The flag language Qin Ze researched had three colors, cyan for surrounding security, red for vigilance, and the remaining purple flag for giving orders on the battlefield.

Now the scout at the front took out the red flag, which means that the enemy's scout is no more than five miles away from them.

Until they see how many people there are on Xi Mountain, they will not act rashly. All of them quickly got up from the ground, then turned on their horses and began to retreat.

Gagar Peak is on the east side of Xi Mountain, and Chen Yanguan plans to let everyone retreat to the west first. There's a dense forest there, and there's no better place to hide.

At the same time, Zhang Bao also brought two hundred soldiers to the north of Xishan. There are a mess of horseshoe prints on the ground, indicating that a procession has passed through here before.

One of the scouts stepped out and lay on the ground to take a closer look at the horses' hooves. After determining the shape of these horseshoe prints, it was also discerned that they were Turkic cavalry.

Their horses are already fitted with horseshoes, so the footprints left on the ground will have a distinct semicircular groove, while these horseshoe prints do not.

"Tell you, Lord Marshal, about an hour ago, a procession of about five hundred men passed through here."

Looking at horseshoe prints and how to tell how many people are from the footprints on the ground has become a compulsory course for them. Fortunately, they used to be robbers, and they were all good hunters, so they learned much faster.

This is a bit troublesome, looking at these marks on the ground, they are clearly running towards Xi Mountain. I don't know if it's a Turkic soldier or a soldier who also protects Lu.

"Spread out on the spot, conceal within a mile radius." Zhang Bao quickly gave the order, and before he figured out the situation, he felt that it was better not to act rashly.

Fortunately, there are ravines here, and Tibetans and horses are much simpler.

As time passed, Qin Ze, who was guarding Lingzhou City, also sensed that something was wrong. From Chen Yanguan and their departure to the present, not a single scout has returned.

This made him a little worried, but it was too late to send someone out again, so he could only wait for dawn.

These days, Impermanence and Reckless Bull don't know what they're doing, they go out in a hurry every day, and then come back in a hurry. He asked Erhu a few words, but the other party was also hesitant.

Otherwise, Qin Ze could still ask Impermanence to help find out the rumors, but at the moment, it seemed that he could only wait for dawn.

Qin Ze couldn't sleep that night, so he simply put on his clothes and came to Cheng Chumo's lieutenant's tent.

They didn't sleep either, and when Qin Ze came, they were studying around a sand table. Since the last time they saw the sand table made by Qin Ze, they have completely liked this thing.

So I asked the dog leftovers to make Xishan's sand table for them, and the dog leftovers are indeed not ordinary. Ever since Qin Ze taught him how to use a hot air balloon, this guy has completely fallen in love with the work of carving sand.

In fact, Qin Ze knew that this guy really didn't want to burn the fire in the logistics, so he showed so hard work.

Seeing Qin Ze coming over, Cheng Chumo and Sun Yufu also led him over, and the four of them began to study the sand table.

The topography of Xishan is different from Yan'er Mountain, Xishan is just a mountain, and it is only ten miles long, and the highest place is only 400 meters. Compared to Yan'er Mountain, this is simply a small toy.

But although Xishan is not as large as Yan'er Mountain, the terrain here is much more complex than Yan'er Mountain. There are a total of three main peaks, among which Gagar Peak is the highest point, and it can be said that as long as you control that place, you can see it at a glance within five miles around.

It's a natural lookout, and Xishan is a typical stone mountain. It is covered with low shrubs, and it is easy for people to hide in it.

"The situation is a little bad, Chen Lvshuai's people have not heard from it so far, it is very likely that Gagar Peak has been occupied. Goschute wouldn't do that, so there's only one possibility. Speaking of this, Cheng Chu paused, he glanced at Qin Ze, and the meaning was self-evident.

"It seems that Hulu also wants to intervene." Qin Ze continued Cheng Chumo's words.

"Now I only have 2,000 soldiers in my hands, and the rest of the 30,000 troops are in the hands of Cui Beijia. He will not send troops out, and Hulu will intervene in the horse market, which is probably a test for us. He can't wait for Lingzhou, and if we continue to send troops, it is very likely that we will fall into his trap. If it really doesn't work, I'll go and explain the matter to Cui Beijia tomorrow and ask him to postpone the opening of the horse market this time. ”

"Postponement?" Qin Ze shook his head and said with a smile on his face: "Cui Shi wishes I died in the horse market, how could it be postponed?" ”

The grievances between Qin Ze and the Cui family, Cheng Huailiang has already explained to Cheng Chumo, and he also told the matter of the second master of the Cui family in Lingtai County. So in fact, Cheng Chumo himself knows that the possibility of Cui Shi postponing the horse market is very low.

"Yehulu is now a hundred miles outside Lingzhou City, and it is estimated that he is waiting for the final army to rendezvous. Although he will not act rashly until then. But Tuli and Datang have not been communicating with each other for a day or two, and now Jieli and Tuli are tearing their faces, presumably to deter these tribes bordering Datang. Qin Ze quickly saw the powerful relationship, looked at Xi Shan's sand table and said: "But I'm afraid that no one knows what Yehulu's plan is, if I don't come to Lingzhou City this time, it should be Cheng Duwei who will participate in the horse market, if the other party wants to wait for the opportunity to ambush in Xishan, it is not impossible to attack Cheng Duwei at that time." ”

Disagreement has always been a taboo for soldiers, and now this Lingzhou City, which is already extremely complicated, has become even more complicated because of Qin Ze's arrival.

The 30,000-strong army is in the hands of Cui Shi, even if Qin Ze is really trapped in Xishan in the end, it is estimated that he will not send troops out to rescue. After all, for him, the first task is to hold Lingzhou. Therefore, under this premise, Qin Ze's safety is completely unguaranteed.

There are only two possibilities for Hulu to intervene in the horse market, and he either wants to deter the Turkic tribes bordering the Tang Dynasty. Either they want to take advantage of this opportunity to seize Cheng Chumo, who went to participate in the horse market, and then lead the Tang army out of the city. But Qin Ze was lucky enough to act as Cheng Chumo......

Lucky enough that Qin Ze burst into tears......

Several people discussed it until the middle of the night, and then they made up their minds. If there is no movement tomorrow, let Cheng Huailiang take another hundred soldiers out to see what the situation is.

waited until dawn, but there was still no news from Xi Shan. None of them returned from Zhou City, and Qin Ze knew what that meant. It is likely that the other party has already occupied Gagar Peak first, so they will not dare to act rashly in order not to expose it.

Qin Ze originally thought that he could see a clue from taking a hot air balloon, but when he looked down from a high altitude, he couldn't see anything. In the empty Xishan area, only the wind and sand waves do not see half a figure.

After the battle of Yan'er Mountain, the role of hot air balloons also began to be valued by Qin Ze. He had already begun to let the people of the Ordnance Supervisor make this thing vigorously, because although the power of gunpowder shells was strong, the range was far from enough.

As for artillery, it is not impossible with the current technology, and it can only wait for the ordnance supervision of Chang'an to make first-class steel.

At first, Qin Ze also thought about using trebuchets and the like to launch gunpowder shells, but in that case, the accuracy plummeted.

So Qin Ze thought of throwing gunpowder bombs from the sky, but this thing requires a lot of oil, and for Datang, the development of oil is still in its infancy. Because this thing is currently used for lubrication of wheel hubs, it is not exploited in large quantities.

However, Qin Ze has already begun to suggest to Li Er to exploit thermal oil, and Kannai has been a place rich in oil since ancient times, so it is not too troublesome to get a certain amount of oil now. It's just that it's not refined, so this thing burns extremely unstable.

Qin Ze has already handed over the refining of oil to the Ordnance Superintendent, and the oil can distill gasoline and kerosene under normal pressure, and with the deepening of their work, Qin Ze will soon have his own group of air troops.

However, before that, Qin Ze still couldn't let the hot air balloon rise too high, and he couldn't run too far. So when he rose to a hundred meters, Qin Ze took the initiative to give up the idea of continuing, and could only land obediently.

Cheng Huailiang has to go out, this time in the name of Zhechong Mansion, and Cui Shi can't stop this.

They don't need to go too deep, they only need to be near Xishan, and it's best to find Chen Yan to watch them and see what's going on.

At the same time, in a dense forest, Chen Yanguan was lying quietly on a tree, his body not moving.

It was already the fifth wave of Turkic scouts passing through here, and in order not to be detected, they had led all their horses into the burrow.

This is what they learned from the people of Lingzhou City, not to mention that the soil here is really easy to dig. And because the soil layer is longitudinal, it is not easy to collapse.

They had been trapped here for a whole day, and since they arrived yesterday afternoon, the Turks have been sending scouts to reconnoiter the vicinity.

And in order not to be discovered, they also did not drink water all day.

The weather in June was extremely uncomfortable for everyone. Especially in this dense forest, there are many mosquitoes. But fortunately, they had also figured out the rules of action of the other party's scouts, and while this group of Turkic scouts left, Chen Yanguan immediately ordered everyone to eat as soon as possible.

When they had a cup of tea, no one knew why the Turks were so careful. But Chen Yanguan knew that he had to sneak into the vicinity of Xishan, otherwise there would be no way to tell how many people there were on the other side.

Zhou Cheng was called, and Chen Yanguan asked him if he could get close to Xi Shan.

Zhou Cheng frowned, picked up a small wooden stick from the ground and drew it on the ground, saying while drawing: "If you want to know how many people there are in Xishan, you have to get close to here." But from here to the foot of Xi Mountain, there is a full three-mile distance, if there is no trace of cover, the time to go out is not more than a pillar of incense will definitely be found. So if you want to get in, there's only one way. ”

Zhou Cheng said this, looking at Xi Shan in the distance and making a movement to wipe his neck.

A Turk must be killed and then blended in, otherwise they have no choice. If the stalemate continues here, it will not do them any good.

Just blending into the Turkic camps, will it be that simple?