The young man sitting on the Mazha was Mutel, who led the cavalry troops to the south first, and after the ambush of Tuanbai Valley, the Zhou army's grain transportation team was the first blow he hit in the south to help the Northern Han Dynasty. The person who reported to Muttel was his old subordinate, Chang Shengjun, who was also the deputy commander of the "Rangers" battalion and the deputy captain of the special teaching brigade.

After listening to Chang Shengjun's report, Muttel put down the kettle in his hand and nodded. Although Muttel is not very familiar with history, he has heard Zhang Weixin introduce Shi Shouxin before, and knows that this person is a famous general in the historical period from the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, and is one of Zhao Kuangyin's "Ten Brothers of the Righteous Society". Such a brave general, but now he is left with no bones and no place to be buried, which makes Muttel a little embarrassed and emotional.

However, Muttel is not a sentimental person after all, and in terms of the current relationship between the Beiping Army and the Later Zhou court, this Shi Shouxin can also be regarded as a potential opponent on his side, so after a little emotion, Mutel quickly returned to normal and asked: "Except for those who are seriously injured and will definitely die, how many prisoners have we captured in total?" ”

"Hui Thirty-fifth Master, not counting the seriously injured, a total of more than 1,530 people have been arrested, and now they are being guarded by the brethren of the 11th Regiment and the Independent Regiment of the 'Security Army'. He has instructed the commanders of these two regiments to dispose of these more than 1,000 people, including those who were seriously wounded, after the battlefield is cleaned, and there will never be a single one left alive to reveal our whereabouts. Chang Shengjun replied respectfully and calmly, as if he and Muttel were discussing the preparation to kill more than a thousand sheep instead of living people—as a veteran of the former Northern Han army, Chang Shengjun did not have any good feelings about the Later Zhou army, because those were his enemies several years ago, and his leg was wounded and crippled during the first attack on the Han by the Later Zhou army.

After listening to Chang Shengjun's answer, Muttel did not immediately order the Hou Zhou captives to be slaughtered, but pondered for a moment and asked, "Have these captives ever discovered our true identity?" ”

"It didn't." Chang Shengjun replied, "The brothers of the Independent Regiment and the 11th Regiment of the 'Security Army' are all from outside the Saiwai, and they are no different from the Khitans outside the Saiwai in terms of language and behavior. From humble observation, although our brothers are wearing the uniforms of the Han army, those captives are influenced by the words and actions of the brothers of the Independent Regiment and the Eleventh Regiment, and they have already decided that the Khitans who attacked them were Khitans who came to aid the Han court in disguise as Han soldiers, and they did not expect that none of our more than 10,000 people were real Khitans. ”

"It's for the best." "In this case, we don't have to kill all these captives." ”

"What does the thirty-fifth master mean?" Chang Shengjun asked with some puzzlement.

Muttel explained: "The purpose of our southward march this time is to harass the rear of the Zhou army, cut off his grain routes, make the army besieging Taiyuan unstable, and finally lift the siege of Taiyuan and withdraw the army. If we kill all the prisoners here, it will take at least four or five days for the Zhou army to send people to look for it because the grain truck did not arrive on time, and it will take another two or three days to discover the annihilation of this grain transportation team, which will take at least seven or eight days. Moreover, in order to stabilize the morale of the army, the court of the Zhou State is likely to try its best to block the news after discovering the truth, and urge the rear to step up the transportation of grain to make up for the shortage of military food. At that time, although we can continue to attack his food convoy, it is not the most advantageous choice to achieve our original intention of disrupting the morale of his army and demoralizing him. Therefore, I think that instead of killing all these captives, it is better to leave some of the old, weak, sick and disabled, and put them back to report to the Zhou army outside Taiyuan City. The news found by one or two scouts was easy to block, and these hundreds of people fled back in a hurry, and it was not so easy to block the news. ”…,

"It's just that this will make the grain transportation team behind the Zhou army guarded, which is not conducive to our next operation to continue to attack its grain route?" Chang Shengjun asked tentatively with some worry.

Mutel shook his head when he heard this, and said: "It will take at least three days from here to the Zhou army camp outside Taiyuan City, and the commander of the Zhou army will send someone here to verify the situation, and it will take two or three days to go back and forth. In the past seven or eight days, we are afraid that we have already walked a few times back and forth between Qinzhou and Tuanbai Valley, and attacked at least two batches of his grain transportation team. The daily consumption of grain and grass by the 100,000 Zhou troops outside Taiyuan City is so great that the three batches of grain transportation teams cannot reach it. At that time, they will have to retreat without our infantry coming out, which will save the trouble of a head-on conflict between our Beiping army and the Zhou court. ”

Chang Shengjun nodded again and again when he heard this, and he thought it was true.

Mutel thought for a moment and ordered: "You go and inform the commander of the 11th Regiment and the Independent Regiment of the 'Security Army', first, remember not to reveal our true identity, and make sure that those captives are always convinced that we are reinforcements sent by the Khitans." Second, four or five hundred old and infirm servants were selected from among the more than 1,000 captives and kept in solitary confinement. After the master led the brigade to leave first, he would let them flee for their lives on the grounds that we only killed the young and strong and the soldiers, and relied on them to take care of the old, weak, sick and disabled ordinary people. As for the other young men and the regular generals of the Zhou army, it is better to let them accompany their robes and companions here.

In addition, you will inform the commanders of the other regiments and battalions to search for as many types of ordnance as we can use such as arrows, bows and crossbows, etc., from the baggage wagons that have not yet been destroyed, so as to supplement the consumption and losses of this ambush. As for the casualties of our people in battle, whether they are dead or alive, they must all be taken away, and no one can be left behind. ”

"Yes, I'm going to give orders." Chang Shengjun respectfully agreed, and then immediately went to convey Muter's order to the ministers.

On the 25th day of the seventh lunar month of the seventh year of Xiande, the quartermaster of the Later Zhou and Han armies, who was waiting eagerly for the Houjun to command Shi Shouxin to send him a new batch of grain, grass and military supplies, received a news that shocked him and deeply disturbed him - the grain and grass and military materials escorted by Shi Shouxin's department were robbed and killed by Khitan reinforcements in Tuanbai Valley, and the more than 12,000 people in the grain transportation team were released except for less than 500 old and weak servants, and the rest of the generals and servants, including Shi Shouxin, were all killed, and all the grain, grass and military materials escorted by him were burned. In fact, after getting the news, not only the quartermaster, but also the Zhou army, from the emperor Chai Rong to the most ordinary soldiers, were all moved after hearing the news.

Although the generals who discovered and interrogated these surviving servants received the news, they immediately took care of more than 200 servants who did not abscond without permission like other companions who escaped the catastrophe of Tuanbai Valley, but ran to the camp to report the news, and ordered to block the news that the grain transportation team had been attacked and that the Khitan sent troops to support the puppet Han court. But just as Mutel had predicted, hundreds of men who had fled from outside appeared in the camp, and it was impossible for them to go undetected by his soldiers. Before the general in charge of searching for the camp arrived to understand the situation, the news that the grain and grass were robbed, the grain route was likely to be cut off, and the Khitan army sent south to support the puppet Han court had already spread, and soon spread in the camp. Therefore, although the soldiers in the battalion were afraid of military orders and military discipline and did not dare to talk about this matter publicly, the uneasiness and restlessness had begun to spread in the battalion, gradually affecting all the soldiers in the camp of the Later Zhou army.

However, unlike the uneasiness and restlessness of the ordinary soldiers after receiving the news, Hou Zhou Junchen was shocked and immediately began to remedy it as much as possible. On the one hand, Chai Rong sent his right-hand men to Tuanbai Valley to check on it to confirm that the soldiers who had fled back were telling the truth, and not the puppet Han court in the city to spread false news and disturb the morale of his army. On the other hand, out of the consideration of taking precautions, Chai Rong dispatched a large group of men and horses to reconnoiter and deploy defenses along the grain route, and also sent messengers to send orders to other grain transportation teams that were still on the way, ordering them to strengthen their vigilance and increase the number of escort troops to prevent the enemy from robbing grain again.

Tuanbai Valley is not far from Taiyuan City, and the scout who is responsible for investigating the truth is fast on horseback, and within three days, he will clearly investigate the situation in the valley and report it to Chai Rong. When Chai Rong learned from the scouts that the soldiers who had escaped were not lying, and saw that these battle-hardened scouts were still a little pale when they mentioned the tragic situation in the valley, even if he was unwilling, he had to believe the fact that the grain road had been attacked and the Khitan army had gone south.