Xiang Rong's army has always been rigorous, and he has to personally patrol around the camp every day, check that the soldiers in various posts have endless responsibilities, and they are lazy and slippery to serve with military sticks, and never show affection.

Today he finished his business in the camp and prepared to go out on patrol as usual.

"Lord Admiral, it's raining too much today, so don't go out again. The front-line scouts had just returned to report it, and there was no change in the defenders of Fengmen Pass. One of his attendants persuaded.

"No, the military situation is especially important these days. Yongan has fallen into the hands of the bandits, and I guess they will flee to Yong'an. I have to go to the front line to see it myself, or I won't feel at ease. Xiang Rong did not accept the advice of his entourage and insisted on going to the front line to inspect.

The entourage also knew Xiang Rong's stubborn temper and didn't dare to say more. Just prepare some rain gear and go out of camp with the admiral.

The Taiping army camp was built on the flat ground between the two mountains, like a huge floodgate cutting off the mountain road to Jintian.

"Your Excellency, you see, although you can't see clearly in the heavy rain, the camp of the bandits is not unusual. The watchtower on the camp was still manned, and there seemed to be drums in the army, and it seemed that their defense had not slackened. "The retinue thought that Xiang Commander wanted to attack the bandits.

"Go further." Xiang Rong ignored the words of his entourage.

"My lord, there is a possibility of encountering bandits in the future, for the sake of safety。。。。。。。"

Before the entourage could finish speaking, Xiang Rong interrupted him, "Here are you the Admiral?" Or am I the Admiral? Go another 200 meters! Xiang Rong's tone was a little angry.

"Yes, yes, yes." The entourage hurriedly retreated, "A few of you scattered in front, pay attention to the bandits' scouts and secret sentinels, and carefully protect your lordship." The retinue instructed a few of the guards.

Xiang Rong walked forward another two hundred meters, he didn't look carefully at the bandit's barracks, the rain was too heavy to see clearly. He was listening intently, not knowing what he was listening to, "Did you notice something unusual about this drum sound?" Xiang Commander turned his head and asked his entourage.

The retinue was stunned, not expecting to ask the Admiral about this. They listened intently one by one, then shook their heads, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

Xiang Rong smiled confidently, "The old man patrols every day, and he has never pulled down a day. The rhythm of the drums in the bandit camp today is not right, there must be something strange in this! ”

The others were dumbfounded, they didn't expect this Admiral to be so careful, and they could find something strange in such a subtle place.

"Pass my order, let the whole army immediately pull out camp and prepare to attack Fengmen Pass." Xiang Rong thought about it for a while, and finally felt that his thoughts should not be wrong.

"What?" The subordinates couldn't believe it, such a heavy rain attacked the camp of the Taiping army? Make no mistake, right?

"Why are you stunned, hurry back and give orders!" Xiang Rong raised his voice and repeated his command.

Only then did his subordinates realize that Admiral Xiang was serious, and they did not dare to question it, so they immediately turned around and went back to the camp to give orders.

In less than half an hour, he was leading Ba Deqing to lead his troops to the front of the battle. Ba Deqing is a three-rank military general brought by Sai Shoufu from the capital, although the official position is slightly lower than Xiang Rong, but after all, he is a Beijing official, in fact, the two are not subordinate to each other, and no one can command anyone. But Ba Qingde has a more easy-going personality and is still a good man, he was sent to Xiang Rong's side as a deputy by Sai Shoufu, and the two got along more happily.

Here we can see the political wisdom of Sai Shoufu, he arranged three Han generals with lower positions to assist Ulantai, and the Manchu ginseng with a higher position and a good character to be Xiang Rong's deputy, so that no matter which way to make progress, the credit of the Manchu people is indispensable, and when the time comes to repay the merits, the emperor will inevitably be very happy. Sai Shoufu doesn't know how to fight, but after all, he has been an official in the DPRK and China for many years, and his political skills are very powerful.

Although Ba Deqing didn't understand why Xiang Rong led his troops to attack in the heavy rain, out of respect for the old general, he still led the troops to help, and he had 3,000 men and horses plus Xiang Rong's more than 2,000 horses, which were nearly 6,000 people in one place.

"Old general, this is 。。。。。。" Ba Deqing was about to open his mouth to ask a question.

Xiang Rong shook his hand, "I know what you want to ask, you can wait and see the result, there should be no one in this bandit's camp." Xiang Rong's confident smile made General Ba Deqing suspicious.

A Qing army garrison with hundreds of soldiers cautiously set off from the front of the battle and walked towards the Taiping army's camp. They walked very slowly, firstly because the rain was too heavy, the road was very muddy and slippery and very difficult to walk, and secondly, they were afraid of being injured by the bows and arrows of the Taiping army.

But as they walked, they almost reached the bottom of the camp, and the Taiping army did not show up.

These timid Qing soldiers still muttered in their hearts, "Why are the bandits so inkblot today, and they can't come out when they're so close?" It's hard to get closer and run away. ”

The more there is no one, the more silent it is, the more furious Qing Bing's heart becomes. Even the palms of their guards couldn't stop breaking out in a cold sweat. It's like walking in an alley late at night, and when you feel that there are ghosts but you can't see them, you are most scared in your heart.

The Qing soldiers came to the bottom of the camp in fear, set up a ladder, and climbed up with shields.

"No one!" The Qing soldiers who climbed the wall first shouted happily, and the people who have been fighting at the forefront often die for life, and at this time he is like picking up a life, and there is nothing easier than this.

A few Qing soldiers still didn't believe it was true, and ran to the watchtower to see the Taiping army who had been standing on it without moving, it turned out to be a scarecrow wearing a turban of the Taiping army, wearing the clothes of the Taiping army, and wearing rain gear.

The Qing garrison immediately ordered people to put down the gate of the Taiping army, and waved the military flag to the Qing army camp behind, indicating that the camp had been captured.

At this time, Ba Deqing believed that Xiang Rong's judgment was not wrong, and he couldn't help but admire it in his heart. "Old general, it's really clever, the last general admires it!"

"False praise and false praise, in fact, the old man still has something unknown. Since there is no one in the bandit camp, where does this snare drum come from? Let's go in and have a look, please! Xiang Rong was not arrogant, and said very politely and modestly.

The two rode into the Taiping army camp and walked up to the snare drum and smiled at each other.

It turned out that the Taiping army tied up the goats one by one and hung them upside down, so that their two front hooves were close to the drum surface, the sheep was hung uncomfortably, the two front hooves struggled to beat the drum surface, and there was a violent drum sound in the camp.

"I didn't expect there to be such a smart person among the bandits." Ba Deqing couldn't help but admire.

"Hanging sheep beating drums, I think that Qi Huan Gong in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period also used this trick. But it was a clever trick that almost fooled us. Xiang Rong also nodded again and again.

"Otherwise, let's let the brethren rest for a while. I asked people to report the incident to Shousuke-sama, so that I could take credit for the brothers. Ba Deqing's mind was full of credit, and he took advantage of it along the way, and easily took a lot of credit, otherwise he wouldn't have listened to Xiang Rong's words like this.

"No, we must immediately pursue the bandits, don't let them run away." Xiang Rong cut the railway.

"The bandits are too cunning, maybe they will set up an ambush in front of them. Now that we have our military achievements, it is better to be stable. Wait until the rain stops and then pursue it. Ba Deqing was a little worried and proposed.

"Listen to me, we must pursue it immediately. The bandits have tried so hard to design, intending to drag us here, they must want to take advantage of this heavy rain to transfer, we can't delay for a moment. The more Xiang Rong thought about it, the more he felt that his guess should be right, the bandits must have spread their feet and rushed to Yong'an at this moment.

"A few of you take my token and quickly go to Ulantai, and ask the three general soldiers to send troops together to cooperate in the encirclement and suppression of the bandits." Xiang Rong was also very thoughtful, as long as he and the other three general soldiers were flanked back and forth, even if the Taiping army set up an ambush, it would be useless.

Xiang Rongfeng led his men and horses to march to Jintian, leaving only 200 people to guard the camp of Fengmen Pass.

Feng Yunshan hid in a nearby mountain col with more than a thousand people, watching Xiang Rong's army.

"Master Feng, Xiang Lao really went after him, and he didn't stop for a moment." The guard beside him said excitedly.

"That's right, I thought I was just talking on paper, and I could still use it like this? That Xiang Rong is too smart to be tricked, and Yang Junshi is right. Feng Yuanshan couldn't help but admire Yang Xiuqing's speculation on people's hearts. Let the brothers rest here for two more days, and in two days we will recapture Fengmen Pass in one fell swoop. ”