Several soldiers pointed to the fire in front of them and said, "General, there is a team transporting forage in front, and the forage must have caught fire accidentally." ”

"That's not right!"

Zhang Xuan realized that the shouting was wrong, he was very frightened, and there was a scream, something must have happened, he immediately ordered: "The army is assembled immediately!" ”

Most of Zhang Xuan's subordinates were awakened, they didn't care about packing their luggage, they got up and assembled, at this time Zhang Xuan found that more than a dozen black shadows were running towards this side, he didn't have time to wait for the soldiers, turned over and ran towards more than a dozen black shadows, only a moment, he stopped the dozen black-clothed people who were running, and waved his halberd, "Stop!" ”

More than a dozen black shadows almost did not hesitate, and swung their knives at him together, Zhang Xuan was furious, swung his halberd left and right, and assassinated three people in an instant, and the halberd immediately swept backwards, knocking the two men in black out.

The rest of the people saw that he was fierce and invincible, shouted in unison, and ran towards the depths of the forest together, but it was too late, hundreds of Zhang Xuan's men had already arrived, surrounded them from all sides, and Zhang Xuan shouted loudly: "Catch them alive!" ”

Hundreds of Sui soldiers swarmed up, threw the remaining eight to the ground, and tied them up with ropes.

At this time, the fire in the east was getting bigger and bigger, and it quickly spread to this side, and Zhang Xuan saw that the fire was critical, and immediately ordered the soldiers to leave the forest and move to the south.

As soon as Zhang Xuan led the army to retreat to the official road, one of his subordinates hurried over with a person, "General Qiyu, this is the leader of the grain and grass team in front." ”

The person who came was a middle-aged man, wearing a low-grade official uniform, his face was full of anxiety, and he arched his hand to Zhang Xuan: "Qin Ling, the county lieutenant of Licheng County, Qi County, led 800 people to support the Liaodong battle, and we were responsible for transporting 500 trucks of forage. It was someone who deliberately sabotaged. ”

Zhang Xuan nodded, "Please rest assured, the county lieutenant has already caught the person who lit the fire, and the accent is not from the Great Sui." Most likely, it is a spy of Goguryeo, and I will prove it for you. ”

The county lieutenant of Qin was overjoyed, and hurriedly bowed down to thank him, and Zhang Xuan asked again: "Have the people escaped?" ”

"Thanks to the general's concern, the living people have escaped. It's just that all 500 carts were burned down, and there were 50,000 loads of good forage. What a loss! ”

At this time, Captain Li Shoujie stepped forward to report: "General Qiyu, I have already asked clearly, they are indeed Goguryeo spies, who specialize in sabotaging our grain and grass transportation along the way. ”

Zhang Xuan looked at the raging fire in the distance, he felt that the other party could not only have a dozen people, it was not meaningful to burn down a forage team, and the other party must have other accomplices. There should have been at least a few hundred people to destroy the grain and grass transportation lines of the Sui army on a large scale.

Thinking of this, Zhang Xuan instructed again: "They must still have accomplices, and then go and torture where their camp is?" ”

"Obey!" Li Shoujie turned around again.

The county lieutenant next to him slapped his head and said: "The general is right, I remembered, I heard that a grain transport team was also attacked yesterday, more than 100 people died, and thousands of stones of grain were pushed into the white wolf water, it must have been done by the same people." ”

Not long after, Captain Li Shoujie came back to report: "General." They recruited, there were more than 2,000 of them, and they were hiding in Shenlu Town, south of Liaodong City. ”

"Yes, the interrogation is very effective!" Jang Hyun praised.

Li Shoujie was originally a famous brigade commander. A native of Liucheng, Liaodong, who is only 20 years old this year, has performed well in training, and was promoted to captain of the first regiment by Zhang Xuan, replacing Zhao Tong, the former captain who was unwilling to follow the army to fight in Liaodong, and can speak fluent Goguryeo.

Li Shoujie scratched his head embarrassedly. "The lowly officials interrogated them separately, and then checked their confessions, and found that the liars were killed on the spot, and when the lowly officials killed four people in a row, they did not dare to hide it anymore, and they answered whatever I asked."

"Well done!"

Zhang Xuan immediately ordered: "The army will set off immediately and go to the direction of Liaodong City!" ”

Liaodong City is south of Huaiyuan Town, which is already located in the territory of Goguryeo, Zhang Xuan changed his mind and no longer went to Huaiyuan Town to assemble, but went to another assembly point specified by the Ministry of War: Wugu City on the bank of the Yalu River.

Since God arranged for him to meet these Goguryeo spies, it was actually to give him a chance to try his hand.

．．．．．．．

Liaodong Fortress was named because it was located east of Liaoshui, and was one of the eight eastward routes of the Sui army in the First Goguryeo War, and Liaodong City is currently controlled by the Sui army.

In the first two Eastern Crusades, Goguryeo, as one side of the war, also suffered heavy losses, its population was sharply reduced, its national strength was weak, and it could no longer support the war with the Great Sui, and Goguryeo's army had all retreated to the front line of the capital Pyongyang.

In the second campaign against Goguryeo last year, if it weren't for Yang Xuangan's rebellion in the Central Plains, which forced the Sui army to retreat, perhaps Goguryeo would have been completely conquered by the Sui army.

In this year's third war against Goguryeo, Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty judged the situation and no longer used the method of attacking on all fronts, but gathered a large army in Huaiyuan Town, and only sent Hu'er to lead 30,000 troops to attack Goguryeo.

In this way, the needless loss of the army attacking Goguryeo on all fronts was avoided, but Goguryeo was not willing to sit still, although the army could not go north to meet the battle, but they also sent a sentinel team composed of elite soldiers to harass the Sui army's grain route north.

There is a small town about 20 miles south of Liaodong City, called Shenlu Town, the Daliang River flows like a jade belt from the north of the town, flows into the Liao River, because of the convenient transportation, it was a prosperous place of commerce and trade, and the population reached thousands of people at the most, but at this time the town has been destroyed by the war, the population has disappeared, the houses have been burned, and only hundreds of ruins remain.

But in a valley not far from Shenlu Town, there were nearly 3,000 northbound Goguryeo sentinels, commanded by the general Yuan Wuning.

This team was the only Goguryeo army north of the Yalu River, and they were tasked with two tasks, one to detect the Sui army's military disposition and combat attempts, and the other to disrupt the Sui army's logistics and transportation.

Due to the continuous dispatch of patrol teams to the north to sabotage the logistics and transportation of the Sui army, the Goguryeo military camp hidden in Shenlu Town was a little deserted, and the total number of troops was less than 2,000.

That night, a team of Sui troops of unknown origin also silently infiltrated the vicinity of Shenlu Town, this thousand-strong army was the 3rd Battalion of the 27th Mansion of the Xiaoguo Army led by Zhang Xuan, but now they have broken away from the Xiaoguo Army and are organized as the 16th Battalion of the former army, which is under the command of Zhou Fashang, the right general of the former army.

At present, Zhang Xuan has not seen his immediate boss Zhou Fashang, who led an army of 10,000 troops stationed in the city of Wugu, waiting for other armies to come and assemble, and Zhang Xuan's 16th battalion is one of them.

Shenlu Town is also the only way to get to the Black Bone City, but the goal of Zhang Xuan's trip is not only the Black Bone City, but the Goguryeo outpost camp hidden near the Shenlu Town.

More than 1,000 soldiers hid in a dense forest halfway up the mountainside, the soldiers each looked for a place to rest, seized the time to drink water and eat dry food, and kept quiet as much as possible, while the main general Zhang Xuan stood at the edge of the woods, silently watching the Shenlu Town in the distance, and under the bright moonlight, a ruined wall could be seen very clearly.

Jang Hyun had already received information that the scouts he sent had found traces of the Goguryeo army at the mouth of a valley north of the official road in Shenlu Town, and although the exact number of enemy troops had not yet been clarified, the enemy army must have been hiding in this valley.

Although Zhang Xuan has participated in several battles, this is the first time he has led the army to fight independently, and his opponent is not a dark horse thief, nor a rebel in Yangjiazhuang, but an elite army of Goguryeo that is two or three times more numerous than his army.

At this time, a soldier stepped forward and whispered: "General, the brothers who went to Liaodong City have returned. ”

Zhang Xuan suddenly perked up, "Where is the person, bring it to see me quickly!" ”

The Sui army had 3,000 garrisons in Liaodong City, and if this army was willing to send troops to help, then they were much more likely to win, but this Sui army did not belong to the former army, and Zhang Xuan did not know which general's subordinate they were.

At present, the Sui army is very chaotic, the armies of the three Goguryeo battles are mixed together, Zhang Xuan also met a subordinate of the wheat iron staff the day before yesterday, and the wheat iron staff died of illness in the first Goguryeo war, most of the tens of thousands of troops under his command have fled, but there are still thousands of people stationed in Liaodong, and there is no clear attribution.

After a short time, the soldier who went to Liaodong to contact was brought up, and he stepped forward and knelt down on one knee to report, "See the general!" ”

"Is the army of Liaodong City willing to fight?" Zhang Xuan asked anxiously.

The soldier shook his head, "General Qiyu, they don't believe that there will be Goguryeo troops nearby at all, and they say that if they want to go out of the city to fight, they must get the order of General Xue Shixiong, or the will of the Son of Heaven, otherwise they will not leave Liaodong City for half a step." ”

Zhang Xuan sighed helplessly in his heart, this was actually in his expectation, there was no conclusive evidence, how could the Sui army in Liaodong City easily go out of the city to fight, there was no way, he could only fight alone.

He resolutely ordered: "Let Chen Xu come to see me!" ”

After a moment, the brigade commander Chen Xu hurriedly stepped forward, bowed and saluted: "See the general!" ”

Zhang Xuan pointed to a big mountain that looked like a deer not far away: "That is Shenlu Mountain, the scouts have found traces of the enemy at the southern foot of Shenlu Mountain, you can lead fifty of your men to detour to the back first, see if you can go down from behind to create chaos, remember, light a fire before dawn, I saw the fire attack." ”

Chen Xu nodded, "The humble position will never disappoint the general!" ”

Chen Xu saluted and quickly went, and after a short time, he led fifty of his men to leave the Sui army garrison and make a detour to the back of Shenlu Mountain.

Zhang Xuan watched the group walk away, and he immediately ordered: "Everyone pack their things and get ready to go at any time!" (To be continued.) )