The sky was as gloomy as the bottom of a pot, and it was as dark as the evening just after the time passed. On the road from Cizhou to Daming, a team marched against the wind and snow. The people who were blowing the snowflakes could not open their eyes. Although the soldiers covered their heads and faces and shrank them in their collars, they were still unable to resist the cold. And they just wanted to camp as soon as possible, roast their frozen hands and feet, and drink a bowl of hot soup.

Zhang Gui tightly robe, shook off the snow on his body, and looked forward with his hands on his hand. But he saw only more than a hundred steps in the snow fog. In addition to the howling wind, the heavy footsteps of the soldiers and the heavy breathing of the war horses. The snow on the road was stomped by the team passing by in front, and it had become hard and smooth. From time to time, soldiers and horses slipped and vehicles rolled into the ditch.

Looking at the slow marching team, Zhang Gui frowned even tighter. Since crossing the Zhang River and entering Daming Road, he knew that there was no turning back at this time. He urged the army to move quickly. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of the Song army still entangled in the east and south battlefields that it was difficult to take into account the opportunity of the headquarters. He could quickly enter Daming City by relying on the strong city to fight or defend, and to hold back the Song army's pace of continuing to advance north and win the opportunity for the reversal of the situation.

Judging from the current situation, Zhang Gui understood that several small cities could not stop the momentum of the Song army's offensive, and the Song army, which had an absolute advantage in troops, was fully capable of dividing troops to advance quickly and gaining the initiative. Therefore, they would not have much time left. Once the Song army discovered its intention, they would definitely send troops to block it.

This feeling was not only because of his keen intuition about changes in the battlefield, but because the horses he sent out in the past two days were difficult to go deeper into the battlefield to investigate. They were not only affected by the bad weather, but also driven and intercepted by the scouts of the Song army. The second of the ten teams returned, and the reconnaissance range was compressed to 50 miles around.

"War between the two armies, scouts first" is a basic common sense for military use. Now the scope of activities of the Song army scouts has been expanded to the hinterland of Daming Road, which forced Zhang Gui to suspect that the Song army's large teams were gathering in Daming. However, the Song army's strict blockade made him unable to learn about other battlefields and could not understand the movements of the Song army.

Therefore, it is safest to enter Daming City as soon as possible, but the weather is not good, and the heavy snow slowed down the army's journey, which made Zhang Gui very anxious. Although he had been urging several times, it had only been less than thirty miles today.

"The Du Zheng, the front army has returned to Wei County. The snow is too thick and the troops are difficult to move forward. They are ready to be here." At this time, Jia Mao, the ten thousand-man commander of the Central Army, reported to Zhang Gui.

"They are cavalrymen. They have to rest after walking fifty miles a day. Let them go forward ten miles to Wajiazhai camp as a warning, and send people to contact Daming Mansion and ask them to send troops to respond!"

"DuShishou, the front army has been clearing the way forward for days, and it is even more difficult to march. The central army and the rear army are also very tired, and many people have frostbite." Jia Mao thought, "The lower officials know DuShishou's mood, but the Song army is all southerners, heat-resistant but not cold-resistant, and cannot adapt to fighting in the north. Now the heavy snow is going on, so they won't arrive so quickly."

"The war is changing very quickly now, and the Song army scouts are moving around us. They will not allow our army to enter the city safely, so it will be more dangerous if they delay one day!" Zhang Gui said.

"Master, our army has already traveled halfway, only three days away from Daming Prefecture City. Moreover, if the army sleeps outside the city, it will not only be difficult to survive at a cold night, but also be susceptible to enemy attacks..." Jia Mao suggested again.

"Okay, then camp in the city, make meals at the third day of tomorrow, and set off at the fifth day of the day!" Zhang Gui sighed softly.

He knew that although the personal guards of the guards were known as the Great Khan Guards, the court had no money and had to rely on military farms to maintain them. The guards were also corrupt, and the military households in the ward had a difficult life. Many soldiers were unable to make new cold clothes for them by their whole family. They also wore old leather robes handed down by elders in their families. In order to avoid making fires on the way, they all ate dry food and did not have hot food for a day, which led to many frostbite.

On the other hand, now the wind and snow are winding and snow, and the marching brigades are concentrated on the post road, stretching for more than twenty miles. If they are camping outside the city, the Song army will be difficult to take care of each other from the head and tail and will be difficult to deal with. Entering the city and camping is as Jia Mao said, so that the army can be well rested and surrounded by city walls, so there is no need to worry about the enemy attacking the camp...

"Captain, let's move forward and go to Nanle Town. Is it too close?" The direction in the wilderness was difficult to tell. When we reached a fork, several Song army scouts stopped, opened the stone tablet about two feet high that was exposed, and looked at the handwriting on it in the snow and said softly.

"Nanle Town is only forty-five miles away from Daming Prefecture City. Are we still going forward?" another scout said.

"Our mission is to let the enemy know that our army has arrived, and of course we have to move forward!" said Zhang Liang, the gang leader.

"Nanle Town is the county seat. With our few people, we cannot create much momentum, and it is even more difficult to sneak into the city!" A scout said with a chuckling.

"If you kill the younger one, the older one will know!" Zhang Liang said.

"The mate commander means to clean up the enemy's horses and let them never come back!" another scout said.

They all understood that the outbreak of the war was not the formation of troops when the two armies met, but the first thing to carry out was a secret battle between scouts. They had to first find out the opponent's strength, marching route, and even the enemy's military magnitude, weapon configuration and baggage. Only when the generals who obtained the intelligence could make corresponding actions.

Of course, there is reconnaissance, so another important task of scouts is to intercept the opponent's scouts and cut off their sources of information. Therefore, before the war, it was the time when the scouts on both sides were in full swing, and they wanted to destroy each other. Experienced generals can also send scouts back from a certain direction, judge the direction of the enemy's march, and estimate the speed of everyone's march.

But everyone understands the twists and turns, and the generals will also use the scouts to set up traps and set up mazes for their opponents, so that they can make misjudgments. The scouts are not only good at being brave, but also very smart, but also very smart. Although the team leader did not say it clearly, they already guessed that this was digging a pit for the enemy!

"Yes, after killing people, you have to go to Nanle Town to show the power of my Song Dynasty!" Zhang Liang gritted his teeth. Although he was only the smallest soldier in the army, he realized through the past few days of action that he was setting up a big picture.

It is said that their scouts were all secretly active, and they even wanted to dress up as civilians and sneak into the enemy-occupied area to reconnaissance, but the task they commanded this time was to make them act almost blatantly, and they almost posted the words Song army on their foreheads. Moreover, the scouts sent today were not their team, not only the army, but also the scout camps directly under the division, and even the cavalry affiliated with them sent dozens of elite cavalry out of four, which was simply a notification to the Yuan army that we are here!

"Captain, there seems to be an enemy army coming in front of him!" A scout who served as a guard hunched his body and trotted back and forth to report.

"How many people are there?" Zhang Liang asked.

"There are about ten horses!" He replied.

"Captain, I am equal to each other, I should eat it!" The scout beside him whispered in a shiny eyes.

"Yeah!" Zhang Liang nodded and ordered, "Xiao Mao, take the two of you in front of you. Kill them after we start, remember to use muskets!"

"Yes!" Xiao Mao was a little surprised. In the past, they ambushed the enemy's horses. In order to avoid exposing their location, they were surrounded and killed by the enemy. They all used crossbows and firearms that were not powerful in emergencies. However, he did not question this abnormal order. He called two people and turned around and retreated more than fifty steps towards the future, hiding in the drainage ditches next to the road.

Zhang Liang divided the remaining people into two teams, lurking behind the high slope on one side of the road, and the scouts behind them cleared the traces left by them. Several people scattered and chose a suitable position to dig a shallow snow pit under them that just accommodated one person, covering them with the rain cloth he carried with him. The front of the rain cloth was grassy and grayish white, so even if they walked closer, it would be difficult to see if they didn't step on it, let alone on a snowy night with poor vision.

As soon as the Song army scouts were hidden, two cavalry walked past the road in front of them. They were not walking quickly and their eyes kept scanning the surroundings of the road, but they seemed a little careless. After all, they had just left the city less than two miles, and it was reported that the Song army was still in Kaizhou a hundred miles away. Even if there were enemy scouts, they would not cause trouble near the city, but avoided them from afar and tried not to conflict.

As they expected, except for the "creaking" sound of horse hooves trampling on the snow, the howling sound of the cold wind, and nothing unusual was found. After dozens of breaths, several cavalry entered the ambush point. They distanced each other and did not make a group of people. This was to avoid the attack, avoid the killing of dense arrow rains, and respond quickly, either fighting or fleeing.

‘Bang, bang, bang…’ When the last cavalry entered the ambush point, gunfire suddenly burst out, and the distance between the two sides was only about twenty steps. Although the light was not good, several enemy soldiers were still dismissed.

Although the Yuan army's undefeated horse was suddenly attacked, the detectives reacted quickly. He immediately accelerated the horse while drawing his sword to rush towards the flashing light on the roadside. In their perception, the firearms equipped by the Song army are sharp, but they need to be refilled after firing. The scouts are all small teams to operate, making it difficult to take turns to keep the firepower going like a large array.

Therefore, the Yuan army's probe did not escape quickly, but launched a counterattack quickly. The distance of twenty steps was just a matter of a moment for the war horses. In one-on-one situation, there was almost no chance of winning against the horses. They were confident that they could kill these bold enemy scouts. Unfortunately, they miscalculated this time. The gunfire sounded again when they adjusted their horses' heads, and the continuous heavy rain of bullets shot them down.

Gunshots sounded from behind, and the vanguards who came out were almost killed at the same time. When Xiao Mao rushed back, he found that several gang members were firing guns into the sky. An enemy cavalry who had escaped by "lucky" was fleeing from the way, and disappeared into the snow fog in just a few breaths.
Chapter completed!