Ouyang Xuan drove away the envoy and showed Zhao Shicai's head to the public, which was a public slap in the face of Liu Heima and the face of the Mongols. But the Mongols did not retaliate again, and even the cavalry rarely came to reconnoiter the mountainside. Xiong Ben and his subordinates were already frightened, and only dared to operate near Yongkang City, and the bandits around the area controlled by the Thunderbolt Army were also much more honest, and they avoided the Thunderbolt Army scouts by chance, let alone took the initiative to provoke the Thunderbolt Army. This created a more stable environment for the development of the Perak Army, and also expanded the frequency and scope of intelligence officers' activities in the mountains, and Dong Hu even set up secret guard posts in Yongqu Township and other places, which made it easier for the Perak Army and intelligence to obtain.

Winter in western Sichuan is always gloomy, and if it snows, it is even more difficult to see, and Chen Laosi, a soldier of the eighth squad of the reconnaissance company of the Perak Army's internal guard battalion, encountered this problem. At this moment, he was hiding in the reeds next to the ferry in Yongqu Township, monitoring the official road from Chongqing Mansion to Yongkang County. Although it was noon, the visibility was very low because of the snowflakes in the sky, and although his eyes were painful, he could only barely see the official road about twenty meters ahead. Although there are reeds around to protect him from the wind and snow, and he is also wearing an animal skin jacket, Chen Laosi, who is lying quietly on the ground, still feels cold. "If you hold on a little longer, your companions will come to change shifts," he thought to himself. Today is the thirteenth day of the lunar month, and it is also the fifth day that he and the three soldiers of the same class came to Yongqu Township with the squad leader Li Gongzi to guard the secret outpost, and in five days they can return to the mountains to wait for the New Year. Thinking of the New Year, he was full of expectations, the Thunderbolt army won every battle and captured a lot of loot, and bought a lot of daily necessities through the trade team, Brother Xuan has already said that he will treat everyone well during the New Year. To say that Brother Xuan is really a god, the magical things he engaged in make the development of the mountains change with each passing day, and it is not an exaggeration to say that one day is better than ten years. Under his leadership, the people under the rule of the Perak Army also lived a stable life. In the past, I didn't dare to think that I would be fed and clothed.

"Alas, the stewed pork after the last victory is so delicious." Just when Chen Laosi was so hungry by the memories that he swallowed his saliva, a sound of footsteps sounded in front of him from far and near, and then a hazy figure of a person appeared on the official road. He wiped the saliva from his chest, and when he looked closely, he saw that it was a strong man with a long knife. Although this man looked tired and hungry, Chen Laosi still didn't dare to rush forward to ask. He quietly turned around and dived back, and the squad leader Li Gongzi and other companions were resting in a shack at the confluence of the three rivers not far away. The original owner of this shack was Huang Da who rescued Ouyang Xuan, and since Brother Xuan took Huang Da to Liuliba for retirement, this empty shack has become the stronghold of the Thunderbolt Army scouts in Yongqu Township.

When Chen Laosi brought people back, the strange man with the knife had already arrived at the river, and was wandering back and forth anxiously at the broken bridge by the river. The wooden bridge over the official road has long since been destroyed by the war, and there are no boats on the water surface of the ferry, so it obviously takes a lot of courage to swim in the bitter cold. Just as this strange man was about to walk upstream along the river bank, he was knocked down by Chen Laosi and others who came out of the reeds and tied up solidly. This man was not afraid after being tied, and his mouth was too tight, he didn't say a word about Li Gongzi's questioning, and only after eating some fists did he say that he was from Xinjin County, and this trip was to go to Hengyuan Village to go to relatives, and the knife was used for self-defense. Li Gongzi is willing to believe it, not to mention the well-made long knife, even if you look at the thick calluses on the palms and the tendon meat, it is definitely not an ordinary person. Seeing that he didn't tell the truth, Li Gongzi put the knife against his neck and was about to stab it, but the man still didn't speak, but slowly closed his eyes. Angry, Li Gongzi's face turned blue and white for a while, and after a while, he threw the knife to the ground and shouted loudly: "If it weren't for the rules of our Thunderbolt Army, I want you to look good today, alas, Brother Xuan is really a bodhisattva."

The man listened to Li Zhuzi's shouting, opened his eyes suddenly, and asked, "You are the Thunderbolt Army?" "Lao Tzu is the Thunderbolt Army, what do you want?" Chen Laosi and the others said in unison. "I was sent by the Chongqing Mansion, and I have important military information to meet Ouyang Xuan." When the man heard that several people were Thunderbolt soldiers, he changed his previous silence and hurriedly told him about his situation.

This man claimed to be Le Quan'an, a naval colonel in Xinjin Village, and this time he was ordered by the commander of Chongqing Mansion to escort the messenger to Wanjiazhai to meet Ouyang Xuan. Six days ago, a group of four of them set off from Xinjin Village, it is said that the distance between the two places is only 200 miles, and they should have arrived at Wanjiazhai a long time ago, but because Jiangyuan County and Chongqing Fucheng were occupied by the Mongols, in order to prevent them from being discovered by the Mongols, they had to stop and go, and hid as soon as there was a disturbance. But even so, the road was still full of dangers, and not long after entering Jiangyuan County, two of his companions were shot and killed by the Mongol cavalry. On the third day, they were pursued by the Mongols and had to hide in a swamp for two days, while the messenger contracted the wind chill from standing in the cold swamp for a long time. The messenger, who couldn't walk, handed him the letter and asked him to continue to Wanjiazhai. He hid all the way, and almost died in a wolf attack, but to add insult to injury, because of the long delay, the dry food was quickly exhausted, and he was so hungry that he was eating grass roots by the time he got here. After listening to Le Quan'an's words, Li Gongzi asked people to untie the rope and give him water, and ordered Chen Laosi and another soldier to push out the boat hidden in the reeds, and immediately escort Le Quan'an to Wanjiazhai to meet Ouyang Xuan.

The news brought by Le Quanan was so shocking that it caused controversy at the top of the Perak Army. In the letter, Pan Tongzhi said that Marshal Pu Zezhi was ordered by the Lin'an court to attack Chengdu after the beginning of spring and recapture this important place in western Sichuan. Pu Zhizhi was the envoy of Sichuan in the Southern Song Dynasty and the highest military and political governor of the imperial court in Sichuan. Commander Pan also said in the letter that the Thunderbolt army defeated the new annex army and beheaded Zhao Shicai some time ago, and he had reported to Pu Shuai to appoint Ouyang Xuan as the commander of Yongkang County. The messenger came to discuss the joint recapture of the city of Chongqing.

Regarding the letter from Pan Tong, Lu Dezhi and Yu Zhu thought that this was Pan Tong's plan to drive away the wolf, Li Shuang and Cao Ergou were even more fierce, and they also thought that there was nothing to do and be courteous or traitorous or thief, and Pan Tongzhi was absolutely not well-intentioned, while Dong Hu felt that Le Quanan came alone, his identity was doubtful, and the joint attack on Chongqing Mansion might be a plan of the Mongols. Ouyang Xuan remembered that it was recorded in the history books that Pu Zhizhi briefly occupied the city of Chengdu, but was immediately defeated and retreated under the attack of the Mongols. But he didn't know whether Pan's words were credible, and he wasn't sure whether Le Quanan was sent by Pan. Therefore, he thought twice and decided to increase reconnaissance outside the mountain on the one hand, and on the other hand, he also sent messengers to Xinjin Village to find out.