After the Tang Army, the main general was named Li Duozuo, the official was the general of the right Weiwei, and followed Wu Youyi from the capital, Wu Youyi was originally the assassin of the same state, because of the northern expedition to the Khitan and was temporarily appointed as the general of the right Wei Wang, he did not have any connections in the army, and he did not have the experience of leading the troops to fight, in the face of many senior generals, Wu Youyi could only rely on the strong power of the Wu family to oppress the generals to obey.

Li Duozuo is about 50 years old, has been in the army for 30 years, has participated in countless battles, and has rich war experience, but in this expedition to Liaodong, he coincidentally chose to remain silent like other generals, whether it was Wu Youyi's previous immobility, or now he ventured into Liaodong, Li Duozuo did not say anything

In fact, Wu Youyi did not give them a chance to express his position, and insisted on ordering the army to go north, although Li Duozuo did not have any objection and obeyed the order to go north, but deep in his heart he still expressed deep doubts about the Khitan people's peace negotiation, you must know that the Khitan people's peace negotiation is actually surrender, once the Tang army enters Yingzhou, how much capital do the Khitans still have to negotiate peace?

If you really want to negotiate peace, it should be agreed and then cede Yingzhou, of course, maybe it is really as the Khitans themselves say, the Turks attacked their lair, but that's it, they shouldn't preach it, but secretly divide their troops to go back to the rescue, and then leave a part of the army stationed in Yingzhou to negotiate with the Tang army, so as to get the greatest benefits.

And now, all the troops retreated north, waiting for the Tang army to occupy Yingzhou, either the Khitans were extremely stupid, or it was a trap, Li Duozuo thought of Li Quanzhong's cunning, he still felt that the latter was more likely, and based on this worry, he tried to slow down the march as much as possible, waiting for the news after the main force in front entered Yingzhou City.

At this time, the voice of Chen Ziang, who had joined the army, came from the big tent, "General Li, can I come in?"

"Please join the army"

As soon as the curtain was lifted, Chen Ziang walked in, and he was reinstated because of Di Renjie's intercession, but Wu Youyi really didn't want to see him again, so he sent him to the rear army to serve as Li Duozuo's rear army staff officer.

"General Li, I have some doubts and want to talk to the general" Chen Ziang was as frank as ever and got straight to the point.

"Please sit down and say when you join the army"

Li Duozuo invited him to sit down, and ordered his soldiers to serve tea, and then smiled and said: "Please say if you join the army"

"General, there will inevitably be fraud in this Khitan peace negotiation" Chen Ziang said impatiently.

"How so?"

"Didn't the general think of it? General Wu was in charge of the military and fought against the Khitan, while Di Xiangguo was in charge of military affairs and negotiations with the Khitan, and Di Xiangguo should be solely responsible for this kind of thing, and Li Quanzhong had been dealing with the imperial court for a long time, didn't he know this? He just sent the general and the envoy to contact General Wu, and deliberately bypassed Di Xiangguo, which obviously did not conform to the rules, if the Khitan really had the sincerity to negotiate peace, they would not make this kind of mistake, so their purpose was still obviously military, it must be a trap to lure the enemy Tang army north. ”

Li Duozuo nodded, Chen Ziang found the loophole of the Khitan people from another direction, he sighed and said: "Actually, I also feel that the Khitans are not sincere, but Wu Youyi insists on going his own way and does not listen to the advice of others at all, it is said that he does not even listen to the advice of Di Xiangguo, what can I do?"

"But General Li has not thought about it, if the Khitans ambush the Tang army, the first thing must be to attack the Tang army's grain and grass, and we will bear the brunt."

Li Duozuo bowed his head and was silent, how could he not think of it, but the military order is like a mountain, he can't turn around and go south again, offending Wu Youyi is offending the entire Wu family, he can't afford this consequence

"The general might as well contact Di Xiangguo again and listen to his advice?" Chen Ziang seemed to understand Li Duozuo's embarrassment, and further persuaded.

Li Duozuo shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Let me think about this matter." ”

At this moment, a report from his own soldiers came from outside the door: "General, General Li of the internal guard sent someone to report an urgent matter." ”

Li Duozuo was stunned, what was going on? He immediately ordered: "Please come in."

After a while, the messenger scout walked into the big tent quickly, knelt down on one knee and saluted: "On the order of my general, I came to deliver an urgent message." ”

The messenger scout handed the letter up, Li Duozuo took the letter, was not in a hurry to open it, and asked, "May I ask where your general is now?"

"Our general is now in the Valley of the White Wolf"

Li Duozuo became more and more surprised in his heart, he immediately opened the letter and read it hurriedly, he was suddenly taken aback, and couldn't help but stand up, how is this possible

As night fell, Li Zhen led five hundred elite soldiers to quietly approach the entrance of the rift, and in order to prevent alarming the other party, the rest of the large army followed quietly three miles away.

"General, the Khitan army has been in the rift valley for more than an hour. The scout team was Yang Honglie and whispered beside Li Zhen.

Li Zhen nodded, he could see clearly in the moonlight, and the other party also left more than 300 people to guard the valley mouth here, among which there was a sentry standing on each of the three big stones, about 300 steps away from them.

Li Zhen's eyes fell on a natural stone trench more than 70 steps long next to the rift valley, if the Khitan army relied on this stone trench to resist, it would also bring heavy losses to the Tang army, and it was necessary to occupy this stone trench before the enemy discovered the Tang army.

Li Zhen looked at the three sentries on the boulder again, and the killing of these three sentries became the most important thing, he pondered for a moment, and called the three internal guard archers in a low voice.

These three people are the samurai with the highest archery skills in the internal guard, although they can't be compared with Li Zhen's clever cavalry archery, but they can also do 100 shots and 100 hits, and they never miss a fixed-point archery.

Li Zhen said a few words to the three of them, and the three of them understood, each with a pair of crossbow arrows, slowly crawled from the ground to the mouth of the rift, and with the help of the cover of the shrubs on the ground, gradually approached the three sentries on the boulder.

The three archers each dealt with a sentry, and the three sentries were about thirty paces apart, while the three archers of the Tang army were approaching the sentry tower from the three directions of due south, east and north, and any of these three archers, if any one of them was discovered, would trigger an alarm from the Khitan army.

Of the three sentries, the middle one was the most difficult to contain, not only was he sitting on the boulder, but there were also ten soldiers who were resting and chatting not far from him, and if any of these soldiers found it, they would fall short.

People should be fine and not too many, these three people are the most elite of the internal guards, the leader is a team leader, named Mo Tingzong, a native of Luoyang, positioning archery ranks first in the Yulin Army, especially his crossbow arrows can be described as a hundred shots, a hundred steps away can basically be killed with one arrow, almost to catch up with their general Li Zhen's archery, in order to recruit him, Li Zhen took a lot of tongue to persuade the Yulin Army to release people.

The five archers slowly approached the rift like ghosts, and they were very careful, using all the terrain at their disposal, and after running fifty paces, they jumped into a drainage ditch that had been washed out by the rain, and quickly ran towards the rift.

The drainage ditch, about five feet deep and three feet wide, led to the entrance to the rift, and it was this trench that allowed the three sharpshooters to quickly approach the enemy sentry, who stopped about sixty paces away from the sentry, and if they went any further, they would likely be spotted.

Mo Tingzong squinted his eyes and observed the sentry and the soldiers not far behind him, in fact, he just observed while running, he just found a small special place, it seemed that there were no soldiers behind the other two sentries, he looked carefully for a while, and finally saw the clue, it was not that there were no soldiers, but that the rest of the soldiers were curled up in the corner and fell asleep.

It's no wonder that even their commander-in-chief didn't realize that the Tang army would come from the south, let alone these soldiers.

Mo Tingzong observed for a while, only to see two Khitan soldiers get up to go to Xiaoxie, and soon came back to sleep, the mouth of the rift valley was quiet, no figure could be seen, only soldiers seemed to be chatting in a low voice in the rift.

Then his eyes were on the three sentries, the middle of which seemed to be asleep, napping with his back against the rock, while the one on the left leaned lazily against the stone, and hung an iron bell above his head, and when he found the enemy, he would ring the bell to call the police.

Mo Tingzong observed for a moment, and he pointed at his own throat and crossbow arrows at the other two Tang Jun arrows, just asking them, "Shooting through his throat sixty steps away, is it possible?"

The two subordinates nodded, and Mo Tingzong gestured again, meaning to release the arrows together.

The three of them picked up their crossbow arrows, their crossbow arrows were specially made by the internal guards, small in size, portable and easy to carry, but its strength was very strong, and it could shoot a five-inch long iron crossbow arrow two hundred and fifty paces away.

And the crossbow arrow is also very special, only half the length of the normal crossbow arrow, the arrow has a bleeding groove, and the groove is coated with poison, this poison comes from Gongsun Auntie, only a little bit of medicine into the human body, can be fatal in an instant.

At this time, the crossbow arrows of the three people were slowly aimed at the soldiers on the big stone, Mo Tingzong imitated the night owl and screamed, this is the signal, and the three of them pulled the crossbow machine suspension knife at the same time, "Click, three soft sounds, three poison arrows shot at the sentry like lightning."

The sentry in the middle was awakened by the screams of the night owl, and just as he could yawn, before he could react, the poisoned arrow struck him in the throat, and he choked his throat in pain, and tried to shout but could not shout, and his hand grabbed in the air, and he slowly collapsed.

At the same time, the other two sentries were shot down, both of them with arrows in the throat that did not make a sound.

Mo Tingzong was overjoyed, turned around and waved to the Tang army in the distance, he led two Tang soldiers to rush up the stone trench first, and at this time, dozens of Khitan soldiers more than a dozen steps away were still asleep.

They were exhausted from the long journey, and the killing of three sentries did not wake them at all, let alone the soldiers in the valley.

Li Zhen had been watching the three Khitan sentries at the mouth of the rift, and when he saw the three sentries fall at the same time, he knew that the three subordinates had succeeded, and a smile appeared on the corner of Li Zhen's mouth, and he immediately turned around and ordered: "Rush up"

Five hundred soldiers unsheathed their swords and spears sprinted, sprinting towards the stone trench three hundred paces away.