here is very rare, and fighting in the dense forest, our Jurchen superiority is obvious, and the Ming army cannot be our opponent; Moreover, the path behind us can be connected to the camp of Lord Qinghai Wang, and it is easy to get support, from this point of view, even if we do not evacuate, the Ming army will not be able to take us. ”

"Of course, evacuation is the safest way, the safest."

"However, if you still camp in this mountain, sooner or later the Ming army will find you; It's not easy to find a good camp if you're not in the mountains. ”

"What the hell do you mean?" Agu said impatiently.

"The only slave is the king!"

"Alhattu, why don't you speak?" Brother Meng, Timur, said suddenly.

"The minion suggested preparing with both hands, while strengthening vigilance to prevent the Ming army from sneaking attack; While sending people to find a new camp, as soon as they are found, move immediately. ”

……

In the end, the fierce brother Timur took the advice of Alkhatu, prepared with both hands, and waited to see the situation.

……

After carefully inquiring about the findings of Ruan Linzhong, the leader of the special operations battalion, and others, Li Yuan was very happy, praised them vigorously, and promised to ask for credit for them after the war, and at the same time let them continue to find out the situation of the Jurchens in the valley, but pay attention to safety. Ruan Linzhong agreed and took the order.

Then, Li Yuan looked at the terrain of the valley and frowned......

On the same day, Ping'an received a report from Li Yuan, he pondered for a while, and then summoned Changshi Gao Wei and his subordinates, Wang Gen and Lu Changsheng were among them, they were specially sent by Zhu Yunwen to exercise.

Ping'an asked Lu Changsheng to read Li Yuan's beliefs, and then said: "Do you think that Brother Meng's Timur really surrendered or deceitful?" ”

After being silent for a while, Gao Wei first said: "General, the lower officials think that Brother Meng's Timur is really descending. In order to gain a foothold in the Tumen River Valley, he recognized the Jurchen nobleman Li Zhilan of North Korea as his uncle, and it is said that he once urinated for Li Zhilan, who was seriously ill, and was obedient and abnormal. With the support of Li Zhilan, Meng's brother Timur became the leader of the Jianzhou Jurchens. Now that General Zhengdong has broken through Seoul, Li Fang is far from poor, and Brother Meng's brother Timur will definitely have another plan. So the lower officials thought it was a real surrender. ”

"What about you?" Ping An was noncommittal, turned his head and asked Wang Gen and the others.

Wang Gen thought for a while, and saluted Ping'an and Gao Wei: "General, Lord Changshi, although Lord Changshi is reasonable, but he thinks that the possibility of his surrender cannot be ruled out, once he colludes with the Mongols, our army is likely to suffer from the enemy, so we should not take it lightly." ”

Gao Wei felt a little unhappy in his heart, but he didn't show it.

"What about you?"

Lu Changsheng frowned and thought for a while, and finally made up his mind, and said, "General, Lord Changshi, I think that this fierce brother Timur is more likely to surrender by fraud. ”

"First of all, it has been nearly a year since the imperial court naturalized the Jurchens, but the fierce brother Timur has been resisting the imperial court and refusing to accept naturalization, from Korea to Liaodong."

"Secondly, Brother Meng's Timur is not nowhere to go, they can cross the Songhua River and return to the Jurchen homeland, which is not a difficult thing. And the naturalization area of the imperial court this time did not include that area, where they were safe for the time being. ”

"In the end, Meng's brother Timur and Li Zhongzhong ambushed Qincha in Anzhou, which can be described as a heinous crime, aren't they afraid of the imperial court's investigation?"

"Also, once he surrenders, then the court will let him choose whether to be a civil official or a military general, and he can't have both. Can he be willing? ”

"Therefore, the minister thinks that it is very likely that Brother Meng's Timur will surrender by fraud."

Ping'an listened to the judgment of Lu Changsheng and Wang Gen, but he was noncommittal, and said: "Since it is impossible to determine whether it is a fraudulent surrender or a real surrender, how should our army deal with it?" ”

"The lower officials think that our army should pay close attention to the movements of the Mongol army, and the Jurchen army alone will not be able to make any waves." Gao Wei arched.

"I agree with Lord Changshi's opinion."

"I think that An Pingbo should be careful not to fall into the trap of Brother Meng's Timur." Lu Changsheng thought for a while.

……

However, Ping'an did not adopt anyone's opinion, but ordered Shao Yun to guard Shenyang, and personally commanded 20,000 cavalry to move in the direction of Tonghua, as if he intended to meet Li Yuan.