On the morning of July 30, Heavenly Ji Liu Qing had just gotten up, and before she had time to have breakfast, she learned a piece of news that made her a little depressed.

"What? An hour ago, a thousand people of the Zhou army left the camp? Patting his forehead slightly, trying to make himself more sober, Liu Qing looked at the Taiping army general who had come to pay his respects with a confused expression.

"Yes, princess." The general of the Taiping Army hugged his fists and said respectfully, "According to the scouts of our army, the 1,000 Zhou soldiers are all cavalry, and after leaving the camp, they look northeast, and our scouts can't catch up with ......."

Liu Qing frowned when she heard this, and said unhappily, "Why didn't you come to tell me until now?" ”

"This ......," the Taiping army general hesitated for a moment, and said with a sad face, "At that time, the princess had not yet gotten up, and the last general did not dare to disturb ......"

"......" Liu Qing opened her mouth wordlessly, waved her hand and said, "That's it, next time if Zhou Jun has any changes, tell me directly!" ”

“…… Be! ”

At this moment, a loud announcement suddenly sounded outside the tent.

"Report! - There is a military princess in front of the scout! ”

Liu Qing in the tent was stunned when she heard this, and immediately said in a deep voice, "Come in!" ”

As soon as the words fell, a Taiping army scout strode into the tent, knocked on the ground and clenched his fists, and said urgently, "Princess Qiyu, just a moment ago, more than 1,000 cavalry from the Zhou army camp came out of the camp and looked southeast!" ”

"Northeast?" Remembering that Fang Cai had received similar information, Liu Qing was suspicious in his heart and asked repeatedly.

"Yes, Princess, Tohoku!"

"......" waved his hand to tell the scout to stand down, and Liu Qing slowly paced in the tent, her pretty face full of doubt.

An hour ago, more than 1,000 cavalry of the Zhou army left the camp and headed northeast......

Just now. Another thousand horsemen left the camp and headed northeast......

That's two thousand cavalry......

So what exactly does Xie An want to do?

With all the suspicions in her heart, Liu Qing instructed the soldiers to prepare water and prepare for washing and eating.

An hour later, when Liu Qing had breakfast and guessed Xie An's movements on the marching map, he got the news that another thousand cavalry of the Zhou army left the camp and headed northeast......

"Three thousand cavalry ......"

Looking at the marching chart on the table, Liu Qing's eyes unconsciously flashed a little solemn.

Don't look at the comparison of the total army of more than 200,000 on both sides, the cavalry of the 3,000 Zhou army seems insignificant. But Liu Qing, who is good at using soldiers, knows very well that 3,000 cavalry is already a powerful military force that can turn the tide of victory or defeat in a battle.

So what is Xie An going to do?

Don't you want to secretly put a cavalry outside to harass our army?

"Yes!" Nodding with relief, Liu Qing muttered to herself. "The cavalry is undoubtedly overused to guard the camp, if I am Na Xie An, if I decide not to fight alive or dead, most of the cavalry under my command will be placed outside to put pressure on our army...... Hmph, is there a lack of cavalry in our army? Tut! ”

Speaking of which, in the end. Liu Qing's eyes showed a faint hint of jealousy.

Cavalry is always the most valued type of soldier by soldiers, and the reason why it is valued is not because of its combat effectiveness. It is the mobility force, you must know that the Shenwu Battalion of the Eastern Army, known as the [First Cavalry of the Great Zhou], every soldier in the army is equipped with two strong war horses, which allows the Eastern Army to march more than 100 miles, or even 150 miles, in one day without difficulty. What is this concept?

This meant that the Eastern Army was able to move from one county to another in less than two days. No army could keep up with the speed of its marches; This meant that the Eastern Army would always have more time than any other army to get the first hand.

Once, Liu Qing also thought about building a cavalry, but it was a pity that the Great Zhou court's control of war horses was too strict.

Looking at the land of horses in the Great Zhou Dynasty, Youyan was occupied by Li Mao, the king of Yan, who hated the Taiping army very much, and it was impossible to trade war horses privately with the Taiping army; Hexi, which is the place where the Shenwu camp of the Eastern Army grazes horses, the Great Zhou Dynasty stipulates that all Hexi horses are supplied to the Eastern Army and are not allowed to be traded privately; Northland, the largest horse herding in the Great Zhou Dynasty, is also the source of war horses for most of the cavalry in the Great Zhou Dynasty, in recent years, the Northland horse can be said to be in short supply, and how to talk about private sales; Xiliang Tianshui, the only huge pasture in the Great Zhou Dynasty that has not been fully controlled and dominated by the Qiang people.

Over the years, with the convenience of cooperating with Li Shen, the king of Qin, Liu Qing also privately purchased a number of war horses, but the number was far from enough to form a cavalry, after all, Li Shen, the king of Qin, also planned to form a cavalry, and his war horses were also purchased from the Xiliang Tianshui area, only at the very beginning, in order to express friendship, Li Shen symbolically purchased some war horses for Liu Qing.

In the final analysis, although the Three Kings and the Taiping Army are currently in a cooperative alliance, both sides are very clear that once the soldiers and horses of the Great Zhou are defeated, and the Qin King Li Shen gains power, or the Taiping Army gains power, then the alliance between the two of them is bound to break down.

It is precisely because of this intriguing alliance that Liu Qing has not been able to assemble a cavalry of 3,000 people, and Xie An on the opposite side has a faction of 3,000 cavalry, how can this not make Liu Qing jealous?

What's more, according to the information sent by the Guangling assassins, Liu Qing knew that among the 80,000 Liang troops under Xie An's command, there were at least 20,000 cavalry, as well as 30,000 spear halberd infantry and 30,000 crossbowmen.

Liu Qing fantasized more than once that if she had these 80,000 Liang troops in her hands, let alone taking the counties in the south of the Yangtze River, she would even be sure to hit the capital and Jijing of the Great Zhou, but unfortunately, it was the local powerhouse of the Great Zhou.

Comparatively speaking, although there are 150,000 people under her command, almost half of them only have one weapon, only a small number of people have armor to protect themselves and have complete armor, and the rest of the soldiers, even the most basic leather armor, can not be equipped with the whole army.

And this is also where Liu Qing looks down on Xie An, obviously you have such a well-equipped Liang army, but you only know that you are cowering in the camp, and what makes Liu Qing feel even more depressed is that because the equipment of the two armies is too far apart, she can't send someone to storm Xie An's camp, unless she can be ruthless as Wu Heng said, and use the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers or even more than 100,000 soldiers to push down Xie An's camp. Win this battle.

And this is not what Liu Qing wants to see.

3,000 cavalry......

Liu Qing raised her hand and rubbed the corners of her forehead, although her eyes were closed, the entire marching map clearly appeared in her mind, and she made judgments one by one about the places where the cavalry of the three thousand Zhou army might appear.

However, she thought about it, but she didn't think of anything, after all, this Poyang Lake area. Only the mountains and forests on the east bank of Poyang Lake are the granaries of her Taiping army's hoarding of grain and grass, and there is nothing else worth guarding against.

Could it be that Xie An sent those 3,000 cavalry with the intention of attacking our army's granary?

It seems to be going northeast, but in fact it is secretly detouring back to the south?

I thought about it for a while. Liu Qing shook her head slightly, she didn't think that Xie An had the courage to send a lone army deep into the hinterland of her Taiping army, in her opinion, if Xie An really had the courage, he would not have cowered in the camp and would not come out to fight.

In other words, those 3,000 cavalry should have been used to harass our army at an opportune time. Put pressure on us and others......

Thinking of this, Liu Qing nodded secretly, and immediately called a general and asked him to command the whole army. Day and night on guard against the harassment of the cavalry of the Zhou army.

Some people may think that since Liu Qing has already calculated this matter, why not think of a way to eat this cavalry?

You know, harassment is not the same as offense. It is very difficult to completely prevent it on the ground, and we can only be vigilant.

What is harassment?

At night, the 3,000 cavalry carried a gong and beat loudly and shouted loudly outside the Taiping military camp. The 150,000 Taiping soldiers who disturbed the ground could not sleep steadily, which is also called harassment, but is there a way to put an end to this kind of thing? You have just chased people out of the camp with people, and they got on their horses and ran, how can you outrun other people's four legs on two legs?

But if you don't care about it at all and turn a deaf ear, it is very likely that after being harassed once or twice, they will make a fake show and directly attack your military camp at night.

Therefore, in the face of this kind of thing, even Liu Qing can only tell the soldiers under her command to be vigilant, and she even issued an order that if the Great Zhou cavalry really comes to harass at night, prepare a force to strictly prevent the Zhou army from attacking at night, and the rest of the soldiers sleep in peace, and Hugh will go to take care of things outside the camp.

Admittedly, this is the best way to deal with it.

In addition, there was no movement in the Zhou army camp, and on the side of the Taiping army, Wei Hu, the god of heavenly power, went to fight outside the Zhou camp as usual, but this time, Xie An didn't even show up, just sent a few articulate young generals to scold Wei Hu, scolding Wei Hu for smoking.

After the two sides scolded each other for an hour or two, Wei Hu withdrew his troops, and the Zhou army did not go out of the camp to catch up, and there were no losses on both sides.

Liu Qing was not surprised by this, but what puzzled her even more was that the 3,000 Zhou cavalry who had left the camp did not harass the Taiping army's camp at night.

The next day, that is, on the first day of August, the Hukou Zhou army camp sent another cavalry of 1,000 men every other hour, a total of three, exactly the same as yesterday.

The only difference is that today's three cavalry of the Zhou army are heading for the southeast.

This made Liu Qing's heart even more confused, and after breakfast, he meditated the marching map.

At this time, Wei Hu, the god general of Tianquan, once again led his subordinates to Xie An's Zhou army camp to scold and fight.

Perhaps with this experience, Wei Hu was not angered by the scolding of the Zhou army soldiers today, and he happily withdrew with people in the evening, as if the purpose of his trip was not to force Xie An to go out of the camp to fight, but simply to scold the soldiers of the Zhou army.

On the third day, that is, on August 2, it seems that there has finally been a slight change, although the Zhou army camp still sent three cavalry of 1,000 men on time, but this time, these three cavalry went in different directions, one to the west in the direction of Pengze County, one to the southwest in the direction of Yuzhang County, and one in the direction of Yuzhang County in the southwest, and one actually settled in a fishing village forty miles away from the Hukou military camp and requisitioned boats from the local fishermen nearby.

When she learned the news, Liu Qing was really taken aback, staring at the marching map with a moving face, and the expression on her face changed again and again.

To be honest, Xie An sent a cavalry to Pengze County, Liu Qing was not surprised, after all, when he saw that Xie An was not fooled two days ago, Liu Qing knew that he had lost an important chess piece.

Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, the prefect of Jiangnan County who was finally supported by the Taiping Army, has exposed the fact that he is a member of the Taiping Army.

Even, in Liu Qing's view, if Xie An had a little brain, he could even guess that Kong Yan, the prefect of Yuzhang County, had secretly moved closer to the Taiping Army.

Therefore. Whether Xie An sent troops to Pengze County or Yuzhang County, this was not unexpected by Liu Qing, the question was that Xie An's move was just to divert her attention, or did he really plan to take the opportunity to take those two counties first.

Pengzejun, although it feels very pity, but Liu Qing already thinks that it belongs to Xie An in her heart, in the final analysis, she just supported a few people like Yu Li to control Pengzejun. The soldiers and civilians in the county were still under the orders of the Great Zhou court. Although many of them also harbored hatred for the Great Zhou court, they would not dare to ask them to assist her Taiping army like Yu Li did. After all, seventeen years ago, the Great Zhou army slaughtered Jinling City and killed nearly 100,000 people in one go, which really frightened a number of people in the south of the Yangtze River.

Because of this. As long as Xie An shows his identity, he can easily take Pengze County, after all, Yu Li has been controlled by him, and there are no qualified officials in Pengze County.

In contrast, Liu Qing was even more puzzled by Xie An's purpose of sending another 1,000-man cavalry to Yuzhang County in the southwest.

In her opinion, because of the relationship between Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, Xie An most likely also began to suspect Kong Yan, the prefect of Yuzhang County. Therefore, it is very likely that he intends to eradicate Kong Yan first.

And this is indeed a problem for Liu Qing.

The situation in Yuzhang County was similar to that of Pengze County, and Liu Qing was just the governor of some local counties who either controlled or supported it. The soldiers and civilians in the county did not know the situation, which was also the reason why the 4,000 officers and soldiers of Pengze County who accompanied him that day did not riot after Yu Li, the prefect of Pengze County, was taken by Xie An.

In the final analysis, the Taiping army is always a rebel army. How can it be possible to control the counties and counties in the south of the Yangtze River in a grand manner, if this is really the case. [King of the Eight Sages] Li Xian had already led his troops over, how could there be three years of peace between the two sides?

Compared with the two thousand-man cavalry that went to Pengze County and Yuzhang County, what made Liu Qing feel most frightened was the last thousand-man cavalry, the one who settled in that fishing village and requisitioned boats from local fishermen.

What did Xie An do with the requisitioned boat?

Could it be that you want to go upriver from the Yangtze River, sail into Poyang Lake in a boat, and attack our Taiping Army from the side?

Joke!

Although the soldiers of the Great Liang Army were born in the Central Plains and were not unaccustomed to water like most of the northern armies of the Great Zhou, even so, they were not the opponents of the officers and soldiers of our Taiping Army. On the ground, maybe the Great Liang Army can defeat one enemy and two because of equipment problems, but if it is in the water, one non-commissioned officer in his own army can kill several opponents!

Suddenly, Liu Qing's eyes flashed with a little surprise.

Worst......

Could it be that Xie An planned to call the cavalry to cross the river and go to Gangneung, Nanjun to support [the Eight Sages King] Li Xian?

Yes!

How can that guy say that he is an important minister of the Great Zhou court, and he is a very good minister, an official of the highest rank, it can't be really a mediocre and ignorant person......

I see......

As if thinking of something, a smile appeared on Liu Qing's face, and he muttered to himself, "No wonder you don't leave the camp to fight...... What a good calculation! -- Blocking our 150,000 Taiping troops at the mouth of the lake and secretly sending elite cavalry to support Li Xian, so that our army could make no progress and Li Xian could get out of trouble...... Wait, if you say that, could it be that the six thousand-man cavalry two days ago were also to support Li Xian? ”

Seven thousand cavalry......

Although Liu Qing knew that most of them were not aimed at his Taiping army, he was also secretly worried about the Three Kings, after all, if the Three Kings were defeated too early, it would mean that [Eight Sage Kings] Li Xian would be able to free up his hands and wave his army south, helping Xie An on the opposite side to flank her Taiping Army before and after, which was definitely not what Liu Qing wanted to see.

Fortunately, he asked Brother Chen to help King Li Shen of Qin two days earlier, otherwise he would have succeeded by Xie An's treacherous scheme......

Liu Qing patted his chest in fear, and immediately sent a scout to monitor the banks of the Yangtze River to see if there were any fishing boats going up the river to Jiangling in Nanjun.

What made Liu Qing stunned was that the next morning, the scouts who were monitoring along the Yangtze River came to report that there were no boats on the river.

Liu Qing, who was suspicious in his heart, immediately sent people to the small fishing village, but found that the thousand-strong cavalry of the Zhou army, which was still there yesterday, had disappeared without a trace today.

What shocked her even more was that the two thousand-strong cavalry of the Zhou army that went to Pengze County and Yuzhang County also disappeared without a trace.

A full nine thousand cavalry disappeared out of thin air without a trace?

Beads of sweat oozed from her forehead unconsciously, and Liu Qing felt uneasy for the first time.

"I don't understand, I don't understand...... So what exactly does Xie An want to do? ”

For a whole day, Liu Qing stood at the table in the tent, staring at the marching map, thinking hard about Xie An's intentions, only wanting to sweat again and again, and even Wu Heng, the deputy marshal who wanted to urge her to storm the Zhou army camp, didn't bother to greet her, and casually asked Wu Heng to retreat with a few perfunctory words, which made Wu Heng's heart very angry.

With an extremely uneasy mood, Liu Qing did not fall asleep until very late.

As she fell asleep, she was suddenly awakened by a vague sound, the sound of two iron rods pounding.

With an irritated look on his face, Liu Qing stepped out of the tent and asked the soldiers waiting outside the tent very unhappily.

"Where's the noise?"

Probably noticing the displeasure on Liu Qing's face, the pro-soldiers lowered their heads, and one of them said cautiously, "Princess Qiyu, it's not our army, this sound is from Zhou Ying......"

"Zhou Ying?" Liu Qing's face changed slightly, her eyebrows furrowed, and she listened carefully, only then did she realize that the sound that seemed to be like a metal knock had some kind of inexplicable rhythm, and it was definitely not a random beating.

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

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

Then, in the far east, a similar sound was faintly heard, as if echoing Zhou Ying's distance.

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

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

Immediately afterward, similar sounds were heard in all directions, probably far away, and even in such a quiet night, it seemed to be nothing, and if you didn't listen carefully, you might mistake it for the wind and ignore it.

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

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

Cipher?

Is it a code used by the main camp of the Zhou army to contact the cavalry outside?

What exactly does this code mean?

Wait a minute......

So, the 9,000 cavalry didn't leave, just around their 150,000 army?

Just when Liu Qing was secretly frightened, these voices disappeared, and the silence lasted until an hour later, when these voices sounded again.

What made Liu Qing feel uneasy was that the position of the sound this time, as well as the rhythm of the beating, were slightly different from the last time.

What does he want to do?

So what exactly does Xie An want to do?

Liu Qing was vaguely restless.

On the night of August 3, [Heavenly Ji] Liu Qing never closed her eyes all night, and her mind was full of rhythmic dinging sounds.

ps: By the way, anyone else guesses the chapter name? Well, let the big guy win once.