After listening to the analysis report of Lieutenant Tadaji Ando, a technical staff officer, and after a little contemplation, he ordered:

"The troops will camp tonight, and the guard posts will strictly prevent the Qing army from raiding; Report the information to Su Fanyuan Changshi on the back road, and ask the back road detachment not to find the hidden location of the Qing army on this road and annihilate them! ”

"Since it is a lightly armed march, it means that this cannon-zui sub-camp is only their temporary hiding point, and at least there is a place where military food is stocked, and it should not be too far away from here; Northwest—"

Yasumasa Fukushima took out the map, unfolded it and placed it on top of the branches of a cluster of small-leaved shrubs, and searched carefully.

"I really don't know what these mountain rats are thinking? These six or seven hundred Qing troops, who had been hiding in the mountains for more than a month, raided an imperial guard post and killed five imperial soldiers. ”

The 12th Wing 1st Brigade Captain Tomita Harubi Shaosa, his face was full of incredulity.

"You can't understand it because your brain is too simple, and you are destined to not understand these complex things."

Seeing that Shangwen never gave up the opportunity to fight fools in words, he said with a solemn face: "If my guess is right, the meaning of the existence of this Qing army lies in the fact that after the imperial army captures the Nine Gates. ”

Seeing that these fools still didn't understand, Lijian Shangwen said: "In the attack on the thirtieth day of the lunar month, the empire used 10,000 troops and killed more than 1,000 people, but it still failed to conquer the three cities outside the Guanwai; - What do you want to say? ”

"Commander, although the three cities outside the gate are strong, they can't stop the iron hooves of the empire, if it weren't for the order of the base camp, they would have been captured by the empire by now!"

Lishitaro Shaoza, the adjutant of Tsumi Shangwen, apparently thought that the commander had exaggerated the solidity of the Qing army's city and underestimated the bravery of the imperial soldiers.

"This is the stupid idea of you and Shan County, attacking the three cities outside the Guanwai of the Qing army is the most stupid and retarded act!"

Lijian Shangwen said unceremoniously:

"The three cities outside the pass are the tip of a knife deliberately stretched out by the Qing Dynasty; With its back to Shanhaiguan, with the continuous supply of arms and troops from the entire Qing Dynasty, it tried to tempt the imperial army to resist it and exhaust all the blood of the first army of the empire as much as possible. ”

Immediately, Shang Wen looked at the sunset and gradually sank into the mountain: "It's not that the empire can't capture the three cities; Instead, it took all the military strength to take this ruin, and the exhausted Imperial Army, how could it go to Shanhaiguan, Yongpingfu, Tangshan, Jinmen, Jizhou, Tongzhou, until the final capture of Yanjing? ”

Seeing a group of staff officers around him, the general showed a contemplative look, and immediately saw that Shangwen felt good about himself and then said:

"Therefore, the most correct choice of the empire is to send a force to contain the three cities outside the Guanwai, and don't let them take the opportunity to escape; The rest of the army attacked Lao Longtou, Huanxi Ridge, the Great Wall of Shanhaiguan, the main city of Shanhaiguan, and Jiaoshan on all fronts, and at the same time, the imperial team attacked from behind and broke the Shanhaiguan defense line of the Qing army in one fell swoop! ”

Fukushima Yasumasa raised his head in surprise, looked at Lijian Shangwen, and said with a disgraced voice: "Commander, don't you mean that the previous reinforcement army was considered to be the way of the empire's attack, so this army was taken out of Shanhaiguan in order to contain the empire in the future and besiege the three cities outside the pass, and made a move in advance?" It's incredible! ”

"Moreover, since the Qing army can see it, why don't they make a corresponding strategy and defend so passively?"

The commander of the 12th Wing, Tomo Anji Nobu Nakasa, also looked incomprehensible.

"The Qing Dynasty has always liked infighting, otherwise with a population of 400 million, thousands of miles of vast mountains and rivers, and strong economic strength, how could the empire easily hit a stone with an egg and start a war? It's the same thing, and if you think about it, there must be dirty things in it that the empire doesn't know. ”

Lijian Shangwen smiled confidently: "Now the elite of the Qing army's Beiyang is suppressed in Lushun, and the three cities outside the Guanwai should be the last elite soldiers in the entire Zhili Beiyang; Besides, even if the Qing army commander guessed it, how could they defend the hundred-mile Great Wall? ”

"How is it," Tsumi Shangwen looked at Fukushima Yasumasa and asked, "Have you guessed the possible hiding point of this Qing army?" ”

"There needs to be enough water, there must be mountains and valleys suitable for Tibetan troops, and it should not be too far from the Shanhaiguan, and there must be a smooth enough path to facilitate the rapid transportation of troops."

Fukushima Yasumasa turned his attention to the map again: "Most likely, it is the two banks of the branch river north of the Jiujiang River in ——,!" ”

"Tell the inference to Aya-Hanara,——"

Immediately saw Shang Wen standing straight, looking due north, separated by more than ten undulating mountain beams, where is the northern tributary of the Jiujiang River.

"After lurking in the deep mountains and old forests for so long, the willpower of this Qing army is very amazing, as well as the Ninth Brigade in Anzhou and Oshima Yoshima, the Black Dragon Society Ronin in Toushan, and the Qing army guerrillas who are opposed, including the remnants of the Qing army in Shuifeng; Once he is allowed to grow and develop——, tell Su Fan not to despise his opponent, the other party will be stronger than he imagined! ”

The crescent moon bends and casts a long glow towards the endless mountains and jungles below.

After nearly six hours of arduous and rapid marching, the independent battalion finally came to the reed conglomerate river beach on the edge of the Qiupi Reservoir, which was 17 miles north of Paozuizi.

This place is a storage point for the military of the independent battalion, which is guarded by a platoon of soldiers.

Originally, this section of the road would have taken only three hours to walk, but the independent battalion made a special circle to confuse the Japanese scouts.

When the troops arrived at the lake, it was already ten o'clock in the evening, and the exhausted soldiers could not take a breath to rest, so they divided the work of guard, set up tents, smashed ice to get water, and lit fires for cooking.

Luo Minglei's group of officers from the independent battalion held a meeting to urgently discuss the latest report from the reconnaissance platoon.

"This time, the Japanese army dispatched about 6,000 troops, divided into two teams, the front and the rear; The front team camped in the cannon mouth, carrying five small-caliber captured guns, and the rear team was about 2,000 people, including a group of three or four hundred cavalry, camped at the mouth of the two rivers. ”

Underneath the blazing torches, a group of officers watched around the map.

Huang Bojie stared at the map and said: "The Japanese army stationed at the mouth of the two rivers completely cut off the way for the independent battalion to go out of the Jiujiang Valley and enter the Shanhaiguan defense area; Unless we defeat them, we can only take a detour to enter, and then we will face the dilemma of being flanked by the Japanese army! ”

"Lao Shi, what do you think?"

Luo Minglei threw a 'Pinhai' to Shi Weicheng: "Take a good idea, I only smoke five cigarettes a day, and I am reluctant to smoke them, and I am about to run out of food!" ”

Shi Weicheng lazily nodded, took a sip, and said comfortably: "When time permits, this Japanese army did not continue to march to Paozuizi, but chose to be stationed at the mouth of the two rivers, which proves that their combat purpose is not the Nine Gates; ”

Shi Weicheng said with a hint of disdain on his face: "Pointing at the group of waste recruits at the Nine Gates who lack guns and ammunition, it is not worth the Japanese army to use so many troops; It's our independent battalion! And if my judgment is correct, the Japanese army will probably have guessed that we are hiding on both sides of the northern tributary of the Jiujiang River. ”

After listening to Shi Weicheng's words, the officers of the independent battalion who were squatting in a circle in front of the map began to change their faces.