Everything that happened in the woods on the shore was shrouded in darkness and silence, and no one knew what had just happened.

Not far away in the Huangsha River, there is a faint sound of boat pulp rowing through the flowing water, under the moonlight and stars that are half covered by dark clouds, I saw two black shed boats are quickly sailing forward, when they reach three or four miles downstream, there is a fork in front, and the current black shed boat has not stopped and rowed to the left side of the tributary.

After rowing for about half an hour, the boat in front suddenly leaned towards the shore, and the boat behind quickly followed to the shore when it saw it.

A man with a red scarf on his head jumped ashore from the boat in front of him and tied the rope to an old willow tree on the shore. Then he squatted on the ground and sniffed his nose at the air like a dog.

The people who came ashore behind saw the freshness, and laughed and scolded in a low voice: "Brother Hu Guang, what do you smell?" Could it be that there are still peeing here? ”

"Go, go, go."

The Hu Guang brother in front of him turned around and scolded them: "A bunch of young boys know a fart, Tartars have horses, it has just rained, if there are horses around, the smell of horse urine is very strong, and you can smell it from afar." ”

The people in the back felt justified when they heard it, and they all followed Hu Guang's example and sniffed the air, but they couldn't smell anything. The shadows of the trees swayed in all directions, the Huangsha River behind him sounded slightly, and the surroundings were quiet.

One person withdrew his nose a little frustratedly and said in a low voice: "My nose is not a dog's nose, I really can't smell anything." ”

"You're a dog."

The companion on the side pinched the man angrily, and the pinched man just wanted to make a painful appearance. suddenly saw Hu Guangmeng lying on the ground, and waved his hand back: "Don't make a sound, there is movement!" ”

Several people were taken aback. Suddenly, he lay on the ground, didn't dare to move, and listened carefully, and there was a slight noise in front of him, which sounded like a "creaking" sound.

The leader of the team was a small banner named Zhou Quanbao, who gently stabbed Hu Guang. asked him in a low voice: "Brother Hu, what is it?" ”

"It's like the sound of a horse eating."

Far away, Hu Guang didn't know what the sound was. But he was sure that there must be a horse ahead, because he smelled the smell of horse urine.

"Don't move here, I'll crawl over and take a look."

Hu Guangbi gestured. Tell everyone to stay. But he crawled towards a dirt slope in the forest ahead. He didn't dare to run over directly, because if there was really someone in front of him, it would be easy for the other party to notice.

Zhou Xiaoqi knew that although this Hu Guang was just an ordinary sergeant in Shuiying, he was very skilled, so he didn't stop him.

Hu Guang was a native of Chaozhou, and became a soldier at the age of eighteen, first as a soldier of the Zheng clan in Fujian, and later because he followed Shangguan to Chaozhou to grab grain. As a result, he was defeated by Hao Shangjiu, who was also a Ming army, and became Hao Shangjiu's soldier after being captured. After coming again, Hao Shangjiu was defeated by the Qing army again. He and some of his companions surrendered to Wu Liuqi and became a Chaozhou Green Battalion soldier. After that, it was unfortunate that Xinhui was captured by the Taiping army, and became the Taiping army again. The water camp of the Taiping Army was built with Hu Guang, a Chaozhou soldier and some fishermen in Xiangshan, as the backbone.

Speaking of which, Hu Guang is really an ominous person, with which family, which family is unlucky, for this reason, when he was in the water camp, the camp officials made fun of him for this. Hu Guang was not angry, only said that he would not be unlucky in the future. Shangguan saw that although he was a veteran of oil, he was not bad at water, so he asked him to help teach the recruits water in the camp and awarded him the rank of sergeant. This time, the water battalion cooperated with the pro-military battalion to investigate the intelligence of the Qing army, and Hu Guang was one of them.

Because of the rain during the day, the forest was very rotten, and Hu Guang struggled to climb forward, and his body was covered with mud and leaves. He crawled along the grass until he disappeared from sight, and no one could see where he had climbed.

Zhou Xiaoqi led a few of his subordinates to lie on the shore, their hearts were pounding, and the tension seemed to make their chests explode.

Zhou Xiaoqi's brows were even tighter: Could it be that there are really Manchurian Tartars in front?

I don't know how long it took, the grass in front of him suddenly moved, and just when everyone's hearts were about to jump out of their throats, Hu Guang's head emerged from the grass.

Hu Guang climbed in front of Zhou Xiaoqi and said in a low voice: "There is a road about a mile ahead, and there are a few horses tied to the side of the road, so far away, I can't see clearly, I don't know if it's the Manchurian Tartars or the second Tartars of the Han army, it should be their exploration horses." He didn't say anything about the Green Battalion, because he knew that the Green Battalion in Guangdong did not have horses.

A soldier said in a low voice: "Since we have discovered the Qing army, it doesn't matter if he is a full Tartar or a second Tartar, let's go back and report it." ”

Zhou Xiaoqi shook his head: "Our task is to find out the specific location of the Manchurian Tartars, and now we have only found a few Tanma, and we don't know if it is the Manchurian Tartars or the second Tartars of the Han Army, how to report it when we go back like this?" ”

"We have dozens of teams out, I am afraid that we will be the first to discover the Qing army, no matter what, we have to dig into the bottom of the Tartars, otherwise what are we going to do when we come out?"

Several other soldiers disagreed, so they went back to report it.

Hu Guang said suddenly: "If it's just these few Tartars, then it's better for us to touch them, catch a live mouth and ask, be lucky, and be able to catch a few real Tartars to repay their merits!" ”

The Taiping Army does not count merit at the head of the Han army and the head of the green battalion, but the head of the Manchurian Tatars can count merit, and one top several, so Hu Guang's proposal made everyone feel warm, and the other party has a few people, they have 9 people, not less than them, and they quietly touched them, prepared to fight unprepared, and the odds of winning can be eight. Ninety percent.

"It's done! I've been in the army for a few months, and I've long wanted to get a sergeant's salary. ”

"Dry, if you really succeed, the flag head raises the general flag, and I can also do the flag head!"

The subordinates want to do it, of course Zhou Xiaoqi has no opinion, he also wants to raise a general flag to do it. Immediately, he took them to climb the dirt slope where Hu Guang had gone before, ready to start when the time came.

When he climbed forward, Zhou Xiaoqi suddenly turned his head to Hu Guang on the side and said: "I saw that Brother Hu didn't squeak all the way, and I heard people talk about Brother Hu's past, but Brother Hu is a soldier who is afraid of death, but he doesn't want to be very hard!" ”

Hu Guang smiled slightly, didn't say anything about himself, only said: "We Chaozhou people have always been hard, but it depends on who is right, and we can't be our own family." ”

As soon as a few people climbed to the small dirt slope, before they could touch the side of the road, they suddenly heard the sound of horses' hooves in the distance, Zhou Xiaoqi's face changed, and he waved his hand to let everyone lie down and not move.

Everyone didn't think of this change, and they all clung to the ground and didn't dare to gasp.

In the night, the Qing soldiers who were tethered to the side of the road in front of them had already turned on their horses, and not far to the north, hundreds of horsemen were rushing over. And farther behind, it was clear that a large group of men and horses were moving in this direction.

In the grass, everyone did not dare to come out, only a pair of eyes stared nervously at everything in front of them, these Tartars were not Tanma, but the vanguard of the Qing army.

Everyone cast their eyes on Zhou Xiaoqi and silently asked what to do. The only option now is to quickly retreat to the river and get on the boat, and hurry back to inform the commander that the Manchurian Tartar Brigade is here! "Let's go, go back right away!" Zhou Xiaoqi really ordered.

Hu Guang suddenly grabbed him and said in a low voice: "You take people back to report, and I will continue to keep an eye on them here to see which way they are going." “

Zhou Xiaoqi was shocked: "Brother Hu, this is too dangerous!" “

Hu Guang smiled: "Don't worry, I'm walking along the river, the Tartars can't find me, I really found out, I plunged into the river, they can't do anything about me." “

Zhou Xiaoqi hesitated, Hu Guang's water nature was stronger than any of them, and Hugh said that the north was full of Tartars. It's good to have Hu Guang staring here. "Brother Hu, be careful, I'll take someone back." "Let's go, the tartars will come up when it's late."

After Zhou Xiaoqi led the people away, Hu Guang lurked in the forest by night, staring straight ahead with a pair of eyes. (To be continued.) )