In the evening, although the road was difficult, Wang Yuan and Tan Ping only took half a day to run a distance of nearly 80 miles. The distance between Weizhou and Pingyuan County www.biquge.info is only more than 150 miles, which is more than half the distance. However, there was no sign of any living people in the wilderness along the way, but there were many swollen corpses that had been soaked by the rain between the ditches and ridges beside the road.

The corpses were all rebel soldiers who had fled from the plains, and most of the deaths were due to injuries sustained in battle, and they fled with their wounds, but the onset of injuries went unheeded. In addition, when they encountered this heavy rainstorm, they either died of injuries and illnesses, or they were drowned and trapped by mud and rocks. In general, you can see these dead bodies almost all on the road.

All this increased the hidden worries in Wang Yuan's heart. Most of the rebels also fled along the official road, and if Li Xin'er and the people also walked along the official road, it would almost certainly happen if they encountered the fleeing rebels. This is never a good thing. But the strange thing is that only the corpses of these deserters were seen, and not the corpses of a single civilian, which is very puzzling.

Moreover, in terms of time, he broke up with Li Xin'er and the others for four days, and it stands to reason that they should also be in the area close to Pingyuan City. However, he has traveled eighty miles along the official road, and he has not found any trace of them, which makes no sense. Even if the people move slowly, it is always common to travel more than 20 miles a day. In terms of twenty miles, it took four days to travel eighty miles, and the slowest was in the area in front of you, and there should be no trace.

Based on the above judgment, Wang Yuan decided not to rush west, but to stay here and divide into several teams to search along the north-south line. Perhaps Li Xin'er and the people really changed their walking route in order to avoid the invasion of the torrential rain, and it is unknown that they deviated from the official road. In short, it is not wise to rush forward with your eyes closed.

So Wang Yuan led everyone to find a slightly higher terrain and stopped to rest. His guards didn't have time to rest after they joined the battle last night, and they ran with them for another day, all of them tired to death. Wang Yuan also wanted to give them some time to take a nap. Anyway, the weather is clear, and there is a waning moon in the sky at night, so you can identify the road. And the more at night, it is easier to find people than during the day, because it is impossible for thousands of people to camp at night without lighting a bonfire, and that is the most convenient way to find them.

After simply drinking some water and eating some dry food, the tired guards soon fell asleep. At the beginning of the shift, the neighing of war horses drifted in the wind, making Wang Yuan, who had not completely fallen asleep, get up and look in the direction where the sound came from. The guards around him also woke up one after another, got up and asked in a low voice.

"Silence. Just now I seemed to hear the neighing of war horses. We have more than a hundred brothers with the people, and it is likely that it is the sound of their mounts. Wang Yuan said in a low voice.

Everyone immediately held their breath and listened with their ears turned sideways. However, apart from the chirping of insects that were unusually active after the rain and the sound of running water in the nearby gully, there was only the sound of the whirring night wind.

"Don't let our mount scream a few times, the big marshal heard it and thought it was a voice from afar." Someone whispered.

"Silence." Wang Yuan waved his hand violently, interrupting the guard's words, and everyone listened with bated breath, and sure enough, the neighing of war horses came from the distant night. Although it was very weak, everyone was dealing with the war horse, and they knew that it was definitely the sound of the horse.

"Southwest, with a tailwind. It was indeed the sound of horses. Maybe we're going to find them. Handsome and ears are really tight. Tan Ping said happily.

Wang Yuan waved his hand and said, "Get on the horse, let's go and take a look." ”

Immediately they mounted their horses and descended the hill and galloped southwest. After walking a few miles to the southwest, I found that the terrain here was not flat, but there were some small hills with uneven heights. The black woods covered the small slopes of these plains, and the wind blew and the leaves rattled and made a noise.

However, in the midst of the noise of the leaves, the neighing of the horses continued to reach everyone's ears clearly. They followed the sound to the bottom of the mountain bag, walked in the shadow of the moonlight, and finally after walking through a forest, they saw a fire on the side of the mountain bag. But when they saw the scene in front of them, they were stunned one by one.

Although the firelight in front of him was a campfire, it was not the campfire where Li Xin'er and the people were camping as Wang Yuan and others imagined. Almost the entire hillside next to the woods was filled with soldiers lying and sleeping. The horses tied to the edge of the camp neighed when they kicked their legs and shook their heads, and it was the neighing sound of these war horses that drifted to the ears of Wang Yuan and the others, otherwise under the cover of the trees, there would be no way to see that there was still a large army camping here in this empty hillside between the trees.

Of course, Wang Yuan understood why they chose to camp here, after the rainstorm was muddy everywhere, and the most suitable place for the soldiers and horses to camp was between the hillsides and woodlands. After sun exposure, the ground here has dried up to the standards of a simple barracks on a summer march. You can lie on the spot without paying extra for your feet. There is also a forest shelter to hide the whereabouts of the soldiers and horses, so as not to camp in the open area of the flat land, and the bonfire will be seen from miles away. Besides, there are a lot of trees here, so you don't have to worry about firewood. It is convenient for soldiers and horses to cook rice and boil water, which is also one of the conditions for camping. If there is no firewood, the soldiers and horses can only eat dry food and drink cold water, of course, they have to do this, but eating a mouthful of hot rice and drinking a mouthful of hot soup will greatly improve morale at any time.

After Wang Yuan quickly thought about it from the standard of a general, he immediately realized that the situation was not good. Obviously, these soldiers and horses are not Datang's soldiers and horses. This can be seen by looking at the double-headed dragon banner planted next to the campfire, not by looking at the armor. That was in order to show that An Lushan was more respected than the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, so his dragon flag was embroidered with a double-headed dragon. Wang Yuan had already seen such a banner. Judging from the banner, this must be the rebel reinforcement who rushed to Plains City.

A rough estimate of the number of soldiers and horses based on the size of the camp should be around 30,000 men for the rebel army heading to Plains City. Obviously, this is the news that he led the cavalry through the Taihang surprise attack on the three cities, and mobilized the encirclement and suppression troops and horses from the area of Taiyuan Mansion and Zhengzhou Mansion. The target is Plains City. Fortunately, the soldiers and civilians of Plains City have been evacuated today, otherwise this soldier and horse will arrive in Plains City at noon the day after tomorrow, and Plains City will be destroyed. Even though the people have been evacuated, the danger is still imminent. With the speed of the soldiers' hearts, they will catch up with the evacuated people within five or six days after learning the direction of the evacuation of the people. If the people do not speed up their movements, they will definitely not be able to escape the pursuit of this soldier and horse.

Thinking of this, Wang Yuan immediately realized that in order to quickly bring the news to the large army heading south, he had to speed up, or find other ways to deal with it in advance, because this rebel army would definitely be able to catch up.

All the guards also looked at the scene in front of them in amazement, and they were nervous and foaming. Wang Yuan gestured, and everyone slowly turned their horses' heads and retreated towards the other end of the mountain, until they withdrew from Lixu, and then everyone dared to whip and gallop, far away from the place where the soldiers and horses were stationed.

After leaving for a few miles, Wang Yuan stood still and said to the guards around him: "It seems that we can't wander here to find the traces of the Twelve Niangs. We must return to the large force heading south, and we must be ready to deal with these tens of thousands of enemy forces at once. ”

Tan Ping hurriedly said: "Then the ladies are not looking for them?" I don't know what to say about them, but how is this good? ”

Wang Yuan sighed: "Don't look for them, there's no time to look for them." There was no sign of them, no sign of the corpses of the civilians, no sign of the enemy capturing them, and I saw that they were fine for the time being. It's just that we don't have time to look for them, so they can only ask for more blessings for themselves. 40,000 lives are even more important. ”

Tan Ping shouted: "Dashuai, how can it be done?" That's Madame. ”

Wang Yuan gritted his teeth and shouted: "Don't be long-winded, don't I know? However, compared with the lives of 40,000 soldiers and civilians, it is self-evident which is more important than the other. Twelve Niang is a person who knows the general situation, she won't blame me. Obey my orders, turn back at once, and we must hurry overnight to catch up with the large group of soldiers and horses, and inform them of the imminent arrival of the enemy. ”

Wang Yuan urged the horses, and the black horse under his crotch rushed out like a black lightning, and disappeared into the hazy night after a while. Tan Ping knew that he couldn't convince the marshal, so he had no choice but to whip the horse, and chased after Wang Yuan's horse with dozens of guards.