July 24th, night.
The Pioneer Battalion quietly withdrew from the North City Camp, and the two battalions of the Mixed Brigade moved into the City North Camp.
Early tomorrow morning, the two battalions of the mixed brigade will conduct routine drills in the camp north of the city to confuse the Tianfeng tribe on the opposite side. The spies of the Tianfeng Tribe couldn't get close to the camp, and they couldn't find it at all. The soldiers who were training in the camp had quietly changed a group of people.
The first battalion of the Pioneer Battalion left all the green clam horses and Mingguang armor in the camp in the north of the city, and replaced them with the spare equipment and mounts before. The four cavalry battalions that went out for the expedition all put on rogue clothes on the outside. These clothes were all donated by the captive bandits during the siege of the city.
That's right, for this attack, they are dressed as rogues.
Because they have to go through the grassland and enter the depths of the basin, in order to reduce the risk of exposure, the four cavalry battalions will be divided into four groups, and they will march towards the camp in the west of Tianji Tribal Town according to different routes. The coordinated communication between the cavalry battalions will be completed by the military intelligence department through hummingbirds.
At the same time, the five squadrons of each battalion will also be separated, and each squadron will be two kilometers apart.
Daying in the west of the town is about 160 kilometers away from the Bank of Friendship River. Therefore, it will take three days just to spend the time on the march, and this is on the premise that everything goes well on the road and there are no accidents.
Because it is in the grassland, the endless wilderness, there are neither hills nor forests, so there is no place to hide during the day. Therefore, the cavalry battalion did not adopt the marching method of day and night, but marched normally. Along the way, if you encounter single herdsmen, kill them all.
Lei Xun, the military intelligence department, led the second military intelligence team to do a lot of preparatory work before. The four marching routes chosen by the Military Intelligence Division all bypassed the base camps of the nomadic tribes.
Ouyang Shuo went out with the army. His position was between the 2nd Squadron and the 3rd Squadron of the 1st Battalion of the Pioneer Battalion. The one who followed him and protected him was the newly established Lord's Guard. As for Lin Yi, he led the No. 1 Squadron to explore the way ahead.
On the 25th, at five o'clock in the morning, it was just dawn.
With the help of the North Sea Fleet in the morning light, the 2,000-strong army successfully crossed the Friendship River. After that, the four cavalry battalions will go their separate ways and will not be able to join again until they reach their final destination.
On the first day, because they passed through the territory of the exterminated Tianlian tribe, everything went well. Although this area has been taken over by the Tianfeng tribe, there are not too many herdsmen. The Tianfeng tribe only used this area as a pasture.
Therefore, on this day, the overall marching speed of the troops was relatively fast, and without the drag of infantry, they traveled more than 60 kilometers. At 7 o'clock in the evening, the scattered squadrons reunited and rested on the spot.
The two logistical weapons, the marching tent and the military ration pill, began to exert their power again.
When setting off in the morning, each soldier took a marching pill, and he didn't need to eat any more during the day. There is no need to light a fire for cooking at night, minimizing the risk of exposure. As for drinking water, enough water has been prepared in the rucksack for three days. In addition, there is still a batch of drinking water in Ouyang Shuo's storage bag.
Tomorrow, the troops will pass through the territory of a medium-sized tribe, and the risk factor will increase a lot.
At 5 o'clock in the morning the next day, the squadrons set off one by one, keeping a distance of two kilometers before and after, just to take advantage of the early morning when there were fewer people, and go for a longer distance.
At noon, Ouyang Shuo rode a black whirlwind and led his bodyguards on their way. At this moment, a group of herdsmen, about seven or eight, appeared in front of them, driving their flocks, as if they were grazing.
"My lord?" Wang Feng, the captain of the personal guard, immediately rushed to Ouyang Shuo.
Of course Ouyang Shuo understood what Wang Feng meant and nodded.
Wang Feng agreed and gestured backwards. Immediately, half of the guards left the team, like a pack of hungry wolves, and rushed towards the herdsmen.
When the herdsmen saw the pro-guards rushing towards them, they thought they had encountered bandits, and immediately fled in panic.
The horses that ordinary herders ride are naturally not green clam horses. Green clam horses are also rare in nomadic tribes, and they have not been flooded to the point where even herdsmen can ride them.
The attack of the pro-guards was very strategic. Instead of rushing directly, they first detoured to both sides to form an encirclement circle to surround the herdsmen and prevent fish from slipping through the net.
The surrounded herdsmen panicked, murmured and didn't know what they were talking about, probably begging for mercy, and kept pointing at the flock of sheep not far away as they spoke. It means that the sheep can be taken away, and I beg all the heroes to save their lives.
It's a pity that what they encountered was not the rogues who robbed their wealth, but the officers and soldiers of Shanhai County.
Members of the pro-guards, who have not experienced the baptism of blood and fire, have long been trained to be hard-hearted, all of them are expressionless, riding on horseback, bowing bows and arrows, shooting all the herdsmen in one salvo Shoot down.
According to Ouyang Shuo's original intention, of course he didn't want to hurt innocent people, especially civilians. However, this operation is really of great importance, and no accidents can be tolerated. His hands have long been stained with blood.
The herdsmen looked shocked at the sharp arrows stuck in their chests. They couldn't figure out why this group of rogues didn't want to let them live, even if they were captured as captives in the rogue camp, unlike the rumors.
The guards didn't care about the fleeing sheep, but rode to the herdsman's corpse, pulled out the Tang knife, and put a knife on each corpse to make sure nothing went wrong. After finishing the work, the guards took out the shovel prepared in advance from the rucksack, dug a big pit on the spot, buried all the herdsmen's corpses, and covered them with a layer of weeds to make a simple camouflage.
In the evening, relatives of the herdsmen found that they were missing and had not returned home. Coupled with the time to go out to search, even if you can successfully find the place where the corpse is buried, it will probably be a day or two later. Even so, it was only identified as an attack by rogue bandits, and it could not attract the attention of the tribe's high-level officials at all.
This was just a small episode during the march. Similar things happened from time to time on the march of the four cavalry battalions. And this set of handling methods was also drawn up by the Military Affairs Administration in advance, and each soldier was given a detailed explanation. This is the value of the Military Affairs Administration. They are responsible for formulating very detailed combat plans, taking all small details into consideration.
At night, the procession stopped again. Tomorrow, they will enter the Tianji tribe's territory. The camp in the west of the town is located on the western edge of the Tianji tribe, 50 kilometers away from the Khan Tent beside the Shenjuan Lake.
After entering the Tianji tribe, it is obvious that there are more herdsmen. Occasionally, you can also meet the town west fighters patrolling the border. At this time, try to avoid it as much as possible, if you can't avoid it, you can only kill it.
It's just that, at night, when counting the number of people in the west of the town, they will inevitably find that there are fewer people, which will arouse vigilance. However, this is also a matter of no choice. It is so easy to sneak into the opponent's hinterland, especially a large army.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, all the ministries stopped ten kilometers away from the camp in the west of the town. If you go any further, you will enter the core area in the west of the town. Breaking in like this during the day is tantamount to seeking your own death.
In order to hide their whereabouts, the squadrons broke up again and hid in the herdsmen's homes one after another. As for the original owner of the herdsman's family, one can imagine what happened to them. The 2,000-man army, like a gigantic beast, was secretly lurking outside the camp in the west of the town, eyeing it.
In the evening, after a routine count of the number of people in the west of the town, the centurion found that some soldiers patrolling the border did not return to camp on time. This situation was immediately reported to the commander, who then reported to Lakshin, the commander in the west of the town.
After listening to the commander's report, Lakshin frowned and asked, "Have you sent someone to check?"
"Returning to the general, the general has sent a hundred-man team to the border to investigate. The general felt that something was wrong, so he came here to report to you, the general." The commander did not dare to neglect.
The western part of the town has not experienced war for many years, and such cases of missing soldiers seldom happen. Reminiscent of Khan's entrustment before, Lakshin naturally did not dare to take it lightly.
"Command, the whole camp will be on guard tonight, and the patrols of the sentries will be strengthened." Lakshin decided to be cautious.
In the past two days, for some reason, Lakshin has always felt a little restless, as if he was being targeted by a fierce beast, but he still couldn't see the trace of the beast. This made Lakshin very uneasy, and today's missing soldier incident further exacerbated this uneasy mood.
But in front of his subordinates, Lakshin remained calm as always.
"Here!"
…
Ten kilometers away from the camp in the west of the town, there is a very inconspicuous herdsmen's tent.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, Lei Xun, who was disguised as a herdsman, opened the tent, walked in, and said respectfully: "My lord, as expected, the western part of the town has indeed stepped up its vigilance."
It turned out that this is where Ouyang Shuo settled down.
Ouyang Shuo nodded, the enemy's reaction did not exceed his expectations. According to Lei Xun, Lakshin, the commander-in-chief of the western part of the town, is not a simple person. "Contact the battalions and act according to the plan tonight."
"Here!"
At 7 o'clock in the evening, Ouyang Shuo walked out of the tent, rode on the black whirlwind, took advantage of the darkness, and under the guidance of Lei Xun, he began to check each department's station one by one. Every time he stopped at a station, Ouyang Shuo would take out barrels of fuel oil from the storage bag and distribute them to the soldiers.
On the grassland in July, the night sky is full of stars, and the cool monsoon blows green waves. By the light of the stars, one team after another of the cavalry came out of the herdsmen's tents and put buckets of kerosene on the backpacks of the horses. The rucksack has been specially modified to accommodate two barrels of fuel oil on each side.