Wei Ni

The temporary camp prepared by Bei Zhonglang for Xia Houhui and others is located in Donganyang County.

If you want to sneak attack Mobei Cavalry, you have to continue eastward along the Sanggan River, and then turn north when you reach Sanggan County. After passing through the remaining hills of the southern Yinshan Mountains, you can see Macheng located north of the Yanghe River.

Among them, the journey through hilly areas is more than twice as long as walking along the Sanggan River.

This made Xiahou Hui and others, who were all cavalry, extremely hard on their journey.

The mountains are high and low, rugged and difficult to navigate. Not only do you often need to pass through narrow paths, but the most important thing is that many sections of the road are scattered with gravels of different sizes. In order to avoid damage to the horses' hooves, many cavalrymen had to carefully lead the horses and walk slowly, which greatly delayed the marching time.

But things always have pros and cons.

Since entering the hilly mountainous area at noon, not a single herdsman has been seen.

Even when hunters went into the mountains to hunt, there were no signs of fire, cutting, or defecation. The entire mountainous area was empty and quiet.

The only sounds that tear the silence of the forest are the cries of tired birds returning to their nests at dusk, the joyful songs of unknown insects after dark, and the annoying swarms of buzzing mosquitoes.

In a few days, it will be autumn and July, when mosquitoes are most rampant.

Even if it is a well-trained war horse and is comforted by the cavalry, it will inevitably be bitten and become restless, shaking its head and raising its hooves from time to time.

This is also one of the disadvantages of not having the three cavalrymen including Baima Yicong come with them.

The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry and the Hsiu (Xiao) Cavalry Camp, as the most elite and most delicate cavalrymen in the Luoyang Central Army, came to Bingzhou this time. They performed daily chores such as building temporary stables with logs when settling in the camp, lighting herbs to smoke mosquitoes and other chores. Tian Yu arranged for people to do it in advance and never did it himself.

This has also resulted in the fact that when traveling alone nowadays, one forgets to carry herbs to repel mosquitoes.

Or maybe they have never stayed on the grassland outside the Great Wall, so they have no idea how terrifying the mosquito swarms on the grassland are.

Xia Houhui also neglected it.

Although when he was in Huainan, the cavalry camp was surrounded by rivers, swamps and swamps that were prone to mosquito breeding, but the mosquitoes there were really nothing compared to the grassland.

It shouldn’t affect the horsepower~
  Xia Houhui, who was taking advantage of the afterglow of the setting sun and walking slowly to survey the terrain, couldn't help but feel worried when he saw the many cavalrymen struggling to calm the horses.

The lives of the cavalry are closely related to the war horses. Now that the battle has not yet begun, the war horses have no time to recover their strength.

The generals of the Seven Hundred Leopard Cavalry also realized this.

Just when Xia Houhui passed by, he stuffed the wheat cake in his hand in a few mouthfuls, strode over and said in a low voice, "General, mosquitoes are really annoying. No one and horse will be safe staying here at night. Why don't you wait for me?" Shall we travel at night?"

Travel overnight?

Hearing this, Xia Houhui raised his eyebrows.

He felt that Leopard Cavalry General's proposal was not bad.

After all, spending the night here is useless, and the cavalrymen of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry and the Hussars Battalion are very elite, so there is no need to worry about their complaints or physical exhaustion if they travel all night.

The most important thing is that the sneak attack is a night attack.

Being out at night allows the cavalry to adjust their schedule and get familiar with the night environment in advance.

However, he did not agree immediately. Because the mountain roads here are rugged, you have to be careful even when walking in the daytime for fear of hurting the horses' hooves. How many horses were lost during the night march~
  Seeing that he didn't answer for a long time, the Leopard Cavalry General seemed to have guessed his hesitation, so he continued to persuade, "The general didn't say anything, but he was worried about the rugged mountain road? This is easy! I have a way to make horses hoof. Not damaged.”

"Oh?"

Immediately, Xia Houhui's eyes sparkled with light, and he grabbed his forearm with joy and urged, "I wonder what Le Sima can do? Please tell me quickly!"

"only."

The Leopard Cavalry Commander did not delay and quickly expressed his thoughts.

It turned out that he was thinking of asking the cavalry to tear off the lining of the leather armor and wrap the hoofs of the war horses in layers. In this way, even if the slow-moving war horses kicked sharp rocks, they would not lose their ability to gallop during a surprise attack. . But if the war horse steps on a sharp spike or something in a shallow pit, then there is nothing you can do, it can only be classified as a price that must be paid.

Xia Houhui listened, but he was greatly disappointed.

Without him.

The calf of a war horse is very thin and fragile. The main reason why a war horse is lost without fighting is to step on shallow pits, sharp thorns and sharp stones and stumble, resulting in injury or breakage of the calf. And when the horse's hoof hits a hard rock or something, it only makes the war horse slightly uncomfortable, but it does not cause the war horse to lose its ability to gallop, so it is not important.

"This move."

Xia Houhui, who wanted to refuse without thinking, just said a few words, but swallowed back the word "inappropriate" in the Leopard Cavalry General's piercing eyes.

It’s not that I don’t think it’s a good idea to refuse his proposal.

Instead, he suddenly realized that Leopard Cavalry General knew that his proposal could not change the status quo, but it could choose the lesser of two evils.

Rather than staying here all night and being bitten by mosquitoes until everyone and the horse are exhausted, it is better to cut off when the time comes, endure the pain and pay the necessary price, and continue on the road to benefit the sneak attack war!
  "I know what Le Sima means."

After a slight silence, Xia Houhui smiled and nodded to the Leopard Cavalry General, then raised his head and glanced at the setting sun that was about to fall into the mountains, as if he had made some determination, "Let the soldiers get up. The scout said there is someone ahead. At the fork that turns north, we have to reach the bank of the tributary of the Yang River before the sky is dark."

"only!"

He responded with some joy, and the Leopard Cavalry Commander quickly turned around and went back to supervise the cavalry.

He didn't react belatedly until many cavalrymen led the horses on the road again.

The fork that turns north.
  Arrive at the tributary of Yanghe River.
  That means that we have set foot on flat ground and no longer have the concealment of mountains to rely on when marching~
  You know, this place is only a day and night's journey from Macheng!
  And it has always been the area where the Yuzhu Gejian tribe, the son-in-law of the thieves chief Kebineng, thrives.

Even though the tribes and herdsmen have huddled to the north of Ma City under the threat of war, the vigilant scouts and rangers will definitely wander around from time to time. Isn't General Xiahou worried about being alerted by the barbarians?
  With these doubts, General Leopard Cavalry gave a few casual instructions to his subordinates, and then drove his horse to the front of the marching team to look for Xiahou Hui.

Without being too polite, he just expressed his concerns.

After saying that, he still considered the words and remonstrated very tactfully, "The general changed the march, and the general did not dare to say anything. Just for the sake of caution, after we walk out of the mountain road, I also asked the general to let the general lead twenty or thirty cavalry to explore first. Road. In this way, even if the Hulu have mounted scouts patrolling at night, the general will be able to kill them without the traces of our army being discovered."

"Le Sima's thoughtfulness is no less than that of a general guarding the border."

After hearing this, Xia Houhui smiled sternly, praised him without hesitation, and followed the trend, "There is no need to worry about whether the change of route will reveal the whereabouts of our army. However, there is a small problem that needs to be solved. It happened that Le Sima came to invite him, so he went to select Baiqi Sui. Let me go with you to stretch your muscles."

With the elite tiger and leopard cavalry, one can easily defeat five. You actually asked me to choose a hundred cavalry to accompany me?
  And you still have to go in person?
  Could it be said that there is an outpost of Xianbei traitors on this road?
  The Leopard Cavalry General, who had taken orders and acted as he was told, was full of expectations when he came back to select the cavalrymen.

Ever since he was selected into the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry sixteen years ago, he could count the number of times he had fought in battle on one hand. He had almost forgotten the satisfying feeling of being covered in the enemy's blood. (End of chapter)