In the early morning, a group of cavalry passed through the endless rice fields, the war horses galloped on the ridges, a hundred paces away was a crystal clear river, meandering to the south, and then in the distance was a small village, more than 20 households, white walls and tiles, weeping willows clinging, the roof was emitting curling white smoke, a few yellow dogs gathered at the head of the village, were vigilantly looking at the cavalry galloping by, from time to time raised their heads and barked.

The cavalry galloped over the ridge, and soon left the small village behind, in front of which was a low mound, the vicissitudes of the sea for thousands of years made this sand mound abruptly lay across the plain, the hill was only more than 20 zhang high, but at least three miles wide, more than ten miles long, and the hill was full of lush trees.

The cavalry rushed straight up the hill and into the woods, and suddenly a finch of birds rose from the trees.

This cavalry was the intelligence battalion scout team led by Yan Qing, Zhang Shun was in charge of monitoring the waterways, and Yan Qing was in charge of monitoring the main force of the Jiangnan Army.

Yan Qing had 500 men under his command, divided into ten teams, distributed in various states and counties in the south of the Yangtze River, and Yan Qing took one of the elite scouts to track the main force of the Jiangnan Army south.

Just last night, Yan Qing grabbed two deserters, and after careful interrogation, he knew that they were Liu Yanqing's soldiers, and found an excuse to escape the team during the march.

Of course, Yan Qing knew that there was infighting in the Jiangnan Army two days ago, the commander Xiang Fa killed the deputy general Liu Yanqing, and the general Wu Ancheng led thousands of his subordinates south.

This news was sent by Yan Qing to the commander Li Yanqing a little late, and after Jingzhaojun received the army of Wu'an City, his information was sent to Wuxi County.

Although the capture of two soldiers last night was not a major incident, judging from the escape of the two soldiers, Yan Qing had a bold guess in his heart, whether the morale of the Jiangnan Army was starting to have problems.

The speculation is bold, but more evidence is needed to prove it.

The cavalry rushed to the hill, leaving a few soldiers to guard the horses, and Yan Qing climbed to the highest place of the hill with the others, although the hill is only more than twenty zhang high, but looking down from the height, the field of vision is very broad, and in the distance is a piece of mirror-like rice fields, which can be seen at least thirty miles away, which is refreshing.

"Commander, they're coming!" A soldier whispered as he pointed to the official road to the north.

Yan Qing was not surprised at all, they were originally tracking the enemy's main force southward, but they only rushed to the front of the other party in advance because of the advantage of the cavalry.

In front of the Jiangnan army were several outpost spies, who were responsible for checking whether there were ambushes on both sides of the official road, and the main army was three miles behind them, looking from a distance, like a black worm wriggling forward.

The soldiers led by Yan Qing are not ordinary scouts, but intelligence scouts, they have stronger analytical skills and are more able to find problems from some details.

The marching speed of the Jiangnan army has slowed down significantly, and an hour has passed since they set off, but the marching distance is less than thirty miles, and the Jiangnan army has changed from yesterday's small steps to walking, is this because the other party is physically exhausted?

It should be impossible, they have just started their march, and it should be the most physical strength of the day, obviously the other party is deliberately conserving physical strength, and is no longer in a hurry to catch up with the Jingzhao army heading south, indicating that Xiang Fa has learned the news that the Jingzhao army is stationed in Wu County.

After nearly half an hour, the main force of the team finally passed in front of the hill, the army was mighty, the flag covered the sky and the sun, Yan Qing's subordinates were quickly counting the information, how many cavalry, how many infantry, how well the equipment was there, the degree of training, etc., these basic information was extremely important for the two armies to fight.

In the ranks, there were soldiers running out and squatting in the bushes on the side of the road, at this time, there was a fault in the team, the Chinese army had already walked, but the rear army was still a mile away, three soldiers squatting in the bushes found an opportunity, turned around and ran towards the hill.

Yan Qing was also pleasantly surprised, and immediately ordered: "Arrest the three of them!" ”

The soldiers jumped and ran eastward, and in a moment they came with three deserters, three of whom were so embarrassed that their helmets and shoes had fallen off, and one of the soldiers had his hair in a bun and his hair was scattered.

"Take them for interrogation, get them to speak as quickly as possible, and let them spit out everything they know."

The scouts were divided into three groups, and quickly escorted the three deserters to one side, and after a while, one of the groups of soldiers in charge of interrogation came back and bowed to Yan Qing, "Qi Yu system, the deserters have already confessed, they are not the first batch, the deserters appeared last night." ”

"Are they Liu Yanqing's subordinates?"

"Exactly! Liu Yanqing still had more than 10,000 people under him, who were dispersed and resettled, and were discriminated against in the army, and their treatment was very low, which made the morale of these more than 10,000 people very low, unwilling to give their lives to Xiang's family, and wanted to escape when they found an opportunity. ”

Yan Qing thought for a while and asked, "How are they distinguished in the army!" ”

His subordinate handed over a helmet, "Look at this helmet!" ”

Yan Qing was stunned, the helmet was actually green, painted with a layer of green paint, "This is their logo?" ”

"They all have to wear this kind of green helmet, and the army calls them greenheads."

At this time, the other two interrogating soldiers also hurriedly walked over, clasped their fists and saluted, "Qi Yu is in charge, they have all confessed." ”

........

Li Yanqing's army was stationed in a wilderness about fifteen miles north of Wu County, and the thousands of large tents and hundreds of thousands of double-pointed defensive wooden formations obtained from the Wu County Arsenal became the guarantee of the Jingzhao Army's garrison.

The military camp covers an area of about 2,000 acres, set up 3,000 big tents, there is no camp fence around, but 300,000 defensive trees are laid out, the so-called defensive wooden array, is a large array composed of two sharpened wooden sticks, about one zhang long, one end is inserted into the soil, the other end is facing outward, and the deployment is dense, so that the enemy cavalry can not approach.

In addition to defending the wooden formation, trenches were dug around the perimeter, and antlers, spikes and other objects were buried in the trenches, and wooden towers were also set up to look out, and a large number of scout patrol posts were deployed within a mile of the periphery, making it difficult for the enemy to approach the camp and sneak attack.

At present, the Jingzhao Army has a total of 46,000 people, including 3,000 cavalry, and the Jingzhao Army is recuperating, actively training and cooperating, and patiently waiting for the arrival of the enemy army.

In the tent of the commander of the Chinese army, Li Yanqing and several senior generals were listening to Yan Qing's report, not only reporting on the situation of the scouts, but also on the information held by the intelligence department, and at present the Jiangnan army had entered the boundary of Suzhou, about 50 miles away from Wu County in the afternoon, and camped there for the night, that is, 40 miles away from the barracks.

"From all kinds of intelligence analysis, the enemy's strongest combat effectiveness is the Tiger Army and the Flying Bear Army, and the equipment is also the best, about 20,000 people, this is the Zhuang soldiers trained by the three relatives for many years, and they have been distributed in the manors and mines in various places, and they were assembled in Hangzhou from all the states in the world more than a month ago, followed by 40,000 Xiang Army, from the states in the south of the Yangtze River, the strength of the army is different, like the Xiang Army in Hangzhou, Yuezhou, Xuanzhou and other places, because it needs to defend the Fang La Army, so the combat effectiveness is relatively strong, and the other states in the south of the Yangtze River are generally undertrained, which is equivalent to the township soldiers in Hebei."

"Tell me about the other party's commanders and main generals."

Li Yanqing, as the commander of the Jingzhao Army, he is more concerned about the situation of the other party's commander and general, the role of the commander is crucial, no matter how elite the soldier encounters a weak commander, he will not be able to exert combat effectiveness, on the contrary, a commander with strong command, even if the soldiers under him are relatively weak, but can also give full play to the potential of the soldiers.

Yan Qing bowed slightly and said: "Xiang Fa is the second son of Xiang Zongliang, he studied and practiced martial arts since he was a child, and he practiced a strong martial arts at the age of twenty, and he is also a relatively accomplished son in the Xiang family, at the age of twenty-five, he was appointed as a general, and he was appointed as the envoy of the Ning Navy Festival, and since the age of thirty, he has served as the Marquis of the Dragon God Guard, and five years ago he served as the deputy commander of the palace, and participated in the war to exterminate Fang La, this person is very shrewd and capable, and he also has more combat experience, but he is very narrow-minded, and he cannot tolerate any opposition in the army, This is also the reason why he killed Liu Yanqing. ”

"What about his generals?" Li Yanqing asked again.

"Back to the capital, Xiang Fa has six tiger generals, respectively called Xiang Yong, Zheng Chen, Zhu Hongying, Guo Huaisu, Li Mo and Zhao Wenkai, these six people and Xiang Fa together control the current 70,000 troops, in addition to Xiang Yong, the other five are forbidden army generals, have been following Xiang Fa, all participated in the battle to exterminate Fang La, Xiang Yong is Xiang Zongliang's adopted son, in charge of cavalry, there is the courage of ten thousand people."

Wang Gui smiled on the side: "This Zhu Hongying has something to do with the Zhu Hongliang I caught!" ”

"They are brothers, and they are all children of the Zhu family."

Li Yanqing nodded and asked, "Does General Yan know where the biggest weakness of this army is?" ”

Yan Qing lowered his head and muttered for a moment: "The biggest weakness of this army should be Liu Yanqing's army, also known as the Green-headed Army!" ”