The cold mountains at night are much colder than during the day.

Zhou Jing wandered helplessly in his tent.

When she thought of the fiasco of her side that day, she mourned in her heart.

No, she was not willing to be defeated.

She knew that if she was defeated now, she would not be able to escape death.

When she took the first step in Chenzhou with her troops, there was only a way forward, and there was no way out.

However, with less than 20,000 soldiers and horses, how can we turn the situation around?

Thinking about it, she didn't feel sleepy.

These days, she felt that except for Qi Lian and a few generals, as well as Zheng Hangsu, the rest of the generals and most of the soldiers thought that the defeat was decided. Even if they retreat to the mountains now, in their opinion, they are just messing around, waiting for the food and grass to run out, and eventually either everyone will starve to death here, or the birds and beasts will disperse before starvation.

Therefore, the top priority now is to boost the morale of the soldiers and expand the number of troops.

But how easy is it to expand the force?

According to the Tangbao cavalry she sent out in the past few days, some prefectures and counties that had already been persuaded by her father to belong to her Zhou family army had already turned to His Royal Highness the Prince's side in the first two days after the war, and now only Hongzhou has not turned to His Royal Highness the Prince's side.

But she heard that even Hongzhou was swaying.

She heard that the magistrates in Hongzhou were deeply divided, and they met every day to discuss which side should belong to them.

In the long run, Hongzhou also turned to the side of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, which is the most likely thing to happen.

With her brow furrowed, she left her tent and wanted to walk through the mountains on the edge of the barracks.

It was pitch black outside.

When you leave the tent, you can clearly hear the sound of the mountain wind blowing, the sound of the water flowing down the mountain from different distances, and the sound of small insects.

When she came out of the tent less than two feet away, she passed by Zheng Hangsu's tent.

When I passed by, I heard Zheng Hangsu's voice from inside: "Childe, you drink this medicine first and then study this topographic drawing." ”

Hearing this, she hurriedly walked in.

I saw You De holding a bowl on the side, while Zheng Hangsu was looking at a map at the table.

She had never seen that map before.

Seeing her come in, You De shouted: "Zhou Jing...... Princess. Although he thinks that it seems inappropriate to call her the county lord of Zhou Jing now, it is not good to add nothing after Zhou Jing, and it seems extremely impolite to directly name her.

Coupled with the meaning of the word county lord, it is more similar to an honorific title, which does not represent its actual meaning.

Zheng Hangsu raised his head from the map, glanced at her, and said, "Sister Jing is still not sleeping?" ”

Zhou Jing said: "You haven't slept yet?" Where is this map? ”

"A map of the territory of Hongzhou, a hundred miles from here."

She was a little puzzled, how could he have such a map? Because not even she. In the study of the Pingkang Palace, she had never seen this map either.

In general, such maps are attributed to the states and counties.

"This map was collected from Hongzhou yesterday by one of my subordinates."

"But what's the secret of this map?"

She glanced at the map, and saw that the map was a little yellowed, marked with mountains, rivers, lakes, town names, village names, etc., and the location of Hongzhou City was in the middle of the map to the east, with the word "Hongzhou" written on it.

Zheng Hangsu raised his eyes and looked at You De and said, "You go out first." ”

You Dexin said, Zheng Hangsu is about to tell Zhou Jing the mystery of this map. He also wanted to hear about it, but Childe told him to go out, so he had to go out.

However, with the medicine bowl still in his hand, he said, "Childe, you drink the medicine first, and then I go out, the medicine is already cold." ”

Zheng Hangsu took the bowl, drank the medicine, and then handed the bowl to You De, who took the bowl and walked out.

After leaving the tent, before sending the bowl to the room, he glanced into Zheng Hangsu's tent, and could see that the two people in the tent were bowing their heads, and they should be looking at the map.

If he hadn't known that the two were discussing the map, he would have thought that the two of them had something.

Not far away, a dark figure appeared in front of a tent.

That's Qilian.

He ordered his cronies to watch Zhou Jing's movements outside his tent at any time, and as soon as she went to Zheng Hangsu's tent, he would report him immediately.

The reason why he is like this is because Zhou Jing has been going to Zheng Hangsu's tent from time to time to see how his injuries are.

He wished that the person he was hurting was himself.

A few days ago, Zhou Jing came out quickly every day. But today, he saw that she had not come out of the tent all the time, because Zhou Jiajun's tent did not have a shading layer, and the shadows of the people inside could be clearly seen on the tent cloth.

Judging by the shadows on the tent, the two were very close together.

He wanted to see if the two of them had any next moves.

If they blow out the candles, something must be wrong.

He just stood by the curtain of his tent and waited.

This is a bit long.

The two of them had been interacting in such an intimate position, not knowing what they were doing.

After waiting for about half an hour, Zhou Jing came out of Zheng Hangsu's tent.

Seeing her figure out of Zheng Hangsu's curtain, he hurriedly entered his tent, lest she see him peeking at them.

After a while, convinced that Zhou Jing had gone into her own tent, he left his tent and walked towards Zhou Jing's tent.

When he arrived outside Zhou Jing's tent, he said to Zhou Jing's tent, "Sister Jing, have you slept?" ”

Zhou Jing, who was just about to take off her coat and sleep inside, heard the voice, and hurriedly put her coat on again, saying, "I haven't slept." ”

Qi Lian said: "Sister Jing, I have something I want to tell you, can you come out for a while." ”

"What?" Zhou Jing asked.

"About the strength of our side. I've thought of ways to expand our forces. ”

Zhou Jing said to him: "Let's talk about it tomorrow in the big tent of the Chinese army." ”

Qi Lian said: "However, this method is a bit unusual, I want to discuss it with you first, and see if it is feasible." ”

Zhou Jingxin said, I don't know what he thought, so he walked out.

Qi Lian saw her come out and said to her: "There are many people here, it is inconvenient to speak, let's go to the spring and talk." ”

There is a spring in the mountains, dozens of feet away from the barracks.

On weekdays, when eating and washing, the soldiers of the battalion and the logistics battalion fetched water from the spring.

Zhou Jing hesitated.

It was late at night, and she didn't want to be somewhere with him.

After all, he's always been obsessed.

Qi Lian saw her hesitation and said, "What, Sister Jing is using me as a wolf to defend me?" If you don't believe me, take a minion with you. ”

Zhou Jing said: "General Qi, where is this?" Whatever you do, let's talk about it tomorrow. ”

Qi Lian grabbed the guards outside her tent and said, "Let's go, you go with us, if I take the initiative to do anything to His Royal Highness the county lord, you will stab me to death." ”

Qi Lian said and touched his clothes up and down, and said to Zhou Jing: "Look, I don't have any weapons, if I do something to you, I can't do anything to this little soldier." I'm really thinking about the future of all of us here. Now we're either going to die together or live together. ”

Zhou Jing frowned and said, "Okay, I'll go with you." ”