The Changying army camped near Zhuzhai about 70 miles east of Bianzhou City to prepare for battle, and in the other direction, more than 100,000 Hebei rebels led by the veteran Tan Zhong were also plundering and raging while advancing.

Although the speed of the advance was not fast, while steadily advancing, the distance between the two troops and horses slowly but surely narrowed.

At the same time, as the raid progressed, a large number of strong men and women were constantly being coerced, and the size of the group gradually increased.

On the side of the Changying Army, in order to cooperate with the progress of the fortifications on the periphery of Zhuzhai, the scouts and light cavalry who rushed forward carried out a large-scale blocking and harassment, and the Lu Dragoons under Tan Zhong also attacked on a large scale.

The Changying Army and the scouts and light cavalry of the Lu Long Army began to clash on a small scale, but as the Lu Long Army continued to advance, the distance between the two sides continued to shorten, and the scale of the battle between the scouts and light cavalry on both sides continued to expand, from the initial battle of less than ten people to the scale of 100 or even 1,000 people, and the intensity of the battle was also rapidly escalating.

In the fierce battle between the two sides, the time came to the sixth day of the ninth month of the fourth year of Yuanhe, and most of the Hebei rebels who set out from Bianzhou arrived in Xinglong Township, which was less than ten miles west of Zhuzhai, and began to set up camp in Xinglong Township.

As Lu Long's army camped in Xinglong Township, the distance between the two sides was shortened to within ten miles, and the battle between the scouts and cavalry became more and more intense.

At the same time as the Lu Long army was encamped, a cavalry of more than 2,000 people strode towards the camp of the Changying army, however, before they were halfway through, a cavalry team of light and heavy cavalry was caught up head-on, and the battle between the two sides entered the white-hot stage almost instantly.

As time progressed, the two sides began to increase their troops, and in less than half an hour, the number of cavalry galloping on the field between the camps of the two sides had exceeded 5,000.

Without any warning, without any expectations, a large-scale cavalry battle with a scale of more than 5,000 cavalry appeared on the land of the Central Plains east of Bianzhou City.

In this cavalry battle of unprecedented scale, it was the cavalry of the Lu Long Army that had an absolute advantage in numbers, but in terms of tactics, coordination, and equipment, the Changying Army clearly had the upper hand, and the result was that the two sides seemed to be evenly matched.

Arrows, crossbows, darts, throwing knives, iron pears, flying tiger claws and all kinds of weapons began to fly in the air non-stop, and horse lances, spears, spears, short spears, and horizontal knives also kept colliding with each other.

From the verge of dusk, until the last ray of light on the horizon disappeared into the sky, although the torch was lit, Guo Rong and Tan Zhong chose to withdraw their troops very tacitly.

With the sound of "ding ding ding", the cavalry of both sides retreated, ending this large-scale cavalry battle that was extremely rare in the Central Plains.

With the retreat of the two armies, a large number of stumps and broken arms, wounded soldiers and the remains of dead cavalry were left on the battlefield.

With the end of the war, the Lu Long Military Academy that led the team to participate in the war was summoned to the Chinese army tent by Tan Zhong at the first time.

】

When he went out there were 3,000 cavalry, and when he returned, there were only 2,000 cavalry, which means that more than 1,000 cavalry fell on the battlefield outside.

However, what surprised Tan Zhong even more was the content of the statements from the subordinates in front of him, and the battle losses of the Changying army that fought against them were only half of their own Lu Long army.

Although according to Guo Zheng's description and his own observations and judgments, Tan Zhong had long known that there was a fairly capable cavalry in Changying's army, but the battle damage of two to one against his own elite cavalry that had been crisscrossing the north all year round still exceeded Tan Zhong's worst expectations.

Looking at the frightened subordinates in front of him, Tan Zhong shook his head helplessly, no longer dwelling on the issue of battle damage, and instead asked the real reason for the appearance of this cavalry battle.

"Have you detected effective information, and have you seen the general layout of the other party clearly?"

Several people in front of them looked at each other, and finally one of the highest military ranks stepped forward.

"Dashuai, the opponent's resistance is too strong, we have never broken through their resistance, coupled with the lack of time, we have no chance to get close to the opponent's camp, from the existing observations, we can only understand that their area is not small, but the more detailed problems ......"

The assigned task was not completed, but the soldiers were defeated, and after saying this tremblingly, the person who spoke was terrified and waited for the reprimand of his own general.

However, to their surprise, Tan Zhong's face was quite serious, but he was not angry because of this, let alone reprimanded, but frowned, put his hands behind his back, and thought while pacing in the big tent of the Chinese army.

And the generals and colonels around Tan Zhong were cautious one by one, and they didn't dare to take a breath of air.

After about half an hour, Tan Zhong stopped pacing.

"Zhen Bingliang took a group of cavalry as messengers to the camp of the opponent's Changying army, in order to avoid the plague, and at the same time to facilitate the reason for tomorrow's battle, and proposed to them to send troops to the battlefield before midnight to collect their wounded soldiers and the corpses of the soldiers killed in the battle, as well as ......"

Tan Zhong looked at the circle of henchmen around him and continued.

"Hong Hu'er, He Xiaochuan, Qi Yong, you guys put on the costumes of ordinary soldiers and disguise themselves in the team, observe everything you can observe, remember, it's everything!"

At first, a few people in the military tent were still a little confused, but when they heard the end, several people were instantly stunned.

When Lu Longjun arrived at the camping position, Tan Zhong immediately sent cavalry to attack, the purpose of which was to use the surprise to probe the camp of the Changying army to facilitate the next day's attack.

It's just that Tan Zhong obviously doesn't know that the Changying Army has a set of combat readiness duty system, and at least one-fifth of the soldiers and horses are on standby at any time.

Although the reconnaissance plan was blocked by Guo Rong's soldiers, the water came to cover the ground, and the-for-tat strategy was forcibly blocked, but on the grounds of collecting the corpses, he could enter the opponent's camp in a grand manner and blatantly spy on the opponent's intelligence.

Thinking of these, the Lu Long Military Academy present threw themselves to the ground one by one for the five bodies that their commanders admired.

"Handsome and wise!"

This group of spies disguised as messengers went fast and returned just as quickly, and in less than an hour, the group had already returned to the camp of the Lu Long army.

When they returned to Tan Zhong's Chinese army tent, several people found that all the middle and senior generals, including Wei Bojun and Cheng Dejun, had gathered here.

It's just that before they could figure out what was going on, Tan Zhong had already begun to inquire about the results of the trip.

Strictly speaking, this trip, they are only half of their task.

Regarding the proposal to nominally collect the remains of wounded soldiers and soldiers killed in battle, Guo Rong agreed without any hesitation.

Of course, even if there are no military regulations, the soldiers of the Changying Army will do their best to bring back the robes, at least to recycle their nameplates, so that their families can enjoy the bereavement and treatment of the fallen martyrs.

It's just that although Tan Zhong's other idea of espionage intelligence is not in vain, there is not too much valuable information for Tan Zhong.

"Marshal, when I met Guo Rong, Guo Rong was discussing with several young military academies in front of the map, and he gladly accepted the suggestion of collecting the wounded soldiers and remains, and then ......"

"The scale of the opponent's camp is indeed very large, from the left and close of the camp gate, the opponent's camp wall has at least two layers, and there is a trench at least one zhang wide outside the camp wall, but it is difficult to observe the more detailed content......"

"After entering the camp, the route of travel is strictly prescribed, and it is impossible to explore the appearance of the opponent's camp at all, but although it is impossible to detect the reality of the opponent, it is only from this ...... It can be seen that the other party's military discipline is strict......"

Listening to the descriptions of Zhen Bingliang and other generals who had returned from the camp of the Changying Army, Tan Zhong's brows that had just been soothed furrowed again, his face was full of sadness, he was pacing and pondering, and after re-opening his mouth for a long time, he asked a question around.

"From the raid on Bianzhou City by the Changying Army to the attack with Ben Shuai, and then to the strangulation battle in the past few days, do you have any opinions on the Changying Army in front of us and the young commander Guo Rong?"

Tan Zhong looked around, and first set his eyes on Zhen Bingliang.

"Bingliang, you have been following the old man since the beginning of the expedition this time, and you have led the army to fight against the other party, and you met Guo Rong himself just now, you come first."

"Yes, Dashuai!"

While answering, Zhen Bingliang folded his fists and thought slightly, and then spoke.

"Regarding Guo Rong and his Changying army, we actually saw it in Youzhou three years ago!"

Zhen Bingliang's simple sentence brought all the Lu Longjun present from the non-commissioned soldiers to the military academy back to three years ago, under the protection of the forbidden army with the Changying Army as the core, the Emperor Taishang deterred Xuanwu, pacified Pinglu, and went north to Youzhou with the power of the scene, because of President Liu's retreat, no direct conflict broke out between the two sides.

"At that time, I just felt that they had a complete stomach, a lot of horses, and a lot of chariots, and they were probably still the same as the previous forbidden army, but judging from the recent confrontations, that Changying army was far more powerful than we imagined."

"Under the city of Bianzhou, in the east of Bianzhou City, and here, we have not been able to take advantage of every encounter, if we may have been suspected of opportunism before, but just now, in this hard-fought confrontation, in the case of the number of people far less than our army, it was used to press us to fight, and the battle loss of one to two is already very telling."

"Moreover, this is in the case of our absolute superiority in numbers, if the number is equal, two thousand horsemen against two thousand horsemen, I doubt that after two hours, how many of us will survive."

Zhen Bingliang's words were very direct, but letting go of the hard-fought battles that took place left everyone without any reason to make excuses.

"Well, yes, any other thoughts? Qi Yong? ”

"Yes, Dashuai, I still feel that the other party's military discipline is not ordinary, every step is ......"

"I feel that their soldiers are stronger than ours......"

"Although I don't know how they set up the defense, but just from the camp gate, the other party is definitely well prepared......

"The number of horses on the other side far exceeds ......"

……

When Tan Zhong named a few people who went to the camp of the Changying Army by name and pretended to be ordinary soldiers, and finished telling all his thoughts, Tan Zhong nodded with satisfaction, and was quite satisfied with the performance of his cronies.

Scouting and spying on this thing can't fix the content in the first place, and what you can detect when you can't move freely depends on observation.

Although they couldn't detect the opponent's defense facilities, they were able to observe the opponent's strengths, which was also qualified, and more importantly, what they said was exactly what Tan Zhong wanted to express.

"You must know that this Changying army is the hard work of the emperor, and the other party has never been defeated since the establishment of the army, and today it has proved that the other party is worthy of the name."

"Gentlemen!"

Tan Zhong suddenly raised his voice to the loudest.

"I don't care what you thought of the forbidden army in front of us called the Changying Army, but they are definitely not what they look like, let alone waste, but the strongest army in the world!"

"From tomorrow onwards, everyone must do their best, and those who violate the military order will be killed! If you are afraid of war, you will not be forgiven! Those who confuse the public with gossip and disturb the morale of the army will be killed! ”

Three kills in a row without forgiveness directly tightened everyone's hearts, but this is exactly the goal that Tan Zhong hoped for!

The Changying Army is indeed very strong, but so what, but Tan Zhong, who has more than 100,000 Hebei elites, thinks that he has the chance to win, but the lion fights the rabbit still needs all his strength.

A veteran like Tan Zhong will never make the mistake of underestimating the enemy, which does not mean that the guys under his command who are used to being the king and hegemon in Hebei will not underestimate the enemy, in case in this case, it will be a big loss if it is overturned because of the low-level mistake of underestimating the enemy.

Seeing that the general in front of him put away his heart of underestimating the enemy, Tan Zhong habitually nodded, some things can be stopped, and it will be self-defeating if he doesn't do it too much, and then the conversation changed.

"It's just that the other party's combat effectiveness is indeed not weak, the so-called Changying army is only 30,000 people, and how many of us are there, a full 120,000!"

Let's take a stick first, and then give a sweet date, for Tan Zhong, who has already lived like an old goblin, this kind of small means is not worth mentioning.

After the state and mood of the generals were adjusted, the generals in the big tent of the Chinese army left one after another.

When Tan Zhong was left with only Zhen Bingliang, Hong Hu'er, He Xiaochuan, Qi Yong and other henchmen and several guards who had followed him for many years, Tan Zhong said something that had nothing to do with before.

"If I'm not mistaken, I'm afraid this Guo Rong is less than 25 years old."

The abrupt remark made the cronies present stunned one by one, and after a few breaths, only Zhen Bingliang, who had just made a suggestion to Guo Rong in person, reacted.

"Marshal, it is said that Guo Rong has just reached the crown after arriving in Chang'an in the first year of Yuanhe, and he does look very young!"

Saying that, Tan Zhong directly sighed, and in the face of a kind of cronies' questions and curiosity, Tan Zhong said in a somewhat lonely voice.

"I ask you, you can have the grades you have today at the age of twenty-five!"

"Not to mention this Guo Rong's ability, at such an age, after such an opportunity, he can still be so cautious and meticulous, it is really extraordinary, he is really old......"

Seeing that the old man's state was a little low, these henchmen and guards who were familiar with him left the space to Tan Zhong, and quietly left the Chinese army tent one by one, and soon the entire Chinese army tent fell into silence.

It wasn't until it was close to midnight that Tan Zhong said a sentence leisurely.

"Even if it's a young handsome talent, the old man has more than a dozen or two dozen young talents who dare to kill them......

………………………………………………………………………………

As the night deepened, one after another of the foot soldiers of the Lu Long Army and the Long Ying Army stepped into the battlefield at dusk with torches in hand.

It's just that after the two sides met this time, they didn't directly fight and go to war directly, on the contrary, according to the agreement reached by Tan Zhong and Guo Rong, the two sides very tacitly ignored each other's existence and began to collect the remains of the surviving wounded soldiers and soldiers killed in battle on their side.

On this night, neither side chose a sneak attack or other ways to harass them, and even Guo Rong took the initiative to remove the scouts and cavalry who were on guard near the battlefield, so that they could rest well for a night.

Everyone is carefully preparing for tomorrow's big battle.