After Spring and Autumn

Chapter 9
Palace of the King of Chu.

The young King of Chu Zhao, Xiong Zhen, was seated high above, and Zixi was presenting the report to His Royal Highness.

Zixi is Xiong Zhen's half-brother. He is known for being bold and righteous.After the death of Xiong Qiji, King of Ping of Chu, Yin Nangwa wanted to abolish Xiong Zhen, who was less than ten years old at the time, and make Zixi the king, but Zixi angrily reprimanded him before giving up.

Therefore, Xiong Zhen has always been afraid of Nangwa, but he has a lot of trust in Zixi.

"My lord, some merchants have rumored that Wu's army was found on the north bank of the Han River."

"Brother, don't worry too much, it must be Wu Guo spies spreading rumors." After this winter, Xiong Zhen is now more and more able to truly enter the role of the King of Chu, unlike when he first took office.

"Han River is only tens of miles away from the palace, so be careful."

"A few days ago, Ling Yin Nangwa passed a letter saying that he had surrounded the capital of Cai State, and that Cai State could be destroyed within a few days. Wu Jun can't bypass Ling Yin's heavy troops and descend from the sky, right?"

"Why not? It must be known that Wu Guo came here not only through Cai Guo."

"Brother, you mean..." Xiong Zhen laughed, and as Nang Wa's respect for him has grown in recent years, he has also changed from fear to blind trust. "Ling Yin once told the widow that the Wu State is only a strong navy, and it can take advantage of the river to compete with our Chu State. If the Wu army wants to enter Chu, it must come along the Huai River."

However, out of respect for Zixi, Xiong Zhen ordered his bodyguard Zhong Jian to lead more than ten chariots to Hanshui to inspect.

Ji Nancheng and Maicheng towered majestically, forming horns with Yingdu, while Zixi stood alone on the high platform, watching the chariot go away from a distance, silent.

In recent years, important ministers of Chu State have been ransacked and exterminated, and everyone in the court is in danger.Wu Chen, Wu Zixu, and Bo Pi fled to Wu State to be reused. They wanted to kill and return to Chu State for revenge. Jin State and Wu State continued to provoke disputes on the border.

Nangwa was a man of great talent and lack of talent, and was also greedy for money. He arbitrarily forced to rebel against Tang, Cai and other vassal states, causing Chu State to lose its northern barrier.

The king was confused by Nangwa, thinking that he could annex Tang and Cai and expand the territory of Chu, but he didn't know that Jin and Wu were watching.

The winter sun was bright and warm, but Zixi felt cold in his heart.I hope that I am thinking too much.

……

The leader of the scouts is called Li Yan, who is very talkative and admires Meng Di very much. Mingming is much older, and he calls each other affectionately.

Li Yan used to live in Longxi, where Hu and Han mixed, and it was not easy to survive. Later, he followed his parents to the state of Chu.Because he is good at riding horses, he has accumulated military merits and was promoted to the leader of the scouts.

From Li Yan's mouth, Meng Di knew that Li's surname should be Li's surname. When his ancestors fled from the country, they were so hungry that they survived on a plum tree's fruit. Later, they changed their surname to Li.

"Brother Meng, don't you believe me, the ancestors of my Li family also have their origins, Gao Tao knows, right? The ancient sages!"

Seeing Mengdi's bewildered expression, Li Yan was also discouraged. In fact, he didn't know it himself, anyway, that's what his parents said.

A group of people talked and walked, and after a long time, they came to a mountain.Looking down, Wu Jun's camp was set up by the river, and there were many sails on the river.

"That's the only way to go," Li Yan stepped forward and said, "Further on, it's the range of Wu Jun's scouts."

The cavalry surrounded them and pointed at the barracks.

Li Yan asked the scouts to come up and point out one by one the big flags hanging in the barracks, including the king's flag of Wu Wang Helu, and the general flags of Sun Wu, Wu Zixu and others.As a scout, identifying the enemy's flag is a basic requirement.

Meng Di stared at it for a while and said, "This is an empty camp."

"Empty battalion?" Everyone was astonished. There were many flags below, and the dust was flying in the camp. It was obvious that a large number of soldiers were practicing.

"That's right, you see, the layout of the camp is well-organized and the fences are well-organized, which shows that the commander knows the art of war very well."

"I heard that the state of Wu invited a general named Sun Wu to train the team, and he is especially good at marching and fighting." As the leader of the scouts, Li Yan was quite well informed.

"Since you are good at fighting, you don't know that it is a big taboo to place the barracks near the water. In addition, this place is condescending, whether it is for exploration or attack, it is a must-take place, and there are no soldiers to defend it. This is one of them."

Everyone seemed to understand, and Li Yan was also an old man, so his heart moved, and he asked hesitantly: "Could it be intentionally left for the convenience of scouts?"

"That's right. It's dusk now, but the smoke is sparse. Judging by the size of the camp, there are at least tens of thousands of soldiers. Watching the smoke is not only rare, but also lit one by one, there must be fraud. This is the second."

"Although there is smoke and dust in the barracks, they are always in one place, gathering and not dispersing. If it is not bad, it is probably caused by cavalry dragging branches and running. This is the third."

Everyone was dumbfounded, why can there be such a big difference between people, and the scouts who came to investigate before were even more blushing.

Meng Di didn't say a word: "Because I saw tens of thousands of Wu troops going south with my own eyes. According to Dou Xin's words, the total number of Wu troops is only more than [-]. Why leave such a large-scale camp here, it must be a plan of suspicious soldiers." undoubtedly."

Although Meng Di was certain, it was a guess after all, and he couldn't just go back and return to his life like this.

Little Five and Little Six suggested: "Since it's an empty camp, why don't we just rush in?"

Everyone stared at them with idiot eyes, even if it was an empty camp, with more than [-] riders, they wanted to pass by?The ignorant are really fearless.

Seeing everyone looking over with strange eyes, the two of them blushed immediately when they knew they had said something wrong.

"That's right, go straight there, but you don't need to enter the camp." Meng Di smiled slightly, "Everyone put cloth strips with grease and tied them to the arrows, and wait until it gets dark."

Strips of cloth, just torn off the clothes.There is no grease, but the scout brings a lot of pine light, which works better on a cloth strip.

Night fell quickly, and the barracks were plunged into darkness.The cavalry quietly came to a stone's throw outside the camp, and they were almost unsuspecting.

Meng Di divided the cavalry and scouts into two groups, one holding a torch, and the other shooting arrows, as long as they hit the tent.

When the torches were lit, there was a warning sound in the Wu army camp, and some soldiers stuck their heads out of Diao Tou, and they were shot down one by one by Meng Di who was hiding in the dark.

Arrows tied with cloth strips shot at the tent one after another, and the fire ignited.

In the light of the fire, there were many soldiers of the Wu army, but the number was too small, and there was no fire extinguisher, so they could only shout and run, helpless.

The cavalry took turns setting the fire. It was early winter, and the westerly wind was already strong.

The soldiers of Wu army couldn't save the fire, and they didn't know the number of enemy troops outside the camp, so they had to abandon the camp and run towards the river, and the boatmen also came slowly to meet them.

The fire burned in the middle of the night and gradually died down.

The cavalry retreated to the top of the hill after the fire was complete, looking excitedly at the rare spectacle, the flames reflected red for miles and miles.

(End of this chapter)