***
On the third day after Yan Yingyuan set out, Meng Ke gave an order, and the 100,000 Qin troops in Xiayi began to set up camp and advance towards Shangqiu along the route carefully planned by Meng Ke.
It was originally only two hundred miles from Xiayi to Shangqiu, but in order to ensure the safety of the army, Meng Ke preferred to take a long detour, and his daily advancement speed was only thirty or forty miles.
As soon as Meng Ke's army moved, Duduo of Shangqiu received the information. In order to accurately grasp the movements of Meng Ke's army, Duduo sent a large number of scouts to investigate.
Meng Ke did not hesitate, and also sent a large number of rangers. The rangers from both sides began to fight fiercely, day and night.
On the afternoon of the second day after the army left Xiayi, the number of cavalry sent out by Meng Ke to hunt down the Qing sentries reached an astonishing five thousand.
These five thousand men and horses may be divided into groups of ten or hundreds. They are like a giant net. After spreading out, once an enemy sentry is found, they will kill them to death and never let them go. .
Slowly, the range of the Qing army's reconnaissance cavalry was continuously compressed, and it was no longer possible to approach Meng Ke's army. Meng Ke found that the effect was significant and further increased the number of rangers. The total number soon reached an astonishing 10,000 people. .
Groups of Rangers were wandering in the countryside of Guide Mansion, smoke and dust were flying everywhere.
Fifty miles west of Shangqiu City, Guta Village is named after a five-story ancient pagoda from the Tang Dynasty beside the village. The ancient pagoda was built on a hill, which is covered with trees. There used to be nearly a thousand people in the village, but now there are less than 200 left. Except for a small piece of wheat field around the village, most of it is covered with weeds and no one is cultivating it.
Qi Yan and his twenty-nine brothers "wandered" here. The people in Guta Village came out to look around when they heard the sound of hoofbeats, and then retreated and hid.
Qi Yan and the others did not enter the village, but took a short rest by the woods at the foot of the hill. Ye Guigen complained to Qi Yan: "Boss, if we dress up as Qin soldiers, the girls and wives in the village may rush out to welcome us. Look. Look, our clothes are getting worse and worse."
Shen Daqian, who was next to him, also said, "That's right, I can't stand this for a whole day."
Yan Xiaoman, the youngest and youngest member of the team, took off his water bag and drank a few sips. He wiped his sweat and started practicing Manchu again: "An Da... Gu Chu..."
After hearing this, Shen Daqian and Ye Guigen couldn't help but cursed: "Xiaoman, stop mumbling this bird song. It's just two sentences. Do you need to keep mumbling it?"
"What are you shouting about?" Qi Yanhui, the general flag general, became angry. Pointing to the Qing army uniform on his body, he said, "Just think what I think, damn, isn't this a temporary measure?"
Shi Changqiu Sanzhang chuckled and said, "Brothers, don't complain. This costume is quite good. You will know its benefits when we go back to collect the merits with the heads of Jian Nu."
As soon as everyone said a few words, they heard Yan Xi, who wanted to be alert at the edge of the forest, shouting: "Boss, there's a situation. There are sentinels from Jiannu coming this way."
"How many people are there? Come on, come on, everyone, get ready, the food is here."
"Head, there are ten riders. One mile away..."
"Xiao Man, go and lure the enemy over. Go quickly,"
"Here!"
Yan Xiaoman took out a roast chicken from his bag as if he were doing something funny. He walked around to the woods, holding up the roast chicken and shouting "Ang Da! An Da..."
On the ridge about a mile away. The ten-horse Qing army suddenly saw someone shouting in the woods. From a distance, they could see that they were wearing Qing army uniforms. They could faintly hear someone calling "brother", so they rode over.
When they came closer, the ten hungry Qing soldiers couldn't help but be overjoyed when they saw the greasy roast chicken on Yan Xiaoman's hand.
Yan Xiaoman sizzled at the roasted chicken and waved as he walked into the woods. The Qing army asked him in Manchu, but he didn't swallow the chicken in his mouth and couldn't finish his sentence.
There are fireworks in the forest, and it seems that there are companions roasting chicken. Since "Anda" has delicious food, you're welcome. Ten hungry Qing troops rushed into the woods, fearing that they would be slowed down.
Qi Yan and others in the woods were overjoyed. They didn't expect that this dish would be served so easily, so we wouldn't be polite. They all yelled "An Da!" but bows and arrows were shot from all directions, and they fell over in one fell swoop. six;
The remaining four exclaimed that they had been fooled, and rushed wildly. Before taking a few steps, they were tripped by the horse rope and turned upside down.
"An Da! Thank you very much An Da for sending it to your door!"
"Hahaha... ... .."
"Xiaoman, thanks to you, you deserve the most credit this time."
"Hey, boss, this is what you said."
"Hey, you still want to run away. If you tie him up, you will get a bigger reward for catching him alive."
Thirty people were very busy. It was rare to see food delivered to the door so easily. Everyone was so happy that they had such a harvest. Shen Daqian and Ye Guigen no longer complained about their Qing army uniforms.
***
Duduo of Shangqiu soon discovered that most of the reconnaissance cavalry he sent never returned. They could hardly go beyond the twenty miles around Shangqiu, and they became completely ignorant of the whereabouts of Meng Ke's army.
He had no choice but to keep sending more troops for reconnaissance. After sending out four to five hundred people a day, most of them still left without returning. Now he couldn't sit still.
"What's going on? A bunch of losers! They all deserve to be killed!" Duduo was furious at the sentinels who had managed to escape. In his opinion, sending out four to five hundred scouts and two Niulu at a time, this This was unprecedented in the history of the Qing Dynasty.
He never imagined that Meng Ke had actually regarded investigation and counter-inspection as a frontal war, and unprecedentedly sent tens of thousands of troops as sentries to encircle and suppress him. Five hundred to ten thousand, it must be the end of giving food.
Facing Duduo's anger, Moaqi, the leader who escaped back, defended with a pale face: "Your Majesty, there are too many rangers of the Qin army, too many. Once they meet, the opponent will shoot a cloud-piercing arrow. Immediately countless people and horses surrounded them from all directions, they... they..."
"How are they? Tell me!"
"I said, I said... Your Majesty, they will also dress up as our army. Many brothers saw them from a distance and thought they were companions. When they got closer, it was too late to escape. Also, our war horses Not as fast as the Qin army..."
After hearing this, Duduo's eyes flashed fiercely, feeling that he had been severely manipulated by Meng Ke;
It's not good to go on like this. Hundreds of people will leave every day and never come back. If there is no need for Meng Ke to kill them for a few more days, just delivering food will be enough for his men and horses.
As for the Qing army’s horses not running as fast as the Qin army’s, this is normal;
Don’t think that war horses can just eat grass. Usually during combat, war horses need to be fed soybeans, eggs and other concentrates to maintain strong physical strength;
The Qing army now doesn't even have enough food for its people. Where can they get the fine food for their war horses
Duduo recruited his generals Gong Acha, Malaxi, Tan Tai, Zuo Menggeng, Li Shutai and Ye Chenlue;
The only one I didn't have was Ning Wan. Ning Wan, I am a scholar. I was kicked half to death by Duduo in a rage that day, and I am still bedridden now.
I think that when Duduo first conquered the south of the Yangtze River, there were so many powerful generals, such as Ashan, Tong Tu Lai, Qi Bai, Nikan, Kong Youde, Feiyanggu, Boluo, Baiyintu, Dude, Yilduzi. etc;
In addition, there were a large number of traitors such as Hong Chengchou, Zhang Cunren, Xu Dingguo, Liu Liangzuo, etc. The Eight Banners and the Green Camp had hundreds of thousands of troops, and they were very prosperous for a while.
But now, only Gong Acha and Malaxi are left, and Tan Tai has only recently arrived from Yanjing for reinforcements.
Among them, Li Shutai and Ye Chenlue were both old traitors.
Li Shutai's father, Li Yongfang, was the first high-ranking Ming Dynasty general to surrender to the Qing army. He married Abata's daughter, the granddaughter of Nurhaci. In other words, Li Shutai's mother was a Manchu Qingge.
The only one who might have second thoughts among them was Zuo Mengeng. Duduo glanced at him fiercely. Zuo Mengeng was so frightened that he babbled and knelt down: "Your Majesty, slave..."
He didn't know anything about the slave, and Duduo didn't seem to say anything. If he showed his loyalty first, wouldn't it show his guilty conscience? Zuo Mengeng knelt on the ground, sweating like rain, unable to say a word.
Duduo snorted coldly and said to the other generals: "Now, Meng Ke's army is coming towards Shangqiu. Our opportunity has come, but the scouts we sent were all hunted down by Meng Ke, and I am about to become deaf." A blind man is added, what do you think we should do?”
Duduo's tone was like that of a robber who couldn't find anything valuable during a robbery and then asked the victim what to do.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, let's send more soldiers and horses to hunt down Meng Ke's rangers." Malaxi said cautiously. Duduo's mood has been a little out of control these days, killing people at every turn, even Ning Wan, who has always been the most trusted by him, was also kicked to death. In front of him, everyone must be careful now.
"Fart!" Sure enough, Duduo cursed angrily, slammed the table and said, "If you send more troops, won't Meng Ke send more?"
"this... ... .."
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.(To be continued...)
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