In the cold wind, the hare, alarmed by the sound of horses' hooves, ran to the left and right, and its figure fluttered in the withered yellow grass, when suddenly the bowstring sounded, and the hare was hit by the arrow, and rolled in the grass a few times and did not move.

A horse then stopped beside the hare, and the cavalry on his back did not dismount, but bent down and picked up the hare with a bow, picked up the hare with the arrow, and then caught it steadily, pulled out the feathered arrow, and then put a rope around the rabbit's neck, and then hung it behind the saddle.

There were already a few dead hares hanging behind the saddle, and the horseman looked around, and then at the sky, turned his horse's head and joined the other horsemen, and headed in certain directions.

After walking for several miles, he came to a wood, and after exchanging orders with the secret whistle, he rode his horse into the forest, where there were several bonfires, and more than ten soldiers sat around the fire, and more than 20 horses were tied under the trees on one side.

The footsteps approached, and the soldiers who were roasting the fire turned their heads to see that it was their comrades who had returned with their prey, and then they got up to meet them, and several of them took out their sharp knives, disemboweled, and roughly cleaned the internal organs, and then skewered them with branches and roasted them on the bonfire.

They were very skillful in their way of roasting meat, and in a short time the smell of meat came, and several roasted hares were eaten in an instant, and then the soldiers who had eaten the hares got up and went to change the guard with their sentry companions.

After a while, a few horses came from outside the forest, and they also exchanged orders with the secret whistle, and then entered the forest smoothly, and they brought not hares or other prey, but a living person.

It was a man bound by ropes and a rag in his mouth, and he looked to be about thirty years old, half a civilian, with fluffy hair like a chicken's nest, dark skin, rotten teeth, and frightened eyes.

The man was thrown to the campfire, and when he saw the murderous soldiers around him, he did not know whether it was because of the cold or because of fear, he trembled like chaff, and waited until the rags in his mouth were torn off, and he curled up on the ground and pleaded with tears in his eyes:

"Spare your life, the general spare your life..."

However, no one paid attention to him, and a man sitting by the campfire eating roast rabbit asked the man who brought him into the forest, "Where did you catch it?" ”

"By the firewood water."

"Just him?"

"There were five in all, and four of them jumped into the south bank of Shibami, so they died."

The man who spoke was the leader of the scout, he motioned to his subordinates to eat roast rabbits, and then turned his eyes to the man who was captured, and squeezed out a smile: "You, are you hungry?" ”

There was a difference in the accents of the two sides, but they could probably understand what the other party was saying, and the captured man shook his head at first, and when he saw the other party staring at him, he quickly nodded again.

"If you want to eat, answer my question first."

"Yes, yes, the general spares his life, the little one will say anything, as long as the little one knows, say it, say it."

The team is beginning to interrogate the captives, which is the main purpose of his people to wander the wilderness, and the scouts are not only spying on the military and dispersing the enemy scouts, but also shouldering the heavy responsibility of catching tongues.

In the past few days, the official army has sent a large number of rangers to outflank the enemy, and they have gradually trapped the retreating enemy, and the other party is about to become the prey of falling into the encirclement, but they do not know the enemy's situation very well, so they have to rely on the "tongue" to inquire about the news.

Interrogating the prisoners, who are the scouts the best at it, and the key information obtained from them must be transmitted to the generals in time, so hurry up.

The team first let the captives loosen their bonds, and then, under their coercion and inducement, the captives quickly told them what they knew.

The captive's surname is Liu, the third in the family, others call him Liu Erlang or Liu Er, Liu Er followed his fellow villagers to work as coolies in Guangcheng, relying on hard work to earn food, Guangcheng because of the prosperity of Guanghuang trade, need coolies to load and unload goods, he barely mixed food and clothing in the city.

However, the good days did not take long, and the war began, which was full of twists and turns, and Liu Er was requisitioned and sent to defend the city by the officials and troops from Shannan, and a large number of reinforcements came not long ago, so Zhang Luo went north to 'recover' Xizhou Prefecture to govern Song Ping.

Liu Er went north with the army and followed his companions to do chores, but not long after this group of officers and troops arrived outside Songping City, they suddenly turned around and retreated south.

The real official army is very powerful, and it is very difficult for the fake official army to withdraw, because there are often cavalry attacks of the real official army around, and the fake official army can only walk about ten miles a day.

No one knows who the two officers and armies are real, but they know that if they follow the current group of officers and troops, they will die in the chaos sooner or later, so everyone will find a way to escape for their lives.

This way to the south, there are young people who keep running away, some run away, some are captured, and finally get to the vicinity of firewood, the team camps in a village, and there are more and more cavalry outside, seeing that the situation is getting worse and worse, Liu Er, who has always been timid, can't sit still.

Last night, he and four other companions escaped from the camp at night, and walked south in the dark.

"Are you in the army enough to eat?"

"Enough, these officers and soldiers... Belch... These thieves brought a lot of dry food, and even brought us young men and women, and I heard that they could eat for at least ten days. ”

"Where's the water?"

"There are a few wells in the village where the thieves are stationed, and there is still enough to drink."

"Is the well water good?"

"Hey, you can drink it, the well water is not deep, and the mud is particularly turbid, of course we hard-working people drink it directly, those thieves are hypocritical, and they have to be filtered with a cloth before drinking."

Hearing Liu Er say this, several soldiers sneered a few times, these scouts slept in the open, sometimes for the sake of food and even wool to drink blood, in order to spy on the military situation, in order to scratch the tongue, in order to save their lives, no matter how difficult the conditions are, they can endure it.

How can these people be so particular, drinking water has to be filtered!

"What kind of graphic are the flags of those thieves?"

"That's a lot of graphics... The little ones can't remember. ”

"Is there a special flag?"

"Uh... Yes, there are tiger head flags. ”

"What's the matter with the crotch you're wearing?"

The team is using a sharp knife to pick open Liu Er's coat, and then cut the crotch of the inner one, revealing some fluff at the hole.

"This is a Huangzhou winter coat issued by thieves, with down inside, it is said that it is a piece of hand, and it is warm to wear on the body, which can keep out the cold."

"One for each person?" The team looked at Liu Er with a smile and asked him to spread his palms, then took off his clothes and looked at his shoulders and back.

After carefully examining the fingers of both hands and confirming that there were no marks left by long-term bowstring pulling, and confirming that there were indentations on the shoulders and backs caused by often carrying heavy objects, the team was sure that the other party was a coolie and not a soldier, so they continued the interrogation:

"You have winter clothes to wear, cloth shoes to wear, and you can eat enough every day, it's a good day, why do you want to run?"

"General! If it were such a good thing on weekdays, who would run, but now these... The thieves camped in the village, and then cut down many trees to do what to refuse horses and antlers, and surrounded the village for several floors and said that they would wait for help, and everyone knew that something was wrong! ”

"Hold on to help... They said when would reinforcements come? ”

"I don't know about this little one, anyway, the general... The leader of the thieves said that he would defend the village like an iron bucket, so that the invading enemy would not return. ”

Liu Er's words caused the surrounding soldiers to sneer, and the team also smiled, and stuffed a roast rabbit leg into the other party's hand: "You... What is the name of the village where these thieves are stationed? ”

"It's like... What's it called? By the way, it's called Shibamura. ”