The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

When the main force of the Chu army learned about the battle of Yingyang, it was already the fourth day of the eleventh month two days later.

Xiang Rong, who had just recovered Pingyu, was standing on the top of the city with high spirits. When he heard that Hu Gong Dou Ran and Qin Gong Sun Feng were defeated in Yingyang, hundreds of soldiers were lost, and Dou Ran was captured, he was immediately furious.

"Dou Ran was defeated by a remnant of soldiers and captured by the enemy. He is really a shame for the Ruo Ao family!"

As for Qin Gong Sun Feng, who was said to have abandoned Dou Ran and fled, Xiang Rong also planned to ask his father to reduce this person's fiefdom. It was fine to be captured by Li Xin's army once, but now he abandoned the friendly army and fled. It seems that the descendants of Sun Shuao have long become cowardly and are no longer worthy of being a feudal lord.

"How many people were there in the Qin army that defeated Dou and Sun, and where did they go?" Xiang Rong asked.

Zhou Wen, the "Day Watcher" who was in charge of military intelligence reporting, reported: "According to the military officers who escaped, about 700 to 800 people are now missing. They should have gone west, either to Shangcai or to Rushui..."

"If they are blind and go to Shangcai, they will just run into our army."

Although Xiang Rong was a little angry, he knew that he could not take care of this small Qin army. He had more important things to do.

After the Battle of Xiangcheng, the situation of the Qin and Chu armies changed greatly. First, Meng Tian gathered 30,000 defeated soldiers and retreated westward, while Xiang Yan personally led the main force of the Chu army to follow closely. Unfortunately, he still failed to catch up. He could only break through Dun County first, then break through Boyang and Ruyang, and advance to Yangcheng at the speed of one city a day.

Xiang Rong brought 20,000 troops to attack Pingyu. The Qin army had retreated to Shangcai, so he easily took the city.

"Next, the army must rush to Shangcai immediately!"

Now, because of the rebellion of Changping Jun, Chen Ying has been recovered. If Shangcai and Yangcheng can be recovered, Xiang Yan's plan will be perfectly achieved.

This is the most important thing for Xiang Rong. As for the hundreds of Qin troops? If they surrender to Shangcai, they will just run into the vanguard of the army he sent. If they flee west across the Ru River, they may run into the 5,000 Huainan reinforcements heading north from Xincai!

…

On October 5, the third day after the Battle of Yingyang, Zhongli Mei squatted on the ground at the Tudao fork, 150 miles southwest of Rushui, looking at the dense footprints and ruts leading to the west, and fell into deep thought…

"These are the traces from half an hour ago."

A few months ago, Zhongli Mei, who had been advocating the march to Nanjun and opening up a second front in Ming'e Pass, was disliked by his superiors, so he was transferred to Xi County to have peace of mind.

Zhongli Mei was unlucky and missed the most intense moment of the Qin-Chu battle in October. It was not until a few days ago that Xi County sent 5,000 Huainan Chu soldiers to the north via Xincai after learning that General Xiang Yan had reversed the situation. They wanted to cooperate with Xiang Rong of Pingyu to attack Shangcai and regain lost territory.

In this war, Zhongli Mei was transferred to the Xing Army responsible for reconnaissance as a "cavalry officer".

The organization of cavalry is different from that of chariot soldiers and infantry. There is a leader for every five cavalrymen, an official for every ten cavalrymen, a rater for every one hundred cavalrymen, and a general for every two hundred cavalrymen. Although the cavalry officials have the same salary as the two Simas, they are in charge of fewer people. The unfortunate Zhongli Mei was demoted again.

Although he had some disagreements with his superior, the cavalry leader, Zhongli Mei still performed his duties conscientiously. At this moment, when he found something strange at the fork in the road, he immediately felt something was wrong.

"This is a troop of hundreds or thousands of soldiers, and there are chariots. The ruts are deep, so I'm afraid they are carrying more than three people. The army has always been forbidden to carry more people on the chariot. So it seems that they are either carrying food, fodder, or weapons..."

Zhongli Mei walked forward a few steps and picked up a piece of cloth that had been trampled into the dust. He unfolded it and saw that it was covered with dried blood. It was a cloth used for bandaging wounds...

"Or it was a wounded soldier!"

He threw the cloth away: "Why didn't we receive any news in advance about the mobilization of so many people?"

After standing up, Zhongli Mei looked to the west. From here to the west, there was a narrow road with ordinary fields on both sides. Except for a few acres of winter wheat, the rest were bare and empty.

"I remember that ten miles west along this road is the Ru River, and there is a ferry that can cross to Ancheng Township, Shenyang County..."

"But the armies in Huaibei and Huainan were ordered to be transferred to Shangcai, east of the Ru River, to participate in the siege. Why did this army cross the Ru River to the west?"

The subordinate rider beside him took a sip of water and said, "Maybe it was a temporary transfer to participate in the defense in Ruxi? Or maybe it was the people who were withdrawn from Pingyu and were ordered to take the wounded to Ruxi to rest?"

In their opinion, the general only asked them to scout northward, so who cares what's in the west!

These speculations are very likely, but Zhongli Mei still asked everyone to follow him. He had to find out before he could feel at ease.

A group of ten riders walked slowly along the road. During the period, there were constant footprints and wheel tracks, but Zhongli Mei did not find anything suspicious on the road.

Soon, the small ferry named "Ancheng Ferry" was in sight.

"There are really people crossing the river."

Everyone looked over and saw that there was indeed an army of seven or eight hundred people waiting at the ferry a mile away. When they got closer, they saw that their clothes were brown, their armor was red, and their flags were also distinctive Chu-style flags, including a flag for a thousand men and five or six flags for a hundred men.

The chariots had untied their horses and stopped by the river. There were constantly people riding the only four or five small boats at this ferry, and the boatmen were rowing wooden oars, slowly heading to the other side...

Judging from the situation, these people have been crossing here for at least half an hour, and most of them have crossed the river, leaving only one or two hundred people on the east bank.

Seeing that it was indeed the Chu army, Zhongli Mei's men were relieved, but Zhongli Mei always felt that something was strange. This Chu army gave him a feeling that was different from the ordinary Chu army, but from a long distance, he couldn't tell what was wrong.

Maybe if we get closer, he will be able to see the clues!

"Let's go and ask."

Zhongli Mei continued to ride forward. At this time, the whereabouts of several people in the group were also discovered by the other party, and they immediately sent a person on horseback to come over.

"This cavalry officer."

From a distance, Zhongli Mei saw a young man with a sharp chin and monkey face riding on a horse on the opposite side greeted him: "Where are you from?"

When his subordinates wanted to tell the truth, Zhongli Mei waved his hand to stop them and asked: "We are scouts of the army, ordered to investigate this area, where are you from?"

The young man with a sharp chin and monkey face was a little embarrassed. He looked at the group of people who were also walking towards here behind him and smiled: "We are from Pingyu, and we are ordered to take the wounded to Ruxi to rest."

It was the same as what Zhongli Mei's subordinates guessed, but Zhongli Mei frowned: "I heard that Pingyu has been conquered by our army. Why don't you rest here, but go to Ruxi?"

A trace of surprise flashed in the young man's eyes, as if he didn't know about this, but he immediately covered it up and shook his head and said: "You have to ask the superiors. We are also acting on orders. Maybe they want us to go to Ruxi to garrison on the spot."

But then, Zhongli Mei asked a series of questions, which unit do they belong to? What is the commander's name? After a series of questions, although the young man answered fluently, Zhongli Mei did not know the situation of each Chu army in Huaibei, and could not find any obvious flaws, but he noticed another point.

Although the young man spoke the Huaibei Western Chu dialect, it was obviously learned. The words commonly used by the Huaibei Chu people could not cover up his original accent. Unfortunately, Zhongli Mei could not remember where this accent came from for a while

"Where is your hometown?"

The young man was stunned and smiled: "I am from Chengyang."

Chengyang is the westernmost city of Chu State, adjacent to Sui and Tang in the southern county of Chu State, and the accent is also very similar to that of the other side.

"That's it..."

Zhongli Mei didn't find any more suspicious points, and was about to continue asking questions, but he found that the young man's forehead was already sweating. Looking behind him, he saw more than a dozen fully armed Chu soldiers, led by a black-faced Chu military officer, walking towards this side.

The black-faced man looked at Zhongli Mei, and Zhongli Mei also looked at him. Although the two were more than ten steps apart, they recognized each other at first sight.

At this time, Ji Ying was still trying to stabilize the Chu cavalry officer in front of him. He pointed behind him and said with a smile: "This cavalry officer, if you have any questions, please ask our captain, he..."

However, before he finished speaking, Zhongli Mei pushed him hard and pushed Ji Ying off the horse, then squeezed the horse's belly and shouted loudly: "Go!"

In a flash, the "Chu soldiers" who were originally smiling and walking towards them, at the call of the black-faced man, either rushed forward with sharp blades to stab the front riders, or showed the crossbow machine and shot arrows at Zhongli Mei's men who were stunned in place!

Things happened suddenly, and the riders were caught off guard. People were constantly shot by arrows and people kept falling off their horses, but Zhongli Mei didn't care so much. He lay on the horse's back and galloped forward at a high speed!

That's right, no wonder the young man's accent sounded so familiar, isn't it Anlu dialect! The accent is unforgettable. Unless you spend several years deliberately correcting it, you can still hear it no matter how well you cover it up.

As for the black-faced man, isn't he Heifu, the head of Huyang Pavilion, who had met Zhongli Mei in Anlu County?

"Why is he here?"

The next moment, Zhongli Mei had no time to think. He only felt a sharp pain behind him. An arrow shot straight into his back. The arrowhead broke through the armor, crushed the flesh and blood, and pierced deeply!

This was the crossbow arrow that Heifu shot himself after running forward for a while! Seeing Zhongli Mei was shot by the arrow, he smiled with satisfaction, but then the smile was put away.

Because Zhongli Mei didn't fall off.

The sudden pain almost made Zhongli Mei fall off the horse, but he still staggered to stabilize his body, hugged the horse's neck tightly, and rushed forward like a fly.

He must return to the main force and inform the general of this matter!

A Qin army disguised itself as Chu soldiers and marched through Chu territory openly!