Tao Heng and Dou Tong got off their horses and walked all the way into the ruins and broken walls in front of them. Under a blackened, half-collapsed adobe wall, the body of a woman appeared in front of them. The woman's hands were severed and her face was distorted, revealing the pain she had suffered in her life. The woman reclined against the half-earthen wall, and behind her, a swaddling cloth wrapped in a quilt was exposed.

Tao Heng walked up to the woman, grabbed the swaddling corner behind her, and tried hard, but the swaddling clothes didn't move at all. Tao Heng was stunned, and tried to grab the woman's back and move her out a little. The woman's body had stiffened, and she remained in the same position from beginning to end. Tao Heng held the swaddling baby and took it out in his hand, but saw that the baby had been dead for a long time.

"Captain Dou Bairen, please send a sentry to report the situation here to Cao Du. The woman's body was stiff, and the thief was probably the place where he was slaughtered today. At this point, we must not be far away. So he asked Dou Bairen to send more sentry riders to guard the surrounding mountains. It is night now, the enemy is dark and we are clear, and it is really not appropriate to attack again. ”

Dou Tong bowed and clenched his fists, signaled to receive orders, and then called the surrounding horsemen and arranged them. Then everyone led them away one after another, and began to camp at night.

The cavalry's makeshift camp was located outside the destroyed township, near the level of a mountain stream. The cavalry erected dozens of shacks, and then followed Tao Heng's instructions, without building a bonfire, they each went to the mountain stream to fetch water, and then ate cold and stiff Hu cakes. Fortunately, there was a big battle yesterday, and the department also carried a lot of horse meat cut from the horses of the enemy who died in battle. Several soldiers found a slightly flat stone slab, and then placed the fresh horse meat on the stone slab, cut the horse meat into strips with a ring knife in their hands, and then took out the salt, sprinkled some everywhere, and took it for the soldiers to use.

Dou Tong and Tao Heng sat facing each other, each took a piece of horse meat that had been marinated in salt, and Dou Tong picked up the horse meat and sent it to his mouth. Tao Heng carefully wiped the salt on the horse meat with his hands, and then placed it on the Hu Cake, tearing it apart with the horse meat and Hu Cake one bite at a time.

"Hundred generals, what do these Hu Qi want to do?" Dou Tong's face was full of tiredness that he couldn't hide. Chasing down those captives in the county had already made him feel exhausted. This time, he even had to go deep into the state border, and even pursued it to the territory of Wuwei County. Suddenly there was a feeling of boredom.

Tao Heng frowned and pondered for a moment, swallowed the dry and hard Hu cake and the fishy horse meat in his mouth together, and then slowly spoke: "Changshi is different now. In the past, Changshi was only a subordinate official of Guangwu County, and he only needed to ensure that he lived in one place. At most, he is accountable to the county guard. And now, Changshi has been promoted to a subordinate official of the Qiang's Lieutenant Mansion, and he is also directly promoted by the state governor. In public and private, the long history of things in the state should be done with all their might......"

Dou Tong nodded as if he didn't understand, and then asked, "It is said that the Captain Huqiang is now in Lingju." And as time goes by, why haven't we seen the Captain Guard? Since he is not here, Changshi will not only lead the soldiers of one county, but he will have to worry about the affairs of the whole state. It may work in the short term, but in the long run, how can it be obtained? ”

Tao Heng smiled, and then pointed to the north: "The position of the captain of the Qiang Guard, which is not led by others, is the envoy in Guzang City." Since this position is held by him, where can he leave the state and run to Lingju to sit in the city? In addition, now it is only said that the government is opened, and the subordinate officials and soldiers are only temporarily recruited to sit here. Presumably, in the future, the school governor's office will have to add Peng's subordinates. The heart of the king is not limited to a corner of Liangzhou. ”

After talking for a long time, seeing that Dou Tong was still at a loss, it may be too profound to tell him about this now, Tao Heng had to take another sip of water, and then looked at Dou Tong: "Changshi is now exhausted, if you want to make you look forward in the future, how can you not appoint Changshi, Xie Zhushu and others?" What kind of goods are the state sergeants, presumably Dou Bairen has already seen it. Last year, when he conquered Longxi, Han supervised and protected Woganling, and several generals accumulated in the state for several years, all of which were destroyed. ”

"If it weren't for Changshi leading the army to cross the river, blocking the thieves, and leading his troops to guard the order, so that Liu Yin could not enter an inch, now in the state, I am afraid it will only be a different scene!"

What Tao Heng is talking about now is all what Dou Tong has personally experienced before. He must be familiar with this. It's just that these big things are still a little difficult for him to understand.

The two talked again, and after each of them finished chewing the dry and hard cakes, Dou Tong went to settle down the guard and go out to sentry horses, and then personally led a team of soldiers to climb a low mountain on one side and perform the duties of a sentry. Tao Heng went to inspect all parts of this temporary settlement, carefully checking the left and right around the camp, and there was something that would expose the whereabouts of his own subordinates. After searching for a long time, I didn't find anything abnormal.

When Li Yanzhi was training these cavalry generals, he often said that in the Guangwu Army, because a team of cavalry did not take care of the garbage and feces left behind, the enemy army found out and set up an ambush, and then annihilated the two teams and later went to the sentry cavalry, always alerting these cavalry. Since then, when the cavalry of the various departments went out to investigate, they paid special attention to these details that had not been paid much attention to in the past.

At dawn, the cavalry of the Wuwei army set out again, and they scattered into several teams, each within the range of sight, which could expand the search width. Tao Heng recalled that Li Yanzhi had said that the other two enemy horsemen still numbered 600, so he acted cautiously and asked all departments to release the sentry horses as a warning.

The sentry rode for more than half a day, and the villages he saw were all scorched earth. The horsemen also suffered greatly from it, and they all gritted their teeth at the tyrannical behavior of these captives. However, at this time, there was a heavy responsibility on their shoulders, and everyone had no time to bury those who had been killed, so they had to continue their journey to find the enemy horsemen with grief and indignation.

In the afternoon, the cavalry of the Wuwei army, which had traveled less than thirty miles south of Wuwei County, found a rather luxurious-looking chariot in a ravine. And the side of the car is full of feathered arrows. Most of the soldiers accompanying the escort car were like hedgehogs, lying horizontally and vertically around the car. Dou Tong got off the horse to check it, and then checked his pulse one by one, and sniffed, but saw that these guards had been out of breath for a long time.

Tao Heng came to the side of the car, pulled out the arrow from one of the guards, and then looked at it, but saw that the arrow was the winged barbed arrow used by the captive horseman. This tragic scene should also be the work of the thief.

The horsemen then mounted their horses and continued on their way, and after only about two hundred paces, they found the body of a disheveled woman on the edge of the mountain forest. Tao Heng immediately stepped forward to check, and saw that the clothes on this woman's body were silk weaving, and she was obviously a noble girl from a wealthy family. However, before her death, the woman was obviously humiliated repeatedly, and her face was painful. She had a deep stab on her neck, and her entire neck had been cut off by the stab.

Tao Heng squatted down, pinched her jaw, and tried to deflect her head left and right a few times, and saw that her throat was almost visible at the broken neck. The spine was also broken by this knife, and there was only a layer of skin between the head and the neck.

She didn't have any jewelry, or any belt tags or anything else that could be traced. Apparently it was taken by the thieves. Tao Heng looked at the woman's round eyes lying on the ground, and his face was unbearable. He closed her eyes lightly, and then got up and headed for his horse.

Dou Tong didn't know why, so he stepped forward. When Tao Heng saw him, he said: "I don't know which noble daughter of a wealthy family this person is. Now he has been humiliated by the thief and slain. This thief is so forbearant and ferocious, that he has deceived the heads of those nobles, and the day of their destruction is not far off......"

Dou Tong glanced at the corpse lying among the trees from a distance. The slight wind blew away her messy clothes, and the snow-white skin stung Dou Tong's eyes. Dou Tong turned his head and couldn't bear to look at it again. As a Hanshu martial artist, he didn't have a good impression of the state sergeant clan. But when he looked at the young woman who had died in the woods, he felt that her fate should not be to become a tragic corpse in the wilderness.

Tao Heng turned his horse's head, and his face was worried: "However, after this time, these scholars will definitely not give up." They may incite the envoy to continue to try to get the envoy to gather troops and conquer Longxi. I'm afraid that the big plan discussed in the long history will have to come to naught......"

Before the scholars encouraged Zhang Jun to send troops to Longxi, they tried to get a piece of the land of Longxi where a new order was established. But how can Liangzhou, after last year's repeated conquests, support another expedition? Li Yanzhi admonished that he should keep his light open and rest with the people. It was precisely those nobles who were unwilling to raise money and food on their own and raise troops to fight this war. The matter is closed.

However, this time the captives rode into the state border, and also robbed and humiliated the people of the Shi clan, and the turmoil caused by this must be far beyond the scope of everyone's control. Therefore, it seems reasonable to raise troops on a large scale.

Tao Heng, who suddenly felt a headache, turned his horse's head and continued to lead his subordinates to the north. When the noise of the horses' hooves had subsided, the edge of the forest had become quiet, and a large black collar was placed on top of the body of the woman at the edge of the forest.

On that day, the cavalry of the Wu Wei army still did not find any trace of the captive cavalry. After nightfall, Tao Heng ordered his subordinates to find a gentle slope, dig a shack, and let the soldiers rest for a while. The number of cavalry sent out to scout has more than doubled. And the news that the villages seen on the road were attacked and the nobles' cars were robbed and killed, and the cavalry was also sent to spread messages to various places.

In the Assassin's Mansion, the reports and recitals of various counties have been piled up nearly a foot high on Zhang Jun's desk. And the subordinate officials of the Assassin's Mansion were in the hall at this time, and the crowd was excited, vying to tell about the brutality of the captives. Zhang Jun, who was sitting at the head of the desk, was holding his forehead with both hands, obviously having a headache.

"Envoy! This time, the thieves dared to send out light horses, smuggled across the river, and went deep into the state border to cause trouble. In just half a month, from Guangwu in the south to Wuwei, and in the west to Xiping, traces of captives were found! There are now no less than twenty villages that have been looted! If these thieves are allowed to act recklessly, the people of other countries will flee one after another, and our state will be overturned! ”

"The Duke of Ming is above, so when the Duke of Wu, the Duke of Zhao, and the Duke of Cheng are there, the thieves are coveting our state, how dare they act like this? Mo said that the township was looted and slaughtered, that is, the concubines and women in the subordinate families, and many of them were intercepted and killed by thieves. Isn't this a shame for me? If Ming Gong is interested, my generation should recruit the old and young in the family, go into battle, kill him and the thief will not return, and be ashamed of the snow! ”

The one who was filled with righteous indignation was Suo Milling, who had previously served as the goalkeeper under Song Pei. His sister was robbed and killed by a captive horse on the way to Guzang, and it was the corpse that Tao Heng and the others had seen before. Therefore, when it comes to captive cavalry, this general, who is now transferred to the head of the Assassin's Mansion, is gritting his teeth.

"What do you think of Chen Zhichong?" Zhang Jun did not reply to these impassioned words of shouting and killing, but looked straight at Chen Zhen, who was standing silently with his hands down. In the face of great indignation, it is always a very small number of people who can keep calm. In Zhang Jun's mind, Chen Zhen is one of the people who can keep calm.

Chen Zhen looked at the angry people in the hall, and couldn't help but feel nervous. Zhang Jun asked him this question at this time, which really had a deep meaning. If Chen Zhen followed the crowd and echoed those scholars, Zhang Jun would naturally have a different opinion of him in his heart. It doesn't matter if it came from his intentions or not. And if he is outspoken and disagrees with those scholars, Chen Zhen will gradually be isolated by these scholars, and truly become a lonely minister under Zhang Jun.

Chen Zhen hesitated for a moment, then stepped out of the queue and kowtowed: "The envoy is above, and the words of the Zhen family can only be used for reference, not as a basis." After the previous order, Li Changshi had already played the table, making it clear that the state had fought repeatedly, and there was no way to continue, and he should rest with the people at the moment, and when the soldiers were strong and the grain and grass were sufficient in the future, he would raise troops to plot against Longshang. Zhen plagiarized that the long history was reasonable. ”

As soon as Chen Zhen's words came out, they immediately attracted the angry eyes of most of the scholars in the hall. However, Chen Zhen seemed to be unaware of this, and continued to take care of himself: "Sun Tzu Youyun, where the method of war, galloping thousands of cars, leather cars thousands of rides, with armor of 100,000, thousands of miles of food, then the internal and external expenses, the use of guests, the materials of glue paint, the dedication of car armor, the daily cost of thousands of gold, and then 100,000 teachers will be raised." Ming Gong's luck, now the trouble of our state is only outside it. We can rest with the people's livelihood and try to raise troops in the future. ”

Chen Zhen is obviously a smart person, he first moved Li Yanzhi as a shield, saying that this matter is not feasible, and then throwing out his own opinions. As a result, many people from the family who are dissatisfied with him in the current hall have transferred the account to Li Yanzhi's head. Chen Zhen's voice fell, and another person in the subordinate queue came out, bowed his hand to Zhang Jun, who was the head of the court, and then glanced at Chen Zhen meaningfully, and then said: "Envoy, Li Dingdong was only a subordinate official of Guangwu County before, a small county Sima, and he knows what is a major military matter!" When the war is forbearing, when the peace is war, it can be seen that this person is just a mouse-eyed person! ”

"This cross-border invasion of captives is really intolerable. My generation has both the ambition of the country and the heart of the country. I wish to cleanse the thieves and raise the prestige of our country! Now that the top and bottom have the same desires and the same hatred for the enemy, it is the day when the thief is destroyed, Chen Zhechong moved out of Li Dingdong, and it is absolutely impossible to say that this matter is not feasible, what kind of intentions are there? ”

The one who stood up and questioned Chen Zhen was the forward supervising Song Pei. Chen Zhen saw that he was menacing, so he didn't confront him face to face. Just bowed to the head and saluted: "Zhen Wei hopes to make the king clear." Longxi is not undesirable, but if the battle is lost, there will be no more soldiers in the state to resist the enemy, and the food for recruiting troops will not be feasible! The thieves who have entered the state border, we can mobilize our troops and work together to exterminate them. But if we meet Woganling again, there was still Li Dingdong before, and if Li Dingdong is defeated with the army this time, who can be the barrier for the state? ”

Chen Zhen ...... You're full of nonsense! Zuo Sima Yinyuan, who was standing in the forefront of the subordinate officials, couldn't help but scold when he heard this.

Seeing such a scene, Zhang Jun slapped his right hand heavily on several cases: "You don't need to say more, I have made up my mind!" The advance army will exterminate the captives in the territory, and the rest will be discussed at a later date! ”