The Mongol cavalry retreated a few hundred feet to avoid the scorching heat of the woods.

The bodies of the nine dead men were wrapped in linen, placed on horses, and transported back to their families.

Zhang Rongzu of the Han army is a general under the command of Shi Tianze, a thousand households of the Han army, and was assigned to Zhuoer Mahan after following the Tahai south, this person has a lively mind, he is a local tyrant in Hejian Prefecture of the Jin Kingdom, good at riding and shooting, and has courage, once in the war with the Mongols, he was hit in the face by an arrow in the face and waved the knife more than once, and the medical officer used a knife to break the face without anesthetics to take out the arrow, he didn't even snort, which can be called Guan Yunchang in this era.

After Jin's death, he judged the situation, surrendered to Mongolia, was named a thousand households, came under the jurisdiction of Shi Tianze, and led an army.

At this moment, he looked at the sackcloth shroud on horseback, frowned, and faintly felt that something was wrong.

After weighing it, he felt it was necessary to voice his concerns to Dzor Mahan.

"My lord, the last general thinks, whether to ignore this Song army first, this fire is so big, even if they can't burn to death, they will definitely drive away, and they will not dare to come back in a short time, Marshal Du wants us to go under the city of Gongzhou, delay here, I'm afraid of ......" He used very euphemistic words, but also pointed out the meaning of not wasting time here.

Zhuo Ermahan sat on the horse, squinting his eyes as the flames soared into the air, but he shook his head and said in a deep voice: "Zhang Qianhu, I understand what you said, and I don't know that it is useless to spend time here with these Song soldiers. But we can't help but do it. ”

"What do we ask for to destroy the city and destroy the country? But population and wealth are just that, if we want to get what we want safely, the first thing is to crush the other party's will to resist, a country or tribe that has no determination to resist to the end is not a threat, otherwise, what we have robbed will be snatched back by them sooner or later. ”

He looked at Zhang Rongzu and said, "This is an iron law on our grassland, you probably don't understand." ”

"If you want to defeat the other party, you must fight thoroughly, and you can't leave a single trouble, otherwise when the spring breeze blows, the enemy recovers, and the last one to suffer is ourselves."

Zhang Rongzu nodded thoughtfully and said in a low voice: "The last general understands, the grass must be cut to the roots." ”

"That's what it means." Zhuo Ermahan high-fived: "Since the south went south to capture the city of Chengdu, this is the first incident that the southerners Song army dared to kill my soldiers in the field, although it was a sneak attack, and the number of people was not equal, but this matter must not be allowed to spread, once those southerners know, it will spread like a plague, and the banner of resistance will be erected everywhere, this is a benchmark, a bad example, must be stifled!" ”

"I understand, my lord, when the fire is extinguished, I will send people in, and if you want to see the dead and alive, you will see people, and you must pull them out of it!" Zhang Rongzu said.

"I'm not in a hurry." Zhuo Ermahan stretched out his hand and felt the temperature on his face: "This fire will burn for two or three days, you and I will leave a few signs to keep an eye on, go to Jianzhou and Suizhou first, and then come back to clean up when the fire is extinguished." ”

"As for Marshal Du, I'll explain."

Zhang Rongzu heard this: "Since this is the case, the last general will obey the life of the adult." ”

The two of them immediately watched the mountain fire burn for a while, the woods stretched, one mountain after another, the fire took advantage of the wind, the more it burned, the more it burned, almost dyed half of the sky, looking at the posture, it would not be extinguished for a while and a half.

There was another group of people watching the fire from the other side.

Wang Kui, the prefect of Hanzhou, put his hand on the pergola, looking at the fire from a few mountains away, the fire was too big, even if he stood in a very far place, he could see the smoke rushing to the sky.

"Which city did the North set on fire?" His beard was tightly squeezed together because of the wrinkled muscles on his face, looking like a hairball: "These donkeys can't accumulate virtue and do some good deeds?" ”

A prefect who was born as a scholar came out of his mouth with the foul language of "Donkey Day", which was heard by the imperial history, and an impeachment could not be run, and the crime of insulting Sven would definitely be confirmed. But in the ears of the soldiers, it was very kind.

A deputy general beside him responded: "Look at the direction, it should be in the direction of Jianzhou, probably the city is broken." ”

Another said: "It seems that the Mongols are getting closer and closer, and it is dangerous to stay here." ”

Wang Kui retracted his gaze and looked in several other directions, and they were on the top of a small hill, standing on top of the tallest rocks, and looking around, they could see that they were far away.

Everywhere there is a vast sea of forests, and the verdant trees grow unbridled in the humid climate, covering the entire land. In the ravines between the undulating mountains, thousands of people can be easily hidden everywhere, and a city of people can be installed everywhere without showing their shadows.

Wang Kui couldn't help but get anxious, he came out for several days, and drilled several times in the mountains to the north and west of Hezhou, but he couldn't even find the shadow of the Xuzhou soldiers, no traces of burying pots to make rice, no traces of the army's overnight stay in the wilderness, and even the footprints of the brigade of men and horses could not be seen.

Aren't these mountain barbarians going to heaven?

"Could they have returned to Xuzhou?" Some people put forward a conjecture: "After all, it is really impossible to rely on their men to fight the Mongols in the field, and the barbarians are not stupid." ”

It makes sense, Wang Kui almost believed it.

However, yesterday afternoon, the scouts who were released found several stripped corpses of the Mongols, and Wang Kui concluded that these Shimen barbarians must still be around here.

Only they had the means to take down the Mongol Red Army rangers.

Judging by the clotting of blood from the wounds and the degree of stiffness of the bodies, the men had just died no more than a day.

Then they shouldn't have gone far.

But where are they?

Now Wang Kui is really in a dilemma, he came out with enthusiasm for the friendly army, and when he arrived at the place, he found that he couldn't even find the shadow of others. What's next? Continue to stay here, or go back to Hezhou?

His men were watching him, waiting for him to make up his mind.

Life and death are all in Wang Kui's thoughts.

Sighing, Wang Kui jumped off the rock and stood on the flat ground.

"Map!" He shouted, and immediately someone spread out the map and spread it on the ground.

Everyone squatted down with Wang Kui and leaned towards the picture, several heads touched together, and the iron helmet looked like a bowl of black rice balls.

"From here to Jianzhou, it is only a distance of ten miles, since the Mongols have lit the fire, presumably their next target is Suizhou or Zizhou, Yang or two roads in parallel, then we are here, is their only way."

Wang Kui looked at the map and said to everyone: "We have two choices, either go to the mountains and avoid them, or go back directly, Round State, it's still too late." ”

Everyone's faces are a little ugly, no matter how you choose, it's not a good idea.

So one said: "It is not the best strategy to go to the mountains, the mountains here are steep and difficult to walk, we don't know the geography, it is easy to get lost without a guide, and it is very difficult to walk the mountain road with weapons and ordnance with us." ”

The generals all nodded, feeling that what they said made sense.

Wang Kui also thinks it's good, the mountains are very complicated, some inaccessible places don't even have roads, walking in it, trees cover the sky and the sun, it's easy to get lost and can't get out.

"My lord, the Xuzhou soldiers can kill the Mongolian soldiers, and they can hide in a place where even we can't find them, it can be seen that there is no obstacle to self-protection, they are all barbarians, they are used to running in the mountains, we can't compare, why don't we go back first, and wait for them to find out the news, and then come to pick up?" Someone came up with an idea.

"This is good, this is good!" Immediately the crowd praised.

Wang Kui also nodded, he felt that in the current situation, it seemed that it was not the Xuzhou soldiers who should be received, but himself.

"All the ministries order, pack up, and leave in a quarter of an hour." Wang Kui immediately made a decision, and couldn't delay: "Let's go back!" ”

More than 1,000 soldiers from Hanzhou, are stationed on a hill, the mountain is the official road, the west leads to Jianzhou and the east connects Zizhou, it is an important road to communicate the east and west, whether it is east or west, it must pass from here.

The people said yes and were about to go down, but they saw a scout running up the hill in a hurry.

Wang Kui's heart "groaned", his eyelids jumped violently, and sure enough, when he heard the scout hurrying over, he shouted loudly: "My lord is not good!" A Mongolian cavalry brigade is coming down the mountain! ”