The Mystery of Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 25 Stone Mountain Fog
In the cold wind of the Red Stone East Mountain, Zhang Xiaoding was leading the scouts of the first battalion to surround the Tianxiong cavalry from a distance. It was extremely difficult to track in the night. Fortunately, there were a few of the scouts who were good at night fighting, so they would not be out of sight by the Tianxiong cavalry .

This is the first time Zhang Xiaoding has led the army since he joined the army. It would be a lie to say that he is not nervous. Fortunately, he still has the identity of Yang Sheng's personal soldier, and he has been ordered by the general, so the scouts he leads are pretty obedient.

I have been chasing these cavalry all night, and everyone is miserable.According to the distance calculation, Zhang Xiaoding and the scouts should be in the territory of Jiannan Prefecture in Daxia, but the Red Rock East Mountain is very desolate, and there are no people in the area for thousands of miles. Therefore, Jiannan Prefecture did not station troops and horses here, and the defense around the Red Rock Mountain Range was handed over. It was given to Redstone City, which belongs to the West Pole State, to be responsible.

"Xiao Ding, those Tianxiong people have entered the canyon ahead." It was Niu Liang, the oldest scout in the first battalion who spoke.Hearing Niu Liang's words, Zhang Xiaoding asked the team to rest in the woods, while he took a few people to investigate.

The Tianxiong cavalry had just entered the canyon not far away, Zhang Xiaoding and the others climbed up from the side of the canyon, Zhang Xiaoding was shocked at a glance.

There is a camp in the canyon, and there are definitely a lot of people.

Zhang Xiaoding knew that he had caught a big fish, there must be something very important in this camp, otherwise why did the Tianxiong people run here all night and only rested for an hour in the middle.

Zhang Xiaoding thought for a while, and said to Niu Liang and the others: "You guys stay here, I'll sneak in and have a look."

Niu Liang hurriedly stopped him and said: "I'll go, you are here to respond." Although Zhang Xiaoding is brave, but after all he has just been a scout and lacks experience, Niu Liang is afraid that he will suffer.

Zhang Xiaoding glanced at Niu Liang gratefully, but still rejected his offer, this was his first time leading the army, how could he gain a foothold in the army if he didn't set an example.

Niu Liang had no choice but to take people to hide on the hillside. Zhang Xiaoding took off his armor and weapons, and with a short knife in his pocket, he walked towards the camp in the canyon.

The camp was obviously set up temporarily, without fences to block it. It was composed of temporary tents. Rows of carts were piled up around the tents, covered with thick tarpaulins.

Zhang Xiaoding found a big car, got under the car, held his breath, and listened to the movement in the tent next to him.Zhang Xiaoding originally thought this was the Tianxiong people's camp, but he heard the Xia people talking in the tent.

"Brother, after completing this ticket, shall we go to Kyoto?"

"What are you going to do in Kyoto?"

"I don't want to hang out in this West Pole state anymore. I have to worry about my head all the time after eating the last meal every day."

"Speak carefully, don't be overheard by those Taoist priests."

"Afraid of what he's doing, these bastard Taoist priests don't have any good birds."

"That's right, big brother. This time, there are horse bandits, big and small, in our desert, but I just do some driving for them. I think it's not easy. Don't be hacked by them."

"Okay, don't talk about it, we will find another way out after finishing this ticket, at worst, go to Yongzhou to become a bandit."

Taoist priests, horse bandits, driving carts.Zhang Xiaoding listened carefully in the tent, then got into a large cart.

The tarpaulin was tightly covered, and Zhang Xiaoding took a lot of effort to cut the rope without making a sound. There was another layer of straw under the tarpaulin. Zhang Xiaoding reached out and took out something.

It turned out to be a Daxia army crossbow, with a number engraved on the crossbow, Xia Wubei-Xi-Yin 680.

Zhang Xiaoding fumbled for a while again, this big cart was full of military crossbows, there were hundreds of them.Zhang Xiaoding quietly inspected several other carts and found horizontal knives, armor, arrows and other objects.

Combined with what General Yang Sheng explained to him, Zhang Xiaoding suddenly realized that everything was clear. It turned out that this was the batch of ordnance that was missing in Xiji State.The Tianxiong cavalry just now came to receive the ordnance.

What the horse bandits said just now, it is clear that the Xia people gave this batch of weapons to the Tianxiong Kingdom, and then used them to kill more Xia soldiers.

Zhang Xiaoding rolled his eyes, took his thoughts into consideration, and withdrew step by step to the outside of the camp, his figure disappeared into the vast night.

On the hillside, Niu Liang was waiting anxiously with a few scouts, when suddenly he heard footsteps approaching from far and near, and Zhang Xiaoding galloped towards him.Niu Liang rushed to meet him.

"Xiao Ding, how are you?"

Zhang Xiaoding told the scouts one by one what he found in the camp. Hearing that there were countless Xia Guo weapons in the camp to give to the opponents who were fighting, the scouts were all filled with righteous indignation and wished they could rush down the mountain now. Cut the people in the camp into eight pieces.

Zhang Xiaoding hurriedly stopped the angry comrades, and led them to meet other people outside the canyon.

"I plan to sneak into the horse bandits driving the carriages, take the opportunity to sneak into the camp of the Tianxiong people, look for opportunities, or set fire to the camp, or wait for an opportunity to assassinate the senior generals of the Tianxiong army."

Zhang Xiaoding's words obviously gave the scouts of the first battalion a lot of shock, and got mixed into the Tianxiong camp?There are a full 10 people inside, and their 100 people are not enough for others to drink a pot. Isn't it death?Immediately, several captains expressed their objection. You are the leader of the army, yes, but you can't lead everyone to die.

Zhang Xiaoding knew that his footing was not stable, and there would definitely be opponents, so he said calmly, "I won't force it. Those who dare to follow me to Tianxiong Camp will follow me in a while, and the others will go to fight with Li Yingguan." Gather up and report the situation here and my plan to the battalion officer."

Zhang Xiaoding's words put the scouts into a calm state. They were not afraid of death, but had a different understanding of tactics. In addition, Zhang Xiaoding was a newcomer and had not yet shown convincing abilities, which aroused everyone's opposition.

After a while, a hundred scouts were divided into two camps. Zhang Xiaoding ordered the scouts who were unwilling to sneak into Tianxiong's camp to turn around and report the situation to Li Mao. The scouts left with complicated expressions.

Zhang Xiaoding counted, and there were 18 people left, including Niu Liang.

Zhang Xiaoding patted the shoulders of his comrades one by one, and said loudly: "I don't blame those who left, I'm a newcomer, it's reasonable for them not to believe me, and I want to thank you all, thank you for being willing to go with me to stab the sky Make a hole."

Niu Liang smiled: "Xiao Ding, I think eighteen people are just right. If there are too many, it's not easy to get in. These brothers are all good-looking, and none of them are afraid of death. Just tell me what to do."

Zhang Xiaoding was very grateful to Niu Liang. Whether it was the reconnaissance just now or the choice at the moment, Niu Liang gave him the greatest support, and even put his life in his hands.

Zhang Xiaoding looked in the direction of the canyon and said viciously: "Then we will go in overnight, pretend to be their coachman, let them take us into Tianxiong camp, and listen to my instructions after entering."

"it is good."

With the response of the scouts, the Eighteen Riders of Zhang Xiaoding, the "General in the Battle" who will dominate the West Pole in the future and kill people like hemp, will be formally formed. In the future, they will be victorious in every battle on this land. Under their feet, became the scariest legend on the desert and snow field.

In the canyon, the Tianxiong cavalry was arguing fiercely with the Tianyuandao people.

"Leaving overnight?"

"That's right, our lord said that we must leave overnight."

"Master Gu Li, although Mr. Tian Qi said that I would cooperate with you, but there are so many goods, thousands of people are needed to drive the car, and the horse bandits we recruited will never agree."

Gu Li was the leader of Tianxiong's cavalry, and he had been in charge of Tianxiong's personal guard, so Zhuo Rilang entrusted him with this task. Unexpectedly, these Xia people directly rejected his order to set off overnight.

"Anyone who disobeys will be killed."

The person in charge of Tianyuandao here is Sun Kuan, who is the younger brother of Sun Mian, the military advisor of King Rong.Sun Kuan laughed as soon as he heard it: "Kill them all, who will drive the car? Who will carry the goods?"

The anger in Guli's eyes was about to ignite the person in front of him, but he knew that he was right, especially this gang of horse bandits, they were not a threat of death at all, and the horse bandits had already blown away in the canyon under the temptation of money With a month of cold wind, it is absolutely impossible to force them to leave overnight.

"Okay, let's go tomorrow morning."

Sun Kuan promised again and again that it was already midnight, so what's the point of setting off a few hours later? If it wasn't for Shinto's plan, he wouldn't be bothered to deal with these snowfield barbarians, and the horse bandits recruited from all over the desert didn't do much work. , the money is not less.

What Sun Kuan didn't know was that Zhang Xiaoding had already sneaked into their camp with eighteen scouts.

At this time, the weather in the Red Stone Mountains is still very cold, and a cool wind blows in from the mouth of the valley in the middle of the night. The horse bandits are all huddled in the tents to keep warm and sleep soundly. No one cares about the movement outside, let alone arrange day and night sentries. up.

Zhang Xiaoding led eighteen scouts and sneaked to the edge of the camp.Zhang Xiaoding looked around, selected a tent, and made a gesture to Niu Liang. A group of people tiptoed to the side of the tent, leaving two people on guard, and the rest got into the tent.A few exclamations came from the tent, then interrupted for a moment, and finally calmed down.

After a while, Zhang Xiaoding walked out of the tent. They had already changed into horse bandit clothes and covered their faces with face scarves. They looked no different from other horse bandits.

Zhang Xiaoding called the sentry scouts to go in and change into the clothes of the horse bandit. Everyone slept in the tent with the corpse of the horse bandit that he killed just now. There was too much noise in handling the corpse at this moment, so they could only be put in the tent and share the same room. However, the soldiers were all calm people, so they could accept it. Only Zhang Xiaoding, the leader, stayed up all night listening to the stronger and stronger north wind outside the tent.

Half worried and half excited, maybe tomorrow is the beginning of my journey as a general.

The north wind howls.

(End of this chapter)