From the cottage came the sound of the guards of the village, mixed with the intermittent crow of the rooster. There is no light on the wall, only a few cold stars hang in the corner of the tower, everyone is silently walking forward, while looking up to the mountain, suddenly heard a guard on duty singing in a hoarse voice: "The dawn of the fifth watch, beware of robbing the village, guard well~!"

The last sentence dragged on for a long time, and it continued to echo in the mountainsides on all sides, making people feel a sense of sadness and sadness in this frosty and cold wind. Then, again, the voice asked, "Guys, are you doing a good job?"

Another voice from above replied, "Well guarded!"

"Is it well guarded?"

"Hold it firm!"

Listening to such a child's playful question and answer, it was more like a provocation that fell into the ears of the centaurs in the canyon, and many people in the team began to whisper insults at the cottage above, some spit hatefully, and some mocked contemptuously.

Seeing this, Liu Zongmin immediately ordered in a stern low voice: "Pass forward and backward, don't make a sound!"

"Pass, don't make a sound!"

These words, forward, backward, in a low and serious voice, came out one after another. When it came to King Chuang, he naturally repeated it like the other warriors around him. So Liu Zongmin's order, through Li Zicheng's mouth, through his relay, quickly spread throughout the camp.

The sound in the old eighth team was like the sea at low tide in an instant. In the quiet and deep canyon, there was no longer a sound of talking, not even a gentle cough, only the sound of horses' hooves wrapped in cotton cloth, hurried footsteps, and the slight clashing of swords, guns, swords, and halberds, and these sudden sounds were mixed into the boundless sound of pine waves on both sides of the canyon.

After silently walking for more than ten miles of mountain roads, Li Zicheng's men and horses walked out of this canyon, and suddenly there were endless low hills and mountains in front of them. At this time, the campers had already walked nearly fifty miles of mountain roads, and the sky was gradually becoming clearer.

Further north is the Tongguan of the eternal key, the closer you get to Tongguan, the more you find that it is relatively low hills, even some hills are not precipitous. At this time, from behind the large group of men and horses, there was a rush of horses' hooves; Li Chixin's personal soldier Huzi, accompanied by Liu Xiyao's personal general, led more than a dozen personal soldiers to catch up with Li Zicheng......

After a stick of incense, Huzi and the cavalry hurried towards the way they came, and Li Zicheng took Zhang Nai and a group of personal soldiers, galloped over the brigade from the side, he caught up with Liu Zongmin, told him to be cautious, beware of ambushes, and pointed to a hill seven or eight miles away in front of him and said: "Stop in front of that mountain, I have an urgent military situation to inform you, you let the infantry quickly rest, if there is water, drink the horses." ”

After speaking, he left the brigade with Zhang Nai and his own soldiers with a heavy face, and Le Ma boarded a high post on the side of the road, standing on the high post and waiting for the arrival of the Chinese army and the broken rear troops.

The rising morning sun broke through the morning mist and leaped out of the sky, and in the blink of an eye, a round of red sun was as orange and bright as a freshly condensed egg yolk, with a thin burst of light, appearing on the ridge due east, and the frost and snow dissipated like mist. The sunlight that erupted from the thin air shone on the Tongguan Plain, which was covered with a layer of white and frost, and shone on the thousands of troops and horses who were silently and hurriedly advancing on the plain.

Except for Li Zicheng's standard battalion of the Chinese army, which was waving the red flag, the rest of the battalions were carrying flags of different colors according to the structure of the front, rear, left, and right battalions. The red one is the Chinese army to which Li Zicheng belongs, and under the black banner at the front is the front army accompanied by Liu Zongmin. In addition, there are white, blue and purple flags, each team of people and horses waving a color flag, waving in the wind among the undulating and tortuous hills, the big flags appear and disappear from time to time, looking at it looks magnificent.

Li Zicheng stared into the distance, thinking about the news that Li Guo had brought to him, "Hong Chengchou did not go to King Qin, Beijing!" Although this news was unexpected, it still made his heart heavy, and he did not know where the enemy was waiting for him.

The high hill where Zicheng is located is the highest place here, and in front of his eyes, a map of the mountains and rivers of Tongguan Plain is displayed in front of his eyes.

Due to the needs of marching and combat, as well as Li Zicheng's extraordinary talent, he was able to tell most of the local mountains and rivers and the distance of the roads in the places he passed. In the past, every time he was stationed in the camp, he also liked to ask the locals about the geography and customs there, as well as some unique customs.

He is especially familiar with the world's Xiongguan in front of him and the terrain near Tongguan. Over the years, the peasant army often had to enter Henan from Qin, or from Henan to Qin; whenever he passed through Tongguan, most of them bypassed the county seat of Tongguan and traveled from places within 40 miles of Guannan, and he himself took his men and horses to pass through here.

Out of the Tongguan city gate, until the foot of Huashan these forty miles, although are all plateaus but the terrain is open, all shallow mountains and flats, although there are some small ups and downs, but there is no precipitous place to hold.

The terrain here is surrounded by mountains and ravines, and there is a road to pass called Yu. He knew that Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, and Ding Qirui, the governor of Tongguandao, had built three large forts in these ravines for more than a year, each fort was ten miles apart, and 200 infantry were stationed, and a small pillbox called a dun was set up every three miles, and each dun had 20 soldiers stationed and had firearms.

However, these fortifications were all fortified facing the north, in an attempt to block the small forces from Shaanxi rushing to Henan. If the men and horses are killed from behind and condescending, these forts and piers are all useless, and what Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, is worried about is not these piers and forts, but that he heard that Sun Chuanting has personally led a heavy army here to wait for work. He attaches great importance to the news that his nephew Li Guo has passed back, and Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting's department cannot be underestimated, and he knows that Hong and Sun are both rare commanders of the imperial court.

"I am outnumbered, the strength is still so disparity, and the officials and soldiers are waiting for themselves with ease, not to mention that the opponent is a figure of the level of Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou, and he can't tolerate any carelessness on the enemy......"

Li Zicheng was thinking about it, when suddenly a small colonel rode up to his post, gave him a military salute, and reported: "The general of Houying Gu sent me to report to King Chuang that Cao Bianjiao and He Renlong's men and horses were following, and they were tightly behind, only two or three miles away from our battalion, and they did not attack, I don't know what the intention is." Gu Jiangye also learned the news of Hong Chengchou, and he said, "Please tell the outpost to be more careful." ”

(End of chapter)