The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"Captain, this is the strongest wine you can find in the town."

The wine was poured into a clean cauldron and cooked on the small stove in the house. It was boiling in a short while. The whole house was filled with the pungent smell of millet wine, covering up the sour smell of blood.

"Give me the rest of the wine."

Li You looked a little pale. He reached out to Hei Fu for the wine and poured a big mouthful into his mouth, almost choking.

The familiar taste filled his mouth. The last time he tasted this taste was more than ten years ago, during the Shangcai December Township Festival. Only on that day, men and women, regardless of age, could sit together and drink. He even remembered that a childhood sweetheart from Shangcai sat opposite him. After drinking a little, her cheeks flushed. She boldly expressed her love to Li You in the mulberry forest outside the village community, the favorite place for young men and women to meet...

Unfortunately, on the third day after that, Li You took his brother and mother and followed the people sent by Li Si to Xianyang, Qin. The bold girl who smelled of alcohol must have married, and her son might be ten years old.

He took another sip, swallowed the past, and commented with a wry smile: "This is indeed the strongest wine in Cai, but it is still a little worse than the old wine in Guanzhong..."

Li You smacked his lips and savored it, then looked at the hideous wound on his exposed chest and said to Hei Fu: "Let's do it."

"I will use boiling wine to disinfect the captain."

Hei Fu asked Bu Cheng to help, and after washing his hands, he poured the boiling wine on Li You's wound!

Li You's forehead was full of blue veins and he was sweating profusely. Fortunately, he was biting a wooden stick in his mouth, otherwise he would have screamed miserably...

A moment later, when Hei Fu applied medicine to Li You's wound, he felt that he was alive again.

"You actually brought the golden wound medicine."

Li You was a little surprised when Hei Fu took out the lacquered wooden bottle from his arms like a magic trick. He always felt that Hei Fu seemed to know that the Qin army was going to lose. The others retreated in a hurry, but he and his 100 men carried some necessary things with them, including dry food, weapons, and even copper coins rewarded along the way... It was even more complete than Li You, a captain.

"This was given to me by a doctor I know well during the war against Wei."

Hei Fu explained, "Captain, don't worry. The doctor's name is Chen Wujiu, a disciple of Qin's chief physician Xia Gong. He said that this medicine is a precious prescription made by Qin's chief physician. The captain of my garrison was also seriously injured and had seven wounds on his body. He was cured by this ointment."

"I hope so."

Li You was drunk and tired, and attributed this to Hei Fu's natural sensitivity to danger, which was why he arranged Hei Fu instead of Xu Yang to command on his behalf.

At this critical moment, perhaps only such a person could lead them out of danger.

As he was talking, Li You had already closed his eyes. In his dream, the pain seemed to disappear. He seemed to have returned to the mulberry forest in Shangcai. However, the red-cheeked girl sitting opposite him had the face of a Qin princess and smiled at him...

...

After arranging Bu Cheng and another nimble soldier to stay and look after Li You, Hei Fu walked out of the room. This was a small town. Their original plan was to retreat to Pingyu quickly. However, Ji Ying and others who Hei Fu sent out to scout the way ahead reported that they saw a Chu army of up to 10,000 people moving towards Pingyu, just blocking them.

Hei Fu expected that this Chu army must be ordered to capture Pingyu and Shangcai. With more than 600 people and Li You, a wounded soldier, they could not move fast at all. They were not as fast as the enemy's vanguard. Once they were caught up, the east of Pingyu would be flat and unavoidable.

So after discussing it, everyone decided to continue to go south, and Li You also agreed to this plan.

This was their best choice. The area south of Xiangcheng had just been penetrated by Li Xin. There were more or less people left to guard the towns along the way. After a day and a night of travel, Heifu and his men were lucky to arrive at a small town between Pingyu and Qinqiu: Tóngyang.

Outside were four military officers sitting in front of a small table, namely Xu Yang, Zhai Chong, and "Man". In addition, there was Tu Si, a general who was previously ordered by Li Xin to garrison Tóngyang.

Except for Tu Si, who was still energetic, the other three looked tired. Zhai Chong held his head with his hand and dozed off, and Man was lying on the table, snoring.

Today is the first day of November. After leaving the battlefield, they have been traveling for two days and two nights. They are too tired.

Hei Fu coughed, waking several people up, and then said to them: "The captain is fine. I have asked Bu Cheng, who is familiar with medicine, to take care of him. His life is not in danger at the moment."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Hei Fu did not delay. After Zhai Chong and Man woke up, he looked at Tu Si and said: "General Tu Bai has been stationed here for half a month and is familiar with the geography. Let him tell us the distance and direction between Yingyang and the surrounding cities."

Tu Si, with a full beard, spoke with a strong Longxi accent. He said that Yingyang was a small town. Li Xin passed by here on his way to Qinqiu and sent troops to attack it. Because he was afraid that the Chu people in the city would rebel, he drove them all away. Therefore, this small town of one mile square is now empty, with only one hundred Qin soldiers stationed there.

It was not until Heifu and his men came knocking on the door that Tu Si learned about the news that Li Xin and Meng Tian were defeated by the Chu army. He was shocked. Fortunately, he was also an old military officer who had participated in many wars and experienced both defeats and victories. He quickly calmed down and introduced the situation in Yingyang to everyone.

"This place is 100 miles north of Xiangcheng, 80 miles east of Qinqiu, 180 miles west of Shangcai, 90 miles from Pingyu, and 80 miles south of Xincai. If you want to go from Qinqiu to Pingyu and Shangcai, you must pass through this town."

Heifu nodded: "The Chu army in the south has been cleared by General Li. This place is temporarily safe. It won't be too late to rest here for a night before setting off..."

"Otherwise, since Pingyu can't go, you have to leave for Shangcai quickly. In my opinion, leave immediately." Xu Yang on the side raised an objection.

Xu Yang was about thirty years old. He had the same title and rank as Hei Fu. He had followed Li You for a longer time and was older. It was he who took the lead in giving Hei Fu the nickname "Beiqi Baijiang". So he was still a little dissatisfied with Hei Fu getting the tiger talisman to command everyone on behalf of Li You, and he raised his objection at this moment.

Zhai Chong couldn't help it at this time. He yawned and said, "Xu Baijiang, the soldiers have not rested for two nights since they retreated from Xiangcheng. They are tired, cold and hungry. They really can't walk anymore. If they force their way on the road, how should they deal with the Chu people? What's the difference between this and sending their necks to the swords of the Chu people?"

Hei Fu also nodded and said, "Zhai Baijiang's words make sense. Besides, the captain's injury shows signs of worsening, and he also needs to rest. Even if Xu Baijiang said that everyone walked for another three days to Shangcai, if the captain can't stand the bumps, and something unexpected happens, we, as short soldiers, will also be held accountable and executed!"

Xu Yang was speechless for a moment, and finally Hei Fu made the decision: "Let's rest here for one night, so that the soldiers can eat and sleep enough. Next, we will continue to travel southwest, bypass the Chu army besieging Pingyu, and then return to Shangcai along the Ru River."

Everyone was now dozing off while standing, and had long wanted to rest. No one objected, so Hei Fu asked Tu Si to take people to take turns to guard the night in the small town, so that the men who had traveled for two nights could have a good sleep.

"Please ask General Tu Bai to send a few people, two people in a group, riding horses in the city, to Pingyu, Qinqiu, Xincai, and Xiangdi to investigate the enemy situation, and then two people will fly to Shangcai to report the news, telling the garrison that Li Duwei will meet in the future, and ask them to send people to the Rushui line to support."

Hei Fu asked everyone to gather together according to the organization and rest, so that they could respond in time if something happened. Although he was also sleepy, he did not close his eyes immediately, but sat in front of the table, looking at the map drawn on the silk with an oil lamp and frowning.

He was now under the command of a critical moment, and he had to make the right choice at every step, so that he could bring everyone back to Qin.

A moment later, Tu Si brought people to bring him food, corn rice warmed over a slow fire, crisp sunflower vegetables, and a bowl of fish with a little fishy smell.

Tu Si smiled and said, "This small town of Yingyang has nothing else, but there are a lot of fish. The fish is called Yingyu, and its meat is tender and delicious. Come and try it, generals."

Heifu was not polite either. He took the chopsticks and started eating. The food tasted average, the fish was roughly cleaned, and there were even fish scales floating in the soup, but for a man who had been chewing dry food for two days, a mouthful of hot rice was a delicious meal.

Watching Heifu eating, Tu Si also muttered to himself, "When we followed General Li to attack Pingyu and Qinqiu, the Chu army was vulnerable and collapsed after a few casual attacks. At that time, I thought that this battle would end soon, but who would have thought it would be a big defeat. I still dare not believe it."

"It should be a trick of the Chu people. Chen Ying seems to have had trouble."

Heifu said while chewing the fish meat, but it was useless to say these things now. What they urgently needed to know now was where the Qin army retreated to? And the attack direction of the Chu army. How many cities in the Huaibei Chencai area are still in the hands of the Qin army?

After finishing his meal, Heifu was exhausted. He thanked Tu Si again and agreed to evacuate together tomorrow morning. Then he leaned against the wall and fell asleep...

When he was hurriedly woken up by Ji Ying, he didn't know how long it had been. He looked out the window and saw that it was getting dark.

"Hundred generals."

Ji Ying's face was solemn: "A group of soldiers came from outside the city, with a red flag. They are the Chu army!"