The winter night always comes early, and the Sangan River Bay is already shrouded in the shadow of the river valley, and both sides retreat back to the camp after a concerted strike, and after a day of noisy battle, only countless cold corpses and horses without their owners are left to mourn in the empty bay.

'Knock knock' The drum sounded, Han Ling was awakened, he moved and opened his eyes to peek out of his sleeping bag, there was darkness in front of him, and his ears were full of whistling winds, "Brothers, get up, it's time to go on patrol!" Han Ling crawled out of his sleeping bag and shivered, although he slept in a thick felt tent, he still couldn't stop the pervasive wind, and the tent was as cold as an ice cellar.

"Quick, quick, don't be lazy!" Han Ling climbed out of his sleeping bag and shouted at his subordinates who refused to get up while getting dressed. They belong to the scout team of the 3rd Brigade of the Krüd Army, and Han Ling is the leader of the 2nd detachment, in charge of two groups of more than 20 brothers, who will take over the second squad to patrol outside the stockade, and the night patrol is to monitor the changes in the enemy camp to see if they can increase troops or retreat at night; The second is to prevent enemy attacks at night.

"The feces and urine are solved in advance, otherwise the cock will be frozen, don't blame me for reminding you!" Han Ling put on the wool socks before putting on the felt boots baked by the fire cage, and his mouth was still telling the stunned subordinates who had just climbed out of the sleeping bag to sleep, the enemy they faced was not only the vicious Jurchens, but also this cold weather, one carelessness would cause frostbite, although it would not kill you, but the lack of a finger and the lack of an ear were also very annoying.

Han Ling tirelessly told this and that, checking over and over again whether their weapons and equipment were ready to stop. His chatter gave the impression that he had run into his mother, but he had a gold medal of the Roaring Lion pinned to his breastplate, which represented the highest honor of the Krüpts. Nowadays, the people who can be possessed in the entire army can be counted with one hand, but the people who can wear it are not rolled in the blood a few times. Heroes crawling out of the pile of dead.

Under the nagging of the detachment leader, the scouts of the C group quickly dressed neatly and prepared to set off, and the baggage team had prepared a day's dry food and a small pot of wine for them, which was forbidden in the army during the war, and this wine was a special care for their scouts.

Out of the camp, the wind seemed to be stronger, blowing the people on horseback to sway. It seems to be blown into the sky like a kite at any time. Tonight is the beginning of the month, and only the faint light of the stars shines for them, but do not take the glow that flashes from time to time as the stars in the sky fall to the ground, it is the eyes of wild beasts that reflect the light, the corpses left on the battlefield during the day's battles attract wolves, and the corpses of those men and horses in the winter when there is no food are tantamount to a feast for them.

The scouts were far away from the battlefield, they didn't want to provoke the wolves, they could only choose to avoid it, but it did not stop the low roar of the wind beasts fighting for 'food' and the howls of their companions. and the creaking sound of biting corpses reaching their ears...

Night patrols were a chore, but the scouts seemed to be used to it, and the eleven squads were so sparsely scattered that they could only see each other's backs. They don't speak to each other. The scouts focused their rounds on the two mountain passes, which had to be passed by both the Jin army and the retreat, and the closer they got to the passes, the slower they went. The guns were in their hands, and the bullets were loaded. They will not hesitate to shoot when they find something abnormal.

Seeing that today's battle between the two sides has just begun, in fact, the battle between the scouts of the two armies began a few days ago. In order to grasp the situation of the other party. Both sides will send scouts to scout their opponents, and in order to ensure that their whereabouts and situation are known to the other side, this side will also send scouts to clear out enemy scouts that have infiltrated their camps and marching routes.

Therefore, they are on patrol at night, and the Jurchen scouts will not be idle, maybe the scouts in the grass, hidden places in the stone crevices are staring at them, and cold arrows will be shot in the dark, flying out of the lasso, once the two sides meet, it will be a life-and-death fight. And the route they took today is their fixed route, which has long been targeted by the spies of the Jin army, and there was a battle between the scouts on both sides last night, and the gang of the third division killed and wounded five brothers.

"Dismount!" When he was still more than five hundred steps away from the mouth of the treasure bottle, Han Ling said softly.

"Head, what's wrong?" Several people jumped off their horses without hesitation and gathered over, they were convinced of Han Ling in their hearts, he could always feel the aura of danger before others!

"Big head, do you hear the sound of a herd of horses passing by?" Han Ling said to a bearded man, he has a huge head, but he also has two good ears that are sensitive.

The big head listened to it, except for the sound of the wind, there didn't seem to be any sound that could arouse suspicion, but he knew that the captain of the road would not let everyone stop and listen to the wind for no reason, the big head took two steps forward and found a flat place to lie down, and put his right ear on the ground, and everyone else stayed in place and held their breath for fear that their panting would interfere with the big head.

"Chief, I can't hear it clearly, but there is indeed a large group of horses passing by, they should have wrapped the horses' hooves, and they are leading the horses slowly, are they trying to attack the camp?" After a while, the big head got up and whispered.

"That's it, I smell the horses, but the wind is too strong for me to tell if there is a horse team passing by, since you also heard it, it shouldn't be wrong!" Han Ling said.

"Boss, are we going back to the camp?" Cao Dongchen, the leader of Group C, asked.

"Lying about the military situation is a big crime, and now the situation is still unclear, and we all have to lose our heads if we report it without authorization and cause chaos!" Han Ling shook his head and said, although he found signs of the Jin army's movement, but he didn't know their purpose, once the return was bound to be the whole army on alert, but there was no fart in the end, he was embarrassed, but he couldn't help it, "Leave two people waiting here, and when they see our signal, they will go back to the camp immediately to report, and the others will come forward with me to check what the Jurchens are doing!" ”

"Three tigers, six monkeys, you two stay here, take care of the horses, and if you find that the situation is wrong, you don't need to wait for us to return to the camp immediately to report!" Cao Dongchen turned around and instructed the two of them, since there is a large group of people and horses moving, there must be their scouts around them, so it is possible that they will be discovered by the enemy and will not be able to get out.

"The rest of the people are divided into three groups, keep a distance, try not to do anything when you encounter the Jin Army scouts, and find out the enemy's movements!" Han Ling said.

Han Ling took three people in the center, Cao Dongchen led a group to explore the way, and a group behind them as a response, nine people abandoned their horses and walked forward on foot, but they didn't take a hundred steps and found that the Jin army scouts were infested, and the more enemy scouts went forward, that is, they would have been discovered long ago if it was dark, but they had not yet found the traces of the enemy army. Han Ling made a decision immediately, ordered the others to retreat, and only took the eldest two to investigate...

The scouts of the Jin army who had escaped the inspection, the light and dark sentry arranged, it took Han Ling and Datou nearly an hour to complete the rest of the road, although it was cold and dripping into ice, but the clothes of the two were soaked with sweat, but the situation was a little weird.

Because the second brigade is stationed in Yingzhou, the surrounding terrain is well known to Hanling, and the mouth of the treasure bottle seems to be an exit, but inside it is a ridge divided into two waters, and a road is the Sanggan River valley road taken by the Jin army to the south. The other is a tributary of a small river that only has water during the rainy season, and the outlet seems to be wide, but it gradually narrows after less than ten miles upstream, making it difficult for even a single horse, and the locals call it 'ghost and sorrow'. But the Jin army entered this valley, which is puzzling.

In order to figure out the mystery, Han Ling decided to follow up further, and the two of them went up the mountain along Shanyin to avoid the scouts of the Jin army. When they panted up to the top of the mountain and looked into the valley, there was a bright spot at the bottom of the valley, and the Jin army that entered the valley did not continue but stayed here, only because the fire was blocked by the mountain peak.

"What are the Jurchens trying to do?" Han Ling made a rough count, there were at least 2,000 men and horses in ambush in the valley, if it was to explore the road, there was no need to send so many people, and they chose to do it at night! If they want to attack the camp, but there is still some distance from their camp after climbing over the mountains, and it is a beach that is unobstructed and can be discovered quickly, and it will not achieve the effect of a surprise attack at all. Han Ling was confused.

"Boss, it's about to dawn, it's going to be difficult if we don't leave!" The big head looked up at the sky, the morning star had already shown his face, and it was about to dawn, he reminded softly.

"Alright, let's withdraw!" Han Ling couldn't figure out what was going on, but he didn't want to fold himself here.

The two of them carefully moved down and returned to the agreed meeting point, only the three tigers were still waiting there, "Boss, why did you come back, the gang leader waited for you to go back to the camp to pay the order, let me wait for you to come back, it's dawn, I thought something happened to you!" The three tigers saw them greet them and said, their words full of concern.

"Let's hurry back to the camp, I saw something strange last night, we have to report it quickly!" Han Ling didn't say much, turned over and ran quickly towards the camp, their big move was quickly discovered by the Jin army scouts, and immediately a team of Jin army patted their horses and chased after them, according to the usual rules, the scouts on both sides often evacuated before dawn in order not to be discovered by the patrolling brigade, but the abnormality of the Jin army scouts today made Han Ling believe that the Jin army hidden in the valley must be hiding some secret.

The three of them didn't pay attention to the shouting of the Jin army behind them, they just beat their horses and ran away, and the Jin army behind them chased after them, and they didn't retreat until they saw the enemy's rangers appear on the battlefield yesterday.

"Odd soldiers?" Han Ling looked back at the retreating Jin Jun, raised his eyes and saw the mountain he had climbed for half the night, and suddenly thought of something... (To be continued......)