Fenghou

Chapter 298 Night Kill
Yang Zaixing came to the monastery in a hurry, but he didn't see Dutong. He saw a group of monks and soldiers standing in front of a side door in the courtyard.

"Zhuang Quan, where is Du Tong?" Yang Zaixing stepped forward and asked quickly.

"Reporting to General Yang, Dutong went to the backyard with an old Zen master, please let us not disturb you."

"How long have you been there?"

"It's almost an hour."

"It's been so long, and you're still standing here?"

Yang Zaixing said angrily, "Quickly go and get Dutong out, and tell him that General Zhao has important information."

At this time, the soldiers shouted: "All come out!"

I saw Chen Qing walking out slowly with a bamboo stick, with tears on his face, and his mood was very depressed.

Everyone secretly thought that something was wrong, and the situation was probably not very good.

Chen Qing came out and handed the bamboo stick to the abbot, Zen Master Yonglin, "He passed away, and he didn't say a word from the beginning to the end."

Zen Master Yonglin took the bamboo stick, and if he felt uncomfortable, he immediately sat down cross-legged and recited scriptures solemnly. Behind him, hundreds of monks sat down cross-legged one after another, clasped their hands and recited scriptures, and saved the old Zen master from passing away.

"Let's go!"

Chen Qing sighed softly, turned around and walked outside the temple.

Yang Zaixing had already received some news from Zhuang Quan, and he was rather surprised that an old monk who had been in seclusion for twenty years would know in advance that Du Tong would arrive.

"Dutong, what did the old monk tell you?" Yang Zaixing couldn't help asking.

"He told me where I came from, and where I should go? Everything was predestined."

Yang Zaixing scratched his head, "Dutong, I'm at a loss for my humble position."

Chen Qing smiled wryly, "Actually, I was also at a loss. I had too many questions and he didn't answer them, but he himself was relieved."

Chen Qing turned back to Zhuang Quan and said, "Go back and donate one thousand guan for me to Baolun Temple, and then donate one thousand guan every year."

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Chen Qing turned his eyes to the sky, and he was still recalling the last words that the old monk wrote on the table with water, "Buddha Yun, the past life is the present life, everything is predestined by cause and effect, come to see me again in twenty years!"

At this moment, Chen Qing's gaze became even more confused.

Back at the resting place, it was almost dusk, and Zhao Xiaoyi was still waiting anxiously.

"Tell me! What's the situation?"

Chen Qing has returned to normal, and his mood has quickly adjusted from the loneliness in the temple.

Zhao Xiaoyi hurriedly said: "The [-] puppet Qi troops in Yiling have already started to evacuate, but they don't seem to be evacuating to Xiangyang."

"Why do you know it's not Xiangyang?"

"Going to Xiangyang should take the official road to the north, but they are the official road to the east, and it is likely to go to Changlin County."

Chen Qing spread out the map on a big rock and found the official road from Yiling to Changlin County. The distance is about [-] miles. The cavalry can arrive there in one day and one night, but the infantry must travel at least two days and two nights.

"When did they leave?"

"Let's start after lunch."

Chen Qing put away the map and said to Yang Zaixing: "Pass my order, the whole army packs up their belongings and prepares to go!"

The communication with the old Zen master did not bring much compassion to Chen Qing, on the contrary, the murderous intent in his heart became more intense.

The puppet Qi army that attacked Yiling also participated in the encirclement and suppression of Wang Yan's army.

On the official road to the east of Yiling County, a puppet army of [-] men was marching with difficulty. The [-] men were all infantry, each carrying at least [-] catties of luggage, including dry food, water hyacinths, military blankets, and shields. , bows, knives and spears.

The heaviest of them is the spear, which has a scabbard, otherwise the sharp spears can easily stab other soldiers. The spear alone weighs [-] catties, the shield weighs [-] catties, and the war knife weighs [-] catties with its sheath. The bow and arrow and quiver also weigh six to seven catties.

With the dry food and a heavy armor that must be carried, how can it not be difficult for the soldiers to march?

For this reason, Chen Qing made a special reform last year. Except for the infantry with long spears, all the spears in other armies were changed to short spears, from one foot three feet to eight feet. burden.

At night, the soldiers were really overwhelmed, and the chief general Jing Chao ordered the whole army to rest in place.

The exhausted soldiers unloaded all their burdens. Many soldiers even took off their armor, put the leather armor under it, used the helmet as a pillow, and fell asleep as soon as they were wrapped in blankets.

The main general, Jing Chao, was a little sleepless. Jing Chao was originally a Du Yuhou of the Xiang Army of the Song Dynasty. He was a civilian general in charge of material transfer in Hebei. Fighting, losing consecutive battles, and being demoted to control.

This time he fought with Dong Xian and was assigned to attack Yiling and was responsible for opening the Xiazhou passage, but Jing Chao's abilities were indeed relatively mediocre. Facing the strong and tall city of Yiling, he did not carry a siege weapon, so he was helpless for a while. He waited for the logistics to transport the siege weapons, but did not consider cutting wood to make siege ladders.

Fortunately, Wan Yanchang came and canceled the plan to attack Yiling, which made Jing Chao heave a long sigh of relief.

In the transfer order given to him by Dong Xian, he was clearly required to arrange defenses at night to prevent the enemy from sneaking at night.

What Dong Xian meant was that he was required to set up a large camp at night, surround the camp fence, build a sentry tower, set up a large tent, and send out patrols.

But it's easy to say, but it's not the same thing in practice. The soldiers marched for more than forty miles at a stretch with forty or fifty catties of luggage on their backs. They were so exhausted that they couldn't move when they fell down. , Where do you still have the energy to set up a camp? It's like standing and talking without back pain.

However, Jing Chao still sent more than a hundred patrols to watch around.

At the second watch, all the soldiers fell into a deep sleep state, even the chief general Jing Chao fell asleep.

At this time, a few miles to the south, a cavalry army is moving here silently. As long as the soldiers slow down, the ground will basically not shake, and there will be no thunder-like noise, but there will be The chaotic sound of war horses can be heard at most about one or two hundred steps.

There are more than [-] sentry posts in the south. At this time, they were all killed by the Song army scouts one by one, and the puppet Qi army had lost their peripheral vigilance.

The cavalry was getting closer and closer to the camp, only two hundred steps away, and Chen Qing had even seen enemy soldiers all over the ground two hundred steps away.

He straightened up slowly, and suddenly shouted: "Kill me!"

Ten thousand cavalry suddenly mobilized and charged towards the puppet Qi army's camp two hundred away.

The spear pierced the chest, the war knife broke the neck, and the iron hoof crushed the bones. There were screams and screams everywhere in the wilderness. The soldiers who were sleeping were finally awakened. They got up and ran wildly in fright. Can't resist the fear of death.

The puppet soldiers of the Qi army were fleeing everywhere in the field. They shouted in fear and ran wildly. The cavalry chased and killed them, mercilessly sending their bodies and fear into the hell of death.

If you are afraid of death, don't become a soldier. Death on the battlefield has always been the home of a soldier.

This is the battlefield where you live and die, only killing, compassion and tolerance basically don't exist, just like the army they slaughtered Wang Yan before, they also slaughtered without mercy, but now it's their turn.

The screams and cries resounded throughout the night. By dawn, most of the eight thousand puppet Qi troops had disappeared, and only a few smart people fled into the northwest forest and escaped with their lives.

The Song army cleaned up the battlefield, burned the corpses and luggage, and seized the enemy's supplies. After resting for half a day and one night, in the early morning of the third day, [-] Song army cavalry rushed towards Changlin County.

(End of this chapter)