When Chen Zhe's caravan left the customs, there were twenty-eight people, but only twelve people returned, eight of whom were wounded, and even Chen Zhe himself was hit by an arrow in the thigh, but fortunately, the arrow did not penetrate into the flesh, and it was not made of iron, so he could continue to ride after bandaging it. In addition, the fur and livestock and other goods that were originally intended to be transported back to the customs for resale were gone, except for a burden that Chen Zhe hung on the back of the horse, and everyone almost fled back to Luzi Pass.

Seeing this, Li* knew that something was wrong, and immediately ordered the scout team of Minda to set off to find out the news, and at the same time took Chen Zhe and other wounded into the customs and re-bandaged them indoors.

"My lord, I was incompetent, I met a brigade of party cavalry on the road, the horses, livestock, and fur were robbed, and more than a dozen of my companions died, and the lowly people galloped all the way, so they had to enter Luzi ......Pass."

Chen Zhe said in frustration while baring his teeth and enduring the former camp medical officer washing his wounds with Sichuan spirits.

"It's okay...... It's good for people to come back...... It's good if people come back......" These losses Li * is also very painful, especially the horses and livestock are what he lacks the most at the moment, but looking at Chen Zhe's miserable appearance does not want him to be sad anymore, not to mention the death of more than a dozen people, if he blindly asks about the goods, it will be too impersonal.

“…… Even if you fold the book, Brother Chen doesn't have to worry......" Li * said in a deep voice, "You can withdraw a little from the public funds, and then pay ......it back when you make money."

He was deeply afraid that Chen Zhe would not dare to enter the party's territory and trade again, and all the horses and livestock in the future would be lost, and once the stored grain was exhausted, there would be no money left to buy grain from the Kanto region.

Chen Zhe looked at Li *, silently waited until Lang Zhong finished changing the medicine and went out with the box on his back, and waved his hand: "You all go out......."

When everyone came out, in Li *'s surprised and puzzled gaze, Chen Zhe slowly opened a small bag he carried with him, which was a small wooden box, took out a small key from his arms, opened the lock with a "card bar", and lifted the lid of the box-

A gentle and warm light made Li*'s eyes narrow, and inside the small box was a neatly stacked box of golden knives.

Such a small box full of gold, I'm afraid it won't weigh dozens of catties?

Fortunately, he had a good eye and exchanged part of the money for the goods into gold in the local area, which was a total of one hundred and eighty-nine taels and four dollars, and the horses, livestock, skins and other things that were stolen were only less than five catties of gold. My lord, since it is a joint stock business, the profit is naturally earned together, and the loss must be paid together, the gold, the adult keeps half of it, and the other half is taken back to turn over. Speaking of which, what was robbed this time was just the profit of this trip to the difficult army, and it was a pity that the lives of sixteen fellows were ......"

Li * looked at a box of gold, his throat moved, and said with a wry smile: "Brother Chen, take this money and go to the book, gold is of no use to me, let's wait until you buy horses, cattle and sheep, and then come and share it in the camp......"

Chen Zhe sighed: "...... Well, I'm sorry for adults this time......"

Li * comforted him a few more words, turned around, and walked up to the city tower again, only to see Shen Chen and Liang Xuan, two confidant officers, studying the "arrow" that Chen Zhe brought back.

The arrow, which had pierced a hole in Chen Zhe's thigh, had neither feathers nor iron clusters, but a bare bamboo pole with sharp horns at one end and some blood stains on it.

"My lord, it should be the rangers of the party who attacked Chen Zhe, and it doesn't look like they are well-equipped—" Shen Chen hurriedly reported when he saw Li * coming up.

Li * nodded and muttered, "Now that March is not over, the Tuoba family will send troops?" ”

Shen Chen shook his head: "If it is a regular army, it will never let Counselor Chen and them escape alive because they are eager to rob the property, in order to maintain the secrecy of the army's march, they must be killed completely!" ”

Li* nodded: "Chen Zhe said that there were about twenty soldiers who attacked them, all on horseback, but they were not fully armored. They later cut the ropes of the camels and the cattle and horses that were carrying the camels, and the men divided their forces to chase the beasts so that they could return to the pass alive. Judging from this military discipline, they did not encounter a professional cavalry scout like Xifeng, but a group of rangers of unknown tribes......"

Before Li * could finish his analysis, he saw a cloud of smoke and dust in the north of the pass, but it was Xi Feng Minda who led two young scouts to gallop over, and when he got closer, Li * saw clearly that on his saddle was an old man wearing a hat sewn from a fur and animal skin, but without armor, and leading an empty saddle horse behind him.

"It's from the Nori's family—" Mitsuda shouted before he could enter the customs.

Lee* hurriedly ordered the door to be opened and the thin seal Minda in.

As soon as he entered the city, he threw the captured captive on the ground, but the man had already been knocked unconscious by him.

"It's an 'Akni'—" Fine-sealed Minda spouted.

Li * didn't know anything about the language of the party members, frowned and said, "What does 'Akni' mean?" ”

Xifeng Minda smiled: "Our party has two people in one unit, called one copy, one is positive and one auxiliary, and the correct one is called 'Deming'......;

Lee* pondered and asked, "Is this the most basic combat unit?" ”

Fine Feng Minda nodded, pursed his lips and said, "Yes!" ”

Lee* asked: "What is the combat establishment above the account?" ”

Xifeng Minda shook his head: "We have only three levels of combat formation, and there is only the 'slip' formation unit above the copy and tent, but it can be large or small, the smallest slip only has two tent soldiers, eight to twelve people, the largest one has hundreds of people, and the subordinate ones range from hundreds to hundreds of tents. ”

"What about the ranks?" Li * regretted a little, when he asked Tuoba Guangxing, he thought that he should ask almost everything, but now he knows that it is far from the case, the ancient soldiers paid attention to knowing themselves and knowing their opponents, and they really did too poorly.

"We have no ranks, according to the number of accounts under the command of the two increases, the leader of the two accounts of soldiers is 'Chuangyou', the leader of the four accounts of soldiers is 'Wing', the leader of the six accounts of soldiers is 'Lu E', the leader of the eight accounts of soldiers is 'Cheng Mo', the leader of the ten accounts of soldiers is 'Ling Xun', the leader of the twelve accounts of soldiers is 'Angnie', the leader of the fourteenth account of soldiers is 'Qimai', the leader of the sixteenth account of soldiers is 'Qingtang', the one who leads the eighteen accounts of soldiers is 'Ling Neng', the one who leads the twenty accounts of soldiers is 'Ye Ling Wu Yan', the one who leads the twenty-two accounts of soldiers is 'Guangle', and the one who leads the twenty-four accounts of soldiers is ' Yin Wu', the one who leads the twenty-six tents is 'Zhu Neng', the one who leads the twenty-eight tents is 'Chunyue', the one who leads the thirty tents is 'Dingli', the one who leads the thirty-two tents is 'Baliang', the one who leads the thirty-four tents is 'Mo Yan', the one who leads the thirty-six tents is 'Angxing', the one who leads the thirty-eight tents is 'Linglu', and the one who leads the forty tents is 'Shuming'......"

The series of muttering official ranks spit out of the mouth of the fine seal minda made Li * and Shen Chen and the others dizzy for a while, seeing that the fine seal minda finally stopped, Li * smiled bitterly: "One hundred and sixty to two hundred and forty soldiers in forty tents, such a small number of troops is so many ranks, the military system of your people is really complicated......

Xifeng Minda pursed his lips disdainfully: "These are not the class ranks that you Han people say, but the regulations of the soldiers in our clan, that is, the daily nomadic formation, but they are just used as a formation during the battle......

Li* nodded and asked, "Above the cardinal, there is no bigger establishment?" ”

Xifeng Minda shook his head: "Shu Ming is the most commonly used command structure in our clan, and in general, when going into battle, the patriarch will temporarily appoint some 'Shu Ming' to lead the warriors. There are no higher-ranking officers above the cardinal, but there are some names, but they are titles of nobility, and have nothing to do with the army, but symbolize the number of cattle, sheep, livestock, and slaves in peacetime, the size of the pasture, and the status of the elders in the clan......

He counted with his fingers: "Above the pivotal inscription, there are also four aristocratic titles such as 'Lu Ze', 'Zu Ru', 'Su Xun', and 'Ding Lu', plus the pivotal inscription is a total of five ranks, the pivotal ming itself is the meaning of the forty accounts of the nobles, Lu Ze is the nobleman who leads the eighty accounts, Zu Ru is the nobleman who leads one hundred and sixty accounts, Su Xun is the nobleman who leads the three hundred and twenty accounts, and Ding Lu Mo is the nobleman who leads the six hundred and forty accounts......"

Li * was dumbfounded when he heard this, and he frowned and asked, "What about your patriarch, what is his name?" ”

Fine Feng Minda smiled bitterly: "The patriarch is the name of your Han people, our party does not have this title, the Tuoba family is very sinicized, and the official of the Han people is sealed, so the title of the Han people is used." Our party takes the family as a tribe, and the nobleman with the largest number of soldiers and horses in each tribe is the patriarch, so our patriarch has different titles, for example, there are only more than 6,000 people in our fine seal family, and there are more than 300 accounts and more than 2,600 people in the fine seal family, so in the fine seal family, he is the patriarch who is obeyed by the elders, but his title is only a plain; The total population of the Yeli family is more than 8,000, and its patriarch Yeli Rongyuan accounts for nearly 600 accounts and less than 5,000 people, so the title of the Yeli family head is Ding Lu, and his status in the tribal elder meeting is higher than that of the Dan frame family head of my Xifeng family......"

Li * slowly heard a little eyebrows, the nomadic tribe between the primitive society and the slave society between the upper and lower order did give him a headache, but in all fairness, compared to the complex political order invented by the Han people in the Central Plains, including the system of knights, honors, scattered ranks, ministries, dispatches, and rewards, the hierarchy of the party tribe is relatively simple and efficient......

"Then what is Li Yiyin?" Liang Xuan asked stupidly while staring at the big eyes of the copper bell.

Xifeng Minda turned his head to look at him, pursed his lips and said: "He is the patriarch who commands more than a thousand tents, and he is the largest nobleman, and in our party's language, such a nobleman is called 'Mo Ning Ling', which translates into Chinese to mean 'Heavenly King'......"

Li * took a deep breath and muttered, "You go and interrogate this person, and find out the enemy's number of troops and the purpose of the equipment......

Then, Li * turned his head to Shen Chen and said, "Order the whole battalion, first-level combat readiness!" ”

……

Half an hour later, Xifeng Minda strode up to the city pass, wiped the blood on his hands and said, "...... Almost! ”

Li* immediately notified Shen Chen and Liang Xuanlingpu to come over to participate in the military meeting.

“…… The enemy army is the cavalry of the Yeli family, the camp point is about eighteen miles away from Luzi Pass, a little further north of the camp point between us and Tuoba Guangxing, the camp is built against the mountain, there is a stream on the west side, we are too far away, I can't get close to a few tents, but I saw a total of one Zuru flag and two pivotal flags, the following Ake mud also confirmed that there are two pivotal inscriptions, the leader of the army is the Yeli clan in the status of the Yeli clan second only to the patriarch Ye Lirong Yuan, Zuru Ye Lirong Lai, but this time he did not bring his own tent, It's the left-behind tent group of the Yeli family, and the guy below is a herald, and he got it for me on the way back to Qinglingmen to deliver the letter. According to him, Yeli Ronglai asked him to send a message to Tuoba Guangyuan, the ancestor of the Tuoba family stationed at Qinglingmen, to report the news that the Yeli family's army had arrived at Luzi Pass, and to launch an attack the day after tomorrow at the latest......"

“…… Two Pivotal ...... Almost four or five hundred, right? Shen Chen gasped.

“…… I'm afraid there are five hundred people, that guy confessed, along the way he saw that each tent was three copies of the soldiers, almost never saw two copies of the tent, if the two cardinals were this kind of full establishment, eighty tents of soldiers would be four hundred and eighty people......"

“…… Is that guy's word reliable? Liang Xuan asked.

Fine-sealed Minda glanced at him dissatisfiedly: "Are you doubting my questioning skills and skills?" ”

Liang Xuan shrank his head and laughed.

Li * ignored their arrogance and asked, "How many soldiers did Yeli Ronglai bring with him?" ”

"Three tent guards, one tent herald, Yeli Ronglai only has these people around him, the main force of his subordinates has been transferred to Youzhou to train soldiers, I don't know what kind of soldiers to train......" Fine Feng Minda also looked a little confused.

"Equip ——?" Lee* continued to ask.

"There were bows and sabers, but they were mostly single wooden bows and bamboo arrows, and there were no armoured soldiers...... "Thin Seal Minda replied.

"No armor?" Lee* was surprised.

"Yes!"

"Not a single one?"

"Not a single ...... This is what the Akni said, and I think it's true. Thin Seal Minda sighed.

"What do you think...... What does that mean? Lee* asked sternly.

“…… We almost ran around the enemy camp for a long time, whether it was the deputy soldiers who drove the sheep out to graze or the surrounding rangers who were used as scouts, I didn't see the armored, and this Akni was responsible for conveying important military information, and it came out of the Zuru tent, and even he didn't wear armor, so I guess that only the officers above Roue have armor in this batch of soldiers, and there are 500 people in the whole army, and there are no more than 20 people in armor, which is equivalent to the whole army without armor......" Thin Feng Minda said quickly.

"Also, it's unreasonable that all the rangers who are moving around as scouts are very unreasonable. The Yeli tribe is the second largest clan in the eight major tribes after the Tuoba family, the total strength of the whole clan is more than 1,000 people, and the equipment is also the best, there are more than 500 armors, and the whole clan has more than 20 scout harriers. There are as many as two centriers in this dispatch, and there should be at least seven or eight Harriers, and no unequipped rangers can be used as scouts......"

Fine-sealed Minda said it very clearly, and both Li* and Shen Chen already understood what he meant.

"You mean, the elite main force of the Yeli family is not here, and they have been transferred elsewhere?" Lee* asked.

"Yes!" Fine-sealed Minda replied.

"Where does the callback go?" Lee* asked.

"Wei Pingguan—" Shen Chen replied.

"Oh......" Lee* thought nervously.

Of course, you have to use elite to deal with the Fold family, which is not unusual, has the other party seen through that he is bluffing?

"I don't know what the Yeli family thinks, maybe they think of you as the Zhangwu Army......" Hosophon Minda said with a frown.

"We were originally Zhangwu Army...... "Li* said dissatisfied.

Fine Feng Minda smiled: "It's the Zhangwu Army ...... in their impression"

Shen Chen said: "That kid said that the main force of the Yeli family was transferred to the direction of Youzhou, is it possible that this is true?" ”

Xifeng Minda shook his head: "I don't know, among the eight major tribes, the Yeli family lives in the south of Xiazhou, and the Fang Dangjia lives in Suizhou, occupying a good place, so both clans are second only to the Tuoba family among the eight major tribes." If you move to Youzhou, it is barren and difficult, there are many mountains, and there is an endless desert, which means that the entire tribe will be dispatched. But it should be the people who moved over, listening to the meaning of that Akni, it doesn't seem to be the case, the Yeli family is still living in the original place for grazing, and the transfer is only the elite warriors of the clan......"

Li * said: "We won't consider things that are too far away for the time being, let's talk about how to solve the problem of the strength of the two cardinals in front of us." These soldiers are not armoured, and I think we should be able to go out of the city and fight on foot......"

"No, sir!" Shen Chen categorically vetoed, "Our soldiers have never been on the battlefield, although the infantry armor is effective, but it can't protect the head and face and the lower body, if you give up the pass and fight with it head-on, the loss will be great." We are still too small to fight each other! ”

Li * nodded: "From this moment on, you take over the command, and I will lead Team C!" ”

Shen Chen didn't shirk either, he turned his head and asked Xi Feng Minda: "Do you estimate that the enemy army will attack tomorrow?" ”

Xi Feng Minda didn't think about it and said: "No, it was already afternoon before the whole team arrived at the pass, and it was too late to attack the city at that time." The soldiers' physical strength will not be able to keep up, and the opposing commander should choose to attack the morning after tomorrow! ”

"What about the night raid?" Shen Chen asked.

"Impossible, if you don't light the torches, it's too easy to cause accidental injuries, if you light the torches, they will become targets, and they have to climb the city wall at night, it's impossible to ......"

"Okay-" Shen Chen nodded and said, "Then I suggest - tonight - arrange the sentries - and then everyone sleep beautifully, tomorrow's training will be suspended, and everyone will have a holiday......"

Ling Pu, Yang Li, and Liang Xuan got up to convey the order to the troops, Li * pondered for a moment, and said with a wry smile: "I originally wanted to use the banner of the Folding Family to scare people, but I didn't expect to scare the ghosts, but instead attracted the ghosts to ......."

"It's not the adult's fault......," Shen Chen said, "Once Luzi Pass is repaired and garrisoned, whether it is the Zhejia army or not, the Dingyan army will come to test it." ”

Li * nodded, it seems that he is playing psychological warfare, and his level is far from enough.

"Let the brothers take off the banner of the Ori family, and hang my inspection flag and command flag on the castle tower—"

Li * took a deep breath and said, "...... Those who should come will always come, but we have to see if we can hold the Luzi Pass with these recruits who have only been trained for three months——! ”

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Note: The names of the party officials in this section are all historical facts, and the compilation of "copying", "accounting" and "slipping" is also a historical fact, and "Mo Ning Ling" is the meaning of the king of heaven is also a historical fact, in addition to the military establishment and aristocratic system of the party and tribe are all fabricated, there is no history in Western Xia, and it is really not so detailed, please readers Dahai Han, continue to canvass votes......