"Inspector, you can't go any further south."

Du Wenhuan grabbed the reins of Lu Xiangsheng's war horse, stood in front of the horse, and slowly shook his head.

"The soldiers can't walk......"

Lu Xiangsheng on horseback had a gloomy expression, and between his frowning eyebrows was tiredness that could not be concealed.

"Where is this place?"

Lu Xiangsheng slowly raised his head, looked at the city that had been burned to ruins by the fire not far away, and asked out loud.

"Giant deer."

"Giant deer?"

Lu Xiangsheng's expression changed slightly, and his heart was cold.

He once went to Julu, and at that time, Julu was full of people, cars, and prosperous.

But now, Julu City is deserted and uninhabited.

As far as the eye can see, the endless wilderness covered with snow, the houses outside Julu City have long been turned into scorched earth, and there are only one broken mound after another as far as the eye can see.

Julu City was set on fire by the Qing army, and the houses in the city have been turned into ruins, and the city is deserted and there are no living people.

"Jiannu filled all the wells inside and outside the city, and if our army camped according to the city to get water, it would not change......"

"There is no river ...... in Julu City"

Lu Xiangsheng frowned slightly, he saw Du Wenhuan's lowered head, he already understood what was happening in the city.

"Go southeast, look for water and camp."

Along the road, the Qing army plundered the city, plundered the city, burned the buildings, gambled and blocked the wells, and threw the corpses into the river.

The waterways in Julu City are already blocked by corpses, and no one wants to drink any of the water that can't be entered at all, even if it can be drunk, no one wants to drink it......

Lu Xiangsheng raised his head and took one last look at the giant deer in front of him, which had turned into a mound of ruins, and then turned his horse's head and headed southeast.

The queue of the Xuan army was silent and terrifying, and the flow of people on the official road continued to move towards the southeast as Lu Xiangsheng continued.

However, the speed of the flow of people is surprisingly slow, even slower than that of ordinary pedestrians......

After traveling another five miles, they finally found a suitable place to camp near the river, and a group of soldiers of the Xuanda army arrived at the established position and began to slowly set up camp and fortify and build outposts.

As the camp was laid down, dozens of small groups of rangers also rushed out of the group.

Their mission is to scout the surroundings and take over the scouts that had previously been scattered around the perimeter.

As the camp was built, puffs of cooking smoke slowly rose from the camp of the Xuan army.

It's just the smoke that rises...... For the Xuan army, which is full of 8,000 people, it is really a little too little......

Lu Xiangsheng sat in the newly built Chinese military tent with his head down, bowed his head on the desk, and carefully observed the map placed on it.

The map is a map of Shunde Prefecture, which records the distribution of the cities and rivers around Julu in detail, and also draws this part of the situation around the nearby Guangping Mansion.

In the tent, Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu sat separately, they had already arranged the affairs of camping, and now they were entering the account to wait for Lu Xiangsheng's orders.

Hu Dawei led the vanguard scout cavalry to the periphery, and he had not yet returned to the camp, so he was not in the tent.

Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu sat upright in the tent, neither of them spoke, nor moved, just sat quietly.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at the map on the desk with a calm expression, and after half a sound, he slowly raised his head and opened his mouth to break the dull atmosphere in the tent.

"It seems that Jiannu wants to make the giant deer my burial place......"

Lu Xiangsheng's words made Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu both look at him.

"You two should see it too."

Lu Xiangsheng's gaze swept over Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu, and then fell on the map on the desk.

In late November, just when he led his troops to Zhending, Sun Chuanting led his troops north to Baoning.

The Jiannu, who was scattered around and plundering, suddenly began to gather a large number of troops, and then turned around and attacked the city all the way to the south, passing through Zhending Mansion and entering Shunde and Guangping Prefectures, and burning the beacon fire to the south of Beizhili.

So he led the army all the way from Zhending, through Zhaozhou, Ningjin, and Longping all the way south to aid Shunde.

I also met Jiannu along the way, but Jiannu did not love to fight, but retreated after a little battle.

The more south they went, the faster Jiannu retreated, and even before they arrived, Jiannu's troops retreated in advance.

This is extremely unusual.

Jiannu is not a timid army, and it is impossible to blindly escape like this because of a few small defeats.

And since he led his troops into Shunde, he encountered more and more Jiannu troops along the way, and the attacks and harassments along the way began to intensify.

The sentry reported that the Jiannu movement was frequent, and a lot of Jiannu cavalry suddenly appeared in Xinhe in the north.

This is the biggest anomaly, because Jiannu obviously advanced all the way from Zhending Mansion to Shunde Mansion in the southwest, entered Shunde through Zhending Mansion, first broke the giant deer, turned west to attack Ren County, and besieged Shunde Mansion City.

Lu Xiangsheng led his troops all the way south in order to lift the siege of Shunde Fucheng.

But at this time, suddenly a large force of Jiannu cavalry appeared in the north and their way of coming.

Lu Xiangsheng has been on the battlefield for a long time, how can he not understand his situation at this time.

The main force of Jiannu lured him south to rescue in the southwest, probably because he wanted his life and annihilated the army he led in Shunde Mansion.

When he led the army into the territory of Julu, Jiannu's hidden cavalry cut off his way, and at this time, Jiannu's main force was not far from them in the southwest of Julu.

Jiannu has a lot of troops in the east of Julu at this time, and the vanguard led by Hu Dawei has been attacked two or three times today, and Jiannu's rangers are also increasing, oppressing the rangers under his command.

Some time ago, I could still receive urgent documents from Shunde Mansion, but these days, I haven't heard the slightest rumor of Shunde Mansion.

All kinds of signs are showing that the main force of Jiannu is approaching, and the purpose of Jiannu is not in the capital city of Shunde Mansion, but on his Lu Xiangsheng.

Jiannu put down the bait and lured him in, and above the bait was a large net woven by Jiannu, a large net that demanded his life.

Lu Xiangsheng saw it, and Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu also saw it.

Du Wenhuan said at the beginning that he couldn't go further south, firstly, because the soldiers in the army were indeed sleepy and exhausted, and the other meant to dissuade them.

The Qing army weaved an encirclement network against them in the south of Julu, and if they went further south, it would undoubtedly be in the hands of the Qing army, and they would not be able to go any further.

Du Wenhuan clenched his hands into fists, he lowered his head slightly, his eyes slanted to the outside of the tent, he didn't look at Lu Xiangsheng, and said in a deep voice.

"Our army has traveled all the way, sleeping in the open and eating, without any supplement, the grain and grass in the army have already bottomed out, although the soldiers at the bottom have no complaints, no noise, but they have reached the limit, the distance traveled in the past few days is getting shorter and shorter day by day because of the physical ......."

Since November, the army has been cut off from salary, and it is still a trivial matter, after all, it only affects morale.

However, the impact of food shortages is difficult to eliminate.

Since mid-November, the rations provided to them have come and gone, and the soldiers in the army can only get half of the rations they had in the past every day, and they cannot eat enough at all.

I can't even eat enough, so where does the combat power come from.

This is also why, Gaoyang City is obviously next to Boryeong Mansion, but they can only sit back and watch the fall of Gaoyang City.

In Zhending Mansion, they received very little supplements along the way, even if the military rations were halved, the food and grass in the army were already almost exhausted.

Lu Xiangsheng's expression was gloomy, and he knew that Du Wenhuan was right.

It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice.

In two or three days, the army will be completely out of food, and then they will collapse first without even needing the Qing army to attack.

Du Wenhuan's voice fell, and the atmosphere in the tent fell silent again.

Lu Xiangsheng didn't say anything, he lowered his head and didn't raise it.

At dusk, the light was dim, and the light in the tent was faint and dim.

Lu Xiangsheng's face was hidden in the darkness, and no one could see his expression.

There was silence in the tent for a long time, and I don't know how long it was, but the sky outside the tent had already been completely darkened, and the silence was broken by the sound of horses' hooves.

Du Wenhuan and Yang Guozhu followed the sound to the outside of the tent, and raised their eyes to see Hu Dawei who walked in from outside the tent covered in wind and rain.

"Hu Dawei, see the Supervisor!"

Hu Dawei strode into the tent, knelt on one knee and saluted Lu Xiang with full of energy.

Lu Xiangsheng, who had been on the top and lowered his head, also made a move at this time, and slowly raised his head to look at Hu Dawei.

"Inspector, I was in the southeast, and I met a group of people from Guangzong, who seemed to be local squires."

"What do you mean when you hear that the overseer is leading the army, you must ask the overseer to see you."

"The overseer warned me to lead the army to be humble when it comes to meeting the people, and I don't know what to do, so I brought people first."

Hu Dawei lowered his head and reported respectfully to Lu Xiangsheng.

Hu Dawei is the chief soldier of Shanxi Town, and he usually does not accept Lu Xiangsheng's command, but he still respects Lu Xiangsheng very much.

He had only been fighting with Lu Xiangsheng for a few months, but it was in these few months that Lu Xiangsheng had already convinced him.

Lu Xiangsheng did not hide in the rear like other governors, and he never talked to them about empty words.

In the past few months, Lu Xiangsheng has always had clear rewards and punishments, acted on his words, commanded well, and led them to fight a lot of battles, every time he was in the front, and even led the guards to charge into battle.

So Lu Xiangsheng's instructions were all taken to heart.

"Guangzong?"

Lu Xiangsheng's eyes were slightly condensed, and he was a little puzzled.

Guangzong was forty miles south of the giant deer.

They passed through Julu and walked all the way to the southeast, and the scouts were scattered for a distance of twenty or thirty miles, and Guangzong County could indeed know that the army was coming.

Guangzong City has not fallen, he knows it, but now that the army is in chaos, how can anyone come all the way from Guangzong?

(End of chapter)