Shipodian is a small village of 100 households, but it is a big town in this mountainous area, which belongs to Lu'an Prefecture, and is the junction of Huoshan, Jinzhai and Lu'an counties. The crowd here is mixed, and then to the southwest is the mountain, which is also a paradise for criminals, as soon as the official family comes, people go to the mountain to hide, and the official family leaves, farming the land, doing business, so this Shi Po shop from one or two people's homes, selling herbal tea to eat, doing the business of the past merchants, has gathered more than 100 households, has become a small village and town.

On this day, at the intersection of the south of the village, the two horses came to ride around, and they turned around the small streets of the village, but they did not stop, and went back to the entrance of the south village. It is not uncommon for merchants, post riders, and pedestrians to ride through the village on horseback, but what is rare is that this horseback rider is dressed in a dress that no one in this village has ever seen.

After a while, he saw four horsemen dressed in the same clothes passing through the village and heading north. And there were nearly 300 people at the entrance of Nancun, forty or fifty newly appeared wheelbarrows, a dark blue pennant on the first car, and a white ancient seal character "money" in the middle, stopped at the door of the Yuelai Inn, and even several smaller inns in Laifu and Shunchang were also full of people.

The people of Shipodian Village don't know the newcomers who come in strange clothes, but this flag often comes and goes but can't help it, otherwise you can't get along with the money, this is the logo of the Qian family's firm, whether it is black or white, there are few who don't give face to this flag.

The leader is two young men who are about fourteen or fifteen years old and the other is a middle-aged man in his thirties and forties.

When the owner of Yuelai Inn saw the group of people coming, he personally greeted him, waved to the man in his thirties and forties, and said, "Master Qian is here, please!" ”

Qian Jichen nodded and said to the shopkeeper: "Shopkeeper Pan, this is the son of the Gao family in Tongling." There are a lot of people coming this time, you want to find a way to arrange it, we will stay for one night and leave. ”

This group of people was the caravan that Gao Zhong and the Qian family went to Western Xia together. Since the Flying Tiger Brigade became an army, Gao Pet and the Qian family discussed the travel route, personnel and goods arrangements, and prepared for a few days, to this Shi Po shop has been on the road for four or five days, they crossed the river from Tongling, walked the Lu River, along the hilly area of Dabie Mountain, crossed Shucheng, crossed the East and West Wei River, passed through the Grand Canyon of the Xiwei River and Dushan Town, and arrived at this Shi Po shop.

Gao Zhong traveled this time with a total of more than 240 people, mainly the cavalry platoon, the guards platoon, a platoon of the scout company of the Gao family's personal guard battalion, and 120 people drawn from the fast counter (cavalry) battalion, as well as four staff officers, four doctors, and two crossbow craftsmen from the staff headquarters, and asked everyone to be able to ride horses. The Qian family is mainly more than a dozen guards of Qian Jichen and a few familiar guides and second-level treasurers online, a total of 24 people. In order to prevent accidents, there is sufficient protection, and the transportation of all vehicles is the responsibility of the Flying Tigers themselves. The more than 40 vehicles were mainly used for supplies to be consumed on the road and arrows and armaments, as well as a small amount of materials to exchange money at the destination. In order to reduce the burden of transportation on the road, gold and silver were carried.

The area that has been passed in the past four or five days is still under the control of the Great Song Dynasty, because it is a mountainous area, and neither Dajin nor Liu Yu has the energy to sweep these places and achieve comprehensive control. So except for a few bandits on the road, Gao Zhong and Qian Jichen were not worried. Especially the front of the Qian family's banner still has face, the slightly larger bandits will not come to cause trouble, and the small ones have not seen so many people see it and avoid it far away, so nothing happens, and the road is safe.

Along the way, the residents and guards on the road don't have to worry about Gao Zhong and Qian Jichen, and the arrangements are discussed between Dazhu and Qian San, the housekeeper of the Qian family. On the road, I have also gone through several emergency drills, and I have been relatively proficient, who is on duty, who is resting, open posts and secret posts, and personnel positions have been relatively standardized. Qian Jichen was also very surprised at first sight of the Flying Tiger Army's high-minded style, the highly favored guards were too different from his original impression in terms of clothing, outfits, weapons, and behavior, but they were all rigorous and standardized, but they were elite soldiers who had been trained for a long time. couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "A family with a military heritage is really different from ordinary people!" ”。

For Gao Pet, although he was not a soldier in his previous life, because he was a military fan, he had a deep understanding of these military tactics, and he learned them well in practical application.

Shopkeeper Pan personally arranged a room and good food and wine for Qian Jichen and Gao Pet, and when they were about to go out, Qian Jizhong couldn't stop him.

"What does Master Qian command?"

"That's the case, we are going to Xinyang via Jinzhai, what news is there during this time?"

"Qian Ye, that's the case, a few days ago there was a group of people who were confident that Yang went south, a few months ago Xinyang was broken, occupied by Li Cheng of the puppet Qi, the official army retreated to Suizhou, and Guangshan did not hold for long, more than 1,000 people retreated to the mall first, and now they have retreated to Jinjiazhai, two days ago some people said that they saw more than 1,000 military horses of Li Thief and began to attack Jinjiazhai. Jinjiazhai is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and after fighting for a few days, Li Thief did not take much advantage. In the past few days, there have been many more people fleeing through Shipodian. That's all I know. "This shopkeeper Pan speaks in a focused and organized manner, which is worthy of doing business.

"Who is in charge of Jinzhai now?" Qian Jichen then asked?

"I heard that Lord Lu, the governor of Lu, who retired from Gwangju."

"Okay, you go."

Waiting for the shopkeeper Pan to withdraw, Qian Jichen turned around and said to Gao Chong:

"Gao pet, come, let's talk while eating." Gao Zhong was so good that he had a bowl of wine with Qian Jichen, which was a common rice wine in the Song Dynasty.

"We go to Xixia from Nanyang into Jingzhaofu is the nearest road, but now only to Xinyang, there is no other way, to the northwest is 100,000 mountains, only to go to Jinjiazhai and then along the side of the mountain to the mall. Although we can use the identity of Liu Yu and Liu Guoluzhou, but now Li Cheng's attack on Jinzhai and the mall has made our journey more variable, and it is very risky during the war. ”

This route into Xingzhou (now Yinchuan), the imperial city of Western Xia, Gao Pet is much clearer than Qian Jichen, but now the specific road joints of the Great Song Dynasty Gao Pet is not very clear, the risks and possibilities on this road, Gao Pet is expected before departure, it is impossible to retreat, and it is impossible to wait for the battle to finish here, and now Li Cheng's soldiers and horses are just fighting Jinzhai is just a battle of clearance, and the main force is fighting Suizhou and Yingzhou on the southwest road of Beijing, and it is impossible to have many troops. There's still a chance. Gao Pet thought about it for a while and said:

"Uncle Qian, we have put so much energy into preparation, it is impossible for me to return to Tongling now, and I don't know when the war is over and I will settle down, maybe we will have to fight in Tongling and Xuanzhou. Although there are risks, there are still opportunities, first, it is impossible to have many soldiers fighting Jinzhai now, and it is impossible to be the main elite force, and now Li Cheng's focus is on Suizhou, Yingzhou and Jinghu North Road on Jingnan Road. There will not be many troops in this Dabie Shandong, and it can be seen from this attack on Jinzhai that there are more than 1,000 people. The second is that Jinzhai is a fortress that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and Li's attack will be more difficult, once several attacks have no effect, they may give up temporarily and withdraw their troops. There is another one, just to give our people a certain amount of exercise, really if we still have considerable combat power in the war, there is no need to be afraid. Maybe I can help Jinzhai. However, for our mission this time, if possible, we try not to clash with the Li Division, and we still have a long way to go. ”

"If you think about it, it's good to have this determination. Tomorrow, there are about fifty or sixty miles from here to Jinzhai, it generally takes three hours, it is too late to Jinzhai at noon, but this road can be difficult to walk through the mountains. Although Qian Jichen felt the danger, he was not a person who was afraid of things, and the task that Qian Jichen got was to cooperate with Gao Pet and listen to Gao Pet's opinions as much as possible, which was ordered by the old man. So he settled down and introduced the situation of the road to Gao Pet.

"Uncle Qian, our human logo is more obvious, so, in case there is any conflict, so our banners and so on should be put away, and if necessary, our identity will be revealed. My people also want to change their attire so as not to attract too much attention. Let's arrange it. ”

The two of them had already made arrangements and didn't say anything all night.

The next day, the group got up, and the genius was bright. In ancient times, people went to bed early and got up early, these days there are many merchants and refugees who go south, and there are almost no people who go north.

Walk all the way north from this Shi Po shop, only to see this mountain go deeper and deeper, the ancient trees on the road are towering to the sky, almost no big sun, a mountain road is only three or four feet wide, sometimes uphill, downhill, the speed of this road suddenly dropped. These three immortal mountains, Wangjiazhai, rapeseed tip, Tuanbo tip and so on are all more than 1,000 meters high. There are wolves howling and apes on the road from time to time, and one or two people dare not walk on this mountain road alone.

After noon, the sky was bright, but it was out of the mountains, and in front of me was a hilly area, although it was still walking in the mountains, but it was not the depression of walking in the mountains. Jinzhai is almost here.

Gao Pet asked everyone to stop, leave the road and rest in the woods. A few of them took a few people and rode in the direction of Jinzhai.

Just now, the scout reported that Li Chengjun's seven or eight hundred people were attacking Jinzhai. Gao Pet wants to go and see the specific situation in person.