At night, the breeze on the grassland reflected by the bright starry sky, standing on the grassy slope, the fresh air blowing in the face, without the heat of the day, the whole body is a lot more relaxed; But the knife knows that in the middle of the night, the breeze will become cold, and the whistling cold wind will make the people who spend the night on the grassland numb their hands and feet.

If there is no leather robe to wrap him, he who has been subjected to the cold wind on the grassland for a night will not even have the strength to travel the next day; It is hot and oily during the day, and cold and cold at night, which is the characteristic of the summer grassland.

The Tartar people who live in pursuit of water and grass naturally know the customs of the grassland, and of course they will not despise the dangers around them, but tonight, they will not set up barracks tents that are warm in winter and cool in summer.

After opening the canned beef, the five people ate and drank to their heart's content, put away the felt blanket, leaving one person to take care of the war horse, and the remaining four people carried small backpacks and quickly disappeared into the night.

As the first batch of guards, although the number is not large, since Xiao Ye dared to risk the world's condemnation and gave them the title of guards, it already indicates that they are not ordinary guards, and it is the duty of guards to walk on the tip of a knife and be neighbors with death.

The black-clothed guard, who had been left behind, gathered up the fifteen horses, buried the empty cans, and stood on a high slope with a pile of firewood at his feet, on which some grease and sulfur were poured; As soon as he saw a fire in the Tartar camp in the distance to the north, he would light a fire and show them the returning knives.

The knives they took away did not have much equipment, and the rifles were inconvenient to use at night, plus it was a sneak attack on the enemy camp, and it was enough to bring a short/gun, earth-shaking thunder, and jumping thunder with firearms.

The patrol route of the Tartar rangers was ten miles from their camp, and the scattered spies outside also focused their attention on the direction of the stone fort to the east, but neglected the flank and rear of the camp; This is on the steppe, and the Tartars do not think that the Ming people dare to come out and fight them in the field.

For more than fifteen miles, for the third-order sergeant, even the warm-up distance was not enough, and the knife and several people ran unhurriedly on the grass, jumping over the ditch and approaching the Tartar camp.

The thousand-man team defending the south side of the tent was the last of the three thousand-man team to drive the horses to the depression to drink, and after the servant gathered more than two thousand horses into the improvised fence, it was already dark after eating dry food; In the dilapidated tents next to the fence, the sound of snoring could be heard far and wide.

Lying in the grass that did not reach his calf, the knife listened to the movement in front of him, raised his eyes to look at the camp with a bonfire, and the thick torches inserted in all directions, and couldn't help nodding secretly.

Anyway, in cooperation with the Eagle Claw Fort, the hundred households did not let the camp be touched, so the eyes of the knife gradually stared at the fence of the herd of war horses. With their skills, they can infiltrate the camp and kill some Tartars, but how to get out is a problem.

The Tartars are not so stupid, they have become good in battles for a long time, whether it is internal fighting or external warfare, how to defend against the stealing camp has become their instinct, and the knife does not think that he is strong enough to retreat with his whole body.

"Brush, brush," the footsteps sounded, and the Tartar squad with swords and bows passed the horse fence with torches, not realizing that on the grass not far from their sides, there were four pairs of bright eyes, which were firmly fixed on them.

At the signal of the knife, the four of them took out the thunderbolt they were carrying, dug a pit and buried it, pulled out a thin line and pulled it horizontally, pressed the inch-long wooden stick into the soil, and tied the thin wire.

Whoever buried the thunder knows that at night, if he injured himself, the knife should have been stripped of his black clothes by Xiao Ye and kicked to work in the mill.

Different from the patrol team in the camp, the two Tartar patrol teams here in the herd, each with a dozen people, turn around every half an hour, so the knives can be used in the horses at least half an hour.

He also wanted to take out the Tartar patrols with a repeating crossbow, but let a dozen strong Tartar cavalry, even if they were on foot, fall quietly, just four people? Forget it.

The Tartar patrol had passed, and had just turned the east side of the fence when behind them, four black shadows sprang up at the same time, and crashed into the tattered servant's tent in a few steps, and the muffled sound of blades clashing soon ceased.

Maybe there are captured Ming people among these servants, but the knives can't be saved, and they can only complain that their lives are not good, and feeding the horses to the Tartars is also an accomplice.

Got out of the tent, and the four of them carried knives that smelled of blood, and carefully tied the leather rope on the tent door, so that the smell of fish inside could be delayed for a moment; It's downwind, but the Tartars' sense of smell is alert.

The four men who had packed up their hands and tails went into the fence without saying a word, carrying the hunting knives in their hands, and laid their hands on the war horses; The war horse, which was tied to the fence with reins, stepped forward to hold the horse's head, and the sharp hunting knife slashed through the soft throat, and the blood spurted from the thorn directly splashed the knife.

The bloodied war horse will not fall to the ground immediately, but snorts, shakes its head and keeps swinging its ears, and the blood splattered from under its neck makes it move its hooves restlessly, and its heavy body lies on the ground with the gradually paralyzed legs, and the horse's head is flattened with a snort.

The four black shadows moving quickly in the herd of horses didn't pay attention to the sound behind them, and the blade in their hands slashed under the neck of the war horse more and more sophisticatedly, and the tall and sturdy war horse beside them had become a dead thing in their eyes.

More than 2,000 war horses, Rao is knife and their arm strength is strong, but they can't slaughter it in a short time, but the smell of blood gathered in the fence has drifted westward with the cold wind.

Half an hour later, the Tartar patrol, which had come around from the north, had not yet approached the fence, and the Tartar soldiers in the lead, twitching twice in their noses, suddenly stopped, and raised their torches high; "Not good, it smells of blood," the other Tartars shouted as they drew their scimitars and raised their small round shields on their arms.

The Tartar soldiers who ran to the fence along the fishy smell, the torches that slipped away, naturally could not escape the eyes of the knife, let go of the huge horse's head beside him, and the hunting knife snapped into the sheath; This black tall horse, he must have liked it very much on weekdays, but now, with the big smart eyes of the horse, he is too lazy to look at it.

The slippery right hand rubbed a few times on the warm back of the horse, the knife whistled, and he jumped down and down in the herd with his head down and ran south; With the clear whistle, the three figures hidden in the herd of horses crossed the horse corpses on the ground and quickly gathered to the south.

The Tartar soldiers, who had already run to the fence, saw the fallen war horse under the torch, and did not know where something had happened, and felt the horns of the ox in their waists, and whined and sounded the alarm.

The sound of the sirens of the enemy attack made the silent Tartar camp lively, and the Tartar cavalry who came out of the tents, disheveled with weapons, searched around for their commanders and centurions; The Tartar squads patrolling the camp were already stationed everywhere, picking up long arrows wrapped in strips of cloth from under the thick torches.

The strips of cloth were dipped in grease, tied to the arrows, and ignited when they caught fire, and then they were shot by the Tartars all around the camp, and their skillful and orderly movements all showed the experience of many years of conquest.

Within seventy or eighty paces of the camp, it was soon illuminated by the light of the fire.

As soon as they rushed to the place where the backpack was placed, before the knives could speak, a flying rocket stabbed not far away, and their figures were immediately revealed in the firelight.

Whoosh, swish, more than a dozen sharp arrows shot over without breaking up, and the precise strength hit the back of the knife, directly knocking him to the ground; If it weren't for the close-fitting protective clothing, these three sharp arrows smashed on his back would have penetrated him immediately.

With the momentum behind him, the knife rolled on the ground a few times, and the three companions could be heard rolling in a muffled way.

"Let's go," spit out the grass clippings in his mouth, the knife snorted, picked up the backpack on the ground, touched the thunder next to the backpack, picked up the safety pin, turned around and ran; The other three, like him, were also startled by the Tartar's sharp arrows, pinched the safety pin of the thunder under their feet, and chased after the knife with their backpacks.

Behind them, a dozen horses had already rushed out of the camp, and at the shouts of the patrolling Tartars, the Tartar cavalry swung straight at them, brandishing their scimitars; If you want to talk about the reaction of the Tartar soldiers, it is not to be underestimated, but the twilight in the middle of the night is destined that they will not chase too far.

The probability of suffering from the eye disease of the bird is much greater than that of the Ming people.

"Boom, boom," the four jumping thunderbolts that jumped up and roared completely made the pursuing Tartar cavalry lose their courage, and the large number of fallen war horses in the fence were the real pain in their hearts.

In the direction of the Tartar camp, there was a faint light point, and the black-clothed guards who were waiting for the war horses hurriedly took out their lighters, and when Chang lit the fire, he took a short gun and dodged away from a distance.

In less than a cup of tea, I saw four figures flash from the depths of the grassland, rushing towards the firelight here; The guards guarding the grass at the bottom of the slope couldn't help but look at them with joy.

The only ones who can run so fast and not slow down for a long distance are the third-order sergeants, and those strong generals in the Tartars may be able to do it, but will they take risks easily, obviously not.

"Hairy head," the guard with the short/gun appeared as the returning knife came into shape, "Head, I'm here,"

The knives that brought the three brothers back safely, the thick fishy smell on the bodies of several people, and the blood stains soaked in the black uniforms, had begun to form hard lumps, and it was uncomfortable to walk.

The four of them took off their clothes, rinsed from head to toe with clean water in a water bag, changed into clean uniforms, hurriedly packed their bags, and rode away from this high slope on their horses.

By the time dawn of the Tartar cavalry arrived, the ashes on the high slope were already cold.

The right team of the battalion was attacked by night, and Tawolfwa got the report early, although there was no loss of Tartar soldiers, but the war horses of a thousand-man team were suddenly slaughtered nearly half, which made the high-spirited captain Wanfu furious.

"Go, put all those grooms in your pockets, and trample them to death," said the roaring Tawolfwa in the big tent, and spat at the three commanders, and almost smashed his scabbard on their heads.

"Oh, my lord, those servants have all been killed last night, and the corpses are still in the fence," Wo Hauge, who had a gloomy face, looked at the dejected commander next to him, and said in a deep voice.

It seems that before the grain and grass arrived, there was no shortage of meat for them, and if they didn't eat it quickly on this hot day, the horse meat would stink in two days.

"Well, yes, damn the Ming people, it must be them, they attacked my camp and killed my war horse," Ta Wolf Wa, who had not encountered anything good in the eastern foothills of Altai Mountain in the past two years, his eyes were red with resentment, and he waved his hand and scolded again and again.

He was invincible on the battlefield, and as soon as he arrived here, he was dismounted overnight, more than a thousand war horses, not a thousand cattle and sheep, and his own team of 1,000 people had at least half of his combat power.

"Send a hundred-man team, send a few more, you must find the damned thieves, the officer will hang them up and light the sky lanterns," the big tent was full of clutter and debris, and the few commanders of the Wohaug retreated in embarrassment, and saw Lanelt standing there with two captains with a frown.

"I've seen the head of Lanelt, and the lower officials have something to do," the stupid Wo Haoge bowed to the captain and left in a hurry.

"Hey, how can this be," Lanelt shook his head, leaving two of his men outside, and slowly walked into the big tent himself, he also had to persuade Tawolf Wa not to be angry, deal with the stone castle of the Ming people, and let the Ming slaves clean up the poisonous weeds.

Just when the Daozi and a few people fled into the depths of the grassland, preparing to intercept and kill the Tartars' grain transport team, and Ta Wolf Wa began to drive the herdsmen and Han slaves in the hands of his subordinates along the way to the Eagle Claw Fort, Xiao Ye's face was already blue in the Madao Stone Fort.

Sitting in Wang Ziliang's communications team military quarters, Xiao Ye looked at the letter post that the herald had just gotten, a thin piece of stationery, which made him almost unable to believe why such a thing happened.

After Liu Shuihe got the primary powerful potion sent to Eagle Claw Fort by the guards, he took it and summoned his subordinates, as well as Duan Damin, Hao Yongliang, Qin Shishi, Xiao Liuzi and more than a dozen backbones, even Huang Hanxiang was also invited to the second-floor military house.

According to the order of the hundred households brought by the guards, the vials containing the red five-star pills, the sixteen soldiers who could affect the safety of the Eagle Claw Fort, each was given one.

Under the supervision of the personal guards sent by the hundred households, everyone in the military house swallowed the pills one after another, and as a result, the three chiefs under Liu Shuihe and one of the chiefs under Qin Shishi rolled on the ground with headaches, screaming and banging their heads on the ground.

These four have always gotten along well with everyone and have a good reputation in the family bathroom, and when they scratched their heads, the guards sent by Xiao Ye stepped forward with a cold face, tied them up, took off the iron plate, and carried them to the black house downstairs.

Their families will receive corresponding pensions, but not as many as the guards who died in battle.

The hidden dangers hidden in the Eagle Claw Fort were quietly eliminated, and to Xiao Ye's surprise, Huang Hanxiang was unharmed and became a first-order sergeant.

"No, we have to let the guards become first-order sergeants, and the matter of improvement can only be delayed," folding the letter and putting it in his pocket, Xiao Ye reluctantly smiled at Wang Ziliang, "It's okay, we're okay here,"

More than 20 potions were designated to be used in the Madao Stone Castle, and even Li Muchen enjoyed it safely, and there was no one who had an accident, which made Xiao Ye very happy; No one wants to be potentially surrounded by people with intentions, and it is difficult to prevent thieves.

Although there are not many defectors from the south, it is not nothing, and the reason why Xiao Ye does not dare to open his mouth is that he cannot screen the thoughts of those who come; In case the government, merchants, and even Jinyi Wei send someone with the ability, once they reuse it, the consequences will be unimaginable.

And this timely appearance of the potion relieved his urgent need.

Shiguantun Zhang Zichang came from the letter whistle, although the three Coptis trees have been plucked out of fruit, but in Tunli and the original Jiazi Stone Castle, there are more than a dozen Coptis trees, and not many fruits have been found.

The long-stemmed round green fruit, a little bigger than a fingernail, is bitter and sour when you bite it, except for the outer skin is the hard core inside, no one thinks to pick it, and it happens to be left until now.

Walking out of the communication team, Xiao Ye came to the gate of the fort, and there was already a row of armed guards standing under the steps, carrying bulging khaki backpacks, and the war horses were also saddled.

The situation in the north is tense, but the transaction with the merchants in the south cannot be interrupted, but the place where the goods are loaded and unloaded is separated from the side of the road checkpoint, and the trouble point is better than the accident.

"Xiao Ming, this time you go out to the grassland, one is to go to Yushan and Duding, to see how many people have become first-order sergeants, and how many have failed, and send someone back to inform the official,"

"The second is to see if you can contact the knife, he has too few people, you all converge in one place, swim around to intercept the Tartars' grain routes, don't fight hard, the Tartars' cavalry is not so easy to deal with," Seeing that the Tartars were eyeing the Eagle Claw Fort, Xiao Yezi would not just defend but not attack, just see if there was a good opportunity.

The sand table guarded by Wang Ziliang can now show the movement of the position of Eagle Claw Fort, but the vines and grass in Bailong Lake are not connected to this side, and they cannot be displayed on the sand table.

Glancing at the black uniform on Baihu's body, hiding envy in his eyes, Sun Xiaoming stepped forward and said, "My subordinates know, Baihu adults will look at it,"

"Be careful on the road, let's go," Following Xiao Ye's command, Sun Xiaoming and his guards turned over their horses, turned their horses' heads, and trampled north into the valley.

"Bah, huh," just as Sun Xiaoming and the others went to Bailong Lake, in the depths of the grassland, a team of Tartar cavalry escorted a large herd of cattle and sheep, hundreds of carts, and when they passed through a depression, five black men were exposed at the height of the west wind.

The war horses were hidden in a shallow ditch two miles away, and the five men wearing iron helmets on their heads stood up at the same time with their rifles, and the muzzles of the guns instantly shot out hot bullets.

With the convenience of the telescope, on the second day of the night raid on the Tartar camp, they followed the traces on the grass to find a way for the Tartars to transport grain south, and after exploring the terrain, they stayed here.

The three hundred-man Tartar cavalry, most of whom had obviously just been picked out from the herdsmen, were thrown into disarray when they saw their companions fall off their horses one after another in the face of the sudden attack.

Only a dozen or so Tartar cavalrymen who followed behind, seeing the five figures emerging from the side, suddenly roared angrily, pulled out the horned bow next to the saddle, and urged the horses to catch up.

Under the shouting and scolding of these Tartars, who were obviously veterans, the Tartar cavalry who had spread out turned their horses' heads, scimitars and bayonets in their hands, and began to charge with the men in front; More cavalrymen were like the veterans, with their horned bows in their hands, wolf fangs and arrows in their mouths, and leaning down to do their best to add to the belly of their horses.

rushed up to the range of the horned bow, a rain of arrows hit it, and when the war horse collided, the scimitar swung a few times, and the five black-clothed men who robbed the road were basically done; This is the perception of all Tartar cavalry, they deal with the enemy basically like this, once they have the advantage in numbers, they never miss.

Boom, the Tartar cavalry, who had left behind grain and grass, cattle and sheep, soon converged into a surging horse team, and threw themselves at the knives in a loose formation. Viewed from the air, a thick arrow pierced several inconspicuous black dots.

"Bah, Bah, Bah," the five heavy rifles were held firmly in front of them by five pairs of big hands, and after a long period of fire/gun practice, they stood in a row two steps apart; Since the Tartars took the initiative to come up, there was no need for them to go any further, and a large meal had already been placed on the grass thirty paces ahead.

Quickly pull the bolt, aim, fire, pull the bolt again to unload the shell, the knife with quick hand, from time to time raise the gun with one hand, the right hand pulled out a row of bullets from the cowhide box on the waist, snapped into the magazine, threw away the empty cartridge, and continued to load and shoot.

Like him, the four black-clothed guards of the old way of marksmanship, the military merits in the merit book are not obtained by tricks, there is no accurate marksmanship, and they are not even qualified to live in the personal guards.

In the crisp sound of gunfire, a five-shot rifle capable of firing three rounds in one breath had already fired thirty rounds each by the time the Tartar cavalry rushed to a distance of fifty paces.

Although it is not clear how many of their companions have fallen off their horses, the screams of dismounting from time to time in front of them not only slowed down the speed of the horses, but also made their eyes red and their howls were stimulating.

As the Tartar cavalry fell from time to time, the arrows of the impact dispersed, and the speed was forced to slow and slow; Fortunately, they can bend their bows and arrows.

Bang bang, the sharp arrows that flew in, the rusty arrows with arrow feathers, drew an arc and smashed on the heads and chests of several people with knives, and the iron helmets rattled.

But to the astonishment of the Tartars, these men in black were not only fine, but they even ignored the arrows stuck in their bodies, and stood there steadily, the fire/guns in their hands fighting even more fiercely.

"Bah, blah, blah," In the continuous crisp gunshots, almost every time a gun rang out, a Tartar fell off his horse, or a galloping war horse fell to the grass with a sloppy wail, and slid out of the way.

"Heaven-shaking thunder," Seeing the Tartar cavalry rushing to the minefield, touching the empty leather box, the knife threw away the rifle in his hand, and with a cold snort, he took off a sky-shaking thunder from the cow belt behind him.

The earth-shattering thunder that had long been unscrewed off the iron shell, the fire rope was exposed, and it could be thrown out by pulling it off.

Whoosh, whoosh, the guards with more than 300 catties of strength, less than five catties of earth-shaking thunder in their hands, shaking their hands to throw 8/90 steps is the bottom limit, and the farthest can throw 100 steps away.

Each person had five sky-shaking thunderbolts stuck in their waists, and it didn't take two breaths to throw them out one after another, but the more than twenty sky-shaking thunderbolts that burst out were enough to explode a rain of bullets.

"Boom, boom, boom," the earth-shattering thunder that exploded one after another, although the Tartar cavalry screamed wow, but the speed of the horses they had already lifted could not be lowered at all, so they could only continue to rush forward, hoping to use the scimitars and horn bows in their hands to kill these damned enemies.

Especially when they saw the knives and the few people dropped the fire/guns in their hands, the few Tartar cavalrymen who rushed to the front were lying on horseback, with a hideous sneer on their faces, which was even more tyrannical; Enemies without fire/guns want to fight the warriors of the steppe? Dream.

Hell,, what the hell is this?

The earth-shattering thunder that smashed over the head and covered the face, the dozen or so jumping thunderbolts that jumped up under the horse's hooves, and the shrapnel that splashed in all directions during the explosion suddenly scattered the gathered Tartar horse team again, and they really couldn't imagine that only five men in black would have such vicious methods.

"Desolation," the knife pulled out the waist knife on his back, and pointed forward with the tip of the knife, "Up, see who kills more," before the words fell, the person had already rushed up; On the opposite side, the smoke and dust of the thunder jumping and the thunder blowing up the flag were still flying in the breeze.

The four guards behind him did not hesitate to pull out their waist knives, and their military boots slammed on the ground, and the people immediately rushed forward.

"Click, click," a few bloodied Tartar cavalrymen, sitting on horseback and staggering, were directly cut off from their horses by the flash of cold light.

Of the more than 300 Tartar cavalry, half of the rifles were directly killed, and with the devastation of jumping thunder and earth-shaking thunder, less than 50 of them could pant and run alive.

And these more than fifty Tartars who followed the last were already frightened by the sharp firearms in front of them, and they couldn't take care of the grain and grass behind.

It has been less than a month since they were recruited to become the subordinates of the commander, and they have not seen the scene of flesh and blood, and at this moment, they were completely defeated by the stumps and rotten flesh that splashed everywhere, and the courage in their hearts was completely crushed.

What made the Tartars especially resentful was that these black-clothed men who rushed up with knives still had short guns in their hands that could fire continuously, and no matter how hard they fought the warriors, they could only flee in the wilderness.

Ignoring the fleeing Tartar cavalry, the knife swooped over the screaming wounded on the ground, and the footsteps did not stop, but the blade slashed diagonally, leaving a dead body on the ground; rushed all the way to the cattle and sheep all over the ground, and the screams behind him had stopped.

"Head, we can't take away so many cattle and sheep," a guard who followed the knife shook the blood stains on the waist knife and snapped the knife into its sheath.

As he spoke, the other three guards also rushed over, looking at the cattle and sheep in front of them, and the tall ox carts, frowning one by one; In the face of so much grain and grass, they did not have the slightest joy.

"Look for the dried meat and milk wine that can be taken away on the ox cart, and the others are burned, these cattle and sheep, the sheep will not care, and all the cattle will be bled out," After speaking, the knife showed a sharp knife under his wrist with his backhand, and walked towards the herd with his hands behind his back.

The other guards looked at each other, and the two of them went to the ox cart, and the two of them pulled out their hunting knives and followed the knives, saying that it was a pity, but what they couldn't take away, naturally they wouldn't let the tartars pick it up easily.

Those Tartar horses that remained in place could not be left alive except for those who were taken away.

An hour later, a squad of guards with one man and five horses, after answering the letter on time, a few knives who had not received the message, with a full load of capture, continued to march in the northwest direction; They also need to find a convenient place to ambush and choose an easy-to-attack Tartar squad.

Left behind in the meadow were not only flocks of sheep scattered to graze leisurely, but also hundreds of bloodied bullocks, with blood dripping from their necks, accompanied by the corpses of Tartars that had spread hundreds of paces, and wounded horses that had died frequently.

More than a dozen ox carts lit up a roaring fire, and the oxen pulling the ox cart were lying on their knees with their sets ununtied, and large masses of viscous blood flowed under them, and green-headed flies flew in all directions.

These are not things that knives should worry about, and it won't take one night for the wolves on the prairie to clean up this place completely; Provided, of course, that the rangers of Tawolfwa don't find it.