Under the override of the overcontroller, the puppets showed an excellent performance on the stage, which successfully aroused the applause and thunderous applause of the audience. Xiao Shizhu frowned tightly in this cheer, and gradually fell into deep thought.

Although the Nine Shadows Kingdom is strong and the combat effectiveness of the army is also one of the best in the underworld, after all, the Nine Shadows Kingdom is not an ancient ghost country. And now that the eastern expedition has begun, if the western expedition begins again, it will inevitably fall into the disadvantage of fighting on two fronts.

Regarding the killing of his envoy, Xiao Shizhu had a thousand angers, but he had to endure it.

At present, he does not have the strength to carry out a two-front operation at the same time, and this is a two-front operation across the sea. Once impulsive, it will only bring the disadvantage of a shortage of soldiers in the country and a wide opening of the door to the Nine Shadows Country. Moreover, the battle line between the two fronts is too long, and the logistics of transporting materials will inevitably have all kinds of unpredictable defects.

Thinking about this, even though Xiao Shizhu was displeased and unwilling in every way, he could only restrain himself with all his might.

Back then, in order to defeat Du Ziren with one blow, he endured it for five years, and now it doesn't hurt to endure it for another five years.

As soon as the applause was finished, she noticed her husband's abnormal ghost mother, turned her head to look at Xiao Shizhu, who was frowning, hurriedly tilted her head slightly, and whispered close to her husband's ear: "Why are you depressed?"

"It's okay, you can watch the play first. After Xiao Shizhu finished speaking, after giving Shen Ji a secret look, he continued to pretend to be casual and looked at the stage.

The ghost mother was sure that her husband definitely got some bad news from Shenji, but Xiao Shizhu didn't say that she couldn't force her to ask, so she had to suppress her curiosity and suspicion and continue to watch the puppet show......

In Aoki County, Zhu Hai was riding a horse with the same size as him, but with a white body and a black tail with a horn on his head, two rows of sharp teeth and four-legged claws in his mouth, and he was rushing towards the northwest of Aoki County.

Closely behind him were five hundred elite cavalry of the Nine Shadows Kingdom. The mounts under each rider are also full of this kind of beast soul that is good at running for long distances, called horse crossing.

They were going to the northwestern border, at the place called the Ryushu River. Lin Cong's death order to them was: they must rush to the border before dawn.

This flows out of the hills in the northeast of Xiazhou country, the total length is not more than 100 li, extends to the northwest and goes to the southeast, and goes straight into the Longshu Lake in Aoki County of the Nine Hidden Country, the widest part is only ten zhang on both sides of the river, and the shore around the Longshu Lake, are covered with lush lilac dragon grass, so this river and lake are named after the word Longshu.

And this dragon grass can be used to feed the beast soul, so that its physical strength and endurance, as well as the speed of running are doubled, and it can travel hundreds of miles or even thousands of miles a day, which is also the reason why Xiao Shizhu took the Republic of Mao first at the beginning of the Eastern Crusade.

This dragon herb is also artificially cultivated in the Nine Shadows Kingdom. It's just that after all, it's not as good as the wild dragon grass in the Longshu River, as well as the dragon grass by the Longshu Lake.

And now, although this treasure land with wild dragon grass has been taken by the Nine Shadows Kingdom, the neighboring Xiazhou Kingdom has long been eyeing it. They took advantage of the strength of the Xudu army to march north, and the Jiuyou Kingdom was still unstable in Dongyizhou, and wanted to send a large army to the east to seize the lower reaches of the Longshu River.

Lin Cong, who had received a secret report from Xuanjiao in advance, saying that the ghost soldiers of the Xiazhou State were gathering, immediately sent Zhu Hai and led five hundred cavalry to support non-stop.

This is not Lin Cong's small banner, but the idle soldiers and horses in his hands, and there are only these five hundred cavalry.

Although he brought an army of 280,000, Aoki County was not small, and all parts of the country had to be guarded by soldiers and horses. The post-war reconstruction work had only just begun, and manpower and material resources had to be dispatched to all parts of the county.

As a result, Lin Cong was somewhat stretched.

Fortunately, he had already recruited a lot of troops on the spot before, and he was training at this time, as long as Zhu Hai could defend the east of Longshu Grass for half a month, Lin Cong would be able to send him support.

Moreover, the artillery of the Nine Hidden Kingdom is advanced, enough to defeat one enemy and one hundred, as long as Zhu Hai can rely on the favorable terrain on the side of the Longshu River to resist the invading enemy, there is no problem in defending it for half a month.

It's just that whether it is Lin Cong who is sitting in the county, or Zhu Hai, who is rushing to support, they don't know that this action in Xiazhou was instigated by the traitors planted in Xiazhou by the corpse.

The reason for this was that the Nine Shadows Kingdom rejected his request for an alliance. Therefore, when the Nine Shadows Country is not in peace, the Xiazhou Kingdom is also not stable.

Once the ghost soldiers of the Xiazhou State went east, the domestic logistics support would inevitably give priority to the Eastern Expeditionary Army, rather than the Xudu Army, and the Jiuyou Kingdom plundered the materials of the Xudu Army at sea, so the pressure on the corpse would be reduced a lot.

"Hurry up, we'll have to get there before dawn. Zhu Hai, who was galloping on the official road, looked at the cloudy moon in the sky that was gradually sinking eastward, and shouted at the cavalry behind him, and at the same time the short whip in his hand slammed his hip and dismounted his horse twice, until he whipped the horse that ran roughly, and let out a roar like a drum. (Because the sound of horses is like the sound of drums.) ）

The cavalry behind him silently whipped their horses and whipped their mounts, picking up speed.

The sound of hooves rumbled, and the dust flew under the paws of the horses, and rose high in the night to the sky.

After the cavalry galloped for a long time in the night, Zhu Hai, who was the leader, finally saw the flickering lights not far away.

Flying past him was the Lake of Longshu, bathed in the starlight of the night, as calm as a mirror, reflecting the nebulae and moonlight in the sky.

Zhu Hai didn't say a word, and rushed towards the place where the lights were flashing on the northwest side of the lake. After getting closer and closer, Zhu Hai saw clearly the bank of the river in front of him by the firelight, on the staggered mountains that were on the main point of traffic, and became dangerous, the forts built by the mountains were lined up, and the towers stood on the rocks.

Behind these forts and towers, on the slopes of the hills near the county, terraced fields have been reclaimed for the first time, and when the spring rains come, these fields will be planted with crops to provide food for the soldiers guarding the area.

At the foot of the mountain, there are dozens of towers and dock forts, which are at the same angle as the fortifications on the mountain, echoing each other.

The light of the fire, which echoed the starlight of the sky, came from these towers and forts.

Zhu Hai secretly sighed at Lin Cong's resoluteness, in just one month, he not only sent people to repair the fortifications, but also reclaimed a lot of fields.

But where the lights flickered, except for the whistling of the wind blowing through the mountains, there was no shouting and screaming, and there was no roar of guns, and the heart that had been carried all the way fell to the ground temporarily.

After another half a cup of hot tea, Zhu Hai and their first-class cavalry finally rushed to the bottom of the mountain.

The soldiers guarding the hill had already seen the dust rising in the night, and they had already prepared for it, and they carried their guns into the firearms, and they all stretched out the dark guns from behind the horses, and pointed at the cavalrymen who were facing them in front.

The tiger squat cannon in the turret behind these guards was also calibrated with its muzzle.

"I am Zhu Hai, the ghost general sent by Lord Lin to support. When there were still three or five feet away from the guards in front of the tower, Zhu Hai shouted loudly.

"The leader himself came over with the official document of the transfer of troops, and the other sergeants were not allowed to take a step closer. Some of the guards immediately yelled. Although they had already received a message from the fungus people that a troop of cavalry would arrive to support before dawn, most of them were the cavalry in front of them. But the guards still have to follow the procedure and verify the integrity of the body first.

Zhu Hai grabbed the reins of his horse, ordered the cavalry behind him to stop, and slowly stepped forward alone holding the official document and driving the beast.

He handed over the official document to the guards at the head of the group, and waited until the other party verified that the official document was correct by the light of the fire in the brazier, and then took a small flag and handed it to Zhu Hai: "The general only needs to take this flag in, and the guard camp here will be waiting on the top of the mountain." ”。

After Zhu Hai thanked him, he led the cavalry slowly past the tower, and then followed the path between the mountains and mountains towards the top of the mountain.

The mountains here are not too high, and Zhu Hai and the other ghost cavalry walked for less than a quarter of an hour before they came to the top of the mountain.

When this was still called the Mao Republic of China in Aoki County, it had been reclaimed a piece of flat land of about 30 acres in size, and there was a school field and a condescending gate;

Zhu Hai took his cavalry to the middle of the Guan Building, and immediately hurried the entire school field in front of the general's platform. And at the edge of the school field, there was already a swift ghost dressed in armor, with a bird's head, hands and feet that were a little longer than ordinary people's souls, and there were no wings on his back.

This kind of ghost was a hypocritical monk in his lifetime, wearing Dharma clothes and going around to make a fortune, pretending to be treating the people, but in fact squandering all the money and enjoying it, so he was retributed for breaking his vows, and his soul grew like this as soon as he arrived in the underworld.

But he can walk fast, and he can run no less than those beast souls who are good at galloping. Before the use of the fungus people, this kind of ghost was the messenger of the Nine Shadows Kingdom.

This is true not only of the Nine Shadows Kingdom, but also of other countries in the Underworld.

After Xiao Shizhu enabled the fungus people, these ghosts all changed careers, and most of them joined the Jiuyou National Army, and made great achievements in the southern expedition against Du Ziren.

Now standing in front of Zhu Hai, this swift ghost is a member of the southern expedition with the army, named Ji Yan, who is the general of the guard camp here.

"General Zhu suffered first. Ji Yan stepped forward and met Zhu Hai, who had turned over and dismounted.

"Ji Ying will not have to greet him, Lord Taishou Lin has an order, and the last general will be ordered to come here to support, and everything will be arranged by Ji Ying. Zhu Hai saluted, frowned slightly, and said: "I walked all the way to the top of the mountain, I saw patrols and sentry posts everywhere, and the air was filled with the smell of impending war.

"To tell you the truth, in the evening, the army of Xiazhou had already gathered on the border, and there were about 100,000 infantry and 70 warships. Ji Yan raised his hand to wipe the beads of sweat oozing from his forehead, and said quickly: "There are also a lot of nest cars and bed crossbows, which have been transported one after another. ”。

Saying this, he took Zhu Hai to the northwest of the school field, raised his hand and kept it in the distance, the lights spread out on the ground like stars falling from the sky, and said: "General Zhu, please look, that is the camp of the ghost soldiers of Xiazhou State." ”。

In the night breeze, Zhu Hai looked in the direction of Ji Yan's finger, only to see the northwest in the distance, with many lights like stars, and it resembled several fire dragons on the ground, which was very spectacular.

"I was ordered to come here to defend against the enemy, but I don't know if they crossed the border?" After taking a closer look, Zhu Hai frowned and asked thoughtfully.

Hearing this, Ji Yan immediately frowned, and there seemed to be a Sichuan character between his eyebrows, and he said with a little embarrassment: "The difficulty lies in this, they did not cross the border, but the soldiers pressed the border and opened the formation." After all, we are not fighting but defending the territory, and we can fight across the border, which really makes me in a dilemma. ”。

"I dare to say a word, this matter is not difficult, everything is okay in Guanzhong. Zhu Hai took advantage of the fire in the enemy camp to look at it for a long time, and saw that although the ghost soldiers of the Xia Prefecture were menacing, there was no cooperation between the battalions, and there was no cooperation, so he said lightly disappreciably: "I will lead the cavalry to camp under the mountain, once the enemy army attacks, I will cooperate with the Ji battalion to defend against the enemy." ”。