-- August 4, 20 miles east of the Hukou Taiping Army Barracks --

It was around two o'clock, and the wilderness after night had gradually become silent, but in the mountains and forests over there, there was a faint green light floating faintly, flickering and flickering, and now and now, like the occasional ghostly fire rising on the mass grave, which made people feel chilled.

It was actually a pack of mountain wolves gnawing on something, and since the moon was already autumn, the beasts in the mountains were driven by energy and were hurrying to prepare their winter rations, but any experienced mountain hunter would never go deep into the mountains on the autumn night, because it would be too dangerous for you to judge how many fierce beasts that regarded you as their prey were hiding in the places that were difficult to see at night.

Just like the unlucky roe deer just now, it has now become the food for the stomach of the mountain wolves.

Suddenly, the wolf's ears twitched slightly, and as if it had noticed something, it raised its head, and the two faint green lights in its eyes shone with a penetrating light in the night.

Is it new prey?

The head wolf let out a low howl, and the more than ten mountain wolves beside him immediately stopped eating, and looked at the forest path not far away.

Near, closer......

Judging by the frequency of the ground shaking, the head wolf felt that it was a herd of horses, or deer, far outnumbering its clan, which only had more than a dozen members. The wolf's tongue licked the blood from its mouth and teeth, and its four paws grasped the ground, as if it was ready to cull, and it felt as if it could have a full meal tonight.

Sure enough, it's a horse......

When he saw the object clearly, the wolf's eyes burst into a fierce color, and he kicked his two hind legs, and was about to pounce on it, when he suddenly found that the horse was carrying a man on its back.

Ordinary wild horses it is not afraid. Even if there are hundreds of them, it dares to lead the younger brothers to hunt one or two of them, after all, the other party has four legs, and they also have four legs. But now they have four legs touching the opposite [six-legged] ......

The head wolf subconsciously stopped the momentum of culling, compared to wild horses, they are absolute hunters, but compared to people, it is not good to say who is the real prey.

And just then, an arrow came out of nowhere. It was nailed to the trunk of a tree next to the wolf.

"Woo ......" The head wolf seemed to be startled, howled lowly, and fled with a dozen of his younger brothers with their tails between their legs.

What is it that makes the greedy mountain wolf give up its prey that is about to reach its mouth?

The reason for this is that there is not just one [six-legged] monster that emerges from the night, but there are hundreds of them. The beast's ability to remind it was not something their small clan could deal with.

"Shhhh Missed the shot? ”

Seeing the group of mountain wolves flee into the forest in a hurry, the prancing horsemen frowned, and looked up with some chagrin at the crescent moon, which was barely bright enough, to be fair.

"Lucky you brutes!" The cavalry muttered.

As soon as the words fell, a deliberately muffled question came from the rear of the cavalryman.

"Is it Lu Jian? ――Why did you release the arrows for no reason? Don't you know that our army is approaching the Taiping Thieves camp? ”

The cavalryman named Lu Jian shrank his head. Immediately turned the war horse under his crotch, and whispered respectfully to the hazy black shadow that was slowly approaching, "General, the last general just heard a few wolf howls. Fearing that the brutes would attack our brothers, they drove them away......"

When the last word fell, the black shadow finally revealed its true body, it was a tall general in armor. Cheng can be said to be a tiger's back and a bear's waist, and his appearance is extraordinary.

This person's name is Feng He. In the Great Liang Army, Liang Cheng was one of the four cavalry generals of 5,000 people.

Generally speaking, the military generals who supervise the 3,000 Qu troops can be called generals, and Feng He leads 5,000 people, which is really a veritable general, and the commander is a cavalry, which is by no means comparable to ordinary infantry generals.

"Silence!" The tiger glared at Lu Jian, and Feng He scolded in a low voice, "This time, we are waiting for the general to be on our shoulders, if this alarms the Taiping thief army, go back and make you look good!" ”

Lu Jian shrank his head and muttered, "Didn't I wait this time just to alarm the Taiping Thief Army?" ”

Feng He opened his mouth, but he was speechless, thought about it and frowned and said, "That's what you said...... But it's not time yet! As he spoke, he glared fiercely at the general in front of him who dared to speak back.

As if noticing the sense of annoyance and anger in the general's eyes, Lu Jian smiled, didn't dare to take any more offenses, and changed the topic and said, "General, why did you say that Lord Xie asked me to wait to do such a senseless thing?" ”

"Senseless?" Feng He snorted and said disdainfully, "Lord Xie's thoughts, where can you and other guys guess?" ”

"What about the general?"

"Of course......" Feng He replied vaguely, turned his head to catch a glimpse of Lu Jian's distrustful gaze, and lowered his voice angrily and said, "Have you forgotten what General Liang Cheng said?" Talk less, do more, and it's better to keep your mouth shut! lest you spoil the plans of the adults......"

"General Liang Cheng was frightened by Yu Li's incident, hehe, but that Yu Li is not a thing, you are the prefect of Pengze County, and you actually fornicated with the Taiping thief army and helped the abuse...... If it weren't for General Liang Cheng to stop him, the last general would really want to slaughter that dog thing for those soldiers and brothers in Pengze County! ”

"Hmm!" Feng He nodded approvingly. Since ancient times, there have been few conspirators among the generals who have charged on the battlefield, and most of them are bloody heroes, who look down on people like Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, who collaborate with the enemy and commit treason.

"Okay, don't bury General Liang Cheng in private, if the general hears it, you kid is good-looking! -- What time is it? ”

Hearing the questioning, Lu Jian shrugged his shoulders and said, "How do you know this?" However, since the beginning of the year, there have been many encounters with that group of mountain goods and animals along the way...... Wolves look similar to dogs, hmm, it's supposed to be the time of the day, right? ”

"...... Shishi" looked at Lu Jian and shook his head, Feng He thought about it in his heart, looked back at the other horsemen beside him and said, "Tell the brothers, there is probably more than an hour away from the time, our army should get as close to the camp of the Taiping Thieves Army as possible during this time, tell the brothers to pay attention, their eyes are bright, don't be surprised by someone when the dumplings are made!" ”

"Yes!" The cavalrymen clenched their fists and took the order. Turning the horse's head and heading backwards.

Glancing at the backs of the subordinates leaving, Feng He glanced up at the sky.

To be honest, the moonlight of the new moon is very dim, and the wind is also good tonight, which is the so-called moon dark and high wind killing night, which is very suitable for launching a night attack, but when he thought that the target of the attack was 150,000 thieves, Feng He still felt a little worried.

"Fortunately, it's just to disturb the enemy......" muttered as if to comfort himself, Feng He immediately stepped forward. He drove the war horse under his crotch to jump up a dirt slope and climbed to look at the Taiping Thief Army barracks to the west.

I have to say that in such a dark night, the brightly lit Taiping Thieves military camp in the distance is simply the best guiding light. Fortunately, Feng He's nearly 1,000 cavalry would not get lost in such a dark night.

After resting for a while, Feng He led his thousands of horsemen to slowly approach the camp of the Taiping Thief Army.

Although Feng He knew very well the purpose of this trip, he still felt a little creepy in such an insecure dark night, and God knew when a few thieves would suddenly sprang out around him. Surround them?

As he walked, Feng He was suddenly stunned, he vaguely seemed to hear a ding-ding-ding sound, coming from a distant place. Due to the unstable wind direction, it is impossible to determine where it is coming from.

"Is it time?" Feng He muttered a sentence and gestured to Lu Jian with his eyes.

Lu Jian understood, and took out two iron rods the thickness of little fingers from the backpack on the side of the war horse. Hit hard. Immediately, the rhythmic tinkling sound came from the two iron rods in his hands.

"Ding. Dingding ......"

"Ding, ding, ding......"

Seeing that the lights representing the Taiping Thieves' camp were only three or five miles away from him, Feng He took a deep breath and shouted in a low voice, "The whole army is on alert to deal with the encounter!" ”

As soon as the words fell, there was a rush of footsteps in the darkness in the distance, and faintly, it seemed that countless black shadows could be seen rushing towards here. Although he couldn't see the other party's armor clearly, Feng He could still guess that it must be the Taiping Thief Army's patrol soldiers and horses outside his camp, just because he noticed the sound of ding, ding, ding.

"Who?" There was a loud shout in the distance.

Feng He turned a deaf ear and, according to the original plan, ordered the soldiers under his command to shoot a round with a crossbow.

With a scream, the angry scolding of the Taiping army generals came from afar.

"Zhou Jun? - Damn! How dare you attack the main camp of our army...... Kill! ”

The two groups of people quickly fought together, don't look at Feng He's command, all the cavalry, but in this kind of dark night where you can't see your fingers, in fact, the cavalry is not lethal.

Seeing the soldiers under his command sacrifice one after another, Feng He's heart ached, seeing that the goal had been achieved anyway, he immediately ordered the withdrawal of the army, during which he also scolded loudly in an angry tone, "Damn, where did so many thieves come from?" Doesn't it mean that there is an empty force in this direction? -- What the hell is the signal from the turtle son, look back and see how Lao Tzu cleans you up! - Withdraw first! Brothers, withdraw first! ”

Scolding, Feng He led this and that cavalry to withdraw, and the casualties on both sides were simply negligible.

But what was very strange was that the general of the Taiping Army's patrol soldiers and horses did not chase after him, but looked at the direction of Feng He's cavalry leaving with a suspicious expression, showing a thoughtful expression.

"That tinkling sound turned out to be a means for the various squads of the Zhou Army to pass on messages to each other? - No, I have to tell the princess about this! ”

Perhaps thinking of the seriousness of the matter, the Taiping army general couldn't chase Feng He, and ordered his soldiers to continue to guard against the attack of the Zhou army, and he personally came to the main camp to report the matter to Heavenly Ji [Liu Qing].

"What do you say? When the ding-ding-ding, it was a code for the various armies of the Zhou army to transmit messages to each other? When she heard about this, Liu Qing's face really changed.

With her wisdom, how could she not have imagined the usefulness of such an encrypted cipher in the dark night.

This means that the Zhou army can be informed of the movements in all directions in a timely manner, which means that the Zhou army can bypass the soldiers and horses sent by the Taiping army to patrol one by one and go directly to the main camp of the Taiping army.

Not long after, a succession of Taiping patrol generals returned to the camp to report similar discoveries to Liu Qing, which made Liu Qing's face worse and worse.

After thinking about it for a while, she recalled all the generals who were on duty outside the camp today to the tent for questioning.

"In all the directions where the dinging sound came, did you encounter Zhou Jun?"

I saw dozens of generals in the tent, some nodding, some shaking their heads, and so on.

"Haven't you ever met Zhou Jun?" Liu Qing asked by pointing to a general who shook his head.

"Returning to the princess. Be. The general clenched his fists and said a little unnaturally, "Because it was dark outside, the last general was a little late when he led his troops, so he never bumped into the Zhou army who sent the signal...... Please forgive the princess! As he spoke, he pleaded guilty on one knee.

It's no wonder that this general is so panicked, after all, as one of the generals of the battalion, it is a felony to be unable to arrive in time if the supervision is not effective. But at the moment, Liu Qing didn't care about reprimanding him. She squinted her eyes slightly, pondering the words of the generals.

"Sure enough, it's a code to deliver the news......" muttered, Liu Qing fell into deep thought.

Seeing this, Yang Yu, the commander of the pro-guard army who was surrounded by the Sabre Marquis, waved his hand and signaled the generals in the tent to retreat, so as not to disturb Liu Qing's contemplation. He himself stood guard on the inside of the tent door with his sword.

"Sure enough, it's a code to deliver the message, which is easy to explain...... That voice sounded first from the direction of the Zhou camp, this should be Xie An gave an order to the cavalry outside the camp, and then the cavalry lurking outside reported the message...... In other words, the first few ciphers should indicate each other's current location so that their allies know where they are and can facilitate joint operations......

But how do those guys relay the code of their current location? ”

Sit on the bed. Liu Qing held her head and pondered the tinkling sounds with a slight difference in her mind.

After thinking hard all day, she found that Zhou Jun sent a code. There was a subtle pause in the tinkling, which seemed to her to be the key.

Liu Qing guessed correctly, remembering when Xie An first demonstrated to those generals. Borrowing from the Moore's code he knew, this made the whole dinging sound rhythmic. It seems to have some kind of meaning that is difficult to understand. But in fact, Xie An was just borrowing from it, he just typed a few paragraphs randomly according to the pattern of that frequency, so that the generals would keep it in their hearts, and there was no meaning in the body.

But in any case, because it is borrowed from that fixed pattern, even if it is indiscriminately beaten, it makes people feel that there is something deep in it, after all, the number of those paragraphs is the same.

Because of this, Liu Qing felt more and more that there must be some information in her heart that she didn't know.

Thinking hard and meditating, Liu Qing only felt dizzy, and her mind was full of the sound of tens of millions of tinkling and ding, which disturbed her for a moment.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up, as if she had thought of something crucial.

She vaguely found that several of the codes beaten by the Zhou army were exactly the same.

Ding, ding......

Dingding, dingding......

Dingdingding, dingding......

Dingding, dingding......

Just like these four paragraphs, in Liu Qing's opinion, the second verse is exactly the same, what does this mean? This shows that there is indeed some kind of pattern in these ciphers, and what she has to do is to decipher the meaning of each section in these paragraphs, so that she can clearly understand all the actions of the Zhou army, so as to occupy the initiative in the battle situation.

The same verse 2, what does it really represent?

Troops? Doesn't seem right......

The position of the enemy troops? It doesn't seem right either......

Could it be...... The distance from where the main camp of our army is located ?!

Liu Qing suddenly remembered that when this tinkling sound first sounded on the first night, the sound came from an extremely distant location, at least ten miles or more......

In other words, the two dings in the second stanza refer to ten miles? If it is a single word ding, it refers to five miles?

I see, was it originally the goal of the main camp of our army?

Wait, if there is only a distance, the Zhou army can't judge the location of its allies......

Could it be that verse 1 refers to direction?

Yes, Zhou Jun never had more than four dings in the first section of the code, does this mean that the dings from one to four represent the four directions of the southeast, the northwest?

The first section is the direction, and the second is the distance......

In other words, it is a certain direction, how far is it from the main camp of our Taiping Army......

I see......

With a long exhale, Liu Qing's eyes filled with a little joy, and she felt that she seemed to be able to figure out the way gradually.

It can only be said that fortunately Xie An is not here, otherwise, he would definitely feel sincere admiration for Liu Qing's delusional ability, obviously it is just a code for her to beat indiscriminately, Liu Qing can actually find the law from it, and make a logical explanation of the meaning it represents, it seems that such a genius is really rare.

Just as a child was overjoyed because he had solved the puzzle of an adult, Liu Qing's face was filled with an excited smile, at this moment, she seemed to have forgotten the pain of being tortured by the tinkling sound in the past two days, as if even if she was tortured for two days, as long as she could solve the problem, it would be worth it.

Of course, if Liu Qing learned in the future that it was just Xie An's random code, I don't know if she would still think it was worth it.

I have to say that the excited expression on Liu Qing's face at this moment is the same as the excited look on Changsun Xiangyu's face when Xie An taught Changsun Xiangyu's so-called [common sense], the kind of excitement full of novelty about unknown things.

"The first section is the direction, the second is the distance, but what about the third section? There are only two tinklings at most in the third stanza, so what does that mean? Could it be that he is passing to the friendly forces whether there are any patrols of our Taiping Army ahead? One sound means yes, two sounds mean nothing? Or is it to send a signal to friendly forces whether to attack the main camp of our army? A sound represents an attack? Two tones represent retreat? - Well, it is also possible that one sound represents retreat, and the second sound represents attack...... I'll have to test it in the future! ”

Seeing Liu Qing muttering to herself as if she was amusing herself, and sometimes a hint of gleam flashed in her eyes, Yang Yu chuckled and shook her head, and quietly withdrew from the tent.

"Commander!" Outside the tent, a Tianfu sergeant called out to Yang Yu.

"Shh Making a gesture to signal the other party to speak softly, Yang Yu glanced back at Liu Qing in the tent, and seeing that she had not been affected, he smiled slightly, then walked a few steps away, and asked in a low voice, "What's the matter?" ”

I saw that the man hugged his fists and said in a low voice, "General Yan Yao, who is good friends with Chen Shuai, has reported privately, and Wu Heng summoned him and many generals to his tent in the afternoon to discuss the strategy against the Zhou army......

"What?" Yang Yu frowned, and said unhappily, "Leaving the princess aside to discuss in private?" ――What did you say? ”

"Divide the troops! - Wu Heng said that he didn't plan to play here with the princess who didn't know anything about it, and he was going to take the troops directly to Jiangdong! ”

"I don't know what ......" Yang Yu's brows furrowed, recalling Liu Qing's hard work in the past few days, his eyes were filled with a little anger.

"What a rampant subordinate...... Outrageous! ”