Chapter 243 Chapter 3 Just in Time

After two days of traveling day and night, Xu Ziling finally arrived at the long-lost Dajiang. Surprisingly, there are no sailing boats on the broad river, but the river is surging, rolling from west to east.Although avoiding a big river like the Yangtze River, of course Xu Ziling would not be troubled, but he was not in a hurry to cross the river, so he plundered upstream along the way, hoping to find a narrower part of the river to save some energy. At the foot of the west mountain at sunset, the afterglow of the setting sun illuminates the river water with colorful rays, giving it a sad and beautiful appearance.

After closing a bend, a ferry suddenly appeared about four or five miles upstream, and there were still nine medium-sized sailboats moored along the coast, flying the flag of "Yangtze River United". Xu Ziling became curious, and wondered to himself, isn't the Yangtze River Alliance headed by Zheng Shuming, with Qingjiang, Cangwu, Tiandong factions, Jiangnanhui, and Mingyang Gang as the backbone?Why do you gather here. In a flash of thought, he ran for more than two miles, passed through a sparse forest and wild trees, and climbed to the top of a small hill. He had a panoramic view of the activities connecting the Yangtze River with the ferry.

The earth was gradually sinking into darkness, and none of the nine sailboats had their lights on, revealing a sneaky and mysterious atmosphere. Suddenly, a big boat turned out from the bend of the river upstream and sailed at full speed. Xu Ziling looked at it with concentration, and suddenly felt a sudden shock in his heart, because he was no stranger to this ship, he and Kou Zhong had spent some time together, and Yunyu, the leader of the Jukun Gang, was really on the boat. There was a very inappropriate feeling in his heart. Kou Zhong sat on his horse and looked at the vast plains, forests and rolling hills under the stars and moon from a high place.

Xuan Yong and Jiao Hongjin were on the left and right, and behind them were more than a dozen generals, most of whom were from the Luoma Gang. In the Xiaochunguang incident, Du Ren died tragically. When the news spread, Brother Ku hurriedly fled to the direction of the sea, hoping that with his horse, he could return to the sea before being intercepted by Kou Zhong. Unexpectedly, Kou Zhong had a well-thought-out plan, he used Luo Qifei, who is good at scouting, to keep watch along the route, accurately grasp the direction of his retreat, and let him flee wildly for two days and two nights. waiting.

With the sound of hoofbeats, Luo Qifei rode through the sparse forest at the bottom of the slope, came to Kou Zhongma, and reported: "The enemy finally couldn't stand it anymore, and rested and ate on a hill ten miles away, so that the horses could rest and eat water and grass. .” Kou Zhong's eyes flashed coldly, and he said in a deep voice, "According to Qifei's estimation, do these Khitan thieves still have the power to fight?" Luo Qifei replied: "Although Khitan dog thieves are frightened birds, they have always endured hardships and stand hard work. Even though they ran for their lives in panic, they were still scattered and not chaotic. Break through quickly."

Kou Zhong nodded in praise and said: "What Qifei said is true. Although we are familiar with the terrain this time, we have the upper hand in numbers and morale, so we have a chance to win. But how to get the maximum result and minimize our casualties is the key to this battle." Only then can it be calculated.” Jiao Hongjin pointed with his horsewhip to the high mountains about ten miles behind, and said, "Feiying Gorge is the only way to the sea. We just need to set up an ambush there, and we can guarantee that Brother Ku's entire army will be wiped out." Kou Zhong laughed and said, "Even though Brother Ku is not smart, he is by no means stupid, and he has rich experience in marching, so he should know where the danger lies."

Luo Qifei nodded and said: "Young commander clearly noticed that brother Ku and his group had the energy to walk ten miles more, but they rested at this time, so they must first find out the geographical situation before deciding whether to cross the gorge , or take a detour." Xuan Yong frowned and said: "If they take a detour, because their horses are fast, they can easily leave us behind, then the towns along the coast will suffer." Kou Zhong shook his head and said: "They won't make a detour, because if they can leave quickly, they won't waste time. Let's do a two-pronged approach. Instead of deploying soldiers in Feiying Gorge, we only bluff behind them, pretending to be The scene of the chasing soldiers made them flee in a hurry without getting enough rest."

Jiao Hongjin asked in amazement, "Then where should we intercept them?" Kou Zhong said decisively: "It was just outside the mouth of the gorge. At that time Brother Ku's mood had just relaxed, and the people and horses were all discouraged, so we gave him a head-on attack and a pincer attack from both sides. As long as we drive them into the gorge, the We will win the battle in one battle.” Then he smiled and said: "If you don't capture Brother Ku alive, how can you show my ability, Kou Zhong?" The lights of the Giant Kun were extinguished, and it approached slowly.

When Yunyuzhen's boat approached one of the warships of the Yangtze River Alliance, and the distance between the two ships narrowed to about three feet, more than ten people jumped up and landed on Yunyuzhen's boat. At this time, Xu Ziling had just poked his head out of the water, stretched out his hand to grab the hull, his five fingers forced their way into the solid wooden wall, and just stuck there. The Giant Kun moved away from the river bank and turned around, followed by other warships. The deck was heavily guarded, even with Xu Ziling's skill, he was not sure that he could sneak into the cabin without the opponent's eyes and ears, and he would not take the risk.

He put his ear against the wall of the ship, concentrated his energy into his ear, and his hearing sensitivity was multiplied immediately. He could hear the footsteps of everyone in the ship, even the heavy inhalation and panting, and the abnormal sound of waves breaking like a battle. into the ear. Xu Ziling closed his eyes and searched for targets in this world purely composed of sounds. When he heard the familiar voices of Zheng Shuming and Yun Yuzhen, he naturally filtered out other sounds, and waited to focus on a certain place. Objects, other scenes will become blurred. They should be in the cabin, because Xu Ziling is familiar with the giant kun, it is not difficult to outline in his mind that they will sit down in the hall, and Yunyu's confidant, Yunzhi, will serve them with fragrant tea. The scene of the guest is like witnessing it.

After a few scenes, Yun Yuzhen turned to the main topic and said: "This trip to Deguilian and our Daliang form an ally and cooperate hand in hand. Zhu Can and Zhu Mei's father and daughter, the time for conferring the head will not be far away." Xu Ziling suddenly realized that Zhu Can, the self-proclaimed "King of Garuda", and his daughter Zhu Mei, the "poisonous spider", had always been tyrannical and committed all kinds of evil, which inevitably threatened the existence of the Yangtze River United, so they had to submit to the forces gradually. Xiao Xian, who expanded south to the north of the Yangtze River, took refuge and attached himself to fight against the Jialou Luo Kingdom of Zhu Can's father and daughter.And Yunyu is really a go-between, maybe it was settled in Luoyang. Thinking to himself that it's okay to not listen to such things, and when he was about to leave, Zheng Shuming said: "The leader of the Yun gang said that he would use the power of our alliance to eliminate the traitors in the gang. Of course, the matter is very serious. Can you give clear instructions so that we can do the work of a dog and a horse? .” Xu Ziling's heart was shocked, and he immediately grasped that Bu Tianzhi was at a disadvantage in the struggle with Yun Yuzhen and was in danger. The sound of hooves blasted across the canyon, getting louder and louder, making the already tense atmosphere even more dignified. Kou Zhong, who hides in a dense forest growing on the hillside, is surprisingly calm, because the entire battlefield is under his control, and everything is carried out and happens according to his arrangements, without exception. He avoided talking about "war is like a game" to Xu Ziling in the past, but it was only at this moment tonight that he truly realized the strange feeling of that "game". From the appointment of generals to the recruitment, selection and formation of soldiers, from training, banners and drums, reconnaissance, communications, equipment to formations, marching, setting up camps, defending cities, attacking cities, and the use of tactics, he has a great reputation. How people feel about Yi. The goal is to be the final victor. Luo Qifei who was beside him shouted in a low voice: "Come on!" Kou Zhong watched coldly, the Khitan horse bandit appeared at the mouth of the gorge, galloping swiftly up the ancient road outside the gorge. As Kou Zhong expected, after nearly ten miles of galloping like a stray dog, and passing through a dangerous canyon, the enemy is at the end of his force, trying his best, and his speed obviously slows down. Brother Ku has always used the four-character mantra of "come and go like the wind".If you can't fight, just slip away, and teach others not to touch his tail.And his ability to travel across Shandong has a lot to do with Mi Fang, the "Wolf King" who is familiar with the geography. Coming to this unfamiliar place, brother Ku and the others are like blind men, and Mi Fang is the blind male bamboo that guides the way. Mi Fang's death makes Brother Ku have no choice but to follow the old path to retreat, and he falls into Kou Zhong's net. At this time, most of the horse thieves had walked out of the canyon, suddenly the dozen or so riders in front stumbled one after another and fell to the ground. The llamas who were ambushing on both sides of the young marshal's army shouted at the same time, and while the drums were beating loudly, the archers in the forest on both sides fired their arrows at the same time, taking people instead of horses, and the Khitan horse thieves fell to the ground one after another, making a mess group. The gunners lined up neatly and divided into four groups from both sides, with 500 people in each group, and rushed the enemy to pieces at once, breaking them into several pieces, and the head and the tail could not look at each other. The archers ambushing by the mouth of the gorge fired arrows like rain at the exit, forcing a small number of enemy cavalry who had not yet left the gorge to flee back into the gorge. Kou Zhong knew it was time, shouted loudly, and led two hundred fine cavalry to rush out from the dense forest, and charged at the enemy head-on. No matter how strong the Khitan horse bandits were and how good their equestrian skills were, after two days of tossing around, they were also a newly defeated army, their morale was extremely low. Xu Ziling listened attentively, Yun Yuzhen snorted coldly: "Cliques and cliques talk about benevolence, righteousness and integrity. Now Bu Tianzhi is colluding with foreign enemies, plotting to betray the clique, and disregarding faith. He deserves to die, and he will never regret it. I'm in vain. I have taken good care of him over the years, promoted him to be my deputy, it can be said that the wind will win the wind, and the rain will win the rain, if he is sorry for me, I can't forgive him from that point of view." A deep male voice said: "Why does Master Yun need to be sad for such traitors? Bu Tianzhi is about to be punished. We have followed the words of Master Yun and lured him to Caizi Lake for negotiation with a big business as bait. The speedboat besieged him so heavily that he was guaranteed to sink to the bottom of the river, to save the fish in the water." Zheng Shuming lowered his voice and said, "Does Bu Tianzhi know if Master Yun is suspicious of him?" Yun Yuzhen said indifferently: "Of course I won't let him know, and I deliberately entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, so that he still thinks that I trust him as much as before. This time I deliberately did not mobilize my cronies, and handed over to Guilian to deal with him. Make him completely unsuspecting. The most important thing is to keep hands and feet clean, so that no one will be left alive, then I can take advantage of Bu Tianzhi's remaining party to be completely unprepared and wipe them out one by one, so as to avoid endless troubles." Zheng Shuming said: "Don't worry, Chief Yun, this is just a trivial matter, as long as you earn money to go on board, Bu Tianzhi and his people don't expect half of them to slip through the net." Xu Ziling wiped off his cold sweat when he heard it, and shouted that it was a fluke.If it hadn't happened for him to meet him, Bu Tianzhi's life would be in danger. The fleet suddenly slowed down, turned to a tributary on the right, and headed northward against the current. The destination is of course Caizi Lake where Yunyu really wants to put Bu Tianzhi to death. Surrounded by Xuan Yong, Jiao Hongjin, Luo Qifei and other generals, Kou Zhong inspected the scene of the aftermath of the battlefield surrendered to his military power. The Khitan horse bandits who had been raging for many years were finally wiped out.In addition to nearly 800 fine-bred Khitan war horses and countless bows and arrows, the spoils of war also included a batch of 3,000 taels of gold.Just this batch of wealth is enough to rebuild half of Pengcheng. Kou Zhong was not as happy as he expected. Although it was not the first time for him to witness the scene across the field, but this time the situation of the battle was made by him alone. His current reaction is purely a direct response to the scene, the feeling of the death scene around him. Kou Zhong reined in his horse and stared at the cold and stiff bodies of the three Khitan horse thieves twisted on the ground in extremely unnatural postures. There was another horse not far away. One of them should be falling from the back of the horse after being shot in the vest, the head was soaked in a puddle of congealed ocher-black blood, and under the morning light, the skin that was originally full of life showed a disgusting indigo color. Xuan Yong waited patiently to see him staring blankly at the corpse on the ground. Kou Zhong smiled wryly and said: "Are you wondering if it's strange? Just now I never thought or thought they were human beings, but now seeing them lying in the wilderness, I suddenly remembered that they are also human beings like me, with their families and relatives. I even look forward to their return to Khitan day and night, and care about their wives and children." Xuan Yong said in a deep voice: "The young commander will soon get used to all this. On the battlefield, you will die or I will die. You can't be soft-hearted!" Kou Zhong sighed: "I'm not soft-hearted, even if the whole thing starts over again, I will still mercilessly kill half of these vicious people. It's just that people are not grass, so there will always be some feelings." At this time, the subordinates came to report, but they could not find Brother Ku's body. Kou Zhong snorted coldly: "It's his fate! After packing up, we will rush back to Xiapi immediately. The next target is Li Zitong's lair, Donghai County!" All the generals responded in unison. Kou Zhong just urged the horse, suddenly, he just wanted to get as far away from the battlefield as possible! Caizi Lake is far smaller than Chaohu Lake not far to the east, and its shape is very irregular, but the beauty of the scenery is beyond Xu Ziling's expectation. At this time, he transferred from the Yunyuzhen Jukun to Zheng Shuming's warship, hid under the bottom of one of the small boats hanging from the hull, and enjoyed the clear water and white waves, reflecting the green scenery on the lake. The giant kun and the warships of the Yangtze River Alliance sailed to the location where the Tibetan ships were scheduled to encircle and intercept. Only Zheng Shuming, a handsome ship full of hidden masters, was left to go to the appointment of divining Tianzhi. The shadows of sails on the lake are like flying mirrors. The green mountains on the shore merge into the clear lake water, making it difficult to tell whether the lake water dyes the green mountains or the mountains dye the lake water. Coupled with the smoky mist rippling on the lake, it is even more confusing. Really, it seems that a mistake has broken into a fairyland on earth where there is usually no way to enter. After half an hour, the speed of the boat gradually decreased. Xu Ziling took a deep breath, and his internal strength passed through the hull of the boat and passed into the sling. The sling shattered inch by inch. When the boat fell into the lake, Xu Ziling rolled into the boat. "Peng"! When the boat landed on the lake, it only sank about a foot, and then regained its balance under the skillful control of Xu Ziling's feet. The enemy ships shouted, but it was too late. The oars were raised and then pushed into the water, and the boat passed the mother ship like an arrow and went ahead. Bu Tianzhi's warships were approaching slowly. Xu Ziling stood upright against the wind, looking around while steering the boat. The quiet lake surface is calm, the mountains and lakes are shining, the clear water is caged with smoke, and the breeze is coming slowly, which makes people open-minded, refreshing, and refreshed. Zheng Shuming's exclamation came from the deck of the warship more than 20 feet behind, and she shouted coquettishly: "Xu Ziling!" Xu Ziling replied without turning his head: "Master Zheng, let's go! Isn't the killing in Jianghu not enough? Forging inextricable grievances and getting involved in the struggles of other gangs, what good is there for the Yangtze River Alliance?" Ignoring her again, he hurriedly urged the boat to meet Bu Tianzhi's sailboat. He was almost certain that Zheng Shuming would end up with a retreat. Even if Changjiang Lian had the ability to kill him, Xu Ziling, he would have to pay a very heavy price, and he would have to form an enemy like Kou Zhong that almost no one would dare to provoke. Yangtze River United can afford it. Besides, Xu Ziling's appearance allowed her to confess to Yun Yuzhen, not a sudden repentance. After losing the support of the Yangtze River United, Yun Yuzhen had no choice but to run away. A storm is bound to end like this.