At the beginning of night, a small boat carrying five soldiers quietly arrived at the north bank of Baigou Shui, these five soldiers in addition to Yan Qing and Yang Guang and a scout, the other two soldiers are local Xiang soldiers, their task is to detect the enemy situation within thirty miles north of Baigou, the north bank of the river is a bare hills and fields, almost all the trees have been cut down, there is no place to hide.

However, from the head of Bazhou City on the opposite bank, there is no enemy situation within at least ten miles, which is also determined by the garrison situation on the other side, and the nearest Yongqing County to Baigou in Liao is also sixty miles away, and it is also for this reason that the Eastern Route Army of the First Northern Expedition has been more than 100 miles deep into the enemy territory before encountering the army of Liao General Xiao Gan.

To a certain extent, this is also a strategy to lure the enemy into the depths, if there is no Song army in Xiongzhou in the west, the Liao army in the west will outflank it, cut off the grain route and even retreat of the Song army on the east road, so that the Song army is facing the dilemma of being attacked by the enemy.

Although Li Yanqing also understands this, he cannot rely on guesswork to make decisions, he must get hard facts to support his decisions.

After Yan Qing went ashore, he divided his troops into two routes, Yang Guang took a soldier of the Xiang Army to the east to investigate, Yan Qing took the two to explore the middle line and the west, and the two agreed to meet at Ping'an Ridge, thirty miles away in the north, at the time of the third watch.

Yan Qing and the three of them ran all the way under the cover of night, and there was no trace of anyone along the way, and several villages they saw by chance were destroyed in the last Northern Expedition, and under the moonlight, you could clearly see the ruins and walls blackened by smoke and fire, and occasionally a few wild dogs appeared in the grass.

After running all the way for more than 20 miles, when passing through a destroyed village, Yan Qing wanted to enter the village to check, but was stopped by the accompanying soldiers of the Xiang Army, "Yu Hou can't go in, the corpses are rotting in the hot weather, beware of the epidemic." ”

Yan Qing suddenly woke up, he didn't dare to enter the village, so he could only go around outside, at this time, another soldier suddenly pointed to the hill in the distance and said, "There is light over there!" ”

Yan Qing hurriedly looked up the hill, only to see a faint fire flickering in a cave two miles away on the left, Yan Qing suddenly said excitedly: "Follow me!" ”

He led two of his men to run towards the firelight, and after a while, they found the cave where the fire flickered, this is a very small cave, the entrance of the cave can only accommodate two people to enter side by side, it doesn't look too deep, they crouched behind the big rock thirty steps away and observed for a long time, there was no movement at the entrance of the cave, Yan Qing waved his hand gently, "You guys wait here, I'll take a look!" ”

He rushed to the cave, Yan Qing was as light as a swallow, and his light skills were very good, although he was thin and small, and his hand-to-hand combat ability was average, but he had four stunts: short crossbow, light skill, water nature and disguise, and was known as the four best generals in Liangshan, and he was born as a scout.

Yan Qing did not run directly to the entrance of the cave, but made a roundabout circle, came to the top of the cave, he hooked a large stone above the entrance of the cave with his feet, and slowly lowered his body like an upside-down golden hook, revealing half of his head to look into the cave.

I saw that the cave was only one zhang deep at most, and two men who looked like Liao soldiers were roasting a roe deer in the cave, there were no spears, only two knives were thrown aside, the roe deer was about to be cooked, and the two were salivating, and they didn't notice the situation outside the cave at all.

These two people are obviously not patrols, there can be only two patrols, and it is impossible that there are no horses and spears, and looking at the appearance of these two people, they do not look like Khitans, but like two Han people.

Yan Qing looked around again, and saw that there were barren mountains and mountains all around, and there was no sign of cavalry patrols, so he beckoned to the two men, and the two of them rushed up, Yan Qing raised his hand and the crossbow was an arrow, and the short arrow was shot into the fire, which frightened the two Liao soldiers, and they jumped up, only to see two swarthy crossbow arrows at the entrance of the cave aimed at themselves, and the two of them were so frightened that they fell to their knees and trembled.

Yan Qing quickly stepped forward and took away the knives of the two, and then asked coldly, "Who are you?" ”

The two were stunned, and one of them asked tentatively, "You ..... Is it Song Jun? ”

"Who do you think we are?"

The two immediately kowtowed, "We are also Yandi Han'er, we don't want to work for the Liao State, we want to escape to the Song Dynasty, and beg the military envoy to spare our lives!" ”

The soldiers of the Xiang Army whispered to Yan Qing: "Some time ago, there were many such Liao army Han deserters who fled to Bazhou and were sent away by the commander. ”

Yan Qing ordered his subordinates to search the bodies of the two of them, and took away their daggers, then sat down by the fire, cut half of the roasted roe deer and threw it to his subordinates, and said to the two of them: "This half belongs to you, I will ask you when you finish eating!" ”

Seeing that the other party was not hostile, the two deserters squatted down and devoured half of the roe deer, they had not eaten for a day, and they were already hungry.

After the two of them finished eating, Yan Qing asked, "Your family members are all in Youzhou, are you afraid of endangering your family when you flee to Song Realm?" ”

One of them sighed and said: "The Jurchens are too cruel, they never bring grain and grass to fight, and when they enter the Liao realm, they plunder everywhere, cattle and sheep are slaughtered, property is robbed, women and children are also plundered to Huanglong Mansion as slaves, we have already been ruined, we just want to flee to the Song Dynasty to find a way to survive." ”

"Where did you come from?"

"Coming from Yongqing County, it's thirty miles to the north."

"How many garrisons are there in Yongqing County?"

"This ....." the two soldiers hesitated.

Yan Qing said coldly: "If you don't say it, I can only check it myself, you are a burden." ”

The two of them heard the threat in their words, and hurriedly said: "There are only five hundred garrisons in Yongqing County, and the main force is in Fanyang County, and there are at least four or five thousand people over there. ”

"Is the main general still Pharmacist Guo?"

"It is he who makes our winning army mainly Han'er."

"Why haven't you seen any soldiers since you came ashore, not even a patrol post?"

A soldier smiled bitterly, "It's been like this here for a few months, the army doesn't guard the border, at most there are some patrols, maybe it's because of the lack of troops!" Our Changsheng army of 8,000 people wants to defend Zhuozhou and Yizhou, but there is no choice but to defend the main cities, Zhuozhou side to guard Fanyang County, Yizhou side to guard Yi County. ”

Yan Qing pondered for a long time and said: "I want to go to Yongqing County to have a look, you two will be my guides, after the matter is completed, you will each be rewarded with ten yuan, I will let the general let you go south, if you don't want to, then you will leave now!" ”

The two deserters saw that the other party was holding a divine arm crossbow in their hands, where they dared to go, even if they didn't give money, they had to be guides head-on, "We are willing to be guides for the military envoys!" ”

"Let me warn you first, if I find out that you are hiding anything, I will immediately take the lives of both of you!"

"Don't dare, villain don't dare!"

Yan Qing immediately stepped on the fire, and ordered the two to lead the way to Yongqing County, Yongqing County is located sixty miles north of Baigou, although it is far beyond the scope of exploration required by Li Yanqing, but Yan Qing calculates the time and distance, they can rush to Yongqing County at dawn, explore for two hours, and can also rush back to Bazhou City that night, more importantly, the garrison situation in Yongqing County is very important, although the deserter told him that there are only five hundred people, but if he does not confirm it personally, such information is still worthless.

At the third watch, Yan Qing and his party rushed to Ping'an Ridge first, where they met Yang Guang, who arrived first.

"Who are these two?" Yang Guang asked, pointing to the two deserters.

Yan Qing told the story of the discovery of the deserter, and asked, "Do you have any discoveries over there?" ”

Yang Guang nodded, "I met a Liao cavalry patrol, there were thirty people on the other side, and there were only two of us, so we couldn't kill them, so we had to hide." ”

Yan Qing frowned, "Where did you meet it?" ”

"About twenty miles away from Baigou, they are all iron helmets and iron armor, with bows and arrows on their backs, they look very brave, and they can't figure out whether they are Han or Khitan."

One of the deserters interjected: "They are not patrolling, they are here to hunt down our hunting and fugitive team, your situation is very clear, don't need a patrol." ”

Yan Qing was furious, stepped forward and kicked him over, pulled out his sword against his throat and said viciously: "Why didn't you say it in the cave just now?" ”

The deserter trembled with fear, "The envoy didn't ask me ....... just now"

"You bastard!"

Yan Qing gave him a hard punch and asked, "Tell me quickly, how does the Liao army know our intelligence?" ”

"The Liao army has deployed a lot of spies in the border states, and constantly uses eagles to deliver news, and it has been like this for so many years, you should know."

"I don't know!"

Yan Qing scolded and asked, "What else is important, tell me ...... quickly?"

"There is also a beacon, there is a beacon on the Dayang Ridge a few miles to the north, close to the official road, once it is found that the Song army of the brigade appears, it will ignite the wolf smoke, and then the wolf smoke of Yongqing County and the wolf smoke of Fanyang County, all the way to Xijin City."

Xijin City is the Youzhou Yanjing City of the Song Dynasty, and the only remaining capital of the Liao State is here.

"Do you want this beacon to be killed?" Yang Guang said in a low voice.

Yan Qing hesitated for a moment, and then asked the deserter, "How many soldiers are there in the beacon?" ”