In the early morning, a thin layer of morning fog shrouded Youzhou City, a light gauze-like fog flowed in the city, there were no pedestrians on the street, the street scene became looming in the morning mist, and the street seemed extraordinarily quiet.

At this time, the side door of the Youzhou Governor's Mansion quietly opened, and a carriage drove out under the escort of more than a dozen entourages, and soon it was engulfed in the fog and disappeared in the veil of milky fog.

In the carriage, Song Zhengben was looking at the details of the alliance reached with Luo Yi, the most important thing was to hide, both sides tacitly did not let the soldiers of the Youzhou army know their union, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble, especially the cooperation of the two armies, when the Sui army attacked Zhuo County, Dou Jiande's army wanted to attack Shanggu County, when the Sui soldiers attacked Hejian County or Boling County, the army of Youzhou also attacked the Sui army, and even if necessary, the two armies should jointly fight and jointly attack the Sui army.

Song Zhengben was very proud in his heart, he single-handedly led the joint anti-Sui has achieved great success, which is enough to change the entire Hebei war situation, and will also change the pattern of the world, Song Zhengben hopes that Dou Jiande can unify Hebei to establish the imperial industry, and then pacify the whole world, then he can become a famous minister of the auxiliary generation.

The carriage passed through the streets, and soon drove out of the city gate and headed south, Song Zhengben's arrival this time was very secretive, only bringing a dozen followers, and he was even more low-key when he left, Luo Yi did not send troops to escort him out of the city, it was also inevitable, Luo Yi did not want his soldiers to know that Song Zhengben was coming.

Song Zhengben's carriage drove out of Youzhou City, and at noon, the carriage arrived at Cage Fire City, which is the outer castle of Youzhou City, where an army of 300 people met Song Zhengben, and the carriage continued to travel south along the Yongji Canal under the escort of 300 cavalry, passing through a huge warehouse. When Goryeo was attacked, these warehouses were filled with grain and supplies, but after years of looting and consumption, hundreds of warehouses were empty, and there were no defenders around, as if hundreds of giants stood alone on both sides of the canal.

Just behind Song Zhengben's carriage, the two horsemen were still following unhurriedly hundreds of paces away, at night. Song Zhengben arrived in Anci County. The team entered the city to rest, and at this time, one of the people who followed Song Zhengben left.

Twilight is coming. The gray sky light quickly faded, and on the edge of a forest in the south of Gu'an County, Zhuo County, a cavalry team of more than 1,000 Sui troops was gathering together to rest. They had been on the march all day, and both men and horses were exhausted.

The leader of the team was none other than the general Niu Jinda, who accepted Qin Qiong's order to carry out an important mission to intercept Dou Jiande's envoy Song Zhengben.

The soldiers were silently eating dry food and taking two sips of wine at the same time, and the extreme cold of the night required them to use wine to expel the chill from their bodies.

They are located about 30 miles from Gu'an County, an area that was originally densely populated, but after years of bandits. It was already thousands of miles away, and within at least twenty miles, they did not see a single human habit, and everywhere they could see the dead and silent villages, and the former farmland was overgrown with weeds half a man high.

The deepening twilight slowly enveloped the empty field, and the cold wind was bitter, and Niu Jinda took a sip of wine. Ate two more pieces of mutton pie, and gradually recovered his strength, he took out the map to study as usual, he set off early this morning, after receiving the news of Youzhou City. And they set out at once, for a whole day. They traveled one hundred and eighty miles, they had to intercept Song Zhengben before he entered Hejian County, once they entered Hejian County, they would have Dou Jiande's heavy troops to respond, and they would have no chance.

Judging from Song Zhengben's southbound route, he should have walked along the official road next to the Yongji Canal, that road Niu Jinda had walked a few years ago, wide and flat, and the general carriage could go more than 100 miles a day, if the other party was faster, they should be near Anci County now.

At this time, it was completely dark, and he could no longer see the map clearly, Niu Jinda put the map away, and said to the army: "Everyone hurry up and rest, and set off in an hour!" ”

He also took out a thick military blanket and wrapped himself in it, although the military blanket could not withstand the biting cold of the night, the exhaustion of his body made him almost fall asleep when he lay down.

But he didn't fall asleep because he heard the sound of horses' hooves in the wilderness, and the sound of horses' hooves was not drowned out by the devilish howl of the forest in the forest, which means that it was already near.

Niu Jinda sat up straight all of a sudden, and soon, the patrol soldier brought a knight up, "General, it's for the internal guard." ”

Niu Jinda is overjoyed, what he needs most urgently now is the intelligence of the Internal Guard, where has Song Zhengping arrived?

The knight was one of the two horsemen who followed Song Zhengping, and he searched for several pre-agreed rest points in a row, and finally found the Sui cavalry, and he knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See General Niu!" ”

"No need to be polite, tell me about the target!"

"General Hui, Song Zhengping has already arrived in Anci County, and now he is resting in the county, they should leave early tomorrow morning."

As expected, they arrived in Anci County, but Song Zhengping rested overnight, and their opportunity came, Niu Jinda asked again: "How many entourages are there?" ”

"They themselves only have fifteen retinues, but in Caged Fire City, Luo Yi has arranged three hundred cavalry escorts, and it is estimated that they will be sent all the way to Hejian County."

'Three hundred cavalry! ’

Niu Jinda quickly calculated in his heart, and a decisive interception plan came to his mind.

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In the afternoon of the next day, Song Zhengping's carriage passed through Yongnu County, and then walked more than 100 miles to the south, which is the territory of Hejian County, where is Dou Jiande's territory, the carriage traveled on the vast Hebei Plain, on both sides are endless fields, covered in snow, patches of forests are scattered on the field, there are still no people here, there are ruins of villages everywhere, groups of wild dogs wander in the wilderness, hungry looking for food.

Song Zhengping sat in the carriage, looking at the bleak and dilapidated scenery outside the car window, he couldn't help but sigh, he still remembered the situation when he went to Youzhou City during the Kaihuang period and passed by here, there were endless wheat fields everywhere, the villages on both sides were dense, densely populated, when it had become so dilapidated, he also had to admit that although the Liaodong Campaign made the people rapidly impoverished, it was not the harsh government of the imperial court that really destroyed the Sui Dynasty, but the many bandits like cattle hair, they did not produce, they lived by robbery, swept villages and villages, and everywhere they passed, Property and food were plundered, women were robbed of adultery, old people and children died in ravines, and chickens and dogs were left behind in the places they passed.

And now the war has not stopped, and the population will continue to be consumed, I don't know how many people will be there in the world when Dou Jiande unifies the country?

Song Zhengping was also considering whether they should learn from the Northern Sui, re-implement the Juntian system, recuperate, encourage more births, and implement the strategy of elite soldiers, he also felt that Dou Jiande's army was too much, there were 400,000 people, while the Northern Sui only had 150,000 troops, and the population of Hedong was much more than that of Hebei.

Just thinking about it, the carriage stopped, and Song Zhengben was stunned and asked, "What happened?" ”

The coachman said, "Master, it seems that the bridge is broken." ”

Song Zhengben sat in the car for most of the day, and was a little tired, he got off the carriage and moved his muscles, he looked around, there was a forest dozens of steps behind him, the forest was not big, covering an area of hundreds of acres, it was extremely common in the Great Plains, there was no human population in the surrounding wilderness, a dozen steps ahead was a small river three zhang wide, the bridge on the river was broken, I don't know why, he didn't take this road when he came, and he didn't know if the bridge was newly broken or broken a long time ago.

"The river is frozen, and the bridge should not affect anything!" Song Zhengben asked loudly.

One soldier replied: "The river is too shallow, and it is still a deep ditch, and the bridge must be repaired, otherwise it will not be able to cross." ”

Song Zhengben stomped his feet, took a breath of hot air on his hands, rubbed the back of his hands vigorously, and looked around, at this time, he suddenly found that there seemed to be movement in the forest behind him, he was stunned for a moment, rubbed his eyes, but found that a black spot appeared in front of him instantly, and before he could react, he had a sharp pain in his chest, and an arrow shot into his left chest.

Song Zhengben screamed miserably, fell to the ground, and then more screams sounded, the arrows shot from the forest were like dense rain, and the three hundred Youzhou soldiers guarding Song Zhengben fell to the ground in the middle, and there was a big chaos at the bridge, Song Zhengben's carriage was also shot by arrows, and the two horses fell in a pool of blood, and the carriage also overturned.

A thousand Sui troops rushed out of the forest, while shooting arrows, while surrounding the Youzhou army, at this time, less than half of the remaining Youzhou cavalry began to desperately break through, they were surrounded by a thousand of the most elite Sui cavalry regiments, the disparity in strength, the Youzhou cavalry became less and less, and was gradually swallowed by a thousand Sui cavalry.

Niu Jinda urged the horse to come to the carriage, and a soldier handed Niu Jinda a leather bag, "General, there is only this bag in the carriage." ”

Niu Jinda opened the bag and looked at it, it was all kinds of documents, as well as the agreement signed by Luo Yi and Song Zhengben, this is what he wants.

Niu Jinda turned over and dismounted, and walked in front of Song Zhengben, Song Zhengben was not dead, but he was bleeding too much and was dying, Niu Jinda squatted down and asked him, "Are you willing to sleep here, or are you willing to go with us." ”

Song Zhengben was speechless, but he slowly stretched out his hand and grabbed the leather bag in Niu Jinda's hand, but his hand stopped halfway through, and Song Zhengben stopped breathing.

Niu Jinda stood up, pointed to Song Zhengben's corpse and ordered: "Take his corpse away, and burn and bury the rest of the corpses on the spot, leaving not a single living mouth." ”

Two hours later, the Sui soldiers had finished dealing with all traces, and more than a thousand people turned their horses and galloped towards the west, and in a short time, they disappeared into the vast wilderness.