"Why is that?" Ji Hu was puzzled.

Ji Tayou strode to the sheepskin map of the shogunate's tent, pointed to the two signs of Luoyi and Hubei on the map, and said: "This time the army is not to destroy the country, but to deter the world, so that people with ill intentions will not dare to act rashly." In this way, it is necessary to act quickly, so that the enemy is unaware. And Luoyi is still far from the Qi realm, and it is difficult for the cavalry to not be detected. It is different from Hubei State, not only the distance is close, but also with the rugged and dense passage of the jujube, it is easier to surprise and attack it unprepared. ”

"Wonderful!" As soon as the words fell, Rong Yi was the first to applaud and admire: "The new soldiers are ready, if they don't send troops, they will be like pearls secretly cast, hidden in the sheath, and the world will not know it." Only when a soldier goes out to shock the world, like a sharp sword out of the sheath, can the princes of the Quartet put away their hearts of disobedience and sincerely respect the Zhou royal family. That's a good plan, my lord! It is not only the best policy to stop the war with war, but also to prevent the loss of the war, General Ziliang Gao Jian, and the minister seconded it. ”

"The ministers seconded the proposal." The tent was full of voices.

"Good!" Ji Hu was overjoyed: "According to what General Ziliang said, a surprise attack on the country of Hubei!" ”

Rong Yi walked out of the big tent, looked up at the starry sky, and walked towards his cowhide tent. The so-called single tent is a small tent that is only used for human habitation and does not have a meeting room. This cowhide single tent, with two layers of suede sheepskin, the tent door is also specially made into a thick wooden board nailed to the fur windproof door, in the winter to light the charcoal stove, the cold season inside the tent is also warm.

This account book was specially prepared for the royal envoys who came to the shogunate, because the royal envoys were generally civil officials and their bodies were weaker, so they were designed like this.

Rong Yi walked over, saw the hidden tent door creaking open and closing in the wind, and pushed the door straight and walked in. There was a chill in the dark tent, and only a young warrior stood upright at the back of the tent.

"Chongli?" Rong Yiyi frowned: "You don't go to the front of the king's tent, what are you doing in my tent?" ”

Chongli arched his hand and asked respectfully: "It's not that Chongli is troublesome, it's just that the master has acted recently, and the apprentice really can't understand it." ”

"Is it that you can't read? Or can't you Chu King Xiong Qu understand? ”

Hearing this question, Chongli's eyelashes jumped, and he forced himself to calm down: "Master------ what King of Chu is?" The apprentice doesn't understand? ”

"Okay, you and I have been a master and apprentice for many years, what is wrong? Back then, I voted for Song Gongzi and just got it, so you used the Nanlin Sword Sect as a springboard to catch my boat. Don't forget, Master is from the Yi Society, what can't be found out? If they have different paths, why hide it? Rong Yi was indifferent, and his words were full of irrefutable affirmation.

After many years of companionship, how did Chongli not understand Rong Yi's character, so he no longer argued. He apologized and said, "Please forgive the young apprentice for the sin of concealing it, but it is really the person who has the master behind him, and he acted involuntarily, and he did not mean to hide the master. ”

"That's it," Rong Yi waved his sleeves, sat behind the desk and said, "Don't you just want to ask me why I think about him everywhere after I became a close minister of King Zhou?" I'll just tell you eight words: if you want to take it, you must give it first. Figure it out for yourself! ”

Chongli muttered and repeated: "If you want to take it, you must give it first------ "Suddenly he seemed to have an understanding, but he still had doubts, and asked softly: "The apprentice understands the master's meaning, but in this way, wouldn't Ji Duoyou have to be more reused, and in the future, the military power will be in hand, and the Zhaogonghu will be one article and one martial arts, where will there be a place for the master in this Great Zhou Dynasty?" ”

Rong Yi sneered: "Let me ask you, is Ji Duoyou the trusted general of King Zhou, or the confiner of Zhaogonghu?" ”

"This ------" Chongli was stunned: "It seems that ------- are both." ”

Rong Yi shook his head: "That's it, you still have little experience, and the days are still long, let's go and see!" ”

Seeing that the master seemed to be displeased, Chongli couldn't dwell on this topic anymore, so he only said tentatively: "What about the E-country side?" Do you want to get a message? ”

Rong Yi suddenly opened his half-closed eyes and scolded, "Why are you so confused? The rat Gu thing failed, I voted for the Zhou royal family again, Eyu Fang and the lynx king Ao Xing both hate to eat meat and sleep skin on me, do you dare to go to the news? Keep your mouth shut, you can't let out a single sound of the wind! ”

"No!" Rong Yi responded to the bill.

After the wheat harvest, 20,000 lightly armed cavalry swept north of the river like a hurricane.

The so-called lightly armed cavalry is Ji Duoyou's imitation of Hu Cai's imitation of the equipment of the southbound iron cavalry to make a big reduction. The Hu people have always had a tradition of light soldiers, with few heavy armor and large weapons, killing the enemy lightly on the battlefield, hanging the enemy's head on the waist belt, and galloping with a full moon scimitar in his hand like a roar and shouting charge, becoming the rumored Rong Di appearance in the Central Plains. For a long time, when it comes to "light soldiers", the first thing that comes to people's minds is the Hu people.

The Zhou army is different, paying more attention to equipment and equipment, all kinds of armor and equipment have strict laws, and the soldiers' defensive strength and charging strength are stronger than Hu Cai, especially the Eighth Division of Cheng Zhou and the Sixth Division of the West, which can really be regarded as heavy armor sharp soldiers.

However, such a heavily armored unit has become a great weakness for the speed and agility required for long-distance raids. In this regard, Ji Duoyou's letter to Zhou Li's Wang Jihu is: "Jiangbei is the heart of Jianghan, and Pingchuan is the majority of cities. The last general decided to follow the grassland Hu cavalry tactics and attack them unprepared with a fierce light horse. Dare to invite the king, Xu You's light soldiers to reduce the burden and change the machine. ”

Ji Hu immediately wrote: "The brigadier general invited." In response to military needs, Cheng Zhouyi made every effort to plan. ”

Duoyou received the next letter and immediately began to ride lightly.

First, the iron armor was changed to leather armor: the heavy armor of the outer iron leather and the inner cowhide was changed to a single-layer cowhide; The cowhide combat boots with dense iron nails were changed to thick and tough single-layer wild boar skin combat boots; The iron nail leather armor worn by the war horse was changed to a light and soft nailless sheepskin cover; The heaviest brass and iron bridles were all replaced with wooden bridles.

As a result, the armor of the knights of the Zhou army was reduced from more than 50 or 60 catties to more than 10 catties, and the harness was reduced from more than 50 catties to more than 20 catties, with a total of 70 or 80 catties.

Second, with the change of weapons: heavy offensive and defensive equipment and large machine-issued crossbows were all abandoned, and each knight only had two fine bronze swords, one long and one short, a crossbow with one arm, and thirty feather arrows.

Three, each knight is equipped with two war horses and a bag of 100 catties of forage.

Fourth, there is no baggage battalion in the whole army, and each knight carries ten catties of dry pot helmets, ten catties of dried beef, and a bag of bearded horse's milk wine.

Although all kinds of dressing matters are trivial, Ji Duoyou only took more than ten days. During the time of changing clothes, Duoyou focused on the patrol deployment of the 30,000 heavily armored iron cavalry left behind: 10,000 went to Taolindu to choke the choke point of the Song and Qi raids into Zhou, which was led by Wei He himself. 20,000 were left behind, and Gongsun Yu sat in the battle, and Rong Yi was the military counselor. Chongli commanded the forbidden army, and the safety of Zhou Tianzi Ji Hu was not mentioned.

"Whether you can fight and shock the Quartet is all up to General Ziliang."

"The last general will live up to the king's expectations!"

In the wilderness of the twilight sun, Ji Duoyou arched his hand to Ji Huyi, stirring up smoke and dust and left.

In late autumn, Ji Duoyou's 20,000 light horsemen were galloping, and they approached Panlong City, the westernmost part of Hubei Province, at the fourth watch. The 20,000 light horsemen were silently camped in the valley, there was no smoke, no fire, no one shouted for horses, and no one would have thought that such a terrible army was about to roll up a hurricane if they did not enter this dense forest.

In the dark woods under the hazy moonlight, only a faint light diffused from the foot of the mountain, it was a large dry puddle of the Himetomo Gathering.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Panlong City in the western border of Hubei Province, only fifteen miles away from our army!"

A parchment map hung from a thick tree trunk, and a torch swayed in the hand of Sima beside the tree. Ji Duoyou stood under the tree, his long sword circled the map, and deployed more than thirty centurions and more generals.

His voice was low and short: "Our army will take five cities in ten days!" Panlong City, Lutaiyi, Jiaocheng, Tongyi, the old Hubei capital. That is to say, within ten days and nights, our army will fight from the west bank of the river to the east bank, retreat to the east of the Great Circle, and then return to Zhouyi. This battle only breaks the city, does not occupy an area, and does not plunder money! Except, of course, for supplemental grain. When the city is broken, the army will be withdrawn, and no love is allowed to fight! Our army's plan is only to show the thunderbolt and lightning combat power of the Eighth Division of Cheng Zhou, and to deter the Hubei and Qi countries from acting rashly, do you understand? ”

"Obey the general's orders!"

There was a low roar in order, and there was immediately silence. This means that everyone understands the gist of this war.

The generals dispersed. In the short time when Ji Duoyou gathered generals, 20,000 knights had already completed various things such as eating cold meals, feeding horses, brushing horses, and renovating horse harnesses.

As cavalrymen, whether in wartime or peacetime, they always regard the maintenance of war horses as more important than their own food and drink, and in their eyes, war horses are brothers in distress who go to hardships with them.

In the morning of this meal, almost all the knights were chewing dried beef in their mouths, leading two war horses and hurrying to the river, chattering with the horses, checking the horseshoe and saddle bridle, etc. If everything is in order, they immediately wash the horses with a rolled grass brush dipped in the river water. The war horses snuggled up to their masters, relaxed but unable to neigh, they could only rub against people and snort, as intimate as flesh and blood brothers.

Seeing that the battalion was about to return in a hurry, the soldiers immediately took back their horses and returned to their respective teams, and the centurion and the lieutenants were still munching and swallowing, and all the knights were already mounted on their horses.

As the horses rolled out of the valley, the morning star was still shining brightly in the sky.

The gates of Panlong City had just been opened, and a storm suddenly came. Ji Tayu's light cavalry divided into four routes and stormed four gates at the same time.

The defenders at the head of the city were sleepy-eyed, and when the drawbridge had just been lowered, and the flow of people out of the city and into the city was still sparse and falling, there was a strange muffled thunder suddenly heard in the fields of the sky, followed by a red cloud that was rapidly drifting.

The stunned and ignorant soldiers at the head of the city did not understand whether they should report to the general for inspection, and the red cloud suddenly erupted into an earth-shattering cry and flew over.