There are roughly three routes from Lingzhou to the Song Dynasty in the east, one is to go southeast through Weizhou into the Song Dynasty, well, it is the Weizhou where the transshipment envoy Zeng Yixing was stationed; the second is to go east along the Lingzhou River through Qingyuan Village into the Song Dynasty, which was the road taken by Helton and others before; The third is the northeast direction, passing through Yanzhou and Youzhou, and entering Zhao and Song from Hongzhou.

For Luo Kaixian, it may be easier to go southeast, but it is not to his liking, and although the road to the east is the closest, it is difficult to walk because of the season - the snow in the mountains and the narrow cliff road, it is really a life and death road such as war horses, Luo Kaixian did not want to raid Zhao Song's border army, of course, there is no need to take his beloved war horse to go through the mountains and dangerous places.

Therefore, the final decision is to take the north road, the road is open and flat, suitable for riding horses is the most critical factor, and the other point is that Luo Kai first prepared to go to Hongzhou after passing Youzhou, but to go north to Xiazhou - there is not only Li Deming, the leader of the party, but also Wang Nan and his party who were previously stationed to assist Li Deming, at least for the time being, no matter which of the two parties is valued by Luo Kaixian, the former is the key to whether he can dominate Hexi in the future, and the latter is the guarantee of the people's hearts and minds of his subordinates, and he must not be negligent.

The distance from Lingzhou to Xiazhou is actually not far, the straight-line distance is only 260 kilometers, but in this era, there are no highways and national highways and provincial highways, and the only ones that can be used as walking roads are the galloping roads built in the early Tang Dynasty that can be vaguely seen, or the ruins that have been destroyed and abandoned and are difficult to see the old appearance.

The chaotic road, the snow cover in winter, and the lack of signage make it an easy walk.

Fortunately, there were seven or eight Hexi Han people from the Dingyan Army as guides in Luo Kaixian's personal army, which was able to bypass the ice swamp under the cover of snow in advance and avoid the landslides on the broken road section, which made this difficult winter road quite smooth.

More than 400 people, single people and two horses, light marching speed, just one day, eastward through Yanzhou.

After a short stop in Yanzhou, he set off for Youzhou the next day, traveled all the way north through the three forks, and finally stopped at the frozen Wuding River before sunset on the third day, which is only five or six kilometers away from Tongwan City, and the towering white city wall of Tongwan City can be seen from afar.

This is a flat top slope high ground, and traces of a team camping can be seen all around, Luo Kaixian stopped on the duke's back to observe for a while, and began to give a military order loudly, "Alki, herald, set up camp!" Antiano, send people to investigate around, and inform passers-by that Lingzhou Luo Kaixian is here, don't disturb the idlers! ”

"Whoa!" Several successive promises were heard, and the shouts of the surrounding warriors and the sound of falling horses and running came and went.

Luo Kaixian also turned over and dismounted, and the two little ladies Li Ji and Ge Rina, who followed all the way, didn't need him to answer at all, and it was not a problem at all to have four female men led by Mariana to take care of them.

He found a spacious area, and in the midst of his hand, piles of sharpened wooden stakes, horseback horses, tied tents, hay, saddle troughs, and the like sprung up one after another—these were all things that had been prepared in advance in Lingzhou, and Luo Kaixian did it more calmly than before he arrived at Sylvan, and he didn't need to care about the reactions of the people around him—because they were all his own soldiers.

None of the busy soldiers around them had a surprised expression, everything seemed to be as natural as drinking water and eating, they either carried wooden stakes, or moved horses, and some grabbed tools to level the field and set up tents...... Everything was undisturbed and methodical.

More than 400 people were very busy, and in just a few quarters of an hour, the prototype of a camp had already been erected.

Luo Kai first looked at the sunset on the west side close to the horizon, and called a few junior officers who led the team, "Order...... Four songs and six sh Li Junyi, four songs and seven sh Lu Yan! Going north to the city, Li Junyi contacted Wang Nan's department, and Lu Yan went to visit Li Siming, the envoy of the Dingyan Army, and informed them that they would be here and come to see them early tomorrow morning! ”

"Whoa!" After the two low-ranking officers who were assigned the order answered, the soldiers who gathered their men turned on their horses and roared away.

In fact, most of his personal guards are selected from the commanders of each battalion, and the personal guards are more like a low-level officer training office, and most of the soldiers who go out from the personal guards will be assigned to each battalion as a captain. In addition to the basic tactics of individual players, their training also requires strategy, logistics, and diplomacy...... and many other aspects of training.

Of course, the pro-guard team is not just for training henchmen, at the same time, there are also some guys with outstanding combat power who are reluctant to lead troops, and they are mostly trained by Luo Kaixian according to the requirements of the king of soldiers, reconnaissance, hand-to-hand combat, cold weapon fighting, operation of fire oil bombs and pine cannons, horsemanship, language communication skills...... None of these items are beyond the reach of others.

Therefore, Luo's personal guard can be said to be a small army, although there are only four hundred people brought out now, everyone can find their own position, and most of the time, there is no need for the two captains of Orgi or Antiano to give orders, they can find what to do by themselves.

The tents were propped up, the pits in the frozen soil were cleared, the spiked stakes were buried, and the horses at the entrances of several passages were put in place...... Because it was impossible to dig a pit, and there were some defects around the perimeter of the camp, a few inconspicuous corners, pine cannons with fixed elevation angles, and not far from them, several bed crossbows were flashing with the cold glow of metal......

The trivial matters of the camp did not need Luo Kaixian to participate in person, nor did he need to point and shout everywhere, he just stood on a high place and looked around, but in fact, he was constantly sensing and investigating the surrounding movements with his mental power.

After passing through Youzhou, on the side of the road along the Wuding River to the north, you can always see herdsmen wearing sheepskin jackets, some of them are party members with a fur hat buttoned on the top of their heads, and there are also Han people wearing leather robes with their hair in a bun, of course, the former is the majority, and the latter is also quite few.

It's a pity that they don't have many cattle, sheep and horses, especially horses, compared to the tall mounts of Luo Kaixian and his party, their horses are as short as donkeys, and the cattle and sheep they shepherd are also skinny - obviously, their skills are not very good, and driving cattle and sheep in the snow to find hay in winter means that they do not have the awareness to store hay before winter, let alone any winter storage technology.

In addition, by the Wuding River, Luo Kaixian saw cultivated land for the first time, because most of the places were covered with snow, he was not sure of the size of the cultivated land here, but it was obvious that for the vast and sparsely populated Hexi, the cultivated land he saw was pitiful.

For Luo Kaixian, what he saw and heard along the way made him a little new and emotional.

Strangely, this was a primitive age with no mechanical power at all, and the gap between him and his later experiences was as great as heaven and earth – no asphalt roads and viaducts, no speeding motor vehicles, no smoky cement factories and thermal power plants from time to time, no villages along the way that could be seen by his followers, and no cities that raised the ratio of buildings to scale...... There are only woods that have lost their leaves, snow-covered wilderness, clear mountains and occasional desert oases, and falcons that often cries and flies high.

It is a pity that under the time difference of thousands of years, this era has natural scenery that is difficult to compare with future generations, and the snow is covered with a thin vitality that is difficult to suppress, rather than a wasteland covered with cinders and garbage......

In the face of this scene, even if Luo Kaixian is not an environmental activist, he can't help but sigh in his heart, after all, compared with the gray sky of CHN in later generations, the air and even water and soil in this era seem to be full of charming fragrance.

Of course, this crisp air is occasionally filled with the stench of the ignorant...... and the smell of blood they bring.

The scale of the team of 400 people and two horses walking in the land west of the river is not small, and some small thieves do not dare to use their brains at all, but there are always greedy people who do not open their eyes and are delusional.

Starting from Yanzhou, occasionally there were three or five unidentified figures on horseback lingering in the sight of the team, and the soldiers of the pro-army team pursued and investigated, and they drifted away like the wind, and once the team continued to advance, they appeared as if they had come out of some unnoticed mole hole.

Luo Kaixian and the experienced warriors in his team knew that, like the fox wolves or hyenas in the Afrikaner steppes, those fellows were either the eyes and ears of the bandits or the spies of some large tribe, and they were waiting for the right moment to strike.

There was no movement in the four fields, except for the wind whistling by, the words of the warriors and the pleasant neighing of the horses, and the bonfire had been lit, and the beeping flames had been stripped of their prey, and the alluring fragrance began to diffuse.

"Husband, why don't you come to that White City...... Camp in Tongwan City? The general commander of the party...... What is Li Deming's name, he should be the master here, right? The bonfire reflected Li Ji's pretty face, and she asked in a crisp voice while combing her hair that had been blown up during the day.

The warriors or female warriors who heard her question around them all slowed down their movements and showed listening looks.

"The last time I got the news of Tongwan City was ten days ago, Li Deming and the head of the Party Xiangye Li Department were in conflict, it is said that the Song people have sent envoys in Tongwan City...... "Luo Kaixian looked up at the north, the white city in the night condensed into a black shadow, only the starry firelight swayed in the wind like fireflies, "What is the situation in that city, we don't know at all...... How can you passively step into someone else's place? ”

"But...... The bearded Wang Nan, the scholar-like Lu Shouren...... By the way, there's also that scarface...... Mang, plus the two thousand people they led, with the power of the husband, still can't control that White City? In her opinion, although the White City she saw before dark, although it was large, it could not be compared with Constantinople or Smyrna, how could she stump her all-powerful man? There must be some other reason for camping outside the city, and she needs to ask for clarification.

"Heh, lady, you have a lot of questions!" Different from the past, Luo Kaixian's wooden face has improved now, and occasionally when he looks at his own people, he also has a smile, "You must know that Li Deming and we have not yet clearly belonged, and Weifu is not his official suzerain, even if the party members are clearly subservient to me, here...... The owner of this Tongwan City is still Li Deming, a member of the party, and we, the guests, must always respect the wishes of the host, rather than destroy the prestige of the host...... The sauce is better than the fish! ”

This is a different way of thinking from the people of the time, Li Ji no longer spoke, but fell into deep thought, and the people around him were silent, they were savoring the meaning of their own general's words in their hearts.