Li Jiangyao pondered for a moment and asked, "What time is it?" ”

"My lord, it's nearly three o'clock. Because the clouds are foggy today, the sky is not very clear. The officer replied.

"Where's Horia?" Li Jiangyao's tone was a little tight: "Call her over." ”

The officer hesitated for a moment and said, "My lord, the county lord led the soldiers to repair and strengthen the riverside fortifications overnight, and it seems that they have just finished their work before entering the camp to rest." Call her to the tent now? ”

Li Jiangyao slapped the table undoubtedly: "Don't talk nonsense!" Hurry up and get Horia for me, there's something big! ”

-

Durham was immediately on the west bank of the Ulundu River, overlooking the camp of the Zhenjiang Army shrouded in mist, and the leader of the Western Xinjiang Alliance, Alikjiang, was beside him, and further behind, hundreds of Jinjia soldiers and Loulan guards.

Alekjiang shook his cloak, touched his mustache, and smiled at the other side: "Master Hou, look, the Holy Tang Barbarian has really noticed something. ”

Durham smiled triumphantly and snorted, "The Saint Tang people have always been cunning, so they will naturally notice our actions the night before and see through the underwater arrangement. They erected so many obstacles to resist horses overnight, and they were probably tired to death, haha. ”

"Our sons are working so hard, it's time for them to be tired." Alekjiang showed a flattering look on his face and casually agreed.

Durham suppressed his smile and asked, "Brother Alekjiang, what is the movement of the camp opposite, has it been discovered?" ”

Hearing this, Alekjiang did not answer immediately, but beckoned behind him, and a Loulan officer urged him to step forward and reported loudly: "Master Hou, Your Highness." The brothers lurking on the opposite bank have already found out, and in the middle of the night last year, the main force of the remnants of the Metasequoia bandits suddenly assembled and dispatched, with a scale of about 40,000 people, mixed in infantry and cavalry, and marched in a northeast direction. ”

"Hahaha, good!" Durham stroked his palms and smiled: "It seems that Li Jiangyao really fell for my cousin's clever plan!" ”

Alekjiang also felt extremely relaxed at this time: "Yes, Lord Hou, His Royal Highness the Prince is clever, and he is worthy of being an invincible handsome in the world!" If his old man hooked his little finger slightly, Li Jiangyao had to be obedient and drill into the trap. It's just that I don't know if General Duolun can successfully hold back the main force of the 40,000 enemy troops. ”

Durham waved his hand: "Don't worry!" Duolun's skills, I still know in my heart. When it comes to being flexible and cunning, Duolun is not bad, he must have a way! ”

Alekjiang bowed slightly: "What Master Hou said makes sense." In that case, then we should also prepare for the show. ”

"There's no hurry!" Durham looked up at the sky: "According to the Battle Plan of the Prince of the Temple, we should not receive the signal to attack until the sun sets today. There is still nearly a day to go, so it's better to let the sons and daughters eat and rest well, and nourish their spirits to have a good time! ”

-

When Huo Liya came to the coach's tent, Li Jiangyao was sitting at the table, staring at the map and being slightly distracted.

Seeing that Li Jiangyao ignored herself, Huo Liya stretched her waist and said with a little dissatisfaction: "My general, what is the matter with you always looking for me?" Do you know, when you were asleep last night, the lord of this county has been guarding the river digging and moving bricks. ”

"Oh? County Lord, are you here? Only then did Li Jiangyao find out about Huo Liya's arrival, and hurriedly said, "Come on, sit here." ”

Huo Liya sat cross-legged opposite Li Jiangyao, across a table from him, tilted her head and said, "Huh? Looking at you like this, you don't seem to sleep much? ”

Li Jiangyao rubbed his face vigorously and responded: "Well, I squinted for a while, and I didn't sleep steadily." ”

Seeing this, Horia couldn't help but show a distressed expression, changed her past spicy, and said softly: "My lord, you have been under too much pressure recently, and the burden on your shoulders is heavier than ours...... Alas, don't say that. Since I can't sleep, I'm just going to report to you about the situation of the armament......"

Li Jiangyao raised his hand to interrupt Huo Liya's words, and said to himself: "Xu Youchang, why are they moving so fast? Kicked out of the camp in the middle of the night? ”

"You're not sleepy, are you?" Horia said with a little puzzlement: "Didn't we discuss it last night?" Most of the left army in Western Xinjiang was infantry, and if we wanted to cooperate with the Alik River to flank us, we should not choose the rugged and difficult Gomil Mountain Forest, but take the Feixing Gorge and make a detour from there. In order to catch the other party by surprise, General Xu and the others set off first, advancing to the northeast and getting as close to them as possible. ”

Li Jiangyao listened to Huo Liya's words quietly, and was silent for a while. In the second half of last night's meeting, he was basically in a state of dazing, and the battle plan was almost all negotiated by his generals. Now listening to the Lord of Nanhua County explain the reason, he realized that there was such an impression in his mind.

Horia continued: "Another reason why we set out in the middle of the night is to hide our whereabouts as much as possible, so that it is difficult for the enemy troops on the opposite side to detect our intentions. Even the addition of the Horse Rejection Array had to be carried out quietly by me. ”

Li Jiangyao nodded, then shook his head again.

Horia couldn't help but pout, curious, "What the hell do you mean?" I saw that you were a little abnormal last night, and now you are putting on this appearance again. Nodding and shaking his head, it is incomprehensible. ”

"Did we miss something?" Li Jiangyao suddenly muttered to himself.

Huo Liya was stunned when she heard this, and she didn't understand what Li Jiangyao meant: "What did you miss?" Do you mean that the enemy has some other schemes? ”

Li Jiangyao's eyebrows tightened, and he leaned over while thinking and said, "I can't tell, I just feel that something is not quite right." Well, something is very wrong! ”

"What's wrong?" Huo Liya moved her body forward, propped her elbows on the table, stared at Li Jiangyao with blazing eyes and asked, "Don't worry, think about it carefully, and then speak slowly." ”

Li Jiangyao and Huo Liya looked at each other for a moment, and said slowly: "Okay, don't worry, let's analyze it slowly." Let's talk about the sand and gravel bag hidden under the water. This move seems very simple, but it is actually very clever, and it is easy to achieve unexpected results when attacking. ”

Horia nodded earnestly, agreeing with him.

Li Jiangyao continued to analyze: "However, if this trick is implemented, the most critical problem is not how to smuggle the sand and gravel bags, but to make the whole operation flawless. ”

"Flawless?" Horia couldn't help but wonder, "Then what should I do?" ”

Li Jiangyao seemed very patient: "I don't have a mature idea of what to do now, but at least I won't do it like the enemy did the night before." It was only a very abrupt infantry offensive action, and there was no deceptive tactical intent at all, and it was clear that we were not afraid of suspicion, detect something unusual, and then send people to find out. ”

"Could it be...... You mean to say," Horia was a little incredulous, "did the enemy deliberately let us know that the river was shallow by them?" ”

Li Jiangyao said: "This possibility exists. You think, how could anyone who could figure out the idea of laying sand and gravel bags under the water not think of using some means to cover up this secret? It is so easy for us to find the clues, isn't it not that we have not seen the benefits and harms? ”

Horiya's face was full of confusion, and she couldn't help but say, "No, no, no, no, you must be thinking too much." You have too many twists and turns in your stomach, and you end up winding yourself into the ditch. ”

-

At dawn, a small mountain village located at the junction of Metasequoia City and Ikoru County suddenly welcomed a group of mysterious uninvited guests.

The men, women, and children of the village were dragged from their sleep, with sharp knives against their necks, and all of them were escorted to the threshing floor at the east end of the village. The cold wind of the early morning whistled over the empty grain field, making the people in thin shirts shiver.

However, no one dared to protest loudly, even the baby in the mother's arms seemed to be shocked by the atmosphere around him, forgetting the usual habit of crying.

Just around the villagers, there were dense cavalry, their hats and helmets fluttering with animal hair tassels, and their sword flags embroidered with huge wolf head emblems.

A leader-like cavalryman rode his horse to the general's command, and reported in a low voice: "General, all the searches, the entire village of eighty-seven people, all here, none of them have missed the net. ”

On the war horse opposite him, sat a general with a grim face. After listening to his report, the general did not speak, but just stretched out his left hand and slashed in the air.

"Drink! Ga Thought! The meaning of this Turkic phrase is simple - "to kill all"! For a moment, the shouts and shouts resounded like thunder, and the cavalrymen raised their spears, drew their sabers, and pounced on the unarmed villagers like wolves.

In the blink of an eye, eighty-seven men, women, and children lay on the ground, and the gushing blood instantly stained the entire barn red.

The general who gave the order to slaughter did not even look at the corpses, and said to the soldiers around him: "We are ordered by His Highness to open the way for the army, and we must conceal our whereabouts. Now that he has entered the territory of the Metasequoia Army, he no longer has to pick up the mountain and forest paths as before, and from this moment on, he will change the road and gallop. All who see us are like these people, leaving nothing alive! Listen to my orders, target Pan Song Ferry, go! ”

When the cavalry heard this, they raised their horsewhips one after another, urged their horses to gallop in the northwest direction, and walked cleanly in a blink of an eye.

In less than half an hour, the sound of horses' hooves sounded more densely in the mountains and forests in the distance, and the cavalry army like mountains and seas suddenly appeared in the early morning mist, as if they were fierce gods and evil spirits from hell.

They didn't stop at all, and ran all the way along the marks left by the previous group of village slaughterers.