The dull sound of horses' hooves faded as they approached the entrance of the village, and the village guards were now in place and ready for battle. Wang Kunjun and Cheng Fei entered the largest house in the village for temporary refuge under the protection of more than a dozen personal guards -- the owner of the house was the richest man in the village, and at this emergency moment, they "voluntarily" donated the house for the use of Wang Kunjun and others.

Just as the people in the village tensed their nerves and prepared for a fight, the situation did not develop as they expected. There was neither the gunfire of the guards nor the sound of hand-to-hand combat, as if the cavalry of unknown origin had not appeared at all, and the sound of horses' hooves was just an illusion of everyone. Just when everyone was puzzled by this, the guard who had just entered the village to report the news appeared in front of Wang Kunjun again. Without waiting for Wang Kunjun to ask, he nodded to the ground on one knee and reported: "The fifth master, the twenty-ninth master, the cavalry outside the village is not the enemy, but the thirty-fifth master led two battalions of the cavalry regiment to meet the fifth master and the twenty-ninth master. ”

"Old Thirty-Five brought someone to pick me up? Who sent him? weishenme didn't inform us in advance? Wang Kunjun asked.

The guard was obviously stunned by Wang Kunjun's question, and he didn't know how to answer for a while, so he had to kneel there and not speak.

Wang Kunjun also realized that he had asked the wrong person at this time, and while ordering the guard to get up, he walked outside the house first, and Cheng Fei followed closely.

Not far from the house, Wang and Cheng saw a group of soldiers dressed as cavalry of the "Flying Dragon Army" leading their horses from the east entrance of the village to their side, and the first person was the thirty-fifth brother Muter. At this time, Mutel obviously also saw Wang and Cheng, and hurriedly handed the reins of the horse to the soldiers beside him, walked a few steps to the two, and greeted the two brothers.

Seeing that the ceremony was over, everyone returned to the house just now. Everyone went into the house and sat down, and without waiting for Mutel to speak, Wang Kunjun asked: "Old thirty-five, why did you come here when you didn't rush the customs at Shanhaiguan and block the Khitans?" ”

Muttel replied: "Fifth brother, brother, I have been ordered by the eleventh brother to pick up the two elder brothers to go to Shanhaiguan. ”

"On the orders of the eleventh?" Wang Kunjun asked dissatisfiedly, "Whose order did the old eleven take?" Before I set out, the committee had already issued an order to all the departments, especially the old eleventh, ordering you to break through the pass as soon as possible and defend it with all your might, without worrying about our safety, and repeatedly stated that you should not send people along the road to meet you, so as not to disperse your forces for this. You weishenme don't listen? ”

Seeing that Wang Kunjun was very dissatisfied with the eleventh brother's "disobedience" of the committee's order and sending himself to answer it, Muttel hurriedly explained: "The fifth brother is angry, and listen to the brother finish speaking. ”

"You say." Wang Kunjun said angrily.

Muttel explained: "Fifth brother, our army has occupied Shanhaiguan on the seventh day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, and the younger brother will tell you the specific situation later." And the eleventh brother sent the younger brother to answer the two elder brothers this time, but on the orders of the eldest brother and the seventh brother. ”

Hearing that Qian Yuanshan's department had occupied Shanhaiguan, Wang Kunjun felt a little relieved, but still asked, "On the orders of the eldest brother and the seventh brother?" When did they give the order, weishenme I don't know? ”

"The eldest brother and the seventh brother were ordered by the day before yesterday, and the two elder brothers had already set off for a day at that time, and you didn't have a radio station with you, so there was no way to notify the two elder brothers in time." Muttel explained.

"The order of the day before yesterday? The eldest brother and the seventh weishenme want to give an order that is different from the previous decision of the committee? Wang Kunjun asked.

When Mutel heard this, he slapped his thigh and said angrily: "It's not all because of that Xiao Jixiantian's chaos." ”

"Xiao Jixian? Didn't he wander between Baoxingzhuang and Gu'an, what does the fifth brother have to do with him going to Shanhaiguan? Besides, as soon as the battle in Baoxingzhuang ended, wouldn't the 'Ranger Battalion' go south to search for Xiao Jixian and his subordinates? Could it be that he ran away? Or is this guy possessed by a god and defeated the 'Ranger Battalion'? Cheng Fei asked with some confusion. …,

Muttel shook his head after hearing this, then nodded again, and continued to explain: "The 'Ranger Battalion' is the elite of my 'Flying Dragon Army', and naturally it is not something that Xiao Jixian and the eight thousand Khitan soldiers in his hands can beat. The 'Ranger Battalion' went south on the fourth day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, and on the fifth day of the first month, it found the traces of Xiao Jixian's department west of the Baigou River, and launched a surprise attack on it in the afternoon of the same day. Xiao Jixian's troops were defeated, and more than half of the 8,000 Khitan soldiers were lost. However, Xiao Jixian does have some ability, although he was attacked by surprise and suffered heavy losses, he was not stunned, but he was still able to keep a cool head, carefully observe the situation on the battlefield, and found the weakness of our army in the chaos - that is, although the 'Ranger Battalion' is brave, although the weapons are sharp, and although it is well-trained, the number of people is far smaller than that of the other party. Although they had stretched the formation as far apart as possible, they were still unable to complete the encirclement of the Khitan soldiers, leaving a gap in the west. Discovering this flaw, Xiao Jixian mobilized his men and horses, first rushed to the east with a force to attract the attention of our army, and then concentrated the main force to suddenly break through to the west. Although our army immediately adjusted its deployment after discovering the movements of the Khitans and tried to re-encircle the Khitans, in the end, due to the limited number of troops, Xiao Jixian escaped from the encirclement with nearly 2,000 people. Moreover, the most worrying thing is not that these 2,000 Khitan soldiers escaped, but that in the next two days, the 'Ranger Battalion' has not been able to catch up with these 2,000 Khitan remnants.

The news was reported to the eldest brother and the seventh brother, and they also attached great importance to it. First, this Khitan remnant army is different from other Khitan defeated troops, although it has suffered heavy losses, its organizational structure is still there, the supreme commander is still there, and it still has a certain combat effectiveness, so it is very unfavorable for our army to let such an enemy army operate in its own rear. Second, with the strength of this Khitan remnant, although it will not pose any threat to our army's base camp or a heavily guarded place like Youzhou City, it is dangerous to our army's logistics supply line and the two brothers who have just left Youzhou City. Therefore, the eldest brother and the seventh brother ordered the 'Ranger Battalion' to continue to search for the remnants of the Khitan army, and on the other hand, they asked the Eighth Brother, the Eleventh Brother, and the Twenty-sixth Brother to send several small teams to conduct reconnaissance on the line from Youzhou City to Shanhaiguan, and cooperate with the 'Ranger Battalion' to eliminate this fish that slipped through the net. Considering that the battle has come to this point, Xiao Jixian is no matter how brave and daring to fight again, and he will not use a mere 2,000 remnants of soldiers to touch various state capitals and counties or the main force of our army when there are chasing soldiers later. The possible options were either to attack our supply convoys, or to attack a small group of our troops who were left behind, or to flee directly across the Great Wall to the outside of the fortress. And no matter how Xiao Jixian chooses, he may encounter his two elder brothers. Therefore, the eleventh brother sent his brother to lead the main force of the cavalry regiment to leave Shanhaiguan and go west, on the one hand, to search for the remnants of Xiao Jixian, and on the other hand, to pick up the two elder brothers. ”

After listening to Muter's explanation, Wang Kunjun understood the ins and outs of the matter. He nodded and said, "I see." ”

After speaking, he paused slightly, and continued: "It is natural to pursue and suppress the remnants of the enemy, but there are less than 2,000 people left in Xiao Jixian's department, and there is a 'ranger battalion' behind to follow and pursue, and it is enough for the old eleventh to send one or two cavalry companies out, where is the need to send out the main force of the cavalry regiment." After all, there are still 100,000 Khitan troops outside Shanhaiguan, although you have occupied Guancheng, but still do not underestimate the other party, I hope that the old eleven is not guilty of underestimating the enemy. ”

When Muttel heard this, he waved his hand again and again, and said: "Fifth brother, don't worry, Brother Eleven has always done things safely, and he will never make such a mistake of being blindly arrogant and underestimating the enemy." The reason why Brother Eleventh sent his brother to lead the main force of the cavalry regiment out this time was to avoid the situation that the last 'Ranger Battalion' could not fully encircle the enemy army due to insufficient troops, and let the enemy army have an opportunity, and strive to completely wipe out the remnants of Xiao Jixian with one blow. The second is because our army has firmly controlled Shanhaiguan, and in addition to a vanguard force of more than 10,000 people has arrived, the main force of the Khitan reinforcements outside the Guanhai has been stationed in Laizhou, which is 100 miles away from Shanhaiguan, and there is no sign of continuing to move south for the time being, and our army's defense in Shanhaiguan is not under much pressure. ”

I heard that the main force of the Khitan reinforcements is still in Laizhou, both Wang Kunjun and Cheng Fei are puzzled, and they don't understand that the eight states in front of the mountain are about to fall into the hands of the Han people, but this Khitan emperor is still grinding in Laizhou, what kind of medicine is he selling in this gourd - could it be that this famous "sleeping king" really drank alcohol and got alcohol poisoning, so that he could never wake up after falling asleep?

Just when Wang and Cheng were full of question marks and were about to ask Mutel in detail about the situation of Shanhaiguan and Khitan reinforcements, the voice of the platoon commander of the personal guard came from outside the door: "Fifth Master, the sentry has come to report, the official road in the west of the village is dusty and the sound of hooves is rumbling, it seems that a large group of cavalry is coming in the direction of the village." ”