Retrograde

Chapter 26 Tracing

On the official road to the west of Dingxi City, a team of more than 100 people were rushing forward. They were ordered to find Wang Junqing of the Xizhou Army and his scouts. At this time, it had been half a day before they came out, but they still did not find the whereabouts of the Xizhou army, which made Wang Junqing feel a little confused, because according to the speed of the march, they should have met the Xizhou army before.

"Stop!" Suddenly, Wang Junqing raised his hand, and the team that was sling the horse stopped. The knights around him looked at their general with doubtful eyes and didn't know what he thought of.

"Reihai, do you think if we can't see the Xizhou Army at our speed?" Wang Junqing looked at a young man next to him and asked. This man is his son, Wang Liehai, a scout who inherited his father's director but has not really made any achievements.

Wang Liehai shook his head: "I don't think it's possible. As long as we chase in the right direction, we should catch up with the Xizhou Army an hour after we come out, but in fact, we haven't seen them yet, which is really unreasonable."

"Yes," Wang Junqing is still very satisfied with his son's judgment. "Even if they are really eager to make contributions and work hard despite the general's reminder, they still have to rest this night. Based on the fact that most of them are walkers, they can only walk less than a hundred miles. But now we have rushed a hundred miles, but we still don't see them. This is really too strange.

"There is only one reason to say so..." Wang Liehai hesitated for a moment and said his judgment: "Where did they change their direction and did not follow the official way to the west."

"Yes, there is indeed only one explanation." Wang Junqing said and turned the horse's head back: "Let's go back and look for it. Everyone should pay attention and don't let go of any clues!"

Bailai turned around and continued to look back. These scouts are all smart and capable people, the elites selected from tens of millions of people, so although they have been on the road for half a day, they are not trapped one by one. They all carefully observed everything around them, trying to find the clues they wanted from these vegetation and mudstones.

After rushing back for more than 30 miles, someone suddenly shouted: "All..." The ward camp was full of more than a thousand people, but the rank of their leader was the same as the ordinary camp of 5,000 people, all of which were of the five grades. Wang Junqing heard his subordinates shouting and immediately turned around and ran over: "What's the matter? Did you find anything?"

"Here..." A black and thin man fiddled with the weeds on the roadside with a scabbard sword: "There is a problem here. Although it seems flat and the same as elsewhere, in fact, someone deliberately covered it up."

Wang Junqing jumped off the horse when he heard the words and went to the place where the man was. He squatted down and looked at it carefully. After a long time, he stood up and said, "Yes, there are traces of a large number of people passing by, but they were later covered with sand and stone, and plants planted on it. What a clever method, if not I can't see it at all after careful search. Mao Shun, your boy's ability is getting bigger and bigger!"

The black and thin man named Mao Shun smiled: "We have just been in the woods for a long time since childhood, and we are familiar with some things."

"Do you think this will be the place where the Xizhou army was transferred?" Wang Junqing frowned and said, "But why do they cover up their hiding place? Do they want us to find ourselves?"

Wang Liehai opened his mouth but said nothing. But this was still seen by his father: "Reh Hai, what do you want to say?" With some encouragement in his eyes, he is the only son of Wang Junqing. In order to enable him to inherit the position of the Wang family in the army, he has been played in the barracks by his father since he was a child, and he is not bad in some judgments.

"Dong, I wonder if this is the tamphands made by barbarians?" Wang Liehai said his judgment: "Will there be barbarians hiding in it? In order not to be discovered by us, they will cover up their tracks."

"What you said also makes sense! However, since we can't make a correct judgment, we should check it out. Let's go in and see clearly, but everyone must be careful!" Wang Junqing actually thought of this layer. After seeing that his son also made such a judgment, he was very relieved and then issued his own order.

More than 100 people immediately urged the horse into this not-wide road. Fortunately, they could still walk the horse, otherwise they would have to abandon the horse aside for the time being. After a few more miles, the man named Mao Shun's eyes lit up and pointed to a large area of ground covered by snow and said, "Look at it all. This is also a trace of artificial cover."

"Open it and see what's going on!" Under Wang Junqing's order, someone stepped forward and stroked away the snow with a spear, revealing traces of being trampled by people and horses below. Now everyone's confidence was even more full, but Mao Shun did not stop and continued to search for something in the snow with his spear. Suddenly, he stopped and shoveled a large piece of snow aside.

Everyone immediately saw some black horse feces, and everyone's expression was condensed. Wang Junqing nodded and said, "It seems that it is indeed the Xizhou Army. The barbarians have no horses..."

"But why did the Xizhou army hide its whereabouts? Are you afraid that we will take credit? Someone asked puzzledly.

"I'm afraid that it is not the Xizhou Army that does this. With their ability, it is impossible to do it so cleverly. Only the barbarians who have lived in the forest for a long time can use everything in the mountains and forests to disturb our sight." Wang Junqing's face was a little worried: "In this way, I'm afraid their situation is very bad!"

"Lhai, take two people back to find the general, tell the truth about everything we found, and ask him to send troops to save them quickly!" Wang Junqing ordered after a period of thought, "Others continue to investigate with me, and things always have to come out."

"Yes!" Wang Liehai was a son of the general after all. Although he was a little dissatisfied with his father's arrangement and knew that he had made a decision to protect himself, he still accepted the order and took the two people to turn back.

"Everyone should be careful next. If it is as I expected, the barbarians will definitely have something to arrange around here!" After telling everyone a few words, Wang Junqing continued to take the people forward.

After more than ten miles, Wang Junqing, who was pushing the horse forward, suddenly stopped the horse, and then flashed aside. A bamboo arrow flew by his side. If he hadn't reacted fast enough, I'm afraid he would have killed him.

Without Wang Junqing's order, just after the arrow was fired, the Song army scouts behind him had already fought back against the enemy with bows and arrows. Dozens of sharp arrows almost covered a large area where the arrow was located, and then there were a few screams inside. Obviously, the sneak attacker had been hit by an arrow.

Without any pause, the scouts jumped off their horses and rushed into the dense woods over there like a whirlwind. After a fight, he retreated, and several of them came out with a few alive mouths.

"What a barbarian..." Looking at the clothes of these people, Wang Junqing could already confirm the identity of the other party, and he asked in the barbarian's native language, "What are you doing here? Why do you cover up the traces of our Xizhou army? As the leader of the scout, he naturally know some barbarian words.

Those barbarians didn't have any words, just stared at these Song people coldly. Wang Junqing sighed and continued to say in a barbarian dialect, "Since you refuse to say anything and we don't have time to spend time with you, we have to kill you first!" With that, he stood up.

When the barbarians heard this, they showed some fear on their faces, but they still didn't say anything. Wang Junqing said nothing more, but nodded to the people around him. Those waiters fell down and cut into the throats of two of them. Without humming, they fell to the ground and died.

"Gone last chance to tell your purpose here, and I will spare you immortality!" Wang Junqing looked at the two blue-faced barbarians in front of him and threatened. He could see that his methods had scared them.

"I... I said, we are here to guard against the Song army. The Song army 20 miles ahead is fighting with our people. They have fallen into the trap we set..." A timid barbarian finally couldn't resist the fear of death and said the answer Wang Junqing needed.

After hearing these words, Wang Junqing finally fully affirmed his judgment. The Xizhou Army was indeed hit by the other party's plan to invite you into the urn. After he ordered people to tie up these barbarians, he took everyone to continue to drive west. Although he didn't know whether it was useful to rush by himself at this time, as a soldier, he could not retreat when he knew that his fellow robe was in danger.

They followed the direction pointed by the barbarians for several miles, and suddenly everyone stopped, because they heard the sound of fighting not far away, and the sound came to their side little by little, as if someone was chasing another group of people.

"Fal!" Wang Junqing gave an order, and the scouts dispersed into the woods on both sides, but everyone stared at the road in front of them. Everyone took out their bows and arrows and were ready to enter the battle.

After a long time, the rapid sound of horses' hoofs sounded, and dozens of Song troops rushed the horses to this side. Behind them were two or 300 barbarian soldiers riding on horses. They kept blocking the Song army's advance with bows and arrows. Just because they were not good at archery on horseback, there were not many of them, but It also seriously affected the speed of the previous Song army.

As soon as they saw this scene, the scouts naturally couldn't stand by. After a shout, they suddenly came out of the forest on both sides, and a burst of arrows splashed on the barbarians behind...