Although Liu Hongji and others deliberately did not alarm everyone, some soldiers still privately got the news that the Great Sui soldiers who were originally stationed in the camp were slaughtered. As the news spread, more and more brothers from the grain guards came to see off their robes, first in twos and threes, then in groups, and finally, nearly 800 soldiers surrounded the pagoda.

Seeing those pairs of unblinding eyes, almost everyone's first reaction was to vomit wildly. While vomiting, he cursed and howled in a southern-northern voice. After the wail, there was a deathly silence, and the grieving soldiers stood motionless beside the stupa with torches held high, guarding the souls of the departed heroes with their silence.

The guys who hide in the grain protection army and mess around are not optimistic about this war against Goguryeo. They were unwilling to die in battle for His Majesty the Emperor's incomprehensible sense of honor, and they were not willing to let their bones pave the way for the feud of an ambitious fellow. They seldom have the ambition to make a name for themselves right away, and their highest ideal is just to earn a little military merit in order to gain a better inheritance position in their own family. They are the same as all ordinary people in this era, most of them are greedy for life and afraid of death, most of them are greedy for money and lustful, most of them are afraid of the soft and afraid of the hard, they want to take advantage of a little more, and they want to hide far away when they are in trouble, but at this moment, most of them do not want to watch the heads of the 300,000 robes trapped in Liaodong being cut off by the Goguryeo people and built into a pagoda.

Liu Hongji ordered dry wood to be removed from the fence of the barracks, piled around the pagoda, and poured vegetable oil. Then Li Jiancheng personally set fire to this pagoda, where 500 lives are buried. The moment the flames jumped, Liu Hongji loudly ordered the whole army to return to the camp to rest. As for how to choose tomorrow, it is no longer up to a few of their generals to decide. At this moment, anyone who dares to say that he or she will be regarded as a mortal enemy by the entire Great Sui.

At this moment, his mind was not completely swayed by grief and indignation. Liu Hongji even knew that since the Goguryeo people had launched a counterattack, it meant that they would no longer abide by the peace treaty of ceding the land and claiming to be vassals. At the same time, it also means that the 300,000 expeditionary force is under siege from all directions without aid and food. In this case, there was little hope that the expeditionary force would be able to safely withdraw from Ma Lishui to the agreed place to receive supplies, and if he was not careful, he and his 800 food guards would be turned into another pile of human head pagodas. However, everyone has no choice. Even if there was a mountain of swords and a sea of fire waiting in front of him, he and the eight hundred people under his command could only pounce on it like moths without hesitation.

"Maybe we can save some!" Almost everyone thought expectantly. Early the next morning, without the urging of the generals, everyone neatly sorted out their bags, ate some dry food with cold water, and then immediately mounted their war horses and drove the cattle to continue eastward. Gone are the shouts and tiredness that I had heard every day, and the noise that had once made people irritating during the march was gone. Everyone remained silent, burying their heads in silence. They marched so fast that by just after noon, they had completed their planned day's journey. In the afternoon, Liu Hongji had to repeatedly order the group to slow down, so as not to wear out too much physical strength and not be able to organize effective resistance when attacked by the enemy.

In the evening, on another hill, the group discovered the second camp left behind by the Eastern Expeditionary Army. At the same time, a second human head stupa was also discovered. Taking advantage of the fading daylight, the veterans even found the corpses of soldiers in the valley that had been built into a walled city. Most of them had their hands tied behind their backs, and the only wound on their bodies was on their necks. They were driven into the valley and slaughtered by the Goguryeo after surrendering, and for the Goguryeo people, the Sui army was an invader and could not be pitied.

Liu Hongji led the brothers to gather the bodies and heads of the robes in one place, and then set fire to the entire valley. The smoke rising from the sky can be seen dozens of miles away. This practice is very unfavorable to the grain protection army to cover up the hiding, but Liu Hongji believes that up to now, there is no need to disguise everyone's hiding. The grain guard team had been walking along the route of the Eastern Expeditionary Army for two days and two nights, and it was impossible for the nearby Goguryeo people not to discover the existence of this army and horses. The reason why the other party did not send troops to intercept and kill was most likely that it was impossible to distinguish the true strength of this team. After all, the smoke and dust raised by more than 3,000 war horses as they marched looked very spectacular from a distance. There was no need for the Goguryeo, who were in their hands to prevent an unknown number and combat effectiveness from rushing to the east to die.

On the morning of the second day after setting fire to the Nameless Valley, the group finally walked out of the mountains. Near a rather wide river, he encountered a group of Goguryeo people who were resting. Suddenly seeing the enemy appear, the soldiers on both sides sounded their horns almost simultaneously. Immediately afterwards, Liu Hongji danced his lance and rode his horse into the Goguryeo soldiers.

A hundred veterans who were selected as the vanguard quickly killed, followed behind Liu Hongji, and the Goguryeo cavalry, who had no time to jump on horseback, rushed to pieces. Immediately, the Li Mansion family, who served as the guard of the grain team, also rushed forward under the leadership of Qian Jiulong and Fan Xing. Then, Qi Ziying and Wang Yuantong and other recruits who were escorted in the center of the grain transportation team shouted so that the Goguryeo people could appreciate their anger. When Li Xu, who was the rear team, was thrown into the battlefield by Li Jiancheng as a new force, the battle was already coming to an end. The Goguryeo people who were resting on the banks of the river did not expect that at this moment, the "main force" of the Great Sui would suddenly come from the mountains, and they were killed in a hurry when they had an absolute advantage in troops. When they saw more and more cavalry rushing out of the valley, they did not dare to fight, and fled in all directions.

At a slight cost of five dead and twenty wounded, the grain guards annihilated more than 200 enemies and won a brilliant victory in this encounter. They did not pursue the enemy, but after burying the fallen brothers and mending each of the wounded Goguryeo soldiers lying on the ground, they continued along the riverbank. At noon, Liu Hongji ordered the army to rest on the riverbank, give all the horses water and feed the concentrate. At the same time, he cautiously sent several teams of veterans to inquire about the surrounding situation. After everything was settled, Liu Hongji called Yu Wenzhong, who was in charge of leading the way for everyone, and asked in a low voice: "If we keep walking along the river beach, at the current speed, how many days can we get to Bo Koukou?" ”

"If you keep walking along the river beach, you will definitely be able to reach the mouth of the river in more than a day. But in the middle, we have to take a detour......" Yu Wenzhong lightly pointed to the black bone city on the map stuck on the south bank of the river, and suggested in a low voice: "According to the current situation, there must be defenders in the city. If we keep walking along the river, the other party will definitely send troops to intercept and kill! ”

"You once said that the defenders of Black Bone City were defeated by Lord Yu Zhongwen, and the defenders were beheaded by us! Is that the case? Liu Hongji frowned and asked in a low voice.

"That's true, but that was nearly a month ago......." Yu Wenzhong blushed, his voice with a little guilt. Seeing the "pagoda" on the eve and last night, he also knew that the hope of survival of the Eastern Expeditionary Army was very slim. The grain guards were willing to come to the rescue regardless of life and death, and this kindness touched him very much. Therefore, he hopes to avoid the loss of the food protection team as much as possible within his ability.

"You go and call the main generals in the army, and say that I have something important to discuss with them!" Liu Hongji ignored Yu Wenzhong's guilt and commanded in a low voice. This kind of tone of the boss's general speech to his subordinates made Yu Wenzhong sound very useful, and he agreed and quickly ran to the team. After a while, Li Jiancheng, Li Xu, Qian Jiulong, Wu Shi Tong and others hurriedly gathered over.

After a few days of coexistence, Liu Hongji has completely won the trust of everyone. However, in order to show respect for the others, he still brought the main character generals together to discuss the next plan of action. Referring to the map obtained by Li Xu, Liu Hongji used a branch to draw the approximate location of the grain protection team and the direction of the final goal on the river beach, and then used the branch to poke a hole in the road that everyone must pass, and said in a low voice: "This is the Black Bone City, according to the current marching speed, tomorrow at noon we will pass across the city, we are on the north bank of the river, and the Goguryeo defenders are on the south bank of the river." But the river is not wide, and it can be crossed on horseback in shallow places! If we detoured, we would have to make a day's drive north, and if we passed directly across the city, we might have to fight the defenders! ”

"I think it's better to walk around, although we just won a battle, but it was by mistake. If Goguryeo sends 5,000 soldiers to fight, we will definitely be wiped out! Without waiting for others to express their opinions, Qian Jiulong said first. He was the oldest of all the people, so he was the most cautious in his actions. From his point of view, the current combat effectiveness of the grain protection army is all supported by the hatred in his heart. And with hatred alone, an army that is not sufficiently trained will certainly not be able to sustain itself for a long time. It's no problem when you fight with the wind, but once you encounter a hard bone, you will soon be beaten back to the prototype.

Li Liang, Wu Shitong, and Wang Yuantong all agreed with Qian Jiulong's views. Everyone mixed in the food army all day long, and no one knew better than them how many catties and taels the brothers had. However, Qi Poning and Qin Ziying put forward diametrically opposed suggestions, believing that even if everyone took a detour, they might not be able to meet the enemy army. It's better to take advantage of the current morale and rush through the Black Bone City with all your might. If the expeditionary force had already withdrawn to the port of Boshan, they would definitely send someone to meet them when they heard the shouts of killing. The distance between the two sides was only forty miles, and there were no mountains to block it, so the cavalry could kill it in an hour.

"What if the Crusade Army hasn't arrived at Boshankou yet?" Yu Wenzhong interjected inappropriately.

"If the Eastern Expeditionary Army hasn't arrived at Boshankou yet, Lord Yuwen, do you think the Goguryeo people will let us go back the way we came?" Qin Ziying shook his head and asked with a sneer.

Yu Wenzhong tilted his head guiltily, avoiding Qin Ziying's aggressive gaze. He didn't need to answer the question, everyone knew the answer to the question, they just tried not to think about it. At the moment when they chose to continue eastward after seeing the human head pagoda, everyone had already put their fate in the hands of God.

The atmosphere was a little heavy for a while, was this adventure a voluntary death, or could it save hundreds of thousands of lives in time? The answer is right in front of us, everyone wants to unravel this mystery as soon as possible, and everyone is more afraid to see the truth that they try their best to avoid.

"You and Zhong Jian have experience in fighting outside the Cypriot Islands, or the two of you have the idea!" After a moment of silence, Li Jiancheng sighed and suggested.

Liu Hongji turned his gaze to Li Xu, and in the eyes of the other party, he saw the same trust as when they first met. It was this trust that moved him and made him want to give the other party a fortune. Unexpectedly, in the end, what was given to the other party was an inescapable risk. Thinking of this, Liu Hongji sighed lightly and asked in a low voice: "Zhong Jian, what do you think, you might as well say it and let everyone hear it!" ”

"This area is vast and sparsely populated, and we don't know what the enemy is doing, and the enemy certainly doesn't know what we're doing." Li Xu nodded and said with a smile. He understands what kind of support Liu Hongji needs at this moment, and at this moment, he naturally wants to provide all the help that the other party can provide.

"If we bluff, get more flags and put them around the horse team, scatter the soldiers, and make it look like a large group of people and horses marching east......." Li Xu looked at Liu Hongji, his eyes as clear as the day they first met each other on the grassland.

"So, we might as well change the queue and put all the elites at the front of the line to demonstrate!" Liu Hongji nodded with a smile and said a bold plan, "We won't hide or hide, we will rest by the river tonight." Early tomorrow morning, feint to attack the Black Bone City! ”

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