Chapter Ninety-Three

resolve

The gate of Zhenhai Gate creaked open, and the four men leading the horses went out of the dark doorway first, making a small noise, and the hooves of the horses were wrapped in thick cotton cloth.

After seven more people with bows and crossbows came out, Zhang Dong appeared from behind the city gate, and whispered to the few people leading the horses: "Be careful on the road, if you meet a sentry on the road, give up the horses and go to the wilderness, as long as it is a place that has been turned over, their horses may not be able to outrun people, and you will be safer when you reach the mountains, none of them have been trained like you, in short."

Before dawn, the information must be sent to the army......"

The four people who delivered the letter nodded at the same time, Zhang Dong looked at them carefully, these people are the leaders of the action team and the special service team, they have traveled to various places many times, they are very familiar with the road, and after the siege of Kongbu, they have also carried out similar tasks.

But now the danger of going out of the city is still very great, and the rebels are about to launch, and the ambushes and sentry horses on the road will multiply, especially the two who go to Qixia, which is even more dangerous.

He turned to the special service member with buckteeth and said to him: "Buckteeth, your group will go to Qixia, with you as the leader, and you will decide the specific route by yourself, and I will build yì You don't go directly through Mishen Mountain and Kui Mountain." ”

Bucktooth looked careless, he was a young man in Shanxi Town, he had been in and out of the Mongolian steppe many times in winter, he had long been immune to danger, he was excellent last time on Shenmi Island, once the army was expanded, he would definitely be promoted, he grinned and said: "Why don't you go, anyway, the letter will be delivered early tomorrow morning." ”

Zhang Dong smiled slightly, he knew that these people had been born and died many times, and they were generally reluctant to tell him about their specific plans, especially since he was not the boss of Bucktooth, and people like Bucktooth had gone through hardships and dangers, and he would not really admire ordinary officials. So he didn't care, for him, as long as one person in each group arrived, it was enough, and the other person could be sacrificed, they didn't know the specific content of the information, the letters they brought were numbers, and they had to go through a specific book comparison before they could be translated into the original text, and no one was allowed to be captured alive in this operation, otherwise their families would all be executed, and the bucktooth in front of him was also just married in September, and belonged to people with family concerns.

"Then I wish you all a smooth journey, if it is fast, we will meet here again in three days." Zhang Dong solemnly saluted the four of them, and the four of them replied according to the etiquette, and said with a smile: "You can always see it, either here, or in the Martyrs' Shrine, live to eat food, dead to eat fragrant, what is Lao Tzu afraid of." ”……

The lanterns hanging from the castle heads on both sides moved slowly along the walls, like fireflies dancing in the dark night. The four of them took fifteen paces apart, passing through the open space between Dengzhou Prefecture City and Shuicheng, and the four Jingxin-trained war horses kept their mouths shut and did not make a chirping, and everyone only made a slight rustling sound of stepping on the snow.

Li Tao took seven or eight special service members with bows and crossbows to cover the front and rear, and used some houses to cover his figure. Walking out of nearly 100 steps and ten steps, the north wall of Dengzhou whined a sharp sound, and more than ten people in the action stopped and lowered their bodies at the same time, which was a timed arrow specially invented by the city guards to prevent the guards from sleeping, and reminded the city soldiers every once in a while, and after a moment without abnormality, they moved forward again.

The circumference of Shuicheng City was only three miles, and the side of Zhenyang Gate was relatively narrow, so they quickly walked out of the mezzanine and came to the open land in the northeast. The dark and dreary night was quiet, and the special service team that served as the cover task was the first to advance, Li Tao and the other three people spread out a fan in front of them, carefully searching and advancing, and the four people in the back were divided into two groups, and followed up ten steps after the three people in front.

Bucktooth also took out his strong crossbow, the area outside the city was vast, and their location was the school field of Dengzhou to the north, and the direction of Fushan County to the east, and the fields were scattered with Fulu sergeants on both sides, and they could only move as close to the north as possible, but they were also in danger.

Li Tao walked quickly, and soon reached two hundred steps away from the city wall, as long as he could go out of two or three miles, the danger would be reduced a lot, at this time there was a sudden light sound in front of the right, Li Tao suddenly lay on the ground, a flying axe flew overhead with the sound of the wind, ten steps away immediately an arrow sounded, and several black shadows rushed out of the snow nest with a howl.

Behind him, the bow and crossbow collapsed and rang out, and the two black shadows on the opposite side fell to the ground in response, and there was a shout from a farther away, and they were approaching here, Li Tao quickly pulled out the flying axe on the strap, and smashed it towards the first enemy, and a muffled sound came, and the enemy twisted his upper body and fell to the ground, screaming loudly.

The south side also sounded the bowstring, but there was no accuracy in the blurred vision, Li Tao only heard a person behind him snorting in a low voice, and the special service team immediately sent a round of shè to that side. The powerful crossbow made a swishing sound in the quiet night, and the bow and crossbow were not as good as the best, and seven or eight enemy black figures appeared, like ghosts emerging from hell, and the three people in front of them quickly drew out two short guns each, and fired at the blurred figure one after another.

The accuracy of the short gun is worse than that of the spear, only two people were hit, and the rest of the people still pounced on it, Li Tao secretly shouted in his heart that he was unlucky, he must have encountered Jing Rui in the Dongjiang soldiers, and there were arrows in the distance, and he continued to transmit signals to the other rebel ambush army.

Li Tao knew that he could not delay and must fight quickly, at this time there was no way for both sides to retreat, Li Tao pulled out a thickened waist knife and went head-on, and the four team members behind him followed up at the same time. Li Tao shouted loudly to the back: "All run to the city." ”

Bucktooth heard the shouting, knew that Li Tao was trying to mislead the enemy, and turned to the north with three heralds, and left quickly to the east, and the people on both sides fought to the death in the darkness of the south, and the whirring sound of the blade waving kept coming, which was mixed with the crisp collision sound of slashing the armor, and a moment later there was the sound of bowstrings rattling and arrows flying.

Bucktooth silently led a few heralds to the east, the shouting and killing gradually disappeared, Bucktooth didn't know what the secret service team was, but from the movement could be heard that it must be a hard battle, he suppressed the idea of wanting to help, and opened the way at the front, this time after walking out of three miles, he didn't encounter any enemies, Bucktooth stopped the team, and said to a few people: "Let's separate here, you two go to Ninghai Prefecture, don't walk together, split the road, try not to take the official road, you all know the country road, if the horse is difficult to walk, He gave up his horse and walked. Remember that our brothers bought our lives when we went out of the city, don't think that one person will complete the mission if they deliver the letter, everyone must do their best to get there, otherwise it will not be considered to complete the mission, unless you die. ”

The two of the Ninghai group nodded at the same time, and without any more words, the four of them saluted and shook hands with each other according to Wendeng Ying's understanding, and the two of them each looked for a direction and disappeared into the deep night.

Bucktooth said to one of the remaining teammates: "My horse is for you, you ride two horses to Fushan County to Qixia, and when you get to the place where you enter the mountain, don't ride a horse and take the official road, you are also familiar with the road over there, in short, to the southern slope of Hushan." He paused, "If you are caught by the rebels, you will end it yourself, and you can only suffer by yourself if you are lucky, if you can't help but say it, your Wendeng family will not survive." ”

The team member whispered to him, "Then how can you walk without a horse?" ”

"Don't worry about Lao Tzu's affairs, you go yours."

The team smiled, reached out to shake him, and led the horse eastward.

After he disappeared, Bucktooth touched the secret letter on his body, and went directly to Kuishan Mountain in the south, as agile as a spirit fox in the snow, and he actually wanted to go directly through the Mishen Mountain where the rebels were stationed, and take the nearest road to Qixia......

The ninth day of the first month

In the afternoon, Brother Guan served as an ambush army in a mountain pass three miles away from the northern slope of Hushan, and he was accompanied by all the personnel of their combat group, a total of ten pikemen and ten musketeers, a squad of soldiers on each wing, and a Chinese light cavalry reconnaissance post on the farther mountain, whenever someone passed by on the main road, they would call the signal first, and from the time they arrived here, hundreds of people who passed by, most of whom were nearby mountain people, were indiscriminately detained in the camp.

Brother Guan was a little bored with this task, he rolled up his sleeves and squatted behind the rocks, dodging the north wind blowing from the mountain pass, and then it snowflakes fell, fluttering and falling on everyone's shoulders, he looked up at the sky, it was about to get dark, he could go back to the camp, and he could smoke in the special tent.

"It's nice to be able to smoke now." Brother Guan complained in his heart, and he didn't know who stipulated that he couldn't smoke during the mission, this was almost his only hobby, and he took a sip of saliva when he touched the cigarette box in his arms.

"There is a signal, Brother Guan is holding a knife, Wang Xian is holding a rope, ready to arrest people." The captain's voice came, and Brother Guan pulled out his waist knife, knowing that it was another boring job, and he couldn't scare those passers-by, and then tied them up and sent them to the barracks.

He poked his head out behind the rocks, and a person slowly walked on the mountain road in the distance, his movement was a little slow, his right leg limped and staggered, and after getting a little closer, Brother Guan found that it was actually wearing Ming army clothes, Wendeng Camp was not equipped with this kind of mandarin duck robe, he raised his heart and concealed his figure, this is not an ordinary passerby, it is likely to be a sentry of the rebels.

Several soldiers on both sides of the road also gestured to him, asking him not to go to the middle of the road first, Brother Guan retracted his head until he could hear footsteps, a shout from the soldiers' side, Brother Guan rushed to the official road with a waist knife in his hand to take a look, opposite was a soldier with a withered yellow face, he turned to look at the soldiers around, Brother Guan found that he had a bow and arrow on his back, and there was a knife on his thigh, which was tightly wrapped with cotton cloth, and the cotton cloth and the surrounding cotton pants had been stained red with blood.

When the soldier saw Brother Guan and the soldiers around him, he actually grinned, revealing a mouth full of buckteeth. "Don't wave a knife in front of Lao Tzu, you were still eating nǎi when Lao Tzu was playing with a knife, your grandfather was in the second squad of the special service team."

Bucktooth shook his hand and pulled out the secret letter in his arms, "Give this to Lord Chen, has another herald arrived?" ”

After he finished speaking, before Brother Guan could answer, he fell to the ground with a pop, and the surrounding soldiers hurriedly came up to help him up, and the officer who led the team heard that it was the special service team that sent the letter, and personally led someone to collect the secret letter and rushed back to the camp.

Brother Guan and the others carried their buckteeth together and went to a sheltered place to find a medical soldier, who took a pulse and frowned: "I'm afraid that I have lost too much blood, so quickly take the boiled cotton cloth to tie the wound tightly and transport it back to the camp." ”

Senior Brother Guan immediately handed over his cotton cloth, and when he helped to hold on, he heard the medical soldier say to himself: "It must be injured near Mishen Mountain, and they can run so far, these people in the special service team are really powerful." ”……

In the camp of the Chinese army, Zhou Shifa gathered at a small table, and after reading the translated secret letter, they all looked up at Chen Xin, and the secret letter wrote the clues found by the intelligence bureau, but there was no clear time, Zhang Dong wrote the reason for his judgment at the end.

Chen Xin sat on a chair with his eyes closed and pondered, he didn't want a career officer like Zhu Guobin to know the inside story, and the only person who could be discussed here was Zhou Shifa.

Zhou Shifa didn't bother him, he also couldn't determine the time, at this time, he could only look at the decision of the commander of the whole army, Chen Xin closed his eyes and said softly after half a sound: "Shifa, if you come to decide, how do you think it is better?" ”

"My lord, if the rebels launch tonight, we will also set off immediately, then they have a whole day to make trouble in Dengzhou, the subordinates feel that it is a little shorter, according to the last intelligence, there are not many troops in Shuicheng, guarded by Lu Zhi, Zhang Ke Dazheng barracks are all arranged in the south and east of the city, especially in the south of the city, they can at least resist some time, if they start again tomorrow night, we will be early, and the Jiaoshan camp in Ninghai Prefecture does not know if it has been received."

Chen Xin opened his eyes, "When it's early, I can only save Dengzhou, Dengzhou is still the same Dengzhou, at most there will be one governor." ”

Zhou Shifa knew Chen Xin's thoughts, and pondered: "But if it's late, the rebels have a solid city defense, the city is rich in baggage, and there are Hongyi cannons to help, it will be difficult to fight a lot, the most worrying thing is that Wang Bingzhong, we gave him 10,000 taels of silver, if the rebels enter the city and rob it, there are many rich families in Dengzhou, and the income is far more than that, and Kong Youde and others are Liao people with him, in case he turns to the rebels, we are powerless to break the city, if the rebels further conquer the water city, there will be a way out......"

Zhou Shifa paused and said: "If your Excellency is worried that the cleaning is not thorough enough, we can close off some of the rebellious troops in the city, and then clean them up from house to house, and uproot the big households on the list." ”

"My soldiers can't do such a mission." Chen Xin rejected this proposal, his combat troops must be pure soldiers, and if such a task is carried out too much, sooner or later it will be infected with the problems of the Ming army.

"We don't need our people, we can recruit some Liao soldiers, let Wang Bingzhong lead them, and finally ...... Wang Bingzhong"

"And what if we're early?"

Zhou Shifa thought nervously, "Then say that they did not fulfill the forty percent of the profits, and confronted them near Shushan, according to the collected intelligence, Li Jiucheng gambled very much, and was quite suspicious, he killed all the way in Shandong, he must think that the imperial court will settle accounts after the autumn, and Sun Yuanhua himself is difficult to protect, once our Wendeng camp enters Dengzhou, he will not have the slightest room for resistance, so he will not agree to appease anyway, his subordinates think that he will definitely stabilize us, while continuing to gamble to break the city." ”

Chen Xin sat up straight, his eyes kept changing, the information could not always be clear, and the time to gamble required the commander's decision, he stood up and walked to the map, "Let the Chinese army sentry pretend to be a merchant to go out first, sweep the enemy ambush army along the way, and set up torch signs for night marching, except for the sentry, the rest of the army immediately began to rest, tell Zhu Guobin to eat at three o'clock in the morning, start marching at the ugly time, and send Tangma to rush to the Jiaoshan camp, if they don't receive the news, let them give up their baggage, and march to Dengzhou in a hurry, In addition, you send orders to those cottages to clear the targets near Laiyang and Qixia. ”

Zhou Shifa knew that Chen Xin had made up his mind, and he couldn't hide the nervousness and excitement in his heart, and his voice trembled slightly and he agreed loudly: "Yes, my lord!" (To be continued.)