Chapter 29: Hunting

No one knows exactly where the two logging teams disappeared, but it wasn't completely directionless: in order to transport the timber, the auxiliaries would move along the Yanshui, so that if they pushed the severed trunks into the river and let them go downstream, the river would send them outside Yan'an to wait for the other auxiliaries there to drag them up. However, the big trees clinging to the river have long been cut down, and the fodder for the raft has to leave the river bank and go a little deeper to the east, and only in a farther place.

The riders followed the river bank all the way north, and every time they saw a trail that could pass by or have traces of heavy objects being towed, they searched deeply for a section, and wandered aimlessly for more than an hour without a clue. After walking more than 20 miles, he arrived in Ansai County, and was about to return, Guan Jianlin found an anomaly: in the sky about half a mile northeast, there was a group of crows circling. Gu Baihua, who was born as a horse thief, is all too familiar with this kind of scene: there are corpses on the ground, and they are being eaten by carnivores, and the crows are waiting for the carnivores to leave!

The highly vigilant crowd galloped up a small slope, just as Master Luo had a hunch, there were seven or eight headless corpses on the ground on the other side! Several coyotes surrounding the corpse saw the shining knives and guns, and unwillingly avoided more than a dozen feet away with their tails, stopped to lick the blood on their mouths and noses and looked back here.

There is no need to wait for Guo Qinglin to come and identify them, the scattered ropes and the trunks of trees lying on the ground that have not had time to cut off the branches prove that these headless corpses are one of the missing teams!

Although he had expected the result, Luo Shifan still didn't understand the scene in front of him, and asked, "Won't these people run away when they are attacked?" Even if you don't run away in the end, you shouldn't die together, right? ”

Gu Baihua didn't answer, his legs clamped the horse's belly, rode the horse forward and circled the scene a few turns, carefully examined it, understood the general situation in his heart, and turned his head to Luo Shifan and said: "Little master, the enemy is an elite army. Judging from the footprints and hoof prints, there are about a dozen horses, and at most twenty or thirty foot soldiers. When the foot soldiers set up an ambush here, the horsemen hid in the woods further north, and when the ambush soldiers gave a signal, they came from the side road like us to block the back road, and then chased the scattered people back, and maybe said that it would not be difficult for the auxiliaries or something, these guys believed it, so they were obediently pulled over and tied up and killed! You see that the knife edge on the neck cavity is cut very low, and only with the Adam's apple can you lead the first-level gong, which is the technique of the official army...... A certain person used to cut off people's heads like this. He smiled smugly.

Luo Shifan was a little nervous when he heard that there were dozens of officers and soldiers, and subconsciously looked around. Seeing this, Gu Baihua suddenly became arrogant, and said with a smile: "Little master, don't panic, I guess what the dog officers and soldiers are trying to do is to cut some heads and go back to ask for rewards, and a dozen heads in two cases are about the same." Now, even if they don't go back to extend, they won't stay close to the left, so they should run elsewhere to set up an ambush. Besides, even if they bump into each other, these brothers of Gu are not vegetarians, and they will definitely be able to keep the little master safe. The little master is relieved. ”

Luo Shifan was relieved when he heard this, and when he turned the horse's head, he didn't notice that Gu Baihua made a "silence" gesture to the people who wanted to stop talking, and raised his saber again, signaling everyone to stay vigilant.

The people who got the answer no longer bothered to find another group of missing auxiliaries, and rode their horses back to the city, and then Gu Baihua's loud voice disturbed Guan Shengyun's spring dream.

Guan Shengyun and most of his generals have been both officers and thieves, and they have accumulated rich experience in these two special fields, so they are familiar with dealing with this kind of problem, and there is no need for Master Luo to bother at all. After a few simple discussions, the generals came to a unanimous conclusion: according to the thinking of the officers and soldiers of the sneak attack, the auxiliary soldiers of logging are all consumables for the old, weak, sick and disabled, and it should not attract attention if they "run" a dozen or so in a day or two - indeed, Guan Shengyun did not take this seriously, and will grab some more people and throw them out of the city to continue chopping wood, at most one or two thieves per group will be sent to watch and desert - well, Gu Baihua thought so from the beginning. The only variable among them is that Master Xiao Luo happened to hear Guo Qinglin's report!

Considering all kinds of circumstances, and then analyzing the time, this group of officers and soldiers can only come from the east to extend the direction - the army is coming from the north, and there is no danger behind them, and if the officers and troops come from the west and south, they must be a large army, and they can't hide their own scouts, and if they are the elite scouts of the other side, it is absolutely impossible to covet these unseemly first-class merits and risk exposing their whereabouts and can't get along with the old and weak auxiliary soldiers!

Dozens of people went back and forth for three or four hundred miles—it was impossible for them to dare to take the official road in a big way, and from Yanyan, they had to walk a section in the direction of Yanchuan in the north, then turn west, cross the Qinghua water, and then enter the forest to ambush. A dozen or so heads that either have gray hair or have not yet grown a beard can't be exchanged for a few dollars, and then the survey of the water release, such heads also need three or four to be converted into a level. So, it's likely that in order to cut a few more heads, these guys will continue to lurk in the mountains for a few more days. Moreover, in order to avoid being discovered and causing vigilance and encirclement by large soldiers, they will not approach the vicinity of the capital city, especially not follow the official road to reconnoitre!

Countermeasures were also quickly formulated.

By the end of the evening, five elite search teams had set off along the riverbank. With the site where the body was found as the center, with a radius of ten miles from north to south, the semicircular reconnaissance network unfolded to the east. The search team didn't need to go too deep into the forest, just find a hill to lurk and observe where there was a fire—at night in the mountains, the dog officers and soldiers would definitely make a fire whether it was to keep out the cold or drive away wild beasts. The task of the scouts is simple: when they spot an enemy, they write down the location and report back quickly.

Guo Qinglin was responsible for finding a dozen or so people who looked unpleasant to form a death squad, and set off to cut wood as bait the next morning at the position where there was an ambush enemy. There were more bait, so that the dog officers and soldiers spent more time chasing and cutting.

In addition, 50 elite cavalry and 200 foot soldiers were selected from each battalion, and they were on standby outside the north gate before dawn, and when the baits were chased and killed, the elite cavalry blocked the back road and fought and contained, and the foot soldiers immediately entered the forest to outflank and encircle them.

Li Yaobao looked up at the sun in the west, and issued a whistle on behalf of the troops: By this time, no suitable target has been found, and there is no hope today. Earlier, faint human voices and logging sounds were heard from afar, but Li Yaobi, who was familiar with the terrain, knew that it was a little too close to the official road from Ansai to Yan'an. This section of the river is next to the official road, and both places are in the hands of thieves, and from time to time there are heralds galloping through. His small army of fifty people went deep behind enemy lines, and Li Yaobao did not dare to risk being inadvertently discovered by the thieves - Gu Baihua was not mistaken: Li Yaobi's squad of horsemen had nine horsemen and forty foot soldiers, but seven or eight of them were auxiliaries, responsible for cutting grass and feeding horses and building improvised camps deep in the forest, and did not participate in the hunting of logging auxiliaries.

Back at the camp, the auxiliaries took the reins, unsaddled the horses, and led them to the forest stream to drink. Because it was a long journey and a sneak attack behind enemy lines, the soldiers were only half-armoured. Even so, I was tired enough to bury the ambush for most of the day, and one by one I helped each other unload their armor, sat on the stubble of brand-new low wooden stakes, and gulped down the cool water in the water ladle sent by the auxiliaries - the first two ambushes were a complete victory, and the soldiers brought back not only the first rank, but also a lot of axes and saws, which is a good thing! When the auxiliaries came, they carried a lot of dry food, and a lot of lime (for pickling the head, otherwise it would be a pity to rot), and only two small hand axes.

Today's ambush was unsuccessful, but the auxiliaries actually caught a roe deer! At this moment, the skin has been peeled, washed and peeled and put on the pyre, and a large iron pot has been set up on a stove next to it, in which are the head of the roe deer and the intestines under the water waiting to cook the soup. Although they were hungry, everyone just swallowed and frothed at the mouth. Everyone knows that for safety, it is necessary to wait until it is completely dark to make a fire, and in the evening when you can still see, the smoke from the cooking in the forest is likely to lead to death.

The forest was much darker than the outside, and soon everyone couldn't see each other. To be on the safe side, Li waited until the faint moonlight penetrated the canopy before ordering a fire. The ancients slept early and woke up early, and at this time, the vast majority of people had already fallen asleep, and the dense forest would cover the fire, and twenty or thirty miles away, the watchmen on the city wall would not find the smoke hidden in the thick night.

The red flames licked & licked the iron pot, and the soup inside gurgled and boiled. The infantry soldiers gathered around, dipped the broth in dry food and put it in their mouths to bite a piece, and some people picked out the roe deer intestines with branches, cut them with daggers, and chewed on them while inhaling them. The fat of the roast meat dripped into the fire and stirred up crackling sparks, and the fragrance spread, and the two auxiliaries stood on both sides of the fire hunched over, cutting off pieces of golden roast meat with knives and handing them to the horsemen who were seated around. The latter took the hot barbecue, poked into the pouch around his waist, dipped a few grains of salt, and devoured the dry food, and then took a sip of the broth in the wooden bowl in front of him. Another auxiliary stood at one end of the fire, licking his lips while carefully turning the grill so that the raw meat would be exposed just right.

When the horsemen had eaten enough and moved out of the place, several infantry leaders and veterans gathered around again to remove the shredded meat from the gaps in the skeleton...... Then, the skeleton was smashed and thrown into a large iron pot that was already empty—and after a little more cooking, it was the food of the auxiliaries.

The soldiers, who had eaten to their heart's content, stood up, illuminated by the dappled light of the fire, urinated one after another, and each found a more comfortable place to lie down, and after a while, the sound of snoring rang out.

No one noticed that on the dirt slope outside Lixu, there were several pairs of vigilant eyes watching the firelight here.

Little did anyone know that this roast and broth would be the last supper for almost all of them.

This knowledge point:

1. In ancient times, marching and camping were much more troublesome than imagined: burying pots to make food, chopping firewood, fetching water, setting up tents, building nests, etc., needless to say, they often had to dig trenches, trees, simple camp walls, fences, etc. The auxiliaries are of low status, but without them, even the most powerful troops will immediately lose their mobility, and then lose most of their combat effectiveness in a matter of days.

2. In ancient times, the marching army carried a lot of materials, not only to carry the iron pot (the iron pot of the Ming Dynasty was a good thing, the Mongolian steppe did not produce iron, and the Mongolian compatriots even did not hesitate to fight and die in order to grab this thing), wooden bowls, axes, saws, ropes, shovels, hoes, sickles, etc. Salt is even more precious and can be spent as money.